In January 1856, D. J. McDonald signed a lease for a tract of land belonging to Willis G. Smithy, the grandfather of John Willis Smithy. McDonald agreed to pay $200 annually to lease the land for ten years. Willis Smithy died in 1856, devising his land to his grandson and naming George Washington Smithy, John’s father, and the said McDonald as executors of his will. John Smithy asserts that McDonald has profitably grown cotton and corn on this land ever since 1856 and that he also “employed and kept upon the premises a large number of slaves.” Nevertheless, McDonald fell into debt and all of the slaves, crops, and farm equipment were sold in February 1860 “on Sales-day” to James J. Harllee, who claimed that McDonald owed him nearly $20,000. In 1860 McDonald left for Arkansas, having been “discharged from all liabilities” by virtue of a debt relief act. John Smithy understands that Harllee is also planning to move to Arkansas, and he suspects that Harllee and McDonald conspired together to remove this property to Arkansas in order that McDonald could avoid paying back rents to Smithy. The petitioner seeks an injunction to prevent Harllee from leaving the state with any of the farm implements or “productions of the soil,” charging that all of this property should first be subject to his lien for rent. He also asks that the court void the original lease between Willis G. Smith and D. J. McDonald.
Result: Granted pro confesso.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
