Samuel and Mary Clark Reed of Barnwell

SAR Membership Applications: A Warning

2011-10-06T09:07:00.000-04:00

Recently, Ancestry.com made available the "Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970." This is yet another fabulous resource for our research.

Please keep in mind, however, that these are not primary sources. Instead, they should be used as "jumping off points" for finding further information.

For instance: On my Ancestry profile for our Samuel Reed of Barnwell, I find two historical records available under Ancestry Hints. Both are SAR Applications for descendants of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed. One traces back to George Reed of Abbeville who was not our Samuel's father. The other uses for proof an indent for the "other" Samuel Reed who was George of Abbeville's son.

For further information this "other" Samuel and his father George, please click here: George Reed and Abigail Leger Were Not the Parents of Samuel Reed of Barnwell.

Who was Sarah A? Found her!

2011-09-01T14:45:00.004-04:00

I've done so much work lately on Samuel Reed (1810-1887, son of Hugh) and his family that you would think I descended from him. I don't, but some of my favorite people do!

One puzzle surrounding this Samuel eluded me ... until this week. Who was his third wife "Sarah A.?" With the help of her grandchildren found on the 1880 census, I found out! (Interesting to note is that I did all of this research without leaving my desk.)

Sarah (born about 1828) first shows up on the 1870 census as wife of Samuel. Samuel's first wife Matilda Willis died in 1865. His second wife Jane died in 1968. (See "Who was Jane E?" here.) Some time between Jane's death and 1870, Samuel married Sarah. Living with them in 1870 were six of Samuel's children.

By the 1880 census, all of Samuel's children had moved away from home, but Samuel and Sarah still had a house full of family.

Image from 1880 Census

D[avid] Bruce Reed is listed as a nephew, but he was actually Samuel's first cousin once removed. Bruce's father was Samuel James Reed (1826-1862) who was a son of Samuel Reed and Elizabeth Boylston.

We see "Idella Chisholm" there, listed as granddaughter. She was in fact Adella Chisolm, daughter of Samuel and Matilda's daughter Adella who had died in 1876.

"John Reed" listed in the household was a mulatto farm hand. (I would love to know more about him.)

The biggest clues to finding Sarah were the two little girls listed as granddaughters. It turns out that they were Sarah's granddaughters. There names were transcribed as Minnie (born about 1868) and Sarah (born about 1843) "Bessillien."

You can easily imagine the many ways to spell their last name. After looking around the internet for all the variations, I found a listing on Ancestry for Sarah Elizabeth Bessellieu (1873-1946). Her parents were John Howell Bessellieu and Anna Earle Larisey. Her mother Anna died in 1875. She had a sister named Mary Earle Bessellieu. Could this be Minnie?

Looking further, I discovered that Anna Earle Larisey Bessellieu's mother was Sarah Amanda Earle born about 1828 who married Henry Larisey. Henry had died in 1867. The puzzle pieces fell into place!

Sarah Amanda Earle was born about 1828 in Colleton County. We know that her mother's name was Ann from the 1850 and 1860 censuses. Ann Earle lived with Sarah and her family then. (There are some good hints as to her parents' full names on Ancestry, but I have been unable to find any sources. Therefore I will not add them here until documentation can be found. Do you have any sources for them?)

The 1850 census has Sarah living in St. Bartholomew's Parish in Colleton County with her husband Henry Larisey, her children Ann, Mary, and Henry; and her mother Ann Earle.

In 1860, they are all in St. Paul's Parish in Colleton County.

By 1870, Henry Larisey and Ann Earle (Sarah's husband and mother) had died, and Sarah is married to Samuel Reed and living with him and six of his children in Blackville.

(For 1880, see above.)

I have been unable to find anything further on Sarah Amanda Earle Larisey Reed. Do you have a clue about when she died or where she is buried?

I was able to find out a good bit more about Sarah's grandchildren Minnie and Sarah.

Minnie was Mary Earle Bessellieu. According to her SC death certificate, she was born on 12 Oct 1867.

Her first husband was George Henry Campsen (1862-1894). George was captain at the Morris Island Life Saving Station near Charleston, SC.

Minnie and George had at least two children: Gertrude (b. 1885) and George Earle Campsen (1892-1958).

By the 1900 census, Minnie had married Harry M. Hutson and lived at 557 Meeting Street in Charleston with her children Gertrude and George Campsen and William Hutson, her son by Harry.

Harry died in 1915. In the 1920 and 1930 censuses, Minnie is living in boarding houses.

Minnie died in Charleston on 24 May 1936 of "cerebral thrombosis" (blood clot forms in an artery that supplies blood to the brain). She is buried at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston.

Minnie's son George is also buried at Magnolia Cemetery. Her grandson George Earle Campson Jr. (1929-2010) served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1958 to 1964. See his obituary here.

Minnie's great grandson George Earle "Chip" Campsen III currently serves in the South Carolina Senate (Republican, District 43, Charleston & Berkeley Counties). For further information, click here.

Sarah Elizabeth "Bessie" Bessellieu was born on October 6 in 1871 or 1872. (Her death certificate has 1871 while her tombstone has 1872.)

On 4 Aug 1895, she married Henry Leon Larisey (a second cousin). They had three children: Vivian, Karen, and Henry Jr.

Sarah's SC death certificate lists her as "Bessie Bessellieu Larisey" and her parents as John H. Bessellieu and Anne Larisey. She died in Charleston on 4 January 1946 of cardiac failure (diabetic coma contributing). She is buried beside her husband Henry Leon at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. (Link to Bessie; link to H. Leon)

Settlement of Samuel Reed's Estate

2011-08-21T10:19:00.000-04:00

Recent finds bring us closer to discovering exactly how Samuel Reed Sr.'s estate was finally settled.

We know from his will found here exactly what his wishes were. Looking further in his probate record, we see that his son Samuel, executor of the estate, proceeded with the usual bonds, inventories, vouchers, and accountings until October 1830. Then, there is a gap in activities until 1846 after Mary Clark Reed's death. On 10 December 1846, another inventory was ordered (see here). A sale of personal property was held on 18 January 1847 (see here).

Samuel Reed Jr. died on 26 May 1847 before the remainder of the estate was settled.

Two of Samuel Sr.'s grandsons-in-law were willing to help settle the estate, but neither petition was granted:

On 17 January 1848, William J. Fickling requested to be made executor (see here). He was the husband of Jane Elizabeth Reed, a daughter of Hugh Reed & Jane McSpeddon. (William J. Fickling died 10 months later on 26 November 1848.)

On 7 February 1848, Benjamin F. Simmons requested to be made executor (see here). Benjamin Simmons was husband of Mary Reed, daughter of Samuel Reed Jr. and Elizabeth Boylston Reed.

Recently at the SC Archives, I found a copy of an agreement dated 25 February 1848 between the heirs of Samuel Reed Sr. and Elizabeth Boylston Reed, wife of Samuel Reed Jr. The image and transcription of the main text are below. (Click on image enlarge.)

Agreement of Reed, Boylston & Others with Elizabeth Reed

Feb. 25, 1848

We the undersigned heirs have this day agreed to settle the Estate of Samuel Reed Senr. deceased and Mary Reed his wife in the following manner, viz First, those who have notes gone out of date agree to pay the principal of the money, but no Interest. Secondly, we nominate and designate Elizabeth Reed to hold the papers of the Estate, collect, settle with the heirs, take receipts, She agreeing to act in correspondence with the instructions of the heirs and with the undersigned do Severally and Jointly agree to bind our selves in the sum of one Thousand Dollars, to abide by the foregoing stipulations.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I've made quite a few trips to the archives this summer, but I've only begun to view the rich treasures to be found there. More to come ... much more ...

Who was JANE E.? The answer surprised me.

2011-07-09T07:52:00.001-04:00

Jane E. is buried beside Samuel Reed (son of Hugh) in the Hugh Reed family burying ground. The inscription on her stone reads:

In memory of

JANE E.

Wife of

SAMUEL REED

Who departed this life

March 10th 1868

Aged 44 years, 8 months

and 1 day

That is all I've known about Jane until a chance discovery this week. I found a marriage settlement for Samuel Reed and Jane E. Still at the SC Department of Archives and History! I was excited at the possibility of finding out just who "Jane E." was. This discovery, another trip to the state archives, and some online searching led to some very interesting discoveries.

The marriage settlement is dated 17 February 1868, about three weeks before Jane died. It seems to have been a very short marriage. The settlement deals with Samuel renouncing rights to any of Jane's property to which he might be entitled by law after their marriage except for "130 acres embracing the Mill & Pond." It gives no clue as to her former identity other than her last name.

However, on the same page as the settlement is a conveyance from Samuel to Jane regarding land held in trust for her nephew Judson Hair whom she apparently loved dearly. Here I found the name of her first husband: T. E. Still.

I looked up Jane E. Still on Ancestry and found her in 1850 with her husband Tobias and two-year old daughter Rebecca in Barnwell County, SC. Living with them were Joseph Hair (21) and Furman Hair (16). I knew from previous research that Joseph and (David) Furman were Jane's brothers. And I knew they were all already on my family tree!

So, the second wife of Samuel Reed (son of Hugh) was his first cousin Jane E. Hair Still. She was a daughter of Lavisa Reed and David Hair. Lavisa was a daughter of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed.

But there's more ...

Then I was curious as to when Tobias died and where he was buried. There were at least two Tobias Still's in the Barnwell area at the time. Nothing I found seemed to fit.

My next discovery was Tobias's probate record on FamilySearch.org where I found a big surprise. Click here to see the full record.

In Jane's petition for administration of the estate shown above, Tobias E. Still "departed this life on Black Island near the City of New York while a Prisoner in the hands of the Federal Army Intestate on or about the twenty-eighth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five."

The prison was actually on Hart('s) Island in New York Harbor as shown on Tobias's service record to the left. The date of death matches the probate record.

Hart Island was used as a Prison of War camp at the very end of the Civil War and housed 3,413 Confederate soldiers. 235 of them died (around seven percent). (For source and more information on Hart Island, click here.)

Tobias was listed as a private in Company B of the 14th Regiment of the South Carolina Militia. The 14th was called to duty on 5 January 1865 at Branchville, SC. Companies A and B were from Barnwell County. Most of them were captured at Lynches Creek in February 1865. They were sent to New Bern, NC, at first, and by April 10 they were at Hart Island. The war ended officially on 9 April 1865 when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, but it wasn't until June that the release of prisoners began on the island. Of the men from the 14th listed at this site who went to Hart Island, 50 percent of them died in April, May, and June of diseases such as pneumonia, chronic diarrhea, and typhoid fever.

Photograph by Glenn Russell on Find-A-Grave (used with permission)

The men who died there were initially buried on the island. Their remains were transferred to Cypress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn on 9 June 1941.

I believe the grave shown at Find-a-Grave as that of "Thomas E. Still" is instead the grave of Tobias E. Still. (Click here to see the memorial.) In several records I have found on Ancestry from the National Archives, "T. E. Still" was a prisoner of war at Hart's Island and died on 29 April 1865. There is no other T. E. Still who was a POW who died on that date. The only original record I found that said his name was Thomas was published in 1912. It is easy to see how the name Tobias could have been transcribed incorrectly into Thomas somewhere along the way.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My son Ian and I have made several trips to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in the last week or so. My initial goal was to look up some wills that were on Barnwell County's index at Family Search as well as what deeds they had. We printed pages of the direct and indirect indexes of deeds granted to and from our Reeds, brought them home to study, and then went back to look up our finds. The indexes range from the first deed record of our Samuel Reed in 1803 to 1930 when my own grandfather and his brothers deeded 2 lots in Barnwell and 67 acres of farmland on Turkey Creek to their mother for $10.00 and "L & A" (love and affection).

I was browsing this index when I found the record of Samuel and Jane's marriage settlement. It always amazes me how finding one such little nugget of info can lead to more that leads to so much more. This is just the sort of thing keeps me going in this genealogical endeavor.

Many thanks go to Mr. Glenn Russell whose photograph of the grave shows here. Glenn went above and beyond in helping and encouraging me as I pondered the possibilities surrounding the grave of T. E. Still. He's exactly the kind of person you love to run into. He has posted over 3000 photographs for Find-A-Grave and told me that "it's not all that unusual for the name on a government headstone to be in error." Glenn, thank you so much for all you do!

Josephine Wiley Reed

2011-06-23T09:41:00.000-04:00

Josie

On March 14, 2008, I sent a note on Ancestry.com to a member with whom I shared a 4-great grandfather. That grandfather was Samuel Reed, and that member was Josie Reed.

Josie and I quickly established that we were fifth cousins and have enjoyed the fact that we were both born Reed girls. Since then, over 100 emails have passed between us as we discovered more and more about our family. I trust her word and highly value her extensive research. You have seen her name on here quite a few times. Finally you get to meet her and see pictures from her collection. Click here to see the first installment of her photographs on our photo blog. More pictures coming soon ...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I was born in 1949 in Durham, North Carolina, and grew up mostly in Chapel Hill and in the Burlington area. My family moved to the mountains right after I graduated from high school in 1966. Boone, NC, has been my home base since. I am the oldest of the four children born to Laurie Tully Reed (1916–1991) and Frances Scott Joyner (1923–2009). My sister Katie, who lived most of her adult life in Manhattan, died in 1991. Susan and her family live in the family home in Boone. My brother Laurie and his wife live in Vermont.

Tomas, Jason, & Josie

I met my husband Tomas Hudlicky, a chemistry professor, when I was in graduate school at Virginia Tech. We have a son, Jason Reed Hudlicky (age 21), who looks amazingly like his granddaddy Tully Reed. Jason has just finished his third year at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, studying chemistry and art history. Eight years ago we moved from Gainesville, Florida, to St. Catharines, Ontario, near Niagara Falls, where we still live. (Like my ancestors I too am an immigrant.) I currently work in research administration at Brock University.

I am very proud to be part of the extended Reed family. My lineage is as follows:
     Samuel Reed & Mary Clark
      Hugh Reed & Jane McSpeddon
               Samuel Reed & Matilda Willis
                    Tully Washington Reed & Katie Thompson
                         Laurie Tully Reed & Lula Mae Forehand
                              Laurie Tully Reed, Jr. & Frances Scott Joyner
                                   Josephine Wiley Reed

Tully Washington Reed

My great-grandfather Tully Washington Reed (1856-1910) was the youngest surviving child, the twelfth, of Samuel Reed and Matilda Willis. After a brief marriage to his second cousin Annie Reed (ca. 1856-1878) (Samuel Reed & Mary Clark > Samuel Reed & Elizabeth Boylston > Samuel James Reed & Martha Houser > Anna Houser Reed), he married my great-grandmother Katie Thompson, his first cousin once removed. Katie's maternal grandmother was Martha Willis (who married William F. Matthews), an older sister of Tully's mother Matilda Willis. (The Willises have a fascinating family history, but that is another story.) Tully and Katie had four children: Leila (pronounced LEE-la), Josephine, Norman and Laurie. All eventually left South Carolina. (Josephine and Laurie are back, buried in Williston Cemetery. Leila and Norman are buried in Maryland.)

Laurie Tully Reed

Tully and Katie’s youngest child, Laurie Tully Reed (1889-1939), was my grandfather. In his early twenties, Laurie left Barnwell County for Savannah, Georgia, where he got a job at a hotel and where he met and married Lula Mae Forehand (1891-1935). The newlyweds headed to New York City, where Laurie continued in hotel work. Mae returned to Savannah to give birth to their two sons, Laurie Tully Reed and Charles Forehand Reed (1919-1995), but the boys were raised in Manhattan.

Josephine Matilda Reed

Tully and Katie Reed's second child, Josephine Matilda Reed (1884-1970), was named after her two grandmothers Josephine Matthews and Matilda Willis and is my own namesake. Besides being my father's aunt, she was my mother's step-mother, connecting me to the Reeds on both sides of my family.

As a young woman, Josie was a public school teacher in Williston where she met Fred Parker, one of the other teachers. She was 30 (and surely considered an old maid by that time) when they married in 1914 in Savannah. They moved to Pantego, a small town in eastern North Carolina, where Fred took a position as high school principal and Josie continued teaching. They had no children. Mr. Parker, as Josie always referred to him, died from influenza in 1929.

In the early 1930s, my father and his brother Charles were sent to live with their aunt Josie when their mother Mae was hospitalized. They affectionately called Josie "Dodo."

Elisha Wiley Joyner, a widower, took Fred's place as principal and moved into the Pantego teacherage with his three daughters Sara, Frances (my mother), and Miriam. In 1933 Elisha and Josie married, and the Reeds and the Joyners were henceforth entwined.

L. Tully Reed at left; Frances, Miriam, & Sara Joyner on running board, cousin Catherine Brodie in rumble seat; Josie Reed Parker driving.

When my parents first met about 1931, Tully was 14, and Frances was 7. During this period until after my father graduated from Pantego High School in 1934, my parents lived in close proximity at the teacherage.


Tully Reed & Frances Joyner on their "first date" in Washington, DC, 1945

Years later, in the summer of 1945, they met up again in Washington, D.C., where my mother was working at the time, and they fell in love. It caused quite a scandal in the family when they decided to get married the following spring.

As they got older, both my father and my uncle Charles took an active interest in their family history. I have notes and various materials Daddy left behind that pointed me in the right direction when I began my own family quest a few years ago. Both Daddy and Charlie would be amazed at the resources available now for researching family history, at the details uncovered through records found on the Internet, and at the community of cousins of varying degrees that I have met through my research.

Of course, my own journey really began when, as a child, I would pour through old photo albums and listen to the stories Grandmama (Josie was the only grandmother I ever knew) told about life in Williston, South Carolina. I only wish that I could remember all of them.

Postscript

In my own family research, besides merely constructing the family tree, I am interested in the stories about my forebears and their families and their neighbors. This is one reason I love Cousin Marilyn’s blog.

The stories of the dark places we all must have in our families are fascinating to me. That most of my forebears (including, of course, the Reeds) living at a certain time of history were slave owners in the South is one of those.

Another dark part of my own family history includes the threads of mental illness that found their way into my own immediate family. My grandfather Laurie was an alcoholic, as his own father most likely was, according to my dad. My grandmother Mae suffered from a mental condition for which she was hospitalized the last four or five years of her life. My mother and my sister Katie both suffered from bipolar disorder, my mother diagnosed only in her seventies, my sister in her thirties. Both alcoholism and bipolar disorder have a genetic component, tendencies passed on through generations and triggered by life experiences, for example, my mother’s early loss of her own mother.

Finding the traces of these threads is difficult because the generations preceding us, most certainly the generation of my grandparents, just didn’t mention such things. I have found a few clues, but much will probably always remain a mystery.

Samuel Reed (1810-1887), Son of Hugh

2011-06-18T09:31:00.002-04:00

Signature on Administration Bond for his father Hugh's Estate, 2 June 1854

Samuel Reed, the second child and eldest son of Hugh and Jane McSpeddon Reed, was born 18 Oct 1810 in Barnwell County, SC. Samuel and Mary Clark Reed were his grandparents.

About 1832, Samuel married Matilda Willis (1815-1865), daughter of Robert and Keziah Watson Willis. They had 13 children.

Cyrena Kesiah Reed (1832-1893) m. William Capers Milhouse (1827-1894); both buried in Blackville Cemetery.
Martha Jane Reed (1834-1905) m1 Hugh Charles Ray (1832-1862), m2 William Jefferson Rowe (1816-1884); all three buried in Hugh Reed's Family Cemetery.
Anna Acklyn Reed (1836-1902) m. Henry P. Barr (1838-1868); Anna is buried in Hugh Reed's Family Cemetery.
Emeline Antoinette Reed (1838-1864) m. Nathan A. Walker (1836-1865); Emeline is buried in Hugh Reed's Family Cemetery. Nathan died at the Battle of Averysboro, NC in March 1865.
Robert Hugh Reed (1841-1851); buried in Hugh Reed's Family Cemetery.
Ellen F. Reed (1842-1910) m. Benjamin Franklin Rice (1832-1884)
Elliott Reed (abt 1844-1880)
Samuel Elijah Reed (1846-1889) m. Emma Warner (1854-1927); both buried in Blackville Cemetery.
Adella Ursula Reed (1848-1875) m. Rev. Samuel Prioleau Chisolm (1840-1912)
Rosa Matilda Reed (1849-1916) m. Jacob Banks; Rosa is buried at Double Branch Baptist Church in Neeses, SC.
Jerome Iverson Reed - (1853-1908) m. Hester B. "Mittie" Center (1853-1883); both are buried in Hugh Reed's Family Cemetery.
Tully Washington Reed - (1856-1910) m1 Anna Houser Reed (1856-1878), m2 Katie Thompson (1861-1929). Tully and Katie are buried at Williston Cemetery; Anna is buried in Hugh Reed's Family Cemetery.
Sissie Reed (1858-1860); buried in Hugh Reed's Family Cemetery.

Samuel and his family were members of Healing Springs Baptist Church. Minutes from the church show that Samuel joined the congregation in July 1843.

Samuel and his family are found in the 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 Federal Censuses living near Blackville in Barnwell County. His occupation was farming. The 1850 Slave Schedules shows Samuel Reed with 15 slaves. The 1860 Slave Schedule shows 33 slaves.

When Samuel's father Hugh died without a will on 10 May 1854, Samuel administered the estate. Click here to see the probate record.

After Matilda's death on 26 Nov 1865, Samuel married Jane E. _____ (1826-1868. After Jane's death, he married married Sarah A. _____ (born abt 1828).

Samuel died on 3 Mar 1887 in Barnwell County. He, his first wife Matilda, and his second wife Jane are buried in Hugh Reed's Family Cemetery.

Tombstones of Matilda, Samuel, and Jane E. Reed

From The Working Christian, Issue of March 17, 1887:
"On the 3rd of March 1887, Mr. Samuel Reed, who was in the 77th year of his age, departed this life. Bro. Reed united himself to the fellowship of the Healing Springs Baptist Church about fifty years ago."
(Source: Marriage and Death Notices from Baptist Newspapers of South Carolina, 1866-18, published in the South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research [database on-line at Ancestry.com])

Many thanks to my dear fifth cousin Josie Reed for the portrait of Samuel Reed. She snapped it from a portrait hanging in her family home in Boone, North Carolina. In the very near future you will finally get to meet Josie here. She has a treasure trove of old photographs she has graciously agreed to share with us on this site and on the photo blog. Look forward to some "can't miss" posts!

More Probate Records Found

2011-05-30T14:41:00.002-04:00

Since the last post post, I've been digging and found 18 more probate records. Here they are in alphabetical order. I have shown the "naked links" instead of embedding them for a couple of reasons. First, it's much easier for me. Second, in case clicking on the link does not work, you can cut and paste the shown link into your browser.

Some of these folks are not very closely tied to our Reeds, but they are all on my master tree. This seems to me to be the best place to share them with all sides of my family. If you have any questions about any of them, please feel free to contact me.

If you find any links I haven't listed, please share them with us!
Send an email to samuelreedfamilyATgmailDOTcom.

Aquilla Beard (son of William Beard) – Guardianship Committee by brother Thomas Beard

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004752893.004752893_00438

Asbury Martin Bozard, 1851-1924 – Orangeburg Will Book 11, pages 99-102 (images 328-330)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004754034.004754034_00651

John L. Bozard, 1822-1888 – Orangeburg Will Book 2, page 191 (not p288 as will book states) (starts image 128)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004754032.004754032_00372

Norman Cuthbert Bozard, 1880-1937 – Orangeburg Will Book 14 p5-6 (image 32-33)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004754035.004754035_00703

David Newton Callahan 1875-1947 & Frances “Fannie” Strickland Callahan 1876-1953 – will from Orangeburg County vol 15 image 283-294

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004754036.004754036_00283

Left land to Hampton & Ethel Bell; Son-in-law Laurie Strickland executor or J. O. Reed if not. Identified Hampton as their youngest son. What about George?

Jacob Cupstid / Cubsted / Cupstead, 1822-1862

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https://api.familysearch.org/records/pal:/MM9.1.i/dgs:004753610.004753610_01364

Vastine R. Cupstid, 1857-1894

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https://api.familysearch.org/records/pal:/MM9.1.i/dgs:004753632.004753632_00530

Elizabeth Fickling, 1808-1851 (daughter of Hugh & Jane McSpeddon Reed, wife of Rev. William Johnson Fickling 1806-1848, AKA Jane Elizabeth Reed)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004752890.004752890_00431

F. L. [Florence L.] Fickling, et al., Guardianship of (children of William J. & Elizabeth Reed Fickling)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004752891.004752891_00016

William Johnson Fickling, 1806-1848 (husband of Jane Elizabeth Reed who was daughter of Hugh & Jane Reed)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004752889.004752889_00553

Andrew Foster, 1782-1866 – Spartanburg County Inventories, Appraisements, Sales, 1863-1871, page 45-46 (images 389-390) https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004752992.004752992_00389

Moses Foster, 1749-1813 – Spartanburg County Wills book, 1810-1820, Vol. A, page 43 (image 32)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004752981.004752981_00032

John Hartzog 1760-1821 (father of Henry Barnard Hartzog who married Rebecca Reed)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004752877.004752877_00681

Caroline Ann Salley Milhous (1825-1897)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004753552.004753552_01451

Jane Jeter Ray, 1788-1849 (wife of Charles Ray 1785-1849)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004752889.004752889_00349

Charlie P. Reed, 1860-1935 (son of John Wiley Reed & Louvisa Hair) – will from Orangeburg county vol 13 image 199-200

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004754035.004754035_00535

Tullie W. Reed, 1856-1910 (son of Samuel Reed and Matilda Willis)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004753584.004753584_00886

Tilden F. Riley – Orangeburg Wills, 1944-1957, Vol. 16, pages 81-83 (images 69-70)

https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familysearch.org/records/pal%3A/MM9.1.i/dgs%3A004754036.004754036_00388

Digitized Treasures

2011-05-22T08:28:00.008-04:00

On May 9, FamilySearch.org released two collections that include wills, records of estates, and guardianships recorded in many South Carolina counties. Many, many thanks to Cousin Brenda White for alerting me to this release.

Folks, this is really BIG!!!

This week I have discovered much treasure, all available right here at my desk. It has been a thrilling week!

Here are links to these gold mines:

South Carolina Probate Records, Files and Loose Papers, 1732-1964

South Carolina Probate Records, Bound Volumes, 1671-1977

Although the inclusive dates span a larger range, most of the records in these collections fall between the year 1800 through 1930.

These are not simply transcripts of wills, but images of the original estate records.

Click here for a detailed description as well as some guidance on finding, using, and sourcing these records.

I must alert you that finding records on your ancestors will not be a matter of entering a name in a search engine and having the record pop up. These records are not tied to a search engine. It required a lot of looking around, discovering how the indexes on microfilm work, and a lot of hit and miss. But the effort is definitely worth it!

I am glad to tell you, however, that Barnwell County records in the Files and Loose Papers were the easiest to find, in my opinion. A tip about the index available (click here to see the index): Pages 1-6 are headers; pages 7-65 seem to be wills only; pages 66-184 are wills, estate administrations, and guardianships. Pages 185 to end seem to be a duplicate of pages 66-184. (If you find out differently, please let me know.)

When you find a person on the index whom you want to look up, jot down the date(s), number of package, and number of case. In Barnwell County, the case number will be the "bundle" number on the microfilm.

Armed with these notes, go to "Probate Court, Cases" and then click on "1787-1958." You will see a ranges of numbers (click here to see). These numbers are case/bundle numbers.

Important to note is that the case numbers go only through 170. Case numbers larger than that are not available at this time in this section. (I really do hope they are made available in the future! However, it is hard to be too disappointed, considering what has been made available.)

Pick your appropriate range. For example, Samuel Reed's will is bundle 42, pkg1, the easiest one I found because it was the first one in that range. For others, it's a matter of fishing around, looking at dates, and getting lucky enough to find a page with the beginning of a package which looks similar to this:

From one of these pages you can tell easily whether you need to go forwards or backwards in your search.

That's the best I can explain it for you at this point. It becomes sort of a game - certainly a challenge!

If you get really stuck finding someone, please leave me a comment here, and I'll be happy to see what I can do to help.

Now, for the really good stuff. Here are links that will take you straight to wills, estate administrations, guardianships, and other information I have found so far:

Samuel Reed, 1751-1823 (Husband of Mary Clark)

John Reed, 1792-1851 (Son of Samuel & Mary) John Reed was my 3gGF. Now, for the first time, I have a correct death date for him rather than the "abt 1855" we've always had!

Hugh Reed, 1783-1854 (Son of Samuel & Mary)

Samuel Reed, Jr., 1795-1847 (Son of Samuel & Mary)

Elizabeth Boylston Reed, 1797-1853 (Wife of Samuel Jr.)

Samuel J. Reed, 1826-1862 (Son of Samuel Jr. and Elizabeth Boylston Reed)

George J. Reed, 1812-1857 (Son of Hugh & Jane McSpeddon Reed) (indexed as George I. Reed, but it is actually George J.)

Major Benjamin Odom, 1758-1822 (My 4gGF, Father of Emelia Odom and Julia Odom, wives of John Reed)

Jesse Holman, 1792-1816 (First husband of Lavisa Reed 1794-1837, daughter of Samuel & Mary)

David Hair, 1791-1843 (Second husband of Lavisa Reed 1794-1837, daughter of Samuel & Mary) These records include all the fees for the care of his children with Lavisa after his death.

Guardianship of Henry Hair, (only son of David Hair with second wife Narcissa) Guardianship with his mother Narcissa H. Hair during which time Narcissa married William Stanyarne Johnson

George F. Hartzog, d 1855 (Husband of Eleanor “Nellie” Reed 1810-?, daughter of Samuel & Mary)

George F. Hartzog, 1812-1843 (First husband of Rebecca Kennerly Hartzog Reed, wife of George I. Reed. This is not the George F. Hartzog who married Eleanor “Nellie” Reed.)

Henry Barnard Hartzog, 1791-1856 (husband of Rebecca Reed 1798-1871, daughter of Samuel & Mary)

Guardianship of Levicey I. Hartzog, Et Al. (Children of Henry Bernard Hartzog, 1791-1856, and Rebecca Reed) Here is a page with information about Eleanor Reed Hartzog and her ward Levicey (daughter of her husband George F. Hartzog) that got mixed in with this set.

James Alexander Reed, 1859-1909 (Son of James W. Reed & Anna Rebecca Tyler) – will only

Daniel Hair, 1793-1846 (Father of 1- Louvisa Clementine “Clemmie” Hair who married John Wiley Reed and 2- Isaiah Hair who married Julia F. Reed. Wiley and Julia Reed were children of John Reed, son of Samuel & Mary.) Here is a page for Daniel's estate that got mixed up in David Hair's estate.

Henry B. Sanders, 1808-1835 (First husband of Narcissa H who next married David Hair and by whom she had a son named Jarvis)

William Stanyarne Johnson, 1799-1859 (Husband of Narcissa Hair after David Hair’s death) p 632- image 326 – middle of left page

p 634- image 327 – top of left page

William Beard, 1784-1851 (My 3gGF, father of Thomas Beard, grandfather of Nan Jerusha Beard who married John William Cook Reed)

William McMillan Chitty, 1798-1850 (My 3gGF, father of Catherine Chitty Beard, grandfather of Nan Jerusha Beard who married John William Cook Reed)

Jacob Cook, 1780-1861 (My 3gGF, father of William Cook, grandfather of Mary A. Cook who married James Henry Reed)

John Canady, Sr., 1750-1822 (My 4gGF, 1gGF of Mary A. Cook who married James Henry Reed)

John Canady, Jr., 1780-1851 (My 3gGF, grandfather of Mary A. Cook who married James Henry Reed)

Parents of Mary A. Cook Reed Found!

2011-05-04T11:56:00.000-04:00

This weekend I found the last bit of information to confirm the parents of my 2-great grandmother Mary A. Cook who married James Henry Reed. Most of this puzzler has been solved!

Mary's parents are William Cook (abt 1820 - before 1870) and Vesta/Vashti Canady (born 1819). She shows up with them on the 1850 census living in Barnwell County. By 1860 she was married to James Reed.

Mary and James Reed named their first son John William Cook Reed after both of his grandfathers. John was for John Reed, son of Samuel and Mary. William Cook was for Mary's father.

Mary's mother is found as Vashti early on, but was more consistently Vesta or Vesti later on. Mary and James named a daughter "Vesta Ida" who was listed as "Vesta I." on the 1870 census. She was most often known as Ida. Ida's son Samuel Reed Copeland named one of his daughters Ida Vesta Copeland.

William Cook's parents were Jacob Cook (1780-1861) and Eliza (born abt 1790). Vesta Canady's parents were John Canady (1780-1861) and Mary Johnson. Mary was born about 1800 and died after 1880. On the 1880 census, she shows up along with Vesta living with the family of Vesta's youngest daughter Ella in Rocky Springs, Aiken County, SC.

A portion of my brick wall still exists. I have yet to determine when Mary Cook Reed died or where she is buried. Also, her birthdate is still a quandary. The 1850 census has about 1839, 1860 census has 1840, 1870 says 1845, 1880 claims 1840, and 1900 has Feb 1844. I am going to use "abt 1840" until I learn something more definite.

Stanmore Judson Reed & Rachel Joanna Axson

2011-04-26T08:31:00.000-04:00

Stanmore Judson Reed & Rachel Joanna Axson about 1890

Stanmore Judson Reed was a son of James William Reed (1827-1901) and Anna Rebecca Tyler (1828-1882). He was born on 6 Sep 1862 and died on 13 Apr 1933, living all his life in Orangeburg County, SC.

In 1879, Stanmore married Rachel Joanna Axson, who was born 2 Feb 1859, a daughter of Robert Edward Axson (1829-1869) and Mary Ann Mack (1829-1880). Stanmore and Joanna had seven children. She died 7 Jul 1899.

In 1890, Stanmore married Mary Rebecca Pou (12 Dec 1877 - 2 Mar 1958). They had at least nine children that I have been able to verify.

Stanmore and Mary are buried at Riverside Cemetery in North, SC.

Rachel Joanna Axson Reed is buried at Bull Swamp Baptist Church in North, SC.

I want to express my appreciation for sharing the photos of Stanmore and Joanna to Jane Morgan Rowell, a 4-great granddaughter of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed. Stanmore was brother to her great-grandfather Michael Joshua Reed. Her line:

.Samuel Reed & Mary Clark
..Hugh Reed & Jane McSpeddon
...James William Reed & Anna Rebecca Tyler
....Michael Joshua Reed & Mary Alice Fanning
.....Nina Beatrice Reed & Purvis Oscar Maroney
......Elsie Gertrude Maroney & Edward Thurston Morgan
.......Jane Morgan

Many thanks, too, go to Jane's daughter Stephanie Rowell Murray for her help in the writing of this post. Stephanie, your willingness to share is what this genealogy business is all about as far as I'm concerned! Thank you so much!

New Blog Design

2011-04-06T09:00:00.001-04:00

As you can see, I have been working on a new design for this blog. I have been wanting to widen my post column, but the template I was using was one of Blogger's older ones that would not allow me to do that very easily. I like the way this one works so far.

Please bear with me as I make a few changes - for the better, I hope! As always, your feedback is welcomed.

Inst. and Ult. Lead Me on a Merry Chase

2011-04-01T12:17:00.002-04:00

When reading very old articles, I often run across phrases using the strange-looking abbreviations "inst." or "ult." Here are two examples:

Obituary for Swanson Lunsford from City Gazette and Daily Advertiser (Charleston, SC) 16 Aug 1799, p2. Found on www.GenealogyBank.com. Used with permission.

When used as part of a date, "inst." is an abbreviation for "instant" and means "in this same month" or "in the current month."

Obituary for George Wade from The Southern Chronicle (Camden, SC) 17 Dec 1823, p3 col3. Found on www.GenealogyBank.com. Used with permission.

"Ult." is an abbreviation for the Latin "ultimo," meaning last. When used as part of a date, it indicates the previous month.

The Merry Chase

There are issues with both of these obituaries that I discovered only this morning. They made me take a harder look at my facts. Even though these two gentlemen are on my mother's side far across my family tree from the Reeds, I cannot resist sharing this with you.

Swanson Lunsford was my 5-great grandfather. He is buried on the grounds of the South Carolina State House. (Click here to see his grave.) The obituary above states that he died on August 17, 1799. According to his tombstone, however, he died on Aug 7, 1799. In addition, neither August 7 nor 17 were on a Wednesday that year. Confusing things further is the fact that the paper was dated Aug 16! My conclusion: Stick with the tombstone date.

George Wade was my 6-great grandfather and father-in-law to Swanson Lunsford. (He is said to be buried in an unmarked grave behind his second wife's family's home here in Columbia, SC.) For years I have had his death date as 23 Oct 1823, because that's the date given on "Family Data Collection - Individual Records," a database found on Ancestry.com which is at best a secondary source. (However, it is often the only source available.) This morning I discovered that according to this obituary, he died 23 NOV 1823, not in October.

George Wade's will (click here to see) yielded the fact that he signed his will on 23 Oct 1823, his witness was sworn on 27 Nov 1823, and his executor qualified on 28 Nov 1823. My conclusion: Go with the newspaper date of 23 NOV 1823.

It pays to keep your mind open to all possibilities, especially when looking for information as old as this. It is our continual duty to "Verify, Verify,Verify!"

Obituary for James Henry Reed

2011-03-30T19:31:00.002-04:00

Transcription of Obituary for

James Henry Reed

(17 Feb 1826 - 17 May 1901)

THE BARNWELL PEOPLE

Vol XXIV No. 39, p. 3, col. 3

Thursday, May 30, 1901

BLACKVILLE NEWS

Mr. James W. Reed died on the 17^th inst., aged 77 years, and was buried in the Odom burial ground. Rev. W. D. Rice conducted the funeral services. For many years, he was a consistent member of Healing Springs Church.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I found this obituary recently on microfilm at the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina here in Columbia. Besides the fact that it has his middle initial as W instead of H (a fairly commonly found error), it poses a couple of questions.

James's birthdate on his tombstone is February 18, 1825. In the Benjamin Odom, Jr., Family Bible, it is February 17, 1826. According to this obituary, he was 77 years old when he died, which would have him born in 1824. I realize we may never know for sure, and I am okay with that. The date of death on the obituary does match the tombstone date, however.

More interesting to me is the phrase "buried in the Odom burial ground." The small plot where he is buried along with seven other relatives is on Gardenia Road in upper Barnwell County. Click here to see. I seriously doubt that more than eight graves would fit inside the chain link fence there.

The plot is on (or at least near) land that James's father John Reed bought from the estate of Benjamin Odom, his father-in-law. When Benjamin died, the land was auctioned on March 7, 1825. John Reed was the highest bidder at $2001.00. (Click here to see where this has been thoroughly documented by Bruce Odom.)

Does this make you wonder if other Odom and Reed unmarked graves might be at the same site?

How Many Samuels Do You Have?

2011-03-28T22:13:00.000-04:00

On my tree, I count seven Samuel Reeds and four others with different last names who were named Samuel Reed.

1751-1823 - Samuel Reed, husband of Mary Clark
1795-1847 - Samuel Reed, son of Samuel and Mary
1810-1887 - Samuel Reed, son of Hugh and Jane McSpeddon Reed
1826-1862 - Samuel James Reed, son of #2 above and Elizabeth Boylston
1829-1864 - Samuel Reed Boylston, son of #1's daughter Mary Reed and Austin Boylston
1835-1848 - Samuel Reed Waters, son of #1's daughter Jane Reed and Jonathan Thomas Waters
1846-1889 - Samuel Elijah Reed, son of #3 above and Matilda Willis
1862-1924 - Samuel Reed Boylston, Jr., son of #5 above and Elizabeth Rebecca Riley
1874-1874 - Samuel S. Reed, son of James William Reed (son of Hugh) and Anna Rebecca Tyler Reed
1882-1918 - Samuel Elijah Reed, Jr., son of #7 above and Emma Warner
1885-1849 - Samuel Reed Copeland, son of Ida Reed and William Riley Copeland (Ida was a daughter of James Henry and Mary Cook Reed, granddaughter of John and Julia Odom Reed, great-granddaughter of Samuel and Mary)

Other Samuels on the tree who descend from Samuel and Mary:

1823-1890 - Samuel J. Hartzog, son of Rebecca Reed (daughter of #1 above) and Henry Bernard Hartzog
1825-1899 - Samuel Ledwick Hair - son of Lavisa Reed (daughter of #1 above) and David Hair
1840-1912 - Samuel Prioleau Chisolm, son of Adella Ursula Reed (daughter of #3 above) and Samuel Prioleau Chisolm (granted, he was named after his father)
1848-?? - Samuel Powell Cooper, son of Alice Ann Reed (daughter of #2 above) and Clark Columbus Cooper
1853-1853 - Samuel Capers Milhous, son of Cyrena Reed (daughter of Hugh) and William Capers Milhous
1858-?? - Samuel E. Ray, son of Martha Jane Reed (daughter of #3 above) and Hugh Charles Ray
1860-?? - Samuel Hutchins Still - son of Ellen Rebecca Rebecca Hair (daughter of Lavisa Reed and David Hair) and Samuel Hutchins Still (yes, named after his father)
1880-1894 - Samuel Lemuel Hair - son of David Furman Hair (son of Lavisa Reed and David Hair) and Irene Sophora Addison

And, although he's not a descendant, it is interesting to note that the first name of the father of Jane McSpeddon (Hugh Reed's wife) was Samuel!

Surely these are not all. If you have any I've missed, please let me know!

NEW BLOG: Samuel and Mary Clark Reed of Barnwell Family Photos

2011-03-21T05:51:00.001-04:00

This past weekend I spent most of my time creating "Samuel and Mary Clark Reed of Barnwell Family Photos." It is a companion blog to this one that is designed to share our pictures of the descendants of Samuel and Mary Reed.

I am still working out some of the kinks, but I believe I am ready to share it with you.

The address is: http://samuelreedfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/

When you go to the blog, you will see the latest post. In the column to the right, there is a Photo Index. Click on a name to take you to the post where you will find photos of that person.

Of course, I started with photos of my own forebears. (I thoroughly enjoyed spending yesterday with my grandparents!)

In the next few weeks, I will be adding some wonderful old photos that I have received through the last few years. Please let me know if you have photographs or portraits that you would like to share. Be sure to let me know who has the original and an approximate date of the picture. Contact me at samuelreedfamily@gmail.com.

Privacy of living persons in photos will be guarded to the best of my ability. I will also do my best to give credit where credit is due and request that you do the same.

I would like to have your feedback on this photo blog idea. It may or may not be the best way to accomplish this sharing. We shall see, as time goes on, where it needs tweaking. Please let me know how it works for you, good or bad, in opening and viewing the pages. Does it take too long to load? (Picture heavy pages sometimes do.)

You will be able to leave comments on there just as you can on here. Please share your memories and knowledge with us, as well as your photos!

Michael Joshua Reed (1851-1924)

2011-03-15T06:06:00.003-04:00

~ ~ ~


Michael Joshua Reed

Michael Joshua Reed was born on April 19, 1851, the fourth of 13 recorded children of James William Reed (1827-1901) and Anna Rebecca Tyler (1828-1882).

Michael married M. Pauline Tyler, daughter of Joshua Tyler and Jane Corbitt, on March 13, 1873, in Barbour County, Alabama. They had seven children by 1887. Pauline died in Alabama, after which Michael and his family returned to South Carolina.

On December 31, 1889, Michael married Mary Alice Fanning, daughter of Joseph C. Fanning and Martha Corbett. They had eight children.

Michael Joshua Reed died on February 2, 1924. His obituary in the Augusta Chronicle stated that between 1200 and 1500 people attended his funeral and burial at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Springfield, SC!


Michael Joshua Reed and Mary Alice Fanning Reed (abt 1920)

This photograph and the one at the top of this post were sent by Roger Ganis, a great-grandson of Michael and Mary Alice Reed. Estimates place it in the early 1920s.

Michael and Mary Alice Fanning Reed (about 1890)

Stephanie Rowell Murray, a 2-great granddaughter of Michael and Mary Alice, contributed this picture.

(Remember that you can click on any of these pictures to see them larger.)

Roger also has this picture of all eight Michael and Mary Alice's children plus "Add," a son from Michael's first marriage to Pauline Tyler. It was taken before some time before Christine's death in 1956.

Children of Michael Joshua Reed

Ladies L-R: Nina Maroney, Lula Emma Fogle, Myra Johnson, Christine Hair
Men, L-R: Dallas, Clayton, [Unsure], James, and [Unsure].

Many thanks to Roger's mother Annie Mae Fogle Ganis and Myrtle Quattlebaum for identification. The two "unsures" are thought to be Addie (known as "Add") and George Arthur. Please let me know if you know which is which.

To Roger and Stephanie: Thank you very much for sharing these treasures with us. Photos like this really help our history come alive.

Sources/Verifications:
Birth and Death Dates, Parents, Burial: South Carolina Death Certificate #003063 at Ancestry.com
Marriage to Pauline: Alabama Marriage Collection 1800-1969 at Ancestry.com
Marriage to Mary Alice: William and Ann Carter Tyler and Some of their Descendants 1604-2008 by Albert L. Brodie, Jr.
M. J. Reed Obituary: Augusta Chronicle (February 8, 1924, page B3) at Genealogybank.com; used with permission.

"Many Years After" by D. Graham Copeland is Online

2011-03-11T07:47:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, the University of South Carolina Libraries Digital Collections made available online the book Many Years After, A Bit of History and Some Recollections of Bamberg with Appendix of Data Concerning a Few Bamberg County Families and their Connections by D. Graham Copeland.

Click here to see it.

I am thrilled! Seeing it all from the comfort of my desk chair sure beats bending over a microfilm reader at the South Caroliniana Library!

When you click "View Book" from the link above, it opens a viewer. Browse the column to the left for chapter headings. Test the different views available in the line above the image.

Edited 5/2/2011 to add: "The Reeds and Their Connections" chapter is on pages 379-385.

Click on "View" in the left column to see a drop-down menu. If you select "complete print version," it will download a PDF of the entire book! (664 pages and 128 MB)

Please keep in mind a couple of important points.

1) This book is a source, not a verification. I believe it is fabulous, but it remains a "jumping off point," a place to guide you to information that still needs to be verified through other sources.

2) If you use any parts of this book, please remember to mind your copyright manners. Give credit where credit is due, not just to Graham Copeland, but the USC libraries as well.

George Reed and Abigail Leger Were Not the Parents of Samuel Reed of Barnwell.

2011-03-09T17:10:00.001-05:00

There was another Samuel Reed in South Carolina in the late 1700s and early 1800s who is often confused with our ancestor Samuel Reed of Barnwell. I hope here to clear up that confusion.

Our ancestor Samuel's parents were not George Reed and Abigail Leger. George and Abigail did indeed have a son named Samuel, but he was not the one who married Mary Clark.

Information about the other Samuel:

According to the Revolutionary War record of this other Samuel (located in the National Archives and available on Footnote.com), he was a son of George Reed and was born in Lancaster County, PA, on January 26, 1749. When he was 13 years old, the family moved to Rowan County, NC, and then on to Abbeville, SC.

In 1775, this other Samuel enlisted in the militia and served for about six years in the Revolutionary War under his father Colonel George Reed, as well as others.

He remained in South Carolina until about 1800 or 1806 when he moved to Georgia. His war pension of $20.00 a year was executed on September 25, 1832, when he lived in Gwinnett County, GA.

After the death of his companion in 1840, he moved to St. Clair County, Alabama to reside with his children. He died on February 8, 1843.

A letter in this Samuel's record states that this data was obtained from the papers filed for his pension claim. It also states that this Samuel Reed was the only soldier of that name or similar spelling who served in the South Carolina troops whose record is found in the Revolutionary War records of that office.

Moving on from the war record, we have the 1790 census which shows "Capt. Saml Reed" living in Abbeville County, SC. This is the other Samuel Reed AND the only Samuel Reed on the 1790 census in South Carolina.

In a Google Books snippet from North Carolina - South Carolina Bible Records (by Jeannette Holland Austin, Heritage Books, 2008, page 244), I found "Capt. George Reid Bible" owned by Raymond M. Bell of State College, PA. It lists Capt. George Reed born 12/23/1719 in Ireland who married Abigal Leger, born in France and died in Abbeville 11/3/1786. Their children were Rosa who married Major John Rowie; Ann (Nancy) born 12/25/1747 and died 1/12/1769 who married Capt. William Raskin, Jr.; Margaret who married Hugh Reid and then William Cauder Baskin; Samuel who married Caroline Thomson; Alexander; and Joseph (Lieut.) born 6/5/1756 who married Isabella Baskin.

Information we know about our Samuel:

The dates of the Revolutionary War were 1775-1783. Our ancestor Samuel never served in the Revolutionary War. He was in Ireland at the time. His son Hugh was born in Ireland in 1783.

We know from our Samuel's will that he died in 1823 in Barnwell County, South Carolina, not in1843 in Alabama or Georgia.

The 1850 Census has Hugh Reed (Samuel and Mary's son) as being 65 years old and born in Ireland. Of course, his tombstone tells us that he was born on October 6, 1783. The war was over by then.

In researching our families, we often need to rule out people with the same name as the ancestor we are hunting. In doing so, sometimes we get to know the other person fairly well. This happened when I was looking into this other Samuel Reed. I hope this post sets the record straight regarding Samuel, son of George, and our ancestor Samuel Reed.
~

Photographs of Eula Reed Tyler's Family

2011-03-06T09:55:00.006-05:00

Some wonderful old pictures have been shared with me in the last few years, and it's time to start sharing them with you. As I work on the stories behind the ones I've received, I'll start with a couple of my own. (Remember to click on pictures to view them larger.)

Eula Reed Tyler - wife of Levy Tyler - Statesboro, Ga.

The handwriting of my grandfather John Osborne Reed (1894-1965) identifies his Aunt Eula and her family. I had this photo for 30 years before I got into genealogy and finally discovered who Eula Reed Tyler was.

Mary Eula Reed was a daughter of James Henry and Mary Cook Reed and a great-granddaughter of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed. She was born in Blackville, South Carolina, about 1869. She grew up in the Blackville/Healing Springs area of Barnwell County and was a member of Healing Springs Baptist Church.

About 1887, she married Levi Sylvester Tyler, Jr. from across the South Edisto in the Willow Swamp area. Levi was a son of Levi Silvester Tyler (1823-1864) and Catherine Thomas (1834-1904). This was not the first time Reeds and Tylers had gotten together. Levi's father was a brother of Anna Rebecca Tyler who married James William Reed (son of Hugh and Jane McSpeddon Reed).

On the 1900 census, Eula, Levi, and their four children were living in Bamberg. Living with them were Eula's parents Mary and James Reed and her younger sister Elizabeth Julia "Bessie" Reed.

On 27 April 1901, Bessie married George Edward Hudson. On 17 May 1901, Eula's father James died. (To date, I still have not found a death date for Mary Cook Reed.)

By the 1910 census, Eula's family had moved to Brier Patch in Bulloch County, Georgia. Eula and Levi remained in Bulloch County until their deaths (Eula on 6 Aug 1936 and Levi on 28 Dec 1933). They are buried at Emit Grove Baptist Church in Statesboro, Georgia.

Granddaddy drew arrows for Eula and Levi. Eula's children were Alma (1889-1951), Lee Oren (1890-1960), Bertha (1893-1964), and Clifton R. (1895-1966). It is easy to tell who the boys are (Lee standing and Clifton sitting. I am not sure who is who among the three young women.

Notice, though, how everyone is dressed up, and the young woman in the middle in the back is all in white. Could it be someone's wedding day? Alma married about 1914-15 when Clifton was 9 or 10 years old. Lee married Letitia Addie "Leta" Kearse from Barnwell County by 1910. Perhaps the woman to the far right is Leta.

Maybe this next picture will help. Or maybe not!

Front

Back

This photo was also my grandfather's. These hats were high fashion the first decade of the 20th century. The gentleman seems to have been a Mr. C. W. Pat____ (Patterson?) from Pembroke. (Pembroke is 25 miles from Statesboro.)

What do you think? Could Alma be the bride in the family group picture? Could Beulah be the young woman standing in front of Levi?

This last picture of the Tylers was marked by my grandmother "Some of Osborne Reed kin in GA name Tyler." Well, that's a start!

Look closely to see that this photo was taken at the same house as the family group picture. I never dreamed I would ever know who these people were, but, after a great deal of research on Ancestry.com and some pretty hard squinting, I am ready to make a guess.

Please remember that this is my best guess, and, while I believe it's a pretty good guess, I cannot vouch for its accuracy.

The man on the left would be Lee Oren Tyler about age 27. The man stooping would be Clifton R. Tyler at 21. Eula's first five grandchildren were all boys and were born in 1910, 1913, 1915, 1915, and 1916. The youngest baby here looks to be around a year old. Assuming these are Eula's first five grandchildren, this picture was taken about 1917.

The oldest child would be Lee's son Cleveland Furman Tyler at about age 6. The next child in the line would be Lee Oren Tyler, Jr. at about age 4. I'm going to venture a guess that the man on the right is Alton Howard, Alma Tyler's husband, at about 32 years, and that the child next to him is his son Willard at about age 2. The child in the middle I guess to be Clifton's son Jesse Clifton Tyler at about a year old. Peeking around him would be Lee's son Daniel Elbert Tyler at about 2 years old.

I realize I am really sticking my neck out with these guesses. I certainly hope that anyone who can actually verify who these folks were will contact me here. Just post a comment below or write to me at samuelreedfamilyATgmailDOTcom.

If anyone is interested in verification of the actual facts stated herein, please contact me at the same email.
~

Stanmore Edward Reed, 1935-2011

2011-02-24T08:36:00.000-05:00

Stanmore Edward Reed was a 3-great grandson of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed.

His line:

Samuel Reed & Mary Clark

> Hugh Reed & Jane McSpeddon

>>James William Reed & Anna Rebecca Tyler

>>>Stanmore Judson Reed & Mary Rebecca Pou

>>>>Hudson Reed & Lila Mae Justus

>>>>>Stanmore Edward Reed

COLUMBIA - Dr. Stanmore Edward Reed, husband of Annabel Wessels Reed and a retired Columbia physician, passed away February 22, 2011, surrounded by his wife and five children.

He was born in Swansea, the first son of Lila and Hudson Reed. He grew up in Swansea and Columbia. Dr. Reed was a 1953 graduate of Dreher High School and 1959 graduate of the University of South Carolina. Following graduation, he taught science at Brookland-Cayce High School. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston in 1964. He served in a rotating internship at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and established a general practice in Columbia from 1965-1967. He returned to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis to complete his OB/GYN residency and moved back to practice this specialty with Dr. Strother Pope in Columbia in 1970.

Dr. Reed served at Palmetto Health Baptist Hospital in Columbia for more than 40 years as a physician, chief of staff (1976), and chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He served on the board of trustees for over 17 years. When asked how he was doing, Dr. Reed will always be remembered by his humble response, "Better than I deserve."

He was an active member of Rosewood Baptist Church where he was encouraged and supported by many people throughout his life. He later became an active member of Beulah Baptist Church. He served in many capacities at both churches, primarily as a deacon and a member of the choir.

In addition to his wife of 46 years Dr. Reed is survived by five children, Emily Reed Baratta (Doug) of Holly Springs, N.C., Dr. Elizabeth Geer of Thomasville, Ga., Stanmore Edward Reed Jr. of Seattle, Wash., Dr. Julie Reed of Columbia, David Reed (Brooke) of Hopkins; two brothers, George Reed of Cayce, and Robert Reed of Suwanee, Ga.; seven grandchildren, Jordan, Hunter and Taylor Baratta of Holly Springs, Kelsey and Hannah Geer and Joseph Garmon of Thomasville, Hayden Reed of Hopkins. He was preceded in death by his brother, Joe Ivan Reed of Mebane, N.C.

Dr. Reed spent his lifetime serving and blessing others through his work and his outstanding example of Christian character.

The family will receive friends 6-8 p.m. Thursday, February 24, 2011, at Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel. The service will be held 2 p.m. Friday at Rosewood Baptist Church.

Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 3223 Sunset Blvd. #100, West Columbia, SC 29169, Rosewood Baptist Church Roof Fund, 2901 Rosewood Drive, Columbia, SC 29205 or Palmetto Health Baptist, c/o Palmetto Health Foundation, Dept. 274, P.O. Box 100199, Columbia, SC 29202.

Published in The State on February 24, 2011, Columbia, South Carolina.

Guest book Here.
Source: Legacy.com

Ellen

2011-01-31T13:10:00.003-05:00

Mary Ellen Reed Fuseler was a 4-great granddaughter of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed. And she was my sister and best friend.

I promised that I would tell you more about her. Her obituary written by her son Hank and published in The State does the job beautifully.

"A memorial service for Mary Ellen Reed Fuseler, 58, will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday, August 11, 2010, at St. Joseph Catholic Church. Visitation will be held from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel.

"Mrs. Fuseler died August 6, 2010. Born July 8, 1952, in Suffolk, Va., she was a daughter of Rev. J.O. Reed Jr. and Mary Duke McLeod Reed. She was a graduate of St. Andrews High School in Charleston and U.S.C. School of Nursing. She worked for the S.C. Department of Mental Health, S.C. Dept. of Corrections and S.C. Blue Cross Blue Shield. She was a board member and sang alto in Arpad Darazs Singers. As a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church, she also sang alto in the church choir. She loved fishing and grilling out. She also enjoyed spending time with friends and playing MegaTouch.

"Surviving in addition to her parents of Lexington are her husband, Henry William Fuseler III of Columbia; sons, Hank Fuseler (Cara Freije) of Asheville, Joey Fuseler (Erin Andreas) of Lexington; her dog, Rudy; brothers, Jim Reed (Jeanne) of Florence, Pete Reed (Anne) of Arlington, Va., Phil Reed of Lexington; sister, Marilyn Thomson (David) of Columbia; numerous nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by a brother, John O. Reed III.

"Memorials may be made to CaringBridge (caringbridge.org) Donation Prosessing Center, PO Box 131447, Houston, TX 77219-1447, American Cancer Society, S.C. Chapter, 128 Stonemark Lane, Columbia, SC 29210 or St. Joseph Catholic Church Choir Fund, 3600 Devine Street, Columbia, SC 29205."

The State, Columbia, South Carolina; August 8, 2010, page B14

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This past spring and summer I had the privilege of spending a lot of time with my sister going to and fro her radiation and chemo therapies, shopping, doctor visits, hospital stays, shopping, and more shopping. My son Ian accompanied us on the shopping visits to help with the wheel chair. We couldn't have done it without him.

Ellen & Ian at the grocery store


Ellen's favorite place on earth was on her deck. No matter the weather.

The beach was her next favorite place.

And fishing a favorite pastime.

Ellen with her husband Henry and sons Joey and Hank

When Ellen was diagnosed with cancer in May 2009, it had already metastasized to her bones. The primary cancer was never found. She defied all the projections that she had just a few months to live. She fought fiercely and bravely, never giving up. To read more about her journey, click here to visit her Caring Bridge Journal.

Ellen at Huntington Beach

2011-01-28T14:23:00.000-05:00

George Byron Reed IV sent the following information on his father, GBR III, to add to his original post. Thank you, Byron, for sharing your family with us!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My father, George Byron Reed III, was born in Cameron S.C. on July 14, 1913. At the time, Cameron was a small "country town" with a railroad track down the middle. His father had been the preacher at the Cameron Baptist Church and at the Baptist church in North, S.C., but died in the Influenza Epidemic of 1918.

GB, as he was known, fished in Four Holes Swamp and went with his mother each summer when she tutored math at Furman University in Greenville. He attended Furman, participated in the Glee Club, and graduated in 1934. He married Sarah Elizabeth Kiser in 1940, and they built a house at 5 Claremore Ave. in Greenville. During World War II, GB was an Army Civil Servant working at the Greenville Airport.

After college he had initial jobs at Sears, Thom McAnn shoes, and a mill in Greenville. Then about 1948, GB began working for Crane Company. Twenty years later, with a group of investors, he bought the local branch as it had evolved (Mechanical Supplies, Inc) in Greenville. That company was sold to Hajoca Inc. in 1978.

GB and Sarah had three children: George Byron, Sylvia Jean, and Robert Kiser. George Byron Reed III died August 5, 1979, and is buried beside Sarah in Manning, South Carolina.

Lest We Forget

2010-11-11T16:14:00.001-05:00

This is a link to last year's post on Veterans Day: Veterans Day Remembrances

May we never forget.

I ran across this interesting page today about the places in South Carolina where our troops trained for World War I.

In honor of Veterans Day, Ancestry.com is granting free access to all of its U. S. military records today through Sunday (November 11-14). If you are not a member of Ancestry, you will need to register (also free). Click here to get started.

Ellen Reed Fuseler (1952-2010) and John Osborne Reed III (1947-2004)

Mixing It Up at Salem Baptist Church in North, SC

2010-10-16T10:42:00.006-04:00

Salem Baptist Church; 11434 North Rd.; North, SC; GPS: 33.65103, -81.14929

On Friday, October 7, my son Ian and I traveled to Lexington, Orangeburg, and Calhoun counties on our first graveyarding trip in a great while. We covered about 150 miles, visited 10 cemeteries, took 204 pictures, and encountered hundreds of sand spurs. Despite the sand spurs, it was one of our most successful trips to date. We found many relations on both sides of my grandparents Osborne and Carrie Reed's families, but I want to share with you what I consider to be the “find” of the day.

At Salem Baptist Church in North, SC, I was delighted to find the grave of Louvisa Clementine “Clemmie” Hair Reed!

Before this, I had no firm dates for her and had no idea where she might be buried. Thanks to our cousin Sharon Crowley, we know that her husband John Wiley Reed is buried in a Reed plot on Gardenia Road near Blackville, SC, along with his mother Julia, brother James Henry (my 2g-grandfather), and five other family members. Finding Clemmie’s grave gives me hope for my chances of finding my 2g-grandmother Mary Cook Reed’s grave.

