This week’s Spotlight is on Joe Hamilton owner of SS Hamilton Farms in Greenpond. Hamilton grew up in Colleton County. He attended Ivnenia Brown Elementary School in Greenpond and graduated from Colleton High School in 1970. This was the last segregated class of Colleton High School. After high school Hamilton enlisted in the Air Force. Hamilton says, “I went to McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, and I stayed there, cross trained for security and to be a supply person, which worked on my behalf, because I was introduced to the UNIVAC 1050-2 computer. It gave me a background with computers for design, drafting, and managing geographic information systems.” This also gave Hamilton a background in Civil Engineering. Hamilton is also an author with a book about his life about to go into publication.
SS Hamilton Farms is located on property that was once a part of Poca Sabo Plantation. The farm is named after Hamilton’s parents Steve and Sally Hamilton. The farm is a tree farm specializing in Loblolly Pine Trees. A part of the Longleaf Alliance Hamilton recently hosted a meeting of the alliance on the property. Hamilton explains, “We hosted this collaboration with the Longleaf Alliance and the National Wildlife Federation. The goal was to show landowners that someone who looked like them can use the various programs offered by the FSA (Farm Service Agency), the Department of Natural Resources, and the NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service). The Forestry Commission and various other programs are available to help farmers. Several landowners were invited and many of the agency representatives came to the meeting. The Longleaf Alliance had two representatives at the program.”
The program included a lunch catered by Hamilton’s wife Blanche and a tour of a small part of the property, a 10-acre tract of land just behind Hamilton’s house seven of it planted with 800 Loblolly Pine Trees and rest planted in Longleaf Pines which is a slower growing tree which produces an abundant amount of pine straw for harvesting. Hamilton says, “It was pretty rough terrain. I didn’t want anyone becoming ill, so I used a UTV Kubota in case someone had to expeditiously get back up here to the main house to meet an ambulance. I also had my tractor and with a dump trailer and three bales of hay covered with a shipping blanket for those who wanted to ride.” The meeting had an excellent turnout.
The farm is steeped in history, as aforementioned, originally a part of Poca Sabo plantation and owned by Dr. Thoms Lining. Lining actually signed over the property to one of his enslaved members, Stephen Cunningham. Stephen Cunningham is Hamilton’s great grandfather. Hamilton has the document that was signed to turn over ownership of the property. The plantation that Lining owned was just under 900 acres when it was signed over. “This was a massive piece of land compared to what we own right now.”, Hamilton says. This transpired as General William Tecumseh Sherman was marching the infamous March to the Sea. Many of the plantation owners were fleeing because Sherman was pretty brutal in that charge, as he was coming across the south, especially up in Port Royal and Beaufort area burning property in his path. To avoid the destruction, Lining signed over the plantation to one of his slaves. Many of the large landowners were releasing the property either to another plantation owner or to trusted enslaved person. After this juggernaut was over Lining was expected to return. Lining did not do that.
Hamilton is also taking care of his family, “I planted Longleaf Pines for my grandchildren. I have three grandsons and one granddaughter.”
I asked Hamilton where he would like to see the farm in 10 years. He said, “In 10 years, I will be 83 years old. I’m living a dream right now. In 10 years, my oldest grandson will be right at about 17 or 18 years old, my youngest grandchild, will be 10 years old. I would like to see a clear plan from my three adult children, one has an MBA, the other has a business degree from the Citadel, and another has a degree from USC, and my wife has a business degree. I’d like to see them formulate a plan of action for this property. I know what I would like to see, but I don’t want to impose that on them. I don’t want to rule them from the grave, If they in agreement collectively and say, “I really appreciate our dad with this tree farm. He it made his life, and he loved it. He would go for walks out there. He loved walking. He loved his grandchildren, running up and down the road and getting dirty. But this is just not our cup of tea. If they wanted to sell, sell it. Let’s split this thing, especially with my three children, if they’ve got something they want, if my wife and I were gone from this earth and they want to do that in under 10 years, I should do it. If they want to do it in five years, I should do it. But even with my easements, I want to make sure they are happy with the easements. I don’t want to block them out and sit and make them tree farmers. Because with the easement, I can make them a tree farmer. I could make you only grow our Loblolly Pine trees on 10 acres and five acres will be Longleaf Pines. I can state that I want it to stay that way for perpetuity. So, in 10 years, I like to see the tree farm more productive. I like to see my children more actively involved in it. I have a forest management plan, just like anyone’s business plan, it is evolving to the point where I am in this alliance with the National Wildlife Federation. I planted 800 long leaf pines that are not in my original forest management plan which is constantly being revived. I’d like to see my children take a more active role in the business.”
