America's First Tea Plantation was in Piedmont

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

South Carolina loves tea, and some of the thanks to that devotion can be traced to a tea plantation in Piedmont in the early-mid 19th century. 

The Piedmont Historical Preservation Society offered information and highlights on the topic Sunday.

Dr. Junius Smith, a former shipping magnate, planted the first tea plantation near Piedmont in the Golden Grove community in 1848 as an experiment in cultivation of the plant in the Upstate. Failed shipping endeavors led to Smith’s attempt to end the importation of tea from England and instead grow it locally.

Smith brought a lifetime of business experience to the area at the age of 70, where he relied on established economic partners to sell the tea nuts, seed and plants. His prospect was aided by property which included a rail line which split his plantation, which also grew other agricultural products. 

His burgeoning empire was cut short in 1853 after an intruder attacked Smith, rendering wounds which proved fatal. It would be another 133 years before commercial tea production returned to South Carolina at the American Tea Plantation in Charleston.