USA > South Carolina > Oconee County > The Old Stone Church, Oconee County, South Carolina; > Part 12
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for your polite attention. I beg leave to assure you, that the happiness, prosperity and respectability of the citizens of this District are considerations which will always embrace my first and greatest attention.
(Signed) ROBERT ANDERSON.
N. B .- Permission was asked and leave given to publish the above address.
At the above meeting it was resolved warmly to recom- mend to all the citizens of the District, not present, to unite and firmly support the election of General Pickens and Gene- ral Anderson.
GENERAL ANDERSON'S GRAVE.
IT IS UNMARKED AND OVERGROWN WITH BRIARS-A DISAPPOINTMENT-A REPROACH.
W. A. DICKSON IN Anderson Mail (DATE LOST).
BROYLES, May 3 .- I met with a painful disappointment when I journeyed the other day to Gen. Robert Anderson's old home on the Seneca River, to see his grave. I had heard that a number of graves there were marked, but the only tomb-stone on the neglected and desolate spot stands at the grave of a traveler who was drowned there in the spring of 1819. Notice of this incident may be seen in an old file of the Pendleton Messenger, now in the possession of Mr. C. C. Langston, of the Intelligencer.
There seem to be a dozen or so graves in the family bury- ing ground, a small unenclosed spot, overgrown with briars and stunted post-oak and wild cherry trees. A plantation fire had broken out a few days before I was there, and had swept the spot clean-a rebuke, as it were, to forgetful hands. The grave-yard, in the midst of a large cleared area, stands on the inner border of a semi-circular table land or "second bottom," rising abruptly some ten feet above the big bottom low-land next the river, and is, say, three hundred yards north of the spot where the dwelling stands.
11-O. S. C.
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Not far away is the slaves' burying ground. Gen. Ander- son's residence stands on the edge of the same elevation, where it closes in upon the river, and within two hundred yards of the stream. Fronting the house, or where it used to stand, for the fire-fiend devoured it soon after the war, is a strip of eighty acres of surpassingly rich bottom land which in the long ago was covered with maple trees.
The old house stood north and south, and must have been sixty feet long, judging from the piles of stone and brick- bats where the chimneys stood. Struggling through one of these piles is the old-time fig bush that hugged the ances- tral chimney corners. An overhanging yearling walnut tree had dropped its last year's fruit among the stones and bricks, some of which I fished out and cracked and ate, and mused while my friend, Routh, entertained the man living in a recently constructed house in the old yard with a dis- cussion of seed corn, or admired the Jersey red pig penned up on the spot where the other chimney stood.
Gen. Anderson settled upon the river soon after the Revo- lution, coming, no doubt, with his long time friend, Gen. Pickens, from Abbeville. He was a native of Augusta County, Virginia, and came from there to South Carolina with Andrew Pickens many years before the Revolution and in his young manhood. General Pickens settled on the east side of the Seneca, and nearly opposite General Ander- son, his place being known as Hopewell. They were not related by blood, it seems, but were kindred spirits, and together took the lead in establishing and building the Stone Church, and both served the church as Ruling Elders.
By JOHN J. HALSEY, Lake Forest, Il1.
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THE ANDERSON FAMILY.
HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED DETAILS CONCERNING MAN FOR WHOM ANDERSON COUNTY WAS NAMED.
(From the Greenwood Journal.)
The Greenwood Journal has been requested to publish the following facts relating to the ancestry of Gen. Robert An- derson and Capt. 'James Anderson, two brothers who re- moved from Augusta County, Virginia, to South Carolina.
The former, Gen. Robert Anderson, went several years prior to the Revolutionary War. He was an officer in that war, serving under Gen. Pickens in South Carolina and Georgia. His brother, Capt. »James Anderson, served throughout the Revolution with the Virginia troops. He was Captain of a company from Augusta County, Virginia, and removed to South Carolina in 1786 or 1787. Their father, John Anderson, lived about six miles northeast of Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia, within two miles of the historic Old Stone Church, Presbyterian. He was one of its first Elders, and in that church his children were baptized in infancy. According to the church record, Robert was bap- tized November 15, 1742, and James March 6, 1748.
