JOHN H. WHEELER.
Born, Hertford Co., No. Ca. Aug. 2d. 1802. Died, Washington, D. C. Dec. 7th. 1882.
A. M. Univ. of No. Ca. 1826; State Treasurer, 1845. U. S. Envoy to Nicaragua, 1853.
Author Hist. of No. Ca. and of Reminiscences of Eminent North Carolinians.
TO
HON. KEMP P. BATTLE, LL. D.,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA,
AS SOME EVIDENCE OF
PERSONAL REGARD OF THE AUTHOR, AND DEVOTION TO THE FAME
AND HONOR OF THEIR NATIVE STATE,
THIS WORK IS DEDICATED.
It is well known to you that your venerated father encouraged the preparation and publication of this work. His letters to the author prove this. But he died before it was completed. Lest the same inevitable event should occur to the author now beyond the allotted period of human life, these Reminiscences and Memories, the labor and research of a life, are now given as a grateful legacy to his kind and generous countrymen, who will admire the generous traits exhibited, and imitate the noble examples of their forefathers.
PREFACE.
WASHINGTON CITY, No. 28, GRANT PLACE, JUNE 10, 1878.
To Hon. William H. Battle, L. L. D., Chapel Hill:
MY ESTEEMED SIR—Your recent letter as to “The Address on the Early Times and Men of Albemarle,” has been received. For the kind opinion, that “the people of the State and especially those of the Albemarle County, owe a debt of gratitude for this and other contributions to their history,” I sincerely thank you.
Your letter further adds, that you “have seen in the Raleigh Observer, a handsome tribute to the value and usefulness of my History of North Carolina, expressing a wish for an early publication of a second edition, uniting yourself in a similar request.
Like expressions have been received from many respectable sources.
Recently, The News of Raleigh, The Democrat of Charlotte, and other papers call for the publication of the “Reminiscences of Eminent North Carolinians,” and appeal to her sons for contributions “to the Grand Old History of North Carolina.”
It is hoped and believed this call will be heard and heeded.
While Virginia on one side and South Carolina on the other, have presented to the world the glowing record of the patriotism, valor and virtues of their sons, North Carolina equally rich or richer in such reminiscences; and with traits of virtue, and honor, and sacrifices to patriotism, deserving of record, allows this record to be obscured by time, and to
“Waste its fragrance on the desert air.”
It has been truly said that no State of our Republic, has, from the earliest period of its existence, shown a more determined spirit of independence, and a more constant and firm resistance “to every form of oppression of the rights of man” than North Carolina. This is evinced on every page of her history, and exhibited on the battle field, and in the exploits of individual prowess. This patriotic spirit has been accompanied by noble traits of individual character; as integrity of purpose, a straightforwardness of intention, and by simplicity and modesty in demeanor.
It was on the shores of North Carolina that the English first landed on this continent. It has been the refuge of the down-trodden, the oppressed and persecuted of every nation, and here they found that freedom denied to them in the old world—with gentle manners and resolute hearts, their whole history exhibits a firm devotion to liberty, a keen perception of right and a ready and determined resistance to wrong. For this and this only, was life desirable to them, and for this they were willing to die.
The gallant patron, who first sent a colony to
our shores was the victim of tyranny and oppression. Her first Governor was sacrificed in defence of popular rights. Such seed could but produce goodly fruits. The character of this people was graphically described by one of the early Colonial Governors, as “being insolent and rebellious * * * impatient of all tyranny and ready to resist oppression in every form.”
An early historian has recorded our people, as being “gentle in their manners, advocates of freedom; jealous of their rulers, impatients, restless, and turbulent when ruled by any other government than their own; and under that and that only were they satisfied.”
It was in the natural course of events and “the inexorable logic of circumstances” that the sturdy men of the age were ever ready to defend the cause of right; and in defense of liberty to pour out their life blood, as at Alamance; on the Cape Fear, to beard the minions of power, and cause their oppressor to leave the State and seek refuge elsewhere, and that the men of Mecklenburgh in advance of every other State, should thunder to the world the eternal principles of Independence and Liberty.
The acts and characteristics of these illustrious men, and of their descendants, we wish to preserve.
We enter upon this “labor of love” with earnestness and pleasure. “Let it not be thought” says a learned writer, on a similar subject, “that we are working for ourselves alone, nor for those now living. Let us remember that thousands yet unborn will respect and bless the patient and pious hands, that have rescued from oblivion these precious memorials.”
The Memories of the last fifty years or more, cover an interesting period of our history.
We shall leave the history of the earlier events to some faithful historian, and be it our task to take up the biographies of the leading men who have done “the State some service” with reminiscences of their times and give the biography and genealogy of each, as far as attainable. Biography presents a more minute and accurate view of the lights and shadows of character, than general history. One is general, and the individual is a mere accessory; the other is minute, and directed to a single object. We often have a clearer idea of any event, when the motives and the character of the chief actors are minutely described. We have in the “Life of Washington,” by Marshal, the best history of the American Revolution. As to our genealogy, this is the first attempt to present the record of families in our State.
This untried path involved much research and labor. It is hoped it will be acceptable, and prove useful. We are far behind the age, on this subject. In England, Burke's great work (The Genealogical and Heraldric Dictionary of the British Empire) is a hand-book in every well appointed library.
In New England, “Whitmore's American Genealogy” is valuable; the Genealogical Society of Massachusetts is in full vigor, sustaining a Quarterly Magazine. Every locality and family in that section have preserved and published such materials; these are commemorated by annual domestic gatherings; thus strengthening the ties of affection and refreshing the memories of the past. In many cases genealogy is valuable in preserving property to the true owners of estates, and the ties of kindred that otherwise would be forever buried, and broken.
Some, with phlegmatic indifference may ridicule this attempt; exhibiting a supreme contempt for such vanity, as they call it; but surely no one with a discreet mind and a sound heart can be insensible to the laudable feeling of having descended from an honest and virtuous ancestry, and having industrious and intelligent connections of unsullied reputation. Such a thought instils a hatred of lazines and vice, and stimulates activity and virtue.
Such is a grateful oblation to departed worth. Not only is this a duty discharged to the dead,
but a moral benefit may result to the living. It acts as an incentive to others, while they admire his services and brilliant career, to emulate his patriotic example.
“Oh, who shall lightly say that FameIs nothing but an empty name,While in that name there is a charmThe nerves to brace, the heart to warm,When, thinking on the mighty dead,The youth shall rouse from slothful bed,And vow with aplified hand and heartLike him to act a noble part.”Let us all cherish the recollection of talents, services, and virtues, of departed worth, and such faults as are inseparable from our nature, be buried in the grave with the relics of fallen humanity.
Some pains have been taken with the table of contents and the preparation of the Index.
Mr. Stevens, in his “Catalogue of his English Library,” says, correctly: “If you are troubled with a pride of accuracy, and would have it completely taken out of you, attempt to make an Index or Catalogue.”
Dr. Allibone prints in his valuable Dictionary of Authors (I., 85), extracts from a number of the Monthly Review, which is well worthy of quotation here: “The compilation of an index is one of those labors for which the public are rarely so forward to express their gratitude, as they ought to be. The value of a thing is best known by the want of it. We have often experienced great inconvenience for want of a good index to many books. There is far more scope for the exercise of judgment and ability in compiling an index than commonly supposed. Mr. Oldys expresses a similar sentiment in his Notes and Queries (XI., 309): “The labour and patience; the judgment and penetration, required to make a good index, is only known to those who have gone through the most painful and least praised part of a publication.
Lord Campbell proposed in the English Parliament (Wheatley on “What is an Index?” p.27) that any author who published a book without an Index, should be deprived of the benefits of the copyright act.” Mr. Binney of Philadelphia held the same views and Carlyle denounces the putting forth of books without a good Index, with great severity.
The History of Tennessee, by Dr. Ramsay, full of research and philosophy, fails in this respect. A book with no index is like a ship on the ocean without compass, or rudder.
In the following pages doubtless many worthy characters may have escaped notice—for the field is “so large and full of goodly prospects.” Nor would we if we could, exhaust this fair field; but like Boaz, leave some rich sheaves for other and more skillful reapers in this bountiful harvest.
To you, my dear sir, who have so kindly and repeatedly encouraged these labors, I respectfully commend them and subscribe myself
Very sincerely yours,
JNO. H. WHEELER,
Publisher Emblem
Dedication.—Preface.—North Carolina in the Colonial Period.—Memoir of the Author.
CHAPTER I.—ALAMANCE COUNTY.
Regulation Troubles. Oppressions and frauds of the officers of the Crown; causes and consequences. Sketch of Judge Ruffin, compared to Thomas Jefferson. Colonel Thomas M. Holt.
CHAPTER II.—ANSON COUNTY.
Sympathy with the Regulators, as to unlawful taxation—1768; copy of the oath taken; resolutions that the Sheriffs and Magistrates should be elected by the people, Letter to Governor Martin. Character of James Cotten, a tory. Sketch of Judge Spencer; his singular death. Sketch of Judge Thomas S. Ashe, now one of the Judges of the Supreme Court.
CHAPTER III.—BEAUFORT COUNTY.
Character of the nobleman for whom it is named; commissioned the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. Freemasonry in North Carolina; it saves the life of an officer in battle. Jefferson's opinion of Washington. Sketch of the Blounts of Beaufort. Hon. C. C. Cambreling, long a Member of Congress from New York, a native of Beaufort. Sketch of J. J. Guthrie, drowned off Cape Hatteras. Hatteras described by Joseph W. Holden, and in the National Gazette of Philadelphia, in 1792. Sketch of Edward Stanley; a letter of Judge Badger, his relative, as to his course. Sketch of Richard S. Donnell; of Judge Rodman, who agrees with Hooker in his opinion of the law. James Cook, C. S N. Adventurous life of Charles F. Taylor, a native of this section; participates in the war in Nicaragua; its stirring events, facts never before published: the policy of Marcey an error; sad fate of Walker; tragic death of Herndon, with whom another North Carolinian (John V. Dobbin) was drowned. Central America described. The Minister of the United States is recieved. Revolution. Walker captures Virgin Bay, Grenada, and puts the Government to flight. Sketch of Walker and his adventurous life. Scenes at the Capital; the U. S. Minister in jeopardy. The General Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs executed by the invading forces. Letters between the General-in-Chief and the American Minister; the last letter of Walker.
CHAPTER IV.—BERTIE COUNTY.
Sketch of Whitmil Hill, a Member of the Provincial and Continental Congresses; of David Stone, Judge of Superior Courts, Governor of the State and U. S. Senator. Genealogy of the family. Sketches of George Outlaw; of Willie Blount, Governor of Tennessee; of David Outlaw; of P. H. Winston; of James W. Clark. Genealogy of the Clark family.
CHAPTER V.—BLADEN COUNTY.
Battle of Elizabethtown, 1791; Cross Creek. Character and services of James and Denny Porterfield. Sketch of John Owen, Governor of the State; of James J. McKay; of Thomas D. McDonald.
CHAPTER VI.—BRUNSWICK COUNTY
Early history and character of its people, opposed to oppression, drove the Royal Governor, [Martin] from the Country, July 10, 1775, seized the Stamp Master and destroyed the stamps sent to him from England; copy of the pledge given by the Stamp Master [William Houston]. Indignation of the people, and letter of Ashe, Lloyd and Lillington, offering to protect the Governor's person Sketch of General Robert Howe, his character as described by Governor Martin, who denounced him in a royal proclamation; appointed Colonel of the 2d Regiment of North Carolina troops in the Continental establishment; marches to Virginia and drives the Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, from that Province. Sketch of Cornelius Harnett, his life and services; his character described by Governor Burrington, the Royal Governor; denounced by Governor Martin for the destruction of Fort Johnston. General John A. Lillington's Revolutionary services. The Moore family of Brunswick, Maurice Moore, Roger Moore and Nathaniel Moore, the early settlers of the Cape Fear region. Sketch of Judge Maurice Moore; of General James Moore; of Judge Alfred Moore, his legal character described. Life and services of Benjamin Smith.
CHAPTER VII.—BUNCOMBE COUNTY.
Character and services of Colonel Edward Buncombe, after whom this County is named. Sketch of David L. Swain, his life, services and death; Sketches of Professors Mitchell and Phillips of the University of North Carolina; of Samuel F. Phillips. Sketch of Zebulon B. Vance; extracts from a work on the Vance family, printed at Cork, Ireland, showing the relationship of General Andrew Jackson to the Vances; letter to General Kilpatrick from Governor Z. B. Vance. Sketch of Robert B. Vance; of James L. Henry, late one of the Judges of the Superior Court; of Augustus S. Merrimon, late Judge and U. S. Senator; of Thomas L. Clingman, late U. S. Senator, his life and services; duel with William L. Yancey; of John L. Bailey, late Judge of the Superior Court; of Robert M. Furman; of Thomas D. Johnston.
CHAPTER VIII.—BURKE COUNTY.
Life, character and services of Waightstill Avery. Genealogy of the Averys. The McDowell family; its genealogy and services in the Revolution. The Carson family. Life and services of John Carson, the founder of the family. Sketches of Samuel P. Carson; of Israel Pickens; of David Newland; of Todd R. Caldwell; of James William Wilson.
CHAPTER IX.—CABARRUS, CALDWELL AND CAMDEN COUNTIES.
Life, character and services of Reverend John Robinson, D. D., and of Reverend Hezekiah J. Balch D.D.; copy of the tomb-stone of the latter. The Phifer family, and their genealogy. The Barringer
family, and their genealogy. Sketch of Nathaniel Alexander, a member of Congress and Governor of the State. Sketches of Dr. Charles Harris; Robert S. Young; of Daniel Coleman, of Cabarrus County; of Samuel F. Patterson; of James C. Harper; of Clinton A. Cilley and of George Nathaniel Folk of Caldwell County.
CHAPTER X.—CARTERET COUNTY.
First land sighted by the English, 1584; the lost Colony of Governor White. Indian wars with the Cores and Tuscaroras; John Lawson, the first historian, murdered by them. Fort Hyde. Battle at Beaufort. Sketch of the life and services of Captian Otway Burns.
CHAPTER XI.—CASWELL COUNTY.
Life, character and services of Richard Caswell, the first Governor of the State under the Constitution. Genealogy of the family. Sketches of Bartlett Yancey; of Romulus M. Saunders; of Robert and Marmaduke Williams; of Calvin Graves; of Bedford Brown; of Jacob Thompson, Secretary of Interior in 1857, and Member of Congress from Mississippi; all natives of Caswell County. John Kerr, his sufferings at the hands of political opponents, and his release. The mysterious murder of John W. Stevens; his character.
CHAPTER XII.—CHATHAM COUNTY.
The life and bloody career, in the Revolution, of David Fanning. Sketch of Charles Manly, Governor in 1848; of Abram Rencher; of John Manning.
CHAPTER XIII.—CHOWAN COUNTY.
Governor Eden, (for whom the County-town is named); sketch of him and his alleged intimacy with the noted pirate, Edward Teach commonly called “Black Beard”; the bloody deeds of this marauder; his wicked life and bloody end. The principles and character of the early inhabitants of Chowan. The proceedings of the Committee of Safety in 1775; the names of the members. The Vestry of St. Paul's Church, and the patriotic resolves of the ladies of Edenton. Life, services and character of Samuel Johnston; the opinion of the Royal Governor (Martin) of him, who removed him from the office of Deputy Naval Officer, and Mr. Johnston's reply to the Governor; member of the Provincial Congress in 1775, and of the Continental Congress in 1780; elected Governor in 1787; U. S. Senator in 1789; in 1800 Judge of the Superior Court. A devoted advocate of freemasonry. Genealogy of the Johnston family. The title of the Marquis of Annandale supposed to belong to them. Sketch of Joseph Hewes, signer of the Declaration of Independence; of Hugh Williamson, a member of the Colonial and Continental Congresses; and of the U. S.; author of a history of North Carolina; of Stephen Cabarrus, long Speaker of the House of Commons; of Charles Johnson; of Thomas Benbury. Of James Iredell, appointed Judge of Supreme Court of the U. S. by General Washington; of his son, James Iredell Jr., Speaker of the House in 1817; Judge of the Superior Court 1819; Governor of the State 1821; U. S. Senator in 1827, succeeding Mr. Macon. In the war of 1812, was Captain, with Gavin Hogg as one of his Lieutenants. Sketch of Gavin Hogg. Life and services of Agustus Moore, one of the Judges of the Superior Court; sketch of his son, William A. Moore; of Governor William Allen, of Ohio, member of Congress in 1833; Senator in 1837-49, and Governor of Ohio in 1874, a native of Edenton. An amusing incident connected with the names of General Scott, Dr. Warren, Major Gilliam and others.
CHAPTER XIV.—CRAVEN COUNTY.
Its early history; the Palatines; De Graaffenreidt; Governor Dobbs; Tryon's palace; his clock, John Hawks, architect. “The cause of Boston, the cause of all!” Committee of Safety in 1775 of Chowan County. Names of its members. Sketch of Francois Xavier Martin, a historian of the State; of the Blount family; of Abner Nash, his character as given by Governor Martin; a member of Congress, 1776; first Speaker of the Assembly; Governor in 1779; member of Congress 1781. Life, service and death of Richard Dobbs Spaight. Duels that have been fought in North Carolina. Sketch of John Stanley; of William Gaston; of John R. Donnel; of John Sitgreaves; of John N. Bryan; of Edward Graham; of Francis L. Hawks; of George E Badger; of Matthias E. Manley; of Charles R. Thomas; of Judge Sey mour; of William J. Clarke, and his talented wife, Mary Bayard Clarke, and his son William E. Clarke.
CHAPTER XV.—CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
The Scotch heroine, Flora MacDonald, once lived in this County. Sketch of her life and character; of Farquard Campbell, Governor Martin's opinion of him; of William Barry Grove; of John Louis Taylor, late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Judicial System of the State as it existed from 1798 to 1804. Sketch of Henry Potter, Judge U. S. District Court; of John D. Toomer; of Louis D. Henery; of Robert Strange; of James C. Dobbin; of Warren Winslow; of Duncan K. MacRae; of Mrs. Miller; of Henry W. Hilliard of Georgia, a native of Cumberland; of W. C. Troy.
CHAPTER XVI.—CURRITUCK COUNTY.
Sketch of Henry M. Shaw; of Emerson Etheridge, of Tenn., native of Currituck; of Thomas J. Jarvis, Governor of North Carolina, 1882.
CHAPTER XVII.—DAVIDSON, DUPLIN, DAVIE, and EDGECOMBE COUNTIES.
Sketch of James M. Leach of Davidson; of James Gillaspie; of Thomas and O. Kenan; of Charles Hooks of Duplin Co. Sketch of Henry Irwin, a Revolutionary hero; of Jonas Johnston; of John Haywood; genealogy of the Haywood family. Sketch of Henry T. Clark, Governor of North Carolina. The Battle Family, and their genealogy, including Judge Wm. H. Battle, and his son, Kemp P. Battle. Sketch of Duncan L. Clark, of U. S. Army; of Wm. D. Pender; of R. R. Bridgers; of Charles Price of Davie; of John B. Hussey of Davie.
CHAPTER XVIII.—FORSYTHE COUNTY.
Sketch of Col, Benj. Forsythe; of Joseph Winston; of Israel G. Lash. The History of the Moravians.
CHAPTER XIX.—FRANKLIN COUNTY.
Lynch Law, origin of the term. Services and Sufferings of General Thomas Person; Sketch of Hon. J. J. Davis.
CHAPTER XX.—GASTON, GATES, AND GRANVILLE COUNTIES.
Sketch of Rev. Humphrey Hunter; Major Wm. Chronicle; of Rev. R. H. Morrison of Gaston County; of William Paul Roberts, of Gates; of John Penn of Granville, one of the Signers of the Declaration of
| (11) | The last name in Chatham County should be Moreing. |
| (12) | Chapter XVII, read Duncan L. Clinch, not Clark. |
| (13) | Chapter XXII, place a semicolon after the name “William Polk.” |
(THE FOLLOWING ARE TO TAKE THE PLACE OF THE CHAPTERS MENTIONED.)
CHAPTERS XXXIII AND XXXIV.—HERTFORD AND HYDE COUNTIES.
The Murfree Family. Sketch of General Thomas Wynns; of the Cotten Family; of Rev. Matthias Brickle; of Dr. Goodwin C. Moore; of John Brown; Sketch of Kenneth Rayner; of William N. H. Smith; Tristram Capehart; of Cullen Capehart and of Dr. Wm. Anthony Armistead; of David A. Barnes; of Jesse J. Yeates; of Richard J. Gatling; Gen. Lafayette's visit to North Carolina; The Chowan Female Institute; Insurrection of Slaves; Sketch of David Miller Carter of Hyde County. The Wheeler Family referred to.
CHAPTERS XXXV & XXXVI.—IREDELL, JOHNSTON, JONES AND LENOIR COUNTIES.
Sketch of Hugh Lawson White; of Wm. Sharpe; of Dr. Charles Caldwell; of David F. Caldwell; of Hon. Joseph P. Caldwell; of Hon. Robert F. Armfield; of Hon. David M. Furches of Iredell. Revolutionary proceedings in Johnston County, in 1768. Sketch of Wm. A. Smith; of Hon. Nathan Bryan of Jones County; of Hardy B. Croom and of Hon. Wm. D. Mosely of Lenoir County.
CHAPTER XXXVII.—LINCOLN COUNTY.
Sketch of Gen. Joseph Graham.—Genealogy of the Grahams. Sketch of Gov. W. A. Graham. Genealogy of the Brevards. The Huguenots. Sketch of Gen. William Davidson; of Dr. Ephraim Brevard, author of the Declaration of May 20, 1775. The Forney Family; of Michael Hoke and his son Robert F. (Major Genl. C. S. A.); of John F. Hoke; of James Houston; of Dr. Wm. McLean; of Dr. C. L. Hunter; of Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur; of Gen. James P. Henderson; of Bartlett Shipp; Robert H. Burton; Hon. David Shenck.
Chapter XXXVIII and XXXIX., read McDowell, not McDonald.
Chapter XLI., write “Henry K. Burgwynn” at end of this paragraph.
Independence; of James and John Williams; of Robert Burton. The Henderson Family—their genealogy. Sketch of Robert B. Gilliam; of A. W. Venable; of M. Hunt, of Robert Potter.
CHAPTER XXI.—GREENE AND GUILFORD COUNTIES.
Sketch of Gen. Jesse Speight; of Joseph Dixon. Battle of Guilford Court House, March 15, 1781, between General Greene and Lord Cornwallis. Sketch of Cornwallis; of Col. Tarleton; of Col. Wilson Webster. Cornwallis's letter to his father as to the fall of Webster.
Sketch of Dr. David Caldwell; of Alexander Martin; of Newton Cannon, Governor of Tennessee, a native of Guilford; of Governor Moorehead; of George C. Mendenhall; of Judge John M. Dick, and his son, Judge Robt. P. Dick; of John A. Gilmer; of John H. Dilliard; of Rev. Calvin H. Wiley; of James J. Scales; of John H. Staples.
CHAPTER XXII.—HALIFAX COUNTY.
The Jones Family- its genealogy; John Paul Jones adopts this name. Sketch of Wm. R. Davie, a General of the Revolution; of Hutchins G. Burton; of Andrew Joyner; of John W. Eppes; of William Polk of the Cromwell Family; of John B. Ashe; of Willis Alston; of John Haywood; of John H. Eaton; of J. J. Daniel; of John R. J. Daniel; of Junius Daniel; of John Branch; of Lawrence O'B. Branch; of James Grant; of B. F. Moore.
CHAPTERS XXXIII AND XXXIV.—HERTFORD AND HYDE COUNTIES.
The Murfree Family. Sketch of General Thos. Wynns; of the Wheeler Family; of Rev. Matthias Brickle; of Kenneth Rayner; of Godwin C. Moore; of Solon Borland; of Wm. H. H. Smith; of Jesse J. Yeates; of Richard J. Gatlin. The Chowan Female Institute. Sketch of David Miller Carter; of Hugh Lawton White of Tenn.; of the Osborne Family—Adlai Osborne, Spruce McCoy Osborne, Edward Jay Osborne, and Judge James W. Osborne; of David F. Caldwell; of Joseph P. Caldwell; of Professor Caldwell; of D. M. Furches; of Robert F. Armfield.
CHAPTER XXXV AND XXXVI.—IREDELL, JOHNSTON, JONES AND LENOIR COUNTIES.
Revolutionary proceedings in Johnston County, 1768. Sketch of Wm. A. Smith; of Nathan Bryan of Jones County; of Hardy B. Croom; of Wm. D. Mosely.
CHAPTER XXXVII.—LINCOLN COUNTY.
Sketch of Gen. Joseph Graham; Family Genealogy of the Brevards. Huguenots; of General William Davidson; of the Forneys; of Michael, Robert F. and John T. Hoke; of James Graham; of Dr. Wm. McLean; of Dr. C. L. Hunter; of Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur; or Gen. Jas. P. Henderson; of Judge David W. Schenck; of Robert H. Burton.
CHAPTER XXXVIII AND XXXIX.—MACON AND MARTIN.
Sketch of James Lowrie Robinson (Speaker); of Silas McDonald of Macon; of Asa Biggs; of Jos. J. Martin.
CHAPTER XL.—MECKLENBURG COUNTY.
The Polk Family,—its genealogy; The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence; it is denounced by the Royal Governor, Josiah Martin. Sketches of the Members of the Convention; of Abram Alexander; of Hezekiah James Balch; of John Davidson—with genealogy; of Wm Graham; of Robert Irwin; of Wm. Kennon; of David Reese; of Adam Craighead; of Gen. Thomas Polk,—letter of Gen Greene to General Polk. “Devil Charley.” Sketch of Bishop Polk of Andrew Jackson. Bishops furnished by North Carolina to other States. Susan Spratt nee Barnett, a Revolutionary relic. Sketch of Mrs. Susan Hancock; of Judge Sam. Lowrie; of Joseph Wilson; of Wm. J. Alexander; of Greene W. Caldwell; of D. H. Hill; The Osborne family, and a graphic sketch of Judge James W. Osborne, from the pen of D. H. Hill; Judge R. P. Warring.
CHAPTER XLI.—MOORE AND NEW HANOVER COUNTIES.
Sketch of A. McNeil; of Archibald McBryde; of Governor Benjamin Williams; of Dr. George Glasscock, of Moore County. The Ashe Family,—its genealogy. John Baptista Ashe's controversy with the Royal Governor, and is imprisoned by him. Letter of Burrington, showing his own character and purety. Battle of Briar Creek. Sketch of the Hill family; of Wm. Hooper; of Timothy Bloodworth; of Edward Jones; of Johnson Blakely; of James Ennes; of the Davis family; of the Waddell family; of Owen Holmes; of John Cowan; of Gov. Dudley; of Bishop Atkinson; of Rev. Adam Empie; of Bishop Green; of Wm. B. Meares; of Wm. H. Marsteller; of General Abbot.
CHAPTER XLII.—NORTHAMPTON AND ORANGE COUNTIES.
Sketch of General Allan Jones; of General Matt. W. Ransom; of Edmund Fanning; of Governor Burke, seized by Tories and carried to Wilmington. The Mebanes. Sketch of General Francis Nash; of Judge Frederick Nash; of Judge Murphy; of Judge Norwood; of Dr. Wm. Montgomery; of Willie P. Mangum; of Thomas H. Benton; of Gen. Geo. B. Anderson; Memoirs of Chapel Hill; Sketch of Dr. Charles F. Deems; Hon. Paul C. Cameron; Prof. Hubbard; of Wm. Bingham; of John W. Graham.
CHAPTER XLIII.—PASQUOTANK, PERQUIMANS AND PERSON COUNTIES.
Sketch of John L. Bailey; of Wm B. Shepard; of George W. Brooks; of Gen. James G. Martin; of John Pool; of Pasquotank; of John Harvey; of J. W. Albertson; of William H. Bagley, of Perquimans; of Hustavus A. Williamson; of General Henry Atkinson, U. S. Army; of Richard Atkinson; of Judge E. G. Reade; of John W. Cunningham, of Person County.
CHAPTER XLIV—PITT AND RANDOLPH COUNTIES.
Sketch of Dr. Robert Williams; of General Bryan Grimes, of Pitt; of Jonathen Worth, of Pitt; Colonel Andrew Balfour, his gallant services and tragic end; Herman Husbands, a leader of the Regulators; Hon. John Long, Member of U. S. Congress.
CHAPTER XLV—RICHMOND AND ROCKINGHAM COUNTIES.
Sketch of A. Dockery; of A. H. Dockery; of Governor; Joseph R. Hawley; of Walter Leake Steele, of Richmond; of Thomas Settle Sen.—genealogy of the Settles,—of his son Thomas, now Judge in Florida; of David Settle Reid; of John H. Dilliard; of Hamilton Henderson Chalmers, a Judge of the Supreme Supreme Court of Mississippi.
CHAPTER XLVI.—ROWAN COUNTY.
Documents never before published as to early times in Rowan. Population in 1754; first settlers—their names; Committee of Safety, 1774-76. Sketch of Hugh Montgomery—his decendants. Heroic conduct of Mrs Steele. Sketch of General John Steele; of John V. Steele, Governor of New Hampshire; of Wm. Kennon; of Griffith Rutherford—his gallant services in the Indian and Revolutionary Wars. Sketch of the Locke family; of Spruce McCoy; of James Martin; of George Mumford; of the Pearsons; of Judge John Stokes; of Charles Fisher, and his son, Colonel Charles F. Fisher, killed at Manasses, Va., and his daughter, Miss C. Fisher, distinguished as an authoress; of Governor John W. Ellis; of Nath. Boyden; of Burton Craige; of Hamilton C. Jones; of of Francis E. Shober; of John L. Henderson.
CHAPTER XLVII.—RUTHERFORD, SAMPSON, STOKES AND SURRY COUNTIES.
Sketch of Judge John Paxton; of Felix Walker, author of the world-wide expression “talking for buncombe;” of Colonel Wm. Graham; of Gen. John G. Bynum, and his brother, Judge Wm. P. Bynum; of Judge John Baxter, of Rutherford; of Gov. Holmes; of Gen. Theo. H. Holmes; of Wm. R. King, Vice President of U.S.; of Col. Benj. Forsythe of Stokes County; of James Martin, his Military services in the Revolution, as deposed to, by himself; of John Martin, of Stokes; of Benjamin Cleaveland, of Surry; Names of the Committee of Safety, of Surry County; Sketch of William Lenoir; of the Williams family; of Jesse Franklin; of Meshach Franklin; of Judge Jesse Franklin Graves.
CHAPTER XLVIII.—TYRRELL AND WAKE COUNTIES.
Edward Buncombe, his Military services and heroic death. The Pettigrews, James and his son Ebenezer, and his gallant grandson J. Johnston Pettigrew; Sketch of Dr. Edward Ransom; of Joseph Gales, first Editor of the Raleigh Register; The Press of North Carolina. Sketch of Joseph Gales of Washington, D. C.; of Weston R. Gales, of Raleigh; of Seaton Gales; of Judge Sewall; of Judge Duncan Cameron; of Edmund B. Freeman; of Dr. Richard H. Lewis. Sketch of William Hill, Sec. of State; of Dr. William G. Hill; of Theophilus Hill; of Mrs. Zimmerman, Poetess; of Andrew Johnson, President of United States; of General Joseph Lane, and of the Lane family; of Governor W. W. Holden; of Bishop Ravenscroft; of Bishop Ives; of Rev. Dr. Richard S. Macon; of Bishop Beckwith; of Octavius Coke; of Randolph A. Shotwell; of Donald W. Bain.
CHAPTER XLIX.—WARREN COUNTY.
Military services of General Jethro Sumner in the Revolution. The Hawkins family, with its genealogy; Sketch of Dr. James G. Brehon; of Nathaniel Macon; of Gov. James Turner; of Daniel Turner; of Wharton J. Green; of Kemp Plummer; of Judge Hall; of Judge Edward Hall; of Judge Blake Baker; of Gov. William Miller; of Weldon N. Edwards; of the Bragg family; State Capitol burned, June, 1831.
CHAPTER XLIX.—WATAUGA, WAYNE, AND WILSON COUNTIES.
Sketch of Daniel Boone; of John Sevier. The State of Frankland, and its rise, progress, and fall. Sketch of Ezekiel Slocumb; of Col. Thomas Ruffin; of Gov. C. H. Brogden; of Gov. Montford Stokes, and his descendants; of Henry G. Williams, of Wilson; Isaac F. Dortch; of Richard W. Singletary.
vignette
COLONEL JOHN HILL WHEELER,
Of Hertford County, North Carolina.
BORN AUGUST 2, 1806, DIED DECEMBER 7, 1882,
BY HON. JOSEPH S. FOWLER, EX-SENATOR FROM TENNESSER.
“Exegi monumentum are perennius, Regalique situ pyramidum altius; Quod non imber edax. non Aquilo impotens Poxxit dirucre, aut innumerabilis Annorum series, et fuga temporum.”
—HOR. UAR., XXX.
FROM Moore's “Historical Sketches of Hertford County,” we learn the following:
Among the early citizens of the village of Murfreesboro, in this county, was John Wheeler. He was of an ancient family, long seated around New York. In the latter end of the 17th century, under a grant of land from Charles II., Joseph Wheeler emigrated from England, and settled in Newark, New Jersey. Like William Penn, he was the son of a gallant naval officer. Sir Francis Wheeler, an English admiral, was his father, and the grant of land from the Crown was in reward for faithful services. He and his young wife had followed soon after the conquest of the New Netherlands by the Duke of York, son of Charles I., afterwards James II.
To them was born, in 1718, their son Ephraim Wheeler, to whom, and his wife Mary, the first American John Wheeler was born in the year 1744. John had bestowed upon him the best advantages of education—he was educated as a physician. When the Revolutionary war came on, he entered the army under General Moutgomery, and accompanied him in the perilous and ill-fated campaign to Quebee, and was in the battle (December 31, 1775,) in which that gallant officer fell. In Toner's “Reminiscences of the Medical Men of the Revolution” he is prominently mentioned. Aaron Burr served also in this campaign. Dr. Wheeler accompanied General Greene in his southern campaign, and was with him in the hard fought and glorious victory at Eutaw Springs, September 8, 1781, and until the close of the war. Pleased with the genial elimate of the South, he settled near Murfreesboro and brought his family with him. His wife Elizabeth Longworth, was the neice of Aaron Ogden, afterwards the Governor of New Jersey, and Senator in Congress. He lived near Murfreesboro for years, in the practice of his profession, in which he had great skill and much success.
His death occurred on October 14, 1814, and he lies buried in Northampton County, near
Murfreesboro. He left several works in manucript on medical science, which evinced the depth of his acquaintance and his devotion to his profession. His son John was born in 1771. In his early youth he was engaged with his cousin, David Longworth, in business as publishers and booksellers in New York. Here he attracted, by his attention to business, the notice of Zedekiah Stone, who was then in New York, and by whom he was induced to remove to Bertie County, North Carolina. He was there married to Elizabeth Jordan, January 6th, 1796, and after the death of his friend, Mr. Stone, Murfreesboro became his home. At this place he was engaged in mercantile and shipping affairs until the day of his death. From his enterprise, industry, sagacity, and integrity he attained great success, and his memory to this day, is cherished in that section as “the honest merchant.” He was a man of unspotted integrity, so strong that venality and indirection cowered before him. After a long life of industry, usefulness and piety (for he was a consistent member of the Baptist Church for more than forty years) he died, lamented and beloved, August 7th, 1832. His family surviving him, consisted of two sons by his first marriage, John H. Wheeler, late Public Treasurer of the State, and Dr. S. Jordan Wheeler, late of Bertie County. By a second wife (Miss Woods) he left one daughter, Julia, the peerless wife of Dr. Godwin C. Moore; and by a third wife, among others, Colonel Junius B. Wheeler, now Professor of Civil and Military Engineering and the Art of War in the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is the author of several military works on civil and military engineering, and on the art of war, which have been adopted as text books by the War Department. He has thus written his name in the useful literature of the nation and discharged “that debt,” which Lord Coke says, “every man owes to his profession.”
Professor Wheeler was born in 1830; educated in part at the University of North Carolina, and when only a boy volunteered as a private in Captain William J. Clarke's company in the Mexican war. He was in every battle from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico. At the fiercely contested affair at the Nacional Puente, one of the lieutenants was killed, and young as he was, he was appointed by the President as the successor, on the report of his commanding officer, now on file, that “he had seen young Wheeler under heavy fire, and he had proved to the command that he was made of the stuff of which heroes are made.” On his return from Mexico he could have remained as an officer in the army, but he declined on the ground of want of qualification, he therefore resigned his commission. The President determined to retain him in the service, and he appointed him a cadet at West Point, where he graduated among the first of his class. After serving for several years in the Corps of Engineers in Louisiana, Wisconsin and elsewhere, he was appointed to succeed the late Professor Mahan in the position he now occupies.
Dr. Samuel Jordan Wheeler, brother of the above, was born in 1810; was educated at the Hertford Academy, and graduated from Union College, Schenectady; he studied medicine with Dr. Nathan Chapman in Philadelphia, and practiced for years with success. He has been an earnest co-laborer in the cause of education and religion, as the Chowan Institute and the Church at Murfreesboro bear witness; he was professor in a college in Mississippi. He recently died in Bertie County, loved and respected for his purity of character. He married Lucinda, daughter of Lewis Bond.
JOHN HILL WHEELER.The conspienous services rendered the State of North Carolina, and her eminent citizens, by this accomplished man, will forever preserve
his memory from oblivion. Born in the dawn of the present century, he has been the witness of the most remarkable events in the history of the republic. In the county of Hertford he first saw the light, August 6, 1806.
He was prepared for college at Hertford Academy by Dr. John Otis Freeman, an eminent divine. He was then placed at the Columbian University, Washington, D. C., and graduated in the class of 1826. In the year 1828 he took his degree of Master of Arts in the University of North Carolina. He studied his profession, the law, under the direction of Chief Justice Taylor, of North Carolina. He was elected to the Legislature before he was admitted to the bar, in the year 1827. Then State Legislatures were honored bodies, and secured some of the best talent in the States.
This Legislature contained many eminent and able men, among them were Judges Gaston, Nash and Bailey, George E. Spriuell, John M. Morehead, James Iredell, and many more. To win position in such a body was the promise of a fruitful manhood, in a youth just twenty-one years of age. For an earnest and aspiring mind, it proved a valuable school. Success was not to be hoped for without severe study and thorough preparation. To subside into reverential indifference was not the characteristic of his mind. Independent in his feelings, whilst respecting the ability of his colleagues, he claimed equal rights in the body. Conscientious in the execution of the creat trust committed to him by a generous and proud constituency, he could not see their dignity overshadowed. He summoned all his powers to the work, and won for himself a conspicuous and honorable position. So well did he perform the task assigned him, that his approving constituents returned him to the body. In his twenty-fifth year, they nominated him for Congress, but after a severely contested and gallant canvass, he was defeated by the Hon. William B. Shepard.
In the year 1831, he was appointed Secretary to the Board of Commissioners, under the treaty with France, to adjudicate the claims of American citizens for spoilations under the Berlin and Milan decrees.
In 1836, he was placed by General Jackson in the position of Superintendent of the Branch Mint at Charlotte, but in 1841 shared the political fortune of his friends and party.
In 1812, he was elected by the Legislature to be Treasurer of the State, in opposition to Major Charles L. Hinton. After his term had expired, he retired to his rural home on the banks of the Catawba, and, aided by the suggestion of his friend, Governor Swain, he began the patriotic labor of writing “Wheeler's History of North Carolina,” on which he was employed for about ten years. How well this duty was performed, will appear from an extract of a letter of General Swain, written not long before his death, now in our possession, in which he says:
“I have been much urged to write a completion of Hawks’ History of North Carolina. The only response I have ever made is that I am too old, and too poor to venture on such an undertaking. Were it otherwise, in my opinion another edition of Wheeler's History would be more useful and acceptable than any work I could write.”
In this work, Colonel Wheeler sought to collect the interesting facts that illustrated the history of the State and give them an enduring place. He proposed to preserve, for all time, a faithful record of the illustrious deeds of a noble and patriotic people, who have characterized their presence in the new world by an intense love of liberty and the most striking individuality. They were, from their presence in the wilderness, a self governing community.
No authority was sacred that did not eminate from themselves. Loyal to the will of the people, they resented indignantly the imposition
of any external authority. They rejected the magnificent plan of government provided by the Earl of Shaftesbury, though he summoned the brilliant talents of the illustrious philosopher, John Locke, for its preparation.
They adopted a plan drawn from their own experience and their wants, under the circumstances, which surrounded them. They were the first to repel the aggressions of the British parliament and crown. They well knew the rights of freeborn Englishmen and the principles of their constitution, and were determined that no invasion of them should be tolerated.
Colonel Wheeler gave his work to the public in the year 1851. It was a complete success, and is highly esteemed as a faithful record of a most interesting and remarkable people.
In the year 1844, he was warmly urged upon by his party as a candidate for governor, but did not receive the nomination.
In the year 1852, he was elected to the State Legislature, which was fiercely agitated by the contest for a United States Senator.
The Democratic caucus put forth their favorite man, the Honorable James C. Dobbin, than whom a purer, or nobler man never lived. Notwithstanding his great popularity with his party, and his admitted ability, the friends of the Honorable Romulus M. Saunders refused to support the caucus nominee, and voted for Honorable Burton Craige. The obstinate contest thus made deprived the state of its representation in the Senate for two years. In this contest Colonel Wheeler stood by his party and his warm personal friend, Mr. Dobbin, and did all in his power to secure his election.
In the year 1853, Colonel Wheeler was appointed, by President Pierce, Minister to Nicaragua, Central America. During his residence there the country was torn by opposing political factions, that sought their ends by the sword. During the revolution General William Walker made his appearance with a company of determined men, to join the liberals, and the position held by Colonel Wheeler became one of much peril and responsibility. It soon became manifest that neither party could be relied on for any permanent and salutary government. The following of Walker, though small, was brave, determined and intelligent; their leader very soon resolved, if he had not from the beginning, to give the country an Anglo-American government. He thus expected to make Central America the seat of a new and progressive civilization, which would convert its fertile soil and generous climate into the uses of the commercial world. For the interesting incidents of this daring and romantic adventure, the reader is referred to the sketches of the incidents and characters connected with the revolution. A thrilling episode of his sojourn in that distracted country, so characteristic of the man himself, is given at pages 22 to 30 of the following Reminiscences.
As soon as General Walker had established his authority, and his was the de facto government, the American minister promptly acknowledged it. This act was not approved by the Secretary of State, the Honorable William L. Marey, and he requested his recall. As Colonel Wheeler had a warm friend in the President, and as his earnest and long tried friend, the Hon. James C. Dobbin, was Secretary of the Navy, he was in no danger of being recalled without a hearing. His reply to Mr. Marey's strictures was triumphant, and the President refused to recall him.
Colonel Wheeler not only sympathized with the object of this movement, but admired the character of General Walker. He was a quiet, unassuming gentleman, educated under the best instructors of the United States and Europe. In person, he was below the average American, by no means imposing in his presence. A ready, eloquent, and graceful writer, he would have been one of the first journalists of his age. The blood of the Norsemen coursed
through his veins, and he was alive with an enthusiasm of the old Vikings for adventure. He neither estimated the dangers of the enemy, or the climate; his courage was of the purest steel. An ardent Anglo-American, he had only contempt for the Spaniards and those mongrel races, who occupied with indolence and semi-barbarism one of the finest and most productive regions on the continent. He conceived the purpose of planting there another race of men who would open the land to a refinement and civilization that would make it the pathway of nations to the eastern world. Colonel Wheeler readily saw in the advent of this cultivated and revolutionary mind, and his brave and daring followers, the promise of hope for the country so long cursed with degeneracy and mindless inaction. He became the invited guest and welcome friend of the United States minister, who knew the men and the situation far better than General Walker, Had he listened more earnestly to the wise counsel and cautious prudence of Colonel Wheeler, he would, in all probability, have realized the bright dreams of his ardent fancy. He had many of the qualities of a successful leader—sincerity, courage, self-denial and intellectual superiority. He was not a statesman, and failed in making provisions essential to the maintainance of armies. Taking no account of the strength of the foe, or the fatality of the climate, he wasted his forces without the possibility of a supply.
The United States minister, with far keener apprehension, saw the dangers that threatened and advised the means to insure the success of the promising enterprise. To him it was the introduction of a new civilization by a race whose destiny was to found new nations. His whole heart was with the movement, and his conduct was only limited by his duty to preserve the faith and honor of the republic which he represented. To a courage not less prompt than General Walker's, he added a sound judgment, a cautious foresight, a steady purpose, and a captivating manner. He knew how to husband his resources for the hour of trial. General Walker moved often under the influence of a whimsical impulse, careless of the demands of an insatiable to-morrow. He sought the enemy at too great a sacrifice of men who could not be restored; he took but little account of the profound causes which preserve and destroy armies. His high qualities and noble ambition will cause feelings of regret for his unhappy end, and the failure of his ambitious and magnificent purpose. Not the love of gain, nor the vulgar display, led this refined student to the unequal contest. It was the pride of his noble race and its capacity to rejoice a country blessed by nature with every bounty, and cursed only by an indolent, vicious, and monotonous race. Too soon for the demands of mankind, a more opportune period will, in time, complete the work in which he bravely fell, and vindicate his generous design.
To the honor of Colonel Wheeler be it recorded that he used his influence to promote a revolution so fraught with unnumbered blessings to civilized man. Nor did he compromise the great republic, that had confided her good faith to his care, though he cou'd not look with composure upon the contest, of an enlightened civilization with a stupid indifference to the demands of an intelligent and progressive age. That one entire continent, and a large portion of another, should be consigned to stolid repose without an heroic effort to unfold their almost boundless possibilities, was to him neither statesmanship nor humanity. He knew it was the destiny of his race to eradicate barbarism, and teach the inhabitants of the wilderness the arts of production, commerce, moral responsibility, social refinement, and intelligent freedom. Before its all-conquering enterprise nature had put off its savage habits for new creations of beauty and
utility. Profoundly versed in its history, he was moved with admiration for its all-creative energy. He did not doubt that its presence would endow, with a new life, that entire isthmus, which could not fail, in a few years, to meet the advance of the United States into Mexico. With prophetic vision he beheld its gloomy forests giving place to the peaceful abodes of cultivated men. Deprecating the erratic impulses of the young leader of this promising mission, he nevertheless hailed it as the harbinger of a glorious future for Central America and the commercial world. Not even the demands of a coldly selfish diplomacy could repress his generous approval, and he gare the benign presence of a creative enterprise his counsel, his sympathy, and his substantial support.
In the year 1857, Colonel Wheeler resigned his mission, and returned to his abode in Washington City. So long as he lived he claimed his legal residence to be in North Carolina. On his door plate was that name coupled with his own, and over the breast of his encoffined form was engraved that name so dear to him. In all his thoughts, and in all his journeyings, his heart yearned towards North Carolina, and within her borders he would have preferred interment. The amiable and charming English poet, Waller, in his old age, purchased a small property at his birthplace, saying he would like to die, like the stage, where he was roused. This poetic idea has immortality in the lines of Goldsmith:
“As the poor stag, whom hound and horns pursue,
Pants for the place where at first he flew,
I still had hoped my vexations past,
Here to return and die at home at last.”
By this time the long agony over the slavery question was culminating. Our republic was rapidly drifting towards a fierce and destructive war. Colonel Wheeler had ever been identified with the Democratic party, and had followed its faith and practices with earnestness through all its meanderings. The change from Pierce to Buchanan brought no change in the purposes or disposition of the party. Under the former, the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, had dissolved the Whig party and introduced the Republican party into the field of action. The conflict between individuals had passed away with the magnificent personages that characterized that period. Principles laying at the foundation of free institutions, and deeply imbedded in the conscience, came into the field. The Republican party planted itself upon the doctrine of freedom for the territories. The Democratic party proclaimed the inviolability of slavery in the States and Territories. The former was a new and revolutionary force, the latter stood firmly by the ancient constitutional rights of slavery. The former was organized to break up and displace it, the latter resisted displacement. Trained in the school of Jackson, Colonel Wheeler's judgment was against war, and adhered to the Union; but this school had disappeared and a new Democracy had arisen, and guided by his sympathies he followed his party, drifting rapidly upon dangerous reefs and quicksands. One of his sons, C. Sully Wheeler, was in the Federal Navy; the other, Woodbury Wheeler, had joined the Confederate Army. Each remained faithful to the cause he had espoused, to the end. To those laboring under the weight of half a century that had seen the republic in the glory of its united power, it seemed now in the agony of inevitable death. The expiring hours of Democratic rule was spent shuddering before the fearful responsibility of the solemu oath “to support and defend the Constitution.” The incoming administration, though sustained by an unconquerable enthusiasm in its ranks, was slow to announce any policy. Many unionists in the south, believing all to be lost, hastened into the
ranks of the disunionists. All the companions of Colonel Wheeler's life, all that was dear to him from childhood were enveloped in the fortunes of the Confederacy. His long and strong political bias and the intensity of his friendship drew his sympathy and his hopes with them, and he came back to North Carolina to be with her in the struggle. Too far advanced in life to become an actor in the contest, in 1863, pursuant to a resolution of the General Assembly of the State, he went to Europe to collect material for a new edition of his history. Anxious to gather all that related to the subject which could render it a more perfect chronicle of his beloved people, he sought the treasures of the British Archives and buried himself in that wonderful collection, far from the desolating and sanguinary events of the war. He collected much valuable and interesting matter, which he incorporated in the new edition of his history which he left ready for the press.
Colonel Wheeler was a sincere believer in the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, of May 20th, 1775. His studies in the Archives left no doubt upon this interesting problem in his mind. The meeting and resolution of the same body of men of May 31st, 1775, are undisputed. They did not go to the point of declaring a separation from the British government, but they went far beyond the expressions of any other colony. The reader of Wheeler's History will mark with what delight he records the resistance of these forest-born republicans to the aggressions of the royal government. The gallant struggles and heroic sacrifices of his revolutionary ancestors are set forth with care and eloquence.
He was thoroughly versed in the opinions of democratic statesmen, and sincerely devoted to the Jefferson school. He maintained the sovereignty of the states in all local matters, whilst he held to the inviolability of the Federal authority in national affairs. Each was sacred in the realms assigned them by the Constitution. It is difficult to preserve the complicated adjustment of the relations of the states to the general government. In the South, he saw a strong tendency to magnify the powers of the states. In the North, the Federal authority was rapidly assuming new and alarming importance. The effect of the war was to give far greater importance to the nation, and to silence everywhere the principle of state sovereignty. Colonel Wheeler regarded the influence of the central power as dangerous to individual liberty, and constantly tending to imperialism. He beheld with regret the citizen disappearing in the grandeur and power of the nation. Reared among men proud of their honor and influence, he dreaded the decline of personal excellence. Its loss was the grave of liberty, and birth of imperial power.
The integrity of the state and nation depended upon the sanctity of the ballot, and this upon the responsibility and intelligence of the individual citizen. The presence of powerful monied corporations, and a grand central government, would destroy in time its responsibility. The voter, being entirely overshadowed, would soon begin to look as lightly upon his personal worth, as he did upon his influence in the republic. He relied chiefly on character to preserve the republic through the ballot. Neither education not wealth could be trusted with the liberties of the people, in the absence of inflexible purpose, and the habit of self government. The only safeguard for the encroachments of power was in the disposition and capacity of the citizen to resist them at the threshold. When the public ceases to be a severe censor of the conduct of officials, the end of our delicately adjusted republic will not be remote. His apprehensions of a gradual change, and a complete undermining of the nature of our institutions, was the result of close observation
for more than half a century, of the most eventful period of the history of the government, actuated by an intense solicitude for the safety of the republic of the fathers.
Colonel Wheeler was a sincere believer in the salutary influence of labor directed by method. Ardent labor, regulated by reason, is the price of excellence. He that would win the latter, can not dispense with the former.
Time was a sacred trust that no one could neglect without evil. Thoroughly realizing its demands, with earnest purpose and willing hands he consecrated all to the noblest ends of life. Knowing that the brightest genius, and the most brilliant powers, could avail but little if this trust was not executed with system, he introduced the most convenient order into all his labors, so that he could call up the gleanings of years in a moment.
A systematic and laborious scholar, he enriched his understanding from the treasures of many tongues. The English furnished him the richest stores, and he had drunk deeply at her purest fountains. Into his tenacious and fruitful memory, were joined the wealth of the prose and poetry of that wonderful people, whose intelligence, more than their arms, has filled the world. He was fimiliar with all the great dramatists. The great poems of Shakespeare, he could repeat with a power rarely equalled by the first actors of his time.
His friendships were ardent and sincere, and his devotion to his friends knew no bounds; influence, purse, life itself, if in the right, were at their service. Attachments so strong and pure, insured a loving and faithful husband, an indulgent and devoted father, and a kind and generous neighbor. In all the relations of life he filled the measure of a noble manhood; tender and charitable to the afflicted, cheerful and courteous to the prosperous, he ever sought to mitigate the asperities of life, those rude blasts that visit too often every home.
The social qualities of Colonel Wheeler were of the highest order. His warm heart, his classic wit, and mirth-creating humor, made him the favorite of all circles in which intelligence, refinement, and graceful address were desired. Living in that age of the republic which gave the noblest development of individual excellence, he had ample opportunity of mingling in its most delightful associations. Bountifully supplied with instructive and interesting anecdote, his conversation never lost its interest and inspiration. He drew from ancient and modern literature their richest gems, and with consummate taste he pleased and instructed his ever attentive auditors. The fountains of Greek, Roman, English and French history were open to his never fiagging memory. It was in the richer developments of American life that he enjoyed the greatest pleasure. Above all periods of human history, he esteemed the characters of our revolutionary era. It had furnished the grandest expression of freedom and integrity, as it had of civil and political institutions. With pious veneration he had collected and preserved every heroic act and noble utterance, unwilling to allow the corroding fingers of time to erase from coming generations the humblest name.
Not less fortunate in his political associations, he knew personally all the presidents and cabinet officers, from Jefferson to Arthur. He had been the confidential friend of Jackson, Pierce and Johnson, and was by them called to counsel and advice. He did not look to high official station, for the richest manifestation of intellectual and moral worth. He had too often seen the most commanding positions occupied by presuming inferiority, through the labors and merits of the modest and deserving. By the fruits of their lives, he esteemed the actors of the age in which they lived and worked. This volume of reminiscences discloses his estimation of characters
who figured in the moral and political life of the state and nation, far better than any sketch of his life. It also presents with equal force his moral, social and political preferences and appreciations.
He had been from his first political essay, trained in the Democratic party, and his active affinities drew from the ranks of that party his warmest associations. His democracy was founded upon the lofty plane of integrity and worth. There, all who could come were equals, and entitled to the rights and honors of the state. Neither accident of birth or wealth could push from their seats the true, the industrious, and the brave. Humble worth, bending beneath the weight of sorrows and privations, had an open highway to his respect. He rejoiced to see the virtuous youth, bursting the barriers of pride and cast, and appealing to the just judgment of society for the recognition of its worth. For misfortune he had all sympathy, for unostentutions merit, reverence; for courage, that presses forward in the achievement of great and useful measures, admiration.
Trained from childhood to industry and action, he knew the value of useful labor. No speculative theorist, he sought substantial results through methods approved of by experience. With reluctance he marked any departure from the way selected by the sages, and lined with countless blessings. The continuity of history described the march of human intelligence and could not be broken with any assurance of safety. Nor was he blindly bound to an irrational and monotinous past. He well knew that every day and every hour makes demands upon the exercise of reason and invention, that can only be appeased by advancement in time and space. A witness of all the greatest discoveries in the useful arts, he well understood their influence upon the refinement of the people. Society was undergoing perpetual change in all its varied aspects. The most venerable and sacred institutions, in time, give place to new ones, better adapted to represent its advancement, and perpetuate its usefulness.
In all the noble actions of the great and good of the republic, he had an inheritance of imperishable glory. With pious care he has garnared all, and has labored to transmit them to posterity, as an inspiration to emulate the heroic and worthy lives of an illustrious ancestry. The conduct of the great and good is the most valuable legacy that a nation can have. The memories and the glorious deeds of the eminent personages whom North Carolina has contributed to humanity, have been sacredly collected and eloquently described by this faithful historian. They have not been left to perish “unhonored and unsung.” The memory of the busy, patriotic and eloquent man, who has rescued from oblivion, so many illustrious names, will be recalled with grateful thanks, from the shores on which break the waves of the Atlantic, to the peaks of the Unaka mountains that mark the western limits of the state. Whenever the sons or daughters of the old commonwealth have escheloned into the west, his labors will be carried and read. They will be to all a reservoir of brilliant names, and a chronicle of illustrious deeds.
This worthy and learned man attained a ripe age, in the full enjoyment of his intellectual powers, laboring cheerfully to the end.
Though during his closing years he suffered much, his genial and sunny disposition did not desert him. He continued to receive his friends with that generous welcome, which will be fondly remembered after he has past the “sunless river's flow.”
He was married first to Mary, only daughter of Rev. Mr. O. B. Brown, of Washington City, one of the most accomplished and literary ladies of her day, by whom he had one daughter, married to George N. Beale, a
brother of General E. F. Beale, late United States Envoy to Austria, and, second, to Ellen, daughter of Thomas Sully, one of the most distinguished artists of Philadelphia, by whom he had two sons. Charles Sully and Woodbury, a successful lawyer in Washington City.
On Thursday, December 7th, 1882, at 12:30 o'clock, a. m., the long sufferings of Colonel Wheeler were ended; and at 2 p. m., on Sunday the 10th, he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Georgetown, D. C.
Eminent citizens of North Carolina then in Washington, met in the National Capitol, and adopted the following resolutions:
“Resolved, That we, North Carolinians, present in Washington, have assembled to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of our departed friend, Mr. John H. Wheeler, whose private worth and public services have endeared him to our whole people.
“Resolved, That by his life-work, though to him a labor of love, as the historian of the state, and the collection of vast stores of historical material, he imposed a debt of gratitude upon every North Carolinian, and upon the republic of letters, which will be remembered for generations.”
Eulogiums, attesting the high place the deceased had won in the hearts of his people, were pronounced by the Hons. Z. B. Vance, Samuel F. Phillips, Jesse J. Yeates, A. M. Scales, M. W. Ransom, and T. L. Clingman.
The following letter of condolence was addressed to Major Woodbury Wheeler, son of the deceased:
“SENATE CHAMBER.
“MAJOR WOODBURY WHEELER.
“DEAR SIR: We have this moment heard with deep pain, of the death of your father. His death affects us with great sorrow; his loss will be mourned by all the people of the State, which he loved and served so well. Truly a good and great man has left us.
“We beg leave to express to you and his family our sincerest sympathy. In your sad bereavement you have the consolation arising from the memory of his illustratious life marked by conspicuous virtues.
“Yours sincerely,
| “Z. B. VANCE. | M. W. RANSOM. |
| “L. C. LATHAM. | A. M. SCALES. |
| “ROB'T V. VANCE. | R. F. ARMFIELD. |
| “W. R. COX. | C. DOWD.” |
Page XII, 1st column, 11th line, read frontier, not fronting.
Ib. Ib., 13th line, read Lords, not Lord.
Ib., 2d column, 6th line, read east, not west.
Ib. Ib., 9th line, read feeble, not public.
Page XV, 1st column, 15th line, read writer's, not writers.
Page XVI, 1st column, 38th line, place comma after aggregate.
Page XVII, 1st column, 24th line, read antedates, not antidates.
Ib. Ib., 33d line, read churchman, not church man.
Page XVIII, 1st column, last line, omit “&c.”
Page XX, 1st column, 35th line, read the, not he.
Ib. Ib., 36th line, read what, not which.
Page XXI, Ib., 9th line, read experts, not exparts.
Ib. Ib., 12th line, read Sounds, not sound.
Page XXII, Ib., 36th and 37th lines, omit the interpolated sentence in brackets.
Page XXIII, Ib., 39th line, read of, not ef.
Page XXV, Ib., 21st line, read by, not viz.
Ib., 2d column, last line, omit comma after local.
Page XXVI, Ib., read Tryon, not Tyron.
Page XXVII, 1st column, 4th line, read for, not to.
Ib., 2d column, 4th and 5th lines, read in favor of the church, not to.
Page XXVIII, 1st column, 2d paragraph should have quotation marks to it.
Page XXIX, 1st column, 31st line, read imparted, not imported.
Ib. Ib., 32d line, omit comma after “tone.”
Page XXXI, 2d column, last line should follow third line of next column.
Ib. Ib., 21st line, place “Academy” in brackets.
Page XXXII, Ib., 22d line, read extract, not extracts.
Ib. Ib., 29th and 37th lines, read disbarring, not debarring.
Ib. Ib., 31st line, read it was ordered.
Page XXXIII, 1st column, 36th line, read detinue, not detinee.
Page XXXIV, 1st column, 22d line, read instigation, not investigation.
Page XXXVI, 2d column, 16th line, place a period after “complaint.” and next word begins with a capital letter.
The chapters from XXII., have been erroneously advanced 10 in number.
Page 115, 2d column, 17th line from bottom, the name “Mooring” should be Moreing.
Page 192, 2d column, 3d line, read Lizzie, not John M.
Ib. Ib., 4th line, read Corvina, not Louisa.
Ib. Ib., between lines 8 and 9 insert John L.
Page 196, 1st column, 32d line, read researches, not results.
Page 201, 1st column, 17th line, read Humphrey, not Hampton.
Page 202, 1st column, 1st line, read 1781, not 1871.
Page 204, 1st column, 38th line, read “Colonel Lillington.”
Page 216, 1st column, 17th line, read Amis, not Ams.
Ib. Ib., 22d line, read to, not at.
Ib. 2d column, 32d line, “but had no.”
Page 217, 1st column, 16th line, omit much of.
Ib., 2d column, 14th line, omit early in and.
Page 220, 1st column, 17th line, read the, not he.
Page 221, 2d column, 22d line, read Gatling, not Gatlin.
Page 226, 1st column, 3d line, read member.
Ib. Ib., 4th line, read “States”
Page 229, 1st column, 14th line from bottom, “McPelah” should be Machpelah.
Page 230, 2d column, 6th line, read “Carolina.”
Page 232, 2d column, 24th line, read incessant, not incessent.
Page 238, 1st column, 7th line, read Pierre, not Pierce.
Page 240, 1st column, 4th line, insert on before one.
Page 252, 2d column, 23d line, read Cæsar, not Casar.
Page 253, 1st column, 12th line, read 1776, not 1767.
Page 255, 1st column, 10th line, read Lieut. George, not Colonel Lock.
Page 228, 1st column, 32d line, same error.
Page 255, 1st column, 11th line, read Joseph, not George Graham.
Page 287, 2d column, 30th line, read those that, not these that.
Page 288, 1st column, 23d line, read correct, not court.
Page 289, 1st column, 9th line, read have, not here.
Page 297—301, inclusive—the running head “Mecklenburg county” should be Moore and New Hanover counties.
Page 300, 2d column, to the end of 18th line add servient court.
Page 301, 1st column, 2d line, read Gen. not Gov.
NORTH CAROLINA
IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
BY DANIEL R. GOODLOE.
An article by John Fisk, which appeared in the February (1883) number of Harper's Magazine, entitled “Maryland and the far South in the Colonial period,” contains statements in regard to North Carolina which have given grave offense to every citizen and native of the State. The writer assumes to portray the condition of the people and the character of their institutions, civilization and government, during the whole period of their colonial existence, while he has presented only an exaggerated and distorted picture of disorders which prevailed among the first handful of settlers on the Northeastern border, before there was a defined boundary, and when that portion of the territory, or a considerable part of it was claimed by Virginia.
The writer may, also, have had in view the resistance made by the people called Regulators, in the middle and upper counties, at a later period, to the robbery and extortion of the county officers. But the more charitable supposition is, that he has never read a history of the Province.
The original grant made by Charles II, to the Lords Proprietors, bears date March 20, 1663. This instrument conveyed to the noblemen and gentlemen, named all the territory lying between the parallels of thirty-one and thirty-six degrees of North latitude, and extending from the Atlantic Ocean westward to the South Sea. Wm. Byrd, Esq., the intelligent Virginia gentleman, who was one of the commissioners employed to run the boundary line between the two provinces, states, in his “Westover papers,” that “Sir William Berkeley, who was one of the grantees, and at that time Governor of Virginia, finding a territory of thirty-one miles in breadth between the inhabited part of Virginia and the above mentioned boundary of Carolina, (thirty-six degrees) advised Lord Clarendon of it, and his Lordship had influence enough with the King to obtain a second patent to include this territory, dated June 30, 1665.”
It appears from this statement of Mr. Byrd, that North Carolina owes this addition of half a degree to the width of her territory, to the treachery of the Governor of Virginia, to his trust. It was the duty of the Governor to secure, if practicable, the unclaimed territory for Virginia, but it was in the interest of Sir William Berkeley to have it added to the Carolina
Colony. However, the people of North Carolina have no reason to complain of Sir William on this account.
In reference to this acquisition Dr. Hawks, the historian of North Carolina, remarks: “But though this second charter defined the line that was to divide Virginia and Carolina, and stated on what part of the globe it was to be drawn, viz: 36° 30′ North latitude; yet astronomical observations had not fixed its precise locality, and consequently the people on the fronting of both provinces entered land and took out patents by guess, either from the King, or the Lord Proprietors. The grants of the latter, however, were more desirable, because, both as to terms of entry, and yearly taxes, they were less burdensome than the price and levies imposed by the laws of Virginia. This statement will explain the fact that some of the earliest grants of land, now confessedly in Carolina, but lying near the border are signed by Sir William Berkeley.”
This new boundary line of 36° 30′ remained undefined for two-thirds of a century—that is to say, until the year 1728; and in all that period there was a margin of territory several miles in width, in which no one knew, definitely, whether the inhabitants owed allegiance to Carolina or Virginia. The disputed territory lay within and on the southern border of the Dismal Swamp. Practically, for nearly fifty years, the territory west of the Swamp was not in dispute, as the settlements on the Carolina side lay to the east of the Chowan River. To the west of that great stream the Indians still held away. It was not until after the Massacre in 1711, when one hundred and thirty persons were murdered in their homes in one day, that these savages were made to give place to the advancing tide of civilization. The largest of the tribes, and the most war-like, the Tuscaroras, after that event, were required to vacate their territory, when they emigrated North and rejoined the Iroquois or Five Nations, from whom they were descended. The smaller and less criminal tribes were permitted to remain on reservations.
During the first sixty years of the colonial history, the population was chiefly confined to the territory north of Albemarle Sound, west of the Chowan River. The settlements between the two sounds, Albemarle and Pamlico, and that about New Berne, were still public, but were represented in the Albemarle Assembly. This body was composed of twenty-seven members, of whom the four counties north of the sound sent five, each. The three counties south of Albemarle had two members each, and New Berne town one. There was little intercourse with the Cape Fear Colony, which had a separate Assembly of its own, as well as a Governor. It was a short-lived enterprise. The colonists came from Barbadoes, in 1665, under the leadership of a gentleman named Yeaman. He was succeeded by a Mr. West, as Governor, who was also made Governor of the Charleston settlement, a few years later, and persuaded the Cape Fear people to follow him. During the year 1690, the last of these Cape Fear settlers abandoned their homes and went to Charleston. The writer, whose statements are complained of, assumes that these Barbadian colonists became a permanent part of the population of North Carolina.
In 1729 seven of the eight Lords Proprietors surrendered their rights in and authority over the colony, to the crown, for a valuable consideration, of course; Earl Granville retained his claim of right to the soil, and a large strip of country (about half the State) on the northern border was set off to him as his private property, while he surrendered his right to share in the Government of the people.
Francis Xavier Martin, one of the most judicious historians of the Province, estimated the white population at the date of this transfer of authority from the Lords Proprietors to the Crown (1729) at about 13,000. He gives no opinion as to the number of the blacks; but
there is reason to believe that they were fewer in proportion to the whites than were to be found in either Virginia or South Carolina.
A reference to the map will show the reader that the original boundary of 36° passes up the Albemarle Sound; and the acquisition made by the new patent of 1665 embraces, therefore, the whole territory north of the Sound. In other words, it embraced three-fourths of the population of North Carolina in 1729. This date of the purchase by the Crown from the Proprietors is, also, coeval with the separation of North from South Carolina, and the incorporation of the whole territory of the former under one Governor and Assembly.
Besides the small scattered settlements south of Albemarle Sound, the relative importance of which is indicated by their proportion of representation in the Assembly, as above stated, the population had begun to spread out beyond, that is to say, west of the Chowan River; and in the year 1722, the County or Precinct of Bertie was organized; but up to that date, if not later, the people on that side of the river voted as of Chowan Precinct.
The immigration of Swiss and Palatines under Baron De Graffenreidt and Mr. Mitchell came to North Carolina in the years 1709-10. No definite statements as to their numbers, have come down to us, but it is believed that the two classes of immigrants combined, did not exceed two thousand. Some loose guesses make them larger. They settled in the vicinity of New Berne, which town received its name from the Swiss. Some of these foreigners were murdered by the Indians the next year, after their arrival, when the great Massacre of the whites occurred. De Graffenreidt narrowly escaped being burned at the stake by the Indians, in company with Lawson, the Surveyor General, who had invaded their territory with his compass and chain. It is probable that the massacre was the main hindrance to further immigration from Switzerland and the Palatinate; but De Graffenreidt failed to give them titles to the lands he sold them, which must have greatly added to their discouragements.
The foregoing preliminary statement as to the nature and extent of the ground occupied by the early settlers of the Province has been thought necessary to a thorough understanding of the character of the aspersions of the writer referred to, and of the answers that will be made to them. But in the first place it will be proper to present them in the language of their author. They form a compact mass of misrepresentation. I understand the writer to be a Massachusetts man. “Prof. John Fisk” of Harvard. He says:
“At the time of the Revolution the population of North Carolina numbered about 200,000, of which somewhat more than one-fourth were negro slaves. The white population was mainly English, but the foreign element was larger than in the case of any other of the colonies which we have thus far considered. There were Huguenots from France, German Protestant from the Palatinate, Moravians, Swiss, and Scotch, and what we have to note especially is that this foreign population was, in the main, far more respectable and orderly than the English majority. The English settlers came mostly from Virginia, though in the south-eastern corner of the colony there was a considerrble settlement of Englishmen from Barbadoes.
“Now, the English settlers who thus came southward from Virginia were very different in character from the sober Puritans, who went northward into Maryland. North Carolina was to Virginia something like Rhode Island was to Massachusetts—a receptacle for all the factious and turbulent elements of Society; but in this case the general character of the emigration was immeasurably lower. The shiftless people who could not make a place for themselves in Virginia society, many of the “poor whites,” flocked in large numbers into North Carolina. They were, in the main, very lawless
in temper, holding it to be the chief end of man to resist all constituted authority, and above all things to pay no taxes. The history of North Carolina was accordingly much more riotous and disorderly than the history of any of the other colonies. “There were neither laws nor lawyers,” says Bancroft, with slight exaggeration. The courts, such as they were, sat often in taverns, where the Judge might sharpen his wits with bad whiskey, while their decisions were not recorded, but were simply shouted by the crier from the inn door, or at the nearest market place.
“There were a few amateur surgeons and apothecaries to be found in the villages, but no regular physicians. Nor does the soul appear to be better cared for than the body, for it was not until 1703 that the first clergyman was settled in the colony. The Church of England was established by Government, without the approval of the people, who were opposed on principle to church rates, as to all kinds of taxes whatsoever. Owing to this dislike of taxation, most of the people were Dissenters, but no Dissenting Churches flourished in the colony. There was complete toleration even for Quakers, because nobody cared a groat for theology, or for religion. The few ministers who contrived to support life in North Carolina, were listened to in a mood like that in which Mrs. Pardigle's discourses were received by the brickmakers, while the audience freely smoked their pipes within the walls of the sanctuary during divine service.
“Agriculture was conducted more wastefully and with less intelligence than in any of the other colonies. In the northern counties tobacco was almost exclusively cultivated, but it was of very inferior quality, compared with the tobacco of Virginia.
“All business or traffic about the coast was carried on under perilous conditions: for pirates were always hovering about, secure in the sympathy of the people, like the brigands of southern Italy in recent times. It was partly due to this, no doubt, as well as partly to the want of good harborage, that a very large part of the commerce of North Carolina was diverted northward to Norfolk, or southward to Charleston.
“The treatment of the slaves is said to have been usually mild, as in Virginia, but their lives were practically, at the mercy of their masters. The white servants fared better, and the general state of society was so low that when their time of service was ended, they had here a good chance of rising to a position of equality with their masters.
“The country swarmed with ruffians of all sorts, who fled thither from South Carolina and Virginia. Life and property were very insecure, and lynch law was not infrequently administered. The small planters led, for the most part, a lazy life, drinking hard, and amusing themselves with scrimmages, in which noses were broken with blows of the fist, and eyes gouged out by a dexterous use of the long thumb nails. The only other social amusement seems to have been gambling. But, except at elections and other meetings for political purposes, people saw very little of each other.
“There were no roads worthy of the name, and every family was almost entirely isolated from its neighbors. Until just before the war for Independence, there was not a single school, good or bad, in the whole colony. It need not be added that the people were densely ignorant.
“The colony was a century old before it could boast of a printing press; and if no newspapers were published, it was doubtless for the sufficient reason that there were very few who would have been able to read them. A mail from Virginia came some eight or ten times in a year, but it only reached a few towns on the coast, and down to the time of the Revolution the interior of the country had no mails at all. Under such circumstances it is not strange that North Carolina was in a great measure cut off from the currents of thought and feeling by which the
other colonies were swayed in the middle of the eighteenth century.
“In the War for Independence, North Carolina produced no great leaders. She was not represented at the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, and she was the last of the States, except Rhode Island, to adopt the Federal Constitution.”
The reader cannot have failed to note in these statements, supposing the writer to be well informed, a spirit in sympathy with the arbitrary rule of the Lords Proprietors and the Crown of England, and with their persistent efforts to compel an unwilling people to pay taxes for the support of the Church of which they were not members. The whole tenor of the writers criticism would justify this inference; and that his sympathies are also with the corrupt county officials whose illegal exactions provoked and justified the efforts of the Regulators to resist them. But it is charitable to assume that he has only a vague idea of these events, derived from second-hand sources. For he could not read the history of the Province, without being convinced that the causes and grounds of resistance to the constituted authorities were, in the first instance, the efforts of the Lords Proprietors to impose the absurd “Fundamental Constitutions” of Locke, upon the people, followed by the persistent, and never quite successful attempt to establish the Church, with a system of Church rates. Mr. Bancroft has brought out these facts with more distinctness than the historians of the State; and even Dr. Hawks has only paraphrased the lucid statement of the great historian.
The second great source of disturbance, the robbery of the people in the name of law, by the county officers, at a later period, is equally well attested, and no one acquainted with the history of those times, will venture to vindicate or palliate their conduct. These events will receive further notice in their order, as well as other arbitrary and unjust measures of the British rulers of the Province.
Another thing observable in this pretentious criticism is a proneness to jump to general conclusions from single instances. The writer has seen the statement that at an out-of-doors religious meeting, in the Albemarle region, in one of the first years of the last century, some rough fellow smoked his pipe while the services were going on; and this fact is sufficient to warrant the statement that such was the universal custom throughout the colonial period, in all parts of the Province. He has read that a noted pirate infested the Sounds before there was so much as a village upon their borders, and that the pirate obtained supplies of provisions from the first squatters on the coast whom he would have exterminated if they had refused compliance with his demands; and, without mentioning that the pirate was at length captured and put to death, the swift conclusion is drawn, that piracy was the order of the day, all along the coast, with the connivance of the people, for the century and more of colonial vassalage; and that the effect was to render legitimate commerce a hazardous and dangerous occupation. To this cause the writer would have the world believe is due the alleged fact that the people of the colony carried their produce to Norfolk through the Dismal Swamp; although there was neither road nor canal. Or else to Charleston through a wilderness two to three hundred miles in width, without roads or navigable waters; whereas, at the period when the pirates infested the coast, the commerce of the colony was chiefly in the hands of New Englanders, who came with their vessels through the Sounds.
A traveler has at some time witnessed a fight, somewhere in the Province, accompanied by the brutal practice of “gouging,” in which the lower class of whites sometimes engage, and this is sufficient to justify the critic in the sweeping statement that “scrimmages” of this sort constituted the favorite amusement of the small planters—“their only other entertainments being
drinking and gambling.” It would be as fair to charge the whole body of respectable people in a Northern city, at the present day, with participation in all the vice and crime which are daily and nightly enacted in the dens of infamy that are to be found in every street.
These are only specimens of the illogical inferences of this writer, with whom the rule seems to be, that every isolated fact warrants a generalization.
In view of reiterated charges against the people of lawlessness, idleness, “shiftlessness,” and general inability to make their way in the world, it is worth while to notice the first statement quoted from the writer, to the effect that at the period of the Revolution, North Carolina contained about 200,000 inhabitants; and if this statement were true, it would afford evidence of an extraordinarily rapid increase of population during the next fourteen years, and especially so, as seven of those years were spent in civil and foreign wars, accompanied by the expatriation of thousands of the conquered, and the escape of not a few of the servile class. The census of 1790, which was taken just fourteen years after the Declaration of Independence, or fifteen years after the commencement of hostilities, showed the population of the State to be 393,000, or nearly 100 per cent. more than the supposed number of 200,000. In consideration of the destructive war through which the people had passed during those eventful years, we are bound to conclude that the population at the beginning of the war was nearer three hundred than two hundred thousand. In 1729, it will be remembered, the total white population was estimated to be only 13,000; and if we add 7,000 for the black, the aggregate forty-six years before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, would be but 20,000. Here, then, is evidence of an extraordinary increase of these “idle,” “shiftless,” “outlaws” and “renegades” from Virginia.
We are told that “the foreign population was in the main far more respectable and orderly than the English majority.” By the foreign population, the writer means those of non-English origin. There can be no question about the moral worth and respectability of the Moravians and German Lutherans, of the Swiss and Palatine. They all made orderly, good citizens, but they were not more conspicuous for these virtues than were the Quakers, who, in early times, exercised a controlling influence in the Albemarle settlement. Nor were the “foreigners” more distinguished for sobriety and love of learning than the Presbyterians who came to the Colony from Pennsylvania and Virginia, or directly from Scotland and England. Neither is it true that any of these classes were more respectable than the native Virginians and other Americans, mostly of English ancestry, who came in from time to time, during the whole colonial period, and constituted a large majority of the population of the Province; and it is a baseless calumny to say otherwise. They constituted a majority, and a controlling majority of the people. They were part and parcel of the best element in Virginia society—embracing not many of the oldest, or more aristocratic families, but the solid, respectable, and well-to-do classes of planters and farmers—the classes that produced such men as Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Henry Clay, and others who became eminent for talents and virtue; and they imparted these characteristics to their children. Many of the poorer classes came with these planters and farmers. Some were, no doubt, vicious characters, who added nothing to the strength and respectability of the Province. But what country under the sun is free from such a class?
“North Carolina” we are again told, “was to Virginia something like Rhode Island was to Massachusetts—a receptacle for all the factious and turbulent elements of society.” There was, it must be owned, a resemblance in the two situations. Massachusetts expelled Roger Williams
and his Baptist followers, with Quakers and Presbyterians, as heretics; and most good people of the present day are apt to believe that when the exiles shook the dust from their feet, they left not their equals in moral worth behind them. And it was in like manner that Virginia intolerance drove many of her best inhabitants into the wilderness of Carolina, as will now be shown.
Durant's Neck in Perquimans county, was the first permanent settlement made in the Province, and it was made by Quakers who fled from Virginia and Massachusetts persecution. “The oldest land title that we know of in North Carolina,” says Dr. Hawks, “and that which we think was actually the first, is still on record. It is the grant made by Cistacanoe, king of the Yeopim Indians, in 1662, to Durant, for a neck of land at the mouth of Little and Perquimans rivers, which still bears the name of the grantee. In 1633, Berkeley confirmed this grant by a patent under his own signature.”
This patent by the Indian Chief to the Quaker, antidates the first patent given by the king to the Lords Proprietors. It became the nucleus of a large Quaker settlement, which remains to the present day. It is said that a company was formed some years previous to this purchase by Durant, for the purpose of taking up lands and making settlements in the unclaimed territory; and it is probable that the plan may, to some extent, have been carried into effect—or this purchase by the Quakers may have been a part of it. The cautious terms in which the Quakers gave in their adhesion to the “Fundamental Constitutions,” show that they were neither illiterate nor reckless vagabonds. Their signature and assent are qualified as follows:
“Francis Tomes, Christopher Nicholson, and William Wyatt did before me, this 31st July,” &c., &c., “and so far as any authority by the Lords constituted, is consonant to God's glory, and to the advancement of his blessed truth, with heart and hands we subscribe, to the best of our capacities and understandings.”
In regard to these earliest settlers of North Carolina, Mr. Bancroft states that the adjoining county in Virginia, Nansemond, had long abounded in non-conformists; and it is certain, he says, that the first settlements in Albemarle were the result of the spontaneous overflowing from this source. A few vagrant families, he thinks, may have been planted in Carolina before the Restoration. Such settlements would have been made voluntarily, as under Cromwell the Church would not have been permitted to persecute Dissenters. But on the restoration of Charles, men who were impatient of interference with their religion, “who dreaded the enforcement of religious conformity, and who distrusted the spirit of the new Government in Virginia, plunged more deeply into the forests. It is known that in 1662, the Chief of the Yeopim Indians granted to George Durant the neck of land which still bears his name; and, in the following year, George Cathmaid could claim from Sir Wm. Berkeley a large grant of land upon the Sound, as a reward for having established sixty-seven persons in Carolina. This may have been the oldest considerable settlement; there is reason to believe that volunteer emigrants preceded them.”
It has already been stated that Sir William Berkeley was Governor of Virginia and one of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina at this time. He was also a Church man, intolerant of dissent—in Virginia; but his pecuniary interests impelled him to be very liberal and tolerant of Quakers, Presbyterian, and other sectarians who would agree to remove to their territory. His proprietary colleagues cordially concurred with him in this left-handed spirit of toleration, by which they hoped to be enriched; and in conformity with it, the Carolina colonists were allowed to indulge in whatever eccentricities of faith and worship their tastes or their consciences might suggest.
Indeed, it was very plain to the common sense of the Proprietaries, that zeal for the Church north of 36° 30’, if enforced by rigorous persecution, was as conducive to the peopling their Carolina territory, as the liberty of conscience which was granted south of that line. These seemingly hostile principles, or moral forces were thus made to work harmoniously for the advantage of their Lordships, while narrowminded bigots, by enforcing conformity on both sides of the line, would have spoiled everything.
Howison, the historian of Virginia, describes Sir William, who was appointed Governor of Virginia in 1642, by Charles I, as an accomplished gentleman whose winning manners captivated all hearts, but, “His loyalty was so excessive that it blinded his eyes to the faults of a crowned head, and steeled his heart against the prayers of oppressed subjects. * * He loved the monarchical constitution of England with simple fervor; he venerated her customs, her Church, her Bishops, her Liturgy; every thing peculiar to her as a kingdom; and believing them to be worthy of all acceptation, he enforced conformity with uncompromising sternness. * * Had Sir William Berkeley descended to his grave at the time when Charles II gained the English throne, we might with safety have trusted to those historians who have drawn him as adorned with all that could grace and elevate his species. But he lived long enough to prove that loyalty when misguided, will make a tyrant; that religious zeal, when devoted to an established Church, will beget the most revolting bigotry: and that an ardent disposition, when driven on by desire for revenge, will give birth to the worst forms of cruelty and malice.”
Yet this excessive zeal for religion and “revolting bigotry,” had a practical side to them which the historian overlooked. For they tended rapidly to people Sir William's Carolina plantation with sober and industrious Quakers and Presbyterians &c., who bought land or paid rent at prices fixed by the Proprietaries. The Virginia Assembly, under such a champion of orthodoxy, passed laws of the most stringent character for the enforcement of uniformity. Tithes were imposed and exacted inexorably: the persons of the Clergy were invested with a sanctity savoring strongly of superstition: papists were excluded from the privilege of holding office, and their priests were banished the Province; the oath of supremacy to the king as head of the Church, was imposed, dissenting ministers were forbidden to preach; and the Governor and Council were empowered to compel “non-conformists to depart the colony with all convenience.” It is not surprising that the Carolina Colony, where toleration was established by the Proprietaries, flourished, when the Governor and Assembly of Virginia were so active in stimulating emigration. But it is obvious that these intolerant laws of Virginia, on the subject of religion, were not calculated nor intended to drive out the lawless and vicious classes. On the contrary, wherever Religion is established by law, whether the creed be Protestant or Catholic, the vicious and criminal classes are rarely arraigned for denying the authority of the Church, however much they may disregard its injunctions, and stand in need of its discipline. It is the sober, earnest men who suffer the pains and penalties of heresy, whether those penalties be the rack, the fagot or banishment.
But the persecuted Dissenters were not the only classes that preferred the free air of North Carolina to the intolerance of Berkeley. Thousands of Churchmen, real and nominal, joined them; and without being eminently religious, they soon became sufficiently numerous to form a strong party in favor of a Church establishment.
Mr. Bancroft thinks that the first Governor of the Albemarle Colony, Drummond, appointed by Berkeley, and hanged by him without a trial, for alleged participation in Bacon's Rebellion,
was a Presbyterian. If this opinion be correct, it serves to illustrate more fully how tolerant of heresy the bigoted Governor of Virginia could be, when it tended to advance his pecuniary interests.
Two or three of the Lords Proprietors were cabinet ministers of Charles II, and they could not only procure a grant of territory half as large as Europe, but they could stipulate the terms of the grant, and the sort of government its future inhabitants were to live under. For the reasons already explained, the Second Charter, dictated by themselves, authorized the establishment of the utmost toleration, without so much as naming the Church, and this liberty was confirmed to the people. They were granted “an Assembly,” says Mr. Bancroft, “and an easy tenure of lands, and he (Berkeley) left the infant people to take care of themselves; to enjoy liberty of conscience and conduct, in the entire freedom of innocent retirement; to forget the world till rent day drew near, and quitrents might be demanded. Such was the origin of fixed settlements in North Carolina. The child of ecclesiastical oppression was swathed in independence.”
It is appropriate in this place to notice the citation of Mr. Bancroft by the critic, as an authority for one of his aspersions. He says: “There were neither laws nor lawyers, says Bancroft, with but slight exaggeration,” and he represents the historian as applying this remark to North Carolina throughout its whole Colonial existence. The truth is, that Mr. Bancroft has nowhere made such a remark, for the two-fold reason that he is too well informed, and has too much regard for truth to make it. On the contrary, he has done more to vindicate the character of North Carolina than any of its special historians. And since he is a deservedly high authority throughout the nation and the world, it is worth while to show what he has said on the subject. The statement from which the above garbled quotations are made are but the conclusion of an elaborate account of the settlement of the Colony which every citizen and native of the State reads with pride and pleasure. After mentioning the arrival of emigrants from New England and from Bermuda, he says that the Colony lived contentedly with Stevens as Chief Magistrate, “under a very wise and simple form of government. A few words express its outlines: a Council of twelve, six named by the Proprietaries and six chosen by the Assembly; an Assembly, composed of the Governor, the Council and delegates from the freeholders of the incipient settlements, formed a government worthy of popular confidence. No interference from abroad was anticipated; for freedom of religion and security against taxation, except by the Colonial Legislature, were solemnly conceded. The Colonists were satisfied; the more so, as their lands were confirmed to them by a solemn grant on the terms which they themselves had proposed.”
Mr. Bancroft proceeds to state that the first Legislature, in 1669, enacted laws adapted to the wants of the people, “and which therefore endured,” he says, “long after the designs of Locke were abandoned.” Again he states that “the attempt to enforce the Fundamental Constitution of Locke, a year or two later, was impossible and did but favor anarchy by invalidating the existing system, which it could not replace. The Proprietaries, contrary to stipulations with the Colonists, superseded the existing government; and the Colonists resolutely rejected the substitute.”
The historian then gives a brief account of the visits of the celebrated Quaker preachers, William Edmundson and George Fox, to the settlements at Durant's Neck; of the favor with which they were received by the people, and by the Governor, and adds: “If the introduction of the Constitution of Locke had before been difficult, it was now become impossible.”
The death of Stevens, says Mr. Bancroft, left the Colony without a Governor; and by permission
of the Proprietaries, the Assembly elected Cartwright, their Speaker, to act as Governor. “But the difficulty of introducing the model (Locke's Constitution) did not diminish; and having failed to preserve order, Cartwright resolved to lay the state of the country before the Proprietaries, and embarked for England.” At the same time the Assembly sent Eastchurch, their new Speaker, to explain their grievances, Mr. Bancroft resumes:
“The suppression of a fierce insurrection of the people of Virginia had been followed by the vindictive fury of ruthless punishments and runaways, rogues and rebels, that is to say, fugitives from arbitrary tribunals, non-conformists, and friends of popular liberty, fled daily to Carolina as their common subterfuge and lurking place. Did letters from the government of Virginia demand the surrender of leaders in the rebellion, Carolina refused to betray the fugitives who sought shelter in her forests.”
Such is the account given by Mr. Bancroft of the refugees from Virginia oppression; and he rejects the idea of our historian Martin, that these fugitives were runaway negroes. Equally does he reject the Tory estimate placed upon them by the Virginia Governor, Smallwood, and other writers of that school, that they were lawless vagabonds and “runagates”—a phrase which our own Hawks applies to these non-conformist refugees from priestly tyranny. These and similar passages in Bancroft occur in his first and second volumes, which were published long before Hawks’ history of the State. The latter author, in some places rallies to he defence of the State and the South, against which he deems to be northern injustice; but in dealing with this subject of our early history, he would have done well to follow the lead of the great northern historian, instead of that of the English and Virginia Tories. But no careful reader of Dr. Hawks can fail to see that his patriotic feelings, as a North Carolinian were in this regard overborne by his reverence for the Church of England, and its then feeble off shoots in the Colonies. This feeling blinded him to the virtues of Quakers and other dissenters, who resisted the attempts to form an establishment, and compel the payment of tithes or Church rates. It is true that he has presented a mass of facts which should convince every wise and dispassionate son of the Church, that the attempt to establish it in the Colony, and by such agencies, in spite of the determined opposition of a majority of the people, did it lasting injury, as well as equal injury to the cause of religion. He has shown, as he could not fail to do, without grossly perverting history, that the Church suffered, as well from the unjust attitude which its friends assumed, of attempting to force it upon the people, as from the character of the clergymen who were sent over from England. Of the seven who came on this mission during the Proprietary government, three turned out to be disreputable in character—drunken, dissolute and knavish. The others were intelligent and good men, whose teaching and example, supported by the voluntary offerings of the Church at home, would have been eminently salutary. But as the representatives of an arbitrary plan of enforcing uniformity of worship, and with their good example off set by the bad conduct of their associates, their labor was almost in vain. It was unfortunate for the Church, also, that the jealousy of the British Government would not allow America to have a Bishop during the whole Colonial period, but turned a deaf ear to the appeals in this behalf, which were sent up by the Colonists. The consequence was, that there were few native Church clergymen in America, since it was necessary to send them to England, at great expense, to be ordained and properly educated. The clerical “carpet-baggers” sent to the Colonies, were, with honorable exceptions, of course, exact prototypes of the lay species which have visited the South in more recent years.
Mr. Bancroft has answered so many of the
misrepresentations of North Carolina, that the reader will excuse a few more brief references and citations. He denounces the meanness of the British Government in applying their navigation act, passed in 1672, to the Colonies, accompanied by a tax on their products. Its application to North Carolina was cruel. The population was barely four thousand. Its exparts consisted of a few fat cattle, a little corn and eight hundred hogsheads of tobacco. This trade was in the hands of New Englanders, whose small vessels came into the sound laden with such foreign articles as supplied the simple wants of the people, and exchanged them for the raw products. But the act referred to required that these products should first be sent to England, where a duty was imposed on them, before their re-exportation to the West Indies, or elsewhere. The tobacco was taxed a penny on the pound, which was equivalent to three cents at the present day. From this source these poor people were made to pay twelve thousand dollars per annum, and to receive only British goods, or foreign articles through British ports, in return. A revolt was the consequence of these oppressive measures, incited, Mr. Bancroft says, by the Virginia refugees, who came over after Bacon's rebellion, and by New Englanders who were trading in the Albemarle country. The Deputy Governor and Council were arrested and imprisoned; and Culpepper, an Englishman who had come over some years before, was made Governor. This rebellion, therefore, was on grounds identical with those which moved the American colonies to resistance a century later, and which resulted in their independence. The people of New England, also, resisted the enforcement of this Navigation Act. The motive assigned for this rebellion was, “that thereby the country may have a free Parliament, and may send home their grievances.” In connection with these facts Mr. Bancroft remarks:
“Are there any who doubt man's capacity for self government, let them study the history of North Carolina; its inhabitants were restless and turbulent in their imperfect submission to a government imposed on them from abroad; the administration of the colony was firm, humane and tranquil, when they were left to take care of themselves. Any government but one of their own institution was oppressive. * * The uneducated population of that day formed conclusions as just as those which a century later pervaded the country.”
The people rebelled again, a few years later against the misrule of Seth Sothel, one of the Proprietors who was sent over as Governor. This man, says Mr. Bancroft, found the country tranquil, on his arrival, under laws enacted by the people, and under a Governor of their own choice. “The counties were quiet and well regulated, because not subjected to foreign sway. The planters in peaceful independence, enjoyed the good will of the wilderness. Sothel arrived, and the scene was changed. * * Many colonial Governors displayed rapacity and extortion toward the people; Sothel cheated his Proprietary associates, as well as plundered the colonists.” He was deposed by the people, who appealed again to the Proprietaries; and the planters, says Bancroft, immediately became tranquil, when they escaped foreign misrule.
And here follows a remark of the historian made with reference to the four or five thousand people who constituted the whole population in 1668, but which the maligner of the Province misquotes, and makes applicable to them throughout the one hundred and thirteen years of colonial dependence. Under the marginal date, 1688, which the garbler could not fail to see, and just at the close of the account of the rebellion against Sothel, Mr. Bancroft says:
“Careless of religious sects, or colleges, or lawyers, or absolute laws, the early settlers enjoyed liberty of conscience, and personal independence; freedom of the forest and of the river.”
By “absolute laws,” he clearly refers to the “Fundamental Constitutions” prepared by Mr. Locke for the Lords Proprietors. He could mean nothing else; for he had just completed an elaborate culogy of the people for their practical wisdom in enacting laws adapted to their own circumstances. This remark about “absolute laws” follows what has been quoted above from his pages. He had also praised the virtue and devotion of the Quakers and non conformists, who sought refuge in the wilderness from the persecutions of the English church in Virginia. These men who had suffered together under the same tyrannical laws and government, and whose safety in their new common home depended on a cordial union with each other, would naturally subordinate their differences, and become less tenacious of mere names. The Quakers were an organized body of religionists, who, until they were able to build meeting houses, worshipped in the beautiful groves, or in their private dwellings. The other unorganized nonconformists would naturally attend these Quaker meetings; and we are assured, even by their enemies, that the Quakers made many converts to their Society from the others, not excepting the established Church.
But if it were literally true that in 1688, the refugees in the Albemarle settlement, from Virginia oppression, had neither laws nor lawyers, what must be thought of the candor or the intelligence of a writer who attempts to impose upon the world the statement that Mr. Bancroft applies the remark to North Carolina during her whole colonial history from 1663 to 1776. (I suggest to April, 1775).
The facts here brought out on the authority of Mr. Bancroft, refute at the same time another statement of the writer, which he couples with his comparison of the several sorts of people who made up the emigrations respectively to Rhode Island, and to North Carolina, from Massachusetts and Virginia.
In regard to the Virginia emigrants to Carolina, he says, “their general character was immeasurably lower,” than that of the Massachusetts emigrants to Rhode Island. There is no respectable authority for this statement. The victims of Massachusetts persecutions were excellent people, no doubt; but there is no reason to suppose that the Puritans of that colony were more select in regard to the characters of those whom they expelled from their borders, than were the Churchmen of Virginia. There has been nothing in the subsequent careers of the two classes of emigrants, or in their posterities, to warrant the invidious comparison; and there remains but one judgment to pronounce upon it, viz.: that whether proceeding from ignorance or malevolence, it is no less a wholesale calumny, and this calumny is repeated in other connections and forms, but the above answer must suffice for them all.
“They were, in the main, very lawless in temper,” we are told, “holding it to be the chief end of man to resist all constituted authority, and above all things, to pay no taxes.” Here again this ready writer shows his ignorance of the history of the Province. The absurdity of the statement becomes apparent if we compare it with other statements made by him. He tells us in one breath, and tells truly, that these Virginia and American-born emigrants constitute a large majority of the people; and in the next that they are lawless, riotous, indolent, “shiftless,” and utterly opposed to paying taxes. Who, then, made the colonial laws of which there are large volumes extant? Who imposed the taxes? Was it the handful of Swiss and Palatines, not above two thousand in number, and not one of whom, when they arrived, understood the language? Was it by the Gaelic-speaking Scotch Highlanders, who came to the Province after the middle of the eighteenth century—two or three thousands in number? Was it by the German Lutherans and Moravians who came still later—all of whom spoke a foreign language? These emigrants
were most valuable acquisitions; and many of their descendants have become distinguished citizens; but during the twenty or thirty years of their residence here prior to the Revolution, they knew too little of the English language to take a leading part in making the laws. The conclusion is a necessary one, then, that the colonial statutes, constituting a complete body of laws, adapted to the wants of the people, correctly and concisely written, in parliamentary style, were the product of the class which this writer would have the world believe, was composed, “in the main,” of worthless renagades and law breakers from Virginia. The character of these laws will be shown in another place.
“The Colony was a century old,” says our censor, “before it had a printing press; and if no newspaper were published, it was doubtless for the sufficient reason that there were very few who would have been able to read them.”
The first of these statements contains full eighty per cent of truth, which is so much above the average that it may be allowed to go uncontradicted. But at the same time it admits of extenuation. The Colony was planted in 1663, and the first printing press was brought into it in 1749, and was employed in printing the laws, and a few years afterward, a newspaper.
The further statement of the writer, that “A mail from Virginia came some eight or ten times a year, but it only reached a few towns on the coast, and down to the time of the Revolution the interior of the country had no mails at all,” is quite true; and it fully explains to any fair mind how newspapers could not flourish under such circumstances, and without assuming that the people could not read. Another obstacle to the success ef newspapers is presented in the fact that North Carolina was, and still is, more exclusively agricultural than any other part of America; and contained and still contains, in proportion to aggregate population, fewer people resident in towns.
In New England there was a far greater population, and at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Boston, according to Rev. Cotton Mather, and other authorities quoted in the “Memorial History” of that city, contained not far from ten thousand inhabitants. But there was the same deficiency of mail facilities, though not in equal degree, which existed in North Carolina. I find in a little work published by a Postoffice official, that so early as 1672, a monthly mail was established between Boston and New York; and that in 1711, Massachusetts established a weekly mail between Boston and her out-lying territory of Maine. And yet, with these relatively great advantages and facilities—a town of ten thousand inhabitants, and at least one weekly mail—no newspaper was established in Boston, nor in Massachusetts, until the year 1704. This was eighty four years after the founding of the Colony. It is true that there was a printing press introduced at an earier date, which was employed in the publication of pamphlets and books of theology, and the laws of the colony; but no newspaper until the settlement was eight-four years old. Isaiah Thomas a Massachusetts man, in his valuable history of printing, gives an interesting account of this first American journalistic enterprise. It was called the Boston News-Letter. The first number appeared in April, 1704. John Campbell, a Scotchman, and Postmaster of the town, was the proprietor, or “Undertaker,” as he styled himself. It was printed on a half-sheet of what was called ‘ “Pot” paper, once a week; but after the second number it appeared on a half-sheet of fools-cap. Whether this was an enlargement on Pot paper, or a reduction in size, is not stated; but the change in dimensions, whether in one way or the other, was no doubt inconsiderable. At any rate the News Letter continued to be printed for four years on a half-sheet of fools-cap, once a week. It rarely contained more than two advertisements, one of them by the proprietor, in which he enumerated
the articles he was ready to advertise, at reasonable rates, among them “runaway servants.” The ill omened style of undertaker, assumed by the proprietor, may in some sort, account for the unhealthy childhood and youth of Boston's first-born journal. At any rate, the undertaker, after fifteen years of sad experience, informed the public that he could not dispose of three hundred copies weekly; and that he was thirteen months behind time in the publication of the foreign news.
This was the case in 1719, when Boston must have had a population of nearly or quite 25,000, for in 1710, according to the high authority of the “Memorial History,” it was already 18,000.
Mr. Thomas states that the first press introduced into North Carolina (at New Berne) was in the year 1734 and Mr. Bancroft makes the same statement; but Martin, the intelligent historian of the Province, who resided about thirty years at New Berne, during all of which time he was engaged in printing—and most of the time, as a newspaper publisher, as well as public printer for the Colony, says that James Davis came, by invitation of the Assembly, with a printing press, in the year 1749. Davis began the publication of a newspaper in 1765. New Berne contained at that time, perhaps, five hundred white inhabitants; and the fact that his paper was sustained was wonderful, in view of Campbell's discouragements at Boston.
It would not be fair to assume that this inability to support, or indifference to the worth of a newspaper, on the part of the people of Massachusetts, was due to their ignorance or inability to read, for we know that such was not the case. It is more just to say that new inventions and new methods of doing particular things are slow in finding their way into common use. Fifty years hence people may wonder that their ancestors of this our day, did not, one and all, use the telegraph or telephone, instead of the slow process of sending letters by mail, by which days are consumed in doing the work of a few minutes.
“In the war for independence North Carolina produced no great leaders,” says the essayist. It would be easy to retaliate that other colonies or States, more favorably situated, failed to produce great leaders. New England furnished a majority of the rank and file, and probably, most of the material aid; and yet she failed to produce the great leader; nor did she produce but one great soldier, and he came from the despised little colony of Rhode Island, and from the persecuted class of Quakers, who were driven into exile by Massachusetts orthodoxy. There were many good officers produced by the war of the Revolution—men who were brave, sagacious, and enterprising—but history fails to point to more than two who were equal to the greatest emergencies, in which the disciplined and well armed soldiers of Britain were to be met and foiled by the comparatively raw and ill-appointed recruits of the provinces. Those two men were Washington and Greene. Perhaps there was one other thus endowed; but he turned traitor to the cause.
North Carolina produced in the Revolutionary era a number of good officers—Howe, Davidson, Davie, Caswell, Lillington, Moore, Nash, and many others—the equals in merit with those of the same rank, in other States. And during those eventful days, a North Carolina boy was trained by the discipline of adversity, to take the foremost place in the Nation's regard, as a great captain, hero, and statesman. A New England author of celebrity, Parton, has demonstrated that Andrew Jackson was born on North Carolina soil. His childhood was spent in South Carolina, though within two miles of his birthplace; which circumstance gave rise to the impression that he was a native of that State. While still a boy, he returned to North Carolina, where he spent his youth and early manhood. At length he emigrated to Tennessee, which was then only a western county of his
native State, and there he lived and died. For greatness of soul—for the possession of those qualities of intelligence, of courage, and firmness, which inspire respect and confidence, and constitute a nature “born to command,” Andrew Jackson has had, certainly, not more than one superior in this country.
“She was not represented at the Stamp Act Congress of 1765,” says Fisk, and the purpose of the statement is to convey the impression that the absence of North Carolina from that Congress was due to a want of sympathy in the common cause. If this was not his purpose, he could have had none. He failed to add that New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Georgia were also unrepresented in that Convention. If he had had any acquaintance with the history of North Carolina, he could not have been ignorant of the fact that her failure to be represented on the occasion was caused, in the language of Martin, viz: “the lower House not having had the opportunity of choosing members,” Martin suggests that a similar obstacle may have prevented the other three colonies from being represented. He states that, “In the Province of North Carolina, the people, at all their public meetings, manifested their high approbation of the proceedings of the inhabitants of the other Provinces; and Lieutenant Governor Tyron, judging from the temper of the people that it would be unsafe and dangerous to allow them the opportunity of expressing their feelings, by allowing a session of the Legislative body, in these days of ferment, on the 25th of October, issued his proclamation to prorogue the General Assembly, which was to have met on the 30th of November, till the 12th of March, assigning as a reason for the step, that there appeared to be no immediate necessity for their meeting at that time.”
In January, 1766, the British Sloop of War Diligence arrived in the Cape Fear, having on board the stamp paper. The Governor issued his proclamation calling on the stamp distributors to apply for it to the Commander of the Sloop. But Colonel John Ashe of New Hanover, and Colonel Waddell of Brunswick embodied the militia of the two counties, and marched at their head to Brunswick, where the Diligence was anchored, and notified the commander that they would resist the landing of the stamp paper. A party was left to watch the movements of the ship, while their comrades seized a boat belonging to the ship, and ascended the river to Wilmington, where the Governor resided, for the time. They placed the boat on a cart and marched with it through the streets, amid the plaudits of the people. The next day, Colonel Ashe, with a crowd of the people, called on the Governor, and demanded to see the Stamp Master, James Houston, who it seems, had taken refuge with His Excellency. The Governor at first declared his purpose to resist the demand, but was induced to yield by a threat that his house would be burned over his head. Houston then came out, and accompanied Colonel Ashe and the citizens to the market, where he took a solemn oath not to attempt the execution of his office. Whereupon the people gave him three cheers, and conducted him back to the Governor's quarters. This statement is condensed from Martin, who has given a fuller account of the resistance of the Colonies to the Stamp Act, than even Mr. Bancroft, and other historians of the United States.
The Whigs of North Carolina, owing to peculiar circumstances, had to confront formidable bodies of tories at home, where there was less glory, or at least, less reputation to be achieved, than in the struggle with the foreign foe. These internecine conflicts, though fierce and bloody, and calling forth physical courage and military conduct of a high order, were not of a character to place their leaders in the line of promotion in the Continental service.
The existence of Toryism in North Carolina called forth all the more courage and firmness on the part of her lovers of liberty. This local,
defection was the result of a combination of circumstances which have never been fully appreciated beyond the limits of the State.
The Scotch Highlanders who came to North Carolina about the middle of the eighteenth century, would, under other circumstances, have been an excellent class of immigrants. They were good people. But they had rebelled against George II, in favor of Charles Edward, a descendant of their ancient kings of the House of Stuart. These adherents of the Stuarts constituted or formed a part of the Tory party of Great Britain; and the Highlanders were, therefore, Tories by inheritance; that is to say, they belonged to the party which believed in the divine right of kings. They had been defeated at the battle of Culloden, and their last hope of a restoration of the Stuarts was gone. The leaders were hanged, and their followers were allowed to emigrate to America, after taking the oath of allegiance. While these North Carolina Highlanders, therefore cannot be supposed to have felt an ardent love for the British Government, they were still further removed in sentiment from that form of Whigism in America, which had armed itself for the establishment of a Republic. They were at the same time suffering the terrible consequences of an unsuccessful rebellion against an established government; and having renewed their allegiance to it, nothing was more natural than that they should shun, and even resist, a second rebellion. Under these circumstances the Royal Governor Martin, authorized Donald McDonald, their recognized head, to raise a brigade. He did so; but was soon defeated and made a prisoner, together with Allan McDonald, the husband of the celebrated Flora McIvor. The leaders were exchanged, and returned to Scotland.
The yeomanry of the upper countries had for years chafed under the illegal exactions of the county officers. The Clerks of Courts demanded two to six times the amount of the lawful fees for registering deeds and wills; for issuing marriage licences and all legal processes. The Sheriffs exacted double and treble the amount of the taxes. The people protested, but to no purpose. At length an indictment was found against the Clerk of the Orange County Circuit Court. He was convicted, and was fined by the Judges—a sixpence. This conduct of the Court in conniving at the fraudulent extortion of the Clerks, rendered the people desperate, and provoked them to take up arms in defence of their violated rights. No fair-minded man who reads the history of these events will hesitate to say that these people were subjected to greater injustice than was imposed by the Crown and Parliament on the American Colonies. They took the name of Regulators, and organized rude military companies, which were very poorly armed and equipped. They were poor, and for the most part ignorant; and without arms or military training, they were in no plight to cope with the forces under Governor Tyron. They were ingloriously defeated at Alamance, in May, 1771; and like the defeated Highlanders at Culloden, they were required — such as were not hanged — to take an oath of allegiance. Governor Tyron was a man of the world, unscrupulous, but polished in manners. His wife, and her sister Miss Esther Wake, were ladies of rare beauty and accomplishments. The gentry in all the eastern counties were completely led captive by the fascinations of the Provincial Court. In those days, the lawyers and wealthier classes exercised far more control over the people than they have done in later years. As illustrative of this statement it may be mentioned that Tryon, by these social influences, was able to carry through the Assembly a measure which was regarded at the time as one of startling extravagance. This was an appropriation of fifteen thousand pounds for the erection of a Governor's palace. The house was built at New Berne, and was, no doubt, one of the finest mansions in America, in its day. It added considerably to the burden of taxes, and to the irritation of the people.
It was in like manner, by social blandishments that Tryon was able to rally around him the gentry of the lowlands, when he marched into the up-country to the suppression of the revolt of the Regulators. These gentlemen, three and four years later, became the staunchest of Whigs, and were not a whit behind the Adamses and Hancock, of Massachusetts, or of Henry and Jefferson of Virginia, in their early and firm support of the rights of the Colonies. But the active part taken by these men in the suppression of the revolt of the Regulators, tended strongly to alienate the latter from the cause of the country in 1775, and the years following.
This antipathy of the Regulators to the leading Whigs; the suffering they had undergone, as a result of unsuccessful revolt, together with the oath they had so recently taken to be faithful to the Crown, made it an easy matter for Tryon's successor, Josiah Martin, to fix them in their allegiance. He visited their region of country, redressed their grievances, pardoned such as were still amenable to trial or punishment, and gave them his confidence by appointing their leading men to office. Martin, in all these respects showed great good sense and sagacity. But he led a forlorn hope; and was compelled in April, 1775, to abandon the seat of government at New Berne, and fly for safety to Fort Johnston, on the banks of the Cape Fear. In July, feeling insecure in the Fort, he took refuge on board the British Sloop of War, Cruiser, and from this safe retreat he fulminated his Proclamation, and issued his orders to his Tory adherents; but never again could he set foot on North Carolina soil, as Governor of the State.
The knavish conduct of the county officers in extorting illegal fees and taxes, which the Regulators resisted to the best of their ability, belongs to the class of occurrences in the history of the Province which half-informed scribblers have, for a century and more, harped upon as affording evidence of the lawless character of the people.
In Virginia, the old aristocratic families, who gave tone to public sentiment, were strongly biased, by the force of habit, education, and attachment to the Mother Country, to the Church of England. They were not a particularly religious class of people; nor were they deeply learned or interested in theological controversy. But the religion of the Church was that of the Monarch, and of the aristocracy, and therefore, they argued, it must be the true church. They had sufficient influence with the people to establish it, and maintain it at the public expense. But there was a large and growing element of dissent, which was destined under the lead of Jefferson, to overthrow the establishment and to place all denominations on an equality before the law. A large proportion of the wealthy and well-to-do classes who emigrated to North Carolina from Virginia, were attached to the Church; and, backed, at first, by the Lords Proprictors, and afterwards by the King's Government, they succeeded in establishing the Church as the Religion of the Province, accompanied by the imposition of a tax for its support. The Province was divided into Parishes, and glebe lands were set apart, out of the public domains, with the same end in view. At the same time all other forms of religion were tolerated without the slightest restraint. The provision of law for the support of the clergy, and for other church purposes, was wholly inadequate, and the payment of taxes for that purpose was evaded as much as possible. The odium which attached to the establishment from a sense of the injustice of compelling Dissenters to pay taxes for its support, was a fatal obstacle to its usefulness. The Proprietors might without offense to the people, have endowed the Church out of their more than princely domains, with lands, which, in the course of time, would have made it wealthy; but the imposition of taxes for the support of the clergy was a fatal mistake which deprived it of the love and veneration of the people, which its unrivaled
liturgy is so well calculated to inspire. At the outbreak of the Revolution there were not many clergymen in the Colony, and scarcely one of these remained with their flocks, to share in their fortunes, when the shock of revolution and war came.
The failure of the Church to take root in the Colony, owing to the persistent efforts that were made to force it upon the people, was sufficient reason, with British Tory writers of those times (and is sufficient reason still, with an American writer who wishes to calumniate the State) for the declaration. “Nor does the soul appear to be better cared for than the body, for it was not until 1703 that the first clergyman was settled in the Colony.
The Church of England was established by the Government, without the approval of the people, who were opposed on principle to Church rates, as to all kinds of taxes whatsoever. Owing to this dislike of taxation, most of the people were Dissenters. But no Dissenting Churches flourished in the Colony. There was complete toleration, even for Quakers, because nobody cared a groat for theology, or for religion.” This remark, like the others quoted from the writer, is made with reference to North Carolina, “in the Colonial Period”—that is to say, throughout that period. It has been shown on preceding pages, that the earliest settlements in the colony were made by people who fled from religious persecutions in Virginia. It is never the indifferent and careless, the vile and the vicious, who become the victims of religious persecution—they would rather bend the knee; than brave the storm. On the contrary it is only the sincere and earnest believers—those who are inspired by an unconquerable love of truth and duty—that prefer exile and martyrdom to a recantation or abandonment of their faith. And such, we have seen, was the character of the Quaker and Presbyterian emigrants from Virginia to the Albemarle settlements. They were, after a few years, followed by large numbers who were members or adherents of the Church. The proportion of sincere believers of this class was quite as large as the average in communities; while the Quakers and Presbyterians were eminently religious—else they would not have been exiled by presecution. The first necessity of all was to build cabins to shelter them from the elements, to clear the forests for cultivation, and to enclose them with fences. For they brought horses, cattle and other live stock, which roamed at large, and helped themselves to the bounties supplied by nature, and needed little attention from their owners. The colonists were not in a condition to build stately churches, nor to pay salaries to ministers; and it was, and is, a principle with Quakers, to pay no salaries to their preachers. This fact has been familiar to every man of ordinary intelligence for two centuries. They met at private houses for purposes of worship, or when the weather was favorable, in the stately groves. The Presbyterians whose circumstances were similar, imitated the Quakers in the simplicity of their religious exercises. They were often under the necessity of putting up, for the time, with the ministrations of laymen, or of a minister who had some secular occupation for his support.
The Baptists formed a congregation in Perquimans, as early as 1727. Paul Palmer was the minister. He began with thirty-two members, whose names are given. Joseph Parker succeeded him. A Baptist congregation was founded in Halifax, in 1742. “This, says Mr. Benedict, the historian, “is the Mother Church in all that part of the State, which still abounds with Baptists.” In 1752, the Baptists had sixteen congregations in the Province. In 1765, they had become numerous, and formed the Kehukee Association. “About this time,” says Mr. Benedict, “the separate Baptists had become very numerous, and were rapidly increasing in the upper regions of North Carolina.” This schism, however, was soon afterwards healed, and the two branches of the denomination were cordially united.
Mr. Moore an able historian of the State, mentions a Baptist congregation known as Shiloh, which was organized in Pasquotank County, as early as 1729, and refers to John Comer's Journal of that year, as his authority. Mr. Moore states, also, that “six years later, Joseph Parker, ordained by this church, had established, where Murfreesboro now stands, the church still known as Meherin; that in 1750 a congregation was formed at Sandy Run in Bertie; and about the same time, chapels were in existence at St. John's, and St. Luke's or Buckhorn, in Hertford.
In the year 1736 there was an immigration of Presbyterians into Virginia and North Carolina, from the North of Ireland. Henry E. McCullough, the agent of Lord Granville—himself a large land owner—induced a colony of these people to settle on his estate in Duplin county, in the southeastern part of the Province. From this time forward colonies of Presbyterians came and settled in the Province, from year to year, and became a powerful influence, from their superior education and strong characteristics. From the Virginia border to that of South Carolina, in all the Piedmont region, and as low down as the county of Granville, their settlements were numerous; and in conjunction with the Moravians in Surry, the Quakers in Guilford, and Lutherans, and German Reformed Churches in Rowan, they imported a high moral and religious tone, to society, in all that portion of the Province, accompanied by a love of learning and of liberty. The Presbyterians were strongly planted in Granville and Orange; and whereever they formed a settlement they built a church. These settlements date back to the year 1740.
To the Rev. Mr. Foote, who composed his valuable Sketches of North Carolina from the records of the Presbyteries and congregations, I am indebted for many valuable facts. The Rev. Mr. Caruthers, also, in his Life of the Rev. David Caldwell, and his sketches of the history of the Province and State, has contributed many valuable facts and incidents. Mr. Foote, in this connection, says:
“While the tide of emigration was setting fast and strong into the fertile regions between the Yadkin and Catawba, from the North of Ireland, through Pennsylvania and Virginia, another tide was flowing from the Highlands of Scotland, and landing colonies of Presbyterian people along the Cape Fear river. Authentic records declare that the Scotch had found the sandy plains of Carolina many years previous to the exile and emigration that succeeded the crushing of the hopes of the House of Stuart in the fatal battle of Cullodon in 1746. But in the year following that event, large companies of Highlanders seated themselves in Cumberland County; and in a few years the Gaelic language was heard familiarly in Moore, Anson, Richmond, Robeson, Bladen and Sampson. Among these people and their children, the warm hearted preacher and patriot, James Campbell labored more than a quarter of a century; and with them, that romantic character, Flora McDonald passed a portion of her days.” This lady worshipped at a little church among the sand-hills of Cumberland, called “Barbacue.” It is still a place of public worship, but whether in the same building or not, is not stated.
In the year 1750 the Moravians, or United Brethren purchased 100,000 acres of land from Lord Granville, in Surry County, in sight of the mountains. They began their settlements the next year. There were several of these settlements in the purchase, and each settlement immediately built a house of worship. Their descendants still inhabit that fine district of country, and give tone to society. Like the Quakers, they are an eminently religious people; and like the Quakers, too, they are conscienciously opposed to war and fighting. It is a fact highly honorable to the Province and State of North Carolina, that the scruples of these two classes of Religionists have always been respected; and
men whose consciences forbid the bearing of arms, have ever been excused by the payment of a moderate tax. The ill success of the Church of England has already been explained. But it was not wholly inefficient. Every Parish—and the Province was divided into Parishes—had its lay Reader, who, in the absence of a clergyman, read the services, and a sermon, selected generally from the works of some eminent Englishman, such as Tillotson, South or Barrow. And thus, every heart which remained loyal to the faith of our English ancestors, was nourished and instructed. But the desertion of their posts by the clergy, on account of inadequate salaries, and the open revolt of their parishioners, in 1775, prepared the way for the reception of Methodism, which, at that time, was only a new method of propagating the faith of the Church. Most families which were not distinctively of the Presbyterian, Baptist, Quaker or some other denomination, during and immediately after the Revolution, became attached to the Methodists. There was no interregnum of Religious worship and observance in the State.
There remain two more serious misrepresentations to be noticed, viz: the denial that there were schools or Courts of law in North Carolina, during the era of Provincial dependence. And first, as to schools, the writer says:
“Until just before the war for Independence there was not a single school, good or bad, in the whole Colony. It need not be added that the people were densely ignorant.”
If the people of North Carolina were as ignorant of letters as this historical critic has shown himself to be of his subject, their condition was pitiable indeed.
Dr. John Brickell, an intelligent naturalist, resided in and traveled throughout the settlements in the early part of the eighteenth century, and published, in Dublin, in the year 1737, “The Natural History of North Carolina; with an account of the trade, manners and customs of the Christian and Indian inhabitants.” This intelligent writer says:
“The Religion by law established is the Protestant, as it is professed in England; and though they seldom have orthodox clergyman, (he means those of the Church) among them, yet there are not only glebe lands laid out for that use, commodious to each town, but likewise for building churches. The want of these Protestant Clergy is generally supplied by some schoolmasters, who read the Liturgy, and then a sermon out of Dr. Tilotson, or some good practical divine every Sunday. These are the most numerous and are dispersed through the whole Province.” This gentleman traveled and made his observations in the Province between the years 1730 and 1737, as is shown by the imprint of the book; and it appears from his statement, that at that early day the “schoolmaster was abroad” “through the whole Province.” Next in numerical strength were the Quakers, the Presbyterians, the Baptists and the Catholics, and the author says that the latter, who were scattered over the Province, had a clergyman at Bath-town.
In 1704, Mr. Blair, a Church missionary, and a good man, came to the Colony, and ‘reported that the settlers had built small churches in three precincts, and appointed a lay Reader in each, who were supplied by him with sermons. These lay-Readers were schoolmasters, as appears from the specific statement of Dr. Brickell; and there is additional incidental evidence of the fact. The lay-Readers were to be supported, and to employ them as teachers of schools was the natural resource. But there is other positive evidence of the fact.
Dr. Hawks gives an account of some small subscriptions made by the wealthy clergy and nobility for the propogation and support of the Gospel in America, from which it would appear that those well-to-do Christians of the father-land had an idea that a very little money would diffuse a great deal of Gospel truth; or that a very little of the truth would be sufficient for the Colonies. But the King. (William III,) we are told, did better. “On the report of Dr. Bray,
a missionary, Bishop Compton went to the King, as he had done before, and obtained from him a bounty of £20 to every minister or schoolmaster, that would go over to America.”
The Rev. William Gordon, an intelligent English clergyman, who came as a missionary to North Carolina in the year 1708, and who was a man of character and piety, after returning home, wrote a long letter to the Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in regard to the Colony. It bears date May 13, 1709. In this letter he incidentally alludes to the fact that the Quakers in Pasquotank were sending their children to the school of a lay Reader of the Church, named Griffin. The same clergyman established a church at the head of Albemarle Sound, in the settlement which afterward became the town of Edenton, and introduced a schoolmaster, with school books. He states that there were no Quakers in that precinct; (Chowan) and that the people were extremely ignorant and poor. Yet Edenton, long before the Revolution, became the centre and the abode of the wealthy and refined. The reader of the life of Judge Iredell, of the United States Supreme Court, by McRee, is charmed by the picture presented of a polished society of well-bred and educated people in that secluded little nook of the Province of North Carolina.
At the session of the Assembly which met at Wilmington, November 20, 1759, says Martin:
“An aid was granted to the King for the subsistence of the troops and militia now in pay of the Province; it was directed to be paid out of the fund heretofore appropriated for the purchase of glebes and the establishment of schools, the King not having signified his pleasure on that appropriation.”
As a rule the Kings of England had to be bribed into acquiescence in any measure proposed in behalf of the Colonists, however essential to their welfare, by the grant of money to which was no doubt dropped out or omitted, as himself or his favorites. The foregoing is a specimen of this system of government. I fail to find in the Colonial statutes the Act referred to, it never became a law. But Martin published one or more editions of the laws, and there can be no question that the Assembly, about the middle of the last century, passed an Act for the support of Common schools—a measure of benificence, which was frustrated by the selfish stupidity of George II.
The subsequent Act of the Assembly for diverting the school fund from its original purpose, in order to defend the Colonies against the combined attacks of the French and Indians, was justifiable; but the withholding the royal assent, before the emergency arose, was simply in keeping with the heartless policy, with reference to the Colonies, which governed in the British Cabinet.
In 1764, “An Act was passed for the erection of a schoolhouse, the Academy in the town of New Berne, which,” says Martin, “is the first effectual Act for the encouragement of literature.” Why this was the first, we have already explained. In 1767, the Academy was incorporated, and about the same time a charter was given to the Edenton Academy. Careless writers have misunderstood these remarks of Martin, with reference to these Charters, as implying that they were the first schools ever established in the Province. The pretentious Harper's Magazine Critic belongs to this class of superficial readers and writers.
The condition of these Charters was, that the schools were to be taught by members of the established Church. And it was for lack of this restriction that the Royal authority was withheld from the Charter of Queen's Museum, at Charlotte, which was to be under the control of the Presbyterians. At the next session of the Assembly, 1771, the Charter was modified, in the hope of securing the Royal favor, but without success. But as there is no royal road to science, so also, the classics and sciences may be taught
in institutions from which the Royal assent is withheld—and there were many such in North Carolina, long before the Revolution.
The Rev. Mr. Foote, whose sketches of North Carolina have been quoted in preceding pages, says “Almost invariably, as soon as a neighborhood was settled (by Presbyterians,) preparations were made for the preaching of the Gospel by a regular stated pastor; and wherever a pastor was located, in that congregation was a classical school—as in Sugar Creek, Poplar Tent, Centre, Bethany, Buffalo, Thyatira, Grove, Wilmington and the churches occupied by Patillo in Orange and Granville.” The Presbyterian settlements commenced in 1738; and although each settlement did not, at first, have a minister, and a classical school, there can be no question that they had schools in which the children were taught to read and write.
The history of the Moravian settlements at Wachovia, or Salem, shows that they founded churches and schools immediately on their arrival; or as soon as they had provided humble dwellings for themselves and their children. On their hundred thousand acre purchase they formed several settlements, each of which had a place of worship. Salem is the centre; and now for nearly eighty years it has had one of the largest and finest female schools in America, in which, during that long period, thousands of young ladies have been educated, who have gone thither from every State of the South, and not a few from the North and West.
In the eastern and middle counties the common schools were taught, as has been shown, by the lay readers of the Church, and by others; while the most wealthy classes sent their sons to William and Mary in Virginia, to Princeton, to New England, and even to Old England, for higher education.
The libel which the writer attempts to attribute to Mr. Bancroft, has been exposed, and need not be repeated. He follows up that statement with another, however, which requires notice. He says:
“The Courts, such as they were, sat often in taverns, where the Judge might sharpen his wits with bad whiskey; while their decisions were not recorded, but were simply shouted by the crier from the Inn door, or at the nearest market place.”
Of all the statements of the writer, the above shows the greatest degree of ignorance; for it is incredible that a sane man who has read the history of the Colony, would deliberately make assertions which are contradicted on almost every page of our annals. A large portion of Martin's history of the Province is devoted to an exposition of the court systems. But to begin at the beginning.—Dr. Hawks, in his history of the early colonization of the Province, which he brings down to the year 1730, has a lengthy chapter entitled “The Law and its Administration.” He prefaces this chapter, as is his method, with his authorities; and these consist of extracts from the Records of the Courts. The first extracts from the Records of the “General Court,” refutes two of the statements above. It is dated 1695, and is an order of the Court to the Marshal to take into custody Stephen Manwaring, an attorney, “to answer for his contemptuous and insolent behavior before the Court.”
Then follows an order debarring him; and another, allowing him till the next term to answer; and finally, in 1697, was ordered “that the said Stephen Manwaring shall not, from henceforth, be permitted to plead as an Attorney in any Court of Record in this Government.”
The next extract bears date the same year, 1695, and is of the same character. Two gentlemen of the bar were debarred for contempt. One of them, Henderson Walker, Esq., afterward made a distinguished figure in the history of the Colony; and four years after this contempt of Court, he became its Governor.
In 1697 we have the record of a “Summary proceeding for a false accusation.” In 1714, the “Proceedings on an Information against a
militia-man;” and in 1722, an “Abatement of suit by reason of the plaintiff's outlawry.” Next follows the whole proceedings in the General Court, on a writ of error. This was in the year 1723. The introductory lines in this proceeding will show that the forms of law, brought from England, were substantially observed. It begins as follows:
“John Gray of Bertie precinct, gentleman, comes to prosecute his appeal from certain proceedings had against him, at the Precinct Court of Bertie, on Tuesday, the 14th day of May, Anno Domini, 1723, at the suit of John Cotton, Esq.
“And the said John Gray, by Edward Moseley, his attorney, brings into court here, a copy of the Record and proceedings of said Court, in these words,” &c.
This precinct or county of Bertie, was the youngest of the settlements, and it had just been given corporate authority. This may have been the first court—and it was certainly among the earliest. Yet we see that it was a Court of Record, and thus brands as a calumny the statement referred to in Harpers Magazine. It is a part of the Record that the Court was held at the house of James Howard at Akotsky. The date was Tuesday, May 14, 1723. Bertie is just across the Chowan river from Edenton, the principal town of the Province; and the writ of Error seems to have been sued out on the day the judgment was rendered.
Dr. Hawks gives the writ of arrest of John Gray, and his declaration, signed by John Henneman, his Attorney, “pro pl'ff.” The suit was an action of detimce for a patent, for “six hundred and forty acres of ground.” The Declaration is endorsed, “I do not detain the patent.—John Gray.” Next follows a formal summons for George Wynn as a witness; then the statement of the issues joined, the plea of non-detinet, the impannelling of the jury, and their verdict for the plaintiff. All this in the lowest court of the Province, held by three or more Justices of the Peace, in the youngest county in the Province, in the year 1723. Mr. Mosely, afterwards distinguished in the history of the Province, was the attorney for the plaintiff in error. He recites the foregoing facts, and excepts to them in the usual form and assigns four reasons why the court below manitestly erred.
The General Court reversed and annulled the verdict, and ordered that Cotton pay the costs. Dr. Hawks, who was a lawyer before he became a clergyman, remarks on these proceedings as follows:
“We have presented the whole Record of the General Court in this case, that the reader might see the forms of writ and subpoena in use as set forth in the Record from the Precinct Court. It furnishes, also, incidentally, evidence that the practice of the day seems to have been in the Precinct Court, to endorse the pleas on the declaration. It illustrates also, the formality with which the minutes of proceedings were kept in the General Court. There are numerous other cases to be found, more fully even, than this, and where the errors assigned involved some interesting and really doubtful points of law; but we selected this, as being one of the shortest, and yet sufficient for all purposes of illustration.”
Dr. Hawks fills sixteen pages with extracts from “the Records of the General Court of Oyer and Terminer,” beginning in 1697, and ending in 1726. Nothing could have been further from his purpose than to furnish proof that North Carolina had courts of record at that early day: for how could he imagine that any man would make such a display of his ignorance as to dispute the fact? How could he suppose that a pretentious Magazine would commit such a blunder, in an article of historical criticism—and that it would apply the stupid remark to the condition of the Province, during the whole time of colonial dependence? Yet that is the predicament in which Harper's Magazine has placed itself.
The first case copied by Dr. Hawks from the Records of the General Court of Oyer and Terminer, is erroneously placed under the date of 1697, when William III, was on the throne. For the writ runs in the name of “our Sovereign Lady, the Queen”—meaning, doubtless, Queen Anne.
It was on an indictment against Susannah Evans, for witchcraft, under an old English statute, as amended in the reign of James I. It was not a colonial statute; yet the courts were required to enforce it. But the result of the trial shows that our ancestors were not abreast with the civilization of that age, as illustrated further north, and it was lucky for Susanah that they were not. The indictment is as follows:
“The Jurors for our Sovereign Lady, the Queen, present upon their oaths, that Susanah Evans of the precinct of Currituck, in the County of Albemarle, in the aforesaid Province, not having the fear of God before her eyes, but being led by the investigation of the Devil, did, on or about the twenty-fifth day of July last past, the body of Deborah Bouthier, being then in the peace of our sovereign lady, the Queen, devilishly and maliciously bewitch, and by assistance of the devil, afflict, with mortal pains, the body of the said Deborah Bouthier, whereby the said Deborah departed this life. And also did diabolically and maliciously bewitch several other of her Majesty's liege subjects, against the peace of our sovereign lady, the Queen, and against the form of the statute in that case made and provided,” &c.
This indictment was laid before the Grand Jury, by the Attorney General; but that body failed to find a true bill, and Susanah was turned loose upon society to work her “devilish arts.” This seems to have been the only case in which a person was brought before the Courts of North Carolina, on a charge of witchcraft, and whether the fact was due to the isolation of the Province, by which it “was in a great measure cut off from the currents of thought and feeling by which the other colonies were swayed, or whether to a more enlightened sense of justice than prevailed in colonies which sent witches to the gallows “by the cart-load,” as Upham informs us, was the case in Massachusetts, the reader may determine.
But if North Carolina suffered from its seclusion, a loss of sympathy with the great movement for the suppression of witchcraft, it was from no lack of zeal for religion and good morals, as the Magazine critic would have the world believe. Among the numerous extracts from the Records of the General Court of Oyer and Terminer, made by Dr. Hawks, are the proceedings on the indictment of John Hassel, of Chowan Precinct, in the year 1720, on charge of profanity. Hassel was one of the “advanced thinkers” of that age, who declared publicly on Sunday, March 13, 1718. “That he was never beholden to God Almighty for anything; for that he never had anything from him, but what he worked for;” and much more of the same sort. He plead “not guilty,” but the jury convicted him. His counsel moved in arrest of judgement, that the indictment was not brought within six months after the words were spoken; nor was it prosecuted within ten days, “according to the form and effect of an act for observing the Lord's Day.” The court overruled the motion, and ordered that the culprit should receive “thirty-nine lashes on his bare back,” and give security “in the sum of fifty pounds for his good behavior for a year and a day.”
Here is incidental proof that these colonists, who are represented as devoid of law and religion, and of learning, had laws against profanity, and requiring the observance of the Lord's Day, as early as 1718; and that these laws were enforced against any “lawless and vile fellows” who might come into the Province, and offend against them. But our ancestors failed in the matter of hanging witches, and selling Quakers, and are voted ignorant and irreligious.
The proceedings on an indictment for “forcible
entry and trespass,” are given by Hawks, under date of 1729. And of the same date there is the written refusal of the Governor to sign a death warrant on account of informalities in the trial.
Numerous specimens are given of the sentences of the Court for theft, and similar offences, in which the lash was generally brought into requisition.
Some pages are devoted to the Records of the Chancery Court, during the early period of colonial history, prior to 1730; but the foregoing must suffice.
It is probable that the assailant of the good name of the State may have deduced many of his conclusions from the following remark of the elder Josiah Quincey, which he recorded in his Memoir. That gentleman passed through eastern North Carolina in the Spring of 1773, and was greatly pleased with the character and spirit of the people, all along his route. He was especially pleased with the gentlemen he met at Wilmington, where he spent some days. He mentions with honor several whose names have come down to us. Passing on further north, he states, under date of April 5th, that he “breakfasted with Colonel Buncombe[in Tyrrell County] who waited upon me to Edenton Sound, and gave me letters to his friends there. Spent this and the next day in crossing Albemarle Sound, and in dining and conversing in company with the most celebrated lawyers of Edenton.” [Among these lawyers were, doubtless, Samuel Johnston, who, a few years later was chosen to the office of President of the Continental Congress, which he declined; but became Governor of the State, and a United states Senator. Mr. Quincey more than likely met, also, James Iredell, who afterwards became a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.] Mr. Quincey continues: “From them I learned that Dr. Samuel Cooper of Boston, was generally (they said universally) esteemed the author of “Leonidas,” who, together with “Mucius Scaevola,” was burnt in effigy under the gallows, by the common hangman.” And here follows the misleading remark of Mr. Quincey, which a person, entirely ignorant of the history, and of most other things, might be excused for taking as conclusive proof that North Carolina, prior to the Revolution, never had any laws or courts, although she possessed “celebrated lawyers.” Mr. Quincey says: “There being no courts of any kind in this Province, and no laws in force by which any courts could be held, I found little inclination or incitement to stay long in Edenton, though a pleasant town.”
This statement was literally true at that day and date; but the circumstances which brought about the peculiar state of things, being well understood throughout the colonies, Mr. Quincey did not stop to explain them. They constituted one of the most serious grievances against which the people of the Province had long had reason to complain of the Crown and Government of Great Britain. The explanation is as follows: For more than twenty years a struggle had been going on between the Assembly on the one side and the Governor and Council, appointed by and impelled by the Sovereign, on the other, in regard to the constitution of the courts, Superior and Inferior.
The Crown insisted on the appointment and removal of the Judges, at pleasure, and to import them from Great Britain, while the Assembly was required to provide them fixed and liberal salaries.
The Assembly resisted this unjust pretension, and insisted that lawyers resident in the Colony should alone be appointed to Judgeships over them; that their tenure of office should be permanent, and that their salaries should depend upon the free offering of the Assembly from year to year.
This controversy dated back to the middle of the century. An act of the Assembly of 1754, for the regulation or reorganization of the courts had never received the royal sanction, and at
length, after it had been in force for several years, it was annulled, or vetoed. In 1760 a new court act was adopted, which provided, among other things, that no person should be appointed a Justice of the Superior Court, unless he had been regularly called to the degree of an outer barrister in some of the English Inns of Court; unless he were of five years standing, and had practiced law in the principle Courts of Judicature of the Province. The act also required that the commissions of the Judges should run during good behavior.
The Governor, Dobbs, held that the clause defining the qualifications of the Judges, was an unconstitutional restraint on the King's prerogative, almost precludeing the appointment of any one from England; and that the clause defining the tenure of the Judges was at variance with the principle of keeping all great colonial officers under a strict subordination to, and dependence on the Crown.
The Assembly plead earnestly with the Governor, alleging the necessity for courts of Justice and the sacredness of the right they contended for. They were, indeed, fighting over again the parliamentary battles of Hampden and Pym, for regulated liberty; and they fought them with a courage, an intelligence, and a dignity worthy of the cause. They were fighting just such battles as Massachusetts had fought throughout her whole history, and which constitute her chiefest glory.
As illustrative of the Crown officials in the Province, and as throwing further light upon the causes which provoked the Regulation movement, I will be excused for presenting more fuly, the nature of this controversy between the people and their imported rulers.
Of the new court system, which was introduced and passed in the Assembly which met at Wilmington, November 20, 1759, Martin says that it provided for the establishment of a court of king's bench and common pleas. It forbade the Chief Justice to receive any part of the fees of the clerks, which seems to have been an unauthorized practice of that eminent person—or rather, of one or more persons who had held the office. The Council, which was appointed by the Crown, would not consent to the passage of the bill until this prohibition was expunged, which that body held to be derogatory of the dignity of the Chief Justice. The Assembly replied that “the practice which had hitherto prevailed of the Chief Justice exacting from the Clerks a considerable proportion of their legal fees, had been one cause of their being guilty of great extortions, whereby the Superior Courts had become scenes of great oppression, and the conduct of the Chief Justice and Clerks, a subject of universal complaint, they admitted that the late Chief Justice, Peter Henly (whose death was lamented by all who wished to see the hand of Government strengthend, the laws duly executed and justice impartially administered) from a pious sense of the obligations of his oath, had conformed to the act of 1748, for regulating officers fees, but they thought themselves bound in duty to their constituents to provide against the pernicious effects of a contrary conduct.”
On this and other grounds of disagreements the two Houses did not come to terms, and the bill failed. At the next session the Assembly passed a court bill not materially different from that of 1759. It was sent up accompanied by an address, in which its importance to the welfare of the Province was urged.
But the Governor, who was very anxious to have an aid bill passed, in compliance with a demand by the Crown, for the prosecution of the war against the French and Indians, temperized while urging the paramount duty of passing that measure. The Assembly prepared an address or petition to the King, in which the grievances of the Colony were strongly set forth, and the great importance of the “court law” was urged.
In the same address, serious complaints were made against the Governor, Dobbs, who, it was
charged had appointed corrupt and incompetent men to office.
No agreement was reached and the Superior Court bill was rejected.
An act, however, was passed, for establishing county courts, accompanied by a provision for the support of the clergy; and this was sanctioned.
The Governor then prorogued the Assembly, from the 23d to the 26th of May; when he again called on that body to pass a Superior Court bill, and grant an aid to the King. These measures were accordingly adopted; and the Governor gave his sanction to the “Court law” on the condition that if the King did not confirm it within two years from the 10th of November following, it was to be null and void.
In December, 1761, the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, laid the Court laws, passed in May of the preceding year, before the King and Council, asking the royal disallowance and repeal; and accordingly the act was annulled. The Governor was severely censured for allowing it to go into operation before it received the royal sanction.
In 1762, a Superior Court law, temporary in its character, was agreed upon by the two Houses, and was permitted to go into operation. The Assembly still maintained its position of with-holding permanent salaries from the Judges. In 1764, the Act was renewed, or extended; and in 1767, a new Act was passed, and limited to five years duration. The County Court law was also renewed, and continued for the same period. These laws would therefore expire in 1772—probably at the close of that year; and hence it was that Mr. Quincey, in February, 1773, was correct in saying, that there were “no Courts of any kind in the Province, and no laws in force by which they could be held.” The people of all the Colonies were aware of this state of things and the reason for it, and hence he deemed it unnecessary to explain them. A man of ordinary intelligence, and especially one who assumes the office of historical critic—even at a distance of a century—should have, at least surmised as much.
The remark quoted from Mr. Bancroft, on a preceding page, that whoever doubts the capacity of man for self-government, should study the early history of North Carolina, was made with reference to the people of the Albemarle settlement during the Proprietary Government; but its truth receives additional, and even fuller, illustration, in the subsequent career of the Colonists, when they had spread over a territory as large as the Mother Country, and laid the foundations of a great State. No true man can read that history without admiring the courage, and the unconquerable firmness, exhibited under the most trying circumstances with which they vindicated their rights as men. The whole history of the Province, from 1663 to 1776, was a struggle of the people against arbitrary power and corrupt administrative officers; and people of the present day who imagine that Colonial dependence in the 17th and 18th centuries was an easy yoke to bear, only show their ignorance of the history of that period.
vignette of Ben Franklin
An Address of Gen. Rufus Barringer, delivered at the Lutheran Commemoration in Concord,
N. C., November 10th, 1883.*
From a variety of causes, so far as I can learn, not a record exists exactly fixing the date of the first German settlement in this section of North Carolina, nor has a single pen told the story of the wanderings of our German fathers nor the part they bore in our early wars.
