Submitted by FHMaster on Sun, 03/28/2021 - 13:24

On Hilton Head Island, probably destroyed by development: 38BUl155


General Information -

  • Location - northeastern corner of the Island.
  • Other names - Colginse Point, possibly for a promontory in Virginia where the Pope family earlier resided.

Owners -   

  • Edmund Ellis and Samuel Green, jointly given an original Royal grant dated 7 May 1762 (SC Archives Royal Land Grants, vol. X, p. 220).

  • Edmund Ellis took Fish Haul as his portion  (see also), and sold it to Samuel Green in April 1763.

  • Sarah and Susannah Green inherited from their father in his will of 24 February 1767.

  • William Pope, Sr., second husband of Sarah, received Coggins Point through the marriage.

  • Pope family made this their principal seat until confiscation.  Mansion built by Squire William Pope, Jr., in 1806.

  • Federal Government took possession Dec.1, 1863. Declared a military reservation  (Fort Walker) on Oct 27,1874.

  • Sold by Secretary of War in 1927 for $12,600 possibly to carpetbagger Weiss.

  • Landon K. Thorne and Alfred L. Loomis, 1931.

Land - 800 acres, 321 of which were Fish Haul.

Maps - Hack, "Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, before 1861"

Bibliography -  
 Holmgren, Research on Hilton Head Island, 1956-ca. 1975
 Holmgren, Hilton Head, A Sea Island Chronicle 
 Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names
 Porcher, The Story of Sea Island Cotton

Additional Information:

Colginse Point Plantation
Port Royal Plantation
Also see Fish Haul Plantation, Fort Walker

Coggins Point was the plantation seat of Squire William Pope (1788-1862).  On the northeast corner of the island Squire Pope built a two-story frame residence on a high brick foundation in 1806, when he married Ann Scott of neighboring  Grass Lawn Plantation.  In 1816 Pope married his cousin, Sarah Lavinia Pope.  The plantation contained 806 acres. Pope served in the South Carolina House of Representatives (1810-1814, 1816-1818, 1850-1852) and in the South Carolina Senate from 1822-1832.  In addition to Coggins Point Plantation Pope owned Skull Creek and Point Comfort Plantations on Hilton Head and Cresant Plantation near Bluffton.  When Thomas Barksdale died in 1832, court action on the part of relatives necessitated the sale of Skull Creek Plantation.  Pope bought 1,000 acres along Skull Creek, including Barksdale's home, renaming the property Cotton Hope. It became his island seat. The 1860 agricultural census listed Squire Pope as owning 200 slaves in St. Luke's Parish. The Coggins Point house was used as headquarters of the Department of the South during the Civil War.  By 1864 a signal tower had been built atop the hip-roofed structure and the spacious double verandahs enclosed to provide more room.  The signal tower was placed on the roof by Lt. Keenan.  (Photos in Carse, Holmgren and Museum collection)  Both Fort Walker and Fort Sherman are located on Coggins Point Plantation.

  • South Carolina Institute of A & A original listing

"The first Popes on Hilton Head were probably William and Sarah. In 1791 they sold 365 acres of their Coggins Point land to the Scotts keeping the 803 acres that would remain in the Pope family until confiscation."

  • Holmgren, Virginia C., Hilton Head, A Sea Island Chronicle, p. 130 

"Fred C. Hack, president of The Hilton Head Company, has offered to deed the site of the Coggins Point plantation,  home of Squire William Pope  (1788-1862), adjacent to the site of Fort Walker, to the Hilton Head Historical Society on condition that the house be restored for use as a museum."

  • The Island Packet, January 27, 1972

"The word (of Pope's house) comes in the diaries of young soldiers, one of whom wrote,  'When our men landed on Hilton Head, the Negroes guided them to the Rebel officer's headquarters, which was on the Pope Plantation.  Here they found a very fine library. There were besides the books, complete files of old papers, some dating as far as 1812.  Hard wasn't it, to have all these things destroyed?'  This was written by General Saxon's quartermaster who would set up headquarters there.  Another recorded "abandoned in such haste that the horses in the stable were left behind and General Drayton's own charger, a fine handsome bay horse...was captured here and became the favorite horse of General Stevens.

