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Operations of Pee Dee, 1781... Col.
Kolb
Source: A History of Marlboro County: With
Traditions and Sketches of Numerous Families,
1897
The presence of Gen. Greene
upon the Pee Dee opposite Cheraw for several weeks had encouraged
the spirits of the people, and awed the disaffected into comparative
order.
Col. Kolb was in favor with his countrymen and
exercised a commanding influence in all the Cheraw district. Murphy
down the river, Benton on the west side and Marion, from Lynch's
creek to Georgetown, held in check the marauders and gave some
security to the people. The stay of Greene was brief. The movements
of Cornwallis in the upper part of the State induced Greene to move
in the direction of Guilford court house, and the Whigs of the Pee
Dee were again left to their own resources. The Tories, ever ready
to seize on any advantage, now made frequent incursions on
defenseless persons and property, concealing their plunder and
themselves in the swamps. It was a hazardous service that devolved
upon the Whigs. It is said that a band of Tories had a hiding place
in the "Three Creeks" at no great distance from where Blenheim now
stands, and, this fact becoming known to the Whigs, it was
determined to break them up. The assaulting party came quietly to
the edge of the swamp, but could see no signs of the enemy's
presence. They had reason to believe that they were near the camp,
but they knew not exactly its location and had no guide. Amongst the
Whig party was a daring young man, Harry Sparks, who volunteered to
enter the swamp alone, locate the enemy and report the situation to
his comrades. He found the camp, but returned not to his friends.
The treacherous foe had discovered and captured him. His
friends became uneasy at his stay and, following his tracks, they
soon reached the deserted camp where hung the lifeless body of their
daring comrade. Of course the fleeing Tories were pursued for miles,
far into North Carolina. One of the pursuers was wounded and two of
the mulatto Tories were killed, and sometimes afterwards another of
the party was caught and charged with aiding in the murder of
Sparks. He confessed it and was instantly hung.
This was the
sort of warfare that was common in all this region for months and
years.
Not long after returning from his chase of the
murderers of Sparks, Col. Kolb made an expedition into what is now
Marion county. Some outrages had been perpetrated there—in the
neighborhood ot Hulin's mill—now Moody's mill. Several Tories, who
had made themselves especially obnoxious were caught; some punished,
some "discharged on promise of good behaviour", and two or three
killed. Kolb returned to his home at Welsh Neck, and dismissed his
men in the belief that things would be quiet for a
time.
Instead of awing those turbulent spirits into order his
retaliatory measures awoke a terrible spirit of revenge, and
especially against the leader of the Whigs. No blood but his would
slake their thirst; no life but his atone for the lives he had
taken. Suspecting that he would dismiss his men for a time his
enemies made haste to perfect their plans, collect their forces and
set out on the hunt for revenge. It was less than forty miles to the
happy home of Col. Kolb. At a late hour of night they surrounded his
house. Roused from slumber thus suddenly, the first impulse of a
brave spirit was to defend his property and loved ones to the last.
Mrs. Kolb and an only daughter, who became the wife of Major
Pouncey, and two sisters, one of whom became Mrs. Edwards, and was
the great-grandmother of Mrs. Dr. Bonchier, lately of Bennettsville,
and another sister who afterwards married Evander Mclver,
constituted the family. Two young men named Evans were also present
as guests of the family. Kolb knew his foe—that they had come for
his life—and he was determined to resist. The house was strongly
built, the party inside well armed, and might have had some hope,
although an overpowering force surrounded them. But in the darkness
the stealthy foe had fired the house. Resistance was useless. The
ladies saw the peril and entreated the Colonel to surrenderhim-self
as a prisoner of war. He made the proposition, it was accepted, and,
accompanied by his wife and her sisters and his daughter, he stepped
out ready to surrender his sword. A traitorous shot was fired by a
Tory named Goings and the gallant Colonel fell at his own door and
at the feet of his loved ones a martyr to his country's cause. One
of the young Evans was mortally wounded. The dwelling was hastily
plundered and the Tories quickly-fled in the direction from whence
they came, doubtless exulting in their successful exploit and
wishing for another victim. Nor had they long to wait. On the route
to Catfish was "Brown's Mill," about a mile above the present
crossing at the old Rogers mill.
Here was a military post, at
least a point sometimes-guarded. The guards were surprised, and
Capt. Joseph Dabbs, a noted Whig, whose home was in the neighborhood
of Evans' Mill, was killed, and Ned Trawick was wounded, but
escaped. On this same eventful day, April 28, 1781, an old military
prison near the residence of Col. Kolb was assaulted, and several
prisoners were released. Moving down the river a short distance, two
of the released Bristishers entered the home of Mrs. Wilds, a
widowed lady, whom they supposed had money secreted about her
person, and violently robbed her of her coin. But it was destined
that their ill-gotten gain should serve them but a few brief
hours.
