Vardry Echols McBee	Jane Alexander

Children Joseph Gallishaw McBee Malinda Penelope McBee Silas Le Roy McBee Luther Martin McBee Hannah Echols McBee Martha (Patsy) Adeline McBee Vardry Alexander McBee William Pinkney McBee Stephen Alexander McBee

MacBean Tartan

While the lower areas of South Carolina had been settled for many years, Greenville County remained part of the old Cherokee hunting grounds and white men were strictly forbidden to enter the area. The Cherokee ceeded these lands to South Carolina in 1777. The Indians remained in their mountain homeland for several years after signing their grant, however, and not many white people ventured into the beautiful Cherokee country before the Revolution.

The first white settler in present Greenville County was Richard Pearis, an Irishman, who came from Virginia about 1765 as a trader. He married a Cherokee woman and became so highly thought of by the Cherokee tribe that tradition records their repeated gifts to him of land that finally covered a tract 10 miles square. On part of this estate now stands the city of Greenville and Paris Mountain, it's name a corruption of Pearis. The enterprising settler called his acres "Great Plains.' He built a home, a mill, storehouses, and a trading post, and lived the life of a prince. He served with the British forces in the French and Indian War and had the distinction of being the first Britisher to enter Fort Dusquesne. When the Revolution began, Pearis's allegiance was sought by both sides. It is said that he had promised his help to the Americans, but, disappointed at the military rank offered him, turned to the King's party. He was probably more disappointed in how the Cherokee Indians were being treated. Held prisoner in Charles Town nine months, he became on his release a captain of the loyalist militia and attained the rank of colonel after performing several daring exploits. While he was in prison (1776) his plantation was captured and destroyed by Colonel John Thomas's Spartan regiment, on the grounds that it was a Cherokee and Tory stronghold. Ironically enough, after the fall of Charles Town, May 1780, Colonel Pearis received the 'submissions' or surrenders of General Andrew Pickens and, possibly, of Colonel Thomas. After the Revolution, Pearis settled in the Bahama Islands on a grant from the British Government.

Greenville County was established in 1784. From this time thousands of settlers migrated to the area. It's name is variously said to honor General Nathanael Greene of Revolutionary fame or to recall Isaac Green, an early settler. Most evidence points to the last inference.

Lemuel J. Alston, a brother of Governor Joseph Alston, the husband of the beautiful and ill-fated Theodosia Burr, came to the county in 1788. He bought 400 acres, 'a portion of the former plantation of Richard Pearis, and including his mill seat,' and there in 1797 laid out a village called Pleasantburg. Alston built a stately mansion in his little town, sure that settlers would soon be attracted, not only because of the proximity to the mountains, but because of the dawning possibilities for planting cotton and building mills.Edward Hooker, who visited Pleasantburg in 1806, gives this picture: "We. . . arrived at Col. Alston's home, which is the most beautiful I have seen in South Carolina. The mansion is on a commanding eminence which he calls Prospect Hill. From the village six hundred yards distant, there is a spacious avenue formed by two handsome rows of sycamore trees."

In 1816 Alston sold his holdings to Vardry McBee. Born in Spartanburg County in 1775, McBee was called 'The Father of Greenville.' He leased the Alston house to Edmund Waddell for a hotel and summer resort until 1835, when he made it his own home, famous for hospitality until his death in 1864 at the age of 89. McBee's gifts included lands for the first four churches and the first academies. A constructive thinker, he recognized the potential sources of wealth in the country's climate and water power, and erected on the Reedy River one of the earliest cotton mills. He was instrumental in removing Furman University from Edgefield to Greenville in 1851, and in securing for Greenville in 1853 its first railroad, the Columbia and Greenville, later serving as its president. Pleasantburg flourished as a resort, connected even in its early days by what were then considered good roads leading toward western North Carolina and Tennessee, and toward Charleston and Augusta. The falls of the Reedy River were soon utilized to furnish power for iron works, corn, and cotton mills. Robert Mills commended the community in 1825 for its beautiful site, its two well-kept taverns, and its new courthouse. 'So much wealth, intelligence and leisure are collected annually at the village,' said Mills, that he could not but 'anticipate a favorable result to the interior of South Carolina.' Pleasantburg then had 500 inhabitants.In 1831 a progressive fever seized the town and its placid existence as a summer resort was disrupted by restless activity; stores, mills, and foundries sprang up. Citizens now wished their courthouse town to bear the county name. Accordingly, in 1831, little Pleasantburg vanished in the incorporation of Greenville and future industrialism was foreshadowed in the stir that replaced quietude. A busy factory, the predecessor of modern Camperdown Mills, usurped the young people's favorite swimming hole, opposite the site of Pearis's old mill.

