USA > South Carolina > Marion County > A history of Marion county, South Carolina, from its earliest times to the present, 1901 > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
FOUNDED
ED BY EZHA
Cornell University Library F 277M2 S46 History of Marion county, South Carolina
3 1924 028 790 414 olin
UNI
ER
Y
865
N
D
ED
A
Cornell University Library
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028790414
A HISTORY
OF
MARION COUNTY,
SOUTH CAROLINA,
From Its Earliest Times to the Present, 1901.
By W. W. SELLERS, Esq., of the Marion Bar.
COLUMBIA, S. C. THE R. L. BRYAN COMPANY, 1902.
/
-
-
Copyright, 1902, By JOHN C. SELLERS.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
Settlement I
CHAPTER II.
Section I. Location and Boundaries. 6
Section II. Its Surface and Soil, Its Rivers and Lakes, Its In- Land Swamps 15
Section III. Its Soil and Productions 17
Section IV. Stock Raising. 29
CHAPTER III.
Section I. Its Educational, Political and Judicial History 33
Graduates of Colleges 50
Political History 52
Queensboro Township
78
Plat of the Welch Grant (First) 81
The Early Settlement of Marion County
104
Some Families mentioned :
Godbold 117
Evans 125
Giles
I35
Britton, Fladger. etc. I37
Crawford 142
Murfees 147
148
Saunders
157
Gibson
159
Page
162
Ayres.
I66
Ford
167
Hays
170
Elvington
173
Scott
175
Owens
175
.
Gaddy
176
Lupo and Arnett
178
Rogers
178
Perritt
183
Nichols
Hutchinson 19I
Barfield 191
Goodyear 192
Tart 193
Bryant
197
Watson
199
Berry.
Edwards I85 189
IV
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Reaves
208
Grice
Roberts
209
Ellerbe
213
Fore
22I
Finklea
223
Haselden
223
Bass
225
Hamer
232
Mckenzie
235
Manning
238
Jones
24I
Cottingham
246
Hamilton
247
Braddy
249
Clark.
252
Harrelson
255
Martin
258
Henry
261
Huggins
263
Hayes
267
Dew
271
Nicholson
275
Jackson
276
Galloway
281
Sherwood
281
Alford
282
Greenwood
284
McInnis
285
Stafford
287
Blue
289
Baker
290
McPriest
291
Mckellar
291
McKay
292
McCormick
293
McArthur
299
McIntyre
300
McKinly
307
Mclellan
308
Sinclair
314
McDuffie
315
Campbell
320
Butler
327
Moody
330
206
218
Mace
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. V
Harllee
342
Woodberry
355
Stackhouse
358
Wayne
366
Legette
369
Gasque
373
Brown
373
Gilchrist
382
Easterling
384
Lane
386
Bethea
395
McMillan
421
Miller
425
Spencer
427
Williamson
429
Wall
432
McEachern
435
Carmichael
437
Baker
445
Davis
448
Stanley
455
Harrel, in Britton's Neck.
456
Altman
456
Whaley
457
Richardson
457
Stevenson
462
Craven
463
Thompson
464
Kirton
464
Philips
465
Owens
466
Rowell
468
Giles
471
Coleman
472
Norton
475
Lewis
480
Fowler
483
Shooter
484
Campbell (of Maiden Down)
486
Atkinson
488
Fladger
491
Smith 492
Flowers. 502
Mullins
506
Gregg
510
Collins
512
VI
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Wiggins, of Wahee 516
Shaw 518
Dozier 521
Foxworth and Boatwright 522
White and Monroe
525
Snipes
5.36
Young
537
Johnson
538
Sellers
543
The Negro
Towns of the County
550
Marion. 55I
Nichols and Mullins 553
Latta and Dillon. 555
Hamer and Sellers 559
The Denominational Churches 560
Clerks of Court for Marion County, from 1800 to 1900 564
Sheriffs for Marion County from 1800 to 1900. 565
Representatives in the Legislature. 566
Senators from 1800 to 1900. 568
568
Proprietary Governors
568
Lawyers practicing at Marion from 1800 to 1900.
570
Volunteers in Confederate Army 572
Company L, 21st Regiment Infantry, C. S. A.
572
Company H, Orr's Regt. Rifles S. C. V., C. S. A. 577
Company F, 4th Regt. Cav. S. C. V., C. S. A.
Company E, Gregg's Ist Regt. S. C. V., C. S. A 585
581
Company I, 8th Regt. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A.
590
Company H, 8th Regt. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A.
