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Other Brownsville Families
Source: A History of Marlboro County: With
Traditions and Sketches of Numerous Families,
1897
Since reference has
frequently been made to this ancient community it is fit that we
linger among some of the older names that impressed themselves upon
its society. With the main body of Welshmen, or soon after, came
John Brown, born near Burlington, N. J., and brought up near
Frankfort in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. He came South and
united with the colony about the Neck.
He
was ordained to the gospel ministry May 7, 1750, and succeeded
Philip James as pastor of the church at Welsh Neck; but, for some
reason did not continue long in that relation, but devoted his
ministry to other regions, and was instrumental in organizing a
church at Cashway Ferry, with a membership on both sides of the
river. Either he or his son, Samuel, had settled on Muddy
Creek and built a mill some years before the Revolutionary War
began, and near the mill, on both sides of the Creek, a number of
prosperous families were settled. Ardent Whigs, it soon
became a stronghold of liberty, and the prominence of the Brown
family about this time gave name to the Brownsville
community. It is not known how many sons the old pastor
had, or when he died: It is, however, a well-established tradition
that the prominent family of this name on the west side of Pee Dee
in the Mars Bluff and Florence region are descended from this old
Welsh preacher; and that John and Jeremiah, grandsons of his, moved
to Alabama and became prominent in that State. William,
another grandson of the old pastor, and a son of Samuel, lived and
died near the mill and in sight of the old church, which, after the
war, was moved out to the present location. Mr.
Brown had four sons and a daughter. The daughter marrried a Mr.
Law, of Darlington. The four sons were young men of excellent
character. Samuel died unmarried. James lived but a short time after
his marriage and left no son. William Brown, one of my early
schoolmasters, went West. Charles Brown married Miss Allison, and in
the person of Mrs. T. L. Crosland and her interesting young family,
alone flows the blood of the men whose characters and influence gave
name to an extensive township of lower Marlboro.
William
Magee, or as the name was sometimes spelled, McGee, was an early
settler in this portion of country. A daughter of his, Martha,
became the wife of Rev. Evan Pugh and a daughter by this marriage,
Elizabeth by name, was the excellent wife of Mr. Hugh Lide, of
Darlington, from whom a splendid family descended. Another daughter
of Mr. Magee was the mother of the late Capt. Hodges, of Marlboro.
James, a son of Mr. Magee, lived at what has since been.known as the
Bruce place, about a mile below the site of the old Brownsville
church, and there reared a large family. A son, Hartwell, moved into
the upper part of the State. Another, Zacheus, went West. The
youngest daughter was the first wife of the writer's father, William
Thomas. And among the relatives of the first family of children, who
sometimes visited us, Rev. William Kennedy, a noted preacher of the
S. C. Conference, is remembered. A son of his, the polished F. M.
Kennedy, was not less distinguished at a later date. Mr. Magee was
noted for his correct Christian character, was a conscientious Whig,
and a member of Marion's brigade. He came near losing his life on
the day after Col. Kolb was killed, being on the road from his home
to Long Bluff on a military mission to the Colonel when Lewis M.
Ayer, whose sister Mr. Magee married, at the risk of his,own life,
and with a narrow escape, intercepted and saved. He lived to see the
opening years of the present century, and died suddenly, sitting .
in his chair with the open Bible upon his
knee.
The magistrate of the community and the State Senator,
seventy years ago, was Robeson Carloss. He came from
Virginia about 1790 and settled on the Pee Dee and married the
beautiful and accomplished daughter of Baron Poelnitz, who was at
the time, the young widow of CoL Evans, and had been the
wife, first of Charles Stuart. The Carloss name is extinct ip
Marlboro, but through the late Mrs. Light Townsend, the blood flows
in the veins of several of our excellent families, viz.: J. R.
Townsend, John Irby. T. E. Dudley and F. W.
Kinney.
