USA > South Carolina > Marion County > A history of Marion county, South Carolina, from its earliest times to the present, 1901 > Part 15
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sion, which he took up within himself and brought it up to its present perfection without serving any apprenticeship; he may truthfully be called a natural genius, but he is a most excellent man every way-full of energy, pluck and perseverance, re- liable in every phase of life. They have five or six children of both sexes, none grown, names unknown to the writer. The oldest son of Stephen Fore is George Fore, one of our best and most worthy citizens; he married a Miss Ford, daughter of the late Elias B. Ford. George Fore has three children; two sons, Baker and Joseph, and one daughter, Kate-all grown and unmarried. The oldest son, Baker, is a graduate of Wake Forrest College, and is a promising young man .* The second son of Stephen Fore is J. Russel Fore; he and the fourth son, Clarence Fore, have never married; they live together on the father's old homestead; one of James D. Bethea's daugh- ters, their niece, stays with them and keeps house. Each of these boys has his own place, runs his own farm, and makes his own money. J. Russel is reputed to have money ahead; he is much older than Clarence, and has been working for himself much longer, and hence has accumulated more money. Oliver Cromwell Fore, the third son of Stephen Fore, married Miss Jennie Lassiter, a very smart woman, as well as a good woman; they have four children, two boys and two girls, all small; Cromwell has been in the iron works of his brother-in- law, McDuffie, for several years, and is supposed to have learned much about machinery and how to make or repair it. Cross Roads Henry Berry's second daughter, Telatha, married Dr. Willis Fore, a brother of Stephen Fore, supra; she lived only a few years, and died childless ; Dr. Fore himself survived his wife only a few years, when he died, not having remarried. Cross Roads Henry Berry's third and youngest daughter, Vir- zilla by name, married the late John Mace; the fruits of the marriage were two daughters, Lucinda M. and Maggie Ellen ; their mother died when they were quite young, aged eight and and six years respectively ; they were raised without any mother by their father; he never remarried; the girls grew up to womanhood, and the younger, Maggie Ellen, married John C. Sellers, 23d December, 1869; four years afterwards, Lucinda
*Since writing the above, George Fore has died.
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M. married William G. Edwards; both Lucinda M. and Maggie E. are dead; the latter died 26th April, 1888, the former died in 1896. Maggie left six children surviving her, viz : Lucy, Ben- jamin B., Annie, Wallace D., Leila and Maggie Ellen (called Pearl), the latter only three days old at her mother's death; she was taken by her aunt, Rachel Norton, who has kept her till the present time; she is now thirteen years old. Lucinda M., wife of William G. Edwards, left at her death five children, three daughters and two sons; the daughters are: Mary, now the wife of J. Dudley Haselden; she has two children, both sons ; also, Maggie and Carrie Edwards. The two sons are Henry A. Edwards and Samuel Edwards. Henry, the elder son, after taking a two years course in Wofford College, went to Vanderbilt University, Tenn., and took a three or four years course in the medical department of that well equipped institution, and is now a young "M. D."
Captain Stephen F. Berry, son of the late Andrew Berry, and nephew of Cross Roads Henry, married a Miss Jones, and raised a large family of sons and daughters, the names of whom (or all of them) the writer does not know. His oldest son, Henry, married a Miss Cottingham, and has a family ; another son, Wylie, married a daughter of H. C. Dew, and is doing fairly well; he has one child, a daughter. Another son, Benjamin O., was for a while an itinerant Methodist preacher ; married some lady, to the writer unknown; he did not do well, was finally expelled from the Conference and has disappeared. Another son, G. Raymond Berry, married a Miss McIntyre, and having a fair education, he has taught school most of the time since his majority, and has a good reputation, both as a citizen and as a teacher ; he is very popu- lar, and has lately been elected as County Superintendent of Education. Captain Berry has other sons unmarried and living with him, names unknown-think one of them is named Wade Hampton; he has four married daughters; one married Albert Rogers, who is doing well and a good citizen, has children-how many is unknown. Another married John B. Hamer, a very energetic, pushing man; I think he has five or six children. Another married James S. Hays, and is doing well; Hays is an energetic, persevering man, and prosperous;
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he has several children. Another daughter married a man by the name of Wright, who recently died at Latta; don't think he left any children.
