USA > South Carolina > Marion County > A history of Marion county, South Carolina, from its earliest times to the present, 1901 > Part 51
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Towns of the County.
There was no town in the county previous to 1800. The Act of 1798, establishing a Judicial District in what was then
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A HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
called Liberty County or Precinct, by the name of Marion Dis- trict, and providing for the location of a court house and jail therein by the first January, 1800, was the first step towards the building of a town. The court house and jail (comparatively rude structures ) were built, and the nucleus of a town planted. A county seat is always followed by an aggregation of people (necessarily so) at said county seat, more or less numerous and pretentious according to circumstances, environments and prospects of trade, &c. Who the first settlers were is not known, and is not now ascertainable. The writer has heard old "Aunt Nancy Godbold" say that she and family moved there in 1812, and built a good large house (for that day), about where the Marion Bank stands, a boarding house or hotel, and lived in it and kept it as such; she was there and keeping it as such in 1843. The writer boarded with her there one week, attending Court as a juryman-the first and last time he ever was juryman. The old house stood there until after the war. The leading merchants there have been Thomas Evans, W. H. Grice, Ebby Legette, Durant & Wilcox, Wilcox & Young, T. W. Godbold, McDonald & Crawford, M. Iseman, I. Iseman (called Lightfoot), C. Graham, E. H. Gasque, J. N. Stevenson, R. H. Reaves, Moody & Smith, Durham & Stanley, S. A. Durham & Co., W. C. McMillan, druggist. These bring us down to the present day merchants-all of whom are well known, and of whom there are now many.
MARION .- Marion grew very slowly. In 1838, when the writer first saw it, it was a mere hamlet. The native oak sap- lings were then growing in the public square, to which persons going to town then hitched their horses. More business is done there now, in the fall and spring, in one week than was done there in 1838 in a whole year. In 1838, the population was perhaps 150 or 200, not more. It remained a little court house town for a period of fifty-five years. The first impetus given to the town of Marion was by the building the Wilming- ton and Manchester Railroad, which was not completed to that point until 1854. Marion then began to move up, business and trade were increased; its population increased, and some life and activity prevailed-a spirit of enterprise and improvement
36
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began to show itself, not only in the town but in the county gen- erally. This upward movement was, however, soon checked by the war, and after the war and its devastations it was fur- ther retarded by the horrors of Reconstruction and the rule of the "Carpet-bagger." The war and subsequent conditions and agencies held back the town and county-little progress made for fifteen years, say, till 1876 and '7. Since 1876, Marion grew slowly, mostly by the natural increase of its population. Bar-rooms were numerous, and tolerated until 1883, when the town, at an election held for the purpose, voted it "dry" by a majority of twenty-five; soon afterwards, by an amendment to its charter, the Legislature passed an Act by which liquor was forbidden to be sold there for twenty years. The town re- mained dry, except an occasional "blind tiger," until the dis- pensary was planted in its midst. This great "moral institu- tion" seems, for the present, to be the policy of the State, in reference to the sale of liquor within it-how long it is to re- main the State's policy, we can't tell. The little morality there is in it can hardly be seen with a microscope. Take the profit feature out of it, and it would not last three months. To say it was established to promote good morals would be a libel on truth, bold hypocrisy. I think Marion was first incorporated in 1854 (I have not the Act before me). The improvements since 1876 have been gradual, up to a few years back, when a new imputus was given her, and she is now on a boom; her population is about 2,000. Instead of bar-rooms, we have two flourishing banks, a cotton factory, an oil mill, an iron foundry and machine shops, the largest and best in the eastern part of the State ; two large tobacco warehouses, with pack houses, and a stemmery of tobacco; and this is not all, the old wooden shanties for dwellings and stores are being replaced by large and commodious buildings for dwellings-some of wood and some of brick have gone up and are going up; also the same as to stores, and other buildings; there are also five or six livery stables and five or six drug stores, and from two or three places of business, stores, in 1840, small establishments, they now number at least thirty, with large stocks of goods of every variety, and every one seems to be busy and doing a fair busi- ness. From three to five hundred men and women now find
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employment there daily in the different channels of trade and business-where formerly there were many unemployed, loaf- ers about town, mostly bar-room patrons, and, I might say, vagabonds-now employed and prosperous. In 1840, there was but one church in town-the old Methodist Church ; now there are four good church buildings, commodious, viz : the Me- thodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and Episcopal, all well attended, and each with its minister, and two of them with parsonages. The Methodist have also a Presiding Elder's parsonage with its glebe. There are also three or four colored church build- ings, commodious and substantial; each has its minister, and their churches are well attended. And above all and as its climax, they have a large and commodious town hall of brick, with all necessary furniture, two stories high-the lower one for the meetings of the town coucil, and for a town market, and guard rooms. They also have a fine and commodious brick building, two stories high, for their graded school, and one of the best graded schools in the State. These last are a great credit to the liberality and public spirit of the town. To one living in 1840, and leaving at that time and coming back there now, would hardly know the place. The old town has waked up. The people who are there now are a progressive and large-hearted people, esto perpetua.
