What do you know?

It was another week of strong competition for the Daniel Island Historical Society’s “What do you know?” history trivia contest. Thanks to all who participated. The winners this week are Jakob Susol and Anita Koszyk. Congratu-lations! Both will receive a prize from DIHS for correctly answering the question posed in the March 23 edition of The Daniel Island News.

Here is the question, as well as the correct answer:

Question: The land that the Family Circle Tennis Center/Volvo Car Stadium sits on today was the site of this French Huguenot family’s plantation (their family name is also the name of their plantation). Can you tell us the name of the plantation?

Answer: Lesesne Plantation. The Lesesne family are French Huguenots whose first ancestor, Isaac, arrived in the colony sometime around 1706. He was granted 171 acres of land on what we now know as Daniel Island in 1709. This would become the family’s residential plantation and would be passed to Isaac’s oldest son, Isaac Jr., after his death. The plantation’s main products were timber, crops, livestock (154 cattle, 35 sheep and 28 hogs), and lime kilns. Over 5,000 bushels of lime from the plantation were used in the construction of St. Michael’s Church in down-town Charleston. Isaac Jr. would increase his land holdings on Daniel Island by purchasing 700 acres from a neigh-bor, William Raven. After the deaths of Isaac Jr. and his wife, the property would be divided among their three sons (988 acres). The Lesense family would possess this land until 1808, a total of 99 years of ownership. The land would be held by many different individuals during the 1800’s (Farr, Keith, Furman, and Cunningham to name a few prominent ones). It is believed that during Miss Keith’s ownership, the name of the plantation was changed to “Grove Plantation.” Over time, the plantation would generate many different products. By 1823, the main crop was Sea Island cotton. An advertisement in the Charleston Courier in 1839 described it as “one the most valuable Cot-ton Plantations near Charleston.” By 1876, Grove Plantation would become part of Cunningham’s land conglom-erate on Daniel Island.

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:

This business, which supported the truck farming industry on Daniel Island in the early 1900s, was located at the present day site of the Holy Cross Episcopal Church at the corner of Seven Farms and Daniel Island Drive. What was it? Please email your answer to DIhistoryquiz@gmail.com by April 12, 2017 and include your first and last name. Note: By participating in the Daniel Island Historical Society Trivia contest, you are giving the Daniel Island His-torical Society permission to add your email to our email list. You will only receive informational emails about our current activities and events. Your contact information will not be shared with anyone outside the Daniel Island Historical Society. To learn more about DIHS, please “like” the Daniel Island Historical Society Facebook page or visit their website at www.dihistoricalsociety.com. (Sources: "Daniel Island" by Michael K. Dahlman and Michael K. Dahlman Jr., Brockington and Associates, Ar-chaeology Reports for Daniel Island and "Home UpRiver, Rural Life on Daniel's Island, Berkeley County South Carolina" by Martha A. Zierden, Lesley M. Drucker and Jeanne Calhoun.)