USA > South Carolina > Marion County > A history of Marion county, South Carolina, from its earliest times to the present, 1901 > Part 4
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
slaves as he had, he employed them, or most of them, in other pursuits, perhaps in raising and preparing indigo for market, at that time, from 1747 to 1793, a lucrative business. He must have been an extraordinary man, full of pluck and energy, together with sound judgment. It was related to the writer fifty years ago, when he first settled in the fork of the two Reedy Creeks which make Buck Swamp, by Colonel Elisha Bethea, that in former times the Murfees (suppose Malachi) drove their stock to that place to raise them on the range in the two creeks and Buck Swamp, which was then very fine and is yet good. That Malachi Murfee would or did mark and trim as many as 300 calves there in a spring. And he further told the writer that his father (Buck Swamp John Bethea) in early times marked and trimmed as many as 100 calves of a spring, and raised a great many hogs in the swamp every year, and drove to Charleston every year a large drove of cattle and hogs. That the hog range kept good until the "big storm" of 1822, which blew down most of the oaks, and thus the acorn crop was destroyed or cut off. Old Buck Swamp John Bethea became wealthy, mostly from raising stock for market. He died in 1821. More will be said of the Murfees and Buck Swamp John Bethea hereafter.
We suppose stock raising was the business of most of the early settlers of the county, and especially in that part of Marion County called Britton's Neck. The settlers down in that region became wealthy, and outstripped the upper end of the county for near a hundred years in the pursuit and accumulation of wealth. When the writer can first remember, the wealth of the county was mostly in its lower end, and the upper end of the county was comparatively poor. These con- ditions are now and have been for the last half century reversed. The greater wealth is to be found in the upper end of the county. This state of things may be accounted for, in great part, because of the greater agricultural enterprise among its people, and because of the failing of the stock range in the lower end of the county; and because of the more numerous and better schools in the upper end, and the more general dif- fusion of knowledge among the people of that section; and lastly, the facilities of transportation and commerce and trade
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
conditions are better, and have been so for a period of years, than in the lower section. For the last few years, however, the lower section of the county shows signs of upheaval in these respects, and ere long, if she progresses as she has for the last fifteen or twenty years, she may claim her place, her section of the county, to be equal with that of the northern section. She has lands of equal fertility, and all they need is intelligent and energetic culture, and to build up and foster her schools, public and private.
Pursuits, other than stock raising, and other than agricul- tural, have necessarily occupied the attention of the people of Marion County, more or less, for, perhaps, one hundred and sixty-five years, subordinate to and consequent upon those leading pursuits. Tradesmen of various kinds have sprung up amongst us. Blacksmiths, until within the last few years, were to be found in every community, were in great demand, and found constant and remunerative employment. They have been supplanted of late by imported work from outside the county. This imported work is better adapted to the uses of the farmer than the former domestic work, hence the black- smith is driven out; and the same of the wheelwright-his occupation is gone; his work is superseded by imported pro- ductions along his line of work, and hence he is driven out. The house carpenter and brick mason holds his own; they yet find remunerative employment, and thereby make a living. The turpentine and lumber industry in the county are and have been very extensive. How many of them have succeeded in making money, is not known. It may be said only a few have made a fortune. While they have succeeded admirably in destroying our very extensive and beautiful pine forests to such an extent as to threaten, and in the near future to bring about a timber famine. To the writer it looks like vandalism. The face of the whole county will soon be denuded of timber, and neither the county as a section of the country nor its people will have anything to show for it. No valid considera- tion left in its place, no quid pro quo.
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
CHAPTER III.
SECTION I.
Its Educational, Political and Judicial History.
