The following paper on Abraham Cantrell was written by the DeKalb County Historian, Thomas G. Webb. The contents of these pages are copyright 2000 to Thomas G. Webb. all rights are reserved. The information on these pages are free for private use, but may not be included in any compilation or collection in any media form for either private or commercial use without the author's consent. I am using these papers on this page with Mr. Webbs permission.

ABRAHAM CANTRELL AND HIS TWO WIVES


Abraham Cantrell was born about 1744 in New Castle County, Pennsylvania (now Delaware) and died probably about 1814 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. He was the son of John Cantrell and his first Wife, ----- Brittian. (1) Abraham was the oldest child in a very large family he had sixteen brothers, four half-brothers, and two half- sisters. There were several twins in the family, and Abraham and his brother Isaac are said to have been twins. (2)

The family was still comparatively small (only seven or eight boys) when Abraham’s father decided to move from Delaware to North Carolina. Abraham was about ten years old, and no doubt found the trip rather exciting. Several of his uncles, aunts, and cousins also journeyed south, and together their wagons and livestock made a sizable caravan. (3) By 1755 Abraham’s father was living in Orange County, North Carolina, (4) on what was then the frontier. Their relatives lived nearby in Orange County or just across the line in Rowan County. The Cantrells settled on Wolf Island Creek; the area is now in Rockingham County. (5) Abraham Cantrell lived here for the next twenty or more years.

How much education Abraham had is uncertain, but undoubtedly his formal education was somewhat limited. His principal education was in farming, for this was how he and his family made their living. He grew up in a world of much work and very little play. By the time he was three or four years old, he would have been performing such tasks as picking peas, shelling beans, and feeding livestock. By the time he was ten, he would have been plowing and doing many of the tasks of a grown man. As the oldest son in a family which had no daughters, he was probably also called on to help his mother with washing and other jobs. On rainy days Abraham and his brothers doubtless played simple games, but most of their time was spent in working to grow the things they needed.

They grew practically everything they ate, based principally on hogs and corn, and including potatoes, beans, peas, squash, pumpkins, turnips, and other vegetables. Rabbit, squirrel, wild turkey, and fish added variety to the menu; there was no limit on hunting or fishing. The Cantrells also grew the cotton, flax, and wool from which thread was spun, woven into cloth, and made into clothes. This process took an enormous amount of time, so that nobody had very many clothes at all. Abraham may have had even less clothes than other people because he had no sisters to help with the making of cloth. His mother doubtless had about as much as she could do tending to babies and keeping the family fed. She died about 1768, having borne seventeen sons in twenty-five years of marriage.

Abraham’s father married his second wife soon after, and Abraham himself married about this time. The name of Abraham Cantrell’s first wife is not known, but they probably married in 1769 or 1770. Their first known child, Richard Cantrell, was Born March 10, 1771. (6) Two more sons were born by 1780, and there may have been other children who died in infancy.

Abraham Cantrell served in the American Revolution at this time; His name is listed on the pay roll of North Carolina soldiers. Tradition says that he was a captain, and he did receive more pay than others on the list. (7)

About the time the Revolution ended, Abraham’s wife died (possibly about 1782), leaving him with three young sons. He somehow managed for a couple of years, possibly with the help of some female relatives. However, his mother was dead, and his half-sisters would have been no older than his own children. He found another wife and was probably married again by 1785. He probably married a Miss Watson, (8) and one family researcher says he married Malissa Watson, a sister to Nancy the wife of his twin Brother Isaac. (9) Abraham Cantrell had three sons and three daughters born to him by his second wife.

It is uncertain just where Abraham married his second wife, as he and his family moved from Rockingham County, North Carolina, to Spartanburg County, South Carolina, in about 1785. Here Abraham lived until his death. His father, several brothers, cousins, and other members of the Cantrell family and their relatives also moved to Spartanburg County and settled on Buck Creek and the Pacolet River. The land in this area is shown on Mills’ 1825 Atlas of South Carolina as “poor level land.” No doubt it was cheap in the 1780s, and that was one reason the Cantrells were attracted to it.

Abraham Cantrell and most of the other Cantrells were definitely not a wealthy family. While they were not desperately poor, they were poor enough that they could not afford to buy the best land. In 1792 Abraham Cantrell bought 192 acres on Buck Creek, paying 40 pounds (about $135), or less than a dollar an acre. (10) He may have bought more land later; there are more deeds to an Abraham Cantrell. However, since he had a son and a nephew both named Abraham and both living in Spartanburg County, it has been difficult to tell which is which.

