Letter from Philip Henry Eve to Amy, July 5, 1959

Scanned page 13 of Book 1 — Scan of original. Open full size →

A typewritten letter, single page, with the return address typed at upper right and signed “Phil” in ink above the typed name “Philip Henry Eve.”

311 N. Crescent Drive Hollywood, Florida July 5, 1959

Dear Amy:

I have a very pleasant recollection of having met you at Ed’s house in Charleston.

One day Ed, Murray Muirhead and I went to the Muirhead farm (Old Hobcaw (spelling?) Plantation near Mt. Pleasant, S. C.) so that Murray could show us the old cemetery which was enclosed by a brick wall and most of the graves were covered by flat tombstones. O’Callahans, Pritchards and FitzSimons were buried there. You would enjoy the inscriptions in this old cemetery. Hobcaw was owned by the Pritchards. Great-great grandfather Pritchard operated his shipyard there and one of his daughters married the first Christopher FitzSimons. This is where our Irish ancestors made their start in America.

When living in Charleston, I read in the News and Courier that when Ggf Pritchard first came to Charleston, he was so wild that the colonists sent him back to Ireland. En route his ship was wrecked and the survivors were picked up by a ship that was headed for Charleston. Back in Charleston, Ggf was given another chance and he became a prominent citizen.

In 1934 John Shaw Billings published for family circulation only, “Descendants of James Henry Hammond of South Carolina.” JHH was my grandfather and married Catherine FitzSimons. Since retiring several years ago, John has lived at Redcliff, Beech Island which he owns. His address is Augusta, Ga., R.F.D. to Beech Island. If you are interested in the descendants of Catherine FitzSimons, I think he will be glad to give you a copy of his publication.

Best wishes and I hope we will meet again sometime.

Sincerely,

[Signed in ink:] Phil

Philip Henry Eve

PHE/efe

AI Notes

Typewritten letter from Philip Henry Eve in Hollywood, Florida, to Amy, dated July 5, 1959. Eve describes a visit with Murray Muirhead to the old Hobcaw cemetery on the Muirhead farm near Mt. Pleasant, recounts a News and Courier story about Paul Pritchard’s first arrival in Charleston, and mentions John Shaw Billings’s 1934 privately printed ‘Descendants of James Henry Hammond of South Carolina.’ Signed ‘Phil’ over the typed name ‘Philip Henry Eve.’ Eve uses several idiosyncratic spellings — ‘Hobcaw (spelling?)’, ‘Greatgreat’ as one word, and ‘O’Callahans’ (differing from W. Huger’s ‘O’Callaghan’ on p003) — and recounts the family-lore anecdote of Pritchard being sent back to Ireland for being ‘so wild’ and shipwrecked on the return voyage. The John Shaw Billings mentioned (Redcliff/Beech Island, 1934 Descendants of James Henry Hammond of South Carolina) is the prominent LIFE magazine editor, a Hammond descendant. The ‘Ed’ at whose Charleston house Eve met Amy is unidentified at this point in the album.

Philip Henry Eve is the compiler Amy’s distant cousin via the Hammond–Eve marriage line — his grandfather was Gov. James H. Hammond and his grandmother was Catherine FitzSimons Hammond. The Hobcaw he visits is the Mount Pleasant / Christ Church Parish shipyard founded by Paul Pritchard c. 1778 — not the Hobcaw Barony on Winyah Bay that Bernard Baruch bought in 1905. The John Shaw Billings he names was the Hammond family scion who owned Redcliffe and served as managing editor of LIFE magazine; his 1934 Descendants of James Henry Hammond of South Carolina circulated within the family.