What's in a name?

Why Stockhaven? Many people have said to me, “I like the name. Why did you name your business that?” It has some history and an interesting story behind it.

In 1864, Major General W. T. Sherman conducted what is known at the “Savannah Campaign”. Most of us here in the South know it as the March To The Sea. Before the March, South Carolina had suffered mostly along the coast and, with the exception of meager rations because of cut-off ports and railroads, was generally untouched.

When Sherman left Atlanta on November 12, 1864, he instructed each brigade to form a party of foragers, called “bummers.” They were to take all necessary provisions required for the journey. 64,000 men marched across Georgia and South Carolina for a month, leaving a path of destruction, capturing Savannah on December 10. There are many stories of houses and property left untouched because of returned kindness, but most of the “bummers” smashed and burned what they could.

Now, what does this have to do with “Stockhaven”? My grandfather, Robert Maury Furtick, was born in 1896 in the farm house that we use as an office. This is a beautiful pre-civil war dwelling that has been remodeled several times. The beams under the floor are ax-hewn and the home is still quite sound. Before passing away, my grandfather told us the story as his father and grandfather experienced it. As Sherman came through, news of his passing was spread by those who were running ahead. So, just before the skirmish line passed through our area, they knew what was coming.

In front of the farm house was, and still is, a 50-acre field. In the early winter of 1864, it would have been quite bare and empty. As a person looks across this field, you can see the bottom of fence-posts on the opposite side, giving the appearance of a flat, open area. What is unusual is the fact that, near the back of the field, is a large round depression. The land rises up toward the lip of the depression, then forms a bowl of probably 4 or 5 acres. When I was a kid and we row-cropped this field, I was amazed to watch a tractor or combine disappear in the middle of the field. As it dipped into the depression, the sound was muffled and went away as well.

Anyway, back to the story. Before the troops arrived, my great-great-grandfather instructed one of the farm workers, possibly slaves, to take the majority of the livestock into the hole to protect them. My father has told me that the depression held water in the 1940’s, before subsoiling, so it probably held water back then as well. This would have allowed them to stay there quietly for a number of days. I can just imagine, as the troops arrived, my great-great-grandfather telling them, “Well, take what you need. All we’ve got is that scrawny-lookin’ chicken and a few eggs.”

The story ends well, though. The troops were fed and ate on the wide-sweeping porch, probably gazing out across the field where a huge bounty lay hidden. They continued on their way and the Furtick family was able to survive the winter of 1864 thanks to a safe haven for the livestock. The war ended and the country returned to work.

This field is now planted with trees. You can no longer view the depression from a distance, but it’s there. I’ve been told by geologists that it’s a moraine left by a glacier. Others have told us that it’s where a meteor hit. I don’t know, but in a land as flat as any, that hole is as out of place as a mountain.

So, when you think of Stockhaven, remember the ingenuity of a dirt-farmer in hard times. We like to think we still have some of that in us today.