3. Catherine Kerr, the third child of Mary Calhoun and Samuel Kerr, was born about 1774 in Ninety-Six District (later Abbeville County), South Carolina. This date of birth is based on her age on the 1850 federal census, which enumerates her in the household of her husband Hugh McLen in Cass County, Georgia, and gives her age as 76.[2] The census states that Hugh McLen was 83 years old and was a farmer born in Ireland. Katherine’s (this is the spelling given here) birthplace was South Carolina. Also in the household is Hugh and Catherine’s son Lysander, a brickmason aged 45, born in South Carolina.
As I’ve noted previously, the 1790 federal census listing for Catherine’s mother Mary Calhoun Kerr shows three adult females in Mary’s household, one of whom was her unmarried daughter Catherine. Between 1790 and 1800, Catherine married Hugh Macklin, son of an older Hugh Macklin and wife Charity Wilson. We can infer that the couple married prior to 1798, since their first child, a son Samuel Kerr Macklin, whom I’ll discuss briefly below, appears to have been born in that year. As we’ve also seen previously, this surname has variant spellings including in addition to Macklin the following: McLain (the spelling Mary Calhoun Kerr used in her 1805 will), Mecklin, McLen, McLin, etc. Though I’m using the Macklin spelling as the primary spelling in this discussion, I think that Catherine’s husband Hugh may well have settled for the McLin spelling.
The marriage of Catherine, daughter of Samuel Kerr and Mary Calhoun, to Hugh Macklin of Abbeville County, South Carolina, is noted in a previously discussed genealogical tree of the Calhoun family composed by Cornelius Marion Hutton (1835-1922), a grandson of General Joseph Hutton and Nancy/Agnes Calhoun.[3] Nancy/Agnes was a daughter of William Calhoun, who was Mary Calhoun Kerr’s uncle and the brother of Mary’s father Ezekiel Calhoun. The Hutton manuscript states that Samuel and Mary Calhoun Kerr’s daughter Catherine married Hugh Macklin and had daughters Mary and Martha and three sons, whose names are not given.
As noted above, Mary Calhoun Kerr’s 21 January 1805 Abbeville County will names Catherine McLain as her daughter, and, as a previous posting indicates, Catherine’s husband Hugh McLain was a buyer at the sale of Mary’s estate in Abbeville County on 23 February 1805, with the sale account listing him as Hugh McLin Junr.[4] The linked posting also discusses litigation that ensued after Mary Calhoun Kerr died and had to do with land that had belonged to her estate, which her sons-in-law William Oliver and Hugh McLin sold to Thomas P. Martin.[5] Documents in the case file indicate that the family of Hugh and Catherine Kerr Macklin continued living in Abbeville County into the 1820s, after the 1820 federal census shows Hugh McLin in Abbeville County next to the Thomas P. Martin who initiated the 1822 lawsuit against him and William Oliver.[6]
I don’t find Hugh Macklin Jr.’s family on the 1800 federal census. A household that is evidently the household of Hugh’s father Hugh Macklin Sr. is enumerated in Abbeville County in 1800, and, in addition to an elderly male and female who are Hugh Sr. and his wife Charity, it has younger males and females who could include Hugh Jr. and wife Catherine, but none of the younger household members are in age categories that match the ages of Hugh Macklin Jr. and wife Catherine Kerr.[7] The 1810 federal census shows both Hugh Macklins in Abbeville County, with Hugh Jr. (the census uses that designation) listed with two males under 10, one male 10-15, one male 26-44, three females under 10, one female 10-15, and one female 26-44.[8] If these younger household members are children of Hugh and Catherine Kerr Macklin, then it seems they had children in addition to the Mary and Martha and three unnamed sons who appear in Cornelius Marion Hutton’s account. Some of these could, of course, have died young. The older Hugh Macklin, who died before 27 January 1818 when his will was probated in Abbeville County, is on a separate census page in 1810.[9]
Between 1820 and 1830, Hugh and Catherine Macklin moved their family from Abbeville County, South Carolina, to Butts County, Georgia, where the family is enumerated on the 1830 federal census.[10] The household has one male 10-14, one male 20-29, one male 30-39, one male 50-59, one female 15-19, one female 20-39, one female 50-59, and two male enslaved persons 24-35 with one female enslaved person 24-35. Hugh and his sons Samuel K. and Lysander Macklin all appear on an 1831 tax list in Butts County.[11]
By 1840, Hugh and Catherine had relocated to Cass (now Bartow) County, Georgia, where they appear on the federal census in that year and, as noted above, again in 1850.[12] The household in 1840 has the same configuration it has in 1850: two elderly persons who are Hugh and Catherine and a younger male who is their son Lysander. There are also an enslaved male and female both aged 36-54 in the household. These two enslaved persons appear on the 1850 federal slave schedule for Cass County, which shows Hugh McLin holding an enslaved male aged 55 and an enslaved female aged 48.[13] Hugh McLin also appears on the 1850 federal agricultural schedule in Cass County’s 12th district with 75 acres under cultivation and 85 acres undeveloped, valued at $1,200.[14] This document shows Hugh raising wheat, rye, and tobacco, along with livestock that includes 46 hogs.
