Spartanburg County, South Carolina - Chapter 1: Introductory, 1900

In a former volume, published by the writer, it is stated that by virtue of the treaty of Governor Glen with the Cherokee Indians in the year 1755, the greater portion of the up-country of South Carolina was ceded by these people to the whites.* In the subdivisions gained by this acquisition, the original territory of the county (called district prior to the adoption of the Constitution of 1868) of Spartanburg (a small portion of which now forms a part of Cherokee county) became a part of the old district of Ninety-six, which comprised the original counties of Edgefield, Abbeville, Newberry, Laurens, Union and Spartanburg, the district site of which was at the present old Star Fort, known in former times as Ninety-six, or Cambridge Court House.

*See Colonial and Revolutionary History of Upper S. C, p. 23. The boundary line between the States North and South Carolina was not finally agreed upon until 1815. This was done by commissioners appointed on the part of the two States. (See Sims's Histor}' of S. C, Appendix. ) Prior to the treaty of Governor Glen with the Cherokee Indians referred to, the dividing line, if agreed upon at all, was only made on the map of the original Carolinas. For this reason some deeds of execution or instruments of writing in upper South Carolina were improperly recorded at Raleigh, N. C. Among the same is a deed of conveyance from Wofford to Linsey for a tract of land whereon Clifton No. 2 is now located. This old paper is now to be found in the office of the clerk of the court at Spartanburg, having been transferred from Raleigh to that oifice as its proper place of custodv.

The ending of the Revolutionary war with success to the American arms doubtless infused new life and energy into the people everywhere. The time had come for changes to be made to suit the existing conditions and circumstances.

In the year 1783 a convention was called by the people of South Carolina, which was the first to meet after the close of the Revolution.* In the same an ordinance was passed to divide the districts of Charlestown, Georgetown, Cheraw, Camden, Ninety-six^ Orangeburg and Beaufort into counties " of a convenient size, not more than forty-five miles square," and for each and all of these commissioners were appointed. Those appointed on the part of the district of Ninety-six were Andrew Pickens, Richard Anderson, Thomas Brandon, Levi Casey, Philmon Waters, Arthur Simpkins and Simon Burwick. Under this ordinance the counties of Edgefield, Abbeville and Newberry were laid out in 1783, leaving the remaining portion of the district of Ninety-six, composing the territory of the original counties of Spartanburg, Union and Laurens, as yet undivided, but changing the district site or court-house from Cambridge to Pinckneyville, on Broad River.

By virtue of an act of the legislature of South Carolina, passed in 1785, the remainder of Ninety-six district, viz. : Laurens, Union and Spartanburg, w^as divided. In the same act, which is known in history as Judge Pendleton's "County Court Act," it was provided for a court to be held in each county once in three months by seven justices of the peace, to hold their commissions during: life or g-ood behavior, and to be elected first by joint nomination before the Senate and House of Representatives, vacancies among them afterwards occurring to be filled by themselves. Any three of said justices were to constitute a quorum to transact any business coming before the county courts. By an act of March lo, 1786, the number of justices was increased two, and by an act of March 17, 1787, the number was increased to eleven.

In accordance with the provisions of the act referred to Spartanburg county was laid off. The following are the statutory words : " One other county bounded by Laurens county on the south, the Indian line on the west, the North Carolina line and Broad River to Tate's Ferry, thence along the road by John Ford's plantation on the Enoree, now including the same, and shall be called by the name of Spartanburgh."

the State aforesaid. Wm. Moultrie. To Baylis Earle, John Thomas, Jun'r, Henry White, John Ford, James Jorden, William Wood, Henry Machan Wood, Esquires. Know ye that in pursuance of an Act of the Legislature of this State passed the twenty-fourth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, entitled ' An Act for Establishing County Courts, and for Regulating the Proceedings therein, I do by these presents commission you the said Baylis Earle, John Thomas, Jun'r, Henry White, John Ford, James Jorden, William Wood and Henry Machan Wood to be Justices of the Peace in and for the County of Spartanburg, and yoUj or any three of you, have full power and jurisdiction to hold the County Court in and for the said County by the aforesaid Act established, and you are to hear and determine all causes and other matters and controversies properly appertaining and referred by law to your jurisdiction.

