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Marion; her father, John Marion, and the "Swamp Fox" were first cousins. Martha Wickham Marion?s maternal'grandfather, Thomas Miles, was born in South Carolina in 1687, the son of John and Mary Miles who were born in England. They had taken advantage of the first land grants in the Carolinas.
John Hancock and Sarah Flagler Baxter are shown in the 1840 census as being engaged in agriculture in sumter County with four young girls in the household: Mary Elizabeth, Emma, Margaret Vermelle Anne, and Caroline Sarah. Three slaves were also included in the household. He had inherited and acquired considerable property in the way of land and slaves. But by 1848, through unwise speculation, he had lost practically all of his possessions. He was a man of considerable learning and ability, and was highly regarded in his county, as was his father, the late publisher of The Georgetown Gazette. During the years, he served as a Methodist preacher, although he was never
Finally, he made the irrevocable decision to leave South Carolina and set about liquidating his few remaining assets. In 1848, Baxter, his wife Sarah, and six daughters and two sons (Marion Francis was a babe in arms not quite a year old) left Sumter County and travelled overland by ox cart and otherwise to Montgomery, Alabama, thence by steamboat down the Alabama River to Mobile. The family stayed here for several weeks while Baxter reconnoitered the surrounding area in search for a future home. He finally determined on Mississippi City on the Gulf Coast about half way between Mobile and New Orleans. The family travelled from Mobile by coastal steamer to Long Beach, just west of Mississippi City. Once settled in their new home, Baxter first taught school and later engaged in the lumber business in New Orleans and Biloxi.
The 1850 census lists all the Baxters that came out from South Carolina, plus another son, Benjamin Franklin, age 1, born February 29, 1849. Sarah Baxter must have been pregnant with Benjamin during the arduous journey from South Carolina to Mississippi. Baxter?s occupation was shown in the census as County Jailer, and ironically, gives Marion Francis? age as five, when actually he did not become three until September 25. This foreshadows his enlistment eleven years later when the enlisting
officially