USA > South Carolina > Marion County > A history of Marion county, South Carolina, from its earliest times to the present, 1901 > Part 35
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Absalom Gasque, the old Court crier before the war, was married twice; first, a Miss Dozier, by whom he had sons, James W., Archie, John D. and Henry A., and daughters, Celia, who became the wife of Atkinson ; Olive, who became the wife of Ebbie Atkinson; Polly, who became the wife of Benj. Richardson; Ann, who became the wife of David J. Rowell, and Sarah, who became the wife of John Tyler. Absalom's second wife was a Miss Davis, and had Susan, the wife of Val. Dozier Ervin, killed at Cold Harbor, Va., in 1864. Samuel married Cade Thomas' daughter, and lives in Britton's Neck. James W. moved to Georgetown. John D. died suddenly, the day of the bombardment of Fort Sumter, 12th April, 1861. Henry A. married a Miss Collins, and had two children, daugh- ters. Francis married Calvin Lee; the other, Sallie, is yet un- married. The father, Henry A. Gasque, Court caller for years, like his father, Absalom; he was a capital man and law-abiding citizen. Archie Gasque married Miss Aun Rowell; they had eight boys, David A., Marion, Arny M., Wesley E., Samuel, McB. R., Franklin J., Archie B., and five daughters. Monetta died in 1862. Jennette married John Jones, and lives at Mc- Coll, S. C. Susan married Starr Shelly, on Terrel's Bay, and have a family. Idella married Fletcher Stalvey, and have a family. Mary married David Dozier, and died-burned to death, in 1890, leaving four children. Marion Gasque was killed at Drewry's Bluff, Va., in 1864. Samuel died in prison at Elmira, N. Y. Marion married a Miss Davis, and left three children-the wives of Willis Baxly, Evander Perritt and Charles B. Martin. David A. moved to Beaufort, and raised a family ; now dead. Arny M. married the Widow Devon, whose maiden name was Phillips, and has five children. Eu- genia married Thadeus Mace. Philip, Boyd M. and Emma unmarried; and Moses Mace married Lena Gasque. Wesley Gasque married twice-first, Miss Williamson, and had seven children, Hannibal L., Troy, Elmore; of the daughters, Mattie married Joseph Fowler, Emmile, Julia and Bettie are unmar- ried ; the sons are all married. His second wife was Ann Wat- son ; they have no children ; Wesley died in 1899. William B. Rowell Gasque married his cousin, Sallie Gasque, and has six children, five daughters and one son, Cicero. Florence mar-
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ried R. H. Begham; she died and left two children. Nannie married a Mr. Matthews, near Effingham, and has one child. Walker died. at eighteen years of age. Cora and one son, Cicero, are unmarried. Franklin J. (called Dock) married Mary McMillan, and left children, all girls-Claudia, Flossy and Mary. Dock, the father, died in 1895. Archie B. mar- ried a Miss Atkinson, and left no children; he died in 1875. Henry Gasque married Miss Harriet Porter ; they had thirteen children, and raised twelve-six sons and six daughters. Of the daughters, Jane married John A. Hatchel, of Florence County; Mary married Arthur Hutchinson, of Florence County ; Martha Ann married, first, Benjamin Hatchell, and then James Farley; she has two sons at Dillon (Farleys) in business there; Rebecca married Jessie Atkinson, they have a family of children; Kitty married Samuel Lane, and is in Horry; Charlotte married Frank Lane, and is also in Horry- both have families ; and Virginia, who is unmarried, stays with her brother, Eli. Henry and Elly Gasque were brave Confed- erate soldiers, and both died in the war. Eli H. married, first, a Miss Shaw, in Mississippi; her father, Merdock Shaw, went from Marion County ; they had ten children, sons and daugh- ters; the sons were Lonney M., Henry E., Boyd R., Charles W., John O., Joseph H., Andrew Stokes and Henry Little ; the daughters were Hattie and Edna, Hattie married a Mr. Twin- ing, of Wilmington, N. C., and has seven children, all small .. Lonney M. married, first, a Miss Oliver, and secondly, his first