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Biographies
Anderson County - South Carolina Genealogy Trails
Robert Welborn Pickens
Source: History of
South Carolina, Volume 3, page 115, By Yates Snowden, Harry
Gardner Cutler, 1920 (with corrections {in green} contributed by
Carl R. Garrison, a decendant of Robert Pickens).
Robert Welborn Pickens represents one of
the very oldest and most prominent families in South Carolina, one
whose patriotism is attested by service in every great war in which
this country has been engaged. Mr. Pickens, who was a
youthful soldier of the Confederacy, has lived a prosperous life in
Brushy Creek Township of Anderson County, near the farm where he was
born August 31, 1847.
He is a direct descendant of Robert
Pickens, who was born in Ireland, in 1697, of French Huguenot [and Scottish] stock. This Robert Pickens [along with his parents William and Margaret and all
his brothers and sisters, came to Pennsylvania ca. 1719, stayed
together for an indeterminate period, then split up, starting down
the "great wagon road" to the southern frontier with some of the
brothers and sisters stopping at various locations along that route.
We lose track of them for a while along this route, but pick them up
later. Robert goes to Maryland, Andrew and John may have stopped in
Virginia, Israel simply vanishes, Gabriel probably stayed with the
parents in Pennsylvania until an adult. It appears that all the
brothers wound up in the Waxhaws area in the early 1750s except
Israel, who ended up more in the Mecklenburg Co (Charlotte) or Rowan
Co (to the west) area. It is not known if the parents came south or
died in PA. Nothing further is known of them. In the Waxhaws, the
younger generation comes of age and begins to "take over" the
family, and the older generation starts to die out. Andrew dies,
Robert's wife evidently dies, and Andrew's wife may have also died
there. The son Robert will be referred to as Capt Robert, the rank
he earned in the Revolution under his cousin, Gen Andrew. Note:
there has been a Robert in every generation of the "patriarch"
Robert's family ever since, and we are into at least the 9th
"Robert" now. As much of this bio was written in the 19-teens, it is
evident that the author, probably Andrew Lee Pickens, PhD, DD who
did all the basic research on the family did not know of many of the
details added here. He did not know of William and Margaret until
the last couple of years of his life, but suspected their existence.
He found the European connections during the late 1920s and early
1930s, and found all this southern movement. No one knew about all
the other brothers until he found them. But his incomplete work made
for some very interesting paradoxes in the 1950-1990 period, as the
new data was worked in.] moved to Maryland, while his
brothers, John and Andrew moved to Pennsylvania, and they were the
founders of the family of that name in the United States. His son,
Robert Pickens was born in Maryland in 1747, and was eight years of
age when brought to South Carolina. He was a patriot soldier in the
struggle for American independence and served as captain under Gen.
Andrew Picken[s]. After that war he
removed from Long Cane Creek in Abbeville County and received in
1784 a land warrant for 250 acres in Brushy Creek Township. Anderson
County, then the Ninety-Sixth District. The original copy of that
historic document is now in the possession of Robert Welborn
Pickens. The 250 acres granted by this conveyance has never been out
of the possession of the Pickens family. It was inherited from the
Revolutionary soldier by his son Robert, grand-father of Robert
Welborn Pickens. Robert Pickens, the Revolutionary soldier,
died in Brushy Creek
Township in 1831[He died
in 1830. In 1787, he also received a further grant from the state
for 650 acres. It's interesting to note that the original grant was
about 6 times more expensive than the later one! The original one
must have had something to do with his service in the Revolution,
probably he saw the place in his military travels in this part of
the state and made mental notes to come back here after the war and
settle here, as the General did further to the west. Many make the
mistake that Robert was the General's brother or son, but they were
first cousins; their fathers were brothers and it seems likely that
also the fathers married sisters, Andrew marrying Anne Davis and
Robert marrying Miriam. It has been assumed in the family that since
both were Davis' that they must have been sisters. One of their
sisters, Anne, also married Robert Davis, so the Pickens and Davis
family were very intertwined in that generation. There has been much
speculation that both families came from Ireland on the same ship,
but I have seen no proof of this.] . in his eighty-fourth
year.
