----------, Joan (b. ABT 1558, d. BEF 19 MAY 1612)

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Ancestors of American Presidents
Title: Compiled by Gary Boyd Roberts, Ancestors of American Presidents (Santa C
larita, California: C. Boyer 3rd, in cooperation with the New England H
istoric Genealogical Society, 1995.)
larita, California: C. Boyer 3rd, in cooperation with the New England H
istoric Genealogical Society, 1995.

Given Name: Joan

Death: BEF 19 MAY 1612

Burial: 19 MAY 1612

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: Had Rebecca Wilson Carson been born in 1940, instead of 1890, she might very well have been the CEO of some Fortune 500 company, making life heaven for the stockholders--whose interests she would have pursued zealously--and hell for the employees--whose best efforts she would have expected without question. Her executive abilities were vast but because of the time and place in which she was born they were exercised only in running--with matchless efficiency--a large and complicated household. By doing so, she provided her husband with an island of domestic calm that greatly aided him in his career.

My own turbulent childhood was greatly improved by that island as well. In my grandmother's house I invariably found the calm, civilized, predictable setting I so lacked at home and which I have always needed since. The world of maids, dressing for dinner, bridge games, and no raised voices is over and gone, and most would not wish it back, but Granny Gordon provided that world to me and I am grateful for it. As I grew older, my grandmother and I, with many traits and interests in common, became close friends as well as close relatives. Frankly, I adored her.

Rebecca Carson was highly intelligent and witty. There was little that escaped her notice and little that she was unwilling to say, often with a sting in the tail. This gave her, of course, a well-deserved reputation for being tactless (as am I), but it was also refreshing. With her, what you saw was what you got, she simply didn't have a devious bone in her body or the slightest inclination to say other than what she thought was the truth.

Indeed, perhaps what was most impressive about this remarkable woman was her honesty and her intellectual courage. She was not an intellectual--in the sense that she had no interest in abstractions, living entirely in the real world--but she believed what she believed and that was that. Often called by my grandfather, with great affection, "a marvel of inaccuracy," she was much more concerned with the essential truth in a story than details--which is the very essence of good story telling--and she had a keen sense of irony.

Being unromantic and rational by nature, she never believed in religion. Indeed, she was never confirmed in her family's Episcopal faith (her grandfather, whom she never knew, had been an Episcopal minister). Today that would not be remarkable at all. But in the turn-of-the-century deep South that was an astonishing act of intellectual independence, especially for a girl. It is made all the more remarkable by her father's support for her position. She was her father's favorite child and it is very easy to see why, for they were much alike.

Her daughter Eleanora told me that the only time in her mother's life that she went to church entirely of her own free will, was at a service held in the late summer of 1945, when the Second World War had ended, and she knew her two sons' lives would be spared. This is a telling point about her, for while Granny Gordon was unromantic, she was anything but devoid of emotion. Her loyalties and loves ran very deep.

Although she was bossy by nature, and more than a little inclined to run the lives of anyone who would let her (including, unfortunately for them, her sons), she needed only to be pushed back to stop pushing. In fact, one of her more endearing traits was that she admired people who were not afraid of her. It was the secret of being treated as an equal by her.

She met my grandfather in New York, where she had come to study art after attending Converse College in South Carolina, and she had a life-long love of art in the broader sense of the word. Deeply knowledgeable about furniture and decoration, she acquired an enviable collection of antique furniture, much inherited, but much as well acquired over a lifetime of collecting.

Before her marriage, she was employed by Charles Schwab, then President of Bethlehem Steel, to take his illegitimate daughter to museums and to introduce her to the world of art. At her marriage, Charles Schwab gave her her wedding dress as a present. Her wedding took place on July 1st, 1916. Coincidentally, that very same day, Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower were also married. And, unknown to the guests assembled in the staggering heat of Spartanburg (which was suffering a heat wave, even by South Carolina standards, at the time), that day was also the first day of the mindless blood bath known as the Battle of the Somme, and thus one of the darkest days in the history of western civilization.

There is a story of Granny Gordon's childhood that she told, as far as anyone knows, for the first time at her sixtieth wedding anniversary. It deserves to be remembered.

It seems there was a man in Spartanburg named Mr. Bates who drove the ice wagon around town. A bitter, quarrelsome man, he was unpleasant to everyone, especially the children of the town who liked to hitch rides on the back of the wagon. He was thoroughly detested by Granny and her friends, who were somewhere around eight or ten years old at the time..

Then one Saturday night, Mr. Bates got into a bar-room fight and killed a man. He was quickly sentenced to be hanged and on the appointed day, Granny's father mentioned at the dinner table that poor Mr. Bates had, indeed, met his end at the prison.

