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Updated:
5/29/20
Welcome to my Durham Genealogy site
I have created this site to share information that I have compiled over
the years with family members, relatives and friends.
I would like to extend special thanks to Rootsweb.com for hosting this
site over many years, as well as family members and relatives who have
provided me with a great deal of information regarding the Durham family.
I want to give a special thanks to the following people who have provided
me with a great deal of information over the years and have filled in the gaps where I
was missing family links.
John Durham- My father who inspired me to do the research with family memoirs
he gave me years ago, may dad rest in peace.
Chris Durham- Through mail and phone calls Chris provided me with so much
material I would have never known without her help.
Doris Ross Johnston- Who provided me many missing family links in Fairfield
county of relatives I never knew even existed.
Richard Durham- Unrelated Durham who helped me distinguish different
Durham families living in Fairfield county in the 1700's and 1800's.
William Durham- Of Charleston who through messages and phone calls
provided me with a great deal of family information.
Click the link below to visit the Durham family database
Click the link below to visit the historical family members page
Click the link below for compiled historical data on Capt. Thomas Woodward
Captain Thomas Woodward (The Regulator)
Click the link below for compiled historical data on
Capt. Charnel H. Durham
Captain Charnel Hightower Durham
Click the link below for Richard Durham's research on Achilles Durham
Click the link below for Jo Ann Cooper Killeen's
research on Captain Thomas Woodward
Captain Thomas Woodward research
The following memoirs I am posting were written by Miss Marion Durham and Lutie M. Durham.
I have verified as many of the historical facts as possible from these memoirs and they were
proven 100% accurate. The rest of the stories were probably passed down by family through
many generations.
Captain Charnel Hightower Durham
(1753- 1836)
Captain Charnel Durham, the subject of this sketch, was born in
Virginia, and of English ancestry. Prior to the breaking out of the
Revolutionary War, he married Miss Nancy Eckles, of Virginia, and
immigrated to South Carolina, settling in Fairfield County, near the
source of Dutchman's Creek. Here he devoted himself to the cultivation
of lands, and to the various duties that confront the settler in a new
country, until the cry to arms against British oppression and cruelty
resounded throughout the Colonies. Whereupon, determining to sacrifice
any and everything in his country's struggle which was truly and
emphatically said to have tried men's souls・ he was ever at his post,
battling for his country's rights with a patriotism that never faltered,
and a devotion that knew no diminution. Many are the anecdotes that the
written qualities of this meager memoir has heard in his boyhood days,illustrative of his soldierly qualities and the readiness with which he
undertook any duty. On one occasion it became necessary for his
commander to send a dispatch. The undertaking was a hazardous one, as
the bearer must pass through the British outposts. The commander
therefore called for volunteers, when Capt. Durham came forward and
signified his willingness to undertake the mission. Mounted upon a fleet
steed, with his dispatch securely concealed about his person he set out
under cover of night to execute his perilous errand. Fortunately, just
as he approached the outposts, a heavy rain began to fall. When the
pickets withdrew to seek shelter he passed through their lines,
delivering his dispatch in safety. His horse's tracks had not filled
when the pickets resumed their post. At another time he was taken
prisoner by a body of British and Tories. His rifle was taken from him
by a Tory whom he knew. Capt. Durham told him to take good care of it,
as it was his favorite gun. The Tory asked him if he ever expected to be
allowed to carry a gun again. "Yes" replied Capt. Durham, When you
will not be allowed to carry even a riding switch.・They then hurried
him off to their camp. Mrs. Durham, learning of her husband's capture
and whereabouts, mounted her horse and taking her year-old baby in her
arms, set out to visit him. The distance was ten miles. When she reached
the camp, a ring was made around Capt. Durham. His wife was not allowed
to enter it, and brought in to him. Taking it upon his knee, he fondled
and played with it a while, then rose up and carried it out to its
mother, in spite of their threats, telling her to go home and never to
come to visit him again while he was a prisoner. Her horse was taken
from her, and she had to make the journey home afoot, carrying her
child. Subsequently, Capt. Durham was carried to Charleston where, after
remaining a prisoner for thirteen months, he and others were placed
aboard a vessel to be transported to Halifax. This vessel was lying at
anchor a few miles from Charleston, and it was intended to make sail on
the following morning. Sometime during the night Capt. Durham heard
something striking against the side of the vessel, which, upon
examination, he found a small boat. Quietly awaking two of his
fellow-prisoners, to whom he made known his discovery, they determined
to affect their escape. Noiselessly and without being seen, they
clambered down the side of the vessel and into the little boat. Quickly
seizing the oars, they gently plied them until they felt themselves
beyond the reach of alarm, then with strong arms made stronger by thehope of liberty they pulled for the shore. This they reached before dawn
and, upon landing, found themselves in a marsh. Here they held a
consultation to determine upon their best course of further procedure.
Agreeing that the chances of ultimate escape would be best sub servedthereby, they decided to separate and that each one should make his way
back as best he could alone. What became of his comrades, the writer is
unable to say he does not even know their names, though he thinks one of
them was a Mr. Heyward. After years it was learned that one of the names
was Hightower and they made an agreement that they would name one of
their descendants for each other so they would know they got away
safely. Years later they heard of Durham Hightower in Georgia. Capt.
Durham, not having any more children had his grandson named Charnel
Hightower Durham.
Capt. Durham himself, however, after a toilsome journey of some
weeks, concealing him by day and traveling by night, reached home and
rejoined his command, where he continued actively to serve his country
until her independence was assured and peace proclaimed. Then returning
to his farm he there spent his remaining days amid the quietude of his
rural home and the endearments of the domestic circle, dying only after
he had transcended man's allotted time of three score and ten years. His
wife survived him two years. Their remains were interred within the
garden adjoining the family mansion.
I may not be out of place to add just here that after the close of
the war Capt. Durham recovered his rifle, and went to kill the Tory who
had dispossessed him of it at the time of his capture. The Tory saw him
coming, jumped into his bed and feigned sickness. Capt. Durham walked
into his bedroom, showed him his rifle, asked him if he knew it, and
then told him the purpose of his visit was to kill him. The Tory begged
most piteously for his life. His little children, too, entreated Capt.
Durham to spare their father, telling him that their mother had died the
day before. Capt. Durham possessed a heart too tender to be unmoved by
the tears and prayers of innocent childhood and so spared their father,
though he had just cause of vengeance, for this Tory belonged to a band
who, during the war, had robbed and otherwise maltreated his wife.
Of the family of Capt. Charnel Durham there were two sons, John and
Robert Winfield, and one daughter, Lucretia. Robert Winfield married
Miss Molsey Ross, of Fairfield, and Lucretia married Mr. John Ford, also
of Fairfield.
He was a captain in the Revolutionary War. He enlisted July 1, 1774 and
served for three years under Thomas Woodward, Richard Winn and Frank
Boykin in Col William Thompson's South Carolina Rangers. After this, and
while engaged in recruiting service, he was captured in the spring of
1780 by the Tories and imprisoned at Charleston, South Carolina. While
waiting on a prison ship to sail for Nova Scotia he made his escape 13
months later. In 1781 he served for 3 months as Captain of the militia
under Col William Bratton, and 3 months as Captain under Col John Pearson
(Military Records, Bureau of Pensions - V.L.M. - W.F. 9418).
Source: John Crow and Faye Woodward
John Durham
John Durham was the oldest of Capt. Charnel Durham's children. He
was a gentleman of culture and intelligence, received a legal training
and began the practice of his profession in the town of Winnsboro. About
the year 1806 he was married to Cynthia, one of the three daughters of
John and Esther Woodward of Fairfield. His wedded life was a brief one,
his wife dying in a year from their marriage, leaving an infant son,
John Woodward Durham. Mr. Durham was absent in Charleston on business at
the time of her death. The loss of his young bride, whom he loved with
all the warmth and devotion of a noble and affectionate nature, was to
him a crushing blow indeed. A deep and settled gloom seized upon him,
and, though at the advice of friends, he tried, amid change of scenery
and new faces, to shake it off, yet these brought no balm to his wounded
spirit. As a result his own health rapidly declined, and in twelve
months from her departure he too, was sleeping beside her in the grave.
Their bodies rest in the Woodward family cemetery, under plain mounds of
earth, without tombstones or inscriptions.
John Woodward Durham
John Woodward Durham, the only son and child of John and Cynthia
Durham, of Fairfield, was born on the 2nd day of December, 1807. Having
been left an orphan in his infancy, Aunt Mary Lyles (Marion), daughter
of John and Esther Woodward and wife of Maj. Thomas Lyles of Fairfield,
took charge of him. Under her careful supervision and training he
remained for some years, and afterwards was under the guardianship of
his grandfather, Capt. Charnel Durham, until he
arrived at manhood's
estate. Having inherited a competent fortune, he now took its management
into his own hands, devoting himself to the life of a planter. On the
19th day of March, 1829, he was married to Miss Margaret Daniel Turner.
