South Carolina

In 1750, many settlers from Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina moved from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia down the Great Wagon Road to the foothills of northwestern South Carolina. Abraham Pennington and his sons, including Jacob, were among these travelers. They used the Great Wagon Road (sometimes called the Great Valley Road) to travel south from Winchester, Virginia, through North Carolina and into Newberry County, South Carolina, a distance of about 450 miles. Beginning first as a buffalo trail and Indian path, the Great Wagon Road ran north and south through the Shenandoah Valley, extending from New York to the Carolinas. This road is still traveled today and is called The Valley Pike - U.S. Rt. 11. Indians from Georgia to Canada used this well watered path as a migratory route and hunting ground.

The Penningtons settled in northwest South Carolina on a tributary of the Enoree River called Indian Creek in Newberry County. Today, if you visit the Sumter National Forest in South Carolina, you would be very close to where the Penningtons settled.

Newberry County was not founded until 1795, 45 years after the Penningtons arrived there. Prior to 1795, the Indian Creek area was part of Berkeley County. Even though some of the original records indicate "Berkeley County" on them, I will refer to it here as "Newberry County" for ease and clarity in locating the area on maps.

The "Up-County" farmers, unlike the "Low-Country" planters (up-country referring to the mountainous western part of the state and low-country referring to the eastern coastal area), generally did their own work without the help of slaves. The Penningtons, though, did own some slaves in South Carolina because, in his Last Will and Testament, Jacob refers to "one Negro Girl named Bella" and "a Negroe fellow named Simon". The settlers cleared their land of trees and used the wood to build their cabins. They also made their own tables, chairs, beds and even dishes and spoons out of wood. Frontier people saved animal fat and made it into candles and used fat and fireplace ashes to make soap. The women sewed the family's clothes out of deerskin or homemade cloth, expect for perhaps one set of Sunday clothes bought in Charleston.

Many of the frontier families had nightmares about corn because they ate it - even drank it - so often in the form of cornbread, succotash (corn and beans mixed together), corn stews, and corn beer. Nearly every backwoodsman also hunted. If he was lucky and a good shot, his family might have venison or a rabbit or squirrel stew for dinner.

The early 1750’s were times of tension on the South Carolina frontier. In May of 1751, a man named Issac Cloud was murdered in his sleep and his wife, Mary, left for dead, by the Savanna Indians. In the summer of 1753, Stephen Holston had an incident with the Cherokee Indians: About 40 Cherokees were returning from a conference in Charleston when they came to the Holston house and demanded provisions and lodging for the night, which were given. In the middle of the night, the Indians surrounded the house and began shooting at the house. They broke into the house, and into Holston’s wife’s bedchamber . . . to save her life, she jumped out of a window, with her young infant in her arms, and ran through the woods three miles to a neighbor’s house where she stayed the night. In the morning, she returned to her house and found much of her household goods stolen.

Indian attacks continued with such frequency that the settlers soon presented a petition to the Governor asking for a troop of rangers to protect them. Referring to the murder of settlers on Buffalo Creek by Indians in November of 1754, the Petition began "The Humble petitioners could not banish from their minds the cruel and Inhuman treatment of their fellow subjects then lately perpetrated on Buffalo Creek by their Common Enemy, the Bloody fact of those Barbarians was still fresh in their memory . . ." It went on to describe the Indians as the "savage enemy", "savage wretches", the "heathen enemy", and mentioning that they "might be compared to a Wolf - slyly stealing after his prey". The petition was dated February 4, 1755, and included the signatures of Jacob, Isaac and Abraham Pennington. The petition was approved and a troop of 50 rangers was sent to protect the settlers.

On July 21, 1755, Abraham(2) made his Last Will and Testament and it was proved when he died on May 29, 1756.

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ABRAHAM PENNINGTON

Signed sealed published and pronounced by the said Abraham Pennington to be his Last Will and Testament in the presence of us: Able Anderson, Gabriel Anderson, Abraham Anderson.

In 1759, at the beginning of the Cherokee War, the settlers built several small forts in the fork between the Broad River and Saluda River to protect themselves from Indian attacks. There were five on the Enoree River, two of them built by the Penningtons.

Wagon roads were a necessity for the early settlers because they had to haul their supplies the many miles from the settlements of Charleston and others along the Atlantic coast. Commissioners were appointed to lay out and oversee the building of these roads. One of these roads went from Indian Island Ford to Hendrick’s Mill on the Enoree River and Jacob Pennington was one of the commissioners appointed to oversee its construction. This road later became known as the Ninety Six Road.

On December 7, 1762, Jacob made his Last Will and Testament. He must have gotten very ill and figured he was going to die. He recovered, though, and lived to have three more children.

 LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF JACOB PENNINGTON

In 1765, Jacob Pennington and his family welcomed into their family the first son, whom they named Jacob, after his father. This is the Jacob, by the way, who will grow up to be the first settler in Lawrence County, Tennessee. In 1774, when Jacob was only nine years old, his father, Jacob died. Since, Jacob, the son, was so young when his father died, there is no need to use Jacob(1) and Jacob(2). Any "Jacob’s" discussed hereafter will refer to Jacob, the son, who settled in Lawrence County, Tennessee.

The next year, 1775, the Revolutionary War began and on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed.

In 1780, Jacob married a girl named Mary Tuttle. Records show that she was an Indian, probably of the Cherokee tribe as the Cherokees lived nearby in western South Carolina. Mary’s father was referred to as "Old Chief Tuttle" and her mother was called Pokerhunters. Other Pennington men are said to have married Indian women in this area during this same time period. Jacob and Mary would eventually have eight children.

Children of Jacob and Mary Pennington

1.   Moses Pennington born 1780

2.   Abraham Pennington born 1780

3.   William Pennington born 1788

4.  Isaac Pennington born 1792

5.  *David Pennington born 1796

6.  John Pennington born ?

7.   Elizabeth Pennington born 1805

8.  Mary Pennington born 1810

In 1783, the Revolutionary War ended and in 1789, George Washington became the first President of the United States.

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