"Yes!" said Granny, who was, as it happened, a friend of the prison warden's daughter, "and I have the rope!" producing the noose from beneath the table.

The effect of this revelation on the family--not to mention the servants--could only have been titanic.

Given Name: Rebecca Wilson

Death: 17 JUN 1979 North Salem, New York

Change: Date: 18 Feb 2003

Note: Ralph Carson was perhaps Spartanburg's most prominent lawyer at the turn of the century and served as president of the South Carolina Bar Association. He promoted the C.C. & O. railroad that did much to further the economic prospects of Spartanburg as textile mills moved to the piedmont region at this time. He served as division counsel to that company for a number of years. He was also director of several local textile mills and a founder of the town of Chesnee.

He was born in Spartanburg during a visit there by his parents, but he always regarded Polk County, North Carolina, as his boyhood home. He attended Wofford College and read law under John Sharpe Rowland Thomson, a leading lawyer of "Upper Carolina" in the late 19th century.

He was early afflicted with severe rheumatism and needed a cane to get about from a young age. But the physical pain he suffered most of his life did not prevent him from an active law practice, which, conducted with several different partners over the years, flourished. He did much pro bono work and his obituary in the Spartanburg Journal said that "He was a friend of the poor and needy, and it is quite probable that the debts due him for professional services are as much as those he collected."

Although blacks were almost completely disenfranchised in the South after the end of Reconstruction, Ralph Carson thought highly of a black man named Jim who worked for him at home. Every election day, he would take Jim with him to the polls and saw to it that he voted.

A lengthy editorial in the Journal on the occasion of his death, recalled his virtues, saying that "His sense of truth was his most highly developed faculty, and he often reveal[ed] it with a flash of wit that left the picture indelibly impressed upon the minds of those who heard it. This characteristic did not contribute to his popularity with some people, but it left none who knew his capacity in this direction without a wholesome respect for his wit, and recognition of his courage." Anyone who knew his daughter Rebecca will recognize how this trait passed down to her.

The editorial ends "So the appearance of wrong or injustice was always a challenge to him and questionable conduct awakened his powers of denunciation. His sympathies were with the people and his contact with them was that of an optimistic friend, who helped many out of difficulties and forgot to charge for his services. Just such a citizen as Mr. Carson will not come into the life of this city again."

Even in an age when prominent citizens who had recently died were routinely extolled, this is praise indeed. He was clearly a remarkable man.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Ralph Gordon
Title: Ralph Gordon's genealogy of the Gordon family

Given Name: Ralph Kennedy

Death: 21 MAR 1922 Spartanburg, South Carolina

Change: Date: 28 Feb 2003

Note: Catherine Johnson donated the portrait of Joel Roberts Poinsett that hangs in the Charleston Museum. It had been left to her by her father, who was named for Poinsett.

Given Name: Catherine Bonneau

Death: 18 FEB 1934 Spartanburg, South Carolina

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: Jason Hazard Carson was a planter in Polk County, North Carolina. But his marriage to Jane Moore was bitterly opposed by his father and he moved to Spartanburg. His oldest son was killed in the Civil War, a blow from which he never recovered.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Ralph Gordon
Title: Ralph Gordon's genealogy of the Gordon family

Given Name: Jason Hazard

Death: 12 JUN 1865 Spartanburg, South Carolina

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: See DAR reference number 8270.

Jean Moore brought substantial wealth to her marriage and it was her money that built the "Stone House" in Spartenburg that was the home of the Carson family for many years.

Her name on her gravestone is given as 'O'Moore," probably at her request.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Twitty
Title: Joel Gregory Lewis (finalized by Geraldine C. Twitty), The Twitty Famil
y in America 1671-1976 (Walters Prining Company: 1976)
y in America 1671-1976
y in America 1671-1976. Walters Prining Company: 1976.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Ralph Gordon
Title: Ralph Gordon's genealogy of the Gordon family

Given Name: Jane

Death: 26 DEC 1896 Spartanburg, South Carolina

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: Roberts Poinsett Johnson was named for a close friend of his father, Joel Roberts Poinsett, who was United States Counsel to Mexico and who introduced the plant named for him, the poinsettia, to the United States from there in 1828.

He became an Episcopal minister and apparently spent most of his career in the church as a circuit priest, moving from parish to parish as the need for a priest arose.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Ralph Gordon
Title: Ralph Gordon's genealogy of the Gordon family

Given Name: Roberts Poinsett

Death: 1 MAY 1882 York, South Carolina

Change: Date: 9 Mar 2003

Note: The daughter of a Baptist minister, she was orphaned at an early age and was raised by one Episcopal minister and married another. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that she converted to Anglicanism.

