USA > South Carolina > Marion County > A history of Marion county, South Carolina, from its earliest times to the present, 1901 > Part 37
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and Evander S. Bethea; the daughters were Rebecca, Absala, Mary, Catharine and Sarah Ann. Levi married Miss Mary Ann Bethea, a daughter of John Bethea, of the "Sweat Swamp set," and had two sons, Henry L. (who died in youth), and George, and four daughters, Sophia, Hannah Jane, Louisa and Charlotte. Of these, Sophia married William H. Smith, on Buck Swamp, and had and raised sons, Samuel O. Smith, Wm. B., Henry E. K. and John B. Smith, and two daughters, the wife of B. S. Ellis (first cousins), and Hamilton Edwards' wife. Hannah Jane Bethea married John C. Bass, and died childless. Louisa Bethea married James F. Galloway, and has a family of two sons, Henry and James, and four daughters, Sallie, Rebecca, Mary and Rachel. Charlotte Bethea married John E. Henry, who lives on the old William Bethea home- stead, and has already been noticed in or among the Henry family. George Bethea, son of Levi, married a Miss Camp- bell, daughter of the late Edward Campbell, and has five sons, Edwin, Henry, Gary, Robert and Chalmers. Think Edwin lately married a Miss Smith, daughter of Marcus L. Smith. William S. Bethea, second son of William Bethea by his Sheck- elford wife, married Miss Sarah Ann DeBerry, of Marl- borough; by her he had two children, a daughter, Missouri, and a son, William Henry. Missouri became the first wife of John H. Hamer; she died, leaving one child, a son, Missouri Robert Hamer, who has already been noticed in or among the Hamer family. The son, William Henry Bethea, married, first, a Miss Wilson, of Wilmington, N. C., and by her he had two daughters, Adaline and Ella, both single, and two sons, Wilson and Henry (twins) ; Henry died in 1899; Wilson sur- vives, and is unmarried. William Henry's first wife died, and he married, a second time, Miss Ellie Sherwood; she has one son, Evander S., a boy nearly grown. William Henry Bethea died in 1891 or 1892, a felo de se. Frank Bethea married, late in life, Miss Rebecca Manning, daughter of Woodward Man- ning; had one child, a son; father and son (an infant) both died the same year; the widow, Rebecca, married twice after that, and has already been mentioned among the Manning fam- ily. George J. Bethea married Miss Irena Page, daughter of Captain William Page; they had and raised two sons, William
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A. and John D., and several daughters, Amanda, Ellen, Mary, Kittie and Belle. William A. married a Miss Floyd and moved to North Carolina. John D. married Miss Sallie Man- ning, daughter of Woodward Manning. Of the daughters, Amanda married William B. Ellen ; Kittie married Joseph Wat- son, her first cousin; don't know who the others married. William A. has a son, named Jasper, and John D. has a son, named Herbert. Evander S. Bethea, the youngest son of old Buck Swamp William, never married. The oldest son of Buck Swamp William, by his Crawford wife, was named John C., born in 1798, and died January, 1863; married, first, a Widow Irby, whose maiden name was Allison; she had one child, a daughter, Elizabeth, when he married her, who grew up and married Henry Rogers, of Marlborough; they raised a large family of sons and daughters, and among the daughters is Hen- rietta, who is now the widow of the late Governor W. H. El- lerbe; by his marriage with the Widow Irby, he had and raised one son, Edwin Allison, when she died; and he afterwards married Sarah Ann Davis, and by her had and raised one son, John C., now of Dillon. Edwin A. married Ann Eliza God- bold, youngest daughter of Asa Godbold, Sr .; they live at Latta, and have a family of several sons and daughters; the sons are Asa, John C., Edwin and Reed Walker, and several daughters. One daughter married to W. C. McMillan, and is in Columbia, S. C. Asa has