Marion County, South Carolina - The whole text, 1902 (part 1 of 15)

Preface

Within the last ten or twelve years the author has been solicited to write a history of this, Marion County, and by many whose opinions and judgment he much valued ; but then being much engaged in the practice of the law, he could not find the time to engage in and complete such a work. Furthermore, he felt a diffidence in his abilities to perform the task with satisfaction and credit to himself. January, 1898, he concluded to retire from the active practice of his profession, for the reason, first, that his sense of hearing became much impaired; and secondly, because of his age, then near eighty years old. He retired, and since that time has taken no new case, and confined himself only to old cases then pending in the Courts of Marion, Florence and Horry Counties; cases, too, that his junior partner had had nothing to do with and knew but little about. Those cases were in due time mostly ended. After this work in the Courts was practically accomplished, and having fair health aiid strength for one of his age, physically and mentally, he determined to undertake the work, and for the last eighteen months has been engaged principally in its performance, and he herewith submits it to the people of the county, and it will be for them to say whether he has succeeded well or has failed to meet expectations. Such as it is, it is his own work. Its subject matter, the language used, the style, manner and composition are all his own. He has not borrowed from another author without giving to that other full credit by placing the language used in quotation marks, and referring to the author by name and page. He acknowledges his indebtedness to Dr. Ramsay's History of South Carolina, to Bishop Gregg's History of the Old Cheraws, to the Lives of General

Marion written by M. L. Weems, and General Horry, and the same by W. Gilmore Sims, to the Statutes at Large as published by Dr. Thomas Cooper, and to perhaps other sources. He is further indebted to many of our citizens for information as to families that he could not otherwise have obtained.

It may be found that he has made mistakes. It will be a wonder if it is not so found. He expects no other. In mentioning families, it is mainly genealogical. All genealogy is history, and he trusts that families for the next three or four generations, at least, may be able to trace their ancestry back to and including what is herein written; that it will not be then, as he has found it in his inquiries of persons, when writing this history, that some of them of superior intelligence did not know who their grands-father was. Many of the old families have become extinct by death or removal. The author may have omitted to notice some that now exist. Where that is the case, it was because the author knew nothing or but little about them, and could not ascertain anything in reference to them. He tried to get a list of the graduates of literary colleges from Marion County, but some of them did not answer inquiries. Hence he had to depend on memory. Marion may well congratulate herself on the number and character of her young and older men of learning. She is fast coming to the front in that line, as well as in many other lines. He has furnished a list of all the Clerks of the Court, Sheriffs and Probate Judges or Ordinaries from the earliest times of her existence as a Judicial District. Also, a list of her Senators in the Legislature and Representatives. Further, a list of all the lawyers that have practiced in Marion since 1800. He has also procured and inserted a list of all the Governors of the province, proprietary and royal, while a province, and all after it became an independent State down to the present time, and last, but not least in importance and in its numbers, a list of all the companies that went from Marion to the Confederate War. This list embraces West Marion, including all company officers, what became of them, killed in battle or died of disease or wounds ; whether living or dead now, so far as is known, and much other information concerning our brave boys during that momentous struggle. All of which the author trusts may be of interest to many, very many, of the present generation.

The author, now in his eighty-fourth year, submits what he has done in this regard as his last work on the stage of life. It has been a labor of love, for the county in which he has spent most of his life, and for any errors, omissions and failures he asks the indulgence of its people, to wliom he herein and hereby respectfully dedicates the result of his labors.

Chapter

The first permanent settlement made in South CaroHna was by a few emigrants from England, under the direction and patronage of William Sayle, at or near Port Royal, in 1670. William Sayle was their first Governor. These colonists, for some reason or another, became dissatisfied with their location at Port Royal. They removed, in 1671, up the coast and settled on the west side of the Ashley River, opposite the present site of the city of Charleston, and there laid the foundation of old Charleston. This site was not wisely chosen, as it could not be reached by ships of heavy burden, and therefore it was abandoned. "A second removal took place to Oyster Point, formed by the confluence of Ashley and Cooper Rivers. There, in 1680, the foundation of the present city of Charleston was laid, and in one year thirty houses were built." Of the number and names of these first settlers of South Carolina, no records have been kept and preserved; only two names have come down to us, that of William Sayle and Joseph West. William Sayle dying in 1671, Joseph West was appointed as his successor, August 28, 1671. He was succeeded by Sir John Yeamans, April 19th, 1672, and he was succeeded by Joseph West, 13th August 1674, who held the office till 26th September, 1682, when he was succeeded by Joseph Morton, and on September 6th, 1684, Joseph West was appointed Governor for the third time, (i vol.. Statutes at Large, pp. 17, 18 and 19.) The first slaves introduced in South Carolina were brought hither by Sir John Yeamans from Barbadoes, one of the West India Islands, in 1671. Sir John Yeamans was an Englishman, though he came from Barbadoes to Carolina. Had he not been an Englishman, he would not have been appointed Governor of the province. The writer infers that he left England at or about the time the emigrants left England under William Sayle for Carolina, and who landed at Port

Royal the year before, to wit : 1670. The writer further infers that Sir John Yeamans went by Barbadoes for the purpose of getting a cargo of slaves to be carried to Carolina, and that Yeamans and Sayle understood one another. A sad day for the country ! Thus the .germ of near two hundred years' contention in America was planted, which culminated in a bloody four years war between the States of America, from 1861 to 1865. The results of this nucleus of slavery are still felt among us, and is perplexing the brain of our best and ablest men, and will, perhaps, for ages to come. There is no doubt a providence is in it all, and He who rules and determines the destinies of men and nations, may and will bring good out of the seeming evil.

The government of Carolina (both North and South Carolina) had been granted by two charters by King Charles the Second, to certain English noblemen, to wit : to "Edward, Earl of Clarendon, High Chancellor of England, and George, Duke of Albemarle, Master of our Horse and Captain General of all our forces, and well beloved William Lord Craven, John Ivord Berkley, our right trusty and well beloved Counsellor, Anthony L,ord Ashley, Chancellor of our Exchequer, Sir George Content, Kn't and Baronet, Vicp Chamberlain of our household, and our trusty and well beloved Sir William Berkley, Kn't, and Sir John Colleton, Knight and Baronet, being excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith, and the enlargement of our empire and dominions, have humbly sought leave of us by their industry and charge to transport and make an ample colony of our subjects natives of our Kingdom of England and elsewhere within our dominions, unto a certain country hereafter described in the parts of America not yet cultivated or planted, and only inhabited by some barbarous people who have no knowledge of Almighty God." This charter, of which the above quotation is the first section, was granted 24th March, 1663 ; and on the 30th June, 1665, the said Charles the Second granted to the said parties named in the first charter the same territory, to wit: all the lands lying between the 31st and 36th degrees of north latitude, and between the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the South Seas (Pacific Ocean) on the west, in- eluding what is now the States of North CaroKna and South Carolina, giving to the said named proprietors larger rights and powers than in the first charter. (See ist and 2d charters, I vol., Statutes at Large of South Carolina, pp. 22 to 31, and pp. 31 to 40.)

Under these charters, the Lords Proprietors drew up, or had it done, five different constitutions for the government of the province, but it does not appear that any one of them was ever adopted and ratified by the Assembly, except in part, and except those drawn up by the celebrated John Locke, and then only in part; but notwithstanding the rejection of parts of all of them by the Assembly, the government established by them moved along with some success, and without serious friction, for a period of forty-nine or fifty years, until 17 19, when a revolution (bloodless) took place under the administration of Robert Johnson, Esq., as Governor, and threw off and repudiated the government of the Lords Proprietors, thinking they would be better protected in their rights under the King. They first offered the government to Governor Robert Johnson, provided he would administer it in the name of the King, instead of in the name of the Lords Proprietors. He refused so to do, whereupon the Assembly offered the governorship to Col. James Moore, son of the former Governor, who accepted the position and took upon himself the government of the province. Accounts of the trouble in the province being sent to England, King George the First appointed Francis Nicholson Governor of the province, to act until the matter was decided between the Lords Proprietors and the King. Facilities for communicating and conferring together across the Atlantic were not what they are now, and it took several years to consider and come to an agreement. At last, in 1729, the second year of the reign of George the Second, they came to an agreement by wWch seven of the proprietors agreed to surrender to the Crown their title and interest in the province, which agreement was duly signed by the several Lords Proprietors, and which surrender was confirmed by an Act of Parliament. Robert Johnson was commissioned under the broad seal of England as Governor of the province, and his Excellency arrived in the province in December, 1730; and

Lord Carteret (afterwards Lord Granville), the eighth Proprietor, resigned on the 17th September, 1744. all pretensions to the government and his eighth part of the right to the soil of Carolina. Commissioners were appointed on his part and on the part of the King to lay off his part to him, which they did next adjoining Virginia. In 1729, the province of Carolina was divided into North and South Carolina, and the boundaries between the two provinces were fixed by an order of the British Council.

