Woodlands

(Front) Woodlands was the country home of William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870), the most prominent and prolific writer of the antebellum South, from 1836 to his death. A novelist, poet, historian, critic, and essayist best known for his novels about colonial and Revolutionary S.C., Simms was described as “the ornament and the pride of the State he loved so well” at his death in 1870.

(Reverse) In 1836 Simms, a widower, married Chevillette Roach (1817-1863) of Barnwell District. He and his wife moved to this 4,000-acre plantation owned by her father, Nash Roach. The house burned in 1862, was rebuilt, burned again in 1865, and rebuilt on a smaller scale in 1867. Woodlands, described in a Simms poem as “these grand old woods,” was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975.

Erected by the Historical Society of Bamberg County,