Family:Whitney, Samuel (c1765-a1820)

Samuel's Locations

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Samuel Whitney, parentage unknown, was born before 1775, and died after 1790.

Samuel Whitney and Francis Whitney first appear, about 1785-1786, on land records in Edgefield County, South Carolina. Part of this area ultimately became Aiken County, South Carolina. The Whitney name was mentioned in the History of the Town of Salley (South Carolina): "In the late 1700 and early 1800 other families began moving into this area. Namely: Able, Brodie, Boylston, Cooper, Corley, Courtney , Clark, Caughman, Davis, Douglass, Fanning, Fergerson, Ginyard, Gleaton, Holman, Jordan, Johnson, Jones, Kitchings, Kennerly, Knotts, LeCroy, Milhous, McQueen, Mackey, O'Dowd, Porter, Prothro, Peeples, Riley, Sawyer, Stroman, Tyler, Toole, Vann, Wooley, Whitney, and Walker." ^[1]

By the time of the 1790 South Carolina Census (actually done/completed in 1792), Samuel Whitney, Francis Whitney, Francis Whitney (Jr.) and their presumed families had relocated several miles to the east into, closely neighboring, Orangeburg County.

Note: A detailed and definitive history of the Whitney's found in Edgefield and Orangeburg Counties of South Carolina 1785-1840 will never be written due to the loss of records during the Civil War. The Edgefield County records were only partially destroyed; however, the Orangeburg County records are particularly problematic since they no longer exist. Sometime in January 1864, the Orangeburg County officials, anticipating the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction, packed ALL of their records and loaded them on a train to be shipped to the capital in Columbia, South Carolina for 'safe keeping'. These records represented the history of the huge Orangeburg District from the earliest settlement in the early 1700's to 1864. They included all land records, court records, tax records, marriage records, and slave schedules. The train arrived, in Columbia, and was sitting in the rail yard waiting to be unloaded when, on February 17,1865, General Sherman and his Union Forces arrived. General William Tecumseh Sherman had stated, prior to his arrival, in South Carolina, that "...when I go through South Carolina it will be one of the most horrible things in the history of the world. The devil himself could'nt restrain my men in that State." It is not surprising, therefore, that the city of Columbia was almost totally destroyed. Photographs taken that day show only standing chimney stacks and smoking rubble. The train with the Orangeburg records was burned, where it sat, in the rail yard.

A few remaining land, census, church, and private family records are all that is left for research, in Orangeburg, South Carolina. These records provide brief sporatic 'snapshots' of individual Whitney's, but unfortunately, they do not provide specific documention of births, marriages, deaths or enough information to determine, even the basic family structure, of any Whitney individual.

Samuel Whitney initially appears in the archived records of Edgefield County, which at that time was a part of the Ninety Six District, with several curious survey records, the earliest of which was 6 December, 1786:

Note: Dates on the archived land records in South Carolina represent the recording dates. The actual purchase date could have been much earlier.

Census

• 1790, Orangeburg South Co., SC: Samuel Whitney, 1 males over 16, 1 males under 16, 2 females.

References

1. ^  History of the Town of Salley; internet link is non-functional.

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Copyright © 2007, Tim Doyle and the Whitney Research Group