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Early History
Spring Island's tabby ruins were once part of an elegant plantation home owned by George Edwards (1776 – 1859). Edwards traced his lineage back to John Cochran, who received Spring Island as a Crown Grant from the Lords proprietors in 1706.
The Edwards family was one of the wealthiest of South Carolina's Low Country planters, making their fortune growing Sea Island cotton. Historical records indicate that this business was extraordinarily lucrative.
George and Elizabeth Edwards
In 1812 Spring Island had four main plantation settlements, including the nearby ruins. At least 250 slaves worked here in 1840. By 1850 the land was valued at $50,000, with the slaves and animals at $100,000 (roughly $3 million by today's standards).
The Edwards family lived on Spring Island periodically, spending summers in Charleston while sometimes vacationing in Saratoga Springs. George and Elizabeth Edwards' primary residence was a grand Adams-style townhouse at 14 Legare Street, Charleston, purchased in 1816. They attended St. Michael's church in Charleston. During antebellum times some plantation owners and families attended church with their slaves. The Edwards may have done so or worshiped privately (no record exists of a freestanding chapel on Spring Island).
Civil War Diarist
In February 1862, Federal sergeant John Frederick Holohan, stationed on Hilton Head Island, left a remarkable diary entry and map recording his impressions of Spring Island while foraging for supplies. He found the place virtually deserted, with the exception of some slaves.
Tuesday, February 4th, 1862
…Landed on Spring Island at the mansion of Dr. Edwards […] The Island is…covered with unplucked corn and unpicked cotton. Herds of cattle, half wild, roam about at will…Dwelling houses for overseers and larger buildings for the storage of cotton were at intervals along the shore where landings were made.
Wednesday 5th, 1862
…The building was large, roomy and imposing externally, and had been furnished with elegance and taste by the opulent proprietor of the Island. But vandals had smashed the grand piano, cut and mutilated the costly paintings and furniture and carried off the best carpets and other articles capable of removal.
…Magnificent avenues of live oaks led away in three directions at least for half a mile, and the immediate grounds were enclosed by a fence of ossage, orange, trimmed as rectangular as a stone wall and ornamental shrubbery adorned the grounds. Flowers grew every-where in profusion and everything about us was calculated to delight the eye and overpower the senses with beauty and fragrance!
Aftermath
The Edwards house was still standing in 1872, not burned by Federal troops as myth would have it. In January 1865 some of Sherman's forces traveled by sea to Beaufort from Savannah. They left on land traveling towards Gardens Corners, roughly along the path of present-day Highway 21.
George Edwards died in 1859; his son George Barksdale Edwards died in 1860 at 50 years of age. In 1861, Spring Island was seized for non-payment of taxes by the Federal government. The onset of the War Between the States interrupted litigation in the courts over ownership and then proceeded from 1865 through 1872. That year Elizabeth Inwood purchased Spring Island for $8600.00. When she died in1885 her son, Henry Creode Trenholm Inwood, became the last collateral descendent of John Cochran to own Spring Island.