Less than five generations have passed away since these German fathers first struck the banks of the Cold Water and Dutch Buffalo Creeks. Yet who, in this large assembly can tell when, whence, why, and how these hardy pioneers came? If direct from Europe, what part? If from or through Pennsylvania, what County? What routes did they travel? When and where was the first settlement made? And especially what were their peculiar characteristics? Did they have any distinct religious creed? Any known political polity? How did they bear themselves in the numerous Indian and other early wars? Especially in the great revolutionary struggle for freedom and independence, what troops did they furnish? What sufferings and losses did they endure, and what sacrifices did they make for the cause? Who were Whigs and who Tories?
All interesting questions; the very doubt and confusion in which they are shrouded greatly embarrasses one. I shall, therefore, rather seek to excite interest and enquiry into the subject before us than undertake to decide or debate disputed issues. If I should chance to fall into errors of any kind, I will be only too glad to be fully and promptly corrected. My great aim is historic truth.
Before proceeding to the main enquiries, it is proper to disabuse the popular mind of certain prejudices in regard to the so-called Dutch or Germans, generally, of this country and more particularly as regards the religious faith and fighting, or rather non-resisting tenets, of certain Teutonie sects amongst us.
It is true that many of the earlier Dutch and German colonists were non-armbearing sectarians, such as the Mennonites in Pennsylvania, the Moravians here in North Carolina, and the Saltzbergers in Georgia. But there were none amongst our Germans. From the days of Braddock's defeat and the advent of Maj. George Washington, down to the last battle under Gen. Robert E. Lee, our Dutch have proved a most pugnacious set.
Then, again, the first German settlers are constantly confounded with Hessians, who fought against us, and numbers of whom, after the revolution, found an asylum in this country, and were not unwelcome.
* The reader should remember that many of these remarks were local and personal and understood by the audience only.The facts are these: The Hessian contingents of George III came from a region, and were raised at a time, when the bulk of the common people, the world over, were little better than beasts of burden for their rulers. The Swiss Guards were not the only mercenaries. They, too, came from the only Republic of Europe. But these Hessians happened to be mostly Protestants. The marvelous light of Luther's teachings had struck deep into even their dark minds. General Washington, with that tact and wisdom peculiarly his own, readily saw this, and ventured to turn it to account. He accordingly managed, when any of these Hessian soldiers were captured, to send them off into the interior of the country, and quarter them upon the soundest German settlements. In this way many of them were very naturally left in America. Or if exchanged, they had but to take the chances of war, to release them from their military oaths and obligations. This happened, notably, at the siege and surrender of Savannah, and under the articles of Peace 1782, when hundreds of these Protestant Hessians chose to remain in this land of liberty, and enjoy the untold blessings they were surprised to find here. They very sensibly sought their German countrymen, who knew the facts of their case, and who pitied their forlorn condition. As a well-known circumstance, they almost universally make good citizens—strikingly faithful to every trust and obligation. Hence they soon intermarried with other classes, and thus it happens that hundreds of those now before me, are the descendants of the once “Hated Hessians.”
But I have lately obtained information quite curious in regard to these Hessian contingents: At the very time that George III. was gathering up his foreign levies, to help to conquer us, Silas Deane, the American Commissioner in Germany, was offered large numbers of the same people to fight for us; and only an accident and a scarcity of money defeated the scheme.*
Another class of German immigrants who entered largely into our population of foreign descent, and who are commonly thought to have cast a stain on the name of freedom, were the so-called Redemptioners—a term now well high obsolete in popular speech—but once indicating a body of immigrants, who took an eventful part in the development of this New World. The term was first used in connection with white indentured apprentices. It was afterwards applied to a large class of very poor emigrants, who could not pay their passage-money to America in cash down; but who were willing to enter into contracts of limited service, on their arrival here, in order to re-imburse the funds advanced for that purpose.
Still again, it was an artful scheme often resorted to, by the down-trodden of Europe, to escape the thraldom of feudal bondage.
Some of our first German settlers no doubt belonged to all of these three different classes of redemptioners. A few of the most prominent pioneers certainly came in the way last indicated.
The story of the wrongs, the sufferings, the trials and troubles of these humble heroes, is so full of interest and instruction, nay of sublime courage and christian fortitude, that I pause to explain it. The facts, too, shed a reflected light on the mooted and somewhat mysterious question of where these first adventurous Germans came from, and of their national characteristics.
In one of the quiet out-lying districts of Würtemburg, the traveller now sees standing a plain stone pyramid, erected by the peasants of Germany in 1789, as a monument to Prince Charles Frederick of that Duchy, for his voluntary
* [See American Archives—series 5,—(1779), vol. III, page 887.]abolition of serfdom in that year. And its simple history is this:
The thunder of Luther's fire struck deep and fast into the hearts of the peasantry class, as you have heard here to-day. This resulted in all sorts of insurrectionary outbreaks, which had to be put down by force. This stayed somewhat the progress of the reformation and grieved Luther. But the mighty work went on and soon the minds and consciences of men became comparatively free. And yet it was a long time before the light of political truth reached the prerogatives of power and property. At that time very few, if any, of the peasant class, as such, could hold real estate in Central Europe. On the contrary, they themselves were often bought and sold with the land they worked, and had to serve their landlords a certain number of days each week, the year round, and all through life. The Protestant peasants, naturally enough, became restive under such hard and cruel restraints and restrictions. And they ere long sought in every possible way to avoid and escape them. This was next to impossible to do, and still remain in the country. But to flee their homes was also extremely hazardous. The law of expatriation was not then fully recognized, and all sorts of treaty stipulations and alliances provided for their recapture, return to slavery, and, usually, a barbarous beating besides. But go they would, and their safest course was stealth, under this scheme of indentured apprenticeships. In this way, the young men could gradually remove themselves from one State or province to another, and little noticed, reach a seaport; and so escape to America or some other foreign country where life, liberty, limb and land were somewhat free. To us of this enlightened age and free republican government, it is simply incredible that such a state of things should have existed in any Christian country, especially in the English colonies, less than one hundred and fifty years ago. But so it was. White men not only indentured themselves as apprentices, but gladly sold their persons into long but limited slavery, for the blessed privilege, or chance of escaping feudal serfdom. But listen while I read this advertisement from an old Philadelphia newspaper, The American Mercury, of date November 28, 1728:
“Just arrived from London, in the ship Borden, William Harbert, commander, a parcel of young likely Men Servants, consisting of Husbandmen, Joyners, Shoemakers, Weavers, Smiths, Brickmakers, Bricklayers, Sawyers, Tailors, Staymakers, Butchers, Chairmakers, and several other trades, and are to be sold very reasonable, either for ready money, wheat, bread or flour, by Edward Horne, Philadelphia.”
Among the classes thus named were, no doubt, the ancestors of many now high in the Free Citizenship of this great country, and possibly the ancestors of some of those present here to-day.*
After the American revolution, the exedus from Europe under this process was enormous; so much so as almost to depopulate certain German States and countries, notably Würtemberg, where serfdom was so absolute and grinding. Then it was, in 1789, that the reigning Grand Duke, Prince Charles Frederick, rose to the supreme height of voluntarily abolishing all serfdom in his dominions, And
* It was the honest boast of the distinguished John Covode, of Pennsylvania, “that his father had been held as a Redemptioner.” John Reed, the discoverer and first owner of the famous “Reed gold mine” in Cabarrus County, was one of the Hessians of the Revolutionary war. He died a wealthy man, but did not know, when he found the first lamp of gold, what it was or what it was worth. Nor did he know until he was more than eighty years old that he had a right to citizenship in this country. He was naturalized at Concord about 1843. For the discovery of the Reed gold mine, see Wheeler's History of North Carolina, Vol. II, page 64.in return, a grateful Protestant peasantry cheerfully erected this simple monument to his memory. Würtemburg again prospered; population grew and she soon became a kingdom.
In all this may be noticed the marked characteristics of the German mind and temper. According to their light, the German Princes generally had a fatherly love for their people, and the latter, ever reverential and grateful, accepted the great boon conferred by Providence not in a spirit of fanatical pride and resentment, but as a gracious concession and blessing.
And what may seem strange to us, as touching this custom of voluntary slavery, no sense of degradation seems to have attached to it. It simply shows that parties resorting to it, were in dead earnest to reach the goal of freedom, and meant real work and business. As just and proper labor contracts, such indentures were almost invariably carried out in good faith by all parties concerned.
For one, therefore, I rather commend the patient fortitude, the unfaltering faith and courage, and the Christian fidelity, with which certain of the redemptioners worked their way to the fertile fields of the Cold Water and Buffalo Creeks. As the darkest shades often reflect the most beautiful tints; and as the purest gold is usually found in the roughest rock, so the finest characters are always evolved through the severest trials and tribulations. We are the more perfect through suffering. Our Redemptioner fore-fathers had realized in their own persons the inestimable privileges and blessings they had come so far, and at such fearful risks and sacrifices, to secure. The sequel will show that when the day of trial came, and they were called upon to right for their dear-bought benefits, they were equal to every emergency.
The first Germans known to have reached this immediate section, now called the Dutch Side, consisted of three young farmers—all foreigners and probably all three Redemptioners. One certainly was, and he the best known, a man in fact, of rare strength of will, and singular force of character. He was a native of Würtemburg; left there, with the consent of his father, in his 21st year; tarried a while in Hanover; finally sailed from Rotterdam in the ship Phœnix, and landed at Philadelphia Sept. 30th, 1743. He had some education but no money or friends. He left home and country, because he was not allowed to buy or hold real property. His term of service was three years; but he worked so well, and faithfully, that he managed, some way, to make favor with his master, and wiped the whole debt out in one short year. Whether he married his master's daughter, or some other good Pennsylvania girl, it is not certain; but she, too, was poor; and he often told, with much glee that he got with her “just one silver dollar.”
With this wife and two small children, and accompanied by his two countrymen and their little families, the youthful Redemptioner, now free, set out from Pennsylvania, for the rich region of the Yadkin and Catawba—then the aim and end of the adventurous immigrant.
When this trio of enterprising Germans* started on their perilous march, the buffalo, bear and the wolf still roamed our forests. The savage Indian and the frontier French often marked the camping grounds of the lonely immigrant with the blood of slaughtered innocents. They crossed the mountain ridges and the flooded streams by following the old buffalo trail, then known as the “Indian Trading Path.” At last they reached the end of their wanderings, and they safely forded the
* The names of these three pioneer Germans were Barringer, the grand-father of the speaker, Dry, (Derr) and Smith.broad and beautiful Yadkin at the “Trading Ford,” the sole memorial amongst us, of this once famous “Indian Trading Path.” But here a new difficulty beset these peaceful fugitives from the land of the “Broad-brimmed Quaker.” The free and tolerant principles of Penn had gathered into his Province, all the odds and ends of civil and religious persecution, the world over. Jarrings and conflicts naturally ensued; notably, among the Scotch-Irish and some of the quaint Mennonites of that State. When our German friends crossed the Yadkin, and began to cast their wistful eyes over the wide plains and spreading prairies of this lovely region, they were surprised to find the Scotch-Irish just ahead of them.
The latter had occasional squatters, here and there, on the choicest spots, especially on its western borders, up and down the Catawba. Our German Pilgrims had seen enough of strife and resolved to “avoid all such.” They accordingly abandoned the “Trading Path,” just east of the present site of Salisbury and turned square to the left and followed the right bank of the Yadkin, down towards the lighter slate soils of that broken region. They were however, not afraid of their Scotch-Irish allies, in the mighty struggle to subdue the wilderness and enter its broad acres. So they gradually turned their steps to the better lands above them, and finally located on the high ground between the present Cold Water and Buffalo creeks. The exact spot was the old Ovenshine place, near the Henry Propst homestead.
How long these people had resided in Pennsylvania does not appear—long enough, however, to have lost somewhat their native German, and picked up, in its stead, that strange but popular gibberish of all tongues, universally known as “Pennsylvania Dutch.” Our immigrants themselves were called Dutch. They recognized the term and proceeded to designate their surroundings accordingly. Their nomenclature, however, was quite limited, and they usually followed nature. Hence we have Big and Little Dutch Buffalo, Big and Little Bear Creek, Big and Little Cold Water, and Jenny Wolf Branch. Above and west of them, was the English or Irish Buffalo, and south was Johnson, now Rocky River.
This would seem to have been a long time ago. Ours was then Bladen, or probably Pee Dee County—a County never legally recognized. But after all, it was only about one hundred and forty years back—as near as I can fix it—1745-6. One hundred and forty years! Only the life-span of two or three of the stout old German fathers. And yet what marked and momentous changes have taken place amongst us, in that eventful period! How the panorama of history has crowded upon us, in one short century and a half! How slowly time has passed; and how utterly the footprints of these wandering fathers have fled from sight and memory! They numbered only three families, and their nearest neighbors, on one side, were sparse settlers, in the present limits of Popular Tent and Coddle Creek, and on the other, the Highland Scotch of the Pee Dee hills. But our wanderers were not long alone.
Soon the news of a goodly land flew back, first to Pennsylvania, and then on to the far off, struggling, toiling, teeming, millions of the war-racked and priest-ridden Fatherland. And now they poured in from all directions, mainly still from and through Pennsylvania, but often through Charleston and occasionally through Wilmington, following the routes along the high ridges dividing the principal rivers. And it was thus, that this particular section, embracing parts of the present Counties of Cabarrus, Rowan and Stanly, came to be so rapidly settled, and almost exclusively by Germans. By the time of the revolution, the
“Dutch side” of old Mecklenburg was its most densely peopled portion.
I here propose to correct a partial error, into which many have fallen (at one time myself,) in regard to the distinctive nationality of these first German settlers. They are often supposed to have come from the central and northern parts of Germany, and sometimes from the low countries of Europe. But I now have ample proof that they came from the upper or Castle Rhine regions—Würtemburg, Baden, Bavaria, and the ancient Palatinate—so mercilessly wasted by that grand ogre of France—miscalled Louis the Great. It was the fiercest and bloodiest of persecutions that then desolated all this part of Southern Germany, and scattered its honest, liberty loving, intelligent, industrious Protestants to every quarter of the globe. And I am able to state from positive knowledge, that the common German names of this section, so numerous amongst us to-day, are all now found in the upper Rhine region, referred to, notably in and around the skirts of the Black Forest and its borders.
Our familiar name of Blackwelder (German, Schwartzwalder) means not black wood, but a Black Forester. So the names of Barnhart, Barrier, Bost, Dry, Misenheimer, Propst, Sides, Bosheimer, Barringer, and hundreds of others are there to-day. No doubt the emigrants, and especially those escaping under the guise of apprenticeships or as indentured servants, often stopped over in the countries through which they passed, working their way along. And it may have served their purpose occasionally, to hail from the Continental dominions of the Georges of England. But this much is certain, very few of them were Dutch proper, or natives of the low countries, or even the level parts of Germany. Our first German settlers, nearly all built their houses on reaching here, on the high grounds, and often on the tops of the hills, after the castle times of their own rugged country. Their removal to the level lands and bottoms was afterwards. But be that as it may, they came; they came to stay; and that they did so, is fully proved by the immense numbers of their descendants here to-day, and the vast regions the “Dutch Side” has peopled elsewhere. They were a hardy, healthful, handy race, self-reliant, self-helpful, and they have made their mark wherever they have struck.
The intellectual and religious qualities of such a people were almost sure to be marked and enduring. Many of them had fought in the battles of Europe; others had left home and country for conscience sake; all had endured toil, suffering and sorrow for the freedom they came so far to find. They learned to live almost entirely within themselves. Their wants were few and simple. Only two things seemed absolute essentials: (1.) In all their wanderings—in shipwreck at sea, and in storm on land; in serfdom and in voluntary slavery; under the iron heel of Power in Europe, and in the boundless freedom of America—they clung to their Luther Bibles. Without any distinctive notions of formal creeds, and profoundly indifferent to the mere forms of religion, they grasped the fundamentals of the Bible as taught by Luther, and so they lived and died. (2.) They tolerated no idlers—no drones in either the Church, the State, or the family. In fact, however, the family was everything. With a proper start in the family, all government was simple and easy. There was an intense regard for all lawful authority. The husband and father felt his responsibility both to God and the powers that be. The wife and mother was, indeed a help-meet, and shared alike the joys and sorrows of the husband. The young all worked, and grew up trained and skilled in every ordinary labor and handicraft. Both sexes were strong and active—morally,
mentally, and physically. The men were manly, and the women matronly. When trials and troubles came, such people knew how to meet them. They had, at last found delightful homes, and tasted the sweet freedom they had so much longed for. And when, therefore, they were summoned to defend those homes and to vindicate the rights and privileges they had secured, no people ever responded more heroically.
I am able to show that these German settlers participated in almost every expedition against the Indians, and that they took a very active part in the forced march of General Rutherford against the Cherokees in 1776. A young German was one of the very few killed in action on that expedition.*
It is not generally known that the settlers of this section were ever disturbed by the French enemy on our distant frontiers. But I have here (holding it up,) a petition in 1756 to Governor Dobbs, from the Rowan and Anson settlers, complaining (among other things) of the dangers that threaten them from the “savage Indians in the interest of their French allies.” Also a curiously carved powder-horn that was worn by Archibald Woodsides of Coddle Creek, in one of the long and hazardous marches against Fort Duquesne. It has on it a good description of “Fort Pitt” and its picturesque surroundings. The history of this singular memorial of our early wars is, that the owner chanced to meet in one of his marches with German soldiers from this settlement, and they persuaded him to return with them.
But I come now and chiefly to speak of the revolutionary services of the German fathers. Here the evidence is full and complete. But, unfortunately, it is only in old musty army rolls, not accessible to the general public; and no one has been found to tell the story of their deeds. But this was then the most populous part of old Mecklenburg; and it was, from first, to last, true, indeed, entirely unanimous in its fidelity to the great cause of freedom and independence.
That the Germans do not figure prominently in the famous meetings at Charlotte, May 20, 1775, is not strange. Their settlement lay mainly in the extreme limits of the old County, with numerous intervening streams, and scarcely any roads. They spoke a different language and nearly all their trade and travel was in other directions—with Salisbury on the north, with Cross-creek (now Fayetteville) on the east, and Cheraw Hills and Camden, South Carolina, to the south—the three last thriving points at the head of navigation, on their respective rivers, then a matter of vast importance. But as a mere truth, the hopes of the German settlement, then centered in one leader, Lt.-Col. John Phifer. He was a Swiss by descent. But all his ties and associations were German. His mother was a Blackwelder and his wife a Barringer. He was an unusually bright and promising man and soldier. The meetings were held at the Phifer Red Hill, three miles west of Concord. He was their delegate to the immortal convention that declared Independence, and his name so appears. But he died early in the struggle, and in his youthful grave at the Red Hill seemed to perish the hopes of his people. But not so, Old and young continued to go forth to swell the ranks of both the regular and irregular forces. I have examined the Muster Rolls and have extracts from them, and they clearly show that in proportion to population the Germans were very largely represented. On the Pension Rolls for Cabarrus County in 1835, of 21 revolutionary soldiers still drawing pensions, 12 were Germans. And old men now present will remember that when the “heroes of 1776” used to parade together at the 20th
* Matthias Barringer of the Catawba family.of May and 4th of July celebrations, the “Dutch Side” was always strong. At the last of these parades in 1839, 5 out of 8 of those present were of German blood. The Blackwelder family alone furnished eight tried soldiers to the cause.
The silence, therefore, of the Charlotte meetings, and the absence of co-temporaneous history, as to the Dutch Side, is nothing against it.
There is a story, too, which shows that the Dutch had some other reason for not attempting to make any display in the Queen City. It is, that on some military occasion, a Dutch captain took his company over there, and, giving his commands in most emphatic Pennsylvania Dutch, the Scotch-Irish laughed at him. His company vowed to stand by their Captain, and refused both collectively and individually ever to go back to Charlotte again. In confirmation of this story I have here an old Muster Roll, and sure enough “Martin Fifer” is the Captain! Certain it is, too, that at a very early day the Dutch demanded a new County, and at the first election, after Cabarrus was cut off, Caleb Phifer (the son of Martin) and John Paul Barringer were its highly honored Commoners. So, probably, the creation of this County is also due to the German element.
But there is another aspect of the Revolutionary struggle, decidedly complimentary to the Germans of old Mecklenburg, and adds a new laurel to her crown.
The Dutch Side, from their isolated and remote situation, might have easily stood aloof from the conflict, and so, possibly, have escaped the losses and sufferings I am about to describe. But they chose otherwise; and then, their very location and seclusion exposed them to the fiercest ravages of war.
Remember, then, the surroundings of this German settlement. On its east the Scotch Highlanders of the Cape Fear and Pee Dee country, nearly all Loyalists, enabled the British to extend the royal rule up to the Narrows of the Yadkin. On its south, at Cheraw and Camden, were British posts. North of it, across the Yadkin, Fanning and his infernal crew roamed almost unmolested. While in the Forks of the Yadkin, just above, the able Tory leader, Col. Samuel Bryan, held a well organized regiment of 800 men. And then, on several occasions the British army lay at Charlotte (twice) and at Salisbury (once). Now history shows just what might be expected in such a situation as this. While indeed, no great armies traversed this region, it was greatly exposed because of its remoteness and isolation, to the more frightful depredations of irregular and lawless bands of marauders and other desperadoes, passing to and fro. It is a historical fact, that Col. Bryan marched his whole Tory Regiment of 800 men through the eastern end of this settlement, to Cheraw, S. C., spreading fear and desolation in all directions. It is equally true, that when the British occupied Salisbury, several parties of Tories and Royalists, from the east of Yadkin, sought to join Cornwallis, but were driven back, mainly by Home Militia.
But the one expedition that still lives in the memory of the Dutch Side, and never fails to fire the German blood, even to this day, was that organized by the Fanning men east of the Yadkin; and crossing the river, swept this German settlement in its whole length, up and down the two Dutch Buffalos, and thence on to the British post at Camden. S. C. They robbed hundreds of Whigs, destroyed much property in purest wantonness, and seized and carried off to British prison, under most brutal circumstances, more than twenty leading citizens. In this number was Major James Smith, of the then County of Rowan, (now Davidson,) a regular officer at home, wounded, and Caleb Blackwelder and his son-in-law, Jno. Paul
Barringer, both old men—far past the military age. Smith and several others died in prison of small pox. Blackwelder and Barringer were promised their release provided some member of their families would come in person, and make certain pledges as to their conduct. No male of either family could risk the venture when old Mrs. Blackwelder mounted her horse and went herself to Camden, on the hopeless errand. She failed in her object, and in its stead, was the innocent means, through her clothing, of spreading the small pox all over the country she passed, and far and near among her friends at home. I need not tell this audience, that these terrible events drew the lines, once and for all, between Whig and Tory in the whole Dutch settlement. Up to that time, there had been no division whatever; no man who had ever taken protection, or given the enemy any sort of aid or comfort, could stay on the Dutch side and live. Now two individuals were charged with bad faith or infidelity. One of them, Rufus Johnson, who was no German, simply disappeared. The other, Jacob Agner, was run out of the country and his valuable property—the present House Mill— was confiscated. Of one or two others there were vague suspicions of disloyalty, or mean cringing in the hour of trial; and to this day, their names are mentioned with bated breath.
Such, my friends, is the proud record of our German ancestry.
I am glad of the occasion to pay this just tribute to their noble memory. Especially am I happy to do so, on this day commemorative of the immortal Luther. His fame belongs to all mankind. But in its simple strength and enduring might, it is strikingly reflected by the unpretending life, and elasticity of German character. And we here draw a most instructive and useful lesson. It marks the mysterious workings of an allwise Providence.
These people came here as poor, persecuted, wandering exiles. But in all their wanderings, they were an honest, sober, industrious, faithful, peaceful, law-abiding, God-fearing, God-serving and God-loving people. Against the early Protestant peasantry of Southern Germany scarcely aught has ever been said. Respecting just authority, and rendering proper obedience themselves, they have everywhere and under all circumstances, secured confidence and consideration. Here, in this distant land, and this secluded section, they are able to develope without contact with that effeminate degeneracies of the outside world, or the dangerous tendencies of modern civilization. You see the result in an enduring, expanding, wide-spreading, self-reliant, and ever advancing community. They had, too, their sports and amusements, their holidays and gala-days, their Easter fun and Kris-Kingle frolics; but under all, life had a serious, an intensely earnest aspect. Even their sports and amusements partook rather of skill and labor, than dissipation and debauchery, such as quiltings, spinning matches, corn-shucking, log-rolling, house-raisings and the like; all tending to manly vigor and modest woman-hood. In their outdoor hunts and games we discern the same harmless tendencies. In an old unprinted diary I have before me, kept by a sort of trader and traveller of the revolutionary era, I find the fox and deer skins came mainly from the English and Irish, while the Dutch are death on coons!
In the family, especially, each and all felt the responsibilities resting upon them. Old and young had their assigned spheres and duties Male and female learned some test of skill, art or handiwork. Life was not all one strain at display, nor one round of frivolity and frolic. There was in their family government a wonderful combination of duty, devotion, and discipline, with proper rest and recreation. In a
word, the family with them, combined the State, the Church, and the School. And the training was more in the family than in the school. Again, see the result. They bought but little, and sold much. They made no debts or contracts they did not expect to pay or execute. They scorned to live on the labor or favor of others. And as a consequence, they were a gallant, brave, and public-spirited community. They and their descendants have ever stood to the front in the time of trial and danger. In the war of 1812, in the Mexican war, and in the great Confederate conflict, they rallied to the bugle-blast, in hundreds and thousands. They have not only maintained their ground at home, but they almost peopled the regions round about them, and settled, in turn, whole sections in distant States and Territories. I honestly and firmly believe that much of this success and great prosperity, is eminently due to the sound, civil, religious, and family training of the early fathers; and that, under the providence of God, it has its power and strength in their deep devotion to to the simple Protestant faith, as taught by Luther.
But let it not be supposed, my friends, that I have lost faith in our modern civilization, and that I would live only in the past. On the contrary, I believe implicitly in the progress of human society. There is only one thing I dread: There is too much liberty—too much license and licentiousness. The home, the school, society, the State, and the Church—each and all—seem to me to pander too much—greatly too much—to the false sentimentalism of the day.
Life is all sensation and pretense. Religion, morality, and the simple virtues of truth and honesty are powerfully preached; but their practice is much more doubtful.
Nor would I, by any means, imply that the descendants of the early settlers of the “Dutch Side” have in any way, declined or deteriorated. On the contrary, while Germans are, usually, not pretentious, or ambitious of place or position, these people have always and everywhere held their ground. And as a striking fact, they have ever managed to get their full share of the best land in the country. And I am happy to learn from others, the evidence of your good faith, energy and industry. A distinguished judge, who has often ridden all over the State, pronounces the tillage and thrift of Mt. Pleasant region the best in North Carolina. And a prominent Gentile physician says the Dutch Side is still the best paying people we have. My prayer is, that you may go on in well-doing. Neither individuals or communities can hope to prosper without these virtues. And, withal, may you never cease to cherish the memory of the Fathers, and practice, as they did, the precepts of the pure and lowly Jesus, as preached by the mighty Luther, whose thunders are still shaking principalities, kingdoms and crowns, and subduing commonwealths and continents.
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. EDWARD WARREN (BEY).The eminence in his profession attained by Dr. Edward Warren (Bey) and the prominence he has acquired in the two hemispheres, commends the following most interesting sketch to the readers of these Reminiscences of Eminent North Carolinians, we make the following extract from the Medical Journal of North Carolina; it has been enlarged and continued to date of this publication, and is eminently fit to be preserved in this form.
Dr. Edward Warren (Bey) was born in Tyrrell County, North Carolina, on the 22nd of January, 1828, of parents who emigrated from Virginia, and who belonged to two of the oldest and most distinguished families of that State. His father, Dr. Wm. C. Warren, was also a physician of eminence and a man of unusual intelligence and purity of character.
When the subject of this sketch was only four years of age, his father removed him with his family to Edenton, North Carolina, where the son was educated up to his sixteenth year, when he was sent to the Fairfax Institute, near Alexandria, Virginia; and two years afterwards to the University of Virginia. In the latter institution he greatly distinguished himself, having secured honors and diplomas in many of its Academic Schools, and having graduated after a single course in its Medical Department. In 1850 he delivered the valedictory oration before the Jefferson Society, which was then esteemed the honor of the College.
In 1851 he graduated in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and whilst pursuing his studies in that city, conceived the idea of injecting a solution of morphia under the skin for the relief of pain, using for the purpose a lancet-puncture, and Anel's syringe. In this mode of medication, he was therefore, four years in advance of the inventor of the hypodermic syringe.
This device was made the subject of a thesis prepared for presentation to the Faculty upon applying for his degree, but one of the Professors, to whom he had confided the idea, so forcibly expressed the opinion that it was both chimerical and dangerous, that the thesis was witheld and another substituted in its place.
Dr. Warren, however, soon after his graduation, found occasion to put his idea into practical operation.
During the years of 1854 and 1855 he studied medicine in Paris, where he formed an intimate friendship with some of the leading medical men of France, and occupied himself by corresponding with The American Journal of Medical Sciences, and other leading American Medical Journals.
Returning to America in the summer of 1855, he settled as a practitioner in Edenton, N. C., where he soon acquired an extended reputation, both as a physician and as a surgeon. In 1856 he delivered the annual address before the State Medical Society, which was most favorably received, and also obtained the “Fiske Fund Prize” for an essay on the “Effects of Pregnancy on the Development of Tuberculosis,” which was subsequently published in book form, and has ever since been regarded as a leading work on the subject.
In 1857 he was elected editor of the Medical Journal of North Carolina; made a member of the Gynæcological Society of Boston; and chosen a delegate from the American Medical Society of Paris to the American Medical Association.
On the 16th of November of the same year, he married Miss Elizabeth Cotten Johnstone, of Edenton, a lady of rare beauty and most lovely character. By referring to Wheeler's History of North Carolina, it will also be seen that the Johnstones are directly descended from
two Royal Governors of the Colony, Gabriel and Saml. Johnstone, who were cousins and the representatives of the Cadet branch of the family of Annandale in the Peerage of Scotland.
In 1860 he was elected Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the University of Maryland; first Vice-President of the Convention to revise the Pharmacopœa of the United States; and a member of the Committee on Literature of the American Medical Association. He at once acquired an enviable reputation in the city of Baltimore as a graceful, fluent and able lecturer.
In 1861 he joined his fortunes with those of the South, and was, successively, Chief Surgeon of the Navy of North Carolina: a member of the Board to examine candidates for admission into the Medical Staff of the Confederate Army; Medical Director of the Department of the Cape Fear; Chief Medical Inspector of the Department of Northern Virginia (Gen Lee's Army;) and Surgeon-General of the State of North Carolina.
Two of these positions were conferred upon him on the field of battle as rewards for personal courage and professional work. At the battle of New Berne, although at that time on medical board duty at Goldsborough, Dr. Warren volunteered his services and remained under fire with the wounded, under circumstances of peculiar difficulty and danger. For this he was made Medical Director of the Department of Cape Fear.
Upon the battle-field of Mechanicsville, in 1862, while again acting as volunteer surgeon, he was verbally appointed by Gen. Lee, Medical Director of the Army of Northern Virginia; but knowing that Surgeon Guild, who ranked him, was but a few rods distant, Dr. Warren called the General's attention to the fact, and Surgeon Guild was made Medical Director, and upon his immediate suggestion Dr Warren was retained as Medical Inspector.
By a special act of the Legislature of North Carolina his rank as chief medical officer of the State was raised from that of “Colonel” to that of “Brigadier-General;” for “devoted and efficient services rendered to the sick and wounded.” He was also chosen by the Legislature one of the Trustees of the University of North Carolina.
During the war he wrote a work entitled “Surgery for Field and Hospital,” which passed through two editions. Among many other valuable suggestions which this book contained, was that for the treatment of “retracting flaps and conical stump,” by means of extension with “adhesive strap, with cord and weight”-a procedure which is now very widely adopted, and the origination of which, after much discussion in the journals, both at home and abroad, has been finally conceded to Dr. Warren.
This method was put into practical operation in the hospital of the University of Virginia, as early as August, 1861, whereas Dr. Hodges, of St. Louis, who alone seriously disputed the priority, finally and very courteously acknowledged Dr. Warren's claim, stating that his own first use of the method was in 1863.
Subsequently, in a controversy conducted in the London Lancet, the claims were again settled in Dr. Warren's favor, by the publication of an extract upon the subject taken from the book which had been published during the war.
In the summer of 1865, Dr. Warren returned to Baltimore, ruined in fortune by the results of the war, and expecting to resume his Professorship in the University of Maryland. A refusal to return the chair to Dr. Warren furnished sufficient ground for legal proceedings by mandamus or quo warranto, but in view of the ruined fortunes of the contestants and of the financial and social influence of the Faculty, the suit promised to be a protracted one,
and as the practical benefits to be gained in the event of success were so small, it was concluded not to resort to the Courts but to leave the issue to public opinion, which it was thought fully sustained Dr. Warren.
Then came one of the most brilliant efforts in the life of the subject of our sketch. Under his direction the Washington University Medical School was revived, rising like a phœnix, putting itself at once on a plane with the old University, which in the effort to maintain its lead made fundamental changes in its management and in the personnel of its Faculty.
Dr. Warren filled the chair of Surgery in the Washington College with great brilliancy, and became the idol of the large number of students who resorted annually to the school.
When a law was passed creating a board for the examination and registration of the physicians of the State, he was made a member of it. He was also elected Vice-President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Maryland. In 1868 he established The Medical Bulletin—a journal which obtained an extensive circulation.
In 1872 he appeared as principal medical expert for the defense in the celebrated Wharton trial. The circumstances of this trial were full of absorbing interest, it being characterized by great divergence of professional opinion among the physicians and chemists engaged in it.
General Ketchum was an eccentric old bachelor who died in the house of his friend, Mrs. Wharton, a lady of wealth and high social position. He was attended during his short illness by a physician whose line of treatment was somewhat varied, but who, although he did not arrive at a positive diagnosis, for some cause requested that an autopsy should be permitted. A thorough examination was not made of the rachidean and cranial cavities, and some of the abdominal viscera was submitted to an antiquated chemist, who, after a very slovenly analysis, pronounced the presence of antimony, and upon this an indictment was found against Mrs. Wharton. Dr. Warren was then requested, “in the interest of truth and justice,” to examine the medical testimony taken by the grand jury, and he promptly declared that the symptoms described by the attending physicians and nurses were more typical of a certain form of cerebro-spinal meningitis than of antimonial poisoning. Resting upon this, and upon the evidence of the insufficiency of the chemical analysis, the defense went to trial, with the result of a prompt verdict in favor of the accused.
Dr. Warren acquitted himself with great distinction on the witness stand, receiving congratulations and moral support from a host of medical men both at home and abroad; and although he had opposed to him a number of gentlemen of recognized professional ability, it was conceded on all sides that he came off with the advantage, his testimony—which was brilliant in the opportunity for retorts afforded by the cross-examination—losing none of its force from the assaults of the experts for the prosecution. This is fully borne out by letters and telegrams spontaneously sent to Dr. Warren, after the trial, by Dr. Fordyce Barker, of New York, Dr. Stevenson, of London, and many other prominent medical men, and even by the Hon. A. K. Syester, Attorney-General for the State of Maryland, who personally conducted the prosecution of the case. Support, so unsolicited, and from such unbiassed sources, speaks volumes for the acumen and ability of Dr. Warren. Those from the medical men are all uniform in declaring that Gen. Ketchum's symptoms could not have been caused by tartar emetic, but more resembled those of cerebrospinal meningitis; and the letters received from chemists declare that the chemical evidence for the State utterly “broke down.
While the limits of this sketch do not permit the publication of these communications, it seems appropriate to reproduce the following extract from a letter from Professor Fordyee Barker, who is so favorably known for his high personal character and great professional learning and ability:
“In all my long experience I have never met with anything which displayed more thorough research and sounder logical reasoning than the testimony which you have just given in the Wharton-Ketchum case; and I am sure that intelligent, thinking men, both in and out of the profession, will agree with me in this opinion. When I read the evidence given by the medical attendants during the sickness of General Ketchum, I said that it was absurd to ascribe his death to poisoning from Tart: Antimonii. I came to the conclusion, some days before you gave your testimony, that he died of cerebro-spinal meningitis, and expressed that conviction whenever the case was the subject of conversation.”
One incident in this case attracted a good deal of attention and brought many compliments from the daily press: it was a rencountre between the Attorney-General, Mr. Syester, and the witness, and is given here as extracted from the phonographical reports in the New York newspapers:
Attorney-General.—“Where will this lead to, Dr. Warren?”
Doctor Warren.—“It is impossible to tell, as the hypothesis itself is absurd.”
Attorney-General.—“But you medical men ought to know all about these medical matters.”
Doctor Warren.—“We know, at least, as much about these medical matters as you lawyers.”
Attorney-General.—(Springing from his seat, and with great emphasis.) “But you doctors have the advantage of us; you bury your mistakes under the earth.”
Doctor Warren.—“Yes, but you lawyers hang your mistakes in the air.”
This reply “brought down the house” to such an extent that the judges had to adjourn Court for a quarter of an hour so as to give the officers an opportunity to restore order.
In attestation of the impression made upon the Attorney-General, the following letter was written by that gentleman to Dr. Warren upon the eve of his departure for Egypt, a short time after the trial:
From the Attorney-General of the State of Maryland.
State of Maryland,
Office of Attorney-General.
HAGERSTOWN, March 25, 1873.
MY DEAR DOCTOR:—I cannot describe the unfeigned regret I experience in your loss to us all, especially to me; for although I have not seen and been with you as much as I desired—I always looked forward with pleasure to sometime when our engagements would permit a closer acquaintance, and become warmed into a firmer and more fervid friendship. I dare not indulge the hope of hearing from you in your new position, but not many things would prove more agreeable to me. Present my compliments to your wife. That you and she may ever be contented and happy in life, that you may be as prosperous as your great talent and unequalled acquirements so richly deserve, is the earnest hope of
Your humble, but undeviating friend.
A. K. SYESTER.
In 1872, Dr. Warren was chosen Chairman of the Section of Surgery of the American Medical Association, and presented to that body a new “Splint for Fractures of the Clavical,” which attracted much attention, and really is an apparatus of great utility. Whilst it retains the fragments in opposition and gives no inconvenience to the patient, it permits all the normal movements of the forearm. Having retired from the faculty of the Washington University, he then devoted himself to the organization of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which has finally absorbed the former, and attracts classes as large as those of any school in Baltimore. The institution has wisely retained Dr. Warren's name at the head of the list of Professors, as Emeritus Professor of Surgery.
Having become dissatisfied in Baltimore on account of a severe domestic affliction, he determined to remove elsewhere. His first idea was to procure a professorship in the University of a neighboring city, and with that end in view he presented to its Faculty, testimonials of recommendation from a number of the
most prominent physicians in the United States. Among the letters sent to the Doctor for use in this connection, there were several, which, from the distinguished reputation of their authors, and the enthusiastic manner in which they indorsed Dr. Warren, seem especially to deserve a reproduction here—space will, however, only permit the publication of the following:—
From Professor S. D. Gross.
PHILADELPHIA May 8th, 1872.
My Dear Dr. Warren:—It is difficult for me to say anything respecting one who is so well known throughout the country as a gentleman, a practitioner, and a teacher of medicine. Any medical school ought, I am sure, to be proud to give you a place in its Faculty. As a teacher of surgery—off-hand, ready, and even brilliant—there is no one in the country that surpasses you. As an operator and a general-practitioner, your ability has long been everywhere recognized. Your success as a popular lecturer has been remarkably great. As a journalist you have wielded a ready and graceful pen. Some of your operations reflect great credit upon your judgment and skill. Of your moral character, I have never heard anything but what was good and honorable.
I hope with all my heart you may obtain a position in one of the New York Schools. Your great popularity in the Southern States could not fail to be of service in drawing Southern Students. My only regret is that we have no place to offer you in Philadelphia.
Wishing you every possible success, I am, dear doctor, very truly your friend.
S. D. GROSS,
Professor of Surgery, Jefferson Medical College. Professor Edward Warren,
Baltimore, Md.
From Professor Hunter McGuire.
RICHMOND VA., May 10th, 1872.
Gentlemen:—I beg leave to state that Dr. Warren enjoys a most enviable reputation both as a physician and as a gentleman, and from all I know and have heard of him, I have no doubt he would prove a most valuable addition to any college. Dr. Warren held a prominent position in the Medical Department of the Confederate Army, and enjoyed the respect and confidence of all who associated with him. He has recently resigned the chair in one of the medical schools of Baltimore. He filled this chair with great ability and attracted to the school a large number of students, especially from his native State, North Carolina.
Very respectfully, etc.,
HUNTER McGUIRE, M. D.
Professor of Surgery. Medical College of Virginia. To the Trustees of the
University of New York.
From Hon. E. J. Henkle.
BALTIMORE May 15th, 1872.
Dear Sir:—I have been informed that my friend, Prof. Edward Warren, recently Professor of Surgery in the Washington University in this place, is an applicant for the same position in the University of New York.
I have known Dr. Warren for many years past; first, previous to the war, when Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Maryland, which position to my personal knowledge, he filled in a most acceptable manner to both faculty and students.
Since the war and the reorganization of the Washington University, he has resided in Baltimore and filled the Chair of Surgery. In the capacity of President of the Board of Trustees of that Institution, I have been thrown in frequent and intimate intercourse with him, and I take pleasure in testifying to his great zeal and ability, and to his success as a lecturer and teacher. Dr. Warren has always been regarded in Baltimore as a most popular and efficient lecturer, exceedingly popular with the students, and untiring in his efforts to promote the success of the institution with which he has been identified. I have no doubt that the University of New York would be most fortunate in securing his valuable services. Very truly yours,
E. J. HENKLE,
President of the Board of Trustees of Washington University, M. D.
Prof. Henry Draper, New York City.
From Professor W. H. McGuffey, of the University of Virginia.
U. OF VA., May 18th, 1872.
TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE OF NEW YORK.
Gentlemen:—It gives me great pleasure to recommend to your favorable consideration Dr. Edward Warren.
I have known Dr. Warren from his boyhood, and can testify to his excellent character, fine talents, indominitable perseverence in the pursuit of knowledge and the discharge of professional duty.
Dr. Warren's attainments are of a high order in genuine scholarship. He made unusual proficiency in Moral Philosophy, and gradnated also with distinction in other schools in the University, Va.
Of his professional attainments I am not competent to judge, but I know that he has been successful when competition was intense, and I learn from others, competent to judge, that he has every qualification to ensure success in the Chair of Surgery, and the place which I learn be seeks in your institution.
Very respectfully, & c.,
W. H. McGUFFEY,
Prof. Moral Philosophy, U. of Va.
Unfortunately no vacancy existed at the time, and his efforts in this regard proved abortive In 1873 he accepted a position in the service of the Khèdive and removed to Egypt, having been urgently recommended for it by General R. E. Lee, General Sherman, General G. W. Smith, General Hancock, Governor Z. B. Vance, Hon. M. C. Butler, General Gary, and other leading gentlemen in the United States.
As soon as the President of the American Medical Association heard of his intended departure,
he sent him a commission as a Delegate to all the Medical Societies of Europe; Drs. Gross, Pancoast and other prominent American physicians gave him kind and most flattering letters of introduction to the leading medical men in Europe; and on the evening before he left Baltimore, a number of its first citizens tendered him a public dinner at Barnums’ which was one of the most successful and brilliant affairs of its kind that ever came off in that city.
His career in Egypt, though rendered brief by an attack of opthalmia, wassignally brilliant.
Having been appointed Chief Surgeon of the General Staff, he soon had an opportunity of treating successfully the Minister of War for strangulated hernia, who immediately officially requested the Khédive to honor Dr. Warren with the Decoration of the Medjdié and the title of Bey—which, when conferred, as it was in this instance, by royal charter, ennobles its possessor and his family; and in less than a year from his arrival in the country, he succeeded in reaching the highest medical position known in the service of the Khédive, that of Surgeon in Chief of the Egyption Army.
The incident connected with his treatment of Kassim Pasha, who was the Minister of War, shows so well the moral force which enabled Dr. Warren to perform his duty in the face of discouraging circumstances, and serves to illustrate in such an interesting way, certain phases of his life in Egypt, that it is given in full as related by the doctor.
“Kassim Pasha was over 60 years old, and very fat, and had direct inguinal hernia, which the surgeons of Cairo failed to reduce after laboring over it three days. After he had been abandoned to die and the preparations for his funeral were progressing, I was permitted to see the case. Finding that stercoraceous vomiting had just begun, and persuaded that the profound depression which others mistook for the effects of the disease, was mainly due to the injections of an infusion of tobacco which they had employed to induce relaxation, I declared the case not a hopeless one and undertook to treat it. Having stimulated the Pasha freely with brandy and water—which the natives consider unholy treatment—I had the gratification of seeing some reaction established; and determined to administer chloroform, and either to reduce the tumor by taxis, or to perform herniotomy, if necessary. I found however, very great difficulty in getting any medical man to assist me. They all retired and said that they would have ‘nothing to do with the murder of the Pasha.’ The Harem, through its representative, the Chief Eunuch, declared that I should not proceed until the private physician of the Khèdive—a Frenchman—had given his consent. He was accordingly sent for and asked what he thought of the measure which I proposed He replied that he believed the Pasha would die inevitably, but he was in favor of permitting me to proceed, as every man was entitled to his chance. I then requested him to aid me to the extent of administering chloroform. This he agreed to do on condition that I would assume all the responsibility of the case, and give him time to dispatch a messenger to the Khédive, informing him upon what terms he had consented to aid me. In the presence of all the principal Pashas and Beys of the country, and the highest officials of the Court, the Minister was removed from his bed and placed upon a mattress in the middle of the room. None of the female portion of the household were present; but they were represented by the Chief Eunuch, who stood at the feet of the invalid shouting Allah! Allah!! Allah!!! whilst from the latticed Harem in the rear there came continually that peculiar wail which seems to form the principal feature in the mourning of the East. With the exception of the French physician, above referred to, all the surgeons had deserted the chamber, and stood in the little garden outside of the house, some praying that the sick man might be saved, but the majority cursing the stranger who had the temerity to undertake that which they had pronounced impossible.
“At this moment the Chief of the Staff took me aside and said: ‘Dr. Warren, consider well what you are undertaking; success means honor and fortune in this country, whilst failure means ruin to you and injury to those who are identified with you.’ I replied: ‘I thank you for your caution; but I was taught by my father to disregard all personal considerations in the practice of medicine and to think only of the interests of my patients. I shall therefore do what my professional duty requires for the sick man aud let the consequences take care of themselves.’ Having made all the preperations necessary to perform herniotomy, should that operation become necessary, I boldly administered chloroform, although the patient was still in a state of great depression. To my delight anæthesia was promptly developed, while the circulation improved with every inspiration—just as I have seen it improve in some cases of shock upon the battlefield. Confiding then the administration of the chloroform to the French physician, above referred to, I proceeded to examine the tumor and attempt its reduction. I found an immense hydrocele and by the side of it a hernia of no unusual dimensions—which by rather a forcible manipulation I completely reduced, after a few moments of effort. By this time the surgeons, unable to restrain their curiosity, had entered the room and crowded around me, anxiously awaiting the failure which they had so blatantly predicted. Turning to Mehemet-Ali-Bey—the Professor of Surgery in the Medical School of Cairo—I said to him: ‘The hernia is reduced, as you can see by pushing your finger into the external ring.’ ‘Excuse me,’ said he, in the most supercilious manner, ‘you have undertaken to cure Kassim Pasha and I can give you no help in the matter.’ My French friend immediately introduced his finger into the ring and said: ‘Gentlemen, he needs no help from anyone; the hernia is reduced and the Pasha is saved.’ The doctors slunk away utterly discomfitted; the Eunuchs, Pashas, Beys,
and officers uttered loud cries of ‘Hamdallah! Hamdallah!! Kismet! Kismet!! Kismet!!!’ (Thank God! Thank God!! It is fate! It it fate!!) and the Harem in the rear, catching the inspiration of the scene, sent up a shont of joy which sounded like the war-hoop of a whole tribe of Indians. In a moment I was seized by the Chief Eunuch, embraced in the most impressive manner and kissed upon either cheek—an example which was immediately followed by a number of those present;— and I found myself suddenly the most famous man in the country. The Pasha at once had a letter addressed to the Khédive narrating what I had done for him, and asking that I might be decorated and made a Bey. His Highness sent for me, thanked me warmly for having saved the life of his favorite Minister, and said he was happy to honor one who had done so well for him; the Harem of the patient presented me with a beautiful gold watch and chain; my house was thronged afterwards with the highest dignitaries of the country who came to thank and congratulate me; and I immediately secured an immense practice among the natives—including nearly every incurable case in Cairo.
The spectacle of a stranger in a strange land without support, undertaking duties which had deen declined by others, and boldly pushing forward, in spite of the jealous mutterings which fell upon his ears, has something of true sublimity in it, and should make us appreciate the benignant nature of that moral and ethical code under whose guidance the subject of our sketch acquired that devotion to duty which enabled him to dare and do. For, behold the alternative, which, surely, he must have recognised;-had he failed, and had the Pasha died, his audacity would have wrought his ruin, and he would have been driven from the land in disgrace.
As it was, however this signal triumph resulted in Dr. Warren being made the “Chief Surgeon of the Egyptian Army.” Colonel William McE. C. Dye-formely an officer in the United States Army and late a Colonel of the Egyptian Staff- in his interesting book entitled, “Moslem Egypt and Christian Abyssinia,” refers in the following terms to Dr. Warren's career in Egypt: “Dr. Edward Warren, Chief Surgeon of the Staff, by performing a surgical operation on the Minister of War for a complaint that had battled the skill and courage of the other Cairo surgeons, and by his energy in the erection of hospitals and his faithful discharge of other duties, established a reputation which soon lifted him into place as Surgeon-in-Chief of the Army;” and the London Lancet chronicled his success and advancement in these terms: “We understand that M. Edward Warren of Cairo has been promoted by his Highness the Khedive of Egypt to the position of Chief Surgeon of the Egyptian Army. Mr. Warren's promotion in the East has been exceptionally rapid.”
In 1875, having obtained a furlough for six months, he visited Paris for the purpose of securing proper treatment for his eyes, and, on being informed by the leading occulists that a longer residence in Egypt would involve the loss of his left eye, he obtained an honorable discharge from the service of the Khedive who, in view of the services which Dr. Warren had rendered in Egypt, treated him with great consideration and kindness.
Through the influence of his own well-established reputation, aided by the cordial endorsement of his friends, Drs. Charcot and Ricord, of Paris; Sir James Paget, Alfred, Swain Taylor, and Dr. Stevenson, of London; Drs. Fordyee Barker and J. J. Crane, of New York; Professors Gross and Pancoast, of Philadelphia, he was soon able to commence the practice of medicine in Paris as a Licentiate of the University of France, a very great compliment in itself, and one rarely paid to a foreigner.
Dr. Warren's success in Paris has been exceptionally rapid and brilliant. Practice and honors have flowed in an unbroken stream upon him. Foreigners of all nationlaities and of the highest titles have been as ready to avail themselves of his professional skill as have been his fellow-countrymen. The London Lancet promptly secured him as its “Special Correspondent.” The Ottoman Government confided to him the delicate task of selecting surgeons and raising contributions for
the wounded in the recent war with Russia. He received a special invitation to participate in the International Medical Congress which recently assembled in Philadelphia, being the only American residing abroad who was thus honored. The College of Physcians and Surgeons of Baltimore made him a Master of Surgery at a late commencement. The Governor of North Carolina made him a “Special Commissioner” to the Paris Exposition; while the Commissioner-General of the United States appointed him the Medical Officer of his Commission, and the French Government awarded him a “medal of merit” for the services which he rendered in these regards. The Spanish Government, in 1877, created him a Knight of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, as a reward for the professional skill displayed in the successful treatment of a Spaniard of high position. The French Government, in 1879, created him a Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, as a special mark of distinction for his professional devotion and work in France. The Egyptian Government, in 1882, made him a “Commander of the Imperial Order of the Osmanlie,” for “valuable and important services rendered in Egypt and for great Medical skill displayed in Paris.” He has recently been made an Officer of the Order of the redemption of the Holy Sepulchre, an Officer of the Royal Order of the Samaritan of Geneva—all as rewards for professional services and successes. He was also selected by the American Medical Association as one of its delegates to the International Medical Congress which recently assembled in London and has been made a member of the Historical Society of Virginia and of the American Institute of Christian Philosophy, respectively, and the University of North Carolina at the last Commencement, conferred upon him the title of Doctor of Laws (LL. D.)
The following letter announces the accession of this honor.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA,
CHAPEL HILL, N. C., June 20th 1884.
DR. EDWARD WARREN (BEY).
SIR:—In recognition of your distinguished ability and learning, and services to humanity, the Board of Trustees and the Faculty of the University of North Carolina have unanimously conferred on you the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. [LL. D.]
They hope that you will accept this evidence of the regard of the University of your native State.
I have the honor to be, your obedient servant.
KEMP P. BATTLE, President
While space does not permit the publication in this connection of the multitudinous essays, reports, lectures, letters, addresses, etc., which have emanated from his prolitic pen and active brain, enough has been said of Dr. Warren to justify the statement with which a distinguished American surgeon (Professor S. D. Gross, of Philadelphia) concludes a letter in regard to him—viz.: “from these facts it is plain that he (Dr. Warren) has performed a great deal of work, that he is a man of indomitable energy; that he possesses great and varied talents; and that he has enjoyed a large share of professional and public confidence.” Surely, no North Carolinian has had a more brilliant and remarkable record, or one which the State has a greater right to regard with pride and admiration.
Dr. Warren's general culture and his great literary ability are widely known. His prose writings are lucid and chaste, though sufficiently ornate to be very attractive. His far-flights into the domain of poesy attest a rich imagination, and considerable knowledge of rhythm and versification.
In politics the Warren family were old line Whigs, and the Doctor's affiliation brought him into intimate relations with North Carolina's great war Governor, Zebulon B. Vance, which time has only served to ripen into an affectionate and enduring friendship.
James Blount
The late Gov. Henry T. Clark considered this the oldest of North Carolina families. No family, he believed, whose name is still extant as a family-name in North Carolina, came into the Province so early as James Blount, who settled in Chowan in 1669. This James Blount is said to have been a younger son of Sir Walter Blount, of Sodington, Worcestershire, England, and a Captain in Charles I's Life Guards. His Coat of Arms engraved on a copper plate, which he brought with him, was in the possession of his descendants until about the year 1840, when it was destroyed by its possessor, the late James B. Shepard of Raleigh. A cut of it is given above, taken from an impression of the original plate.
For convenience, the family may be divided into two branches; the descendants of James, the Chowan Blounts, and the descendants of his younger brother who settled about Choeowinity in Beaufort County, the Taw River Blounts. The latter is much the more numerous branch of the family, and has become too extensively spread throughout the Southern and South-Western States, to be fully traced here. This brief genealogy is complied chiefly from the family Bible of the Edenton family of Blounts, and from a Manuscript by the late Thomas H. Blount of Beaufort, and is as accurate as such accounts can ordinarily be made.
THE CHOWAN BLOUNTS.James Blount, who settled in Chowan in 1669, on a tract of land which remained in the possession of his descendants until the death of Clement Hall Blount in 1842, was a man of some prominence in his day. He is spoken of in contemporary documents as a member of the Governor's Council, as one of the Burgesses of Chowan, and as a leading character in the infant and very disorderly Colony. He left one son, John.
This John Blount (I) born 1669: died 1725,
* To be read in connection with pages 130-132.left ten children, six daughters and four sons. Three of the daughters married and left descendants in Hyde County and about Roanoke Island. They are the Worleys, Midgets and Manns. The sons were—
I. John (II) born 1706, married and left three sons and two daughters:
(a) James Blount, who married Ann Hall and and left three children: Clement Hall Blount (died unmarried in 1842); Sarah, left no issue; and Frederick Blount, his eldest son who married Rachel Bryan, (nee Herritage) and left among others, Frederick S. Blount, who moved to Alabama and became the father of a large family, Alexander Clement Blount, and Herritage Wistar Blount of Lenoir County.
(b) Wilson Blount.
(c) Fredrick Blount, whose daughter Mary (died 1856) married Wm. Shepard of New Berne and bore him Wm. B., Charles B., and James B. Shepard, Mrs. John H. Bryan, of Raleigh, Mrs. Ebenezer Pettigrew, and several others.
(d) Elizabeth, married J. B. Beasley.
(e) Mary married Rev. Charles Pettigrew 1st Bishop (elect) of N. C. and left two sons, one of whom, Ebenezer became a member of Congress; married Ann Shepard of New Berne, and left several children: the Rev. William S. Pettigrew, General James Johnston Pettigrew, Charles L. Pettigrew and two daughters.
II. Thomas born 1709, left one daughter Winifred, who married Hon. Whitmel Hill of Martin. Among their numerous descendants are Thomas Blount Hill Esq. of Hillsboro’ and the family of the late Whitmel J. Hill of Scotland Neck.
III. James, born 1710, left two daughters; (a) Nancy married Dempsey Connor (son of Dempsey Connor and Mary Pendleton, great-granddaughter of Governor Archdale) and left one daughter Frances Clark Pollock Connor, married 1st, Joseph Blount (III) and 2nd, Wm. Hill, late Secretary of State of North Carolina; and (b) Betsy who was married to Jeremiah Vail.
IV. Joseph (I) born 1715, died 1777, who married 1st, Sarah Durant, born 1718, died 1751, (a descendant of George Durant, the first known English settler in N. C.) and left only one child Sarah, (born 1747, died 1807,) who married in 1771, William Littlejohn, by whom she became the mother of a large family, well known in this and other Southern States. After the death of his first wife, Joseph Blount (I) married, (1752) Elizabeth Scarboro, by whom he had (besides one son, Lemuel Edwards, drowned at sea in 1778) one son:
Joseph Blount (II) born 1755, died 1794, who married 1st, (1775) Lydia Bonner, and left two children:
(a) John Bonner Blount, born 1777, married Mary Mutter: they were the parents of Thomas M. Blount, late of Washington city (whose son, Maj. Thomas M. Blount was killed at Malvern Hill), of Mrs. Thomas H. Blount, Mrs. Henry Hoyt and Mrs. James Treadwell of Washington N. C. and of Mrs. Henry M. Daniel, of Tenn. His sons Joseph and John died without issue.
(b) Mary born 1779, married William T. Muse, and had two sons, (I) William T. Muse, late of the U. S. and C. S. Navy, who married and left issue; (2) John B. Muse, died unmarried.
For a second wife Joseph Blount (II) in 1782, married Ann Gray (born 1757, died 1814,) daughter of Wm. Gray of Bertie, and left issue.
(c) Joseph Blount (III) born 1785, died 1822, who married (1808) Frances Clark Pollock Connor, and left one son Joseph Blount (IV) who died unmarried.
(d) Frances Lee married Henderson Standin, left one son, William H. Standin.
(e) Sarah Elizabeth married Thomas Morgan but left no issue.
(f) Elizabeth Ann. (born 1790, died 1869,) married in (1812) John Cheshire (born 1769, died 1830,) and left issue the Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, D. D., Mrs. E. D. Macnair, of Tawboro, and Mrs. James Webb of Hillsboro.
(g) Eleanor Gray, married John Cox, left one daughter, Ann B. P., married Willie J. Epps of Halifax.
THE TAW RIVER BLOUNTS
A younger brother of James Blount of Chowan, is thought to have settled on Taw or Pamplico River about 1673. He left six sons Thomas, John, James, Benjamin, Jacob and Esau, the last two being twins. The Tuscarora Chief, King Blount, a valuable ally of the whites in the Indian war of 1711, is said to have assumed that name from his attachment to one of these brothers. Nothing is known definitely of the descendants of any of the six, except the eldest, Thomas.
This Thomas Blount married Ann Reading and left four sons, Reading, James, John and Jacob. All of these left families, and from them are descended, no doubt, many persons of this name in Beaufort and the adjacent Counties; but we can trace the descendants of the last named only.
Jacob Blount (born 1726, died 1789) was an officer under Gov. Tryon in the battle of Alamance; a member of the Assembly frequently, and of the Halifax Congress of 1776; married 1st, (1748) Barbara Gray, of Bertie, sister to William Gray, mentioned in the genealogy of the Chowan Blounts; 2nd, Mrs. Hannah; Baker (nee Salter); 3rd, Mrs. Mary Adams. By his last wife he had no children; by his wife, Barbara Gray, he left among others—
I. William Blount, born 1749, died 1800.
II. John Gray Blount, born 1752, died 1833.
III. Reading Blount, born 1757, died 1807.
IV. Thomas Blount, born 1759, died 1812;
V. Jacob Blount, born 1760, died—. By his wife, Hannah Salter, he left:
VI. Willie Blount, born 1768, died 1835.
VII. Sharp Blount, born 1771, died 1810.
Of these William, John Gray, Reading, Thomas and Willie became prominent and distinguished men; among the most eminent in North Carolina and Tennessee for their high talents, public spirit, enterprise and wealth. Their marriages and descendants were as follows:
I. William Blount, (born 1749, died 1800,) a Member of Congress in 1782 and 1786; of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, was defeated for the U. S. Senate by Benjamin Hawkins, on the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1789; appointed by Washington in 1790 Governor of the Territory south of the Ohio; removed to Tennessee and founded the city of Knoxville; was chosen one of the first Senators from Tennessee. In 1797, he was expelled by a vote of the Senate, and subsequently impeached by the House of Representatives, for alleged treasonable practices in endeavoring to incite the Indian-tribes on our Southwestern frontier to hostilities against Spain. The articles of impeachment were after argument quashed in the Senate. On his return to Knoxville the Speaker of the State Senate resigned, and William Blount was unanimously chosen by the people to succeed him in the Senate, and by that body to succeed him in the Chair, as an expression of popular confidence and affection. His death early in the year 1800, alone prevented him from being elected Governor of Tennessee. He married (1778) Mary Grainger, daughter of Col. Caleb Grainger, of Wilmington, and left issue:
I. Ann married 1st, Henry I. Toole (II) of Edgecombe, to whom she bore Henry I. Toole (III), and Mary Eliza, married Dr. Joseph Lawrence: she married 2nd, Weeks Hadley, of
Edgecombe, by whom she had several children.
2. Mary Louisa, married (1801) Pleasant M. Miller and left a large family; one of her daughters, Barbara, married Hon. Wm. H. Stephens, late of Memphis, now of Los Angelos, California.
3. William Grainger Blount, member of Congress from Tennessee; he died unmarried in 1827.
4. Richard Blackledge Blount, married and left children in Tennessee.
5. Barbara married Gen. E. P. Gaines, left one son, Edmund Gaines of Washington city, D. C.
6. Eliza married Dr. Edwin Wiatt and left two sons and one daughter.
II. John Gray Blount (I), born 1752, died 1833, in his youth a companion of Daniel Boone in the early explorations of Kentucky, but settled permanently in Washington, N. C. He was frequently a member of the Assembly, and though not ambitions of political office, probably the most influential man in his section of the State. He is said to have been the largest land-owner in North Carolina. He married (1778), Mary Harvey, daughter of Col. Miles Harvey of Perquimans, and left issue:
1. Thomas Harvey Blount, (born 1781, died 1850,) who married 1st: (1810) Ellen Brown, by whom he had no children, 2nd. (1827) Elizabeth M. daughter of Jno. Bonner Blount, of Edenton, and left issue, three sons and three daughters: Elizabeth M. (Geer), Polly Ann (Hatton), John Gray Blount (III), Mary Bonner (Willard), Thomas Harvey Blount and Dr. Wm. Augustus Blount.
2. John Gray Blount (II), born 1785, died 1828, married Sally Haywood but left no issue.
3. Polly Ann, (born 1787, died 1821,) married Wm. Rodman and left issue: William Blount Rodman, late a Judge of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, Mary Marcia Blount, and Mary Olivia Blount who married J. G. B. Myers.
4. William Augustus Blount, married 1st Nancy Haywood and 2nd Nancy Littlejohn: For him and his family see post, page 11, under Beaufort County.
5. Lucy Olivia (born 1799, died 1854,) married Bryan Grimes, and left, issue: Mary, Annie, Olivia, and John Gray Blount Grimes.
6 Patsy Baker, born 1802, still living unmarried.
III. Reading Blount, (born 1757, died 1807,) a Major in the Revolutionary War; married Lucy Harvey, daughter of Col. Miles Harvey, and left five children:
1. Polly who married John Myers and left a large family in Washington, N. C.
2. Louisa, married Jos. W. Worthington, of Maryland.
3. Willie Blount, married Delia Blakemore of Tennessee.
4. Caroline Jones, married Benjamin Runyan.
5. Reading Blount, married Polly Ann Clark, and left one son, Reading Blount.
IV. Thomas Blount (born 1759, died 1812), an officer of distinction in the Revolution, Major in Col. Buncombe's Regiment. Settled at Tawboro; was frequently a member of the Assembly from Edgecombe; a member of Congress for several sessions, and died in Washington City in 1812. He married 1st Patsy Baker; 2nd Jacky Sumner (afterwards known as Mrs. Mary Sumner Blount) daughter of Gen. Jethro Sumner of Warren. He had no children by either marriage.
V. Jacob Blount, (born 1760 died—,) married 1st (1789) Ann Collins, daughter of Josiah Collins of Edenton, by whom he had two daughters, (a) Ann; and (b) Elizabeth, who married Jno. W. Littlejohn, of Edenton. He afterwards married Mrs. Augustus Harvey;
but had no children by the second marriage.
VI. Willie Blount (born 1768: died 1835); went to Tennessee in 1790 as private Secretary to his eldest brother Gov. William Blount; was elected Judge of the Supreme Court in 1796; Governor from 1809 to 1815. He raised on his private credit the money with which to equip the three Tennessee regiments sent under Andrew Jackson to the defense of New Orleans during the war of 1812. In recognition of his eminent public services, the State of Tennessee in 1877 erected a monument to his memory in Clarksville, Tennessee. He married Lucinda Baker, and left two daughters, Mrs. Dabney and Mrs. Dortch, of Tennessee. For his second wife he married the widow of Judge Hugh Lawson White.
VII. Sharp Blount (born 1771; died 1810,) married Penelope Little, daughter of Col. George Little of Hertford, and left three sons: (a) William Little Blount, (b) Jacob Blount, (c) George Little Blount. The first two died without issue. George Little Blount married a Miss Cannon of Pitt, and resided at Blount Hall in Pitt County, the seat of his grandfather Jacob Blount.
It has been impossible to give more than a summary of the genealogy of this extensive family. It is hoped that the above is sufficient to enable any one to trace the connections of its principal branches.
It may be added that William and Willie Blount were both, in all probability, born at Blount Hall in Pitt County, and not in Bertie, as is sometimes stated, and as is inscribed on the monument erected by the State of Tennessee to the memory of the latter. There is no reason to suppose that their father, Jacob Blount, ever lived in Bertie. Also the story of the absurd inscription on the stone on Mrs. Mary Sumner Blount's grave in Tawboro, is entirely untrue.
Genealogy of the Barringer Family.John Paul Barringer, born in Germany 1721, came to America 1743; settled in Pennsylvania, where he married (1) Ann Elizabeth Iseman called Ain lis; came to Mecklenburg Co. N. C. about 1746, and there married (2) Catherine Blackwelder. He died in 1807.
Issue: I. Catherine married 1st to John Phifer, one of the signers of (20th of May 1775) Declaration of Independence: Issue (a) Paul, who married Jane Alexander and had George, Martin, John N., Nelson and Caleb; (b) Margaret married to John Simianer; she (Catherine) married a second time to George Savage and had (a) Catherine, who married Noah Partee, and Mary, who married Richard Harris.
II. John (Mt. Pleasant family.)
III. Paul, born 1778, died 1844; married Eliz abeth Brandon, born 1783, died 1844; issue: (a) Daniel Moreau, born 1806, died 1873; in legislature 1829 to ’34; ’39, ’54; Member of Congress 1843 to 1849; U. S. Envoy to Spain, 1849; in Peace Congress of 1861; married Elizabeth Withered, of Baltimore, and had (1) Lewin, born 1850; University of Virginia; married Miss Miles; (2) Daniel M., born 1860; (b) Margaret, married 1st to John Boyd; 2nd to Andrew Grier; (c) Paul, married Carson; (d) Mary, married C. W. Harris; (e) Matthew; (f) William, married Alston, and had John, Paul, William, Charles, Victor and Ella; (g) Elizabeth,
married Edwin R. Harris; (h) Alfred; (i) Rufus, Brig. Gen. C. S. A., married 1st Eugenia Morrison, and had Anna and Paul; 2nd, Rosalie Chunn, and had Rufus; 3rd, Margaret Long, and had Osmond; (k) Catherine, married Gen. W. C. Means. Issue: Paul, Robert, James, William, Bettie, George and Victor; (1) Victor, legislature of 1860; Judge of International Court in Egypt; married Maria Massie.
IV. Matthias; V. Martin; VI. Elizabeth, married to 1st, George Pitts; 2nd, to John Boon, of Guilford; VII. Sarah, married to Jacob Brem, of Lincolnton; VIII. Esther, married to Thomas Clarke, of Tennessee; IX. Daniel L. Barringer, born 1788; died 1852; legislature 1813-’19-’23; in Congress 1826 to 1835; married Miss—White, granddaughter of Governor Caswell; removed to Tennessee, and was Speaker of the House; X. Jacob, married Mary Ury; XI. Leah, married 1st David Holton, 2nd Jacob Smith; XII. Mary, married to Wesley Harris, of Tennessee.
Genealogy of the Clark Family.Christopher Clark, a sea-captain, and merchant in Edenton, came from North of England about 1760. After some years removed to Bertie County, near the mouth of Salmon Creek.
He married 1st, Elizabeth—, by whom he had Elizabeth, Mary and Sarah.
I. Elizabeth Clark married Judge Blake Baker, of Tarboro’, and left no issue.
II. Mary Clark married George West; born 1758, died 1810, and left issue: [a] Robert West, who married Ann Dortch, by whom he had Isaac D., Robert, George Clark, Martha, married W. B. Johnson; Mary, married Chas. Minor; Arabella, married Q. C. Atkinson; Ann; Laura, married Robert McClure; Elizabeth and Sarah.
[b] Mary West, married Judge P. W. Humphrey, and left Judge West H. Humphrey, married Pillow; Elizabeth, married Baylis; Georgianna, married Powell; Charles and Robert.
[c] George West married Ann Lytle, and left Robert, George, Ann, married Gillespie.
III. Sarah Clark married William Clements, and left:
[a] Sarah; [b] Arabella, married C. Baylis; [c] Mary, married R. Collier; [d] Dr. Christopher C.; [e] John H., and [f] Robert W.
After the death of his first wife, Christopher Clark married about 1778 or 1779, Hannah Turner, of Bertie, daughter of Thomas Turner, and left:
IV. James West Clark, born 1769, died 1845, who married Arabella E. Toole, born 1781, died 1860, daughter of Henry I. Toole, of Edgecombe, and left issue:
[a] Henry Toole Clark, born 1808, died 1874, University of North Carolina, 1826; North Carolina Senate, 1859-’60; Governor, 1861; he married, 1850, Mrs. Mary Weeks Hargrove [nee Parker] daughter of Theophilus Parker, of Tarboro’, and left the following children: Laura P., Haywood, Henry Irwin, Maria T. and Arabella T.
[b] Maria Toole, born 1813, died 1859; married, 1852, Matt. Waddell; left no issue.
[c] Laura Placidia, born 1816, died 1864; married, 1832, John W. Cotten, and left Margaret E., married J. A. Englehard; Arabella C., married Wm. D. Barnes; Florida, married Wm. L. Saunders, and John W., married Elizabeth Frick.
[d] Mary Summer, born 1817, married Dr. Wm. George Thomas, and have issue: George G., Arabella and Jordan T.
Genealogy of the Haywood FamilyJohn Haywood, the founder of the family in North Carolina, was born in Christ Church Parish, near St. Michael's, in the Island of Barbadoes. He was the son of John Haywood, a younger brother of Sir Henry Haywood a Knight and magistrate in the old country and must have been a man of some note as Evelyn in his Memoirs speaks of having met him at court and was not favorably impressed with his arrogant manner. He settled in 1730 at the month of Conecanarie in Halifax, then a part of the great county of Edgecombe. He was Treasurer of the northern counties of the Province from 1762, until his death in 1758.
He married Mary Lovett, by whom he had six children.
I. Elizabeth married Jesse Hare, she died in 1774 and had issue: [a] Ann married Isaac Croom and his son Isaac married Sarah Pearson; [b] Mary married, first Richard Croom and second to—Hicks.
II. Mary Haywood married to the Rev. Thomas Burgess, 1761, whose son Lovett, married first Elizabeth Irwin, second Priscilla Monnie, third Mrs. Black; to the last named were born [a] Mary married to Alston, 1824, [b] Elizabth married, 1812, to Alston, of Bedford county, Virginia; [c] Melissa married to Gen. William Williams, whose daughter, Melissa, married to Col. Joseph John Long and their daughter, Ellen married to Gen. Junius Daniel, who was killed at Chancellorsville;—[d] John married Martha Alston and [e] Thomas, a distinguished lawyer in Halifax, who left no issue.
III. Deborah married to John Hardy but had no issue.
IV. Col. William Haywood, of Edgecombe, married Charity Hare; he died in 1779, and had ten children. [1] Jemima, married to John Whitfield of Lenoir, died 1837, with following issue; [a] William H. twice married and left seven children; [b] Constantine, left five children; [c] Sherwood, unmarried; [d] John Walter, left three children; [e] Jemima, left six children, married first to Middleton, second to Willams; [f] Mary Ruffin; [g] Kiziah Arabella, had three children; [h] Rachel Daniel, married John Jones and had five children; [i] George Washington, not married.
[2] John Haywood, State Treasurer for forty years; married 1st Sarah Leigh, and 2nd Eliza, daughter of John Pugh Williams and had issue; by last marriage [a] John, unmarried; [b] Geo. Washington, unmarried; [c] Thomas Burgess, unmarried, [d] Dr. Fabius Julius, married Martha Whitaker by whom he had issue; Fabius J., John Pugh, Joseph and Mary, married to Judge Daniel G. Fowle; [e] Eliza Eagles, unmarried, [f] Rebecca married to Albert G. Hall, of New Hanover County; [g] Frances, unmarried; [h] Edmund Burke, who married Lucy Williams, and had issue; E. Burke, Alfred, Dr. Hubert, Ernest, Edgar, John and Eliza Eagles, married to Preston Bridgers. [3] Ann, born 1760, died 1842; married to Dr. Robert
Williams, surgeon in the Continental Army, and had issue; [a] Eliza, married to Rev. John Singletary, issue; three sons: Col. George B. killed in battle, Col. Richard, and Col. Thomas. [b] Dr. Robert Williams jr., who left issue; [4] Charity married to Col. Lawrence of Alabama and had three children; [5] Mary married to Etheldred Ruffin, and had issue; [a] Sarah, married to Dr. Henry Haywood; [b] Henry J. G. Ruffin who married Miss Tart and was the father of Col. Sam, and also of Col. Thomas Ruffin, who fell at Hamilton Crossing, in Virginia.
[6] Sherwood, born 1762, died 1829; married Eleanor Hawkins, born in 1776, died in 1855, issue; [a] Ann, who married Wm. A Blount; their issue were Major Wm. A. Blount jr. of Raleigh and Ann, widow of Gen. L. O’ B. Branch, to the last named were born Susau O’ Bryan, married to Robert H. Jones; William A. B.; Ann married to Armistead Jones; Josephine married to Kerr Craige of Salisbury, [b] Sarah married first to John Gray Blount, and second to Gavin Hogg, she left no issue; [c] Delia, married first to Gen. William Williams, and second to Hon. George E. Badger, issue to the first marriage Col. Joseph John Williams of Tallahassee, Florida, and to the second marriage: [1] Mary married to P. M. Hale; [2] George, [3] Major Richard Cogdell, [4] Thomas, [5] Sherwood, [6] Edward Stanley [7] Ann, married first to Bryan, second to Col. Paul Faison; [d] Dr. Rufus Haywood, died unmarried; [e] Lucy, married to John S. Bryan and had issue: [1] Mrs. Basil Manly, [2] Mrs. Thomas Badger, [3] Mrs. Wm. H. Young, and [4] John S. Bryan of Salisbury.
[f] Francis P., married first Ann Farrall, second Mrs. Martha Austin, daughter of Col. Andrew Joyner of Halifax.
[g] Robert W. married Mary White and left one child, Mary;
[h] Maria T. unmarried.
[i] Dr. Richard B., married Julia Hicks, issue: [1] Sherwood, [2] Graham, [3] Effie, married to Col. Carl A. Woodruff, U. S. A., [4] Lavinia, [5] Howard, [6] Marshall, [7] Eleanor, [8] Marian.
[7] Elizabeth, born 1758, died 1832; married Henry Irwin Toole, [I] born 1750, died 1791, of Edgecombe, and left issue: Henry I. Toole [II] born 1778, died 1816; Arabella, born 1782, died 1860, and Mary, born 1787, died 1858.
Henry I. Toole [II] married Ann Blount, daughter of Gov. Wm. Blount, of Tenn.; and left issue: [a] Henry I. Toole [III] born 1810, died 1850; married Margaret Telfair; [b] Mary Eliza, born 1812, died ——; married Dr. Joseph J. Lawrence, of Tawboro’.
Arabella Toole, married to the Hon. James West Clark. For their descendants see the Clark Genealogy, page lxii.
Mary Toole, married Theophilus Parker, born 1775, died 1849, of Tawboro’, and had issue: [a] the Rev. John Haywood Parker, born 1813, died 1858; [b] Catharine C., born 1817, married 1st John Hargrave, 2nd Rev. Robert B. Drane, D. D.; [c] Elizabeth T., born 1820, married Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, D. D.; [d] Mary W., born 1822, married 1st Frank Hargrave, 2nd Gov. Henry T. Clark; [e] Col. Francis M. Parker, and [f] Arabella C. Parker.
[8] Wm. Henry, born 1770, died 1857, married Anne Shepherd, issue; [1] Hon. Wm. H. Haywood, born 1801; U. S. Senator, who married Jane Graham, had issue: Wm. H. killed at the Wilderness, Duncan Cameron, killed at ColdHarbor; Edward G.; Minerva, married to ——Baker; Jane, married to Hon. Sion H. Rogers; Ann married to Samuel Ruffia; Margaret married to Cameron; Gertrude married to George Trapier; Elizabeth unmarried. [2] Charity, daughter of Wm. Henry Haywood, married Governor Charles Manly, and left issue: Col. John H., married Caroline Henry; Langdon C.; Cora, married to Col. George B. Singletary;
Helen married to John Grimes; Julia, married to Col. McDowell, who was killed in battle; Sophia married to Harding; Ida married to Dr Jos. Baker of Tarboro, and Basil, commander of Manly's Battery, married Lucy Bryan.
[9] Stephen born 1772, died 1824, married, first Miss Lane 1798, by whom he had Dr. John Leigh Haywood and Benjaman Franklin Haywood; married second Delia Hawkins 1809, by whom he had Wm. Dallas, married Mary Cannon, Margaret Craven married to George Little, Lucinda, married to Sasser; and Sarah; and Philemon H. Haywood, U. S. Navy.
[10] Elizabeth, married to Governor Dudley, died 1840, and had issue: Edward B.; Wm. Henry, married Baker; Christopher; Eliza Ann, married to Purnell; Jane, married to Johnson, Margaret married Col. McIlhenny.
V. Sherwood [son of John Haywood of Conecanarie,] married Hannah Gray and had Adam John, who married his cousin, Sarah the daughter of Egbert, issue: one daughter Margaret, (died 1874,) who became the wife of Hon. Louis D. Henry, born 1788, died 1840, and had Virginia, married to Col. Duncan K. McRae; Caroline married to Col. John H. Manly; Augusta, wife of R. P. Waring; Margaret, married to Col. Ed. G. Haywood; Mary, married to Matt. P. Taylor; Malvina, to Douglas Bell, and Louis D., married Virginia Massenburg.
VI. Egbert, the sixth child of John Haywood, died 1801, married Sarah Ware and had issue: [a] Sarah, married Adam John Haywood, [b] John, a Judge in North Carolina and in Tennessee, the historian, died in 1826; [c] Dr. Henry, who married Sarah Ruffin, [d] Mary married Robert Bell, and had [1] Margaret, married to Duffy, [2] Dr. E. H. Bell. [3] Col W. H. Bell, [4] Admiral Henry H. Bell U. S. Navy, [e] Betsy married to William Shepperd and had issue: [1] Sarah married to Hon. Wm. B Grove of Fayetteville, a Member of Congress, 1791-1802; [4] Betsy married Col. Saml. Ashe, born 1763 died 1835, and to the last named were born Betsy, married to Owen Holmes; Mary Porter married to Dr. S. G. Moses of St. Louis; Hon. John B. Ashe, Member of Congress from Tennessee, married his cousin Eliza Hay, and moved to Texas; Hon. Wm. S., married Sarah Ann Green; Thomas married Rosa Hill; Richard Porter of San Francisco, married Lina Loyal; Susan married to her cousin David Grove; Sarah married Judge Samuel Hall of Georgia.
[3] Susan Shepperd married David Hay;
[4] Mary married Samuel P. Ashe of Halifax;
[5] Margaret married Dr. John Rogers;
[6] William, [7] Egbert and [8] Henry. [See ante page 326.]
VII. John, who died unmarried.
Since the aforesaid sketch of the Haywood family had been put in “forms,” a note from Dr. E. Burke Haywood, of Raleigh, was received, in which he corrects the sketch in these particulars: The children of John Haywood, the founder of the family in North Carolina, should be sketched in the following order:
I. William Haywood, of Edgecombe; II. Sherwood; III. Mary, wife of Rev. Thomas Burgess; IV. Elizabeth, wife of Jesse Hare; V. Deabora; VI. Egbert, and VII. John, who died unmarried.
The children of John Haywood, (State Treasurer for forty years, after whom Haywood County, and the town of Haywood were named,) the second child of William and Charity Hare, should be named in the following order:
[a] Eliza Eagles; [b] John Steele; [c] George Washington; [d] Fabius Julius; [e] Alfred Moore; [f] Thos. Burgess; [g] Rebecca; [h] William Davie; [i] Benjamin Rush; [k] Frances Ann; [l] Sarah Wool; [m] Edmund Burke.
Phifer Family Crest
The name Pfeiffer is an old and honored one in Germany. Very many of the name have held high and honored positions in the management of the Civil and Military affairs of the Empire. A copy of the records of State, together with information sufficient to establish the identity of the American branch of the house has been elicited by a recent correspondence with branches of the family at Berne, Switzerland, and in Breslau, Germany.
The two brothers, John and Martin Pfeiffer who came to America, were descendants from the family of “Pfeiffers of Pfeiffersburgh.”
The records show the family to be “Pfeiffer of Pfeiffersburgh, knights of the order of Hereditary Austrian Knighthood; with armorial bearings as follows: Shield, lengthwise divided; the right in silver, with a black, crowned Eagle looking to the right; the left in blue, from lower part of quarter ascending a white rock, with five summits, over the center one an eight-pointed star pendant. (Schild der Lange getheilt; rechts in Silber ein rechtsselhender, gekrönter, Schwarz Adler und links in Blau ein auc dem Feldesfusse aufsteigender, Weisser Fels mit fünf Spitzen uber desen mittlerer ein achtstahliger, goldener Stern Schwebt.) They were desoended from Pfeiffer Von Heisselburgh. A diploma (patent,) of nobility was issued to Martin Caspar Pfeiffer and Mathias Pfeiffer in 1590, with armorial bearings of Knights of Heisselburg order of Nobility of the Empire. Johnn Baptist Pfeiffer Von Pfeiffersburg, Knight, with armorial bearings as above stated was descendant of Knights of Heisselburgh and hereditary heir of Pfeiffersburgh; Achenranian Mining and Smelting works; with exclusive privilege granted by the Crown, to trade in the “Brass of Achenrain and Copper of Schwatz. A diploma was issued to him May 10th, 1721. He received an increase of arms on the 4th of March 1785, (right field and second helmet.) The pedigree flourished, and a great-grandson of Johnn Baptist Pfeiffer, Knight of Pfeiffersburg; Leopold Maria, Knight of Pfeiffersburgh, born 1785, possessor of Hannsburg, county Hallein, was matriculated into the nobility of the Kingdom of Bavaria after the investment of the same.”
“Caspar Pfeiffer Von Pfeiffersburg, Knight, second brother to Johnn Baptist Pfeiffer. Knight of Pfeiffersburg, possessor of Trecherwitz, County Oels, Germany, lived in the year 1713 on his estates. In 1725 he permanently located in Berne, Switzerland, and had control
of the sale of brass and copper from the Achenranian mines. He had two sons to come to America in the spring of the year 1737. John Pfeiffer and Martin Pfeiffer.”
Martin Pfeiffer carried on quite an extensive correspondence with his relatives in Berne and in Germany. All these letters, together with an immense quantity of his son's (Martin Phifer Jr.) correspondence with the family in Berne and elsewhere; and all the records which Martin Phifer and all his sons placed so much value upon and which had been so carefully preserved by the first members of the family, seem to have fallen into disfavor with John Phifer (born 1779.) They were packed away in trunks and kept up in the garret at the “Black Jacks.”
All the members of the family had spoken German up to the time of John Phifer (1779.) He never spoke German to any of his children. It was with him the change in spelling the name to Phifer occurred.
The papers were consequently unknown to any of the various children who, when at play in the large old garret, saw them. These papers were all destroyed by the burning of George Locke Phifer's house.
An old gold watch set around with diamonds, and thought to bear the arms of the family, together with various old trinkets, were also destroyed.
The sketch of this family is written from knowledge communicated by different members of the family.
The will of Martin Pfeiffer, sr., was kept until the year 1865, when it was lost. Some of the Bibles of the family have also been lost. The present history however is accurate and can be relied upon in every respect. The information in regard to the family in Germany has been obtained by recent correspondence with a branch of the family in Berne, Switzerland and in Breslau, Germany. Great pains have been taken that every thing should be exact, and in many instances, the preparation of this paper has been delayed for months that a date should be correct. To the sketch of the life of John Phifer, the first son of Martin Pfeiffer, sr., a great deal of valuable aid was afforded by Mr. Victor C. Barringer.
The Phifer family has been for five generations the most wealthy and prominent in Cabarrus County. For many successive years they have been appointed to places of honor and responsibility by the people of the Counties of Cabarrus and Meeklenburg, some in each generation have occupied prominent positions in the legislative halls of the State. Their love for truth, honor and justice, their liberality of opinion and their sterling qualities of mind and of heart have necessarily made them leaders of the people for generations. They have exercised great influence in directing the political and social development of their county and State. Not one single instance can be found of a family quarrel, the contesting of a will or any bankrupt proceeding by which the name could suffer. The men have all been noble men, the women have all been good and pure, and have well sustained the good and ancient name.
Martin Pfeiffer was an educated man, and must have come to America rather well provided with money, as he immediately became possessed of large tracts of land; and became a prominent and influential man, a very short time after he settled in the State. The prominent place taken by his son John, as a leader, and as an orator in the early days also goes to show that his father must have been a man of unusual ability and distinction.
John Pfeiffer the younger of the two brothers who came to America in 1738, from Berne, settled in what is now known as Rowan County, N. C. Very little is known of his life. He died some years before his brother Martin Pfeiffer. He left his home in the upper
portion of Rowan county, to come down and visit his brother; after he had been gone for a week his family became alarmed about him and a messenger was sent to Martin Pfeiffer's. It was found that he had not reached that point. The neighborhood was aroused and search was made for him. His body was found a day or so afterwards near the main road in an advanced state of decomposition. He is supposed to have become ill, to have fallen from his horse and died, as no marks of violence were found on his person. He had it is supposed, only two children; a son Mathias and a daughter who married a Mr. Webb Mathias Pfeiffer jr. had one child, Paul, who was a Baptist preacher and had one daughter whose name is now unknown.
The above is all the information available as to this branch of the family. Their offspring does not seem to have been very numerous, and the two branches appear to have drifted apart.
Martin Pfeiffer, born October 18th, 1720, in Switzerland, died January 18th, 1791, at “Cold Water,” Cabarrns county, N. C. Reached America in 1738; in Legislature of 1777 from Mecklenburg county; married 1745, Margaret Blackwelder, who was born 1722, died 1803. Issue three sons: (I) John; (II) Caleb; (III) Martin
I.
John born at “Cold Water,” March 22nd, 1747; died at “Red Hill,” 1778; married 1768 Catherine, daughter of Paul Barringer, (who was born 1750, died 1829; after John Phifer's death she married Savage ef Rowan county,) as a member of the Charlotte convention, John Phifer signed the Declaration of May 20th, 1775; member of Provincial Assembly at Hillsboro, August 21st, 1775, and at Halifax April 4th, 1776, and of the Constitutional Convention of November 12th, 1776; commissioned Lieutenant Colonel, in Colonel Griffith Rutherford's Regiment December 21st, 1776; served in the campaign against the Cherokee Indians and the Scovelite Tories. Broken down by exposure and his own tireless energy, he fell an early sacrifice in the cause of freedom.
A man of distinguished character and superior attainments, and appears to have been one of the most conspicuous of the remarkable men, who figured in the foreground of the movement which resulted in the independence. His burning and fervid eloquence did much to ignite the flames of indignation against the usurpations of the mother country. He left the following issue: (A) Paul, born at Red Hill, Nov. 14th, 1770; died May 20th, 1801; educated at “Queen's Museum” afterwards “Liberty Hall” in Charlotte; married 1799 Jane Alexander, born 1750, who, after his death married Mr. Means of Mecklenburg.
Issue: (I) Martin jr., born 1792, died in childhood, (II) George Alexander, born 1794, died 1868; at the University; in 1835 moved to Bedford county, Tennessee, then to Union county, Arkansas, where he died. Four of his sons were killed in the battle of Shiloh. In 1820 he married Elizabeth Beard of Burke county, N. C. Issue: (a) George; (b) Margaret married to Mr. Pool; (c) Andrew Beard; (d) William; (e) Locke; (f) John; (g) Paul; (h) Mary Locke.
(III) John N., born March 19th 1795, died September 7th, 1856, married (June 10th 1822) Ann Phifer, the daughter of Caleb Phifer; moved to Tennessee, then to Coffeeville, Mississippi, where he died. Issue: (a) Paul, died in youth; (b) Caleb same; (c) Barbara Ann, who married Dr. Phillips of Alabama; (d) Sarah Jane; (e) Charles W., at the University; gradnated at West Point Military Academy; commissioned Lieutenant of Dragoons and sent to Texas. Entered C. S. Army as a Captain, promoted, for gallantry at Shiloh, to be Colonel;
in 1864 made Brigadier General; the youngest General officer of the Confederacy; (f) Josephine,
(IV) Nelson born December 1797.
[B] Margaret, born 1772, died 1806, second child of John Phifer; she married John Simianer, who for many years was Clerk of the Court, they had one child, Mary, who married Adolphus Erwin of Burke County and to them were born seven children; (1) Simianer, (2) Bulow married and had a family, (3) Matilda; (4) Alfred; (5) Mary Ann; (6) Harriet, married to Colonel J. B. Rankin and has a family; (7) Louisa, married James W. Wilson, and has a family.
II.
Caleb, born at Cold Water, April 8th, 1749; died July 3rd, 1811; in legislature 1778 to 1792 from Mecklenburg; Senator from Cabarrus 1793 to 1801 Colonel in the Revolutionary War, served with distinction, married Barbara Fulenweider, born 1754; died 1815. Issue; seven daughters and one son: (A) Esther, married April 10, 1793, to Nathaniel Alexander, issue ten children: (1) Margaret, married Robert Smith and had only one child, Sarah who married Wm. F. Phifer, and they had only one child, Sarah, who married John Morehead and had Annie, Margaret, William, Louisa and John. (2) Caleb, married Lunda Chisholm; moved to West Tennesse and there died. They had Charles and John, both now dead; (3) Jane, married 1st to Geo. F. Graham, and had one child, Ann Eliza, who married to Col. Wm. Johnson; 2nd to Dr. Stanhope Harris and had Sarah, who married Jno. Moss; Jane married to Dr. Bingham, and Henrietta married to Caldwell.
(4) Eliza married first, February 19th, 1821, to James A. Means and 2nd, to Dr. Elim Harris,
(5.) Sarah married (1825) to Francis Locke moved to Montgomery Co. N. C., issue to them: Caroline, married to Dr. Ingram; James killed in the civil war; Elizabeth married to Underwood and has a family.
(6) Mary, married to Dr. Elim Harris, removed to Missouri, and there both died.
(7) Nancy, born 1810, married 1833 to John Moss, of Montgomery County, N. C., issue: Esther, wife of Adolphus Gibson; Mary, wife of D. F. Cannon; Margaret, wife of James Erwin; Edward; John.
(8) Esther, married to Dr. James Gilmer.
(9) Charles, moved to Memphis, Tenn., and acquired great wealth, died unmarried.
(10) John moved to Tenn., but died in Cuba.
(B) Margaret, second child of Caleb, born Nov. 14, 1777, died Aug. 14, 1799; married in [1794] to Matthew Locke of Rowan Co., had one son, John, who married Miss Bouchelle, but left no issue.
[C.] Elizabeth, born 1781, married [1802,] to Dr. Wm. M. Moore, Salisbury; on his death moved to Bedford Co., Tenn., then to Marshall Co., Miss., there died in 1845. Issue [1] Abigail died in infancy; (2) Moses W., born Jan. 7, 1807, died 1851; married Rebecca McKenzie, [1840,] moved to Washington Co., Texas. Issue: William; Sarah, who married to Dr Ferrill, of Anderson, Texas; they had three children, Bertie; Elizabeth and Robert; [3] Margaret E., born at Salisbury, Feb. 14, 1809, married 1824, to Edward Cross, who was born at Chestnut Hill, Penn., 1804, died 1833; moved to LaFayette Co., Tenn. Issue; seven children: (a) Caroline V., born 1826, married 1849 to Wm. Sledge of Panola county, Mississippi, moved to Washington county, Texas in 1851, then to Memphis, Tennessee in 1872. They had Wm. M. born 1850: Margaret E., born 1853 and Edward C. born 1854.
(b) Elizabeth M., born at Salisbury, 1827; married (1843) Samuel P. Badhget, died in Texas in 1866; issue: Ophelia, died in infancy
(c) Daniel F., died in infancy, as did (d) Susannah.
(e) Edward born April 1st, 1833, lives in Austin, Texas:
(f) Mary An = born 1835 in Lafayetre county, Tennessee, married first, 1856, to Leonidas B. Lemay of Wake county, N.C.; in 1862 to Col. Allen Lewis of Maine, who was lost at sea in 1870. Issue: Ida, Elizabeth, Mary Ann who are dead; Leonidas B. Lemay, born January 21st, 1857 and Allen Lewis, who are living in Memphis, Tennessee.
(D.) Sarah, the fourth child of Caleb Phifer, married Dr. Wm. Honston of Mecklenburg, a successful practitioner of great wealth. They moved to Bedford County, Tennessee. Issue: Lydia married 1823 to Dr. Wm. Rhoan, they moved to Tennessee and reared a large family; Caleb married and has a family, lives at Shelbyville, Tennessee; Wm. married Miss Steele and has a family; Louisa married and has a family.
(E.) Barbara born 1770, died 1819; married (1809) Abram C. McRee of Cabarrus. Issue: (1) Cornelius, married Margaret Means and moved to Alabama, where they reared a family; (2) Mary Ann married to Dr. Robert Means, and had one child, Poindexter, they live in Alabama; (3) Margaret, and (4) Phifer who married Miss Burt of Alabama and has a family.
(F) Mary, married Dr. Robert McKenzie, an eminent physician of Charlotte; removed to Bedford county, Tennessee, then to Mississippi, Lousiana and finally settled in Grimes county, Texas, where they died and were buried on the same day. Issue: (1) Rebecca, wife of Dr. Moses W. Moore (see ante page lxix.) (2) Joseph, unmarried; (3) John, married and has three children; (4) Mary, died in infancy; (5) Lucy married Pinkston, living in Grimes county, Texas, has a family of four children.
(G) Ann, as has been stated became the wife of John N. Phifer.
(H.) John Fulenwider, born 1786, died 1826; educated at Dr. Robertson's school, at Poplar Tent; entered the University; married Louisa Morrison of Lancaster S. C. Issue: a son and a daughter, who died in infancy, and Caleb, born 1825, died 1844, distinguished for scholarship at school, and afterwards at Princeton; then read law with Judge Pearson. So young and full of high promises of usefulness, he died in his 19th year, and so the Caleb Phifer branch of the family became extinet, as he was the last male member of that branch
III.
Martin jr. born at “Cold Water,” March 25th, 1756, died at the “Blaek Jacks,” November 12th, 1837; married (1778) Elizabeth Locke, who was born 1758, died, 1791; he was Colonel of a Regiment of horse, on duty at Philadelphia, and was distinguished for gallantry in the field. And received high mention for his personal bravery in the papers of State. He was the largest land-owner in the State, and had a great number of slaves. Had issue: John, George, Mary, Margaret and Ann.
Issue: (A) John, born at Cold Water, September 1st, 1779; died October 18th, 1845; entered at Dr. McCorckle's school at Thytira church in Rowan county: at the University in the first year of that institution, graduated in 1799, with first honors; married August 27, 1805, Esther Fulenwider, a daughter of John Fulenwider of “High Shoals,” Lincoln county N. C., who was born 1784, died 1846. Member of the Legislature 1803 to 1806; in House of Commons 1810 to 1819; and in the Senate in 1824. Defeated by Forney for Congress by twenty-five majority. “He lived a blessing, and his name will ever remain an honor to his family, his county and his State.”
He was one of the most intellectual and highly cultivated men of his time. His speeches
in the House and Senate show remarkable ability. His public career, which promised to be one of unusual brillianey, was cut off by the failure of his eye-sight. He became almost totally blind in the latter part of his life. He was noted for his wonderful popularity, his great decision of character, and his eloquence as a speaker.
Had issue: Martin, John Fulenwider, Caleb, Elizabeth, Mary Simianer, George Locke, Sarah Ann, Margaret Locke, Esther Louisa, Mary Burton. (1) Martin, born December 30th, 1806, died September 11th, 1852; married Eliza, daughter of Jacob Ramseur, of Lincolnton, N. C.; had no issue. (2) John Fulenwider, born August 13, 1808, died January 10, 1850; educated by Dr. Wilson near Rocky River church; a merchant and planter, died unmarried. (3) Caleb, born June 16, 1810; died March 11, 1878; educated at Dr. Wilson's, most prominent in financial and manufacturing schemes; director of N. C. R. R. for years. Member of House of Commons in 1844; and of Constitutional Convention of 1861-62. He was a student all during his life, and was well posted in both the scientific and current literature of the day. He married [1838] Mary Adeline, third child of David Ramseur, of Lincolnton, who was born Aug. 5th, 1817, died Sept. 20th, 1881. Issue: [a] Esther, born December 23, 1840, died September 5th, 1857; [b] David Ramseur, born April 14th, 1839; a graduate of Davidson and of William and Mary in Virginia; served in the C. S. Army; became a merchant in Newberry; married Sarah Whitmire; had issue: Mary, Henry, Martin and Elizabeth.
[d] John Locke, born October 28th, 1842, died January 26th, 1880; was educated in Philadelphia; served in 20th, N. C. Vols.; became a most sucessful merchant; [e] Charles Henry, born September 28th 1847; served in the Confederate Artillery; then graduated at Davidson College (1866); a civil engineer by education. Now successful as a merchant; [f] Robert Fulenwider, born November 17th, 1849; graduate of Davidson [1866] successful as a planter and cotton buyer; [g] Martin, born June 26th, 1855, died March 10th 1881; [h] Sarah Wilfong, born February 26th, 1859, married [1883] to Marshall N. Williamson in Winston.
[4] Elizabeth, fourth child of John Phifer born April 20th, 1812, married Dr. Edmund R. Gibson at the “Black Jacks,” February 25th, 1835. Dr. Gibson was born July 6th, 1809, died May 28th, 1872, in Rowan County, an eminent physician, of large estate. Issue: [a] Esther Margaret, born 1836, died an infant; [b] William Henry born June 2nd, 1837, killed at Gettysburg, 1863; [c] John Phifer born January 5th, 1839; served as Lieutenant in the civil war; married Martha M. Kirkpatrick, [1864,] and had Mary Grace. Now a merchant of Concord; [d] James Cunningham, born November 10th, 1840, served in the Confederate Army, also Clerk of Court; married Elizabeth Puryear [1876] and has Elizabeth, William Henry, Richard Puryear and Jennie Marshall; [e] George Locke, born March 15th, 1844, died 1877; [f] Robert Erwin, born March 15th, 1844, married [1876] Emily Magruder of Winchester, Virginia, issue: Emily Magruder and Robert Magruder; successful merchant in Concord.
(5) Mary Simianer, fifth child of John Phifer, born December 7th, 1814, died an infant.
[6] George Locke, sixth child; born June 7th, 1817, died June 6th, 1879; entered the school of Robert I. McDowell, and then at Greensboro; a planter; married [1847] Rosa Allen Pennick, daughter of Rev. Daniel Pennick, of the Virginia Presbytery; Issue: [a] Agnes Tinsley born August 24th, 1850, married [1876] to Albert Heiling of Rowan, had George
[b] Esther Louisa born May 24th, 1852.
[c] Sarah Maria born July 25th, 1854.
[d] Annie Rosa born March 29th, 1857.
[e] Mary Elizabeth born July 11th, 1859, died August 25th, 1882 married [1881] Will-Ramseur of Newton.
[f] Daniel Pennick born December 14th, 1861.
[g] John Young, born June 5th, 1864.
[h] George Willis born February 1st, 1868.
[i] Emma Garland, born September 4th, 1869.
[7] Sarah Ann, born October 23rd, 1819; married May 31st, 1842, to Robert W. Allison of Cabarrus, who was born April 24th, 1806, a man of prominence, chairman of County Commissioners, in legislature of 1865-66; delegate to Convention of 1875.
Issue: [a] Esther Phifer, born November 27th 1843, married [1866] Samuel White of York county S. C., Capt. 7th N. C. Vols., C. S. A. issue: four children, Grace Allison, the only one living.
[b] Joseph Young, born July 16th, 1846, educated at the University of Virginia; read law with Chief Justice Pearson, became a presbyterian elergyman, married [1876] Sarah Cave Durant.
[c] John Phifer, born August 22d, 1848; a merchant in Concord; married [1880] Annie Erwin, daughter of Hon. Burton Craige.
[d] Mary Louisa, born March 27th, 1850, died 1878.
[e] Elizabeth Adeline, born March 26th, 1852, married [1875] to John M White of Fort Mills, S. C.; he was Colonel 6th S. C. Vols. C. S. A., and died 1877. She lives near Fort Mills.
[f] William Henry, born February 26th, 1854, died in infaney as did the three following.
[g] Caroline Jane, born October 23d, 1855.
[h] Annie Susan, born December 16th 1857. [i] Robert Washington born March 15th 1862.
[8] Margaret Locke, eighth child of John Phifer, born December 7th, 1821, died in infancy.
[9] Esther Louisa, born May 31st, 1824; married to Robert Young of Cabarrus, Capt. C. S. A.; killed July 1864; she died July 9th, 1865; had John Young, Capt C. S. A., killed at Chancellorsville, May 3d. 1863,
[10] Mary Burton, tenth child of John Phifer, born November 10th, 1826; educated in Philadelphia, married [1850] John A. Bradshaw of Rowan, now lives in New York. Issue: Harriet Ellis, Mary Grace, Annie, Elizabeth, John who died 1866.
[B] George, second child of Martin Phifer, jr., was born February 24th, 1782, died January 23d, 1819; merchant and planter; Clerk of the Court; married [1808] Sarah, daughter of John Fulenwider of High Shoals, Lincoln county, N. C. She was born 1786, and and after the death of George Phifer married Joseph Young, whom she survived, and died January 24th, 1868, at Hon. J. H. Wilson's house in Charlotte.
Issue to George and Sarah Phifer: [a] William Fulenwider, born February 13th, 1809; graduate of Hampden-Sidney College; merchant at Concord; married [1833] Sarah Smith, and had Sarah, wife of John Morehead; who had Annie, Margaret, William, Louisa and John. On the death of his wife, William [a] removed to Lownds County, Alabama; cotton planter there; returned to North Carolina and married [1849] Martha White, issue; [1] William; [2] Robert Smith, educated in Germany; remarkable musical talent, he married Bella Mc. Ghee of Caswell county, and has Wilhelmine, Thomas Mc. Ghee and Robert; [3] George; [4] Mary married [1882] to M. C. Quinn; [5] Cordelia; [6] Josephine married [1880] William G. Durant of Fort Mills, S. C., they have Mary and William Gilmore; [7] Edward.
[b] John Fulenwider, born May 1st, 1810, married [1839] Elizabeth Caroline, a daughter of David Ramseur, she was born 1819; removed to Lownds county, Alabama; returned to Lincolnton. Issue: [1] George, born February 10th, 1841; educated at Davidson; served with distinction as Captain in the line, [C. S Army,] and afterwards on General R. F. Hoke's staff; married [1879] Martha Avery of Burke county; issue: John; Moulton; George; Edward; Isaac; Walton; Maud; Waightstill. He is a cotton manufacturer at Lincolnton; [2] William Locke, born February 17th, 1843, killed at Chickamauga, Tennessee, September 20th, 1863; [3] Edward born May 8th 1844; Captain C. S. Vols. He died from wounds received before Petersburg, June 18th, 1864; [4] Mary Wilfong born December 25th, 1856, married [1881] to Stephen Smith of Livingston, Alabama, has one child Stephen.
[c] Mary Louisa, born December 3d, 1814; married [1846] to Hon. Joseph Harvey Wilson*; issue: [1] George married Bessie Witherspoon of Sumter, S. C., who have Mary Louise, Hamilton, and Annie Witherspoon. He graduated at Davidson and at the University of Virginia; [2] Mary married Charles E. Johnston, who have Mary Wilson and Charles.
[d] Elizabeth Ann, the twin sister of Mary Louisa; educated at Hillsboro; married [1837] to E. Jones Erwin of Burke, who died in 1871. Issue: Phifer married [1875] Corrinna Morehead Avery; and have Annie Phifer; Corrinna Morehead and Addie Avery; [2] Mary Jones married (1874) to Mitchell Rogers and have one child Francis; [3] Sallie married [1882] to Dr. Moran and have one child, Annie Rankin.
[e] Martin Locke born January 25th, 1818, died March 9th, 1853; educated at Bingham's school; removed to Lownds county, Alabama; a planter. Returned to N. C. [1848] married Sarah C. Hoyle of Gaston county. Left no issue
[C] Mary Phifer, third child of Martin Phifer, jr., born December 1st, 1774; died 1860,
* We copy from the Raleigh News-Observer, of September 15th, 1884, the following notice of Hon. Joseph Harvey Wilson, who was born in the county of Mecklenburg. His father, the Rev. John McKamey Wilson, was a Scotch Presbyterian, and a divine of considerable influence in that section of the State. The son inherited the talents and sterling qualities of the father, and was early imbued with the father's piety and he had been since his early manhood a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. He was admitted to the bar and began the practice of the law in Charlotte soon after he became of age, and for about fifty years he enjoyed a large and lucrative practice in Meeklenburg and the surrounding counties. After the retirement of William Julius Alexander and the death of his contemporaries of a past generation, Mr. Wilson and the late Judge Osborne, who were nearly of the same age and always friends, contested the leadership of the profession in Mecklenburg, though Mr. Wilson, on account of his painstaking industry, always commanded a larger share of the routine and remunerative business of the county. He never found it advisable to take an extended circuit as was the rule among the lawyers before the war; but in Union, Cabarrus and Gaston counties he enjoyed a leading business and was generally on one side or the other of every important case. Ever diligent and careful in the preparation of his cases, and eminently faithful to the interests of his clients, of sound judgment and thoroughly versed in the principles of the law, that he was a very successful practioner is not remarkable. Probably no lawyer of his day reaped larger rewards in the legitimate prosecution of the legal profession in the State; and being ecnomical in the proper sense of the term, while he was at the same time liberal when calls upon his charity and public spirit commended themselves to his judgment, he succeeded in accumulating a considerable fortune, of which he continued in possession to his death. In his success in his profession, as the result of patient, honest, faithful work, without any of the shining qualities of the genius, Mr. Wilson is one of the best examples to the younger members of the bar. He proved to the satisfaction of all who knew him that a lawyer can be a good Christian and at the same time a successful business man. While he ever took a lively and patriotic interest in public affairs, he could never be seduced from the prosecution of his profession by the offer of political place or office, and he persistently refused even to serve his people in the State legislature until he was forced [by a sense of public duty] to represent his county in the Senate in 1866-67 when he was elected president of that body, a rare compliment to one who had never before served in a legislative body. It showed the very high esteem in which he was held in the State. Mr. Wilson was twice married, his first wife being Miss Patton of Buncombe, and the second, Miss Phifer of Cabarrus, who survives him, and he leaves three children of the first marriage and two of the second, one of whom, George E. Wilson Esq., was his partner at the bar, and an other is the wife of our esteemed neighbor, Mr. Charles E. Johnson, of this city. Besides his widow and children, a large circle of loving friends mourn his departure. He died September 13th, 1884, in the fullness of years and maturity of time, the loss of but few citizens in the State could create a more profound sensation in the communities in which they respectively live than did the death of this good and honored man in the county of Mecklenburg. The whole community were his friends; we doubt if he left an enemy.and is buried at Tuscaloosa, Ala. Married [1803] to William Crawford, of Lancaster, S. C. Issue: Elizabeth and William. After Mr. Crawford's death she married James Childers, of N. C., and moved to Tuscaloosa. Issue:
[a] Elizabeth Crawford married John Doby, and had [1] Joseph, who married Margaret Harris and has a family; [2] Martin married Sallie Grier, and had one child; on her death he married Sallie Sadler; [3] James married Mary Walker and has a family; [4] William married Altonia Grier, and had children.
[b] William Crawford married Lucretia Mull. and had [1] Thomas, married 1st Mary Price, 2nd Mrs. Klutz, and has a family; [2] William married Miss Smith, and has a family; [3] James married Sallie Heilig, and have children; [4] Robert married Miss Crawford, and they have children; [5] Lee married Miss Peeden, and has children.
(c) Ann Childers married to — Walker; issue: (1) Mary; (2)—; (3) Martin; (4)—.
(d) Susan Childers married Reed, but has no issue.
(e) Jas Childers, married, and has a family.
(D) Margaret, fourth child of Martin Phifer, jr., born December 7th, 1786; married [January 7th, 1808,] James Erwin of Burke, Co., N. C. Issue, seven children: [1] William, married Matilda Walton, and they had five children; merchant in Morganton; his second wife was Mrs. Gaston, but had no issue; after her death he married Kate Happoldt, and to them were born two children. His children are [a] Clara, married to McIntyre, and has a family, the oldest named Matilda; [b] Anna, married Robert McConnehey, and they have children; [c] Laura, married to M. Jones, but had no issue; [d] Henrietta, married to Gray Bynum; [e] Ella married George Greene, and they have three children. By his third wife he had [f] Margaret and (g. Evelyn.
(2) Joseph Erwin, married Elvira Holt. He has been in the Legislature several terms, and once served as clerk of the court. Issue: Mary L.; Matilda; Margaret, married to Lawrence Holt, of Company Shops, and have five children; Cora, married John Grant, of Alamance Co. [3] Martin, married Jane Huie, of Salisbury, issue: five children; then to Miss Blackmann; issue: three children; moved to Maury Co., Tenn., and there died. (4] George, married Margaret Hinson, of Burke Co., moved to Tenn.; they have nine children.
(5) Elizabeth, married Hon. Burton Craige, of Salisbury; issue: [a] James; [b] Kerr, a prominent lawyer, in Legislature from Rowan, declined nomination for Congress; married Josephine, daughter of Gen. L. O'B. Branch, and their children are Nannie, Burton, Branch, Josephine, Bessie and Kerr; [c] Frank, married [1877] Fannie Williams, of Williamsport, Tenn., have three children; [d] Mary Elizabeth, married Alfred Young, of Cabarrus, and have Lizzie, Fannie, Annie and Mary; [e] Annie, married to John P. Allison, of Concord.
(7) Alexander.
(6) Sarah, married John McDowell, of Burke; they have seven children, none of whom are married; James E, Margaret, John, William, Frank Elizabeth and Kate.
[E] Ann, the fifth and last child of Martin Phifer, jr., born March 8th, 1788, died at Lancaster, S. C., July 1st, 1855; married John Crawford, of Lancaster, brother of William, who married her sister Mary.
Issue: [1] Martin married Alice Harris, they had four children: Charles Harris, married Sadie Baskins; Anne, James and John.
[2] Elizabeth, married George Witherspoon, a lawyer of Lancaster, S. C., where they live, they have four children: John, who married Addie White, of Rock Hill, S. C.; James, Annie and George.
[3] Robert, married Malivia Massey, and have three children: Martin, Robert and Ella. They live in Lancaster, S. C.
CHAPTER I.ALAMANCE COUNTY.
THIS COUNTY preserves the memories of the first conflict of arms between the Royal Troops of England, [16th May, 1771,] and the people of the Colonies. Then and there was the first blood of the Colonists spilled in the United States, in resistance to the oppressions of the English Government and the exactions of its unscrupulons agents. Tryon, the Royal Governor of the Province of North Carolina, exhibited in his administration the bloodthirsty temper of “the great wolf,” as he was so appropriately termed by the Indians of the State.
The officers of the Government, by exactions in the shape of fees and taxes, grieviously oppressed an industrious and needy people. The people bore these exactions with patience; remonstrating in their public meetings, in respectful but decided terms. This simple-minded people, without aid from much learning or books, knew and laid down the great fundamental principles of good government, “that taxation and representation should go together, that the people had the right to resist taxation when not imposed by their legal representatives, and also the right to know for what purpose taxes were imposed, and how appropriated.” These principles were derided by the imperious Tryon, and terminated in open conflict of arms. The Regulators were vanquished by superior force and discipline, but the great germs of right and liberty were firmly planted in their minds, and a few years later bore the fruits of victory and independence. Had this battle terminated differently, (and under skilful leaders, and at a later period, this would have been the case,) the banks of the Alamance would have rivaled Bunker Hill and Lexington; and the name of Husbands, Merrill and Caldwell would have ranked with the Warrens and Putnams of a later day.
A writer on North Carolina History, as to this revolt, states that “the cause of the Regulators has been the subject of much unmerited obloquy, clouded as it has been by the heavy pages of Williamson and Martin, and the ignorant disquisitions of untutored scribblers. Although on the occasion they were overthrown, their principles were intimately connected with the chain of events that directly led to the Revolution, and struck out that spark of independence which soon blazed from Massachusetts to Georgia.” (Jos. Seawell Jones’ Defence of North Carolina.)
For Time at last sets all things even,And if we do but watch the hour,There never yet was human power,That could evade if unforgiven,The patient search, the vigil long,Of him who treasures up a wrong.
I copied from the Rolls Office when in England, a dispatch from the Royal Governor of North Carolina, (Martin) dated Hillsboro, 30th August, 1772, never before published. The Governor describes his journey to the western part of North Carolina, through the Moravian settlements, which he pronounces “models of industry,” to Salisbury. He passed through the region of the late disturbances. He records: “My eyes have been opened in regard to these commotions. These people have been provoked by the insolence and cruel advantages taken of their ignorance by mercenary, tricking attorneys, clerks, and other little officers, who have practiced upon them every sort of rapine and extortion. The resentment of the Government was craftily worked up against the oppressed; protection denied to them, when they expected to find it, and drove them to desperation, which ended in bloodshed. My indignation is not only disarmed, but converted into pity.”
Thus by the highest cotemporaneous authority are the acts and principles of the Regulators fully justified. These acts were but connecting links in the chain of events which led to the Revolution. Soon followed the events on the Cape Fear in 1772-’73 and ’74, then the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence of 20th May, 1775, then the actual conflict of arms at Moore's Creek in February, 1776. All acts done in North Carolina, with few exceptions, before any similar events had occurred elsewhere in this country. How bright are such glorious records and how proud are we of the memories of the people who present them to coming posterity!
—. They never fail who dieIn a great cause: —— Though yearsElapse, and others share as dark a doom,They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughtsWhich overpower all others, and conductThe world at last to freedom.”—[BYRON.]This county was long the residence of Thomas Ruffin. [Born 1787—Died 1870.]
On entering the Supreme Court room of North Carolina, now more than fifty years ago, we observed on the bench of this exalted tribunal the commanding person of Thomas Ruffin, for twenty years one of the Justices of that Court, and for many years its Chief Justice. During this long period he was called upon to decide questions involving the life and interest of individuals, and complicated and intricate points of constitutional, common and statute law. The able opinions delivered by him have established his reputation as one of the first jurists of his age in this or any other country. His opinions are models of learning and logic, and are quoted as authority not only in our own courts but in those of other countries. Recently one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, on reading one of Judge Ruffin's opinions, pronounced him “one of the ablest common law-jurists in America.”
In his ministration of the law he was by some considered stringent and at times severe, but he was always conscientious and inflexibly just.
He was not demonstrative in his feelings, but was cautious in his words and acts, select and sincere in his friendships, and steadfast in his attachments.
In his finances he was prudent even to rigid economy. This he adopted as a principle, not believing in wastefulness or extravagance. His house was open to his friends and was well known as the abode of unstinted hospitality. He was exact and precise in his engagements, and punctual in performance.
In person he was spare, uniform and neat in
his dress, of a presence at once striking, commanding and venerable. To many who knew them both, he resembled, not only in mental qualifications but in person, Thomas Jefferson; both highly educated; both of the same profession; both of the same political faith; both, in all the domestic relations of life, devoted and affectionate, and both natives of the same State; and in person about same height, same colored hair, and the same expression of countenance, indicating great energy, resolution and decision of character.
Not only as a jurist was Judge Ruffin distinguished, but as an able financier, and skilful and successful as an agriculturist.
He was born in King and Queen county, Virginia, 17th November, 1787, the eldest son of Sterling and Alice Ruffin. He graduated at Princeton, 1805. Read law with David Robinson, an eminent lawyer in Petersburg, in same office at the same time with Winfield Scott. He came to North Carolina in 1807 with his father and settled at Hillsboro, where he married on 7th December, 1809, Ann, eldest daughter of William Kirkland, by whom he had a large family of thirteen children, among them was William Kirkland, (recently deceased;) Sterling; Peter Brown; Thomas; John, doctor; Mrs. Roulhae; Ann, who married Paul C. Cameron; Alice died unmarried; Mrs. Brodnax; Mrs. Edmund Ruffin; Patty, (unmarried;) Sally married Upton B. Gynn, Jr.
He was elected to the Legislature from Hillsboro in 1813, 1815 and 1816; the latter year he was chosen Speaker; and the same year elected Judge of the Superior Court, which after two years’ service he resigned. In 1825 he was again elected Judge, and in 1829 was elected one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Taylor, which in 1852 he resigned. He was again elected in 1856, and again resigned in 1858. For several years after his retiring from the bench of the Supreme Court the served his fellow citizens as presiding Judge of the county court. In the Spring of 1861, he attended that barren convention at Washington, “The Peace Congress,” with John M. Morehead, David S. Reid, Daniel M. Barringer, and George Davis as colleagues.
“The judicial ermine so long and so worthily worn,” says Mrs. Spencer, “not only shielded him, but absolutely forbade all active participation in party politics.” But he was no idle or uninterested spectator of the current of events. He was opposed to nullification in 1832, and did not believe in the rights of secession in 1860. In private circles he combatted both heresies with all that “inexorable logic” which the London Times declared to be characteristic of his judicial opinions. He declared “the sacred right of revolution” as the remedy for the redress of our grievances.
But the cloud in the political horizon grew thicker and heavier. When the State took the final step of secession, he felt it to be a duty to follow her fortunes.
He was elected to the State Convention at Raleigh, and voted for the Ordinance of Secession. Then was his last public service.
He was a communicant of the Episcopal Church, and warmly attached to that mode and form of worship; but liberal and tolerant to the worth and virtues of other denominations, and in the consolations of Christian faith and hopes of its promises, in the full possession of his mental faculties, in charity and peace with all, he died on 15th January, 1870, at Hillsboro, loved and lamented by all who knew him.
—Sure the end of the good man is peace,How calm his exit! Night dewsFall not more gently to the groundNor weary, worn out winds expire more soft.Rufus Yaney McAden represented Alamance County in 1865, and was elected Speaker of the House.
He graduated at Wake Forest College, studied law and achieved prominence and position
at the bar; but his fame rests chiefly on his reputation as a skilful financier. He is the grandson of the distinguished statesman and orator, Bartlet Yancy, and inherits much of the ability of his distinguished ancestor.
Thomas Michael Holt was born in Orange County, now Alamance County, on 17th October, 1855; is by occupation a farmer and a manufacturer.
He is the President of the State Agricultural Society since 1872. He is the principal owner of the “Haw River Mills,” which has done much to encourage the cotton manufactories in the South. They are an ornament to the State. He was elected President of the North Carolina Railroad in 1874; and senator from Alamance and Orange in November, 1876. He is by all acknowledged to be a farmer of unequalled success; a manufacturer of great skill, and a friend and patron of internal improvement, believing with the poet that—
Art, commerce and fair science, three,And sisters linked in love,They traverse sky, land and sea,Protected from above.CHAPTER II.ANSON COUNTY.
ANSON at one time [1749] comprehended the whole western part of the State. Its early history is full of incident, of the sturdy opposition of her sons to oppression, and sympathy with the Regulators of Orange County against the unrighteous exactions of the administration of the Government officers, which rose to such a height that the people in 1768 entered the court house and by force violently expelled the officers of the court, and each took an oath of self-defence and mutual protection.
I copied from the Rolls Office in England the oath prescribed, transmitted to the Earl of Hillsboro by Gov. Tryon, in a dispatch dated
“BRUNSWICK, 24th Dec., 1768.
“I do solemnly swear that if any officer or any other person do make distress of any goods or any other estate of any person sworne herein, being a subscriber, for non-payment of taxes, that I will, with sufficient assistance, go and take, if in my power, the goods or other property thus distressed, and restore the same to the party from whom the same was taken. And in case anyone concerned herein should be imprisoned, or under arrest, I will immediately do my best endeavours to raise as many of the said subscribers as will be a force sufficient to set said person and his estate at liberty. If any of our company for such acts be put to any expense or confinement, I will bear an equal share to make up the losses to the sufferer.
“All these I do promise, and subscribe my name.”
This paper has never before been published.
In a memorial of the people of Anson County to Gov. Tryon, they complain of the conduct of “Col.” Samuel Spencer, the clerk and member of the county, who purchased his office of Col. Frohawk, and gave £150 for it, and they allege that the people should not be taxed but by consent of themselves or their delegates,
and they recommend that the magistrates, clerk, and sheriff should be elected by the people.*
What an early and rapid stride did these patriotic men take, at this early day, in the right of the people to govern themselves, and declare a principle that fifty years after became the law of the land!
I find among the early records the name James Cotten, and from curiosity more than a hope that the memory of such a man may be useful, we present his infamous conduct. We could wish in describing the men of our State, to present only the patriotic, the virtuous, and the good; and, like the motto of the Roman sun-dial—
“Non numero horas, nisi serenas.”
But truth demands that we should present facts. Such men as Cotten, in these perilous times, were only
“Vermin gendered on the Lion's mane—”
whose acts consign them to contempt.
Among the Colonial records in London, I find the following letter:
“CRUISER SLOOP OF WAR,
“21 July, 1775.
“I have received your letter of the 15th inst., by Mr. Cunningham, and highly approve of your proper and spirited conduct, while I cannot sufficiently express my indignation and contempt of the proceedings of Captain-General Spencer and his unworthy confederates. You and other friends of the Government have only to stand your ground firmly!
“Major Snead may be assured of my attentions to all his wishes.
“I beg my compliments may be presented to Colonel MacDonald.
“I am, Sir,
“Your humble servant,.
“JO. MARTIN.
“To Lt. Col. James Cotten,
“Anson Co., N. C.”
I found, also, among the Colonial records in London, the deposition of James Cotten, taken 14th Aug., 1775, on board of His Majesty's sloop of war, the “Cruiser,” where he had been for succor and for safety. Anson County had become rather too hot for him, which proves the determined spirits of the patriots, and whose names should be cherished in history. This deposition states—
“I was called before the committee for Anson County; and Samuel Spencer, the chairman, stated that they had sent for me as one of the burgesses of the county, to know if I would sign and approve of the resolves of the Continental Congress, which were read to me by Mr. Thomas Wade. I refused. They said that they should proceed against me, and gave me two weeks to consider.
“On the Tuesday following, David Love, accompanied by William Love, Samuel Curtis, William Covington, and another, all armed, came to my house and took me, nolens volens, towards Mask's Ferry, on the Pedee.
“I escaped from them, traveling as secretly as possible, sleeping in the woods at night, and reached this vessel on Sunday night last.”
Deposition of Samuel Williams, who escaped with Colonel Cotten, taken at the same time and place:
From dispatch of Gov. Martin, dated—
“NEW YORK, 15th Sept., 1777.
“Two vessels have arrived here from North Carolina, bringing refugees.—
“A Mr. James Cotten, of No. Ca., who went hence some time ago, will probably have waited on your Lordship.
“He is a man of vulgar life and character, and is a native of New England, and I do not estimate him very highly.”
We now will bid “Good-bye to James.”
Allusion has been made to Samuel Spencer.
He was a member of the Colonial Assembly at an early day, and in 1774 elected to the Provincial Congress at New Berne, which was the first organized movement of the people in a legislative capacity in open opposition, and independent of the Royal Government. This body sent delegates to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia.
* For copy of this memorial, see Wheeler's History of N. C., II, 24.It may be interesting for reference, to note the Provincial Congresses, the place and time from the first to the last, which formed the Constitution.
1st met on 25th August, 1774, New Berne; 2d met on 4th April, 1775, New Berne; 3d met on 21st August, 1775, Hillsboro; 4th met on 12th April, 1776, Halifax; 5th met on 12th November, 1776, Halifax; which latter body formed the Constitution on 18th December, 1776.
He was repeatedly elected to the State Congresses, and in 1777 was chosen one of the three judges of the Superior Courts, first elected under the State Constitution, which elevated position he held until his death.
He was a member of the convention at Hillsboro, in July, 1788, to deliberate upon the Federal Constitution, its able and active opponent, and contributed greatly to its rejection.
Of his character and career as a judge (since of this early day there do not exist any reports of the decisions of the courts) we know but little; but from his long exercise of this high office with the approbation and respect of his associates, he was esteemed a faithful and able jurist. He died in 1794. The account of the singular cause of his death, as stated in my History of North Carolina, having been doubted, we extract from the Fayetteville Gazette of 1794 the following:
“DIED.—At his seat in Anson County on the 20th ulto., the Honorable Samuel Spencer, L. L. D., and one of the Judges of the Superior Courts of this State. His Honor's health had been declining for about two years, but he performed the last circuit three months since, and we understand intended to have left home in a few days for this town, where the Superior Court is now sitting, had it not been for the following accident which it is thought hastened his death.
“He was sitting on the piazza with a red cap on his head, when he attracted the attention of a large turkey gobbler. The judge being sleepy began to nod; the turkey mistaking the nodding and the red cap for a challenge to battle, made so violent and unexpected an attack on his Honor, that he was thrown out of his chair on the floor, and before he could get any assistance, so beat and bruised him that he died in a few days.”
A Philadelphia paper, at the time, as to this occurence, makes the following jeu d'esprit.
In this degenerate age,What hosts of knaves engage,And do all they canTo fetter braver men;Dreading they should be free,Leagued with the scoundrel pack,Even turkey cocks attackThe red cap of Liberty.In this county resides Thomas Samuel Ashe, one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of North Carolina.
The maxim is correct in history as in other matters, “Viventes non licet nemium laudare.” But our Reminiscences of the State would he incomplete without a sketch of this worthy citizen. In doing so, however, the advice of Othello will be observed:
—Speak of me as I am;
Nothing extenuate, or set down aught in malice.
There is no name more familiar to the people of North Carolina, or more highly appreciated by them, than that of Ashe. In every contest for liberty, from the earliest period of our history, whether on the field of actual battle or in the conflicts of politics, there is no period when persons of this name have not been first and foremost in the defence of our country's rights and liberty, and in the prompt resistance to oppression. In grateful appreciation, the State has preserved the name of Ashe, by inseribing it on one of her counties and on two of her most flourishing towns.* Surely, then, none of us of the present age, who have inherited the rich legacy won by their efforts and their blood, can refuse the respect and honor due to their sacrifices and their valor.
* Asheville and Ashboro.The ancestor of this name, John Baptista Ashe, a century and a half ago, [1730,] opposed the abuses and usurpations of the Royal Governor Burrington, by whom he was oppressed and imprisoned. His eldest son, in the earliest dawn of our Revolution, was the decided advocate and defender of popular rights, and the resolute and unyielding opponent of tyranny and official abuse. He was the daring patriot that “bearded the Douglas in his castle,” and defied “the wolf of the State,” Gov. Tryon, to execute the infamous Stamp Act of his master. He seized, in his very presence, the stamp master, and compelled him to pledge himself not to execute the odious enactment. It was he that drove the last of the Royal Governors from his palace, destroyed his fort, and compelled him to seek refuge on board of the English man-of-war in the Cape Fear River. For these acts he was denounced by the Government in a Royal proclamation. In the cause of popular rights he was willing “to spend and be spent,” and did spend his substance, and was ready to lay down his life in the cause of the people. His course and conduct received, as it deserved, the support of the people. “They loved him because he first loved them.” “None feared to follow where an Ashe led.” So far from heeding or fearing the fulminations of power, he resigned the commission he had held in the Royal service, and by pledging his estate he soon raised a regiment, which he was unanimously called to command, and rendered important services in the Revolutionary War to the day of his death.
“This family,” says Mr. Davis, in his address at the University, [1855,] “contributed largely to the cause of the country in the Revolution—every grown male of the family.” Deep, then, should be our gratitude. They and their descendants have since pervaded our country, from the Cape Fear to the mountains; to Tennessee, California, Missouri, and elsewhere. Wherever they have gone they are respected for their virtues, and esteemed for their abilities. They have occupied, in their adopted homes, positions of honor, trust, and profit, illustrated and elevated such positions, as Jones, in his Defence, has expressed it, “by genius, talent, and accomplishments.”
Another son of John Baptista Ashe, and whose patronomic the subject of our sketch bears, was his direct ancestor.
Judge Ashe was born in June, 1812, at Hawfields, then Orange County, now Alamance. He received his education from William Bingham, the elder, and at the University of the State, where he graduated with high honors in 1832, in the same class with Thomas L. Clingman, James C. Dobbin, John H. Haughton, Cadwallader Jones, and others. Those who know these names, and their splendid endowments, and their brilliant career in life, will appreciate the honor attained in such competition. He read law with Judge Ruflin, with whom he always was a special favorite. After being licensed to practice law, by the Supreme Court, he settled at Wadesboro, where he now resides. He was elected a member of the House of Commons in 1812, and a member of the Senate in 1854.
In the troubled times of the civil war, he was elected a member of the Confederate Congress, and in 1864, a member of the Confederate Senate, but never took his seat.
In 1868, he was nominated to lead a forlorn hope, as the Democratic candidate for Governor, in opposition to Governor Holden, and made a gallant, but unsuccessful, campaign. In 1872, he received the unexpected and unsolicited nomination for the Congress of the United States; and again in 1874. He was triumphantly elected, and served faithfully and usefully. No member of either party stood higher in Congress for integrity, intelligence, and fidelity to the Constitution. A member of
one of the most important committees (the Judiciary), he commanded the confidence and respect of his associates, and many of their most important reports were the results of his acumen and patient investigation. He was most attentive to these onerous duties; always punctual in his attendance, and rendered essential service in their deliberations.
After four years’ service in Congress, to the universal and profound regret of his associates, he was retired from Congress by the nominating convention of his district, and he returned to his profession, which was far more germane to his tastes and his talents than the bustle and excitement of political strife. It is well remembered by the writer of this sketch, how universal and sincere, in Congress and out of it, were the expressions of regret at his retirement. The prediction was then made which soon became prophecy, that “North Carolina was too proud of such a son to allow him to remain long in retirement; that soon he would be called on to occupy other and more elevated positions.” This prediction has been verified; for, without any intimation or exertion on his part, in June, 1878, he was nominated by the State Convention, on the first ballot, as one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, in preference to a score of the ablest lawyers of the State.
He was triumphantly elected, at the head of the ticket, by the people at the polls, and we predict, again, that the ermine worn so long and so gracefully by our Hall, Henderson, Taylor, Ruflin, Daniel, Gaston and others will suffer no detriment from Judge Ashe.
Judge Ashe is now in the meridian of life, and there are years of strength and usefulness yet to be employed by him in the interest of the people of a State that love and honor him. He married a daughter of the late George Burgwin, and has a large and interesting family. He is a member of the Episcopal Church, and a consistent and sincere follower of its sacred tenets.
We conclude our feeble sketch in the words of Cardinal Wolsey of Sir Thomas More:
—He is a learned man!
May he continue long in the people's favor,
And do justice for truth's sake and his conscience;
That his bones, when he has done his course and sleeps in blessings,
May have a tomb of orphans’ tears wept over them.
[See Appendix, Genealogy of the Ashe Family.]
Richard Tyler Bennett was born near Wadesboro. He was prepared for college by the Anson Institute, under the superintendence of Professor McIver, and was for a time a student at the University. He read law under Chief Justice Pearson, and finished his legal studies at Lebanon College, Tennessee.
He ardently entered the Confederate service in the Civil War as a private, refusing the position of an officer; but afterwards, from his gallantry and usefulness, was promoted to a coloneley. He was engaged in several battles, severely wounded, and finally taken prisoner, and confined in Fort Delaware until the close of the war.
Since the war he has continually resided at Wadesboro, and for some years was the partner of Hon. Thomas S. Ashe.
He was a member of the Convention of 1875, and of the House in 1873-’74. He was selected as elector for this [7th] district on the Hancock ticket, and was doing yeoman's service in this position when he was nominated as Superior Court Judge, in place of Judge Buxton, resigned, in August, 1880.
“He is,” says the Charlotte Democrat, “a gifted advocate, and highly esteemed by the profession.”
CHAPTER III.BEAUFORT COUNTY.
BEAUFORT COUNTY preserves the name Henry Somerset, Duke of Beanfort, and although it is not within our proposed project, yet we cannot refrain from recording, in a short note, the worth and character of this illustrious statesman.
We copy from the “Gentleman's Magazine,” (London, 1803, vol. 73, 994,) as a beautiful description of a model gentleman:
“DIED.—At his seat Radmenton, County of Gloucester, on 11 Oct., 1803, in his 59th year, the most noble, Henry Sommerset, Duke of Beaufort.
“His Grace will be much lamented by his family, friends, and his numerous tenantry. He maintained the dignity of his station rather by the noble simplicity of his manners, and his proverbial hospitality, than by any attention to exterior splendor or display of fashion. It was not his taste to solicit notice by any of those attractions at which the public gaze with temporary admiration.
“In politics, he supported a trauquil, dignified independence, and the support he generally gave to His Majestics’ Ministers, could never be attributed to any motives but such as were perfectly consistent with the integrity which distinguished his life.”
He was a distinguished Free Mason; was Grand Master of England, and as such commissioned Grand Master Montford, of North Carolina, in 1771, to establish lodges in America, and from whom the Grand Lodge of North Carolina holds its charter. He became, by purchase of the Duke of Albemarle, possessed of the right as one of the Lord's Proprietors of the Province, which in 1729, revested in the crown. Worthy is the name preserved in our State.
The capital of Beaufort preserves the name (clarum et venerable) of the immortal Washington.
This name has been so frequently the subject of enlogy and admiration, that any attempt to enlarge on his character and services would be ridiculous excess. But we cannot refrain from printing and preserving the exquisite and truthful extract from Mr. Jefferson's works:
Jefferson's Character of Washington.*
Letter from Jefferson to Dr. Walter Jones, 2d Jan., 1814:
“I think I knew General Washington intimately and thoroughly. His mind was great and powerful without being of the very first order; his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or Locke, and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder; it was slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion, hence the common remark of his officers of the advantage he derived from councils of war, where, hearing all suggestions, he selected whatever was best, and certainly no General ever planned his battles more judiciously. But if deranged during the course of action, if any member of his plan was dislocated by sudden circumstances, he was slow in a readjustment. The consequence was that he often failed in the field, as at Monmouth, but rarely against an enemy in station, as at Boston and York. He was incapable of fear, meeting personal danger with the calmest unconcern. Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence; never acting until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed, refraining if he saw a doubt; but, when once decided, going through with his purpose whatever obstacles opposed. His integrity was most pure; his justice most inflexible I have never known; no motives of interest, or consanguinity of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every sense of the word, a wise, a good, and a great man. His temper was naturally irritable and high-toned; but reflection and resolution had obtained a firm and habitual ascendency over it; if ever, however, it broke its bounds, he was most
* From the Domestic Life of Thos. Jefferson, by his grandaughter Sarah N. Randolph; New York, Harper & Brothers, 1872, p. 356.tremendous in his wrath. In his expenses he was honorable, but exact; liberal in contribution to whatever promised utility, but frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects, and all unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not warm in its affections; but he exactly calculated every man's value and gave him solid esteem proportioned to it. His presence, you know, was fine; his stature exactly what one could wish. His deportment was easy, erect, and noble; the best horseman of his age, and the most graceful figure that could be seen on horseback.
“Although in the circle of his friends, where he might be unreserved in safety, he took a free share in conversation, his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither copiousness of ideas nor fluency of words. In public, when called on for a sudden opinion, he was unready, short, and embarrassed; yet he wrote readily, rather diffusely, in an easy, correct style. This he had acquired by conversation with the world, for his education was merely reading, writing, and common arithmetic, to which he added surveying at a later day.
“His time was employed in action chiefly, reading little, and that only in agriculture and English history. His correspondence became necessarily extensive, and with journalizing his agricultural proceedings, occupied most of his leisure hours within doors.
“On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect; in nothing bad; in a few points indifferent, and it may truly be said, that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance, for his was the singular destiny and merit of leading the armies of his country successfully through an arduous war to the establishment of its independence; of conducting its councils through the birth of a Government, new in its forms and principles, until it settled down into a quiet and orderly train, and of scrupulously obeying the laws through the whole of his career, civil and military of which the history of the world furnishes no other example.
“He has often declared to me that he considered our new Constitution as an experiment on the practicability of republican government, and with what does of liberty man could be trusted with for his own good; that he was determined the experiment should have a fair trial, and would lose the last drop of his blood in support of it.”
To a friend, on one occasion, Mr. Jefferson exclaimed, in a burst of enthusiasm, “Washington's fame will go on increasing until the brightest constellation in yonder heavens shall be called by his name.”
His memory sparkles o'er the fountain.’His name's inscribed on loftiest mountain—The gentle rill, the mightiest river,Rolls mingled with his name forever!Washington, like the great patromia of Beaufort, was an enthusiastic Mason.
In the language of Mr. Knapp, in his admirable sketch of Judge Gridley, Grand Master of Massachusetts—
“It was fortunate for the Masonic fraternity that a man of such fine elements should become engaged at this early period in the cause of the craft; his weight of character, his zeal and his ability to defend and support its cause, was important, and did much to diffuse Masonic light and knowledge. This order of benevolence had just been established in this new world when he was appointed its Grand Master, and he wore its honors unsullied to the last hour of his life. His coadjutor in planting and cultivating this exuberant vine of charity, with whose fruit all nations have been blessed, was the sage and patriotic Franklin, under whose hands, by the smiles of Providence, its roots have struck deeper and deeper, and its branches spread higher and wider; while the fondest hopes of philanthropy have been more than realized in the permanency and the prosperity of our country and our craft. If their spirits could revisit the earth and take note of what is doing here, with what joy would they witness the extension and progress of every branch of knowledge among their descendants; and with what pleasure would they count the number of charitable institutions which, like the dews of Heaven, so gently spread their blissful influences and shed their healing balsams upon the wounds of life.
“The history of benevolent and useful intitutions are as valuable to the community as are the lives of eminent men. These institutions are like rivers which spring from remote and hidden fountains, and are in their course
enlarged by a thousand tributary streams, which all unite in one grand current, to swell the amount of human happiness and lesson the ills which flesh is heir to.”
