USA > South Carolina > Marion County > A history of Marion county, South Carolina, from its earliest times to the present, 1901 > Part 32
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56
342
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
and finally bought a part of the John J. Collins land, near Ariel, and for several of the last years of his life he farmed on it, and succeeded very well; he married Miss Evaline Moody, a rela- tive, as herein already stated; they had two children, Lizzie and James A. Lizzie married McQuincy Bryant, as already stated, and has a family. James A. Moody has not married; he is a worthy son of a noble father and mother, both of whom are dead-the father died first ; the place, as I suppose, belongs to James A. and his sister, Mrs. Bryant. There was another Moody, named Jessee, who belonged, as said, to this branch of the Moody family ; he was an excitable and over-religious man, an exhorter in the Methodist Church ; his hair curled as much as I ever saw; the old man would shout when he felt like it, and I heard one of the clerical brethren once say of him, that when old Jessee got happy in church, that his hair was so kinky that it would lift him off the floor ; suppose he's dead.
HARLLEE .- The name, Harllee, is a change in the orthog- raphy, retaining nearly the same pronunciation as the original name, Harley, which the ancestor of the Harllees bore. These descended from a younger branch of the house, which was represented by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, during the reign of Queen Anne. The younger brother, Peter Harley, the ancestor of the present Harllees, espoused the cause of the exiled house of Stewart, and was among those active in at- tempting to restore the "Pretender" to the throne of England. A price was put on his head as a penalty of this prominence in the Jacobin cause, and he was compelled to remain concealed until his kinsmen obtained for him a pardon from the govern- ment ; but, probably at the suggestion of the Earl of Oxford himself, who was anxious to sever all connection with one of the unpopular party, the condition of the pardon was that Peter Harley should change his name. He agreed to alter the spell- ing of the name, but to retain the sound as nearly as possible- so thenceforth he became Peter Harllee. Through the patron- age of his then powerful kinsman he obtained an appointment in the navy for his only son, Peter, who was subsequently promoted to the Captaincy of a British man-of-war. Peter remained in this position until his sixtieth year, when, owing
343
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
to his failing health and on account of a wound, he resigned his commission, retired on his pension and settled in Virginia, then a British colony about the year 1758. He had remained a bachelor until this time, but the following year, when sixty- one years old, he married Ann Leake, of Goochland County, Va., a maiden lady, forty-five years old; the result of this mar- riage was four children-Ellen, Jane, John and Thomas. Ellen married William Adams, for whom Adamsville, in Marl- borough County, is named; Jane married Thomas Cottingham ; John died in youth; Thomas, the youngest, was just sixteen years old at the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown, 1781. His father having a contract with the commissary of Washington's army to supply beeves, sent his sons, with some negro slaves, in charge of a herd of cattle to Yorktown; they reached there on the eve of Cornwallis' surrender. The boy witnessed, and in after years often related the circumstances to his children. The son was too young to serve in the army, and the father too old, being then over eighty years of age. Peter Harllee died soon after the close of the war, leaving his family impoverished, not only through the loss of his British pension, but because that portion of Virginia had suffered de- vastation at the hands of both armies. Thomas moved with his mother and sisters to South Carolina. He often related to his children, that, being very poor, he engaged in manual labor beyond his strength to obtain money to forward a claim to the British government for the renewal and the arrears of pension due to his father. This claim, made through our Min- ister to Great Britain, was refused, the authorities asserting that Captain Peter Harllee had been a rebel, and had aided the colonies in their revolt, and had thus forfeited all claims upon Great Britain. Finding himself without other resources than those of youth, health and energy, he literally became the architect of his own fortunes. He had settled on Little Pee Dee River, where R. P. Hamer, Sr., now lives. Agriculture being in its infancy in that section, offered little hopes of live- lihood; but having considerable mechanical skill, he engaged in boat and flat making and found it very profitable. By this means he laid the foundation of the large property which he possessed at his death. He sold his flats to the rice planters,
23
344
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
