Rebecca Calhoun Pickens was part of one of the first groups of Scots-Irish settlers to come to Abbeville County. Her family built their home in the Long Canes area, but this land was part of an ongoing dispute between the settlers and Cherokees.

Despite efforts from agents like Alexander Cameron, settlers often disregarded the boundary lines and settled on Cherokee lands, and the Cherokees retaliated in the Long Cane Massacre, attacking the settlers as they tried to flee. Rebecca narrowly escaped death by hiding in a canebreak. After being rescued, she met Andrew Pickens, and the two married, building their home in Abbeville.

During the Revolution, Andrew Pickens was away from his family fighting, and Rebecca managed their plantation and raised their children alone. The Pickens family was a target, and on many occasions, Rebecca and her children had to hide in the woods from Loyalists set on harming them.

Even though Andrew Pickens had agreed to stop fighting after Charleston fell in 1780, Loyalists attacked their home, burning their property and abusing Rebecca and her children. The conflict on the homefront affected the women and children in Abbeville, and none more so than Rebecca and her family. Because of the time spent hiding outdoors from marauding soldiers, one of Rebecca’s sons perished from disease.

After the war, she and her family moved to Seneca and started Hopewell Plantation.

Anne Calhoun’s family settled in Abbeville in 1759, and were part of a group of colonists who were attacked by the Cherokees in the Long Cane Massacre of 1760 after tension over land disputes. Anne was taken captive as a five-year old and lived among the Cherokees until approximately 1772, when reports suggest that Andrew Pickens brokered a treaty and prisoner exchange.

Seventeen-year-old Anne was recognized by her father because of a scar on her back, and she was returned to her family. Sources indicate that she did not adjust well, and missed her life with the Cherokees;  she seems to have struggled to fit in with the settlers, with people noting that she often roamed outside at night, preferred not to wear shoes, and showed little emotion.

After the Revolution began in 1775, bands of Tories often harassed the backcountry settlements where Anne lived, bringing the reality of war to the women and children at home. Her house was invaded by Tories, who attempted to steal her possessions. She physically fought them off, successfully defending her property.

On another occasion, she was captured by a roving band of Loyalist-sympathizers, who only released her after she insulted them and proved to be an unruly captive. Her experiences illustrate the difficulties of civilian life both leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.

Peggy Crawford was the wife of Captain John Crawford, a prominent Loyalist militia leader. They lived in Abbeville and were staunch supporters of the King. In November of 1781, Peggy came into possession of secret intelligence on a large Patriot convoy of wagons traveling near McCord’s Creek. Perhaps she learned this from her Whig neighbors, or overheard a private conversation. Regardless, she alerted her husband, Captain Crawford, about what she likely saw as a possible threat. The result was the Battle of McCord’s Creek, a bloody Patriot defeat.

Captain Crawford turned over his prisoners, including John Pickens, younger brother of Andrew Pickens, to the Cherokees, who tortured the unfortunate captives to death. As tensions flared, rumors about Captain Crawford’s treatment of his prisoners and Peggy’s involvement in the battle spread, and the Crawfords defected to Florida.

Towards the end of the war, Peggy returned to Abbeville alone to salvage their property, but when the wives of local Whigs learned of her arrival, they marched on the home where she was staying, dragged her out by the feet, tied her to a tree, and took turns whipping her. Peggy escaped with her life and fled to Florida, never to return.

Many Loyalist families endured similar treatment even without cause, with tarring and feathering, public beatings, and property destruction causing many to relocate to Florida, Jamaica, and Nova Scotia.

Margaret Reynolds and her family lived in the Long Cane settlement of the Abbeville district, and like many Loyalist families in the backcountry, were ostracized by their Patriot neighbors for siding with the King in the Revolutionary War. Her husband, Andrew, was a Captain in the Long Cane Loyalist militia, and fought in the Siege of Ninety-Six from May 21st to June 19th, 1781. Her oldest son, also a member of a local militia, was killed in combat.

Retaliation from local Patriots drove the Reynolds family, including Andrew, Margaret, and their three children from their home in the backcountry, and the family became wartime refugees, making the long journey to British-occupied Charleston for their safety. There they joined thousands of other backcountry Loyalists who had lost their homes or been driven out.

After their arrival in Charleston, their situation grew worse when Andrew died, leaving Margaret alone with young children. She enrolled her children at Bell’s Refugee School and joined the Royal Refugee Hospital, working as a nurse for a surgeon in 1781 and 1782.

The ending of the war meant that Margaret was faced with a choice: make the arduous journey back to Abbeville and try to start over, with the knowledge that her neighbors did not want her there, or travel to England. She chose the latter, and by March of 1783 she and her children were in London.

The poor treatment of families on the home-front by both Patriots and Loyalists left the backcountry bitter and divided in the aftermath of the war.

Mary Langdon Cheves was born in Virginia in 1754, and met Alexander Cheves, a frontiersman from Aberdeen, Scotland, when she was a young woman. The two married and settled in Abbeville near Rocky River after purchasing land from the Pickens family. Although Mary herself favored the Patriot cause, her husband was part of a Loyalist militia.

In the first part of the war in 1776, there was friction between the settlers, the British, and the Cherokees, which exploded into war after Alexander Cameron fled into the Cherokee Nation amidst accusations by the settlers that he was instigating attacks on their homes. Dragging Canoe, Cameron’s friend, declared war and began attacking settlements. The Cheves homestead was part of the area that was attacked.

Pregnant with her first child, Mary and her sister left their settlement and took shelter at Bull Town Fort near Rocky River. While they were sheltering at the fort, Mary went into labor and she delivered a son, whom she named Langdon after her maiden name.

After his birth, her sister left the fort to get supplies and was killed by a group of Cherokees. Her son would grow up to be a noted politician and lawyer, but Mary did not live to see it. She died in 1779 at 25 years old, before the war ended.

Her son later recalled that his earliest memory was standing at his mother’s grave.

Frances  “Fannie” Beale was born in 1747 to Captain William and Ann Beale. While still a teenager, she married John Griffin and in 1763, the couple welcomed their first child.  The young family lived in the old Ninety-Six district near Abbeville, an area that became sharply divided in the years leading up to the Revolution.

James and Fannie supported the colonies in the war with Great Britain, and James enlisted in the South Carolina militia when the war began.  Fannie was as ardent a Patriot as her husband, and joined the war effort herself. In 1779, Fannie served the Patriot cause by becoming a waggoneer, delivering supplies and crucial resources to the Patriot soldiers.

After Charleston was occupied by the British in 1780, the fighting in the backcountry grew worse and tragedy struck Fannie when her husband was killed in the Battle of Cloud’s Creek on November 17, 1781, in an attack by the notorious William “Bloody Bill” Cunningham. This event, known as the Cloud’s Creek Massacre, left Fannie a widow with at least six children.

Again displaying her fortitude, Fannie petitioned the courts to be the administrator of her husband’s estate, a typically male task.  After the war, she was recognized for her service in 1785 and was awarded “one hundred and twenty pounds and six pence three farthing sterling” for her efforts for local militia. 

She married Charles Cooper and had an additional six children before passing away at age 52 in 1799.  She is a recognized Patriot in the SCDAR.