Revolutionary War Generation

James Barmore, George Barmore's only son, married a Miss Smith. Some time before the Revolutionary War, when Abbeville was a frontier county, James Barmore and his brothers-in-law, with their families, emigrated from Virginia to South Carolina. The descendents of the Rhoney daughter left South Carolina several years ago and settled in Georgia. The descendents of the Shirley daughter moved in the first circles of society in Anderson County. Mr. John Shirley of Honea Path, is the only one we can locate. There are two descendents of the Morrison daughter living near Hodges, and of whom it has been said there are no better citizens in their neighborhood.

James Barmore settled on the Saluda on the location now known as the Killingsworth place in the extreme east corner of Abbeville County, owned at present by Mr. William Davis. He was a blacksmith by trade, said to have been the best in upper South Carolina, and was consequently detailed in the army as foreman of the blacksmith shop, which shop was for safety located on his secluded place, or rather his shop was made a Government shop. We have been told that they often worked there for the army day and night for weeks in succession. The extreme exposure of night work caused him to lose hearing, from which affliction he never recovered. We have heard that the sign of the blacksmith shop is still there, and that it is no uncommon thing for the plowman to plow up bits of iron, pieces of horse shoes, fuse, etc. The house he built is still in good preservation, and is considerably over 100 years old. Mr. Killingsworth rolled it a few hundred yeards from the site upon which it was built. It is one mile from Ware Shoal's on the Old Cambridge Road.

Tradition has it, and we receive it, that during the Revolutionary War an Indian girl traveled in twenty-four hours from some point in upper South Carolina with a pressing message to the American army stationed at Cambridge, the distance being ninety-six miles; hence the change of name from Cambridge to Ninety-Six. We have been credibly informed that her name was Isaqueana and that the starting point is six miles above Walhalla. She traveled the Old Cambridge Road. The site of the old Government shop on that historic road makes the location of a renown worthy of preservation.

James Barmore was noted for his straightforward dealings with all with whom he had to do. Though he commenced life as a poor man, he accumulated what was in that day considered a handsome property. He was very beneficient in church enterprises and benevolent causes generally. He said to the deacon of Turkey Creek Church, "I am so hard of hearing I never understand when a collection is taken what it is for. You know in temporal matters I always require some one to explain to me the object of the call before I give of my means, but in matters pertaining to religion I can rely upon the judgment of the church; henceforth, whenever there is a contribution taken up, whether I am present or absent, set me down for as much as any other one man." Mr. Ezekial Razor, now deceased, who was a deacon at the time, is my informant of the above fact. His son, E. Barmore Razor, remembers also to have heard his father relate it.

He raised three sons and one daughter, and lived to see them all settled and succeeding in life. He died in the summer of 1830, and was buried in Turkey Creek Cemetary.

SOURCE: History of the Barmore Family by Miss N. Jane Barmore. 1890.

Land Plats for James Barmore
3 Aug 1784 | 10 Dec 1784 | 12 Feb 1785
34.4119N, 82.2942W