and loaded his pole-boats with merchandise for his store on Little Pee Dee. This was the only store between Marion Court House and Cheraw. He engaged largely in farming and stock-raising, and entered all the lands for several miles around him on both sides of the river. With an education so limited that when he came to South Carolina, he could only. read and write, his ambition stimulated him to educate himself. Being too poor to buy candles, often, after a hard day's work, he studied for hours by a fire of blazing lightwood; thus he acquired the rudiments of knowledge and made sufficient progress in mathematics to begin surveying, and did much of this work; was employed by the State to survey several dis- tricts in the eastern part of the State for a large map of the State. This map is still extant and very accurate. He was aided in this work by his eldest son, John, who became one of the best surveyors in the State. He continued to enter and buy land as he accumulated the funds to do so, paid for it in coin weighed by avoirdupois, as was then customary. He pros- pered in everything in which he engaged. He often told his children that he attributed the blessings of Providence upon his undertakings to his life-long respect, affection and devotion for his aged mother, who continued to live with him until her death in 1810, at the advanced age of ninety-six years ; she had retained the most extraordinary vigor of mind and body. When Marion was first organized as a district, Thomas Harllee represented it in the Legislature; he was for many years Clerk of the Court for Marion District, having in his office a poor boy from Lumberton, N. C., as assistant, E. B. Wheeler, who succeeded his benefactor as Clerk; and held the office continuously until his death in 1859. Thomas Harllee, when young, married a girl of Scotch parentage, named Eliza- beth Stuart; her father, David Stuart, emigrated from Scot- land and settled in Richmond County, N. C. He, with his two sons, David and Hardy, fought through the Revolutionary War under General Marion. David Stuart, Sr., died about the close of the war, but his two sons survived him ; neither of those sons left descendants. David Stuart, Jr., was taken prisoner by the British, and was one of the few who survived the terrible incarcerations in the British prison ships in
345
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Charleston harbor. In this connection it may be mentioned that in the lower part of Barnwell, Hampton and Orangeburg Counties, there is a large family of Harleys, between whom and the Harllees of the Pee Dee section is a very striking resemblance-so marked is this resemblance, that at one time before the war, when Dr. Robert Harllee represented Marion County in the State Senate, and Dr. Robert Harley represented Barnwell in the same body, the presiding officer of the Senate frequently mistook the one for the other. There were born to Thomas Harllee and wife ten children-John Anne, Elizabeth, David S., Peter, Robert, Thomas, Harriet, William W. and Lucretia; the last died in childhood; the others all attained to manhood and womanhood-some of them living to advanced ages, rearing large families of children; but all of them are now dead-General W. W. Harllee, the youngest, being the last one to die-he died in 1897, at the age of eighty-five years. The oldest son, Major John Harllee, was a well known man throughout the Pee Dee section; he was a man of fine mind and splendid intellect. In his youth he was appointed a Lieutenant in the United States army; he saw much service with the In- dians and with General Jackson against the British at New Orleans. While stationed on the frontier, which was then Louisiana, he became involved in a personal difficulty with a fellow-Lieutenant, and the latter challenged him to mortal combat-duelling in those days, especially among army officers, was very common. Lieutenant David E. Twiggs, afterwards a Major General of the United States army, and who distin- guished himself in the war with Mexico, was the second of Lieutenant Harllee in the affair. They fought with rifles at forty paces ; Lieutenant Harllee threw away his shot at a sap- ling in the opposite direction from his challenger. After the latter had fired, he taunted Lieutenant Harllee with being afraid to shoot at him, and demanded another shot, which was accorded him, and at the word fire, the rifles cracked and the challenger fell dead-shot through the hips. Soon after this affair of honor, which he ever after deplored, Lieutenant Harl- lee resigned from the army and returned to his home, where he engaged in surveying and teaching school, until he became an old man. He was an expert and very correct surveyor, but
346
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
did not work at that employment constantly. He was an ex- cellent and pains-taking teacher, but did that work also spas- modically. During his long vacations his visits to his brothers' and sisters' families, where he spent these intervals, were wel- come events to the children of the families, especially his quaint and original expressions and narrations of his varied career, all of which were enjoyed by everybody, and can never be forgotten by those who knew him. In early life he was a keen sportsman, but as age grew upon him he could only in- dulge in fishing, which seemed to be a ruling passion ; this and reading were his only occupations in his last years. His lit- erary talents led him to read everything ; he could quote pages and pages from his favorite poets, and had rare poetic gifts himself-he, indeed, had in himself the elements of a grand and original character. He was never married, and spent his last years in comfort at the home of his niece, Mrs. Elizabeth McRae, at Argyle, N. C., where he died at the age of eighty- nine years.
