City Directories and History: The old Tudor Hall plantation home dates to the middle 19th century but for some unknown reason does not show on the 1910 postal map of the Bullocks Creek area.
This house is located off Highway 49 on the Thomson Quarter Road and sits atop a hill a few yards from the York-Chester County line. Tudor Hall is a typical example of architecture known as “Piedmont Farm House.” Like many of the other houses, we cannot give an exact date of its construction, but we believe that John “Jackie” Darwin Smarr built the house shortly after 1855, when he had married Margaret A. Love, the daughter of Robert M. Love. In 1858, he purchased building materials from R.A. Black, consisting of weatherboarding, flooring, lathe, planks, joists and scantling. R.A. Black operated a successful sawmill operation and provided most of the structural materials for this dwelling. It is possible that within the frame work of the structure is an older house; however, this is unproven at the present.
The ancestral home of the Smarr family was located in the fork of Broad and Pacolet Rivers, what is now Cherokee County. John Smarr (1768 Va.-1842) purchased 200 acres here in 1794 for 100 pounds. He named his plantation home, “Red Hills”. John, the builder of Tudor Hall, attended school under John G. Enloe in or near Pinckneyville while living with his family at Red Hills.
After the death of John Smarr, Red Hills was sold to James H. and Eliza S. Alexander, with William Reid, Jr., as trustee, in 1856. Tudor Hall sits on a portion of the old William Hillhouse plantation which had been conveyed to Archibald Robinson in 1770. It is said that both sides of the road leading to the house were planted in a large orchard. In 1850,”Jackie” Smarr held real estate valued at $5,500.00 with personal property of $15,000.00. Within ten years, he multiplied his holdings to $10,930.00 in real estate and $19,418.00 in personal property. But in 1874, John D. Smarr was in a state of bankruptcy and it was to his good fortune that he was able to save Tudor Hall.
At the death of John D. Smarr (1818-1897), the house passed to his only child, William T. Smarr (1856-1914) and his wife, Annie Gilmore Smarr.
From the York County Gazetteer: Still standing in 2007, this house is located off Highway 49 (Lockhart Highway) on Thomson’s Quarter Road near the York-Chester county line. A typical example of a Piedmont Farm House, it seems the house was built shortly after 1855, by John “Jackie” Darwin Smarr when he married Margaret A. Love, daughter of Robert M. Love. In 1858 Smarr purchased building materials from R. A. Black, consisting of weatherboarding, flooring, lathe, planks, joists and scantling. John was schooled under John G. Enlow in or near Pinckneyville, and in 1850 he had a real estate value of $5,500 with personal property valued at $15,000. Within ten years he multiplied his holdings to nearly $11,000 with almost $20,000 in personal property. In 1874 he was faced with bankruptcy, but managed to save his home by selling peaches to Union soldiers stationed in Yorkville.
The ancestral home of the Smarrs was located in the fork of Broad and Pacolet rivers, in what is now Cherokee County. John Smarr purchased 200 acres here in 1794, and named his home “Red Hills. “
TUDOR HALL: This old home is located off Lockhart Road on the Thomson Quarters Road and sits atop a hill a few yards for the York-Chester County line. Tudor Hall is a typical example of architecture known as “Piedmont Farm House” which is found only in the piedmont regions of the Carolinas. It sits on a portion of the old William Hillhouse plantation which had been conveyed to Archibald Robinson in 1770.
Sometime around 1855 John Darwin “Jackie” purchased this tract of and when he married Margaret A. Love, a daughter of Robert M. Love. In 1858, he purchased building materials from R. A Black, consisting of weatherboarding, flooring, lathe, planks, joists and scantling which may have been for the house’s construction. Some, who have worked on the house in latter years believe an old house is within the frame work of the house. While this is unproven at the time, if an older structure exists, then Smarr was probably purchasing materials in 1858 to expand an older and smaller house.
