A Drafts Family of South Carolina

"Drafts" is sometimes shown in the S. C. Colonial records as "Thrafts". In 2017, I was made aware of the following: The first surname spelling in about 1695 was "Treffts" in the Grossaspach area of Germany. The Dutch Fork original Drafts immigrant was Jacob Drafts who arrived from Germany into Charleston, South Carolina, with a wife and four children in late 1743 or early 1744. He was aboard the St. Andrew and obtained a 300 acre grant in Saxe Gotha (the present-day Lexington, S.C. area).

It is said that the old homestead was built prior to the Revolutionary War, was located on Big Hollow Creek in the Cedar Grove Lutheran Church community area (a little east of the intersection of highway #378 and Cedar Grove Road), and was torn down in 1947. He and a descendent, Daniel Drafts, were prominent in Cedar Grove Church.

Jacob (or his son) is buried near that old home, with 8 other unmarked graves, now under the waters of Lake Murray. He is my wife's great-great-great-great-great grandfather.

Cousin LaRay Drafts, our deceased Darby Ambrose Road neighbor, was the family genealogist (died 2003). Jacob & another man were scalped & killed by Cherokee Indians (there is a monument off of Corley Mill Road & a photo with caption giving directions to it) on his Find a Grave memorial, HERE. You can track back to the immigrant, Jacob Drafts (1715-1760) by way of my wife's father's memorial on Find a Grave, George Bell Drafts (1908-1986).

Genealogical sources are best on the Drafts in the local history room of the main branch of the Lexington County Public Library. Drafts descendents are numerous throughout Lexington County, S.C.

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(2000; update 30 January 2004; addn 8 August 2018)