USA > South Carolina > Spartanburg County > A history of Spartanburg county > Part 3
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The Battle of Cowpens By far the most brilliant and most important Revolu- tionary engagement fought on the soil of the Upper District was the Battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781. Indeed, judged from the standpoint of military strategy and of consequences, this was one of the outstanding battles of the entire Revolution, deal- ing the death blow to Tarleton's career and ending serious fighting on the soil of the Upper District. In every stage of the battle, Spar- tans had heavy responsibilities as scouts, skirmishers, commissary officers, and combatants. A volume could be filled with personal anecdotes concerning Cowpens. Brandon's part was especially gallant.
Warfare began in this district in 1776 with Indian
Tory Bands and Their Outrages and Tory attacks. This menace overhung the area throughout the struggle, keeping always a large part of the militia at home to hold it in check; and, after the organized British forces had passed through the Upper District for the last time, the inhabitants of Revolutionary sympathies suffered inroads and outrages from bands of Tories and Indians. Early in the year 1781 the Loyalists and Whigs of the Up Country agreed upon a truce so that the crops could be cultivated for the ensuing summer; for they realized both sides
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
must eat. But bands of violent men disregarded this truce, their ac- tivities possibly stimulated by news of renewed efforts by the British to reestablish their hold on the State. "Bloody Bill" Cunningham and "Bloody" Bates were the outstanding leaders of Tory bands which dashed here and there throughout Ninety-Six District, leaving behind them death, fire, and desolation.
What the people of the Upper District endured was well sum- marized by the Reverend George Howe, in the course of his "Cen- tennial Discourse," at Nazareth Church, September 14, 1861 :
The most bloody foes your fathers had were neighbors reared with them, acquainted with all their ways, and more unforgiving than those who had crossed the ocean to fight us. Your soil was the camping ground of the friendly and hostile forces, resounding under the hoofs both of Washington's and Tarleton's dragoons, and wet with the blood of your kindred and their foes.
Through the diligence and labor of your pastor, we have been able to learn the story of the "Plundering Scout," who passed through these neighborhoods some eighty-four years ago, taking everything that could be of value to them ; horses, cattle, beds, and bedding ; hanging one aged man in his own gate-way, and hack- ing another with their broad swords. And of the "Bloody Scout," of which "Bloody Bill" Cunningham was the presiding genius, who came after, like Death on the pale horse, and Hell following ; of their killing the sick man (Captain Steadman) in his bed; of their hacking the boy, John Caldwell, in pieces; of their killing John and James Wood, and the last, notwithstanding his wife's entreaties; and of the death of John Snoddy at their bloody hands . .
We have read of the bravery of your men-of Major David Anderson, who fought at Ninety-Six, at the siege of Charleston, at Eutaw Springs, and at Augusta ; of Captain Andrew Barry, who met the foe at Musgrove's Mill and the Cowpens ; of Captain John Collins, who fought on many fields, both in Carolina and Georgia.
We have read of Colonel Thomas, of Fairforest, who com- manded the Spartan Regiment till the fall of Charleston, three of whose sons watered the tree of liberty with their own blood, and whose sons-in-law held commissions in the war. Of William Kennedy, Samuel McJunkin, Major Joseph McJunkin, General Thomas Brandon, Captain William Savage, Colonel Hughes, and Major Otterson, in the old Brown's Creek Church below, who with one other man, captured thirty of Tarleton's cavalry on their re- treat from Cowpens; and of Samuel Clowney, of Fairforest, who, with his negro man, captured four of the enemy.
We have read of the brave women of the Revolution- among
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SPARTANS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
them, of Mrs. Thomas, of Fairforest, and her ride of fifty miles, from Ninety-Six, where her husband was prisoner, to Cedar Springs, to warn her neighbors and children there of a threatened attack, and of the heroic defense of her house by Culbertson, her son-in-law, who fired on the large band of attacking Tories, while she, her daughters, and her son Willie, loaded; of Mrs. Dillard, and her arrival on a gallop, to warn the camp of Colonel Clarke, at Green Spring on Lawson's Fork, after she had prepared supper for the Tory band, led by Ferguson and Dunlap ; of Dicey Lang- ston, who forded the Tyger River at the dead hour of the night, the waters reaching to her neck, floundering on, in bewilderment at times, to warn the settlement, where her brother lived, of the "Bloody Scout"; of Ann Hamilton, who seized a Tory that was firing her house, by his collar, and hurled him down the stairs.
