Berry, Clark, Funchess (Fonteus), Grew, Hart, Lambright, Staley, Wood

These eleven tracts (numbers 5 and 10 were for the same land) were surveyed over a nineteen year period by three different surveyors. George Strother did the last six plats and included some details about paths (indicated by red arrows) and the location of “Mr. Hart’s House.”

The path shown on plats 7, 8, and 9 corresponds well with what is currently known as Banbury Drive. The path shown on plat 6, leading to “Mr. Hart’s House,” does not seem to exist in any modern form. The house was drawn just off the edge of the tract on plat 6 and is shown on the drawing above in an approximate location. (Note: Bowman Branch Highway did not exist until the 20th century but is labeled on the map above to help identify the area.)

Plat number 5 was surveyed for Henry Wood in April 1767 by John Mitchell. George Strother resurveyed the same tract eighteen months later for William Hart (plat number 10). Strother indicated in the text of the plat drawing that it was the same land surveyed for Wood.

Plat number 7 was first surveyed in July 1767 for Philip Lambright. He probably never took out the grant for the land as it was certified twenty years later for Peter Stalley in September 1787. Both of the Berry plats (numbers 8 and 9) reference Lambright as the adjoining owner.

While looking at some later maps of this area, I noticed an interesting name. The 1913 soil survey map of the eastern portion of Orangeburgh District shows a community called Lambrick  in this vicinity. While recently re-reading David Gavin’s diary, I noticed that he frequently referred to tracts of land by their original owners, regardless of who may have currently owned them. Is Lambrick perhaps a corrupted reference to Lambright? Do any of my readers have any other information on the name Lambrick in this vicinity?

As an interesting aside, notice that this soil survey map did not show the configuration of Cattle Creek and Sandy Run as accurately as the topographic map does. On the topographic map notice that after Sandy Run flows west for a short distance it then runs parallel to Cattle Creek briefly before flowing into Cattle Creek. Google Earth will confirm that the topographic map is more accurate.

Back to Mr. Hart, the owner of the house … William Hart first appeared in the Giessendanner Records when he married Sarah Young on October 3, 1750. He was described as “of the Congarees” by Rev. John Giessendanner but apparently settled below Orangeburgh Township after his marriage. Two of his children were baptized by Rev. Giessendanner in the 1750s. His daughter Grace married John Wood. In 1785 John and Grace sold 250 acres of her father’s land to Sebastian Funchess. [1]  The tract they sold was the one labeled number 3 on my map above and probably was the location of “Mr. Hart’s House.”

[1] Brent Holcomb, South Carolina Deed Abstracts, 1783-1788 (Columbia: SCMAR, 1996), page 340.

For a PDF copy of the plat drawing click this link:

Colonial Plats at Cattle Creek and Sandy Run

Twelve of these tracts were laid out over a three day period in October 1735 by Deputy Surveyor George Haig. Two plats, laid out in 1757, were taken from the area that had been reserved as the commons for Orangeburgh Township. William Mitchell’s 1768 survey included the area of the town lots. My second book contains an entire chapter about the town lots.

Anyone studying this map in detail and comparing it with the map showing the plats along Lower Caw Caw Swamp will notice that I have shifted this group of plats very slightly to the southeast from where they should adjoin those other surveys. Again, remember that the boundary lines of these plats are not precisely accurate, due primarily to the discrepancies between the surveyor’s drawing of the plat and what he actually marked on the terrain. You will also notice a good bit of spelling idiosyncrasies regarding the names on the plats. My first book has an appendix dealing with these name variations.

Felder, Giegleman, Mitchell, Piercy, Pioran, Reigh, Rhyman, Roth, Rowe, Sackweiller, Simmon, Stroman, Wern, Wurtzer

For a PDF copy of this map, click here:

Additional Orangeburgh Township Plats

So, if your ancestor appeared in the 1790 census of Orangeburgh District, how can you tell more specifically where he lived? This is the first in a series of postings I will be doing about household locations in the 1790 census, similar to those I am doing for other early enumerations. I have assigned household numbers for this first census, similar to what I’ve used for the 1800 through 1820 and 1840 Orangeburgh District enumerations.  I have not yet published a listing of the 1790 census with the household numbers but plan to do so once I identify the areas that later became Barnwell and Lexington Districts. Bear with me; this is a big task but I have to start somewhere!