Both Hugh and Catherine Kerr Macklin seem to have died between 1850 and 1860, likely in Cass County, Georgia. I have not found estate or burial records. Cass was renamed as Bartow County in 1861, and many of the county’s early records perished in a courthouse fire in 1864. I have not done a thorough search for information about Hugh and Catherine Kerr Macklin’s family. There is likely more information to be found, but I would note that the loss of both Abbeville County, South Carolina, and Cass/Bartow County, Georgia, records makes finding information about the family difficult. The 1860 federal census shows Hugh and Catherine’s son Lysander still living in Cass County in that year, heading a household whose only other member is a younger man named A.T. Livingston.
The Hugh Macklin who was father of Hugh Macklin Jr. left a will in Abbeville County, South Carolina, dated 15 November 1800.[15] The will named wife Charity and sons David and Hugh, as well as daughters Elizabeth and Mary, and bequeathed to son Hugh the plantation on which he was then living. A Hugh Mecklen who was, I think, a nephew of the Hugh Macklin making this will, witnessed the will and proved it on 27 January 1818. Hugh Macklin Sr. signed his will as Hugh McKlin.
In July 2000, Barbara Chase of Charleston, an active researcher of the Macklin family, shared her research notes with me by email. She concludes that a David Macklin who left a will dated 24 November 1790 in Abbeville County was likely a brother of Hugh Macklin Sr.[16] David Macklin’s will was probated 25 March 1795. It named his wife Agnes and sons James and Hugh, the latter receiving the land on which his father David was living in Abbeville County along with land in Guilford County, North Carolina, on the east side of Haw River. David’s will made his son Hugh his executor. The will also names a daughter Martha Tate. Along with Benjamin Montgomery, a Hugh Mecklin and Hugh Mecklin Jr. who were, I believe, the Hugh who married Catherine Kerr and his father Hugh, witnessed the will.
According to Barbara Chase, David Macklin’s son Hugh was born in March 1762, and died in Anderson County, South Carolina, in 1843. He married 1) Agnes Anderson in Guilford County, North Carolina (1785), and 2) Eleanor Pickens in Abbeville County, South Carolina (1802).
Hugh Macklin Sr. (father of Hugh Macklin who married Catherine Kerr) had another brother, Robert Mecklin/McLin, who was, according to George Howe, the first pastor of Rocky River Presbyterian church in Abbeville County. George Howe includes a brief biography of Robert in his History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina.[17] This source states that Robert Mecklin was born in Ireland and came as a young man to North Carolina, arriving in the Long Cane settlement of Abbeville County from there. On 29 July 1785, he was ordained for Rocky River church (to which his brother Hugh also belonged) from the Presbytery of Orange. Robert Mecklin died in Abbeville County before 1 October 1788, when the widow Agnes Mecklin gave bond for administration of the estate with John and William Harris and James Caldwell.[18] Robert’s estate inventory shows him holding notes from David Mecklin, John Harris, Patrick Calhoun, and others. Robert’s brother Hugh was a buyer at the estate sale, buying a number of books and other items.
A 16 January 1787 survey for Robert Carithers in Abbeville County shows Samuel Kerr and Reverend Robert Mecklin as neighbors of Carithers and of each other.[19] As a previous posting shows, Samuel and Mary Calhoun Kerr lived not far from the church Robert Mecklin pastored, Rocky River Presbyterian church. As the linked posting also states, Mary Pickens, daughter of Andrew Pickens and Rebecca Calhoun, married John Harris, whose father John Harris was also a pastor of the Rocky River church. The elder John Harris (1725-1790) died before 5 April 1790 in Abbeville County. Since his son John Harris (1762-1845) was of age when Robert Mecklin died in 1788, it’s not clear to me whether the John Harris who appears in Robert’s estate records is John Sr. or Jr.
According to Reverend H.C. Fennel, who was pastoring the Rocky River church in 1887, John Harris Sr. was actually the church’s first pastor, and began pastoring the church in 1772.[20] Fennel cites the early presbyterial records of the three Presbyterian churches that came into existence as a single church by 1761 in what would later become Abbeville County: Upper and Lower Long Cane (later Hopewell) and Rocky River, which then developed by 1764 into three separate congregations.
I have not found anywhere a complete account of the children of Hugh Macklin and Catherine Kerr. If either left estate records naming their heirs, the records would not have survived the courthouse fire of 1864. I have not found the daughter Martha named by Cornelius Marion Hutton. In a February 2011 email sending me her notes on the probable children of Hugh and Catherine, researcher Marcia McClure tells me that the daughter Mary named by Hutton was Mary Calhoun Macklin, and that she married John R. McMahan. Marcia thinks that Hugh and Catherine had the following children:
a. Samuel Kerr Macklin/McLin, who was born about 1798 in Abbeville County, South Carolina, and died after 1850, perhaps in Butts County, Georgia, where he was living with his sister Mary and her husband John R. McMahan in 1850 per the federal census.
b. Mary Calhoun Macklin/McLin, who was born about 1801 in Abbeville County, South Carolina, and who died between 1860 and 1870, probably in Lee County, Georgia (married John R. McMahan).
c. Robert N. Macklin/McLin, who was born about 1803 in Abbeville County, South Carolina, and who died in February 1885 in Hillsborough County, Florida (married Exor Potter, Butts County, Georgia, 20 April 1833).
d. Lysander Macklin/McLin, who was born about 1805 in Abbeville County, South Carolina, and died 1867-1870, probably in Bartow County, Georgia.
Another possible daughter of Hugh and Catherine Kerr Macklin is Catherine McLin, who was born 14 February 1814 and died 26 December 1907 in Pike County, Arkansas. Catherine married Benjamin J. Johnson in Butts County, Georgia, on 1 January 1839. All federal censuses from 1850 to 1900 with the exception of the 1860 federal census state that Catherine was born in Georgia; the 1860 census gives South Carolina as her birthplace. If she was born in Georgia, then I think she likely belonged to one of the other McLin families closely related to Hugh who also moved to Butts County, Georgia. As noted above, Hugh and Catherine Kerr Macklin did not move their family from Abbeville County, South Carolina, to Georgia until some point in the 1820s.
A John C.K. McLinn who was born 22 September 1817 and who died in 1864 in Gordon County, Georgia, has also been considered by some researchers to be a son of Hugh and Catherine Kerr Macklin, since he shows up on the 1860 federal census in Cass County, Georgia. I don’t find John on the 1850 federal census. The 1860 census shows him born in South Carolina. John and wife Julia Fite McLinn named a son Hugh, so it’s possible John was another child of Hugh Macklin and Catherine Kerr.
4. Ruth Kerr, the fourth child of Mary Calhoun and Samuel Kerr, was born in 1777 in Ninety-Six District (later Abbeville County), South Carolina. This date of birth is based on her tombstone in Ballentine cemetery in Pickens County, South Carolina, whose inscription reads,[21]
Sacred to the memory of Ruth Oliver, D. Dec. 15 1854, A 77 y.