Says the Court record of Augusta County, made at Staun- ton in 1740 : "John Anderson and Jean, his wife, came from Ireland to Philadelphia, and thence on to the neighborhood of Staunton, in 1740, bringing their three children, Esther, May, Margaret, and entering fifty acres of land for each of the five." Augusta County, Virginia, was constituted about the year 1740, and John Anderson was a member of the first Commissioners' Court of the County. The Court consisted of twenty members, appointed by the Governor. Of the three children above mentioned, Esther and Mary must have died in childhood. The third child, Margaret, became the wife of Capt. Jas. Allen, the noted Indian fighter, and was the mother of ten children, all of whom married and reared large families. She has numerous descendants now living in
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Augusta County, Virginia. The fourth child, John, died young. The fifth child was Robert, afterwards Gen. Ander- son, of South Carolina. He was married on November 6, 1765, to Ann Thompson, of Augusta County, Virginia. He had three daughters and one son. His descendants in An- derson County are the Maxwells and in Pickens County the Hunters, who live at Wolf Creek. The descendants of his other daughter, Mrs. Maverick, have moved to other States. His son, Col. Robert Anderson, had a large family, and many of his descendants have left South Carolina.
The next child of John Anderson was Jean (or Jane), who married first Hugh Allen, and after his death William Craig. She left three Allen and six Craig children. The seventh child was James. He was married on December 10, 1771, to Agnes Craig, of Augusta County, Virginia. In 1786 or 1789, as previously stated, he moved to South Carolina and settled in what was then Pendleton District, after divided in half and called Pickens and Anderson, for Gen. Pickens and Gen. Anderson. James was the father of eleven children, seven daughters and four sons, all of whom are dead, and their children have removed to other States, with the single exception of the descendants of his son, Dr. William Ander- son. His sons, R. H. and W. Anderson, still reside at the old homestead, ten miles east of Anderson. His daughters, Mrs. S. C. McLees, Mrs. R. H. Reid and Mrs. Ann E. Tar- rant, all remained in South Carolina. Mrs. Eliza C. Orr lives in Atlanta, Mrs. O. L. Burkhead lives in Virginia, Mrs. Augusta V. Anderson and Miss Belle Anderson went to Ala- bama. Both of the latter are dead, as is also Mrs. McLees. The eighth child of John Anderson was Andrew. He re- mained in Virginia and lived and died at the old homestead. The ninth child was William. He remained in Virginia until 1784, and then removed to Kentucky. These four brothers, Robert, James, Andrew and William, were all of- ficers in the Revolutionary War.
MRS. O. L. BURKHEAD, Mount Meridian, Augusta County, Va.
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THE ANDERSON FAMILY.
(From Boogher's (W. F.) Gleanings of Virginia History.)
Page 113. The Augusta or Old Stone Church,* was the first to be established, in 1740, and this venerable structure erected more than a century and a half ago, still stands as a monument to the heroic men and women by whom it was built in days of difficulty and trial.
Pages 114-115. Robert Anderson's father, John Ander- son, was one of the first Elders of the Old Stone Church. Robert Anderson served in the Revolutionary Army in South Carolina as Colonel under General Pickens.