"Bloody Bill" Cunningham and his "Bloody Scout" ended their career of plunder and murder in the Upper District by burning Wofford's Iron Works in November 1781. Soon after this Cunning- ham fled to Florida and remained there.
As though by preconcerted arrangement, "Bloody Bates" led a horde of Indians and Tories through the frontier section about Gowan's Fort, at the same time that Cunningham was sweeping through the lower settlements. Bates, in November 1781, captured Gowan's Fort, in which many of the terrified inhabitants had found refuge. Few of the men, women, and children who threw themselves upon his mercy escaped; those who did were scalped or otherwise mutilated. One victim to escape this barbarous slaughter was Mrs. Abner Thompson, of Greenville, South Carolina, who lived fifty years afterwards, although she had been scalped and left for dead.
Many traditions of the outrages perpetrated by Bates, and of his subsequent course as a horse thief, have come down. A particularly romantic story describes how one of his near-victims, a young Motley, of Upper Spartanburg County, hearing he was in the jail at Green- ville, led a body of neighbors, took Bates from the sheriff, and hanged him before the courthouse-with the approval of the community. The body was taken from the gallows and buried on the spot. There it lies to this day-covered by the Greenville post office.
Samuel Earle, during 1782-1783, commanded what was probably the last body of armed troops in Upper South Carolina, the South Carolina Rangers. Earle had been commissioned by General Andrew Pickens to raise this body of mounted men and to use it in policing the frontier. Samuel Earle once told B. F. Perry that at the close of the
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
Revolution he was personally acquainted with every settler above the Congarees.
Characterization of The circumstances under which they lived and the Spartan Regiment fought determined the character of the partisan bands of the Upper District who fought for independence. They had a loose, flexible organization, chose their own officers, decided by mutual agreement on their activities, fought hard and boldly when they felt they had a chance of winning, and disappeared with speed when they felt sure of impending defeat. They refused to be con- fined to prolonged training in camp, and when scouts reported no enemy near, claimed the right to go home and attend to their domestic concerns, hurrying back to the scene of action if they got word they were needed. The tale has come down that, when Morgan realized he must fight Tarleton, he sent out couriers to round up his forces. Captain Andrew Barry's wife, Kate, tied little Katie to the bedpost, mounted her horse and rode through part of her husband's beat, giving the call to arms. If these partisan volunteers disapproved the tactics or objectives of a leader, they sometimes detached themselves and joined another group. The result was that, at one time or another, the same man served in Thomas's, Brandon's, Roebuck's, or Steen's regiment. They enlisted for short terms, and transferred themselves almost at will from one leader to another when they re-enlisted. They were, after all, volunteer militiamen-the most thoroughly democratic and self-assertive type of soldier possible.
The fortitude and vision of men and women in the Upper District had no small influence in the final outcome of the Revolution. It is never to be forgotten that, when their leaders were ready to yield the cause as lost and to make submission to General Clinton, the partisan militiamen of the back country said "No"; and, by their stubborn resistance to British efforts at organizing the State, forced a renewal of the contest. The Spartan Regiment richly deserved the honor be- stowed on it when its name was given to the county.
