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Vigil

Class
Book

A

; ;
—

|

A CONTRIBUTION

TO THE

HISTORY OF THE HUGUENOTS

OF SOUTH CAROLINA

CONSISTING OF PAMPHLETS

BY

SAMUEL DUBOSE, Esa. ’

OF ST. JOHN’S BERKELEY, SOUTH CAROLINA

AND

-Pror. FREDERICK A. PORCHER

OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
REPUBLISHED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION.

BY

T. GAILLARD THOMAS, M.D.
_—

NEW YORK

The Rnickerbocker Press
1887

aus, 1 Oe

‘Press of
G. P. PuTNAM’s SONS
~ New York

INTRODUCTION.

The accompanying historical sketches of the
Huguenot families which settled in the rich alluvial
regions within fifty miles of Charleston wiil prove
of interest to but few.

While the modern historian seeks with eagerness
all records which tell of the Knickerbocker and the
Puritan, who left their impress clear, distinct, and
strong upon the country of their adoption, little in-
terest attaches to the Huguenot, who played a less
important rdle in making history and in writing his
name upon its pages.

To a certain number of the descendants of those
devoted men, however, who, in consequence of the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes by the harsh and
impolitic act of Louis XIV., settled in various parts
of this country, faithful sketches like these to which
this serves as preface, will be prized as contributions
towards that thus far unwritten “History of the
Huguenot Emigrants to America,” which I feel sure
must erelong appear.

Actuated by these considerations, I have thought
that a reproduction of the simple, modest, and
faithful recitals of things which came under the

v

vi INTRODUCTION.

personal observation of these writers, and which
have long since been out of print, would give pleas-
ure to some of the friends of my youth, preserve
facts for future use which would otherwise be lost,
and give to my own children an opportunity of
learning something concerning their forefathers
which is not recorded elsewhere.

I need hardly say that these pamphlets have been
left exactly as they came from the hands of the
writers, and that they have been reproduced only
for private circulation.

_ Turopore GaiILtLarp THomas, M.D.

NEw York

Kit, Men |B -il

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION

ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE SEVENTEENTH ANNIVER-
SARY OF THE BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY .

REMINISCENCES OF ST. STEPHEN’S PARISH, CRAVEN
CouNTY, AND Notices oF HER OLD HoMESTEADsS .

HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF CRAVEN CoUNTY,
SOUTH CAROLINA

NOTES

ili

PAGE

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pees ik | eh,

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ENiks, 6S) Verges eee

ADDRESS

DELIVERED AT THE SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

Brack Oak AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY

ON TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1858.

BY. SAMUEL, DUBOSE,; | Eso.

PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY

TO WHICH IS ADDED, REMINISCENCES OF ST. STEPHEN’S PARISH AND NOTICES
OF HER OLD HOMESTEADS, BY SAMUEL DUBOSE, ESQ.

Published at the Request of the Black Oak Agricultural Society

aay

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OW, hecho Bon \e=—1

ADVRESS, i

Gentlemen of the Black Oak Agricultural Society -

At your last anniversary meeting, the following
resolution was passed, to wit :

“ Resolved, That the President be requested to prepare, for the
next anniversary meeting of the Society, an historical account
of the introduction of cotton-planting into this section of
country ; together with short biographical sketches or remi-
niscences of the earlier planters who were instrumental in its
cultivation—detailing the progress made in its culture and
preparation for market, in the climatizing of the finer quali-
ties of cotton, whether by selection of seed grown here or by
importation from the sea islands, with a comparison of the
productiveness of our lands at its earliest cultivation with the
old Santee “black seed” and that of the present time with
the finer island seed, and all other points of historical interest
connected with the progress and development of our staple
crop.”

It will be readily admitted, gentlemen, that pru-
dence ought to have deterred me from attempting a
compliance with your wish thus expressed ; having
no record or reference, but thrown altogether upon
memory, stretching back overa period of more than
sixty years. I have, however, been induced by the
desire to comply with the requirements of a Society
over which your partiality has called me to preside.

3

4 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

It is strange and true that human life is made up
of the past and future circumstances and events
that have been and are to come. Behind us liesa
wide waste, strewed with the wrecks of blasted
hopes and wasted efforts. In our onward progress
we grasp at a point of time which we call the pres-
ent. A moment intervenes, and that moment is
gone forever. Often would we linger long and
fondly around those cherished scenes where earthly
joys shed their brightest rays—but in vain ; the cur-
rent sweeps on, and those scenes lie behind us, and
joys which made them bright shall be felt no more.
Memory belongs to the past; it lingers among the
joys that are fled; it tells of what we have done in
the days that are gone ; it goes back to the record
of the past. Memory belongs to the aged. Hope
revels in the beauties of the morning of life, but its
promise is often delusive. Through the journey of
life, it is always sweet to review the happy scenes
that we have witnessed in other days: the pleasing
associations of childhood, the friends we loved,
the joys we felt, the affections we indulged,—all
come up like a sweet dream from the depths of the
past, and breathe a fragrance upon the spirit in the
later years of life. But to proceed :

In the year 1689 a colony of French Huguenots,
numbering about one hundred and eighty families,
arrived in Carolina, settled themselves on the San-
tee, in St. James’ Parish, and called their town

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 5

James Town. Their purchase of lands was made
from the numerous and warlike tribe of Indians
called the Santees. With these people they lived
in remarkable friendship, doing them no wrong or
injustice. They cultivated the soil for their imme-
diate necessities. As soon as compatible with cir-
cumstances, they commenced improving their pe-
cuniary condition by the cultivation of the staple
products of the soil and the manufacture of naval
stores. These, as well as indigo dye and rice,
were articles of prime necessity to the mother
country. She stimulated their production by a
bounty upon the articles sent to market. Naval
stores were a profitable and healthy pursuit to those
who were advantageously located, and Watboo
afforded a convenient landing. Fortunes were
made by those who engaged in the business with
attention and judgment. Among the most success-
ful was John Palmer, of Gravel Hill. He com-
menced life poor, and left at his death about one
hundred negroes to each of his children. In the
course of a few years many of the descendants of
the colony, finding the river swamp lands higher up,
in what afterward became St. Stephen’s Parish, to
be safer from freshets, gradually bought lands and
moved up to the whole extent of the parish, until it
became the most densely populated portion of the
State out of Charleston. The entire swamp was in
like manner populated with slaves. In some cases

=

6 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

the owners and most of the overseers resided on the
plantations through the year. Indigo was a light
and beautiful crop ; the whole process of changing
it from the weeds into the matured dry lumps was a
very nice and critical one, requiring untiring atten-
tion during night and day ; a periodical change of
hands was required throughout the time, with the
exception of him called the indigo maker, who could
no more leave his post of responsibility, than could
the captain of a ship on a lee shore.

Rice also began to be cultivated as a crop; at
first on high land and on little spots of low ground,
as they were met with here and there. These low
grounds being found to agree better with the plant,
the inland swamps were cleared for the purpose of
extending the culture. In the course of time, as
the fields became too grassy and stubborn, they
were abandoned for new clearings, and so on; until
at length the superior adaptation of the tide-lands
was discovered, and their great facilities for irriga-
tion. The inland plantations were gradually aban-
doned for these, and that great body of land, which
little more than a century ago furnished for exporta-
tion over 50,000 barrels of rice, now lies utterly
waste. Just previous to the Revolution, the tax re-
turns exhibited upwards of 5,000 slaves within the
parish, or rather in Santee swamp, there being then
no settlements out of its limits.

Few planters failed of acquiring an independence,

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 7

and many made fortunes large for the times and cir-
cumstances. Among the planters most successful
at this business was Peter Sinkler, who, without any
property with which to begin life, went daily with
his hoe-cake and axe to his labor. At his death,
about twenty-five years afterwards, he left for his
children three valuable plantations and upwards of
three hundred slaves. He died in Charleston a
prisoner to the British, under the most cruel treat-
ment. Before he was carried from his plantation
he was made to witness the destruction of the fol-
lowing property, viz. : twenty thousand pounds of
indigo worth one dollar and fifty cents a pound,
one hundred and thirty head of cattle, one hundred
and fifty-four head of sheep, two hundred head of
hogs, three thousand bushels of grain, twenty thou-
sand rails, household furniture valued at £2,500;
besides carrying off fifty-five negroes, sixteen blood
horses, and twenty-eight mares and colts,

Peter Sinkler was a man remarkable for wonder-
ful endurance, industry, and skill in the pursuit of
his business. His parent could afford him only six
months’ schooling, when the necessities of a widowed
mother and sister required the labor of himself and
brother at home. When the Revolution broke out
he devoted himself to the service of his country.
From strong traits of character he soon possessed
much influence among his fellow-citizens, This the
enemy became aware of, and determined to make an

8 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

example of him. Like others of the Whigs, he was
wont occasionally to fly from the privations and
fatigues endured by the soldiers of Marion’s bri-
gade to recruit within the bosom of his family.
The enemy having ascertained this determined, if
possible, to capture him. His own brother-in-law,
James Boisseau, who had enjoyed no other home
but his, was won over by bribery to betray him.
He was captured in the manner following. His
house was situated within fifty yards of the Santee
swamp, and it was his habit, when necessary in
order to avoid the danger which threatened from
the front, to retire by the back way to his usual
place of concealment. Boisseau, with a sufficient
force below, threaded his way to the spot at which
he knew Mr. Sinkler would enter it. Soon after a
force was seen descending the avenue. The victim
took his hat and returning to his place of con-
cealment found himself in the arms of his captors.
He was refused an interview with his wife and
daughters, made to witness the destruction of the
property as specified, carried off a prisoner to the
provost in Charleston, and there, without a change
of clothes, he was thrust into the southeast room of
the post-office cellar, among a crowd as unfortunate
as himself, without bedding or even straw to lie
upon. Typhus fever soon terminated their suffer-
ings. As his reward Boisseau enjoyed for life a
commission in the British army and a civil station
in Nova Scotia.

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 9

At the period of which we write men were much
more laborious and devoted to their business than
at the present day; a fact or two will prove this.
During the period of manufacturing the indigo dye,
which was a process requiring the closest atten-
tion, Mr. Sinkler though he slept every night in
his bed, never for three weeks saw the face of his
wife or daughters ; he returned and departed while
they slept. He and his brother lived full twelve
miles asunder, and yet they generally visited each
other after dark ; they would eat supper and then
return home. All this was done on horseback, sul-
kies and buggies being then unknown.

Upon the resort of the planters to the inland
swamps for the cultivation of rice, the work of
reclamation and preparation for rendering them safe
and productive was both arduous and precarious ;
subject as they were as often to an excess of water,
as to a want of it when most needed. It is nowa
source of surprise and wonder to examine the
amount of labor and skill some of the fields in this
neighborhood exhibit. -Take, for instance, Wantoot,
the patrimonial estate of Daniel Ravenel, Esq., who
died in 1807. On his land four swamps unite to
form Biggin, each contributing copious streams.
To unite and concentrate these into one, and bear
off the water when in excess, as well as distribute it
into the fields of the different plantations, called for
judgment, perseverance, and an amount of labor not

IO SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

easily understood. Mr. Ravenel resided in Charles-
ton during the summer months when the work had
to be chiefly carried on, and from thence he issued
his orders to his driver, who occasionally went to
town to receive them. On these occasions, for his
better understanding of his master’s wishes, the
carpet would be taken from the floor of the hall, and
a plat of the swamp, the creeks, watercourses, etc.,
chalked out for the driver’s study and understanding.
This man was slow of understanding, but very faith-
ful and assiduous in executing his master’s wishes.
His success was a matter of wonder to the com-
munity around.

The war terminated this state of prosperity. On
the return of peace every planter was deeply in
debt. For the period of ten years following no in-
come was realized on account of freshets; in many
cases not even provisions. Prime gangs of negroes
were publicly sold at an average of less than two
hundred dollars. Rice and indigo and naval stores
became of little value, because of the loss of the
bounty formerly allowed under the colonial system.

The British government, ever true to her colonial
policy, raised up in rivalry the culture of the indigo,
both in their West and East India possessions. Be-
sides all this, they who held property in paper were
either not paid or paid in worthless, depreciated
money ; and to complete the threatened ruin of the
planters, the frequency of the freshets in the swamps

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. IIt

forced the owners to abandon the cultivation of
these lands, but recently so valuable. To make this.
better understood, let the fact be stated that Milford
plantation, containing one hundred acres of high
land and four or five hundred of swamp, which had
been sold for six thousand guineas, was abandoned
at the time we are speaking of as almost worthless.

The people, however, inspired by the success of
their struggles and sufferings for liberty, did not
despond nor slacken their exertions; they manu-
factured cloth for their families and slaves; they
raised every thing needful for consumption. The
necessities of the war, and the state of things exist-
ing for some time after it, greatly increased the
number of domestic fabrications of the wool, until
about the year 1790, when the practice of using
homespun for plantation purposes became very com-
mon throughout the parishes and districts. The
yarn was spun at home and sent to the nearest
weaver. Among the manufacturing establishments,
the one near Murray’s Ferry, in Williamsburg,
owned by Irish settlers, supplied the adjacent
country. The cotton for the spinning process was
prepared in general by the field laborers, who, in
addition to their ordinary work, picked the seed
from the wool at the rate of four pounds of clean
cotton per week.

In the year 1794 the Santee Canal was com-
menced. This gave employment to nearly all the

12 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

working negroes in the parish at high and remuner-
ative wages. This enterprise relieved the planters
of a burden which oppressed them, and left them
partially untrammelled to prepare for the new staple
which had been for some time exciting their hopes.

As far back as 1790 attempts had been made to
plant cotton as a market crop in different localities
of the Southern country. Even atan earlier period,
among the exports from Charleston to Great Britain
in 1748, we find seven bags of cotton wool valued at
43 11s. 6d. per bag. In 1754 some cotton was
again exported from South Carolina. In 1770
there were shipped to Liverpool three bags from
New York, four bags from Virginia and Maryland,
and three barrels from North Carolina. In 1794 an
American vessel that carried eight bags to Liverpool
was seized, on the ground that so much cotton could
not be the product of the United States.

In 1785, fourteen bags; in 1786, six bags; in
1787, one hundred and nine bags; in 1788, three
hundred and eighty-nine bags; in 1789, eight hun.
dred and forty-two bags; in 1790, eighty-one
bags. The bag of cotton first sold in South
Carolina was purchased in 1784 by John Teas-
dale, from Bryan Cape, then a factor in Charles-
ton. The export of cotton slowly but steadily
increased until 1794, when a powerful impetus was
given to the cotton culture by the invention of the
saw gin by Eli Whitney of Massachusetts.

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 13

In Georgia the long-staple cotton was first planted
for market ; in Virginia, North Carolina, and South
Carolina, the short-staple.

As early as 1787 small quantities of cotton in the
seed were brought from Orangeburg district and
sold to merchants at 2d. per pound, who resold it
principally to ladies to make patch-work bedquilts.

When Whitney’s saw gin was first exhibited in
Georgia, none but women were permitted to enter
the room. An ingenious young mechanic intro-
duced himself into the apartment in women’s ap-
parel, and by a minute examination of the machine
satisfied himself that he could not only imitate but
improve on its construction by making it more eff-
cient. The gins so constructed were first applied to
water-power by General Wade Hampton.

The first attempt to raise a crop of long cotton
in South Carolina was in 1788, by Kinsey Burden
of St. Paul’s Parish. In 1793 General Moultrie
planted a crop of one hundred and fifty acres on
Northampton plantation. This was a decided fail-
ure, the result of his unacquaintance with the proper
method of culture.

The cotton culture from this time progressed
rapidly in these parishes. This plant and indigo
struggled against each other for the ascendancy.
In three years the latter ceased to be grown as a
market crop. To prove the value of the crop and
the success of some of its planters in the parish, in

14 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

1799, Captain Peter Gaillard, of the Rocks planta-
tion, averaged three hundred and forty dollars per
hand; and in the same year Captain James Sinkler,
at Belvidere, from a crop of three hundred acres,
realized the amount of two hundred and sixteen
pounds per acre, for much of which he received
seventy-five cents per pound, and for none less than
fifty cents—total, five hundred and nine dollars per
hand. When first planted as a crop, various were
the modes adopted for its cultivation, both as to the
distance most proper and the amount of tillage
necessary. The crop of Captain Gaillard above
alluded to was planted on hills four feet square, and
two stalks left in each hill. Four workings were
deemed sufficient for making a crop: the first hoe-
ing was invariably a flush or hoeing down process ;
afterwards it was drawn up. The seeds were uni-
versally planted in drills on the beds, which were
four feet apart and about their present size; the
thinning was done by careful hands selected from
the gang, doing daily three half acres the first and
four at the second thinning.

Peter Gaillard was born at the residence of his
father, at Wambaw, St. James’ Parish, Santee, in
the year 1757, being the youngest of a family of five
sons and three daughters: He and David were full
brothers, his father having a second time married
after the birth of the first six children. The parents
were among the Huguenot emigrants from France

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 15

the year following the Edict of Nantes. Peter
grew up to the age of ten before he was placed at
school, and I have heard him say he believed the
rapid progress he made was mainly owing to the
shame and mortification he was subjected to by
finding boys much his juniors in age his superiors in
learning; he soon took a high stand in the school.
When this school was discontinued, as there was a
good one near Milford, my grandfather's residence
in St. Stephen’s Parish, he, together with Peter
Robert, John Ball, and Francis Peyre, all cousins,
were sent to that school under the charge of their
uncle, Isaac Dubose, who had five children attend-
ing the school at the time, viz.: Isaac, David,
Samuel, Catharine, and Joanna. After finishing their
academic course here, Peter Gaillard and Samuel
Dubose were sent to Charleston as clerks in the
store of Theodore Gaillard, Peter’s elder brother.
Here they continued until the war broke out. In
consequence of the death of both David and his
wife Joanna Dubose, Peter became owner of the
White Plains plantation, to which he removed and
lived with Samuel Dubose for some time as
planters of indigo in the swamp. In the progress
of events the two friends separated. Samuel Du-
bose taking side zealously with the Whigs, and the
other remaining neutral. Most of the friends of
Peter Gaillard warmly espoused the cause of the
British government; and the violence and uncom-

16 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

promising character of his father probably influ-
enced the son. Things remained so until the
country got in the possession of the enemy. The
British general, Cornwallis, called into the field
most of those who had taken protection under his
proclamation, and when a force was organized to
hunt out Marion and his men on the Santee, Peter
Gaillard was appointed second in command. Gen-
eral Marion, having ascertained the embodying and
object of the party, suddenly fell upon them at
Black Mingo and dispersed them; this was the
only occasion where an active part was taken
by Peter Gaillard against his countrymen. His
friends had long known that he was lukewarm
towards the cause he had espoused.

After his father’s death Mr. Gaillard wrote a
letter to my father, to the effect that his future
services should be rendered for his country’s suc-
cess, and that if he could adopt means to have him
introduced to Marion and his brigade, he would
hold himself ready for any arrangement he could
make, provided it involved no mortifying or
humiliating feelings. An interview was forthwith
had with General Marion, the subject opened, and
the letter placed in his hands.

The General expressed heartfelt satisfaction at
the announcement. He passed very warm en-
comiums upon Peter Gaillard’s conduct at the.
battle of Black Mingo, stating that owing to cir-

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 17

cumstances the command devolved upon Peter
Gaillard, who had gallantly sustained himself, and
that if he had met with support from his brother
officers the day would have been lost; Marion’s
force was the weakest, and he had hoped for a sur-
prise, which he failed to effect. The horses’ feet
on the bridge a mile off apprised the sentinel of
his approach, and allowed time for the enemy to
prepare for the battle. Gen. Marion instructed
my father to return his congratulations, and to say
that at any hour fixed upon he would advance
with his staff in front of his brigade, meet Mr.
Gaillard as a friend, and escort him into camp.
Policy dictated this, because Peter Gaillard had in
the camp many bitter foes. The day after being
fixed upon, my father, who was deputy brigade-
major under Major K. Simons, left the camp, and
returned witly his friend at the point designated.
As soon as he was in sight, Marion advanced with
his staff, met and cordially greeted him, as did
each of his family. The manner and the precau-
tions taken thoroughly quashed every symptom of
discontent. Peter Gaillard solicited and received
posts of peril and honor in quick succession.
When Col. Cotes fired Biggin Church and the
large amount of stores contained in it, and at-
tempted to reach Charleston by Bonneau’s Ferry,
Peter Gaillard was given a command to check him
at Watboo and at Huger’s bridges and at Bon-

18 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

neau’s Ferry; this duty was gallantly performed,
and the advance of the enemy stopped at
“Brabant,” the plantation of Bishop Smith. The
Americans here came up, and Sumter, the senior
officer, contrary to the earnest advice of Marion,
rushed into a battle which proved disastrous to the
_ Americans.

Mr. Gaillard was afterwards under the command
of General Moultrie, and in many of the engage-
ments south of Charleston. He also served under
Col. John Laurens, was one of an advanced party to
arrest the British in their retreat to Charleston,
and witnessed the fall of Col. Laurens by one
of the last balls discharged in that war.

After the war was over, Capt. Gaillard married
Elizabeth Porcher, daughter of Peter, of Peru, a
lady to whom he had long been attached. Some
unpleasant and annoying occurrences’ he was fated
to endure from a very few Whigs, who wanted
magnanimity to cast a veil over his first and youth-
ful error. His subsequent course appeared to pro-
duce no effect upon them. Death, however, in a
few years, quieted every thing. And no man in any
community ever commanded in a greater degree
the confidence and esteem of his acquaintances,
friends, and neighbors than did Capt. Gaillard.

I will add in corroboration, that in 1794, when
the militia laws of the State were remodelled and
the whole system changed, all commissions were

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. Ig

vacated and new elections made. The parish
unanimously elected him captain, and this at a
time when commissions were more highly estimated
than at present.

The disastrous ten years which preceded the in-
troduction of cotton as a market crop involved
him, as it did others, in debt and distress. His
record book, kept with minute accuracy, states the
fact, that in one of those years the entire crop
saved from one of those freshets was a few bas-
kets of unmatured corn, which required drying in
the sun before it was fit for use. A family, and
upwards of one hundred slaves, had to be sustained
without money; credit had to be obtained from
the more fortunate who planted on the Wateree or
Congaree.

Capt. Gaillard purchased the Rocks in 1794,
without funds, looking for nothing more than to
make bread for his dependants. Cotton had not
been attempted as a crop, and indigo did not pay
for its cultivation. He settled the plantation in
1795, and made provisions. In the following year
he attempted cotton, I believe over one hundred
acres, with unlooked-for success. On my return
from school in Camden, late in December, 1796,
I called in to dine with his overseer, a friend
of mine, and saw, for the first time, the process of
ginning and specking cotton. A brilliant prospect
now opened to the eyes of the desponding planters,

20 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

fully to be realized. The crop of 1799 or 1800
extricated him from debt. About twenty-two years
after, Capt. Gaillard divided his lands and negroes
among eight children, and retired in a green old
age to enjoy as much of the world’s happiness as is
the lot of man, and lived ten years after.

I never knew a better, a neater, or a more suc-
cessful planter than Capt. Gaillard. There was a
completeness and finish, a compactness and uni-
formity about every thing, that was pleasant to the
eye. Ina ride one day to “ Lifeland,” my grand-
father, Peter Sinkler, became the subject of con-
versation, and the captain thus expressed himself
about him as a planter. “If you will make him,
Mr. Sinkler, the standard of a planter, I have never
known any other.” I adopt and apply this opinion
to him upon the maturest consideration. There
was a generosity that belonged to him that few
possessed, and the knowledge of which would be
gratifying to his descendants. When a rapid ac-
cumulation of funds in his factors hands took
place, his nephew and factor, Theodore Gaillard,
Jr., borrowed of him a large sum of money, and
mortgaged for its safety the plantation now owned
by Thos. Ashby Esq., and a number of negroes.
After the bankruptcy of Mr. Gaillard, the mort-
gage foreclosed, the property sold for very little to
Captain Gaillard, owing to a great blunder of one
of the banks, which held a younger mortgage.

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 21

When the Captain found that half the purchase
could pay him the bona-fide debt, and leave thirty
negroes, he generously made it over to Theodore’s
children, When he married his second wife, he
became entitled to her property, but he never used
one cent of it, but gave it all to her children, re-
turning even what she had used as his wife. In
the twenty-three or twenty-four years after Capt.
Gaillard had paid his last debt, he paid for real
property $118,000; retaining for his own use up-
wards of $13,000 in stock, and dividing among
his children upwards of five hundred negroes.
The gin first used for cleaning cotton of the
seed was a clumsily constructed foot gin without
the wheels, as now used, but instead, two cross-
pieces with clubs at their ends, to give the neces.
sary power. The greater part of the crops was
either ginned early in the morning, or after task-
work at night, a hand doing four or five pounds at
each time. Cotton at that period, down to the in-
troduction of the fine selected seed from the sea
islands, invariably yielded one pound of clean to
every three of seed cotton, and when seed was
selected it was with the view of its so yielding.
At that time, quantity and not quality was the aim
in view ; consequently, heavier yields were obtained
from our lands. Capt. Gaillard told me that his
average of cotton on the Rocks, for twenty years,
was one hundred and fifteen pounds per acre. My

22 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

average at Ward’s plantation for the six years (I
planted it in coarse cotton) was one hundred and
twenty-three pounds per acre, from the year 1850
to 1856 inclusive. ;

} In the accounts current published in the gazettes
of 1792 the article of cotton does not appear, yet
it is evident that even at a much earlier date it was
vended in Charleston in small parcels varying from
one to thirty pounds. In 1787 two or three bags,
about one hundred pounds each, were packed by
Mr. S. Maverick and shipped to England as a sam-
ple and experiment. The answer of the consignees
was discouraging. It is not worth producing, said
they, as it cannot be separated from the seed.

