Life in the mid-1800s in Kershaw County South Carolina was hard. My 3rd Great-Grandfather Lewis Sowell was a farmer there. He had been born in 1832. From researching his records, it seems he had no desire to fight in the Civil War that arrived in 1861. But as the war progressed the south faced a shortage of men and thus enacted a conscription law to force men to fight whether they wanted to or not. Lewis was able to stave off service for four years but was finally drafted into the South Carolina 5th Battalion of Reserves (Company E) and served for the last year of the war. He survived the year of fighting in the war and came back to Kershaw County to farm for what he probably thought would be a nice long life.
Ben Reese at the grave of his 4th Great-Grandfather Lewis Sowell
Lewis was doing okay financially before the Civil War, but the area of northern Kershaw County and southern Chesterfield County was stripped bare, and the economy shattered after the war ended in 1865. Lewis Sowell's immediate family and his parents (who lived close by) were left with close to nothing. And unfortunately, Lewis did not live a long life after the war ended. One cool day, March 11, 1876, only eleven years after the end of the Civil War, Lewis Sowell died at his home in Kershaw County.
Lewis Sowell was buried under what at the time was a young Magnolia tree. But as the decades passed it became the stateliest tree in the backyard cemetery at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church. Lewis Sowell's grave is one of the earliest there. The cemetery is just south of Jefferson, SC at the confluence of Chesterfield and Kershaw counties. Several months back my son Ben and I traveled there to see where Lewis Sowell's life prematurely came to an end. I was taken aback by the size of the Magnolia tree he's buried under.
But it inspired me to think about what a cool resting spot that would be. Even though it's only a physical body buried in the ground beneath and our spirit moves to heaven, it still brings a sense of comfort and relief when you stand under the immense shade of a tree as grand as this and realize what a great place it would be to rest your earthly body eternally. I tried to imagine what Lewis would have told his wife before he died and wrote "Bury Me Under the Magnolia Tree"
Bury Me Under the Magnolia Tree
By Dallas Reese August 2022
When the shade of twilight falls
And the heat of the day recedes.
When I have given all,
I will be ready to receive
A wonderful fragrance, soft and sweet.
The breath of the Big Magnolia flower
After the long days of din and glare
It will bring relief like a silent prayer.
When the moon glows softly,
It will sweeten my grateful hour.
With alabaster blossoms, creamy and fair.
It will take away my despair.
I talk to the wind and ask if it knows.
Is this like the lovely trees that grow
by the stream of Paradise?
For if nature abides in it,
Something as perfect and entirely fair as this.
When I cross to the other side,
Where green fields smile and clear waves glide,
May I discover it growing immortal there?
Safe from destruction, storms, and blight,
Evergreen and deathless, it seems to me,
with glossy leaves and blossoms in white.
a shady respite from heat and light.
With peace, I can bid eternal goodnight.
If you’ll only bury me under the Big Magnolia Tree.
Lewis Sowell's wife and my 3rd Great-Grandmother Mary Clyburn Sowell went on to live for another 20 years and lived with her daughter near Lancaster, South Carolina. Upon Mary's death in 1896 her daughter chose to bury her in Lancaster County at Kershaw City Cemetery. Thus, Mary was eternally separated physically from her husband. I know that doesn't matter to a lot of people because we have the assurance by faith in Jesus of being reunited with those we love in heaven. But for me, I want to lie down eternally beside my wife. It's how God intended us, together, forever.
My relationship with Lewis Sowell is as follows below:
Dallas R. Reese Jr.
Ila Sue Johnson Reese -my mother
Catherine Nell Demby Johnson-my Maternal Grandmother
Margaret Rebecca Jowers Demby-My Great-Grandmother
Ellen Jane Sowell Jowers-My Great-Great-Grandmother
Lewis Sowell-My Great-Great-Great-Grandfather
Dallas Reese c 2022 Reese-Johnson Family History
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