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John Martin (1752 - 1817)

John Martin
Born in Antrim, Ulster, Irelandmap
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of — married 1788 [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Died at about age 65 in Due West, Abbeville, South Carolina, USAmap
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Profile last modified | Created 9 Feb 2011
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Contents

Biography

Birth

Birth:
Date: Abt 1750
Place: Antrim, Ulster, Ireland

Death

Death:
Date: 1817
Place: Due West, Abbeville, South Carolina, USA

Burial

Burial:
Place: Due West, Abbeville, South Carolina, USA

Research Notes

From THE MARTIN FAMILY OF ABBEVILLE COUNTY by William Bagwell, Cheyney, Pa: June 1981:
The name John Martin, which was the name of our family's earliest know forefather in South Carolina, was a very popular and often used name. It appears in a variety of interesting places in the early history of the region. In 1758, a young Presbyterian missionary name John Martin was sent to work among the Cherokee Indians of the Carolinas by the Presbyterian Society for Managing the Missions and Schools among the Indians (PSMMSI). His success in working with Indians is uncertain, but he did become well-known as a frontier preacher among the Carolina backcountry settlers. (1)
It seems possible, though unverified, that this young minister married a Cherokee maiden. At any rate, when the Cherokee Nation drew up its National Constitution of 1827, an impressive document similar to the U.S. Constitution, one of the chief signers was John Martin, a prominent Cherokee judge and plantation owner. (2)
Another John Martin in the Colonial Era was Governor of Georgia, being chief of that state when the British Army withdrew at the end of the Revolutionary War in 1782. (3)
Two other important Martins of that period were Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina in the 1770's, and Luther Martin of Maryland, one of the formers of the U. S. Constitution. This Luther Martin was a strong opponent of slavery and did much to help in organizing the early Abolition Movement in this country. (4)
It seems quite likely that our John Martin was among those several thousand "poor Protestants" fromEurope who were entices by the Royal Goverment of South Carolina to migrate to that colony's backcountry area in the 1760's and 1770's following the end of the French and Indian War. The immigrants, who were primarily Scotch-Irish, but who also included about 500 Germans and 200 French Huguenots, were awarded free land grants of 100 to 150 acres for each adult (50 acres for a married woman) , with additional smaller grants for each child (under 16) in the family. The only requirements were that the grants had to be in one of the newly created communities wet i[ by governmental action along the edge of the backcountry and the settlers had to live on the land and farm it for at least two years. There were three such communities - Boonsborough and Londonderry in what later became Abbeville County, and Belfast in the future Laurens County. By the time of the American Revolution in the mid 1770's, hundreds of families had settled in each of the communities.
Among the settlers in the three frontier communities in early Carolina were a number of Martins, several of them named John, James, Robert, Samuel, Thomas or William. Whether they were related or merely bearers of the same surname, we have no way of knowing. All we do know is that most of them were apparently from Ireland. (A few spelled their name as "Martain" and perhaps were among the French Huguenots.
According to family legend, John Martin arrived in SC sometime prior to the Rev. War and received "fromKing George III" a "large grant of land" which included much of the present Due West area. The grant supposedly lay near DeWitt's Trading Post along the Old Cherokee Trail which ran from Ninety-Six to the Cherokee Village of Keowee. The trading post, established in the 1720's by Charles DeWitt, and enterprising young merchant from Charleston, stood about 4-5 miles north of the present day town of Due West near present day State Road #20 not far from the Abbeville-Anderson County line.
(1) Woodmason, Charles, THE CAROLINA BACKCOUNTRY ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION (Chapel Hill: Univ. of NC Press, 1953), pp. 132-3.
(2) Milling, Chapman J., RED CAROLINIANS (Columbia: Univ. of SC Press, 1969), pp. 334-342.
(3) Quarles, Benjamin, THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (Chapel Hill; Univ of NC Press, 1961), pp. 163-64, 110.
(4) IBID, p. 190. See also Wirth, Fremont, TTHE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICA (New York: American Book Co., 1942) p. 191; and Phillips, Ulrich Bonnell, THE COURSE OF THE SOUTH TO SECESSION (New York: Hill & Wang 1939), pp. 7, 14, 53, 54, 55, 64.
