Early Settlers of Calhoun County

Some Early Settlers of Calhoun County
by Susan S. Bennett

Published in The Proceedings of The South Carolina Historical Association, 1938
The earliest recorded settler of Calhoun County, and indeed, of Orangeburg District, was George Sterling, often recorded as Starland. In 1703, on the 15th of October, Sterling had a warrant for 500 acres of land in Berkeley County, "lying in the Congaree path, the bluff part of the swamp and part of the Level ground Over the Swamp", and on March 14, 1704, was granted 570 acres of land in Berkeley County, "Bounding on all sides not laid out." There is no certainty, however, that he himself ever lived on this land; certainly he did not live there long, as he died in 1706. His three sons, George, William, and John, inherited and some one of them occupied the land. William survived the other two and became sole heir. Sterling also had a daughter Mary (1).

In 1718, the first trading post at the Congarees was built near the present Granby, and Capt. Charles Russell, by recommendation of the Commissioner of Indian trade, was appointed Commandant and ordered to proceed into the country and to enlist men for the garrison. There is no complete list extant of these men, the names of but four being known. Richard Heatly married Mary Sterling in 1714. Heatly was a young Irishman, and is thought to have come over under Messrs. Gough & Co., promotors of the Cypress Barony, and to have settled on or near the lands of that Barony on Cooper River. From old records it would appear that Heatly having tried his hand unsuccessfully at turpentining, found himself in financial straits in 1719, for in that year he sold out his holding in the low country and removed, with his wife and infant daughter Rachel, to the Congarees. Tradition says their son, William Heatly, was the first white child to be born in that section (2).

Rachel grew up and married John Lloyd of Buckhorn Hill. According to legend he swore that the devil came after him and he was only saved by the quick wits of his wife. She smelled something burning, and, looking under the table, noticed that one of the beautifully shod feet of the very stylish gentleman who had dropped in to dinner was scorching the floor. Seizing her Bible and calling upon her Maker, she began to read, whereupon the gentleman rushed from the house and disappeared, leaping over the river into Craven County, but leaving behind him on the rock the imprint of a hoof, a footprint and a buggy track, still visible 80 years ago (3).

It is possible, though not proved, that Richard Heatly was one of the men enlisted by Russell for the garrison. He died, however, shortly after reaching the Congarees, and by 1725 Mary, his widow, had married Capt. Russell. By him she had five children, Charles, John, Joseph, Sophianisba and Eugenia. Eugenia married Col. William Thomson of Thomson's Rangers, and Sophianisba married John McCord of McCord's Ferry (4).

The garrison at the Congarees was discontinued in 1722, but the Russells remained in the mid-country. In 1725 Capt. George Chicken, Commissioner of the Indian Trade, on an expedition to the Indian country, speaks of stopping at Capt. Charles Russell's, and again in 1730 Sir Alexander Cuming, ambassador to the Cherokees, accompanied by Col. Chicken and George Hunter the surveyor, stopped at Russell's on the Cherokee path near Amelia (5). In 1731, or before, Capt. Russell had bought from William Sterling the original 570 acres granted George Sterling in 1704, with all buildings, etc. The deed is dated 1731. Owing to difficulties in getting to Charleston to record it, the actual sale may well have taken place some time before, for in 1725 one William Sterling is mentioned as of St. James Goose Creek. Russell evidently took over George Sterling's grant and the property thereon when he married Sterling's daughter. It was here that Sir Alexander visited him (6).

In 1734 Russell was justice of the peace and captain of the rangers; in this year he was appointed by Governor Johnson as agent for opening up and settling the three townships, Amelia, Saxe-Gotha and Orangeburg. It was while he held this office that the first settlement of German-Swiss was made in Orangeburg District. In 1734 the Assembly decided to build one or more forts for the protection of the Indian trade. Until the forts could be buitl traders were required to bring their deer skins to some one of several officers, among them Capt. Charles Russell "at his plantation, on the South side of Santee River", and there to pay a tax of sixpence currency apiece; the receipts were to provide the money to build the forts. In the same year Russell received a special appointment as agent to the Cherokees, followed soon after by an express messenger requesting him to go on a special mission to the tribe. While on this mission Major Russell died, January 17, 1737 (7).

The inventory of Russell's estate gives a vivid picture of the household equipment and domestic life of the well-to-do frontiersman: "87 head of cattle; 7 horses and colts; 6 beds and furniture; 5 tables and old carpett; 5 slaves; 3 old looking glasses [for trading with the Indians]; several Utencels for House Use; Iron Potts; Old Pewter; Sundries". The total value was £2185, 7sh. 6d. Thus Mary Russell was again left a widow, still living on the grant of 1704. She was evidently a woman of parts and determination, for being "left helpless and with a great many young children," on February 26, 1736-7, and again in December 1737, she petitioned the Assembly, setting forth her husband's services to the Province, and the expenses to which he had been put in that service, and requesting that such monies should be refunded and due payment made for his services rendered. Her petitions were granted, and Mary Russell was paid "out of the Township Fund not only the £ per annum for the 22 months her husband acted in the Public Service, but also a further allowance for his extraordinary services therein." (8)