In 1794 Col. Wm. Thomson, of revolutionary
memory, planted cotton for market at Belleville, in
St. Matthew's Parish. In 1796 cultivators of the crop
appeared in several parts of the State. It was first
grown in the district of Sumter by John Mayrant,
in 1798. The year afterwards Gen. Wade Hamp-
ton introduced the plant into Richland district.
With the energy and sagacity which distinguished
him, he began his operations on an extensive scale,
and from six hundred acres he gathered over six
hundred bags. Although not the first to use
Whitney’s gin in South Carolina, he was the first
who used water as the propelling power.

Sea island, or black-seed cotton began to be
raised in Georgia in experimental quantities in

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 23

1786. The native place of the seed is believed to
be Persia. The first bag exported from Georgia
was grown on St. Simon’s Island in the year 1788.
The black-seed cotton region of the State is
bounded on the north and northwest by a line
a few miles south of the line that separates Barn-
well and Orangeburg from the neighboring par-
ishes;, on the northeast and east by the Santee
River, on the west and southwest by the Savannah |
River. It formerly was cultivated both in Williams-
burg and Sumter districts, in their southern por-
tions.

The crops were sufficiently encouraging, but the
preparation of the wool was objectionable; the
growers abandoned the experiment on account
of the large expenditure of labor and time that it
required.

The first attempt in South Carolina to raise a
crop of long cotton was made in 1788, by Mr.
Kinsey Burden, of St. Paul’s Parish. The product
was packed in the article called Hessians. In 1780,
when England had no fine manufactories, the best
cottons brought to her market were from Demerara
and Surinam. These then commanded about two
shillings. These were superseded by the sea
islands, which in 1799 sold readily at five shillings
per pound. Its price in this State in the infancy of
its production was generally from ninepence to two
shillings, until 1806 or 1807, when for the first time

24 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

the planters experienced the baleful effects of re-
strictions on commerce. From the superiority
of this cotton to that raised in any other country,
even from the same seed, the staple at first was
objected to as too long, and by one or two English
spinners it was actually cut shorter.

When first. planted the seed was placed in small
hills five feet square, but by some in holes made on
the level land that distance apart. Seldom more than
one hundred pounds were made to the acre, until
the system of having more stalks in the acre was
adopted. It may be remarked that the plough was
practically unknown to the first growers of long
cotton, and is still so here to a great extent, although
half a century has elapsed.

Notwithstanding the facilities offered by the
woods everywhere for an abundant store of suitable
aliment, no effort at manuring extended beyond a
potato field, which never exceeds a quarter of an
acre of land to the hand. There were norakes for
collecting leaves, nor carts specially designed for
carrying the vegetable offal to the cattle pen or
stable.

Various were the gins constructed for cleansing
the cotton of the seed. The first was Eave’s gin,
to be worked by animal or water-power; next,
Pottle’s, of Georgia; Birnie’s, Simpson’s, and
Nicholson’s gins; next, Whitmore’s, Farris’ and
Logan’s. These were all modifications of Eave’s

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 25

gin. None of these, however, stood the test of
trial, and were successively abandoned for the foot-
gin. Some of these gins were bought at two hun-
dred and fifty dollars each. As slovenly as was
originally the tillage of the cotton plant, the prepa-
ration of its produce for market was much more so.
It was indeed so badly cleaned as to be deemed
suitable only for the coarser fabrics.

Up to 1830, the pickers took no especial pains
to abstract the dead leaves. The wool was sunned
all day, and ginned often with stained particles in-
corporated withit. In the process of moting, these
were removed by women sitting on the floor, where
it was whipped with twigs. No bag or box re-
ceived the cotton as it fell from the gin. In pack-
ing, an old iron axle-tree or wooden pestle was used,
as at present. With many the cotton was ginned,
moted, and packed in the same room.

It is proper here to remark that while the quali-
ty of the wool has been vastly improved, the prod-
uct of the plant has been proportionately dimin-
ished. Although, therefore, the pecuniary circum-
stances of some individuals have been greatly im-
proved, the planters generally have sustained a loss,
in some instances to an almost ruinous extent.
The stalk produces no more pods, and yet, five
and often seven pounds of seed cotton are required
to yield one of clean, instead of one to three, as
formerly. Ten years ago, the staple of our sea

26 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

island cotton was about twenty per cent. better
than any other cotton produced ; owing to circum-
stances, it is now estimated at from thirty to forty
per cent. in favor of the former.’

Encouraged by the actual product of their fields,
our fathers continued to cultivate the grounds
which their judgments first selected for the new
crop. After several years of exhausting tillage, it
became obvious that a radical change in their oper-
ations must take place. Unaccustomed to receive
information from books concerning their pursuits,
the plain alternative of resorting to virgin soils
was adopted, and soon as one field was worn out
another was cleared.

In most beginnings, awkwardness and want of
skill retarded our full success. In no case have I
known a more striking exemplification than in that
which I am about to relate. To as late a period as
1801, to pack a bag of cotton was deemed a reason-
able day’s work, without the packer’s having him-
self to make the bag. This was considered a
seamstress’s work, who found five an ample day’s

1 The value of cotton yarn is estimated by its length. The extreme of
fineness, says Mr. Baines in his work on the ‘‘ Cotton Manufactories of
Great Britain,” published in 1835, to which yarns for muslins are even spun
in England, is two hundred and fifty hanks to the pound, which would yield
a thread measuring one hundred and nineteen and a half miles. A pound
of fine cotton manufactured ‘into the finest lace yields from four hundred
and eighty to five hundred hanks per pound, and makes a thread from one
hundred and ninety-seven to two hundred and thirty-eight miles long, and
is worth from sixty dollars to four hundred and fifty dollars per pound.

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 27

task. The overseer on Belvidere plantation pon-
dered on this, and desirous of doing the community
a service, sent an invitation to the gentlemen of
Pineville to visit Belvidere to see his packer meas-
ure off three bags, make and pack them to hold
three hundred and six pounds each, in time for
them to return to Pineville in seasonable time,—and
that they should be provided with as good a dinner
as he could furnish. Strange to say, this invitation
was not taken in good part by all. Mr. John
Palmer alone accepted the call and determined to
attend. On the appointed day he went up and
witnessed the performance of the promise. On
leaving one hour and a half before sunset, the
third bag had only to be headed, and by seven
o'clock the same evening the announcement was
made to the gentlemen in Pineville. Thirty years
after, I knew the same packer execute the same
task, with ease to himself, when required.

At the time when planters relied altogether upon
the swamp lands for their incomes, they were occa-
sionally disappointed by the recurrence of freshets.
To the most enterprising it occurred that embank-
ments would effect some security, particularly
against what would be called small rises. The
Sinklers, Peter and James, took the lead in this,
and to a degree were renumerated for their labor ;
but the water surrounding their banks on all four
sides allowed no possibility of getting off what

28 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

rained in or soaked in through the banks. The
experiment wastherefore abandoned. Major Sam-
uel Porcher, aware of the cause of the failure, and
possessing a plantation which jutted against the
high land, judiciously determined to avail himself of
the advantage which circumstances afforded him,
and for years kept his resolve to himself, until he
was enabled to purchase some adjoining tracts of
land which were essential to his success. At length
this was accomplished, and in 1817 he commenced
his great work. Few men are free from weak
points of character, and most men can be made to
act weakly if assailed at these points. Major
Porcher, however, was not swayed by any adverse
opinions, the advice of friends, or the laughter and
jeers of others, but on he went, in a wonderful relli-
ance on hisown judgment. Who will not now ad-
mit that he has given greater evidence of practical
wisdom, enterprise, persevering energy, patience,
and indomitableness of purpose than any other
South Carolinian ? Any man in this country who
can make his provisions in a rich swamp, and plant
only long cotton on high land, every acre of which
he can therefore manure, has it in his power to
thrive, and need never think of the West.

Mr. Samuel Foxworth, then nineteen years of
age, as his overseer, and his driver George, through
a period of thirty years, served him faithfully.
When the work was about to begin, George was

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 29

promised his freedom upon its completion; the
promise was kept. It was a gratifying sight in
after time to see the old man living in close con-
tiguity to the scenes of his labor and anxieties,
enjoying the privileges he had won. And what
has bound Mr. Foxworth through the long period
of forty years to ‘‘ Mexico,” but the “bank”? Noth-
ing else. For forty years he has been building a
great work, and repairing and improving it; he has
thought of it by day, and dreamed of it by night,
with the anxious solicitude that a mother feels for
her infant. At times he almost fainted and desisted
from despondency ; then again he worked with zeal
and enthusiasm inspired by hope. All the time he
labored in more or less doubt, whether the result
would be a blank or a prize ; and much of this time
he had to endure the ridicule of doubters. When-
ever drawbacks or disasters occurred, and he had
to plunge into mud and water to repair damages
that seemed to yawn a warning mockery of his
power, instead of condolence and well-wishes of
his neighbors and friends, he received from the
enemies of the great work the taunting exclama-
tions: “I told you so.” At length the ‘“ bank”
was completed, then perfected, and ‘ Mexico” be-
came the land of promises realized. The swamp
yielded in abundance its corn, oats, etc., and echoed
with the exultant bellowing of fat cattle, and the
once exhausted fields of high land, now devoted

30 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

exclusively to cotton and receiving a double amount
of manure and rest, became more productive than
nature had originally made them.

To whatever embarrassment and distress these
parishes were subjected by the circumstances of the
times, the districts of the upper portion of the State
had their full share andeven more. Rice and naval
stores were out of theirreach. Wheat, for the want
of merchant mills, availed them little beyond their
domestic wants. The first mill erected was in
Camden, by Col. Broome, in 1795 ; the production
of that grain was greatly stimulated thereby, and
Camden soon became a market for flour of a
superior quality. At the same time tobacco, as a
market crop, was planted, chiefly by emigrants
from Virginia. Extensive inspections were estab-
lished, the first one near the bank of the Wateree
River, but this with about two hundred hogsheads
of tobacco was swept away by the unprecedented
freshet of 1796. It was afterwards rebuilt in the
town of Camden. The cultivation received an im-
petus, as well in that district as in some of the
adjacent counties of North Carolina ; the business
was pursued with considerable energy and success.
To get the heavy hogshead to market, an axle was
run through the centre and traces fixed to each
end; it was thus drawn or rolled by one horse to
market, hundreds of miles.

But the curse which a seeming necessity had

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 31

brought upon the inhabitants was the business of
manufacturing ardent spirits. The chief source of
income from most of the farms was apples and
peaches to supply the distilleries, which were
dotted every three or more miles throughout the
up country. Intemperance followed as a natural
consequence, and demoralization afflicted society
to a frightful degree. My residence in Camden
about this time made mea witness of scenes de-
grading to the nature of man and revolting to the
feelings. Imagine then the abandonment of these
for a substitute like cotton. In cultivation easy,
healthful, remunerative, and congenial to almost
every acre of land in our wide-spread Southern and
Western country. A labor in which wives and
daughters may conveniently and safely share with
the husband and father. While he traces the
furrow, they, protected by their sun bonnets, eradi-
cate the weeds with a light hoe.

A few years afterwards, independence and the
peace of mind which it brings became their pos-
session ; with these morality and good order im-
proved, and in a short time cotton was acknowl-
edged and hailed as a blessing from God to the
human race. For clothing, for wealth, with
abundance and cheapness of cloth, who can plead
an excuse for want of supply and cleanliness ?

In casting our eyes over the prospect of our
country, and reflecting upon the evils which occa-

32 SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

sionally beset us, do not the lessons of the past
teach us the virtue of frugality and the necessity
of a change in the relations which now exist be-
tween the factor and planter? The former should
not incur obligations, startling in their amount and
beyond their control, when monetary disturbances
arise to distress them ; and the planter must not so
heedlessly avail himself of accommodations so freely
tendered. With cotton and sugar, rice and tobacco,
necessary for the world’s consumption, in the hands
of the South, her influence would be paramount
over every portion of the world. In vain is it that
hundreds of thousands of fields grow white annually
with the harvests, if creditors own it before it be
gathered. If this goes on, the power placed in our
hands will be barren, and we shall find ourselves in
the hands of the domestic and foreign purchaser.
The memory of one reverse should, it might be
supposed, continue long enough to prevent the re-
currence of old follies, or the repetition of former
fatal mistakes. But it is a melancholy truth that
almost utter forgetfulness of past suffering succeeds
the dawn of prosperity, or if remembered at all
they are no more than the visions of a disturbed
sleep. Our labors suffer most from these monetary
disturbances, whilst we are the factor’s debtors ;
but there would be no necessity for this if the
planters were free from heavy pecuniary obligations
to the factor. His marketable staples would not

BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 33

lose their intrinsic value and fall a sacrifice in the
struggle. The indebtedness of the planter to the
factor, anticipating the proceeds of the crop, and
being one year in expenditures ahead of receipts,
has done more to produce the mischief than all
other causes combined. But for this our merchants
could have dictated the price of cotton to the con-
sumers of the world.

‘Ate
Be

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REMINISCENCES

OF

St. STEPHEN’S PARISH, CRAVEN COUNTY

AND

NOTICES OF HER OLD HOMESTEADS

By SAMUEL DUBOSE

Printed at the Request of numerous Friends desirous of Preserving the fast fading History
of that Interesting Region,

‘ : in ni
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{ Aes PY zr at WT des

a. ze r' ¥ ae "9 Ae
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Tah en da

REMINISCENCES.

To Pror. F. A. PoRcHER.

My ‘Dear Srr:—You request me, as the oldest
inhabitant left among us, to give you of the present
day as particular an account as I may have it in my
power, of the individuals who once peopled this
portion of our State, and as much of their habits,
occupations, and genealogy as I either knew and
remember, or have learnt from others. It is in com-
pliance with this request that I have made the
following sketch. I have often regretted that the
opportunities for something better and more satis-
factory had been so thoughtlessly neglected.

About twenty years before the revolutionary
war, the belt of land bordering on the Santee
River, through the whole extent of the parish
of St. Stephen’s, was the garden spot of South
Carolina. The lands were not liable to the high
and sudden freshets to which they have since been
subject. The upper country being then but par-
tially cleared and cultivated, the greater part of its
surface was covered with leaves, the limbs and
trunks of decaying trees, and various other impedi-
ments to the quick discharge of the rains which

37

38 REMINISCENCES OF

fall upon it, into the creeks and ravines leading
into the river; consequently much of the water
was absorbed by the earth or evaporated before it
could be received into its channels, and even when
there so many obstacles yet awaited its progress,
that heavy contributions were still levied upon it.
The river, too, had time to extend along its course
the first influx of water before that from more
remote tributary sources would reach it. Owing
to these and other causes, the Santee was compara-
tively exempt from those freshets which have since
blighted the prosperity of what was once a second
Egypt. A breadth of three or four miles of swamp
as fertile as the slime of the Nile could have made
it, was safe for cultivation ; and its margins were
thickly lined with the residences of as prosperous a
people as ever enjoyed the blessings of God. Some
there were who lived in the swamp, and even on
the very bank ofthe river. The exceeding fertility
of the soil rendered labor scarcely necessary to
make it a wilderness of vegetable luxuriance. The
great quantity of decomposing matter, and the
myriads of insects incident thereto, and the abun-
dant yield of seeds, furnished by the rank weeds
and grass, caused the poultry-yard to teem with a
well-fed population, and the pastures of crab grass
and cane, which are yet proverbial, poured into
the dairies streams of the richest milk, and en-
livened the scene at morn and evening with the

ST. STBPHEN'S PARISH. 39

lowing of herds of fat cattle. | Nor were swine in
abundance, and countless fish of the finest quality
from the exhaustless river, wanting to fill up the
measure of the people’s comforts.

Before the eye was spread nature in all her
majesty and beauty : here the noblest of American
forest-trees in all the perfection which prosperity
can develop ; there a noble placid river flowing in
its slow majestic course, its opposite low and
beachy shore fringed with the delicate willow
whose branches drooped into the gliding current.
On each side were seen nature and art co-operating
to produce as rich a prospect as ever caused the eye
of the agriculturist to dance with hope. I have
never listened to representations of comfort more
perfect and exuberant than those often given me of
the scenes which I am attempting to describe, by
those who had known and loved them. It was my
delight, when a boy, to hear told how at evening the
family would sit in the humble porch, and enjoy the
rich delights of a spring twilight, listening to the
songs of the feathered multitude, the stirring buzz
of the bees as they carried their last load to their
hives, the cackling of the poultry as they sought
their proper resting-place, the sad wail of the whip-
poorwill, the lowing of the richly freighted cows,
and the bleating of their eager young, and admir-
ing the rich and gorgeous colors of the trees,
shrubs, and plants, varied according to their natures

40 REMINISCENCES OF

and the mellowing influence of the fading light.
But the thoughts of that land of Goshen have
caused me to linger by the way and to lose sight of
the narrative I have promised.

Such was the country* that attracted the atten-
tion of so many of our Huguenot ancestors and in-
duced them to abandon their first homes in St.
James’, Santee, and seek one so much more con-
genial to the indigo plant, at that time the staple
product of the State, and made more profitable by
the bounty granted by the mother country. One
after another of the planters moved up as oppor-
tunity offered for the purchase of land, and in a
very few years the population exceeded that of any
other portion of the State out of Charleston. At
the commencement of the revolution the militia
company of St. Stephen’s numbered one hundred
and twenty-six men, rank and file, and the tax re-
turns showed that there were five thousand slaves
owned within the parish; and this, too, when the
settlements were, with very few exceptions, north
of the river road, and about half a dozen planta-
tions on Fair Forest swamp.

1. The plantation known as “ Mexico,” at the
western extremity of the parish, was the residence
of the late Major Samuel Porcher. This planta-
tion is made up of several small tracts of land,
many of which had been the homesteads of their

1 See Note A at the end,

ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. 41

owners. Major Porcher was the fourth child of
Peter Porcher of Peru. In 1789 he married Har-
riet, daughter of Philip Porcher, by whom he had a
daughter, Harriet, who married James Gaillard,
second son of Peter Gaillard of the Rocks; and
three sons, Philip, who married Selina Shackelford, ~
Thomas William, who married the daughter of
Peter Gaillard, Jr., and W. Mazyck Porcher, the
present proprietor.

2. The next plantation was Burnt Savanna, now
a part of Belle Isle. For some time before the
revolution this place was the residence of General
Marion, and in its retirement he probably prepared
himself for the part he was to act in that stormy
period. He married late in life Mary Videau, and
died childless in 1795.

3. The third plantation, ‘Belle Isle,” was the
residence of Robert Marion, Esq. He was the
third son of Gabriel Marion and Catharine Taylor.
His brothers, Gabriel and Benjamin, never mar-
ried. Of his sisters, Catharine died unmarried ; his
younger sister, Charlotte, married Anthony Ashby,
by whom she had a daughter, who married Richard
Singleton, and after Mr. Ashby’s death she married
Theodore S. Marion, by whom she had a daughter,
who, in 1808, became the wife of the writer.» Mr.
Robert Marion married Mrs, Esther Deveaux (née
Gignilliat), mother of the late Stephen G. Deveaux.
This marriage produced no children.

42 REMINISCENCES OF

4. Northwest of Mexico, and directly on the
river bank, was the residence of Thomas Walter,
Esq., the botanist, an Englishman by birth. He
embellished his seat with a botanical garden, which
long commanded the admiration of his neighbors.
His first wife was Sarah Peyre, by whom he had
two daughters ; his second wife was Dolly Cooper,
whose daughter, Emily, their only child, married
Judge Charlton of Savannah.

s. Between Belle Isle and the river road on the
south was the residence of Peter Couturier. He
married Rebecca Couturier, by whom he had a son,
Elias, father of the late Peter Couturier. After his
death his widow married Gideon Kirk, and became
the mother of the late Mrs. Harriet Marion, of
Robert Kirk, and of Louisa Kirk.

6. South of the road was the residence of Dr.
James Lynah, a native of Ireland ; from this place
he attended to a large medical practice. Both this
place and that of Mr. Couturier now constitute a
portion of Belle Isle.

7. Blueford was formerly the residence of Philip
Williams, who, removing to York, sold it to Peter
Sinkler. By him it was left to his son Peter, who,
dying childless, bequeathed it to the children of his
sister Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Dubose. It was
the residence of the late Col. William Dubose, her
second son, and is now that of Julius Dubose, his
nephew and her grandson.

ST. STAPHEN’S PARISH. 43

8. North of Blueford was Milford, the residence
of Isaac Dubose, who left it to his eldest son, Isaac,
by whom it was sold to Samuel Cordes. The elder
Isaac Dubose married Miss Boisseau, by whom he
had three sons and two daughters, viz.: Isaac, who
married Mary Dutart ; David, who married Eliza-
beth Moncrieff; and Samuel, who married Eliza-
beth Sinkler. His daughter Joanna married David
Gaillard of White Plains; his other daughter,
Catharine, died unmarried.

g. The Lane plantation was owned by Samuel
Cordes, Esq.

10. Tower Hill was settled by John Couturier.
He married Elizabeth Couturier, and had three
sons and a daughter. His son John married first
a’ Miss Cook, and after her death Miss Ann
Cahusac; they were the parents of the late Dr.
John Couturier of Pineville. Thomas married
Miss Buford of Williamsburg, who, after his death,
married Judge Richardson. Joseph married Miss
Ellinor Couturier, and after her death Miss Louisa
Kirk. The daughter married Major William
Macdonald.

11. The Island was formerly a homestead, and
when I first knew it, was the property of John
Couturier. It is now a part of Tower Hill.

12. 1 do not know who first settled and occupied
Johnsrun. It was once owned by the Williamses,
who lived there ; it was held by various persons on

44 REMINISCENCES OF

hire until 1793, when it was bought by a French-
man, who soon abandoned it, and it was purchased
by Capt. John Palmer. It is now the residence of
his grandson, S. Warren Palmer.

13. Between this place and the river is Ray’s, so
called from the former owner and resident. He
died about 1793.

14. On the east of Ray’s was Claybank, the
property and residence of Peter Palmer, and now
a part of Richmond. In 1790 Mr. Palmer left this
place for Pole Bridge, three miles to the south.

15. West of Pole Bridge is Murrell’s, called by
the name of the original owner ; it passed into the
hands of John Frierson, and was afterwards owned
and settled by Samuel Dubose, son of Isaac, of
Milford. Mr. Dubose married first Elizabeth,
daughter of Peter Sinkler, and had four children,
viz.: Samuel, who married Eliza Marion, and after
her death Ann P. Stevens ; William, who married
Laura Stevens; Elizabeth, who married Colonel
Thomas Porcher ; and Anna Maria, wife of William
Cain. After the death of Elizabeth Sinkler, Mr.
Dubose married Mrs. Martha White, and had
Isaac, who married Marianne Porcher ; Martha, the
wife of Peter Porcher of Tibbekudlaw ; and Louisa,
wife of David Gaillard, late of Fairfield.

16. Richmond was settled in 1769 by John
Palmer, and was his residence until his death in
1817. He married Ann, the daughter of Robert

ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. 45

Cahusac, by whom he had three sons—John, who
married Mary Jerman, Joseph, who married Eliza
Porcher, and Maham, who died unmarried—and
two daughters: Anne, the wife of O’Neal Gough
Stevens, and after his death of Peter Gaillard, of
the Rocks; and Marianne Gendron, wife of Gabriel
Gignilliat, and afterwards of George Porcher.

17. South of Richmond was Maham’s, the resi-
dence of Col. Hezekiah Maham. His wife was
Miss Guerin ; and they had two daughters, one of
whom married Mr. Waties, and the other Dr. Haig.
Both of these ladies became widows and married
again—the first, Robert Smith ; and the second, Dr.
Samuel Wilson of Charleston.

18. Next to Richmond and east of it was the
residence of Charles Richbourgh. He left no
children, and the place was purchased by Theodore
Gaillard of Charleston. It now formsa part of the
Richmond tract.

1g. Chinners was settled by a person of that
name, and abandoned before the revolution. It is
now part of Lifeland.

20. Next is Lifeland, the residence of Peter
Sinkler. This place was purchased by his mother
from Mrs. Jamison, who married Gen. Sumter.
Peter Sinkler had a brother, and a sister, Dolly,
who married General Richardson of Clarendon.
Mr. Sinkler’s first wife was Elizabeth Mouzon, sister
of Henry Mouzon, the surveyor and engineer.

46 REMINISCENCES OF

Their children were Jane, who married Joseph
Glover, of Colleton; Peter, who married Mary,
daughter of Richard Walter; James, who never
married ; and Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Dubose
of Murrell’s. His second wife was Miss Boisseau,
who died childless. His third wife was Catharine,
daughter of Joseph Palmer of Webdo. She had a
daughter, Catharine, who married Francis Peyre.
His fourth wife was the widow of René Peyre; her
daughter by her first husband, Florida Peyre, mar-
ried John P. Richardson.

