Marion County, South Carolina - The whole text, 1902 (part 2 of 15)

Not many years after this - ^perhaps in the thirties - an ajcademy 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 generally 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 I;ittle Rock, Marion County." They are proud of their citizenship and homes. The school was founded by Herod Stadkhouse, 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 efiforts 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 hy 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 taugiht 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 third and fourth generations of the men who founded it. It has done much for the oommunity in which it is located, and ha& furnished many men and women who have been prominent in the affairs of the State and county, and among them our Governor, the late Williami H. Ellerbe.

The next high school, in the order of time, was Hofwyl Acadtemy. It was built in 1853, and was burned by an incendiary in 1855. T'his academy was built and the school established there by Captain E. C. Bethea, Colonel James R. Bethea, John R. Bethea, Rev. Samuel J. Bethea, Stephen Fore, Captain C. J. Fladlger, 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 children 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 section, and John H., now about twenty-one years old. Also, G. W. Wood'berry, 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 livin'g, and have raised a family of sons and daughters ready to take their places in society, and to fill them with respectability and success, as their parents have done. Dr. F. M. Monroe went to school there, perhaps the last school he ever attended before reading medicine ; he boarded at Captain James W. Bass', together with one Willie Sbeckelford, son of Jotin 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 respecta:ble and prominent citizen of hich character and a Christian gentleman. From the L,ittle 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 scliool 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 IvCgislature. His sons are the Hon. J. D. Haselden, 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 ir\ the South Carolina College, and another in the law department of that institution, from which he graduated with highly distingui^ed 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 Cokesibury 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. se:emed 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 commenced, John Calvin Clark volunteered in Company L, 8th regiment South Carolina troops, and was Second Lieutenant in that company. In one of the many battles in wliich that regiment was engaged, Jdhn Calvin, for some reason or other, was in command of his company, and was killed in advance of his command, while calling on his men to follow him, telling them to come on, not to go on. Thus a truly brave boy fell at the head of his comimand, in a position that tried men's souls; wliile others of his command, perhaps, in sdiool, and then in battle with him, if they did not exactly show the "white feather," did not manifest the bravery of schoolboy days. All honor to the true, manly courage of John Calvin Clark. R. K. Clark, a brother. Who went to sdiool at Hofwyl, grew up to manhood and went into the war towards the last of it, and from the writer's knowledge of him was equally as brave in the performance of duty as was his brother, John Calvin. After the war he married Miss Nannie Stackhouse, a daughter of the then late Wesley Stackhouse. He went to farming, which he continued to follow with some success till 1876, when 'he was nominated in that memorable campaign for Clerk of the Court, and was elected. He served four years in that position with credit, and made an excellent Clerk. At the end of his term he was a candidate for renbmin'ation, but failed to get the nomination, and J. Albert Smith was nominated and elected. For reasons which it is not necessary to state, he failed to get the nomination. It was not that he had not made an efficient Clerk. He was soOn afterwardis appointed County Treasurer, which position he filled with great credit and to the entire satisfaction of his people. He held it for a year or two, and resigned it and moved UfK>n his plantation in upper Marion, where he successfully farmed until 1888, when he died, leaving his widow, who has since died, and three sons and four daughters, of whom Luther Clark, now in Marion, is one, and Hon. W. A. Brown's wife is another. Do not know of the remaining five.

There is another batch of Hofwyl pupils from abroad that I must notice. They were from Marlborough County, viz: Joseph Steed, who died at old man Philip Bethea's, where he boarded while going to school. There was, also, R. Y. Henegan, son of ex-Governor B. K. Henegan, Henry Baggett and Peter Baggett. R. Y. Henegan is yet living, near Florence, and is one of the many good citizens of that county, and prominent in his community; married, I think, a Miss Waring, a highly respectalble family. The writer saw Bob a few days ago, with his daughter, a beautiful girl, at Florence. Time is snowing on the head of R. Y. Henegan, the Hofwyl schoolboy. The two Baggett boys, Henry and Peter, the writer knows nothing of. Thinks Henry Baggett went to Charleston after the war, and went into, perhaps, a factorage and commission business, unaeir the firm name of J. H. Baggett & Co. I think, Peter Baggett was killed or died in the war. All these from abroad showed the popularity of the school. Such was its efficiency that it drew to it the favor and patronage, not only of its neighborhood, but others frcan a distance. The first teacher in that school was William McDuffie, a cousin of the late A. Q. McDuffie, Esq. The next was Harris Covington, a very scholarly man and a good teacher. He had his sister with him one or two years of his three or four years. The next was the late W. J. McKerall, for two years. He had his sister with him the last year, 1859. Harris Covington succeeded W. J. McKerall in i860 and 1861. During 1861, Covington volunteered in C. J. Fladger's company, was First L;ieutenant in that company and went off to the war. Then followed Archibald McGrogan, a young man from North Carolina, who continued the school till 1865. Next was Colonel J. W. St. Clair, Who continued' till 1868. John C. Sellers taught the school in 1869. John A. Kelly taught there in 1870, and Philip Y. Bethea, in 1871, which was the last school taught at Hofwyl. The community became bare of children - so much so, that it was deemed proper to close it, and no school has been taught there since. The school made its mark there, and for about twenty years was the pride of the community, and did much in building up the neighborhood. It turned out many boys and girls that made our best citizens, surpassed nowhere. The writer, it is to be hoped, will be pardoned for having said so much about the Hofwyl School. He was magna pars fui, one of its founders, and one of its constant promoters and patrons. All his children except the youngest were educated at that celebrated school, the foundation was laid there. Two of his sons graduates, one at the South' Carolina College, the other at

Wofford College, both citizens among you, and stand in charax:- ter and attainments the peers of any. He has a right to talk, to feel proud, to be grateful, that he lived wlien he did and was enabled to accomplish the little be did for his community and for bis own children. Let the coming generation do as well - ^yea, better - for their posterity than did the Hofwyl community in their day and time. So may it be.

The next high school, in chronological order, was^the Mullins School, established some twenty-five or thirty years ago. This school for several of its first years did not prosper or succeed well. Owing to dissensions and some ill feeling among its patrons ; but time with its soothing and harmonizing influence has hushed its bickerings, and mollified and wiped out the former ill feeling that existed among its patrons, and it now presents a harmonious and united front, and they have a school there now of high standing and equal, perhaps, to any in the county, well attended, jx>pular and doing a good work, a great deal for that community. They have a corps of competent teachers, -and no reason why it should not continue to prosper and grow in its power for good. It, with other influences for the uplifting of the community, is making the Mullins people a great people, a moral and Christian community. The school, the two Sunday Schools there, one Baptist, the other Methodist, the two churches. Baptist and Methodist, under the hand of the highest supreme power, have achieved a revolution for good, so mudh so, that the most sanguine among them twentyfive years ago never dreamed or thought of. The writer will not draw and present the contrast any further. It is easier to conceive it than to tell it.

The next high school, in the order of time, as remembered, was at Dalcho, near the Catfish Baptist Church, in Bethea Township. It is a part of the old Hofwyl Academy. It was established some twelve or fifteen years ago, has been and is yet a very flourishing school. It is well attended, they Jiave kept the best of teachers there and it is tellinig for good on that wbole community, raising the .standard of morality, widening the circle of social life, elevating and inspiring Cbristian character and Cbristian endeavor. The school bas much to do with it.

The next school (high school), in chronological order, is the Dotihan School, another part of the old Hofwyl Academy. It, too, is a school of high standing, well patronized; they employ and keep the best teachers in it. Some years ago the promoters and principal patrons built a large and commodious academy building there at a cost of $i,6oo. A year or two after it was constructed, they had some public school exercises there one night in very waitn weather - ithey had no fire except liglited lamps ; it was burned down about i or 2 o'clock, together with books, seats, blackboards and other school furniture, a total loss with no insuranoe. It was and is yet believed that it was an incendiary fire. Not daunted there'by, they went back into the old school house near by, a house less pretentious and less commodious, and continued the school, and have kept it up to the present day. It is in a good community. They are doing a goodi wrork there, training and fitting the youth of that place for higiher education, if they desire it, and to take their respective places in future society and in future business life.

The next high school, in the order of time, is the Hopewell School, situated in the "For*k" neighborhood, between Little Pee Dee and Buck Swamp. This school the -writer has heard is a first class school. Its chief promoters and patrons are D. D. McDuffie, Dempsy Lewis, T. B. Rogers, Ferdinand Rogers, David S. Edwards and perhaps others. It is well attended, has a strong corps of teachers, is doing much in building up and improving the community, and' giving to its people a higher and better tone, inspiring their local pride and promotive of good morals.

Another high school estaiblished about the same time was the Gaddy School, located near or at Caddy's Mills, in Hillsboro Township. Its chief patrons are Captain R. H. Rogers, Joseph R. Oliver, Barfield Rogers, T. B. Hays, W. S. Lupo, A. B. Carmichael, Samuel T. Caddy, B. F. Edwards and perhaps others. They keep a good school there, employ good teachers, and are doing much for building up and elevating- their community. The school, together with the two churches, Piney Grove (Baptist) and Union (Methodist), are improving the morals of that community, and qualifying and fitting the present rising generation for a favorable entrance upon life's arena.

The next High school, in the order of time, is the school at Latta. A school had been established there, or just above the town, some years before the Florence Railroad was constructed, not very pretentious, but was said to be a good country school. It, too, was a part of old Hofwyl. When a town sprang up (Latta), it seemed to quicken and inspire an ambition for better and larger schod facilities, and hence the establishment of the present popular high school. The writer does not know wheth'er it is called "a graded school" or not, he has since learned that it is a graded school. It, 'however, does not matter - the school is established and has a high character. They have a good building, well attended, and the school is in high favor with the town and surrounding country. They have a first class teacher at its head, who is sowing the seeds of knowledgethere that will spring up and bear good fruit in that community years to come in the rising and coming generation. They are touching chords that will vibrate not only in future years but in and through eternity. That school, with the three churches (Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian) located there, will, in the near future, if they continue to nurse them and strengthen them, elevate that people far above present conceptions, and future generations will echo with the praises of their ancestry. It being a growing town, it is difificult to say who are the leaders in their school enterpris'e ; therefore, the writer will ascribe it to all the good citizens of that place.

At Dillon, on the Florence Railroad, is a most excellent graded school. It is only of few years standing, and already will compare favorably with any like school, perhaps, in the State. The town of Dillon itself is only eleven or twelve years of age. It has now from 800 to 1,000 inhabitants. It is a very enterprising place, located in a fine section of the county, and surrounded on all sides by one of the best farming regions in the State, its prospects for becoming a city in the near future are bright and cheering. They have started right. They have established a fine graded school, and built a commodious brick building for the school. The school is largely attended. They keep a corps of good teachers, who are doing a good work, giving entire satisfaction to the patrons. The - session now closing for the present scholastic year, 1899 ^^^

1900, discloses the fact that the enrolment of scholars in the white school for this session is i8o. What will it he ten years hence? Doubled, if the town continues to grow as it has in the last ten years.

All the foregoing schools are and were, including Hofwyl, which no longer exists, first class schools, largely attended, ran for tihe whole year and from year to year. At any one of them a boy could be prepared to enter the Freshman Class in any college in the State, and even higfher than that - ^to enter the Sophomore Class, as was done in one instance at least.

It will be noted that all these first class schools are in the upper end of the county - Marion is in the centre - ^and goes to verify w'hat the writer said in a former part of this book, contrasting the progress made by the upper end as compared with that of the lower end. It is there said that one of the causes was that the upper end had more and better schools th'an in the lower end. The writer would not say a word in disparagement of the people in the lower end, but he is merely stating what is apparent to any one - a fact, the truth. Far from it, the writer hopes that by stating this particular fact, the people of the lower end will be stirred up to follow the example set them by their fellow-citizens of upper Marion. Thus far, in pursuing this subject, the educational history of the county, the writer has only referred to the high schools, some near a 'hundred years old, others a half century and more, and others for a shorter period. It is not to be inferred from this that there are and were not other schools all over the county of less note, and which have done a great deal of good, and are still doing so. Those schools may be said to be auxiliaries to the higher schools. They are not only to be found in upper Marion, but in lower Marion as well, and they are as useful in their limited sphere as are the higher schools. In them, limited in duration and in calibre as they are, they teach and instruct the youth attending them in the fundamentals of an education. In them the foundation is laid for the superstructure. If they go no further, that much is effected, and by self-effort and self-improvement, such may become useful and intelligent citizens, otherwise the foundation thus laid gets no higher and the recipient relapses back to his natural condition.

and his ambition, if he had any, is dwarfed, and he never rises any higher than "a hewer of wood and a drawer of water," lives in the very lowest walks of life unnoticed and dies in the same way. The common schools have been in the county from the earliest times - at least, from the writer's earliest recollection. He went to school in this county (upper Marion), on the roajd leading from Ha;rlleesville to Fair Bluff, N. C, between Bear Swamp and the North Carolina line, in 1832, near seventy years ago, and he remembers seeing the late General Woodberry pass there. He was electioneering for Sheriff. He stopped at the sdhool house and talked with the teacher, Daniel McLellan, an uncle of our present County Auditor, F. T. McLellan, also to some young men there, scholars and voters, to wit : the late Blgat Horn, Daniel Horn and Alexander Johnson, all now dead. General Woodberry was in fine humor and adapted himself to his then surroundings. He was elected Sheriff and went into office in April, 1833, and served his term, four years, as the Sheriff's office shows. By the then Constitution (1790), he was not eligible for a second term, until the expiration of another four years. That was the only time the writer ever saw General Woodberry, a man of great versatility and of marked character. More may be said about General Woodberry in a subsequent part of this book. That school house was built of logs, about twenty feet long and sixteen feet wide, a dirt floor, a dirt chimney. One log Was cut out of the back end so as to give light ; the log below that had some holes bored in it with a two-inch auger. I^arge pegs, a foot or more long, were driven into those auger holes, and then a plank laid on those pegs and nailed to them. This served for our writing desks. That schol building and its appliances were about such as were, in that day and time, used in many or most of the schools in the country. The means of the people were limited, and the spirit of progress and improvement was equally as limited. Occasionally you would find a man of more elevated views, as to schools, but standing alone, he could do nothing to improve the prevailing conditions. It was not until about 1840, that signs of a better day, in these respects, began to show themselves, and from that time to the present signs of improvement have been multiplying and spreading, until the whole country is penneated with a spirit of education, even in sections of the county where, heretofore, great indifference was manifested. A wholesome sentiment on the subject is prevaiUng. The fundamental provisions in the Constitution of 1868 and of 189s have been and are potent factors in kindling and energizing a stronig and healthy sentiment in favor of education. The L,egislature has wisely and liberally constructed the machinery for public education. The laws foster and care for the common schools ; the common 'schools evolute the higher schools, and by am ascending gradation the higher schools evolute colleges. There is no excuse now, nor can there be any, for illiteracy and ignorance among our people, white la.nd colored. Both races, under the law, share equally in the liberal appropriations made by the Legislature for school purposes, and the funds provided seem to be equitably distributed. School funds raised by taxation and in some other forms, for the year 1899, and distributed under the law to the schools of Marion County, amounted to $11,502.13. In this amount is included $1,500 pdll tax; this last item is an estimate, as the precise amount oould not be arrived at. The county is laid off into fifty-five school districts and schools estaJblished in each school district. They are designated by numbers from one to fifty-five. According to the report of the County Superintendent of Education, there were enrolled in the different schools through the year 7,638 attending those schools, white and colored-. The school funds collected and paid out as above stated are nearly one-third as much as was the appropriation for the public schools each year for the whole State a year from 1811 to the war. And besides the amount thus callected and paid to the public schools of the county, in which rich and poor share alike, in many neighborhoods there are pay schools, that are kept up from year to year; or after the public funds are exhausted, the schools are continued oni and paid for by private funds of the patrons. Thus it is easy to be seen how much greiater are the educational advantages of to-day than they were fifty years ago and before that time. Few there were a half century ago that had an opportunity to "rub their backs against a college wall." Now our college graduates may be counted by the dozens. Our young men and women, too, are fitted to fill any station in life, public or private. What improvement! Rapid strides are making towards the goal of universal knowledge. In the next generation there will be found few who cannot read and write.

Wofford College, S. C. There have been ninety matriculates from Marion County. The following graduated : Bond E. Chreitzburg, 1869. Marcus Stackhouse, 1871.

