I Had A Bomb Drop On Me Last Night!

My Great Aunt Fran, my grandmother's sister is 93 and was urged by the family to write her history. I received the first installment last night as I agreed to do all the typing and binding. I have know for years that my great great grandfather was overseer of the Middleton's Plantations and my maternal roots are in South Carolina. So I was tip tappitying away (normally I read first what I'm going to type, but this was one time I didn't) when I ran into this (Tedie was my grandmother):

The four Rabb sisters had a wonderful time growing up in Yemassee and were very popular. They lived in a house that had a large front porch and they all loved to sit on the porch and watch “the boys go by”. Attelia kept seeing this handsome young man go by often and she told her sisters that he was the man she would marry. The sisters all laughed of course (Tedie told me this). She did finally meet him, Francis Bachman Sellers, fell in love and married him. A real love story. He worked for the Atlantic Coastline Railroad. He was from Charleston, SC – the son of Benjamin Thomas Sellers and Anna Jane Swift. Benjamin had been overseer of the three plantations owned by the wealthy Middleton Family – Rice Hope, Bonney Hall and Harboney. This is the story I have been told by Tedie. The Sellers Family lived in a house on the Harboney Plantation near Yemassee during the Civil War. When General Sherman made his famous March to the Sea he and his troops came right through that area and stopped at Harboney and did great damage. Tedie said that Anna Sellers went out to the road and begged General Sherman to spare their house – even took hold of the bridle of his horse. He told her that she was the first woman to touch the bridle of his horse! The troops did not burn the Plantation House but stole all the silver and food, but they did burn the house of Benjamin Sellers and his family. The Middleton Family brought in boxcars for the family to live in while they built a new home ...

My jaw dropped. Apparently a cousin of mine, Greaton Sellers, has pictures of the boxcars. I'll post them when I get a hold of them.

X

Wow, a hand in history!

St. Helena's Episcopal CHursh has plantation tours each year. lWe went on one in the Yemassee area a few years ago and the majority of the homes were either contempory or had been re-built on historical sites but there were one or two that were original. Jenny lives in that area. I wonder if Harboney still stands?

Don't have a clue, but by all rights I'm told by a docent for Middleton that because of my connections I'm considered "part of the family", being a great great grandaughter and could come to their annual Christmas Gala they hold. I've been to Middleton once and there was no one there that would or could give permission to access old family records.

X

Maybe you could write to them and ask for an appointment.

I googled Harboney Plantation and came up with this:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS301US306&q=Harboney+PLantation



This message was edited Aug 15, 2009 4:33 PM

I was planning on doing that this winter. The name may not be correct .. I googled it too and came up with the same thing .. I don't read french and babel fish wouldn't translate it .. My Aunt is probably spelling it phonetically since I was wondering if bonney hall could possibly be boone hall.

X

The Middleton's owned many, many plantations and they are all listed in one of the slave cottages. There is a map there also; you ought to check it out.

That's the one place I didn't go .. my sister was with me and has an artificial hip so we couldn't walk too far for too long. I will definitely be checking into it more .. I can't wait to see the pictures my cousin Greaton has .. he's in Mt. Pleasant.

X

I don't know why but there is a little thought in the back of my head that persons with family ties to the plantation get in free. Worth asking about.

They do and as I said they hold a Christmas party every year for people connected to the Middleton family.

X

Then you must write to them ASAP! :-)

I'll probably just give them a call and find out who manages it.

X

How wonderful to find out about these connections, X! Exciting!

I can't wait to see what the next installment brings! I vaguely remember my grandmother telling me that story but it didn't click until this afternoon while I was mowing the lawn. When my grandmother died in 72, my mom gave me a large old satchel that belonged to my grandfather. He was from Petersburg Virginia. The contents were astonishing. There were old ledgers, letters, confederate bonds and confederate money in it .. there was also a pass of safe conduct signed by general mead, dated June 29th, 1863, just 2 days before the battle of gettysburg, allowing a rutherford wilkes to pass from the confederate lines into the union states. The ledgers contained the names of slaves owned by the wilkes's as well as all the livestock and inventory of the out buildings. My grandfathers last name was Peebles .. we never could figure out if wilkes was a relative or not. I ended up giving it all to the Civil War Museum in Petersburg on permanent loan. They were thrilled to get it.

X

X, What a beautiful story and such an important part of our Southern history. You caught my attention when you mentioned Atlantic Coastline Railroad. My Grandfather worked for the same railroad as many did during that time. His name was Luther Hutto and I always remember my Mother talking about living near the railroad tracks. They lived in the Barnwell / Denmark area which is near Orangeburg, S. C. Do follow up on the history. That is priceless.

