Best Guess Land Visits

Yesterday and today, we spent our time wandering Newberry and Spartanburg Counties in order to try to see where our folks lived. During a visit to the Newberry Library local history room, we came across a description of the Cappleman land in an equity filing that said it was along Cannon Creek. The 1810 and 1825 maps of the area each had a pinpoint that said Cappleman's Hill and Cappleman respectively. With those tidbits of information, we were able to deduce the present-day location of this land... which is currently under development to be the future home of First Baptist Church Newberry!



We also visited the Newberry Museum, where we learned about the history of the area and looked through the exhibits to try to find names we recognized. The only one that caught my eye was Senn, the family who donated a large cupboard that was right beside the elevator. Elizabeth Senn was my 5th great grandmother, wife of Heinrich Boozer (their daughter married a Cappleman, and the lineage goes down from there through to my great-grandmother Jennie Rachel Gay Robinson. We haven't done much research on the Senn family, but the lady at the front desk said they were quite prominent. 


On our way back to the Rabbit, we popped by Lake Murray to see the area that was now underwater and wasn't when our folks lived here.

Later in the evening, I did a little more digging prior to heading out to Spartanburg today, and I figured out that the Mason land was likely on either side of Fairforest Creek in areas that are marked on early maps as Golightly land on one side of the river and Tindsley on the other side. 

The Golightly land is still owned by the Golightly family! We went there today, and stopped to take a picture of the sign, which establishes its purchase in 1764. One of the first tracts of land Francis Mason bought in 1792 was from the Golightly tract. 


You may be able to see the wisteria growing up into the trees, in full bloom this time of year. We saw this over and over along the way today and were so pleased to capture a bit of it at the entrance to the Golightly land.

The other early piece of land Francis Mason bought was from Isaac Tindsley, on the opposite side of Fairforest Creek from the Golightly land. Today, this land is part of Croft State Park, which was previously a part of Croft Camp, an army training and prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. The government bought this acreage from the farmers who owned it, and their family cemeteries can still be found here. One of the Mason boys married a Foster, and the Foster family cemetery can still be found on this land. There is a record of the Masons selling some land to the Fosters, so that land may be in the vicinity of the cemetery that is on the state park land. I walked up a short gravel horse trail to get to it.



Sadly, we said goodbye to the Rabbit today, and are now in a Comfort Inn closer to the airport for mom's return flight out of Charlotte. I haven't mentioned all the fabulous food - tonight we ate Mexican with a river view of the Catawba - but I'm tired and ready to go to bed before a day of airport time and driving tomorrow. It's been a quick trip, but a fun one!


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