Life History

Notes

• William was widowed before the 1850 census.  In that census William was listed as head of a household that included several of his grown children.  His daughter Malinda is the oldest in the home, at age 54, followed by her sister Rachel, age 52.
  
  It appears several grandchildren are also in this household, children of Benjamin and Mary.  On either side of William and his household were two of his sons, Ignatius and Ephraim, with their families.
  
  1850 Federal Census, Greenville County, South Carolina, 16 September, page 114, Hse/Fam #841
  Wm Few 78 M Farmer $6000 Real Estate b North Carolina [b abt 1772]
  Malinda Few 54 F b South Carolina [b abt 1796]
  Rachel Few 52 F b South Carolina [b abt 1798]
  Mary Few 38 F b South Carolina [b abt 1812]
  Lavena Few 36 F b South Carolina [b abt 1814]
  Martha Few 29 M b South Carolina [b abt 1821]
  Catherine Few 6 F b South Carolina [b abt 1844]
  Benjamin Few 45 M Farmer b South Carolina [b abt 1805]
  Mary Few 43 F b South Carolina [b abt 1807]
  Susana Few 11 F b South Carolina [b abt 1839]
  James Few 7 M b South Carolina [b abt 1843]
  Rosana Few 5 F b South Carolina [b abt 1845]
  Columbus Few 2 M b South Carolina [b abt 1848]
  
  1850 Federal Census, Greenville County, South Carolina, 16 September, page 114, Hse/Fam #840
  Ignatious Few 42 M Farmer $3000 Real Estate b South Carolina [b abt 1808]
  Benjamin Campbell 23 F b South Carolina [b abt 1837]
  Akcy Few 40 F b South Carolina [b abt 1810]
  
  1850 Federal Census, Greenville County, South Carolina, 16 September, page 114, Hse/Fam #842
  Ephraim Few 40 M Farmer $1500 Real Estate b South Carolina [b abt 1810]
  Milly Few 45 F b South Carolina [b abt 1805]
  William Few 12 F b South Carolina [b abt 1838]
  Matilda Few 6 F b South Carolina [b abt 1844]
  Andrew Dunaho 26 F b South Carolina [b abt 1834]
  
  ----------------------
  Gregorys and Fews in Migration Patterns from the 1700s
  By Orville Boyd Jenkins
  Posted on Ancestry.com 16 October 2017
  
  One factor in reconstructing a family lineage are patterns of movement and migration.  These migration paths are helpful in finding and evaluating records in our Gregory and related Few line.  We see Gregory records in a generational pattern along the migration streams along the tidewater area or valleys southwards and westward.
  
  Westward
  Records are being discovered in the westward line from Philadelphia through Frederick and Hagerstown, Maryland, through what is now West Virginia, still part of Virginia in the era we are looking at, and on to Ohio and Indiana.  Brothers John, Richard and Benjamin Gregory, thought to be sons of Isaac Gregory of Pennsylvania, are mentioned several times in lists of residents of old Frederick County, Virginia, a large area at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, also on a common east-west migration route.
  
  Records for a younger Richard Gregory are found in Culpeper County and Fauquier County, Virginia, on this westward path south of the Pennsylvania border.  These two counties were established in 1749, cut out of Orange County, the original huge area from which Frederick County was originally established in 1743.  These counties bordered Frederick County on the east.
  
  Dates and locations of various records match a line of movement from the residence of Richard's likely grandfather Benjamin Gregory of Pennsylvania, into Frederick County, and later back to eastern Virginia in Prince William County, across the Potomac from Washington, DC.  This westward line of migration connects with the great Shenandoah Valley running southwestward along the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains in what is now West Virginia.
  
  Records for a Lewis Gregory, who appears to be a son of Benjamin, son of Isaac, are found along this Shenadoah Valley route then across into the part of Virginia that later became Kentucky, one of the areas where Fews and Gregorys come into contact.  This matches the pattern of residence and Gregory-Few marriages in some of these areas along this southward line of migration.  Details are found in individual notes for the Fews and Gregorys.  Gregorys from this lineage moved westward a bit to the part of Virginia that is now northern Kentucky.
  
  Southward
  Gregorys are found along the Shenandoah Valley which runs southwestward from Hagerstown to Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee, on the border, on through Jefferson and Cocke County, which were all one area of North Carolina, then East Tennessee (current I-81 to I-40 to Knoxville) in the 1700s and early 1800s and on toward Cherokee and contiguous counties in Alabama.
  
  We find Gregorys that appear to be from two different lineages who followed the Shenandoah or similar route from Philadelphia-Baltimore through Virginia into Tennessee, our line through the easterly route of the named east Tennessee counties, the other a bit more westerly, with members of both lines in Kentucky.
  
  These two lines seem to be connected to the same line from Pennsylvania and northern Virginia.  But there are indication of one or two separate migration streams in the same areas.  Early sources are not clear on these lines, and similar names in what may be different lineages seem to have been confused in some genealogies.
  