Col. William S. Pickens, father of Robert W. Pickens,
was a native of Brushy Creek Township, and lived to be eighty-three
years of age. He was a highly successful farmer and one of the most
prominent and influential citizens in the county for many years. His
first wife was Julia Welborn, and they had sons named Robert
Welborn, William H., Andrew W. and Charles W. The youngest died in
childhood. Colonel Pickens married for his second wife Emalinc
(Oliver) Smith [This is wrong. She was Prudence
Emeline Oliver. She had never been married when she married WSP.
Both wives' listings of children is incorrect. The best thing to do
is discard. Julia Ann Welborn's children were: Robert Welborn,
William Holbert, Andrew Washington, Charles Wesley, and maybe
another son, John between Andrew and Charles, but I'm not sure about
this. From the dates involved, she died from child birth
complications of Charles Wesley in 1857. Prudence Emeline Oliver's
children were: Margaret Caroline, Mary Eugenia, James Oliver, Ida
Lee, Virginia Irene, Nancy Ann Emeline. WSP married a 3rd time after
the death of Prudence Emeline Oliver in 1893, to Mary Louisa Rush
Phillips or Phillips Rush, I'm not really sure which way it is, the
family Bible isn't real clear on this. She left the family upon
WSP's death in 1907, and, far as I know, was never heard from again.
I don't even know when she died.] She was the mother of Nancy
E., Mary E., James Oliver, Ida Lee and Prudence Irene
Pickens.
Robert Welborn Pickens has lived his busy and
industrious life in the same country where he was born and reared.
He acquired an academic education, and from September 1, 1864, to
May 2, 1865, was a soldier of the Confederacy, coming out of the
army when still under eighteen years of age. His father., Colonel
Pickens, was also in the Confederate army during the last six months
of the struggle.[These dates of enlistment are
unknown other than in this one document. If WSP was in the Army,
this is the only place it is mentioned. There was oral evidence to
the contrary passed down through the family. My grandmother who knew
him well, said he did not fight in the war. Of course, he would have
been in the militia - every man was in the militia in those days -
and the militia might have been called out to "defend the state
against Sherman" but I know of no such order, but I am no Civil War
scholar by a long shot. As to RWP's service, this might be
correct.]
Robert W. Pickens taught school for five
years during his early manhood, and served as public school trustee
sixteen years, but farming has been his chief occupation. He is an
active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
In
1871 he married Catherine Wigington.[Her name
was Mary Catherine Wigington. She was born in 1851 and died in 1936.
Here are the correct names of the children in correct order:
Virginia Josephine, Julia Margaret, Robert Martin, Frances Marian,
Elihu Wigington, Truman Welborn, Prudence Irene (died at age 3),
Andrew Lee, and Lura Agnes. Truman was a WWI vet, with the 6th
Engineers, and fell victim to the German "gas attacks" at some
point. His health never recovered, and he died in a VA hospital in
1963. All the children lived to have families except Prudence Irene,
who died at age 3, a remarkable feat for those years of 30% child
mortality.] They became the parents of Virginia, Maggie,
Robert, Marion Elihu, Truman, Andrew, Prudence (who died young), and
Lura. Truman was a soldier of the World war, having volunteered on
the 1st of June,1917, and served in the Third Division of the
American army in France. Another son. Andrew, is a Baptist minister,
and during part of the World war period was engaged in Y. M. C. A.
work in the army camps at Fort Screven, Georgia, Camn Shelby,
Mississippi, and Plattsbarg, New York. [Andrew
actually performed the marriage of his sister, Lura, to Henry David
Garrison, and their son, David, to Ella Elizabeth Pepper, in 1950.
"Camm" Shelby is "Camp" Shelby; there were at least two of them that
I know of: one northwest of Greenville, SC, and one in southwest
Mississippi; the last I heard of it, in the 1977 period, it was a
National Guard aerial bombing range, but it may be closed today.
Plattsburgh became an Air Force Base after WWII, it is located in
upstate New York across the border from Toronto, Canada, and was
closed in the 1990s. Fort Screven was located just outside of
Augusta, Georgia, I believe and was closed in the 1960s.]
Robert and Andrew have been family names, from the Huguenot
ancestor, in every generation of the Pickens family during eight
generations and now living in almost every state in the United
States. |