John Smarr’s ancestral home was located in the fork of the Broad and Pacolet Rivers, in what is now Cherokee County. His father, John Smarr, who was born in 1768 in Virginia, purchased 200 acres there in 1794 for 100 pounds. Smarr called his plantation “Red Hills”. After the death of John Smarr Sr., Red Hills was purchased by William Reid and was later given to his daughter and son-in-law, James H. and Eliza S. Alexander. At that time the plantation became known as the “Alexander Place.”
John Smarr Jr. attended school under John Gilbert Enloe in or near Pinckneyville. According to a letter from his cousin, William D. Henley, in Columbia, Tennessee, Smarr was in no hurry to get married and his cousin, in 1848, prodded him in that direction. Henley and his cousin may have been associated with the Independent Presbyterian Church. In 1851, Henley wrote to his cousin and asked Smarr to speak to Reverend R. Y. Russell, pastor of the Independent Church, about coming to Columbia, Tennessee and take a position at Jackson College. Closing his letter, Henley told Smarr that he was not agreeable with Smarr’s politics. This probably referred to an anti-secession movement at the time in South Carolina.
John Smarr was a successful farmer according to his estimated values taken from census records. In 1850, his real estate valued at $5,500 with personal property of $15,000. Within ten years he had multiplied his holdings to $10,930 in real estate and $19,418 in personal property.
Margaret Love Smarr, wife of John Smarr, died in 1861, leave her husband with the responsibility of two young children. As the war between the north and south raged on, Smarr was tapped for military duty. On July 27, 1863 Reverend R. Y. Russell and some of Smarr’s neighbors drew up a petition to exempt him from military duty:
York District, S. C.
July 27th 1863
We the neighbors of John Smarr respectfully represent, that Mr. Smarr is a person of very delicate health, maimed by the loss of fingers on the right hand; is left in charge of two small children by the death of his wife, and over fourteen working hands, who should be placed in service, must be left without control. In addition to all this, we feel confident, his services at home, as a benevolent and patriotic gentleman, would contribute much more to the interests of the country, than any service he could render in the army as an instance of this, he has uniformly sold corn to soldiers families at one dollar per bushel, and bacon at sixteen cents per pound in addition many gratuitous contributions in the same direction. In view of these facts, we earnestly petition your judicious authority to grant Mr. Smarr an exception from military duty under the late call upon the citizens for services in the field; and your petitioners will ever pray.
Records show that Smarr served as a First Sergeant during the war; it is unsure whether it was in the field or some support group. One would think that the loss of more than one finger on the right hand would exclude him from the battlefield.
Like so many of his fellow Southerners, the war devastated his finances. By 1874, he was in a state of bankruptcy; but through perseverance he was able to save Tudor Hall. It is said that the fields on both sides of the road leading to his house supported a large peach orchard. Supposedly through the sale of his peaches to the occupying Union Army, Smarr placed his plantation back on a more secure financial base.
In 1887, John “Jackie” Smarr made a request to John J. Hemphill, of the House of Representatives in Washington, to place a post office near Tudor Hall. The request was granted July 7, 1887 and Smarr was appointed Post Master of Cotton, South Carolina. At first, the office appears in Chester County, but by 1889 it is situated in York County. This could have resulted from a resurvey of the York- Chester County line. Cotton Post Office continued until September 4, 1904 when it was consolidated with Bullock’s Creek. Besides Smarr, two others Postmasters served the Cotton office; Rhett D. McCallum who was appointed February 7, 1888 and Willie T. Smarr who was appointed February 7, 1889.
At the death of John Smarr in 1897, Tudor Hall passed to his only child, William T. Smarr (1856-1914) and his wife, Annie Gilmore Smarr.
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Is there someone who knows Robert G. Smarr of York County, South Carolina. He is the relative of Jackie Smarr, and I would like to know more about him. I can be reached at this email address:
sunshine_sm77@yahoo.com.
R&R suggests you contact the Sharon, S.C. Post Office and or the Bullock’s Creek Pres. Church.
Wade@R&R