Redcliffe Roots Run Deep

V O L U M E
REDCLIFFE PLANTATION
9 ,
I S S U E
1
J U L Y
2 0 1 4
181 REDCLIFFE RD
BEECH ISLAND, SC 29842
(803) 827–1473
[email protected]
UPCOMING
EVENTS AT
REDCLIFFE

Tour of the Silver
Bluff Slave Cemetery
Sat, Aug 23 @ 10 am
$8/Adults, $5/Ages 6-16
Reservations Required
For more information on
these programs please contact the park.
Park Staff
Park Manager
Joy Raintree
Park Interpreter
Elizabeth Laney
Park Technician
Doug Kratz
Redcliffe Shirts
Now Available
Online!!
Search for
“redcliffe” at
www.scparkstore.com
to see three
different designs.
Special Thanks
to the Smith-DeWalt
family for allowing us
to share a photo of
their reunion and to Al
Bellows, Erika Craig
and Laura Black for
contributing articles.
.
I
Redcliffe Roots Run Deep
n this special issue of the Redcliffe Southern Times we acknowledge the countless number of families in
America who are descended from the men and women who once called the Hammond plantations home.
As of 2014 Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site is in contact with 124 descendants representing 15 different families including the Hammonds (former property owners), the Henleys, Romeos, Wigfalls, Hornsby
and Larks (former enslaved families), the Howard and Dixon families (former plantation overseers), the
Smith, DeWalt, Crawford and Carn families (former paid employees) among others. Many of these families
still visit Redcliffe—the most recent being the descendants of Lena Smith DeWalt who was a resident and
cook on the property in the early 20th century. In early June more than 40 members of this large extended
family toured the site where their ancestress lived and worked 100 years ago.
Written by Laura Phares Black, Great-Granddaughter of SC Sen. James Henry Hammond
Having moved back to South Carolina from Iowa this past year, I have been
reminiscing a great deal about my roots, my Redcliffe Roots in particular. What a treat it was recently to have Elizabeth Laney, Park Interpreter,
guide me on a tour of Redcliffe. Such history, such a beautiful restoration
job and the new Welcome Center is amazing!
My fond memories of my Great Grandfather, Senator James Henry Hammond (Grandson of Governor James Henry Hammond, "Jim" to his friends,
"Colonel" or "Senator" to others, "Great Grandpapa" or just "Grandpapa" to
me and my sisters) go back to when I was a little girl attending Hammond
Academy and living on Valley Road in Forest Acres in Columbia. We
lived across the street from my Grandmama, Laura Hanson Hammond Patton, and up the road from "the Pond" where Great Grandpapa lived. Then it
all seemed natural, I have recently come to understand how lucky I was to
have lived so near my extended family. (Continued on pg. 2)
Right - James Henry Hammond (SC Senator) with great-granddaughter Laura around 1969.
Written by Erika Craig
Granddaughter of Kissiah Henley,
an employee at Redcliffe in the mid-20th century
My grandmother, Kissiah “Kizzie” , was one of the Henley descendants that prepared meals for John Shaw and Fredericka
Billings Jr. She would often share stories of her working at Redcliffe. In honor of her, I’m delighted to share a few of her recipes.
On Saturday nights, my grandmother would plan Sunday’s dinner
menu. I had the pleasure of choosing dessert. She would say
“What ya’ll want sweet tomorrow?” I would reply “Peach cobbler,
jelly cake, pineapple cake, chocolate cake, red velvet cake……”
She would make whatever I wanted. It would just depend on whether she had the ingredients on hand. The picture
above is of my mother, Elizabeth “Lizzie,” blowing out the candles on her birthday Jelly cake in May of 1998 with her
mother Kissiah beside her. The icing on this vanilla butter cake is substituted for apple jelly. To ensure the jelly soaked
thru the layers, my grandmother made the cake a day ahead.
All of her cakes were made from scratch. When age caught up with her, she felt it was too much work. Then, she would
modify the cake mix to make it her own.
Kizzie’s Jelly Cake
1 butter cake mix
whole milk
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp lemon extract
2- 18oz jars of apple jelly
Using the instructions on the cake mix, substitute milk for water and use melted,
cooled butter. Add ¼ cup of granulated
sugar, lemon extract and additional milk to
make the batter smooth and creamy. Bake
3, 8”or 9” pans at 350º for 15-20 mins. or
until cake edges separate from the pan. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 1 hr.
Stir and spread jelly evenly between layers,
on top, and sides of cake. Cover. Allow
cake to set at room temperature overnight.
Cut a “hunk” and enjoy!
Memories of My Grandpapa, continued from pg. 1
Each day my sisters, Margaret Brooks and Adele Hammond Phares,
and I would play in our big yard. I loved to call stray cats from
Grandpapa's property and tame them. I also made little fairy "dolls"
out of twigs and flowers and leaves and built them little cave homes
dug in the hill in our front yard.
