Mulberry Grove Plantation, located approximately 2 miles northeast, was one of the most historic of the old Savannah River plantations. In early Colonial days, mulberry trees were cultivated there for use in Georgia's silk industry, and later it became one of the state's leading rice plantations. At the end of the Revolution, the plantation, which had belonged to Lieutenant Governor John Graham, a Royalist, was granted by the State of Georgia to Major General Nathanael Greene as a reward for his military services. Greene was residing there at the time of his death on June 12, 1786. In 1793 Eli Whitney, who was the tutor of the Greene children, invented the cotton gin there, and the following year a large ginning machine was erected at the plantation, where its foundation still stands.