Pike County Mississippi
MSGenWeb
FELDER
Peter Felder was born in 1759 in Orangeburgh, South Carolina, the son of John Henry and Mary Elizabeth
Schaumloffel Felder. He married Elizabeth Lowe in South Carolina and their eleven children were born there.
In 1811 he and his family moved to Mississippi and settled near the present location of Magnolia. While two
of his children moved to Texas and one to Louisiana, the rest remained in the Marion-Pike-Amite county area.
Peter Felder’s son John Felder was born in 1793 in South Carolina and died in 1875 in Topisaw, MS. He’s
buried in the John Felder Memorial Cemetery. John Felder is one of the eight founders of the Felders’
Campmeeting which began in 1843 and is still held annually. The 2008 Campmeeting is scheduled for July 18-27.
John Felder married Elizabeth Sandell in 1812. He fought with the Mississippi Militia in the Battle of New
Orleans in 1815. In 1825 he owned land on the Little Tangipahoa River, in 1835 he was living on the BailyChitto
Creek and he moved to Topisaw Creek in 1839. In 1846 he built a water mill over Topisaw Creek with an upright
saw, grist mill and cotton gin near the present site of Felders’ Campground.
John and Elizabeth had seven children: Mary Catherine Felder (1813-1860) who married Rev. Seaborn Alford;
Wyatt Wesley Felder (1815-1877) married #1 Cynthia I. Hope and #2 Sarah Curtis; Elizabeth Griffin Felder
(1818-1846) married Thomas McEwen; Gabriel Nolly Felder (1820-1900) married Frances Hodges; Levi Darius
Felder (1822-1909) married Martha Matilde Williams; Robert Henry Felder (1827-1917) married Elizabeth
Thompson, and Simeon Noble Felder, M.D. (1827-1917) married Mary Elizabeth Buie.
Elizabeth Sandell Felder died in 1846. John Felder’s second wife was Patience Allen Simmons and they had
one child, Minerva Felder (1848-1924) who married Monroe McEwen. John Felder married a third time to
Martha Stanfield.