REVEREND SILAS JORDAN FINCHER HISTORY

Silas Jordan Fincher was born Dec. 29, 1812, in (it is generally assumed) the eastern part of Mecklenburg County, NC. This part of Mecklenburg County later became a part of Union County, NC, when that county was created from a "union" of parts of Mecklenburg and Anson Counties in 1842. (The 1850 census lists Silas’s wife as S. B. and says that she was born in Burke County, NC. There is the possibility that Silas may have been born and raised in Burke County. Family tradition states that of the three Fincher brothers that settled in the south, one went to Mecklenburg County, a second went to Burke County, and the third went to Union County, SC. The families would have been rather closely related at that time and may have visited back and forth.)

Silas Jordan Fincher died August 30, 1880, at Mt. Croghan, Chesterfield County, SC., and is buried there at Elizabeth Baptist Church. The 1880 census shows that both of his parents were born in North Carolina, but their names have not been determined from official documents, family documents, or family tradition. (It is also important to remember that the data in census records are often suspect or completely incorrect.  Kathleen Nicholson Sullivan, a cousin who knew a great deal about the family, insisted that her mother, Silas’ daughter, had told her that Silas had emigrated from England with his parents. The obituary of Ellen Howard Fincher Mann, Silas’ oldest child, states: "Both of her paternal and maternal grandparents were born of Dutch parentage on Manhattan Island, N. Y., some time in the sixties of the eighteenth century. Her father, Silas Jordan Fincher, was born in Guilford County, N. C., in 1812. He became a local preacher in the M. E. Church and preached with unction and power.")

Silas Jordan was a Methodist minister in Union County, NC, and appears to have been active in the establishment of new churches. He is listed in 1848 as one of the trustees in the deed to Prospect Methodist Church. Later, Silas became a Baptist minister. The Brief History of Waxhaw Baptist Church and the Family of Godfreys (p. 29) states: "In 1856 Silas Fincher was ordained to the full work of the ministry."  It is interesting to note that Silas’ conversion to the Baptist faith occurred shortly after his marriage to Mary Ellen Barnes. Sometime before 1870 Silas moved across the state line to Chesterfield County, SC.  As a Baptist he was an energetic minister who, according to family tradition, founded several of the Baptist churches in Chesterfield County. A History of the Brown Creek Union Baptist Association, 1854-1918 by Black, Bivens, and Preslar (Nashville, Tenn.: Press of Marshall & Bruce Company, 1919) contains several of Silas’ reports. These give some insight into his personality and into his approach to converting a community to the Baptist faith. It also lists some of the churches he helped to found and which he served as pastor. It is unfortunate that the biography which the authors had planned to include in the book was never written. Silas is said to have traveled in North Carolina and Georgia to preach, and he seems to have been in Georgia when his son Levi was born (about 1834) as Levi is listed in several census reports as having been born in Georgia.  Hugh M. Fincher, Jr., also said that the family was from Georgia.  According to family tradition Silas suffered a stroke in the pulpit while he was preaching at Cross Roads Baptist Church in Chesterfield County and was paralyzed for six months before his death. The 1880 census of Chesterfield County corroborates this information by stating that Silas was suffering from paralysis. (The census was taken in June before Silas’ death in August.)

Silas Jordan was married three times. It appears that he married his first wife, S. B. Starnes, (b. ca. 1809 in Burke County, NC, according to the 1850 census) during the second half of 1830 since he is not listed in the 1830 census (taken in June) and his first child was born Oct. 3, l831. His first wife’s maiden name is supplied from family tradition and also from the death certificate of their fifth child, Martha Jane Fincher Griffin. It is also perhaps significant that Silas J. Fincher is an administrator of the estate of Moses Starnes, deceased Dec. 17, 1842. Eight children are known to have been born from this marriage: Ellen Howard, Levy J., William S., Mary (Polly) C., Martha Jane, Julia Elizabeth, Silas Alva, and Alphaeus. It is possible that there were some children who died in infancy as family tradition states that Silas was the father of 24 children, but only seventeen are accounted for. The date of S. B. Fincher’s death has not been determined.

