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Several Old Familes
Source: A History of Marlboro County: With
Traditions and Sketches of Numerous Families,
1897
Another of these first comers to the Pee Dee as
William Terrell, or, as the name was first spelled,
Tarell. Bishop Gregg says of this old settler, that "he
was teh grandfather of the late Captain John Terrell, a
worthy descendant of the old Welsh stock, and one of the best
men of his day and generation." Captain Terrell's
father was engaged in the public service before the
Revolution, but did not survive that period. The
Captain married Ann, a daughter of Major Robert Allison, a
lady every way worthy of her excellent husband; and, as
the Captain used to tell it, "the Lord greatly enriched
them by giving them ten daughters," and among the
Rodgers, the Douglas and Beatties, this honored pay
have a number of descendants in the county today, and
many more in
Darlington and neighboring States. Many a deed
of kindness done by this godly pair brings blessings upon
their memory, and "though dead, they yet speak, and in
example live."
The late Rev. James H. Thornwell, D. D., a
native of Marlboro, was a grandson of Samuel Terrell, a
brother of Captain John Terrell's father. Miss
Martha Terrell, the mother of Dr. Thornwell, first
married James Thornwell, an obscure man, and after the birth of
two sons he died.
The widow was a woman of remarkable
intellect, but, left in penury, she was kindly aided in
the care of her charge by Captain Terrell, till she
became the wife of Mr. Ananias Graham, and the mother of two
sons by that marriage. Young Thornwell began early to
manifest a taste for books, and was furnished with the
means of attending such schools as the country afforded by the
efforts of his mother and Captain Terrell, until the attention
of such men as General Gillespie, of Marlboro, and Mr. Robbins,
of Cheraw, became so interested in his behalf, that he
was fitted for college, and enabled to complete the course and
receive his diploma, and from thence his career was onward and
upward, until few men in the State have attained higher
position in the field of thought. No son of Marlboro has
perhaps been more gifted, and surely no money ever spent has
been more worthily bestowed, than that contributed to educate
his splendid mind. The whole State of South Carolina and
the Presbyterian Church of the United States felt the blow when
the fires of his great intellect consumed his feeble frame, and
he fell with his armour bright in the zenith of his power and
influence, when the troubles of the country seemed most to need
the wisdom of his counsel.
A younger brother of the doctor,
Charles A., for whom he felt a paternal sort of interest, and
whom he aided in educating in the South Carolina College (where
he was for a time and professor, and then the president), was
also a man of superior intellect. After his graduation
he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1842, located at
Bennetsville, married first a daughter of Meekin Townsend, and
directly took a prominent stand among such competitor as David,
Dudley and McQueen, and seemed destined to eminence in his chosen
profession. In 1852 he was elected a member of the House of
Representatives, and re-elected in 1854.
After then birth of
two sons Mrs. Thornwell died, and he married Miss Hood, and
seemed to have a brilliant career before him, but stricken
down with disease, it was but a few days and all was
over. His only surviving son, J. H. Thornwell, lives in
the community yet.
In connection with the education of Dr.
Thornwell a name was mentioned which has been long and
favorably known among the people of Marlboro, that of General
Gillespie. The name as it first appears upon the old
records is spelled Galespy. In 1843 James Galespy, a man
of enterprise and energy, from the north of Ireland, made his
"application to the Council for three hundred acres of land in
the Welsh Tract," claiming to have six persons in his
family. It is likely that he had been upon the Pee
Dee for sometime before this, as tradition makes him the
first man who ever brought a boat to Cheraw; a business which
he seems to have followed in copartnership with General
Gadsden, of Charleston, up to the time of the Revolution.
He married a Miss Young, and had two sons, Francis and
James. The former died young but the latter lived to
bear his full share in the stormy period of the Revolution; and
was active both as a soldier and civilian. He settled on
the east side of the river, on the place the family have ever since
continued to live.
His wife was Miss Wilds, aunt of Judge
Wilds, a woman worthy of her husband. From this pair was
born "Francis, Samuel and James, and two daughters, Sarah and
Mary." Of these three brothers, James, or Gen. Gillespie,
as he was called from the earliest recollection of our
oldest people, attained greatest prominence. Modest and
unpretending, never pushing himself forward, he was not too
generous and patriotic to resist when his countrymen called for
his leadership; and would no more decline a place on one of the
boards of commissioners than a seat in the Legislature of the
State; a position to which he was three times elected by
his loving people. In Church or in State, at home or
abroad, he was everywhere a pure-minded, consistent, good
man. Spendid specimen of the old style Carolina
gentleman. In rip old age, reverses came -
war, depredation, oppression, bereavement, losses, yet
patiently and calmly he reposed his trust in the
Lord. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for
the end of that man is peace."
About the year 1742 another
name which had been prominent in the affairs of the country
first appeared among the settlers on the Pee Dee.
In July of
that year, Thomas Ellerby, who came from Virginia five years
earlier, obtained a grant of land on the west side of the river,
and was soon an extensive planter, and owned many slaves.