The household locations shown on the drawing below are based on plats that were located relative to the 1845 survey shown on my blog entry of February 20, 2012. Other survey plats in the neighborhood confirm the locations of these but have not been included in the drawing to keep it easier to read.

Connor, McInnis, Platt

Note: Polk Swamp was originally called Poke Swamp, through at least 1825 when Mill’s Atlas was published. The name evolved to Polk Swamp by the early twentieth century (Bowman 1921 15 minute quadrangle topographic map).

Like most of McInnis’s other surveys, this one gives us numerous clues to former and current (at time of survey) landowners. By positioning some of those earlier plats around this one and placing the entire group on a topographic map, we can begin to identify some of the neighborhood around Polk Swamp at the southern boundary of Orangeburgh District. Polk Swamp was also referred to as Poke Swamp on some of the older plats in the area.

Keep in mind several important points when looking at the map above. What now appears as the Orangeburg/Dorchester County line was the boundary line between Orangeburgh District and Charleston (later Colleton) District when these plats were surveyed. Also notice a gap or “gore” between the McInnis, Hutto and Renerson plats as well as where the McInnis plat overlaps the Renerson plat. I do make small adjustments to some of the plat boundaries when creating these maps so that they are easier to read. These two discrepancies would require more adjustment than I was willing to make so I have left them as a reminder of the issues of accuracy with these early surveys.

Surnames listed on the group of plats above, include Hutto, McInnis, Ofalby, Platt, Renerson, Sistrunk, Snell, Tickell, and Whetsell. Using this group of plats and others that can be added to these, I will be able to start identifying some probable household locations in this area in some upcoming posts.

In addition to the group of plats circled in red, above, I’ve included a few plats that were adjoining the 20,000 acres but still part of Orangeburgh Township. These four plats were all surveyed for members of the Moorer family and are included here as a followup to Lynn S. Teague’s article, “The Early Moorers: Part I” in the Fall 2011 issue of the Orangeburgh German-Swiss Newsletter.

George Haig was again the surveyor for the first thirteen of these plats. (In case you haven’t noticed, I number the plats on each drawing to correspond with the sequence in which they were laid out.) Haig showed very few landscape features on these plats, giving only a suggestion of a creek or stream on plats 1, 2, and 3. Deputy Surveyor Peter Faure was responsible for the markings on plats 14 and 15. Let’s take a look at the drawing before discussing several matters of interest regarding these plats.

Card, Coonts, Friday, Garnish, Giegleman, Ham, Hubert, Keis, Letcher, Moorer, Stroman, Tapp, Yokey, Zuger

The first challenge with this group of plats are the names. Between clerical errors in the original records and indexing errors in modern times, some of the names on the list above can be confusing. Chrisitan Top was actually Christian Tapp. Simon Tuger was identified as Simon Zuger on all of the adjoining plats but was indexed as Tuger. Hans Kayleman was Hans Giegleman and Henrick Stronmar should be Henry Stroman. The Mourer or Moorer surname appears twice as Moore. The plat indexed as Joseph Moore actually reads quite clearly as John Moore. More details on variations in family names can be found in the appendix of my first book.

Another thing that might not be clear from the drawing but is important to be aware of is that several plats were surveyed where earlier plats had existed. Plat 11, surveyed for Catharine Yokey, originally included the area also shown as plat 14. Yokey apparently never acquired the grant for her property so it was considered available land when Valentine Garnish had his survey done in 1753. His plat actually shows part of the Yokey tract as vacant land and part of it as belonging to “Geo. Koss.” Koss has not been identified and no plat has been located that would fit in this area.