Hardship and privation were doubtless the lot of the first settlers of the province, so numerous that all cannot even be imagined in this day and time. The number of the first emigrants were unknown, as no record of them has been kept. There could not have been many : "There could not, however, been many, for all of them together with provisions, arms and utensils requisite for their support, defence and comfort, in a country inhabited only by savages, were brought from England to Carolina in two vessels." (Ramsay's History of South Carolina, vol. i, p. i.) To increase the population was the general primary object. Think of it. A country of vast extent, and a vast wilderness roamed over by savages and wild animals ; no roads or bridges across the rivers and other inland streams ; nowhere to go ; no means of communication with the rest of the world except by the stormy Atlantic, and to cross it took from one to two months. The first settlers were of necessity taught that valuable lesson, self-reliance. They were obliged to go to work building rude houses for habitation, also to cut down and clear up lands for cultivation, to make crops for another year. They were necessarily obliged to stay close together, by the laws of self-preservation, being surrounded by hostile and murderous savages. Wherever they were or at whatever they were engaged, they had to carry their arms, and be always on the lookout for an attack from their savage enemies. In Ramsay's History of South Carolina, pp. 18 and 19 : "They were obliged to stand in a constant posture of defence. While one party was employed in raising their little habitations, another was always kept under arms to watch the

Indians. While they gathered oysters with one hand for subsistence, they were obliged to carry guns in the other for selfdefence. The only fresh provisions they could procure were fish from the river or what game they could kill with their guns."

The young colonists being thus situated and necessarily confined within such narrow limits, were extremely anxious that other settlers should come in. The proprietary and regal governments were also anxious to the same end, and, therefore^ they held out great inducements to the people in Europe and elsewhere to migrate to the new province of Carolina, by offering bounties in money and land to all (being Protestants) and especially poor Protestant families, to emigrate to Carolina. By the inducements held out to the people of the old world by various parties, many emigrants were induced to venture into the province from England, Scotland, Wales, France and Germany - transportation and supplies in many instances furnished. The several bodies of emigrants coming into the province at different times, from different countries, and other provinces or States, besides individual emigration or families from the more northern States, and the natural increase of the population, raised the number of the inhabitants from the mere handful that came in 1670, as hereinbefore stated, to 345,591 in 130 years, or in 1800. (Ramsay, i vol., p. 14.) During this period, 130 years, the government was first proprietary, then regal, and lastly from regal to a representative government, a "government by the people and for the people," under which we are now living and have lived for 124 years, and which the writer hopes will be perpetual for all time to come. From 1696 to 1730, there were not any a:dditions made to the population of the province by the emigration to it of any large bodies of settlers, only by an occasional adventurer to the province from other provinces.

I have here given a general view of the State in its first settlement; the hardships and privations of its early inhabitants ; its changes of government, &c., without going into details, as preliminary to the subject to be brought to view in the proposed history of this, Marion County.

Chapter Ii Section

Marion County, as originally laid out, is in about latitude 34 north, and longiture 3 west from Washington. A line commencing at a stake on the North Carolina line, about one and a half miles from Mclnnis' Bridge over Little Pee Dee River, running a southwest course to and across the Great Pee Dee River to Lynch's Creek (river), dividing it from Marlborough County, on the east side of the Great Pee Dee, and from Darlington County, on the west side of said river. From the point w'here said line intersects Lynch's River - said Lynch's River is the line down to its confluence with the Great Pee Dee on its west side ; thence down the said Great Pee Dee to its confluence with Little Pee Dee ; thence up the Little Pee Dee to its confluence with Lumber River ; thence up Lumber River to its intersection with the North and' South Carolina line; thence up the said North Carolina line to the beginning stake above Mclnnis' Bridge. Its boundaries may be thus described: on the north by Marlborough County ; on the northwest by Darlington County ; on the west and southwest by Lynch's River ; on. the southwest and south by Great Pee Dee; on the east by Little Pee Dee and! Lumber River ; on the north and northeast by North Carolina.

Since the formation of Florence County, in 1888, Great Pee Dee forms its southern and southwestern boundary. It covers between nine and ten hundred square miles (estimated) now, or since the formation of Florence County. In length, some of our people have to travel thirty-five or forty miles to reach the Court House. In breadth, from east and northeast to west and southwest, it is about thirty miles, on the line of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad ; from that line southward it gradually narrows to a point at the confluence of the two Pee Dees. The line between Marion and Marlborough is estimated at eighteen to twenty miles long, and on the North Carolina side at thirty-one or thirty-two miles (estimated). For political and county government purposes it is divided into fourteen (formerly eighteen) townships, as nearly equal in area as may be, having regard to creeks or swamps, public roads and other well known marks or division lines. Their names are Marion, Reaves, Hillsboro, Carmichael, Manning, Harlleesville, Bethea, Moody, Kirby, Wahee, Rowell, Legette, Britton's Neck and Woodberry. Of these, Marion, Reaves, Harlleesville and Manning are the most populous, and have the greatest amount of 'taxable property within them. These townships were laid out under the State Constitution of 1868, and Acts of the General Assembly made in pursuance thereof, and are yet continued under the Constitution of 1895, and subsequent legislation. The taxable property of these several townships, including the two graded schools in Marion and Manning Townships, is hereto appended, as shown from the County Auditor and County Treasurer's books for the year 1899. Also, the population of each of said townships :

The above shows the total taxable property for Marion County in the year 1899, exclusive of poll taxes. There are at least two thousand in the county, at one dollar each, $2,000.

Never before in the history of the State were townships or subdivisions of the counties made or laid out for civil purposes, but only for military and church purposes. Our people, from the earliest settlement of the State down to the present time, 'have been a military people, as the legislation of the State showis. From the very first, when the first Legislature, or Parliament as it was then called, met in Charleston (1674), they provided as best they could with their scanty means for the defence of the colony against the hostile incursions of the Indians. Although no Act or Acts of the provincial Legislature of the province are to be found until 1682 - eight years after the first Legislature, in 1674 - yet we are bound to infer that there were during that period some Act or Acts passed for thie protection of the infant colony against hostile attacks from the bordering savages, which were hovering round and watching for an opportunity to successfully attack and destroy Ihe pale-faced intruders from off the land, and whom the Indians thought to be enemies, and whose presence, in their estimaition, bodted no good to them. Hence we may infer that the attention of the first legislators was directed to the organization of the militia by apix)inting a Commander-in-Chief or General, Colonels, Captains, Lieutenants, &c., and for an enrolment of the militia. From that time on to the Revolution, numberless enactments of the Legislature were passed perfecting the organization of the militia of the former, as may be seen on examination of the Statutes at Large, by Dr. Thomas Cooper, under authority of the Legislature, and on down to 1841, when the compilation of Dr. Cooper was published, and even dawn to the present time, 1900. The tenth volume of said compilation is an index to the nine preceding volumes. The index to the militia laws of the province, and now the State, covers twenty pages. Our people have always manifested a martial spirit, not only on paper by legislation, but in actual service in times of war. I will not herein undertake to enumerate the valiant deeds of her sons in all the wars through which they have freely spilled their blood - in all of which, whether in the right or not, they believed they were right.

ships) in every county were laid out, and a thorough reorganization of the militia of the State effected. Every muster beat formed a company, eight companies formed a regiment, four regiments formed a brigade, two brigades formed a division, and five divisions covered the State. For each division a Major General was elected, for each brigade a Brigadier General was elected, and for each regiment a Colonel, a Lieutenant Colonel and a Major were elected, and for each company a Cat>tain and three Lieutenants were elected ; also, a staff for each field officer was appointed. The field officers for divisions and brigades were elected by the Legislature. Colonels of regiments and all officers below him were elected by the people. An Adjutant was appointed for each regiment, and an Adjutant and Inspector General for the wihole State was elected. The Governor for the time being was Commanderin-Chief of the militia of the whole State, including cavalry and artillery regiments. Brigade encampments were provided for in each of the two brigades, to be held for five and six days every two years. The brigade encampment for the 8th bri-' gade, in which the regiment (32d) from Marion was, was held every two years on the west side of Great Pee Dee, near Godfrey's Ferry. At these brigade encampments the Governor and his staff; the Major General and his staff of this (4th) division; the Brigadier General and his staff; the Colonels of the eight regiments composing the 8th brigade ; all the Adjutants of the several regiments; the Lieutenant Colonels and Majors ; all the Captains and Lieutenants of all the companies in the brigade, were required to attend, each in his prescribed uniform, from Lieutenant up to Governor. These brigade encampments were for drill, exercise and inspection. The horses of the field officers were required to be richly caparisoned, according to rank, the higher the officer the richer the uniform and horse-trappings. They had their tents and camp equipage. The expense of all this was borne by each officer, so far as his uniform and horse-trappings were concerned. The transportation of all this equipage was in wagons (no railroads in those times).

