Orangeburgh District 1850 Census Abstract
Free inhabitants in between the River Road from Orangeburgh to Branchville and Four
Hole Swamp
Dwelling 1/Family 1 through Dwelling 110/Family 111
Dwelling/
Last Name First Name Age Sex
Notes:
Family
Enumerated 13 Dec 1850
65/66
Till
John
48 M
Eliza
46 F
Gabril 25 M
Ivy
11 F
71/72 Till Nicholas 36 M
Selena
27 F
77/7
Till Jacob
47 M
8
Lovey 41 F
Margaret 19 F
Martha 17 F
Ervin
18 M
Wesley 16 M
Caroline 14 F
Mary
12 F
Henry 10 M
Pamilia 8 F
John
6 M
Jacob
2 M
Hugo Ackerman
Deaths - The State Newspapers, July 11, 2002 - Hugo Ackerman
Orangeburg - A graveside service for Hugo Sheridan Ackerman, 91, will be
held at 11 a.m. Friday in Sunnyside Cemetery. Dukes-Harley Funeral Home is
in charge.
Mr. Ackerman, widower of Helen Till Ackerman, died July 9, 2002. Born in
Cottageville, he was a son of the late James and Cora Sheridan Ackerman. He
was a World War II U.S. Army veteran, a member of St. Paul's United
Methodist Church and had retired as a teacher from Orangeburg High School.
Surviving are brother, David Ackerman of Walnut Creek Calif.; two nieces and
two nephews.
Memorials may be made to Orangeburg Historical Society, PO Box 1881,
Orangeburg SC 29116
A tribute from the OGS Newsletter, Winter 1988, Volume 2, NO. 9
At Oktoberfest VII, October 3, 1987, the program included a tribute to Huge
Sheridan Ackerman in recognition of and appreciation for his generous
assistance to The Orangeburgh German-Swiss Genealogical Society during the
formative years of the society and to individual members of OGS doing
research on their family histories at the A.S. Salley Archives. The tribute was
expressed on a plaque presented to the honoree along with a new electronic
typewriter. However, these tokens were not all. The officers of OGS
unanimously acted to present a framed portrait of Mr. Ackerman to the
Orangeburg County Historical Society to hang in the Salley Archives Building
in recognition of the years of dedicated service that he has devoted to the
protection and preservation of local historical records. One year later, the
portrait was completed and ready to present at the Fall Meeting of the
Historical Society. On Sunday afternoon, November 13, 1988, the portrait was
unveiled and presented by Richard Rhame on behalf of the Orangeburgh
German-Swiss Genealogical Society to J. West Summers, who received it for
the Orangeburg County Historical Society.
The decision to honor Orangeburg's first official archivist was a part of the
OGS celebration of the 250th anniversary of the established settlement at
Orangeburgh by the Palatines during 1735-1737, the period which began the
recorded history of the town and outlying countryside. Thus the members of
OGS recognized the value of an unsung hero's dedicated service to posterity
and they took steps to assure that Orangeburg's historian and archivist would
never be "the prophet who is not without honor save in his own country."
Hugo Sheridan Ackerman was born at Red Oak near Cottageville in Colleton
County. Ten years later, his family moved to Orangeburg, here his father
became associated with The Times and Democrat and thus began what was to
become a life-long interest in newspapers, journalism and the history of
Orangeburg. After his graduation from Orangeburg High School, he attended
Wofford College where he was elected to the Blue Key national leadership
fraternity, the International Relations Club, initiated into Lambda Chi Alpha
social fraternity, and named editor of The Old Gold and Black, the college
newspaper. After graduation from Wofford, he earned a Master's Degree at
Duke University. Then for three summers he did graduate study at the
University of South Carolina working toward a Ph.D. in history. It was at
Duke, however, that he learned newspaper research, a technique that years later
would become the major source for his writing and his principal means of
delving into the historical past. At USC, he discovered that the most complete
file of newspapers from any South Carolina community was the collection of
Orangeburg newspapers. "Newspapers of an era give a complete chronological
account of the local happenings and are invaluable in giving an accurate picture
of its history," he said.
His formal education having been completed, he was ready to begin his career,
but instead he became a victim of the Great Depression and had to take
whatever odd jobs that he could find. "I 'jerked soda' at Dr. Adam Cherry's drug
store. I took up tickets at the old Blue Bird theater and even spent a few months
in a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. I worked at Belk's Department Store
for four years before being sent to Walterboro as assistant manager of the BelkHudson store there." Fortunately, for the future fulfillment of his intended
career, he was advised by his physician to seek an "easier" profession.
