"BACKCOUNTRY BRETHREN" - THE HEALING & BUILDING OF A STATE AND A NATION

LEXINGTON AND ORANGEBURG HOLD IMPORTANT AND COMMON HISTORES OF HEALING AND BUILDING.

Once the line is drawn in the sand, the connection is often broken...

This statement frequently applies to histories of adjacent counties when these counties have once been part of a larger common region. Lexington and Orangeburg were counties that were once part of the same district. These two counties share a common and significant history that L.O.O.P. , Lexington & Old Orangeburgh Plats, is starting to reveal. While L.O.O.P. is primarily focused on historic land records, maps and plats, it also incorporates substantial genealogical data in the research on some projects.

Recently, a significant connection has been made between White Hill Plantation near Orangeburg (just north on the Belville Road) and the Samuel Jeffcoat House & Plantation, one of Lexington Counties oldest and best preserved lands, house and histories dating back to the middle 1700s. 

While the history of White Hill Plantation is younger than that of the Samuel Jeffcoat House & Plantation these combined and significant histories speak of an era when fewer people occupied these lands and they relied on a broader geographic region to fill their needs. The relationships between White Hill Plantation and the Samuel Jeffcoat Plantation were not only on a professional level but also on a deeply personal level. The relationship between the owner of White Hill, Dr. Van De Vastine Jameson  and the owner of Samuel Jeffcoat Plantation, Samuel Jeffcoat were significant on more than one level.

Both men had dual-careers that dealt with "healing' and building materials. Having two passions allowed each of them to be known and provide service to many people.

Jameson was a prominent physician originally from Bucks County, PA who acquired land with vast deposits of ancient oyster shells that he harvested to create lime-based building materials. 

Jeffcoat was a prominent Methodist minister originally from England who acquired land with vast resources of timber that he harvested to create wood-based building materials.

Combined, these men healed body and spirit and provided the backcountry with materials needed to create houses and commercial buildings that protected and helped to create prosperity for people of the backcountry, the state and the nation .

Dr. Jameson was so loved by the extended Jeffcoat family that  Samuel Jeffcoat's grandson was named "Vandy Vastine" Jeffcoat. This name, "Vandy Vastine" carrying forward to other generations through the 20th century. 

Renowned South Carolina architect, Robert Mills, who designed many of our state's and nation's, grand government and private structures wrote about Jameson's White Hill which helped to acknowledge the contributions of not only Jameson, but men like Jameson and Jeffcoat who created thriving business from the much needed resources in the burgeoning South Carolina backcountry.

It is said that it takes a village to raise a child. Perhaps, and just perhaps, it took a  "backcountry of brethren" to build a state... and a nation!