Her father was William Turner. He came from Fredericksburg, V.A. to
Fairfield and settled near Rocky Creek. Her mother was Charlotte
Woodward. She was the daughter of Rev. William Woodward, whose wife was
a Miss Nancy Barrett, a lady of Huguenot extraction and of much culture
and polish.
As few incidents, worthy of recital, are likely to occur in the
quiet and un-obtrusive life that of a farmer chosen by the subject we
are sketching, we have none to record. Suffice it to say that John
Woodward Durham was a good citizen, a man of strict honor and rectitude,
and that in these respects he was swayed by principle and not opinion.
In all the relations of life, he exhibited those noble and unseen
qualities of heart and mind, which, if more generally emulated by
mankind, would make this a better and happier world. A prominent feature
of his character was his fondness for his kindred, whether near or
remote. He belonged to that old school of gentlemen, now almost extinct,
who have been noted for their genuine hospitality and true politeness.
His death occurred on the 21st day of January, 1858, in the fifty-first
year of his age. He sleeps in the Woodward Cemetery. A tombstone,
erected by his wife, who still survives, marks the spot. John Woodward,
Charlotte Ellen, Francis Marion, Mary Lois, Eliza Woodward and Margaret
Ella. Cynthia Elizabeth married Dr. Samuel W. Bookhart of Richland
County. William Strother married Miss Martha Marvin McNulty of
Georgetown, S.C.; John Woodward, Jr. (now deceased) married Miss Mary
Mobley of Chester County; Charlotte Ellen married Mr. G.A. Woodward, of
Talladega, Ala.; Francis Marion never married, but was killed in the
late war, near Spotsylvania court house, V.A. ; in the 21st year of his
age; Mary Lois married Mr. William Eugene McNulty of Georgetown, S.C.;
Eliza Woodward married Capt. J.L. Wardlaw of Edgefield County; Margaret
Ella married A.J. Lamar of Fairfield.
Copied from the News and Herald of Winnsboro, S.C. dated April 9, 1901.
*Captain Charnel Durham of Revolutionary Fame* *His Myrtle Covered Mound near Ridgeway* |
*Major Willaim Strother Durham* |
Below is an excerpt from an article written By
Bob Dennis
Observer Rock Hill Bureau
Ridgeway, S.C.- There is a faint music about the
place, an old
refrain in the wind that blows across the fields up the rise around the
house, moving the vines growing on the pillars and the hay that lays in
clumps on the veranda by the front door. In the air there is a low
singing from the fields, a sound of creaking cavalry saddles and voices
of soldiers in blue. In the exhausted days of the War between the
States, Gen. William T. Sherman stayed there on his way north from
Columbia. His troops looted and burned, leaving a bitter legacy and
memories of Southern women scurrying among the Yankee tents on the lawn
to gather discarded ears of corn for the children.
William S. Durham, Descendant of C. Hightower Durham of England,
Virginia and the Revolutionary War, built the place in 1848. He grew
cotton, raised children, rode his fields and rocked on his veranda until
he went away to war.
When it was over, he came back. The Durham place slowly awoke. The
cotton again grew green in the summer and white in the fall. Durham
children studied their primers on the third floor, romped on the wide
heart-of-pine floors and slid down the solid cherry banister. Children
and grandchildren grew up and moved away. Some like Dr. William Durham,
today a 63-year-old dentist, moved to Columbia where they still live.
The place passed out of the hands of the Durham's into the Owens family
and then to Ernest Crawford of Winnsboro. Crawford raised cattle on the
place and after a day of business in Winnsboro, would drive out to the
old plantation, get on a horse and ride across the fields. Crawford died
in 1969. The place passed to his heirs. One of them is Mrs. Forest
Hughes of Winnsboro.
It's almost a chore now to keep the place up,・Mrs. Hughes said.
You can't find anyone to help. It's getting so we don't know what to
do. We may have to get rid of it.・
The old place, a lonely windswept storage house for hay heaped to
the tops of the first-floor windows, is vacant except for 76-year-old
Robert Davis, who lives in an old tenant house facing up the rise. Davis
hunts squirrels in the woods and dozes in a rocking chair by an open
window. He is a retired tenant farmer and a veteran of The World War
One Army.・He is also the Onliest somebody left on this great
plantation.・The front of his house has been decorated by his children
with a pop-art exhibition of beer calendars, political posters, a
fluorescent light tube, a Christmas bow, a pair of gloves, a whiskbroom
and a package of cellophane-wrapped spaghetti. The decorations hang in
casual un-artful balance, the deteriorating leavings of a new
civilization. And up the rise is the decaying grandeur of another
civilization a pillared mansion filled with hay and with the faint music
of a time and a life that have gone forever.