Another, John Ellerby, settled on the east side of the river,
but seems to have remained in the country but a short
time. Thomas Ellerby married Obedience Gillespie, had two
sons, Thomas and William, from whom the extensive connection is
descended. The spelling of the name, it is said,
was changed to Ellerbe, by a schoolmaster to whom Thomas and
William were sent soon after their father's death. Both
of these men became prominent in the affairs of the country,
and were ardent Whigs. The family has been more numerous
in Chesterfield than in Marlboro. But William E., a
son of the William mentioned above, married a Marlboro lady,
Miss Ann Robinson; and from that pair, Col. William T. was
descended, than whom, for a time, no citizen of the district
was held in higher esteem. For six years a member of the
lower Hosue, and four years in the State Senate; wealthy,
liberal, successful as a planter - the people loved and honored
him, and were grieved when in the maturity of his powers he
was cut down. Our young fellow citizen, George Hersey, is
a grand-nephew of this gifted man.
Another scion of this
worthy name, John C. Ellerbe, came from Chesterfield and
captured a fair daughter of lower Marlboro, Maria Wickham, and
took her to Marion; and the excellent family of that name
in Marion came from that union. The present Governor of
South Carolina, Wm. H. Ellerbe, is one of the direct
descendants, and, like his ancestor, came to lower Marlboro,
and captured one of her fair daughters for his wife, Miss
Rogers, a sister of Hon. T. I. Rogers, of Bennettsville.
In various quarters of the country the descendants of old
Thomas Ellerbe may be found; and whether they take the name, or
trace the lineage through a daughter's veins, the splendid
form, handsome features, high-toned generous impulses of the
ancestors yet characterize the descendants.
The old men,
Thomas and William, were distinguished in the Revolution, the
former commanding a company, first in Kolb's regiment, and
afterwards in Benton's of Marion's brigade. So, in later
times, when war demanded the service of the strong and brave, the
descendants of these old heroes were not found
wanting.
William Forniss, another of the old settlers,
occupied a fine place in the neighborhood of Dyer's Hill.
He, too, was a zealous supporter of the cause of Independence,
too old to be a soldier, but helping with his influence and
means. His son, an active boy, was ready with his fleet
steed to carry intelligence from one point to another in time
of peril. He afterwards became known as Major James
Forniss, and reared a large family at, or, near the old
homestead. The Major married a Miss Irby, and his
daughter married M. L. Irby, and Miss Fannie Irby,
of Bennettsville, is, so far as the writer is informed, the
last of the Forniss blood in Marlboro.
Mention has been
made of the Brownsville branch of the Irby family. The
first of this name was Charles, who came from Virginia about
the middle of the last century, and settled in upper Marlboro,
married Mehitabel Kolb, and became a prominent man. A son
Charles lived and died in Brownsville. Elizabeth
became the wife of Philip Pledger; another daughter became Mrs.
Forniss, and yet another Mrs. Annie Lide; while his other son,
James, married Miss Wright, of Marlboro, and from this pair has
descended the present families found in the township
of Smithville. Charles Irby of this branch of the family,
represented his native district in the State Senate, about the
time the war came on, and lived only a few years after peace
was restored. He never married. Elizabeth
Irby,
a daughter of the first Charles, became the wife of
William Pledger, and the mother of the late Mrs. Joel Emanuel,
and of Major P. W. Pledger, both of whom sleep at the old
family cemetery on the Irby place. The latter left no
representative behind, and the name is extinct in the
county. But Mrs. Emanuel left a large number of
descendants to honor her memory.
The Pledger name first
appears in the annals of Welsh Neck as early as 1752; when
Philip Pledger came from Amelia County, Va., and settled in
what is now Marlboro County. His wife was a Miss Ellis,
of Virginia. He had two sons, Joseph and John, who, with
their father, were active Whigs. There were also two
daughters, one of whom married James Hicks, and the other first
married a Mr. Fields, from whom the family of that name is
descended through William Fields, who was a Major in the State
Troops in the war of 1812. After the death of Fields the
widow married William Terrell, father of that good man so long
and favorably known as Capt. John Terrell. The Pledger
name is no longer known among us, but in the Donaldsons, and
others above mentioned, the honorable characteristics of the
family are yet perpetuated among us. In this connection
it is proper to make brief mention of the Hicks, who, for
a number of years, were prominent people of Marlboro. In
1746 George Hick s, a man of English descent, came to Pee Dee
and married a daughter of Philip James, the first pastor of
Welsh Neck, and from this pair has descended a numerous
progeny, among them the Harringtons, Kollocks, Donaldsons, and
perhaps others. A part of the plantation long known as
the "McFarland Beauty Spot Place," and latterly the property of
the late J. B. Breeden, was formerly occupied by the Hicks
family. "The high old house," where Mrs. Hicks lived, and
where Dr. Jones, one of the first practicing physicians of
Bennettsville, got his wife, is yet remembered by the older
people as standing not a half mile from where J. F. Breeden now
lives.
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