Pineville, a historic refuge
Part 28: A Scientist Survives
By Warner M.Montgomery Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

Henry William Ravenel. Photo from South Caroliniana Library.

Henry William Ravenel became a full- fledged member of the planter society centered around Pineville. He had the connections, the knowledge, and the aptitude needed to compete in the global marketplace.

With careful management of his rice and cotton, he became wealthy. But, he was not satisfied. And war clouds were gathering.

Ravenel, Samuel DuBose, Isaac Porcher, and other planters formed the Black Oak Agricultural Society to foster the improvement of their crops. Many followed the advice of Edmund Ruffin concerning the use of marl, fertilizer made from clay and lime. (Ruffin gained fame in 1861 by firing the first shot at Ft. Sumter.)

Ravenel's interest in fertilizers, crop rotation, and pest control grew. He collected plant specimens wherever he went. Tragedy struck when Northampton burned destroying his sketches and collections.

Not to be discouraged, Ravenel focused his attention on phanerogams (now called spermatophytes), flowering or seed- bearing plants. This was a little known field of study at the time. He shared his discoveries with scholars at Harvard and in England, and wrote articles for major journals. For his work, he was honored with memberships in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

When the AAAS held its annual meeting in Charleston in 1849, Ravenel gave a major paper on families of plants within 25 miles of his home. It was well received and led to correspondence with major botanists throughout the U.S. and Europe.

He began a new project, a catalog of the complete flora of the Santee Canal, but this was sidelined by an urgent study of fungi. This led to the

publication of his Fungi Caroliniani

Exsiccati, which he distributed free to all scholars and libraries.

Ravenel's wife died in 1846, and his health deteriorated in 1850, so he took refuge in the mountains of North Carolina. After a year of cold water, cold baths, no tea or coffee, no wine, and no cigars, he returned to his father's home in Pineville. His health failed again and he decided to move to Aiken, a place of hot springs and drier air.

In 1852, Ravenel sold Northampton for $10,000. With this money and another $10,000 gift from his father, he bought a small farm in Aiken and invested in stocks and bonds. He remarried in 1858 to Mary Huger Dawson of Aiken.

Ravenel's reputation spread. He traveled to professional meetings throughout the Eastern US. His Fungi Caroliniani

Exsiccati was considered a major contribution to science.

As war cries heightened, Ravenel joined the Southern cause. He believed in conservatism of the Southern people, the advantages of Southern agriculture to the world economy, and the institution of slavery. His health and his hearing failed at the same time hostilities broke out.

Ravenel contributed to the war effort by experimenting with ways to make coffee out of cottonseed and ways to utilize mushrooms in the diet. He invested all of his money in Confederate bonds.

During the war, the Ravenels moved back and forth between Aiken and Pineville. As Sherman's forces approached, he decided to stay at Pooshee Plantation with his family. They hid their valuables, distributed food to their slaves, and awaited the worse. Yankee raiders stole everything not hidden but did not burn the buildings.

Henry William Ravenel returned to Aiken to find his property in good shape, but his personal wealth had disappeared with the Confederacy. He kept many of his former slaves, exchanging housing and food for labor. They grew vegetables for the local market and cut lumber for the railroad. Their peaches rotted in the trees because there was no way to get them to markets Up East. He sold all of his furniture, farm equipment, and even his microscope to get by.

Ravenel sold his writings to magazines to earn some cash. He borrowed $500 and turned his farm into a nursery for evergreens, roses, and other plants. Finally, in 1873, he had to sell the farm and move into a house in Aiken. The sale of the farm fell through, and he had to repossess it and hire a former slave to care for it.

Ravenel was offered professorships of botany at the University of California and at Washington College, Lexington, Va., but declined both due to ill health and deafness. In 1882, he accepted work as agricultural editor for

the Charleston News & Courier

.

On his 69th birthday, he was elected into the Imperial Zoologic- Botanic Society of Vienna, and a year later, 1884, he was elected to the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society at the University of North Carolina and honored with an LL.D. degree.

Throughout his financial crisis, Ravenel held on to his herbarium, his valuable collection of dried plants. At his death in 1887, his collection went to his wife who sold part of it to the British Museum. Another part, bought by a cousin, was given to Converse College, which later sold part of it to George Vanderbilt for Biltmore Estate in Asheville. This part was lost in a flood.

Ravenel's private collection of vascular plants, which was housed for many years at Converse College, is now located in the University of South Carolina's A. C. Moore Herbarium.

The Henry William Ravenel Papers are in the South Caroliniana Library at USC. This collection of 110 manuscripts, 13 manuscript volumes, and 39 photographs documents the family life, business pursuits, and natural history interests of the Pineville planter, botanist, and agricultural writer.

(Next week: Pineville struggles)