General Sherman Meets the Reed Family

Roger Ganis is a great-great-great-great-grandson of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed. The fourth of five children born to Woodrow Ganis and Annie Mae (Fogle) Ganis, he was born in 1944 in Horry County, SC. At age six, he moved to Orangeburg and then to Charleston in 1954.

He has been married for 38 years to Mary Florence Riols, to whom he refers as “the love of my life and best friend.” They have two children: a daughter (35) and a son (32). Roger retired from Charleston County in April of 1994 where he worked as a patrol officer, detective, and pilot in the Aviation Division. He started working on his family history when he retired.

Roger’s line to Samuel and Mary: Samuel Reed and Mary Clark; Hugh Reed and Jane McSpeddon; James William Reed and Anna Rebecca Tyler; Michael Joshua Reed and Mary Alice Fanning; Lula Emma Reed and James Sumter Fogle; Annie Mae Fogle and Woodrow Ganis; Roger Ganis.

Recently Roger shared a special story with me. It could be considered a “legend,” but, I agree with our cousin Henry Singer who says, “I believe that most family stories have a lot of truth to them. However, as oral traditions they are subject to forgotten and/or embellished details.”

In this case, consider the fact that the Roger’s primary source was his grandmother Lula Emma Reed (1898-1973), a daughter of Michael Joshua Reed (1851-1924). Michael Joshua was 13 years old when he witnessed these events and actually met General Sherman. That’s a pretty direct route, in my opinion, with less time and telling to forget details and/or embellish.

So, without further ado, here is Roger’s story in his own words. He hopes other members of our Reed family would like it and may be able to confirm or correct it. Many thanks, Roger, for sharing this story with us!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gen. William T. Sherman Meets Anna Rebecca Reed

As told by Roger Ganis

In December 1864, Anna Rebecca Reed received the news that Union Army troops under the command of Major General William Tecumseh Sherman had marched from Tennessee to Savannah, GA, during the summer and fall of 1864.

During January & February 1865, Anna Rebecca was at home on the Reed Plantation with her nine children while her husband, Capt. James William Reed, was off serving with the Confederate Army. The children were: William Hugh, age 19, George Sylvester, 16, Michael Joshua, 13, Henrietta, 11, Adella Ellen, 9, Ann Rebecca, 8, James Alexander, 5, Stanmore Judson, 2, and Mary Salina, 1.

Around the last week of January 1865, she learned that Sherman's troops had left Savannah, GA, and were marching through South Carolina. It was thought he was headed to Charleston, SC. The first week in February 1865 she learned that Sherman's Army had been involved in a battle on February 2 & 3, 1865, at "Rivers Bridge" on the Salkehatchie River, near Ulmer & Ehrhardt, SC. She also learned that most of his army was headed toward Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. The Reed Plantation lay directly in Sherman's path between Rivers Bridge and Columbia.

After hearing of the battle at Rivers Bridge, Anna Rebecca learned that Sherman's Army was near The Reed place. She had her children and what slaves were left take all of the valuables from the plantation house and hide them by burying them in the ground and hiding things around the plantation. She also had most of the food that had been canned or preserved removed and hidden along with the livestock in the swamp area away from the house so Sherman's Army could not find them.

She had the slaves and her children start preparing food and setting up tables out in front of the plantation house. When the army scouts from Sherman's Army arrived at the Reed place, she advised them the food was being prepared for Gen. Sherman and his officers. Some of the scouts returned to Gen. Sherman and told him about the dinner that was being held at the Reed Home for him.

Gen. Sherman returned to the Reed home along with the scouts and found a large dinner had been prepared. Anna Rebecca Reed, on meeting Gen. Sherman, invited him and his officers to eat. Gen. Sherman accepted her offer, left, and returned to his camp to wash up and put on a clean uniform. A short time later, Gen. Sherman returned along with some of his officers and ate the dinner with the Reed family. Anna Rebecca Reed offered Gen. Sherman the use of her cotton fields for his army to camp on. Gen. Sherman and some of his army set up camp in the cotton fields for the night.

The next day before his army continued their march northward, Gen. Sherman gave orders to his army that no one was to take anything or burn anything belonging to the Reed Family. Before leaving, Gen. Sherman went to Anna Rebecca Reed and thanked her for her hospitality.

