USA > South Carolina > Marion County > A history of Marion county, South Carolina, from its earliest times to the present, 1901 > Part 39
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
ter of the late Mastin C. Stackhouse; he died, leaving his widow with some children-the youngest of whom, a little girl, was taken by Rev. S. J. Bethea and wife, and they are raising it. Alonzo Bethea, the youngest son of John W. Bethea, is lost sight of; don't know whether he is living or dead, or whether he married or not-think, however, that he has emi- grated to other parts, or is dead. Wm. C. Bethea, the third son of old man Cade Bethea, married Miss Virzilla Mace, a daugh- ter of Moses and Drusilla Mace ; they had two sons, Henry and John D., I think; they and their children have already been mentioned in or among the Mace family, to which reference is made. Calvin C. Bethea, the fourth son of old man Cade, mar- ried Miss Caroline Bethea, a daughter of "Creek Jessie;" they had one child, a son, named Jessie ; the father, Calvin, was sub- ject to epileptic fits, and on one occasion, while crossing a branch on Sweat Swamp, as supposed, an epileptic fit struck him and he fell in the water and was drowned ; some years after his death, his widow, with her son, went to Texas; the son is grown, and the report is that they are doing well in that far off State. Henry, the fifth and youngest son of old man Cade Bethea, never married ; he was killed or died in the war. Of the daughters of old Cade Bethea, the eldest, Caroline, a highly accomplished lady, as it was said, married James DuPre, of Marlborough County ; she died childless, in about a year after her marriage. Harriet, the second daughter, married James McLaurin, of North Carolina ; a few years back, they bought land on Buck Swamp and moved to it; think they are both dead-know nothing of their family. Mary Ann, the young- est daughter, married T. F. Stackhouse, and is dead, leaving him surviving ; they have already been noticed in or among the Stackhouse family, to which reference is made. Not one of old man Cade Bethea's immediate family now survives.
Of the "Cape Fear set," Tristram, a son of old "English John," settled on Cape Fear River, N. C .; he had sons, James, Jessee, Elisha and William. Of these, Jessee, had Jessee, Sim- eon, David and Jessee (it seems two sons were named Jessee) ; Simeon had Reddick, Jessee, William and Philip; and Jessee, the elder, had Thomas, Tristram and John-this Tristram was the "Floral College" Tristram; and Jessee, the younger, had
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
John, Tristram, David and Jessee; and this latter Tristram had Jessee and Noah. William, the son of old Tristram, the "Cape Fear" settler, had John and William. Of these latter, John had William, John L., Jessee, David and Alexander ; and Wil- liam had David, John and Philip. The "Floral College" Tris- tram had Jessee, Daniel, Tristram, John and Thomas. Of these latter, all of them died without offspring. The eldest of these, Jessee, was well known in Marion; he was a graduate of the South Carolina College; studied law, settled in Marion to prac- tice his profession, was a partner of the writer, as Sellers & Bethea, for several years; left Marion, abandoned the practice, never married, and died ; he was a good lawyer, but too modest and diffident to enter into the "rough and tumble" of the Court House-he was a good office lawyer ; after leaving Marion, he went to Marlborough and died there. This disposes of the "Cape Fear set" of Betheas-at least, as far as known.
Referring, again, to the "Sweat Swamp" set-old William had four sons, John, Goodman, Philip and Jessee-I think, all these have been noticed except, perhaps, Goodman. Goodman had two sons, Philip and Jessee, and the latter, Philip, had Goodman, William and Philip. Of the grand-daughters of "Sweat Swamp" William, Elizabeth married Jeremiah Walters, and raised a large family. Sarah married Timothy Rogers, a nephew of "Buck Swamp" John, and raised a large family. Pattie married John Braddy, and was the mother of the Braddys and their descendants, as have been and are now known in the county.
The writer may have inadvertently omitted some of this numerous and extensive family as laid down on the chart kindly. furnished him, but do not think I have. From the original stock, "Old English John," it runs down to and includes the seventh and in one instance the eighth generation among the males bearing the name, and it is not improbable that among the females (if they had been given and traced), it would ex- tend to and include the ninth and tenth generations, as it is a well known fact, that females generally marry younger than males, and consequently propagate faster than through the male line. If every family had a chart or tree like this, it would be an acquisition to the history of our people. It is a
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fact, that many of our people are shamefully ignorant as to their ancestry. It is a fact, that the writer has found in his inquiries on the subject among the people of Marion County, a few instances where the party inquired of did not know, and could not tell, who his grand-father was, and to his great sur- prise he has found it of men otherwise intelligent, and well posted in other matters. A chart, like that of the Betheas, in every family would forever dissipate such ignorance, and would enable every man to tell, at a word, whether he descended by natural and generic processes from his own species, or evoluted from a tadpole or a monkey. The Bethea chart is so constructed as to be indefinitely extended ad infinitum to the remotest generations.
