Sarah Friday's 1810 Granby Drawing
Frideig's Entertainments
Sarah Friday used the original spelling of her family's name (pre-anglicized) in noting this building in her map. This could mean that Frideig's Entertainments business may have been in operation long before Sarah made this drawing in 1810. The 1800 Census of Granby shows the anglicized name Friday, but the old name was probably kept because it was well known.
The word "Entertainments" may seem odd to us, but in the 18th century, this word was associated with hospitality - when you entertained a guest, you were keeping them happy.
Sarah's drawing shows two adjacent buildings. One would have been a Tavern, and the other was probably an Inn. In the paper "Site Study of Granby Plantation" by Katherine Hurt Richardson: "In 1789, the Governor's report on the area around the new state capitol stated that accommodation will be ready for one hundred and nine persons and seventy-two Horses in Granby." In 1789, it had just been decided to create a new city (Columbia) for the new Capital of South Carolina instead of making Granby the Capital. For the next ten years, Granby would accommodate (house and support) the development of the new city.
Sarah Friday’s drawing is the only known image we have of Granby. It was not dated, but Sarah shows the home of Captain Hart, who died in 1814, and the home of Abraham Geiger, who we believe left Granby before 1812. Based on this, we think Sarah made her drawing in about 1810 when she was 15 years old. Sarah was the daughter of John Jacob Friday, who owned Frideig’s (Friday’s) Entertainments. John was a private in the South Carolina 2nd Regiment during the American Revolution. His father, also John Jacob Friday, probably owned this land during the Revolution and maintained a store at the site. Sarah’s 1810 drawing shows what looks like a house attached to Friday’s Entertainment, which was a tavern and inn. The 1800 Census shows John Jacob and his wife Barbara Booker as having 12 children in their home. Genealogy work shows John Jacob as having only five children, so he may have been housing the children of other family members. By the 1810 Census, the number of children had dropped to three, but the number of slaves has grown from six in 1800 to 15. This is probably a sign of his tavern and inn operation. Of all the buildings in Sarah’s drawing, Friday’s Entertainment is the only one shown to have three chimneys. Even the large Cayce house (Fort Granby) only shows two chimneys. This may be another indication of the multi-function use (home, tavern, and inn) of Friday’s Entertainment.
Sarah grew up in the Friday’s Entertainments house and probably spent much of her time in the Fort Granby House, where her sister Ann lived with husband James Cayce. That house would later become known as the Cayce House.
Just a few years after making her drawing, Sarah blossomed into what people of the time described as the most beautiful woman in Granby and Columbia. She caught the eye of the young and wealthy John Bryce, and they married in 1814 and moved to Columbia. John Bryce later became the mayor of Columbia in 1836. Sarah’s beauty continued in her offspring. Two of her granddaughters were described as the most beautiful women of their time. Sadly, Sarah died in 1870, heartbroken after losing her husband and both of her sons.
Frideig's Entertainments site: Status: Destroyed by quarry hole. Archaeology is not possible at this location on the quarry property (Click here to see this location on a map)
Research is still being done on: Frideig's Entertainments
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