Unearthing a life.....

Nothing much is known about how the family fared during the Revolutionary War (1775 - 1782). Evan and Olive did not have any more children until Eli was born (1785) well after the close of hostilities. There is nothing to indicate that Evan ever left his land, his family, or Edgefield District to actively participate in the fighting. There are existing records showing that he served on the Edgefield Petite and Grand Juries during the fray and this is considered "service to his country" by the DAR.

A neighbor, Capt. Drury Pace, saw service in the Continental Army and would later become father-in-law to both Oneas and Abiah M. David Quarles (born 1759?) was claimed to have been a Revolutionary War veteran when he married Olive M. James Abernathy, the likely father of Enos M.'s wife Nancy Abernathy, as well as his brother John, fought with Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox".

Between 1775 and the end of 1778, the British made no substantial effort to conquer the southern colonies. All the armies were operating in the North. Instead, a relentless war between small groups of Whigs (Revolutionaries) and Tories (Loyalists) tore away at the South, with Edgefield District seeing its share of the horrors of neighbor warring on neighbor.

Then a British garrison seized and occupied the frontier town of Augusta, GA, and held it for about two and a half years ( Jan. 1779 to May 1781). And it might be assumed that the local Whigs, including Evan M., kept a low profile and may even have been required to provide food supplies for the garrison.

When the war ended in 1782, Rachel was nineteen, Oneas eighteen, Enos sixteen, Abiah fifteen, Ozias thirteen, and Olive was ten. If they had not been active warriors for the Revolutionary cause, they were certainly six able bodied hands for helping with the farming and household industries.
From the end of the Revolutionary War in 1782 till his death in 1799, Evan M. lived seventeen years as a free citizen, landowner, and farmer in the fledgling United States of America. Evan and Olive's final child, son Eli, was born in 1785. Between 1787 and 1797, five of his six older children would marry and present him with thirteen grandchildren prior to his death. Rachel, the oldest child, never married.

(G-g-g grandfather) Enos M. was the first to marry and wed Nancy Abernathy about 1786 when he was approximately twenty-one.

Abiah M. married Nancy Pace in 1791. He was twenty-four years old. She was twenty-one and a daughter of Capt. Drury Pace and his wife Mary (Bussey) Pace.

Oneas M. (sometimes spelled Onias) married Nancy's younger sister Rhoda "Rody" Pace about 1793. He was twenty-seven and she was sixteen. They had one daughter, Fanny, before he died untimely young. From Edgefield County Deed Book 12: "29 Jul 1795: Deed of Gift: Rody M., widow of Onias M., to my daughter Fanny M., dau. of the dec'd., Onias M., both of Edgefield Co. SC for love & affection, 100 acres, all my part as a widow, on waters of Savannah river & I delivered unto Abiah M. as guardian for the above named Fanny, a true and legal deed."

In 1795, Olive M. married David Quarles. She was twenty-three, he was twenty-five by some reports and thirty-six by others. If he really fought in the Revolutionary War, then the older age appears more likely. David's father, Richard Quarles, wrote in his 1796 Will...."I give unto my son John Quarles one negro man named Joe if my son gets well of his disorder and gets his reason & is in his right sences, if not, I desire my said son John should live with my son David.....". It appears that Olive received a live-in addled brother-in-law along with her husband and their subsequent children. David Quarles died in 1807 after twelve years of marriage.

At some point after March 1796, Ozias M. married Elizabeth Quarles, David Quarles’ younger sister. It was their two eldest sons, Archibald and Elbert, who signed as witnesses when James Carson wrote his Will in 1822.

Photo: One of my favorites because of the two sisters holding the guitars. … the family of a distant cousin in deep Dixie.