Sullivans Island Magazine, Summer 2016

suits for unpaid debts, and, unable to pay workers, Niroth

attempted to work alone. Receiving minimal help from “a

gentleman of Charleston,” he was able to begin the process

of salt production. However, the weight of the pending

suits soon resulted in his arrest and incarceration. The

Baron was released but only after some 16,000 bushels of

brine were lost. In an attempt to resurrect his salt works,

he petitioned the state of South Carolina for six acres and

$2,000 for three years. In order to obtain the relief, he was

required to become a citizen. In doing so, he declared that

he was a native of the Duchy of Litherania, not England.

He was granted the title of denizen – a cross between an

alien and a full citizen.

By September 1801, Niroth had disappeared from

Charleston and from South Carolina, once again leaving

angry creditors behind. Salt production on Sullivan’s

Island disappeared forever. The salt works and large

home were sold in 1805 by the remaining creditors. The

land later was to become the oyster plantation of David

Truesdell in the 1830s.

Numerous salt works would later appear in Mount

Pleasant and Charleston, but none were successful.

Unfortunately, small salt works probably were doomed

by their size alone. The salt works at Baynes, in the

South of France, covered nearly 371 acres and yielded