NICHOLS AND MULLINS .- The construction of the Wilming- ton and Manchester Railroad, completed in 1854, and the estab- lishment of depots at those respective places, formed a nucleus for a town at each point. At first, and for years afterwards, these places were mere hamlets. There gathered near them a few families and some few business men ; several houses were built here and there around the depots, without any seeming regard to an ultimate town, but with an eye only to their then personal convenience. Thus they were and thus remained until after the war. At both places, after the war, churches were built-a Methodist and a Baptist Church at each, and per- haps a colored church or two at each. A while after the war, Nichols seemed, as between the two places, to take the lead. The lands above the railroad belonging to the estate of the late Harman Floyd were sold, and with a view to the building up a
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town, were sold near the depot in convenient lots. The pur- chasers began to build, and did build several very good dwell- ings and storehouses upon their respective purchases. The turpentine business there was pretty extensive and profitable, and under these influences Nichols took on a little boom for a while, and seemed to outstrip its neighbor, Mullins, in business enterprise and business prospects ; but in a few years the tur- pentine began to fag, and finally in a measure played out, and with it Nichols came to a stand-still. Recently, however, the cultivation of tobacco for market has found its way into the country around it and in upper Horry, just across the river, which has given Nichols an impetus, and she is again looking up and is forging her way to the front. A. B. Nichols, a good and successful business man and a man of large means, has erected a commodious warehouse there for the handling and sale of tobacco, and the quantity sold there is having its effect upon the town, and she is looking up. The population, I sup- pose, is 200 or more. There are three or four stores, owned and managed by A. B. Nichols, John H. Stroud and C. R. Ford-there may be others. The section of country around Nichols is not as agricultural as it is around Mullins and other sections of the county. Mullins is situated in one of the many good sections of the county for agricultural purposes, and in that respect has the advantage of Nichols. For a while she ran a turpentine business, but not to the extent that Nichols did, and she abandoned it earlier. There was not much emi- gration to either, but more to Mullins than Nichols. I think, by the census of 1890, Mullins had a population of 282. In one respect, Mullins has outstripped all other towns in the county, Marion not excepted, and that is in establishing and keeping up her Sunday schools, in both her churches. They were living, moving institutions years ago, and the interest in them does not seem to abate, either in the attendance or in mas- tering the lessons. No other public Sunday meeting, however important, such as a district conference or an association, is allowed to side-track the Sunday schools. It has been so for years-the interest in them does not seem to abate in the least. The moral influences at Mullins, which are very good, may be attributed in great part to those Sunday schools, which have
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been in existence for a generation, and it tells upon the town and surrounding country. In addition to this, they have and keep up, and have for years, a school-the peer of any school in the county-don't know whether it is what is called a graded school or not, but it is deeply rooted in the minds of the people of the town, and is much to their credit. What is now boom- ing Mullins is the tobacco trade-it has only been a few years that tobacco has been cultivated in the county. The Mullins region early saw its opportunity, and embarked largely in its culture and production, and in that regard is far ahead of any section of the county. The consequence is that Mullins sells more tobacco than any market in the State. She sold last year, 1900, over 4,000,000 pounds, and bids fair to become the Dan- ville of South Carolina. She has three large and well equipped tobacco warehouses, a number of pack houses, and four large and well equipped tobacco stemmeries (one of brick), and em- ploys, of men, women and children, four or five hundred hands. It has given Mullins an impetus not dreamed of ten years ago. People are emigrating to Mullins from all parts, houses (dwell- ings) are not to be had. From 1890 to 1900, as shown by the census, the population increased from 282 to over 800; and now, 1901, it is over 1,000. The town is spreading ; large and handsome houses, dwellings, stores, &c., are going up all around (some of brick) ; a spirit of enterprise and "expansion" is engendered and developing fast, and bids fair to equal, if not surpass, in wealth and population in the near future her near neighbor (might say mother), Marion ; she has a bank, through which her finances pass and are transacted, and is also doing a good business, launched and based on the capital of her own people. The spirit that animates the town actuates and perme- ates the whole surrounding country. A new and active life manifests itself everywhere. Much more might be said of this thriving town, but want of space will not permit.
