USA > South Carolina > Marion County > A history of Marion county, South Carolina, from its earliest times to the present, 1901 > Part 12
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We have noticed the families of Stephen and Thomas God- bold, grand-sons of the first old John. Stephen and Thomas had two other brothers, David and Elly. What became of David Godbold and his family, if he had any, is unknown to the writer. The other brother, Elly, had and left a son named Elly, and one named Stephen, usually called Captain Stephen, and one named Ervin M. The son, Elly, afterwards known as Sheriff Elly, and then as General Elly Godbold, was born in 1804. His early educational opportunities were very limited; he could scarcely write his name. The writer had hundreds of business transactions with him while Sheriff for three terms, and never knew him to write anything but his name-never saw any writing said to be his, except his name; he could barely write it, yet he was the most remarkable of men; nature had endowed him with strong intellectual powers, mental acumen and astuteness; he was well versed in human nature; could look in a man's face and know all about him- could almost read his thoughts. He was elected Sheriff for
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three terms, and served in that office for four years each term, with entire satisfaction to the people and with credit to himself. During those terms the business of the office was very heavy, as his books will show. He was a model Sheriff, though he could do nothing in the office himself-never pretended to make a settlement with any party ; he had his clerk to do all the office business; don't think his handwriting appears in or on any book kept in his office during his three terms, nor on paper belonging to the office, except in matters where it was required by law for him to sign his name in propria persona. He was run a fourth time for Sheriff, during the Radical regime in 1872, by the white people of the county, and elected, but, like all others of his party in that election, was counted out. He was a successful manager of men; he knew every man, knew his inclinations and almost his thoughts; he knew his weak points, as well as his strong ones, hence he knew how to turn his innate knowledge of men to advantage. He had military ambition, and rose in the militia of that day by regular grada- tions from the Captaincy of a company to Brigadier General of the Eighth Brigade, S. C. militia, and performed the duties of that position with satisfaction to all concerned (see supra). He was twice married ; first, to Miss Flowers, by whom he had three sons, Huger, David and Zachariah, and two daughters. Huger married a daughter of Stephen White, by whom he had several children, sons and daughters, when his wife died and left him with her children; the sons, or rather two of them, went West; one, Waties, is here yet, and married, and lives over Catfish, in Wahee Township; one of the daughters married a Mr. Game, and another married Truman Foxworth; a third one is yet single. The father, Huger, though a widower for thirty years, has not married again; he is about seventy-five years of age, has been in Washington for eight or ten years ; is in the public printing office. Though seventy-five years old, he looks about as young as he did thirty years ago; sprightly as a boy, has no gray hairs. General Elly Godbold's son, David, was in the Confederate War, and was killed or died in it. His son, Zack, married and had four children; his wife died; he went off, left his children, all small, married again-don't know what has become of him. His son, D. E. Godbold, the eldest,
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grew up, took care of his sisters; one of the sisters married some one; another sister died, a young woman; the youngest sister is yet single; D. E. Godbold is now at Mullins, merchan- dising, in partnership with W. McG. Buck, and seems to be doing fairly well. D. E. Godbold married a Miss Young, daughter of the late Johnson B. Young; he is Mayor of the town of Mullins, is steady, a first rate business man and is bound to succeed. He is very much like his grand-father, General Godbold; he deserves much credit for his success, so far, and especially for the care he has taken of his orphan sisters. General Elly Godbold was a successful man ; he accu- mulated a large property. He told the writer just before the war that he had fifty negroes (children) that were not large enough to work in the field. His wife died some years before the war. He remained a widower until the 16th Febru- ary, 1874, when he married the Widow Kelly, then in Marion; she was forty-five years old and he was seventy-born in 1804. He died suddenly, 12th June, 1874, not quite four months after the second marriage. What became of the General's brother, Stephen T., or Captain Stephen, as he was called, the writer knows not. He was, by no means, such a man as his brother, the General. Ervin M. married Miss Foxworth; is dead; left several children. Recurring back to the sons and grand- sons of the old first. John, a majority of them must have died childless or removed to other parts. The old first John, as has already been stated,' had three sons, John, James and Thomas. John had three sons, Zachariah, John and Jesse. What became of these last three is not stated, and is altogether unknown. The second son of old John was James; James had six sons, John, James, Zachariah, Cade, Abraham and Thomas. No account whatever is given as to these or their posterity, except Thomas, the youngest, who was the father of the late Hugh Godbold, as before stated, and who became a Brigadier General of the militia, and was quite a prominent man in his day; he died in 1825. Thus, five of the grand- sons of the old first John seem to have no representatives or descendants in this country. The third son of the old first John was named Thomas, and he had a son named Thomas. This latter Thomas was the father of Asa Godbold (senior),
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of whom we have already had something to say. It seems that this last Thomas had seven sons, who have already been named; only three of them were married; Asa (senior), Robert and William H .; the others lived in single blessedness, and they are all dead, leaving no representatives. Robert married and died, leaving only a daughter. Of Asa. (senior) and his family, we have already spoken. The only one not yet noticed is William H., the youngest; he was a doctor, and a most excellent and worthy man; he married, first, a Miss Menden- hall, of North Carolina; she died in about a year, leaving no offspring; after the usual lapse of time in such cases, the Doctor married a second time, a Miss Hunt (Mary E.), from about High Point, N. C., a highly accomplished lady-a woman of a fine and a cultivated mind. By her the Doctor had four children, two sons, Thomas N. and William H., and two daughters, Mattie and Mary L .; the Doctor died when these children were all small; the mother, with the courage of a Spartan, with her limited means, raised her children respect- ably, and gave them all a fairly good education; she is yet living. After some years she married Captain J. C. Finklea (Confederate), by whom she had one child, a son; who died, however, at the age of four or five. The eldest son, Thomas N. Godbold, married on the 10th January, 1888, the youngest daughter, Mary, of the writer. She has three children living, Thomas Carroll, Anna and Mary E. The second son of Dr. W. H. Godbold, who was named for his father, married, about 1886, a Miss Mattie Beaty, daughter of Hon. James C. Beaty, of Horry County. About seven years ago, he disappeared from home, and has not been heard of since; he left his wife and four small children, two sons and two daughters; his wife and the children are doing fairly well. Dr. Godbold's oldest daughter, Mattie, married J. E. Stevenson; she died three or four years ago, and left three children, two sons and a daughter ; Mary L., the youngest daughter of the Doctor, mar- ried Richard Davis, below Marion ; they are doing very well.
There is one circumstance worthy to be noted in the Godbold family, and that is the name Thomas. The first old John had a son by that name; and his son, James, who had six sons, one of whom was named Thomas, and who became General Tho-
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mas Godbold. The third son of old first John was named Thomas, and he had a son named Thomas, called "Tom Cat," not in derision, but to distinguish him from his cousin, Thomas (the General) ; and in most branches of the family, from those early days till the present time, the name Thomas is to be found, and now at this time there are four or five Thomas Godbolds in the family. The late Ervin Godbold, youngest brother of General Elly, as already stated, married a Miss Fox- worth, by whom he had five or six children; he was a quiet, inoffensive man, unaspiring, and had the respect and confi- dence of his fellow-citizens. One of his daughters became the wife of the late S. G. Owens, Clerk of the Court; she died, and Owens died. Ervin M. Godbold left a son, Thomas, keeping up that name. The writer has dwelt upon the Godbold family to a greater extent than he otherwise would, because the first settlement made about Marion Court House was made, as here- inbefore stated, by John Godbold. It runs over a period of 165 years, and yet the Godbolds are here, by themselves and by their respectable connections, while many who came and settled in other parts of the county, about the same time and before and after, have disappeared; their names have become extinct, either by misfortune, deaths or removals.
EVANS .- The next family the writer will notice, is the Evans family. Bishop Gregg says, on page 75: "Nathan Evans was a Welshman, and settled on Catfish. He either came from the Welsh Neck above, soon after his arrival there, or was one of those who went first to the lower part of the Welsh tracts, and remained there. Lands in the neighborhood of Tart's Mill (now Moody's) were granted to Nathan Evans." Bishop Gregg, in a note on same page, says: "Nathan Evans was the grand-father of the late Thomas Evans and General William Evans, of Marion. The father of General Evans was also mimarl Nathan, and was a man of upright character through Nathan Evans' arrival and settlement on "Catfish" was ifter the arrival and settlement of John Godbold, in 1735. Gregg further says: "David Evans, a son of Nathan, was a Captain in the Revolution, and a man of note. He died child- less. About the same time, two families of James and Lucas
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came down the river and settled on Catfish; with the latter of these the Crawfords and Evans intermarried. Soon after a family of Bakers came from Newbern, N. C., to Pee Dee. One of this name married a daughter of Nathan Evans. Wil- liam Baker was prominent in the Revolution, and marked for his devotion to the cause of liberty." Thus the foundation of the Evans family, so far as Marion County is concerned, is laid in old Nathan Evans. We are not informed whether he had sons other than David and Nathan, and no account of any daughter, except that one of the name of Baker married a daughter of Nathan Evans. His son, Nathan, was the only one to perpetuate the name. The writer thinks he married twice (the second Nathan). His first wife was a Godbold, by whom he had a son, the late Thomas Evans, and two daughters, Mrs. R. J. Gregg and Mrs. Colonel Levi Legette, there may have been other children of the first marriage. Nathan Evans' second wife was a Miss Rogers (first name not known), a daughter of old Lot Rogers, of upper Marion. By his second wife he had three sons and a daughter. The sons were the late General William Evans, Nathan Evans and Gamewell Evans; the daughter, Elizabeth A., married Alexander Mur- dock, of Marlborough County. The late Thomas Evans married a Miss Daniel, a Virginia lady, a most excellent woman, and a woman of more than ordinary culture for her day and time; the fruits of this marriage were ten sons and one daughter. The father, Thomas Evans, was quite a prominent man in his day-Representative and Senator from his county in the State Legislature, Commissioner in Equity, and a useful man generally ; he died in middle life-I think, in 1845; the names of his sons, as remembered, were Chesly D., Thomas, Nathan G., James, Beverly, Jackson, William, Asa, Alfred and Woodson; the daughter, Sarah, who married R. L. Singletary, on the west side of Great Pee Dee, who has children grown and married. Chesly D. Evans graduated at the South Carolina College, I think, in 1839, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1841 ; went into practice, and was elected Commissioner in Equity, which position he held for years; he was a delegate to the Secession Convention in 1860, was quite a scholarly man and a good lawyer, though not much of an advocate; he mar-
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ried, in 1850 or 1851, Miss Jane Haselden, and reared a family of seven sons and one daughter. The sons were Junius H., Chesly D., Walker, Samuel, Frank, Leon, Nathan and David (called Tris Magistas) ; and a daughter, Bettie. Of these, Junius is a practicing lawyer at Marion ; married Miss Florence Durant, and has three or four children. Chesly D. married a Miss Wells ; he is dead, and left three children. Samuel Mar- ried an English lady, and is dead; he left two children. Walker married a Miss McDougal, in upper Marion, and is farming and doing well. Frank is in Spartanburg at the head of a graded school, and is highly esteemed. Where the other two, Nathan and David, are unknown, having left Marion. Leon died when a youth. Chesly died in May, 1897, at the advanced age of eighty years, being born 10th January, 1817. Thomas Evans, second son of Thomas Evans (senior), grew up, studied law, practiced for several years, and was appointed (I think, by President Pierce, ) United States District Attorney for South Carolina, which position he filled for four years with credit to himself and satisfaction to the public. He married late in life (don't remember whom), settled down in Britton's Neck at a place called Oakton, and soon thereafter removed West and died there. Nathan G. Evans, and third son of Thomas Evans (senior), was educated at West Point and went into the regular army of the United States, and when the war between the States broke out, loyal to his section, he threw himself on the side of the South and was soon appointed by President Davis a Brigadier General, and won distinction on many fields, and especially at the battle of Leesburg or Ball's Bluff, where he pursued the Federals to the river, completely routed them, and besides killing many, others sprang off the bluff into the river and were either drowned or killed in the water. (Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, I vol., 437.) General N. George Evans (called Shanks at home), married about the close of the war a Miss Gary, of Edgefield, or Abbeville, and by her had sons and daughters, the number and names unknown, think three sons; one of whom, John Gary Evans, is now an ex-Governor of the State; he removed to Edgefield after his marriage, and died there several years ago. A true South Carolinian and a gallant soldier, his face