At this point, the country was recovering from the economic hardships of the
Depression years, and better-paying positions were opening up in the public
schools. "That's when I decided to teach," he said. He had the offer of a
teaching or an administrative position in the Orangeburg City School system if
he would get two years of experience somewhere else. "I was hired as principal
of the grammar school in Cameron. I was also assistant football coach and
basketball coach -- probably the only coach in the state who had never played a
game in his life!" If the sports had included tennis, he would have been an ideal
coach, having played on the Wofford tennis team.
In 1940, with a decade of sundry experiences behind him, Hugo S. Ackerman
began his long and successful career teaching history, journalism, and social
studies at Orangeburg High School, from which he retired thirty-three years
later in 1973. The years at OHS were interrupted only by three years and seven
months of military service in the U.S. Army from April 1942 to November
1945. At one point, he was sent to the University of Cincinnati to learn French
in order to become an interpreter in France; however, after completing the
course, he was sent to New Guinea instead and, later serving in the Philippines,
he took part in the capture of Manila before returning to the States, to civilian
life, and to teaching. During the next twenty-eight years, thousands of local
students learned the required history in his classes, and many acquired an
appreciation for a sense of history in their lives. Among his students of those
years are two past presidents of OGS - Harold W. Syfrett and Josephine
Freeland Shuler; the current president, Alfred S. Gramling, and vice-president,
James H. Gressette, each of whom also holds membership in the Orangeburg
County Historical Society. Reflecting on their high school days, these four
readily agree that "Mr. Ackerman really made a difference in our views about
history. His knowledge of his subject and his special ability to teach it to others
excited us and instilled in us a curiosity to know more about our past." The
Times and Democrat for which he writes his weekly column, "Orangeburg Out
of the Past," says about him: "Hugo Ackerman has probably forgotten more
about Orangeburg and its history than any other individual will know. But what
he remembers would fill volumes." And to fill volumes with his own history of
Orangeburg has been his long-range goal and the motive for his accumulation
of data through his own meticulous research, largely drawn from old
newspapers, diaries, and personal papers in the Archives collection.
"My history is planned to be a source material for the writing of other histories.
It will not only be of local interest, but of interest to the rest of the state in its
relationship to state history," he said.
One particular period that concerns him is the half-century between 1800 and
1850. "There's a great lack of authentic material on that fifty years in
Orangeburg: there were no newspapers to refer to and practically all of the
official records were destroyed when Sherman's army burned Columbia in the
1860's." Over the years, his weekly column has reflected excerpts from his
volumes of research notes and his readers continue to enjoy weekly history
lessons every Sunday. Thus his strong academic background, his long teaching
experience, his expertise in research, together with his affinity for the world of
newspapers combine in his post-retirement career as writer, historian, and
curator of the Orangeburg archives.
During his years of teaching history and later during his retirement years as
archivist, he has not been alone. Early in his career, he married the former Miss
Helen Till of Hammond, Louisiana, and he and Mrs. Ackerman enjoy the quiet
life of a small Southern town in their lovely home on Edisto Avenue. While he
is an avid tennis enthusiast, both he and Mrs. Ackerman enjoy their hobby of
home gardening. To add to the beauty of their garden, he mastered the art of
bricklaying and built a series of low walls around the flower beds. "There's
something satisfying about laying bricks. It's permanent," he said. Perhaps that
quality of permanence is what he is striving to add to the vast collection of
miscellaneous data at the Salley Archives so that future generations of
Orangeburgians will have a permanently preserved chronicle of Orangeburg's
historical past.
Josephine Freeland Shuler, Assistant Editor and Past PResident, OGSGS
Santee Church Covenant
1827
We whose names are under written, conceiving it will be for the glory of God
and our mutual edification to be constituted into a regular gospel church; and
having received a letter off dismission from the church to which we belong
have called our beloved Brethren: Elders, Wm. Pauling, Daniel Shephard, and
Rob't Missildine, to officiate to set us apart and constitute us agreeable to
Gospel order on the the 29th day of April 1827 at the Independent meeting
house, St. Matthew's Parish, Orangeburgh District South Carolina and we do
mutually unite the following solemn Covenant: (covenant omitted)
C. Entzminger
Jacob Smith
Margaret McGrew
P. Weeks
Ann Felder
Samuel Felder
Mary Killingsworth
Jacob Snider
Cardi Shuler
Alex'r McGrew Dorcus Dash
Henry Dantzler Mary Snider
Susan Entzminger Margaret Snell
Cyrene Weeks
Catherine Dantzler
Uly Peagler
Mary Hungerpeler
Elizabeth Till
Mary McGrew