Frederick Charles Hans Bruno Poellnitz, born in 1754 in Gotha, Germany, had been a chamberlain to King Frederick the Great of Prussia before coming to America in 1782. Known as Baron Poellnitz, he lived in New York City for nearly eight years before moving four miles west of here on the Pee Dee River. He exchanged ideas with George Washington about farming projects and equipment. In 1790 he acquired the 2,991-acre plantation called Ragtown, located four miles west, in exchange for about 22 acres in Manhattan, N.Y. Tradition holds that the deeds for the transaction were drawn in Alexander Hamilton’s law office. At Ragtown he continued his agricultural experiments until his death in 1801, after which he was buried on the plantation.