An exceptional original signed 1839 South Carolina land survey and descriptive plat certificate prepared by renowned Deputy Surveyor Absalom Roberts Able (1793–1859) for John Rinehart, documenting a 758-acre tract on historic Clouds Creek in Edgefield District, South Carolina (now Saluda County).
Dated November 15, 1839, this remarkable manuscript is far more than a routine land survey. It carefully documents the boundaries and chain of title for a large estate assembled from multiple colonial-era Royal land grants, preserving the history of the property from the British colonial period through the early nineteenth century.
"Pursuant to the request of John Rinehart I have surveyed the above delineated Tract of Land containing Seven Hundred and Fifty Eight Acres situated in Edgefield District... granted by several original or parts of original Grants... The part marked A is a part of a tract of 350 acres originally granted unto Thomas Green the 9th day of Nov. 1774... The part marked B is considered to have been a grant or part of a grant originally made to John Dunkin, the land called the Cotney Land..."
Signed:
"Surveyed Nov. 15th, 1839"
A. R. Able, D.S. (Deputy Surveyor)
The survey is signed by Absalom Roberts Able (1793–1859), one of nineteenth-century Edgefield District's most respected civil engineers and deputy surveyors. Family histories describe Able as an "expert Civil Engineer and Surveyor... whose services were secured whenever lines were to be established in Court litigations." His work helped define property boundaries throughout the district, making signed examples of his surveys increasingly sought after by collectors of South Carolina history.
The survey was prepared for John Rinehart (also Rhinehart/Reinhardt), an established German-American landowner whose family settled along Clouds Creek by at least 1810. The Rinehart family became one of the area's long-standing agricultural families, and this survey captures their landholdings during South Carolina's formative antebellum years.
One of the manuscript's most important features is its detailed explanation of the tract's colonial origins.
The survey identifies the property as being assembled from several earlier grants, including:
This creates a direct documentary link between South Carolina's colonial land system and the ownership patterns of the early Republic.
The surveyed tract lies on Clouds Creek, a branch of the Little Saluda River in what is now Saluda County, South Carolina.
This same property later became part of the community surrounding Hare's Mill, one of the area's best-known nineteenth-century mills and an important local landmark that served generations of residents. The survey therefore documents the landscape before the establishment of the community that would become known as Hare's Mill.
Clouds Creek itself occupies a significant place in American history. Only a short distance from this property occurred the infamous Cloud's Creek Massacre on November 17, 1781, one of the most brutal engagements of the Revolutionary War's Southern Campaign. Loyalist forces under Major William "Bloody Bill" Cunningham surprised Patriot militia commanded by Captains James Butler Sr. and Sterling Turner after heavy rains rendered the Patriots' muskets ineffective. Approximately twenty-eight Patriot soldiers were killed in what remains one of South Carolina's best-known Revolutionary War atrocities. A South Carolina Historical Marker today commemorates the event near the surveyed lands.
This manuscript therefore connects colonial South Carolina, the Revolutionary War, the settlement of Edgefield District, and the later Hare's Mill community in a single surviving document.
The manuscript identifies numerous neighboring landowners, providing an exceptional genealogical snapshot of the Clouds Creek community in 1839, including:
Together these names document the network of families who shaped the early history of Edgefield District.
A superb and highly researched South Carolina manuscript combining colonial land grants, early settlement, Revolutionary War history, genealogy, and the later development of Hare's Mill—a museum-worthy survivor documenting nearly a century of South Carolina history in a single signed survey.