In the late 1800s, Mrs. Jane Wade Corlew of Waco, Texas, wrote an account of the Revolutionary War activities of her ancestors. The Wades operated a fishery on the Catawba River at Wades Island between Lancaster and Chester counties.

In 1766, Capt. George Wade had married Mary McDonald, daughter of Donald McDonald, who was one of the first settlers in the area. When the Revolution began, Wade enlisted, and "raised the first rifle [company] from Lancaster, S.C." The Lancaster men marched to the defense of Charleston in June 1776. After repelling the British, the men went on to Savannah where Wade was wounded on October 9, 1776.

The war moved to the upcountry in the summer of 1780. Gen. Thomas Sumter raised troops here and the British army, who had taken Charleston in April, were based in Camden.

The account of Mrs. Corlew has some discrepancies of dates and the sequence of events is badly off--enough so that we can not be certain of the accuracy of the whole. Still it is interesting and worthy of speculation.

At one point, Jane Corlew wrote that General Sumter was ill and taken to the Wade home at McDonald's ford to be nursed. When Mary McDonald Wade got word that Maj. Banastre Tarleton (the British officer later killed at Kings Mountain) was approaching, she took Sumter and her infant daughter to a hiding place in the swamp.

Returning to her plantation, Mrs. Wade was met by Tarlton at the ferry landing. Mrs. Corlew's description, "In an effort at delaying him, she possessed herself of his pistol and discharged it in the face of the irate red-coat. In the meantime, her little girl [the "infant"?] had cut the rop eholding the ferry. This going adrift, the British were forced to make a detour of several miles to cross the river, swollen by recent rains. Thus ample opportunity was afforded Gen. Sumpter to make good his escape."

Wade's plantation had been furnishing corn, flour and meat to Sumter's army. Tarlton's company, in retaliation, burned the house, and took the slaves and horses with them.

Mary McDonald Wade and her infant were sent to Charleston as prisoners of war. Both died of smallpox. The infant was buried in a common grave with 10 other children. The mother's body could be identified and was later removed to a spot on the old plantation. Mrs. Corlew wrote that grateful citizens of Lancaster held a subscription and raised money for a fine monument. She said the marker was destroyed by federal troops in 1865. [Is this true?]

Mrs. Corlew had other tales to tell. She wrote, "In 1882 I visited the old Wade home, on the banks of the Catawba river, and went to the old camping ground, where I found the old pot still hanging from the poles, and forded the river where he and his men had erected a log hut to protect themselves from British bulelts when the British would try to cross. Some months after his company went to Virginia the British attempted to cross the ford. Our few men had gone foraging, but had left thirty-five old guns in the house. Old Aunt Betsy Wade Brown and her sisters went in and fired the guns through the holes so furiously that the British retreated." She added, "Another one of the family, Sarah, swam the Catawba to let the Colonists know that Tarlton and his men were again there in force."