History of my Great Grandfather Thomas A. Adair by Miriam Bergetta Adair Covington gleaned from tradition and research Thomas A. Adair was born 25 October 1771 in North Charleston, then known as the 96th District, which afterward became Laurens County. The District of Charleston at that time extended west and north to the highlands of South Carolina as far as the 96th District. Little is known of the childhood and youth of Thomas, or of his parentage. He was the son of Joseph Adare who lived in Laurens County South Carolina in 1808 according to family tradition. and Sarah, ________ of whom we know nothing. We do know that he was of Scotch parentage. Family tradition would indicate that he was born in Scotland. In 1608 William Adair, the son of Ninian Adair and Elizabeth Gordon, Fell heir to the estate of Kinhilt, Portree and Stranrawer, in the County of Wigtown, Scotland. He exchanged with Sir Hugh Montgomery of Ireland his land called “Dunsky” for “Ballymena” in Antrim Co. Ireland. William Adair married (1) 18 April 1589, Rosina Mc Clellen; after her death he married (2) Miss Houston of Castle Stewart; at her death he married Helen Cathcart of Carlston. It seems that William must have remained in Wigtonshire because the descendants of his last wife are found there; while the descendants of #(1) Rosina McCleland and #(2) Miss Houston are found in Ireland. It is from this (2) wife, Miss Houston, that we have the Thomas Adair family of Pennsylvania, and Laurens County South Carolina. They came to Chester Co. Penn. about 1733, and to Laurens County about 1750. Thomas had three sons - James Robin Adair born about 1709, Joseph Adair, born about 1711, and William Adair born about 1713. James has become quite a noted figure in history. It was of him that the beautiful ballad “Robin Adair”, was written by Caroline Keapel, whom he later married. In South Carolina he was a trader among the Indian Nations for about forty years, and has written the most authorative history of the American Indian in circulation. Speaking seven different languages and especially versed in the Hebrew language and history he gives convincing proof that the American Indians are of Hebrew origin, and have followed Hebrew practices in worship, and in their Ideals of life. His book sells for $125.00 per copy. He married first an Indian maiden and left offspring in Oklahoma and Missouri. He was a Surgeon on the staff of King George III before coming to America. Later a Surgeon in General Francis Marions Army in the Revolution. He married (2) ______ in Robson Co. North Carolina and left three daughters all prominent citizens in that community. He signed his will 1 Sept. 1778. His influence with the King of England enabled him to buy up large tracts of land in North Western South Carolina, which was very cheap, and on which he invited his people from Pennsylvania to come and live and improve. Thus we find about 1855 many Adairs in this locality. Here Thomas grew up no doubt as any other normal child; but the spirit of the viking was in his blood as it was in the Adair family. Romance and adventure have accompanied his name through out its history, so Thomas was no exception. He no doubt made many scouting trips over the western prairies. In 1802 we find him with his brother in law George Brown and William Brown and John Brown in Georgia and Mississippi. We find Thomas and Joseph Adair in Anderson C. Tennessee as early as 1802 and as late as 1809 where he was overseer of roads, and acted on the Jury on a number of Sessions from 1802 - 1804. F Tenn A 1 p. 47-57 this item -- Ordered that Joseph Adair be admitted defendant instead of Henry Retis Tenant in possession; he having given bond and security as the law requires, on condition that he confess lease, entry and ouster, and rely on his title only. This sounds as if Joseph had property there for lease. Thomas married about 1804, Rebecca Brown daughter of Rodger Brown and Nancy _________ commonly called Molly. Rebecca was born 3 Nov. 1784, (Rodger Brown Bible Laurens, S. C.). Thomas seem to have remained in Laurens Co. South Carolina for the next few years. Here his first child was born on the 7 Feb. 1805 whom they called Margaret. On the 23 Mar. 1804, he received a gift deed from his father Joseph Adair of 40 acres of land on Duncan Creek Laurens District, witnessed by Roger Brown and Jane Adair. This Robert was Rebecca’s brother. Jane Adair was the daughter of Thomas Erskin Adair. (I do not know where he fits in the family.) In this gift Joseph says, “In consideration for the love and good will I bear to my eldest son, Thomas Adair, etc”. This was no doubt a wedding gift to Thomas from his father. The first child Margaret, married on 10 Feb 1820, William Richey in Alabama. The second child was a boy and they named him Samuel Jefferson, as it was during the administration of Thomas Jefferson as President of the United States. He was born 28 March 1806 in Laurens Co. S. C. He married 3 Dec. 1829 to Jemima Mangum and later married (2) Anna Catherine Mattison, (3) Rachel Hunter. Died 6 July 1889, Arizona. The third child was a girl whom they called Ferreby born about 1808, married Daniel