Few patriots of the revolution suffered more than
Peter Sinkler, and as woe even if long continued is
soon told, we shall dwell briefly upon his sufferings.
His age, position, and strongly marked character
gave him considerable influence with his fellow citi-
zens; and the British, who were aware of it, deter-
mined to get him in their power. After many ineffect-
ual attempts to take him, they succeeded by bribing
his brother-in-law James Boisseau, an ingrate who
betrayed the man that gave him a home. Like
most of the Whigs, Mr. Sinkler was accustomed oc-
casionally to enjoy in the bosom of his family a res-
pite from the fatigues and privations of Marion’s
camp. Aware of the danger to which he was ex-
posed, but totally unsuspicious of the person who
was to betray him, he had a hiding-place in the
swamp that lay not fifty yards north of his house,
where he could be secure from everything but

ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. 47

treachery. When he was known to be at Lifeland,
Boisseau covertly introduced a party to his lurking
place, and at the same time a party of the British
approached the house by the avenue. As soon as
this party was seen, Mr. Sinkler retired to his place
of concealment and there found himself a captive.
He was not allowed to take leave of his wife and
daughters, but was carried to Charleston, a prisoner,
without even a change of clothes, and thrust in the
southeast cellar of the provost, now the post-office,
where were others as unfortunate as himself, with-
out bedding or even straw to lie upon. Typhus
fever soon put an end to his sufferings.

He was detained at Lifeland long enough to wit-
ness the brutality of his captors and the savage
recklessness with which they wantonly destroyed his
property. The beds were taken from the house,
ripped open, and their contents scattered to the
winds ; his provision houses were opened and sacked,
his poultry and stock shot down, and several crops
of indigo destoyed or carried off. After his death
a commission was appointed by the State to ascer-
tain the amount and value of property so destroyed,
and the following schedule was furnished by Capt.
John Palmer: fifty-five negroes; twenty thousand
pounds of indigo ; sixteen blooded horses ; twenty-
eight blooded mares and fillies; one hundred and
thirty head of stock cattle; one hundred and fifty-
four head of sheep ; two hundred hogs; three thou-

48 REMINISCENCES OF

sand bushels of grain; twenty thousand rails ;
‘household furniture, liquors, plantation tools, poul-
try, etc., to the value of £2,500 currency. The re-
ward of Boisseau’s treachery was a commission in
the British army and a civil station in Nova Scotia,
which he enjoyed during his life.

21. On the east of Lifeland was the residence of
a Mr. Seymour, who died or removed before my
recollection. This place forms a part of Lifeland.

22. Windsor, the next plantation, was the resi-
dence of John Gaillard, Esq., who married Judith,
daughter of René Peyre. They had three sons
and four daughters. John, so long U. S. Senator,
married Mary Lord, and had one son, the late Dr.
Theodore Gaillard. Theodore, the late judge, mar-
ried Cornelia Marshall ; Peyre married Miss Hall;
Elizabeth married Major Randall of the British
army; Mary married Dr. Samuel Thomas; Lydia
married Mr. Edward Croft; and Louisa married
Thomas Hunt, and had a numerous family now set-
tled in Louisiana.

23. East of Windsor is White Plains, formerly
the residence of David Gaillard, who married Joanna
Dubose, and after his death, of Peter Gaillard of the
Rocks, his younger brother. Peter Gaillard married
Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Porcher of Peru. Their
children were: first, Peter who married Eliza Gour-
din ; second, Elizabeth, wife of John Stoney ; third,
Lydia, wife of William Snowden; fourth, James,

ST. STBPHEN’'S PARISH. 49

who married Harriet Porcher, and after her death
Henrietta Ravenel (née Gourdin), widow of Dr. °
James Ravenel of Wantoot ; fifth, Thomas, now of
Alabama, who married Marianne Palmer; sixth,
Catharine, wife of Thomas Porcher of Whitehall ;
seventh, David, who married Elizabeth Palmer, and
after her death Louisa Dubose; eighth, Samuel,
who married Henrietta Palmer.

24. Ancrum’s, the next place, was the residence
of Isaac Porcher. After his death his daughter
married George Ancrum, and they lived there till
death. Their son, William Ancrum, removed to
Camden, and sold the place to Theodore Gaillard,
who bequeathed it to his daughter Mrs. Theodore
Gourdin. It now belongs to her son, Capt. T. Louis
Gourdin.

25. Between Ancrum’s and Peru reserve, a place
was inhabited by a Mr. Ray. I know no more of
_ him than his name.

26. Peru, the next place, was the residence of
Peter Porcher. He married Elizabeth Cordes, and
left four children: first, Elizabeth, wife of «Peter
Gaillard of the Rocks; second, Peter, who married
Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Marion ; third,
Thomas of Ophir, who married Charlotte Mazyck,
and after her. death Elizabeth Dubose; fourth,
Samuel Porcher of Mexico, who married Harriet
Porcher.

27. The Oldfield plantation was the residence of

50 REMINISCENCES OF

Philip Porcher, brother of Peter of Peru. His wife
‘was Mary Mazyck. They had eight children : first,
Mary, who died unmarried in 1834; second, Mart-
anne, wife of Thomas Broughton of Mulberry;

third, Philip, who married Catharine Cordes ; fourth,

Peter, who married Charlotte Ravenel, and after her
death Marion Johnston of Oakfield; fifth, Eliza-
beth, wife of William Mazyck, late of Charleston ;
sixth, Harriet, wife of Major Samuel Porcher ;
seventh, George, who married Marianne Gignilliat
(née Palmer) ; and eighth, Isaac, who married Mary,

daughter of Plowden Weston, and after her death |

Mary, daughter of O’Neal Gough Stevens, and
after her death Charlotte, daughter of René Rav-
enel of Pooshee. Mrs. Mazyck and Mrs. Porcher
both died in 1843; they had lived with their hus-
bands upwards of fifty-four years.

28. Dover, the next place, was formerly the resi-
dence of Robert Cahusac. It then became the
property of Charles or Samuel Peyre, and after his
death, of John Peyre, by whom it was sold to Philip
Porcher. It was for several years the home of Isaac
Porcher, and by him sold to Mrs. Charlotte Cordes.

29. East of Dover was Harleston’s, so called from
the name of the owner.

30. Yaughan, the next plantation, became, under
the English law of primogeniture, the property of
John Cordes. He generously surrendered it to his
younger brother, Thomas Cordes, who lived and

——_, |

ST. STBPHEN'S PARISH. 5!

died on it. His wife was Charlotte Evance, and
their children were: first, the late Dr. Samuel
Cordes ; second, Catharine ; third, Evance ; fourth,
Lavidia, wife of C. B. Cochran, Esq.; fifth, Camilla.
Mr. Cordes was an ardent patriot, and contrived to
annoy the British in a variety of ways while they
held possession of the parish. He would liberate
their prisoners, delude them with false informations,
break his Berole; and made himself so obnoxious
that it was determined to destroy him. A rope was
put around his neck, and he was led to a large oak,
on the very spot where the new road turns off, south
of the Tavern bridge, when he begged as a last
favor, to be allowed time to indulge in the luxury of
smoking a pipe. It was granted, and before the
pipe was finished a pardon opportunely arrived
from Lord Cornwallis, who yielded to the entreaties
of Theodore Gaillard, Mr. Cordes’ brother-in-law,
whose plantation was at the time the General’s head-
quarters. :

31. Curriboo was the residence of Thomas Cordes,
son of Samuel. He married Rebecca Jamieson, and
left two children: James, who married the daugh-
ter of Jonathan Lucas, and went to live in England ;
and Elizabeth, wife of the late Col. John Harleston.

32. Upton was the residence of John Cordes,
who married Miss Banberry and left two children :
Catharine, wife of the late Dr. Philip Prioleau ;
and William, who died unmarried. After the death

52 REMINISCENCES OF

of his wife, Mr. Cordes married Catharine Mazyck
of Woodboo. He became the owner of Peru, and
resided there until his death.

33. Sandyhill was formerly the residence of René
Richbourgh. He had two daughters: Elizabeth,
wife of Thomas Palmer of Grave Hill, who left two
children—Thomas, who died single ; and Marianne,
wife of Thomas Gaillard of Alabama. Catharine,
Mr. Richbourgh’s second daughter, married O’ Neal
Gough Stevens. Their children were : Charles, who
married Susan, daughter of René Ravenel of Poo-
shee; Catharine, wife of Dr. Henry Ravenel; and »
Mary, wife of Isaac Porcher. Mr. O. G. Stevens,
after his wife’s death, married Anne Palmer, by
whom he had two daughters: Anne Palmer, second
wife of Samuel Dubose; and Laura, wife of William
Dubose.

34. Next is the Parsonage, owned by the Epis-
copal church of the parish, and formerly the resi-
dence of the rector. It has long been without a
house.

35. East of the Parsonage was the residence of
Zachariah Villepontoux. His wife was a Miss
Baird. They left no family.

36. The next place was the residence of Charles
Cantey, Jr., who married Margaret Evance, by
whom he had two daughters: Margaret, wife of
Press M. Smith ; and Susan, wife of John Dubose.
Mr. Cantey died in 1789, and his widow survived

ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. 53

until 1848. She was for several years the “ oldest
inhabitant,” and her age, her cordial manners, her
attachment to her home and her friends, the kindly
interest she took in the welfare of all within her
reach, the unaffected simplicity of her manners, her;
exhaustless fund of anecdotes of old, times, and the
sterling worth of her character endeared her to all
who knew her, and caused her to be loved and
respected in life, and unaffectedly lamented in death._

She retained to the last the primitive habits of
her youth. Breakfast at or before sunrise, dinner : —
by half-past twelve, tea before sunset, and supper to
crown the labors of the day. She celebrated her
birthday, which was in July, by an old-fashioned tea-
party, to which everybody in her village was invited ;
and on those occasions no business short of absolute
urgency would ever prevent any planter from making
it a point to return home early, to be in time for
Mrs. Cantey’s tea. It was a pleasure to pay her
such attentions, for she knew with what spirit they
were offered, and the warmth of her heart caused
her to magnify their importance.

37. Uhe next plantation was the. homestead of
Harriet, widow of Richard Walter, merchant of
Charleston. She was the daughter of Charles
Cantey of Mattesee, and her children were: Mary,
wife of Peter Sinkler, Jr.; Harriet, wife of Sims
Lequeux ; Martha, wife of O. G. White, and after
his death, of Samuel Dubose ; Sarah, wife of Ben-

54 REMINISCENCES OF

jamin Joor; Richard, who married Ellen Ford ;
and John, who married Magdalen Taylor.

38. East of Mattesee Creek is Mattesee, the res-
idence of Charles Cantey. His wife was a daughter

of John Drake, and his son, Charles Cantey, married
Margaret Evance. His daughter Sarah married
James Sinkler, brother of Peter Sinkler of Lifeland,
and after her death her sister Margaret became his
second wife. Mary married John Peyre; Harriet
married Richard Walter; Anne married René
Peyre, and after his death, Peter Sinkler of Life-
land; Charlotte married Benjamin Walker. Mat-
tesee was afterwards the residence of Charles, only
son of John Drake. He married Louisa Lequeux,
and was the father of Mrs. Maria Snowden of
Townhill.

39. Next to Mattesee was Lequeux’s, so called
from the owner’s name. I remember nothing about
his family.

40. Old Santee, the next plantation, was the res-
idence of Captain James Sinkler. He married Miss
Cahusac, and after her death Sarah, daughter of
Charles Cantey, of Mattesee ; their daughter mar-
ried J. B. Richardson. His third wife was Mar-
garet Cantey, sister of his second. The issue of
this marriage were: Charles, who married Eliza-
beth Peyre, and died childless ; William, who mar-
ried Eliza, daughter of Archibald Brown; and
Anna, wife of John Thomson, of Belleville.

ST. STERHEN’S PARISH. 55

41. Betaw was the residence of Thomas Hasell
Thomas. His wife was Anne, daughter of Thomas
Walter, the botanist, and their children were : Dr.
John Thomas, now of Fairfield, who married Harriet,
daughter of Elias Couturier ; T. Walter Thomas,
late of Abbeville, who married Elizabeth Kirk;
Edward, a minister of the Episcopal Church, whose
wife was Jane, daughter of Judge Gaillard ; Hasell
Thomas, who died unmarried; Samuel Peyre
Thomas, late of Fairfield, who married Jane Rose-
borough; Anna, the only daughter, died unmarried.

42. Laurel Hill was the residence of John Peyre,
who married Mary, daughter of Charles Cantey of
Mattesee. Nochild survived their union. The place
was sold to Captain Peter Gaillard of the Rocks.

Mr. Peyre, like many of his neighbors and friends,
was a neutral in the contest with the mother country
until after the fall of Charleston, when the proclama-
tion was issued, in violation of the capitulation, call-
ing on the people to bear arms in support of the
king. Mr. Peyre obeyed the call, and was one of a
strong party of Tories who had assembled at Black
Mingo in Williamsburg District. Marion deter-
mined, with his usual activity, to break up this
camp, and accordingly having left his post on the
Peedee, he travelled forty miles in one day, attacked,
defeated, and dispersed the party. Mr. Peyre and
his brother Charles were taken prisoners. They
were sent on foot to Philadelphia, and there kept

56 REMINISCENCES OF

in close confinement for eighteen months, during
which time Mr. Charles Peyre died. On being re-
leased from captivity, Mr. Peyre found himself a
‘stranger, in a strange place, in absolute want. A
Quaker noticed him in the street, and, struck with
something in his appearance, stopped and inquired
into his situation. On hearing his story he handed
him a purse containing funds amply sufficient to
supply his wants and carry him home. Mr. Peyre
gratefully and eagerly inquired who his benefactor
was, so that he might requite his kindness ; but the
Quaker would not satisfy him. ‘ Friend,” said he,
“JT must not tell thee my name, and thou shalt
never know me; all I ask in return is this: when
thou meetest a fellow-sufferer, do likewise, and give
as thou hast received.” Mr. Peyre, who had seen
his brother die in the prison, found on his return to
Carolina that his sister, Mrs. Walter, was dead and
her husband already again a married man ; and the
whole of his ample fortune was in the hands of a
commission of sequestration under the authority of
the State. With a few exceptions, the confiscated
estates were generally restored to their owners. In
this noble work of pacification none labored more
zealously than General Marion.

43. Cooper’s, so called from the resident, ‘Thomas
Cooper. His wife was Jane Harvey. Their daugh-
ter was the wife of David, son of Charles Gaillard.
Their son Thomas died unmarried; Maurice mar-

ST. STEPHEN’S PARISH. 5%

ried Lydia, daughter of Samuel Lequex ; Charles
married Louisa Whitfield ; James died unmarried.

44. Webdo was the residence of Joseph Palmer.
He had one daughter who became the wife of Peter
Sinkler, and whose daughter Catharine was the wife
of Francis Peyre.

Between Webdo and the parish line lived the
families.of Dutarque, Guerry, Bisseau, etc., all of
Huguenot stock, but of whose intermarriages and
descendants I am unable to give any account.

The Fair Forrest Swamp is one of the principal
feeders of the western branch of Cooper River, into
which it flows through Watboo Creek. It rises in
the bays within a few miles of Santee Swamp, and
once afforded those who lived on its banks rice
fields, which were precarious on account of their
liability to freshets. Bordered on either side by
a wide extent of pine forest, and in its whole
length within a convenient distance of Watboo
landing, the planters on this swamp had their
attention early directed to the preparation of naval
stores of all kinds, the prices of which were stimu-
lated by the bounties paid by Great Britain for their
exportation. The vicinity of this swamp therefore
was the busy scene of this department of activity,
and nowhere, perhaps, have labor and enterprise
ever been so richly rewarded.

45. Beginning at the head of the swamp, the first
settlement was the residence of Benjamin Walker.

58 REMINISCENCES OF

His wife was Charlotte, daughter of Charles Cantey
of Mattesee. Their daughter Ann married George
English of Clarendon.

46. Tucker's, the next plantation, was the resi-
dence of the father of Peter and James Sinkler ;
after his death the family moved to Lifeland. As
an instance of the facility with which property was
accumulated at that time, it may be stated that on
Mr. Sinkler’s death his widow was left in possession
of one male slave. When Peter Sinkler died, and
he did not pass beyond the meridian of life, he left
three plantations and several hundred negroes, be-
sides the large amount of property of which he was
plundered when taken prisoner by the British. His
brother James was no less successful.

47. Gravel Hill was the residence of John Palmer,
a gentleman whose successful enterprise in the col-
lection of naval stores has caused him to be remem-
bered in our days by the distinguished appellation
of Turpentine John Palmer. His wife was Mari-
anne, daughter of John Gendron, whose father, an
emigrant Huguenot, was one of the pillars of the
Church at Jamestown. Their children were : Capt.
John Palmer, of Richmond, who married Anne
Cahusac; Peter, who lived afterwards at Polebridge,
and never married; and Thomas, who lived at
Gravel Hill and married Elizabeth Richbourgh ;
after her death he married Amelia Jerman, and
after her death, her sister, Harriet Jerman.

ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. 59

Age and the infirmity of gout prevented both
Mr. John Palmer and his brother Joseph, of Webdo,
from bearing arms during the revolutionary struggle.
But the former had sons who were active Whigs, and
the latter was known to be friendly to their cause.
They were, therefore, made the victims of cruelty
so wanton that it can hardly be credible that
it proceeded from a civilized enemy. They were
both seized and carried to Biggin Church, which
was then a British post, and there inhumanly thrust
into the Colleton family vault, without even a
blanket to protect them from the unwholesome
damps of their gloomy prison. After they were
liberated they were two days returning to Gravel
Hill, about ten miles distant. Oppressed with pain,
infirmity, and anxiety, each brother occasionally
carried the other on his back, when strength had
failed and the urgency of advancing became or
seemed apparent.

48. East of Gravel Hill was Cooper’s, so called
from a former resident. The place was afterwards
a part of the Gravel Hill tract.

49. On Wiskinboo Swamp, a tributary of the
Fair Forrest, was the residence of Mr. Edward
Greenland, grandfather of William Cain, Esq. His
daughter married Robert Cahusac, and was the
mother of John, who married Eliza Williams ; of
Anne, wife of John Couturier, the father of the
late Dr. John Couturier of Pineville; and of Susan,

60 REMINISCENCES OF

who married Col. Robert McKelvey. After Mr.
Cahusac’s death, his widow married Daniel Cain,
by whom she had two sons, Daniel and William
Cain.

50. West of the swamp, and opposite Gravel Hill,
was the residence of ——- Boisseau, and afterwards
of Mrs. Lehre.

51. Spring Grove was the residence of René
Peyre. He was twice married. René Peyre’s first
wife was Ann Cantey, sister of Mrs. John Peyre,
who married Peter Sinkler afterwards. His second
wife, Hannah Simmons, was the mother of Francis
Peyre, and of Anne, who married Thomas Ashby.
Francis Peyre, who succeeded his father on this
place, married Catharine, daughter of Peter Sinkler,
of Lifeland. Their children were: Elizabeth, who
married Charles Sinkler, and after his death, Thomas
Ashby; Anne, the wife of Stephen G. Deveaux ;
Catharine, wife of Dr. Theodore Gaillard; Florida,
wife of Isaac M. Dwight. Their son Francis mar-
ried Mary, daughter of Col. Thomas Porcher of
Ophir. After Mrs. Peyre’s death, Mr. Peyre mar-
ried Mary Peyre, daughter of Thomas Walter, the
botanist. Their children were: Isabella, who mar-
ried Dr. William Porcher; Thomas Walter and
Hannah Ashby, both of whom died unmarried.

Thomas Walter Peyre succeeded his father as
proprietor of Spring Grove, and resided on it for
some years ; he afterwards removed to Brunswick,

ST. STEPHEN’S PARISH. 61

in St. John’s, and spent his summers in Pinopolis in
the same parish, where he died in 1851. His vir-
tues were celebrated in the sketch of Craven County,
published in the Southern Quarterly Review, and I
shall not dwell on them here. With him died the
name of Peyre. The descendants of that once
numerous and respected family exist only in the
female line. His plantation is now owned by H.R.
Banks, Esq., of Charleston.

52. South of Spring Grove was the residence of
Pierre Robert, Esq., who never married.

53. The last plantation to be named in St.
Stephen’s Parish is LeBois, formerly the residence
of Pinckney, and afterwards of Peter Porcher,
son of Philip, and father of Dr. Peter Porcher of
Charleston.

Besides the swamp lands, the margin of Biggin
Swamp abounds in fertile land, and it was early
taken possession of by a dense population, chiefly
Huguenot, who cultivated indigo. These were
principally the St. Juliens, Marions, Mazycks, Rave-
nels, etc., and their descendants still retain the
greater part of these valuable lands. It is said that
the St. Julien family consisted once of nine brothers,
only one of whom married. His two daughters
married: the one, General Moultrie; and the other,
Daniel Ravenel of Somerton. This name, like that
of Peyre, has perished, and the blood subsists only
in the female line.

62 REMINISCENCES OF

A feature characteristic of this country, and one
that deserves notice, is the family burying-grounds.
After the erection of the St. Stephen’s Church, the
ground about it was the common cemetery, but
many persons to this day continue to bury their
dead in the old homestead, and chose to lie in
death within the precincts of their ancestors’ do-
main, even though perhaps they may have been
strangers to it in life. The graveyard was near the
house, usually behind the garden. As a precaution
against the depredation of wolves, a large hole was
dug to the depth of about five feet; a grave was
then dug at the bottom of this hole, large enough to
hold the coffin. After the coffin was deposited in
this receptacle, it was covered with boards, and the
whole then filled up. This practice continues to
this day. I can hardly enumerate the several grave-
yards. Those which have been latest used are: that
at Belle Isle, for the Marions and their descendants ;
at Mahams, for the descendants of Col. Maham ;
at the Old Field, for the family of Philip Porcher ;
at Gravel Hill, for the Palmers ; at Hanover in St.
John’s, for the descendants of the St. Juliens ; and
those at Pooshee and Somerton, for the families of
the Ravenels and Mazycks. It is not unlikely that
there are graves on almost every old homestead in
the country. ©

Black Oak is the central point in a region inter-
esting for various incidents connected with the revo-

ST. STEPHEN’S PARISH. 63

lution. These are too unimportant to have found
a place in history; but we are near Eutaw and
Quinby ; we are on the highway that led from
Charleston to nearly all the scenes where great
deeds were performed ; the armies of both friend
and foe camped near us, and marched near us, and
the people who lived in those days had countless in-
cidents to relate, all of which possessed a local or an
individual interest, and I cannot but regret that
their memory has perished. None of the witnesses
of thesé scenes survive, or if any linger still, he has
long passed the limit allotted by the Creator as the
period of human life. Would it not have been well
had our Legislature appointed commissioners whose
duty it should have been to collect and preserve au-
thentic anecdotes which could have been furnished
by those witnesses ? The expense would have been
trifling, and when once sustained would have been
ever available in preserving from oblivion much
of local interest, which would have been valu-
able to posterity. We are in the midst of sa-
cred territory; about us armies were encamped,
houses were burned, men imprisoned and brutally
murdered ; but as these were merely incidents to
more stirring and important events, they have
escaped the notice of the historian, and we now
tread the ground without a thought of the scenes
that were enacted upon it.

And not our own men only, but even our foes can

64 REMINISCENCES OF

furnish incidents both pleasant and painful to re-
member. Not two miles from Black Oak, by the
roadside is seen the grave of Major John Majori-
banks. This officer was one of the most useful
and efficient of the British army at Eutaw. Having
under his command a flank battalion of infantry,
posted on the creek, he rescued victory from our

grasp when the day seemed fairly and completely.

ours. The heat and the fatigues of that day, and
the unwholesome condition of the climate at that
season, gave him a fever. The British army (after
the worse than barren victory at Eutaw) was retreat-
ing to Charleston, now become their only place of
safety, and his comrades were forced to leave him at
Wantoot. Here, in the hut of a slave, this hero,
who but a fortnight before had saved the army of
his sovereign, now spent with disease, deprived of
all comforts, without hope and without sympathy,
lay, dependent on the slave of one against whom he
was waging a cruel war for all the assistance that
his situation required ; and in this humble hut he
sank, unwept and unknown, into the arms of death.
His remains received more honor from the Ravenel
family than from his comrades and associates. The
grave was long distinguished from the woody wil-
derness around it by a head-board, fashioned out of
a cypress plank lying about the plantation, the re-
mains of an indigo vat. This head-board with its
inscription remained in its place until 1836, and

ee ee

ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. 65

everybody admired the durability of the stuff which
had so long resisted the elements. In that year it
fell, and its place was immediately supplied by a
marble slab, erected by the sons of Daniel Ravenel,
who had planted the cypress head-board. Majori-
bank’s fate was that of the soldier ; but yet, as we
view his lonely grave, and remember his high char-
acter and his unhappy end, we cannot but sigh at
the extinction of bright and ambitious hopes, nor
refuse our sympathies to the memory of a brave
man, whose spirit was yielded, unsolaced by a
mother’s, a wife’s, or a sister's ministering hand ;
whose grave was moistened by no tear shed by any
one who loved him.

Some distance beyond the St. Stephen’s line, and
just below the Eutaw Spring, was another settle-
ment, chiefly of Huguenot families,viz. : the Coutu-
riers, Marions, Gignilliats, Chouvenaus, Gourdins,
etc., besides others of English descent, the McKel-
veys, Ervines, Olivers, Kirks, etc. All of these
in the course of time were connected by intermar-
riage. The land was well adapted to the growth of
provisions and indigo, and in consequence of the
fertility of the high lands they escaped the full
measure of the calamities with which their neighbors
of St. Stephen’s were visited when the river became
unsafe. The same picture of a prosperous and hap-
py condition with which I have introduced this sketch,
may be applied to this neighborhood also, and the

66 REMINISCENCES OF

happiness which is there described, continued to be
the portion of the people, until in the course of the
revolutionary war the British got possession of the
State, and established their military posts over every
portion of the country. Then the people became
more clearly divided into Whigs and Tories ; and
their misery was increased by the proclamation of
the British commander, offering to all who would
accept it, peace and protection; and complete ex-
emption from the obligation of taking up arms
against their countrymen.

Not only the Tories but even some of the most
zealous Whigs accepted this delusive protection.
With the exception of Marion and his handful of
men, resistance had ceased to be entertained, and
the State lay prostrate at the mercy of the conquer-
ors... Some of the most sagacious Whigs refused
to be deluded by the bait, and when a brief period
of repose exposed the hollowness of the protection,
they again took up arms and abandoned the cultiva-
tion of their lands except for necessary provisions.
Their ingenuity was also taxed to conceal their
slaves and secure them from the avaricious clutches
of their foes. When peace was restored every planter
was in debt; no market crops had been made for
years ; and where the river swamp was their sole
dependence, even provisions had not been made. It
was not a season therefore merely of embarrassment ;

1 See Note B., at the end.

ST. STERHEN'S PARISH. 67

ruin stared many in the face. Besides, with the ex-
ception of rice the country had no staple crop; for
since the bounty, which as colonists they had enjoyed
on the export of indigo and naval stores, had been
discontinued, these products ceased to have any
value, and negroes fell in price. Prime gangs were
not unfrequently sold for less than two hundred dol-
lars per head.

I cannot better illustrate the total depreciation of
value than by the following case: Milford planta-
tion, consisting of one hundred acres of high land,
and between three hundred and four hundred acres
of swamp, had been purchased by Mr. Samuel Cordes
for six thousand guineas sterling, and at the period
of which I now write, was abandoned as worthless.
To add to the other causes of distress, those whose
property consisted in paper and securities were
either not paid at all, or paid in valueless continental
money. The people however had gained the great
object of their years of toil, and they were sanguine
respecting the future. Without relaxation of effort
however poorly requited, they were sustained by
the buoyant and elastic trait of the Huguenot char-
acter ; they had seen hardships before, and did not
sink under these. They strove to reduce their ex-
penses to the lowest possible point ; they manufac-
tured clothing for themselves and their slaves ; raised
abundant supplies of poultry and stock of various
kinds, and with these contrived to live in plenty. The

68 REMINISCENCES OF

bitter feelings generated by the war gradually soft-
ened down; hostile families were reconciled, and the
intermarriage of their children formed a bond of
friendship.

After nearly ten years of unrequited labor, the

Santee Canal was projected, and constructed within |

their neighborhood. Every one availed himself to
a greater or less extent of this opportunity of hiring
their negroes; for men they received thirty and for
women twenty pounds sterling per annum, besides
their food. At times a thousand laborers were em-
ployed on this work, which was seven years in being
completed. This enterprise, which was disastrous
to those who had embarked in it, rescued a large
number of planters from ruin. It was commenced
in 1792, and finished in 1800. ‘Two or three years
after it had been commenced, a few planters in the
neighborhood tried the cultivation of cotton on a
small scale, but the progress of this enterprise was
slow and irresolute, in consequence of the difficulty
of preparing it for market. With the improvement
of the gins, the cotton culture increased and was ex-
tended, until 1799, when Capt. James Sinkler planted
three hundred acres at his plantation Belvidere, on
Eutaw Creek, and reaped from each acre two hun-
dred and sixteen pounds, which he sold for from fifty
to seventy-five cents per pound. Since that period
no other agricultural staple has stood in the way of
its cultivation.

—————— os

ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. 69

Dancing is a recreation in which our people have
always indulged. The sports of the turf were eagerly
enjoyed, and our fathers were fond of the most
manly of all others, the ball alley. Before and some
time after the war, there was an alley near the road
by Blueford, which was attended by persons from
every part of the State. General Sumter was often
there, and he was unrivalled as a ball-player. Barbe-
cues were favorite amusements, and always gave
occasions for dancing. A certain number of families
would by turn furnish these dinners at some con-
venient spot affording water as well as shade. The
attendance would be general, and after the pleasures
of the turf-spread table were over, those who were
inclined to dance would retire to the house of some
individual near by, and the night, and not unfre-
quently the following day, would be spent in dan-
cing, the partners being engaged, not as now, for the
half hour, but for the season. I can well remember
the scenes of these barbecues, and the preparations
for the dinner. The spots on which these festivals
were held long continued to give unquestionable
evidence of the scenes which had been enacted
on them.

I feel loath to leave untold a story I have often
heard in my youth of two young men, Daniel
McKelvey and his cousin Robert, better known as
Col. McKelvey, and father of the late Colonel.

A short distance below Eutaw Creek, on the

7O REMINISCENCES OF

river bank, was the residence of a widow lady,
whose only companion was an orphan girl, and
whose property consisted of a small tract of land
and a few negroes. Her neighbors were not re-
hmote, but the troubled state of the times and the
difficulty of access to her dwelling in the swamp
had, ever since the occupation of the country by the
British, and the broad distinction now existing be-
tween Whigs and Tories, cut her off almost entirely
from society. The brutality of the British and
Tories in sacking houses, carrying off cattle, abduct-
ing slaves, insulting the defenceless, and sometimes
burning the dwellings of those who were particu-
larly obnoxious to them, was such as to prové that
security was cheaply bought, even at the cost of the
deprivation of society. A few, however, would oc-
casionally seek the hospitality of her roof, among
whom were the cousins McKelvey, who would fly
from the toils and privations of the continental army
to recruit in this garden of peace and of plenty.
They were young men of fine talents, good con-
nections, and easy fortunes. Robert was witty, hu-
morous, and lively ; Daniel, sober, sensitive, and of
bland and amiable manners.

Seated in this retreat, at a table well spread in-
deed, but which to the ill-fed partisans appeared a
display of prodigality, they were startled by a terri-
fied negro rushing in with the alarming information
that the redcoats were approaching through the

ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. 7a

cornfield, and were then within fifty yards of the
house. The two McKelveys sprang through the
back window to the ground, and dashed with the
speed of hope, goaded by the love of liberty and
life, to the river in the rear of the yard.

But nothing is swifter than the instrument of
malice, or more circumspect than its foresight.
Several muskets were fired in quick succession, and
Daniel McKelvey fell. Robert continued his flight,
reached the river bank unhurt by the volley of balls
which flew about him, and plunged in. The chan-
nel, which lay far beneath the bluff, bore upon the
bank, and had worn in it a crescent-shaped excava-
tion. The pursuers were almost instantly on the
bluff. They were eight or ten English soldiers,
conducted by some Tories, of whom the leader was
one Raburn, who had been in the employment of
one of the McKelveys as an overseer. Raburn
knew that McKelvey could not swim; and as he
communicated this information to his comrades,
they left him to his fate. They carried Daniel, who
was mortally wounded, into the house, and there,
regardless of the tears and entreaties of the widow
and orphan, proceeded to plunder. After having
finished his arrangements for taking off slaves,
horses, cattle, and whatever provisions could be
transported in the plantation carts, Raburn turned
to McKelvey and said: “I am going now, Daniel,
and shall probably never see you again. Will you

72 REMINISCENCES OF

shake hands? I have nothing against you, but that
you are a d—d rebel.” The victim was past speak-
ing; but he slowly placed his hand in that of his
murderer, exhibiting in his last action the power of
the Christian principle, and stamping with the seal
of perfection a character which had always been
lovely.

It was past midnight, and the two unhappy wo-
men were still hovering by the side of the dying
McKelvey, when the door opened, and Robert
McKelvey gently approached the mourning group.
A glance of recognition brightened the eye of the
sufferer, and was directly succeeded by the insensi-
bility of death, When Robert McKelvey, who
could not swim, had cast himself into the river, the
current had borne him to the crescent-shaped exca-
vation of the bank already mentioned ; and there a
tree, whose foundation had been washed away, still
floated, attached by a few roots to the earth. Get-
ting under this treé, and clinging to it with his
hands, its leaves and branches hid him from obser-
vation ; and in this retreat he lay until in the silence
of night he ventured to come out and witness the
havoc which his ruthless enemies had made.

Few of us are able to appreciate the sacrifices en-
dured and the heroic resolution exhibited by our
mothers of the revolution. True, the pen of the
historian has often attempted to do them justice ;
but only a few heroic and melodramatic acts can

ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. 73

find their way into the pages of history. No pen
can adequately describe the anguish of mind con-
stantly endured for the fate of husbands and sons,
exposed not merely to the dangers of the tented
field, but to all the horrors of a civil war, in which
life was every moment in peril from every quarter.
It would be an endless tale to recount the instances
of barbarous rudeness which they experienced from
a remorseless and an exasperated soldiery, whose
discipline was purposely relaxed by the stern policy
of our unrelenting foe. No one can adequately
portray those heartrending troubles which afflicted
the lonely and isolated mothers with their tender
offspring to support, not secure that even the meal
in actual preparation would appease their craving
appetites, for even this was often the prey of the
robber soldier. Even the aid of servants was un-
certain ; for no one could foresee the moment when
it would be necessary to conceal them from his
avaricious grasp. All these trials were endured
with fortitude which none but women can exhibit.
Often in childhood have I hung upon a mother’s
lap and listened with astonished wonder to the
recital of tales of misery like these. Information
from the camp was seldom received, and was always
uncertain. The ladies adopted a system of tele-
graphing, by which it was extended as soon as it
reached one of them. Flags were raised upon a
pole, which by their shape and color indicated the

74. REMINISCENCES OF

character of the news as good or bad; and as the
houses were generally in sight one of the other, the
news was quickly transmitted through the neigh-
borhood.

The culture of the indigo plant was the principal
occupation of the planters ; and its manufacture, or
the process of extracting the dye, involved much
risk and demanded, during the whole period of the
process (the ‘(making season”’ as it used to be
called), not only skill, but unremitting attention. I
can well remember how often, in the process of
what was called “‘ beating,” the liquor was taken up
in a plate and anxiously examined in the rays of the
sun, in order to ascertain whether all the particles
of dye were separated ; for, if not, the result would
be a failure ; the bright true-blue color would not
be obtained, and the value of the drug would be im-
paired. There were, as might be expected, many
grades of professional reputation among the plant-
ers. I have often heard it said that, during the
manufacturing season, Mr. Peter Sinkler would be
three weeks without seeing his wife, though he slept
every night in his bed. He would come home late
at night, when she was asleep, and would return to
the scene of his professional labors before she awoke
in the early morning.

The process of culture and the manufacture, once
so important to the people of this State, is now for-
gotten ; even Drayton, whose “ View of Carolina”’

ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. 75

was published in 1802, did not think it worth the
labor of description. As I saw the process habitu-
ally when a boy, and continued long to associate
with those who were engaged in its culture, I shall
briefly describe the whole process from the planting
of the seed to its departure from the plantation.
The land was well cleared, drained, and thor-
oughly broken up and pulverized ; after all appre-
hension of frost was over, the fields were laid off in
drills about an inch deep, and from twelve to fifteen
inches apart from each other. In these drills the
seeds, mixed with lime and ashes, were sown. If
the season was a fair one, the seeds came up within
ten days or a fortnight, and grew off rapidly. The
plants were cut three or four times in the season,
for making the dye ; and during all this period they
required nice and frequently repeated hoeing and
weeding. When they had grown to the height of
two or three feet, the plants were cut with a reaping
hook, and carried to the macerating vat. This vat
was strongly constructed of thick cypress planks,
raised some height above the ground. When this
vat, which was called the “steeper,” was furnished
with a sufficient quantity of weed, clear water was
poured into it, and the weeds were left to steep or
macerate until all the coloring matter was extracted
from them ; the fluid was then drawn off by means
of a faucet into an adjoining vat called the “ beater.”
An axle to which were attached arms long enough

76 REMINISCENCES OF

nearly to reach the opposite sides of the vat, and
each furnished with a small bucket at its end, ran
lengthwise through the centre of this vat. Laborers
would then place themselves upon this vat, and work
the axle with handles or cranks, so as to cause the
buckets to rise and fall alternately in the liquor.
This process was continued until the coloring mat-
ter was united ina body. ‘This operation required
great nicety, for if the beating was not continued
long enough, a part of the tingeing matter remained
dissolved in the liquor; if continued too long, a
part of that which had separated is dissolved afresh.
Lime was then applied, which assisted in the separa-
tion of the water from the indigo. The whole
being now suffered to rest until the blue matter had
settled, the clear water was drawn off by cocks in
the sides at different heights, and the blue part dis-
charged by a cock in the bottom into another vat.
It was then strained through cloth bags, and spread
out in shallow vessels called ‘‘ bowls,” to harden and
dry. When the substance had acquired sufficient
consistency, it was cut into cakes or lumps, each
weighing about one quarter of a pound. While
packing the indigo for market, these lumps were
brushed to make them as bright as possible. They
were generally packed in bags or boxes.

Few planters attempted to cultivate more than
four acres of indigo to the hand. The great enemy
of the growing crop was the grasshopper, which

STUSTEMMBEN |S PARISH. 77

would sometimes destroy the crop in a few days.
The best remedy against this enemy was chick-
ens. I recollect that my father was in the habit
every year of sending into the swamp fields several
hundred chickens; movable coops were furnished
for their accommodation at night, but no food ; nor
did they require any so long as the grasshopper in-
fested the fields. Those who could not use chickens
suffered the margins of their fields to grow up in
grass; the grasshoppers, driven from the fields with
whipping brushes, would alight in the grass, which
was then fired in several places at once. The price
of indigo varied at from a dollar to two dollars and
a half per pound. Few planters ever realized more
than one hundred and twenty dollars to the hand.
The bounty allowed by the British government was
sixpence sterling per pound.

The culture of indigo and its manufacture is said
to be attended in the West Indies and in other
parts of the world with diseases, violent, severe,
and at times fatal. If this was ever the case in
South Carolina my memory furnishes me with no
instances of it. I have every reason to believe the
contrary, having known instances of indigo planters
who were by no means successful planters, who never-
theless acquired fortunes by the natural increase of
their negroes.

Before the revolution Monck’s Corner was a
place of some commercial importance. There were

78 REMINISCENCES OF

three or four well-kept taverns, and five or six excel-
lent stores. These were generally branches of larger
establishments in Charleston, and as they sold goods
at Charleston prices they commanded a fair busi-
ness. The usual practice of the Santee planter was
to take his crop to Monck’s Corner, sell it there, re-
ceiving cash or goods in exchange, dine, and return
home in the afternoon.

After indigo had become a valueless drug the
planters turned their attention to the culture of
rice, and brought into cultivation every branch and
inland swamp which could produce it. After it was
harvested it was prepared for the market by the
slow and laborious process of beating by the hand.
This was done with a pestle in mortars holding
each three pecks of rough rice. This was an ex-
tra task, performed on some plantations before day-
light, on others after nightfall. In the course of
time those who had water-power constructed rice
mills ; others used a machine with from four to six
pestles. This was generally worked by oxen and
was called the ‘“ pecker machine.”

In my boyhood there was not a four-wheeled car-
riage owned in that part of Santee which I have
been describing, with the exception of a heavy and
unsightly vehicle, something like a baggage wagon,
owned by General Marion. It was called a caravan
and was drawn by four horses, ridden by postilions.
The vehicle in common use was the chair. It was

—————— =

ST. STEPHEN’S PARISH. 79

strongly built, wide, and roomy; three persons
could be comfortable on the seat, and several chil-
dren could sit on small benches in the bottom.
Some years afterwards a few persons used a light-
er description of carriage called coaches ; these were
very much like a modern carriage cut in two. They
had a seat in the back ; in feciat was the dicky seat.
When four horses were used, as was frequently the
case, the leaders were managed by a postilion
mounted on the near horse. About the year 1800
carriages became more common. Without being
more commodious than those now in use, they
were very costly and heavy. Every panel had a
glass and venetian blinds; they generally cost a
thousand dollars, and required to be drawn by four
horses.

Few horses were then furnished from the West.
The planters generally raised as many as they want-
ed. In the inventory of the property of Peter Sink-
ler destroyed by the British, mentioned in another
part of this paper, are more than forty brood
animals,

Until the establishment of manufactories in this
country all articles of furniture, clothing, etc., were
dear. A good hat cost from ten to twelve dellaes:
a pair of boots from twelve to fifteen dollars ; a dress
coat from forty to sixty dollars ; and other articles
in proportion. Our mothers had to pay five or six
shillings a yard for stuff not neater, nor prettier, nor

80 REMINISCENCES OF

perhaps not superior to that which may now be had
everywhere for one eighth of a dollar.

Before the revolution and some time afterwards
the people of St. Stephen’s enjoyed a greater share
of health than they have since experienced. A few
facts will establish this. Whilst this portion of the
State was held by the British, military posts were
established at Fairlawn, Monck’s Corner, Lifeland,
and other places, some on the very edge of the
swamp, and others on spots which have subse-
quently been found to be equally unhealthful.
The garrisons of these posts, consisting of Eng-
lish, Scotch, Irish, and German troops, all enjoyed
a reasonable degree of health. Three or four weeks
before the battle of Eutaw, three regiments of Irish
troops, just landed in Charleston, were marched into
the country and were engaged in that battle. These
facts are derived not from our fathers alone, who
knew the truth, but from Dr. Jackson, author of the
‘Diseases of Tropical Climates,” who was in that
army. It wasthen a common practice with some fam-
ilies in Charleston to choose the fruit season, z. e¢.,
July and August, to visit their friends on the river,
and spend weeks there without any apprehension of
danger. Nay, I have been assured by those who
have been actors in these scenes, that parties would
come up from Charleston in midsummer to enjoy
bream and trout fishing on the Santee. They would,
after an early breakfast, be on the river or lake by

CN —

ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. SI

sunrise, dine in the swamp on the fish they had
caught, and spend the rest of the day in hunting
deer. These hunting and fishing frolics would last
about a week, and no consequences injurious to
health followed.

After the year 1790, when freshets in the river
became more frequent, the climate became more
sickly.. The residents along the swamp suffered
severely from agues and fever, and it was observed
with surprise, and it still remains a mystery, that
overseers and negroesand others who lived entirely
in the swamp enjoyed more health than those who
lived on the uplands. Capt. James Sinkler, who
was a sagacious observer, was led from his observa-
tions to believe that a pine-land residence, even but
a short distance from the swamp, would secure its
occupants from fever. Acting on this notion, he
built a house for himself in the pine land, and in
June, 1793, retreated to it with a family, blacks and
whites included, of more than twenty persons. In
November, he returned to his plantation, having
passed the summer in the enjoyment of uninter-
rupted health. This experiment was immediately
imitated. Pineville was first settled in 1794, by
Capt. John Palmer, Peter Gaillard, John Cordes,
Philip Porcher, Samuel Porcher, and Peter Porcher.
The liability to fevers, which was a bar to the en-
joyment of happiness, being thus happily prevented, a
suffering people quickly became contented and happy.

82 REMINISCENCES OF

No circumstance has contributed more to the
welfare of the low country than the discovery of a
region in which the planters could enjoy health and
at the same time be near their plantations. It has,
in fact, prevented the depopulation of the country.
Other advantages followed; numbers being col-
lected together in one village, they were enabled to
establish a church, a school, a library, a market,
besides the countless little comforts which are within
the reach only of numbers. The country still re-

mained under the supervision of the proprietors; a

vigilant police was established. These villages are
fortresses where they are most useful, and secure
to their owners a well-governed and therefore an
obedient, well-ordered, and happy body of slaves.
When the war broke out, the churches in these
parishes were closed, and nearly all the clergy re-
signed and left the State. They were generally
royalists and Englishmen, and a portion of their
salaries was paid by the “Society in London for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.”
During the war, many of the beautiful houses which
had been erected for the worship of God were used
by the British as store-houses, sometimes even as
stables, and several, when they were forced to aban-
don the country, were ruthlessly set fire to and
burned down, On the return of peace, the religious
sentiment of the people was found to have suffered
sadly in consequence of the long deprivation of

a

ST. STERHEN’S PARISH. 83

habitual public religious worship. A rigid morality
took the place of the religion of the gospel, and
many believed that morality was religion. The
churches which had not been destroyed were subse-
quently reopened, and their pulpits supplied by min-
isters from England. But these persons were too
often utterly unfit for their sacred office, some of
them positively wanting even the habit of a decent
morality. The people were disgusted with them,
and the churches were again closed.

It is difficult to estimate the injury done to the
cause of religion by these unworthy ministers. It
may give you some idea of the state of destitution
of this prosperous district, when I tell you that in
1786 I was baptized by a minister who lived more
than fifty miles off, and whose presence among us was
accidental, and that I never again saw a minister
until I was twelve years of age, and of course had
never entered a house of worship. The church was
not permanently reopened in St. Stephen’s Parish
until 1812.

During this barren and mournful period, there
lived in the midst of us a man of God. He was poor
in the wealth of the world ; but in love, in faith in
his Redeemer, and in the works which characterize
a true disciple, he stood in the front rank of all the
men it has ever been my fortune to know. He was
a remembrancer to those about him of the reality
of God’s existence, as the proper object of our af-

84 REMINISCENCES OF

fection and our worship. Often when a boy have I
seen him on a little pony riding through our planta-
tion on his way to church in Christ Church Parish.
forty miles distant ; and when I heard him reply to
my father, who asked him the object of his journey,
that there was to be sacrament in Mr. McCauley’s
church, I could scarcely take my eyes from him ; not
because I admired his zeal or his fidelity, but because
I thought he must bea fool. Mr. McCauley was a
Presbyterian and a man of some note in his day.

In my frequent rambles amid these now deserted
plantations, I often stop to gaze on the ruins which
present themselves to my view. I feel lost in pain-
ful wonder at the utter desolation of these places:
not a living soul is there ; not a living thing that |
can see. Nota sigh, not a whisper, not a sound of
life comes from these ruins. The silence of death is
everywhere. Not even the wail of a bird of prey
reaches me through these shattered walls. There
is nothing but ruin everywhere. Not a bird of
good or evil omen sits upon these fragments. Not
a wild beast haunts these ruins. All is still, and
silent, and lifeless. I sit upon a fallen tree or a heap
of broken bricks, and look with a saddened heart
upon this scene of desolation; and I wonder what
has become of all who once lived here—the good,

.
ST. STEPHEN’S PARISH. 85

fhe wicked, the beautiful, the gay. How lived they ,
how died they? Are all their deeds buried with them ?
and is nothing left but the brief record of others?
Was happiness within these walls? Did those who
dwelt within them feel as we do, who now look upon
these ruins? Did they too look back upon the past
and forward to the future, and then turn to dust at
last, feed the worms of the earth, and. nourish the
weeds that cover it? Are these masses of ruins all
that they have left to bear witness of their lives?
In the graveyard, the resting-place of the dead, there
is only the gloom of death. Silence is becoming
there ; it is what we naturally expect. But here, in
the abiding-place of men, where was once the din of
busy life, we have now the silence of death, and more
than its gloom. For these walls were meant for the
living, but now no living soul dwells within them.
SAMUEL DuBose.

slide Siero |
Toh seabed aot ser bar SpE i
me Ii KIO ss | ini otk Thee ea :
eh nee ras esl Papa aint elie piiae oie ha a
shy ey servant CREME BS one ERM nila ee
ae: eesti errregty erie bad OE aa ee)
focdanibec id) iS BART
| sor oe ante ce

ese] pf aay Aree ee
Pree i ciy TNT ey
. * ‘

ag i a
ee ny ade

‘ ind “8

. ne fens

/ oe ame , a

a ie Kea at a) Ea: 4

Plo ltORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH

OF

Craven County, Soutu Caro.ina.

By Freperick A. PorcHEr, Esa.

[From the April, 1852, No, of Southern Quarterly Review.]|

87

a Co
A hs td

HISTORICAL. AND SOCIAL, SKETCH.

This brochure from the Charleston press‘ consti-
tutes a sufficient text for us, while we seek to report
the domestic and social history, from the earliest
known periods of the region of country in which the
scene is laid. Our beginning is fairly made by Old-
mixon in his ‘ Carolina.” ‘‘ We come now,” saith
this old chronicler, ‘to South Carolina, which is
parted from North by Zantee River. The adja-
cent county is called Craven County ; it is pretty
well inhabited by English and French; of the latter
there is asettlement on Zantee River, and they were
very instrumental in the irregular election of the
Unsteady Assembly. . . . This county sends
ten members to the Assembly.” This is all from
him, but it is enough. ‘The Unsteady Assembly”
is, itself,a text. We shall expatiate on what he has
so briefly said, and to add to the extent of the history,
if we do not greatly increase its value. Our work
is not that of the review exactly; but there is noth-

1«« The Golden Christmas : a Chronicle of St. John’s Berkeley.”” Compiled
from the Notes of a Briefless Barrister. By the author of ‘‘ The Yemassee,”
‘*Guy Rivers,” ‘‘ Katharine Walton,” etc. Charleston: Walker, Richards,
& Co., 1852.

89

gO AITSTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

ing misplaced in subjecting countries to the same
treatment which we bestow on books. It is as an
old resident that we give our regards to Craven
County in South Carolina. :

Local attachments are strongest among the in-
habitants of the country. Those especially whose
youth has been nurtured among mountains, are
bound by a chain stronger than adamant to the
homes of their infancy. The denizen of a crowded
metropolis is vain-glorious, perhaps proud, of his
city, but he has no love for it. He forms a very in-
significant atom in the vast mass of humanity which
surrounds him, and he easily transfers his affection
to whatsoever portion of the world may contain his
household gods. Not so with the rural citizen or
the inhabitant of a village. No throng of uninter-
ested spectators ever torments him with a conscious-
ness of his own littleness. He feels that he isa man
of note; that he holds a conspicuous and an import-
ant place in society; he can calculate the political
value of his life. He doubts whether his existence
is not necessary to the well-being of the world ; and
he rewards, with the devotion of his whole heart, the
spot which confers such importance upon him.

