USA > South Carolina > Orangeburg County > The history of Orangeburg County, South Carolina : from its first settlement to the close of the Revolutionary War > Part 1
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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
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02301 0009
Gc 975.701 Or1s
ALEXANDER S. SALLEY, JR.
THE HISTORY
OF
ORANGEBURG COUNTY
SOUTH CAROLINA
FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT TO THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
BY A. S. SALLEY, JR. MEMBER SOUTHERN HISTORY ASSOCIATION
ORANGEBURG, S. C. R. LEWIS BERRY, PRINTER 1898
COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY A. S. SALLEY, JR.
1142193
TO
THE MEMORY OF
MY GRANDFATHER,
THE LATE DR. A. S. SALLEY, AND
To the People of Orangeburg County, AMONG WHOM HE LIVED ALL THE YEARS OF HIS LIFE, AND FOR WHOM HE LABORED PROFESSIONALLY FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS OF THAT LIFE, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
Read aug 22-19/8
It is a remarkable fact that very many persons are prone to study the history of every other country, while totally neglecting that of their own country; and yet the study of local history is one of the most delightful of studies.
The State of South Carolina, in historic interest, stands among the very first of our States; but, never- theless, the numerous valuable historical works on South Carolina have long since passed out of print be- cause of the lack of interest manifested in them, and many people in this State to-day accept as history the false writings of uninformed partisan writers, and, what is worse, permit their children to be taught these falsehoods as truths.
Orangeburg County is rich in historic treasures, and although a few of these treasures have been collected and given to us in several works on South Carolina, they are still out of the reach of the average reader, on account of the scarcity of these works to-day. It is my purpose to present in these pages the various ex- tracts pertaining to Orangeburg, from several of the works referred to above, and, in addition, to give much history of Orangeburg County that has never before been published, including the record of mar- riages, births and deaths, kept by Rev. John Ulrick Giessendanner and his successor, Rev. John Giessen- danner, from 1737 to 1761.
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Some may think that I have gone too much into de- tail, and that I have put in much that might have been left out; but this work is not prepared "for the use of schools", but according to the approved style of purely local histories, and I can only add, in the words of Dr. Ramsay, in his History of South Carolina, that, "Every day that minute local histories of these states are deferred is an injury to posterity, for by means thereof more of that knowledge which ought to be transmitted to them will be irrecoverably lost."
In preparing this work I have freely consulted, Ramsay's History of South Carolina and his History of the Revolution in South Carolina; three editions of Simms's History of South Carolina, his Geography of South Carolina, his South Carolina in the Revolution- ary War, and his novel "The Forayers"; Howe's His- tory of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina; Dalcho's History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina; Col. Henry Lee's Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department; Moultrie's Memoirs; Drayton's Memoirs; Drayton's View of South Carolina; Johnson's Traditions of the Revolution; O'Neall's Bench and Bar of South Carolina, and his Annals of Newberry District; Carroll's Historical Collections of South Carolina; B. F. Perry's Sketches; Gibbes's Documentary Histories; Collections of the South Car- olina Historical Society; Logan's History of the Up- per Country of South Carolina; Mills's Statistics of South Carolina: Industrial Resources of South Caroli- na (Vol. III): Thomas's History of the South Carolina Military Academy: La Borde's History of the South Carolina College; Tarleton Brown's Memoirs; a pamph- let on the Formation of Judicial and Political Sub- Divisions in South Carolina, by J. P. Thomas, Jr .; a pamphlet entitled "The Names, as far as can be ascer-
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tained, of the Officers who served in the South Caroli- na Regiments on the Continental Establishment, of the Officers who served in the Militia, of what troops were upon the Continental Establishment, and what Militia Organizations served", by Gen. Wilmot G. De Saussure; the Statutes of South Carolina; the files of various old South Carolina newspapers in the Charles- ton Library, dating as far back as 1732; the public records in the offices of Register of Mesne Conveyance and Judge of Probate of Charleston, dating back to 1700; those in the office of the Secretary of State at Columbia, dating back to 1682; and numerous old deeds, grants, letters, &c. &c.
