LETTER FROM RAY PARROTT
Darlington, S.C. 29532
Fall 1982

      Perhaps I can answer some of your questions, as I have made a general
genealogical study of the people of Pee Dee Area of South Carolina
spasmodically, for the past twenty years or longer, with primary interest in
Florence and Darlington Counties.
      My great, great, great grandfather, Jacob Parrott, married Penelope House
when they lived on Falling Creek in Lenoir County, northwest of Kingston, North
Carolina. He was born in 1761. They moved to the Bethel section of Darlington
District, South Carolina, about 1815-1816. We think that Penelope House was a
sister of Thomas House who moved from Snow Hill in Green County, North Carolina,
to the Bethel Section of Darlington District slightly before Jacob and Penelope
made the long trek. Thomas House established Bethel Methodist Church in the
Bethel Section of Darlington District, S.C. in 1807 and was the first Pastor of
the church. That is the oldest Methodist church that I know of in eastern South
Carolina.
      The oldest churches in South Carolina were in the Charleston, S.C. area
and were Anglican or Episcopalian churches, established in 1675, ca 1680. The
Anglican church was the official church of the Lord Proprietors of Carolina.
      The Presbyterian church is the second oldest church in eastern South
Carolina. The oldest Episcopalian church in the Pee Dee area of South Carolina
is in Cheraw, South Carolina (Chesterfield County) or in Society Hill in
Darlington County. The oldest Presbyterian church in the Pee Dee area of South
Carolina is the Indiantown Presbyterian Church in Williamsburg County, and the
Presbyterian church in Kingstree, in Williamsburg County.
      I believe that the old Concorde Church in the Concorde section of Sumter
County is older than the Old Brick Church, but I am not certain. My memory is
that Concorde Church is Presbyterian, but it has been many years since I last
saw Concorde Church and my memory is foggy. The Old Brick Church was slightly
closer to the home of Benjamin Lavender than was (or is) Concorde.
      The early settlers of the Pee Dee area were poverty stricken Protestants,
and all of them were farmers. Some farmers also were in the timber, tar and/or
turpentine business. They would cut pine trees, make a raft out of the pine
logs, in Lynches River, float the raft down the Lynches River, thence into the
big Pee Dee River and on the Big Pee Dee into Georgetown, S.C. where the logs,
turpentine and tar was loaded onto sail ships in Winyah Bay. They would then
walk back to their homes in the Pee Dee area or possibly ride horseback or on a
wagon train. The round trip would take several days (a week or more.) My great,
great, great grandfather on my maternal side lived near Cartersville in what is
now Florence County (then Darlington District) named Owen Lockhart, and he was
engaged in the timber, turpentine and tar business when not in Court about some
debt he failed to pay, including a huge debt and mortgage over a 6,000 acre
tract of land he bought on credit and tried to farm. He was also a carpenter,
and built Ebenezer Baptist Church building under a contract in 1837-1838. (Then
in Darlington District, now in Florence County.) Ebenezer Baptist Church was
established in 1778, and it is one of the oldest churches in the Pee Dee.
       The earliest settlers of the Pee Dee, including the Parrotts and
Lockharts, buried their dead in family cemeteries, on land owned by the
deceased, generally speaking. There were no marble or granite quarries in the
Pee Dee, and those Protestants did not have sufficient funds to pay for a stone
momument and have it shipped from England to South Carolina, and then floated up
river to the Pee Dee area.
       They used an iron oxide that is native to this area, and personally
carved the name of the decedent, date of birth and date of death in the iron
oxide marker that was placed at the head of the grave, or even worse, they found
a large piece of lightwood, carved a cross mark on it with an axe and placed it
on the grave (somewhat like using an axe to blaze the side of trees to indicate
the boundary lines of various land owners.) Unfortunately, that iron oxide
contained too much sand, and in time, rain would wash the lettering and numerals
away, so the grave was marked then by a piece of iron oxide with no information
left for posterity.
       The only grave markers that I have seen for graves prior to 1800 are in
the Charleston, S. C. area. There are some graves at Indiantown Presbyterian
Church and at Welsh Neck Baptist Church in Society Hill that date as early as
1810. These have marble grave markers.
       I know where the Lockhart family cemetery was located and I am informed
that the gravesites were visible when I was a young boy. But Edgar Keels
acquired the land surrounding the cemetery, and he had negro tenants (share
croppers) who cultivated the land. Those people plowed up the cemetery, and
destroyed all evidence of the gravesite.
       I was never able to find the gravesite of Jacob Parrott or any member of
his immediate family, save a daughter, Charlotte Parrott, born August 1, 1797,
who married Wiley Kelley, born March 29, 1795, died December 25, 1873. Charlotte
died April 18, 1844. They are buried on what was then the Wiley Kelley farm in
the Kelley cemetery in what is now Lee County, about a mile from Lynches River
and Darlington County, along with the majority of their twelve children, some of
whom changed their name to O'Kelley. I am reasonably certain that the Kelley
grave markers were placed at the gravesites by the children many years after the
death of Wiley and Charlotte P. Kelley, though Wiley Kelley was a wealthy
farmer, owning 17,000 acres in his home tract.
       I never located the grave of my great great grandfather, Joseph James
Parrott, born in 1786, and died in the Bethel Section of Darlington District in
1841, or the grave of his wife, Martha Belcher Parrott, who he married about
1805 in Edgecomb County, North Carolina. They came to Swift Creek, Bethel
section of Darlington District of S.C., a year or two before his parents, Jacob
and Penelope, but Joseph, James and Martha returned to the New Bern, N.C. area
where they lived until 1836.
       I did find the grave of my great grandfather, Hardy Newbourn Parrott,
born March 11, 1816, died October 8, 1876, married Elizabeth K. Wilson on March
31, 1844, died Jan. 16, 1906. He is buried at Bethel Methodist Church and she is
buried at Wesley Chapel Methodist Church, about 8 miles away in Darlington
County.
       I hope this information gives you a better grasp of life in the old Pee
Dee. Incidentally, those farmers did not have and could not buy commercial
fertilizers in the years referred to. As a result they would farm the land until
the land became infertile and then move on to greener pastures (richer soil.)
Having been reared on a farm, I assure you that the black soil in the New Zion
area of Clarendon County is far richer than the light sandy soil that Benjamin
Lavender farmed near the present Shiloh Methodist Church. If I had to hazard a
guess, the Lavenders, Buddins, Gambles of the Shiloh area saw that the black
soil around Pudding Swamp (New Zion) was much more fertile and grew greener
crops than the Shiloh soil, and moved en masse to New Zion where they had been
attending the New Zion Methodist Church while living near Shiloh.
       I was reared in the Sardis section of Florence County about 10 miles from
Shiloh and a bus brought the Shiloh school children to Sardis Elementary and
Sardis High School which I attended. 

-=-=-=-
Published in "The Lavender Line"
Volume 1, #1  Fall 1982
Editor: Doris Lavender Vilda
Assistant Editors: Elinor Reid Parrott, Frances Tucker McCabe
Corresponding Editor: Dr. Abraham Donald Lavender

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