From this College I have no report. My son, John C. Sellers, wrote to Professor R. Means Davis, who was a classmate of his in that College, for a report. The Professor replied that he would do so, but has never sent it. My grand-son, Wallace D. Sellers, who was in the South Carolina College in 1899- 1900, procured a catalogue of the Euphradian Society up to 1859, which shows the matriculates from Marion County, but who and how many of them graduated is not shown, as follows : Robert H. - Gregg, 1808 ; Ezra M. Gregg, 1817 ; Jeremiah Brown, 1819; Charles Godibold, 1819; D. Reese Gregg, 1825; John H. Latta, 1826; C. D. Evans, 1836; G. Cooper Gregg, 1836; O. S. Gregg, 1838; R. G. Howard, 1848; Evander Gregg, 1837; E. M. Davis, 1848; R. C. Mclntyre, 185 1 ; G. M. Fairlee, 1853; J. C. McClenaghan, 1854; D. Mclntyre, 1854; S. A. Gregg, 1855; W. J. Singletary, 1856; Walter Gregg, 1857 ; C. E. Gregg, 1859. Those of the above who it is certainly known graduated are: C. D. Evans, R. G. Howard, R. C. Mclntyre, G. M. Fairlee, W. J. Singletary. Those graduating there since the war are : John C. Sellers, Hezekiah Johnson, Robert P. Hamer, Jr., W. M. Hamer, P. A. Wilcox, J. S. McLucas, Walter H. Wells, Luther M. Haselden, Henry Mullins.

The graduates from Marion in female colleges are equally as numerous as in the male department^. I have not the list of them. In education, Marion (bounty will rank as high, according to her population, as any county in the State. She is now fully awake to her interest in that regard.

The first divisions of the territory of the Province (State) were for purposes of "Church and State," to wit: parishes, counties and districts, partly political for representation in the lyCgislature, and partly judiciaJl for the establishment of courts of justice for the convenience of the people and the adm,inistration of law, in conformity to the then existing laws of England, and for military purposes and the protection of the colonists against the hostile incursions of the Indians.

As early as 1682, twelve years after the first settlement of the province, it was deemed advisable to "divide the province, or rather the settled portions of it, into counties, and accordingly there were laid out, Berkeley, embracing Charleston and the space around the capitall, extended from Seewee (Santee) on the north to Stono Creek on the south. Beyond this to the northward was Craven County, and to the southward Colleton County, all extendimg thirty-five miles from the coast. Shortly after this Carteret County was added." Subsequently Craven County was greatly extended, so as to embrace all the territory between Santee River and the Wateree up to the North Carolina province line; thence down the dividing line between North and South Carolina to the Atlantic Ocean, and thence the seacoast to the mouth of S&ntee River. At the time of this division, Craven County was much the largest of any of these counties, and was so sparsely settled that it was not particularly noticed. But twenty years afterward it was described as being pretty well inhabited, the Huguenots having settled on the Santee. About which time it sent two members to the General Assembly of the province. It took its name from William, Earl of Craven, one of the Lords Proprietors, and long retained it. (_Gregg's History of the Old Cheraws, pp. 31 and 32.) The same author says: "The first parochial organization in Craven County was under the Act of Assembly of 1706, commonly called the Church Acts, passed for the establishment of religious worship according to the Church of England and for erecting churches. It divided the province into ten parishes, of which Craven County constituted one, by -the name of St. James Santee." (Statutes at L,arge, vol. II., p. 330.) The Circuit or District Court Act of 1768 divided the provinces into seven judicial districts, to wit: Charleston, Beaufort, Orangeburg, Georgetown, Camden, Cheraw and Ninety-Six. (Statutes at L,arge, vol. VII., p. 199, section II.) Each one of those districts covered three or more counties. By the Act of 1785, those districts were divided into counties. One district, Georgetown, was divided into four counties - Winyaw, Willianisiburg, Kingston and Liberty. (Act of 1785, Statutes at Large, vol. IV., pp. 662 and 663, section I.) By the County Court Act of 1785 (vol. VII., Statutes at Large, p. 211), County Courts were established with limited jurisdiction. Courts to be held every three months in each county where established, by seven Justices of the Peace, or a majority of *hem. The Circuit Courts for our county (Liberty) were held in Georgetown. No County Court was ever held in any of the counties composing the Georgetown District. The nth section of the County Court Act of 1785, appoints and empowers the County Court Judges to select sites for court houses and jails of the several counties, and to contract for and build the same. As no County Court was established in Liberty County (now Marion), no court house or jail was built therein. . No one had any power to contract for and to build, hence it was not until years afterwards that a court house and jail were erected in Liberty or Marion County. The Constitution of 1778 fixed the representation for the dlistrict east of the Wateree at two members in the Legislature, which so continued until the Constitution of 1790. The district east of the Wateree includied Lancaster, Kershaw, Sumter, Clarendon, Darlington, Chesterfield, Marlborough, Marion, Williamsburg, Kingston and Georgetown, and also included the parishes of St. James Santee, Prince George Winyaw, All Saints, Prince Frederic and St. David, to each of which Representatives were assigned as follows: St. James Santee, six; to Prince George Winyaw, four; to All Saints, two; to Prince Frederic, six, and to St. David, six - making twenty-four Representatives from the parishes named as within the district east of the Wateree ; while the whole district, exclusive of the said parishes, had only ten Representatives. (I. vol.. Statutes at Large, p. 140, 13th section.) By the said Constitution of 1778, each parish and election district throughout the State elected a Senator. No provision was made for the district east of the Wateree, except Prince George Winyaw and All Saints. They together could elect a Senator. There were some few other exceptions. No Senator or Representative was eligible unless he professed the Protestant religion. There is no evidence of any change in the law or Constitution in regard to representation until the Constitution of 1790 was made and adopted, and which became necessary in order to make our Constitution conform to the Con'stitution of the Unitedl States.

The Act of 1785 had created or established Liberty County (now Marion). The Constitution of 1790 recognized it, so far as to assign^ to it two Representatives in the House, and assigned to it and Kingston (Horry) together one Senator. Whilst all the little parishes in the low country each had three Representatives, except All Saints, which had but one, and Charleston, including St. Philip and St. Michael, had fifteen Representatives. Such counties as Williamsburg, Marlborough, Chesterfield, Darlington, Chester, Fairfield, Richland, Lancaster, Kershaw, Claremont, Clarendon, Union, Spartan- ,burg and Greenville had only two Representatives each. In the Senate, Charleston (including St. Philip and St. Michael), had two Senators, each and every parish had a Senator, while Winyaw and Williamsburg together had one. Liberty and Kingston one, Marlboroug'h, Chesterfield and Darlington together had two Senators. Fairfield, Richland and Chester together had one. Lancaster and Kershaw together had one. Claremont and Clarendon together had one. (See article I., sections 3 and 7, Constitution 1790, L vol., Statutes at Large, pp. 184, 185 and 186.) Article XL reads as follows: "No Convention of the people shall be called unless by the concurrence of two-thirds of both branches of the whole representa- tion. No part of this Constitution shall be altered, unless a bill to alter the same shall have been read three times in the House of Representatives and three times in the Senate, and agreed to by two-thirds of both branches of the whole representation ; neither shall any alteration take place until the bill so agreed to be published three months previous to a new election for members of the House of Representatives ; and if the alteration proposed by the Legislature shall be agreed to in the first session by two-thirds of the whole representation in both branches of the Legislature after the same shall have been read three times on three several days in each House, then, and not otherwise, the same shall become a part of the Coristitution." (L Vol., Statutes at Large, page 192.)

The Constitution of 1790 was of force, and the people of the State lived under it, without alteration or amendment, for twenty years. The amendlment ratified iu December, 1808, which did not go into effect till 1810, made some change in the basis of representation. Population and taxation were the basis, and if there was a deficiency in either population or taxation, or of both, there was a provision for some representation, as will be seen. And' representation varied every ten years, according to the population as shown by the census every tenth year, which was provided for, and the taxation for each decade might show. The amendment of December, 1808, was as follows : "The House of Representatives shall consist of one hundred and twenty-four members, to be apportioned among the several election districts of the State according to the number of white inhabitants contained and the amount of all taxes raised by the Legislature, whether direct or indirect or of whatever species paid in each, deducting therefrom all taxes paid on account of property held in any other district, and adding thereto all taxes elsewhere paid on account of property held in such district. An enumeration of the white inhabitants for tfhis "purpose shall be made in the year one thousand eight liundred and nine, and in the course of every tenth year thereafter, in such manner as shall be by law directed ; and Representatives shall be assigned to the different districts in the above mentioned proportion by Act of the Legislature at the session immediately succeeding the above enumeration.

