THE AIKENS

 

Born in 1779, William Aiken was one of a group of eighteen siblings and cousins, most of them born in Co. Antrim in Ireland, who settled in Fairfield Co., S.C., after a brief sojourn in Pennsylvania, in the late 1700s.

Their fathers, three brothers of Scottish ancestry, left Ireland with their families at different times from about 1775 onwards. They had spent their early life near Ballymena in west Antrim, where the family had lived for the fifty years since William Loyd Aiken (or Akin) moved there from Scotland about 1725.

 

James Aiken, the middle brother of the three, was the last to arrive in the United States. He landed at Charleston and went directly to join the rest of the Aikens in Fairfield Co. (the older brother, Walter, had moved on to Guilford Co. in North Carolina by this time). 

 

James brought with him his wife Elizabeth Reid, and a family of two girls and five boys, the youngest of whom had been born in Ireland about 1787, when James was 54 (his wife was ten years younger).

The William who features here was James's son, and was about ten when the emigration took place. With the help of the family network at Milling Crossroads in the Winnsboro area, he became a young entrepreneur and, by the time his father died in 1798, had built up a respectable trading business.

 

He soon moved his business interests to Charleston, where he specialized in cotton broking. In December 1801 he married Henrietta Wyatt, a member of a distinguished local merchant family. 

 

As his broking business prospered, he began to extend his property interests, beginning with his main residence at 456 King Street, which he had purchased from the Mackie family in 1811. His portfolio eventually included an entire block in the Market area, buildings on Green Street, now part of the College of Charleston campus, and the Aiken-Rhett House, which became the principal residence of his only surviving child William Jr., a future governor of South Carolina.

 

William Sr. became president of the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company in 1827 and was involved in its phenomenal growth so that within a decade it operated the longest stretch of railway line anywhere in the world. Sadly, William died prematurely in a carriage accident in 1831, and his son was responsible for most of the major additions to the King St. house, including a ballroom and a large carriage house. 

In 1863 the house was sold to the South Carolina Railroad Company for $50000.  Extensively damaged in the earthquake of 1886, it was acquired in 1899 by Southern Railroad who moved one of the historic rooms in its entirety to its new executive offices in Washington DC.

 

In 1964 it was designated a National Historic Landmark, and in 1978 Southern deeded it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, who also used it as a regional administration office. It was purchased in 2000 by local developers Patrick Properties, who have restored it as an events venue. The interesting garden maze has also been restored.

 

The Aiken Rhett House was built in 1817 for John Robinson, a merchant who later lost most of his shipping fleet at sea. It was acquired in the late 1820s by William Aiken Sr. William's death in 1831 resulted in the takeover of his properties by his only surviving child William Aiken Jr., born in 1806. 

 

The 25-year-old lavished attention on the Elizabeth Street property, as befitted a man with political ambitions and unlimited means (his plantation at Jehosee grew to the point where 700 slaves were employed there by 1850).

 

With his wife Harriet Lowndes, he made extensive changes to the house's layout, moving the front entrance, adding a Greek Revival emphasis to the new hallway, and adding an extension. An art gallery was later created on the first floor.

 

William Aiken Jr. became governor of South Carolina in 1844 and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from 1851 to 1857. He died in North Carolina in 1887. 

 

William Aiken Jr.'s only child Henrietta married Andrew Burnett Rhett, who became head of the South Carolina Railroad Company, which had been founded by William Aiken Sr. Rhett added his name and fortune to those of his wife.

 

Descendants continued to live in the house well into the 20th. century, when it was eventually acquired by the Charleston Museum, and (in 1995) taken over by the Historic Charleston Foundation.