I have, perhaps, quoted rather freely from the "His- tory of the German Settlements and of the Lutheran Church in North and South Carolina", by Rev. G. D. Bernheim, D. D .; but what Dr. Bernheim has written is too important to be left out of a work on Orange- burg. He has gone deeper into the history of one of the most important elements of our population, the German settlers, than any other of our historians; and if I had spent years in making researches, in the end, I could not have improved upon Dr. Bernheim's obser- vations, although I have been able to make additions here and there to what he has written.
I am also under obligations, for valuable assistance, to Rev. A. E. Cornish, Librarian of the Episcopal Li- brary in Charleston; Langdon Cheves, Esq., of Charles- ton; Henry F. Jennings, Esq., of Columbia; Mr. W. W. Culler, of Orangeburg County; Mr. Yates Snowden, of the News and Courier; and my grandfather, Mr. C. M. McMichael, of Orangeburg. From my grandfather, the late Dr. A. S. Salley, I also received valuable infor- mation and suggestions.
To my father, for his generous aid; and to all others
(viii)
who lent their interest and sympathy, I beg to make my acknowledgments.
A. S. SALLEY, JR.
Orangeburg, S. C., April 1st, 1898.
INTRODUCTION.
There have existed in South Carolina various ter- ritorial divisions. There have been counties, parishes, townships, districts or precincts, election districts and judicial districts. Landgrave Joseph Morton became governor of South Carolina in 1682, and one of the first measures required of him was the division of the inhabited portion of the province into three counties. (Order of Proprietors, May 10, 1682.) Berkeley, em- bracing Charles Town, extended from Sewee on the North to Stono Creek on the South; beyond this to the northward was Craven County, and to the south- ward Colleton. Shortly afterwards Cartaret County was added to the number. This County included the country around Port Royal; later, about 1708, it was called Granville County.
The territory now embraced within Orangeburg County formed parts of Berkeley and Colleton. That part of Orangeburg East of the Edisto river, with the exception of a narrow strip along that river southward from a point a few miles below the city of Orange- burg, was in Berkeley County, and that part West of the Edisto, together with the above mentioned strip, was in Colleton. In 1704, an Act was passed creating parishes within the several counties. In Berkeley County six parishes were established, but none of them included any territory now embraced by Orangeburg County. In 1706 two parishes were established in Colleton County, but did not likewise include any of the territory. now embraced by Orangeburg County.
In 1730, by royal authority, eleven townships were laid off in square plats on the sides of rivers in South Carolina, each containing 20,000 acres. They were
2
THE HISTORY OF
designed to encourage settlements, and the plan was that each township should eventually become a parish. When their population increased to one hundred fami- lies, they were to have the right to send two members to the General Assembly. Of these eleven townships two were laid off on the Santee, (or more properly on the Congaree, a branch of the Santee, and the Santee), one on the Pon Pon, (Edisto), and one on the Savan- nah, opposite to the present site of Augusta. These were Amelia, so called probably after the Princess Amelia; the township that was at first called Con- garee, but which was called Saxe-Gotha by Governor Broughton in 1736; the township that was at first called Edisto. but after its settlement by the Germans, Swiss and Dutch in 1735 was called Orangeburgh, pre- sumably in honor of William of Orange; and New Windsor.
In 1765, the townships of Amelia and Orangeburgh were erected into St. Matthew's Parish by the follow- ing Act of the General Assembly of the Province of South Carolina: (Statutes of S. C., Vol. IV., page 230.)
(No. 944.) "AN ACT for establishing a Parish in Berkley County, by the name of St. Matthew. and for declaring the road therein mentioned to be a pub- lic road.
"WHEREAS, several inhabitants of the said coun- ty, by their petition to the General Assembly, have represented many inconveniences which they are un- der for want of having a parish laid out and estab- lished in the said county. contiguous to and including Amelia township, and prayed that a law may be passed for that purpose: we therefore humbly pray his most sacred Majesty that it may be enacted.
.. 1. And be it enacted. by the Honorable William Bull, Esq., Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in- chief in and over the Province of South Carolina.
