The author will be excused for a more extended notice
of the name which he has borne for now nearly three score years and
ten, inasmuch as the material is more abundant, not only in Gregg's
History, but among the records of the family.
In the year
1699 Tristram Thomas emigrated from Wales to the province of
Maryland. He was the father of ten children, and died in 1746.
His oldest son,. Stephen, came to North Carolina about
1750. He too had a large family, nine sons and four daughters. Of
the other sons of Tristram, tradition says, some remained in
Maryland and others went into Pennsylvania and regions farther west.
About 1759 Robert, the first son of Stephen, came to Marlboro with
his wife, Mary Sands, of Virginia, and was soon followed by at least
three younger brothers, Lewis, Philemon, and Tristram. The two first
settled among the colony of Friends in the neighborhood of Pine
Grove, now Adamsville.
Tristram settled at what is now McCall's Mills, which
he is said to have first built. He afterwards became prominent in
public affairs, took a leading part in the Revolutionary struggle,
rising to a Major's commission. After the war, he was well known as
General of Militia, an honored member of the Legis-ture, and a
leader in organizing municipal affairs in the infancy of Marlboro
District, as it was first called. He was as prominent in religious
affairs as in civil. He reared a large family, most of whom
scattered, except that model of a Christian gentleman, and District
officer, the late James C. Thomas, who remained and died among us at
a ripe old age, the last of his generation. The General died
in 1810.
It is said that either Lewis or Philemon, more
likely the latter, married a Miss Breeden, and after the birth of a
daughter, who became the second wife of-Moses Parker, he died, and
his widow married Jessie Bethea, the father of the late Jessie
Bethea, of Adamsville. The other" brother went to Illinois. Robert,
the older brother, who settled near where the present town of Tatum
is located, was long known as a Baptist preacher. The church at
Salem was organized under his labors, also Catfish in our sister
county of Marion. He died in Britton's Neck, of that county, while
upon a preaching tour in 1817, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.
He was the father of three daughters and nine sons. Nathan, John S.,
Robert W., Eli, and William have their descendants in the county,
and a daughter, the grandmother of Colonel and Tristram Covington,
is also numerously represented among the good citizens of the land.
We sincerely wish that all the old families in the country could
have preserved their genealogical tables as well as this one has.
The writer is the fifth from Tristram of Wales, and has upon record
the names and dates of birth of ten children. Stephen, first son of
Tristram, had thirteen children. Robert, his first son, had twelve.
William, his son, counted fourteen, and this writer, the son of
William, has numbered eleven.
Upon some other lines, the
multiplication has been as large. Other families have borne the name
in this country, and do now. We have asked them if their descent can
go back to the first Tristram. If so, they are entitled to a place
among the branches of the old tree first planted upon American soil
in 1699, as an importation from the "County Cairmarthen,
Principality of Wales."
