History of Sunnyside Plantation & Townsend Mikell

I. Jenkins Mikell had numerous children throughout his four marriages. In each of his marriages, he followed the tradition of using the wife’s surname for his children’s first or middle names. For his second marriage, he married a distant relative, Amarinthia Jenkins Townsend (yikes!) He and Amarinthia combined their last two names for their son "Townsend Jenkins Mikell." 
**Thankfully, this tradition actually made my research a lot easier, when it came to tracing through the many generations, wives, and children. 
​Townsend was born in 1840. He continued his family business as a plantation owner, and built his own plantation house between 1870-1880 on a small island within Store Creek. His plantation was named Sunnyside.
The style of his home is a blend of elements from both his mother's and father's family homes. While it is still a plantation house, it has a unique French mansard roof that is topped by a cupola. The cupola is similar to the one on nearby Bleak Hall Plantation, which is the family home of his mother and also where Townsend Mikell was born.

Out front, a small cannon rests near the steps of the house and was found in the South Edisto River. Family legend says that it was either a Revolutionary War canon -- or it once belonged on a pirate ship.

Entering through the front door, there is a central hallway flanked by rooms on each side featuring a decorated floor at the entry and triangular patterned beadboard ceiling in a front room. A full porch extends across three sides of the home and an addition was added onto the back.

Interior:

Rooftop view:

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The Foreman's House & The Notebook

On the property there are several outbuildings including a foreman's house, commissary, kitchen, a long weatherboard barn with tabby foundation and the tabby foundation of a cotton gin that was in operation in 1882 and possibly earlier.
Most notably, the foreman's house was used in the movie The Notebook as Noah's dad's home (Sam Shephard). The building has since been restored. 

Townsend Mikell was barely 21 when the Civil War broke out. While all the women and elderly were evacuated from Edisto Island, he later described his interesting experience of attempting to stay with his father and defend the island. 

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