OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA GENEALOGICAL
SOCIETY
Volume 3, Number 1
SCGS IS STATE-WIDE
The South Carolina Genealogical Society has received petitions from groups in four cities requesting admission to the Society as chapters. They are: COLUMBIA - the original group, now a local chapter. Members - 114. GREENVILLE - President, Eugene Sneary, Ph.D. Members - 32. SUMTER - President, Miss Margaret McElveen. Members - 33. CHARLESTON - President - Mrs. Caroline Moore. Members - 19. Chapter installed on April 21st, and officers were elected.
Members of the Society may elect to affiliate with any chapter of their choice, but all non-affiliated members will automatically be assigned to the Columbia, chapter.
FANNING APPOINTED CONSULTANT
Lawrence Fanning, past President of the Society and a member of the Board of Directors, has been appointed Printing Consultant to the Society. Mr. Fanning is primarily interested in assisting those members who have genealogical material to publish, but who are unfamiliar with printing methods and procedures. As Head of the Maps section of the S. C. Highway Department, Mr. Fanning brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this post.
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE ENLARGED
The Publications Committee, chaired by Rev. Maurice Moxley, 2nd Vice President, has been divided into two sub-committees. The first, responsible for public relations, will be headed by James L. Haynsworth, and will publish THE CAROLINA HERALD. The second, headed by Dr. Eugene Sneary, will initiate a program of "scholarly" publications, the exact nature of which has yet to be determined. In the meantime, articles by two members have been reprinted and are now available. The first, by Mr. Matthew L. McHugh, is entitled "South Carolina Vital Statistics". (Approx. 23 pages, $2.50 plus $.30 postage). The second, "Sweet Are the Uses of Genealogy", by T. M. Stubbs, is about 12 pages. ($1.50 plus $.30 postage).
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Mrs. John Shults of the Greenville Chapter has graciously offered to index THE CAROLINA HERALD. Working with Mrs. William Morris of the Greenville County Library, she has proposed a revised method of pagination, and members are requested to re-number the pages of their back issues to conform. Consecutive page numbers will continue within a volume, and begin again with Page 1 in each new volume. The four issues published in each year will constitute a volume, and the six issues previously will be organized thus:
The index for 1972 will cover two issues.
Summer, 1972 (#1) Volume
I Number 1
Fall, 1972 (#2)
Volume I, Number 1
The index for 1973 will cover four issues:
Winter, 1973 (#3)
Volume II, Number 1
Spring, 1973 (#4) Volume
II, Number 2
Summer, 1973 (#5) Volume II, Number 3
Fall, 1973 (#6)
Volume II, Number 4
Volume 3 Number 1
THE CAROLINA HERALD is the quarterly newsletter
of the
South Carolina Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 11353, Columbia, S. C. 29211
President: James L. Haynsworth
Annual Subscription: $2
Single Copy: 75¢
Free to members of the South Carolina
Genealogical Society
Editor: James L. Haynsworth
Co-editor: Theresa M. Hicks
Future Shock is an absorbing new (1970) book by Alvin Toffler. It is actually concerned with the present, not the future; it is about what is happening today to people and groups who are overwhelmed by change. Some of the ideas which are explored by the author are truly shocking to genealogist who are, for the most part, hide-bound traditionalists. Consider the following, for example: "The most obviously upsetting force likely to strike the family in the decades immediately ahead will be the impact of the new birth technology...embryo transplants...the ability to walk into a 'babytorium' and actually purchase embryos...then parenthood becomes a legal, not biological matter". Shocking? Try this one: "By manipulating embryos in the laboratory, mice have been produced which have more than the usual number of parents...and clearly share the genetic characteristics of both sets of donors. If 'multi-mouse' is here, can 'multi-man' be far behind? Under such circumstances, who or what is the parent?"
AS THE TWIG IS BENT....
Mr. Calvin Orr, a member of this society and a dedicated Boy Scout leader, called to our attention the following notice in Boys' Life for January, 1974: "This month will see two new merit badges appear. Genealogy is the name of one. Scouts will prepare pedigree charts, family-group records, and personal data of relatives, and will visit libraries, archives, cemeteries, and public records offices during their work to earn it. The other is called Pulp and Paper. In getting this badge, you'll learn...about the tree-growing practices of the industry". Thus it seems that two distinctly different kinds of trees -- the family tree and the Loblolly Pine -- are in for some intensive study. Here in the South, we are more than casually interested in both kinds.