Nor is it surprising that my grandmother, who was not quite eight at her death, dimly remembered sitting in her lap while she sang hymns.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Ralph Gordon
Title: Ralph Gordon's genealogy of the Gordon family

Given Name: Alice Keziah

Death: 30 DEC 1897 Spartanburg, South Carolina

Change: Date: 26 Feb 2003

Note: Joseph McDowell Carson was a lawyer and a very successful one. He owned Green River Plantation in Rutherford County, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places and is open to the public.

He represented Rutherford County in the North Carolina House of Commons in 1812, 1813, 1814, and 1835, and in the state Senate in 1832, 1836, and 1838. In 1835 he was a member of the state convention called to consider amendments to the state constitution.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Wheeler
Title: John H. Wheeler, Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminen
t North Carolinians (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1966 (
reprint of 1878 edition).)
t North Carolinians
t North Carolinians. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1966 (
reprint of 1878 edition).

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Ralph Gordon
Title: Ralph Gordon's genealogy of the Gordon family

Given Name: Joseph McDowell

Death: 1860

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Rebecca Carson

Death: 13 JUN 1840 Green River Plantation, North Carolina

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: John Moore was born John O'Moore in Ireland where he was raised as a Roman Catholic. He is, as far as I now know, my only ancestor of Irish (as opposed to Scots-Irish) descent. He immigrated to Philadelphia at a young age where he married into the Catholic Taggart family.

After his wife's early death, he renounced Catholicism, dropped the "O'" from his name, and moved to Rutherford County, North Carolina There he married a second time and prospered mightily. In his will, dated 1832, he left farms, mills, stores, stills, etc. His stores alone had accounts receivable (not including bad debts) that exceeded $30,000. At his death he was among the richest citizens of North Carolina.

Judging from his will, he was a decent man, instructing that "no honest man to be distressed by collection of debts," and warning his heirs to "never sell the land."

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Ralph Gordon
Title: Ralph Gordon's genealogy of the Gordon family

Given Name: John

Death: 4 APR 1841 White Oak, North Carolina

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: Sarah Twitty, upon her marriage to John Moore, had a large bed made for her in 1824 from walnut. Simple in design, with turned and carved low posts and architectural carved headboard and footboard, the latter containing 14 turned and carved spindles. It is now in the possession of the writer.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Twitty
Title: Joel Gregory Lewis (finalized by Geraldine C. Twitty), The Twitty Famil
y in America 1671-1976 (Walters Prining Company: 1976)
y in America 1671-1976
y in America 1671-1976. Walters Prining Company: 1976.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Ralph Gordon
Title: Ralph Gordon's genealogy of the Gordon family

Given Name: Sarah

Death: 1852 Rutherford County, North Carolina

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: Joseph Johnson was educated in Charleston, but went to medical school at Philadelphia, graduating in 1797. His thesis, An Experimental Inquiry into the Properties of Carbonic Acid Gas or Fixed Air, is a splendid example of 18th century science. He wrote frequently on medical subjects, including "Some Account of the Origin and Prevention of Yellow Fever in Charleston, S.C." (1849). He was also a distinguished amateur astronomer. His writings on astronomy include "The Alleged Connection between the Phases of the Moon and the Quantity of Rain," (1854).

He practiced medicine for many years in Charleston, as well as selling pharmaceuticals, and held many important posts outside the medical profession. He was intendant of Charleston (equivalent to mayor) in 1826, President of the state Medical Society, President of the Apprentice's Library Society, President of the South Carolina Society, President of the Charleston branch of the Second Bank of the United States, and later sub-treasurer of the United States in Charleston after the bank's destruction at the hands of Andrew Jackson.

He was a prominent member of the Union party, opposed to John C. Calhoun and to nullification.

He wrote Traditions and Reminiscences of the American Revolution, published in 1851, a work that enjoyed wide popularity and preserved much valuable information regarding the American Revolution in the South that would otherwise have been lost.

He lived at 35 Church Street in what is now called the Young-Johnson House and at 56 Society, now the home of Frances X. McCann. Both buildings have plaques commemorating his residence.

There is an article about him in the Dictionary of American Biography.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: DAB
Title: Dictionary of American Biography

Given Name: Joseph

Death: 6 OCT 1862 Pineville, South Carolina

Change: Date: 5 Mar 2003

Given Name: Catherine

Death: 2 AUG 1859

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Pendarvis
Title: Jems Barnwell Heyward, The Genealogy of the Pendarvis-Bedon Families (F
oote & Davies Company
Atlanta, Georgia, 1905)
oote & Davies Company
Atlanta, Georgia, 1905.

