History

An Untold Treasure For More Than 300 Years

An Island of Historical Significance

Spring Island is indeed unique and its story is the same. The historical record tells a passionate story of Lowcountry natives, industrious plantation owners, agriculturalists, quail hunting enthusiasts and most recently, land developers endeavoring the risky and courageous preservation of this long treasured property.
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A Land Steeped in History

Water has shaped every chapter of Spring Island’s history. Nestled within the Broad River estuary, this land has long been sustained by its rich ecosystem—where oysters thrive, fish are plentiful, and the tides offer both nourishment and passage. For centuries, Native Americans, European explorers, and settlers were drawn to its bounty. By the 16th and 17th centuries, Spring Island sat along vital shipping routes connecting the Caribbean, New England, Europe, and Africa, making it a crossroads of trade and exploration.

Before They Were Ruins

In 1706, the Lord’s Proprietors granted Spring Island to John Cochran, and by the early 1800s, his descendant George Edwards built the family home—whose tabby ruins remain one of the finest examples of Lowcountry craftsmanship. Though little is known about the Edwards family, their wealth was built on Sea Island cotton, a fortune that faded with the Civil War. While the “Old House” endured, Spring Island slipped from the family’s hands by the late 1880s, leaving behind echoes of a once-prosperous past.

Get the Full Story

Spring Island’s history stretches back for more than a millennium. And we continue to add to it every day. We invite you to learn more about the land, the people, and the history of Spring Island by visiting the Spring Island Trust History page, where we take a deep dive on topics that include:

  • Precolonial Period
  • Post-Civil War
  • Chaffin/Light Vision for Spring Island
  • The Early Colonial Period
  • The Copp Era
  • The Spring Island Community Becomes a Reality
  • The Cochran/Edwards Era
  • The Walker Era
  

History Gallery

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Every phase of Spring Island’s history connects to water. The Broad River estuary is an especially fertile ecosystem, conducive to oyster growth. The super-abundance of edible fish, the ease of intercoastal transportation and deepwater access appealed to Native Americans and to European explorers and settlers.In the 16th and 17th centuries Spring Island lay along critical shipping lanes linking Caribbean, NewEngland, European and African trade hubs. In 1861 the “Battle of Port Royal Sound,” an engagement impacting the course of the Civil War, was fought within earshot of Spring Island.

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A 1706 Crown Grant from the Lord’s Proprietors awarded Spring Island to John Cochran. In the early1800s Cochran’s descendant George Edwards built the historic structure that now forms a keynote to the history trail. Little is known about his family. They made a sizable fortune growing Sea Island cotton on Spring Island and their primary residence was at 14 Legare Street in Charleston.The Edwards’ prosperity declined during the Civil War. The “Old House” survived, but Spring Island passed out of the family’s hands by the end of the 1880s.

Spring Island’s first inhabitants lived here over 8,000 years ago. Archeological surveys from theWoodland Period (500 B.C.) have unearthed artifacts (including bones of wild game, grinding stones and many pottery shards).Local tribes included the Witcheaugh, Escamacu and Wimbee, who were absorbed by Yemassee refugees fleeing Spanish colonization of Florida. In 1715, the Yemassee Rebellion was sparked by a massacre at Pocataligo that took the lives of John Cochran and his wife. This conflict roiled the Lowcountry for a period of two years.

Spring Island’s “praise house” memorial was built by residents in 2010 of recycled, historical timbers in an archetypal minimal style with low benches.Gullah praise houses were community centers for education and spiritual fellowship, and ad hoc courthouses where differences were aired and settled. This tradition was carried forward into the 20th century and is still knows as the “praise house spirit.”

Spring Island's Master Plan

Spring Island has been used as agricultural land for millennium. Since PreColumbian days Native Americans cultivated gourds, squash and corn, storing grains for consumption over winter months.18th century European colonists ran livestock. Logging supported regional timber and ship-building industries. Shortly thereafter, rice, indigo, then Sea Island cotton were in abundance. After Reconstruction, fishing, lumber and truck farming (lettuce and pecans) supported tenant farming settlements and commerce into the 20th century.
The ruined Edwards family home is one of the Lowcountry’s finest examples of tabby construction. It was constructed in two phases in the early 19th century. A Union sergeant’s diary entry from February 5,1862 describes:“…Magnificent avenues of Live oaks led away in three directions… the immediate grounds were enclosed by a fence of Ossage orange… Flowers grew everywhere in profusion and everything about us was calculated to delight the eye and overpower the senses with beauty and fragrance!”

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Spring Island Realty
38 Mobley Oaks Ln