"If the enumeration herein directed should not be made in the course of the year appointed for the purpose by these amendments, it shall be the duty of the Governor to have it effected as soon thereafter as shall be practica;ble.

"In assigning Representatives to the several districts of the State, the Legislature shall allow one Representative for every sixty-second part of the whole number of white inhabitants in the State; and one Representative also for every sixty-second part of the whole taxes raised by the Legislature of the State. The IvCgislature shall further allow for such fractions of the sixty-second part of the white inhabitants of the State, and of the sixty-second part of the taxes raised by the Legislature of the State, as when added together they form a unit.

"In every apportionment of Representatives under these amendments, which shall take place after the first apportionment, the amount of taxes shall be estimated from the average of the ten preceding years ; but the first apportionment shall be founded upon the tax of the preceding year, excluding from the amount thereof the whole produce of the tax on sales at public auction.

"If, in the apportionment of Representatives under these amendments, any elective district shall appear not to be entitled, from its population and its taxes, to a Representative, such election district shall, nevertheless, send one Representative ; and if there should still be a deficiency of the number of Representatives required by these amendments, such deficiency shall be supplied by assigning Representatives to those election districts having the largest surplus fraction, whether those fractions consist of a combination of population and taxes, or of population or of taxes separately, until the number of one hundred and twenty-four members be provided.

"No apportionment under these amendments shall be construed to take effect in any manner, until the general election which shall succeed such apportionment.

"The Senate shall be composed of one member from each election district as now established for the election of members of the House of Representatives, except the district formed by

Such was the Constitution of 1790 and amendments of 1808, made with reference to representation in the State Legislature. Taking into consideration the time when it was framed and the circumstances which brought it about, the persons composing the Convention and the historic facts antecedent thereto and leading up to it, the most casual reader cannot fail to see its purpose. It was to secure and perpetuate the power of those who had dominated the State from 1704 up to that time (1790) a period of, say, eighty-five years. It is well understood) by those who have read and kept up with the history of the State, to what party allusion is here made. The Church of England, the Episcopal Church, is meant. In 1704, that church secured legal establishmient. (Vol. II., Statutes at Large, page 236, et sequens.)

The caption of the Act is, "An Act for the establishment of religious worship in the provinces according to the Church of England, and for the erecting of churches for the public worship of God, and also for the maintenance of ministers and the building convenient houses for them." There are thirty-five sections of the said Act, covering ten pages. The said several sections cannot here be given in full, for the want of space. It was, however, provided that lands should be taken up or bought upon which to erect the churches and for church-yards, cemeteries, out-houses, &c., and to have built thereon the church and all necessary out-buildings, together with convenient and commodious parsonages and chapels of ease, and to employ ministers or rectors at sucfh salary as might be agreed on, and all to be paid for put of the public treasury. At this time there was only one Church (of England), St. Philip, in Charleston, and the same provisions were made for all such Episcopal Churches that migiht be erected in future ; thoug<h at that time, and, perhaps, at all times since, the Episcopalians were greatly in the minority, yet they managed to hold to this adivantage, laying off parishes till the Revolution, and erecting churches to the number of twenty-four, mostly on the coast or in the low country. (Ramsay, II. vol., p. 5.) Thus the Episcopal Church gained political ascendancy and held it till the

Revolution or until 1790, having all their church expenses paid by the public, besides other advantages, their religion costing them but little comparatively, vvhile dissenting denominations had to build and maintain their own churches or do without them, if too poor to buy and build and support their own ministers - a. most iniquitous arrangement, unjust and tyrannical. Many amendments to the law were subsequently made, but none to weaken their political power and advantage. They held it with a death-like grip. The Revolutionary War brought no change in the law. It may have dirhinished some of its rigors, but no repeal of the obnoxious law. No disposition was manifested after the Revolutionary War ended to repeal the unequal and unjust laws. There is a considerable difference between "skinning and being skinned." They had been extracting money from the people to support their religion for more than one hundred years - very pleasant to them, but very unpleasant to the taxpayers. The Constitution of the United States was made in 1787, and was submitted' to the States for ratification or rejection. The Convention of South Carolina called for the purpose ratified and adopted the United States Constitution in May, 1788. Having ratified that instrument, she of necessity was obliged to put herself in line with it. Hence a Convention of the State to frame another Constitution was called, and the Constitution of June, 1790, was the result. South Carolina was in a dilemma. She had either to give up her legislation in favor of the Episcopal Church - so dtear to the hearts of its adherents, though iniquitous and oppressive to all other classes - or remain out of the Union formed by the Constitution of the United States. She chose between the two evils the former, and retained the latter position which she had assumed in 1788, by ratifying the Constitution of the United States. Being shorn of her discriminating power, hitherto exercised in favor of the Episcopal Church, and to the discomfort and injury of all dissenting denominations, she determined to hold on to the political power she had obtained and wielded for near a century. She had the Convention of 1790 called to frame a new Constitution, and in that to perpetuate her political power and influence, through parochial representation. The low county parishes dominated that Convention. Its membership was composed of delegates from each parish and district as provided for representation in the Legislature under the Constitution of 1778, as hereinbefore stated. They outnumbered all other delegations at least two to one ; they could and did make a Constitution just such as suited the views of the low country, and thereby in the fundamental law of the State f>eri>etuated their power and influence in the Legislature. They fixed repr.esentation so as thus, under the forms of law, to control and influence the legislation of the State. The Constitution of '1790 in this regard is "iron bound" and "rock ribbed." No future Convention of the people could be called, or any amendment or alteration made in that Constitution, unless it was by bill, introduced in the Legislature, and read three times, on three several days, in both the Senate and House of Representatives, and upon its second and third readings, must be agreed to by two-thirds of the whole representation in each house. And this is not all. The proposed alteration or amendment, after being thus agreed to, must be publisihed previous to a new election for memibers of the House of Representatives ; and if the alteration proposed by the Legislature shall be agreed to in their first session by two-thirds of the whole representation in each branch of the Legislature, after the same shall have been read' on three several days in each house, then, and not otherwise, the same shall become a part of this Constitution. Thus it is seen that the low country, by means of their parochial representation, secured to themselves the ix>wer to control the legislation of the State, and also to prevent any legislation which looked to the curtailment of their power. They kept and maintained their power until after the war between the States, the Confederate War. First by the Constitution of 1865, made under the auspices of Governor B. F. Perry, and under the proclamation of Andrew Johnson, then President of the United States. The Constitution of 1865 broke up the parish system of the low country and destroyed its power, so long enjoyed and originally so oppressively exercised. We were not allowed to live under the Constitution of 1865. A maddened and fanatical Congress of the United States disagreed with Andrew Johnson, the President, as to his method of restoring the late seceding States to proper relations to the Union, and passed the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, putting the South under a military government. The President, Andrew Johnson, vetoed those Acts, and the Congress readopted and passed them over his veto by a two-thirds vote of that body. Those Acts divided the Southem States into military divisions, and put a commanding general over each division, to carry out at the point of the bayonet, if necessary, those Acts. Many among us remember too well the hardships and rigors of the enforcement of those Acts. Burdensome and annoying as they were, our people, with a fortitude unequaled, bore them all in mute obedience to the "powers that be" until they were consummated by the Constitution of 1868 - a Constitution made by carpetbaggers, scalawags and negroes. That Constitution, odious as it was, and with it at the time the intelligence of the State bad no sympathy, yet it did, as did the Constitution'of 1865, strike a deathblow to parochial representation in the Legislaturewof the State, and thereby the citizens everywhere in the State were relieved of the parish system, and its unjust and discriminating power - in the interest of a favored class, and against all others equally concerned and equally entitled to a fair share of the benefits of legislation.

It may be asked, why so much space is given to the discussion of this subject? It is answered by saying that it affected the people of Marion County to her injury. Marion County was, and has been all the time, an integral part of the State, and whatever affected the State, affected her pro tanto. To some few people, the revelations here made are news, and to many they are already familiar. Such political machinery can never again set itself up in South Carolina. The schoolmaster is, and has been, abroad in the land. The people are too intelligent, and know and appreciate their rights too well ever to allow of such again.

