EUTAWVILLE -- Her life was full.

She worked hard, persevered and gave to others in need.

She was the mother of nine children, became a widow at a young age and married again.

She was solely devoted to Jesus Christ and raised her children to put their faith in the Lord.

She led by example and was proud of her humble beginnings.

When 81-year-old Julia Desaussure Morton Hall passed away about three months ago, she not only left a void in the hearts of her family members but also in the Eutawville community.

It wasn't until after her death on April 28 that members of her family began to feel a deeper loss: Why hadn't they paid closer attention to their mother's stories? Why hadn't they recorded her childhood memories?

Hall was born and reared on Belvidere Plantation, a place that now lies " ... under the waters of the lake (Marion), too deep for any eye but that of memory to reach," writes Anne Sinkler Fishburne in the book "Belvidere: A Plantation Memory" (USC Press, Columbia, 1949).

"I don't want the memory of my mom to die. Belvidere was special to her," said 50-year-old Sylvia Jean Goodwin of Orangeburg. Goodwin is Hall's seventh child.

"When I think about it now, I think of all the things I wished I had asked her but didn't," Goodwin said. "We've lost a lot of history now that she's gone."

Belvidere: At home

Hall, a daughter of Eliza Desaussure and Willis Ladson, was raised by her grandparents, Lewis and Rosina Desaussure, in a rented house at Belvidere Plantation, ancestral home of the Sinkler family near Eutawville.

Fishburne writes that 185 African-Americans lived at Belvidere around 1940.

"Some living in small white-washed houses in 'the street' and some in comfortable little settlements on the banks of the Santee (River) which ran through the lower part of the plantation known as 'Dorchee,'" Fishburne wrote.

Hall, along with hundreds of families -- both black and white -- was forced to move from familiar surroundings by 1940 as a result of the largest land-clearing endeavor in U.S. history -- the 27-month construction of the Santee Cooper Hydroelectric and Navigation Project. The project, created by the S.C. Public Service Authority in 1934, resulted in the formation of lakes Marion and Moultrie, after 177,000 acres of swamp and timberland were cleared, washing away hundreds of years of history.

Hall was 13 when she and her family moved. By that time, her grandparents had passed away and she'd attended school for only a year.

"She said it was sad when they had to move from Belvidere," Goodwin said. "She was leaving everything she knew as stable and not knowing what was going to happen next."

Hall's family was the last to move from the site.

It was around the same time that the Sinkler family, who for generations knew Belvidere and the neighboring "sister" plantation of Eutaw as the family's home places, began to dismantle the 140-year-old dwelling. The two plantations were separated by Eutaw Creek, and most of the families who worked at Eutaw lived on the "Belvidere side" of the creek.

Both oral and written accounts tell of the Sinklers relocating the dozens of families at Belvidere to an area of pine forests. Some stories about Eutawville's history refer to the new settlement as "Little Belvidere."

As recently as March 3, 2008, when the waters of Lake Marion were unusually low, a group of approximately 50 individuals -- each of whom had some connection to Belvidere -- made a pilgrimage to the original plantation site, said Harriet Sinkler Little, 72, of Summerville.

Hall, along with Little's brother, William "Sink" Henry Sinkler V, 70, of Eutawville, helped organize the pilgrimage. The siblings' third set of great-grandparents built Belvidere around 1800, and their great-great-grandfather built Eutaw in 1808.

Both Little and Sinkler are proud that Hall took part in the pilgrimage. They say Hall spoke about the dismantling of her childhood home, which was hauled off and rebuilt for her parents, Robert "Dave" and Eliza Desaussure Montgomery.

Because Hall's childhood home had a brick foundation and was closest to the "big house," it didn't take long for her to recognize an area of weathered bricks scattered among sandy soil.

Hall had returned home, and she was proud.

"It excited her that she could see the ground that the house was on," Goodwin said. "This is where Mama started. This is where she learned to persevere. This is where she learned to keep going."

Belvidere: At work

"Mama used to always say, 'Work as unto the Lord,'" Goodwin said.

Hall's grandfather, Lewis, took care of the garden and grew vegetables that were sent to the kitchen, and "Mama would want to do whatever he did," Goodwin said.

One of her grandfather's duties was to "summon workers from the field," Goodwin said. He used a conch shell and blew it like a horn. In time, he passed the conch shell to Hall. It remains in the hands of her family.

