Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1916-10-18
HISTORIC PAPER.
Continued from First Page.)

not love of liberty that converted
him so much as Captain Tompkins'
blunderbuss and the care his good
wife took of him after he was
shot,
Soon after the surrender at York
town and the disbanding of the
Regular and State Troops, when
men had the field of thirteen states
in which to build up homes for
themselves and posterity, Captain
Stephen Tompkins moved to Edge
field District, South Carolina, and
settled at the place where he and
his faithful wife yet await the res
direction. Captain Tompkins died
Feb 4, 1901. and he and his wife
sleep side by side under a stone cov-
ering in the old Tompkins burial
ground on an old plantation which
was once known as the Red House
Plantation" so called because the
house was built by my ancestor
about 1882 and painted red. This
old cemetery is enclosed by a high
stone wall, wherein reposes the an
tiguated dust of many members of
this family. The old homestead
stood half mile south of Plum
Branch church, near what is now
Plum Branch Station, on the Char
lesion and Western Carolina Rail-
road, in the western part of Edge
field county, South Carolina. 1t
was burned down several years ago,
and it's site is now a pine thicket.
Captain Tompkins was appointed
Justice Of the Peace when that Of
fee was one of great dignity, or
what we later called p.omp-osity.
Captain Tompkins settled down to
the discharge of his Ministerial Of
fee in the year 1882 and to plant
ing cotton before Whitney and
Holmes had invented the cotton gin.
The separation of the lint and seed
of the staple, worth from 25c to 80
cents per pound, had to be done
with the fingers, which was the
work of rainy days and nights on
the farm, and where child with its
nimble fingers could become as eff
cient a cotton picker as one of ma
turer years.
Captain Tompkins raised to man.
hood five sons. He also had one
daughter who became the wife of
Sam Owensby, and lived and died
near the place of her birth.
Samuel Tompkins, the eldest
child of Captain Stephen Tompkins,
became man of wealth, and died
at the old Cross Roads at Plum
Branch. He left no children, and
his property was entailed on his
wife during her life. His widow,
subsequently married John Rochelle,
a man of extraordinary physical
proportions, and at her death, the
estate reverted to her first husbands
collateral kindred. The second son
of Captain Tompkins was named
Franklin. He married his cousin,
and late in life moved to Quaker
Springs, Ca, where he died about
1910. In addition to his farming
interests, he kept stud of blooded
horses, and took many valuable pri-
zes on the racing circuit. He was
eccentric, often lighted his pipe
with $500 notes, but it is said by
The more prudent contemporaries of
lis family that July" his body
was always near to stamp
out the fire and save enough of the
lote TO have it renewed at the bank
If issue.
John. the third son of Stephen
Tompkins, moved to Gallatin, Ten
1essee, where he married and rear
ed large and creditable family.
The only remaining member of the
family of Captain Stephen Tomp,
kins was my immediate great grand
father Stephen, the junior of that
name.
He was the counterpart of his ia
ther, tall, well-built man,-the
world would call fine looking man
handsome. He was quiet,
and frugal in his taste
and habits of life, never sought, or
filled office, other than a member of
the South Carolina Legislature, and
Deacon of the Baptist church, of
which he was a Jealous and consis-
tent member. His wife was Eliza
beth Brooks, who survived her hus-
band many years. He died in 1889.
His wife Elizabeth Brooks, died