593
Company I, Ist Regt. Inf. (Hagood's) S. C. V., C. S. A. 596
Company L, 10th Regt. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A. 599
Company L, 8th Regt. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A. 602
Company I, 2Ist Regt. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A
605
Company E, 23d Regt. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A.
609
Company Gregg's Battery, Co. D, Manigault's Battalion Artillery S. C. V., C. S. A. 613
Company H, 23d Regt. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A.
620
Company D, 10th Regt. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A. 626
Company F, 10th Regt. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A. 628
Company I, 6th Regt. Cav. S. C. V., C. S. A. 631
Company D, 25th Regt. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A. 632
Company E, 26th Reg. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A. 636
Company I, 10th Regt. Inf. S. C. V., C. S. A
639
Company D, 7th Battalion S. C. Reserves. 642
Company of Militia, last called into service. 644
528
Wilcox
546
Ordinaries and Probate Judges from 1800 to 1900.
PREFACE
Within the last ten or twelve years the author has been solicited to write a history of this, Marion County, and by many whose opinions and judgment he much valued; but then being much engaged in the practice of the law, he could not find the time to engage in and complete such a work. Further- more, he felt a diffidence in his abilities to perform the task with satisfaction and credit to himself. January, 1898, he concluded to retire from the active practice of his profession, for the reason, first, that his sense of hearing became much impaired; and secondly, because of his age, then near eighty years old. He retired, and since that time has taken no new case, and confined himself only to old cases then pending in the Courts of Marion, Florence and Horry Counties; cases, too, that his junior partner had had nothing to do with and knew but little about. Those cases were in due time mostly ended. After this work in the Courts was practically accomplished, and having fair health and strength for one of his age, physi- cally and mentally, he determined to undertake the work, and for the last eighteen months has been engaged principally in its performance, and he herewith submits it to the people of the county, and it will be for them to say whether he has succeeded well or has failed to meet expectations. Such as it is, it is his own work. Its subject matter, the language used, the style, manner and composition are all his own. He has not borrowed from another author without giving to that other full credit by placing the language used in quotation marks, and referring to the author by name and page. He acknowledges his indebt- edness to Dr. Ramsay's History of South Carolina, to Bishop Gregg's History of the Old Cheraws, to the Lives of General
VIII
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Marion written by M. L. Weems, and General Horry, and the same by W. Gilmore Sims, to the Statutes at Large as pub- lished by Dr. Thomas Cooper, and to perhaps other sources. He is further indebted to many of our citizens for information as to families that he could not otherwise have obtained.
It may be found that he has made mistakes. It will be a wonder if it is not so found. He expects no other. In men- tioning families, it is mainly genealogical. All genealogy is history, and he trusts that families for the next three or four generations, at least, may be able to trace their ancestry back to and including what is herein written; that it will not be then, as he has found it in his inquiries of persons, when writing this history, that some of them of superior intelligence did not know who their grand-father was. Many of the old families have become extinct by death or removal. The author may have omitted to notice some that now exist. Where that is the case, it was because the author knew nothing or but little about them, and could not ascertain anything in reference to them. He tried to get a list of the graduates of literary col- leges from Marion County, but some of them did not answer inquiries. Hence he had to depend on memory. Marion may well congratulate herself on the number and character of her young and older men of learning. She is fast coming to the front in that line, as well as in many other lines. He has furnished a list of all the Clerks of the Court, Sheriffs and Probate Judges or Ordinaries from the earliest times of her existence as a Judicial District. Also, a list of her Senators in the Legislature and Representatives. Further, a list of all the lawyers that have practiced in Marion since 1800. He has also procured and inserted a list of all the Governors of the province, proprietary and royal, while a province, and all after it became an independent State down to the present time, and last, but not least in importance and in its numbers, a list of all
IX
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
the companies that went from Marion to the Confederate War. This list embraces West Marion, including all company officers, what became of them, killed in battle or died of disease or wounds ; whether living or dead now, so far as is known, and much other information concerning our brave boys during that momentous struggle. All of which the author trusts may be of interest to many, very many, of the present generation.
The author, now in his eighty-fourth year, submits what he has done in this regard as his last work on the stage of life. It has been a labor of love for the county in which he has spent most of his life, and for any errors, omissions and failures he asks the indulgence of its people, to whom he herein and hereby respectfully dedicates the result of his labors.
W. W. SELLERS.
Sellers, S. C., August 27th, 1901.
A History of Marion County
CHAPTER I.
