SOUTH CAROLINA - RIDDLESPURGER FAMILY HISTORY USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Contributed to The USGenWeb Archives by: Richard A. Rainey rar@sonnet.com November 1997 ---------------------------------------- Attached is a copy of a letter written about the turn of the century by my great aunt's daughter (she passed away during the 60s). The letter contains some good family information for researching the Riddle-spurger (Riddle or Spurger) family. The letter contains no real starting information for the family in the states except for SC, but no county. The Rainey family memtioned here is from VA and at least back to about 1700 has no links to either NC or SC. Richard Rainey -------------------- THE FOLLOWING IS A LETTER WRITTEN BY ELLA FAY RIDDLE SPURGER, DAUGHTER OF ELLA RAINEY - THE COPY I HAVE IS A COPY I RECEIVED IN 1972 FROM AN UNCLE. THE COPY IS TYPE WRITTEN WITH ALL KINDS OF NOTES AND CORRECTIONS HAND WRITTEN IN - NOT IN MY UNCLE'S HAND - I WILL ATTEMPT TO TYPE IT AS WRITTEN: Ella Faye Riddle Spurger,Stringer, born two miles East of Cussetta, Cass County, Texas, which is situated in the north east part of Texas, known as Piney Woods, a hilly, wooded section of the State, settled by people from Georgia and Alabama just after the Civil War. My maternal grandmother's name was Mannie Saunders, born in Virginia, and the duaghter of the founder of the first cotton mill in Richmond, Virginia. She was educated in a girl's finishing school there. Her mother having died when she was young, she was cared for my her aunts and cousins. Before Mannie married, her father died, and she came to Georgia to live with relatives, being there when the battle for Atlanta was fought. It was there, also, that she met and married my grandfather, S. Ridgely Rainey, son of a plantation owner who owned about 125 slaves. The Rainey's had also come south from Virginia before the Civil War. It was during the war that my grandmother, dressed in a suit of clothes belonging to her brother, went to a cousin's home to frighten her, pretending to be a Rebel. On the way, she was seized by a band of Yankees and held until proof was established that she was a girl. Such things at a time like that could have been very serious as the Yankees were shooting or taking as prisoners any man that they happened to find and capture. After the war, my grandparents were married and lived at Ellaville, Georgia, and it was there that my mother was born. The house where she was born still stands and is in good shape, although unpainted, and is near the "Big House" where my great-grandfather, Tom Rainey, lived. It was in this same house that my mother's sister, Lizzie, was born, and with these two children, my grandparents came to Texas after the Civil War, settling in the north east part of the state at Simm, Bowie County. This was a swampy and wooded section at that time, near Sulpher River. The mosquitoes were bad, and the family soon had malaria. They left Bowie County and came to Cass County, living near Bryans Mill, later buying a home and farm near Cussetta which was the center of activity for that farming region. The first State Fair and 50th anniversary of Texas was celebrated there, featuring horse racing, giving prizes to the lady and gentleman who rode their mount with the most grace. The prize for the ladies went to Miss Irene Walker Curwrite. There were ball games, speech making, gambling, prizes for the best farm products, band playing, and evidence everywhere of refreshments kept in little brown jugs, hidden in the clumps of brush near the old log school house. Dinner was served picnic style. The revelry lasted for three days. There was plenty of excitement for everyone, for in those days, this community was the hiding place for desparados from other parts of the country, hiding here in this new settled place to evade th law, and it was here that my mother grew up and married my father. Tom Riddle Spurger, my grandfather, is German-Dutch by birth, and I have been told Riddle Spurger is a common name in Germany today. My great-great-grandfather who came to Holland from Germany had in some way acquired the title of "Von", a title, I understand, may be bought or bestowed upon one for an act of valor. How my great-great-grandfather acquired this title is not known to me, but it was dropped from the family name after his death. My great-great-grandfather's name was Erasmus (called Ris) and my great-Grandfather's name was Milliam Harriest (?) Riddley Spurger, my grandfather's name was Tom. I don't know the year they came to America. They settled in South Carolina, all spoke Dutch and lived like Dutch, my grandmother's name was ______? My gtrandfather, Tom, was too old to fight in the Civil War, but was conscripted by the Confederate Government to make salt by evaporation from the ocean water at Mobile, Alabama, for the army. Not long after the war, and while estimating timber in a forest, my grandfather died of a hart attack, leaving my grandmother, Anne, with six children - three boys, Willie R., Judge I., and my father, Ben Franklin, better known as Dock or D.C.; and three girls, Elizabeth Faye (Betty), Lulu (Lou), and Mandy. My grandmother's old maid sister, Lucindy Pickett, lived with them. Grandmother Spurger had two brothers, Luke and Tom Pickett who came to Texas and settled in Bowie County. Remanents of their families live ther today. Lucindy Pickett married after comming to Texas, she was an old maid and her husband had been married before, his name was Tommi [this could be Toni - it is hand written and fadded] and had a son named _un__? and a daughter named Laurean, she married Tom Draper and moved to Larido? Texas. Grandmother Riddle Spurger, this old maid sister, Lucindy, and these six children came to Texas after the Civil War and settled in Robison County. They started out on this trip in a covered wagon. Finally, tiring of the jurney, and no doubt, the children were making the trip a trying one, my gradmother sold the team and wagon and came the rest of the way by train. I am not sure were they boraded the train, but I think it must have been Atlanta, Georgia, for the trains were slow and took days to make any kind of trip. It was at this railroad station that my grandmother saw her first real Looking Glass as they were known in those days. After the wagon and team were sold, the family had to pack their clotyhes and what other things they were bringing to Texas, in sacks and boxes. Naturally, when the family went into the railroad station, each one was carring some piece of baggage, and all were staying together as this was a new experience for all of them. Seeing the Looking Glass on the wall in the railroad station, the reflection of the family, my grandmother decided that there was another family just like them there