A few weeks later, Anna Rebecca learned that Columbia, SC, had surrendered to Sherman's Army on February 17, 1865, and the city had been burned.


While Sherman was at the Reed House, a soldier was discovered inside the house on the stairs going up to the bedrooms. One of the Reed daughters was upstairs at the head of stairs, and asked him what he was doing there. He replied that he just wanted to talk with her. Some of her brothers saw what was going on and grabbed him and during a scuffle someone hit the soldier on the head with a shovel. The blow killed the soldier, and they decided to hide his body in a closet under the stairs until the other soldiers left.

The next day, after Gen. Sherman left with his Army, they carried the soldier’s body out back behind the house and buried him in an unmarked grave. No one ever came back to check on a missing soldier. Soldiers were deserting from both the Union and Confederate Armies all the time during this part of the Civil War.

What really happened to the 1890 Census?

How many times have you wished for the 1890 census?  It's genealogy's black hole.  What really happened to it?  Click here for a very interesting article all about it. Enlightening ...

Elizabeth Reed Hudlow, 1916-2009

From Josie Reed*:

The last of the grandchildren of Tully Washington Reed (1856-1910) and Katie Thompson (1860-1929) died at the age of 93 on Saturday, November 7, 2009, in Mt. Airy, Maryland. 

Elizabeth Anita Reed Hudlow was born May 11, 1916, a daughter of Norman McCloud Reed (1886-1955) and Florence Heitzman Reed (1892-1960). She spent her early childhood years in Easton, Pennsylvania, then moved with her family to the Washington, DC, area.  She lived in the Maryland suburbs of DC the rest of her life.

About the same age, she and my father Tully Reed, her first cousin, were always close over the years, and we saw her and Bob almost as often as my aunts and uncles. (Right:  L. Tully Reed, Josie's father, and Elizabeth Reed about 1945)

Liz had a heart of gold. And despite more times of great sadness in her life than most of us could bear, she was (almost) always full of fun. To quote my 2nd cousin Kay Hoyle, her niece, "Heaven will never be the same!"    

Her remains were interred at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland, near her beloved husband Robert Milton Hudlow (1924-2007) and daughter Lois Hudlow (1959-1983).  (Photo:  Elizabeth, Lois, and Bob Hudlow in Boone, NC, in 1974)

One of the things I always wanted to ask her, but never did, was how her parents met. How DID a young man from Barnwell County, South Carolina, wind up with a girl from Pennsylvania?

*Josephine "Josie" Reed is my fifth cousin who lives in Ontario, Canada.   I was very fortunate to meet her online in March 2008.  Since then I've come to count on her excellent research and judgment.  Thank you once again, Josie, for all your help!  

Click here to see Josie's line from Samuel.  (While you're there, think about adding yours.)

Puzzler: Who was Martha/Mary Cook Reed?

 
Introducing Puzzlers

We all have different resources. My public library has info yours might not have.  Some of us have built significant personal libraries.  I use GenealogyBank.com and Footnote.com in addition to Ancestry; maybe you don't. Just this week I found an item in Google Books that made an excellent researcher/cousin say she really needed to start using that resource. 

And we all have our brick walls – those puzzles that continue to baffle us no matter how hard we look. 

I’ve been thinking that maybe the more people who know about our puzzles, the sooner we may be able to solve them.

Would you like to put your puzzler out there for fellow researchers to take a stab at?  Send me a description of your brick wall along with where you've looked to try to knock it down. (samuelreedfamilyATgmailDOTcom)

I'll start with a big one of mine.

WARNING:  TANGENT TRAP!  I began writing this post about 6AM.  The tangents I’ve been on since then have amazed even me!  Oh, I found some great stuff, but it has certainly slowed down the writing.  Just thought I’d warn you. Try to focus and be succinct. 

Who was Martha/Mary Cook Reed?

She was my great-great-grandmother, the wife of James Henry Reed and mother of John William Cook Reed.  I have not been able to learn when or where she died or where she is buried.  I’m not positive about when she was born, and I have no clue as to her parents. 

Click image to enlarge.

