Louisa Jane probably arrived in Greenwood in need of spiritual resources. Not finding them or not finding leadership who would bring them about, she became a willing contributor to finding a different path to these resources. The Methodist environment in which Louisa Jane was raised undoubtedly nurtured her through major changes in her family. She likewise probably wanted to raise her children in this environment but none existed in Greenwood, at least not in the on-going way she may have needed. She was a young mother. Her own had died so many years ago that she probably did not even remember her. Her stepmother lived in a different part of the county. Some Methodist women she got to know in Greenwood possibly formed the Methodist environment she may have believed she needed. She joined them. Ultimately, as these women grew from an informal to a formal group, they found a way to make history together. Louisa Jane and her family arrived in Greenwood village in time to be enumerated in the 1850 U.S. census. They were family #1826 in order of visitation. L.D. was a merchant who owned real estate worth $2,000. He was born in Virginia. 22 He owned eight slaves. 23 They lived on the south side of Main Street. The first Greenwood family enumerated in that census was Thomas B. Byrd’s, #1788. Byrd was a planter and former village postmaster. 24 The Byrd family lived on the same side of Main Street, west of the Merriman family. Elizabeth, Thomas’s wife, like Louisa Jane, was a Methodist with C HARLES C OUNTY , M ARYLAND roots. Their husbands knew each other. A few years earlier, they with others proposed a railroad route through the county, serving on a committee to organize a large public 22 1850 U.S. census, Abbeville District, South Carolina, population schedule, Village of Greenwood, p. 119B, dwelling 1826, family 1826, Lewis [Louis] D. Merriman; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : 22 July 2020), citing NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 848. 23 1850 U.S. census, Abbeville District, South Carolina, slave schedule, p. 84 (penned), Louis D. Merriman, owner; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : 13 September 2020), citing NARA microfilm publication M432, roll ? 24 1850 U.S. census, Abbeville District, South Carolina, population schedule, Village of Greenwood, 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, Abbeville District, South Carolina, Record of Appointments of Postmasters, 1832-1971, image; U.S., Appointments of Postmasters, 1832-1971, database, Ancestry.com (access through participating libraries : 22 February 2019), citing NARA microfilm publication M841, roll 114, Abbeville-Greenwood Counties, vol. 10 ca. 1832-44, vol. 16 ca. 1844-56, vol. 29 ca. 1858-76.
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