USA > South Carolina > Marion County > A history of Marion county, South Carolina, from its earliest times to the present, 1901 > Part 10
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Marion and of the Third Judicial Circuit, and also by the people of the State. Daniel H. Chamberlain, Republican, was Gover- nor from 1874 to 1876, and during his term as Governor there were two other vacant judgeships, and W. J. Whipper and Franklin J. Moses, Jr., were elected to fill those vacancies, at which the whole State was very much mortified and humiliated; but, to the surprise and great relief of the white people of the State, Governor Chamberlain refused to commission them, on the ground of their want of moral character, and thus the State was saved from the infliction. Chamberlain was a man of courage, otherwise he would not have dared to refuse their commissions. Chamberlain was a decent Republican and a gentleman. He had been first elected Attorney General of the State and then Governor by the Republican party. It took courage to oppose the will of the Legislature expressed in the election of said men as Judges. Very few in the party, if any, would have thus flown in the face of the party as Chamberlain did. He was a Northern man, a graduate of Yale College, a fine scholar and a brainy man. He did many things while Governor which the white people favored, and by which he ingratiated himself into the favor of many of our good and leading men. In the campaign of 1876, Chamberlain was again nominated by the Republicans for a second term as Gov- ernor. The people of the State were sick and tired of Radical carpet-bag rule, and anxious to make the fight for its over- throw. Many good men in the State were fearful that if the fight was made that it would fail, and our condition would thereby be made more intolerable; that as Chamberlain had made a pretty good Governor, we had better acquiesce in his nomination and election, than to run the risk. This was the idea of many very good men, who were opposed to making the contest. "The Straightouts," as they were called, were for making the contest, and gain all or lose all; that if they were beaten, it could not and would not make our condition any worse. Strong men were on each side of the question. A Democratic State Convention was called to meet in Columbia on 15th August, 1876. Each and every county in the State was represented in the Convention, and the election of a Chair- man or President of the Convention was made the test of the
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strength of the respective sides. The "Straightouts" nomi- nated General W. W. Harllee, of Marion, for .Chairman, and the Chamberlain men nominated C. H. Simonton, of Charles- ton (now Judge), for Chairman. Upon a strict party vote, General Harllee was elected Chairman by thirteen majority. The Convention made nominations for Governor, Lieutenant- Governor and State officers, including Solicitors, and perhaps Congressmen. General Wade Hampton was nominated for Governor and W. D. Simpson for Lieutenant-Governor. The Chamberlain men wheeled right into line. They were just as good men as the "Straightouts," only were not as sanguine as to results as were the "Straightouts." The delegation from Marion were all "Straightouts," the only county in the Pee Dee section that sent such. The whole State was a unit, and in a blaze with enthusiasm. Never before within the memory of the writer was there such unanimity and such united effort. The campaign meetings were attended by the whole people throughout the State. No "coon-skins, hard cider or red pepper clap-trap" were resorted to. Nothing but red shirts, and cavalcades, and bands of music, marked the campaign. To defeat the Radical party and to rescue the State from its clutches were the aim and end to be attained. To do this, it was necessary to carry a great portion of the negro vote, and we did carry enough of it to turn the scale. A red shirt was the badge, and it was not uncommon in Marion to see in the cavalcades of the day as many as fifty to a hundred negroes, mounted on horseback in the cavalcades, with red shirts on, in procession with the white folks. The red shirts and horses in most instances were furnished them by the white people. He was then committed to the Hampton ticket, and could not go back on it. The business of the country was for the time pretty much abandoned. Men rode day and night with the red shirt insignia of the times on. No doubt, that some excesses were committed by the less considerate of our people, but not often to the injury of the common cause. Speech-making to gather- ings of the people was the order of the day, and they were attended by the people in crowds. Never before in the memory of man, had there been such intensified determination mani- fested. It was not much less than a struggle for life. Cham-
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berlain, the Republican candidate for Governor, in a speech delivered at Marion on the very day of the meeting of our Convention in Columbia, said that he would carry the State by 40,000 majority, we suppose he was about correct, counting every negro voter a Republican. To elect our ticket we must carry with us more than 20,000 negro voters-and we think that many were carried. The Hampton ticket was on white paper, the Radical ticket was on pink colored paper-all kept secret from the opposite party. A few days before the election, Captain Daggett, of Horry, managed to get hold of one of their tickets, it was immediately sent to Charleston (News and Courier), thousands of them were printed with the names of our candidates on them, and on the morning of election day they were at every voting precinct in the State. That discovery and its immediate sequel was a protection to the negro voter for the Hampton ticket. There were many negroes willing to, and wanted to, vote that ticket, but were afraid to do so-were afraid of their own people, and especially of their neighbor- hood leaders ; and doubtless thousands of those red tickets, with the Hampton candidates' names upon them, were that day (7th November, 1876), voted. Those red tickets turned the elec- tion, by which the people of the State were redeemed from the curse and hateful, ruinous rule of the carpet-bagger, scalawag and the ignorant negro. How or by what means Captain Daggett came into possession of that red ticket, with its eagle emblem upon it, we do not know, nor do we care to know. The tickets were sent to leaders in every county in the State, with an injunction of secrecy, to let no white man see them or to get hold of them. No doubt Captain Daggett knew the leaders in his county, Horry-he knew who was approachable and by what means. He accomplished his purposes for the good of his adopted State, and thereby his State was redeemed. To him should be erected a monument in the hearts of the people of the State more enduring than brass and marble. He was afterwards honored by the citizens of Horry with a seat in the State Senate, an honor not at all commensurate with the daring courage which animated his patriotic bosom to do or to die. Captain Dagget has been dead for several years, has gone to his reward-"Requiescat in pace." The election in the
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State for Governor was pretty close. Hampton's majority, as claimed and his claim was sustained, was 1,134. Marion County was carried overwhelmingly for the Hampton ticket. Marion did her full share in the contest and she did no more than the other counties in the State-all were strained to the utmost. There were elected in the State, also, majorities for the Senate and House of Representatives. There were bitter contests in the Supreme Court for the offices. Chamberlain and State officers on his ticket claimed to have been elected. For a while there were two Houses of Representatives, each organ- ized with a Speaker and other officers. Both bodies, for two or three days, had possession of the Representative Hall, both Speakers-elect occupied the Speaker's chair. William H. Wallace was Speaker of the Democratic House, afterwards a Judge. E. W. M. Mackey, of Charleston, was Speaker of the Republican House. They clashed and blocked each other for two or three days and nights without leaving the House-took their meals there, furnished by the respective friends outside. In the meantime, thousands of our people had assembled out- side the State House. Every man was well armed and ready for the fray. A company of United States soldiers were sta- tioned in Columbia, and a detachment of them was in the State House with their guns and bayonets. General Hampton made a speech from the steps of the Capitol to our people, in which he assured them he would be Governor, and advised that they commit no act of violence nor provoke any hostilities. His head was cool and level. Such was the confidence the people had in him, they took his advice and left for their homes. Our legislative House quietly withdrew from the Capitol building and went to some other house in town and held their sessions there. The Court was composed of F. J. Moses, Chief Justice, . a Republican, A. J. Willard, a carpet-bag Judge, though an able man, and J. J. Wright, a negro Judge. This Court, con- stituted as it was, or a majority of them, decided the various questions springing out of the late elections in favor of the Democrats, and when Rutherford B. Hayes, the President- elect, was inaugurated to the Presidency, the military troops were ordered to leave Columbia, and did leave. Chamberlain at once vacated the executive chamber, and left the whole
8
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State House open for the Democratic Legislature and Demo- cratic State officials. Thus ended the struggle, and thus ended the reign of the carpet-bag government, to the great joy and satisfaction of the people. This consummation proved the sagacity and wisdom of our leader, Wade Hampton, when he advised, in his speech above alluded to, the people to do nothing rash, to be quiet and to go home, with his assurance that he would be Governor. But for the magic of his name and character, the State might have been till this day under Repub- lican rule, and maybe the rule of the bayonet. This much has been said about carpet-bagism, reconstruction, the profligacy of the Radical regime, and the State's redemption in 1876, not so much for the present generation, as most of them were the subjects and actors, and participants in the governmental occur- rences of the last twenty-five or thirty years, but that some faint sketch of it might be put in book form, for the sons and daughters of the next and future generations to read and ponder. The one-hundredth part has not been told-in fact, it can never all be told.