wife's sister, as already mentioned among the Legettes. Henry E. married Miss Nannie Gregg, of Marion; they have two or three children (small), one son, Andrew Stokes, died when young. The other sons of E. H. Gasque are all unmar- ried. E. H. Gasque married, a second time, Miss Sallie Fox- worth, daughter of the late William C. Foxworth; the fruits of this marriage are two sons and two daughters-Herbert and Carroll, Rena and Lucy (small). David Gasque married Miss Anna Smith, daughter of the late John M. Smith, and has, I think, four girls; the eldest has just graduated with distinction in Knoxville, Tenn. David has been in Columbia for years in the railroad service. Wesley married, don't know who; he has a family, a son in South Carolina College; he is a farmer and is
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doing well; he resides in Florence County. Bond Gasque mar- ried a Miss Rogers, daughter of Nathan Rogers ; has two boys ; lives at Mullins. William B. Gasque married, first, a daughter of "Corn-making Willis Finklea;" he had by her two children, a son, Alfred, and a daughter, who married a Mr. Brady, and they moved to Kansas. William B. Gasque married, a second time, a Miss Clark, daughter of Kenneth Clark, and by her had George K., Robert, James and Sallie, now the wife of W. B. R. Gasque; also, Mrs. Jefferson Braswell and Mrs. Mitchel Lane. Addison L. Gasque married a Miss Frye, who has a number of children, and lives in the Gapway section, a farmer, and is doing fairly well. Alfred Gasque (son of old Henry) married a daughter of Kenneth Clark, and died in two weeks after mar- riage. Wilson Gasque (son of old Henry) married a daughter of Malcolm Clarke; he died in prison during the war; he left one son, R. K. Gasque. Love Gasque, another son of old Henry, married Miss Susan Rogers, a daughter of old Timothy Rogers, and soon after moved to Mississippi. Mastin Gasque, another son of old Henry, married a daughter of Daniel Fore and a niece of T. F. Stackhouse ; he has seven or eight children, and lives with T. F. Stackhouse and conducts his farm ; he is a local Methodist preacher and an excellent man ; his eldest son, Randolph, died a year or two ago, at El Paso, Texas; some others of his children grown. Randolph left a wife in Marion County, with two children. The Gasque family and its con- nections are very numerous and extensive, and quite respecta- ble. Eli H. has merchandised all his life except during the war; he is at Marion, doing a large business and is well known throughout the county-a very public-spirited man and indomi- table in energy and perseverance; hard to down, and when down will rise again-no such thing as holding him down. The Gasques, as a family, did their full share in the war. I forgot to note, in its proper order, the only daughter of the first old Samuel Gasque, which I now mention: Nancy Gasque, sister of old Henry, John and Absalom; she married Thomas God- bold (called "Tom Cat"), and raised a large family, mostly sons, who have already been noticed in or among the Godbold family. Many people called her Aunt "Nancy Cats"-she was an extraordinary woman ; her husband died in 1836 or '7 ; seve-
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ral of her children were then small; she, however, braved all difficulties, raised her children respectably and made property, and at her death, in 1863, left a large property in lands and slaves; she ran a public house in Marion for thirty or forty years with great success-her table was ever loaded with the substantials of life and well prepared. Major Elly Gasque, son of old Henry by his first wife, married, first, a Miss Brown ; by her he had no children; he married, a second time, the Widow Montgomery, mother of J. D. and W. J. Montgomery ; by her he had and left two sons, Elly A. and Henry I. Gasque. Elly A. is a first class dental surgeon, unmarried. Henry I. married Miss Jennie Evans, daughter of Sheriff W. T. Evans ; she died some four of five years ago, leaving a son and a daughter, quite small; Henry I. has not remarried.