The first legislative notice taken of Marion District by that name is to be found in the Act of 1798, ist section, 7th vol. Statutes at Large, page 283, by which the name was changed from Liberty County to Marion District, on page 284 of the said 7th vol. of the Statutes at Large. In the said first section of the said Act are the following words : "One other district to be named Marion District, to comprehend the county now called Liberty County, according to its present limits." This section of the Act changes the name in some instances, as well as also the counties, to be called districts for the whole State. By section II. of the said Act, Courts were established in the following words : "That in each of the said districts by this Act established, there shall be held, from and after the first day of January, in the year of our Ivord one thousand eight hundred, by one or more of the Associates Judges of this State for the time being, and at such places as shall be appointed by or under this Aot, a Court of Sessions, and a Court of ^Common Pleas, to possess and exercise, respectively, each Court, in its respective district, the same i)ower and jurisdiction now held and exercised by the several Circuit or District Courts of this State in their respective districts, and shall sit at the times following, that is to say : for Marion District, at Marion Court House, on the first Mondays in March and October in every year." The fourth section of the Act distributed! the Courts into circuits. "And that the several Courts of Marion District, Darlington District, Marlborough District, Chesterfield District, Fairfield District, Kershaw District, and Sumter District, shall form one other Circuit, to be named the Northern Circuit, and that the Solicitor of the said Northern Circuit Shall attend each of the Courts of the said Northern Circuit, and prosecute therein, respectively, all suits and prosecutions on behalf of the State, according to the usage and custom of the existing Circuit Courts of the State." These Courts were made Courts of record, juries provided for. Clerks and Sheriffs to be appointed, and their duties prescribed. The County Courts after ist January, 1800, to have no jurisdiction, original or appellate, of any causes, civil or criminal, and after 1800, all causes, civil or criminal, pending in the County Courts were transferred to the Court of Sessions or Common Pleas, as the case might be, to the Courts hereby established. It was further enacted, "That from and after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred, the several Courts of General Sessions of the Peace, Oyer and Terminer, Assize and General Gaol Delivery and of Common Pleas, now established and held in this State, shall be, and the same are hereby, forever abolished ; and that all suits, appeals and iDdictments then depending in any of the said Courts (except the Court of Charleston District, in which the business already commenced shall be continued in the District of Charleston, established by this Act), shall be transferred in the manner following, that is to say : when any dSstrict shall contain two or more of the districts established by this Act, the suits, appeals and indictments depending in the superior Courts of law of such districts shall be transferred to that new district established by this Act, within such district, wherein the defendant or appellee resides ; and where there are two or more defendants or appellees residing in different new districts within the limits of such district, then to such one of the said) new districts as the plaintiff or appellor shall direct, and where more of the defendants or appellees reside in such district, then to such of the new district therein as the plaintiff or appellant shall direct ; and all indictments to the new district where the offence was committed, and all the said suits and indictments shall be continued, proceeded on and determined in the respective Courts to which they shall be transferred as aforesaid; and all records of the said Superior Courts hereby abolished shall be transferred to the nearest district estaJblished by this Act, there to be kept and continued."

(Section XL of Act of 1798, 7th vol. Statutes at Large, an Act to es'^ablish an uniform' and more convenient system of judicature.) Section XXIII. of said Act appoints Commissioners to locate court houses and gaols, and to superintend building the same, and for Marion District, the following named gentlemen were appointed: "Colonel John McRae, Dr. Thomas Wickham, John Ford, John Orr, Benjamin Harrelson, James Crawford, Thomas Harley and James Rie; that they be, and are hereby, appointed Commissioners for the purpose of fixing on a convenient and central location whereon to establish and build a court house and gaol in the District of Marion, and to superintend the building of the same." A very good Commission as is supposed. The men appointed set about the work they were appointed to perform. They only had the year 1799 to perform the work assigned them - ^the time was too short, with the facilities then to be had for such undertakings. ^By the terms of the Act, the rst Court was to be held first Monday in March, 1800. Traition informs us, that the first Court held in the county, nd under the terms of this Act, was held about two miles elow the present court house, just across Smith Swamp, On tie plantation owned and occupied by Colonel Hugh Giles, fterwards owned and occupied by the late Samuel Stevenson, nd now by W. W. Baker. The very spot where the house tood was shown the writer by Mr. Stevenson while he owned t. The new court house then in course of construction was not ti condition to be used ; therefore, this little log house, probably ixteen feet square, was improvised for holding the first Court ver held in the county. Philip Bethea, the father-in-law of he writer, told him often that he attended the first Court held, t is supposed that the court house was completed during the 'ear - that court house is still in existence and in a good state >f preservation. It was located somewhere on the public quare not far from wliere the present court house stands - a vooden building. It was occupied as a court house until 1823, vhen it was replaced by a brick building, which was built that 'ear and was located about the place where the new fire-proof tuilding, lately constructed for the Clerk's office and for the 'robate Judge now stands. The recordls in their offices are leemed most important, and hence this latter building, made ire-proof for the protection and safe preservation of those ecords. The court house erected in 1823 of brick was of [ood material, but was found to be too small and contracted or convenience, and not adapted to the requirements of the prowing county ; hence the present commodious and substantial trick building was constructed in 1853 and 1854, and it is well I'dapted to the purposes for which it was built, except that the ntrance dioor should have been placed in the northern end of he building instead of the eastern side, where it is. The hrong^coming in and going out where it now is, produces noise .nd confusion - very often to the disturbance of the Court, to .ttorneys, parties and witnesses engaged. Furthermore, a old east wind, when the door is open, comes rushing in from he door, to the great discomfort and annoyance of all within, nd necessitates keeping the door closed, which it is almost tnpossible to do, as persons are frequently passing in and out.

and the opening and closing the door every minute causes confusion. If the entrance was at the north end, much or all of these objections would be obviated.

As already stated, the first court house was a wooden structure, which, doubtless, did very well as an initiatory court house, but was soon found to be insufficient for the purposes of its erection, and the powers that then were, had the brick one of 1823 built. Who the contractor was for the one built in 1800, we have not been able to find out. The contractor for the one built in 1823 was Enos Tart, a prominent man in his day. The court house of 1800 was sold or given to the late Thomas Evans, St., who moved it out of the public square and reconstructed it on his own lot, and converted it into a commodious dwelling. The house still stands on said lot, and now belongs to the Hon. T. C. Moody, and is occupied at this writing by said Moody and Stephen G. Miles and family. The house, though one hundred years old, seems to be perfectly sound and still in a good state of preservation. The writer supposes it was built of the very best material; if it had not been it would have gone to decay before this time. It was built before the day of turpentine vandalism. It is an evident fact, that the timber from w'hich .{he turpentine has been extracted soon rots - its very life is taken from it. It is like taking the blood from the animal, man includled; life is destroyed, and soon goes into a state of decay. One hundred years ago the uses of turpentine had not been discovered, nor had the cupidity of man been excited to the destruction of our pine forests.

The court house of 1823 remained intact for about ten years after the new or present court 'house was erected. The rooms below were rented by the Commissioners of Public Buildings to lawyers and others for offices. They were occupied as such until the year of 1861. Who the Commissioners were is not now remembered. In the winter of 1864 and 1865, one O. R. Smith, claiming to be a quartermaster, was stationed at Marion, and was there during the year 1864 and 1865, till the surrender of General Lee. During the latter part of his stay he claimed to have bought for $S,ooo (Confederate money) the old court house (of 1823), upon condition that he was to move it. He took down the building and shipped off the ick, iron and stone steps, &c., that he did not sell to individds in town. What he received for it is unknown, whether lything or not. Whether he ever paid for it or not, and to hom paid, is also unknown. There tos never been any ac- for its proceeds, or any accounting called for, by the ourt or other authority. In the minds of many it has been )ubted whether he ever paid anything for it. There was no le authorized to sell it. No Commissioners of Public Buildgs were then in existence. If there were any, they were sorganized and had no power to sell. The old court house >ld was built by the State and not by the county, hence it ilonged to the State and not to the county. The Legislature one had the power to sell or to authorize and direct its sale, hich the Legislature had not done. The pressure of the war as upon us. Civil affairs were not much looked after or atnded to. Ever3^hing in relation to civil affairs were much isorganized, it may be said were disintegrated. Confusion id disorder prevailed everywhere. Matters more vital occuied our attention - our very existence was threatened. Some lere were who took advantage of the conditions then existing ; ley were on the make, and were not very scrupulous as to >w they made it. We do not say that this old court house ansaction was one of those cases, but we do say that the rcumstances surrounding and attending the transaction are lough at least to excite a reasonable suspicion. The said O. . Smith, the so-called Confederate Quartermaster, left just hen Sherman's raid passed through the upper end of the )unty, and carried two wagons loaded with corn and bacon, hich he had not gathered as an official, but took it from the arehouse at Marion, and which had been gathered and stored lere by the Post Quartermaster's Department, the writer ;reof being in charge of it, and who remonstrated with said mith about it. Smith's reply to him was with an oath, "That y\i, corn, bacon and all, would be in the hands of the Yankees i two weeks. D - n it all, he was going to take care of him- Jf; he was going to get away and carry what he could." his prediction of Smith then seemed probable. The writer

The first jail was built about the time the first court house was built ; it is not known by whom it was built. It is supposed the Commissioners appointed for the purpose by the Act of 1798, supra, had the jail built as early as practicable. It was located northwest of the present court house on the public square. The writer saw it while standing. Did not then observe it as he would now. It remained there and was used until about 1846, when it was replaced by the present jail, located at the lower end of Main street.