The Early Settlement of Marion County.
This part of the Province of South Carolina, Craven County, was not much settled until about 1735. When Queensborough Township was laid off wholly in Marion County, in 1731 and 1732, there was not a settlement within it; but below that town- ship, and between the two rivers, Great and Little Pee Dee, according to well authenticated tradition, there were some set- tlements before that time. Mr. M. M. Lowrimore, of Wood- berry Township, has furnished the writer with some interest- ing facts about the first settlement of that part of the county, Britton's Neck, below the old Britton's Neck Church of the present day (about which church more may be said herein- after). The writer is also indebted to Mrs. Margaret F. Johnson, widow of the late Hugh R. Johnson, near Nichols, S. C., and who was the daughter of the late General William Woodberry, of Britton's Neck, for valuable and interesting information about the Woodberry family. From these two sources, viz: letter of Mr. M. M. Lowrimore and letter of Mrs. Margaret F. Johnson, the writer gleans the following:
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"Some time in the early part of 1700, there came from Ireland some people by the name of Michalls, 'not McAll,' and settled on a point of land now called the "Tan-yard.' Their occupation in their native land was that of tanners. After coming to this country, finding game so numerous, they be- came great hunters, and to carry on their trade they erected a tan-yard just one mile above the mouth of Little Pee Dee River, on the bank of the Great Pee Dee. They killed game, then plentiful of all kinds and sorts, bought hides from others, tanned them and sold the leather to the early planters in that region and on the Waccamaw Neck. What became of the Michalls is unknown; the signs of the tan-yard erected by them were there for many years afterwards, and may be seen there even yet. The place is known now as the 'tan-yard.' The name of Michall is now extinct in the county." Mr. Lowrimore says: "About 1710, there came over a goodly number from Great Britain, and thereby they were called the Brittons or Brittains." This would imply that the whole col- ony, whatever might be their individual names, were called the "Brittons" or "Brittains." The time of this settlement ante- dates the settlement made twenty-five years afterward, as spoken of by Bishop Gregg in his book, p. 69 There possibly may have been two emigrations in those early times to that part of the county (Craven). Mr. Lowrimore says: "They commenced settling at the lower mouth of Jordan's Lake. Their occupations were planting corn, peas, potatoes, rye, oats, wheat and flax, raised hogs, sheep, goats and cattle; lived high on fish and honey, and wore otter-skin coats." If Mr. Lowri- more is correct, and the writer sees no reason to discredit him, this applies to the colony of 1710, called "Brittons" or "Brit- tains." Mr. Lowrimore further says: "About 1734, a number of Lowrimores with their wives came over from Ireland. Their trade was blacksmith and house carpentering. My great-grand-father was the blacksmith. Some of them went off to the rice countries and got rich, and lost it all by bad management. My grand-father, W. James Lowrimore, was a blacksmith, which trade my father, Robert Lowrimore, learned." The writer regrets that he has not been able to see Mr. Lowrimore, and learn more of the Lowrimore family-
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whom they married, how many children they raised, and their names, and what their successes in life were, and what has become of them. The writer has met with the present M. M. Lowrimore in times past, but not lately. He is advancing in life, perhaps seventy years old, an excellent man, in fact, no ordinary man, considering his want of opportunities and his environments. He and his immediate family are the only ones by the name known now to be in the county. In his very interesting letter to the writer, he says nothing about his fam- ily, except as above quoted, and nothing at all about his own immediate family, or whether he has any children or otherwise. There are several of the name in Horry County, who the writer supposes to be lineally or collaterally related to him. M. M. Lowrimore is a patriot and true man; if he has any family of his own, he is too modest to say anything about them. He is a remarkable antiquarian, and it is natural with him, not acquired, as his early educational opportunities were quite limited. Mr. Lowrimore continues : "Later on came a Capps, a farmer; next a family of Augustines, bee-tree hunters and hunters generally. This is on a lonely island between Jordan's Lake and the Great Pee Dee. Also an adjacent island was settled by a family of Hunters, a hunter by name and by trade. These islands go by the names of Augustine and Hunter's Islands. In 1734, came in a family of Kibber (or Kibler), occupation as others. All this on the Great Pee Dee. On Little Pee Dee, a man from England settled near its waters, by the name of Parker. Next a family of Colemans and a man by the name of Jerry Touchberry ; the Brittons at Hickory Hill. Next on the Little Pee Dee River, a family of the Wood- berrys, who raised hogs and cattle for market, made indigo, met the trading vessels and changed off indigo pound for pound of negro weighed naked (so much for the Woodberrys). Next the Okes did likewise also. About 1760, the Munner- lyns (Irish), farmers and stock raisers, planted indigo, rice, oats, wheat and tobacco, raised orchards, beat cider." Mr. Lowrimore proceeds: "Next was a number of Williams-I know not where from. They lived chiefly by raising stock and driving it to market. Near the Great Pee Dee, a family of Rays, near the place that you know that is called Ray's
