Poston Family History

About this edition

Poston Family History: the History of Poston, South Carolina traces the Poston family of South Carolina alongside the Florence County community that came to carry the Poston name. Part family genealogy, part local history, and part documentary archive, this volume follows the Poston line from John Poston in colonial Pennsylvania through the family’s southward migration into the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. It explains the correction of the older John-and-Andrew family tradition to the more accurate John-and-Anthony line, then follows the major South Carolina branches through Hugh Poston, Andrew Poston, John Henry Poston, Louella Poston, Lawrence Chalmers Poston, Harold Chalmers Poston, and the modern family line. The book places that genealogy within the history of Poston, South Carolina. Before the community bore the Poston name, the area was associated with the older river locality of Ellison along the Great Pee Dee River. In the early twentieth century, Andrew Poston’s connection to railroad development helped move the Poston name from family landholding and local memory into public geography. The railroad boom later faded, but the name remained. This documentary scrapbook edition combines a polished historical narrative with selected genealogical pages, records, clippings, family notices, source titles, and project materials. The inserts are arranged in historical sequence so readers can follow both the story and the documentary record behind it. Written for descendants, genealogists, local historians, South Carolina readers, and anyone interested in the Pee Dee region, this book preserves the migration, kinship structure, landholding history, railroad connection, and modern stewardship of one South Carolina family and the community that bears its name.

Read the complete text

1. Preface
2. Source Searchability and Indexing Note
3. Introduction
4. Chapter One: The River Locality Before the Town
5. Chapter Two: Pennsylvania Origins
6. Chapter Three: John Poston II, Margaret Baldridge, and the Southward Move
7. Chapter Four: John and Anthony in South Carolina
8. Chapter Five: Hugh Poston and the Pee Dee Branches
9. Chapter Six: Andrew Poston and the Naming of the Town
10. Chapter Seven: John Henry Poston, Louella Poston, and the Reunion of the Lines
11. Chapter Eight: Lawrence Chalmers Poston and the Wider South Carolina World
12. Chapter Nine: Harold Chalmers Poston, Sr., Ruth West, and Mid-Century Continuity
13. Chapter Ten: John Fleetwood Moody and the Moody-Poston Connection
14. Chapter Eleven: Harold Chalmers Poston, Jr. and Modern Preservation
15. Chapter Twelve: Eric Chalmers Poston and the Stewardship of Record
16. Afterword
17. Appendix A: Principal Lines of Descent
18. Appendix B: Documentary Plates
19. Appendix C: Notes on Source Integration
20. Appendix D: Comprehensive Source Register
21. Appendix E: Embedded Documentary Scrapbook Source Plates

Bibliographic authority

This site is the canonical HTML reading edition for this Poston-related work. The corresponding documentary and catalog record is maintained by The Poston Family Archive; the author entity resolves to EricPoston.com.