This truthful eulogium may well be applied to North Carolina. for the men who fought for and framed her Constitution were earliest and devoted friends to the cause of Free Masonry. Among her Grand Masters were Samuel Johnston, [1788,] Richard Caswell, [from 1789 to ’92,] Wm. R. Davie, [’92 to 1799,] William Polk, [1800 to 1802,] John Louis Taylor, [1803,] John Hall, [1804,] Robert Strange, [1824,] Edwin G. Reade, [1865,] Robert B. Vance, [1866.]
These distinguished men were proud to lay aside for a time the sword of the soldier, the ermine of the judge, and the laurels of the statesman, to labor as fellow-crafts in the cause of “Free and Accepted Masons.”
The craft is in a flourishing condition in North Carolina. There are now about 400 Lodges and about 12,000 members, sustaining in asylums at Oxford and Mars Hill 134 orphans, and advocated by the Orphans’ Friend, a periodical.
An incident worthy of record as to the humanizing influence of Masonry, even in the face of “grim-visaged war,” occurred at the battle of Manassas. A gallant Georgia officer was shot down as he was forming his company in line of battle. He refused to be taken from the field. His regiment, under an overwhelming charge of the enemy, was compelled to fall back, and the poor fellow, unable to move, was made prisoner. He was about to be bayoneted, when he gave the Masonic sign of distress. The uplifted weapon fell harmless, and he was taken up by brotherly hands, his wounds attended to, and his sufferings alleviated. This was Orderly Sergeant O. B. Eve, of the Miller Rifles, of Rome, Georgia.
Many such incidents occurred at other times and places, proving the influence and value of Masonry.
THE BLOUNTS OF BEAUFORT.*As early as 1782, General John Gray Blount represented the county of Beaufort in the Legislature. He was enterprising and successful in business, and a large land owner. His father was Jacob Blount, who was an officer at the battle of Alamance and in the Revolutionary War. Jacob was also the father of Governor William Blount, (for sketch of whom see Craven,) who was Governor of Tennessee, and of Thomas, who was a volunteer in the Revolutionary army at the age of sixteen, and commanded as major at the battle of Eutaw; was a member of Congress in 1793-’99 and 1805-’09, and died at Washington City 1812. Jacob was also the father of Willie Blount, Governor of Tennessee from 1809 to ’15.
General William A. Blount, born 1794, died 1867, was the son of General John Gray Blount, and was well known in North Carolina, and much esteemed for his genial qualities, his extended and varied abilities, and his public services. At the early age of eighteen he entered the army of the United States as a subaltern, in the war of 1812, and continued in the army until the war was over. Such were his faithful services that he was promoted to the rank of captain.
On his return from the army he was elected major-general of the third division of North Carolina militia, a position at that time, in the unsettled condition of our affairs, of much distinction and responsibility. His next public service was as a member of the Legislature from Beaufort County, in 1825, and such was the acceptability of his course that he was reelected in 1826 and ’27.
When in the public councils, he advocated the most liberal system of public improvements,
* We present under Craven County a careful and elaborate genealogy of the Blount family, which will, we trust, be acceptable for reference and worthy of study.and was for years a member of the Board of Internal Improvements. He was the devoted friend of public schools, and for a long time a member of the Board of Trustees [appointed 1825] of the University; its steady, active, and consistent friend.
He was intensely southern in his whole course of life; the active opponent of all protection and class legislation; the devoted advocate of free trade and the rights of the States. His course in the Free Trade Convention at Philadelphia, one of the ablest bodies that ever assembled in this country, proves his ardent devotion to principle.
But it was at home, in the exercise of the kindly charities of life, the affectionate parent, the obliging and symphathizing neighbor, the sincere and uncalculating friend, his openhanded charity—
Charity that feels for another's woes.And hides the faults that we see;-that specially marked the life and character of General William A. Blount.
None that knew him (and the writer knew him long and well) can ever cease to remember his genial manner, his commanding presence, and his knightly bearing.
His conversational powers were unrivaled; though often incisive, pointed and witty, they were never coarse or offensive. These qualities made him always a welcome guest, and “the flashes of his wit often set the table in a roar.”
Of him may be truly said as Anthony of the noble Brutus—
— His life was gentle; and the elementsSo mixed in him, that nature might stand upAnd say to all the world, this was a Man.[Julius Cæsar, V, 5.]He was twice married; first to Nancy Haywood, and second to Miss Littlejohn. By the first he left a son, Major Wm. A. Blount, and a daughter, Nancy, who still resides at Raleigh, and who married the lamented Gen. L. O'B. Branch.
“Being thus fathered and thus husbanded” is the peerless rival of the Portias of ancient Rome.
Mr. Cambreling, of New York, born 1786, died 1862.
Although the public services of Churchill Caldom Cambreling have redounded to the fame of another State, yet he is a native son of North Carolina; and we believe in the divine injunction, to “give unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's.” We intend to claim the merits, character, and services of every son of North Carolina, wherever we can find them.
The following is a partial list of the native sons of North Carolina who have distinguished themselves as citizens of other States:
Allen, William, (Ohio,) born in Chowan County.
Ashe, John B., (of Tenn.,) New Hanover.
Bynum, Jesse, (La.,) Halifax.
Benton, Thos. H., (of Mo.,) Orange.
Bragg, John, (Ala.,) Warren.
Blounts, William, (Tenn.,) Craven.
Willie, (Tenn.,) Bertie.
Cannon, Newton, (Tenn.,) Guilford.
Daniel, J. R. J., (La.,) Halifax.
Dargan, (Ala.,) Anson.
Darby, (Miss.)
Dixon, Archibald, (Ky.,) Caswell.
Eaton, John H., (Tenn.,) Halifax.
Etheridge, (of Tenn.,) Currituck.
Forney, W. H., (Ala.,) Lincoln.
Gentry, Meredith P., Tennessee.
Gause, (of Ark.,) Brunswick.
Grant, James, (Iowa,) Halifax.
Hawley, J. R., (Conn.,) Richmond.
Hawks, F. L., (N. Y.,) Craven.
Bishop, (Mo.,) Craven.
Jackson, Andrew, (Tenn.,) Union.
Johnson, Andrew, (Tenn.,) Wake.
King, Wm. R., (Ala.,) Sampson.
Moore, Gabriel, (Ala.)
Mosely, W. D., (Fla.,) Lenoir.
Pickens, Israel, (Ala.,) Mecklenburg.
Polk, Jas. K., (Tenn.,) Mecklenburg.
Raburn, Wm., (of Georgia,) Halifax.
Steele, J. H., (N. H.,) Rowan.
Stokes, Montford, (Ark.,)
Wm. B., (Tenn.,)
White, Hugh L., (Tenn.,) Iredell.
Williams, Thomas, (Miss.,) Surry.
Benjamin, (Ala.,) Surry.
Marmaduke, (Ala.,) Surry.
Wiley, J. Caleb, born in Cabarrus County; member of Congress from Alabama.
In every portion of our nation may be found some native sons of the State, who, although separated, have never ceased to love their dear old mother; and who cherished to the last an abiding affection for her—a love unsurpassing the love of woman.
We can say with Æneas to his fidus Achates—
—Quis jam locus?
Quæ regis in terris nostri, non plena laboris.*
Nor has North Carolina been selfish or churlish to those of other States who have settled and made her borders their home.
Of the members of the Continental Congress Burke was from Ireland; Caswell from Maryland; Hooper from Massachusetts; Penn from Virginia; Williamson from Pennsylvania.
Neither of the signers of the Declaration of Independence for North Carolina was a native of the State. Hewes was a native of New Jersey; Hooper, of Massachusetts; Penn, of Virginia.
Penn, of Virginia, also signed the Constitution as a Delegate from North Carolina.
Of the 1st Congress, [1789 to 1791,] Samuel Johnston was a native of Scotland; Hugh Williamson, of Pennsylvania.
Of the 6th Congress, [1799-1801,] William H. Hill was a native of Massachusetts.
Of the 10th Congress, James Turner was a native of Virginia.
Felix Walker of Virginia was a member of the 15th, [1817-’19,] 16th, [’19-’21,] and 17th, [’21-’23] Congresses.
Henry W. Connor, of Virginia, was a member of the 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, 23d, 24th, 25th, and 26th Congresses.
Abram W. Venable, of Virginia, was a member of the 30th, [1847-’49,] 31st, and 32d, Congresses.
Richard C. Paryear, of Virginia, was a member of the 33d [1853-’55] Congress.
H. M. Shaw, of Rhode Island, was a member of the 35th Congress.
Nathaniel Boyden, of Massachusetts, David Heaton, of Ohio; John T. Deweese, of Arkansas, and John R. French, of New Hampshire, were members of the 40th [1867-’69] Congress.
James C. Harper, of Pennsylvania was a member of the 41st [1871-73] Congress.
And these are distinguished wherever they roam by their intriusic worth, their unobtrusive demeanor, their abhorence of vice and love of virtue, their fidelity to their promises and contracts, their obedience and respect to law. And when elevated by an appreciative people, have been always equal to and never above or below the position they occupied, but discharged every duty with integrity, intelligence, to the satisfaction and approbation of their constitutents, and honor to the country.
To return to our subject: Mr. Cambreling was a member of Congress from New York City from 1821 to 1839; chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means at one time, and of Foreign Affairs, which important posts were evidence of the high appreciation of his transcendent ability as a statesman. In 1840 he was appointed Minister to Russia.
His name was derived from his great-grandfather, Churchill Caldom, whose father came from Scotland and settled on Pamlico River. On the maternal line he was the
* What place, what country, on the globe is not full of our labors—Virgil I, 459.grandson of John Patton, a gallant officer of the Revolution, major of 2d Regiment of the N. C. Line in the Continental Army, and was engaged in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmonth. He was born in Washington, Beaufort County, N. C., and educated in New Berne. From the situation of his family, for he was early an orphan, he left school before his education was complete, and went into a store as a clerk. He moved in 1802 to New York, and engaged in mercantile pursuits with John Jacob Astor, and as his confidential clerk traveled extensively over the world. His reports in Congress, especially on commerce and navigation, were models of research and logic, and were republished in England. He died at West Neck, New York, on 30th April, 1862. (See “Demo. Review,” VII, No. 14—“Lanman's Biographical Annals.”)
George E. B. Singletary.—On the 5th June, 1862, in a skirmish which ensued across Tranter's Creek, near Washington, in this county, between the 44th North Carolina and a heavy force of Union troops, fell the gallant commander of the North Carolina troops, Colonel Singletary.
Colonel Singletary was an experienced and gallant officer, and had seen some service in the war with Mexico.
Colonel S. was the oldest son of an Episcopal elergyman, and much esteemed for his legal acquirements and his genial social temper.
He had married Cora, eldest daughter of Governor Manly.
He was succeeded by his younger brother in command of the regiment.
Captain John Julius Guthrie who was drowned near Nag's Head in November, 1877, while endeavoring to succor the passengers and crew of the U. S. Steamship “Huron,” was a native of the town of Washington, the son of Dr. John W. Guthrie and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Captain William McDaniel.
Captain Guthrie was no ordinary man, and well deserves remembrance for his virtues in private life, and his heoric gallantry. His education was conducted by Rev. Dr. Wm. McPheeters at Raleigh, and in 1833 he was appointed a cadet at West Point; but prefering the adventurous life of a sailor, after one year's probation at West Point, his friends procured in 1834 a midshipman's warrant in the Navy. He served with great acceptability at home and abroad, especially in the war with Mexico, and in the Anglo-French war in China; when our flag was insulted, displayed great gallantry and captured Barrier Forts, hauling down the China flag, which trophy he presented to the State, and for which he received the thanks of the Legislature.
The following is a copy of the letter of the Governor, and of the resolutions of the Legislature:
TESTIMONY TO GALLANTRY.[Communicated to the National Intelligencer.]
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
Raleigh, Aug. 23, 1859.
SIR: I have this day received from Capt. A. J. Lawrence a Chinese flag, taken by you in an assault upon the barrier forts in the Canton river in November, 1856, by the forces of the United States ships “San Jacinto,” “Portsmouth,” and “Levant,” as a present in your name to the State of North Carolina.
Having been apprised of your desire to make this disposition of the flag, the last General Assembly, by resolutions, authorized me to receive it from you in behalf of the State, and at the same time to express to you the high appreciation of that body of your gallantry on the occasion referred to, and of this evidence of your veneration for the State of your birth.
Believing that I cannot discharge this pleasing duty in a more acceptable manner than by transmitting these highly complimentary resolutions, I herewith enclose a copy of them as transcribed from the statute book.
These resolutions, I am well assured, are
none the less expressive of the sentiments of the people of the State than of their representatives who enacted them; for they have ever manifested a lively pleasure at the honorable distinctions achieved by the sons of North Carolina in every department of the public service. Every distinguished action of the citizens proves useful to the State in the example it affords to the youths of the country, who are thus apprised of the gratifying rewards that ever await a faithful discharge of duty.
This flag, so gallantly taken by you in the maintainance of the rights and protection of the persons of American citizens in a distant land, will be placed among the valued treasures of the State, and will be looked upon by posterity, impressing all who may see it with the sentiments of esteem in which are held the brave conduct of the faithful soldier in the service of his country; and to our youths, to whom from time to time the story of its capture may be narrated, will be told that it is a trophy for which the State is indebted to one of her courageous sons who entered the service of the country when a mere boy, and who, without the aid of fortune or the influence of powerful friends, won his way to honorable distinction by his own upright department and gallant spirit. Thus, sir, will a valuable lesson be taught them, exciting in their bosoms a laudable ambition to emulate like honorable actions.
Trusting that your career will prove one of continued usefulness to the country and distinction to yourself, I have the honor to be, very respectfully, yours, &c.,
JOHN W. ELLIS.
Lieut. JOHN JULIUS GUTHRIE, U. S. Navy.
RESOLUTIONS authorizing the Governor of the State to receive a flag tendered to the State of North Carolina by Lieut. Guthrie, of the U. S. Navy.
Whereas John Julius Guthrie, a lieutenant in the United States Navy and a native of the State of North Carolina, now on official duty at the National Observatory, Washington, D. C., did, on the 20th day of November, 1856, capture and carry off as a trophy of war a Chinese flag from the first of four barrier forts captured in a combined engagement by the “San Jacinto,” “Portsmouth,” and “Levant,” on the part of the American naval force, and other vessels under the command of Rear Admiral Seymore, on the part of the English, in the Canton River:
And whereas the chastisement inflicted on that occasion was in defence of American and English citizens residing in that locality, and had the happy effect of securing to them immunity from violence and insult to their persons and property:
And whereas said Lieut. Guthrie has been induced by his friends in the city of Raleigh and elsewhere to express a willingness to tender this flag to his native State, with a desire that she would accept it as an humble evidence of filial sentiments and affectionate recollection: Therefore—
Resolved: That the Governor of the State be authorized and requested to accept the flag thus tendered by Lieut. Guthrie at such time and place and in such way and manner as may appear suitable and proper.
Resolved farther: That he be requested, in behalf of this General Assembly, to express to Lieut. Guthrie its high appreciation of his gallantry on that occasion and this evidence of his veneration for the State of his birth.
Resolved thirdly: That the Governor be further requested to make such disposition of the flag, when received, as he may think this trophy of her son deserves.
Ratified February 15, 1859.
True copy from the original.
GRAHAM DAVES,
Private Secretary.
Raleigh, August 22, 1859.
After service of nearly thirty years, when the civil war broke out, he was under the necessity of resigning, and entered into the Confederate service, where he did efficient and active duty at New Orleans and elsewhere. He was at one time in command of the “Advance,” running the blockade between Wilmington and the Bermudas. After the war was over, he removed with his family to Portsmouth, Va., and in the Fall of 1865 was pardoned by the President, (Johnson,) being the first officer of the regular service who had received Executive clemency. His disabilities being removed by a unanimous recommendation from the members of Congress, he was appointed by General Grant to the “Superintendency of the Life-Saving Stations from Cape Henry to Cape Hatteras,” in the discharge of the duties of which he lost his life.
He left a wife (Louisa, daughter of Benjamin Spratly,) and children to mourn his loss. It was near the dreaded Cape Hatteras so often before and since the death-place of the brave, did the gallant Guthrie meet his death.
This fearful spot has been beautifully and fearfully depicted in poetry by another son of North Carolina, now, too, no more:
HATTERAS.The Wind King from the North came down,Nor stopped by river, mount, or town;But like a boisterous god at play,Resistless, bounding on his way,He shook the lake and tore the wood,And flapped his wings in merry mood,Nor furied them, till he spied afar,The white caps flash on Hatteras Bar,Where fierce Atlantic landward bowls,O'er treacherous sands and hidden sheals.He paused, then wreathed his horn of cloud.And blew defiance long and loud;“Come up! Come up, thou torrid god,That rul'st the Southern Sea!Ho! lightning-eyed and thunder-shod,Come wrestle here with me!As tosset thou the tangled caneI'll hurl thee o'er the boiling main.”The angry heavens hung dark and still,Like Arctic night on Hecla's hill;The mermaids sporting on the waves,Affrighted, fled to coral caves;The billow checked its curling crest,And, trembling, sank to sudden rest;All ocean stilled its heaving breast,Reflected darkness, weird and dread,An inky plain the waters spread—So motionless, since life was fled!Amid this elemental lull,When nature died, and death lay dull,As though itself were sleeping there—Becalmed upon that dismal flood,Ten fated vessels idly stood,And not a timber creaked!“Come up! Come up, thou torrid god,Thou lightning-eyed and thunder-shod,And wrestle here with me!”‘Twas heard and answered: “Lo! I comeFrom azure Carribee,To drive thee, cowering, to thy home,And melt its walls of frozen foam.From every isle and mountain dell,From plains of pathless chaparral,From tide built bars, where sea-birds dwell,He drew his lurid legions forth—And sprang to meet the white-plumed NorthCan mortal tongue in song conveyThe fury of that fearful fray?How ships were splintered at a blow—Sails shivered into shreds of snow—And seamen hurled to death below!Two gods commingling, bolt and blast,The huge waves on each other cast,And bellowed o'er the raging waste;Then sped, like barnessed steeds, afar,That drag a shattered battle-carAmid the midnight din of war!Smile on, smile on, thou watery hell,And toss those skulls upon thy shore;The sailor's widow knows thee well;His children beg from door to door,And shiver, while they strive to tellHow thou hast robbed the wretched poor![Jos. W. HOLDEN.].
This theme has also inspired the pen of an earlier poet:
* THE PILOT OF HATTERAS.[From the National Gazette, Philadelphia, Monday, January 16, 1792.]
In fathoms five, the anchor gone,While here we furl the sail,No longer vainly laboring onAgainst the western gale;While here thy lure and barren cliffs,O Hatteras, I survey,And shallow grounds and broken reefs;What shall amuse my stay?The Pilot comes. From yonder sandsHe shoves his barque so frail,And hurrying on, with busy hands,Employs both oar and sail,Beneath this rude, unsettled skyCondemn'd to pass his years;No other shores delight his eye,No foe alarms his fears.In depths of woods his hut he builds,Where ocean round him flows,And blooming in the barren wildsHis simple garden grows,His wedded nymph, of sallow hue,No mingled colors grace,For her he toils, to her is true,The captive of her face.Kind nature here, to make him blest,No quiet harbor plann'd,And poverty, his constant guest,Restrains the pirate band.His hopes are all in yonder flockOr some few hives of bees,Except, when bound for Ocracock.†Some gliding barque he sees;His Marian then he quits with grief,And spreads his tottering sails,While, waving high her handkerchief,Her commodore she hails.She grieves, and fears to see no moreThe sail that now forsakes,From Hatteras’ sands to banks of Core,Such tedious journeys takes.Fond nymph! your sighs are breath'd in vain,Restrain those idle fears,Can you, that should relieve his pain,Thus kill him with your tears?Can absence thus beget regard,Or does it only seem?He comes to meet a wandering bandThat seeks fair Ashley's stream.Tho’ disappointed in his views,Not joyless will we part;Nor shall the god of mirth refuseThe balsam of the heart.No niggard key shall lock up joy;I'll give him half my store,Will he but half his skill employTo guard us from your shore.Where western gales once more awakeWhat dangers will be near,Alas! I see the billows break,Alas! why came I here?With quarts of rum and pints of gin,Go, pilot, seek the land,And drink till you and all your kinCan neither sit nor stand.SINBAD.Edward Stanley represented Beaufort County in 1844-’46 and ’48, and was often Speaker of the House.
He was elected Attorney-General in 1847, and a member of Congress from 1837 to 1843 and from 1849 to 1853. He removed then [1853] to California, to practice his profession.
In 1857 he was the Republican candidate for Governor, and was defeated, receiving 21,040 votes to 53,122 for the Democratic candidate, Weller.
After the capture of New Berne [14th March, 1862.] he was appointed by Mr. Lincoln Military Governor of North Carolina, which, after a few months, he resigned, and returned to San Francisco, where he died, on the 12th July, 1872.
We would fain tread lightly on the ashes of the dead, but faithful history demands, like Cromwell of his artist, “Paint me as I am, warts and all.”
Mr. Stanley was considered as a decided party leader in Congress, and acquired an unhappy reputation for an over-indulgence in vindictive feelings and ultra denunciation of his political opponents. This unhappy trait of character, as was to be expected, involved him in frequent difficulties, political and personal. Perhaps it was constitutional, and a fatal inheritance; for his father had, in a political quarrel, killed Governor Spaight, and was considered aggressive and violent in his political conduct. Inheriting this trait, Mr. Stanley had, in Congress, involved himself in a violent personal altereation with his colleague, Hon. Thomas L. Clingman; another with Hon. Mr. Inge, of Alabama, which terminated in a duel, and with Governor Wise, of Virginia, who applied a riding-whip to his shoulders.
His career as Military Governor of North Carolina was a failure, not meeting the approbation of those who sent him, and destroying his reputation with those with whom he was reared, and by whom he had been honored. The most notable achievement of his mission was his letter to General D. H. Hill, of 24th March, 1862, abounding in bitterness, in which he declared that he “preferred serving in a brigade of negroes” than to belong to the troops commanded by General Hill, who then was defending Mr. Stanley's native land.
Whatever motives influenced Mr. Stanley to undertake so hopeless a mission, all his attempts to compromise the difficulties were idle and abortive. The bloody chasm had
Opened its ponderous jaws,
and any endeavor to heal the dissensions between the excited belligerents only tended to bring suspicion from one side, and hatred from the other.
The following letter, from one of the first men in point of ability in North Carolina, and a near kinsman of Mr. Stanley, shows public opinion as to Mr. S.’s course, and the state of public affairs at the unhappy period, and deserves to be preserved. It was written to Hon. Alfred Ely, who was a member of Congress from New York, and was at the battle
* Written off the Cape, July, 1789, on a voyage to South Carolina, being detained sixteen days with strong gales ahead.† All vessels from the northward that pass within Hatteras Shoals, bound for New Berne and other places on Pimlico Sound, commonly, in favorable weather, take a Hatteras pilot to conduct them over the dangerous bar of Ocracock, eleven leagues W. S. W. of the Cape.of Bull Run as a spectator. He was taken prisoner, and at the date of this letter was an inmate of the Libby Prison in Richmond:
“Mr. ELY:—Your letter to Mr. Stanley, proposing to him to cherish the feeling of “Unionism” in North Carolina, came to my hands in an unsealed envelope, directed to my wife. I take the liberty of setting you right upon a fact, and showing you what a hopeless task you have proposed to Mr. Stanley.
“There is no Union feeling in North Carolina, as you suppose, and is probably supposed by the generality of Northern men.
“There was in this State a very strong Union feeling—a strong love for the Union as established by our forefathers—but as soon as Mr. Lincoln's proclamation of April, 1861, appeared, offering us the alternative of joining an armed invasion of our Southern Sister States, for their subjugation, or resisting the authorities of the United States, our position was taken without a moment's hesitation. A Convention was promptly called, and instantly, without a dissenting voice, that Convention resolved to take our sides with the already seceded States, and share their fate for good or evil. From that moment, however we may have differed in other things, there has not been, and there is not, any difference; hence our people with one heart sprung to arms. Our people have now nearly sixty regiments in the field, (not skeletons, but full regiments,) and among them not a single conscript or drafted man. Hence we have taxed ourselves freely; have used our credit freely in making loans to support the war. The spirit which has produced this has never flagged; but is now as high and active as at first.
“Mr. Ely, think a moment! We have been invaded by an enemy as unrelenting and ferocious as the hordes under Attilla and Alaric, who overrun the Roman Empire; he comes to rob us; to murder our people; to insult our women; to emancipate our slaves, and is now preparing to add a new element to this most atrocious aggression, and involve us in the direful horrors of a civil war. He proposes nothing else than our entire destruction; the desolation of our country; uniersal emancipation—not from a love of the slaves, but from hatred to us. ‘To crush us;’ ‘to wipe out the South;’ to involve us in irremediable misery and hopeless ruin.
“Now, Mr. Ely, if your own State of New York was so threatened, what would be your feelings and purposes? From these, you may judge of ours.
“We look with horror at the thought of being again united in any political connection with the North. We would rather, far, that our State should be a Colony of England, or France, or Sardinia.
“The North may be able (though we do not believe it) to conquer us, and even to keep us conquered, and if it should be the wise and good purpose of the Almighty that this should happen, we shall endeavor to suffer with patience whatever ills may befall us; but a voluntary return to any union with the North, we cannot, will not, accept on any terms—a revival of any Union sentiments is an impossibility.
“I think, therefore, Mr. Ely, you would do well to advise Mr. Stauley to abandon his enterprise.
“He a Governor of North Carolina! a Governor deriving his authority from a commission of Mr. Lincoln!
“The very title is an insult to us. The very appointment is the assumption of the rights of a conqueror. But we are not yet conquered. And do you think Mr. Stanley's coming here, in such a character, supported by Northern bay onets, serves to commend him to our favor; to breathe in us the gentle sentiments of amity and peace toward himself or those who sent him here? Mr. Ely, as you have opened a correspondence with Mr. Stanley, you had better write to him yourself, and say this to him:
“If he wishes the honored name of Stanley to become a bye-word and a reproach, and to be spoken with scorn and hatred by all North Carolinians henceforth and forever, let him prosecute his present mission. If he does not wish this, let him return whence he came, and leave us to fight out the contest as best we may, without his interference.
“GEORGE E. BADGER.”
Whether Mr. Stanley ever received this letter or read it we are not advised; but, as already stated, he soon resigned his post, went to California, from whence he never returned. But as to Judge Badger, when the finale of the unhappy contest was settled, and all the hopes, as expressed in the foregoing graphic letter, were destroyed, his majestic mind sunk under the blow. Like some gallant ship in her
proud career is suddenly thrown on hidden and perilous rocks, quivers under the disaster, and finally sinks under the overwhelming waves to darkness and to death. He died soon after the war, [1866,] paralyzed in body and enfeebled in intellect.
The ruins of the noblest manThat ever lived in tide of times.Richard Spaight Donnell, born 1820, died 1865, represented this county in the Senate in 1858, and in the Commons in 1860, ’62 and ’64; and in the latter two sessions he was elected Speaker. In 1847 he was elected a member of the 30th Congress, at the early age of twenty-seven.
He was educated partly at Yale, and graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1839.
He studied law and arose to high distinction in the profession. He wrote in 1863 a letter on “the rebellion,” which gave him much reputation as a statesman.
Blest with a competency, if not a superfluity of estate, he pursued his profession and polities more as an amusement than for profit or promotion.
He was much loved by all who knew him for his genial and gentle manners, his modest, unassuming temper, and high-toned principles. As a man, he was just and faithful; as a lawyer, of learning and probity, and as a statesman, above all intrigue or reproach.
He died unmarried, and his memory is enbalmed in the affections of all who knew him.
William Blount Rodman, born 29th January 1817, represented Beaufort County in the Convention of 1868: He was elected one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, the term of which expired in 1878.
He was educated at the University of North Carolina, and graduated in 1836 with the first honors.
His mother was the daughter of General John Gray Blount, and the sister of General Wm. A. Blount, whose biography we have just presented.
He studied law and has attained the highest rank in his profession. His opinions as a Judge of the Supreme Court are considered by many as models of research and learning. To some, however, “that glorious uncertainty” so proverbial to the law, is apparent in his rulings. Yet he is much esteemed by the profession as a just and learned jurist. He has never mingled much in politics, for, like Michael Angelo of his profession, he thinks the law too jealous a mistress to allow any rival in his affections. Like Hooker in his Ecclesiastical Polity, he believes “of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God; her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage; the very least, as feeling her care; and the greatest, as not exempt from her power. Both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy.”
Edward J. Warren lived and died in Beaufort County. He was a native of the State of Vermont. Came to North Carolina and settled in Washington, as a teacher.
He read law and attained great eminence in the profession. He represented the county in the Senate in 1862 and 1864, and was Speaker of the Senate. He was appointed by Governor Worth one of the Judges of the Superior Court.
He married Deborah, daughter of Richard Bonnor. He died in 1878, much esteemed and regretted, leaving Charles F. Warren, now at the bar, and Lucy, who married William Rodman Myers.
James Cook, late a captain in the Confederate Navy, says Dalton, was a native of Beaufort, Carteret County, N. C. His name should be preserved among “the men of North Carolina”
His terrific engagement while commanding the Confederate steamer “Albemarle” with the Federal fleet, and clearing the Sound and the Roanoke river, after the capture of Plymouth by General Robert F. Hoke, who was so ably seconded by General M. W. Ransom, was a feat unparalleled in the annals of our naval warfare. Never before had the size of such guns and the weight of their crushing missiles been directed against any single vessel. Yet she struggled through it, having had the misfortune to have carried away one-half of one of the two guns she took into the action. She was literally loaded down by the enemy's shot, and in this condition had to fight to the end, until she gained a port of refuge.
During the perilous ordeal, Captain Cook was calm and collected; no excitement marked his conduct. Quietly did he give his orders, and his men partaking his spirit, promptly and quietly obeyed.
Captain Cook was as modest in his deportment as he was brave and fearless in action. Had such an exploit occurred under the English flag, Cook would have ranked with the Nelsons and Wellingtons of his age; but, as it is, he sinks into obscurity, forgotten, almost, by his native State, upon which he shed such imperishable honor. He was then in very delicate health, and after this terrible conflict, never completely recovered again. Soon after this battle his brave spirit winged its flight from the bosom of his family, in Portsmouth, Virginia, to join the spirits of his gallant comrades that had gone before him, where merit is rewarded, and not success alone, as in this vale of sorrows.
Charles Frederick Tayloe, son of Colonel Joshua Tayloe, who represented Beaufort County, in 1844, in the Senate of the State Legislature, should not be forgotten. His short and eventful life, his chivalric and daring character, and his tragic end, make his history interesting.
He was born in October, 1828, near the sea, (his father being for years collector of customs at Ocracock Inlet,) and possessed naturally a love for the ocean, which became the ruling passion of his life, and eventually his grave.
At the early age of 16, he left home on his first voyage, and in 1848, he shipped as an ordinary sailor before the mast, on the United States steamer “Oregon,” on a voyage from New York to San Francisco, via Cape Horn. His diligence, attention, and good conduct, were so marked that he was make first officer of the ship “Columbia,” on the dangerous and then unknown coast of Oregon. When some days at sea, the ship was discovered to be on fire. She had on board 400 troops, under the command of General Wool. The coolness, intrepidity, and energy of young Tayloe, on this perilous occasion, contributed greatly to the saving of the ship, passengers and crew. This was expressed in the grateful thanks of the passengers by resolutions.
On his return to San Francisco, the war in Nicaragua was found to be the exciting question of the day, and offered allurement to the daring. He tendered his services to General Walker, and was assigned to the command of the fleet of steamers and gunboats on the Lake of Nicaragua. He more readily engaged in this expedition of “the gray-eyed man of destiny,” since his younger brother, James, was an officer in Walker's army, and had borne a conspicuous part in many desperate battles from the breaking out of the war. It was then and here that I formed the acquaintance of these two gallant young men. I was at this time the Minister Resident of the United States near the Republic of Nicaragua, and I was much pleased with their modest and intelligent conduct. James fell in battle in the desperate endeavor to raise the seige of Grenada, thus relieving General Henningsen
and his command, beleaguered by the troops of Guatemala. It may not be uninteresting to record here the true facts in relation to this expedition in which so many of our countrymen took part, and where so many and valuable and enterprising lives were sacrificed. The character and the objects of this expedition have never been understood or fairly stated. Now, when more than a quarter of a century has passed, and prejudice and passion subsided, the truth should appear. When I arrived in Nicaragua, I found the republic convulsed in civil war. War is the normal condition of Central America. The two parties, the Democratic, headed by General Castellon, and the Legitimists, by General Chamora, waged a fierce and bloody internecine contest. The Democratic party sent agents to California for men and arms. These engaged the services of General Walker and others, who became enlisted in their service, and Walker was placed in command of a regiment, and became a naturalized citizen of Nicaragua. He soon, by his energy and activity, trained the ragged, barefooted and half-naked natives to become disciplined troops, and as such led them to victory. He soon took the towns of San Juan del Sur, Virgin Bay, and the cities of Rivas and Grenada, the latter the capital and a city of 10,000 inhabitants. I witnessed this battle, which was of short duration, and which completed the conquest of the republic. The President of Nicaragua fled, and after a short interim, Walker was elected President. Americans from New York, New Orleans and California, and almost every State of the Union, flocked to “this El Dorado.” Peace and prosperity for the time smiled on this beautiful country.
From the natural fondness of these people for war and revolution, the other republics of Central America (as Costa Rica and Guatemala) proclaimed hostility, and determined to drive the Americans from the country. They alone could not have effected this, but our Government, under lead of Governor Marcy and others, denounced Walker, although President Pierce received Padre Vijil as the Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary of Walker's government, and authorized Captain Davis, of the United States Navy, to take Walker and bring him to the United States; which was done. But soon Walker again returned to Central America, when, under orders, he was again seized by Commodore Paulding and brought to the United States. This act was pronounced by the President “a grave error,” and severely denounced in Congress, and very generally by the press of the country as unjust and unconstitutional.
Walker again embarked for Central America, and landed with a few troops in Honduras, where, after some bloody and successful skirmishing with the Honduras troops, he encamped near Truxillo. While here a superior force, dispatched by Captain Salmon, of the British man-of-war “Icarus,” under command of Alvarez, of the Honduras army, demanded of Walker his surrender. Walker then surrendered to the British officer, who delivered him to the Honduras authorities. The next day [12th September, 1860] he was shot. His fate was melancholy and undeserved. Doubtless Walker had faults, but he supplanted a government of ignorance, superstition, indolence, imbecility, and treachery. Had he succeeded, he would have rivaled the fame of Houston, and added to the area of human liberty and enjoyment. Compare the present condition of Texas and California now with what it was under the rule of Mexico. There is a destiny in the affairs of nations, as well as of men.
Captain Tayloe, after the failure of Walker, was ordered to conduct his command through a trackless and almost inaccessible route, from Rivas to Point Arenas, during which march they suffered every privation that famine, disease,
savage foes, venomous reptiles, and a torrid climate could inflict. They reached Point Arenas worn down by exertion. He then embarked in a brig to Panama, and from thence on the regular steamer to California.
After remaining in San Francisco a few weeks to recruit his exhausted system, in 1857 he embarked for his home and his native land, a passenger on the steamer “Central America.” This gallant ship had nearly completed her voyage, and was in sight of the home and birthplace of our hero, where his affectionate parents anxiously were awaiting the return of their “war-worn son” when the alarming discovery was announced that the ship had sprung a leak. Young Tayloe, although only a passenger, was the first to tender his services to the noble Herndon; and from that time until the brig “Marine” rounded to under her lea, he was foremost in relieving the steamer; working at the pumps until they were exhausted and useless. When all hope of saving the steamer was abandoned, he remained at his post, an example of coolness, of courage and seamanship. He was indefatigable in aiding the ladies, children and others in embarking on the relieving ship, and could have saved himself but for his attention to others. But on consideration with the officers it was decided that the ship would continue afloat till daylight, and as did Captain Herndon and our lamented John V. Dobbin, (brother of James C. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy 1853-’57,) Captain Tayloe retired to his stateroom, seeking that repose that his continued labors demanded.
In the course of the night a huge wave swept with violence the ship's decks, and she went suddenly down with all on board.
Thus perished, off his native coast of North Carolina, near Cape Hatteras, one of her boldest, bravest sons.
The eternal sea in its dark waves have swallowed up the mortal remains of our gallant countryman; but neither sea nor time can bury his virtues and his gallantry from our memories, our sympathies, or our affections.
Toll for the brave!The brave that are no more;All sunk beneath the wave,Fast by their native shore.Toll for the brave!Brave Tayloe! he is gone;His last sea fight is fought,His work of glory done.Toll for the brave!It has been suggested as proper to recall some further memories of Central America, and of a long residence in that interesting country at a most exciting period. Even at this day this country is of rare interest, forming as it does the connecting link between the two great oceans, and which from recent surveys by Captain Lull, of United States Navy, and others, will be the probable route of the oceanic canal.
The resignation of Hon. Solon Borland caused a vacancy in the Mission to Central America, and without any solicitation or expectation on my part, my name as Minister Resident to the Republic of Nicaragua, was sent to the Senate, and on the 2d August, 1854, (my birth-day) I received from the State Department my commission. This was considered, from the position of the country and the complications as to the protectorate assumed by England, as an important and delicate mission. Mr. Everett, of Massachusetts, in March, 1853, stated in the Senate that “it was more important than the mission to London or Paris.” After waiting for instructions and arranging my private affairs for a long absence, with my family I departed from Norfolk, Virginia, on 31st October, 1854, on board the U. S. steam frigate “Princeton,” commanded by Captain Henry Eagle. We touched at Havanna for a supply of coal, and at Pensacola we went on board the “Columbia,” the flag-ship of the home squadron, commanded by Commodore Newton, a model officer
and accomplished gentleman, who landed us in December, 1854, after a long voyage of nearly thirty days, at San Juan del Norte. The mild climate, the gorgeous foliage and rich scenery, created pleasure and surprise. One can hardly realize, who has never visited the tropics, the mildness and beauty of the climate; the very air is redolent with the fragrance of fruits and flowers, to breathe which renders existence itself a luxury. The evenings are still more delicious. These have been graphically described.
“By and by night comes on; not as it comes to our northern latitudes, but it falls suddenly, like a rich drapery, around you. The sun goes down with a glow, intense and brief. There is no lingering twilight, but suddenly the stars burst forth, lightening, one by one, the horizon. They come in a laughing group, like bright-eyed children relieved from school, and reflected from the lake they seem to chase each other in frolicsome play, printing sparkling kisses on each other's luminous lips. The low shores, lined with heavy foliage of the mangroves, looked like a frame of massive antique carving around the mirror of the quiet lagoon, across whose quiet surface streamed a silvery shaft of light from ‘the Southern Cross,’ palpitating like a young bride at the altar. Then there were whispered ‘voices of the night,’ the drowsy winds hushing themselves to sleep, and the gentle music of the little ripples of the lake, pattering with fairy feet along the sandy shore. The distant heavy and monotonous beatings of the sea, and the occasional sullen plunge of some marine animal, gave a novelty and enchantment to the scene, and entranced my senses during the delicious hours of my first evening alone with nature on the Mosquito Shore.”*
We could well ask, with Rodgers.
This region is surely not of earth.
Was it not dropped from Heaven?
Not a grove but is of citron, pine, or cedar;
Not a grot, sea worn, and mantled with the gadding vine.
But breathes enchantment.
This lovely region, where Providence has done so much and man so little for himself, we found, as already stated, involved in the tumults of civil war. As we journeyed to Castillo, some seventy miles up the river, the marks of blood spilled in a battle fought on the day before on the wharf on which we landed were seen. As before stated, both parties claimed to be the supreme power of the government. The Democratic party, headed by Castillon, held most of the republic except Grenada, and had that city under close siege. I was assured that this would be soon raised, and the Legitimists resume the authority of government. I was instructed to present my credentials to “the President of Nicaragua.” Now a knotty diplomatic problem came up, which I alone must solve. A mistake would be fatal. I applied for instructions, but none came. Mr. Stephens, a predecessor, was involved [1841] in a similar quandary. He tried in vain. Once, as he states, he thought “he came very near discovering a live President. But suddenly he vamosed on the back of a mule.” Mr. Squire [1849] did find a President in Ramirez. But when Mr. Kerr [in 1851] came he was not so successful, for the republic, as now, was in civil war. Mr. Borland, my immediate predecessor, did find a President, (Don Fruto Chamoro,) but he is now beleagured by superior force, and inaccessible.
By instructions of the Government, I remained some time in Greytown, or San Juan del Norte, engaged in collecting testimony as to the destruction of property by the bombardment of Greytown [9th July, 1854] by Captain Hollins, and then went to Virgin Bay, on Lake Nicaragua, where I remained three months, during which time the siege of Grenada was raised, General Chamoro died of cholera, and General Estrada was declared President and assumed the duties, and in April, 1855, I was recognized by him as the Envoy Resident, and raised the flag of the United States at Grenada.
* “Waikna, or Adventures on the Mosquito Shore;” by Samuel A. Baird.Under instructions, a treaty was formed [20th June, 1855] of amity and commerce.
The President was kind and polite, and more of a poet and musician than a soldier or statesman. Our intercourse was kindly and pleasant, and the republic was quiet. But it was only the lull that precedes a fearful storm. The agents of the Democratic party succeeded at San Francisco in engaging the services of William Walker, and on the 4th of May, 1855, he embarked on the brig “Vesta” for Nicaragua, with fifty-two followers, to invade a territory of more than 200,000 people. Was the act of Cortez in burning his ships after landing his troops more daring or desperate?
He and his force landed at Realejo, and was strengthened by three hundred native troops under General Valle. After a repulse at Rivas by Colonel Bosque, in which Achilles Kewen and Timothy Crocker and some of Walker's best troops were killed, he attacked Guardiola at Virgin Bay, whom he defeated with heavy loss. He captured, without loss, the steamers on the Lake of Nicaragua, and on the 12th October, after a sharp conflict, he captured Grenada, which, as before stated, completed the conquest of the republic. The President and Cabinet fled, and many resorted to my house and placed themselves under the flag for protection. I met now, for the first time, General William Walker. He appeared to be about thirty-one years of age [born in Nashville, Tennessee, on 8th May, 1824.] He was liberally educated, and graduated at the University of Tennessee in October, 1838.
He studied medicine, and received a diploma from the Medical University at Philadelphia, in April, 1843. He then went to France and England, where he completed his studies. He then traveled extensively on the Continent, where he learned to speak and write the French, German, Italian, and Spanish languages. He returned to the United States in June, 1845. Although he had a fondness for the profession of medicine and acquired knowledge from the ablest masters, yet he saw and felt that it was not as auspicious as the profession of the law for an ambitious and aspiring temperament. He entered the law office of Edward and Andrew Ewing, and remained there two years. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1847, at New Orleans.
His active temper still sought additional action, and he entered the stormy sea of politics. He became editor of the New Orleans Crescent.
In July, 1850, he went to California, and was connected with the Daily Herald, just then established by John Nugent. He had some difficulty with Judge Parsons as to some articles he wrote for the paper, and he removed to Marysville, and devoted himself to the law.
In October, 1853, he visited Sonora, and, with Gilman, Emory, Crocker, and others, made an unsuccessful attempt on the Mexican authorities. Walker returned to San Francisco, and was arrested and tried for violation of the neutrality law, but was acquitted.
The Democratic party of Nicaragua forwarded to him a commission as colonel and an extensive grant of land, through agency of Byron Cole.
Gathering a band of sixty-two followers, (among whom were C. C. Hornby, of North Carolina, and Julius de Brissot,) he landed at Realejo, in the northern part of Nicaragua. His history will now be connected with Nicaragua for all time.
He had, as already stated, captured Grenada, and was now “master of the situation,” and had the possession of the capital. Had Walker possessed some portion of that quality which General Lee called “a rascally virtue,” he could have attained complete success. The history of every nation repeats only the history of nations gone before. First comes the adventurous pioneer, with his rifle; then the schoolmaster, with his books; then the clergyman
and his creed; then the merchant, the railroad, and the telegraph.
The advent of Walker was not unpleasant nor unexpected to the simple-hearted and gentle natives of Central America. They had been grievously oppressed by the Spanish dominion; nor was their condition much better under their successors. “There was a tradition among them,” says Crowe, in his “History of Central America,” published in London in 1850, “founded on an ancient prophecy made years ago, that these people would only be delivered from cruel oppression by ‘a gray-eyed man.’ ” Mr. Crowe adds in a note the prophetic remark: “We would remind those who attach any importance to this prophecy, that it may be reserved for our trans-Atlantic brethren to fulfill this prophecy.”
“Last week we saw many of the native Indians,” says the Grenada Nicaraguense, “in our city, who desired to see General Walker; and they laid at his feet the simple offerings of their fruits and fields, and hailed his appearance, with fair skin and gray eyes, as ‘the gray-eyed man of destiny,’ so long and so anxiously waited for by them and their fathers.”
The next day after the capture of Grenada, an election was held by the people for a provisional President, and under the policy of Walker, and at his suggestion, General Ponciano Corral was chosen. General C. was at this time at Rivas, at the head of a large force of troops, preparing to march on Grenada and drive Walker out of the country. Walker knew that with his small force and his unreliable allies, that an attack by Corral (who had some military genius and experience, and much desperate courage) would be serious if not disastrous. He knew that Corral was very ambitious, and fond of power and place. Hence this election.
But how to get this information to Corral was the point. Not one of Walker's native troops would venture, for they knew that no power could save them if once in the hands of Corral. Appeals were made to the Consuls from Sardinia, Prussia, and France, resident at Grenada, without success. Finally, the Archbishop of Grenada, with the agent of the Transit Company, called on me, and besought me to act as a messenger of peace. Thus urged by them, I agreed to go. Accordingly a steamer was made ready, and with Mr. Van Dyke, of Philadelphia, who was acting as Secretary of the Legation, and Don Juan Ruiz, late Secretary of War, we went to Rivas with the certificate of election of General Corral.
Rivas is a walled town about fifty miles from Grenada.
We found it closely picketed and full of infuriated soldiers, commanded by General Zatruche.
On inquiry for General Corral, I was informed that he had just left Rivas with all his forces, to attack Walker at Grenada. A courier was immediately dispatched to Corral with the communication of his election as President. Zatruche, the General in command, was one of the most bloodthirsty and pertidious men in Central America. Smarting under the defeat he had met with at Virgin Bay, from Walker, he was insolent and imperious. After waiting for some hours for Corral, (and we since ascertained that he was still in Rivas,) I directed the horses to be brought, purposing to return to Virgin Bay and there await Corral's coming. My servant then came and informed us “that Zatruche had taken the horses, and that a guard was then approaching to seize me and my secretary.” They entered, and I never saw a more ferocious and villainous looking crowd, armed to the teeth; their uniform was a scanty shirt that hardly reached the knee, a dilapidated straw hat, with a red ribbon, and barefooted. We were then placed in the quartel with a guard over us. Our poor
boy (Carlos), after the doors were locked, with sobs and tears, informed us that we were to be shot at sunrise to-morrow. Mr. Van Dyke, with great emotion, said that he cared but little for himself, but much for me and my little ones and wife at Grenada. I felt buoyed up by the consolation that I was in the line of duty—on a mission of mercy and peace. Never did I spend a more unhappy night; the dim lamp revealed the army officials peering at intervals to ascertain our confinement, and the watch-word, ALERTO, (all well,) sounding in our cars from the line of guards. But early in the morning the sound of cannon and rifles was heard firing on the town. Zatruche had felt their fatal accuracy and danger. He rushed in and exclaimed, “In the name of Christ! Senor, what does this mean?” He was informed that my friends had expected me to return last night; that they had determined to rescue me, and in doing so would not spare one of his party; that they were well-armed with rifles that were certain, and with cannon. “Won't you write a small letter (un billitte), to them to cease their fire?” This was pre-emptorily declined. He then said. “You know, Senor Minister, that we are friends; you are very dear to me. Go out to them, forthwith, your horses are at the door, and I will send a guard of honor to escort you and your flag.” Accepting the leave, but declining the honor of the escort, we soon mounted and were soon at the steamer where Captain Scott was with only six men and four small brass cannons. We soon reached Virgin Bay, where Judge Cushing, the agent of the Transit Line, was, and who had dispatched the steamer to relieve me, and who stated that when I set out on the day before, he had never expected my return. Judge Cushing, late our Minister at Bogota, and agent at this time of the Transit Company, had, only a few days before, been seized and imprisoned by Zatruche, and only escaped murder by paying a ransom of two thousand dollars in gold. That my destruction was imminent, is proved by the letter of General Corral, that “he would not be responsible to what might happen to me personally,” as he had issued orders to Zatruche to execute me. But the kindness of Scott, and a gracious Providence prevented his atrocious purpose.
The following letter, the original of which is in my possession, was received by me at Virgin Bay:
“COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE
“REP. OF NIC'A, HEADQUARTERS,
“Marching, 17th Oct., 1855.
“To the Minister of the United States:
“I am placed under the imperious necessity to manifest to the Minister of the United States that in consequence of his leaving the city of Grenada in the steamer of the Accessory Transit Company, taken by the chief commanding the forces who occupy that place with the object to hurt the forces of the Supreme Government, whom I have the honor to command at Rivas, I now inform you that I am not, or will not be responsible for what may happen to you personally, for having interfered in our domestic dissensions to the prejudice of the Supreme Government, by whom he has been recognized; and has made himself the bearer of communications and proclamations against the legitimately recognized authority. Therefore I now protest and give you notice that in this same date I have informed Governor Marcy and the newspapers of New York. I am your dear servant, D. F. L.,
“PONCIANO CORRAL.”
“To which the following reply was sent:
“LEGATION OF UNITED STATES,
“NEAR REPUBLIC OF NICARAGUA,
“VIRGIN BAY, 18th Oct., 1855.
“To Gen'l Ponciano Corral:
“I have honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday, in which you inform me that you are compelled to manifest your protest against me for leaving the city of Grenada with the intent of injury of the forces under your command in the town of Rivas.
“I reply, I had no such object in visiting Rivas, as will appear more fully by a letter which I wrote to the military governor of that department, a copy of which I enclose.
“I had no personal desire to leave Grenada; and for some time positively objected; but influenced by the chief citizens of Grenada (your own friends) the venerable fathers of the church, the tears of your own sisters, and your daughters, I consented to visit you, accompanied by Don Juan Ruiz, the Secretary of War, and your superior in office, bearing the olive branch of peace; and a proposition from the commander-general of the Democratic forces, to make you the provisional President of the Republic. When it was stated you were absent, I desired to return to this place. Judge my surprise, when I was informed by the Prefect and Governor, that I should not return, my life threatened, and my person (with my secretary, servant, and the national flag) imprisoned in the quartel under strict guard.
“For this violation of the laws of nations and my personal rights, I protest, and be assured, General, that my Government will hold you and your Government to a severe responsibility for such lawless conduct.
“You further inform me that ‘you will not be responsible for what may happen to me for my personal safety,’ and that you will inform Governor Marcy, the Secretary of State, and the newspapers of New York of my conduct in this matter. In reply, I inform you that when I have kept my word of honor to the Governor of Rivas to remain here two days to await your reply, I shall return to my post at Grenada; and that I do not request, nor have I ever expected, you to be responsible for my personal safety. The flag of the United States is sufficiently powerful for my protection, backed as it is by a patriotic President and thirty millions of people.
“I have myself fully informed Governor Marcy of all these matters; and feel in no way responsible to you and the newspapers of New York for my official conduct.
“Yours faithfully,
“JOHN H. WHEELER,
“Minister of U. S. A. near
“the Republic of Nicaragwt.”
As I left Rivas a parting salute from a heavy cannon was fired at us, which struck near us an adobe gate, and covered us with dust and dirt, but with no other effect than to make us mend our gait in retreat.
On my return to Grenada, General Walker called on me. On learning the cause of my delay, my imprisonment by Zatruche, he expressed but little surprise, but remarked quietly, that he expected I would come to grief; and “it would have been a fortunate event had Zatruche carried out his intention to shoot me; for then,” he added, “your Government must have resented such outrage, and taken my part.” This was cool, rather than consoling, and characteristic of Walker, who looked upon men as the mere titulary pawns of the chess board, to be moved and sacrificed to advance the ambitious plans of others. His conduct can only be justified or apologized for by the fact that he was at the time in imminent peril himself. The enemy had now the possession of that portion of the country on which the Transit Company had their route. From this reservoir be could only receive reinforcements. The enemy, exasperated to madness, and infuriated by defeat in every battle by an inferior force, their capital taken, their President and Cabinet fugitives, were ready for the most desperate deeds. The agent of the Transit Company, Judge Cushing, as already stated, was seized and the office broken open, and his life jeopardized. The steamer, loaded with passengers from New York and San Francisco, was fired on by Fort San Carlos, to the imminent peril of every one on board, and several persons killed, among them Mrs. White, of Sharon, New York; and many wounded, among them J. G. Kendrick, then of Cincinnati, Ohio, now of St. Louis. Many whose names were unknown were found murdered, with their throats cut, and their bodies robbed even of their clothes. The steamer, unable to pass the fort at the outlet of the river, or to land at Virgin Bay, on the 22d Oct., 1855, came to Grenada, with 250 passengers, to claim the protection of the American Minister. To add to the misfortunes, the cholera was raging among the crowded passengers. A committee called on the Minister for relief, and I went on board. Such a scene I never before witnessed.
Dead and wounded, sick and dying from cholera, crowded the decks. One died (Nicholas Carrol) with the cholera, while I was on board. Many of these were wealthy; all respectable, and all my countrymen. I persuaded them all to leave the crowded and infected ship, took them into my own house, as many as I could accommodate, and rented a large house for the others.
Added to these miseries, evident preparations were making for a sanguinary battle which was near at hand. Arrests were hourly made and imprisonments, and continual applications for protection and relief.
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the late Government, Don Mateo Mayorga, for the outrages at San Carlos and other places, was lying dead at this time in the plaza, shot by order of Walker; leading and wealthy citizens arrested and imprisoned.
What a scene of horror! what a night of anxiety and excitement was experienced!
An anxious and fearful morning came; but General Corral, instead of attacking Grenada, made his appearance in the plaza accompanied by his staff and General Walker, with some of his officers. A treaty of peace between these generals was made, (23d October, 1855,) by which Don Patrico Rivas was named as provisional President—an oblivion of past differences. Walker was made Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Corral Minister of War, the barricades of the streets destroyed, the prisons all opened, and peace dawned on the land. Corral marched his forces into the city, wearing the blue ribbon, and they were incorporated into the army of Walker. The two chiefs embraced each other on the plaza, and the officers, military and civil, proceeded to the church “to return thanks to the God of Peace for the termination of the war.”
Everything now seemed quiet. But it was only temporary. At this very time, when the real strength of Walker was known to Corral, with the instincts of his race and color, he was planning treason and murder. Letters from him to Gardiola and Zatruche were intercepted, urging them to come with arms and force, and overthrow the new government. He was arrested, imprisoned, tried for treason by a court-martial, and condemned to be shot, which sentence was executed in the plaza of Grenada, at 2 p. m., on 8th November, 1855.
I was on the plaza of Grenada on the 8th November, 1855, in company with Captain Scott, Judge Cushing, and some friends, when the tolling of the Cathedral hell, the solemn air of crowds of spectators, indicated some event of deep and solemn importance.
A guard of soldiers marched out from the quartel, with whom appeared General Ponciano Corral. On one side of him was a priest, bearing in his hand a small cross, and on the other his faithful friend, Don Pedro Rouhard, the Consul of France. The splendid person of Corral seemed borne down with calamity; his features bore the marks of extreme mental suffering. He took his seat in the fatal chair, which was placed with its back to the wall of the Cathedral. He calmly took out his handkerchief, folding it in his hands, and bound it around his eyes; then, folding his hands in an attitude of prayer, uttered the word “pronto”—ready. A detail of Mississippi rifles, at the distance of about ten paces, at the word, fired, and every ball pierced through and through his body; he fell dead from the chair, and his spirit departed to answer for the deeds done on earth—
—With all his crimes broad blown,—And how his audit stands, who knows, save heaven? But, in our circumstance and course of thought, ’Tis heavy with him.
I witnessed, with painful emotion, this tragic scene. General Corral was of a soldierly demeanor and commanding presence. He was rather portly in size, weighing about two hundred pounds, social in his character, of daring courage and indomitable purpose. He was excessively
polite, and profuse in his expressions of friendship. He was as sincere as his nature, education, and mixed blood would allow. So natural was intrigue and treachery ingrained in his nature that he practiced these vices when it were easier to be honest and sincere. He was popular among the people, and his death caused a profound sensation in the State.
It would be foreign from the plan of this work to record all the spirit-stirring events in the career of Walker, or to attempt to describe the character of the country or its inhabitants.
The career of General Walker, after many battles between the Nicaraguan forces and Costa Rica, as well as Gnatemala, had varied fortunes; from his injudicious interference with the Transit Company, and other causes, his career was checked by defeat, and in May, 1857, an agreement was entered into by him and Captain Charles Henry Davis, a Commander in the United States Navy, ship “St. Mary,” by which “General Walker, with sixteen officers of his staff, marched out of Rivas with their side-arms, pistols, horses, and personal baggage, under guarantee of said Davis not to be molested by the enemy, and be allowed to embark on the ‘St. Mary,’ then in the harbor of San Juan del Sur; and the said Davis undertaking to transport them safely to Panama, in charge of a United States officer.” From Panama, Walker returned to the United States. He was received with much enthusiasm; nor was he disturbed by the Government of the United States for any violation of law.
He soon embarked again for Nicaragua, with men and arms, when, whether with orders from the Government of the United States or not, he was seized by Captain Paulding, as already alladed to. He was brought back to the United States. He again embarked for Central America, and landed in Honduras, where he had some skirmishes near Truxillo, when he surrendered to the English officer commanding Her Majesty's steamer “Icarus,” who delivered him to General Alvarez, of the Honduras army, and on the 12th September, 1860, he was shot.
This is a copy of the last note that Walker ever wrote:
I hereby protest, before the civilized world, that when I surrendered to the captain of Her Majesty's steamer, the “Icarus,” that officer expressly received my sword and pistol, as well as the arms of Colonel Rutler, and the surrender was expressly, and in so many words, to him, as the representative of Her Brittanic Majesty.
WILLIAM WALKER.
ON BOARD THE STEAMER “ICARUS,” September 5th, 1860.
Thus perished, in the prime of life, William Walker, at the early age of 36, as fearless a man as our country ever produced. Necessarily brief has been this sketch, which the stirring events of the time afford ample material and might have much extended. But it is only a glance at these events, comprehending the salient points of interest, are attempted with truth and justice. Much that I have endeavored to describe, if not
Pars fui; mesiriema vidi.
and had Walker been prudent and successful, the battles of Grenada and Rivas would have rivaled the triumph of San Jacinto, and Walker ranked with the Houston of other days. His enterprise and valor deserve our respect, and his tragic end our sympathy.
—Duncan is in his grave.After life's fitful fever he sleeps well.Treason has done his worst, nor steel nor poison,Malice domestic, foreign levy,Nothing can touch him further.MACBETH.From the disordered condition of this country, and from individual danger incident to any foreigner, I was instructed by the State Department to retire from Grenada to San Juan del Norte. In impaired health, I was allowed to return home, and in 1857 resigned. The events of these three years can hardly be classed in my life as among “The Pleasures of Memory.”
CHAPTER IV.
BERTIE COUNTY.
Whitmill Hill, (born 12th February, 1743. Died 12th September, 1797,) was born in Bertie County, and the ancestor of a large and wealthy family in Eastern Carolina.
He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, and was the early and earnest advocate of the rights of the Colonists in the Revolution, and served faithfully in all the legislative bodies—Provincial, State, and National—the devoted patriot and statesman.
He was a member of the Provincial Congress that met at Hillsboro, 20th August, 1775, and at Halifax, on 4th April, 1776, and elected to House of Commons from Martin County, in 1777; Senator, 1778-’79 and ’80. He was Speaker of the Senate in 1778. In 1778 he was a delegate from North Carolina to the Continental Congress, and served until 1781.
He survived the perils of the Revolution, and was one of the ablest advocates of the Constitution of the United States in the Convention which met at Hillsboro in July, 1788, which rejected the Constitution by a vote of 184 to 84. He died at Hill's Ferry, Martin County, on 12th of September, 1797.
His letters to Governor Burke, while a member of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, 1780, have been preserved, (see Uni. Mag. x, No. 7, March, 1861,) and breathe the pure spirit of patriotism and valor. We regret that so little has been preserved of this patriotic statesman, whose character and whose services deserve the regard of posterity.
The name of Jonathan Tayloe is remembered with veneration and regard in Bertie County. One of this name is recorded as a freeholder in Bertie County far back in Colonial times, and one of the name yet lingers upon the scene of his long pilgrimage, though he was old enough to be a soldier under Lieutenant Gavin Hogg and Captain James Iredell, and marched in 1812 in defence of Norfolk. He was for a period of years a pillar of the Baptist Church, universally loved for his noble Christian qualities, and was for a long time the clerk of the county court.
David Stone, born February 17, 1770. Died 7th of October, 1818.
Among the distinguished names in the earlier history of North Carolina, is that of David Stone.
His father, Zedekiah Stone, came early to North Carolina from New England (Vermont, we have understood,) and having purchased lands from the Tuscarora Indians, settled in Bertie County and married Mrs. Elizabeth Hobson, (neeShrivers,) of Martin County.
He lived at Hope, five miles from Windsor, and carried on mereantile and farming business.
He was a devoted and a ready friend to the cause of liberty and independence, and was a member of the Provincial Congress, at Halifax (1776) which formed our State Constitution.
He was, for many years, annually elected a Senator of the Legislature from Bertie, and was distinguished for his intelligence and shrewdness of character.
His son, David Stone, was born at Hope, 17th of February, 1770.
His early education was conducted by the best teachers that the country could afford, and he was diligent, laborious, and apt to learn.
After his academic studies were completed, young Stone was sent to Princeton College, where he graduated in 1788, with the first honors Dr. Witherspoon, then the President of the College, often referred with approbation to his studious and exemplary conduct,
and predicted for him a bright career of honor and usefulness.
He studied law with General William R. Davie, whose knowledge and successful practice well qualified him to prepare and fit upon his students that armor which would enable them to endure the tilts of the legal tournament. His teachings were inculcated with an elegance of manners, and a suavity of temper, that, while they instructed, gave satisfaction and pleasure. Judge Daniel, long one of the Judges of our Supreme Court, who also read law with him, pronounced General Davie one of the most able jutists and accomplished gentlemen he ever knew. Under such a teacher, Mr. Stone was well fitted for the duties of his profession; and from his solid acquirements, his signal ability, his close attention to the interests of his clients, the skillful and careful preparation of his cases, he won the confidence of the community, and attained the highest rank in his profession. When in the 26th year of his age, he was elected by the Legislature a Judge of the Superior Court of Law and Equity.
He early embarked on the stormy sea of political life, in which, from the suavity of his manners and the solidity of his acquirements, he enjoyed a long and brilliant career. From 1790 to 1794 he was a member of the House of Commons. In 1795 he was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Court, the duties of which he discharged with dignity and ability until 1799, when he was chosen Representative in Congress. In 1801 he was elected Senator in Congress, which place he resigned in 1807, on being again elected Judge of Superior Court. Whilst a member of the Senate his distinguished colleague, Jesse Franklin, was President protem, of that body. It is a fact worthy of record that at this time the presiding officers of both Houses of Congress were from North Carolina, Mr. Macon having been Speaker of the Lawer House during the 7th, 8th, and 9th Congresses, 1801 to 1806. In 1808 Mr. Stone was elected Governor of the State. He discharged all the duties of that elevated position with great dignity during his constitutional term. In 1811 and 1812 he again appeared as a member of the Legislature, and his experience, abilities and principles gave him commanding influence. This was a stormy period in the political history of the State. A bill to confer the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States upon the Legislature, so as to give an undivided vote (instead of the district system then in vogue,) was introduced and advocated by Governor Stone; this failing, he introduced a similar measure to choose the electors by a general ticket system, which he advocated with great ability and unequaled eloquence. This measure was opposed by Duncan Cameron, John Stanly, and others; and also miscarried. He opposed the proposition of Mr. Phifer to make a choice of electors by the district system, but this was adopted. At this session he was again elected a Senator in Congress to serve for six years, from the 4th of March, 1813.
He possessed extraordinary and highly cultivated intellectual powers, cautious and shrewd in business transactions, fond of money, and successful in the accumulation of property.
He was twice married, first to Miss Harriet Turner, by whom he left several children; second to Miss Dashield, of Washington City.
(For Genealogy of the Stone family of Bertie County, North Carolina, see Appendix.)
General Stone entered the Senate again at a period of intense national excitement. The United States were at war with the most powerful nation on earth, and party spirit raged with unwonted violence. The majority of the people of North Carolina supported Madison and the war, and the Legislature elected Governor Stone to sustain that policy; but, unfortunately, he differed from the Legislature and
the people. His reasons were, as stated in Niles’ Register, (vol. vii., 163,) that “these measures had led to division among ourselves, and to bankruptey and ruin to the nation.” The embargo, a measure strongly recommended by the President, had passed the House. It was rejected in the Senate by two votes only, and one of them was Governor Stone's. He also voted against a bill to raise by direct tax revenue to support the war. He complained, personally, that to a call for information from the Committee of Ways and Means, the reply was that “there was not time to furnish the desired information.”
In this course he differed from his colleague, Governor Turner, of the Senate, and from Willis Alston, Peter Forney, John Culpepper, Meshack Franklin, William R. King, Nathaniel Macon, William H. Murfree, Israel Pickens, Richard Stanford, and Bartlett Yancey. His course called down the censure of the Legislature.
In December, 1814, Mr. Branch, afterwards Governor, as chairman of the special committee upon the subject, reported a resolution that “the conduct of David Stone had been in opposition to his professions, and had jeopardized the safety and interest of the country, and had incurred the disapprobation of this General Assembly.”
This passed, 40 to 18, and Governor Stone forthwith resigned his seat in the Senate. This closed his distinguished and eventful public life, and four years afterward he died, in the 48th year of his age.
Governor Stone was in person tall and commanding of reddish hair, which he wore, as was then the fashion, in a queae.
Willie Blount, Governor of Tennessee, was born in Bertie County 1768; died 1835.
He was the son of Jacob Blount already referred to in a sketch of the Blounts of Beaufort. He was the brother of Governor William Blount, the first Governor of Tennessee, (see Craven County,) and was his private secretary.
He was a lawyer by profession, and so highly esteemed that, at the age of 28, he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee.
He was the Governor of Tennessee from 1809 to 1815. This long period of public service, in so elevated a position, proves the wisdom and prudence of his conduct and his acceptable service. It was his fortune to be Governor in a most exciting period of our history—during the war with England—and he gave to the administration his cordial and constant support. He tendered to President Madison 2,500 troops, and placed them under command of Andrew Jackson, who won for his country the glorious victory at New Orleans.
He was equally active in the Creek war, raising 2,000 volunteers and $300,000.
He married Lucinda, daughter of John and Anne Norfleet Baker, of Bertie County.
He died at the residence of Wylie Johnson, near Nashville, in 1835. A monument was erected by order of the Legislature anto his memory at Clarksville. He left several children, among them Mrs. J. T. Dabney; Mrs. Dortch, whose son, Willie B. Dortch, married a daughter of Governor A. V. Brown.
The names of Cherry and Outlaw are preserved by a patriotie and talented race full of generous feeling and kindly dispositions.
George Outlaw was born, lived and died in Bertie County. He was distinguished, says Mr. Moore in his History of North Carolina. for the blandness of his manners, and was as noted for his usefulness in the Church, as for his talents as a statesman. He entered public life as a member of the House of Commons in 1796 and in 1799, and a member of the Senate from 1806 to 1822, with some intermissions, of which body he was Speaker in 1812, ’18, and ’14, and elected a member of the 18th Congress, 1823-’25, to supply a vacancy occasioned
by the resignation of H. G. Burton, elected Governor. He was the first Moderator of the Chowan Baptist Association, established in 1806.
His fine personal appearance, his kind, genial manners, and his generous, charitable temper, rendered him universally popular. His son, George B. Outlaw, succeeded him in the State Senate, in 1823 and 1824, whose widow (nee Jordan) married Governor John Branch.
Thomas Miles Garret was a resident of this county, and lived near Colerain. His education was good. He was prepared for college by John Kimberly, and graduated in 1851, in same class with David M. Carter, Bartholomew Fuller, Francis E. Shober and others. He read law, and by his diligence and capacity attained renown. But the war broke out, and he joined the army. He was brave and devoted to the cause, and fell in battle as colonel, at the head of his regiment, amid the horrors of that fearful conflict. He remarked on the eve of the engagement that the day would end with a general's wreath or with his life. Both were verified. A commission arrived next day as brigadier, but too late!
There are but few persons in North Carolina who did not know David Outlaw (born about 1805 and died 1868,) and appreciate his estimable character. He was born, lived and died in Bertie County. He was endowed by nature with a clear and penetrating mind, which was highly improved by a liberal education. He graduated in 1824 at the University of the State, at the head of his class. When it is recollected who composed this class, and their mental material, this high honor will be appreciated. Among them were Daniel B. Baker, Benjamin B. Blume, John Bragg, member of the Legislature, member of Congress, and Judge in Alabama; James W. Bryan, distinguished lawyer, Senator 1836 from Jones County; Thomas Dews, of Lincoluton; William A. Graham, Governor of North Carolina, Senator in Congress, Secretary of the Navy; Matthias E. Manly, Judge of the Superior and Supreme Courts; Augustus Moore, Judge of Superior Courts; Edward D. Simms, member of Congress, 1824, from South Carolina. In even this galaxy of merit and talent Mr. Outlaw was conspicuous.
He studied law with that able and accomplished jurist. William Gaston, and by his assiduity, ability and labor did credit to his accomplished preceptor. He was admitted to the bar in 1827, and soon rose to the front rank of his profession. For years he was the Solicitor of the Edenton Circuit, in which responsible position he won the respect, confidence and admiration of the bench, bar and juries. When to his discriminating judgment, oppression or persecution was attempted, he was mild and yielding, but when the law was violated, no matter by whom, high or low, indigent or wealthy, it was firmly vindicated.
Naturally generous and just, though resolute, he was universally popular. His warm and enthusiastic temper was often roused when duplicity or artifice was attempted; and he would assail his victim with resistless power and matchless eloquence. This trait in his character was well known to his associates at the bar, as also to the community at large. Often has the trembling offender of justice, when on trial, whispered to counsel, “Doa't make Outlaw mad, for if you do, I shall not have any chance to escape.” He was truly “a terror unto evil-doers, and a praise to them who do well.” “To the just, he was mild and gentle; but to the froward he was as fierce as fire.”
Such a man could not fail to secure regard and respect. He was frequently elected a member of the Legislature, and was elected member of the 30th (1847,) 31st (1849,) and 32d (1851) Congresses. Here his unbending integrity, his unselfish patriotism, his unquestioned
abilities, and his pure and unobtrusive virtues, commanded the respect and the affection of his associates. He was ever ready to do generous acts, while he scorned any intrigue or artifice— the unflinching foe to corruption, extravagance or indirection. Sincere and honest himself, he was unsuspicious of deceit or fraud in others.
In his person Colonel Outlaw was but little favored by nature. He was very near-sighted, and constantly were glasses that were green, and which to strangers made him appear distant, reserved, and awkward. Yet, with these disadvantages, to those who knew him well, this rugged exterior did
Hide a precious jewel in its head.
and present every quality of honor, truth, and justice that can dignify human nature.
His last public service was as a member of the State Senate in 1863. He died on 22d October, 1868.
His latter days were clouded by misfortune. The vicissitudes of war, his confidence in friends, and his carelessness in financial matters, had wrecked his fortunes. The natural infirmity (defective eyesight) terminated in total blindness. But his generous qualities triumphed over calamity. To such men may North Carolina proudly point as the mother of the Gracci did to her sons, and sincerely say,
These are my jewels.
James W. Clark, born 1779, died 1843, was a native of Bertie County, son of Christopher Clark, who died at Salmon creek.
He was liberally educated, and graduated at Princeton in 1796. He was elected a member of the Legislature from his native county in 1802-’3. He removed to Edgecombe County, which he represented in 1810 and 1811, and in the Senate 1812-’13 and ’14, and elected a member of the 14th Congress—1815-’17. He served out his term and declined a re-election. He was succeeded by Dr. Thomas H. Hull.
He served in 1827 as Chief Clerk of the Navy Department under Governor Branch.
He was an enterprising, patriotic and honest man, loved and respected by all who knew him. He married Arabella, daughter of Henry I. Toole. He died in 1843, leaving one son, who became Governor of the State, 1861, and two daughters, Maria, who married Mat Waddell, and Laura, who married Cotten.
(For the Genealogy of the Clark family, see Appendix.)
Patrick Henry Winston resides in Bertie County, but is a native of Franklin County. He was educated at Wake Forest, and at the Columbian University, at Washington City, where he graduated. He read law at Chapel Hill, and after receiving a license to practice, settled in Windsor. He represented Bertie County in the Legislature in 1850 and 1854.
In 1861, he, together with Hon. B. F. Moore and Sam'l F. Phillips, were elected by the Legislature as Judges of the Court of Claims. This was a delicate and severe duty, and this able court discharged it with fidelity and ability.
After his term in the court had expired, he was appointed by Governor Vance Financial Agent of the State in her fiscal relations with the Confederate Government.
In 1864 he was elected one of the Council of State, and by that body chosen President, a position at this time involving great responsibility.
In 1865 he was chosen a member of the Constitutional Convention from Franklin, whither he had taken refuge during the troubles of the war, and no one did more to build up the broken down walls of our political Zion than Mr. Winston. He was of the few men who declined to sign an open letter to Governor Holden, requesting him to be a candidate for Governor. In 1868 he was
offered and declined the nomination for Congress, preferring to pursue the practice of his profession, of which he is alike a pillar and an ornament. He posseses untiring industry, profound learning, and unspotted reputation.
He has a family likely to be as distinguished as their father for ability, influence and integrity.
A fearful epidemic appeared in Bertie County, as recorded in Niles’ Register, vol. x, 364, which was most fatal among the people, in May, 1816. Some sections, especially Cashie Neck, were nearly depopulated. The statement says that “the most robust constitutions melted before it as wax before a fire.”
CHAPTER V.BLADEN COUNTY.
With this county are associated many stirring events connected with the war of the Revolution, which attested the patriotism of her sons, and their devotion to liberty.
The battle of Elizabethtown, fought in July, 1781, was a complete victory of the Whigs, led by Thomas Brown, over the Tories, commanded by Slingsby and Godden. This has been already so fully recorded from authentic documents in the History of North Carolina (II, 36,) that its repetition is unnecessary here. The heroic character of Denny Porterfield is detailed in The Memories of Cross Creek.
THE MEMORIES OF CROSS CREEK.The Highlanders of Scotland, after their defeat at Culloden in 1746, migrated to North Carolina, under the advice of Neill McNeill. They found a resting-place on the banks of Cape Fear, at what has remained the head of navigation on that river to the present time.
As early as 1762 Cross Creek and Cambellton (now Fayetteville) began to assume importance in a commercial point of view, the fame whereof attracted many from abroad, and amongst others James Porterfield, an Irishman by birth, but who for some years had been a resident of Pennsylvania. Mr. Porterfield had five children—Eleanor, who intermarried with Col. Thomas Owen, the father of Gen. James and the late Gov. John Owen; one son who died in early life; John and James, who for many years were merchants in Fayetteville, and Denny, who is the subject of this brief sketch.
On the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, the whole family of Porterfields espoused the Whig cause. In the death of James Porterfield, senior, the Whigs lost an able and influential friend. But his widow, animated by the same ardent temperament, made her mansion headquarters for the Whigs of Cross Creek. She was celebrated as an expert cartridge-maker, and frequently spent nights in preparing bullets to be used by the Americans. At that time she lived in the house that has for many years been known as the residence of John McLearn, deceased, and now of his son William.
Under such a father and mother, and in such times, Denny Porterfield grew to manhood.
He became a soldier, served with distinction in the American army, and attained the rank of Major. It is not our object to give a detailed account of the exploits of Denny Porterfield, but will simply endeavor to record his daring bravery as exhibited in his last battle.
It is a well known fact that while Cornwallis retreated from Guilford Court House via Fayetteville and Wilmington to Yorktown, where he was compelled to surrender to the prowess of Washington, Gen. Greene, instead of pursuing him, determined to relieve North and South Carolina from the persecutions of Lord Rawdon, and so pressed upon him, that in July, 1781, he took post at the Eutaw Springs, where the Americans attacked him and drove him from his entrenchments. Foremost in this intrepid charge was the high-souled and valorous Denny Porterfield who seemed to have a charmed life, as he exposed himself upon his mettled charger, with epaulettes and red and buff vest on, to the murderous fire of the enemy. Lieut. Col. Campbell received a mortal wound while leading the successful charge. Porterfield and his brave companions rushed on to avenge his death, and took upwards of five hundred prisoners.
In their retreat the British took post in a strong brick house and picqueted garden, and from this advantageous position, under cover, commenced firing.
At this crisis in the battle Gen. Greene desired to bring forward re-inforcements to storm the house. To save time it became important that some one should ride within range of the British cannon. It was in reality a forlorn hope. The American General would detail no one for the enterprise, but asked if any one would volunteer. Instantly Denny Porterfield mounted his charger and rode into his presence. Gen. Greene inquired if he was aware of the peril, if he knew that his path lay between converging fires, and in full sight of the British army. Porterfield modestly replied, that when he entered the American army he had subjected his powers of mind and body to the glorious cause, and if needs he was prepared to die in its behalf.
Greene communicated the command, which was to order into service a reserved corps that lay in ambuscade, ready to advance upon receiving the signal agreed on.
With a brave and undaunted bearing Major Porterfield dashed off upon his fleet courser, and so sudden and unexpected was his appearance among the British, and so heroic the deed, that they paused to admire his bravery, and omitted to fire until he was beyond the reach of their guns; but on his return, they fired, the shot took effect in his breast, and the brave Denny Porterfield fell, and sealed his devotion to the cause with his blood, on the plains of Eutaw. His horse escaped unhurt galloped into the American lines, and never halted till he reached his accustomed place in the ranks.
Gen. Greene, who witnessed the instinct of the animal, shed tears, and ordered David Twiggs, father of Miss Winny Twiggs, now of Fayetteville, to take charge of the horse and carry him to Mrs. Porterfield at Cross Creek. And upon a Sunday afternoon the mother of the distinguished gentleman who communicated some of the facts detailed, remembered to have met David Twiggs coming into Cross Creek, who in one breath announced the fall of his beloved Major and the success of the American arms at Eutaw. He brought with him the red buff vest that Major Porterfield wore, and Gen. James Owen has informed me that he remembers to have seen it, and that there was a rent or tear on one side and slightly blood-stained. On the retreat of Lord Rawdon, Gen. Greene retained possession of the field, and there the body of Denny Porterfield found an honorable grave. His
horse lived for several years, a pensioner roaming at pleasure on the banks of Cross Creek—known and beloved by all who venerated the valor and chivalry of Denny Porterfield.
John Rutherford, or Rutherford, resided in Bladen County.
He married Penelope Eden, the widow of Governor Gabriel Johnston, and lived on the place in Bladen, where the Governor had built a house. (Moore, I, 147.)
He was one of the Council of Governor Martin, and should not be confounded with the name of General Griffith Rutherford, who did great military service in the Revolution.
John Owen, (born 1787; died 1841,) was the grandson of Major Porterfield, above alluded to, and the son of Thomas Owen, who died in 1803, and was a brave officer of the Revolution, and commanded a regiment at Camden.
To many of our State, he was well known, and by all he was highly appreciated for his amiable character, his generous disposition, and pure and upright demeanor. It was not his taste, or his fortune, to command in the field of war, or even
The applause of listening Senates to command.
He preferred rather to enjoy the quiet comforts of home and his family, and the kindly intercourse of neighbors and friends.
Such was his popularity that he was often elected by the people of Bladen a member of the Legislature, (1812-’27, and in 1828;) during the last year he was chosen Governor. He was within one vote of being elected Senator in Congress in 1831.
He was President of the Convention at Harrisburg, in 1840, that nominated General Harrison for President. He was offered the nomination as Vice-President; he declined, and Mr. Tyler was nominated. Had his modesty allowed his acceptance, as was the course of events, he would have been President of the United States. But his health was very precarious, and would not allow him to accept any position. He died October, 1841, at Pittsboro.
He married, at an early age, the daughter of General Thomas Brown, the hero of the battle of Elizabethtown, leaving an only daughter, who married Haywood Guion, deceased, and who now resides at Charlotte.
Governor Owen was a true type of a North Carolinian. Sincere, but chary in his professions and promises; and faithful and exact in his performances; varied and deep in his acquirements, but modest, reticent and unobtrusive in his demeanor; firm and gallant in maintaining his convictions of right. His name is worthy to be classed with Bayard of France: “Sans peur, sans reproche.”
His brother, General James Owen, was well known for his urbane and intellectual character. He was elected a member of the 15th Congress (1817,) and President of the North Carolina and Raleigh Railroad.
His sister married Elisha Stedman, of Fayetteville.
James J. McKay, (born 1793; died 1853,) of this county, was distinguished as a lawyer and statesman. He was often a member of the Legislature in the Senate (1815, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’22 and ’26;) district attorney of the United States, and a member of Congress from 1831 to 1849, serving at one time with great acceptability as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. In the National Convention of 1848 General McKay received the undivided vote of North Carolina as a candidate for Vice-President. As a statesman he was of unquestioned ability, of stern integrity, capable of great labor and patient investigation. He was in public, as in private life, a radical economist, and belonged to that school of which Mr. Macon was the father, and he, with George W. Jones, Cave Johnson, of Tennessee, and John Letcher, of Virginia, were faithful disciples.
General McKay died very suddenly at Goldshoro in 1853.
In closing our sketches of “The memories of fifty years or more,” as regards the men of Bladen County, we should do injustice to the integrity of history and to merit and virtue to pass over the name of Thomas David McDowell, one of the purest men in public and private life that I ever knew.
He was born in Bladen County, the son of Dr. Alexander McDowell, on the 4th of January, 1823.
His education was liberal, conducted at the onaldson Academy and the University, where he graduated in 1843, in the same class with Hon. John L. Bridgers, Hon. Robert P. Dick, Philo P. Henderson, Judge Samuel J. Person, and others. He served in the Legislature in 1846 to 1850 in the House, and 1854 and ’58 in the Senate, and in the Congress of the Confederacy.
He is a planter by profession, and now lives in dignified retirement like Cincinatus, until he is called, like him, by the people, to position of responsibility and honor, which his merits entitle him, and his talents so admirably qualify him to adorn.
CHAPTER VI.BRUNSWICK COUNTY.
There are so many memories that cluster around the early times of this ancient county, associated with the chivalric daring of her patriotic sons, that the historian is embarrassed by the riches the glowing record presents. The difficulty arises not so much in finding material for his study as in selecting events and subjects most worthy of preservation. Here was the ancient borough of Brunswick.* This section was the home of Howe, of Harnett, and of Hill, where wealth and enterprise reared stately mansions; where generous hospitality, gentle courtesy, and social harmony prevailed, and where wit, science and refinement found a habitation.
These people were happy when left to themselves; never yielded quiet obedience to the rule of the lords proprietors, nor were they even on good terms with the rulers of Royalty. Governor Dobbs, with amiable traits of character and with all the patronage of the Government, could win but few advocates. Governor Tryon, his successor, by turns threatened and flattered them, but in vain; and finally they drove out Gov. Martin, the last of the Royal Governors, from the country to whom, like the guests of Macbeth, the people of Brunswick said, with more decision them comity,
—At once, good night!Stand not upon the order of your going-But go at once.These people, when the Stamp Act was before the Parliament, saw the storm approaching; without fear they watched its course, and when it came, they breasted its fury with firm and manly spirit. When its final passage was announced, the Chevalier Bayard of the day,
* The ancient town of Brunswick, once the seat of the Royal Government, was on the left bank of the Cape Fear River, about 10 miles from the present town of Smithville. It was nearly destroyed on the 7th of September, 1769, by a hurricane, which is depicted in a dispatch from Tryon. (Colonial Doc's from Rolls Office, London.)John Ashe, then Speaker of the House of the Colonial Assembly, boldly proclaimed to the Royal Governor, surrounded by his satraps, that “he would resist the execution of the act to death!”
It was here occurred a scene which excels in daring any event of the age; and which leaves the Boston Tea Party a secondary legend in point of courage and patriotism.
In the year 1766, an English sloop-of-war, (the “Diligence”) is seen entering the harbor. “The meteor flag of England” flaunts proudly from her mast, and her cannon, loaded and ready, frowned upon the devoted town. She sails gracefully into the harbor, and drops her anchor. Governor Tryon, anxiously expecting her, announces her arrival by a proclamation dated 6th January, 1766, and the reception of stamps, and directs “all persons authorized to distribute stamps to apply to the commander.”
But other eyes than Tryon's were watching. Colonel Hugh Waddell forthwith sent from Brunswick a messenger to Ashe, announcing the arrival of the “Diligence” with stamps; he immediately repairs to Brunswick. Now comes the tug of war. Will the arrogant Tryon, with his armed men, triumph; or will the daring Ashe
Beard the Douglas in his castle?
Will he and Waddell commit acts that are treason, and will send them to prison and death?
They felt the importance and the peril of the occasion. Like the ancient Romans they felt
Gods! can a Roman Senate long debateWhich of the two to choose, liberty or death?No, let us rise at once, and at the headOf our remaining legions, gird on our swordsAnd charge home upon him.They with force prevent the lauding of any one from the ship; and intimidating the commander, seizing the ship's boat, brought it on shore, mounted it on a cart, raised on it a flag, and marched in triumph to the residence of the Governor at Wilmington. The whole town was wild with excitement, and was illuminated at night. The next morning Colonel Ashe, at the head of a crowd of people, went to the house of the Governor and demanded the Stamp-master, (William Houston,) who had fled to the Governor for safety. The Governor refuses to deliver him up, and forth with preparations are made to surround and burn the house, in which was the Governor, Stamp-master and others. Terrified, although a practiced soldier, the Governor yields, and Houston is delivered up. They do no act of bloodshed; but firmly conduct Houston to the Market-house, where he makes a solemn pledge in writing “never to receive any stamped paper which may arrive from England, nor officiate in any way in the distribution of stamps in the Province of North Carolina.”
Three loud cheers ascend to Heaven, and ring says Davis, “through the old market place, and the Stamp Act is dead in North Carolina.” This was more than ten years before the Declaration of Independence, and more than nine before the battle of Lexington, and nearly eight years before the Boston Tea Party, which was in the night, and by men in disguise, and upon the harmless carriers of freight. History has blazoned this act of Boston to the world, but the act of the people of the Cape Fear was far more daring; done in open day by men of character, with arms in their hands, under the King's flag; and who has heard of it? Who remembers it? Who tells it? “When,” concludes the eloquent address of Mr. Davis, from which I am proud to copy, “will history do justice to North Carolina? Never until some faithful and loving son of her own shall gird up his loins to the task, and with unwearied industry and unflinching devotion to the honor of his dear old mother, narrate the virtues and valor of her sons.
This decided conduct on the part of the people, as was to be expected, infuriated Tryon; and he fulminates in his dispatches to the Earl of Hillsboro his threats of vengeance. He enclosed a copy of the pledge extorted from his Stamp-master, which is filed in the Rolls Office, and which, for future historians, I copy and here record.
From Rolls Office, London; extract from Governor Tryon's dispatch; dated 26th December, 1765; a pledge extorted from William Houston by John Ashe and others.
“I do hereby promise that I never will receive any stamp paper which may arrive from Europe in consequence of any act lately passed in the Parliament of Great Britain, nor officiate in any manner as Stamp-master in the distribution of stamps within the Province of North Carolina, either directly or indirectly.
“I do hereby notify all the inhabitants of His Majesty's Province of North Carolina that notwithstanding my having received information of my being appointed to said office of Stamp-master, I will not apply hereafter for any stamp, paper, or to distribute the same, until such time as it shall be agreeable to the inhabitants of this Province.
“Hereby declaring that I do execute these presents of my own free will and accord, without any equivocation or mental reservation whatever.”
“In witness hereof I have hereunto set my hand this 16th November, 1765.
“WILLIAM HOUSTON.”
There are deeds which should not pass away;And names that must not wither, tho the earthForgets her empire with a just decay.The enslavers and enslaved, their death and birth.Among the records I find a letter from Houston to Tryon, in which he states, “I am hated, abhorred and detested, and have no friend,” that he thinks John Moses DeRosset would not refuse a copy of his bond lodged in his hands, dated at Socrate, 21st April, 1766.
Such was the enthusiasm and spirit of the aroused people, that fears for the personal safety of Governor Tryon were excited, and required all the efforts and popularity of Ashe to allay them.
I find among the public records in London, never before published, the following letter:
“February 19, 1766.
“TO GOVERNOR TRYON:
“SIR: The inhabitants, dissatisfied with the particular restrictions laid upon the trade of this River only, have determined to march to Brunswick, in hopes of obtaining, in a peaceful manner, a redress of their grievances from the Commanding Officers of His Majesty's ships, and have compelled us to conduct them. We, therefore, think it our duty to acquaint Your Excellency that we are fully determined to protect from insult your person and property, and that if it will be agreeable to your Excellency, a guard of gentlemen shall be immediately detached for that purpose.
“We have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, sir,
“Your Excellency's most
“Obedient, humble servants,
“JOHN ASHE,
“THOMAS LLOYD,
“ALEXANDER LILLINGTON.”
This shows the well balanced temper of Ashe and his associates. He had raised a tempest, fierce and furious, in the cause of right and opposed to illegality and oppression. But he was a sufficiently potent Prospero to allay its excess.
The position of the Governor was humiliating and galling to his pride. As a soldier he had been trained to arms. His temper was imperious, daring and desperate, as he afterwards evinced at Alamance. But he saw that he was no match before the people with the popular and fearless Ashe.
His political sagacity induced him to change his course, for he knew well when to brag and bully and when to flatter and fawn. “He began,” says Davis, “to court the people and flatter them with shows and sports.” “In February, of that same year, 1766, there was a muster of militia in Wilmington. The Governor prepared, at considerable expense, a fine repast for the people. But when the feast was ready the people rushed to the spot, poured the liquor in the street, and threw the
viands, untasted, into the river. He forgot that he was in the home of John Ashe, and he had seen that neither he nor the people could be intimidated or cajoled.”
I am indebted to the able address of Hon. George Davis for much of the eloquent style in which these events have been recorded, and use his language, so forcible and correct, and so much better than any I could employ.
After the battle of Alamance, Tryon was transferred to the Governorship of New York, and he left North Carolina to the mutual satisfaction of himself and the people. He declared in a dispatch to his Government, that “not all the wealth of the Indies could induce him to remain among such a daring and rebellious people.”
His successor, Governor Martin, found his place no bed of roses, notwithstanding he used every means to reconcile the people to the mother country. He early experienced the restive spirit of the age, and as already stated, found it convenient to take refuge (on 10th July, 1775) on board of His Majesty's ship of war, lying in the Cape Fear river. In a dispatch dated 20th July, 1775, from on board the “Cruiser,” he informs his Government that “Fort Johnson had been burnt, and that Mr. John Ashe and Mr. Cornelius Harnett were the ringleaders of the savage and audacious mob.” Governor Martin found as little pleasure in association with such daring men as had Governor Tryon, and with English squadron left the Cape Fear country for Charleston. Thus was the State free from any foreign ruler. This same year, 20th of May, 1775, the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was proclaimed, and the year following (18th November, 1776,) a State Constitution was formed at Halifax.
These were the men that formed our State; these—
Like Romans in Rome's quarrel,Spared neither land nor gold,Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life,In the brave days of old.Then none was for a party;Then all were for the State;Then the great man helped the poor,And the poor man loved the great.It has been the subject of frequent remark and admiration, that North Carolina should haved formed, under such circumstances, so perfect a Constitution that it carried the State through the long and bloody revolution in safety, and for nearly sixty years, in honor and happiness. For any people, long inured to aristocratic forms and monarchial rule, should, bursting from the gloom of monarchy into the light of liberty, to have created so perfect a form of Government, was indeed a subject full of wonder. It has been amended several times; but to the minds of many it has not been improved. It was the work of men who knew the great principles of liberty, truth and justice, and many of them afterwards fought and died to secure them.
It was adopted on the 18th December 1776, as reported by a committee, among whom were W. Avery, John and Samuel Ashe, Thomas Burke, Rich'd Caswell, Cornelius Harnett, Joseph Hews, Robert Howe, Willie Jones, Thomas Jones, and others.
It is recorded that it was chiefly the production of Caswell, Burke and Thomas Jones. But whoever they were, they proved themselves master workmen in their craft.
Thou, too, sail on, oh Ship of State,Sail on thy course, both strong and great,Humanity with all its fears,With all the hopes of future years,Is hanging breathless on thy fate.By many it is stated that our Constitution was the earliest formed. But this is error. When the power of the mother country over the colonies was gone, and some Government other than England was necessary, the Continental Congress, by a resolution adopted 3d November, 1775, recommended the Colonies to adopt such Government as should best
conduce to their safety. In accordance with this resolution—
I. New Hampshire formed a State Constitution 28th December, 1775.
II. South Carolina, on 26th March, 1776.
III. Virginia, June 29, 1776.
IV. New Jersey, July 3, 1776.
V. Delaware, September 12, 1776.
VI. Pennsylvania, September 21, 1776.
VII. North Carolina, 12th November, 1776.
VIII. Georgia, 5th February, 1777.
IX. New York, April 20, 1777.
(See Ben: Perley Poore on Charters and Constitutions.)
I. The Convention which formed the first Constitution for North Carolina met at Halifax, 12th November, 1776, as above alluded to.
II. The Convention which revised and amended the Constitution, met at Raleigh on 4th June, 1835, (Nath'l Macon, President.)
III. The Convention (secession) met at Raleigh 20th May, 1861, (Weldon N Edwards, President.)
IV. The Convention, under orders of the President of the United States, (Johnson,) met at Raleigh 2d October, 1865, formed a Constitution which was not ratified by the people, (Edwin G. Reade, President.)
V. The Convention, under orders of General Canby, of the United States Army, met at Raleigh 11th January, 1868, formed a Constitution, (Calvin J. Cowles, President.)
VI. The Convention to amend the Constitution, met at Raleigh on 6th September, 1875, which was ratified by the people by a majority in November, 1876, (Dr. Ew'd Ransom, President.)
Lists of the persons who were members of the Conventions of 1776, 1835, 1861, 1865, 1868 and 1875, are to be found in the admirable hand-book of L. L. Polk. Commissioner of Agriculture, published at Raleigh, 1879.
Brunswick County presented many patriotic sons to the cause of Independence, but none more worthy of our memories than Robert Howe, (born 1732; died 1785.) So little has been preserved and presented to the county of this distinguished man that the indefatigable and accurate historian* has been compelled to state that history bears no record of his private life.
The reproach has been removed, in some measure, by an abridgement of the memories of General Howe, compiled by Archibald Maclaine Hooper.†
Had his services and sacrifices been rendered in any other State than North Carolina, he would have been lauded among the statesmen and patriots of the nation. Let us try to supply this omission, and endeavor to present the character and services of General Howe as they deserve.
His name and fame belong to Brunswick; for it was in this county he was born, lived and died.
He was born in 1732. His father's family was a branch of the noble house of Howe, in England. He had the misfortune to lose both of his parents at any early age; and the guidance of his boyhood was entrusted to a kind grandmother, who, like all grandmothers, so completely indulged him that his education and training was much neglected. He was, however, of an active, inquisitive mind, and by even desultory reading, and conversation of literary men, he acquired much and varied information. He married at an early age a young lady of the Grange family, much against the will of her parents. With his bride he visited his relatives in England, where he remained about two years, enjoying the noble and munificent hospitality of his friends and family.
* Lossing II., 729.† University Magazine, vol. II., June, 1853. No. 5.On his return he commenced his public career. I copy from the Rolls Office in London the following:
“3d Nov., 1766.
“At a meeting of the council at Newburn, Robert Howe, Esq., produced the Governor's (Tryon's) commission appointing him captain of Fort Johnston, and he took the oath and subscribed the test.”
In a dispatch of Gov. Martin to Earl of Dartmouth dated December 24th, 1772. “the Governor complains that the Colonial Assembly had passed a resolution requesting Governor Tryon to forward their petition to the King and thus overlooking him.”
“This,” he adds, “was done by the influence of Robert Howe and Isaac Edwards.”
“Of Mr. Howe,” the Governor says, in the same dispatch, “when he came to North Carolina. Mr. Howe was the captain of Fort Johnson, and Baron of the Exchequer; but believing the two offices incongruous, he appointed Mr. Hasell Baron of the Exchequer; by the King's appointment Captain Collet was made captain of the fort, which deprived Mr. Howe of a post of contemptible profit to a man of honor; but he, by extraordinary management of moneys that came into his hands to support the garrison, made it very lucrative, and served to keep together the wreck of his fortune. Mr. Howe is a man of lively parts and good understanding, but, in the present state of his affairs, of no account or consideration, and is trying to establish a reputation for patriotism.”
“The Legislature resolved to continue the establishment of Fort Johnston only to the next session, which, I fear, is owing to the command being held by an officer nominated by His Majesty, instead of Mr. Howe, a native of this country.” (Colonial Records, London.)
This year and in the next, 1772 and 1773, Howe was elected a member of the Assembly. He was also elected a delegate to the Colonial Congress which met at New Berne on 25th August, 1774. This was the first assemblage of the representatives of the people in a legislative capacity in the Colony in direct opposition to the Royal authority. It was violently denounced by Governor Martin. Howe was appointed chairman of a committee to whom the speech of Martin was referred, and wrote an able and eloquent reply. On the 8th August, 1775, Martin by proclamation dated 8th August, 1775, on board the British ship “Cruiser,” denounced Howe for having taken the style of colonel, and for summoning and training the militia, etc.
This closed Howe's legislative career. By the Colonial Congress that met at Hillsboro on 21st August, 1775, he was appointed colonel of the 2d Regiment, then about to be raised on the Continental establishment.
The officers appointed to this regiment were Robert Howe, colonel; John Patton, major, (maternal grandfather of the Hon. C. C. Cambrelling, already alluded to;) Alexander Martin, lieutenant colonel, afterwards Governor of the State. Among the captains were James Blount, Hardy Murfree, Henry Irwin Toole, Michael Payne, and others. In this gallant regiment Hertford County contributed her first quota of troops enlisted for the war. They constituted Company D, and were commanded by Hardy Murfree. Colonel Benjamin Wynns commanded the Hertford Battalion. Their first march under Howe was to Norfolk, and reached the Great Bridge only two days after the battle. Thence they went south under Lee. One of the best and truest of Hertford's sons was aide-de-camp to General Howe. This was young Godwin Cotten, of Mulberry Grove. Like his young kinsman, Colonel James Cotten, of Anson, he was the surveyor of the county. He was the youngest son of
Captain Arthur Cotten, and lived at the old homestead near St. Johns. He was as amiable as he was brave, and universally beloved. He lived long after the war, and many now alive may recollect his exemplary and pious character. He was the last of his name in Hertford, for he left no sons; but he left two daughters, who were the belles and beauties of their day. One of them was the lovely mother of Dr. Godwin Cotten Moore, of whom we shall write when we come to Hertford.—(Moore's Hist., Sketches of Hertford, IX, XVI, 556.)
In December, 1775, Howe was ordered to take command of the troops raised in North Carolina, and march to aid Virginia. Unavoidable circumstances prevented him from reaching the Great Bridge until two days after the brilliant battle, [9 Dec. 1775] but he took post at Norfolk, and rendered good service in driving the Royal Governor (Lord Dunmore) and his forces out of this section of the State; for this he received the thanks of the Convention of Virginia, and of the General Congress at Philadelphia, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.
When General Lee, in March, 1776, arrived in Virginia, Howe joined him with his regiment and went south. As he passed through North Carolina he received the thanks of the Convention at Halifax and at New Berne for his services, and he was received with public honors.
As an additional evidence of appreciation of his patriotic efforts, he was especially excepted from the offer of pardon proclaimed by Sir Henry Clinton to all who should down their arms, and his estates on the Cape Fear were ravaged by the English troops. This was the second time that Howe had been the honored subject of Royal indignation and marked enmity. This second proclamation of Sir Henry Clinton was a grateful acknowledgment to General Howe for compelling Sir Henry's friend, Lord Dunmore, to leave Virginia forever.
General Howe was placed in command of the North Carolina troops in defence of Charleston and Savannah; and the latter end of July General Lee undertook an expedition against Florida. But by an express he was ordered North, and General James Moore succeeded him. Soon after General Moore was ordered to join the Army of the North, and Howe was appointed to succeed him in the command of the Southern Department.
On the 2d of October, 1777, Howe was appointed by Congress major general; and in the Spring of the next year he made an unsuccessful expedition against Florida. From want of proper supplies, insubordination of some of the officials of Georgia and South Carolina and the health of his troops, he was compelled to retreat to Savannah. The retreat was commenced in July, 1778; the conduct of General Howe was severely commented upon in various publications. Among these was a letter of General Gadsden, which was highly offensive to General Howe, and led to a duel near Charleston. Howe's second was C. C. Pinckney, and Gadsden was accompanied by Colonel Barnard Elliot. They fought, 13th August, 1778. Howe's ball grazed his opponent's ear, on which Gadsden fired his pistol in the air. The parties then shook hands, and became reconciled.
He was attacked at Savannah by the British an force, and defeated.
From the commencement of Howe's administration, South Carolina and Georgia had been urgent in memorials to Congress to recall him and to replace him by an officer of more experience.
In compliance with these solicitations, in September, 1778, Howe was ordered to the headquarters of General Washington, and General Lincoln appointed to succeed him, and to repair immediately to Charleston. Howe was stationed on the Hudson river, and in 1780, was in command at West Point, where he rendered acceptable services, and for his energy and activity at this and other important commands he received the thanks of Washington.
In January, 1780, a committee of the Georgia Legislature, appointed to consider the situation of the State since 29th of December, 1778, and extracts from the minutes of the assembly respecting the condact of General Howe, were transmitted to the Commander in Chief, “with a request that he be directed to cause inquiry to be made into matters therein alleged, in such manner as he should judge proper.”
In pursuance of this order General Washington summoned a Court Martial of thirteen officers—Baron DeKalb presided as President. After a rigid examination of six weeks he was acquitted “with the highest honors.”
Extract from Journals of Congress, 24th January, 1782: “The acquittal of General Howe by Court Martial with the highest honors is approved by Congress.” (Journal 1782, page 271.) Although the war was over General Howe continued active in service.
In 1781, Howe was sent by Washington to suppress a revolt of the New Jersey troops. Hildreth, III, 359.
Extract from Journals of Congress, Monday, 1st July, 1783, page 64, ordered by Mr. Hamilton, and reported from a committee of which he was the chairman, that “Major General Howe shall be directed to march such part of his force as he shall judge necessary to the State of Pennsylvania, in order that immediate measures may be taken to confine and bring to trial such persons belonging to the army as have been principally active in the late mutiny; to disarm the remainder, and to examine into all the circumstances relating thereto.”
In May, 1785, he was appointed by Congress to treat with the Western Indians.
He remained at the North for some time awaiting the adjustment of his claims for losses to his estates in North Carolina, ravaged by the enemy, and which were rendered useless and unproductive, and, from the depreciation of the currency, he was reduced to want.
From the Journals of Congress, page 65:
April 12th, 1785.
“Mr. Hawkins introduced a resolution, paying ‘for depreciation, to Major General Howe, on account of monies ($7,000) advanced.’ ”
In the spring of 1785 he returned to North Carolina, and was welcomed by public honors at Fayetteville and by kind friends at home. He was induced to allow his name to be used as a candidate as a member from Brunswick of the General Assembly. He was triumphantly elected. But exposure during the summer produced a severe bilious fever, from which he partially recovered, and in October started for the seat of Government. His first day's ride brought him to the house of his friend, General Clarke, about thirteen miles above Wilmington. Here he relapsed, and after two weeks’ illness died in November, 1785.
He had served his country from the first dawn of the Revolution till the end of the war, with fidelity and valor, and his services demand the remembrance and regard of his country. One whose opinion is valuable, styles him “The wit, the scholar, and the soldier.”
Drake describes General Howe as an officer of approved courage, well versed in military tacties, a skilful engineer, and a rigid disciplinarian, and a man of cultivated mind.
After all the toils of war and the vicissitudes of fortune, he returns to his home.
—Life's long vexations passed,Here to return and die at home at last.Cornelius Harnett,* born 20th April, 1723; died 20th April, 1781.
Associated with Robert Howe in the cause of Liberty and Independence was Cornelius Harnett.
Both of these distinguished men, by the proclamation of Sir Henry Clinton, were excluded from all pardon from the Royal Government. Although not, like Howe, a soldier, it was not the fortune of Harnett to figure in “feats of broil and battle,” yet he did equal deeds of daring and courage in the great drama of life, in which men and arms are only subordinate parts, and “the value of whose services,” says Mr. Davis, “was only equalled by the extent of his sufferings and his sacrifices.” We regret that so little has been accurately known of Mr. Harnett that even his birthplace is conjecture. Mr. Drake states, as does Lossing, “he was born in England,” but gives no authority. Unquestionably there were two persons of the same name, both distinguished in the annals of North Carolina.
The father, whose name the subject of our sketch bore, was not an obscure man, from the fact that he was the abettor and friend of Gov. Burrington in his quarrel with Everhard, and one of the Governor's councillors, 1730. It may be inferred that he was a man of distinction in North Carolina as early as 1725. But, as will be seen, he and Burrington did not remain friends very long.
From the Rolls Office in London, in a dispatch dated Feb. 20th, 1732, of George Burrington, Governor of the Province of North Carolina, to His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, one of His Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, I extract the following:
“Mr. Cornelius Harnett, another of the Council, was bred a merchant in Dublin and settled at Cape Fear in this Colony. I was assured by a letter I received in England that Harnett was worth six thousand pounds sterling, which induced me to place his name on the list of persons to be Councillers; when I came to this country he was reputed to be worth £7,000; but now he is known to have traded with other men's goods; and is not worth anything, and so reduced as to be compelled to keep a public house.”
There are other records that aid us. “At the General Court, sitting at Edenton, the 26th March, 1726, George Burrington, the Governor, was indicted, for that about the 2d of December, 1725, with Cornelius Harnett, of Chowan County, and others, he assaulted the house of Sir Richard Everhard.”*
In the Register's office in New Hanover County‡ there is a record of a bond from Colonel Maurice Moore, of New Hanover Precinet, to Cornelius Harnett, “of the same place,” dated 30th June, 1726; &c.
Since we know from the inscription on the headstone of Cornelius Harnett, of Cape Fear, that he was born in 1723, it is clear that the Cornelius Harnett, of Chowan, was another person, probably the father, and that he was not of English birth, but of Irish descent. But we are led to believe that his son was born in North Carolina, and there was no movement from 1765 to 1780 in the cause of independence in which he was not ready and active; “The Samuel Adams of North Carolina,” as he was styled by Josiah Quincy, who visited the South in 1773.
With Colonel John Ashe, he was denounced by Governor Martin in 1775, for the burning of Fort Johnson. He was Chairman of the Wilmington Committee of Safety, and after Governor Martin's retreat the State was governed
* Drake's Biographical Dictionary; Lossing's Field Book, II, 582.* Williamson II, 229. Davis at Chapel Hill, 1825.‡ Book, page 71.by a Provincial Council, of which Harnett was chairman, and de facto the Governor of the State, at a period when the affairs of the Government demanded the atmost prudence and sagacity. He was elected a member of the Colonial Congress that met at Halifax on the 4th April, 1776; Chairman of the Committee to Consider the Usurpations of the English King and Parliament. He presented resolutions directing the delegates from North Carolina in the Continental Congress to unite in declaring independence. This was unanimously adopted on 12th April, 1776, more than a month before the celebrated resolutions of Virginia. No one has ever heard of this forward step of “poor, pensive North Carolina,” while the act of Virginia has been sounded by every tongue, and recorded on every page of her history.
Mr. Harnett was of the Colonial Congress that met at Halifax on 12th November, 1776, which formed the Constitution of the State, and with Samuel Ashe, Waightstill Avery, Thomas Burke, Richard Caswell, Hews, Willie and Thomas Jones, and others, was a committee on this important subject.
In 1777, 1778 and 1779, Mr. Harnett was a member of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. His letters which are extant breathe the spirit of a patriot, and prove him to have been a faithful and devoted public servant.* These letters also reflect much light on the condition of the country and the proceedings of the Continental Congress during this eventful period.
He returned home to North Carolina, and when, in 1781, the British forces, under Sir James Craig, occupied Wilmington, he was taken prisoner at the house of his friend Colonel Spicer.
From his delicate health and his distinguished character, he was admitted to parole. He submitted to the inevitable with dignity and philosophy. But broken in spirits, health and fortune, he died in captivity on his birthday, 20th April, 1781.
He lies buried in the northeast corner of the grave yard of St. James Church, Wilmington, with this inscription:
Cornelius Harnett.Died 20th April, 1781.Aged 58.Slave to no sect, he took no private road,But looked through nature up to nature's God.A worthy name of a worthy community.
He is deseribed by his biographer, Mr. Hooper, as being delicate rather than stout in person; about 5 feet 9 inches high; hazel eyes and light brown hair; small but symmetrical features, and graceful figure. Easy in his manners; affable and courteous; with a fine taste for letters, and a genius for music, he was at times a fascinating and always an agreeable companion.
The capital of Harnett presents the honored name of Lillington.
John Alexander Lillington was the son of Colonel George Lillington, who settled on the Island of Barbadoes, and was a member of the Royal Council in 1698.
His grandfather. Major Alexander Lillington, emigrated from Barbadoes to the county of Albemarle, with his family.
On the north side of the tomb of Governor Henderson Walker, five miles below Edenton,* is inscribed the following:
Here lyes ye body ofGeorge Lillington.Son of Major Alexander Lillington,who died in ye 15 year of his ageAnno 1706.The oldest public record in the State is a commission issued to George Durant, Alexander Lillington, and others, to hold the precinet Courts in Berkeley Precinet.†
* Life and Letters of Cornelius Harnett, compiled by Gov. Swain; Uni. Mag., Feb., 1861. Notes relative to Cornelius Harnett; by Archibald McLaine Hooper.* Lossing's Field Book, II, 586.† Davis, IV; Wheeler, I, 34.Upon the departure of Gov. Ludwell in 1693, the administration of the Province devolved upon him as Deputy Governor.* His grandson, the subject of our sketch, was left early an orphan, and when Edward Moseley, who had married Ann, daughter of Major Alexander Lillington and the widow of Gov. Walker, (died 1712,) emigrated to the Cape Fear, young Lillington came with him, in 1734. A fine mansion, known as Lillington Hall, about 40 miles above Wilmington, on the New Berne road, is still standing, and an engraving of it is delineated in Lossing.
When the notes of preparation for the war with the mother country were heard, Lillington responded gladly to the call.
He was early known as an active and decided Whig, and co-operated with Ashe in opposition to Gov. Tryon. We have seen his letter, offering, with Ashe and Thomas Lloyd (see ante, page 40,) to protect from insult the person and property of the Governor.
By the State Congress, which met on 21st August, 1775, at Hillsboro, to put the State in military order, he was appointed colonel of the Wilmington district, and Caswell for the New Berne district. Together, these gallant officers, with their forces, fought (February 27, 1776,) and won the battle at Moore's Creek Bridge, over the Scotch Tories, which has been fully described, with its important consequences.† The State deeply appreciated his services, for the Provincial Congress that met at Halifax on 4th of April following, appointed him colonel of the 6th Regiment of North Carolina troops on the Continental establishment. He served under General Gates at the ill-fated battle of Camden August 15, 1780. Though he served through the war with distinguished honor, and was promoted to rank of brigadier general, his military fame rests chiefly upon the battle of Moore's Creek.
General Lillington remained in service to the close of the war, when he retired to his estate at Lillington Hall, where he died; near his mansion rest the remains of General Lillington and his son John, who did good service in the whole Revolutionary war as colonel.
“General Lillington,” writes one of his descendants to Lossing,* “was a man of Herculean frame and strength. He possessed intellectual powers of a high order, undaunted courage and of incorruptible integrity. He has left,
—on the footprints of Time,On of those names that never die.General Lillington was the grandson of Major Alexander Lillington who was President of the Council, and ex officio Governor of North Carolina, in 1673. His grandmother was an Adams, from Massachusetts. One of her daughters married Governor Walker, and afterwards Edward Mosely. Another was the wife of the first Samuel Swann. General Lillington left issue at his death in 1786, one daughter, who married her cousin, Sampson Mosely, and a son George, who left a son, John Alexander, (who represented Davie County in the Senate, in 1848,-’50,-’52,) who was the last of his name, a gentleman of fine personal appearance, and talents.
Mrs. Harden of Hickory, and Mrs. Dr. Anderson, of Wilmington, are the present representatives of the family.—(Moore, Letter of Hon. George Davis.)
THE MOORES OF BRUNSWICK.It is now just about fifty years ago when I first entered the House of Commons (as it was then called,) as a member from my native County of Hertford, and my attention was drawn on the first day of the session to one of the best expressed and best delivered speeches that I ever heard, and which made an indelible
* Martin, I, 134.† See Wheeler, I, 76.* Lossing, II, 385.impression on my own mind, and carried conviction to all who heard it.
The simple facts of the case were: One of the members from the Cape Fear country had lost or mislaid the certificate of his election; the question arose in the minds of many, could a member take a seat without the evidence that he was duly elected? Alfred Moore then arose and addressed the House.
His manner of speaking, the melody of his voice, the polished periods of his sentences, commanded the attention of all, while his argument and reasoning influenced their judgments.
There was no question of the fact that the member had been elected, and that he had lost or mislaid the certificate of the sheriff holding the election.
Mr. Moore traced the history of the mode of elections, as had existed from the foundation of the State, and also the mode in the Colonial period, that whenever the Governor called the Legislature, which body was composed of a Council, who were appointed by the Crown to advise with the Governor, and the House, which was composed of members elected by the people from each county; he directed the Clerk of the Crown or the Secretary to issue writs of election to each sheriff, to call together the people and to elect such number of names as the county was entitled to as members, and when executed and the election made, to endorse on said writ the names of the persons elected, and to transmit the said writ to the Clerk of the House or Crown or Secretary, as the case might be. This return was filed and recorded. On the day appointed for the meeting of the Assembly, the endorsement was read by him, and the persons called and qualified.
He further argued the person elected had no right to the custody of the certificate, no more than a party who sues out a writ. It was a part of the records of the court, and the party elected had no right to its possession.
This able argument was more effective by the ornate and elegant manner with which it was delivered.
No reply was attempted, and the member was unanimously admitted.
This question, we are aware, has been since decided differently; (Ennet's Case, 1842,) but it was when party arose superior to patriotism.
It has been often my good fortune to hear Clay in his happiest moods, and Calhoun's powerful logic, and Webster in his massive eloquence, but neither of these excelled this extempore effort of Mr. Moore, whose powers as a speaker were only excelled by courtly elegance of manners and simplicity and modesty of demeanor.
Mr. Moore was of a family long and well known for their integrity, their intellectual powers, and their devotion to the cause of liberty and law.
This family is of Irish descent, and claim to belong to the Chiefs O'More. The ancestor in America was James, who came to Charleston and married, in 1665, a daughter of Gov. Yeamans, who was Governor of Carolina in 1671.
He became Governor of Carolina in 1700, upon the death of Joseph Blake. He was supposed to be the grandson of Roger Moore, the leader of the Irish rebellion of 1641, and inherited the rebellious blood of his sire.* By his marriage with Miss Yeamans he had ten children.
The eldest son, of the same name, was worthy of his father. He acquired military renown in his campaigns against the Indians.
He, in 1703, marched to North Carolina to
* See Hume's England. Money's Hist, of Ireland. Drake's Biographical Dict. Carrol's Collections of S. C. Davis at C. Hill, 26.subdue the Appalachian Indians, who had done great mischief and murder in this (the Cape Fear) section, and be completely subdued them.
He also commanded the forces sent by Gov. Charles Craven to succor the inhabitants, whose borders were ravaged by the Tuscaroras in 1713, and many of the inhabitants massacred, among them John Lawson, the first historian of North Carolina. He was accompanied by a strong force, and completely routed the savages. A severe engagement near Snow Hill in Greene County.*
He remained in North Carolina about seven months, when he returned home. Until 1693 the two Provinces were together, and under one Governor. The renown gained in the Indian wars was well calculated to render Col. Moore a favorite with the people. In 1719, when the quarrel between the people and the Government occurred, true to the instincts of his race, he was with the people, and was well qualified to be a leader in perilons and troubled times. Robert Johnson was at this time the Royal Governor. The people proclaimed against him and deposed him 28th November, 1719, and with this proclamation went up the expiring sighs of the Proprietory Government, and James Moore was elected by the people Governor. He was succeeded the same year, (1719) by Arthur Middlet on, and as he disappears from South Carolina history it is probable he came to Cape Fear.†
He never married. His younger brother, Maurice, accompanied him in his campaigns against the Indians.
Such was the inviting character of this section, its genial soil and mild climate, that many of the family settled on the Cape Fear. Of these Mr. Davis was correct when he said “they inherited the rebellious stock of their race; it was not in their name or blood to be other than patriots, or to shrink from any sacrifice at the call of their country.” In a dispatch from Governor Burrington as early as February, 1735, he shows his instinctive dread of such patriotic and pure-hearted men, and thus describes them:
“About twenty men are settled at Cape Fear from South Carolina. Among these are three brothers of a noted family, by the name of Moore. They are all of the set known by the name of ‘the Goose Creek faction.’ These people were always very troublesome in that Government, and will be so, without doubt, in this. Already I have been told they will spend a good deal of money to get me turned out. Messengers are continually going to Mosely and his crew, to and from them.” Such was the repulsion of the representative of royalty to the advocates of popular rights and equal justice.
Colonel Maurice Moore, to whom we have already alluded as the younger brother of Governor James Moore, the second, was a soldier, brave, energetic and successful. He had accompanied his brother in his expeditions to Northern Carolina, and was impressed with the character of the country. He had two years later commanded a troop of horse in the service of Eden, (Governor of North Carolina in 1713,) and marched to the Cape Fear to subdue the Indians, who were fierce and troublesome in that section. As Governor Eden resided in Chowan, it is inferred that he first went there. Three years after his expedition he was concerned with Edward Mosely in some matters of importance. He is supposed by Martin to have settled upon the Cape Fear about 1723. The dispatch already quoted of Governor Burrington shows “that three brothers by the name of Moore were located, in 1735, on the Cape Fear.” These three brothers were Colonel Maurice Moore, Roger and Nathaniel. To these three men is due the permanent settlement of the
* Johnson Traditions, 230; Davis's Address, 12.† Martin, I, 261.Cape Fear. With these came others who were distinguished for their virtues and their valor, and were the germs of a noble colony. “They were,” says Mr. Davis, “No needy adventurers, driven by necessity to seek a precarious living in a wild and savage country, but gentlemen of birth and education, bred to the refinement of society, and bringing with them ample fortunes, polished manners, and cultivated minds.
Colonel Maurice Moore, the founder of the family, was the son of Governor James Moore and Miss Yeamans, and left a family of several children. Among these were his eldest son, Judge Maurice Moore, judge under the Colonial Government, a devoted advocate for popular rights, and decided opponent of wrong and oppression.
He was a lawyer, and was so much esteemed that he, with Richard Henderson and Martin Howard, constituted the judiciary of the Province. He was appointed 1st of March, 1768, associate justice.
This was no empty compliment or idle service. There were five circuits at remote and almost inaccessible points; through bad roads and worse accommodations, the judge had to travel eleven hundred miles to make the circuit of these courts.
But, although he was appointed and discharged judicial duties under the Crown, he was by no means the advocate of oppression. He sympathized with the Regulators in their sufferings, but did not sanction their violence.
He denounced the high-handed measures of Governor Tryon, in a series of letters signed “Atticus,” and showed the character of the Governor in despicable colors. This so incensed the Governor, that in a dispatch, dated 1766, he recommends “the removal of Judge Moore, and the appointment of Edmund Fanning.” But he continued on the bench until the Revolution closed the courts.
He was a favorite with the people. During the great riots at Hillsboro, in 1770, when Judge Henderson fled, Judge Howard was driven from the bench, the house of Colonel Fanning burned, and his person severely chastised. Judge Moore was unmolested.
He was chosen a member of the Provincial Congress, at Hillsboro, in 1778, and of the same at Halifax, in 1776, and materially aided in forming the State Constitution.
He married Anne Grange, by whom he had two children, Alfred, born in 1755, of whom we shall write directly, and Sally, who married General Francis Nash, who fell at Germantown, 1777.
He died the next year, on the 15th of January, 1777, at home, and by a wonderful coincidence, at the same time, same hour nearly, and at the same place in an adjoining room, died his distinguished brother, General James Moore. He was the son of Colonel Maurice Moore and Miss Porter. A soldier by his taste, by education and profession. He was devoted to the cause of his country, and considered the first military genius of his day.
He was early trained to arms, and when Tryon met the Regulators at Alamance, in 1771, Moore was one of his officers.
On the organization of the military forces of the State, he was appointed colonel of the First Regiment of North Carolina on the Continental establishment, by the State Congress that met at Hillsboro on August 21, 1775.
This was a high honor—to be preferred to Colonel John Ashe and others to the command of the first regiment raised by the State.
He was employed in watching the enemy on the Cape Fear, to prevent any junction of the forces of Clinton and Martin. When Clinton appeared in the river, the clans of Scotland gathered together to connect and co-operate with the forces of Clinton. Moore marched his regiment to Cumberland County to prevent this, and give them battle; but they avoided the offer, only to meet another force,
and experience a disastrous defeat at Moore's Creek Bridge from Caswell and Lillington.
On the departure of General Lee to the north from Charleston, March, 1776, the Continental Congress promoted Moore to the rank of brigadier general and commander in chief of the Southern Department.
He endeavored to discharge the duties of this important station with fidelity, but his feeble health sunk under the duty, and he returned home, there to die.
General James Moore married Anna Ivey, by whom he had four children, Duncan Moore, James Moore, Mrs. Swann, Mrs. Waters.
Judge Alfred Moore (born 21st May, 1755; died 10th October, 1810,) was the son of Judge Maurice Moore. He was sent to Boston to acquire his education. While there he made by his gental disposition many friends, and was offered a commission in the Royal Army. This was not accepted, but the presence of a large military garrison and the friendship of one of its officers, added to an inherited taste for the profession of arms, led him to acquire accurate knowledge of military tactics, which soon was to be called into requisition in defense of his native land. He returned home, and when all hopes of reconciliation were lost and contest commenced, the State Congress at Hillsboro, in August, 1775, organized two regiments for the Continental establishment, he was commissioned as captain in the First Regiment, of which his uncle, James Moore, was the colonel. He marched with his command to Charleston and was on duty there at the brilliant affair of Fort Moultrie, and evinced traits of character that ranked him among the first captains of his day.
But circumstances unforeseen and disastrous crowded heavily upon him. His father, Judge Maurice Moore, and his uncle both died the same day. His brother Maurice was killed by mischance at Brunswick. General Francis Nash, his brother-in-law, killed in battle. These calamities left a helpless family on his bands, and he was forced by these untoward events to resign.
His patriotism and his martial spirit, however, did not allow him to be idle or inactive. He raised a troop of volunteers, and so greatly annoyed the enemy that Major Craig (afterwards Sir James Craig, Governor-General of Canada,) when in possession of Wilmington, sent troops to Captain Moore's house, who plundered everything that was valuable, and destroyed the remainder. While the British were at Wilmington, his condition was deplorable—without means, or even decent clothes, driven from his home and family, his property destroyed, yet no murmur of complaint was uttered by him; no abatement of zeal.
Dear must that independence be, purchased at such a terrible price. After the battle of Guilford Court-house (15th March, 1781,) Captain Moore with others did good service in harrassing Lord Cornwallis in his march from Guilford to Wilmington.
But the war was soon to close. The English were then on their march to Yorktown; which proved to be the Waterloo of the contest.
But it was not in the field, although he had done a soldier's duty with credit and gallantry, that Judge Moore's reputation was won, and which preserves his name to a grateful posterity. The General Assembly in 1782 elected him Attorney-General of the State, when it was known that he had never read a law book. This was done to alleviate, in a delicate manner, his immediate wants, and as some slight acknowledgment of gratitude for his sacrifices and sufferings. His habits of industry and acute penetration soon supplied any deficiency. In the opinion of the Supreme Court, in case of State vs. Gernigan,* he “discharged the
* Judge Taylor's opinion in 3d Murphy Rep., 12.arduous duties of the office for a series of years in a manner that commanded the admiration and gratitude of his contemporaries.” A clear perspicuity of mind, methodical accuracy and pertinency of argument, a pleasing, impressive and natural eloquence, distinguished his legal efforts. He soon arose to eminence. In 1798 was called to the bench of North Carolina; the next year he was appointed by the President one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. He held the elevated position for six years, with credit to himself and satisfaction to his colleagues and the nation. His health failing he resigned. He died in 1810 at the house of Major Waddell, in Bladen County, aged 55. His private life was equally as interesting as his brilliant public career. His manners graceful and winning, threw a charm over his domestic circle. His brilliant wit and his varied accomplishments, his gentle courtesy and unstinted hospitality, has, in the language of Mr. Davis, “handed his memory down to posterity as a finished model of a North Carolina gentleman.”
Judge Moore married Susan Eagles, and left four children; Maurice, colonel in war of 1812; Alfred, with whom we opened this sketch of Brunswick County; Anna, who married Hugh Waddell, senior, son of General Hugh Waddell, of the Regulation war; Sally, unmarried.
The best evidence of the high appreciation of the name and fame of Judge Alfred Moore, by the people of the State, is at this time, 1878, there are two members of Congress, and hundreds of others in North Carolina, who proudly bear his name as their patronomic, and who reverence his memory and virtues.
The genealogical diagram printed in the Appendix will explain the branches and descent of this distinguished family, and has been compiled with some care from historical documents, by aid of Mrs. Harvey, one of the descendants.
The capital town of Brunswick County preserves the name of Benjamin Smith, who was governor of the State in 1810, and a sketch of whom may be found in the history of North Carolina, vol. II, p. 49.
Governor Smith was at one time immensely wealthy, having large possessions on the Cape Fear river. His liberal donation to the University in 1789, of 20,000 acres of land, proves his friendship for learning.
His temper, “sudden and quick in quarrel,” involved him in several duels. In one of them, with a man by the name of Leonard, he received the ball of his adversary in his hip, which he carried to his grave.
He died in Smithville in February, 1829, entirely penniless, and was buried the same night he died by Major Wilson and Captain Frazier, of the United States army, under the cover of the night, to prevent the sheriff from levying upon the dead body for debt, which was allowable in those days, that when a ca. sa. was levied, once levied on the body it could be kept out of the grave in order to force the friends to redeem it by satisfying the claim in hands of the sheriff.*
There are many other names connected with the early history of this county, as Thomas Allen, Archibald McLaine, Roger Moore, William Lord, Thos. Leonard, William R. Hall, Parker Quince, John Rowan, and others, well deserving of our remembrance and record.
It is hoped that some son of Brunswick will gather together the rich materials before they are forever lost, and present their lives and services to posterity. A recent and graphic sketch of Gov. Smith, from the polished pen of President Battle, is well worth preserving.
* Letter from Woodsides hotel, Smithville, to the “Observer,” Raleigh, October 4, 1878.BENJAMIN SMITH, SOLDIER, STATESMAN, PHILANTHROPIST.
Near the mouth of the beautiful Cape Fear river, on its right bank, is a pleasant little town. It is fanned by the delicious sea breezes; huge live oaks gratefully shade its streets. In its sombre cemetery repose the bodies of many excellent people. Its harbor is good. It is on the main channel of the river. From its wharves can be seen not far away the thin white line of waves as they break on the sandy beach. But the ships to and from its neighbor. Wilmington, pay little tribute as they pass and repass. Its chief fame is that it contains the court-house of the county of Brunswick. Its name is Smithville.
Opposite this good old town is a desert island composed of undulating sand hills, with here and there occasional green flats and dwarfed pines to relieve the general monotony. It is exposed to the full fury of the Atlantic storms. New Inlet once poured a rapid stream between the island and the mainland. But daring and industrious man seeks to force by walls of stone the impetuous floods through the river channel to the west, and thus float larger ships up the river to the port of Wilmington. Its southern end forms the dangerous cape which Mr. George Davis so eloquently describes:
“A naked, bleak elbow of sand jutting far out into the ocean. Immediately in its front are the Frying Pan Shoals, pushing out still further twenty miles to sea. Together they stand for warning and for woe; and together they catch the long majestic roll of the Atlantic as it sweeps through a thousand miles of grandeur and power, from the Aretic toward the Gulf. It is the play-ground of billows and tempests, the kingdom of silence and awe, disturbed by no sound save the sea-gull's shriek, and the breakers’ roar. * *
* There it stands, bleak and threatening and pitiless, as it stood three hundred years ago, when Greenville and White came nigh unto death upon its sands. And there it will stand, bleak and threatening and pitiless, until the earth and sea shall give up their dead. And as its nature, so its name, is * * * the Cape of Fear.”
The name of the sandy reach which I have described, so desolate, yet so full of interest, is Smith Island.
The University of North Carolina has amid its group of buildings, one, in its shape and portico and columns, imitating a Greek temple. Its basement was until recently the home of the State Agricultural Experiment Station, which has done so much to protect our farmers from frauds, but now is the laboratory of the professor of chemistry. Above is a long and lofty room containing the library of the University.
On its shelves are many ancient books of great value, but vacant spaces plead piteously for new books in all the departments of literature and science. The names of this building is “Smith Hall.”
What member of the widely-spread family of Smiths has thus given his familiar name to a county town, an island, and a University Hall? His Christian name was Benjamin. He was an active officer of the Revolution and a Governor of our State, and the first benefactor of the University.
Governor Smith had many vicissitudes of fortune. In his youth he was aide-de-camp of Washington in the dangerous but masterly retreat from Long Island after the defeat of the American forces. He behaved with conspicuous gallantry in the brilliant action in which Moultrie drove the British from Port Royal Island and checked for a time the invasion of South Carolina. A Charleston paper of 1794 says, “he gave on many occasions such various proof of activity and distinguished bravery as to merit the approbation of his impartial country.” After the strong Union superseded the nerveless Confederacy, when there was danger of war with France or England, he was made general of militia,
and when later, on account of insults and injuries of France, our Government made preparations for active hostilities, the entire militia of Brunswick County, officers and men, roused to enthusiasm by an address from him full of energy and fire, volunteered to follow his lead in the legionary corps raised for service against the enemy. The confidence of his countrymen in his wisdom and integrity was shown by their fifteen times electing him to the Senate of the State. From this post he was chosen by the General Assembly as our Chief Executive in 1810, when war with England was constantly expected, and by large numbers earnestly desired. The charter of the University was granted in 1789. The trustees were the great men of that day—the leaders in war and in peace.
Of this band of eminent men, Benjamin Smith was a worthy member. He is entitled to the signal honor of being the first benefactor of the infant institution, the leader of the small corps of liberal supporters of education in North Carolina. For that reason alone his name should be revered by all the long line of students who call the University their Alma Mater—by every one who desires the enlightenment of our people.
The Trustees met, for organization, in Fayetteville, on November 15th, 1790, choosing as their chairman Colonel William Lenoir, the Speaker of the Senate. General Smith gladdened these hearts by the munificent donation of patents for twenty thousand acres of land in Western Tennessee. A large portion of them was a gift to him for his gallant services during the dark hours of the Revolution. They were the price of liberty. They were the offering of a generous heart and a wise head, which knew well that liberty could not be preserved without education—that ignorance must be slain or vice will be the ruler of our land.
Generation after generation grew up and passed away. Year after year young men, their mental armor supplied and burnished through his wisdom and liberality, went from the University walls to become sources of good influence in all our land, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. The institution he loved so well, after many vicissitudes of trials and sufferings, had become wealthy and prosperous. Nearly five hundred matriculates every year entered their names on its roll to partake of its instruction. The revered donor had drunk to its dregs the cup of bitterness. His too generous disposition and misplaced confidence in others had deprived him of his wealth. His once strong and vigorous body had been wasted by disease and racked by pain. In poverty and in wretchedness he had long since sunk into his grave under the weeping moss of the great swamp trees. Sixty years after his generous gift the trustees of the University honored themselves by bestowing his name on a beautiful structure devoted to literature and to science. The sacrifices of the old hero were not in vain. His monument is more enduring than marble or brass. Centuries will come and go. Men's fortunes will wax and wane. But the blessings of the gift of Benjamin Smith nearly a hundred years ago will never cease, and his name will keep green forever.
KEMP P. BATTLE.
CHAPTER VII.
BUNCOMBE COUNTY.
Buncombe worthily preserves to all time the name of Edward Buncombe, a patriot and a soldier, who served his country faithfully, and who gave up his life in her defence, a more minute account of whom is presented in the sketch of the men of Tyrrell County, of which he was a resident.
There is perhaps no section of the State more familiar by name, and less known abroad. “Talking for Buncombe” has become as familiar as a household word, not only in our own native, but has pervaded other countries.* This slang phrase had this origin. Some years ago the member in Congress from this district† arose to address the House on a question of local importance; some of the members left the Hall, which he observing, very naively said to those remaining, that they might go too; as he should speak for some time and was only “talking for Buncombe.”
Ample materials for description of the lovely scenery and the genial climate, the fertile soil, and its gold giving ore, exist, but these are not germane to our object; it is of the men of Buncombe only we propose to write.
Many of the earlier in habitants and pioneers of this lovely region of the State we are compelled to pass over. It were a pleasing duty to dwell upon the character and services of the Alexanders; the Barnetts, (the first men that ever piloted a wagon over the mountains;) The Beards, Readon and Zebulou; Thomas Case, (who died in 1849, aged 82, “who lived longer, easier and heartier, and left more descendants than any man of his day;”) the Davidsons; the Edueys; the Lowries; the Irwins; the Pattons, (especially James, who died 1845, aged 90, the founder of the Warm Springs;) Rev. Humphrey Posey; James McSmith, the first white child born in the State west of Blue Ridge; and many others.
We leave these for some son of Buncombe as indicated by Hon. George Davis, “who shall gird up his loins to the task, with unwearied industry and unflinching devotion to the honor of his dear old mother.”
David Lowry Swain, born 4th of January, 1801; died 27th of August, 1868.
Few men have lived in North Carolina who have made a deeper or more lasting impression on her history than the subject of our present sketch.
Without fortune or thorough education, or any personal advantages, but by his own intrinsic merits, his unspotted character and sterling virtues, he was called on to fill the highest offices in the State.
If his education was, from his limited circumstances, not complete, he was blessed with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, habits of unremitting labor that was never satisfied until it exhausted a question, and a powerful memory. He remained a short time (1821) at the University, “but he did not need, (as Johnson says of Shakespeare,) the spectacles of books to study the great works of nature or the character of men.” He was a student all his life. Truly—
—He sought rich jewelsFrom the dark caves of knowledge,To win his ransom from from those twin jailors of thedaring heart,Low birth and iron fortune—and so successfully did he labor, that at the time of his death he had no superior in the
* Attache in England, by Judge Halliburton.† General Felix Walker was member in the House of Representatives from the Buncombe District from 1817 to 1823.country upon the science of Constitutional law, moral science, or political economy.*
His ancestors were English. His father, George Swain, was a native of Roxboro, Massachusetts, (born 1763.) He came South and settled in Georgia. He was a man of mark and influence. He was a member of the convention that revised the Constitution of Georgia, and served in the Legislature for five years. His health failing, he moved to the health-giving climate of Buncombe, and was many years postmaster at Asheville. He married Mrs. Caroline Lowry, widow of Captain Lowry, (who had been killed by the Indians,) and the daughter of Jesse Lane, of Wake County, who was the grandfather of General Joseph Lane, of Oregon, and Governor Swain; by her Mr. Swain had seven children, all now dead.
Governor Swain was born, as stated, in 1801, at Asheville. His early education was conducted by Rev. George Newton and Rev. E. M. Porter. He often referred in gratitude to their patient labors, and they were proud of their diligent pupil. His father was ambitious for him. He taught his son early to choose only good society, and to aim at excellence in whatever pursuit he followed. After his early education was completed he came (in 1821) to Raleigh, where he entered the law office of Hon. John Louis Taylor, and was admitted to the bar in 1823.
On the 12th of January following, he married Eleanor White, daughter of William White, late Secretary of State, and the granddaughter of Governor Caswell. He then returned to his mountain home, and commenced the practice of law with great success.
In 1824-’25-’26-’28 and ’29 he was a member of the Legislature from Buncombe County. During this period (1827) he was elected Solicitor of the Edenton District, and rode this circuit only once, when he resigned. In 1830 he was a member of the Board of Internal Improvements, and was active in promoting the best interests of the State. In the winter of this year he was elected Judge of the Superior Court of Law and Equity.
In December, 1835, he was called to the presidency of the University. Here was his proper element, and here he spent the best years of his life, (till 1868.)
“Never,” says his able biographer, Governor Vance, “did a Grecian philosopher gather around him his disciples with more pride and delight than did Governor Swain. In the midst of his three or four hundred ‘boys’ who annually surrounded him at Chapel Hill, he was entirely at home and happy, and such society was the charm of his life. His knowledge was encyclopedic in its range, especially in English literature. So overwhelming were his stores, that the writer remembers with grateful pleasure, when forgetting altogether the subject on hand he would stand up in front of his class, and in an outgush of eloquence, poetry, history, anecdote and humor, wrap us all as with enchantment. His most remarkable trait of mind was his powerful memory, and the direction in which that faculty was notably exercised, was in biography and genealogy. In this particular he had no superior in America. A youth coming to college needed no letter of introduction. Not only was it so in his own State, but from the most distant Southern and Southwestern States it was the same. Knowing all the principal families of the Southern Atlantic States, he took note of their migrations westward; and when their sons returned East for education he would generally tell them more of their family history than they knew before.
“Amazed at his display of this genealogical history,” Governor Vance continues, he once asked him, “Don't you, Governor, know when
* These were the subjects of which he was Professor in the University, and upon which he delivered lectures.every man of North Carolina cut his eye teeth?” “Oh no,” said he, “but I know very well when you, sir, had the measles.”
“Thus for a period of an ordinary lifetime (33 years) he devoted himself to the highest and noblest service to his State and country in training the future statesmen, jurists and divines of our country. Eternity alone can reveal the influence which he thus indirectly exerted on the intelligence and morals of society; not only of his native State, but of all that vast region known as the South and Southwest, where his pupils filled every possible place of honor, trust or profit. He preferred to tread the noiseless tenor of his way in the quiet paths of science and philanthropy than those of political ambition. The plaudits of statesmanship, the renown of the warrior, had no charms for him. He felt truly—
—The warrior's nameTho’ pealed and chimed on every tongue of fame,Sounds less harmonious to the grateful mind,Than he who fashions and improves mankind.“As an author,” continues Governor Vance, “with all his stores of knowledge, and his great capacities, he left but little for posterity to judge and admire. His literary reputation is confined to those who were his cotemporaries, and such traditions as affection and friendship may preserve. Many fragmentary articles from his pen and lectures exist; some of which are preserved in the University Magazine, relating chiefly to North Carolina history. He had collected a considerable amount of historic material, and it was expected that he would have left a work on that subject as a legacy to his countrymen. His age, the troubled times, and an aversion to continued systematic labor, doubtless prevented him.”
A vast number of rich traditions of the early times and the men of Carolina were locked up in the vast stores of his memory; the key to which is buried with him. Yet he was ever forward and ready to aid other laborers in the historic field. As Caruthers, Wiley, Wheeler, and Hawks could testify. He materially aided me in my poor efforts in this respect, and in gratitude to him I dedicated my “History of North Carolina.”
At his suggestion and request, with a letter from Governor Vance, in 1863 I visited England, and spent all my time in the Rolls Office collecting material from the original records as to the early history of North Carolina.
But his name could not have received any additional lustre than it already enjoyed.
His fame will forever rest upon the success with which he conducted the University of the State. When he went to Chapel Hill there were not ninety students. In 1860 there were nearly five hundred. He determined to make its influence powerful, and he succeeded. It was by intuitive perception of character, gentle but firm administration of authority, and high consideration and gentlemanly treatment of his pupils. In the classic halls of the University he never assumed the commanding and repellant attitude of a “Jupiter Tonans,” but like the course of the Apollo, leading by graceful manners and gentle words his admiring votaries.
But the unhappy internecine war came—the call for men and arms to defend the homes and hearths of the South was heard, and the gallant youths of the University obeyed the call. Of the class of 1860,* every one, (with perhaps a single exception,) entered the service, and more than a fourth of the entire number now fill a soldier's grave. Every exertion was used by Governor Swain to preserve the University. It was owing to his exertions that the conscript law, “that robbed alike the cradle and the grave,” was not rigidly enforced, and when the Federal army took possession of Chapel Hill in 1865, a few students were still there. In order to avert
* “Last Ninety Days of the War” by Cornelia Phillips Spencer, New York, 1866, 270.from the institution the fate of all others lying in the route of a conquering army, Gov. Swain was appointed by Gov. Vance one of the commissioners to General Sherman to preserve the Capital and University.
