Francis, the only daughter of James Barmore, married Asa Franklin. She, will all her children and grandchildren, emigrated in the fall of 1845 to Alabama. She only had two children, both sons.
Peter Barmore, James Barmore's oldest son, married Lucy Dodson, and settled on a place his father gave him on the Cambridge Road, owned at present by Mr. James Cork. We do not know how many daughters he had nor who they married. There were three sons, Hardeman, Louis, and Larkin. He, Peter Barmore, died early in life. After his death, his sons, with their mother, moved to Georgia. Of them and their descendents at present we are not informed.
George Barmore, Jr., the second son of James Barmore, married a Miss Pyles, and settled on a plantation given him by his father about two miles above Donnalds on the road leading from that town to Honea Path, owned at present by Charlie Dodson. George was in every respect a worthy son of an honorable parentage-was, in a word, a noble Christian man. He died in middle life. He had several daughters, we don't know how many. There was one son, Reuben Barmore, whom we have heard was a shrewd, thorough-going, guileless young man. He, with his mother and sisters, moved from South Carolina to Mississippi when he was a young man. At present the relatives in this state know nothing of the descendents of George Barmore, Jr.
Miss N. Jane Barmore's History of the Barmore Family henceforth follows the descendents of William Barmore, Sr., to circa 1890, and follows on these pages. However, my own genealogy follows the descendents of George Barmore, Jr.
William Barmore, the third son of James Barmore, married Miss Nancy Dodson, his first wife, when he was only nineteen years old. His father gave him a tract of land on Ball's Road, two miles below Donnalds, owned now by W. R. Dunn. His dwelling house was about a half mile from the public road.
He, like his father, was a blacksmith by trade, at which occupation he accumulated a considerable property. He ran a public shop for the farmers of Upper Abbeville County. Mr. James Tarrant, an old citizen who lived (he may still be living) several miles below Abbeville County house, remarked to a grandson of William Barmore's just after the Civil War, "Your grandfather Barmore was the best blacksmith in Abbeville County. When I was a boy my father used to send me twenty-five miles to his shop to get his particular work done. There were always several apprentices under him. I never saw him working any, that is, I never saw him weild the tools, but I always noticed, and made a great impression upon me, that he gave minute attention to every piece of work done in his shop." Diligence and thorough workmanship were noticeable characteristics in whatever business he undertook."
His educational advantages had been quite limited. After he had been married fifteen years, he succeeded in getting a teacher to open a night school in the neighborhood -- he couldn't leave his work to attend school in daylight. He was a regular attendant of that night school one whole winter. There he learned to write a very legible hand, and enough about figures to enable him to succeed subsequently as a merchant.
In 1825 he moved out on the Five Notch Road, where he still ran a public shop, built a large dwelling house, and gave public entertainment to travelers. He was never known to turn away a travler, no matter at what hour of the night they came. A merchant of Anderson once said, "Spuire Barmore's house is favorably known from the seaboard to the mountains."
It must have been in 1823 or 1824 that he and the Rev. James Wilson went into themercantile business. After a few years of great success Rev. Wilson sold his interest to Mr. Barmore's two sons, and he (Wilson) moved from the County. Mt. Hill Postoffice, the only postoffice for several years in Upper Abbeville, was in his store, his son Enoch being the postmaster.
The firm of Barmore & Sons was a continual success up to his death. he said, "In twenty years as a merchant, I have not lost as much as two hundred dolloars in the way of collections."
A dishonest person, a stingy person, or a lazy one he could not bear, but his heart went out in sympathy to the industrious poor.
His daughter Polly jestingly said, "Father is better to his poor tenants than he is to his children." Her husband replied, "His tenants carry their wants to him; his children, at least my wife, is too high-minded to beg even from a rich father."
Old people have told his grandchildren many laughable jokes as to the way he would caution poor people about buying in his store, seeming to forget for the time his own interest, so absorbed were his thoughts for their welfare. General Hodges, who knew him well, remarked to one of his granddaughters, "Your grandfather made money merchandizing; everybody was honest then; he wouldn't make money at it now if living; 'poor salesman' they would style his straightforward way of dealing with customers."
At his death he owned eleven plantations, we do not know the number of acres, but is supposed there must have been in all considerably over two thousand. A goodly portion of each tract was in cultivation, mostly by white tenants. It was an observed fact that every poor, industrious, honest man who lived on his farms never left him until they were able to buy farms of their own. He never owned a great many slaves, always said he did not want to have more than he could do justice by. "If I owned a great many," he would say, "might neglect them." just those he inherited, with their increase, and a few he took as pay for debts. His estate was principally land and money.
He married three times. His first wife, Nancy Dodson, had two sons and five daughters. The second wife, Nancy McGee, had two daughters. The third wife, Polly Hodges, never had any children. His children were all settled in life and in good circumstances at his death.
SOURCE: History of the Barmore Family by Miss N. Jane Barmore. 1890.
