USA > South Carolina > A Contribution to the History of the Huguenots of South Carolina: Consisting of Pamphlets > Part 9
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the morning all becomes quiet, and the parties have sought their beds to recover strength for the duties of the following day.
And herein was exhibited the old-fashioned hospi- tality of the planters. Every guest was lodged for the night. Beds were arranged everywhere. If the house was too small some out-building was arranged for the occasion. And, O reader, if you were one of the young men, you would have enjoyed that night, but if you had passed the first excitement of young blood, and were entertaining any vague con- ceptions of the blessing of repose after a night of revelry, you were doomed to a cruel disappoint- ment. Every device that ingenious youth can in- vent is brought to disturb your repose. Perhaps on entering your sleeping apartment you find your bed suspended near the ceiling. If you succeed in de- positing your wearied body, you are roused by the entrance of a gang of roistering visitors, who come to inquire after your repose. Well ! we have had our share of the sport, and must not repine if we have had to witness the day, or rather the night, of retribution. In time, however, even the most rest- less spirits are exhausted, and by the dawn of day sleep comes to give repose to your wearied brow.
If your lot gives you a bed in the house, your ears are saluted soon after dawn by the fiddlers playing at the door of the nuptial chamber the old air of " Health to the Bride," and somehow it happens
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that the groom is always the first stirring after this.
As the morning advances the company gradually assemble in the drawing-room, and breakfast is an- nounced. Each bridesmaid presides at a certain portion of the breakfast-table, and the scene here is almost as hilarious as that of last evening's supper. After breakfast the house becomes quiet. The gentlemen mount their horses and ride off, some- times to hunt-at all events, to take hearty and vigorous exercise, for nothing is more conducive to dispel the effects of last night's dissipation. At two o'clock the company re-assemble ; and on this occa- sion you will find all the neighbors within visiting distance (which may be twenty-five miles), who are invited to partake of the festivities of the occasion. From the dinner-table the party adjourn to the ball- room, and last night's scene is repeated. On the morning of the third day the party disperses, and the young couple is left to the enjoyment of domes- tic bliss.
We have already said that the citizens of Pine- ville were all planters. Unpretending and unambi- tious, they never sought distinction in the walks of public life. We hope it may not be thought in- vidious if we notice, among the dead, a few of those who may be considered among the notabilities of the place.
We have had occasion already to introduce the
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name of Capt. John Palmer, the father and founder of the village. By the maternal line he was the great-grandson of Philip Gendron, the Huguenot emigrant, who has been more than once named in this essay. His father, Mr. John Palmer, of Gravel Hill, was so distinguised for enterprise and success in the making of turpentine, that he is known by tradition, even now, after the lapse of more than seventy years, as Turpentine John Palmer. Capt. Palmer was an active partisan during the war of the revolution, and secured the esteem of Marion, who made him one of his aids. He was a fine model of a patriarch. Benevolent, his hand was as open as day to melting charity, but no autocrat could be more arbitrary. No one dared dispute with him, for his arguments were all ad hominem ; but, by appearing to yield, the weakest would gain their point with him. He had never been indoctrinated in the arts of logic or rhetoric, but his letters, many of which we have seen, are excellent specimens of clear good sense and pure idiomatic English. It is remarkable that this quality of style is by no means as common now as then, when the means of educa- tion were not so easily procurable. After struggling manfully and successfully through the gloomy and disastrous period from the commencement of the war to the introduction of cotton, he died in 1817, aged sixty-eight years, leaving a large number of descend- ants by four children, three of whom survived him.
