Historic Landscapes

“the trees, are made the most of as ornaments to the grounds”: Understanding John L. Manning’s 1855 Landscape Improvements at Millford

Author: Grant Quertermous, CAHPT Curator & Director of Collections

Newly uncovered documentary evidence indicates that John Laurence Manning undertook a large-scale landscaping project at Millford in 1855 that included the purchase and planting of more than 100 carefully selected ornamental trees, the laying of a new road, and the construction of a bridge over Tavern Creek.

Manning also employed free Black cabinetmaker Alexander Knight of Sumter to construct a new fence adjacent to the road. The documentation for these related projects in family letters and surviving invoices suggest that Manning was still working to improve Millford’s landscape more than a decade after the house was completed.

Governor John Laurence Manning of South Carolina, ca. 1854.

By 1855, John L. Manning was a successful politician and wealthy absentee planter who was not yet forty years old. Following a rise in South Carolina state politics that included terms in both houses of the state legislature, Manning was elected as the 65th Governor, serving from 1852-1854. After the conclusion of his term in office, he set about making these improvements to Millford, possibly to better reflect its status as the residence of a former Governor and member of the elite class of wealthy planters. It’s also possible that Manning had higher political aspirations, like his late father who served in the United States House of Representatives, though they were never fully realized. 

Detail showing the locations of Manning’s plantations in Ascencion Parish, Louisiana from Persac’s Map, Plantations on the Mississippi River from Natchez to New Orleans, 1858.

John L. Manning’s source of wealth that allowed him to construct and furnish Millford, as well as make these improvements to its landscape, was profits from the sale of sugar grown in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. In 1835, Manning’s first wife, Susan Francis Hampton Manning, inherited a half-share of Houmas, a sugarcane plantation of more than 5,000 acres from the estate of her late father, Wade Hampton I, as well as the enslaved labor necessary to run it. Susan died in 1845 from complications from childbirth of her third child, and John L. Manning managed the Louisiana plantation on behalf of his children, who inherited it in accordance with the legal codes of the state. Manning later purchased a portion of the Louisiana property outright, and he continued to reap profits from them until the Civil War. Manning’s plantations produced more than 1,500 hogshead barrels of sugar annually, and during two years, production exceeded 2,000 barrels. The Civil War and the Emancipation of his enslaved work force of more than 600 individuals who labored for him on these plantations resulted in his financial ruin. 

Sally Bland Clarke Manning by G.P.A. Healy, ca. 1860. Private Collection. A companion portrait of John L. Manning from the same sitting is part of the CAHPT Collection.

The conclusion of Manning’s term as governor of South Carolina in 1854 meant that he could return to living at Millford full-time rather than in the state’s capitol of Columbia, about 50 miles west. Manning’s second wife, Sally Bland Clarke Manning, whom he married in 1848, and his six children were also living at Millford in 1855. After the conclusion of his term as Governor, Manning remained active in state politics as well as in the South Carolina militia, where he served as a Colonel and frequently traveled to review troops in different districts of the state and participate in military exercises. Much of the evidence for the landscape improvements discussed in this article can be found in letters that Sally wrote to her husband while he was away from the property. Her letters detail the progress of the various projects or include reports about the crops and the weather. The extant receipts related to the projects also outline the work that was undertaken and identify the individuals who performed it. These documents as well as period descriptions of the Millford further suggest that John L. Manning used the imposing mansion as well as the surrounding landscape to further manifest his wealth, status, and political prominence.

Pomaria Advertisement from the November 14, 1855 issue of The Edgefield Advertiser. Courtesy of Newspapers.com

The Summer Brothers and Pomaria Nursery

Manning’s source for the more than 100 ornamental trees that he purchased for Millford was Pomaria Nursery, the Newberry County nursery that was opened by horticulturalist William Summer (1815-1878) in 1840. From a young age, Summer was fascinated with pomology, the branch of science focusing on the cultivation of fruit trees, and he developed numerous varieties of fruit that were suitable for Southern orchards, including the Pomaria Greening and Aromatic Carolina apples as well as new variations of plum, strawberry, pear, and peach.  A childhood bout with polio made walking difficult, so William did not attend college like his brothers, instead focusing on the propagation of trees and scientific agriculture. 

William Summer, his brother Adam Summer, and Pomaria Nursery have been a subject of recent scholarship by southern landscape historians because the firm’s ledger books, broadsides, and catalogs from the 1860s and early 1870s are extant and help to illustrate the impact of the nursery on the Antebellum Southern landscape well beyond the Midlands of South Carolina.  The late garden historian, James R. Cothran, Jr., once wrote that Pomaria was “the first major nursery in the lower and middle South.”  