Down, Berry's Cross Roads and Harlleesville formed what was the upper battahon ; Marion or Gilesboro, Britton's Neck, Big Swamp and Jeffreys formed the lower battalion. The companies in each beat were required to meet for "drill, exercise and parade" every two months, or six times in the year. In each battalion there had to be a battalion muster once a year, and a general muster of the regiment, composed of the two battalions, was required to be held once a year. Every ablebodied man in each beat was enrolled and required to do militia service, between the ages of eighteen and forty years. Many other requirements, not necessary to mention, were contained in the law. The organization was seemingly perfect - at least on paper - and continued to exist until the Confederate war. The offices, from highest to lowest, were eagerly sought - our people were ambitious to obtain military honors or distinction, notwithstanding they were mere empty titles. There was no money or pay in any of them, except the Adjutant and Inspector General of the State. Every officer equipped 'himself and served bis country at his own expense. As a general rule, they took pride in their positions and showed off to best possible advantage - and especially the field officers. The writer recollects an illustrative remark made by the late John C. Bethea, in reference to the late Col. James R. Bethea, while he was Colonel of this (the 32d) regiment. He bought a fine horse for $200 and fine horse-trappings, a uniform for himself of fine material, trimmed in the manner prescribed by law for an officer of his rank. The total outfit cost him from $400 to $500. He was elected Colonel while a single man. He was also fond of hunting, and kept a kennel of hounds^ five or six. Pending his colonelcy he married, and in dfae process of time his wife bore him a son, whom he named Jesse; the Colonel was very proud of his boy. There were four objects which the Colonel delighted in above all things else, to wit : his wife, Mary ; his son, Jesse ; his horse, Hughwarra, and his dogs - these were his pets and neairest his heart. John C. Bethea, a relative and neighbor of the Colonel, observing these idols of his, said : "It was difficult to tell which of the four the Colonel worshipped most." Said though, "he thought the boy, Jesse, was first, and his horse, Hughwarra, was next; and he did not know which came next, whether it was Mary or the dogs." This play of humor upon Col. Bethea illustrates the martial pride and spirit of the whole State, inclusive of Marion District. It permeated the whole people. Tihe higher militia offices were sought most generally by men of means, able and willing to incur the concomitant expense. They were sometimes sought by men of small means, but such was the militia mania of the people and times, that men with little means would stake all they had or could procure for the sake of the empty honors consequent upon military titles and preferments. Some of the bitterest contests that ever occurred in Marion District for office, were inspired by this military spirit. This was much more commendable than the scramble of the present day, between scheming politicians for office because of the money there is in it. From 1833 to i860, Marion District had her full share of the high positions in the military of the Staite. I will name such of them as are remembered since 1833 : Before 1833, Marion had her Brigadier Generals, Thomas Godbold and William Woodberry; Brigadier General E. B. Wheeler, Brigadier General William Evans, Brigadier General Elly Godbold; Major General W. W. Harllee; Colonel Thomas Harllee, Colonel James R. Bethea, Colonel John J» George; Majors W. H. Moody, William Ford, D. J. Taylor, Samuel McPherson, R. G. Howard, James S. Rogers, John A. Breeden, Woodward Manning and D. W. Edwards. The Majors and Brigadier Generals went up by regular gradations from the lower positions of Major and Colonel. The Colonels rose from lower position to that of Colonel. All except Colonel Thomas Harllee, who was the first Colonel elected upon the reorganization of the militia under the Acts of 1832 and 1833. He was elected, as the writer has always understood, from the ranks. By those Acts, all previous commissions were vacated. The election was just after the heated struggle for and against Nullification. In Marion District, the parties for and against Nullification were about equal in strength. The Nullifiers carried the District by a narrow majority. In 1834, when the reorganization actually took place, the smouldering fires of the Nullification struggle were again lighted up and burned with their original fury. Each party put up their supposed strongest man for Colonel. The Nullifiers brought out Thomas Harllee, a modest and unassuming man - a man who had never asked for office, and never did afterwards (he had previously been elected a delegate to the Nullification Convention in 1832, unsought, by him). He was a man of great natural popularity, a magnetic man. The Opposition or Union party brought out as their candidate for Colonel, John T. Ervin, then a resident citizen of Marion District, but afterwards moved to Darlington. He was a man of wealth, with winning and graceful manners, a magnetic man. They both had many strong and monied friends - either could command as much money as he wanted. These two champions entered the race - ^the most heated and exciting race, perhaps, the county has never had. The district was stirred from centre to its utmost limits ; in every nook and corner, the aged and decrepit were hunted up and brought to the polls on the day of election. Doubtless, much money was spent by the respective parties during the campaign, and on the day of election. When the votes were counted, it was ascertained that Ervin had beaten Harllee one vote. The election was protested by Harllee's friends, and of course more than one illegal vote was found. The election was set aside and another election was ordered. The parties entered the second race with renewed determination and vigor, nothing left undone that was within human compass. The second election was held, and when the voltes were counted, it was ascertained and so declared that Harllee had beaten Ervin by twentysix votes. No protest was made, and Harllee became Colonel of the 32d Regiment. Colonel Thomas Harllee was not fitted for such an office - it was not congenial to his nature. He held the office, however, with credit to himself and satisfaction to his numerous friends for a few years, and resigned and returned to the pursuits of private life. He was of a retiring dispositon, modest and unassuming - the district honored itself in honoring him. He was older than the late General W. W. Harllee, and never married. In 1844 or 1845, he sold out at Harlleesville and went to Charle'ston, and there went into a factorage and commission business with a man named Carson, under the firm name of Carson & Harllee. He lived only a

Among the Majors of the two battalions, the oldest by virtue of his seniority became Lieutenant Colonel. The writer may not have mentioned all the Colonels and Majors in Marion District since the reorganization in 1834 - the omission arises not from intention, but from his want of memory - he has no record! to look at.

Other heated contests were common in companies and battalions. The most noted of these was between Captain John J. George, of Berry's Cross Roads beat, and Captain H. B. Cook, of llie Maiden Down beat, for Major of the upper battalion, which occurred by the promotion of Major James R. Bethea to the Colonency of tihe regiment. This was about 1842 or 1843. The first election. Captain Cook beat Cajitain George six votes. George protested the election, which was set aside and another election ordered. At the second' election, George beat Cook seven votes. It was protested and set aside, and a third election ordtered - at which Captain Cook declined to enter the race, and Captain Henry Rogers, of the High Hill beat, became the candidate. At this third election. Captain George was elected by a hundred majority. This contest, though confined to the upper battalion, was exciting, and a full vote was polled. Major George was finally promoted to the Colonelcy of the regiment, which he held for several years.

Enough has been said to show the martial spirit of our people even in times of peace, and it continues down to the present day - ^though it seeras to the writer that the present organization of the militia of the State is not calculated to awaken and arouse and foster the martial ardor and spirit of the people as did the former organization of the State militia, and especially that of 1833 and 1834, which the writer thinks the best ever devised here or elsewhere for a citizen militia. As already stated, every able-bodied man from eighteen to forty years of age was enrolled At each petty muster the roll was called, and defaulters marked and afterwards court martialed; and unless he had an excuse deemed sufficient by the court, he was fined, and if not paid an execution was issued against his property and lodged with the Sheriff ; and if no property suiificient to satisfy the execution and costs, he could be arrested and put in jail, and kept there until he was thence discharged according to law. This provision of the law forced attendance, and there were few defaulters without sufficient excuse. Along in this line a ludicrous occurrence once happened at roll-call at Harlleesville on a petty muster occasion, which I will relate. During roU-call the name of Ephraim Taylor, the father of our late respectable fellow-citizen, Morgan Taylor, was called; he did not answer - was not present. Ephraim's brother, Thomas, was in line, and he (Thomas) hollered out, "He could not come, he had no breeches to wear." This produced a general laugh along the whole line.