About the same time that the above family
reached Marlboro, or a little later, there seems to have
come a number of substantial people whose ancestors from the
British Isles had landed in Maryland and Pennsylvania, but who now
sought a warmer clime. Some of them came direct from
Maryland, and others followed after a brief stay in Virginia and
North Carolina. Their good judgment was shown in selecting the
well-watered, finely timbered, fertile plains of Adamsville and
Hebron. They at first gave to this choice region the
designation which still cleaves to a portion of it, "Beauty
Spot." Among these settlers were Moses
Parker, a man of substantial worth and firmness of character, and
his brother John, a reckless, dashing young fellow who threw his
whole soul into the patriotic cause, and of whom the tradition said,
"He'd rather shoot a Tory than a snake." Moses was
a serious-minded Christian man, with a family dependent upon him,
yet spent part of the time in the patriot army. He
was twice married, his second wife being Miss Thomas, as
mentioned above. Poor, when the
first marriage was contracted, spending his last five
shillings as a marriage fee, he not only made a living for his
twenty-two children, but acquired large possessions of
splendid lands, flocks and herds, that roamed at will over the
thousands of broad acres called his own. One of his daughters
by the first marriage became the wife of that staunch old
Whig, the celebrated Joshua Ammons, a man of great firmness of
character and solid worth. He once, when under the command of the
Marquis LaFayette, seeing his General wounded, took him in his arms
and bore him to a place of safety. Years after, when the
Marquis visited the land he had helped to free, the humble Ammons,
with many others, made a tedious pilgrimage to look into the face of
that grand old Frenchman, who, seeing his former comrade and
benefactor, embraced and blessed him for the unforgotten deed of
kindness. The memory of Ammons is still a sacred legacy to his
posterity, some of whom are yet among us, proud to have their
descent from so true and brave a man, who has not
only written his name upon the annals of his country
with the warrior's sword, but has also left a pure record as a
follower of the Prince of Peace upon the pages of the "Old Church
Book'' at Beaverdam, alongside that of his venerated father-in-law,
Moses Parker. From the twenty-two children of the patriarch Parker
has come a numerous progeny of the excellent people of this ancient
community. The only surviving son, *Mr. Philip Parker, lives near
his birthplace, on land inherited from his father, in a vigorous old
age, having seen his eightieth Christmas. He is yet brimming full of
life and humor, himself a veritable patriarch, living joyously with
the wife of his youth, who has honored him with sixteen children,
eleven of whom are alive. From his lips the writer has received much
valuable material, drawn from the stores of a wonderful memory,
still fresh and exact, of the traditions of the past, learned from
the old people he knew in his boyhood and earlier years.
Mrs.
Parker, like her husband, is also one of twenty-two children of the
late Joshua Fletcher. Raiford, the father of Joshua, John, and Mrs.
Axey Bundy, came to Marlboro about 1815 and although so much later
than the times of which these pages treat, such has been the
prominence and growth of the family that it demands some space in
these annals.
Mr. Fletcher and wife, Sallie Holliway, came
from Wayne county, N. C. The first wife of Joshua was Miss Nancy
Smith, his second a daughter of Moses Parker. His sons who came to
manhood and reared families were Raiford, Thomas, John S., Nicholas,
Joshua, William and Lewis.
The daughters married ''Branch" Billy Adams, Robert
Adams, Jephtha Adams, Philip Parker, Noah Gibson, Shockley Adams, J.
M. Gibson and Jno. L. Easterling. Mrs. Jephtha Adams and Mrs. Noah
Gibson were twin sisters and so nearly alike in size and features,
and dress and voice, that persons not altogether familiar with
them found it difficult to distinguish one from the other, and
as the young maidens grew up they sometimes amused themselves by
innocently playing "Who Is It ? " "Is it Julia or Ann?" Young
Jephtha thought that he knew them apart, and likewise thought he
loved Julia. Ann suspected that a courtship had begun, and on one
occasion, when Jephtha made his appearance at the old Fletcher
homestead, she got the start of her sister, placed herself "in the
way" and sure enough "Jep drew up beside her," and began to whisper
in her ear the soft tones-of his tender emotion. Smiling at her
success in the discovery of the secret she fled from his presence
and sent Julia to his side, who, not long afterwards became Mrs.
Jephtha Adams; the mischievous Ann in time became Mrs. Noah Gibson.
With only the State line and a mile of intervening space between
them, the twin sisters dwelt side by side until Mrs. Gibson went
over the line that separates earth from heaven.
To return to
the traditions as remembered by Philip Parker it is said that in
those dark days, when the party lines were strongly drawn, and
"Tories preyed on Whigs, and Whigs chastised Tories," it came to
pass that a Whig by the name of Reed came from camp " on leave of
absence." His presence at home being discovered, a party of Tories
s.urrounded his house, cutting off his escape before they were seen.
