Account of Samuel Maverick of Pendleton


Samuel Maverick (1772-1852), father of Samuel Augustus Maverick, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, where he spent most of his life. He was one of ten children, all the others dying, principally of Yellow Fever, which was called the West India or "Stranger's Fever."

On account of his father's absence, fighting in the revolutionary army, and the destruction of their home by the British, his mother took the children to Providence, Rhode Island, to visit her parents, the Turpins. They were completely impoverished by the war (of the Revolution) but they returned to Charleston soon after the close of the war. They paid for a horse to pull the cart, in which they traveled part of the time, $30,000 in Continental money.

Soon after returning to Charleston his father died, and he was thrown entirely on his own resources until quite a boy. He was apprenticed by his mother to his uncle William Turpin, a leading merchant in Charleston, with whom he remained until he was 21 years old, when he established a business for himself. In this he succeeded, and in time became the leading merchant in Charleston, making shipments to China and other foreign countries.

He was the first to ship cotton bales from the U.S. to Europe. When he was thirty years old he married Elizabeth Anderson, daughter of General Robert Anderson, of revolutionary fame. About five years prior to that time his widowed mother had married General Robert Anderson himself. General Robert Anderson lived in Pendleton District, near the village of Pendleton, which is now in the county of Anderson, named after him. Samuel Maverick bought a place up there, where he had two famous vineyards, noted all over the country, and here he spent his summers.

His children were Samuel A., Caroline, born 1805, Elizabeth Anderson, born 1807, Robert Anderson, born about 1810, and Lydia Ann, born 1814. Caroline and Robert Anderson died in Charleston.

When Samuel Maverick retired from business he settle permanently in Pendleton. Mr. Maverick and I visited him there in March 1837, where he lived in a very fine house.

He used every effort in his power to persuade my husband from returning to Texas. He offered him everything he had not to go, but notwithstanding Mr. Maverick would go, and when we left October 14th, 1837, he followed us to the Tugelo River, where the old General Robert Anderson house stood and he was very much affected when we bid him good-bye, and there we named our baby boy, our first-born, Sam, after him.

Mary A. Maverick, Samuel Maverick, Texan

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