Robert Lide was born in Roanoke, Virginia May 17, 1734 and was the youngest of three brothers.  In 1740 the boys came to South Carolina with their uncle, John Crawford, and settled on the west side of the large bend in the Pee Dee River below Sugar Loaf, a well-known point.  Robert Lide later settled near Cashaway Ferry in what is now Darlington County, South Carolina. 

Major Robert Lide was married three times.  When he was 21, he married a young widow, Mrs. Prissalie Fort, mother of a son by her first marriage.  The wedding took place September 12, 1755.  At the reception, a sniping Tory enemy hiding outside, aimed a bullet at the groom, missed, and fatally wounded the bride.  Nearly five years later, he married Sarah Kolb, a daughter of Johannes Kolb of Mannheim, Germany, later of Germantown, Pennsylvania.  Robert and Sarah had seven children:  John, Mary, Ann, Robert, James, Hugh and Peter. 

During the years of his marriage to Sarah, the War of the American Revolution occurred.  When the British Army came South, General Francis Marion called on all the officers and militiamen of the Pee Dee area to volunteer for service in a Brigade under his command.  Capt. Robert Lide went into the Brigade as a Major..  His brother was put in command of a regiment as Colonel.  Marion's Brigade rushed to defend Charleston after the fall of Savannah.  Before all the companies of militia reached Charleston, Major Lide's command among them, that city fell to the British in May 1780.  When Major Lide's wife, Sarah heard the bad news, she fainted and never fully recovered from the shock.  Sarah died September 24, 1789 at 53 years of age. 

On June 23, 1790 Major Lide married a third time, to Mary Westfield Holloway, widow of Mark Holloway.  To this marriage were born three children:  Sarah Ann Lide, John Westfield Lide, and Hannah Lide, who married Capt. Thomas Edwards Hart, for whom Hartsville, South Carolina is named. 

Major Lide owned much property.  One of his interesting land transactions took place on February 13, 1795.  He sold 2,000 acres to a son-in-law, Robert Hodges.  This was the land on which the town of Mullins, South Carolina is built.  His sons Hugh and Peter signed the transaction as witnesses of the transfer. 

Major Lide was buried in Lowther's Hill cemetery at Mechanicsville, South Carolina and on his tombstone is incribed: