A couple of weeks ago, my wife, Jane, and I had an unusual experience — one that we are still talking about.
The national Pierre Chastain Family Association was holding its annual reunion in Greenville and found me online. I was asked if I would come speak to the group and take them on a tour of sites in the Table Rock area related to the Chastain family. I agreed to do that, and I put together a slideshow presentation on our family history in this area.
These folks had come from all across the country and shared exactly one thing in common: They were all descendants of one man — Pierre Chastain, an early immigrant to this country, who landed at the mouth of the James River in Virginia in 1700.
I am also a descendant of Pierre Chastain. Specifically, I am descended from one of his grandsons, the Rev. John “Ten Shilling Bell” Chastain who arrived in the Pumpkintown area in 1793 and established Oolenoy Baptist Church.
The remarkable thing about the whole experience was that from the time we first met at the hotel and throughout the day, Jane and I felt as if we had known these folks all our lives but had not seen them in a long time. Jane will tell you that she experiences the same thing when she gets together with her relatives, the Fields family from Lamar in the Pee Dee Region. There is something powerful and timeless about kinship.
After the slideshow, we traveled to White Oak Shelter at Table Rock State Park, where we had a nice lunch and an hour or so of genial fellowship with our new friends. My birthday was coming up the next day, and to my surprise, they had a birthday cake made for me. Think about that for a minute. These folks, whom I had only known for a couple of hours, had a birthday cake made for me and sang “Happy Birthday” as if I was their brother, uncle, cousin or good friend. As my daddy used to remind me, “Your people are good people.”
The driving tour included the site of the Rev. John “Ten Shilling Bell” (legend says that his voice resounded like a 10-shilling bell) Chastain’s home, gristmill and grave, Oolenoy Baptist Church cemetery, and finally Holly Springs Baptist Church, where many of my kinfolks are buried. The following day they traveled to Greenville County where another Chastain ancestor settled on land still occupied by a descendant.
I am certain the Chastains who participated in the events of the reunion will long remember their trip to the area where several of their ancestors, nearly 250 years ago, laid claim to their little piece of God’s green earth and forged a living for themselves and their descendants on the frontier of this former Cherokee Territory.
Research has shown that loneliness, depression and anxiety are epidemic in our fractured society. One solution is to find a group of people who share something in common with you and get involved. Having “friends” on Facebook is not the same as interacting with a group of people who make you feel good just being with them.
Dennis Chastain is a Pickens County naturalist, historian and former tour guide. He has been writing feature articles for South Carolina Wildlife magazine and other outdoor publications since 1989.