After the war he visited New York and Washington to interest northern capitalists as to the financial condition of the University, and was greatly instrumental in securing the land scrip donated by Congress for agricultural schools.
But the election of 1868 adopted the new Constitution, and destroyed what war had spared. The doors of the University was closed by negro troops, and with the venerable president, fell, unwept, without a crime.
“This was the unkindest cut of all.” This unexpected blow completely prostrated Gov. Swain; his energies seemed subdued, and he seemed suddenly to grow old, losing all his vivacity and elasticity.
The able tribute to the memory of Gov. Swain by his life-long friend Gov. Vance evinces the deep affection of the latter, which has been so liberally drawn on, and this feeling was fully reciprocated by “his gentle, patriotic, and distinguished preceptor.”
In a letter which I received from Gov. Swain when at West Point as one of the board of visitors to the United States Military Academy at that place, dated 16th June, 1865, he writes thus:
“I have been detained here much longer than I expected; I cannot leave earlier than Monday next, and be in Washington on Wednesday. I will be very anxious to see Gov. Vance. Will it not be in your power to obtain for me permission from the War Department to do so, in anticipation of my arrival? I have been hoping constantly to hear of his receiving permission to return home. Please write to me immediately to New York. I will probably have only a day to spend in Washington, and during that day I must see Gov. Vance
“I remain very truly yours,
“D. L. SWAIN.”
I procured for him the desired permit, and together we went to the Carroll Prison, where we met in the same place the Governors of three sovereign States “in durance vile,” Gov. Vance, Gov. Brown, of Virginia, and Gov. Letcher, of Virginia. The cause of the visit of Gov. Swain to Washington at this time (20th May, 1865,) was an invitation from the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, extended also to B. F. Moore, and William Eaton, to consult in regard to “Reconstruction of the Union.”
This was no idle compliment. The country had just ended a long, exhausting and desolating war. The President, Lincoln, had been murdered by an assassin; every branch of industry was paralyzed; the commerce of a nation destroyed, and confusion and dismay pervaded every section. That the President should call from their homes men who had never figured in the field or the forum, but only known as pure, honorable and conscientious men, was evidence of his sagacity and of their high character.
They met the President on 22d May, 1865, at his office in the Treasury. Neither of them personally knew the President, and I introduced them. I then was about to retire when the President requested me to remain and participate in the consultation. No questions of more vital importance to the South since the foundation of the Government were ever discussed. All of those who participated in that conference have gone. No account has ever been published of their deliberations. From my diary of that date I extract the following:
“Saturday, 20th May, 1865.—Mr. A. G. Allen, editor of the National Intelligencer, met me on the street and informed me that Gov. Vance, of our State, had been brought to the city, a prisoner of war, and that I might do good by going to see him, and that Gov. Swain was at the Ebbitt House and wished to see me. I went to the Ebbitt House and found Gov.
S. and William Eaton, jr. Gov. S. accompanied me home. I sent for his baggage, as he wishes to be more quiet than at the hotel. He, with Messrs. Eaton and Moore, are here, invited by the President to advise measures to restore North Carolina to the Union.
Sunday, 21st May.—Gov. S. accompanied me to chure. Dr. Pinckney preached.
In evening, at request of Gov. S. and Mr. Moore, I called on the President and made arrangements for their meeting at 2. p. m. to-morrow.
Monday, 22d May.—Gov. Swain engaged in writing, preparing for the conference with the President.
At 2 I went with him and Messrs. Moore and Eaton to the President's office and introduced them. Mr. Thomas and General Mussey, of Lewisburg, were with him.
After introducing them I arose to retire, when the President again desired me to remain. A conference deeply interesting in all its details occurred.
The President directed his Secretary to read a proclamation which he proposed to issue, and an amnesty to certain classes by which North Carolina was to be restored to the Union. He invited a frank, free, and open discussion.
Mr. Moore, with much decision, earnestness, and courage, denounced the plan, especially as to the classes who were to be exempted from pardon. The plan, he alleged, was illegal, and he denied the power of the President to issue it. He demanded of him where in the Constitution or Laws he found such power. The President replied ‘that by IV Art., 4 Sec., the United States shall guarantee to every State a Republican form of Government, &c.’ ‘True,’ replied Mr. Moore, ‘but the President is not the United States.’
As to exempting from all pardon, or requiring all persons owning a certain amount of property to be pardoned, was simply ridiculous. You might as well say that every man who had bread and meat enough to feed his family was a traitor, and must be pardoned.’ Mr. Moore continued in that same caustie manner, to examine other points of the proclamation, and specially the appointment of a Governor by the President, averring that the President had no such power. He finally suggested to the President to meddle as little as possible with the State, that she was able to take care of herself by aid of her own citizens; that his plan was to let the Legislature be called, which, as the Governor was a prisoner, the Speakers of the Legislature could do; then the Legislature would authorize the people to call a Convention, who could repeal the Secession Ordinance of the 20th of May, 1861, and thus restore good correspondence with the Union, with the rights of the State unimpaired and her dignity respected. The President listened with much attention, and bore with great dignity the fiery phillipics of Mr. Moore.
Governor Swain, in a long and temperate speech, but with much earnestness, advocated the plan of Mr. Moore. He detailed circumstances of much interest before unknown, illustrative of his course, and that of Governors Graham and Vance. He read several letters from Governor Graham.
“The President stated ‘that he appreciated the able views and the frank enunciatious of his friends, but still thought that the Provisional Governor should be appointed by the United States; that the President was the Executive Officer of the United States, and therefore, the Governor, he thought, should be appointed by him. ‘He did not seem much inclined to give any ground. As it was then half-past six o'clock he adjourned the Conference to meet again on Thursday next at 2 p. m.’ ”
Thursday, 25th May, 1865. * * *
At 2 o'clock I went with Governor Swain to the President's house; we found Messrs. Moore and Eaton, and also W. W. Holden, R. P. Dick, Richard Mason, J. P. H. Russ, Richardson, Rev. Mr. Skinner, Dr. Robt. J. Powell, and Colonel Jones. The President laid before us the Amnesty Proclamation, by which he proposed to restore the State of North Carolina to the Union, a Military Governor to be appointed by the President, who should proceed forthwith to organize the State Government; direct the people to call a Convention, appoint Judges, officers, &c.
The President further stated that the name of the person as Governor was purposely left blank in the proclamation, and requested that we should select some name, and that whoever we selected he would appoint. The President then retired.
Governor Swain stated that it was a preferable mode to him, and more in accordance with the laws of North Carolina, that the Convention should be called by the Legislature, which could be summoned by the Speaker of the Senate, or they might meet of their own accord. But the President was unwilling to trust that body.
Mr. Eaton declared himself opposed to the
appointment of Governor by the President; that he was only invited for advice and conference, and not for making offices, and that he would not unite in any recommendation of any one for this, or any other office.
It was then proposed to organize the meeting, and on motion of Dr. Powell, Mr. Moore was called to the chair.
“Mr. Moore said he concurred in the sagacious views of Mr. Eaton, and declined to take the chair. He, with Governor Swain and Eaton, retired to another room.”
Dr. Powell then moved that Colonel J. P. H. Russ be appointed chairman, which was carried, and on motion of Dr. Powell, the name of W. W. Holden was inserted as Governor.
The President was then sent for, who came in and seemed gratified at the selection.
The party then dispersed.
The President gave Governor Swain and myself permits to visit Governor Vance in prison.
Friday, 26th May, 1865. * * *
* * Governor Swain and myself rode to Carrol Prison where we saw Governor Vance, Governor Letcher, and Governor Brown confined in the same place. Governor Vance was in good spirits and health.
Governor Corwin, of Ohio, also called to see Governor Vance, and denounced the outrage of imprisoning him without process of law and without crime, three Governors of sovereign States confined together, and he promised Vance that he should use every effort to get him out. Which pledge he nobly redeemed.
He asked Vance, ‘for what crime was he imprisoned?’
Vance replied, ‘he did not know,’ ‘unless that Governor Holden, who had voted for the Ordinance of Secession in Convention, and had pledged the last man and the last dollar, and failed to redeem his pledge, and now he, Vance, was his security, and had to suffer.’
We remained with Gov. Vance more than an hour, when we returned to my house.
As weather was rainy and disagreeable, Gov. Swain remained within doors, and we conversed on historical matters, and the stirring events of the last few days, of which he forebodes much evil.
“I read, at his request, my diary,” (as above recorded.)
“He asked for a copy, as he thought it concise and correct, to send to Mrs. S.”
The memories of these times cannot but be interesting, as showing the prominent part that Gov. Swain bore in these eventful scenes, and the sad condition of affairs. They have never been published.
Gov. Swain, after visiting New York, returned home with feelings of depression and distress.
Hoping to restore tone to his mind and body, before taking a final leave of Chapel Hill, he was preparing for a visit to his native mountains of Buncombe. On the 11th August, 1868, riding in an open buggy, his horse took fright, ran away, and threw him with violence to the ground. He was carried home in a bruised condition. No one thought him seriously injured; but his hour had come. On 27th August he fainted away, and without a struggle or groan passed from time to eternity.
Gov. S. married, 12th January, 1824, as previously stated, Eleanor, daughter of William White, Secretary of State, (1778 to 1811,) and granddaughter of Gov. Richard Caswell. His widow now resides in Raleigh. A daughter, who married General Aiken (in 1865,) of Illinois, where she now resides. Gov. S.’s remains are interred at Raleigh.
We have now finished, from authentic sources, an account of the services of David L. Swain, of which his State may well be proud. In his public as well as his private character, there was much to admire and to love.
As a statesman and politician he was patriotic, yet conservative and cautions. Rather a believer in St. Paul's advice, if it be possible, live in peace with all men—almost verging on the practice of the good saint of—
Being all things to all men.
He certainly never was intolerant or vindictive. In the early days of the Republic he would have been a Federalist; in the log cabin
age, he was a Whig; and to his last days a Union man.
As a Christian he was the admirer of piety and virtue in any sect. He would say “my father was a Presbyterian elder and my mother a Methodist; Bishop Asbury blessed me when a child, the Presbyterians taught me, and Humphrey Posey, a Baptist, prayed for me. I was brought up to love all good Christians.”
He was for years a communicant of the Presbyterian church, and gave largely to its support. He was careful of money; economical in his expenses, punctual and precise, and faithful to his promises; simple in his habits and dress. He was little blessed by nature in personal appearance. “Certainly,” says Governor Vance, “no man owed less to adventitions aids. His voice was peculiar and harsh; in person he was exceedingly ill formed and uncouth; his knees smote together in a most unmilitary manner.”
But his countenance redeemed his person, and one may say as did Hamlet of his father—
—See what grace was seated on this brow!A combination and a form indeed,Where every God did seem to set his sealTo give the world assurance of a Man.A recent writer (Dalton) on a “Few Hours at Poplar Mount,” has recorded of Governor Swain some appropriate remarks from his life long friend, Hon. Weldon N. Edwards, that should be more permanently preserved:
“With Gov. Swain a vast store of historical and other information was buried, perhaps beyond the possibility of resurrection.
“There is no one left to us who can fill his place.
“He was wrapped up in the University, and it was a serious blow to the State when the practised and learned faculty was broken up by political interference and partisan malice. It was a grievous fault and a blunder not to be tolerated in any party.
“I have heard many of the friends of Gov. Swain state that he became melancholy and began to droop away on the termination of his duties as President of the University, and they believed a broken heart was as much the real cause of his death as the fall from his carriage. He felt ‘the last link was broken’ that united his heart and hopes to all earthly objects. The whole manner of the man was changed.
“His step was tottering and slow; his massive frame was bowed down in grief. His countenance, so wonted to be lifted up in smiles and playful wit, had already settled into the stern reality of the impending gloom and of perpetual silence.
“It was thus I met for the last time this distinguished man. He said: ‘My friend, since I last saw you my connection with the University has been brought to a close; it was a trial I dreaded.’
“What he suffered can only be known to the Great Searcher of all human hearts. There has never been a parallel case of injustice, prejudice and folly. It was a blow aimed at education, science, and civilization, and society; to Governor Swain it was malignant parricide, and its baleful effects were felt throughout the Commonwealth. Col. Venable, the distinguished and learned head of the University of Virginia, when this subject was, soon after its occurrence, discussed, declared that there was no Governor of Virginia, not excepting Pierpoint, who would exhibit a control similar to that of our Governor over the University of North Carolina.”
But another era has dawned on this venerable institution, and we trust that it will soon regain its pristine prosperity.
Connected with Gov. Swain and Professor Mitchell of the University was Rev. James Phillips, D. D. He was a native of England, born at Nevenden, Essex County, in 1792. His father was a Minister of the Church of England.
He came to America in 1818 with an elder brother, Samuel A. Phillips, and engaged in the profession of teaching at Harlem, where he had a flourishing school. In 1826 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the University of North Carolina, then in his 34th year. For forty years he labored to impress broad and deep the elements of science and knowledge; how faithfully that duty was performed many now alive can testify. As his life was useful so
his death was sudden and unexpected. On the morning of the 14th of March, 1867, he set out to the chapel to officiate at morning prayers. The weather was tempestuous; he ventured forth and took his seat behind the reading desk. The first student who entered the chapel after the bell commenced ringing bowed and spoke to him. The salutation not being returned, as was his wont, the student advanced toward him and saw him falling from his seat, and soon he was extended on the floor in an apoplectic fit. Doctor Mallet was sent for, but in a few moments life was extinct. Such was the end of this excellent and useful man. He left three children: Rev. Charles Phillips, D. D., Professor in University; Hon. Samuel F. Phillips, Solicitor General of the United States; Mrs. Cornelia Phillips Spencer.
Hon. Samuel Field Phillips, LL. D., son of Professor James Phillips, a sketch of whom we have just presented, was born at Harlem, N. Y., February 18, 1824. He was carefully educated, and graduated at the University in 1841, one of a distinguished class of which he took the first honors, and in which was Governor John W. Ellis, Judge Wm. J. Clarke, Professor Charles Phillips, John F. Hoke, Robert Strange, and others.
He read law with Governor Swain and entered the profession with most flattering prospects.
He was elected a member of the House of Commons from Orange in 1852, with John Berry, Senator Josiah Turner, B. A. Durham and J. F. Lyon—and this compliment was more appreciable, as the county had presented a formidable majority against the Whig party, to which he belonged. He was again elected in 1854, 1864, and 1865, at which latter session he was chosen Speaker of the House.*
But politics was not his appropriate sphere, and he retired from its exciting arena to the more germane pursuits of his profession. He removed to Raleigh and formed a law partnership with Hon. A. S. Merrimon. This able firm enjoyed a full share of practice. He was unexpectedly to himself and others, in 1870, nominated by the Republican Convention as Attorney General of the State. Hon. Wm. M. Shipp was elected; this was the subject of no regret to Mr. Phillips, for it left him opportunity to pursue uninterruptedly the practice of his profession. When Judge Settle resigned on the Supreme Court Bench, Mr. Phillips was tendered and declined this high position.
In December, 1871, he was confirmed by the Senate as Solicitor General of the United States, which position he now holds, with credit to himself and confidence to the country.
He married Fanny, the granddaughter of Governor David Stone, by whom he has an interesting family.
Connected with the favorite and laborious portions of the life of Governor Swain, as President of the University, it is but proper to notice Elisha Mitchell, D. D., Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology. He was a native of Connecticut, born in 1793. He graduated at Yale college in 1803, in the same class with George E. Badger and Thomas P. Devereux. In 1818, by the influence of Judge Gaston, he was appointed to a Professorship in the University with Professor Olmstead, also a graduate of Yale.
For more than an ordinary lifetime, he served the institution with fidelity and zeal, and his pupils acknowledge to this day his learning and patience. He was not idle in vacations, but extended his surveys and researches in every direction. No stream or mountain, no coal field, or gold, or other mineral mine, escaped his acumen. He was the first to determine by barometic measurement
* He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1865 and the Reporter of the Reports of the Supreme Court from 1866 to 1871.that the Black mountains were higher than the White mountains in New Hampshire, and his name is borne by its loftiest summit. A controversy arose between Dr. Mitchell and Mr. Clingman, in regard to this highest peak, and in 1857, Dr. Mitchell again visited that mountain for the purpose of verifying his former measurement. On the 27th June, he dismissed his son Charles, who was his only assistant, and requested him to return on Monday and renew this survey; he said that he would cross the great range and descend into the valley on the other side. He never was seen again alive. His body was found below a precipice in a pool of water about 14 feet deep, over which he had fallen and in which he had perished.
Following the imperfect sketch of Governor Swain, we take up that of his pupil and his life long friend, Zebulon Baird Vance.
The family is of Irish origin. From “An Account of the Family of Vance in Ireland,” by Wm. Balburnie, printed at Cork, 1860, we extract the following:
“The next of the family proceeding from Dougal, is named William, who was located at Aughavid, Ballydug, Tyrone. His will is dated 19th April, 1713. He left four sons. One of these, David, went to America, and fought under Washington. (Page 31.)
“I now return to the eldest son, John. He married and had four sons and three daughters. One of these daughters married Andrew Jackson, of Mahrafelt, who emigrated to America, and there gave birth to Andrew Jackson, late President of the United States, of whom it is written ‘that he was the bravest soldier, the wisest statesman that ancient or modern history has ever recorded.’
“Another son was in the American war, and was killed in battle. A descendant of his was a member of Congress from North Carolina in 1824.”* (Page 35.)
Whatever credit may be given to this statement, (and there could be no object in the writer to violate the truth,) our own records show that the grandfather, David Vance, was born near Winchester, Va., and came to North Carolina before the Revolutionary war, and first settled on the French Broad river; that when Lord Cornwallis sent a strong force under Colonel (or Major) Patrick Ferguson, and endeavored to win by force of arms or blandishments of art the people of Western Carolina to the Royal cause, that Vance joined McDowell, who led the Burke and Rutherford boys to battle, and under the gallant lead of Cleaveland, Shelby, and others, who attacked Ferguson on King's Mountain, killed him, and completely routed his army. We shall speak more of this battle when we reach Cleaveland County; of its gallant achievement and important results. It was the turning point of the Revolution, and was the cause of American success.
At this time the whole South lay prostrate before the arms of the British; Georgia had surrendered, so had South Carolina. Lord Cornwallis, defeating Gates at Camden, had unmolested possession of Charlotte. This battle turned the tide of war, for soon followed the victory of Cowpens, then the drawn battle of Guilford, and the finale at Yorktown.
After the war was over, Mr. Vance returned to his home on the French Broad river, where he spent the remainder of his days, universally esteemed for his integrity and ability. Colonel Joseph McDowell, of Burke County, David Vance, of Buncombe, and Musentine Matthews, of Iredell County, (Speaker that year of the House, 1796,) were appointed to run the line between North Carolina and Tennessee. (Moore's History, 136.)
He married a Miss Brank, and left several children, among them Dr. Robert B. Vance, who defeated for Congress Hon. Felix Walker, in 1823.* This singular canvass resulted in a tie in the popular vote, and was settled
* This was Dr. Robert B. Vance.* For sketch of Felix Walker, see Rutherford County.by votes of the returning officers (sheriffs.) He ran again for Congress (19th Congress, 1825-’27,) and was defeated by Hon. Samuel P. Carson. This canvass unhappily terminated in a duel between Carson and Vance, in which the latter was killed.
David Vance married Margaret Myra Baird, and left two sons, Zebulon Baird Vance, and Robert Brank Vance, jr.; Zebulon Baird Vance was born in the county of Buncombe, on the 13th day of May, 1830. Without the restraining hand of a father to guide and correct “the slippery paths of youth,” he is reported to have been a wild and wayward boy, so full of fun and frolic, that he tried the very soul of his mother and teachers to restrain him. But in all his pranks there was nothing but humor and no malice. It was the simple outgushing of volatile and irrepressible humor; he was always able to make his peace for all his mischievous capers, in the hearts of his superiors, by the genial kindness of his temper, his fearless and free disposition. As Mr. J. C. Calhoun was spending a summer in the mountains of North Carolina, when Zeb. was about fourteen years old, he stopped for the night where Zeb. resided.
Attracted by the vivacity and quickness of the boy, and rather amused at the sprightliness of his manners, he invited him to take a walk, and conversed for some time with him. He so impressed young Vance's mind by the picture that he drew of what he might be if he would only cultivate his mind and apply himself to study, that the imaginative boy resolved to study in earnest, and to make his mark “among those names which never die.” Acting upon this advice, he entered Washington College, Tennessee, remaining there two years, going thence to Newton Academy; his funds failing, he acted for a time as clerk at the Warm Springs. Here he was thrown in social contact with the first men of Western Carolina, South Carolina and East Tennessee. He improved these opportunities. The spark kindled by the great Calhoun was fanned into an ardent flame; and as soon as be could command the means he entered as a student at the University, where he was noted for the quickness of his mind and his “irrepressible impudence,” which, like “the wind, bloweth where it listeth;” all yielded a willing homage to its irresistible and magic influence.
His humor was involuntary and spontaneous. He could no more repress it than could the skylark withhold its liquid lays from the morning light, or the mountain stream prevent its pelucid current from bubbling up in radiance and beauty.
After leaving college he studied law and was admitted to practice and was chosen County Solicitor.
On the resignation of Hon. Thos. L. Clingman, (who was appointed Senator in Congress, vice Asa Biggs, appointed United States Judge, May, 1858, which appointment of Senator Clingman was confirmed by the Legislature, November, 1858,) Mr. Vance was elected to Congress over W. W. Avery, which position he held until the State seceded, (May, 1861.) He then returned home and raised one of the largest companies for the war ever raised in the State, of which he was elected captain, and it was incorporated into the 14th North Carolina Regiment. He was elected colonel of the 26th Regiment and attached to the brigade commanded by General L. O'B. Branch. He was engaged in the disastrous battle of New Berne, and also in the seven days’ battles around Richmond.
The following year he was elected Governor of the State, over Colonel William Johnston, of Charlotte, as the representative of the Union party, and opposed by the original secessionists. By some he was charged with the crime of deserting his party. He never deserted
the true interests and honor of the State. In a letter written by him to Governor Swain in January, 1864, he said:
“Almost every argument can be answered but one—that is the cries of our women and children for bread. Of all others that is the hardest for a man to meet.
“But the historian shall not say it was the weakness of their Governor, or that Saul was consenting to their death. As God liveth there is nothing I would not do or dare for a people who have honored me so far beyond my deserts.”
For this he was willing to make any sacrifice, even to death. He felt as did the brave Horatius of Rome.
To every man upon this earthDeath cometh soon or late,And how can man die betterThan facing fearful oddsFor the ashes of his fathers,And the temples of his Gods;And for the tender motherWho dandled him to rest,And for the wife who nursesHis baby at her breast.To him these were no idle words or empty professions. During his whole term as Governor this was fully proved by acts and deeds.
He, at the suggestion of General Martin, purchased from the Clyde a steamship, and established a system of supplies by carrying cotton to Europe, and receiving in return arms and necessaries for the people, that else must have perished for food and raiment.
If the troops of North Carolina were the best clothed and best equipped men in the Southern army, it was due to the sagacity and energy of Governor Vance.
On the approach of Sherman's army the Governor went to Statesville, where he had some time previously sent his wife and children; there he was arrested and brought to Washington City and placed in Carroll prison.
There were many ridiculous statements made as to the capture of Governor Vance, which were offensive, and drew from him the following correction:
“CHARLOTTE, 13th October, 1868.
“TO EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK World:
“I see by the public prints that General Kilpatrick has decorated me with his disapprobation before the people of Pennsylvania. He informs them, substantially, that he tamed me by capturing me and riding me two hundred miles on a bareback mule. I will do him the justice to say that he knew that was a lie when he uttered it.
“I surrendered to General Schofield at Greensboro, N. C., on the 2d May, 1865, who told me to go to my home and remain there, saying if he got any orders to arrest me he would send there for me. Accordingly, I went home and there remained until I was arrested on 13th May, by a detachment of 300 cavalry, under Major Porter of Harrisburg, from whom I received nothing but kindness and courtesy. I came in a buggy to Salisbury, where we took the cars.
“I saw no mule on the trip, yet I thought I saw an ass at the general's headquarters; this impression has since been confirmed.
“The general remembers, among other incidents of the war, the dressing up of a strumpet, who assisted him in putting down the rebellion in the uniform of an orderly, and introducing her into a respectable family of ladies. This and other feats of arms and strategy so creditable would no doubt have been quite amusing, and far more true than the mule story. I wonder he forgot it.
“Respectfully yours,
“Z. B. VANCE.”
How Governor Vance employed his time while in prison is shown by the following notes received from him. He bore his confinement with all the patience of a patriot, and “submitted with philosophy to the inevitable.”
“CARROLL PRISON, 16 June, 1865.
“COL. WHEELER,
“MY DEAR SIR: I desire to study French while in confinement. I want a dictionary, grammar, and Ollendorf's method. I am quite well, and see no hope of getting out soon.
“Very truly yours,
“Z. B. VANCE.”
I was, of course, pleased to oblige him, and sent the books.
“July 2d, 1865.
“COL. J. H. WHEELER,
“DEAR SIR: Will you please do me the favor to borrow for me the following law books? I am not able to buy them: Blackstone, 2d volume only; Greenleaf on Evidence; Adams on Equity; Chitty's Pleadings, 1st volume.
“I desire to refresh my law studies. I am getting on bravely in French.
“Tout a vous,
“Z. B. VANCE.”
We have already described the interview of Governor Swain, at which Governors Brown, Corwin and Letcher were present, and how cheerful Gov. V. bore his condition.
I could but remark how polite and considerate the officers and the employees of the prison were to him. By his genial manners he had won their hearts. If he had been a candidate for any position in their gift, he would have received their unanimous vote.
He was release by the efforts of Governor Corwin and others, and allowed to return to his family on parole not to go beyond certain limits.
In November, 1870, the Legislature so sympathized with his sufferings and so appreciated his services, that he was elected Senator; but having been disfranchised he was refused by the Senate, and in January, 1872, he resigned, and General Matt. W. Ransom was elected. From 1865 to 1867 North Carolina had no members in either branch of Congress.
Gov. V. received a pardon from the President, (Andrew Johnson,) settled at Charlotte, and entered into the practice of the law, in partnership with that excellent gentleman and accomplished jurist, C. Dowd, Esq. In entering this firm, Gov. Vance told his partner that “in every firm there was one working man and one gentleman, and that it must be understood that he had to be the gentleman, as he was too lazy to be the other.” Admirably both filled the assigned role. But the law was not the natural element of Gov. V.
In 1876, after a canvas of unexampled exertion and ability on both sides, he was elected governor by a majority of more than 3,000 votes over Judge Settle, now a judge in Florida.
He resigned on being elected by the Legislature Senator in Congress from 4th March, 1879, to 3d March, 1885, succeeding Hon. A. S. Merrimon. His recent speech (19th May, 1879,) on restoration of the Union, was a model of eloquence, wit and statesmanship.
Governor Vance married on 2d August, 1858, at Morganton, Harriet Newell, the orphan daughter of the late Rev. Thomas Espy, of the Presbyterian church. She recently died, (at Raleigh, 3d November, 1878,) leaving several children.*
We have now finished to this date, some slight memories of the career of our Governor Vance.† They might well have been more elaborate and extended did our space and plan allow. We have tried to do justice to his merits, and—
— Nothing extenuate,Or set down aught in malice.Enough has been said to prove the high reputation of Governor Vance as a philanthropist and a statesman. As a popular orator he has no superior, and but few equals. His “infinite jests and most excellent fancy,” to which he adds, at times, the most touching pathos and brilliant eloquence carry the minds and hearts of his audience, and makes him irresistible and triumphant before the people. In his public addresses, as in the social circle, he often illustrates his positions by anecdote so pointed and piquant that the popular mind retains with pleasure the argument, when a graver mode would be forgotten.
* He has again married to Mrs. Marten, of Kentucky, nee Steele.† Much of this sketch is derived from authentic documents, private letters and personal recollections. An anonymous article from the papers of the day, inserted, about 1868, afforded much aid, and which was freely copied.For the Genealogy of the Vance family, see Appendix.
His brother, Robert Brank Vance, was born the 24th of April, 1828, and is the oldest son, and second child, of David and Mira M. Vance, of Buncombe County, N. C.
His education was very limited. His father dying when Robert was in his sixteenth year, a great portion of the burden of sustaining his mother devolved on him. On attaining his majority he was elected Clerk of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, which office he held for eight years, and voluntarily retired from in 1856. Mr. Vance's business was merchandising, which he followed until the war broke out in 1861. Being Union in sentiment, he voted against secession, but when the proclamation of Mr. Lincoln was received at Asheville, N. C., he, in common with most of his neighbors, took sides with the South. All of the male members of the family, including his brother Zebulon, and his three brothers-in-law, (one of whom, Rev. R. N. Price, was a traveling Methodist minister,) went into the army at once. Robert was left in charge of the families; but, being dissatisfied, he went to work and raised a company, which was organized as “The Buncombe Life Guards.” He was elected captain. The companies came and rendezvoused at Asheville, where the 10th and the 29th North Carolina Regiments were organized at “Camp Patton.” Vance was elected colonel of these forces, receiving every vote but one—his own.
The regiment was first ordered to Raleigh, and from there was sent to East Tennessee, where it formed a part of the garrison at Cumberland Gap, following E. Kirby Smith into Kentucky. The regiment suffered considerably in the battle of Murfreesboro, Colonel Vance having his horse killed in that engagement. He had just gotten off his horse and was holding the bridle, when a shell exploded near by, a piece entering the horse by the stirrup-leather. The act of dismounting no doubt saved Colonel Vance's life.
After the battle of Murfreesboro, Vance was taken sick with typhoid fever, and sent home by General Bragg. In the mean time he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. On his return to the army General Bragg sent him back to North Carolina and upper East Tennessee to organize the troops, such as could be got up, and take command in that portion. During a raid he made across the Smoky mountains into Tennessee, he was captured at Cosby Creek, where the Federals attacked him, and he riding by mistake into their ranks. He was kept in prison till near the close of the war, when he was paroled until exchanged.
In 1866, he was elected Grand Master of Masons in North Carolina, which office he held for two years.
In 1872, he was nominated to a seat in Congress from the Eighth district of North Carolina, and beat his competitor, W. G. Candler, a Republican, 2,555 votes.
He was re-elected in 1874, beating Plato Durham, Independent Democrat, 4,442 votes. In 1876 he defeated E. R. Hampton, Republican, over 8,000 majority. In 1878, he was re-elected without opposition to Congress.
At the time of this writing General Vance has succeeded in having daily mails to every county town in his district, and had money-order offices established all over the district.
His principal speeches in the House of Representatives have been on the civil rights’ bill, the tariff, the internal revenue laws, the necessity of fraternal relations between the North and South, the remonetization of silver, etc., which were acceptable to his people.
Many times, through the years since laymen were admitted into the councils of the Southern Methodist Church, General Vance has been elected delegate to the annual conferences and two or three times to the general
conferences of said church. In 1876 he was appointed by the Bishops of the M. E. Church South as one of the Cape May commission which settled important matters between the Northern and Southern Methodist Churches.
General Vance has given many years of his life to the work of delivering lectures on temperance, and the education of children in Sunday schools.
General Vance was married to Miss Harriet V. McElroy, daughter of General John W. McElroy, of North Carolina. Six children—four sons and two daughters—were born to them, four of whom are living.
Such is a brief but accurate sketch of General Vance.
There are few public men in or out of Congress who possess that respect and regard of all who know him, more than General Vance. As a man he is true, sincere and frank in all the relations of life. As a Representative he is faithful, honest, attentive and active. His talents and success are duly appreciated in Congress; being placed chairman of the important Committee on Patents in the 45th and 46th Congresses, and second on the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures; A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, being chairman in the present Congress.
As a friend he is faithful, obliging and sincere, and above all, as a Christian he is a “burning and shining light,” and a prominent and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
James Love Henry, late one of the judges of the Superior courts of law and equity, was born in Buncombe County, in 1838. He received only such education as the schools of Asheville afforded.
His father, Robert Henry, was a patriot of the Revolution, and was in the battle of Kings Mountain, and practiced law for more than sixty years, with much success.
His father died in 1862, aged 97. The maternal grandfather of Judge Henry, Robert Love, was one of the earliest pioneers in the settlement of Western Carolina, and prominent in the early history of this section. He figured in the rise and fall of the State of Frankland, which Governor Sevier attempted to establish, out of a portion of North Carolina, now in Tennessee, (in 1785,) and with General Tipton and others, arrested Sevier, under the charge of high treason,* and conveyed him to jail at Morganton. Robert Love is progenitor of the large and influential family of that name which pervades this and other sections of the west, and who have occupied positions of prominence in every walk of life.
Judge Henry presided as judge with great acceptability, from 1868 to 1878, having previously acted as solicitor for this (the 8th,) judicial district.
He was editor, at the early age of 19, of the Asheville Spectator, and served in the Confederate States army as adjutant of the 1st North Carolina cavalry, (General Robert Ransom,) and on Hampton's and Stuart's staff, and as colonel of cavalry.
He now resides at Asheville, engaged in the practice of his profession.
Augustus Summerfield Merrimon, lately one of the Senators in Congress from North Carolina, was born (in that part of Buncombe County since erected into Transylvania,) on the 15th of September, 1380.
His parents were Rev. Branch Hamline Merrimon and Mary E., nee Paxton, whose father, William Paxton, was the brother of Hon. John Paxton, Judge of the Superior Courts from 1818 to 1826, and whose mother (Sally,) was the daughter of General Charles McDowell.
The subject of this sketch was the eldest of a family of ten children—seven sons and three daughters.
* See Wheeler's History of North Carolina, vol. I, 97.The early education of Mr. Merrimon was as good as the circumstances of his father would allow. At the period when youths of his age were at college, he aided his father in working the farm to support the family, for in those days Methodist ministers were not oppressed with this world's goods. Yet the unconquerable thirst for knowledge so possessed young Merrimon that he embraced every opportunity for acquiring it. Often when at work on the farm, during the hour of rest for dinner, he would be found quietly ensconced in some shady place conning over his books. One of the appendages to his father's place was a saw-mill, which it was his duty to attend, and while the saw was at work in cutting the logs into plank, he would have his grammar or some other book, and improve every moment in study. His fat her appreciating this thirst for knowledge, sent him to a school in Asheville, then under the charge of Mr. Norwood. Such was his application and progress, that within the first session Mr. Norwood pronounced him “the best English grammarian that he ever knew.”
He was exceedingly anxious to be sent to college to complete his classical studies, but the res angusti domi forbid. He commenced the study of the law in the office of John W. Woodfin, in whose office at the same time was Zebulon B. Vance, both destined to occupy high positions of honor in their county and State, and often rivals in political contests. Such was his proficiency in his legal studies, with such inadequate preparation, that in January, 1852, he was admitted to practice in the Courts, and in 1853 in the Superior and Supreme Courts of the State.
By his close attention to business, his careful preparation and management of his cases, he soon made his mark. He was appointed Solicitor to several counties in his circuit, and by the Judge, Solicitor for the District in 1861. In 1860 he was elected to the Legislature as a member from Buncombe, by a few votes over Col. David Coleman.
On the breaking out of the war, he took a decided stand for the Union.
In the excited state of public feeling at this time of frenzy, such a step demanded not only moral, but physical courage. Mr. Merrimon's position was rudely assailed. Angry cards passed between him and Nicholas W. Woodfin, and a personal collision was imminent. On these occasions, he bore himself with dignity and courage. Though not over fond of arms, he felt—
—Rightly to be greatIs not to stir without great argument.But greatly to find quarrel in a strawWhen honor's at the stake.But in the issuing of Mr. Lincoln's proclamation, calling for 75,000 men settled his course, and he entered in Z. B. Vance's company as a private, and marched to Raleigh. He was attached to the Commissary Department as captain for a short time, on duty at Hatteras, Ocrocock, Raleigh and Weldon. On the call of Governor Ellis, the Legislature reassembled, and he had to attend.
In the fall of 1861, he was appointed by Judge Franch, Solicitor of the Eighth Circuit, and the next year was elected to that position by the Legislature. Just at the close of the war he was a candidate as delegate to the State Convention called under the reconstruction acts of President Johnson, and was defeated by Rev. L. Z. Stewart, a Presbyterian clergyman, the Republican candidate. This contest was remarkable, as it was conducted in the presence of the United States troops and bayonets.
By the next Legislature he was elected Solicitor of the Eighth Judicial Circuit. The office of Solicitor was no soft place at this time, but one of imminent peril. The Democrats and “Mossy Backs” were in daily collision; affrays, riots, robberies, and murders were daily occurrences; deserters had to be arrested, and the
place purified. So satisfactory and firm were his efforts as Solicitor, Mr. Merrimon won the respect of the Judges, the regard of the bar, and the esteem of the people.
In 1866, he was elected a Judge of the Superior Courts by the Legislature. Here his services were equally acceptable.
He held the first regular Courts on this Circuit after the war under circumstances of great peril, so that in most of the counties, a police force had to be organized under the sheriff to preserve the place, and protect the Court. While in the faithful discharge of his duty the commanding general of the United States forces, (Canby,) issued military orders to the Courts, with instructions to the Judges to observe and administer them. This gross military usurpation was resisted by Judge Merrimon, who, seeing the Courts could not be held according to law, and his oath of office, resigned his commission as Judge.
In 1872, the convention at Greensboro nominated him for Governor against Todd R. Caldwell.
The universal opinion of the Democrats was that Judge Merrimon was fairly elected. The returns were; Caldwell, 98,630; Merrimon, 96,731; reported majority for Caldwell, 1,899.
He was importuned by the press and hosts of friends to contest this result. In a letter to S. A. Ashe, Esq., of 12th September, 1872, Judge Merrimon says:
“I am satisfied by a variety of facts that have come to knowledge that enormous frauds were perpetrated at the election, and great number of illegal votes were cast against me and the other candidates on the Democratic ticket. I sincerely believe that we received a majority of the lawful votes.
“If it so turns out, by the examination now being made through the executive committee, that substantial ground for contesting can be established, I will contest the election, and vindicate the rights of the people.
“I will not do anything rashly, or to gratify party spirit, or political revenge, but will do all that is just and lawful to establish the right.
“I am yours truly,
“A. S. MERRIMON.”
The executive committee “died and gave no sign;” the conservative character of the people preferred to wait for that success which they believed awaited them, and endure for a season some inconvenience and even injustice.
In December following, Judge Merrimon was elected Senator in Congress for the term of six years, from 4th March, 1878.
It is due to the integrity of history to say this election produced much excitement, inasmuch as it was effected by the defeat of Governor Vance, who was the Democratic nominee.
This, Judge Merrimon contended, was brought about by Governor Vance and his friends tampering with the caucus—pledging and packing it. Several Democrats refused to go into the caucus unless Governor Vance and Judge Merrimon would both withdraw their names. This Judge Merrimon was willing to do, for the sake of harmony, but Governor Vance, insisting that he duly nominated, declined to withdraw. The balloting then commenced, and continued for two weeks without any choice. Both then withdrew. Afterwards, the name of Governor Vance was again brought forward by some members who had voted for Judge Merrimon, and on the first ballot Judge Merrimon was elected. He received the entire Republican vote (72 votes,) and 15 conservative votes, the remaining eighty conservatives voting for Governor Vance. There was a deep feeling of mortification in several sections of the State; not so much because Judge Merrimon was elected, but at the manner in which this result was-brought about.
We took no side in this question. We have shown the appreciation in which we estimate both of these distinguished men, and we
believe that either would do honor to the State and defend to “the last gasp of loyalty,” her character and her interest. Many politicians will doubtless say, like Pope,
How happy would we be with either,Were the other dear charmer away.Of Judge Merrimon's career in the Senate it is not necessary to speak. It has given him a national reputation for integrity of purpose, for unsullied patriotism, and extensive acquirements. We may read its “History in a nation's eyes.” To the interests of his constituents he has ever manifested vigilance and caution. No one has ever applied to him for his kind offices that failed to receive prompt and efficient attention. Always at his post, vigilant in observation, he has proved himself a faithful sentinel of the rights of the State, of individuals, and the Nation.
That he deserves high reputation, is not questioned.
He must have intriusic merit who, in spite of the disadvantages of a defective education, has become the peer of the proudest of our land, and raised himself from the labors of a saw mill to the honors of a Senate chamber.
He was succeeded by Governor Vance, March, 1879.
Judge Merrimon married on 14th September, 1852, Margaret J. Baird, by whom he has an interesting family.
Thomas Lanier Clingman resides at Asheville, in this county.
He was born in the county of Yadken, then Surry Couny, July 27, 1812, the son of Jacob Clingman and Jane Poindexter,* and named for Dr. Thomas Lanier, his half uncle.
His early education was conducted by private instructors. He joined the sophomore class at the University, and graduated in 1832, with a class distinguished in after life for usefulness and talents. Judge Thomas S. Ashe, now of the Supreme Court; James C. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy, 1853-’57; John H. Haughton, Cad. Jones, and others, were of the same class.
In a diary kept by Governor Swain at that date, I found the following:
“June, 1832. The graduating class acquitted themselves with much credit, especially young Clingman, of Surry County, who, if he lives, will be an ornament to the State.”
Mr. Clingman entered upon the study of the law with great energy, and was about to enter upon the practice when he, in 1835, was elected a member of the Legislature from Surry County, which was a field more germane to his tastes, where he took a decided position.
After this service was accomplished he removed to Buncombe County, where he still resides. He acquired much reputation for boldness and ability as a speaker, especially in a debate with Colonel Memminger, at Columbia, S. C., in which Colonel Memminger found himself overmatched. Mr. Clingman, in 1840, was elected by a large majority to the Senate of the State Legislature from Buncombe County.
This was an exciting epoch in political history, and parties (Democratic and Whig) waged a fierce and ferocious warfare. In the
* Alexander Clingman, the grandfather of General Clingman, came to America from Germany before the Revolution. The name signifies, in German, a swordsman and a fighter. He was a soldier in many battles in the Revolutionary war, and was a prisoner taken at Charleston at Lincoln's surrender. He married Elizabeth Kaiser and had several children, among them was Jacob, who left four children, Thomas, John Patillo, Elizabeth, who married Richard Puryear, and Alexander. The father of the mother of Gen'l Clingman was of the Poindexters of Virginia. Her mother was the daughter of Henry Patillo, of Grandville; her first husband was Robert Lanier, whose sister was the mother of Hon. Lewis Williams. Poindexter is a Norman name, signifying spurhorse. He, Alexander, was one of the three prominent Whigs or Regulators who were compelled by Tryon to take the oath of allegiance every six months, at Court. Jane, Clingman's mother, nee Poindexter, was a daughter of Henry Patillo, who was a prominent Whig in the Revolution. Rev. Mr. Patillo was a Presbyterian minister, who did good service and whose sermons have been published in a volume. Two of the sons of Mr. Patillo married the sisters of Robert Goodloe Harper.Legislature or on the stump, Mr. Clingman led the cohorts of the Whigs, and like Henry of Navarre, his white plume was seen proudly floating in the van of every contest. Such was his ability and eloquence that he was elected a member of the 28th Congress (1843, 1845,) over that veteran politician Hon. James Graham. He was elected to the 30th Congress, 1847-’49, and successively to 1857-’59, when (in May, 1858,) he succeeded Hon. Asa Biggs, as Senator in Congress, in which elevated position he continued until 1861, when the State seceded from the Union.
To attempt to detail all the events in the political career of Mr. Clingman, and the prominent parts filled by him, would far exceed the limits of our work. His political history is so interwoven with that of the Nation, that an accurate sketch of the one would be a record of the other. In his long and varied career there were few questions that he did not examine and exhaust. So acceptable were his views that he was, during his last year's service in the House, the chairman of one of its most important committees (Foreign Affairs.)
His early career was in unison with Mr. Clay, (with whom he was personally a great favorite,) and the Whig party; but he never allowed the shackles of party to bind him to any cause in his opinion inimical to the true interests of the State or the people. When his convictions of right were settled, he followed where they led regardless of consequences, political or personal. He became convinced that the Whig party had become thoroughly denationalized, and that the only national party with which Southern patriots could consistently act, with any hope of good, was the Democratic party. His exertions and influence were used in promoting the election of Governor Reid, and of General Pierce. He has for years been an able, decided and consistent Democrat.
On retiring from the Senate with his distinguished colleague, Governor Thomas Bragg, he felt his duty called him to the field, and by his efforts to defend his native soil. He joined the Confederate army and attained the rank of brigadier general. He was in many engagement in which he conducted his command with military skill and undaunted bravery.
He was distinguished for his defence of Goldsboro, (17th December, 1862,) which he saved from a superior force under Foster, whose retreat was so precipitate that he left much of his materials, as blankets, muskets, and even horses.
General Clingman's brigade consisted of the
8th Regiment, Colonel Shaw.
31st Regiment, Colonel Jordan.
51st Regiment, Colonel McKethan.
61st Regiment, Colonel Radeliffe.
In July, 1863, he took command at Sullivan's Island, which exposed position he held until December following, during the most active part of the seige of Charleston. He was then ordered to Virginia, and in the attack on New Berne, February, 1864, led the advance force of General Pickett's army, in which he was wounded by the explosion of a shell. On the 16th May following, in the battle of Drury's Bluff, he was ordered with General Corse to attack General Butler. This was done with such spirit that the lines of Butler were broken, and he retreated rapidly to Bermuda Hundreds, where he was, to use General Grant's expression, “bottled up.”
He was then ordered to Cold Harbor, and on 31st May, met the advance of General Grant's army, and a severe engagement occurred. The next evening (1st June) one of the severest engagements of the war occurred, in which General Clingman's command received heavy loss, in rank and file, from its exposed position. Every staff officer, as well as himself, was wounded. One-third of the
command fell on the field, including Colonel Murchison and Major Henderson, of the 8th Regiment. They held the position and saved the day.
On the 10th of June following, General Clingman repulsed an attack on the lines of Petersburg, and on the evening following, held his position against the attack of two army corps (the 9th and 18th) commanded by Generals Burnside and Smith, numbering in the aggregate 43,000 men. Three brigades on his right gave way early in the engagement, but he held his position until 11 o'clock, p. m., when the engagement ceased—and Petersburg was saved.
On the 19th of August, following, an attack was made on the enemy's lines on the Weldon railroad, near Petersburg, by which 2,100 prisoners were taken, and many killed and wounded. In this affair General Clingman received so severe a wound that he was for several months kept out of the field, and was only able to join his command a few days prior to Johnson's surrender.
When the war closed (8th April, 1866,*) General Clingman, like many others, was left desolate and depressed in mind, wounded and exhausted in body, and utterly impoverished; yet he was ever ready to aid in building up the waste places of his country, and to repair as far as possible the desolations of internecine strife. He was elected a member of the Convention of 1875, and was vigilant and active in the cause of the people.
These are rapid and nusatisfactory sketches of the public services rendered his country by General Clingman.
In his private life, he is exemplary and consistent. He is a member of the Episcopal Church, an admirer of its tenets, and an observer of its ordinances.
Though his fame rests on his long and important service as a statesman and his gallantry as a soldier, yet he has not neglected the parsuits of literature and of science. His able defence of religion, and its support by science, gained him “golden opinions from all sorts of men,” both North and South; he has in various publications demonstrated to the country and to the world the capabilities and advantages of Western Carolina—its healthful climate and prolifie soil. Many have been induced by his descriptions to seek a home with us, bringing wealth, talent, and industry. He has made important contributions to the science of geology and mineralogy. His articles on these subjects have appeared in Silliman's and other journals, and rank with those of Dana, Guyot, Shepard, and other savans of the age. He has presented much and varied information as to mountains of North Carolina, which he has explored in person, and in compliment of such exertions his name has been worthily bestowed on one of its highest peaks.
General Clingman, as our readers may know, has never married. His busy life and active services in the cause of his country have denied him that pleasure. But he is far from underestimating female society, and is a great admirer of grace, beauty and intelligence.
No one possessing his warmth of friendship for his own sex can be indifferent to the charms of the other. As a friend, General Clingman is frank, sincere and vaithful, and this is reciprocated deeply by those who knew him best. No one that I know ever maintained such a hold on the affections of the people. The citizens of his district possess such unbounded confidence in his judgment and integrity that they followed him in whatever course he has pursued. For more than 15 years (with exception of one Congress,) he was elected by their
* The Supreme Court of the United States in case of U. S. v. Klem in January, 1872, decided the beginning of the civil war was on April 19, 1861, date of proclamation as to blockade, and the end was April 8, 1866, date of President's proclamation declaring the war at an end.suffrages. No matter how adroitly the district was adversely arranged, or what principles he advocated, the people were his devoted supporters, and never deserted him.
I recollect when the State was redistricted, in 1852, a few who aspired to his place arranged the district so that he would likely be defeated. But the power and the popularity of General Clingman disappointed their aims and hopes. He was elected by an increased majority. Although kind, social and friendly in his private intercourse, his character is not of that negative kind so concisely described by Dr. Johnson of one “who never had generosity enough to acquire a friend, or spirit enough to provoke an enemy.” Whenever the rights of his State and his personal honor were infringed, he was prompt and ready to repel the assailant. He has followed the advice of Polonius to his son—
—Beware of entranceInto a quarrel; but being in,So bear thyself that thy opposerWill beware of thee.In 1845, Hon. William L. Yancey, of Alabama, well known in his day as “a rabid fire eater,” attempted some liberty with General Clingman. A challenge ensued. Huger, of South Carolina, was Yancey's friend; and Charles Lee Jones, of Washington City, was the friend of Clingman. They fought at Bladensburg.
Mr. Jones, the second of General Clingman, in his graphic description of this duel, published in the Capital, states:
“After the principles had been posted, Mr. Huger, who had won the giving of the word, asked, ‘Are you ready? Fire!’
“Mr. Clingman, who had remained perfectly cool, fired, missing his adversary, but drawing his fire, in the ground, considerably out of line, the bullet scattering dust and gravel upon the person of Mr. Clingman. After this fire, the difficulty was adjusted.”
Hon. Kenneth Raynor, the colleague of Mr. Clingman in Congress, was on the ground, states that “he had never seen more composure and firmness in danger than was manifested by Mr. Clingman on this occasion.” On seeing his friend covered by the dust and gravel, and standing at his post unmoved he thought he was mortally wounded. He rushed to him and asked him if he was hurt. “He has thrown some dust on my new coat,” he replied, quietly brushing off the dust and gravel.
On other occasions, as with Hon. Edward Stanley and others, General Clingman has evineed a proper regard for his own honor by repelling the insults of others; and in all these public opinion has sustained the propriety of his conduct; he has so borne himself that the aggressor has never attempted to repeat his insolence.
He has been accused of being ambitions. If this be so, in reply, the words of Anthony of Cæsar are appropriate—
He is my friend, faithful and just to me.But Brutus says he is ambitious,And Brutus is an honorable man.J. C. L. Gudger, now one of the Judges of the Superior Courts, was born in Buncombe County in 1838; learned in the law, which he has successfully practiced for fifteen years.
He entered the Confederate army as a private in 1861, and rose to the rank of captain.
After the war was over he removed to Waynesville, in Haywood County, where he was extensively engaged in the practice of his profession when he was elected to the high position he so worthily occupies.
Robert M. Furman resides in Buncombe County, although a native of Franklin County, where he was born 21st September, 1846, at Louisburg. He early entered the Confederate army, but on his health failing he was, at the end of five months, discharged. He, on recovery, again entered the army (in 1864,) and served until the war closed. His young life has been spent in the editorial line, in which he attained much success. In 1866 he was in
charge of the Louisburg Eagle. He next established the Henderson Index, and became afterwards connected with the Norfolk Courier, and the Raleigh Sentinel. In 1872 he became editor of the Asheville Citizen. He was reading clerk of the Senate of the State Legislature of 1876. He holds, also, the position of clerk to the United States Senate Committee on Railroads, of which General Ransom is chairman.
Thomas Dilliard Johnston resides at Asheville; born 1st April, 1843, at Waynesville, educated at Colonel S. D. Lee's Academy and the University, but from ill health did not graduate; entered the army in Z. B. Vance's company, 14th North Carolina, and at the battle of Malvern Hill was severely wounded, which disabled him from active service in the field. After war was over, he read law with that accomplished jurist and noble hearted gentleman, Judge J. L. Baily, and was licensed to practice in 1866. In 1870 he was nominated to the House, and carried the county by 400 votes, a gain of 600 for the party. He was one of the managers in the impeachment trial of Governor Holden. He was re-elected in 1872, and elected to the Senate in 1876.
CHAPTER VIII.BURKE COUNTY.
Waightstill Avery., born 1741, died 1821. There is no name in the anuals of North Carolina that is more deserving of being perpetuated than the subject of this sketch. His family were the devoted friends of liberty, and many of them martyrs to its cause. In the Revolutionary war there were eight brothers of this name and family, all patriots. Some of them were massacred at Groton, Connecticut, and at Fort Griswold; some perished at Wyoming Valley. Some of this family still reside at Groton, Connecticut, (where the subject of this sketch was born;) some reside at Oswego and Seneca Lake, and some came to Virginia.
It was early in the year 1631 that the ship Arabella arrived in Massachusetts Bay, from London, and landed passengers at the place where now stand Boston and Charlestown, and where Governor John Winthrop, senior, had commenced an English settlement the year before. Among the passengers were Christopher Avery, of Salisbury, England, and his little son James, then eleven years of age. They proceeded to the point of Cape Ann, where Gloucester now stands, which was at that time one of the most flourishing fishing establishments along the shore, where fish were cured for the European markets by fishermen from England, and in connection with which were agricultural and other profitable industries.
Christopher settled there as a farmer, and became the possessor of valuable and productive lands, which he cultivated to advantage. He had left his wife in England, like many of the leading men who first came over “to spy out the land,” for it was not easy to persuade their wives to leave their comfortable English homes and venture off upon the ocean on a passage of nearly a hundred days in a small
Vessel, crowded with passengers, to share the doubtful fortunes of an unknown wilderness.
The vessels sent from England by the merchant adventurers had for years rendezvoused at Cape Ann to cure and prepare the large quantities of fish taken by them for the European markets, and it was a remunerative trade for the farmers there. It had been a fishing and curing station for years, and with its variety of vegetables and abundance of fish, added to the game and other animal food obtained in trade with the Indians, the thriving community did not lack the means of good and wholesome living. They also had their little chapel where common prayer was offered on the Sabbath by “one Master Rashley, their chaplain,” as we are told by Leckford. When the Paritans afterward settled at Boston they received and fellowshipped Chaplain Rashley for eight or ten years, although he was not of them exactly.
For ten years Mr. Avery, with his son James, enjoyed that pleasant community, his greatest privation being that of the disinelination of his wife to come over and join them in their new home. As he could not persuade her to cross the ocean, he was compelled to send her so much of his earnings and savings as he could spare for her support there. She never came to America.
In 1642 the Cape Ann settlement had become so considerable that the General Court of the Colony incorporated it as the Town of Gloucester, and the Rev. Mr. Blinman, a Dissenting minister, who had made an unsuccessful effort to settle with the Pilgrims at Plymonth, was, by the Boston authorities, sent to Gloucester with a small company of Welshmen, who had accompanied him over the sea, to settle. This was not so pleasant for Christopher Avery, who had so long been the leading man of the settlement with Chaplain Rashley, but he was a man of so decided mark that he was nevertheless elected over and over again as selectman of his new town, notwithstanding the persistent and shameful persecution of the newcomers.
In 1643 his son James Avery, then 23 years old, went to Boston and brought to his home in Gloucester his young bride, Joanna Greenslade, who had with her a certificate of good standing in the Boston church, dated January 17, 1644.
Notwithstanding Mr. Blinman's ecclesiastical precedence, he was rather overshadowed by Christopher Avery, the civilian and sometimes first selectman. Insomuch that after he had been there six or seven years he became “dissatisfied with his teaching,” (as old Governor Winthrop wrote to his son John, then Governor of Connecticut,) and gladly accepted the call to settle at the month of the Thames, (Pequot,) where New London now stands.
He was accompanied by most of the leading members of his church at Gloucester, and among them James Avery with his young wife and three children. James sold all his land at Gloucester to his father Christopher in 1651, for he had settled at New London, October 19, 1650, with what was called the Cape Ann Colony. Mr. Blinman preached at New London about as long as he had at Gloucester, and then left, dissatisfied, for England. Christopher Avery remained in Massachasetts until after Blinman had left for England, and then joined his son James at New London, and in the valley of the Pequonne.
James Avery and Joanna Greenslade had ten children, three born at Gloucester, before 1650, and seven at New London, afterwards. Their youngest son, Samuel, was born August 14, 1664, who married Susan Palmer, daughter of Major Edward Palmer and granddaughter of Governor John Winthrop, Jr., on the 27th of October, 1686, and with her had ten children, to wit: Samuel, b. August 11, 1687; Jonathan, b. January 18, 1689; William, b. August 25, 1692; Mary, b. January 10, 1695; Christopher,
b. February 10, 1697; Humphrey, b. July 4, 1699; Nathan, b. January 30, 1702; Lucy, b. April 17, 1704; Waitstill, b. March 27, 1708, (had two wives;) Grace, b. June 2, 1712. When that portion of New London east of the Thames was set off as the separate town of Groton, in 1705, Samuel Avery, the father, was chosen the first moderator, and became the first selectman, which responsible position he held for twenty years—nearly up to the time of his death.
On the 5th of February, 1724, Humphrey Avery, (the sixth child of Samuel,) b. July 4, 1699, married Jerusha Morgan, daughter of William and Margaret (Avery) Morgan, and had twelve children, to wit: Humphrey, b. March 10, 1725; William, b. September 13, 1726; Solomon, b. July 17, 1728, who died August, 1728; Solomon, b. June 17, 1729; Samuel, b. October 5, 1731; James, b. August 13, 1733; Jerusha, b. June 7, 1735; Paulina, b. April 3, 1737; Christopher, b. May 3, 1739; Waitstill, b. May 10, 1741; Isaac, b. October 27, 1743; Nathan, b. November 20, 1746.
It was this Waitstill, the tenth child of Humphrey, who, after graduating at Princeton, (Nassan Hall) N. J., in 1766, studied law in Maryland, and moved to North Carolina in 1769, when he entered college at the age of twenty-one, he matriculated as Waightstill, thus changing the spelling of the old Winthrop name. His eldest brother, Humphrey, moved from Groton, where his family and ancestors had lived so many years, to Hempstead, Long Island, where he raised a large family. His brother, Waitstill, sixteen years younger than himself, as well as his youngest brother, Isaac, lived with him in their youth, and were both prepared for college at the select school of the Rev. Samuel Seabury there.
Deacon John Seabury, of Groton, who had married Elizabeth Alden, in 1697, granddaughter of John Alden, of the Mayflower, settled in Groton, 1704, and had a son, Samuel, b. July 8, 1706. The deacon was a cotemporary of Samuel Avery, b. 1664, who was the graudfather of Waightstill, of North Carolina. Alike prominent in Church and State affairs, Avery, the town's first selectman, and Seabury, the first deacon of the church, they were neighbors, friends, and their families were intimate.
Samuel Seabury, b. July 8, 1706, was licensed and preached as a Congregational minister in 1726, at the new church in North Groton. He declared himself a convert to Episcopacy in 1730, and next year went to London and was ordained by the Bishop of London. Returned in 1732, and was rector of the Episcopal church in New London for eleven years. Moved to Hempstead, Long Island, in 1743, where he kept a high school as well as preached until 1764, the year of his death. He it was, undoubtedly; who prepared Waitstill Avery for college, which he entered in 1762.
His son, Samuel, born at Groton 1729, went to England in 1784, where he was consecrated the first Bishop of the Episcopal church in America. On his return he took charge of the church at New London, where he died in 1796. My opinion and belief is that on this trip to England, he was accompanied by his father's pupil, Isaac, youngest brother of Waightstill Avery, who became a rector of that church in Virginia, and who is said to have been ordained in England. He was 21 years old at the time of his old tutor's death, by whom, no doubt, he was educated for the Episcopal ministry; and about 40 when ordained in England.
There is a family tradition in North Carolina that Waightstill graduated at Yale college before going to Princeton, and that he was a tutor there; but his name nowhere appears in the Yale catalogues, and all the dates and circumstances seem to show its incorrectness. If he had graduated at Yale, the fact would be stated in the Princeton, as well as
the Yale catalogues; but nowhere does it so appear.
As the name Waitstill is so historical, it is to be regretted that the master spirit of the Mecklenburg declaration and the patriarch of the North Carolina bar, ever changed the spelling. Still was the name of one of the maternal ancestors of the Winthrops, in England, at Groton manor, and Wait was another, Mrs. Susan (Palmer) Avery had an uncle, Wait Still, who in a matter of record at New London, April 16, 1713, is styled Major General Wait Still Winthrop, the middle name was often omitted in the signature in those early days. Susan named her son, b. March 27, 1708, after her distinguished uncle, and her son Humphrey gave the name to the distinguished North Carolinian. The first James Avery, and Edward Palmer, were distinguished in military and civil life; both were high commanding officers in successful wars with the Indians They had served many years together in the Legislature and upon the bench, and in the early history of New London, they are constantly named together as taking the lead in all public affairs. The families being so-intimate, it is not remarkable that Samuel, the youngest son of James Avery, should have wed Susan, the daughter of Major Palmer, and granddaughter of Governor John Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut.
For this full and satisfactory account of the early history of this family, we are indebted to the unpublished manuscript of J. George Harris, of the United States Navy, residing at Groton, who is a lineal descendant of Christopher Avery, the common ancestor of all the Averys named.
Of this family there were eleven who were massacred at Fort Griswold, at Groton, Connecticut, by the English troops, commanded by that infamous traitor, Benedict Arnold, on the 6th of September, 1781; about 800 troops under his command attacked this fort, defended only by about 160 Americans. After a stout resistance they took it after heavy losses on both sides. Colonel Ledyard, commander of the fort, had ordered his men to cease firing, and stood near the gates prepared to surrender. The British entered; the officer shouted, “who commands this fort?” Colonel Ledyard replied “I did, sir; but you do now,” presenting his sword with its point towards himself. His sword was thrust back through his body and he fell prone on the earth. This was a signal of indiscriminate slaughter, and the British crossed the parade ground in plattoons, firing upon the defenseless garrison, who had grounded their arms. With the bayonet they stabbed the dead and dying. Of the command of 160 they left scarce 20 able to stand; there they in heaps fallen one upon another, as brave a band as fought with Leonidas of Thermopylæ. Of these are “immortal names that were not doomed to die,” and eleven of the name of Avery perished in that most infamous massacre by this demon of destruction.
In a letter from his brother Solomon Avery, of July 11, 1783, a copy of the original is to be found in “Uni. Mag.,” IV, 245, he states:
“Eleven Averys were killed in the fort at Groton, and seven wounded; many Averys have been killed in this war. There has been no Tory named Avery in these parts.”
From such a stock was Waightstill Avery descended.
Waightstill Avery came to North Carolina. He was truly an acquisition to any State. He was a gentleman and a scholar. He graduated at Princeton in 1766, studied law with Littleton Dennis, of the eastern shore of Maryland, and came to North Carolina, entering that province February 4, 1769, obtained a license to practice his profession, through Governor Dobbs, April 5, 1769, and settled in Mecklenburg, at the house of Hezekiah Alexander. His diary is preserved in the “University Magazine,”
vol. IV, p.366, giving a narration of his travels through the State, from which it will be seen that he was welcomed and appreciated by the leading men of the country.
After entering the State, February 4, 1769, having passed the Virginia line he arrived at Edenton, where he became acquainted with Mr. Johnston, then clerk of the court, afterward Governor and judge, and also Joseph Hewes; he passed on to General Allen Jones’ plantation, near the present town of Gaston; thence to Halifax, and arrived at Salisbury on March 2, 1769. Here he met Edmund Fanning, who was a native of the same province, a man of fine address, a scholar, and a lawyer of high attainment, who used every art and blandishment to draw Avery into an alliance with Tryon and the adherents of royalty. A personal friendship grew up, but no political alliance. After traversing every section of the province, from the Albemarle and the Cape Fear to the mountains, we finally find him settled at the house Hezekiah Alexander, who agreed to board him “at the rate of £12 for eight months, making allowance if he should not be there so long in the year.” Here he associated with the patriots of the incipient Revolution, the Alexanders, the Brevards, the Grahams, Davidsons, Polks and others, with whom he cordially sympathized and united in the spirit of liberty and independence that soon pervaded the lovely valleys of the Yadkin and the Catawba.
This period was one of stirring interest. The sentiment of revolution was beginning to rouse the gallant men of that day to arms, and the section where he had located was the first and foremost in the fray. He united with the men of Mecklenburg “in the declaration of independence of the 20th May, 1775, and pledged his life, his fortune, and most sacred honor” to the sacred cause of liberty.
He was elected a member of the Provincial Congress which met at Hillsboro, August 21, 1775, and the next year to the same, which met at Halifax, November 12, 1776. This body formed the State Constitution, in which he rendered important service, and was one of the committee who formed this instrument, so wisely and perfectly formed that under it the State lived for nearly sixty years in prosperity and peace. The next year (1777,) he represented the county of Mecklenburg in the Legislature. William Sharp, Joseph Winston, Robert Lanier, and himself, made a treaty with the Cherokee Indians at the Long Island of the Holstein, “a treaty made without an oath, and one that has never been violated.” On January 12, 1778, he was elected Attorney-General of the State.
July 3, 1779, he was appointed colouel of Jones County, (where he had removed,) in place of Nathan Bryan, resigned, and finding the climate of the low country was impairing his health, he removed, in 1781, to the county of Burke, and settled on a beautiful and fertile estate near Morganton, on the Catawba River.
The year previous (1778,) he had married, near New Berne, Mrs. Leah Frank, widow of Mr. Frank, who lived and died in New Berne, and daughter of William Probart, of Snow Hill, Maryland, a wealthy merchant there, who died on a visit to London.
In 1780, whilst the British occupied Charlotte, under Lord Cornwallis, his office was set on fire, and all his books and papers destroyed. In 1781 he removed to Burke County, and there he resided, in the practice of his profession, until the date of his death, 1821. He represented this county in the Legislature in 1782, ’83, ’84, ’85, ’93, in the House, and in 1796 in the Senate. At the period of his death he was considered “the patriarch of the bar.”
It is doubtful if any one family in this State suffered more severely than did the distinguished and gallant Averys.
Alphonso Calhoun Avery, now one of the Judges of the Superior Court, son of Colonel Isaac T. Avery, resides in Burke County. He is the eldest malesurvivor of this distinguished family. His three elder brothers, Waightstill, Clark, and Isaac J., (as we have recorded.) were killed in the late civil war.
He was born about 1837, liberally educated, graduated at the University in a large class of 70 members in 1857, among whom were B. B. Barnes, John W. Graham, L. M. Jeggitts, Thomas S. Kenan and others. In the proceedings of the commencement, Mr. Avery, then in his sophomore year, received at the hands of Governor Swain a copy of Shakespeare, a prize offered by the professor of rhetoric for the best composition in that class. “Uni. Mag.,” IV, 278.
He studied law, and was just commencing the practice when he obeyed the call of his country to do duty for her defence. He was engaged at the battle of Manassas, where his leader, the gallant Colonel C. F. Fisher, fell, and did noble service under Pender. During the last closing years of the war, he was on the staff of General D. H. Hill.
Since the war he has devoted himself to the practice of his profession, of which he was the pride and ornament, only occasionally interrupted by his election to the Legislature. He was a member of the Senate in 1866 and again 1867, and a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1875.
He was the Democratic elector in the 8th district; and by his ability and exertions did much to insure its success.
He was elected Judge of Superior Courts, which elevated position he holds now. He married Susan, youngest daughter of Rev. Robert A. Morrison, and sister of Mrs. Stonewall Jackson.
William Waightstill Avery was born at Swan Ponds, in Burke County, on the 25th of May, 1816. He was the oldest child of Colonel Isaac T. Avery and Harriet E. Avery. His father was the only son of Waightstill Avery, and his mother was the eldest daughter of William W. Erwin, and a granddaughter of William Sharpe.
There were, during his boyhood, no classical schools in the Piedmont region equal to Bingham and others in the central counties, and on attempting to enter college, in the year 1832, W. W. Avery found that he was not thoroughly prepared in the ancient languages. He remained at Chapel Hill during the vacation and prosecuted his studies under the instruction of the late Dr. Mitchell and Abram Morehead, Esq., then a tutor, and so faithfully did he apply himself that in one year he stood at the head of his class, and graduated with the first honors in 1837 in same class with Perrin Busbee, Peter W. Hairston, Pride Jones and others.
He studied law with Judge Gaston and was licensed to practice in the Superior Courts in 1838.
He was from boyhood an ardent admirer of Mr. Calhoun, and naturally became a States-rights Democrat. He was unsuccessful as a candidate for the Legislature in 1840; but in 1842 was elected as a Democrat from Burke County, though Governor Morehead, the Whig candidate for Governor, carried the county by a very large majority.
He had a large and luerative practice as a lawyer, and did not appear again actively as a politician till the year 1850. In May, 1846, he was married to Corinna M. Morehead, a daughter of the late Governor Morehead. She is still living.
He served afterwards in the House of Commons, as a member from Burke, in 1850 and 1852.
In 1856 he was chairman of the North Carolina delegation in the National Democratic Convention that nominated President Buchanan, and during the same year was elected to
the State Senate, of which body he was chosen Speaker.
In 1858 he was a candidate for Congress, to fill the vacancy made by the appointment of Hon. T. L. Clingman as United States Senator. Colonel David Coleman, who was also a Democrat, opposed him, and after they had canvassed a large portion of the district, Hon. Z. B. Vance announced himself a candidate, and Colonel Coleman withdrew; but the district had given Mr. Buchanan a very small majority, and the dissension was such that Vance was elected.
In 1860, W. W. Avery was again chairman of the North Carolina delegation in the National Convention at Charleston, and seceded with the southern wing of the party that afterwards nominated Mr. Breckenridge. During the same year he was again elected to the State Senate, and declined the nomination for Speaker in favor of his friend H. T. Clark, who become Governor after the death of Governor Ellis. After the election of Mr. Lincoln he was an avowed secessionist, and strongly urged the call of a convention during the winter of 1860 and 1861.
After the State seceded on the 20th of May, 1861, he was elected by the Convention as one of the members from the State at large of the Provisional Congress. He served in that body until the Provisional Government was succeeded by the permanent government, provided for in the Constitution adopted in 1861. He was a member and chairman on the Committee on Military Affairs.
A majority of the Democrats in the Legislature of 1861 voted for Mr. Avery for Senator in the Congress of the Confederate States; but a large minority supported Hon. T. L. Clingman, while the Whigs voted for a candidate from their own party. After balloting for several weeks the friends of the two candidates compromised by electing Hon. W. T. Dortch.
After the expiration of his term in Congress in 1862, he returned to his home with authority from the President to raise a regiment; but was prevented from carrying out his purpose by the earnest protests of his aged father and four brothers, who were already in active service. They insisted that he was beyond the age for service, and it was his duty to his family and country to remain at home.
He was an earnest and active supporter of the Confederate cause, and contributed liberally to the government and for the maintenance of the families of soldiers.
In 1864 an incursion was made by a party of so-called Unionists from Tennessee, commanded by Colonel Kirk, who afterwards gained a very unenviable notoriety in North Carolina. This party, after surprising and capturing a small body of conscripted boys in Burke County, retreated towards Tennessee. Mr. Avery with a body of North Carolina militia pursued the party, and in attacking the retreating forces at a strong position in the mountains, was mortally wounded. He was removed to his home in Morganton, where he died on the 3d day of July, 1864.
In all the relations of life he was distinguished for his kindness and affability, and his unselfish love for the comfort and happiness of others. No man has been more missed and lamented by the community in which he lived, and his aged father, (then in his eightieth year,) went down to his grave sorrowing for the loss of this the third son who had fallen in battle within one year.
For the Genealogy of the Avery family see Appendix.
McDOWELL FAMILY OF BURKE COUNTY.There are no families in the State that have rendered more important service to the State than the McDowells.
Although careful research has been made for years in records of the State, and families,
and by extensive correspondence, yet, in the earlier periods of our history, the want of the facilities of the press, and a carelessness in preserving family records, some obscurity rests on the history of the early founders of this family.
In my “History of North Carolina,” as to this family, it is stated that Charles and Joseph McDowell were brothers, the sons of Joseph, who, with his wife Margaret O'Neal, had emigrated from Ireland, settled in Winchester, Virginia, where Charles and Joseph were born. For authority of these facts, statements were furnished from members of this family and others which were believed. Recent and more thorough examinations make these statements doubtful. A letter from one of the family* to me, states:
“It is singular how inacenrate has been any knowledge as to this family. An investigation, instituted some time ago, with a view of establishing a descent which would lead to the securing of a large estate through Margaret O'Neal, developed the fact, beyond all question, that her husband (the father of General Charles McDowell, and General Joseph,) was named John instead of Joseph, that they married in Ireland, and lived at Quaker Meadows, in Burke County.”
Lanman, in his “Biographical Annals of Congress,” states:
“Joseph McDowell was a Representative in Congress from 1793 to 1795; and again from 1797 to 1799.”
The family tradition and record is, he died in 1795. The first error does not destroy the truth of history that the family were of Irish origin; and the second arises from there being two of the same name of the same family. Every effort and pains have been taken to make the present sketch correct. If any error occurs, the corrections will be gratefully received. In compiling genealogical tables, or pedigrees, great attention is necessary in clearly stating the number of generations, in any given period, as they form a guide to the probability of persons having sprung from any particular ancestor or individual. A generation is the interval between the birth of a father and the birth of son. Thirty-three years have been allowed to a generation, or three generations for every hundred years. The birth and death dates, as well as the location, should be stated, since “chronology and locality are the eyes of history.” The repetition of the same names, without dates or place, creates confusion in our American genealogy, as it has caused in this instance.
John McDowell, called “Hunting John,” who resided at Pleasant Gardens, was one of the early pioneers of Western Carolina. He was, it is believed, a native of Ireland. He and a man by the name of Henry Widener, (many of whose descendants now live in Catawba County, known by the name of Whitener,) came to this country when it was an unbroken wilderness, for the purpose of hunting and securing homes for their families. John McDowell built his house on the west side of the Catawba River, on land now called the Hany Field, a part of the fine body of land well known as “The Pleasant Gardens,” which for fertility of soil, healthfulness of climate and splendor of scenery, cannot be excelled.
The date of his birth, or the time of his settling, or the date of his death, from the loss of family records, cannot be given; but from tradition, he lived in this lovely spot with his wife (Mrs. Annie Edmundston) to a good old age.
He was a famous hunter, and delighted in “trapping,” and to a late period of his life, he could be seen on his way to the mountains, with four large bear traps tied behind him on his horse, with his trusty rifle on his shoulder. On these excursions he would go alone, and be
* Dr. G. W. Michal, of Newton, N. C., to whom I am indebted for much information as to the McDowell family.absent for a month or more, hunting the deer, turkies, and bears, and in silent communion with nature and with nature's God. He realized the exquisite lines of Byron—
Crime came not near him; she is not the childOf solitude. Health shrank not from him,For her home is in the rarely trodden wild;Tall and swift of [illegible text] were they,Beyond the dwafing city's pale abortion,Because their thoughts had never learned to strayOn care or gain; the green woods were their portion,No sinking spirits told them they grew gray,No fashion made them apes of her distortionSimple and civil; and their riflesThe’ very true, were not used for trifles.He left two daughters and one son: Anna, who married William Whitson; Rachel, who married John Carson; and Colonel Joseph McDowell, who was born on 25th February, 1758, at Pleasant Gardens, in Burke County. He was always called “Colonel Joe of the Pleasant Gardens,” to distinguish him from “General Joe of Quaker Meadows.”
He was a soldier and a statesman, and the most distinguished of the name.
He early entered the profession of arms. At the age of 18 he joined General Rutherford in an expedition, in 1776, against the Cherokee Indians, in which he displayed much gallantry and desperate courage. It is known that in a hand-to-hand fight he killed an Indian chief with his sword.
He was active in repressing the Tories, and took part in the battle at Ramsour's Mills, on 20th June, 1780, near Lineolnton, as mentioned by General Graham in eulogistic terms, for his conduct on that occasion, and materially aided in achieving a complete victory over a superior force.
At Cane Creek, in Rutherford County, with General Charles McDowell, he led the militia, chiefly of Burke County, and had a severe skirmish with a strong detachment of Ferguson's army, then stationed at Gilbert Town, and drove them back.
Immediately afterward he aided in measures which eulminated in the glorious victory of King's Mountain.
This was the darkest period of the dubious conflict. Gates was defeated at Camden; Savannah and Charleston surrendered to the British; Sumter, at Fishing Creek, (18th August, 1780;) Cornwallis, in “all the pride and circumstance” of a conqueror, held the undisputed possession of Charlotte and its vicinity.
Ferguson, with strong force, was winning the attachment of the people from liberty to loyalty; while the Tories ravaged the whole country with vindictive fury.
There was not a regular soldier south of Virginia, and every organized force was scattered or disbanded. The time had come, and these brave men felt that they must “do or die.”
Amid all these disastrous circumstances, the patriotic spirits of Cleaveland, Campbell, Sevier, and McDowell did not despair. They determined to attack the forces of Ferguson. They were all of equal rank, and as the troops were in the district of Charles McDowell, he was entitled to the command.
From a manuscript letter of Shelby, in my possession, he says:
“Colonel McDowell was the commanding officer of the district we were in, and had commanded the armies of the militia all the summer before, against the same enemy. He was brave and patriotic, but we considered him too far advanced in life and too inactive to command the enterprise.
“It was decided to send to headquarters for some general officer to command the expedition.
“Colonel McDowell, who had the good of his country more at heart than any title of command, submitted, and stated that he would be the messenger to go to headquarters. He accordingly started immediately, leaving his men under his brother, Major Joseph McDowell.”
The next day Shelby urged that time was precions and delays dangerous. The advance was made. Colonel Joseph McDowell, the subject of our present sketch, led the boys of
Burke and Rutherford Counties to battle and to victory, (7th October, 1780,) and his command was on the right wing of the attacking forces, and aided greatly in insuring victory. Ferguson fell bravely fighting and his army completely routed.
The next important battle in which Colonel Joseph McDowell was engaged was the Cowpens, fought by Morgan and Tarleton on 17th January, 1781, in which he led the North Carolina militia, which terminated in a glorious victory of Morgan, whose name is preserved in gratitude for his services by the county town of Burke.
This ended the military career of our patriotic soldier.
His civil services were equally brilliant; from his elevated character, his acknowledged abilities, and popular address, he was always a favorite with the people. His name is preserved by calling a county for him erected in 1842. He was a member of the House of Commons in 1787 and 1788; also a member of the Convention that met at Hillsboro, 1788, to consider the Constitution of the United States, of which he was the decided opponent, and which was rejected by a majority of 100 votes. He was again elected to the Legislature in 1791 and 1792; in 1793 he was elected to represent this district in the Congress of of the United States.
Of the influence and the popularity of the McDowells there can be no more ample proof than that in 1787, 1788 and 1792 the Senator and both of the members of the House were of this family.
His presence was tall and commanding, of great dignity of demeanor, and of impressive eloquence. Scrupulous in his statements and faithful in all business transactions.
He married Mary, the daughter of George Moffett of Augusta County, Virginia. He died in April, 1795, leaving two sons, John and James, and one daughter, Annie, who married Captain Charles McDowell, of “Quaker Meadows.”
His widow became the second wife of Colonel John Carson, whose first wife was Rachel, daughter of “Hunting John,” of Pleasant Gardens, a sketch of whom we shall present when the McDowells are finished.
John McDowell, son of Colonel Joseph and of Mary Moffett, above, was esteemed a man of superior intellect, and of a retiring and modest disposition, of exemplary purity of life and character. He was averse to public life; yet without any effort on his part, and indeed against his wishes, he was elected a member of the Legislature from Rutherford County in 1820 and 1821.
He married Mary Mansfield Lewis, of Augusta County, Virginia, and lived on Broad River, 14 miles above Rutherfordton, until they moved to the village for the purpose of educating their children.
Their children were Dr. Joseph McDowell; Mary, who married the Rev. W. A. Gamewell; Dr. James McDowell, (Texas;) Nancy; Martha, who married Dr. G. W. Michael, (Newton;) Mira, who married Col. J. M. C. Davis, who fell in the civil war; Sally; John, who was colonel of a regiment in the civil war. His sister Annie, only daughter of Colnel Joseph and Mary Moffett McDowell, married Captain Charles McDowell, son of General Charles, of Quaker Meadows, from which union there were five daughters and one son, namely: Eliza, married Nicholas W. Woodfin; Mary, married, first, General John G. Bynum, and second, Judge R. M. Pearson; Mira, married, first, John Woodfin, second, John Burnett; Margaret, married William McKesson; James, married Julia Manly, killed in battle at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Marye's Heights; colonel of 53d Regiment in civil war.
James McDowell, the second son of Colonel Joseph McDowell that lived to mannood, possessed the esteem of all who knew him.
He was a member of the Senate in the Legislature, from Burke County, in 1832, and filled other offices of trust. Like each one of Colonel Joseph McDowell's children, he was remarkable for his modesty, for his integrity, and his open-handed charity.
He owned the Pleasant Gardens, where he lived until advanced in life. He then moved to Yancey County, where he died. He married Margaret Erwin, and left five children, namely: Dr. Joseph McDowell, Dr. John McDowell, of Burke County; William McDowell, of Asheville; Kate, who married Montraville Patton; Margaret, who married Marcus Erwin.
These are the descendants of the branch of which “Hunting John” was the ancestor.
John McDowell, of Quaker Meadows, was the cousin of “Hunting John,” (Dr. W. A. Michal.) He was one of the pioneers of this region of country, and settled “at Quaker Meadows,” on the Catawba River, about a mile from Morganton. He was a native of Ireland, and married Margaret O'Neal, (the widow of Mr. Greenlee,) by whom he had three sons; Hugh McDowell, General Charles McDowell, Major John McDowell.
Hugh McDowell, son of John and Margaret O'Neal, of Quaker Meadows, left three daughters: Mrs. McGintry, Mrs. McKinsey; Margaret, who married James Murphy, who left one son, John Murphy, who married Margaret Avery, and left three daughters and one son: Margaret, who married Thomas G. Walton; Sarah, who married Alexander F. Gaston, son of Judge Gaston; Harriet, who married William M. Walton; John H. McDowell, who married Clara Patton.
General Charles McDowell, (son of John and Margaret O'Neal, of Quaker Meadows,) born in 1743; died 1815, was probably a native of Ireland. On the commencement of our Revolutionary troubles, he was the commander of an extensive district in his section of country, and was a brave and daring officer.
It was not until the year 1780 that western North Carolina became the field of military operations in the Revolutionary war. After subduing the States of Georgia and South Carolina, the British forces advanced to this State and commenced making demonstrations, McDowell was active in counteracting their movements.
In June, 1780, having been joined by Shelby, Sevier, and Clarke, of Georgia, near Cherokee Ford on Broad River, McDowell determined to attack the British at a strongly fortified post on the Pacolet River, under command of Patrick Moore, which he gallantly performed and compelied him to surrender.
He also attacked the Tories at Musgrove Mill on the Enoree River and routed them.
Many other brilliant affairs in this section marked his energy and efficiency as a soldier. We have recorded the facts of his missing a participation in the battle of King's Mountain.
As the several officers held equal rank, by a council of officers McDowell was dispatched to headquarters, then near Salisbury, to have General Summer or General Davidson, who had been appointed brigadier general in place of General Rutherford, taken prisoner at Gates’ defeat.
This closed his military career. The people of his county were not ungrateful to him for his long and successful military service. He was the Senator from Burke from 1782 to 1788, and he had been also in 1778, and member of the House 1809-’10-’11. He died 31st March, 1815. He married Grace Greenlee, who was distinguished among “the women of the Revolution.” She was a woman of remarkable energy and firmness. Mrs. Ellet has recorded her extraordinary character, and relates that on one occasion some bummers, in the
absence of her husband, plundered her honse. With some few friends she pursued the marauders and compelled them, at the muzzle of a musket, to give up her property. While her husband was secretly making powder in a cave, she aided him, and burnt the charcoal herself. This very powder did good service in the battle of King's Mountain. Previous to her marriage with General Charles McDowell, she was the wife of Captain Bowman, who fell in the battle of Ramsour's mill. She was the daughter of Margaret O'Neal, by Mr. Greenlee, anterior to the union with the father of General Charles McDowell. She had a daughter by this marriage with Captain Bowman, named Mary, who married Colonel William Tate, and who was the mother of Junius Tate, and Louisa, who was the mother of the first Mrs. Z. B. Vance.
She had by General Charles McDowell, three sons and four daughters: Captain Charles McDowell; Athan A.; James R.; Sarah; Eliza Grace, Margaret; Sallie; in whom and in whose descendants, the blood of Grace Greenlee courses. It is curious as well as interesting, to observe the effect of blood. Dr. Rush declared that “the blood of one intelligent woman would redeem three generations of fools.”
This, like the golden thread of Ariadne, is clearly traceable in the genealogy of this family, marking with intellect, beauty, and in enterprise, in clear and definite lines. As Dr. Johnson, in his epituph of Goldsmith, expresses the beautiful idea—
Nil tetiget, quod non ornavit.
Of these Captain Charles McDowell, who was always called “Captain Charles,” owned the homestead of “The Quaker Meadows.” He was a member of the Legislature from Burke County in 1809-’10-’11. He was much resspected; an ardent politician. (For his descendants see sketch of Annie McDowell, whom he married.)
Athan A McDowell served in the Creck war. He was sheriff of Burke County. Senator in the Legislature, 1815. He removed to Henderson County. He married Ann Goodson, the stepdaughter of Colonel William Davenport, of Caldwell County, and left one son, Charles, and one daughter, Louisa, who married Hon. James C. Harper, whose daughter married Hon. Judge Cilly.
James R. McDowell lived a bachelor, and died at the old homestead. He was a very great favorite with all who knew him. He often contended with Hon. Samuel P. Carson in the political field, with alternate success. He was a member of the House in 1817-’18 and ’19, and of the Senate, in 1823-’25.
Sarah married Colonel William Paxton, brother of Judge Paxton; had several children; one of whom married Rev. Brank Merrimon, father of Hon. A. S. Merrimon, United States Senator; Eliza Grace married Stanhope Erwin; Margaret married Colonel William Dickson, whose son was in the Legislature 1842-’44; Sallie; Mrs. Christian.
Major John McDowell, third son of John and Margaret O'Neal, of Quaker Meadows, and brother of General Charles McDowell, lived on Silver Creek, in Burke County, about nine miles from Morganton.
He was a member of the Legislature in 1792-’94.
He had the sad mishap to lose his sons (three,) and a nephew, at the same time, by the burning of his house.
He left two daughters: Margaret, who married Robert McElrath; and Hannah, married John McElrath.
General Joseph McDowell was the son of John and Margaret (of Quaker Meadows,) had the reputation of a brave officer of the Revolution, a soldier and a statesman. We regret that so little is known of his character and services. The aged men of Burke that knew him describe him as being genial in his temper
and benevolent. In appearance he was tall and commanding.
He was a great favorite with the people. He was for eight years successively elected to the House of Commons, 1750 to 1758, and Senator in 1791 to 1795. He was elected a member of Congress in 1797-’99. He married Margaret Moffett, sister of the wife of Colonel Joseph McDowell. He lived on the east side of John's River, about seven miles from Morganton.
One of his sons, Hugh Harvey, resides in Missouri and is the father of Mrs. Governor Parsons.
Another son (Joseph J.,) is a citizen of Ohio, and was elected a member of Congress from Ohio in 1843-’47.
One of his daughters married—Christman, and after his death married Judge Wake, of Kentucky.
THE CARSONS OF BURKE COUNTY.John Carson was the progenitor of this family, so distinguished in the anuals of our State.
He was a native of Ireland, born on 24th day of March, 1752; came to America and settled in Burke County about 1773.
He possessed naturally a powerful intellect, great decision of character, much capacity for business, quick, resolute, impulsive. He was consequently a man of prominent character and of much influence in his county, and for many years its leading magistrate.
In 1805 and 1806 he was a member of the Legislature from Burke County.
He lived on Buck Creek, accumulated a large estate, and raised a large family. He was twice married. His first wife, as before stated, was the daughter of “Hunting” John McDowell, and their children were James, Jason, Joseph McDowell, Rebecca, John, Charles and Sally.
His second wife was the widow of Colonel Joseph McDowell, who was the daughter of George Moffett, of Augusta County, Va., and the sister of Margaret, wife of General Joseph McDowell.
Their children were Samuel Price; William M.; Matilda; George and Jonathan L.
Colonel John Carson died on the 5th of March, 1841.
Joseph McDowell Carson, son of John Carson and Rachel McDowell, his first wife, was distinguished for his integrity and brilliant intellect. He practiced law for many years with eminent success. He much preferred the steady and uniform life of a jurist to the uncertain and fitful career of a politician. Yet he represented his county in the Legislature; in the Commons in 1812, 1813, 1814 and 1835; and in the Senate in 1832, 1836, and 1838, and was a member of the State Convention of 1835, to amend the Constitution. He lived on Green River, in Rutherford County. He married his cousin Rebecca, daughter of James Wilson, and had many descendants; Tench, who married a daughter of Vardy McBee; Rachel, who married Otis; Jason, who married Moore; Margaret; Charles; Joseph McDowell; John; Catherine; James; Milton.
One of his granddaughters, Rebecca, was the wife of the late Washington M. Hardy, librarian of the present House of Representatives, (1879.)
William M. Carson, son of Colonel John Carson, by his second wife, was born December 6, 1801.
He represented Burke County in 1838 and 1840. He had no fondness for political life, but was deservedly very popular, and received nearly a unanimous vote for the Legislature. But having no political aspirations declined public service.
He was twice married, first to Almyra, daughter of Samuel Wilson, of Tennessee; and his second wife was Catherine, the widow of Samuel P. Carson, daughter of James Wilson, of Tennessee. He lived on Buck Creek, in
McDowell County, where he died in the fall of 1862.
But the most distinguished of this family was Samuel P. Carson.
Samuel Price Carson was the eldest son of Colonel John Carson by his last wife, who was the widow of Colonel Joseph McDowell, of the Pleasant Gardens.
He was born in the county of Burke, on the 22d day of January, 1798.
His life, although short, was an eventful one. He entered political life early, and was elected to the State Senate in 1822, and again in 1824. But this was a field much too small for his aspirations. In 1825, he became a candidate for a seat in the United States Congress. His competitors were the Hon. Felix Walker, Hon. Robert B. Vance, and Hon. James Graham.
Mr. Walker was an old man, and had been the member from 1817 to 1823. He seemed highly amused at the idea of Carson's aspiring to such a position. In his final speech he announced Vance and Graham as his competitors, and added, “and I'm told there's a boy from Burke, who wants to be a candidate.”
In their speeches, Vance, who was then Congressman, and Graham made the usual excuses for being candidates. Each had had so many, and such strong solicitations, that he was unable to resist the pressure upon him, and had at last, as a matter of duty, consented to present himself. Carson was not looked upon as being in the way by either, and all their batteries were turned upon Walker. They told the people that at Washington City he boarded out of town, and walked in; and ridiculed the old man without stint or mercy.
Carson, when he took the stand, told the people that all his friends had solicited him not to run, and he was a candidate because he wanted to go to Congress. He treated Mr. Walker with the greatest respect; spoke of him as a Revolutionary soldier, and delivered a handsome enlogy upon him.
As the canvass progressed, it became evident to Vance and Graham, that Carson, although so young, was not only a candidate, but that he possessed talents of a high order, and was winning hosts of friends. The contest became warm, and before the time for the election, Walker, who had been completely won by Carson's kind and considerate treatment, withdrew from the contest and gave him the whole weight of his influence.
This decided the contest, and Carson was elected.
The contest in 1827, between Carson and Vance, terminated in an unhappy manner.
Samuel P. Carson's temperament was such that he could not bear confinement; therefore, slow, plodding study, was out of the question, and regular systematic learning he did not possess. Yet his inquiring mind caused him to read with avidity whatever came to hand, and with powerful perceptive faculties, and a remarkably tenacious memory, he understood his subject at a glance, and whatever he read he retained, consequently he was a well-informed man.
Fond of merriment, with a genial, social disposition, and possessing great wit, he was a delightful companion, and “the soul” of every social circle which he entered.
A great judge of human nature, he could adapt himself to every one; and with the most captivating manners he won all whom he met. Generous to a fault, a man so endowed could not be otherwise than immensely popular with the people. And, with a superior intellect, fine conversational powers, a chivalrous sense of honor, and devoted attachment to his friends, he was as much sought by the great as by the more humble.
Perhaps no man ever possessed warmer or more devoted friends.
As a speaker he was argumentative, and his
powers of analysis were very great, enabling him to make his subject plain to the most simple. At times, not often, he would illustrate a point with anecdote, and always with effect. He had great command of language, possessed a powerful imagination, and a charming voice. Perfectly free from affectation, self-possessed, with a manner dignified, easy, and graceful, he had the power of swaying the feelings of the crowd at will, and often held his hearers, as if spell-bound, by his eloquence. He was indeed an orator.
He was said to be the best impromptu speaker in Congress.
The next event to be noticed in this sketch, is one which could not but have saddened the whole after life of a man possessing the kind, warm heart, and benevolent feelings of Samuel P. Carson.
In that day, duelling was sustained by public sentiment, and it being ruinous to character to decline a challenge, or to neglect to send one, under proper provocation, it was a common thing, particularly among gentlemen in political life.
Dr. Robert B. Vance, Carson's rival before the people, and his competitor in the last two elections for Congress, was a man of brilliant talents, and possessed many noble traits of character. He was very popular with the people; and Carson's own personal friends esteemed him highly.
Unfortunately, passions aroused in political contests became morbid with him, and he was led by them to provoke a challenge in such a way that Carson could not decline to send it; this was by an insult to his father. The challenge was promptly accepted. They met at Saluda Gap, on the South Carolina State line.
Carson was accompanied to the field by the Hon. David Crockett, and other friends. He shrank from the idea of taking Vance's life; and, perfectly cool and self-possessed, before taking his position he told his second, the Hon. Warren R. Davis, of South Carolina, that he did not intend to kill him; that he could hit him anywhere he pleased, (Carson was a remarkably good shot with a pistol,) and that he intended only to wound him. Davis replied to him that — Vance had come there to kill him; that if he only wounded him, another meeting would be the result, and if he did not promise to try to kill him, that he (Davis) could not be a party in the affair, and that he must seek another second. This had its influence on the mind of his principal, and a tragic effect.
Their positions were taken; the word was given, and Vance fell to die in a few hours.
Carson, like Hamilton, was very much averse to duelling, and although on two occasions afterwards, he agreed to act as second in affairs of honor, he only accepted the position in each instance with the hope and for the purpose of effecting an amicable adjustment of the difficulty, and in both instances he succeeded.
In one of these, a strong and decided political opponent of Samuel P. Carson, evinced his appreciation of the man by calling on him to act as his second in a difficulty with one who was both a political and personal friend of Carson. The parties alluded to were the Hon. David F. Caldwell and the Hon. Charles Fisher, of Salisbury. In the other, he acted as second to Governor Branch, of North Carolina, in a difficulty with Governor Forsyth, of Georgia; Archer, of Virginia, being the friend of the latter.
General Jackson was elected President of the United States in the fall of 1828, and on the 4th of March, 1829, commenced an administration which will ever be memorable in the anuals of the country.
In that year Carson was re-elected to Congress. He and General Jackson belonged to the same political party, and a warm and intimate personal friendship grew up between
them, which was destined to be tried by political dissensions that divided parties, alienated friends, and came very near dissolving the bonds of the Union itself.
Leading statesmen of the South considered high rates of tariff upon foreign importations as destructive to the interests of the non-manufacturing States. They regarded it as exceedingly unjust on the part of the General Government to institute such a policy. They conceived that no such imposition is authorized by the Constitution of the United States, and that any act of Congress, providing for the collection of excessive duties, is in violation of the true intent and meaning of that instrument, and is therefore “null and void, and no law.”
Those who entertained these views regarded the cause in the fundamental law which acknowledges that all powers not delegated to the General Government are reserved to the States as one of the greatest importance; and that on its faithful observance depends the growth, development and welfare of the individual States, and the perpetuity of the Union.
In 1824, a vehement but ineffectual opposition was made in Congress to a protective tariff bill; and when that body passed a law increasing the rates of duty, as was done in 1828, the whole country became profoundly agitated. The delegation in Congress from South Carolina held a meeting, and discussed the question of resigning their seats; and also the question of declaring the law to be void, and of no effect within the State.
Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and other Southern States passed resolutions in their respective Legislatures, exhibiting their extreme opposition to the measure; and every where throughout the South there were indications of imminent danger of a disruption of the Union.
In neither of the States, however, was there such unanimity among the friends of nullification as to make it prudent, in their judgment, to attempt to put it into practical effect.
The change, too, in the administration led them to expect a satisfactory modification of the obnoxious law; and during the summer of 1829 their efforts were directed towards influencing the public mind in opposition to it.
The opponents of the administration had a decided majority in Congress, and the President vetoed several bills that had been passed by that body, which were antagonistie to the views of the States Rights party; and for some time there was no open breach between General Jackson and his party friends, and to all appearances they were in harmony. But various disturbing elements were in existence and influences were at work which, by the end of the second session of the 21st Congress, the beginning of 1831, indicated plainly that there was a division among the friends of the administration.
In the election for members of Congress in 1831, Mr. Carson was again elected.
In the Presidential election which took place in 1832, the ultra States Rights men having lost confidence in General Jackson, refused to support him, and there were different parties, some of which possessed great strength, in opposition to him; but the elements of opposition were too incongruous to admit of any union between them, and General Jackson was re-elected.
Never had there been questions presented to the country which involved such interests.
On the 27th of November, of the same year, the Convention of South Carolina met, and soon after the Act of Nullification was passed.
Everywhere the feelings of the people were wrought up to the highest pitch of excitement. Passions were aroused in many places, almost to a state of frenzy, and to all appearances civil war was inevitable.
Congress met, and by a modification of the tariff, oil was poured upon the troubled waters. Soon all warlike demonstrations ceased, but still bitterness rankled in the bosoms of many.
Samuel P. Carson believed that the doctrine of States Rights contained a vital principle in our Government, and was, therefore, one of its warmest advocates. A large majority of the people of his district regarded the preservation of the Union paramount to every other blessing, and at the Congressional election which took place in 1833, he was defeated by the Hon. James Graham.
But Mr. Carson had lost his health, and was not able to canvass his district.
He never appeared before the people of his district again.
Mr. Carson knew the strength of General Jackson's prejudices, and the vigor of his temper, and being a very warm personal friend, felt anxious to know what his feelings towards him were after the change in their political relations.
Therefore, upon meeting General Jackson's brother-in-law, immediately after returning to Washington, he inquired what the General's feelings toward him were. He replied: “They always were to be of the kindest sort, he is found of your company; that he does not dislike you or Sam Houston.”
There never seemed the slightest abatement in the warmth of his feelings for Carson. His invitations to him were just as frequent as ever; their friendly and social relations were never disturbed in the slightest degree. When in Washington City Mr. Carson was a general favorite among the members of Congress, their relations were very kind, and his intercourse with them was very pleasant.
A coolness occurred between him and the great Daniel Webster, which prevented them from speaking to each other for three or four years. It was terminated however, and in a manner which shows the kindly impulsive nature of Mr. Carson. At a large public ball, Mr. Carson in turning saw Mr. Webster, who was standing with his arms folded in rather an abstracted manner. Giving way to the impulse of the moment, he immediately advanced to him with his hand extended, and said, in his usual hearty manner, “How do you do, sir?” Mr. Webster grasped his hand most cordially and exclaimed: “Carson, I always liked you, I knew you to be an honest man.” And they were friends ever after.
Mr. Carson continued feeble; and indeed, he never regained his health. He passed his time in the quiet enjoyment of the society of his friends, until the year 1835, when he resolved to remove to Texas—then struggling under the oppressions of Mexico. In that year he visited that country for the purpose of selecting a home; and when he returned, he could not but have been gratified at the striking evidence which the people of his native county had given of their confidence in him, and their high esteem. They had elected, him, during his absence, as their member of the State Convention, which was held that year, 1835. He accepted the position, and discharged the duties with fidelity and acceptability. In the fall of 1836, he removed with his family to the county which he had selected; and the same year was elected member of the Convention of Texas, of which General David G. Burnett was President, and which created the Republic.
This was a dark and gloomy hour. Gladly did Texas welcome such a man as Samuel P. Carson. In the organization he was made Secretary of State; and it was owing to his intimate acquaintance and personal popularity with the public men of the United States he was sent to Washington City to intercede for the recognition of the Republic among the nations of the earth.
At this time the whole civilized world was
shocked at the horrible massacre of Alamo, and sympathized with Texas, struggling against the immense armies which Mexico had hurled upon her. Her destruction seemed inevitable. Under these circumstances, recognition was out of the question. But when Texas, on the field of San Jacinto, had scattered the hosts of Mexico, and made manifest her ability to maintain herself against that power, recognition by the United States came, and Mr. Carson, without doubt, did much towards preparing this country for it.
He was not able much longer to discharge the active duties of life.
His wife was Catherine, a daughter of James Wilson, of Tennessee, to whom he was married on the 10th day of May, 1831. With her and his little daughter, to whom he was devoted, he spent the most of the remainder of his life.
He died at Little Rock, Arkansas, in November, 1840, leaving one daughter, who is the wife of Dr. J. McD. Whitson, of Talladega, Alabama, a great grandson of “Hunting” John McDowell.
But Carson was never the same man after the affair which terminated in the death of the fearless and talented Vance, the uncle of the Governor and General Vance, as he was before the tragic event. From a ruddy and robust complexion, his countenance so expressive of genius and good humor, a frame active and buoyant, in his pallid cheek, his sunken eye, and tottering step, he showed the deep pangs and ravages of remorse. As expressed by Home, in Douglas:
Happy in my mind was he that died,For many deaths has the survivor suffered;In the wild desert on a rock he sits,Or on some nameless stream's untrodden banks,And ruminates all day on his unhappy fate.At times alas! not in his perfect mind,Holds secret converse with his departed friend,And oft at night forsakes his restless couch.To make sad orizons for him he slew.For the above sketch, and for most of the material as to the McDowell family, I must again express my thanks to Dr. Michal.
Israel Pickens represented Burke County in the Senate in 1808 and 1809, with Isaac T. Avery and Charles McDowell as colleagues the latter year.
He was a native of Mecklenburg County, of that part now Cabarrus; born 30th January, 1780.
He was the son of Samuel Pickens, who done good service in the Revolutionary war against the British and Tories.
He was educated in Iredell County, and finished his education at Washington College, Pennsylvania, where he also completed his law studies. He was licensed to plead, and settled in Morganton.
He was the Representative in Congress from this district in 1811 to 1817, and was succeeded by Hon. Felix Walker.
He voted for the war of 1812, and was a firm supporter of Madison.
In 1817 he removed to Alabama, and settled at St. Stevens, and was appointed by the President, Register of the Land Office. On the death of Governor Bibb, he was elected, in 1821, Governor of that State, and again in 1823; and in 1826, on the death of Dr. Chalmers, he was appointed Senator in Congress from Alabama.
He was appointed United States Judge for Alabama, which he declined to accept. In the fall of 1826, in consequence of a serious affection of the lungs, he resigned his seat in the Senate; he repaired to Cuba, hoping that his health would be restored by the mild climate, where he died 24th April, 1827.*
David Newland was a native of Burke County, and represented the county in 1825-’27 and ’28 in the Commons, and in 1830 in the Senate. In 1832 he was a candidate for Congress against Hon. James Graham, and
* Pickett's Alabama, II, 432.believed that he was fairly elected. It was nearly a tie in the popular vote, and Graham's seat was contested by him. The House, unable or unwilling to decide, referred the election back to the people, and Graham was elected.
He immigrated to Wisconsin, and was so successful in politics that he was elected to the Legislature, and on several occasions was chosen Speaker. But broken down in fortune and health and hopes, he went to Washington City, where he engaged in “the wild hunt for office.” After fruitless attempts, failing to obtain any position, however menial, he sunk in despair, and on 20th December, 1857, his body was found in the Tiber. He had committed suicide.
—Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him. Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, and most excellent humor.
Todd R. Caldwell was born in Morganton, February 19, 1818. His father, John Caldwell, was a native of Ireland; settled in Morganton in 1800, and became a leading merchant in that place.
He was well educated, and graduated at the University, 1840, in a large class, with such men as Judge Barnes, Judge Shipp, John W. Cunningham, William Johnston, and others, with honor. He read law with Governor Swain, and was admitted to the bar in 1840, and soon attained an extensive practice.
He entered the arena of politics in 1842, and continued in its exciting pursuit as long as he lived. He was an old Line Whig of the strictest sense.
In 1848 he was one of the electors, and cast the vote of the State for Taylor and Filmore. On the breaking out of the civil war, he was the friend of the Union and the foe of secession.
In 1865, he was elected a delegate to the first State Convention that met after the war. In 1868 he was nominated as Lieutenant-Governor on same ticket with Governor Holden, and was elected. On deposition of Governor Holden, in 1871, he succeeded him as Governor.
As a criminal lawyer he had much reputation; and as a politician, much success, rarely failing in an election before the people. In 1872 he was nominated as Governor, and opposed by Judge Merrimon. After a heated canvass he was elected.
He married the eldest daughter of William Cain, and niece of late Judge Ruffin. He died, after a short illness, at Hillsboro, on the 11th February, 1874, and was succeeded as Governor by Hon. C. A. Brogden, of Wayne County.
R. C. Pearson was one of the most useful and patriotic citizens of Burke County, where he was born, lived and died.
He was an honest and intelligent merchant, a skillful financier (president of the branch bank of the State,) and one of the most earnest friends of internal improvements in the State. From the day he organized the first stockholders’ meeting in 1855, at Salisbury, of the Western, N. C., Railroad, and through the weary years that followed, he was the stay and backbone of the belt of counties between Rowan and Buncombe. What Morehead was to the Central, so was Pearson to the Western Railroad.
But it was in private life, as a friend and a neighbor, that the traits of his real character were most conspicuous. During the long and bloody civil war, although firm in his devotion to his native land and people, his house and his heart was open to all Confederate wounded soldiers, and an asylum for their widows and orphans. His death caused a deeper sorrow than was ever evinced in our community, and his memory—
—Sleeps in blessings,And has a tomb of orphan tears,Wept over him.He left several children to imitate his example and emulate his virtues.
CHAPTER IX.CABARRUS COUNTY.
Cabarrus County, during the Revolution and before a part of Mecklenburg, showed early resistance to the powers and oppressions of its rulers. The people lost no opportunity of opposing the Royal Government.
I found, in the London Rolls Office, the list of persons who were concerned in destroying the ammunition intended for Governor Tryon's army, en route from Charleston to Salisbury, in 1771, inclosed in a dispatch from Governor Martin; and they are preserved, as many of the descendants of these bold and patriotic men still reside in this section, as follows:
James Ashmore; Benjamin Cochran; Robert Caruthers; Robert Davis; Joshua Hadley; John White; James White; William White, Jr.
We present a name worthy of respect and remembrance. Our pages have been hitherto devoted to the soldier and statesman, but we now dwell upon one who stamped upon his day and generation, as a divine, a character worthy of all Grecian or Roman fame.
Rev. John Robinson, D. D.,* was in all respects one of the highest type of men in mind and manners; resplendent in purity and usefulness of his life; peerless in consecrated genius; like Masselon, he was truly the Legate of the Skies. He was born in this county, near Sugar Creek Church, and received his academic education from Mr. Archibald, and completed it at Winnsboro, South Carolina. He was licensed to preach in 1793, and became one of the most popular and acceptable ministers of the Presbyterian faith; he taught school for many years, and some of the first minds of the country were developed by his learning and assiduity.† These have adorned every station of life; in testimony of their grateful appreciation of his services, his pupils built a handsome monument, on which is a beautiful inscription appropriate to his character. And although an ordinary life has elapsed since his decease, his memory is still cherished by many with affection.
He married Mary Baldwin, whose lovely character did much to temper the ardent enthusiasm of her husband. Only four children reached maturity, two sons and two daughters. His eldest, Samuel, was adventurous and daring in temper. He participated in the South American and Turkish-Grecian struggles, and attained command of a splendid ship, which was lost at sea in February, 1843, with all on board.
Connected with Cabarrus County and the church is the name of Rev. Hezekiah James Balch, who was born at Deer Creek, Harford County, Maryland, in 1748. He was a gifted divine and a finished scholar. He graduated at Princeton in 1766, in the same class with Waighstill Avery, Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, Luther Martin, of Maryland, and others. He came to North Carolina in 1769. He was the first pastor of Poplar Tent Church, and remained so until his death. He combined in his character unspotted piety, enthusiasm, and firmness. He was earnest and patriotic in the cause of liberty; and took an active part with the men of Mecklenburg, to which Cabarrus then belonged, in the convention that declared Independence on the 20th of May, 1775. He did not, however, live to see the warmest wish of his heart gratified, the independence of his country, for which he was ready to give up his life. He died in 1776.
In the ancient graveyard of the venerable Poplar Tent Church, stands a mosscovered
* Historical sketch of Poplar Tent Church, by Wm. S. Harris.† As Governors Owen, Pickens, Murphy, and Hon. Charles Fisher, D. M. Barringer, Col. Daniel Coleman and others.covered monument which bears this inscription—
Beneath this marbleare the mortal remains ofHezekiah James Balch.first pastor of Poplar Tent Congregation, and one of the original members of the Orange Presbytery. He was licensed a preacher of the Everlasting Gospel of the Presbytery of Donegal in 1766, and rested from his labours in A. D. 1776; having been Pastor of the United Congregations of Poplar Tent and Rocky River about seven years.
He was distinguished as one of a Committee of three who prepared the Declaration of Independence; and his eloquence, the more effectual from his acknowledged wisdom, purity of motive, and dignity of character, contributed much to the unanimous adoption of that instrument on 20th May, 1775.
Yet there are some few of modern times who alleged that no such convention ever occurred.
THE PHIFER FAMILY.The ancestor of this large family, Martin Phifer, (or Pfifer,) was a native of Switzerland, and emigrated to America; went first to Pennsylvania, and afterwards came to North Carolina, with the current of German, Irish and Scotch, and settled in the then Mecklenburg County. He was much respected for his industry, frugality, and sound sense. He was elected in 1777 a member of the Legislature from Mecklenburg, with Waightstill Avery as a colleague in the Commons, and John McKnitt Alexander in the Senate. He married Margaret Blackwelder. He died in 1789, leaving three sons.
For the Genealogy of the Phifer Family, see Appendix.
The genealogical table has been carefully compiled, and it is believed to be accurate. It embraces three generations and can be extended. It presents the members of a large family, many of whom are distinguished for their services and talents, and all for their sterling virtues and exemplary characters. The services of John Phifer, son of Martin and Margaret Blackwelder, in the war of the Revolution, and in the Councils of the State, deserve a perpetual remembrance; as also those of General John Phifer, (son of Martin and Betsy Locke.) He was a useful man, of decision of character, patriotic and enterprising. He often represented Cabarrus in the Legislature from 1803 to 1815, and wielded great influence in public affairs. He was an educated man; graduated at the University in 1799, and died on the 18th October, 1845, near Concord.*
THE FAMILY OF BARRINGERS OF CABARRUS.
John Paul Barringer, (or as he wrote his name, Paul Barringer,) the founder of the family in North Carolina, was born in Wurtemburg, in Germany, on 4th of June, 1721. He settled first in Pennsylvania, and afterwards in Cabarrus, then Mecklenburg, about 1750.
When the Revolution broke out, he took a decided stand with the oppressed people of his State, and from his devotion to their cause, he suffered severely, for he was taken prisoner by the Tories, and carried to South Carolina.
He was elected a member of the Legislature, the first from Cabarrus after its division from Mecklenburg in 1793, and was a prominent and influential citizen to the day of his death, which occurred on 1st January, 1807. He married, first, Ann Elizabeth Iseman; and second, Catherine Blackwelder, by whom he had several children, viz:
Daniel L. Barringer, born in Mecklenburg County, October 1st, 1788, studied law, and settled at Raleigh. He was elected a member of the House of Commons from Wake County, 1813-’19-’21; and a member of Congress from 1826 to 1835.
He removed to Tennessee, and was one of the Presidential electors in 1844, voting for Mr. Clay. He was the Speaker of the House of Representatives of that State. He married
* Much of the material of the sketch of the Phifers has been gathered from correspondence, and from an excellent article in North Carolina University Magazine (Vol. V, p. 418, November, 1856,) entitled A memoir of Colonel John Phifer.Miss White, sister of Mrs. D. L. Swain. He died October 16th, 1852.
General Paul Barringer, the eldest son by a second marriage, was born 1778. He received a good English education, and was distinguished for his business habits and his strong practical sense. He was a member of the House of Commons from 1806 to 1815, and in 1822 in the Senate of the Legislature.
He married a second time, Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew Brandon, of Rowan, whose family are distinguished for their abilities, patriotism and love of independence.
Matthew Branden was a soldier of the Revolution, and was with General Joseph Graham and Colonel Locke in opposing the advance of the British near Charlotte, when Graham was severely wounded and Locke killed. His relative, William Brandon, was a lieutenant in the Continental army, and was the first child born south of the Yadkin. He died in Tennessee in 1836, aged ninety-nine years.
General Barringer died at Lincolnton on June 20th, 1844, and his wife followed him soon after, (in November of the same year.)
For Genealogy of the Barringer family, see Appendix.
Nathaniel Alexander was a native of this county when yet a portion of Mecklenburg. His early education was commenced in a humble log cabin at Poplar Tent, near his paternal mansion, the Morehead Place, thence he went to Princeton, where he graduated in 1776. He studied medicine, and was a successful physician.
He represented Mecklenburg in the House of Commons in 1797, and in the Senate in 1802. In 1803 he was elected a member of the 8th Congress, 1803-’05. In 1805 he was elected Governor of the State, and served till his death, 8th March, 1808. He married a daughter of Colonel Thos. Polk. His remains lie in the Presbyterian church yard at Charlotte.
Colonel George Alexander and Major Thos. Harris were natives of Cabarrus and officers of the Continental line. They both were brave and true—fought under the eye of Washington at Monmouth and Trenton and in the battle of Camden, where both were taken prisoners and Harris severely wounded.*
Dr. Charles Harris was born in 1763; while but a youth pursuing his studies in Charlotte, he joined the corps of cavalry under General W. R. Davie, and rendered good service under that brave and daring officer. After the war was over he resumed his studies, and he finished his classical as well as his medical study in Philadelphia, under the charge of that eminent professor, Benjamin Rush. On his return he settled first in Salisbury, and practised with great success. He then moved to Cabarrus, where he lived a long and useful life, and died in 1825.
He established a medical school, and was eminent as a physician and surgeon.
His school was well patronized for more than forty years; perhaps the only one ever established in the State. Among his pupils were Dr. Charles Caldwell, formerly a Professor in Transylvania University, Louisville, Kentucky, Dr. Robert McKensie, and Dr. Robert B. Vance, member of Congress from Asheville.
His son, William Shakespeare Harris, was much esteemed for his talents and worth. He represented Cabarrus in 1840.
Robert Simonton Young was a distinguished, useful and exemplary citizen of this county. Active and patriotic, he was much esteemed. He was an officer in the Confederate Army, and fell in battle near Petersburg, in 1864.
He married first a daughter of John Phifer; second, a daughter of A. M. Burton. No nobier offering was ever laid on the altar of public service.
* MSS. letters of Wm. S. Harris.Daniel Coleman, (born 28th March, 1799,) was born in Rowan County; moved to Cabarrus in 1823.
Educated at Rocky River Academy, conducted by Dr. J. M. Wilson, father of J. Harvey Wilson, of Charlotte, and finished under Dr. John Robinson, at Poplar Tent, 1823, and the latter part of this year settled at Concord.
In the Spring following he was elected Clerk of the County Court, and served till 1828. Read law with Judge David F. Caldwell, and was licensed to practice. In 1830 to ’33 he was engrossing clerk, and 1834-’35, reading clerk of the State Senate.
In 1836 he was appointed Third Assistant Postmaster-General under Amos Kendall, and served till May, 1841.
He returned home and resumed his practice at the bar, and in 1848, was elected by the Legislature, Solicitor of the Sixth Judicial District. After serving for four years he retired from the practice, and engaged in construction, with Dr. E. R. Gibson, of the North Carolina Railroad. Appointed to office in the Treasury, in 1871, which position he held until the time of his demise.
He married Maria, daughter of John E. Mahan, of Concord, and had two sons, William M., late Attorney General of North Carolina, and Daniel Raymond, who is now a teacher in the Deaf and Dumb Institution, at city of Belville, Province of Ontario, Canada.
J. McCalib Wiley was born in Cabarrus County, in 1806; removed to Bibb County, Alabama, 1836; served in the army in the war with Mexico; member of Board of Visitors to West Point; elected Judge of the Eighth Circuit of Alabama 1865; elected member of 39th Congress, and in 1871, again elected judge.
CALDWELL COUNTY.Caldwell County has no Revolutionary worthies to present, having been formed in 1841, from the counties of Burke and Wilkes. But she presents a number of names worthy of regard.
Samuel F. Patterson lived and died in this county. He was highly esteemed, and filled many positions of much responsibility with integrity and honor. As a financier he had few superiors. He was, in 1836, Treasurer of the State, and President of the Baleigh and Gaston Railroad. He was averse to popular promotions, but was elected to the Senate of the State Legislature in 1864.
He married a daughter of General Edmund Jones, long a member of the Legislature from Wilkes, and universally respected for his probity and intelligence. His son, Rufus L. Patterson, worthily enjoyed the regard and respect of his country. He died recently, much regretted.
James C. Harper, who represented the district in 42d Congress (1871-’73;) resides in this county. He is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Cumberland County, 6th December, 1819; raised in Ohio on a farm, and settled in this county in 1840, which he represented in the Legislature in 1866 and 1868. He in Congress, as in the Legislature, was distinguished for his close and faithful attention to his duties, never in the way in obstructing useful legislation, and never out of the way in opposing wild and extravagant measures.
He married Louisa, daughter of Athan McDowell, and the granddaughter of General Charles and Grace Greenlee McDowell. The
patriotic character of Grace Greenlee has already been alluded to.
One of Mr. Harper's daughters, Emma, married Clinton A. Cilly, who was, in 1868, one of the Judges of the Superior Courts of North Carolina. Judge Cilly is a native of New Hampshire, and was an officer in the army of the United States during the whole war. He is a nephew of the Hon. Jonathan Cilly, a distinguished member of Congress, who fell February 24, 1838, at Bladensburg, Maryland, in a duel with William J. Graves, of Kentucky.
Judge Cilly, having settled since the war in North Carolina, is a standing reproof to the idea that meritorious men of northern birth are not welcome to the State, and an evidence that North Carolina appreciates and elevates integrity and talent wherever found.
George Nathaniel Folk resides at Lenoir, Caldwell County. He is a native of Isle of Wight County, Virginia; born in February, 1831. He removed to Watanga County in 1852, and represented that county in 1856 and 1861. He entered the Confederate army and served two years in the 1st Regiment North Carolina Cavalry, and was promoted to a coloneley of the 6th North Carolina Cavalry. Wounded at the battles of Chickamanga, Vine Vine, and in East Tennessee. He removed to Lenoir in 1866, and represented that district in the Legislature in 1876. He is esteemed as an able lawyer, and was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
CAMDEN COUNTY.General Isaac Gregory was born, lived and died in this county. He was a brave and patriotic officer in the Revolutionary army, and did some service in the cause of Independence. He was one of the Committee of Safety in 1776 for the Edenton district, and by the Provincial Congress that met at Halifax, April 4, 1776, he was appointed one of the field officers of one of the regiments of Pasquotank, of which Camden was then a part.* He commanded a brigade of State troops at the ill-fated battle of Camden, and was wounded severely. But he was more of a politician than a soldier. He was the first Senator from Camden County in the Legislature, 1778, in which he was continued, with some intermission, until 1796.
We regret our material is so scant of the services and the character of General Gregory. He left a son, General William Gregory, that that many recollect, who was remarkable for style of dress and fine equipage, which won for him the sobriquet of “Bean Gregory.” His resemblance to General LaFayette was a subject of remark by all who knew them both.
He was fond of gay life and pleasure, but not of labor, either mental or physical. He was a member of the Legislature from Pasquotank in 1828. Sheriff for some years, and postmaster at Elizabeth City.
Dempsey Burgess, who resided and died in this county, was also one of the field officers appointed lieutenant-colonel with General Gregory. He succeeded William Johnson Dawson as a member of Congress 1795 and 1797, and re-elected in 1797 and 1799.
His brother-in-law, Lemuel Sawyer, born 1777, died 1852, was one of the most eccentric men and successful politicians who entered public life about this time. He was elected a member of the Legislature in 1800.
* Autobiography of Lemuel Sawyer, page 7.He belonged to a large and distinguished family. His brother Enoch was the first collector of the customs, appointed in 1791 by Washington, and filled this responsible office till his death, in 1827.
He was born in Camden County in 1777. He was educated at Flatbrush Academy, on Long Island, under charge of Dr. Peter Wilson, with such distinguished associates as Williamand John Duer, Troop and Telfair, of Georgia. He studied law, but never made the profession his object in life. He preferred the giddy pursuits of politics and of pleasure. After serving a session in the Legislature, he was elected one of the electors in 1804 for President, and voted for Jefferson, to whose principles and politics he was a constant follower.
On the retiring of General Thomas Wynns, of Hertford County, from Congress in 1807, Mr. Sawyer was elected to the 13th Congress over William H. Murfree, and from that date to 1829 (with but few intermissions,) he was re-elected by the people over the most prominent and powerful opponents; among them were Mr. Murfree, Governor Iredell and others.
What was the secret of this extraordinary success of twenty years’ service it is difficult to conjecture, for he was not gifted as a speaker; he was negligent of his duties, often a whole session passing without his appearing a single day in his seat; eccentric in his conduct and private life, if not disreputable in some instances, as he himself confesses in his autobiography. Doubtless his principles, as his votes and his speeches in Congress show, were of the straightest sect of Democracy, and stern advocate of the rights of States. He commenced his political career by voting for Jefferson, and ended it by advocating Jackson, Van Buren and Polk.
He had a great fondness for literature, and wrote “The Life of John Randolph,” his own biography, “Black Beard,” and other productions. His easy disposition, his liberality, and his social eccentricities, while they made him many friends, brought him, at the close of life, to suffering, if not to want. His life was prolonged beyond its usefulness, if he ever was useful in any capacity.
His latter days were spent in Washington City. He was another of the many instances of persons who, charmed in more prosperous days by the glamor of this gay metropolis, feel, as did Madame Maintenon, that “there were a hundred gates by which one may enter Paris, but only one by which you should leave it.” This he realized, for he died 1852, aged 75, in Washington, where he had eked out a precarious existence from the salary of a small office in one of the departments.*
His autobiography draws the last melancholy scene of his life, which, in his own language—
“I have drained the bitter cup of existence to the dregs. I have no earthly object to live for; nor have I the means to do so with that comfort and case which alone can reconcile superannuated infirmity.”
His nephew, Samuel T. Sawyer, lived in Edenton, son of Dr. Matthias E. Sawyer. He was a lawyer by profession; often in the Legislature (1829 to ’32, and in Senate, 1834,) and elected to Congress 1837-’39.
He was appointed by Mr. Pierce collector of Norfolk; he became the editor of the Argus, and served as commissary in the late civil war. He died in New Jersey, 29th November, 1865, aged 65 years.†
* From National Intelligencer, of 10th January, 1852: DIED.—Suddenly, on Friday, 9th January, 1852, at the residence of G. R. Adams, 11th street, near F, (in Washington City,) of a disease of the heart, Hon. Lemuel Sawyer, for many years a member of Congress from North Carolina.† Lauman's Biographical Annals.CHAPTER X.CARTERET COUNTY.
THIS county has the honor of being the first land sighted by the expedition sent out under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh to this continent. Two ships, one called “the Tiger,” and the other “the Admiral,” commanded by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, after entering the Ocracocke Inlet, sailed up the sound, and landed on Roanoke Island, now in Dare County, in July, 1584.
The patent from Queen Elizabeth to Sir Walter Raleigh, as well as the report of the officers, is recorded in Hakluyt's Voyages, III., 301.
No people have a clearer, and more perfect record of history than the people of our state. From this time to the present, it is preserved in veritable and intelligible language.
No fabled fugitives from justice, no Norman tyrant with force of arms, no Pizarro bent on spoil and plunder, formed the first civilized settlement of our country; but “men, highminded men,” under the peaceful commission of lawful authority, and with the cordial consent of the native inhabitants of the country,
“—were the first that ever burstInto that silent sea.”What a proud record for our contemplation and pride!
Connected with the name of Carteret, is a tradition that this was the refuge of the colony of White, who was the Governor of Roanoke Island In the year 1590, he returned to Carolina, after a visit in England of over a year's duration, but his colony had disappeared.
White only discovered the word “Croaton” carved on the bark of a tree. Doubtless they had become amalgamated with the native Indians, for some of these had blue eyes, and said “their parents could read from a book;” and there are names extant in Carteret correspounding with the names of White's colony.*
Subsequently (1712,) the Indians, especially the Cores and Tuscaroras, waged a bloody and destructive war upon the whites in this region. Much property and many lives were destroyed, among them, John Lawson, the earliest historian of the state. His work was published in London in 1709, and is considered as good authority, giving the best description of North Carolina, its products and natural history.
Lawson's book has been so highly appreciated, that the legislature ordered it be reprinted. The original copies are very rare.
He gives a particular account of the manners and customs of the different tribes of Indians of Carolina. The account he gives of their cruelty to prisoners is graphic and terrible, and was most fearfully realized by Lawson in his own person. He says:
“Their cruelties to their prisoners are such as none but Devils out of Hell could invent. They never miss skulping of them, which is to cut the skin from the temples, and taking the whole head of hair along with it. Sometimes they take the top of the skull with it, which they preserve and carefully keep by them for a trophy of their conquest over their enemies. Others keep their enemy's teeth which are taken in war, whilst others split pine into splinters and stick them into the prisoner's body, yet alive, then they light them which barn like so many torches, and in this manner they make him dance around a
* See Hawk's History of North Carolina, I., 100, 202.great fire, every one buffering and deriding him till he expires.”
This cruel fate was fearfully realized by Lawson and his negro servant, and would have been by his associate, the Baron De Graaffenreidt, whose life was only saved by his fine appearance, and because he wore a gold medal which the Indians thought was an indication of high rank.
Colonel Moore, of whom we have already written, closed this war by marching into Carteret, and completely subduing the savages in a decisive battle near the present town of Beaufort. Here, within “the sound of the church-going bells,” occurred the last desperate struggle of the red man in this section for dominion over his native soil, which he could not, and ought not hold.
In 1712, a fort was built on Core Sound, named in honor of Governor Hyde, to protect the inhabitants.
There are many names connected with Carteret worthy of record, as the Bells, Fullers, Bordens, Hellens, Marshalls, Sheppard, Piggots, Wards, and others.
Otway Burns, who represented this county often, (1822 to 1834,) is worthy of our memory. His name is more securely preserved in the capital of the County of Yancey. He represented Carteret County in the state senate, when (1834) Yancey County was erected. Doubtless the compliment secured his ready advocacy for its formation.
He came to Beaufort from Onslow County, where he was born, when quite young, and engaged in a seafaring life. He became a captain on a coasting vessel plying between Beaufort and New York.
When the war of 1812 commenced, he obtained from the Government of the United States, letters of marque and reprisal, and built, through the aid of several wealthy persons, as a stock company, a fast sailing ship; on her he bestowed the name of “Snap Dragon,” and she was fully armed and equipped with cannon, guns, and men.
The swiftness of the vessel, the skill with which she was managed by Burns, his intimate knowledge of the dreaded and dangerous coast of Carolina, and the daring of a chosen crew of men, soon made the name of Otway Burns a terror to all the British in American waters.
He captured and destroyed a large number of English prizes, and amassed fortunes for himself and his compatriots.
He brought into Beaufort heavy cargoes of valuables, and established quite a market for the merchants of all eastern Carolina. His house was but a short distance from the present Atlantic Hotel, on the top of which he established an observatory, from which he, by aid of a spy-glass, commanded an extensive view of the ocean. Here would the daring sailor watch and wait, while his ship was kept with a ready crew and anchor tripped. When ever he espied a vessel sailing under English colors, he would hurry up the “Snap Dragon” and pursue the prize. From the sailing qualities of his ship, Burns would soon overhaul and capture the pursued vessel.
Such was the damage done by Captain Burns to the commerce of England, that the British Council held consultations to devise some means for his capture. Finally, they ordered the construction of a fast sailing vessel, fully armed, with a large crew, but built as a merchant ship. This ship met our gallant “tar heel” on the coast, and by a ruse, captured him and his crew without firing a gun. The Englishman, rigged as a merchantman, with his guns concealed as well as his crew, suffered the “Snap Dragon” to run alongside, and hauled down his colors in token of surrender. As Burns and his men commenced to board the prize, her guns were run out and manned by the crew, who suddenly appeared on deck, and the harmless merchantman was presto converted into a terrible man-of-war, with shotted
cannon ready to fire. Burns, with heartfelt chagrin, was compelled to surrender. Thus he and his crew were taken prisoners.
After the close of the war he was released, and he returned home. With the characteristic extravagance of a sailor, he squandered his property and was very poor in the declining years of his life. His generous qualities and social temperament, with the fame of his daring exploits at sea, (about which he was very fond of talking,) made him a great favorite of the people. He was “sudden and quick in quarrel,” full of frolic, fun and fight, and towards the close of his life became very dissipated. He died in 1849, while in command of a light boat. His eventful life was so interesting that it once formed the subject of a lecture by Governor Swain.
CHAPTER XI.CASWELL COUNTY.
THIS county having been formed since our Declaration of Independence, her revolutionary history is connected with that of Orange County, from which it was taken. It preserves the name of Richard Caswell, who was one of the most active and efficient patriots of that eventful epoch. He was the first governor after the Royal governor had left, and did great service, not only as governor, but as a soldier and statesman.
He was a native of Maryland; born in Cecil County on August 3, 1729. The year in which the Lord Proprietors of North Carolina surrendered their charter to the Crown, George II, then being King.
Mr. Caswell came to North Carolina when quite a youth to seek fame and fortune. He was duly appreciated, and appointed clerk of Orange County, and deputy surveyor of the colony.
He read law, and practiced it with great success. He settled in Lenoir County, then Dobbs, where he married Mary McIlweane, and afterwards he removed to Johnston County. The people were not slow to discern his abilities, and he was elected to represent them in the assembly in 1754. So acceptable were his services that he was continued until 1771, being chosen speaker during the last two sessions. He was the colonel of the county, and as such commanded the right-wing of Tryon's army at Alamance, May 16, 1771. This was his first appearance in the profession of arms, which was congenial to his nature, and in which he was destined to be so conspicuous.
Like many other patriots of that day, they forbore, as long as patience would allow them, the cruelties of the mother country towards the colonies, but when the attempts of England to subjugate the liberties of the people became too oppressive he did not hesitate to advocate the rights of the many thus threatened by power and oppression.
By the first Provincial Congress that organized in opposition to the Royal Government, (August 25th, 1774, at New Berne,) he was, with William Hooper and Joseph Hewes, appointed delegate to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and attended for three years.
He was looked upon with great respect by the Royal Governor, Martin, and his course
gave Martin much chagrin, as will appear from a copy of his dispatch, dated—
‘August 28th, 1775.
“ON BOARD CRUISER SLOOP-OF-WAR.
“Every device has been practiced by the seditious committees to inflame the minds of the people; and most of all by the return of Richard Caswell to this province, and no doubt will inflame it with the extravagant spirit of that daring assembly at Philadelphia. At New Berne I am credibly informed he had the insolence to reprehend the committee of that little town for suffering me to remove from thence.
“This man, at his going to the first congress, appeared to me to have embarked with reluctance in the cause, that much extenuated his guilt. Now he shows himself a most active tool of sedition.”
On his return from congress in the spring of 1776, his military ardor was roused at the alarming state of affairs at home. The great fleets of England hovered around the coast, while the whole region of the Cape Fear swarmed with disaffected and dangerous tories, who had gathered in strong force to-unite with Clinton in subjugating the state. In conjunction with Colonel Lillington, he summoned the minute men of Dobbs County, and met the tories under General McDonald at Moore's Creek Bridge, on February 27th, 1776, and completely routed them with great slaughter.
He received the thanks of the Provincial Congress (at Halifax, April 4th, 1776,) for this brilliant victory, and for it he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.
This battle of Moore's Creek Bridge was of infinite importance, as it prevented the junction of the Scotch loyalists with the British forces, and the cause of great discomfort to Governor Martin.
In a dispatch of Governor Martin to Lord Germaine, dated March 2, 1776, (from the Rolls Office in London, never before published,) Governor Martin says:
“An agent had been dispatched to the interior counties of North Carolina to raise troops in the country to meet the troops expected from England. Three thousand men were expected to be raised.
“They had been checked, about seventeen miles above Wilmington, in an attempt to pass a bridge on February 27th. After sustaining the loss of Captain Donald McLeod, a gallant officer, and near twenty men killed and wounded, our forces were dispersed.
“This unfortunate truth was too soon confirmed by the arrival of Mr. MacLeane, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Stuart, and Mr. Nichol, who, with great difficulty, found their way to the Scorpion, sloop-of-war, lying at Brunswick. The force was about 1,400 men raised; but for want of encouragement at the time was reduced to about 700, of them 600 were Highlanders.
“The governor expresses the opinion that this little check which the loyalists received would not have any extensive ill consequences, yet he suffers every anguish, mortification and disappointment from the defeat of his endeavors.”*
Some controversy has in late years arisen as to whom the honor of the victory of Moore's Creek Bridge belonged, or, at least, whether the honors should not be divided. Honorable George Davis and Professor Hubbard were opposed on this question. This should not affect the reputation of either Lillington or Caswell; both were brave patriots, and both did their duty. The facts are that congress thanked Caswell, and in a masonic address by Francois X. Martin, delivered soon after this battle, at New Berne, he calls Caswell “the gallant commander of Moore's Creek.”
Caswell was president of the Provincial Congress (which met at Halifax November 12, 1776,) and was one of the committee that formed a state constitution. He was elected the first governor of the state under the constitution. He conducted the ship of state in its untried and perilous voyage with singular fidelity and matchless sagacity during his term of office. After this expired, his active
* Colonial Docs., page 224.and patriotic spirit brooked no repose. He saw his country in danger, and with the North Carolina troops was engaged in the battle of Camden, August 16, 1780.
The disordered state of the finances of the state demanded attention, and Governor Caswell was elected comptroller general, which duties he discharged with great ability until 1785, when he was again elected governor of the state, an unusual circumstance which proves the great acceptability of his services, and the grateful appreciation of them by the state.
The following address on this occasion may be interesting, as showing how such ceremonials were conducted in the good old times of yore.
From the journals of the assembly of the State of North Carolina:
“The address of the Speaker of the House of Commons, William Blount, on the qualification of Governor Caswell, May 13, 1785.
“MR. RICHARD CASWELL,
SIR: The general assembly of the State of North Carolina, at their last session, proceeded to the choice of a chief magistrate to preside over the executive department of the government of this state, when you were elected by a large majority of both houses; and it gives me great pleasure that it falls to me as Speaker of the House of Commons, in the name of the representatives of the freemen of the state, and in the presence of these honorable gentlemen, to call upon you to qualify, in pursuance of this, their highest mark of public regard, which can by them, be shown to the most worthy citizen.
(The governor now qualifies.)
“To you, sir, as the first chief magistrate of this state, we commit and deliver the Bill of Rights and the Constitution; the one asserting the civil and political rights of the freemen of this country, the other giving existence to your office and the present happy form of government. That the same under your guardianship may be sustained, supported, maintained and preserved inviolate, and as an emblem of that power and authority with which you are invested, we present you this sword, and do announce and proclaim you, Richard Caswell, Esq., Governor, Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief in and over the State of North Carolina, in which all good and liege people are to take notice, and govern themselves accordingly.
“WILLIAM BLOUNT,
“Speaker of the House of Commons.
“KINSTON, May 13, 1785.”
With the exception of Caswell, Benjamin Williams, (Governor in 1799 and in 1807,) and Governors Reid and Vance, no instance occurs in our history of the same person being twice elected to this elevated position.
Governor Caswell was elected a member of the Convention to meet in Philadelphia in May, 1787, to form the Constitution of the United States. This he declined.
His last public service was as Senator from Dobbs County (since divided into Greene and Lenoir,) in the legislature, which met at Fayetteville, 1789, of which he was elected speaker.
While presiding in the senate he was struck, November 5th, with paralysis, and he died on the 10th, of that year.
Mr. Gaston informs us that once whilst on a visit to Boston, he called on the illustrious and venerable John Adams. In an interesting conversation with him as to the revolutionary worthies of North Carolina, Mr. Adams asked: “Where is the family of Richard Caswell? for he was, sir, a model man and true patriot. We always looked to Caswell for North Carolina.” His character is one of which his country may well be proud. Not brilliant, but solid; useful rather than showy; deliberate in counsel and decided in action. Mr. Macon declared him one of “the most powerful men that ever lived in this or any other country.” In his career he closely resembled the father of his country; if Virginia be proud of her Washington, North Carolina may be of her Caswell.
Governor Caswell's will is on record in Lenoir county, and is dated July 2, 1787. He left one son and one daughter. Of his son
(Winston) but little is known to us. His daughter, Anna, married twice. First Fonville, and second to William White, who was Secretary of State from 1778 to 1811. Mrs. White left three daughters:*
I. Anna, who married Governor David L. Swam.
II. Another married General Daniel L. Barringer.
III. Another married General Boone Felton, of Hertford County. (University Magazine IV., 1772.)
General Felton was a native of Hertford County, and a man of some wealth and culture. He represented this county in 1809, and frequently afterwards. Ten years afterwards he had a difficulty with his relative and colleague, which was the cause of much excitement in the county.
The capital town of the county preserves a name equally as illustrious as the name of Caswell, it is that of Bartlett Yancey, who was born, lived and died in Caswell County. He was educated at the university, although his name does not appear among the list of graduates, and for a time was a tutor in that institution. He studied law, and attained great eminence in the profession. But political life was his proper element, and there he shone conspicnous. His first appearance in public life was as a member of the Thirteenth Congress, 1813,-’15, and again in the Fourteenth, (1815,-17.) Here, by the solidity of his judgement, the suavity of his manners, and the extent of his acquirements, he attained a high position among such statesmen as William Gaston, William R. King, William H. Murfree, Israel Pickens, Nathaniel Macon, all of whom were his colleagues. He was the firm and fearless supporter of the administration of Mr. Madison and the republican party. On his retiring from congress he resolved to devote himself to his profession, but the people would not permit him to retire. The next year they elected him to represent the county in the senate, in which position he was continued until his death. The senate each year elected him unanimously its speaker. No one possessed more popularity. On some occasions he received nearly every vote in Caswell County.
As presiding officer of a deliberate body he was pre-eminent, and scarcely ever rivaled. Blessed with a manly person, of most engaging and bland manners, a quick and well balanced mind, an accurate memory and clear and harmonious voice, he was peculiarly qualified for the duties of a speaker. As the journals will show, in Congress, the speaker (Mr. Clay) often supplied his own place by the substitution of Mr. Yancey. His efforts for the benefit of the state are monuments of his greatness as a statesman. The organization of the judiciary; the system of finance in the treasury and comptroller's offices as also of the common schools, and other public measures attest his sagacity and usefulness.
He died in the meridian of his life and usefulness in 1828. This sudden and unexpected event caused a deep sensation of sorrow throughout the state. All eyes were turned to him as the successor of Governor Branch, in the United States Senate. He left five daughters: Mrs. McAdden, Mrs. Giles Mebane, Mrs. Lemuel Mebane, Mrs. Thomas J. Wommack and Mrs. George W. Swepson; and two sons: Rufus A., who graduated at the university, with great credit, in 1829, in the same class with Burton Craige, William Eaton, Dr. Sidney X. Johnston and others, he died in Richmond, Va., about 1835; and Algernon Sidney, who was a lawyer, died in 1840.
Probably there are few men, in either public or private life, who occupied during their
* One of Governor Caswell's daughters married a Gatlin. Dr. John Gatlin, who was a surgeon in the United States army, and was massacred at Dade's Defeat by the Seminoles, in Florida, was a grandson of Caswell. General Gatlin was a brother of Dr. Gatlin.term of life more of public notice than Romulus M. Saunders.
