Remnants of Orange Grove Plantation House towering in majestic splendor above woodlands adjacent to the Savannah River, near historic Johnsons Landing, are the huge columns of a typical Southern Mansion.

These columns, remnants of the manor house of Orange Grove Plantation, bear silent testimony to the eras of 1800, when elegant plantation homes dotted areas along the majestic river. This William Walker Brookes home is identified as an ancestral home of the late Mrs. Harriet Brookes Lawton (Mrs. Sam Lawton), mother of the late Iverson Brookes Lawton, Camille Cunningham Lawton, and Malcolm Lawton, of Waco, Texas; also the grandmother of Camille C. Sharp (Mrs. Don C.)

Built in the early 1800's, Orange Grove Plantation stood just a few miles from the Savannah River and its residents could hear the river boat's whistle as it made the run from Augusta to Savannah. "It was standing upon the verandah, as a little boy six years of age, that William Walker Brookes looked out into the night and saw flames piercing the black shadows as they leaped aloft, devouring many homes upon neighboring plantations that vied with Orange Grove in beauty. Sherman and his men were on their march to the sea."

It was also here that Harriett Brookes wrote in her Journal on April 6, 1872 when she was 12 years of age, that "She had not been down there (Orange Grove) long before the war broke out. We were busy at that time you may be sure.    Mother got a good many of the servants and went packing up the things; she buried barrels of sugar and syrup and she and Father buried the gold in a hole where the tree had blown up. Then Father got together all of his cattle and had them driven to Jasper and he went there him­self. Well, it was not long before the Yankees made their appear­ance. They came in the morning after we had eaten breakfast."

Orange Grove survived the ravages of the war but was burn­ed about 1915. The tall brick columns are all that remain of its glorious past.