By: Melissa Drummond
Opinion Piece
My name is Melissa Drummond, and I am writing to publicly express my opposition to the proposed Big Ferguson Duke Energy project that would result in placing a substation and transmission lines through my community. I have already sent multiple letters to Duke, but they have yielded generic and unproductive responses. There are many points on which I oppose this plan, but the focus of this letter is of a personal nature.
My family history is deeply rooted in the Green Pond community. I have been somewhat of a lay historian on this, collecting first-hand accounts from my father and other family members and writing down the stories. I have kept these records in a handwritten book with hand-drawn maps of the property as it was in past years. The microfiche and books at the genealogy department at Spartanburg County Library have provided me with additional records of the transfer of property to and within the Drummond family.
My dad grew up here, and he passed down a strong sense of value and continuity regarding the land as it relates to family. The first Drummond to settle in this area was Ephraim Drummond, 1765-1841.
According to the Deed Abstracts at the Spartanburg County Library, Ephraim Drummond purchased 320 acres in 1810 and another 500 acres recorded in 1814, spanning the area around the Tyger River and Ferguson Creek. Ephraim continued to acquire land in the area from other sources in the early 1800s.
From my dad, I learned that Ephraim was a farmer. He believes that he may have grown tobacco, cotton, and corn. My father reported that at this time, there were still a few Cherokee Indians in the mountains’ edge near Travelers Rest. Ephraim’s grandson, Pierce Drummond, is buried in the Green Pond Cemetery. Pierce married Nora Arnold and is my great-grandfather. In 1896-1900, Pierce built what my family called “the old home place,” which is in this community and still inhabited by members of my family. Pierce owned a sawmill, cut all the timber off the land, dried the wood, and planned and built the whole house by himself except for the chimneys. Prior to finishing the house, the family lived across the road in what they called “the old house hill house.” Their water came from a natural spring that is still there. The spring comes through a hole in a stone that Pierce had chiseled after noticing that there was water seeping through the ground around it. I recount this family history because it has been handed down through multiple generations so that our family feels connected to the past and to the land that has been in our family for generations.
Regarding the flow of water on our family’s land, in 2009, my father explained it like this:
Stones’ Branch is the name of the creek that starts [on our family’s property] from an underground spring. It got its name from the Stone family that lived in this area in the late 1700s or early 1800s. They were hatters. The creek is currently on Drummond and Dudley land, with a small portion on one side that belongs to the Vaughn family. The creek runs into Little Ferguson Creek, which runs into Ferguson Creek near the Price House and then into South Tyger River, then Tyger River, then to Broad River, and eventually into the Congaree River (through Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie), becoming the Cooper River leading into the bay in Mt. Pleasant and into the Atlantic Ocean.
This explanation is one of many examples of the way my dad was able to highlight how interconnected we all are through the natural world.
As the Drummond family grew, the land was subdivided many times by its descendants. As you can imagine, the pieces have gotten smaller and smaller, and when my father passed in 2020, our family land was significantly reduced. I treasure it for its intrinsic value as well as for its long history with my family.
The undeveloped natural resources of rural land provide many benefits to me as well as to the community at large. I often walk with my dog and appreciate the gifts of God in their natural form. These natural resources are under threat by the proposed Duke Energy Big Ferguson Project.
Duke’s proposed map for transmission lines would cut through the middle of family land. This will reduce its natural and aesthetic value, and when the time comes for me to follow family tradition and pass the land along to my sons, it will significantly reduce its usability for them to build their own houses. This cuts into the heart of the values that my father taught me and would cause me great sorrow.
I can’t overemphasize the degree to which this proposed Duke Big Ferguson Project troubles me. Though Duke states that it considers historical, cultural, and environmental factors as well as input and concerns of residents in their Study Area, I have not found this to be the case in the proposed Big Ferguson Project and the community’s outcry against it. I don’t believe they have any concept of the disruption and destruction they are generating. That’s why I wanted to share my personal thoughts and story. There are many, many more stories in every family residing in Green Pond and Switzer. I strongly urge Duke to relocate its project to an already industrialized area that won’t cut through anyone’s personal and historically significant property.
Sincerely, Melissa Drummond
Author: Tracy Sanders