Colonel David Stuart Harllee was the second son. His father settled him near him on lands now owned by M. R. and E. R. Hamer. He was Sheriff of the county, while he lived there, but soon sold out his lands and moved to Cheraw, S. C., where for a long period he was a leading merchant of the town. He finally sold out his mercantile business, bought a large plantation in Marlborough County, moved and lived there till he died. He was admitted to the bar late in life, at the age of fifty-one years-he and the writer were both ad- mitted in the same class ; he became a good lawyer. He mar- ried Harriet Barnes, of Robeson County, N. C., and they raised a family of three sons and four daughters. The eldest son, Major James J. Harllee, was a lawyer ; he began the practice of his profession at Marion Court House, but soon gave up the law to devote his entire attention to his large farming interest, near town. He married the only daughter of A. L. Scar- borough. Just before the civil war, he sold out his land and moved to Arkansas ; he owned a large number of slaves, and he carried them with him to Arkansas. He was a successful planter until the breaking out of the civil war. He fought through the war in the cavalry, and after the surrender the
347
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
government, through the Freedman's Bureau, seized several hundred bales of cotton belonging to him. After a long con- troversy, he gained back his cotton, and on the day he suc- ceeded in his suit for his cotton, he mounted his horse, in the town of Arkadelphia, to return to his home, a few miles dis- tant, but his horse becoming frightened became unmanageable, threw him and killed him. He was married before leaving South Carolina, but left no children. Dr. William F. Harllee, was the second son. He first married a Miss Medley, in Anson County, N. C., and after her death, a Miss McRae, daughter of General McRae, of Newberne, N. C. He raised several child- ren, and died several years ago. He was an Assistant Surgeon in the Confederate army during the entire war. The young- est son of Colonel D. S. Harllee is Thomas Henry Harllee, Sr., who lives at Florence, S. C. He married Margaret McColl, daughter of William McColl, near Florence, S. C .; they have raised a family of three sons and four daughters, all of whom are now living. Two of his sons, Thomas H., Jr., and David S., are popular conductors on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The eldest daughter of Colonel D. S. Harllee, Elizabeth, mar- ried, first, Dr. Neill McNair, of Robeson County, N. C .; they had one son, Harllee McNair, who entered the Confederate service, and was stationed at Wilmington, N. C., where he died early in the war. After the death of Dr. McNair, his widow married Alex. McRae, of Wilmington, N. C .; they lived at Argyle, their country home, until the death of Mr. McRae. Mrs. McRae now lives in Wilmington, N. C., with her step- daughter, Mrs. Emily Payne; she is quite an intellectual woman; most of her time is given to missionary work for the Presbyterian Church in the mountains of North Carolina. The second daughter of Colonel D. S. Harllee, Mary Ann, married B. H. Covington, of Richmond County, N. C .; they raised a family of several sons and one daughter. One of the sons, Rev. J. E. Covington, is an able minister of the Baptist Church, and lives in the upper part of South Carolina. An- other son, Frank F. Covington, of Marion, S. C., is the efficient stenographer of the Fourth Circuit, and is Chief Clerk in the enrolling department of the General Assembly ; he mar- ried Miss Nora Aycock, of Wedgefield, S. C., and has a family
348
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
of four children. The youngest son, Benjamin Harllee Cov- ington, married a Miss Cox, and lives in Marlborough, on his grand-father's plantation. The daughter, Hallie, married Mr. William Lawson, an Englishman, who is now a prominent merchant in Birmingham, Ala. The third daughter of Colonel D. S. Harllee, Julia, married Colonel John N. McCall, of Mars Bluff, S. C. After the war they removed to States- ville, N. C., where Colonel McCall died, and where his widow still lives. They raised a large family of children. Colonel McCall represented the County of Marion in the Legislature before the war; he was a large planter and owned a great many slaves. On the same night that Julia was married, Ellen, her youngest sister, was married at the residence of their brother, James J. Harllee, at Marion, to Robert F. Graham, who was then a young lawyer of fine talent and large practice, associated with General W. W. Harllee; he had graduated with high honors at the South Carolina College; he entered the army and was Colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment. After the sur- render, he allied himself with the Republican party in the State, and was one of the leaders from 1868 until his death, which occurred from yellow fever, in Charleston, in 1874; he was Judge of the First Circuit at the time of his death. He had several sons and daughters. His widow married Dr. Muckenfuss, and they reside at Summerville, S. C. Colonel Thomas Harllee was the third son of Thomas Harllee, Sr. He inherited the old homestead, where he continued the mercan- tile business near the river for a long time, and conducted the large farm. He sold out his possessions to John A. McRae and John B. McDaniel, of Clio, S. C., and they afterwards sold to Elias Townsend, who in turn sold to R. C. Hamer. R. C. Hamer gave it to his son, Robert P. Hamer, Jr., who now lives upon it, on the very spot where Thomas Harllee first set- tled and built. Colonel Thomas Harllee was a very popular man and was beloved by all who knew him; he represented the county in the Legislature in the olden times. Later in life, after selling out Harlleesville, he removed to Charleston, where he did business as a commission merchant until his death, in 1855; he never married. The fourth son of Thomas Harllee, Sr., was Captain Peter Harllee, who inherited the plantation on
349
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
the east side of the river from Harlleesville, where he lived and died, and where his son, Captain Andrew T. Harllee, now lives. This is the only land, out of the vast possessions origi- nally entered and owned by Thomas Harllee, Sr., now owned and lived upon by his descendants. Captain Peter Harllee married, in 1830, Ann Fulmore, of Robeson County, N. C .; they raised a family of four sons and four daughters; Captain Peter Harllee died in 1860. All four of his sons being in the army, the widow successfully conducted the farms with the slaves, and raised and furnished large quantities of provisions for the soldiers, until her death, in 1863. The oldest son, Captain Robert Z. Harllee, married Susan A. Munnerlyn, daughter of Thomas M. Munnerlyn; they had four sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Thomas M. Harllee, lives in St. Louis, Mo .; he won the prize in New Orleans for being the most rapid typewriter in the United States. John W. Harllee is Captain of a steamer running out of Georgetown, S. C. Peter Zack, the third son, is the superintendent of an oil mill at Gibson, N. C .; and the youngest son, Robert E., of one at Darlington, S. C. The eldest daughter, Sallie, married Edwin J. Wall, and they have a large family of children ; they live in Georgetown, S. C. The youngest daughter, Anne, mar- ried Joseph O. Wilson, who owns and runs a steamer out of Georgetown, where they live. Captain Robert Z. Harllee served throughout the war in Bragg's army, and was Captain of Company D, of the Tenth South Carolina Regiment, Mani- gault's brigade. He commanded the regiment at the battle of Atlanta, on July 28th, 1864, and was severely wounded in that battle; he also commanded the regiment in the series of battles through North Carolina just before the close of the war, and surrendered at Greensboro. He preserved the regi- mental flag by hiding it under his saddle blanket, and it escaped capture. He died at the residence of his brother, Captain Andrew T. Harllee, on the 17th April, 1900; his wife died in 1896. Captain Andrew T. Harllee, when quite a youth, went with a number of young men from the State to Kansas Terri- tory, in 1855; he remained there for a year, fighting under Atchison, Stringfellow and other pro-slavery leaders, against old John Brown (Ossauwatomie), afterwards hung at Harp-
350
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
er's Ferry, Jim Lane and others of the Abolition party-hence he was no stranger to the whistling of bullets from Sharp's rifles (Beecher's Bible), when the civil war began. After the failure of Kansas to be made a slave State, he returned to his native State, but soon after got an appointment, through his patron, Thomas A. Hendricks, in the Interior Department, in Washington, and held this position until South Carolina se- ceded, when he resigned and returned to Charleston, where he was appointed Assistant Quartermaster on the staff of Gover- nor Pickens, with the rank of Captain; discharged the duties of this office until the fall of Fort Sumter, when he resigned to raise Company I, of the Eighth Regiment, South Carolina. He went with that company to Virginia, and fought through the first battle of Manassas with a rifle. After that battle, Lieutenant R. H. Rogers having resigned, he was promoted to fill the vacancy, and on the reorganization of the company he was elected Captain, and served as such till the surrender. He was several times wounded-twice severely; first at the capture of Harper's Ferry, on Maryland Heights, through both thighs, and then at Gettysburg, in the right thigh again. After the surrender he went to Florida, remained there for three years, and then returned to his home, where he has resided ever since; he is a farmer and a bachelor ; he has held many places of public trust-was a Trial Justice from 1876 to 1886, was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1884, is commander of Camp Harllee of Confederate Vet- erans at Dillon, S. C. John W. Harllee was the third son of Peter Harllee. He was First Lieutenant of Captain Stafford's company of Hagood's brigade, and was a good officer. He was wounded twice-the last time he was permanently dis- abled by a resection of the knee joint, at the battle of the Wilderness, and his was the first successful operation of the kind performed in Lee's army, as the medical record shows; being* disabled for active service, he performed the duties of enrolling officer until the close of the war, having been pro- moted to Captain. After the war he removed to Florida, and married there Mary Ellen Curry; his wife died after the birth of his fourth son, and he never married again ; he accu- mulated a handsome fortune in the mercantile business, and