From the time he entered the legislature, in his 24th year, until, his death, at which time he held the office of judge, he was either in office, or an applicant for office, or an aspirant for position. He was the son of William Saunders, born in Caswell County, 1791. His early education was defective.* He studied law, and practiced that profession with success. He early entered political life, which was more germane to his tastes than law. From 1815 to 1820, he was a member of the House of Commons, and twice its speaker. In 1821 to 1827, he was in Congress. In 1828, he was elected attorney general, which position he filled till 1833, when he was appointed a commissioner under the French Treaty, in which he served till 1835, when he was elected judge, which he resigned on being, in 1840, nominated candidate for governor, but was defeated by John M. Morehead. In 1841, elected to Congress, in which he served until 1846, when he was appointed Envoy to Spain, where he served till 1849; and in 1850, he was again elected a member of the House of Commons. In 1852, elected to House of Commons, and again he became Judge of Superior Courts, in which office he died, April 21, 1867.
A good story (says Moore I., 463) is told by Judge Badger, of this extraordinary propensity for office. Mr. Badger was asked who would be the new Bishop, in place of Ives, on that prelate's defection to Rome: “I can't tell you who it will be, but I am certain Judge — will be a candidate, as he wants everything else,” replied the great lawyer.
From History of North Carolina, by J. W. Moore, II., page 98:
“In 1852-’53, the democrats had a majority in the legislature, but failed to elect a senator to succeed Judge Mangum. R. M. Saunders, as usual, was a candidate. He was one of our leading men but insatiable in his thirst for office. He was equally profound and adroit as a lawyer, greatly respected as a judge, and unsurpassed as a stump orator. His four years of acquaintance with the formal etiquette of the Spanish Court had failed to remove his native and inherent roughness of manners.”
He was twice married; by his last marriage with a daughter of Judge William Johnson, of the Supreme Court of the United States, he left a son and two daughters.
That Judge Saunders possessed force of character and talents, the high positions he held are proof. But that he was selfish and uncertain in his friendships is admitted. The opinion expressed of Goldsmith by Dr. Johnson was realized by him: “his friendships were so easily acquired, and so lightly lost, as rendered them of but little consequence to any person.” As a politician he was able and active, but even this character was obscured by the fact that he always hoped to be advanced personally. In a memorable contest in 1852 for Senator in Congress, when his party, with a majority of only one or two, and he himself a member of the body, nominated James C. Dobbin, than whom a purer man did not exist, Saunders refused to co-operate, bolted the caucus and with his friends, defeated the election of Dobbin.†
In a subsequent contest for the same post he again played the same role, and thus defeated the election of Bedford Brown, who was the choice of the democratic party in 1842-’43, and so caused the election of William H. Haywood, whose career as a senator not being successful, he resigned. Had Saunders followed the advice
* From Raleigh Star, of March 29, 1810. The trustees of the university of North Carolina, have been obliged to perform the painful duty of expelling from the institution John Allen, of Pitt, Horace [illegible text], of Granville, Romulus Saunders, of Caswell County. DAVID STONE, President.† This has been disputed by some friends of Judge Saunders. We quote from History of North Carolina, by John W. Moore, (page 227.) “Mr. Dobbin succeeded Governor Graham as Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Dobbin was defeated for the United States Senate by the friends of Judge Saunders, and Judge Mangum's term having expired, the state for the next two years had but one senator.”of the great Cardinal of Henry VIII he would have been a happier, if not a wiser and better man.
“—, I charge thee fling away ambition. By that sin fell the angels; and how can man then—The image of his maker—hope to win by it.”
We would fain have made this sketch more favorable, but in pen pictures as in portrait painting the truth demands a faithful, not a flattering, likeness.
Robert Williams was a native of Caswell County, distinguished for his attainments. He was adjutant-general of North Carolina, and a representative in Congress, (Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Congress) 1797 to 1803, and was appointed commissioner of land titles in Mississippi Territory. He was also the governor of the Territory of Mississippi from 1805 to 1809. He died in Louisiana.
Marmaduke Williams, who succeeded his brother in Congress, was a native of Caswell County, born in 1772; married Mrs. Agnes Harris, nec Payne. He was by profession a lawyer. He represented Caswell County in the state senate in 1802, and the district in (the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Congress) 1803-1809. In 1810 he removed with his family to Alabama. He was repeatedly elected to the legislature of that state, and was a delegate from Tuscaloosa County to the convention which formed the state constitution. He was a candidate for governor and defeated by William W. Bibb. In 1826 he was a commissioner to adjust the unsettled accounts between Alabama and Mississippi. In 1832 he was elected judge of the county court, which he resigned, having attained the age of seventy, which the constitution declared a disqualification in a judge. He died October 29, 1850.
Calvin Graves was born in Caswell County, in January, 1804. He was the son of Azariah Graves. His mother was the daughter of Colonel John Williams, who took a decided part in the revolution, and was Lieutenant-Colonel of a battalion raised in the Hillsboro district. He was educated at the Bingham academy in Orange, and spent one year at the university, when he commenced reading law with Judge Settle, his brother-in-law, and finished under Judge Henderson. He was admitted to the Bar in 1827. His success in the practice was flattering, but his fame rests more on his efforts in the legislature than his career as a jurist.
His first appearance as a statesman was as a member of the convention of 1835 to reform the constitution. This was an able body of practiced statesmen, and afforded an admirable school for the young politician. This opportunity was not neglected by Mr. Graves. In 1840 he was elected a member of the House, and in 1842 when he was made speaker. In 1844 he was again a member, but the whig party having a majority, elected Mr. Stanley speaker. In 1846 he was returned as a member of the senate.
During this session a party move of much significance was made to re-district the state, and opposed by Mr. Graves. In 1848 he was again elected to the senate, when the parties were evenly balanced, he was elected speaker notwithstanding.
This was an important session. The lunatic asylum was constructed, and the proposition to make internal improvements by a railroad connecting the mountains with the seaboard, involving an appropriation of $2,000,000. The latter bill passed the lower House by a close vote, and after a warm and able discussion, which was maintained by both sides with eloquence and ability, and listened to with breathless anxiety by a crowded gallery, the vote was taken, and stood yeas 24, nays 24. The vote was handed by the clerk to the speaker, upon whom all eyes were now turned; Mr. Graves arose from his chair, and in a clear and audible voice announced the vote: “The clerk reports twenty-four
in the affirmitive and twenty-four in the negative. The speaker votes in the affirmative; the bill has passed the senate.”
The plaudits were deafening, and the session of the senate broken up, without adjourning; tumultuous joy came from one side, and sullen murmurs from the other. Whatever views may now be entertained of the policy of this law, it was at the time an act of political suicide by Mr. Graves; he never again appeared in the legislature. Like Coriolanus, when yielding to the entreaties of his mother, he might say:
“Mother, you may have saved your country, but you have lost your son.”
Mr. Graves married Elizabeth, daughter of John C. Lea, by whom he had an interesting family. He died some few years ago.
Bedford Brown was a native of Caswell, where he lived and died; he was born in 1795, a farmer by profession, a patriotic statesman, and an unflinching advocate of the rights of the state.
He early embarked on the sea of politics, in which he had a long and successful voyage. He entered the House of Commons in 1815. At one time (1817,) this county sent Bartlett Yancey to the senate, and Romulus M. Saunders and Bedford Brown to the commons. This was a triumvirate of ability not excelled in the legislators of any other county in the state. Mr. Brown entered public life at an important epoch in our history. The democratic principles he adopted then and there, he maintained through life. He was elected frequently to the legislature, and in 1828 and 1829 was chosen speaker of the senate. In the latter year he was elected United States Senator to succeed Governor Branch, who was appointed Secretary of the Navy. Here he served till 1840, when he resigned under instructions from the legislature.
He again entered the legislature in 1842, and was again a candidate for the senate, but not elected. He then withdrew for a time from public life, and moved to Missouri; but after a short time he returned to North Carolina, and was again elected a member of the state senate from 1858 to 1862, and in 1868. He died at home December 6th, 1870, lamented by the state and nation.
His character as a statesman was like Bayard's, “without fear or reproach.” He was distinguished for his firmness and unquestioned integrity. His friends did not claim for him an equal rank in the intellectual power which marked the career of many with whom he was associated, but he was the peer of any in integrity, patriotism and purity of life.
Jacob Thompson is a native of Caswell County; born May 15, 1810. His father, Nicholas Thompson, was a respectable and worthy man, who bestowed on his son every advantage of education. His early studies were conducted by Mr. Bingham at Hillsboro, and finished at the university, where he graduated in 1831, in a class with Thomas L. Clingman, James C. Dobbin, and others; and he was for a time a tutor in the college. He studied law with Honorable John M. Dick, and was licensed in 1834.
The next year he moved to Pontotoc, Mississippi, and entered at once upon the practice of the law.
He was elected a member of congress from Mississippi in 1839, and continued by successive elections in that position until 1851, when he declined a re-nomination. During this period he passed though many scenes of extraordinary interest and excitement. Questions of importance were agitated, in which Mr. Thompson bore a distinguished part in defending the honor of the country and the interests of his constituents. The sub-treasury, the New Jersey case, the Mexican war, Mississippi repudiations, and other questions agitated the nation.
He bore himself as a statesman and a patriot.
On the resignation of Robert J. Walker as senator, in 1845, to assume the duties of Secretary of the Treasury under Mr. Polk, he was appointed Senator of the United States; but for some reason, he did not accept the commission.
In 1857, he was appointed Secretary of the Interior by Mr. Buchanan, over which department the presided with unexampled integrity and ability, until the great civil war between the states began, when he resigned, preserving the respect and regard of his associates When Mississippi seceded, Mr. Thompson deemed it his duty to share her fortunes and her fate. He was employed by the Confederate government as a financial agent, and suffered deeply in the wreck of his once princely estate. He now resides near Memphis, pursuing the vocation of planter.
He married in 1838, Miss Jones, whose kind disposition and genial manners shed a charm over every circle. Their only son was in the Confederate army, and fell in battle.
John Kerr, late one of the judges of the superior courts, resided in this county. He was the son of the Reverend John Kerr, who was an eminent Baptist preacher of great eloquence; he represented the Lynchburg district, Virginia, in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congress. His son, the subject of our present sketch, was born on February 10th, 1811, in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Educated at home and at Richmond, he read law with Judge Pearson. He was elected a member of the Thirty-third Congress from this district; and was the whig candidate for governor in 1854, but was defeated by Governor Reid. He represented Caswell County in the legislature in 1858 and 1860.
During the civil war, he was employed in his professional and agricultural pursuits. When the war closed he suffered much tribulation and indignity at the hands of those who were attempting to reconstruct the state government. He and others were arrested by George W. Kirk.
Upon his application for a writ of habeas corpus, I copy from the records the following:
“Before Chief Justice Pearson, ex-parte John Kerr, at chambers in the rooms of the supreme court, August 2nd, 1870.
“The counsel for the petitioner, upon the return of the marshal of the supreme court, and the communication from George W. Kirk being read, contended that Kirk's response to the service of the writ of habeas corpus upon him (that he held the prisoner under order of Governor Holden,) was insufficient upon several grounds, and that he ought to be attached for making it. The counsel, therefore, moved for a precept to have the body of the petitioner brought before the chief justice, &c.”
On this the chief justice delivered the following decision:
“The motion is not allowed. I can say no more than I have already said. The power of the judiciary is exhausted. I have no posse commitatas. In this particular, my situation differs from that of Chief Justice Taney, in ‘Merriman's case.’ He had a posse commitatas at his command, but considered ‘the power of judiciary exhausted.’ He did not deem it his duty to command the marshal with a posse ‘to storm a fort.’ ”
The time has not yet come to comment upon all these circumstances, yet some of the recorded facts may be detailed for future reference. It was, indeed, a fearful epoch in our history when the lives and liberties of innocent and worthy citizens were exposed to the tender mercies of lawless power.
That “the great writ of right” was powerless and exhausted in the state struck the whole country with dismay.
It forcibly brought to mind the prophetic remarks of Lord Shelburne to Mr. Laurens, of South Carolina, once our envoy to Holland and President of Congress, who had been a prisoner in the Tower (1779) for some time; after his release, in an interview with England's Secretary of State, the following conversation occurred:
“I am sorry for your people,” said Lord Shelburne, “that they have gained their independence.” “Why so?” asked Mr. Laurens. “We English people gained it, by centuries of wrangling, years of battle and blood, and confirmed it by at least fifty acts of parliament,” answered his lordship. “All this taught the nation its inestimable value, and it is so ingrained in their creed as to become the foundation of our liberty and no judge or party will ever dare to trample upon it. Your people will pick it up, and attempt to use it; but having cost them nothing, they will not know how to appreciate it. At the first internal fend you will have it trampled under foot by the lawless power of the majority; the people will permit it to be done, and away goes your boasted liberty.”
An application was then made to Judge Brooks, of the United States District Court, on August 25th, 1870, for a writ. This he caused to be issued against Kirk, “requiring him to bring before the court the prisoners detained in military custody.”
Governor Graham, Judge Merrimon, and R. H. Battle, jr., appeared for the petitioners, whilst the Attorney-General Olds, and Messrs. J. M. McCorkle and William H. Bailey, appeared for the defendant. On the return made to the writ, by Kirk, and after argument, the prisoners were released. No case had ever occurred that more excited the county. The course of Judge Brooks was commended, not only by public meetings in the state, but in Baltimore and elsewhere.
On his return to his home in Elizabeth city, a perfect ovation by men of all parties awaited him. They expressed their “appreciation of his fidelity in enforcing the law.” No conquering hero, returning from the field of victory, could have received such applause. It was the triumph of the law and of justice over misrule and oppression. (See sketch of Judge Brooks in Pasquotank County.) The sufferings and contumely thus endured by Judge Kerr excited the sincere sympathy of the country, and he was elected by the legislature, in 1874, to the bench of the superior courts, which distinguished post he held till his death.
Judge Kerr had, in 1862, been appointed to a seat on the bench by the governor, (Clark,) but Judge Gilliam was elected by the legislature.
Judge Kerr, in the palmy day of politics, gained much reputation as a skilful and eloquent debater; of a kind and social temperament, he was one who in the tilt and tournament of the political arena, so bore himself that “the opposer would beware of him.” But the mellowing effect of age lessened this trait, and as a member of the Baptist church, he carned “gentle peace” and good will of all. He was an earnest advocate of education, one of the trustees of the university, and the president of the North Carolina Historical Society.
He died on September 5th, 1879, at his home in Reidsville, after a lingering illness of several months.
Connected with the memories of the past, it may not be improper to record the mysterious murder of John W. Stephens, of this county, which occurred May 21, 1870. Stephens was a native of Guilford County, born October, 1834; one of the disreputable waifs of circumstance whom the troubled waves of civil war brought to the surface. He was of low origin, of dissolute habits and disreputable character. He had been arraigned for petit larceny and other offenses. His mother was found murdered in his house in broad daylight, with her throat cut from ear to ear, and no one ever knew, nor did the coroner's jury decide, by whom or how the murder was done. Yet, this man was, in 1868, elected senator over the Honorable Bedford Brown; and appointed by the governor, he served as a justice of the peace, and was granted a license to practice law by Judge A. W. Tourgee.
On Saturday, May 21st, 1870, a meeting of the conservative party of Caswell County was held in the court house at Yanceyville to
nominate candidates for the legislature. Speeches were made by Samuel P. Hill, Bedford Brown, and others. A large number attended, among them was Stephens. At night he was missing, and search was made. The next morning, in one of the rooms in the basement of the court house, the dead body of Stephens was found. The jury of inquest reported “the death of John W. Stephens was caused by a small rope drawn around his neck in a noose, and by three stabs with a pocket knife, two in the throat, the other stab on the left of the breast bone, penetrating the cavity of the chest, inflicted by the hands of some persons unknown; of which wound the said John W. Stephens died, on May 21st, 1870, between the hours of four and seven o'clock, p. m.” Various surmises have been made as to the persons and motives of this mysterious murder. But no positive evidence was elicited, and perhaps it is only when the secrets of all hearts are known, will the facts be ascertained.
CHAPTER XII.CHATHAM COUNTY.
THERE lived in this county during the revolutionary war, one of the most daring and desperate tories that those dangerous times produced, by the name of David Fanning. He was born about 1754, in Wake County, and in 1778 moved to Chatham. The occupation of Wilmington by the British troops afforded an opportunity for his nefarious depredations. One of the earliest sufferers was Charles Shearing, of Deep River, to whose house he went at night, and shot him dead as he fled. His energy and desperation were appreciated by the British authorities, and he was made colonel of the loyal militia, and Major Craig, at Wilmington, presented him with a uniform and pistols.
One of his earliest successes was the capture of Colonel Philip Alston, at his house. In July, 1784, he entered Campbellton, now Fayetteville, and carried off Colonel Ennett, Captain Winslow, and others. On September 12th, following, he, with a troop, entered Hillsboro’ and seized the Governor (Burke,) and other prominent whigs, and carried them to Wilmington as prisoners of war.
I attempted, in the history of North Carolina, to give a brief sketch of this noted marauder under the head of Chatham County. Since writing this, I have been so fortunate as to find in manuscript, an auto-biography written by Fanning himself, which is very lengthy and minute; this has already been published. He was a refugee after the war closed, and died in St. Johns, Province of New Brunswick, in 1825.
Charles Manly, born 1795, died 1871, late Governor of North Carolina, was a native of this county.
His father, Basil Manly, was born and raised in St. Mary's County, Maryland. He removed to North Carolina before the revolution, and settled in Bladen County. He was a bold and active partizan officer, holding the commission of captain during that war.
He married Elizabeth Maultsby. On account of ill health, he removed to Chatham County, where he died in 1824, much respected for his high moral courage, and his inflexible integrity. Having had but a limited education himself, he felt its importance and advantages, and he devoted all the energies of an industrious and frugal life to the bestowal of its benefits on his sons. He lived to accomplish this cherished object of his life, and with his pious and exemplary wife, a woman of great mental endowments, to rejoice in the happy result of their joint efforts and prayers, the eminent success in life of their three distinguished sons, Charles Manly, Basil Manly, (who graduated at the South Carolina university, with the first honors of the institution, born 1798, died at Greenville, South Carolina, 1868,) and Matthias Evans Manly, of New Berne, late judge of the superior and of the supreme courts in this state, also elected senator in congress, but denied his seat.
Charles Manly, the eldest son, was born in the County of Chatham, on May 13th, 1795. He was prepared for college by that excellent classical scholar, the late William Bingham, at the Pittsboro academy, and graduated at the university in 1814, with the first distinction in all his classes. In this class was Aaron V. Brown, of Tennessee, (member of congress, 1839 to 1843; Governor of Tennessee, 1844, and Postmaster-General of the United States, 1857;) Hons, James Graham, and John Hill, both in after life members of congress, and others.*
The treasurer of the state, the late John Haywood, attended this commencement, and was so attracted by the talents and proficiency of this young man, that he engaged him as a private tutor for his sons. This position was highly advantageous. For besides the advantages of enjoying the regard and society of Mr. Haywood, one of the most popular men at that time in the state, and an association with prominent and leading men, he was enabled to prosecute the study of the law without entrenching upon the narrow income of his father. He was admitted to the bar in 1816, and commenced the practice of law with great success.
On the death of General Robert Williams, in whose office he read law, he was appointed his successor as treasurer of the board of trustees of the university, and in that capacity, for a series of years, rendered faithful and signal service to that venerable institution.
In 1823, he was appointed, on the motion of John Stanley, the reading clerk of the House of Commons. The same year, (1823,) he was appointed clerk to the commission under the treaty of Ghent, to examine the claims of American citizens for slaves and other property taken by the British, during the war of 1812. Langdon Cheves, of South Carolina, and Henry Seawell, of North Carolina, were the American commissioners; George Jackson and John McTavish were the British commissioners. The board sat at Washington. This was a position most desirable and improving to a young man, affording a pass-port to the best society at the capital. But its duties interfered so much with his professional pursuits at home, that he soon resigned.
The Alumni association of the university resolved to have an annual address at each commencement, and Mr. Manly delivered the first in 1838, which was most acceptable, and was considered a model of chaste and popular elocution.
In 1830, he succeeded that fine specimen of “the old school gentlemen,” Pleasant Henderson, as principal clerk of the House of Commons, and remained, by continuous elections in the same office, with one intermission, until 1848, when he was elected governor of the state. He had never been ambitious in political
* For much of this material, I am indebted to a biographical sketch by James M. Cleaveland.preferment. In 1840, he was elected an elector, and in the electoral college of that year, cast the vote of North Carolina for William H. Harrison and John Tyler. In 1844, he was defeated as senator for Wake, but he filled various other offices of confidence and trust with great credit to himself, and satisfaction to the state. Among these positions were director of the state bank, a commissioner to sell and collect the proceeds of the sale of Cherokee lands in the western part of the state, and treasurer of the university.
In the campaign for governor in 1848, the election being by popular suffrage, he canvassed the whole state with great satisfaction to his friends, and with the respect of his opponents. He was elected by a handsome majority; inaugurated governor on January 1st, 1849, and served the constitutional term of two years. In 1850, he was again nominated by the whig convention was again opposed by that able and astute statesman, David S. Reid, and was defeated. Afterwards he retired to private life. With him, “the sceptre departed” from the whig party for a long time, for after Governor Reid, came Governors Bragg, Ellis, Clark and Vance.
Governor Manly married in 1817, Charity, daughter of William H. Haywood, senior. By this marriage he became the brother-in-law of the late William H. Haywood, junior; senator in congress, (1843,) as also of E. B. Dudley, the first governor of the state under the amended constitution of 1835.
As might naturally be supposed, the prominent positions he had held, especially his long connection with the young and rising generation at the university, and with those in active life in the legislature, as its principal clerk, and as governor, that he was extensively known to every man of prominence and distinction, especially those in the South. He was univerally respected wherever known, and became a great favorite with his genial manners, and magnetic humor. No one was a better conversationalist, or more abounded in anecdote and reminiscences of men and times. His keen sense of the ridiculous, and his inimitable manner of narration, made him a welcome guest, and “his flashes of merriment were wont to set the table on a roar;” his wit was never used to wound, and left no sting behind. Fond of society, his house was the resort of friends who partook of his unstinted hospitality. To the call of misfortune his hand was ever open. As a counsellor he was an honest and safe one. Zealous in the interest of his client, and fair in argument, respectful to the bench, and kind and considerate to the members of the bar, especially to his younger brethren. But with all his other admirable traits of character, and above all, he was a christian gentleman. He was for years in full communion and membership of the Episcopal church; an admirer of its tenets, and a follower of its precepts.
Such was Charles Manly. His latter days were darkened by the cloud of civil war, and the hand of disease. His substance was dispoiled, his farms ravaged by hostile hands, and his health prostrated. He died at Raleigh on May 1st, 1871. Like Wolsey
“— Full of repentance,Continued meditations, tears, and sorrows.He gave his honors to the world againHis blessed part to Heaven, and slept in peace.”Christopher Gale resided in Edenton and did such service in the defense of the colony that his name should be preserved.
We regret that neither tradition or record affords much information as to his acts and services, and that the dust of time is fast obscuring the little information we possess, yet this should encourage others to rescue from oblivion his life and character.
He was a native of England, born in York shire, son of Miles Gale, rector of a church in Yorkshire. He came to America, and in 1709 was appointed receiver general, and in 1723 was appointed one of the council of Governor
George Burrington, with Thomas Pollock, Francis Forster, John Lovick and others; when he was at the same time chief justice of the colony. In 1729, with Colonel John Lovick, Edward Mosely, and William Little, he was appointed one of the commissioners to run the line between North Carolina and Virginia; Colonel William Byrd, Richard Fitzwilliam and William Dandridge, being the commissioners for Virginia. The journal of these commissioners has been preserved and printed.*
William Little, chief justice, married a daughter of Judge Gale. He was active in resisting the attacks of the Tusearoras, and went to South Carolina for aid, which was promptly furnished, and Colonel Moore was despatched with a sufficient force to subdue them.
Chistopher Gale died in Edeaton, where he lies buried, and left a name that was never mentioned but with respect.†
Abram Rencher resides in Chatham County, but was born in Wake about 1804. He finished his education at the university where he graduated in 1822. In the same class was Bishop Davis, Washington Morrison, and others. He studied law with Judge Nash, at Hillsboro.
He early engaged in political life. In 1829, he was a candidate for the state senate, and was defeated; but in the same year, a vacancy occuring in congress from this district, he became a candidate, with Judge Pearson and Burton Craige as opponents. This was a strife involving much intellectual power, and the great question as to the power of the government, and the rights of the state, and other topics, were argued by Pearson on the one side and Craige on the other, while Rencher circulated quietly among the people, and gained the votes. He was elected a member of the Twenty-first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congress, (1829 to 1839.) He was again elected to the Twenty-seventh Congress, (1841 to 1843.) This was a stormy period of our political history. Harrison died after being in the presidential chair one month, and Tyler succeeded. The friends of the party calculated on Tyler pursuing a course different from the line he had marked out. Mr. Clay and other leaders often assailed him with great bitterness. This was a fierce and violent contest. A very few of the old whigs stood firm, and so they were called “the corporal's guard.” One of these was Mr. Rencher. After his term in congress had expired he was appointed, in 1843, charge de affaires to Portugal, where he remained four years.
On his return home he took an active part in the election of Franklin Pierce, and was one of the electors of the state.
He was made governor of the territory of New Mexico, by President Buchanan.
John M. Mooring, speaker of the present house of representatives of the North Carolina legislature, (1879,) is a native of Chatham County, born March 11th, 1841. He was educated at Graham, and at the university, and would have graduated in the class of 1863 had not the civil war prevented. He joined the army as a private in company G, seventh regiment, and was sergeant-major at the surrender of Johnson at Greensboro, 1865. He studied law, and in 1872 elected member of the legislature, and re-elected in 1874, 1876 and 1878, when he was chosen speaker. He is a good speaker, and a laborious member. His even temper, genial disposition, and quick preception of points of order, render him an admirable presiding officer.
* See Westover Mss.† Records from Board of Trade; University Magazine, volume V., 221.)CHAPTER XIII.
CHOWAN COUNTY.
THIS county, in the earlier days of the state, was the residence of the Royal governors, and its capital town preserves the name of Charles Eden, who was governor under the Lord Proprietors, from 1713 to 1722. The administration of Eden was eminently prosperous. His grave is still to be seen on Salmon Creek, in Bertie County, and the marble bears the inscription that he governed the province for eight years; that he died March 26th, 1722, aged forty-nine years. During his administration a notorious pirate lived in North Carolina, and whose name is preserved by “Teach's Hole,” near Ocracoke Inlet. Inasmuch as at this point he was in the habit of careening his vessel, the “Adventure,” and it was here, at the head of only seventeen men, he met the Virginia naval expedition sent out for his capture, of whom he killed and wounded thirty before he fell—gallantry and conduct worthy of a better cause! The reputation of Governor Eden suffered by a supposed intimacy with Teach, and he was compelled to lay before the council an account of his conduct.
I copy from a very scarce work, “A General History of the Pirates from their first rise and settlement to the present time,” by Charles Johnson, fourth edition: London 1726, referred to in Waldie's select circulating library, Philadelphia, 1883, I., 123:
“Edward Teach, better known as ‘Blackbeard,’ was born in Bristol, England. He was engaged as a private sailor till 1716, when a Captain Hornsgold, a noted pirate, placed him in command of a sloop which he had made prize of. They sailed together for the American coast, capturing many ships and plundering them. After various cruises they were shipwrecked on the coast of North Carolina. Teach hearing of a proclamation by which pirates who surrendered were to be pardoned, went with twenty of his men to the governor of the state, and received certificates of pardon from him. But it does not appear that their submission was from any reformation, but rather to gain time and opportunity for a renewal of their nefarious deeds. Teach had succeeded in cultivating the kind offices of the governor, and soon after brought in, as a prize, a merchant ship, which the vice-admiralty court of the province awarded as a lawful prize to Teach. In June, 1718, he sailed for the Bermudas, and took many ships on his voyage, among them two French ships, one was loaded with sugar and cocoa, and the other in ballast; the latter with both crews he released, and the other he brought to North Carolina. Teach and his officers claimed them as lawful prizes, and made affidavits that they found the prize at sea without a soul on board, and the court condemned her. The governor (Eden,) received sixty hogsheads of sugar for his part, Mr. Knight, his secretary, one, and the collector of the province twenty.
“Thus countenanced and protected, Teach became most daring, desperate and dangerous. He infested the whole coast, particularly the waters of Delaware, Virginia, and the Carolinas. In November, 1718, Governor Spottswood, of Virginia, offered a reward of £100 for Teach, dead or alive.
“On the 17th of the same month, Lieutenant Maynard sailed from Kicquetan, on the James river, in search of Blackbeard. On the 31st, at the mouth of Ocracoke Inlet, he came in sight of the pirate. Blackbeard had been advised of this movement by a letter from Mr. Knight, Governor Eden's secretary. He immediately prepared for a desperate resistance. A terrible conflict ensued in which Blackbeard was slain, fighting with great fury and desperation. Maynard sailed up to Bath with the head of the pirate nailed to the bowsprit of his vessel. A letter was found in the pocket of the dead pirate from Knight, dated November 17th, 1717, a copy of which is preserved in Williamson's History of North Carolina. When the lieutenant came to Bath town he seized the sugar that the governor and his secretary had received from Teach.
The statement goes on to say ‘that the governor, apprehensive that he might be called to account, became ill of a fright and died in a few days.’ ”
In an autobiographical sketch of Benjamin Franklin, he says that at a very early age (about fourteen,) he took a strange fancy for poetry, and composed several pieces, among them were two ballads, one called the “Lighthouse Tragedy,” which contained an account of the shipwreck of Captain Worthilake and his two daughters, the other was a sailor's song on the capture of the noted pirate called Teach or Blackbeard. When they had been printed, Franklin's brother sent him around the town to sell them. They had a prodigious success, as the first event was then recent, and created much excitement.
Following the sound advice of his father this great philosopher escaped the misfortune of being a poor poet, for the success of these two ballads had greatly elated his young mind, and but little encouragement was needed to set him permanently to verse making.
It is due to the truth of history to say that there was no evidence to implicate Governor Eden in the nefarious transactions of Teach. As to the statement “that he was so apprehensive, and was so frightened, that he died in a few days,” is grossly in error, for this was in 1717, and Governor Eden, as appears by the date on his tombstone, died five years afterwards.
Tradition points to Holliday's Island, in the Chowan river, as one of Blackbeard's haunts, and the mouth of Potecasi Creek, where it enters the mouth of the Meherrin river, as the point where he buried his spoils.
The people of this section were, in the revolution, the firm friends of independence, and the determined foes to oppression. The North Carolina Gazette, of February 24th, 1775, contains the proceedings of the Committee of Safety for the town of Edenton, on February 4th, 1775, showing this spirit. The committee were Robert Hardy, (chairman,) Joseph Hewes, Robert Smith, Jasper Charlton, John Rembough, William Bennet, Charles Bonfield, Thomas Jones, and John Green.*
Even the members of the Episcopal church, who have been charged by some as being opposed to independence, were firm and open against the oppressions of the British Government, and resolved to stand by the Continental Congress.
We present a record from the proceedings of the vestry of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, at Edenton, copied by the kindness of Major Henry A. Gilliam, now of Raleigh:
“We, the undersigned, professing our allegiance to the King, and acknowledging the constitutional executive power of the government, do solemnly profess and declare, that we do absolutely believe that neither the Parliament of Great Britian, nor any member, or constituent branch thereof, have a right to impose taxes upon these colonies to regulate the internal policy thereof; and that all attempts by fraud or force to establish and exercise such claims and powers are violations of the peace and the security of the people, and ought to be resisted to the utmost; and that the people of this province, singly and collectively, are bound by the acts and resolutions of the Continental and Provincial Congress, because in both they are fully represented by persons chosen by themselves. And we do solemnly and sincerely promise and engage, under the sanctions of virtue, honor, and the sacred love of liberty and our country, to maintain and support all the acts and resolutions of the said Continental and Provincial Congress to the utmost of our power and ability.
“In testimony whereof, we have hereunto set our hands, this 19th day of June, 1775.
“Richard Hoskens, Wm. Boyd, David Rice, Thomas Benbury,† Aaron Hill, Jacob Hunter, Pelatiah Walton, John Beasely, William Hinton, William Bennet, Thomas Bonner, William Roberts.”
These names are doubtless familiar with
* Colonial Records in Rolls Office, copied by me.† Thomas Benbury was speaker in 1778 to 1784.many yet residing in Edenton. How proud may they be of so glowing a record!
The patriotism of the men was equalled by the self denial of the women.
There was brought from Gibraltar, many years ago, a lovely painting of “a meeting of the ladies of Edenton destroying the tea, their favorite beverage, when taxed by the English Parliament.” I saw this picture in the hands of Mr. Manning in 1830.
The following record is from Force's American Archives:
“As we cannot be indifferent on any occasion that affects the peace and happiness of our county, and as it has been thought necessary for the public good to enter into several particular resolves by a meeting of the deputies of the whole provinice, it is a duty we owe, not only to ourselves, but to our near and dear relations, to do everything as far as lies in our power to testify to our sincere adherence to the same; we, therefore, do subscribe this paper as a witness to our fixed intention and solemn determination.”
Signed by fifty-six ladies of Edenton, North Carolina, October 25th, 1774.
There are but few sections of the states in in which have resided men more illustrious for ability, or who have written their names more indelibly in the history of their country.
Among the first of these is Samuel Johnston; born 1733, died 1816. He was a native of Dundee, Scotland, the son of John Johnston and Helen Scrymsour. His father in 1736, followed Gabriel Johnston, who was his brother, and who was in 1834 the governor of the province of North Carolina, and after whom Johnstone County is called. He died July 17th, 1752.
He was a Scotchman by birth, a man of liberal views, and a physician by profession. He married Penelope, the only child of Governor Eden, and his grandson, William Johnstone Dawson, distinguished for his acquirements and talents, in 1793 represented the Edenton district in congress, and with Willie Jones, Joseph McDowell, Thomas Blount and James Martin, was on the committee in 1791 to fix a permanent place for the seat of government. He died in 1798; an event universally regretted.
John, his brother, was appointed surveyor-general of the province, and settled in Onslow County, whilst the subject of this sketch was yet an infant. His advantages of education were the best the country afforded. He studied law in Edenton, under Thomas Barker, and resided at Hays, near Edenton. When only nineteen he was appointed one of the clerks of the superior court for the district, and afterwards deputy naval officer for the port.
Although holding this position, he was the ardent and unffinching advocate of the rights of the people.
In 1773, he was appointed with Caswell, Harnett and Hooper a committee of correspondence with the other colonies on the subject of the conduct of England towards the colonies.
In a dispatch from Governor Martin to the Earl of Dartmouth, of September 1st, 1774, he thus speaks of the influence and the character of Mr. Johnston:
“I have known the general assembly to sacrifice everything to a faction.
“Four of them, namely Currituck, Perquimons, Pasquotank and Chowan, send each five members; Tyrell, Bertie and Martin send eight, besides one for Edenton. These are always led by a man or two. They are now absolutely under the guidance of a Mr. Johnstone, who is deputy naval officer, and was one of the clerks of the superior courts while they existed in the province, who, under the prejudices of a New England education, is by no means a friend of the government, having taken a foremost part in all the late opposition, joined with the Southern interest, which at present supports a Mr. Ashe.
“Your lordship will not be surprised to hear that the people of this province have followed the example of the rest of the continent in
caballing and forming resolutions against the measures of the Government.”*
As was to be expected, Governor Martin suspended Mr. Johnston from office, which drew from him the following dignified letter, now on file in the Rolls Office in London:
“EDENTON, November 16th, 1775.
“SIR: I have this day had the honor of receiving your excellency's letter, signifying that you had been pleased to suspend me from acting as deputy to Mr. Turner, in the Naval office, with the reasons for such removal, and it gives me pleasure that I do not find neglect of the duties of my office in the catalogue of my crimes; at the same time I hold myself obliged to you for the polite manner in which you are pleased to express yourself of my private character. You will pardon me for saying that I had reason to complain of the invidious point of view in which you place my public transactions, when you state that ‘the late meeting of the inhabitants of this province at Hillsboro, was a body of my own creation.’
“Your excellency cannot be ignorant that I was a mere instrument on this occasion, under the direction of the people; a people among whom I have long resided, who have on all occasions placed the greatest confidence in me, and to whom I am bound by gratitude (that powerful and inviolate tie in every honest mind,) to render any service they can demand of me, in defense of what they esteem their rights, at the risk of my life and property.
“You will further, sir, be pleased to understand, that I never considered myself in that honorable light in which you place me—‘one of the King's servants,’ being entirely unknown to those who have the disposal of the King's favors. I never enjoyed, nor had I right to expect, any office under His Majesty. The office I held, and for some years exercised under the deputation of Mr. Turner, was an honest purchase for which I paid punctually an annual sum, and which I shall continue to pay until the expiration of the term for which I would have held it, agreeably to our contract.
“Permit me, sir, to add that had all the King's servants in this province been as well informed as to the disposition of the inhabitants, as they might have been, or taken the same pains to promote peace, good order, and obedience to the laws, that I flatter myself I have done, the source of your excellency's unceasing lamentations had never existed; or had it existed, it would have been in so small a degree that e'er this it would have been nearly exhausted.
“But, sir, a recapitulation of past errors, which it is now too late to correct, would be painful to me, and might appear impertinent to you; I shall therefore decline the ungracious task, and by and with all due respect, subscribe myself,
“Your excellency's most
“obedient, humble servant,
“SAMUEL JOHNSTONE.”
He was a member from Chowan in 1775, to the provincial congress of the state, and succeeded, on the death of John Harvey, as moderator or president.
He was present at Halifax at the formation of the constitution in November, 1776, and although not a member, afforded all the aid of his experience and ability to develope the conservative features of that instrument. To many of the principles adopted, he was opposed, fearing the departure from the forms long established and practiced was too great to be useful.
In 1780 to 1782, he was a member of the Continental Congress.† In 1787, he was elected governor of the state. He was an ardent and enthusiastic admirer of the constitution of the United States, and presided at the convention, held July 21st, 1788, to consider that instrument, but it was rejected by that body. In 1779, he and Benjamin Hawkins were elected the first senators from North Corolina in the Congress of the United States: here they served till 1793.
In February, 1800, he was appointed one of the judges of the superior courts of law and equity, which he resigned in November, 1803. He died in 1816.
* Colonial Documents, Rolls Office, p. 184.† While a member of the Continental Congress he was elected to the high honor of president of that body; but he was compelled to forego this distinction because of the condition of his finances. This compelled his return to North Carolina, and he had thus to forego what was then the highest civil function in America.—Journal of Continental Congress.Governor Johnston was mentally and physically “every inch a man.” His intellect was of the highest order, cultivated by learning and experience. His person was imposing, of a large and powerful frame, erect and stately in his carriage, and of iron will. He joined the graces of the scholar with the wisdom of the statesman.*
He was a devoted advocate of masonry, and was in 1788, grand master of the order in the state.†
He married Frances Catheart, and had issue, among them James C. Johnston, who lived near Edenton, and died during the war between the states, about 1864, one of the wealthiest men of the state. He was so decidedly opposed to secession that he disinherited all his relatives, because they identified themselves with this war, and left his property, amounting to many millions, to his personal friends. At the outbreak of the war he freed his slaves. He was a great admirer of Henry Clay, whose debts, to a large amount, Mr. Johnston discharged without Mr. Clay's knowledge; nor was Mr. Clay ever able to ascertain who was his benefactor. His will was contested by his legal heirs, on the ground of his being non compos mentis.
About this time John Johnston, who had, in 1787, 1788, 1789, represented Bertie County in the senate, became a citizen of Hertford County. He had married Betsey Cotten, daughter of Godwin Cotten, of Mulberry Grove, and resided near there. He was of the same name and nephew of Governor Johnston, of Chowan.
He was a man of high culture, but died too young to attain the traditional prominence and usefulness of his family.
He left two children, Reverend Samuel J. Johnston, D.D., for years rector of St. Paul's, Edenton, and Sallie Anne, who married James D. Wynns. Esther Cotten, the only other child of Godwin Cotten, married in 1804 James Wright Moore, of Virginia. He was the son of Captain William Edward Moore, and was noted for his manly and noble presence, and his devotion to field sports. He, too, died early, leaving one son, Dr. Godwin C. Moore, and two daughters, Emeline, who married first, Dr. N. W. Fletcher, of Virginia; her second husband was Mr. LeVert, of Alabama, and Sarah Matilda, married to Turner P. Westray, of Nash, since dead.
The genealogy of the Johnston family:
John Johnston, brother to Gabriel Johnston, Governor North Carolina 1734, married Helen Scrymsour, and had seven children. I. Samuel. II. John, married Miss Williams and had the following children: (a) John, married Cotton, of Hertford County; (b) Samuel Iredell, university class 1826, rector of St. Panl's, Edenton; (c) Sally Ann, married to J. D. Wynns; (d) Elizabeth, married to Philip Alston had six children, and (e) Anne, married to Hunter, no issue.
III. Penelope, married to Parson Stuart, no issue. IV. Jane, married to George Blair, and had (a) Helen, married to Tredwell, had four children; (b) William; (c) Margaret, married first to Dr. Hormer, and second to Mr. Sawyer, and had seven children; (d) Samnel, and (e) George, married Miss King, member of legislature in 1829.
V. Anne died unmarried. VI. Isabella died unmarried. VII. Hannah, married to James Iredell, (Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, born 1750, died 1799,) and had four children; (a) Thomas; (b) Annie; (c) Helen, and (d) James, born 1788, Governor of North Carolina 1827, United States Senator 1828, died 1853, leaving issue.
It is stated that this family is a branch of
* University Magazine, VIII., 1.† “In the lodge room at Edenton,” says Mr. Banks in the Observer, “there is a remarkable chair of heavy mahogany, carved with all the emblems of masonry, with the words, “virtute et silento.” This chair is the one which General Washington occupied at Williamsburg, Va., and was deposited here during the revolutionary war for safety. It is a venerable relic, and possesses the reverence and regard of all masons.”the house of Annandale of Scotland. An illusion is made in McRee's “Life and Correspondence of James Iredell,” to the dormant claim to the Marquisite of Annandale, as existing in the Johnston family of North Carolina—nor is this claim a myth.
From a work on genealogy, reliable and valuable, (the Peerage of Scotland, containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom from their origin to the present generation, by Sir Robert Douglas, in quarto, 1813,) I extract the following:
“George, third Marquis of Annandale, died April 29th, 1792. He left an estate of £415.000. It is understood that the title devolved on James, (third Earl of Hopetown,) who, however, did not assume the title but took the name of Johnstone in addition to that of Hope. It has not been determined whether the title of the Marquis of Annandale has become extinct, or devolves on the heir male general of the family, or who is such heir male general.
“The motto of the family is ‘Nunquam non paratus.’—Vol. I., 77.
“The Johnstones were a race of brave and warlike men, of great power and authority on the borders.”—Vol. I., 70.
From Family Romance; or, Episodes in the Domestic Annals of the Aristocracy of Great Britain. A work by Sir Bernard Burke, author of the Peerage, &c., fourth edition: London, 1876:
“Margaret, Lady Ogilvy, (wife of David, Lord Ogilvy and daughter of Sir James Johnstone,) Third Baronet of Westerhall and Dame Barbara Murray, was one of the keenest supporters of the unfortunate Prince Charles Edward, when he raised his standard in Scotland in 1744.
“When the fortunes of Charles approached its close, Lord Ogilvy was unwilling to continue his support, and as the only way of securing her husband's attendance at the battle of Culloden, Lady Ogilvy rode herself with him at the head of the clan to the battle field, she was beautiful and graceful, and an admirable rider. At the close of the day, her husband rode breathless up to her, and told her ‘the battle was lost.’ He escaped to France, where he entered the army, and attained the high rank of Lieutenant-General under Napoleon. Lady Ogilvy was taken prisoner, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be executed in Edinburgh. She made her escape, by a fearless stratagem, to France, where she joined her husband; there she died at the early age of thirty-three. She left one son, David, who died without issue, and one daughter who married Sir John Wedderburn, heir of the House of Airlie.
“She had several talented, distinguished and fortunate brothers. Her second brother, William, married Miss Pulteney, daughter of Daniel Pulteney, sole heiress of the Earl of Bath. In consequence of succeeding to her immense fortune Mr. Johstone assumed the name of Pulteney. He became Fifth Baronet and claimant of the Marquisate of Annandale on the death of his eldest brother. Her only daughter was created Countess of Bath, died without issue. Her vast estates were inherited by her maternal relatives; the Duke of Cleveland, and Sir Richard Sutton; Sir William Johnstone Pulteney, heir in the Westerhall estate, the American possessions, and the claimant to the Marquisate of Annandale is Sir Frederick, the Eighth Baronet, great grand son of the third son of Sir James and Dame Barbara.
“Sir James's fourth son, John, went to India, made a fortune, and returned home, where he purchased large estates in his native country, Alva, in the County of Clackmannan, and the Hanging Show, in the County of Selkirk. The family of Mr. Johnstone's only son are numerous and prosperous.” Many of them emigrated to America; pp. 168 to 173.
Some members of this family were engaged in our late internicine war, and fell in battle.
Although it is unquestionable as stated by Whitman in his work on “American Genealogy,” that any given family in our country, claiming to be descended from any distinguished English family of the same name is doubtful, and such claims should be severely scrutinized; yet enough has been shown from the English authorities of unquestioned reliability, that the claim of the Johnston family in North Carolina to the title of the Marquisate of Annandale of Scotland has some
foundation and might reward the descendants in prosecuting the claim.
Joseph Hewes, born 1735, died 1779, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence of July 4th, 1776, from North Carolina, was long a resident of Edenton. He was a native of New Jersey, and a merchant.
He was a member of the Colonial Congress at New Berne in 1774, and in Hillsboro in 1775; often a member of the House of Commons, and a member of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, 1774 to 1777, and 1779 to 1780.
He died while in Congress at Philadelphia, on November 10th, 1779. He left a large fortune but no children to inherit it. He was possessing in person, and of great amenity of manners. His original miniature, beautifully executed, now in the possession of Miss Iredell, at Charlotte, shows that he was very handsome and of amiable countenance.
Mr. Hewes was a man of exquisite delicacy and refinement; he had been the accepted suitor of Isabella, the sister of Samuel Johnston. She died just previous to her nuptials, and he soon followed her to the grave.*
It is not very complimentary to our state pride that neither one of the signers of the Declaration, as delegates from the state, were native sons of North Carolina. William Hooper was a Boston man, Hewes, a New Jersey man, and John Penn, a Virginian.
Hugh Williamson, born 1735, died 1819, one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States, from North Carolina, resided for a long time in Edenton.
He was a native of Pennsylvania, born December 5th, 1735, at Nottingham, a physician by profession.
He represented the town in 1782, and the County of Chowan in 1785, in the legislature. In 1782, he was elected by the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, a member of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and served till 1785, and again in 1787-’88. In 1787 he, with William Blount and Richard Dobbs Spaight, was delegate to the convention which formed the Constitution of the United States, and their names are appended to that immortal instrument.
From his advocacy of the constitution, which was not accepted by North Carolina, he lost much popularity. But this was but momentary, for he represented the Edenton district in the First and Second Congress in the House of Representatives, (1789 to 1793.)
He served his country faithfully at home and abroad; was appointed at the head of the medical staff, by Governor Caswell and was with him at the battle of Camden, 1780. He was literary in his tastes, and wrote (1812) a History of North Carolina. He died suddenly in New York, (where he had removed and where he had married,) on May 22d, 1819.
Stephen Cabarrus, born 1754, died 1808, represented Edenton in the legislature from 1784 to 1787, and the county from 1788 to 1805, with some intermission, and was an acceptable speaker of the House of Commons from 1800 to 1805; from him Cabarrus County derives its name. He resided and died at Pembroke, near Edenton.
He was a native of France, and possessed the usual great wit and vivacity of his countrymen. That he was popular is shown from the repeated elections of the people, and that he was a useful member is evident by his long service as speaker. He lies buried at Pembroke, a large marble slat marks the spot of his last resting place. It is thus inscribed:
“In memory of Stephen Cabarrus, who departed this life on the 4th of August, 1808 aged fifty-four years.”
Honorable Charles Johnson was a useful and distinguished citizen of Chowan County. He often represented the county in the senate, (1781 to ’92,) and in 1782, 1789, was speaker of the senate. He represented the district in
* Moore's Historical Sketches of Hertford County XI., 556.the Seventh Congress of the United States in 1801; he died in congress in 1802. His son, Charles E. Johnson, represented this county frequently in the senate, 1817,-’19,-20, whose son, Dr. Charles Johnson, was surgeon-general of the state in the civil war, and who lived and died in Raleigh.
Thomas Benbury an early and active friend to the cause of the people—one of the Committee of Safety in 1775, was also a citizen of Chowan. He often represented the county in the legislature as early as 1774, and continued till 1781. He was speaker of the house in 1778,-’79,-’80,-’82. At one time Chowan County had her sons speakers of both houses of the assembly. One of his descendants represented Chowan County in the legislature in 1862,-’64, with George M. L. Eure as colleague in the senate.
James Iredell, born 1750, died 1799, one of the associate justices of the supreme court of the United States, resided in Edenton. He was a native of England.
His father was a prosperous merchant at Bristol, eldest son of Francis Iredell, born at Lewes, in Sussex County, on October 5th, 1751.
He came to North Carolina in the fall of 1768, when only seventeen years old, and held the office of deputy of the port of Edenton under his relative Henry Eustace McCullock. He was afterwards appointed collector, February 17th, 1774, by the Crown. He studied law, under Governor Samuel Johnston, whose sister, Hannah, he married July 10th, 1773.
He was licensed December 14th, 1770, and soon rose to eminence in his profession. In 1777, he was elected one of the judges of the superior courts, which he resigned in 1777. In July following he was made attorney general by Governor Caswell. In 1788, he was a member of the convention that met at Hillsboro to deliberate on the Constitution of the United States, and was the able, but unsuccessful, advocate of its adoption.
In February, 1790, he was appointed by General Washington, one of the justices of the supreme court of the United States.
Full of years and honors he died at Edenton, October 20th, 1799.
His name has been indelibly written on the history of the state, by calling after his name one of the most lovely counties of the state.
Judge Iredell was, as expressed by Chief Justice Marshall in a letter to Judge Murphy, (October, 1827,) a man of talents, and of great professional worth.
He left two daughters and one son: his death was hastened by his severe labors in riding the southern circuit.
“Repeatedly,” says McCree in his biography, “did this devoted public servant, in his stick gig, traverse the wide and weary distances between Philadelphia and Savannah.” “The life and correspondence of Judge Iredell, by Griffith J. McCree,” gives a full and accurate account of his character and services. This is the best work extract on North Carolina biography.
James Iredell, junior, born 1788 died 1853, son of Judge Iredell, was born, lived and died in Edenton. He was liberally educated, a graduate of Princeton in 1806, and studied law. Both in his legal pursuits and in political life he attained great eminence.
In the war of 1812, he raised a company of volunteers and became its captain. His associate and life long friend, Gavin Hogg, was one of the lieutenants. He marched with his company to Craney Island, near Norfolk, and aided in its defense against the British. After the war he returned to his profession, of which he was a distinguished member. He entered public life in 1816 as a member from the town of Edenton; (in 1817 and 1818 he was speaker.) He was returned to the legislature for many years. In March, 1819, he was appointed a judge of the superior courts of law and equity, which, in the May following, he resigned. In
1827, he was elected Governor of the State of North Carolina, and the next year was elected a Senator in Congress, succeeding Nathaniel Macon. He was succeeded by Judge Mangum as senator in congress.
After leaving the senate, where he was loved by his associates, and esteemed by the nation, he retired to the practice of his profession, which the support of a young and increasing family demanded. He was for a time the able and accurate reporter of the decisions of the supreme court, which are regarded by the profession as models of their kind, and authority in all the courts of the country.
Few men who knew Governor Iredell that did not esteem him; and to his intimate friends he was an especial favorite. Even in the heat of political contests, he never forgot the courtesy of life, or the dignity of a gentleman. His social habits affected much of his usefulness.
He married a daughter of Samuel Treadwell, collector of Edenton, by whom he had an interesting and numerous family. One of his daughters married Cadwallader Jones, now of South Carolina; another Griffith McRee, of Wilmington; another Dr. Charles E. Johnson, and another Honorable W. M. Shipp of Charlotte.
Governor Iredell died in Edenton on April 13th, 1853.
Dr. James Noreum, one of the most skillful and successful physicians of the county, was born and lived and died in Chowan County.
He was born in 1778, educated at the academy in Edenton, and studied his profession under Dr. Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia, where he graduated in his twentieth year, under such medical celebrities as Rush, Wistar, Shippen and others. He returned home, and by his skill and learning soon obtained an extensive practice. So extensive that he was often sent for in consultation from a distance of more than one hundred miles. His field of practice embraced the counties of Chowan, Perquimons, Parquotank, Camden, Bertie, Hertford and Martin. But this large and lucrative practice he was compelled to abandon on account of his health. Apprehensive of the consumption, he repaired to Philadelphia, and consulted Dr. Rush, who prescribed a long sea voyage. This advice was followed and for three years he was absent, visiting Calcutta and other regions. He returned in restored health, and resumed his practice at Edenton. Here he continued until his death. He was appointed surgeon in the army, which he soon declined. He was one of the first men of his profession. He wrote much on medical subjects, but only a few of his works have been published. Among them were articles on Tetanus, epidemic of 1816, on cholera, on scarlatina and on endemic fall and summer fever. He was a public spirited citizen and christian patriot.*
Gavin Hogg was born in Orange County and was distinguished as an advocate. He commenced the practice of the law in Bertie County, and removed to Raleigh, where he lived for a long time, and where he died. He had few equals and no superiors as a lawyer. His family was distinguished in the revolution. Governor Martin, the last of the Royal Governors, in a dispatch states: “The council have maintained their loyalty, especially Andrew Miller, John Hogg, and John Curden.”†
Writing of Gavin Hogg, the Economist (December 31st, 1878,) says “that Windsor was the starting place of his professional career, where he entered the legal arena, where he attained fame and fortune; he was a great lawyer but had no social affinities. He was stern and austere. The people respected him for his talents but never loved him as a friend. His learning and acumen gave him great power and influence. His argument in the
* From a memoir of Dr. Norcum by Dr. S. S. Satchell, 1852.† Colonial Documents, 225.case of Gregory against Hooker's administrator, is said to be one of the ablest among the reports of the supreme court, and when he retired from the bar he left no superior.
Joseph Blount Skinner, born 1780, died 1851, distinguished as a lawyer and statesman, lived and died in Edenton. He was the eldest child of Joshua and Martha Skinner, of Harvey's Neck. After spending some time at Princeton college, he read law under Governor Samuel Johnston, and attained distinction at the bar; so lucrative was his practice that in a few years he was the leading counsel in every case of importance in his circuit, and found himself possessed of ample competency. After the labors of more than twenty years, he retired from the bar to the more congenial pursuits of agriculture; he purchased a farm near Edenton where he lived and died. In this, as in his profession, he was eminently successful. He was a model farmer, and caused the waste places in that section to rejoice and blossom as the rose. His large farm became the admiration of all in that section—beautiful beyond any other in our state. In other pursuits he was equally successful and enterprising. He gave the first impulse in this section to that valuable industry, the herring and shad fisheries. Hitherto the fisheries had been confined to the Roanoke and Chowan rivers, and their tributaries. They were few in number and small in extent. Mr. Skinner, with his characteristic energy, ventured on the experiment, then deemed visionary and impracticable, and boldly launched his seines on the broad and oft vexed Albemarle itself, and succeeded beyond his own expectations. His example has been followed; previously the spring catch was confined to float nets and weirs, now the northern shore of the sound is literally studded with fisheries, and there are numerous seines 2,000 yards long, worked by windlass and horse power, creating a large industry, and adding annually hundreds of thousands of dollars to the wealth of this section.
Such a man may emphatically be styled a public benefactor; the people of Chowan recognized his merits. In 1805 and 1807, he was elected a member of the legislature, and again in 1814 and 1815. He was a member of the convention in 1835—the most distinguished body of men ever assembled in the state.
His course and position in the public councils have thus been described by his friend, Judge Nash: “His mind and character placed him among the ablest men of the legislature—and there were many of the highest range of intellect. Eminently practical, he brought to the discussions in that body a fund of knowledge and facts, and was always listened to with profound attention.”
He died on December 23d, 1851. He married in early life Miss Lowther, the great grand daughter of Governor Gabriel Johnston, who died several years before him, leaving an only son and a grandaughter. This son, Major Tristam Lowther Skinner, fell in the battle of Ellison's Mill. He had several brothers, Reverend Dr. Thomas H. Skinner, distinguished as a Presbyterian divine, and Charles W. Skinner.
Thomas J. Jarvis was born in this county, July 18th, 1836, and graduated at Randolph, Macon; he studied law and obtained his license to practice. During the war between the states he served as Captain in the Eighth Regiment of North Carolina troops. In the constitutional convention of 1865, he served as a member, as also in the lower branch of the legislature in 1868, in 1870 he was elected speaker of that body. Removing to Pitt, he was chosen a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1875. In 1876 he was elected lieutenant governor of the state for four years, 1877 to 1881, but on the election of Governor Z. B. Vance to the United States
Senate in 1879, he became the occupant of the Executive Chair, and in 1880, by the suffrages of his people, became their chief magistrate for four years.
Augustus Moore, born 1803, died 1851, lived and died in Edenton. He graduated at the university in 1824, in a class distinguished for ability, composed of B. B. Blume, John Bragg, (member of congress from Alabama 1851, and a judge in that state,) James W. Bryan, Matthias E. Manly, (judge of the supreme court of North Carolina,) David Outlaw, (member of congress 1747 to 1853,) and others; studied law with Charles R. Kinny, of Elizabeth City, and practiced with great success.
As an advocate, he had no superior for learning, diligence, accumen, or address. He was appointed judge of the superior court in 1848, and presided with great acceptability, learning, and integrity, but resigned the same year. He died very suddenly at Edenton, in 1851.
He married Miss Armistead and left several children. One of them, William Armistead Moore, late one of the judges of the state, and who wore with equal dignity and ability the ermine of his illustrious father.
William Allen, a representative in congress from Ohio, 1832, senator from 1837 to 1849, and Governor of Ohio in 1874, was born in Edenton, in 1806.
He was the son of Nathaniel Allen, who represented the borough in the House of Commons, in 1802, and was much esteemed for his genial qualities and generous disposition. He married a Miss Granbury, and their daughter married Mr. Thurman, a Methodist minister, and was the mother of Allen Granbury Thurman, late a distinguished senator from Ohio, and president of the senate.
As a statesman and politician, Governor Allen enjoyed a world wide reputation, and North Carolina is proud of her son. He died July, 1879, universally loved and respected.
We might extend our sketches by recording the character, and services of other distinguished men of Chowan County, “who have done the state some service,” as the Johnsons, Benburys, Coffields, Brownriggs, Haskens, Warrens, Heaths, and others, did the limits of our work allow. But before we close our sketch we cannot refrain from presenting an amusing incident, which, by its humor, may relieve the dry detail imposed on our kind readers. The account is from the gifted pen of “Traveller.” “I will close my letter by relating a true story of one of Edenton's gifted sons, Dr. Edward Warren, surgeon-general of the state during the war, and who has been serving a foreign power, and now resides in Paris. General Winfield Scott accepted an invitation to visit Nag's Head, on one occasion. Dr. Warren (than whom there are few better speakers,) was elected to make the reception address. As General Scott's coming was doubtful, it was understood that if General Scott was on board, it was to be made known by raising a flag on the boat when a short distance from the wharf at Nag's Head, when the salute would commence. The immense crowd on the boat at Blackwater, and business caused General Scott to return to Norfolk, and the steamer went on without him. Before reaching Nag's Head, it was suggested, and determined “to play a trick on the boys.” Colonel John B. Odem, late of Northampton County, now of Baltimore, the only living man in America who not only equalled, but surpassed General Scott in person, air, and figure was selected to personate ad interim the hero of Lundy's Lane. General Lawrence S. Baker, who was also along, kindly furnished a new uniform, epaulettes, chapeau, sword, sash, &c., to which chapeau was appended a flaming plume of red feathers. He “looked every inch a King.” Colonel Odem was squeezed in the uniform, for he was “a world too large” for the war clothes of General Baker. He played his
part to perfection, with folded arms he was stationed near the pilot house and received “the upturned sea of faces” with the dignity of a hero. As the boat neared the wharf the flag was raised, loud cheers followed, and cannon after cannon rung out a cordial welcome. When the boat gained the wharf, Colonel Odem took off his chapeau and made a graceful and dignified bow. Then Dr. Warren mounted a barrel on the wharf, and with a loud voice commenced; “General Scott, we welcome you to North Carolina! We hail you with delight and glory, as the hero of Chippewa, Cerro Gordo, Lundy's Lane, and Mexico, the greatest living representative of the warrior, and the hero of two glorious wars. Like our Washington, without a model and without an equal, ‘none but thyself can be thy parallel.’ ” He thus continued for ten minutes, making one of the most beautiful reception speeches, which captivated his audience. They expressed their admiration by loud and continued cheers. Now for General Scott. Colonel Odem, who stammers a little at times, and was evidently overcome, replied as follows:
“Gent-gentle-men; if, if, I, I, were Gen-General Scott; (which he pronounced Scart, with a slight hiss,) I would make you a speech-a speech. But I am not General Scart, Scart, I am only John B. Odem,-John B. Odem; and I shan't do it.”
“The crowd were furious, and madness ruled the hour; some were for throwing him overboard, uniform, feathers and all; some cried ‘kill him, kill him, for he has fooled us all.’ But Major Henry H. Gilliam, who was the marplot of the whole matter, and who knows very well how to get a fellow out of a bad scrape either in court, or out of court, interposed. He said, ‘boys, hold on, what are you mad about? Warren has given us as a good speech as you ever heard. I propose to wash it down in champagne: come up to the hotel, it is my treat.’ This was unanimously agreed to, and the crowd went to the hotel; the first order was for six baskets, and how many more has not been ascertained. At any rate there was not a bottle to be found, until the next boat from Norfolk brought a fresh supply.”*
This section of the state suffered sadly from the ravages of warfare, for after the fall of Roanoke Island the sounds and navigable rivers were open to the enemy's gunboats. These coasted up and down, and bore off the means and necessaries of life, living freights of fugitive negroes, and the low and skulking buffaloes. These were shameless and mean whites, who turned traitors to their friends, and betrayed them to their unrelenting foes. These were held in abhorence and contempt. They established a stronghold at Wingfield—the lovely homestead for years of the Browrigg family, previously occupied by Dr. Dillard, but the Buffaloes took possession, and the spacious halls, once the scene of elegance and beauty, were occupied by a foul and cowardly crew, who became such an intolerable nuisance that the building was fired.
These miscreants plundered all alike, the plate and pianos of the rich, as also the poultry and bread stuff of the poor.
The conduct of the colored population contrasted most honorably with the conduct of their professed friends, and is recorded to their undying credit. While every white man capable of bearing arms was in the field, the colored men remained at home cultivating the crops for the support of the helpless white women and their children. Although freedom, plunder, and every allurement was held out to them to leave their old homes and their old masters, many of them utterly refused, and many of them became warmly attached to the cause of their struggling masters. Moore, from whom I quote, states that in December, 1862, at Fort Warren, the humane federal commander, Colonel Dimmick, offered to release two colored men from captivity, William, the servant of Captain
* Raleigh Observer.Clements, and Brooks, the servant of Captain Sparrow, upon their taking the oath of allegiance.
They spurned the offer, and remained to share the fallen fortunes of their old friends and the playmates of their youth. Major Moore relates the fact that, when in command of the Third North Carolina Battalion, he sent his man, Harvey, through the country, then swarming with federal troops, to his wife with two valuable horses and a considerable amount of money. Harvey had every inducement and opportunity offered to desert his service, but he proved faithful to his trust, and returned to his master before his furlough had expired.
CHAPTER XIV.CRAVEN COUNTY.
CRAVEN County, like Chowan, contained many patriotic spirits of the early age of the state, and presents a glowing record of history. Around its venerable metropolis, New Berne, are clustered many memories of rare interest. Here landed the Palatines, led by the Baron DeGraaffenreidt, from Switzerland. The name of New Berne was bestowed by them in remembrance of the vine clad hills of their native land.
Here, for a long time, was the seat of the Royal government, and from here were the affairs of the colony directed by the long and gentle rule of Governor Dobbs, and here his successor, Governor Tryon, held his vice-regal court, and erected a mansion more palatial than any ever before seen on this continent.
A drawing of Tryon's palace and its ground has been preserved by Lossing, and it must have been a most magnificent structure. Time and the accident of fire have effaced its beauties, but the stables are still in a good state of preservation, and are now used as school rooms.
John Hawks, the grand-father of Rev. Dr. Francis L. Hawks, was the architect of the Tryon palace. Martin, in his history of North Carolina, states this building had at the time no superior in America, and that he in 1783, in company with Miranda visited it, and he stated that it had no superior in South America. In December, 1770, Governor Tryon, for the first time, received the legislature in its princely halls.
After the revolutionary war, the property was confiscated and sold. It was purchased by the Daves family. J. P. Daves donated the stable buildings to the Episcopal church. One of Mr. Daves's daughters married Governor John W. Ellis, and after his death J. E. Nash, of Petersburg. Governor Tryon's clock is in the possession of Charles C. Clark, and is still a good time keeper. His writing desk is the property of Z. Slade. It is of solid mahogany, and in perfect state of preservation.*
About the year 1709, Baron Christopher de Graaffenriedt led a large colony from the Palatinate of the Rhine, and in September, 1710, founded the town of New Berne. He was born in 1641, and was made a land-grave of
* Recollections of New Berne, fifty years ago. By Stephen F. Miller; Living and the Dead, January, 1875.Carolina by the lords proprietors. The Baron, after many trials and sufferings, nearly losing his life, became involved in pecuniary difficulties with Judge Gale, Governor Pollock and others. I found a letter from the Palatines, among the records of the roll office, London, which is as follows:
“July 23d, 1747, letter received from the Palatines in North Carolina, to his majesty the King, that six hundred of them had been sent out under care of Christopher de Graaffenriedt; that in 1711, an Indian war broke out; Graaffenriedt was taken a prisoner by them; that Thomas Pollock, acting as governor, sent Captain Brice, and took everything they had, and in 1747, the heir of said Pollock came and turned them off their lands, in order to settle the rebel scots.”
May 17th, 1748, letter from Governor Johnston that the statement of the Palatines is true, that many of their relations were murdered by the Indians, and they had been dispossessed as stated.
“They are very sober and industrious.
“Governor Johnston suggests that other lands be given them. Baron DeGraaffenriedt had returned home.”
“March 16th, 1748.
“ORDER OF KING IN COUNCIL:
“Governor Johnston shall make a grant of land to the Palatines as shall be equivalent to that that they have been dispossessed of by one, Colonel Pollock, and his heirs.”*
DeGraaffenriedt's son, and Lewis Michel, of Berne, came with him to America. Some of the family are still in this country.
Inquiry has produced a letter to Mrs. Mary Bayard Clark, dated Columbus, Georgia, January 18th, 1871, which shows the whereabouts of the American branch of the family:
“Christopher de Graaffenriedt (son of Baron Christopher de Graaffenriedt and Regina Tscharner, his wife,) married at Charleston, South Carolina, on February 22d, 1714. They removed to Philadelphia, afterwards to Maryland, and finally to Williamsburg, Virginia, where, on November 28th, 1722, Tscharner, their son, was born, being the first of the name born in America, and from whom all the family in this country are descended.
“This Tscharner was twice married, and had seven sons and four daughters. His oldest, Francis, the father of Dr. Edwin L. de Graaffenriedt, is now the sole survivor. He had several uncles who served in the revolutioary war; two of them killed in battle. His father was a captain in the revolution on the American side. His brother, William, of Lunenburg, Virginia, was in the war of 1812. Matthew Fountaine, son of another uncle, was aid to General Jackson in the battle of New Orleans.
“In the late civil war there were many of the name in the southern army.
“Two of the daughters of Tscharner married brothers of John C. Calhoun, who were wealthy planters, and lived on Broad river, South Carolina.
“Christopher died in 1742, in Lunenburg, Virginia.”
These people were keenly alive to their rights, and opposed to every form of oppression. It was in New Berne that the first provincial congress was held, in open opposition to the authority of England, (August 25, 1774,) which appointed deputies to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, (Caswell, Hewes and Hooper,) and sympathising with their oppressed and plundered countrymen at Boston, sent relief in the way of provisions and necessaries, declaring “the cause of Boston is the cause of all.” What an illustrious example to many who would still further distract and divide the people of our county! The committee of safety for New Berne, were Dr. Alexander Gaston, Richard Cogdell, John Easton, Major Croom, Roger Ormond, Edward Salter, George Burrow, James Glasgow, and others. The town of New Berne was incorporated in 1723, by the legislature then sitting at Edenton.
Francois Xavier Martin, born 1762, died 1846, author of a history of North Carolina, and some legal works, was long a resident of New Berne.
* N. C., No. 11, B. 88.He was a native of France, born at Marseilles, 1762. He was a printer and editor, and studied law, in which he became learned and distinguished.
In 1806 and 1807, he was a member of the House of Commons from the borough of New Berne.
He was appointed by Mr. Jefferson, a judge in the Mississippi Territory, and resided at Natchez. So acceptable were his services that on February 1st, 1815, he was appointed one of the supreme court judges of Louisiana, which elevated position he occupied till his death, December 10th, 1846.
He became entirely blind in his later years, but continued to preside with great acceptability, and acknowledged ability. He wrote a history of the State of Louisiana, as also of North Carolina.
The Blount family in North Carolina have been distinguished for more than a century for integrity, enterprise, intelligence and patriotism.
According to a genealogical table, prepared by the late Governor Clark, this family was of English origin, and figured in the reigns of Charles I. (1625,) and Charles II. (1660.) The head of the family was created a Baronet in 1642, as Sir Walter Blount.
He left four sons and four daughters. The younger sons sought their fortunes in America. From them, this family can be clearly traced in distinct lines to the present.
From Sir Walter Blount descended:
I James; came to North Carolina about 1664, and settled in Craven.
He was a member of the House of Burgesses, and was active in the Culpepper rebellion, which, for a time, held and controlled the province.
From the Rolls Office, in London, I copy a paper directed to the Lords Proprietor, “concerning the rebellion in Carolina, from 1663 to 1687:”
“The rebellion was a deliberate contrivance, subverting the government, dissolving the parliaments, imprisoning the lordship's deputies, putting the president of the country in jail, seizing and carrying away the records, assuming supreme power, convening assemblies, and last of all, a most horrid and treassonable action, erecting courts to try cases of life and death without authority.
“Captain Valentine Bird, collector, exported 150,000 pounds of tobacco without paying any dues. On hearing that Eastchurst was coming as governor, and Miller as collector, he took up arms with the rest of the subscribers and opposed Miller on his first landing, and drew his sword.
“George Durant contemned and opposed the governor with a rebel rout.
“Captain James Blount, one of the deputy's assistants, is one of the chief among the insurrectors. I wrote to him and the other burgesses of Chowan precinct. When the sheriff came, he, with one Captain John Vernham, took the sheriff prisoner, and raised forces to oppose the governor.”*
Sir Walter Blount's next son was:
II. Thomas; he had five sons. 1st, Thomas, who had five sons: (a) Thomas, who married Elizabeth Reading, distinguished in the Indian wars 1708; (b) James; (c) John; (d) Jacob and (c) Esau, twins.†
III. Thomas (son of Thomas who married Elizabeth Reading,) had four sons: (a) Reading; (b) James, Captain in Second Continental regiment; (c) John; (d) Jacob.
IV. Jacob, son of Thomas, was at battle of Alamance, 1771; a member of the provincial congress, and an officer in the revolutionary war. He married first Barbara Gray, second Mrs. Salter, was the progenitor of the family, had ten children, viz:
I. William, who was born in Craven County, in 1749, married Miss Granger, of Wilmington. Elected member of legislature 1783,-’84; of the continental congress, 1782-’83-’86-’87; in the convention which formed Constitution of the United States, in 1787; appointed governor of
* Colonial Documents, London, 15.† See Williamson's, North Carolina, I, 202.territories of United States west of Ohio, 1790; senator in congress from Tennessee, 1796; expelled from senate in 1797; member of the convention that formed state constitution of Tennessee. Died in Knoxville, 1810. He left one son, William Granger, who was in congress from Tennessee, 1815 to 1819, and who died in 1827, unmarried; and one daughter who was the first wife of General E. P. Gaines.*
II. Ann, daughter of Jacob, married Henry.
III. John Gray Bloant, son of Jacob, was born 1752. Married Mary Harvey; he was often member of the legislature, from 1782 to 1796, from Beaufort County. He was an extensive land owner and explorer. Often the companion of Daniel Boone. He died in January, 1833, leaving six children, viz: (a) Thomas Harvey, son of John Gray; (b) John Gray, in war of 1812; (c) William Augustus, (for sketch of whom see Beaufort County,) who died in 1867, leaving a son William, and a daughter who is the widow of General L. O'B. Branch, resides in Raleigh; (d) Polly, who married Rodman; (e) Lucy, who married General Grimes; (f) Patsy Baker, (unmarried.)
IV. Louisa, who married to Richard Blackledge.
V. Reading, who married Lucy Harvey.
VI. Thomas, born 1759, died 1807, was in the revolutionary war, sent to England a prisoner. He was a member of the legislature from Edgecombe, 1798-’99, and a member of congress in 1793 to 1799, 1805 to 1809, and 1811, and 1812. He died at Washington, (without issue) leaving a widow, the daughter of General Jethro Sumner, named Mary Sumner Blount, who died near Tarboro in 1822, made liberal bequests to Christ church in Raleigh, from which chiefly funds were realized to build the beautiful stone edifice in that city. When the will was drawn, fearing that religious bodies could not hold real estate against the claims of heirs at law, a provision was inserted that in case of a contest over the devises intended for Christ church, of Raleigh, those devises should vest in Judge Cameron and Dr. Hooper in fee, to be disposed of as their consciences might dictate. The marble slab marking her grave had been broken by the fall of a tree, or as some say, by a stroke of lightning, and the vestry of Christ's church, of Raleigh, determined to replace it, but these praise worthy intentions were frustrated by the inexcusable carlessness in the preparation of the original epitaph. It is verbatim, as follows:
“Sacred to the memory ofMARY SUMNER BLOUNTrelict of genl thomas blountlong a representative in Congress from this districtand daughter of genl. jethro blount.Died the 18th Dec 1822 in her 45th year.”Mrs. Blount's father was General Jethro Sumner, not “blount.” It must have been a difficult task to compress so many errors in so small a space.
VII. Jacob; born 1760; married Collins.
VIII. Barbara, born 1763.
IX. Willie, son of Jacob, born 1768, secretary to his brother William, while governor of territory west of the Ohio. Judge of the supreme court of Tennessee when only twenty-two years old, and the Governor of Tennesse from 1809 to 1815, (see Bertie County.) As governor he tendered to the United States 2,500 volunteers in the war of 1812. He died near Nashville, 1835, leaving two daughters; one married Dr. J. T. Dabney, and another to Dortch.
X. Sharp, who married Penelope Little, of Pitt County, who left two sons, William Little and George Little.
I have thus endeavored to present a genealogical diagram of a family whose members have been distinguished in the field, on the forum, and in legislative halls, as well as in social life.
* MSS. letter of Honorable Case Johnson.The table may be relied upon, as it has been the subject of much labor and research. Their lives and offices have been briefly alluded to, figures and dates given, leaving to other hands the pious duty of commenting in detail on their character and services.
Abner Nash was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia. At an early age he went to New Berne, where he studied and practiced law with great success.
He was an able and active friend to the rights of the people, and a member of provincial congress in 1774.
In the dispatch of Governor Martin, dated March 10th, 1775, he informs his government that the seditious leaders of the people have too effectually prevented the King's speech from operating to the extent he wished. Instead of yielding they talk of resorting to violence.
Enclosed is an advertisement of the committee at New Berne, which he calls “atrocious falsehoods,” and the composition of a Mr. Nash, one of the subscribers, who is an eminent lawyer, but the most unprincipled character of the county.
In another dispatch dated at Fort Johnston, June 30th, 1775, he writes:
“Since I had the honor of representing to your lordship the state of this country, various circumstances have occurred of which I think it my duty to give the best account my information enables me to lay before you.
“On Tuesday, May 23d, 1775, a set of people calling themselves a committee, met at New Berne. A motly crew, without any previous notice of their purpose, appeared, coming towards my house; I supposed they were the committee of whose meeting I had heard. I directed my secretary to signify my resolution not to see them. He soon came back, however, with a message that they were the inhabitants of the town of New Berne, who had come to wait upon me, and requested to speak to me.
“I directed them to be shown in, and I immediately went down to them.
“Mr. Abner Nash, an attorney and oracle of the committee, (of whom I have had occasion to mention to your lordship before as principal promoter of sedition,) came forward out of the crowd and said he had been chosen by the people of New Berne, then present, to represent that their purpose in waiting on me was in consequence of a general alarm of the people of that place at my dismounting some pieces of cannon which occasionally had been made use of on rejoicing days; that the Governor of Virginia had lately deprived the people of that colony of arms and ammunition. The inhabitants therefore requested and hoped that I would order the cannon to be remounted and restored to their former condition.
“Unprepared, my lord, for such a visit, and filled with indignation at the absurdity and impertinence of the cause assigned by Mr. Nash, I am satisfied that it was a mere pretense to insult me. I replied that the guns I had dismounted belonged to the king, and I was only responsible to His Majesty for any disposition I made of them, &c.”
But the next day, so precarious had his position became, that Governor Martin sent his family to New York, and he himself went in much haste on board of His Majesty's sloop of war, the Cruiser, Captain Parry, commander, never to exercise again the functions of Governor of North Carolina.
In the same dispatch, Governor Martin says “he had received an account on April 20th, between the king's troops and the people near Boston, which reached him a little more than two months after the event.”
In this dispatch, Governor Martin enclosed the resolves of the committee of Mecklenburg in the Cape Fear Mercury, a copy of which he says was sent by express to the congress at Philadelphia. This official dispatch would settle a question, about which there never should have been any cavil, question, or doubt.
These extracts from official sources prove the course which Mr. Nash pursued in perilous times. He was more of a statesman, however, than a soldier, yet he did the cause of his country as much service as if he were in the field. He played a leading part in that great
drama in which men and guns are subordinate appendages. He was a member of the Provincial Congress in November 1776, which met at Halifax, and formed the constitution of the state; and was the first speaker of the first House of Commons that ever sat in the state. He was speaker in the senate in 1779, and was elected governor at that session and served till 1781. In 1782 and ’83, he represented Jones County. He was elected a member of the Continental Congress in 1781, in which he served till 1786. He died at New York while attending congress, December 2d, 1786.
He married the widow of Governor Dobbs. He was the brother of General Francis Nash, and the father of Frederick Nash, late Judge of supreme court of North Carolina, sketches of whom may be found in the record of Orange County.
Richard Dobbs Spaight, of North Carolina, born March 25th, 1758, died September 6th, 1802.
He was born, lived and died in the town of New Berne. His family was distinguished in the early history of the country. His father was the secretary and clerk of the crown;* an office in dignity next to that of the governor. His mother was the sister of Arthur Dobbs, governor of the province from 1754 to 1766. He lost his parents at an early age. Blest with a sound mind in a sound body, his education was of the highest order. He was sent to Ireland, when only nine years of age, where he pursued his academic studies, his education being completed at the university of Glasgow. He returned to his native country in 1778, and found it involved in the fearful struggles of the revolutionary war, his immediate section was the scene of fierce and bloody conflict. His chivalrous temper caused him to volunteer his services to his country, and he was engaged in the disastrous battle of Camden, South Carolina, August 16th, 1780, as aid-de-camp to Governor Caswell. Although brave and enthusiastic, there were fields other than those of war, more suited to his genius, where his services and talents could be as beneficial to country's welfare and liberty, and in which men and arms are demanded, but not the most important elements of success. His countrymen appreciated this fact, and the next year, he was elected a member of the general assembly from the borough of New Berne, and re-elected in 1782 and 1783. By the latter body, he was elected a member of the Continental Congress, (which met at Annapolis on the 13th December, 1783,) with Benjamin Hawkins and Hugh Williamson as colleagues. The war had ended, and he witnessed the resignation by General Washington to that congress of his commission as commander-in-chief. The appreciation of the character and patriotism of Mr. Spaight, was evinced by being selected as one of “the committee of states;” in whom all the powers of the new government, (executive, legislative and judicial) were vested. When the convention was called to form the Constitution of the United States, which met at Philadelphia, (on May 14th, 1787,) he was elected a member. His name, with that of William Blount and Hugh Williamson, is appended to the constitution. He was a member of the state convention which met at Hillsboro, on July 21st, 1788, to consider the Federal Constitution, and advocated with all his energies its adoption. In this he was aided by such distinguished names as Samuel Johnston, James Iredell, William R. Davie, John Steele, Stephen Cabarrus and others.
But the active opposition of Willie Jones, David Caldwell, Elisha Battle, C. Dowd, Griffith Rutherford, and others, caused its rejection,
* Extract from Colonial Records in Rolls office, London; “Richard Spaight appointed secretary and clerk of the Crown” — “The general assembly prefer charges against Governor Dobbs, among them, that he had appointed his nephew, Richard Spaight, a paymaster in the army.”and the State of North Carolina, from July, 1788, to November, 1789, (when the Constitution of the United States was ratified,) presented the extraordinary attitude of a sovereign state, independent and self-governing, with no confusion within or coercion from without. This instructive page of history expresses the truth, that political reunion, like social union, can best be secured by concession, affection, and justice.
In 1792, Mr. Spaight was again returned to the general assembly, and by that body was chosen the governor of the state, which he held for three years, when he was succeeded by Samuel Ashe.
He was the first native born son of North Carolina elected as governor. He served while governor as presidential elector.
In 1797, he took his seat in the House of Representatives, elected from North Carolina, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Honorable Nathan Bryan, (second session of the Fifth Congress,) and re-elected a member of the Sixth Congress, 1797 to 1799. This was an important epoch in our government. The two great parties (then called Federal and Republican,) fought fierce and furious for power. Governor Spaight voted with his republican colleagues, Willis Alston, Nathaniel Macon, David Stone, and others. It was during this congress that Governor William Blount, Senator from Tennessee, was impeached, (or threatened with impeachment,) and for the first time the election of a president was made by the house. After these exciting scenes, Governor Spaight sought retirement and repose. His health was seriously impaired, and he sought relief in the milder climate of the West Indies. But the people called him again to duty, and he was, in 1801, elected a senator in the general assembly. This was destined to be his last public service. Party politics were never more active and bitter. These animosities pervaded not only public life, but private circles. Governor Spaight was the acknowledged leader of the party which supported Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Stanly, its active adversary. Led on by the maddening and maliguant influence of party spirit, on September 5th, 1802, Mr. Stanly challenged Governor Spaight to fight a duel, in a note taunting in its terms, and very opprobrious. They fought on the same day. Governor Spaight was mortally wounded, and died on the following day. This tragic event, from his long, varied, and illustrious service, caused a deep sensation throughout the state, and even at this day is felt with sad regret.
Such were the public services of Richard Dobbs Spaight. These are inscribed in the records of our nation. Of his private character we are not left to conjecture. One who knew him long and well has informed us that “as a private citizen he was upright in his intentions, and sincere in his declarations. Methodical and even mercantile in his business; no errors of negligence or ignorance involved him in litigation with his neighbors. Uniform in his conduct, respectful to authority, and influential in his example. Hospitality was a conspicuous trait of his character. The stranger was welcome, treated with cordiality, and entertained with kindness. His charity was universal. For the tale of sorrow he ever had a tear and relief. He was an affectionate husband, an indulgent father, and a compassionate master; consistent in his hours of study and recreation, no irregularities disturbed his course, or improper indulgence his repose.”*
No one, as a public man, could have held for a long and uninterrupted series of years, the affections, countenance, and support of his countrymen, without any effort on his part, unless he possessed substantial merit and unspotted integrity.
* Reverend T. P. Irving's funeral discourse on the death of Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight, delivered at New Berne, 1802.Like him of Scotland it may be truly said:
‘—This DuncanHath borne his faculties so meek, hath beenSo clear in his great office, that his virtuesWill plead like angels, trumpet tongued, againstThe deep damnation of his taking off.”By his marriage with Miss Polly Leach he had four children.
I. William, who died young.
II. Richard Dobbs, a leading statesman in the state; for years in the legislature; in congress from 1823 to 1825; governor in 1835; died unmarried.
III. Charles, who died unmarried.
IV. Margaret, who married Honorable John R. Donnel, one of the judges of the state from 1819 to 1836, who left four children.*
An accurate portrait of Governor Spaight hangs in one of the rooms of Independence Hall, Philadelphia.
DUELS IN NORTH CAROLINA.The kind dispositions of the people of the state, their unambitious tempers, together with aversion to acts of violence and blood, have done much to discourage the practice of duelling. Of late years there have been but few “affairs of honor,” so called. In our readings, however, we have met some cases of a custom “more honored in the breach than in the observance.” Doubtless other cases have occurred that we have never heard of.
Honorable John Baxter, (United States judge in Tennessee,) about 1850, met Colonel Marcus Erwin; exchanged fire, and Baxter slightly wounded; cause, political.
Bynum Jesse and Jennifer of Maryland, (same cause,) neither hurt.
Honorable Duncan Cameron, and William Duffy, met near Hillsboro; Judge Cameron wounded. Duffy represented Fayetteville in the legislature of 1806.
Honorable Samuel P. Carson and Dr. R. B. Vance, (see sketch of Carson.)
Honorable Thomas L. Clingman and Wm L. Yancy, (see sketch of Clingman.)
Joseph Flanner and Walker, near Wilmington; latter killed.
Louis D. Henry and Thomas J. Stanly, 1812, latter killed.
General Robert Howe and Gadsden, of South Carolina, fought May 13th, 1778, in South Carolina, neither hurt.
Honorable J. J. Jackson and Joseph Pearson; political, 1812, at Washington.
Thomas F. Jones and Dr. Daniel Johnson at Bladensburg, 1846, latter killed.
Law and Blanchard, (Bertie County.)
Scatterwaite and Kennedy.
Strong and Holmes, (Sampson County.)
John Stanly and Governor Spaight, (see sketch of Spaight.)
Edward Stanly and Samuel W. Inge, of Alamance; political; neither hurt.
Montford Stokes and Jesse A. Pearson, (Roward County,) Governor Stokes wounded.
Alexander Simpson and Thomas Whitehurst, in 1766; latter killed.
Yellowby and Harris.
John Stanly, born 1774, died 1834, was a native of New Berne. The son of John Wright Stanly. He was educated for the law; strong in mental as well as personal gifts, he attained high distinction in his profession. Blessed with a clear and musical voice, with manners at once graceful and dignified; bold and fearless in his elocution, sarcastic and severe in expression, he was in his day an advocate of great power and success.
He early entered the stormy arena of politics, and took satisfaction in mingling in its fierce and furious strife. At an early age, (in 1798,) he was elected a member of the House of Commons, of which he was elected speaker, and in which he continued, with intermissions, until 1826, when he, whilst debating, was struck with paralysis and never recovered. He was a member of the Seventh Congress, 1801-’3,
* See sketch of Judge Donnel.and again of the Eleventh Congress, 1809-’11. His application to Governor Williams for pardon, has been published; and is admired as being eloquent and dignified.
I have in my possession, the original petition of the members of the legislature to the governor, asking this pardon, signed by Duncan Cameron, Calvin Jones, John Allison, Peter Hoyle, David Tate, Daniel Glisson, Durant Hatch, John G. Scull, W. Lord, Peter Forney, Ephm. Davidson, George Outlaw, Robert Williams, and others.
In his political campaigns, in discussions in the legislature, and in debate at the bar, and even in private life, Mr. Stanly's course towards his opponents was marked with violence. Speaking of the unamiable trait in his character, Mr. Miller states: “Judge Donnell was an able, quiet, obstrusive, upright gentleman. He bore with great equinamity the biting sarcasm which Mr. Stanly was in the habit of thrusting at the court, where Judge Donnell presided, whenever it suited his policy.” Judge Donnell was the son-in-law of the first Governor Spaight. The same writer, speaking of Mr. Spaight, the second, says:
“Richard D. Spaight held a license to practice law, but was wealthy and diffident, he was not destitute of talents and learning.”
“I always suspected that Mr. Stanly was an obstacle to the professional success of Mr. Spaight, as Stanly was a man of imperious temper, and not satisfied with killing the father of Mr. Spaight, he seemed to delight in torturing the son, by looks and gestures, and intonations of his voice, when other methods were not used.”*
Mr. Stanly married a daughter of Martin Frank, of Jones County, whose handsome estate laid the foundation of his fortune. But it was not permanent. In the Recollections of New Berne fifty years ago, the writer says:†
“Mrs. Stanly was a country heiress, without cultivation or opportunity. Their nanatures and habits were incompatible; she was a shouting Methodist, he a staid vestryman of the orthodox Episcopal church.” His affairs became so embarrassed, that debts and judgments pressed him. To the kindness of a personal and political friend, he owned the house in which he lived and died. Here harrassed by creditors, with a body helpless from disease, a mere wreck of his former self; he died August 3rd, 1835. We may well recall at such a scene, the words of Ophelia:
“O, what a noble mind is here o'er thrown.The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue sword. * * *Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.”Mr. Stanly left one daughter, who married Walker K. Armstead, then an officer in the United States army, against Mr. Stanly's wishes. Mr. Miller says he never forgave her. When this worthy officer attained rank and distinction, in her old age Mrs. Stanly found a home under his hospitable roof, where she died. Mr. Stanly also died under General Armstead's roof.
His descendants, a number of sons, were:
I. John, idiotic from birth.
II. Alfred, resided in Fairfax County, Virginia.
III. Frank, became a Methodist preacher.
IV. Edward, was a member of the house from Beaufort, 1844 to 1847.‡
V. Alexander.*
VI. Fabius, United States navy (retired admiral,) resided in Washington.
VII. Cicero.
VIII. James.
Dr. Isaac Guion, of New Berne, was surgeon to the First Regiment North Carolina Continentals, commanded by Colonel James Moore. From neglect of duty he was suspended.
On July 6th, 1776, he was appointed commissary
* See our Living and our Dead, November, 1874.† Stephen F. Miller, in our Living and Dead, November, 1874.‡ For his sketch see Beaufort County.to an independent company under Captain Selby Harvey, stationed on the sea coast.*
William Gaston, born September 19th, 1778, died January 23d, 1844, was the son of Dr. Alexander Gaston, who was one of the most earnest and steadfast friends of the people, and one of the committee of safety for Craven County. He gave up his life to the cause of liberty; for, as the town of New Berne was attacked by the tories on August 20th, 1781, he escaped with his wife and children. He had only time to push off in a boat, leaving his wife and children on the wharf. One of these miscreants levelled his gun over the shoulder of Mrs. Gaston and fired. Her patriotic husband was shot.
This tragic event has been graphically described by a resident of this section of our state, who states that Dr. Gaston and Colonel John Green were dining at Dr. Gaston's house, when an alarm was given that the tories were coming. Gaston and Green arose from the table, hastened to the wharf only a few steps off, and jumped into a canoe; when off Cornel's wharf a platoon of the tories fired upon them, and both fell. The tories then retraced their steps. The canoe was the property of an old negro, John, who, after some delay, procured aid and started in search of his canoe, which was drifting about at the mercy of the winds and waves. On reaching it, he found lying at the bottom of his boat Green, as he supposed dead, and Gaston dying. He carried them back to the wharf, and then to Dr. Hazlin's house. The doctor pronounced Green mortally wounded, and Gaston seriously. Just the converse of this opinion turned out true, for the latter soon died, and the former lived thirty years afterwards. Dr. Gaston was buried in “Cedar Grove,” the city cemetery.
He left a disconsolate widow and two little children, a son, then only three years old, the subject of this sketch, and a daughter, who, in after years, became the wife of Chief Justice Taylor.
His early education was conducted under the guidance of a pious and patient mother. In the fall of 1791 he was sent to the Catholic college at Georgetown, where he remained for two years, but under the severe discipline and rigors of a variable climate, his health gave away, and by advice of his physician, he returned to the mild climate of his native land and the comforts of home. Under the care of Reverend Thomas P. Irving, he was prepared for Princeton, and where he entered the junior class. At the early age of eighteen, he graduated with the first honors of that renowned institution. He returned home and entered the law office of Judge Francois Xavier Martin. He was admitted to the bar before reaching the age of twenty-one, and soon attained greet eminence in his profession.
In 1799, he was elected to the state senate, and 1808 to the House of Commons, by which body he was chosen speaker.
In 1810, he was a candidate for congress, and was defeated by William Blackledge, but was elected to the Thirteenth Congress, from 1815 to 1817, and the Fourteenth Congress, from 1817 to 1819.
Here he occupied a position as the peer of Calhoun, Clay, Lowndes, Randolph and Webster. His speeches on the loan bill and the previous question present some of the finest specimens of reasoning and eloquence which the country has ever furnished. He retired from congress to pursue his law practice.
In 1824, he was elected to the House of Commons, and in 1827-’28 and 1831.
Here he rendered efficient and invaluable services to the state. The perfect organization of our then judicial system, and some of the best statutes of North Carolina, are the result of his sagacity and labor.
* Force's American Archives.In 1834, on the death of Judge Henderson, he was elected one of the judges of the supreme court, which elevated position was so germane to his talents and his tastes that he declined a seat in the Senate of the United States, which was tendered to him. Only once more did he appear as a statesman. He was a member of the convention of 1835, which body was, without doubt, the ablest that ever sat in the state. The first men from every section in the state, of the highest positions, and of the largest knowledge, were selected.
He aided the convention in making healthful reforms, modified the thirty-second article disfranchising Catholics, and opposed the proposition to deprive free colored people of the right to vote. Until this time they had possessed the right in North Carolina. The character of Judge Gaston as a statesman, pure and patriotic, is inscribed in the annals of the nation, and the state. His ability and learning as an advocate, none can question; and his patience with witnesses and suitors, his urbanity to his associates, and his respect to authority rendered him universally popular.
His manner of address in a court or the legislature was peculiar.
It was my fortune to sit two sessions of the legislature in the next seat to Judge Gaston, as also on the committee on the judiciary with him, and I had good opportunities of observing him. He had, or seemed to have, when he first arose to speak, a modesty that was as embarrassing to himself as it was to his audience. He trembled perceptibly at first, but after a few moments his emphatic and deliberate manner and subdued tones commanded profound silence and attention. He became perfectly possessed, and he commenced his argument with matchless and thrilling eloquence. As he progressed, the grandeur of his expression seemed to increase, whilst his illustrations were as luminous as a sunbeam, and his arguments carried conviction to the minds of his entranced auditors. There was no sophistry to mislead, no meretricious ornament to beguile; his person seemed almost inspired, and his countenance expressed a benignty of soul which marked his whole life and character.
The writer (Dalton,) already quoted, says of Judge Gaston: “He was a great man in every sense of the word. One was never tired of his company. His conversation was always interesting and instructive. He did not possess the excursive genius of Mr. Badger, nor the wit of Mr. Stanly. But his store of learning and well balanced mind, added to his unsullied character, made him greatly their superior. He had more matter of fact than romance in his character. He would have made a better historian than a novelist, and perhaps, too, a great actor.”
His last days were bright and glorious, and his end triumphant and happy.
On January 23d, 1844, while sitting on the bench of the supreme court at Raleigh, he complained of a chilly sensation, attended with fainting feelings, and was carried from the court room to his chamber. On that evening he was better, many friends called who were charmed with his conversation; and when relating an account of a convivial party at Washington, he spoke of one who avowed himself a free thinker in religion.
“From that time,” he said, “I regarded that man with distrust. I do not say that such a man may not be an honorable man, but I dare not trust him. A belief in an all ruling providence who shapes our deeds is necessary. We must believe and feel that there is a God, all wise and almighty—”
As he pronounced these words, he raised himself up from his couch to give emphasis to his expression, in a moment there seemed to be a rush of blood to the brain, and he fell back a corpse. The spirit fled from the scenes of earth, to meet that God in whom he trusted, and whose name last vibrated on his tongue.
Truly did his able associate, Judge Ruffin, say on the occasion of his death that he was “a good man and a great judge.” His remains were deposited in the cemetery at New Berne. A heavy block of marble, resting on the granite, surmounted by a cross, bears simply the name of William Gaston and the date of birth and death.
“I saw,” says the writer already quoted, “one morning, before the sun has risen Edward Everett and John R. Donnel standing together at the tomb of Gaston. Mr. Everett removed his hat, saying: ‘This eminent man had few equals and no superior.’ ”
Of such a man's memory the state may be justly proud. She has written his name on her towns and counties, and as long as talent is admired, or virtue appreciated, so long will the name of Gaston be cherished.
Judge Gaston was thrice married:
I. Miss Hay, of Fayetteville; no issue.
II. Hannah McClure, who died suddenly, in 1814, from alarm at the incoming of the British fleet. She left (a) Alexander F. Gaston, who was in the legislature in 1830, and who married (first) Miss Jones, and (second) Miss Murphy of Burke, where he died; (b) and two daughters, one of whom was the first wife of Judge Manly; she left one child, Hannah, who married a son of the Rev.Dr. Francis L. Hawks; she has since died leaving several children. The second daughter of Judge Gaston by this marriage was the wife of Robert Donaldson, of New York.
III. Miss Worthington, of Georgetown; issue (a) Mrs. Graham, who died recently near Marlboro, Maryland; (b) Kate, single.
John R. Donnel, born 1791, died 1864, a native of Ireland, and a man of letters, was educated at the university of North Carolina, and graduated in 1807, in the same class with Gavin Hogg, and others. He studied law and practiced that profession with great success.
In 1815, he was elected solicitor of the district, and in 1819 he was elected judge of the superior courts of law, the duties of which he discharged with dignity and ability for seventeen years.
His extensive property suffered severely from the tumults and depredations of civil war.
He died at Raleigh, October 15th, 1864, a refugee from his large estates and princely home.
Judge Donnel married Margaret, daughter of Governor Spaight, who left five children:
I. Richard Spaight Donnel, distinguished as a lawyer.*
II. Mary, who married Charles B. Sheppard. Mr. Sheppard was in congress 1839 to 1841, and who died 1843, leaving two children; (a) Margaret, who married Samuel S. Nelson; (b) Mary, who married James A. Bryan.
III. Anne, single.
IV. Fannie, who married James B. Sheppard; Mr. Sheppard died in 1870, leaving one son, John R. D. Sheppard, now in Paris.
V. C. Spaight Donnel, married Thomas M. Keerl, of Baltimore, where they reside.
John Sitgreaves, late United States judge, was a resident of New Berne. The first United States district judge for the District of North Carolina, was John Stokes,† appointed by General Washington.
He was succeeded by John Sitgreaves in 1790, appointed by Jefferson. He was succeeded by Henry Potter in 1803, who held the position until his death, December 20th, 1859. He was succeeded by Asa Biggs, appointed by Buchanan; the war suspended his functions, George W. Brooks was appointed August 9th, 1865.
The state has been divided recently into two districts, and Robert P. Dick‡ was appointed for the Western district by General Grant.
* For sketch of whom see Beaufort County.† For sketch, see Stokes County.‡ See sketch of Judge Dick, Gullford County.Judge Sitgreaves, was like his predecessor, a soldier of the revolution.
It is a remarkable historical fact that after a war, whether foreign or domestic, that the popular feeling centers on those “who have done the state some service” in the field. The remark of Lord Bacon is verified by facts. “In the youth of a nation, the profession of arms flourish; in its middle age, the useful arts; and in its old age, the fine arts.” See America, England, and Italy to prove the truth of this dictum.
Judge Sitgreaves was appointed by the Provincial Congress in 1776, an officer in Captain Cassell's company, and was in the battle of Camden, August, 1780.
He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1784, and a member of the House of commons (1786 to 1789) from the borough of New Berne.
Mr. Jefferson's diary contains the following:
“1789, Hawkins recommended John Sitgreaves, as a very clever gentlemen, of good deportment, well skilled in the law for a man of his age, and if he lives long enough, will be an ornament to his profession. Spaight and Blount concurring, he was nominated.”
He died at Halifax, March 4th, 1802, where he lies buried.
John Herritage Bryan, born 1798, died May 19th, 1870, was a native of New Berne.
In the Provincial Congress of November, 1776, at Halifax, three of this name were members. His early education was conducted by the Reverend T. P. Irving, and he graduated at the university in 1815, in the same class with Isaac Croom, Edward Hall, Francis L. Hawks, Willie P. Mangum, Richard Dobbs Spaight, and others. He read law and attained high rank in his profession.
He was elected to the state senate in 1823 and ’24, and in the next year also, and at the same time he was elected a member of the Nineteenth Congress, from 1825 to 1827; an unprecedented event, and the more so as he was away from home when elected to both of these popular positions. He accepted the seat in congress, and he was elected to the Twentieth Congress. He declined a re-election, the care of a young and increasing family demanding his services. He removed to Raleigh, where he lived many years, loved and respected by all who knew him, and where he died, universally regretted, in 1870.
He married the daughter of William Shepard, of New Berne, and leaves a large and interesting family. One of his sons, Francis, graduated at West Point, and was distinguished in battles in Mexico.
Edward Graham, born 1765, died 1833, son of Edward Graham, (who came from Argyleshire, Scotland,) was born in New York city, graduated at Princeton 1785, read law with Chief Justice Jay, and settled in New Berne.
He was a member in the legislature from New Berne, in 1797—his only public service. He was the second of Mr. Stanly in his fatal duel with Governor Spaight. He died in New Berne, March 22d, 1838.
He married Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward Batchelor, and had two children:
I. Elizabeth, born 1804, who married John P. Daves.
II. Jane Frances, married to William H. Haywood, late United States senator.
Francis Lister Hawks, born 1705, died 1866, the son of John Hawks, was a native of New Berne, and distinguished as a writer and pulpit orator.
One of his ancestors was the architect and superintended the building of the governor's residence at New Berne in 1771. Among the Colonial Records in London, I find that in June 29th, 1771, at a meeting of the council, he submitted his accounts of expenses for building the palace.
He graduated at the university in 1815, in the same class with Mr. Bryan, and others, as
alluded to in the sketch of Mr. Bryan; studied law and was the reporter of the decisions of the supreme court for five years, (1820 to ’26.)
In 1821, he was elected a member of the House of Commons from New Berne, but he resolved to devote himself to the ministry, and was ordained by Bishop Ravenscroft. He, in 1827, was assistant minister of Dr. Harry Croswell, of New Haven, Connecticut. In 1829, he was the assistant of Bishop White, at St. James, Philadelphia, and from 1832 to 1834, was the rector of St. Stephen's church, New York; during which period he visited Europe, with an introduction to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to collect material for a history of the Episcopal church in the United States, a fragment of which may be seen in his biography of Bishop White.
From St. Stephen's he passed to St. Thomas in 1832, and continued his connection with this parish until he removed to Mississippi in 1844. He was elected bishop of the diocese; which he declined, as also his election to be bishop of Rhode Island. At the close of 1844, he took charge of Christ church in New Orleans, where he continued for five years, during which time he gave his aid to the establishment of a state university, of which he was made the president. But he was called to fill the pulpit of Cavalry church, and he returned to New York and continued in this charge until 1861; he then resigned because he sympathized with the south, and took charge of a Baltimore church. One of his sons was major in the Confederate army. After the war was over he returned to and preached in the Church of the Annunciation, New York, where he died September 27, 1866.
He married a lady in Connecticut, by whom he had several children.
Dr. Hawks was true to North Carolina and proud of her glorious history.*
As a divine, his merits were brilliant and unsurpassed. An agreeable address, an amiable and placid countenance, a deep toned voice, expressive of pathos and feeling, modulated and eloquent in all its utterances, a warm southern sensibility and all marked with manly frankness, distinguished Dr. Hawks as one of the first pulpit orators of his age.
As an author he exhibited great learning and laborious research; the most voluminous our state has ever produced. Among his most important works are:
I. Reports of Supreme Court of North Carolina, (1820-’26,) in four volumes.
II. Digest of all the cases decided and reported in North Carolina.
III. Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of the United States, two volumes, embracing New York, Maryland, and Virginia.
IV. Egypt and her Monuments, (1849.)
V. Auricular Confession in the Protestant Episcopal Church, (1850.)
VI. History of North Carolina, two volumes, (1857.)
VII. Antiquities of Peru, (1854.)
VIII. Official and Other Papers of Alexander Hamilton, (1842.)
IX. Romance of Biography.
X. Appleton's Cyclopedia of Biography.
XI. Journal of General Conventions (1856) of the Protestant Episcopal church of the United States, from 1785.
XII. Under the pseudonym of Uncle Philip, several juvenile works for Harper's “Boys’ and Girls’ Library.”
XIII. He compiled from Perry's original notes “the Narrative of Commodore Perry's Expedition to the China Seas and Japan,” (1852.)
XIV. Lecture on Sir Walter Raleigh.
* This sketch is compiled from original documents and from a memorial of F. L. Hawks, DD. LLD., by Everitt A. Duyckinck, read before New York Historical Society, May, 1867. “Cyclopedia of American Literature.” “Dictionary of American Biography by Francis S. Drake, 1876.”XV. Lecture establishing the authenticity of the Mecklenburg, North Carolina, Declaration of Independence of May 20th, 1775.
At the time of his death he was preparing a work “on the Ancient Monuments of Central and Western America,” and a Physical Geography.
George Edmund Badger, born 1795, died 1866, was a native of New Berne. His father, a devoted patriot, was a native of Connecticut. His mother was a daughter of Richard Cogdell; who was one of the council of safety in 1775. He was educated at Yale College, graduated in 1815, and studied law with John Stanly, who was his relative.
He was elected a member of the legislature 1816; and in 1820, at the early age of 25, elected one of the judges of the superior courts, which he resigned in 1825. He then settled in Raleigh and pursued with great success his profession. He was appointed Secretary of the Navy in 1841, but resigned on Tyler's vetoing the re-charter of the United States Bank.*
From 1846 to 1855 he was United States Senator.
In 1851, he was nominated one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, but was not confirmed by the senate.
In 1861, he was a member of the convention and signed the ordinance of secession. His admirable letter to Mr. Ely, already presented, (see Beaurfort) gives the “form and pressure” of those unhappy times. The attendant calamities doubtless shortened his days.
As an advocate he had few equals, and no superior in the highest tribunals of the country. As an orator he was eloquent, learned and able; abounding in wit and humor, which sometimes appearance, of great geniality of temper he was a favorite with all his associates.
descended to the ludicrous. Of fine personal
But his transcendent powers as an advocate did not detract from his usefulness; not unlike Erskine, the giant lawyer, they did not dwarf the able statesman. It was his custom when entering the senate, to linger in the morning and have a pleasant word with nearly every member, before he took his seat. This he would not retain long, for he was less frequent in his own seat than in that of other members. Yet, with this apparent carelessness, he would catch and remember every word, whether trivial or important, uttered in debate, and ready to answer any question. He had a certain kind of humor to ridicule, in a pleasant way, even the most dignified of that distinguished body about any little mistake or blunder, either in their speeches or conversation.
On one occasion, when a senator was concluding a long and labored speech, (J. P. Hale) he remarked: “I guess I have said enough;” Mr. Badger who was just behind him said “I know you have.” This descent from the sublime to the ridiculous created a pleasant smile.
On another occasion, when he had moved that the senate adjourn over next day, being Good Friday, the motion was lost. “Well,” he said, “I submit, but this is the only judicial body that has ever sat on Good Friday, since the days of Pontius Pilate, who tried and condemned our Saviour,” Mr. Webster was present and remarked: “That Badger is the greatest trifler I ever knew; we are all afraid of him; he can make more out of a trifling occurrence than any man I ever knew.”
But there was pith and point in all he said and did. He had no superior or equal in his matchless ability for winnowing chaff from wheat, or the most brilliant flowers of eloquence from the dry detail of sophistry; and while he indulged in the humorous or ludicrous, he wielded his arguments with the force of
* It is singular that North Carolina has rarely been honored by having one of her citizens made a cabinet officer; but when so honored this portfolio seems to be assigned her. I. John Branch, 1829; II. George E Badger, 1841; III. William A. Graham, 1850; IV. James C. Dobbin, 1853.a Titan. His mind seemed so constructed, that like the proboscis of the elephant, it could pick up with equal facility the minutest object or the most weighty subject in its course. He would often treat the light and feeble argument with great seriousness, while he struck with ponderous blows the more weighty. His great power as a lawyer was acknowledged by both bench and bar and the whole community. He had no taste for mathematics, as he used to say himself he was never “skilled in arithmetic;” his strong forte was his power of analysis, burning eloquence, his deep and varied knowledge of his profession. Whatever argument was made adversely to his cause, with a wizard wand, he would transform the object to his tastes and wishes, and impress the mind of the court, jury, and audience with the soundness of his position.
Is not this genius, and was not Badger pre-eminently a genius in North Carolina?
He was a consistent member of the Episcopal church, and strictly conformed to its usages. This church, in 1853, had much trouble; its bishop (Ives) had shocked the diocese by an apostasy to the church of Rome. Judge Badger had for some time previous resisted the stealthy steps of the recreant prelate, and by his efforts counteracted his sinister influence.
Judge Badger was married three times; first, a daughter of Governor Turner; second, a daughter of Colonel William Polk; third, a daughter of Mrs. Williams, nee Haywood.
He died of paralysis, at Raleigh, on May 11th, 1866.
Matthias Evans Manly, whose distinguished brother, Governor Charles Manly, we have already sketched, (see Chatham) lived and died in New Berne, July 2, 1881. He was a native of Chatham county; graduated at the university in 1824, in a class of great merit; William A. Graham, Augustus Moore, David Outlaw, and Thomas Dews, were among its members.
He studied law with Governor Manly and settled in New Berne. He entered the House of Commons in 1834, as the member from New Berne and re-elected in 1835, was last representative from New Berne, for in that year the convention abolished the borough members.
He was elected in 1840 one of the judges of the superior courts, which he held until 1860, when he was elected one of the justices of the supreme court; this he resigned when war and violence “exhausted the judiciary.”
After the war was over, and the state reconstructed, Judge Manly was elected senator in congress, but was not allowed to take his seat.
He then, with commendable patriotism, presided as one of the county judges of Craven, devoting his learning and abilities to the good of his country.
There are few men of our state who possessed to a greater extent the sincere regard of their countrymen than Judge Manly.
Charles Randolph Thomas, who resides in New Berne, is a native of Carteret County; born in 1827, he graduated at the university 1849, in same class with Kemp P. Battle, William B. Dortch, Forney George, Charles E. Lowther, William G. Pool, James P. Scales and others. He studied law and settled in New Berue. In 1864, he was elected secretary of state, and in 1868 elected one of the judges of the superior courts, which he resigned on being elected a member of the Forty-second Congress, 1871-’73, and re-elected to the Forty-third Congress, 1873 and 1875, he served most acceptably and faithfully as a member of the committee on elections. He was not renominated to the Forty-fourth Congress, but in his stead a gentleman of African descent was elected
William J. Clarke resides in New Berne; he is a native of Wake County; he was liberally educated, and graduated at the university in 1841, in the same class with R. R. Bridgers, John F.
Hoke, Montford McGehee, Charles and Samuel F. Phillips, Horatio M. Polk, Jesse G. Shepherd, and others.
He studied law, and was very laborious and useful.
In 1846, he volunteered for the Mexican war, and was appointed captain of company I., 12th regiment of United States Infantry, with John F. Hoke as first lieutenant and Junius B. Wheeler and others as privates. At the action at the National Bridge he was severely wounded. He was also in the battles of Pasa Ovejas and Cerro Gordo. For his gallantry he was promoted. This war being ended, and his command disbanded, he returned home to his professional practice.
In 1850, he was elected by the legislature of North Carolina as comptroller of the state, which, after four years service, he resigned, and was succeeded by George W. Brooks.
When the civil war began he was appointed colonel of the 24th North Carolina regiment, and did much and varied service; endured much suffering and encountered
“—Most disastrous chances,Of moving accidents by flood and field;Of hair breadth escapes in the imminent deadly breach,Of being taken by the insolent foe, and placed into captivity—”for at one time, like Governor Vance, he was an inmate of the prison at Washington.
After the war was over, he returned to his profession, and was made one of the judges of superior courts of law and equity, in which posilie was succeeded by Judge A. S. Seymour.
Judge Clarke married Mary Bayard, daughter of the late Thomas Pollock Devereux, who was distinguished as a lawyer, and a successful and extensive planter on the Roanoke river; his mother was the grand-daughter of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, distinguished as a metaphysician, the president of the Princeton College. The early education of Mrs. Clarke was liberal, for blest with ample means, every advantage that wealth could bestow was lavished upon her. Her genius early displayed itself in prose and poetry; but her productions were then mere pastine. The civil war brought adversities to all, and unusual disaster added to this, her health began to fail and she sought the mild climate of Cuba for its restoration. With renewed health she commenced her career as an authoress. Some of her poems were collected and published in a volume, “Mosses from a Rolling Stone,” “The Idle Moments of a Busy Woman,” and many other gems. Her many war pieces as “The Battle of Manassas;” “Battle of the Hampton Roads,” and her “Rebel Sick,”, are calculated to rouse the feelings, while the simple touches of nature in her “Mothers’ Dream,” “My Children,” and “Smiles and Roses,” awaken the tender sensibilities of the heart. The “Reminiscences of Cuba,” and “Of noted North Carolinians,” show her skill and power as a pen painter of genius. In 1854, Mrs. Clarke published “Wood Notes;” in 1871, “Clytie and Zenobia; or, the Lily and the Palm.”
William Edwards Clarke is the son of the above. He was born in Raleigh on March 7, 1850.
He was educated at Davidson College, and read law at Columbia College, New York.
He was elected in 1876 a member of the legislature by 1,500 majority. He was a tutor in the Deaf and Dumb Institution.
CHAPTER XV.CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
WITH this county is associated the name of Flora MacDonald, born at South Uist, Scotland in 1720, and died March 4th, 1790.
She is celebrated for having aided and accomplished the escape of Charles Edward, the young pretender, after the battle of Culloden, April 16, 1746.
In 1750, she married Alexander MacDonald, with whom she came to North Carolina in 1773, and settled near Fayetteville in this county. He was a captain of the Royal Highlanders, and was engaged in the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, where he was taken prisoner, and confined in Halifax jail. Flora returned to Skye, Scotland. She was of much personal beauty, and of great energy and determination of character. On the voyage home an attack on the ship was made by a French ship of war, and when the English ship was about to be taken, she rushed on the deck, and by her example and courage drove the enemy off. In the contest her arm was broken.
Several of her sons were officers in the army. One of them was a colonel, and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The character and life of Flora MacDonald have excited the imagination of Sir Walter Scott, Mrs. Ellett and others. A more full and detailed sketch of her life and character may be found in “the History of the Jacobites,” and in the History of North Carolina, II., 126.
She died in 1790, and her name is still remembered by the old folks about Fayetteville with reverence and regard.
Foote has said of this amiable and illustrious character, “England has her Elizabeth, Virginia her Pocahoritas, and North Carolina her Flora MacDonald.”
Another character appears in the early history of this county, and as he was somewhat notorious, his name is presented—Farquard Campbell.
He was a shrewd and active politician, and tried to make favor with both sides, but as in all similar efforts, the favor of both sides was lost.
I find from a dispatch of Governor Martin to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated on board of the Cruiser, October 16th, 1775, the following:
“I am surprised to hear that the Scotch Highlanders have declared themselves neutral. This I attribute to the influence of a certain Farquard Campbell, an ignorant man who has settled from his childhood in this county, an old member of the assembly, and has imbibed all the American prejudices. By advice of some of my countrymen, I was induced to communicate with him, and sound him, in case mattus came to extremities, and was assured of his loyalty. He expressed to me his abhorence of the violence done at Fort Johnstone, and in other instances, and discovered so much jealousy and apprehension of the ill designs of the leaders in sedition, giving me at the same time so strong assurances of his loyalty, and of the good dispositions of his countrymen, that I, never suspecting his dissimulation and treachery, was led to impart to him the encouragements I was authorized to hold out to His Majesty's loyal subjects, which he received with much approbation. From the time of this conversation, in July last, I heard nothing from Mr. Campbell, until the late convention at Hillsboro, when he appeared as a delegate from the County of Cumberland, and there, according to my information, unasked and unsolicited, and without provocation of any sort, he was guilty of the base treachery of promulgating all I had said to him in confidential secrecy, which he had promised sacredly to observe, and aggravating the crime of falsehood by adding his own invention, in declaring he had rejected all my propositions.”
This shows the opinion of Governor Martin. Campbell received as little favor from the other side, for the next fall he was seized by Colonel Folsome in his own house, while entertaining a party of Highland loyalists, and taken to Halifax jail.
The following letter from Colonel Moore will show the status of Mr. Campbell with the whig side.
“CAMP AT MOORE'S CREEK,
“February 27th, 1776.
“SIR: I have thought proper to send down Mr. Farquard Campbell to be examined by your committee.
“He has been accused of aiding and abetting the tories in their late schemes, and was carried a prisoner to Colonel Caswell's camp. He has now fallen into my hands, and I send him to you to deal with him as you think proper.
“A Daniel Williams, of Duplin, who was a prisoner among the tories, says that he heard Captain McCloud say that they intended to go to the governor by the way of Rockfish; but that Mr. F. Campbell advised them to take the route they have done, and that in a few hours, by his means they might have notice of anything that was transacted in our camp. I am, sir,
“Your very humble servant,
“JAMES MOORE.”
“To the chairman of the committe of Wilmington, N. C.”
“Ever strong upon the stronger side,” when the revolution ended in our independence, Campbell was claimed to be a whig, and was senator in 1791-’92-’93, from Cumberland.
Wm. Barry Grove, resided in Cumberland County, and represented it in the legislature in 1788-’89, and this district in congress 1791 to 1803. He was in congress during the struggle between Jefferson and Burr, and supported the latter for presidency.
We have been able to gather but little from the annals of congress or from private sources, of the life and character of Mr. Grove, and leave this duty to some son of the Cape Fear district.
He was the only member of the North Carolina delegation in the house who supported the sedition law, which passed the house May 21, 1798. He supported Jay's British Treaty, so universally repudiated by the south. He was joined by Governor Martin in support of these Federal measures, which was the death warrant of both in their political lives. Governor Martin in 1801, was succeeded by Governor Franklin and Grove by Samuel D. Purviance of Fayetteville.
He married Sarah, daughter of Egbert Haywood and Sally Ware, the aunt of Honorable William S. Ashe.
Mr. Moore says that he was prompt, vivacious and a devoted advocate for the adoption of the new constitution; that he and John Hay had married the daughters of Colonel Rowan, both residents of Fayetteville.
John Louis Taylor born March 1, 1769, died January, 1829, resided for many years in Fayetteville. He was born in London, of Irish parents; he was deprived, at an early age, of his father, and was brought to this country by an elder brother, when he was only twelve years old. By the aid of this brother, he enjoyed the advantages of education, and spent two years at William and Mary college in Virginia. He then came to this state, studied law, and settled at Fayetteville. His success at the bar was complete. His gentle and unobstrusive bearing, his deep learning, and kind temper soon gained him practice and “troops of friends.” He was elected in 1792,-’93,-’94 to represent the town of Fayetteville in the House of Commons. During this last year, the office of attorney-general became vacant; he with Messrs. Blake Baker and Robert Williams were nominated for the office, and Mr. Baker was elected.
He now devoted all his talents and time to his profession, and even with such competitors as Hay, Duffy, Williams, and others, he had a large and lucrative practice. He removed to New Berne in 1796.
In 1798, he was elected a judge of the superior courts of law and equity. At this time the state was divided into eight judicial districts, Edenton, Halifax, New Berne, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Hillsboro, Salisbury, and Morganton. Court was held twice a year, at which two of the four judges had to preside. These courts had supreme jurisdiction, for there was no court of appeals, and their decisions were final. This obvious defect was endeavored to be remedied by the act of 1799, directing the judges to meet together at Raleigh twice a year to settle questions of law and equity arising on the circuits. In 1801, the act of 1799 was continued for three years, and the meeting of the judges was called “the court of conference.”
In 1804, this was made a permanent tribunal, and its name changed in the following year to that of “the Supreme Court.” In 1808 the judges were authorized to appoint one of their number chief justice, and Judge Taylor was selected. In 1818, the supreme court was established, and John Lewis Taylor, John Hall and Leonard Henderson were appointed to hold it. Judge Taylor continued as chief justice until his death, which occurred at Raleigh, January 29, 1829.
Soon after his appointment, Judge Taylor began to take notes of the cases decided by him and his associates; and in 1802 he published “Cases Determined in the Superior Courts of Law and Equity of the State of North Carolina.”
In 1814, he published anonymously the first, and in 1816 the second volume of “the Carolina Repository;” also another volume of reports from 1816 to 1818, known as “Taylor's Term Reports.” His charge to the grand jury of Edgecombe, in 1817, was published at the request of the grand jury, and is a model of its kind, showing the various offences that grand juries are bound to notice, and a general summary of their duties.
By the act of 1817, he was appointed with Henry Porter and Bartlett Yancey to revise the statute law of the state, and the statutes of England in force in the state. This work was completed and published in 1821. In 1825, Judge Taylor continued this work. He, about the same time, published a treatise “on the Duties of Executors and Administrators.”
This devoted loyalty to his profession did not prevent Judge Taylor from worshipping at the shrine of the muses. There was not, perhaps, a better belles lettres scholar in his day. While at the bar he possessed a singular felicity of expression, which always seized the most appropriate word suited to the thought. His efforts were distinguished by a playful, benevolent humor, great ingenuity and skill in argment, and a most retentive memory. Always polite to his associates, and respectful to the court, with high and generous feelings, he was loved and respected. Of the mode in which he exercised the functions of a judge of this highest tribunal in our land, his recorded opinions will demonstrate, and these are models of eloquence and logic, whilst they are admired for their research and classic beauty.
As a neighbor, no one had a more benevolent disposition, more sincere in his friendships or more affectionate in all the relations of life. His tribute to the memory of the late James F. Taylor, who died in 1828, is creditable alike to his head and heart.* This gentleman, though bearing the same name, was no blood relation, and was only connected by having married his adopted daughter, Eliza L. Manning. Judge Taylor was twice married. His first wife was Julia Rowan, by whom he had one daughter, who married Major Sneed, a son of whom was attorney-general of Tennessee. The second wife was Jane Gaston, a sister of Judge Gaston, by whom he had one daughter, who married David E. Sumner, of
* This may be found in 1 Devereux Reports, 527.Hertfort County, and a son, John Louis, who died years ago, unmarried.
Henry Potter, born 1765, died 1857, was for more than half a century judge of the United States District Court for the state of North Carolina, appointed in 1801 by Mr. Jefferson. He resided in Fayetteville; he was a native of Granville County.
Of his early education we have no information. But he was for years a trustee and an active friend of the university. Kind and courteous in his manners, upright and patient as a judge, he possessed abilities of a reputable order; but to preside as the associate of Marshal, Daniel, and Wayne, demanded no ordinary powers. In the latter days of his life he was fond of narrating the events of his youth. He had known Washington, and heard him deliver his first address to congress at Philadelphia. He knew Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Hamilton, Charles Carroll, Rufus King and other celebrities of the revolution, as well Richard Caswell, Judge Iredell, Governor Johnstone, Nash, Burke, Spaight, Ashe, Davie, and others of our own state, and such giants as Cameron, Gaston Toomer, Means, Duffy and Strange had practiced before him; all of whom preceded him to the grave. Had he written the reminiscences of his times. How agreeable would such a work have been to our age!
He wrote a work “on the Duties of a Justice of the Peace,” and with Yancey and Taylor revised our statute laws. He died December 20, 1857.
John D. Toomer was a native of Wilmington; educated at the university but did not graduate.
He represented this county in the senate of the state legislature in 1831 and 1832, and succeeded Judge Strange, in the house in 1836. He had been a judge of the superior courts in 1818, and was on the supreme court bench in 1829, by appointment of the governor, but was not elected by the legislature. In 1836, he was again on the superior court bench which he resigned from ill health in 1840. He was an eloquent advocate, a learned judge, a writer of great literary attainments, and an accomplished and urbane gentleman. He died in Pittsboro in 1856.
Louis D. Henry, born 1788, died 1846, resided for years in this county. He was a native of New Jersey, educated at Princeton, where he graduated in 1809. He read law with his uncle, Edward Graham, in New Berne, and practiced with great success. He was distinguished for his courteous manners, his finished elocution, and his accurate and extensive memory. His genial temper and popular manners were duly appreciated by his fellow citizens. He represented the county 1821 and 1822, and the town in 1830-’31 and ’32, and in the latter year was chosen speaker.
In early life, when quite young, he became involved in a duel with Thomas J. Stanly, (about 1812) which terminated in the death of the latter.
He was appointed Minister to Belguim by the President (VanBuren,) which mission he declined, but he accepted the appointment of commissioner to settle claims against Spain.
In 1842, he made an unsuccessful campaign as candidate for governor of the state. This was his last appearance in political life, for four years after he died suddenly at his residence in Raleigh.
Mr. Henry was no ordinary man. Gifted by nature with high mental endowments, cultivated by education, of a most agreeable presence, an exquisite taste for poetry and music, with most melodious voice, he was a welcome and favoured guest wherever he moved.
Mr. Henry was twice married. By his last wife, who survived him, he had several children. One of whom married Duncan K. McRae, another John H. Manly, and another was the first wife of R. P. Waring, of Charlotte.
Robert Strange, born 1796, died February 19th, 1854, who lived and died in Fayetteville, was a native of Virginia. He was educated at Hampden Sydney, studied law and settled at Fayetteville, from which town he was elected a representative to the legislature 1821; re-elected, with two intermissions, until 1836, when he was elected one of the judges of the superior courts, in which position he was so acceptable that in 1836, he was elected United States senator. Here he shone conspicuous for the suavity of his manners, his affable demeanor, and his brilliant abilities. Under instructions from the legislature, elected in the phrensy of the “Log Cabin” campaign of 1840, he resigned, glad to escape from “the peltings of the storm” of political life to the more germane and profitable pursuits of the law, which he practiced with great success until his death. He was twice married. His second wife, Mrs. Nelson, survived him but a short time.
James Cochrane Dobbin, born 1814, died August 4, 1857, was born, lived, and died in Fayetteville. He was the son of John M. Dobbin, and Abness, daughter of James Cochrane, after whom he was named, and who represented the Orange district in the Twelfth Congress, 1811 and 1813. His father, a successful merchant in Fayetteville for thirty years, died in 1837 universally loved and lamented.
Mr. Dobbin was prepared for college by William J. Bingham, of Hillsboro; in 1828 he entered the freshman class. His course in college was marked by a faithful discharge of every duty. Though much the youngest member of the class, during the whole collegiate course, he was among the first, and graduated with high honors in 1832, and this was no idle and empty compliment, when it is stated that such minds as Thomas S. Ashe, (now one of the judges of the supreme court,) Thomas L. Clingman, late United States senator; John H. Haughton, distinguised as a statesman and advocate; Cadwallader Jones, late attorney-general of the state; Richard H. Smith, and others, composed the class.
His gentle and genial manners, and frank and gentlemanly deportment made him a universal favorite with the faculty and students, and so won upon the affections of the venerable president, Dr. Caldwell, that he was often heard to say: “it would gladden his heart to be the father of such a son as James C. Dobbin.”
He read law with Judge Strange, then one of the judges of the superior courts, with whom he was a special favorite.
He was admitted to the bar in 1835, and devoted all of his energies to the profession. In it he was eminiently successful; this, too, at a bar adorned by Toomer, Eccles, Henry, and others.
He was often solicited to represent his county, but he invariably declined, alledging that he felt more satisfaction in the discharge of his professional duties, and in the quiet comforts of his family, than in the contests of political warfare.
But such talents and merit could not remain unappreciated. In 1845, unsolicited and unexpectedly to him, he was nominated for congress by a convention in the Raleigh district. The district was a doubtful one, and had previously only been carried by a small majority for the democratic ticket.
The opposition was able and active, and his competitor, John H. Haughton, a practiced and successful politician. Yet such was the gallant and genial bearing of Mr. Dobbin and his captivating and winning eloquence, that he was elected by a majority of two thousand votes. His fame preceded him to congress, and he was placed on the committee of elections, a most important and trying position for a young and inexperienced member. But here he so bore himself as to win the approbation of his associates, by a close attention to his
duties, deciding according to the justice of each case, and his own convictions of right although frequently to the prejudice of his own own party.
His speech on the Oregon question; the three million bill; Mexican war; public lands; the tariff, and other questions, established for him the reputation of a sagacious and honest statesman. After his term expired he declined a re-election to congress, intending to devote himself to his profession, in which he now stood in the foremost rank. But the people did not allow him to retire from their service; he was returned from the county in 1848, 1850 and 1852, to the legislature. He was chosen the speaker of the house in 1848 and 1850. His course, so patriotic and yet so modest, commanded the respect and regard of all. His efforts in behalf of the Insane Asylum, on the memorial of that “white winged messenger of peace,” Miss Dix, is the monument of his patrotism and his philanthrophy. The memorial was referred to a select committee, on motion of John W. Ellis, and a bill was reported by him appropriating one hundred thousand dollars. In the mean time, Mr. Ellis, on being elected judge, resigned, the laboring oar was then allotted to Hon. Kenneth Rayner, who, in a speech of great power and of impassioned eloquence, advocated the measure; but it was lost by a vote of 66 to 44, and the measure seemed to be irretrievably lost.
Miss Dix felt deeply the failure of a measure so dear to her heart and to humanity; she called on Mr. Dobbin, who had not been present at the discussion, his lovely wife having only a day or so previously died; Miss Dix reminded him of his wife's earnest request to support this bill. The appeal did not fall unheeded. The next day the bill was reconsidered. Mr. Dobbin, in the language of the Raleigh Register, “delivered one of the most touching and beautiful efforts ever heard in the legislature.” The bill passed almost unanimously.
The stranger, wandering in our midst, as he gazes in pride on “the cloud capt turrets” of this splendid edifice, erected at our capital, may well pause and breath a benediction and thanks to the names of Dorathea Dix, Kenneth Rayner and James C. Dobbin.
Mr. Dobbin's next public service was as a delegate to the convention at Baltimore to nominate candidates for president and vice-president. He was elected the chairman of the North Carolina delegation. After a protracted and animated canvass, it was found impossible to nominate Buchanan, Marcy, Cass, or Douglas, or any one acceptable to the contending factions. It was apprehended that the convention would adjourn in confusion, and without any nomination. At this crisis Mr. Dobbin arose, and in a modest, unobstrusive manner, and with matchless eloquence,
“— Like the sweet South,Breathing on a bank of violets,Stealing and giving odor,”spoke as follows:
“Mr. President: Pardon me for obtruding one word before North Carolina casts her vote. We came to pander to no factions artifices here, to enlist under no man's banner at the hazard of principle; to embark in no crusade to prostrate any aspirant for the sake of sectional or personal triumph. We came here to select one of the army of noble spirits in our ranks to be our leader and champion in the glorious struggle for the great principles of democracy.
“Again, and again, have we tendered the banner to the North. Save our happy Union, guard well the rights of the states, say we, and you can have the honor of the standard bearer. Zealously and sincerely have we presented the name of Buchanan, the nobe son of the Key Stone state, around whom the affections of our hearts have so long clustered. We have turned to the Empire State, New York, and sought to honor one of her distinguished sons. We now feel that in the midst of discord and destruction, the olive branch, if tendered once more, cannot be refused. We
feel the hour now has come when the spirit of strife must be banished, and the mild, gentler and holier spirit of patriotism reign in its stead! Come then, Mr. President, let us go to the altar and make sacrifices for our beloved country. We now propose, with other friends, the name of one who was in the field just long enough to prove himself a gallant soldier, and who was long enough in the councils of the nation to demonstrate that he is a statesman of the strong mind and honest heart; who has exhibited in the career of legislation, that he knew the rights of the South, while he respected those of the North, as well as of the East and the West; whose principles of democracy are as solid and enduring as the granite hills of his own New Hampshire native land—General Franklin Pierce.
“Come, friends and brothers, let us strike hands now; now for harmony and conciliation, and save our cherished principles and our beloved country.”
This speech was cheered with the wildest enthusiasm. Several states, as Vermont and New Jersey, changed their votes to Pierce. The delegations from New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana and other states, retired for consultation, but soon returned and joined their voices in the general pean of joy. Dispatches and congratulations on the event were received from Douglas, Houston, and others. The president of the convention then announced the vote (two hundred and eighty-three) for Franklin Pierce.
It was acknowledged that the address of Mr. Dobbin had done much to secure this result. He was selected as one of electors with Burton Craige, L. O'B. Branch, Thomas Bragg, and others, and made a gallant campaign for the ticket and cast the vote of the state for Pierce and King.
At this time (1852,) the legislature had to elect a senator in congress. The democratic party in caucus, with much unanimity, nominated Mr. Dobbin. The parties (democrat and whig) were nearly equally divided. The selfish ambition of one or two aspirants prevented an election; although on several ballots Mr. Dobbin received within one or two of enough votes to elect him. All of us who were members of that legislature can remember the intense excitement of the time. The opposition was able, active, and not over scrupulous. They could not elect; but by aid of one or two meddling marplots of the other side they could prevent the election of the democratic candidate. Amid all this excitement Mr. Dobbin appeared the only calm and considerate person among us. After some forty ballotings, he requested that a caucus should be called, and with unaffected sincerity and glowing eloquence he requested his name to be withdrawn and some other person voted for. He saw with sorrow the party distracted by jealousies, and a fearful chasm of disorder had been opened, engulphing its unity, if not its very existence. He withdrew his name; but it was in vain. If he could not be elected no other person should be, and the state had only one senator for a long time.
On the accession of General Pierce, without any effort of friends or himself, and unexpected to all, for he had recommended another, he was tendered the position of Secretary of the Navy. The manner of his successful discharge of these important duties, his pure and unspotted integrity, gave more strength to this branch of the public service than it has ever received before or since. His decided and frank course, his gentle and knightly courtesy, his frank and open demeanour won the hearts of those in the service, and he left the department without an enemy in or out of the navy.
He possessed in a high degree the faculty of “reading men,” and the talent of discerning merit. He granted with promptness any reasonable request, while he could refuse with delicacy and tact, any improper application. Whilst his health was always delicate, yet he attended laboriously every duty of this important position. It is a singular fact, already alluded to, that our state has rarely been honored
by a cabinet appointment, but when it has it was the Navy Department.
It is also singular that the cabinet of Pierce, which has had no superior in the history of the republic for integrity, ability, or usefulness, is the only cabinet that ever existed, in which there was, during its legal existence, perfect integrity, with out resignation or change. These distinguished men seemed to be as united in their social and official relations, as they were for the welfare and honor of their country.
This terminated, the public life of Mr. Dobbin, a career so brilliant and yet so short.
In private life his character exhibited itself still more lovely. As a son, he was obedient and docile; as a husband, tender; as a father, provident and affectionate, and as a friend sincere, frank, and unselfish.
I trust it will not be deemed ostentatious when I say of Mr. Dobbin, as did Anthony of Cæsar: “He was my friend, faithful and just, to me” earnest and sincere. He sustained my course, when absent from the country under peculiar circumstances, when assailed by prejudice and sectional jealousy. I allude to the course pursued by me in Central America. To the last hour of his life he continued his kindly offices.
As I was leaving the country, I received the following letter, which better expresses his friendship and generous, noble nature than any possible language of mine:
“WASHINGTON, October 3rd, 1854.
“DEAR WHEELER:
“The beautiful painting has arrived, and shall conspicuously adorn my parlor.
“I prize it highly. It is the picture of the beloved Washington. It is one of ‘Sully's’ paintings too. It comes to me from the warm heart of a true friend, and thereby seems to have borrowed a richer touch, which lends it additional beauty.
“I shall remember you, when you are far, far away; and when you return, and see my little folks, tell them how warm was the friendship between yourself and their father, whose life was so hopeful and yet so short.
“Should, however, the scene be changed and otherwise, let your better-half and your boys know that Mr. Dobbin is one that they may approach and find their steady friend. But perhaps we may meet in years to come, and then what friendly chats, Shakespeare, politics. Good-bye. God preserve and bless you,
“JAMES C. DOBBIN.”
But if the life of Mr. Dobbin was one continued exercise of the noblest functions of our nature, and his career as short as it was brilliant, it was eclipsed by the sublime manner of his death.
His health never strong, was exhausted by his official labors at Washington, and he returned home only to die. We are informed by Rev. Mr. Gilchrist, who was with him in his last moments, that Mr. Dobbin was conscious for some time of his approaching dissolution, and when the icy hand of death touched his heart, he did not shrink from its approach but calmly bade his little children and his weeping friends adieu; and with fixed hands, composing himself in his bed, he was heard to whisper, “praise the Lord, oh my soul!” and with these words his spirit departed.
“— Sure the last endOf the good man is peace! How calm his exit;Night dews fall not more gently to the groundNor weary worn out winds expire more soft.”Mr. Dobbin left three children; two sons, both since dead, and a daughter. The sad fate of his brother, John V. Dobbin, who perished at sea, in the steam ship Central America, has already been alluded to. (See Beaufort County.)
Warren Winslow, born 1810, died 1862, was born, lived and died in Fayetteville. He was educated at the University of North Carolina, and graduated in 1827, in same class with Judge A. O. P. Nicholson, of Tennessee, Charles B. Shephard, Lewis Thompson and others.
He studied law, and entered public life as senator in the state legislature the same year, (1854,) and was chosen speaker. In the election
of Governor Reid as senator in congress he became ex officio governor of the state. The next year he was elected a member of the Thirty-fourth Congress, 1855,-’57, and was re-elected to the Thirty-fifth, 1857,-’59, and Thirty-sixth Congress, 1859,-’61, when the state seceeded.
He (in 1854) was sent on a special mission by Mr. Pierce to Madrid, in reference to the Black Warrior affair.
When the civil war commenced he took an active part. He died in Fayetteville in 1863.
Governor Winslow had many genial and generous qualities, and was much loved by his friends. The troubles of the country hurried him to an early grave.
Duncan Kirkland MacRae, born August 16th, 1820, is a native of Fayetteville, son of John MacRae, Esq. He was educated at the University of Virginia, and at William and Mary; studied law with Judge Strange, and was a successful and eloquent advocate. Elected to the legislature in 1842.
He was an unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1848, being defeated by Governor Ellis.
On the accession of General Pierce, he was appointed Consul of the United States at Paris, where he remained only a few years.
On his return he removed to Memphis, Tennessee, then to Chicago, and recently returned to his native state, and is now residing at Wilmington.
He married Virginia, daughter of Louis D. Henry, and has several children.
Mrs. Mary Ayer Miller, is mentioned among the “living female writers of the south.” She was born in Fayetteville, and on the death of her father, General Henry Ayer, removed with her mother, when she was only eight years old, to Lexington, North Carolina, to be educated by her uncle, the Rev. Jesse Rankin of the Presbyterian church, who had a school at that place. She married a young lawyer, Willis M. Miller, who gave great promise as a lawyer, but abandoned the profession and joined the ministry. As a writer she has attained great success. Many of her productions show the fire of genius.
The Presbyterian board of publication have issued several of her works as Sunday-school books, and her poems in the North Carolina Presbyterian and the Central Presbyterian, published at Richmond, Virginia, have attained celebrity, and such happy conceits, as that of “Linda Lee” address alike the fancy as the heart.
A few of her poems are preserved in “Wood Notes,” a collection of North Carolina poety, made by Mrs. Clarke, and published in 1854, but most of them have appeared only in the newspapers.
Henry Washington Hilliard, mentioned in the same work “The Living Writers of the South,” is a native of Cumberland County, born 1808. He has been distinguished as a lawyer, a diplomist, a politician, and a divine.
He was educated at Columbia, South Carolina; studied law and settled at Athens, Georgia. In 1851, he was elected a professor in the University of Georgia; and in 1838, was a member of the legislature. Three years later he was appointed charge d'affaires to Belgium. From 1845 to 1852, he was a representative in congress from Georgia, subsequently he became a Methodist preacher.
He became envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States to Brazil.
His literary productions are—
I. Speeches and Addresses, which contain his speeches delivered in congress and some literary addresses.
II. DeVane, a story of Plebeians and Patricians, (1866,) which exhibits the highest evidence of scholarship, and a high appreciation of the true, the beautiful and the good.
Wesley Clark Troy resides in Fayetteville, but is a native of Randolph County, where he
was born on July 30, 1833. His father was a representative from Randolph in 1827. His mother was a daughter of Colonel Andrew Balfour, whose atrocious murder is recorded under the head of Randolph County.
Mr. Troy was a member of the house in 1876.
Edward J. Hale, who for a long time conducted the Fayetteville Observer with indefatigable industry and unsurpassed ability, is a native of Moore County, born in 1802. His press was the leading one of the state, and conducted at times with much violence, which doubtless age and time have corrected. He is a native North Carolinian, and has many warm friends. He now resides in the city of New York, and as a book publisher has been greatly beneficial to southern literature.*
Many other names worthy of record are presented in the history of Cumberland, as Bethum, in congress 1831,-’33; Cameron, judge in Florida, Davis, Duffy, Eccles, Jordan, Miller, Porterfield, S. D. Purviance, and many others; but to those who have accurate information as to their lives and services we must leave this pleasing task, and especially as more space has been devoted to this interesting county that the limits of our work justify.
