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Family Sheet

HUSBAND
Name: Townsend Mikell Note Born: 12 Nov 1840 at Bleak Hall, , Edisto Island, South Carolina Married: Bef 1866 Died: 1926 Father: Isaac Jenkins Mikell Mother: Amarintha Jenkins Townsend
WIFE
Name: Sarah Webb Clark Born: Abt 1840 Died: 1910 Father: Ephraim Mikell Clark Mother: Susan Jane Bailey
CHILDREN
Name: Susan Clark Mikell Born: Abt 1865 Died:
Name: Isaac Jenkins Mikell Born: Abt 1866 Died:
Name: Amarintha Jenkins Mikell Born: Abt 1868 Died:
Name: Lydia Murray Mikell Born: Abt 1870 Died: Husband: T. Allen Legare
Name: Townsend Mikell Born: Abt 1871 Died:
Name: Susalee Mikell Born: Abt 1873 Died: Husband: Edwin Belser
NOTES
1). Townsend Mikell papers In 1964 the South Caroliniana Library acquired nine volume s of Edisto Island planter Townsend Mikell 1840 1926 . Th e volumes were chiefly records of his agricultural operatio ns for the half century from 1872 through 1925. A giftin 1 996 enlarged the Library s holdings on Townsend Mikell by t hree hundred sixty nine manuscripts, 1838 1927, and fiftee n volumes, 1826 1830 and 1859 1925. Townsend Mikell s father, I. Jenkins Mikell, enthusiastical ly supported South Carolina s secession in 1860 and respond ed to a letter from Townie, then a student at the Univers ity of Virginia my deliberate opinion is that every son o f Carolina should return to her soil, her hour of Trial i s at hand. The elder Mikell had long heard talk ofsecessi on and thought many in the North believe we are cowards an d if we are not in earnest this time, I will begin to thin k so too 24 November 1860 . Townsend Mikell initially enrolled in the Calhoun Artillery , an Edisto Island unit, but later transferred to Maj. Joh n Jenkins Rebel Troops. Mikell and his squad were captur ed by a Federal shore party on Edisto Island in April 1863 . The circumstances of his son s imprisonment greatly conce rned his father who wrote Maj. Jenkins from Aiken on 6Jun e 1863 that his son and other young men were being detain ed as future hostages for the safety of their U.S. offic ers commanding negro troops. When he wrote John Jenkins o n 18 June, Townsend had been transferred to the Vermont. Th e senior Mikell also communicated with Judge Magrath and Se n. Robert Barnwell who shared his opinion that the prisoner s were hostages My only hope now is the removal of that Do g Gen. David Hunter, & the substitution, I hope, of a bet ter man. Townsend Mikell eventually was released, for in a letter o f 23 December 1864 he requested leave so he could procur e a horse to replace one captured by the enemy. Finally, To wnsend Mikell received a parole at Orangeburg on 23 May 186 5. There is very little correspondence and other documentatio n for the two decades after the Civil War, but the collecti on does include one labor contract, 1 February 1871, Artic les of agreement...between T. Mikell planter & the Freedme n & women, with an estimate of costs for workingplots. Mi kell s activities as a planter are thoroughly documented th rough the bound volumes in the earlier accession and by th e account books, time books, and cotton books included in t his gift which contain information about planting on Sunn y Side,Cypress Tree, and California plantations. In addition to his planting activities, Townsend Mikell ser ved in the Edisto Mounted Rifles. Receipts and other docume nts, 1886 1894, indicate that social occasions were centra l to their meetings. In May 1888 the unit purchased uniform s from Jacob Reed s Sons, military tailors and contractors . Later that year, the Office of Adjutant and Inspector Gen eral paid $145.86 to the Edisto Mounted Rifles for 39 unif ormed Officers and Men paraded at Annual Inspection. Mikel l may have resigned from the unit after the death of his so n in 1894 when the Edisto Mounted Rifles passed resolution s commending his services and expressing sympathy. The coll ection does not include any documents pertaining to the Rif les after this date. Mikell was a public official on Edisto Island and served a s chairman of the Board of School Trustees and as superinte ndent of the Board of Commissioners. Much of the board s wo rk involved the maintenance and repair of roads and bridges .The collection includes receipts for the purchase of oyst er shells, bids for constructing bridges and causeways, an d receipts and correspondence for purchasing lumber. Indivi duals were apparently required to labor on the roads and br idges for which they were paid. In a letter of 23 January 1 895, M.M. Seabrook sent Mikell a record of payments to thos e who worked on the roads and explained that I have put Be n Hopkins on the poor list....He seems to be badly off. A number of receipts from the 1890s list individuals wh o had performed work on the public roads and those who wer e delinquent. Other individuals were appointed as overseer s for sections of the road and received payments for thei r services. As chairman of the Edisto Island Township Board , Mikell wrote Theodore D. Ravenel, Jehossie, 21 April 1898 , that the board desired to have direct communication betw een this island and the main land and reported that a surv ey had determined that the route through Jehossie was prefe rred. Thereare several letters related to this matter. Ano ther issue discussed in the correspondence is the Cotton Li cense Act which required that a person be licensed to purch ase seed cotton. E. Mikell Whaley informed Townsend in a le tter of 24 August 1897 thathe intended to purchase a licen se and I expect the law to be enforced against those who d o not take it out. The township board met that same mont h to consider electing a detective to enforce the law. A ye ar later, 26 August 1898, E. Clarence Whaleysought appoint ment to the position, explained that he was competent to ca rry out the duties, and listed among his qualifications hi s service as a Confederate soldier whose duties to his cou ntry were faithfully performed...who is now in want and ca nget no employment. By the early 1900s, the telephone put Edisto Island in cont act with the outside world. In June 1904, Townsend Mikell w as informed of his election as a director of the Coast Lin e Telephone Co. There is considerable correspondence concer ning the new service. Mikell ordered two hundred telephon e poles from E.M. Redman, Cottageville, in