Another incident, at the same muster ground, of a different character, had a sad ending. In July, 1842 or 1843, at a petty muster, one Yates Cottingham, the grand-father of our Henry C. Cottingham, at Dillon, was at the muster that day. The old gentleman, a harmless man, ha;d one failing, and but one - ^he was passionately fond of liquor; if he had any other failing, the writer never heard of it. He went up to a cart or wagon where whiskey was to sell (for in that day any one might sell liquor with impunity, although against the law), several were stanlding round; old man Yates expressed a strong desire for some liquor, and said he could drink a quart, if he had it, without taking it from his head ; whereupon some one in the crowd said to him, "Yates, if you will drink it I will pay for it." The whiskey was measured in a quart cup and handed out, the old gentleman took it and turned it up to his mouth, and there held it until he had drained the quart cup. After drinking it, lie turned and walked off towards Colonel Thos. Harllee's store, a few steps off, walked up the steps and to a long board in the piazza ; he lay down on the board and never rose again. In the afternoon the people broke up and left for their homes. About sunset, after the people had all gone. Colonel Harllee closed up the store and went up to his house, perhaps a hundred or more yards away. Colonel Harllee said when he closed his front door, he saw old man Yates lying there on the bench ; did not go to him nor did he call him - that the old man was only^tight and was asleep ; that the old gentleman would wake up during the night and go home, only a mile or so away.

That he had seen him many times drunk and asleep upon that bench ; that the old gentleman would wake up during the night and go home. Col. Harllee heard or knew no more till the next morning, when a negro went to his house, and told him the old man was dead. He immediately went down to the store and found the old man dead and rigid - so much so that they concluded that he died before night the evening before. An inquest was held and the facts found about as herein stated. The old man, Yates Cottingham, was the uncle by marriage of Colonel Harllee - Yates' wife was his aunt. It is supposed that there are not many now living who were there that day, hence the writer speaks of it as a sad occurrence at a petty muster in that day and time, and that the incident may be transmitted to posterity and have an influence for good upon the present and future generations.

Section Ii

The surface of Marion County is generally level. It is undulating gently in the upper portion of the county, and is undulating more or lesis on the rivers and inland swamps in every part of the county, which afifords fall enough for proper and effective drainage, but not enough to produce damage to the cleared land by washing from excessive floods of rain.^ It is a well watered region. It has on its west side Great Pee Dee, its western boundary, and its tributary streams. It is intersected in its whole length by Little Pee Dee, where said river is not a boundary, and Lumber River is a boundary in part on the east. In the upper part of the county it has the two Reedy Creeks, Big and Little Reedy Creek. They both rise in Marlboroug'h County, and running in a southeasterly direction come together just above the town of Latta, and make Buck Swamp, which continues to run the same course, or rather a little more east, for fifteen or more miles, and pours its waters into Little Pee Dee, near or just above what was formerly called Norton's Landing, and is now known by that name, though long since it has ceased to be a public landing. These creeks and Buck Swamp have several small tributaries laterally emptying themselves into them, to wit: Hannah Betbea's Mill Branch into the Big Creek; the Clark Mill Branch and Cana Branch into Uttle Reedy Creek ; Gin House Branch and Peter's Branch into Buck Swamp; Robert's Mill Branch and Maiden Down, with its tributaries, into Buck Swamp, lower down. There are good lands on all these streams, and well watered by them. There are, perhaps, other small tributaries not herein mentioned. There are many tributaries to Little Pee Dee, on both sides, which water the sections through which they flow. Shoe Heel is one almost as large as Little Pee Dee ; Hays' Swamp another ; Maple Swamp another; Catfish, another inland - swamp, has its rise in Marlborough County, and traverses for near forty miles the county from north to northwest to south and southeast, and empties into Great Pee Dee seventeen or eighteen miles below Marion C. H. It has some tributaries, not so many as Buck Swamp, to wit : E. J. Moody's Mill Creek, Smith's Swamp, Bull Swamp and others. Catfish waters a large portion of the country, and has some very fine lands (mostly sandy) watered by it and its tributaries. .

Lumber River has a large tributary from the upper end of Marion, to wit: Bear Swamp, with its tributaries, Gaddy's Mill Creek, Cowper's Swamp and Alligator Swamp. It empties into Ashpole, and Ashpole empties into Lumber River just, above Nichols' Depot, in the eastern portion of the county. There are two Reedy Creeks, with their tributaries, below Marion,_ coming together above Legett's Mill, emptying into Little Pee Dee. There is the Back Swamp, which breaks out of Little Pee Dee not far below Gilchrist's Bridge, and runs down somewhat parallel with the river for ten or fifteen miles and flows into the river again. This swamp may have been originally, or in the long past, the river itself. Reasons for this theory are only conjectural, not conclusive. Lower down is Cypress Creek, flowing into Little Pee Dee from the west. Upon all of these streams are good lands, with sufficient natural drainage, and aided by the many artificial ones, makes the lands adjacent most desirable for agricultural purposes. Nature has done as much for us in Marion County as perhaps any other county in the State, with as few drawbacks, and it re- mains for its people to avail themselves of these many natural advantages, and to improve upon them ; and if the same progress and improvements are made for the next fifty years as has been made for the last fifty, the county will probably take the highest stand, agriculturally, among the many agricultural counties in the State. They are already vieing with each other for the highest distinction. An ambition to excel in agricultural life is everywhere apparent, not only here in Maron, but all over the State.

Section Iii

Tihe soil of the county is varied, some parts sandy and light, other parts a dark gray soil or loam, others a dark brown soil, and some places black. The different soils here mentioned rest on a clay foundation, except the sandy or light soils, and even some of these are underlaid with clay. The different soils vary in thickness, as also in fertility, from one inch to six inches, and in some places even more than six inches, to wit: in swamp or bay lands. The^ lands of every description are more or less fertile, and respond more or less abundantly to the labor of man in plentiful harvests. The sandy or light lands lie mostly on Catfish and Little Pee Dee. The gray soil is mostly found on Buck Swamp, and its tributaries ; and below Marion in all parts or neighborhoods after leaving Catfish and Little Pee Dee for two or three miles, also in the MuUins region, and in Hillsboro and Carmichael, after getting off from the river as above indicated. The dark brown soil is mostly near the Great Pee Dee River, and the Grove lands in Wahee Township. The black in swamps and bays. The agricultural productions of the county are varied - most or all of the cereals, sudi as corn, wheat, rye, oats, rice and barley. Vegetables in great abundance are successfully grown in every portion of the county, made. for domestic use and some for shipment; of the latter, peas, beans, cabbage and strawberries are becoming, over and a;bove domestic use, a money crop. Strawberries, in particular, are raised for shipment with reasonable profit, and are increasing in value every year. The cultivation of these vegetable crops for shipment gives needed employment to many that otherwise would be unemployed. Women and Children find work to do, which they can perform, and thus, become contributors to their own support, rather than consumers only. Irish and sweet potatoes are generally made mostly for domestic use, some for shipment. Watermelons and cantaloupes grow well here, only f6r domestic use. The great money crops are cotton and tobacco. It is only within the last few years that tobacco has been grown here as a money crop, and its production has been rapidly increased, giving employment to hundreds that formerly were unemployed from July 1st to September in every year. In the cultivation, curing and grading tobacco, to which stemming has Tecently been added, hundreds in the county, every season, are busily employed. There are perhaps hundreds of tobacco barns in the county and others are now going up. At MuUins, there are tlhree tobacco warehouses; ait Nichols, one; at Marion, two; at Latta, two, and at Dillon, two, with prize houses at each point named, in number and size sufficient to accommodate the business need's of the trade. It i's estimated that there were made and sold at these different tobacco warehouses in 1899 ten millions of ix)unds; many of the farmers shipped their tobacco to Danville, Va., Richmond, and other markets. Tobacco is fast becoming one of the staple crops of Marion County, and there is no telling to what proportions it may attain.

Tobacco has been raised as a money crop for export in this country, ever since the first settlement at Jamestown, Va., in 1607. Its cultivation in this State began only a few years ago, and still later in this, Marion County. It has so far, in this county, brought fairly good prices, which, together with the low price of cotton, stimulates its production. Most of the arable lands in the county are well adapted to its growth and maturity, and much of the land makes tobacco of a very fine quality, and it commands the highest prices. Its cultivation as a money crop has, pe Aaps, come to stay. The leading staple crop of the county is cotton - the lands are well adapted to its growth and maturity. Its production prior to 1793 was quite limited, not only in Marion County, but in the State, and we might say throughout the cotton belt.

From the first settlement of the State, in 1670, to 1793, for near one hundred and twenty-five years, the export of agricultural products was confined to rice and indigo. The rice crops were mostly raised on the coast or in tide-water lands, where it is yet the leading money crop. It was never raised' to much extent in Marion County; only raised for domestic use. A few old rice plantations were in the lower part of the county, contiguous to the river. Rice was shipped thence to Charleston, the only market for it in the State, and thenoe shipped to Europe.