3
ORANGEBURG COUNTY.
by and with the advice and consent of his Majesty's Council and the Commons House of Assembly of the said Province, and by the authority of the same, That immediately from and after the passing of this 'Act, a parish shall be laid out and established in Berkley county aforesaid, in the following manner, that is to say, by running a line from the plantation of Gar- rard Nelson on Santee River, inclusive, to the place where the new road leading from the plantation of Tacitus Galliard, Esq. to the road leading from Char- lestown to Orangeburgh, intersects the line that di- vides the parish of St. George Dorchester from St. James Goose Creek, and from thence to continue on the said line until it intersects the Four Hole Creek the second time, thence following the said Creek till it intersects the south east bounds of Orangeburgh township, and from thence along the bounds of the said township to the southward, and where that line reaches Edisto River, up the course of the said river until the north west boundary of the said township, from the River a north east course along the line of the township until it joins the south west bounds of Amelia township, and from thence a north east course till it reaches Beaver Creek; and that the said parish shall hereafter be called and known by the name of St. Matthew, and the inhabitants thereof shall and may have, use. exercise and enjoy all the rights, privi- leges and immunities that the inhabitants of any other parish do or can use, exercise or enjoy by the laws of this Province.
"IL. And be it also enacted, by the authority afore- said, That a church, chapel and parsonage house shall be built at such places within the bounds of the said parish, as the major part of the commissioners hereaf- ter named, shall order and direct: and also, that a chapel shall be built at such place within the bounds
4
THE HISTORY OF
of the said parish as the major part of the commis- sioners hereafter last named, shall order and direct.
"III. And be it also enacted by the authority afore- said, That the rector or minister of the said parish for the time being, shall officiate in the said church and chapels alternately, and shall be elected and chosen in the same manner as the rectors or ministers of the several other parishes in this Province are elected and chosen, and shall have yearly paid to him and his suc- cessors forever, the same salary as is appointed for the rector or minister of any other parish in this Province, (the parishes of St. Philip and St. Michael excepted,) out of the fund appropriated or to be appropriated for payment of the salaries of the clergy in this Province: and the public treasurer for the time being is hereby authorized and required to pay the same, under the like penalties and forfeitures as for not paying the salaries due to the other rectors or ministers of the several other parishes in this Province; and the said rector or minister of the said parish shall have and enjoy all and every such privileges and advantages. and be under such rules, laws and restrictions, as the rectors or ministers of the other parishes in this Province have and enjoy, or are subject and liable unto.
"IV. And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid. That Colonel Moses Thompson, Col. William Thomp- son, William Heatly, Thomas Platt, Tacitus Galliard, Timothy Dargon, Robert Whitten. William Flud. John Burdell, Christopher Coullett and John Oliver, be. and they are hereby appointed, commissioners or super- visors for the building of the church. chapel and par- sonage house in the said parish of St. Matthew, exclu- sive of that part of the parish called Orangeburgh Township; and that Christian Minnick. Gavin Powe. Captain Rowe, Colonel Chevillette and John Govan.
5
ORANGEBURG COUNTY.
or a majority of them, be, and they are hereby ap- pointed, commissioners or supervisors for building the chapel in that part of the parish called Orangeburgh Township; and they. or the major part of them, are fully authorized and impowered to purchase a glebe for the said parish, and to take subscriptions, and to receive and gather, collect and sue for, all such sum and sums of money as any pious and well disposed person or persons shall give and contribute for the purposes aforesaid; and in case of the death, absence or refusing to act of any of the said commissioners, the church wardens and vestry of the said parish of St. Matthew, for the time being, shall and may nomi- nate and appoint another person or persons to be commissioner or commissioners in the room or place of such so dead, absent or refusing to act, as to the said church wardens and vestry shall seem meet; which commissioner or commissioners so to be nomi- nated and appointed, shall have the same powers and authority for putting this Act into execution, to all intents and purposes, as the commissioners herein named.