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Capt. Peter Gaillard was another of the founders of the village. He was several years the junior of Capt. Palmer, whose eldest daughter he married en secondes noces. He possessed an ample patrimony, but in common with other wealthy men, found that,' in consequence of the depressed state of the agri- cultural interest, and the precarious nature of the Santee Swamp, on which his estates lay, his wealth was only a source of expense, and ruin appeared to stare him in the face. The frequency of the freshets in Santee Swamp making it almost impossible to raise corn in it, he purchased, about the year 1794, a tract of land near Nelson's Ferry, in St. John's Berkeley, for the purpose of cultivating provisions. In that year Gen. Moultrie planted cotton on his Northampton estate, in the same parish. The next year Capt. Gaillard tried it on his new purchase, the Rocks, and found that the soil was eminently congenial. His success (Gen. Moultrie's experi- ment appears to have been a failure) gave an impe- tus to the new culture, and before the year 1800, cotton was the staple culture of those two parishes. It is about twenty years since Capt. Gaillard's death, and perhaps thirty since he retired from the pur- suit of agriculture ; but such was the strength of his mind, the correctness of his observations, and the soundness of his judgment, that it may be doubted whether any material improvement has been effected in the cotton culture since his time.
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His opinions are still quoted with respect by those who knew him, and those who never enjoyed that advantage reverently embrace the traditions and ponder over them. He was a remarkably gentle- a manlike-looking man ; one of the last who continued the use of fair-top boots. He is said to have been fond of carving with his knife, and the balustrades of his piazza bore testimony to this trait. Having built a fine new house on the Rocks plantation, he abandoned the habit, so far as the house was con- cerned ; but a servant always brought him a cypress shingle after dinner, on which he would indulge in his favorite pursuit. He was three times married. His first wife, the only one by whom he had issue, was Miss Porcher, sister of the late Major Samuel Porcher. The second was Anna Stevens, née Palmer, widow of Oneal Gough Stevens; and his third, Caroline Theus, nee Theus, widow of Mr. Theus, formerly an eminent merchant of Charles- ton. He left a large family of sons and daughters, and his descendants are very numerous.
Science and humanity mourned, in 1817, the un- timely death of Dr. James Macbride. He was a native of Sumter district, and was educated at Yale College, where he was a contemporary of Mr. Cal- houn, and of our late venerable bishop. He en- gaged in the pursuit of medicine, and, settling in Pineville, married Miss Eleanor Gourdin, daughter of the Hon. Theodore Gourdin of that village. As
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a physician he was eminently successful, and he was distinguished for sound judgment and a thorough knowledge of his profession. He removed to Charleston to enter upon a wider field of practice, but before he had time to reap any of the promised fruit, fell a victim to yellow fever. The opinions of Dr. Macbride are treasured, and to this day quoted with respect. He had an intuitive perception of truth ; in matters which were the subjects merely of conjecture, subsequent researches have proved the accuracy of his judgments. His recreation was botany. He was the friend and correspondent of Elliott, and assisted largely in the preparation of the botany of South Carolina and Georgia. Mr. Elliott acknowledged the obligation, and in the preface to his work has paid a touching and affec- tionate tribute to the memory of one who richly deserves his regard and could fully appreciate his own genius. Dr. Macbride left a son and two daughters. His widow survived him many years, and was universally admired for the excellence of her disposition and the elegance of her manners. His son lived but to see manhood. His daughters still survive.
Among the earliest victims of that terrible malady which, for a time, depopulated Pineville, was Dr. John J. Couturier. He was a native of St. Ste- phen's Parish, was educated at the Pineville Acade- my, in which afterwards he served as an assistant
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teacher, and succeeded to the practice of Dr. Mac- bride. For seventeen years he labored assiduously in his vocation, and his zeal, his activity, his skill, and his unaffected benevolence, secured him the love and respect of a large clientage. His income was large, but hardly exceeded his expenditure, and his friends would often urge him to exact of some of his poor patients a moderate payment-if not in money, at least in articles of country produce, which would be useful to him and convenient for them to spare. But he would never consent. He looked for payment in another world, and would always say that he had a better paymaster than any of his pa- tients could ever be. He died in 1834. His widow, formerly Miss Palmer, daughter of John, and grand- daughter of Capt. John Palmer, and their three daughters, still survive.
