Our Low Country Families
The latest book in the Faith of Our Fathers series is Our Our Low Country Families—Fitts-Reid and Connected Families of Forrester, Peeples, and Nix published in December, 2016. It is--the story of John Edwin “Dee” Fitts and this wife Janette Amerine “Nettie” Reid and their family in the Low Country of South Carolina.
The Fitts family came originally from England—the Reids from Ireland and Scotland. Nettie was born on Daufuskie Island in Beaufort District just five months after her father died. Her mother, Deborah Nix Reid, moved with her six children to the Prince Williams Parish in the mainland of Beaufort District, making their home with Deborah’s widowed mother.
At the age of eighteen Janette became a teacher in a one-room school in the village of Gifford where she met Robert Joseph Fitts, a farmer. Several years after their marriage Nettie’s husband died leaving her with three young children. Robert Joseph’s younger brother, Dee, a single farmer, helped Nettie gather the harvest. A year or so later Dee and Nettie married. He cut the timber off of his land and built a large house for their family near Brunson, SC. Nettie had three more children with Dee.
This is the story of a blended family and includes information about each of their six children and of their connecting families of Forrester, Peebles/Peeples, and Nix. Robert Raymond “Ray” Fitts, the maternal grandfather of author June McManus Gardner, was the son of Nettie and Dee.