T. Edwin Ware (1806-1873) was born to General Edmund Ware and Margaret “Peggy” Gaines. He was a prominent planter of Greenville District, and his papers represent an important source for local and state history. Ware owned and operated Ware Place plantation and mill in the southern part of Greenville District and employed 102 enslaved persons on his land in 1860.

Ware represented Greenville in the S.C. House of Representatives during the following terms: 1840-41, 1844-45, and 1846-47. Then he served in the state Senate for five additional terms: 1848-49, 1850-51, 1860-61, 1862-63, and 1864.

He married Mary Williams Jones, daughter of Adam Jones, thought to be the builder of Ware Place, in 1834, and they had ten children: Mary Pauline (1836- ), James Edwin (1838-1854), Anna Louisa (1840-1912), Margaret Jane (1842-1848), Edmund James (1845- 1864), Albert Williams (1847-1916), Thomas E. “Salt” Jr. (1849-1904), Clarence Eugene “Coon” (1851-1917), Mary (1854- 1920), and George Barstow (1859- ).

Son Thomas E. "Salt" Ware lived in Greenville, S.C. and married Lucy Foote. He worked at Ware & Pickle, Dealers in General Merchandise & Plantation Supplies, Horses, Mules, & Co. Thomas E. was the last Ware to live at the family home called Ware Place, but he sold it shortly before he died in 1904.