Given under my hand and seal in the City of Charleston, this twenty-fourth of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eightyfive, and in the sovereignty and independence of the United States of America, the ninth. By His Excellency's command.

I do hereby certifie that Baylis Earle, John Thomas, Jr., Henry White, John Ford, William Wood and Henry Machan Wood, appointed justices to sit in the County Court of Spartanburg, this day took the oath prescribed by law, are therefore qualified to enter on the execution of these their respective offices. April 29th, 1785.

I do certify that James Jorden, Esquire, one of the Justices for the county of Spartanburg, hath taken the oath of allegiance agreeable to law before me, December loth, 1785.

It will be noticed that in the statntory words of the act of the legislature of 1785, by which the original county of Spartanburg was laid out as a part of the old District of Ninety-six, the name Spartanbuvgli was adopted and incorporated into the act. The last syllable biirgJi was simply a suffix agreed upon and added to the old name Spartan. By common consent and modern usage the letter " h " has been dropped, leaving the word as we now have it, Spa}'ta7iburg.

But an interesting inquiry is here raised as to how the name Spartan originated. We have stated in a former work, that in the beginning of the great Revolutionary struggle there were a number of people in the upper part of South Carolina who were not in sympathy with the Patriot cause. The largest number of these disaffected people were between the Broad and Saluda Rivers. At the beginning of hostilities with the government of Great Britain the Council of Safety in the year 1775 commissioned and appointed Hon. Wm. Henry Drayton and Rev. William Tennant* to visit the section referred to and explain to the inhabitants the nature of the disputes between the colonies and the mother country.

*In diary of Rev. Oliver Hart from A.D. 1740 to A.D. 17S0 (see Year Book, 1896, City of Charleston, S. C. Review by Mayor Smythe), it appears that Mr. Drayton and Mr. Tennant were accompanied by Mr. Hart, although no reference is made to him in Drayton's Memoirs. Sa3-s Mr. Hart : " On Monday, July 31st, 1775, I set off for the Frontiers of this Province, being appointed by the Council of Safety to accompany Hon. William Henry Drayton and Rev. William Tennant to tr}^ to reconcile the number of inhabitants who are disaffected to the Government. I was out until September ye 6th, following." Rev. Oliver Hart, a Baptist minister, was a great-granduncle of Rev. R. F. Whilden, O'Neall, S. C.

have given an extended acconnt of the visit of these gentlemen to the np-conntry of South Carolina during the same year of their appointment (1775). It was about August ist when they entered on their mission, the first section visited being the Dutch Fork (now Lexington county) near the junction of the Broad and Saluda Rivers. They continued their journey to the up-country, stopping at different places to address the people, which they found more or less hostile to the American cause, until they reached the settlements on Upper Fair Forest, Lawson's Fork, and on the Tygers, all these being, for the most part, within the limits of the present county of Spartanburg. Here they found a patriotic sentiment prevailing among the people, who were fully alive to the questions at issue, and with some exceptions all proved true to the principles of freedom. We can produce no better evidence of this fact than to quote from Mr. Drayton's letter to the Council of Safety, written on Lawson's Fork (Wofford's Iron Works), August 21st, 1775.* Says Mr. Drayton: "I had this day a meeting with this frontier ; many present were of the other party ; but I have the pleasure to acquaint you that these became voluntary converts. Every person received satisfaction and departed with pleasure. I finished the day with a barbecued beef. I have so ordered matters here, that the whole frontier will be formed into volunteer companies, but as they are at present under Fletchall's command, they insist in being formed into a regiment independent of him. These people are actife and spirited. They are stminch in our favor ; are capable of forming a good barrier against the Indians, and of being a severe check upon Fletchall's people (upon whom they border) if they should think of quitting their habitations under *See Drayton's Memoirs.

