USA > South Carolina > Historic houses of South Carolina > Part 25
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EDEN HALL
Mr. Watson is also authority for the interesting informa- tion that "in the lower section of the county is a fine old man- sion, Eden Hall, built by the late Dr. Wm. Hearst. He was a very wealthy man and benefactor of Erskine College. W. R. Hearst, the newspaper publisher, belongs to this family; his great-grandfather moved from that section to Missouri and his father from there to California."
TUMBLING SHOALS
Another interesting place is the Tumbling Shoals residence in Laurens County, 13 miles east of the town. According to the account of Captain William D. Sullivan, Sr., of Gray Court, John and William Arnold built a house for themselves and a primitive mill, which they erected at Tumbling Shoals about 1800. This house is still standing in a good state of preserva- tion, and is used as a dwelling place for an operator in the
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modern power plant which has superseded the mill. The hand- hewn shingles and weather-boards were "home-made," no doubt cut out with a whip saw operated by the Arnolds in true pioneer style, while the nails with which the shingles and weather boards were attached to the frame were made of wrought iron by the neighboring blacksmith.
In 1820 Joseph Sullivan, father of Wm. D. Sullivan, moved from Greenville district to Tumbling Shoals. He bought the mill and water power from Henry Barrow, 45 acres of land for $1200, and another tract of land containing 1000 acres for $500.
In 1837 he built a large flour and grist mill, also a saw mill and cotton gin, which were operated until sold to the Reedy River power plant about ten years ago. The following year (1838) he constructed a two-story dwelling house on the east side of Reedy River, in which house Wm. D. Sullivan was born, who has lived there for 82 years.
Within two miles of Mr. Sullivan's house is the Friend- ship Presbyterian Church, which is situated on a high, dry ridge between the waters of Reedy River and South Rabun Creek, ten miles east of Laurens Court House. It was organ- ized by Colonel Samuel Levers in 1820 as a Presbyterian Con- gregation, calling itself Friendship Presbyterian Church. James Dorroh (who died in 1820) donated the land on which to build the church. This was first a Union Church, having been organized in 1809 by the Baptists and Presbyterians jointly, and being used by both denominations for eleven years, during which time it was known as Rabun Church. In 1820 the Bap- tists sold their interests and withdrew, organizing Rabun Church a few miles further north. In 1859 the Presbyterians replaced this first structure with the church that is now stand- ing, and which was used for a centennial celebration in 1920. Prominent Scotch-Irish family names are found on the church rolls, among them Dorrohs, Simpsons, Averys, MeKnights, Morgans, Sullivans and Cunningham, who built the church.
BELFAST
Another house of some historic interest in this section is on the Laurens side of the road that separates Newberry from
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Laurens. It was built in the early years of the nineteenth century, and is of brick, two stories and a half high, with ex- ceptionally large rooms. Tradition has it that the brick, like the builder, came from Ireland. Colonel John W. Simpson came over to this country from Ireland near Belfast, and named his home Belfast in memory of that place. He was the father of William D. Simpson, who was elected Lieutenant- Governor when Wade Hampton was elected Governor in 1878; became Governor when Hampton went to the Senate; and was later made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
The house passed into other hands, and in 1851 or 1852 was bought by John Wallace from a Mr. Eichelberger; it belongs now to Robert G. Wallace. The building contains four large rooms, about 22 by 28, two small ones, and, in the half-story, a long "garret" which seems to be intended for "old plunder." The present owner has added a wooden dining-room and kitchen. The plastering on walls and ceilings is what is known as "hard finish" and is without crack, despite the earthquake of 1866; the mantels are high and their facings quite orna- mental. In the large rooms an elaborate cornice follows a curved pattern in several layers on the ceilings : the side walls are exceptionally thick. No nails are used in the flooring boards, but round pegs very similar to those used in decking a ship, which leads to the belief that Col. John W. Simpson may have been a sea-faring man.
For so large a house the piazza is quite small, but the grounds are extensive, including the Wallace family burying ground with monuments and tablets. Nearby is Hay's Moun- tain, where a massacre of the Whigs by the Tories took place during the Revolutionary War, and in olden times when mail was carried by postillions on horseback this house was the only post-office between Laurens and Newberry. A famous Rock Spring is found on the grounds.
The present owners are of a distinguished up-country fam- ily, one of which is W. H. Wallace, father of Professor Wallace, of Wafford University, and the well-known editor of the Newberry Observer. Although the original builders, the Simpson family, no longer reside at Belfast, yet it is repre-
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sented in the State by Henry Y. Simpson, of the Laurens bar, grandson of the first owner, and son of the late Chief Justice Simpson, who was born at Belfast.
THE SIMS HOUSE, LANCASTER
James Marion Sims, according to Joseph Wardlaw's "Genealogy of the Witherspoon Family," was the son of Col. John Sims and Mahala Mackey. He was born in January, 1813, graduated at South Carolina College in 1832, at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 1835, and in 1836 married Eliza Theresa Jones, daughter of Dr. Bartlett Jones, a skilful physi- cian and a man of renown, decided intelligence and great popu- larity. This marriage influenced his life greatly. A few facts about Dr. Jones are not amiss.
Dr. Bartlett Jones was born in Prince William County, Virginia, in 1787, graduated as M. D. in Philadelphia in 1806, and settled at Lancaster, S. C., in 1808. Here, in 1810, he mar- ried Eliza Jane Dunlap, a daughter of Dr. Samuel F. Dunlap and Mary Crawford (daughter of Major Robert Crawford). After his marriage he built a house at the southeast corner of Main, or Brown and Arch Streets. The house itself was typi- cal of the "up country," being a square two-story building with its main entrance opening directly from the piazza into the hallway which bisected the establishment. There is noth- ing architecturally great to render this house worthy of notice in a volume of Historic Houses, but the fact that there the great physician, Marion Sims, first received his inspiration and love for medicine from his father-in-law, and there first engaged in that practice of medicine destined to revolutionize modern surgery.
Many authorities give illuminating glimpses of the early struggle of Sims which can be read at leisure, but after moving around from "pillar to post" his love of healing prevailed, and he set himself to map out new fields of endeavor in his chosen profession.
Gen. E. MeCrady, in an address dealing with the history of the South Carolina Medical College says :
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- "It happened there was sitting on the benches of this first class under the now organization of the college a youth from the Waxsaws, the native place of Andrew Jackson, who was to do more good in his generation than his great compatriot, and to surpass even the great French physician and biologist, Ravenel, as well in his fame as in his kindness and beneficence to the poor and suffering. This was Dr. J. Marion Sims, whose name you will find on the roll of the class of 1834. It was my fortune to know Dr. Sims, and to know him somewhat intimately, and I can bear testimony that amidst all his pro- fessional triumphs, in the full tide of his fame, having the decorations of the governments of France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Belgium as a great benefactor of man- kind, he looked back with pleasure and affection, and loved to talk of the old days when he studied medicine in the college with his friend Sparkman, and 'dear old Dick Baker' as he used to speak of that excellent physician. Dr. C. R. F. Baker, of Clarendon, who died just before him. Let me speak a word of Dr. Sims to you, young gentlemen, and before this Charles- ton audience, for the applause of strangers, and the honors bestowed by Royalty and Courts were not so dear to him as the fact that he was a Southerner and a South Carolinian.
"He was a bold pioneer, opening new pathways; original and with creative genius, he discovered for himself, and made his discoveries a gift to the profession. Truly he did so. As his writings have been translated into every modern European language, so the instruments of inventions of which it would require much space to give even a list are found in the con- sulting rooms of every surgeon in the civilized world; but no royalty or tribute did he ever ask for them. He took no toll upon his inventions for the relief of suffering. He took out no patent upon the instruments he invented for the benefit of humanity.
"Eventually Dr. Sims' search led him to Montgomery, Alabama, where he established a small private hospital for negro women : the prototype of the great Woman's Hospital in New York. That grand institution is a monument to a South Carolinian on the Atlantic. On the Pacific another Carolina physician has left his monument in the Toland Institute.
"In 1853 Dr. Sims removed from Montgomery, Ala., to New York where during the following year he founded the Woman's Hospital, the first institution of the kind on this continent ; as it has been well said: 'If Sims had done nothing else, the energy and determination displayed in placing this institution in a proper working condition would be sufficient
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to entitle him to the gratitude of the public, and to establish his claim as a wise philanthropist.'