The portrait identified in my Granddaddy Reed's handwriting says Martha. But was her name really Martha, or was it Mary?

The 1860 census has Mary A. Read born abt 1840 (newly married per 1900 census). 

In 1870 we see Margaret Read born abt 1845 (with 4 children).

By 1880, it was Mary Reed born abt 1840 (with 5 children).

In 1900, we are told her name was Mary Reed, she was born February, 1844, had been married for 40 years, and had five children who were still living.  (Of course, it has James as being born in March 1835, and we know that’s incorrect, depending on which source is used.  His tombstone has February 18, 1825 while the family bible of his uncle Benjamin Odom Jr. has February 17, 1826.  No March, and no 1835.)  

In 1900, James and “Mary” and their daughter Bessie were living with their daughter Eula and her husband Levi S. Tyler, Jr. in Bamberg.  James Henry died November 14, 1901.  What became of Mary then?  By 1910, Bessie had married (in 1901, two months before her father’s death), and Eula and her family were living in Statesboro, GA.   Mary does not show up on the 1910 census with either of them. 

On the SC death certificate of her son John William Cook Reed (my great-grandfather), her son Harold W. Reed says her name was Mary Cook and that she was born in Aiken County, SC. 

On the SC death certificate of her daughter Bessie Reed Hudson, Bessie’s husband George listed Mary Cook born in Aiken. 

I’m thinking it’s time to go with “Mary” instead of “Martha.”  Sorry, Granddaddy. 

Her husband, James Henry Reed, is buried in the Gardenia Rd. Reed Cemetery along with his mother, a brother, two sisters, two nephews, and a brother-in-law.  One of the sisters is believed to be Martha Reed born May 10, 1844 and died in 1923.  (I remain forever grateful to cousin Sharon Crowley for braving the briars and bushes to find this out and posting them on FindAGrave.)  The 1900 census has my 2gGM born Feb. 1844 and James’s sister Martha born May 1844.  Even though the stone says simply “Martha Reed,” she is buried beside her husband Henry Kemp.  So I don’t believe this is my 2gGM.

If you go looking in Aiken County pre-1860, know that we’ve already discounted Frederick Cook as her father.  He had a daughter Martha about the same age, but she still shows up on his 1870 census. 

What resources or information might you have to help solve this puzzler?

Veterans Day Remembrances

Veterans Day, Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, National Day, Day of Peace.  This day has many names the world over, but they all commemorate that eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918.

Last year this day became even more significant to me when I learned exactly where my grandfathers were on November 11, 1918.  I share here the stories of three Veterans closest to me.  Many of our loved ones have served.  Please feel free to leave a comment and share your remembrances with us. If you have pictures you would like to have posted as well, please let me know. 

John Osborne Reed, my paternal grandfather, was a Carpenter's Mate 1st Class in the United States Naval Reserve Forces.

My father tells me that in November, 1918, Osborne was training at Parris Island in the Navy, preparing to be shipped to war.  For some reason Osborne spent the night of November 10 in Port Royal.  He learned early the next morning of the Armistice.  He also learned that the phone lines were down to Parris Island.  As my dad tells it, my granddaddy rushed across the bridge and was the first one to proclaim the good news to his comrades. 

Osborne Reed is the young man to the left.  This snapshot was taken at Parris Island. 

After the war, Osborne Reed resumed his studies at the University of South Carolina.  He soon met Carrie Belle Strickland, a young nurse working in the clinic there.  Carrie was from the Bull Swamp section of Lexington County near Swansea.  They were married in 1922.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Oswell Boyce McLeod, my maternal grandfather, was drafted into the Army in 1917.  He had graduated from the University of South Carolina and was teaching school.  In her letters, his mother Ellen Irene Jones McLeod begged him to try to get a deferment for health reasons.   

She had lost her youngest son Aubrey (pictured to the right) on April 28, 1917 to the flu epidemic.  He had been in the Army, too.