McMILLAN .- The McMillan families will now be noticed. First, the family in the Mullins region. The first known were John, Malcolm and Neill V. MacMillan, three brothers. Neill V. lives in the Mullins region, and has a family of sons and daughters. One of his daughters married, last week, to Mack Harrelson, of Buck Swamp. Neill V. McMillan is a farmer, a law-abiding man, and a quiet, inoffensive citizen ; don't know to whom he married or how many children he has. Malcolm McMillan married a Miss Williamson, daughter of John Wil- liamson; by this marriage were born and raised three sons, John, Neill and Malcolm. Of these, John married Mary Wil- liamson, of Marion County. Neill married Rebecca Brown, of Clarendon County. And Malcolm married Elizabeth William- son, of Marion County ; by this marriage were born and raised three daughters and four sons. Of the daughters, Sarah, the eldest, married J. Robert Reaves ; Mary married J. F. Gasque, and Alice married Pendleton G. Ayres-these all have families, greater or small, some of whom are now among our present promising young men and women, and are of energetic and progressive parents. Of the sons, John married Miss Sarah McIntyre, daughter of John B. McIntyre, and grand-daughter of old Dougald McIntyre, who has already been noticed herein ; they have several children, some grown and married-one daughter, any way, married to Mayrant A. Falk. Neill mar- ried Eunice Davis, of West Marion, now Florence County ; and
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Malcolm, Jr., married Miss Keith, and has a family. The early progenitors of these McMillans were a family of McMillans and Pattersons, who emigrated from Scotland before the Revo- lutionary War, and settled near Philadelphus Church, or where Philadelphus Church now is, in Robeson County, N. C. Of the sons of old McMillan, Hector married Barbara Patterson, and Malcolm married Flora Patterson, both settled near their parents. There were several daughters. One married a McNeill; one married a Crawford; one married John McMil- lan (I suppose, a brother of Hector and Malcolm) ; another married a Mr. Blue; and another married a Mr. Buchanan- some of these children were born in Scotland and some in America. Malcolm, the progenitor of the family about Mul- lins, was born in Scotland, and was three years old when the family emigrated to America, and lived to be ninety years of age when he died. This old Malcolm, as already stated, mar- ried Flora Patterson, and to them were born four sons and four daughters ; the names of the sons were Neill, Daniel, John and Malcolm. Neill was a school-teacher, and married Sarah Wilson, of Horry. Daniel, John and Malcolm emigrated West. The daughters were Jane, Mary, Margaret and Flora. Don't know who Jane married; Mary married Alfred Biggs; Margaret married Archie Smith; Flora married Hugh Lam- mond-the latter went to Georgia or Alabama. Neill McMil- lan, as before stated, married Sarah Wilson, daughter of Sam- uel Wilson, of Horry County, and were the grand-father and mother of Malcolm, Neill and John, now prosperous citizens of the Mullins community. There is a numerous connection of them in this county and Horry, and Robeson County, N. C., and many, doubtless, in the West.