With the arrival of the railroad in 1853, Greenville's growth was assured. In the years preceding the War between the States, the community was a hot-bed of Union sentiment with Benjamin F. Perry, respected throughout the State, as the leading spirit. When war broke out, no battles were fought in the vicinity and the city did not lie in Sherman's path. Wayside hospitals were established and women labored to comfort and supply the needs of war-weary Confederate soldiers. The mountainous area surrounding Greenville was overrun by deserters. In organized bands they preyed so persistently on the property of citizens that Major A. D. Ashmore requested a cannon to destroy one of their blockhouses in the 'Dark Corner'. In June 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Perry provisional governor of South Carolina. James L. Orr of Anderson County succeeded him the following November.

see also http://members.aol.com/mcbeenews/
Information below from website of Danny A. McBee
Vardry Echols McBee (Vardry³, William², Matthew¹) was born June 19, 1775 in Spartanburg District, South Carolina, and died January 23, 1864 in Greenville, South Carolina. He married Jane Alexander August 16, 1804 in her father's home Green River Plantation, daughter of Elias Alexander and Ann McCall.

Notes for Vardry Echols McBee:
Vardry McBee is shown in the 1820 Lincoln County, North Carolina Census as having three male children 10 years old and under, one male child 10 to 16 years of age, three male children 16 to 26 years of age, himself at 45 years of age, one female at 10 years old and under, one female at 10 to 16 years of age, and wife, Jane Alexander, 26 to 45 years of age. They are listed
ashaving 12 slaves. Microfilm page number 382.

