The Yorkville Enquirer reported on Feb. 22, 1877 – “Last week, the barn and stables of J. Wilson Marshall near Fort Mill were destroyed by fire. He lost four mules, two horses, several colts, cows and hogs.”
City Directories and History: 1908 – Rev. J.K. Coit, J.W. Marshall (Capt. John Wilson Marshall), 1913 – Rev. F.W. Gregg, 1917 – A.R. Rhinehart, 1920 – H.H. White, Willis McFadden, 1926 – G.P. Smith, 1936 – Cora Strait, 1946 – Fouche Furniture Company, 1963 – T.E. Jones and Furniture
The home next to First ARP Church of Rock Hill, for many years, was associated with White Memorial Chapel. White Memorial Chapel constructed by members of the White family on Wilson Street. The first known occupant of the home was the Rev. J.K. Coit a highly influential minister whom
Mary Elizabeth White seemed to heavily support. Later, the home became occupied by H.H. White, one of Anne H. White’s two sons and the uncle of Addie Witherspoon who lived across the street, where Saint John’s Methodist is located in 2013.
CAPT. J. W. MARSHALL’S STRANGE ENCOUNTER by Louise Pettus
Capt. John Wilson Marshall of Rock Hill once told a strange and interesting tale to William Banks, a reporter for the Charleston News and Courier. Marshall said that the events happened at the close of the Civil War after Richmond had fallen and Gen. Sherman’s troops destroyed Columbia. Marshall was captain of Company I, First South Carolina Cavalry when his company received orders to retreat and “take no prisoners.” The company was near the courthouse town of Chesterfield when they came upon a rampaging Union company burdened with loot. There was immediate combat. Marshall aimed his pistol at the captain of the Union forces. The pistol failed to fire as Marshall squeezed the trigger again and again. A Confederate sergeant stepped up and fired the shot that killed the Union officer. Banks wrote, “Immediately afterwards Captain Marshall tried his weapon and it fired without further priming. He always thought God’s restraining hand was in that moment.
Years later, Marshall, a Charleston native who came to York County about 1870, was living in the Gold Hill section of Fort Mill township. Marshall loved flowers and had beautiful displays around his farmhouse. He ordered some flowers from a Michigan nursery. Soon thereafter, a letter came from a Michigan woman who inquired if he was her husband, Capt. J. W. Marshall, Company I, First Michigan Cavalry, who had disappeared at Cheraw in the closing days of the Civil War.
The coincidence was striking. The same initials, company and each in the First Cavalry of their respective states. Marshall did some careful checking and was convinced that the Michigan officer was the one he tried to kill. Marshall wrote the widow and told her he was not her husband, but did not tell her how her husband had died.
In the days of Hampton’s Red Shirts, Marshall rode again as captain of the Fort Mill company. The Fort Mill men also aided in the “redemption” of Chester and Lancaster counties. John Wilson Marshall, born in Charleston on July 20, 1841, was the son of J. T. and Ruth Sutcliff Marshall, both immigrants to the United States. His father was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland and his mother was from Land’s End, England. After attending Charleston public schools, Marshall came to Yorkville as a student at Kings Mountain Academy. He was 19 when he married Mary Ann Clawson, daughter of W. I. Clawson, York County Ordinary (probate judge), the day before South Carolina’s Ordinance of Secession was signed. Marshall quit farming in 1892 and moved to Rock Hill. He as a pioneer of the oil business—called an “original builder” of Standard Oil (1896) and Gulf (1910) agencies. The present day service station had not yet evolved. With Marshall’s son, J. E. Marshall, who also owned a livery stable and livestock company, the agency ordered gasoline from Baltimore. It arrived in 110 gallon wooden drums, much of it having leaked out before arrival. J. E. Marshall later said that their earliest and best customers were Winthrop College and the Rock Hill Steam Laundry.
Capt. J. W. Marshall, a livery stable and livestock company owner, acquired a Standard Oil agency in Rock Hill in 1896. Kerosene, which was chiefly used in lamps and lanterns, was red-brownish in color. Later, refineries were able to take out more of the impurities and kerosene became colorless. However, people believed that the colored kerosene was more powerful and resisted buying the clear product. Captain Marshall then put artificial coloring in it to satisfy his customers.
Marshall also sold gasoline which was shipped on the railroad from Baltimore in 110 gal. wooden drums. He sold four drums a year until about 1900. Some time around 1917 he put up the first “drive-in” gas station in Rock Hill. About that time, because of World War I, gasoline sold for .360 a gallon, an all time high until the gas crisis of 1973 skyrocketed prices. – PETTUS
The Rock Hill Record reported on April 13, 1908 – Rev. and Mrs. J.K. Coit have moved from the White Memorial Manse and are now located on Academy Street in the house formerly occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Ward Albertson.”
The Rock Hill Record reported on May 21, 1908 – “Mrs. E.F. Love and Family who have living for some time in Oakland have moved into a part of the White Memorial Manse on White Street.”
The Herald of Nov. 25, 1918 reported – “Mr. and Mrs. Willis McFadden now have rooms with Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Connelly on Caldwell Street.”
R&R Note: It is somewhat confusing as to the location of the Marshall’s first residence in Rock Hill. One source shows them at this address, another next door at:https://www.rootsandrecall.com/york-county-sc/buildings/239-east-white-street/ See both for images and information.
Click on the More Information > link found below the picture column for a map of the White’s property showing the approximate location of H.H. White’s home on White Street.
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