gone West; others all here. John C. Bethea, of Dillon, married Miss Hettie Bethea, daugh- ter of W. W. Bethea, of Mississippi, and of the "Sweat Swamp family ;" they have two sons, Horace and John C., and five daughters, all small. Of the sons of Buck Swamp William, there was one noticeable peculiarity-they all, except old John C., drank liquor excessively, and when intoxicated or drinking were perfectly quiet and harmless-much more so than when sober, except, perhaps, Evander S .; they were all capital men, energetic and progressive citizens. Of the daughters of old William Bethea (Buck Swamp), Rebecca married Colin Mc- Lellan, who has already been noticed in or among the McLel- lans. Absala married Hugh Campbell, already mentioned in or among the Campbells. Mary married William W. Bethea, of the "Sweat Swamp set," who will be noticed further on:
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Catharine married Averitt N. Nance, of North Carolina, and raised one son, Daniel, and several daughters. Sarah Ann married a Mr. Folk, of North Carolina, and raised a family of two sons and two daughters, names unknown. All the sons and daughters of Buck Swamp William are dead; he himself died 13th June, 1840. James Bethea, the second son of old "Buck Swamp John," married Miss Margaret Cockrane, a daughter of Thomas Cockrane, of Marlborough County, and settled in the fork of Big and Little Reedy Creeks; they had and raised to be grown twelve children, five sons and seven daughters; the sons were Thomas C., Samuel J., John R., David and Claudius; the daughters were Nancy, Deborah, Sallie, Rachel, Lucinda, Lucretia and Jane. Thomas C. mar- ried Miss Miranza Rogers, a daughter of old Timothy Rogers, and emigrated to Mississippi. Samuel J. married Miss Mary Rogers, another daughter of old Timothy Rogers; he was a local Methodist preacher for more than forty years, a man of high character and a most excellent citizen; he died in 1877; he married, a second time, Miss Elizabeth Bass, daughter of old man Joseph R. Bass; by his first marriage he had and raised to be grown eleven children-sons, James, Andrew J. and David N .; daughters, Sarah, Margaret, Harriet, Flora J., Louisa, Lucinda, Charlotte and Cattie; and by his last wife, one son, Samuel J., Jr. Of the sons, James died unmarried, just on arriving at manhood. Andrew J. was a practicing physician, and married Anna Maria Allen, daughter of Rev. Joel Allen, settled in the "Free State" section, and died in 1881, leaving his widow and five children-all now grown- three sons, Herbert, Percy and Andrew, and two daughters, Mrs. Rev. Pearce Kilgo, who has five children, and Mrs. Wil- liam T. Bethea, who has three children, sons, James Earle, William Thaddeus, Jr., and Philip Osborne. The next son of Rev. S. J. Bethea, David N., who died last week, married, first, Anna J. Sellers, daughter of the writer, and settled in the "Free State" section; they had eight children, three of whom are dead, also the mother ; of the eight, five were sons and three daughters ; the sons were William T., Samuel Stoll, David A., Swinton Legare and Andrew Pearce; the daughters were Cattie May, Lillian and Anna Laval. Of these, Samuel Stoll,
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David A. and Cattie May are dead-died before majority. William Thaddeus married his cousin, Georgia Bethea, as above stated and children as above stated ; he is railroad agent at Dillon and has been for more than ten years, and Mayor of the town for three years. By the second marriage of Rev. S. J. Bethea, he had one son, Samuel J., Jr., who is and has been for ten years or more a traveling Methodist preacher in the South Carolina Conference; he married Miss Nannie Bethea, of the "Sweat Swamp" family, and have only one child, a son, Samuel J., Jr. Of the daughters of Rev. S. J. Bethea, three, Lucinda, Cattie and Charlotte, all grown young ladies, died unmarried. Sarah married James Moore, of