Mr. Charles Stevens was one of the most re- spected citizens of Pineville. Feeling himself en- dowed with talents which he would not willingly permit to lie idle, he was admitted to the bar, and hoped to devote himself to the calling of his pro- fession. But a cruel deafness seized him, which proved incurable, and forever destroyed his hopes. Before it had become so great as to shut him out from social intercourse, he spent two years in the occupation of teacher in the Pineville Academy, and then he engaged in commerce, and opened a store in Pineville, which for many years furnished the
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planters with their wants, and brought him wealth. His deafness increased to such an extent that he could hear only when the speaker's mouth was ap- plied to his ear. And yet he could always converse with ease with the members of his family. Mr. Stevens was an interested observer of politics, and on all stirring occasions took such an active part, by means of his pen, that, with his acknowledged abilities, he was regarded as one of the leading minds of the late Union party. Thoroughly ex- cluded, however, from familiar intercourse with men, he lived very much in a world of his own crea- tion, and his views of politics were better adapted to a Utopia of his own imagination than to the actual world. He was universally beloved as well as esteemed. All his influence was directed to the cultivation of the literary tastes of his neighbors. He died in 1833. He married Susan, daughter of Mr. René Ravenel, and his widow, a son, and three daughters survived him.
In 1851, Major Samuel Porcher, the last surviv- ing founder of Pineville, died, in the eighty-third year of his age. Major Porcher was educated in England, and on returning home after the war, commenced his career, as an agriculturist, on his plantation, Mexico, in St. Stephen's Parish. In common with all other planters, his life was a strug- gle until the introduction of the cotton culture, when he adopted it and cultivated it with great suc-
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cess to the end of his life. He entertained a high opinion of the value of the lands in Santee Swamp. He inherited a large estate in it, and made numer- ous additions by purchase, all of which he deter- mined to secure from the freshets by means of an embankment. To this work, therefore, he ad- dressed himself, and resting his bank on the south bank of the Santee Canal, he continued it four miles down the river, where it now stands, the greatest result of private enterprise, perhaps, in the southern country. The embankment is four miles in length, its base is thirty feet, its height nine feet, and is so wide at the top that two persons may very conveniently cross each other on horseback. By means of this embankment he has reclaimed the upper portion of the swamp, which now yields large crops of corn and other grain. All that is wanting to render the work thoroughly successful, is a con- tinuation by his neighbors to the next bluff or headland on the river. If this were done, some of the best lands in America would be redeemed for cultivation. The Major was one of the happiest, the most amiable, and the most popular men in the State. At the age of twenty-one he married his cousin, Harriet Porcher, and they lived together more than fifty years. She died in 1843. Their home was the abode of elegant and of heartfelt hos- pitality. In winter they were rarely without guests, and at Christmas the house seemed to overflow
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with company, consisting not only of their numer- ous descendants, but of others who, in return for unaffected kindness, voluntarily offered this grateful attention. The Major was all his life subject to asthma, and he smoked incessantly. He eschewed the Spanish tobacco as a nuisance, but always had on hand a provision of several thousand American segars, which were made to his order. He was a man of great personal activity. and in the last year of his life managed his horse with the fearlessness and dexterity of a youth. He had lived so long with his wife that he could hardly carry back his thoughts to the time when she was not his com- panion, and after her death he continued to speak of her as if she were still alive. He never, like many others, avoided the mention of her name. On the contrary, he took a positive pleasure in making her the subject of conversation. Her say- ings and doings were spoken of as familiarly and as. . naturally as if she still remained at the head of her family. It ought to be mentioned, as highly credita- ble to both employer and overseer, that at the time of his death, his overseer, Mr. Samuel Foxworth, had lived with him in that capacity upwards of thirty years. Two sons survive the Major, besides numerous other descendants by a son and daughter whom he survived.
Mr. Robert Marion, formerly a member of Con- gress from the Charleston district, and Mr. Theo-
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dore Gourdin, a member from the Northeastern district, both lived in Pineville. Mrs. Anna Peyre Dinnies, now so favorably known in American litera- ture, was also, in her youth, a resident of Pineville, and so was the late Rev. Edward Thomas, rector, formerly of the church on Edisto, afterwards of St. John's Berkeley. John Gaillard, who so many years represented the State in the Senate of the United States, and Judge Gaillard, were both na- tives of St. Stephen's, but never, I believe, residents of Pineville.'