The first permanent settlement made in South Carolina was by a few emigrants from England, under the direction and patronage of William Sayle, at or near Port Royal, in 1670. William Sayle was their first Governor. These colonists, for some reason or another, became dissatisfied with their location at Port Royal. They removed, in 1671, up the coast and set- tled on the west side of the Ashley River, opposite the present site of the city of Charleston, and there laid the foundation of old Charleston. This site was not wisely chosen, as it could not be reached by ships of heavy burden, and therefore it was abandoned. "A second removal took place to Oyster Point, formed by the confluence of Ashley and Cooper Rivers. There, in 1680, the foundation of the present city of Charleston was laid, and in one year thirty houses were built." Of the number and names of these first settlers of South Carolina, no records have been kept and preserved; only two names have come down to us, that of William Sayle and Joseph West. William Sayle dying in 1671, Joseph West was appointed as his successor, August 28, 1671. He was succeeded by Sir John Yeamans, April 19th, 1672, and he was succeeded by Joseph West, 13th August 1674, who held the office till 26th September, 1682, when he was succeeded by Joseph Morton, and on September 6th, 1684, Joseph West was appointed Governor for the third time. (I vol., Statutes at Large, pp. 17, 18 and 19.) The first slaves introduced in South Carolina were brought hither by Sir John Yeamans from Barbadoes, one of the West India Islands, in 1671. Sir John Yeamans was an Englishman, though he came from Barbadoes to Carolina. Had he not been an Englishman, he would not have been appointed Governor of the province. The writer infers that he left England at or about the time the emigrants left England under William Sayle for Carolina, and who landed at Port
2
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Royal the year before, to wit : 1670. The writer further infers that Sir John Yeamans went by Barbadoes for the purpose of getting a cargo of slaves to be carried to Carolina, and that Yeamans and Sayle understood one another. A sad day for the country! Thus the germ of near two hundred years' con- tention in America was planted, which culminated in a bloody four years war between the States of America, from 1861 to 1865. The results of this nucleus of slavery are still felt among us, and is perplexing the brain of our best and ablest men, and will, perhaps, for ages to come. There is no doubt a providence is in it all, and He who rules and determines the destinies of men and nations, may and will bring good out of the seeming evil.
The government of Carolina (both North and South Caro- lina) had been granted by two charters by King Charles the Second, to certain English noblemen, to wit: to "Edward, Earl of Clarendon, High Chancellor of England, and George, Duke of Albemarle, Master of our Horse and Captain General of all our forces, and well beloved William Lord Craven, John Lord Berkley, our right trusty and well beloved Counsellor, Anthony Lord Ashley, Chancellor of our Exchequer, Sir George Content, Kn't and Baronet, Vice Chamberlain of our household, and our trusty and well beloved Sir William Berk- ley, Kn't, and Sir John Colleton, Knight and Baronet, being excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith, and the enlargement of our empire and dominions, have humbly sought leave of us by their industry and charge to transport and make an ample colony of our subjects natives of our Kingdom of England and elsewhere within our dominions, unto a certain country hereafter de- scribed in the parts of America not yet cultivated or planted, and only inhabited by some barbarous people who have no knowledge of Almighty God." This charter, of which the above quotation is the first section, was granted 24th March, 1663 ; and on the 30th June, 1665, the said Charles the Second granted to the said parties named in the first charter the same territory, to wit : all the lands lying between the 3Ist and 36th degrees of north latitude, and between the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the South Seas (Pacific Ocean) on the west, in-
3
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
cluding what is now the States of North Carolina and South Carolina, giving to the said named proprietors larger rights and powers than in the first charter. (See Ist and 2d charters, I vol., Statutes at Large of South Carolina, pp. 22 to 31, and PP. 31 to 40. )
Under these charters, the Lords Proprietors drew up, or had it done, five different constitutions for the government of the province, but it does not appear that any one of them was ever adopted and ratified by the Assembly, except in part, and except those drawn up by the celebrated John Locke, and then only in part; but notwithstanding the rejection of parts of all of them by the Assembly, the government established by them moved along with some success, and without serious friction, for a period of forty-nine or fifty years, until 1719, when a revolution (bloodless) took place under the administration of Robert Johnson, Esq., as Governor, and threw off and repu- diated the government of the Lords Proprietors, thinking they would be better protected in their rights under the King. They first offered the government to Governor Robert John- son, provided he would administer it in the name of the King, instead of in the name of the Lords Proprietors. He refused so to do, whereupon the Assembly offered the governorship to Col. James Moore, son of the former Governor, who ac- cepted the position and took upon himself the government of the province. Accounts of the trouble in the province being sent to England, King George the First appointed Francis Nicholson Governor of the province, to act until the matter was decided between the Lords Proprietors and the King. Facilities for communicating and conferring together across the Atlantic were not what they are now, and it took several years to consider and come to an agreement. At last, in 1729, the second year of the reign of George the Second, they came to an agreement by which seven of the proprietors agreed to surrender to the Crown their title and interest in the prov- ince, which agreement was duly signed by the several Lords Proprietors, and which surrender was confirmed by an Act of Parliament. Robert Johnson was commissioned under the broad seal of England as Governor of the province, and his Excellency arrived in the province in December, 1730; and
4
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
henceforth for more than fifty years the government of the province was administered under the Crown of England.
