Nautical Map of Captain Sams Creek and Environs, 2020
The theme this week is “On the Map.” I am starting my journey to find places named after SAMS descendants of William and Elizabeth SAMS of Dataw Island (i.e., toponyms.) The name SAMS presents the familiar genealogist’s challenge, so generic it’s easy to find, but hard to determine if it’s the SAMS you want. Therefore, I started local, where we have some certainty of places named after ‘our’ SAMS and began working my way around the Southeastern U.S. I discovered some unexpected places ‘in the family,’ so to speak, and one place with a heavy SAMS fingerprint on it right here in Beaufort, SC.
Beaufort County, South Carolina
Starting at home, on Dataw Island, we have BB Sams Drive near the middle of the island, named after Berners Barnwell Sams. The several streets with REEVE in their names are not named after Lewis Reeve Sams. These streets are named after Lewis REEVE (1739 – 1774), first cousin to William SAMS on his mother’s side and former Datha Island (1770 – 1774) owner. (Lewis Reeve left the island to his sister Sarah Reeve Gibbes, who sold Datha Island to William in 1783.)
Since this article is about place names (i.e., toponyms), let’s not forget the obvious SAMS Plantation Complex Tabby Ruins. The South Carolina Department of Archives and History has an excellent summary of the ruins with old photographs – see link in the sources below. Traveling a few miles north, we leave St Helena Island and cross to Lady’s Island.
The main intersection on Lady’s Island is at Sams Point Road. This road is most certainly named after one of our SAMS, though exactly which one is uncertain. The road stretches for about 6.5 miles through the middle of Lady’s Island to Sams Point on the northeast corner of the island. This area is where several SAMS had plantations (see Week 17.) Near Sams Point is today’s public Sams Point Boat Landing. Backtracking to the intersection with Rt 21, the town of Beaufort is just two miles north across the Woods Memorial swing bridge. Six houses and a church in town are directly associated with a SAMS.
The Miles Brewton Sams (1811 – 1894) House is in the Old Commons neighborhood at 801 Prince Street. The Old Commons dates to the beginning of Beaufort as a coastal port in 1711, though the town did not partition the space for homes till well after the American Revolution. This house was probably built in the early-1800s.
The other five homes are in The Point. Beaufort annexed this eastern side of town in 1809. It had historically been the primary domain of the shipbuilding industry in Beaufort.
Elizabeth Hext House at 207 Hancock Street is also called Riverview. Elizabeth was the wife of William Sams and inherited the house through her family, we believe. I’ve included it here only because she was Mrs. Sams, though few publications include SAMS in the name of the house. An unresolved mystery is the date of construction of this house; publications vary by decades on this point.
We believe Lewis Reeve Sams built the Talbird-Sams House at 313 Hancock Street. It has remained in the family for over two hundred years. Lewis Reeve Sams also built the house which bears his name at 601 Bay Street. Like many of the larger homes in Beaufort, the Union forces used this house as a hospital during the Civil War.
Berners Barnwell Sams also built two houses in Beaufort. The first, at 310 New Street, dates to about 1810 (Berners Barnwell Sams House #1). The second, at 201 Laurens Street, was completed about 1855 (Berners Barnwell Sams House #2). In his unpublished family history, Conway W. Sams says, “He <BB Sams> built the big brick house in Beaufort on Sams Point, but never lived to move into it. Our Grandfather died shortly before the brick house was finished.”
Fingerprints in Beaufort County, South Carolina
There is also a church in Beaufort that was designed by a SAMS. Laura & I, along with Diane & Joe Roney, recently searched the county to read and photograph all the historical markers. Along the way, we found marker #7-36 at the First Presbyterian Church, 1201 North Street in Beaufort. It’s a beautiful little church, built relatively recently. Much to our surprise, the marker mentions this:
“This Colonial Revival church, built in 1928-29, was designed by architect James H. Sams (1872-1935).”
James Hagood Sams was the great-grandson of William and Elizabeth Sams (lineage through BB Sams –> Rev. Barnwell Bonum Sams). He went to Columbia in 1895 and, after working for three years under another architect, struck out on his own in 1898. James H. Sams became a well-known architect in Columbia, SC. He served several years as the secretary and treasurer of the South Carolina state board of architectural examiners. James, his wife Caroline, and several more SAMS are buried in Elmwood Memorial Gardens in Columbia.
Charleston County, South Carolina
By road, Wadmalaw Island in Charleston County is about 70 miles from Beaufort. Wadmalaw is the birthplace of William Sams and has some interesting toponyms based on “Capt Sams.” Near the south end of Wadmalaw Island, heading inland from the Atlantic Ocean, you take Capt Sams Inlet past Capt Sams Spit to Capt Sams Creek. These are in the area where Seabrook Island meets Kiawah Island.
Capt Sams, more properly Captain Robert Sams (1706 – 1760), was William Sams’ father (see Week 2.) Back on Wadmalaw Island is an area named Sams Bluff and a location called Sams Place. It’s unclear to me who these are named after. I would guess it’s either Robert Sams or his son, ‘our’ William Sams (1741 – 1798). Both lived a good part of their lives on Wadmalaw.
Allendale County, South Carolina
Larry Rowland ends his first volume of The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina with these words:
It is doubtful if any community in America ever experienced so violent, irrevocable, and immediate a reversal of fortune as the sea islands of the Beaufort District did on the “Day of the Big Gun Shoot.”
All the SAMS left Beaufort at the beginning of the Civil War, which leads me to Richard Henry Sams (1850 – 1927). Richard was the great-grandson of William & Elizabeth (lineage through Lewis Reeve Sams -> Miles Brewton Sams). Richard landed in Allendale County of western SC after the Civil War and had two RH Sams & Co country stores there. From the records, they were on the smaller end of country stores. I’ve linked in the Sources below to a fascinating historical survey done in 2012 on country stores in South Carolina. We don’t have any particulars on Richard H. Sams’ stores, but it is interesting to note these country stores transitioned in the early 20th century to become ‘auto-centric’, i.e., gas stations.
I am forever grateful to Richard and his wife Mary Maner Sams (1860-1918) for inspiring their daughter to pursue genealogy. Their daughter Laura Sams Sanders (1898-1983) collaborated with her second cousin Lula Sams Bond (1897-1994) to publish the definitive history of The Sams Family of South Carolina in 1963 [Bond.]
DeKalb County, Georgia
Several Sams migrated to the Decatur area of Georgia; Marion Washington Sams (1822 – 1899) seems to be one of the first. The southeast corner of Decatur has a historic neighborhood called Winnona Park. There you will find the Scott-Sams House at 312 South Candler Street, as well as Sams Street and Sams Crossing. All named in honor of M.W. Sams, the patriarch of the Sams pioneers in Decatur.
And Beyond
I’m still working to trace places named for SAMS in Darien (FL), Atlanta (GA), and Galveston (TX). This is my first installment to locate ‘our’ SAMS journeys beyond Beaufort and put them “on the map.”
Sources
Bond, Lula Sams and Sanders, Laura Sams – The Sams Family of South Carolina, South Carolina Historical Magazine, 1963
Historic Beaufort Foundation – Guide to Historic Homes and Places, 10th Edition, 2014
Rowland, Lawrence S. et al. – The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Volumes 1, 1996, pages 457-458.
Sams, Conway Whittle – HIstory of the Sams and Whittle Families, circa 1920.
South Carolina Department of Archives and History, South Carolina Country Stores Survey, 2012.
South Carolina Department of Archives and History, South Carolina Historic Properties Record
#52Sams Week 39 – On the Map
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