City Directories and History: About three miles east of Pendleton on the Old Greenville Highway (South Carolina Highway 88) stands a stately dwelling, Montpelier, built by Samuel Maverick, born in Charleston, 1772, and married to the youngest daughter of Revolutionary Colonel Robert Anderson, for whom the county and city of Anderson are named. Samuel, according to his great-granddaughter Rena Maverick Green in her recent book, Samuel
Maverick, Texan, named his home in honor of his French Huguenot Grandmother Catherine Coyer or Le Coier, who was supposed to have come from Montpelier in southern France. He had a love for growing things and devoted much time to the culture of his vineyards and fruit trees. He is said to have shipped the first “bag” or bale of cotton from America: the story is that it went from Charleston to Liverpool, but was returned as the seeds had not been removed.
Samuel Augustus Maverick , son of the builder of the original Montpelier, has contributed the name Maverick to our language. After moving to Texas— largely because of his inability to go along with [John C.] Calhoun and his Secession doctrine—he acquired a herd of cattle as payment of a debt. Because of some confusion in regard to the unbranded “strays,” they came to be called Mavericks. George Madison Maverick, son of Samuel Augustus, cleared up the “shady” implication of the Century dictionary definition, and so the term Maverick in frequent use today is a word in good standing meaning a human stray or nonconformist. Even so famous a man as Winston Churchill has been dubbed a Maverick. In one of our popular songs we sing “a little brown Maverick is winking its eye.” We around Pendleton feel rather possessive of this word! (Source: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
Montpelier, near Pendleton, is a three-story frame house with two-story white columns on the front porch. It is situated about a hundred yards from the road on a magnificent knoll. It huge rooms on the ground floor contain French doors with sidelights instead of windows; one having an exquisite iron balcony, more typical of Charleston or New Orleans than of Pendleton plantation homes.
This was the house of Samuel Maverick, who was one of the first settlers of Pendleton and one of the largest landowners of his day. It was said that he boasted he could ride all the way to Texas without spending the night on other than his own land. The name Montpelier was in honor of his French Huguenot grandmother who came from Montpelier in southern France. The first house burned and the present house was built about 1810. Samuel Maverick had vineyards and fruit trees, among other crops. In about 1788 he made history by being the first person from the United States to ship cotton seeds, several hundred pounds worth, to England. The consignee declared the lint to be worthless because it could not be separated from the seed. Samuel Maverick died in 1852.
Samuel Augustus Maverick, Jr., the son of Samuel Maverick and Elizabeth Anderson, daughter of General Robert Anderson, was born at Montpelier in 1803. He moved to Texas, became a great landowner and practiced law there. But he refused to burn a brand onto his cattle. So whenever unbranded cattle in Texas fell into the hands of other cattlemen, they were known to be “Mavericks.” from this term “maverick” is applied today to unbranded cattle and has also come to mean a “stray” or a person who bolts his party or group and initiates an independent course.
Samuel Maverick, Jr., became one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence and is sometimes credited with the founding of San Antonio. His wife, Mary Ann Adams of Alabama, is said to have been the first white woman to have made her home in Texas.
Lydia Anderson Maverick, Samuel and Elizabeth’s daughter, married William Van Wyck. About the turn of the century, their son, Robert Anderson Van Wyck became mayor of New York City. (Source: Anderson County Sketches by the Anderson Tricentennial Commission, 1969)
The Pendleton Historic District nomination has added information on the city’s heritage and this building.
Additional Links:
- Montpelier Plantation
- Maverick Family Cemetery Find-a-Grave Entry
- Maverick Family Cemetery Index
- Portrait of Samuel Maverick
- Maverick’s Blog
Samuel Augustus Maverick was born in Pendleton District, South Carolina, July 23, 1802. After studying law in Winchester, Virginia, he was admitted to the bar in South Carolina. Be-cause of disagreement with the nullification doctrine of John C. Calhoun, he left South Carolina, and lived for a short time in Alabama. In 1835, he arrived in Texas and joined the …….from Bexer to the
Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos, and there signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Making his home in San Antonio, he served as mayor of that town for a time. He later served a number of terms in the Texas legislature. He died in San Antonio September 2,1870. The term “maverick,” to designate unbranded cattle came from the name of Samuel Maverick, who is said to have taken some cattle in payment of a debt and put them in the care of a Negro who neglected to brand the calves. Neighbors referred to wandering unbranded calves as “one of Maverick’s.” Shortened to “maverick’s”, the term gradually came to mean any unbranded cattle. As long as wild Longhorns roamed the range, the appropriation of unbranded cattle was a legitimate practice, but the system of mavericking finally degenerated into branding a man’s cattle before he could get to them himself. The Texas Legislature finally had to pass a law outlawing mavericking, but the practice was not generally considered theft until the late 1880’s, although the law was passed in 1866. A county was created in honor of Samuel Maverick in 1856, but was not organized until 1871.
Maverick County, on the Mexican border of Southwest Texas, contains 1,279 square miles. Principal industries are irrigated truck farming, stock raising, and dairying. On approximately 105 miles of irrigated land along the Rio Grande River farmers are able to produce three crops a year. Maverick County was probably traversed by more early Spanish explorers and settlers than was any other section of Texas. In 1665, Fernando Azcue made a punitive expedition pursuing Indians into the unexplored area. In all probability the first Mass ever celebrated on what is now Texas soil was held by the Franciscans on May 15, 1675, at a place near the present Quemado Valley in Maverick County. Anglo- American settlement began in 1849. During the Civil War, Fort Duncan was occupied by Confederate troops, and during one period, Eagle Pass, the county seat, was the only port of entry open for the export of the Confederacy’s cotton. Eagle Pass Army Air Field was a training center for World War II. Today Eagle Pass serves as a tourist gateway to Mexico. Population of the county in 1860 was 726. In 1970, it was 18,093.
(Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
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