South Carolina side was the chief east-west route connecting middle Georgia and points west with Abbeville District. Eastbound, a branch of this road passed through Greenwood village. A chance encounter at Market Day in Vienna or Hamburg could have been how they met. During their lifetimes, these South Carolina towns were important trading centers. Their markets served both states and parts of others. 21 Perhaps they also met at a Methodist event. The South Carolina Methodist Conference had had Georgia districts, 22 one of which may have included Elizabeth’s home. The event could have been camp meeting or a district or conference meeting. Map, Hudson, “Georgia, Lincoln County Militia District Companies, 1807- 1830” Elizabeth and Thomas combined households. Elizabeth’s children John T. Parks, age 22, and Elizabeth Parks, age 15, were members as were Thomas’s children Dudley, age 28, and Fanny, age 17. Twelve adolescents ranging in age from 14 to 18 made this household unusually large. These boys and girls probably boarded with the Byrd household while attending nearby schools. The location of the Byrd home between Elm and Willowdale courts on Main Street, now East Cambridge Avenue, was near Fuller Institute and Hodges Institute, Baptist schools that had gotten underway a few years earlier, and schools G REENWOOD A SSOCIATION FOR THE P ROMOTION OF E DUCATION had operated since the 1830s. 23 Emily Osborn lived in the Byrd household too. 24 She probably worked as housemother for the students and caregiver for Dudley Byrd who was 21 Watson, Greenwood Co. Sketches 40, 51, 58, 60. Also, Frank Parker Hudson, An 1800 Census for Lincoln County, Georgia (Atlanta: R.J. Taylor Foundation, 1972), 11-13. Also, Paul K. Graham, Atlas of East and Coastal Georgia Watercourses and Militia Districts (Decatur, Georgia: The Genealogy Company, 2010), 34. 22 Albert M. Shipp, The History of Methodism in South Carolina (1884; reprint, Spartanburg: The Reprint Company, 1972), 599-600. 23 1850 U.S. census, Abbeville District, South Carolina, population schedule, p. 116A, dwelling 1785, family 1788, Thomas B. Bird [Byrd]; digital image, Ancestry.com (access through participating libraries : 20 December 2018); citing NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 848. Also, “Village had Post Office 20 Years ahead of Charter,” The (Greenwood, South Carolina) Index Journal , 14 September 1957, online archives (https://www.newspapers.com) : accessed 8 February 2018), p. 33, cols. 1-5. Also, Ann Herd Bowen, Greenwood County: A History (Greenwood, South Carolina: The Museum, 1992), 119-122. 24 1850 U.S. census, Abbeville District, South Carolina, population schedule, p. 116A, dwelling 1785, family 1788, Emily Orsborn [Osborn] in Thomas B. Bird [Byrd] household;
16
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator