At some point prior to 1850, James S. Pulley, of North Carolina, had settled in Conwayborough, South Carolina. He was supposedly avoiding the consequences of having been responsible for the death of a slave belonging to another man, however the circumstances surrounding this incident are unknown. The slave's owner was out to see that Pulley was punished. Upon Pulley's arrival in out-of-the-way Conwayborough, James further concealed his identity by assuming his wife's maiden name. His 1st wife, Julia Elizabeth Burroughs Pulley of N.C, did not come with James to S.C. It is not known whether he did not send for her or if she refused to follow him. He remarried and started a new family in SC.
In the 1850 Census for Horry District, SC, James S. Burroughs, born James S. Pulley, is shown as a farmer with a wife and child. Not long after this he entered business in the town. He is shown as a merchant with a wife, two sons and two daughters in the 1860 Census. His store was located at the corner of 3rd Ave. and Main Street (now a municipal parking lot). He became well connected when his daughter Mary Ellen married Samuel Stevenson Beaty, a member of an important political family in Horry District.
In a description of Conwayborough in 1861, James Burroughs is mentioned as a saloon keeper. At various times (according to Mrs. S. G. Godfrey's memoirs) he lived in two of the fine old homes on Kingston Street across from the Kingston Presbyterian Church. For a time he was a very successful man. One of the most interesting documents associated with him is a paper in which he was named guardian to Willis Tompkins, a free man of color, not long before the Civil War began. Another is the deed in which he conveyed land to the Baptists in Conway for their first church after that war ended.
James S. Burroughs suffered financial reverses in the post-Civil War era. He left Conwayborough, first for the Bucksport area and then for Georgetown County. He settled near Smithville in Georgetown County and died there. As his body was being returned to Conwayborough for burial, the mules pulling the wagon plunged off the ferry at Yauhannah. The coffin sank, but was recovered. Negroes who were accompanying the body felt that this was judgment and retribution for the slain slave in North Carolina.
James S. Burroughs (born James S. Pulley) is buried at Lakeside Cemetery but his tombstone bears no dates.
From the files of Catherine H. Lewis
Corrections and updates made in 2007 by JBB
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