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Causeway, on the road leading from Britton's Neck to the Ark Church. Also, the old Jenkins lived in there, too. There is where old. Mrs. Jenkins drank the toast to the British officer, when she told him she had three sons in the war, and she wished that she had three thousand. Another settlement which I forgot to note was old James Crockett, an old Englishman, came and settled on Little Pee Dee, near what is known as Pawley's Camps, the place where old Tory Pawley hid when old General Marion was ransacking this part of the country for the Tories. But the said Crockett obtained a warrant, and in 1734, he took up and had granted to him a tract of land. I have had the old plat and grant in my hand many times. This then was called Craven County. I have not gone above the road leading to Britton's Neck Church. The Graves that lived on the road, you can get knowledge of them and the old Davises and Mapp Claff." The old gentleman, Mr. M. M. Lowrimore, closes above quoted letter in these words, verbatim et literatim:
"Mr. Sellers, I take great pleasure in replying to you it was a Great strain on the mind, I did as best I could under the present circumstance please write to me if it is any profit to you or not, excuse mistakes and blunders, as I am no Gramma- reon In those old days the rattlesnakes were numberous I give you a receipt for the cure of Rattlesnake bite take one handful of parsley leaves one of Hoar hound leaves, beat up and squice (or) squix through one pint of new milk, add a lump of allum as big as a hulled hickory nut, give at draught" (he doesn't say how much) "When this you remember an old friend." Yours M. M. Lowrimore."
"address Smiths Mills, S. C."
The writer cannot adequately express his appreciation of the above quoted letter, coming from the man it did. Now as to the different settlers mentioned in Mr. Lowrimore's letter. The Michalls, of "tan-yard" notoriety, have long since disap- peared. It is not improbable that the name Michall, as given by Mr. Lowrimore, is the same as Mikell (a family), noticed by Bishop Gregg, pages 89 and 90, and notes, as coming to the Upper Pee Dee in 1756, two brothers, John and William. The difference is in the spelling, but idem sonans. One of these was killed during the Revolutionary War by a Tory; the other
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survived that struggle. John, the elder brother, settled on the west side of the river, a few miles above Long Bluff. Gregg says he became a Major in the Revolutionary War, and was a man of decided character. It is not stated by Gregg where the Mikells came from, and it may be when the Michalls broke up from the "tan-yard," that they moved up the river on the west side in 1756, as stated by Bishop Gregg. At any rate, the suggestion is made for what it is worth. There are no Michalls in Britton's Neck now, nor has there been within the memory of the writer. As to the Lowrimores, the writer has already said all he knows about them. Now as to the colony of English spoken of by Lowrimore as coming into Britton's Neck about the year 1710, and coming from England, "thereby" called "Brittons" or "Brittains." They were differ- ent from the Brittons by name, as settling down there about 1735 or 1736, by Bishop Gregg (page 69), who says: "About the time John Godbold came to Pee Dee, two important settle- ments were made in that region. One of these was in Britton's Neck, twenty miles below Mar's Bluff and forty miles above Georgetown." "It was composed of the families of Britton, Graves, Fladger, Davis, Tyler, Giles and others. They came directly from England as one colony." Further notice of this colony will be taken by the writer hereinafter. As to the "Brittons" mentioned by Mr. Lowrimore, of 1710, and those mentioned by Bishop Gregg, of 1735, are they the same, or were there two emigrations by the name of Britton? Both may be correct, or one of them is in error, and if so, which one? Neither Bishop Gregg nor Mr. Lowrimore were cotemporaries with the Brittons, and, therefore, both depended on informa- tion derived from tradition. Bishop Gregg was a man of scholarly ability ; Mr. Lowrimore was to the "manor born," a lineal descendant of some of the "Lowrimores with their wives," who came there in 1734 from Ireland, and M. M. Low- rimore got his information in the traditions of his family, handed down from the great-grand-father to the grand-father, and from him to the father, Robert Lowrimore, and from the father, Robert, to the son, M. M. Lowrimore. Bishop Gregg obtained his information (traditional) from the late Hugh Godbold, of Marion District-says so, in a note on page 69.
