According to newspaper articles, Polly Floyd died on March 11th, 1889 in the township of Douglas in Clarendon County after having lived a very interesting life. According to these articles, Polly fell in love and was engaged to be married to Morris H Floyd, a local farmer. It is said that her parents did not approve of the match and when they decided to move the entire family to Alabama she was forced to leave Morris behind. But apparently, Polly was more resolved than her family realized. Soon after arriving in Alabama, she left her family and began a journey back to South Carolina and her fiance.
This journey, which would have taken place in the first half to the 19th century, was a perilous undertaking, especially for a young woman. The entire journey would take her about a year. During her journey, it is said that she was captured by Cherokee Indians in Alabama and lived with the “medicine man” and his family for three months. During this time, she is said to have learned about using herbs for healing. She was released by US soldiers and continued on her way. Within a few weeks of arriving back in Clarendon County she was reunited and married to the man she originally intended to marry. The articles that were written about Polly state that she was seen as a bit of a witch. Not only did she use herbal medicine but it appears that she was also known for oracles and fortune telling.
I first came across this story when I was working on a place study of Sandy Grove Township which is very close to Polly’s hometown of Douglas. I felt compelled to learn more. There is much that I still wish to learn about her and I am hoping that someone who reads this post may be from this family and has possibly heard stories about her. I would love to hear what has been passed down about Polly.
What I do know is that her birth name was either Mary or Maryella. It is listed both ways on different census years. Unfortunately, I have yet to be able to find her maiden name. According to the census to the census records, she was born around 1812, making her 4 or 5 years younger than her husband. The story involving her encounter with Cherokee Indians leads me to believe that her journey from Alabama to South Carolina took place around 1838 when she was 26 years old. This would have been the year that President Andrew began enforcing the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and pushed through the Treaty of New Echota. This treaty was established by the United States government and a minority group of Cherokee Indians and called for the Cherokee to relinquish land in the southeast and move west onto reservations. Thus began what is known as the Trail of Tears.
In 1840, Morris is listed on the census with a female adult. This was the last census before the government began recording the names of all household members. It could be argued that the female in the household was not Polly as the age box ticked for her states she is between the ages of 15 and 20. However, I think is more likely that it was reported incorrectly or that the census taker mistakenly marked the wrong box. In all of the following censuses, Mary is listed as having been born in 1810 or 1812. The most interesting tidbit I learned from census records was the entry for 1870.
Mary is listed under husband whose occupation is listed as “Farmer”. The first part of her listed occupation is “Keeping House” which was listed for all women whose main occupation was keeping her own house. However, directly next to this is the word “and” and then there is additional writing above this. I will confess that I have had a very difficult time making out what is written there and am still not absolutely sure. I posted this photo on a few genealogical facebook pages asking for opinions and got quite a wide range of responses. Some thought it said “Playing with David” which seems to be the most unlikely reading of it. Others thought it might be “Playing the Devil” which could go along with her reputation as a witch but also seems highly unlikely on a government document. The other suggestion was that it has something to do with preparing a body after death. Maybe “Preparing the Dead”. This seems more likely as this was a job that usually fell to women at the time.
Unfortunately, this scant information is all I have been able to uncover so far. I do know that Morris H Floyd, her husband, was one of seven children mentioned in Jesse Floyd’s probate records in 1851. He would have inherited a portion of his father’s property who was also a farmer who seems to have lived the majority of his life in Sumter. I will be continuing to dig more in the future but if anyone reading this has information, I would love to hear from you!
You can read the newspaper articles about Polly’s death here:
Captured by the Indians: An Interesting Story of the Life of Mrs. Polly Floyd
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