Broadside: “Catalogue of new and select roses. Grown & for sale by Summer & Crammond, Pomaria Nurseries,” 1850. South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina

In his scientific pursuits, William Summer corresponded with A.J. Downing, considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, as well as other notable landscape gardeners and horticulturalists in South Carolina, including Joel Poinsett and Rev. John Drayton, about his interests and pomological experiments.  Summer was assisted in his early endeavors at Pomaria by siblings, including his brother, Adam (1818-1866), who later moved to Florida in 1857. Just two years younger than John L. Manning, Adam Summer also attended South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) though he left after only two years. He served as South Carolina’s state printer and later combined his interest in horticulture and occupational skills as a printer, publishing several mid-19th century agricultural journals, including The Southern Agriculturalist (1853-56) co-edited with his brother.  He was also a published poet and a dandy with an eye for extravagance. 

Magnolia grandiflora. Image by Jalynn via Pixabay.

While William’s expertise was fruit trees, Adam Summer specialized in ornamental and exotic trees and shrubs, many of which were propagated at Ravenscroft, his Newberry County plantation adjacent to Pomaria.  The Summer brothers are credited with encouraging the widespread planting of the coastal native Magnolia grandiflora, “at every home in the state.” The tree, the most popular ornamental the nursery offered in the 1850s, was not common in upcountry South Carolina prior to that time, though it is now ubiquitous throughout the Southeastern United States. 

James Crammond, a native of Scotland, was first employed by Adam Summer at Ravenscroft Plantation as gardener, showing his skill at the propagation of ornamental flowers, especially roses. Many of the nursery’s catalogs from the years 1852-1856 list him as a co-proprietor, suggesting that he later acted in a greater managerial capacity for the business. According to one of Mrs. Manning’s letters, it was Crammond who came to Millford in the May of 1855 to set out the trees purchased several months earlier.  

In the 1850s, Pomaria Nursery’s principal offerings were ornamental plants and trees used for landscaping projects. By 1858, the nursery offered more than 1,000 varieties of plants and trees, and by 1860, that included more than 800 varieties of roses. Business was so successful that the Summers opened a 30-acre satellite location in the city of Columbia in 1861. Pomaria Nursery also had agents in other cities throughout the south from Hendersonville and Flat Rock, North Carolina, to Mobile and even New Orleans. The nursery supplied trees and ornamental shrubbery to many notable gardens during the years leading up to the Civil War. The growing network of railroads crossing the south also made transportation of trees and the delivery of mail orders possible.  Though the nursery remained in business until 1879, the Civil War exacted a heavy toll. Many of the nursery buildings in both Newberry and Columbia were burned, and the stock was pillaged by the Union Army in their march through the Midlands in the final months of the war.  

The gardens of the Hampton-Preston Mansion as depicted in a 1910 postcard. Courtesy of Columbia Home & Garden Magazine.

In addition to John L. Manning, other notable Pomaria clients in the Midlands included John and Caroline Hampton Preston of Columbia, who were known for their large urban garden surrounding the Blanding Street house known today as the Hampton-Preston Mansion.  Their four-acre garden contained magnolia, boxwood, camellias, tea olives, cedar trees, and other exotic species.  Caroline was the sister of John L. Manning’s late wife Susan, and her husband John Preston was also Manning’s business partner in the operation of the Louisiana sugar plantations from 1836 to 1847.  John and Susan Manning lived the first few years of their married life on the property while it was the residence of her widowed mother, Mary Cantey Hampton, so their garden was one he would have known well.  

Wade Hampton II, Manning’s brother-in-law, was another Pomaria client. Hampton’s 13,000-acre Millwood was known for its elaborate gardens and ornamental trees.  In 1844, reporter John B. Irving described Millwood’s entrance, writing, “the carriage road bordered by ever greens, traces its way thro’ an open lawn with here and there a shrub, or tree, contrasting agreeably with the dark verdue of the thicker groups of foliage immediately above the mansion.” Wade Hampton II’s neighbor Charles P. Pelham, the owner of Mill Creek Plantation, also made extensive purchases from the nursery for his own Richland County property. 

Manning’s 1855 invoice from Summer & Crammond. Box 5, Williams-Chesnut-Manning Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina.

Manning’s surviving receipt from the nursery documents his February 1855 purchase

of more than 100 ornamental trees for planting at Millford. A full transcription of the invoice is found at the bottom of this article. The purchase and placement of these trees suggests that Manning was attempting to create what was known in the era as a pinetum, a collection of various forms, colors, and textures presented in the landscape.  The trees that Summer & Crammond provided were native to Asia, South America, and the Western coast of the United States, including 16 Deoder cedars, 11 large Weeping Cypress trees, Norway spruce pines, silver cedars, Chilean arborvitaes, Irish junipers, Swedish junipers, Japonicas, Ginkos, and California Yews.     

An example of Alexander Knight’s invoice for work completed at Millford in June 1854. Box 5, Williams-Chesnut-Manning Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina.

