Sodmasters – Quality Turf Farm

Following the War of 1812 Joseph McKee White set out with his family and a few workers from his home in South Carolina traveling through central Georgia on his way toward Mississippi.  He hoped to establish a thriving Plantation in the lush delta regions of that state.  According to the family lore, White was so impressed with the fertility of the soils of  Laurens and Pulaski counties that he ended his search and settled along the line dividing the two counties.

White and his wife decided to build the great house (Whitehall) on a hill where the road from Haskins Crossings to the settlement of Cochran bends slightly along the two mile straight away. She chose an architect by the name of  “Sessions” , from England,  to design the 16 column house.  The structure is built from heart pine and is held together with drawn nails and wooden pegs; the ceilings are 15 feet high. Four small cedar trees were planted symmetrically along the front of the house, two of the trees remain today. In the years prior to the Civil War, Whitehall was a bustling, self-contained community.  Out front of Whitehall stood a commissary store, a saw mill, a shingle mill as well as many other barns & outbuildings. A gin house once stood 200 yards from the big house and there was an old brick pond where bricks were made.  The pre-war plantation contained some 22,000 acres, making it one of Georgia’s largest strictly agricultural plantations.

Joseph McKee White was commissioned a major in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States of America.  Instead of joining to fight it was felt that he could better serve the cause by raising food for the armies of the south.

The White family sold Whitehall to Mr. & Mrs. John Richard Staley of Chicago.  Mr. Staley was the president of Quaker Oats.  He married Carol Fleming of Hawkinsville and presented her with Whitehall as a birthday present.  The Staley’s began a  renovation of the Big house by adding modern wiring, heating and plumbing.

A group of investors from Macon bought Whitehall.  Shortly thereafter Mr. Jackson O. Lamb, from Montrose, one of the investors bought out all other interests and continued the renovation.  Mr. Jackson Lamb,  an architect undertook a major and complete restoration of the home and added much needed elegance to the property, including the crown moldings, ceiling medallions and importing the chandeliers.

Lamb sold to Henry Cannon, a longtime executive with the Georgia Forestry Commission and wife Martha. Martha’s sister was Marion Folsom, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare during the Eisenhower administration.  The Cannon’s continued to make improvements  to the inside and outside of Whitehall.

William K. (Bill) Holmes the grandson of Alice White Brewer and the great –great grandson of the original owner purchased the property and a good amount of the original plantation land. Holmes made improvements to the property, especially on the grounds.

Whitehall was purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Thomas L. Bradbury. The Bradbury’s have renovated, restored and brought the Big House and property into the 21st Century. 

Whitehall's first turfgrass sod fields were planted as the beginnings of Sodmasters.

Sodmasters expands beyond Georgia,  with the purchase of 900 acres in Bennettsville, SC for sod production. Sodmasters Landscape Center opens in Woodstock, GA.

First harvest of turfgrass sod in South Carolina. Tennessee farm location underway.