It has been remarked, in many localities, that the
youth who had grown up amid them, however far
they may have roamed in quest of fortune, invariably
return to close their days within reach of the scenes
hallowed by their early associations. It is said that

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. gI

every sweep who ascends the chimneys of Paris, has
constantly in his mind the picture of some cherished
nook in the Savoy Alps, the hope of returning to
which, as its owner, gives him courage to toil and
fortitude to save the rewards of his labors. Think
not, as you view the uninteresting faces of these
apparently hapless children of poverty, that all is
dark and desolate within their bosoms. They are
animated with a hope which many a more fortunate-
looking man might envy. Their hearts retain viv-
idly the impressions of happiness once enjoyed, and
beat with exultation as each hour of toil brightens
the prospect of resuming it. What to themare the
tall and gloomy chimneys of the gay metropolis?
They are the portals through which they approach
their Alpine farms. But alas! well has the old
French romancer sung :

“Oh ne le quittez pas ; c’est moi qui vous le dis
Le devant de la porte ot l’on jouait jadis ;
L’église ot tout enfant, d’une voix douce et claire,
Vous chantiez 4 la messe auprés de votre mére ;
Et la petite école, ou trainant chaque pas,
Vous alliez le matin—oh ne la quittez pas.”

He who would be happy amid the scenes of his
infancy must so live as to preserve the freshness of
that age. Time and absence efface nearly all that
was hallowed to the youthful mind, and too fre-
quently the success of the young adventurer, instead
of leading him to the realization of his happiness,

Q2 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

only awakens him from the enjoyment of a delicious
day-dream.

_ Next to mountains, the forest possesses an irre-
sistible charm for the imagination. Its sublime
loneliness is relieved by the endless changes which
the seasons, in their order, bring forth, and each, in
its turn, affects the mind of the beholder. There is
an indescribable charm in a northern forest when
the earth is covered with snow, and the bare trees
stand as if mourning over the desolation which has
overtaken them. But the sweetest sensations are
those excited by the pine forests of our southern
soil. Here nature dies not, but only takes her rest.
Her trees, which give character to the scene, are
always verdant, but their verdure has none of the
witchery of a more genial season. The tall and
branchless monarchs of the forest rear their heads
aloft to meet the rays of the sun, and as they catch
the chilling blast which salutes them, utter a low and
melancholy murmur of complaint as they bow before
the mysterious breeze. Nor is the prospect enliv-
ened by the sight of animal life. The solitary wood-
pecker mingles no melody with the tapping of his
bill as he industriously pursues his food. The
hoarse croaking of the crow is in perfect harmony
with the scene. The gray squirrel regards, partly
with astonishment, partly with alarm, the disturber
of his quiet home. The whole scene is the abode
of solitude, but not that which depresses the heart.

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 93

“To sit on rocks, to muse o’er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest’s shady scene,
Where things that own not man’s dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne’er or rarely been ;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flocks that never need a fold ;
Alone o’er steeps and foaming falls to lean.
This is not solitude; ’t is but to hold
Converse with nature’s charms, and view her charms unroll’d.”

That portion of Craven County which lies south
of Santee River is marked by this species of solitary
grandeur, heightened, however, by an association
with former animation. He who travels in winter
from the bank of the Santee Canal towards the
east will find himself in an almost uninterrupted
forest of pines. On his left lie the mysterious
depths of the Santee Swamp, whose soil, once teem-
ing with the rewards of industry, is now abandoned
to the hand of nature; before and around him the
tall pines, with their melancholy moan, spread them-
selves in an apparently impenetrable mass. Here
and there a broad and well-worn avenue leading
from the wood, or a stately time-honored mansion,
seen in the distance, heightens the sense of solitari-
ness by suggesting ideas of society. As you pro-
ceed, you find yourself in the streets of a village;
but the houses are built with a special reference to
the preservation of the trees; and the closed doors
and windows of these dwellings, their chimneys,
from which issues no hospitable smoke, recall vividly

94. HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

to the imagination the idea of a city of the dead.
But the neat church, with its modest belfry, suggests
the idea of a Christian life; while, on clearing the
skirts of the village, a well-beaten track, with all the
appointments of a race-course, indicates that this
eminently southern sport has its votaries. The road
now leaves all vestiges of life, but it is good, and
there is a something about it, its firm and well-
beaten track nearly overgrown with turf, contrasting
curiously with the neglected ditches which define its
limits on either side, that mysteriously recalls the
notion of ancient grandeur. Now it crosses one of
the great highways to the metropolis ; and now ap-
pears a low wooden building, containing one apart-
ment, with a table extending nearly its whole length,
and benches on either side. This is the club-house,
where the citizens meet from time to time for
the unrestrained enjoyment of social and convivial
intercourse. At every step as you proceed you find
traces of former industry. Large circular tumuli
abound, bearing on their surface trees of venerable
age, which have grown up since the mounds were
formed in the process of making tar. And now,
too, you see the trunks of trees, with their barks
neatly and carefully stripped to a great height, pre-
senting to alively imagination the appearance of an
innumerable assemblage of tombstones. These are
the marks of the turpentine gatherers, and this dis-
play of the presence of recent.activity heightens the

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 95

impression of the solitude which actually surrounds
you.

While the mind is thus carried from one depth of
loneliness to another, a dull object appears indis-
tinctly before you; as you approach, its form grad-
ually reveals itself, and soon the old parish church
of St. Stephen stands before you—a handsome
brick edifice. It stands at the head of one road
which comes from the south, and is so situated that
it may be seen at a considerable distance by those
who approach it, either from the east or the west,
by the main or river road. The church tells a story
of former grandeur and of present desolation ;
though not large, it indicates a respectable congre-
gation ; it is finished with neatness, with some pre-
tensions even to elegance, and the beholder in-
voluntarily mourns over the ruin to which it is
doomed.’ All around it are graves; these seem
to be literally running into the woods; some are
marked by stones, which record the virtues of those
whose remains now form part of the soil ; some, set
apart for families, are enclosed by walls of brick or
of perishable timber, and many are protected from
the ravages of obtrusive cattle by logs rudely piled

! Since this has been written, the public spirit of some of the citizens of
Pineville and its vicinity has repaired the church, and divine service is
occasionally performed there. It is, however, doomed to ruin. Situated
beyond the convenient reach of the people, it is maintained only by a feel-
ing of reverence for the past. It is not hazarding much to predict that this
will not suffice to preserve it for any considerable period.

96 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

around the humble mound which covers the de-
ceased. Of the monuments to the dead, some are
in perfect harmony with the church; the stones
have fallen from their places, and the eye with
difficulty deciphers the names of those who have
long ceased to be numbered among the inhabitants
of earth. Others have all the brightness which
indicates that they have just left the hands of the
sculptor, and here and there a melancholy mound is
seen, whose freshness shows that time has not yet
allowed this last memorial to be offered to departed
worth. Here, then, lie the dead of Craven County
—here lie those whose taste planned, and whose
energy reared, this elegant temple; and here, too,
lie those who but yesterday gazed like us upon this
strange scene, and experienced the same emotions
which now overpower our minds. Here, all is past.
To them the present is an impossibility. The father
and the son, the old and the young, the long for-
gotten, and the recently loved, all lie here together
in one common past, and link it strangely and fear-
fully with the future !

Before such a scene what vague and undefined
thoughts flit across the mind! If you stand on the
north side of the church and look through the open
doors (and they are never closed), you see a road
coming from the south, whose well-beaten track the
eye can distinguish until the sense of sight is over-
powered by the distance. On the right and on the

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 97

left the same dull, unbroken line of road is seen—
their well-defined track is all that breaks the mo-
notony of the forest ; and they, perhaps, even add to
its impressiveness by opening a vista through which
its extent may be more sensibly felt. Strange and
mysterious traces of life and of civilization! To
what end do they appear to have been constructed ?
In this’ perfect solitude, whence do they come?
Whither do they lead? Strange, that in this spot
they should unite ! that they all lead to the grave!
that one of them must have been the last over
which these innumerable slumberers must have
been respectively borne !

That portion of Craven County which lies south
of the Santee River comprises the parishes of St.
James, Santee, and St. Stephen. Its extent to the
north of the Santee appears never to have been de-
fined. Near the line which now divides these two
parishes stood the village of Jamestown, remarkable
as being one of the principal settlements of the
French Huguenots. In 1704 the Church of Eng-
land was, by act of Assembly, established in South
Carolina, and two years afterwards the French of
this town were, on their own petition, erected into a
parish and indulged with a ritual in their own lan-
guage. The whole of that long and narrow tract of
land, which extends from the canal into the sea
(about fifty miles), and lies between the river and
those parishes which constituted Berkeley County,

98 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

was known as Santee Parish, which, as it became
settled, was distinguished into English and French
Santee, from the character of its inhabitants ; the
former occupying the part since built by the de-
scendants of the latter, and known as St. Stephen’s
Parish. The French emigrants were attracted to
three principal points out of Charleston; these
were: the head-waters of Ashley River, Wassamas-
saw ; that large feeder of Cooper River, known as
French Quarter Creek ; and Jamestown.

Lawson, who visited the Santee in 1700, found
about fifty French families settled on its banks;
but he does not appear to have known of the exist-
ence of Jamestown. These Frenchmen, he says,
generally follow a trade with the Indians, for which
they are conveniently situated. His brief notice of
these people proves that they made a very favorable
impression upon him. In one passage he says:

“Meeting with several creeks, the French, whom we met
coming from their church, were very officious in assisting with
their small dories to pass over these waters; they were all
clean and decent in their apparel, their houses and plantations
suitable in neatness and contrivance. They are all of the same
opinion with the church of Geneva, there being no difference.
among them concerning the punctilios of their Christian faith ;
which union hath propagated a happy and delightful concord
in all other matters throughout the whole neighborhood ;
living amongst themselves as one tribe or kindred, every one
making it his business to be assistant to the wants of his
countrymen, preserving his estate and reputation with the same

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 99

exactness and concern as he does his own; all seeming to
share in the misfortunes, and rejoice in the advance and rise
of their brethren.”

Of these Frenchmen, who were destined to affect
so powerfully the social condition of lower Carolina,
it were to be wished that our traveller had given
some particulars in addition to the above. He
mentions having stopped at four houses: those of
Mr. Huger, the ancestor of the numerous family of
that name; of Mr. Gaillard, sen., and Mr. Gaillard,
jr., and of Mr. Gendron.

The name of this last gentleman is extinct, but
his blood flows in the veins of a numerous posterity.
We, long ago, found a copy of his will, by which it
appears that he had a son and five daughters. These
married, respectively, Mr. Cordes, Mr. Porcher,
Mr. Huger, and Mr. Prioleau. To each of them
he bequeaths a sum of money and some articles of
housekeeping, particularly feather-beds. To a fifth
daughter, who was yet unmarried (qui reste A
marier) he leaves a double portion. Tradition has
married her to a Mr. Douxsaint, without posterity.
His son, John, was his residuary legatee ; and to
him he leaves his coopers’ tools, his slaves, both
negroes and Indians, and, among other enumerated
articles, his swivels or cannons. Why a private
citizen should be in possession of swivels is not
very easily explained. It has been suggested that
about the year 1704, when the colony was at war

100 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

with the authorities at St. Augustine, the danger of
a piratical Spanish invasion might have induced all
the substantial citizens on the rivers to provide
themselves with these arms. The first page of
) Mr. Gendron’s will is the confession of faith of a
humble and grateful Christian ; and his attachment
to his church is exhibited by a moderate legacy to
the churches of Jamestown and Charleston, which,
he says, “they shall continue to enjoy so long as
they are reformed as they are at present.” |

This respectable emigrant has not obtained a
name in history, but the traditions of Craven County
still preserve it in connection with a little incident
which, in the hands of Sterne, might have served
as the groundwork of an immortal work. Business
having carried Mr. Gendron to Charleston, his
absence was so long and so unaccountably pro-
tracted that his friends supposed him to have been
lost. On Sunday, while assembled at their house
of worship in Jamestown, the preacher from his
pulpit saw approaching up the river the canoe of
his long-lost friend. Forgetting, in his joy, the
sermon which he had prepared, with the exclama-
tion, ‘‘ Voila, Mr. Gendron!’ he announced his safe
arrival, and rushed out, followed by the delighted
congregation, to welcome him whom they had
mourned as dead.

Mr. John Gendron, the son of this gentleman, is
mentioned by Capt. Palmer, in the Appendix to

4
:
}
i
}

/
:

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. IOI

Ramsay’s South Carolina, as the commander of a
company of Charleston militia in the war against
the Yemassees in 1715. Though never holding a
commission higher than that of a colonel, yet, from
being a very long time the senior colonel in the
province, he was, by courtesy, invested with the
title and dignity of a brigadier. His daughter mar-
ried Mr: John Palmer, the father of the author of
the article just referred to, and with him the name
became extinct in South Carolina.

The French emigrants to this province appear to
have been governed by a principle of common-sense
which reflects infinite credit on their character.
They regarded Carolina as their home. Having
placed themselves under the protection of the Brit-
ish crown, they resolved to conduct themselves like
faithful subjects. Hence no attempt was made to
perpetuate the remembrance of a distinct nation-
ality. Their children were not encouraged to speak
French ; and the great charity which they founded
bears the name, not of a sect, nor of a foreign na-
tion, but the catholic name of that colony which
they had adopted as their native land.t Still, how-
ever, in their domestic life traces of their origin
may be discovered. The pillau is a common dish
upon ‘their tables, and I believe that in every
Huguenot house on Santee that cake which the

? The South Carolina Society ; which arose from the Two-Bit Club, A.
D. 1737.

102 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

English know as the waffle is called the gauffre.
In summer the superfluous fresh beef is still zerked
for keeping, and potted beef and venison still con-
tinue to delight the senses of the people with their
grateful savor. We are uncertain whether the
general preference of coffee over tea is the result of
an hereditary national taste, or whether it originated
in the superior cheapness of the former article.
Names still preserve their old pronunciations in
that region, and in spite of the refinements and im-
provements of modern society, the Duboses and
Marions are pertinaciously called Debusk and
Mahrion.

Of the public life of those worthy emigrants who
found a home on the banks of the Santee, few, if
any, traces are to be found in our _ histories.
The English portion of the population appear to
have viewed them with feelings of hostility. In the
disturbances which occurred during the turbulent
administration of Gov. Moor, they are represented
as having yielded too readily to the wishes of the
constituted authorities, and to have aided materially
in returning to the Assembly members who were
disposed to second and forward the ambitious views
of the governor. During the administration of Sir
Nathaniel Johnston, who succeeded Gov. Moor, Mr.
John Ash was sent by the English Dissenters to
plead their cause against the usurpation of the High
Church party. In his representation of the affairs

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 103

of the colony, he says: ‘“‘ That at the election for
Berkley and Craven counties the violence of Mr.
Moor’s time, and all other illegal practices, were
with more violence repeated, and openly avowed by
the present governor and his friends: Jews, stran-
gers, sailors, servants, negroes, and almost every
Frenchman in Craven and Berkley counties came
down to.elect, and their votes were taken, and the
persons by them voted for were returned by the
sheriffs.” At this time it appears that Charleston
was the only place in the colony at which polls were
opened, and here it was necessary for citizens from
every county to come, in order to enjoy the elective
franchise.* The Assembly they elected established

1 Such appears to have been the custom. Mr. F. Yonge, in his account
of the revolutionary proceedings in 1719, declares it to have been so. The
subject, however, is not very clear. In the first place, it would have been
difficult, in a town devoted to the dissenting interest, for the concourse of
voters from Colleton and Craven counties to create such disturbances as
Oldmixon describes; and, secondly, the act of Assembly of 1804, for better
ordering elections, clearly intimates, though it does not direct, that a poll
should be opened in each county. It provides—ist. That no votes be
taken by proxy; 2d. That if the sheriffs neglect to hold a poll in a county,
the people may vote in the adjoining one ; and 3d. That the polls shall be
held in an open and public place. But those counties had not at that time
any court-house, and Mr. Yonge declares that the whole House of Assembly
was chosen in Charleston until the administration of Gov. Daniel (1718),
when it was enacted that every parish shall send a certain number of dele-
gates (36 in all), who shall be balloted for at their respective churches, or
other convenient place, by virtue of writs directed to the church-wardens,
who were to make a return of the persons elected. It was the veto upon
this act by Gov. Johnson, at the suggestion of Mr. Rhett and Chief-Justice
Trott, which was one of the leading causes of the revolution of 1719, which
shook off the Proprietary government,

104 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

the Church of England in the colony, but with such
provisions that the Bishop of London and the
Society for Propagating the Gospel in America re-
solved not to send or support any missionaries in
the province until the act, or the clause relating to
the establishment of lay commissioners, should be
annulled.

Oldmixon says that the law was declared null and
void by Queen Anne, at the suggestion of the
House of Lords; but, as the act still remains on
the statute-book, and the church continued from
that date (1704) to receive the aid of the state, as
well as of the Society for Propagating the Gospel,
it is more likely that the offensive clauses were ren-
dered inoperative, without being formally annulled.
The act of conformity was passed by a vote of
twelve members against eleven dissentients. A full
house numbered thirty members, so that this act was
passed by little more than a third of the whole
house. Every Dissenter was thereupon turned out
of his seat, and his place supplied by the person,
being a Churchman, who had the most votes next to
him. In six months afterwards, the same Assem-
bly, in a full house, passed a bill to repeal the act,
but it was rejected in the upper house, and the gov-
ernor, in great indignation, dissolved the Commons’
house, by the name of the Unsteady Assembly.

During this period of the colonial existence, the
only part of Craven County which was settled was

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 105

that portion now known as St. James’ Santee, and
soon afterwards, called French Santee, to distinguish
it from what was afterwards St. Stephen’s Parish,
or, as it was formerly called, English Santee. The
legal separation of the two parishes was effected in
1754, and the brick church, which we have noticed
in the early part of this essay, was commenced in
1762.

It has not been the lot of this section of the |
country to produce many persons whose names have
filled a niche in the temple of fame. The virtues
of its citizens have been of a character more domes-
tic than those which generally receive the chaplet of
immortality. Engaged in the quiet and all-absorb-
ing pursuits of agriculture, they cared not to stir in
the bustling world of politics, and as a proof of the
contented spirit of the people it may be remarked
that in the war of the revolution a large number ad-
hered to the king.

Agriculture and Indian trade were the occu-
pations of the early French settlers. The latter
source of profit was extinguished by the gradual
settlement of the country ; the former continued to
give wealth to its votaries. The French, from the
quarter of Wassamassaw, gradually left their seats
and settled on the fertile bank of the Santee, and by
the commencement of the revolution, English San-
tee, or St. Stephen, had passed almost entirely into
their hands.

106 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

Among the French, an individual, whose name
has not transpired, adopted a pursuit which many
will suppose characteristic. ‘A French dancing-
master,” says Oldmixon, “settling in Craven County,
taught the Indians country dances, to play on the
flute and the hautboy, and got a good estate, for it
seems the barbarians encouraged him with the same
extravagance as we do the dancers, singers, and fid-
dlers of his countrymen.”

One citizen of this parish has earned for himself
a name in the world of letters, and it is strange that
Ramsay, who appears to have sought eagerly after
Carolinian celebrities, should have entirely ignored
his existence. Thomas Walter, an English gentle-
man whose devotion to the cause of science led him
to the wilds of Carolina, was attracted by the
charms of Miss Peyre, of St. Stephen, married her,
and settled there. He devoted himself particularly
to the pursuit of botany, and the curious are still
occasionally rewarded by a visit to his garden, the
ruins of which may still be seen near the banks of
the Santee Canal. He is the ancestor of one
branch of the Porcher family, and of the Charlton
family of Georgia. His book, the “ Flora Carolini-
ana, which was printed in London in 1789, is dated
ad Ripas Fluvii Santee.

Walter was married a short time before the battle
of Black Mingo. Among the loyalist officers who
were defeated on that occasion was Mr. John Peyre,

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 107

the brother of Mrs. Walter. Marion’s patience had
been sorely tried by the pertinacity with which these
gentlemen maintained the conflict, and for this
reason, and perhaps as a sort of retaliatory measure,
for the unjustifiable deportation of the Charleston
prisoners to St. Augustine, he vowed a terrible re-
venge against any who might hereafter fall into his
hands. It was Mr. Peyre’s fate to be captured and
to experience this revenge. He was allowed none
of the privileges awarded to prisoners of war, but
was sent to Philadelphia for safe keeping, and there,
for several months, dragged out a miserable exist-
ence in a loathsome dungeon; when at length
released, he was unceremoniously turned into the
street, almost naked and altogether miserable. In
his distress he accosted a Quaker in the street,
whose benevolent face attracted him. The Quaker
heard his story, and taking fifty dollars from his
pocket, gave them to him, advising him to procure
decent clothing and go home. Mr. Peyre earnestly
entreated that he might learn the name of his gen-
erous benefactor, in order that, when in his power,
he might discharge the obligation, but the old man
refused. ‘Consider this money,” said he, “as a
loan, and you will sufficiently discharge it by giving
to any one whom you shall find in circumstances of
similar distress.”

The name of Peyre, once an honored and a
flourishing name in this parish, is now extinct.

108 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

The last who bore it was Thomas Walter Peyre,
grandson of the botanist, a gentleman whom none
knew but to love, honor, and esteem. Modest and
retiring, even to a fault, he was, in all other respects,
a perfect model of a useful country gentleman.
His home was the abode of religion, order, skill,
economy, and enlightened liberality. His friends
were devoted, and the rectitude of his principles
and the general amiability of his conduct gained
him the good-will and respect of all. His death has
caused a chasm in his circle which will not be filled
whilst the freshly turned turf continues to announce
the recentness of his decease; and as he never
married, the name of Peyre was buried in his grave.

Though the body of Marion reposes in a grave in
St. Stephen’s Parish, Craven County cannot number
him among her notabilities. Both Georgetown and
St. John’s Berkeley claim the honor of his birth. The
latter was, unquestionably, the place of his residence.

But the widow of General Marion certainly did
live and die in St. Stephen’s Parish ; and there also
lived a large number of his friends, relations, and
companions in arms. There, especially, was his
memory revered ; and there, to this day, you will hear
but one opinion expressed respecting the merits of
Weems life of Marion—that of unmitigated disgust.

We have not the smallest disposition to detract
from the merit of General Marion. We have a
child’s recollection of his widow; we never knew

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. ICO

her but as my grandmamma, for so she insisted upon
being called by every child; and we have been
taught to believe, as an article of religion, that her
husband was vilely treated by his reverend biogra-
pher. We have seen this book circulating in every
part of the United States, and were always ready, to
the expressions of admiration with which its perusal
is everywhere else greeted, to reply, with the scorn-
ful sneer of superior knowledge, that Marion’s
friends rejected the book as a libel on his fair fame.
The indignation with which the book was received
is hardly yet appeased. The offended widow loudly
declared that she would willingly, if in her power,
punish the transgressor with stripes ; and numerous
friends sympathized with her outraged feelings.
But now that nearly fifty years have passed, what is
the true estimate to be placed upon the book?
Next to Washington, what general of revolutionary
memory has so wide a fame? From the Hudson
to the extremity of the Far West, from Florida to
the Falls of St. Anthony, his name is perpetuated in
towns, counties, and colleges. And what is the
cause of this unusual popularity? Surely not the
brief notices of his exploits in any general history
of the war. Surely not the extensive circulation
of his biography by Judge James.*: No; it is the

1 We do not mention Simms’ Biography, because that, having been exe-
cuted within a few years, has had, and could have had, no influence in pro-
ducing this effect.

IIo HISTORICAL AND SOCTAL ' SK#TCH OF

irresistible influence of Weems’ book—a _ work |
whose popularity daily increases, and which is des-
tined to transmit to posterity, in colors ever bright-
ening, the memory of the active and clever leader
of the undaunted Whigs of Carolina. Peaceful be
the repose of the venerable lady and her generous
allies; they owe to their supposed calumniator a
debt of gratitude. For so long as Marion’s name
shall be honored, prosperity will reverence the vir-
tuous lady who blessed him with her love.

It is well known that General Marion never had
a child. With that instinctive desire of living in
posterity which clings to us and becomes more ur-
gent as we advance towards the termination of our
career, he adopted a nephew who assumed his
name. But, by a singular fatality, this gentleman,
who was twice married, and had eleven daughters,
never had the happiness to see a son. Two young
men, great-nephews of the General, are all who are
left to perpetuate this ancient Huguenot name. It
is to be hoped that they will be mindful of the
sacred duty committed to them, and faithfully dis-
charge it.

The most eminent military character which the
revolution produced, in this parish, was Col. Heze-
kiah Maham. Like the respected names of Gen-
dron and Peyre, this, too, has become extinct.
Maham was a colonel of cavalry in the revolution-
ary war, and was distinguished not only for his

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. III

gallantry, but also for a certain skill in the art of
reducing fortified places. It was at his suggestion
that the expedient was first adopted (similar, by the
way, to the method practised in the middle ages) of
constructing against such places a tower of logs so
high as to command them. This was first practised
at Fort Watson, and the description of Weems,
which I give, is all that can be wished. ‘ Finding
that the fort mounted no artillery, Marion resolved
to make his approaches in a way that should
give his riflemen a fair chance against the mus-
queteers. For this purpose large quantities of pine
logs were cut, and, as soon as dark came on, were
carried in perfect silence within point-blank shot of
the fort, and run up in the shape of large pens or
chimney stacks considerably higher than the enemy’s
parapets. Great, no doubt, was the consternation
of the garrison next morning, to see themselves
thus suddenly overlooked by this strange kind of
steeple, pouring down upon them from its blazing
tops incessant showers of rifle bullets. . . . Our
riflemen lying above them, and firing through loop-
holes, were seldom hurt ; while the British, obliged
every time they fired, to show their heads, were
frequently killed.” Weems, who does not once
mention Maham’s name in his book, ascribes the
invention solely to Marion. Lee, on the contrary,
gives Maham credit both for the design and the
execution ; and he frequently, afterwards, speaks of

I12 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

the Maham tower, as an efficient and decisive
means of reducing the simple forts of the interior.