No scheme was ever inaugurated in South Carolina for the general education of the public, until it was provided for in the Constitution of 1868. The reconstruction was made and adopted, not by the intelligence of the State, but under the restraints of the sword by "carpet-baggers" and a few rene- gade whites, contemptuously called "scallawags," and igno- rant negroes. Yet, with respect to education, it was quite an improvement upon the Constitutions of 1790 and 1865, neither of which fundamentally made any provision for the education of the masses. From the earliest times it seems to have been a matter of concern to establish and to have schools for the education of the masses. As early as 1710, the Provincial Legislature passed an Act to found such schools; and again in 1712, another Act was passed, extending and amplifying the system. In both of these Acts there was a provision that no one should be employed as a teacher or schoolmaster in the public schools of the province unless he belonged to the English or Episcopal Church. (Statutes at Large, vol. II., p. 342, and vol. II., p. 390.) Under each of these Acts, sixteen persons were named as Commissioners, every one of whom belonged to the Church of England, and who were empowered and di- rected to found said schools, to buy land, to erect school houses, to employ teachers, and so forth, and to be paid for out of the public treasury. These two Acts, or rather the latter one, remained the law for free schools in the province and the State till 1811, when another Act was passed. (V. Statutes at Large, p. 639.) The title of this Act is as follows: "An Act to establish free schools throughout the State." The first sec- tion of this Act reads as follows: "Be it enacted by the Honor- able Senate and House of Representatives, now met and sitting in General Assembly, and by the authority of the same, That immediately after the passing of this Act, there shall be estab- lished in each election district within this State a number of
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
free schools equal to the number of members which such dis- trict is entitled to send to the House of Representatives in the Legislature of the State." Under this Act, Marion District, a large district territorially, could only have two free schools within her borders, as she then was only entitled to two Representatives in the State Legislature; but the little parishes in the lower part of the State, some of them not having more than twenty-five or thirty voters in them, could have three free schools, as each of them, by the Constitution of 1790, was entitled to three Representatives in the State Legislature. (Constitution of 1790, I. vol. Statutes, p. 184, and amendments sequens.) Those parishes were the creation of the Church of England, under the proprietary and regal governments of the province, and their power and influence were retained by the Constitution of 1790. In the Convention of 1790, its members equaling the number of Senators and Representatives in the Legislature to which each parish and district or county was entitled under the Constitution of 1778, was 158 of the Church of England (Episcopal), and 68 belonged either to that church or to some other. Thus it is easy to see what influence domi- nated the Convention of 1790, that made the Constitution of that year. The Constitution of the United States and its amendments, made in 1787, and ratified by a Convention of South Carolina, May, 1788-Article I. of its amendments reads thus : "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This amendment made it necessary for South Carolina to disestab- lish her establishment of the Church of England. Article VIII. reads thus on that subject: "The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference shall forever hereafter be allowed within this State to all mankind; provided, that the liberty of conscience hereby declared shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this State." (Vol. I., Statutes at Large, p. 191.) For near one hundred years the people of the State, including all Dissenters, had been taxed to buy lands (glebe) for Episco- pal Churches to build churches in the different parishes, and to pay the rectors or preachers of that church their salaries.
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Dissenters were deprived of the right to hold office and of the right to various employments within the State, while a member of the Church of England had the exclusive right by law to seek and to hold office, and to enter into and assume any employment whatever. The first step taken towards the estab- lishment by law of the Church of England in the province of Carolina was in 1698, when an Act "to settle maintainance on a minister of the Church of England in Charlestown," was passed. This Act did not seem to awaken any suspicion and alarm among the Dissenters; but the precedent thus set paved the way for further Acts in favor of that church. In Dr. Ramsay's History of South Carolina (vol. 2, pp. 3 and 4), we find the following, and the author can do no better than to give it in his own words: "In the year 1704, when the white population of the province was between 5,000 and 6,000, when the Episcopalians had only one church in the province, and the Dissenters three in Charleston and one in the country, the former were so far favored as to obtain a legal establishment. Most of the proprietors and public officers of the province, and particularly the Governor, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, were zeal- ously attached to the Church of England. Believing in the current creed of the times, that an established religion was essential to the support of civil government, they concerted measures for endowing the church of the mother country and advancing it in South Carolina to a legal prominence. Pre- paratory thereto they promoted the election of members of that church to a seat in the provincial Legislature, and suc- ceeded by surprise so far as to obtain a majority. The recently elected members soon after they entered on their legislative functions took measures for perpetuating the power they had thus obtained; for they enacted a law which made it necessary for all persons thereafter chosen members of the House of Commons to conform to the religious worship of the Church of England, and to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the rights and usages of that church. This Act passed the lower House by a majority of one vote. It virtually excluded from a seat in the Legislature all who were Dis- senters, erected an aristocracy, and gave a monopoly of power to one sect though far from being a majority of the inhabitants.