CHAPTER XVI.CURRITUCK COUNTY.
DR. HENRY MARCHAND SHAW, born November 20th, 1819, died February 1st, 1864, resided in this county, which he represented in the senate of the state legislature in 1852; and the Edenton district in the Thirty-third Congress, 1853,-’55, and Thirty-fifth Congress, 1857,-’59
He was one of the electors in 1857 on the Buchanan ticket.
He was born in New-port, Rhode Island; the son of Rev. William A. Shaw, a minister of the Baptist church. He graduated as a physician in Philadelphia, in 1836, and came with his father to North Carolina, and settled in this county.
When our civil war commenced, he cast his fortunes with the destiny of his adopted state, and was appointed colonel of the eighth regiment of North Carolina troops, and did active service in this position. He was in several sharp and heavy engagements at Roanoke Island, New Berne, and other places, in which he bore himself with coolness, gallantry and enterprise.
On February 1, 1864, he became engaged in a skirmish with some advanced troop's at Batchelor's Creek, near New Berne, was mortally wounded, and died immediately on the field. His fall was deeply lamented by his comrades and his country. He died the death he had often expressed a wish for—the death of a soldier in defence of his country's rights, and his country's honor.
“Tre, vero felix Agricola; non vitæ tantum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis.”†
Emerson Etheridge, was born September 28, 1819, in this county, and, when thirteen years
* Moore II., 411.† “Thou truly art happy, Agricola, not so much from the brilliancy of your life, but in the circumstances of your death.”old, moved to Tennessee, and became a member of congress from Tennessee in the Thirty-third (1853,-’55) Thirty-fourth, (1855, 1857,) also, Thirty-sixth Congress, (1859,-’60.) On the meeting of the Thirty-seventh Congress (1861,-’63) he was elected clerk of the house, the duties of which he discharged with fidelity and ability. He is a lawyer by profession, of large observation of men and measures, and possesses rare conversational powers equalled by few persons in this or any other country.
Many other names cluster around this ancient county, the memories of whom deserve to be cherished. The Baxters, Bells, Doziers, the Etheridges, (Willis, Caleb and Joseph W.) Ferrebees, Halls, Jones, Lindsays, Salyear Simmons, and others; but our limits do not allow the space, and we leave this duty to some son of Currituck to rescue these materials from the carroding tooth of time.
CHAPTER XVII.DAVIDSON COUNTY.
THE revolutionary history of this county is connected with that of Rowan County, from which it was taken in 1822.
James Madison Leach resides in this county. He is a native of Randolph County, born 1821, educated chiefly at home. He was for a time a cadet of the military academy at West Point. He read law with his brother. Julian E. Leach, and attained much distinction at the bar as an able, astute, and successful advocate. But his fame is chiefly based upon his success as a statesman. In 1848, he was elected to the legislature, and continuously to 1856, and in 1856 he was one of the Filmore electors. He was elected to the senate in 1865,-’66,-’67, and again in 1879. He was elected a member of the Thirty-fourth Congress, 1859,-’61, his opponent being General A. M. Scales.
In the war he entered the confederate army, and served as colonel of the eleventh regiment of North Carolina troops. But on being elected a member of the confederate congress, 1864,-’65, he resigned his commission in the army.
Since the war he has served as a member of the Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses, 1871,-’75.
The political career of General Leach has been brilliant and successful. In no instance has he ever been defeated in an election before the people. His shrewdness as a politician, his powers as an orator and logician, combined with a pleasing address, render him invincible.
He married in 1846, Lizzie Montgomery Lewis, and has an interesting family of three sons, Wilmont, Henry Archer and James M. to inherit his name and reputation.
DUPLIN COUNTY.The men of this ancient county in revolutionary times, proved their devotion to the cause of liberty. They united in wresting their independence from England, in a declaration in 1777, the original is on file in the clerk's office of the county, they held that, “The King of England, nor any other foreign power, had any right to the sovereignty of this state;
and they renounced all allegiance to the same, and resolved to support and maintain the independence of the state against the said King.”
This is signed by Henry Cannon, William Dickson, Alexander Gray, Samuel Houston, James Lockhart, Michael Kennon, James Kennon, James Sampson, Edward Toole, and others.
James Gillaspie was a native of this county. We know but little of him, except from the public records, which inform us that he was often a member of the legislature, and a member from this district in the Third Congress, (1793, ’95;) Fourth Congress, (1795,-’97;) Fifth Congress, (1798,-’99;) Eighth Congress, and until his death, which occurred while he was in congress, January, 1805, at Washington city.
A monument marks his grave in the congressional burying ground.
Owen Rand Keenan, son of Thomas, was born March 24, 1806. Studied medicine, and afterwards law. Member of the legislature 1834,-’35,-’36, and of the confederate congress, 1862.
Charles Hooks, a native of this county, often represented it in the legislature. In 1817, he succeeded William R. King in congress, and was re-elected to congress in 1821,-’23. He also moved to Alabama.
Thomas Keenan, also a native of this county, and from whose family the county town derives its name, was, in 1804, in the senate of the legislature, and from 1805 to 1811, represented this district in congress. He removed to Alabama, where he died near Selma, in 1822.
DAVIE COUNTY.CHARLES PRICE, late speaker of the house (1876,) resides at Mocksville. He was born in Warren County, July 26, 1847. He read law with Judge Pearson; and after obtaining a license settled at Mocksville, where he soon by his attainments, his pleasant address, and high moral character, won “troops of friends.” Such was the appreciation of the people that in 1872, they elected him to the senate. He was also a member of the constitutional convention of 1875, and a member of the house in 1876, of which body, over members of more years, he was chosen speaker; a just compliment to his genius, talents and ability.
We would do injustice to modest and substantial merit, and solid ability, were we to omit in our sketches the name and services of John Bryan Hussey.
He is a native of Dulpin County, born January 1, 1846. His family is well known for their ability and integrity. A near relative, John E. Hussey, represented Dulphin in 1815,-’16,-’17,-’18, in the house, and from 1833 to 1836, in the senate.
John B. Hussey received all the educational advantages of the day. He was educated at the Kenansville academy, the Caldwell institute, and the university. The war prevented his graduating, and at the early age of fifteen he entered the army in the thirty-eighth North Carolina regiment, and was in several engagements around Richmond. In 1863, he was assigned to the signal service at Smithville, and was the signal officer of “The Helen,” a Liverpool blockade runner, in which capacity he made many successful trips to Nassau, Bermudas and Halifax. After this service he was assigned to duty on the Cape Fear, and was wounded at the fearful battle of Fort Fisher, taken prisoner and confined at Fortress Monroe and Fort Delaware. The war being over, he was released. He studied law with William
A. Allen, and was licensed in 1868. He removed to Newton, and thence to Hickory, where he established the Piedmont Press. In 1874, he started the Landmark at Statesville, and subsequently conducted the News at Raleigh. He was appointed librarian to the house of representatives in 1879, which position he now occupies with great satisfaction to all.
EDGECOMBE COUNTY.ALTHOUGH this county, from its inland position, was not exposed to the dangers of attack in the revolution, yet no section of the state was more sensitive of its duty, or sent more willing and patriotic sons to do battle in the cause of the country.
Among these, conspicuously stands the name of Henry Irwin, killed in battle 1777. He had for a long time been a resident and merchant of Tarboro, much esteemed for his integrity, patriotism, and courage, and very popular. He was a member of the provincial congress, at New Berne, in 1775, also of the congress at Halifax, in 1776, and by that body appointed lieutenant-colonel of the second regiment, of which Edward Buncombe was colonel. This gallant regiment marched to join the army of the north, and on the fatal field of Germantown, (October 4th, 1777,) both he and his commander fell.
Colonel Irwin left one son and two daughters. One of his daughters married Lovatt Burgess, whose only son, Thomas Burgess, distinguished as a lawyer, died in Halifax a few years since. Another daughter married Governor Monford Stokes, whose only child by this marriage was Mrs. William B. Lewis, of Nashville, Tennessee, whose only daughter married Monsieur Pageot, the French Minister.
The battle of Germantown brought sadness and sorrow to many a hearthstone of North Carolina, for in it the patriotic generals, Nash, Turner, Lucas, and many others, gave up their lives for their country, and here the veteran, Colonel William Polk, received a severe and dangerous wound. With a patriotism deserving all praise, a marble monument has been erected over their graves by the liberality of J. F. Watson, of Philadelphia.
A sister of Colonel Irwin married Lawrence Toole, whose son, grandson, and great grand son, bear the same name—Henry Irwin Toole, all distinguished for ability and influence. The first took a commission in the war, and was in the battle of the Great Bridge, Virginia.
It would be unpardonable on this occasion says an able article on the County of Edgecombe in 1810, by Dr. Jeremiah Battle, (see University Magazine, April, 1861,) not to mention the merits and services of Colonel Jonas Johnston, born 1740, died July 29th 1779, who rose from obscurity and acted a conspicuous part in our revolutionary struggles. He was born in the year 1740, in Southampton County, Virginia, and came when a youth with his father to this county. He was raised a plain industrious farmer, without education. But he possessed native talent, and unflinching patriotism. At an early day he embarked in the cause of liberty, and ever proved himself a true patriot, hero and statesman. From time to time, he filled every office in the county both civil and military. He represented the county in the convention, 1776, and was appointed major by the provincial congress. He was a member of the commons in 1777,-’78.
He was a natural orator. After one of his
speeches in the general assembly, more remarkable for sound sense, than for grammatical style, he was asked by a professional gentleman “where he got his education.” He replied, “at the plough handles.” He was modest, yet determined, prompt, yet cautions. From the date of his commission to his death he was constantly employed. He was at the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, and in 1779 in command of a regiment, he went to the assistance of South Carolina. He was in the battle of Stono, where he bore himself with the intrepedity of a veteran, receiving a wound. His care and tenderness of the soldiers under his command are remembered to this day with affection and gratitude by those who served under him.
From the privations of war, and the debilitating effects of a southern climate, his health gave way, and he died, on his return home, at the house of Mr. Amis, on Drowning Creek, near the South Carolina line, on July 29, 1779.
He left several children, one of whom was the maternal grand-mother of the late Richard Hines, member from this district to the Nineteenth Congress, (1825,-’27.)
The Haywood family, one of the most numerous, also one of the most distinguished in the state, had its first origin in North Carolina, in this county.
For the genealogy of the Haywood family see appendix.
This genealogical table was the work of much research, and is for the first time printed. It was compiled chiefly by the late Governor Henry T. Clarke, one of this numerous family, and may be useful in tracing lines of relationship that would otherwise be obliterated by time. Of the progenitor, John Haywood, little information of his life and services are preserved.
Of his son, William Haywood, died 1779, we have more information. He was a member of the committee of safety for the Halifax district, 1775; a member of the provincial congress at Halifax, in April, 1776, also of the same body at the same place in November following, and was one of the committee to form the state constitution, and by that body appointed one of the council of the state. He was the father of ten children, most of whom reared families to usefulness and distinction. These will be severally noticed in the counties in which they resided.
There are few families in the state with whom are connected names better known.
Among them are two United States Senators, William Haywood and George E. Badger; three Governors, Dudley, Clarke, and Manly; two Judges, Badger and John Haywood, the historian of Tennessee; four members of congress, William S. Ashe, E. B. Dudley, Sion H. Rogers, and Thomas Ruffin; army officers, General Junius Daniel, Colonel William H. Bell; navy officers, Admiral H. H. Bell; lawyers, Badger, Burgess, Hogg, McRae, Edward G. Haywood, and others.
Thomas Blount who resided in this county, and represented this district in congress, and died while in congress, February 7th, 1812, has already been noticed.
Henry Toole Clark, born 1808, died April 14th, 1874, son of Honorable James W. Clark, was born on his father's farm, “Walnut Creek,” about nine miles above Tarboro, on the banks of Tar River.
His early education was conducted at a school in Tarboro, kept by George Phillips, and the Louisburg academy, and when only fourteen years old he was sent to the university at Chapel Hill. Among his class mates were Honorable Daniel M. Barringer, Rev. Samuel Iredell Johnstone, and others. At this time this venerable institution contained a body of young men unsurpassed at any period of its history. Graham and Manly (both afterwards governor) Polk, and others, were on its rolls.
After graduating in 1826, he read law in Raleigh under the guidance of his kindsman William H. Haywood, jr., who was his nestor in politics, as well as in law. He was admitted to the bar, but never practiced, nor did he take much interest in politics until 1850, when he was elected senator in the legislature from Edgecombe, and continued to occupy this position without intermission until 1861. In 1858, he was chosen speaker which he occupied until early in the summer of 1861, when he summoned to Raleigh, upon the illness of Governor Ellis, and on his death he became governor of the state. This was a perilous period of our history and demanded the exercise of prudence and sagacity; Governor Clark discharged his duties to the best of his ability.
At the close of his administration he retired to his home, near Tarbor, where he was near being captured by a raid of Federal cavalry. He escaped, but his house was plundered, the jewelry and watches taken from the ladies of his family, and all the stores for their support carried off or destroyed.
After the war closed, Governor Clark was again elected to the senate (1866) under Johnson's reconstruction acts. This was his last public service.
He had been for years the presiding justice of the peace for the county.
During the whole course of his life he was a laborious and devoted student of the history of his state. As a local chronicler of the present, or a patient antiquarian of the past, he was unquestionable authority, recognized as such by all. It was for many years the earnest wish of his heart to have printed the early journals of the assembly and such documents in the office of the secretary of the state, as illustrated the early history of our state, but in vain. A distinguished statesman of South Carolina, Waddy Thompson, was wont to say: “North Carolina has a proud and glorious revolutionary history, far superior to any of her sister states, but has had none since.” It is because we have had so few like Governor Clark, who wish to preserve these precious memorials, and
“Bequeath themAs a rich legacy unto their issue”There were few men in North Carolina better posted as to her men, families and sections. Only a year or two before his death, he proposed to me to unite in a periodical, devoted to history and genealogy. He left on his table at the time of his death, a letter on this subject to the Honorable Kemp P. Battle.
We do not claim for Governor Clark the renown of the accomplished statesman, or the thrilling eloquence of the orator, but he was an honest man, and always equal to any duty assigned to him by his country; never above or below, but just equal to the duties of his station.
Simple and unaffected and unassuming in his manners, modest in his demeanor, a gentleman by birth and education, as well as by disposition and nature; warm in his attachments and sincere in his friendships, he lived honored, respected, and trusted in life, and enjoying the esteem, respect, and regard of every one who knew him.
He departed this life on April 14th, 1874. On the day of his burial all business was suspended, and the town and surrounding country united in the last tribute of respect to his character.
He was married in February, 1850, to Mrs. Mary W. Hargrave, daughter of Theophilus Parker, who, with two sons and three daughters survive him. Truly to him may be applied the exquisite lines of Bryant:
“He so lived, that when the summons came to joinThe innumerable caravan, that movesTo that mysterious realm, where each shall takeHis chamber in the halls of death.— Sustained and soothedBy an unfaltering trust, he approached the graveLike one that draws the drapery of his couchAbout him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.”The Battle family, one of the most numerous and distinguished families of the state, had its origin in this county. Elisha Battle, the progenitor of the family, was born in Nansemond County, Virginia, January 9, 1723. He moved to Tar River, in this county, in 1748. About 1764 he joined the Baptists, was chosen deacon, and continued a consistent and zealous member of this denomination until his death. Equally useful was he in the affairs of state; he was elected for twenty years successively to represent this county in the legislature; he was also a member of the provincial congress at Halifax, which formed the state constitution, and a member of the convention at Hillsboro, to deliberate upon the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. In 1742, he was married to Elizabeth Sumner; in 1799 (March 6th,) he died, leaving eight children.
William Horn Battle, late one of the judges of the supreme and superior courts of North Carolina, was a native of this county, born October 17, 1802. He was the son of Joel Battle, and grandson of William, the fifth child of Elisha Battle, just mentioned. His education was received at the university, where he graduated in 1820, delivering the valedictory, then the prize of the scholar second in rank. This was no small distinction among such scholars as Bartholomew F. Moore, Bishop Otey, Charles G. Spaight, and others of that class. He read law with Judge Henderson, and was licensed to practice in 1824. From his modest and retiring demeanor, his success was but slow, and gave but little promise of future eminence, and for years but few briefs engaged his services. But he persevered, and finally attained the highest honors of his profession. This example should certainly afford encouragement to young and briefless lawyers. His time was occupied in constant study, and in laying deep and broad his knowledge of the law. He prepared a second edition of the first volume of Haywood's Reports, greatly enhanced in value by the addition of notes showing the changes made in the course of forty years’ legislation, and new decisions construing the law. This edition was received by the profession with great commendation, and gave Mr. Battle such a reputation that he was appointed by the governor, with other able jurists, to revise the statutes of the state. After the labor of three years, these “Revised Statutes” were submitted to the legislature for ratification, and adopted.
Mr. Battle had been associated with Mr. Devereux as reporter of the decisions of the supreme court. On the resignation of his associate in 1839, Mr. Battle became the sole reporter. The fidelity and accuracy with which he discharged the duties of this post, won for him the approbation and applause of the profession on the bench and at the bar, and, therefore, upon the resignation of Judge Toomer, he was appointed by Governor Dudley, in August, 1840, one of the judges of the superior court, which appointment was confirmed at its next session by the legislature.
In 1843 he removed to Chapel Hill, and in 1845 was elected, by the trustees of the university, Professor of Law, conferring upon him, at the same time, the degree of LL.D. On the death of Judge Daniel, he was appointed (May, 1848,) by Governor Graham, one of the justices of the supreme court of the state, but this appointment was not confirmed by the legislature, although, by the same body, upon the resignation of Honorable Augustus Moore, one of the judges of the superior court, he was elected to fill that vacancy. He held this position for some time. In December, 1852, he was elected by the legislature one of the justices of the supreme court. The circumstances, so gratifying and honorable, connected with this appointment are best explained by the following correspondence:
“CITY OF RALEIGH,
“HOUSE OF COMMONS,
“December 3rd, 1852.
“SIR: The general assembly of the State of North Carolina, now in session, on yesterday, with an unanimity seldom equalled in the councils of the state, have elected you to the elevated position of judge of the supreme court.
“This will be doubtless unexpected to you, but we trust that it will be gratifying. It was done without any caucus or convention arrangement; but both of the great parties, now so equally balanced in the legislature, have with patriotic unanimity thrown aside the shackles of party, and offer to your hands the highest office in their gift.
“In the language of one of your distinguished compeers, we can say: ‘To give a wholesome exposition of the law, to settle the fluctuating and reconcile the seeming conflicting analogies of judicial decisions, to administer justice in the last resort with a steady hand and upright purpose,’ are among the highest civil functions that in our republic a citizen can be called upon to discharge. This post we now tender to you. In this case ‘the office has sought the man, and not the man the office.’ We sincerely hope that you will accept it.
“With assurance of our personal regards for your health and happiness, we are faithfully your friends,
| “JNO. H. WHEELER, | J. G. MACDUGALD, |
| “JNO. BAXTER, | W. K. MARTIN, |
| “A. M. SCALES, | H. SHERRILL, |
| “J. A. WAUGH, | R. A. RUSSELL, |
| “C. H. WILEY, | R. G. A. LOVE, |
| “JOSIAH TURNER, jr., | B. L. DURHAM, |
| “W. J. LONG. |
“To Hon. WM. H. BATTLE,
“Raleigh, N. C.”
“CHAPEL HILL,
“December 10, 1852.
“GENTLEMEN: Your note, directed to me at this place, informing me that the general assembly had elected me to the office of judge of the supreme court, and asking my acceptance of it, did not find me here, for the reason that I had not then returned from my circuit. You are aware that upon my arrival in Raleigh, on my way home, I addressed a communication to the honorable body, of which you are members, in which I signified my acceptance of the post which their partiality had assigned me. This would seem to render unnecessary any reply to your note, but the kind and friendly spirit which dictated it, and the highly complimentary terms in which it is couched, forbid my leaving it unnoticed.
“I do not pretend to be exempt from the ambition of standing fair in the estimation of my fellow-citizens, nor can I receive with indifference any manifestation of their favor. I accept with a grateful heart the high and responsible office which they, by their representatives, have conferred upon me. I accept it with a deeper feeling of gratitude because it was bestowed spontaneously and without distinction of party. I know full well that its duties are of the gravest and most important character, and that the successful performance of them demands the highest attributes of the head and heart; attributes which distinguished and illustrated the official life of him whose vacant place I am now called upon to occupy. I sometimes fear that I may not be equal to the task which I have consented to assume. I might shrink from the attempt were I not cheered on by the reflection that my labors for twelve years in a scarcely less responsible position have been approved by the present action of your honorable body. With this animating reflection, and trusting in the beneficence of that Providence which has hitherto upheld and supported me, I enter upon the discharge of the duties of my present office, determined to spend myself in the service of my native state, which has so highly honored me.
“For the kind and flattering manner in which you have thought proper to address me, please accept the assurances of my most grateful acnowledgments.
“I am, with sincere regard, very truly yours,
“WILLIAM H. BATTLE.
| “To Messrs. | |
| “JOHN H. WHEELER, | J. G. MACDUGALD, |
| “JOHN BAXTER, | WM. K. MARTIN, |
| “ALFRED M. SCALES, | H. SHERRILL, |
| “J. A. WAUGH, | R. A. RUSSELL, |
| “CALVIN H. WILEY, | R. G. A. LOVE, |
| “JOSIAH TURNER, jr., | B. L. DURHAM, |
| “W. J. LONG. | |
| “RALEIGH, N. C.” |
He held this high position until the civil war closed the courts, and in 1868 he returned to Raleigh. The space allowed for this sketch does not permit any extended comments upon the judicial decisions of Judge Battle. He
won, by long years of diligence and labor, a reputation of the highest order for modest merit, extensive learning, associated with a firm and steady administration of justice.
His moral character was spotless; he was a consistent member of the Episcopal church. His death occurred at Chapel Hill, March 14, 1879. He was married June 1, 1855, to Lucy, second daughter of the late Kemp Plummer, a distinguished lawyer of Warrenton; she died February 24, 1874, loved and appreciated by all who knew her, for her accomplishments and virtues. The children of this distinguished couple are Dr. Joel D. (deceased,) Susan C. (deceased,) Kemp Plummer, Dr. William Horn, who married Miss Lindsay; Richard Henry, married the daughter of Judge Thomas S. Ashe; Mary (deceased,) married to William Van Wyck, of New York; Junius, killed at South Mountain, 1862; Lewis, killed at Gettysburg, 1863.
Kemp Plummer Battle, the eldest living son of Judge William Horn Battle, was born near Louisburg, in Franklin County, December 19, 1831. He was educated at the best schools in the country, and graduated at the university in 1849, receiving the first distinction in all his studies. His companions in these honors were Peter M. Hale and T. J Robinson. Mr. Battle was made tutor of Latin and Greek immediately after graduating; and after serving in that capacity for one session, he was chosen tutor of mathematics. This position he held for four years, during the palmiest days of this ancient and renowned institution. He seems peculiarly fitted by nature and education for this occupation; his mind is clear and discriminating, cultivated to a high degree, apt to learn, and patient in imparting instruction, kind and generous in his temper, he had much success as a tutor. This is evinced by his training to usefulness such minds as those of W. L. DeRossett, DuBrutz Cutlar, Major A. W. Lawrence, (late one of the professors in the United States Observatory at Washington city,) Colonel W. L. Saunders, Colonel Juni us B. Wheeler, (Professor of Engineering at West Point,) Alexander McIver, Hon. A. M. Waddell, Joseph A. Englehard, William and Robert Bingham, and many others. The classes of Mr. Battle were remarkable for their order, attention, and application. He resigned this post in 1854, and having already been licensed, opened a law office in Raleigh, and practiced with much success.
On the organization of the Bank of North Carolina, Mr. Battle, young as he was, was chosen one of the directors with such veteran financiers as George W. Mordecai, George E. Badger, John H. Bryan, and others. In 1860, he was candidate for the legislature, and failed of an election by three votes.
In the stirring and exciting scenes that followed, Mr. Battle was for the Union, and the President of the Union Club of Wake. But when Lincoln called for men to subjugate the south, he cast his fortunes with his state, and became a member of the convention of 1861, and with Mr. Badger and the other members, signed the ordinance of secession. He united with the conservative party in electing Governor Vance by a large majority, and during the whole war was the warm supporter of his measures.
In 1866, he became a candidate for treasurer of the state, at the request of Governor Worth, and was almost unanimously elected, His official reports are considered models of financial ability, conciseness and accuracy. He shared the fortunes of the conservative party with Governor Worth and other officials, and was deprived of his office in July, 1868, by the mandate of military power. This is the last post of political preferment which Mr. Battle held, nor was he sorry to quit the excitement and contests of such a life, since they were not germane to his tastes, although he discharged
the duties devolving upon him with talent and fidelity.
But the great mission of his life is the restoration of the university of the state. It is his alma mater in very truth, from which he imbibed the knowledge and usefulness he had taught in her halls, and to build up the broken walls of this literary Zion, he has devoted his time, all his attention, and his private fortune. He was elected a trustee of the university in 1862, and served on the executive committee until 1868; he made an elaborate and exhaustive report of a plan to reorganize the university. This plan was not completed in consequence of a change in the board, but when the appointment of trustees became vested in the legislature, he was elected one of the trustees, and at the first meeting of the board was unanimously chosen secretary and treasurer. Here was a field of labor demanding constant exertion, unflinching zeal, and intelligence. All kinds of legal obstructions presented themselves, and the destitution of all financial measures seemed to render the mission well nigh hopeless. But Mr. Battle seemed a very Hercules in this work, and threw himself with such devotion into the cause, that success smiled on his efforts. The payment of interest on the land scrip by the state, his eloquent appeals to the Alumni and others for aid, the attendance of a goodly number of pupils, prove his work to have been successful. He is now the president of the university, and we trust, under his guidance and his able corps of co-adjutors, its usefulness and fame will rival its former renown. Mr. Battle married, in 1855, Martha, daughter of James S. Battle. Three of his sons have been students in the classes of the university—the fourth generation of this family who have joined this institution.
The genealogy of the Battle family:
Elisha Battle, born January 9, 1723, died March 6, 1799, married Elizabeth Sumner 1742, had eight children, to-wit: Sarah, John, Elizabeth, Elisha, William, Dempsey, Jacob and Jethro.
I. Sarah married (first) Jacob Hilliard, and had Elizabeth Hilliard, (who married Wm. Fort, and had Sarah who was married to Orren Battle;) also Jacob, James, Mary and Jeremiah; and to Sarah and Jacob Hilliard were also born Jeremiah, who married Nancy Hilliard. Sarah also married (second) Henry Horn, and had Piety, Charity, who married Burwell Bunn, to whom were born Jeremiah, William, Henry and Celia Bunn, who was married (first) to Sugg, and (second) Doctor Fort; to Sarah and Henry Horn were born (their last child) Henry.
II. John (died 1796,) married Frances Davis, to whom were born Mary, married to Allen Andrews, to whom were born Elizabeth Andrews, married to John Cotton; John married Miss Pope and Jesse married Miss Battle.
III. Elizabeth married to Josiah Crudup, member of Congress, 1821,-’23, to whom were born George, married Leah Ellis; Josiah married Ann Davis, who had Martha, Archibald Davis, James, Edward, Alston, and Cullen married Miss Jones; to Elizabeth and Josiah Crudup were born two more children, Chloe, (married Joseph B. Lee, their daughter Elizabeth married Cullen Andrews,) and Bethesda married to Fowler.
IV. Elisha Battle, Junior, born 1749, married Mary, daughter of Benjamin Bunn, had Amelia, married Ross, Doctor Jeremiah, died 1824, William married Lamond, Jesse married Vick, Bennett married Hinton, and Sarah married Andrews.
V. William, died 1781, married Charity Horn, and Isaac, married Mary; Ann married Ross, (to whom were born William, James B., and Charity who married Hines;) Joel born 1779, died 1829, married Mary, daughter of Amos Johnson. These last had Laura married to Phillips, Susan married to McKee, Christopher
Columbus, Benjamin Dossey, Catherine, married Doctor Lewis, Richard, Amos Johnson, and William Horn, (see his sketch for his descendants.)
VI. Dempsey, born 1758, died 1857, married Jane Andrews, had Amelia, married to Cuthbert of Georgia, Andrews married Duggan, Cullen married (first) Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Battle, and (second) Jane Lamon.
VII. Jacob, born 1774, died 1814, married Mrs. — Edwards, had Marmaduke, Elizabeth, married in (1802) to Doctor Cullen Battle; Cullen, Thomas, Lucy, James S., born 1786, died 1854, married (first) Tempy Battle, and (second) Harriet Westray; to James S., were born Marmaduke, William S., married Dancy, Turner Westray married daughter of Judge Daniel; Cornelia married John S. Dancy; Mary E. married (first) to W. F. Dancy, (second) to Dr. N. J. Pittman, Martha married to Kemp P. Battle, and Penelope married to W. R. Cox.
VIII. Jethro married Martha Lane, died 1813, had Joseph S., married (first) Dunn, (second) Horn, to whom was born Temperance, married to Marriott; H. L. Battle, Dr. James, John, George, Mary Ann married Bridgers, Marcus and Martha; to Jethro and Martha Battle was also born Orren, married Fort, and moved to Tennessee; and Alfred, who had Jethro: this Jethro died in the Mexican war; James L., Mary married to Tillory; Elizabeth married to Fort.
The above table is from a geneological paper drawn by Governor Henry T. Clark, and may therefore be relied upon as being accurate.
Louis Dickson Wilson, born 1789, died August 12, 1847, was born, raised and lived in this county.
His education was not classical. He was placed in a counting-house, and became a student of men rather than of books. He was successful in business. From 1815 to 1846, he was member of either one or the other branches of the legislature.
He was a member of that distinguished convention of 1835, to amend the constitution of the state. The meed of exalted statesmanship, or of brilliant eloquence, or of deep philosophical research, cannot be claimed for him. Yet he was honest in his principles, and sincere in his convictions, and a laborious and useful man, rather than pretentious or showy, but of great popularity.
After more than thirty years in the civil service of his state, in the war between the United States and Mexico, he joined the army, and as captain of the line, and marched to the seat of war. Without any application or knowledge on his part, he was made colonel of the twelfth regiment of infantry. While superintending a forward movement of this regiment from Vera Cruz, the visissitudes of war, the dangerous climate, with the weight of three score years, proved too much for his constitution. He was seized with the fever of the country, and died on May 12, 1847.
He was never married. By his will his patrimonial estate, (land and slaves,) was bequeathed to his next of kin, (a nephew and a neice,) and the residue, about $40,000, to the poor of Edgecombe County.
The county court of Edgecombe has ordered the erection of an appropriate asylum as one of the first investments of the fund.
This noble charity, as also the erection of a county called after his name, perpetuates his life long services in the councils of the state, and his lamented death, leading the columns of his troops to subdue the enemies of his country will keep his memory ever fresh in the heart of every North Carolinian. The end of his life was just as he could have wished it:
“Whether on the scaffold high,Or in the battle's van,The fittest place for man to die,Is when man dies for man.”The brilliant eulogium pronounced by Governor
Brogden in congress, in memory of General Wilson, was worthy of the theme.
“Louis D. Wilson was one of nature's noblemen, and his sympathies was ever on the side of justice and humanity.
“He was a man of strict integrity of character, a friend of the poor and needy, and possessed many of the best traits and qualities of human nature. He was affable and social in his manner, the embodiment of patriotism and the soul of honor.
“Studiously neat in his person, he was a favorite in all cireles; he won the sobriquet for years of the Chesterfield of the senate.”
Duncan Lamond Clinch, born 1798, died 1849, late brigadier-general in the United States army, was a native of this county.
He was the son of Joseph Clinch, by a daughter of Duncan Lamond, a colonel in the revolutionary war, and a terror to the tories—one of these he hung in Nash County.
General Clinch had attained the rank of a brigadier-general. When the Seminole war broke out in Florida, in 1835, he was in command of that district, and at the battle of Onithlecooche (December 31st, 1835,) displayed the most intrepid courage. He resigned his commission the next year, and from 1843 to 1845, was a member of congress from Georgia.
He married a Miss McIntosh. He died at Macon, Georgia. November 27th, 1849, leaving several children; one of his daughters married General Robert Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame. A son, John Houston McIntosh Clinch, graduated at the university in 1844, in the same class with William A. Blount, Joseph M. Graham, Philemon B. Hawkins, Thomas Ruffin, and others.
Another son, with his father's name, graduated at the same university in 1847, in the same class with James J. Pettigrew, John Pool, Matthew W. Ransom, and others.
The genealogy of this family is connected with that of the Bellamy's, which see.
William Dorsey Pender was a native and resident of this county. He was educated at the United States Military Academy at West Point. One of the earliest and most enthusiastic in the cause he deemed just, he was made, May 27, 1861, colonel of sixth regiment of North Carolina troops, and such were his services that he soon became a brigadier general. He was universally regarded as one of the bravest and most efficient officers in the army. General A. P. Hill pronounced him “one of the best officers of his grade he ever knew.”
General Lee, in his report on the Pennsylvania campaign, dated July 31, 1863, thus writes:
“General Pender has since died. This lamented officer has borne a distinguished part in every engagement of this army, and was wounded on several occasions, while leading his command with conspicuous gallantry and ability. The confidence and admiration inspired by his courage and capacity as an officer, were only equalled by the esteem and respect entertained, by all with whom he was associated, for the noble qualities of his modest and unassuming character.”
Universally lamented and loved, he fell on the bloody field of Gettysburg, and his remains now lie in the cemetery of Calvary church in Tarboro.
An appropriate memorial window erected by his brother, Mr. David Pender, bears this inscription
“In Memoriam, I have fought a good fight; I have kept the faith” Major General William Dorsey Pender, born February 6th, 1834, died July 18th, 1863.
His name, so dear to every patriot, has been preserved by calling a county after him, and causes his gallantry and patriotism to be cherished in our hearts.
The battle of Gettysburg, enduring the first three days in July, 1863, was the bloodiest encounter of the whole war, and proved the Waterloo of the unhappy contest. For here the flag of the confederacy fell never to rise
again. Especially did the loss fall on North Carolina, for here thousands of her bravest, noblest sons found a soldier's grave. Not only did General Pender, full of gallantry and spirit, but Colonel Isaac E. Avery, J. K. Marshal also fell in this battle, General Pettigrew was wounded, a few days afterwards, died, General Scales, Colonel Lowe, and others of equal merit, were wounded. Of the ten thousand men lost by the confederates, the larger portion were North Carolinians. Of Colonel Burgwyn's command, who was killed, (the Twenty-sixth North Carolina regiment,) five hundred and forty were killed out of eight hundred. The heavy loss of the union army could be easily replaced, but the great gaps in the confederate ranks could never be closed again.
In reply to a recent letter of General Scales and Captain J. J. Davis, Colonel John B. Bachelder has given a graphic account of this desperate conflict, which, with the diagrams, affords an intelligible and reliable account.
Joseph A. Englehard, the only son of Edward Englehard, was born at Monticello, Mississippi, September 27, 1832.
He was an educated man and graduated at the University of North Carolina, with the first honors, in 1854, in the same class with William L. Saunders, and others. He then studied law at the Harvard law school, and with Judge Battle; in 1856 he was licensed to practice. He settled at Tarboro, where he had married in 1855, Margaret, daughter of John W. Cotten.
He entered the army in May, 1861, as captain and quarter-master of the thirty-third regiment, and the next year he was promoted to quarter-master of General Branch's brigade, with the rank of major. He was transferred in December, 1862, to Pender's brigade and became adjutant-general, and in May following he was made adjutant-general of Pender's, afterwards Wilcox's division, and participated in all the battles fought by this noble army of Northern Virginia, until the curtain fell at Appomattox, on the bloody drama.
After the war, Major Englehard resumed the practice of the law at Tarboro, and in addition to his professional duties, exercised those of the clerk and master in equity.
He purchased, in 1865, James Fulton's interest in the Wilmington Journal, and became the successor, from March, 1866, of that able editor, and so became a citizen of Wilmington, then wielding a powerful influence throughout the state.
In June, 1876; he was nominated at Raleigh, by the democratic state convention for secretary of state. He entered with energy and ability into the canvass. He stood before the people almost every day, and with a power of elocution rarely surpassed, and an oratory irresistable, so urged the cause that, on November 7, the whole ticket was elected, and he the first in the number of votes received.
He performed all the duties of his position with satisfaction and intelligence, established order out of chaos, and system from confusion.
Major Englehard was a devoted friend to the cause of education. He delivered the Alumni address at the university, where his son had recently graduated. But this usefulness was soon to end, and after a short illness he died on February 15, 1879, at the Yarboro House, Raleigh. His death was the regret of his friends, and an irremediable loss to the state.
Robert Rufus Bridgers, is a native of this county. He was born on Town Creck, November 23, 1819.
His early education was conducted by Benjamin Sumner, and finished at the university in 1841, when he graduated in the same class with Governor Ellis, Samuel F. and Dr. Charles Phillips, Judge Clarke, William F. Dancy, John F. Hoke, and others. To receive honors in such a class was no light praise.
He read law, while pursuing his collegiate studies, with Governor Swain, and was licensed by the supreme court to practice the week after he graduated, and soon entered upon an extensive and lucrative practice. He entered the legislature in 1844, and was re-elected in 1856,-’58 and ’60.
After the state joined the confederacy, he was elected a member of the confederate congress, and was an active, useful, and able member.
After the war he was elected president of the Wilmington and Weldon railroad company, and is distinguished for the ability and fidelity with which he manages this important trust.
He married Miss Margaret Johnston and has an interesting family.
CHAPTER XVIII.FORSYTH COUNTY.
THIS county presents the name of Colonel Benjamin Forsythe, a native of this section, who fell in battle in the war of 1812. He resided at Germantown, was a native of Stokes, and represented that county in the legislature in 1807 and ’08. He received a lieutenant's commission, April 23, 1808, in the regular army, and marched to Canada. In September, 1812, he crossed at Cape Vincent, attacked the British, and routed them. He took many prisoners and much ammunition and stores, with the loss of only one man.
“In February following, he left Ogdensburg, and crossed at Morristown, surprised the British, and took fifty-two prisoners, among them a major, three captains and two lieutenants, without the loss of a man.”* In 1813, he was distinguished at the capture of Fort George, Upper Canada.
For his gallant conduct he was rapidly promoted, and attained the rank of colonel.
On June 28, 1814, General Smyth formed a plan for ambuscading the British near Odeltown. Colonel Forsythe had orders to make the attack and then retreat; so as to draw the enemy into the snare. He made the attack, but instead of falling back as ordered, his personal courage tempted him to made a stand on the road within fifteen rods of the enemy. In this exposed and perilous position he received a fatal wound, which broke his collar bone. He fell, mortally wounded, exclaiming with his last breath: “Boys, rush on!” He was the only person killed; several were wounded. The enemy lost seventeen killed. His loss was universally lamented, and he was buried the next day with the honors of war.
By his intrepid courage and his fearless daring, he became the idol of his troops, and the terror of the enemy. He was one of the best partisan officers that ever lived.†
The legislature of North Carolina, in 1817, with patriotic philanthrophy, adopted the only son of Colonel Forsythe, and the only daughter of Captain Blakely, of the navy, as children of the state, and made provision for their education at the public expense. James
* Niles Register, III., 408.† See Gardiner's Dict. of the Army; Drake's Biography Sketches; Niles’ Register, III., 48.N. Forsythe, the son, entered the freshman class at the university in 1824, and subsequently, with the acquiescence of Governor Burton, he was appointed a midshipman in the United States navy. He was on board the sloop of war, the Hornet, which was lost at sea.*
The county seat of Forsyth preserves the name of Joseph Winston.
He was born June 17, 1746, in Louisa County, Virginia; a branch of the family, originally from Yorkshire, England, settled in Wales, and thence migrated to Virginia, where, says Alexander H. Everett, they were the most distinguished in the colony.
“Two hundred years ago,” says the biographical sketch of William Winston Seaton, (of the firm of Gales & Seaton,) “five brothers, Winston, from Winston Hall, Yorkshire, England, gentlemen of fortune and family, emigrated to the colony of Virginia. These brothers were men of comely statue and appearance. They settled in Hanover County, stocking Virginia with a stalwart and prophetic race, extending to Kentucky, Mississippi, and North Carolina, in which states, to this day, they are noted for their fine personal appearance.” “The family of Winstons,” says Mr. Sparks, “was among the most distinguished of the colony, and the genius and eloquence of Patrick Henry may be supposed to have been transmitted through this line, from which he descended.” The fiery spirit “in words that breathed and thoughts that burned,” lighted the flame of liberty in the hearts of his countrymen and relations. Among them his cousin, Joseph Winston, who won renown by his military career.
Joseph Winston received a fair education, but at the age of seventeen, joined a company of rangers, under Captain Phelps, who marched from Louisa County to Jackson river, on the then frontiers, where, uniting with the command of Captain George Moffett, (making sixty men altogether,) they pursued a party of Indians between Forts Young and Dinwiddie, and were drawn into an ambuscade on September 30, 1763. They were fired on from both sides of the trail, but maintained the fight for a considerable time; at length they were overpowered by numbers and were forced to give away, scattering as best they could. Several were killed; young Winston had his horse killed under him and was himself twice wounded in the body and through the thigh, making him well nigh helpless. He managed, however, to conceal himself until the Indians had gone in pursuit of the fugitives, when a comrade fortunately came to his aid, carried him upon his back for three days, living upon wild roseberries, until at length they reached a friendly frontier cabin. Although he in time recovered, yet the ball in his body was never extracted, and occasionally caused him exquisite pain.
Early trained to arms, for he was in Braddock's defeat in 1755; in the revolution he was the early and devoted friend to the cause of independance, and co-operated with the patriots of that period in the meetings of the people.
In 1769 we find that Joseph Winston and others petitioned the Virginia authorities for a grant of 10,000 acres of land on the south side of the Guyandotte river; failing in this, he emigrated to North Carolina, and settled on the town fork of the Dan, in that part of the state, now Forsyth County. In 1775, he was a member of the Hillsboro convention, which met on August 21, 1775, and erected a provisional form of government for the state, all hopes of reconciliation with the Royal government having been ended. The sword was drawn and the scabbard thrown away. In February, 1776, he was in the expedition against the Scotch tories on Cross creek. In this year he was created ranger of Surry
* MSS. letter of Governor Swain.County, and major of militia, serving in Rutherford's expedition against the Cherokee Indians. In 1777, he was a member of the House of Commons from Surry, and with Waightstill Avery, William Sharpe and Robert Lanier, placed upon that commission which made a treaty with the Cherokees at Long Island on the Holston, a treaty made without an oath and yet one that has never been violated. In 1780, he served with Colonel Davidson in pursuit of Bryan's tories, and was with Cleaveland in his movements against the loyalists on New River; he was in a skirmish on the Alamance, and commanded a portion of the right wing at King's mountain, October 9, 1780.
At King's mountain he was a major of the North Carolina line, serving with Colonels McDowell and Cleaveland. The battle was fierce and bloody, in which the Americans drove the British and tories from their lofty position, whence their commander, Colonel Patrick Ferguson, had impiously declared “that God Almighty could not drive them.”
In the plan of battle adopted by the colonels present on that occasion, Winston's battalion had to make a lengthy detour of the mountain from a point at the junction of King's Creek, and the Quarry Road, and thence to move to the east side of the battle field and so reach a point where his men were to move up the mountain's side, and make part of the “wall of fire” around Ferguson. The several corps were put in motion for the posts they were assigned in the day's operation. Both the right and left wings were somewhat longer in reaching their designated positions than had been expected. Winston's party had marched about a mile, when they reached a very steep ascent, which they took to be the point where they were to move up to the enemy's lines. Some men came in view and directed them to dismount and proceed, as being at the point of attack assigned them, but before they had gone two-hundred paces they were again hailed and shown their true line of march, and were then assured they were yet a mile from their position in the alignment for the battle. They then ran down the declivity with great precipitation to their horses, and mounting them, rode, like so many fox-hunters, at almost a break-neck speed, through rough woods and brambles, leaping branches and corssing ridges, without any guide who had a personal knowledge of the country. They soon came upon the enemy, and, as if directed by the Providence itself, at the very point of their intended destination, where they did great havoc in that bloody fray.* In a few minutes the action became general and severe, continuing furiously for three-fourths of an hour, when the enemy being driven from the east to the west end of the mountain, surrendered at discretion. Ferguson was killed with two hundred and six of his officers and men, and eight hundred and ninety-nine of the British were captured. The Americans had eighty-eight killed and wounded. “The whole mountain was covered with smoke and seemed to thunder.” For his distinguished services on that day the legislature of the state voted Joseph Winston an elegant sword.
Colonel John Campbell, of Abington, in preparing his “Memoir of the Military Transactions of West Virginia,” says:
“In the unique affair of King's Mountain, Colonel Winston played a conspicuous part. He led the right wing on this ‘Banker Hill of the south,’ and contributed greatly to that momentous victory, of which the battle of Cowpens, Guilford, and the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, were the direct consequences.”
Mr. Jefferson, in a letter now before me, says: “he remembered well the deep and grateful impression made by that memorable victory. It was the joyful enunciation of the first turn
* Wheeler's History of North Carolina, II., 106.of the tide of success that ended the war with the seal of our independence.”
In February, 1781, he led a party against a band of tories, had a running fight with them, killed some and dispersed the residue; he then joined General Greene with one hundred riflemen, and took part in the battle of Guilford Court House, March 15, 1781; in which, although Lord Cornwallis held the battle field, yet his losses were so great, and the shock he received so severe, that he afterward avoided battle, which before he so anxiously sought. Crippled and wounded, he retired to Wilmington, drew his slow length along, hoping to meet Arnold, if not Clinton, but from the effects of his barren victory at Guilford, he never recovered, and finally was compelled to surrender at Yorktown, October 19, 1781.
In 1793 and in 1803, Joseph Winston was a member of congress. In 1800, he was a presidential elector, voting for Jefferson, and again in 1812, voting for Madison.
For three terms he represented Surry County in the state senate, and when Stokes County was erected, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and for five terms represented that county in the state senate, between 1790 and 1812; in was during this last service that he was presented with the sword for military services in 1780,-’81. The county seat of Forsyth county derives its name from him. He is its patron saint.
He was a man of stately form, old school manners, and of a commanding presence. His home was within the lofty mountains of Stokes and Surry, whose “cloud capt summits seemed within a squirrel's jump of heaven.” Here he died April 21, 1815, leaving many worthy decendants. He was the uncle of William Winston Seaton, of the National Intelligencer, Washington city.
Dr. Draper, in his “King's Mountain Heroes,” adds the following incident: He left three sons, born at a single birth. A married sister, who had a babe a month old, called to visit the mother, and proposed to adopt one of the trio, and thus each would practically have a set of twins to rear. Mrs. Winston regarded the proposition favorably, and, as she sat up in bed, carefully examined all three to determine which to part with and which to keep for her own; at length she exclaimed: “I cannot, for my life, decide; you cannot have either of them, sister! As God has given them to me, He will give me strength to nurse them!” And so He did, all of them lived and were well educated. One of them became a major-general, another a judge, whilst the third became a state senator and lieutenant-governor of Mississippi; a brother of these triplets, who remained in North Carolina, fought in the war of 1812, became a major-general and a member of the legislature.
Israel G. Law, born 1810, died 1878, at Bethania, (then in Stokes,) worked on a farm till manhood, and then engaged in merchandizing, manufacturing, and banking, in all of which he was eminently successful. He was, in 1847, president of the branch bank of Cape Fear, at Salem, and at the close of the war, obtained a charter for the First National Bank at Salem.
He was a member of the state convention in 1865, with Judge Starbuck, and of the Fortieth and Forty-first Congress, 1867 to ’71.
He was a man of large wealth, and well known as a sagacious financier. He died April 7th, 1878.
We should do injustice to the truth of history to make no reference to the Moravians, located in this county.
“There is not,” says Williamson, “a more industrious and temperate body of people than the Moravians, who live between the Dan and Yadkin Rivers.”
In 1749, the British Parliament passed an act by which the Unitas Fratum, was acknowledged as a Protestant Episcopal Church. By
this act, the free exercise of all their rights as a church was secured throughout England and her colonies, which right was denied to them in other countries. Hence it was desirable to make settlements, where this liberty of conscience could be enjoyed. Offers of land were made from various quarters; but the most acceptable was that of Lord Granville, the owner of large possessions in North Carolina.
The Lord Proprietors, under charter of Charles II., (March 24th, 1663,) on account of the expenses incident to a distant colony, and the small revenue derived, in 1729, surrendered their claims to the Crown, receiving in return £2,500 sterling each; only Lord Granville retained his eighth part, which was laid off for him in 1743. He continued to receive rents, and have his agent and land office until the revolution. In the present century his heir brought suit in the circuit court of the United States to assert his rights. Mr. Gaston was his counsel. The suit went on appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, and there was dismissed for want of an appeal bond.*
Lord Granville offered to Count Zinzendorff 100,000 acres on reasonable terms. At a conference of the brethren, held in London, November 29, 1751, the offer was accepted, and on August 9, 1753, John, Earl of Granville, conveyed the title to a tract lying in the forks of Gargalee, or Muddy Creek, Rowan County, to James Hutton, of London, Secretary of the Unitas Fratrum. By the repeated divisions of Rowan, this tract has been successively in Rowan county; in 1770, in Surry; in 1789, in Stokes; and in 1848, in Forsyth.
An agent was sent out (Bishop Spangenberg,) in 1752, who, with Churton, the Survey or General and Agent of Lord Granville, after enduring incredible suffering and many privations, reached the Wachovia tract, so called from (Wach, the principal creek; and aue meadow,) and made the survey. In 1782, the legislature of North Carolina vested “in F. W. Marshal, and his heirs and assigns forever, the Wachovia tract, and all the lands in North Carolina acquired by the brethren. Of the thirty thousand Germans who left their native land for the far west, eighteen thousand eventually settled in North Carolina. The colony of Moravians suffered all the trials and tribulations incident to a settlement in a new country. Their salt was brought from Virginia; and the first bee hive, (an emblem of their industry,) from Tar River. The Indians for a while committed depredations and murders. The war of the Regulation, and that of the revolution brought many troubles to these peaceful and industrious non combatants. Hostile troops ravaged their fields and plundered their property. But the mild character of their people, their peaceful and industrious lives, their patient labor, and indefatigable industry triumphed eventually. In 1791, they were visited by General Washington, and the brethren of Wachovia addressed him a note of welcome, to which he responded as follows:*
“To the United Brethren of Wachovia:
“GENTLEMEN: I am greatly indebted to your respectful and affectionate expression of personal regard, and I am not less obliged by the patriotic sentiment contained in your address.
“From a society whose governing principles are industry and love of order, much may be expected towards the improvement and prosperity of the country, in which these settlements are formed; and experience authorizes the belief that much will be attained.
“Thanking you with grateful sincerity for your prayers in my behalf, I desire to assure you of my best wishes for your social and individual happiness.
“GEORGE WASHINGTON.”
Bishop Ravenscroft, in his letters, describes
* Swain's Lecture on the Regulations; Moore I., 71.* The Moravians: For this valuable information we are indebted to the work of Rev. Levin T. Reichel, of Salem, N. C., published in 1857.at great length, a visit he made in August, 1827 to this benignant settlement, how cheerfully he was received, communed with the church, and received with greatest cordiality and brotherly greeting.
The great feature of usefulness, and the most enduring monument of the society is the Salem Female Academy. The ancients were accustomed to inaugurate their rulers on the banks of a pure stream, hoping that their rule, like the pelucid stream, would refresh and fructify the whole land by its benign influences. So has this institution for nearly three-fourths of a century sent forth living streams of virtue and beauty to delight, purify, and invigorate our land. It was established in 1804, therefore it is one of the oldest literary institutions in the south, and is held in grateful remembrance by many Christian mothers who here received their elementary education and the holy impressions of eternal truth, and had the satisfaction of seeing their daughters and grand-daughters, educated at the same place, connected with such pleasing and useful remembrances of their earlier days.
The first pupils connected with the Salem academy, from Hillsboro, were Elizabeth Strudwick, Ann and Elizabeth Kirkland, and Mary Phillips.
We have not been favored with any recent statistics of this academy, but up to 1856 there had been three thousand four-hundred and seventy scholars entered; and in evidence of the healthfulness of the place, only twelve had died while at school.
The founders and the principals, (all are Moravians,) have rendered this service to the country. They may well rejoice in their work, and feel
—“The warrior's name!’Tho pealed and chimed on every tongue of fame,Sounds less harmonious to the grateful mind,Than he who fashions and improves mankind.”Thomas Johnson Wilson, is a native of this county, born December 31, 1815. Studied law, and was licensed 1874; elected solicitor of Stokes and of Davidson Counties. He was a member of the convention, 1861, and advocated the propriety of submitting the question of secession to the people.
He was elected in 1874, judge of the eighth judicial circuit, and held the courts for six-months until the supreme court decided that his predecessor, Judge Cloud, was entitled to hold over.
CHAPTER XIX.FRANKLIN COUNTY.
The origin of lynchlaw: During the revolution there was a noted tory, (and there were but few,) in that portion formerly called Bute County, now embraced within the counties of Franklin and Nash, called Major Beard. Major John H. Drake lived near Hilliardston; he and his family were decided whigs. He had a daughter, beautiful and accomplished, by whose charms Beard was captivated; and the tradition runs, that the handsome figure and commanding air of Beard had its effect on the young lady, notwithstanding the difference in politics between him and her father. On one occasion, Beard encamped for the night near
a mill on Swift Creek. This became known to Major Drake and other whigs, and they organized a force to capture him. They came upon the tories early in the morning while at breakfast, surprised and dispersed them in great confusion; they leaving their breakfast and horses. The whigs pursued them with great earnestness. Britton Drake, brother of the young lady, of powerful frame and strength, armed with a rifle led the chase, and came suddenly on Beard, who was hid behind some small pines. He did not move until Drake, who was not aware of his position came right upon him. Beard was armed only with a sword; he sprang upon Drake, who was too near and closely pursued to, shoot. He clubbed his rifle and felled Beard to the ground; and as Drake thought he was dead, for he was senseless, Drake left him for dead and went in pursuit of other fugitives. When the pursuit was over, he returned to the place of rencounter with Beard, and found that he was not dead. After some consultation it was resolved to take him as a prisoner to headquarters of Colonel Seawell, commanding in camp at a ford on Lynch Creek, in Franklin County, about twenty miles off. He was tied on his horse and carried under guard. After reaching camp, it was determined to organize a court-martial, and try him for his life. But before proceeding to trial, a report came that a strong body of tories were in pursuit to rescue him; this created a panic, for they knew his popularity and power, so they hung him. The reported pursuit proved a false alarm, and it being suggested that as the sentence had been inflicted, before the judgment of the court had been pronounced therefore it was illegal. The body was then taken down, the court reorganized, he was tried, condemned, and re-hung by the neck until he was dead.
The tree on which he was hung stood not far from Rocky Ford, on Lynch's Creek; and it became a saying in Franklin, when a person committed any offence of magnitude, that “he ought to be taken to Lynch Creek;” and so the word “Lynch law” became a fixture in the English language.*
Joseph J. Davis was born and bred in Franklin County. He is the son of Jonathan Davis, and his wife, Mary Butler; was born in 1828.
His early education was conducted by John B. Bobbib, and finished at Wake Forest College. He received the degree of batchelor of law, at the university in 1850, and after receiving a license to practice, settled in Oxford. In 1852, he moved to Louisburg. In 1866, he was elected to the legislature, receiving every vote in the county. When the civil war began he entered the army as captain of the forty-seventh regiment, commanded by the late Sion H. Rogers. His company was ordered to New Berne, where he received his “first baptism of fire,” at Banrington's Ferry; and again at Blount's Creek. At the bloody battle of Gettysbury, his regiment was in the heaviest of the fight, and Captain Davis was wounded and taken a prisoner; he was confined at Fort Delaware and at Johnson's Island for twenty months, during this period, the curtain fell on the scene of war and he was discharged on parole. He returned home and resumed his profession.
He was selected as one of the electors in 1868, on the Seymour and Blair ticket, and was nominated in 1874, and triumphantly elected to congress; again in 1876, and again in 1878. He married Kate, the daughter of Robert J. Shaw, and has an interesting family.
We might say much of Mr. Davis’ course in congress, but this speaks for itself. No one was more attentive and faithful, and earnestly esteemed by all who knew him. Much to the loss of the nation and the regrets of his associates, he declined a re-nomination to congress.
* The Hon. B. F. Moore communicated the aforegoing tradition to me, he received it from the Drake family.Thomas Person, who died in November, 1799, at the home of his sister, Mrs. Tom Taylor, in Franklin County, was a native of Granville. He was distinguished for his enterprise, his devotion to the cause of liberty, the foe of oppression, and the friend of the down trodden and persecuted.
He sympathized deeply with the Regulators, suffering from the oppressive measures of the public officers. I find in the journals of the Colonial Assembly in the Public Records, in London, as follows:
“1770, December 6, Mr. Husbands presented a petition of the in habitants of Orange County, complaining of sundry grievances; and praying for relief.
“Mr. Person presented a petition from the inhabitants of Bute County, complaining of the many exhorbitant and oppressive measures practiced by the public officers.”*
For this independent course General Person received severe treatment from General Tryon; and was for a time confined in prison, and at other times in prison bounds or on his parole. When on parole, he boarded at the house of Rev. Mr. Micklejohn, who preached in Hillsboro. Soon after the battle of Alamance, six of the Regulators were hanged by order of Tryon, in sight of the Court House.
At one time his life was in eminent peril from the choleric Tryon, who in 1771 issued his proclamation offering pardon to those who would come in and take the oath of allegiance to the King, except Thomas Person, and some others.
The reverend divine, on one occasion, in regard to his prisoner, is said to have dodged the truth, or clearly equivocated. It was suspected that the general had broken his parole by passing the bounds of Hillsboro. In fact he had much money and bonds at his home at Goshen, exposed to marauders and thieves. With the connivance of his friend, at night, he mounted his fleet mare, rode to Goshen, secured his valuables in a brick kiln, and returned by dawn of day to Hillsboro. The officers of Tryon demanded of the parson: “If General Person had not left his prison bonds the night before.” “I supped and breakfasted with the general,” was the delphic reply.
The University Magazine, IV., 250, says:
“A faithful biographical sketch of the Reverend George Micklejohn is greatly to be desired. He resided in Hillsboro before and many years after the revolution. On the first attempt at organization of the university in 1794, he among others was named for the presidency.”
Bishop Meade in his work “Old Churches, Ministers and Families in Virginia” states that “the successor of the Reverend John Cameron, (father of Judge Duncan Cameron) as the rector of Cumberland Parish in Virginia, at his death 1815, was the Reverend John Micklejohn, but not as the regular minister. He was then at an advanced age, and probably died there.”
But severe as his trials were, General Person was ready to take up arms in 1774, for the cause of the people and against the powers of royalty.
He was a member from Granville, in 1774, of the first colonial assembly that met at New Berne, in open defiance of the royal governor. He was also a member of the provincial congress that met at Halifax, April 15, 1776, and again on November 12th following, which body formed the constitution, and with Cornelius Harnett and others was appointed one of the council of state. This proves the confidence entertained for his patriotism and integrity.
He was elected to the first legislature under the constitution (1777,) and continued in the service of the people, enjoying their regard
* Colonial Documents, 180and confidence till the day of his death. He was a surveyor by profession and was an extensive land owner. His deeds covered 70,000 acres. He gave largely to the university, and a hall called by his name bears testimony to his ability. He gave his friend, who had stood by him in his troubles, Parson Micklejohn, his “Goshen place” in Granville, where he lived, which is called to this day “the Glebe.”
General Person was never married. He left two sisters, one of whom, Martha, married Major Thomas Taylor, in Franklin, at whose house he died; and Mary, who married George Little; and one brother, William. He adopted William P. Little, his sister's child, when only two years old, and educated him at Sprig's college near Williamsboro, in Granville County, where John Haywood, Sherwood Haywood and Robert Goodloe Harper,* were educated.
He died in 1799, and was buried at Personton. in Warren County, five miles from Littleton.
Judge Henderson, of our supreme court, always spoke of General Person with the fondest affection, (and acted as his counsel, wrote his will, which was, however, not found after his death,) and often declared that “he was one of nature's noblemen.” His services and his sufferings demand our respect, and his patriotism our gratitude. His memory is very appropriately preserved by calling one of the best counties of the state after his name.†
CHAPTER XX.GASTON COUNTY.
THE character and services of Rev. Humphrey Hunter, born 1755, deserves a place in our record and remembrances, as a true christian and a patriotic citizen. “He was a native of Ireland and a man of letters,” born near Londonderry; he combined in his character all the elements of that Scotch-Irish character, so conspicuous a type in our struggles for liberty. With a widowed mother he came to America and settled near Poplar Tent, then Mecklenburg County, and here he was raised. When the orders were offered for a convention, at Charlotte, which met on May 19 and 20, 1775, he attended, and his testimony is clear on the subject of the celebrated declaration of independence at that time and place. He soon after enlisted as a private in a corps of cavalry, commanded by Charles Polk, and served with credit and honor. He also served in a campaign against the Indians, under Colonel Robert Mebane. He also served as lieutenant in Captain Given's company, under General Rutherford, and was in the battle of Camden, (August, 1780,) where he was taken prisoner. After some time spent in confinement, he escaped and returned home. After remaining at his mother's residence a few days he again joined the army, under General Greene, as a lieutenant under Colonel Henry Lee, and was wounded in the severe battle of Eutaw
* Mr. Harper acquired great distinction in after life. There is a tradition that he was born in this state, and many have so stated. Dr. Hawks and Mr. Drake think differently.† The sketch, meagre as it is, is collated from the journals of the colonial assembly in London, our own legislative journals, and from a recent article in the Raleigh Observer.Springs. This closed his military career. He returned home and renewed his classical studies. In 1787, he graduated at Mount Zion College, in Winnsboro, South Carolina. He then studied theology, under the care of the presbytry of South Carolina, and was licensed to practice. In the first years his services were confined to South Carolina. In 1805, he accepted a call from the Steel Creek church, in Mecklenburg County, and here he labored successfully and acceptably for many years and there he died on August 21, 1827, in the peaceful hope of a glorious immortality. He left several children, one of whom, Dr. C. L. Hunter, is distinguished as an author and a gentleman. He lies in the church yard of Steel Creek church, and on his tombstone is recorded the inscription:
“Sacred to the memory of the Reverend Humphrey Hunter, who departed this life August 21, 1827, in the 73d year of his age. He was a native of Ireland and emigrated to America at an early period of his life. He was one of those who early promoted the cause of liberty in Mecklenberg County, May 20, 1775, and subsequently bore an active part in securing the independence of his country. For nearly thirty-eight years he labored as a faithful and assiduous embassador of Christ, strenously urging the necessity of repentance, and pointing out the terms of salvation, As a parent, he was kind and affectionate; as a friend, warm and sincere; as a minister, persuasive and convincing.”
On the heights of King's Mountain, in the southern part of this county, stands a plain headstone bearing these words:
“Sacred to the memory of Major William Chronicle, Captain William Mattocks, William Rabb, and John Boyd, who were killed here fighting in defense of America, on the 7th of October, 1780.”
William Chronicle lived near Armstrong's ford, on the south fork of the Catawba river. His mother was first married to a Mr. McKee, and by this marriage she had one son, the late James McKee, who was a soldier of the revolution, and the ancestor of several families of that name in this neighborhood. After his death she married Mr. Chronicle, by whom she had an only son, the gallant soldier of King's Mountain. The universal testimony of all who knew Major Chronicle is, that he was an intrepid soldier and an earnest advocate of liberty. His first appearance in the war was in South Carolina in 1779, after the fall of Savannah. In the fall of 1780, a call was made for a regiment from Lincoln, (then Tryon County,) to repel the enemy marching from the south, and flushed with victory. Of this regiment William Graham was colonel, Frederick Hambright, lieutenant-colonel, William Chronicle, major. Major Chronicle was peculiarly fitted for the life of a soldier. Brave to a fault, energetic in movement, and calm in action.
Colonel Graham, on account of illness, was not at the battle of King's Mountain, and the command of the regiment devolved on Lieutenant-Colonel Hambright and Major Chronicle. Onward these brave men marched with their leaders, and approached within gunshot of the enemy, when a volley was fired by the enemy, who then retreated. The brave Chronicle fell, pierced through the heart by a rifle ball. At the same time fell Captain Mattocks, William Rabb, and John Boyd.
This battle of King's Mountain, from its location and other causes, has never had the important place in history that it deserves “There is no difficulty in declaring, that if Ferguson had not fallen at King's Mountain, Cornwallis would not have surrendered at Yorktown. It was the pivot on which the revolutionary war in the south turned.”* It is in many respects, the most important, the most glorious battle fought in the great contest for liberty. It was fought on our side exclusively by volunteers, without the presence or advice of a single regular officer. It was won by raw militia, never before under fire, over trained troops, commanded by a veteran officer of approved and desperate courage, who had no superior in the English army.
Frederick Hambright, born 1740, died 1817, was also one of the gallant heroes of
* University Magazine, February, 1858, VII., p. 245.King's Mountain. He was a native of Germany; emigrated to America in 1727, and finally settled on Long Creek, then in Tryon County, where he lived when the battle of King's Mountain took place. He early embarked in the cause of independence; in 1777, was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and was throughout the war an active and fearless officer. At the battle of King's Mountain, Colonel William Graham, who had command of the Lincoln regiment, on account of sickness in his family, was absent, and the command devolved upon Colonel Hambright. Nobly did he sustain this perilous charge; in the conflict he was severely wounded by a large rifle ball passing through his thigh; but he refused to leave the field, and continued encouraging his men, he led them to battle and to victory. The effects of this wound caused him to falter in his walk, during the remainder of his life.
He was twice married, and left a large family to emulate his patriotic example. He died in 1817, and was buried at Shiloh, in the limits of the present county of Cleaveland. His tombstone bears this inscription:
“In memory of Colonel Frederick Hambright, who departed this life March, 1817, in the 90th year of his age.”
Robert Hall Morrison, D.D., resides at Cottage Home, near the line between Gaston and Lincoln Counties.
He was educated at the university and graduated in 1818, in the same class with James K. Polk, Robert Donaldson, William D. Mosely, Hamilton C. Jones, Hugh Waddell, and others. He studied for the ministry, and has spent a life long service in this holy calling.
He has had the charge of several Presbyterian churches in the state; has been president of the Davidson college, and until recently the loved and venerated pastor of Unity church, near Beattie's Ford. It has been my privilege to sit for many years under the teachings of this most excellent man. I can say that I never more truly felt the influence of religious truth and its importance, than as it fell from his lips, as also the force of the example of one
—“Whose doctrine and whose lifeCo-incident exhibit lucid proof,That he is honest in the sacred cause.”He is now near the close of a long and well spent life; possessing the esteem of all who know him.
He married Mary, the third daughter of General Joseph Graham,* by whom he had several children:
I. Isabella, married to General D. H. Hill.
II. Ann, married to General T. J. Jackson (Stonewall.)
III. Margaret, married to James Erwin.
IV. Eugenia, married to General Rufus Barringer.
V. Joseph, married to Miss Davis.
VI. Alfred.
VII. Laura, married to John L. Brown.
VIII. Robert.
IX. Susan, married to Alphonzo C. Avery.
GATES COUNTY.WILLIAM PAUL ROBERTS is a native of this county, born July 11, 1841.
His occupation is that of a farmer, but his war record is brilliant. Entering the army in June, 1861, as a non-commissioned officer in the second North Carolina cavalry, he was soon promoted to a captaincy, and in a short time, although the junior captain, was made major; and in that same year was promoted to a colonelcy. In the next year, 1865, he was commissioned brigadier, then only in his twenty-fourth
* For whose geneaology, see Lincoln County.fourth year, the youngest brigadier in the service. His brigade was one of the best known and most highly appreciated in the army of Northern Virginia.
After the war closed, General Roberts, like Cincinnatus, went to the plough and sought repose in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, leading a retired life. But in 1875 his friends and admirers elected him to the constitutional convention, and in 1876 he was elected a member of the house. Here his services were so appreciated that the state democratic convention in 1880, without his knowledge or consent, nominated him as auditor of the state.
GRANVILLE COUNTY.JOHN PENN, born 1741, died 1788, one of the signers of the declaration of independence of July 4th, 1776, lived and died in this county. He was born in Caroline County, Virginia, the only son of Moses Penn and Caroline, his wife, who was the daughter “of John Taylor of Caroline,” distinguished as a politician and a political writer. His father died whilst he was only a youth, and his education was defective. He read law with Edmund Pendleton, and displayed much genius and eloquence. He moved in 1774 to Granville, and the next year succeeded Richard Caswell as a delegate to the continental congress at Philadelphia, which sat from 1775 to 1780. He was appointed receiver of public taxes for North Carolina by Robert Morris This position he soon resigned. He died September, 1788.
James Williams, who fell in battle at King's Mountain on October 7, 1780, was a native of Granville County. He moved (1773) to Laurens district, South Carolina; became active in the partisan warfare in that state, and distinguished himself in the battle of Musgrove Mill. After that engagement he went to Hillsboro, where he raised a troop of cavalry, and returned to South Carolina. He fell at King's Mountain, at the same moment that the leader of the British forces was slain, and was buried on the battle field.*
John Williams, who lived and died in this county, was a native of Hanover County, Virginia. In April, 1770, while attending court at Hillsboro, he was set on by the regulators, and severely beaten by them. His early education was neglected, as he was raised to the trade of a house carpenter. But he possessed strong native sense, and was chosen one of the first judges, in 1777, with Samuel Spencer and John Ashe as associates. He was elected a member of the continental congress in 1778, and died in October, 1799.
The Hicks family were distinguished among those worthy of remembrance in Granville.
Captain Robert Hicks lived about a mile from Oxford, in 1770.
The family is English, and settled in Brooklyn, New York, in the locality now known as Hicks street. The family was distinguished in England for its courage and ability, and one of them was knighted for his deeds of daring.
Robert Hicks entered the revolutionary army, and was in the battle of Guilford, with the North Carolina militia, where these raw and undisciplined troops were placed by General Greene in the front line, and there, overwhelmed by the British, fled; young Hicks stood his ground, and fought single handed, until nearly surrounded, and after his men had gone a considerable distance, he then escaped and shared, during the remainder of the war, its dangers and its glories.
* Lossing; University Magazine, VII., 245.He died suddenly of a disease of the heart, and left a large family, some of whom still live in Granville.
One of his sons is a professor of a medical college in New Orleans, and another moved to Arkausas, another, Dr. John R. Hicks, one of the best and purest of men, died not long since, near Williamsboro in this county. The old homestead is now owned by a colored man, whose wife once belonged to one of Captain Hicks daughters. Her husband now owns the home from which her young mistress went years ago as a bride. How strange is the revolution of time and circumstance!
Captain Benjamin Norwood, like Robert Hicks, was one of the revolutionary heroes of Granville. On the approach of Cornwallis he recruited a company, and was present in the battle of Guilford, and, like Captain Hicks, behaved with great personal gallantry. He fought for some time after his men had ingloriously fled. The conduct of these two patriots should condone the conduct of their men, who unused to the pomp, pride and circumstance of war, utterly undisciplined, were opposed from the first to regular veterans. Captain Norwood did good service in the war, and died lamented and loved. He had two brothers who lived in other portions of the state. One in Lenoir, Caldwell County, and the other in Orange. His wife was a sister of Governor Aiken, of South Carolina, and Mrs. Cicero W. Harris, of Wilmington, is one of his descendants.
Robert Burton, born 1747, died 1825, lived and died in this county. He was born in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and moved to Granville about 1775; here he was appointed an officer in the army. He was a member of the Continental Congress, 1787, and one of the commissioners to run the line between North Carolina and South Carolina in 1801, and Georgia.
He was distinguished as a successful farmer.
He married the only daughter of Judge Williams, and died in 1825, leaving nine children surviving, among whom were the Burtons of Lincoln, (Hon. Robert H. Burton and A. M. Burton.)
The Henderson family, has been long favorably known in North Carolina as one of distinguished ability. Its name has been inscribed on a county, on a town, and on a village; the talents of its members have been displayed at the bar, in the pulpit, on the bench, and in the halls of congress. The progenitor of this family in North Carolina was Richard Henderson, who came from Hanover county, Virginia, about 1762, and settled in this county.
I found in the Roll's office, London, among the records of the Board of Trade, these entries:
“1769, March 1st. At a meeting of the Council; present, Governor Tryon, John Rutherford, Benjamin Heron, Lewis De Rosett and Samuel Strudwick.
“Richard Henderson, Esq., was appointed Associate Judge, &c., as also Maurice Moore, Esq.” * * * Mr. Henderson, Governor Tryon reports, “is a gentleman of candor and ability, born in Virginia, and lives in Hillsboro, where he is highly esteemed. The Governor stated that he wished to have appointed to these two places, Mr. Edmund Fanning and Mr. Marmaduke Jones, but they declined—.”
I found among the papers of the Board of Trade, on file in the Rolls Office, London, a letter from Judge Henderson to Governor Tryon, dated September 24th, 1770, at Hillsboro, stating, “on that day, Herman Husbands, James Hunter, William Butler, Ninian Bell Hamilton, Jeremiah Fields, Matthew Hamilton, Eli Branson, Peter Craven, John Fruit, Abraham Teague, and Samuel Parks, armed with cudgels and cowskin whips, broke up the court and attempted to strike the judge, (Henderson,) and made him leave the bench. They assaulted and beat John Williams severely,
and also Edmund Fanning, until he retreated into the store of Messrs. Johnstone and Thackston: they demolished Fanning's house. Not only were these beaten, but Thomas Hart, John Luttrel, (clerk of the crown,) and many others, were severely whipped.”
Another entry, January 25th, 1771, ordered that Richard Henderson, who appeared as prosecutor of the several charges against Thomas Person, should pay all costs.
Another record: “Proclamation of Governor Martin, dated February 10th, 1775, issued as governor and as agent and attorney of Lord Granville, forbidding Richard Henderson from purchasing or holding any lands from the Cherokee Indians.”
Extracted from Governor Martin's dispatch: “I enclose a copy of Lord Dunmore's proclamation, also Richard Henderson's plan of settlement of a large tract of land on the waters of the Kentucky, the Cumberland, the Ohio, and the Tennessee.”
These extracts prove the enterprise and character of Judge Henderson, under the royal rule. After independence had been declared, and the state government organized and established in North Carolina, he was elected one of three judges of the court, which he declined to accept, or resigned in a few months. The chief reason that caused this, was that Judge Henderson was at that time the chief manager of the “Transylvania Land Company.” He and his associates had bought, for a fair consideration, of the Cherokee Indians, who had offered their lands for sale, a rich tract of country, in which was embraced a considerable portion of Kentucky and Tennessee. The treaty by which this purchase was made was concluded in 1775, on the Watauga river, at which Daniel Boone was present. The states of Virginia and North Carolina declared this void.
His associates in this transactions were John Williams, Leonard Henly Bullock, of Granville, William Johnston, James Hogg, Thomas Hart, of Orange.
The company took possession of these lands on April 20th, 1775.
The Governor of North Carolina, (Martin,) by proclamation, declared this purchase illegal; the state of Virginia did the same, and the state of Tennessee claimed these lands; but the states of North Carolina and Virginia each subsequently granted to the company 200,000 acres as remuneration.
In 1779, Judge Henderson was appointed with Oroondates Davis, John Williams, of Caswell, James Kerr, and William Baily Smith, to run the line between Virginia and North Carolina into Powell's Valley.
The same year he opened a land office at the French Lick, (now Nashville,) for the sale of the company's lands.
Judge Henderson had several brothers, the youngest of whom was Major Pleasant Henderson. He was born in 1750, and served in the war of the revolution. In 1789, he succeeded John Haywood, as clerk of the House of Commons, which position he held for forty years, continuously. He married, (1786,) a daughter of Colonel James Martin, of Stokes County, and settled at Chapel Hill, where he resided for many years, and reared a large family. He moved in 1831 to Tennessee, where he died in 1842, in the 85th year of his age, leaving Dr. Pleasant Henderson, of Salisbury, born 1802; Dr. Alexander Martin Henderson, born 1807; Mrs. Hamilton C. Jones, of Rowan County.
Judge Henderson married Elizabeth Keeling, a step-daughter of Judge Williams, and had six children.
I. Fanny, born 1764; married to Judge Spruce McCay, of Salisbury.
II. Richard, born July, 1766.
III. Archibald, born 1768.
IV. Elizabeth, born 1770; married William Lee Alexander.
V. Leonard, born 1778.
VI. John Lawson, born 1770.
Judge Richard Henderson returned home from Tennessee in 1780, and surrounded by peace and plenty, esteemed and loved by all who knew him, he departed this life on January 30, 1785.
His daughters, intelligent and accomplished, married men of ability and high reputation. Each of his sons studied the profession of the law, in which their father was distinguished, and they did his name no dishonor.
Richard Henderson, first son of Richard, was highly educated, graduated at university in 1804, read law, and gave every promise of distinction; but he died at an early age.
Archibald Henderson, born 1768, died 1822, the second son of Richard and Elizabeth Keeling, lived and died in Salisbury; and was the acknowledged head of the profession in Western North Carolina. He was educated at the schools and academies of the county, for his name does not appear among the graduates of the university. He studied law with his relative, Judge Williams, and settled in Salisbury. He was a member of the House of Commons from Salisbury, in 1807 to 1809, 1814, 1815, 1819, 1820, and a member of congress from 1799 to 1803. These were exciting times in congress. Our limits do not allow us to detail the exciting questions of that day, but one may be alluded to. For the first time in our history the election of president devolved on the house of representatives, and the foundations of our republic were severely tested. Mr. Henderson, with William Barry Grove, Joseph Dickson, William H. Hill, voted for Aaron Burr, whilst Willis Alston, Nathaniel Macon, Richard Stanford, Richard Dobbs Spaight, David Stone, and Robert Williams, supported Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Henderson was a decided federalist, and was able and eloquent But, although he shone as “a bright, peculiar star” in politics, this was not his element. It was in the profession of the law that he attained his matchless reputation, and was pronounced by one qualified to judge:* “The most perfect model of a lawyer the bar of North Carolina has ever produced.”
“He contributed,” says Judge Murphey, “more to give dignity to the profession than any lawyer since the days of General Davie, and Alfred Moore.”
He looked, as did Hooker, “with reverence on the science of the law,” for with him, he thought, that “her voice was the harmony of the world and her seat the bosom of God.” By the teachings of the law, men are taught the great lessons of obedience to rules and reverence for their administration. No one understood this better than did Archibald Henderson, and in his practice no one more studiously observed it. Mr. Henderson has often said that he knew “but few men fitted for the bench. He had known many good lawyers, but few good judges.” The qualifications requisite for a good judge, are rarely combined. Many esteem legal learning, the first qualification. Mr. Henderson thought strong common sense, the first qualification; an intimate knowledge of men, particularly of the middle or lower classes, their passions and prejudices, modes of thoughts, was the second; good moral character, subdued feelings, without prejudice or partiality, was the third; independence and energy of will the fourth, and legal learning the last.”
Lord Mansfield gave this advice to a brave old admiral, who, for his gallantry and services, had been appointed a judge by the crown, to some distant point, and at once went to him, to procure some law books to qualify himself. “You do not need any such aid,” said Lord Mansfield. “Go to your post; hear both sides patiently, and then decide with energy and firmness, according to your own views; but give few or no reasons for your opinion.”
It has been said that one of the best attorney-generals
* Judge A. D. Murphey.the state ever had, never opened a law book until he had been appointed. By his marriage with Sarah, daughter of William Alexander, and the sister of Governor Nathanial Alexander, Mr. Henderson had Archibald and Mrs. Boyden, the relict of Honorable Nathaniel Boyden; he died October 21, 1822, and in the Lutheran church yard, in Salisbury, an appropriate monument marks his grave, erected by the members of the bar.
Leonard Henderson, born 1772, died August 12, 1833, was the third son of Richard and Elizabeth Keely; he was not the least talented, and in many respects the most distinguished, even more than his able brother, of whom we have just written. He was born October 6, 1772, on Nutbush Creek, in Granville County. He lost his father when a youth, and his mother survived her husband only five years. It is stated, as an evidence of the simplicity and frugality, as well as of the industry, of the matrons of that day, that his mother taught her sons, as well as her daughters, to card and spin.
The early education of Judge Leonard Henderson was obtained in the country schools. He read the Latin and Greek classics under the Reverend Mr. Patillo, a Presbyterian clergyman, who married a sister of Robert Goodloe Harper, and with this limited stock of learning, which was as much as his finances would allow, he commenced the study of the law with his relative, Judge John Williams, whose sister his paternal grandfather had married. After his admission to the bar he held, for several years, the place of clerk of the district court at Hillsboro, a position of much dignity and emolument. At this time, the state was divided into few districts, and in each district court was held twice a year. In 1806, this system was abolished, and a superior court was held in each county twice a year; these were divided into six circuits. A court of appellate jurisdiction, distinct from the circuit courts, was established to be held by the same judges twice a year, at Raleigh, in the intervals of the ridings of the superior courts, this was called the court of conference. Two vacancies occurred, occasioned by the death of Judge McCay and the elevation of Judge Stone to the office of governor; to one of these Mr. Henderson was elected. He discharged the duties of judge in a manner highly creditable to himself and satisfactory to the public for eight years, then he resigned, doubtless because of the laborious duties and meagre compensation received, only $1,600 a year was paid.
In 1810, the legislature, appreciating the evils of this judicial system, and the inadequate compensation to the judges, organized the present supreme court, with its present powers and more liberal salaries. On December 12, 1818, John Hall, Leonard Henderson and John Louis Taylor were elected to this bench. These were the right men in the right place. It was peculiarly the sphere in which Judge Henderson was destined to achieve his great reputation. He possessed unquestionably genius of the highest order; above all he had an honest as well as a strong mind. His knowledge of the great principles of jurisprudence was deep and clear, in all his opinions a search for the truth seemed to be the predominant idea. He was impatient when he found himself opposed by precedents, which to his mind were not supported by principle. His maxim was “inveniam aut faciam viam,” that is, if he could not find a straight, clear path, leading to truth, he would make one. “This,” says Judge Battle, who was his pupil and friend, and from whose admirable memoir, I extract these memoranda, “was the only fault he had as a judge.” He had for years a law school where many listened with pleasure and profit to his lucid and learned teachings. In early life his mind had been tinctured with infidelity, but a short time before his death
he professed a belief in Jesus, as the saviour of sinners. He died at his residence near Williamsboro, in August 13, 1833. A widow, nee Farrar, a niece of Judge Williams, and five children survived him.
I. Archibald Erskine, (since dead,) married Anne, daughter of Richard Bullock.
II. Dr. William Farrar Henderson, married Agnes Hare, of Williamsboro.
III. John Henderson, died unmarried.
IV. Fanny, married Dr. William V. Taylor, who lived in Memphis.
V. Lucy, married Dr. Richard Sneed.
John Lawson Henderson, son of Richard and Elizabeth, born 1778, died about 1844, was the youngest son, and if equally gifted as his distinguished brothers, acquired less fame as a lawyer and statesman, although more liberally educated. He graduated at the university in 1800, in the same class with William Cherry, senator from Bertie. He studied law, but from his retiring temper, modest demeanor and indolent disposition, he did not succeed in the practice. He was blessed with a clear, discriminating mind, high and generous impulses.
He represented Salisbury in the House of Commons, 1815,-’16,-’23, and ’24.
In 1827, he was elected the comptroller of the state, and subsequently, the clerk of the supreme court, in which office he died, at Raleigh, 1844. He was never married.
Robert Ballard Gilliam, born 1805, died October 17, 1870, was born, lived and died in Granville County.
He was the son of Leslie Gilliam, who was a worthy and respectable citizen, and for a long time the sheriff of this county.
He was liberally educated, and graduated at the university in 1823, in the same class with Daniel W. Courts, George F. Davidson, Isaac Hall, Richmond M. Pearson, Alfred M. Seales, and others. He read law, and commenced the practice at a bar composed of gentlemen of great power and eloquence. Among these were the late Chief Justices Ruffin and Nash, Governor Iredell, George E. Badger, Willie P. Mangum, Samuel Hillman, William H. Haywood, Hugh Waddell, and others. In this galaxy of talent and learning, Mr. Gilliam shone conspicuous.
He was a member of the convention in 1835, the most distinguished body of statesmen ever assembled in the state.
He was a member of the commons in 1836,-’38 and ’40, and again in 1846,-’48 and 1862, was elected speaker of the house. In 1863, he was elevated to the bench, where he remained till the close of the late war between the states. Upon the restoration of the Federal authority, he was again placed on the bench, where he remained until 1868.
A few months before his death, he was elected a member of congress, (October 17, 1870,) but before he took his seat he died. As a statesman, he was a pure and patriotic; as a lawyer, he was learned and able, and his ability was only equalled by the kindly qualities of his heart. Such were the conspicuous traits of his character, which endeared him to all who knew him. He was twice married, first to Miss Noble, of Virginia, and second to Miss Kittrell, but left no issue.
Abram Watkins Venable, born 1799, died 1876, was the son of Samuel Venable, and the nephew and name sake of Abram B. Venable, who was a member of congress from Virginia, 1791 to 1799, and United States senator 1803 and 1804; was detailed by the Jeffersonian party, on account of his financial abilities, to be the president of the Bank of Virginia. He perished in the burning of the Richmond Theatre, December 26th, 1811.
A. W. Venable was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, October 17th, 1799. His mother was a daughter of Judge Carrington. Educated at Hampden Sydney College, where he graduated in 1816, he studied medicine
for two years, and then went to Princeton, where he graduated in 1819. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1821.
He settled in Oxford, and in 1832 was elector on the Jackson ticket, and again in 1836 on the VanBuren ticket, with Nathaniel Macon and others. This was the last public act of Macon's long and eventful career in politics.
Mr. Venable was elected, in 1847, a member of congress, over Judge Kerr; and again in 1849, elected over Henry K. Nash, and reelected in April, 1851.
He was again a candidate for congress in 1853, but from some dissatisfaction of his party as to Cuba and other questions, another democrat (Lewis,) was put in nomination, and Honorable Sion H. Rogers was elected.
During the civil war, Mr. Venable was a member of the confederate congress; when this closed he retired from public life. His health had for some time failed, and he died at Oxford, February 24th, 1876, leaving a son, Major Thomas B. Venable, and other children, to inherit his fame and virtues.
Robert Potter was a resident of Granville County. In early life he was a midshipman in the navy, from which he resigned; studied law and entered the legislature in 1826, as a member from Halifax, and in 1828 he was elected from Granville. His course in the legislature was marked by a violent and vindictive assault on the banks of the state, which he pursued with such adroitness, that his bill to to raise a committee to prosecute the banks was carried by one vote, but the speaker, Thomas Settle, sr., voting with the minority, the bill failed to pass. Such had been the course of the banks that great prejudice existed against them amongst the people. Mr. Potter was elected to the Twentieth Congress the next year, and reelected to the Twenty-second Congress. But this brilliant career was brought to an ignominous close by Potter himself. He committed a brutal mayhem upon two of his wife's relations, for which he was fined and imprisoned. He then went to Texas and there was killed in a private brawl.
Memucan Hunt was born in this county. He served in the provincial congress at New Berne, August 25, 1774, and at Halifax, April 4, 1776, and November 12, of that year. He was treasurer of North Carolina from 1777 to 1787, senator in the legislature in 1788, and was a man of distinction and much usefulness.
William Hunt, his son, a distinguished officer in the revolution, was appointed major in Colonel Philip Taylor's regiment of state troops. He was the father of Memucan Hunt, who was sent by the Republic of Texas as Envoy to Washington city.
There are many other names connected with Granville worthy of memory and record, as Amis, Bullock, Eatons, Hargrave, Hillman, Hunt, Littles, Littlejohn, Pulliam, Robards, Sneed, Taylor, Wyche, Yancey, and others; but want of sufficient material to form a sketch, and the limits of our work, compel us to leave this pleasing task to some son of Granville, who will gather up the rich memorials of this grand old county, and present her sons in their true light to the admiration of posterity.
CHAPTER XXI.GREENE COUNTY.
GENERAL JESSE SPEIGHT, born September 22, 1795, died 1847, was a native of Greene County. He was the son of Rev. Seth Speight, a Methodist preacher. His education was not thorough, but his career in all the vicissitudes of public life, proves that books are not alone indispensible for success. He possessed great shrewdness of character, ambition, and untiring perseverance, united to a warm and generous heart, to these qualities were added a commanding and comely person, (he was the tallest man I ever saw.) He entered the House of Commons when in the prime of life, (the twenty-seventh year of his age,) the next year, 1823, he was elected senator in the legislature, of which he was speaker in 1828, and in this he continued until 1829, when he was elected a member of the Twenty-first Congress, 1837, and served until the Twenty-fourth Congress; then he declined a re-election, and removed to Columbus, Mississippi.
He here entered again the political arena, with brilliant success. He was sent to the legislature, elected speaker, and in 1844 was made senator in congress, which post he occupied at the time of his death: this occurred at Columbus, May 1, 1847.
Without any extraordinary endowments of mind, or advantages of liberal education, his brilliant success was due to his simple-hearted honesty, his energy of character and his devotion to the principles of the constitution.
Joseph Dixon was born in Greene County April 29, 1828, and represented the county in the legislature in 1868. On the death of David Heaton, (who died June 25, 1870,) Mr. Dixon was elected to serve the unexpired term in the Forty-first Congress, 1869,-’71.
GUILFORD COUNTY.IN this county one of the most important battles of the revolution was fought, March 15, 1780, important in its consequences, for it formed a link in the chain of events that led to the final independence of our country.
At this time the English authority was supreme in the south. Georgia was in their undisputed power, Charleston had surrendered, Gates had been defeated at Camden, (1780) and Lord Cornwallis advanced in “all the pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war,” and had taken position at Charlotte; here he held his headquarters. He had dispatched an experienced and approved officer with a strong force to intimidate and subdue the people of western Carolina. These were met at the King's Mountain. October 7, 1780, and defeated, then came the glorious victory of the Cowpens, of Morgan over Tarleton, with the flower of the British army, (January 17, 1781,) these, with the battle of Guilford, in March, all presaged the final defeat and surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, October 19, 1781. This triad of victories sealed the fate of the royal power of England in America, for had either terminated differently, different, perhaps, had been the fate of our country's liberty.
An official report of the battle of Guilford, by Lord Cornwallis, and also by General Greene, have been published, and will repay a
careful perusal,* they are too long to be republished here; but it may be well to present some sketches of the lives and services of those who figured so prominently on that occasion.
From an authentic work we extract the following:†
“Earl Cornwallis, (viscount Brome) was born in Governor Square, London, December 31, 1738, and died October 5, 1805.
“He was educated at Eton. While at college playing at hockey, he received a blow which produced a slight but permanent obliquity of vision. The boy who accidently caused this was Shute Barrington, afterwards Bishop of Durham. After finishing his education he chose the army as his profession. His first commission as Ensign in the Foot Guards, is dated December 8th, 1756. His first lesson in war was as aid to the Marquis of Grandby, in the contest between England and France in 1761. He had been elected a member of parliament from Eye, and upon the death of his father the following year, took his seat in the House of Lords. When in parliament he was strongly opposed to the scheme of taxing America, but when the war came, as an officer of the army, he accepted active employment against the colonists. In February 16th, 1776, he embarked for America in command of a division.”
To all human sagacity this war at first would appear to prove but a holiday excursion, considering the paucity of the forces engaged. Lord Cornwallis gives the following as the force of the two armies:
| British. | Americans. | |
| August, 1776 | 24,000, | 16,000, |
| November, 1776 | 26,900, | 4,500, |
| December, 1776 | 27,700, | 3,300,‡ |
He was at the battle of Brandywine, in 1777, where he displayed much coolness and bravery, and was then sent south, and there defeated General Gates at Camden, August 15, 1780.
The battle of Guilford was his last general engagement, for he was compelled by Washington, to surrender at Yorktown, October 19th, 1781.
He returned to England, and his mischances in America did not seem to lessen his reputation, for he was appointed Governor of the Tower, and in 1786, he was sent to the East Indies as Governor and as commander-in-chief. Here he was distinguished for his gallantry in the war against the Sultan of Mysore, and on his return to England, in consequence of his faithful and honorable services, he was made a privy counsellor, created a marquis, appointed master-general of ordnance, and sent as lord lieutenant to Ireland. He was made minister plenipotentiary to France, and as such signed the treaty of Amiens. In 1804, he succeeded the Marquis of Wellesly as Governor General of India; in this situation he died, to Ghazepoore, October 5th, 1805.
Colonel Banastre Tarleton, born 1754, died 1833, accompanied Lord Cornwallis in his campaign in the south, and commanded the twenty-first regiment of dragoons.
He was born in Liverpool, August 21, 1754. Studied law, but on the revolt of the colonist of America, joined the army. He was distinguished for his daring, intrepidity, indomitable energy, and sanguinary disposition. The ardor of his temper received a severe check at the Cowpens, from General Morgan. He surrendered at Yorktown, and released on parole he returned to England. He married, 1798, Priscilla, the natural daughter of the Duke of Ancaster, but he lived for some time with Perdita, (Mrs. Robinson,) the former mistress of the Prince of Wales; from whom he received considerable sums of money.
He was a member of parliament from Liverpool, from 1790 to 1806, and from 1807 to
* Wheeler's History of North Carolina, II., 175.† Correspondence of Charles first, marquis of Cornwallis, by C. Ross in three volumes. London, 1859. An accurate likeness of Lord Cornwallis, in my possession, shows this defect. I have heard old men say, who had known Lord Cornwallis, “that he was blind in one eye.”‡ Cornwallis’ Correspondence, I., 29.1812. He was notorious for his criticisms on military matters. In one of his works severely blamed Lord Cornwallis for the failure of the British arms in America and he assumed to criticise the military character of the Duke of Wellington.
He died January 25, 1833, without issue.*
On the field of Guilford, fell Colonel Wilson Webster, one of the most gallant and efficient officers in the British army. He came to America with Lord Cornwallis, and was very active in the operations in New Jersey in 1777. In 1779, he commanded at Verplauck's Point, and resisted successfully the attack of General Robert Howe. He commanded the right wing of the British army at the battle of Camden, South Carolina.
He was severely wounded at the battle of Guilford, and died a few days afterward, at Elizabeth town, in Bladen County, where he was buried. His remains, a few years ago, were disinterred; of this event an interesting account was given at the time, from the gifted pen of Mrs. Hugh Waddell.
His father was an eminent physician of Edinboro, Scotland. The following letter to his father, from Cornwallis, does justice to his merits, and credit to head as well as the heart of the writer:
“WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA,
“April 23d, 1781.
“MY DEAR SIR:
“It gives me great concern to undertake a task, which is not only a bitter renewal of my grief, but must be a violent shock to an affectionate parent.
“You have for your support the assistance of religion, good sense, and an experience of the uncertainty of all human happiness. You have for your satisfaction that your son died nobly for the defense of his country, honored and lamented by his fellow soldiers, that he led a life of honor and virtue, which must secure him everlasting happiness.
“When the keen sensibilities of the passions begin a little to subside, these considerations will give you real comfort.
“That the Almighty may give you fortitude to bear this severest of trials, is the earnest wish of your companion in affliction, and your faithful servant,
“CORNWALLIS.”
David Caldwell, D. D., born 1725, died 1824, was so patriotic and so distinguished “in his day and generation,” that he richly deserves our remembrance and gratitude.
He was a native of Pennsylvania; born in Lancaster County, March 22, 1725.
His early education was neglected, his father having apprenticed him to learn the trade of a house carpenter, and this he followed for four years after his term of apprenticeship had expired. He was moral, studions, and early became a member of the Preshyterian church. He resolved to become a minister of the gospel, and after being prepared for college, he entered Princeton, where he graduated in 1761. He was sent by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, in 1765, to North Carolina as a missionary, which was to be the field of his labors and usefulness; he settled in this county. He was a sincere patriot and so decided in the cause of his adopted home, that he was severely persecuted by the tories and the British in 1781. They ravaged his farm and burned his houses.
He studied medicine and combined the two characters of the divine and the physician. In the unhappy times of the Regulation troubles, he did all in his power to alleviate the oppressions imposed on this impoverished people by the hands of cruelty and extortion. He was a member of the provincial congress at Halifax, which formed the state constitution, and of the convention at Hillsboro, called to consider the Constitution of the United States, July 21, 1788. These were the only offices he ever held of a political nature. For years he conducted at his house a classical school, at which some of the first men of this age were
* Cornwallis’ Correspondence, 54 I have a perfect gem of art in a full length portrait of this officer, by Sir John Reynolds copied by Sully from the original in London.educated. Judge Murphey, Judge McCay, Governor Morehead, and others, received from this excellent teacher their early education.
He married in 1765, Rachel, the third daughter of Rev. Alexander Craighead, of Mecklenburg County. After a long life of usefulness and honor, he died August 25, 1824.
Alexander Martin, died in 1807, who for a long time resided in this county, was born in New Jersey. He was liberally educated. His brother, Colonel James Martin, who resided in Stokes, was a colonel in the revolution, and the father of the late Judge James Martin of Salisbury, who moved to Alabama and there died. Another brother, Thomas, was an Episcopal minister, a graduate of Princeton, and taught school in Virginia. Another brother, Samuel, was a captain in the revolutionary war, and was at the battle of Eutaw. He married in Charlotte, where he died.
Alexander, the subject of this sketch, moved to Virginia, and thence to Guilford County; in 1772, he was its representative in the colonial assembly.
He was a member of the first provincial congress that met at New Berne, 1774, in opposition to the royal government, and again in 1775. The provincial congress that met at Halifax, (April 4, 1776) appointed him colonel of the second regiment in the continental service, with John Patton as lieutenant-colonel. He joined the grand army of the north, under General Washington. He was at the battles of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, and at Germantown, October 4, 1777, where his brigade commander, Nash, was killed.*
This battle terminated his military career. Degraded by the court martial, he returned home, and the magazine, from which we have quoted, adds that “these officers who were dismissed proved very useful. On their return they found the state in great confusion; tories were very abundant; robberies and murders frequent. These officers used their influence and experience in quelling and taking these tories prisoners and hanging many of them; thus proving themselves in their own state more useful than they could have been to the country had they been retained in the army.”
This sentence of the court martial did not affect, as it is shown by subsequent events, the character, usefulness or popularity of Colonel Martin, for, in 1779, he was elected senator from Guilford, and re-elected in 1780,-’81,-’82, 1787,-’88, and was chosen speaker of the senate during all these years.
On the capture of Governor Burke, 1781, by the tories, under David Fanning, at Hillsboro, then the seat of government, as speaker of the senate, he became ex-officio governor of the state, and exercised the functions of that office.
In 1782, and again in 1789, he was elected governor of the state, and was senator in congress from 1793 to 1799.
Governor Martin, by his support of John Adams and the alien and sedition laws, lost
* The following is extracted from the University Magazine, V., 363: “Our brigade from North Carolina was inspected; the seven regiments, which had been two years in service, were ascertained to be too small for their complement of officers, the brigade was reduced to three regiments, the surplus officers were discharged and sent home. The first regiment was commanded by a homas Clarke, of Hanover to which the 6th was attached; the second was commanded by Colonel Patton, to which the 4th regiment was attached; the third regiment was commanded by Jethro Summer, to which the 5th regiment was attached. The oldest captain of each regiment, that was broken up was retained in the new regiment, with the priviledge of selecting the men who should compose their company from the regiment to which they first belonged. “Alexander Martin, colonel of the second regiment, at the battle of Germantown, seeing a soldier slip into a hollow of a gum tree, ordered him out, threatening to run him through with his sword. The soldier obeyed, and our gallant colonel took shelter from danger by getting into his place. This was proved next day in court martial, and he was sent home to Hillsboro with a wooden sword. “At the same court General Stevens, of the Virginia line, was sentenced to go home to his plantation also with a wooden sword, for drunkenness and disobedience, and to never appear again in the American service.”his long enjoyed popularity, and was defeated for the senate by Jefferson Franklin, of Surry. Governor Martin had been, theretofore, unerring in his campaigns in that perception of the politic and prudent course to pursue; but here he made a political blunder, which Talleyrand pronounced worse than a crime. He lingered about like some superfluous actor of the stage, when his day had passed, and he no more had the “honors and troops of friends,” he once enjoyed.
Such long, laborious and continued services in the political field should condone any errors in his military career.
He was fond of literature, and was for awhile at Princeton College. He was one of the most active and useful trustees of our university from 1790 to the date of his death. As governor, in his messages, he warmly advocated the claims of the institution to the patronage of the state. He was vain of his literary attainments. His ode on the death of General Nash, in 1777, and his eulogy on the death of Governor Caswell (November 10, 1789) have been printed, and may be considered as more patriotic than poetic. He died at Danbury, on the Dan River, in 1807, unmarried.
Newton Cannon, born 1781, died September 29th, 1841, soldier and statesman, at one time governor of Tennessee. He was a native of Guilford County, removed to Tennessee.
His grandfather, Richard Thompson, was the first man who fell at Alamance, (in the battle between the regulators and Governor Tryon, in 1771.) Mr. Thompson was also the ancester of Robert Cannon, of Shelbyville, Jacob Wrigh, of Rutherford County, John Thompson, of Davidson, and Andrew Hynes, of Nashville.*
He was a member of the legislature of Tennessee, 1811,-’12, and of the state constitutional convention of 1824.
In 1813, he was appointed colonel of a regiment of Tennessee mounted rifles, and commanded the left wing in the battle of Tallahatchie, November 3d, 1813, where he displayed much valor and skill.
He was elected twice a member of congress from Tennessee, and served from 1814 to 1817, and from 1819 to 1823.
He was appointed by Monroe, one of the commissioners to treat with the Chickasaws in 1819. He was Governor of Tennessee from 1835 to 1839, and died at Nashville on September 29th, 1841. He was a man of great purity of character; of strong common sense and of indomitable courage.
He married the eldest daughter of General James Wellborn, of Wilkes County, whose mother was the daughter of Hugh Montgomery, of Rowan.
General James Wellborn was a member of the state senate from Wilkes County for many years, from 1796 to 1829.
He was active, patriotic, and useful in the legislature, and often spoke on various questions, always with great vehemence and earnestness. He was blest with a stentorian voice, and when excited used it with great force. “In the legislature of 1805, says Moore in his history, (page 116,) the most remarkable feature of this session was General James Wellborn's proposition for the state to construct a great road from Beaufort to the mountains. The senator from Wilkes County was prophetic in his fore cast and entitled to be considered, the first to propose the great railway inaugurated in 1848.
John Motley Morehead, born July 4, 1796, died August 27, 1866, son of John Morehead and Obedience Motley, was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. He was educated at the school of Dr. David Caldwell, and at the university,* where he graduated in 1817 in
* Caruther's Life of David Caldwell, p. 153.* Judge Kerr in his oration “on the life and character of Governor Morehead at Wentworth.” states that “Governor Morehead gave evidence of his future eminence by the laurels he won in competition with such class mates as John Y. Mason, of Virginia, and James K. Polk.” They were never classmates.the same class with Richard H. Alexander, Hardy B. Croom, and others. After leaving the university, he studied law with Judge Archibald D. Murphey, and came to the bar in 1819. He was elected to the legislature in 1821 as a member from Rockingham, and after one year's service, he removed to Greensboro, where he spent his long, useful and eventful life.
In 1826, he was elected to represent Guilford County, as also in 1827. It was here my good fortune to become well acquinted with him, for we were members of the same body, on the same committees, and lived in the same hotel. He had an open hearted and open handed manner that was magical and irresistible. His person, then in the prime of life, was commanding and symmetrical, his conversational powers were unequalled, abounding in humor, and anecdote, as well as in kindness and sense. Such was his keen sense of the ludicrous that he
“Was wont to set the table in a roar,”
and was the charm of our little circle, which even to this day is remembered with mournful pleasure, for not one of that party (save one) is left: Bailey, Meares, Croom, Eccles, Iredoll, Walker, Morehead and Owen all gone.
After serving two years in the legislature he declined to be again a candidate; his private and professional duties demanding all his time and attention, and truly in that profession, there were giants in those days at the Guilford bar, and with them he had to wrestle for fame and fortune. Strong in intellect, astute in perception, they were very athletes in their efforts; it was no holiday excursion to encounter in the legal tournament such knights as Bartlett Yancey, James Martin, Thomas Settle, Sr., Wm. A. Graham, Richmond Pearson, Hugh Waddell, and others. To win laurels in such competition was no light duty. The forte of Mr. Morehead lay in his great amount of sound common sense, familiarity with the people, his sympathies with their troubles and trials, and a knowledge of their modes of action and thought. His clients leaned on him for advice, for support, and for comfort. He combined brilliant, genius, labor and tact, together with an energy and force that made him inevitably successful. He rarely lost a case in the civil docket, and although employed in every important case he never had a client capitally executed. Other advocates had doubtless a deeper knowledge of the law, but none had greater success. In the force and “the very whirlwind of his passion,” he often would violate some rule of rhetoric or grammar; but it was amply supplied by the power of his logic, the point and force of his illustration, and his impassionate elocution. Such was Mr. Morehead as an advocate.
But so devoted was he to his profession, that he avoided the enticements of politics. During the period in which he practiced law, (twenty-one years,) he had consented to represent the people only three times. His profession was his idol, and to this he devoted all his time and all the powers of his intellect, and he was richly rewarded, for he achieved distinction in that high science, which Coke pronounces “the perfection of reason.”
Circumstances, however, so ruled his destiny, that he was frequently forced to become a prominent actor in the field of politics. In 1840, he was nominated for governor, and many will recollect, and all have heard of “the log cabin campaign.” The quiet state of North Carolina was jarred to her very foundations, was shaken with unexampled excitement from the ocean to the mountains. From his attention to his profession, Mr. Morehead was not as well versed in political history as his astute and practical opponent, Romulus M. Saunders, whose life had been spent in legislative and congressional duties, and to whom every point and guard of political warfare was familiar. This was an occasion of great interest. Crowds of people met them at every appointment, from
the sandy shores of Currituck, to the blue mountains of Cherokee, to witness these gladiatorial contests. Both were in the prime of life—both ambitious. Saunders was dexterous and well informed; Morehead was apt to perceive, quick to learn, and always ready; as Gavin Hogg said of him on this occasion, “he learned faster than any man he ever knew,” and he was elected over his able and indefatigable opponent by about 8,000 majority.
The manner in which he discharged the duties of the executive office has passed into history. He has written his name in characters more durable than monumental brass in the institutions of the state. Every engine as it shrilly sounds in its progress along the iron pathway, announces his zeal for the cause of internal improvement. Every school-house that decks our hills or valleys, preserves his memory as the friend of education, and the stately charities near our metropolis proclaim his name as the protector and the friend of the deaf and dumb, and of the unhappy insane.
He was a candidate for governor a second time and was opposed by the learned and eloquent Lonis D. Henry; but the health of Mr. Henry was feeble, and although he made an able canvass, he was defeated by Governor Morehead.
After his second term as governor had expired, he returned to the quiet comforts of Blandwood, as his home was called near Greensboro, determined to devote himself to private pursuits, for he could not be idle. He had erected, before entering political life, commodious and extensive buildings for a female seminary which he called “Edgewood,” from which educated and accomplished young ladies were sent forth annually. His energy and enterprise established large cotton factories, thus competing with the Lowells of the north.
He was also largely engaged in the various railroad interest of the state, and received much vituperation from those opposed to his energetic and vigorous views. He was the first president of the North Carolina railroad; under his auspices it was put into operation and conducted successfully for many years. He retired from its presidency in 1855.
In 1848, he presided over the convention that nominated General Taylor for the presidency; in 1858, he was elected to the commons, and in 1860, he represented Guilford County in the senate, with Cyrus P. Mendenhall, C. E. Shober and J. J. Gorrell as colleagnes in the commons.
The first national position which Governor Morehead ever filled, was that of a delegate from North Carolina, to “the peace congress,” which assembled at Washington, early in 1861, with George Davis, Thomas Ruffin, David S. Reid, Daniel M. Barringer as colleagues. The hope of peace was delusive, and all efforts were idle. He went there the devoted friend of the union, and left the convention ready to follow the destinies of his state.
When the southern confederacy was established, he was chosen by the legislature of the state to represent his district in the provisional congress, but he had approached.
“—The sear and yellow leaf of life.”
The desolating effects of the war had seriously injured his estate. He not only lost his slaves, of which he had a great number, but a considerable amount invested in confederate bonds, nor were these all the saddening effects of the war on Governor Morehead. His health gave way; and with the hope of restoring his shattered constitution, he repaired to the Rock Alum springs of Virginia, where he died on August 27, 1866, full of years, and loved and regretted by the people of North Carolina.
He married in 1822, Eliza, the eldest daughter of the late Colonel Robert Lindsay.
He left the following issue:
I. Letitia, who married Walker.
II. John M., who married Evans.
III. Louisa, who married W. W. Avery.
IV. Another daughter, married Rufus Patterson.
V. Emma, who married Julius A. Gray.
VI. James Turner.
VII. Eugene.
George C. Mendenhall was a native and resident of this county, well connected and highly esteemed.
He was a lawyer by profession, patient, persevering, and skilful in the practice; faithful and honest in all his dealings.
He represented this county in the legislature in 1828,-’29, and ’30, and again in 1840 and ’41.
He opposed Honorable Edmund Deberry for congress, and was defeated by a small majority.
His death was unexpected as sad. On his return home from Stanly superior court, in February, 1860, in an attempt to cross at Fuller's ford, on the Uharee river, which had been swollen by recent rains, he was drowned.
John M. Dick was also a native and resident of this county. He was born about 1791, studied law, and represented this county in the legislature in the senate in 1819,-’20,-’29, and ’31, and in 1832 was elected one of the judges of the superior courts of law and equity, which he held until his death, this occurred while he was riding the Edenton circuit, at the house of Abram Reddick, in Hertford County.
His character as a judge was distinguished for integrity and patience; he was the father of Robert Paine Dick, now judge of the United States district court for western North Carolina. He is a native and resident of this county, born October 5th, 1823. He was liberally educated, and graduated with the second honors of his class at the university in 1843, in the same class was John L. Bridgers, Philo P. Henderson, John W. Lancaster, Thomas D. McDowell, S. J. Person, and others.
He read law with his father, and George C. Mendenhall, and was admitted to the bar in 1845.
He was appointed United States district attorney by President Pierce, in 1853, which position he held until 1861.
He was a delegate to the democratic national convention, at Charleston and Baltimore, in April and June, 1860, and acted with the union democrats after the state delegates had seceded. He was elected without being a candidate to the state convention, May 20th, 1861, and used his efforts to have the ordinance of secession submitted to a vote of the people.
He was a member of the state senate, (1864) and was active in advocating peace measures In 1865, he was appointed by President Johnson, judge of the United States district court of North Carolina; but, as he could not take “the test oath,” declined. He was also appointed provisional judge by Governor Holden, which he declined. He was a member of the state convention of 1865, and assisted in framing a constitution, which was rejected by a popular vote.
In 1868, he was elected one of the justices of the supreme court of the state; and when the United States court for the western district North Carolina was created, Judge Dick was appointed by President Grant to the position of judge therein. In 1848, Judge Dick married Mary E. Adams, of Pittsylvania County, Virginia.
John A. Gilmer, born November 4, 1805, died May 14, 1868, was a native of Guilford County. His family were of Scotch-Irish decent. His father, Captain Robert Gilmer, was a man of simple habits, of excellent common sense and inflexible integrity. He was a wheelwright by trade; by his wife Anne, nee Forbes, he had twelve children, of whom the subject of our
sketch was the oldest. His early education was such as could be imparted by the county schools and his own application; for, until he was seventeen, he worked on his father's farm in the summer, and attended school in the winter. He entered the grammar school taught by Rev. Eli W. Caruthers, who was the successor of Rev. Dr. Caldwell, where he continued for two years. His progress was rapid, and he became a good scholar in the ordinary branches of an English education, and in the higher branches of mathematics, also well versed in Latin and Greek. He went then to Laurens County, South Carolina, where he taught the Mount Vernon Grammar School for three years.
In December, 1829, he returned home and studied law with Judge Murphey; and 1833, was licensed as counsellor and attorney at law. With no friends to advance his fortunes, with no capital but industry and good habits, and surrounded by such legal luminaries as John M. Morehead, William A. Graham, Settle, Nash, Mendenhall, and others, his prospects were gloomy and progress painful and slow. But by energy and perseverence he was soon among the most successful, and in the course of a few years was considered a leader of the profession.
Fame and fortune followed his footsteps. Because of his abilities and his genial disposition he was popular with the people. In 1846 was elected to the legislature as senator from Guilford County, and continued without any successful opposition to 1854. His course in the legislature was liberal, patriotic, and philanthrophic.
He was the advocate of the construction of the insane asylum, and as also of a liberal system of internal improvements.
In 1856, he was the whig candidate for governor, but was defeated by Governor Bragg, whose majority was over 13,000. In 1857, he was elected a member of the Thirty-fifth Congress, 1857,-’59, and re-elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress in 1859,-’61, in which he was chairman of the committee on elections. On the accession of Lincoln he was offered a seat in the cabinet as secretary of the treasury, but declined.
Although at all times opposed to the doctrine of secession, yet when the state seceded and the war came, he went with his state, and embraced the cause of the south with all his native force of character, and, like Abraham, he offered up his only son upon the altar of his country, and sent him forth to battle, his only injunction being, to discharge all the duties of a soldier with energy and fidelity; nobly did that son obey this mandate.
He succeeded James Robert McLean as a member of the confederate congress, and sat until its termination.
His son, John Alexander Gilmer, has recently been appointed one of the judges of the superior courts, and “wins golden opinions from all sorts of men,” by his learning, patience, and fidelity. He was born about 1836 or 1837; graduated at the university in 1858; read law with his father, and practiced with success. Of his war record we have but little information, but we know that he was in the army and nobly did his duty; that after the war closed he returned to his practice, and on the death of Judge Kerr, (December 7th, 1879,) he was appointed by the governor judge of the superior court..
He married a daughter of Joseph H. Lindsay.
The father married on January 3d, 1832, Juliana, daughter of Reverend William Parish, and the grandaughter of Colonel John Paisley, an officer of the revolution, as also of General Alexander Mebane, whose sketch will be found in the Northampton County section.
He died at Greensboro, on May 14th, 1868. The melancholy effects of the unhappy intestine war preyed heavily on his spirits, naturally
elastic, and on his robust constitution, and so brought his life to a premature close.
John Henry Dillard, born 1825, late one of the associate justices of the supreme court of the state, resides in this county. He was born in Rockingham County, in 1825. He was a student at the university, where he finished his sophomore year, and then he went to the William and Mary, Virginia, where he graduated. After studying law, and being admitted to practice in North Carolina, he settled in Patrick County, Virginia. In a few years he returned to Rockingham and devoted himself to his profession. He was elected county attorney, and was remarkable for his diligence and accuracy in the forms he used. He was appointed clerk and master, which position he was well calculated to make him an admirable equity draftsman, for which, in his practice, he became distinguished.
His war record is short. He was captain in a company in the 45th North Carolina regiment, and did his duty faithfully. After the war was over, he renewed the practice of his profession with such success that he was pronounced by Chief Justice Pearson “to be the ablest equity lawyer in North Carolina.” He removed from Rockingham County to Greensboro in 1868, and became one of the firm of Dillard, Ruffin and Gilmer.
In connection with Judge Dick, he established a law school, which supplied the vacancy occasioned by the closing of the one so long carried on by the late Chief Justice Pearson.
He married Anna J., daughter of Colonel Martin, of Henry County, Virginia. He was an elder of the Presbyterian church, and a faithful follower of its exemplary teachings.
Calvin H. Wiley,* was born in in Guilford County, January 2, 1819, and graduated at the university in 1840, in same class with Judge David A. Barnes, Governor Tod R. Cadwell, John W. Cunningham, William Johnston, John A. Lillington, Judge Shipp, and others. He read law and was admitted to practice.
In 1850, he was elected a member of the House of Commons, and again in 1852, and was elected by the legislature superintendent of common schools for a term of two years. He was so approved in his high and important position that he was re-elected six times.
In 1856, he was licensed to preach by the Orange Presbytry.
So efficient was the system he inaugurated, that the schools were kept in regular operation during all of our long and bloody civil war.
His literary labors are “Alamance; or, the Great and Final Experiment,” published by Harpers in 1847, which described the stirring scenes in this region in 1776, and was a very successful book.
In 1850, he published “Roanoke; or, where is Utopia?” likewise, an historical novel, published by Peterson. He published, in 1851, “the North Carolina Reader,” which work is admirably calculated to make our state better known and our own people more familiar with our glowing history.
In 1863, during the war, he published, at Greensboro, “Scriptual Views of National Trials.” Mr. Moore, in History of North Carolina, says of Mr. Wiley, that his achieved success as an author is more than excelled by his great efforts in the cause of public education.
Albion W. Tourgee, who resided in Greensboro, is prominent as a politician, writer and advocate. He came to this state from Ohio, and as Moore says, is “one of the few whose advent has been beneficial to his adopted state.” He is a lawyer by profession, learned and laborious, and as a politician, active and able.
He was a member of the convention of 1868, Calvin J. Cowles, president, and, in 1870, succeeded D. G. Fowle as a judge of the superior courts. His judicial appointment was
* From the Living Writers of the South.opposed by Governor Worth, who alleged some damaging evidence against him, but his career as a judge, in spite of abundant calumny, redowned to his credit. His literary gifts are of a high order, and much respected.
He had for some time previous been chairman of the republican central committee of the state, and is now secretary of the national republican committee, and ardent and active in support of the republican party. Perhaps few men have been more soundly berated by his political opponents, and none who seemed to care less for such abuse.
Governor Worth, in a letter to General Canby protesting against the appointment of Judg Tourgee said:
“I do not know Tourgee personally, but know that he was a delegate to a political convention held in Philadelphia, in 1866, and his speech reported in the New York Herald, enlightening the north as to the temper of the people among whom he had settled, speaking of the loyal men selling everything they had at a nominal value, and that twelve hundred of these men have been driven from the state.”
“I was told,” said Tourgee, “by a quaker in North Carolina, as I was coming here, that he had seen the bodies of 1,500 murdered negroes taken from one pond.” Moore says in his history (II., 323) “that time has not changed the drift of his feelings, as his late work of fiction, ‘the Fool's Errand,’ is conceived in the same spirit of misrepresentation of the people of North Carolina.”
Junius Irwing Scales resided in Greensboro, but is a native of Rockingham County. He was born June 1, 1832; educated at Chapel Hill, and graduated in 1853, in the same class with Vine A. Allen, William H. Battle, B. A. Capeheart, DeBrutz Cutlar, John W. Holmes, Alexander McIver, Walker Meares, John Wheeler Moore, J. L. Morehead, Solomon Pool, and others.
He read law with Judge Pearson; Married Effie, daughter of Colonel A. Henderson; represented Alamance County in 1857; removed to Mississippi in 1861, and entered the army from that state; was elected colonel of the 30th Mississippi; was wounded at Chicamauga, and imprisoned at Johnson Island until 1865. This family did yeoman's service in the war, for there were six brothers, and three brothers-in-law in the field, and of these the most fell by wounds and exposure. He returned to North Carolina after the war, and was elected a member of the state senate in 1876. He died of heart disease on July 11, 1880 in the Presbyterian Hospital, New York. His last hours were soothed by the attention of kind friends and relatives; among them was his affectionate brother, Honorable A. M. Scales.
John Norman Staples resides in Greensboro. He is a native of Virginia, born in Patrick County, June 13, 1846. He was educated at the Franklin Institute, Montgomery County, Alabama, and at Trinity College. He left college to join Cumming's battery, 13th North Carolina, and served in it until the end of the civil war. He then studied law and was licensed to practice in 1868.
He was elected to the House of Commons in 1875,-’76, and acquired prominence. He was chairman of committee on the insane asylum; active in the advocacy of the Morganton and colored asylum. He has been an energetic and useful member of every district and state democratic convention since 1870, and has gathered laurels in the literary as well as the political field. His addresses before the Methodist centennial in 1876, and on educational, and other topics, have won for him an enduring reputation as an orator and scholar.
CHAPTER XXII.
HALIFAX COUNTY.
THE County of Halifax, in its early history, is distinguished for its devotion to liberty, and for the patriotism of her sons.
Among the most active and useful men in the early times of this county was Willie Jones.
The progenitor of this large and patriotic famly was Robin Jones. He married, first, Sarah, daughter of Rev. William Allen; second, Miss Eaton of Halifax. He had four children, two sons and two daughters.
I. Allen, born 1739, married, first, Mary Haynes, and had three children: Rebecca Edwards, Martha and Sarah; second. Rebecca Edwards, and had three children: Robin, Rebecca, Robert; third, Miss Eaton, had no issue.
II. Willie, married Mary Moutford, and had five children: Sally, Martha, Anne Maria, Willie and Robert.
III. Elizabeth, married Thomas Gilchrist, and had Grissy, who married Colonel Thomas Polk.
IV. Mary, married Governor Williams, and had two children: Allen and Willie.
From these four branches have sprung one of the largest families of the state, the members of which have been distinguished for their courage in the field, their sagacity in council and their virtues in domestic life. With much care a genealogical table has been collected, which is reliable for its accuracy. Written history, tradition, and the results of Colonel Caldwallader Jones, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, have been called into requisition in its compilation.
Of Robin Jones, the ancestor and founder of this family, we regret that so little at this day is known. When the dust of more than a century has covered the grave of any one, it is difficult to collect extensive information.
I found among the colonial records in the Rolls Office in London, page 22, the following: “1689, instructions for Colonel Cadwallader Jones, our governor of Providence and the rest of the Bahama Island,” also the following despatch of Governor Dobbs:
“MARCH 20, 1761. Thomas Falkner, appointed by order of the king and council, secretary and clerk to the crown, vice Henry McCullock; and Robert Jones, Jr., attorney-general, vice Childs.”
“1766, Mr. Marmaduke Jones, Mr. Charlton and Mr. Dewey, appointed judges—”
“APRIL 21. The Tuskaroras will move from Bertie this week to New York on in vitation of Sir William Johnson, to unite with his people. Mr. Jones, the attorney-general, advanced £1,200 to aid in buying wagons and provisions, on the credit of their land.”
The legislature in 1802 enacted, that as the Indian Chief Sacarusa, and others of the Tuscaroras of Bertie County, had requested the concurrence of the assembly in the leases they had made preparatory to their departure, the legislature consented. General Davie, for the United States, made a treaty with them, and just ninety-eight years after the creation of their reservation, the descendants and people of old King Blount left their ancient hunting grounds and joined their kinsmen, the Iroquois or Six Nations of New York. A small remnant of the Tuscaroras yet survive, and under their chief, Mount Pleasant, live on their reservation near Niagara Falls.
The present King of the Sandwich Islands is the grandson of Sacarusa, under whose lead the exodus of 1802 was accomplished.
“1767, p. 162, Governor Tryon informs the board of trade of the death of Robert Jones, on October 2nd, and that he had appointed Marmaduke Jones, who had long been a resident, of the first credit and capacity, about forty years old; educated in England, and cousin to Sir Marmaduke Wyvil.”
From these records (p. 165) it appears that this family was at this early day highly reputed, and from Willie and Allen being sent to England for their education, must have been of considerable wealth.
The tradition of the family is that Robin Jones came to Norfolk from Wales, England, in the early part of the last century, as the boatswain of a man-of-war; that while at Norfolk he fell in love, and failing to get a discharge from service, as the ship sailed out of the harbor, he leaped overboard as
“—Leander swam the Hellespont,His true love for to see.”The lady reciprocated his affection and rewarded his daring adventure with her hand. This wedded couple survived only about a year, when both died leaving a son, called for his father Robin. Thus friendless and unprotected, he relied on his own exertion, and by good manners and industrious habits, acquired the means of education. When quite a youth he returned to England, studied law and was admitted to the bar. By good fortune he gained the esteem of Lord Granville, one of the Lords Proprietors of North Carolina, who appointed him his agent and attorney. He settled at Occaneeche Neck, on the Roanoke. By means of his profession and this agency he soon reaped fame and fortune.
Of the patriots of the revolution, none were more distinguished than Willie and Allen Jones, sons of Robin Jones. Together they acted in defence of the rights of the people, and together were the active opponents of oppression.
Willie, educated at Eton, England, was more distinguished as a writer than as an orator; of his legislative talent it is recorded that he could draw a bill in better language than any other man of his day. He was the president of the committee of safety for the whole state, and as such was virtually the governor in the interval between the retreat of Governor Martin, and the inauguration of Governor Caswell. He succeeded his brother Allen as member of the continental congress in 1780, and was elected a member of the convention that formed the constitution of the United States, (1787) but declined the appointment, and Dr. Hugh Williamson received the same.
He was a member of the convention that met at Hillsboro, July 21, 1788, to deliberate on the constitution of the United States, and by which convention the constitution was rejected. He was its decided opponent, and with Dr. Caldwell, General Joseph McDowell, and others, defeated its adoption, although it was advocated by such able men as General Davie, Governor Johnston, Judge Iredell, and others. It was rejected by one hundred majority in the votes.
Willie Jones was often a member of the legislature from Halifax, from 1776 to 1780, and in 1788.
He married a daughter of Colonel Montford, and died in 1801, near Raleigh, where he was buried.
Mrs. Jones survived her husband for many years; and died in 1823. She combined great brilliancy of mind with exquisite beauty of person.
Many anecdotes are narrated of her wit and amiability.
“When the British army was en route to Virginia, in 1781,” says Mrs. Ellet, in her ‘Women of the Revolution,’ “they remained several days on the banks of the Roanoke, and the English officers were quartered among the families of the neighborhood. A passage of wit occurred between Mrs. Jones and the
celebrated Colonel Tarleton, who was severely cut by the sabre of William Washington. On Tarleton expressing in her presence some opprobrious remarks as to Washington, that he was an illiterate fellow, hardly able to write his name. ‘Ah! colonel, you ought to know better, for you bear proof on your person that at least he knows very well how to make his mark.’ Tarleton concealed his mutilated hand and changed the conversation.”
The daring and celebrated John Paul Jones, whose real name was John Paul, of Scotland, when quite young visited Mr. Willie Jones at Halifax, and became so fascinated with him and his charming wife, that he adopted this family's name. In this name (John Paul Jones) he offered his services to congress, and was made a lieutenant, December 22d, 1775, on the recommendation of Willie Jones. He became so highly distinguished that he was soon placed in command of a man-of-war, and did great damage to the English fleets and coasting trade. In one of his encounters, whilst commanding the “Bon Homme Richard,” he attacked “The Serapis” and captured her, after one of the most sanguinary sea battles on record. Congress voted him a gold medal for his services, and the French King, Louis XVI., invested him with military orders and a sword.
He was born in Scotland, 1747, and died in Paris, 1792.
“The star spangled banner” of our nation was first displayed by Jones, on the “Alfred,” in the Delaware, and to North Carolina belongs the honor of bringing his merits and genius into the service of our navy.*
General Allan Jones, who lived at Mount Gallant, in Northampton County, near Gaston, was a brother of Willie Jones, and was distinguished for his civil as well as his military services. He married Miss Edwards, the sister of Isaac Edwards, the secretary of the colony under Governor Tryon. He was, like his distinguished brother, educated at Eton, in England, and like him, devoted to the cause of his country. He was appointed a brigadier-general by the legislature in 1776, and a member of the continental congress at Philadelphia, 1779,-’80. From 1784 to ’87, he represented Northampton County in the senate of the state, and in the next year he was a member of the convention, that met at Hillsboro, to consider the constitution. On this occasion, and in political matters, he differed from his brother, he inclining to the federal party, and advocating a strong federal government, while Willie was the sturdy advocate of state rights; he died in 1798.
Cadwallader Jones, for a long time a resident of Hillsboro, was the son of Cadwallader Jones and Mary Pride, of Virginia. He married Rebecca Edwards Long, daughter of Lunsford Long, the son of Nicholas Long, and the granddaughter of Allan Jones, son of Robin.
He was universally beloved for his kindly disposition and generous bearing. Although popular, he seemed to have avoided the enticements of politics, as I do not find his name among the members of the legislature or of congress, and yet from his abilities and acquirements, he would have been an ornament to either body.
In his younger days he served as a midshipman in the United States Navy, and was on board the Chesapeake when she was attacked by the Leopard, which brought on the war of 1812 with England. He exchanged the navy for the army and attained the rank of major.
After the war he devoted himself to agriculture, and was useful to the state as a member of the board of internal improvements.
Mr. Cadwallader Jones, jr., was born at Mount Gallant, in Northampton County, and was liberally educated. He graduated at the
* See his life by John H. Sherburne, published in Washington, 1825; also by his neice, Miss Taylor, 1830, and by A. S. Mackensie, 1845.university in 1832, in the same class with Thomas S. Ashe, now one of the justices of the supreme court, General Thomas L. Clingman, James C. Dobbin, and others. He died on February 5th, 1861.
His son, Cadwallader, who now lives at Rock Hill, South Carolina, was distinguished as a statesman and politician. He was in the legislature from Orange County, in 1840, with Judge Mangum and Governor Graham, as colleagues; re-elected in 1842,-’48, and ’50.
He was elected solicitor of the fourth circuit, and served his native state faithfully. For fourteen consecutive years he was in her councils. He moved in 1857 to South Carolina, where he now resides, and where he lived when the civil war broke out. He entered the military service of his adopted state, and was in the fight at Hilton Head, in 1861, and in the seven days’ fight around Richmond. His health failing, he was forced to resign, but he left four sons in his place, two of them in the ranks, one of them was severely wounded. On his return home he was elected state senator from the York district, South Carolina.
He represented South Carolina in the Richmond convention of 1860, and in the tax paying convention of 1864.
John Sitgreaves, who married Martha, widow of Allen G. Green, has been already noticed.*
William Richardson Davie, born 1756, died 1820, who married Sarah, daughter of Allan Jones, was a native of Egremont, in England. When quite young his father, Archibald Davie, brought him to America, and he was adopted by his maternal uncle, William Richardson. His early education was conducted at Charlotte, North Carolina, and he entered Princeton college. But the war for a time closed the halls of that institution, and with that ardor, so conspicuous in his subsequent career, he joined the “Army of the North” as a volunteer.
The campaign being over, he again returned to college and graduated in 1776 with high honors. He then returned to North Carolina, and aided in raising a troop of horse, of which he was elected lieutenant. His commission is signed by Richard Caswell, governor, and dated April 5, 1779.
It would exceed the limits of our work to record the military career of General Davie, from the battle of Stono (in 1779, where he commanded the right wing of Lincoln's army, and was severely wounded,) to Rocky Mount Hanging Rock, Charlotte, and elsewhere. He accompanied General Greene in his whole campaign in the south, and was present at the battle of Guilford court-house, (March, 1781,) Hobkirk's Mill, and the evacuation of Camden.
The records of the country abound in evidence of the brilliant career of General Davie. The war being over, and the country liberated, General Davie returned to his legal studies. If his success as a military man had been great, his professional career was even more so. The courts at that time were so arranged that a lawyer could attend every superior court in the state. This was an arduous duty, and involved great personal inconvenience and labor; General Davie was employed in every case of importance. He was elected to the convention which met at Philadelphia, in May, 1787, but was called home before the close of its labors, and therefore his name does not appear upon the federal constitution there adopted. He was a member of the state convention at Hillsboro, 1788, to consider this paper, and he was its ardent and able advocate.
He was a member of the House of Commons, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1789, 1791, and 1798.
His efforts in the legislature for the advancement of the state, especially in the cause of education, were constant. “I was present,”
* See page 140.said Judge Murphey, “in the House of Commons when Davie addressed the house for a loan of money for the university, and although thirty years have elapsed, I have a most vivid recollection of the greatness of his manner, and the power of his eloquence. In the House of Commons he had no rival. His eloquence was irresistable.”
He was a member of the board of trustees, and as a grand master of the masons, he laid the corner-stone of the university; to the day of his death he was its steady friend and benefactor. In 1798, he was appointed a brigadier-general in the army of the United States, and prepared “a system of cavalry tactics,” which was printed and used in the service. In August of this year, he was elected to the legislature, and, in December following, elected governor of the state.
The next year, June, 1799, he was appointed with Oliver Ellsworth, then chief justice of the supreme court, and Mr. Murray, (vice Patrick Henry, declined,) embassadors to France, and in November of that year they sailed in the frigate “United States,” on this mission.
He remained abroad two years. He was appointed by Mr. Jefferson, in June, 1801, to negotiate with the Tuscarora Indians as to the treaty between them and the state of North Carolina. By this treaty the Indians extended their leases until 1816, at which time their title ended, and their lands reverted to the state.
He was a candidate for congress in 1803, and was defeated by Honorable Willis Alston.
He removed in 1805 to Landsford, South Carolina, where he died in 1820, leaving three sons and three daughters.
In the old grave yard at Halifax there are many graves of the distinguished dead of North Carolina.
Among them we copy the following four:
“Sarah Davie, daughter of General Allen Jones, born September 23, 1762, married William R. Davie, April 11, 1782, died 1802, leaving three sons, Allen Jones, Hyder A., and Frederick William, and among others these three daughters: Mary, Sarah and Rebecca.”
“Thomas Amis. died November 25, 1797. Erected by his friend, Richard Bennenhan, of Orange.” * * *
“John Sitgreaves, judge, &c., died March 4th, 1802.”
“John Boylan of New Jersey, died October 7, 1799, erected by his affectionate brother, William Boylan.”
Hutchins G. Burton, who married Sally, daughter of Willie Jones and Mary Montford, and the granddaughter of Robin Jones, was a native of Granville County. He studied law, and settled at Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, which county he represented in 1810, and by this legislature was elected attorney-general of the state. He then moved to Halifax, and in 1817 was elected to the legislature from that county.
In 1819, he represented this district in the Sixteenth Congress, and was re-elected in 1821 to the Seventeenth Congress. In 1824, he was elected governor, and in 1826, he was nominated, by John Q. Adams, as governor of Arkansas; but this appointment was not confirmed by the senate.
He was of social and genial manners, and wherever he went was universally popular.
He died in Iredell County in 1836, and lies buried in the Unity church yard, near Beattie's ford.
Andrew Joyner, who married the widow of Governor Burton, was born, reared, and died in Halifax County. His son, “an old school gentleman,” was much esteemed, and of great popularity.
He represented this county in the senate, from 1835 to 1852.
John W. Eppes, who married Martha, daughter of Willie Jones and Mary Montford, was a native of Virginia. She was his second wife, his first was a daughter of Thomas Jefferson. He was a representative in congress from 1803 to 1811; and again from 1813 to 1815, and a senator from 1817 to 1819, when he resigned on account of ill health; he died near Richmond, September, 1823, age fifty.
Pride Jones, son of Caldwallader Jones, resides
in Hillsboro, much esteemed as a gentleman and a scholar; has often been in the legislature, and served in the confederate service as lieutenant-colonel.
His son, Halcot Pride, did good service in the war as captain of cavalry.
He has been twice married; first to a daughter of Judge John A. Cameron; and second, to a daughter of William Cain, Esq.
William Polk, born July 9th, 1758, died January 14th, 1834, who married Grizzie Gilchrist, the daughter of Robin Jones, was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He early drew lessons of patriotism from that ardent and devoted people, and has testified that he was a spectator, (as the Reverend Hampton Hunter has also testified,) at the convention, assembled on May 20th, 1775, at Charlotte, which declared their independence of all allegiance to the British crown.
The files of the Pension Bureau, at Washington, presents his declaration for a pension, and it tells in his own simple and unadorned language of his military services and sufferings endured to obtain the liberty we now enjoy.
Colonel Polk represented the county of Mecklenburg from 1787 to 1791.
He was appointed, in 1812, a general in the United States army, but age and other causes compelled him to decline.
He removed to Raleigh, and was for a long time president of the bank of the state. He was grand master of the free mason lodges of the state, and died January 14th 1834, possessing the esteem of all who knew him.
Extracted from the declaration of Colonel William Polk, on file in Pension office, Washington, D. C. He was born on July 9, 1758, (seventy-five years old on July 9th, 1833.)
He entered into service in war of the revolution, in April, 1775, as second lieutenant of a company commanded by Captain Ezekiel Polk, third regiment of South Carolina State Troops of Mounted Infantry, Colonel William Thompson, Major Mason, commanding; rendezvoused at York, South Carolina, and marched to Ninty-six to oppose the tories, thence to Dorchester, and thence to Granby An engagement took place at Canebrake, on December 22nd, 1775, where he was severely wounded in the left shoulder, from which he was confined eight or nine months and from the effects of which he still suffers.
On November 26th, 1776, he was elected by the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, Major of the Ninth North Carolina Continental Battalion, and joined his regiment at Halifax. He did duty by command of General Moore, at Charleston, South Carolina, and at Wilmington. This regiment was under command of Colonel John Williams, John Luttrel being Lieutenant-Colonel. From absence of these officers, the command of the regiment devolved on himself, and he marched with the regiment to Georgetown, then in Maryland, now in the District of Columbia, thence to Trenton, where his regiment joined the grand army under General Washington; was in the battle of Brandywine, September 10, 1777, and Germantown, October 4, 1777, where he was wounded by a musket ball in the cheek. He went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, when the regiment was reduced, and he returned to North Carolina to superintend the recruiting service for the purpose of filling up the regiments. In the fall or winter of 1780, he was appointed a lieutenant colonel by John Rutledge, Governor of South Carolina, and had command of the Fourth, and then the Third regiment of the State. He first mustered his regiment under General Thomas Sumter, on Broad river, South Carolina. The first active service was an attack on a block house near Granby, on the Congaree, which was carried by his and Colonel Wade Hampton's regiment; was at the siege and reduction of Forts Mott and Orangeburg. He was present at the battle of Eutaw Springs, September
8, 1871, (where his horse was killed under him, and where his brother was killed) at the reduction of Matthas Fort, and battle of Quinby. He held the rank of lieutenant colonel at the close of the war. He served in 1779, as volunteer aid to Governor Caswell in battle of Camden, August 16, 1780. Colonel Polk died at Raleigh, January 14, 1834.
General Lucius J. Polk, son of William J. Polk, and his wife, Mary Long, was a gallant officer in the late civil war. He was born at Salisbury, on July 10th, 1833. He entered the army as a private in General Cleburne's command, and was soon made a first lieutenant, and as such was in the battle of Shiloh, where he received a wound in the face. He was promoted to be a brigadier-general under Cleburne, and joined his brigade in time for the fight at Murfreesboro, where his command made a brilliant charge on the enemy.
He was complimented in General Bragg's report of this battle. He was engaged in many other battles, at Ringgold Gap, and Kennesaw Mountain, where he was badly wounded by a cannon ball, which effectually disabled him from future service in the field.
He married his cousin, Sally Polk, and resides in Maury County, Tennessee.
We have now finished the sketches of this extensive and distinguished family who for generations have proved our assertion at the commencement of this sketch, as being “the most active and useful men in those early times of the country.”
Genealogy of the Jones family.
Allen, son of Robin Jones, born 1739, died 1807, married first, Mary Haynes, second, Rebecca Edwards, and third, Eaton; educated at Eton, England, lived at Mt. Gallant, near Gaston, Northampton County, North Carolina; member of provincial congress 1774, 1775, and 1776; brigadier-general in revolution, 1776; continental congress, 1779 and 1786; convention 1788. Issue as follows:
I. Robin, died in youth. (See Uni. Mag.)
II. Martha, married first, James Green, second, Judge John Sitgreaves; third, Ezekiel Hall, born 1762, died 1803.
III. Sarah, married William R. Davie, born 1756, died 1820. (See his sketch.)
IV. Rebecca Edwards Jones, born 1770, only daughter by his second wife, married Lunsford Long, son of Nicholas Long, who was commissary general of the North Carolina forces in the revolution; in state senate, 1784, 1785 and 1787; in the provincial congress of North Carolina, 1774,-75; married first, Mary McKinny, 1794; second, Mary Copeland, 1799.
Issue to the above as follows:
IV. (a) Rebecca Edwards Long, born 1795, married Colonel Cadwallader Jones, son of Major Cadwallader Jones, aid to Lafayette, a grandson of Peter Jones for whom Petersburg is named, and Mary Pride, of Virginia; resided in Hillsboro, in the United States navy, and in the army as major, (1812,) died 1861, (b) Mary Lunsford Long, married Dr. W. J. Polk.
II. (a) Allen Jones Green, married Lucy Pride Jones, sister of Colonel C. Jones.
III. (a) Allen Jones Davie, perished en route to California; (b) Hyder Ali, married Betsy Jones; (c) Sarah, married William F. DeSaussure, of South Carolina; (d) Mary Haynes; (e) Rebecca, married Churchill Jones; (f) Frederick William married first, Octavia DeSaussure, and second, Mary Frazier.
Issue to the above as follows:
II. (a) had issue following: Mary, married Walter Izard; fifth, Allen, married Sallie Scott; sixth, Halcott married Virginia Taylor; seventh, Lucy; eighth, John Sitgreaves Greene of Columbia, South Carolina; ninth, Fred. Lafayette married Virginia Colelough.