An excerpt from one of her letters (edited for clarity) dated May 9, 1917:

“I hope you won’t be called off in the war, Boyce . . . A blank came here for you to fill out yesterday, and mama has been scared ever since,  afraid you would have to go to the war.  So you see your Dr. and try to get every thing right if you are called on so you want have to go.  Boyce, you can say you can’t work one day long on your feet.  The only way you can work to support your self is to sit down an teach school about half of your time.  You have been operated on twice an will have to have another operation at any time.
    “Boyce, Lemot Bains got out of going to the war on account of his health, and he can plow.  You know you could not work one day in the field.
    “Boyce, do see your Doctor and do everything in your power that can be done.  Dear Boyce, write soon. . . Do attend to this at once.  Go see your Dr at once.  Don’t wait for tomorrow.  Do it at once.” 

As required, Boyce registered with the draft on June 5, 1917.  In October, he received this card from the War Department.

Here is a closeup of the orders (click to enlarge):

Boyce reported as required and boarded the train for the newly created Camp Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina.

While he was in Columbia, he married Miss Mary Clifton Duke from Blythewood, South Carolina, on February 16, 1918.  By July, Boyce was on his way to France.   

This is a postcard Boyce sent to Mary when he was on his way to Europe.  (Click to enlarge.)

Boyce was a PFC in the 318th Machine Gun Battalion of the 81st National Army Division.  On November 10, the 81st Division heard rumors of an armistice, but had no confirmation.  On the morning of the eleventh, the battle continued.  Orders came for cease-fire at 11:00 AM sharp.  Suddenly, all firing stopped.  Granddaddy spoke in years later of the silence that morning - eerie and glorious at the same time.  The war was over! 

The 81st stayed in the area until they returned home in June 1919.  Granddaddy even had opportunity to teach in France. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Certainly no armed forces holiday passes without remembrance of the service to our country of my own brother John.

John Osborne Reed, III, was the oldest son of Joe and Mary Duke Reed.  He enlisted in the U. S. Navy in 1966 during the height of the VietNam War.  He was in VietNam in 1967-68.  His Navy tour ended in 1970.  While in Nam, John was drenched twice with Agent Orange on the LST where he served carrying supplies up and down the river.

John in VietNam

After discharge from the Navy, John returned to the University of South Carolina, married, and had two children.  He was a masterful carpenter, and his lifelong  favorite pastime was his beloved fishing.

John battled the ill effects of Agent Orange for the rest of his life.  He lost that battle on June 3, 2004, when he died of lung cancer directly linked to his exposure to Agent Orange. He is buried in Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina. 

Malcom Clark Appointed Justice in 1783

This week I found yet another reference to Malcom Clark that I had not seen before. It was published in the South Carolina Weekly Gazette on 29 Mar 1783 and 12 Apr 1783.

"In the House of Representatives. March 18,1783.

O R D E R E D,

That the List of Justices for the State of

South Carolina, be published in the Gazettes.

By Order of the House,

John-Sandford Dart, C. H. R.

--------------

A List of JUSTICES for the State

of South Carolina"

Justices of the Quorum and Justices of the Peace are then listed by district.

Under the Heading "Justices of the Peace for Orangeburgh District" is the name "Malcome Clarke."

Also listed under Orangeburgh is Charles Myddleton, the executor of Malcom Clark's will who advertised in the Columbian Herald the sale of Malcom's estate held April 6, 1786.

The gap between Malcom's listing on the 1778 census and the sale of his estate in 1786 just narrowed by 5 years!

Tour of the Samuel Reed Home - Part II

The Interior
(Click on images to enlarge.)

The front doors are original and have original locks and keys.  These “box locks” are very significant to the dating of this house. They were very prominent in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Of the two original keys, one locks the outer doors, and the other locks the inside doors.  The hinged key on the left, also very old and rare, is for an outbuilding.

Hinges stamped "T & C Clarks Patent" are found on the interior and exterior doors.

As you walk in the front door, the staircase rises to the right. The wide heart pine boards of the floors, the heart cypress walls and ceilings (seamless), stairs, banisters, and finials in the hallway are all original.

 

In the closet under the stairs, you can see the original, unfinished cedar walls and shelves.

Chet showed where newspaper had been used to line the walls, and to this day, there remains a scrap of the Augusta Chronicle with a date of 1815.

Repairs were required to some of the doors where rodents had tried to find food.  Chet left this one on the hall closet door as an example (above). 