Abraham’s homes in both North Carolina and South Carolina would have been very similar to each other and to those of his neighbors: a log house of no more than two or three rooms. In Spartanburg County, in 1804, practically every building was a log structure. (11) This included churches and schools, which in fact were often conducted in the same structure. This presented no great problem, as church was generally held only once a month, and school lasted only two or three months. Probably Abraham’s children and grandchildren attended a separate school building; an 1807 deed to Abraham Cantrell is for 170 acres on the south side of Buck Creek by “the School House Branch.” Certainly Abraham’s children attended school somewhere; they could read and write, and his sons Richard, Abraham, and Watson all three served as church clerk of Bildad Church in Tennessee.

Besides attending school, Abraham Cantrell’s family also attended church, which was something that many of their neighbors did not do. In 1825 Spartanburg County had a population of 16,000 with less than 2,000 church members. (13) About three-fourths of these church members were Baptists, as were the Cantrells, who belonged to the Buck Creek Baptist Church. (14) Of Abraham Cantrell’s nine or more children, we know definitely the names of only five. All five of those were active members of the Baptist Church in Tennessee, (15) and probably in South Carolina as well.

Since Abraham Cantrell’s family were devoted church members, the probably did not use whiskey or brandy to any extent, for the Baptist churches were very strict about the behavior of their members and did not permit drunkenness. However, many of their neighbors in Spartanburg County used whiskey and brandy very freely, as noted by several travelers. One of them found some of the people in Spartanburg County about 1800 to be “respectable,” but many to be “truly ignorant and much attached to ardent spirits- many beastly so.” He later found that this addiction to an excessive indulgence in drink was not limited to the ignorant, but extended to all classes of society. (16) Abraham’s children apparently escaped this addiction to drinking, but some of his grandchildren did not. His grandson William Riley Cantrell (1809-1885) grew to young manhood in Spartanburg County and later moved to DeKalb County, Tennessee. According to a family member who knew them well, William Riley and most of his sons drank excessively, and seven of the eight sons “filled a drunkard’s grave.” (17)

Life in Spartanburg County was difficult. Michael Gaffney, who settled there in 1802, found the land “poor, sandy, rocky, and hilly.” Most of the people were poor, but he found them quite independent. “Every farmer or planter is his own shoemaker, tanner, tailor, carpenter, brazier, and, in fact, everything else. Everything comes by the farmer and his family. It is the business of the wife and daughter to pick cotton...pick it from the seed, spin it, weave it, and make it ready for your back. Some of the girls made very handsome cloth. The women in this country live the poorest lives of any people in the world...here they must do everything from cooking to ploughing, and after that they have no more life in them than Indian squaws. They hardly ever sat down at the table with their husbands, but wait on them like menial servants.” (18) If illness came, doctors were not only poorly trained, they were almost impossible to find. A traveler in Spartanburg in 1804 broke an arm because of a stump standing in the road. He suffered four days before a surgeon arrived from a distance of 120 miles. (19) Anyone who was very sick would have died before the four days had ended.

It is no wonder that Abraham Cantrell lost two wives in less than twenty years. Such a life as they lived was very hard on a woman; it was also hard on a man without a woman. Abraham Cantrell twice was left with small children to see after; his second wife died before 1800. His daughter Elizabeth was about eight when her mother died; probably she could manage much of he household work by then, and doubtless did so until her marriage to Tilman Potter in 1809.

Abraham Cantrell is said to have died in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, but the exact time is uncertain. He possibly died around 1814, when he was about seventy years old. His known children all moved from South Carolina to what is now DeKalb County, Tennessee.

By his first wife (name unknown), Abraham Cantrell had three sons; possibly other children died in infancy.


Richard Cantrell, born 10 March 1771 in Guilford (now Rockingham) County, North Carolina, died 1830-1840 in Franklin County, Illinois. He married 18 Feb. 1794 Constance Bethel, his third cousin, and they had 12 children. They moved to Tennessee about 1800, to Indiana in 1816, and on to Illinois by 1820.

John (Johnny Flat) Cantrell, born about 1773 in Guilford County, North Carolina, died 1830-1850 in Tennessee. Married Mary Adkins of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, and they had seven children. They moved to Warren (now DeKalb) County, Tennessee, probably about 1829 and joined the Caney Fork Baptist Church there in 1830. Several other John and Mary Cantrells lived in the same area, making it difficult to distinguish the records of one from the other.

