Fairmount Plantation
Home of Cornelius Tobin near Blackville, South Carolina
   
 Cornelius Tobin emigrated from Kilkenny County, Ireland, to South Carolina in the 1780's and built his home in the area that today is in the town of Blackville.   Mr. Tobin named his home and plantation Fairmount.  He became a substantial planter and landowner and returned to Ireland in 1800 and brought his wife, Judith, and sons John and Daniel, to America.  Judith died soon thereafter.  Cornelius Tobin served as a representative in the South Carolina General Assembly from Winton District 1800 - 1802.  He died at his plantation home in 1832.  After his death, his home was purchased by the Revered Darling Peeples.  The Reynolds family was the last to occupy the Fairmount house which was demolished in 1926.

  
 In the book Meet Your Grandfather, written by General Johnson Hagood,  a description of the house is found which had been written by Mr. Tobin's great-granddaughter 125 years after his death.  "At last I have been to Blackville!  I have seen the home of Cornelius Tobin, or what is left of it.  It was a beautiful place B wide piazza with four columns; most beautifully proportioned rooms and halls; paneled wainscoating with beautiful trim in every room.  The ceilings are bordered with the same carved trim; beautiful wood mantels like those in old colonial houses in Charleston. There are the remains of an extensive garden, with a circle of mock orange trees surrounded by cedars.@
 

 
The house and gardens are shown in the photographs above.  These photographs were found in 1947 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

 Information for this article was gleaned from the book Meet Your Grandfather by General Johnson Hagood and research by Everette Stanley McDonald.