a letter of 13 S eptember. He also was involved in obtaining rights of way f or the company which assured him Just as soon as we can ge t things inproper order over there we desire to commence t he construction of the new line and will endeavor to get th rough with it as quickly as possible. In the following year, however, Mikell s relationship wit h the company was contentious. One of the problemsapparent ly was a disagreement over the contracts for right of way . In July 1905 Mikell turned in his resignation as a direct or it is an expense & trouble to me in attending meeting s & using my time & labor in looking after this end of th e line. Hecomplained that he was embarrassed by the compa ny s abrogation of contracts which he had negotiated althou gh he did have the gratification of knowing that the Edist o portion of the line, which has always been troublesome, h ad given less trouble in the past year than ever before. Some of the planters on Edisto Island, including Townsend M ikell, were considering adopting a new labor system in th e early 1900s. Beginning in September 1905, Mikell conducte d an extended correspondence with E.J. Watson, the state s commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, Commerce , and Immigration. In October Mikell invited Watson to visi t him on Edisto Island for the purpose of discussing the im portation of European immigrant laborers. The following month Watson explained what he had accomplish ed with regard to the matter of laborers for Edisto Islan d and advised that he was expecting a number of excellen t farmers from Southerland County, N.Y. There are no bett er laborers in any county...and I am anxious to locate the m where they will be given the very best of treatment. Mik ell thanked Watson for his interest in the matter and state d that the labor situation was not resolved as the negroe s have not contracted for next year. Another Edisto plante r thanked Mikell, 30 December 1905, for offering to send i n his application for white laborers and explained that h e was anxious to get some labor that will be an improvemen t on Mr. Nig. In 1906 the state s immigration office in N ew York soughtto sign up additional laborers for Edisto Is land planters. An 18 February 1906 letter from Watson advis ed that a family with 4 children and three single men wa s sailing from New York. By the spring of 1906, the correspondence between Watson an d Mikell indicated that the planters were not satisfied wit h the new laborers. In a letter of 1 March 1906, Mikell com plained about the failure of a family to arrive and sough t reimbursement for thirteen laborers. He had discharged a n Irishman willing to work...but physically unable and re tained another worker though at a loss to me. He advise d that the immigrants who had been sent have given the mov ement a black eye. Mikell remained willing to give the movement another chan ce the following year in the way of share croppers provided you can insure & get us the righ t sort of people. Although Watson assured Mikell that hi s department had been working tirelessly since the meetin g of the legislature to get the tide of desirable European s ofagricultural experience resumed in this direction, th ere is no further correspondence between them after the spr ing of 1906. One of the principal institutions on Edisto Island was th e Presbyterian church where Townsend Mikell served as rulin g elder.Beginning in 1897 and continuing until 1916, the c ollection contains considerable correspondence relating t o Townsend Mikell s effort to have the church compensated f or the loss of its organ and other property during the Civi l War. He corresponded with Congressmen William Elliott, R. S. Whaley, and George Legare, as well as Senators Benjami n Tillman and E.D. Smith. He also engaged the services of f ormer Union officer Frank A. Butts, who served on Edisto Is land and filed claims before the SouthernClaims Commission . When Butts died, Washington attorney G.W.Z. Black took ov er the case in 1914. The final communication regarding th e claim is a letter, 22 March 1916, from Congressman R.S. W haley in which he advised that the claim had been dismissed with others during the previous session of Congress but t hat the Mann bill which passed the House at this session.. .provides for the restoration of these claims to the plac e on the calendar . The collection contains other information on the historyo f the church, including the celebration in 1911 of its bice ntennial and a pamphlet, A Brief History of the Presbyteria n Church of Edisto Island 1933 . The marriage and move to Columbia in 1908 of Townsend Mikel l s daughter Susalee provided a numberof letters detailin g family life and activities on Edisto. He counseled the ne wlyweds in a letter of 18 January 1909 about home influenc e on children and warned against card parties I look up on them as the worst vice of the age. If the women want amu sement, let them do needlework & not give the men encourage ment in gambling. Mikell reported that they were enjoyin g oranges from his tree. He sent them oysters and potatoe s along with accounts of his agricultural operations whic h included truck farming and cotton. Between seasons of harvesting and planting in 1909, Mikel l stated that he expected to increase his acreage as I fin d I have not enough work for the labor I have. Not one of t he hands who left & promised to work here have been back t o strike a lick. The returns for his cotton crop were disa ppointing, and he expressed relief to have the agony over. The death of his wife Sarah in 1910 and overexertion from w orking in the fields during hot weather caused Mikell to re flect in aletter of 28 May 1911 I wish sometimes, that i t won t be long before the summons comes. Though what eve r is my Fathers will, may be mine. He must have something f urther for me to do & I think he is revealing it & pray tha t He will give me knowledge& strength to do it, as He want s it done. Townsend Mikell died on Edisto Island in 1926. 1997 Manuscripts Collections 1997 USCS Program Menu S outh Caroliniana Library !BIRTH The Mikell Genealogy of South Carolina by Townsend , The Mikell Genealogy of South Carolina by Townsend Mikell Walker, Evans & Crosswell Co., Charleston, South Carolina , 1910.

						

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