The court house and jail located according to the Act of 1798, formed or made a nucleus for the building up a county town, at and around the court house. We do not know who resided near the county seat before the court house was erected ; as we are informed by tradition, Colonel Hugh Giles, a distinguished character during the Revolutionary War, lived just over Smith's Swamp, south of the site of Marion Court House. It was for him that the village of Marion was first called Gilesboro, and was so called till away up into the thirties, and even after that by some of the older people. The town of Marion was not incorporated until long after. At the time of which we are now writing, we suppose others were in the vicinity. These were descendants of John Godbold, who settled jiist below where Marion Court House now stands, of w'hom more will be said hereinafterwards ; also, the descendants of Nathan Evans, who was one of the early settlers of that region, of whom more will yet be said. In connection with the name of Giles'boro, the writer will relate what his father-in-law, Philip Bethea, told him. Before Marion Court House was located and established as the county seat, there were no public roads leading to it, from the upper end of the county. The court house being located there, it became necessary to lay out and build roads to the seat of justice The road now leading from Marion up by Moody's Mill, and on up by what is now Ebenezer Church, and on up by John Bethea's (now John C. Bethea's plantation), and on up to Harlleesville (now Little Rock), then owned by Gibson (Stephen, the writer believes), was ordered by the road authorities to be laid out, opened and ut in condition for travel. In cutting out and opening the >ad, the overseer in charge of the work had much trouble in etting those liable to perform road duty to work; the hands, le poorer white people, alleging that they did not want to 'ork and build a road for old Colonel Giles and John Smith, lived where Moody's Mill now is, to go up to old John iethea's to drink cider (old John Bethea made quantities of ider and peach and apple brandy) ; that no one else wanted the >ad or would use it, the white hands alleging that they did not rant the road. He said that such was the opposition that it Imost amounted to a rebellion, and that the law had to be inoked in order to get the work done. The road is one of the lost useful roads we have in the county, and none so poor that e would not 'be affected by closing it up, and would not have it bandoned. The writer's informant, Philip Bethea, was a man Town at the time, and a son of old John, the cider maker, and ne of the road hands. We have a few such people among us et, and perhaps always will have them - men having no public pirit, and care for no one but themselves.

Courts of Equity, prior to the Revolution, were held by the lOvernor and 'his Majesty's Council, or a majority of them. >y the Act of 1721 (VII. vol. Statutes at Large, p. 163), it was rovided that the Court of Chancery should always be open for le transaction of business within the jurisdiction of that k>urt, "but the days and times of full and solemn hearing shall e four times in every year, that is to say, on every Thursday ext after the Court of Common Pleas is directed to meet and it in Charleston, and shall at such times sit de die in diem ntil the blisiness ready for said Court shall be finished." It ?as fprther provided, "that all the officers of the said Court hould reside in Charleston." All Courts were held then only 1 Charleston. This was an ample arrangement at the time nd answered all the purposes of said Courts. Charleston was ien the State, and at that time was convenient to the settled arts of the province. Some modifications or amendknents 3 the Act of 1 72 1 were made in 1746, which it is not necessary 5 notice. In regard to the Courts of Equity, no special hanges were made until 1784, after the Revolution. In that ear the Legislature passed an Act abolishing the former

Courts or Equity and conferring all its powers and duties on three Judges or Chancellors, to be elected by the General Assembly, and to be commissioned by the Governor. (It will be remembered that in 1784 there was no such thing at "His Majesty's Counsel.) The powers and duties of the Courts were the same as under the Act of 1721. The change was made to suit the conditions then existing. The Court established by this Act, 1784, was to be held only in Charleston. The three Chancellors provided for in this Act, and elected by the Legislature, were John Rutledge, Richard Hudson and John Matthews.

The next Act of the Legislature to establish a Court of Equity within this State is the Act of 1791. (VII. vol. Statutes at Large, p. 258.) The first section of which provides : "That all laws now of force for establishing the Court of Chancery within this State, be, and they are hereby, declared to be and continue of force in this State, until altered or repealed by the Legislature thereof," &c.

The second section of this Act, 1791, after reciting the great inconveniences to the remote inhabitants of this State resulting from the fact that the Court of Equity is held only in one place within the State, to wit: Charleston, enacts: "That all future sittings of the Court of Equity for the full and solemn hearing of cases shall be held at the times and places hereinafter directed, that is to say : At Columbia, for all causes wherein the defendant shall reside in Camden, Orangeburg or Cheraw Districts, on the 15th days of May and December; at Cambridge, for all causes wherein the defendant shall reside within the District of Ninety-Six, on the sth days of May and December ; and at Charleston, for all causes wherein the defendant shall reside in either of the Districts of Charleston, Beaufort or Georgetown (our district), on the second Monday in March, the second Monday in June, and the third Monday in September, and the same days in every succeeding year," &c. It further provided that each and every Judge should ride the Circuit, unless prevented by sickness or other unavoidable disability.

the districts as then established into four Equity Circuits, to be called the Eastern, Northern, Western and Southern. Marion County was placed in the Eastern Circuit ; the Courts of Equity for this Circuit were to be held for Marion and Georgetown, at Georgetown, on the first Monday in February in each and every year.

The next Act in reference to the Courts of Equity is that of 1808 (VII. vol. Statutes at Ivarge, p. 304). Section i of said Act divides the State into three Equity Circuits, viz : the Southern, Northern and Western. Our county, Marion, is placed in the Northern Circuit, composed of Georgetown, Horry, Marion and Williamsburg, which shall form one other Equity District, to be called the Georgetown District, the Courts of Equity for which shall be held at Georgetown, on the first Monday in February and June in every year. This Act of 1808 also provides for the election of two additional Chancellors to be commissioned and perform the same duties as the present Chancellors. The two elected were Henry Wm. DeSaussure and Theodore Gaillard.

The Act of 1824 established an Appeal Court for both law and equity, to consist of three Judges. It also divided the State into four Equity Circuits. Marion District was assigned to the Fourth Circuit, and the Courts to be held for "Georgetown, at Georgetown, for the Districts of Williamsburg, Horry, Marion and Georgetown, on the first Monday after the fourth Monday in January, to sit for two weeks, should so much be necessary." (VII. vol. Statutes at Large, section IX., p. 327.) From which it appears as well by this Act of 1824 as by the Act of 1808, supra, that from and after the year 1799, the business of the Equity Courts for this section of the State was on the decrease, for by the Act of 1799, only Georgetown and Marion were united for equity purposes ; while by the Act of 1808 and 1824, Georgetown, Marion, Williamsburg and Horry were united for the same purpose.

The Act of 1825, VII. vol., p. 330, was amended so far as to allow the Court of Equity to sit twice a year for the Georgetown (Marion) Equity District instead of but once, one week at each term, if so much be necessary.

Districts were detached from the Georgetown Equity District, and that the Court sat in each separately, to wit : for Marion District, to commence the Thursday after the first Monday after the fourth Monday in January, and to continue in session three days, unless the business be sooner disposed of." The Act of 1833, for the first time in the judicial history of Marion District, recognized Marion as a coequal in her relations to the Courts of Equity with the other districts of the State.

