At 03:34 PM 10/9/2000 -0400, you wrote: >I was curious about the lake because part of my family is buried in Greenwood >County in Bethlehem Cemetery near Coronaca and some in the Chaney Cemetery >off Highway 702. And some of the others are in Cross Hill as mentioned. > >Suzanne Suzanne: I've gone to the family cupboard and pulled the Wells family book, if only to keep me occupied while my husband naps and I await "urgent" return phone calls I made around 10 a.m. I've been with my mother to Cross Hill only a couple of times. She pointed out the little cemetery, which is on the left-hand side of Hwy. 72; there is a marker there of some kind, and I believe that the church is further up the hill and across the road. It may even be a Methodist Church. My known Cross Hill ancestors are Balls, Hollingsworths, and Wells, with the Hitts thrown in as cousins, which relates to the punchline of an embarrassing incident which occurred early in my public life and cannot be truly appreciated unless you were there! The Ball line stems from William Ball IV of England and I of Virginia through Moses Ball IV, whose fifth son Joseph G. was born somewhere in Kentucky, married Sally Something-or-other and had at least three boys and one daughter, the lovely Martha, who was born 7-12-1846 at Cross Hill for what is described as "no apparent reason". The lovely Martha, unaccountably called "Mattie", was in the neighborhood long enough, it appears, to become the sweetheart of William Jefferson Wells, our family's most famous "character" at present; then she moved with her parents to Pontonoc County in the Great State of Mississippi when she was about three years old. Finding no one there but Mississippians, she gave her heart to Christ and was united with the Cherry Creek Baptist Church. Her uncles, the Rev. Lewis Ball and R.W. Ball, who are not even mentioned in the original Ball Family listing, remained in the Cross Hill area and are mentioned in her obituary notice. Descendants of these uncles lived in the two matching Victorian houses on what was the "Main Street" of Cross Hill. One of them made a violin for my mother. My mother is a talented musician and a better-known artist. I took piano for 6 years without noticeable results and studied violin for three months before my teacher quit to start picking up all the litter along her street and would routine drag it into public meetings to embarrass elected officials. She was known far and wide as "the litter lady" and "the woman who tried to teach Ann Wells to play the violin". When I was 16, I performed a ukelele solo in a benefit concert for the Greenwood Rescue Squad, and they lost money for the first time ever! W.J. Wells-by-damn-bull, as he was affectionately known by people who have told me stories about him that have embarrassed me as long as I can remember, was born 1-16-1846 at Cross Hill to Aaron Wells (whom I've always heard was a doctor) and the gentle Elizabeth Hollingsworth, whose mother, as I may have mentioned was a Hitt. He and "Miss Mattie" had 10 children, the youngest being my grandfather Claude Lamar Wells, who was only 17 when his mother died. Four years later, Grand-daddy wed my grandmother, the terrific, Methodist Episcopalian Levica Elizabeth Nicholls over the vocal objections of almost every one in his hard-rock Baptist family. Except Aunt Myrt. Then follows some 20 pages of listings of their "progeny", some of whom are pretty neat people and a few of whom are Methodist or Episcopalian. One was Presbyterian for awhile, but it didn't last long. Scary as it is to imagine, we are spread out through much of the South and parts of Virginia. One of us started out on a "back to Africa" kick when it cool... but then he found out he is not African! His status with the Immigration Service is still unclear. Among the reasons that members of your family might have moved across the river into Stoney Point and Coronaca could have been that Greenwood, after it was created in 1858, became the hub of seven or eight railroads and a center of commerce. By comparison, the Newberry, Laurens, Hodges railroad only went as far as Due West. However, when the Interstate Highway System came through, Laurens and Clinton were close enough to the ancient trail of the Cherokee (which is coincidentally the shortest distance between Greenville and Columbia) to have exits named in their honor. Greenwood, on the other hand, still has the Widest Main Street in the World! And since they've taken all the train tracks up through the middle of town, it would be a great place to live if we hadn't already moved away long ago. You may be interested to know that The Index-Journal newspaper in Greenwood can be found on the web, but I forget the site.... just look for newspapers and then SC and then Greenwood. The paper now calls its "living" section "Life in the Lakelands" in a transparent effort to make all those people who have moved out to the lake year-round feel that they should subscribe. Once in awhile, something interesting happens. Or you might at least enjoy reading the obits. You don't have to put this on the RootsWeb. It's probably too boring. Annie

Ann, It's not boring at all for someone who lived the first 21 years of their life in and around Greenwood. It's refreshing to hear about the it again for a change. The Index-Journal addy is: http://www.indexjournal.com/ Ann Massengill/John Evans wrote: > > At 03:34 PM 10/9/2000 -0400, you wrote: > >I was curious about the lake because part of my family is buried in > Greenwood > >County in Bethlehem Cemetery near Coronaca and some in the Chaney Cemetery > >off Highway 702. And some of the others are in Cross Hill as mentioned. > > > >Suzanne > > Suzanne: > > I've gone to the family cupboard and pulled the Wells family book, if only > to keep me occupied while my husband naps and I await "urgent" return phone > calls I made around 10 a.m. > > I've been with my mother to Cross Hill only a couple of times. She pointed > out the little cemetery, which is on the left-hand side of Hwy. 72; there > is a marker there of some kind, and I believe that the church is further up > the hill and across the road. It may even be a Methodist Church. > > My known Cross Hill ancestors are Balls, Hollingsworths, and Wells, with > the Hitts thrown in as cousins, which relates to the punchline of an > embarrassing incident which occurred early in my public life and cannot be > truly appreciated unless you were there! > > The Ball line stems from William Ball IV of England and I of Virginia > through Moses Ball IV, whose fifth son Joseph G. was born somewhere in > Kentucky, married Sally Something-or-other and had at least three boys and > one daughter, the lovely Martha, who was born 7-12-1846 at Cross Hill for > what is described as "no apparent reason". The lovely Martha, > unaccountably called "Mattie", was in the neighborhood long enough, it > appears, to become the sweetheart of William Jefferson Wells, our family's > most famous "character" at present; then she moved with her parents to > Pontonoc County in the Great State of Mississippi when she was about three > years old. Finding no one there but Mississippians, she gave her heart to > Christ and was united with the Cherry Creek Baptist Church. Her uncles, > the Rev. Lewis Ball and R.W. Ball, who are not even mentioned in the > original Ball Family listing, remained in the Cross Hill area and are > mentioned in her obituary notice. Descendants of these uncles lived in the > two matching Victorian houses on what was the "Main Street" of Cross Hill. > One of them made a violin for my mother. > > My mother is a talented musician and a better-known artist. I took piano > for 6 years without noticeable results and studied violin for three months > before my teacher quit to start picking up all the litter along her street > and would routine drag it into public meetings to embarrass elected > officials. She was known far and wide as "the litter lady" and "the woman > who tried to teach Ann Wells to play the violin". When I was 16, I > performed a ukelele solo in a benefit concert for the Greenwood Rescue > Squad, and they lost money for the first time ever! > > W.J. Wells-by-damn-bull, as he was affectionately known by people who have > told me stories about him that have embarrassed me as long as I can > remember, was born 1-16-1846 at Cross Hill to Aaron Wells (whom I've always > heard was a doctor) and the gentle Elizabeth Hollingsworth, whose mother, > as I may have mentioned was a Hitt. > > He and "Miss Mattie" had 10 children, the youngest being my grandfather > Claude Lamar Wells, who was only 17 when his mother died. Four years later, > Grand-daddy wed my grandmother, the terrific, Methodist Episcopalian > Levica Elizabeth Nicholls over the vocal objections of almost every one in > his hard-rock Baptist family. Except Aunt Myrt. > > Then follows some 20 pages of listings of their "progeny", some of whom are > pretty neat people and a few of whom are Methodist or Episcopalian. One > was Presbyterian for awhile, but it didn't last long. Scary as it is to > imagine, we are spread out through much of the South and parts of Virginia. > One of us started out on a "back to Africa" kick when it cool... but then > he found out he is not African! His status with the Immigration Service is > still unclear. > > Among the reasons that members of your family might have moved across the > river into Stoney Point and Coronaca could have been that Greenwood, after > it was created in 1858, became the hub of seven or eight railroads and a > center of commerce. By comparison, the Newberry, Laurens, Hodges railroad > only went as far as Due West. However, when the Interstate Highway System > came through, Laurens and Clinton were close enough to the ancient trail of > the Cherokee (which is coincidentally the shortest distance between > Greenville and Columbia) to have exits named in their honor. > > Greenwood, on the other hand, still has the Widest Main Street in the > World! And since they've taken all the train tracks up through the middle > of town, it would be a great place to live if we hadn't already moved away > long ago. > > You may be interested to know that The Index-Journal newspaper in Greenwood > can be found on the web, but I forget the site.... just look for newspapers > and then SC and then Greenwood. The paper now calls its "living" section > "Life in the Lakelands" in a transparent effort to make all those people > who have moved out to the lake year-round feel that they should subscribe. > Once in awhile, something interesting happens. Or you might at least enjoy > reading the obits. > > You don't have to put this on the RootsWeb. It's probably too boring. > > Annie > > ==== SCGREENW Mailing List ==== > Greenwood County was created in 1897 from portions of Edgefield and > Abbeville Counties. > > ============================== > Search over 64,000,000 records in the Social Security Death Index: > http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/