Currently I'm reading a book called the History of Beaufort County, South Carolina and wanted to share this migration information with list. And by the way, if you had ancestors in early Beaufort Co. SC, you really should read this book. Sorry if you get this posting on multiple list, but it's under the same subject line .. so you can skip it... <Paraphrased> The economy of upper St. Peter's Parish remained livestock and subsistence farming in the 18th century. In the 1790s sea island cotton replace indigo in the coastal plantation and the old families of St. Helena and St. Luke's Parishes grew rich in one generation. The great rice plantation of the Combahee, Coosawhatchie and Savannah Rivers grew steadily in the 1st decade of the 19th century. The newfound prosperity did not benefit the small farmers of upper St. Peter's Parish. Lack of opportunity and the opening up of fertile new land in the Mississippi Territory led to a significant out-migration from upper St. Peter's Parish between 1806 and 1811. In 1806, 97 settlers from upper St. Peter's Parish led by Robert Tanner and Reverend Moses Hadley of Pipe Creek Church abandoned their farms, packed their belongings, gathered up their families, and set out in ox-driven wagons for Mississippi. When they reached the Tennessee River they boarded flatboats and floated down the river to the Ohio River, and then down the Mississippi River to Fort Adams. Near Fort Adams they founded the town of Woodyville, Mississippi. Many members of the Grimball and Robert families were part of this Mississippi Migration. Two years later, Seth Stafford (the young brother of Colonel William Stafford had moved from NC in 1766) took his family as well as some Cheney, Robert, and Maner relatives on the long trek to Mississippi. Ten years later, in 1818, many of this group moved across the Mississippi River to Louisiana where William Fendon Cheney founded Cheneyville. In 1811, a 3rd group from St. Peter's Parish joined the Mississippi Migration. Led by Alexander Scott, John Stafford, and John Audibert, this group included Reverend Howell Wall of the Black Swamp (Robertville) Church, John Tison, David McKenzie, William H. Tuten, Namaan and Seth Smart, Robert Chisolm, Joseph Tanner, Benjamin T. D. Lawton, and Allen and Morris Sweat. Not all pioneers found success in Mississippi, Benjamin and Joseph Lawton, Namaan and Seth Smart, and Allen and Morris Sweat returned with families to ancestral homes in upper St. Peter's Parish. This westward migration form St. Peter's Parish spread to the older coastal parishes and influenced some of the most successful and dynamic young men of the district to seek their fortunes in the west. In 1818, Henry McNish of Coosawhatchie, one of the principal rice planters of the Beaufort District, was struck with "Alabama fever." By 1820, he moved his large operation to the Chattachootchie Valley. Francis Richard Lubbock's father was one of Beaufort's 1st steamboat captains, and his grandfather was Captain Francis Saltus, one of Beaufort's well-known 18th century mariners. Lubbock was raised and educated in Beaufort in the 1820s but moved west with his brother Thomas in the 1830s to help found the Republic of Texas. Lubbock became the wartime governor of Texas (1861-1864) and the town of Lubbock is named for him. By 1840 James Hamilton, Jr., the largest rice planter on the Savannah River at the time and former governor, US congressman, and intendant of Charleston, left SC for Texas and then settled in Alabama. I hope some find this useful, Linda Rudd in Texas