Pages 312, 313, 314-III. Robert (Anderson), who was baptized November 15, 1741, by the Rev. John Craig at the Old Stone Church. He married Ann Thompson, of Augusta County, November 4, 1765, and removed to South Carolina a few years prior to the Revolution, and settled in the western portion of the State, near Pendleton. He first located on Long Cane Creek, in what is now Abbeville County; but after the massacre in the neighborhood of Fort Ninety-Six, he removed to the Waxhaws, now Lancaster County, S. C., and after quiet was restored about Fort Ninety-Six, returned to that neighborhood, finally making his permanent home near Pendleton, as above stated. He served with distinction as Colonel in the War of the Revolution under his friend and neighbor, General Andrew Pickens, and after the Revolu- tion was made General of the State militia. His children were : 1. Anne, married Dr. Wm. Hunter, issue: Dr. John, married Kittie Calhoun, and removed to Selma, Ala .; Wil- liam, married a Miss Clayton; Ann, married John Smith ; Mary, married Rev. David Humphreys; Andrew, married- name of wife unknown. 2. Lydia, married Samuel Mave-
* Is it not possible or even probable that Old Stone Church, Oconee County, S. C., was named for this church ?. This was suggested by Gen. Edward Anderson, of Jacksonville, Fla., one of the direct descendants of Gen. Robt. Anderson, to whom the compiler is indebted for the loan of Boogher's book.
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rick, issue: (1) Elizabeth, married Weyman, three children ; Joseph, married Emily Maxwell, of Pendleton, S. C., and their son, Samuel, now residing in New York City; Mary, married Thompson, of Memphis, Tenn. (2) Lydia, mar- ried Wm. Van Wyck, of New York City, issue: Samuel Maverick, married Margaret Broyles, had two sons. He was a surgeon in the Civil War, and was killed in battle in Tennessee. Zemaly, married a New Yorker, name unknown -two daughters. William, married Miss Battle, daughter of President Battle, University of North Carolina. Au- gustus, of New York City, for years Judge of one of the Superior Courts of New York; 1898, Democratic candidate for Governor of New York, defeated by Theodore Roosevelt, ¿ now President of the United States; he was Democratic Mayor of New York City, and first Mayor of Greater New York. Lydia, married Holt, son of ex-Gov. Holt, of North Carolina. (3) Augustus ; he removed to Texas and became one of the largest land and cattle owners in the world. 3. Elizabeth, married General Robert Maxwell, of the Revolu- tion ; issue : John, married Elizabeth Earle ; Robert, married Mary Earle; Anne, married Dr. Andrew Moore; Elizabeth (Anderson) Maxwell, married, second, a Mr. Caruth-a daughter, Louisa, married General James Gillam, of Green- wood, S. C. 4. Robert, married Maria Thomas, of Nassau, New Providence Island-ten children : Robert, married Mary Pickens, grand-daughter of General Andrew Pickens; Ed- ward; Edmund, Presbyterian preacher; Thomas; John; Julius ; Wm. Henry ; Ann, married Joseph Harris ; Caroline, married Dr. Leroy Halsey, Presbyterian minister, of promi- nence; at his death, Professor in McCormick Theological Seminary of Chicago; Martha, married Samuel Pickens, grand-son of General Andrew Pickens, of the Revolution.
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THE REESE FAMILY. THOMAS REESE, D. D .*
Was born in Pennsylvania, in 1742. When young he came with his parents to North Carolina, and commenced his classical studies in Mecklenburg County with the Rev. Dr. Joseph Alexander and Mr. Benedict, who were at the head of a grammar school in that county, which was then the only one within the distance of one hundred miles. He finished his education at Princeton College, and graduated there in 1768. After a proper course of theological studies, he commenced preaching, and settled in the Church of Salem, on Black River, in South Carolina. During a twenty years residence there, he pursued his studies with an ardor and diligence that has never been exceeded in Caro- lina. He amassed a large fund of useful knowledge in divinity, moral philosophy, and other branches of science auxiliary to the formation of a complete theologian. He there began and completed his admired essay on the influence of religion in civil society. He pursued his argument through a variety of relations, and demonstrated from reason and history, that all human institutions are in their own nature, and have ever been found in practice insufficient for preserving peace and order among mankind, without the sanctions of religion. The execution of the work would have been reputable to the pen of Warburton; but coming from the woods of Carolina, and an unknown writer, it fell still-born from the press in Charleston. Its fate would probably have been different if it had come from the east side of the Atlantic, and made its appearance with the name of some European divine. It is preserved in Cary's Ameri- can Museum, and will be an honorable testimony to pos- terity of the literature of Carolina in 1788. It procured for the author the well merited degree of D. D. from Prince-
* History of South Carolina from Its First Settlement in 1670 to the Year 1808, Vol. II., by David Ramsay, M. D., pp. 505 to 507.