PAGES FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF SAMUEL NOBLIT BELOW, ONE OF HIS COMPOSITIONS
A SONG
You Carolinans all Drare near Attention give & you Shall hear The Truth to you I will Relate it is of General Clouds Defeat
The Hilanders Came marching Down Thinking to get into Willmington
Then Caswells Soldiers stop'd them by the way A marching down in Battle Ray
Then general Cloud came marching Down With his men that Did to him Belong March on March on Brave Boys Said he For we Shurely Shall gain the Victory
Then general Cloud came marching Down With Sword in hand he cries aloud Fight on Fight on was all his Tone For I make no Doubt but the Days our
Then general Cloud came marching Down Within Reach of Rifles & Great guns Untill a Rifle Bullet give him a wound Which Brought his Body to ye ground
Then general Cloud Presum'd to Rise Fight on Fight on Dear Boys he Cries Fight on Fight on Dear Boys said he For americans near shall have Liberty
Then Caswells Soldiers being Such Val- ient men
They Cock't their Rifles once again They Drew their Sights ou him so neat Which Caused general Clouds Defeat
Then the Highlanders turn'd tail to Run Thinking to Recover home
Then Cuswells Soldiers Stoped them by the way
Which caused them to Lement the Day
Then Colul Thaxton met them their Thinking they had Run from the War He took their waggons & five hundred 111011
The Privates he sent home again Well since the Battle is ore & Donc Praises to god we will Return he has Cleared us of our Miserye and Still Maintains our Liberty
This Song Wrote By me Sam'l Noblit Wednesday May ye 10th 1780
CHAPTER THREE The Making of Spartan County
The Jacksonborough As soon as conditions permitted, after the close Assembly of the Revolutionary War, Governor Rutledge took the proper steps to set up an orderly government. In November he instructed the brigadier generals to conduct elections of represen- tatives to a General Assembly. The Governor's proclamation pro- vided that only active Revolutionists were eligible to vote or act as representatives. The Assembly thus elected, January 7, 1782, con- vened at Jacksonborough, a village near Charles Town. Since the British army still occupied Charles Town, the meeting was safe- guarded by the presence of General Greene's army. The Upper Dis- trict was represented in the Assembly by General William Henderson, Colonel Thomas Brandon, Samuel McJunkin, and Colonel John Thomas, Jr. Of this gathering, sometimes called the Jacksonborough House, a distinguished historian wrote: "It was a reunion of the civil and military leaders who had saved the State, and there never was a more notable gathering in South Carolina."
The Jacksonborough House was fully occupied with vexing questions in connection with the pay of the soldiers and terms of peace. During the following year the General Assembly began to wrestle with the problem of civil administration. The history of Spartanburg County as a distinct unit of government begins with the action of this legislature providing for the division of the seven large districts into small counties.
Creation of A commission composed of Andrew Pickens, Richard the County Anderson, Thomas Brandon, Levy Kelsey, Philemon Waters, Arthur Simkins, and Simon Berwick was appointed by the legislature, in 1783, to lay off Ninety-Six District into counties. These men at the session of 1785 recommended the division of the District into six counties : Abbeville, Edgefield, Laurens, Newberry, Spartan, and Union ; and an act was passed creating the counties in accordance with this recommendation.
The quaint wording used in the first published editions of the Acts of the General Assembly of South Carolina prescribed that county courts were to be held "at Spartan." The phrase, "Spartanburgh County," first appeared in an Act dated December 21, 1798. The
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
Act of 1798-1799, abolishing county courts, went into effect January 1, 1800; and thereafter Spartan County became Spartan, or Spartan- burgh, District-these terms appearing interchangeably in the records of the period. The constitution of 1868 was to return to the designa- tion county, which has continued in use ever since. It may be noted, however, that all during the post-bellum years, into the eighties, many old-fashioned writers retained the use of the word district, resenting the change as a Yankee imposition.
Evolution of County Boundaries The area of the county thus created and put into operation had been, in the colonial period, a part of Craven County. In 1685, when the Province of South Carolina was only fifteen years old, its Proprietors laid it off into four counties. The largest of these, Craven County, started at the mouth of the Seewee River, a tributary of Bull's Bay, and followed it to its head. From the head of the Seewee River the Craven County line was run northwest to the Santee River, up that stream to the Congaree, thence up to the Saluda, following the river's course to the North Carolina line, and thence to the Atlantic coast, and down the shore back to the starting point, the Seewee River. The upper part of Craven County remained Indian lands until after Grant's war in 1761. By the treaty of December 18, 1761, an agreement was reached with the Indians by which the so-called Indian Line was marked, coinciding roughly with the present lines separating Spartanburg from Green- ville, Greenville from Laurens, and Abbeville from Anderson counties. Settlers could thereafter obtain grants up to this Indian Line. Some Spartans still own old grants in this area which designate their lands as in Craven County.
