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06 April 2006 -
Thursday
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Again we got a later
that expected start this morning because we had to take time to solve an
electrical problem in the van. Ultimately
it was narrowed down to a faulty circuit board for the 12-volt system, an
issue that wasn’t serious but had to be corrected at a later date. By 9:00 am we had left the campground and
headed back into Anderson. We soon
found the courthouse and went to work looking for information on our Bishop
family ancestors. It was about 1789 when
our 5th great-parents Nicholas III and Jane (Dickson) Bishop
moved, with Jane’s father Michael
Dickson, to the newly created Pendleton County, (later to become Anderson
County), that was formed as a result of the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785 by
which the Cherokee's relinquished their lands to the State of South
Carolina. It is believed that that
Bishop family plantation was located in the area of present day Garvin
Township in Anderson County; as such we were interested in finding records
that would show when the last surviving family member Jane Bishop sold the
plantation. After locating what we
were looking for we walked over to the County Library and performed some
research in the South
Carolina Room. Here we were
fortunate to uncover the last will of Jane Bishop, which answered many of our
questions. Fred located a book by Elizabeth Ellet, entitled, The Women of
the American Revolution, wherein the author tells the story of Nicholas
Bishop II father of the aforementioned Nicholas III. According to the account the British
authorities arrested the elderly Nicholas because at least five of his sons were
bearing arms against the King. In the
process they burned his home and held him captive in a jail in Camden, South
Carolina. Courageous patriots Sarah
McCalla and Mary Nixon eventually arranged the release of eleven prisoners of
which one was Nicholas Bishop, Jr. All of this research
work was making us quite hungry so Tom obtained directions to a good BBQ pork
restaurant where we ate lunch. We
purchased the dinner plates for $7.50 each along with two glasses of great
iced tea. We had so much pork and
coleslaw on the platters that we saved the other half for later. Appetites satisfied we
then drove out into the countryside to look for the Nicholas Bishop’s
plantation. To assist us in this
search we used the Topo USA mapping software from DeLorme.
This resource helped us immensely to locate many of the sites we had
planned to visit during the entire trip.
From our research we were aware that the property was located along
Garvin’s Creek. Our mapping software
showed a stream named Bishop’s Branch running into the creek. This we believed was an excellent clue as
to where the Bishop property was located.
Soon we found a Bishop’s Branch Road and followed it. Along the way we came upon a Baptist
church as well as a chicken farm sporting the Bishop’s Branch name.
Bishop’s Branch road sign, Anderson
Co., SC |
Eventually we found a likely site location where we took pictures
of the home that occupies the land today.
Subsequently, we drove
through the historic town of Pendleton where we found the Old
Stone Church out on U.S. Highway 76 between Pendleton and Clemson. The church was built in the late 1700s,
and in its cemetery rest the remains of our Bishop ancestors as wells so many
famous personages and denizens of the region that the church has been called
"The Westminster Abbey of the Upcountry".
Old Stone Church, Pickens, Co., SC
Bishop family plot at the Old Stone Church We soon departed the
Clemson / Pendleton area bound for McMinn County, Tennessee. To accomplish this we had to drive west
into Georgia and on up into the Cherokee National Forest in the southeastern
corner of Tennessee. We arrived at
the Parksville
Campground at around 7:30 PM.
Paid $20.00 for and excellent site next to a beautiful mountain
stream. It was here that we were
finally able to make a campfire for the first time on the trip.
Parksville CG, Cherokee Natl. Forest, TN In planning the trip
Tom had visions of relaxing in front of a campfire playing his guitar. Alas, this would not be the case for most
of our expedition because most of our days were long and we were just ready
to sleep after dinner, nor could we build a campfire due to the dry and windy
conditions so prevalent during this time of the year. The campfire was so enjoyable that we
didn’t get into bed until 10:00 pm. We then let that stream lull us to
sleep. Parksville with its mountain
setting a picturesque stream rated a 4 in our book. Unfortunately just a week later, on April 13th this
same campground was closed down after a 200- pound black bear killed a
six-year-old girl and seriously injured her mother and two-year-old
brother. Such an event is quite rare
and is only the second recorded fatal attack by a black bear in the
southeastern United States. |
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