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ton College; which, as far as can be recollected, is the first instance in which that degree had ever been conferred on a Carolinian. Dr. Reese continued to write; but not able to bear the expense of publishing for public benefit, printed nothing further. Two of his sermons were, nevertheless, published, but neither by him nor for him, in the collection called the American Preacher. Circular letters, about the year 1790, were written by the editor, Mr. Austin, to the clergy of all denominations in the United States, requesting them to furnish at least two sermons annually, that a selec- tion might be made from time to time, and published as a specimen of pulpit eloquence in the United States. To the four volumes of this miscellany, printed in New Jersey, Dr. Reese appears as the only contributor to the southward of Virginia.
Dr. Reese pursued his studies with an intenseness that injured his health. For his recovery he was induced to ac- cept an invitation to the pastoral care of a congregation in Pendleton District. There he expired in 1796, leaving be- hind him the character of a distinguished scholar and an eminently pious man.
*GEORGE REESE, fourth son of David Reese, a signer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, and Susan Polk, his wife, was born March 11th, 1752, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He married Anna Story, of Sum- ter, S. C., January 20th, 1785. Anna Story was descended from the Story family of Massachusetts, to which belong Chief Justice Story, Julian Story, the artist, W. W. Story, the sculptor, and others distinguished in art and literature. She was the daughter of Charles Story and his second wife, Mary Alexander, of North Carolina.
George Reese was a Revolutionary soldier, a Lieutenant under Gen. Lincoln, was in the Snow Campaign at Bean's Station, Tenn. Severe exposure gave him rheumatism, from which he ever afterwards suffered. He was a well
*This information was furnished by Mrs. Warren R. Davis, Seneca, S. C.
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educated man ; was fond of the classics, well acquainted with church history as well as that of our government and its principles, which he aided to establish and was always ready to defend. His noted bravery and nobility of character made him a popular officer. He was a devotedly pious man and, like his father, a Presbyterian Elder. He was a planter and reared his children on the farm; was noted for raising the finest wheat in the District, and at one of the fairs he received as a premium for the best crop of wheat a large handsome silver pitcher, still in the possession of the family. He lived to a ripe old age, and now sleeps beside his favorite brother, Rev. Dr. Thomas Reese, at Hopewell Cemetery. His grave-stone bears the following inscription :
"Sacred to the Memory of George Reese, Sen. Who died the 11th of November, 1837, In the 85th year of his age.
He was a native of North Carolina, and for the last forty years of his life resided in this District.
He was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church for more than thirty years of his life, and adorned the profession which he made."
*CAROLINE REESE was the daughter of David Tasker Reese and Mary Wilson, of Sumter, S. C. Mary Wilson belonged to the prominent Wilson family, which has fur- nished so many Presbyterian ministers. Caroline Reese was a niece of Dr. Thomas Reese and George Reese, and grand-daughter of David Reese, the Mecklenburg Signer. She died unmarried, and is buried at Hopewell, in an un- marked grave.
*EDWIN TASKER REESE was the eldest son of Rev. Dr. Thomas Reese and Jane Harris. She was a daughter of Robert Harris, Signer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Edwin Tasker Reese was born March 24,
*This information was furnished by Mrs. Warren R. Davis, Seneca, S. C.
