Update on Todd Deeds in Pendleton District

Richard McMurtry

December 2012

As you may remember, I ordered the deed abstracts 1807-1830 from the Clayton Genealogical Library in Texas for James Todd and William Todd. I left it for others to do the same thing for Robert Todd, Adam Todd and John Todd. That has not happened as yet but hopefully will in due time.

Here’s what was discovered from the latest abstracts.

Three Todd families settled in the Rocky River area of Pendleton District in the decade prior to and after 1800. DNA studies are underway to determine if they shared a common ancestor in Ireland.

· By 1790, Archibald Todd’s family, namely, Jeanne Todd, his widow, along with their sons John and Adam moved from Edgefield Co and settled in Pendleton District.

· By 1801, a decade later, James Todd b 1750s and his wife Jane Erskine Todd and children came from Ireland and settled about 5 miles north of where Archibald’s family had settled.

· By 1802, Robert Todd b 1784 came from Ireland and settled about 7 miles south of the Archibald Todd famiy and almost immediately married Olive McAllister.

First Todd Settlement in Pendleton

Archibald’s son John Todd b 1760s bought 200 acres in 1789 on Hencoop Creek. Here he lived until he sold his Hencoop Creek land and moved to Jackson Co Georgia after 1804. He also got a grant of in 1793 for 786 acres about 30 miles NW in what later became Pickens County. Abstracts of land sales for John Todd have not obtained as yet to determine the fate of his Pickens Co land. John’s brother Adam b1780 purchased 100 acres from John on Hencoop Creek in 1797 and then got a grant on the same creek in 1802 for 206 acres. Their brother William may have moved to Abbeville County since he died there in 1822. Adam later in 1819 got a grant on Neal’s Creek that lay between Hencoop Creek and Broadway Creek.

Subsequent Todd Settlement in Pendleton

Robert Todd 1784-1844 bought land on Governor’s Creek in 1805, having settled in the area about 1802. Governor’s Creek flows eastward towards Rocky River in the southern end of present day Anderson County.

James Todd and Jane Erskine Todd bought land in four places in the Pendleton District between 1801 and 1805. He first, in 1801, bought 200 acres on Broadmouth Creek from Charles Clements. Then, in 1803, he bought land on Broadway Creek from Daniel McAlister (325 acre) and from John Parker (100 acres). Then in 1805, he got a grant for 535 acres on Twenty-Six Mile Creek a mile or three west of his Broadway Creek land and a grant for 802 acres on Cain Creek which we believe is the Cane Creek that is 34 miles NW of his Broadway Creek land in what became Oconee County.

Just a few years after his first purchase, in 1805, his oldest son William secured a grant for 500 acres on Beaverdam Creek and then in 1808 William purchased another 380 acres on

Beaverdam Creek from William McElvaney. He sold 220+ acres of this land in 1819 and 1823, but in 1826 a neighboring property described itself as “joins James Todd …William Todd”, suggesting that both William’s land and the land of his father James were close together despite being on different creeks. There is a point where Beaverdam Creek approaches Broadway Creek within a mile and a half of each other about 7 or 8 miles NE of the town of Anderson. And it is probably in this vicinity that James Todd and William settled. Note also that the upper Broadmouth Creek (the creek where James first purchased land) is only 2.5 miles from that area where Beaverdam Creek (William’s land) and Broadway Creek (James’ land) come close together.

A curious sale was recorded by James Todd Senior in 1809. He sold the 210 acres of the 425 acres on Broadway Creek he had purchased from Daniel McAlister and John Parker in 1803. He sold this land to James Todd and John Todd who were only 11 and 8 years old at the time. A sale to one’s minor children was in colonial days sometimes used to protect ones assets from creditors. But we have no knowledge as to whether this was the situation that caused this strange sale in 1809.

In 1813, he sold 200 acres of his Broadmouth Creek land with his wife Gennett (presumably Jane Erskine Todd) releasing her dower in the land. By this time, he seems to have also sold his Twenty Six Mile Creek land to Joseph Green.

In 1823, after his son James had come of age, James Todd Sr sold 136 acres on Broadway Creek to his son James Todd Jr and in 1826 he sold another 100 acres to James Todd Jr. It appears that here, on the Broadway Creek land, James Todd Jr spend most of his life until the death of his wife and his subsequent migration to Texas to join his sons after 1869.

We assume that William moved to what became Oconee County about 1830 where he appears in the Pickens District census and so any further sales of his land would be recorded after 1830. Sales and purchases by John Todd have not been researched.

Conclusion

In sum, three Todd families settled in the portion of Pendleton District that became Anderson County between 1789 and 1802 on various stream of the Rocky River. The family of Archibald Todd d 1780s, namely his widow Jeanne, his sons John and Adam and daughter Sarah settled initially on Hencoop Creek about 4-6 miles southeast of what became the town of Anderson; James Todd and Jane Erskine Todd settled about 5 miles north of there on Broadway Creek; their adult son William Todd settled on Beaverdam Creek where it approached Broadway Creek. Robert Todd settled about 7 miles south of the family of Archibald Todd on Governor’s/Governance Creek.

Their geographic proximity as well as their connections to various branches of the McAllister family led to intermarriage between the three families. Robert Todd 1784-1844 married Olive McAllister, daughter of Andrew McAllister, about 1802, shortly after his arrival in South Carolina; Margaret Pogue Todd b 1793, daughter of James Todd/Jane Erskine, married William B. McAllister, son of Andrew McAllister, . Margaret Pogue (Todd) McAllister’s daughter Jane Erskine McAllister married Archibald Todd, nephew and ward of Adam Todd b 1780.

DNA studies are underway as of Dec 2012 to determine if these three families shared a common ancestor in Ireland.