Six of Wiley and Clemmie Reed’s nine recorded children and some of their families are buried at Salem:

Ann Ophelia (1853-1931) and her husband Joseph Middleton Harley (1856-1925)

Charity Eva (1863-1929) and her husband John Flake (1854-1927)

Benjamin W. (1867-1906) and his first wife Arlina C. Harley (1872-1896)

James Wiley (1870-1956) and his wife Donie E. Porter (1876-1956)

Emma Corean Reed Livingston (1872-1953)

Americus (1874-1932) and his wife Margaret Isabelle “Maggie” Livingston (1875-1958)

The three children not at Salem are:

John Daniel Reed (October 15, 1855 – October 19, 1855) – unknown at this time.

George Byron (1857-1929) and his wife Rowella Hydrick (1860-1937) buried at Bull Swamp Baptist near North, SC

Charles Pickens (1860-1935) buried at Jeremiah Jones Family Cemetery near Sawyerdale, SC.

Click here for a link to my entry for Clemmie on Find-a-Grave. From there you can navigate to entries for Wiley and all of their children. Click here to see all the interments recorded at Salem so far. We weren't home long before Ian and I realized we need to go back (for the third time) to photo some we missed. No problem! It's a lovely drive of only 37 miles from home with lots of family history along the way.

Mixing It Up

Lately I’ve been finding quite a few cases where our allied families are all intertwined, and this family is no exception. Clemmie was the daughter of Daniel and Charity Hair. Her father was a brother to David Hair who married Lavisa Reed, daughter of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed. Clemmie and her brother Isaiah married siblings, John Wiley and Julia F. Reed, children of John and Julia Odom Reed.

The Livingstons mix in here, too. Emma C. Reed was married to Austin Livingston. Her brother Americus married Austin’s niece Maggie, daughter of Austin’s twin brother Paul. Maggie’s mother was Rachel Hydrick, sister to Rowella Hydrick, wife of George Byron Reed. Top that all off with the fact that Austin and Paul are related to me on my grandmother Carrie Strickland Reed’s side of the family! Grandmama’s maternal grandmother was Jane Livingston Cupstid who shares the same 2gGF with Austin & Paul, making them third cousins.

In addition to all these Reed relations at Salem, one of the first tombstones you see when you enter the gate is that of Samuel L. and Leila Strickland Boles. Aunt Leila was my grandmother Carrie Strickland Reed's sister.

But wait, here’s another: Clemmie and Wiley’s son Charles “Charlie” Pickens Reed’s first wife was Deborah Knotts (1862-1914). Her grandfather Thomas Jones was my 5g-grandfather on my mother’s side of the family. Jeremiah Jones, in whose family cemetery Charlie is buried, was my 4-great grandfather and Deborah Knotts Reed’s uncle.

And that’s not all … Rowella Hydrick Reed figures into so many of our family members, and I’ve gone to her Ancestry profile so many times in the last month that I probably should have put the link on my taskbar. I’ve come to “know” her as an amazing, brave woman, so I will save the Rowella connection for its own post. It will involve Reed, Hydrick, Friday, O'Brien, Boles, Livingston, Robinson ... and more. You'll find out why Ian says he's not going to marry any girl from South Carolina for fear of being kin to her!

My Sister Ellen

2010-08-07T09:45:00.001-04:00

Mary Ellen Reed Fuseler

My beautiful, brave sister Ellen died yesterday morning. She valiantly fought health problems for the last five years and most recently a 15 month struggle with cancer. I will tell you more about her as soon as I can. For now, I just want you all to know. This is extremely hard. I miss her more than I ever imagined. Please keep us in your prayers, especially her husband Henry, her sons Hank and Joey, and my parents, Joe & Mary Duke Reed.

Visitation will be Tuesday, August 11, 6-8pm at Dunbar Funeral Home on Devine St. here in Columbia. Memorial Service will be Wednesday, August 12, 3pm at St. Joseph Catholic Church also on Devine St. here in Columbia.

Eulogy for William D. "Bill" Reed

2010-05-08T11:46:00.003-04:00

Eulogy for William David Reed
Lexington Baptist Church
May 3, 2010
By J. O. Reed, Jr.

Lamentations 3:7
“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness, The Lord is my portion, says my soul, Therefore I hope in Him!”

The saga of William David Reed begins in the mercies of God. The story commences when a red headed Irish young man met a raven haired young woman on the University of South Carolina campus. His name: John Osborne Reed. Hers: Carrie Belle Strickland, a nurse student in the infirmary. Of this union came six children: Myself, J. O. Junior; another little lad who didn’t survive and went to Heaven as a babe; then Carolyn, Bob, Florrie, and Bill.

William David … Mama had a way of honoring the attending doctor; hence the David from Dr. David Brocker in Swansea. A giant of a baby and a giant of a man. One of his long legs was broken at birth. Can you imagine an infant in a splint? Those legs and arms and stature grew tall and strong.

I can’t believe I was trusted to hold him while Mama shopped at Belk for all of us. Later, I had the chore of helping him with his turn in the Saturday night washtub family bath and earned the rebuke of my Uncle Kense Strickland when I impatiently popped Bill on his naked leg.

But one vignette I’ll share: Bill, a youngster then, along with a friend and I accompanied Dad all the way to Lancaster one day on Highway business. The day was long, hot, and tiresome. In our fun making, we older boys invited Bill to “shake on it.” Tired as he was, he offered his right hand palm side up and gave us his look which said, “You rascals!” So, he’s had to be patient with me a lot of times down life’s path.

But let me share a sweet note that triggers the parable of his life. Of all the things I’ve heard his girls say is this: “Dad found a way to get things done.” This roots well into a great scripture about the Lord, Isaiah 40:3: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth.” Add to this the poet’s word: “To every man there openeth A way, and ways, and a way. And the high soul climbs the high way, And the low soul gropes the low: And in between, on the misty flats, The rest drift to and fro. But to every man there openeth A high way and a low, And every man decideth. The way his soul shall go.” [John Oxenham]

Bill was the only one of us who caught the vision of our Dad to be an engineer of highways – the Highway Department. This noble task: “The Highway Department” now the “Department of Transportation.”

The other word of scripture for you: Jesus in John 14:7 said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” Bill saw in his Lord the way to go, the truth to know, the life to live. Not just to work for the South Carolina Highway. He shared God’s work as a Gideon in hotels, motels, classrooms, nurses’ stations, detention centers, and around the world. He introduced people behind bars to the giver of true freedom and life. His neat affirmation when he heard truth was, “Oh yes!”

So, I choose to celebrate the noble Bill, father of four, devoted husband, and my big baby brother. And for all the people who get home safely today riding on roads and bridges he helped to build and maintain, I would say to Bill and family: Thank you. And from all of his family, I say to him: Thank you for loving us, even if you have to leave us for a while.

Now just this word: as Paul Harvey said, “The Rest of the Story.” You see it today in the bright eyes, happy smiles, and determined dedication of his family here present and in the eternal ripple effect of every jail visit, Bible shared, Sunday school lesson taught. YOU are the rest of the story. Your legacy is to choose the high way of life who is the Lord Jesus Christ, to take seriously the claim of love that Jesus has on your life, to join Bill in hearing Jesus say: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter the joys of your Lord.”

[This eulogy was given at Bill's funeral by my father, Joe Reed.]

William D. Reed, 1931-2010

2010-05-03T06:44:00.002-04:00

William David “Bill” Reed died on Saturday, May 1, 2010. He was born in Swansea, South Carolina, on April 10, 1931, the youngest child of John Osborne Reed and Carrie Belle Strickland Reed. He was a great-great-great grandson of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed and my dear uncle.

The Reeds moved from Swansea to Lexington in 1933. Bill graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1959 with a degree in civil engineering. He followed his dad into a lifelong career at the South Carolina Department of Transportation, retiring in 1994. A member of Lexington Baptist Church, he was a Sunday school teacher for over 25 years, a longtime Gideon, chaplain at Lexington County Jail, and Boy Scout leader.

He is survived by his wife Mary Ella Jordan Reed of Lexington; his daughters, Cynthia Nowak (Jonathan), Margaret Williams (Ron), Mary Allen (Chuck) and Rebekah "Becky" Beck, all of Lexington; his brothers and sisters, Rev. J.O. Reed, Jr. (my father) of West Columbia, Carolyn Grobe of Columbia, Florrie Brown of Lexington and Robert E. Reed, Sr., of Lexington; 10 grandchildren (Heather, James, Adrienne, Caitlin, Ethan, Will, Meghan, Carter, Jordan and Joleen) and three great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 2pm on Tuesday, May 4 at Lexington Baptist Church with interment in Lexington Memorial Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 6pm until 8pm on Monday, May 3 at Caughman-Harman Funeral Home in Lexington. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Gideon's International, 5106-B Two Notch Road, Columbia, SC 29204 or Prison Ministries.

The Family of John Osborne Reed Sr. and Carrie Belle Strickland Reed

Back, L to R: Bob, Florrie, Carolyn, Bill

Front, L to R: Joe, Osborne, Carrie

(Portrait taken about 1945)

Obituary from The State at Legacy.com.

General Sherman Meets the Reed Family

2009-12-07T15:21:00.005-05:00

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?

2009-11-22T11:51:00.001-05:00

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

2009-11-21T10:29:00.016-05:00

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?

2009-11-14T11:38:00.007-05:00

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

2009-11-11T16:39:00.003-05:00

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

2009-10-30T15:14:00.001-04:00

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

2009-10-26T09:42:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-21T22:46:00.010-04:00

.
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 the English 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 English bond 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

2009-10-20T20:00:00.003-04:00

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.

Preview of Visit to Samuel Reed's Home

2009-10-09T05:57:00.000-04:00

Chet Matthews, the owner of the Samuel Reed Home, contacted me recently. Today, my son Ian and I are going to Blackville to meet Chet, tour the home, and learn all we can.

Here are some pictures Chet has sent already of before and after the restoration done in 1997-98. More pictures and info coming soon!

Some Good Questions About Subscribing to this Blog

2009-10-07T10:10:00.000-04:00

I received an e-mail this morning from a new-to-me cousin who recently found this blog. He is thinking of subscribing, but he had a few very good questions first. I thought it would be a good idea share with everyone his questions and my response.

His questions:
1. What is FeedBurner?
2. What does it cost to subscribe?
3. What information is needed to subscribe?

My response:
For my purposes, FeedBurner is simply a way for readers of this blog to get an e-mail every time I post rather than having to check periodically to see if I've posted anything new. FeedBurner is used by some bloggers and websites to scrutinize and analyze their readers - usually for commercial purposes. Since there are no "commercial purposes" connected to my blog, my use of FeedBurner is quite simple.

It is 100% free for you and me both. (Good thing these days!)

The only information required from you is your e-mail address. Simply type your e-mail address in the slot provided and click on "Subscribe." A "Email Subscription Request" screen will open that asks you to letters or numbers in the image shown (spam prevention device). Click here to see what this screen looks like. Once you successfully type in the letters/numbers, you will see this screen.

Next, you will get an e-mail from Feedburner asking you to verify your e-mail address. Click on the appropriate link in the e-mail, and that's all there is to it! (This step is required for the process to work at all.) When you see this screen, you're in!

After that, every time I post a new article, you will receive an e-mail with a link to the post. Click here to see an example of such an e-mail.

Since the e-mail comes from Samuel Reed’s Gmail account, it is recommended that you add that address to your address book so that the notices do not get caught in your spam filter. His address is: samuelreedfamily AT gmail DOT com. (Remember, of course, to replace the AT with @, the DOT with a period, and include no spaces. I’m trying to avoid spam trolls, too!)

I hope that having a little more knowledge about the process will encourage more subscribers! Many thanks to our cousin for asking these questions and inspiring this post.

On My Mind Lately: Sources and Verifications

2009-10-04T17:21:00.000-04:00

The blog has been quiet lately, but don't think for a second that I'm lagging. I'm working on several posts that are taking some time to gather and get just right. Meeting my own standard for assuring that every word I write is as dead correct as possible does tend to slow me down sometimes! I have no plans for lowering that standard, but I do find myself feeling the need to interject phrases such as "according to so-and-so," or words like "purported" or “supposed” more and more often.

This brings me to a topic that has been on my mind a lot lately: Sources versus Verifications. Surely there are tons of articles out there on the subject, but I want to share with you what I’ve been pondering. If you read this blog, it’s important to me that you know how I think about such things.

Sources – To me, the word “source” is a widely collective term simply for where you got a piece of information. We like to show sources for our info, because we don’t want folks to think we just made it up! Sources include everything from actual verifications (see below) to published trees to newspaper articles and obits, to what your grandmother told you on the back porch one afternoon in 1978 … to name just a few. Some sources you can take to the bank, some need to be listed as “unverified,” and some you know have errors when you see them.

Verifications – For my purposes, verifications are primary sources that prove (or come as close as possible to proving) a name, date, place, or event, etc. Verifications include, but are not limited to, certificates of birth, marriage, death, census images (or transcriptions if images unavailable).

While these sorts of documents are very good verifications, even they are not always 100% correct. The only such documents I can claim are ab-so-lute-ly, po-si-tive-ly (read that syllable by syllable with the best Southern drawl you can muster) 100% correct are my two sons’ birth certificates. I was there! I filled out the form with the info, and I verified it before they took it to file (removed the “p” they wanted to insert in my last name – both times). But even so, you have to take my word for it. With such documents, we have to take the word of the person responsible for the information thereon. Sometimes I know what I see on some of these is incorrect (such as my great-grandmother’s death certificate where my great-uncle didn’t get her father’s name correct).

Do we ignore the sources we see that have errors? No, I don’t think so. I feel a responsibility to acknowledge a faulty source and point out what I see there – the accurate along with the inaccurate – as politely as I possibly can. (Always, always politely. Who knows, this person just might have that one piece of the puzzle you need to firm up your great-grandmother’s parentage!) Of course, I need to back up my interpretations with some pretty darn good verification, or it becomes simply my opinion. If my opinion is all that I have, then I am compelled say so.

Consider the Manning Files – volumes and volumes and volumes of data with very little sourcing. They accepted reams of information from many people and simply published it. It was a gigantic task to do no more than that. There’s absolutely no way they could have verified every name, event, date, and place. But they make sure to tell you just that.

Publications such as this, along with sources such as published or online trees, become a “Jumping Off Point” for verifying information. Do I quote them? Maybe – but always simply as a source, not necessarily a verification. I use such information as a guide for where to start seeking actual verification.

Recently I was reading about a distant, long ago cousin (let’s call her Clara) in a tome compiled by someone whose data I hold in high esteem. I noticed that he had listed a death date for Clara as four years before the date he listed for her marriage to a particular man (let’s call him Jack J.). This set off a few hours of looking around (I love this sort of stuff!). First thing I found was Jack on the 1900 and 1910 censuses with Clara and the children that were listed in the book. The 1910 census showed them married precisely the number of years that verified the marriage date in the book. Then I found Jack’s death certificate that showed him as widower of “late Clara J.” Seeking further confirmation, I found an obituary on GenealogyBank.com for Clara that named Jack and all four children that had been listed in the book. Bingo! She was buried in the same cemetery as her husband. I ended up with her life verifiable by four censuses and one obituary. Good enough for me!

Am I going to tell you who these people really were? Not here. Am I going to tell the writer of the book what I found? Absolutely – but as graciously as I possibly can! The Golden Rule applies here in a big way. I would certainly want someone to point out my glitches to me privately, giving me the opportunity to amend and acknowledge my own mistakes.

Oftentimes I list conflicting information as “alternate” information, providing sources, of course. Case in point is the birthdate of James Henry Reed, my 2gGF. His tombstone has his birthdate as 18 Feb 1825. The family Bible of his uncle Benjamin Odom, Jr., has his birthdate as 17 Feb 1826. I list both dates and their sources on my tree.

