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The Old Court House
Source: A History of Marlboro County: With
Traditions and Sketches of Numerous Families,
1897
On the 25th of March, 1785,
an Act was passed by the General Assembly ot South Carolina creating
several judicial districts out of the territory of Old Cheraw, including Chesterfield,
Liberty (now Marion) and Marlboro. Claudius Pegues, Geo. Hicks,
Morgan Brown, Tristram Thomas,
Claudius Pegues, Jr., Moses Pearson and Thomas Evans, by  the same Act, were appointed to select
a site and superintend the erection
of a courthouse and jail. The spot chosen was on the north bank of
Crooked Creek, about six miles west from Bennettsville, near what
has been known as Evans' Mill. (Mr.
Aaron Sweat, who is quite an old man, and who is of the same family
as the Revolutionary patriot mentioned in a previous chapter, says that Mr.
Jesse Pearce, on one occasion, showed him a site that was first
selected for the court-house. It was to have been quite near to the Gardner's
Bluff road and not far from the present cross-roads leading from
Bennettsville to Gardner's Bluff
and from Evans' Mill to Cheraw. But the site was finally chosen
lower down the river and nearer to Evans' Mill.) The deed from
Gen. Tristram Thomas, conveying the
ground to the commissioners above named, is upon record in the
Clerk's office. The house erected was a two-story wooden building, convenient in its
arrangement, and ample in size for that day.
Scarcely any
signs of that "old court-house," and the few buildings that arose around it, can now
be seen. But the influence of the men to whom the administration of
justice was entrusted and upon whom
the formation of society and public opinion devolved, lives on, and
is felt to-day in all this surrounding country. For the first
fourteen years of our judicial
history, law was administered by County Courts; and the
commissioners to build the court-house were the judges in the first of these courts, and a
number of them are represented in some of our most respectable
families. Old Judge Moses Pearson's great-grandson, Hon. C. P. Townsend, the senior
member of theBennetts-ville bar, with credit to himself presided in
the courts of the State for several
years.
The first Circuit Court held in Marlboro was in the
year 1800, Judge Wm. Johnson presiding. This distinguished jurist
was elevated to the Supreme Bench
of the United States by President Jefferson in 1804. After him such
men as Grimke, Waties, Bay, Brevard, Nott, Colcock, and Trezevant held court at the "old court-house."
The commission and order of Gov. Drayton requiring the holding of
the Court are recorded in one of
the old journals in the Clerk's office, presumably because he,
Johnson, was sworn in and held his first Court at Marlboro "old
court-house." Here, too, such men
as Falconer, Witherspoon, Wilds, the Ervins, Robbins, and J. J.
Evans "practiced law." And sine?Evans has been mentioned, who was afterwards made a
Circuit Judge and frequently presided in our courts, it is well to
name some of the men who have sat
upon the bench and are remembered by the writer. J. J. Evans, that
grand old Roman, must be mentioned first. His people sent him
to the Legislature in 1812 before
he was twenty-six years old. Before they could vote for him again he
removed to Darlington, and in 1816 was elected to the Legislature from that District.
In 1829 he was made a circuit Judge, and in 1850 elected to the
United States Senate Marlboro never
lost her interest in him, never forgot that he was her own son. And
when in 1858 he calmly folded his honors about him and fell asleep,
such political opponents as Wilson,
of Massachusetts, and Hale, of New Hampshire, vied with each other
in weaving garlands for his tomb.
Marlboro felt the
bereavement not less than Darlington, his adopted
home. The humorous, witty Richard Gantt is
remembered, who used to pour forth
such eloquence and pathos in passing sentence upon criminals as to
move the most hardened. Then for thirty-two years the frail
form of John S. Richardson was seen
upon the bench. When he was seventy a proposition was made in the
Legislature to remove him from office "on account of his bodily and mental
infirmities," but when he was permitted to speak for himself he
utterly demolished the opposition and "all further proceedings were discharged."
Daniel Elliott Huger, full six feet high, manly, erect and "firm as
granite," the people were always
glad for him to preside. Baylis J. Earle, the able, pure, "just
judge," was several times .on the bench here. Judge O'Neal, who
could stand nowhere 'but in the
front rank in statesmanship, agriculture, education,religion not
less than as a jurist, he stood among the leaders.
Andrew Pickens Butler is
remembered on account of his florid face, his snowy locks, his
peculiar dancing eyes, his martial bearing, his uncontrollable love of fun, which would
sometimes convulse the court-room. In 1846 he was elected to the
United States Senate, and for two years honored the position, and died lamented by
the whole country. After these came such men as Glover, Withers,
Whitner, and Munro. It is a bright
array and they have left shining footprints upon the path now
trodden by their successors.
After Equity Courts began to be
held in Marlboro the bench was graced by the learned William Harper,
David Johnson, afterwards Governor of the State; Job Johnson, the dignified,
truthful Francis Wardlaw Dunkin, G. W. Dargan, James J. Caldwell,
the clear-headed John A. Inglis, Chancellor Carroll and our own W. D.
Johnson.