The following article was in the Guest Column of the Gaston Observor, Wednesday, August 12, 1992, page 3. I have not copied the article in its entirety. The article was written by John R. Friday, North Carolina Superior Court emergency judge, who lives in Lincoln County. Vardry McBee was born June 19, 1775, to Scottish Quaker parents in the Spartanburg district of South Carolina. His father, also named Vardry, served with the Patriot army during the Revolutionary War, even though he was
a Quaker. At age 12, the younger McBee was taken from school and worked for six years in an South Carolina limestone mine. At age 19, in 1794, he journeyed to Lincolnton, where he learned the saddle trade from his brother- in-law, Joseph Morris. About 1800 he traveled to Charleston, then with his parents to Kentucky, and later to Tennessee where he ran a saddler's shop. He soon returned to Lincolnton, where he established a saddlery in partnership with James Campbell. In 1804, young Vardry married Jane Alexander of Rutherford County. Within two years he sold his interest in the shop and bought a house and lot in Lincolnton (where First Methodist Church stands today) as well as a nearby farm. He proved highly successful as a farmer. In 1812, McBee became clerk of court in Lincoln County, a position he held until 1833. He also operated a saddlery and farmed during this time. He prospered with the combination of enterprises, and was counted as one of the
leading citizens of Lincolnton. Perhaps the most significant event in his life was in 1815, when he bought several thousand acres from Col. Lemuel J. Allston in and around the area that is now Greenville, South Carolina. McBee first constructed a flour mill on the Reedy River below Greenville in 1817. This enterprise prospered so that in 1829 he built a second mill. Then, along
with men he recruited from Lincoln County, he built a third flour mill below Greenville, a paper mill, a cotton mill and a woolen mill. Thus McBee, while living in Lincolnton, was heavily engaged in "the manufacture of flour, news- print, wrapping paper, cotton and woolen yarn and cloth" at his South Carolina plants. He also farmed. In 1833, McBee was a delegate to the Internal
Improvement Convention at Raleigh. During 1836, the 61 year old McBee moved from Lincolnton to Greenville in order to supervise his business interest more closely. He was soon elected president of the Agriculture Society and won awards for his well-managed farms. McBee also became heavily involved with the railroad business, not surprising since his manufactured products had to be delivered. He became president of the Louisville and Cincinnati Railroad, and his generosity in purchasing stock saved the failing Greenville and Columbia railway. He also owned stock in the Seaboard and Roanoke railroads.
His prosperous enterprises made him a man of wealth and influence. At 77, McBee was in good health and capable of riding almost 50 miles daily. Lincoln County historian William Sherrill reports that "he adhered to a high standard of morality and was always strictly temperate. McBee and his wife were the parents of nine children. Vardry McBee died at age 89 on January 23,
1864. He and his wife are buried at Christ Episcopal Church in Greenville. He combined a pleasing personality and high moral standards with a shrewd business sense to amass fortunes, of which he gave generous portions to religious and educational organizations in North and South Carolina. He needs to be remembered as a benefactor of the people as well as one of the
founders of Greenville, South Carolina.

Q-417: 29 May 1830, Vardry McBee to Perry E. Duncan, $150, both Greenville District, South Carolina, lot near village of Greenville Court House near the Buncomb Road on the avenue leading to the female academy, la 25 poles; witness, Samuel Thompson, William T. Rawland; reg. 15 Dec 1830, Jane McBee relinquished dower, C. White. Y-157: 1847, Vardry McBee to Robert B. Duncan, 24 acres between Augusta and Anderson Roads.
Vardry Echols McBee was barely 16 years old when he entered the service of the Confederacy and served during the last year of the war.
The following is the obituary of Vardry McBee in The Edgefield Advertiser on February 3, 1864:
Death of Vardry McBee, Esquire. This well-known citizen of Greenville and the oldest inhabitant of the place, expired on
Saturday morning past at his residence in this town. By a life of temperance and carefullness, he had prolonged his years until he had attained his 89th year.
By habits of industry and economy, he had amassed a large property which he used much to the advantage of the community by which he was surrounded. He was a leberal man - not by indifferently scattering his charities on any cause that appealed to his benevolence, but by a prudent and just discrimination contributing liberally of his means to those public objects he deemed
important and beneficial to the country and giving to private purposes in those cases only where he had reason for believing his charities would not be squandered. Being the possessor, through his own energy and business acumen, of a large landed estate, he was thus enabled to make valuable donations of sites to various public purposes; and they now stand as monuments to
the memory of a public-spirited citizen. Yesterday morning his remains were interred in the Episcopal Church yard. They were followed to the grave by a respectable concourse of citizens, thus united in paying their last sad tribute of respect to his memory. (I, Danny A. McBee, copied this obituary in its entirety from the book, McBee Genealogy, by Roy McBee Smith).

