Rocks Plantation Cemetery

Jun 24

Site Brief:

Founded: ca. 1803

Location: Eutawville, SC

Additional name(s): N/A

Affiliate group(s): N/A

History:

The Rocks Plantation was owned by Captain Peter Gaillard. He served in the Revolutionary war first as a Tory, then as a Patriot. Captain Peter Gaillard owned hundreds of enslaved people, the majority of whom are ancestors to living descendents, and they were buried at the Rocks Plantation Cemetery when they died. Unfortunately, most of the interred are under Lake Marion because of the Santee Cooper Hydro-Electric Program that brought electricity to the rural areas. The Rocks Plantation "Big House" was moved more inland so the floods would not devour it, just to be destroyed by fire years later. The White Gaillards, buried in the same cemetery, were moved to Church Island, S.C. - close to Eutawville, but only accessible by boat. The Black Davis/Gaillards either did not get proper notice, or didn't have a place to move and re-inter their deceased loved ones, which was a requirement to have the bodies exhumed. Time ran out and Santee Cooper authorities deemed the gravesites "undisturbed" and many of my ancestors are now submerged under Lake Marion...except for one.

The one tombstone left belongs to Jacob Davis, the Great-great-grandfather of living descendents. He was born between 1853 and 1856 and died in 1915. Jacob Davis was a boy when slavery ended. He worked various jobs as a water boy in the Bannister Fire House, to becoming a Black Smith. Jacob's father Paul bought land in Eutawville, several hundred acres. Jacob added on to the property and built a school to educated the area children. The "Smith Hill" school predates the Rosenwald Negro Schools. Jacob’s tombstone is the only one left standing. When living descendents learned that their Great-great-grandfather's final resting place was not submerged and that the tombstone was still visible and intact, they visited, and Myra Davis-Branic was inspired to write a book chronicling their family. The book is called "Cornbread My Soul: The Davis Family of Eutawville, SC". It documents the family's history in Eutawville, SC and beyond. The visit to the Rocks Cemetery and an encounter with what they believe was a "Cymbee Spirit" is also in the book. The book “Cornbread My Soul” with information about Jacob Davis's grave is in the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, The Family Center at the International African American Museum in Charleston, as well as the Orangeburg Historical Society.