BROWN .- The Brown family will next be noticed. The first Brown known was John Brown, "Cut-face," as he was called; came from Columbus County, N. C., and settled below or east of Marion; don't know to whom he married ; he had and raised six sons, Richard (Dick), Joshua, Thomas, John, Stephen and. William, and two daughters. Mollie married a Mr. Fowler, the father of the late Jessie Fowler, and Patsey married a Mr. Campbell, who went West or disappeared. Richard Brown married a Miss Beach, and had two sons and two daughters; the sons were Lewis and Joseph ; the daughters were Pattie and Fannie. Lewis married, first, a Miss Elliott and next a Miss James, and had twenty-one children; nine grew up and were named Charlotte, Ann, Mary (first set) ; W. J., Rebecca and Lewis (second set) ; Henrietta, Temperance and Frances (third set). Charlotte married James Carter, who was the father of our John Carter (horse trader). The father was killed in the war, and his son, John, was also in the war, but came out un- hurt, and lately a volunteer in the Spanish war, Second Regi- ment ; he deserves the plaudits and well done of his countrymen. Ann Brown married Frank Capps, and was the mother of David Capps. Mary Brown married Wilson James, and had a number of daughters and one son, Preston, who was killed in the war. William J. Brown, two miles below Marion, and a most excellent citizen, married Miss Mary Pace, and has six
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living children (names unknown). Lewis Brown, Jr., mar- ried Miss Rachel Flowers, and had no children; was killed in the war. Henrietta married Love Flowers ; had three children, now living (name and sex unknown). Temperance Brown married Baker Lewis, and has four sons and two daughters living. Frances married John Drew; they live in Horry County. Joshua Brown, son of the first old John, married a Miss Brown, and moved to Horry, and has a number of chil- dren and grand-children in this county. Thomas Brown, second son of first old John, married a Miss Brown. Most of this family of Browns have emigrated to other parts. John Brown, Jr., the third son of old John, moved to Georgetown, married and raised a family, and died there. Stephen, the fifth son of old John, married a Miss Whitner, of North Caro- lina, and had and raised two children, "Hon. John Brown," and daughter, Jane, who married Henry Waller, who was killed in the war ; he left a family of three children. "Hon. John" lives about two miles below Mullins, I suppose, on his father's old homestead; he has attained to some notoriety by his unique character, quaint sayings, and by numbers of quaint and spicy letters which he has had published in "The Marion Star" for the last thirty years. Any one who takes the "Hon. John" to be a fool, is badly sold; he has talent for wit and humor that few have, and if "Hon. John" had been educated and had turned his powers at wit and humor in the proper channel, he might now be classed with Zeb. Vance and other distinguished wits of the age; but, alas! John-"Hon. John"-is limited to a narrow sphere around Mullins and his native county. "Hon. John" married a Miss Rogers, "Pat," and has raised several sons, who are a credit to "Hon. John," and form a part of our good citizenship. I know only two or three of them-Allison H., at Latta, Edward W., of Marion, and Charles V., late of Latta. "Hon. John's" environments in early life, I suppose, were not the best; it rarely happens that a man rises above his environments, and the society in which he is brought up to manhood, and the active realities of life. William, the sixth son of old first John, married a Miss Whitter or Whittier; he was the father of William A. Brown, on Sister Bay, and a num- ber of other boys, who were all killed in the war, or died from
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disease or wounds. Joseph Brown married a Miss Richardson, in Britton's Neck, and had a son, James, killed in the war, and Evander, Pinckney, Washington and Lex, and two daughters, Ann and Julia. Ann married Mr. Benjamin G. Woodberry. Julia married Charles Pace ; they had, or have, Charles, Joseph and Mrs. A. P. Hucks, Mrs. Richard McRae and Mrs. Sydney Richardson, when Pace died, and she married M. H. Collins (Hook) ; they have no children. The Brown family and con- nections, it may be inferred from above statements, suffered greatly in the war, by fatalities-as much or more, perhaps, than any other family in the county, in proportion to their num- bers. Brown is a very popular name throughout the United States, Marion County included. It may be here stated or re- stated, that old Henry Gasque's first and second wives were Browns ; Miss Edith Gasque married a Mr. Brown; Miss Nel- lie Gasque married a Mr. Brown, of North Carolina; Major Elly Gasque's first wife was a Miss Brown; George W. Reaves' second wife was a Miss Brown. To what particular families of the Browns these wives and husbands belonged, does not appear. Perhaps the present Brown families, when they shall have read this sketch, can assign each to his or her particular branch of the Brown family.