Clark From the year of 1804 to 1808 many of the citizens of 96 district were becoming restless desiring to move farther west. Evidently there were many inducements for obtaining land for farms with squatters rights. Many of the Adair Family were among this group. Thomas sells his 40 acres to Jesse Wilkensen 17 Sept. 1806. Signed Thomas A. Adair Thomas sells 51 acres to George Ross, 5 March 1807. Rebecca Adair relinquishes. Joseph Adair sells 70 acres to John Ross, 7 Mar. 1805. Sarah Adair relinquishes. John Franks sells land and Judy Brown Franks relinquishes 1804 and 6 Feb. 1809. George Brown sells 150 acres to Edward Winn 17 December 1805. And many others. There were many other members of the Adair Family who followed. It seems that Thomas and his company went as far as Anderson C. Tennessee where they remained for a time. We find Thomas in Anderson Co. in 1810. Among others who were in this company of scouts was John Brown, Reuben Brown, Thomas Hart and Isaac Lowe. We next find the family in Nashville Tennessee where their fourth child was born Eliza Jane born 11 November 1810, who married (1) Samuel Carson (2) John Price, (3) Mr. Rurson, She died 6 August 1892. The fifth child Sophia was also born in Nashville about 1812. Then they were on the move again. This time to Indiana, where their sixth child Thomas Jefferson was born 31 May 1814. He married (1) Frances Rogers, (2) Mary Vance. He died 17 Sept. 1890, St. Johns Arizona. Our next reference to Thomas is in Lincoln Co. Tennessee where Sarah Ada Adair was born 27 December 1816. She married William Mangum. Died 3 July 1852, Loop Fork, Platt River, Nebraska. The eighth child was born in Lincoln Co. Tennessee 18 March 1818 whom they named George Washington. He married 6 May 1846 Miriam Billingsley. (2) 9 December 1880 Mrs. Johanna Freestone Bennett. We find Thomas next in Smith Co. Tennessee where he was deeded a tract of land in Smith Co. Tenn by Joseph Allison, 10 May 1820 (F Tenn A 5 1 pt 1 p. 129) Witnessed by his brother in law Thomas Allison and William Parker, And ordered to be recorded. This deal may not have gone through because his next child was born in Pickens Co. Alabama. The ninth child was John Wesley born 18 February 1820 in Pickens Co. Alabama. He married (1) Harriet Williams. (2) Rebecca Mangum. Died 5 March 1903 Arizona. Mary An was the tenth child born 5 July 1822. Pickens, Pickens Co., Alabama. She married (2) John Mangum Jr. (1) John Winn Lany Ann the eleventh child was born about 1824 sealed to Joseph Mangum. Died and buried at Mt. Pisgah. 976.185 - 42c The History of Pickens Co. Ala. showing the boundaries of Pickens Co by Act of Dec. 19, 1820, show the early settlers of Pickens Co. Alabama. Among them are Thomas Adair and William Adair. Alabama 7 Vol 3 - Sketch of William Irvin Adair, lawyer, son of William and Mary Irvin Adair, nephew of Governor John Adair of Kentucky and grandson of William and Mary Moore Adair, who were natives of Scotland and who emigrated from Belfast Ireland in 1736, settled in Chester Co.South Carolina and later returned to Scotland. Served in the war of 1812 as Captain of the Kentucky 17 Infantry. He was a lawyer. Was in the Legislature in 1822-23. Was Speaker in the House November 1832. Was elected to the Circuit Bench and held it until 1835, when he died in Madison Co. Alabama. He married Miss Jones and left descendants. F Tenn M 7 Maury Co. Tenn 1810-1821 Here we find Thomas Adair. Here also Thomas Hart who left Laurens Co. South Carolina and accompanied the Adairs to the west died and a division of the Estate took place thus - John, Thomas, Henry Clay guardians of Eleanor, Louise, John Jr. and Thomas Jr. minors of Thomas Jr. and Henry Clay Hart. Here they meet the Mangums and Cherries who became part of the family by marriage. Here also we find James Brown and Nancy his wife, Henry Clay and Lucretia his wife; James Shelly and Polly his wife, George Ross and Eliza, his wife. Daniel Brown, Henry Brown, Dr. Jennings, Josiah Harrell, most of whom left South Carolina about the same time the Adairs left. The 1830 and 1840 Census report gives the number in the family and their approximated ages of the Thomas Adair Family in Pickens, Alabama and Pontoc, Mississippi. In 1844-45 most of the Thomas Adair family were converted and baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by James Ritchey in Mississippi where they had recently moved. They migrated to Nauvoo to be with the body of the Saints. Thomas himself however did not join and remained behind in Mississippi where he died in 1856. We have been unable to find the exact date or place of his death and burial. Rebecca and eight of the children left Nauvoo with the Brigham Young Company. She and one child died and are buried at Mt. Pisgah. One daughter died on her way later at the Platt River, Nebraska. Joseph, the father of Thomas died along the line. Sarah died in Alabama in 1844-45 Note: spellings have been left as in the copy of the original document by Miriam Bergetta Adair Covington. The following biography is from James Richey son of Thomas’s oldest daughter Margaret and also the missionary who converted the family. Record of James