LATTA AND DILLON .- These towns, yet in their youth, owe their origin to the building of the Florence (Short Cut) Rail- road. The road was completed up to those points, seven miles apart, in 1888, depots located, and a nucleus of a town planted, and at once persons began to build and to come in and dwell
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there. W. W. George built, as I think, the first storehouse, a large and commodious one, at Latta, and also built a large dwelling, now occupied by J. W. Smith, and the store is occu- pied by S. A. McMillan. Soon others began to come in and build, until the town has attained to its present proportions. It is a thriving, progressive and enterprising place. Three churches for the white people have been built-Methodist, Bap- tist and Presbyterian-and each has its minister and are well attended. They have also constructed a school building, large and convenient, and have established a first class graded school, which is kept running from year to year by first class teachers. There are two or three colored churches, of moderate preten- sions, gone up. The town has ample church facilities, as also schools. The graded school established, of course, includes the colored population, and they share in its benefits. This ar- rangement is required by law in the graded schools of the State. The white and colored, each, has its school house-the races are thus kept separate. Latta has caught the tobacco fever, which is epidemic in all northeastern South Carolina. They have two large and well equipped tobacco warehouses, to- gether with pack houses, also a tobacco stemmery, and have launched into the tobacco trade, and are competing with other tobacco centres in the county; and the prices paid this year (1901) will doubtless stimulate its production, perhaps, for years to come. They have also some banking facilities-I think, a branch of the Merchant and Farmers Savings Bank of Marion, conducted by Mr. Austin Manning, a. very competent young man, which affords sufficient money facilities for the business of the town. The leading merchants and business men of the place are S. A. McMillan, J. J. Bethea, D. M. Dew and John L. Dew, and recently a large wholesale and retail sup- ply store has been launched by E. B. Berry and Lonzo Smith, which seems to be doing a large business and promises much in the future; and last, but not least, is W. W. George, a regular hustler, who has done more in the way of building than any one else, apparently with but little money, and carries on a large mercantile business all the time. Such an one deserves more than a passing notice. To enumerate: He first built the large and commodious store building now occupied by S. A. McMil-
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lan ; a large ten-room dwelling, now occupied by J. W. Smith; next a store house on the corner next the railroad, afterward occupied by Young & Bass ; next the Farley store, a large two- story building; next a two-story building storehouse, in the branch (formerly) near the livery stables; next a fine and pre- tentious two-story dwelling, in Northeast Latta, in which he now lives; next a large tobacco warehouse and pack house, in East Latta; and last, but not least, a large two-story brick storehouse in East Latta. He has done all this within the last thirteen years-began with nothing, and has never seemed to have much money, and in the meantime made a trip to Mexico. He is a prodigy. Latta is a live little railroad town. It has a population of 467, by the census of 1900. It has good sur- roundings, a good agricultural country, and no reason can now be seen why it should not continue to grow and prosper. It is incorporated.