On the right of the entry is a dining room that was once apparently a parlor. There was originally only one door into this room. Chet has added a door (from the period) into the new kitchen at the back of the house. Beside that door is an original window, complete with working shutters, looking into the den.

On the left of the entry is a sitting room. The floor in this room is not original due to the significant wear on the original floor. Obviously, this was the room where most of the living was done. Chet wanted to refinish it as the others but was advised not to do so. There were so many worn places in the floor from decades of use, sanding it down would produce some very thin, shaky boards. The new wood was laid perpendicular to the old for added stability.

The finials on the stairs are quite impressive. Chet told us about seeing how such things were made at Colonial Williamsburg on lathes. Sticks of wood were turned on a human powered lathe – an arrangement of wheels and pulleys reminiscent of a bicycle. The carpenter craftsman used various sized and shaped sharp gouging instruments against the turning piece of wood to make the design.

The light fixture hanging in the upstairs hallway is from First Baptist Church of Blackville (initially known as Blackville Baptist). Chet was able to obtain several of these fixtures when the church was being remodeled. They have special significance in that this house was the first meeting place Blackville Baptist Church.

Chet told about a 19-inch heart cypress board in the upstairs hall. “In order to get a 19-inch heart cypress board, the tree had to be 300 to 400 years old and was probably older than that since it was virgin timber that was cut. If you assume the tree was at least 300 years old when cut, then that makes it a young sapling tree growing in the swamp when Columbus founded America in 1492 (since the house was constructed around 1790).”

On the left is another very wide cypress board used for attic access.  On the right, the original cypress wainscoting upstairs was too beautiful to paint.

The new, roomy back porch is inviting. This area was particularly damaged, so new windows and doors were installed. The siding on the back is all new, cedar on the porch and cypress on the upstairs siding.

Some of you know enough about me to be aware that I am rarely at a loss for words. Well, have a good look now, for this is the case! I feel my writing skills failing me as I try to find the right words to express my appreciation to Chet and Cindy Matthews for the time they took to show Ian and me all the details on this remarkable house.

Chet and Cindy, you have my deepest appreciation for providing a day that Ian and I will never forget and for allowing me to share it with the world. It was quite a day – from the first greeting to the best BLT I think I’ve ever had.

On behalf of all of the descendants of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed, I thank you for the love and care you have bestowed on this house and for your willingness to share it with us.

Tour of The Samuel Reed Home - Part I

.
Ownership

Chet Matthews had dreamed of restoring this house since he was eight years old.  When he inherited the house and land from his father in 1997, the dream held, and he poured a lot of love into the restoration. 

Chet asserts that the house did not go to Samuel and Mary’s son Samuel as was stipulated in Samuel’s will, because the son Samuel died (in 1847) before he probated the will.  (It is believed that his mother Mary had died the previous year.) 

According to Chet, in the situation that followed the junior Samuel’s death, Samuel and Mary’s son Hugh obtained ownership of the house.  When Hugh died 10 May 1854 and his sizeable estate was partitioned and sold (proceedings filed 20 Sep 1854), his son Samuel attained the property. 

From this Samuel, ownership went in 1887 to his daughter Ellen F. Reed who had married Benjamin Franklin Rice.

John Calhoun Matthews was a neighbor to our Reeds, and his home, which was very near the Reed house, was destroyed by fire.  He approached Ellen Reed Rice about buying the house.  The sale was completed in 1907. 

John C. Matthews owned it until he decided to move to Blackville in 1911.  His son (and Chet’s grandfather) John Gideon Matthews, Sr. took it over until his death in 1946.  Chet’s father, Smith Gideon Matthews owned it and farmed the land from 1946 to his death in 1997.  Chet inherited it and soon began following through on his dream. 


Features
(Click on pictures to enlarge.)

The house is built in typical symmetrical colonial style with four rooms below and two above.  The entrance opens into a stairway hall/foyer which leads back to what was originally a porch.  This porch was enclosed on three sides, open only at the back of the house. 