Another family of Browns, not related to the preceding Browns, will now be noticed, to wit: the family to which the Hon. W. A. Brown belongs. Jeremiah Brown, the great- grand-father of Hon. W. A. Brown, married a Miss Jolly-the same family that is or was related to the McIntyres of Marion ; they had four sons, Jerry, James, William and John S .- the last named was in Fanning's army and was massacred by the Mexicans, about 1835 or '6, at the Alamo. There were two daughters-Rebecca, who married John Graham, and Annie, who married another John Graham, relative of the other. The son, James Brown, was the grand-father of Hon. W. A. Brown; he was born in West Marion, near Mars Bluff; he married Miss Julia Davis, a sister of Jackey Davis and aunt of Wm. J. Davis ; they had only two children, a daughter, Harriet, who married G. W. Woodberry, and an infant son, the late Travis Foster Brown, who was born July, 1822, and died De- cember, 1894. Travis Foster Brown married Miss Martha
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Caroline Baker, the youngest daughter of William and Annis Baker-were very young when they married; they had and raised five children, John O., William A. and James T. Brown, and two daughters, Susan A. and Julia M. Susan A. married Captain T. E. Stanley ; Julia married J. E. Stevenson ; John O. married Miss Louisa Brunson, of Darlington ; William A. mar- ried Miss Eliza Clarke, daughter of the late R. K. Clarke; James T. married Miss Louise DuRant-all are living except Julia, who died in 1885. J. O. Brown was delicate from child- hood; he joined the Confederate Army when eighteen years old, Neill C. McDuffie's Company L, 21st Regiment, Graham, Col., in 1861 ; served in same company under the young and gallant Captain Hannibal Legette, and after his death, under Captain W. B. Baker, and was captured at Fort Fisher, im- prisoned at Point Lookout, and remained there two months before Lee's surrender. The father, T. F. Brown, was in Colo- nel Cash's regiment, Captain W. S. Ellerbe's company, while it was in service. T. F. Brown having lost his wife, never more married, but devoted himself to the raising and education of his children ; he was a widower for about forty years ; he and his sister, Mrs. G. W. Woodberry, were raised orphans by their uncle and aunt, Jacky Davis and Susie Davis, who were as good and kind to them as if they had been their own children. T. F. Brown began life a poor boy ; he at first clerked for John Henry, at Marion, for $5 per month, but soon rose and was depended on everywhere. When he married, he gave up clerking and engaged in farming on a small scale, near Tabernacle Church ; he was soon able to buy a larger farm and moved to it, where he spent the balance of his life; by industry and good judgment he was successful, and at the breaking out of the war was con- sidered to be in good circumstances ; so decided was he, that he never hesitated, but did the right as by intuition; he was a life long and consistent member of the Methodist Church. The grand-parents of Hon. W. A. Brown, on his mother's side, were William and Annis Baker; his grand-mother's maiden name was Phillips ; she first married a Giles, son of Colonel Hugh Giles, of Revolutionary fame; by this marriage she had only one child, Hugh Giles, Jr., when he died, and she then married William Baker ; by this latter marriage were born Mary, who
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married Gause Sweet; Eliza, who married Nathan Evans ; Susan, who married Alexander Owens; Jennette, who died quite young, and Martha Caroline, who married T. F. Brown; and sons, James, who married a Miss Taylor, and who is the mother of our fellow-citizens, Joseph A., W. W. Baker and James Baker, of Marion; their mother still survives. Old Mrs. Annis Baker was an extraordinary woman ; her husband having died and left her many years before her death, she managed with unusual success a large landed estate and many negroes, and also a considerable amount of money, and accumu- lated much more property before her death, and superintended the whole in person ; would not employ an overseer-she over- seed for herself-lived to a great age, active and energetic to the last; she divided her property among her grand-children; she was, indeed, a most remarkable woman ; she had and raised another son, William J. Baker, who lived and died a bachelor.