Living in the marshes was a
frail old man named Willis. Nobody thought it worth while to
trouble him. Silent and solitary he was allowed to
occupy the position of a neutral. Making a scanty support
upon his little patch, and upon his
shoemaker's bench, he had nothing to tempt the cupidity of anybody,
his poor little money was not worth stealing. The robber
Britons on their way from Mrs. Wilds encountered this singular old
man. He had seen the columns of smoke ascending from his
neighbor Kolb's house, had heard the firing at early dawn, had,
perhaps, seen the fleeing Tories, and his smothered patriotism was
kindled. His old long barreled fowling piece was taken
from the rack, heavily charged, and as the redcoats drew nigh
he pulled the trigger at the instant they doubled before him, and
the two lay dead in the road. Hearing a few days later
that Mrs. Wilds had been robbed, he called to see her, and put in
her hand "the package of coin, 101 guineas the exact amount which
the soldiers had taken. In vain did she nsist upon dividing the
precious treasure with him whose needs were as great as her
own.
"Nay, nay," said the old man, "the money is yourn, it's
reward enough for me to be lucky enough to git it back for ye." The
tradition has not told where the ashes of Willis lie, some quaint
oak or elm may stand at his head and overshadow his unknown resting
place, or the swollen waters of the Pee Dee may long ago have
ploughed a deep furrow through his lonely bed, and washed his
decaying bones away, never to be found until the voice of the
archangel shall awake a slumbering race to life— but let the
generous deed of the humble, solitary old man live in the memory of
generations yet unborn. "Full nany a gem of purest ray serene,"
etc.
In this connection Bishop Gregg gives his readers a
thrilling narrative from the lips of the venerable Lewis Malone
Ayer, of Barn well. Mr. Ayer was the father of Mrs. Judge A. P.
Aldrich, and of Gen. L. M. Ayer, a member of the Confederate
Congress. He was quite young when the events occurred which he
related, but they were of a character to make a profound impression
upon his mind.
Young Ayer was on a visit with his mother at
the house of a neighbor, close by Col. Kolb's, on the morning the
Colonel was killed. Young Ayer had been sent out on a fleet horse at
early dawn by his mother to carry tidings of the death of one of her
relatives to Col. Kolb, knowing nothing of the tragedy at Kolb's
house. Meeting old Mr. William Forniss, together they rode up to the
burning building, having seen smoke and the returning horse tracks
of the assassins. They saw the weeping wife and sisters with their
dead, whom with their own hands they had dragged to a safe distance
from the flames. But young Ayer could not tarry with those whom he
pitied, because information had reached him that his brother-in-law
Mr. James Magee, was that very day to visit Col. Kolb by
appointment. Magee lived in the Brownsville community and must
travel for a part of the route over the same road which the Tories
would travel on their way to Catfish, from whence they came, and if
they met Magee it would be the last of him. To get ahead of the
Tories and turn Magee from the track was the exploit before the boy
Ayer.
Excited by the scenes before
his eyes, and impelled by the desire to save his friends life, he
tried the well-known mettle of his mare, who had done him good
service of the like kind before.
He had not calculated,
however, that the Tories would stop on the road for breakfast until
he was almost within their power, when he wheeled around and fled
for dear life. They fired too high to reach the boy who lay close to
the mane of the splendid mare, which they desired to capture unhurt.
Fortunately, however, there was a cow trail with which Ayer was
familiar, close at hand. Into this he dashed and cross a boggy
marsh, into which his pursuers plunged, but, not knowing the track
as he did, they were soon floundering in the mud, and were glad to
get out again on their own side.
Afraid that the youth would
dash ahead and warn the party at Brown's Mill of their approach, the
Tories, after this incident, increased their speed and fortunately
passed Magee's road before he entered theirs, and this excellent
citizen escaped their hands, and lived for many years to see his
children's children, and died in his old age, sitting in his chair,
with the Bible lying open upon his knees. His ashes lie at old
Brownsville. The first wife of the writer's father was a daughter of
James Magee, and died in 1820, the mother of nine children, all of
whom have since followed her to the grave.
That was a sad day
to the people of Cheraw District when Abel Kolb fell by the hand of
the foe. He was recognized as the leader of the patriot influence.
In command of the regiment, in the prime of life, vigilant, active,
daring, he commanded the respect and confidence of his
countrymen far and near, and
men were looking upon his fast-developing abilities with admiration
and hope of a bright career, not only upon the field of strife, but
in the pursuits of peace as well. Already before the war came on he
was accumulating property and exhibiting energy, enterprise, and
skill in the management of affairs. It is.not surprising, therefore,
if his loss produced despondency in the hearts of some, and a
burning for revenge in others.