So then, at some point, with some things, we have to simply choose what we’re going to believe. Once we’ve gathered all the data we can find and it doesn’t all necessarily agree, we have to decide what we’re going to go with. For example, after considering all the information I've been able to find regarding Hugh Reed, I chose to go with Hugh’s tombstone for his birth and death dates and the 1850 census along with his wife Jane’s tombstone for his birthplace. This decision has several implications, not the least of which is the fact that Samuel Reed could not have served in the Revolutionary War if his first son was born in Ireland in 1783. (I realize this disappoints quite a few dear DAR ladies, but that’s a story for a different post – one of the ones I’ve been working on.)

Bottom line: I will verify as much as I can with the most impeccable sources I can find. If I cannot, I will state plainly the source, acknowledging it as simply a source, not necessarily a verification.

I am not perfect; no one is. If you see a mistake I have made or if you disagree with any of my conclusions, please (gently) let me know.

Another thing I want you to know is that when I publish articles such as the ones from Henry Singer, Byron Reed, and Will Miller, a great deal of back and forth e-mailing goes on before you ever see the article. It’s very important to me that I not misquote these wonderful contributors to our story, that I put it out there precisely as they intended.

I would love to know what you think about these musings. How do you handle it when you find that a piece of information doesn’t ring true? Are there times that you have had to make a decision as to what to believe?

Samuel Reed is now on Facebook!

2009-10-03T15:04:00.001-04:00

It's fun to imagine what our ancestors would think of the technology we use today. I feel sure Samuel and Mary had no inkling that their great-great-great-great (and more greats) grandchildren would be communicating with each other in real time from all over the world.

Today I began a group on Facebook titled "Samuel Reed Family." If you are already on Facebook, please come join us. Then spread the word to your family about the group. If you're not on Facebook already, please consider signing up.

We can meet more kinfolk this way, and that should be a lot of fun. It will be an easier way for us to share pictures and stories. I hope you will join. Then I hope you will participate! Share!

Hope to see you there!

EDITED TO ADD: As of 7:30 pm on Sunday, 10/4/09, we have 13 people who have joined the group!

Cousins Explained - A Handy Chart

2009-09-21T19:51:00.000-04:00

Click here to see the chart I use to determine "cousinship." It is an adaptation of the chart found in the Wikipedia article Cousin. Click here to see the article. I would like to show this chart directly here, but it would need to be too small to read!

How to Subscribe to This Blog

2009-09-20T08:08:00.001-04:00

Tired of checking to see if I've posted anything new? Here is a very simple solution.

In the skinny column of this page, you will see "Follow by Email." Enter your e-mail address in the blank, and click on "Submit."

Shortly after, you will receive an e-mail asking you to click on a link to verify your address.

That's all there is to it! Then, each time I post you will receive an e-mail notification.

Sure beats checking often and finding nothing new!

Verifying Information: Mary Clark Reed

2009-09-17T07:31:00.000-04:00

Birth: As with Mary's husband Samuel Reed and father Malcom Clark, I have no proof of Mary's date or place of birth. Do you? It is believed she was born in Ireland about 1762.

Residence in 1800, 1810, and 1820: In the censuses of these years, I believe we can safely assume that Mary is the eldest female listed on her husband Samuel's listings. Click here for details on these years.

Residence in 1830: Barnwell District, South Carolina; listed on Ancestry.com as "Mary Rud" (transcription error). Listed are one female age 70 to 80 (Mary) and one female age 20 to 30 (possibly daughter Ellen/Eleanor) plus 15 slaves (8 males and 7 females). Sons Samuel and Hugh are listed nearby on the same census page.
Source: 1830 Federal Census; Census Place: Barnwell, South Carolina; Roll 169; Page: 181.

Residence in 1840: Barnwell District, South Carolina. Listed are one female age 70 to 80 (Mary) and one female age 30 to 40 (not sure who this might be at this point. Ideas?) plus 23 slaves (12 males and 11 females). Living nearby are Mary's daughter Ellen and her husband George Hartzog, Mary's daughter Jane and her husband Jonathan T. Waters, and Mary's granddaughter Elizabeth (Hugh's daughter) and her husband William J. Ficklin[g]. On the same page are listed two Samuel Reeds designated as "sen" and "jun." The senior would be Mary's son Samuel, but his son Samuel was only 14 years old at the time. Therefore, I believe the junior to be Hugh's son Samuel.
Source: 1840 Federal Census; Census Place: Barnwell, South Carolina; Roll 508; Page: 187.

Death: Believed to be about 1846. Does anyone have good documentation for this date?

Verifying Information: Malcom Clark

2009-09-11T20:59:00.001-04:00

Name: Malcom spelled his name M-A-L-C-O-M C-L-A-R-K on most of the plats he signed as a surveyor. On a few it is spelled "Malcolm" and/or "Clarke." (Of course, when searching online for information about him, you will usually see it spelled "Malcolm." Be sure to use all spellings for the most thorough search.)
Source: South Carolina Department of Archives and History website

Birth: I have seen no absolute verification proving where or when he was born. It has been generally accepted that he was born in Ireland about 1730. But was he?

Possible Arrival in America: 1768. Two Clarks were on the passenger list of the The Snow Betty Gregg which sailed out of Larne, Antrim, Northern Ireland October 4, 1767, and arrived in Charlestown before February 2, 1768. No first names are given. While it is quite possible that these Clarks were Malcom and his son Hugh, it is not definite.
Source: South Carolina Ships' Lists by Betty Proctor

Occupation 1771-1774: Surveyor. Images of some of the plats he surveyed dated 1771-1774 are available at the SC Dept. of Archives and History website.
Source: South Carolina Department of Archives and History website

Property in 1774: On October 25 and 26, 1774, surveyor Thomas Platt wrote two plats for Malcom 's own land "in Orangeburgh District situate on the South Side of the South Fork or Prong Edistow River."
Source: South Carolina Department of Archives and History website

Public Service in 1775 and 1776
1775 - Justice of the Quorum for Orangeburgh District. (page 248*) (A Justice of the Quorum exercised notarial rather than judicial duties.)
April, 1776 - Nominated by the General Assembly and commissioned by President Rutledge as a Justice of the Peace for Orangeburgh District. (page 265*)
Source: *The History of Orangeburg County, South Carolina (by A. S. Salley, Jr., 1898, R. Lewis Berry, Printer, Orangeburg, SC). Click here to see this book in its entirety on Google Books.

Residence in 1778: Orangeburg District, South Carolina
Source: Jackson, Ron V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp.. South Carolina Census, 1790-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 1999.

Death: About 1785 as evidenced by the auction of his land and possessions in March, 1786, in accordance with his last will and testament
Source: Advertisement in Columbian Herald, Columbia, SC, on March 20, 1786

Verifying Information: Samuel Reed

2009-09-10T12:39:00.004-04:00

Verification is a continual process. As I "polish" my data, I will share with you my sources and even some questions, too.

Birth. The prevailing wisdom is that Samuel Reed was born in Ireland. 1750 and 1751 are dates I have seen online, especially on Ancestry.com's trees. Does anyone have a clue as to the origin of this date?

Residence in 1800: "South Side of Edisto River;" listed as Samuel Read.
Shows 2 males 0-10 (John and Samuel); 1 male 10-16 (Hugh); 1 male 26-45 (Samuel); 3 females 0-10 (Rebecca, Lavisa, Margaret); 1 female 10-16 (Jane); 1 female 26-45 (Mary)
Source: 1800 Federal Census; Census Place: Orange, Orangeburg District, South Carolina; Roll 49, Page 505, Image 113.

Residence in 1810: Barnwell Township, Barnwell County, South Carolina; listed as Samuel Reid.
Shows 1 male 10-16 (son Samuel); 2 males 16-26 (Hugh and John); 1 male 45+ (Samuel); 2 females 0-10 (Ellen & Mary); 2 females 10-16 (Lavisa & Rebecca); 2 females 16-26 (Margaret & Jane); 1 female 45+ (Mary).
Source: 1810 Federal Census; Place: Barnwell, Barnwell, South Carolina; Roll 60, Page 162, Family History Number 0181419, Image 00092

Residence in 1820: Barnwell, Barnwell County, South Carolina
Shows 1 male 16-26 (son Samuel); 2 males 45+ (Samuel & unknown male); 1 female 10-16 (Ellen); 2 female 16-26 (either Margaret, Mary, or Lavisa); 1 female 45+ (Mary).
Source: 1820 Federal Census; US GenWeb Archives, Index of 1820 Barnwell SC Census (http://www.usgwarchives.org/sc/barnwell/census/1820/0009a.gif)

Death: About November 1, 1823
Will: Recorded November 14, 1823
Source: South Carolina Department of Archives and History website (Reed, Samuel of Barnwell District, Will Typescript (MSS Will: Book B, page 186; Estate Packet: Bundle 42, Package 1). Link:
http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/onlinearchives/Thumbnails.aspx?recordId=296532

Michael Joshua Reed Family Reunion

2009-09-09T10:41:00.001-04:00

Descendants of Michael Joshua Reed* and Mary Alice Fanning Reed are invited to a reunion at 1:00 PM on Sunday, September 27, 2009. It will be held in the fellowship hall of Denmark First Baptist Church, 433 Beech Ave. in Denmark, SC. (GPS Coordinates: 33.322788,-81.141543 OR 33° 19' 22.0368", -81° 8' 29.5542")

Bring your favorite foods! Drinks, ice, and paper goods will be furnished. Bring family photos and information and meet a lot of cousins!

E-mail questions to samuelreedfamilyATgmailDOTcom, and they will be forwarded to reunion organizers.

Please send me your reunion announcements. I'll be happy to post them here. Many thanks to our cousins Myrtle Quattlebaum of Blackville and Jane Morgan Rowell of Denmark for this information!

*Michael Joshua Reed > James William Reed & Anna Rebecca Tyler > Hugh Reed & Jane McSpeddon > Samuel Reed & Mary Clark

Helpful Links

2009-09-03T06:00:00.001-04:00

Here are a few more of my favorite links. What are your favorites?

Note: All of these links worked on September 1, 2009. If you have problems in the future with one of them, please let me know.

Bamberg County, SC, History and Genealogy

Barnwell County by H. Jerry Morris (Book)

Barnwell County, SC, USGenWeb Project

History of Bamberg County South Carolina

South Carolina Historical Magazine online at Google Books

Search Google Books - There are some great references to be found here. Just type in a name in the search box, and often you will be pleasantly surprised at what you find. Do remember, that even published histories need verifying. In the Yates Snowden histories of South Carolina, there is information about some our Reeds, Clarks, Boylstons, Coopers, etc., that differs from one biography to another.

The Civil War in South Carolina – Soldiers Index

The Barnwell Baptist Association, by Clara Johnston Hitt

The Williams and Tyler Families

Times and Democrat Article 2004: “Battles fought between Tories, Patriots in Barnwell area of district”

Tyler Genealogy

Cemetery Lists and Coordinates:

Allendale/Bamberg/Barnwell County Cemeteries (Lists)

Barnwell County SC Cemetery Locations with GPS Coordinates

Barnwell County SC Cemetery GPS Mapping Project

Bamberg County SC Cemetery GPS Mapping Project

Orangeburg County SC Cemetery GPS Mapping Project

Willow Swamp Baptist Church Cemetery List

Find-A-Grave Cemeteries:

Barnwell Baptist Church (Old Red Hill Cemetery) in Barnwell, SC

Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, SC

Bethany Cemetery in Aiken County, SC

Bethel Baptist Church in Cope, SC

Blackville City Cemetery in Blackville, SC

Double Branch Cemetery in Orangeburg County, SC

Hartzog/Reed/Waters Family Cemetery in Bamberg County, SC

Hugh Reed Family Cemetery in Bamberg County, SC

Jeremiah Jones Family Cemetery in Orangeburg County, SC

Lexington Memorial Cemetery in Lexington, SC

Norway Cemetery in Norway, SC

Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Springfield, SC

Reed Cemetery on Gardenia Road (Reed/Birt/Kemp) in Blackville, SC

Restland Cemetery in Bamberg, SC

Riverside Cemetery in North, SC

Sunnyside Cemetery in Orangeburg, SC

Williston Cemetery in Williston, SC

Willow Swamp Baptist Church in Norway, SC

Reed Family Sites

2009-08-27T14:19:00.003-04:00

.

View Reed Family Sites in a larger map.

Do you know of locations that need to be added to this map? Cemeteries, home sites, churches, or other sites related to our family? If so, please leave a comment or e-mail me. Thank you!

Sites found on this map as of August 27, 2009:

Samuel Reed Home +33° 23' 35.39", -81° 11' 49.94" OR 33.393164, -81.197206

Hugh Reed Family Cemetery +33° 23' 58.98", -81° 12' 17.88"

Hartzog/Reed/Waters Cemetery 33.405228, -81.180878 OR +33° 24' 18.82", -81° 10' 51.16"

Reed Cemetery on Gardenia Rd. +33° 26' 10.85", -81° 15' 53.56"
Julia F. Reed, James H. Reed, John W. Reed, Martha Reed, Ellen [Reed Birt] Aldrich, Cornelius & Christopher Birt, Henry Kemp

Blackville Cemetery +33° 20' 55.14", -81° 16' 56.76" 33.348651, -81.282434

Old Red Hill Cemetery (Barnwell Baptist) +33° 14' 38.55", -81° 22' 1.16" 33.244042, -81.366988
John William Cook Reed and wife Nan Jerusha Beard Reed, their son Harold and his wife Hattie

Hair Cemetery +33° 20' 4.72", -81° 21' 49.55" 33.334644, -81.363763

Williston Cemetery +33° 23' 29.23", -81° 25' 49.44" 33.391454, -81.430399

Denmark Cemetery +33° 20' 2.40", -81° 7' 12.00" 33.334000, -81.120000
Allied families: Coopers, Copelands, et al.

Restland Cemetery, Bamberg +33° 17' 37.46", -81° 2' 8.61" 33.293738, -81.035725
Florrie Mae Reed 1888-1893, daughter of JWC & Nan Reed

Colston Branch Baptist Church +33° 10' 9.00", -81° 4' 13.98" 33.169167, -81.070550
Primarily Beards, family of Nan Jerusha Beard who married John William Cook Reed (James H.>John>Samuel)

Mizpah Methodist Church +33° 7' 7.98", -81° 10' 45.00" 33.118883, -81.179167

Jeremiah Jones Family Cemetery +33° 36' 5.62", -81° 15' 3.35" 33.601560, -81.250930

Strickland Family Cemetery +33° 41' 52.66", -81° 6' 15.84" 33.697960, -81.104400
Family of David Newton and Martha Cupstid Strickland, parents of Carrie Belle Strickland who married John Osborne Reed, Sr.

Lexington Memorial Cemetery +33° 58' 47.66", -81° 16' 27.26" 33.979906, -81.274238
John Osborne Reed, Sr. & wife Carrie Belle Strickland Reed

Healing Springs Baptist Church +33° 23' 37.93", -81° 16' 23.39" OR 33.393870, -81.273165

Blackville Baptist Church +33° 21' 26.72", -81° 16' 15.20" 33.357423, -81.270890

First Baptist Church, Barnwell SC +33° 14' 42.72", -81° 21' 49.33" OR 33.245202,-81.363705 161 Allen St., Barnwell Sc 29812

Willow Swamp Baptist Church +33° 25' 27.46", -81° 8' 13.22" OR 33.424294, -81.137005
Reeds, Tylers, et al. 1956 Willow Swamp Rd Norway, SC 29113 (803) 263-4435

Bull Swamp Baptist Church 33° 31' 17 17.84", -80° 46' 54.25" OR 33.521623,-80.781736; 112 Purity St Orangeburg, SC 29115
George Byron Reed, Jr., Lena Humphries Reed

Snake Branch +33° 24' 21.60", -81° 10' 19.20"
Mentioned in Elizabeth Boylston Reed's will; She referred to the "land on which I live containing Five Hundred acres known as the Snake Branch tract."

