Williams died a few years later. 24 At his death, Thomas owed Ann and her children $1,700 to $1,800 principal and interest. In exchange for future interest payments on the debt, he offered his home to them as a place to live as long as his wife lived or as long as they wanted to stay. “But, in case She [Ann] may desire to leave my family I will that the debt aforesaid be paid out of [the] legacy bequeathed to my wife Mrs. Eliza T. Williams.” Thomas also named specific slaves and their increase he wanted Ann and her children to receive after Eliza died. 25 Perhaps Ann inherited assets from her husband and her mother but I did not find their estate records. Ann, son Alfred and daughter Annie continued to live in the Williams home. 26 Alfred taught at the Methodist school in the village, formerly M OUNT A RIEL now Cokesbury. He died in 1859. 27 Ann was a member of Cokesbury Methodist Church. 28 Also, she was secretary of the Cokesbury [Methodist Church] Female Society, a group that raised money for the church’s missions abroad. 29 This work gave her experience with women who got things done. Ann traveled to Greenwood from her Cokesbury home probably for several reasons: visit friends, chaperone her daughter’s visits with her suitor and attend meetings of Methodist women who championed a church of their own 24 Martha Daniel obituary, p. 199, col. 3. Also, “Thomas W. Williams,” obituary, p. 148, col. 1. 25 Thomas W. Williams, Will Typescript, 13 January 1846, South Carolina Department of Archives and History (http://scdah.sc.gov : 5 December 2018), citing Thomas W. Williams Estate, Box 112, Pkg. 3317, Abbeville County, Probate Court, Abbeville. 26 1850 U.S. census, Cokesbury, Abbeville District, South Carolina, population schedule, p. 137 (stamped), dwelling 2106, family 2106, Ann M. Turpin, Alfred B. Turpin and Anna E. Turpin in Eliza T. Williams household; digital image, Ancestry.com (access through participating libraries : 27 September 2018); citing NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 848. 27 “Alfred B. Turpin,” obituary, Southern Christian Advocate (Charleston, South Carolina), 5 May 1859, p. 196, col. 5; microfilm, South Carolina United Methodist Collection, Wofford College, Spartanburg. 28 “Our Old Roads, No. 288,” The (Greenwood, South Carolina) Index-Journal , 6 July 1946, online archives (http://www.newspapers.com : 7 November 2020), p. 4, col. 2, para. 4. 29 Minutes of the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist E. Church, South, For the Year 1853 to which are added the Report of the Missionary Society, etc. (Charleston: Office of the Southern Christian Advocate, 1854), 27; digital image, Internal Archive (http://www.archive.org : accessed 4 February 2021). In 1853, the women’s group donated $101.50, a considerable sum at the time, to the China mission.
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