Dillon was started about the same time, 1888, and under the same or similar influences, about one mile from Little Pee Dee, and about seven miles from the North Carolina State line. The growth and prosperity of Dillon have been somewhat phenome- nal, for a railroad town in a sparsely settled country, backed up by only agricultural products. I think Duncan McLaurin was first to settle there, a level-headed, progressive man; he was soon followed by others. The founders of that town had an eye to the future of the place. It is well and sensibly laid out; the streets are wide and at right angles to and with each other, and in this respect is the Philadelphia of the county. The loca- tion was uninviting-it was comparatively in a pond. The writer waded through the site of Dillon, sixty-one years ago, several times in the water from ankle to half-leg deep, along a little winding footpath, leading from about Dothan Church to Stafford's Bridge, on Little Pee Dee. It is now well drained and apparently high and dry. The town presents gentle undu- lations of hill and dale, and is pleasant to look upon or to travel on. Dillon had a large territory, and the best agricultural sec- tion of the county to draw from. Its trade extends over Little Pee Dee to the North Carolina line and into that State. It ab- sorbs the whole Little Rock section and about to the Marl- borough line, including the whole of Harlleesville Township,
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also Carmichaels, Manning and Hillsboro, and down into Reaves Township to the lower end of the Fork. Its territory covers the best portion of the county, and within that territory are many men of large means. When all this is considered, it can be seen why and how Dillon has outstripped Latta, and, I may say, all other towns of the county; she is only thirteen years old. By the census of 1900, she had within the corporate limits of the town 1,015 population, and including her suburbs, which take in the cotton factory people, she has at least 1,500. While Latta has a good country around it, it is not near so ex- tensive as that of Dillon, nor are there so many moneyed men in it. Dillon has three churches for whites, Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian. The Baptist Church is of brick, large, commo- dious, and well finished and furnished. She has had for eight or ten years a large cotton seed oil mill which has been very suc- cessful ; its stock paying annually twenty-five per cent. or more. Has had for several years a fine and large brick structure as a graded school building, in which is kept from year to year a first class school, under the supervision of a first class man as Superintendent, with a corps of able teachers. There is also a $150,000 cotton factory, built by local capital, and is now run- ning successfully, and in a few years more its capacity will be doubled by additions. Also, an Electric and Water Power Company, with what capital is unknown. Likewise a bank founded entirely on local capital, of sufficient strength to run the finances of the growing town and its varied business inter- ests. There are also two large and well equipped tobacco warehouses, one of brick, together with pack houses sufficient to handle the staple of the surrounding country, and in the near future will have a stemmery. There are two or three col- ored churches in the town. All the churches, white and col- ored, have a minister, and are well attended. The colored people share in the benefits of the graded school. There are shipped from Dillon annually for the last few years from 10,000 to 15,000 bales of cotton, and the shipments are increas- ing every year, besides large shipments of tobacco. It is said to be the strongest station on the "Short-cut" Road, except, perhaps, Fayetteville, N. C., and it will surpass Fayetteville in a few years more. It will be remembered that Fayetteville is over
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100 years old, and for fifty years or more of the nineteenth cen- tury Fayetteville had a monopoly of trade for many miles around, extending down into South Carolina. As another evi- dence of the growth and prosperity of Dillon, the postoffice there has lately been raised from a fourth class office to a third class, or Presidential office. There are many large two-story brick buildings going up, and ere long the wooden structures will give place to brick ones. The wooden dwellings are well built, present a good appearance, are commodious and comfort- able, and but for fires (occasional), would be as safe and con- venient as brick dwellings. Everything about Dillon indicates life and a spirit of progress. She is looking forward to become the county seat of a new county, of which she is deserving, in the event a new county is ever or in the near future established. Dillon, if she continues to grow and progress, is destined to become a city of no mean proportions. May it be realized. Don't know how many mercantile establishments there are in Dillon. Some of the leading merchants of the town are J. W. Dillon & Son, Dr. J. F. Bethea & Co., J. H. David & Bro., A. J. C. Cottingham, T. S. Richburg, E. L. Moore & Co., Huger & Co., supply store, wholesale and retail, J. C. Dunbar, J. H. Hur- sey, I. I. Foss and others not known. Corps of cotton buyers and corps of tobacco buyers every season.
Little Rock, four miles above, as before stated, has been ab- sorbed by Dillon. It never was much more than a cross-roads hamlet, though there were three or four business houses there. It was incorporated some years ago, as I understood at the time, mainly for the purpose of heading off the illicit liquor traffic, which it did pretty effectually. It is in a sober, quiet community, and there are three churches there, Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian.