Cotton tes been the chief money crop of the State for one hundred years or more. It succeeded indigo. Althougli cotton has been known for more than two thousand years, or since the days of Herodotus, who wrote that "Gossypium (cotton) grew in India which instead of seed prod^uced wool" (Ramsay's, vol. 2, p. 119), yet through all ages from that remote period cotton was grown only for domestic use. Now it is an article of universal use, and it may be said, clothes the world. Of cotton, there are two kinds - ^the long staple, or black seed, and the short staple. The former is restricted as to production to confined limits, to the sea islands and parts adjacent. The lint is easily separated from the seed, and is used for manufacturing the finer classes of goods. The latter, or short staple cotton, grows well in all the cotton belt in this country, and is used in making the coarser fabrics, such as are in common use everywhere, and the lint is hard to separate from the seed, and can be done with facility only by the use of saw gins. The difficulty of separating the lint from the seed furnishes the reason it was not planted and cultivated as a money crop in South Carolina till about tihe first of the nineteenth century, or about one hundred years ago. The saw gin was invented in 1793, by Eli Whitney, a Connecticut school teacher, then teaching in Georgia. This invention, and its success in the purpose for which it was intended, suddenly gave a stimulus to the production of cotton in the South. "Whitney's invention has had more influence on the industry, wealth and political condition of this country than any other labor saving machine ever constructed in America." Previous to that time only small quantiites of cotton had been made in the South. Almost every one planted a little patch for domestic use, and that little was freed from the seed by the fingers. A grown hand could not pick more than a pound a day, and did well to pick that much. This was tedious, and so expensive that none but the .rich oQuli aflford to buy it. (American History, by Montgomery, p. 196) : "By the use of Whitney's machine, one man could clean in a single day a thousand pounds." Now, at this writing, 40,000 pounds may be cleaned of seed and packed and hooped for market in one dky. The same author says: "In 1784, we had exported (from the cotton belt) eight bags, or about 3,000 pounds of cotton to Liverpool. The cotton was seized by the English custom officers on the ground that the United States could not have produced such a prodigious quantity, and that the captain of some vessel must have smuggled it from some other country. Ten years after Whitney had put his machine into operation ( 1803), we were exporting over 100,000 bags of cotton, or more than 40,000,000 pounds, and every year saw an enormous increase. The effect at home was equally marked. Hundreds of cotton mills for the manufacture of cotton cloth were built in New England. At the South, the raising of cotton became immensely profitable, and planters gave more and more land to it. Up to this period, many men in both sections of the country had deplored the holding of slaves. They bad earnestly discussed how to rid the country of what was felt to be both an evil of itself and a danger to the nation. The invention of the cotton gin put a stop to the discussion in great measure ; for now the Southern planters and Northern manufacturers of cotton both found it to their interest to keep the negro in bondage, since by his labor they were both rapidly growing rich. Few, even of the ablest minds, of that time realized what we all see to-day ; that in the end free labor is cheaper, safer and better than any either." The author says : "To sum up, Whitney's great invention of 1793 did four things: (i) It stimulated the production of cotton and made it one of the leading industries of the country. (2) It increased our exports immensely. (3) It caused the building of great numbers of cotton mills at the North. (4) It made a large class, both North and South, interested in maintaining slave labor." In a note to the fore- going quotation, the author says: "Whitney received fifty thousand dollars for his invention from South Carolina, besides something from several other Southern States." Such was the impetus given to the production of cotton by the invention of Whitney, that, in the sihort space of two years. South Carolina, in 1795, exported to England cotton to the value of £1,109,653 (Ramsay's History of South Carolina, vol. II., p. 120). What an enormous increase ! The author does not say bow many bags or how many pounds were shipped, nor wihat it brought per pound - lie only gives the totail value, which is equivalent to $5,000,000. The increase in production must have been fabulous, or prices of the staple must have been fabulous. We suppose South Caiolina must have g^ne into its production with a vim, as she bouglit the riglit to use it for $50,000, and "Munificently threw open its use and benefit to all its citizens." (Ramsay, II. vol., 121.) The invention of the Whitney saw gin was and is the greatest invention of modern times. From tihat time to this it has been the means of expanding our commerce to vast proportions. Has been the means not only of clothing the civilized world, but it gives remunerative employment to millions, and by which they obtain their daily bread. It overshadows every other invention of any age, ancient or modern. Many other inventions since Whitney's, of immeftse use, are now to be counted, but they sink into insignificance when compared with the result of the Whitney saw gin. Machinery for the manufacturing of cotton cloth soon followed, first in England, then in the United States, and they are now to be found in every civilized country of the world. It has enterprized and vitalized almost every other useful art which contributes to the happiness of man in every clime. Its production has increased from eight small bags crudely put up, exported previous to Whitney's invention, and which was seized by the custom house officials in L/iverpool, on the ground that so much cotton could not have been made and exported in the United States, and, therefore, was smuggled from some other country, to the prodigious number of 11,000,000 bales much heavier than those seized as smuggled. Cotton has been called "King;" and that is no misnomer. The writer will not now enter into a discussion of the

Marion County, if she has not been magna pars fui, she has been minime pars fui, not in a disparaging sense of the latter term. She has done and is doing her full share in utilizing the benefits of Whitney's inventive brain. From a wilderness, say, 170 yeairs ago, s'he has converted much of her territory to fertile field's, and including that part of her territory now in Florence Ckmnty, she makes at least 50,000 bales of cotton.