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
The usual consequences followed. Animosities took place and spread in every direction. Moderate men of the favored church considered the law as impolitic and hostile to the pros- perity of the province. Dissenters of all denominations made a common cause in endeavoring to obtain its repeal." They used every means within their power to obtain its repeal. They not only tried to get their own Legislature to repeal the obnox- ious law, but they petitioned the Lords Proprietors, and failing there, they went to the House of Lords in Parliament, and finally to Queen Anne, but all to no purpose. The law re- mained of force until the Revolutionary War, and even down to the time of the Constitution of 1790. And it will be seen that that Constitution did not afford entire and complete relief ; that through its parochial system of representation in the Sen- ate and House of Representatives, the Episcopal Church has to a great extent controlled the legislation of the State from that time, 1790, all the way down to 1868; when by that Constitution the parish system was broken up and the State freed from the domination of the Episcopal Church. Though the white people of the State had no sympathy with the Con- vention that made the Constitution of 1868, yet many of its provisions are a great improvement upon the Constitution of 1790-notably the destruction of the parish system; the eman- cipation of married women as to their rights of property, and perhaps other improvements not necessary to mention. Such legislation betokens superlative arrogance and self-assumption. It was oppressive and a tyranny. When the government prop is knocked from under them they fall. They have had to stand upon their merits for the last hundred years, and they have dwindled down to a small element in the body politic, their members are a mere handful when compared with the members of the various dissenting denominations. All honor, however, to many of the noble people who were and are iden- tified with that branch of God's church. Their position of undue influence in the State's affairs was the result of early environments, and its best and most conservative followers recognized the injustice of the system in vogue before the war, and were willing that it should be abolished, as it was inimical to the best interests of their church.
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Under the Act of 1811, $300 was appropriated to each school. Under the Act of 1814, $37,000 was appropriated for the free public schools, and continued from year to year up to the war. How much of this $37,000 appropriated for free schools since 1814 was apportioned to Marion District is unknown, as no permanent record thereof seems to have been kept by the Commissioners. If any was kept, it is inacces- sible-it was, however, a mere pittance, and did but little good. The four counties-Beaufort, Colleton, Charleston and George- town-having most of the parishes within their borders, and having the greater representation in the Legislature, hence they shared most of the appropriation, while the rest of the State got but little of it, and were little benefited by it. It was pro- vided in said Act of 1811, that all should send to said schools, rich and poor alike, free of expense; and further, that if the money appropriated was insufficient to pay for all attending said schools, a preference should be given to the poor, or the children of indigent parents. The result was that the poor in many instances did not attend those schools, parents were not able to furnish books and clothing for their children; and many of them being poor and ignorant themselves, were careless and indifferent about educating their children. Whether there were any public schools, public or private, in Liberty or Marion District prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century, we cannot say, nor can we with certainty say there were schools in Marion District before 1814. We can only say there was legislation to that end as to free public schools, but whether our people availed themselves of it or not, we can only conject- ure. We, however, suppose their little "old field" schools were opened for short terms in some neighborhoods, with teachers possibly competent to teach the rudimentary branches of an education, and which each succeeding generation has improved upon during the whole of the nineteenth century, and has brought it up to its present high standard; and as evidence thereof, the log cabin school houses with, in many instances, only a dirt floor, have been succeeded by large and commodious school buildings, and in some places brick buildings, in almost every section of the county, and they are all well patronized; and we have teachers fully competent to instruct and to prepare
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