The line between the two Carolinas was uncertain until 1772, when the King had it surveyed as far as the "Indian Line"-that is, to the northwest corner of what is now Spartanburg County. This fact ex- plains why many of Spartanburg's early settlers had grants from North Carolina, and why South Carolina grants describe land in what is today Spartanburg County as in Craven County, while grants to ad- jacent lands issued by North Carolina designate these lands as in Mecklenburg or Tryon counties. Sometimes two men would hold grants to the same tract, one from North Carolina and the other from South Carolina. An example is found in the case of William Wof- ford, who held grants from North Carolina to lands, as in Tryon County, which were set down as "vacant" in South Carolina. A
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THE MAKING OF SPARTAN COUNTY
struggle over these titles took place in connection with Buffington's Iron Works.
In 1769 Ninety-Six District was created, and the area which was to become Spartanburg was included in it, and so continued until the creation of the counties in 1785. One clause of the act creating new counties read: "One to be called Spartan, bounded by Laurens County on the north, the Indian Line on the westward, North Carolina boundary and Broad River to Tate's Ferry, thence along the road to John Ford's plantation on Enoree River, including the same."
Spartan County, as thus created, contained 1,050 square miles. Re-surveys reduced it to 1,004. In 1897 the northeastern part was taken to help form Cherokee County. Since that time its area has been 765 square miles.
Natural Features The mountains are in sight from nearly every part of the County of Spartanburg, and several elevations are locally named mountains ; but the county has not a single real mountain. The altitude of the city is 875 feet, and the county varies little from this figure. The highest point in the county is little more than one thous- and feet. The streams flowing from the Blue Ridge Mountains tra- verse Spartanburg County in a general southeast direction so as to di- vide it into long, almost parallel ridges. The Pacolet River, fed by its north and south forks and Lawson's Fork, waters the northeast sec- tion, and provides much of the tremendous power which has been so important in the industrial development of the county. The Tyger River-with its north, middle, and south branches, and its tributary, Fairforest Creek-provides similar advantages for the central and up- per western part of the county. The Enoree drains the lower western part of the county. All of the streams are swift and are broken by falls or shoals.
The distribution of the rivers, the numerous springs and small creeks, and the gentle slopes of the watersheds combine to make Spar- tanburg one of the best counties in the United States for farming and grazing. The Blue Ridge Mountains, just to the north, serve as a protection from severe cold winds. Every part of the county is well watered and variegated in surface, so that woodlands, pastures, meadows, cultivated fields, and rich bottom-lands, are all to be found in nearly every section. The ridges are especially adapted to orchards. The numerous mineral springs, the gold, iron, and limestone deposits were early recognized as potentially wealth-producing.
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
The unusual possibilities of the county were fully realized by the pioneer settlers. The story goes that one of the earliest bands of settlers encamped on a ridge in the southeast part of the county two miles from Glenn Springs, and that a member of their company, James Mc- Ilwaine, exclaimed in rapture, "What a fair forest is here!" The phrase was seized upon and applied to the stream nearby and the region it waters. Spartanburg County was indeed a fair forest from its beginnings.
Organization of County Government
The purpose of dividing Ninety-Six District into counties was to provide smaller units of government and thus insure proper administration of justice; and at the same time minimize the expense and inconvenience citizens must incur in attending court or transacting legal business. Circuit Court would still be held twice a year at Cambridge (as the courthouse town of Ninety-Six District was named) ; but each county had its own gov- ernment administered by a county court and officers appointed under its jurisdiction.
The first judicial officers for Spartan County were Baylis Earle, John Thomas, Jr., Henry White, John Ford, James Jordan, William Wood, and Henry Machan Wood. Their commissions were dated March 24, 1785, and signed by his Excellency William Moultrie, Esq. The commission continued during "good behavior," and authorized the holders "to have full power and jurisdiction to hold the County Court in and for the said County ... and you are to hear and deter- mine all causes and other matters and controversies properly apper- taining and referred by law to your jurisdiction." These commissions -inscribed by John Thomas, Jr., previously appointed clerk of court-constitute the first public documents recorded in the county.
The duties of these "gentlemen justices," as they were officially styled, included the selection of a suitable place for holding court and the erection of necessary public buildings-courthouse, gaol, pillory, whipping post, and stocks. They were to hold court four times a year, and to elect officers for the county. They had limited juris- diction in criminal cases, but were charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order in the county. They had jurisdiction over the laying out of roads and the regulation of "public houses of enter- tainment."
