1270 Ebenezer Road
“Rural stores provided their clients banking, bartering, burial, medical, news, postal, and voting services.”
City Directories and History: The Samuel Alexander Fewell house, which formerly stood at 1270 Ebenezer Road. The house was built
In 1845 the Hutchison Family (Mr. David Hutchison), was purchasing goods from the Fewell’s Store prior to it being moved to the Rock Hill Depot location. Courtesy of the White Family Collection – 2008
about 1818 by Dr. John Lucas Miller (brother of Governor Stephen Decatur Miller of South Carolina), who came to Ebenezerville to practice medicine about that time. After acquiring a lease from the Catawba Indians for a large tract of land, he built a small frame residence, probably one and a half stories in height. Governor Miller and his daughter, Mary Boykin Chesnut, author of A Diary from Dixie, came to visit the Ebenezer Millers on a number of occasions in a coach pulled by matched grays with servants in livery.
Election of Alfred Stilwell as York County sheriff in 1858. He lived in what is today, Newport, S.C. where he built coffins and carved tombstones.
In later years this large farm was sold to Dr. James Johnson. According to local historian S.B. Mendenhall, the house was sold by Dr. John Johnson (the son of James Johnson) in circa 1840 to Dr. Thomas C. Neel. The Johnsons moved to Meridian Mississippi shortly thereafter. Then on October 9, 1852, Alexander Faulkner Fewell bought the place and lived there until he died. His son Samuel Alexander Fewell and family occupied the house well into the twentieth century. It has been reported that in Nov. 1886 one of the first phone lines was run to R.T. Fewell & Co., from the house in downtown Rock Hill, S.C. It was the Fewells who enlarged the house in the late 1800‘s.
Toward the close of 1856 Captain John Massey and Simon M. Mills (S.M. Mills), purchased the mercantile firm of the Fewell family at Ebenezerville and continued to operate it under the name of Massey & Mills. At first, Mills lived at Charleston, near the markets, and Massey took care of the day-to-day operations at Ebenezerville, where he maintained a large residence. *** Mills’ wife was Matilda Fewell, daughter of Alexander Fewell. Along the Land’s Ford Road, Vol. I by Wm. B. White, Jr. – 2008
*** In 1958, Edward Fewell, Jr. provided a valuable manuscript to the Rock Hill Library dealing with accounts at the Fewell’s Ebenezerville store from 1845-1849. R&R has created the attached PDF for users to see who lived in the general area and shopped at the Fewell’s early store. Researchers may have also been alerted to this page due to their research materials automatically linking the name on the list to the Fewell’s R&R page. Note many of the names in the journal are not spelling in the manner you might expect in the 21st century.
The Fewell’s also operated a prosperous store at Lesslie, S.C. before consolidating their mercantile operations in what became Rock Hill, S.C.
The White family was shopping with the Fewell Firm long before Rock Hill became a town. Courtesy of the White Family Collection – 2016
Informative links: Fewell Family Article
***Note the receipt for shipment (bottom rt), for the tombstone of George P. White, from Charleston via Columbia, to what became Rock Hill in Jan. of 1850. This “most likely” represents the first shipment of goods to what became Rock Hill, called Ebenezer at that time. SCROLL DOWN
Section of Heritage Map by Mayhugh. See ENLARGEABLE MAP under the primary image.
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R&R HISTORY LINK: Miller Family History
R&R HISTORY LINK: ROCK HILL DEPOT
R&R HISTORY LINK: JOHN L. MILLER, MD
Please enjoy this structure and all those listed in Roots and Recall. But remember each is private property. So view them from a distance or from a public area such as the sidewalk or public road.
Do you have information to share and preserve? Family, school, church, or other older photos and stories are
Mrs. Ann White purchased a tombstone, most likely for her husband’s grave, in Charleston, S.C. and had it shipped by rail to Columbia and then on to Ebenezer by wagon. Rock Hill was not a depot stop recognized by the railroad at that time. Courtesy of the White Family Collection – 2008
welcome. Send them digitally through the “Share Your Story” link, so they too might be posted on Roots and Recall.
OTHER NOTICES AND RECEIPTS FOR PAYMENT associated with individuals who were listed on the books a the Fewell’s Store.
Payment for the tombstone delivered to Mrs. Ann H. White in 1850.
Samuel Schooley / Schooly – 1842
Alfred Stillwell, a local Ebenezer (Newport Community) tombstone maker was paid for Geo. P. White’s tombstone in 1850. Courtesy of the White Family Collection – 2008
Purchase of bacon from H.H. Hart (Hiram Harvey Hart), in 1856 by Anne White.
User comments always welcome - please post at the bottom of this page.
My 3rd Great Grandfather, Benjamin Garrison, lived in Rock Hill South Carolina. Love to see the old pictures on line. Linda
Many thanks!
Wade@R&R
Dr John Lucas Miller (nephew of Gov. Stephen Miller) died in 1838, and his widow, Mary Simpson Doby (Miller) married my g-g-grandfather, James Johnson (James’s first wife Mary Miller, was a cousin of Governor Miller). How James’ son, Dr. John Miller acquired his stepmother’s home in 1840 is a mystery. She died in 1845, and I believe that James Johnson and family continued to live here until after James’s death in 1855, when he and most of the Johnson sons moved to Meridian MS with the Broaches, Barnetts, and some of the Fewells about 1857.
Also, very interesting to see the F. H. Brown receipt. F. H. Brown was James Johnson’s son in law, (He married Mary Priscilla Brown) and was my great great grandfather. A planter, Franklin Henry Brown also had a store in Tirzah, and made shoes…in fact my grandmother recalled that he was sent home early in the War Between the States because his shoe making abilities were more important to the Confederacy than his flat feet!