Basic Information

• Location – Pendleton, Anderson County

  2725 Old Greenville Highway, about three miles east of Pendleton

• Origin of name – In the Algonquian Indian language, Ashtabula means "river of many fish" (6).
• Other names – Gibbes, Broyles, Latta, Pelzer Place
• Current status – Owned by Pendleton Historic Foundation and operated as a house museum

Timeline

• 1790 – Earliest known date of existence (2)

  The Gassaway family owned the property (2).

• 1825 – Lewis Ladson and Maria Henrietta Drayton Gibbes acquired the property from the Gassaway family (2).
• 1828 – House built by Lewis Ladson Gibbes of Charleston
• 1837 – Plantation bought by Dr. Oze R. Broyles (2)
• 1851 – Plantation bought by James T. Latta of York (2)
• 1861 – Plantation bought by Mr. Robert Adger, owner of the Sword Gate House in Charleston (2)
• 1865 – Adger's daughter Clarissa and her husband O. A. Bowen lived in the house with their son Allen until this year.
• 1865 – Adger's daughter Sallie and her husband William D. Warren became owners of the plantation (2).
• 1880 – Ashtabula was next owned by Francis J. Pelzer (owner of Pelzer Mills and founder of the Town of Pelzer) (2).
• 1889 – John Linley became Ashtabula's owner (2).
• 1920 – Roger Inglesby became owner (2).
• 1940 – Frederick W. Symmes became the last resident owner of Ashtabula (2).
• 1957 – Symmes died and Ashtabula was purchased by Mead Corporation for a tree farm (2).
• 1961 – Mead Corporation gave the house and 10 acres to the Pendleton Historic Foundation (2).

Land

• Number of acres – 10 acres in 1961
• Primary crop – Timber for paper 1957-1961

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• The house is a two-story clapboard plantation house. There is also two-story brick building built prior to 1790 that was used as a traveler's tavern. This brick structure was later connected to the main house by a breezeway and used as a kitchen (2).

References & Resources

1. National Register of Historic Places
   – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1971
   – Photographs, architectural overview

2. Pendleton Historic Foundation | Timeline

3. 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society

4. Jane Ockershausen, The South Carolina One-Day Trip Book (McLean, VA: EPM Publications, 1998)
5. SC Highway Historical Marker Guide - online database by the SC Department of Archives & History

6. Information contributed by Mary Ann Masek

Contact Information

1. Pendleton Historic Foundation
   PO Box 444
   Pendleton, SC 29670

   Telephone: 864-646-7249
   Website: Click here