The first great article of export from Carolina was rice, raised mostly on tidewater lands. The second was indigo. The first indigo seed was introduced into South Carolina by "Miss Eliza Lucas, the mother of Major General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Her father, George Lucas, Governor of Antigua (one of the West India Islands), observing her fondness for the vegetable world, frequently sent her tropical seeds and fruits to be planted for her amusement on his plantation at Wappoo (near Charleston). Among others be sent her some indigo seed as a subject of experiment. She planted it in March, 1741 or 1742; it was destroyed by frost. She repeated the experiment in April ; this was cut down by a worm. Notwithstanding these discouragements, she persevered, and her third attempt was successful. Governor Lucas (her father), on hearing that the plant had seeded and ripened, sent from Montserrat a man by the name of Cromwell, who had been accustomed to the making of indigo, and engaged him at high wages to come to Carolina and let his daughter see the whole process for extracting the dye from the weed. This professed indigo maker built vats on the Wappoo Creek, and there made the first indigo that was formed in Carolina. It was but indifferent. Cromwell repented of his engagement as being likely to injure his own country, made a mystery of the businesis, and with the hope of deceiving, injured the process by throwing in too much lime. Miss Lucas watched him carefully, and also employed Mr. Deveaux to superintend his operations. Notwithstanding the duplicity of Cromwell, a knowledge of the process was obtained. Soon after Miss Lucas had completely succeeded in this useful project she married Charles Pinckney, and her father made a present of all the indigo on his plantation, the fruit of her industry, to her husband. The whole was saved for seed. Part was planted by the proprietor next year at Ashepoo, and the remainder given away to his friends in small quantities, for the same purpose. They all succeeded. From that time the culture of indigo was common, and in a year or two an article of export. Soon after the dye was successfully extracted from the cultivated plant, Mr. Cattel made a present to Mr. Pinckney of some wild indigo, w'hich he had just discovered in the woods of Carolina. Experiments were instituted to ascertain its virtues. It proved to be capable of yielding good indigo, but was less productive than what had been imported. The attention of the planters was fixed on the latter. They urged its culture with so much industry and success, that in the year 1747 a considerable quantity of it was sent to England; which induced the merchants trading in Carolina to petition Parliament for a bounty on Carolina indigo * * * Aooordingly, an Act of Parliament was passed in the year 1748 for allowing a bounty of six pence per pound on indigo raised in the British American plantations, and imported directly into Britain from the place of its growth. In consequence of this Act the planters applied themselves with double vigor and spirit to that article, and seemed to vie with each other who should bring the best kind and greatest quantity of it to market. Some years indeed elapsed before they found out the nice art of making it as good as the French; but every year they improved in the mode of preparing it and finally received great profit as the'reward of their labors. While many of them doubled their capital every tlhree or four years by planting indigo ; they, in process of time, brought it to such A diegree of perfection as not only to supply the mother country, but also to undersell the French at several European markets. It proved more really beneficial to Carolina than the mines of Mexico or Peru are or have been either to old or new Spain. In the year 1754, the export of indigo from the province amounted to 216,924 pounds, and shortly before the American Revolution it had a/risen to 1,107,660 pounds. In the Revolutionary War it was less attended to than rice. In the year 1783, it again began to be more cultivated - 2,051 casks of indigo was exported, and it continued to form a valuable export for some years ; but large importations of it from the East Indies into England so lowered the price as to make it less profitable. Near the close of the eighteenth century it gave place to the cultivation of cotton." ( Rarnsay, II. vol., ii8 and 119.) Eli Whitney's invention of the saw gin, in 1793, put a complete stop to the making of indigo - just so soon as the Whitney invention was introduced. From 1747 to 1793, many fortunes were made by raising and exporting indigo. It is true, that in this part of the province (what is now Marion County), other pursuits were remunerative. Stock raising was a money making business, and that, with indigo, during the period indicated, made many men rich - rich for that day and time and especially in the lower end of the county and on the Great Pee Dee River, where the range for stock was seemingly inexlhaustible, and where the lands were well adapted to the production of indigo. As late as 1876, and since that time, the writer hereof, on a visit to old Ark Church, thirty-three miles below Marion Court House, in some old fields which had been thrown out on what was formerly General Woodberry's plantation, saw stalks of indigo growing about in those old fidds four or five feet high, limbed out vigorously, so much so that it attracted his attention. On getting to the "Ark," where he met a crowd of ihe citizens, and during his stay he inquired of some one - he thinks William Woodberry, son of the old General Woodberry - how it was that there was so mudh indigo growing in those old fields. The answer was, that in former times the people planted much indigo in thaft region for market, and although its culture had been abandoned for years, yet it had perpetuated itself from year to year, and was there regarded as wild indigo. The writer has seen it in various places in the county and in Robeson County, N. C, adjoining Marion County, when a boy and even since manhood; but always supposed it to be wild indigo, until better informed by reading the early history of the State, and What he was told by Mr. William Woodberry in 1876 as to that then growing in that part of the county. In 1848, the writer bought the place on whidi he soon afterwards settled, in the fork of the two Reedy Creeks, about three miles above the town of Latta. Most of the lands that had been cleared had been thrown out; 'that one. field, which it was said had been cleared more than a hundred years, not a stump in it, right in the Big Creek, and a point of the field ran down as it were into the creek, so that the creek was on three sides of the point. On that point the. writer saw several stalks of indigo veryluxurious in growth ; the land was rich, and he then supposed it was wild indigo. The land was soon taken in and tJie indigo destroyed. He now supposes it was the cultivated indigo, and that it perpetuated itself as did that in Woodberry Township. Old Colonel Eli^a Bethea, who was born and raised near by, informed the writer that the Murfies, from Greiat Pee Dee, of whom more will be said hereinafter, used to bring their stock out there on account of the reed range in those creeks every winter; that they penned them in that field above spoken of, and it was said marked 300 calves every spring. Old Colonel Elisha Bethea further said that his father, old Buck Swamp John Bethea, of whom more will be said hereafter, after he came there marked often 100 calves every spring. It is not difficult to infer that some of the previous owners of the place planted and raised indigo for market on those lands, and when abandoneid and the land thrown out, the indigo sprang up every year, and thus perpetuated itself, and had continued to do so year after year till 1850, when the writer saw it there, as above set forth. It is certain that indigo was planted and cultivated as a money crop within the bounds of what was afterwards Marion District and is now Marion County. "Fortunes were made rapidly by its cultivation." (Gregg's History of the Old Cheraws, p. 112.) In a note appended, the same author (Gregg) says: "As an illustration of the value of the crop, it may be mentioned that General Harrington sent three fourhorse wagon loads to Virginia, and with the proceeds of the sale boug'ht from fifteen to twenty negroes." The same author (p. 112) says: "It brought at one time $4 to $5 per pound." In a note to the same he says : "The account sales of one cask of indigo shipped to Ix>ndon from the Pee Dee in 1766,' shows that it commanded 2s. and 3d. per pound, amounting to £37 4s. and 3d., the bounty oh it, £3 13s. and 4d. ; the total expense of the shipment from Charleston £3 6s. and 4d." Many people in the county continued to plant it for domestic use long after it was abandoned in 1793 as a money crop. Our mothers and great-grand-motbers were necessarily obliged to keep up its culture, with which to dye their thread w(hich was woven into cloth to clothe their families wi*h. In the laiter part of the eighteenth and first part of the nineteenith centuries, there were no cotton mills; every family had to manufacture its own cloth, whether of wool or cotton. It was not until far in the nineteenith century that manufactured cloth could be bougiht because of its scarcity and because of its price, and a vast majority of our grand-mothers were thus forced to make their own cloth, and many of them preferred the domestic article to the manufactured. They were provided with their spinning wheels and cotton cards, their reels and warping bars, their slags and weaving harness and their looms. Every family was of necessity possessed of these implementts for making cloth, and indigo blue was indispensible in coloring their thread, and hence every family had their annual patdh of indigo, and all were familiar with the process of extracting the dye from the indigo weed. All were scientisits to that extent. As a safeguard to this species of domestic property, the law of the lanid threw around it its protecting aegis. In 1823, our State I^egislature passed an Act exempting from levy and sale under execution to every family certain property of the execution debtor, to wit : One pair of cards, one spinning wheel and loom, and other articles (I have not the Adt before me), showing the necessity of these articles to every family. Many of our mothers did) not give up the making of cloth for their family's use for many years after 1823, and a few not until after 'the Confederate War, and there may be some that yet continue to make their own homespun. Every mother had her indigo patch ; it was as indispensible to her as was her vegetable garden. The writer's mother never did abandon the home industry of making cloth entirely, up to the time of her death, in 1868; she had her little indigo patch every year; she spun and wove her own cloth while she lived. The blockade of the war did not affect her in that regard - she had her wheel and cotton cards, loom, &c., and she knew how to use them. Being cut off from all oommerce with the outside world for four years, many of our people were put to it to supply cloth- ing to their families. They had no implements for making cloth for domestic use. To get cards was the greatest trouble - they could not be had except through blockade runners, and only at enormous prices. Few had any of the old spinning wheels or looms and other necessary implements for making cloth, and when they were procured or made, many did not know how to use them. These troubles of our people are better remembered by many now living than can be expressed. In the writer's mother's case, ^he was in no way nonplussed, as she had all the apparatus for making cloth, and knew how to use them. Sudh women were in demand during the war blockade. They could teach their less provident neighbor women how to make indigo and how to extract the dye ; how to card and spin the cotton into thread, andl how to dye it, not only with indigo blue but with other improvised dyes ; how to warp it and put it through the slays and harness, and then how to weave it. We cannot now well see how the people could have gotten along without these domestic and provident mothers and grand-mothers. Bless their memory! Though many of them are dead, yet they live in recollection at least, "honored and sung." The prettiest dtesses for ladies, the writer ever saw, were of homespun tastefully streaked and striped with domestic dye, and made in the style of the times, and worn by our mothers and daughters on public occasion, at church, &c., only. They were adtmired by all and appreciated by all. This latter ,. sentiment was what, in the main, imparted to them beauty and high adornment. For the first thirty years or more of the nineteenth century, the housewives of the country made cloth to sell to the merchants, who in that day and time bought it, especially where it was paid for in trade. The writer's mother, when he was a boy, would make cloth, and carry it to Fair Bluff, Iveesville and L,umberton, N. C, and sell it or barter it for other goods with the merdhants. The prices paid for it were remunerative, depending on the quality of the cloth, ranging from 25 cents to $2 per yard - the latter price for the finest jeans cloth. In connection with this subject, the making and selling or bartering of home-made cloth, I will relate an incident which occurred when I was a boy, from the year 1828 to 1832. My mother and one Susan Rosier, a maiden lady rather above the marriageable age, a near neighbor and wtio went by the name of "Sookey Rosier," and though near neighbors, the State line divided them, my mother living on the North Carolina side of the line and Miss Rosier on the South Carolina side. Each made a piece of cloth for sale. They carried it to Fair Bluff, iST. C, and offered and did sell it to a merchant doing business there, by the name of Colin McRae, a young man from Marlborough District. My mother sold hers, I think, at 30 cents per yard, and Miss Rosier was offered 40 cents per yard for hers. She said she could not take that for hers ; the merchant said that was all he could give for it. She said she set her price on her cloth before she left home, and if she did not get that, she would carry it back home. McRae, the merchant, asked what was the price fixed; she replied, "A quarter and seven pence a yard," and if she did not get that she would carry it back home. McRae, the merchant, said to her, "Madam, I have offered you more than that - ^that 40 cents was more than 'a quarter and seven pence ;' " to which she replied, "You can't fool me; if I do not get "a quarter and seven pence' for it, I will carry it back home." My mother, standing by, said to her, "He has offered you more than that;" to which Miss Rosier replied, "I know better than that ; I am not going to be fooled by any of you." Whereupon McRae said to her, "Well, I will give you 'a quarter and seven pence' a yard for -your cloth ralther than you shall carry it back home with you," which was her price. And she went home satisfied. A remarkable instance of gross ignorance (crassa ignorantia). "A quarter and seven pence" wais only thirty-seven and a half cents. However, notwithstanding h^r gross ignorance, she knew how to make good cloth - she had been trained in that ait. The family, not many years afterward, sold out and removed to some other parts, and so far as that family' is concerned, the name has become extinct in Marion County. S. S. Rozier at Dillon, we think, is of a different family. The family of "Sookey" Rosier lived on Cowpen Swamp, which rises in North Carolina, and runs south and empties into Bear Swamp, jus.t below Page's Mill, and just above Bear Swam^ Baptist Church. The Rozier place was on the west side of said Cow- pen Swamp, and was afterwards bought by Zany Rogers, an older brother of our respected fellow-citizen. Captain Robt. H. Rogers ; and I suppose Zany Rogers died there. The writer has not seen the place in sixty-five or more years. It is a fine region in upper Marion, in Hillsboro Township, and was, when the writer last saw it, almosit wholly undeveloped, but now, it is learned, that it is greatly developed and fast coming to the front.

