Cayce Historical Museum

While it may sound like a Disney channel program, the legend of Emily Geiger who delivered a secret message from General Nathanael Greene to General Thomas Sumter in 1781 is compelling. While she had ties to Newberry, Fairfield, and Lexington, her capture at Fort Granby is what is honored at the Cayce Museum. Lore goes that when the British detained her and went for a Tory matron to search her, she memorized the message, ate it, and with no message on her person was subsequently released. She was later able to deliver the message verbally to General Sumter. In 1765, two Camden, SC merchants built a trading store on the Cherokee Trade Path near present day Cayce. When the Revolutionary War came to the South, the British wanted to control the South Carolina Backcountry. To do so they had to insure both their communication and provisioning lines. This trading post was seen as a strategic point because it sat on a main road and near a ferry crossing over the Congaree River. In 1780, the British seized the trading post and turned it into Fort Granby. The next year two battles were fought to take it by American Patriots. General Thomas Sumter’s first siege to take the fort failed in February 1781. A second siege was successful and Lt. Colonel Henry Lee (Light Horse Harry Lee) took the fort on May 15, 1781. The fort then changed hands two more times. Fort Granby was occupied again by the British briefly on July 2-4, 1781, by Lord Rawdon as he retired from his relief mission to Ninety-Six. However, on July 4, 1781, General Greene, on his way from Winnsboro to overtake Rawdon, reoccupied the post for the Americans. The structure later became a family home for the Cayce family from 1817-1920. The Cayce Museum’s exterior is a replica of this structure. In addition, the museum has on display a tea table supposedly owned by General Lord Charles Cornwallis, the overall commander of British troops in the South during the Revolutionary War. When he abandoned much of his baggage train, including this table, to chase after Nathanael Greene, an American soldier brought it back to the Cayce area and it passed by marriage to the Cayce family. Currently this table is on loan at the Cayce Historical Museum from McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina. Another highlight of the Cayce Historical Museum is its extensive collection of indigenous artifacts. Many Native Americans joined the fight on both sides of the American Revolution