Not the least evil attendant upon civil war is,
that notions of right and wrong become so con-
founded in our minds, that we are more disposed
to reconcile morality with practice, than practise
morality. They who see acts of aggression and
violence practised with applause, are apt to forget
that they are commendable only under the severe
law of necessity, and that under other circumstances
they are rightly considered as crimes. Men, whose
opinions are entitled to respect, have not hesitated
to ascribe the public crimes, which not long since
afflicted England, to the violences which the cir-
cumstances of civil war justified or excused ; so that
many a marauder and highwayman only continued
as a crime that course of life which he had been en-
couraged to commence as a duty.

These consecutive evils of civil war were felt in
Carolina. After the revolution, the highways were
unsafe. Many now living recollect that persons
rarely ventured to travel the Goose Creek road
without arms; and the public execution of a man
and his wife, in Charleston, for highway robbery, as
late as 1820, bear fearful testimony to the insecurity
of life and property, even in the neighborhood of
the metropolis.

Besides highway robbery, horse-stealing was a
common crime. Many engaged in it ; but two in-

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 113

dividuals, by name Roberts and Brown, organized
it and conducted it as a matter of business. One,
or both, of these men was hanged in Charleston,
in 1789. They had their agents and depots ar-
ranged and organized ; and from the Santee to the
wilds of Florida, they and their confederates were
at once the nuisance and the terror of the country.

Mr. Thomas Palmer lived on his plantation on
Fair Forest Swamp. Like other planters of the
times, he possessed a large and valuable collection
of horses, one of which, called Fantail, was an
especial favorite. Early one morning he discovered
that his stables had been opened in the night, and
his best horses stolen. The alarm was quickly
spread, and in a few hours a party of gentlemen set
off, under the lead of Col. Maham, in pursuit of the
stolen property. It was difficult to track the fugi-
tives, but as suspicion naturally rested on Roberts
and his gang, they directed their course towards
Orangeburg, which was one of his head-quarters.
After travelling a few miles, they met Mr. René
Ravenel, who, being informed of the object of their
search, informed them that, having been out early
that morning, he had seen a horse, about a quarter
of a mile off, crossing the road; that a momentary
glance at the hinder part of the animal, which was
all that he saw, convinced him that it was Mr.
Palmer's horse. The circumstance would have
passed from his memory but for this meeting. He

IIi4 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

conducted the party to the spot ; numerous tracks
were found, and the party, now confirmed in their
suspicions, continued with renewed alacrity, deter-
mined to make a certain house in Dean Swamp the
first object of their visit.

A short time before nightfall they approached
the house, and determined to remain concealed until
the night should be well advanced. A horse was
heard to neigh; several answered, and Mr. Palmer,
turning to Col. Maham, said: “ Uncle Maham, I'll
pledge my life that that is the voice of Fantail.”
A countryman happening to pass was detained as a
prisoner. He acknowledged that he was bound to
the house which the party intended to visit, and ac-
quainted them that a large gathering of men and
women was expected there that night for a frolic.
With this information they were sure of their game ;
and, having divided themselves into a convenient
number of parties, they separated, appointing to
approach the house on a certain signal, which would
be given by Col. Maham. Every thing succeeded.
When the noise within indicated that the frolic
was going on fast and furious, the signal was given ;
the parties simultaneously entered the house, and
the marauders found themselves suddenly affronted
by armed guests, whose presence boded them no
good, They fled. The women, on the contrary,
fought boldly ; and Col. Maham declared that if
they had been seconded by their gallants the pursu-

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. II5

ing party would have been defeated. Aided by the
courageous defence of the ladies, most of the ma-
rauders escaped; the captured were summarily dis-
posed of ; each was tied to a tree and flogged. The
party then, recovering their stolen horses, returned
homewards, leaving their prisoners, each at his tree,
to be relieved when their friends should have suff-
cient courage to go to their assistance.

Whatever may have been Col. Maham’s reputa-
tion as a soldier, it appears that he had rather crude
notions of the duties of a citizen. He became in-
debted, and his creditor was importunate. Recourse
was had to legal process, and a sheriff’s officer pro-
ceeded to serve him with a writ.

One morning, just as the colonel was about to
sit down to his breakfast, a stranger was announced.
He went out to give him a hospitable greeting, and
was instantly served with a writ. The old Whig
surveyed the document with feelings of astonish-
ment and indignation. That he, who had perilled
his life and fortune in defence of his country’s liber-
ties, should be thus bearded in his own castle, and
threatened with the loss of his own, was a thought
not to be borne, and he instantly determined to
make the unfortunate instrument of his creditor the
victim. He returned the parchment to the officer
with an order (and the colonel never gave a vain
order) that he should instantly swallow it, and when
the dry meal was fairly engulphed, he brought the

116 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

man into’ the house and gave him good liquor to
wash it down.

But the colonel discovered, like too many others
who had borne the burden and heat of the day, that
the civil power was in the ascendant, and that writs
are not to be served up as a morning’s meal. He
fled the country, and remained an exile until the
difficulty was removed by the intervention of his
friends. He died as he had lived, on his plantation
on Santee Swamp, and was buried there. His
house was destroyed by fire many years since ; but
we remember to have seen its chimneys standing.
Within a few years a massive marble monument,
visible from the road, has been erected over his
grave by his descendant, Lieut. Gov. Ward.

Until the year 1794, the citizens of this parish,
like those of every other part of the State, lived
always on their plantations throughout the year.
Some of the more wealthy had town residences to
which they resorted, partly for health, but chiefly
for the convenience of educating their children.

The period between the close of the war and
1794 was full of disaster to the agriculturist. The
bounty on indigo, which, under the fostering care
of Great Britain, had rendered that plant the staple
of South Carolina, having been of course with-
drawn, indigo became thenceforth an unprofitable
culture. The Santee Swamp, which appeared at
one time to be an inexhaustible source of wealth,

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 117

had become, from the frequency, the greatness, and
the irregularity of the freshets in the river, ex-
tremely precarious ; and many a planter, the amount
of whose possessions would have ranked him among
the wealthy, saw in his wealth only an increase of
expense, and felt all the privations of poverty, In
the year 1794 cotton was first cultivated in St. John’s
Parish by General Moultrie, and, in two years after,
it became the staple of the country.

It had been observed that those persons who
lived in the pine lands were usually exempt from
those distressing autumnal intermittent fevers, which
are the bane of our country, and several gentlemen
determined to avail themselves of this fact for the
purpose of improving the social condition of the
country. Accordingly, in 1794, Capt. John Palmer,
Capt. Peter Gaillard, Mr. John Cordes, Mr. Samuel
Porcher, Mr. Peter Porcher, and Mr. Philip Por-
cher, built for themselves houses in the pine land,
near to each other, and thus laid the foundation of
Pineville, the oldest settlement of the kind in the
southern country. The experiment proved success-
ful, and in a few years it became the summer resi-
dence of the planters of St. Stephen’s Parish, and
of those of upper and middle St. John’s.

Pineville is situated on a low, flat ridge, thickly
covered with pines, and dotted with small ponds and
savannahs. It lies two miles south of Santee
Swamp, and five miles from the river. Though the

118 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

principal growth is pine, it is not what we call a
pine barren ; for the red oak and the hickory, which
flourish on a soil under which the clay lies at no
great depth, indicate a considerable degree of nat-
‘ural fertility. On the south, about a quarter of a
mile from the nearest house, meanders the Crawl
branch, a swampy stream which a few miles below
feeds the Santee by the name of the Horsepen
Creek ; at the same distance to the north is Mar-
gate Swamp, ahuckleberry bay, without any decided
water-course, which protrudes from the Santee
Swamp. At the period of its greatest prosperity the
village contained about sixty substantial and well-
built houses, each situated in a lot of from one to
two acres in area. The pine trees were religiously
preserved, not only within the lots, but without.
Those which were uninclosed, being the property
of the public, were protected by a fine of five dollars
imposed on any person who should cut down or by
any wanton injury threaten the life of a tree.

An opinion generally prevails that the village lost
its healthfulness in consequence of the violation of
these regulations by the people, who cut down
their trees and cultivated gardens. Never. was
opinion more erroneous. In all of the original lots,
traces of cultivation may be seen. It was not then
considered dangerous to indulge in the luxury of a
garden. Farms, too, appeared in close neighbor-
hood to the village. On the west, Greenfield farm

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. IIg

might be seen from the village. Clark’s farm lay
between it and the Crawl; and to the southwest,
the Polebridge farm of Mr. Thos. Palmer, could be
seen from our father’s house. But in 1834 all this
had been long changed. Not a garden cheered the
eye of a resident ; and the corporation of the Pine-
ville Academy had purchased all these farms, and
abandoned them to the possession of the pines, for
the purpose of insuring the healthfulness of the
place.

Health, the primary object for which Pineville
was settled, being attained, the other objects soon
followed, of course. In 1805 a grammar-school
was established and chartered under the name of
the Pineville Academy, and commenced a prosper-
ous career under the administration of Mr. Alpheus
Baker, a native of New Hampshire. Mr. Baker’s
reputation attracted students from various parts of
the country, and his administration was, ever after-
wards, regarded as a standard by which the merit
of any of his successors was to be judged. He was
followed, successively, by Mr. Lowry, Mr. Snowden,
and Mr. Stephens, all of South Carolina; Mr. Gor-
don, of Maine, Mr. Gillet of Vermont, Messrs.
Cain, Daniel, and Furman, of South Carolina ;
Messrs. Fisk, Houghton, Gere, and Leland, of
Massachusetts. On the death of the last-named
gentleman, in 1836, of the prevailing epidemic, all
confidence in the healthfulness of the village being

120 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

lost, the exercises of the school were, for several
years, suspended.

Besides these gentlemen here named, others were
occasionally employed as assistants, whenever the
number of scholars justified the expenditure ; and,
until the breaking up of the village, in 1836, the state
of the school generally warranted the employment
of an assistant. The principal teacher was elected by
the Board of Trustees for one year. He was provid-
ed with a house, received a salary of a thousand dol-
lars, and was required to receive a certain number
of boarders at a fixed rate. These boarders were for
the winter months only, as their parents were gener-
ally in the village in the summer. It would, per-
haps, be invidious to notice more particularly any
of these gentlemen. I shall make one exception.
Mr. Yorick Sterne Gordon appeared before the
trustees with credentials from the highest authority
in New England. A letter from the venerable
Jedediah Morse secured his election. He went to
Pineville with a large collection of school-books, all
of which he introduced into the academy, and on
his first appearance in the school-room spoke so
threateningly to the boys, that such an impression
was made on their minds, that he never had occa-
sion to resort to punishment. He exacted lessons
from the boys of inordinate length, and many a tear
have we shed when bedtime found us with our task
not more than half accomplished. Never did

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 12

man so completely subdue the spirits of a set of
boys. And yet, out of school, he was sociable, and
appeared disposed to promote their little pleasures ;
but still he was uncertain, and had we been more
conversant with the world, we should have called
him capricious. At a certain hour every day he
was in the habit of retiring from the school-house to
his dwelling, where he would spend a short time;
on his return he was observed never to follow the
beaten path, but to approach the school-house by
zig-zag lines; and, to our simple apprehensions,
this strange conduct was supposed to be directed
with a view of keeping the window of the school-
house always in sight, so that he could watch the
boys even when he was not present. How long this
fascination might have lasted I cannot say ; for in less
than three months after his installation, the spring
holidays, for a fortnight, commenced, and, before
they were over, Mr. Gordon was dead. He died of
delirium tremens, and his assistant declared that he
had not been sober a single day since his arrival.
The people of Pineville, would never become a
corporate body. All administrative powers were,
therefore, assumed by the Board of Trustees.
Those being overseers of a school, they gradually
became the council of a town, thus happily illustrat-
ing the insidious progress of usurpation. They ac-
quired, either by gift or purchase, all the unoccupied
lands, and as owners of the soil, made such whole-

122 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

some regulations as circumstances appeared to
demand.

In addition to the school, a public library was or-
ganized. ‘This, we believe, was originated by the
public spirit of Mr. Robert Marion, formerly a
member of Congress from the Charleston district.
The first house used for the purpose had been a
chapel of ease to the parish church, about two miles
to the west of the village. After the erection of
the church in Pineville, this chapel became useless,
and it was taken down and rebuilt in Pineville. A
partition wall divided it into two rooms, whereof the
‘inner one was set apart for the reception of books,
and the outer, being a sort of ante-chamber, was
used on public occasions as a town hall. In this
room the patriots usually celebrated the Fourth of
July, and on that day the walls, which had formerly
reéchoed only to the sound of anthems and holy
songs, were made to resound with the noise of rev-
elry and uproarious patriotism. In 1826 a new
library building was erected, and the old one, being
sold at public auction, was purchased by a person
who used the materials for the construction of a
livery stable. As it is fashionable to call all libra-
ries select, we suppose we must apply the epithet to
this one also. But as we cannot find any catalogue
of books which exceeds a thousand volumes, we
are constrained to add that it does not appear to re-
flect much credit on the literary enterprise of the

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 123

citizens. With the destruction of Pineville that of
the library followed. . The books were either lost or
destroyed, and we doubt whether the shelves now
contain a single volume.

The citizens of Pineville being all planters, long
residents in the country, and for the most part de-
scendants of the Huguenots of Santee Parish, were
almost, as a matter of course, attached to the Epis-
copal Church. For several years after the founda-
tion of the village, divine service continued to be
performed in the parish church. But the course of
events changed completely the condition of the
parish, and by the year 1808 the church was, as it
were, left in the wilderness, and the service discon-
tinued. For a short period Mr. Baker officiated,
every Sunday, as lay reader in the chapel, near the
village, and it was then determined to enjoy the
advantages of religious worship at home. A neat
wooden church was accordingly erected in the vil-
lage, and placed under the rectorship of the Rev.
C. B. Snowden. Chapels for winter service, by the
same rector, were soon afterwards erected in St.
John’s Berkeley, at Black Oak, and the Rocks, so
that, though there were three different places of
worship, the congregation was considered but one.

The erection of the two chapels in St. John’s
Berkeley gave rise to a lawsuit of a singular charac-
ter, which completely destroyed the social relations
existing between the upper and lower portions of

124 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

that parish ; but as this is foreign to the history of
Craven County, we shall not notice it here.

After a service of about ten years Mr. Snowden
retired from the rectorship of the church, and was
succeeded by the Rev. D. J. Campbell, who died at
his post in 1840. The churches were then vacant
for nearly three years, until, in 1842, they were filled
by the present worthy and efficient rector, Mr. W.
Dehon, who is assisted by the Rev. C. P. Gadsden.'

In the olden time a sermon was preached every
Sunday morning. In the afternoon the congrega-
tion re-assembled, and evening prayers were read.
No sermon followed ; none was expected; I may
add, none was desired.

In most country churches there is some difficulty
about singing. Many, who can sing, shrink from
the notoriety of assuming the functions of chorister,
and very often the office is discharged by one who
has no merit beyond his zeal to recommend his per-
formance. This difficulty was generally experienced
in Pineville, and the whole service was frequently
performed without music. Old Capt. Palmer, the
patriarch of the village, certainly possessed no mu-
sical talents, but he had zeal, and fancied that he
could accomplish the hundredth psalm. This was,
accordingly, the standing psalm of the morning ;
and the old chorister, taking courage from his suc-
cess, would, at times, boldly undertake other pieces

1 Mr. Gadsden is now Assistant Rector of St. Philip’s Church, Charleston.

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 125

of music. Now it is always the fate of a country
chorister to be the object of envy. They who wit-
ness his success are apt to fancy they can do equally
well. It so happens, therefore, that the chorister is
liable to perpetual attacks, and if he is not very
prompt, will find the song taken out of his mouth
by these pretenders. So hath it ever been. So
was it with Capt. Palmer. Others attempted to
take the lead, but the indignant musician was not to
be driven from his post. Sing he would; and it
was not uncommon for a whole stanza to be sung
at the same time to two different tunes. In the end,
however, all competition ceased, and the old gentle-
man reigned undisputed Director of Music.* It
cannot be denied that, for a considerable period, our
prophecy had a literal fulfilment in Pineville, for the
songs of the temple were howlings. One incident
occurred there lately, of so ludicrous a character
that I cannot help narrating it, though it may ap-
pear inconsistent with the dignity of history. The
rector was in feeble health; he had given out a

1 This difficulty appears, by an old tradition, to have been unfelt by our
ancestors. Their zeal was frequently too ardent, and the delicate ear of
the parson was in danger of being overpowered by strong and discordant
voices. Mr. Richebourg, the pastor of Jamestown, whose attachment to
Mr. Gendron was so atively exhibited, as described in our notice of James-
town, was not blinded by his friendship into any indiscreet admiration of
his voice. Thus, after announcing the hymn, he would say: ‘‘ Don’t sing,
Mr. Gendron ; your voice is like a goat’s; you be quiet. Mr. Guerry,
your voice is sweet ; you maysing.” I presume Capt. Palmer inherited both
the voice and the zeal of his great ancestor.

126 FAIISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

hymn to be sung before the sermon, and retired to
the vestry-room to make the usual change of his
vestments. The worthy chorister, who from his
place could see indistinctly into the vestry-room,
fancied that he saw the rector in a recumbent posi-
tion, and imagined that, fatigued with the morning
service, he was taking repose. Determined, there-
fore, to allow him ample time to rest himself, he had
no sooner finished the hymn than he recommenced
it, and sang it over again, to the astonishment of
the whole congregation, as well as of the rector,
who had entered the pulpit unperceived by his wor-
thy friend, and was quietly waiting for the music to
cease in order to begin his sermon.

About the year 1822 or 1823, a peripatetic sing-
ing-master visited Pineville, and, partly for the pur-
pose of improvement in psalmody, partly to vary
the general monotony of village life, the young peo-
ple formed a class, which he instructed every alter-
nate Saturday.

All professional singing-masters have something
odd about them. Their vocation is to teach sacred
music, and whether it is that they are laboring to
reconcile their manners with the supposed dignity
of their employment, or whether it is owing to
something in the very nature of the calling which
makes the profession ridiculous, we cannot deter-
mine. Certain it is, however, that from the time of
David Gamut (who, by the way, was not created

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 127

when our singing-master flourished), down to the
itinerant professor of Tinkum, the professor of the
science of psalmody has ever been the butt of ridi-
cule. Burbidge, the Pineville professor, was no ex-
ception; but owing to the habitual gravity of his
scholars he experienced less, perhaps, than most
others have done elsewhere. Who he was, or
whence he came, we could never learn. Regu-
larly, on every alternate Saturday, he was at his
post in the church, instructed his class, and after
partaking of the hospitality of a friendly bachelor,
who most irreverently made game of him, he ap-
peared at church next day and comforted the heart
of the good rector by discharging, ex cathedra, the
office of chorister. This done, he disappeared, and
no more was heard of him for a fortnight. He was
a brownish man, about the middle size, with jet
black, curly, or ratherish kinky hair, very £zock-
kneed, and his skin-tight nankeen trousers scarcely
reaching below the calf, displayed this perfection of
his figure to the greatest advantage. At that time
psalmody was always taught by means of what was
called solmzzatzon, or a systematic arrangement of
the syllables, sof, la, mz, fa, by which a tune was
sung in all of its parts without any reference to the
words ; and the great point for the learner to ascer-
tain, in order to accomplish this, was to determine
the place of mz. Now we have no doubt all this
was no more intelligible to Burbidge than it is to

128 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

the greater part of our readers. To supply the de-
ficiency of ignorant teachers, books were printed, in
which these mystic syllables are indicated by the
shape of the notes; but these, of course, would
never be employed by a really competent teacher.
This book, however, Burbidge used. His class was
arranged in three divisions, forming three sides of a
square ; on the right sat the bass, in the centre the
air, and the treble on the left. He stood in the
centre. Then, after preluding a few notes, giving
the pitch to each of the parts in succession, the
music would commence, and he, with the palm of
his left hand turned upwards, and that of his right
downwards, would beat time, imitating the motions
of a top sawyer. His class was decorous, but de-
corum could not always resist the strange effect of
his solemn motions. We have seen mestr7 in vari-
ous opera-houses in Europe and America, and have
sometimes laughed at the enthusiasm they displayed,
but never did we see one more thoroughly occupied
in admiration of his work than this humble mestro
of the village school.

Humble as he was, however, he produced fruit
which was destined to be permanent. From the
practice of singing in this class, confidence was ac-
quired, and the church was no longer dumb. The
humble foundation being laid, a better taste began
to develop itself. But some of his tunes possessed
startling merit, and in the psalmody of those

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 129

churches tunes are still sung which were taught to
the parents of the present generation by the obscure
Burbidge. 9

All the objects which were hoped to result from
the founding of Pineville were now accomplished.
The people were blessed with health, a school
flourished and placed the means of a classical edu-
cation within the reach of many who would other-
wise have wanted that advantage, and a church was
opened every Sunday for religious worship. Let
us now devote a short time to the consideration of
social and domestic life in Pineville.

The inhabitants were all planters. They met with-
out any consciousness of social inequalities, and as
there were no persons either above or beneath them,
their manners were distinguished by the most per-
fect simplicity and absence of every sort of affecta-
tion. They were all cotton planters, and had,
therefore, the same interests, the same wishes, the
same hopes, the same fears. In process of time, by
means of intermarriage they were all connected
with each other, and related by blood, so that it was
a community in which the most perfect unity
of sentiment and of thought prevailed. Their
habits of living were as simple as their manners. It
was long before any enterprising person conceived
the idea of opening a market, so that the planters
were supplied from the produce of their farms. On
a certain day in every week a calf was killed and

130 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

distributed among a club of eight persons, who
united for that purpose. In the early life of the
village, he who killed the calf, having for his portion
the head as well as the loin, entertained all the vil-
lagers at his house and regaled them with calf’s
head soup. On another certain day, a lamb or a
porker (called a shoat) was killed and- divided
among four families. Then eight or sixteen would
unite for the purpose of killing and distributing a
cow. Thus for three days in the week a supply of
butcher’s meat was furnished. The wants of the
remaining days were furnished from the resources
of the poultry houses of the planters. In the course
of time a beef market was opened twice a week for
the sale of that article. The veal, lamb, and pork
were always furnished as we have described. The
Santee River being near, it might have been expected
that fish would frequently find its way to the table ;
but the supply was meagre, and fish was always a
rarity. An enterprising Yankee in the neighbor-
hood would have made a good business by following
the occupation of a fisherman. The bream of the
Santee, taken from the neighborhood of Pineville,
is one of the most delicious fish that is eaten.
Pineville was an isolated community. Situated
about fifty miles from Charleston, in a part of the
district remote from the great thoroughfares, and
never frequented by wayfaring men, it was cut off
from all social intercourse with people elsewhere.

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 131

When the month of June found all the villagers
assembled for the summer, their feelings were some-
what analogous to those of persons who meet to-
gether on board of a ship for the purpose of making
a long voyage. All commerce with the external
world seemed interdicted. Entertaining an indefin-
able distrust of the climate of the country, they re-
garded their village with a sort of superstitious
affection, and viewed as a calamity any accident
which might make it necessary to spend a single
night elsewhere. The air was not to be changed.
Whether for better or for worse, he who commenced
the season by breathing the air of Pineville, must
continue to do so; or, if he left it, he should not
return before autumn. It is not strange, therefore,
that the sense of mutual dependence was intense.

And sweet and balmy is that Pineville air; in-
viting repose, tranquillizing the troubled frame, and
filling the mind with sweet and hopeful thoughts.
When the lungs, vexed and harassed by the dust of
the metropolis and the cruel east winds of the coast,
inhale the soft and fragrant breath of the pines, how
voluptuous is the sensation of rest, of perfect re-
pose! How great a blessing to suffering humanity
has God thus deposited in the most gloomy and
desolate-looking portion of his creation !

The habits of every house were alike. At sun-
rise breakfast was served, and the planters went out
to visit their plantations. Those who owned estates

132 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

in the neighborhood did this every day; others at
intervals, greater or less, throughout the week. But
whether he visited his plantation or not, the planter
was generally on his horse, and inspected those
plantations which were within an easy ride. Hunt-
ing also afforded the means of passing the time.
Deer and foxes abound in the neighborhood, and
the Santee Swamp would sometimes furnish a still
more exciting sport by offering wolves and bears
to the hunters. After the morning’s ride was over,
the post-office or the village store was the general
rendezvous and lounging-place. Here politics and
crops were the never-failing topics of conversation.

At one o’clock dinner was served. One old lady,
who died in 1848, never dined later than half-past
twelve. A portion of the afternoon was always de-
voted to sleep. Every piazza was furnished wtih
long benches, and these formed the rude beds on
which the gentlemen invariably indulged in the lux-
ury of a siesta.

The siesta over, and whilst the sun was still high
above the horizon, the kettle would bubble for the
evening refection, and hot tea and cakes would be
offered to refresh those whose heavy sleep rendered
some refreshment necessary. This early meal, of
course, indicated that supper would close the labors
of the day. And now the active duties of the day
being over, and every family having refreshed
themselves with tea or coffee, social life commenced.

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 133

Every one came to tea prepared either to make or
receive visits.