the youth of both sexes for college. The progress in educa- tional enterprise has kept pace with the progress in material and industrial enterprise. Much might be said in amplifying the contrast between our conditions educationally now and one hundred years ago, but space will not permit and the field is too large. In 1814, the Marion Academy Society, at Marion Court House, was given the power of escheators and also its perquisites up to $2,000. It seems it had been incorporated before, but the writer has not been able to find the Act of incor- poration, and hence he cannot give the names of the corpora- tors. , A school was established there under its provisions, and has been kept up with more or less success from that time to the present. At that school many men of the past generation who have been prominent in the affairs of the county and State, and in the industrial walks of life, were educated, and it exerted an influence for good all over the county. The writer can only mention a few of the many who went there, and got the educa- tion and training that fitted them for life and its activities and responsibilities. All of them have passed off the stage of life. Hugh Godbold, General William Evans, Dr. Charles Godbold, Asa Godbold, General E. B. Wheeler, Colonel Levi Legette, C. D. Evans, Colonel D. S. Harllee, Dr. Robert Harllee, General W. W. Harllee, John C. Bethea, Elisha C. Bethea, W. B. Rowell, General Elly Godbold, Nathan Evans, General N. G. Evans, Reddin W. Smith, all men of mark and character, and a host of others younger, all of whom got their training and early impressions from that school, taught by such men as the Rev. Joseph F. Travis, Rev. Tracy R. Walsh, and W. H. Witherow. We are not yet done harvesting from the seeds planted and cultivated in that school; its fruits are still being gathered. And it has been succeeded by one of the best and most successful graded schools, perhaps, in the State. A large and commodious brick building has been erected, and the school established under the laws prescribing the manner of regulat- ing such schools. It is largely patronized, and has a strong corps of teachers, and is equal, perhaps, in its curriculum and course of study to one of our colleges a hundred years ago. There a young man or woman is prepared to enter the Fresh- man Class in the South Carolina College, or any other college- quite an advance on the schools of the eighteenth century.
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
Not many years after this-perhaps in the thirties-an academy was built at Harlleesville, and a school established there, and for more than sixty years a good school has been kept up at that point. It has told upon the intelligence and high standing of that community. Its teachers have gene- rally been men of learning, character and scholarly ability. It has awakened a spirit of industrial pursuits and industrial arts, perhaps, unsurpassed anywhere. It has moulded character- high character-in both male and female. It has energized its citizens and made them the peer of the citizens of any community. They have no cause to blush when they say, "I am from Little Rock, Marion County." They are proud of their citizenship and homes. The school was founded by Herod Stackhouse, Isaac Stackhouse, Allen Gaddy, Cade Bethea, John Braddy, and last, but not least, by Colonel Thomas Harllee-though he never married and had no children to send to school, yet he was liberal to any call for the betterment of his people, the uplifting of them and putting them upon a higher plane in civilized life. His hand and heart were ever open to any such enterprise. Those substantial and open-hearted men have been succeeded by a better informed community, their efforts have been crowned with success far beyond expectation. They are all gone to their reward, but their works survive, and yet remain to bless and build up generations yet to come.
The next high school, in the order of time, in the county was Pine Hill Academy, near Sellers, on the Florence Railroad, built in 1841. It was erected by Major James Haselden, John C. Ellerbe, Isham Watson, Henry Berry, James Tart and the Widow Moses Mace, and perhaps others. The first teacher in that school was John H. McDonald, a brother of D. J. McDonald, who afterwards merchandised at Marion for years, . and who married a Miss Crawford, a sister of the late W. H. Crawford. The next teacher at Pine Hill was the late A. Q. McDuffie, Esq., who taught there several years and had a large and flourishing school. The writer hereof, in 1842, went to school there to John H. McDonald, and in 1844, to A. Q. McDuffie. The latter was his last teacher. The old academy yet stands as a monument to the enterprising men who built and established it, still dispensing its influence for good to the
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
third and fourth generations of the men who founded it. It has done much for the community in which it is located, and has furnished many men and women who have been prominent in the affairs of the State and county, and among them our Governor, the late William H. Ellerbe.
