Records of the Family of David Asbury Ayers

Marriage Certificate

David A. Ayers and M. Frances Gibbs were solemnly united in the Holy Bond of Matrimony at Greensport, Ala. on 10 June 1880.

[Marriage license recorded at the St. Clair Co. Court House in Ashville, Alabama, says "At Henry Gibbs' House." Greensport was an area near Ashville, Ala., now under a lake. Henry Gibbs was M. Frances Gibbs' brother. Friends, relatives, and acquaintances frequently married at Henry Gibbs' house because it was easier to get married in Alabama than Georgia at that time.]

Bible Records

Written on the first page of Bible:
David A. Ayers and Elizabeth S. Inabinet were married Nov. 27, 1907
David A. Ayers died Aug. 27, 1928
Elizabeth S. Ayers died Aug. 24, 1932

Name/Place of birth/Date of birth/date of death

Family Notes

David Ayers and his first wife were first cousins. Elvira and her daughter Marietta died of burns in 1879, in Branchville, SC, where David was the Railroad Agent. When Marietta's clothes caught fire at an outdoor fire, Elvira tried to put out the flames and her clothes also caught fire. According to Nell Reed of Ft. Motte, daughter of Dr. Peterking, who "caught the train and rode down to Branchville to attend them," both Marietta and Elvira died from the burns. (Their burns were so bad that Dr. Peterkin built tents using barrel hoops so the bed clothes would not touch them.) However, Marietta is listed in the 1880 census in the household of John Davis of Orangeburg. It is believed that John Davis's wife, Elizabeth, was Elvira's sister.

David A. Ayers enlisted in the SC Militia at age 16, shortly before SC seceded from the Union and served during the entire war. He was paroled at Greensboro, NC, in 1865. After the birth of their first child, Marietta, David and Elvira, along with Elvira's brothers, David Washington and Andrew Ayers, went west to Georgia and Alabama "where they had relatives." (from family lore) Both David W. and Andrew married girls from the St. Clair Co. Alabama area. It is believed that one of John Ayers' (Elvira's father) wives was the sister of the wife (a Clarke from Edgefield, SC) of Curtis Grubb Beason, who lived in St. Clair County, Ala. at the time. C.G. Beason was a very influential man in Alabama and is said to have written the Alabama State Constitution. After a few years, all of them came back to Orangeburg.

After Elvira's death, David left his children with Elvira's relatives and went back to Alabama, where he married Laura Anderson. Laura died within a few months. He then married Mary Frances "Fannie" Gibbs, and came back to Orangeburg, where their children were born. Fannie died in 1907 at age 46 of cancer, and David married Elizabeth Inabinet, a widow with one child, Annie Inabinet. Annie married David's son, Franklin Ayers.

The Leila Ayers born in Darlington listed in these records was the wife of David and Fannie Ayers' oldest son, Arthur Ayers. Leila was very beautiful.

This Bible was in the possession of Raymond Ayers, son of Franklin and Annie Ayers, who lived near North (near St. Matthews, SC), when we acquired copies of these family records. --Marilyn Ayers

Submitted by Marilyn Ayers