The members of the bar who have illustrated and
expounded the principles of law in the courts of Marlboro make an
array of talent of which any people
might be proud. Reference can only be made to such as have been
known and heard. And of these one must be
mentionedwho was distinguished more in the councils of the nation
than at the bar, Col. John Campbell, who succeeded his hardly less
notable brother, Gen. Robert B., in
the United States Congress in 1836, and where he continued in
service to the end of his life in 1844. Polished,
amiable, modest and yet fearless,
he was one of the most fascinating speakers Marlboro has ever
reared.
In our boyhood we knew James
R. Ervin, of whom it was said "few
men were more talented than he." With the settlement of
Bennettsville three gifted young men arose as lights in the profession, James E.
David, the friend of the people; Col. C. W. Dudley, the astute and
successful lawyer, both of whom represented the county in both houses of the General Assembly;
and Gen. John McQueen, for a dozen years a member of Congress; and
then later on by a few years, three
other sons scarcely less brilliant—Chas. A. Thornwell, Samuel J.
Townsend and Harris Covington, all of whom were in the Legislature for longer or shorter periods. And
then the promising brothers, Daniel White, and
Neill D. Johnson, and P. B. McLaurin, all of whom laid down their lives for the "lost
cause."
Besides all these our courts
have been visited by gentlemen from neighboring counties, who
have shed light and knowledge upon
questions of law and justice; while Withers and Hanna, and the
Mclvers, father and son, were a terror to evil doers in the office of Circuit
Solicitor. W. W. Sellers and J. M. Johnson, of Marion,
and G. W. Dargan, of Darlington, have each as solicitor,
visited our court from time to
time; and Marlboro has been honored in having D. D. McColl and H. H.
Newton in the Solicitorship.
It may not be inappropriate to
mention the names of members of the Bennettsville bar who are yet
alive and shedding luster on their profession, W. D. Johnson, for a number of years
prior to the war, sat on the bench as Judge in Chancery; and was
also Senator. He was admitted to
practice law in 1846, and, though approaching
eighty years of
age, is still in the active practice
of his profession. He removed to Marion a few
years after the war, but we have never given up our claim on him. He owns extensive and
valuable plantations in the county, and annually makes a visit to
his old home. His partner in law, at Marion, J. M. Johnson, lived
for some years in the county of
Marlboro, first as a successful school teacher, and then
as an attorney at law, so that the
Bennettsville bar can justly claim them both.
Ten years after W. D. Johnson, C. P. Townsend was admitted
to the bar. Both
before and since the war he has represented the County in the
Legislature. For a number of years he filled the
office of Commissioner in
Equity for the County and after the war was elevated to the bench
and filled the place with honor to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the bar and
people. As a lawyer in criminal cases or civil
suits he stands well to the front.
His
former partner, John L. McLaurin,
the son of P. B. McLaurin, mentioned above, seems to have been born
for luck. In a very few years after his admission
to the bar he was elected to the
State Legislature, and the Attorney-General having been elevated to
a seat on the Supreme Bench, he was appointed Attorney-General; soon thereafter the
Congressman for this District, Gen. E. T. Stack-house, having died,
McLaurin succeeded him, and has been in Congress
ever since. He resigned his
seat in Congress to accept the appointment' of United States
Senator to succeed Senator Earle.
He is a fine stump speaker,
a shrewd politician, and very popular with the
people. H. H. Newton served one
or more terms
as Solicitor for
the Fourth Judicial Circuit. Was
a member of the Legislature, and was instrumental in having passed
the stock law, for which he was
at first roundly abused, but abuse has long since been turned
into thanks, and now the people appreciate the fact that he did them a service.
D. D. McColl has been a successful lawyer. He was Solicitor
for one or more terms, and criminals were justly afraid of him. He
has retired from the active practice of law and devotes his time to the interests of the Bank of
Marlboro, of which he is the President. T. E. Dudley was admitted to
law in 1858 and has always been
considered a conscientious, painstaking lawyer, careful and exact in
his work, and has held a-fair share of practice at the Bennettsville bar. He represented the county in
the late Constitutional Convention. J. H. Hudson, a native of
Chester, came to Bennettsville in 1853, fresh from the South Carolina College, to
take charge of the Male Academy.
He taught four years
studied law and was admitted to practice in 1857, and in 1858 was elected to the
Legislature. He entered the Confederate service as a private and
rose to the rank of Lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-Sixth Regiment
South Carolina Volunteers. He was Circuit Judge of the Fourth
Judicial Circuit for four terms,
from 14th February, 1878, to 14th February, 1894, and has resumed
practice in the courts again. Knox Livingston, a native of Florida,
came to Bennettsville in May, 1870,
and in that year he and H. H. Newton were admitted to the bar,
formed a co-partnership with J. H. Hudson and soon came to the front as successful
lawyers. Each has represented the County in the Legislature with
marked ability.
Other younger men are fast coming to the front as
successful practitioners, such as Bouchier, Caston, Rogers (who
represented the county in the Constitutional Convention of 1895), H. H.
Covington and T. M. Hamer.
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