Pineville, a historic refuge
Part 19: The Porchers, A Mighty Nation
By Warner M.Montgomery Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

The Ophir house was large and beautiful. Like all the houses of that period it was constructed of hand- sawn lumber. It had four stories, a large basement, and an attic. It now lies beneath Lake Moultrie.

A family legend tells of a man traveling up the Santee River Road (now Hwy 45) by stage coach before the Civil War. Passing the entrance to Peru Plantation, he asked the Negro driver, "Who lives here?"

"Mister Porcher, Suh," replied the driver.

The question was repeated as they approached the avenue to Mexico. Again the reply was, "Mister Porcher, Suh."

The same question was asked and the same answer received as they passed Ophir, Chapel Hill, Moorefield, and other Porcher Plantations.

Finally the traveler remarked, "Well, there certainly must be plenty of Porchers in this country."

"Yas, suh," answered the driver, "Them Porchers am a mighty nation."

(por-sDhar.y Isaac Porcher ) de Richebourg, a physician educated at the University of Paris, fled France with his fellow Huguenots soon after Louis XIV declared Protestantism illegal. They stopped in Virginia then disembarked at the the new English town of Charleston in 1685. Dr. Porcher and 80 French- speaking families clustered around Jamestown on the Santee River where he established a rice and indigo farm. His cousin, Philip Richebourg, followed in 1715 replacing Pierre Robert as minister of the St. James Church.

This map shows the Mexico, Peru, and Ophir Plantations of the Porcher family. The gray area is now covered by the Santee- Cooper lakes.

Before he died in 1727 at the age of 67, Dr. Porcher had gained control of property on the Santee River (Jamestown), Cooper River (Goose Creek), and Ashley River (Orange Quarter). Jamestown did not prosper as a town due to floods (freshets) and disease, so the second generation of Huguenots, then English- speaking Anglicans, moved up the Santee and established new and more prosperous farms.

Dr. Porcher's grandson, Peter Porcher II (1726- 1781), developed Peru Plantation on the Santee River adjacent to Murray's Ferry Road (now Hwy 52). His son, Peter Porcher III (1764- 1793) then added Ophir and Mexico plantations to the family holdings. The plantations were so named because of the Porcher's expectation of their becoming places of great wealth.

Upon his death in 1793, Peter III left his three sons his three plantations. All three had fought in the Revolution. His second son, Col. Thomas Porcher inherited Ophir and built the house there about 1816. The colonel had 24 children, 14 of whom lived to maturity.

Major Samuel Porcher (1768- 1851) inherited Mexico Plantation on which he built a grand homestead and extensive farmland. It was Major Porcher along with Capt. John Palmer, Capt. Peter Gaillard, John Cordes, Peter Porcher, and Philip Porcher who in 1794 built summer homes on a flat pine ridge south of the Santee River and named it Pineville. Within a few years there were 60 homes in the village.

Major Porcher had been educated in England and returned to Mexico Plantation after the Revolutionary War. He was one of the first to turn from rice and indigo to cotton and corn. To protect his fields from the annual freshets, Porcher built his now- famous embankment - four miles long, 30 feet across, and nine feet high. This dike reclaimed valuable swampland and protected the upland fields.

The Santee Canal ran through Mexico Plantation and was fully supported by Major Porcher who was a close personal friend of Col. Christian Senf, the canal director. Big Camp (Lock #2), the double lock on the canal, was near Porcher's home and his major corn field. During the 1837 freshet, a canal boat was washed up into his corn field.

This inventive, hardworking agriculturist married his cousin, Harriet Porcher, and they had three sons and a daughter. They entertained in their elegant home for 50 years until she died in 1843.

Their son, William Mazyck Porcher, who never married, inherited Mexico plantation. In March, 1865, Yankee soldiers under General Hartwell ravaged Pineville and burned Mexico. William Mazyck returned to Mexico after the war and lived in the overseers house until his death at the age of 90 in 1902.

Among the many notable Porchers during the antebellum period were

• F.A. Porcher: cousin of Maj. Samuel Porcher, was educated at Yale College, elected to S.C. Legislature three times, professor at the College of Charleston, agricultural scholar, died in 1889.

• Isaac Porcher: lived at Oldfield Plantation, first cousin of Maj. Samuel Porcher, state senator from St. Stephen, had two prominent sons - Isaac (of Ancrums Plantation) and Philip Mazyck (Dover Plantation), died in 1849.

• Dr. Thomas William Porcher: son of Col. Thomas Porcher of Ophir, had medical degree from S.C. Medical College, lived at Walworth Plantation.

• Francis Peyre Porcher: son of William Porcher, graduate of Mt. Zion Academy in Winnsboro, received MD degree from S.C. Medical College, professor at Medical College, founded hospital for African- Americans, surgeon in Confederate Army, received LLD degree from USC, died in 1895.

Many Porcher men served in the Confederate Army and returned to Pineville; however, most chose to sell their plantations (many to cousins) and follow their destiny in Charleston and points west as far as Texas and California. The Negro driver was foreseeing the future when he said, "Them Porchers am a mighty nation."

(Next week: The fever of 1834)