BLEST THE TIE THAT BINDS
Tucked away amongst your editor's personal collection of genealogical trivia is the knowledge that one of his ancestors (Sir Nathaniel Johnson) was instrumental in the establishment of the Church of England as the "official church" in South Carolina, while another (Rev. Richard Furman) played a major role in its disestablishment. Of the two, we will admit that Furman chose the better part, although the current controversy over prayer in the schools might elicit some scathing commentary from the pious gentleman. We can accept separation of church and state, but we intend to encourage an alliance between church and genealogy. For the Christian, it is a natural combination since genealogy depends, to a large degree, upon the "honorable estate" of matrimony which Christ Himself "adorned and beautified by his presence and first miracle". Genealogist owe and incalculable debt to the Latter Day Saints who have made the identification of ancestors an article of their faith. "Honor thy father and thy mother", commands the Torah in no uncertain terms. Even ancestor worship, common enough among Westerners in a secular sense, is said to be practiced in certain religious sects of the East. We do not hesitate, then, to publish the delightful little essay on the following page. Regardless of your faith -- or lack of it -- we suggest that the thoughts contained therein are of value to us all.
(Editor's Note: The following was contributed by the wife of a member of this Society. Although she prefers to remain anonymous, it should be obvious that this is by no means her first attempt to put thoughts to paper.)
A FEW LENTEN THOUGHTS ON ANCESTORS
The old quip: "Why are Charlestonians like the Chinese? Because they eat rice and worship their ancestors" evokes these comments. As a non-South Carolinian, I applaud the eating of rice and have adopted the custom as my own. As to ancestor worship, I give an indulgent smile, thinking of the pride in some portrait, chest of drawers, or silver which are the outward signs of past opulence and culture; or of some name, made distinguished by one person who added lustre to it, which has been kept well-polished by all descendants ever since. This sort of pride could lead to humility--though it does not always do so.
But change your angle of vision ever so little and you will get a very legitimate reason for an exalted regard for your ancestors. See them as the vehicles through which God has given you the precious gift of life. It is from the mixing of blood of generation after generation that you as an individual have received this body in which you will live out your life here on earth. They have bequeathed a unique physical body and its accompanying characteristics. It is impossible to pinpoint the genes of any one ancestor who is responsible for your height, your bony structure, your funny nose, your complexion or curly hair. We may say, "He gets his walk from his grandfather", and maybe he does, but that is an unscientific observation. At this point ni time only God knows the working pattern of our ancestral genes that makes us what we are. Research in the Archives won't help us here. It is enough merely to recognize our utter dependence on our forebears and our debt through them for God's gift of life.
With this in mind, we can join the Charlestonians in the veneration of ancestors.
THEY ALSO SERVED...
We have observed from time to time that an interest in genealogy is often ignited by the desire to become affiliated with some patriotic or lineage society. We are acquainted with a few enthusiastic joiner who, for reasons of their own, seem determined to find their way into every such organization that exists. For the benefit of those of our readers who share this propensity, we call to your attention two newly-organized groups, each having to do with an aspect of the Revolutionary War hitherto largely ignored. They are the Hereditary Order of Descendants of the Loyalists and Patriots of the American Revolution, organized to foster research and interest in Americans who remained loyal to the British Crown, and the Revolution, organized for what purpose we know not, but certainly having the most intriguing name of the lot.
THOUGHTS TO FILL THE PAGE
There is no man of any civilization who does not take some interest in what was done by his forefathers; who does not desire to obtain some knowledge of what took place in former times, on the spot where he was born; and to trace the fortunes of the race to which he belongs.
It is not only pardonable, but our duty to indulge it.
We should defraud the good men of other times of the best part of their reward, and we should thus take away one of the strongest incentives to good conduct, if we did not, on every suitable occasion, take a pride and a pleasure in commemorating them.
Edward Everett
When a society or a civilization perishes, one condition may always be found. They forgot where they came from.
Carl Sandburg
YORK: A UNIQUE SOUTH CAROLINA COUNTY
By Lawrence E. Wells
Editor of The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research
For the writer York County is unique because he must go back into the fourth generation of his ancestors (the "great-greats") to find one who was born somewhere else!
