This is the Cannon Creek Cemetary near Newberry, SC. It lies at the end of a lonely country road. Many of the grave stones have been vandalized in the past but the site is now maintained by the Newberr County Historical Society. Many Maffetts are buried here and the monument to Reverand Renwick lies to the rear of the cemetary along the treeline.

An Account of a Genealogy Research Trip to Newberry, SC on April 4, 2004:

On a cool April day my father, Phillip W. Maffett, and I traveled the 210 miles from Atlanta to Newberry, SC. We first drove around the town seeing the historic downtown area and the campus of Newberry College (a Lutheran School). Then we parked on the Square and visited the historic Opera House.

The Opera House was built in 1881 and we were fortunate to join a tour of the building which included the performance hall and dressing rooms. The building hosts a yearly schedule of the performing arts which is well attended by people throughout the Columbia area.

On the small square are monuments to the dead of the various wars including the monument to the Confederate dead of Newberry County. The monument is a granite obelisk about 20 feet tall with the officers and men listed at the base of the column. The column stands just below the Old Court House built in 1856. At the top level the commanders are listed including Lt. Col. R.C. Maffett and Lt. Col. J.M. Maffett. Among the dead listed below them are Lt. D.S. Maffett (whose grave is in the Cannon's Creek Cemetery), T.A. Maffett, R.D. Maffett, J.L. Maffett, and T.A. Maffett again. Counting for the repeated name this means 6 Maffetts died in the War from the Newberry area.

We then visited the Old Court House and the Chamber of Commerce office. There a helpful lady directed us to the genealogy section of the Newberry Library. At her direction we found only one Maffett (Lucille) listed in the Newberry phone directory. At the library we were assisted by Ms. Tucker "Tuckie" Taylor. By luck we were introduced to Ms. Elsie Fields of Pomaria, SC, a prominent member of The Old Newberry District Historical Society. She was originally a Caldwell and is related by marriage to the Maffetts. She and Ms. Taylor gave us directions to the old Cannon's Creek Cemetery where many Maffetts are buried. We also purchased a copy of an 1820 map of Newberry County (from Mill's Atlas) that shows the location of the "Moffet" farm. These misspellings are common in the record. Ms. Fields also knew of a Col. John Maffett, who served in the Revolutionary War.

We then left the town proper and travel along 76 South to Jolly Road and then east about 4-5 miles to Bearington Road on the left. It is a gravel road which intersects eventually with I-26. The cemetery is well maintained having been cleared of trees and brush in recent years. The Maffett family group is found about midway among the stones with the prominent and ornate stone for Robert Maffett at the center. The stone was broken in the past and has been repaired with great care. Leaning against Robert's stone is that of his wife, Nancy. The other stones are greatly worn and will be unreadable within a few years.

Familiar surnames from the James Maffett genealogy were noted - Cannon, Sligh, and Buzhardt. Overall the cemetery is a silent and lonely place surrounded by forest. Interestingly, we saw a pair of wild turkeys as we exited the car.

Of great importance was a prominent granite stone standing toward the rear of the cemetery. This monument was placed in 1988 by the descendents of the Reverend John Renwick, a minister of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, who lead groups of immigrants from County Antrim in Ulster to South Carolina in 1767, 1770, and 1772. Evidently 25,000 people immigrated to South Carolina from Ulster in the period 1771-1775 because of rising rents. It is said in one source that Renwick came from the town of Ahoghill. This coincides with when James Maffett applied for 200 acres of land on Cannon's Creek (1772). The Reverend Renwick established both the King's Creek A.R.P. Church ("The Old Irish Church") in 1772 and the Cannon's Creek A.R.P. Church in Newberry County. The first King's Creek Church was built of logs. Evidently the entire upper Cannon's Creek watershed was first settled by the Scots-Irish from Antrim. The Lutheran Germans settled the first creek to the south (the Dutch Fork).

Following out visit to Cannon's Creek Cemetery, we drove through Pomaria (a very small place) and then found the Saint Phillips Lutheran Church. A large cemetery faces this newer church with the name Wicker being very prominent. As late as 1960 a Maffett cemetery existed near Phillip's Church but even at that time only two worn headstones could be found lost in the woods.

Using old plats from the SC archives we traveled along road 219 until we came to the approximate location where the original Maffett land was located. I took some additional pictures.

Although there are still a number of families in the Newberry area related to the Maffetts, the surname has all but disappeared. The passage of time is certainly a factor, but the death of six Maffetts from the area in the Civil War certainly did not help matters. The reason that most of the Maffetts in the Southeastern US are to be found in Georgia is the fact that children of these original settlers migrated west in hopes of more opportunity.

This monument stone to the Reverand John Renwick stands in the Cannon Creek Cemetary near Newberry, SC. Reverend Renwick's leadership and faith were typical of the ministers who lead Scots-Irish families into the backcountry. Mel Gibson's movie, The Patriot, depicts the Carolinian Scots-Irish contribution to the American Revolution.

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