Plat 13 was initially surveyed for John Mourer in 1737. His brother, Peter Mourer, petitioned the Council in 1754 and reported that his brother had long been deceased. Peter asked for 100 acres that would include the 50 acres surveyed for his brother as well as 50 acres for Peter’s wife. (Holcomb, Petitions for Land from the SC Council Journals, v. 4, pgs. 13-14). When Peter had his plat (number 15) surveyed in 1754 it included all of the area that was previously surveyed for his brother (number 13).

Deputy Surveyor Faure drew some features on plats 14 and 15 that give us some clues about the accuracy of these eighteenth century surveys. I draw all of these plats to scale using the exact measurements given by the surveyors, when available. There were no missing measurements on any of these township plats and they all closed properly. While it was relatively easy to draw square and rectangular plats on paper it was much harder to mark them out in the woods and swamps. Faure’s marks on these two plats suggest how much error may have come about in surveying all of the adjoining plats, beginning at the North Fork of the Edisto River. (My previous posting shows that group of plats and this group has been positioned based on that group.) The important point to remember when looking at these plat maps is that the boundaries of each plat cannot be considered precisely accurate! The plats are accurate, relative to each other, and probably were in the approximate vicinity as shown.

Click on this link for a PDF file of the plat drawing:
Orangeburgh Township Plats along Turkey Hill

All but the last two of these plats were surveyed by George Haig. Most were laid out in the latter part of September 1735. For those who notice such detail, you will see that this group of plats was placed ever so slightly southeast of where it should join those plats in my earlier posting. This was done to make some of the water features shown on plat 16 line up better with the topographic map. This plat, surveyed for William Thomson in 1770, shows the branch that is now Sunnyside Canal. Remember, none of these property lines are guaranteed to be precisely accurate, just reasonably close!

Christalier, Dietrick, Echerter, Hesse, Inabinet, Miller, Minnick, Rickenbacker, Robinson, Rumph, Spouler, Spring, Sylor, Thomson, Timothy, Twytler

Click here to open a PDF file of the map above:

Orangeburgh Township plats along lower Caw Caw

George Haig was again the surveyor who laid out all of these tracts. Unfortunately, he did not provide much detail about the landscape features on these drawings. In this group of plats there are only two marks that could clearly be interpreted as some sort of water feature. Those are shown on the map below on the boundary of plats 1 and 2 and on the edge of plat 6. One of the line points on plats 10 and 14 was described as “edge of swamp.” There are some other marks on several plats but it is not clear whether they are intentional or accidental lines.

The unnumbered square is a tract that was not surveyed during this period. Plat number 12 was surveyed for Martin Koone (or Kuhn) even though it was indexed by the South Carolina Archives as Martin Rowe. (Adjoining plats show the name more clearly.) The northernmost corner of plat 6, surveyed for Peter Lorier, was marked 4x rather than the usual 3x corner marking. A notation on the plat indicated that this was the corner of the 20,000 acres laid out for the township. All of these plats can be viewed online at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History website.

Buser, Faust, Hugg, Kuhn, Larry, Kummerton, Marchy, Moorer, Pinche, Spring, Staley, Stricker, Tanner

This link will open a PDF file of the map above:

Orangeburgh Township plats along Caw Caw

George Haig was the surveyor who laid out all of these plats except the last one. Most were surveyed as adjoining tracts on the same few days. This makes the cluster of plats easy to put together. The only challenging one was the last one, for Henry Schilling. It was surrounded by vacant land when surveyed, even though there were nearby plats in this group. A state plat, filed in 1785 for Francis Bremar, shows the location of the Schilling plat (State Plats, Charleston series, volume 4, page 401-402).

Keep in mind that the plats shown below were probably not surveyed quite as neatly as they have been drawn. The plats are accurate with regards to their relative positions but the actually boundary lines should not be interpreted as precise.