Lord Carteret (afterwards Lord Granville), the eighth Pro- prietor, resigned on the 17th September, 1744, all pretensions to the government and his eighth part of the right to the soil of Carolina. Commissioners were appointed on his part and on the part of the King to lay off his part to him, which they did next adjoining Virginia. In 1729, the province of Caro- lina was divided into North and South Carolina, and the boundaries between the two provinces were fixed by an order of the British Council.
Hardship and privation were doubtless the lot of the first settlers of the province, so numerous that all cannot even be imagined in this day and time. The number of the first emi- grants were unknown, as no record of them has been kept. There could not have been many: "There could not, however, been many, for all of them together with provisions, arms and utensils requisite for their support, defence and comfort, in a country inhabited only by savages, were brought from Eng- land to Carolina in two vessels." (Ramsay's History of South Carolina, vol. I, p. I.) To increase the population was the general primary object. Think of it. A country of vast ex- tent, and a vast wilderness roamed over by savages and wild animals ; no roads or bridges across the rivers and other inland streams; nowhere to go; no means of communication with the rest of the world except by the stormy Atlantic, and to cross it took from one to two months. The first settlers were of neces- sity taught that valuable lesson, self-reliance. They were obliged to go to work building rude houses for habitation, also to cut down and clear up lands for cultivation, to make crops for another year. They were necessarily obliged to stay close together, by the laws of self-preservation, being surrounded by hostile and murderous savages. Wherever they were or at whatever they were engaged, they had to carry their arms, and be always on the lookout for an attack from their savage enemies. In Ramsay's History of South Carolina, pp. 18 and 19: "They were obliged to stand in a constant posture of de- fence. While one party was employed in raising their little habitations, another was always kept under arms to watch the
5
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Indians. While they gathered oysters with one hand for sub- sistence, they were obliged to carry guns in the other for self- defence. The only fresh provisions they could procure were fish from the river or what game they could kill with their guns."
The young colonists being thus situated and necessarily con- fined within such narrow limits, were extremely anxious that other settlers should come in. The proprietary and regal governments were also anxious to the same end, and, therefore, they held out great inducements to the people in Europe and elsewhere to migrate to the new province of Carolina, by offer- ing bounties in money and land to all (being Protestants) and especially poor Protestant families, to emigrate to Carolina. By the inducements held out to the people of the old world by various parties, many emigrants were induced to venture into the province from England, Scotland, Wales, France and Ger- many-transportation and supplies in many instances fur- nished. The several bodies of emigrants coming into the province at different times, from different countries, and other provinces or States, besides individual emigration or families from the more northern States, and the natural increase of the population, raised the number of the inhabitants from the mere handful that came in 1670, as hereinbefore stated, to 345,591 in 130 years, or in 1800. (Ramsay, I vol., p. 14.) During this period, 130 years, the government was first proprietary, then regal, and lastly from regal to a representative government, a "government by the people and for the people," under which we are now living and have lived for 124 years, and which the writer hopes will be perpetual for all time to come. From 1696 to 1730, there were not any additions made to the popula- tion of the province by the emigration to it of any large bodies of settlers, only by an occasional adventurer to the province from other provinces.
I have here given a general view of the State in its first settlement; the hardships and privations of its early inhabi- tants; its changes of government, &c., without going into de- tails, as preliminary to the subject to be brought to view in the proposed history of this, Marion County.
6
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
CHAPTER II.
Location and Boundaries-Surface and Soil-Its Rivers and Lakes-Its Inland Creeks or Swamps.
SECTION I.
