Who Was Eliza Todd Faulk?

Written By: Walter H. Schramm (copyright 1996) Many individuals and organizations have helped us learn that Eliza Ann Todd was...

1. A great-granddaughter of William John Todd, Sr. Born circa 1745 in Scotland, he came to America in 1767, died in 1820 in Horry County and apparently fathered Julia Ann Todd, William Todd, Jr., a second daughter (name unknown) who may have married Daniel Chestnut, Thomas Todd (ancestor of the Rev. Gene Todd) and Samuel Todd.

2. A granddaughter of William Todd, Jr., also known as Capt. William Todd. He married Elizabeth Ann Stephens (Stevens?). So began the "William Todd-Ann Stephens line" as many Horry Countians call our family. A prominent citizen (tax collector, justice of the quorum and a member of the Horry Commission on Public Buildings) he owned property at Board Landing.

3. The youngest daughter of Joseph Jackson "Captain Joe" Todd, and his first wife, Mary Elizure Hardee. Mary Elizure died in 1857, two years after Eliza's March 1855 birth. "Capt. Joe" soon married Maranza Ann Turner and started a second family. Baby Eliza apparently was taken by an Aunt Eliza, widow of Joseph Jackson Todd's brother, William, who operated "Todd's Ferry", near Red Bluff before he died in 1846. Young Eliza appears with her aunt in the 1860 census. Cousin Kermit Todd recalls hearing that Grandmother Faulk came from the Dorman's Crossroads area, but she does not appear in the 1870 census.

4. The bride of John Joseph (J.J.) Faulk. Married in 1872, when both were 17, they would inherit the 600-acre farm of J.J.;s father, farmer/miller J. Hinyard Faulk, an ex-Confederate cavalryman, who served in Tucker's Squadron and the 7th SC Cavalry. An 1890's tintype shows a tiny, elfin-featured Eliza on the arm of her burly, handsome husband, who was a farmer, logger and blacksmith. Their 46-year marriage produced ten children, but they lost three. First-born Victor died of fever three weeks before his eighth birthday. Lucy, the second child, was three days past her eighth birthday when she died of burns after her dress caught fire. Isaac Lindsey, the fourth-born offspring, was a fever victim at 22.

5. The mother of seven children who survived into adulthood. Emma Jane became Mrs. Frank Milligan. Mary Ida married Arn D. "Dee" Lewis. Joseph Hinyard wed Cena Anderson; Joseph's twin, Sarah Ellen, became Mrs. George Schramm. Pinkie Adeline (the sister who chose her own first name!) Wed Ozie Chestnut. Florence D'Lillian became the bride of Isaac L. Edge and moved to North Carolina. Beatrice Priscilla, the youngest, married Hilliard Doris Todd and lived the rest of her life on the Faulk home place.

6. The grandmother of forty! Emma and Frank Milligan were childless, but the others gave Eliza ten Chestnuts, eight Edges, ten Faulks, seven Lewises, one Schramm and four Todd grandchildren. These would extend the Todd-Faulk lines to several later generations.

7. Well-loved. Grandson Joe Lewis, 9 years old when she died, recalls that Eliza was "gentle, quiet and well-liked." She spent her last few years in the H.D. Todd home and Grandson Kermit Todd, 10 at our grandmother's death, has similar feelings about the small, pleasant Eliza. Thinking back nearly 70 years later, he said simply, "I loved her." Kermit's sister, Gearldean, warmly remembers a sharing' Grandmother. "If she had a piece of candy, she would share it with me, if I had candy, I'd share it with her."

Johnice Todd Vereen (daughter of Virginia Todd and the late John Todd and wife of Randy Vereen) began the chain of events that would lead this writer to seek answers to the "Who Was Eliza Faulk?" question. In her teens, Johnice recorded names and dates on Faulk and Todd gravestones in the Bethlehem Baptist Church cemetery for a Missouri cousin, Wally Schramm, who had asked for information about his Horry County heritage. A quarter-century later, Schramm retired after a 43-year public relations career and began to seek his "roots".