Among the lions of Pineville was John Wall, an Irishman by birth, who lived there in the capacity of factor or general agent for Mr. Theodore Gour- din. He was an old, weather-beaten man, with a
1 Craven County may enumerate, among her notables, the notorious David Hines. This person has been the subject of two biographies, one of which is, we believe, written by himself. We have never read either of them, but the last happening to fall into our hands, during a disengaged hour, we skimmed over a few of the introductory pages, and found them a tissue of falsehoods. He was born in St. Stephen's Parish ; his father was a poor but worthy and inoffensive man ; of his mother we cannot be certain of any information, and choose, therefore, to be silent. He first appeared before the public, as a rider in one of the Pineville races, when, being thrown from `his horse, considerable interest was excited in his behalf. He got employ- ment on the plantation of Mr. John Palmer, of Maham's, in the humble capacity of cow-minder, and soon after was charged with the commission of a forgery, the trial for which resulted in his acquittal, but led the way to a subsequent extensive acquaintance with the Court of Sessions. He has no pretensions whatever to the title of M.D., which he assumes. We have always considered his career as a proof of the extreme gullibility of the American people. He has assumed, with success, the best names in the State, without possessing the manners, the address, or even the external ap- pearance of a gentleman, and he is destitute of all talents requisite for the profession of a rogue, except that of matchless effrontery.
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great deal of irascibility, tempered with a large stock of benevolence. His predominating idea was at- tachment to the interest of his patron. He always wore his hair in a queue, and on Sundays would ap- pear at church in knee breeches and silk stockings. His veins, which age had enlarged, would show themselves through his stockings, and the irreverent boys would point to them in ridicule, believing that, in order to give more dignity to his shrunk calves, he had stuffed them with paper. He was useful to the public by discharging the duties of a magistrate, and when Mr. Gourdin's influence promoted Pine- ville to the rank of a post town, Mr. Wall was appointed the postmaster. He had the reputation of being a miser, but we believe he hoarded only for his patron. Mr. Gourdin was a man full of many schemes, which were not very profitable, and Mr. Wall was said to have been never so happy as when his patron was prevented from intermeddling in his own business by his avocations in Washing- ton as a member of Congress. The mutual attach- ment of the benevolent patron and the humble factor reflected the brightest credit upon each. Mr. Gourdin bequeathed to him an annuity as a token of his sense of the value of his services, but the de- voted friend did not enjoy his munificence. He survived his patron but a few months, and appeared to die of a broken heart, lamenting the only man he ever loved.
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Before we bring this long and desultory sketch to a close, the nature of the subject appears to call for some remarks respecting health and disease. It was the search after health which led to the settlement of Pineville, and it was the prevalence, long con- tinued, of a fearful malady, which, in 1836, drove the inhabitants to seek refuge elsewhere.
Whoever will consult Mouzon's map of St. Ste- phen's district, and compare it with the aspect which a map of the same region, if now constructed, would present, will naturally inquire, to what causes such a melancholy contrast is to be attributed. In the palmy days of this parish, the fourteen miles of road, which we described at the commencement of this sketch as leading from the canal to the church, passed in sight of upwards of twenty plantations. And such is the depth of the swamp, and so great was the demand for its valuable lands, that many more were to be found in the interior which were not seen from the road. The first cause of this desolation is to be found in the frequency and the irregularity of the freshets in the Santee River, which have reduced the garden of the State to an absolute wilderness. A few of the names on Mou- zon's map are extinct ; but the greater part may still be found in St. John's Berkeley, between Monck's Corner and the Eutaw Springs. Before the intro- duction of the cotton culture, the lands of this last parish were held in very little esteem. Mr. Philip
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Porcher had four sons, to whom he left plantations, and he was accustomed to lament the lot of him who had only a place in St. John's. That was the only son who was not compelled to quit his patri- mony. The three others, who were left to the in- heritance of Santee lands, were all obliged to abandon them, and seek in St. John's the means of making cotton.
