Tanglewood Plantation, once 'Cotton Ed' Smith's home, nears sale

Tanglewood Plantation is officially under contract, but a representative for the sellers said he can’t disclose the high bid until the sale is complete.

Rusty Denman, who assisted in the sale of the property, said hundreds of people attended an open house last weekend to get a look at the Lynchburg plantation that was once home to a six-time senator, as well as several other distinguished and respected leaders throughout the past two centuries.

“It’s been unbelievable,” Denman said. “We had 57 bids, which is just unheard of. I’ve never seen anything like it. All kinds of people came, and we had calls from Hawaii, California, Texas, all over the place.”

Because owners Daniel and Jessica Cothran needed to sell Tanglewood quickly, the house was not sold through the traditional real estate process. Instead, potential buyers were invited to an open house last weekend to inspect the property. Those who were interested in purchasing made an unsealed bid by 5 p.m. Sunday.

The suggested low bid was $265,000, but people were allowed to bid lower. None of the bids were legally binding.

On Sunday night, Denman began calling the list of 57 bidders from highest to lowest in a round-robin fashion. Traditionally, the process would have been over Sunday night, but because there were so many bidders, Denman said the first round of calls spilled over to Monday.

“You either become the high bidder or you drop out, and then you just keep doing the rounds of calls to those who stay in,” Denman said. “And we did get a high bidder. The house is under contract, and we should be closing on it soon.”

Tanglewood Plantation, located along Highway 341 in Lynchburg about 15 minutes from both Florence and Sumter, has its roots decades before the nation was even founded.

In 1747, King George II granted the land to Arthur Smith, who moved here from Smith Island, North Carolina. On its 4,500 acres, cotton flourished during the Antebellum era.

The cotton theme continued when Arthur’s great-grandson, Ellison DuRant Smith, was born there in 1864, toward the end of the Civil War. After attending University of South Carolina and graduating from Wofford, he grew steadily in position and fame, helping to organize the Farmer’s Protective Association and the Southern Cotton Association.

Ellison Smith served a stint in the SC House of Representatives and then was elected to the United States Senate in 1908. He held the office until 1944 -- the longest anyone had ever served continuously in the U.S. Senate up to that point in history -- and became known as Senator “Cotton Ed” Smith.

Though he commuted to Washington for almost 36 years, Tanglewood was forever his home, and he took countless dignitaries there to escape to the country, hunt and fish. Among them was President Teddy Roosevelt.

“That’s just one of many historical connections with Tanglewood,” Denman said. “When we started looking back and researching, we were amazed. Lieutenant Henry S. Farley, who fired the first shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter, has ties to Tanglewood. The list goes on and on. I’ve just been amazed by the amount of history there.”

This story was originally published October 17, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Tanglewood Plantation, once 'Cotton Ed' Smith's home, nears sale."