and calle my aunt's attention to the fact that "Ther was another bunch that looked just like them." At this time, my father, Dock, was small, and he carried the bread tray and large sifter in a sack, it was striking his heels as he walked barefoot into the station. How long the family had to wait before a train came to take them on the remainder of the journey to Texas is not known, but, while they were waiting, the children went to sleep on the benches, to be awakened later by grandmother telling them that a storm was coming. Being a hard-shelled Baptist with a faith that sustained her through many an ordeal, she gathered the family around her knees, and there in that station asked the God in whom she had faith, to protect and guide her in all undertakings, to keep His watch and care over her and her family in this hour of peril. The "peril" turned out to be the train that they were waiting for. Naturally, ti made quite a lot of nised coming through the forest and, too, they had never seen or heard one at the time, so to be mistaken about the noise was only natural. Arrival in Texas, and settlement in Robison County, to undertake farming new ground with only a family of children, took the real spirit of a pioneer. After a year in Robison County, the family came to Cass County, and it ws here that my father met my mother, Ella Faye Rainey. Ella Faye Rainey was born March 6, 1868, at Ellaville, Georgia. She Was oldest child of Ridgely and Mannie Rainey. She was of slight build, soft spoken and refined, with that quiet and compelling disposition that enabled her to be master of her emotions in all situations, and commanded the respect, fonfidence, and admiration of all who knew her. It was her steady hand and level head that my father needed to off-set his nervous and high-strung, but genial disposition. To this union was born eleven children. William, the first born, died as an infant, Henry Grady, Stephen Herbert, Nellie Virginia, Rainey, Minnie Lizzie, Annie mannie, Ella Faye, Johnnie Berry, who died of diptheria when about one year old, Emma Kate, and Ben Franklin. I, being forth from the younbgest, recall my earliest memories of my father and mother. She had silver gray hair, a quiet manner, and went about her duties of managing a large household in a way that only a master could do; her voice was never raised in corresting we children; she never argued; but, she was always firm in her decisiion, and they were made in such a way there was never an question in our mind of her not being right. Papa always let mother make the decisions when we asked to go places. .... .... My father was superintendent of the little Sunday School, and my mother was a teacher of a class. They were affectionately called "Uncle Dock and Aunt Ella" by all who knew them. .... I was born at Cussetta, near a community and church called Floyd Hill, and it was at this house that I stood on the proch when the snow was on the ground, watching the birds eat crumbs from the table, and yelling "Lucindy Rainwater" to the top of my voice, listening to the echo ..... Lucindy Rainwater was a writer for the Semi-Weekly Farm News, the only paper that our limited mail service and limited publications had at the time. ..... I can remember Nellie who was ironing, wrapping my hands in the warm ironing cloths. My hands hurt so badly it made that episode a vivid memory. Then, too, it was here that Johnnie Berry died of diptheria. I remember the little white casket, the still from inside, and crying, no doubt because the others did, and being taken out of the house before his body was carried away to be placed beside that of William at Floyd Hill. Floyd Hill was a hard-shell Baptist Church with a cemetery beside it where most of the early settlers were buried in those days. My Grandmother Spurger was one of the first to be buried there, and her tomb was placed just inside the cemetery, next to the church, as she had requested, so she might hear the songs sung and the preaching service throughout the time to come. The charter members of this chruch included some of the slaves who had clung to the old master and had come to Texas to live. At the time of Johnnie Berry's death, I was about three years old, and some time after Christmas my father was hired by Munz and Heimer to supervise the building of a railroad from Redwater in Bowie County to Flat Creek in Cass County, for the purpose of hauling logs to a big sawmill at Redwater; therefore, the family moved from the farm near Floyd Hill to Cussetta and rented a house from Mr. Clay Fulcher who had a big store, grist mill, and a barber shop in the back of the store. At this place of business, one could outfit the family and farm without too much trouble with everything from castor oil, big head liniment, not to mention Grove's Chill Tonic, a necessity, as well as all the dry goods, plow stocks, harness, etc., that a farmer needed in those days to survive. ...... ..... In November of 1905, Emma Kate was born. We children were sent to spend the night with Mrs. Clarence Fulcher ......... In the spring of the following year, 1906, my father fought a piece of land from Jim Barker and built a new home for this growing family. This land was located near White Sulphur Springs, on a public road, naples and Atlanta, near Marietta, and at a little stop on the railroad that my father was building, called Munz, so named for the men who were having the railroad built. Munz consisted of two stores, a boarding house, telephone office, barber shop, and a commissary. The real show place was the railroad station. Munz was a thickly settled community. Children came for miles to the school, called White Sulphur Springs High School, named for the springs, near the buildings, which was the source of water supply for the students. There were about 150 pupils enrolled, and classes were held six moths of each year. The faculty consisted of two teachers. One called the assistant teacher was needed for only about four months of the schoold term. ...... Grandmother Riddlespurger had died before I was born, and Aunt Lucindy made her home with us after the death of Mr. Willis. .....she was about eighty years old and did not live long after that, she was ill for about six months before she died. ...... we smaller children were sent away from home to my mother's brother's home (Uncle Henry and Aunt Carrie Rainey). We were there at Christmas time,. and it was Aunt Carrie who told us there was no Santa Claus. I am sure it was because there was such a little for our stockings. I remember getting a little blue vase that I treasured for years. Aunt Cindy died the next summer, but our family's health was never the same .... **************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. ****************************************************************