When Robert Mills wrote his Statistics of South Carolina (1823), in describing the conspicuous features of York District he remarked on the unusual attention paid to the dead. York District was even then noteworthy for the large cemeteries, whit most graves marked by stone monuments, adjoining the Presbyterian churches. These picturesque churchyards, at Bethesda, Bethel, Sharon, Bethany, Beth-Shiloh, Olivet, or Smyrna, would still inspire Thomas Grey to write more elegies. On the other hand one finds in York County fewer private family burying grounds. There are, of course, forgotten cemeteries in the woods, but these usually mark the site of a defunct church. The cultural pattern in York was to bury the dead in the consecrated soil of a churchyard: a considerable boon to the genealogist!
When on examines the probate records of York County, it will be noticed that in the pre-newspaper days the Citation to Kindred and Creditors will have a note stating that the Citation was read from the pulpit of one of the churches, with the clergyman's signature. When that bit of data is discovered, by all means go the the cemetery of that church! This is a quick and easy way to locate tombstones. It is also a good way to sort out different families of the same surname, such as the Bethel, Sharon, or Neely's Creek Campbells, or the Bethesda, Beersheba, or Bullock's Creek Loves.
York has an outstanding and virtually complete corpus of county records which begins in the year 1786. One remarkable record group in that court house is the collection of records of the Court of Equity, recently laminated and a joy to use.
The settlement of York County, however, ante-dated the erection of the county by nearly two generations, and so it is necessary for the diligent researcher to explore other county records scattered through two states. When the earliest settlers arrived around 1750, there was no boundary established between the Carolinas. Although the two provinces were disputing their respective claims to the region, the area was generally supposed to belong to North Carolina and to be part of the frontier county of Anson. Anson County, NC still has its seat at Wadesboro, and the Register of Deeds there has frequently answered inquiries by mail.
Shortly thereafter, the western part of Anson was set off as Mecklenburg County, with a courthouse still in Charlotte, and what is now York belonged to Mecklenburg. Mecklenburg County deeds are being published in the 1974 issue of the Georgia Genealogical Magazine, abstracted by Brent Holcomb. In 1768, the part of Mecklenburg west of the Catawba River was cut off to form Tryon County, NC. Tryon soon had a courthouse located in the present York County, between the town of Clover and the village of Bethany. The approximate site of the Courthouse has a highway marker placed by the York County Historical Commission. Tryon County was eventually dismembered into the North Carolina counties of Lincoln and Rutherford, and the Tryon records inherited by the new county of Lincoln, whose seat is still at Lincolnton, NC. The Minutes of the Tryon County Court, which mention many York County notables, are currently being published in the Bulletin of the Old Tryon County Genealogical Society.
In 1772, the boundary question was settled and what became York County was thrown into South Carolina. Tryon County lost its courthouse and perhaps a majority of its population. South Carolina gained a well-populated piece of territory, peopled almost entirely by Scotch-Irish pioneers. Within what became York County, there were already four Presbyterian churches, and by the yyear 1800 there would be four or five more. Although Baptists, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Quakers were nearby in both Carolinas, these groups were conspicuously absent in York County.
When York County became a part of South Carolina in 1772, it found itself in a Province of rather different traditions in local government. North Carolina, like Virginia, had from a very early time a system of strong county courts,. These county courts, consisting of several Justices of the Peace, or "Gentlemen Justices", would sit together and hold court once a quarter. The Court would record deeds, prove wills, grant letters of administration, bind out orphans, license taverns, ferries, and grist-mills, and compile records of inestimable worth to genealogists. But South Carolina in 1772, a city-state ruled from Charleston, had only nominal counties, and York fell into the ill-defined hunk of territory called Craven County. Equally meaningless was the fact that it belonged to the Parish of St. Mark: we may be very sure that the Anglican presence in York County at that time was negligible if not nil. The only hint of a Church of England clergyman in the pre-Revolutionary York County was the chaplain who accompanied Governor Tryon when he traveled through in the 1760's to survey the Indian boundary.
Under the new government of South Carolina, a resident of York County area had to travel to the district capital at Camden to enter a suit at law. To record a deed, prove a will, or obtain letters of administration, he had to make the long trip to Charlestown. But remote from Charlestown as it was, some records from York County were recorded there which genealogist should not overlook. At least two wills written by York County residents were recorded by the Ordinary in Charlestown, those of John Bratton and Charity Kerr. Surely there are more.