The tombstone gives the appearance of dating from the time of Ruth’s death.
The 1850 federal census, which enumerates Ruth and husband William Oliver in Pickens County, South Carolina, suggests a birth year of 1779 for Ruth.[22] The census states that Ruth Oliver was 71 years old in 1850 and born in South Carolina. Husband William Oliver is 61 and also South Carolina-born. Also in the household are William and Ruth’s son James E. Oliver, 35, and James G. Stephen, 35.
As a previous posting notes, some researchers have thought that Ruth married her husband William Oliver prior to 1800 and that William Oliver was a man of that name enumerated on the 1800 federal census in Waccamaw District of Georgetown County, South Carolina. Documents including the tombstone of William Oliver who married Ruth Kerr consistently show him born in 1789, however, and he would not therefore have headed a household in 1800 as a married man at the age of 11. In addition, as we’ve seen, the will that Ruth’s mother Mary Calhoun Kerr made in Abbeville County on 21 January 1805 shows Ruth still unmarried when her mother made her will.[23]
As the posting I’ve just linked shows, as the unmarried daughter and last child living at home when her mother died, Mary Calhoun Kerr made her daughter Ruth her primary legatee, leaving Ruth the land on which Mary lived along with Mary’s right of dower to lands she had gotten from Samuel Kerr, up to Ruth’s marriage. Mary also bequeathed to Ruth enslaved persons George and Nancy along with Mary’s annuity for Samuel Kerr’s Revolutionary service, a portion of a note due Mary from James Vernon, and two horses, along with a black silk gown and jewelry.
As the linked posting also notes, on 28 May 1805, Ruth’s aunt Floride Bonneau Colhoun, wife of Ruth’s uncle John Ewing Colhoun, deeded Ruth the enslaved person Nancy who was named in Mary Calhoun Kerr’s will, with the deed confirming Ruth’s ownership of Nancy and renouncing Floride’s interest in Nancy.[24] Her aunt Floride’s deed to Ruth for love and affection names Ruth as Ruth Kerr, confirming that Ruth was still unmarried in May 1805, and states that if Ruth should die without issue, Nancy was to go to Ruth’s sisters Jane Green and Catherine Mecklin.
I have not found a record of the marriage of William Oliver and Ruth Kerr. If this William Oliver is the man of that name found on the 1810 federal census in Pendleton District, South Carolina, then it’s possible Ruth and William had married by that date, since the household of this William Oliver contains a male and female aged 26-44.[25] If so, the couple would have married between May 1805, when Floride Bonneau Colhoun made her deed for love and affection to Ruth, and 1810. But the 1810 census shows five household members under 10 years of age, and, if these are the children of the older couple in this household, a couple who married between 1805 and 1810 could not have had this many children in five years. Ruth Kerr and William Oliver were definitely married by July 1816 when Thomas P. Martin states in his 16 May 1822 lawsuit against William Oliver and Hugh McLin that he had bought land from them that was from Mary Calhoun Kerr’s estate.[26]
In his history of the Calhoun and related families, Lewin D. McPherson has Ruth married to a McHaney.[27] I have seen no records indicating that she had any husband other than William Oliver.
Ruth Kerr’s husband William Oliver was son of James Oliver who died 7 October 1802 in Abbeville County, with a will naming wife Mary, daughters Margaret and Mary (not of age), and sons James, John, William, Thomas, Alexander, Andrew and Samuel.[28] James Oliver is buried in Upper Long Cane Presbyterian cemetery in Abbeville County with a tombstone stating that he died 7 October 1802, aged 52.[29] James’ will made Hugh, son of David Mecklin (the will states that Hugh is David’s son) James’ executor, and his estate file shows an inventory of notes compiled by Hugh Mecklin on 13 June 1803 which includes a note against Mary Kerr for 7 shillings. James Oliver’s wife Mary is said by some sources to have been Mary Thompson; other sources give her maiden surname as Kerr, and I have not done enough research to determine which surname may be correct.