HAMER AND SELLERS .- Hamer and Sellers are stations on the Florence Railroad. The first was named for R. P. Hamer, Jr., who resides there and owns the adjacent lands. It is on the east side of Little Pee Dee, in Carmichael Township, in the midst of a thriving section of the county, and large shipments of cotton and other farm products are sent from that point, and much guano is shipped to the station for the surrounding farm-
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ers. There is one store and a ginnery, both operated by R. P. Hamer, Jr., who is one of the most extensive farmers in the county. A few years ago, he was planting 900 acres in cotton. Sellers was named for John C. Sellers, who lives there, and operates the adjoining lands as a farm. It also is in the midst of a prosperous and progressive section of the county. There are three stores, operated by J. K. Page, J. D. Haselden and E. J. Garrison-the last an industrious colored man, who is pros- pering. Many of the lots in the town are owned by colored people, who form a large part of the population. This is an important shipping point.
The Denominational Churches.
All denominations are tolerated here; there are, however, only four denominations now obtaining in the county, to wit: the Methodist, the Baptist, the Presbyterian and Episcopal- their numerical strength are as in the above named order. The Methodist are the most numerous, and the Episcipalians are but few, only one church of that denomination in the county, the Church of the Advent, located at Marion, and that is weak. The oldest church in the county is the "Old Neck" Methodist Church, twenty-three miles below Marion, built in 1735, by the first settlers in that region, as an Episcopal Church, or the Church of England. It has already been mentioned herein. It was used as an Episcopal Church until some time after the Revolutionary War, when by some arrangement agreed upon, it was used by both the Episcopalians and Methodists together, and after a while it fell into the hands of the Methodists as sole owners, who have rebuilt it and used it ever since. About the same time, 1735, the settlers at Sandy Bluff, on the Great Pee Dee, just above where the railroad crosses that river, built an- other Episcopal Church, of which Wm. Turbeville was the min- ister, as hereinbefore stated. No vestige of that church re- mains. According to the best information (traditional) the writer has been able to obtain, the next church built in the county was the Tyrrel's Bay Baptist Church, I think, about 1750 to 1760; by whom or what particular persons, I have not been able to learn. I suppose the Rev. Daniel Snipes, the father of Captain Joe Snipes, who settled in that neighborhood,
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was one of its founders, and, perhaps, was its first pastor. This is only a conjecture. That church still subsists and is promi- nent among the churches of that denomination to this day. Not long after Tyrrel's Bay was established, the Gapway Baptist Church was built; don't know by whom. Tyrrel's Bay and Gapway are, no doubt, the two oldest churches in the county, except the "Old Neck" Methodist Church, as hereinbefore stated. It will be remembered that at the time of the erection of Tyrrel's Bay and Gapway Baptist Churches, there was not a Methodist Church in America. There were no Methodist Churches in American until Bishop Asbury came here, in 1771, and none in South Carolina until after the Revolution, when Bishop Asbury (not a Bishop then) first visited the State, in 1783 or 1784. The first South Carolina Conference was held in Charleston, in 1785.
Bishop Asbury came from England to America in 1771, landed in New York, and from that time till the Revolution traveled only in the Eastern and Middle States, perhaps as low down as Baltimore. When the Revolution broke out, Asbury, fresh from England, was opposed to the Revolution, and he had to lie low, and, I think, part of the time in the latter part of the war, had to be in hiding for his personal safety. After the Revolution he extended his travels and came to South Carolina and to Georgia, and founded churches and schools wherever there was an opening, and continued to come through here as long as he lived. He died in Fredericksburg, Va., in 1816, on his way to a General Conference in Baltimore. I have not the "Life of Asbury" nor his journals before me, but have read them, and I make this statement from memory, and which, I think, is in the main correct. The first Methodist Church built in Marion County, according to tradition, was "Flowers Meet- ing House," already herein mentioned among the . Flowers family ; built of logs, as I suppose, on one of Asbury's trips through the country on his way to Charleston, after the Revo- lutionary War. About the same time another Methodist Church was founded by Asbury, just above Little Rock, about half mile on the Rockingham Road. When Herod Stackhouse died, in 1846, a class leader and steward of the then Little Rock Church (Liberty Chapel), the writer was informed that the
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