Vardry McBee is called the "Father of Greenville" by many books, articles, and celebrations. In the year 1815, one of the most
important deeds in Greenville history was made, the conveyance by Lemuel J. Alston to Vardry McBee of Lincolnton, North Carolina, conveying to him 11,028 acres. Thus the predominant ownership of the Greenville area passed into the hands of
a man who for more than half a century was to play a leading and generous role in developing Greenville industrially, commercially and importantly encouraging its schools and churches. By 1824, much progress had been made in the
County and in the village. The new academies had been built just north of the village on land donated by McBee and these first schools of Greenville were built by public subscription. Greenville Male and Female Academies - Greenville - 1821 - Built on land donated by Vardry McBee and by public subscription of citizens. Two brick buildings cost about $5,000.00. Among
the instructors were: Dr. W. B. Johnson, Robert McKay, Rev. Hodges, Mr. Leary, Mr. Hallenquist, and Miss Charlotte Paine. Graduates of these schools included: Ben F. Perry, later Governor of the state; George Townes and the Croft brothers, who were to become famous citizens of nineteenth-century South Carolina. The Male Academy ceased operation about 1852 after Furman University was established with its preparatory department. The Female Academy continued until 1854, at which time the trustees deeded the land to the South Carolina Baptists to establish a Female College on the site which became Greenville Female College, now merged with Furman University. (The above last paragraph came from the book entitled Names in South
Carolina, edited by Claude Henry Neuffer, Volume XVII: 42.

Vardry McBee resigned the Presidency of the Louisville, Cincinatti and Charlotte Railroad March 26, 1840. (Taken from the Annals of Lincoln County by Sherrill).

The children of Vardry McBee are well known and Thomas B. McBee is not listed among them. This rules out any possibility that Thomas B. McBee could be the son of Vardry McBee. (Danny A. McBee).

Notes for Jane Alexander: Jane Alexander McBee died 49 days after her husband Vardry Echols McBee did. They were buried side by side, near their sons Luther Martin McBee and William Pinkney McBee.

       Children of Vardry McBee and Jane Alexander are:
 

83

i.

Joseph Gallishaw5 McBee, born August 20, 1805 in Lincolnton, North Carolina; died October 15, 1806 in Lincolnton, North Carolina.

84

ii.

Malinda Penelope McBee, born October 15, 1807 in Lincolnton, North Carolina; died January 02, 1891 in Greenville, South Carolina.

 

Notes for Malinda Penelope McBee: Malinda (Melinda) was mentioned in the will of her grandfather, Elias Alexander. She was willed an unborn negro slave. Malinda fell in love with Turner Bynum, a handsome young man from Columbia who often visited in Pendleton and Greenville. Bynum was a student at South Carolina College. Bynum was killed in a duel with a rival newspaperman, Ben Perry, August 16, 1832. Malinda's sorrow lasted a lifetime. She died unmarried at age 84. Malinda Penelope McBee was the second child of Vardry and Jane Alexander McBee. She graduated from the Lincolnton Female Academy. She never married due to the fact that the love of her life was killed in a duel. She devoted her love to her nephews and nieces during her lifetime. Malinda inherited some of her father's business prudence. In his Will, he stated that she had no need of any bequest from him. He wrote: "She has quite a compatency of her own estate for decent maintenance during her life . . . Vardry did leave her $500.00, the equivalent of perhaps $10,000.00 at present. (Danny A. McBee).

85

iii.

Silas Le Roy McBee, born September 27, 1809 in Lincolnton, North Carolina; died September 14, 1827 in Lincolnton, North Carolina.

86

iv.

Luther Martin McBee, born January 13, 1812 in Lincolnton, North Carolina; died November 29, 1854 in Greenville, South Carolina. He married Susan Branford McCall December 05, 1845 in Greenville, South Carolina.

Notes for Luther Martin McBee: Luther McBee practiced law with Benjamin (Ben) Franklin Perry in Greenville, North Carolina. Luther handled real estate and business matters for his father. Ben Perry handled Vardry McBee's litigation and was often his spokesperson. Luther died at the early age of 42 with a respiratory condition. Luther died without a Will. Luther had owned 30 acres in the village of Greenville and 7 slaves. There is a discrepancy in the birth date of Luther Martin McBee. Roy McBee Smith in his book entitled "McBee Genealogy" lists Luther Martin McBee's birth date as January 19, 1809, Lincolnton, North Carolina.   Notes for Susan Branford McCall: Susan B. McBee shows up in the 1860 Greenville County, N. C., age 46, with children Vardry, 16, Anna, 12, Alexander, 11, Luther, age 6. Her daughter Susan Hayne McBee died in her seventh year.