_ Bonnets and hats were articles of female dress
which were entirely ignored in the Pineville evening
visits. In attire a simple elegance prevailed.
Young ladies usually dressed in white; the aged
were clad in graver colors. Visits were uncere-
monious. The guests were received in the piazza.
No one ever expected to be invited into the house,
and persons might spend a season in social inter-
course with the people, without seeing the interior
of any house but their own. Sometimes chairs
were offered to the visitors, but, more generally, the
long benches with which the piazza was furnished
were the only seats. No refreshments were offered
or expected. But if any one asked fora glass of
water, the experienced servant would hand a suff-
cient number of glasses of the pure element to
satisfy every one present. For the water (got from
wells) was cold, clear, insipid, and refreshing, and
all seemed to sympathize in each other’s thirst.

But though the visiting was done at night, and
the piazza the reception room, the company did not
sit in the dark. In front of the house a fire of
light-wood formerly, in later times of pine-straw,
was kept constantly burning. The reasons for this
practice were manifold. It diffused a cheerful light
over the otherwise dark and gloomy lot. The
smoke, too, was supposed to be conducive to health ;

134 HISTORICAL AND .SOCIAL’ SKETCH OF

and the light certainly attracted night-flies and
moths from the inferior lights of the dwelling.
Around these fires the children would sport. Each ,
little fellow would take a pride in having a little
fire of his own; the larger and more daring would
show their courage by leaping through the flames.
Around its cheerful blaze time seemed to fly on
golden wings. It was literally light to the dwelling,
and a house without its yard fire appeared desolate
and sorrow-stricken. It was the daily task of the
hostler to collect materials sufficient to keep the
light burning until bedtime. By ten o’clock social
life was over, and the repose of sleep sought.
Whilst the visitor was preparing to return home,
the servant lit his lantern, and with this simple but
necessary escort, she trod the streets of the village
with as much security as the halls of her own
mansion.

Hunting, riding, and social visiting were the
several and separate amusements of the sexes in
Pineville. The chief amusement of which they par-
took, in common, was dancing. The languid city
belle, who cannot conceive of the exertion necessary
to a dance in summer, except, indeed, under the
exhilarating influence of a watering-place, may
stare ; but the unsophisticated youth of both sexes
in Pineville regarded dancing as both proper and
natural. The month of June would be devoted to
- feeling at home, and then, by way of making a

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 135

start, the Fourth of July would be celebrated by a
ball. This first taste would be followed by a desire
for more. During the heat of summer, parties,
simple and of short duration, would be arranged by
the gentlemen—a certain number, in turn, bearing
the moderate expense and acting as managers, so as
to have one every fortnight. At these parties the
company would assemble early, and by midnight all
would be quiet. As summer would wane the pas-
sion would increase. The public assemblies were
found to be of too rare occurrence, and all sorts of
expedients would be resorted to for the purpose of
getting up adance. If alady should put her patch-
work quilt in the quilting frame, the young ladies
would go in the evening to assist in the interesting
occupation of quilting, and the young gentlemen
would go to assist the latter in threading their nee-
dles. The rest may easily be guessed. In a short
time the quilting frame would disappear, and the
young people would be found threading the mazes
of the dance. Benevolent ladies, too, would be im-
portuned, and not in vain, to throw open their
rooms to the young people. Private parties would
multiply, and the season would close with the Jockey
Club ball; and now, all courtships being brought
to a conclusion, and frost having opened the doors
of the prison-house, the village would pour out its
inhabitants and become, during the winter months,
like a city of the dead.

136 AISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

Nothing can be imagined: more simple or more
fascinating than those Pineville balls. Bear in
mind, reader, that we are discussing old Pineville as
it existed prior to 1836. No love of display gov-
erned the preparations ; no vain attempt to outshine
a competitor in the world of fashion. Refresh-
ments were provided of the simplest character, such
only as the unusual exercise, and sitting beyond the
usual hours of repose, would fairly warrant. Nothing
to tempt a pampered appetite. Cards were usually
provided to keep the elderly gentlemen quiet, and
the music was only that which the gentlemen’s ser-
vants could produce. The company assembled
early. Noone ever thought of waiting until bed-
time to dress for the ball; a country-dance always
commenced the entertainment. The lady who stood
at the head of the dancers was entitled to call for
the figure, and the old airs, Ca /ra, Moneymusk,
Fflaste to the Wedding, and La Belle Catharine
were popular and familiar in Pineville long after
they had been forgotten, as dances, everywhere
else. Ah, well do we remember with what an ex-
ulting step would the young man, who had secured
the girl of his choice, exhibit his powers of the
poetry of motion, when his partner called for the
sentimental air of La Belle Catharine. How
proudly would he perform the fas seu/ on one
side of the column, while his partner did the same
on the other; how gracefully would they unite at

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 137

the head of the column, to cross hands; how tri-
umphantly would he lead her down the middle;
and when the strain was closing, and the leader
commenced with his bow the prolonged rest on the
final note, how full of sentiment, of grace, and of
courtesy was the bow with which he would salute
his fair lady! But those are scenes to be lived over
in thought. No untutored imagination can con-
ceive them. They are gone forever. Even in
Pineville they have become things which were.
Time can never restore them; but so long as an
old Pineville heart beats, so long will be embalmed
in the most fragrant memory, the recollection of a
Pineville country-dance. ,
The staple dance of the evening was the cotillion.
But as this so much resembles the modern quadrille,
it needs no special description. And now, when a
country-dance, and one or two cotillions, had gently
stirred up the spirits of the dancers, the signal would
be given for the exhilarating reel. A six-handed
reel! Come back for an instant, thou inexorable
past, and bring again before me that most fasci-
nating of movements! No lover now claims the
hand of his beloved; this is no scene for sentiment,
for soft whisper, for the gentle pressure of the
thrilling hand. No; this isa dance. Your partner
must be a lively, merry, laughter-loving girl; brisk,
active, animated. Let none venture on it but the
genuine votaries of Terpsichore. There is no room

138 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

for affected display. You must retain your self-
possession, for the movement is brisk; but with
self-possession there is no fear of awkwardness.
The reel is called ; the sets are formed, three couple
in each, who generally agree to dance together.
The music commences, and off they bound. In
rapid succession, we have the chase, the hey, the
figure of eight, right and left, cross hands, down
the middle, grand round, cross again, and off the
whole party darts again, to recommence the intoxi-
cating reel. Has your glove come off ? then dance
ungloved, for you have no time to put it on again;
the hands must move as briskly as the feet. And
as your pace quickens with intense delight, hark
how the fiddlers sympathize with your joy! Their
stamps become quicker, the music plays with accel-
erated time, and bows and fingers move with a
rapidity which Paganini might envy but could never
hope to emulate. The powers of endurance are
taxed to the uttermost, and set after set retire ex-
hausted. The last set left generally contains some
unlucky wight of middle age, who ventures once
more to enjoy the luxury of the dance. Now, how
wickedly do his young companions (his partner, the
instigator) persevere! How gayly do they strive,
by keeping him ‘on his feet, to punish his presump-
tion in venturing among them. But they know not
that men of a certain age possess powers of endur-
ance beyond their tender years, and after a pro-

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. * 139

tracted contest find that they have caught a tartar.
The company look on, all parties deeply sympathiz-
ing, and the young are, at last, obliged to acknowl-
edge themselves vanquished.

The reel is the offspring of the genuine love of
dancing. There are none of the auxiliary motives
to learn its movements. No room for the gratifica-
tion of vanity in the display of graceful motion ; no
prurient fancy to be gratified by the privilege of
encircling the waist of a handsome girl, and feeling
her tresses kiss your cheek at every step she takes
in the whirl of the voluptuous waltz, or in the lasciv-
ious movements of the Schottisch, which we once
heard a friend blunderingly, but happily, call a
Sottese. It is a scene of perpetual motion and good
humor. No solemn face may venture on it; for
laughter, gay and unconcerned, is its proper accom- .
paniment. No soft nothings can here be whispered,
for the duties of the dance require your constant
attention ; no graceful insouciance can be tolerated,
for the comfort and happiness of others depend ab-
solutely upon your own good behavior, no less
than upon theirs. Many persons, thinking it too
fatiguing, have fancied that the Virginia reel might
be a happy substitute for it. But this is long and
languid. It is like diluted spirits substituted for pure
champagne. It languished, and, in the phrase of an
indictment, languishingly did live, until, at last, it
died of its own stupidity.

I40 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

The evening’s entertainment was always con-
cluded with the boulanger, a dance whose quiet
movement seemed to come in appropriately, in order
to permit the revellers to cool off, before exposure
to the night air. It was a matter of no small im-
portance to secure a proper partner for this dance,
because, by an old custom, whoever last danced with
a lady, had a prescriptive right to see her home.
And this reminds us of another peculiarity of Pine-
ville life, viz., that though every family kept a car-
riage, nobody ever thought of returning from a ball
by any other mode but on foot. No carriage was
ever seen in the streets after dark. The servant,
with the lantern, marshalled the way ; and the lady,
escorted by her partner, was conducted to her home.
And as the season drew towards a close, how interest-
ing became these walks! how many words of love
were spoken ! how many hearts saddened by the dis-
covery of the hopelessness of an attachment ! how
many persons, now living, whose destinies depended
upon these walks! To many a dancer the boulan-
ger was a season of consciousness, of apprehension,
of delight reined in, of hope and of fear ; and there
are numbers still living, in whose recollections a
certain dance of this description will remain in-
delibly fixed.

Besides regular and occasional dancing parties,
riding parties would be got up to promote inter-
course between the sexes; for you must know,

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. I4!I

gentle reader, that love became an epidemic in
Pineville, just like the fever, and that its exacerba-
tions were always greatest when the season was
drawing toaclose. The proprietor of a plantation
in the neighborhood would invite the young people
to drive there on some afternoon and partake of
the luxuries of plantation life. Then every young
man hastened to secure a partner for the drive;
and at the appointed hour, each in his gig (for in
in those days gigs were, and buggies were not), the
happy party would set off, bound on enjoyment.
The amusements on such occasions would be such
as spontaneously suggested themselves, but all was
apt to terminate in the dance. And sometimes it
would happen, that the eager lover, grasping at his
opportunity, would pop the question on the outward
drive, and if refused, the luckless wight would have
to endure the mortification of the homeward drive
—téte-a-téte with her who had rejected the offer of
his love. Oh, blessed be the healing hand of time,
which can make the recollection of even such scenes
a source of enjoyment !

The serenade is one of the most obvious modes
of paying delicate attentions to a lady; and those
who possessed musical skill frequently had their
talents put in requisition by young lovers. We
almost always remarked, however, the observance
of a sort of rigid impartiality in the performance of
this attention. If a serenading party went out,

142 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

every young lady came in for her share of the com-
pliment ; the only distinction being observed was,
that the best airs and the longest time were devoted
to those for whose favor the entertainment was
specially provided.

The season was always closed by the races and
the Jockey Club ball. The St. Stephen’s race-
course, about half a mile from Pineville, is one of
the oldest and best in the State. The track runs
over a level surface, and within it is a large pond,
which, being drained and kept clear of trees, affords
from every point an undisturbed view of the horses
throughout the race. After the settlement of Pine-
ville, the races were established for the end of Oc-
tober ; and as the season is then comparatively safe,
lovers of sport would there meet from various parts
of the country. The races, which at that time con-
tinued two days, were ushered in by a dinner and
concluded bya ball. About fifty years ago, dancers
of both sexes drew lots for both places and partners,
so that there was, for the first two sets at least, no
liberty of choice; but the practice was discontinued
too early for us to have any knowledge of it but
from tradition. The purses were altogether made
up by a moderate subscription, as no money was
taken at the gates; and though the subscription
was general, the stakes were too moderate to tempt
the cupidity of professional sportsmen; so that, I
believe, no horse of distinction ever appeared on

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 143

the course between the years 1794 and 1836. Since
that time, the club has been remodelled, the time of
meeting changed to January, the subscription in-
creased, and the club now ranks among the most
respectable in the State.

Before we quit the subject of amusements in
Pineville, it is meet that we conclude by showing
one of their most natural issues. Let us take you,
reader, to a wedding. The spirit of improvement
has pervaded every portion of the State, and a
country wedding differs now very little from one
celebrated in the city. A Charleston pastry-cook
provides the entertainment, and Brissenden’s band
the music. The company is invited to assemble at
a late hour, and no one is expected to stay over to
breakfast. But it was not so in days of yore. It
was not so when we hailed as a resident of Craven
County. The events of 1836 have entirely changed
the aspect of society, and the difference between the
period before and that since that epoch is as great
as is generally perceived in the course of a century.
Before the wedding, a visit to Charleston was in-
dispensably necessary. The bride-elect could not
think of getting married, without making in person
the arrangement of her trousseau. Then, a visit to
Charleston was, by no means, an every-day occur-
rence. An annual visit was common; but there
were many who let years pass over without seeing
the metropolis. The preparatory visit being made,

144 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

and all arrangements completed, the day would be
fixed and invitations extended. Several days be-
fore the wedding the bridesmaids would assemble
at the house of the betrothed, and to them were
committed all the preparations for the feast. The
master of the house furnished the materials, and the
busy and active fingers of the bridesmaids trans-
formed them into cakes and confections, jellies,
custards, tarts, and all other dainties which the
occasion demanded. The master and mistress ap-
peared, as it were, to retire from the management
of the household, and leave every thing to the con-
trol of those young friends who came to attend
their companion to the sacrifice, and to prepare her
for it. On the evening appointed the bridegroom
(who has been denied the entrée to the house since
the arrival of the bridesmaids) arrives, the invited
guests follow, and, at the hour appointed, the happy
couple stand before the priest and receive the nup-
tial benediction. And, as soon as this is pro-
nounced, the fiddles, which are in waiting, strike up
the time-honored air of “A Health to the Bride.”
Friends and relatives crowd up to offer their con-
gratulations and good wishes, and the poor bride is at
last permitted to take her seat, sadly in doubt whether
the ceremony itself or the congratulations upon it
were the severer trial. Now the waiters appear with
tea and coffee, followed up directly with wine, cake,
and cordials, and this over, the dancing commences,

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 145

The first groomsman opens the dance with the
bride, the groom with the first bridesmaid, and, by
a time-honored custom, the air is ‘‘ Haste to the
Wedding.” After this the dancing continues until
near midnight, when supper is announced, and the
bride is led into supper by the first groomsman.
The supper table is a bona-fide supper table, ar-
ranged to hold all the guests. Considerable in-
genuity is shown in devising a suitable form, so as
to afford the greatest accommodation, and in deco-
rating it. Towers of cake, wreaths, ornaments of
every description, may be seen, while by their side
an ample provision of turkeys, of ducks, of hams, of
rice, and of bread, all showing that it is not a sham,
nor designed to be treated as such ; wine, too, flows
in abundance; in fact, the only article which appears
to be scarce is water. Toasts are drunk ; jokes fly
about, and all are happy, except the parties most
concerned, who feel that, though happy, it is too
newly to be quite at rest.

After supper the bride disappears. She is no
longer seen in the festive hall; but the music is
playing, and the dancing is proceeding, and one by
one the bridesmaids drop in, looking very mysteri-
ously, and the dancing proceeds, not the less bois-
terous from being after supper, and by degrees the
elderly folks drop off, and the groom becomes miss-
ing, and the hours wear on apace, and the dance be-
comes more languid, and by two or three o’clock in

146 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

the morning all becomes quiet, and the parties have
sought their beds to recover strength for the duties
of the following day.

- And herein was exhibited the old-fashioned hospi-
tality of the planters. Every guest was lodged for
the night. Beds were arranged everywhere. If the
house was too small some out-building was arranged
for the occasion. And, O reader, if you were one
of the. young men, you would have enjoyed that
night, but if you had passed the first excitement of
young blood, and were entertaining any vague con-
ceptions of the blessing of repose after a night of
revelry, you were doomed to a cruel disappoint-
ment. Every device that ingenious youth can in-
vent is brought to disturb your repose. Perhaps on
entering your sleeping apartment you find your bed
suspended near the ceiling. If you succeed in de-
positing your wearied body, you are roused by the
entrance of a gang of roistering visitors, who come
to inquire after your repose. Well! we have had
our share of the sport, and must not repine if we
have had to witness the day, or rather the night, of
retribution. In time, however, even the most rest-
less spirits are exhausted, and by the dawn of day
sleep comes to give repose to your wearied brow.

If your lot gives you a bed in the house, your ears
are saluted soon after dawn by the fiddlers playing
at the door of the nuptial chamber the old air of
“Health to the Bride,’ and somehow it happens

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 147

that the groom is always the first stirring after
this.

As the morning advances the company gradually
assemble in the drawing-room, and breakfast is an-
nounced, Each bridesmaid presides at a certain
portion of the breakfast-table, and the scene here is
almost as hilarious as that of last evening’s supper.
After breakfast the house becomes quiet. The
gentlemen mount their horses and ride off, some-
times to hunt—at all events, to take hearty and
vigorous exercise, for nothing is more conducive to
dispel the effects of last night’s dissipation. At two
o'clock the company re-assemble ; and on this occa-
sion you will find all the neighbors within visiting
distance (which may be twenty-five miles), who are
invited to partake of the festivities of the occasion.
From the dinner-table the party adjourn to the ball-
room, and last night’s scene is repeated. On the
morning of the third day the party disperses, and
the young couple is left to the enjoyment of domes-
tic bliss.

We have already said that the citizens of Pine-
ville were all planters. Unpretending and unambi-
tious, they never sought distinction in the walks of
public life. We hope it may not be thought in-
vidious if we notice, among the dead, a few of those
who may be considered among the notabilities of
the place. :

We have had occasion already to introduce the

148 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

name of Capt. John Palmer, the father and founder
of the village. By the maternal line he was the
great-grandson of Philip Gendron, the Huguenot
emigrant, who has been more than once named in
this essay. His father, Mr. John Palmer, of Gravel
Hill, was so distinguised for enterprise and success
in the making of turpentine, that he is known by
tradition, even now, after the lapse of more than
seventy years, as Turpentine John Palmer. Capt.
Palmer was an active partisan during the war of the
revolution, and secured the esteem of Marion, who
made him one of his aids. He was a fine model of
a patriarch. Benevolent, his hand was as open as
day to melting charity, but no autocrat could be
more arbitrary. No one dared dispute with him,
for his arguments were all ad hominem; but, by
appearing to yield, the weakest would gain their
point with him. He had never been indoctrinated
in the arts of logic or rhetoric, but his letters, many
of which we have seen, are excellent specimens of
clear good sense and pure idiomatic English. It is
remarkable that this quality of style is by no means
as common now as then, when the means of educa-
tion were not so easily procurable. After struggling
manfully and successfully through the gloomy and
disastrous period from the commencement of the war
to the introduction of cotton, he died in 1817, aged
sixty-eight years, leaving a large number of descend-
ants by four children, three of whom survived him.

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA, 149

Capt. Peter Gaillard was another of the founders
of the village. He was several years the junior of
Capt. Palmer, whose eldest daughter he married ez
secondes noces. He possessed an ample patrimony,
but in common with other wealthy men, found that,
in consequence of the depressed state of the agri-
cultural interest, and the precarious nature of the
Santee Swamp, on which his estates lay, his wealth
was only a source of expense, and ruin appeared to
stare him in the face. The frequency of the freshets
in Santee Swamp making it almost impossible to
raise corn in it, he purchased, about the year 1794,
a tract of land near Nelson’s Ferry, in St. John’s
Berkeley, for the purpose of cultivating provisions.
In that year Gen. Moultrie planted cotton on his
Northampton estate, in the same parish. The next
year Capt. Gaillard tried it on his new purchase,
the Rocks, and found that the soil was eminently
congenial, His success (Gen. Moultrie’s experi-
ment appears to have been a failure) gave an impe-
tus to the new culture, and before the year 1800,
cotton was the staple culture of those two parishes.
It is about twenty years since Capt. Gaillard’s death,
and perhaps thirty since he retired from the pur-
‘suit of agriculture ; but such was the strength of
his mind, the correctness of his observations, and
the soundness of his judgment, that it may be
doubted whether any material improvement has
been effected in the cotton culture since his time.

I50 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

His opinions are still-;quoted with respect by those
who knew him, and those who never enjoyed that
advantage reverently embrace the traditions and
ponder over them. _He was a remarkably gentle-
n manlike-looking man ; one of the last who continued
the use of fair-top boots. He is said to have been
fond of carving with his knife, and the balustrades
of his piazza bore testimony to this trait. Having
built a fine new house on the Rocks plantation, he
abandoned the habit, so far as the house was con-
cerned ; but a servant always brought him a cypress
shingle after dinner, on which he would indulge in
his favorite pursuit. He was three times married.
His first wife, the only one by whom he had issue,
was Miss Porcher, sister of the late Major Samuel
Porcher. The second was Anna Stevens, xée
Palmer, widow of Oneal Gough Stevens; and his
third, Caroline Theus, zée Theus, widow of Mr.
Theus, formerly an eminent merchant of Charles-
ton. He left a large family of sons and daughters,
and his descendants are very numerous.

Science and humanity mourned, in 1817, the un-
timely death of Dr. James Macbride. He was a
native of Sumter district, and was educated at Yale
College, where he was a contemporary of Mr. Cal-
houn, and of our late venerable bishop. He en-
gaged in the pursuit of medicine, and, settling in
Pineville, married Miss Eleanor Gourdin, daughter

of the Hon. Theodore Gourdin of that village. As

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. I5i

a physician he was eminently successful, and he was
distinguished for sound judgment and a thorough
knowledge of his profession. He removed to
Charleston to enter upon a wider field of practice,
but before he had time to reap any of the promised
fruit, fell a victim to yellow fever. The opinions of
Dr. Macbride are treasured, and to this day quoted
with respect. He had an intuitive perception of
truth ; in matters which were the subjects merely of
conjecture, subsequent researches have proved the
accuracy of his judgments. His recreation was
botany. He was the friend and correspondent of
Elliott, and assisted largely in the preparation of
the botany of South Carolina and Georgia. Mr.
Elliott acknowledged the obligation, and in the
preface to his work has paid a touching and affec-
tionate tribute to the memory of one who richly
deserves his regard and could fully appreciate his
own genius. Dr. Macbride left a son and two
daughters. His widow survived him many years,
and was universally admired for the excellence of
her disposition and the elegance of her manners.
His son lived but to see manhood. His daughters
still survive.

Among the earliest victims of that terrible malady
which, for a time, depopulated Pineville, was Dr.
John J. Couturier. He was a native of St. Ste-
phen’s Parish, was educated at the Pineville Acade-
my, in which afterwards he served as an assistant

152 HISTORICAL AND SOCTAL SKETCH OF

teacher, and succeeded to the practice of Dr. Mac-
bride. For seventeen years he labored assiduously
in his vocation, and his zeal, his activity, his skill,
and his unaffected benevolence, secured him the
love and respect of a large clientage. His income
was large, but hardly exceeded his expenditure, and
his friends would often urge him to exact of some
of his poor patients a moderate payment—if not in
money, at least in articles of country produce, which
would be useful to him and convenient for them to
spare. But he would never consent. He looked
for payment in another world, and would always say
that he had a better paymaster than any of his pa-
tients couldever be. Hediedin 1834. His widow,
formerly Miss Palmer, daughter of John, and grand-
daughter of Capt. John Palmer, and their three
daughters, still survive.

Mr. Charles Stevens was one of the most re-
spected citizens of Pineville. Feeling himself en-
dowed with talents which he would not willingly
permit to lie idle, he was admitted to the bar, and
hoped to devote himself to the calling of his pro-
fession. But a cruel deafness seized him, which
proved incurable, and forever destroyed his hopes.
Before it had become so great as to shut him out
from social intercourse, he spent two years in the
occupation of teacher in the Pineville Academy, and
then he engaged in commerce, and opened a store
in Pineville, which for many years furnished the

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 153

planters with their wants, and brought him wealth.
His deafness increased to such an extent that he
could hear only when the speaker’s mouth was ap-
plied to his ear. And yet he could always converse
with ease with the members of his family. Mr.
Stevens was an interested observer of politics, and
on all stirring occasions took such an active part, by
means of his pen, that, with his acknowledged
abilities, he was regarded as one of the leading
minds of the late Union party. Thoroughly ex-
cluded, however, from familiar intercourse with
men, he lived very much in a world of his own crea-
tion, and his views of politics were better adapted
to a Utopia of his own imagination than to the
actual world. He was universally beloved as well
as esteemed. All his influence was directed to the
cultivation of the literary tastes of his neighbors.
He died in 1833. He married Susan, daughter of
Mr. René Ravenel, and his widow, a son, and three
daughters survived him.