Marlborough County ; they had only one child, a son, James B. Moore, of Latta ; the father died when James B. was an infant ; the widow never married again, and died a few years ago. The son, James B. Moore, married Miss Mollie Godbold, daughter of Asa Godbold, Jr .; they have three children living, two sons, Clancy and LaCoste, and a daughter, Lorena (small). Mar- garet, the next daughter of Rev. S. J. Bethea, married John W. Tart; they had and raised three sons, James, John and An- drew; the father and mother are both dead. James went to Savannah, married a Miss Fuller, of Waycross, Ga., and when last heard of was said to be doing well. John married a Miss Bethea, daughter of Elisha Bethea, Jr., of Latta; they have some family, how many and of what sex is not known. An- drew Tart married a Miss Hays, daughter of Hamilton R. Hays, and lives near Kirby's Cross Roads ; suppose they have some family, how many and of what sex is unknown. Of the daughters of John W. Tart and wife, two or three of them died unmarried, after maturity. One married Samuel O. Smith, of Buck Swamp; they have a large family. Their oldest, a son, Stephen Lane Smith, lives at Latta, and lately married a Miss Edwards, a daughter of Austin Edwards. Another daughter married C. C. Gaillard, and has three children-a daughter, Maggie, and a son, Luther, and another name unknown; they now live at Dillon; their children are grown. Another daughter married James Johnson, a nephew of Chancellor W. D. Johnson, called "Black Jim," to distinguish him from J. W. Johnson, Esq., another nephew and son-in-law of the Chancel-
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lor ; they live at Fair Bluff, N. C .; they have some children, how many and of what sex is unknown. Another and young- est daughter of John W. Tart and his wife, Margaret, married Solon Lewis, of Latta; she died some months ago, and left two children, a daughter and a son, I think. The next daughter of Rev. S. J. Bethea, Harriet, and the only survivor of his eleven first children, has never married, and is sixty-one or two years old. Flora, the next daughter, married the late Stephen D. Lane; both are dead, and died childless. Louisa, the next daughter, married Newton Owens, of North Carolina; they moved to Texas several years ago; she is dead, leaving several children, sons and daughters-perhaps, all grown. John R. Bethea, the third son of old James Bethea, married Miss Har- riet Bass, daughter of old Joseph R. Bass. I think this family has been already noticed in or among the Bass family. The fourth son of old James Bethea, David, died a young man, unmarried, in 1843. Claudius Bethea, the fifth and youngest son of old James Bethea, married, late in life, Miss Mary Ann Miles, daughter of Charles Miles, of the "Free State" section ; he and his wife are both dead, childless. Of the daughters of old James Bethea, the eldest, Nancy, married Salathel Moody, an older brother of old Barfield Moody; they had several chil- dren, sons and daughters, some grown, when they broke up and moved West. Deborah, the second daughter, married James Spears, a very successful man in Marlborough ; they had and raised a large family-two sons, Andrew J. and Edwin A., and six or seven daughters ; they have descendants, grand-sons, in Marion County now, in the persons of Dr. J. H. David and Frank B. David,* enterprising, progressive men, with their families. They have many descendants in Marlborough County. The two sons, Andrew J. and Edwin A., died child- less; Edwin married. Lucinda, the fifth daughter of old James Bethea, married Colonel Wilie Bridges, of Marlborough, and emigrated West. Sallie, the third daughter, married Willis Crawford, from whom sprang several sons and two daughters ; the sons were James, Hardy, Thomas C., Willis, William and Gibson G. Crawford, now of Latta ; the daughters were Rhoda and Margaret. Of the sons, James died when about grown,
*Frank B. David died recently.