Mr. Salley's History of Orangeburg County shows that Mrs. Russell's home was the center of family activities for the community, all marriages and baptisms being held there. Her home lay between St. Matthews and Creston, at the junction of the road to Moncks Corner and the road to Fort Motte and McCord's Ferry. On Apri l13, 1739, she was given a grant of 450 acres, over the Congaree, near McCord's Ferry in trust for her children. In 1751 she deeded this to her son Charles, Jr., as also a grant for 400 acres adjoining her plantation, the land granted to her father in 1704, where she had continued to live. She died in 1754 and was buried on her plantation. The inventory of her estate shows 16 working horses and mares; 138 head of cattle; sheep and hogs; corn, peas and wheat; 14 negroes and a conch to blow them in with; a full supply of plantation tools and necessaries; -- in the house a well-fitted kitchen, a "boofeet" and chest of drawers; 6 tables and 11 chairs; 8 beds and furniture; 8 tableclothes; a woman's saddle; even books; an old sword and surveyor's chain, evidently relics of her husband. The total was £3799, 17 sh. 6d. currency (9).

Charles Russell, Jr. and his brother John died without heirs. Their younger brother Joseph continued to live near the old place and left heirs of whom the writer knows nothing (10).

In all probability the first Huguenot family to ascend the Santee into the mid-country was that of Jerome LeBoeuf and his wife; with them were her four children by her first husband who was a Courtonne. In 1737 LeBoeuf settled on 500 acres just below Halfway Swamp. He was also granted "a Lott in the Town of Amelia, No. 176 on the Grand Platt." Later in 1762 and 1772, James Courtonne, jeweler of Charlestown, and his brother Jerome Courtonne, trader with the Cherokees, obtained grants in the same section, below Halfway Swamp on the Santee. The writer knows of no descendants (11).

But the real impress of the Huguenot Courtonnes on the community was through Marie Elise, who married William Heatly, only son of Richard Heatly and his wife, Mary Sterling. In 1756 William Heatly secured a grant on the Santee, just across Halfway Swamp from his wife's family. This is thought to have been the location of his home, spoken of in 1880 by his great-granddaughter Mrs. John R. Cheves, as "the old place on the Santee in St. Matthews Parish, later known as Heatly Hall." (12)

William Heatly held various positions of responsibility in the district. After the capture of Nova Scotia by the British in 1755, the exiled Acadians were scattered among the Provinces, those sent to Charleston being distributed among the five parishes. There they were bound out in service, their maintenance being a charge upon the community; any man neglecting this duty was to be fined. William Heatly was among those appointed to look after the welfare of the Acadians. In 1768 he is referred to as Major, doubtless of the militia, and later on as Colonel; but was too old for active service when the war came. He was on the Grand Jury at the Court of General Sessions in Orangeburg in 1776, and was one of the signers of the "Address to his Honour William Henry Drayton, Esq., Chief Justice of the Colony," in which they expressed their indignation against the late "King's Judges" and their refusal to hold Court; and rejoiced in the new privilege of electing their own rulers and judges, and at the establishment of the Continental Congress. (13)

From 1749 to 1757 church services for Amelia Township were held in the houses of Mary Russell, her son, Charles Russell, his half-brother, William Heatly, Colonel Moses Thomson, and Tacitus Gaillard. In 1757 a small chapel was built near by, which served till 1765, after which it went by the name of the "Old Church." In 1765 the townships of Amelia and Orangeburg were erected into the Parish of St. Matthew; and William Heatly, Moses Thomson, Tacitus Gaillard and others were appointed commissioners to build a church, chapel and parsonage house within the bounds of the parish (14).

William Heatly and his sons, Charles, William and Andrew, all rendered service during the Revolutionary War. Charles and William, Jr., were both captains in Colonel William Thomson's Rangers, Charles later becoming Colonel. William, Sr. and Andrew both furnished supplies to the state troops. (15)

William Heatly died in 1787. None of his sons left heirs. His daughters were Mary, married to Francis Goodwyn; Rachel to Edward Richardson; Elizabeth, first to Rev. Paul Turquand, second to the Rev. James O'Farrell; Sophia to Joseph Dulles; and Anne (16).

Anne Heatly married twice. Her first husband was Captain William Reid, by whom she had one son, Edmund. Edmund lived to man's estate but died unmarried. Captain Reid was shot and killed in 1781 by his own men, as he was testing their alertness on guard by trying to pass his own lines without giving the word. Her second husband was James Lovell, Adjutant in Lee's Battalion of Light Dragoons in 1780, but after the war called Major Lovell. Lovell was apparently an out-and-out adventurer and soldier of fortune, his amusing story far too long to be included here. He had served in the north with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, had been imprisoned in the hulks with Allen, was at Ticonderoga with Allen and Arnold, had come south with Lighthorse Harry and married the wealthy Miss Heatly. He ran through her fortune and left, returning later, when, not finding things to his liking, he left her again. He outlived her by 16 years and is buried in the family burying ground on Lang Syne plantation (17).