87

v.

Hannah Echols McBee, born October 13, 1813 in Licolnton, North Carolina; died September 16, 1814 in Lincolnton, North Carolina.

88

vi.

Martha (Patsy) Adeline McBee, born May 01, 1816 in Lincolnton, North Carolina; died September 26, 1870 in Greenville, Caesar's Head, South Car.. She married Tench Coxe Carson October 06, 1835 in North Carolina.

Notes for Tench Coxe Carson: According to Vardry McBee's will, he had "made large advances to Tench Carson and have notes and charges to a large amount which I hereby relinguish."

 

89

vii.

Vardry Alexander McBee, born April 17, 1818 in Lincolnton, North Carolina; died February 17, 1904 in Lincolnton, North Carolina. He married Mary Elizabeth Sumner December 16, 1847 in Lincolnton, North Carolina.

Notes for Vardry Alexander McBee: Vardry Alexander McBee died February 17, 1904, in the same house in which he had lived all his days - the original McBee homestead in Lincolnton. According to Sherill, in the Lincoln County Annals: Vardry Alexander McBee had a bright mind, was a good student, had the best school advantages, was educated at Pleasant Retreat Academy in Lincolnton, of which his father was one of the founders, and at the University of North Carolina, from which he graduated in 1841 . . . although licensed as a lawyer, Mr. McBee was never active in the practice; he was three times Clerk of the Superior Court, covering in all a period of fourteen years; and represented the County in the Legislature in 1861. He was a public spirited and progressive citizen. He subscribed liberally to all movements for the public welfare; he was active inthe construction of the old plank road from Charlotte to Lincolnton, and in the building of the old Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad, of which he was treasurer and master of transportation, and he later took a prominent part in organizing the Chester and Lenoir Railroad, of which he was a director for many years. He owned a large plantation several miles from Lincolnton and prided himself in raising blooded stock, fine horses, cattle, hogs and even dogs, and encouraged the people of his native town to do likewise. He kept a good saddle horse and was a good rider and delighted in this exercise until far advanced in years. He wore a bear, spotlessly white, and never had a razor on his face. He lived a leisurely life, was a student all his days, never forgot the classics of his youth, and would read Latin in his old age as fluently as English, and always kept abreast of the times." Vardry Alexander McBee will was written, May 31, 1888, probated February 22, 1904, wife Mary Elizabeth. Exec. none. Witnesses: none, book 5, page 270. Vardry Alexander McBee and Mary Elizabeth Sumner were married in Lincoln Co., North Carolina. Notes for Mary Elizabeth Sumner: Roy McBee Smith wrote in his book McBee Genealogy that Mary Elizabeth Sumner was born in Granville County, North Carolina. She moved to Lincolnton about 1845 when her father became the principal of the two Lincolnton academies.

 

90

viii.

William Pinkney McBee, born August 07, 1820 in Lincolnton, North Carolina; died October 06, 1860 in Greenville, South Carolina. He married Harriet Ford Butler June 16, 1846 in Greenville, South Carolina.

Notes for William Pinkney McBee: William Pinkney McBee graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1842 with a degree in Civil Engineering. He later studied law in Greenville, South Carolina. He was a member of the S. C. House of Representatives for the 40th and 41st Sessions of the General Assembly, serving from November 1852, through December 1855. Many of William Pinkney McBee's children received personal articles, furniture, documents, and correspondence of V. E. McBee. William was named for the prominent Maryland statesman, William Pinkney.   Notes for Harriet Ford Butler: Harriet Ford Butler was a niece to the wife of Chancellor (Waddy) Thompson, Jr., Emmala Butler Thompson. Emmala's brothers were Andrew Pickens Butler, and Pierce M. Butler, and William Butler. There was a Lue Samuels, age 26, living in the home of William P. McBee and Harriet Butler McBee during the taking of the 1860 Greenville County, N. C. Census. (I, Danny A. McBee, have no idea who Lue Samuels was.

