In September 2022, a team from Clemson along with professionals from Preservation South visited the Hopewell Plantation gravesite to expand the discovery work the Scouts had started almost 20 years prior, utilizing the most modern technologies available.
A survey of the gravesite was conducted using ground penetrating radar (GPR) scans to identify and map all potential graves. The GPR scans identified 120 graves. Using the scan information, the team also was able to map official four corners of the site to include appropriate buffer area around known graves.
The Hopewell Plantation is one of three historic properties owned by Clemson University.
The Hopewell house is associated with Revolutionary War General Andrew Pickens, who first built a log structure on the property around 1785 before gifting the current structure it to his son, South Carolina Gov. Andrew Pickens, Jr.
In 2017, an existing conditions report indicated that the Hopewell house was probably built around 1812. The property remained under private ownership after the Pickens era, passing through the Carter, Reece and Cherry families. In 1936 it was sold to the US Resettlement Administration under the authority of the Bankhead – Jones Farm Tenant Act and the property became a part of the Clemson Community Conservation Project, eventually being deeded to the university in 1954.
In 2003, a group of Boy Scouts led by Eagle Scout Brandon Blake cleared the underbrush and removed limbs and other debris from the site. Once the forest debris had been removed, the Scouts mapped about 85 graves, based on fieldstones and by visually assessing deformities in the ground. Finally, they placed markers beside the visible depressions and field stones and rebuilt the fence around the gravesite’s boundary.
About a quarter mile from the Hopewell homestead is what is believed to be the gravesites of those enslaved on Hopewell Plantation and their descendants. Most of the identities of those buried at Hopewell are not currently known as the depressions are mostly marked only with field stones. There are, however, three graves marked with headstones at the site. Headstones marking the graves of Mrs. Hannah Reese, age 49; Loutilda Thompson, age 2; and a third headstone only bearing the initials T.E.M are present in the Hopewell cemetery.
Going forward, the team will engage in community outreach as well as archival and related research to develop documentation related to the Hopewell gravesite and those who are buried there.