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The writer will not undertake to decide between them, but leaves it to the reader to decide for himself.
As to the Capps, spoken of by Mr. Lowrimore as coming later, who he says was a farmer, the writer supposes he is and was the progenitor of the family by that name now living, and has been for a century, below Marion Court House. If he was not the progenitor of them, it is altogether unknown what became of the one mentioned by Mr. Lowrimore. As to the Augustines and Hunters, mentioned by Mr. Lowrimore as set- tling there in those early times, the writer knows nothing; he is not informed as to what became of them. No such name as Augustine is now in Marion County, nor has there been since his recollection. The name has disappeared; as also the Hunters, so far as Marion County is concerned. There are Hunters in Florence and Darlington Counties, who, it is not improbable, descended from the Hunter family or families, mentioned by Mr. Lowrimore as settling in Britton's Neck.
Mr. Lowrimore says, in 1734, a family by the name of "Kibler or Kibber" came in and settled there; that name is also extinct in Marion County. He says all the foregoing settle- ' ments were made on the Great Pee Dee. He says : "On Little Pee Dee, a man from England settled near its waters by the name of Parker. Next a family of Coleman, and a man by the name of Jerry Touchberry; the Brittons at Hickory Hill." Parker is a name that has been long and favorably known in Marion County ; the Parker family reside on the west side of the Great Pee Dee, in what is now Florence County, formerly in Marion. There is also a family of Parkers in Marlborough County, quite respectable. The family in both counties have extensive connections, and are here to stay. In the absence of other information, it is probable that the family in both counties sprang from the one who settled about 1734 in Brit- ton's Neck. The name of Touchberry is not in Marion County now. The name of Britton is also extinct in this county, and has been for years, though they have connections here not bearing the name. Time and circumstantial conditions effect wonderful changes-at least, in 165 years-and often leave no trace or remembrance of families or conditions. All terrestrial things are transitory and passing into the shades of oblivion.
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Mr. Lowrimore says : "Next on Little Pee Dee River, a family of the Woodberrys (came), who raised hogs and cattle for market, made indigo, met the trading vessels and changed off indigo pound for pound of negro weighed naked."
The writer received a letter from Mrs. Hugh R. Johnson, who was a daughter of the late General Wm. Woodberry, of Britton's Neck, in which she says: "The Woodberrys (two brothers), Richard and Jonah, came from Socastee-I can't give the date; they settled in Britton's Neck, where they found several brothers by the name of Britton, who were large land and slave owners. Richard Woodberry, my grand-father, married Miss Lizzie Balloon, on Black River. They brought up two sons and three daughters; one of the sons was my father, the well known General Wm. Woodberry. General Woodberry was born January 10th, 1788, and died January 3Ist, 1851. I have heard my father say that about 1815, the Brittons sold out and moved to Sumter County, except Dr. Tom Britton, who had married Margaret, one of the General's sisters ; she died childless. Fannie, another one of the sisters, married Sam. Wilson; she also died without children. The other sister married the Rev. Jeremiah Norman, of North Caro- lina; Mrs. John Woodberry and Mrs. James Jenkins, and Sam- uel Norman, of Horry, were their children. Richard Wood- berry, the General's only brother, married Miss Desda Davis; their children were John and Washington, Mrs. Benjamin Gause and Mrs. John Gause. General Woodberry's first wife was Miss Hannah Davis; they had four children, all dying quite young. His second wife was Miss Sarah Johnson, of Horry; they brought up four sons and four daughters, all of whom except one daughter married and reared families, but I expect you know as much about them as I do."
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