Of all the Southern ground that has been covered over the past twelve years, and all the photos I have managed, this image is a favorite. Even though I have shared it many times on the Facebook page, it is a first here, as is the story that goes with it. Enjoy.
After George Washington Morris died in 1834, his widow, Maria Whaley Morris was left with considerable debt - so she decided to go into the shipping business . She purchased a schooner and began transporting freight for her neighbors in and around her home on Edisto Island in South Carolina - and wiped the debt clean in three years. In that era, women were sometimes not thought to be worth educating beyond a few social and domestic skills. Good thing they didn't tell that to Maria Whaley Morris.
The house was built sometime around 1828 and features unusual polygonal shaped rooms as projecting symmetrical bays. Even though it was occupied during the Civil War, it is one of the few antebellum era structures in this region of South Carolina that survived the conflict.
Today it is owned by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge.
Photo by Beth Yarbrough.
Beautiful photo of a beautiful house.
I love a good triumph over tragedy story.