  I have been through all these areas and explored these lines of migration so have these in mind as I read through records and watch for connections and clues.
  
  Westward Ho
  Gregorys in the line of James Henry Gregory and Rachel Lewis are found in those counties of Tennessee from Jefferson-Cocke on to Knox, McMinn (where we find both these Gregorys, with apparently no crossover), Franklin, etc, in the westward migration route.  Gregorys of our lineage also seem to have moved northwestward through the mountain passes toward Louisville.
  
  Fews and Gregorys are connected in the states of Virginia, Kentucky (which was originally part of Virginia colony), North Carolina and Tennessee (which was originally part of North Carolina Colony) in several generations.  The Fews in North Carolina apparently followed the westerly route over the Smokies into Tennessee into Jefferson County, Tennessee, and surrounding counties where they connected again with the Gregory lineage.  We find them in the family of Francis Marion Few from North Carolina Jefferson County, Tennessee, where his daughter Letha married Andrew Jackson Gregory, my great great grandfather's brother.
  
  Crossflow
  Traffic went both ways along those Midwestern routes over a period of two centuries.  Fews moved into the Louisville, Kentucky, area from Indiana (across the Ohio River.  Gregorys and Fews also moved from eastern Tennessee into Kentucky.
  
  Great migrations northward occurred in the 1920s and later because of extensive floods along the Mississippi, destroying much of the Delta South.  The depression added to this exodus northward.  Midwestern droughts accelerated movement to California.  Further industrialization in the next two decades and after WWII accelerated this migration northward and westward.
  
  The geographical indicators are not only contiguous counties, but similarly in the counties along these common natural migration routes, which also reveal patterns of the same family decade to decade and generation to generation.  These patterns match the same kinds of patterns we find in ethnic investigations all over the world.
  ----------------------
  
  Benjamin F Few b 1830, mar Rachel Kendrick b 1840
  William Few b 1797 m Sarah Ferguson
  William Few (1771-1856) m Susannah Tubbs
  James Few (1746-71) m Sarah Wood (1750-1804)
  William Few m Mary Wheeler
  William Few (1714-94) received a land grant in Washington County, Georgia, for services as private in the Georgia troops. He was born in Kennet Square, Pennsylvania;  died in Columbia County, Georgia
  also see Entry #122014
  --  North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, Daughters of the American Revolution, Lineage Book, Volume 161, 1920
  
  --------------------
  William Few
  Birth Feb 9, 1771 Orange County, North Carolina, USA
  Death Jun 12, 1856 Greenville County, South Carolina, USA
  
  William is the son of James Few "The Regulator."  James was hanged in Orange Co.,NC by Gov. Tyron [Tryon].  William & his Sister Sarah were twins.  William Mother's Sarah Wood married a Tory after James was hanged.  Benjamin, James's brother when [went?] from Georgia to North Caroline and took William & Sarah back to Richmond Co., GA.  Benjamin raised the twins.  All of William's Uncles and his Grandfather William Few, Sr., fought the British in GA.  William the twin is Sandra J. Savage Ruyle's 5th Great Grandfather. 2nd Great Grandfather of William E. Few.
  
  Inscription:  Erected by Benjamin Few
  
  Burial Few Family Cemetery, Greer, Greenville County, South Carolina, USA
  
  Maintained by Amanda Few Allen, Originally Created by Robin Farley Dixson Apr 24, 2005
  --  Find A Grave Memorial #10846582, https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10846582&ref=acom
  --------------------
  

Sources

• 1. Find a Grave Memorial Registry
• 2. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000
• 3. 1850 Federal Census, Greenville County, South Carolina
  • 16 September, page 114, Hse/Fam #841
• 4. Kentucky, County Marriages, 1783-1965
• 5. 1860 Federal Census, Greenville County, South Carolina
  • 7 June, Tyger Division, P O Mush Creek, page 7, Hse #61, Fam #54
• 6. South Carolina, Wills and Probate Records, 1670-1980
• 7. 1850 Federal Census, Greenville County, South Carolina
  • 16 September, page 745 (scan 375), Hse/Fam #846
• 8. 1860 Federal Census, Greenville County, South Carolina
  • 23 August, Milford Division, P O Milford, page 83, Hse #672, Fam #591
• 9. 1870 Federal Census, Greenville County, South Carolina
  • 2 November, O'Neal Township, P O Sandy Flat, page 19 [scan 509], Hse/Fam #116
• 10. 1880 Federal Census, Greenville County, South Carolina
  • 16 June, O'Neal Township, page 37 [scan 91], Hse #342, Fam #345
• 11. 1880 Federal Census, Greenville County, South Carolina
  • 5 June, District 91, page 12, Hse #114, Fam #118
• 12. 1850 Federal Census, Greenville County, South Carolina
  • 16 September, page 114, Hse/Fam #842