"V. And be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the inhabitants of the said parish of St. Matthew. qualified by law for that purpose, shall choose and elect two members. and no more. to represent the said parish in General Assembly: any law, usage or custom to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding: and that writs for the electing of members to serve in the General Assembly for the said parish. shall be is- sued in the same manner and at the same times as for the several other parishes in this Province, according to the directions in the Act intitled 'An Act to ascer- tain the manner and form of electing members to rep- resent the inhabitants of this Province in the Com- mons House of Assembly, and to appoint who shall be
6
THE HISTORY OF
deemed and adjudged capable of choosing or being chosen members of the said house.'
"VI. And be it further enacted by the authority afore- said, That the new road leading from the ferry of Tacitus Galliard, Esquire, to the road leading from Charlestown to Orangeburgh, shall be, and it is here- by declared to be, a public road, and shall be worked upon and kept in repair by the inhabitants of each parish through which the said road runs, in the same manner as all the other public roads in this Province are; and that the commissioners berein before ap- pointed shall also be commissioners of and for the said road, and all other roads in the said parish of St. Matthew, and shall have the same powers and authori- ty as any other commissioners of the high roads in this Province have; and in case any of the said com- missioners shall die or refuse to act. the remaining commissioners shall, from time to time. choose one or more commissioner or commissioners in the room of him or them so dying or refusing to act, and he or they so chosen shall have the same powers and au- thority as the said other commissioners.
"RAWLINS LOWNDES, Speaker.
"In the Council Chamber, the 9th day of August. 1765. "Assented to: WM. BULL."
By order of the King's Privy Council, Governor Mon- tagu published. in the South Carolina Gazette of Mon- day, February 29th, to Monday, March 7th, 1768, the following proclamation annulling the above act : "South Carolina:
"By His Excellency the Right Honorable, Lord Charles Greville Montagu, Captain-General. and Gov- ernor in Chief, in and over the said Province, &c. &c.
"A PROCLAMATION.
"Whereas the Right Honorable the Earl of She-
ORANGEBURG COUNTY.
burne, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, hath transmitted to me a minute of his Majesty in his most honorable Privy council, signifying, that an Act of the General Assembly of this Province, en- titled, 'an Act for establishing a Parish in Berkley Coun- ty by the Name of St. Matthew, and for declaring the road therein mentioned to be a public Road'; together with a Representation from the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations thereupon, having been re- ferred to a committee of his Majesty's most honoura- ble Privy Council for Plantation Affairs; the said Lords of the Committee had reported as their Opinion to his Majesty that the said Act ought to be repealed: and his Majesty having taken the same into Consider- ation. was pleased by the Advice of his Privy Council, to declare his Disallowance of the said Act; And pur- suant to his Majesty's Royal Pleasure thereupon ex- pressed, the said Act was thereby Repealed, and de- clared Void and of none Effect: I HAVE THERE- FORE issued this my Proclamation, hereby notifying the same. and requiring all Persons whom it may con- cern, to take Notice and govern themselves accord- ingly.
GIVEN under my hand, and the great seal of the said province, at CHARLES TOWN, this 29th day of February, Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight, and in the eighth year of his Majesty's reign.
"C. G. MONTAGU,
"By his Excellency's command, John Bull. Pro. Sec. God save the KING."
Notwithstanding this veto the General Assembly, in April following. re-enacted the same measure under the same title, with the same preamble: fixed the same boundaries, made the same conditions as to church. chapel and parsonage, and declared the same
S
THE HISTORY OF
road mentioned in the former Act to be a public road. The only differences between the Act of 1768, which became permanent, and that of 1765, are to be found in the fourth and fifth sections of the Acts. In the fourth section of the Act of 17.68 the following com- missioners or supervisors were appointed for the build- ing of the new church, chapel and parsonage house in the said parish of St. Matthew. exclusive of Orange- burgh Township: Benjamin Farrar, Col. William Thomson, William Heatly, Thomas Platt, Tacitus Gail- lard, Thomas Sabb, John Bordell, John Caldwell, Rob- ert Whitton, William Flood and John McNichol. For the building of a chapel in Orangeburgh Township the following commissioners were appointed: Gavin Pou, Captain Christopher Rowe, Samuel Rowe, William Young and Andrew Govan.