91

ix.

Stephen Alexander McBee, born May 22, 1822 in Lincolnton, North Carolina; died August 14, 1897 in Greenville, South Carolina. He married Henrietta R. D'Oyley Thurston January 1857.

Notes for Stephen Alexander McBee: Stephen Alexander shows up in the 1850 Greenville, South Carolina Census in the house of Vardry and Jane McBee. Alexander was listed as 29 years old. His sister Malinda, age 43, also listed. Alexander shows up in the 1860 Greenville County, N. C. Census, age 39, with wife Henrietta R., 27, children Richard, 9, Elias 3, and Pinckney, age 3. I never knew that Elias and Pinckney were twins. I am not sure whether Richard was Luther or whether Richard died at a very young age. (Danny A. McBee).   Notes for Henrietta R. D'Oyley Thurston: Charles W. D'Oyley and William DeBohun D'Oyley were brothers to Henrietta R. D'Oyley Thurston.

 

Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

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#2263
MCBEE FAMILY PAPERS
Summary

NOTE: A more complete finding aid for this collection is available at the Southern Historical Collection.
Contact staff at: (919)962-1345 (telephone); (919)962-4452 (FAX); [email protected].

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McBee family.
Papers, 1754-1935.
1,950 items (3.0 linear feet).

Persons represented include Vardry McBee (1775-1864), planter, railroad
official and promoter, and mill owner of Lincolnton, N.C., and Greenville,
S.C.; his son, Vardry Alexander McBee (1818-1904), lawyer, planter, and
railroad official and promoter, of Lincolnton, N.C.; and his grandson,
Vardry McBee (ca. 1860-1938), Episcopal clergyman and musician in Wilkes
County, N.C.

Family correspondence and business papers including Lincoln County, N.C.,
deeds; contracts, bills, accounts, promissory notes, and receipts; estate
settlements, trustee and guardianship papers; and records of two Lincoln
County clerks of court. Family letters written at Greenville, S.C.,
1849-1869, give information about the McBees' varied enterprises,
construction, and property there, and activities of members of the family.
Other correspondence refers to efforts, 1821-1824, to establish a college
at Lincolnton; college students at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville; and slaves. Also
included are four account books, 1852-1872, and papers of the treasurer of
the Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherford Railroad. Twentieth century
correspondence, largely personal, includes letters from Silas McBee
(1853-1924).

Purchases, 1940 and 1964.

SEE ALSO: Silas McBee Papers (#2455) in the Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

SEE ALSO: Vardry Alexander McBee Papers; James Thomas Williams, Jr.,
Papers, Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Library, Duke
University.

ONLINE CATALOG TERMS:
Clerks of court--North Carolina--Lincoln County--History.
College students--Southern States--Social life and customs--19th
century.
Estates (Law)--North Carolina.
Estates (Law)--South Carolina.
Family--South Carolina--Social life and customs--19th century.
Greenville (S.C.)--History.
Greenville (S.C.)--Industries--History--19th century.
Lincolnton (N.C.)--History.
McBee family.
McBee, Silas, 1853-1924.
McBee, Vardry, 1775-1864.
McBee, Vardry, 1860?-1938.
McBee, Vardry Alexander, 1818-1904.
Plantation life--South Carolina.
Plantation owners--North Carolina.
Plantation owners--South Carolina.
Railroads--Southern States--History--19th century.
Slavery--South Carolina.
Universities and colleges--North Carolina--History--19th century.
University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--History--19th
century.
University of Tennessee--Students--History--19th century.
Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherford Railroad.

COPYRIGHT: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or
their descendants, as stipulated by United States
copyright law.