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
unmarried. Hardy married a Miss Platt, and went West. Thomas C. married twice, is well known in the county ; mar- ried, the last time, a Miss McPherson, in West Marion, and has resided there for more than thirty years ; his wife died a short time ago, childless ; he is a most excellent man and a good citi- zen .* Willis Crawford was a physician; married a lady in Charleston, and was soon after accidentally killed in a fox drive by his own gun-verifying the adage, "That more people are killed or hurt at play than at work." William died, a sin- gle man, after having gone through the war and came out un- hurt. G. G. Crawford married Miss Kate Bethea, daughter of Colonel James R. Bethea ; they had and raised two sons, James C. and Samuel B., and two daughters, Jessie and Mary; his wife is dead; he has not remarried. James G. has lately mar- ried a Miss Evans, of Society Hill. Jessie married, two or three years ago, William Ellis Bethea; no offspring. Samuel B. and Mary are yet single. The oldest daughter of Willis and Sallie Crawford, Rhoda, married Henry Easterling, and has already been noticed among the Easterlings. Margaret, the youngest daughter, never married, and is dead. Rachel, the fourth daughter of old James Bethea, married Enoch Meekins, of Marlborough; he, however, settled and lived many years near Harlleesville, and raised a considerable family of sons and daughters, and finally moved to North Carolina, where he and his wife both died; don't know enough about his children to trace them. He had one son, Philip B., who married a Miss Hays, daughter of John C. Hays; they also moved to North Carolina, and are lost sight of. One daughter married John R. Carmichael; he died, and left two sons, Alexander and McCoy, and one daughter, Johny; the mother still lives. Another daughter married James McGirt ; they went to North Carolina. Lucretia, the sixth daughter, first married Aaron Meekins, of Marlborough, brother of Enoch, who had married Rachel; Aaron Meekins lived but a short time, and died childless ; the widow afterwards married Wesley Stackhouse, who has already been noticed among the Stackhouse family. Jane, the young- est daughter, married Tristram Easterling, who has already been noticed. in or among the Easterling family. Philip Be-
*Thomas C. Crawford has recently died.
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
thea, the third son of old "Buck Swamp John," married, in 1801, Rachel Cochrane, daughter of old Thomas Cochrane, of Marlborough, and sister of his brother James' wife. (As to Thomas Cochrane-he was a Vermonter, ran away from his parents in Vermont when a mere lad, and married a Miss Coun- cil, and settled on Great Pee Dee, just above the mouth of Crooked Creek; raised a family ; married three times ; the two Bethea's wives above mentioned were daughters of the first wife, together with another daughter, Polly, who became the wife of old John Hamer, and the progenitress of the large family of that name in Marlborough and Marion, and a son, named Robert; he amassed a large property and lived to a great age.) Philip Bethea settled on Catfish, where he lived and died in 1865; they raised to be grown two sons, Elisha C. and James R., and three daughters, Clarissa, Margaret and Martha Ann. Of the sons, Elisha C. married Martha Ann Walters, daughter of Jeremiah Walters, of upper Marion; Captain Elisha C. was a very successful man as a farmer and well to do in life; they had eleven sons and four daughters ; the sons were Philip W., John J., Robert C., James A., Elisha, Picket, Morgan, George, William W., Clarence and Julius N .; the daughters were Elizabeth Ann, Wilmina R., Augusta B. and Alice. Of the sons of Elisha C., Philip W. married Miss Anna Smith, a daughter of Rev. John L. Smith, of the "Fork" section, and settled where he now lives; his family has been noted among the Lane family. The second son of Captain Elisha C. Bethea is Dr. John J. Bethea, at Mullins ; has been practicing medicine since 1852; he married, first, Miss Mary Bethea, a daughter of Tristram Bethea, of Floral College, one of the "Cape Fear set :" she had one child, a daughter, Emma, who grew up and married Dr. William Harrel, who moved to Georgia some years ago, and had when they left six daughters and no son. Dr. John J. Bethea married, a second time, Miss Jane Smith, a daughter of Rev. John L. Smith, and sister of his Brother Philip's wife. Owing to some trouble growing out of the war, Dr. John had to leave the county and State for fear of the Federal garrison stationed at Marion in 1865 to 1868; he went to Mississippi, and his family soon followed after him, and he stayed in that State some fifteen or twenty years, when
