Saturday, November 3, 2018

A Few stops along the way - Part 3

Today we left Charlotte, NC and headed through South Carolina to Augusta, GA. One thing I forgot to mention last night is that we stayed at the Tryon Park Hotel in Charlotte. Months ago, when we were planning this trip we booked our hotels using Priceline and their Express Deal option. This let us have a bit of an adventure as we wouldn't know where we were staying until we purchased the room, and we wouldn't know the room until we arrived. Well, we ended up at the Tryon Park Hotel. Its a really nice hotel, however, it is named after the British Governor that ordered the hanging of James Few, who was at the battle of Alamance. Governor Tryon then went and ransacked and burned the family lands. That is one of the reasons they moved on to Georgia. Not going to lie, I had a fleeting thought about burning the place to the ground for good measure... ;) Luckily they had comfortable beds!

Anyway, back to our trip today. I was contacted during our trip by a Few that I made acquaintance with on Facebook. You know how your parents told you not to talk to strangers on the internet? Well, its ok if you are related, even if it is your cousin 8x+ removed. We decided to pick the busiest Starbucks in the county to meet at. While waiting for our drinks we had a good time talking about our families and the trip we are on. Even though she lives in the area, she has not been around to see the Few history. Much the same, she was not aware that they existed until recently, much like me, after having done some ancestry research. Once again, I failed at getting a picture, even though I was thinking about it when I woke up this morning. Too busy flapping my gums I guess! It was nice meeting Evelyn and her daughter. Nice folks, I wouldn't expect any less from fellow Few's!

Our next stop was Few's Chapel in Greer, SC. Now this is where we started noticing the change in accent. You want the real deal take the backroads into the middle of nowhere! There are lots of churches spattered out here. Back in the day they were built to secret the local estates as it was often a long ways to the nearest city or town. That is more or less still the case today. Few's Chapel is one of those churches, this one of the Methodist variety. Fews started in the New World as Quakers, but eventually ended up as Methodists. One thing I have found in my research is that the Few ancestors were in to only a few things - law, politics and religion in no particular order.

There is a cemetery on the property as well, and while I was expecting to find Few's buried there, I didn't find as many as I would have thought. Some of them rather recent in the last decade. Other families have used the plots as well. The oldest gravestone that I found of a Few's was born in the mid 1800's and died in the early 1900's. No one I recognized though. Many of the early Fews were buried on their own estates in family plots. Some of these still exist, but I have not had time to find them, and many are on private property. Apparently there is another Few specific cemetery over in Tennessee. Will have to check that one out some day.



Just a "few" of the graves.


Nearby we found a couple of roads named after the Few family as well as a bridge named after one of the William Few's. (there were several, and one sleeping in this room as I type this). It was fun to do a bit of exploring about the area.

Not a lot of bridges out there have a stone placard explaining why the bridge is named.

The picture above notes that decedents should still live here. I wish I had time to go to that church during services and see if there are any Fews still attending.




Another hour and a half drive and we ended up in Greenville, SC where we met up with a friend from college who now lives in the area. The world is sure small isn't it. Especially when you go to a college and make friends from across the country. It was good to spend a short lunch with them in a hole in the wall restaurant. At least Becca remembered to take a picture!

We are now in Augusta, GA before making our last driving leg of our journey tomorrow. We have a couple pretty special Few stops tomorrow and then we will be heading back home on Monday. Its been a fun trip, but I am getting pretty close to wanting my own bed, and some home made food. My body will thank me!

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