The Act of 1824, entitled "An Act to revise and amend the judiciary system of this State," with some amendments thereto, continued to be the law regulating both the Courts of law and equity, together with the Court of Appeals, composed of three Judges, until 1835, when the Act of that year, 1835, entitled "An Act to reform and amend the judiciary system of this State," was passed. By this latter Act, the Appeal Court as then existing was abolished, and its powers and duties were transferred to a Court of Appeals, composed of all the law Judges and all the Chancellors in the State, sitting in banc; that no Chancellor or law Judge who had tried the cause on Circuit should sit upon hearing the appeal thereon. That the Courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions, and also the Equity Courts, should be arranged into circuits. One circuit was called the Eastern Circuit, in which Marion was placed. Courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions were to be held at Marion Court House for Marion District, on the third Monday after the fourth Monday in March and October each and every year thereafter for one week at each term, unless the business of the said Courts respectively shall be sooner dispatched. And the several Courts of Equity in the State shall hereafter ibe holden twice annually at the following^ periods, that is to say :" * * * and "at Marion Court House, for Marion District, on the Thursday next after the second Monday after the fourth Monday in January, and the Thursday next after the third Monday in June, in every year, for three days at eatfh term, unless the business of the said Courts shall, respectively, be sooner despatched. (Act of 1835, VH. vol. Statutes, pp. 335 and 336.)

and equity in this State shall hereafter be held at the times and places as follows, that is to say : For the Eastern Circuit, at Marion Court Hause, on the fourth Monday in March and October." This was for the Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions. For the Court of Equity, "at Marion Court House, on the third Monday in January." By this Act, "all appeals from the Courts of law shall be heard and determined in a Court of Appeals, consisting of the law Judges, and that all appeals in equity shall be beard and determined in a Court of Appeals, consisting of the Chancellors. That said Courts shall meet at the same time and be held as follows, that is to say: at Charleston, on the first Monday in February, and at Columbia, on the first Monday in May, and fourth Monday in November." (Act of 1836, VII. vol. Statutes, 339 and 340.) By this Act also was created the Court of Errors, as follows : "That upon all constitutional questions arising out of the Constitution of this State or the United States, an appeal shall lie to the whole of the Judges assembled to hear such appeal. That an appeal shall also lie to the whole of the Judges upon all questions upon which either of the Courts of Appeal shall be divided, or when any two of the Judges of the Court shall require that a cause be further heard by all the Judges. That the Judges of law and equity, when assembled as aforesaid in one chamber, shall form a Court for the correction of all errors in law or equity in the cases that may be heard before them, and that it shall be the duty of the Judges to make all proper rules and regulations for the practice of the said Courts," &c. In this latter Court, Marion District figured in two of the cases, involving the constitutionality of the stay law, as it was called, passed in»December, 1861, and continued from year to year till 1866, inclusive. The two cases were the State vs. Carew, 13 Richardson Law Reports, p. 398, represented by Mr. Ivord, of Charleston, and the case of Barry vs. Iseman, 14 Richardson Law Reports, p. 161, represented by A. C. Spain for plaintiffappellant, and W. W. Harllee and W. W. Sellers for defendant-respondent, from Marion. The cases were argued together in the Court of Errors before all the Judges and Chancellors "assembled in the same room," at May Term, 1866, in Columbia, S. C. As to the case of the State vs. Carew, opinion by the venerable Chancellor Duncan, then Chief Justice, the stay law was held to be unconstitutional. Judge A. P. Aldrich dissenting. As to the case of Barry vs. Iseman, from Marion, opinion by Judge Monroe, the stay law was held to be constitutional. No dissent. The essential difference between the two cases was this : in the case of the State vs. Carew, the contract was made 'before the passage of the stay law, hence its passage was held to be an impairment of the obligation of the contract. In the case of Barry vs. Iseman, the contract was made after the passage of the stay law, and hence its passage was held not to be an impairment of the obligation of the contract, and, therefore, constitutional. The contract was made in reference to existing law. (Constitution of the United States, article I., section lo; Constitution of the State, 1790, article IX., section

The Circuit Courts, 'both of law and equity, continued about the same, as provided by the Act of 1836, supra, until the war. In 1859, a separate Court of Appeals, consisting of three Judges, was again established) for the hearing and decision of all cases of appeal, either at law or equity. The Court of Errors remained as before. The Judges of the Court of Appeals, as organized in 1859, were John Belton O'Neall, Chief Justice, Job Jdhnston and F. Wardlaw, Associate Justices. F. Wardlaw died in i860 or 1861. Chief Justice O'Neall and Job Johnston died during the war, upon which Chancellor B. F. Dunkin was elected Chief Justice, and D. L,. Wardlaw and John A. Inglis were elected as Associate Justices, which positions they held with distinguished! ability, until the upheavals of reconstruction put tbem' out. It can be truthfully said that the judiciary of South Carolina from the earliest times as a State, have been filled, both Circuit and Appeal Courts, by men of high character, distinguished alike for integrity, dignity, learning and ability. Many of them would have done credit to any country, in any age of the world. Their names stand prominent on the rolls of fame. Such a galaxy of eminent names is scarcely to be seen anywhere. Where all are so eminent, it would seem to be invidious to mention any. Without disparaging others, the writer cannot forbear to mention some. From the Revolution down to the war of the States, John

Rutledige, Henry Wm. DeSaussure, Hugh Rutledge, Thomas Waties, Joseph Brevard, Samuel Wilds, Jr., Abraham Nott, Charles Jones Colcock, Langdon Oheves, William Harper, David Johnson, John S. Richardson, Joihn Belton O'Neall, Joseph J. Evans, Joib Johnston, B. F. Dunkin, D. L,. Wardlaw, Frank Wardlaw, John A. Inglis and George W. Dargan. To this list of eminent jurists others might be added. Of such an array of legal talent as this, any people might justly be proud Most of these Judges performed circuit as well as appeal duty. Their names are imperishable. It may be said that the judicial system of the State was perfected with and by the Act of 1836. Some slight amendlments were made to it in after times, and up to "reconstruction." That unparalleled event affected great and radical changes in the judiciary system of the State. It abolished the Court of Equity as a separate Court, and with it the venerable name of Chancellor. It transferred all its powers, jurisdiction and duties to the Court of Common Pleas. The same Judge administers both law and equity - the former with a jury, the latter without a jury - the conscience of the Judge being in place of a jury. A Court of General Sessions, which has jurisdiction of all criminal matters, is also established, and is administered by the same Judge. Hence, we now have a three-sided Court; one side is called the law side, another side is called the equity side, and another side is called the criminal sidte. Thus centering in one man's hand jurisdiction of every possible right or wrong to be redressed, cognizable among a highly civilized p>eople. Whether for the better or not, such is the now judicial administration of law in our State, and such it 'has been for more than thirty years - so since the making of the Constitution of 1868. That Constitution was made and adopted for the government of the people by a class of men who did not understand the situation or the wants of the people of the State. Those who were well qualified by ediucation and a knowledge of the needs of the people, were shut out of the Convention of 1868, called to make an organic law for the State. It was made by a few foreigners called "carpet-baggers," a few white men, natives of the State, renegades, called "scalawags," and a horde of ignorant negroes - whom the carpet-baggers voted like so many cattle. It was made really only by fifteen or twenty men, vv^ho had no sympathy with or for the heretofore ruling element of the State. It was made rather to humiliate and punish the better class of the people than for their future benefit. Its purpose was to perpetuate the power of themselves, to aggrandise and enrich the "carpet-bag" and "scalawag" few, out of the hard earnings of the former rulers, the former owners of the property of the people. In other words, it was to put the "bottom rail on top" and keep it there. The Constitution-makers of 1868 did make some improvement upon the Constitution of 1790 in the abolition of the parish system of representation in the State Legislature, in emancipating married women as to their ownership of property and their right to control it independent of their husbands.

Marion County has been an essential factor in all this. Whatever affected the State for good or evil affected her. She has 'borne her troubles and misfortunes with marked equanimity - ^she has subordinated herself to the powers that be, and has ever been in favor of law and order. Her people are a law-abiding people - lynch law finds no place among us. Her citizenship, as a whole, are composed of honest, industrious men, who live by honest means, who are enterprising, each in his vocation trying to live and let others live. She is fast coming to the front among her sister counties in the race for distinction and preferment - a model county. If she progresses through the twentieth century, as she has during the nineteenth century now closing, she will have attained a prominence in everything that makes a people great, prosperous and happy. Her resources are unbounded and not yet half developed. These, used as they may and will be, by her people for another century, will make her a star of first magnitude among the many stars of the commonwealth, and her citizens, when they travel, will be proud to say, "I am from Marion County, S. C." The officials of the county. Senators and Representatives in the State Legislature, her Clerks of Court, her Sheriffs, her Ordinaries and Probate Judges, her Commissioners and Masters in Equity, will be hereinafter given, and, perhaps, the names of other county officials, since days of "reconstruction."