As I’ve noted above, following their marriage, William Oliver and Ruth Kerr may have moved from Abbeville County to Pendleton District, South Carolina, and by 1850 they were living in Pickens County, which had been formed in 1826 from what had been Pendleton District. As also stated above, Ruth Kerr Oliver died on 15 December 1854 according to her tombstone and is buried in Ballentine cemetery, which was known for years as Twelve Mile cemetery, just north of Central, South Carolina.
Following Ruth’s death, William Oliver remarried about 1856, probably in Pickens County, to Dorcas Ann Gassaway, daughter of Thomas Gassaway and Dorcas Smith. William and wife Dorcas are buried together in Mount Zion cemetery at Central in Pickens County, with his tombstone stating that he was born 22 July 1789 and died 10 May 1871.[30] Dorcas’ tombstone indicates that she was born 29 January 1820 and died 23 March 1872.[31]
Ruth Kerr and husband William Oliver had the following children:
a. James E. Oliver was born about 1815, probably in Pendleton District, South Carolina. Federal censuses from 1850 through 1870 contain an annotating noting that James was “insane.” This designation was often used by census takers to refer to someone living with congenital challenges such as Down syndrome. James apparently did not marry. I last find him listed on the 1880 federal census living in the household of Samuel Asa A. Parsons at Central in Pickens County. Samuel married James E. Oliver’s niece Azina Maretta Garvin, daughter of Greenberry Stanford Garvin and Mary Calhoun Oliver. Azina had died in 1873. The 1880 census lists James Oliver as Asa Parsons’ uncle.
b. Mary Calhoun Oliver was born 6 January 1816, probably in Pendleton District, South Carolina. On 22 February 1836 in Pickens County, she married Greenberry Stanford Garvin, son of Thomas Garvin and Sarah Johnson. Greenberry was born 16 November 1816 in Pendleton District, and died 13 April 1865 at Thomasville in Davidson County, North Carolina. Greenberry died after being wounded in battle as a lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion of South Carolina Rifles (CSA), and is buried in Thomasville Baptist cemetery.
Following Greenberry Garvin’s death, Mary then married Reuben Gaines in March 1869 in Pickens County. Reuben was born 9 June 1794, son of Reverend Richard George Gaines and Frances Broadus, and died 6 October 1870.
Mary Calhoun Oliver (Garvin) (Gaines) died 2 May 1905 in Pickens County and is buried with her mother Ruth Kerr Oliver in Ballentine cemetery in Pickens County, with a tombstone giving her dates of birth and death and stating that she was the wife of G.S. Garvin and R. Gaines.[32] Reuben Gaines is said to be buried in Ballentine cemetery as well, but if his grave is marked, I have not seen a record indicating this.
[1] Abbeville County, South Carolina, Will Bk. 1, p. 304; Abbeville County, South Carolina, Probate Files, box 52, pack 1231. See also James Wooley, A Collection of Upper South Carolina Genealogical and Family Records, vol. 2 (Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1981), p. 170; and Willie Pauline Young, Abstracts of Old Ninety-Six and Abbeville District Wills and Bonds (Greenville, South Carolina: Greenville Printing Company, 1950), p. 171.
[2] 1850 federal census, Cass County, Georgia, 12th division, p. 185 (dwelling 1205/family 1220, 15 October).
[3] Cornelius Marion Hutton, “Genealogical tree of Calhoun family of America, 1733-1912 from Donegal County, Ireland to America, 1733: James Calhoun and Catherine Montgomery, his wife, were the first Calhouns to emigrate from Donegal County, Ireland to America, 1735: members of this family moved to Abbeville District, South Carolina, known as ‘the Calhoun settlement.’” In 1956, the original handwritten copy of this manuscript was owned by Mrs. John B. Taylor of Shaker Heights, Ohio. A typewritten copy prepared by W. Calvin Wells III of Jackson, Mississippi, was circulated among Calhoun researchers by Alan T. Calhoun of Spartanburg, South Carolina, and is available digitally at the FamilySearch site.