  • Islander Magazine, December 1977; Nancy Cathcart

No one came to redeem the Pope house (after the war).  It is said the house was eventually dismantled and sold in Beaufort for scrap lumber.  Coggins Point was held as a military reservation until 1927 when it was sold by the Secretary of War. Like a mirage, the Squire's house is once again rising at Fort Walker beside the banks of Fish Haul Creek.  Talented Wayne and Ceil Edwards....are today rebuilding an exact replica of Squire William Pope's Plantation house, now within the borders of Port Royal Plantation.  They are building as close as possible to the former location."

c. 1920 "...families included Bryan, Wright, Barnwell, Bligen, Fuller, Jones, Small, Young, Ford, Joiner, Miller, Orage, Lawyer"

  • Grant, Moses, Looking Back, p.14

Called Colginse Point Plantation in the will of Samuel Green of 1767; left to Green’s daughters Sarah and Susannah.  Peeples claims Sarah married William Pope, Sr.

  • Peeples, Robert, Tales of Ante Bellum Hilton Head Families, p. 2

“...the Federal government had still kept possession of the 803 acres at Coggins Point where Fort Walker was located.”   During the Spanish American War, the fort was reactivated in 1898 and a new type of dynamite gun was installed.   Abandoned in 1899 the land remained Federal property.   In 1917 the barracks were reactivated and big guns were put in place along the shore.   A submarine watch was kept until the end of World War II.

  • Holmgren, p. 119-120

The valuable 800-acre Coggins Point Plantation at the northeastern corner of the island was part of an original Royal Grant dated May 7, 1762 (SC Archives - Royal Grants Volume X, p. 220) jointly to Edmund Ellis and Samuel Green.  Samuel Ellis took Fish Haul which he and his wife, Elizabeth, sold to Samuel Green (321 acres) in April 1763 who made it his place of residence. In his will of February 24, 1767 Samuel Green left Colginese Point Plantation to his daughters Sarah and Susannah. Sarah Green, named for her mother Sarah Norton Green, married Thomas Tucker and then William Pope, Sr. carrying to him her Coggins Point Plantation which became a principal seat of the Pope family until confiscation.  Reporters of the Battle of Port Royal Sound in 1681 described ‘”a rich old plantation mansion”, the home of William Pope, Jr., the redoubtable ‘Squire Pope’, built in 1806 when he married Ann Scott of Grass Lawn Plantation. Colginese Point may have been named for a promontory in Virginia where the Pope family earlier resided.

  • Peeples, Robert E.H., An Index to Hilton Head Island Names (Before the Contemporary Development), p. 8

Basic Information

  • Location – Port Royal Sound, Hilton Head Island, St Helena Parish, Beaufort County

     

  • Origin of name – ?

     

  • Other names – Colgins Point; Colginse Point

     

  • Current status – ?

     

Timeline

  • 1762 – Earliest known date of existence (3)

    Edmund Ellis and Samuel Green, jointly, were given a royal grant. Edmund Ellis took a portion with Samuel Green retaining the rest which he called Colgins Point (1, p. 415) (3).

     

  • 1767 – Samuel Green's will leaves Colgins Point to his daughters Susannah Green and Sarah Green Tucker (1, p. 415).

     

  • ? – Sarah Green Tucker became sole owner of the plantation after the death of her sister (1, p. 415).

     

  • 1785 – Sarah Green Tucker, now widowed, married William Pope. They had one son together, William Pope Jr, who was known as "Squire" William Pope, inherited Coggins Point Plantation in the early 1800s (1, p. 415).

     

  • 1806 – House built by "Squire" William Pope (2).

     

  • ? – "Squire" William Pope gave Coggins Point to his son, William John Pope (1, p. 415).

     

  • 1852 – William John Pope died leaving two orphaned daughters. The girls' uncle, Joseph J. Pope Jr., took over management of the plantation for his nieces (1, p. 415).

     

  • 1861 – The Union Army occupied Coggins Point Plantation, which the Pope family had left unused since 1859, and the house became the chief quartermaster's office and the telegraph station (1, p. 416) (2).

     

  • 1927 – Coggins Point remained a military reservation, Fort Walker and Fort Sherman, until the Secretary of War sold it for $12,600. Weiss may have been purchaser (1, p. 416) (3).

     

  • 1931 – Landon K. Thorne and Alfred L. Loomis acquired Coggins Point (3).

     

Land

  • Number of acres – 806 in 1816 (3)

     

  • Primary crop – Sea Island cotton (2)

     

Slaves

  • Number of slaves – Approximately 200 in the mid-1800s (2)

     

References & Resources

  1. Richard Porcher and Sarah Fick, The Story of Sea Island Cotton (Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2005)
  2. Dana E. Byrd with Tyler DeAngelis, Tracing Transformations: Hilton Head Island's Journey to Freedom, 1860-1865
  3. Heritage Library of Hilton Head Island
Location
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
State
Status
No remains