Sykes [Sikes] Creek/Swamp +33° 23' 13.20", -81° 8' 9.60" 33.387000, -81.136000
Mentioned in Samuel's Will

Rogers Branch +33° 25' 4.80", -81° 12' 7.20" 33.418000, -81.202000
mentioned in plat 1793 plat ref Hugh Clark

God's Acre Healing Springs +33° 23' 30.68", -81° 16' 24.47" 33.391855, -81.273465

South Edisto River

"Hartzog Cemetery" - Hartzogs and Much More

2009-08-23T00:43:00.011-04:00

Will Miller is undoubtedly one of my favorite in-laws. No, he didn’t marry one of my siblings, but he is related to the Hartzogs in our tree. His great-great-grandmother Anne Catherine Hartzog was sister to Henry B. Hartzog who married Rebecca Reed (daughter of Samuel and Mary). I first met him online in April 2009. Through him I’ve made even more significant contacts. The information he shares is abundant and always reliable. And this week, he has contributed the location of a cemetery I’ve been hunting for quite some time!

Will was born “about the time WWII
started,” as he says, in Denmark, SC. He lived with his grandmother in Springfield for the duration of the war. In third grade, he moved to Columbia where he lived until he entered Clemson where he graduated with a BS in Forestry in 1964. After a stint in the Air Force, he worked for the SC Forestry Commission in the Spartanburg and Greenwood areas. In the 1970s he moved to Southern Brick and continues today to work for one of its owners.

He and his wife Marie, who grew up in Mt. Pleasant, live on Lake Greenwood. They have a daughter and two granddaughters in Columbia and a daughter in Summerville with a grandson. When Will started working on genealogy in the mid 1990s, he found so much erroneous information on the internet that he resisted using it much except for e-mails. Not too long ago he subscribed to Ancestry, which he states has been a great help. Will is currently trying to rescue the cemetery near Sweden, SC, where Henry and Anne Catherine Hartzog’s parents John and Ann Margaret Felder Hartzog are buried.

When Will visited this cemetery, he was fortunate to have a friend who could unlock the gate at the road to the site. “We went down a long dirt road where the gate was and then had to go down another dirt road for a long way to get to the cemetery. Unfortunately, it started raining hard and I didn't get to do anything but walk to the cemetery though a bunch of 15-20 ft. pines to where the cemetery was. It was located in among much larger trees.”

The location of this cemetery is significant. (Click images to enlarge.)

The red marker is where the cemetery is. +33° 24' 19.16", -81° 10' 51.21" OR 33.405321, -81.180892

#1 is the Samuel Reed House. +33° 23' 35.39", -81° 11' 49.94" OR 33.393164, -81.197206

#2 is Hugh Reed’s family cemetery. +33° 23' 58.98", -81° 12' 17.88" OR 33.399717, -81.204967

#3 is the Snake Branch mentioned in Elizabeth Boylston Reed’s will as the plantation on which she lived (the one that Samuel I left to Samuel II in his will). +33° 24' 21.60", -81° 10' 19.20" OR 33.406000, -81.172000

A satellite view shows the dirt roads Will traveled. (Click to enlarge.)

This closeup shows the rows of cultivated pine trees and the clump of larger trees where the cemetery is.

Will says that this is called the Henry B. Hartzog cemetery. I have heard it referred to as the Hartzog Cemetery, too. In Barnwell County Cemeteries, Volume III, page 6, it is called the “Boylston, Crum, Eaves, Hartzog, Reed, Waters Cemetery!”

The following people are buried here:

Eaves, Jackson – d 22 Sep 1849, age 32 years, 9 months, 24 days; husband of Ellen Hartzog Eaves, married 18 Jul 1839
Eaves, Ellen E. – b. 4 Dec 1820, d. 16 Nov 1874; daughter of Henry and Rebecca Hartzog; wife of Jackson Eaves
Eaves, Ervin H. – b. 4 Dec 1842, d. 14 Aug 1861; son of Jackson and Ellen Eaves
Eaves, Furman J. – b. 4 Dec 1842, d. 16 Sep 1862; son of Jackson and Ellen Eaves Note: Ervin and Furman were twins and share a headstone. On the stone is written “Both were members of the 1st Regt S.C.V.”
Hartzog, Wyatt – d. 22 Jun 1862, at age 30; son of Henry and Rebecca Hartzog
Hartzog, Lavisa Isabel – b. 1 Aug 1843, d. 3 Nov 1871, daughter of Henry and Rebecca Hartzog
Hartzog, Rebecca C. – b. Dec 1798, d. 16 dec 1871 at age 73, married 10 Feb 1814; daughter of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed; wife of Henry Barnard Hartzog
Hartzog, Henry B. – b. 9 Jan 1791, d. 20 May 1846; son of John and Margaret Felder Hartzog; husband of Rebecca C. Reed
Hartzog, George F. L. – d. 9 Nov 1863 at age 23; son of Henry and Rebecca Hartzog
Hartzog, Vastine – d. 1 Sep 1834, at age 3; son of Henry and Rebecca Hartzog
Hartzog, Margaret – d. 6 sep 1819, at age 4; daughter of Henry and Rebecca Hartzog
Hartzog, John George Washington – d. 14 Aug 1819 at 10 months old; son of Henry and Rebecca Hartzog
Hartzog, Mary – d. 20 Oct 1817; daughter of Henry and Rebecca Reed Hartzog
Hartzog, Cornelius C. – d. 28 May 1864, at age 36; son of Henry and Rebecca Hartzog
Boylston, Joseph F. – d. 22 Jul 1846, at age 13; son of Austin and Mary Reed Boylston
Reed Cynthia E. – d. 17 Apr 1842, at age 8; daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Reed
Reed, Darling F. – d. 17 Apr 1842, at age 5; son of Samuel and Boylston Reed
Reed, Samuel – d. 26 may 1847, at age 52; son of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed; husband of Elizabeth Boylston
Reed, Elizabeth B. – d. 4 May 1853, at age 56; daughter of George and Alice Boylston, wife of Samuel Reed
Culler, Georgianna Reed – d. 23 Nov 1852 at age 21; daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Reed; wife of W. W. Culler
Waters, Jane – d. 4 Jan 1856, at age 67; daughter of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed; wife of Jonathan Thomas Waters
Waters, Jonathan Thomas – d. 24 Sep 1844 at age 58 years, 8 months; husband of Jane Reed Waters
Waters, Samuel R. – d. 6 Sep 1848 at age 13; son of Jonathan and Jane Waters
Babers, John Thomas – b. 27 Oct 1848, d. 12 Dec 1852; son of William and Ann Waters Babers (Ann Babers was daughter of Jonathan and Jane Reed Waters)
Babers, Daniel Montague, b. 28 Feb 1852, d. 7 Oct 1853, son of William and Ann Waters Babers
Watson, Eugenia Ann – d. 18 Aug 1853, at age 4 years, 7 months, 7 days; daughter Of B. R. and Mary Watson (Ben and Mary Watson were neighbors of the Waters, Hartzog, and Eaves families in the 1850 census. So far, I have been unable to determine any relation to our family.)
Crum, Rebecca Alma – b. 2 May 1866, d. 26 Sep 1868; daughter of John Wesley and Rebecca Ann Hartzog Crum (Rebecca Ann Hartzog was a daughter of Henry and Rebecca Hartzog.)
Graves 2, wooden head markers, no inscription
About 6 depressions that are possible graves

References:

Barnwell County Cemeteries, Volume III, Oct 2007, Aiken-Barnwell Genealogical Society, Aiken SC, pp. 6-7 (If you are interested in ordering these cemetery list volumes, click here for ordering information. .)
A list with annotations by Josie Reed (who received the list from Al Brodie). Once again, many thanks, Josie!

I am intrigued by the unmarked graves, and have spent some time speculating as to who could be buried there. There are several of our folks whose graves we have yet to find, not the least of whom are Samuel and Mary themselves. My 3gGF John and his sister Lavisa Reed Hair also come to mind. Keeping in mind that we are simply speculating, who do YOU think might be buried here? And do you suppose there’s any possible way we will ever find out for sure?

Please feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts on these questions.

Many, many thanks to Will Miller for sharing his wealth of knowledge with me, especially information for this post.

Do you know Delphia Ophelia Reed?

2009-08-20T09:15:00.010-04:00

This week I have been communicating with several descendants of Delphia Ophelia Reed. She married James Jefferson Nevils in Barnwell County. According to her tombstone, she died October 26, 1882, and is buried in the Nevils Cemetery. (Click here for a link to that cemetery.)

One of these contacts wrote to me saying that he had seen somewhere the assertion that Delphia Ophelia’s parents were Samuel and Elizabeth Boylston Reed. He said he had been unable to find any documentation supporting that and asked if I had any. That set me to searching ... and searching ... and I ultimately came up with … zero.

A quick check again this morning found 28 trees on Ancestry.com with the name “Delphia Ophelia Reed.” Of those 28 trees, nine have Samuel and Elizabeth Boylston Reed listed as Delphia’s parents. None of these trees show a source for this detail.

What I did find was information that leads me to believe Samuel & Elizabeth Boylston Reed were NOT her parents. (You all know that I keep saying it pays to verify, verify, verify; sometimes I need to be reminded of that myself!)

In Elizabeth Boylston Reed's will, she does not name a Delphia or an Ophelia. (See this will below and click to enlarge, or click here to see it at the SCDAH website). Elizabeth does name her daughters Mary and Ann Alice and makes reference to Georgianna, a daughter who predeceased her who had married W. W. Culler. (This image came from the South Carolina Department of Archives and History and is used with permission.)

I checked trees done by two of my Reed 5th cousins whose (extensive) research I trust highly, and they do not have her listed, either.

I have a copy of the Reed section in the Manning Files (which I never take as primary info); she is not listed there as Samuel & Elizabeth's daughter.

Of course, I employed one of our most powerful genealogical research tools: Google.com. Extensive Googling found no documentation as to her parentage.

At this point, I am led to conclude that Delphia Ophelia was not a daughter of Samuel Reed and Elizabeth Boylston. However, I am not saying that evidence won't turn up proving that she is.

Do you have any primary evidence of who Delphia Ophelia Reed’s parents were? Please let us know by leaving a comment to this post or e-mailing me at samuelreedfamily@gmail.com.

EDITED March 10, 2011 TO ADD: According to "North and South Carolina Marriage Records" (compiled and edited by William Montgomery Clemens, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1927, p. 231), Samuel Reed and Elizabeth "Boilston" were married on 31 Dec 1823 in Barnwell District, SC.

Recently I have found that a William O. Reed born in 1815 is also listed often as a son of Samuel and Elizabeth Boylston Reed. To my knowledge, Samuel and Elizabeth did not have a son named William or a daughter named Delphia Ophelia.

2009-08-14T15:35:00.015-04:00

George Byron Reed IV is a great-great-great-great grandson of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed. Byron grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, graduating from Greenville High School in 1959, Furman University in 1963, Marine Command and Staff College in 1974, Army War College in 1980, Penn State in 2001. He retired from the army in 1990, from Northrop Grumman in 2002, and from the Methodist church in 2007. He and his wife Sue currently live in Alabama where he is an aerospace consultant on missile systems.

His lineage: Samuel Reed and Mary Clark; John Reed and Julia Odom; John Wiley Reed and Louvisa Clementine Hair; George Byron Reed and Rowella Hydrick; George Byron Reed II and Lena Bailey Humphries; George Byron Reed III and Sara Kiser; George Byron Reed IV.

Byron shares with us some memories of his family. Thank you, Byron!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
My grandfather, George Byron Reed II, was a preacher at the Cameron Baptist Church and at the Baptist church in North, S.C., but died in the Influenza Epidemic of 1918. He had been delivering food to sick church members. My grandmother, Lena Humphries Reed, and the two children (George Byron Reed III & Lena "T") were sick with the flu at the same time. When my Grandfather died, the family was living in the parsonage at Cameron, so my grandmother had to move into a rented room with the kids who were 5 and 7 years old.

When my grandmother left the parsonage, she knew that she would not be able to afford more than a room somewhere. She did not want to sell family keepsakes and have them end up in the hands of others around Cameron, so she built a fire in the backyard of the parsonage and burned everything that she did not give away or did not think would fit in a room with two children. So there are not many historical documents, etc., that were passed from her.

Grandmother got a job as a school teacher, then worked in a mattress factory. She never remarried and sent both kids through college in the Depression. She died in Columbia, S.C. in 1985 at age 97. She and my grandfather are buried at Bull Swamp Baptist Church near North, SC.

“T” was my father’s sister Lena Humphries Reed. She went by the name of "T" to all who knew her. She got that from my Dad when he was young and unable to pronounce her name...he called her "T"...as did her mother, husband and nieces and nephews.

"T" was a very modern girl to be from Cameron, S.C. of the 1920's. She went with her girlfriends to the Chicago World's Fair. She had serious asthma and went to a doctor's resort in the N.C. mountains and underwent two weeks of treatment using arsenic on her feet. The treatment was very dangerous and was outlawed many years ago, but she was completely cured and was not bothered by asthma ever again. She married Deward Gossett. They had no children, and he died in 1973. "T" retired as a school librarian. She then married W. M. Andrews who was retired in Columbia, S.C. He died in 1988. Lena died in 2003.

My father, George Byron Reed III, was born in Cameron S.C. on July 14, 1913. Cameron was at that time, a small "country town" with a railroad track down the middle.

GB, as he was known, fished in Four Hole Swamp and went with his mother each summer when she tutored math at Furman University in Greenville. He attended Furman, participated in the Glee Club, and graduated in 1934. He married Sarah Elizabeth Kiser in 1940, and they built a house at 5 Claremore Ave. in Greenville. During World War II, GB was an Army Civil Servant working at the Greenville Airport.

After college he had initial jobs at Sears, Thom McAnn shoes, and a mill in Greenville. Then about 1948, GB began working for Crane Company. Twenty years later, with a group of investors, he bought the local branch as it had evolved (Mechanical Supplies, Inc) in Greenville. That company was sold to Hajoca Inc. in 1978.

GB and Sarah had three children: George Byron, Sylvia Jean, and Robert Kiser. George Byron Reed III died August 5, 1979, and is buried beside Sarah in Manning, South Carolina.

George Byron II, III, and IV, Lena H. Reed, and GBR IV’s daughter, Samantha, all went to Furman University in Greenville, SC.

My wife of 43 years is Karon Sue Spendiff Reed. She graduated from Huntingdon College, and we met at her school in Montgomery, AL. We have three daughters: Samantha Hathorn, Kira Wild, and Anna Brown. Anna has one child, Kira has two, and Samantha has one and also three step-children.

Sue and I are very involved in church missions and went to Peru for a short-term mission trip. This is the eighth trip that I have made to the Quechua Panao region of the Andes and Sue's sixth. Sue and I are also involved in the Emmaus Community, and I am involved in Kairos prison ministry in Costa Rica and the US.

Sue & Byron Reed with three of their grandchildren

1820 Census Incomplete on Ancestry.com

2009-08-10T06:57:00.004-04:00

Recently, my son Ian and I went to our Richland County Public Library for a very enlightening family history seminar. We learned new ways to find information not just in the library but on line at home through their website. One of the resources available at home was Heritage Quest where can be found most of the federal censuses (although not fully indexed). The seminar leader showed how a person had been found through Heritage Quest who did not show up on an Ancestry census because the whole page was missing on Ancestry. Hmmm...