Abraham Cantrell, born probably about 1779 in Guilford County, North Carolina, died 1845 in DeKalb County, Tennessee. He married Sarah Durham about 1802; they had 13 children. Sarah may have died about 1828, and Abraham married again and had 5 more children. This family moved to Warren county about 1810. Abraham and Sarah were members of Old Bildad Baptist Church.

After the death of his first wife, Abraham Cantrell Sr. married Malissa (?) Watson about 1785. She apparently died about 1799. They had three sons and three daughters.


Probably a male born about 1787 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. He appears in the 1800 census.

Watson Cantrell, born 1790 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, and died 25 Jan. 1870 in DeKalb County, Tennessee. He married about 1814 his second cousin Elizabeth Martin, daughter of John and Catherine Cantrell Martin. They had ten children. Watson and Elizabeth Cantrell moved to Warren County, Tennessee by 1820. they were members of Old Bildad Baptist Church.

Elizabeth Cantrell, born 1791 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, and died 1836 in Warren County, Tennessee. She married in 1809 Tilman Potter (1790-1841), and they had twelve children. They moved to Warren County, Tennessee, soon after their marriage, and both died there. Both were members of Old Bildad Baptist Church.

Female born about 1793? She is listed in the 1800 census.

Male born about 1796. This is very probably Hardin Cantrell, who was born about 1796 in South Carolina. (He is listed on page 10 of Susan Cantrill Christie’s Cantrell Genealogy.) Hardin was closely associated with Abraham Cantrell’s children and grandchildren in DeKalb County, Tennessee. In fact, Hardin is listed as a great-grandson of Abraham, but because of age discrepancies, it is not possible for him to be Abraham’s great-grandson. Hardin Cantrell made Bond with Tilman Potter in 1838 when Tilman was made guardian to his (Tilman’s) step-children. Hardin and Watson Cantrell were the witnesses to Tilman Potter’s Will in 1841. In 1843 Perry Green Magness made Hardin Cantrell trustee to property belonging to one of Magness’s daughters. Such close involvement in such position of trust indicates that Hardin was probably a brother to Elizabeth, Watson, Richard, etc. Further evidence was given by Mrs Willie Potter Bing (born 1888). On 5 Dec. 1963 she stated that her husband Oscar Bing always said that he and Willie were distantly related, but she did not know exactly how it was. Oscar was a son of Martha Cantrell Bing (1835-1920), daughter of Hardin Cantrell. Willie was a grand-daughter of William A. Potter (1830-1889), who was a son of Elizabeth Cantrell (1791-1836). If Elizabeth and Hardin were brother and sister, Oscar Bing and Willie Potter would be 4th cousins, his grandfather being a brother to her great-grandmother. Hardin Cantrell married Jane Forrest, and they had eight children. Hardin was still living in 1880, age 83.

Female, born about 1798. Could this be Milly Cantrell, age 52, living in DeKalb County, Tennessee in 1850? She was in the household of Talitha Cantrell, the widowed daughter-in-law of Abraham Cantrell Jr. Milly cannot otherwise be identified.


FOOTNOTES

(1) Christie, Susan Cantrill, The Cantrill-Cantrell genealogy, Brooklyn, New York, 1908, pages 8 and 9.

(2) Christie, p. 8 and Rice, Lucille Davis, Cantrell Genealogy, Waynesville, Mo., 1961

(3) Christie, p. 124

(4) List of Taxables, Orange County, North Carolina, 1775.

(5) Xerox copy of map in Rockingham County historical society magazine, in possession to Thomas G. Webb.

(6) Christie, p. 13.

(7) Christie, p. 9.

(8) Christie, p. 9.

(9) Rice, Lucille Davis, Cantrell Genealogy.

(10) Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Deed Book C, page 106.

(11) A history of Spartanburg County, Spartanburg unit of W. P. A. Writers Program, 1940. Pages 46, 55, and 92.

(12) Spartanburg County, South Carolina Deed Book L, page 106.

(13) Spartanburg County, WPA, p. 46.

(14) Christie, p. 8.

(15) Minutes of Old Bildad Church, Dekalb County, Tennessee, and of Caney Fork Baptist Church, Warren County, Tennessee.

(16) Spartanburg County, WPA, p 46.

(17) Paralee Womack Keaton, born March 1, 1866 (grand-daughter of Wm. R. Cantrell) letter to Thomas G. Webb, Dec. 1, 1949.

(18) Spartanburg County, WPA, page 48.

(19) Same, page 46.


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