IV. (a) had issue following: First, Allen C., lives at Greensboro, Ala., Colonel in civil war, married Catherine Erwin; second Cadwallader, married Annie Isabella Iredell, daughter of
Governor James Iredell, to these last were born (a) Frances Iredell, married to George Erwin of Alabama; (b) Iredell married (first,) Ellen, daughter of Governor Adams; (second) Laura McMahon; (c) Cadwallader married Emma, daughter of Dr. Charles E. Johnson; (d) Allen, married Augusta Porcher; (e) Johnston, attorney general of North Carolina, married Elizabeth Watters Miller; (f) Annie Isabella; married Dr. Thomas C. Robertson, of South Carolina; (g) Willie; (h) Halcot Pride; (i) Helen, married J. Stricker Coles.
IV. (a) also had issue, third, Dr. Pride Jones, married first, Mary E. A. Cameron, daughter of Judge John Cameron; and second, Martha Cain; fourth, Mary Rebecca, married to P. B. Ruffin; fifth, Robin, married Sarah Polk, killed in battle of Brandy Station; sixth, Sarah Rebecca, married to Josiah Collins, jr.
IV. (b) had issue following: First, Griselda, married to Judge Russell Houston, Louisville, Kentucky; second, Allen Jones, born 1824, married first, Clendinin; second, Anna L. Fitzhugh, Helena, Arks; third, Thomas G., married Lavinia Wood, in 1825; fourth, Mary Jones, born 1831, at Salisbury, married to Joseph Branch, brother of General L. O'B. Branch, General Lucius J., born 1833, at Salisbury; fifth enlisted as private, became General [C. S. A.,] married Sally Polk and lives in Maury County, Tennessee; sixth, Cadwallader of Helena Ark, married Carrie Lowry; seventh, Rufus, born in Tennessee, 1839, married Cynthia Martin.
Willie, son of Robin Jones, married Mary Montfort, educated at Eton, England; president of council of safety, 1776; in legislature, 1776 to 1779; continental congress, 1780; convention at Hillsboro, 1788; died at Raleigh in 1801, had issue as follows:
I. Sally, married (first,) Governor H. G. Burton; (second,) Colonel Andrew Joyner.
II. Martha, married to John W. Eppes, (whose first wife was a daughter of Thomas Jefferson,) to the last named were born, (a) Mary, married to Philip Bolling; (b) Sarah, married to E. W. Hubbard, in congress from Virginia, from 1841 to 1847; (c) Willie, married (first,) Cox, (second,) Joyner; (d) John, died unmarried.
To Willie Jones and Mary Montfort were also born: (a) Anne Maria, married to Joseph B. Littlejohn; (b) Willie, died single; (c) Robert A., died single; legislature 1820.
Martha, daughter of Robin Jones, married Judge Thomas Gilchrist; issue, Griselda Gilchrist, who married Colonel William Polk, of Raleigh, to whom were born, (a) General Thomas G. Polk, married Mary Eloise Trotter; (b) Dr. William J. Polk, who married Mary, daughter of Lundsford Long and Rebecca Edwards. To General Thomas G. Polk were born, (a) Jane, married to Dr. Bouchelle; (b) Mary, who was the first wife of Honorable George Davis, of Wilmington; (c) William; (d) Richard; (e) Emily; (f) Thos. G.
Colonel William Polk married a second time, Sarah Hawkins, issue: (c) Lucius J. Polk; (d) Bishop Leonidas Polk; (e) Mary, wife of Honorable George E. Badger; (f) Rufus K. Polk; (h) Alex. Hamilton; (i) George W. Polk; (j) Susan, wife of Honorable Kenneth Rayner; (k) Andrew J.
Elizabeth Eaton, only daughter of Robin Jones by his second wife, married Governor Benjamin Williams, of Moore County, Governor of North Carolina in 1799 and 1807; issue:
I. Allen William, educated at Eton.
THE CROWELL FAMILY.
It has been truly observed that truth is stranger than fiction.
After the death of Cromwell, and the accession of Charles II., fearing prosecution from the crown, John and Edward, two of the brothers of the Protector, in the same year, left England for America. They settled first in Woodbridge, New Jersey. On their voyage, more effectually to avoid the storm
impending, they, with much solemnity, changed their name to Crowell.*
John, who emigrated from New Jersey to Halifax, married a Miss Lewis. He died early leaving several children. Joseph, one of his sons, married Miss Barnes. One of his daughters married Colonel Monfort, whose daughter was the wife of Willie Jones. His sketch we have already presented. A son of Edward, the other brother, settled in Georgia, and married a sister of Governor Rayburn.
Another son of Edward, Samuel, married Miss Bradford, daughter of Colonel Bradford of the British army. He (Samuel) was in the revolutionary war, and served as a major, under General Greene.
He lived on Flint River, in retirement, and was distinguished for his modest, unobstrusive character. He had several children; among them Colonel John Crowell, who was a delegate in congress, when the territory of Alabama was established in 1817, and when the state constitution was formed; was the first representative in congress from that state, serving till 1821. Soon after he was appointed agent for the Creek Indians, then occupying large portions of Alabama and Georgia, until they were removed west of the Mississippi in 1836. He died near Fort Mitchell, in Alabama, June 25th, 1846.
John Baptista Ashe, (born 1758, died 1802,) lived and died in Halifax. He was son of Governor Samuel Ashe, born in 1745; was a captain, at the battle of Alamance, in Governor Tryon's army, 1771, and with John Walker suffered at the hands of the regulators.
He was at the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, a captain in Coilllonel Lington's regiment.
He was promoted to rank of lieutenant colonel under General Greene, and was in the battle of Eutaw Springs, which decisive battle closed his military career.
He was a member of the legislature in 1786, and of the continental congress in 1787, and in the First Congress, 1790, and re-elected to the Second Congress, 1791,-’93.
In 1795, he was a member of the legislature from Halifax town. On November 20, 1802, he was chosen governor of the state, but died on 27th of November, of the same year before his inauguration. One son, Samuel Porter Ashe survived him, who died near Brownsville, Tennessee, leaving three children, John Ashe, of Mississippi; Shepard Ashe, of Tennessee; and a daughter, who married Holmes.
Willis Alston was born, reared, and died in Halifax County. He was distinguished as a politician, and entered public life as a member of the House of Commons in 1790, and served till 1792, he became senator in 1794, serving until 1796. He was elected to the Sixth Congress, 1799, and served till 1815, and in the Nineteenth Congress from 1825 to 1831. During the war he was chairman of the committee of ways and means; at that time a most important position. Without great abilities, he was a man of consummate tact, and successful in all of his enterprizes. He was consistent and uniform as a statesman. He died April 10, 1837.
John Haywood was born, reared and lived in this county. He was the son of Egbert Haywood, who represented the county in the provincial congress in November, 1776, at Halifax, which adopted the state constitution, and in the house of commons in 1777, and 1778.
From the distracted condition of the country at this time, the opportunities to acquire education were few; but young Haywood entered the profession of the law, in which he was destined to become distinguished, under many disadvantages. To the want of a systematic intellectual culture,
* Here in the quiet retreats of North Carolina, the restless and aspiring blood of Cromwell found repose, and the exquisite lines of Gray were realized: “— Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest—Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.”was added an ungainly person, and an unpleasant harsh voice. But possessing great determination of character, an ardent love of study, and a lofty ambition, he overcame those disadvantages, and soon rose to the head of his profession. His success was manifested by his election, in 1791, by the legislature as attorney general, the successor of Avery, Iredell and Moore, all shining lights in the law. He held this office until 1794, when he was elected one of the judges of the superior courts, in place of Judge Spencer, deceased. Such was the estimate of his associates, that Judge Hall decided in 1828, (in Spier's case, Devereux 496,) as follows: “With no disrespect to the memory of the dead; or to the pretensions of the living, a greater criminal lawyer, than Judge Haywood never sat upon the bench in North Carolina.”
In 1809, he resigned the office of Judge, to defend James Glasgow, against the charge of fraud in issuing land warrants while he was secretary of state.
The defendant was convicted, and Mr. Haywood incurred a degree of odium, for his course in defending him, that induced him to leave the state. He sought new fields of service in Tennessee. Here he took rank with the ablest advocates, and soon was elevated to the supreme court bench, in the place of Judge Cooke, and where he remained until his death, in December, 1826.
In addition to his labors at the bar and on the bench, Judge Haywood, while in this state, prepared “A Treatise on the Duty and Office of Justices of Peace, Sheriffs, &c.,” “A Manual of the Laws of North Carolina,” and two volumes of reports; all works of high merit.
He also published several theological and historical works. He was a firm believer in ghosts, and of the re-appearance of departed spirits—the great weakness of a great mind.
He published in 1823, two volumes of history. The first, “On the Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee,” and the second, “The Civil and Political History of Tennessee, from its Earliest Settlement to 1796.” The style of these works, however, is not elegant, and the reading is uninteresting. It is chiefly upon the fact of his being one of the most learned and profound lawyers of the nation, that the fame of Judge Haywood rests.
He married early in life Martha Edwards, from which union have sprung numerous descendents, many of whom live in Alabama and Tennessee.
When in North Carolina he resided on a farm he owned, about six miles north of Louisburg, in Franklin County.
John Henry Eaton, (born 1787, died 1856,) senator in congress, secretary of war, governor of Florida, and envoy to Spain, was a native of Halifax County. He was educated partly at the university, but never graduated. After leaving the university, he studied law, and emigrated to Tennessee. Here he entered successfully into politics, and so became, at the early age of thirty-one, by selection of the governor, one of the senators in congress from Tennessee, which position he held from 1818 to 1829. During the first session of his service, the invasion of Florida by General Jackson, was an important and exciting question. The communication of the president on the subject, was referred to a committee, upon which was Mr. Eaton, Mr. King, of New York, Mr. Forsyth, of Georgia, and a member from Pennsylvania. The majority of this committee submitted a report strongly condemning Jackson, from which report Eaton and King dissented. Eaton never during his life for a moment swerved in his devotion and fidelity to “the Hero of New Orleans.” His letters, signed “Wyoming,” in favor of Jackson were considered models of classical diction, and cogent reasoning. These contributed much towards elevating Jackson to the presidency. He further signalized his
attachment to him, by writing and publishing an elaborate and voluminous “life of Jackson.” On the accession of this chief to the presidency, Eaton was appointed secretary of war, which position he held from 1829 to 1831, until his marriage with Mrs. Timberlake, the “the fair and fast” widow of Purser Timberlake of the navy. There was scandal connected with this lady. The wives of Calhoun, Ingham, Branch and Berrien refused to call on her; Jackson took her part, and a dissolution of the cabinet was the result. Mr. Eaton was governor of Florida, 1834,-’36, and envoy to Spain from 1836 to 1840.
Governor Eaton was of commanding presence; his literary abilities respectable, his elocution graceful, and his voice remarkably tine. He was social and generous in his intercourse with his friends, and much esteemed.
He died in Washington City, November, 1856. His widow married again, and recently died in Washington.
J. J. Daniel, born 1783, died 1848, one of the justices of the supreme court. Born, reared and died in Halifax. His early education was defective; he studied law under General William R. Davie.
He was a member of the legislature in 1807 and again 1812.
In 1816, he was elected one of the judges of the superior courts, which he held until 1832, when he was elevated to the supreme court bench; which exalted position he occupied until his death, February, 1848.
Judge Daniel was remarkable for his deep and varied knowledge of his profession, and his accurate and extensive stores of historical information. These were never ostentatiously displayed, for he was as artless as innocence itself. The appropriate language of his associate, Judge Ruffin, on the occasion of his death, describes his character in true and vivid colors:
“Judge Daniel served his country through a period of nearly thirty years acceptably, ably, and faithfully. He had a love of learning, an inquiring mind, and a memory uncommonly tenacious; he acquired and retained an extensive and varied stock of knowledge, especially in the history and principles of the law; he was without arrogance or ostentation—even of his learning. He had the most unaffected and charming simplicity and mildness of manners, and had no other purpose than “to execute justice, and maintain truth,” therefore he was patient in hearing argument, laborious and earnest in investigation, candid and instructive in consultation, and impartial and firm in decision.”
So appropriate an eulogium from so competent a source was well deserved.
He married Maria Stith, whom he survived, and by whom he had several children.
John R. J. Daniel was a native of Halifax. He was educated at the university, where he graduated in 1821, in the same class with Honorable Anderson Mitchell and others, taking the first honors. He read law and practiced with much success. In 1831, he entered political life as a member of the House of Commons, and served till 1834, at which session he was elected attorney general of the state, which position he held till 1841, when he was elected a member of Twenty-seventh Congress, and re-elected continuously till the Thirty-second Congress (1851.) For many years he was the chairman of the committee on claims, for which his unquestioned integrity, clear and discriminating mind and patient industry, rendered him a model chairman. After leaving congress, he removed to Shreveport, Louisiana, where he died in 1868.
Junius Daniel, born June 27, 1828, killed in battle May 12, 1864, son of the preceeding, was born in the town of Halifax. His early education was conducted by J. M. Lovejoy, Raleigh. He entered the military academy at West Point in 1846. After graduating, he was ordered to Newport, Kentucky. In 1852, he went to Mexico, where he remained four years repressing the Indians, with whom he
had frequent skirmishes. On his return from New Mexico, his father having purchased lands in Louisiana, induced him to resign his commission in the army and aid in cultivating the soil. He was thus engaged, when Sumter fell. His military education, and his exemplary character induced the authorities of Louisiana to offer him a command, but he preferred serving his own state. He came to North Carolina and tendered his services to Governor Ellis, they were promptly accepted, and he was appointed colonel of the fourth, afterwards fourteenth, regiment of North Carolina troops, with which he remained until the expiration of the twelve months term of service. He was then elected colonel of the forty-third and also of the forty-fifth regiments, both of which had enlisted for the war, and about the same time he was tendered the command of the second cavalry. He accepted the command of the forty-fifth regiment. In October, 1862, he was commissioned brigadier. As a disciplinarian he had no superior; in attention to the comforts and wants of his men, and handling his troops in action, as was proved at Gettysburg, and Spottsylvania, he was the equal of any officer in the army. His brigade consisted of the thirty-second regiment, commanded by Colonel Brabble, who was killed at Spottsylvania; the forty-third, commanded by Keenan, who was wounded and captured at Gettysburg, and afterwards by Cary Whitaker, killed at Petersburg. The forty-fifth, commanded first by Morehead, (who died at Martinsburg,) and then by Boyd, who was wounded and captured at Gettysburg, and was exchanged, to be killed at Spottsylvania; the fifty-third by W. A. Owens, killed at Winchester, and the twenty-second North Carolina battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Andrews who was killed at Gettysburg. What a sad record! How loudly does it speak of the heroic gallantry of these devoted men!
General Daniel spent the fall of 1862, with his brigade at Drury's Bluff, and in December of that year, he was ordered to North Carolina, under General D. H. Hill. Shortly after the battle of Chancellorsville, he was transferred to Lee's army, Rhodes’ division, attached to Ewell's corps, during the Pennsylvania campaign, the division being the advance column. When Carlisle, the extreme point of advance, was reached, General Ewell made an address to his men, congratulating them on their success. Turning to Daniel's brigade, recently attached to his corps, said: “They have shown themselves so obedient to all orders, so steady and regular in their march, that he entrusted to them the charge of bearing the corps flag, confident that its honor would not suffer while in the keeping of such troops.” The conduct of General Daniel at Gettysburg, the first real opportunity he had had to display his military skill, won for him the esteem and admiration of his associates in arms. His brigade never faltered a moment on that disastrous field, but moved with the precision of a machine. We have to pass the intervening period to the closing scenes, the battles of the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania Courthouse.
The morning of May 5th, 1864, was an auspicious day in General Daniel's career. He was then in the reserve, supporting the Stonewall and other brigades. General Jones was killed, and all gave way before the impetuous charge of the enemy. At this critical moment, when to hesitate was to be lost, Daniel ordered his brigade to charge, and he drove the enemy back. On the same night, (May 5th, 1864,) Daniels brigade was ordered to the extreme right, and was kept constantly engaged.
Grant had driven Johnson from his position, Ramseur and Harris had gone to retake the works; the enemy were trying to break Lee's second line, pushing the right of Daniel's brigade heavily. He was a few paces in the rear of the Forty-fifth regiment; while giving
orders to one of his couriers he was struck in the abdomen by a minie ball, which, in a few hours, proved his death wound.
A short time before his dissolution the doctors informed him that he was dying, and asked if a minister of the gospel might be called in; he readily assented, and a minister was sent for. All knelt down in prayer; after prayer he was very quiet, and requested to be raised up in bed; that being done he breathed once or twice freely. “Now lay me down,” he said, and folding his hands across his breast, and closing his eyes, on May 13th, 1864, the spirit of Junius Daniel departed for another and better world.
His remains were taken to the place of his birth; he was buried under venerable oaks in the old church yard at Halifax, where many of his honored relatives sleep, “that sleep that knows no waking.”
He left no children. His affectionate wife, Ellen, the daughter of the late John J. Long, still survives to cherish with devoted affection his stainless reputation, his daring valor, and his devoted patriotism.
Benjamin McCullock, also a native of Halifax, was killed in the battle of Elkhorn. He was the grandson of a man by the same name; these names are frequently mentioned in the Colonial History of North Carolina.
Henry McCullock was, by order of the King, appointed secretary, vice Rice, deceased. His difficulties with Governor Johnston for several years created great confusion in the colony.*
John Branch, born 1782, died 1863, was born, raised, and died in Halifax County. His ancestors were of true revolutionary stock. He was born November 4, 1782; educated at the university, where he graduated in 1801, in the same class with Thomas G. Amis, Thomas D. Bennehan, Francis Little Dancy, and John Davis Hawkins.
He studied law with Judge John Haywood, but he never pursued the profession. He preferred the more exciting career of politics, in which he was eminently successful. His first appearance in public life was in 1811, as senator in the legislature from Halifax County. He was elected continuously until 1817, when he was chosen governor of the state.
After serving the constitutional term, he was again elected a senator in the legislature, in 1822, and the next year he was elected senator in the Congress of the United States, and re-elected to the same distinguished post in 1827. He resigned on being selected by General Jackson as secretary of the navy.
On the dissolution of the cabinet in consequence of affair of Mrs. Eaton, already referred to in the sketch of Governor Eaton, Governor Branch returned to his home, and was elected a member of the house of representatives in 1831. In 1834, he was again elected to the state senate, and in 1835, a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the state. In 1838, he was the democratic candidate for Governor of North Carolina, and was defeated by Governor Dudley. In 1843, he was appointed by the president Governor of Florida, after which he retired from the arena of public life.
He died at Enfield, on January 4th, 1863. By his first wife, Miss Fort, he raised a large and lovely family. He married a second time Mrs. Bond, of Bertie County, (nee Jordan,) who did not long survive her distinguished husband.
James Grant, of Iowa, was born and reared in Halifax County. His grandfather emigrated from Scotland. His father, whose name he bears, was born in same county (1791.) He was elected a member of the legislature in 1814, and in 1827, comptroller of the state. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew C. Whitaker, who represented Halifax in the state senate in 1807 to 1810. He died in
* Board of Trade; Rolls Office, 12.1834, leaving four sons, of whom James, the subject of our present sketch, was the eldest.
After his academic course, he entered the university, and graduated in 1831, in the same class with Giles Mebane, Calvin Jones, Jacob Thompson, De B. Hooper, and others. As a scholar, young Grant was among the first of his class; and gave early presage of that high order of ability which has since achieved for him friends, fortune and fame.
He read law, and with that enterprise which marks his character he left his native state, and sought his fortunes in the growing west. He first settled in Illinois, and subsequently removed to Iowa, whilst it was yet a territory. In 1846, he aided in organizing the constitution of the embryo state, and thus became identified with its history. Here he pursued with energy, integrity, and success, a career of professional labor and attained the highest judicial honors, he has also amassed a princely fortune. He now occupies a professional position second to no lawyer in the great northwest. During the troubles of the civil war his generous character was shown in contributing to the comfort and relief of the unfortunate confederate prisoners. At the late commencement he gave to his Alma mater substantial proofs of his munificent liberality. He delivered, at the commencement of 1878, an address before the Alumni society, distinguished for its ability, research, pathos and eloquence.
Bartholomew Figures Moore, born January 29, 1801, died November 29, 1878, was a native of Halifax; born near Fishing Creek, in the upper part of the county; the fifth son of James Moore, a revolutionary soldier.
Having been prepared for college, he entered the Sophomore class, and graduated in June, 1820, in the same class with William H. Battle, Bishop Otey, Archibald G. Carter, and others.
He read law with Thomas N. Mann, of Nash County, one of the most gifted lawyers of his day, and was licensed in 1823. He settled first in Nashville, and then removed to Halifax, where he resided for many years, until he moved to Raleigh, where he lived until his death.
He was elected a member of the legislature in 1836,-’40,’42 and ’44. He was defeated by one vote, in 1838, in consequence of the support he had given to aid in the construction of the Wilmington and Weldon railroad. In 1846, he declined being a candidate, and never again appeared as a politician. His course in the legislature was marked by intelligence, independence, and integrity. Never did the state have a more devoted and selfsacrificing citizen. A mere politician he never was. Clear in his convictions of right, outspoken in his views, and firm, decided and fearless in his opinions, he was little fitted for politics. Highly as he appreciated the confidence and regard of his countrymen, he never courted popular applause at the expense of principles. This was a popularity that followed him, but never was pursued by him. Therefore, in the law and its study, his great faculties found ample and appropriate exercise, and in its practice he had no superior. His reputation was fixed on a high and permanent foundation by a brief filed in the case of State v. Will, (1st Devereux and Battle.) That argument, then, was without a superior in the legal history of the state, and so stands to this day. It is, indeed, a model without a rival.
In May, 1848, he was appointed by Governor Graham, attorney general of the state, (and in December, he was elected to the position by the legislature) which he resigned in consequence of being appointed on a commission “to revise the statute laws of the state.”
His associates in this work was Asa Biggs and R. M. Saunders. They performed this duty in an able manner and submitted their work to the legislature of 1854,-’55.
Mr. Moore was the outspoken and fearless friend of the union, and the bitter opponent of the doctrine of secession. These opinions he expressed openly, under all circumstances. Many differed from him in these views, but all respected his sentiments for they believed in the purity of his convictions.
Immediately after the war closed, Mr. Moore, with Governor Swain and William Eaton were invited by the president to Washington for conference and consultation as to the best mode of restoring North Carolina to the union.*
No Roman tribune stood forth more fearless and bold, than did Mr. Moore on this occasion, for the rights of the people and the citizen. His sagacious advice, had it been followed by Mr. Johnson, would have saved much anxiety and suffering to the country; but it was unheeded. Mr. Moore subsequently in (1867,) when negro suffrage was forced on the South strongly opposed it, and he predicted the very calamities of which its friends now complain, and suffer. He also opposed the military rule imposed by congress on the south, maintaining that the people ought to be allowed to choose their own rulers, and be governed by their own laws, not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States.
Profound as was Mr. Moore's reverence of the law, and his respect for its ministrations, his spirit of justice and the instinct of his nature opposed any official interference of the bench with popular rights.
On the enforcement of the Canby constitution, which, by “general orders from these headquarters,” set up governors and judges, appointed members of the legislature, and displaced others, duly elected, in defiance of popular will, political excitement throughout the state was intense. The judges of the supreme court openly took part in the canvass. It was against such participation that Mr. Moore took a bold stand. He drew up a protest signed by many prominent members of the bar throughout the state, which was the foundation of the notorious “contempt proceedings,” in 1869. The ermine of the highest legal tribunal in the state received a stain from which that court, as it then existed, never recovered.
Although Mr. Moore held no official position, for he never sought it; yet, from his long and eventful life, his opinion had much weight and it needed no official place to give his opinions power with the people of North Carolina. His ability, his acquirements, his unblemished reputation and the candor of his conduct, his fearless courage in declaring and maintaining his opinions, gave him a strong hold on the confidence and regard of his country.
The state may well place him high on her roll of illustrious dead, as he was for a long while one of her purest patriots.
Mr. Moore was the devoted friend of education. In his will he bequeathed five thousand dollars to the university, one thousand dollars to the Oxford orphan asylum, and the same sum to the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. His devotion to the union is eloquently expressed in his will, for
“E'en in his ashes lived their wonted fires,”
his will speaks thus:
“I had been taught under deep conviction of my judgment that there could be no reliable liberty for my state, without the union of the states; and being devoted to my state, I felt that I should desert her whenever I should aid to destroy the union. I could not imagine a more terrible spectacle than that of beholding the sun shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of states, dissevered, discordant and belligerent, and a land rent with civil feuds and drenched in fraternal blood.
“I was truly happy when I saw the sun of peace rising with the glorious promise to shine once more on states equal, free, honored and
* See sketch of Governor Swain, p. 59united. Although the promise has been long delayed by an unwise policy, and I myself may never live to see the full orbed sun of liberty shine on my country as once it was, yet I have strong hopes that my countrymen will yet be blest with that glorious sight.”
Over his remains, one who knew him long and knew him well, uttered these eloquent and truthful words.
“Here lies one who reposes after a long feast, where much love has been. Here slumbers in peace and patience, a veteran, with all his wounds in front, and not a blot on this scutcheon, after four score years of duty well done in the fierce and ceaseless campaign of life.”*
Mr. Moore was twice married. In 1828, he married Louisa, the daughter of George Boddie, of Nash, and, in 1835, Lucy, another daughter of the same.
Lawrence O'Bryan Branch, son of Joseph and Susan O'Bryan Branch, was born in the village of Enfield, Halifax County, North Carolina, on November 28, 1820. His grandfather was a distinguished patriot of the revolution of 1776, and the history of his state affords evidences of his daring and patriotism. His father was a gentleman in affluent circumstances, who died early. His uncle and guardian had been the governor of North Carolina, senator in congress, secretary of the navy under General Jackson, and governor of Florida.
With him young Branch went to Washington city, and his early education was conducted by S. P. Chase, afterwards Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, then a teacher in Washington. On his return to North Carolina, his studies, preparatory for college, were directed by that well known teacher, W. J. Bingham, in Orange County. In January, 1835, he was martriculated at the university of the state, and passed with great credit through the freshman class; but from some difficulties in which his brothers became involved at college, he was withdrawn by his guardian, and sent to Nassau Hall, Princeton, where he graduated in September, 1838, with the first honors, in one of the first classes of that renowned institution. He delivered at this commencement the English salutatory address, being then only eighteen years old.
He commenced the study of the law with John Marshall, at Franklin, Tennessee. During the period of his studies, the political campaign, so well known as the “Log Cabin Campaign,” opened; and it is believed that his mind and pen were more active in the exciting scenes of politics than in the grave studies of the law. He early commenced political life, the firm advocate of state rights, and never for a moment, under any circumstances, swerved from such teachings.
After his studies of the law were completed, he settled at Tallahassee, Florida; but not being of age, such were the genial manners of the youthful stranger, that the legislature of Florida passed a special act, allowing him to be examined, and if pronounced qualified on examination by the judges, to allow him to practice. He was admitted, and practiced with great success during the years of 1841,-’42 and ’43.
He early evinced a fondness for military life, and served as aid to General Leigh Reed, in a campaign in Florida against the Seminole Indians.
He married in April, 1844, Miss Nancy H. Blount, only daughter of General William A. Blount, of North Carolina; and this and other circumstances caused his removal to that state, and he settled at Raleigh. His merits were soon appreciated here. He was selected as a member of the literary board, director of the bank of the state, elector on the presidential ticket (Pierce and King,) and in 1852, president of the Raleigh and Gaston railroad.
* Much of the material of this sketch is from an able article in the Observer at Raleigh published at the time of his death.It would exceed the limit prescribed for this sketch, to detail the ability and fidelity with which he discharged all these important trusts. But justice to truth and unparalleled energy compels the observation, that to him does the country owe the usefulness, if not the existence of this railroad, so important, and then so vital to the state, as the only one leading to the capital. It had become dilapidated; it had injured the state, and ruined many of its innocent stockholders. Under his active superintendency, it sprung at once into activity, usefulness and profit, while his genial and frank manners, his prompt and stern sense of right, won the respect and affection of all with whom its multifarous concerns brought him in contact. Here he felt and thought was the appropriate sphere of his usefulness.
But the congressional district had become disorganized. Private fend and personal ambition had lost to our national councils a representive from the metropolitan district, who reflected the voice of a majority of the people. Without any solicitation on his part and against his inclinations, he was nominated, in 1855, as a candidate for congress. The opposition was well organized and run their strongest man, who was well and favorably known, of acknowledged genius, and of indefatigable energy. Mr. Branch was elected by a handsome majority. Such was the acceptability of his conduct that he was again elected in 1858, without opposition, and again in 1859, by an overwhelming majority.
Did the limits of this sketch allow, ample material is afforded by the records of the nation, to show his industry, ability, fidelity and usefulness, as a member of the national councils. Important and delicate positions were occupied by him. As a member of the committee on foreign affairs, his celebrated report on Cuba marked him as one of the statesmen of the age, and is referred to now as unquestioned and reliable authority on a subject, which in the future, may again become an important question in national policics. Such a powerful sentinel at our very post—gate, should, by either stratagem, force or purchase, be brought within our lines. Loved by many and respected by all of his associates in congress, his influence in the house was unbounded. Such was his stern sense of justice, his unsuspected integrity and vigilant sagacity, that those twin Cerebus of the treasury, John Letcher and George W. Jones, often asked his advice, heeded his opinion and followed his counsel.
On the death of Aaron V. Brown, postmaster-general in Mr. Buchanan's cabinet, he was telegraphed as to his inclinations to occupy that important department, but being from home, no answer was returned. On the resignation of Honorable Howell Cobb, as secretary of the treasury, he was, on December 2, 1860, appointed by the president to succeed him. This was also declined. The clouds had become dark and heavy in our southern sky, and Mr. Branch had resolved upon his course. He joined the standard of the south as a private in the ranks of the Raleigh volunteers.
The governor of the state solicited him to take the position of quartermaster and paymaster-general of the North Carolina forces. These troublesome and intricate duties he discharged with energy and fidelity. But he preferred more active service, and was appointed colonel of the thirty-third regiment; and after organzing it with great energy, went at its head into the field. He was soon promoted by the president to the command of the 4th brigade, in the confederate army, and assigned to duty at New Berne. Here on March 14, 1862, with an inadequate force, some of them raw-militia, with hastily and ill-constructed fortifications, he withstood for more than four hours the well appointed and fully equipped forces, under General Burnside, more
than double his numbers, inflicting heavy loss on them, and retiring in good order with his command. This was far from impairing his military reputation; for, with his brigade, he was ordered to the battle fields of Virginia. The battles of Hanover Court-house, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Fraser's Farm, Malvern Hill, Cedar Run, Manassas, Fairfax Court-house, Harper's Ferry and Sharpsburg, attest the valor of the brigade and the chivalric bearing of its chief. More than fifteen battle fields have been stained by their blood—their force reduced more than a third in killed and wounded. For its bravery at the battle of Hanover Court-house, it received the approbation of the general Commanding-general, Robert E. Lee, and the gallant bearing of General Branch was particularly alluded to. It was the first body of troops that crossed the Chickahominy, and engaged the heavy forces of the enemy, drove them back and took the first battle flag from them. Of its five colonels, two fell on the field of battle, two wounded, the other taken prisoner; and its gallant general was killed—for at Sharpsburg, on September 19, 1862, after the heat of this severe battle was nearly over, General Branch was struck by a minie ball in the head, and instantly died, falling into the arms of his aid.
The ferocity and bloodthirsty disposition displayed by the commanders of various detachments in the southern campaigns of the revolutionary war, has been often remarked; this has been accounted for in many ways, more or less rational. The population was small and widely scattered, and whilst the British commanders seemed to be determined to crush resistance by every means available, yet they seemed also desirous to terrify by the atrocity of those means. And yet, on the other hand, some movements and engagements of Marion, Sumter, and others, might fairly be offset against the terrible massacre, of Tarleton and Ferguson.
These terrible scenes were only added to by the fact that the population itself was more equally divided in their adherence to the crown, or to the cause of colonial independence, than in any of the other provinces, and this brought about a mutual animosity and deadly hate terrific to contemplate; such scenes are always supposed to accompany civil wars, but on this occasion, owing to the protracted struggle, they became a systematic series of assassination, rapine, and extermination. Neighbors were arraigned against neighbors, brothers against brothers, and even fathers against sons. When a distinguished man was slain, it was proven by the size of the missile and the direction in which it sped, exactly who slew him, and the boast was made accordingly.
But if the war of the south was blackened in its aspect, and the conduct thereof carried on with an ardor and urged by a force incident to a sbuthern passion, yet there were not wanting many instances of individual prowess, of partisan valor and of heroic enterprise. To present an accurate sketch of Marion's and Sumter's plots and counter-plots; frequently passing into those deep and dreary soritudes, where it was as useless as it was dangerous for an enemy to pursue; but where the opportunity presented itself, flashing upon the enemy like a meteor from the skies, with a suddenness in their movements which astonished and confounded; and with a desperation in the valor displayed which could seldom be resisted. A combination of rare and valiant qualities that repeatedly gained a victory over forces tenfold the number under this command. The daring exploits of these twin “gods of war,” would make a picture that the pencil of fiction itself could not surpass.
If we place opposite the names of Marion and Sumter for skill and bloody deeds, the names of Tarleton and Ferguson, we must add and make heavy and exceedingly dark the
lines to represent rapine, robbery, and coldblooded butchery in the pen portraits of the two last named.
We therefore turn to characters moving in a higher plane, and at the bare mention of John Hamilton's name we have brought before us on the camera a character noted for brave action in the field, generosity to a foe when fallen, and all the nobler qualities typical of a soldier, although he was a loyalist and so frequently denounced for serving against the liberties of his adopted colony.
Moore tells us (History of North Carolina, I., 249,) that after the battle of Moore's Creek the tories no longer dared open embodiment, but Lieutenant Colonel John Hamilton, a scotch merchant, late of Halifax, repaired to St. Augustine, in Florida, and established a camp, where a regiment of loyalists was organized. He soon raised a disciplined force, which proved to be a formidable aid to the royal arms in America. Colonel Hamilton had seen much military service. He had fought at Culloden; a man of large fortune and of fine social qualities, he was beloved by his troops, and respected by his opponents, to whom he was generous and humane. Even Governor Burke acknowledged his kindness to him while a prisoner. In the attack on Savannah, December 26, 1778, he was confronted by General Howe, gallantly sustaining the brunt of this battle, and Howe was defeated.
He came to North Carolina at the same time with James Frazer, who settled at Frazer's Cross Roads, in Hertford County, and who had served under him as captain, at Culloden, and they were life long friends. Dr. G. C. Moore states that he knew Colonel Hamilton, who was for a long time after the war the British consul at Norfolk, Virginia; that he was a short, red faced man, full of gaiety, and fond of high living. He enjoyed the respect of all parties, and was of a generous, kind disposition.
Against this picture we set the character of William Richardson Davie. None were more distinguished for gallantry and enterprise. He was tall, well made, and remarkable for his manly beauty and the dignity of his manners. He was studious in his habits, and of most refined tastes. He was a typical soldier of the southern patriots. He excelled in feats of horsemanship, and his eloquent and sonorous voice, so distinct in articulation and so commanding in delivery, could be heard over a wide field. So heartily did he espouse the cause of liberty that in organizing his command for the field, he expended the whole of his patrimonial estates. To his daring courage, his extreme vigilance, and unrelenting activity, the cause of American independence, is deeply indebted. The terror with which he inspired the tories prevented their forming in any considerable bodies, until Lord Cornwallis approached the Mecklenburg section, and his lordship found in Colonel Davie and his gallant command, as obstinate an enemy as he met in any of his campaigns. Many are the incidents of his gallantry in the field, and the graphic description of the defence of Charlotte, Septumber 26, 1780, where, with his celebrated corps, he checked the advance of the whole of Cornwallis’ army, has so frequently been recited as to become “familiar as household words.”* It was by such heavy blows as this that he severely crippled the enemy, and made their march so tedious and irksome as to break the spirit of their troops and make the subjugation of North Carolina an impossibility. Not the creature of circumstance, but an elegant soldier, ever brave in the defence of his country's liberty, was William Richardson Dave.
* Wheeler's History of North Carolina, II., 195.CHAPTER XXXIII.HERTFORD COUNTY.
The year 1767, says Moore in his chronicles of Hertford County, saw the nucleus of a beautiful village, perched on the lofty banks of the Meherrin River, in this county. For years previous, it had been a favorite shipping point, from which Captains Meredith and Anderson had conducted, in their own vessels, a steady and lucrative trade with different foreign sea-ports. In 1768 the Legislature incorporated the town of Murfreesboro, with William Murfree, Patrick Brown, Redmond Hackett, William Vaughan and John Parker as Commissioners.
The first house erected, was the residence of William Murfree, which stands near the landing, just beside the church-yard. The venerable and useful Aunt Peggy Weaver was long the occupant of this ancient edifice. She, too, has doubtless gone, and, as with the original Commissioners,
“Each in his narrow bed forever laid,The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.”The Murfree family is of English origin. William Murfree, born in 1730, was the founder of the family. He was a man of influence and respectability, and took a decided stand in defence of the liberties of the country, when threatened by royal authority. He represented the county in the Provincial Congress that met at Halifax in November, 1776, which body formed our State Constitution. He married Mary Moore, by whom he had several children—Hardy, the founder of Murfreesboro in North Carolina, as also of a village of the same name in Tennessee; James, William, Sarah, who married Samuel Cryer; Patty, who married Benjamin Banks; Betty, who married Richard Andrews, and Nancy, who married Jonathan Roberts.
Major Hardy Murfree, son of the above, was born June 5, 1752, and was in the prime of life when the revolution commenced.
On the earliest organization of the military force of the country, he was appointed by the Provincial Congress, at Hillsboro, on August 21, 1775, a Captain in the 2d Regiment of State troops of the Continental Establishment, (Robert Howe, Colonel), and joined the grand Army of the North, under Washington.
Under his eye he was engaged in the battles of Brandywine, Monmouth and elswhere. He was promoted to the rank of Major, and was selected to lead the desperate and successful attack on Stony Point, July 16, 1779.
At this period, the affairs of the colonies were in a most desperate condition. Washington, in a letter to Col. Harrison, of Virginia, states that, “they were more distressed, ruinous and deplorable than at any time since the war commenced, and on the brink of ruin.”
Washington determined to strike the enemy, and projected the attack on the strong fortress at Stony Point. He directed “Mad Anthony” Wayne to execute his plans. The attack was made at midnight; the British were surprised and defeated. Two companies of North Carolina light troops made the attack, led by Major Murfree, whose bravery and gallant conduct is mentioned in General Wayne's official dispatch to Congress.
Both of these companies were of the Second North Carolina Continentals, and led, with unloaded muskets, the forlorn hope in this desperate enterprise. General Wayne was severely wounded, and Captain John Daves, of New Berne, second in command to Major Murfree's
Battalion, was also badly wounded, but their victory was complete.*
This brilliant affair had a most exhilarating effect upon the spirits of the patriots, and cheered them to renewed exertion in the cause of liberty. Major Murfree continued in the service until the close of the war, when he returned to his home.
He married Sallie, the daughter of Col. Matthias Brickell, who was a pattern of modesty, as of beauty, and by whom he was blessed with a large family of children. He removed to Tennessee, where he ended his days.
His son, William Hardy Murfree, (born 1781, died 1827), was born and lived for a long period, in Murfreesboro. He was educated at the University, where he graduated in 1801, in same class with Ams, John Branch, Francis L. Dancy, and others.
He studied hard, and stood high in his profession.
He entered public life in 1805, as a member of the Legislature. In 1813 he was elected a member of the XIII Congress, and re-elected at the XIV, 1815-17; afterward, he declined a re-election. He was able and eloquent, and sustained the war measures of Mr. Madison's administration. In 1825 he removed to Tennessee, and died in Nashville, January 18, 1827, leaving one son, William Law Murfree.
Thomas Wynns, from whose family name the county town of Hertford is derived, (Winton), was a distinguished citizen of this county. Here he was born, lived and died. He was possessed of great enterprise, of unspotted integrity, and of great personal worth. He lived near Winton, at Barfields.
He was the youngest of four brothers—Benjamin, William, George and Thomas—soldiers of the Revolution, except Thomas, who was too young to take an active part. While still a youth, in 1780, he was captured at sea in a vessel called the “Fair American,” with others, and carried to England. His good sense and accomplished manners, made his stay in London a pleasant one.
The rigorous blockade did not entirely deter our people from their long established maritime habits. Our vessels traded with the West Indies and elsewhere.
On July 24, 1782, Captain Lewis Meredith arrived at Edenton, from Bordeaux, with Lady Anne Stewart, the daughter of the Earle of Bute, and her husband, Baron de Polnitz.
Wynns early embarked in political life, and was elected in 1788, a member of the Convention at Hillsboro, to consider the Constitution. In 1790 he was elected to the State Senate, until 1817, with the exception of the period (from 1802 to 1807) when he was a member of Congress, from this (the Edenton) district.
This was the first time in her history that Hertford County saw one of her citizens in Congress. He was elected, to succeed Charles Johnson (who died about 1801), over Colonel Dempsey Burgess, of Camden County, who had been an officer in the Revolutionary war. After his service in Congress, he declined a re-election, and returned to the service of his native county, and was elected continuously from 1808 to 1817, a member of the State Senate. Unspotted in public life, he was a most useful and beloved citizen.
He married Susan, daughter of James Manning, but no issue, and died June 8, 1825. His nephews, William B. Wynns and James D. Wynns, were highly respected and useful citizens.
Henry W. Long was an eccentric and able lawyer, a native of Hertford County, but never in political life. He often aspired to popular favor, but failing to receive it, devoted himself to his profession. His innocent absence of mind was the cause of much amusement to his brethren of the bar, with whom he was very popular. He married the only daughter of the popular and polished Harry Hill, who often represented the county from 1790 to 1795.
* See Wayne's Assault on Stony Point, by Dawson, Morrisiana, 1863; Wayne's Dispatch, 11th July, 1779, Marshal iv. 123; Campbell's Memoirs of Hull, 163; Armstrong's Life of Wayne, Sparks’ Am. Bio., iv. 46.His only daughter married Richard I. Cowper, long the Sheriff of Hertford, and a representative in the Legislature.
It may be well to preserve the fact in our memories, that the Court House of Hertford County has twice been burned—once in 1830 by an incendiary, instigated by Wright Allen, who hoped by this means to destroy the evidence against him of uttering a forged paper; and again in March 20, 1862, by the Federal forces, under Captain Allen Thomas, with his Massachusetts troops.
In 1791, along with General Wynns and Harry Hall, of Manney's Neck, as members of the Legislature, appeared James Jones, of Pitch Landing. He was the son of Colonel James Jones, and was born in 1765. His father entertained much of the tastes and ideas of the English people as to primogeniture, and left to his son the bulk of his estate. He was fond of high living, elaborate dress, and the accumulation of wealth. His son was a member of the Legislature from 1792 to 1806, until his increasing business compelled him to decline. He waxed richer and richer, until 1815, when he hazarded a bold speculation, towit: he purchased all the naval stores in Eastern North Carolina. Peace came, produce fell, and he was ruined. His proud spirit could not brook his fallen fortunes, and he sank under the blow. He died in 1816.
He married Anne, the sister of Isaac Walton, who lived near Nashville, Tennessee, and left a large family. Among them was James Sidney Jones, who stood at the head of the Bar, the peer of Gavin Hogg, Gov. Iredell, and others. He became very wealthy, and removed to Alabama.
Thomas Manney was born in Manney's Neck, in this county, and was long one of its honored citizens. He was the son of James Manney, a wealthy and influential man, who represented the county in 1778 and 1785.
His son read law with William H. Murfree—settled in Murfreesboro, and practiced for some years with great success. In 1817 he represented the county in the Legislature. In 1820 he acted as Secretary to Governor Franklin.
About 1825 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and practiced the law; was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Courts of that State, which high office he held with the respect and esteem of the whole country. He married in Murfreesboro, Rebecca, daughter of Rev. Daniel Southall, and raised a large and distinguished family, among them General Manney, and others.
He died at Nashville, April 15, 1864.
The Cotten family and their descendants have, for nearly two centuries, been inhabitants of the St. John Section, in this county.
Captain Arthur Cotten, the progenitor, came from England early in and about 1750; made voyages as commander of a ship between England and North Carolina. He became wealthy, retired from the sea, and in his old age built the first brick house that was ever erected in Hertford; he was quick in temper, sudden in quarrel, although a staid vestryman in the Church. He bore undying hatred to the English, arising from the barbarous murder of his father's kinswoman, the gentle and loving Lady Alice Lisle, at the hands of George Jeffries. His eldest son, Jesse, lived and died in Northampton County; Cullen, in Hertford, and Godwin, (already referred to, 44) at Mulberry Grove, where his great-grandson, Dr. G. C. Moore, resided.
His oldest daughter married James Moore, of Virginia; another married Cornelius Moore, of Northampton; another, Dr. James Usher; another, Samuel Bell, and the youngest married Powell, and afterwards, Moses Tyler, father of the late Perry Tyler, of Bertie County.
One of the Lords Proprietors, who joined in 1729 in the surrender of the Charter of North Carolina to the Crown, was an English Barrister, John Cotten, of the Middle Temple, London. He represented the district originally granted to Lord Ashley. He was the grandson of the Rev. Thomas Cotten, the father of Lady Lisle. Under his proprietorship, several of his kinsmen and his name, emigrated to Bertie and the surrounding precincts
Moore, 11, 53.
With the exception of the Church of St. Paul at Edenton, and the Quaker settlements of Pasquotank and Perquimans, there was scarcely a point in the Albemarle region at which, in the early days of Gov. Johnston, religious services were held. Soon after the creation of Bertie precinct, as early as 1739, the Rev. Matthias Brickell became rector of St. John's parish. He was the first clergyman, west of the Chowan, who had a parish. Much of the character for morality and intelligence of the people of St. Johns, was owing to the efforts of this godly man. He possessed high social qualities and culture, and remarkable for men of his cloth, created in the minds of the people love and confidence. His church at Ahoskie saw, on each Sabbath, the people collected to listen to his advice and instructions.
Parson Brickell died years before the Revolution, but left descendants.
His oldest son, Colonel Matt. Brickell, was a leading man in the county, previous to 1775. He was a member of the First Provincial Congress, and died in the midst of the gigantic struggle for independence. One of his daughters married Major Hardy Murfree; the other was the wife of John Brown, and the great-grandmother of the late John A. Anderson, and Dr. Godwin C. Moore. His two sons, Thomas and John, were often members of the Legislature. Thomas, 1781 to ’85, and John in the Senate, 1782.
For a full century the name of Brickell was known and honored in this county, but during the last fifty years has disappeared.*
He was the brother of Dr. John Brickell, one of the earliest historians of the State, who came from England to North Carolina with Governor Burrington, in 1724. (Moore's Hist. i. 50.)
Dr. Brickell lived at Edenton, where he practiced medicine. He went with a joint commission to the Cherokee Indians in Tennessee.
In sketching the men of Hertford, this record would be marred were the merits of that most exemplary gentleman, Godwin C. Moore, passed unnoticed. He was born in this county, about 1806, at the same homestead where his ancestors have lived for several generations. He was educated at the Hertford Academy in Murfreesboro, and at the University; studied medicine and graduated at the Pennsylvania University, and enjoyed a long and successful career as an able and acceptable physician. His skill in the healing art was only surpassed by his genial and generous disposition.
He entered public life as a member of the House of Commons, 1831, in the Senate of 1842; and again in the Commons in 1866. Modest and retiring in his disposition, he never was ambitious of political favor; his was the popularity that sought him, not that which was pursued. In 1837 he was urged, and did become a candidate for Congress, against Hon. Samuel T. Sawyer. And again, against Hon. Kenneth Rayner; the canvass was irksome, and no one regretted his defeat less than himself.
In 1832 he married Julia, daughter of John Wheeler, Esq., who realizes in her lovely character, her unstinted kindness, womanly modesty and affectionate disposition, every virtue that adorns her sex. Numerous children have grown up around them, and among them, not the least, is Major John W. Moore, the author of a History of the State, and of “Historical Sketches of Hertford County.”
Dr. Moore was an exemplary member of the Baptist Church, and for forty years continuously elected Moderator of the Chowan Association.
He died May 26, 1880.
In addition to Captain Frazer, (See ante, page 214) the general restoration of peace in the Revolutionary war, brought no joy to John Brown, of Cuttawiskey Marsh. He was an ardent Tory. He was of gentle lineage and some culture, and had been for many years, during the reign of George II., an officer in the army. After the Colloden Campaign, disabled by wounds, he retired on half pay.
He came to America and sought repose among
* Moore's Hist. Sketches, xiii. 559.his kindred near St. Johns. He married Sarah, eldest daughter of Matthias Brickell. When the Revolution commenced, his children had reached maturity, but they differed in their sentiments. His son John left the paternal roof and joined a Virginia Corps, the command of General Lafayette, and attained distinction.
His daughter Sarah married Godwin Cotten, who was in the army under Howe.
Yet in spite of politics he was highly respected, and unmolested by those opposed to him in sentiments.
Kenneth Rayner long resided in Hertford County, and represented the county in the Legislature. He also represented this district in Congress. He is a native of Bertie. His father was a worthy and exemplary minister of the Baptist Church, a soldier of the Revolution in his youth.*
Mr. Rayner, after a partial classical education at Tarboro Academy, studied law with Chief Justice Ruffin, but his active and ambitious temper seemed rather to prefer the excitements of political life, than the quiet pursuits of the law. His first appearance in public life, was as a member of the Convention of 1835, to revise the Constitution. At this time, it had been more than forty years since the State had formed her first Constistution, and in the minds of many, some changes were needed to enable her to keep pace with the march of improvement in other States. Although the youngest man in this body, Mr. Rayner made an indelible impression. An abler body of men never met in the State. It was presided over by Nathaniel Macon. The Governor of the State, the Judges of the Supreme Court, and the first minds of the State composed this body.
The speech of Mr. Rayner, on “Abolishing the religious tests for office,” which our puritan fathers had inserted in the first Constitution, was the speech of the Convention. The State felt the magnetism of its power, and it placed him at once among the leading men of his age. Its impassioned tones aroused the State; all acknowledged its power and its truth; all predicted from this gallant beginning, a brilliant career in the future.
The next year he was elected to the Legislature, and continued until 1839, when he was elected a Member of the 26th Congress.
William Nathan Harrell Smith, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, is a native of this county.
His father, Dr. William L. Smith, was a native of Connecticut, a graduate of Yale College and a physician by profession. In 1810 he came to Hertford County where he settled, and married Ann Harrell; he died in 1813.
His son was born in Murfreesboro, in September 24, 1812; here his early education was conducted at the Hertford Academy. After graduating at Yale College in 1834, he studied law at the Yale Law School, and returned to his home to practice. He soon rose by his solid acquirements and attention to his profession, to its highest rank. He was elected, in 1840, a member of the Legislature, and in 1848 he was elected Senator from this county, and at the same session Solicitor of the Judicial District for four years; he was re-elected to the same position. In 1857 he ran for Congress, and was defeated by Dr. H. M. Shaw; but was elected a member of the next Congress, (36th, 1859-61.) In 1858 he was again returned to the Legislature. The sections of the North and the South were arrayed in hostile attitude, and civil war seemed then imminent. The South after many ineffectual struggles to elect a Speaker, put Mr. Smith forward as its candidate, and he was elected. But before the result was announced E. Joy Morris and some others changed their votes to Mr. Pennington, of New Jersey, who was accordingly declared Speaker. He served through the exciting and harrassing scenes of this Congress, and witnessed the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. He then returned
* Mr. Rayner, in the 76th year of his age, died March 4, 1884, at the National Hotel in Washington City, the incumbent of the important position of Solicitor of the Treasury Department.—ED.home and joined his fortunes with those of his native State.
He was a member of the Confederate Congress at Richmond, during the continuance of that body. In 1865 he was again elected a member of the Legislature and aided in the reconstruction of the State under the plans of President Johnson. In March 1870, he was induced to move to Norfolk, Virginia, where he formed a law partnership with Hon. Asa Biggs, still keeping up his practice in his native district. Two years experience satisfied him that there was no place better for a North Carolinian than North Carolina itself. He returned to spend the remainder of his days within her borders, and settled at Raleigh.
One of the most famous cases in which Mr. Smith was engaged was the defense of Governor Holden in January, 1871, when he was impeached before the Senate. It was no small compliment to his integrity and ability to have been selected as the advocate of one, to whom he had been always opposed, and against whom were employed such counsel as Governors Graham, Bragg and others. His efforts displayed such ability and legal learning as stamped him one of the first advocates of the age. Could Governor Holden have been acquitted, such efforts had done it. He might have said as did Hector:
“Si Pergama dextra deffendi possent,Etiam hac defensa fuissent.”But it was all in vain. Governor Holden was found guilty and still lies under the ban of this sentence.
On the death of Chief Justice Pearson, Governor Vance in January, 1878, appointed Mr. Smith his successor—and this appointment was ratified by the people of the State at the polls in the following summer.
Chief Justice Smith is now in the maturity of life—his countrymen have great confidence in his integrity and learning; and a brilliant as well as useful career has been his.
He married, in 1839, Mary Olivia, the daughter of William B. Wise, of Murfreesboro.
Tristram Capehart lived at Murfreesboro; he was born in Bertie County, September 16, 1796. He was one of the great and good men of his generation, a philanthropist of the purest nature. Many years prior to the civil war, he emancipated a large number of his slaves, sending them to Liberia, and giving them a large part of his estate to aid them in life.
He was too young to serve in the war of 1812, but without consulting with his parents, he enlisted; his parents sent a substitute for him in the ranks and had him return to his home. He soon effected his escape and again enlisted himself. Another substitute was sent to supply his place, and yet a third, but his liberty-loving heart could not be satisfied with the quiet of home whilst his country was endangered from foreign invasion. A braver soldier never wore the American uniform.
He married Emily, daughter of Daniel Southall of Virginia, a descendant of the Norfleets.
He died March 3, 1859, leaving two sons: Archibald Ashbourne and Thomas.
His only brother, Cullen Capehart, born March 17, 1789, on the shores of the Albemarle Sound in Bertie County, long lived in that section at his grand old home, Avoca, where ancient southern hospitality was extended to the brave and the fair. His maternal ancestors were French Huguenots, the Razeures, the father's descent being from the Ogilvies of Scotland and the German Capeharts. He was possessed of a noble soul, a brilliant intellect, and a princely estate, and with all he was a true patriot, sacrificing much for public good. He married a great belle and beauty, Milly Stanley, a daughter of William Stanley Rhodes, who was descended from the Earls of Derby, the Rhodes and the Averetts. He died at his residence, Avoca, November 22, 1866, leaving three children: Washington Capehart, Mrs. William Anthony Armistead, Mrs. Thomas Goode Tucker of Virginia.
Dr. William Anthony Armistead was a descendant
of the Armisteads of Gloucester, Virginia. His genealogy is traced back to the Lees of that State, and to the Harramonds, the Jordans, the Blounts, the Spaights, and the Hills of North Carolina. He was born in Plymouth, North Carolina, October 11, 1808, and died January 17, 1856, in Virginia.
He was an eminent physician, at the head of his profession in Plymouth, and during the summer months the resident physician of the sea shore.
He was as great in heart as in mind, as nobly did he fill the station in life that he attained, adding honor to the honored line of his ancestry.
He left only one child, Meeta Armistead, who married Archibald Ashbourne Capehart.
Judge David A. Barnes long resided at Murfreesboro, but was a native of Northampton County; the son of Captain Collin W. Barnes, who was a most worthy man and greatly esteemed, the representative of his county in 1829 and 1830 in the Legislature.
David A. Barnes was educated at the University and graduated in 1840 in same class with Governor Caldwell, John W. Cunningham, Lucius J. Johnson, William Johnston, Judge Shipp, C. H. Wiley, and others. He studied law, and with such success that in 1865 he was made one of the Judges of the Supreme Court. He was elected a member of the Legislature in 1844, 1846 and 1850. During the war he was one of the Military Council of Governor Vance. In 1873 he was a candidate for Congress and defeated by C. L. Cobb. He married Betty, the daughter of Colonel Uriah Vaughan of Murfreesboro—to which place he removed; by his general manners and acquirements he always enjoyed the regard and esteem of his fellow-citizens.
Jesse J. Yeates was born and raised in this county. His father, James Boon Yeates, was a farmer, an enterprising and useful man, and his grandfather, Jesse Yeates, served in the Revolutionary war.
The subject of our sketch was born in 1829; received a collegiate education, read law with Chief Justice Smith and was Solicitor of the county from 1855 to 1860—this latter year he was elected a member of the Legislature.
When the Civil war commenced he raised a company and was elected Captain; he was appointed Major of the 31st North Carolina Regiment; at the battle of Roanoke Island was taken prisoner. He was Solicitor of the Judicial District from 1861 to 1866; and a member of the Governor's Council. In 1871 he was elected to the State Constitutional Convention; elected a member of the 44th Congress, 1875-77, and re-elected to the 45th Congress.
Major Yeates is much esteemed for his talents and ability. He has been twice married; his last wife is a daughter of James Scott, by whom he has an interesting family.
Richard Jordan Gatling, the inventor of the Gatling gun, is a native of this county, born September 12, 1818. His father, Jordan Gatlin, was an energetic, enterprising, and skillful farmer. He died in April 1848. The primitive log house where his son was born still stands, in Manney's Neck, near Murfreesboro.
He received an “old-field school” education and was himself a teacher for a while, in one of those rudimental institutions. In 1844, he went to St. Louis, Missouri, and was employed as a clerk in a dry goods establishment. In 1849, he studied medicine and attended a course of lectures at the Indiana University, as also at the Ohio Medical College, and received a diploma as a physician. He located at Indianapolis, where he married in 1854, the youngest daughter of Dr. John H. Sanders.
The crowning act of his life and of his many ingenious inventions, was the production of the “machine battery gun,” which bears his name, the idea of which he conceived in 1861. In 1866 after repeated trials at Frankford Arsenal, at Washington and at Fortress Monroe, this weapon was adopted by the United States.
Since its use in the service of his own government, Russia, Turkey, Italy, Austria, Egypt, England, China, Japan, and other nations, have also recognized its great utility and invested largely in its purchase.
By his inventive genius he has raised himself from an obscure log cabin in the wilds of Carolina, to become an associate of emperors and warriors; and has revolutionized “the world of arms” as effectually as the railway has supplanted the stage-coach, or the telegraph the one-horse mail line. This affords a lesson to the humblest of our nation, that by honest and persistent labor he may be the associate as also the peer of princes.
By his genius and industry he has acquired fame and fortune. Dr. Gatling now resides in Hartford, Connecticut, (where his establishment is), full of loyal love for the land of his birth, and delights to see and talk with any one hailing from “the old North State.”*
Connected with the reminiscences of this ancient borough, occurred a notable event that deserves to be recorded.
In 1825, General Lafayette on an extended tour through this country, entered our State and his first public reception was at Murfreesboro. He was no ordinary visitor, and was the Nation's guest. He had aided America to gain its independence, by contributing his substance, entering her army, and shedding his blood in battling for her cause. Every preparation was made to receive the war-worn veteran with open arms and hearts. Thomas Manney, then a prominent lawyer and since a Judge in Tennessee, made the address of welcome. After resting here for two days, he passed on to Jackson, Northampton County, where he was met by Chief Justice Taylor and his companion in arms, Colonel William Polk, and by them escorted to Raleigh—thence to Fayetteville, and thus from State to State. After his tour, he returned to his French home, in the new frigate Brandywine, so called in compliment to Lafayette. Congress voted him two hundred thousand dollars and twenty-three thousand acres of public land.
We should do injustice were we not to notice the Chowan Baptist Female Institute, located at Murfreesboro in this county, which fosters with so much assiduity the real interests of society and annually sends forth living streams of science, beauty and morality to gladden and improve our State. The building was erected in 1850-51, it is four stories high, containing a spacious chapel, parlor, library, and rooms sufficient for one hundred pupils. In addition an adjacent building for the steward's family, music room, and an art gallery.
It is chiefly patronized by North Carolina and Virginia, but occasionally it has had pupils from various other States, from Maryland to Texas. It has graduated nearly two hundred ladies. Rev. A. McDowell, D. D., was placed first in charge—and was succeeded by Rev. M. R. Forey of New York, who, aided by Dr. G. C. Moore, rendered substantial aid in collecting funds. In 1854 Dr. Forey was succeeded by Rev. William Hooper, who, after remaining a few years, was, on account of his health, compelled to resign, and Dr. McDowell again took charge. Under his guidance and aided by an able corps of teachers, this excellent institution will continue to be a blessing to our country, and an ornament of its section.
Near the town of Murfreesboro in the adjacent county, Southampton, Virginia, on August 21, 1831, a fearful and bloody insurrection of slaves occurred. Nearly one hundred white persons were ruthlessly murdered. The negroes were led on by Nat Turner, who pretended to be a preacher, and under the assumed inspiration of religion, perpetrated a series of wanton murders and robberies. These atrocities quickly aroused the whites, and armed forces from North Carolina and Old Point were rapidly raised and the insurrection subdued. Many of them were
* See Potter's Am. Mag., May, 1879.taken and executed on the gallows; not, however, until many, from the aged matron to the helpless infant, had fallen victims to the besotted blacks. This first attack was led by a colored man named Hark, on the house of Simon Blount, who was, at the time, a helpless cripple. Young Blount, his son, a mere youth, resisted the attack, and Hark was shot by him, when his followers retreated. For his gallantry on this occasion, he was honored by General Jackson with a commission in the Navy.
A sketch of the Wheeler family, who were long residents of this county, will be found in a Memoir of the Author immediately after the Preface.
CHAPTER XXXIV.HYDE COUNTY.
David Miller Carter was a native of this county, though much of his early life was spent in Raleigh. He was prepared for college by Mr. Lovejoy, and graduated at the University in 1851. He studied law and settled in the town of Washington, and formed a partnership with Hon. E. J. Warren. He pursued the profession with great success. He was a Whig in politics, and strongly opposed to the doctrine of secession. But when the Federal Government announced the intention to coerce the States, he raised a company to serve during the war, which formed a part of the 4th North Carolina Regiment. At the battle of Seven Pines, he was severely wounded, so that he was never again able to serve in the field. He was assigned to duty as one of the three Judges of the Military Court of Longstreet's Corps, with the rank of Colonel, in which capacity he continued until he was elected (1864) by the people of Beaufort County to represent them in the House of Commons.
After the war was over he returned to the care of his large farming interests and the practice of his profession in Washington, where he remained until his removal to Raleigh.
Colonel Carter was a public spirited man. He devoted much of his time and energy to the cause of education, and especially to the University of which he was a steady friend and a liberal benefactor, and to the management of the Penitentiary, of which he was one of the Directors.
His health gradually failing, he repaired to Baltimore for medical aid—but in vain. He died at Baltimore on January 7, 1877. He married twice, first a daughter of D. P. Perry, and second, a Mrs. Benbury, one of the most amiable ladies of the State.
CHAPTER XXXV.IREDELL COUNTY.
Hugh Lawson White, (born 1773, died 1840,) who became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee and a Senator in Congress, was a native of Iredell County. He was of Irish descent. His grand-father immigrated to this country about 1742, and left six sons: James, Moses, John, William, David and Andy—many of whose descendants now reside in this county. James, the father of Judge White, was a soldier of the Revolution. He moved to Knox County, Tennessee, in 1786, served as a General in the Creek War, was distinguished for his integrity,
ability and bravery. He bestowed on his son every advantage of education. Judge White's early education was conducted by Rev. Samuel Carrick, Judge Roane, and Dr. Robert Patterson of Philadelphia. In 1795, he studied law in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the office of James Hopkins. After completing his studies, he returned home to Tennessee; where he soon acquired fame and fortune in the practice of his profession, and at the early age of twenty-eight, he was elected Judge of the Superior Court, among such compeers as Andrew Jackson, Jenkins Whiteside and George W. Campbell—by no means an empty honor; but in 1807, he resigned this position. Two years afterwards, when the Supreme Court was established he was unanimously chosen one of the Justices thereof, where he presided for six years with great satisfaction to the country and honor to himself. At this time Tennessee severely suffered from the hostile devastations of the Creek Indians. At this dark and perilous period, when the heroic Jackson was in the midst of a wild territory, surrounded by savages, his scanty force disaffected and mutinous, Judge White left the Bench, and with only one companion, sought, and after great peril and exposure, found the veteran, Jackson to whom he volunteered his services, which were gladly accepted.
In 1820 he was appointed by President Monroe, (with Governor Tazewell of Virginia and Governor King of Maine as colleagues,) a Commissioner, under the Convention with Spain, which position he held for four years. In 1825 when General Jackson resigned his seat as Senator in Congress, Judge White was unanimously elected his successor. He was re-elected in 1827, and in 1832, when hewas chosen President of the Senate. In 1836 he was a candidate for President.
He resigned his seat in the Senate in 1839, having received instructions from the Legislature of Tennessee to vote for measures that his judgment did not approve. He returned to his home at Knoxville, and in the next year, (1840, April, 10th,) full of years, honored and esteemed for his virtues, universally loved and respected, he died.
William Sharpe, (born 1742, died 1818,) resided and died in this county. He was the oldest son of Thomas Sharpe, and was born in Cecil County, Maryland. At an early age, he removed to Mecklenburg County, where he married a daughter of David Reese, one of the decided patriots of that day, and a member of the Convention of May 20th, 1775.
Mr. Sharpe was a Lawyer by profession. I copy from the records of Lincoln County: “At January Term, 1785, William Sharpe, Esq., produced in open Court his license to practice as Attorney-at-Law, and was admitted to the Bar accordingly.” He removed to Iredell County, then Rowan County, and was zealous and active in the cause of the people. The records of the Committee of Safety for Rowan County prove his patriotism and courage. He was a member of the Provincial Congress which met at New Berne, April, 1775, and at Hillsboro in August following, also at Halifax in 1776; he was aid to General Rutherford the same year in his Campaign against the Indians, and the next year with Waighstill Avery, Robert Lanier and Joseph Winston, he was appointed by Governor Caswell to treat with them.
He was appointed a member of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia in 1779, and served till 1782.
He died in July, 1818, leaving a widow and twelve children. His eldest daughter married W. W. Erwin, of Burke, who was Clerk of the Superior Court of that County for many years, and the Agent of the State Bank. She was the mother of fifteen children. The second, Ruth, married Andrew Caldwell of Iredell, who was
* The vote was as follows: Van Buren, 170; Harrison, 73; White, 26 (Georgia and Tennessee); Webster, 14; Mangum, 11.often a member of the Legislature, and the father of Judge David F. Caldwell, Hon Joseph P. Caldwell, and Dr. Elam Caldwell of Lincolnton.
Dr. Charles Caldwell, an extensive and popular writer, professor in Transylvania University, and one of the Founders of the Medical School at Louisville, was a native of this section. He resided for a time, in his early age, near Mount Mourne, in Iredell County. He was a man of gigantic proportions and capable of great labor, physical and mental. He wrote valuable papers on Malaria, Quarantines, Physical Education and Phrenology. In the last he was an enthusiastic a follower of Combe, Spurziem and others, and lectured extensively on the subject in different sections of the country. His tribute to Fisher Ames, in Rees’ Encyclopedia, is unrivaled. He wrote a paper on Leibig's “Theory of Animal Heat,” which utterly refuted the learned German's theory.
In 1819, while filling the Chair of Natural History in the University of Pennsylvania, he published “Life of General Nathaniel Greene,” which was mercilessly criticized in the North American Review, (January, 1825.) He died at his residence in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, in July, 1853. He was probably at the time of his death the oldest practicing physician in the United States, being 90 years of age.*
David Franklin Caldwell, born 1790, was a native of this county, educated at the University and studied Law with Archibald Henderson at Salisbury. He was a Member of the House of Commons from this county in 1816, ’17, ’18 and ’19, and represented Rowan County in the Senate in 1829, ’30 and ’31, of which he was chosen Speaker. In 1844 he was elected Judge of the Superior Court, the duties of which office he discharged with dignity and satisfaction.
He died after a short illness, respected and esteemed by all who knew him. He was twice married, first to Miss Alexander, and secondly, Mrs. Troy.
His brother, Hon. Jos. Pearson Caldwell, born in 1808, died 1853, was also a native of this county, where he lived and died. He was educated at Bethany Academy, and studied Law with Judge Caldwell. He was elected Senator in the Legislature in 1833, ’34, and in 1838, ’40 and ’42 he was a Member of the House of Commons.
He was elected a member of the 31st Congress, (1849, ’51,) and re-elected to the 32nd Congress, (1851 and ’53.) He was a useful and worthy member, universally esteemed for his abilities and genial temper. He died suddenly, June 30, 1853.
Robert Franklin Armfield was born July 9th, 1829, near Greensboro, and educated at Trinity College, North Carolina. He read law with John A. Gilmer, and has been in the continuous practice of his profession.
He was a member of the State Convention of 1861, which passed the Ordinance of Secession, but resigned and went into the army as a subaltern in the 38th North Carolina Regiiment, of which he afterwards became Lieutenant Colonel. He was wounded at the Battle of Shepherdstown, (1862). Whilst at home on furlough, wounded, he was elected Solicitor for the State in the Sixth Judicial District, in which capacity he served until removed by Governor Holden, in 1865. He has avoided political office, declining several nominations to the Legislature. He was elected however to the Legislature in 1874, as Senator from the counties of Iredell, Alexander and Wilkes, and here was chosen President of the Senate, and ex-officio Lieutenant-Governor of the State. He married Miss Mary A. Denny of Guilford, and is blessed with a large family.
David Moffit Furches, Judge of the Superior Court, resides in this county. He is a native of Davie County, born April 2nd, 1832. Educated
* N. C. Uni. Mag. II., 297.at Union Academy, he read law with Judge Pearson, and settled at Mocksville. He was a emmber of the Constitutional Convention in 1865, and ’66. He removed to Staterville and was once a candidate for Congress, but was defeated by Major Robbins. He was made Judge, August, 1875, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge Mitchell.
CHAPTER XXXVI.JOHNSTON, JONES AND LENOIR COUNTIES.
The same spirit of resistance to the illegal exactions of authority, which subsequently terminated in the battle of Alamance, was early evinced by the bold men of this county.
I extract from the Public Records in London, the following, contained in a dispatch from General Tryon to the Earl of Hillsboro:
“BRUNSWICK, N. C., Dec. 24, 1768.
I will mention another affair which happened in August last. A body of about eighty men came to the Court in Johnston County, with the intention to turn the Justices off the bench, as had been done in the spring before, in Anson County. The Justices thought it prudent (although the first day of the court) to adjourn the court for the term. Upon the notice of their approach they collected some gentlemen who were friends to the Government, and attacked the insurgents with clubs; and after a smart skirmish drove them from the field.”
William A. Smith resides in Johnston county. He has only an old field school education, but possesses such force of character and common sense that has enabled him to attain positions of importance and power. He was born in Warren County, January 9, 1828; worked on the farm till fourteen years of age, when he engaged as a hand on the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad. Hoping to better his fortunes, he went to Louisiana, and settled at Shreveport, but he soon returned to his native State and settled in Johnston County. The people soon discovered his merits. In 1861 he became a member of the (Secession) Convention. In 1864 elected to the Legislature. In 1865 he was a member of the Convention called by Governor Holden. In 1868 he was chosen President of the North Carolina Railroad. In 1870 he was elected by the people a member of the Senate, of the Legislature, but was unseated. He was elected to represent the Raleigh district in (the 43rd) Congress (1873-75). After serving in Congress for one term he declined a re-election.
Nathan Bryan represented this, the Newbern District in (the 4th and 5th) Congress 1795-99, and was a man of great usefulness and piety. He was prominent in the Baptist denomination. He died while in Congress, at Philadelphia, in 1798, and was succeeded by Richard Dobbs Spaight, Sr. Moore says that he was wealthy and talented.
Hardy B. Croom (born 1798—drowned October, 1837) was long a resident of Lenoir County. He was born 1798; educated at the University, where he graduated in 1817, in the same class with John M. Morehead and others. He read law with Judge Gaston, and was distinguished as a scholar and a gentleman. He represented this county in the Senate in 1828. He married Miss Smith of NewBerne. On a voyage from New York, on the steamer “Home,” he and his family were drowned, October 9, 1837.
An interesting question of law arose from this
tragic event. If Mr. Croom survived his children only for a moment, then a large estate went to certain heirs; if not, then, to other heirs.
William D. Mosely, late Governor of Florida, (1845-49) was a native of Lenoir County. He was educated at the University, and graduated in same class with Robert Donaldson, Thomas J. Green, Hamilton C. Jones, Rev. Robert Hall Morrison, James K. Polk, Hugh Waddell, and others. He represented the county in the Senate for many years, and in 1832 to 1835 was elected Speaker of the Senate, and presided with great dignity and satisfaction. His ancestors are well known in our early History. Edward Mosely was the Surveyor General of the Providence in 1723 and charges against him for malfeasance in office were preferred by Sir Richard Everhard—as also Burrington the Governor. He was one of the Commissioners with Christopher Gale, William Little and Colonel Lovick, to run the dividing line between Carolina and Virginia. Colonel Byrd, Fitz Williams and Danridge, being the Virginia Commissioners.
Hon. George Davis in a late lecture (November, 1879), “A Study: Colonial History,” speaks of Edward Mosely as one of the ancestors of Governor Mosely, as being one of the great men of North Carolina; that of all men that watched and guided the tottering footsteps of our infant State, there was not one, who, in intellectual ability, in solid and polite learning, in scholarly cultivation and refinement, in courage and endurance, in high Christian morality, in generous consideration for the welfare of others, in all true merit, in fine, in all that makes a man among men, could equal Edward Mosely.”
In 1707 he was Chief Justice, and in 1709, being then Surveyor General, was appointed with his deputy, John Lawson, to run the northern boundary line.
About 1840 Mr. Mosely removed to Florida, where he was much esteemed, and was the first Governor of the State, from 1845 to 1849.
CHAPTER XXXVII.LINCOLN COUNTY.
There are few portions of North Carolina, around which the halo of chivalric deeds and unsullied patriotism clusters more brilliantly, than this section. The battle of King's Mountain, Ramsour's Mill, the passage of the Catawba by Cornwallis, and the gallant resistance and the lamented death of General Davidson; all shed a flood of memories around this region, alike interesting and patriotic. But our present duties are confined to biographical sketches, and we leave this fair field of history for other and more competent laborers.
Among the patriots of our Revolution, none deserves our gratitude more than Joseph Graham, (born 1759—died 1836); he was the founder of this family in North Carolina. He was a native of Pennsylvania, born in Chester County, October 13, 1759. His mother was left a widow with six small children and but slender means. He removed to North Carolina, when her son, Joseph, was about ten years old, and settled near Charlotte. His early education was connected at the academy in Charlotte, he was distinguished for his assiduity and good conduct. There studies made him acquainted with the history of events and prepared his mind for the revolutionary struggle which soon ensued. He testified that he was present in Charlotte, May 20, 1775, when and where the first declaration of independence was made, and speaks of the
impression made on his mind by the solemn and heroic decisions of that day.*
He enlisted at the age of nineteen years and served in the 4th Regiment of North Carolina troops under Colonel Archibald Lytle, and in Captain Goodsen's Company. They were ordered to rendezvous at Bladensburg in Maryland. On this month they received intelligence of the battle of Monmouth and that the British had gone to New York, so their services would not be needed. He returned home on furlough. He was again called into service under General Rutherford in 1778; was in the battle of Stono, June 20, 1779. The next year he was seized with fever, and after two months’ severe illness, was discharged near Dorchester, and returned home. After recruiting his health, while engaged in endeavoring to aid his mother in support of the family, and was ploughing in the field, he heard that the British had defeated Colonel Buford at the Waxhaw, and were approaching Charlotte; he joined the Mecklenburg Regiment, and was appointed Adjutant of the Regiment, which was ordered by General Davidson to Charlotte and there join General Davie.
The British Army entered Charlotte, September 26, 1780, and General Graham was ordered to cover the retreat of General Davie. A sharp conflict took place about four miles on the road to Salisbury, when General Davie's force was not within supporting distance. Colonel Locke of Rowan was killed and General Graham received nine severe wounds, the scars of which he carried to his grave.
His life was preserved by a large stock buckle which broke the violence of the blow from a sabre. He was for two months disabled from service. As soon as he recovered from his wounds he again entered into the service of his country; he raised a company of mounted riflemen, and joined General Davidson's command, which disputed the advance of Lord Cornwallis at Cowan's Ford on the Catawba river. His command was the first to commence the attack on the British troops, which was continued until they had crossed.
It was here, on February 1, 1781, that General Davidson fell. The North Carolina troops under General Graham continued to harrass the British as they proceeded towards Virginia. General Graham attacked the guard at Hart's Mill, near Hillsboro. The same day he was united to General Lee's forces and was in that action where a large number of Tories, under Colonel, or Doctor, Pyles, were defeated. After being in several other severe skirmishes, the British retired to Wilmington. General Rutherford, who had been for some time confined at St. Augustine as a prisoner of war, taken at Gates’ defeat, returned to duty and ordered General Graham to raise a legion of cavalry, of which Robert Smith was Colonel, and Graham the Major, and to march on Wilmington. Near Fayetteville, he made a gallant and successful attack on a body of Tories commanded by the noted Tory, McNeil, at McFall's Mill on the Raft Swamp, completely defeated him and dispersed his forces, twenty or thirty being killed or wounded by the sabre only.
He surprised and defeated at Alfred Moore's plantation, a mile below the ferry at Wilmington, a band of Tories, and killed and wounded twelve of them. He made an unsuccessful attack on a British garrison in a brick house which covered the ferry opposite Wilmington. He was detached by General Rutherford, to a place called Seven Creeks, near the South Carolina
* Extract from Declaration of General Joseph Graham, sworn to in open Court in Lincoln County, North Carolina, October 30, 1832, and now on file in the Pension Bureau at Washington, D. C., in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7, 1832. “The deponent states he has a record of his age; that he was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, on October 13, 1759—that he removed to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, when about ten years of age, that he was present in Charlotte on the 20th day of May, 1775. when the committee of the County of Mecklenburg made their celebrated Declaration of Independence of the British Crown, upwards of a year before the Congress of the United States did at Philadelphia—that he resided in Mecklenburg County, until June, 1792, and since that time in the County of Lincoln.” Let the doubters of this event read this affidavit!line, when he was attacked at midnight by the noted Tory, Colonel Gainy. The Tories were repulsed by General Graham's forces.
This detail of the services of General Graham, is collected from his declaration, filed October 30, 1833, in the records of the Pension Bureau at Washington to obtain a pension, (No. 17953).
This campaign closed the military services of General Graham in the Revolutionary War, and he retired to private life. He was elected the first Sheriff of Mecklenburg County; and from 1788 to 1794, with but few intermissions, represented this county in the Senate of the Legislature.
In 1814, the war with the Creek Indians was raging. General Graham was appointed to command a brigade, and marched to the seat of war. They arrived just as the final battle of the Horse Shoe was fought, which ended the war. He was for many years, Major General of the 5th division of the State Militia.
In 1802 he addressed the Legislature on the subject of organizing the Militia, and on a plan for a Military Academy, for which he received the thanks of the Legislature. This address was printed by order of the Legislature. He removed in 1792 to Lincoln County, and engaged in the establishment of iron foundries; for more than forty years he conducted this important interest with energy and success.
By a life of industry and temperance he enjoyed a “green old age.” He died on November 12, 1836, and was buried at McPelah, in Lincoln County. Over his grave is the following inscription:
“Sacred to the memory of MAJOR GENERAL JOSEPH GRAHAM, who died November 12, 1836, aged 77 years. He was a brave, distinguished and intelligent officer in the Revolutionary War, and in various campaigns from May, 1778 to November, 1781; commanded in fifteen engagements with signal courage, wisdom and success.
“On September 26, 1780 after a gallant defense of the ground first consecrated by the Declaration of American Independence, he was wounded near Charlotte. In 1814 he commanded the troops of North Carolina in their expedition against the Creek Indians. His life was a bright and illustrious pattern of domestic, social and public virtue. Modest, amiable, upright and pious, he lived a noble ornament to his country and a rich blessing to his family, and died with the hope of a glorious immortality.”
GENEALOGY OF THE GRAHAM FAMILY.James Graham emigrated from County Down, in Ireland, at the age of 18 years, and settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in the early part of the eighteenth century. He also appears to have resided for a time in Berks and Lancaster Counties. The tradition is that he was of the family of the chieftain and hero of the same name, who bore such a conspicuous part in the military annals of Scotland* in the century
* The expression “military annals of Scotland” is used in preference to history, for the very good reason that the histories, to far, have never done him justice. He lived in the legends of Scotland, a prototype of that hero (Stonewall Jackson) of a later day, who with a corps but half-armed, drove more numerous and finely equipped foes from the field, and, with the captured supplies and arms, so prepared his troops for further and greater conquests. Finally yielding “to superior resources,” he was told by the executioner, that after death he was to be drawn and quartered. He calmly replied that he would cheerfully submit to the more general distribution of his body, as it might teach mankind dulce et accorum pro patria mort, and as a testimony of the cause for which he suffered. Whilst Cromwell conquered England against the Stuarts, the Marquis conquered Scotland for them, but disgusted with the cant of the Praise God Barebones he soon lost all sympathy for them and became their most active foe. The Stuarts lost their sceptre by the Revolution of 1688, and the memory of James Graham has since then received the scant justice allotted to heroes of lost causes “He was truly a Christian and a gentleman, and well deserved to have his memory preserved and celebrated amongst the most illustrious persons of the age in which he lived.”—Clarendon's History of the Great Rebellion. Book XII, 367. John Graham, of Claverhouse was of a very different character, and the odium justly attaching to his name, unredeemed by any marked talents or manly virtues, has misled those historians, who did not take the trouble to gather the evidence from the traditions among those with whose ancestors he acted, therefore they pass him over in silence, or unjustly condemn him. In these pages we cannot give his life, nor does it become important to establish the truth of the tradition of the Pennsylvania and North Carolina Grahams. By the table of their geneology we find that a son of the Pennsylvania James Graham called a son Robert Montrose, and in the next generation we find James Montrose Graham and Junius Montrose Graham. John Davidson, jr., who died about 1870, aged over ninety years, frequently spoke of General Grahams's connection with the Duke of Montrose, and the name "montrose" was greatly revered by General Graham. These and other things we mention as family traditions and reminiscences. The New Berne family of Grahams have a similar tradition, but the families are unable to trace back to a common ancestor. They are believed, however, to be of the same house.preceding, and finally illustrated the sincerity of his faith in the conservative principles for which he had gained many a brilliant victory in the open field, by a death upon the scaffold, May 21st, 1650. With the spirit of the pioneer, the young man made his way to the new world, relying entirely upon his own exertions.
He was twice married in Chester. We are not informed of the descendants of the first marriage.
His second wife was a Mrs Mary Barber, nee McConnell, who was remembered by the last generation as a lady of culture and piety. She survived him, and in 1769, joined the tide of emigration southward, with her six children, and settled in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. She was accompanied by her brother-in-law. Charles Moore, who settled in the adjoining county of Lancaster, South Carolina, he was the grand-father of the late Governor Moore, of Alabama. She was not a disinterested spectator of the Revolution, which soon engaged the attention of the country, but like all the other women, about the “Hornets’ Nest,” upheld its principles from first to last with unflagging zeal. She died July 19th, 1791, and was buried at Sugar Creek Church.
Her children were John; George; Joseph; Sarah, married to Allison;* Anne married to Robert Barnett, who died September 9th, 1830, aged 80; and Esther Barber who married Cathey.
I. John was a graduate of Liberty Hall, formerly called Queen's Museum, in Charlotte; was afterwards at Princeton, and received the degree of M. D., under Dr. Rush in Philadelphia. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary Army, and left an interesting diary, which is in the hands of the Historical Society of North Corolina.
He moved to South Carolina, had charge of a college on Black (?) River, married a Miss Cooper and died without issue.
Below we present a copy of his diploma at Liberty Hall, as a matter of historical interest:
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, }
MECKLENBURG COUNTY.
This is to certify that Mr. John Graham hath been a student in the Academy at Liberty Hall, in the State and county above-mentioned, the space of four years preceding the date hereof, that his whole deportment during his residence there was perfectly regular, that he prosecuted his studies with diligence, and made such acquisitions, both in the Languages and Scientific Learning, as gave entire satisfaction to his teachers.
And he is hereby recommended to the friendly notice and regard of all lovers of religion and literature wherever he may come.
In testimony of which this is given at Liberty Hall, this 22nd day of November, 1778.*
ISC. ALEXANDER, President.
| EPH. BREVARD. | Trustees. |
| ABR'M ALEXANDER, |
II. George (see sketch), twice married, first to a Miss Cathey, second to a Mrs. Potts. He was an ensign in the First North Carolina Regiment, (James Moore, Colonel,) appointed Sept 1st,
* He enlisted under Joseph Graham, when a call for volunteer cavalry was made to meet the British invasion of 1780, and was with Davie's rear-guard which successfully repelled three charges of Tarleton's Legion (September 26,) on Independence Square, in Charlotte, North Carolina. During the fight, he insisted upon dismounting to get a steady aim at an officer, whom he believed was Cornwallis, and was only deterred from doing so through the peremptory order “to keep the saddle,” enforced by the Captain drawing his sword upon him. Nearly a half-century afterwards, so Governor William A. Graham was wont to tell, he would speak about his disappointed shot with as much feeling as if it had but just occurred. An hour or to later, a little beyond Sugar Creek Church, the Captain himself was left for dead on the field, with nine wounds received whilst endeavoring to rescue his gallant lieutenant, George Locke who had lingered too long in maintaining this parthian contest against overwhelming odds.* The exact date of changing the name would be a pregnant fact. It is certainly improbable that, after that time when “in the year 1775, after our Revolution began and the principal characters in Mecklenburg County met on sundry days in Queens's Museum, in Charlotte, to digest Articles of a State Constitution in anticipation that the province would proceed to do so,” the trustees would much longer continue to carry the royal name upon an institution of learning to which British authority had refused a charter. The Articles bear date September 1st, 1775, and were given to the public in the same year, (1837), that Mr. Force discovered the “full copy of the whole proceedings,” (declaration, military order, and all in one) as attested and “signed by order of the committee.” This was four years before Dr. McNitt's death, and it was Mr. Force's publication, which doubtless, brought out his.—R. D. G.1775. Issue were Polly, married to Geo. Corrith, and Jennie married to Wm. E. McRee. He was one of the party of thirteen, who, on October 3, 1780, at McIntire's Creek, seven miles north of Charlotte, successfully ambuscaded and stampeded a British foraging party of four hundred and fifty infantry and sixty cavalry, with about forty wagons. Their names are worthy of individual mention and are as follows: James Thompson, Captain; Francis Bradley, George Graham, James Henry, Thomas Dickson, John Dickson, George Houston, Hugh Houston, Thomas McLure, John Long, John Robinson, George Shipley and Edward Shipley.
III. Joseph (see sketch) married Isabella Davidson. Issue: (a) John Davidson; (b) Sophia; (c) James; (d) Polly; (e) George Franklin; (f) Violet Winslow Wilson; (g) Mary; (h) Robert Montrose; (i) Joseph; (k) Alfred, (l) Isabella, married to William Alexander.
(a) John D. married, first, Elizabeth Conner, second, Jane Johnston. Of the first marriage, were Mary Anne, married to James H. Orr, of Charlotte; Isabella; Chas. C. married Mary E. Mebane, of Greensboro—moved to Memphis; Malvina S. married John A. Young; Joseph Montrose married Mary Washington, of New Berne—moved to Camden, Arkansas; Henry W., Martha C. married P. K. Rounsaville; Eliza D. married John S. Sloan, of Greensboro, North Carolina, later of Brenham, Texas; James F.; Hamilton A. married Louise Mason, of Lampasas, Texas, and Julia A.
Of the second marriage (a) Robert Clay; (b) Sophia married Dr. John Witherspoon, of Alabama—issue John; Robert Sidney, M. D., married Mrs. Mary Bratton nee Torrence; Thomas married Kate Hatch; Alfred married Tariffa Cocke; Graham; Eliza married Judge Henry Goldthwaite, Alabama; Mary married Charles Dickey, of Brown Brothers, New York City; Louisa married W. H. Anderson, of Mobile; (c) James, born in 1793, University in 1814, Legislature in 1822-24-28-29, United States Congress 1833-45-47-49, died in 1851. (c) Geo. Franklin, University, and M. D., settled in Memphis, married Martha Conner—issue; Anne Eliza married William Johnston, of Charlotte, North Carolina; (f) Violet married Dr. Moses Widslow Alexander—issue, James G.; Junius Montrose, Hamilton L.; Wistar Winslow, Sydenham Benoni married Emma P. Nicholson, Captain of Infantry C. S. A., Legislature 1879, 1883; Dovey married Rev. Mr. Cunningham; Isabella Louisa married Dr. William J. Hayes; Emily; Eliza Rosinda; Mary Sophia; Julia Susan married Thomas McGehee Smith; and Alice Leonora.
(g) Mary married Rev. Robert Hall Morrison (see sketch); (i) Joseph moved to Tennessee, married Kimbrough—issue, George C., married (1) Alabama Record, (2) Mrs. Perkins, (3) Miss Daniels; Albert married Marshall; Joseph married Mrs. Alston; Lydia; and Sophia married Rutland.
(m) William A. married Susan, daughter of John Washington, of New Berne—issue, Joseph, married Elizabeth Hill, (University and M. D., Captain and Chief of Division Light Artillery, and Surgeon C. S. A.); John Washington married Mrs. Rebecca Anderson, nee Cameron, Lieut. and A. D. C., Captain and Major of Infantry, C. S. A.; in State Convention from Orange in 1868, Legislature in 1871-1876; an attorney.
William A. Jr. married Julia Lane, University and Princeton, Captain of Cavalry, C. S. A., Major and A. A. G. of North Carolina; Legislature from Lincoln County in 1874-79.
James Augustus married Elizabeth Webb, University, from private to Captain of Infantry, C. S. A.; A. A. & I. G., Cooke's Brigade, Legislature from Alamance County in 1871-72, an attorney.
Robert D., University, from private to Captain of Infantry, C. S. A., occasionally acting Adjutant, and commanding Regiment; after the war finished his university course, and admitted to the bar.
George W., married Sally Shaver, University and M. D.; Augustus W., married Lucy Horner, University, an attorney.
Susan W. married Walter Clark, an attorney at Raleigh.
Wm. A. Graham, (born Sept. 5, 1804, died August 11, 1875). Of his father we have already given a faithful sketch, many of the Revolutionary incidents of which were obtained from his statement, when applying for a pension for his military services, which discloses his patriotic character. His mother was distinguished for her personal accomplishments and beauty*
He received his early education at the common schools of the county and commenced his classical education at Statesville, under charge of Rev. Dr. Muchat; here he was noted for his thirst for knowledge, and aptitude for learning. Such was his desire for books that one of his classmates at the time, says of him, “he was the only student I ever knew who would spend his Saturdays in reviewing his studies of the past week.”
After careful preparation he was sent to the University, where he graduated in 1824. This was one of the largest and ablest classes ever sent forth by the University. It was one of which Professors Olmstead and Mitchell declared that “Yale might have been proud.” Many of them afterward won high distinction in political and professional life—among these was John Bragg. Judge and a Member of Congress from Alabama; James W. Bryan, eminent as an advocate and statesman; Thomas Dews, of Lincoln, a son of genius and misfortune; Mathias E. Manly, Judge of Superior and Supreme Courts of North Carolina, (who divided with Governor Graham the highest honors of the class); A. D. Sims, member of Congress from South Carolina, 1845-48; and others. His collegiate career was marked by obedience to rules, and habits of diligent study.
He read law with Judge Ruffin and was admitted to its practice in 1826. He selected Hillsboro as a residence and here he came in competition with such legal athletes as Ruffin, Murphy, Mangum, Nash, and Badger, all of whom attained positions as Judges. Against such giants in the profession Mr. Graham had to contend, and such was his assiduity, his high mental acquirements, his perseverence and labor, that he arose to the front rank, and was retained in all the most important cases in this circuit. For forty years he maintained this high position. As an equity lawyer he was pre-eminent. In 1833-34-35 he was a member, from Hillsboro, of the House of Commons, and from 1834 to 1840, elected from the County of Orange, and for the two last years was elected Speaker. His labors were incessent, as were his efforts for the welfare of his country. But his talents were soon to be transferred to the National Legislature. A political revolution in the State in 1840 brought about vacancies in the representation of the State in the Senate of the United States. Judge Strange, under instructions of the Leglature had resigned his seat, as did also Bedford Brown. Mr. Mangum and Mr. Graham were elected their successors. This was a perilous time in political warfare. Mr. Graham, although among the youngest members of the Senate, bore himself with such dignity as to secure the attention and the respect of this distinguished body composed of such illustrious men as Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Buchanan, Wright, and others. His speeches on the “Loan Bill,” the “Apportionment Bill,” and other measures, attracted the attention and the admiration of the country.
* Much of the material of this sketch has been gathered from the memorial oration on “The life and character of Mr. Graham,” by Montford McGhee (1876).On the expiration of his term (March 3, 1843) another revolution in politics occurred and Mr. Haywood was elected his successor.
In 1844, he was nominated by the Whig party as a candidate for Governor of the State. His opponent was Michael Hoke of Lincoln County. They were both natives of the same county; both in the prime of manhood, both of fine address, of large political experience, and both stood high in the forum and at the bar, as also in the affections of their party. The campaign was actively carried on, with unsurpassed ability—Mr. Graham was elected. His administration was so acceptable, that he was re-elected by an increased majority over Louis D. Henry. During his two terms, the State made large and important progress in all her substantial interests.
In 1848 he delivered an address, before the Literary Societies at the University, remembered as a solid and practical production.
In 1852, he addressed the New York Historical Society on the British invasion of North Carolina, in 1780-81, which was an able and accurate exposition of the services and suffering of North Carolina, in that perilous ordeal. In 1860 he delivered an address, at Greensboro, on the life of General Nathaniel Greene and the Revolutionary events of the State, in aid of the erection of a monument at that place, to General Greene.
In 1866 he delivered a discourse in memory of the life and character of Hon. George E. Badger, which was an able and faithful portrait of that distinguished advocate and statesman. He also delivered an address upon the life of Hon. Thomas Ruffin. In 1875 he addressed the citizens of Charlotte, on the “Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence” of May 20, 1775; an exhaustive, unanswerable argument, proving to the candid reader, beyond all cavil or question, the authenticity of that memorable and patriotic document, and that no historical event is better established. Upon these, chiefly rests his fame as a writer and as an author. It is to be regretted that he did not leave a more extended record of his researches and knowledge as a historian. No one was more familiar with every event connected with the history of the country than was Governor Graham. He was at the time of his death, the President of the North Carolina Historical Society.
After his term as Governor had expired, he was tendered by the President, the Mission to Russia, or to Spain; but as he had no desire to leave the country, these were declined.
On the accession of Mr. Fillmore to the Presidency (1850) he was tendered a seat in his Cabinet, which he accepted. His first report, as Secretary of the Navy, is dated November 20, 1850, and received the admiration and sanction of the country. He projected and carried out the expedition to Japan under Commodore Perry. Its success has marked an epoch in the history of the age. It opened to commerce a trade, before closed to the world, and established friendly relations of an enduring character with that extensive empire.
Another expedition was sent out in 1851, under Governor Graham's administration of the Navy Department—the exploration of the valley of the Amazon, by Herndon and Gibbon.
The labors of Governor Graham as Secretary of the Navy, were closed by his nomination, in June 1852, as Vice President, on the ticket with General Winfield Scott as President; but the election was in favor of General Franklin Pierce. Governor Graham was again a member of the Senate in the Legislature of 1854. The question, known as Free Suffrage, was the great question of the session. Governor Graham was opposed to the manner of the change by legislative enactment, and advocated a convention.
The close of Mr. Buchanan's administration brought signs ominous to the tranquility of the country. The clouds had been gathering, dark and heavy and were ready to burst. The election
of a sectional President was considered by many, and specially by South Carolina, a reason for secession, and on December 20, 1860, that State held a convention which declared the connection of that State with the Union dissolved, and proceeded to place the State in an attitude hostile to the United States. This example was followed by other States south of her.
North Carolina's Legislature directed the question of calling a convention to be submitted to the people. The press, and the people were much exercised on this momentous question. The meeting of the people was largely attended, and addressed by the ablest statesmen, as Mr. Badger, Governors Morehead, and Graham, in opposition to secession. The people with just unanimity declared against calling a convention. But when (April 19, 1861) Sumter was fired upon, and surrendered to the Confederate Army, the “Northern heart was fired.”
On the 15th Lincoln had called for 75,000 troops; then the whole Southern section became aroused, the glorious summer time of peace gave place to the wintry blasts of war and discontent. Virginia seceded. This placed North Carolina in such a position that she must either join in a war against her neighbors and sisters, or unite her fortunes with them and share their fate. She did not now hesitate in her decision. Influenced by their views, a convention was called, which met on a day memorable in her history (May 20, 1861), and passed an ordinance of secession from the Federal Union, by a unanimous vote; the 20th of June of that year saw North Carolina a member of the Confederacy. To this measure Governor Graham made a strong but fruitless opposition. He wished the State to hold her destinies in her own hands, that she might act as the exigencies of the hour should require. He was eminently conservative in his views. He it was who opposed an ordinance to define and punish treason, in a speech of great power and matchless eloquence.
He was calm and considerate whilst the tempests howled around him, and the signals of war burned in every beacon height.
In December, 1863, Governor Graham was elected to the Confederate Senate by a majority of two-thirds of the Legislature, and took his seat in May, 1864. This was a perilous period for the Confederate cause, and it needed all the counsel, comfort and support that could be afforded. The brilliant success of early years of the war had been followed by a succession of defeats and disasters. The battle of Gettysburg, that very Waterloo of the war, had been fought and lost to the Confederates; Vicksburg had fallen, and the armies of the North had cut the South in twain. Sherman had made his “march to the sea,” his track was marked by rapine and desolation. The force opposed to the South, was as seven to one.* It had become plain that the war could not be longer successfully prosecuted by the South.
In this cloud of gloom, a ray of hope appeared in the form of a conference at Hampton Roads, between Lincoln and the Confederate Commissioners; this took place on February 3, 1865. The terms offered by Mr. Lincoln were, that the seceded States should return to the Union, with slavery as it was; but that slavery was liable to be abolished by an amendment to the Constitution. The Southern Commissioners demanded independence. There could be no compromise reached, and the conference ended.
On their return, the commissioners, Mr. Davis and Mr. Benjamin, made speeches to the public, but they seemed flat, almost insipid. The tenor of the speeches made by Mr. Davis and Mr. Benjamin, showed that they were not based upon a realization of the facts of the case, but Mr. Graham did realize the true condition of affairs in all its force. His letters, published in “The Last Ninety Days of the War,” show how clearly his vision swept the political horizon. The Congress
* The whole number of Confederates surrendered, including Lee's command, amounted to 150,000. The whole number of Federals amounted to 1,050,000. (Stephens’ Hist. U. S., p. 161).of the Confederacy adjourned March 16, 1865. Governor Graham returned home, and had a long conference with Governor Vance.
He laid before the Governor the views of the President, the state of the Army, and recommended that the Legislature be convened. He stated that Richmond would soon fall, and that Lee's Army would be disbanded for want of food, if for no other cause. The Governor agreed to summon his council, but the advance of Sherman into North Carolina, hastened the collapse of the Confederacy and decided events.
On Saturday, April 8, 1865, Governor Swain wrote to Governor Graham to meet him at Raleigh to confer with Governor Vance. Governor Graham replied on the same day in a long letter. Some difference of opinion as to the true version of this interview between Governor Vance and Governor Graham, exists up to this time; in this we take no part. “The Last Ninety Days of the War,” gives the correspondence on this subject.
The surrender left the State under the control of the Federal Generals. Governor Vance was arrested and brought to Washington as a prisoner. A provisional Governor was appointed with power to call a convention. A constitution was prepared, but it was not accepted by the people. Mr. Graham opposed its ratification. The “Reconstruction Measures” were now passed and suffrage was adjusted on a new basis; all the black adult males were enfranchised, and a large portion of the white race was disfranchised. Under this adjustment, a new convention was called, and a new constitution adopted. In this disordered state of affairs, a convention of the Conservative party of North Carolina, was called. It met in Tucker Hall, Raleigh, on February 10, 1868; Governor Graham presided and spoke at length on the state of the country.
He denounced the “Reconstruction Measures,” as “outside the constitution,” and with dauntless spirit maintained the true principles of government. The effect of this address was to arouse the people from their despondency, and infuse new life within them. From that day the Democratic Conservative party dates its existence. In a short time, this party gained possession of the Legislature, and has retained it ever since.
The Convention of 1865, had directed that the Legislature should be called, and so it met in the winter of that year. Governor Graham was elected from the county of Orange, but not being enfranchised, was not allowed to take his seat. He was, however, elected by that Legislature to the United States Senate, by a large majority. He repaired to Washington and offered his credentials—which were laid on the table. He presented a respectful and manly memorial, but was not permitted to take his seat.
The State of North Carolina, in 1870, was the theatre of scenes, unparalleled in American History. The authority of the reconstructed government had been in existence for two years—and peacefully submitted to. Acts of a “wild species of justice,” occurred in the counties of Alamance and Caswell, but they were few, and no where took the form of resistance to law. These were deplored by all prudent, thoughtful men. The Governor by proclamation declared “these counties in a state of insurrection.” He sent troops into these counties, who arrested and imprisoned leading citizens, without charge, or without process of law. Measures were commenced to organize Courts Martial for their trial.
Recourse was had to the habeas corpus, “the great writ of right” among all English speaking people. The Chief Justice (Pearson) was applied to and he promptly issued the writ, but owing to the action of the Governor, he (Pearson) declared “the power of the Judiciary exhausted.” A petition for redress was then made to Judge Brooks, of the United States District Court, who ordered the writ to be issued, the prisoners were brought before him,
after hearing, patiently, argument on both sides, were discharged. The question of jurisdiction was argued by Governor Graham. Judge Brooks’ action did much to re-kindle the affection of the people towards the National Government. For his course in this unhappy event, on December 14, 1870, a resolution was passed, “impeaching the Governor, W. W. Holden, of high crimes and misdemeanors;” on December 22, the Senate was organized as a court, and sat for forty days,—Governor Graham being the first counsel on the part of the Managers. Holden was found guilty, was “deposed from office and disqualified to hold any office of profit or trust in the State.” The first State to rid herself of a Governor in this way.
In 1867, Governor Graham was selected by its munificent donor, one of the Trustees to distribute the princely charity of George Peabody, for educational purposes.
Governor Graham, although selected as one of the almoners of the Peabody educational fund, had always been the constant and deyoted friend of education. Especially was he unremitting in his efforts in favor of the University. He attended all its commencements, and was active in its behalf.
Some time after this he received an additional testimonial of the high esteem in which he was held by States, as well as by individuals. The boundary line between Maryland and Virginia, had been undefined, and he was selected by Virginia as one of the arbitrators. Several meetings took place between him and the arbitrator selected by Maryland, but the matter was unsettled at the date of his death.
A meeting of the boundary commissioners had been appointed to take place at Saratoga Springs in New York, in August, 1875. From his constant and severe labors at the bar, his friends felt that he was overtaxing his strength. Symptoms developed themselves showing a disease of the heart, and created serious apprehensions. He went to Saratoga accompanied by Mrs. Graham and his youngest son. For several days he appeared in his usual health, but he was attacked with great severity at night, and all that science and affection could suggest, proved unavailing. He expired on August 11, 1875.
The intelligence of his death created a profound sensation throughout the country. His remains were borne in sorrow to his home at Hillsboro. Meetings of the bar, of States, of political opponents as well as friends in Maryland, Virginia, Washington City, and elsewhere, were held, to express their great estimate of the illustrious dead, and the deep regret at his loss.
His knowledge of men and books was deep and varied. Whatever he professed to know he knew thoroughly, and what he wished to know, he rapidly acquired and exhausted. In the character of his mind he was more solid than showy. His imagination never run riot with his judgment. In his addresses or speeches, one may look in vain for any gay and gorgeous flowers of literature scattered around his path, but his power lay in solid argument and in the broad and plain road of reason. He possessed but little of that power which is often indulged in by an impassioned speaker and which passes like an electric shock, to the minds of his hearers, bearing them along in the very torrent, tempest, and whirlwind of passion. He rather let discretion be his tutor, and he never overstepped the modesty of nature, in his addresses. This moral and mental equilibrium, was doubtless attributable to the Scotch-Irish blood that he inherited. As an orator, he resembled rather the massive solid Doric column, with but little or no Corinthian ornament.
Such was William A. Graham.
We have now endeavored to trace the career of Governor Graham from his cradle to his grave. Most of our people have seen, known, and admired him. In person he was of a tall and commanding presence,—as Mr. McGehee expresses it, “the ideal of the patrician.” His
face and figure were so agreeable that nature bestowed on him, as Lord Chesterfield expresses it, “a perpetual letter of recommendation.” His manners, always modest, were kind and genial, and friendly, yet forbidding any familiarity; he was always dignified and self-possessed.
Of the large family left by Governor Graham, many have already made their mark; among them, his son William A. Graham, Jr. He was born in Hillsboro, on December 26, 1839; educated at the University, and at Princeton, where he graduated in 1860.
He entered the Army as a First Lieutenant of Company K, Second North aCrolina Cavalry, and in May, 1862, was promoted to a Captaincy, and was at Gettysburg, July 30, 1863, where he was wounded. After this he was Assistant Adjutant General, in which capacity he served during the war. In 1874, he was elected to the State Senate from Lincoln and Catawba counties receiving every vote cast in the two counties, and was re-elected from the same district, August, 1876. His name was canvassed for Congress as a suitable successor of Honorable Walter L. Steele.
Major Graham married in 1864, Julia, daughter of John W. Lane, of Amelia County, Virginia, by whom he has an interesting family.
John Washington Graham, son of William A. Graham, was born in Hillsboro, July 22, 1838. He was educated at the Caldwell Institute and the University, where he graduated in 1857, in same class with A. C. Avery, George M. Duskin, William H. Jordan and others. He served for two years as tutor, at the same time studying law under Judge Battle and S. F. Phillips. He entered the army as a subaltern in the 27th North Carolina Regiment, and was promoted to the rank of major. He was wounded and taken prisoner at Petersburg. In 1865 he was Solicitor of Orange county, and served for three years. He was elected in 1878 to the Constitutional Convention, and to the Senate in 1868-70-76. In 1872, was the unsuccessful nominee of the Democratic party for Treasurer. He married Rebecca, daughter of Paul C. Cameron, Esq.
General George Graham (born 1758—died 1826), was a brother of General Joseph Graham, and the uncle of Governor William A. Graham. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and came with a widowed mother and four others to North Carolina, when only six years of age.
He was educated at Charlotte and was distinguished for his assiduity and noble traits of character. He was devoted to the cause of his country's freedom; in 1775 he with a few others rode all night to reach Salisbury, there seized the Tory lawyers, Dunn and Boothe, and carried them to Camden, South Carolina, where they were imprisoned.
He was, while the British were encamped at Charlotte, active in attacking their foraging parties, and rendered their supplies precarious and hazardous.
He was a Major General of the Militia, often a member of the Legislature, and for a long time Clerk of the Court of Mecklenburg County. He died, March 29, 1826, and lies buried in Charlotte. The marble that covers his grave bears the following:
“Sacred to the memory of MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE GRAHAM, who died March 29, 1826, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.
He lived for more than a half of a century, in the vicinity of this place, and was an active and zealous defender of his country's rights in the Revolutionary War; and one of the gallant twelve, who dared to attack and actually drove 400 British troops at McIntire's, seven miles south of Charlotte on October 3, 1780. George Graham filled many high and responsible public trusts, the duties of which he discharged with fidelity. He was the people's friend, not their flatterer, and universally enjoyed the unlimited confidence of his fellow-citizens.”
GENEALOGY OF THE BREVARD FAMILY.The Brevard family,—this name was distinguished in the Revolutionary War, for its devotion to the cause of liberty. It is of Huguenot
origin. The Edict of Nantz, which granted toleration in religion to France, was repealed in 1685, by Louis XIV, letting loose the bloodhounds of persecution thereby. Thousands fled to America for safety and freedom of conscience. Speaking of one of these refugees (Pierce Bowdoin) in a lecture before the Maine Historical Society at the commencement of Bowdoin College, in 1849, Mr. Robert Winthrop says:
“He was one of that noble set of Huguenots of whom Gaspar de Coligny, the gallant admiral who filled France with the glory of his name, was one of its most devoted disciples, and one of its most lamented martyrs; which race has given to our land, blood every way worthy to be mingled with the best that has ever flowed either in the veins of Southern cavaliers, or Northern puritans. He was of that noble stock that gave three out of the five Presidents to the old ongress of the Confederation; and which gave to South Carolina, her Lawrences, her Marions, her Hugers, and her Marigalts; her Jays to New York; her Boudinots to New Jersey; and her Dexters, and Faneuil, with the cradle of liberty to Massachusetts.”
And he might have added, her Brevards, with the first declaration of independence to North Carolina. Of such stock sprung the Brevards of our State.
The first of this family, of whom much is known, left his native land, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantz (1685) and went to the north part of Ireland where he became intimate with the family of McKnitts.
He is the first to whom the name can now be traced; was a Huguenot, who fled from France in the revocation of the Edict of Nantz in 1685, and settled among the Scotch-Irish in the north of Ireland. He came to Elk river, in Maryland, in company with the family of McKnitts, one of whom he subsequently married—issue, 1. John, 2. Robert, 3. Zebulon, 4. Benjamin, 5. Adam, and 6. Elizabeth.
The three elder brothers with their sister came to North Carolina, between 1740 and 1750.
I. John married a sister of Dr. Alexander McWhorter, from New Jersey, and settled near Center Church in Iredell County,—issue, (a) Mary, (b) Ephraim, (c) John, (d) Hugh, (e) Adam, (f) Alexander, (g) Robert, (h) Benjamin, (i) Nancy, (k) Joseph, (l) Jane, (m) Rebecca.
(a) Mary, Married General William Davidson, who was killed in the Battle at Cowan's Ford, February 1, 1781—issue, William Lee Davidson, who married Betsy, daughter of Major John Davidson (q. v.). Margaret married Rev. Finis Ewing, to whom were born, Hon. Ephraim Brevard Ewing, (Judge of Supreme Court of Missouri—a large connection still living, to which belongs the wife of Senator Francis Marion Cockrell), and George Davidson married — Mushat.
(b) Ephraim, author of “a more formal declaration” than the Davie copy of the original, married a daughter of General Thomas Polk. and is buried beside his wife in Charlotte. He was a graduate of Princeton and a member of the medical profession, issue, Martha married Dickerson of South Carolina—believed to be the same that was killed in a duel by Andrew Jackson, — to whom were born, James P. Dickerson, Lieutenant Colonel, Palmetto Regiment, fell in storming a fort in the attack upon City of Mexico.
(d) Hugh, Legislature from Iredell, 1780-81.
(e) Adam, an attorney at Statesville, married Sally Harper; went with the first troops from North Carolina to Washington's army, where he served a year; afterwards in battle of Ramsour's Mill, &c.—had issue, (1) Rebecca married — McRea, to whom was born Rev. J. M. McRea, now of Salem, Indiana. (2) Sally married John, son of Major John Davidson (q. v.) and father of Matthew, whose son is Hon. R. H. M. Davidson, the Member of Congress from Florida.
(f) Alexander married Rebecca, daughter of Major John Davidson—issue, (1) Eliza married
Wm. Edward Hayne of South Carolina, who had Colonel Isaac Hayne, of Charleston, Attorney General, Commissioner from South Carolina to Washington City, 1861; a daughter, married Judge Butler of South Carolina; a daughter married Martin; and a daughter who married Taylor.
(2) Ephraim.
(3) Franklin married Margaret Conner.
(4) Robert married Harriet Davidson, and to them were born Ephraim Jr. and Alexander F.
(5) Harriet married Major Daniel M. Forney, (see Genealogy of Forney family). To these were born Eloise married to General Jones Withers of Mobile, Alabama; Mariah married Judge — Moore of Alabama; Alexander B.; Harriet; Mason; Susan, wife of Dr. B. C. Jones of Alabama; and Emma, wife of Col. M. Smith of Alabama.
(6) Theodore married Caroline Mays, and to them were born, Theodore Jr., Brigadier General, Confederate States Army, a lawyer at Tallehassee, married Mary, daughter of Governor Call of Florida, and had Caroline and Robert; Ephraim, a surgeon, Confederate States Army; Robert, M. D. married Mary Stoney.
(7) Joseph married — Hopkins of South Carolina, no issue.
(8) Mary married Professor Brumby of South Carolina College, and had Alexander Brevard, Mrs. Russell, Mrs. Glover, Mrs. Dr. Gaston, Haywood Glover, Ephraim, Mrs. — married McConnell.
(i) Nancy married Judge Davidson, and both were killed by Indians at the head of the Catawba river.
(k) Joseph married Rebecca, (daughter of Captain Ely Kershaw, 2d South Carolina Regulars in war of 1776, captured at Charleston, and died, a prisoner at Bermuda in 1781), a Lieutenant of the Continental line, at the age of seventeen, and served until the close of the war of 1776; settled in Camden, South Carolina, Attorney, Judge, and author of Digest of Statute Laws of South Carolina. He had issue: Mrs. Kershaw, to whom were born, J. B. Kershaw, a Major General, Confederate States Army; Attorney, and Judge Superior Court in South Carolina, (now of Camden, South Carolina).
Joseph had also the following children:
(1) Dr. Alfred Brevard, who married the daughter of Duncan McRea, and died in 1836,—issue, Edward; Alfred (C. S. A.), and Harriet McRea, of Camden. Alfred left one daughter, Harriet, also resident of Camden.
(2) Sarah Taylor married Benjamin T. Elmore, brother of United States Senator,—issue, Aurora (wife of Colonel Jones, Treasurer of the University of the South, Suwanee, Tennessee); Sarah F., wife of Charles S. Richardson, son of Governor John P. Richardson of South Carolina; and Edward Brevard Elmore of Alabama; (3) Eugene; (4) Edward; and (5) Joseph).
(l) Jane married Ephraim, a brother of Major John, and son of Robert Davidson of Chestnut Level, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Though only a boy, was courier to General William Davidson, in the Cowan's Ford campaign.
(m) Rebecca married — Jones, and moved to Tennessee.
John Brevard was too far advanced in years, when the Revolutionary War commenced, to be in active service, yet he possessed, and instilled in his children, that great love of liberty and the rights of the people which possessed his soul. So public and notorious was his attachment to the cause of Independence and his opposition to tyranny, that when the British Army came to his house, and they found no one there except his wife, an old lady,—his house and every outhouse was burned to the ground. No other reason was given for such outrage, than that “she had eight sons in the Rebel Army.”
We regret that we have not been enabled to obtain more extended information as to the head of this family. The best efforts we have made have been to secure information and more
accurate genealogical knowledge of date of births, deaths, and services of the different members of this distinguished family. The name has been worthily bestowed one of our loveliest mountain villages, the capital of Transylvania County.
We have from a reliable source, the names of each of the descendants, and have presented them to our readers, and now shall take them up in these sketches, with such information as we have been able to procure.
1. Mary Brevard the oldest daughter of John Brevard, married General William Davidson, born 1746—killed, February 1, 1781, whose name is worthy of the memory and gratitude of every true North Carolinian, for he sealed with his life blood, his devotion to the cause of liberty, and independence.
He was a native of Pennsylvania, born in Lancaster County, and immigrated to North Carolina in 1750.
He was educated at the Academy at Charlotte. When the war of the Revolution began, the Provincial Congress at Halifax on April 22, 1776, placed the State on a war footing, by raising four additional regiments to the two already in the Continental service. Of the 4th, Thomas Polk was made Colonel, and William Davidson, Major; and forming a part of a brigade which marched under command of Brigadier Nash to join the Grand Army of the North under Washington; it was for three years under the eye of that great chief, and participated in the battles of Brandywine, September, 1777, Germantown, October, 1777, and Monmouth, June, 1778.
The North Carolina troops were sent in November, 1779, to reinforce the Southern Army, commanded by Major General Lincoln at Charleston.
There are no particulars recorded of the services of Davidson in the actions of Brandywine, Monmouth, or Germantown, and such has been the carelessness or neglect, as to North Carolina, that the student of history may look in vain, for any statement or notice of the troops of North Carolina, except that General Nash was killed at Germantown, and that Colonels Polk and Buncombe were wounded. But the brigade of North Carolina troops was, unquestionably, a part of the Army, and bravely performed its duty.*
Previous to this event, he had been promoted to the command of a regiment. As he passed through North Carolina, Davidson obtained permission to visit his family, which he had not seen for nearly three years. The delay produced by this visit, saved him from captivity, for on his arrival at Charleston, he found it so closely invested that he was prevented from joining his regiment. Lincoln surrendered May 12, 1770. Davidson returned home and raised troops to suppress the Tories, who, encouraged by the approach of the British, had become daring, desperate and dangerous. At Calson's Mill, he encountered a strong force of Tories, gave them battle and a severe engagement occurred in which Davidson was dangerously wounded by a ball passing entirely through his body; this kept him from the field for two months. On his recovery he immediately went into active service, now promoted to be a Brigadier in place of General Rutherford, who was taken prisoner at Camden. He was active with Sumter and Davie, in checking the advance of the British troops. To that intent he posted his command at Cowan's Ford, on the Catawba. At daybreak, February 1, 1781, the British Army, under Lord Cornwallis, commenced crossing. the picket of General Davidson, challenged the enemy, and receiving no answer, fired.
Lord Cornwallis had his horse killed under him; Colonel Hall was killed, also three privates, and thirty-six wounded. General Davidson, in
* Manuscript letter of Governor Graham, 1823; supplement to Lee's Memoirs; Washington's papers; Letters December, 1779-1780 to Lafayette.riding from the point where he expected the enemy to cross to the place where they did, was fired upon, a rifle ball passed through his heart and he fell dead from his horse. As the British only had muskets, and the Tories rifles, and he was slain by a rifle shot, it is believed he fell by the hand of a Tory.*
General Henry Lee in his “Memoirs of the War,” says:
“The loss of General Davidson would have always been felt at any stage of the war. It was particularly detrimental in its effect at this period, as he was the chief instrument relied upon, by General Greene for assembling of the militia.
“A promising soldier, was lost to his country, in the meridian of life, and at a moment when his services would have been highly beneficial to her. He was a man of popular manners, pleasing address, active and indefatigable.”
The Congress of the United States in 1781, passed a resolution to erect a monument to his memory, but it has never been done. Tradition says that Richard Barry, one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration, and David Wilson bore his body away and buried it by torchlight, in the graveyard of Hopewell church:
“We buried him darkly at dead of night,The sod with our bayonets turning,By the straggling moonbeam's misty light,And our torches dimly burning.”Many of General Davidson's descendants still live in this region, honored and respected. A county embalms his name, and a flourishing institution of learning perpetuates his memory.
II. Dr. Ephraim Brevard was the eldest son of John Brevard. When a boy, he had the misfortune to lose one of his eyes. His education was not neglected, however, and after a course of preparatory studies, he entered Princeton College, New Jersey. He studied medicine, and settled in Charlotte as a practicing physician. Here by the amiability of his manners, his superior qualifications and principles, he acquired friends and influence. The war for independence had commenced, and the blow had been struck at Lexington.
It was clear to all that England thought the colonies had to submit to any measures she thought necessary. The spirit of the people was aroused, and a meeting was called composed of delegates from each captain's district for consultation, to meet at Charlotte. This convention was organized by appointing Abram Alexander as chairman, and John McKnitt Alexander and Dr. Brevard as secretaries, and a committee was appointed who drafted resolutions, one of which declared themselves “free and independent people, and are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association under the control of no power other than that of our God and of the general government of the Congress; to the maintenance of which they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their most sacred honor.”
These resolutions were drawn up by Dr. Brevard, who, with two others, was a committee for that purpose, and they were read and unanimously adopted.
Copy of a manuscript in the handwriting of Adam Brevard, the brother of Dr. Ephraim Brevard, the author of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, from the copy in the possession of Rev. J. M. McRea, of Salem, Indiana:
IREDELL COUNTY, N. C., July 13, 1824.July 4, 1776, a mere speck on the great and fleeting current of time, but from which emanated the most important decision of the combined human intellect—I mean the Declaration of Independence—an era which will grace the historic page, while freedom and liberty, with their concomitant blessings, are the portion of the human race. The inquiring mind spontaneously traces so rich a stream in a retrograde direction in order to reach the fountain from which it issued. What section or particular portion of the United States may claim the greatest, or some minor share in the above celebrated instrument, is immaterial to the following disclosure, which fell under the observation of
* It is said, and the tradition is, that a Tory by the name of Hager, shot General Davidson.the writer, when all the organs of both body and mind were in their free and uncontrolied exercise. I mean the Declaration of Mecklenburg County, of May 19, 1775. A detail of facts with some collateral incidents (observed as above), will rest the matter upon a basis in which the rational mind may justly infer the authenticity and truth of the whole matter.
In the month of either June or July, 1775, being in Salisbury at a court of Oyer, when the late Governor Martin as Judge, a gentleman, a citizen of Mecklenburg County, arrived in town, then on his way to Philadelphia, where Congress was then in session, as delegate or bearer of said Declaration from said county. His identity and business soon transpired, and as Salisbury was then inhabited by a number who were Loyalists or Tories, (to use the then new phrase) and timid Whigs, who had not embarked in the Revolutionary struggle, the bearer, who was a man of spirit, which he fully manifested in the subsequent struggle, was treated by the above persons as the tool of a precipitous and unenlightened mob, who were rushing headlong into an abyss where Congress had not dared to pass. This intemperance was, however, very suddenly arrested by a gentleman from the same county, who had entered with all his powers into the impending contest, and who offered to rest the propriety and justness of the proceedings, both of Mecklenburg and the delegate, upon a decision by the arm of flesh, with any one inclinable to abide the result. Matters were soon hushed and the Delegate retired to rest, and resumed the journey the next morning.
In the autumn of the year 1776, the writer being one of the number who composed the college, or academy of the Queen's Museum, lived with a brother, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, into whose possession the letters, orations, and other exercises (usual in such institutions), were handed over for wrapping paper and other uses in his professional line. My curiosity frequently led me to ransack and examine the several contents for aid and assistance in my own task, when I came across a Declaration of Independence by Mecklenburg County. Upon requiring an explanation from the Doctor, he informed me that it was the mass, or rudiments out of which he had, some time before drawn the aforesaid instrument, which had been dispatched to Congress, as before noticed. The whole of the above proceedings then opened to view.
Being in Philadelphia in the latter part of the year 1778, and of the year 1779, till May, during that space Mr. William Sharpe, then of Rowan County, North Carolina State, arrived in that city a delegate from the aforesaid State. The officers and soldiers of the States then generally, and of North Carolina in particular, were extremely straitened, and some almost, (I might safely say altogether) beggared by the depreciation of their pay. The writer took every proper opportunity within his sphere of mixing in these occasional and — (manuscript has here become illegible) companies, when their mutual wants, complaints, privations—their several situations, forsaken and desolate for love of country, for which nakedness and starvation were like to be their final reward.
Amongst a variety of topics the Declaration of Independence became a subject of remark; the company was large, composed of a number of the higher officers and members of Congress. Amongst the former was, particularly, General Charles Lee—recently plunged into disgrace for misconduct at the battle of Monmouth, and Tom Payne, you may say infidel Tom Payne, if you please,—but to come to the point:
The Declaration of Independence of Mecklenburg County in the State of North Carolina, somehow floated into notice. In a variety of remarks and observations, which were promiscuously thrown out, Mr. Penn of North Carolina, and some others, (whose names cannot now be recollected), declared themselves highly pleased with the bold and dignified spirit which so enlightened a county of the State he had the honor to represent, had exhibited to the world and furthermore that the bearer of the instrument had conducted himself very judiciously on the occasion by previously opening his business to the delegate of his own State, who assured him that a very short lapse of time would bring all the provinces, or new States into the same situation as Mecklenburg county.
Dr. Ephraim Brevard was born in Maryland, in the year 1744, was brought to North Carolina in 1746 or 1750, and was sent with his cousin Adlai Osborne on the conclusion of the Indian War in 1760 or 1761 to Prince Edward in Virginia, to a grammar school under a certain William Cupples.
Adlai Osborne, Ephraim Brevard, and Thomas Polk, went to Princeton College in 1766. Ephraim Brevard and Thomas Reese taught a school for some time in Maryland, which enabled him (Ephraim Brevard) to put himself under Dr. Ramsey, to qualify himself as a physician. They lived for some time in Philadelphia,
then moved to Somerset County, Maryland.
Dr. Ramsey was invited to Charleston, South Carolina, and Dr. Brevard practiced in Charlotte, as before hinted; then married, lost his wife, entered the Southern Army, and was captured in the fall of Charleston, and I believe there caught a disease which baffled all the skill of medicine, as I, myself, heard Dr. Reid, the Physician General to the Southern Army, declare, as I rode with him from Charlotte to John McKnitt Alexander's, where Dr. Brevard expired. He was buried in Charlotte beside his wife.” See Southern Home, of July 5, 1875, furnished by Dr. J. M. Davidson, of Quincy, Florida.
A more extended notice of this immortal paper will be presented under the head of Mecklenburg County.
Dr. Brevard served in the army as Surgeon, and was taken prisoner at the surrender of Charleston, May 12, 1780. From confinement and unwholesome diet he was taken so seriously ill that he was permitted to return home. He proceeded as far as the house of John McKnitt Alexander, his friend and compatriot. It was there he breathed his last, in 1781, but he lies buried by his wife in the lot now occupied by A. Brevard Davidson, in Charlotte. On this same lot was located the “Queen's Museum,” before the Revolution, its name was changed to “Liberty Hall.”
In the words of Dr. Foote in his admirable Sketches of North Carolina, “he thought clearly, wrote well, fought bravely, and died a martyr to that liberty which none loved better, and few understood so well.”
He left only one child, a daughter, who married Mr. Dickerson of South Carolina, whose son, Colonel James P. Dickerson, was Lieutenant Colonel of the South Carolina Regiment in the Mexican War, and fell in battle near the City of Mexico.
We have seen that John Brevard's other children were:
III. John, who served as Lieutenant in the Revolutionary War.
IV. Hugh, also an officer and in battle of Ramsour's Mill.
V. Adam was a blacksmith, served one year in the army and afterward became distinguished as a lawyer, wit, and writer.
VI. Alexander Brevard entered the army of the Revolution as cadet, was promoted to captaincy in the Continental Army and engaged in the battles of White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Monmouth and Germantown. The severity of this service, broke down his health, and he was sent into the country for its restoration. After a short absence he reported in person to General Washington, who seeing his delicate figure, reduced by suffering and war, remarked to him that he was unfit for duty in the service and advised him to return home.
He did so and his native climate soon improved his health, he then joined the Southern army under General Gates, by whom he was assigned to the duties of Quartermaster in his command, and as such served in the battle of Camden. After Gates’ defeat, and General Greene had succeeded to the command of the Southern army, Brevard saw much active service before the close of the war. In the hard-fought battle of Eutaw, (the hardest in the South), he behaved with great gallantry.
The war being ended, he returned home and entered into the iron business with his father-in-law, Major John Davidson, and General Graham, who also had married a daughter of Davidson. This business he continued until his death, November 1, 1829.
He left seven children. Among them were Ephraim, an extensive iron manufacturer; J. Franklin, in Legislature from Lincoln (1818); Robert, an iron manufacturer; Alexander Joseph M., in Legislature (1827); Theodore, moved to Alabama, there elected Judge, moved to Florida afterwards; Harriet, married to Daniel M. Forney; Mary, and others.
VII. Joseph, the youngest son of John Brevard, held the commission of Lieutenant in the Continental Army when only seventeen years old. He was, as many of the family now are,
delicate and small. A brother, Alexander, said that he was “always sorry when Joe had to go on guard duty, for he was so small.” He was detailed by the commanding officer at Philadelphia as his Secretary, and continued until he was appointed a Lieutenant of Cavalry in the Southern army, in which he served until the close of the war. He then studied law and settled in Camden, South Carolina. Here he attained distinction in the profession and was elected Judge of the Superior Courts. He wrote a Digest of the Laws of South Carolina, and several volumes of Reports. He was elected a member of Congress from his district 1819 to 1821, and died in Camden, South Carolina.
The Forney family were among the early settlers of Lincoln county. The founder was Jacob Forney, sen., who was (born 1721, died 1804) the son of a French Huguenot; he fled from France on the revocation of the Edict of Nantz, and settled at Alsace on the Rhine. At the age of fourteen he came to Amsterdam, thence to America; settled first in Pennsylvania, and in 1754 he moved to Lincoln county, North Carolina. In the first years spent in this settlement he was greatly harrassed by the Indians. When the English were in pursuit of Morgan, their progress was impeded by the high waters of the Catawba. Lord Cornwallis made his headquarters in Forney's comfortable house for three days, consuming his entire stock of cattle, hogs, poultry, &c. The early records of the county exhibit the following: “Ordered by the Court that Jacob Forney and his two sons pay no taxes for 1780.” He was too old to do much service in the Revolution, but his sons, James, Peter and Abram, did their duty as unwavering Whigs. He died in 1804, near the place where he first settled in Lincoln county.
Peter Forney, (born April, 1756, died February, 1834), was the second son of Jacob Forney, sen. He was born in Lincoln county. During the war of the Revolution his services were cheerfully rendered in defense of his country. Afterward he devoted his attention to the manufacture of iron, then a new and lucrative employment. In it his industry, prudence and sagacity soon made him prosperous, and he acquired fortune and comfort. His home was the resort of many who always found it “Mount Welcome,” as it was appropriately named. There rich and poor were alike cared for. His unstinted hospitality and genial manners, as well as the high and honorable conduct which marked all his dealings with his fellow men, rendered him the object of their regard, and even affection. He was elected in 1794 to the House, and in 1801-’02 to the Senate of the State Legislature, and (in 1813 to 1815) a member of Congress. He served also as Elector on the Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson tickets. With these repeated evidences of the partiality of his friends, and with the weight of three score and ten years pressing upon him, he declined all further public service. After a short illness, without pain or suffering, he quietly departed this life February 1st, 1834.
He married on March 4, 1783, Nancy Abernathy, by which union he had twelve children:
I. Mary, married Christian Reindhart.
II. David M. married Harriet Brevard.
III. Jacob, married Sarah Hoke, from whom sprung; (1) David Peter, born 1819; (2) Joseph B., born 1821; (3) William H., born 1823; educated at University, an officer in Mexican War, lawyer, member of Legislature, General in Civil War, elected to the 44th Congress; (4) Barbara Ann, born 1826, married Rowan; (5) Emma, born in 1832, married Rev. Thomas A. Morris; (6) John H., born 1829, West Point; (7) George H., born 1835, killed in battle of Wilderness; (8) Amelia, married J. M. Wylie; (9) Maria Louisa, married Williams.
IV. Eliza, married first, Webb, and afterward, Dr. John Meek, of Alabama.
V. Susan, married Bartlett Shipp, from whom sprung: (1) William, M. (Judge of Superior Court,) married (1) Cameron, (2) Iredell, Legislature, Senator from Henderson 1862;) (2) Eliza, married
W. P. Bynum, Judge of Supreme Court; (3) Susan, married S. L. Johnson.
VI. Lavinia, married first John Fulenwider.
VII. Nancy, married Dr. Wm. Johnson, from whom sprung: (1) Ann, married Dr. Calloway; (2) Martha, married Huntly; (3) James Franklin; (4) Robert; (5) William; (6) Joseph, married Hooker; (7) Susan; (8) Mary; (9) Bartlett S., of Baltimore.
VIII. Caroline, married Ransom H. Hunley.
IX. Sophia, married Dr. C. L. Hunter, whose daughter married John H. Sharp, of Norfolk, Va.
X. James M., married Sarah Fulenwider.
A son, Moses, the third child, died unmarried, in Alabama; whilst the fifth child, Joseph, died in youth. They should have been included in the aforegoing.—ED.
Daniel M. Forney (born 1771, died 1847) was a native of Lincoln county, the first son and the second child of General Peter Forney, whose sketch we have just given. His education was such as the country schools afforded, but clear and excellent judgment, and his genial manners, early marked him for public usefulness. He was in the prime of manhood when the War of 1812 commenced, and he was appointed Major in the United States Army. He served in that capacity until the war closed, with gallantry and credit. He was elected a member of (the 14th) Congress 1815-’17, and re-elected to the 15th, but resigned and was succeeded by Hon. William Davidson, of Charlotte. From 1823 to ’26 he was elected to the Senate of the State Legislature. He removed in 1834 to Alabama, where he spent his remaining days at his adopted home in Lowndes county. He died in October, 1847.
Major Forney married Harriet, daughter of Captain Alexander Brevard, by whom he had several children.
Abram Forney (born 1758, died 1849) was the youngest son of Jacob Forney, sen., and a native of Lincoln county. He entered the Revolutionary army early, and was engaged in the battles of Ramsour's Mill, King's Mountain and elsewhere. He lived to a good old age and delighted to talk of the spirit-stirring events of the war. He was the father of Captain Earheart Forney, now of Lincoln.
Michael Hoke (born 1810, died 1844) was a native of this county, the son of Colonel John Hoke. He was educated at Captain Partridge's Military Academy, Middletown, Connecticut, and read law with Robert H. Benton. He was blessed with an agreeable person, brilliant oratorical ability, and attractive manners. This won him “troops of friends.” In 1834 he was elected a member of the House of Commons, which position he held until 1842, when he declined a re-election. In 1844 he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for Governor, in opposition to Hon. William A. Graham, but, after a campaign conducted with great ability, he was defeated. It was a contest long to be remembered in North Carolina. The dignified and majestic presence of Graham was formidably rivalled by the matchless manner and ready humor of Hoke. It was a war of giants. The exposure to the malaria of the low country, and his continued and earnest efforts, cost Colonel Hoke his life. For within a month after the election, to the great grief of sorrowing friends, he died at Charlotte on September 9th, 1844, after a short illness, certainly brought on by the exposure and fatigues of the campaign. He married Francis, daughter of Robert H. Burton, and left several children, among them, General Robert Frederick Hoke, born 27th of May, 1837, who was educated at the Kentucky Military Institute. He entered the army in the late Civil War as a Lieutenant, and was engaged in the first battle of the war, which occurred at Bethel, and he was also in the last contest. He won by his firmness, ability and gallantry, the rank of Major General, and was several times severely wounded. To record all the “hair-breadth ’scapes,” and the services of General Hoke would be to well nigh write the history of the Army of North Virginia.
John Franklin Hoke, son of Colonel John Hoke, and the brother of Colonel Michael Hoke, is a native of this county. He is liberally educated—a graduate of the University in 1841, in the same class with Thomas L. Avery, R. S. Bridgers, Robert Burton, W. J. Clarke, William F. Dancy, John W. Ellis, Montford McGehee, Charles and Samuel F. Phillips, Thomas Ruffin, Robert Strange, Horatio M. Polk and others. He studied law. In the Mexican War he was appointed by the President a Captain, and commanded his company with much gallantry in the severely contested battles of Cerro Gordo, Tolema and National Bridge.
In the late Civil War he commanded a regiment of North Carolina troops, and discharged every duty with gallantry and fidelity. He is one of the few field officers in that unhappy contest from North Carolina who passed unscathed. He is now in the quiet practice of his profession at his native place.
Dr. William McLean was a Surgeon in the Revolution. He was a native of Rowan county; born April 2d, 1757, and was educated at Liberty Hall College in Charlotte. He studied medicine under Dr. Joseph Blythe; was appointed a Surgeon's Mate in the First North Carolina Regiment on January 1, 1782, commanded by Colonel Archibald Lytle, and served in Charleston, James Island and elsewhere, to the close of the war.
He then settled on his farm in “the South Point” neighborhood, and engaged in an extensive practice, in which he was eminently successful.
In 1814 he was elected Senator from Lincoln, and in 1815 he delivered an address at King's Mountain commemorative of the battle, and caused to be erected, at his own expense, a head stone of dark slate rock, with appropriate inscriptions on both sides. On the east side the inscription is, “Sacred to the Memory of Major William Chronicle, Captain John Mattocks, William Robb and John Boyd, who were killed here on the 7th of October, 1780, fighting in defence of America.” And on the west side is inscribed: “Colonel Ferguson, an officer belonging to His Brittanic Majesty's service, was here defeated and killed.”
On the 19th of June, 1792, he married Mary, daughter of Major John Davidson, and died in Lincoln, October 25, 1828, leaving several children, among them Dr. William B., John D. and Robert G. McLean.
James Houston (born 1747, died 1819) resided and died in this county. He was born in 1747, and was the early and devoted friend of his country's liberty; he took an active part in the cause. In the battle of Ramsour's Mill, near the present town of Lincolnton, between the Whigs and Tories, he took an active part, and by his undaunted courage contributed to the success of the Whigs on that occasion. In this engagement he was severely wounded in the thigh, from the effects which he never recovered. Seeing the man who inflicted this painful wound, he shot him in the back, and killed him as he ran. A copy of the muster roll of Captain Houston's company is preserved. (See Dr. C. L. Hunter's Sketches of Western N. C. 197.)
He was the father of a large family, distinguished for their manly appearance and bodily strength. Dr. Joel Brevard Houston was one of his sons. Captain Houston died on August 3, 1819, and was buried in Center Church-yard.
Dr. C. L. Hunter, who has already been noticed in the sketch of his father, Rev. Humphrey Hunter (see page 176), resided in this neighborhood.
In the holocaust offered on the altar of Southern rights, during the late unhappy Civil War, there was no purer or devoted oblation than that patriotic son of North Carolina. Stephen Dodson Ramseur (born May 31, 1837, fell in battle October 19, 1864). He was the son of Jacob A. and Lucy M. Ramseur, and was educated at the Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1860. He was commissioned as
Second Lieutenant of Artillery, and was stationed at Fortress Monroe. When the war between the States commenced, he felt it was his sasacred duty to stand by his State; he therefore resigned his commission in the United States Army, and tendered his services to the newly formed government at Montgomery, Alabama, by which he was appointed First Lieutenant of Artillery, and ordered to the Mississippi. While on his way to his post, he received a telegram announcing his election to command the “Ellis Light Artillery” then being formed at Raleigh. He repaired in haste to this new duty, and in a very short time secured the necessary complement of men, guns, horses and other equipments. After drilling and practicing his battery in the summer of 1861, he proceeded to join the army in Virginia. He was stationed near Southfield, on the south side of the James River, where he spent the fall and winter. This battery was composed of the flower of the youth and manhood of the State, and by its excellence in evolutions and perfection in drills, was the cynosure of attention and gained for its youthful commander the encomiums of all reviewing generals. In the spring, when Richmond was menaced by McClellan, Captain Ramseur was ordered to report to General Magruder at Yorktown. Before any serious fighting on the Peninsula occurred, Captain Ramseur was promoted to the command of the 49th Regiment of North Carolina Infantry. This regiment was composed of raw troops, but by the exertions of its practiced commander, it was soon prepared for the front. It received its “first baptism of fire” in the skirmishes which preceded the terrible battles around Richmond. Encouraged and inspired by the fearless intrepidity of its commander, it participated with gallantry in the seven days’ battles. In the last of these, at Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862, while leading a victorious charge, Colonel Ramseur was wounded in the right arm above the elbow, so severely that some time elapsed before he was able to reach his home. While at home he was given a Brigadier's commission, and in October, 1862, although far from recovered from his wound, he repaired to Richmond and explained to President Davis the reluctance he felt in accepting the exalted rank offered him. Its acceptance was urged, and he was advised to return home until health was restored. General Ramseur, instead of returning home, sought out the army and assumed the command of his brigade, which had been left without a General since the death of General George B. Anderson. This brigade was composed of the Second, Fourth, Fourteenth and Thirtieth Regiments of North Carolina troops, and, although General Ramseur was a stranger from another branch of the service, and succeeded an officer of great ability, well skilled in the art of war, commanding the confidence and affections of his men—yet he disarmed all criticism by his high professional attainments and his amiability of character, inspiring his men by his own enthusiastic temper with those lofty qualities which distinguish the soldier. The brigade was attached to Jackson's corps, and at the battle of Chancellorsville (May 3, 1863), while leading a charge, General Ramseur was again wounded by the explosion of a shell. This second wound did not take him from the field. He continued with his brigade through the Pennsylvania campaign, and in the battle of Gettysburg (July, 1863), he led it with distinguished courage. On the return of the army from Pennsylvania, there seemed to be a lull in the terrible din of war, and the division was preparing to go into winter quarters, near Orange Court House, when he obtained a leave of absence, and on October 27, 1863, he was married to Ellen F. Richmond, of Milton, North Carolina. After spending some time at home, he again repaired to his command. The next general engagement in which he bore a part was at the Wilderness (fought from 5th to 12th of May, 1864), and Spotsylvania Court House (10th to 12th of May), in which his brigade behaved
with such desperate courage as to win the unstinted applause of the whole army. In the latter battle General Ramsour was again wounded in his disabled arm, and had three horses shot under him; still he never left the field, but continued to lead his brigade in the charge. He was complimented on the field by Generals Ewell and A. P. Hill, and thanked by General Lee. The next month he was promoted to a Major General's rank, and assigned to the division formerly commanded by General Early. Early's corps, composed of Gordon, Rhodes and Ramseur's divisions, was detached from Lee and sent to repel Hunter, who was threatening Lynchburg. Early reached Lynchburg in time to save the city, and after the repulse of Hunter, marched for the third time into Maryland. No serious fighting occurred until the army reached Monocacy Bridge, where (June 9th) Ramseur and Gordon defeated General Wallace. The Army of the Valley then marched within five miles of Washington (July, 1864), and but for timely reinforcements the Capital would have been captured. General Early, in “The Southern Magazine,” Baltimore, has given a full account of the condition and consternation of the Federal Capital at that time.
