Notes on the Location of Earle’s Ford and Earle’s Fort
John Allison
Sept 3,2005

1) Hoyt Prince could remember seeing site logs with loop holes in them that had been part of the old fort. Hunting Country Rd. was previously known as Princes Fort Road. (The Earles and Birnies, 1974).

2) Reference picture in E&B book.

3) E.O.Earle's letter in Rev. J.B.O. Landrum's Colonial and Revolutionary History of Upper S.C., dated7/4/1891----

  • Tories crossed Pacolet River north of my grandfather's house (Bayliss Earle's house) that stood very near my old barn.
  • After crossing the river, they turned right (SE) and attacked Whigs on ridge east of where the Gibbs family now lives.
  • Earle's Fort was aat Col. John Earle's, where W.L. Prince now lives.
  • After the fight was over, the Tories came back to my grandfather's house (Bayliss Earle's house), the Whigs in pursuit...

4) From J.B.O. Landrum's book (1897)---

  • McDowell's camp was on the former plantation, and near the residence of the late Rev. John G. Landrum.
  • It is now the property of his daughter, Mrs. E.E. Bomar (Nannie Bomar).
  • The homestead residence was burned down several years ago, and another built on the same spot, which is now occupied by the Gibbs family (referred to in O.P. Earle's letter).
  • Mr. Prince told Landrum that "there was a fight down close to your house".

5) From the The Block House article by Eugene Warner, March, 1963...

  • A descendant (Joseph Hannon Daniel) says that the Hannons lived on the North Pacolet River near where Morgan's Chapel now stands.
  • At a dirt road along Pacolet River, where Ralph Cote now raises horses... Joseph Hannon Daniel pointed out the scene of the massacre. (They) "escaped through the canebrakes over there and up the hill to Fort Earle."
  • Mr. Thawley took us to the back of his house to an elevated point commanding a sweeping vista of the Pacolet valley. He stated, "I've been clearing this knoll off for four months, and only last week came on the foundations of the fort., which has been buried here for years under a tangle of briars and honeysuckle that must have been six feet deep". "There they are", he pointed to the stacks of grey lichen-covered rocks arranged in two adjoining squares, all that remains today of Col. John Earle's fortress-home.
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