Another family of MacMillans are at Marion Court House. The first known of this family was old John McMillan, a sturdy Scotchman, born, as I think, in this country, but his ancestry not very remote came from Scotland. Old John married a Miss Avant, of a Marion family, and came and settled in Marion in the latter thirties or early forties; he was Postmaster for some years and ran a drug business. In those early times the drug business was not what it is now-oneor two stick baskets would have held his stock, and his was as large as most of the stocks
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
of the kind then kept in the country towns of the State. He had and raised to be grown two sons, Sydney E. and William Cicero, and three daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth. Of the sons, Sydney E. married, first, a Miss Palmer, a daugh- ter of the then late Hon. David Palmer; by this marriage, one son, John C. McMillan, was born, when the mother died; the child, now Dr. J. C. McMillan, was taken and raised by his grand-parents, the McMillans. Sydney E. McMillan, the father, married, a second time, a Miss Sherwood, of Wilming- ton, N. C., a most excellent lady ; the fruits of this second mar- riage are several sons and daughters, names of all not remem- bered. A son, S. A. McMillan, called "Lex," is one of the leading merchants at Latta; he married Miss Sue Rogers, the eldest daughter of Hon. Lot B. Rogers ; they have two children. Another son, whose name is Frank, married a Miss Smith, daughter of Hon. J. W. Smith, at Latta. The eldest daughter of Major S. E. McMillan, Mary, married to W. M. Monroe, one of the most successful merchants now at Marion; they have six or seven children, all boys. Major S. E. McMillan has several other sons (one Robert) and daughters. Some of them grown and some not ; those grown are unmarried, names not remembered-the grown children, especially the girls, are nice and worthy; they cannot well be otherwise, after being raised and trained by such a mother as theirs. Major S. E. McMillan was Major of the militia before the war, and com- manded a company in the 10th South Carolina Regiment, as Captain. It is needless to say to those who know him, that there is but one S. E. McMillan in this section of the country. W. C. McMillan, the second son of old man John, married twice; first, a Miss Cameron, daughter of the late Hector Cameron, of West Marion ; by her he had one child ; the mother and child both died. After a time, W. C. McMillan married Miss Mattie Porter, daughter of Rev. John A. Porter, of the South Carolina Conference; by this marriage they had and raised ten children, five sons and five daughters; the sons are William C., John P., Sydney, Walter and Edwin ; the daughters are Emma, Sue, Belle, Louise and Mary. Of the latter, the eldest, Emma, who was a charming young lady, sickened and died in blooming young womanhood. The next daughter,
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Sue, married Samuel A. Blackwell, a young merchant of Marion ; they have one or two children. The other three girls are unmarried-two of them not grown. Of the sons of W. C. McMillan, the eldest, W. C. McMillan, Jr., married Miss Sallie Bethea, a daughter of Edwin A. Bethea, now of Latta; W. C. McMillan, Jr., is and has been in Columbia for several years, in the drug business, and is said to be doing well; he is well qualified 'by training and education for that business ; he grad- uated in a college of pharmacy in Philadelphia, some years ago, and was the only graduate of such a school in the county whilst he was here; they have two children. John P., Sydney and the other sons of W. C. McMillan, Sr., are all unmarried, and remain with their mother or are off in some business-they may be said to be "hustlers." The father, W. C. McMillan, Sr., died some years ago; he was a successful man in business, looked closely after his affairs, and left a good estate unen- cumbered; he ran for years a successful drug business, together with a farm. Recurring again to Major S. E. Mc- Millan's family : The son by his Palmer wife, John C., grew up and was mainly educated by his uncle, W. C. McMillan, Sr .; he studied medicine and graduated in a medical college some years ago, and settled down in his native town to the practice of this chosen profession, in which he succeeds well; he married Miss Mattie Robson, daughter of Major Robson, of Charles- ton, a most estimable lady-think they have two children, a son and a daughter. Of the daughters of old John McMillan, the eldest married James Potter, of Georgetown, who died a few months back, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years; by the Potter marriage three children were born and raised. The eldest, Eugenia, is now the wife of J. T. DuBois, of Marion, who have several daughters, M. Sue, Kate, Sallie, Etta, Meta and Hattie. Of these, M. Sue is the wife of P. B. Sellers, Esq., at Dillon. Kate married C. S. Herring, of Dil- lon, a young business man ; they have two sons (small), John and Charles. J. T. DuBois and wife have only one son, Wil- liam J., who is at Laurinburg, N. C., in the bakery business. The other daughters of DuBois are unmarried. The other daughter of the Potter marriage married Willie Sheckelford, who is dead; they had several children; the widow and child-
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
vhen last heard of were in Horry or at McColl. Evander er, the only son of the Potter marriage, married a Miss ling; they have three or four children; the father died at ion a few months ago; children small. The second ;hter of old John McMillan, Sarah, never married. Eliza- the third and youngest daughter, married Robert Gregg, Test Marion; they had and raised one son, W. C. Gregg, is now in the machine shops of Emerson McDuffie at ion, and it is said is a fine machinist or workman; he is ied, and lives with his mother in Marion; they have no ren.