351
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
died in 1887, of yellow fever; he left four sons-the eldest, John, is a wholesale and retail hardware merchant in Havana, Cuba. His next two sons, Horace E. and Andrew C., are merchants and fruit and truck farmers in Manatee County, Fla., at the town Palmetto. His youngest son, William C., left West Point Military Academy when half through his course, and went to the Philippines as a private in the Thirty- third United States Volunteer Infantry. After two months' service there he was promoted to Lieutenant in the United States Marine corps, and he is now with his command en route for China, and was promoted to First Lieutenant, 23d July, 1900. Peter Stuart Harllee is the fourth and youngest son of Peter Harllee. He joined the army of the Confederacy at fifteen years of age, and served until the surrender in his brother, Captain A. T. Harllee's company, of the Eighth Regi- ment; he was in many of the battles in which the company engaged, but escaped without injury. After the war, he re- mained at home with his sisters until the return of Captain A. T. Harllee from Florida, when he went, first, to Texas, and then to Florida; he married, in Florida, Miss Alice Bullock, and they have several children; he is a large stock and fruit and vegetable grower, and has fine possessions along the Mat- inee River, in Tampa, and the interior of the State. Ann Eliza was the oldest daughter ; she was a lady of remarkable intelli- gence; died in 1895. Amelia is the second daughter ; she lives with her brother, Andrew, at the old place where they were born-she and her brother being joint owners of the old home- stead. Agnes, the third daughter, married Captain W. D. Carmichael, and they live three miles west of Harlleesville; they have six sons and four daughters, nearly all of whom are grown. Their eldest son, William D., graduated with distinc- tion at the University of North Carolina, in 1897, and he is now the Principal of the Durham High School, where he has been teaching since his graduation ; he married, in 1899, Mar- garet Mae Robert McCaull, daughter of Colonel John A. McCaull, of New York city; he is a young man of fine talent. Captain Carmichael has one daughter, Jessie, married to Walter Tatum, one of the leading merchants of McColl, S. C. The youngest daughter of Captain Peter Harllee, Bettie, was
352
A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
a very accomplished and superior young lady, a favorite with everybody ; she died just after reaching womanhood, in 1882. Dr. Robert Harllee was the fifth son of old Thomas Harllee; he graduated in medicine and settled at Marion Court House, and while he practiced there his profession, he had a very extensive practice all over the county. He married, first, Miss Ann Gurly, a daughter of Joseph Gurly; she died in a short time, childless; he afterwards married Mrs. Amelia Howard, widow of Charles Howard, of West Marion-her maiden name was Cannon, a daughter of old Major Cannon, of Darlington ; she had two children, a daughter, Melvina, and a son, Richard G. Howard, when she married Dr. Harllee; he (Dr. Harllee) raised a family of four sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Robert Armstrong, was a good soldier in the Eighth South Carolina Regiment ; he died in camp, near Manassas, in 1861, of pneumonia. The next oldest son, Walter C., is a com- mercial traveler ; he lives in Florence, S. C. The third son, Harry T., is a farmer; he lives near Florence; he married a Miss McCall, and they have a family of grown children. The youngest son of Dr.' Harllee, Arthur, is a lawyer ; he lives in New Mexico, and is unmarried. The second daughter, Sallie, just after the war, married Dr. J. F. Pearce, and they have one son, Robert H., who is now associated with his father in business. Dr. and Mrs. Pearce had one daughter, Anne, who married a Mellichamp, of Charleston, and they now live in Atlanta, Ga. After the death of his first wife, Dr. Pearce married her sister, Louisa, and they live on a part of Dr. Dr. Harllee's homestead. Dr. Pearce is well known through- out the State. He and his son are progressive and successful farmers as well as eminent physicians. Dr. Pearce represented his county (Marion) once in the Legislature, and declined re- election. Hattie, the youngest daughter of Dr. Harllee, mar- ried Hon. Marsden Bellamy, of Wilmington, N. C., where they reside, and have a large family of children. Dr. Harllee was an exceedingly popular man; he was several times a Repre- sentative in the lower House and for two terms a Senator before the war; he died after the war, at the age of sixty-five. General W. W. Harllee was the sixth and youngest son of Thomas Harllee, Sr .; he read law with Chancellor Dargan, of
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.