It was on January 24, 1823, that Gov. Edward COLES signed the legislation creating Marion County. Brink-McDonough's history states, "The fortunate discovery of the first county census, taken by R.C. CHANCE in the autumn of 1825 and filed with the clerk of the county on the 26th of November of the said year, renders it possible to give our readers a complete list of the early residents of the county. We here introduce the names of the heads of families and call the attention of the reader to other interesting incidents.
"Samuel HUFF; Isaac McCLELLAND - a member of the county
board (1836-38 and 1842-48) and associate county judge
1857-61, died March 18, 1881, aged 81; Eli McKINNEY; James
MARTIN; Samuel MARTIN - owner of a horse mill; James YOUNG,
son of Samuel, the first settler; Matthew YOUNG, brother of
James; Aaron HICKS - member of the first county board,
contacted for and built the first courthouse; Ebenezer
DAGGETT; Henry LEE; Dorcas TULLY; Christiana TULLY; Malachi
WARE; Michael RADCLIFFE; William CARRIGAN; D.R. CHANCE, of
the first justices-of-the-peace and the census commissioner
in 1825; Henry WALKER; William TAYLOR; Simon ALBERT; Richard
PILES; William ALBERT; Hardy FOSTER - a native of Georgia,
township and village named for him, county commissioner and
member of the legislature, died in 1864; Thomas NEAL -
removed to Effingham County, lost his life by accident,
being crushed to death by a wagon in 1854; John S. DAVIS;
Thomas FULTON; William KING; Darrington BALDRIDGE
(Footprints Editor's Note: His correct given name was
Dornton.); William PURSLEY; John DAVIDSON; Samuel DAVIDSON;
Green DEPRIEST; John WARREN; Robert NICHOLS; James PILES;
Henry McDONALD; Jesse GRIFFIN; William GUNNERSON; John W.
NICHOLS; William MARSHALL - first justice-of-the-peace,
county surveyor and member of the legislature from 1830 to
1834; Joseph HENSLEY - justice-of-the-peace for many years
and owner of a horse mill; Isam WATSON; Robett (this is the
spelling in Footprints) SNODGRASS; John WILSON - was called
'St. John'; John PHELPS; John EDDINGTON; Montgomery INGRAM;
Nathan HUFF - removed to Texas in 1859; Jesse NICHOLS; Zadoc
PHELPS; Henry C. NICHOLS; Rubus RICKER - county clerk,
circuit clerk, probate judge, postmaster and innkeeper;
Leonard P. PILES; Mark TULLY - owner of a horse mill, first
coroner, collector and sheriff, county commissioner, and
contractor for the building of the second court-house; John
TULLEY; William NICHOLS - owner of a horse mill and a slave
holder; Thoams ASH - revolutionary soldier, North Carolina
continentals, pensioned 1833; Robert NICHOLS; George KELL;
William GASTON; Henry RODES; Jacob FULFER; Mary GALETON;
William INGRAM; Cowles DUNHAM; Isaac FULFER; William
BALDWIN; Patrick COWEN; David FULTON; Abraham ROMINE -
county commissioner, Romine Township named after him; James
GOUDY; Rosana FULTON; John BOUCHER; Cartsworth P. BLACK;
Samuel EBLEN - revolutionary soldier, private Virginia
continentals, pensioned April 12, 1834; John EBLEN: Israel
JENNINGS - a slave holder and member of the legislature;
Caswell WANTERES; Robert BANDY; Dorcas BANDY; J.P. GAINES;
Jacob ALBERT; Samuel SHOOK; Lete DUNKIN (Letitia DUNCAN
probably); Nathaniel LITTERAL (LUTTRELL, a revolutionary
soldier); Alfred RAY; Henry WARE; William TULLEY; Pegg
BROCK; Thomas HOW - hunter and a fiddler; Solomon ALLEN;
Benjamin VERMILLION; Frederick PHELPS; John LITTLE; Thomas
PARTENSON; Daniel PHELPS; Wily BURTON; G. BURTON - a
blacksmith; Lodrick PHELPS; John COLES; Robert MAN; Polly
McKINNEY; Charles RADCLIFF; Josiah FYKE and Mr.
ROGERS."
There were one hundred and four heads of families, including
five widows, with a total population of five hundred and
fifty-seven, of which two hundred and seventy-three were
white males, two hundred and eighty-two white women, one
black man and one white woman - both slaves. Brinkerhoff
wrote, "At this time there were but one hundred and
seventeen voters in the county. Money was scarce and stock
low in price, a good cow not being worth more than from six
to ten dollars, and horses from twenty to forty dollars;
hogs at two cents per pound were considered well sold., and
grain in proportion. Of the entire population, only one was
a blacksmith - G. BURTON, who was a blacksmith - all the
rest were farmers and more or less hunters, both as pastime
and as a means of adding to the family larder." These
people had principally come from the southern states -
Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas, and Virginia; a few from
Ohio and Pennsylvania. Even though they came from the south
and with the system of slavery still tolerated in this
state, there was scarcely any slavery in the county at the
time of the census from which Brink-McDonough infers that
the population was drawn from the poorer class of the states
mentioned. Ninety-five of the one hundred families recorded
remained squatters of the land for many years. Scarcely any
land entries were made between 1823 and 1836. "How
these people whose worldly possessions did not average $27
per head, came to burden themselves with the expense of a
county administration, is a question to which we could not
find an answer, nor even an explanation," summarized
Brink-McDonough.
Sources: (1) Brink-McDonough "Combined History of
Marion and Clinton Counties," 1881; (2) Brinkerhoff
"History of Marion County," 1909"
Source:
FOOTPRINTS OF MARION COUNTY, 1987 Fall edition (Vol 12, No
2)