The poor man climbed into the loft of his humble dwelling in the
vain effort to conceal himself. "He was ordered to descend and
surrender, or the house would be burned over his head." In his
extremity he consented to come down and surrender as a prisoner of
war, if they would spare the house. But as he descended and
approached the door they shot him dead. Tidings of the outrage
rapidly spread in the neighborhood. A little band of Wbigs soon
collected, and, pursuing the raiders, came upon them at another
home, not far from where the Rev. W. K. Breeden now lives. So intent
were the raiders upon their work of plunder, ripping the beds and
filling the ticks with booty, that when their pursuers dashed upon
them, they broke for the swamp of Beverly Creek, so hotly pursued by
the Whigs that the spoil was recovered, and one of the Whigs
captured a splendid horse which, of couse, he never returned to the
owner.
The Lesters also trace their origin from Maryland,
William, their ancestor, coming from that province about this time.
He was the father of Thomas, Nimrod, Bright, and Mrs. Charles
Manship. Thomas Lester was the grandfather of the present family in
Marlboro county. Charles Manship, who was a wild youth until his
marriage, became a Christian, went to school for a time, entered the
Methodist ministry, and from him has sprung a respectable
family.
Tradition tells of a fine colony of Friends who came
into this portion of Marlboro before the Revolutionary war; Ways,
Mendenhall, and other sober, industrious, honest people who built
for themselves a house of worship at Pine Grove. But when the
Revolution ended, and the new government reorganized, these men felt
that slavery had become a fixture in the South—an institution that
they religiously believed a wrong, and that its existence among them
must hamper their enterprise, and possibly corrupt the religion of
their posterity—they sold their lands and left in a body for what
was then called the "Northwest Territory." The house of worship was
used in common by Baptists and Methodists for a season, but
eventually went into the possession of the latter, where there has
long existed one of their most influential communities.
The
Baptists ultimately staked down at Beaverdam.
Among other
elements that entered into the composition of the population in
eastern Marlboro the Scottish is worthy of mention. Two old men,
natives of Scotland, are remembered by Mr. Parker, the brothers,
John, and James McCoy (sometimes written McKay). John lived at the
mill on Bear Creek, just within South Carolina. One of his sons,
Daniel, became a Baptist preacher. With a rich, Scotch accent, his
hearers were sometimes amused at his quaint way of putting religious
truths. Preaching on the evils of pride, how insinuating, and
deceptive, he sang out, "Why, brethren, I used to think I was not
proud, but when I came to know myself, I found out tbat I zvas proud
because I wasn't proud."
Some one is said to have asked him why he read out his
hymns in such a " singsong sort of a tone," and he answered "Well,
you all sing so badly, that if I don't sing it out, it won't get
sung." Good old man, he " went West" in his old age, and took an
interesting family with him.
The other brother lived a mile or
two lower down, on the banks of the Little Pee Dee. Mr. "Truss"
Bethea married one of his daughters, and has left a highly respected
posterity.*
It would hardly be doing justice to the
information received from Mr. Parker if no mention was to be made of
some of the other neighbors of his father.
William Leggett,
who took up" a large territory of land on Beaverdam and Panther
Creeks, around the site of McColl, lived at what is now known as
McLaurin's Mill, during the Revolution. He was the father of James,
the father of Salathiel and Sherrad, from whom the numerous
connections in this and neighboring counties are
descended.
Isaac Pipkin came into the neighborhood from Wayne
county, N. C. in the early years of the present Century with his
excellent wife, Mary Benton, and from this couple have descended
many of the present population of the community. Mrs. Lewis Parker,
Mrs. William Lester, and Mrs. N. M. Gibson, were daughters of Squire
Pipkin, and the name, as borne by several young men among us, has
descended from this one North Carolina Scotchman.