While the trees were being planted, Manning’s enslaved labor force was constructing a new road and a stone bridge over Tavern Creek, a small narrow waterway that flowed through the property. A local free Black carpenter named Alexander Knight (1817-unknown) was also hired to construct a new fence.  Surviving invoices in the Manning papers indicate how many days Knight labored on the fence, receiving between twenty and thirty dollars per day as pay. Knight acknowledged payment by making his mark, an X, on the receipt.  The transactions were typically witnessed by another member of the Manning or Richardson family, who then countersigned below Knight’s mark. The 1850 Federal Census indicates that Alexander Knight, a cabinetmaker of mixed racial ancestry was residing in Sumterville (now the city of Sumter) in the same household as two other free Black craftsmen, carpenter Lafayette Georg and bricklayer William Georg. More research is being undertaken on this documented craftsman and his role at Millford.  

Photo of the Spring House at Millford. CAHPT Archives

By April 1855, the landscape projects were nearing completion. Sally Manning wrote to her husband on April 12, describing a walk around the property that she and a visiting friend had taken earlier that day: “We came down around the new road and came down by the bridge which is now completed and after the people help to clean and fix up the old castle for a day or two they will go on making the new road so that Alex may join the fence.” The “old castle” mentioned by Mrs. Manning was a reference to Millford’s gothic springhouse. While a springhouse does not appear on builder Nathaniel Potter’s ca. 1839 list of buildings constructed for Millford, it was completed by the time Virginia agronomist Edmund Ruffin visited the property on June 28, 1843, as he described the building in his diary on the day of his visit.  Located just below the mansion at the bottom of a hill, the springhouse was constructed atop a spring that was dammed to create a small reflecting pond.   

The following month, in May 1855, Sally noted in a letter to her husband that “Mr. Crammond came down again and brought trees from New York which he put out in a day and returned. I do not know what they are for the weather is too hot to walk over the place.”  This letter indicates that the trees Manning purchased in February were still being planted more than three months later. Some of these trees may have been planted along the road between the main house and the stable to its rear.  In another of her letters from this time period, Sally notes “the avenue is much more shaded.”

Later in the same May letter, Sally mentions the completion of the fence built by Alexander Knight, writing “The fence is finished and Alek thinks it will be to your satisfaction unless the bend which you left at his discretion does not suit you.” She goes on to describe further landscape work, noting that one of the enslaved men, Tim “has been weeding the grass regularly and Brown [Manning, JLM’s younger brother], advised him to begin to gather grass seed.”

In his reply to one of his wife’s letters, John L. Manning praised his wife’s management of the projects noting that he had included “nothing about our little affairs, the trees, grass & c. at Millford for I know that you will do everything that is proper in & on the premises & have everything to look a cheery & smiling welcome back to the best place in the world, home!”

Millford’s present landscape. CAHPT Image Archives.

With additional research including documentation of the current landscape at Millford, we will be able to determine how many of the trees purchased and planted in 1855 still survive, as well as their locations. Our continuing study of Millford’s landscape isn’t limited to John L. Manning’s era of ownership, but rather all periods of the property’s history. This approach allows us to better understand how each successive owner of Millford, from John L. Manning to Richard H. Jenrette, utilized and altered the landscape.  

  

Transcription of Summer & Crammond receipt, the original found in the Williams-Chesnut-Manning Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina

Govr. J.L. Manning.         [9 Feb. 1855]

             Bot. of Summer & Crammond

16 Deodar Cedars             

at 1.50 ea

24

11 Large Weeping Cypress 

2

22

10 Small         do.

1

10

6 Norway Spruce Pines    

1

6

5 Silver Cedars

1

5

3 Chilean Arborvitaes

2

6

2 Large Yews

1

2

2 Small   

.75

1.50

1 Juniper excelsa

1.50

1.50

2 Chinese Junipers

.75

1.50

2 Irish Junipers

.75

1.50

2 Swedish Junipers

.75

1.50

2 Juniperus sabina

1

2

2 Irish yews

1 ea

2

1 Pyramidal Cypress

.75

.75

1 Cupressus ericoides

1

1

1 C[upressus] thurifera

1

1

1 C[upressus] torulosa  

1

1

1 Golden Arborvitae

1.50

1.50

1 Aucuba Japonica

.75

.75

1 Mespilus Japonica

.75

.75

1 Euonymus fimbriatus

1

1

1 Japan Ginko tree

1

1

2 Large Japan Cedars 

at 3

6

$101.25

Trees yet to be planted

18 Japanese Cedars smaller sz

1.50

27

2 Chilean Pines

2

4

2 California Yews

1.50

3

                                                                                    $34

2 Weeks labor       

3/day

$36

Expenses of the visits to Milford

9

Freight paid on Mr. Davis’ ram

2

Freight on plans to Milford

3

$50

$185.55

9 Feby ’55  Rec’d payment  James Crammond

 

For further reading about Pomaria Nursery and the Summer brothers: 

Kibler, James E. (Editor), Taking Root: The Nature Writing of William and Adam Summer of Pomaria. University of South Carolina Press, 2017.