Richey Compiled from his personal journal By James Moroni, eldest son I was born in the State of Alabama, Pickens County, on the 13th day of August, 1821, according to the account given me by my father and mother. My father was a mechanic by trade. I was brought partly to mechanics and partly to farming. I lived in the State of Alabama until I was about ten years old. I then went with my Father’s family to the State of Mississippi, Noxubee County, to live in what was then know as the Choctaw Indian Purchase. My Father settled on government land. We opened a farm, my brother and I worked on the farm and Father worked in the shop until I was about sixteen years old, after that I worked on the farm in the spring and summer, and in the fall and winter I worked with father at his trade building machinery to gin cotton and presses to press it into bales for market. After I had learned the trade my brother Benjamin worked with me at the trade and Father stayed at home on the farm. We continued to work in this way until in the winter of 1843 and 44. We were at work for a man by the name of Henson, about six miles from home. We went home on Saturday evening and returned to work on Monday morning. On returning home on one Saturday evening we found the neighborhood quite excited in consequence of a mormon Elder having preached in the schoolhouse that week, and was to preach again at the same place one week from the next sabbath. I returned to my work on morning with many thoughts in my mind in regard to that strange people for I have never heard of them before, but I had resolved in my own mind to go down and hear them preach the next Sabbath. I had heard the Baptist and Methodist and Presbyterian and other denominations and tried to get their religion but was not successful. It seemed to me after reading the Bible and reflecting on the principles contained therein, that there was something lacking in all the doctrine preached by Jesus Christ and His Apostles for I had read the Bible and was somewhat acquainted with the principles it contained. I had also felt a void and a lack in my bosom that none of the preaching that I had ever heard had filled, so I went to meeting at the time appointed to hear the Mormon preach, expecting I did not know what. I seated myself in front of the speaker and listened to a discourse on the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. He produced the book which purported to be a history of the aborigines of the American continent and also an account of God’s dealing with them. He proved from the Bible that God had foretold by the mouth of his prophets that such a book would come forth in the last day before the coming of the Son of Man. I went away from that meeting satisfied in my mind that the speaker was in possession of a spirit and power that I had never seen manifest on earth until that day. It filled the void in my bosom and still there was a warfare in me for I found that Mormonism was very unpopular with people of the world and if I embraced it I would have to give up my good name and popularity with the world, so I went to reading the scriptures to see if I could find anything to overthrow Mormonism, but the more I read the more I found that it contained the doctrine preached by the Mormons. During this time I had finished the job of work that I was engaged on. I then went to work preparing to go to the city of Mobile to dispose of some cotton that we had on hand. The Mormons still continued to preach in the neighborhoods around about. (I went to Mobile and disposed of the cotton and returned home and found the Mormons or Latter-day-Saints still preaching in the neighborhood and that my mother (oldest daughter of Thomas Adair) had united herself with them. I then renewed my investigation of the doctrine and finally became convinced of its truth and the divinity of the mission of Joseph Smith. I then made up my mind that I would embrace the doctrine taught by the Latter-day-Saints if all the world stood ready to oppose for the promise was made to those that yielded obedience to the principle taught that they should receive the Holy Ghost as they did anciently with these signs following the obedient as they did anciently.) At this time my father was a hard shell Baptist and was opposed to the Gospel as preached by the Latter-day-Saints, but I had made up my mind to trust to the promises of God. So a sabbath morning the later part of the winter in the year 1844, I was baptized by Benjamin L. Cluff in a beautiful stream of clear water called running water. After I was baptized and confirmed by the laying of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, I then went about 5 miles to a Mormon meeting. I felt very solemn for I know I had taken an important step. I went from the meeting to the house of John Sprouse for supper and stayed until after night and then went home. It was late when I got home and the folks were all in bed and asleep. I went to bed but not to sleep. I was meditating upon the principles of the Gospel and all at once the Holy Spirit came upon me and I was filled with joy unspeakable and full of Glory. I could feel it