X-Message: #2 Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 17:14:02 EDT From: Email removed for privacy To: .email removed for privacy Message-ID: <12.email removed for privacy > Subject: MARTIN Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII
To all who might have connections to MARTIN family:
For several years I have been searching for my step-grandfather - with no results in Alabama. Hence, I am spreading out and posting messages EVERY-WHERE.
His name was EDWARD RUFUS MARTIN, born 20 April 1881 in Eufaula, Barbour County, Alabama, son of Edward R. Martin and Sarah E. Miller. Edward Rufus Martin died on 20 July 1958, pbly in Concordia/Catahoula Parish, LA.
The entire story PROVEN WITH PAPERS is: The father of Edward Rufus was Edward R. Martin - don't know if the "R" was a Rufus or not. The elder Edward was b in April 1839, pbly in SC. He married Sarah E. Miller, b in GA in 1841 and they were residing in Barbour County, AL in 1870.
Testimony shows that Edward R. Martin (the elder) met Pleasant B. Patterson, both on horseback, in a public road 2-1/2 miles from Mount Andrew, Alabama, on 24 Aug 1883 and Martin shot Patterson. He immediately reported the shooting and surrendered himself. Martin was indicted for murder of Patterson, defendant pleaded not guilty, was convicted for murder in the second degree and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of 20 years. (Testimony shows that Patterson had thrown an axe at Martin and shot him four times BEFORE Martin fired a shot.)
Martin must have been in Montgomery, AL- the prison - and there were papers in 1964 and the case was printed/published in legal reports. (Martin appealed; Supreme Court of Alabama, December Term, 1884, 77 Ala 1, Martin v. The State. Martin was PARDONED, FULLY, 16 July 1893.) But the prison papers were never available.
Sarah E. Miller Martin, the wife of the prisoner, went to Louisiana and brought her young son, EDWARD RUFUS MARTIN, in 1884 when he was three years old. Sarah married to a Mr. Fincher in Ruston, La; did she lie? did she get a divorce? How did she get married when she had a husband in prison? If you are convicted of a felony, is your divorce automatic? Don't know. Anyway, it appears that Mr. Fincher was abusing young Edward and she moved to Extension, LA, Franklin Parish, and she resided in the Tom Matthews family. In June 1990 Sarah lived in the household of J.Y. Christiansen and Sarah died in Franklin Parish, LA after 1930.
The young Edward Rufus Martin married my grandmother, Alice Phenia (nee DuBell) Green as her second husband on 18 Oct 1914. My grandfather was Thomas Green, husband of Alice; after he died, Alice married Mr. Martin. Mr. Martin was not related to me, but he was the only grandfather we had, and I would like to find his family.
I have searched for years for Barbour County, the Internet, genealogical records, family trees, IGI, Soundex, census - nothing has surfaced. The elder Martin had a large family; he was the son of David MARTIN and Nancy; they had nine children: Edward R. (the prisoner), two daus m before 1840, Sarah Martin, Alex(ander), Tobe, Frank, Benjamin and E.J. Frank Martin, brother to the prisoner, moved to Baldwin County, Ala where he resided in 1900. No further trace of the family.
Sarah E. Miller, who m Edward R. Martin, was the dau of John D. Miller and his wife, Malinda. She had siblings: A.J., Robert G., James, John and Lucinda, all residing in Barbour County, AL in 1880.
When Sarah moved to LA while her husband was in prison, she denied the existence of her son, kept him out of school, moved from one home to another; it appears she was terrified of her husband, the prisoner. It is possible that she had something to do with the killing in 1883 and she did not want to find out his whereabouts.
WHAT A MYSTERY. Edward R. Martin was pardoned and he went SOMEWHERE. Where? He was 54 years of age when he was pardoned on 16 July 1893. He could have been living in 1900 at the age of 61; he could have been living in 1910 at age 71. WE CANNOT FIND HIM. I reviewed ALL of the census records for 1900 and 1910 for AL, GA, MS, LA and ARK. No Edward R. Martin, b SC, April 1839.
I would appreciate ANY information. Thank you. Dorothy of Phoenix, AZ.

Sources


See also:

Source S624
Title: Jane DRAKE BRODY email removed for privacy Note: Source Media Type: Book, Repository: Name: Not Given, Address: Not Given, Paranthetical: Y
Source S637
Title: "Martin Family of Abbeville District, S. C." by William Bagwell, Cheyney, PA 19319, Published 6/1981, Note: Source Media Type: Book, Repository: Paranthetical: Y

Acknowledgements

  • This person was created through the import of JDS_09_17_10.ged on 09 February 2011.




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