Marion County, as originally laid out, is in about latitude 34 north, and longiture 3 west from Washington. A line com- mencing at a stake on the North Carolina line, about one and a half miles from McInnis' Bridge over Little Pee Dee River, running a southwest course to and across the Great Pee Dee River to Lynch's Creek (river), dividing it from Marlborough County, on the east side of the Great Pee Dee, and from Dar- lington County, on the west side of said river. From the point where said line intersects Lynch's River-said Lynch's River is the line down to its confluence with the Great Pee Dee on its west side; thence down the said Great Pee Dee to its conflu- ence with Little Pee Dee; thence up the Little Pee Dee to its confluence with Lumber River; thence up Lumber River to its intersection with the North and South Carolina line; thence up the said North Carolina line to the beginning stake above McInnis' Bridge. Its boundaries may be thus described: on the north by Marlborough County ; on the northwest by Dar- lington County; on the west and southwest by Lynch's River ; on the southwest and south by Great Pee Dee; on the east by Little Pee Dee and Lumber River ; on the north and northeast by North Carolina.
Since the formation of Florence County, in 1888, Great Pee Dee forms its southern and southwestern boundary. It covers between nine and ten hundred square miles (estimated) now, or since the formation of Florence County. In length, from the northwest to southeast, it is about seventy miles- some of our people have to travel thirty-five or forty miles to reach the Court House. In breadth, from east and northeast to west and southwest, it is about thirty miles, on the line of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad; from that line southward it grad- ually narrows to a point at the confluence of the two Pee Dees. The line between Marion and Marlborough is estimated at
7
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
eighteen to twenty miles long, and on the North Carolina side at thirty-one or thirty-two miles (estimated). For political and county government purposes it is divided into fourteen (formerly eighteen) townships, as nearly equal in area as may be, having regard to creeks or swamps, public roads and other well known marks or division lines. Their names are Marion, Reaves, Hillsboro, Carmichael, Manning, Harlleesville, Bethea, Moody, Kirby, Wahee, Rowell, Legette, Britton's Neck and Woodberry. Of these, Marion, Reaves, Harlleesville and Manning are the most populous, and have the greatest amount of taxable property within them. These townships were laid out under the State Constitution of 1868, and Acts of the General Assembly made in pursuance thereof, and are yet con- tinued under the Constitution of 1895, and subsequent legisla- tion. The taxable property of these several townships, includ- ing the two graded schools in Marion and Manning Townships, is hereto appended, as shown from the County Auditor and County Treasurer's books for the year 1899. Also, the popula- tion of each of said townships :
Taxes 1899.
Bethea Township
$209,70I
Britton's Neck Township
. 99,659
Carmichael Township
282,910
Harlleesville Township
418,039
Hillsboro Township
287,542
Kirby Township
296,429
Legette Township
136,661
Manning Township
498,605
Marion Township
745,235
Moody Township
260,147
Reaves Township
434,107
Rowell Township
79,065
Wahee Township
315,37I
Woodberry Township
18,298
$4,081,768
The above shows the total taxable property for Marion County in the year 1899, exclusive of poll taxes. There are at least two thousand in the county, at one dollar each, $2,000.
2
8
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Never before in the history of the State were townships or subdivisions of the counties made or laid out for civil pur- poses, but only for military and church purposes. Our people, from the earliest settlement of the State down to the present time, have been a military people, as the legislation of the State shows. From the very first, when the first Legislature, or Parliament as it was then called, met in Charleston (1674), they provided as best they could with their scanty means for the defence of the colony against the hostile incursions of the Indians. Although no Act or Acts of the provincial Legisla- ture of the province are to be found until 1682-eight years after the first Legislature, in 1674-yet we are bound to infer that there were during that period some Act or Acts passed for the protection of the infant colony against hostile attacks from the bordering savages, which were hovering round and watching for an opportunity to successfully attack and destroy the pale-faced intruders from off the land, and whom the In- dians thought to be enemies, and whose presence, in their estimation, boded no good to them. Hence we may infer that the attention of the first legislators was directed to the organization of the militia by appointing a Commander-in-Chief or General, Colonels, Captains, Lieutenants, &c., and for an enrolment of the militia. From that time on to the Revolution, numberless enactments of the Legislature were passed perfect- ing the organization of the militia of the former, as may be seen on examination of the Statutes at Large, by Dr. Thomas Cooper, under authority of the Legislature, and on down to 1841, when the compilation of Dr. Cooper was published, and even down to the present time, 1900. The tenth volume of said compilation is an index to the nine preceding volumes. The index to the militia laws of the province, and now the State, covers twenty pages. Our people have always manifested a martial spirit, not only on paper by legislation, but in actual service in times of war. I will not herein undertake to enu- merate the valiant deeds of her sons in all the wars through which they have freely spilled their blood-in all of which, whether in the right or not, they believed they were right.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.