James Kilgore, SC State Congressman & Senator

James Kilgore

• Born 29 May 1765 in South Carolinamap
• Son of Benjamin Kilgore and Ann (McCreary) Kilgore
• Brother of Nancy Agnes (Kilgore) Delong [half], Benjamin Kilgore [half], David Kilgore [half], Jane (Kilgore) Adair [half], William Kilgore [half], Hugh Kilgore [half], Elizabeth (Kilgore) Wood [half], Benjamin Kilgore Jr [half], Anna Isabella (Kilgore) Greer [half], John Kilgore [half], John Kilgore [half], David Kilgore [half], Mary Ann Kilgore [half], Johnathan W Kilgore [half], Samuel Kilgore [half] and James Kilgore [half]
• Husband of Keziah (Greer) Kilgore — married 7 Dec 1786 [location unknown]
• Father of Elizabeth (Kilgore) Stone, Josiah Kilgore, Benjamin Kilgore, Lavinia Tucker (Kilgore) Borroum, James Kilgore Jr., Jesse Kilgore, Mary (Kilgore) Brockman, Margaret N Kilgore, Eleanor Kilgore and Malinda (Kilgore) Barry
• Died 23 Aug 1813 at age 48 in Greenville, Greenville, South Carolina,

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kilgore-164

From Find A Grave:

James Kilgore was the son of Col. Benjamin Kilgore, a soldier of the Revolution. His mother was Anna McCreary Kilgore.

On April 21, 1766 Anna McCreary Kilgore was horseback riding with her infant son, James. Both were attacked and scalped by hostile Indians. Anna died and James was left for dead but he survived. His father, Benjamin Kilgore, remarried and had more children. Benjamin, with his second wife, Jane McDavid, and some of his grown children, moved to Kentucky between 1799 and 1802 where he died in 1802. James remained near Greenville, SC. He was a representative to the SC Legislature for 16 years. He married Keziah Greer July 19, 1787. They had nine children. James and Keziah are buried in the Kilgore Family Cemetery in Greenville County, SC. It is said that James and Keziah were rocked in the same cradle after his mother was killed by the Indians.

James and other Kilgore family lived on granted lands in Greenville District. The size of a man's land grant was determined by how far he could ride on a horse in one day. The person would mark a tree and ride out as far as he thought he could go, mark another tree, make a left or right turn, ride to another tree and mark it, return in the direction towards his starting point, mark a third tree and make a final turn towards the original tree, forming somewhat of a box. All the lands granted to the Kilgore family remained in the family until near the end of the twentieth century when some of it was sold for housing developments. Today, the Kilgore Cemetery sits in the middle of a housing development, Nelson Creek, surrounded by a wooden fence. It is off Woodruff Road near Simpsonville in Greenville County, South Carolina. It sits behind Old Pilgrim Church which is a Negro church built on land given to the church by the Kilgore family. The church members and some slaves are buried in the church cemetery adjacent to the Kilgore Cemetery. In 2010, the stones in the Kilgore Cemetery were restored and the entrance was moved to the side behind Old Pilgrim Church.

From the DAR file for his father who served and was a prisoner in Charleston in the Revolutionary War, the sworn testimony of Frances Kilgore Irby, 17 Sep 1928, is as follows: "...James Kilgore, born May 29, 1765, was also scalped by the Indians in 1766, when his mother was killed, but survived and died in Greenville County, S.C., August 23, 1813. In 1787 he married Keziah Greer, born July 17, 1768, and died April 21,1834: both buried in Kilgore Graveyard in Greenville County, S. C."
Tombstone Inscription

His tombstone bears the inscription: James Kilgore, Esq., b. May 29, 1765, d. August 23, 1813, He lived and died in the confidence of the Citizens of Greenville District, having been their Representative the last 16 years in the Legislative of South Caroline.
Last Will and Testament

His will transcribed from Greenville District South Carolina Archives: Witnesses Wm Johnson, P Smithson, Benjamin Greer. Probated 2 Nov 1813 'my loving wife Keziah Kilgore'; my son and daughter Banister & Elizabeth Stone;my four younger daughters Mary Kilgore, Margaret Kilgore, Malinda Kilgore & Lavina Kilgore; my four sons Josiah, Benjamin, James & Jesse; my oldest son Josiah, second son Benjamin, third son James.

Family tree of James KILGORE, Sr.

James Kilgore, Sr. was born ten years before the American Revolution, the only child and only son of Benjamin Kilgore and his first wife Anna McCreary OR McCrary

James Kilgore, Sr. lost his mother in an Indian attack when he was an infant.

James Kilgore, Sr. has twelve siblings from his father's second marriage

James Kilgore, Sr. married Keziah Greer in 1787 South Carolina, USA, and had many children:

• Elizabeth Kilgore, born 1788, who married Bannister Stone, and passed away in 1855.
• James Kilgore, Jr. , born 1795, who married Rhoda Waters Summers,and had ten children, became a doctor, and passed away in 1856.
• Mary Kilgore who married Thomas Patterson Brockman
• Eleanor Kilgore, born 1804, and passed away
• Lavinia Tucker Kilgore who married Peterson Borroum
• Josiah Kilgore, born December 24, 1790, who married Harriet Mariah Benson, served in the South Carolina Legislature, and passed away on June 21, 1856.
• Benjamin Kilgore who married Mary Dudley Moon
• Jesse Kilgore, born 1797, who married Alethea Lois Collins, had two children, and passed away in 1879.
• Margaret Kilgore who married Richard Barry, the brother of Hugh William Barry
• Malinda Kilgore, born 1806, who married Hugh William. Barry, the brother of Richard Barry

James Kilgore, Sr. passed away January 16, 1856 in Newbury, South Carolina, five years before South Carolina became the first state to leave the United States and become part of the Confederate States of America in the US Civil War Between the States in 1861. also listed marry to Kazia Greer July 19,1787