General Information - 

• Location - Stretching from Broad Creek to Muddy (Old House) Creek, between Otterburn and Spanish Wells Plantations.
• In 1850 cotton yield was 23 bales.

Owners -     

• Daniel Savage, in 1783
• William Baynard bought Lot #12 from Benjamin Bayley on 2 Jan 1792.  (See also Otterburn)
• Williams Eddings Baynard, his nephew, inherited ; also owned Braddock’s Point
• Left to his sons in 1849
• After the confiscation it was not redeemable.
• Sea Island Cotton Company purchased it in 1866
• Resold to the United States Cotton Company
• J. L. Dimmock, 1896; sold in small lots to Negroes.
• W. L. Hurley, for unpaid taxes.
• Thorne and Loomis 

Land - 850 acres, 500 improved and 300 in timber.
    
Slaves - 20 slaves per 1790 census

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

Bibliography - 
    Holmgren, Research on Hilton Head Island, 1956-ca. 1975
    Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names
    Peeples, Tales of Ante Bellum Hilton Head Island Families.

Additional Information:

38BU880/ 862/861

Sometime in the 1780s "....William Baynard who bought 265 acres of No. 12 (Muddy Creek) for himself."

• Holmgren, Virginia C., Hilton Head, A Sea Island Chronicle, p. 60

The first known owner of Muddy Creek Plantation is William Baynard, who apparently purchased the property from Benjamin Bayley and Daniel Savage in the late 18th century.  The part from Bayley's Baroney probably included the 275 acre Lot #12, previously leased to Thomas Bull and W. Rich.   The land from Savage included 500 acres just east of the Mongin lands later to become Spanish Wells Plantation.  (When William died the Muddy Creek  was inherited by his brother Thomas' son, William Eddings Baynard.  He also inherited Spanish Wells Plantation from his father. (Holmgren p. 125))

When Baynard died in 1849 his son William, Jr. was likely to inherit but the 1850 Agricultural Census does not show any property on Hilton Head owned by the estate of William Baynard or Baynard, Jr..   It does show four plantations owned by Baynard, Sr.'s son, Ephraim Baynard.   One is 800 acres very close to that traditionally known as Muddy Creek Plantation.   This contained 500 acres improved land and 300 acres in timber.   The cotton yield of 23 bales in 1850 suggests that Muddy Creek specialized in cotton production.   

A Coastal Survey map of Hilton Head just before the Civil War shows thirteen structures on Muddy Creek Plantation.   Marshland Road follows the old plantation road very closely.

Confiscated by the Federal government in 1862 for unpaid taxes a Senate accounting shows Muddy Creek Place with 700 acres valued at $2,800 had been purchased by Richard M. Bell for $700.

In 1897 the plantation was purchased by Julian A. Dimock through a Master of Equity sale.   Beginning in 1899, Dimmock through his attorney, Walter S. Monteith, began selling small parcels to freedmen such as Friday Albright, Sarah Baynard and  Norman Singleton.   

Most of Muddy Creek was eventually owned by Thorne and Loomis who sold it to McIntosh, Stebbins and Hack in 1951 forming Honey Horn Plantation.   In turn this was sold in 1957 to Hilton Head Plantation Company.

• Trinkley, Chicora Research Contribution 78, Archaeological Survey of a Portion of Indigo Run Plantation, Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina (Source material listed in survey)  ( Pages 5, 13 missing)

Less than 100 years later "A group of investors styling themselves 'The Sea Island Company' bought..., Muddy Creek Place,....At Muddy Creek Place was a dwelling place, rather than a mansion, 14 freedmen's houses, 450 acres of cotton land and 294 of timber."  This purchase was from the Federal government.

• Holmgren, p. 108

Around 1900 W.L. Hurley of New Jersey....added part of Muddy Creek...to their estate."

• Holmgren, Virginia C., p. 120

"Muddy Creek Place, sold in wartime to the Sea Island Cotton Company, resold to the United States Cotton Company and then to J.L. Dimmock  who disposed of it in small plots, was not redeemable"  by original owners.

• Holmgren, Virginia C., p. 125

38BU880 is the site of the River Club parcel, along the bluff edge overlooking Broad Creek and extending up a nearby slough.  The site consists of both a historic and prehistoric component.   The historic is mainly in the eastern portion of the tract; the prehistoric, in the S/SW portion of the tract.

The historic represents a late 18th, early 19th century component representing early occupation of Muddy Creek Plantation - a small holding with an absentee owner - and may represent a special purpose settlement.

The Prehistory is a Middle/Late Woodland to S. Appalachian Mississippian component.

Both are recommended for further study and the National Register of Historic Places.

• Chicora Research Contribution 76, 
  Archaeological Survey of Portions of Indigo Run Plantation,

Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina, p. 2, 17, 20

The property was purchased  as follows:
1882 by Richard Bell
1897 by Julien Dimmock through auction
1902 by William Clyde
1902 a portion by Luke Graham
1903 the rest by George W. Bryant
1932 Bryant's heir, Laura Williams sold 11 acres to Luke Graham
1945 Graham conveyed property to his sister, Catherine Johnson
1972 she sold it to Jacob Brown who presumably still owns it (1992)

Along line separating Muddy Creek and Spanish Wells Plantations

38BU862 - a Middle Woodland shell midden contains historic components of early 20th century; very few prehistoric signs found. Not recommended for National Register of Historic Places.

38BU861 - Primarily Middle Woodland ceramics found.   Recommended for listing and further research.  With 38BU863 earlier studies indicate these are prehistoric middens with no cultural remains collected or observed.  The present study indicates a "rather substantial shell midden".

• Brockington, Archaeological Survey of a Proposed Twenty Acre Development Tract, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, p. 16

Stretching from Broad to Muddy (Old House) Creek, between Otterburn and Spanish Wells Plantations, was 850 acre Muddy Creek Plantation, owned by Daniel Savage in 1783, bought by William Baynard in 1790; it was inherited by his nephew, William Edings Baynard who died in 1849, leaving Muddy Creek to his sons; after the confiscation it was not redeemable.  William F. Clyde acquired most of it in 1894.

Muddy Creek, a tidal creek emptying into Calibogue Sound, runs along the southern boundary of Lot 11 of Bayley’s Barony, Honey Horn Plantation, and is called both Sandy Creek and Old House Creek in old maps and deeds.

• Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names (Before the Contemporary Development), p.29