The fifth section differs from the same section of the former Act in that it provides for only one Represen- tative in the Provincial Assembly instead of two, and further provides that the number of Representatives for St. James Goose Creek be reduced from four to three in consequence of this allowing of a Represen- tative for St. Matthew's Parish. The Act is dated April 12th, 1768, and is signed by P. Manigault. Speak- er, and assented to by Governor Montagu. (Stats. of S. C., Vol. IV., p. 298.)
In 1768 an Act was passed dividing the Province of South Carolina into seven judicial districts or precincts .*
*In 1767 (April 18th) the Legislature passed "An Act for granting to his Majesty the sum of Eighteen Thousand Pounds current money, to be paid for a general survey of this Province, and for appointing con- missioners to enter into a written agreement with Tacitus Gaillard, Esq. and Mr. James Cook, for that purpose". (Stats. of S. C., Vol. IV., p. 262.) Whether this survey was made or not the records do not show, but James Cook did publish in 1771, a map of South Caro- lina which showed the boundaries of the districts laid off by the Act of 1768.
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9
ORANGEBURG COUNTY.
and authorizing the holding of Courts of General Ses- sions and Common Pleas therein, twice a year, to sit for six days, for the trial of causes criminal and civil arising within the same, "as nearly as may be, as the Justices of Assize and Nisi Prius do in Great Britain". The third of these districts was called the "District, or Precinct, of Orangeburgh", including "all places be- tween Savannah, Santee, Congaree and Broad Rivers, the said line from Nelson's Ferry to Matthew's Bluff, and a direct line to be run from Silver Bluff, on Savan- nah River, to the mouth of Rocky Creek, on Saluda River, and thence in the same course to Broad River". It was not, however, until 1789 that these Courts were given complete and equal jurisdiction with the Courts at Charleston, and writs and process made returnable to them and not to the Court at Charleston. A Clerk and a Sheriff was allowed to each district. It will be observed that this, the original District of Orange- burgh, contained all of the present Counties of Orange- burg, Barnwell, Bamberg and Lexington, (and Calhoun "in futuro") and the larger part of Aiken. '(All save the present townships of Shultz, Hammond, Gregg, Shaw and Ward.) It included the whole of the town- ships of Orangeburgh, Amelia and Saxe-Gotha, and a part of New Windsor.
In March, 1778, the Township of Orangeburgh was erected into a parish called Orange, by the following Act of the State Legislature: (Statutes of S. C., Vol. IV .. pp. 408-9.)
(No. 1072.) "AN ACT for dividing the Township of Orangeburgh from the Parish of St. Matthews. into a separate Parish, by the name of Orange Parish, and for the other purposes therein mentioned.
"WHEREAS, the inhabitants of Orangeburgh Town- ship were. by an Act of the General Assembly passed on the twelfth day of April, in the year of our Lord one
10
THE HISTORY OF
thousand seven hundred and sixty eight, included in the Parish of St. Matthew, whereby the said inhabi- tants have sustained many inconveniences, which still subsist; for remedy whereof,
"I. Be it enacted by his Excellency Rawlins Lowndes, Esq., President and Commander-in-chief in and over the State of South Carolina, by the honorable the Legislative Council and General Assembly of the said State, and by the authority of the same. That the divi- ding line between the district of Charlestown and Orangeburgh shall henceforth be the dividing line be- tween the Township of Orangeburgh and the parishes of St. Matthew, St. John's Berkley county. St. James Goose Creek and St. George Dorchester; and from the said Charlestown district line the Four Hole Creek. as far as the line that divides Amelia Township and Or- angeburgh District, following the said line to the north-west boundary line of the said Township. shall be the dividing line between St. Matthew's parish and the township of Orangeburgh; and that the inhabi- tants residing on and between the said Charlestown district line and the north-west bounding of Amelia township, and on and between the said district line and Santee River, be hereafter deemed and known in law to be the inhabitants of St. Matthew's Parish; and the inhabitants being and residing on and between the said Charlestown district line. and the north-west bounding line of Orangeburgh township, and between the Four Hole Creek and the line that divides the townships of Orangeburgh and Amelia, and Pon Pon River. be hereafter deemed and known in law to be the inhabitants of Orange Parish.
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