[Updated January 31, 2022]
So Far Away
“So Far Away” inspired this week’s entry for 52 Sams in 52 Weeks. You are looking at the faces of a family deeply affected by the Civil War and looking for a brighter future. This photo (the original is with Ting (Sams) Colquhoun in Beaufort) is dated 16th October 1866. On the back are the words, ‘Picture taken just as family was leaving S.C. for Galveston, Texas.’ So far away.
Dr. Lewis Reeve Sams, Jr. & Sarah Givens Graham
The older man in the center of the picture is Dr. Lewis Reeve Sams, Jr. (1810-1888). He was the first-born child of Lewis Reeve Sams (1784-1856) and Sarah (Fripp) Sams (1789-1825). Junior was both a successful doctor and a planter. Thank goodness for his education because he lost everything in the war – more on that in a minute. At 19 (!), he graduated from South Carolina College as a physician. Dr. LR Sams married Sarah Givens Graham in October of 1834. She is the lady sitting to his left and holding what appears to be a photo. They had eleven children, ten of whom survived into adulthood; eight are in this picture. Those not here are daughter Caroline Sams who died as an infant, and their son, Dr. Calhoun Sams. Their son served as a surgeon under J.E.B. Stewart’s command and was in Richmond after the war. I don’t know why he is not in the picture, though he did follow them to Texas shortly after this photo was taken. The other son missing from this picture is Joseph Edings Sams. He died fighting for the Confederate States of America a year earlier, at age 16. His mother is holding his picture (an ambrotype) taken when he was an infant.
Dr. Lewis Reeve Sams, Jr. owned three plantations. Polawanna on Polawana Island, Oakland, and The Parsonage; the latter two were on St. Helena Island. In addition, he lived in St. Helenaville (or St. Helena Village) on Pine Island. Before the war, this was a popular summer alternative to Beaufort for the planter class. He was the physician for St. Helena Island. And to emphasize his pre-war prosperity, per the 1860 U.S. Federal Census, his real estate holdings, enslaved ‘property,’ and livestock was valued at $6.5 million (converted to 2022 dollars). That would change overnight in November 1861 due to the Battle of Port Royal.
Laura M. Towne (of Penn Center fame) made this diary entry in November 1862,
“Tina of Palawana Island, was telling us today how her master’s family (Dr. Lewis Reeve Sams, Jr.) were just sitting down to dinner in their far-off, lonely island when the news came that everybody was fleeing. They sprang up, left the silver on the table, the dinner untasted, packed a few clothes for the children, and were gone, never to come back.”
They evacuated to the Barnwell, S.C. area.
We have a snapshot of what life was like in Barnwell near the end of the war because of a diary of letters written by their oldest child, Sarah Jane (Sams) Sams (1835-1920). These letters were to her husband, Dr. Robert Randolph Sams (1827-1910), also serving in the war. Conditions for her and the family were harsh. They were low on everything from food to shoes and harassed by Union soldiers coming through town every so often. When General Sherman’s troops marched from the sea through Barnwell to Columbia, it got the nickname ‘Burnwell.’ Sarah’s letters cover this historical event.
What makes this story so compelling is where they ended up once the war was over. The only person in this picture that returned to Beaufort after the war, and is buried here, is Sarah Jane (Sams) Sams, seen in the upper left. The rest of the family seemed to have prospered, married, had families of their own, and are buried out west, most in Texas. Sarah probably never saw any of her family again, except for her sister Eugenia, who we know visited Beaufort late in life. They were so far away.
The Family Moves to Texas; Most are Buried There
The picture below is of Dr. Sams after he arrived in Texas. I published this photo in 2020, shortly after we discovered it (thank you again, Miss Ting.) At that time, we had questions about whether this photo and the one in the family portrait above were of the same person. We believe they are the same man based on other evidence and further analysis.
When Dr. Lewis Reeve Sams, Jr. and his family left South Carolina in 1866, they went to Galveston, Texas. They appeared to have stayed there for a year or two before moving elsewhere within the state. Most went up to the Taylor, Texas area – about 30 miles north-northwest of Austin.
I’ll use the October 1866 picture at the top to tell you a bit about everyone’s destiny.
Sitting – left to right:
Florida Sams – age 12 – eventually married Mr. MH Cole; children unknown – buried in Morgan, TX
Dr. Lewis Reeve Sams, Jr. – age 56 – buried in Taylor, TX
Sarah Givens Graham (Sams) Sams – age 53 – Dr. Sams wife – buried in Taylor, TX
Lewis Reeve Sams III – age 16 – eventually married Miss HM Hague; had two daughters – buried in Tipton, OK
Standing – left to right:
Sarah Jane (Sams) Sams– age 31 – wife of Dr. RR Sams; had five children – she did not go to Texas with the family – buried in Beaufort, SC. This was her copy of the picture, per the ‘Sarah J. Sams’ notation you see on the bottom.
Martha Phoebe Sams – age 23 – eventually married Rev. JM McFarland; children unknown – buried in Louisville, KY.
Mary Emily Sams – age 26 – eventually married Dr. RB Swann; one son – buried in Franklin, TX.
James Graham Sams – age 27 – married three times; four children – buried in Elgin, TX
Elizabeth Hext Sams – age 20 – eventually married Mr. CF Noyes; one son – buried in Taylor, TX.
Eugenia Fripp Sams – age 21 – never married – lived most of her life in TX, died in Beaufort, SC, and was buried in Taylor, TX. She is the artist who painted the only image we have of the BB Sams Plantation house on Datha Island – the ruins we preserve and protect today.
Not present:
Dr. Calhoun Sams – age 28 – married twice; two sons – moved to Waco, Tx in 1868, then Taylor, TX – buried in Taylor, TX
Joseph Edings Sams – died at age 16 in the Civil War – burial location unknown
Caroline Sams – died as an infant in 1836 – buried in Sams Family Cemetery on Datha Island
Sources
The Sams Family of South Carolina, compiled by Lula Sams Bond and Laura Sams Sanders, published in The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 64, 1963.
Rose, Willie Lee, Reconstruction, The Port Royal Experiment, The University of Georgia Press, Athens and London, 1999; first published in 1927
Rosengarten and Chaplin, Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter. with the Plantation Journal of Thomas B. Chaplin (1822-1890): Theodore Rosengarten, Susan W. Walker
Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne, Written from the Sea Islands of South Carolina, 1862-1884, edited by Rupert S. Holland, 1912
Find-A-Grave website
#52Sams – Week 05 – Dr. Lewis Reeve Sams, Jr. (1810 – 1888)