Emily Geiger-Myth Or Legend South Carolina Genealogy Trails by John J. Howell 2/6/2011

There is much confusion surrounding Emily Geiger. Was she a real person? Did she make the heroic ride during the American Revolution? This confusion did not occur until  A. S. Salley decided to disprove not only that Emily ever made the ride but that she did not exist. Salley was a historian during the early 1900s. Had Salley not made these accusations about Emily we would not know what we do now. His rebuttal brought on an onslaught of interviews and legal documented statements from the Geiger family and others.
 
If Emily was a hoax why would all of these people step forward and sign legal documents that would place them as part of the hoax? These documents can be seen in the defense of Emily Geiger online. Salley seems to think that since there isn't much information on Emily as far as records then she may never existed. He points out that her supposedly grave is unmarked. I wonder how many graves of Revolution Soldiers are still marked today? This certainly is no reason to question whether Emily existed or not.
 
Another “self acclaimed" historian says that there were no Geigers living in the area of the Tyger and Enoree Rivers where Emily's family lived. This is just plain not true. A John Geiger was convicted but pardoned later in the Weberites murder. Was this John Geiger Emily's father? Jacob Weaver was hanged for this murder. Geiger and Weber lived in this area. Could the Weberite scandal be the reason many of the later Geigers did not talk about Emily's father, speaking only of the famous and patriotic Emily?
 
A name mentioned during the famous ride was Billy Mink. Billy was a Loyalist who knew John Geiger well. Emily spent the night at Mink's home. He was acting as a spy for the British and had suspected Emily as possible carrying a message from Gen Greene. During my research I found there were Minks living in the area. Were these “mistruths" about Emily so calculating that efforts were made to find real people's names to collaborate the “myth".  A Mrs. Haughabok, a Loyalsit, searched Emily at Ft. Granby. There was a Jacob Haugabok living at this time near Granby. Would they go so far to implicate an uncle who was a real person? How about the descendants of her uncle who stepped forward and confirmed that Emily did make the famous ride?
 
The wedding invitation on display at the Calhoun County Museum shows her kinsman, Maj Geiger as announcing her marriage to John Threewits. If she and Threewits were married and she died as a young woman, with bed fever this would explain why there are no legal documentation of Emily. John Threewits 'later will did not mention her. This would be the case if she had died earlier. There is mention that Emily and others were buried in the Threewits cemetery near Columbia. John's father, Joel, settled in the same area as where Emily lived with her parents, the Tyger/Enoree Rivers area. Is it possible that there is a Threewit Cemetery in that area and Emily is buried there? I visited a cemetery to the back of the Threewitts home place recently. I found a corner stone with a G marked. Mr. Fennell of the Lexington County Museum believes the old home was built around 1830 by William Geiger on the Threewits land. I have found that John Threwitts' sister, Eppes Davis Threewits married a William Geiger sometime after 1830. John Threewitts mentioned no children in his will, only nephews and nieces. Perhaps William Geiger received this property through his wife who was John Threewits sister and built the present home.
 
Will we ever know the exact happenings in Emily Geiger's life? Perhaps not. But if she was a myth then this would have to be the greatest one ever considering the legal statements taken, the family stepping forward with others who knew the Geigers. The first mentioning of Emily's ride was in the 1830s. This would mean that this myth continued to be perpetrated down to the 1930s and even the present.
 
The resources of my thoughts came from the Emily Geiger information online. Here you can see the legal statements taken from people who recounted stories handed down to them about their heroine, Emily Geiger. It seems to me impossible to get all of these people involved in some kind of myth or lie.
 
Perhaps dating the wedding invitation & the Threwits house, searching the ownership records of the William Geiger/Threewits property and further investigating into the Geigers in the Newberry County area may produce more evidence that Emily Geiger did exist and that she made her famous ride.
 
Ref: Emily Geiger Material http://sciway3.net/clark/revolutionarywar/geigeroutline.html