We also had a red wagon we pulled each other in~back and forth
from our driveway, across Grandpapa's chained off drive and up
Grandmama's driveway. As the cicadas began to sing,we would hear
Grandpapa's car coming up Valley Road from the bank where he was
the Chairman of The Board for many years. We would take "baby"
Dele's hands and run to greet him as he unchained his drive. He always seemed so happy to see us and greeted us with big hugs. (He
gave me a really BIG hug once when I had a loose front tooth! He
hugged my first tooth out, no strings attached to door knobs for
me!) Then Grandpapa would empty his pockets of coins and divide
them between us, teaching us to count the coins. After the counting
lesson there were a few more hugs and he would get in his car and
drive away past Great Uncle Quitman's house, past the burro's that
lived on his property and on to the house near the pond to do whatever Great Grandpapa's do after they have hugged their "Grands" goodnight. Those were our summer afternoons in the late sixties.
I feel so lucky to have known my Grandpapa who was a great statesman and civic leader to many but to me and my sisters just our beloved, GREAT Grandpapa Hammond!
Artifact of the Month:
Excerpts from a piece by Alfred Hammond Bellows,
Engineer and great-grandson of Redcliffe’s second owner Harry Hammond
One resource of Hammond family history is a marvelous poster-sized graphic
that shows the descendancy of William Cumming and Sarah Coppage. It is titled
Table of the Descendants of William Cumming of Frederick County, Maryland
and was completed in 1905. It measures 29 x 47 inches and is laid out with each
generation as an ever larger ellipse surrounding the parentage in the center. The
central graphic includes a shield supported by two horses and with a lion standing on top. To the left, WILLIAM CUMMING and to the right, SARAH COPPAGE in
block lettering with right and lower bordering to produce a shadow effect. The
first ellipse lists the seven children, all of whom married. The table has six ellipses and a few names extending into an undrawn 7th ellipse, thus it depicts a total
of 8 generations, including William and Sarah. I would have been listed in the
sixth ellipse, had I been anticipated.
My mother, who was born four states away and only two years before this work
was completed, is included. My mother, EMILY CUMMING HAMMOND, is in the
sixth generation and shares this generation with one sister, CLARA C. HAMMOND,
and 466 cousins in this table. She was born to ALFRED CUMMING HAMMOND
and Lottie Chaffee, who came from EMILY CUMMING and Harry Hammond,
from HENRY HARFORD CUMMING and Julia Bryan, from THOMAS CUMMING and
Ann Clay, who came from the original, WILLIAM and SARAH.
This table is the reverse of most family trees. The central trunk is my great-great
-great-great grandparents and shows a single line that leads to my mother, and
hence to me. Altogether there are over 1,334 family names and 1,867 names,
including spouses, in the table.
Engineering a Family Tree
This marvelous work has a subtitle stating “Compiled and arranged by Montgomery Cumming, Washington, D.C., July 1st, 1905.” A tiny 4-point typeset
note at the bottom reads “Andrew B. Graham Co. Lithographers, Washington, D.
C.” The draughtsmanship is flawless with intersecting ellipses, curves, and fillets with no sign of irregularity or ink overflow. The lettering is so perfect that it
appears to be typeset, but its character and subtle variations barely discernable
even under four-power magnification suggests that it was detailed by hand. —>
On permanent display in the second
floor hallway of the mansion.
“The more I study this table the more impressed I am by
the monumentality of its technical and artistic content.”
Births & Deaths
In honor of all those who have recently
passed away and in celebration of the newest
generation we recognize four individuals.
Christopher Fitzsimons Eve
Died June 2014, Age 103
Great-Grandson of Redcliffe owners
James H. & Catherine F. Hammond
Sharon Anita Romeo
Died June 2014, Age 65
Great-Granddaughter of former Silver Bluff
slave Austin Clark-Romeo.
Paul Boyd Bowman
Born May 2014
4th Great-Grandson of Redcliffe owners
James H. & Catherine F. Hammond
Mariah Ayanna Franklin
Born March 2014
2nd Great-Granddaughter of Lena & Sidney
DeWalt, Redcliffe Employees 1900-1930
Engineering a Family Tree, continued
Lithography* had been invented 100
years earlier, decades before photography,
but it is impossible to imagine how this table
could have been made without photolithography. Even with well-developed photographic techniques it is still hard to imagine creating this work. The original artwork must
have been produced at a much larger scale—
like the size of a room! Well, maybe twice
size would be enough, but even that would
be 8 feet wide and 5 feet high—still quite
large. But how were the ellipses drawn?
Surely not with two pins and a loop of
string—they are perfectly uniform.
I
checked the two smallest ellipses against
digital plots from my CAD (computer-aided
design) program, and they are indeed true
ellipses, not just a long and short radius
joined. Neither felt-tip pens nor draftingtype ink pens had been invented. In the
1950s I learned how to use a ruling pen,
which must have been used for this, and I
know how difficult they can be to control.
They must have used a lot of whiteout…oh,
that had not yet been invented, either.
*Lithography is the process of printing from a flat
surface treated so as to repel the ink except where
it is required for printing.