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he came back, and has been in this county ever since. His family have been noticed in tracing the Lane family. Robert C. Bethea, the third son of Captain Elisha C., married, some time before the war, a Miss Legette, daughter of John C. Legette, of West Marion ; before the war, he removed to Mississippi; they had some little family before leaving this county-know noth- ing more of them; he was also a physician, and in his adopted home he became a local Methodist preacher. James A. Bethea, the fourth son of Captain Elisha C., was a bright young man ; volunteered in the early part of the war, was a Lieutenant or rose to a Lieutenancy in Co. E, Twenty-third Regiment, S. C. V., and remained in the war to the end, a gallant soldier. After the war he went to Mississippi; and from there went to a law school at Lebanon, Tenn .; returned to Mississippi, was admit- ted to the bar, but soon after took sick and died-a worthy and promising young man; he never married. Elisha Bethea, Jr., the fifth son of Captain Elisha C., married, on the 9th March, 1861-the writer officiating at the nuptials-to Miss Sallie Ellis, daughter of the Widow Ginsy Ellis. He also volun- teered and went into the army, and remained in it till he was disabled for field service, when he came home, and for some time his friends supposed he would not survive the wounds, but he did and has been going on crutches ever since-the wound being in his hip ; he yet lives, and is near Latta, an ener- getic and successful man, a farmer. He had by his first wife several sons and daughters. His oldest living son, William Ellis, is now merchandising at Latta, and has been twice mar- ried-first, a Georgia lady, who had three sons, Charles, Robert and Dallas, and one daughter, Florence, and died ; he married, a second time, Miss Jessie Crawford ; she has no children. Ar- thur, his second son, has lately married a Miss Hays, of Hills- boro Township, a daughter of William B. Hays; he teaches school. Morgan, his third son, is a young man, unmarried ; he teaches school. Of his daughters by his first marriage, one, Mattie, married John J. George, who died childless. Another, Carrie, married John Tart; they have five children (small). Another, Augusta, is unmarried. Another, Nellie, married Tristram Hamilton; she has two children, Bertha and Sallie (small). Elisha Bethea, Jr., had another son, Benjamin, and
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one named Elisha; both died in youth. Elisha Bethea's first wife, Sallie, died; he married again, her sister, Mary Ann, who at the time of her marriage was the Widow Thomas ; by this second marriage he has one son, named Power, who is now in Wofford College, and a daughter, named Eva, and perhaps others (small). Pickett Bethea, the sixth son of Captain Elisha C., married Miss Carrie Honour, daughter of Rev. John H. Honour, of Charleston, about the first of the war; by this marriage two sons were born, Walker and Pickett. Walker died when a child. Pickett K. grew up and became a doctor, and married a Miss Davis, of North Carolina, and has removed to Socastee, in Horry County, and is there practicing medicine, and is said to be doing well. His father, Pickett, volunteered early in the war, and was a Lieutenant in Captain McKerall's company, in 25th Regiment ; he was killed in one of the battles in Virginia, in 1863. His widow married again to J. W. Saint- clair, a school teacher; they removed West; she had several children for him, and died. Morgan, the seventh son of Cap- tain Elisha C., volunteered early in the war; he sickened and died at home while on a furlough ; he was unmarried. George, the eighth son, was killed, when about thirteen or fourteen years of age, by what was called a "flying mare"-another veri- fication of the adage "that more people are killed or hurt at play than at work." William W. Bethea, the ninth son of Captain Elisha C., now living in West Marion, married Miss Sallie Morrison, a daughter of Rev. Mr. Morrison, a Presbyterian minister, of Anson County, N. C., a very estimable and accom- plished lady ; the fruits of this marriage are four sons, Morri- son, Theodore, Oscar and James. Of these, Morrison is mar- ried to a lady of Clinton (name unknown), and has two sons, Curtis and Eugene ; there may be a daughter or two (all small). William W. Bethea may have daughters, the writer does not know. One of the sons, Theodore (I believe) is a graduate of the Citadel Academy of Charleston-said to have graduated with distinction. Clarence, the tenth son of Captain Elisha C., died when a small boy. Julius N., the eleventh son of Captain Elisha C., married, first, Miss Anna Shrewsberry, daughter of the late Edward C. Shrewsberry, of the "Free State" section. An incident of their marriage may be here related: They were
