 Thomas Matthew Knox was born July 15,
1858, the ninth child of David & Nancy Blair Knox. He married
Emma Jane Pressly, the daughter of James Chalmers and Elizabeth F. Gillespie Pressly. Thomas & Emma Jane had four children. Their first was Nancy Isabelle "Nancy
Belle", born November 7, 1885, followed by Margaret Elizabeth "Maggie" on
November 13, 1888. November 27, 1889 marked the arrival of a son, Thomas Pressley Knox,
and the last child was Ethel Brooksie Knox, born October 6, 1896.
Ethel's death on August 13,
1897 was due to "consumption of the brain". She is buried with her parents in
Abbeville's Lebanon Presbyterian Church Cemetery.
Nancy Belle met her future husband, James
Gordon Thurmond, in Danberg, Georgia at her cousins wedding. Dr. Robert John McNeill,
Nancy's cousin, married Estelle Anderson. Nancy and James were married the following year on June 11,
1908. They made their home in Danberg and had five children John Knox Thurmond in 1910,
Margaret "Polly" Elizabeth Thurmond in 1912, Embelle Thurmond in 1914, James
Gordon Thurmond in 1919, and the last Jennie Blair Thurmond in 1923.
Maggie married James "Spat" Bellows
December 17, 1919 in Danburg Georgia. Their family consisted of a son, Rembert Pressly
Bellows, and a daughter, Jane.
Thomas Pressley Knox married Juddie Chaplin November
2, 1910 in Neeses , South Carolina. Their three children settled in Columbia, SC.
by Nancy Knox Schaffer, 1998 |