Chet related that homes like this were built with no closets because British taxes were levied by the number of rooms, and closets were counted as rooms.  Instead of closets, armoires and chests were used to avoid higher taxes.  Even though British taxation was a thing of the past when this home was built, people apparently didn’t feel the need for closets.  They continued to build their homes without closets.  The only original closet here is under the stairs. 

I was amazed at how much of the original house was able to be retained.  As you can see from the “before” pictures, it was in sad shape.  It was covered in kudzu vines and bushes and was barely visible from the road.  The original porch railings and finials and the original mantelpieces had been stolen. 

Chet was extremely fortunate to find a contractor who was a true artisan and became very interested in the restoration, desiring to maintain as much of the original as possible and introduce new materials in a way that interfered the least with the history. 

The corner porch column pictured in a previous post was not an original column.  Chet’s father replaced a rotting column with a rough planed sill from under house.  Surely the original carpenter never expected it to show! 

All of the other columns are original and are perfectly square solid pieces of heart pine.  

Both the heart pine and cypress are virtually petrified.  Driving a nail is impossible without splitting the wood.  Drilling a starter hole is even difficult. 

The carpentry is incredible.  The original house was made of heart pine and heart cypress cut from virgin timber.

The seamless boards of the walls, floors, and exterior really impressed me.  Original boards extend from the front of the house to the back of the house outside.  The original exterior siding on the sides of the house is mostly heart pine.  The original exterior front porch siding is heart cypress in tongue and groove with a more finished look.  The upstairs front siding is new cypress. 

Inside, the wallboards are all seamless, tongue and groove cypress as on the front porch.  Chet pointed out that on the porch, care was taken to make the boards all even in width.  Not so in the interior where the width of the boards varied. 

The original supports are huge square chunks of heart pine. 

All of the shutters (cedar), hinges, and hardware are original.  You can see many original nails that were handcrafted by a blacksmith.  Chet maintained as many original wavy, rippled glass panes as possible, especially around the front door.  Modern storm windows and guttering have been installed as matters of necessity, but are not distractions to the history of this amazing house.

The front porch and steps finials were stolen before Chet’s father died.  Thieves simply sawed the top banister and lifted it out with the finials, leaving the bottom support.  One finial remains from the porch, but all remain on the inside staircase.  On the porch, Chet used the bottoms of the original banister railings as the top and added pressure treated plain wooden finials. 

Flooring on the porch is original except for a section in the middle.  Chet shifted salvageable originals to each side and added pressure treated boards in the center, providing symmetry as well as strength. 

The two taller chimneys are original while the smaller one towards the left rear, although very old, is not.  The style in which the bricks of the original chimneys were laid is indicative of the colonial era.  On most rows, the bricks are laid end to end.  Every 10 to 12 rows, the bricks are laid side by side.  This arrangement, known as American bond or Scottish bond, provided greater stability. 

Behind the house is the original well, now dry.  Chet laid newer brick around the damaged original outer brickwork.  Looking inside, we noticed that the inside brickwork was in the same style as the chimneys. 

Chet and my son Ian had to use both hands to lift the massive well cover. 

Coming soon:  features of the inside in Part II.

Barnwell Visit with Photography Lessons

My son Ian and I went to Barnwell again last Friday to see Brenda White from Alabama, Myrtle Quattlebaum from Blackville, and Will Miller from Ninety-Six, SC.  Brenda and Myrtle are descendants of Samuel & Mary Reed, and you’ve already met Will in this post.

The fellowship was wonderful, to say the least.  I could have stayed and talked until we all fell asleep.  We shared and learned a lot from each other. 

Will, Marilyn, Brenda, Myrtle at Anthony's Restaurant

Sad to say, the picture record of this event left a lot to be desired.  Ian and I learned some important lessons regarding photography.  First lesson:  Take a LOT more pictures in hopes that a few will turn out well.  Second lesson:  If at all possible, prop your elbows on a table or counter for stability.  (I have put a unipod on my Christmas wish list.  Google it.  Cool tool.)  Lesson three:  Never, but never, take a picture of Mom from the side!!!  (Take my word for it!)

 Marilyn, Will, Brenda at the Barnwell Library

Luckily, the pictures of the visit to the Samuel Reed home turned out much better.   The final draft is almost done.  It's very important to me to have it just right!  Thank you for your patience.