Given Name: Napoleon Bonaparte

Death: 11 SEP 1840

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: Her name is a curious one, especially since she appears to have been the sixth, not seventh child. Possibly there was a child who was stillborn or died at birth that would account for it.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Fenhagen
Title: Mary Pringle Fenhagen, "John Edwards and Some of His Descendants" (The S
outh Carolina Magazine of History and Genealogy)
outh Carolina Magazine of History and Genealogy.

Given Name: Septima

Death: 2 OCT 1839

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: William Johnson came to Charleston as a young man and prospered greatly. He operated an iron foundry at East Bay, first in partnership with Tunis Tebout, and then on his own. He is often referred to as a blacksmith, but his operations were much larger than that word would imply. In his will, written in 1808, he listed among his properties White House Plantation on the Cooper River in St. James Goose Creek Parish, seven houses and six lots in Charleston, three tracts of land on the Edisto River, and more land located near the Catawba Nation. At his death he owned stock in several banks and canal companies and ninety-eight slaves. His estate was valued at more than $80,000.

William Johnson was one of the leaders of the secret meetings under the "Liberty Tree," and Governor John Rutledge declared that he was the man who first started the ball of the revolution rolling in Charleston. Edward McCrady, a descendant, in his four-volume history of South Carolina wrote that "He was an upright, influential and intelligent mechanic; a man of considerable inherited means, who had not long since come into this province from New York."

He joined Capt. Thomas Heyward's company and participated in the defense of Charleston. He refused a commission. Taken as a prisoner of war he was sent by the British to St. Augustine, as were many other leading citizens of Charleston. Exchanged, he was exiled and went to Philadelphia.

He was a member of every legislature, except that of 1782, when he was in exile, from the first after independence until 1792. He was a member of the state convention to consider the Constitution and voted for its ratification. He also served in the convention to establish a new state constitution in 1790.

He served in numerous local offices, including Commissioner of Fortifications, Firematser, and Commissioner of Streets. He was a vestryman at St. Philips and owned a pew in that church. He was a founder of the Fellowship Society in 1765 and a member of the South Carolina Society.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Ralph Gordon
Title: Ralph Gordon's genealogy of the Gordon family

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Bailey
Title: N. Louise Bailey (ed.), Biographical Directory of the South carolina Ho
use of Representatives
use of Representatives
use of Representatives.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Eminent
Title: Cyclopedia of Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas of the Ni
neteenth Century
neteenth Century
neteenth Century.

Given Name: William

Death: 21 MAR 1818 Charleston, South Carolina

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: In her will dated Oct 31 1823, she stated that she owned a pew at St. Philip's Church, where her husband and, almost certainly, herself are buried.

She left considerable property including three houses and lots in Charleston, a plantation, bank stock, and more than thirty named household slaves.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Ralph Gordon
Title: Ralph Gordon's genealogy of the Gordon family

Given Name: Sarah

Death: 5 OCT 1825

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: Colonel John Carson, of Scots-Irish descent, was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, and emigrated to America about 1773. He settled in Burke County, North Carolina, in an area that later was made into McDowell County.

According to John H. Wheeler, North Carolina historian, "He possessed naturally a powerful intellect, great decision of character, much capacity for business, quick, resolute, impulsive. He was consequently a man of prominent character and of much influence in his county, and for many years its leading magistrate."

Carson became very prosperous by means of land speculation and by the end of his life owned over 8000 acres of prime bottom land in the Buck Creek area.

Carson was a noted Indian fighter and earned his military title from his service in the North Carolina Militia. During the Revolution he became part of a famous incident, one that would have deadly and equally famous consequences many years later. To save their cattle from soldiers, many families, rebel and Tory alike, had hidden them in the wilderness. Carson accompanied Major Patrick Ferguson, a British officer, who was searching for cattle to feed his men. Carson led them to a herd that he knew belonged to several Tory families and only after the British had slaughtered over a hundred head, did he tell Ferguson the truth. While Carson was a patriot, because of this incident he was occasionally accused of having aided the British during the Revolution. When a political opponent of Carson's son, Congressman Samuel Carson, made the accusation in a public speech, the younger Carson challenged him to a duel and shot him dead.

He represented Burke County in the Fayetteville Convention that ratified the United States Constitution in 1789. In 1805 and 1806 he served in the state legislature representing Burke County. He played a leading role in county government through most of his long life.

His house is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a museum. When McDowell County--named for his brother-in-law Joseph McDowell--was formed in 1843, his house served as the headquarters of county government until the courthouse was built in the County seat, now called Marion.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Wheeler
Title: John H. Wheeler, Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminen
t North Carolinians (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1966 (
reprint of 1878 edition).)
t North Carolinians
t North Carolinians. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1966 (
reprint of 1878 edition).

Given Name: John Hazzard

Death: 5 MAR 1841 Buck Creek, North Carolina

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Rachel

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003