So, too, the name of Poelnitz is
unknown among us only as it is represented in the above good
people. It is fit that another name should be mentioned
in connection with Carloss, not because there was any kinship, but
because 'Squire Carloss exercised a large influence over Mason Lee,
the greatest oddity of his day, and was the executor of his will, if
not the writer of it. Lee was a bachelor of considerable
property, owning a large plantation on the river just below Cashway
Ferry. His will directed that the principal part of his
property be given to the States of Tennessee and South
Carolina. That if the Wiggins, his natural heirs at law,
should contest the will, his executors should employ the best legal
talent in the State to defend it, and never allow the Wiggins to
have any part of it,"so long as wood grew or water
ran." The will was contested upon the ground of mental
imbecility, and such "legal lights" as Chancellor Harper, Wm. C.
Preston, Judge Evans, Col. Blanding and Col. J. R. Irvin exercised
their great powers on the one side or the other in the trial, a
record of which is "in the books." The case terminated
at last in the establishment of the will.
The grave of Lee
is another spot at the "old Brownsville graveyard," where memory
lingers. It was covered over with brick made in the neighborhood
about 1820, and fifty" years ago a tree, nearly a foot in diameter,
which had been killed by lightning, fell diagonally across the
grave, displacing a few but not breaking anybricks, and to-day those
old brick lie in good shape, firm and strong above the dust of Mason
Lee. Such were his singularities, and so much was said of him in my
boyhood days that it seems to me as if I used to see him ride past
the door on his way to Carloss' on a mule whose "ears had been
shaved off at the skull," seated upon a saddle "hewed out of a
hollow gum," his feet in "grapevine stirrups," a blanket "tied over
his shoulders," with a "coon skin cap upon his head," and yet Lee
was buried two or three years before I was born. The earless mules,
once his, did survive their old master for years, and their
appearance upon the road was real.
Let us linger yet longer
among the old families of this ancient community. Emanuel Coxe came
at an early day, long before the war with the mother country and
when the conflict came, himself and several sons enrolled themselves
on the side of liberty. Bishop Gregg mentions James, John, Josiah,
Samuel and William. Thejtradition as received from our fellow
citizen, Mr. James E. Coxe, names all these except Josiah, but
mentions three others as sons of Emanuel and as having been soldiers
of the Revolution, viz.: Ezekiel, Jesse and Benjamin. It may be that
the name Josiah, as given by Gregg, is a mistake, and ought to be
Jesse, or one of the others. It is inferred that whoever was meant
by Josiah, means a son of this old Brownsville patriarch, because he
is enrolled as a member of Capt. Moses Pearson's company, who was
himself a resident of this community. However that may be, it is
beyond question that few families in the Pee Dee region, numbering
no more men has furnished a larger proportion to the cause of
independence. Samuel Coxe, the son of Emanuel, and the grandfather
of our friend, Jas. E., was quite noted for his valor and services.
Crossing over Brown's mildam one night a Tory tried to shoot him,
but his gun missing fire, Coxe arrested and carried him a prisoner
to the Americancamp. Mr. Coxe lived to a great age, until most of
his comrades were gone. His neighbors on the fourth of July sometime
in the forties, honored him with the first place at a barbecue. This
was his last dinner, for in the afternoon he mounted his horse, and
crossing over the same milldam, where his Tory neighbor had sought
his life, he had nearly reached his home a mile or so beyond, when
his horse took fright and the old patriot fell off, and in a few
days was no more. Two of his sons, Capt. Moses E. and Ezra, were
soldiers of the war 1812-14. The former never married, but was an
excellent citizen, who lived to see yet another war of greater
dimension, and died a few years after peace was made. Ezra married
Miss Ann B. Bass, of Marion, and was the father of James E., Dr.
Robt. A., and Edwin M., noble boy who fought his way through many a
conflict in the late war till he was made a prisoner, and died at
Newport News only the day before he was to have been released from
his captivity.
