Williamsburg County, South Carolina - Chapter 7: Growing Pains and Petitions, 1923

Ancient inland communities all grew np on the banks of rivers. With few exceptions, the world depended upon water transportation until recent modern times. King George decreed that Williamsburg Township should be laid out on the banks of Black River, and that every grantee of land in the Township should have free access to the River. He also decreed that no grant of land should border the River for a distance more than one-fourth the distance it extended backward into the forest. This rule was established to give as many settlers as possible actual as well as constructive access to the river. The river was planned as a highway over which transportation to and from this back country was to be effected.

In 1730, for a great part of the year, Black River seemed almost a large inland sea as far westward as the King's Tree. Generally it was then very deep and the King's mariners reported that it would be navigable as far westward as the King's Tree for all the King's vessels. But, during the long summer seasons, Black River some¬ times decreased until it became at the King's Tree a very small stream. The River from Georgetown westward to Kingstree is one continuous series of elbows, and, at some points, frequently shows dangerous sandy shallows. The very large trees that grow along its banks have frequently fallen into the current and have always been serious men¬ aces to the navigation of the river.

On Friday, December 10, 1736, Robert Finley, Crafton Kerwin, and Richard Middleton, residents of Williams¬ burg, petitioned the Colonial Council to clear Black River and make it navigable. This petition brought the first act of the Colonial Government applying specially to Wil¬ liamsburg Township, which was passed in 1738, "An act for clearing, cleaning and making navigable Black River from the 'Narrows' to the western boundary of Williams¬ burg Township, inclusive." This act created a district for taxation for raising necessary funds to clear the river. This district was all North of a line half way between Santee River and Black River and all South of the line half way between Black River and Pee Dee River, from ten miles above Phineas Spry's plantation to the "Narrows" on Black River. Every man under sixty years old, white and black, free or slave, should be a unit for taxation, and every two hundred and fifty acres of land should be counted as a man for taxation. The commissioners ap¬ pointed were so to clear Black River that it would be navi¬ gable for "boats, barges, pettiaguas, lighters, and other vessels."

In 1732, the Roger Gordon colony came up Black River, disembarked at Brown's Ferry and blazed its way through the country to the King's Tree. This blazed trail, which is now a part of the Kingstree-Georgetown highway, was the first trail the white men made to the King's Tree. It has been continuously used as a road since 1732.

In 1734, John Witherspoon came from Belfast, Ireland, by way of Charleston, Georgetown, and thence up Black River to Potato Ferry, where he and his people disem¬ barked and blazed a trail westward to the King's Tree. This blazed trail became the Kingstree-Potato Ferry road and has been open to wayfarers since 1734. Many years before this time, a trail had been made from the Black Mingo community southward to Lennd's Ferry on the San¬ tee. The Williamsburg-Georgetown County line road fol¬ lows this ancient trail. The Wee Tee Indians had a trail from Lenud's Ferry westward along the north bank of the Santee River to where the abandoned Lower Saint Mark's Church now stands, and to the West. This Indian trail grew into the Santee River road.

The first public road established by law in Williams¬ burg was that from Murray's Ferry to the King's Tree. This road was laid out by Act of the Colonial Council on the 8th day of March, 1741. All of the inhabitants and owners of slaves on the North side of the Santee River, within so many miles of Murray's Ferry as the commis¬ sioners of the public roads judged proper, were obliged, made liable, and directed to make and keep in repair the Murray's Ferry road to the King's Tree in the same manner as was described by the Highway Act of the General As¬ sembly of the province.

By the same Act, Murray's Ferry over the Santee River, connecting this road with the road to Charleston, was vested in Joseph Murray. By the terms of this Act, Joseph Murray, his executors, administrators, or assigns, were required to provide and keep at the said ferry for a term of seven years "one good and sufficient boat with at least two able men (one of which shall be a white man) fit for transporting passengers, horses, and cattle." He was allowed to charge ferriage for each passenger on foot two shillings and sixpence; for each horse, three shillings and nine pence ; for a man and a horse, five shillings ; for neat cattle, per head, ferried or swam, one shilling; for calves, sheep, or hogs, per head, six pence. "When the 'freshes' are so high that they are obliged to go from highland to highland, then all persons passing the ferry shall be obliged to pay double the rates above mentioned." This ferry was to be free at all times to all persons sent on His Majesty's service.

About 1750, somebody blazed a trail from Kingstree to Camden over Broad, Clapp's and Pudding Swamps, and about the same time, a trail from Kingstree northward by Effingham toward Cheraw. The Witherspoons made a trail from Kingstree over Black River at what is now known as the Lower Bridge about 1740.

