The “52 Cousins” series of biographical sketches are Artificial Intelligence (AI) compiled narratives of selected individuals from my Genealogical database. The selected AI will used documents and data from my RootsMagic Genealogical Software. All genealogical data is my research material acquired over the past 46+ years of research. Today's Biography of William M. "Will" Privette (1870-1955) was compiled with the assistance of Claude Sonnett 4 and is entitled:
"A Long Way from Mount Croghan: The Life of Will Privette"
William M. "Will" Privette
15 July 1870 – 25 October 1955
Mount Croghan, South Carolina · Lubbock, Texas
Early Life and Family Background
Will Privette came into the world on July 15, 1870, in Mount Croghan, a small community nestled in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. He was born to Thomas Kincheon Previtte (1840–1898) and Sarah Jane Tucker (1839–1918), and grew up in the rural Carolina Piedmont during one of the most turbulent and transformative periods in American history. His childhood years fell in the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction — a time when Southern families like the Privettes were rebuilding their lives and livelihoods from the ground up.
The South Carolina of Will's youth was a place of hardship and resilience. Reconstruction had ended just a few years before his birth, and the region's economy was slowly recovering, largely through small-scale farming and sharecropping. The Privette family, like most of their neighbors, would have worked the land and known the rhythms of agricultural life intimately.
His Parents
Will's father, Thomas Kincheon Previtte, was born in 1840 and lived until 1898 — dying when Will was about 28 years old. His mother, Sarah Jane Tucker, born in 1839, outlived her husband by two decades, passing away in 1918. Both parents appear to have been long-established South Carolina family.
Brothers and Sisters
Census records reveal at least one sibling: a brother named Samuel R. Privette, born around December 1865, who appears in the 1900 census living with Will's household as a brother, then around 34 years old. It's quite possible Will had additional siblings who scattered to other households before that census was taken — a common situation in large farming families of that era.
Marriage to Sallie Sanders
Around 1891, when he was about 21 years old, Will married Sarah "Sallie" Sanders (born 1870) in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. Sallie was roughly the same age as Will, and the two would remain partners for the next five and a half decades, navigating life's many changes together — from the Carolina countryside to Mississippi to the Texas plains.
Sallie Sanders Privette was a steadfast presence throughout Will's life. She predeceased him by several years, passing away in 1948. The 1900 census notes they had been married nine years and had four children, three of whom were still living — a sobering reflection of childhood mortality rates at the turn of the 20th century.
Their Children
Will and Sallie raised a family of seven children over nearly two decades:
Allie Mae Privette was born in November 1891 in North Carolina and lived a long life, passing away in 1976. A telephone conversation from 2004 with a family relative noted that "Mae married a Tucker" — a nice full-circle connection, since Will's own mother was a Tucker.
Samuel Kinston Privette was born in September 1895 in South Carolina. He lived until 1969 and, according to family memory, eventually died in Texas — following the family's westward migration.
Horrie Harvey Privette (also recorded as Henry, Harry, or Harris in various census records — census takers of the era were notoriously inconsistent with names) was born in September 1898 in South Carolina and passed away in 1972.
Iva Privette (also spelled Ivery, Ivory, or Ivan in the records) was born around 1903 in North Carolina. She lived until 1978. A family oral history note from 2004 records that "Ivey never married." She appears in the 1940 census, then in her early 30s, still living with her parents in Lubbock, Texas.
Myrtle Privette was born in 1904 and sadly died young, in 1929, at just 25 years old.
Pheobe Privette (spelled variously as Pheoby, Phoeby, or Feeby) was born in 1907 in North Carolina and died in 1933, also at a young age of about 26.
William M. Privette Jr. was born in 1911 and lived until 1988 — the youngest child and the one who carried on the family name.
Life in South Carolina (1870s–Early 1900s)
Will spent the first several decades of his life in and around Mount Croghan, Chesterfield County. The 1900 census finds him there at about age 29, farming with Sallie and their young children. The family appears to have spent some time in North Carolina as well — most of the older children are recorded as having been born in NC in various census records, though exactly when they crossed the state line and returned is unclear.
Mount Croghan itself was (and remains) a tiny community. Life there in the 1890s and early 1900s revolved around cotton farming, church, and tight-knit community bonds. Will's life during this period coincided with the rise of the Populist movement, the economic hardships of the 1890s depression, and the dawn of the New South era. It was a time when many families were beginning to look westward for better opportunities.
A Move to Mississippi (Around 1900–1920)
At some point after 1900, Will packed up the family and headed west to Quitman, in Clarke County, Mississippi. By the 1910 census, the Privettes were firmly established there, with Will listed at age 38 and several of the children — Sam (15), Henry/Horrie (11), Ivory/Iva (6), and Phoeby (2) — still at home. Quitman was a small county seat town in the piney woods of southeast Mississippi, and the region's economy was still primarily agricultural.
