Diary of Orrin Brown, at High Point Plantation (Thompson’s House), Fairfield County, South Carolina
Sunday–Feb. 19th
We were on the road at 6 Am crossed the river and marched 5 or 6 miles and haulted an hour for dinner and when the hour was about up we received orders to prepair our camp for the night. The weather is warm and pleasant. I got my things into the ambulance again today. The soil for the last 3 days has been yellow clay and very muddy untill today the roads have been better. We heard yesterday that Columbia was captured and burned by our forces. Our boys are bringing in reb prisoners every day there was one brought into our regt. only a few minutes ago. Our brigade has been out on detail this PM tearing up Rail Road Track. I read 2 Chapts. in the Testament today.
High Point Plantation sits on the highest point between Columbia and Spartanburg, South Carolina, granted to William Thompson by King George III in 1773. The National Register nomination describes:
The ca. 1800 portion of High Point is a significant example of the form and stylistic characteristics of a late eighteenth or early nineteenth century Fairfield County farmhouse. The expansion of the house, which has architectural merit of its own, illustrates the increasing prosperity of many Fairfield county farmers between 1800 and the Civil War. The house is a two-story, frame farmhouse with a gable roof. The house as originally constructed in ca. 1800 included the three northernmost bays of the present house. The original house had exterior end chimneys. The interior of the original portion of the house is characterized by a hall and parlor plan, wide board walls, an enclosed corner stair, and a corner cupboard. During the early antebellum period the house was extended to five bays. Both the original portion of the house and the addition are sheathed in beaded weatherboard and contain nine-over-nine windows on the first story and nine-over-six windows on the second story. A one story, shed-roofed porch extends across the façade. The porch is supported by square posts connected by a plain balustrade. There are stone steps leading to the porch. A two-story ell on the rear of the house is believed to have been constructed ca. 1870. The nominated acreage includes three contributing properties: the family cemetery, a frame smokehouse, and a frame barn. Listed in the National Register December 6, 1984.
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