Hall's grandmother, Rosina, wouldn't allow her to attend school until she was 12. Instead, she worked, and her grandmother taught her the art of quilting, Goodwin said.

In 1930, Hall's parents, Robert "Dave," 23, and Eliza, 21, also resided at Belvidere, according to U.S. Census records. Dave Montgomery worked as a "farm laborer," and Hall's mother was a cook for "Miss Hattie" (Harriet Jerman Palmer Sinkler) at Eutaw.

Little recalled that during last year's pilgrimage, Hall reminisced about the times her mother, after she finished a day's work at Eutaw, yelled for someone to bring the boat so she could cross "the creek" to her home at Belvidere. Hall made sure that the boat reached her mother and that her mother made it home.

"She just worked hard all of her life, and she did get her work ethic from there (Belvidere)," said Hall's second-born child, the Rev. B. Ann Morton-Thompson, 60, a chaplain in Columbia.

After life at Belvidere, Hall worked as a live-in housekeeper and nanny in New York, Morton-Thompson said. Her three oldest children were born in New York, and her younger six were born in Eutawville, she said.

"She was determined to get her education, and she was determined that we would, too," Goodwin said.

In 1972, after attending night school as part of the public Adult Education program, Hall graduated from Roberts High School in Holly Hill. She was 45.

Over the years, Hall managed a community catfish cleaning business, performed textile and factory work in Charleston and Orangeburg, worked as a custodian for Sears at Northwoods Mall in North Charleston, served as a substitute teacher at St. James Elementary School in Eutawville and worked as an in-home "sitter" for the elderly.

"Everybody knew Julia for what she did for others," Goodwin said. "I can remember a time when she would talk about how when she and her children didn't have and others gave to her, and then at some point she turned around and did the same thing for others -- and I just didn't want that to die."

Belvidere: At rest

"She had fond memories of Belvidere and loved talking about it," Morton-Thompson said. "I know it wasn't a bad place for her."

"Some people may think of it (growing up on a plantation) as a negative time, but Mama always talked about it positively. It was a good time in her life," Goodwin added.

Over the years, Hall and members of the Sinkler family kept in touch through visits and correspondence.

She was indeed a family friend, Sinkler said.

In January 1941, daughters of the late Charles St. George Sinkler and his sister Caroline Sidney Sinkler (the Sinklers who last lived at Belvidere) donated a plot of land, within a safe distance from Lake Marion's rising waters, for the purpose of reinterring generations of African-Americans buried at the Belvidere Plantation cemetery.

Goodwin said her mother "feared they didn't get all of the graves out because they didn't have time to do it."

The Sinklers' generosity in donating land to relocate the cemetery and a nearby parcel to erect a church "was something that made Mama really proud," Goodwin said.

Now, her mother is resting, she said.

Hall passed away on April 28 surrounded by her family at an area hospital after a brief illness.

Her life, and the lives of dozens and dozens before her, began at a plantation ... and their final resting place is at a cemetery that bears the same name: Belvidere.

For Julia Hall, Belvidere came full circle.

T&D Correspondent Martha Rose Brown can be reached by e-mail at marfawose@aol.com. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

'Plantation Cookbook' being compiled

"Just as the Lord told Moses to tell the Israelites to continue to tell the story, we've got to continue to tell the story," said the Rev. B. Ann Morton-Thompson, daughter of the late Julia Desaussure Morton Hall who grew up at Belvidere Plantation.

Sylvia Jean Goodwin, another of Hall's daughters, said, "Our church as well as our community has a tremendous impact on the history of South Carolina. Many of the stories have never been told. Recently, many historical events relative to plantation life have been brought to the forefront. Plantations such as Belvidere, Porchee, Eutaw, Walnut Grove, The Rocks and Walworth, to name a few, and their residents were instrumental in history. In an effort to display the richness of our history and heritage, we are soliciting help to create a 'Plantation Cookbook.'"

The purpose of the cookbook is not only to provide unique combinations of favorite family recipes but also to honor or remember those who made the recipes extra special, she said.

Stories, photos, recipes and home remedies will be included, and organizers are depending on input from the local community.

"Help us tell the story about the rich history of our community," Goodwin said.

She asked that submissions be turned in by Sunday, Aug. 30, to either her, the Rev. Charles Goodwin, Rebecca Goodwin, Carrie Morton or Frank Morton Jr.

For more information about the "Plantation Cookbook," e-mail sylviagoodwin@bellsouth.net.

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