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THE MAKING OF SPARTAN COUNTY
The First The first meeting of court was on the third Monday in Courts June 1785, at Nicholl's (later Anderson's) Mill on Tyger River. It is clear that a struggle attended the efforts of the county justices to select a site for the public buildings ; for they waited two years to make a final decision. Meanwhile court convened in September and again in December 1785, at the plantation of Thomas Williamson, and throughout the year 1786 at John Wood's plantation. After selecting a hill on Wood's plantation for the public buildings, the gentlemen justices, in December, reversed this decision. The clerk's office was then removed to Samuel Porter's plantation on Lawson's Fork. In January 1787 the commissioners came to an agreement- under legislative pressure-and settled on the Williamson plantation site. Williamson sold them a rectangular two-acre tract for five shillings. Thus was finally determined the precise location of Spartan Court House-later Spartanburg.
First Public Buildings A special meeting was held, January 17, 1787, for the purpose of letting the contract for "public buildings"; but it was not actually made and signed until February 1. Its pro- visions specified that a gaol, pillory, whipping post and stocks, "such as is usual," should be completed within the year, and the courthouse by 1789. Richard Harrison, Esq., took the contract for two hundred and four pounds, and gave bond.
The first courthouse was built of hewn timbers, and was twenty by thirty feet, with a square roof having a twelve-foot pitch. It had one story and contained a court room and two jury rooms. The two- story log jail was sixteen feet square, and had a foundation of heavy stones. These two buildings and the pillory, whipping post, and stocks stood among the trees on the Public Ground and constituted the seat of justice of Spartan County. The courthouse stood almost exactly where the Morgan monument now stands, the location being determined by its proximity to a bold spring from which flowed a good stream. Such provision for the comfort of man and beast was essen- tial. This spring dried up long ago, and buildings today cover its site.
County Officers Colonel John Thomas, Jr., was appointed by the and Their Duties legislature the first clerk of court of Spartan County. The county court at its first meeting elected William Young sheriff, and Joseph Buffington coroner. In March 1787, Colonel John
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
Thomas, Jr., was elected treasurer and was provided with a deputy clerk of court. To these officers were added, in 1791, five constables : Richard Nolly, Hancock Smith, Thomas Gordon, Henry Wolf, Robert Harper. The first ordinary, Gabriel Bumpass, was appointed in 1804.
The sheriff's office was one of great dignity and responsibility, as he was the chief administrative officer, with the power to arrest, to sell forfeited property, and to take any measures he deemed necessary for preserving the peace. The clerk of court was responsible for all records-and records were kept in long hand and written with quill pens. Deeds, wills, bills of sales, records of public business transacted-all had to be copied carefully. All these records are treasured in the office of the clerk of court.
The officers who administered the laws were not paid salaries ; instead, the legislature drew up an elaborate code of regulations pre- scribing their duties and the fees to be collected for the performance of each. Their reward was in proportion to their activity. Their official duties in early years required little of their time. Many years were to elapse before public officers here or in other counties were obliged to give their entire attention to their official duties. When that condition arose, popular demands eventually led to legislation abolish- ing the fee system and providing salaries proportioned to the demands of offices.
Some Old Old court records throw much light on the simple
Court Records lives of the "rude forefathers" of Spartanburg. At meetings of the county court the gentlemen justices were much occu- pied with such routine business as qualifying and commissioning ap- pointees, and establishing rates for taverns, liquor retailers, and houses of public entertainment. Some of the prescribed prices and items are of interest : A "common cold dinner or supper" was priced at eight pence ; the same, "neatly cooked," cost one shilling. A "common breakfast" cost eight pence; and, "with bohea, coffee, or chocolate," it cost nine pence; "with bohea and loaf sugar," it cost a shilling. A "clean bed" for one person cost fourpence ; for two persons, three- pence each. "Stabling an horse, with sufficient fodder or hay, for twenty-four hours," cost one shilling sixpence. Each quart of corn or oats cost twopence. The variety of drinks and their prices astonish the present-day reader : Jamaica rum cost twelve shillings per gallon ; West Indian rum, eight shillings; Nantz brandy cost ten shillings per gallon. Whiskey cost four shillings per gallon. The "best Madeira
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