Notes for CHARLES CROW , SR.:
Charles Crow, Sr. steps out of the mists of history and first appears in North and South Carolina in the mid-1800s. His genealogy prior to his birth in North Carolina in 1744 remains hidden in the fog of the times. He was obviously descended of parents from Great Britain and was a subject of the King of England by virtue of his birth in the colonies. His parents most likely migrated to North Carolina from Virginia or Pennsylvania since that was the dominant migratory pattern of the early 18th Century. Charles grew to manhood in Chatham County, North Carolina, and at the age of about twenty-one years he developed an interest in South Carolina. The colonial government of South Carolina began to promote settlement of the piedmont region of the state known as the upcountry around 1750. Beginning in 1749, a few people settled in what was to become Newberry Country and the surrounding region but dangers from the Cherokee Indians were constant for these early settlers. As a result, settlement was retarded until 1765. Charles' attention was attracted to the area of South Carolina north of the Saluda River that runs up the Little River to the Laurens County line. It is here that Charles determined to acquire land and establish his home. On September 13, 1765, Charles Crow, Sr. received a certified survey from Edward Musgrove, the District Surveyor, for a land grant of 150 acres located at the head spring of a small branch of Little River called "Sandy Run at Red Lick." The land Charles acquired was located between the Little and Bush Rivers but only a short distance from the Bush River and near the Laurens County line. His 150 acres were bounded by vacant land. That is to say, it was in the middle of a wilderness. Charles did not acquire neighbors for another two years when, beginning in 1767, William Stuart, John Sims, James Grogans and William Goulden began to acquire land around him. [Motes, Laurens and Newberry, pp. 3, 13-16, and 93-95]

Nothing of substance is known about Charles' parents or siblings. The Kendall Collection in the South Carolina Library contains an article printed in 1796 with regard to land plats granted before the Revolution (1776) showing that Charles Crow, Sr., James Crow and Isaac Crow acquired land in South Carolina. Charles' relationship, if any, to these other Crows is not stated. However, given the tendency of these early Americans to migrate and travel together in family groups, it is probable that members of Charles' family moved to South Carolina with him. Determining family members in further complicated by the presence in South Carolina of more than one Charles Crow during the first two decades of the 19th Century. [The Carolina Genealogist, Fall-Winter, 1971, No. 5 (Heritage Papers, Danielville, Georgia) pp. 1 and 10]