John Coxe, another son of Emanuel, married a
Miss Mixon and was the father of eight children. A daughter, Fanny,
married John Hood and became the mother of a large family of that
name yet represented in the old neighborhood. A son, Eli, first
married a Miss Stroud and raised a large family. Charles, Daniel and
Hugh all growing old, yet survive. His second wife, Miss Ann Haskew,
yet lives, but had no children. Eli Coxe also rendered faithful
service in the war of 1812, in the company of Capt. Tristram Bethea,
and if he saw no bloodshed he retained a vivid and intelligent
recollection of events connected with his soldier life. Honest,
truthful and correct, he went to the grave respected and lamented by
his neighbors. A brother of his lived just across the creek and
raised a large family also, and left a blameless reputation behind
him when he died.
William Coxe, another son of
Emanuel, was perhaps more distinguished for his
revolutionary record than either of his brothers because his
services were more continuous. He was one of those patriotic "sons
of liberty" who could not be content at his fireside so long as the
enemy trod the shores of the New World. If
not needed in one place, he would get a transfer
to a more active sphere.
And yet, when the war was
over no man more loved the sweets of peace.
No more inoffensive man has lived upon the waters of
Muddy Creek than he. He was twice married and was
the father of twenty children. Two sons and nine
grandsons of his had places in companies raised in Marlboro for
Confederate service, and no one knows how many more from among those
who had made their homes in other States of the South. A
son-in-law, Jeremiah Coxe, a grandson of the venerable Samuel, went
inta the Seminole War of 1835 and died in the service away from his
home, in the savannas of Florida. The late Michael
Coxe, a fine workman in iron especially, and who-made some excellent
improvements in the plow, and was well and favorably known in
Masonic circles for a long time, was a son of this venerable
patriarch and soldier of 1776. The Mr. James Coxe who married
Miss Hubbard and raised a family in the Brightsville region,was a
grandson of old Mr. Samuel
Coxe. His father's name was Aaron, who married a
Miss Spears, aunt of Lewis and Harris Spears, of
Hebron. There were other children who went West.
The
Townsend family, which has been prominent in Marlboro for many years
may also be placed among the original settlers of this portion of
the country. The first to come, so far as our information goes, was
Light, who is put down as an active soldier of the Revolution. He is
said to have been the father of two children, John and Rhoda, both
of whom the writer distinctly recollects as among the old
people, in the days, of his youth. Light Townsend was
the only son of John who remained long in Marlboro. He was a man of
indomitable energy, and large native intellect. He gathered a large
fortune by his industry and skill, and left his young family in
comfortable circumstances. Another son of old John was long and
favorably known as a member of the South Carolina Conference and
left a family in the upper part of the State. The late Mrs. Kinney,
mother of Capt. Frank Kinney and his excellent sisters, was a
daughter; and the second wife of Jabish N. Townsend was another.
Besides these there Were other children born to "Uncle John and Aunt
Kissy," as the venerable couple were familiarly called, who moved
West. The larger portion of this numerous connection, however, are
descended from Rhoda, through the three sons, Benjamin, Jabish and
Samuel. The former was the ancestor of the young men of the name now
living a few miles above Bennettsville. The brilliant Col. Knox
Livingston, of Bennettsville, is a grandson of Samuel Town-send, who
lived for a long time in the very heart of the Brownsville
community, and when an old man removed to Florida with a large
family of sons and daughters.
Jabish Townsend, the other son
of Rhoda, married Bettie Spears and a numerous family came from this
union. Meekin, the father of Judge C. P. Townsend, and others, was a
man of keen intellect, popular manners, and great energy. He served
his people quite acceptably as sheriff and died in the strength and
vigor of manhood. Maj. B D. Townsend, so long and favorably known in
Bennettsville as a merchant and patron of temperance, and afterwards
as a citizen of Society Hill and a successful railroad president,
was also a son of Jabish T. Townsend. So, too, was Samuel J., who
successfully practiced law in Bennettsville and was elected to the
Legislature. Of quick mind and ready speech, he seemed capable of
large attainments, but was cut off in the midst of his career by the
relentless reaper. Jabish N., father of John C. and others, was
also a son of this old man; another son went West. Besides these the
Galloways and some of the Pearsons are descended from the same
source.
It is indeed amazing how
many of our people, and how many others, West and South, may trace
their lineage back to Hilson's Bay and to the first Light, who left
but two children to bear his name, to the generations coming after
him.
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