"Dr. Toner, in his biographical sketch of Dr. Sims, recalls the account given by the New York newspapers of a 'Lecture,' as Dr. Sims called it, in which he first presented to the public bis scheme for a Woman's Hospital in 1854, and cites the Tribune as saying :
" 'He aimed, by the history of a Southern institution with which he had been connected, and its results, to show how much might be done in this city, and how great was our need.'
" The story of Sims is the story of a Man Who Triumphed. Many men whose minds have carried them as near to great things have failed because unable to climb the path they saw so well! The flesh will not always do the work the mind con- ceives. Fortunately for humanity it was not so with Dr. Sims. When he saw that suffering could be relieved it lay on him as a call from God. He had a mission, a calling to fulfill, which neither weariness, nor sickness, nor poverty could pre- vent. In reading the story vou will admire the genius, but you will love the man who devoted himself to the task.
"Failure followed failure, but Sims did not doubt the result. Money, labor, health, all he poured into his work. while friends and relations pressed him to desist, and appealed to him to remember his wife and children, if he cared nothing for himself. But in vain, till they began to do as the boys of old did to Columbus as he walked the streets filled with the vision of the New World, touching their heads significantly as they passed him. At last, however, success came. As he was walking home one evening, dejected, not because he doubted his discovery, but fearing his health and means would all go before he could demonstrate it, a little piece of wire on the ground struck his eye; and he took it up scarcely thinking of what he was doing. That little piece of wire solved the problem, and Sims is famous to-day because he found the use of a silver suture and modern methods of surgery were made possible.
"The death of Dr. J. Marion Sims carried profound grief to the American profession. Not only in this country, but abroad, in whatever land true medicine lives, his departure was mourned. Surely South Carolina may well be proud of this son, who not only became a great public benefactor, but is among the rare instances of those who have given dis- coveries and inventions of immense value to the world without price or reward ."
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NEWBERRY " COATESWOOD "
Newberry is one of the old settlements in the upper part of the State, but the history of these counties has never been written in detail and few records are obtainable, although South Carolina is as proud of her sons of the hills as she is of her sons of the sea and the dwellers along the rivers.
One of the oldest public buildings in Newberry is a beauti- ful piece of architecture, marred only by a flight of steps which breaks the harmony and destroys the unity of this gem carved and set in the early days of Newberry. A bas-relief on the façade of the old court house has an interesting story says Mr. W. H. Wallace, editor of the Newberry Observer. In 1876, just after the redemption of the State, Mr. O. Wells was given the contract to make repairs on the building, which had become shabby under radical regimes. In finishing the façade he con- ceived the idea of making an allegory of the State's downfall and its redemption, so that he who ran might read, in the fallen palmetto tree with a game-cock standing on its roots crowing defiantly, and the American eagle with extended wings grasp- ing the top of the tree in the attempt to lift it upright, the story of a "prostrate State."
The most historie house in Newberry is that of the late Chancellor Johnstone, who died some fifty years ago. The house is still in the family, and is occupied by his daughters, Mrs. Clara MeCrary and Miss Fannie Johnstone. Senator Alan Johnstone is a son of the late Chancellor. Sketches of Chancellor Johnstone are found in the "Annals of Newberry," O'Neall and Chapman, second part; in Carwile's "Remini- scences of Newberry, " and in N. R. Brooks' "Bench and Bar." In quoting from a sketch of the house written by Mrs. McCrary, a great many of the facts of which were taken from the above- named sources, it is stated that
"Coateswood, the home of Chancellor Job Johnstone at Newberry, S. C., was built by him about the year 1835. The plan of the building is that of an English basement house. It contains twelve rooms and two additional garret rooms, mak- ing four stories. The first story is of brick finished with stucco,
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the two upper stories and attie are of frame. The brick wall of the first story is solid and is twenty inches thick. The in- terior woodwork (mouldings, framings of doors and windows, mantels, etc.) is exceedingly tasteful. The carving was all done by hand and was the work of the contractor and builder, Phillip Sehoppert, a citizen of Newberry. His handiwork is to be seen in many of the older homes of Newberry.
"The brick in the house was all made upon the place and the lumber used was made from timber grown in Newberry County. The lime for mortar and plastering was imported and brought by wagon from Charleston. In the rear of the house and separated from it is the long brick kitchen, having a large open fireplace with crane. Another feature which dates far back is the Sun Dial between the house and kitchen. The house is located on the crest of the hill, which situation shows to advantage the good points of the establishment."
Chancellor Job Johnstone was of Scotch-Irish descent, his parents, John Johnstone and Mary Caldwell, emigrating to this country and settling in Fairfield District, South Carolina, about three miles below Winn's Bridge on Little River. He was named for his maternal grandfather, Job Caldwell, of Londonderry, Ireland, who was in his day a distinguished physician. His early life was spent in Fairfield, Chester and Newberry Districts. Graduating at a very early age from the South Carolina College in 1810 he studied and practiced medi- cine for a short time, reading with Dr. Davis, of Columbia, and graduating at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, in 1815. Finding that profession unsuited to his tastes he turned to the law, for which he had always a leaning and to which he had previously given some study in the law offices of Mr. John Hooker at York and Mr. Clark at Winnsboro. In 1817 he entered the office of John Belton O'Neall at Newberry, and in the winter of 1818 was admitted to the Courts of Law and Equity, and formed a partnership with Mr. O'Neall. This partnership existed until 1828. He had in the meantime, in November, 1826, been elected Clerk of the Senate, serving until November 3, 1830, when he was elected Chancellor. In 1847 he was made presiding Judge of the Equity Court of Appeals. This office he filled through all the changes in the Judiciary until 1859 when he was elected Associate Judge of the Court of
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Appeals. This last position he accepted, and discharged most ably its duties until his death in 1862. Mr. O'Neall, his partner at law and life-long friend, his senior by less than two months was closely connected with him again when each was elevated to the Supreme Bench as Chief Justice and Associate Justice. It may not be amiss in this connection to say that Chief Justice O'Neall survived him by little more than a year, his death occurring on December 27th, 1863.
In the War of 1812 Job Johnstone was appointed and com- missioned Quartermaster to the 36th Regiment, Eastern Divi- sion, May 26th, 1812, aged nineteen years.
In 1832 he was a member of the celebrated Nullification Con- vention, and it is said that he assisted in drawing up the ordi- nance of nullification adopted by that body. He took an active part in organizing Aveleigh (Presbyterian) Church at New- berry and was made one of its elders. In compliment to him the name Aveleigh was given to the church, as that had been the name of the church of his forefathers in England. He was Commissioner to the first General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church which met in Augusta, Ga., December 4th, 1861, at which time the Southern Church formally withdrew from the Northern.
In closing this sketch of the life of Chancellor Job John- stone and the description of his home, it is well to conclude with the tribute paid to him by his alma mater in a brief résumé of his life, "It has been said that during twenty-one years of his administration no one lost his right or his estate through the maladministration of Job Johnston."
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CHAPTER XV
JOSEPH MCCULLOUGH HOUSE, FORT HILL, LOWTHER HALL, TOMASSEE AND THE BURT HOUSE IN ABBEVILLE
THE JOSEPH MCCULLOUGH HOUSE
HE Joseph Mccullough house was built nearly a hundred years ago, on the old stage-coach road running from Green- ville, in the northwestern part of the state, to Augusta, Ga. The house, which is of brick, is set on a slight ter- race formed by a stone coping, the build- ing itself being placed about twenty feet back from the road, and privacy being insured by a row of fine old cedar trees. Although the material from which the house is constructed is brick, there is a most curious use of plaster to simulate a vari-colored stone. The plaster is applied to the bricks in blocks about two by three feet square, giving a beauti- ful, mellow effect, as the colors used are soft blue, pink, and granite, while the blocks are outlined with a : narrow white edging.
Originally the house had a shed room at the rear, as well as an upstairs piazza on the front. Each end of this piazza was enclosed to form a small room, These details are given in order to show how it was possible for this establishment to house so many people.