ILLER .- The Miller family, in North Marion, were for- y a large and noted family. Old man William Miller, se wife was a Herring, was a stout, athletic man, and noted his great strength and physical power. They had and d several sons, John, William, Jessee, Edmund, George Hezekiah, all of powerful physique, and one daughter, I v-there may have been other daughters. The writer v the parties named well in his youth, but for the last fifty s has known but little of them, and the subsequent genera- i of the family are not known to him. The one best and est known was the second son of old William, named iam, called "Gunger Bill Miller;" he was an excellent en, attended to his own business, farming, kept out of debt, made a comfortable living ; he lived on the North Carolina e line, close to a large white pond, suppose three or four s in circumference, and called "No Man's Friend;" he ied, first, a Miss Abbott, and by her had three children, sons, John and Henry, and a daughter, Mary ; don't know : became of Mary. John had epileptic fits, and died of when a young man grown. Henry, now one of the good ens in that part of the county, grew up and married a Miss d, and has several children, sons and daughters ; he has a William, who married a Miss Townsend. "Gunger Bill er" lost his Abbott wife, and married, a second time, the ww of Isham Philips, and by her had two sons, David and ert, both grown, yet single, and live on their father's home- I, industrious and steady young men, and bid fair to emu-
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
late their father in good citizenship. Jessee Miller, the third son, was a good citizen, but do not know to whom he married; he raised a family of sons and daughters; know nothing of them, except that one of his daughters married Duncan Gaddy, near Gaddy's Mills. Edmund Miller, the fourth son of old William, married a Miss Gilchrist, as I remember it, and had but two daughters, one named Diana, the name of the other forgotten. George Miller, the fifth son, married a Miss Snow, and had three sons, George, Hezekiah and Allen; had two daughters-one married David Rowell, the other daughter still single. Hezekiah married and has one son, Edward, and one daughter. Edward married a Miss Barnes; the daughter is single. Allen Miller married Miss Effa Martin, daughter of Rev. Norman Martin, and raised three sons, Robert H., Wil- liam and Alexander Carson. Robert H. married a Miss Thompson, and has two sons and five daughters. William married a Miss Mack Pipkin, and has two sons. Alexander Carson married a Miss Bemna Benton McGirt (a relative of the writer's children), a daughter of Joe McGirt and wife; they have eight children. Hezekiah Miller, the sixth and youngest son, married a Miss Hill; they have three sons living and some daughters. It is said this latter family have not turned out well. These older Millers were raised in a day when the muster-field bully was the most noted man in the community- talked of most, was honored and feared more, much more, than those who did not aspire to bullyship. These Millers, all except John and "Gunger Bill," partook more or less of the spirit of the times, and were ambitious of the honors that wreathed the brow of the muster-field bully. These were the times of which Judge Longstreet wrote in his "Georgia Scenes," to which the reader is referred, if he desires to call to mind the vivid pictures drawn by that able author. In those times, the scenes pictured by Judge Longstreet as occurring in Georgia were comon everywhere, and especially so in the South. Those scenes were drawn by a master in the art. The writer will not attempt to draw one-they are much easier to be imagined than to be described. John Miller and "Gunger Bill" were not ambitious for such honors-their minds and energies ran in a less barbarous and more civilized and praise-
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worthy channel. Jessee and Edmund were the bullies of the family; George and Hezekiah were not so much so. Jessee and Edmund were giants in size and strength; George and Hezekiah were of medium size or a little over medium, but were very agile. About 1830 or 1831, on a muster day, then at Carmichael's Bridge, on Little Pee Dee, the Millers and the Barfields and perhaps others got into a row and a general fight. In the melee, Thompson Barfield, a small man, weighing not over 120 pounds, but active as a cat and fierce as a tiger, cut Edmund Miller across the abdomen a gash four or five inches long, and also one of his intestines ; his intestines came out, and he caught them in his hands and walked some twenty-five or thirty yards to a place where he could lie down. Dr. Robert Harllee, at Marion Court House, was then the only physician in the county east of the Great Pee Dee River; he was sent for and came; he sewed up the intestine and put all back in proper place, and then sewed up the outside wound, and in due time Miller got well and strong as ever. Such occurrences were common in that day. They were usually, however, only fisti- cuffs-no deadly weapons, and I suppose the knife was used on this occasion because of the great disparity in size of the two men. A somewhat similar row occurred just across the State line, in North Carolina, some years afterwards, between the Millers and Gaddys-which was the foundation of the suit between the Millers and W. H. Grice, a Magistrate at the time, who at the instance of old James Gaddy, issued a warrant for the arrest of the Millers, and under which they were arrested and lodged in jail in Marion and kept there for some time-the arrest was for an offence committed in North Carolina. The suit was brought (I believe, two of them,) to recover damages for the arrest and imprisonment. The case or cases are re- ported, I believe, in 2 Rich. Law, or in Strobhart's Law, I vol .- I have not the books before me. Those old Millers are long since dead, and it is hoped and believed the younger and present generation of those families are an improvement upon their ancestors in this regard. John and "Gunger Bill" are excepted.
