Marlboro County ScArchives History - Books .....Chapter XII Thomas Parker And Others 1897
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Book Title: A History Of Marlboro County

CHAPTER XII.
THOMAS PARKER AND OTHERS.

  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 Legisture, [sic] 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.

*Since died.

  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 Whigs 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 rilling 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 that I was 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.*

  *T. H. Bethea, his only surviving son, lives on the large estate left by his
father.

  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. Jephtha 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 df 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.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

A HISTORY OF MARLBORO COUNTY,
WITH
TRADITIONS AND SKETCHES OF NUMEROUS FAMILIES.

REV. J. A. W. THOMAS, AUTHOR.

A wonderful stream is the river Time
  As it runs through the realms of tears 
With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme,
And a broader sweep and a surge sublime
  As it blends with the ocean of years.
                        —TENNYSON.

ATLANTA, GA.:
THE FOOTE & DAVIES COMPANY,
Printers and Binders.
1897.


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