History - Part III

The Kirk descendants held title to Rose Hill until approximately 1928. Thereafter, the plantation changed hands several times. The house had "stood for more than ninety years gaunt and half-completed, hidden in the woods and for long periods abandoned to the elements, known only to animal prowlers and passing huntsmen." Among the owners other than the Kirk descendants were William M. Wilson, William E. Pinckney (photo below left), J.R. Walker, Bob Walker, & Joseph O. Pinckney. We have been told that tenant farmers lived in the unfinished house during some of those years. Recently, we have been visited by or in touch with members of several families who lived here during the early 20th Century, among them are the Clements family and the James Moore family.

                                     W. E. Pinckney                  Catherine Kirk Pritchard Pinckney                          W. E. Pinckney
                                                                                  2nd wife of W.E. Pinckney

During mid-April 2008, the Whites received an email from a man who had been to our website looking for more info on the plantation house. Richard Clements lived here with his mother and father and 6 siblings between 1938 and 1939, when he was between 2 and 3 years old. He said that his father was attempting to get a long term lease with an option to buy Rose Hill, for the purpose of establishing some kind of hunt club here since these were once considered prime hunting grounds in the area. Mr. Clements sent fantastic photos (below) of the house taken while they lived here.

One photo shows the back of the house with the original back door before the cinder block kitchen was added on by Mr. Sturgeon in the mid 40's. There is also an arch shaped double side door leading out to the east side yard in the area that is now between the planter's office and the parlor. His photos also show the original gingerbread fretwork that lined the roof (both front and back) and the conservatory when it was nothing more than a little piano room before the Sturgeons extended it out to be the full size of today.

In these photos the house is just starting to be white washed and the brickwork around the porch consists of pillars only with boards placed in between. This is what the house looked like when the Kirks lived here in the 19th century. This is also they way it looked when the Pinckney familes lived here from 1918 throught the 1920's and when sharecropper families lived in the house during the Great Depression.

Mr. Clements said that his mother didn't really like living here, as it was a large & rambling house and a lot to keep up. They only lived in one portion of the house at that time. His father and brothers would gather oysters out back in the marsh and cook them in the fireplace. His older brother had a few ghost tales that he would tell as well. There is a photo of an old boiling pot out back and his mother sitting on the back steps and a cedar tree in front of the house that is long gone.

What a fantastic contribution to the history of the old plantation house! Thank you, Mr. Clements.

(for Robin White's account of this visit ..... click here )

House Front 1938-39 East side showing double doors that no longer exist

House Rear - Back door with steps where kitchen addition is now. West side shows small piano room built for Emily Kirk
The Sturgeons added on to make a conservatory.

In July, 2008, members of James and Lenora Moore's family - Daisy Riner and her family, including her brother Richard Moore (81 yrs old) and sister Emma Hearn (80 yrs old) - visited with us recently. They lived in the house back in 1937, then moved here once again from 1939 till the early 1940's. Their parents were sharecroppers during the time when a Mr. Bub Walker owned Rose Hill Plantation. The Moores were a typical Southern farming family of that time - just at the end of the Great Depression. All the children (11 of them) would help to plant the crops - cotton, corn, vegetables etc. Most of their family now lives in Georgia.

Their stories of their years at Rose Hill were so very interesting - sliding down the bannister, the beautiful stained glass skylight in the ceiling, the 3-seater out-house, charging tourist to see the old plantation house, etc.

( For Robin White's article about the Moore's visit ..... click here )

To go to History Part IV - The Sturgeon Years.........

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