GILCHRIST .- The family of Gilchrist will next be noticed. This family is not very extensive, neither in name nor its con- nections in Marion County ; yet its respectability and promi- nence require that it shall have some notice, though it be short. The progenitor of the family in this county was Dr. Daniel Gil- christ, a dental surgeon, from Richmond or Robeson County, N. C. The writer recollects seeing Dr. Gilchrist when a boy, in 1831. The writer was going to school at Red Bank, N. C., that year, and Dr. Gilchrist came along the road during a recess in the school, on horseback, with a pair of saddle-bags under him, in which his dental instruments were stored or packed- there was no such a thing as a buggy in that day. Two of the grown young men, Archie Baker, afterwards a Presbyterian minister, and Daniel McNeill, knew Dr. Gilchrist; he recog- nized them, stopped, and they talked a while with him, and among other things he said he was going down South to see if he could not find work to do down there. I suppose he had just graduated in dental surgery ; he was then a young single man. Whilst they were talking to him, the smaller boys in school, of whom I was one, gathered up around them to hear what was said, &c. The next I knew of Dr. Gilchrist, I think, about 1840, he was settled and living at what formerly was
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called Newsom's Bridge, afterwards and now called Gilchrist's Bridge, on Little Pee Lee. Dr. Gilchrist had evidently- found work to do down South, for he had married a Miss Johnson, of Horry County, had bought the old Newsom place and was liv- ing upon it ; by his marriage he had and raised a family of four sons and three daughters ; the sons were Archie, D. E., Charles B. and Johnson; the daughters were and are Virginia, Georgia and Ida. Of the sons, Archie married Miss Augusta Bethea, a daughter of Captain Elisha C. Bethea, and raised a family of three sons and three daughters ; the sons are Eugene B., Archie Hill and Claudius ; the daughters are Bessie, Alice and Mary. Eugene B. married some one to the writer unknown, and has, perhaps, one child; the other sons not grown. Of the daugh- ters, Bessie and Alice are grown and unmarried; Mary is not grown. Archie Gilchrist, the father, settled at Mullins soon after the war, and was engaged in mercantile and turpentine pursuits for years, also had a farm near by ; he died some time in the last of the 80's. D. E. Gilchrist, called "Van," has never married; he was agent for many years for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, at Nichols; but when it was made a telegraph station, he had to resign his position to make room for an operator ; he went back to his old home, and is there with his brother, Charles, who also has never married, and his two maiden sisters, Miss Georgia and Miss Ida. Johnson Gilchrist, the youngest son of Dr. Gilchrist, married Miss Bettie Mc- Duffie, daughter of the late ex-Sheriff ; they have two or three children ; they also live on the parental homestead. Who is "boss" there is not exactly clear. The daughter, eldest, Vir- ginia, of Dr. Gilchrist, a highly accomplished lady, married Dr. J. W. Singletary, of Marion, who was also a well educated and genteel gentleman and a fine physician; owing to incompati- bility in their views of life, they did not agree and upon suit brought in the Court for divorce, it was granted; three sons were the offspring of the marriage; one of them died in boy- hood; the other two, Archie G. and Joseph W., were raised. Archie G. Singletary is a graduate of the Citadel Academy, and after graduation went to Louisiana and taught as principal of a high school there, at $1,500 a year, for several years ; has stu- died law and, I think, is now practicing ; he is fine-looking and
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a polished gentleman-very much like his father. His brother, Joseph W. Singletary, is also in Louisiana, in the saw mill business, and it is said is making money, and stands fair ; their mother has gone out there and lives, I think, with Archie. The father, Dr. J. W. Singletary, died a few years ago, and is buried in the cemetery, beside his father and mother ; his sister, Mrs. A. Q. McDuffie, has died since, and is also buried there. D. E. Gilchrist is a man of talent and one of the best informed men we have; he is now advancing in years, and if he had per- formed or fulfilled his mission in society and had not frittered away his powers, he might have attained to the highest posi- tions in the State, and most certainly in his county; and this much is said with no view to disparage him. Dr. Daniel Gil- christ was a very intelligent man and successful in his business every way; he married some property, which he greatly im- proved; he was one of the many good importations from the Old North State. In politics he was a Whig, and, therefore, did not succeed in his political aspirations. He died just at or after the close of the war, also his wife; his sons, all that were old enough, were good soldiers in the war for Southern inde- pendence, and went down only when the cause, for which they fought and suffered four years of hardship and privations, went down.