from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. I very soon awakened all that were in the house and bore a strong testimony to them in regards to the truth of the gospel as restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, in consequence of which my Father and Brother Benjamin went and were baptized the next morning. Not long after this I was at a Prayer Meeting when I received the Gift of tongues and spoke by the gift and power of God as they did in the days of the Apostles. It was interpreted by one of the brethren and we had a time of rejoicing together as they did in olden times. Shortly after this I think about the last of March 1844, I went in company with B. L. Cluff, Hayden, Church, Johnston, and Flake to a conference in the state of Alabama, Tuscaloosa County, where I was ordained an Elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints under the hand of Brother Cluff and others. After the Conference was over I returned to where my Father’s people lived in the western part of Pickens County and stopped there to preach the Gospel to them. After stopping there a while, I went to Itawamba County in the state of Mississippi to visit with and preach the gospel to my Mother’s people. Here I met with many lying reports in regard to the city of Nauvoo, which I did not believe, but I could not witness to the contrary having never been to Nauvoo. So, after stopping with my friends for a few days, I left my horse and saddle with a friend and went to Eastport on the Tennessee River and took a steamer for Paduca in Kentucky, from there to Cairo at the mouth of the Ohio, then went on board a Mississippi steamer bound for St. Louis, from there took a steamer for the City of Nauvoo. When I arrived in Nauvoo, I went to the Mansion House and stopped with the Prophet Joseph Smith over night. Next morning I went in search of some friends that had gone there from Mississippi before I did. I soon found Brother Thomas with whom I boarded while in Nauvoo. I found the stories that were in circulation about Nauvoo and Joseph Smith just as I expected. I visited the meeting of the Seventies in the Seventies Hall and was ordained to the office of a Seventy under the hand of Brother Joseph C. Young, president of the Seventies. I also attended a meeting in the upper room of Joseph Smith’s brick store, this meeting was held to nominate Joseph Smith for Candidate for President of the United States of America. Not long after this I started on my return home in company with a number of the Twelve Apostles and others that were going on missions to different parts of the States to preach the Gospel, and distribute Joseph Smith’s views on the power and policy of the government which was printed in pamphlet form. We went on the steamer called the Osprey, from Nauvoo into St. Louis. I traveled by the way of Ohio and Tennessee River to Eastport by steamer and then on foot to where my friends lived in Mississippi. After staying with my friends a few days in Itawamba County. I went to Chickasaw County to where my Uncle Thomas Adair lived and preached the Gospel in that vicinity. I then returned home to my Father’s house in Noxubee County. After resting a while, I again started out in company with Elder Daniel Thomas on a preaching tour. We went into the northwestern part of the state of Alabama on the Buttehatche river from there we went into Itawamba County in Mississippi State and preached to the people in the neighborhood where my relatives lived. A number of them believed and were afterwards baptized into the Church. We then went to Chickasaw County, State of Mississippi and preached to my relatives and a number was baptized into the church. The names of those that were baptized are as follows: Thomas Adair (brother to George W. Adair) and wife; John Mangum and wife; John Price and wife; William Mangum and wife; my grandmother, Celia Rebecca Adair, and John Wesley Adair. After this I returned home and gave my attention to work of preparing to remove with my father’s family to the City of Nauvoo, in the state of Illinois to which place we removed in the year of 45. After we arrived in the City we had much sickness in the family. While I was gone up the river to help bring down a raft for firewood, my oldest sister Rebecca was taken sick and died in my absence, which was a heavy blow to me as well as the rest of the family. In the course of the year my brother Robert and sister Martha Ann also died with the measles. In the course of the summer of 45, I returned to the state of Alabama for my grandmother Rebecca Richey, but her son kept her money from her so I failed in that part of my mission. I returned to Nauvoo in company of William Cox and family. We went to Memphis on the Mississippi River and there went on board of a steamer for Nauvoo. I was taken very sick on the boat with the cleramarbus and came very near dying. We arrived in Nauvoo, but had poor health. When winter began to come on I found that I could do nothing in that country in winter. I and my brother Benjamin decided to go south for the winter and try and work for a little money to help to take the family from the state of Illinois, as there had been