According to the marriage bonds of Union County, NC, Silas Jordan married his second wife, Elizabeth Blount, on Oct. 4, 1851. One child is known to have been born from this marriage:  Margaret Eugenia.  However, one relative, Mrs. Violet Adams, remembered someone having said that there was a child who died as a baby. The date of Elizabeth Fincher’s death has not been determined.

The marriage bonds of Union County, NC, show that on Feb. 15, l855, Silas Jordan married his third and final wife, Mary Ellen James Barnes (born ca. 1835 in York County, SC, about ten miles from Rock Hill). She was younger than Silas Jordan’s first child (also named Ellen). Florence Fincher Redick, a granddaughter of Silas Jordan and Mary Ellen, knew both ladies and remembered, even in the 1970’s, that they were about the same age. Mary Ellen’s father died while she was rather young. Florence Fincher said that Mary Ellen had told her that he was killed in the Mexican War (about 1848). Mary Ellen’s mother (who is listed as Mary Barnes, age 70, in the 1870 census of Chesterfield County -- her maiden name has not been learned) was living with the Silas Fincher family.  According to Florence Fincher, after she was widowed, she traveled from place to place to weave cloth in various people’s homes.  She left Mary Ellen to be raised by Mary Ellen’s aunt and uncle, Julia and Hugh McCommon.  The McCommons had one daughter, Violet, who married G. W. M. Yarbrough (born Dec. 29, 1817, died Feb. 17, 1865). Violet died Apr. 16, l859 (age 32 years, 1 month, and 29 days) leaving one child, James H. Yarbrough, who died July 5, 1859 (age 2 months and 25 days).  Hugh McCommon’s death on Oct. 17, 1858 (age 69 years, 1 month, and 11 days) left Julia as his heir.  When Julia McCommon died in Nov. 4, l862 (age 69 years, 3 months, and 26 days), having no direct descendants, she divided her rather substantial estate between her niece, Mary E. J. Fincher, and her nephew, Thomas T. Barnes; and she named Thomas T. Barnes and Silas J. Fincher as the executors of her will. Sometime after the death of Hugh McCommon, Silas Jordan moved to Chesterfield County where he continued as an active Baptist minister. Florence Fincher used to tell how Mary Ellen had saved her family from starvation after the Civil War by dividing her provisions in half and hiding one half and one cow in a swamp. When Sherman came through on his infamous march of destruction, he generally took all the food that he could and destroyed the rest in the hope that the people of the South would starve. When he cleaned out Mary Ellen’s pantry, he thought that he had destroyed another southern family, but Mary Ellen had managed to outsmart him.

Silas Jordan appears to have been a rather stern and rigid old gentleman. Hugh M. Fincher, Jr., remembers his father, Hugh M. Fincher, Sr., a son of Silas, saying that when Silas would return from one of his preaching missions he would survey his cotton fields.  If he spotted a single blade of grass in the fields, he would descend from his buggy (filled with meat and produce from his trip) with whip in hand and start whipping his sons.

 Kathleen Nicholson Sullivan, a granddaughter of Silas, said that her mother told her that he was so well thought of and his funeral so well attended that buggies were lined up in a mile-long funeral procession and that the first buggy arrived at Elizabeth Church before the last one had left Silas’s house.

Sometime after Silas’s death, Mary Ellen and several of his children moved to Rock Hill, which was only ten miles from where she had been born. Mary Ellen died Sept. 7, 1901, at the age of 66, in her home on Wilson Street and was interred in Laurelwood Cemetery.  Eight children were born to Silas Jordan and Mary Ellen according to his will: John T. (or possibly F.), Hugh McCommon, Sarah (Sally) Ann Stow, James (Jim) Elias, Susan (Sue) Rebecca, Charles (Charlie) Coppage, Fannie A., and Lillie Cornelia V. However, Florence Fincher and Kathleen Sullivan both said that the youngest child was named Henrietta (Retta) and neither ever knew of a Fannie. Henrietta Fincher married Nelson Gordon and they had one child. She died shortly after the child was born around 1900 and the child died soon after his mother. They are buried in Laurelwood next to Mary Ellen. Florence Fincher always said that Henrietta was her favorite aunt. Henrietta is also listed as the youngest child of Silas and Mary Ellen in the back of the Brown Creek Baptist Association book that had belonged to Sue Fincher Nicholson.