Baltzegar, Bersinger, Brimer, Crim, Croytery, Evans, Hilte, Hutchler, Lehander, Marchy, Ott, Peterly, Reber, Salley, Schilling, Session

Click here for a PDF file link for this map of Orangeburgh Township plats:

Orangeburgh Township plats along river

]]> http://orangeburghplats.com/early-orangeburgh-township-plats/feed/ 0 http://orangeburghplats.com/early-orangeburgh-township-plats/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OrangeburghPlats/~3/mtyz_0d2HqI/ http://orangeburghplats.com/horse-racing-on-robert-swamp/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:43:57 +0000 Margaret http://orangeburghplats.com/?p=373 One of the plats that I’ve included in this blog entry has intrigued me since I first came across it several years ago. It is the one for 756 acres surveyed on September 4, 1822 for Bennett Kittrell on Robert Swamp and the South Edisto River. The tract appears to be part of 1200 acres (represented by the dashed lines on the drawing at the end of this post) that was originally surveyed for Obediah Allen in April 1737.

This area along the South Fork of the Edisto River was being used for cattle raising as early as the 1730s as indicated by the one adjoining property noted on the Allen plat. John Hearn’s cowpen was located on the southeastern boundary of the Allen tract. As the cattlemen left the area when more of the land was claimed, timbering became another economic activity in river swamps like this.

Benjamin Curry was the surveyor for the Kittrell plat. Curry’s drawing shows the outlines of several fields in addition to Robert Swamp and the river. He also showed a road and a path. The road, which seems to be similar to what is today Cleckley Road, looks like it might be labeled “limbe” or “timbe” road, possibly for lumber or timber road. (Note: I have not checked with the archives to see if there is an original plat that may be more legible with regards to this term.) There is a path shown on the plat as coming into the “Old Field” but I’ve not found evidence of this path on any modern map of the area.

The railroad came across this land in the late 1800s. The 1913 soil map of the area shows a small cluster of buildings in the area of the “Old Field” along the rail line. Notice how the area of the Old Field corresponds rather well with the Rs soil type on the map. Did whoever first develop that field recognize the better soil or did the soil surveyor trace the boundaries of the field?

Now, back to the thing I find most interesting on the Kittrell plat, the set of parallel dashed lines marked “Race Ground.” Since surveying was not extremely accurate in the early 1800s, the Race Ground was probably located on the slightly higher ground just above the swampy area. What type of racing was done here?

I have an ancestor, Adam Davis Hare (1825–1895) who is said to have been very fond of horse-racing. He was actually expelled from Two Mile Swamp Baptist Church in 1849 for such activity, among other things. This church is located about eight miles from this site. Is this where my ancestor spent his time horse racing? Does anyone else have any family stories or traditions about horse racing in this part of Orangeburgh District? If you do, I would be delighted to hear from you.

Allen, Coalter, Hearn, Jennings, Kittrell, Valentine

Willow Swamp Baptist Church was established on August 10, 1805 by members who had been dismissed from Dean Swamp Baptist Church. The names of those 32 individuals were published in South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, volume XX, (Fall 1992), pages 183 and 184.

In order to learn more about where these families lived, I first created a spreadsheet showing the families who started Willow Swamp Baptist Church. Next, using my recently published book for the 1800 through 1820 censuses, I looked up all of those families who appeared in Orangeburgh District in 1800 and/or 1810 and added their household numbers to the spreadsheet. The results are shown here:

(Notes for above data: Willow Swamp Baptist Church was located near a crossing point on the South Edisto River. Many of the families without numbers in the list above lived in Barnwell District at these enumerations. Names in brackets did not appear on the church list but have been added as likely spouses of those who did.  I would be glad to hear from anyone who can identify any of the unattached females on the list or suggest corrections to those I put with spouses.)

With this information it is easier to begin to identify where some of these folks lived at the time of these two early census counts. In 1800 those members whose households were enumerated appeared in the visitation sequence from 507 through 557. In 1810 the households appear in two separate sections of the count: 315 through 333 and 654 through 669. William Pauling, the 1810 enumerator, clearly used a different route through the area than did Gasper Trotti in 1800.

In the next few weeks I will post some articles about more specific locations of some of these households. In the meanwhile, if you cannot make it to Oktoberfest this weekend, consider ordering a copy of my newest book, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina Combined Census Index and Neighborhood Listings, 1800*–1820 from this website.