About this time, or a few
weeks before the death of Kolb, there was a skirmish of some
importance at Cashway Ferry. A short distance from the landing on
the Marlboro side there stood a Baptist house of worship where such
men as Brown and Edwards had held forth the Word of Life. It seems
for a time to have been one of the posts held by Kolb or Benton.his
Lieutenant-colonel and successor in command of the
regiment. It was also a convenient shelter for
Tories when dodging around in that region. Which party held the
building at the time, and which it was that made the assault the
tradition does not tell. An entry in the journal of Rev. Mr. Pugh,
of Welsh Neck, dated April 17, says: "Bad news of the Tories at
Cashway." The writer remembers an evening's conversation under his
mother's roof, between Col. Ben Rogers and Uncle Nathan Thomas, in
which the affair was talked over. One of the old men had been a
participant in the fray, and amused the party as he told how the
Tories "took to the swamp."
After the war ended portions of
the old "meeting house" were moved to "Brown's Mill" and entered
into a like building erected there.
The writer has heard
numbers of the old people of the community tell how they had seen
the "bullet holes in the doors and shutters as long as the house
stood."
It gave way to a better building about the beginning
of the present century.
Near this old church site there lived
a number of staunch Whigs. Capt. Moses Pearson, the Coxes, Burketts,
and others who often made it hot for the Tories on Muddy creek.
About this time a party of Tories came over from North Carolina into
what was then called "Piney Grove settlement," now Adamsville, and
caught a young boy named William Adams and demanded of him
information as to the locality of certain treasure and persons.
Adams knew but determined that it would be a wrong to the cause of
the country and the safety of his friends to tell what the foe
desired to know. They tried to frighten him with threats of hanging,
but he would not be frightened. Finally a cord was procured, but
still Adams was firm. Around his neck they tied it, but no
disclosure would he make. The cord was thrown over a limb, and he
was drawn up and choked and let down and ordered again to
speak. Still not a word of information could they extort
from his lips. The second time his feet were drawn from the earth.
Again they let him down and told him this was his last chance for
life. Speak the word and life was his; refuse, and hang till
dead.
Firmly he stood. To die was better than to live under a
burden of shame. Once more the cruel gang drew him up, tied the
cord, and went off and left him hanging. Fortunately for him and for
Marlboro, too, his mother came along in time to let him down before
life was extinct, and he lived to raise a large family of excellent
people, and to-day a host of young and old people are proud to have
descended from him.
On the eighth day of September of that
year was fought the battle of Eutaw Springs, and a portion of the
Pee Dee militia was engaged. Capt. Claudius Pegues, of Marlboro,
with his company, was on the ground. Joshua David, the ancestor of
the family among us, was permanently disabled by a wound in the
hand, and Capt. Pegues was shot in the leg. Here it was that Thomas
Quick, an humble private in the ranks, seeing his officer's failing
strength, though he still stood in the line, seized him as he was
falling, bore him off, and with the aid of Nero, the Captain's
servant, took him to a place of security and then begged to go back
and get another shot at the red-coats who had shot so good a man as
his Captain. Never will the Pegues forget the Quicks, and never
ought they.
On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered at
Yorktown, Virginia. Charleston was still held, but Governor
Rutledge, feeling that the time had come for the more formal
establishment of civil government in South Carolina, issued a call
for the election of members for Senate and House of Representatives.
Since the capital of the State was yet under British power, the
meeting was held at Jacksonborough, Colleton county. Tristram
Thomas, Philip Pledger, William Dewitt and William Pegues were
elected from Cheraw.and took their seats in January,
1782.
But peace was not yet. It was not until July of that
year that the British Parliament passed a bill to enable the King to
consent to the independence of the colonies, and not until November,
1782, were the articles signed by the commissioners.
In the
meantime many irregularities and lawless deeds were committed
doubtless by both Whigs and Tories. Hard it was for the former to
forget the insults offered their families and the injury done their
property by their Tory neighbors. Hard for a Tory to feel safe in
his house in the immediate vicinity of men he had wronged. Hard for
men to settle to pursuits of peace and meet each other as friends
who for a long time had been enemies in war. It was long after their
officers had dismissed them to their homes, and charged them to bury
past emnities and go home to forgive and forget. Long after the
Legislature had proclaimed amnesty to such as would come in and
swear allegiance, and enjoined the observance of civil order, that
Whig and Tory watched and feared each other with many heart-burnings
and jealousies. Many a poor fellow was whipped or shot and some hung
without judge or jury long after the last "red-coat" had gone, and
no doubt but that many a cow, hog or horse was stolen in revenge for
deeds of war.
The American cause had triumphed, but loyalty
died hard. Not until George III. said: "I was the last man in the
Kingdom to consent to American independence, but now that it is
granted I shall be the last man in the world to sanction any
violation of it," could all men recognize it as an accomplished
fact.
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