SPENCER .- This family, bearing the name, is not very exten-
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sive, but may in time become so. John F. Spencer (late) came from Greenville District, I think, in 1845, then an old- young man-at least thirty years of age; he was a dancing master and a most excellent violinist, an adept in the art ; he dressed well and made a fine appearance; he captivated and married a Miss Godbold, then only thirteen years of age, a young girl going to school in Marion; she was the daughter of old Stephen Godbold, in Wahee; the marriage created some flutter in the family, as also in the community at the time (an elopement) ; the marriage was, however, an accomplished fact, and could not be undone-the status quo could not be restored. Old man Stephen Godbold did not long survive the marriage, and his lands, where she now lives, with a number of negroes and other property, fell into the hands of his daughter, Mrs. Spencer. As the law then stood, the whole personal property of a married woman, upon her marriage, vested in the husband, and his marital rights attached as soon as it went into his pos- session ; in this case, however, his wife had no property of her own at the time of the marriage-it was only in prospect upon her father's death ; her friends invoked the power of the Court of Equity for her protection, and had the whole property set- tled upon her, through a trustee, appointed by the Court, and which effectually prevented the marital rights from attaching. The Court of Equity was ever ready to exercise its jurisdiction in this regard, for the protection of married women as to their property. This ancient and cherished jurisdiction of the Court is not now necessary to be invoked. The Constitutions, both of 1868 and 1895, emancipated married women as to their property, and it is effectually protected and cannot be taken for her husband's debts, although by him contracted for the support and education of the family, except by her consent. J. F. Spencer and wife had and raised eleven children to be grown-five sons and six daughters; the sons are John, Wil- liam, Thomas, Henry and Nathan; of the daughters, one died unmarried, when about grown; the other five are all married- don't know to whom, except one, who married a Mr. Sessoms ; it is said they are all doing well. The sons are all married, except the two youngest, Henry and Nathan, very promising young men. John, the eldest son, married a daughter of old
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man George Turbeville, near by, and has a considerable family-one son, named John, now grown and unmarried; don't know who the other two sons, William and Thomas Spencer, married. J. F. Spencer became and was a good citi- zen ; he lived to a great age, more than eighty years old when he died; for the last several years of his life he was paralyzed and helpless as a baby ; Mrs. Spencer survives, and is and has been all the way through life a most excellent lady, a good mother and a good manager of her affairs and of her family ; is deserving of all honor and great credit for so doing; she was the only surviving child of old Stephen Godbold, by his last marriage. An elder sister of her was unfortunately killed in a runaway on the road, in the early forties, when returning in a carriage from Carolina Female College, in Anson County, N. C., to her home. Dr. William H. Godbold was driving the carriage, and his niece, Miss Desda Gibson, was also in the carriage, but escaped with only slight bruises, and afterwards became the wife of C. C. Law, of Darlington.
WILLIAMSON .- The first of this name came from London, England, some time before the Revolutionary War. His name was Joseph Williamson, was a merchant either in or near Georgetown, and married the Widow Jordan-her maiden name was Mary Jenkins ; to them were born two sons, Joseph and John. Joseph died when young. John married Martha Owens, and eight children were born to them, five sons and three daughters ; the sons were Joseph, John and William D .; the other sons died when quite young, so did the daughters, except one, Elizabeth O. Joseph Williamson married Emma Wise, the daughter of Moses Wise. John Williamson married Frances Philips. William D. Williamson married Prudence Nance. Elizabeth O. Williamson married Levi Gerald, the grand-son of Samuel Gerald, a noted Whig in the time of the Revolutionary War, and of whom it is said the Tories sawed his legs to the bone or to the marrow, to make him tell where his money was. To Joseph Williamson and Emma Wise were born ten children, seven sons and three daughters, named as follows : Martha A., John J., Emma J., Joseph M., Solomon M., David R., Robert L. and Samuel W .- the other two having
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