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1774. He was educated at Princeton, graduating with the first honor ; he afterwards read medicine, but selected teach- ing as a profession, in which he was eminently successful. He was a choice scholar and fond of the classics. It is stated in Ramsey's History of South Carolina, that he taught the first classical school in the up-country. Dr. Edwin Reese never married, but lived to a ripe old age, and now sleeps beside his parents, at the Old Stone Church, in an unmarked grave.
*SAMUEL SIDNEY CHERRY was the son of Samuel Cherry and Susan Polk Reese. She was the youngest daughter of Rev. Dr. Thomas Reese and Jane Harris. Samuel Sidney Cherry was born January 6th, 1814; he lived a long and useful life, and was especially devoted to the care of the church and church-yard; he never married, and is now buried at the Old Stone Church, in an unmarked grave.
*This information was furnished by Mrs. Warren R. Davis, Seneca, S. C.
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JAMES McELHENNY, D. D.
FURNISHED BY MRS. P. H. MELL, CLEMSON COLLEGE, S. C.
The Rev. James McElhenny built the oldest part of the Fort Hill Mansion. It was called "Clergy Hall" because he and his son-in-law, the Rev. James Archibald Murphy, lived there together. His first wife was Miss Jane Moore, of York District. She died young, leaving one child, a daughter, named Jane. Jane McElhenny first married Rev. James Archibald Murphy. He died, leaving one son, viz : James Archibald Murphy, named for his father, married Dorcas Moore; he died a young man and left three children, one son and two daughters, viz: James Archibald Murphy, died unmarried. Euphemia married Stewart Starr; they live in Rock Hill. Eleanora married Mr. Wilson; they live in North Carolina. Jane McElhenny Murphy married a second time, her first cousin, Alfred Moore. She has a number of descendants, among them Mr. Ernest Moore, of the Lancaster bar, a grand-son. He is a son of her eldest son by her second marriage. Moreton K. Moore, of Bir- mingham, Ala., is the eldest son of her second son by her last marriage. There are others.
Rev. James McElhenny married a second time, a widow, Mrs. Wilkinson, of John's Island. She was originally a Miss Smith, of Charleston. By her first marriage this lady had one daughter, Susan Wilkinson, who married Governor Andrew Pickens ; her son was Governor Francis W. Pickens, South Carolina's great "War Governor," 1861. By her second marriage to Rev. Mr. McElhenny Mrs. Wilkinson had a daughter, Emily, who married Lieutenant Hamilton Hayne, U. S. N .; their son was Paul Hamilton Hayne, the poet. There were two sons, besides the daughter who mar- ried Lieutenant Hayne. James McElhenny, who never married. Moreton McElhenny married and left two daughters : Ada, who was very talented, but erratic. She went on the stage, made an unhappy marriage with a for- eigner and was lost at sea. Susan McElhenny was never married.
These facts were kindly furnished by Mrs. Celina E. Means.
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THOMAS LIVINGSTON McBRYDE, D. D.
THOMAS LIVINGSTON MCBRYDE, D. D., was born in Cambridge, S. C., February 25th, 1817. Graduated from Franklin College, Athens, Ga., in 1836, and at the Theologi- cal Seminary in Columbia, S. C., 1839. He was married in Athens, Ga., November 24, 1839, to Miss Mary W. Mc- Cleskey. He was ordained in Charleston, S. C., December, 1839, and sailed from Boston for China, March 8th, 1839. In the fall of 1842 he was compelled to leave China by rea- son of the failure of his health. He spent the following year in Georgia, resting for the recovery of his health, but preaching occasionally, to the great delight of those who were privileged to hear this truly consecrated minister of the Gospel. In the fall of 1843, at the earnest solicitation of his devoted friend, Judge J. N. Whitner, he went to Anderson C. H., S. C., and taught a very flourishing school and preaching at Mt. Zion Church, in that county, for two years. In the fall of 1845 he accepted a call to the pastor- ate of Providence and Rocky River Churches, in Abbeville County, in the Presbytery of South Carolina. In 1850, having lost his voice, he repaired to the mountains of South Carolina, where, finding the climate well adapted to his con- stitution, he soon afterwards was settled as the pastor of Hopewell, Pendleton, in charge of which he continued till his death in the triumph of the Christian faith. Realizing his ability and special adaptation for such work he was urged to give some of his time, during his pastorate at Pendleton, to increasing the endowment of Columbia Seminary, as well as presenting in his tender, gentle, earnest way, the claims of the perishing millions in heathen lands. So deep and lasting was the impressions made with reference to the heathen, that his son, Jno. T. McBryde, a Presbyterian min- ister, even in this day, so long after his father's death, every now and then is told by some one who in their childhood heard Dr. McBryde deliver some of his earnest appeals con-
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cerning the dying millions, showing that the seed sown so many years ago is still bearing fruit.