Under the new regime the area gained a quaint name: the New Acquisition. Although not all of the territory "newly acquired" by South Carolina through the 1772 survey was part of York County, the importance of the well-settled region between the Broad and Catawba Rivers caused the name New Acquisition to be used for what later became York County. At the Provincial Congresses of 1775 we find representatives from the "District of the New Acquisition", and the name stuck as late as the State Constitutional Convention of 1790. The importance of New Acquisition District is evidenced by the fact that in the Provincial Congresses it was allowed fifteen representatives, while the "District between the Broad and the Catawba" embracing the territory south of New Acquisition, later divided into Chester, Fairfield, and Richland Counties, was allowed only ten.
In 1781, while the Revolution was still going on and Charlestown was in British hands, Governor Rutledge appointed Ordinaries for each of the seven districts. This placed a Court of Ordinary in Camden, and for the few years that office existed, Wills and Administrations from York were handled and recorded there. These records finally found their way into the Kershaw County Probate Judge's office and are extant. These neglected probate records of Camden District, in which numerous York pioneers are mentioned, are currently being published inn The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research.
We now have a long list of counties whose records must be searched in order to trace an early York County family: Anson, Mecklenburg, and Lincoln in North Carolina; Charleston, Kershaw, and York in South Carolina. And even all that searching is not exhaustive. York County was settled from two directions. There were new immigrants from the Port of Charlestown (the McKnights and the Beersheba Loves, for example) and overland pioneers whose backgrounds were in Pennsylvania and Virginia (the Brattons, Guys, Bethesda Loves, Watsons, Henrys, and many others). Therefore the records of many counties in Pennsylvania and Virginia are essential for any thorough search, notably Chester, Lancaster, York, and Cumberland in Pennsylvania, and Orange and Augusta in Virginia.
A final observation and a question. York County was one of those South Carolina counties created by the County Court Act of 1785, and that piece of legislation gave the county its name. The 1785 act was a program to create counties of the kind found in Virginia and North Carolina. The lowcountry region flatly rebuffed the program, but in the upcountry the county court concept took hold and thrived. This was because the people of the upcountry were not only dissatisfied with the inconvenience of having their affairs in mesne conveyance and probate handled in Charleston, but were also experienced with county government in the provinces to the north whence many of them came. David Duncan Wallace has written in his Short History of the "incompetence" of the county courts erected in 1786 and gives this as the explanation of their abolition in 1800, when they gave way to districts, smaller than those districts created in 1768 but set up more or less the same. But when one peruses the earliest Minute Book of the York County Court, which got right down to business in January of 1786, one is not left whit and impression of incompetence at all. The Justices were diligent in being present for court. Several had formerly been members of the Tryon County Court and were experienced in procedure. The clerk, John McCaw, made clear and literate records. In the first year of its existence, the court had established a permanent site for its seat (at Fergus Crossroads, later called Yorkville), begun a courthouse, "gaol", and set of stocks, appointed constables for every section of the county, named road managers and ordered several new roads to be laid out. Whatever may have been going on in forgotten counties such as Lincoln, Bartholomew, Winton, or Lewisburg, the York County Court was obviously doing its job effectively.
This is the question. It is a firm tradition that York County took its name from York County in Pennsylvania because many early settlers came from the northern county. The only contradiction worth mentioning is an early newspaper article which says the name came from an early settler named Jonathan York, but this seems doubtful. The earliest usage of the name York was in the County Court Act of 1785. Is there any real contemporary documentary evidence for the source of this name?
THE SCGS CEMETERY PROJECT
By Theresa Hicks
Chairman - Projects Committee
A continuing project of the South Carolina Genealogical Society is the collection and indexing of cemetery inscriptions. The WPA inventory, compiled in the 1930's and housed in the South Caroliniana Library, is being used as a primary source for this information. These valuable records are identified only by county, however, and it is necessary to know in which county a person is buried before his tombstone inscription can be located. A group of Society members, headed by Mrs. Francis M. Kirk, meets each Wednesday at the Library and transfers this information to alphabetical, 3"x5" file cards. Mrs. Olga Huey is in charge of filing these cards properly. This part of the cemetery project seems overwhelming in its scope, but we are encouraged by the news that a genealogical group in another state has recently compiled and surveyed an astronomical number of records. It has been suggested that our cards be reproduced and made available by the Society for purchase.
Mr. Alfred Rawlinson is conducting a survey of inscriptions available from various printed sources. This information is also being transferred to 3x5 cards which are filed with the WPA records. Each member is requested to contribute his own records to augment our file.
