By Jeannette Holland Austin
(Profile)"One of the greatest, most artful, and most successful intriguers the French ever sent amongst the Cherokees was a man named Christian Priber, a German Jesuit in the service of France." and "although a man of great learning and intelligence; a Hebrew, Greek, and Latin scholar, yet he made himself, to all intents and purposes, an Indian." He selected the town of Coosawattee to be the capitol of his kingdom and when Priber referred to the town in a conversion with a reporter who signed his work Americus, he claimed that Coosawattee or Cussetta, the war capitol of the Creeks had previously been in Cherokee hands. Priber was married to an Indian woman and advertised that his kingdom of paradise was also open to Creeks and that women could frequently marry different men, however, her children would be heirs of the state. His proposals caused great concern to the officials in Georgia and the Carolinas. What concerned them most was that he was willing to allow the French and black slaves to live freely in his Paradise. Oglethorpe believed he had already been in contact with Spanish. Priber, however, won the confidence of the natives and impressed them with feelings of hatred and contempt for the English. Also, the use of rum degraded their manhood and they were plagued with small-pox which was prevalent when a pack-horse train carried goods to Charleston. Meanwhile, he was stirring up such troubles between the natives and settlers that Charleston offered 402 Pounds to Colonel Joseph Fox to find Priber among the Cherokee and return him to the city. The reward was to be paid by the English Board of Trade. About 1741, Priber went to Mobile which was a French town at that time near the navigation on the Tallapoosa. The English traders among the Creeks suspecting the object of his journey, went in a body to the town of Tookahatchka where he was lodging and arrested him. They then carried him to Frederica and delivered him to General Oglethorpe who put him in prison, where he soon afterwards died. Priber was known to have written a Cherokee dictionary, but this work did not survive. Priber was fluent in Cherokee, Creek, and possibly other Indian languages and variations of the "trading language." According to Oglethorpe he spoke fluent German, French and Latin, but broken English. Source: History of Edgefield County, South Carolina by John A. Chapman, A. M. (1897). South Carolina County Records and Histories
Edgefield County Wills, Estates, Deeds
Edgefield, South Carolina ca 1890 The county was formed in 1785 as part of Ninety Six District; parts of Edgefield later went to form Aiken (1871), Saluda (1895), Greenwood (1897), and McCormick (1916) counties. The county seat is the town of Edgefield. The northern part of the Ninety Six was previously inhabited by Cherokee Indians. The southern part adjoined the Savannah River and was used as hunting grounds by the Creeks, Savannahs and other tribes. Edgefield country was trafficked by white men who created a lucrative trade with the Indians for their buffalo and beaver skins and who exported as many as two hundred and fifty thousand skins a year from the state. It was not until 1748 that permanent settlements were made along the Savannah River. Families trickled in from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Germany, Holland and France as well as from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. Others, forbidden to deal in slavery, fled from Georgia to make their plantations along the Savannah River. The first Scotch families settled on the Saluda side of Edgefield south of Chappells Ferry. The site was located near a hill where large chestnut trees grew. Later, the Baptist Church of Chestnut Hill was later organized and built. They called the settlement Scotland. Among the first Scots was Joseph Culbreath, born near Plymouth Scotland in 1747, who was brought to Edgefield by his father, Edward Culbreath in 1756. The father died a year later, leaving his sons, Joseph, John, Daniel and Edward. The sons all lived to be over the ages of 70. The family of Harry Hazel came with the Culbreaths to the new country. In 1770 a ferry was established over the Saluda River on the land of Robert Cunningham and another one over the Savannah River, opposite to Augusta in Georgia. Edgefield was the site of several Revolutionary War skirmishes and was defended by those who had settled from North Carolina and Virginia. One such family was that of William Abney who had settled about a mile or so from Scotland in 1772. Nathaniel Abney served as a captain of a militia company under Major Andrew Williamson at Ninety Six. Opposing the patriots was the Stewart family whose homestead was located on Tosty Creek on the Saluda.
Early settlers: Peter Finson, Francis W. Pickens, Benjamin Tilman, General Martin Witherspoon Cary, Allen Bailey, Nathan Melton, William Daniel, William Tobler, Spencer Hawes, George Miller, Jeremiah Lamar, Robert Gardner, David Pitts, Arthur Watson, Nathaniel Abney, Jesse Griffin, George Bender, Michael Burkhalter, Thomas Spraggins, Mathew Devore, Allen Burton, George Kyser, Nathaniel Bacon, Wright Nicholson, Joseph McGinnis, John Oliphant, John Blalock, Benjamin Buzbie, Robert Jennings, Jessy Rountree, Amos Richardson, Hezekiah Gentry, Benjamin Hightower, Thomas turk, Stephen Garrett and others.
Edgefield county Records Available to Members ofSouth Carolina PioneersMiscellaneous Edgefield County Wills, Deeds, etc. (Images and Transcripts)
- Edgefield County Wills, Bks A, B and C, 1775-1835 (abstracts)
- Index to Edgefield County Will Book D, 1836-1853
- 1817 Map of Edgefield County
- Adams, John (LWT) 1823
- Adams, John Deed to William McDaniel (1816)
- Adams, John Deed to Joel McLemore (1819)
- Adams, John Deed to Henry Anderson
- Adams, John Deed to John Hinson(1824)
- Ballentine, Hugh, 1809 Promise
- Bolger, Elizabeth
- Bush, Isaac
- Cary, William
- Ferguson, William
- Garrett, Edward
- Hagens, William
- Hamilton, William
- Hammond, Charles Sr.
- Mims, Beheatherland
- Mock, George Sr., LWT (1790)
- Morgan, Evan
- Neyle, Daniel, 1750 Land Grant
- Ramage, James
- Richardson, Jefferson
- Savage, John Land Grant, originally the Land Grant of Benjamin Harris
- Self, Daniel
- Strum, Henry Bond to Jeremiah Burnet of Liberty County, Georgia
- Sullivan, Pressly
- Swearington, Van
- Tate, Henry
- Williams, Roger
- Youngblood, Mary
Need to know if your ancestors left a will or estate record? An easy, quick (and free) way to find out is to click on the links below.
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