Possum Point Plantation extended from Broad Creek to the Atlantic Ocean and was bordered by Point Comfort to the west and Shipyard to the east.
In 1883 W.D. Brown sold 165 acres of Possum Point Plantation to Josiah Wright for $1.00 an acre. The parcel eventually passed to the Highsmith Lumber Company and in 1949 to Thorne and Loomis.
Trinkley, Chicora Research Series 88, Archaeological Survey of Sea Pines Senior Living Center Tract
"The Browns (W.D.) had bought Cherry Hill, Possum Point and Mathew's Field and they soon opened a general store that eventually would become the island post office..."
Holmgren, Virginia C., Hilton Head, A Sea Island Chronicle, p. 118
"Both William and Samuel Fickling resided on Hilton Head in 1798....They may have sold their property at Possum Point and Shipyard before secession, as the map prepared for Sherman in 1861 puts the name "Wills" at Possum Point. The Navy map of 1873 wrote 'Wells'. Either could be in error. The 465 acres of Possum Point between the public road and the beach were called Fickling's at confiscation and bought by W.D. Brown, in April 1876, along with adjacent property totaling 1000 acres. The Federal government recorded Brown's bid of $150 as the highest offered. Just a year before his murder, Brown sold the 465 acre Fickling plot for $10,000 to Roy Rainey. The rest went in plots of 100 to 165 acres, all eventually picked up by Thorne and Loomis."
Holmgren, p. 127
"In the post-Revolutionary period the Stoneys were easily the Island's largest landowners... James and John Stoney also owned 1000 acre Possum Point..."
Peeples, Robert, Tales of Ante Bellum Hilton Head Island Families, p. 4
"As early as 1798 William and Samuel Fickling lived on Hilton Head Island, Samuel's wife being Elizabeth Davant who apparently inherited 1000 acre Possum Point...Their heirs still owned portions in 1861, all lost to the Direct Tax Commission and unredeemable."
Peeples, p. 12
As early as 1783 the 323 acres of Lot 31 of Bayley’s Barony was known as Possum Point Plantation, taking the name from the natural bluff overlooking Broad Creek. It had been leased by planter Robert Richards but was purchased by planter James Davant who willed it to his daughter, Lydia (1780-1824) who in 1798 has married planter Thomas Webb (1769-1816). She sold Possum Point to Samuel Fickling, husband of her sister, Elizabeth Davant, who had inherited adjoining Lot 38.
Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names (Before the Contemporary Development), p. 34