EASTERLING .- The Easterling family in Marion County is an importation from Marlborough-a very extensive and re- spectable family in that county. James Easterling married a Miss Manship, a sister of Rev. Charles Manship, of Marl- borough, and came down into Marion and first settled near what was then called Bethea's Cross Roads, in the early part of the nineteenth century. After some years, he sold his lands in the vicinity of Bethea's Cross Roads, now the Widow Ann Manning's, and moved on a place on the north side of Catfish, and just at the lower end of Catfish Bay, where he lived the remainder of his life; he raised a considerable family of sons and daughters ; his sons were Enos, Silas and, I think, John, Tristram, Henry and James F., and several daughters, whose names are not all remembered. Of the sons, Enos and Silas, and John, if there was a John, migrated West soon after they
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grew up, and never returned except on a visit. Tristram mar- ried, January 4th, 1844, Miss Jane Bethea, youngest sister of Squire Samuel J. Bethea. The writer was one of "his best men" on the occasion. He settled near by his mother-in-law, on lands belonging to his wife; some years afterwards he bought the land, near Harlleesville, where John H. Hamer now lives and owns ; in a few years he sold his Harlleesville place and moved to Mississippi; he remained in Mississippi some years-his oldest daughter, Martha, married there-when he moved back to Marlborough, and lived near Bennettsville. Whilst there, his wife, Jane, was killed. She was drawing water at the well; the well-sweep broke and fell on her head, fracturing the skull, of which she died in a day or two. Tris- tram Easterling had and raised a considerable family, sons and daughters. Of the sons I know nothing. His second daugh- ter, Lucretia A., married William Platt, who died some fifteen years ago; Lucretia took her six children and went to Texas, where she and her children are doing well ; children all married respectably and well. "A rolling stone does not gather much moss," so with Tristram Easterling; he was ever moving-is alive yet in his eighty-third year, and is in Texas. Henry Easterling, the next son of old "Jimmy," married Miss Rhoda Crawford, daughter of Willis G. Crawford, of the "Free State" section ; by this marriage three sons were born and raised, Wil- lis C., Thomas C. and Frank, and two daughters, Ella and Florence. Willis C. Easterling married a Miss Legette, daughter of James B. Legette, of "Free State," and lives now upon the Daniel Platt place; they have five daughters (one married) and two sons. Willis C. is an excellent man, kind- hearted, a straight-forward, honest citizen, and prominent in his community. Thomas C. Easterling, when a young single man, went to Florida, and married a lady of that State; is now Sheriff of his county and has been for two or three previous terms and is doing well ; suppose he has a family. Frank, the youngest son, a very estimable man, married Miss Maggie Watson; they have two boys, Rupert and Henry (small) ; Frank is a capital man and doing fairly well. Of the daughters of Henry Easterling, Ella married Leroy Bethea, son of the late Captain D. W. Bethea ; they have several children, some of
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