In the days when there were no railroads in upper South Carolina all freight was handled on wagons, and all travel was by private conveyance, thus this homestead, which stands in the extreme lower corner of Greenville County, was used not only as a family residence, but as a public inn, by Joseph Mc- Cullough, who was a large landholder, a merchant, and a shrewd trader in all kinds of stock. The two latter avocations he was able to pursue to advantage by reason of the strategic position he had selected for his home. In those days of heavy
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travel from the seacoast to the mountains there was great necessity for accommodations for man and beast, including the hogs, mules, horses and other cattle that were driven on foot from Tennessee and Kentucky to the markets of Carolina. These creatures, as well as the traders and drovers accompany- ing them, had to be furnished with food and lodgings, and Joseph Mccullough prospered by providing them for all con- cerned. Thus the old house was, at one time, very much in demand as a public inn.
Upon approaching the house from the road a traveler ascends the weather-beaten stone steps leading from the road to the terrace, and traverses the remains of an interesting look- ing formal garden to the piazza, which is reached by one gran- ite step, and from which immediate entrance is had to the house. At each gable end of the old place a massive chim- ney is found, and at the left side is a long wing, while just a few feet from the side steps of this wing is an old-fashioned well with the sweep and bucket.
J. W. Mccullough, a grandson of the original owner, was raised at the old home, but had, he said, like most children, paid little attention to its history; all that he remembered was that the house was built by contract, of brick plastered over, and when finished the keys were handed over to his grandfather.
Another relative, Mrs. T. S. McKittrick, of Toney Creek neighborhood, whose grandmother was a niece of the original owner, Joseph McCullough, writes of the relationship, stating that the elder Mr. Mccullough was instrumental in bringing her grandparents to this country. She says, in speaking of the old inn: "My earliest recollection of the place is when it was a well-kept home with many beautiful outdoor shrubs and flowers, having also a well-furnished conservatory. To my childish mind the beautiful hothouse flowers were things of wonder."
Still another member of the family is Mr. W. D. Sullivan, of Gray's Court, an old gentleman over eighty years of age, who takes much interest in such matters, and has written a great deal of historical data dealing with this section. His
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sister married one of the McCullonghs, and thus became lady of the house. Although still owned by the original family, it is no longer occupied by them; from the writer's personal visit to the place, however, and from letters of relatives the history of the old house has been compiled, the narratives of several widely separated people agreeing as to names and dates.
Mr. Sullivan supplies an interesting story about the house itself in the following account: "In about 1850 I was at John Robinson's circus at Mccullough. We took care of the whole outfit. The manager made a great impression on me and I now call to mind that he had all the show people registered and assigned to rooms just like a hotel. All the rooms of the house were numbered, with signs tacked on the doors on white papers."
Other interesting anecdotes are told concerning this house and its inhabitants. As one of the writers naïvely says : "Old Joseph Mccullough, from some of the things I have heard of him, was not a religious man." His characteristic as a shrewd trader is evidenced in a story told of his having packed a grindstone in a bale of cotton to increase its weight, and send- ing it to Atlanta to be sold. However. "chickens come home to roost," said the narrator of this incident, "and some time afterwards my grandfather was at the store when old Uncle Joe opened a barrel of sugar and there was the stone, which had come back to him. He called his cousin and partner, 'Oh, Read, come here,' and holding up the grindstone remarked, 'it looks1 familiar, doesn't it!' "
It seems that old Colonel James McCullough, who inherited the house upon the death of his father, Joseph Mccullough, was an officer in the Confederate Army, being Colonel of the 16th South Carolina Volunteers. He was also a big planter, ran a general store, and ginned for the public. He and his wife, who was a Miss Sullivan, had no children, but they seemed to have loved young people, and to have been open- hearted, as they raised a dozen or more nieces and nephews.
The original owner had other children than Colonel James McCullough, as we glean from the fact that J. W. Mccullough, a grandson of Joseph (the first), is still living, although the
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house did not remain with him in the direct family line, but passed to the adopted son of Colonel James MeCullough, Hon. Joseph A. Mccullough, formerly of Greenville, but now of Baltimore, Md. This latter is a prominent and well-known lawyer, in whose hands the old place now remains.
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