Another family of Berrys may be noted, to wit: Samuel J. Berry's family. The first old Andrew, that settled with the Sandy Bluff colony about 1736 or 1737, it will be remembered, had six sons and four daughters, according to tradition, through old Mrs. Fama Tart, a grand-daughter of old Andrew. Mrs. Tart was a living walking genealogical dictionary, and a memory equally as wonderful. Of the six brothers, four lived to be grown and raised families, to wit: Henry, her father, Stephen, John and Andrew; I think another was named Sam- uel; the sixth name not remembered. The Samuel J. Berry's family, mentioned above, was a direct descendant from either John or Andrew. Samuel J. Berry died some years ago, leav- ing a family of three sons, Madison, Wilson and Stephen, and perhaps some daughters; he was a volunteer soldier in the Florida Seminole War, in a company from Marion, com- manded by Captain and formed a part of the bat- talion commanded by Major W. W. Harllee. The writer pro- cured a pension for Samuel J. Berry's widow, which she yet, if living, receives from the United States government. Samuel J. Berry was an unpretentious man, a quiet and peaceable citi- zen, honest to the cent, but little known outside his neighbor- hood ; his three sons, Madison, Wilson and Stephen, are of like character, honoring their departed father and perpetuating his name and many virtues. There are other Berrys, descend- ants of the first old Andrew, of less note than those herein mentioned, and unknown to the writer. Their connections, through the female line, are very extensive and permeate pretty much the whole of the upper end of the county; many have gone West. The name will not soon become extinct. Of the four daughters of the old first Andrew Berry, two of them married Dews, one of them a Hays, and the other did not marry-if she did it is not known to whom. Of these more will be said hereafter.
SAUNDERS .- In the settlement made at Sandy Bluff, the name of Saunders appears. John, George and William
1
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Saunders were the first of the name there. Bishop Gregg, on p. 71, says: "Of the settlers at Sandy Bluff, the Murfees, Saunders, Gibsons and Crawfords accumulated the largest properties." The name Saunders has become extinct in Marion County-not one of the name in the county, to the knowledge of the writer. One John Saunders took up large grants of land between Catfish and Great Pee Dee. "They came from England. John Saunders had two sons, George and Thomas. George was the father of Nathaniel Saunders, who became a man of some note, and was the father of the late Moses Saunders and Jordan Saunders, in Darlington" (Gregg, p. 73). In a note to the same page, the Bishop says: "George Saunders came to an untimely end; in connection with which a singular incident is related. He was engaged on a Sunday in cutting down a bee tree, a cypress, in the swamp on the opposite side of the river. As the cypress fell, the limb of an ash was broken off, and being thrown with violence on the head of Saunders, killed him instantly. An ash afterwards came up at the head of his grave and grew to a large tree, being regarded by the people as a standing monument of the judgment sent upon him for the violation of the Lord's day, which led to his end. It is but a few years since that the last vestige of this famous ash was to be seen. Near the spot are faint traces of the burial ground of the Sandy Bluff settle- ment." The descendants of this Saunders family have all played out. Between fifty and sixty years ago, Tobias Saun- ders and Smithey Saunders, brother and sister (neither one ever married), lived on the road leading from Berry's Cross Roads to Marion, near the end of Pigeon Bay, just below where the Florence Railroad crosses said bay; they were de- scendants of old John Saunders, to whom much land had been granted ; the little hut of a house in which they lived stood on land granted to their ancestor ; they were invalids, and lived by begging and by the charity of the neighbors. The writer used to see them at his father-in-law's many times begging, and the old man would give them a shoulder of meat and half bushel of meal, as much as they could carry. The sister was the stronger of the two; they were imbecile, and especially the brother, and harmless; they ultimately died there. Such are the sad changes in families.