He had visited Horry County in 1972 for a brief first meeting with relatives he had never known, the family of his mother, Sarah Ellen Faulk Schramm. Ellen left her birthplace after her 1924 marriage and moved to Upper Michigan with her new husband, George Schramm. They returned to Horry County only once, for a visit in 1926, the year Eliza Todd died. Ellen and George had one child. They named him Walter and called him Wally. Ellen died in 1939, George in 1960.

After his 1993 retirement, Wally discovered almost by accident the family history of his grandfather, J.J. Faulk (1855-1918) -- a descendant of Revolutionary War veteran Phillip Faulk (1760-1825) of North Carolina. That stirred Wally's curiosity about the family of his Grandmother Eliza Ann Todd Faulk. (1855-1926).

He began his search with the few facts Johnice had sent him earlier. Then he wrote for additional information from the Conway Public Library, Horry County Historical Society, South Carolina State Archives and the South Carolina Historical Society, and he made phone calls to Cousins Kermit Todd and Virginia Todd.

He visited Horry County for two days in March 1994. His first stop was Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery. Then he talked with Cousins Kermit Todd, Johnice Todd Vereen, David Todd, Carson Faulk and Travis Faulk, and Rufus Adams, husband of the late Smithie Faulk Adams. Smithie, Carson and Travis are children of the late Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Hinyard Faulk; Hinyard was Ellen Faulk Schramm's twin brother.

Additional help came from Cousin K.D. Todd and Catherine Lewis, retired Horry County Library director and long-time Horry County historical researcher. Her own heritage is part Todd and she asserts, "There is no greater puzzle than the Todds..."

Other sources included Ashley Patterson Cox, Jr., a descendant of several Horry County families who has been a partner of Catherine Lewis in Horry County historical research for more than 30 years; Rev. Gene Todd of Alto, Georgia, whose roots extend deep into Horry County history; Cousin Joe Lewis, whose remarkable memory supplied key pieces of the Eliza puzzle, and Dr. Boyd J. Todd*, retired Clemson University professor and department head, who grew up near Allsbrook-and this writer's newly-discovered Faulk-and-Todd cousin.

More recently, additional information came from Todd descendants Frances Freeman, Lanell Terry, Dan Todd, Dennis Todd and Marion Todd, and from Cousin Gearldean Todd Thrower of Hampton, VA. Vassie Milligan, 83-year old Horry Countian who is a nephew of Aunt Emma and Uncle Frank Milligan, contributed his childhood memories. V.L. remembers both Grandmother Eliza and Grandfather J.J. Faulk. He also recalled that Eliza died on HIS birthday, March 13, 1926, and that the burial was handled by the family.

In January 1996, William "Bill" Sharman, Rocky Mount, NC, has been able to expand the picture with information on several generations of the Edge family. He is the husband of Floreade (Flora Reid) Edge, daughter of Uncle Isaac and Aunt Lillian (Faulk) Edge, and one of Eliza's granddaughters. Bill knows that the Edge and Faulk families were near neighbors in Horry County, and he supplied many details on the Edge family tree. This tree expanded in March 1996 with the addition of many details from the records of the Leo Martin family of Horry County -- details furnished by Mark Martin, a College of Charleston student with family ties to both the Faulks and Edges.

All of these share in any credit for answering parts of the Eliza Todd question. For their generous cooperation, help and patience, I am truly grateful!

March 1996

*Boyd is a great-grandson of J.H. Faulk's brother, Joseph P., and a great-great grandson of Joseph Jackson Todd's younger brother, William Lafayette Todd. Boyd's father was the late Mack C. Todd. His mother, Arcy Jane Faulk Todd, Allsbrook, South Carolina, died at 96 in the autumn of 1995.

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