DeSoto Parish, Louisiana; Biography: Boykin Witherspoon - w362 --------------------------------- Submitted by Gaytha Carver Thompson Typed by Trudy Marlow ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Boykin Witherspoon, one of the pioneer planters of Ward 2, and a rOpresentativa citizen of De Soto Parish, is another of the many prominent residents of the parish who owe their nativity to the Pal- metto State, his birth occurring in Darlington Dis- trict, in 1814. His parents, John D. and Elizabeth (Boykin) Witherspoon, were also natives of South Carolina, the father born on the Pedee River, in 1778, and the mother in Camden, in January, 1787. They were married at the last-named place, May 5, 1808, and afterward settled in Darlington Dis- trict, where they spent the rest of their days, Mr. Witherspoon dying in 1860, and his widow in 1861. The latter was a member of the Episcopal Church. The father was a graduate of Brown University, Rhode Island, and then read law at Georgetown, S. C., after which he practiced the profession of law with success for twenty years, and then de- voted the remainder of his days to his plantation. He was, for a number of years, a member of the Lower House, and was afterward a member of the State Senate of South Carolina. He was a reserve in the War of 1812. His father, Hon. Gavin With- erspoon, was born in South Carolina, where he spent all his life on a plantation. He was an officer under Gen. Marion in the Revolutionary War, and was also a member of the Legislature at one time. His birth occurred in 1748, and his death in 1834 His father, grandfather of our subject, Gavin With- erspoon, was born in 1712, in Ireland, and died in South Carolina, in 1773, and his father, John With- erspoon, great-grandfather of Boykin, was born in Scotland, near Glasgow, in 1670. The latter was married in 1693, and on account of a rebellion in Scotland, removed to Ireland about 1695. In 1734 He came to Williamsburg, S.C., where his death ocurred in 1737, and where he left a large family. The maternal grandfather of our subject, Samuel Boykin, an able South Carolinian, was prominent in its affairs. Prior to the Revolutionary War, he was Indian agent for the British Government, and served in the Revolutionary War as captain of a company of Catawaba Indians. He was a member of the Pro- vincial Government. His father was William Boy- kin, a son of Edward Boykin, who came from Wales to South Carolina in 1685. Boykin Witherspoon, the eldest of two sons and six daughters, five now living, he being the only one in Louisiana, attained his majority in a South Carolina village, and re- ceived his primary education at Society Hill, grad- uating in 1833, from South Carolina College, at Columbia. He was married in 1841 to Miss Eliza- beth W. Edwards, a native of Darlington District, S, C., born in 1822, and the daughter of Peter and Jane Edwards, natives, respectively, of South Car- olina and North Carolina. Both died in South Carolina, the father in 1822, and the mother in 1835. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Witherspoon were born twelve children, three sons and six daughters now living: Jane, Elizabeth (wife of E. J. Howell), Rebecca (wife of T. G. Pegues), Boy- kin, Margaret, Florence, Alice, Gavin and Francis Marion. In 1854 Mr. Witherspoon came to De Soto Parish, settled on his present farm in the woods, four miles northeast of Gloster, where he now owns 4,880 acres, with about 1,000 acres cleared. He raises principally stock and cotton. During the war he was captain of a militia com- pany. Mr. Witherspoon comes of an old and prom- inent South Carolinian family, and is one of the representative citizens of De Soto Parish. Mrs. Witherspoon and all the children, with the ex- ception of Rebecca, are members of the Missionary Baptist Church, the latter belonging to the Pres- byterian Church.