[4] The sale account is in Abbeville County, South Carolina, Probate Files, box 52, pack 1231.
[5] Thomas P. Martin vs. William Oliver et al., Abbeville County, South Carolina, Equity Files, box 58, packet 3245 (1822).
[6] 1820 federal census, Abbeville County, South Carolina, p. 10B.
[7] 1800 federal census, Abbeville County, South Carolina, p. 4.
[8] 1810 federal census, Abbeville County, South Carolina, p. 34.
[9] Ibid., p. 32. Hugh Macklin Sr.’s will and estate documents are in Abbeville County, South Carolina, Estate Files Box 61, pkg. 1438. The will is also recorded in Abbeville County, South Carolina, Will Bk. 2, pp. 43-4.
[10] 1830 federal census, Butts County, Georgia, p. 163. The spelling used here is McLin.
[11] See Georgia Tax Book, 1831: Butts County in the collection Georgia Tax Digests [1890] (Morrow, Georgia: Georgia Archives, 1890, available digitally at Ancestry in the database entitled Georgia, U.S., Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892.
[12] 1840 federal census, Cass County, Georgia, p. 99.
[13] 1850 federal slave schedule, Cass County, Georgia, district 12, p. 27.
[14] 1850 federal agricultural schedule, Cass County, Georgia, district 12, p. 331.
[15] See supra, n. 9.
[16] Abbeville County, South Carolina, Estate Files Box 65, packet 1561; and Abbeville County, South Carolina, Will Bk. 1, p. 142.
[17] George Howe, History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, vol. 1 (Columbia: Duffie and Chapman, 1870), pp. 551-554. Howe cites information provided by A. Giles in 1853. Giles was born 24 November 1784 and baptized by Robert Mecklin. He reported that his mother had passed on to him information about Robert Mecklin, who was born in Ireland and came at a young age to North Carolina, moving from there to the Long Cane settlement, where he died not many years after he arrived there, leaving a widow but no children.
[18] Abbeville County, South Carolina, Estate Files Box 63, packet 1495.
[19] South Carolina Plats Charleston Series Bk. 25, p. 91.
[20] H.C. Fennel, “Rocky River Church As It Was Organized in 1764—As It Exists in 1887,” The Abbeville Press and Banner (25 May 1887), p. 4, col. 3-6.
[21] See Find a Grave memorial page for Ruth Oliver, Ballentine cemetery, Pickens County, South Carolina, created by ray waldrop with a tombstone photo by ray waldrop.
[22] 1850 federal census, Pickens County, South Carolina, eastern division, p. 457 (dwelling/family 75, 2 August).
[23] See supra, n. 1.
[24] The original deed is apparently filed in an estate packet for Floride Bonneau Colhoun in Pickens County, South Carolina (pack 70): see James Wooley, A Collection of Upper South Carolina Genealogical and Family Records, vol. 3 (Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1981), p. 46.
[25] 1810 federal census, Pendleton District, South Carolina, p. 146 (283).
[26] See supra, n. 5.
[27] Lewin Dwinnell McPherson, Calhoun, Hamilton, Baskin and Related Families (n.p., 1957), p. 57.
[28] Abbeville County, South Carolina, Probate Files, box 71, packet 1745; Abbeville County, South Carolina, Will Bk. 1, p. 278.
[29] See Find a Grave memorial page of James Oliver, Upper Long Cane Presbyterian cemetery, Abbeville County, South Carolina, created by Carolyn Simpson, with a tombstone photo by Wayne Sears.
[30] See Find a Grave memorial page of William Oliver, Mount Zion cemetery, Central, Pickens County, South Carolina, created by Karel Reed, with a tombstone photo by Karel Reed.
[31] See Find a Grave memorial page of Dora Ann G. Oliver, Mount Zion cemetery, Central, Pickens County, South Carolina, created by Karel Reed, with a tombstone photo by Karel Reed.
[32] See Find a Grave memorial page of Mary Oliver Gaines, Ballentine cemetery, Pickens County, South Carolina, created by ray waldrop, with a tombstone photo by ray waldrop.
Begats and Bequeathals 