Thorntree Likely Oldest Standing Pee Dee Residence

Last time we looked at the family of John Witherspoon, one of the first settlers of Williamsburg County. James Witherspoon, one of John's sons, is perhaps the best-known of the Witherspoon descendants to Kingstree residents because of the legacy he left us in the form of his home, Thorntree, the 270-year-old house that now stands on Nelson Boulevard in Kingstree.

Thorntree as it looks today.

James Witherspoon arrived in Williamsburg County in December 1734. A month later, on January 11, 1735, he received a 300-acre land grant near Black River, located about six miles from the King's Tree. Fourteen years after that, in March 1749, Witherspoon moved his family to a home he had built from trees that had grown on his land grant. This home was known as Thorntree.

The rear view of Thorntree.

Upon James Witherspoon's death in 1765, it appears that his oldest son, John, lived in the house. We know his family was living there in 1781 during the American Revolution. He died in 1805, and the property must have passed to his youngest brother, Gavin, for in 1816, Gavin's heirs sold Thorntree Plantation to John A. Gordon. John W. Gordon then inherited the plantation, selling it to Daniel Hicks Hamer in 1883 when Gordon moved to Alabama. One of Hamer's sons was a principal in the Hamer-Thompson Overland car dealership, which began in Salters but later opened a branch in Kingstree. Thorntree, however, was inherited by D.H. Hamer's youngest child, Mattie Jane, who married James Alurid Farrell. When she died, their son, also James Alurid Farrell, inherited the property. He was using it as a tenant house when its history came to the attention of the Williamsburg Historical Society in the late 1960s.

On May 21, 1967, Elizabeth White wrote in The State newspaper, "An exciting example of 'memory work' architectural detail in cornices, mantels, and moldings has been discovered in a weather-beaten home in Williamsburg County."

Mantel and molding in one room of Thorntree as it looks today.

The article noted that the detailed carvings on the cornices, mantels, and moldings were called memory work because they were created without patterns from the craftsmens' memories of designs seen in their homelands. Meyric Rogers, a museum curator who had assisted in the restoration of the Ainsley Hall House in Columbia, and who was called in to give his professional opinion of Thorntree, noted, "The house in architectural structure is a rarity." He also noted, "There is not another house of its type–unless along the James River in Virginia."

Another fireplace, which showcases more "memory work" on the mantel.

Survival of pre-Revolutionary War homes is rare, as they were either destroyed by the British or torn down and rebuilt as their owners became more prosperous. Thorntree escaped the former as it was used by British Colonel John Watson as his headquarters for a short time during the war. James Witherspoon died before the American Revolution, and his heirs apparently saw no need to modernize by building a new house.

When it was "discovered" in the late 1960s, historians marveled that the cornices and mantels were original to the house and still in good condition. Shed rooms and a side porch, added probably around 1800, were then part of the house.

Thorntree as it looked with the shed rooms and side porch still attached.

J.A. Ferrell agreed to give the house to the historical society, provided the society built him another tenant house. The society also decided to move Thorntree to land donated by Marie L. Nelson in Kingstree where the house would get the benefit of police and fire protection.

On December 3, 1969, Thorntree, with the shed rooms and side porch removed, was slowly brought down Highway 377 to Kingstree from the place where it had stood for 220 years. Leverne M. Prosser, writing in the News & Courier on December 4, 1969, noted, "The house, for the most part, was put together with wooden pegs, and each of its main structural pieces was specially shaped to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. The original wood was hand-hewed." Designated as the oldest known residence in the Pee Dee area of South Carolina, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 1970.

Thorntree in Snow, 2011.

Restoration of Thorntree was Williamsburg County's contribution to South Carolina's Tricentennial Project in 1970. Plans were to restore Thorntree and develop the Fluitt-Nelson Memorial Park where it sits to recreate the conditions of Colonial times with both indigo and flax growing on the property. There was also a proposal to create a lake on the property, landscaped with wildflowers, trees, and shrubs.

On April 2, 1971, Thorntree and the Fluitt-Nelson Memorial Park were dedicated. For the next several years, Thorntree was open from 2:30-4:30 on Sunday afternoons every month except January and February, and on one weekend in December, it was open both Saturday and Sunday evenings for a Candlelight Tour, showcased as an 18th Century Christmas Celebration. Admission in December 1971 was $2 for adults, $1 for children. The Candlelight Tour was advertised in daily newspapers across the state as "blazing fires, spicy pomander balls, wreaths, holly sprigs and cedar garlands will grace the interior of the old plantation home of James Witherspoon who first came to America with his family in 1734." By 1977, a wassail bowl and fruit wreaths were also advertised as part of the festivities.

Another snowy view of Thorntree, this time in 2014.

In October 1982, Thorntree played a pivotal role in the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Kingstree's founding. Thorntree was the site of a Revolutionary War encampment by the Second SC Regiment. Also that weekend, Peggy McGill's folk opera, "Williamsburgh," directed by Doreen Welch, was performed in the space that six years later would be renovated into the Williamsburg County Auditorium. In addition, Williamsburg Technical College hosted a lancing tournament that weekend.