Another
extensive family in this portion of the country for a century past
has been the Easterlings. They have a tradition that the first
bearer of the name landed in Baltimore. When, it is not known, but
like, many others, they drifted southward, and May 24th, 1733, near
the mouth of the Neuse river, in North Carolina, Henry Easterling
was born. He was bred a Churchman, but embraced Baptist principles
in 1760, and two years afterwards entered the ministry, accepting
charge of the Hitchcock church in Anson county. His wife was Miss
Ellen Bennett, who blessed him with ten children. About 1772 we find
him in Marlboro. In that year he aided in organizing the Beaver-dam
Baptist Church, which was at first called "Beauty Spot" and
worshipped not far from "Beauty Spot Bridge." Mr. Easterling was
chosen the first pastor and continued in office for a number of
years. The probability is that some of his family remained in Anson,
and that others came with him to "Beauty Spot." Two of his sons, at
least, raised families here. Shadrach, father of the late Capt.
Henry, and Mrs. Betsy Odom; and William, for many years "Ordinary"
of his district and the father of a large family of sons and
daughters. His wife was Miss Covington, of Richmond county, North
Carolina. From these two brothers, Shadrach and William Easterling,
has descended a very extensive connection. While the late war
between the States was going on two or three young men stationed
near Charleston instituted an inquiry through the papers of the
day,to ascertain how many Easterlings were in the Confederate army.
Sixty-three responded, tracing their descent to the old preacher,
Henry Easterling. Twelve gallant young men of this name were in a
single one of the eight companies raised in Marlboro. Brave
boys! many sleep in the soldier's grave, but your surviving comrades
forget you not. Ye stood amid the pelting lead, daring to do, and to
die. Calm be your rest.
William Bennett, ancestor of a family
of that name, came originally from Maryland to Anson county, N. C.
where he was living during the revolution. He was a Baptist
preacher, yet spent some time with the patriot army. He seems to
have made himself especially obnoxious to the Tories, who fired a
volley into his dwelling in Anson. Whether it was the prayers or the
sword of the old man the enemy most hated, the tradition did not
say. He soon after made his home on Crooked Creek in Marlboro, about
a mile above what is known as the "Burnt Factory," where he raised
his family and where his ashes lie in ground still owned by his
posterity. William, Joseph and Nevil, his sons, have representatives
in this and Marion County. Eli Willis, the progenitor of that family
also came from Maryland, and married a daughter of Mr. Bennett, and
from this couple Milby, Jas. B. and others sprang. A number of
worthy young people promise to perpetuate the name. Sam Edwards, who
lived for a time at the Ervin place, also married into the Bennett
family.
Old Mr. John Hamer, who has left a numerous family to
inherit his name, was also descended from an old Marylander, William
Hamer, who settled in Anson, and married a Miss Hicks. John found
his wife in Marlboro in 1791, near the old court-house,'Miss Nancy
Cochran. Daniel H., William, Thos. C, Henry C, Robert, James and
Alfred, Mrs. Nicholls, Mrs. Caleb Curtis, Mrs. Jeph-tha Robinson,
the second wife of Eli Thomas, Mrs. J. B. Willis and Mrs. Rowland,
were the children of this marriage. After the death of the first
Mrs. Hamer, the old gentleman married a daughter of Mr. Nathan
Thomas, of Hebron, and the late Philip M. and the Rev. Lewis M.
Hamer were born of that marriage.
Nobody can take it amiss if the pen of a comrade
should single out one from this worthy group of fifteen, and give to
him special mention. It may be because of a closer intimacy and
better knowledge of his worth, that the writer puts him down as
among the best of men. We slept under the same blanket upon the
naked earth, trod step by step the same tented field, knelt side by
side at the same camp fire, and ate from the same dish. Under all
the trying circumstances of life in camp, we found Philip Hamer the
same noble man, the same true friend, and the tribute here left to
his memory is prompted by the affectionate remembrance of true
worth, It was with sincerest pleasure that we all, as a forlorn
hope, cast our ballots for P. M. Hamer for the House of
Representatives in 1876. He filled his place in the memorable
Wallace House.
He was returned, and filled other positions in the
gift of his people, and when in 1887 they laid his body to rest
beside his kindred dust, Marlboro buried one of her noblest
sons.
*Since died.
*T. H. Bethea, his only surviving son,
lives on the large estate left by his father
.
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