the banners of Fletchall or his companions. For these reasons and to enable him to act with vigor, I shall take the liberty to supply them from Fort Charlotte with a small quantity of ammunition ; for now they have not an ounce, when they shall be formed into regular companies. Several companies will be formed this day week."*

It will be seen by reference to Mr. Drayton's letter, that he refers to the people - the first settlers of the present county of Spartanburg, as bordering on Fletchall's people. To explain, at the outbreak of the Revolution, all the country between the Broad and Saluda Rivers in South Carolina was embraced in one regimental district under the command of Colonel Thomas Fletchall, at whose house jMessrs. Drayton and Tennant visited on their way to the up-country, and who, during the entire period of the Revolution, proved hostile to the American cause. His residence was on Lower Fair Forest, and about six miles west of the present city of Union. Holding this important official position at this critical period in the history of South Carolina, we can readih' understand the overpowering influence which he possessed in controlling the sentiments of his surroundings.

It will be seen by reference to this extract from Mr. Drayton's letter, that he ordered the whole frontier to be formed into volunteer companies, and that the people insisted on being formed into a regiment independent of Fletchall's command, a part of which they, at this time, composed. We notice further that by the nth of the following month (September) this regiment was organized under the command of Colonel John Thomas.

It was called the Spartan Regiment * (see Gibbs's Doc. History, 1 764-1 776, p. 176), and was organized at the house of Colonel Thomas. It was made up of material from scattering settlements in the up-country. Says Colonel Thomas in a letter to Mr. Drayton : " Your Honor must suppose it impossible to raise the whole regiment, as several have families, and no man would be left about the house if they should be called away. I shall make as large a draft as possible from every company, and, in short, do everything to the utmost of my power, and when encamped shall transmit to your Honor, as quick as possible, an account of my proceedings."

The Spartan Regiment was soon equipped and ready for action. Receiving their ammunition from Fort Charlotte on the Savannah River, by order of Mr. Drayton, it formed a part of Colonel Richardson's command in the famous " Snow Campaign," December, 1775, an account of which is given elsewhere.

Shortly after this campaign the Provincial Congress of South Carolina met in Charleston. It was deemed expedient to divide the great section of the country between the Broad and Saluda Rivers into three Congressional or election districts, which the record says was " for the convenience of Electors of Congress, as on account of the happy influence which it may have upon the peace and union of the inhabitants."

This resolution which divided this great section of country was passed on the nth of February, 1776. (See map, p. 43, " Colonial and Revolutionary Hist, of South Carolina.") The fi.rst was called the Lower or Dutch Fork; the second, Middle or Little River ^ and the third, Upper or Spa7'ta)i District. It will be observed that while the names as applied to the two first have only a local application, that as applied to the third was intended, nnqnestionably, to be complijnentary \.Q) the section of the country to which it referred, and was doubtless suggested by the Hon. Wm. Henry Drayton, who was at that time president of the Provincial Congress, then convened, who desired to express his appreciation of the patriotic sentiments which he knew to prevail in said section visited by him during the previous year.

But the inquiry is here raised as to why the people of the up-country of South Carolina, inhabiting at that time the present region of Spartanburg, were more loyal and devoted to the Patriot cause than the people composing the settlements in the middle or lower part of said State (or colony as it was then called). The answer to this question is found in the pages of history.

Dr. Ramsey, in his " History of South Carolina" (see p. ii8), informs us that the extreme up-country of South Carolina, was settled by emigrants wdio had advanced from north to south and in front of the eastern settlers. These settlements did not begin until after the ceding of said territory by the Cherokee Indians under the treaty of Governor Glen referred to. Dr. Ramsey further informs us that as far back as 1736, settlements from the seacoast had progressed westward only about eighty or ninety miles. In 1755 the population of the territory afterwards formed into the county of Spartanburg, including Colonel Clarke the first settler on the Pacolet, did not consist of more than eight or ten Scotch- Irish families from Pennsylvania, who, says Dr. Ramsey,, "settled on the forks of the Tygers." Between these settlers and the settlers which had advanced from the seacoast, a considerable tract of country had remained in the undisturbed possession of the aborigines. Soon, however, emigration began to pour in from Pennsylvania,..