By the 1990s, Thorntree was open for tours by appointment and on special occasions for events. This is still true today.

A group listens to a presentation by Kingstree author Bubber Jenkinson.

Tomorrow, November 28, will mark the 251st anniversary of James Witherspoon's death. It is remarkable that his home has survived him by 251 years. However, Thorntree itself is now in need of repairs. As many of you are aware, the Williamsburgh Historical Society operates solely on memberships, donations, and the occasional grant. So, this holiday season, if you'd like to give the community a gift, consider making a donation to the Thorntree repair fund. You may make your checks payable to the Williamsburgh Historical Society, but please note somewhere that you would like the money used for Thorntree repairs. The address is Williamsburgh Historical Society, 135 Hampton Ave., Kingstree, SC 29556. Thorntree has weathered 270 years. Your contributions can help it stand for maybe 270 more.

Coming Up: The thrilling Revolutionary War stories associated with Thorntree.

The Witherspoons: a First Family of Williamsburg County

Eighty-one years ago today, The State newspaper published a story by Laura Cromer Hemingway about the erection of a monument in the Williamsburg Cemetery in honor of John Witherspoon. In the article, she discussed several of the stories associated with the man.

The marker honoring the memory of John Witherspoon as it looks today.

Here is her article: "Within the historic cemetery of the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church a monument has been erected to John Witherspoon, from whom have descended, perhaps, more men and women of distinction in the United States than from any of the colonial patriarchs.

"The memorial is a large shaft of gray granite having a bronze plate inset bearing this inscription:

John Witherspoon

Born near Glasgow, Scotland in 1670, removed to Ireland because of religious persecution and settled in County Down in 1695. In 1734 he, with his kindred and friends, came to America and settled near Kings Tree in Williamsburg township. He was the leading spirit in the erection of the first Williamsburg meeting house in 1736. He died in the fall of 1737 and was the first person buried in this graveyard. Of Covenanter blood, a descendant of John Knox, he was a zealous adherent to the principles of the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Scotland. A man of deep piety, strong moral courage, and a leader in the affairs of the community. This marker is erected by grateful descendants who unite in honoring and perpetuating his memory. Erected September, 1938.

"The marker is placed at perhaps the most advantageous place for effect. It faces, from across the cemetery, the large double gates that mark the entrance to the grounds.

"About 100 yards away is a small pile of crumbling old hand made brick that many of the oldest citizens who are native of Williamsburg have looked upon as marking the place where the dust of John Witherspoon rests. This tradition has been handed down by word of mouth through succeeding generations from the days of the colonization of 'The King's Tree.'

"Other factors that point to the authenticity of this is the statement that John Witherspoon was 'buried across the road from the meeting house.' The old stage coach line from Cheraw to Georgetown ran in front of the meeting house and this may have been 'the road.'

Looking from the Witherspoon marker toward the cemetery gates.

Perhaps this road is what remains of the old stagecoach road.

"The brick apparently were fashioned originally into a low vault over the grave. They are so old that they are ready to disintegrate almost at a touch of a hand.

"Lovers of history, fearful that the possible grave of John Witherspoon, the recognized 'Father of the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church,' which  is the most historic in the southeastern section of the United States, may be lost to coming generations after the present generation shall have passed on, are now hoping that this spot, too, may receive a simple marker.

"Kingstree is proud to claim the distinction of having repose within her boundaries the dust of the man from whom so many illustrious sons of America have descended.

"John Witherspoon was the father of four sons, David, James, Robert, and Gavin, and of three daughters, Janet, the wife of John Fleming; Elizabeth, the wife of William James; and Mary, the wife of David Wilson. From these have descended many eminent jurists, educators, ministers, physicians, soldiers.

"The jurists include Chancellor William Dobein James, Chief Justice Eugene B. Gary, Circuit Judges Ernest Gary and Frank B. Gary, Circuit Judge L.D. Witherspoon, and John Witherspoon, county judge of Williamsburg district, all of South Carolina; Chief Justice Tim Ervin Cooper of Mississippi, Chancellor William Stuart Fleming of Tennessee, Circuit Judge William T. Gary of Augusta, GA, United States Senator William Bennett Fleming, who was also circuit judge in Georgia.

"Among the educators was Dr. John Witherspoon, president of Princeton. (Note: We now know that this John Witherspoon, who was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a first cousin, rather than a descendant, of the John Witherspoon of Williamsburg County.)

John Witherspoon, President of Princeton.

"The list of ministers descended from this 'Father of the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church,' which has been called 'The Cradle of Presbyterianism in the South,' is long and distinguished. It includes: The Rev. John Leighton Wilson of nationwide renown, who was the first American missionary to Africa and later secretary of the foreign missions for the Presbyterian Church in the United States; the Rev. James Henley Thornwell, Jr., D.D.; the Rev. James McDowell Richards, D.D., president of Columbia seminary at Decatur, GA; the Rev. Robert Wilson James, the Rev. Thomas Sydenham Witherspoon, the Rev. Jeremiah Witherspoon, D.D., the Rev. Andrew J. Witherspoon, D.D., the Rev. Thomas Dwight Witherspoon, D.D., the Rev. Samuel Reese Frierson, the Rev. Wilson James McKay, D.D., and others.

