Marlboro County, South Carolina Genealogy Trails

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Marlboro County
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SEVERAL OLD FAMILIES

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.

Source: A history of Marlboro County : with traditions and sketches of numerous families Atlanta, Ga.: Foote & Davies Co., printers and binders, 1897 (contributed by Sharon Wick)

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