In the mid-1800s, the Burton and the Ellis families of Abbeville County, SC were almost inseparable. So much, that Toliver Joseph Burton named his oldest son Robert Ellis Burton, and his second son, Ira O. Burton, named his son Walter Ellis Burton. Why? I think I know the answer: First, let me inform you that…

"I have heard that Lieutenant Ellis had a brother Reuben, and I know my father had a cousin Reuben called 'Little Reuben'." From a letter written by Godfrey B. Fowler My dad -- 82 years old -- can remember talking to his grandfather, Thomas Gillman Fowler, who was born in 1858. Thomas Gillman Fowler lived…

Although I am seven years late to the game, I have decided to take the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge started by Amy Johnson Crow in 2014. The goal is to write about one ancestor every week. I have chosen Hepsibah Sawyer to begin my year's long journey because I like her name. In…

I have led a charmed life. My life has been filled with good times, bad times, and everything in between. I grew up in a small town in a loving family. We knew our parents loved us, and so did our grandparents, great grandparents, and Effie. We did not have a lot of money, but…

"How could you level your gun at the head which had often been pillowed in guilty affection on your bosom?" Judge John Belton O'Neal She was born two hundred years ago, and died a young woman, yet the story -- that of Mary Ann Hyatt -- caught my attention and tugged at my heartstrings as…

"He sleeps his last sleep; he has fought his last battle.  No sound can awake him to glory again."          Heath, Lyman, "Grave of Bonaparte" (1843). Historic Sheet Music Collection. W.G. Fowler died 14 March 1899 of grippe.  He was a member of Foster's Chapel Methodist Church, where he was buried.  Bill and…

  "Lieutenant Fowler was a Virginian of excellent family.  He was a man of powerful stature." "I can recall the appearance of Mr. Ellis Fowler (son of the lieutenant), a tall, fair man, with a deep and most powerful voice." Miss Sarah Adeline Sims, daughter of Joseph Starke Sims   "We Fowlers have thin, fine,…

Henry Richard Fowler was born in Union County, South Carolina in 1825.  He was the son of Ellis Fowler (1805-before 1840) and Sarah Mabry (1815-after 1850). Named after Henry Ellis Fowler, his grandfather, Ellis Fowler was the last son born to Ephraim and Nancy Moseley Fowler.  He was born circa 1805 in Union County, SC…

On April 12, 1861, the first shot of the American Civil War was fired just before sunrise at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.  Eight days later, Professor Thaddeus Lowe left Cincinnati Ohio in his hot air balloon, The Enterprise, bound for Washington, D.C.   After traveling nine hours and eight hundred miles, he landed “slightly” off course in…

Benjamin Fowler was born in 1862 in Cherokee County Georgia.  He was the son of B. Elbert Fowler and Malinda Susannah Newbury.  He was a direct descendant of Henry Ellis Fowler of Union County South Carolina. Through the use of the wonderful research tool of yDNA testing, the Henry Ellis Fowler family of Union County…