The Reverend John Leighton Wilson

"Among the many notable physicians in this and other states who trace their lineage directly back to John Witherspoon was Dr. James Ramsey Witherspoon, the son of Robert Witherspoon, a grandson of John, whose genealogy of this illustrious family is held invaluable by historians.

"In the making of American history and the winning of American freedom the descendants of this sturdy Scot have taken active parts. There was the Revolutionary hero, Maj. John James, a grandson who organized Marion's brigade, and his son, William Dobein James, who served under Gen. Francis Marion with distinction, though only a boy at the time. There was Maj. Gen. Martin Witherspoon Gary of Edgefield, whose record during the Confederate war is enviable and who, during the days or Reconstruction, labored to make the Hampton campaign the success that it was in 1876.

The tombstone of Maj. John James in the churchyard of Indiantown Presbyterian.

"There were others in number, for records show that Marion's brigade was composed largely of men from the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church who were, for the greater part, descended either directly or collaterally from John Witherspoon.

"Among the counties in this state that claim direct descendants from John Witherspoon are: Richland, Charleston, Sumter, Laurens, York, Darlington, Florence, Marion, Lancaster, and Williamsburg.

"Wardlaw's Genealogy of the Witherspoon Family and the diary kept by Robert Witherspoon hold for lovers of history much that would have been lost to succeeding generations in a new country beset by trials of war and dissension. These pages also project into this modern age of luxury a picture of the hardships encountered by those who made these luxuries possible.

"Among the original band of settlers at 'The King's Tree' on Black River in 1732, were three of John Witherspoon's children. These were Gavin, his youngest son; Elizabeth, the wife of William James, and Mary, the wife of David Wilson. Two years later, John Witherspoon, and his wife, Janet, who was his first cousin, two other sons, David and James, and his third daughter, Janet, the wife of John Fleming, with their families and a band of additional colonists, joined the original settlers on Black River. John Witherspoon's remaining son, Robert, with his wife and children, joined the colonists in Williamsburg in 1736, thus making the family complete in this new country, except for Janet, the wife of John Witherspoon, who died two days out from Ireland and was buried at sea, and Sarah, the young daughter of James, who died in Charleston, shortly after the arrival of James and his family there in 1734, and was the first person buried in 'The Scotch Meeting House Yard' there.

"Against a background of religious dissension in Scotland and religious persecution under the Stuarts, when papist fervor made life unendurable for those who preferred field meetings to the cathedral, this story of John Witherspoon's exodus is set.

"He and his wife Janet were forced to move to Ireland shortly after their marriage in order to find any degree of peace. There 'they lived in comfortable circumstances and good credit until the year 1734.' John Witherspoon moved his family to South Carolina.

"They made the trip across the Atlantic on the ship, The Good Intent, which they boarded September 14. They were forced to wait at Belfast 14 days for a favorable wind. The trip across was filled with exciting events. Following the death of John Witherspoon's wife Janet and her burial at sea, the ship was sorely tossed by storms, during which it sprang a leak necessitating the constant working of pumps and the ingenuity of the mariners to save the boat.

"The deeply instilled piety of mind in members of the Witherspoon family prompted the grandson (Robert, son of James) to write in his diary, 'It pleased God to bring us safe to land, except my grandmother, about the first of December.'

 Facsimile copies of Robert Witherspoon's Diary, called The Witherspoon Family Chronicle,

are available for sale at the Williamsburgh Museum on Hampton Avenue in Kingstree.

"Robert Witherspoon recorded further: 'We landed in Charleston three weeks before Christmas in 1734. We found the inhabitants very kind. We remained in that place until after Christmas and were put on board an open boat with tools, one year's provisions and one steel mill for each family.'

"The party traveled up Black River as far as Potato Ferry where they disembarked, and the women and children took refuge in Samuel Commander's barn while the men went in search of building sites farther up the river.

"February 1 they came to a point called The Bluff about six miles from the settlement at Kingstree, and they made their home there on Black River. The women were distressed at the first site of the crude dirt houses their men had thrown together as quickly as possible for temporary shelter until logs could be felled for permanent homes. They were frightened at the loneliness and isolation of the woods, almost tropical in growth, and at the wild animals and the Indians who came down periodically to hunt.

"But they set their faces toward the sun that was rising upon this strange new land in which they had chosen to live and worship as they pleased. The men comforted them by telling them that as soon as trees were felled, they would be able to see from house to house.

"John Witherspoon, with the blood of Robert Bruce and John Knox in his veins, had come with no other intention than that of staying in this new land and building a home and community. Although he lived only three years after coming here, he had labored so vigorously and so zealously that he could see his ambitions taking shape. The work he had started was carried on by his sons and daughters and by their sons and daughters and on and on through succeeding generations. It is still in progress through his descendants now scattered far and wide throughout the United States."

Reese Witherspoon, actress/producer, is a descendant of John Witherspoon.

There are still Witherspoon descendants scattered throughout the United States, including actress/producer Reese Witherspoon. The Williamsburgh Museum frequently receives requests for genealogical information from members of the extended Witherspoon family.