Unearthing a life.....

Photo: A distant cousin who served as a Confederate officer during the Civil War.

The earliest documented evidence of G-G-G-G Grandfather Evan M.'s existence in Colonial America is a "Memorial" declaring his 7 April 1770 purchase of 100 acres of land in Granville County, Colony of South Carolina, from Jesse Drake. This "Memorial", dated 30 April 1770, is a declaration of ownership for the King's taxation purposes.

Jesse Drake had inherited this land from his deceased father. The Drakes had ownership of the land for about fifteen years prior to Evan's purchase of it. It is possible, then, that the land may have already been cleared and put to crops and might even have had a dwelling house on it. But that is speculation.

I have not found any evidence, either documented or circumstantial, that indicates where Evan lived prior to that date, where he was born, or who his parents were.

Writing in 1893, Evan M.'s great grandson Rev. A. M. Cartledge (1817 - 1895) stated that..."My ancestors on both sides, were from Wales: and settled first, in the Colony of Virginia. My grandfather Evan M. was related to Gen. Daniel M., of revolutionary fame."

I've done some research into the family of General Daniel M. of Revolutionary War renown, but was unable to establish any evidence of connection or relationship. It appears that a lot of people claimed kinship to the famous General.

It is safe to say that Evan was most likely of Welsh extraction* and that he was definitely a Primitive Baptist, a church with decidedly Welsh roots.
The area where Evan settled was in the South Carolina backcountry, between Edgefield, SC, and Augusta, GA. Although he lived in the same place for the remainder of his life, the area went through a number of name changes: Granville County to 96th District to Edgefield District to Edgefield County...and changing size and shape with each new name.

It is generally accepted that Evan's wife's name was Olive (some say Olivia) and that she was a cousin....which doesn't necessarily mean that her maiden name was also 'M'. Evidence has surfaced (in the Obituary of Olive’s daughter Olivia) which indicates that Olive’s maiden name was Newsom -- a Solomon Newsom had land adjoining the land that Evan M. originally settled on near Edgefield. The Newsom neighbors had arrived in South Carolina from Virginia, which meshes with the Virginia origin claimed by Rev. A. M. Cartledge as noted above.

* My DNA haplogroup indicates that my (and thus G-G-G-G Grandfather Evan’s) ancestral roots go back to the Vikings of Norway/Denmark and would most likely have entered the British Isles via the invasions of Scotland around 800 A.D.