Pineville, a historic refuge
Part 32: More St. John's Hunting Club
By Warner M. Montgomery Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

Indian Field 1908

The St. John's Hunting Club celebrated its sesqui- centennial in 1950. On that occasion, Frank Marion Kirk presented a written history of the club. He noted in 1800, the year the club was founded, John Adams was president; Charleston, the fifth largest city in the U.S., had a population of 20,000; the Santee Canal was opened; and the plantation where the 1950 meeting was being held, Pooshee, was over 100 years old.

Kirk reminded club members the St. John's Hunting Club, a social organization, followed the example of similar clubs in neighboring St. Stephen's Parish and St. Thomas's Parish. In fact, the rules of the club were copied from those of the St. Stephen's Club and three of the club's charter members were also members of the St. Stephen's Club: Col. Christian Senf, chief engineer of the Santee Canal; George B. Artope, assistant engineer; and George Porcher of Cedar Spring.

An early spinoff of the St. John's Hunting Club was the Upper St. John's Hunting Club organized in 1802. It met at the Rocks Plantation near Eutaw and was founded by Francis Marion Jr., Gabriel Gignilliat, James Theus, and Peter Witten, members of St. John's Hunting Club.

Pooshee 1940

The two clubs merged in 1843 and met in a new clubhouse (built by Philip Mazyck Porcher) at Greenland Swamp between Eutaw and Pineville. The merged club did not survive the Civil War.

The first meeting of the St. John's Hunting Club, according to Kirk, was at a table spread under a large oak tree by the side of the road next to Pooshee Plantation. In 1801, members were assessed 25 shillings for construction of a clubhouse. Meetings were held in the new clubhouse until a second building was built in 1811. The Black Oak Agricultural Society and the St. Stephen's Jockey Club also used these clubhouses. This clubhouse disappeared during the Civil War.

The club reorganized in 1866 and met at various plantations until operations were suspended in 1869 due to the "destruction of Reconstruction" as expressed by member poet Yates Snowden.

The reorganizational meeting of May 15, 1900, was held at Pooshee Plantation with six members and 18 guests (who were quickly elected to membership). Only one person, J. Palmer Gaillard, Charleston's four- term mayor from 1959 to 1975, survived to attend the 1950 meeting.

Pooshee 1978

Club meetings moved from Pooshee to Indian Field, Wampee, Somerset, and back to Pooshee until it was flooded by Santee- Cooper in 1938.

The 1941 meeting was held at Percival R. Porcher's home in Pinopolis. In 1942, meetings began to be held in the clubhouse on the remains of Pooshee Plantation on the shores of Lake Moultrie.

The St. John's Hunting Club has published a number of documents: