Theodosia

    Theodosia Burr was the very beautiful daughter of Aaron Burr, the third vice-president of the United States.  Theodosia met and fell in love with Joseph Alston, a handsome young attorney and rice planter from South Carolina.   They were married and Theodosia became the mistress of a large plantation in Georgetown and an estate in Charleston.  Joseph Alston became the Governor of South Carolina.  Theodosia and her husband had one son who died at ten years of age of fever.  Theodosia didn't take this well.  Her father was having problems of his own.  Having once been the vice president and a well known attorney, his life was now in shambles.  He had been in a duel and had made some bad land deals.  Theodosia was not well and her husband thought a visit to her father would do her good.  So with a heavy heart, he put his wife aboard the ship, the Patriot, and watched it set sail.  The voyage was only supposed to last six days, but the Patriot never reached its destination.  Night after night and day after day Theodosia's husband would be at the dock in Georgetown and her father would be at the dock in New York, waiting for news.  No news ever came.  The ship was never found.  Visitors to Brookgreen Gardens and to Huntington State Park have said they felt her presence searching for her husband and son.  Perhaps she is trying to return home to The Oaks.  Theodosia's disappearance is still a coastal mystery.

The Oaks Plantation is a part of Brookgreen Gardens
located off highway US 17, 16 miles north of Georgetown.

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