Our Family's Journey Through Time
Notes:
Abbeville is a city and county seat of Abbeville County, in the U.S. state of South Carolina.[5][6] It is located 86 miles (138 km) west of Columbia and 45 miles (72 km) south of Greenville.[7] Its population was 5,237 at the 2010 census.[4] Settled by French Huguenot settlers, it was named, along with the county, for the French town of the same name.[7][8]
History
Abbeville was established by French Huguenots in 1764,[9] at a site named by John de la Howe.[9] It was incorporated in 1840.[7]
Famed states' rights advocate and Vice President John C. Calhoun first practiced law in Abbeville, and he was born on a farm on the outskirts[9] in what is now Mt. Carmel.[10]
Abbeville and the American Civil War
The rock at Secession Hill
Historic Burt-Stark House
Abbeville has the unique distinction of being both the birthplace and the deathbed of the Confederacy. On November 22, 1860, a meeting was held at Abbeville, at a site since dubbed "Secession Hill", to launch South Carolina's secession from the Union;[11][12] one month later, the state of South Carolina became the first state to secede.
At the end of the Civil War, with the Confederacy in shambles, Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled Richmond, Virginia, and headed south, stopping for a night in Abbeville at the home of his friend Armistead Burt. It was on May 2, 1865, in the front parlor of what is now known as the Burt-Stark Mansion that Jefferson Davis officially acknowledged the dissolution of the Confederate government, in the last official cabinet meeting.[11][12]
2003 right-of-way standoff
Main article: 2003 Abbeville right-of-way standoff
On December 8, 2003, in a 14-hour standoff that stemmed from a land-survey dispute, two Abbeville lawmen were killed by West Abbeville resident Steven Bixby. This siege has been compared by both sympathizers of the Bixbys and law enforcement agents to the events of Waco and Ruby Ridge.[13] In February 2007, Steven Bixby was convicted on 17 counts including the two murders, as well as lesser charges of kidnapping and conspiracy. He was given two death sentences for the murders plus 125 years in prison on the other charges.
Latitude: 34.178544, Longitude: -82.377686Matches 1 to 1 of 1
Last Name, Given Name(s)  |
Death  |
Person ID | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Hunter, Katherine | 8 Dec 1851 | Abbeville, Abbeville County, South Carolina, United states | I19385 |
Matches 1 to 1 of 1
| Last Name, Given Name(s) |
Burial |
Person ID | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hunter, Elizabeth | Abbeville, Abbeville County, South Carolina, United states | I19388 | |
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