Barbara Frietchie move over!

I may have the spelling wrong but she too was said to have spared Shermans wrath.

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head dies like a dog. March on!" he said.

the poem, 'Barbara Frietchie' was written by John Greenleaf Whittier 1807–1892

The Smithsonian may also be interested in your family history.

This message was edited Aug 17, 2009 2:25 PM

I love geoneology and hope to get all my family a book someday.

Lavina

Now is the time to start while there are people around who can remember .. that's the problem we're having, finding information about the families of people long dead.

X

X, I'm just now reading this thread. What wonderful thing to be reading about your family history. I grew up in Charleston so it's wonderful to read such stories.

The story is getting wilder from a personal point of view .. my great grandmother had 5 children and a few months after the 5th one (my great aunt who is writing this) was born my great grandfather died suddenly and unexpected. GG goes into a deep depression for 4 years, remarries, looks like everything is going great and her 2nd husband dies 3 years later suddenly and unexpected. GG again goes into a deep depression, is hospitalized for a year, comes home .. looks like everything is fine then one day goes out to the garage and shoots herself! Whoa!

I actually found on the internet a picture of her grave which is in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. She's buried between her husbands.

Forgot to add that GG married the son of the brave lady who grabbed Shermans horse.

X

This message was edited Aug 26, 2009 12:30 AM

I know Greaton Sellers. He was a long time neighbor. That is so cool how small the world is sometimes.

Have he and Betsy moved to Saluda full time yet?


Hope that is ok to ask?

Interesting family history.

This is so interesting! My family has a tradition of having picnics in cemataries to check out the old graves. I like to do tombstone rubbings too.

X, a collection of rubbings from your family's markers would be neat.

I think Greaton has done the rubbings .. I just finished typing the next installment from my Aunt. She was visiting the Worlds Fair in Chicago in 1934 and while she was there, the gangster Dillinger was shot!

X

Hurry up, X, and type the rest---I can't wait to see who has an affair with who (or is it "whom" english teachers? Or should that be English teachers with a cap E?....oh, I digress), who murders whom, what cousins had a crush on each other, and who smoked what behind the outhouse. A good Southern family history.....

Just to entice you to continue, I've got a Great-Grandfather on my maternal side that was killed during a bank robbery. The robbers took him hostage and made him drive the get-away car. He had a heart attack while driving, crashed the car and died. Not sure what happened to the robbers...ain't family history great?

Lol .. yeppers .. family history can be interesting.

X

Well, my jaw dropped when I Googled my 3x great aunt Anna Jane Swift and found this site! I've been doing genealogical research on my family for many, many years and just recently connected with Jordan and Greaton Sellers on our connecting relative -- Anna Jane Swift. I see you found the cemetery photos that were taken by John Schneider - you really should give that man credit when using his photographs. He and his wife have gone to Magnolia Cemetery almost every day for many years, take photos and feed the geese! He's helped me track down many of my relatives buried there and I know he helped Jordan even more. He does this for free, out of the goodness of his heart, as a volunteer for Find A Grave.
I'm really interested in hearing more from Fran -- especially about her husband Bob Barnard and his family because I'm looking for Barnards that might be ancestors of mine.

It's Hobonny Plantation - it was located on the west side of the Combahee River. Not much information is available on the internet, but you can probably get everything I know about it from Greaton.

Please, please - Hurry and tell me more about Fran!

Ginny , welcome and thanks for bringing this thread up again, it is so interesting.

Oh my make sure you go to the county seats and read old census. And I love to tour grave yards.Also it has been well worth the money I paid to Ancestory to look up things.
I have a cutting that is really a ungly rose bush that has green roses and I mean green. the buds are pretty but the blooms are wild that my Great Grandfather brought over from Susex England.

Lavina

Wow ... please post a picture!

GinnyScott: Was there any connection with this family and the Alstons that lived on a plantation in Plantersville (Georgetown county). The plantation is called Chicora Woods and is located between Georgetown and Conway on Waccamaw River. I remember reading a book about the Alston family that married into the family from Middleton Plantation in Charleston. If I can find the book I will send you the info.

This message was edited Sep 22, 2010 9:15 PM

I remember that book but I lent it to a friend who never returns books. LOL I am uncertain of the name and author but could it have been something like "A Woman Rice Planter" by Elizabeth Alston Pringle?

Yes, thanks for bringing this up again. It is enticing. Please post pics if you have them.

That is the book Ardesia. I finally found it. Also the book "Chicora Woods" is memoirs by Elizabeth Alston. I'm not sure if her husband or her father was Robert Alston. Their plantation is still heavenly.

Here is the info on the book. USC Press has some great ones on southern history.

http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/books/pre1993/9826.html