Austin Plantation was settled before the Revolutionary War by Nathaniel Austin, born about 1720 and died about 1800, and his wife, Agnes Dickinson. They had ten sons—Nathaniel Jr., Walter, Thomas, John, Francis, Dickinson, William, Thompson, Samuel, and Robert—and one daughter, Mary. Nathaniel Austin, a captain in the South Carolina Militia, and his sons served in the Revolutionary War. The first house stood a mile south near Gilder Creek and the family cemetery. A second house was built in 1786 one hundred yards east of this site. The present house was built in 1830 by William and Jane Collins Austin. Eight generations of Austins have lived on this land.