Unearthing a life.....

A Pace family researcher (that I stumbled onto a couple years ago on the InterNet) wrote that Evan and Olive's son Abiah (who eventually married a Pace girl) was born 27 October 1767 in Saluda, Edgefield District, SC. If this is factual, it indicates that the family arrived in the area at least a couple of years prior to obtaining their own land.

If this 1767 location for the Evan Morgan family is correct, it places them in the same Little Saluda River area as the original Carsons (whose son James settled adjacent to Evan on Stephens Creek between Edgefield and Augusta) and the Abernathys (who may be the source family for g-g-g grandmother Nancy Abernathy). Again, this is some of my "reconstructive speculation".

Some ‘M’. Family researchers give Evan M.’s birth date/place as "ca 1735, Pennsylvania." I have seen no evidence to support this, so must retreat to the position of "birth date/place: Unknown." Evan and Olive M.’s first child, Rachel, was born in 1763. If Evan became a father at the age of 22, he would have been born ca 1741. If he became a father after becoming more "established" (i.e., at age 28), he could have been born ca 1735.

Daughter Rachel was followed by two sons, Oneas (born 1764) and g-g-g grandfather Enos (born 1766). Thus it was a family of five that migrated from somewhere in the Colonies to the Edgefield area in the South Carolina Colony. By the time Evan bought his first hundred acres on Stephens Creek in 1770, the family ranks had been increased by the births of Abiah in 1767 and Ozias in 1769. Now it was a family of seven....with five children ranging downward in age from 7 year old Rachel.

Shortly after buying Jesse Drake's 100 acres, Evan acquired another 200 acres by Grant of King George on June 8, 1770. This brings up a question. How does Evan, with only tiny children in the family, manage to farm 300 acres, most of which probably had to be cleared first? We know Evan was a slave owner when he died some thirty years later, but this need for manpower in 1770 suggests that he may have had slaves at that early date. Which further suggests that Evan Morgan may have arrived in Edgefield with some "start up" money in his pocket.

Photo: ca 1904 -- Great Grandfather Thomas M. with wife Rachel and several sons and their wives and children (his wheat harvest crew in the Palouse of SE Washington State), with Allie looking in on things (suggested by 'noapologies').