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married at a school house near by her father's, in the woods on a road not much frequented, by the Rev. Joel Allen, on Christ- mas day, in 1871; he gave them a certificate of their marriage Only one person was present at the nuptials besides themselves and the officiating clergyman ; and at their special instance and request, the marriage was to be kept secret until the 19th day of April following, it being Julius' birth-day and the day of his arrival at the age of twenty-one years. Julius carried his wife back to her home, half a mile away, and left her there; he went to his father's, and said nothing until the appointed time, 19th April, 1872, when he told his father and mother about it, and went to her father's, and their marriage was satisfactorily es- tablished to her parents, and he took her and carried her to his father's. A sufficient reason, satisfactory to them, may have existed for their marriage and subsequent secrecy, but it does not accord with the writer's views of propriety, nor with the conduct of 999 out of 1,000. His bride was a very intellectual and well cultivated lady-far more so than many in that re- gion; the fruits of the marriage were three sons, Herbert, Ernest and Adger, and one or two daughters, one named Mat- tie May-suppose they are all grown. Anna, his first wife, died, and he married, a second time, Miss Carrie Sessions, daughter of John D. Sessions, of Marion; they reside now at Mullins; children of the last marriage, if any, are small- names, number and sex unknown. Of the daughters of Cap- tain Elisha C. Bethea, the eldest, Elizabeth Ann, married John B. Bethea, of the "Sweat Swamp" family; her mother was a half Bethea of the same set; he had previously gone to Missis- sippi, and came back to her home in Marion County and mar- ried; the bridal trip was to be to Mississippi. She had some negroes, which her father had given her, and they with their little baggage were taken along for the trip. This was before the war, about 1856. When the bridal party arrived at Marion to take the train, the groom put the bride on board, and stepped back to see to getting on the negroes-a woman and some chil- dren, and whilst thus engaged the train pulled off and left him ; of course, he ran after it and tried to stop it, but failed in his almost frantic efforts. His bride went on to Florence (then a small village) and stopped over for the night ; the groom spent
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the night in Marion and went over the next day and joined his wife. I will leave the reader to imagine whether there was intense disappointment or not, and whether there was any curs- ing done by the groom. The bridal party went to Mississippi and settled there-I think, in Smith County. John B. was a very energetic and persevering man, a farmer ; he went into the war, and in 1863, he died of disease, and left his wife and four sons, Augustus B., William, Sumter and John-the latter born after his father's death, all then small. After John B.'s death, Captain Elisha C. went out to Mississippi and brought the widow and her children to this county. The widow settled on a place given her by her father, and went to work to raise and educate her sons; in this she succeeded well. She was no ordi- nary woman; well educated herself and of fine literary taste, and to this added her fine business qualifications and her suc- cess, placed her in the front rank among women. Much more might be said to her credit, but space will not permit a further extended notice. Her sons grew up and one by one they went to Birmingham, Ala., and she finally followed and, I think, yet lives. The second daughter of Captain Elisha C., Wilmina Rachel, has never married, and is now in the sixtieth year of her age. The third daughter, Augusta B., married A. E. Gil- christ, of Mullins, and has already been noticed herein among the Gilchrist family. Alice, the fourth and youngest daughter of Captain Elisha C., married D. Asbury Smith, who has already been noticed among the Lane family. She, too, has gone to Birmingham, Ala., where three of her four sons reside.
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