Maryland, and Virginia, and other colonies, as well as from the old countries, and the country began to be rapidly settled up. Dr. Howe, in his ' ' History of the Presbyterian Church of South Carolina," states that many families came directly from North Ireland and settled on the Tygers, Fair Forest, and on the Pacolets, intending as they did, to find a country - a wilderness^ as it was then called - where they could enjoy, by the blessings of God, that ease and quiet to their consciences which was denied them in their native countr>^ Many of the early settlers of the up-country were of English extraction and disse7iters from the Established Church of the mother country. These were mostly immigrants from Virginia.

At the beginning of the Revolution, the two civilizations, - one having advanced from the north and the other from the seacoast - had barely met, as it were. This explains the force of the meaning of Mr. Drayton's letter when he speaks of the early settlers of upper Carolina as bordering on FletchaU's people.

They were, as we have already stated, of a different sentiment and mold from the people with whom Messrs. Drayton and Tennant had recently been intermingling. They understood and appreciated the great public questions involved, having been educated into the great principles of freedom of speech, liberty of conscience and right of self-government. Living near the frontier line, they were, on the one hand, confronting the Indian tomahawk and scalping-knife, while on the other they had to contend against the insurgent or malignant forces who, says Colonel John Thomas, Sr., were forming *' hellish schemes to frustrate the measures of the Continental Congress, and to use all those who" were "willing .to stand bv their measures in a most cruel manner."

They were indeed a Spartan people, and were willing to sacrifice their lives, if necessary, to meet all the difficulties which surrounded them. They had already, in previous wars with the Indians, undergone trials and sacrifices which justly entitled them to this honored name. Like the ancient Spartans of Greece, they were inured to hardship and sacrifices, and cherished the heroic virtues of courage, fortitude, patriotism, and public spirit. This same spirit, we are proud to say, has been imparted and infused into the generations that have come after them.

The present growth and progress in the county of Spartanburg in educational institutions, in agriculture, manufactures, and business enterprise generally, only reflect a brighter splendor upon the exalted virtues, lofty patriotism, and devotion to every principle of duty to God and country which characterized her first inhabitants, - the ancestry of a very large per cent, of her present thriving and industrious population.

Judge Henrys Pendleton, who administered the oaths of office to all the justices, except that of James Jorden, was an eminent jurist for his day and time. He was a judge in South Carolina under the new form of government at the beginning of the Revolution, and was in every sense a true patriot. He was a member of the first convention of South Carolina, which met after the Revolution to adopt the Federal Constitution. The vote stood for adoption 149 to 73. Among those who voted with the minority were Judges Pendleton and Burke. On the same side were also Generals Hamilton, Sumter and Butler, and also Colonel Taylor. Judge Pendleton was the author of the "County Court Act" already referred to, and was for a number of years a member of the State Legislature. It was while he w^as a member of this body that the question of calling the conventioncame lip. It passed by a majority of one vote. The old District of Pendleton (now comprising the territory of Anderson, Pickens and Oconee) was named in his honor.

Judge a^j^denus Burke, whose name is attached to the oath certificate of James Jorden, was an Irishman by birth, and came to South Carolina from one of the West India Islands. Like all of his countrymen he was a republican, espoused the American cause, and entered the army. In 1778 was elected a judge and also a member to Congress. After the Revolution, when the State adopted the Federal Constitution, he was elected United States Senator, and at a later period, he was one of the chancellors for South Carolina.