On the 25th day of May, 1745, Thomas McKeithen, John Mclver, David Allen, Nathaniel Drew, and John McCants were appointed commissioners for cutting and clearing the lakes and water courses in the swamp at the head of Black Mingo Creek from the plantation of Colonel An¬ thony White to the mouth of Heathley's run and to make the stream navigable for flats and canoes. These persons were allowed to charge toll rates on everything passing through the canal and required to render an account yearly of the money collected by them.

The highway commissioners for the township of Wil¬ liamsburg, or said part of Prince Frederick's Parish as lies on Black River, in 17 47, were as follows : Robert Gib¬ son, William Young, William Frierson, Isaac Brunson, John Leviston, Roger Gordon, Robert Wilson, John Jones, and John Allen. This board of commissioners was ordered to meet on Easter Monday and on the first Monday of August of every year. They were authorized to exercise general supervision over the roads and ferries in the district.

In 1748, the following commissioners were instructed to build a bridge over Black River at the King's Tree: Nathaniel Drew, John Allen, William Young, John Levis¬ ton, William Frierson, William Nelson, and William James. In 1756, the inhabitants of Williamsburg Town¬ ship petitioned the Council that "a ferry be established from the plantation of Theodore Gaillard on the South side of Santee River to Murray's Landing on the North side of the River; and have a more convenient passing when the freshes are up; that the Creek called Ferry Creek on the South side of the River and the Creek leading to the North side of the river to Murray's house be cleared and cleansed." This ferry was vested in Theodore Gaillard. The Council ordered that the Creek on the North side of Santee River leading from Murray's house to the River be cleared and thereafter kept clean and clear so that there might be free passage for the ferry boat or boats in the said Creek when the river was high, by the male in¬ habitants from sixteen to sixty years of age living and residing in the township of Williamsburg, or within five miles of Murray's Ferry. John Leviston, William Young, and William Nelson were appointed commissioners for clearing this Creek.

The Williamsburg section was thought to offer great opportunities and all of the land in the Township was taken up by grants within a very short time after the lines of the township had been established. In 1737, John Hamilton petitioned the King for a grant of two hundred thousand acres of land as near as possible to Williams¬ burg Township. In his petition, he stated that he could bring over immediately about one hundred forty Protes¬ tant families, skilled in the production of wine, currants, raisins, oil, coffee, cocoa, hemp, flax, wax, honey, saffron, and all kinds of grain and cattle, and that this section was well adapted to the production of all of these things.

John Hamilton's grandfather, John, and Robert Mont¬ gomery, were the two leading spirits in the migration of the Scotch into Northern Ireland during the seventeenth century, and the John Hamilton of 1737 hoped to found a colony in this section. His petition, however, for the grant of two hundred thousand acres of land for his colony was not given action by the King, and John Hamilton became an ordinary citizen of Williamsburg.

Another petition of interest, dated 1742, and signed by Thomas McCrea, Alexander McCrea, Crafton Kerwin, and William McNeedy, represents to the Colonial Council that these four petitioners had been granted lands in the North¬ eastern corner of the Township as originally surveyed; that they had settled thereon and had gone through much labor and expense in making their plantations suitable for habitation and for the production of salable articles; that some time later the Colonial Council had sent a man purporting to be a surveyor to this section and that this man had gone to the hospitable home of John Peter Somerlioeff, about fifteen miles from any point of Williamsburg Township, and, without approaching any nearer the Town¬ ship than Mr. SomerhoefFs piazza, had made another plat of the township which so changed the lines that the grants of these petitioners therefore made in good faith, accepted, and acted upon, had been left outside of the Township and had thereafter been included in grants to other per¬ sons. These four petitioners further said that they had been caused great annoyance and expense in defending their claims to original grants and submitted bills for the damages they had sustained. This matter was finally ad¬ justed to the satisfaction of these petitioners.

Many grants of land were made in Williamsburg Town¬ ship in violation of the order of the King establishing the Township. By decree, land in Williamsburg Township should have been granted only to bona fide settlers, but there were a great many influential people in Charleston, suspecting the value the lands in Williamsburg would probably have, secured grants within the territory without having any intention of actually settling thereon. These grants greatly damaged the Township and were a source of much ill feeling among the bona fide settlers. The two petitions following represent something of public opinion in Williamsburg in 1742 in regard to these illegal grants.

Representation of the inhabitants of Williamsburg, complaining to His Majesty's Forty-third instruction be¬ ing broke thro' by the Governor and Council.

"To Henry McCulloh, Esq., the Humble Representation of the inhabitants of the town of Williamsburg showeth that, being informed, His Majesty has been graciously pleased to constitute and appoint you as His Commissary with full power to inquire into the abuses with respect to the grants of land and the quitrent payable thereupon

"We beg leave to represent that by His Majesty's Fortythird instruction to his Governor of this province, there were eleven townships set apart for the reception of such Protestants as might come and settle in this province; that in consideration of the encouragement given us by the Government and Council and from the certainty we appre¬ hended with it, under His Majesty's Royal Instructions to His Governor, had secured our properties and the re¬ mainder of the township lands would remain only for the uses, direct by his Majesty's instructions, which would have enabled us to have brought over our friends and rela¬ tives to settle in our neighborhood. We, under these en¬ couragements, transported ourselves and families to this province and settled in Williamsburg Township.