How far the unhealthiness of the country may have contributed to its depopulation, it is diffi- cult to say. Our own opinion is, that the insa- lubrity of our climate has been greatly exagger- ated. Nothing is more certain, than that we readily accommodate ourselves to a given standard of health, and scarcely desire any improvement on it. The tone of sentiment on this subject, as well as on others, is, in a great measure, derived from the me- tropolis, and just in proportion as the sanitary condi- tion of Charleston has improved, does that of the surrounding country appear to have deteriorated. We have seen letters written from Somerton planta- tion, in midsummer, 1725, in which the writer speaks of having retired thither from the insalubrious cli- mate of Charleston. We have heard the late Mr. Daniel Webb say that, when a child, he was carried from Charleston to the neighborhood of Eutaw, for the benefit of his health. And it was a common practice for the late Mrs. Plowden Weston and her sister, Mrs. William Mazyck, to pay an annual
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visit every midsummer to the plantation of their brother, Mr. Philip Porcher-a great inducement then being a retreat from the summer heat of the city and the enjoyment of the luxuries of planta- tion life at that season. This gentleman died on his plantation, on Santee Swamp, in 1800, at the advanced age of seventy. At one period of his life he had lived in Charleston, but for several years he resided entirely on his plantation ; and we have often heard it said that, though within six miles of the village, and having built houses there for several of his children, he never saw Pineville. Mr. Edward Thomas, who died at the age of ninety, is said to have spent forty years without once quitting his plantation. It becomes, therefore, an interesting inquiry, what was the state of public health-what advantage was gained by the settlement of Pine- ville, and at what price ?
The bane of this parish, like that of every portion of America, south and west of the Hudson River, was, and is, the intermittent fever of the autumnal months. This, when of frequent occurrence, be- comes habitual, is attended with enlargement of the spleen, a tendency to dropsy, and a general prostra- tion of the moral and intellectual, as well as of the physical man. This disorder was, perhaps, not more malignant in St. Stephen's than elsewhere ; but na- ture had kindly furnished an asylum wherein the ague-stricken patient might breathe in safety, re-
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cover from his malady, and enjoy the blessing of health, both of mind and of body. This asylum is the pine land. Here is enjoyed an exemption from intermittent fevers.
But this exemption is purchased at a price which is often fatal. In proportion to the salubrity of the climate, is the danger attending exposure to one less healthful. And the price of exposure is not merely a simple and teasing intermittent ; but a fever, sharp, severe, dangerous, and frequently fatal. Few kinds of fever can be named more dreaded by the people of Charleston than the fever which is there found under the name of country fever ; and yet we have often heard Dr. Couturier declare that he had never seen a case of it in the whole range of his extensive practice. Equally dreaded and equally fatal is the myrtle fever of Sullivan's Island ; and yet nowhere do we find a higher enjoyment of health than in Charleston and on the island, the seats of these dreaded enemies. These are the price which the people pay for expo- sure, and a price of the same kind is exacted every- where else. So, when the people of Pineville would be alarmed by the visitation of a hot and agonizing fever, which threatened, if not speedily arrested, to terminate fatally, the people of the surrounding country would have no ailments of a more alarm- ing character than the ordinary intermittent of the climate. Now, so highly do we value the sensation
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of perfect health, that in order to enjoy it we would run the risk of incurring even a worse penalty than country fever. But any violation of the condition of its enjoyment-that is, any exposure at improper seasons, and under unfavorable circumstances-ren- ders one liable to be called upon to endure the pen- alty. It must be confessed, however, that even when no violation had been offered to the condi- tions, not only Pineville, but every other pine land, has presented sporadic cases of fevers. There are persons so sensitively and ridiculously alive to the reputation of a place for health, that no case of fever can occur without the cause being diligent- ly investigated ; and this ascertained, how frivolous soever it may be, the poor patient is allowed to die as soon as he may. And it is astonishing how friv- olous are the causes which are sometimes gravely assigned and believed. Thus, we remember when the first case of yellow fever made its appearance in Charleston, in 1839, it was said that the young man, its victim, had neglected to provide himself with a sufficient number of towels in going to the bath, and was consequently obliged to spend some time in damp clothes. It never occurred to these good people, that if such a trivial neglect could produce such fatal consequences, it would argue a deadliness of climate which ought to make every one, who has it in his power, to abandon it at once and forever. And we could not but remember how, when a
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