trouble between the Latter-day-Saints and the Hancock County mob, in which the Saints had agreed to leave the State for no other cause than that they were trying to live according to the Gospel as preached by Jesus Christ and his Apostles. To return to our trip down the river as far as New Orleans and from there to Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. We then traveled on foot into Madison County in the State of Mississippi and stopped and built a cotton press for a man by the name of Scott, a non-religionist. His brother-in-law lived in the same house with him. He suspected us to be Mormons and one day when we came to dinner he asked me if we were Mormons. I told him we were. He made a few inquiries in regard to our faith, which I answered in a straight forward way. He left me and rather shunned me while I stopped there, when Scott returned home and found that we were Latter-day Saints, he acted different and was anxious to hear us talk on the principles of the Gospel and I continued to instruct him and his wife as long as I remained at his house. He obtained the schoolhouse for me to preach in and invited the neighbors to attend and I preached to them on the Sabbath day on the restitution of all things spoken of by all the Holy Prophets since the world began. I continued my remarks about two hours, on the close of the meeting, Scott made the remark that the discourse could not be beat in the United States. I had an invitation to supper with one of the neighbors. I stayed and talked with them until about midnight when we took leave of them to return to Scott’s to prepare to proceed on our journey. We traveled on through the State of Mississippi. Stopped a few days in Noxubee County and visited some of our old neighbors, then went into Pickens County, Alabama and stopped a few days with relatives. We then went to Itawamba County in the state of Mississippi where some of our relatives lived that had embraced the Gospel but they had all sold their possessions and had gone to Nauvoo. We then hastened on to Eastport on the Tennessee River and there took the steamer and went to Nauvoo and arrived in that city some days before our friends that went by land. When we arrived at home the Twelve with many of the saints had started West. We stayed in Nauvoo a short time, during which time I was married to Miss Lucinda Mangum. She being one of the party that had traveled by land from Mississippi during the winter. Shortly after my marriage I crossed the Mississippi River in Company with some of my friends and relatives and started west for the Rocky Mountains. After we left Nauvoo the mob attacked those that were left and had nothing to move with and drove them across the river and they were left on the bank of the river without shelter and many were sick and some died from exposure. It was here that flocks of quail came into camp and the people could pick them up with their hands by the hundreds. The saints that were on the road stopped by the way and sent teams back for those that had no teams of their own. We traveled on out into Iowa and stopped at Bonaparte on the Des Moines River and worked for supplies, provisions and cows to milk. We then went on to Fox River near Bloomington and stopped and worked for provisions. We then moved on as far as Pisgah where the pioneers had put in a crop in the forepart of the season and many of the poor had stopped to recruite. This was some distance beyond where white people had settled but near enough so that many went to the settlements for supplies. I was taken sick here and came very near dying, but I recovered so far as to be around and at work part of the time but did not have good health. I built me a log cabin and cut some hay, during this time my wife was taken down sick with the chills and fever. I did everything that I could think of to break them up but all without avail. I then concluded to go into Council Bluffs on the Missouri River. We started and my wife missed the chills, the very next day. When we arrived at winter quarters it was late in season. We built a log cabin and then my brother-in-law and myself went to Missouri for supplies. We got a load of corn meal and pork. I was taken sick and had to be hauled home. After we got home Joseph Mangum took the cattle to the mouth of the Soldier to winter on the rushes. Sometime afterwards I went there on a visit and while there, there came a heavy snow storm and I started for home the next morning on foot and was two days and one night on the road. When I got home my feet were badly frozen so that I was laid up in bed for quite a while. While I was in this situation my mother-in-law was living with me was taken sick and died from exposure in traveling so long a journey. She was buried in the graveyard in winter quarters. I will here state that while we were camped on the wayside in Iowa that a company of saints passed on their way to winter quarters and my brother Benjamin hired to them to drive a team. He went on to headquarters and there enlisted in the Mormon Battalion under Colonel Allen, in the war with Mexico. He marched with that command across the continent to California. He died in