"But to our great concern, we have found the land in this township a common unrestrained range to all per¬ sons, and the best land therein taken up by persons, who have not at this time settled the same nor, in all probabil¬ ity, will at any time reside thereon. Some of us have been sued for trespass on land pointed out to us by the Deputy Surveyor and have been caused considerable damage and others have become tenants rather than remove their fam¬ ilies. Some time past, we presented our humble petition ances and praying, but we could obtain no answer. We, therefore, take leave to trouble you with a copy of the same, wherein the hardships we have labored under here are, which we humbly submit to your consideration.

"The river, by which we can have any convenience of our goods to a market, is rendered difficult in the navi¬ gation, by reason of great trees, which fall therein and which the General Assembly should pass a law for clear¬ ing same. Now the whole burden of that work falls on us, the residenters, while those who are possessed of large

"We have letters from our friends in Ireland, acquaint¬ ing us of their desire to come here, if we could in any shape encourage them, which we have to decline because of the lands being run and possessed by others. We take leave, Sir, to assure you that every tract alleged in our said petition and in this, our humble representation, shall be effectually proved, with the addition of many more particulars, when you will please to require it.

"We pray, therefore, you will take the premises into consideration and that you will relieve us of the many op¬ pressions and hardships we labor under, in relation to our possessions in the said Township of Williamsburgh. And we shall ever pray.

"The humble petition of several subscribing persons, in¬ habitants of Williamsburg Township, showing that your petitioners and the rest of the inhabitants of the said Township are chiefly Irish Protestants, who came over from their native country to this province at their own expense, to settle in the said Township, encouraged by an account they received that the lands in the said township were for the most part good and fertile, and the same wholly reserved for such distant Protestants as should come here from Europe to settle same and particularly for Irish Protestants.

"That your petitioners were informed and apprehended a scheme of settling as well the said Township as other townships; were strictly enjoined by His Majesty's Royal Instructions to His Late Excellency, Governor Johnson, with the view of encouraging back inhabitants who would make no great use of slaves in these parts but from their own labor that they might have a competent maintenance and, upon any occasion, be the more ready to unite for the public safety, for the said instructions, as your peti¬ tioners are informed, have been not altered from their first frame in that particular, since the demise of the said Government, but continues still in force as His Majesty's stated plan for the settling of the said Township; that several of the said inhabitants, who first arrived in the said Township, were obliged by the Deputy Surveyor to settle on contiguous tracts of land laid out for them in square forms beginning at a certain place there called the King's Tree, which your petitioners thought a great hard¬ ship, to be debarred from making any choice, for rather the said lands were for the most part infertile, pine bear¬ ing lands, and not likely to afford any produce or profit to compensate the trouble of cultivating same, but as they were given to understand that the said Deputy Sur¬ veyor was instructed by the Government to settle them in such a manner, that a square of land six miles round the township line was reserved for the further accommodating of the said Township inhabitants, the said inhabitants proceeded to improve and settle the said squares in tracts to the best of their power in hopes of being afterwards better provided for out of the said reserved lands.

"That the second set of people who arrived in the sec¬ ond ship to settle the said township were subject to the same strictness and hardships, but were nevertheless en¬ couraged with the same hopes of having better lands in the parish line, as well for themselves as for their relatives and countrymen who they expected would follow them.

"But, your petitioners cannot but represent to your Honor how greatly disappointed in finding the lands of the said Township afterwards become a common unrestrained range for other people. All of the good lands of both are taken up by gentlemen residing in other parts of the prov¬ ince who were better able to pay surveyors, and were resid¬ ing at Charleston, to get their grants passed for them so that only these first families who came over last to settle with their countrymen in the said Township were greatly disappointed.

"Many of them have been obliged to become tenants in the said Township to gentlemen who had lands there granted them in great tracts, who were directed by the Township Surveyor to settle with their families in par¬ ticular places, and had the misfortune to find their posses¬ sions granted others and so became subject to actions at law attended with great expenses, and others obliged to struggle into other parts of the province.

"Your petitioners cannot but further represent your Honor that, notwithstanding the many discouragements they have labored under, yet they have adhered to each other and the said Township still consists of about one hundred and fifty able male persons willing and ready to furnish their assistance in defense of the province against any of His Majesty's enemies, but must at the same time, humbly desire that the scheme for settling them directed by His Majesty be fulfilled to have that said Township lands rendered wholly for the Township inhabitants and that the township be made a parish with the privileges of sending representatives to the Assembly as His Majesty has most graciously directed ; otherwise, most of your peti¬ tioners must think it prudent to remove to some other of His Majesty's provinces where they may hope to meet with less danger and more encouragement.