In 1851, Major Samuel Porcher, the last surviv-
ing founder of Pineville, died, in the eighty-third
year of his age. Major Porcher was educated in
England,. and on returning home after the war,
commenced his career, as an agriculturist, on his
plantation, Mexico, in St. Stephen’s Parish. In
common with all other planters, his life was a strug-
gle until the introduction of the cotton culture,
when he adopted it and cultivated it with great suc-

154 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

cess to the end of his life. He entertained a high
opinion of the value of the lands in Santee Swamp.
He inherited a large estate in it, and made numer-
ous additions by purchase, all of which he deter-
mined to secure from the freshets by means of an
embankment. To this work, therefore, he ad-
dressed himself, and resting his bank on the south
bank of the Santee Canal, he continued it four
miles down the river, where it now stands, the
greatest result of private enterprise, perhaps, in the
southern country. The embankment is four miles
in length, its base is thirty feet, its height nine feet,
and is so wide at the top that two persons may
very conveniently cross each other on horseback.
By means of this embankment he has reclaimed the
upper portion of the swamp, which now yields large
crops of corn and other grain. All that is wanting
to render the work thoroughly successful, is a con-
tinuation by his neighbors to the next bluff or
headland on the river. If this were done, some of
the best lands in America would be redeemed for
cultivation. The Major was one of the happiest,
the most amiable, and the most popular men in the
State. At the age of twenty-one he married his
cousin, Harriet Porcher, and they lived together
more than fifty years. She died in 1843. Their
home was the abode of elegant and of heartfelt hos-
pitality. In winter they were rarely without guests,
and at Christmas the house seemed to overflow

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 155

with company, consisting not only of their numer-
ous descendants, but of others who, in return for
unaffected kindness, voluntarily offered this grateful
attention. The Major was all his life subject to
asthma, and he smoked incessantly. He eschewed
the Spanish tobacco as a nuisance, but always had
on hand a provision of several thousand American
segars, which were made to his order. Hewas a
man of great personal activity. and in the last year
of his life managed his horse with the fearlessness
and dexterity of a youth. He had lived so long
with his wife that he could hardly carry back his
thoughts to the time when she was not his com-
panion, and after her death he continyed to speak
of her as if she were still alive. He never, like
many others, avoided the mention of her name.
On the contrary, he took a positive pleasure in
making her the subject of conversation. Her say-
ings and doings were spoken of as familiarly and as
naturally as if she still remained at the head of her
family. It ought to be mentioned, as highly credita-
ble to both employer and overseer, that at the time
of his death, his overseer, Mr. Samuel Foxworth,
had lived with him in that capacity upwards of
thirty years. Two sons survive the Major, besides
numerous other descendants by a son and daughter
whom he survived.

Mr. Robert Marion, formerly a member of Con-
gress from the Charleston district, and Mr. Theo-

156 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

dore Gourdin, a member from the Northeastern
district, both lived in Pineville. Mrs. Anna Peyre
Dinnies, now so favorably known in American litera-
ture, was also, in her youth, a'resident of Pineville,
and so was the late Rev. Edward Thomas, rector,
formerly of the church on Edisto, afterwards of St.
John’s Berkeley. John Gaillard, who so many
years represented the State in the Senate of the
United States, and Judge Gaillard, were both na-
tives of St. Stephen’s, but never, I believe, residents
of Pineville.’

Among the lions of Pineville was John Wall, an
Irishman by birth, who lived there in the capacity
of factor or general agent for Mr. Theodore Gour-
din. He was’an old, weather-beaten man, with a

1 Craven County may enumerate, among her notables, the notorious David
Hines. This person has been the subject of two biographies, one of which
is, we believe, written by himself. We have never read either of them, but
the last happening.to fall into our hands, during a disengaged hour, we
skimmed over a few of the introductory pages, and found them a tissue of
falsehoods. He was born in St. Stephen’s Parish ; his father was a poor but
worthy and inoffensive man ; of his mother we cannot be certain of any
information, and choose, therefore, to be silent. He first appeared before
the public, as a rider in one of the Pineville races, when, being thrown from
his horse, considerable interest was excited in his behalf. He got employ-
ment on the plantation of Mr. John Palmer, of Maham’s, in the humble
capacity of cow-minder, and soon after was charged with the commission of
a forgery, the trial for which resulted in his acquittal, but led the way to a
subsequent extensive acquaintance with the Court of Sessions. He has no
pretensions whatever to the title of M.D., which he assumes. We have
always considered his career as a proof of the extreme gullibility of the
American people. He has assumed, with success, the best names in the
State, without possessing the manners, the address, or even the external ap-
pearance of a gentleman, and he is destitute of all talents requisite for the
profession of a rogue, except that of matchless effrontery.

~

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 157

great deal of irascibility, tempered with a large stock
of benevolence. His predominating idea was at-
tachment to the interest of his patron. He always
wore his hair in a gwewe, and on Sundays would ap-
pear at church in knee breeches and silk stockings.
His veins, which age had enlarged, would show
themselves through his stockings, and the irreverent
boys would point to them in ridicule, believing that,
in order to give more dignity to his shrunk calves,
he had stuffed them with paper. He was useful to
the public by discharging the duties of a magistrate,
and when Mr. Gourdin’s influence promoted Pine-
ville to the rank of a post town, Mr. Wall was
appointed the postmaster. He had the reputation
of being a miser, but we believe he hoarded only
for his patron. Mr. Gourdin was a man full of
many schemes, which were not very profitable, and
Mr. Wall was said to have been never so happy as
when his patron was prevented from intermeddling
in his own business by his avocations in Washing-
ton as a member of Congress. The mutual attach-
ment of the benevolent patron and the humble
factor reflected the brightest credit upon each. Mr.
Gourdin bequeathed to him an annuity as a token
of his sense of the value of his services, but the de-
voted friend did not enjoy his munificence. He
survived his patron but a few months, and appeared
to die of a broken heart, lamenting the only man he
ever loved.

158 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH .OF

Before we bring this long and desultory sketch to
a close, the nature of the subject appears to call for
some remarks respecting health and disease. It was
the search after health which led to the settlement
of Pineville, and it was the prevalence, long con-
tinued, of a fearful malady, which, in 1836, drove
the inhabitants to seek refuge elsewhere.

Whoever will consult Mouzon’s map of St. Ste-
phen’s district, and compare it with the aspect
which a map of the same region, if now constructed,
would present, will naturally inquire, to what causes
such a melancholy contrast is to be attributed. In
the palmy days of this parish, the fourteen miles of
road, which we described at the commencement of
this sketch as leading from the canal to the church,
passed in sight of upwards of twenty plantations.
And such is the depth of the swamp, and so great
was the demand for its valuable lands, that many
more were to be found in the interior which were
not seen from the road. The first cause of this
desolation is to be found in the frequency and the
irregularity of the freshets in the Santee River,
which have reduced the garden of the State to an
absolute wilderness. A few of the names on Mou-
zon’s map are extinct; but the greater part may still
be found in St. John’s Berkeley, between Monck’s
Corner and the Eutaw Springs. Before the intro-
duction of the cotton culture, the lands of this last
parish were held in very little esteem. Mr. Philip

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 159

Porcher had four sons, to whom he left plantations,
and he was accustomed to lament the lot of him
who had only a place in St. John’s. That was the
only son who was not compelled to quit his patri-
mony. The three others, who were left to the in-
heritance of Santee lands, were all obliged to abandon
them, and seek in St. John’s the means of making
cotton.

How far the unhealthiness of the country may
have contributed to its depopulation, it is diff-
cult to say. Our own opinion is, that the insa-
lubrity of our climate has been greatly exagger-
ated. Nothing is more certain, than that we readily
accommodate ourselves to a given standard of health,
and scarcely desire any improvement on it. The
tone of sentiment on this subject, as well as on
others, is, in a great measure, derived from the me-
tropolis, and just in proportion as the sanitary condi-
tion of Charleston has improved, does that of the
surrounding country appear to have deteriorated.
We have seen letters written from Somerton planta-
tion, in midsummer, 1725, in which the writer speaks
of having retired thither from the insalubrious cli-
mate of Charleston. We have heard the late Mr.
Daniel Webb say that, when a child, he was carried
from Charleston to the neighborhood of Eutaw, for
the benefit of his health. And it was a common
practice for the late Mrs. Plowden Weston and
her sister, Mrs. William Mazyck, to pay an annual

160 _ . HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

visit every midsummer to the plantation of their
brother, Mr. Philip Porcher—a great inducement
then being a retreat from the summer heat of the
city and the enjoyment of the luxuries of planta-
tion life at that season. This gentleman died on
his plantation, on Santee Swamp, in 1800, at the
advanced age of seventy. At one period of his life
he had lived in Charleston, but for several years he
resided entirely on his plantation; and we have
often heard it said that, though within six miles
of the village, and having built houses there for
several of his children, he never saw Pineville. Mr.
Edward Thomas, who died at the age of ninety, is
said to have spent forty years without once quitting
his plantation. It becomes, therefore, an interesting
inquiry, what was the state of public health—what
advantage was gained by the settlement of Pine- ©
ville, and at what price?

The bane of this parish, like that of every portion
of America, south and west of the Hudson River,
was, and is, the intermittent fever of the autumnal
months. This, when of frequent occurrence, be-
comes habitual, is attended with enlargement of the
spleen, a tendency to dropsy, and a general prostra-
tion of the moral and intellectual, as well as of the
physical man. This disorder was, perhaps, not more
malignant in St. Stephen’s than elsewhere ; but na-
ture had kindly furnished an asylum wherein the
ague-stricken patient might breathe in safety, re-

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 161

cover from his malady, and enjoy the blessing of
health, both of mind and of body. This asylum is
the pine land. Here is enjoyed an exemption from
intermittent fevers.

But this exemption is purchased at a price which
is often fatal. In proportion to the salubrity of the
climate, is the danger attending exposure to one
less healthful. And the price of exposure is not
merely a simple and teasing intermittent; but a
fever, sharp, severe, dangerous, and frequently
fatal. Few kinds of fever can be named more
dreaded by the people of Charleston than the fever
which is there found under the name of country
fever ; and yet we have often heard Dr. Couturier
declare that he had never seen a case of it in the
whole range of his extensive practice. Equally
dreaded and equally fatal is the myrtle fever of
Sullivan’s Island; and yet nowhere do we find a
higher enjoyment of health than in Charleston and
on the island, the seats of these dreaded enemies.
These are the price which the people pay for expo-
sure, and a price of the same kind is exacted every-
where else. So, when the people of Pineville would
be alarmed by the visitation of a hot and agonizing
fever, which threatened, if not speedily arrested, to
terminate fatally, the people of the surrounding
country would have no ailments of a more alarm-
ing character than the ordinary intermittent of the
climate. Now, so highly do we value the sensation

162 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

of perfect health, that in order to enjoy it we would
run the risk of incurring even a worse penalty than
country fever. But any violation of the condition
of its enjoyment—that is, any exposure at improper
seasons, and under unfavorable circumstances—ren-
ders one liable to be called upon to endure the pen-
alty. It must be confessed, however, that even
when no violation had been offered to the condi-
tions, not only Pineville, but every other pine land,
has presented sporadic cases of fevers. There are
persons so sensitively and ridiculously alive to the
reputation of a place for health, that no case of
fever can occur without the cause being diligent-
ly investigated ; and this ascertained, how frivolous
soever it may be, the poor patient is allowed to die
as soon as he may. And it is astonishing how friv-
olous are the causes which are sometimes gravely
assigned and believed. Thus, we remember when
the first case of yellow fever made its appearance in
Charleston, in 1839, it was said that the young man,
its victim, had neglected to provide himself with a
sufficient number of towels in going to the bath,
and was consequently obliged to spend some time
in damp clothes. It never occurred to these good
people, that if such a trivial neglect could produce
such fatal consequences, it would argue a deadliness
of climate which ought to make every one, who has
it in his power, to abandon it at once and forever.
And we could not but remember how, when a

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 163

school-boy, we used to run two miles to Maham's
mill-pond, and on Saturday spent the whole morn-
ing there in the luxurious bath, and no one ever
dreamed of a luxury in the shape of a towel, beyond
our ordinary handkerchiefs. The truth is, that dis-
eases, fevers particularly, come from God ; to what
end, we know not precisely, but a good one, we may
be certain. If there were no fevers provided for us,
we would be deprived of one of the means for quit-
ting this world; and it is worse than useless to
speculate upon the causes which, in every case, and
we believe we may say, in azy case, generate this
disorder.

A pretty extensive observation has convinced us
that we know absolutely nothing of the causes of
fever. We have seen overseers living year after
year in the rice fields of Cooper River, in the unin-
terrupted enjoyment of perfect health. ese en-
stances are too common to be marked as exceptions.
We have generally observed that those overseers
are least sickly who are required to spend their
summers on the plantation. We have known
others who preserved their health until they re-
sorted to the pine lands. In such cases, our va-
tronale of the cause is this: The overseer must be
on the plantation late in the evening and early in
the morning. If he lives on the plantation, he has
no occasion to rise before his usual hour; if he re-
tires to a pine land, he must abstract from sleep

164 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

that portion of time which is occupied in going to
and returning from the plantation. Now, the sum-
mer nights are very short, and though one may
without inconvenience dispense with a half-hour’s
sleep on any given occasion, yet this trifling amount
tells in the aggregate, and the climate has full op-
portunity to work upon the exhausted body. Asa
general rule, too, the overseers are generally more
healthy, whether living on plantations or in pine
lands, than men of the same class living on their
own pine-land farms. A more generous diet en-
ables them to resist more effectually the effects of
the climate; and we believe that any planter who
keeps a good table and enjoys it in moderation, who
will not drink too much wine or other stimulating
liquors, and who will not suffer his spirits to be de-
pressed by the ominous croakings of his friends,
may pass the summer on his plantation, if not in
perfect health, at least with no visitation more fear-
ful than the intermittent fever of the climate. The
late Dr. Charles Rutledge spent the summer of 1800
on Accabee plantation, and his family enjoyed per-
fect health. In 1839, when the yellow fever raged
in Charleston, and the citadel was full of pestilence,
Major Parker removed his family, in midsummer,
to the Martello Towers, and they all enjoyed per-
fect health there. Other cases may without much
trouble be enumerated, all going to prove, not that
the climate has changed, as our people so rashly

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 165

assert, but that the city has become more healthful,
and that our people have a greater fear of fever than
formerly. The great danger to be apprehended is
not the remittent fever, which proceeds by rapid
stages to a fatal crisis, but the slow and lingering
intermittent. As we have before said, it is the repe-
tition of these attacks which breaks down the man. |
They tell fearfully, too, upon children, who have
not the strength to bear up against their ravages.
They get ague cakes, and smiles and laughter no
longer play about their little faces, and they know
nothing of the joys and sports of childhood, and their
melancholy countenances prey upon your spirits as
you behold their listless tawny faces; and at last
God, in his mercy, takes them to himself, and they
trouble this world no more. It is the child, there-
fore, who has special cause to bless the benevolence
which provides the pine lands. There they feel the
balmy air as it kisses their cheeks, and it seems the
breath of God, inviting them to be happy, and
laughter and childish glee fill the air with their
hopeful and heart-reviving sounds. And let not
the carping critic point to the tombstones which
cluster about the cemeteries of our country, and
show how many have died in childhood, and in
the prime of manhood, even under the favoring
influence of the pine-land air. Regard not their
death. That is the debt of nature. But look to
their lives. If they were happy in life, there is

166 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF

little to be regretted in their death. But we must
return to Pineville.

Though seasons would occur, in which sickness.
and death would make their appearance in forms
/more appalling than usual, yet there was generally
this consolation, that the rest of the country was
equally the subject of the visitation. Thus, in 1817
and 1819, the village was clad in mourning, but dis-
ease and death were making hurrying strides every-
where else. In the meantime all the usual appliances
for preserving the public health were adopted. The
ponds were drained, the ditches kept open, trees en-
couraged to grow, yard fires kept up every night,
and when the village had entered upon its fortieth
year, its inhabitants fondly hoped that it was the
abode of as much health as Providence deigns
award to man. It was in autumn, 1833, that the
first cases of that malady occurred, which drove
away the people. A gentleman—we believe it was
Mr. John Ravenel—was sick. The season was un-
commonly dry, and the swamps exhaled offensive
odors; his daily rides led him by one of these, and
he was supposed to have been poisoned by its exha-
lations. But he was not alarmingly ill. His fever
appeared to intermit, and men began to inquire
whether fever and ague was to be one of the diseases
of the village. And those who were not connected
with him by any ties of intimacy, almost, perhaps
quite, forgot that he was sick, when suddenly a ru-

CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 167

mor flies through the village that he is dying. And
it was even so. ‘The insidious fever, after amusing
his victim for some days, and lulling his friends
into a fatal sense of security, suddenly seized him
with a rigor so intense that neither the patient's
strength could resist it, nor mortal skill success-
fully oppose it, and before the hot fit could come
on he was dead. Another case of a similar charac-
ter occurred, and the people gratefully welcomed
the benignant frost, which stopped the progress of
the fever, and opened the doors of their prison-
house... The next summer, 1834, the fever returned,
and in that and the two succeeding summers it con-
tinued its ravages, until the most sanguine became
desponding, and the village was almost totally de-
serted.,

And as no cause could be assigned for the fearful
visitation, so health again mysteriously returned to
its ancient abode. By slow degrees the deserted
houses again received their tenants. Men began to
forget their former terrors, and returned, and Pine-
ville is again the abode of a number of planters.
The prestige of its ancient fame still remains, to
give it a sort of metropolitan character over the
neighboring villages of Pinopolis, Eutawville, New
Hope, and others, which have sprung up, like an-
cient colonies, cherishing the sacred fires from the
hearth of the maternal state. It justly boasts of
its delicious shades, of its clear, cool, and refreshing

168 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH.

water, but it no longer claims a monopoly of health.
And while other villages flourish in its neighbor-
hood, and the communication with Charleston has
become more easy, the sense of isolation, which once
gave its people a peculiar characteristic, no longer is
felt, and they have become cosmopolitan. The old
times have gone, never to return, and it is to call
back the memory of the first fifteen years of our
life, and of the two which followed our accession to
manhood, that we have made this humble attempt
to depict scenes which, though perhaps faded, can
never be forgotten. ae de 9

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NOTE A.

THE FRENCH HUGUENOTS.

“To gratify the lusts of power, princes have often encour-
aged the emigration of their subjects, in the hope of increasing
their wealth and multiplying their possessions, And individ-
uals, led on by an ambitious desire to improve their personal
fortunes, have abandoned the home of their fathers. But none
of these motives prompted our Protestant ancestors to leave
the delightful hills and valleys of their native France. They
were no instruments in the hands of ambitious princes for the
increase of their wealth and power. They did not seek a home
in America, through mere love of adventure, or the ordinary
inducements of pecuniary gain. Far nobler and higher were
the motives that actuated them. They came in search of an
asylum from the relentless persecution of a Catholic rule and
of a cruel government. They sought a home in which they
might enjoy, unmolested, the sweets of political and religious
liberty. They longed to bear away their altars and their faith to
a land of real freedom—a land allowing free scope to the ex-
ercise of conscience in the worship of their Maker.

“The name of Huguenot is synonymous with patient endur-
ance, noble fortitude, and high religious purpose. Let us
then be glad that we, a portion of their descendants, are per-
mitted to meet, under the blessed light of liberty and religious
freedom won by them, to pay some imperfect tribute to mem-
ories so justly dear, and to remember their fidelity to posterity
and to God. In reverting to the period when a plain but high-

171

172 NOTES.

souled, energetic people were driven, by the persecutions of the
Old World, to take refuge in this uncultivated wild, we trace
the origin of this community ; we tread upon the ashes of the
pioneers of religion, of domestic peace, and of social virtue.
To call up scenes of other times, to revive the memories of
the generous dead, to hold up ancestral virtue to praise and
emulation, are grateful tasks, which seldom fail to achieve last-
ing and beneficial results. We look back to our fathers for
lessons of wisdom and piety. We take pleasure in recalling
their brave deeds and their exalted virtues. We like to fre-
quent their accustomed walks and haunts. With pleasure we
sit around the firesides at which they sat, and worship before
the altars at which they worshipped—and who will quarrel
with this just principle of our nature? Our Huguenot ances-
tors came out to this country in the complete armor of grown-
up, Civilized men. They had been raised under the auspices of
an old and refined civilization; their minds and hearts had
undergone the severest discipline of an improved age and of
bitter experience. Up to the edicts of Nantes in 1590, stripes,
persecutions, and outrage were exerted against the unfortunate
Huguenots, and in a few years after this they were systemati-
cally proscribed. In the year 1669 an edict against emigra-
tion was issued. The Huguenots’ worship was openly at-
tacked. No seats in their temples were allowed. They were
prohibited from acting in any branch of the learned profes-
sions. They were not even allowed to pursue the calling of
any business, by which to support their families.

““It was after they were driven from their homes to take shel-
ter in the deserts and forests ; when their property was confis-
cated, their marriages annulled, and their children declared
illegimate ; when their religious worship was wholly interdicted,
their ministers expelled the country, or if found inhumanly
put to death ; when, in short, all classes of men, women, and
children were hunted down like wild beasts and brutally
murdered while engaged in their religious rites; it was then,

NOTES. 173

in these dread hours of trial and suffering, that our fathers
conceived the idea of quitting their native land. Had they
been rebellious subjects, harassing their sovereign by a vexa-
tious resistance to the laws of the country, or by an attempt to
subvert the peace and order of society ; had they been a sect
of persecuting religionists, seeking to repress religious freedom
or interfering with the dictates of conscience, some apology
might be offered for the relentless spirit with which they were
persecuted ; but history ascribes to these humble followers of
the cross a character wholly different. Quiet and unobtrusive
in their manners, devout in their religious exercises, faithful to
their king, and obedient to the civil and political laws of their
country, they begged only for that peace of conscience at-
tendant on freedom of religious worship, and long bore, with
the gentleness of the lamb, the bitter persecutions of their spir-
itual foes. No violence, no contempt of their rights, no harsh
vituperation, could drive them from fealty to their sovereign.
From that sovereign they received a dreaded and armed per-
secution. To him they yielded their hearty obedience in all
things pertaining to the legitimate duties of his station. In the
successes of their king they seldom failed to rejoice. Over his
losses they always lamented, when these involved the honor
and glory of France. He received from them sincere condo-
lence for his misfortunes and fervent prayers for his happiness.
But the heart of royalty, tempered by a corrupt and crafty
priesthood, was steeled against all the blandishments of the
pious Huguenots and their cup of bitterness was now full.
The fiat of injured nature was gone forth. They resolved no
longer to endure the oppressions of a home they loved still so
fondly—but as a child loves his parent, who has mercilessly
cast him upon the broad bosom of the world friendless and
penniless. ‘The impulses of nature were now obliged to yield,
to the stern law of necessity ; and they began seriously to pre-
pare to bid adieu to all they loved in their dear native France.

“We behold in imagination the vessel as it begins to spread

174 NOTES.

its sail to the breeze on the distant voyage. We see the de-
voted group—the grave husband, the anxious mother, the un-
conscious babe—as they crowd the deck to gaze for the last
time upon the receding shore. The bright sun gilds the dis-
tant coast, with the rich and varied colors of a summer’s land-
scape. Behind those vine-clad hills they yet behold the dear-
est objects of their affections—beloved friends, and the soil that
gave them birth ; all the associations of early life—the remem-
brance of childhood’s home, their native woods and fountains,
their school-boy and school-girl days, and the joy of manhood.
But soon we may imagine them turning their visions to the
blue heavens above them, now spanned by the arch of hope,
and with unwavering courage nerving their hearts to follow on
in the appointments of their heavenly leader. The sufferings
of the mind are worse than those of the body, yet this did our
ancestors brave for freedom of conscience; nay, more perils
by sea and land and the sickening horror of hope deferred, the
pangs of disappointment and the untold miseries of coloniza-
tion. We cast our eyes towards them in their new homes; we
see the interesting group. There still are the resolute hus-
band, the brave-hearted matron, and the trembling infant
sheltered in its mother’s arm. Casting their eyes through the
forests, they behold with wonder the majestic oak. Excited
by the sublime exhibitions of nature’s works, we may imagine
them falling upon the earth and in tears of gratitude sending
up the first evangelical prayer ever offered in these wilds.
From among the thousands who at this time fled from these
violent persecutions, South Carolina received a numerous and
noble population, constituting some of the best families of the
low country—the Marions, Horries, Legares, Desaussures,
Manigaults, Laurens, Hugers, Porchers, Lessesnes, Prioleaus,
Gaillards, Mazycks, Ravenels, Duboses, Couturiers, St. .Ju-
liens, and other well-known names; a race of men gifted
with every manly virtue, who have breathed a high-souled
chivalric spirit into Carolina character, and have added to her

NOTES. | 175

fame. May their memories be ever blessed for their fortitude,
and the wise resolve to bear it unstained to a land of spiritual
freedom ; and may no blight arise in future to retard our on-
ward progress, or to damp the moral energies of our people ;
may generations yet unborn, in dwelling upon the virtues of
those who have gone before them, find something to respect
and admire in the recollection of- our times and our names.
May we succeed in acquiring for ourselves a character distin-
guished for moral and mental beauty, so that in ages to come,
when collected multitudes shall be gathered together under
these shades to commemorate the virtues of our fathers, there
shall be no dark shade in the fair face of our being, to break
the bright moral view of the past.”

I throw myself on the indulgence of Mr. M. C. Maragne,
from whose address, delivered in Abbeville last year, I have
selected the foregoing extract.

NOTE B.

MARION’S MEN.

“No monument has been reared to the memories of these
men of the swamps, who had fought their country’s bravest
and most trying battles. They were the men who, regardless
of cold, hunger, privations, and fatigue, grappled with the
enemy, sprang upon him from the swamp and ravine, sur-
prised and broke up his camps, and drove him from the fields
to the city, from the city to the sea. They were the men who,
in their own rude way, had hampered, checked, annoyed, and
routed the cruel, imperious, and self-sufficient foe. They were
the men who, when the regular continental troops had with-
drawn from the province, carried on alone the war with the
enemy, drove him from point to point, encouraged the troops
to return, and in the darkest hours of the struggle restored by
their gallant deeds the hopes of the people. They were the
men whom sternest suffering could not crush, whom fiercest
dangers could not daunt, whom neither hunger, nakedness,
cold, privations, nor the gloom of reverses could intimidate or
appall. These were the men who, forgetful of their own trials
remembered only the afflictions of their country.”

The author of the above extract will excuse the liberty I
have taken in quoting and adopting his sentiments. I regret
that I am unable to furnish his name.

176

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