Prior to the Revolutionary War, the territory now embraced in the County of Marion, including that portion of it on the west side of the Great Pee Dee, now embraced in the County of Florence, was unknown as a political or judicial division of the State, then a province of Great Britain. Bishop Gregg, in his History of the Old Cheraws (a tribe of Indians), does not mention Marion County or District as of early formation. Wherever he speaks of it, he speaks of it as what it was at the time of his writing ; for instance, as what is "now called Marion District." Tha;t eminent writer's purpose was mainly to write a history of Chesterfield, Marlborough and Darlington, and what he says about Marion County is only incidental.

The English government,' from the earliest settlement of the province of Carolina, had manifested a deep interest in the colony, and was anxious to strengthen it by emigration. Great inducements were held out to the poor of European nations to emigrate to Carolina in various ways - ^by offering bounties in lands and in other ways. Prior to 1730, there were few, if any, settlements in what is now Marion County. It appears by well authenticated tradition that there were a few settlements within its territory, concerning which notice will be taken hereinafterwards. Bishop Gregg, in his history, on page 42, says : "From i6g6 to 1730, although its population gradually increased, no large addition was made at any one time to the inhabitants of Carolina. About the latter year (1730), a new scheme was adopted to promote the settlement of the province, which proved successful beyond the most sanguine expectations of the government. Governor Johnson was instructed 'to mark out eleven townships, in square lots, on the sides of rivers, consisting eadi of twenty thousand acres, and to divide the land within them into shares of fifty acres, for each man, woman and child that should come over to occupy and improve them. Each township was to form a parish, and all the inhabitants were to have an equal right to the river. As soon as the parish should increase to the number of one hundred families, they were to have the right to send two members of their own election to the Assembly, and to enjoy the same privileges as the parishes already established. Each settler was to pay four shillings a year for every hundred acres of land, excepting the first ten years, diuring which term they were to be rent free.' Governor Johnson issued a warrant to St. John, Surveyor General of the province, empowering him to go and mark out these townships ; but he having demandedi an exorbitant 'sum of money for his trouble, the members of the Council agreed among themselves to do this piece of service for their country." (Noble on the part of the Council.) "Accordingly, eleven townships were marked out by them in the following situations : two on the River Altamaha, two on Savanna, two on Santee, one on Pee Dee, one on Wackamaw, one on Wateree and one on Black River." The writer does not understand how it was that two townships were to be laid out "on the River Altamaiha," as that is a river of the afterwards Province of Georgia, and Georgia was not then settled, 1 730-1 731, and was not settled until two years afterwards (1733). The Province of South Carolina did not at that time, nor at any time since, have any jurisdiction beyond the Savannah River. It must have been the Edisto River, which may have been at that time called the "Altamaha River." The writer cannot otherwise account for it. "The township on the Pee Dee was called Queensborough, and to the time of its being marked out, 1 73 1 -1732, or a period a little subsequent, is to be assigned the date of our first settlements. There was no delay in the execution of this work (of marking out the townships), which had 'been committed to the Governor by his Majesty's government, for 'building up its waste places and the more speedy settlement of the province." Bishop Gregg further says, on page 44 : "From the annexed plot or draft, Queensborough appears to have been laid out on the Great Pee Dee, but a short distance above the mouth of Little Pee Dee River, embracing a part of what has since been known as Britton's Neck (a narrow strip of land between the two rivers), and extending also on the west side of the Great Pee Dee." He says further: "But for this plot, most unexpectedly found, the exact location of Queensborough Township could not have been determined." On page 45, he further says : "On the 14th February, 1734, it was ordered that the several persons who have laid out the several townships do prepare a rough draft or plan of a town to be laid out in each township containing about 800 acres, out of wliich a common of 300 acres, to be laid out in the back part, and the remaining 500 to be laid out in half-acre lots, to be a convenient distance from the river." This was dtone accordingly, and the town for Queensborough Township was located on the west sidte of the Great Pee Dee, as the wrLter supposes, not far from Godfrey's Ferry. The township covered 20,000 acres, and lay on both sides of the river. How far it extended up the river is unknoiwn, nor how far on each side, as the plot does not s'how the number of chains to the mile. The town Khus laid out and located on the west sidte of the river in Queensboroug*h Township seems never to have been settled as a town. Bishop Gregg says that up to 1734 no settlement was made in Queensborough Township.

Bishop Gregg says, on page 45 : "The inducements held out in connection with the township, appear to have led to a visit of some of the Welsh from Pennsylvania for the purpose of exploration and settlement, and to removal very shortly after of the colony, wliich was destined to form so important an element in the history and progress of the region of the upper Pee Dee." He says, on page 47 : "The first visit of the Welch to Pee Dee appears to ihave been made in the latter part of 1735 or early in the following year. It led to a remarkable act of favor on the part of the Council, to induce the colony to come. Wishing on tlieir arrival to settle in a body, and be possessed of ample and exclusive privileges as to the occupancy of the soil, they petitioned the government that an extensive tract of land might be appropriated to their sole benefit for a certain period. This appears from a message of the Lieutenant-Governor to the lower House of Assembly, 2 February, 1737, in which he said: 'The late Lieutenant-Governor, with the advice of his Majesty's Council, thought it would tend to the service and strengthening of the province to grant the petition of several natives of the principality of Wales, in behalf of themselves and others of their countrymen, who intended to settle in this province from Great Britain and Pennsylvania, praying the land near the fork, above the township (Queens'boroug'h) on Pee Dee River, miglit be reserved and set apart for their uses, and Mr. John Ouldfield being thought a very proper person, was employed for that service.' The petition here referred to bore date August 13th, 1736, having been fevorably received by the Council, his Majesty's Surveyor-General, James H. St. John, Esq., was instructed to have the said tract laid out. Accordingly he directed a precept to John Ouldfield, bearing date November 16th, 1736, 'to admeasure and lay out for the Welsh families that were to be imported to this province a tract of land, containing in the whole one hundred and seventy-three thousand eight hundred and forty acres, situated and being in Craven County. Ten thousand acres, being part thereof, lying within the limits of the township of Queensborough, on the north side of Pee Dee River. The remainder of said tract lying on the south side of said river and abutting and bounding to southeast on the reserved land of the said township of Queensborough, and all other sides on vacant lands, as are supposed.' The survey was made, and a plot thereof returned 29th Nov., 1736, of which a copy is annexed." The tract thus surveyed extended up the 'river on both sides only a short distance above Mar's Bluff. It was not adapted to the wants of, the Welsh people, the petitioners. They petitioned) again the government ior a further extension of the tract up the river, and after due consideration of this petition, the authorities granted it, by vVhich it was extended up the river, to and even above the North Carolina State line, to the branches of said river, to wit : "Yadkin and Uwhare or Yadkin and Rocky River," a distance of over one hundred miles by the course of the river, and included a territory of eight miles on each sidie of the river the whole way. Thus the Welsh hadi exclusive privileges over an immense territory, probably half million of acres. This proves both the anxiety and benevolence of the government, and the Welsh were not slow in availing themselves of such unprecedented advantages. This extension of their grant was dated 8th February, 1737. This first grant to the Welsh was afterwardte extended up to North Carolina line, eight miles on each side of Pee Dee River.

"By virtue of precept to me directed by James H. Johns, Esq., His Majesty's Surveyor General, bearing date i6th November, 1736, I have measured and laid for the Welsh familys that are to be imported to the province, a tract of land containing in the w'hole one hundredi and seventy-three thousand eight hundred and forty acres, situate and being in Craven County. Ten thousand acres being part thereof, lying within the limits of the township of Queensborough on the north side of Pee Dee River. The -remainder of said tract lying on 'both sides of said river. Butting and bounding to the southeast on the reserved lands of the said township of Queensborough, and all other sides vacant lands as is supposed, and hath such shape, form and marks as are represented by this delineated plot

These bodies of land were not civil or political divisions, but only tracts laid out to induce emigrants to come in and settle them. It was to increase the population, to begin the development of the vast resources of the soil, to raise products not only for home consumption but for exportation to Charleston and to England.

As to Queensborough Township, the laying it off was for the double purpose of inducing emigrants to come in and settle it up and to obtain lands cheaply, and in the Act or order of the Governor and Council for laying it and ten other townships ordered to be laid out at the same time, it was provided that so soon as the population in any township should amount to a hundred families, that such township should constitute a parish, and be entitled to two representatives in the General Assembly. To this extent it was a civil or political division. Whether any of the eleven townships laid off at that time, 1 73 1 -2, availed themselves of this political provision or not, is not known. It is very certain that Queensborough Township did not.