"Your petitioners take leave to set forth the names of several persons who have had lands granted to them in the said township, but who reside in other parts of the province, viz. : George Hunter, John Ballentine, Captain John Cleland, the Reverend John Baxter, Charles Starnes, Andrew Rutledge, Esq., Thomas Monk, Bridget Hughes, Samuel Pontovine, Captain James Fisher, John Scott (of Charleston), Elisha Screven, Captain John Whitfield, Sarah Blakeway, Jane Eldridge, John Wilson, Lieutenant Thomas Farrington, and Captain J ames Atkins, and many others, upon the view of which list your petitioners have reason to hope your Honor will take the premises into consideration and grant such relief as your Honor in your great wisdom, shall think most meet. And your peti¬ tioners will ever pray."

In 1742, when a number of citizens of Williamsburg petitioned the King for the redress of certain grievances, among other things, they stated that they stood ready at all times to serve His Majesty and to fight his battles. Not many years after this time France and England began the final war which determined that England should con¬ trol this continent. The French enlisted the services of the Indians in this war and the Cherokee tribe threatened South Carolina. It is very interesting to note that in

Since one of the reasons expressed by the King for the creation of Williamsburg Township was the protection of Charleston and Beaufort from the incursions of the Indians from the West, it was natural that those colonists, who first came to the Township, feared the Red Men. The first colony elected Roger Gordon as Captain of the Militia Company at the King's Tree and all able bodied men in the township immediately enlisted. They built a stock¬ ade fort on Roger Gordon's land near where the Williams¬ burg cemetery stands at present. It was planned that all the colonists in this vicinity should take refuge within this stockade whenever an Indian attack was impending, but the Indians never disturbed the Williamsburg colony.

As the territory of Craven County was settled from time to time, other communities organized militia com¬ panies and these were mustered into the regiment. Roger Gordon became the first colonel of this Regiment, which

The first regimental mustering ground in Craven County was on the spot where the Williamsburg Court House now stands. Later, the Regiment sometimes was mustered near Willtown on Black Mingo. Sometimes the various companies gathered at Murray's Ferry on the Santee. Among the colonels of this Craven County Regiment were Roger Gordon, George Pawley, John White, Anthony White, and Richard Richardson; Captains, Abram Michaux, John Waites, William Scott, John McDonald, David Anderson, William Nelson, John McDaniel, Isaac Brun¬ son, John Jannerett, John James, Daniel Horry, Henry O'Neal, James McGirt, and James Crockett; and the lieu¬ tenants, William Frierson, Peter Robertson, John Leviston, Daniel McDaniel, Samuel Cantey, Abraham Lenud, Paul Bonneau, Edward German, Charles Woodmason and Robert Lewis.

Long before the Scotch-Irish came to Williamsburg, the Indians had abandoned the section as a place for per¬ manent residence. Sometimes, however, they came to fish and hunt in the swamps of Black River and the Santee. They did not like these parts during mosquito season.

Tradition says that there were three small tribes of Indians that had their headquarters within the territory now known as Williamsburg County, and there is yet some evidence visible to sustain it. It is said that the Mingoes had their camp ground in the fork made by the junction of Indiantown Swamp and Black Mingo Creek. Their burying ground on the bluff at this point has yielded many relics of the time of their occupation. The word "Mingo", in one Indian language, means black; in another, a kind of officer. Possibly, the Mingoes were Indian chiefs who spent their vacations in the Indiantown-Black Mingo country and hoped to find there after death the "happy hunting ground." The Americans who dwell in this sec-

The Wee Nee Indian camp was located in the forks of Black River near the present Williamsburg-Clarendon line. Many war clubs, arrow heads, and other Indian inn plements of battle may be found in this community. Marion's Men fought many skirmishes in this section dur¬ ing the War of the Revolution. Perhaps this might be called the "dark and bloody" ground of Williamsburg. Wee Nee is a favorite name for associations in Williams¬ burg, all the way from sewing societies to banking corpor¬ ations.

The Wee Tee Indians lived once in the vicinity of Lenud's Ferry and several miles westward along the San¬ tee. They built mounds all over this section. Excavations in these mounds have brought to light many things that Indians loved and treasured. B. E. Clarkson says when he was a boy, about 1875, he dug into one of those mounds. Among the interesting things he found was a baby skele¬ ton enmeshed in beads. This was contained within two pieces of pottery attached.

It is said that these three bands of Indians, the Wee Nees, the Wee Tees, and the Mingoes, belonged to the five great nations that had their headquarters along the Great Lakes. It is believed, however, that these Indian camping grounds in Williamsburg were not places of permanent residence, but that they were occupied from time to time by hunting and fishing parties from the North and the West.