The next high school, in the order of time, was Hofwyl Academy. It was built in 1853, and was burned by an incen- diary in 1855. This academy was built and the school estab- lished there by Captain E. C. Bethea, Colonel James R. Bethea, John R. Bethea, Rev. Samuel J. Bethea, Stephen Fore, Captain C. J. Fladger, Joseph D. Bass and W. W. Sellers-all of whom have passed "over the river of death" except the writer. After the burning in 1855, another and better building was erected on the same spot by the same parties, at once, and the school reopened with competent teachers, and was very popular in its day. It attracted patronage from beyond the limits of its immediate neighborhood. From below Marion Court House, the late W. F. Richardson sent two of his daughters up there- Miss Augusta, who afterwards married James H. Godbold, and who now resides about fifteen miles below Marion, and Miss Alice, who afterwards became the second wife of John H. Hamer, of Little Rock. She is now dead, leaving five child- ren surviving her, Ed. Hamer, of Little Rock, and Dr. Tristram B. Hamer, now in the far West, Mrs. Neill A. Berry, of Sellers, and Mrs. Lawrence Manning, in the Little Rock sec- tion, and John H., now about twenty-one years old. Also, G. W. Woodberry, of Britton's Neck, sent his daughter, Julia, to the Hofwyl School. She afterwards, I think, married a Mr. Brown, and is yet living, and reared a nice family. James Jenkins sent his daughter, Ella, his only child, to Hofwyl. She afterwards married B. F. Davis, below Marion; they raised a large family of sons and daughters; the mother died some years ago. Miss Mary E. Watson, daughter of the late James Watson, near Marion, went up to the Hofwyl School. She afterwards married Jessie H. Gibson, below Marion; both are now living, and have raised a family of sons and daughters ready to take their places in society, and to fill them with re- spectability and success, as their parents have done. Dr. F. M. Monroe went to school there, perhaps the last school he
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
ever attended before reading medicine; he boarded at Captain James W. Bass', together with one Willie Sheckelford, son of John B. Sheckelford, below Marion. He came to a sad end in North Carolina. Dr. Monroe is now well known in the county as one of our best physicians, a respectable and promi- nent citizen of hich character and a Christian gentleman. From the Little Pee Dee section there were H. M. Stackhouse, now a very prominent citizen of Marlborough County, lately its State Senator, a progressive and successful farmer, well posted in the concerns of his county, State and nation. Also, his brother, Robert E. Stackhouse, who died while a young man a few years afterwards-very promising. J. G. Haselden, who died a few days ago, near Sellers, attended the Hofwyl School, perhaps the last school to which he ever went. He became a prominent and useful citizen, a progressive farmer, raised a family of four children, three sons and a daughter, all of whom survive him. He represented his county one term in the State Legislature. His sons are the Hon. J. D. Hasel- den, L. M. Haselden and L. B. Haselden, now in Clemson College ; and his daughter, Carrie Haselden. His son, L. M. Haselden, took a literary course in the South Carolina College, and another in the law department of that institution, from which he graduated with highly distinguished honors. F. M. Godbold also went to school at Hofwyl at the same time that J. G. Haselden was there. They both boarded at the writer's house. Soon after leaving the Hofwyl School, F. M. Godbold went to the Cokesbury School, in Abbeville District, where he soon married a Miss Vance, had several children as the fruit of the marriage, when his wife died. He afterwards married another Miss Vance, a cousin of his former wife, and they now together live three miles above Marion Court House. He is now farming. Others from the Little Pee Dee section came to the Hofwyl School, to wit: John C. Clark and his brother, R. K. Clark. John C. seemed at school to be a cowardly boy ; other boys in school, it was said, imposed on him more than ordinary among school boys, and he would not assert himself so much as to resent it. Afterwards, when the war com- menced, John Calvin Clark volunteered in Company L, 8th regiment South Carolina troops, and was Second Lieutenant
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