In addition, the Society is attempting to survey those cemeteries which are presently unrecorded. The Columbia Chapter had one very successful field trip last fall and surveyed several cemeteries in one day. More trips are being planned.
For the purpose of this project, the committee has divided the state into geographical areas. These divisions coincide with the state Regional Planning areas, and are shown on the adjacent map. By cooperating with the state's Historic Preservation Planner in each area, it is hoped that duplication of effort can be avoided. A chairman to be appointed for area, will coordinate the efforts of individual county chairmen. The following county chairmen have been appointed, and the committee hopes that others will volunteer.
Beaufort - Mrs. R. M. Jeter
Clarendon - Maynard Davis
Dillon - Mrs. C. E. Bethea
Edgefield - Nancy Mims
Fairfield - Bill Wall
Greenville - Eugene Sneary
Lee - Mary Lucia Stuckey
Sumter - Margaret McElveen
Williamsburg - Bill Chandler
INFORMATION SHEETS
An information form is being mailed with this issue of THE CAROLINA HERALD to each member of the Society. Members are requested to fill it out and return it to the Society. The names of the ancestors for whom information is desired will be indexed and a list of the members participating with their addresses will accompany the Index of Ancestors. This index will then be printed and mailed to each member of the Society. We believe this will be of assistance in achieving one of the principal objectives of the Society -- the interchange of information.
Although queries are not now being published in THE CAROLINA HERALD, we hope that we will soon be able to do so. As queries are received, they are entered in a cross-index file for future use by members of the Society.
Xerox copies of the Newberry County Censuses of 1810 and 1820 are available from the Society. These were abstracted by Mrs. Rufus D. Elliott from the microfilms of the originals, and show the heads of households and original page numbers only. (No enumeration by age groups.) For the 1810 census (8 pp.), send $1.50 plus $.30 postage; for the 1820 census (17 pp.), send $2.00 plus $.30 postage.
CAROLINA HERALDRY
The Lowndes family of South Carolina descends from Charles Lowndes of St. Kitt's, B. W. I., who immigrated to South Carolina in 1730. According to Burke's Landed Gentry, he was a grandson of John Lowndes of Bostock Hall, Lancashire, whose family had earlier been seated at Hasall Hall, Cheshire. Rawlins Lowndes, third son of Charles was prominent tin the Colonial and Revolutionary periods and was President of South Carolina from March 1778 to January, 1779, and served in the House of Representatives until 1790.
Argent, fretty azure; on a canton gules, a lion's head erased or.
Cr: A lion's head erased or, gorged with a wreath of laurel
vert.
McDONALD
Adam McDonald was one of the seven children of Daniel McDonald who immigrated to South Carolina from the north of Ireland about 1735, and settled in what is now Williamsburg County.
When the first two Continental regiments of foot were raised in South Carolina in June, 1775, officers were chosen by ballot, the highest rank going to those who received the most votes in the Provincial Congress. Adam McDonald received 130 votes (only 5 less than Francis Marion) and became the seventh ranking captain. His brother James received 114 votes and ranked twelfth. Adam McDonald, a veteran of the Indian wars, soon revealed a talent for intelligence work which he used to good advantage. With one companion, he posed as a Tory sympathizer from the back country, and called upon Lord William Campbell, the British governor. Lord William revealed his plan for supporting the Tories, and the information was promptly reported back to the Council of Safety.
Captain McDonald was soon sent on another secret mission, this time to East Florida to ascertain the strength of the British garrison there. He posed this time as an out-of-work manager of an indigo plantation, and was interviewed by none other that John Moultrie (brother of Gen. William Moultrie) who was the Royal Lieutenant Governor of East Florida. McDonald and John Moultrie had been tent mates during the Cherokee Expedition, and after he was recognized, McDonald barely escaped with his life.
Adam McDonald was soon promoted to the rank of Major in the 1st Regiment of the South Carolina Continental Line, a post he held until 1778 when he was replaced by Captain Thomas Pinckney. McDonald was probably unable to serve because of illness, for he died in December, 1778.
Adam McDonald, who was described by General William Moultrie as "a very bold, adventurous man", as one of America's first spies. Nathan Hale, who was more famous, was not hanged until September, 1776 -- more than a year after Captain McDonald's escapades.
Genealogical information by Miss Mabel Pace, a member of the Charleston chapter of the South Carolina Genealogical Society, and a direct descendant of Major Adam McDonald.
The South Carolina Herald Index
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