California. That was another severe blow to me, his never returning. We were raised together and we were never separated long at a time until he left us on the Iowa prairie to return to us no more. In the Spring of 1847, I made two trips to Missouri for supplies. During this time my Father had been on a mission to Texas and the Southern States, had returned to Pisgah with his Mother from Alabama. He then brought his family from Pisgah to winter quarters and builded a log cabin adjoining mine. In the meantime I had cleared some land and had put in a garden and some corn and vines on the Missouri bottom Thomas Adair cont. p. 9 which proved a great benefit to my Father’s family the coming winter. The pioneers had gone under the leadership of President Brigham Young to hunt a location for the saints in the Rocky Mountains and the saints at winter quarters were busy, some planting crops and some preparing to follow the pioneers to the mountains. It had not entered into my head to go to the mountains in ‘47 until one morning I took my hoe and went out to work at my crop but before I got to my work there was a feeling come over me that I should prepare to go to the mountains. I started in to hoe in the garden, but I could not work, my mind was so impressed with the idea of going west. This feeling was on me so strong that I quit work and went home and set about making preparations to start with the first company of the saints that crossed the plains in ‘47. I left the crop that I had planted with my Father’s family, there were only two of us, my wife and myself. Some of our relatives had come on from Pisgah in the company of Charles F. Rich and family on their way to the west. The names of our relatives are as follows; Joseph Adair and wife, Rebecca, sister of my wife; James Mangum and wife; George Adair and wife; and a lad by the name of Harvey Clay and also my sister Emily. We left winter quarters and went out into a river called the Horn where the people were organized into companies of hundreds and fifties and then. Brother Jedediah F. Grant was the captain of the hundred that I traveled in. Willard Snow captain of fifty and B. Noble captain of the other fifty. T. C. Thiratian captain of the ten that I traveled in and on the fifth day of July, 1847, we took up the line of march for the great west, there being in the whole outfit something over six hundred wagons. We soon began to find that our progress was very slow, moving in such a large body, we then separated and traveled by hundreds and afterwards by fifties, but the companies were only a short distance apart and in this way we traveled faster than we did in larger companies. The herdsmen got one of my oxen crippled on the Green River and he had to be left so when I got into Salt Lake Valley on the 6th of October, I had one ox and one cow left, and when spring came I had nothing but my two hands to help myself with but I got a few tools together and went to making chairs. I got a little seed wheat in the spring and sowed about one acre of land and planted some corn. I got a little wheat and no corn for the crickets ate the corn. I afterwards took a lease of corn on the shares from which I got a little half ripe corn in the fall. There was much suffering, the first and second winters for the want of food especially among the poorer class and the Brethren of the Mormon Battalion that came on to Salt Lake Valley the same fall that we arrived there. In the Spring of ‘49, I moved from the old fort on to my city lot near the warm spring and continued to work at my trade and tending to my garden, but while we lived in the old fort our oldest son, James Moroni, was born. We suffered many privations and trials and difficulties in the first settlement of Salt Lake Valley, part of the time we lived on such roots and herbs as we could find, there were thistle roots in the winter and wild onions in the spring. In the spring of ‘49 I fenced in two city lots from which I raised corn, enough for bread, besides vegetables. Bread was very scarce until some time in June the emigrants commenced to come into Salt Lake Valley on their way to the California gold mines and then we could buy some flour from them which was a great help to us. We also raised some green peas which we traded for flour, bacon, coffee and sugar. The most of the emigrants were over-loaded with everything that the people needed. The greater part of their teams were not fit to continue their journey so many of them sold their outfit for ponies and continued their journey with pack animals. End of James Richey History (Manti City, Dec. 9, 1855. James Richey --- a short account of my life up to the time of the commencement of my journal. I was born on the 13th day of August, in the year 1821, in the United States of America, State of Alabama, Pickens County about four miles south of Pickensville. My father’s name is Willie, son of Robert Richey, who was a native of South Carolina. My mother’s name is Margaret, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca Adair, also a native of South Carolina. Rebecca Belton is my grandmother on my father’s side and was born in the State of South Carolina.