The late Governor Perry has published an interesting sketch of him, with some amusing reminiscences of life and character. He died an old bachelor, and in his will left an old lady in Charleston six hundred pounds sterling, and gave as a reason, by bestowing this legacy, that he had been courting her for ten years, and ' 'before God he believed, if he had persevered, she would have had him."

It is said that while he was no temperate man, he prided himself on drinking good liquors. While holding court at some place there could be nothing found to drink except corn whisky. Of this he drank as he would have done of a bottle of wine, and got gloriously drunk. As he was being carried from the table some mischievous fellow slipped some silver spoons in his pocket. The next morning in dressing he discovered the spoons. P'ailing to account for them, he exclaimed : "Before God, I thought I was an honest man. I do not remember ever to have stolen anvthing when I was

Some time afterward a case of stealing was tried before him, in which it appeared that the offender was drunk when he committed the theft. His Honor inquired if any of the witnesses could tell him whether the prisoner had been drinking- corn whisky. Being answered in the affirmative, he turned to the jury and said : "Before God, gentleman of the jury, you ought to acquit the prisoner. I know from my own experience that corn whisky does give a man the propensity to steal ; and his reason being dethroned, he should not be held responsible for his larceny."

It is said that in going into court one morning, he mistook an old black silk dress of the landlady's for his judicial robe. As he ascended the judge's seat, he began to unfold the dress, and was for some time turning- it about, trying in vain to get into it, to the great amusement of the bar and spectators. "Before God," he exclaimed "some devil has sewed it up in front."

Judge O'Neall, in his annals of Newberry, also gives a short sketch of ^denus Burke. He was educated at St. Omens for the priesthood ; he was a major in the American army, and elected a judge in South Carolina in April, '78. "He long filled with justice and mercy," says the writer, "this responsible office. During his administration he perpetrated many an Irish bull for his own amusement and the people around him."

Of the commissioners on the part of the District of Ninety-six to lay off said district into counties of sufficient size, says Judge O'Neall in his annals: "It is worthy of observation how the commissioners to lay off the district of Ninety-six were scattered. General Pickens, Richard Anderson and Judge Simpkins were south of the Sahida River ; General Pickens in the county afterwards called Abbeville ; Richard Anderson near the line between it and Edgefield ; and Judge Simpkins in the latter, and near the present court-house ; Colonel Waters and General Casey were between Broad and Saluda Rivers, and in Newberry ; Colonel Brandon north of Enoree, in the county afterwards called Union ; and Simon Berwick in Spartanburg.

Simon Berwick, one of the commissioners referred to as being from Spartanburg county, was proprietor of Berwick's Iron Works^ known also in history as IVofford^s Iron IVorks^ located on Lawson's Fork, a short distance above the present town of Glendale, which were destroyed by fire by the Tories under "Bloody Bill" Cunningham, November, 1781, about the close of the Revolution. He was a branch of the Elliot family in Charleston, and was one of the first representatives from Ninety-six District (before the Revolution) to the Legislature, (then called Burgesses). He was a brother of John Berwick, the signer of South Carolina old paper money issued by order of the Provincial Congress, 15th of November, 1775, one Bill which "entitled the Bearer to the sum of Ten Shillings currency," and another calling for "One Pound, Fifteen Shillings."

John Berwick was a man of great respectability and genius, originally a mechanic, carrying on an extensive and profitable business with his brother Simon. He married a Miss Ash, and left one child who married Thomas Legare, of John's Island, from which sprang a large family. Mr. Berwick was a member from Charleston to the South Carolina Legislature, and was warmly attached to the principles of the Revolution, and for this cause, when the British captured Charleston, May,

It is stated in "Johnson's Traditions" that Simon Berwick was also a signer of this old paper currency. He was also an enterprising mechanic, and while returning from the seat of government (Charleston) soon after the close of the Revolution, he was foully murdered by two outlaws on the Congaree road when traveling up to where Columbia now stands. In his untimely death Spartanburg District suffered much loss ; he was an active, enterprising man, being almost indispensable tothe times in which he lived.