Section Iv

From the first settlements in South Carolina down, even to the present time, a period of more than two hundred years, stock raising for market has been a profitable pursuit in all the State, and especially in the lower or eastern portions of the State, in which Marion County is located. Initerseoted as it is, by the Pee Dee and Lumber Rivers, with numerous inland creeks, swamps and bays, it afforded a splendid and extensive range for cattle and hogs. Luxurious bodies of reeds were in the swamps and low grounds of the three rivers, and in the inland swamps and bays of the county; the uncleared uplands everywliere covered with a heavy annual crop of nutritious grass in summer for cattle to browse up>on ; the swamps, and especially the river swamps, teeming with acorns, and the pine woods bearing every year cpiantities of mast - ^pure mast. The enterprising and sagacious settler quickly saw the money in it, and at once utilized the bounties of nature around him, which 'he could do without much labor. All he had to do was to watch and attend to his stocks of cattle and hogs, and feed them just enough to keep them gentle.- The range was suflficient to maintain and fatten for market large droves of cattle and hogs with little or no expense or labor. In the first instance, he had to have a road to market, and the means of crossing rivers aiid other inland streams. With these facilities he was in easy reach of Charleston, his only market in the State. These facilities were not long in being procured and established. Bishop Gregg, in his history, page 76, says: "Stock raising was the most profitable business, and laid the foundation of fortunes which rapidly increased." Stock rais- ing in Marion County, from its earliest settlement, was a common and very profitable business, and some of the largest fortunes made in the territory now embraced in this county were made by raising stock and carrying it to market. In Bishop Gregg's History, p. i lo, he says : "The stock was driven to Charleston and other places on the coast, as well as to more distant markets. Large numbers of cattle were sent from Pee Dee to Philadelphia." The same author further says, on page 68 : "Stock raising was the most profitable business, Charleston affording a good market for all that the industrious settlers could carry tihither." This was about 1735. In a note to page no, the same author says: "It is relaJted of Malachi Murphy, w'ho drove many beeves annually to Philadelphia, that on one occasion he was the owner of a famous beast called 'Blaze Face,' of great size and unusual sagacity, which he sold in Philadelphia. On the night of his return home to Pee Dee, and soon after his arrival he heard the low of 'Blaze Face.' He had escaped and followed close upon the track of his owner, swimming rivers and distancing all pursuers. Mr. Murphy drove him a second time to Philadelphia, and again he returned. Sudh a spirit was worthy of a better fate, but did not shield the bold rover. He was taken a third time to Philadelphia and came back no more. This was related to the author by the late John D. Witherspoon, of Society Hill." This same Malachi Murphy (Murfee, originally spelled), was one of the four brothers, who settled on the Great Pee Dee about 1735, at a place then called Sandy Bluff, afterwards known as Solomon's Ivanding, and is just above the railroad crossing, and of whom more may yet be said - became very wealthy from stock raising, and of whom Bishop Gregg, p. 72, says : "Of these, Malachi became the most wealthy. He is said to have given one hundred slaves to each of three sons. He died before the Revolution." He took up large bodies of land up and down the Pee Dee River. Malachi Murphy, senior, had also three daughters. It is naturally to be supposed that he provided for his daughters as well as for his sons, and if so, he was certainly the wealthiest man in the Pee Dee section of the province. We have no account that he made his money in any other way than by stock raising, yet we are bound to suppose that having as many slaves as he had, he employed them, or most of them, in other pursuits, perhaps in raising and preparing indigo for market, at thait time, from 1747 to 1793, a lucrative business. He must have been an extraordinary man, full of pluck and energy, together with sound judgment. It was related to the writer fifty years ago, when he first settled in the fork of the two Reedy Creeks which make Buck Swamp, by Colonel Elisha Bethea, that in former times the Murfees (suppose Malachi) drove their stock to that place to raise them on the range in the two creeks and Buck Swamp, which was then very fine and is yet good. That Malachi Murfee would or did mark and trim as many as 300 calves there in a spring. And he further told the writer that his father (Buck Swamp John Bethea) in early times marked and trimmed as many as 100 calves of a spring, and raised a great many hogs in the swamp every year, and drove to Charleston every year a large drove of cattle and hogs. That the hog range kept good until the "big storm" of 1822, w'hich blew down most of the oaks, and thus the acorn crop was destroyed or cut off. Old Buck Swamp John Bethea became wealthy, mostly from raising stock for market. He died in 182 1. More will be said of the Murfees and Buck Swamp John Bethea hereafter.

We suppose stock raising was the business of most of the early settlers of the county, and especially in that part of Marion County called Britton's Neck. The settlers down in that region became wealthy, and outstripped the upper end of the county for near a hundred years in the pursuit and accumulation of wealth. When the writer can first remember, the wealth of the county was mostly in its lower end, and the upp>er end of the county was comparatively poor. These conditions are now and 'have been for the last half century reversed. The greater wealth is to be found in the upper end of the county. This state of things may be accounted for, in great part, because of the greater agricultural enterprise among its people, and because of the failing of the stock range in the lower end of the county; and because of the more numerous and better schools in the upper end, and the more general diffusion of knowledge among the people of that section; and lastly, the facilities of transportation and commerce and trade conditions are better, and have been so for a period of years, than in the lower section. For the last few years, however, the lower section of the county shows signs of upheaval in these respects, and ere long, if she progresses as she has for the last fifteen or twenty years, she may claim her place,, her section of the county, to be equal with that of the northern section. She has lands of equal fertility, and all they need is intelligent and energetic culture, and to build up and foster her schools, public and private.

Pursuits, other than stock raising, and other than agricultural, have necessarily occupied the attention of the people of Marion County, nnore or less, for, perhaps, one hundred and sixty-five years, subordinate to and consequent upon those leading pursuits. Tradesmen of various kinds have sprung up amongst us. Blacksmiths, until within the last few years, were to be found in every community, were in great demand, and found constant and remunerative employment. They have been supplanted of late by imported work from outside the county. This imported work is better adapted to the uses of the farmer than the former domestic work, hence the blacksmith is driven out; and the same of the wheelwright - his occupation is gone; his work is superseded by imported productions along his line of work, and hence he is driven out. The 'house carpenter and brick mason holds his own ; they yet find remunerative employment, and thereby make a living. The turpentine and lumber industry in the county are and have been very extensive. How many of them have succeeded in making money, is not known. It may be said only a few have made a fortune. While they have succeeded admirably in destroying our very extensive and beautiful pine forests to such an extent as to threaten, and in the near future to bring about a timber famine. To the writer it looks like vandalism. The face of the whole county will soon be denuded of timber, and neither the county as a section of the country nor its people will have anything to show for it. No valid consideration left in its place, no quid pro quo.