None of our Reeds can be found in Ancestry.com’s 1820 census, so the first place I looked on Heritage Quest was the 1820 census for Barnwell County. I found them! Samuel and and his son Hugh were side by side on the same page. There’s also a John Reed further down whom I’ve yet to verify through the numbers as my 3gGF.

Looking for a link that anyone could go to without Heritage Quest, I went back to an old bookmark of the 1820 Barnwell census I had found over a year ago. Click here to see it. With the help of Heritage Quest’s page numbers (Series: M33 Roll: 119 Page: 21), I found them here on page 9A!

Upon investigation, our cousin Brenda White in Alabama (5-great granddaughter of Samuel and Mary) made some interesting discoveries. She found that Ancestry’s data is not complete. The GenWeb site’s 1820 Barnwell census has 46 pages; Ancestry only has 25 pages. Brenda went further to determine that if you add the number of persons in each column on Ancestry's 25 pages and compare that with the total summary numbers on the last page, the number of males to age 10 on Ancestry's 25 pages totals around 773, but the total on the last summary page is 1569. The total for males age 10 to 16 is around 358 but the summary page has 654.

Our cousin Josie Reed in Canada (4-g granddaughter of Samuel and Mary) wrote concerning this error: “There may be some people indexed on Ancestry whom you can’t find on the linked image. One name had caught my eye on one of the usgwarchives site because it was unusual, a “Judy Czeach” (it is probably ‘Creach’, of which there are a few others). It was on one of the pages that ancestry didn’t have (7a). A bit later I pulled up the whole index on Ancestry and there was the same name in the index. It linked to a different page, and the name couldn’t be found.”

Brenda has written to Ancestry.com about this problem (at this link). Ancestry responded with apologies for the difficulty and said they “reported this information to our developers so that a correction can be made.” Brenda will keep us posted. Thank you, Brenda!

I encourage others to write regarding this problem. More than our Reeds are missing. Brenda found her 4-g grandfather Zeigler on the same page as our Reeds!

By the way, I checked the 1790 census on Heritage Quest and found not a single Reed in Orangeburg District. There is one Samuel Reed in South Carolina in 1790, but it's Capt. Samuel Reed in Abbeville, son of George, and not our Samuel.

Thoughts on Malcom's Mystery by Henry Singer

2009-08-06T07:00:00.021-04:00

Henry Singer is a great-great-great-great grandson of Samuel and Mary Reed. Born in Savannah, GA, he grew up in Washington State. He and his wife Marlene taught elementary school for 30+ years and are currently enjoying retirement in Tucson, AZ.

His lineage: Samuel Reed & Mary Clark; Hugh Reed & Jane McSpeddon; James W. Reed & Anne Tyler; James A. Reed & Gertrude Easterling; Marcus Reed & Annie Garrick; Miriam Reed & Henry Singer; Henry Singer, Jr.

Henry has done a superb job of sorting through the information we have available on Samuel, Mary, and Malcom and has submitted the following observations. Thank you, Henry, for relating your thoughts to us. This is exactly the kind of sharing I dreamed of when I started this blog.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thoughts on Malcom's Mystery
by Henry Singer

Having read the two versions of the Reed/Clark immigration by D. Graham Copeland and Raymond Boylston, I would like to add some of my thoughts and observations. These are just opinions and certainly subject to challenge and additional research. To begin with, I have tried to note similarities and differences in the stories and see how they match up with actual facts that we have.

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. Both of these stories seem to be sincere attempts to relate the story of the Reed/Clark family origins in America. Yet, there are significant differences surrounding a similar theme.

We know that Malcom Clark was in South Carolina prior to April 8, 1771 where there is evidence of his first recorded land survey. The surveys mentioned run until 1774, and thereafter Malcom Clark is further noted as a Justice of the Quorum in 1775 and a Justice of the Peace in 1776. He also has a survey done for his own property in 1774. Thus, it would seem reasonable to me to state that Malcom Clark was fairly well established in South Carolina by the mid 1770s.

Looking at the Copeland and Boylston documents, we see that Copeland says Malcom Clark married in Ireland about 1750. Boylston, on the other hand, has Malcom Clark arriving in South Carolina in 1750. I tend to support the Copeland document in this area for several reasons. One is evidence of two people named Clark arriving in South Carolina on the Betty Gregg in 1768. While we cannot say for certain that this was Malcom and Hugh Clark, it does seem to fit our known timeline a little better. Malcom was clearly well educated for his time and worked as a surveyor for the English. It seems unlikely to me that he would arrive in 1750 yet have no recorded surveys for 21 years. Secondly, having an adult son, Hugh, along would seem to fit with a marriage in 1750. Hugh would have been about 20 years of age, old enough to both leave home and help with surveying in a new land. The Clarks on the Betty Gregg could have been Malcom and his wife, yet Boylston has the wife arriving in the early to mid 1780s in his account. In addition, a thirty year separation seems unlikely to me.

In another area, it does seem safe to assume that Malcom Clark died while going to meet his daughter Mary upon her arrival from Ireland. Whether Malcom died in a shipwreck or while rowing out to meet the ship carrying his daughter may never be known. My personal bias is that the Boylston story of Malcom dying in sight of his family just seems a little too romanticized. But, stranger things have happened and love is a powerful motivator. Shipwrecks, on the other hand, can be shown to have been very common. A real question, however, is who besides the daughter Mary was on the ship? Boylston suggests that Malcom Clark was going to meet his wife, his daughter Mary, and his son Hugh. Copeland suggests that Malcom was meeting his daughter Mary, her husband Samuel Reed and their family. Without a ship's record, it is hard to say for sure which is correct. What we do know is that Hugh Reed (Mary and Samuel Reed's son) says that he was born in Ireland according to the 1850 census. Combine this with a given birth date of 1783 from his tombstone and it would seem to give a little more weight to the Copeland version. It would also seem to place the range of this voyage between 1783-1786. If the notice of Malcom Clark's will in 1786 is accurate, and it took a year for the family to travel through South Carolina, then the voyage might be more closely pinpointed to 1784-1785.

Moving on, it also seems reasonable to me that Hugh Clark died at the hands of Tories/Indians. Both the Copeland and Boylston accounts suggest this. In addition, according to the "Memoirs of Tarleton Brown" by Tarleton Brown (1862) this type of acitivity was very prevalent near the end of the Revolutionary War period 1781-1785, and may have continued for sometime after. It might be worth noting that the United States of America did not actually become the nation that we know today until 1787. Tarleton Brown's stories of the discontent prevalent in South Carolina also seems to fit with Copeland's narrative which states that it took almost a year for Mary and Samuel Reed to reach the Clark land claim due to unrest and turmoil in the colony. One BIG question that I have is this. If Hugh Clark died in the early to mid 1780s at the hands of Tories, why is he listed as the owner of Malcom Clark's property in the 1792 notice of auction? Perhaps a simple answer, but I don't currently have it.

To solve some of these discrepancies will probably require the unearthing of more ship records, land records, marriage records, family lore, etc. I hope my thoughts spur additional questions, ideas, and research. Eventually, I would like to try researching Irish records if they still exist. Malcom Clark's written surveys seem to indicate a well educated man. His competent use of written English would seem to suggest that he was educated in England or what we now know as Northern Ireland. He was also hired by the Crown as a surveyor. I guess I am questioning whether Malcom is of Irish lineage or was simply an Englishman residing in the Irish colony. Clark is also generally regarded as an AngloSaxon, not Irish name. Just thought I would add more confusion to the existing "Malcom Mystery".

Happy researching,

Henry

Hugh Reed Family Cemetery

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When the estate of Hugh Reed (son of Samuel and Mary) was settled in September, 1854, provision was made for a family graveyard:

"It is stated that the last named tract of 333 acres is the home place tract having thereon the family graveyard and it is recommended that in the sale of said tract two acres be reserved for said graveyard together with a right-of-way also be reserved for road leading from the Charleston Public Road to the graveyard, a distance of about 100 yard."

When the lands were sold in February, 1855, "the 333-acre tract with graveyard and R/W reserved, [were sold] to James W. Reed for $1495.00. The decree confirming said sales (which were public sales) specified the two acres be reserved as a burying-ground for the Hugh Reed family and their descendants, and same be reserved from said sale together with said Right-of-way."

The full proceedings can be found here.

In November 2008 my son Ian and I found this cemetery. It is exactly where it should be according to the provision above. However, it did require some searching in the woods to find it!

This picture was taken about halfway to the graves. The red spot through the woods (if you can even see it) is my car parked beside the road. (Click on images to enlarge.)

The Graves of Hugh Reed and Jane McSpeddon Reed

Lists for this Cemetery
To view a pdf with a list of graves in this cemetery and notes from our cousin Josie Reed, click here. Then you can print or save it by clicking on "More" in the upper left corner. Josie was given this list by Al Brodie of Wagener, South Carolina.

Our cousin Sharon Crowley has done some extensive work on FindAGrave.com with 230 memorials (graves) and 216 photos posted to date. Click here to see her list from this cemetery and here to see her entire list.

Formation of South Carolina’s Counties

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Colleton, St. Bartholomew's Parish, Orangeburgh District, Winton County, Orangeburg District again, Barnwell District, Barnwell County, Bamberg County . . .

From Malcom Clark’s first plat to the present day, the land where our forebears lived has been called by many different names. Certainly useful in our quest for information on our ancestors is knowing the name of where they lived.

From the Proprietors' three counties in 1682 to the last division of Barnwell County to make Allendale County in 1919, click here to see the Maps Tracing the Formation of Counties in South Carolina at the SC Department of Archives and History website.

How Many Relatives Do You Have?

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I ran across this recently and thought it would be fun to share. See why we spend so much time on genealogy?

1 YOU

2 Parents

4 Grandparents

8 Great Grandparents

16 GG Grandparents

32 GGG Grandparents

64 GGGG Grandparents

128 GGGGG Grandparents

256 GGGGGG Grandparents

512 GGGGGGG Grandparents

1,024 GGGGGGGG Grandparents

2,048 GGGGGGGGG Grandparents

4,096 GGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

8,192 GGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

16,184 GGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

32,768 GGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

65,036 GGGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

131,072 GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

262,144 GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

524,288 GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

1,444,576 GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

2,097,152 GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Grandparents

From Pathways, Butler County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society, Volume XVII, No. 4, 1999

Malcom's Mystery, Part II

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Some Definite Dates Surrounding This Mystery

As we ponder when Malcom Clark and Samuel and Mary Reed came to America, here are some concrete dates to think about.

1771-1774
This is the earliest survey done by Malcom Clark that I could find on the South Carolina Department of Archives and History (SCDAH) website. (Click image to enlarge.)

This plat was written April 8, 1771, for 100 acres in Amelia Township, Berkeley County for Thomas Sabb, Jr. I found at least 14 more done by Malcom in Berkeley County, Craven County, and Orangeburg District.

The last plat surveyed by Malcom Clark that I've found to date on SCDAH's website was dated August 17, 1774.

(If you find an earlier or later one, please let me know. The site's link is in the column to the left. Remember to use all variations of "Malcom" and "Clark" you can think of! He usually spelled his name "Malcom Clark," but it is written as "Malcolm" and/or "Clarke" on some plats. These are just two of several variations found.)

1774
On October 25 and 26, 1774, surveyor Thomas Platt wrote two plats for Malcom 's own land "in Orangeburgh District situate on the South Side of the South Fork or Prong Edistow River."

1775
Malcom was a Justice of the Quorum* for Orangeburgh District. (page 248)

1776
In April, 1776, Malcom Clark was nominated by the General Assembly and commissioned by President Rutledge as a Justice of the Peace for Orangeburgh District. (page 265)

Both justice references above are from The History of Orangeburg County, South Carolina (by A. S. Salley, Jr., 1898, R. Lewis Berry, Printer, Orangeburg, SC). Click here to see this book in its entirety on Google Books.

*A Justice of the Quorum exercised notarial rather than judicial duties. (Constitutional History of South Carolina 1725-1775, by David Duncan Wallace, 1899, H. Wilson, printer, Abbeville, S.C)

1775 - 1783
These are the dates of the Revolutionary War. Yorktown was in 1781 when Cornwallis surrendered his army. The few battles remaining were mostly at sea (Wikipedia)

Tories continued to terrorize the Patriots for some time after the war, raiding and murdering, often disguised as Indians. (Memoirs of Tarleton Brown by Tarleton Brown, privately printed in 1862) Click here to see this book in its entirety on Google Books.

1786
Following is a transcription of an advertisement from the Columbian Herald, Columbia, SC, on March 20, 1786

T O B E S O L D

At Belleville, on the first Thursday in April,

agreeable to the last will and testament of

Malcom Clarke, Esq. Deceased,
The whole of the estate of the said
deceased, real and personal
Consisting of
Four Tracts of Land,
ONE containing 1000 acres, on
The south fork of Edisto river bound-
ing to the N.E. and S.E. on the said south
fork, said Malcom Clark, and vacant land;
on the N. and S.W. part on John Thomson’s
land.
One other tract of 500 acres,
Bonding to the N.E. on the said south fork
Of Edisto, S.E. on lands granted to Mr.
Fisher, S.W. on vacant land, and on the
N.W. on land laid out to said Clarke.
One other tract of 500 acres,
Boudning to the N.E. on said river, S.E.
On land laid out to said Clarke, S.W. on
Vacant land.
One other tract of 250 acres,
Bounding N.W. and N.E. on land laid out
to Benjamin Farrar and Nathan Walker,
S.E. on James Lancaster and Joshua Stanly.
One negro man a prime field slave;
One horse; some wearing apparel; one set
of surveying instruments; a small collection
of books, and many small articles.
The conditions of the sale are—Cash for
all articles under three guineas; all above
credit until the first of January, giving ap-
proved bonds and security, with lawful interest
from the day of sale.
Chas. S. Myddleton, Ex’r.
N.B. Any person having demands against
said estate are desired to bring them in; and
those indebted to make immediate payment.

1792
This transcription was an advertisement in the City Gazette, Charleston, SC, March 28, 1792.

PUBLIC AUCTION
TO-MORROW, the 29th instant,
Directly at twelve o’clock; will be preemp-
torily sold before my store,
A Very valuable P L A N T A T I O N
Containing one thousand acres, situated
on the south fork of Edisto, about seventy
eight miles from this city. There are on the
premises a good dwelling house and kitchen,
and about twenty five acres cleared.
Also, another tract of 500 acres adjoining
the same, and like it situate on the river, late
the property of Malcolm Clark, and now of
Hugh Clark his son. These lands are of a
good quality and capable of producing corn,
indgo, or rice, and laying on the river, are
convenient to get the lumber and produce to
market. Conditions—one half cash, for the
remainder two years credit giving bond
with approved security.
ARTHUR BRYAN.
March 28

Other Items/Issues That Need to be Considered

No land records are to be found on SCDAH website for Samuel. No plats, memorials, or tax returns. What can this mean?
Hugh Reed (Samuel and Mary's oldest son) is listed on the 1850 census as being 65 years old and born in Ireland about 1785. Of course, we have his tombstone that states he was born October 6, 1783. The 1850 census also has John Reed (Hugh's brother) as being born in South Carolina about 1792.
No Samuel Reed or Hugh Clark matching ours are to be found in the 1790 census. It does show one Samuel Reed: "Capt. Saml Reed" living in Abbeville. This Captain Reed was son of George Reed. Both fought in the Revolutionary War. According to Captain Reed's Revolutionary War Record found at the National Archives, he moved from Abbeville in 1800 to Pendleton District and later to Gwinnett County, Georgia. After 1840 he moved to Alabama. He died February 3, 1843. This Samuel, son of George, is not our ancestor. Our Samuel died in 1823, as evidenced by his will.