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GIBSON .- Among the early settlers at "Sandy Bluff" were the Gibsons. Gregg, p. 73, says: "Of the Gibsons, Gideon and Jordan were brothers. The latter (Jordan) went to the West as a companion of Daniel Boone. Gideon Gibson came with his father from Virginia to Pee Dee. There is a public record of a grant to him for 550 acres of land as early as April, 1736. He settled at a place called Hickory Grove, five miles from Sandy Bluff, on a large and fertile body of land, long after noted as the most valuable in that region." In a note to the same page, Gregg says: "He (Gideon Gibson) was the grand- uncle of the late Captain John Gibson, of Darlington. Gideon Gibson had three sons" (p. 74); "of these, Stephen became wealthy, and removed to Georgia about the year 1800. Roger, another son, removed to the West before the Revolution." . Bishop Gregg says nothing about the third son of Gideon Gib- son, does not even mention his name. The writer supposes his name was Tobias Gibson, who became a Methodist traveling preacher, joined the Conference in 1792, from Marion County, and died in 1804, at the age of thirty years, and was buried at Natchez, Miss. (Minutes of the IIIth session of the South Carolina Annual Conference of the M. E. Church, South, held in Abbeville, S. C., December 9-14, 1899.) According to this, he was born in 1774 ; he may have been a grand-son of Gideon Gibson. In 1781 (February), Gideon Gibson was killed at his own house by Colonel Maurice Murfee; Gideon Gibson was the uncle of Murfee. Colonel Maurice Murfee, though a staunch Whig and a daring and gallant soldier, yet was a very violent man, and especially so when in liquor. Bishop Gregg, p. 354, says: "Lower down, on the east side of the river, the Tories made frequent incursions from Little Pee Dee, finding co- operation on the part of some in that immediate region. The Whigs were driven in some instances to acts of cruel retalia- tion. One instance of the kind is related of Colonel Maurice Murphy. He was a man of ungovernable passion, which was often inflamed by strong drink. On the occasion alluded to, he went to the house of a noted Tory, named Blackman, then somewhat advanced in years, and inoffensive. He had, how- ever, several sons who were active against the Whigs. Mur- phy's real object, doubtless, was to discover where these and
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others of their companions were. Having tied Blackman, he asked him who he was for; and upon his replying 'for King George,' gave him fifty lashes. The question was repeated, with the same reply, and the like punishment inflicted until the fourth time, when, upon finding the old man unyielding, Murphy was compelled to desist. Blackman lived on Catfish, and the place is yet called "Tory's Camp.' Gideon Gibson, the uncle of Murphy, blamed him for his conduct on the occasion. Subsequently, Murphy stopped, with his company, at Gibson's for breakfast, and while there the subject was resumed. A quarrel ensued, and as Murphy mounted his horse to start off, Gibson followed him to the door and said something offensive, whereupon Murphy shot him dead. Three of Gibson's sons were present in Murphy's company, and were men of un- daunted courage; but knowing his violent temper and des- perate resolution, did not interfere. Nothing was done to Murphy afterwards on account of it." From this it would appear that Jordan Gibson, the brother of Gideon, must have been the grand-father of the "late Captain John Gibson, of Darlington." Jordan Gibson went off "West as a companion of Daniel Boone," but we suppose he returned to Carolina, Gregg says, supra, that Gideon Gibson was "the great-uncle of Captain John Gibson, of Darlington." Stephen Gibson was a son of Gideon ; he lived prior to 1800, and owned a large body of land in and around Harlleesville, in this county. About the latter date, he sold his lands there and removed to Georgia (Gregg). The writer remembers in his long practice of law to have seen the deeds from Stephen Gibson to Thomas Harl- lee. He may have been the father of Tobias Gibson, the preacher hereinbefore referred to. Captain John Gibson lived in Marion County and owned large bodies of land therein, near Mars Bluff Ferry, on both sides of the river ; he had two sons, Ferdinand S. Gibson and James S. Gibson; I think he married a Miss Savage. The lands on the east side of the river, and perhaps some on the west side, went to his son, Ferdinand, whose first wife was a Miss Godfrey, and his second wife was Miss Constantine McClenaghan; he died at Marion Court House, 12th May, 1867, childless. He was considered very wealthy before the war, had two hundred or more slaves; he
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was involved in debt, his lands were sold under proceedings to marshal his assets and for the payment of his debts, and thus that valuable property has passed entirely out of the hands of the family; his widow got dower out of it; she afterwards became the wife of Dr. D. S. Price; she died some years back, leaving some four or five children-think three sons and a daughter ; the latter is now the wife of W. G. Mullins.
James S. Gibson, brother to Ferdinand S., married a Miss DuBose, of Darlington ; he inherited from his father, Captain John Gibson, that large and valuable plantation, on the west side of Great Pee Dee, near Mars Bluff Ferry. James S. Gib- son died not long after his brother, Ferdinand; he was a better manager, or at least more fortunate in the results of the war, and saved his large landed estate for his two sons, Knight and Nathan S .; the latter is now in possession of those lands. Knight Gibson married a daughter of Dr. C. H. Black, by whom he had, I think, four children; Knight Gibson died in the latter part of 1885 or 1886; what has become of his child- ren is unknown. Nathan S. Gibson is certainly rich in lands and may be so otherwise; he is unmarried, and is almost fifty years of age. This is in Florence County, formerly Marion County.
Another quite respectable family of Gibsons are below Marion Court House. The first known of them was Squire David Gibson, who was a very worthy man and good citizen. Think he came from Scotland-at any rate, he was a Scotch- man ; his tongue betrayed his nationality. It has been said of him that he was on the stand as a witness in some case, that the occasion and circumstances suggested the question to be asked him, if he believed in ghosts, spirits, &c., and the old gentleman, in the honesty of his heart, replied that he could not say that he did, but that when he passed by a graveyard at night he always kept a sharp lookout. The writer does not know whom he married, but he raised four sons, if no more, James, Allen, Jessee and Albert ; the first and last of these are dead, but left families ; Allen and Jessee yet survive, and are among our best people, quiet and unpretentious, honest and straightforward in all their movements and dealings with their fellow-men ; engage in no local strife or bickerings; keep clear
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of lawsuits; attend strictly to their own business and let the business of others strictly alone; it may be said, "with masterly inactivity." Observation teaches that it takes a pretty smart man to do this. Jessee Gibson and Allen Gibson married sister's, daughters of the late James Watson, and, doubtless, make good housewives, and are raising up families "in the way they should go." James Gibson died many years ago and left six or seven children; his oldest son, about twenty years of age, was killed on Main street, in Marion, more than twenty years ago; a horse ran away with a cart which the young man was driving, and threw him out near where the Bank of Marion now stands, his head striking an elm root on the side- walk, which crushed his skull. The writer was in fifteen feet of him when he fell, and was the first one to get to him; others soon came up and among them a doctor; he breathed sturtously for five or ten minutes and then expired. A sad and sudden ending. Albert Gibson died a few years ago, leaving a family of children, none grown at the time; he was one of our progressive, good citizens; his family are not known to the writer.
PAGE .- Another pretty extensive family in the county are the Pages ; they are mostly on Bear Swamp and Ashpole, near the State line, and Buck Swamp and Little Pee Dee. Of the old Pages known to the writer, there were Joseph, Solomon and Thomas, and perhaps David. Joseph died about the first of the nineteenth century, leaving three sons and several daughters ; his wife was a Miss Horn; his sons were Joseph and Abram and John W. The son, Joseph, settled on the paternal homestead, just across the State line, in North Caro- lina, owning lands, however, in both States; he married a Miss Connerly, a North Carolina lady ; died many years ago, quite a thrifty man, leaving two sons, Joseph and Timothy, and four daughters; his large landed property descended to his two sons, Joseph and Timothy. Joseph is dead, leaving sons and daughters, unknown to the writer. Timothy raised a considerable family, sons and daughters, and is still living. Timothy's sisters, all older than he and his brother, Joseph, married well; one an Elvington, one a Lewis, one a Connerly,
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and another, the youngest, Civil, married William H. Oliver, of North Carolina, and became the mother of two of our most respected and worthy citizens, to wit: the late Joseph R. Oliver and the late Dr. Wm. A. Oliver, both quite prominent, whose descendants, sons and daughters, married and single, are among us now, treading in the footsteps of their honored and beloved sires. Abram Page, the second son of the first old Joseph, married Miss Alice Nichols, of Columbus County, N. C., and sister to our late respected fellow-citizen, Averett Nichols, of Nichols, S. C. He settled on Ashpole, below the mouth of Bear Swamp, on the place now owned by the Widow T. B. Braddy, and where she resides. Abram Page raised five sons and one daughter ; the sons were David N., Averett, Abram B., Joseph N. and Dock, as he was called, and one daughter, Ava. David N. died in early manhood; I do not think he married; Averett moved into North Carolina; I do not know whom he married, nor of his family; Abram B. Page, well known by his cotemporaries, settled and merchandised for many years at Nichols, S. C., and apparently did well for years, but finally failed, lost his mind, was carried to the Asylum at Columbia, S. C., and after staying there for a while, returned home and soon thereafter died; he never married; his fine property in and about Nichols was all sold and has gone into other hands. Joseph N. Page, of Page's Mill, settled there many years ago; he married a daughter of the late Elias B. Ford, by whom he had and raised only one child, a daughter, who in recent years married a Mr. L. W. Temple, of Raleigh, N. C., who has a family of several children. Joseph N. Page was a very safe man, accumulated a considerable property, which was all clear at his death, a few years ago. Dock Page, the youngest brother, and who inherited the old homestead, married Miss Addie Ayres, daughter of Thos. W. Ayres, and lived on the old homestead until a year or two ago, when he sold it to Mrs. Braddy, as herein stated, who now occupies it. Dock Page has a considerable family, unknown to the writer. Ava Page, the only daughter of Abram Page, married James D. Oliver, many years ago; they removed to Texas; nothing further is known of them. John W. Page died in middle life, and left two children, a son, Augustus Page, and a daughter,
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who married the late Aaron Oliver. Augustus Page married a Miss Page; he died childless. Solomon Page lived and died on Bear Swamp, on the road from Lumberton, N. C., to Nichols, S. C .; his wife was a Miss Ford; he raised a consid- erable family, sons and daughters; the sons were Eli, Joseph, James E., David and John F., all of whom were our citizens thirty or forty years ago, but all now dead, each leaving a family of sons and daughters. They and their descendants and connections are numerous, and especially in that part of the county. Three of the sons, Eli, John F. and David, mar- ried three sisters, Misses Bennett-somewhat remarkable. Thomas Page married and settled on the south side of Little Pee Dee, on the place where S. L. Page now resides; I do not know who his wife was; he raised one son, an only child, his name was William ; he married a Miss Smith, daughter of old Samuel Smith, who lived and died about 1843, just below "Temperance Hill," on the road from Buck Swamp Bridge to Marion Court House. That marriage connects the Page and Smith families. Captain William Page was an excellent citi- zen and a very successful farmer, and accumulated a large property ; he died in 1859; he left four sons, Samuel T., John S., William J. and Pinckney Page; the latter married a daughter of the late John L. Smith; he was killed or died in the war; left three children, I think, a son and two daughters; I do not know much about them. John S. Page married Miss Louisa Bass, and died about the beginning of the war, and left four or five children. William, a son of John S., was killed in 1873 or '4, in a posse of Sheriff Berry's, in trying to make an arrest. One of the daughters is now the wife of C. J. McColl, a cotton buyer at Mullins, S. C. The oldest son of Captain William Page, Samuel T., got into some trouble, in 1865, with the military authorities then stationed in Marion; he sold out his plantation, now owned by J. Robert Reaves; eluding the "Yankees," he went West, and for years it was not . generally known where he was-he was in Mississippi; he re- mained there for twenty years or more, when he returned to Marion with his wife; she soon died, and he has been with his son, John K. Page, and still lives with him; he is in his eighty- third year. John K. Page, with whom the old gentleman lives,
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is a very trustworthy man, a good manager and very prosper- ous. William J. Page, another son of Captain William Page, resides on his father's old homestead ; he married, first, a Miss Grice, by whom he had eighteen children, and raised sixteen of them to be grown, sons and aughters, most of whom are mar- ried ; they are all unknown to the writer, except the oldest son, J. Lawrence Page, a Magistrate for years, and a very good one, and a useful man ; he lives on the homestead of his great -- grand-father, Thomas Page; he has children grown and mar- ried unknown to the writer, except the second wife of John K. Page. William J. Page is over three score years and ten, but vigorous and active, a good citizen. Old Captain William Page had several daughters; one married Joseph Deer (the name now extinct in Marion County) ; Deer died, and the widow married Rev. John B. Platt, of the South Carolina Con- ference; I think she had two sons and three daughters by the Deer marriage; Wm. P. Deer and John were the sons; Mrs. William Watson, one of the daughters, still survives; one other daughter, Ellenora, never married, and is dead; the last daughter, Elizabeth, married John E. Elvington. By the Platt marriage, she had a son, R. B. Platt, a Magistrate, near Mul- lins, S. C., and two daughters, Mrs. B. Gause Smith, and the late Mrs. Dr. C. T. Ford; they all have large families. Another daughter of Captain William Page married D. W. Platt; they moved to Mississippi, fifty years ago or more. Another daughter married George J. Bethea, and still survives ; she had two sons, William A. Bethea and John D. Bethea, and several daughters; I do not know whom they married, except that one married W. B. Ellen and one married W. Joseph Watson, and is dead, leaving several children. Another daughter of Captain William Page married the late Samuel Watson, and is dead; she left at her death, W. Joseph Melton, S. P. and Stonewall C. Watson, and two daughters, Sophronia and Maggie. W. Joseph Watson removed to North Carolina. Melton is dead, without child or children; he married a daughter of the late Charles Moody, who still survives. So- . phronia was the first wife of John K. Page; she left two sons, Samuel and Ernest. Maggie married Frank Easterling, a very worthy citizen, and is doing well. Another daughter of
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