Chapter Iii Section

No scheme was ever inaugurated in South Carolina for the general education of the public, until it was provided for in the Constitution of 1868. The reconstruction was made and adopted, not by the intelligence of the State, but under the restraints of the sword by "carpet-baggers" and a few renegade whites, contemptuously called "scallawags," and ignorant negroes. Yet, with respect to education, it was quite an improvement upon the Constitutions of 1790 and 1865, neither of which fundamentally made any provision for the education of the masses. From the earliest times it seems to have been a matter of concern to establish and to have schools for the education of the masses. As early as 1710, the Provincial Legislature passed an Act to found such schools; and again in 1712, another Act was passed, extending and amplifying the system. In both of these Acts there was a provision that no one should be employed as a teacher or schoolmaster in the public schools of the province unless he belonged' to the English or Episcopal Church. ( Statutes at Large, vol. II., p. 342, and vol. II., p. 390.) Under each of these Acts, sixteen persons were named as Commissioners, every one of whom belonged to the Church of England, and who were empowered and directed to found said schools, to buy land, to erect school houses, to employ teachers, and so forth, and to be paid for out of the public treasury. These two Acts, or rather the latter one, remained the law for free sdhools in the province and the State till 181 1, when another Act was passed). (V. Statutes at Large, p. 639.) The title of this Act is as follows: "An Act to establish free schools throughout the State." The first section of this Act reads as follows : "Be it enacted by the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives, now met and sitting in General Assembly, and by the authority of the same, That immediately after the passing of this Act, there shall be established in each election district within this State a number of free schools equal to the number of members which such district is entitled to send to the House of Representatives in the Legislature of the State." Under this Act, Marion District, a large district territorially, could only have two free schools within her borders, as sihe then was only entitled to two Representatives in the State Legislature ; but the little parishes in the lower part of the State, some of them not having more than twenty-five or thirty voters in them, could have three free schools, as each of them, by the Constitution of 1790, was entitled to three Representatives in the State Legislature. (Constitution of 1790, I. vol. Statutes, p. 184, and amendments sequens.) Those parishes were the creation of the Church of England, under the proprietary and regal governments of the province, and their power and influence were retained by the Constitution of 1790. In the Convention of 1790, its members equaling tihe number of Senators and Representatives in the Legislature to which each parish and district or county was entitled under the Constitution of 1778, was 158 of the Church of England (Episcopal), and 68 belonged either to that church or to some other. Thus it is easy to see what influence dominated the Convention of 1790, that made the Constitution of thlt year. The Constitution of the United States and its amendments, made in 1787, and ratified by a Convention of South Carolina, May, 1788 - Article L of its amendments reads thus : "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This amendment made it necessary for South Carolina to disestablish her estaiblishment of the Church of England. Article VIIL reads thus on that subject: "The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference shall forever hereafter be allowed within this State to all mankind; provided, that the liberty of conscience hereby declared shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this State." (Vol. L, Statutes at Large, p. 191.) For near one hundred years the people of the State, including all Dissenters, had been taxed to buy lands (glebe) for Episcopal Churches to build churches in the different parishes, and to pay the rectors or preachers of that church their salaries.

Dissenters were deprived of the rig'ht to hold office and of the right to various employments within the State, w'hile a member of the Church of England had the exclusive right by law to seek and to hold office, and to enter into and assume any employment whatever. The first step taken towards the establishment by law of the Ghurcli of England in the province of Carolina was in 1698, when an Act "to settle maintainance on a minister of the Church of England in Charlestown," was passed. This Act did not seem to awaken any suspicion and alarm among the Dissenters ; but the precedent thus set paved the way for furtber Acts in favor of that church. In Dr. Ramsay's History of South Carolina (vol. 2, pp. 3 and 4), we find the following, and the author can do no better than to give it in his own words: "In the year 1704, when the white population of the province was between 5,000 and 6,000, when the Episcopalians had only one church in the province, and the Dissenters three in Charleston and one in the country, the former were so far favored as to obtain a legal establishment. Most of the proprietors and public officers of the province, and particularly the Governor, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, were zealously attached to the Church of England. Believing in the current creed of the times, that an established religion was essential to the support of civil government, they concerted measures for endowing the church of the mother country and advancing it in South Carolina to a legal prominence. Preparatory thereto they promoted the election of members of that churth to a seat in the provincial Legislature, and succeeded by surprise so far as to obtain a majority. The recently elected members soon after they entered on their legislative functions took measures for perpetuating the power they had thus obtained ; for they enacted a law which made it necessary for all persons thereafter chosen members of the House of Commons to conform to the religious worship of the Church of England, and to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the rights and usages of that church. This Act passed the lower House by a majority of one vote. It virtually excluded from a seat in the Legislature all w'ho were Dissenters, erected an aristocracy, and gave a monopoly of power to one sect though far from being a majority of the inhabitants.

The usual consequences followed. Animosities took place and spread in every direction. Moderate men of the favored church considered the law as impolitic and hostile to the prosperity of the province. Dissenters of all denominations made a common cause in endeavoring to obtain its repeal." They used every means within their power to obtain its repeal. They not only tried to get their own Legislature to repeal the obnoxious law, but they petitioned the Lords Proprietors, and failing there, they went to the House of Lords in Parliament, and finally to Queen Anne, but all to no purpose. The law remained of force until the Revolutionary War, and even down to the time of the Constitution of 1790. And it will be seen that that Constitution did not afford entire and complete relief ; that through its parochial system of representation in the Senate and House of Representatives, the Episcopal Church has to a great extent controlled the legislation of the State from that time, 1790, all the way down to 1868; when by that Constitution the parish system was broken up and the State freed from the domination of the Episcopal Church. Though the white people of the State had no sympathy with the Convention that made the Constitution of i868, yet many of its provisions are a great improvement upon the Constitution of 1790 - ^notably the destruction of the parish system ; the emancipation of married women as to their rights of property, and perhaps other improvements not necessary to mention. Such legislation betokens superlative arrogance and self-assumption. It was oppressive and a tyranny. When the government prop is knocked from under them they fall. They have had to stand upon their merits for the last hundred years, and they have dwindled down to a small element in the body politic, their members are a mere handful when compared with the members of the various dissenting denominations. All honor, however, to many of the noble people who were and are identified with that branch of God's church. Their position of undue influence in the State's affairs was the result of early environments, and its best and most conservative followers recognized the injustice of the system in vogue before the war, and were willing that it should be abolished, as it was inimical to the best interests of their church.

Under the Act of 1811, $300 was appropriated to each school. Under the Act of 18 14, $37,000 was appropriated for the free public schools, and continued from year to year up to the war. How much of this $37,000 appropriated for free schools since 18 14 was apportioned to Marion District is unknown, as no permanent record thereof seems to have been kept by the Commissioners. If any was kept, it is inaccessible - it was, however, a mere pittance, and did but little good. The four counties - Beaufort, Colleton, Charleston and Georgetown - having most of the parishes within their borders, and having the greater representation in the Legislature, hence they shared most of the appropriation, while the rest of the State got but little of it, and were little benefited by it. It was provided in said Act of 181 1, that all should send to said schools, rich and poor alike, free of expense; and further, that if the money appropriated was insufficient to pay for all attending said schools, a preference should be given to the poor, or the children of indigent parents. The result was that the poor in many instances did not attend those schools, parents were not able to furnish books and clothing for their children ; and many of them being poor and ignorant themselves, were careless and indifferent about educating their children. Whether there were any public schools, public or private, in Liberty or Marion District prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century, we cannot say, nor can we with certainty say there were schools in Marion ' District before 1814. We can only say there was legislation to that end as to free public schools, but whether our people availed themselves of it or not, we can only conjecture. We, however, suppose their little "old! field" schools were opened for short terms in some neighborhoods, with teachers possibly competent to teach the rudimentary branches of an education, and which each succeeding generation has improved upon during the whole of the nineteenth century, and has brought it up to its present high standard; and as evidence thereof, the log cabin school houses with, in many instances, only a dirt floor, have been succeeded by large and commodious school buildings, and in some places brick buildings, in almost every section of the county, and they are all well patronized; and we have teachers fully competent to instruct and to prepare the youth of both sexes for college. The progress in educational enterprise has kept pace with the progress in material and industrial enterprise. Much might be said in amplifying the contrast between our conditions educationally now and one hundred years ago, but space will not permit and the field is too large. In 1814, the Marion Academy Society, at Marion Court House, was given the power of escheators and also its perquisites up to $2,000. It seems it had been incorporated before, but the writer has not been able to find the Act of incorporation, and hence he cannot give the names of the corporators, t A school was established there under its provisions, and has been kept up with more or less success from that time to the present. At that school many men of the past generation who have been prominent in the affairs of the county and State, and in the industrial walks of life, were educated, and it exerted an influence for good all over the county. The writer can only mention a few of the many who went there, and got the education and training that fitted them for life and its activities and responsibilities. All of them have passed off the stage of life. Hugh Godbold, General William Evans, Dr. Charles Godbold, Asa Godbold, General E. B. Wheeler, Colonel Eevi Legette, C. D. Evans, Colonel D. S. Harllee, Dr. Robert Harllee, General W. W. Harllee, John C. Bethea, Elisha C. Bethea, W. B. Rowell, General Elly Godbold, Nathan Evans, General N. G. Evans, Reddin W. Smith, all men of mark and character, and a host of others younger, all of whom got their training and early impressions from that school, taught by such men as the Rev. Joseph F. Travis, Rev. Tracy R. Walsh, and W. H. Witberow. We are not yet done harvesting from the seeds planted and cultivated in that school ; its fruits are still being gathered. And it has been succeeded by one of the best and most successful graded schools, perhaps, in the State. A large and commodious brick building has been erected, and the school established under the laws prescribing the manner of regulating such schools. It is largely patronized, and has a strong corps of teachers, and is equal, perhaps, in its curriculum and course of study to one of our colleges a hundred years ago. There a young man or woman is prepared to enter the Freshman Class in the South Carolina College, or any other college