The J.K. Gourdin house was built in 1925 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. This is a side view. The front is to the right.
Editor’s Note: At the request of his readers and in memory of Warner M. Montgomery, Ph. D, we will continue to publish his Adventure Travel stories for the time being.
The Gourdin men (Clarence, J.K., and Charles) and their brothers in-law (Robert and Edward Marion) grew up during Reconstruction and the poverty of its aftermath. By the turn of the century, they had established themselves as productive farmers and successful land speculators by buying and selling 1,000s of acres of land and leasing timber and hunting rights on their property.
Clarence bought four acres in the village of Pineville in 1905, which included a home built in 1820 (one of the few homes not burned during the Civil War), the Pineville Post Office, and the Pineville Library. At about the same time, J.K. purchased the adjacent four acres and built his family home. He demolished it in 1925 and built a finer 4,500 square-foot home that cost him $13,000.
Robert Marion (husband of Clarence and J.K.’s sister, Ella) built a house nearby. Both Gourdin homes and the Marion home are on the National Register of Historic Places. Edward Marion (Robert’s brother who was married to Charles Gourdin’s twin sister, Martha “Mattie”), also built a home in the village. So, by 1910, the Gourdins and Marions had recovered their family property and lived together in the village.
Charles Gourdin was not involved in the land development business with his brothers. Instead, this quiet bachelor owned, managed, and lived in the major general store in Pineville.
The two families built a school for their 13 children next to Edward Marion’s cotton gin. The teacher was Irene Schmidt who eventually married the widowed J.K. Gourdin in 1918.
The Gourdin brothers exchanged property in 1912. J.K. received Buck Hall, Woodlawn, and Murrell’s, and Clarence got Belle Isle. J.K. purchased three lots next to the rail depot in St. Stephen in 1921 and resold them 10 years later for considerable profit.
The Oakland Club was established in 1903 by Robert L. Montague and Robert P. Tucker, two Charleston timbermen. By 1907, they had purchased Bluford and Milford Plantations. (The club now owns 25,000 acres in Pineville. Two of the 21 members of the exclusive hunting club have been Hootie Johnson, former president of the Augusta National Golf Course, and former S.C. Governor Robert McNair.)
Clarence and J.K. cut several deals with the Oakland Club in 1925. They purchased over 10,000 acres from the club, sold them 184 acres, and leased back over 4,000 acres for 10-year hunting rights. Ten years later, leases were renewed on over 7,000 acres. Another 1,600 acres were bought from the club by Clarence in 1938, a year after J.K.’s death. In 1936, Clarence sold 10,700 acres to Santee Timber Company but retained pasturage rights.
J.K. owned 7,473 contiguous acres near Pineville in 1926. He planted most of this in cotton.
After he became ill with kidney disease, J.K. began to distribute his property to his wife, Irene, and children—Peter, Eljule, and Mary. His youngest son, J.K. Gourdin IV, born in 1926, was covered by his mother’s inheritance.
In 1936, J.K. earned $12,000 from a 10-year lease of timber rights to Camp Manufacturing Company. A year later, he died, leaving an estate of 300 acres and $4,200. During his lifetime, he had purchased 13,696 acres, sold 8,339 acres, and leased 17,467 acres for timber and hunting rights, much of this with his brother, Clarence.
With the coming of the Santee-Cooper Project, Clarence negotiated settlements totaling $95,000 for his land, which would be flooded. The remaining land he deeded to his daughter, Julia, and son, William—a total of 7,200 acres.
In his last years, Clarence purchased 1,200 acres of Peru Plantation, subdivided it, sold 20 five-acre plots to black families, and deeded the remainder to his daughter, Julia. He died in 1947 at the age of 84. During his lifetime, he had purchased 26,841 acres, sold 24,091 acres, and leased 24,929 acres for timber and hunting rights.
The Gourdins and Marions survived the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Depression. They passed the heritage of Pineville to their children who, in turn, experienced another disaster, the Santee Cooper Project. By the 1940s, much of Pineville’s plantation land was under Lake Moultrie.
The little village between the Santee River and Lake Moultrie soon turned another page in its long, exciting history. For the first time, the people had electrical power, new roads, new schools, and modern farming techniques, but the land that the Gourdin and Marion men had joined together was soon put asunder.
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