This was a period of significant national change — the country was shifting from a rural, agrarian society to an industrial one. Mississippi in 1910 was still overwhelmingly rural, and farming families like the Privettes would have lived much as they had in South Carolina, though the Mississippi Delta and surrounding regions had their own distinct culture and character.
On February 20, 1920, Will's name appears in the Clarke County Tribune newspaper — he was selected to serve on a jury in Quitman. It's a small detail, but a vivid one: Will Privette, at age 49, doing his civic duty in his adopted Mississippi home. The jury list placed him in "Beat 3," alongside neighbors J.M. Broach, E.L. Bishop, and others.
Return to South Carolina, Then Westward to Texas (1920s–1930s)
Remarkably, the 1920 census finds the family back in Mount Croghan, South Carolina — apparently Will and Sallie made a return trip to their home county sometime between 1910 and 1920. By then, the older children were grown: Samuel Kinston (24) and Horrie (21) were still at home, along with the younger children Ivery (16), Luby (12), and young William (6).
But the westward pull proved too strong. By 1930, Will and Sallie — now both around 60 years old — had made the big move to Crosby County, Texas, in the South Plains region west of Abilene. Their youngest daughter Phoebe, then 22, was still living with them. The Texas Panhandle and South Plains in the late 1920s and 1930s were a land of vast cotton farms, wide-open skies, and a boom-and-bust cycle tied to rainfall and commodity prices. It must have felt like a world away from the green Carolina hills where Will had grown up.
The 1930s were a brutal decade for Texas farming families. The Dust Bowl, which devastated much of the Southern Plains from 1930 to 1936, brought catastrophic dust storms, crop failures, and economic ruin to countless families. Though Crosby County was on the fringe of the worst Dust Bowl activity, the region was not spared from drought and hardship. Will and Sallie weathered these years together.
Later Years in Lubbock, Texas (1940–1955)
By 1940, Will and Sallie had relocated to Lubbock, the largest city in the South Plains region, where they lived at "Route 6" — likely a rural route on the outskirts of town. Daughter Ivy (listed as age 31) was still living with them. Will was recorded as 69 years old, though his actual age based on his 1870 birth year would have been closer to 70.
Lubbock in 1940 was a growing city of about 30,000 people, a regional hub for the cotton-based economy of West Texas. The city would go on to boom during World War II, and by the time Will died in 1955, Lubbock had grown into a thriving mid-sized city — home to Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) and a bustling downtown.
Will Privette passed away on October 25, 1955, in Lubbock, at the remarkable age of 85. He had outlived two of his children (Myrtle and Pheobe) and his beloved wife Sallie, who had died in 1948. His body was laid to rest at Ralls Cemetery in Ralls, Crosby County, Texas — the county where he and Sallie had first planted roots in Texas, and a fitting resting place for a man whose family had come to call the Texas South Plains home.
Will's Life in Historical Context
To read Will Privette's life story is to read a remarkable slice of American history. Born the year after the end of Reconstruction in the South, he lived through:
The Reconstruction Era and the New South (1870s–1890s): Will's earliest years were shaped by a South still reeling from the Civil War. The federal troops left South Carolina in 1877, the year he turned seven, and the political and social struggles of that era would have formed the backdrop of his childhood.
The Populist Movement (1890s): As a farmer in the 1890s, Will would have been very much aware of the Farmers' Alliance and the Populist Party, which fought for the rights of struggling agricultural workers against railroads and banks. Hard times in the 1890s drove many Southern families, like the Privettes, to look for new opportunities elsewhere.
The Great Migration and Rural Mobility (1900s–1920s): Will's family moves — from South Carolina to Mississippi, back to South Carolina, and then to Texas — mirror a broader pattern of rural American mobility during the early 20th century, as families chased economic opportunity across the country.
World War I (1914–1918): By the time America entered the war in 1917, Will was 47 years old and his sons were teenagers or young men. Samuel Kinston was about 22 in 1917, and Horrie was about 19 — prime conscription age. The war's effects would have touched the family directly.
The Great Depression and Dust Bowl (1929–1939): Will and Sallie arrived in Texas just as these twin catastrophes unfolded. Their years in Crosby County placed them squarely in one of the most challenging agricultural environments in American history during this decade.
World War II (1939–1945): Will was in his 70s during WWII, but his children and grandchildren would have been deeply affected. By then, the family was established in the Lubbock area, which saw significant military activity at the nearby Lubbock Army Air Field.
Will Privette was born in a South still scarred by war and died in a prosperous, booming postwar America. His journey — from the Carolinas to Mississippi to the Texas plains — is the story of an ordinary man navigating an extraordinary century.
Burial and Memorial
Will Privette is buried at Ralls Cemetery in Ralls, Crosby County, Texas. His Find a Grave memorial (ID #20193701) was created on July 1, 2007, by a contributor named Cliff Rogers, ensuring that Will's memory is preserved for future generations to find. His wife Sallie is remembered alongside him, having passed away in 1948.
