Visiting Abraham

Paying Homage to an Ancestor

Recently I had the opportunity to take my first research trip to the South Carolina Archives (found something!!) and the best part was taking the many highways and back roads down from Greenville, South Carolina to the Dean's Swamp Baptist Church Cemetery in Orangeburg County to find the resting place of my 4th great grandfather. We drove on almost straight roads through mile after mile of pine forests with an occasional peach or pecan orchard in between.

I began to get excited as I saw names that were familiar to me from my research, Corbett Street and New Holland Road then a right turn on Dean Swamp Baptist Church Road.

Suddenly the pines gave way to large hardwoods with spanish moss hanging down from them- Dean Swamp- then the old Baptist Church and it's fenced cemetery.

After going through the gate, we started our search. Finally toward the back of the cemetery we found the Fannins.

 

We then started looking for Abraham's name. The tombstones were so old you had to run your fingers in the grooves to try to feel the names, but no Abraham.

Then there it was, a large new looking headstone with his name on it.

Abraham Fanning came to that part of South Carolina around 1790 and was probably one of the founders of the Dean Swamp Baptist Church.  I descend from his son, John Fanning  whose mother was Narcissa McColphen, Abraham's first wife. It was John Moses Corbett Fannin, son of John and Annie Corbett Fanning who made the long journey down from New Holland, SC to join relatives in the Ramer area of South Montgomery County, AL.


It pleases me to know that Abraham Fanning still has descenants who care enough to put a new headstone at his gravesite. As long as we remember him, a part of him lives on.


Pioneer S.C.
Abraham Fanning
c 1750-1810
Son of
James and Elizabeth Fanning
Wives
Narcissa McColphen
and
Betty Burton


Recommended Reading: The Fannin "g" Family and Their Kin.