Re: Jane Jeter, Barnwell Co. SC
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In reply to:
Re: Jane Jeter, Barnwell Co. SC
Hazel Hancock 3/21/03
Andrew A. Dexter is buried here in Aiken SC which part used to be Barnwell. He married Harrietta Sarah Williams, Capt W.W. Williams' daughter. (William White Williams)
They moved to Mobile AL, lived in Macon Co Al and he died in Montgomery AL. His mother in law was Martha Jeter.
DEXTER ANDREW ALFRED civil engineer was born at
Windsor NS September 10 1809 and died in Montgomery
December 6 1854 son of Andrew and Charlotte Apthorp
Morton Dexter.He had a good elementary education and
was trained as a civil engineer He surveyed the first
railroad from Charleston SC to Augusta Ga laid out the
town of Aiken SC later he removed to Alabama and
engaged successfully in cotton planting in Macon County
He was engaged in the survey of a railroad from Mobile
to New Orleans La in 1854 when he contracted yellow
fever and died in Montgomery He was a Whig Married at
Aiken SC January 7 1834 to Harrietta Sarah Williams
daughter of William White and Martha Jeter Williams of
Barnwell, South Carolina (formerly Old 96 Dist Edgefield)
Children
1 Lucy d young
2 Andrew Alfred d young
3 Martha Henrietta d young
4 Martha Venitia m at Montgomery to James Robert son
of Hiram Jackson and Martha (Sturtevant) Smith and had
five children
5 Samuel m Caroline Dexter daughter of Charles Hunt
and Sophia (Dexter) Fearing (may have been Andrew's sister's child) resided at Palestine Texas
and had three children
6 Laura Harrietta unmarried
7 Charlotte Morton m at Montgomery to Joseph Files son
of David Levi and Caroline Margaret (Womack) Campbell
resided at Palestine and Galveston Tex and had seven
children
8 Alfred Newton member Co D Seventh Alabama cavalry
regiment moved to Palestine Texas m Julia Mar Sandifer
daughter of Calvin Stephenson and Martha (Ervin) Rutland
no children
9 Wm Wentworth removed to Texas in 1874 historian and
author m Mrs Maggie (Anderson) Abercrombie daughter
of Col Thomas Mulady and Anne Elizabeth Anderson
Last residence Montgomery.
History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biographyBy Thomas McAdory Owen,Marie (Bankhead) Owen
Was Starling Jeter, Martha's brother?
Estate of Starling Jeter Sr, Bundle77 pkg 4, Barnwell County Court House
Settlement lists heirs: Nathl Sanders in right of his wife, Job T Roberts in right of his wife, Wm Couch in right of his wife, John Myrick in right of his wife, N. Hutto in right of his wife, H. Sanders in right of his wife, child of Mrs McMillan(formerly Mrs Jeter), Levenia Jeter, & Benjamin Ray in right of his wife, giving each legatee $1060.24 with interest....15 March 1844.-------- Document Charles and Elizabeth Ray , EXR & EXRTX of Benjamin Ray, dec'd who was in his lifetime admr. of estate of both Joseph & Starling Jeter---
This is from another blogger
and written in February 2005:
Dexter, an engineer from Boston responsible for overseeing the contruction of the railroad, who developed the original plat for Aiken on September 24, 1834. It was Dexter that laid out Aiken in a nice, neat checkerboard pattern with 150-foot wide boulevards and streets named for South Carolina counties running north-south. He also included the planting of numerous trees and shrubs along the thoroughfares. And, you know, the city map still looks pretty much as it did when it was first laid out. If you look to the left of the photo you can see a white-picket fence and a stately house. Some horseys were grazing behind the fence. Naturally, my attention was elsewhere.
Now, you're probably asking yourself, "Yeah, that's all well and good, but WHY did Dexter put the town where it is?" Well, I'm glad you asked. See, while working on the railroad, Dexter had become a bit smitten with Sarah, the young daughter of Captain W.W. Williams, who owned a plantation right where Aiken is now.Obviously being a romantic man, Captain Williams was more than happy to give Mr. Dexter his daughter's hand in marriage--if Dexter would re-route the railroad (and, by extension, the town) past Williams' house, thereby vastly increasing the value of the property. The soil near the plantation wasn't all that good for building a railroad whose construction was already pushing the bounds of modern technology, but Dexter had it real bad, so there was nothing to do but move the tracks. Thus, while settlers were in the Aiken area even prior to the Revolutionary War, Sarah Dexter nee Williams is why Aiken is EXACTLY where it is today.
Dexter's sister Charlotte Sophia Dexter boarded with the Williams family in 1838. ALthought it says she was unmarried, there is a reference in a book to a letter in which she is mentioned as marrying a man from Providence RI. There is a chance his name was Fearing.Aiken was originally named Clinton, apparently after a prominent family of that name in this area.The railroad changed that, and until after Reconstruction days in the 1880's, Barnwell citizens sent
ten miles to Blackville for their merchandise and
mail as there was no railway in Barnwell.One of the streets, Dexter Street, is named for him. He was a civil engineer of Boston, a Harvard graduate who planned and constructed the first railroad from Charleston to Hamburg. Cyril Ovear Pascallis, a French surveyor from Montmorenci, South Carolina, a small town between Aiken and Williston, laid out the town.
Susan Aldridge