Cathey Family

The Steele Creek Historical and Genealogical Society
Of the Old Steele Creek Township
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

Families of Steele Creek:
Pettus

CONTENTS

| Pettus Family History Notes |

Pettus Family History Notes
By Louise Pettus, 1988
(The Pettus family lived in York Co., SC near the NC/SC line on the eastern
border of Steele Creek. There were marriages with
this family to the Knox family and other Steele Creek families)

The Pettus brothers, William and Capt. George, came to York County's Fort Mill District in the 1780s. They married sisters, Mary and Jane, daughters of Samuel and Mary Knox, and settled on Catawba Indian lease land that was first claimed by Samuel Knox.
According to Stephen A. Epps of Fort Mill, corresponding with some Tennessee relatives in the 1920s:
"Each of the Pettus brothers built what was, at that time, considered a mansion. Since the homes were identical, here is the description of the William Pettus mansion. It is just as it was built in 1797, the same floors and same plastering-in good preservation. Every piece of timber was hand sawed, every nail square and handmade, the immense sills -put together with wooden pegs. It is a weather-boarded house filled with brick and plaster. The fireplace is six feet wide, arch in center -five feet. The mantel reached to the high ceiling. It is a work of art, made and engraved by hand, but it is not of hardwood. There are six large rooms besides two in the basement walled with rock. There were also, outside the kitchen, dairy and servants quarters. They had their own hat factory, shoe shop and weaving room.
The house was located about 300 yards from a spring flowing from an immense rock, covering at least half an acre of ground. It is still in use today (1920s) and has a fine flow of good water as there is in the state. Later a well was dug nearer the house, 70 feet deep, through 40 feet of solid rock. The well is still in use."
The William Pettus house, occupied by tenants, burned in 1976. In 1988, a large housing project with 2 and 3 story brick English-style homes called Baliwyck, is being built by Haines Maxwell on the William Pettus site. The Bailiwyck construction is located on Pleasant Road east of Steele Creek and between Gold Hill Road and Carowinds Blvd.
On Pleasant Hill Road, near the Steele Creek bridge, turn onto Horseshoe Trail and stay on the road to the top of the hill. On the right will be a grove of trees and a lovely pink home. In the grove of trees (kept up by the Saddlegate Division property owners) is a small area fenced by a picket fence. Inside that is about a dozen tombstones, all lying on the ground side-by-side, of Capt. George Pettus and his family and some of William's family. One tombstone is that of Adaline Burton who married Thomas Newton Pettus (youngest son of William and Mary Pettus) Feb 6, 1837 and they were the parents of our Will Tom Pettus, who was born Dec. 25, 1837 and died March 25, 1908. Adaline Burton Pettus died March 9, 1844 aged 28 years.

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