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was ever to the front. James E. Evans, another son of Thomas Evans (senior), was a doctor, and did service in the war as a surgeon; married a Virginia lady, and after the war returned to South Carolina, located as a physician at Little Rock, in his native county, and remained there doing a good practice for several years; then removed to Florence, and con- tinued his practice there till the present time. He is eminent in his profession, is Secretary to the State Board of Health, and President of the State Board of Medical Examiners for the ex- amination of applicants to practice in the State, as required by law-quite a distinguished position; he is a man of high character and of excellent morals; has a. family, children grown, the number and names unknown; has a daughter married to Hon. F. B. Gary, present Speaker of the House of Representatives of the South Carolina Legislature, and at present a candidate for Governor of the State. Another son of Thomas Evans (senior), William, who was in the navy under Admiral Semmes on the Alabama, during the war, and an officer of what rank is now unknown, and was perhaps a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md .; he was a brave Carolinian, and a staunch supporter of the Confederacy ; he never married, and died some years ago and was buried in his native town. Two other sons of Thomas Evans (senior), Jackson and Beverly, left this country years ago and went West; they were unmarried when they left Marion; don't know what has become of them. Another son, Captain A. L. Evans, now Deputy Clerk of the Court, of Thomas Evans (senior), volunteered early in the war, and remained in it to the last, a gallant soldier, contending for the rights of his section ; he was Adjutant in his brother's, N. G. Evans, brigade, and went through all the battles in which it was engaged during the war, from Virginia to Mississippi, always at his post and did his full duty ; he married a daughter of the late Horatio McClenaghan, and by her has had five children, two sons and three daughters; one daughter married. Two other sons of Thomas Evans (senior), were Alfred and Woodson. Soon after the war, Alfred, a young man, went West; I have lost sight of him, and cannot say what has become of him. Wood- son, the youngest son, just as he was entering into manhood,
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sickened and died. That family of Evans did much for the "lost cause;" their whole soul was in it and went down with it, not whipped, but simply overcome by the number and resources of the enemy.
General William Evans, a son of Nathan, the second, by his second marriage, was born in 1804, grew up to manhood and married Miss Sarah Ann, Godbold, daughter of General Thomas Godbold; settled down at the place just north of Marion, and went to farming; he succeeded well in his chosen occupation and amassed a large property; he had only two sons, James Hamilton and William Thomas ; the latter is now the Sheriff ( second term) of the county ; and seven daughters, viz: Catharine, Mary, Eliza Jane, Louisa, Ann M., Rosa and Margaret. The oldest son, James Hamilton, was a graduate of the University of North Carolina. He married Miss Amelia Legette, daughter of Rev. David Legette, and lived to a few years back and died childless. William Thomas grew up to manhood, just in time to strike the war ; he was in college, left it and came home, volunteered and went into the war and made a good soldier, remained in it till the last; came home and married a Miss Stith, of Wilson, N. C .; by her he had one child, a daughter ; soon after his wife died; he has not remar- ried; his daughter, however, grew up, raised by her grand- mother, Evans, and married Henry I. Gasque; had two children for him, a daughter and a son; she died three or four years ago, leaving her two children and husband. Thus it appears that the name of Evans, so far as the sons of the General are concerned, will become extinct, unless the Sheriff, W. T. Evans, should marry again and thereby perpetuate his name. General Evans' oldest daughter, Catharine, died not long after reaching her womanhood, unmarried; his daughter, Mary, married A. J. Requier, a lawyer, who afterwards moved to Mobile, where Requier became distinguished as a lawyer, a man of erudition; his wife, Mary, died in Mobile, Ala., I think, childless ; his daughter, Eliza Jane, married Dr. Dixon Evans, of Fayetteville, N. C .; by the marriage she did not change her name, but preserved her identity as an Evans. Dr. Dixon Evans died at Marion a few years ago, leaving three sons and three daughters; of the sons, Charles E. Evans, now of