Those who knew him best regarded him as truly a Gospel Preacher, preaching earnestly and lovingly the old, old story. Modesty was the ruling trait of his character, and many times does the writer remember him shedding most bitter tears, because of a sense of failure in his efforts to preach, yet the Faculty of Erskine College, Due West, S. C., saw in him not only a worthy man, but a strong preacher of the Gospel, and they, therefore, conferred on him the degree of D. D.
After an illness of two weeks he breathed his last, leaning upon the arms of his devoted friend, the Rev. C. C. Pinck- ney, D. D., rector of Trinity Church, in Charleston, S. C., who was then living very near the home of Dr. McBryde. A few moments before the end came, while surrounded by friends and loved ones, and during a prayer offered by the Rev. C. C. Pinckney, D. D., the dying McBryde exclaimed aloud, "Brethren, I am surrounded by angels! The room is full of them. Glory ineffable! Bless the Lord, O my soul ; and all that is within me, bless his Holy name."
The Piedmont Air Line Railroad was not built then, but so strong was the devotion of his friends, that one of his Elders, R. A. Latta, then in Asheville, drove through the country day and night in order to attend the funeral of his beloved pastor, in the Old Stone Church, near Pendleton. In testimony of their devotion to the pastor, the manse was deeded to the lone widow and a modest shaft was soon erected over the grave of the village pastor in the Old Stone Church, where many of the most honored dead of both Church and State were laid away.
An humble son feels that he cannot better close this little tribute to his honored father than by quoting from the ser- mon of Rev. Jno. L. Kirkpatrick, retiring Moderator of the Southern General Assembly, in session in Columbia, S. C., a few weeks after Dr. McBryde's death :
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"Nor can I resist the temptation to speak in this connec- tion of another, whose name has within a few days been added to the roll of our honored dead, one not so widely known by personal acquaintance as those already mentioned, but not less tenderly cherished of all who ever came in con- tact with his pure, gentle, guileless spirit-the lovely John among the disciples of our Lord, so modest, so self-sacri- ficing, so beautiful an example in his social life of the love traits of the Gospel, and in his public ministration, so rare an example of the Christian pastor according to the standard of the saintly Herbert, or the rule of the inspired Saul; all the members of his own synod now present, and many others, know that I must allude to the beloved McBryde. Who that ever knew him, but has felt that it would have been a loss for life not to have known him. In these days. when there is so much assailing our eyes and ears, so much thrusting itself into our very souls to engender feelings of anger, indignation, wrath and resentment, against our ene- mies from without and from within, against foreign and domestic oppressions, who would not feel the worth to him- self, to society and to the Church, of a living embodiment and exemplification of the sermon on the Mount, or the 12th of Romans? Such was McBryde, if ever we have known one such. His loss at any time would have been a sad be- reavement. As of Thornwell and Jones, whose sanctified spirits his has now joined in the good world on high, so I say of McBryde, removed in the midst of his days and of his usefulness, that he was taken from us when our need is the sorest." BY REV. JOHN T. McBRYDE, D. D.
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