Charles Gavin was born in the Green Pond area (near Green Pond Methodist Church)
of northern Colleton County, South Carolina in 1815, the second son of John Gavin and Anne Hughes/Hughs.   He married  Martha Louise Tatum in 1854, and their daughter, Anna/Annie Murray Gavin, was born in Colleton County in 1856.

The family moved to Alachua County, Florida in the late 1850's.  In 1859, Martha gave birth to a second daughter, Jane.  Mother and daughter died in December 1859 and are buried on the Gavin farm in Florida.

After the death of his wife, Charles Gavin  brought or sent his only surviving child, Annie, back to South Carolina where she was raised by an aunt.  After the conclusion of the Civil War, Charles Gavin was among thousands of Confederates who migrated to Brazil, South America.    Charles  wrote a letter to his daughter upon the occasion of her engagement to William Moss Raysor.  The photograph  was taken in Rio de Janeiro in 1884.   Read more about the Confederados of Brazil.

The Gavins of St. George Parish were of Scots-Irish descent and first appeared in this country prior to 1700 in Bertie and Duplin Counties, North Carolina.    They migrated to Colleton District, South Carolina around 1790.
 

David Gavin was born November 15, 1811 in Colleton District, South Carolina, the first of four sons born to John Gavin of Lower Orangeburg District,  and Anne Hughes (Hughs) of St. George Parish.  He lived most of his life in St. George, South Carolina, where he died January 17, 1874.  Major David Gavin,   kept a diary for many years about the events and people of Dorchester and Colleton Counties.  It has been transcribed in a typed version.    Along with other family members, David Gavin is buried at Buck Springs Plantation
Link to the  Last Will and Testament of David Gavin.

John Gavin was born in 1820.  He married, first, Mildred Connor who died in 1843 giving birth to their daughter, Lucilla.  About 1848 he married Mary M. Shuler, with whom he had six children.  John died in 1858.  On November 9, 1866, Mary Shuler Gavin and her young daughter, Ida E. Gavin, were murdered.   The surviving children are mentioned frequently in the diary of David Gavin.

Dr. William Gavin was born in 1829.  He married Martha Susan L. Moorer.  They had three children, their youngest daughter, Ida William Gavin, born three months after her father's death in November 1861.
 

A special thanks to Arnold & Joan Gavin for all the years of diligent research on the
Gavin family and for sharing through the Gavin Newsletter, and to the late Frank Wannamaker Raysor, who researched the Raysor family and privately published his findings, including many photographs included here, in the 1970s.   Thanks also to Backgrounds by Marie for the lovely Green Lace background used on interior pages.