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Marion, is the eldest, who married Sophie Miles, daughter of Dr. D. F. Miles, Clerk of the Court. The next son, William A., grew up and went West; his whereabouts is unknown to the writer. The third and last son of Dr. Dixon Evans is named Joseph, a young man, unmarried. Of Dr. Evans' daughters, the eldest is the wife of B. R. Mullins, of Marion; the second daughter, Kate, married W. H. Cross, Cashier of the Merchants and Farmers Bank at Marion; she died three or four years ago, and left two or three children. Another daughter, Amelia, married a Mr. Glover, of Fayetteville, N. C. General Evans' daughter, Louiza, married, first, a Mr. McEachern, of North Carolina ; by him she had two daughters, when McEachern died. The widow, in a few years, married Rev. W. C. Power, an itin- erant Methodist minister, and by him, I think, she has six children, three sons and three daughters; one daughter and two sons, W. C. and John M., married, but do not know to whom. Rev. W. C. Power married in 1867. He has con- tinued in the itinerancy thence to the present time; stands high in the Conference, has filled many important stations, has been a Presiding Elder for twenty years; he is a close thinker and an able minister, a very methodical man. I have heard it re- marked by several that he ought to have been a bank presi- dent-he is a good financier. The two McEachern daughters both married; the eldest, Lilly, married John M. Power, a nephew of the Rev. W. C. Power; I do not know what has become of them; the younger McEachern daughter, Mary, married a Mr. Tesky, of Charleston ; he is a merchant in his home city, and is said to be a prosperous man. General Evans' daughter, Anna M., married Colonel John G. Blue, of North Carolina; he was a graduate of the University of North Carolina and a lawyer ; Colonel Blue was a man of good sense and mentally much above the ordinary, and especially when aroused; and had he applied himself to his profession, as some do, he doubtless would have attained an enviable position in the profession ; he would have been where there is always room plenty-that is, at the top; he went into the war early as a pri- vate, and rose by successive steps to a Lieutenant Colonelcy ; he was brave and patriotic; had a high sense of duty ; very
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temperate in all his habits except one, and in that was very intemperate, and that was in the use of tobacco, and its exces- sive use probably shortened his life; he was a candidate for the Legislature in 1876 and was elected and was a member of the famous "Wallace House" of that year, and was re-elected for several terms thereafter, and was a very useful member of that body ; he was very cool and deliberate, and his judgment good; he had the confidence of his fellow-members. Some ten or twelve years ago his health failed him, and after lingering for several months he died in Richmond County, N. C., his old home place, to which he had gone for recuperation ; he died rather unexpectedly ; his widow and the younger members of her family live on their homestead, near Marion. Colonel Blue raised three sons and five daughters ; his eldest son, Wil- liam E. Blue, is yet single and lives with his mother, and carries on the farm, and is now County Treasurer; he is a young man of fine talents and of good character. Another son, Rupert, is a doctor, and has for several years been a surgeon in the United States Army, and stands well as such ; he is, or was, somewhere in the West, attending to the duties of his position. Another son, Victor, graduated some years ago, in the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., and has been in the navy ever since his graduation, and is now Flag Lieutenant, and has gone, it is said, in the newspapers, on a war ship to China as Flag Lieutenant. He acquired celebrity and distinc- tion by heroic deeds in the late Spanish-American War, and is well on the road to an Admiralship, the highest honor that can be attained in that branch of his country's service-a Marion boy, of whom Marion and the whole State are justly proud; he is a fine specimen of manhood physically ; he recently mar- ried a daughter of some naval Captain. Of Colonel Blue's daughters, one, Miss Sallie, married Peter John, of Marl- borough.County ; another, Miss Ida, married Mr. James John, of North Carolina, a brother to Peter. The Johns are good men and well-to-do. Another daughter, Miss Effie, married Edward B. Wheeler, of Marion, a very worthy native and citizen. The two other daughters, Miss Kate and Miss Hettie, are unmarried-worthy of some good man. Miss Kate has obtained some celebrity as a writer, and is quite literary in her
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taste. Another daughter of General Evans, Miss Rosa, mar- ried Captain Duncan McIntyre; did not live long after her marriage, and died childless. The youngest daughter of General Evans, Miss Margaret, or Maggie, as she was called, married in the latter part of the war the late Major S. A. Durham, and by him she had three children, two daughters and a son. The son, Cicero A. Durham, now living in Marion, married Miss Kate McKerall, daughter of the late Captain W. J. McKerall; they have no children. The two daughters of Major S. A. Durham, Miss Eunice and Miss Marguerette, are unmarried.
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