Point Comfort Plantation

Fast Facts:

General Information - Location – has varied from Broad Creek to the Atlantic Ocean, earliest part being that on Broad Creek.

Owners - 

  • Walcott & Cowen were early planters.
  • Crouch purchased from Bayley heirs for resale to James Davant.
  • Davant added Lots 38 and 39, previously held by Estall Laurence.
  • At one point it included so much of adjoining Calibogia Plantation that it was so called and may have reached a maximum of 1750 acres.
  • Davant children inherited, all of whom sold to Squire William Pope, circa 1824.
  • At the confiscation Point Comfort was redeemed by Sarah Lovinia, widow of Squire Pope, in 1872.
  • Her daughter Eliza Woodward inherited.
  • Will Clyde purchased it in 1889 for $3600.
  • Thorne and Loomis, 1931

Land - 167 acres in 1783, later expanded to 1750 acres; 1000 acres at confiscation.

Maps - 

    Hack, "Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, before 1861"
    Mosse, "Hilton Head Island, 1873.  Lots 38, 39"

Bibliography - 

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

Additional Information:

Also see Lawton (Calibogia) Plantation

In the mid 1700's the Davant brothers came to Hilton Head.  "Evidently their first plantation was 'Point Comfort' which lay at the south end between Broad Creek and the Atlantic."

  • Holmgren, Virginia C., Hilton Head, A Sea Island Chronicle, p. 52

Peeples traces the intermarriage between the Davant, Stoney and Lawton families, which resulted in Martha Stoney who married Thomas Henry Barksdale in 1795.  When he died at age 36 in August 1832 Calibogia was part of his estate.  It consisted of 1820 acres and its vast rice fields were worked by 156 slaves.  

  • Peeples, Rev. Robert E.H., Tales of Ante Bellum Hilton Head Island Families, p. 3, 8

Martha then married her first cousin, Rev. Joseph Alexander Lawton.  In the marriage contract he acquired rights to Barksdale and Stoney properties, including Calibogia.

  • Holmgren, p. 130

Point Comfort, also known as Calibogia Plantation, was bought by William Pope from the heirs of John and James Davant in 1823 or 1824, possibly in two transactions." 

This does not agree with the generally accepted map of Hilton Head in 1861. It shows Calibogia and Point Comfort Plantations side by side from the Broad Creek marsh to the Atlantic Ocean.  It is possible that under early Davant ownership they were one plantation and after Barksdale's death Point Comfort was sold as a separate piece of property.

  • Holmgren, p. 131

"Point Comfort Plantation came into existence in 1760, when the Davant family built it. The Point Comfort Plantation house...was described as a 'tolerable comfortable dwelling house with kitchen and other buildings'.  It was two stories high and had a wide piazza where the Davants would sit on Sundays and read the church service.  Today (1973) the rubble ruins of the Point Comfort House lie hidden among the shrub thickets on the right side of the Palmetto Bay Marina road not far from the entrance to Bay Pines."

  • The Island Packet, January 25, 1973

The 1838 National Ocean Survey Chart T803 shows Point Comfort under Baynard's ownership.

Property was confiscated by the Federal government for unpaid taxes.  Eventually the property was restored to Pope's wife.  In 1889 the 1373 acre plantation was sold to William P. Clyde by John, Eliza and A.P. Woodward, Sarah Pope's executors.  In 1919 Clyde's holdings including Point Comfort were sold to Roy A. Rainey for $10,000.  This may have been part of the land sold to Highsmith Lumber Company and then in 1949 was sold to Thorne and Loomis.  In 1950 parcel was sold to the Hilton Head Company who transferred the land to the Sea Pines Company. In 1975 Sea Pines sold the bulk of the 50 acre (Tide Pointe) tract to the Central Real Estate Investment Company.  The tract was subdivided and sold to at least twelve individuals before 1984 when the Delta Group had repurchased all of the property, reconstructing the original parcel.  Today the tract is essentially divided between three owners - Bluff Golf Company, LRH Associates and Reed Realty.  It is under consideration as the site of the Sea Pines Senior Living Center (Tide Pointe).

Tide Point was constructed in 1994-95 but is not owned by The Sea Pines Company.

  • Trinkley, Chicora Research Series 88, Archaeological Survey of Sea Pines Senior Living Center, Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina

The size of Point Comfort Plantation has varied greatly through the years as has the size of most others.  The beautiful bluff overlooking Broad Creek was called Point Comfort as early as 1783 when it was only 267 acres formerly planted by Walcott and Cowen, bought from Bayley heirs by Crouch for resale to island planter James Davant (1744-1803) who added it to Lots 38-39 formerly held by Estall Laurence.  At one point it included so much of adjoining Calibogia Plantation that it was so called and may have reached a maximum of 1750 acres.  Davant’s will left it by Lot numbers to several of his children, all of whom sold to that indefatigable buyer of island land, Squire William Pope, circa 1824.  At the confiscation Point Comfort contained 1000 acres and was redeemed by Sarah Lovinia, widow of Squire Pope, in 1782.  She willed it to her daughter, Eliza, wife of Rev. Alsop Park Woodward, who sold Point Comfort to Will Clyde in 1889. 

  • Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names (Before Contemporary Development), p. 32