The addition to the Federal forces caused Early to hold a consultation with Generals Breckenridge, Gordon, Ramseur and Rhodes, and a retreat was ordered to the lower Valley of Virginia. At the battle of Winchester (September 19, 1864), General Ramseur sustained the brunt of battle from daylight until 9 or 10 o'clock, when the other divisions came to his relief. In this fierce combat the gallant Rhodes was killed. General Ramseur was transferred from Early's old division to the division left without a Major General by the fall of Rhodes. He commanded this but one month, when he too met the death of a gallant soldier at the battle of Cedar Creek, on the 19th of October, 1864.
In his report of this battle, General Early states:
“Major General Ramseur fell into the hands of the enemy mortally wounded, and in him not only my command, but the country, suffered [illegible text] heavy loss. He was a most gallant and energetic officer, whom no disaster appalled, but his courage and energy seemed to gain new strength in the midst of confusion and disorder. He fell at his post, like a lion at bay, and his native State has reason to be proud of his memory.”*
James Pinckney Henderson (born in 1808, and died 1858), the son of Major Lawson Henderson, was born, raised, and educated in Lincoln county, in the town of Lincolnton, He studied law and was admitted to practice, about 1829. At this time, his health was prostrated by a severe hemorrhage from the lungs; he sought the mild climate of Cuba for relief, where he spent the winters of 1833-34. He returned, much improved; and, in hopes of effecting a full restoration of health and the improvement of his fortunes, he moved in 1835, to Mississippi. Here he remained until the Texas troubles commenced, and in common with Houston, Lamar, and other brave spirits, he drew his sword in the service of the “Lone Star,” republic, and spent the remainder of his life under her flag.
For more than twenty years of his life, he was spared to participate in the stirring events of that eventful period. His brilliant career as her Attorney General, her Secretary of State, and her first Governor; Major General of her forces in the Mexican War, (distinguished at Monterey); her Minister Plenipotentiary to France and England, and finally her Senator in the Congress of the United States, all now has become historical. These rapid strides of success are due to his high sense of honor, his integrity of character, his indomitable energy, and to his deep knowledge of men and events.
He fell a victim to consumption, so fatal to his family, and died while a member of the
* See Land we Love, May, 1868.United States Senate, at Washington City, on June 4, 1858, leaving a widow (nee Frances Cox, daughter of John Cox of Philadelphia) and three children to mourn his loss.
Bartlett Shipp (born March 8, 1786—died May 26, 1869) resided and died in this county. He was the son of Thomas Shipp, who immigrated from Virginia and settled on Dan River near Danbury, where his son Bartlett was born—whose mother was a Joyce.
The early education of Mr. Shipp was defective and acquired by his own exertions. However, from an inquiring mind and a literary taste, he mastered the English, and acquired a fair knowledge of the classics. In his early days he taught school, which tended to fix this rudimental education. He realized the truism of the Latin philosopher, “disco docendo.”
Enterprising and patriotic, when the war between England and the United States began, he enlisted as a volunteer in 1812, and marched with a company from Stokes county.
After his service ended he returned and studied law, under Joseph Wilson, one of the most brilliant and successful advocates of the day. After obtaining his license, he settled in Wilkes county. In 1818, he removed to Lincoln county, where he married Susan, daughter of Peter Forney, and where he resided for the balance of his life. As a lawyer, he was remarkable for his strong common sense, his familiarity with the elementary principles of his profession, his stern advocacy of justice, and unspotted integrity.
He grasped with intuitive perception the strong points of a case, and used them in argument with great ability and yet perfect frankness and sincerity. These qualities made him popular with his associates. But he was quite as fond of the allurements of politics as the pursuit of his profession. He was often a member of the Legislature (1824-26-28-29-30). He was possessed of strong convictions, and was not very choice of terms in which he expressed them. But no one had less vindictive feelings or was more honorable or generous towards those who differed in opinion from him.
To his friends, whose merits he recognized and whose sincerity he had tested, his attachment was strong, no matter to what party they belonged. Yet in the convictions of policy, he was consistent, firm, and unyielding.
His last public service was as a member of the Convention of 1835; the ablest body of men that ever assembled in the State; which body amended our Constitution. Here his experience and sagacity were universally conceded.
He died at Lincolnton, on May 16, 1869, in the eighty-fourth year of his age; respected and loved by all who knew him. (Dr. Hunter's Sketches, 275).
He left, by his marriage with Miss Forney:
I. William M. Shipp, graduated at University 1840, Judge of Superior Court, 1863, who now resides in Charlotte; one of whose sons is now a Cadet at West Point.
II. Eliza married William Preston Bynum, late one of the Judges of the Supreme Court.
III. Susan married Johnson.
Robert H. Burton (born 1781—died 1842) son of Colonel Robert Burton of Granville county, was long an honored citizen of Lincoln county; educated at the University and studied law. He applied himself with such assiduity and fidelity, that he soon rose to the front rank of the profession, and in 1818, was appointed one of the Judges of the Superior Courts of Law, which, after riding one circuit, he resigned. In 1830, he was elected Treasurer of the State, which he also declined. He was much respected as a sincere Christian, an able counsellor, and an honest man. He died in 1842, leaving a numerous family to mourn his loss, and emulate his example.
David Schenck, one of the Judges of the Superior Courts of the State, is a native of Lincoln.
The Schenck family is of Swiss extraction. In 1708, Henry, John, and Michael Schenck, who were Mennonites, where driven out of Switzerland by religious persecution, and being invited by William Penn, they with a number of other colonists, emigrated to the vicinity of what is now Lancaster City, Pennsylvania.
In 1729, these colonists were naturalized by a special act of Parliament on account of “their industry and their peaceable and religious conduct.”
Michael Schenck who sprung from one of these three brothers, was born February 28, 1737, and Michael Schenck, his son, was born near Lancaster, February 15, 1771. He immigrated to North Carolina about the year 1795. He was married, May 11, 1801, to Barbara, daughter of Daniel Warlick, who was killed in a fight with the Indians, on the Ohio frontier.
In the year 1815, Michael Schenck erected a Cotton Factory on Mill branch, two miles east of Lincolnton.
We were shown two spindles which were used in this, perhaps, the first cotton factory erected south of the Potomac river.
It was rather a rude structure, compared with our modern machinery. The whole consisting of only seventy-five spindles, the iron shafts of which were made in a blacksmith shop, by David Warlick, who was a superior workman in his day; and the spools and other wood work were made by Michael Beam, a neighbor of Warlick. The house containing the machinery, was a simple log structure twenty-five feet square.
The spinning was done by means, of what machinists call a mule—the thread being drawn out horizontally and then wound on broaches. It was then reeled, and sold as fast as it could be manufactured at fifty cents per pound in specie.
This factory was erected and put in operation by Michael Schenck, who had emigrated to this county from Pennsylvania. It was placed on Mill branch two miles east of Lincolnton, and the first yarn was made in the year 1815.
This proved profitable enough to justify Mr. Michael Schenck in sending to Providence, Rhode Island, for more improved machinery, which was put in operation on the same site in 1818. This, in its turn, was laid aside, and Mr. Schenck, in copartnership with the late Colonel John Hoke, Sr., of Lincolnton, and Dr. Bivings, erected the large factory, on the south fork of the Catawba, two miles south of Lincolnton, but this was burned in 1863.
His son, Dr. David Warlick Schenck, son of Michael, was born at Lincolnton, February 3, 1809, and was educated at the Academy of that town. He studied medicine with Dr. James Bivings, and afterwards attended lectures at Jefferson College, in Philadelphia. He married Susan Rebecca Bevens, daughter of Simeon and Eliza Bevens, November 8, 1882, by whom he left two children, Barbara and David. He was eminent as a surgeon and one of the best read men in the State. He died at Lincolnton, December 26, 1861, a very encyclopedia of information.
His son, David Schenck, the subject of this sketch, was born at Lincolnton. March 24, 1835, and was educated at the Academy, principally by Silas C. Lindslay, an eminent teacher of that day.
He read law two years with Haywood W. Guion and obtained his County Court license in June, 1856. He then went to Judge Pearson's Law School, at Richmond Hill, till June, 1857, where he obtained his Superior Court license, and settled immediately in Dallas, Gaston county, North Carolina. He was elected County Solicitor, and enjoyed a lucrative practice at once.
On August 25, 1859, he married Sally Wilfong Ramseur, daughter of Jacob A. and Lucy D. Ramseur, and sister of Major General S. D. Ramseur.
In November, 1860, he returned to Lincolnton, his native place, and in 1861, on the election
of Hon. Wm. Lander to the Confederate Congress, he was elected to the State Convention to fill his place.
This was the only political office he ever held and he always refused to hold any other.
He practiced his profession in competition with such lawyers as William Lander, W. P. Bynum, Haywood Guion, and J. F. Hoke, and received his full share of business.
In 1874, he received the Democratic nomination for Judge of the Ninth Judicial District, and was elected by a majority of 2,100, nearly double the former Democratic majority. His term expired in 1882. He has a large family, and like “old Chuckey,” he is “spreading himself” to take care of them.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.MACON COUNTY.
James Lowrie Robinson was born in Franklin, Macon county, September 17, 1838. His father, James Robinson, came to North Carolina, from Tennessee, was a merchant of note and character, and died in the village that was the birth place of his son, June, 1843. His early training was only what the common schools of his county and the village Academy afforded; and a year at Emory & Henry College, was added to his education by his own hard-earned wages and the kind assistance of a friend and relative.
When armed men sprang up in every hamlet of North Carolina, at the call of her authorities, he volunteered as a private foot soldier in Company H, 16th North Carolina troops, and became Quarter-master Sergeant in the same regiment. At the re-organization he was elected Captain of the Company of which he was a member and its triumphs became a part of his history. Wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, he led his men over the fields of Manassas, when it was baptized with blood a second time. Participating in the engagement at Chantilly Farm, he was present at the terrible struggle that decided the Maryland campaign at Sharpsburg.
When he had laid aside his sword and returned to peaceful vocations, his people recognized in him the deliberate courage and solid qualities of mind that are valuable in civil employments, and chose him to be their Commoner in 1868. He was returned without opposition in 1870. No mark of confidence could have bestowed greater honor upon him. He had been one of a bold and true minority that had withstood the seductions of a reckless and extravagant administration, and had rendered success for the Democracy possible. When chosen a representative in 1872, he was almost by common consent, elevated to the highest honor of the body of which he was a member, and when the Speaker's gavel was again tendered him in 1874, it came as a palm of merit that he had no right to put aside.
The retribution in the history of North Carolina came in 1876. The ruined places were restored. The counties, bearing names conspicuously North Carolinian, and composing his Senatorial District, called him to serve them in the Upper
Chamber of the State's councils. He came without opposition, and was chosen President of that distinguished body. Long experience and great familiarity with the duties of a presiding officer over a deliberative body, made it eminently fit that he be chosen to fill this high position. His conduct of the business of the Senate, from the assembling of the Legislature until the promotion of Lieutenant Governor Jarvis added to his growing reputation as a legislator and parlimentarian. No man ever had more loyal constituents and no people ever had a more faithful servant. His Senatorial services were endorsed by a re-election unsought and to which no opposition was offered.
His elevation to the second place in the State, is a natural result of unselfish services done his people, of devotion to the tenets of his political profession, and of the determination of North Carolinians to call to command, men who have been faithful in the ranks. In the flush of a strong manhood, under his honors and delicate duties, he will be found modest and simple, a worthy Lieutenant stands ready to command.
Silas McDowell is placed among the “Living Writers of the South,” as possessing energy and an original Franklin like genius, eminently worthy of consideration. He has long resided in Macon county, although a native of York District, South Carolina, when he was born, in 1795. His education was scanty; he was for three sessions a student at the Newton Academy at Asheville, working morning and evening and on Saturdays, to pay his board.
At an early age, he was apprenticed to the trade of a tailor, in Charleston, South Carolina, and after his time had expired he worked for ten years at his craft in Morganton, and four years at Asheville, where he married the niece of Governor Swain.
In 1830, moved to Macon county. For sixteen years he was Clerk of the Superior Court of Macon County, and for five years Clerk and Master in Equity. He was always a hard student, especially in practical mineralogy, geology, and botany, not so much from books as from the great volume of nature that this wild and unexplored county presented to his inquiring mind. When asked by a learned professor, who was struck with his original and correct views of science, recently, “at what college he had graduated?” he pointed to the broad and bold mountains around his homestead: “These wild mountains are the only college at which my name has ever been entered as a student!” Like the great poet of nature, he did not need the spectacles of books to read the great history of nature.
Mr. McDowell has a pleasingly happy faculty of describing scenery, the lofty cloud-capped mountains, the weird craggs with their nestling valleys. These first brought him before the public, and his sketch “Above the Clouds,” was extensively copied in the papers of the day(1829). This called for others, and they came. His pen pictures of the Table Rock, Casar's Head, Hawkbill Peak, Hickory Nut Gap, and other sketches, have attracted thousands to visit the wild and weird scenery in this region of enchantment.
The most prominent work of his pen, is his “Theory of the Thermal Zone,” which has attracted so much attention and has been published in the Agricultural Reports of the United States. The utility of this discovery is this: when mountains enclose a valley, the thermal belt or no frost stratum does not lie more than two hundred and fifty feet above the level of the valley. This is the true home of the grape, as it is a warm and dry atmosphere that fully develops all those luscious qualities, without any danger of frosts killing the young germs.
An enthusiastic admirer of scenery, here will find ample subject, while the health-inspiring climate, so genial and salubrious, ever renders existence a luxury.
Mr. McDowell died at his home in Macon county, on July 14, 1879.
CHAPTER XXXIX.MARTIN COUNTY.
Whitmill Hill lived and died in this county. For sketch of whom, see Bertie county.
Asa Biggs (born 1811—died 1878) was born, reared and lived for a long time, in Martin county. He was born on February 4, 1811. After receiving a classical education, he studied law, and was licensed in 1831. His first appearance in the political theatre, in which he was destined to perform a prominent part, was as a member of the Convention, to amend the Constitution, in 1835, the first convention called since the adoption of the Constitution in 1767. This was an admirable school for a young man, just then twenty-four years old, and taking his first lessons in political knowledge; for the master minds of the State, as Macon, Gaston, Branch, Daniel Outlaw, Carson, Spaight, Gilliam Morehead, Rayner, Meares and others, were members of that illustrious body. How well he improved this opportunity, his subsequent success in political life fully demonstrated.
In 1840, was the “log cabin campaign,” when overwhelming adversity befel his (the Democratic) party. Mr. Biggs, however, survived this disaster and was elected a member of the Legislature; He evinced such sagacity and foresight that gave him prominence and influence. He proposed (adverse to the views of the Democratic party) that wise measure of internal improvement of constructing a railroad from the mountains to Beaufort Harbor, at the expense of the State, requiring all branches to be built by individual enterprise. Had his views been adopted, our railroad system would not have presented the conflict of interest, or confusion of routes, all tending to swell the importance of the commerce of other States only to our detriment. He was re-elected in 1842, to the House, and in 1844 a member of the State Senate. He was elected a member of the 29th Congress, 1845-47, succeeding Hon. Kenneth Rayner, and defeating Hon. David Outlaw, who in turn defeated him for the next Congress (1847-49).
He was appointed one of a Commission (with B. F. Moore, and R. M. Saunders) to revise the Laws of the State, which work is a monument of his patience, ability, and legal knowledge.
For the second time, Mr. Biggs was returned to the Legislature (1854) a member of the Senate. He was, unquestionably the leader of the Democratic party in the Legislature. He opposed the proposition of the Whig party, led by Governor Graham, to call a Constitutional Convention, by a majority of the Legislature. Although this measure was supported by the prestige and power of the ablest men of the Whig party, such was the force of the arguments and the power of the speeches of Mr. Biggs, that the measure was defeated.
By this Legislature, he was elected a member of the United States Senate; here he served with credit to himself and satisfaction to his State, until he resigned in 1858, to accept the position of United States District Judge, made vacant by the death of Judge Potter. He was succeeded in the Senate by Hon. Thomas L. Clingman. For the place of Judge, he was well suited, by his unsullied integrity, his patient research, and extensive acquirements. But the war came on,
the State seceded, and he resigned the United States Judgeship, and accepted a similar position under the new (Confederate) Government, which he held until the close of the war.
During the troubled times of the war, he was a refugee, with his family, to Tarboro. As soon as hostilities ceased he returned to his profession, which he pursued with success, until 1869. Having been one of the signers of the protest, by the Bar against the partisan conduct of Members of our Supreme Court, in the Presidential campaign of 1868, and feeling outraged at the oppression of the Court in disbarring the signers, he removed to Norfolk and became a partner in the house of Kedar Biggs & Co.
In 1870, he formed a law partnership with Hon. Wm. N. H. Smith, and continued in the practice with Judge Smith until the removal of the latter to Raleigh. In the Counting House, Judge Biggs evinced the same sagacity and probity, combined with labor, caution, and endurance for work, as he showed in the other walks of life, and stood as high in this new field of labor, as he had at the Bar or in the Senate Chamber. He was an active and useful Member of the Board of Trade of Norfolk, and esteemed for his enterprise and public spirit. While attending to his mercantile duties at his counting house, on March 6, 1878, he was struck with a disease of the heart, carried home and in spite of all the skill of science and the kindness of affection, he suddenly expired.
Judge Biggs left a wife and six children, three sons, and three daughters, to mourn their loss. The eldest of his sons, Captain William Biggs, is the editor of the Oxford Lance.
Judge Biggs was a fair sample of a North Carolina gentleman, solid rather than showy in his acquirements, retiring and modest in his opinions, but tenacious and firm when assailed. Consistent and conciliatory in his course. As a statesman he was pure and patriotic; as a lawyer he was learned, able, and successful; as an orator he did not rank or aspire,—
“The applause of listening Senates to command,”—
But his addresses were replete with good sense, and practical wisdom. Whatever position he occupied, he was equal to his duty—never above nor below it. As a gentleman, he was always polite, yet zealous and tenacious; he possessed “that chastity of honor,” that regarded the slightest imputation upon it, as a wound. As a parent and a husband he was provident and affectionate, and as a Christian, he was a devote member of that much misrepresented, but pure and sincere denomination, the “Primitive Baptist,” and in their faith he died.
Joseph John Martin is a native and resident of Williamston, in this county. He was born November 21, 1833; educated at the Williamston Academy, and read law with Judge Pearson.
He has served as Solicitor for the Second Judicial District, for several years. He was a delegate to the National Convention at Cincinnati, and was elected a Member of Congress to the 46th Congress, as a Republican, receiving 12,125 votes, against 12,084 for J. J. Yeates, Democrat. His seat was contested by Mr. Yeates.
CHAPTER XL.MECKLENBURG COUNTY.
With the Centennial City of Charlotte, the Capital of Mecklenburg are associated glowing revolutionary remembrances. It was here that the first Declaration of Independence was proclaimed, on May 20, 1775. The heroic battle grounds of King's Mountain, Cowan's Ford, Ramsour's Mill are in its vicinity. It was here (September 20, 1780) with a handful of troops, that General Davie held the forces of Cornwallis in check, in whose retreat Colonel Lock was killed, and General George Graham seriously wounded. It was here, on December 3, 1780, that the “Fabius of America,” General Greene, took command of the Southern Army.
Of “illustrious men,” says Thucydides, “the whole world is their sepulchre.” But there are some sacred spots which have been specially consecrated in the memorials of all ages of mankind by the holy halo which surrounds the illustrious acts of patriots and martyrs. Of these is Maranthon, Bannockburn and Lexington. History may well add Charlotte.
All hail to thee, thou good old State, the noblest of the band!Who raised the flag of Liberty, in this our native land!All hail to thee, thy worthy sons were first to spurn the yoke,The tyrant's fetters from their hands, at Mecklenburg they broke.One of the great landmarks in North Carolina history, especially that touching the Mecklenburg section, was the Queen's Museum, afterward called Liberty Hall, to which reference has been made heretofore, (see Brevard and Graham Genealogies in Lincoln county). We extract from Caruther's Life of Caldwell, the following:
“The history of Liberty Hall Academy is interesting to the friends of literature, as a bold and vigorous effort made for its promotion at that early day, and under the most discouraging circumstances, and it is especially interesting to Presbyterians, as being one in a series of efforts made by the people in that region, to establish a literary institution, not only of a high order but on Christian principles, and under Christian influences. Both before and after its incorporation, the Presbytery of Orange exercised a degree of supervision over Liberty Hall, as they probably would have done over Queen's College, if it had gone into operation; but precisely on what grounds and to what extent, does not appear. For this purpose the Presbytery met, during its existence, much oftener in Charlotte, and Sugar Creek, than in any other part of their bounds. They appointed committees to examine the students, and they co-operated with the Trustees in securing the services of Dr. McWhorter. They sometimes held part of their session in one of these places, and the remainder in the other. Thus having met in Charlotte, October 1, 1775, they adjourned in the evening to Sugar Creek, where they transacted the rest of their business, and among other things, they appointed Messrs. Caldwell and Reese to examine the school in Charlotte.” Again: “Fourth Creek, April 10, 1778, Messrs. McCorkle, Hall, and McCaule, are hereby appointed to write a letter to Dr. McWhorter, concerning the Academy in Charlotte.”
Again the same writer says: “As the population between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers, was almost wholly Presbyterian, except the Germans, the act for incorporating Queen's College at Charlotte, was of course obtained through their influence, and the institution, if it had gone into operation, would have been sustained by them, though it was not chartered as a Presbyterian college, for they had not then felt themselves compelled, as they have done since, to take that ground. * * *
“In April 1777, the first year of American Independence, an act was passed by the Legislature of North Carolina, incorporating Isaac Alexander, President; Colonel Thomas Polk, Colonel Thomas Neal, Abraham Alexander, Waightstill Avery, Adlai Osborne, John McKnitt Alexander, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, Rev. David Caldwell, Rev. James Hall, Rev. James Edmonds, Rev. John Simpson, Rev. Thomas Reese, Rev. Thomas Harris McCaule, as Trustees of Liberty Hall Academy. These gentlemen had various powers, such as corporations of this nature usually possess. The first meeting of this respectable body was held in Charlotte, January 3, 1778.”*
So the change of name to Liberty Hall was certainly determined on before April, 1777, and in less than two years after the culmination of the meetings, that had been held within its walls, in the Declaration of Independence in the name of the “citizens of Mecklenburg county.” The Revolutionary War closed its halls, and they were desecrated by Cornwallis’ troops, who burned them, when his retreat upon Wilmington commenced.
The same author (p. 140) speaks of the early educational advantages of North Carolina, as follows: (see on this subject, Wheeler's History of North Carolina, I. p. 116).
“When the Orange Presbytery was organized the summer before the Regulation Battle, it consisted of seven ministers, and these all lived in North Carolina. They were all men of classical education, and most of them were graduates of Princeton College. There seems to have been, as already stated, a classical school in Charlotte; probably another in Granville or Orange; and Dr. Caldwell's school which had now been in operation about five years, since 1766, and had prepared several young men for college, some who became distinguished ministers of the gospel. (Foote says: “Five of his scholars became Governors, a number Judges, about fifty were ministers of the gospel, and a large number physicians and lawyers. The number of pupils averaged fifty or sixty.)
There were several English schools within the limits of what is now Guilford county, and the people generally understood the value of education. The Rev. Mr. Beuthahn (pronounced nearly as if written Bittaun) who, as I am informed, organized the German Reformed Churches, in Guilford and Orange, taught a German school for several years, about this time, in the southeast corner of the former county; and the Lutherans had their preachers, who, being from Germany, were educated men. In a communication just received, from Bishop Vanvleck, of Salem, he mentions the Revs. Nussman and Arnt, who, having been sent out at an early period, “labored faithfully in poverty and privations, until, on their urgent application, the Revs. Charles A. Storh, Roschau, and Bernhard, were sent to to their assistance.”
The German Reformed Churches had several ministers, some of whom were devoted and usefull men; and the Moravians were well supplied. There were several Baptist ministers in the Province, but of their character I know nothing. People in these circumstances could not be so grossly ignorant, as they have been represented, and the Quakers although they differ from most others in their views of the ministry, have always advocated and maintained a high degree of English education. * * * *
* Life of Caldwell, pp. 194-95.A writer in the Raleigh Observer, says of education in the colony of Carolina: “McMaster's History of the People of the United States, is a work which has met with a very favorable reception from the public. But it would be remarkable if a work of that nature should not have here and there some coloring to which just and reasonable exception might well be taken. And so we are not surprised to find that what McMaster says of education in the Southern colonies, has met with a warm reply. Indeed it is not strange that Northern writers deal unfairly by the South, because Southern men have hardly dealt justly with her themselves. They have not put the facts on record. We ourselves have therefore been somewhat to blame. But yet that does not excuse a writer of history for taking it for granted that things do not exist merely because he has no information of them. McMaster is quoted as saying in his history: “In the Southern States, education was almost wholly neglected, but nowhere to such an extent as in South Carolina. In that colony prior to 1730, no such thing as a grammar school existed. Between 1731 and 1776, there were five. During the Revolution there were none. Indeed if the number of newspapers printed in any community may be taken as a guage of the education of the people, the condition of the Southern States as compared with the Eastern and Middle, was most deplorable. In 1775 there were in the entire country, thirty-seven papers in circulation. Fourteen of them were in New England, four in New York, and nine in Pennsylvania; in Virginia and North Carolina there were two each, in Georgia one, in South Carolina three. The same is true of to-day.”
Mr. McCrady, of Charleston, has replied vigorously on behalf of South Carolina, and we trust that some one will likewise compile the statistics of schools in the colony of North Carolina, and give them to the public. In the meantime we will contribute our mite. It is true that there were but few towns in this colony—and that rendered impossible the village schools which existed in England, and which came naturally enough in the thickly settled parts of Massachusetts. But education was not wholly neglected. Gentlemen living in the country had tutors for their children, and there doubtless were schools in the more thickly settled neighborhoods, of which no record now exists. There was higher education and that is an evidence of the existence of grammar schools. On the Cape Fear it seems to have been the custom from 1740 to the Revolutionary War to send the young men to Boston. We have heard that Mr. William Hill, the father of Hon. William Hill, came from Boston to the Cape Fear to attend the wedding of one of his classmates. This was before 1750. He remained on the Cape Fear and married there. A will in our possession, dated 1735, directs the education of the testators's children, and says that they shall be taught French—“perhaps some Frenchman on the Peedee might be engaged.” We think it was the general practice in that section to patronize Boston rather than England, although we remember to have heard a tradition, that a vessel carrying a considerable number of young men to England to finish their education, was lost at sea. Foote says that in 1760, Rev. James Tate opened at Wilmington, the first classical school ever taught there. At that time Wilmington could have had but a few hundred inhabitants. There were chartered academies at Edenton and at New Berne; but this does not signify that grammar schools were lacking wherever the population was sufficient to justify them. That there were not more chartered academies was doubtless due to the fact that the Royal governors insisted on a clause in the charters requiring “the masters” to belong to the established church and giving the governor power to appoint them. That was the settled policy—to extend the influence of the established church, and as it was distasteful
to the people, so chartered academies were not popular.
It would seem that while the Cape Fear largely patronized Boston, the northeastern section sent her sons to England and the Presbyterians of the interior sought higher education at Princeton.
About 1767, says Foote, Joseph Alexander, a fine scholar, in connection with Mr. Benedict, taught a classical school of high excellence and usefulness—this was at Sugar Creek, in the vicinity of Charlotte.
In 1766, Dr. Caldwell opened his classical school in Guilford. This, says Foote, was the second permanent classical school in the upper part of Carolina—that at Sugar Creek being the first, and that of Mr. Pattilo, in Granville, the third. Five of his scholars became Governors, a number Judges, about fifty were Ministers of the Gospel, and a large number physicians and lawyers. The number of pupils averaged fifty or sixty and came from different parts of the State. About the same time, Dr. Pattilo taught in Granville; in 1761, Rev. William Richardson, the uncle of General Davie, located at the Waxhaws, and doubtless he also taught school.
Large Scotch-Irish settlements in central Carolina, began probably in 1747, and continued up to the Revolutionary War. Says Foote: “almost invariably as soon as a neighborhood was settled, preparations were made for the preaching of the gospel by a regular stated pastor; and wherever a pastor was located, in that congregation there was a classical school; as in Sugar Creek, Poplar Tent, Centre, Bethany, Buffalo, Thyatira, Grove, Wilmington, and the churches occupied by Pattilo in Orange and Granville.” And when we consider the very considerable number of well educated men who lived in this western section, and the number who patronized Princeton college, we are prepared to say that this part of Carolina must have had a good record in regard to education. About the same time the Moravians settled Salem, and they early established a boarding school for girls, which has continued in existence to this day, and is still youthful in vigor.
It is freely admitted that in the matter of schools a great difference is observable between the colonies of Massachusetts and of North Carolina. For that difference there were several causes. Massachusetts was settled by colonies—North Carolina was occupied by individual families. The people of Massachusetts were forced by circumstances to remain in communities; those of North Carolina being under no such pressure, lived apart. In the former the establishment of towns was coeval with the settlement; in North Carolina, there was no town until Bath was located in 1704—probably fifty years after lands were first taken up in the province. The people were scattered sparsely here and there along the shores of the sounds and on the banks of water-courses. Again, the people were not all of the same religious faith, while in Massachusetts the local preachers were the teachers. From letters printed in Hawks’ history, we obtain a fair view of the condition of North Carolina in 1709. The section north of Albemarle Sound was, at that date, divided into four precincts—Currituck, Pasquotank, Perquimans and Chowan. Currituck had a population, children included, of 539, whereof 97 were negroes. Pasquotank had 1,332, of whom 211 were negroes. It was “closer seated than the other and better peopled in proportion to its bigness.”
Perquimans probably had about the same population. Chowan was the largest but “thinnest seated.” There were “no inhabitants on the road, for they plant only on the river, and they are planted in length on these rivers, at least twenty miles.” The Albemarle section probably had at that time about 3,500 inhabitants. Immediately across the sound there seemed to have been no settlers—but there was “a new colony of Pamplico, to reach which there are about fifty miles desert to pass through without
any human creature inhabiting it.” This was Bath. The settlement was on the Pamlico river and its branches. “They have begun to build a town called Bath. It consists of about twelve houses, being the only one in the whole province.” That settlement probably did not contain 500 inhabitants. In 1709 a few Huguenots removed from the banks of the James river and settled between Pamlico and the Neuse. It was about that time that Beaufort was laid out as a town, and a little later the Swiss located at New Berne.
Under these circumstances, with families far removed from each other—with religious disputes flagrant, and indeed all the politics of the colony turning on religious dissensions—it is easy to see why there was but little progress made in establishing schools. Yet we find that at Sarum, on the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina, there was a flourishing school kept by a Mr. Mashburn; that a Mr. Griffin had a school in Pasquotank; “that the Quakers themselves sent their children to his school;” “that Mr. Adams took Mr. Griffin's place in Pasquotank and he went to Chowan.” These schools are mentioned only incidentally. There were doubtless schools at Bath and elsewhere. In the colony there resided men of learning, culture and refinement; men of means who contributed to found libraries, to erect churches, and to promote the welfare of the people. Mosely, Hyde, Swann, Porter, Lillington, Harvey, Saunderson, Pollock, Lowe, the son-in-law of Governor Archdale, and others too numerous to mention, were men who were not indifferent to education. If the facts could be unearthed, it would probably appear that there were many good schools in the province.
Men of education and intelligence, who were influenced by the possession or prospect of office, were with the Regulators in principle and spirit, but not in measures, or not in their ultra measures, just because they believed that the people were not prepared for a conflict with the established government. See Life of Caldwell, pp. 140-41. Jones mentions Maurice Moore, Thomas Person, and Alexander Martin, as of this sentiment.
In the uprising of the Regulators, it is believed that Mecklenburg took a decided part. We extract from the “Life of Caldwell,” (p. 136) by Caruthers, the following statement:
“As it had been found very difficult to punish any of the Regulators in their own county, the Attorney General was authorized to prosecute them in any Superior Court, or Court of Oyer and Terminer, in the Province; and on an indictment being found, the Judges were directed to issue a proclamation against the defendant, commanding him to surrender himself and stand his trial; and on his failing to do so, he was held to be guilty and outlawed, and his lands and chattels forfeited. The Governor was empowered to make drafts from the militia to enforce the execution of the laws; and any persons who were found embodied and in arms, with intention of opposing the military force, if they refused on command of a Justice or Sheriff to lay down their arms and surrender themselves, were to be treated as traitors. To diminish the strength of the Regulators by division, four new counties were established: one by taking a part from each of the counties of Orange, Cumberland, and Johnston, which, in compliment to Miss Esther Wake, a sister of Tryon's lady, was called Wake; another was formed from the counties of Orange and Rowan, which was called Guilford; a third was formed out of the southern part of Orange, to which the name of Chatham was given; and the northern part of Rowan was erected into a county called Surry.”
“Mecklenburg seems to have had no confidence in the leaders of the Regulators, and a righteous disgust for many of their excesses. As Rev. Francis Cummins, the neighbor of Captain James Jack, has expressed it, “they wanted strength, consistency, a Congress, and a Washington at their head.” Immediately after the
Battle of Alamance (which was in May 16, 1771), Governor Tryon took steps to cure this more methodical madness by swearing her “whole militia companies together.” So well did his prescription work upon the consciences of a Bible-reading community that when a convention of delegates from these same militia companies assembled in Charlotte on May 19, 1775, with the common sentiment that ‘the cause of Boston is the cause of all,’ ‘to take such measures as might be thought best to be pursued,’ and independence was boldly proposed as the only remedy, quite a scene was produced by the delegate, who replied, “I should be glad to know how gentlemen can clear their consciences after taking that oath.” The same argument that satisfied him, and made the vote unanimous, was effectually used by Dr. Caldwell in his congregations in Guilford, and was a triumph of sound reason and righteousness over the machinations of tyrants.*
The same author, who, from the mouth of eye witnesses, has given elsewhere, many unpublished incidents connected with the battle of Guilford Court House, March 15, 1780, and the affair on the Alamance, May 16, 1771, in speaking of the six prisoners hung by Tryon at Hillsboro, says: “Nor will the fate of Captain Merrill excite much less regret. He was from the Jersey settlement, according to McPherson; or as others say, from Mecklenburg county. He was regarded as a pious man; was much esteemed wherever he was known. He was within an easy day's march of the place of meeting, with three hundred men under his command, when he heard of the defeat, and if he had got there in time, the result would have been very different. His men immediately dispersed; but he was taken prisoner, and his life was the forfeit.”
To get positive information on this head, as well as of a prior rebellion in Mecklenburg, which arose out of British land titles, would now be about as difficult as obtaining access to the archives of an “invisible empire.”
Under the head of Wake County, we will publish documents to refute the sweeping assumption made by a critic in the North American Review, of April 1874, that “in the year 1819, the Raleigh Register surprised its readers, etc., with the announcement of a Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, dated May 20, 1775.”
THE POLK FAMILY.Robert Polk was born in Ireland. The name is a corruption of Pollock. He came to America in 1735. Had eight children—six sons and two daughters; and settled in Somerset county, Maryland. Three sons of Robert—Thomas, Ezekiel, and Charles—in 1750, came to Mecklenburg county, then Anson county (Mecklenburg was formed in 1762 from Anson). John, son of Robert, was the father of William.
William Polk, grandson of Robert had (1) Charles, (2) Susan (married Alexander), (3) John (4) Ezekiel, (5) Thomas, (6) Margaret (married McRee).
Ezekiel Polk, son of William, married, first, Miss Wilson; second Mrs. Lennard, and was the father of Samuel Polk, who married Jane Knox, and so became the father of James Knox Polk, (born November 2, 1795—died June 15, 1849) who was the eldest of his children. He was born eleven miles south of Charlotte, near little Sugar Creek church. When he was about eleven years old, his father moved to Tennessee. He was educated at the University, where he graduated in 1818, in the same class with Robert Donaldson, Thomas J. Green, William M. Green, now Bishop of Mississippi, Hamilton C. Jones, Edward J. Mallett, Rev. Robert H. Morrison, William D. Mosely (since Governor of Florida) and Hugh Waddell. He took the first honors of his class. He never missed a single
* Rev. E. W. Caruther's “Life of Rev. Dr. David Caldwell,” p. 136. Dr. Caldwell was a most influential character, and, although not so mentioned by the historians of the adjacent States, figured conspicuously in connection with the battles, both of Alamance, and of Guilford Court House.recitation during his whole course. He read law with Felix Grundy, and was admitted to the bar in 1820. He was elected a Member of Congress in 1825—in 1835 was Speaker—which he held for five sessions. After fourteen years’ service he declined a re-election. During this long service he never was absent a day from the House.
In 1839, he was elected Governor of Tennessee. In 1844 he was elected President of the United States, by a majority of sixty-five votes, over Henry Clay. His cabinet was one of transcendant ability. Mr. Buchanan in the State Department, Robert J. Walker in the Treasury, William L. Marcy in the War Department, John Y. Mason, Clifford, and Toucey as Attorney Generals, Cave, Johnson as Postmaster General, and George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy.
The events of his administration are recorded in history. The war with Mexico enlarged the limits of our Republic, and general prosperity smiled on our country. His administration was prosperous and glorious. In his letter accepting the nomination, he declared that he would serve only one term, and in a letter to Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey of Tennessee, he reiterated this determination, when many thought his name was the only available means of success. He died at Nashville on June 15, 1849. On his tomb is inscribed this sentence:
“By his public policy he defended, established, and extended the boundaries of his country. He planted the laws of the American Union on the shores of the Pacific. His influence and his councils tended to organize the National Treasury on the principles of the Constitution, and to apply the rule of Freedom to navigation, trade, and industry.”*
Thomas Polk, son of William Polk and Priscilla Roberts, was the grand-uncle of President Polk.†
He was, originally, a survey or in the early days of the colony, uniformly popular and respected. He was the Colonel of the county, and represented Mecklenburg in the Colonial Legislature.
He was with Abram Alexander a Member of Assembly, in 1771 and 1775, from Mecklenburg and appointed by the Provincial Congress in 1775, Colonel of the 2d Battalion of Minute Men, with Adam Alexander as Lieutenant Colonel, and Charles McLean as Major.
He succeeded General Davidson after the fall of that officer at Cowan's Ford.
The first opportunity for showing his zeal, in defense of his country, was in South Carolina, in 1775. The Tories had embodied themselves under Fletchal, Cunningham, and others, by the inducement of Sir William Campbell, the last of the Royal Governors in South Carolina. They attacked the Whigs under General Williamson, at Cambridge, and at “Ninety Six” and forced him to capitulate. The Council of Safety ordered out General Richard Richardson's brigade, supported by Colonel William Thompson's Regiment of Rangers, and called upon the Whigs of North Carolina, to aid in crushing the Royalists. They promptly responded, and marched with nine hundred men, under Colonels Polk, Rutherford, Martin, and Graham. In a severe battle they vanquished the Royalists.
The clouds of the Revolutionary War had now begun to lower, and the brave spirits of Mecklenburg were preparing for the fearful storm to burst upon them. They were:
“Men who understood their rights,And knowing, dared maintain.”Colonel Thomas Polk issued orders to each captain of his Regiment, to send delegates to a meeting at Charlotte, to be held on May 19, 1775; which met, and on the 20th issued a Declaration of Independence, avowing themselves “a free and independent people, under the control of no power other than that of God and the General Government of the Congress,
* See “Life of James K. Polk,” by John S. Jenkins, Auburn, James M. Alden, 1850.† Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, 11, 617, 624.to the maintenance of which they solemnly pledged to each other their mutual co-operation, their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.”
This is the proudest page in the history of North Carolina, and is full of patriotism, moral grandeur and sublimity. That some who have never risen to the height of this great argument, should endeavor to throw some doubts on this sublime act, is not to be wondered at, as the doubting Thomas would not believe in his Savior's resurrection unless he had tangible and visible proof; yet to all fair minds its verity safely rests on the dispatch of the Royal Governor Martin, dated Fort Johnson, North Carolina, 30th June, 1775, to the Earl of Dartmouth, in which he says:
“The resolves of the Committee of Mecklenberg, which your Lordship will find in the enclosed newspaper, surpasses all the horrid and treasonable publications that the inflammable spirits on this continent have yet produced, and your Lordship may depend its authors and abettors will not escape my due notice, whenever my hands are sufficiently strengthened to attempt the recovery of the lost authority of this government. A copy of these resolutions, I am informed, was sent off immediately by express to the Congress at Philadelphia.”
I have copied the whole dispatch, the original of which is extant, in the Rolls Office in London. The dispatch is in the handwriting of Gov. Martin. Endorsed upon it are these words:
“ENCLOSURES.
“I. Minutes of the Council.
“II. Resolves of the Committee of Mecklenberg County.
“III. Printed Proclamation.”
These Resolutions were sent off (as Governor Martin states he was informed) to the Congress at Philadelphia, by Captain Jack, and “referred to a committee, who reported on the first of September, that the present Association ought to be further relied on for bringing about a reconciliation with the parent State.” No further notice was taken, and this brilliant spark was lost in the blaze of the Federal Declaration of Independence, published the following year.*
There were Resolves of Mecklenberg passed on May 31, 1775, which were equally patriotic. Their authenticity has never been questioned. Therefore, it was very essential to obtain the enclosure of Governor Martin. This paper was missing from the files of the British rolls office. To produce this would settle the doubts of all. Mr. Jefferson, in a hasty letter to Mr. Adams, dated July 9, 1819, had pronounced the whole affair a myth.† Mr. Bancroft, when Envoy to England, has searched in vain for this newspaper enclosed in Governor Martin's dispatch, and offered a reward for its recovery.
The following note was then addressed to the Deputy Master of the Rolls, who has charge of these papers:
“No. 28 BURY ST., ST. JAMES’, LONDON, }
28 Jan., 1864.
“To Hon. Sir Thomas Hardy Duffus, Dep. Master of the Rolls House, Chancery Lane, London:
“SIR: Under instructions of the Duke of New Castle, you have allowed me full and free access to all the papers in your office relative to the Colonial History of North Carolina.
“In Vol. 222, the official dispatch of Josiah Martin, (No. 34) then the Royal Governor of the Province of North Carolina, dated 30th June, 1775, enclosed several papers.
“One of these, ‘The Cape Fear Mercury,’ stated by Governor Martin to contain the Mecklenburg Resolves of the Independent Committee has been removed, and in the place thereof is this endorsement in pencil:
“ ‘A paper taken out by Mr. Turner for Mr. Stevenson, 13 Aug., 1837.’†
* Lossing ii., 621.† Mr. Stevenson, of Virginia, was at the time Envoy from the United States at London.† As it is now settled that Mr. Jefferson at the time was opposed to independence, the North Carolina delegates may not have apprised him of the Mecklenburg dispatch, and in such a frame the publication which he must have seen made no lasting impression on his mind.“I wish very much to examine the newspaper in question, and will be obliged if you will take such steps as you may conceive necessary to have it restored to the Volume from whence it has been removed, or ascertain its whereabouts.
“I have the honor, &c.,
JNO. H. WHEELER.”
The following answer was received by me:
“PUBLIC ROLLS OFFICE, LONDON, }
27 Feb., 1864.
“SIR: With reference to your letter of the 28th January, I am directed by the Master of the Rolls to inform you, that he has communicated with the Colonial Office on the subject, and has this day received an explanation to the following effect: That, in the opinion of the Librarian of the Foreign Office, whatever papers were removed by Mr. Turner in 1837, were subsequently replaced in the Volume, and that the omission to rub out the pencil memoranda of their being taken out by Mr. Turner, has led to the supposition that they have not been restored.
“I have the honor to be, sir,
“Your obedient servant,
“T. DUFFUS HARDY.
“Col. JOHN H. WHEELER, St. James, London.”
This, if not satisfactory, showed that this important paper was not in place—if not lost. Hon. John W. Stevenson, late United States Senator from Kentucky, who is executor of Mr. Stevenson, his father, has promised to look among his father's papers for this newspaper. But this paper is not indispensable to establish the verity of the Mecklenburg Declaration.
The sworn statement of General Joseph Graham, who was present at the place and time, (see page 228), uncontradicted and uncontradictable, states all the facts in a lucid, and impregnable manner. The masterly and unanswerable argument of Governor William A. Graham, at Charlotte, Feb. 4, 1875, exhausts the question, to say nothing of the researches of Rev. Francis L. Hawks (see page 141) and others.
Of this meeting Thomas Polk was a prominent member. Associated with him in this band of patriots was Abram Alexander, who was the Chairman of the Convention, born 1718. He had been the Chairman of the Inferior Court before and after the Revolution, and a Member of the Colonial Legislature 1774-’75. He died April 23, 1786, and is buried in the cemetery of Sugar Creek Church. He was grand-father of Dr. Cyrus Alexander, now of Cabarrus county. His eldest son, Dr. Isaac Alexander, was at the Convention, but not a member; he graduated at Princeton, N. J., in the class with James Madison and Aaron Burr, and was the first President of the Queen's Museum at Charlotte, N. C.
Adam Alexander was also a member of the Convention; he was born in 1720; was Lieutenant Colonel of a battalion of Minute Men, appointed thereto by the Provincial Congress at Johnston Court House, in 1775, with Thomas Polk, as Colonel, and Charles McLean as Major. He was appointed Colonel of Mecklenburg county, with John Phifer as Lieutenant Colonel, and John Davidson and George A. Alexander as Majors, by the Provincial Congress at Halifax, on the 4th of April, 1776. He was the father of Hon. Evan Alexander, who was educated at Princeton, and member of 9th Congress from the Salisbury district (1805-’09), elected vice Nathaniel Alexander, elected Governor. He was the grand-father of Adam Alexander Springs, the common ancestor of all the Springs family of the two Carolinas.
Adam R. Alexander, who was a member of Congress from the Memphis district, Tennessee, was another grandson. Ezra Alexander, was also a member of this body. He was a Captain in the Revolutionary War, and in 1780 fought the Tories in Lincoln county,* when
* See declaration of James Knox, on file in Pension Office.they were suppressed at the battle of Ramsour's Mill.
He died in 1790, aged 70, and is buried in Sharon Graveyard.
Hezekiah Alexander was also a member. He was more of a statesman than a soldier. He was born in 1728, in Pennsylvania. By the Provincial Congress at Hillsboro, (21st of August, 1775) he was appointed with Griffith Rutherford, John Brevard, Benjamin Patton, and others, a Committee of Safety for the Salisbury District. In April, 1776, with William Sharp he was appointed on the Council of Safety. In April, 1776, he was appointed Paymaster of the Fourth Regiment North Carolina Continentals, of which Regiment Thomas Polk was Colonel, James Thackston Lieutenant Colonel, and William Davidson Cajor. In November, 1776, he was elected a member of the Provincial Congress from Mecklenburg county, with Waighstill Avery, Robert Irwin, John Phifer and Zaccheus Wilson as colleagues, which Assembly formed the first Constitution of the State. He died and was buried in Sugar Creek Churchyard.* The head-stone placed over his grave has the following:
“IN MEMORY of HEZEKIAH ALEXANDER, Who departed this life July 18th, 1801.”
John McKnitt Alexander was one of the members in this celebrated Convention. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1733, and when twenty-one years of age came to North Carolina. He was elected to Provincial Assembly in 1772; also as a Delegate to Hillsboro on the 21st of August, 1775; at Halifax in April, 1776. As we have stated, he was an active participator in the Convention of May 19th and 20th, 1775, and preserved for 25 years the record of this proud event, and sent copies thereof to General William R. Davie, Dr. Hugh Williamson and others. The original was consumed by fire in 1800, when Mr. Alexander's house was burned. He was the first Senator elected under the Constitution from Mecklenburg county. Waighstill Avery and Martin Phifer were his colleagues in the Commons.
Robert D. Graham, Esq., a member of the Charlotte Bar, whose researches have shed much light upon the details of the organization, and the several manuscripts of the Independent Committee of Mecklenburg, writes of John McKnitt Alexander as follows:
“He was a man of great versatility of talent; thorough and successful in whatever he undertook. Fut to the trade of a tailor when a boy, he soon became widely known among his cotemporaries as a surveyor, and long after the war, was often a witness in land suits in the western counties. He was an elder in his church, and also Treasurer of the synod of the two Carolinas, a member of the Royal, and after the 20th, of the Independent County Court, and several times a delegate in the Provincial Congress. His paper of the 19th of May marks him as a statesman of the first order. His advanced sentiments of patriotism were acknowledged by making him a secretary of the convention of delegates of “the citizens of Mecklenburg county”—two from each militia company—which met on May 19, 1775, resolved upon independence, and on the next day, made “a more formal declaration” from the old court house steps, together with “a long string of grievances,” “a military order for purchasing ordnance stores” and “by-laws.”
At the same time they also formed a County Committee—which does not appear to have been previously done, in propria forma; although the leading spirits were on the alert, and had had frequent meetings at Queen's Muscum—whose duty defined in the last paragraph of the Declaration, was as “Justices of the Peace in the character of committee-men, to
* Called from a creek on which it is built, named by the Indians Suga, or rather, Sooga Creek.issue process, hear and determine all matters of controversy, according to said adopted laws; and to preserve peace, union, and harmony in said county; and to use every exertion to spread the love of country and fire of freedom throughout America, until a more general and organized government be established in this province.”
No publication of these (5) bold resolves was ordered, and the committee went into office, not to glorify themselves, or their county, as the first in the race, but to discharge a specified duty. How well they did that, may be seen in the Resolves which they proceeded, it seems, to prepare for publication “to spread the love of country and fire of freedom.” They bear date in print May 31, but has the newspaper publication correctly copied the two figures from the manuscript? They begin with this significant clause: “This day the Committee of this County met and passed the following resolves, etc.” A county committee was a body duly acknowledged, authorized, and provided for, by the last Congress, which had met in the Province, the Fall preceding. The manner of forming such committees was not prescribed, nor the number of constituent members. Once formed, it was a lawful body, and might communicate with other lawful bodies throughout the country. It was natural, therefore, that its resolves should be published by the newspapers in preference to the original Declaration of the convention of delegates which formed it, and the evidence of participants is that Captain Jack bore a copy of all the proceedings with him to Philadelphia—probably as digested by Brevard.
The Convention's Resolves had declared the county independent, not of Congress, but of Great Britain. The committee's resolves—evidently recommendatory—went much farther, and declared all the colonies independent—“all commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the Crown to be exercised in the colonies, are null and void.” The convention had expressed themselves to the people in a paper of five resolves adopted just after the heated debate of the night before. To these the “more formal declaration” added a sixth, authorizing a dispatch to Congress. The comtee set forth in a duly attested paper of “XX” Resolves all that had been done on the 19th and 20th by way of Declarations, “a long string of grievances,” the military order on ordnance supplies, and even the principal argument that had then secured unanimity of action. Resolve XVIII, showed “a decent respect for the opinions” of those, elsewhere, who still “abhorred the idea of independence,” (as did the prudent Washington, until the month of May, 1776, and preferred “dependence on Great Britain, properly limited, than on any nation on earth, or than on no nation,” as the sage of Monticello expressed himself to John Randolph, August 25, 1775.) By its authors it was well understood to be at once a defiance of the Crown, and a justification before the world.
After the utter rout of the caviliers, who questioned the fact of any declaration of independence at all emanating from this county, a recent spirit of criticism has arisen which tells us that this committee certainly deserved well of their country, but that their consolidated resolves of May 31st, are “glory enough for Mecklenburg.” The doubting Thomases, who could not be convinced, until they had found the proceedings of a meeting, several days after the feast, which, therefore, made so little impression, that it was soon entirely forgotten, are hardly fair judges.
On July 5, 1824, Dr. M. W. Alexander in a public address at Hopewell church, in which he gave a detailed statement from the secretary of the proceedings, on May 19 and 20, 1775, used this language: “These are transactions with which you, together with the citizens of this and the adjoining counties, have long been familiar—these have been the frequent topics of conversation amongst us for nearly fifty years—these were the proceedings, of our relatives, of
our fellow-citizens, every individual of whom has descended to the silent tomb;—but these are their living deeds of patriotism, which misfortune cannot now tarnish, and which the malignant breath of envy dare not now assail to blast.”
And now at the end of nearly three score years more, there are still some living who have conversed with the participants, and eye witnesses of the proceedings of this county convention, who smile at the suggestion that the old patriots, in recounting the adoption of the original county declaration of five resolves, might, possibly, have imagined it, and formulated in their old age in the sincere belief that it was a reproduction of a paper containing XX Resolves, with no allusion to the Battle of Lexington, but covering much more ground, and not signed by the delegates, but by the clerk, by order of the committee.
The attention of the reader is called to the following language in this oration of Dr. Moses Winslow Alexander at Hopewell, July 5, 1824. One paragraph we quote:
“A fell copy of the whole proceedings was then made out and attested, and Captain James Jack, of Charlotte, was deputied as express to Congress, then sitting in Philadelphia, accompanying said proceedings with a letter addressed to Richard Caswell, Wm. Hooper, and Joseph Hewes, then our representatives from this Province—enjoining it on our said representatives to use all possible means to have said proceedings sanctioned and approved by the general Congress.
On the return of Captain Jack, the delegation learned by a joint letter from said three representatives, that their proceedings were individually approved by the members of Congress, but that it was deemed premature to have them before the House; recommending perseverence, order, energy, etc.
The Committee of Safety (mark you, not the Delegation) of which Abraham Alexander was chairman, held their regular and stated meetings alternately at Charlotte, at James Harris’ and John Phifer's. This was a civil court founded on military process. Before this Judicature all suspicious persons were made to appear, who were formally tried, banished, or bound to good behavior. Its jurisdiction was unlimited as to Toryism, and its decrees as final as the confidence and patriotism of the country. Several were arrested and brought before them from Tryon, (now Lincoln,) Rowan, and the adjacent counties.”
The point that I make is this: the above is the conclusion of that part of the Doctor's speech which was in quotation marks, as published. He prefaced it with these words: “You will now permit me to read the proceedings of that meeting, as drawn up and certified by their clerk, and deposited in the safe keeping of General W. R. Davie, for the benefit of some future historian.” Here then we have the “foregoing statement” (covering the transactions of the Delegation on two days, 19th and 20th) as to which the old secretary had certified that though fundamentally correct, it might not literally correspond with the record, but containing nevertheless the original Declaration, which, but shortly thereafter he assured Judge Cameron, he knew to be correct. Here, too, with-a microscope, I think we may find the mention of the three declarations, which have appeared to vex the historiographers. After detailing the transactions of May 19th, the statement proceeds thus:
“May 20th, Delegation met. The select committee reported a formal Declaration of Independence (believed to be drawn by Dr. Ephraim, chairman of said committee) which was unanimously approved and signed; and which together with the foregoing resolves, was publicly read and proclaimed from the Court House door, by Colonel Thomas Polk, to a large and approving concourse of citizens, who had convened
to sanction the proceedings of their delegates.”
So that independence was resolved upon by the delegation on the 19th of May; reiterated by “a more formal Declaration on the 20th, which was read by Colonel Polk, to the people, and then, (why not on the 31st?) a full copy of the whole proceedings (plural) was made out and attested” for Congress. The Delegation had met on Thursday, the “more formal Declaration” was made and a county committee appointed on Friday, and time was still left for the “full copy of the whole proceedings” to be made out, the attestation being placed thereto upon Saturday, in these words:
“Signed by order of the Committee,
EPH. BREVARD,
Clerk of the Committee.”
This Saturday was the 21st of May, and I believe that a sleepy (?) devil mistook the 2 for a 3, and thus has enabled Ephraim so long to vex Manasseh with the “31st May.”
The resolutions thus quietly drawn off and attested “the day after the feast,” were published in full, on June 13, 1775, in Timothy's Carolina Gazette, and in The South Carolina Gazette, and Country Journal of June, 1775, No. 498, printed at Charlestown by Charles Crouch, on the Bay, corner of Elliott street,” and also in “New York Journal and General Advertiser” of June 29, 1775. They appeared, partially, in the Massachusetts Spy of the next month. Besides these, publication was made in the Cape Fear Mercury of June 30, 1775, either of this full copy of the “whole proceedings,” or else the simple Declaration itself.
Here the presumption of a negative is very strong, viz: that each Gazette was not furnished with a manuscript from the committee. In its absence they accepted as correct the 13th of June edition of the “attested” copy. As understood by the delegation, and by the committee, there is not a word of compromise in either paper. The committee's document was a substantial copy of all that concerned the colonies, generally to be found in the several papers, passed upon and adopted in the two preceding days by the convention. Governor Martin, if it was the latter which he saw, evidently understood it as “DECLARING the entire dissolution of the laws, government, and constitution of this country.” He properly appreciated the 18th Resolution, as at once a modestly expressed justification, and a defiance.”
Nothing could have more disgusted the subject of this sketch than the suggestion that he had given a certificate to the effect that the Davie copy of the Declaration itself might not be correct.
General William R. Davie was about the most prominent man in the State at that day, and was still residing at Halifax. With the Declaration, Alexander sent him a statement of the transactions attending its adoption, which may be found in the speech at Hopewell, alluded to above. Of this statement, he conscientiously wrote: “It may be worthy of notice here to observe that the foregoing statement, though fundamentally correct, yet may not literally correspond with the original record of the transactions (plural) of said delegation and court of inquiry, as all those records and papers were burned, with the house, in April 6th, 1800. But previous to that time (1800) a full copy of said records, at the request of Dr. Hugh Williamson, then of New York, but formerly a representative in Congress from this State, was forwarded to him by Colonel William Polk, in order that those early transactions might fill their proper place in a history of this State, then being written by said Doctor Williamson of New York.”
But on this certificate he has placed his construction beyond cavil. He gave it September 3, 1800. Within a year, he met Judge Duncan Cameron at the Salisbury Court and told him that he had sent to General Davie a copy of the Declaration “which he knew to be correct, and
therefore the document is safe.” Judge Cameron met him there at a subsequent term, when he says his language was that the Davie copy is perfectly correct.
The Martin copy may be that of the day preceding, or the alteration may have been otherwise made in inadvertance in transcribing, etc. In this connection we will state that the Centennial celebration brought out the fact that there is still in existence, a copy of the Declaration, drawn off by Adam Brevard, the attorney, and younger brother of Ephraim. See Southern Home, July 5, 1875.
Yours truly,
R. D. GRAHAM.
Dr. J. G. M. Ramsay, the eminent historian of Tennessee, writes that the Declaration of Independence mentioned by Governor Graham in his address on page twenty-five, as shown by General Andrew Jackson at the Hermitage in the year 1828, to the Hon. Theodore W. Brevard, Comptroller General, and Colonel Isaac W. Hayne, the Attorney General of the State of South Carolina, the declaration being printed on satin and in a gilt frame, with the signatures of the signers attached thereto, was undoubtedly a copy of the resolutions of May 20, 1775. General Jackson unquestionably treated the incident as a well known fact in the history of that region of the State, the memory of which he thus perpetuated. And as Governor Graham says: Let it be noted that at the time of the conversation, the Legislature of North Carolina had never noticed the matter of the Declaration (it remained for subsequent cavillers to doubt its authenticity) and no publication had been made touching it, except the original communication by John McKnitt Alexander, in 1819, the evidence collected by Colonel Polk, in 1820, and two or three letters collected by Mr. Macon; neither had Martin's History yet appeared, for its publication was in 1829.
ALEXANDER GENEALOGY.
John McKnitt Alexander is buried at Hopewell church, ten miles north of Charlotte—not far from the grave of General William Davidson. His tomb bears this inscription:
“Sacred to the memory of JOHN MCKNITT ALEXANDER, who departed this life, July 10, 1817; aged 84.”
By his side is his wife, Jane Baine, who died March 16, 1798, aged 30. (The name is spelled Bean on the tombstone.)
He left two sons, (a) Joseph McKnitt Alexander, M.D., and (b) William Baine Alexander.
The first married Dovey Winslow, who died September 6, 1801, aged 25, leaving one son, Moses Winslow Alexander, M. D. See the Graham genealogy.
(a) Dr. Joseph McKnitt Alexander was born in 1774, and died October 18, 1841. His son, Moses W., was born May 3, 1798, and died February 27, 1845. Both were well known throughout the country for integrity and skill in their common profession, and in death, as is seen above, were only divided by the space of four years. To distinguish them, the elder was oftener mentioned as Dr. McKnitt, than as Dr. Alexander, and thus came to attest his written communications by the well known abbreviated signature of J. McKnitt.
The Greek name of Alexander had long been the most common patronymic in Mecklenburg, and was borne by no less than seven of the delegates to the convention, or committee,* that assembled on May 19, 1775.
On the other hand, the ancestral name of McKnitt was held by no family in the county, and he accepted the soubriquet from the mouth of those who held him in the highest esteem both in Church and State.
A record of fourteen children, thirteen of whom married and left issue, reminds us of the early days of Israel. Such a people were not dependent on “the historians of the adjacent
* The term committee in those early days was sometimes applied even to the Continental Congress (see Jones’ Defence; and the veteran John Simeson, speaker of the authorized County Committees or Congresses)States,” or the memory of Mr. Adams (who certainly forgot the issue of the Massachusetts Spy, of July 12, 1775) for the preservation of their traditions.
(b) William Baine married Violet Davidson—issue, fourteen children.
(1) Joseph married Nancy Cathey.
(2) William married Clarissa Alexander.
(3) Robert D. married Abigail Caldwell—issue, (a) Rev. S. C. C. Alexander married Mary Brown, (b) J. B. Alexander, M. D., married Annie Lowrie, (c) William Davidson Alexander married Susan Ramsay, (d) Agnes married to Dr. W. Fewell.
(4) Benjamin married Violet McKoy.
(5) James McKnitt married Mary Wilson.
(6) George Washington married, first, Gillespie; second, Jelton.
(7) John married Harriet Henderson.
(8) Jane married John Sharpe.
(9) Margaret D. married David R. Henderson.
(10) Rebecca married Marshall McKoy.
(11) Sally D.
(12) Abigail married Henderson Robinson.
(13) Betsy married Dr. Isaac Wilson.
(14) Isabella married Dr. Calvin Grier.
John McKnitt Alexander in 1801 gave to General William R. Davie, to preserve for historical use a copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration, of Independence of May 20, 1775, which in the same year (1801) he assured Judge Duncan Cameron he knew to be correct. Of the statement accompanying it, as to list of delegates, sequence, etc., he gave the following certificate: “It may be worthy of notice here to observe that the foregoing statement though fundamentally correct, yet may not literally correspond with the original record of the transactions of said delegation and court of inquiry, as all those records and papers were burned with the house on April 6, 1800; but previous to that time (1800) a full copy of said records, at the request of Dr. Hugh Williamson, then of New York, but formerly a representative in congress from this State, was forwarded to him by Colonel William Polk, in order that those early transactions might fill their proper place in a history of this State, by said Dr. Williamson in New York.*
Certified to the best of my recollection and belief this 3d day of September, 1800, by J. McK. Alexander, Mecklenburg county, N. C.
Dr. Samuel Henderson states that the copy of the declaration in John McKnitt Alexander's handwriting, was found in the possession of General William Richardson Davie, after the General's death.
General Davie was the foremost man of his day, in North Carolina. The idea is perfectly absurd that such a man could be imposed upon, or that any one would dare impose upon him, by the fabrication of the declaration only twenty-five years after its date, when his faculties were so well preserved that several years subsequently, his friends considered him their most available candidate in the Halifax district, to overcome their opponents then in the majority. Just after this, in 1805, he removed to South Carolina and the anonymous article, which Dr. Welling (North American Review, April, 1874) attributes to Prof. Phillips, erroneously locates him in South Carolina, when McKnitt Alexander sent him a copy, which he repeatedly declared was correct.
The fate of the original of this document, should that be of any historical importance, is not without its parallel in history, for in an article by W. L. Stone in the July number of Harper's Magazine (1883) we find the following recited on the subject of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, of July 4, 1776:
“In thinking of that instrument, one is apt
* It is worthy of notice that Williamson's History of North Carolina, terminated with the events of the year 1771; in his preface he says that he intended to continue his history to 1790, but it was not done, and Mr. Jefferson may well say Williamson's History affords no record of the Declaration of 1775. Governor Stokes unqualifiedly asserts that he saw this copy in the possession of Dr. Williamson, in 1793, and that it was in the handwriting of John McKnitt Alexander. (Graham's Centennial Address, p. 80.)to call up before him an august assemblage gravely seated around a table, with the Declaration spread out upon it, and each member of the Continental Congress in turn taking a pen and with great dignity affixing to it his name. Nothing, however, can be further from that which actually took place, very few of the delegates, if indeed any, signed the original document on the 4th, and none signed the present one now in Independence Hall, for the very good reason that it was not then in existence.
“On July 19th, Congress voted that the Declaration be engrossed on parchment. Jefferson, however, says that New York signed on July 15th. Consequently, New York must have signed the original Declaration before it had gone into the hands of the engrosser. On what day the work was done by the copyist, is not known. All that is certainly known, is that on August 2d, Congress had the document as engrossed. This is the document in existence now in Independence Hall. It is on parchment or something that the trade calls parchment. On that day(August 2d) it was signed by all the members present.
“The original Declaration is lost, or rather was probably purposely destroyed by Congress. All the signatures were made anew. When the business of signing was ended, is not known. One, Matthew Thornton, from New Hampshire, signed it in November, when he became a member for the first time; and Thomas McKean, from Delaware, as he says himself, did not sign till January, 1777. Indeed, this signing was, in effect, what at the present day would be called a “test oath.” The principles of many of the new delegates coming into Congress from the different States, were not known with certainty—some of them might be Tories in disguise—and thus each one was required, on first entering Congress to sign the Declaration. In January, 1777, an authenticated copy, with the names of all the signers, was sent to each State for signatures—a fact which may have put a stop to the business of signing. It shows, however, the little importance that was attached to this ceremony, that Robert R. Livingston was one of the committee of five that reported the Declaration, and yet did not sign it, unless his signature is lost with the original document: * * *
“The truth is the Declaration of Independence was considered at that time, of much less importance than now, nor did the signers dream of its becoming a shrine almost of worship at the present day. It was like the Scottish Covenants of the previous century, which so strongly tinctured the Mecklenburg Declaration of May 20, 1775.”
Another distinguished member of this Committee or Congress was Waighstill Avery. We have already recorded his biography. (See p. 76.)
Rev. Hezekiah James Balch was also a member of this body. He was a native of Deer Creek, Harford county, Maryland, born 1748. He was the uncle of Rev. Stephen B. Balch, late of Georgetown, D. C. He graduated at Princeton, in 1766, in the same class with Waighstill Avery, Oliver Ellsworth, Luther Martin, and others. He studied for the ministry and was appointed by the synods of New York and Philadelphia, a missionary to North Carolina. He was the first pastor of Rocky River and Poplar Tent churches, and so continued until his death. He was as an exemplary Christian as he was a devoted patriot. He combined great enthusiasm with unquestioned firmness. He died in 1776, and lies buried in the churchyard of Poplar Tent. The following inscription is over his remains:
“Beneath this marble are the mortal remains of the Rev. Hezekiah J. Balch: the first pastor of Poplar Tent Congregation, and one of the original members of the Orange Presbytery. He was licensed a preacher of the Everlasting Gospel by the Presbytery of Donegal in 1766, and rested from his labors in 1776, having been pastor of Poplar Tent and Rocky River about
seven years. He was distinguished as one of the committee of three, who prepared the Declaration of Independence, and his eloquence, the more effectual from his acknowledged wisdom, purity of motive, and dignity of character, contributed much to the unanimous adoption of that instrument on May 20, 1775.”
John Davidson, another member of this body, was born December 15, 1735, in Chester county, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Robert Davidson of Chestnut Levels, in that State. He was much esteemed and popular. He was a member of the Colonial Assembly in 1771. He was appointed by the Provincial Congress in April 1776, a Major in the Army, with Adam Alexander as Colonel; John Phifer, Lieutenant Colonel, and George A. Alexander, Second Major, and as such served in the campaign of 1776, under General Rutherford, against the Cherokee Indians.
He was with Sumter in August, 1780, at the battles of Hanging Rock and Rocky Mount. He was enterprising and successful in business. With Joseph Graham and Alexander Brevard, he established Vesuvius Furnace, Terza Forge, and other Iron Works in Lincoln county.
Prior to the Revolution he came to Mecklenburg, in North Carolina, and settled on the Catawba in Hopewell congregation. He was a delegate to the county convention on May 19, 1775, signed the Declaration of Independence, which was proclaimed in the name of “the citizens of Mecklenburg county, on the next day,” and afterward told his grandson, A. B. Davidson, Esq., of Charlotte, North Carolina, (now living), that in coming to the next meeting, that he was apprehensive that some Tory might attempt to way lay him on the big road, which he ordinarily travelled, and therefore, being alone, came to Charlotte by the bridle-paths.
He was well informed as to the merits of the question in dispute between Great Britain and the American Colonies, and uncompromisingly advocated independence as the only solution of the controversy. He was appointed by the Provincial Congress, a Major in the Mecklenburg Regiment, under Thomas Polk as Colonel, and was re-commissioned on the reorganization, but then accpted a transfer of service to the staff. He had, prior to the Revolution, entered the military service against the Indians, and won his way from the ranks as a private to the commission of Major. He declined to accept the same rank under an officer who had never seen service; but nevertheless, he was one of the most active “Hornets.” Besides his service with General Sumter, he was in the battles of Hanging Rock and Ramsour's Mill. He furnished the transportation to General William Davidson for the Cowan's Ford expedition, February 1, 1781.
He was of a very prepossessing appearance, and preserved his mental faculties to the last. A generous host, he often found an interested audience among the rising generation, as he related to them many transactions of “the olden time,” of which ‘the historians of the adjacent States’ had not yet taken the pains to inform themselves.
He died, January 10, 1832 in the ninety-seventh year of his age, at the house of his son-in-law, Wm. Lee Davidson. His wife was Violet Wilson, a sister of Samuel Wilson, and half-sister of Captain James Jack. She died December 3, 1818, in the seventy-seventh year of her age. Issue:
I. Robert, born April 7, 1769,—died June 14, 1853; married Mrs. Margaret McQuirter, daughter of Colonel Adlai Osborne of Rowan. She was born April 7, 1776 and died January 9, 1864, without issue.
II. Wilson married Betsy Latta—issue, (a) Robert F. married Eliza McCombs, (b) John R. married Eugenia Conneghay, (c) James married Sarah Springs, (d) William Lee married — Pagan, S. C., (e) Joseph married Mary Caldwell, (f) Benjamin (killed in C. S. A.) married Kate Landon of Connecticut.
III. John married Sally Brevard (daughter of Adam Brevard, the attorney and one of “the seven rebels”), died in 1870 in the ninety-first year of his age—issue, (a) Matthew, (b) Adam Brevard, (c) Robert, (d) William Speight McLean, (e) Augustus, (f) Eugene Constantine, (g) Isabella married J. W. Moore, (h) Violet, (i) Mary.
Of these children, the following were issue: (a) Matthew married Mary J. Sylvester—issue, Robert H. M. Davidson, Member of Congress, 1882-83, from Florida, and had eight children, to wit: (1) Joseph (M. D.) married, first, — Blake; second, Laura Springs; (2) Edward; (3) William, (4) Egbert, (5) Julia married Stockton, (6) Sally married — Milligan, (7) Mary married — Drisdale, (8) Alice married — Stark.
(b) Adam Brevard married, first, Mary Springs;* second, Cornelia, daughter of Hon. Franklin H. Elmore, United States Senator from South Carolina. Of the first marriage, issue is as follows: (1) John Springs married Minnie Caldwell, (2) William, (3) Robert, (4) Richard Austin, (5) Adam Brevard, jr., (6) LeRoy, (7) Baxter; daughters, (8) Laura married Rev. A. Sinclair, (9) Sally, (10) Jenny married Dr. J. M. Miller, (11) Isabella married C. G. Montgomery, (12) Amanda married A. J. Beall, (13) Julia married Rev. T. J. Strohecker, (14) Blandina, (15) Fanny, (16) —.
(c) William Speight McLean, M. D., married first, Jane Torrence—issue, James T.; second, Rebecca Reid, no issue; third, Mary Johnston.
(e) Augustus, died while a cadet at West Point, monument erected by his classmates.
(f) Engene Constantine, Lieutenant United States Army, in Mexican War, married Jane Henderson—issue, (1) Egbert, (2) Sinclair, (3) John, (4) Mary, (5) Sarah.
(g) Isabella married J. W. Moore—issue, (1) Robert, killed in C. S. A., (2) John married Sally Erwin, (3) Harvey B. married Lucile Hall, (4) Sally married Rev. Pharr, (5) Augusta, (6) Catherine married R. A. Bost, (7) Laura married Dr. F. H. Glover.
(h) Violet married Joseph H. Sylvester of Florida.
(i) Mary married George Doby of South Carolina.
IV. Polly married William McLean, M. D., an Assistant Surgeon in the Revolutionary Army, at the battle of Stono and King's Mountain. He was the orator of the day on the occasion of the semi-centennial of the battle of King's Mountain. Mrs. Polly McLean survived until 185-, the ninety-sixth year of her age.
Issue: (a) Richard Dobbs Spaight married Jane Adams. To them were born: Joseph A. of Yorkville, South Carolina, married, first, Crenshaw; second, Clara Dargon.
(b) Eliza married William Campbell—issue, (1) George married, first, Sarah Sandifer; second Ellen Guthrie, (2) Eliza married William Pitts, (3) William.
(c-d) John and Augustus Alexander (twins.) John married, first, Jane, daughter of Ephraim Davidson; second, Martha Bigger; to John (c) and Jane were born, John married Annie Erwin; Augustus; Wm. Spaight; Martha Jane married Dr. R. S. Adams; and Robert Alexander.
* The Springs Family.—The father of Hon. John Springs, came from Germany and settled on an island in the Delaware Bay, a few miles below Philadelphia. He removed to South Carolina, and married Jane Baxter, daughter of the distinguished Judge of that name. By purchase from the Catawbas, he became a large land-owner, to which his son, John Springs, added largely by purchase from the same tribe of Indians. The son, in this way, became a man of prominence in the State of South Carolina, whilst his high character, enlightened and liberal spirit, added to attractive manners, commanded universal esteem. An elder in the Presbyterian church, he was a liberal contributor to all institutions of learning; never emulous of political preferment, he nevertheless, at the solicitation of neighbors, frequently served in the Legislature. On January 9, 1806, he was married to his first cousin,—issue as follows: (a) Richard Austin Springs, born January 19, 1807, died 1874; (b) LeRoy Springs, born November 24, 1811, died 1863; (c) Mary Laura, born November 3, 1813, died October, 1872, wife of Hon. Adam Brevard Davidson; (d) Andrew Baxter Springs, born October 21, 1819; (e) Sophia Convert, born December 30, 1821, wife of Hon. W. R. Myers, a distinguished politician and banker in North Carolina.(d) Augustus Alexander married Catherine Schenck—issue, Mary married Dr. John McLean (son of Thomas); Violet married to Dr. George Hoke.
(e) William Baine married, first, Amanda Hill; second, Mrs. Stringfellow nee Hope; third, Mrs. John D. Graham nee Johnston; by first marriage he had William Lee; Mary married Rev. Parks, M. D.; Jane; and Harvey; by the second marriage he had Robert, M. D., and Amanda married Henry Pitts of Alabama; Violet married, first, Samuel Lindsay, and had one daughter who married Rufus Adams; and second, to John Hart.
(g) Rebecca married Dr. — Wilson—no issue.
(h) Thomas Brevard married Harriet Pegram and had John, M. D., who married, first, Mary, daughter of Augustus A. McLean; second Elmira Salmon, and had Alice, Lizzie, Annie and Charles.
(i) Mary married Randolph Erwin, M. D.—issue, Sarah; Violet; Margaret; and Randolph.
(k) Robert Graham married, first, Emma McNeal—no issue; second, Catherine Sandifer—issue, Lucius Spaight; James Graham married Sabina Holland; Sally; Charles; William Thomas; Robert Brevard; and John Augustus.
V. Elizabeth married Wm. Lee Davidson, son of General Wm. Davidson, who was killed at Battle of Cowan's Ford, February 1, 1781.
VI. Isabella married General Joseph Graham. (See page 231.)
VII. Violet married Wm. Baine Alexander and had Moses Winslow Alexander, who married Violet Graham. (See Graham genealogy.)
VIII. Sally married Rev. Alexander Caldwell, son of Rev. David Caldwell, of Guilford—issue, (a) John, father of Mary Caldwell, who married Joseph Davidson, M. D., (b) David Alexander married Mrs. Martha Caldwell nee Bishop—issue, (1) Sally married Dr. Edward White, Surgeon C. S. A., and (2) Edward, M. D., (3) Patsy married Davidson of Alabama.
IX. Rebecca married Alexander Brevard, one of “the eight rebel sons” of John Brevard, for whose zeal Cornwallis's troops burned his house on the march from Cowan's Ford—issue, (a) Robert who had (1) Ephraim, (2) Alexander; (b) Theodore married Caroline Mays of Florida—issue, (1) Theodore, Jr., married a daughter of Gov. Call, of Florida, Brigadier General C. S. A.; (2) Ephraim, M. D., a Surgeon C.S.A., and (3) Robert, M. D., married Mary Stoney.
X. Peggy married James Harris—issue, Violet who married Hayes.
William Graham was another signer of this Declaration. He was Irish by birth, but no way connected with the distinguished family of the same name mentioned in Lincoln county sketches. In the spring of 1776, he raised a regiment in Lincoln county, then Tryon, and marched to Fort McFadden, in that portion now, Rutherford county, against the *Schoffoldite Tories, and again he marched to Charleston. His command was at the battle of King's Mountain under Colonel Dixon. He died within the bounds of the Hopewell Congregation, a wealthy member of that church (see letter of Wm. S. Harris). Another authority, Dr. C. L. Hunter, states he died in Rutherford county, very wealthy, and at a good old age. One of his sons lived in Augusta, Georgia, where he was a merchant of great wealth.
Henry Downs was from the Providence settlement, and John Ford from the Clear Creek county.
John Flenniken was also a member of this body. He was, by birth, an Irishman, and came first to Pennsylvania and finally settled in North Carolina on the Catawba river, below Beattie's Ford, where some of the name still reside.
Robert and James Harris were both born at Harrisburg, Pa.
* “Schoffold or Schophot, a Tory Colonel of militia, a man of some influence, but a stupid, ignorant blockhead.” Moultrie's Revolution in North and South Carolina.Robert owned much land near the Harrisburg Depot, in Cabarrus county, and is buried at the Spear graveyard, near Rocky River Church.
James lived in the Clear Creek country. He was the great-grandfather of Dr. Jno B. Harris and William A. Harris. Others came to the State in 1741. Some of the descendants of Robert are still living. The late William Shakespeare Harris of Davidson College, was the grandson or the youngest brother of this family.
Robert Irwin was a prominent politician and an active member of this meeting of May 20, 1775. He was with Sumter in August, 1780, at the battle of Hanging Rock, and his military reputation was high. He was a General in the State militia. He was popular with all classes, and was a Member of the Provincial Congress, from Mecklenburg, at Halifax, October, 1776, with Waighstill Avery, Hezekiah Alexander and Zacheus Wilson, as colleagues, which body formed the first State Constitution. He was a delegate to both conventions (the first at Hillsboro, and the second at Fayetteville,.) which considered the Federal Constitution (the first rejecting, the latter approving) with General Joseph Graham as a colleague. He was long a Senator in the Legislature from Mecklenburg, (from 1778 to 1783,-1797 to 1800.) He was an exemplary elder of the Presbyterian Church.
He died, leaving seven children, and lies buried in Steel Creek churchyard. One of his daughters married Washington Morrison; another daughter married McDowell—the father of Robert Irwin McDowell, Esq., who now resides in Charlotte. General Irwin married a second time, Miss Barry of Hopewell.
William Kennon, whose name appears among the Mecklenburg men as one of the Convention of May 20, 1775, was active, intelligent and zealous. He was Chairman of the Committee of Safety of Rowan county, in 1774, whose records have been preserved and published. He resided in Salisbury, was a practicing lawyer, and with his brother-in-law, Mr. Willis, Adlai Osborne, and Samuel Spencer, seized John Dunn, also a lawyer, “as a person dangerous to liberty,” and sent him to South Carolina. He was a Member of the First Provincial Congress that met in direct opposition to the Royal Government at New Berne in August, 1774, and was appointed Commissary to the First Regiment in 1776.
Matthew McClure was also one of this band of heroes. He was born in Ireland, came to Mecklenburg quite young, settled six miles below Davidson College; died in 1808. The Kerns are his wife's relatives.
Neil Morrison was a member of this Convention. He has three grandchildren now living, James H. Morrison and Mrs. Margaret Wilson, now residing in Mecklenburg county and Mrs. Margaret Osborne of Corinth, Mississippi.
Benjamin Patton, another signer, was a man of iron firmness and indomitable courage. Descended from the stern Covenanters, he had their inflexibility of purpose, and their purity of principle. He was elected to the Provincial Congress in 1774, a stirring epoch in the history of the State, for it was already in open contempt of the royal power in North Carolina.
The Governor fulminated a furious proclamation declaring the meeting as against legal authority and in open defiance of the Royal Government. The Council was summoned on this occasion; the Governor laid before them the alarming condition of affairs. But this Council, either alarmed at the threatening aspect of affairs, or tinctured themselves with the independent spirit of the times, declared that the powers of the Executive were exhausted; and “that nothing could be done.”
Tradition states that such was the zeal of Mr. Patton, that when he could not get a horse, or any conveyance, that he walked from Charlotte to New Berne, rather than not join these patriots, determined on liberty or death. He lived in that part of Mecklenburg which is now Cabarrus. John Paul Barringer, Martin Phifer, and Benjamin
Patton formed the Committee of Safety for this section, with very full powers. They held their meetings at the Red Hill, on the Salisbury road, and were truly “a terror unto evil doers,” and “a defense to those who did well.” He died near Concord, on the banks of the Irish Buffalo.
John Query was also one of this Convention, a native of Scotland, came this country and settled on Clear Creek, in this county. He was a man of good estate and of literary tastes. He left one son, Cyrus, who died in this county some few years ago.
Of John Phifer, one of this immortal band of worthies—a sketch has already been presented. (See page 96.)
David Reese, another signer, was of Scotch-Irish descent, a native of Pennsylvania, who settled near Poplar Tent. He was an extensive land-owner on Coddle Creek. He had three sons and three daughters. One of his sons was educated at Princeton—studied for the ministry, and died at Pendleton, South Carolina. One of his daughters married Hon. William Sharpe, whose biography we have given. She was the grandmother of Judge David F. and Hon. Joseph P. Caldwell.
George Reese, one of his grandsons, lived at West Point, Troop County, Georgia.
Zaccheus Wilson was one of this band of patriots. He was much esteemed for his worth and patriotism. He was a member of the convention that met at Hillsboro in 1788, to deliberate on the Federal Constitution.
We have now in a rapid manner attempted to gather up the fleeting traditions that patriotism and affection, have preserved of these immortal men—who declared the independence of the Colony of North Carolina, on May 20, 1775, more than a year in advance of the Declaration of Congress at Philadelphia.
Both papers are equally true and authentic. The one is the unanimous declaration of thirteen States, pledged to mutual support and co-operation; the other without any prompting or hope of support made equally as bold and daring a declaration. The one challenges our admiration, the other our veneration. Both are immortal. If the one was destined to become the Savior of the Country, the other was its forerunner, for it was truly as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, preparing the way, and making the paths straight.”
To the memory of Rev. Alexander Craighead, whose influence in this behalf was greater, possibly, than that of any other one man, the following is written:
“This eminent divine belonged to a race distinguished for their love of liberty. He was the son of Rev. Thomas Craighead, who came to New England in 1715, and the grandson of Rev. Robert Craighead of Dublin, Ireland, one of the thirteen ministers who constituted the Presbytery of Lagan; he became one of the subjects of a most unrelenting persecution; was compelled to preach in barns and administer the holy sacrament at night. The death of Charles I. only dissuaded them from emigration to America as far back as 1649, but the ascendency of James I. renewed the former persecutions of all Protestants, with increased vigor. The memory of the horrid scenes of 1641, is familiar to all, and the bare mention of the “seige of Derry” is sufficient to make the cheek blanche and the heart's blood turn cold.
But, although the arbitrary counsels of James I. were defeated and the Crown secured to William of Orange, yet the warfare waged upon them in Ulster, suppressed Protestant worship and the ministers were compelled to flee for the time. On their return to their former parishes they took every occasion to express their loyalty and devotion to the Crown, nevertheless they became the objects of unfriendliness on the part of the Established Church, and in their desire to seek freedom in religious matters, such a vast emigration to Pennsylvania took place as to become a subject of investigation on the part of
the Crown officers; it was 1780 before a repeal of the Test Act was obtained, however, and not until 1782, were marriages solemnized by Dissenters pronounced valid, and consequently, between 1713 and 1782, the tide of emigration to America was constant and full. The records of the English Rolls Office mention this as resembling “a contagious distemper,” and the President of the Proprietary Council of Pennsylvania, James Logan, in 1729 voiced “the common fear that if the Scotch-Irish continued to come, they will make themselves proprietors of the province.” It is estimated that from 1729 to 1750 about twelve thousand annually came from Ulster to America—a few went to New England.
“The tide of emigration into South Carolina, settled on the fertile lands of North and South Carolina, and meeting the influx from Pennsylvania, flowed in a health-giving body, over beyond the mountains into what is now known as Kentucky and Tennessee. They have left their name and mark in almost every State of this Union. Chambers, in his “Irish and Scotch Settlers in Pennsylvania,” rightfully claims for these people a tendency to reform and elevate public sentiment and morals, being men of intelligence, resolution, energy, and of a religious and highly moral character, devoted to religious and civil freedom. They brought with them the Westminster Confession of Faith, with its catechisms and its Directory of Worship, endeared to them by years of fierce trial and persecution. They certainly were not the cut throats and villians supposed to have emigrated from England by legal compulsion, nor yet was their heroism and attachment to liberty, of the “Bob Acres” stamp, as charged by a writer in the North American Review, of April, 1874.
It is to these same men that we are indebted “for the germs of our civil liberties,” for, as Bancroft says: “The first public voice in America for dissolving all connection with Great Britain, came not from the Puritans of New England the Dutch of New York, nor the Planters of Virginia, but from Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.”
The subject of this sketch, Alexander Craighead, was certainly educated in all the elements considered necessary for the discipline of a Presbyterian Clergyman, to which sacred calling he was licensed in 1734. He was an earnest, and fervid preacher, a zealous promoter of revivals, a great admirer and friend of George Whitefield, whom he accompanied in some of his tours.
As early as 1743 he evinced his ardent love of personal liberty and freedom of opinion by publishing a pamphlet that was denounced as calculated to “foment or encourage sedition or dissatisfaction with the civil government that we are now under, or rebellion, treason, or anything that is disloyal,” and history records the fact that upon complaint made to the Synod of Philadelphia, in the name of the Governor, against this pamphlet, they declared their abhorrence of the paper, and inasmuch as it was published anonymously, the Synod denied any knowledge of Mr. Alexander Craighead being the author thereof. It was evidently premature in its denunciation of George II. as an unchristian king.
On November 11, 1743, at a meeting at Middle Octorara in Pennsylvania, after various religious services, Mr. Craighead and his congregation renewed “the convenants, the national and solemn league,” and after formally denouncing George II. as an unfit king, then and there swore, holding their swords in their uplifted hands according to the custom of their ancestors and of soldiers ready to conquer or die, to keep their bodies, property, and consciences, against all attacks, to defend Christ's Gospel and the national liberty, from foes within or without. This movement greatly troubled the political as well as the religious waters, for in 1745 we find that Governor Morris, in his message to the Assembly, denounced certain people for their aspirations and machinations to obtain “Independency.”
Mr. Craighead found in this attack upon him, one of the causes for leaving the confines of Pennsylvania, and in 1749 we find him* in Virginia, on Cowpasture river, joined to a settlement of farmers who came from Pennsylvania, a few years before. This was then on the frontier of the colony. The failure of Braddock's Expedition (1755) had laid the whole country open to the devastation of the Indians and French.
During the six years of his residence in Virginia, Mr. Craighead found little sympathy in his yearnings for civil and religious liberty; he became exceedingly restive under the tithings and other exactions of the Established Church, and in the autumn of 1755, we find him and most of his congregation seeking peace and liberty in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
Henceforth, we can plainly see the influence of this “man of God,” for the good of man. He received a call from the “Sugar Creek Church,” three miles northeast of Charlotte on the road to Salisbury, and became its first pastor. He was installed in September, 1758, by Rev. Mr. Richardson, (his son-in-law, and the patron of that noble hero, General Wm. Richardson Davie,) in charge of this, which was the oldest church in the upper country. It was organized in 1756, and to a great measure became the parent of the seven churches so largely represented in the Convention of 1775 at Charlotte.†
Over twenty of the members of the Convention at Charlotte, who on May 20, 1775, pronounced the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, were connected with the seven Presbyterian churches of the county; two of which were Rocky River and Sugar Creek. From these two the other five took “life and being.” Such were the men, who, when informed of the troubles “to the eastward,” rallied to the cry: “The cause of Boston is the cause of all!” With Craighead they held that the rights of the people were as divine as the rights of Kings, for their fathers, and they themselves, had often listened in rapt attention to his thrilling eloquence, and felt as if himself were he on whose sole arm hung victory.
Abram Alexander, a ruling Elder of Sugar Creek Church, was chairman of this convention. It was addressed by Rev. Hezekiah James Balch, pastor of Rocky River and Poplar Tent, who was also one of the committee of three to draft the “more formal declaration,” and nine other ruling elders, of these seven churches, were active participants in the proceedings. Although Mr. Craighead died before the convention of May 20, 1775, at Charlotte, yet the whole American Nation should revere his memory as the fearless champion of those principles of civil and religious freedom, which they now enjoy and which first found expression from his old comrades in the immortal Declaration, the true date of which, in the language of another, “has been as clearly established as the given name of any citizen then living in the county.”
A writer in the New York Review, reviewing the “Life of Jefferson,” by Tucker, clearly shows that the preamble to the Bill of Rights, the Mecklenburg Declaration and the Virginia Bill of Rights contain nearly everything of importance in the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, upon which rests so much of Mr. Jefferson's fame. Of this latter instrument and the Mecklenburg Declaration, Judge Tucker says: (Vol. 2, p. 627) “Every one must be persuaded, at least all who have been minute observers of style, that one of these papers had borrowed from the other.”
(See also the observations in the writings of Thomas Jefferson, by H. Lee, Philadelphia, 1839.)
The spirit which moved Craighead to the use of expressions frequent in documents prepared
* Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, p. 189.† Foote.—In this charge he was succeeded by the Rev. John Alexander, afterwards by Rev. Thomas Craighead, but the latter only temporarily; next by his grandson, Rev. Samuel Craighead Caldwell who was the beloved pastor of Hopewell and Sugar Creek Churches for thirty-five years; then by Rev. Dr. Robert Hall Morrison.and used on similar occasions in Scottish history, evidently influenced the mind of Jefferson, when he indited the Declaration of July 4, 1776. He tells us in his autobiography that when engaged in preparing that National Declaration, he and his colleagues searched everywhere for formulas, among the writings of the Puritans, as well as elsewhere. The greatest interest had attached to the “proceedings at Middle Octorara,” so that a reprint of those proceedings was demanded and appeared in Philadelphia; and we must see that most naturally a similarity of expression would occur in these documents where they most probably had a common origin, whose aid was invoked to give vehemence to their denunciation of an “unchristian king,” and to give pledges of mutual faith and declarations of sacred duty, and thus similar phrases are found in these two great American Declarations to give form and presence to kindred thoughts.
The Rev. Dr. A. W. Miller in a sermon, delivered at Charlotte on May 14, 1876, most truthfully used the following language:
“If to the people of Mecklenburg county, Providence assigned the foremost position in the ranks of patriots, a century ago, let them never cease to hallow the memory of that illustrious hero, the Rev. Alexander Craighead, who prepared them for it, at so great toil and pains, and for years and years diligently sowed the seed that produced the glorious harvest. No ordinary work was given him to do, and no ordinary training and discipline fitted him for it.
“Deeply imbibing the spirit of the Scottish Covenant, contending earnestly for the descending obligations of those covenants upon all whose ancestors were parties to the same, and insisting upon making the adoption of the Solemn League and Covenant a term of communion for members of the church in the colonial as well as the mother country, testifying continually to the Headship of Christ over the State, and the responsibility of all kings and rulers to Him, a failure of whose allegiance to Him would forfeit the allegiance of the people to them; proclaiming everywhere these good old doctrines, with a fidelity, and a courage, and a zeal, and a constancy, that ought to have secured sympathy and commanded admiration. Instead of this, he experienced the usual fate of those who are in advance of the age. He was opposed, resisted, denounced as an extremist and ultra reformer, calumniated as an agitator, and even censured by the General Synod of the Presbyterian Church! It was not until he came to North Carolina, that he found a congenial element which he could mould and train successfully in devotion to principles bearing fruit in splendid achievements, which now, at this anniversary season, in another city, are commanding the homage of the representatives of the world—so successfully trained, that Charlotte occupied the front rank more than a year in advance of Philadelphia—the latter on May 20, 1775, counselling submission, the former declaring independence, and so Mecklenburg became the leader of the land.”
Space forbids the recital of further facts which would but serve to justify the grandeur of this pen portrait, nor can we incorporate herein all the distinguished members of this Craighead family, but must content ourselves with a bare reference to several of them.
Nancy, a daughter of Rev. Alexander Craighead, was married to Rev. William Richardson, pastor of Waxhaw Church, South Carolina, almost on the Mecklenburg line. They had no children born to them, but brought up as their own, his nephew, William Richardson Davie, and under this training he became a “great man in the age of great men,”—a patriot, a soldier, a jurist, a statesman and a diplomatist.
The second daughter, Rachael, in 1766, was married to Rev. Dr. Caldwell of Guilford, the educator of a large number of the most eminent men of the South,—divines, statesmen, lawyers, and physicians. His log cabin served for many years to North Carolina as an academy, a college, and a Theological Seminary.” Wheeler I, p. 117.
The third daughter, Jane, married Patrick Calhoun who by a second wife, a Miss Caldwell of Abbeville, became the father of the renowned John Caldwell Calhoun.
The sister of Rev. Alexander Craighead, named Jane or Janet, married the Rev. Adam Boyd, October 23, 1725, and their son, Rev. Adam Boyd (born November 25, 1738, died in Natchez, Mississippi, 1800) was the true friend of the liberties of our colony; he became editor of the Cape Fear Mercury, and one of the Committee of Safety in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1775. Could the copy of the Cape Fear Mercury, loaned from the Rolls Office in London, to Mr. Stevenson, the United States Minister, as mentioned by the author, be found, it would either give us the original text of the Davie-Williamson copy, or show that the royal governor considered the copy of the whole proceeding as good as the original declaration, or in his own language, as “declaring an entire dissolution of the laws.”
A nephew, Colonel George Craighead, born May 10, 1733, lived near Wilmington, Delaware. He was a man of great wealth, and in the Indian War, prior to the Revolution, equipped his own regiment for that service.
He was the intimate friend of George Washington, “dining at the same table, and calling each other by the familiar name of George.”
The oldest son of Rev. Alexander Craighead, the Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, was born in Mecklenburg county, in 1750. He was a graduate of Princeton, 1775, and admitted to the Presbyterian ministry in 1780. Subsequently he removed to Haysborough, Tennessee, six miles east of Nashville, and there established the first Presbyterian church, in the middle division of the State. He married Miss Elizabeth Brown of Frankfort, Kentucky, and so became allied to a family distinguished for high social standing, intellect, and national reputation. The descendants of this marriage are still numerous in Tennessee, and in several other States of the South and Southwest. In 1785 he became the first President of the Board of Trustees of Davidson Academy. Among the board were Senator Smith, General Robertson, and General Andrew Jackson. This academy became merged into the Cumberland College in 1806. In the latter part of his life he had some difficulties that hindered for a time, his usefulness, but which served to draw forth the friendly influence and unqualified approbation of General Jackson.* This friendship is accounted for, by Dr. Ramsey, as influenced by a sense of gratitude as well as affection toward all who bore the name; for when he was taken prisoner at Waxhaw, after Buford's defeat by Tarleton, and carried to the prisonship in Charleston harbor, his mother found a refuge, and home, and kind friends, in Mr. Craighead's father's congregation, at Sugar Creek, North Carolina, and when Mrs. Jackson visited Charleston to see her son, she was accompanied by Mrs. Nancy Dunlap, who had married again after the death of her first husband, Rev. Wm. Richardson. She was the oldest daughter of Rev. Alexander Craighead. The General's mother died of fever at the Quarter House, six miles from Charleston, and was cared for to the last by Mrs. Dunlap. The kindness shown his mother by the family, in this trying period, was never forgotten by General Jackson, and was the motive assigned to the writer by President James K. Polk, for the strong personal regard and attachment which existed, and for the fact that when Mr. Craighead was arraigned by the Synod of Kentucky, Jackson appeared as his Judge Advocate.
Further, the General was descended from the same Scotch-Irish stock, born in the southern part of Mecklenburg, as the line is now established, spent his boyhood in this county, and began the practice of law at Salisbury. His mother was a member of Waxhaw church, and had her son baptised there, with the hope that he might some day become a minister. The impressions received at home, and in his earlier
* Parton's Jackson, II p. 655.years, never were wholly lost. “The family Bible, covered with check cloth, as his mother's was, lay on the stand at the Hermitage, where he ended his days; and he died at last the death of a Christian, in the communion of the church of his mother, a member in full of the Presbyterian Church.”* Howe's Churches of South Carolina, 539.
Samuel Craighead Caldwell, son of Rev. Dr. David Caldwell, died, June 3, 1825; and Rachel, (second daughter of Rev. Alexander Craighead, who was married 1766); married, first, Abigail Baine Alexander—issue, (a) David Thomas and (b) Jane. (a) David Thomas married Harriet Davidson, and to them were born: Samuel Craighead, William Davidson, Thomas, Sarah Jane, Robert Baxter, Minnie and Alice; married second, Adeline Hutchinson, and had one child, Addie. (b) Jane married Rev. Dr. Walter Smiley Pharr, who first married Miss Springs; (2) Samuel Craighead Caldwell married Elizabeth Lindsay and had (a) Robert Lindsay, graduate of University of Georgia, and of Union Theological Seminary of Virginia, pastor at Statesville, North Carolina, married Martha Bishop, and died aged twenty-seven, leaving one son, John Rice; (b) Abigail B., married to Robert D. Alexander and had issue, Agnes, Brevard, Davidson, Lottie, and Samuel Craighead Caldwell. The last, born February 24, 1830, graduate of Davidson College, 1848, Columbia Theological Seminary, 1853; pastor of Thyatira and Black Creek churches, married Mary Holmes Brown, May 21, 1857, and had Samuel, Bettie Brown, Robert Owen, Mary Abigail; lived at Wadesboro, North Carolina; (c) Samuel Craighead born 1810, merchant at Grenada, Mississippi, lost on the “Pathfinder,” on the Mississippi River, unmarried; (d) John McKnitt Madison, born 1812, graduate of University of Georgia and of Union Theological Seminary of Virginia, licensed 1835, ordained 1836, pastor of Sugar Creek church 1837; at Rome, Georgia, in 1845; proprietor of Rome Female College in 1860. He married Caroline E. Livy and had eight sons: Thomas Parsons born November, 1851, died April, 1852, Edwin Harper, born 1853, died 1872; Samuel Craighead, born 1846, graduated (1868) at Princeton; Professor of Natural Science, Rome, Georgia; married Kate Pearson (1870) and had two sons; Alfred Shorter born 1848, married Lizzie Hutchinson, 1874, and had one daughter; John Livy, born 1850, graduate of Princeton, 1870, and at Princeton Seminary 1874; pastor at Pleasant Hill, Mo.; Franklin Hawkins, born 1857, a merchant in Rome, Ga.; and two who died in infancy;
(3) Andrew Harper, born 1814, graduate of Centre College, Ohio, and of Union Theological Seminary of Virginia, married Sarah Ann Williamson, and had issue as follows: John, Samuel Craighead, Sarah Elizabeth, Willie Dobie, Walter Lindsay, and Anna; (f) Seled, born 1816, a Baptist preacher, lived in Texas, has three children; (g) Septemus, born 1818, an eminent lawyer of Grenada, Mississippi, killed by accident; (h) Cyrus Kingsbury, born 1821, graduate (1841) at Davidson College and Union Theological Seminary, Virginia, 1846, ordained 1847, married Fannie A. McKinley, 1850, and had issue as follows: Ida Lindsay, Anna Hope, Fannie Maria, Bessie Morrison; was pastor of Buffalo and Bethel churches at Pittsboro and Denmark, Tennessee, where he died, March 1876; (i) Walter Pharr, born 1822, a lawyer at Greensboro, North Carolina, married Nannie Weatherly, and had issue, Earnest, Maggie, Mamie, Carrie, Nannie, Daisy, Abby Wood.
The editor of these reminiscences in acknowledging the invaluable aid contributed by Captain Robert D. Graham, a member of the Bar of
* The author acknowledges his obligations to a genealogical memoir of the Craighead family (1658-1876) printed for the descendants in Philadelphia, 1876, by Thomas & Co.—an exceedingly interesting compilation containing one hundred and seventy-three pages, which shows in the concise and beautiful language of the distinguished author, Rev. Dr. James Geddes Craighead, who, for fourteen years edited the “New York Evangelist,” the great influence and ability of this distinguished family, now so widely scattered over the whole United States.Charlotte, in execution of his work, deems it a duty to notice the articles prepared by that gentleman on the subject of the Mecklenburg Manuscripts.
These articles have attracted very general attention, as they present this subject in a new and very strong light. Some of his salient points are, in effect, as follows:
The “20th of May” is found to have been “confirmed by an oath.” That should be the end of controversy as to that date, when considered with the additional fact that no participant or eye-witness of that impressive occasion, ever named a different day for “the throwing up of hats.” No one doubts that every witness who certified to it on honor, was prepared unhesitatingly to swear to it. On the other hand, the Charleston printer's date of the “Mecklenburg Resolves” as subsequently found in their digested form, has never had a single witness to testify in its favor. It is a nullius filius, brought to the attention of the people of Mecklenburg for the first time in 1837—“an Ishmael with whom Isaac can make no division of the inheritance.” He calls for the 21st May, “a day after the feast,” when the committee, for this special work, from the preceding manuscripts, and without the further attendance of the popular assemblage’ “digested the system which formed in effect a declaration of independence, as well as a complete system of government.” Accepting the abridged statement of Mr. Bancroft as a Delphic oracle, Mr. Graham quotes his emphatic opinion in confirmation of this conclusion. Hist. U. S. VII, 370-374.
The printed Mecklenburg Resolves, as intended by the parties who had enacted and witnessed the promulgation of the ’several papers from which they are digested, as construed by the two cotemporary royal governors, and as accepted by the great historian, contain the true sentiment and substance of the Davie copy of the first paper unanimously adopted and signed by the delegates, after an exhaustive debate to satisfy every conscientious scruple, at 2 a. m.—the morning of the 20th May.
The 21st May would have been Sunday by our calendar, but Mr. Graham has presented an array of incontestable facts showing that it was not Sunday with the ancient Mecklenburgers, but that the 31st, instead, did fall on Sunday by their calendar.
ALSO, THAT THERE WERE THREE MSS. IN MECKLENBURG IN MAY, 1775 (ALL DECLARING INDEPENDENCE, SPECIAL OR GENERAL, OF GREAT BRITAIN, BUT NOT OF CONGRESS, THAT NEITHER ALLUDED, IN SO MANY WORDS, TO A PRECEDING PAPER OF THE SAME KIND, AND NEITHER OF THEM WAS DATED MAY 31ST.
While the several papers of the 20th of May, were the only documents in this connection ever talked of at home among the people, that which was least heard of there, was for reasons given—ex uno omnes disces—the only one which the officers sent out for publication. The issue is squarely stated that either the date of the actors, (the 20th), or else that of the printer (the 31st) is an error; and such facts, as he remarks, have hitherto been overlooked, by both sides, in the heat of debate. His work as to the dates and number of papers will fill the only gap that seems to have been left open by the many able advocates of the original declaration. Several of the articles have appeared in the Charlotte Home and Democrat, and in the Farmer and Mechanic of Raleigh. The latter pertinently observes:
Others had suggested that the difference between the O. S. and N. S. might disprove the evidence of the eye-witnesses, or demonstrate the fallacy of their memories as to the document and the day, but he is the first to establish the facts, and they corroborate ‘the signers’ in every particular. He shows that Mr. Bancroft has been as much misunderstood on the question of dates, as on that of the absolute character of the Declaration of Independence.
General Thomas Polk, with whose biography this article on the Declaration of 20th May, 1775, was commenced, read the resolves, from
the steps of the Court House to the people.* We propose to continue his biography from that time.
By the Provincial Congress, which met at Halifax, April 4, 1776, the State was placed on a war footing; Thomas Polk was elected Colonel of the 4th Regiment in the Continental service, with James Thackston as Lieutenant Colonel, and William Davidson as Major. Tradition as well as history is silent as to the military services of Colonel Polk, during the exciting scenes of Gates’ advance and defeat, through this part of the State; when Lord Cornwallis advanced, flushed with the victory at the battle of Camden, fought August 16, 1780, over Gates, to Charlotte, hundreds who were true patriots accepted protection for they saw no alternative but that, or the ruin of their families and destruction of their substance.
Among Gates’ papers in the New York Historical Society is the following:
“From a number of suspicious circumstances respecting the conduct and behavior of Colonel Thomas Polk, Commissary of Provisions for the Continental Troops, it is our opinion that the said Colonel Polk should be ordered to Salisbury, to answer for his conduct, and that the persons of Duncan Ochiltree, and William McAferty, be likewise brought under guard to Salisbury. Given unanimously as our opinion this November 12, 1780.
HORATIO GATES,
ISAAC HUGER,
ALLEN JONES,
JOHN BUTLER.Ӡ
This was doubtless produced by the panic which followed the defeat of Gates (in the August previous) while Gates was flying with speed before the British forces. That whatever “suspicious circumstances respecting the conduct of and behavior of Colonel Thomas Polk” may have excited in the distempered mind of General Gates and others, history shows no record of any investigation or condemnation of his conduct, or any condemnation of his course, public or private, and that any distrust of the loyalty of Colonel Polk, was not the opinion of General Gates, and made no impression on his mind, is shown by the following letter, written soon after he took command at Charlotte, North Carolina:
“CAMP CHARLOTTE, Dec. 15, 1780.
TO COLONEL POLK:
SIR—I find it will be impossible to leave camp as early as I intended, as Colonel Kosciusko has made no report yet, respecting a position on the Pedee.
“I must therefore beg you to continue the daily supplies of the Army and keep in readiness three days provisions beforehand. I have just received some intelligence from General Nash and from Congress, which makes me wish to see you. I am &c.,
NATHANIEL GREENE.”
This letter proves the confidence which the commanding General had in the energy and patriotism of Colonel Polk, who owned extensive mills near Charlotte and stores in the town.
He had been appointed Commissary of Provisions for the Continental Troops in this region, that had been stripped to destitution by an invading army, and this was a position at once perplexing, arduous and ungracious. In a letter, the original I have in my possession, he resigned the irksome office.
“CHARLOTTE, 13th Dec., 1780.
On my Informing General Greene of my resignation, he maid menshun of Col. Willm. Davie, which I think will do exceeding well, will be always in Camp; I think him clever in business. If it should meet your approbation I should be happy in releasment.
I am, Sir, with great respect,
To the Hon. }
B'd of War
Your humble serv't,
THOS. POLK.”
* Johnson's “Traditions and Reminiscences of the American Revolution, 77.† Lossing II, 624.That his resignation was not produced by any abatement of his zeal for the cause of his country, is shown by the following, the original of which is in my possession:
“CAMP YADKIN RIVER,
Oct. 11th, 1780.
GENTLEMEN:
I have the pleasure to inform you that on Saturday last, the noted Colonel Ferguson with 150 men fell on King's Mountain, 800 taken prisoner, and 1,500 stand of arms.
“Cleaveland and Campbell commanded, A glorious affair. In a few days we will be in Charlotte, and I will take possession of my house and his Lordship take the woods.
I am Gentlemen,
with respect your humble servant,
THOMAS POLK.”
He was appointed in 1781, Brigadier General to succeed the lamented General Davidson, who fell at Cowan's Ford, in battle.
He died in Charlotte in 1793, and lies buried in the churchyard of the Presbyterian Church.
He married Susan Spratt and left several children.
I. Ezekiel.
II. Charles married Miss Alexander, whose son Thomas Independence Polk, so named by his father because born on the 20th of May, (prior to 1790) married Sarah Moore, and was the father of Horace M. Polk and Charles Polk.
III. William Polk, whose biography we have given (see page—) was another son, killed at Eutaw or Cane Creek.
IV. James.
General Polk, after the Revolution, purchased of the disbanded soldiers the land warrants issued by the State for military services, and died possessed of princely estates, which his sons inherited, but did not improve. They loved fun and frolic better than study or work. Two of them settled in Sumter District, South Carolina; married and died there, leaving no family.
His son, Ezekiel Polk, who was also a member of the Convention of May 20, 1775 (see certificate of Captain Jack, who was present, and bore the proceedings of the Convention to Philadelphia American Archives, 4th series, 2d volume, 858), and although partaking of the wild and frolicsome spirit of the age in which he lived, was brave and patriotic. He commanded a company in 1775, in the 3rd Regiment, South Carolina State Troops, Colonel William Thompson, and marched to subdue the Tories at “96,” and was in a severe engagement on December 22d, 1775, at Cane Creek. His nephew, William, was an official in this company, and was severely wounded (see declaration of Colonel Polk). Here his brother was killed.
He was elected a Member of the Legislature from Mecklenburg, in 1792-93-94 with General Joseph Graham, and William Graham, as celleagues. Ezekiel was reckless as well as frolicsome.
“I heard,” says Dr. Joseph Johnson, in his ‘Traditions and Reminiscences of the American Revolution in the South’ (page 85) of one instance told by himself: ‘I was driving my wagon with another young man, a friend. We had just finished our dinner and had each taken a good stiff drink, when a gentleman rode up in a sulky. We concluded to have some fun. We asked him to alight and take a drink. He did so. We then told him that it was ‘a way we had’ to make strangers dance for us. Then we commenced cracking our whips about his legs, for music to cheer him up. As he seemed to take it gently and when we stopped the music, he stopped the dance. He then said after such a jig, we must have another drink with him, this time and while he was opening his sulkybox we dropped our whips, preparing to join him, instead of producing a bottle, he drew a pair of loaded pistols, and cocking them, presented them at us, with a look of earnestness that showed he meant business. He said that we must dance for him, or pay the piper. At it we went; while he whistled a rapid time, a
Virginia reel, that kept us active. I never had such a sweat in all my life, and was glad when he stopped. He told us that it would not always do ‘to play tricks upon travellers.’ He then offered us, politely, a drink of brandy, which we took, shook hands, and parted friends. We had the lead, he followed suit, beat us with our own cards, and won the odd trick. But all was fair.”
“In the fall of 1782,” says Dr. Johnson, already just quoted, “I remained two or three months at Charlotte, and saw much of General Polk and his sons. The General was plain and unassuming in his deportment; more like an old farmer or miller than a soldier or General.”
His sons, Ezekiel, William, James and “Devil Charley” Polk, were wild and frolicsome, and in their fun, did not even spare their father. On one occasion the General, speaking of “highway robberies committed by one man, as impossible and ridiculous, that no one man could rob him—that he never was robbed, nor would any one man dare attempt it.”
Charley who by his mad cap freaks had won the sobriquet, throughout the whole country, of “Devil Charley,” heard all this and he resolved to try the pluck of the General. Hearing that his father was going on some by road to receive a sum of money, he way laid him and demanded instant delivery of all he had. The General grasped at his pistols, but Charles was too quick for him, and the General seeing a pistol aimed at his breast, surrendered the money. He went home, fretted and mortified at the result. The young men condoled with their father, and inquired the cause of his depression. He, then narrated his mishap: “that he had been robbed of a large sum of money on the public road.” They all expressed surprise that he had not gone armed on the occasion. He acknowledged he was armed and had pistols, but had no time to use them. They then with much increased surprise as they stated concluded that there must have been several men who attacked him; but the General acknowledged that there was only one; but he added he was taken by surprise and was off his guard. Charley then returning the money acknowledged that he had taken it from him.
“What!” said the General, “and did you endanger and threaten your old father's life;”
“No sir!” said Charles.
“Did you not present a pistol at my breast?”
“No, sir,” said Charles,
“How can you say that?” said the father.
“I assure you sir, it was only mother's brass candlestick that I took off from your own mantlepiece,” said Charles producing them.
Of his son William, we have already written.
Leonidas Polk, son of William Polk and Sarah Hawkins, was a Christian, a soldier and a scholar.
He was educated at the United States Military Academy, at West Point, and graduated 1827; one year before Jefferson Davis, and two years before Generals Lee and Johnson. After a few years service, he exchanged the sword for the gown, and became such a shining light in the church, that he attained the position of Bishop in the Episcopal church for his piety, zeal and ability,*
The Civil War aroused his military instincts implanted by a long line of ancestry, and by his own predilections and education. He tendered his services in defence of his home; he was commissioned a Major General in the Confederate Army, ordered to command at Memphis. He achieved a decided victory at Belmont (November 27, 1861) over General Grant.
At the battle of Murfreesboro, December 31, 1862, between Bragg and Rosencrans, General Polk, commanded the left wing; General Bragg in his official report commended him for his skill and ability in that sanguinary engagement. In
* This State has furnished liberally, her portion of ability to the church. Bishop Beckwith to Georgia; Bishop Davis to South Carolina; Bishop Green to Missouri; Bishop Cicero Hawks to Mississippi; Bishop Polk to Lousiana.many other battles General Polk did good service. In high position which exempted him from military duty, with ample fortune and every comfort of life, he left all, to serve the cause he deemed just, and laid down his life in its defense. He was killed on the 14th day of June, 1864.
He married Frances Devereux, of Raleigh, by whom he had eight children:
I. Hamilton married Miss Buck.
II. Catherine married W. Gale.
III. Frances married P. Skipwith.
IV. Sally married Blake of South Carolina.
V. Susan married Dr. Joseph Jones.
VI. Lilly married Wm. Huger.
VII. William married Miss Lyon.
VIII. Lucia married Ed. Chapman.
William Polk, son of John, who was the son of Robert, had among others the following children, Ezekiel, Thomas, and Margaret who way married to McRee. From these have sprung all the Polks in our State.
Ezekiel, son of William Polk and Priscilla Roberts, married, first, Miss Wilson; second, Miss Leonard, had eleven children, as follows:
I. William married Elizabeth Dodd—issue, (1) Clarissa, married to Taylor, had (a) Isaac, (b) Caroline, (c) Clarissa, (d) Thomas, and (e) Laura; (2) Olivia married to D. D. Berry—issue, (a) Elizabeth, (b) Clarissa, (c) Mary E., (d) John T., (e) David D., (f) William, (g) Olivia, (h) Louisa and (i) Laura; (3) Thomas; (4) Joseph; (5) Caroline married to John Wirt and had (a) Catherine, (b) Caroline; (6) Jackson—issue, (a) Ann, (b) Oscar, (c) Virginia, (d) William; (7) Mary married to Howard—issue, (a) Sarah, (b) William; (8) Laura married, first, to Manly; second, to Taylor—issue, (a) Clarissa Manly, (b) Elizabeth, (c) William.
II. Louisa married, first, to Niely; second, to D. C. Collier—issue, (1) Rufus P. married Miss Lea, had (a) Harriet, (b) Kate, (c) Charles, (d) Mary, (e) James, (f) Prudence, (g) Louisa, (h) William; (2) Thomas Collier—issue, William; (3) Fanny; (4) Jackson Niely; (5) Adela Bell; (6) Mary Atwood—issue, (a) Adda, (b) Josephine.
III. Mary married to Hardeman—issue, (1) Monroe, (2) Mary Fentress—issue, Thomas; (3) Leonidas, (4) Owen married S. M. Berry; (5) William.
IV. Charles P.—issue, (1) Charles E., (2) Eugenia, (3) Perry, (4) Ann C., (5) James K.
V. Benigna married Wood—issue, (1) Benigna, who had Mary and Benigna.
VI. Eugenia married Nelson—issue, (1) Sarah, (2) Ada, (3) Sophia, (4) Charles, (5) William (6) Hugh.
VII. Clarissa married to Thomas McNeal—issue (a) Jane married to Brown, had (1) Mary, (2) Clara, (3) Cordelia, (4) Lycurgus, (5) Albert, (6) James; (b) Clara married to Fulton, (c) Mary married to Mark R. Roberts—issue, (1) Jane Jewett, (2) Prudence McRay, (3) Evelina, (4) Mary, (5) Ann, (6) Samuel, (7) Mark, (8) Albert, (9) Eliza, (10) Napoleon, (11) Thaddeus, (12) Mary Baker, (13) Thomas F; Evelina L. married Peters—issue, (1) Arthur, (2) Clara, (3) George W (4) Thomas; (e) Prudence married John H. Bells had (1) Leonidas, (2) Wilson, (3) Evelina, (4) Clara, (5) Mary Wood—issue, Fanny.
Among the notable celebrities of Mecklenburg county, was Susan Smart nec Barnett, remarkable for her great age, and her accurate and vivid recollections of the events of the Revolution.
Her father was John Barnett, who emigrated from Ireland, and who married Ann, the daughter of Thomas Spratt, one of the earliest settlers of this county. Thomas Spratt was the first who crossed the Yadkin River with a wagon; and the first court ever held in Mecklenburg county, was convened at his house.
Her brother, William Barnett was but a youth in the Snow Campaign of 1776, and did good service. Her grandfather on the mother's side, Thomas Spratt, had two sons, Thomas and William, and six daughters. Thomas served in the Revolutionary War under Davie. Jane, one of these daughters married Colonel Thomas Neil.
One of her sons fell most gallantly at the battle of the Rocky Mount, commanding a regiment, and another at Wright's Bluff; another daughter, Susan married Colonel Thomas Polk, on whom we have written.
Susan Barnett, the subject of this sketch, was born in 1761; and her sister Mary was the first white child born between the two rivers, the Catawba and the Yadkin. She married Captain James Jack, of whom, and whose genealogy, a full and accurate account is given in the sketches of North Carolina by Dr. C. L. Hunter (1877).
Captain Jack was the bearer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of May 20, 1775, to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia.
Mrs. Smart was present at Charlotte on this glorious occasion; and many now alive have listened with great pleasure to her glowing and graphic accounts of the enthusiasm which pervaded the whole community. It was truly a day of “the throwing up of hats,” many of which she stated, fell on the roof of the Court House.
Many interesting incidents of the horrors of war, were narrated by her.
After the surrender of General Lincoln to Sir Henry Clinton at Charleston (May 12, 1780), Tarleton was sent by Lord Cornwallis to repel troops approaching Charleston, under Colonel Buford. These were surprised at Waxhaw and mercilessly sabred. In this bloody affair Captain John Stokes was severely wounded, losing one of his arms. General Sumter narrowly escaped capture at another point. He fled, however, and came to her father's home.
When asked how the defeat happened, Sumter said: “It was a complete surprise. The enemy crossed the creek and before we knew of their presence, was in the middle of our camp. I was in the marque asleep at the time, and was carried out in the rear of the tent, mounted a horse and escaped with the loss of my hat and plume.”
There were many others who fled to Charlotte. Among them a lad, who appeared much jaded; his face careworn and sunburnt. She asked him where he was from. He replied, “the Waxhaws.”
“Do you know Major Crawford?”
“To be sure I do, he is my uncle. Who are you?”
“I am Andrew Jackson.”
“What is the news about the British?”
“They are on their way to Charlotte.”
“And what have you been doing down there?”
“We are popping them occasionally.”
His long and slender face was then lit up with a smile, and with grace and ease, he bid her good-morning.
When the British came, they plundered the house and then burned it.
Shortly before they left Charlotte, an express was captured by the Whigs, from Lord Cornwallis to Camden. His Lordship wrote that “he was going to leave Charlotte, for its inhabitants were so inimical that they killed his men from every bush, in cold blood, while engaged in collecting forage for his army.”
Miss Susan Barnett married in 1775, George W. Smart, who died in May, 1809. The house she occupied for years was built by him. She had been always in the habit of entertaining travellers, as she lived on the public road. William H. Crawford always stopped at her house on his way to and from Washington, and was highly esteemed by her. She used to say “I have rarely been from home, but I have known well, two of our Presidents, “Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk. Little Jimmy Polk used to pass along this road often to his school; bare-footed, with his breeches rolled up to his knees. He was a mighty bashful little fellow.”
Many of the connections of Aunt Susan Smart still reside in this region. One of them, George W. Smart, represented the county in the Legislature in 1808.*
* Much in this is gathered from an article in the “Chester Palmetto Standard,” October 1, 1851, signed B. G. S.Mrs. Susan J. Hancock is a native of New Berne—born 1819—nee Blaney. Her father was a prosperous merchant, and bestowed on her the best possible education.
She was always of a romantic turn of mind, but never wrote a line until she was thirty-five years old, when she wrote articles for various Southern periodicals, which were well received. Her poetry is impromptu and written to elicit much of joy as well as sorrow.
New Berne at an early period fell into the hands of the Union troops, and Mr. Hancock was sent with many others over the lines without provisions or protection. Her son fell in battle near Richmond. He was a member of the 2d North Carolina Regiment, commanded by Colonel Tew. After the war was over she returned to New Berne, there remained until she moved to St. Paul, Minnesota.
She says, “if anything could make me forget the unhappy past and my beautiful Southern land, beautiful even in her desolation, it would be the warm hearted kindness with which I have been welcomed to my new Western home.”
Samuel Lowrie (born 1756, died 1818) lived and died in Charlotte. He was born in Wilmington, State of Delaware, August 12, 1756, and came with his parents to Rowan county, N. C., when he was fifteen years old. He was educated in Iredell county at the Clio Academy, under charge of Rev. James Hall. When the Revolutionary War came on he entered the army, and was in the Battle of Kings Mountain (October 7, 1780), and at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown (October 19, 1781). After the war closed he studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Camden, South Carolina, where he lived until his marriage in 1788, to Margaret, daughter of Captain Robert Alexander, who had served in the war as a Commissary, and whose wife was the sister of Captain James Jack, who bore the proceedings of the Mecklenburg Declaration to Philadelphia.
Mr. Lowrie, on his marriage, settled in Charlotte in the practice of his profession.
In 1804 he was elected a member of the Legislature from Mecklenburg county, with General George Graham, George W. Smart and Thomas Henderson as colleagues. He was re-elected in 1805-06. This last year he was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Courts for the State, which elevated position he held till his death (December, 1818).
He was twice married. By his first wife he had—
I. Mary, married Dr. David Dunlap.
II. Eliza—died unmarried.
III. Margaret—same.
IV. Lillie, married Brawley Oats.
V. Robert Jack Alexander.
VI. Samuel M.
By his second wife, Mary, daughter of Marmaduke Norfleet, of Bertie county, he had one daughter, who married Rev. Mr. Henderson, of Huntsville, Alabama.
ANDREW JACKSON.We have alluded to the interview between Mrs. Smart and Andrew Jackson when he was quite a youth.* It seems to be settled in the public mind that he was born in South Carolina, but there is no certainty of the fact.†
His early life was very obscure and he himself was uncertain of his birthplace. He remembered many incidents of the Revolution more especially these that transpired in North Carolina. Unquestionably he was of Irish descent, and read law wiht Judge McCoy in Salisbury. Judge Alexander Porter, of Louisiana, was an Irishman, and from the same neighborhood where were born and raised the parents of Jackson.
Judge Porter visited Europe a short time before his death, and made dilligent search into this matter. He was satisfied that Andrew
* The Memories of Fifty Years, by William H. Sparks, Philadelphia, 1870.† Governor Swain one of the most accurate genealogists of the country, in his Tucker Hall address, states positively that General Jackson was born at the house of George McCamie, in Mecklenburg county. North Carolina, in the 15th of March, 1767. The line was not ascertained on that locality until long after Jackson had removed to Tennessee.Jackson was born in Ireland, and brought to the United States when only two years old. This was also the opinion of Thomas Crutchfer, who came with General Jackson to Nashville, and it was the opinion of Dr. Boyd McNairy, and his elder brother, Judge McNairy, who came with him (Jackson) from North Carolina. His early education was very limited, and so defective that his orthography was almost ludicrous, and his general reading amounted to nothing. So far as his legal knowledge was concerned, at no time was he a respectable county court lawyer, so far as mere legal training was concerned. It is wonderful how the natural vigor of his mind supplied the absence of learning.
“The triumphs of mind, unaided by education, are no more astonishing in the case of General Jackson than others,” says Mr. Sparks. The great Warwick of England, “the King Maker,” never knew his letters. Marshal Soult, one of France's greatest Marshals, could not write a court sentence; and Stevenson, the greatest engineer the world ever saw, the inventor of the locomotive, did not know his letters at twenty-one. The Duke of Marlborough could hardly write his own name. But Jackson was naturally great. He did not need, as says Johnson of Shakespeare, “the spectacles of books to read the great volume of human nature.” As a Judge, his greatest aim was to get the facts of a case, and decide all points upon the broad principles of justice. He never seemed to reason. On the presentation of any subject to his mind, it seemed, with electrical velocity, to cut through to a conclusion, as if by intuition. He was more correct in his conclusions than any man of his age. His opinions were formed at the first glance, and rarely or never changed. He was eminently self-reliant. In all matters concerning himself he was his own counsellor; he advised with no man; cool and quick in thought, he seemed to leap at a conclusion, from which he took no backward step. His knowledge of men, from his intimate and extended intercourse with all classes of society, had so educated his faculties that in a few moment's intercourse he measured the very inmost nature of a man. That he was sometimes deceived is but natural, and when the deception was ascertained he was fierce and furious in his resentments. He was quick and irascible in his temper, and when angry was exceedingly violent in manner and words; his passion towered in proportion to the provocation, and at times he was almost savage. In the affair with Dickerson, after he had received his adversary's shot, which from his skill had been well-nigh fatal, he stood immovable, deliberately fired, and Dickerson fell dead. He is said to have remarked, “had his shot killed me, I would have, in dying, killed him.” But in private and social life, and in the company of ladies especially, his manners were as urbane and polished as any knight of chivalry. This was the emanation of his great soul which marked every movement in the presence of ladies, and which brooked no indignity from men.
“To the froward he was as fierce as fire,But to the kind as gentle as a lamb.”In his attachments he was almost fanatical. To any one, however humble, who was his friend and had proven it, he went to any length to serve and protect him. His course toward Dr. Gwinn and thousands of others prove the devotion of his friendship. Rather than desert the good name of his Biographer and Secretary of War, Eaton, he dissolved his Cabinet—a step that no other President would ever have attempted. This devotion to his family, his friends, and to his conceived duty, was not assumed, or counterfeited, but bubbled up from his magnanimous heart as naturally as does pellucid water spring from the crystal fountain. His principles, his undaunted courage, his frank and outspoken temper, his sincerity in private as well as public life; his unsullied patriotism,
made him the cherished idol of the nation, and captivated the hearts of admiring millions. He was one of those rare creations of nature, which appear at long intervals to astonish and delight mankind.
No attempt has been made in this sketch to give facts and dates as to General Jackson's career or services, for these are all recorded and here become part of the nation's history, but we opened this sketch to show the claim of our State to this offspring of patriotism and genius. It has been my fortune to see and read of the illustrious men of our own and other times, but no one that I have ever seen or read of, exceeded Andrew Jackson in all those qualities that can adorn or dignify our nature.
Joseph Wilson (born- —, died August, 1829), who resided in Charlotte, was distinguished as an advocate and criminal lawyer.
His ancestors on the paternal side were Scotch, and settled in 1730 near Edenton, and in Perquimans county. On the maternal side they were English, and settled on Nantucket Island. His father moved first to Guilford county, North Carolina, and then to Randolph, where he married Eunice Worth. His parents were of the Society of Friends.
His early education was directed by Rev. David Caldwell, and he studied law with Reuben Wood, whose daughter he married. He was licensed to practice law in 1804; he came to the bar at the same time with Israel Pickens. He settled in Stokes county, and by force of his talents, application to his studies, and force of character he soon rose to the uppermost ranks of his profession. He was elected to the Legislature in 1810-’11-’12, and was distinguished as a firm and constant advocate of the war. He was elected the latter year Solicitor of the mountain circuit, then embracing nearly the whole western portion of the State. The unsurpassed ability, fearless zeal, and unflinching courage with which he discharged his duties as Prosecuting Attorney, are still remembered by the people of this section, which was infested by many lawless men, who defied the restraints of justice. He continued in the faithful discharge of these duties until his death. He left several children. One of them—Catharine—married William J. Alexander; Roxanna married Dr. Pinkney Caldwell; another married Marshal Polk.
William Julius Alexander, who married a daughter of Mr. Wilson, was long a resident of Charlotte, born in Salisbury in March, 1797. His early education was conducted by Rev. Dr. Robinson, and he graduated at the University in 1816, in same class with John Y. Mason, (afterwards Attorney General of the United States, Secretary of the Navy and Envoy to France), and others. He studied law with his relative, Archibald Henderson. He settled in Charlotte, and was distinguished as an advocate and politician. He was a member of House of Commons from Mecklenburg county in 1826, re-elected in 1827-28, at which session he was chosen Speaker, and in 1830 he was elected Solicitor of the mountain circuit, made vacant by the death of Mr. Wilson. In 1846 he was appointed Superintendent of the Branch Mint at Charlotte. He died leaving a widow and several children, one of whom, Catherine, married Colonel John F. Hoke, of Lincolnton.
The United States Branch Mint was located at Charlotte, by act of Congress of 1835. It is now used only as an Assay Office and is in charge of Calvin J. Cowles, Esq. Its first superintendent was John H. Wheeler, who was succeeded (in 1841) by Burgess S. Gaither; Greene W. Caldwell, William J. Alexander, and James W. Osborne.
Calvin J. Cowles is now in charge of this institution as Assayer.
Greene W. Caldwell lived and died in this county. He was born April 13, 1811, in Gaston county, near the Tuckasege Ford on the Catawba River. He studied medicine with a
Dr. Doherty near Beattie's Ford, but became dissatisfied with this profession and abandoned it for the law. But his element was political life, and he was eminently successful as a politician. In 1836, he was elected a member of the Legislature. He was re-elected to each Legislature until 1841, when he was elected a member of the 27th Congress (1841-43). In 1844 he was appointed Superintendent of the Mint at Charlotte, and in 1846 he was nominated by the Democratic Convention as Governor, but declined. He resigned his place in the Mint and went to Mexico as a Captain of Dragoons. On his return (1849) he was elected Senator, with his two Lieutenants (E. C. Davidson and Harrison) as colleagues in the Legislature. In 1861 he was defeated for Congress by Hon. Alfred Dockey..
General D. H. Hill, long a resident of Charlotte, is a native of South Carolina, but his services and fame are shared by North Carolina. He was educated at the United States Military Academy at West Point, at which he graduated in 1842, in same class with Generals Newton, Rosecrans, Rains, Whiting, Longstreet and others, and was commissioned a Lieutenant of Artillery. In 1847 he was promoted for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, and the storming of Chapultepec, in the Mexican War. He resigned in 1849 and accepted a Professorship of Mathematics in Washington College, Lexington, Virginia. This he subsequently resigned and accepted a similar position in Davidson College, in this State, which he resigned to accept the Superintendency of the Military Institute at Charlotte, of which flourishing school he was the head, when the Civil War began.
He is esteemed as an admirable and able professor, thoroughly versed in the studies of his department, and possessing the faculty of stimulating his students to their greatest efforts. He published in 1858 a text-book on Algebra, which Stonewall (T. J.) Jackson, then also a Professor in the Virginia Military Institute, regarded “as superior to any other work in the same branch of science.”
In 1860 he delivered a lecture in several places in this State, complaining of the gross injustice done to the South, by the Northern historians, and asserted that all the battles gained by the North were insignificant compared with those of “the South which did all the open, real, and hard fighting.” This feeling with General Hill is intense and has characterized his whole life and has become as near a passion as his nature permits. He has quiet and determined manners—not genial, but reserved, it gives the impression to strangers of one who is content to mind his own business without concerning himself with the business of any one else.
Having served with distinction in the Mexican War rising to the grade of Major by brevet, he entered with great zeal into the cause of the Confederacy, and took a conspicuous part in our Civil War. To detail all the military movements and battles in which General Hill bore a conspicuous part, would be to write a history of this war; which is not the aim of these sketches. The correspondence between General Hill and Edward Stanley, Military Governor of North Carolina (March 1863) is one of the keenest specimens of invective since the days of Junius.
After the war was over he edited a magazine called the Land we Love, and weekly paper at Charlotte called the Southern Home. In these periodicals the future historian will find rich materials for his task. He is eminently and sincerely religious in his temperament, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, exemplary, conscientious, and zealous; and has written several essays on Theology.
He removed to the Southwest, a few years since and is the head of the University of Arkansas, at Fayetteville in that State.
He married Isabella, the eldest daughter of Rev. Dr. Robert Hall Morrison; whose sister
Anna is the widow of Thomas J. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson.
The Osborne family is distinguished in the annals of North Carolina for integrity, patriotism and talents.
Twenty years before the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, the Rev. Hugh McAden made a tour through the western part of North Carolina and found it a settled country, with churches located here and there. He kept a diary, and records that in September 1755, he was entertained at the house of Captain Alexander Osborne, and preached at a church near there.
The Osbornes settled at an early day in New Jersey. Alexander Osborne was the founder of the family in North Carolina, he came to this province sometime previous to 1755, and settled in the county of Rowan.
Captain Osborne was at that time, forty-six years of age. When Governor Tryon reviewed the troops in Salisbury in 1768, the Major Generals were John Ashe and Thomas Lloyd. The Colonels were Alexander Osborne, Edmund Fanning, Robert Harris, James Sampson, Samuel Spencer, James Moore and Maurice Moore.
In 1768 he marched to Hillsboro, with a regiment of Rowan troops, under orders of Governor Tryon, to aid in suppressing the regulators.
Colonel Alexander Osborne married Agnes McWhorter, sister of Rev. Alexander McWhorter, President for a time of Queen's College in Charlotte.
Colonel A. Osborne's name is found on the Committee of Safety for Rowan county, in 1775. This was the last year of his life; he died in 1776. In the graveyard at Centre Church, his grave is seen marked by a slab, on which are two panels, one for his own epitaph and one for his wife, Agnes, who had died two days before Colonel Osborne. He was buried at Centre Church in the county of Iredell, only a short distance from his home. Previous to the erection of a church at Centre, the early settlers congregated at his house for worship, a fact mentioned in McAden's diary.
Colonel A. Osborne's only son Adlai, graduated at Princeton at the same time with his cousin, Ephraim Brevard, who was a nephew of Mrs. Alexander Osborne.
Colonel Alexander Osborne left four daughters: Rebecca, who married Mr. Nathaniel Ewing: their son, Rev. Finis Ewing, married a daughter of General William Davidson, who fell at Cowan's Ford. Their descendants are found in several of the northwestern States, as also in Kentucky, and Ohio. Mary married John Nesbit,—the family of that name in Georgia, are descendants, the late Chief Justice Eugenius Nesbit, being one of the family. Jean married Moses Winslow; and Margaret married Mr. John Robinson of Providence township, Mecklenburg county.
Colonel Adlai Osborne was born June 4, 1744; he graduated at Princeton in 1768; married in January 30, 1771, Margaret Lloyd, and settled in Salisbury. He studied law, was appointed Clerk of the Court for Rowan under the Crown, and continued until 1809. He was a man of fine literary attainments, the firm friend of education, and one of the first Board of Trustees for the University. He died in 1815, leaving a large family.
He participated in all the various meetings held in Rowan during the Revolution, as will be seen in reference to the journal of the committee, which has been preserved.
Four of Colonel Adlai Osborne's sons graduated at Chapel Hill. The two elder, Thomas Alexander and Edwin Jay, were in the first class ever graduated there, (in 1798.) Adlai Laurens, in 1802, and Spruce McCoy, in 1805.
Edwin Jay Osborne married Harriet Walker, daughter of Captain John Walker of Wilmington, North Carolina; studied law and settled in Wilmington; afterwards removed to Salisbury. He was a man of many gifts and varied acquirements.
He was distinguished as a fine conversationalist.
His family consisted of three daughters and one son. Harriet Osborne who married Alexander Duncan Moore of Wilmington, North Carolina; Julia who married Mr. Frank of New London, Connecticut; Charlotte married Mr. Holman of Alabama and James Walker Osborne. James W. Osborne, only son of Edwin Jay and Harriet Osborne, was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, on December 25, 1811, settled in Charlotte, North Carolina; married Mrs. Mary A. Moore, daughter of John Irwin of Charlotte, on April 5, 1842. Mrs. Osborne was the widow of Thomas, J. Moore of South Carolina, by whom she had one son, his namesake.
Thomas Jefferson Moore is a native of this county, born April 30, 1843. He is the son of the late Colonel Thomas J. Moore of Madison County, Mississippi, a native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, who died at the early age of twenty-six, yet left behind him an enviable reputation as a lawyer and advocate.
His grandfather was General Thomas Moore, of South Carolina, a soldier of the Revolution and served his State as a General of brigade in the war of 1812-15. He was a Member of Congress from South Carolina from 1800 to 1812 and again from 1814 to 1816, holding the position at the time of his death. His mother was Miss Mary Irwin, daughter of the late John Irwin of this county, who after the death of her first husband, married Judge Osborne, a sketch of whose life is given in this volume.
Dr. Moore received his academic education at the University of Louisiana; served during the late war in the Confederate Army, going out as a private in the first North Carolina Infantry, (six months volunteers) (D. H. Hill's regiment) and at the disbandment of the regiment was appointed to a staff position, serving for some time as one of the aid-de camps of General D. H. Hill. After the war he studied medicine at the University of New York, where he graduated with distinction in a class of seventy-two, delivering the valedictory of his class. He represented Mecklenburg in the State Senate during the session of 1876-77.
Judge Osborne's family consisted of four sons and three daughters. Three sons survived their father, Robert D. Osborne, who served as a private soldier in the late Civil War, was noted for coolness and courage; studied law, but died in the prime of life. Frank Irwin Osborne, a lawyer—practicing law in Charlotte—, Solicitor of 6th N. C., Judicial District, and James W. Osborne, a graduate of Davidson College, also a lawyer, residing in New York City.
These data of this able and estimable man might seem ample, yet we preserve a more extended sketch from the pen of General D. H. Hill, at the conclusion of the sketch of this family.
Colonel Adlai Osborne, born June 4, 1744.
Margaret Lloyd Osborne, born June 23, 1754, married January 30, 1771.
Colonel A. Osborne, died 1815.
Mary Lloyd Osborne, oldest child of Colonel Adlai and Margaret Lloyd Osborne was born September 6, 1774.
Margaret McWhorter Osborne, born April 7, 1776.
Thomas Alexander Osborne, born February 14, 1778.
Edwin Jay Osborne, born March 1, 1780.
Adlai Laurens Osborne, born October 19, 1782.
Spruce McCoy Osborne, born December 14, 1784.
Ephraim Brevard Osborne, born February 21, 1786.
Nancy Cecilia Osborne, born April 21, 1788.
Eliza Tabitha Osborne, born July 7, 1790.
Panthea L. Houston, born December 1, 1793.
Franklin Washington Osborne, born January 1, 1795.
Mary Lloyd Osborne married, first, Mr. Sharpe, a lawyer who lived in Statesville. After
his death she married John Young of Iredell county, and General John Young of Charlotte, is their son.
Margaret McWhorter married Robert Davidson; died without children.
Thomas Alexander graduated at Chapel Hill, in 1798; studied medicine; went to South America, and died fighting in one of their wars.
Edwin Jay Osborne graduated at Chapel Hill in 1798; studied law; settled in Wilmington, North Carolina, married Harriet Walker; by this marriage left three daughters and one son: Harriet (Mrs. Alexander Duncan Moore), Mrs. Julia Frank, Mrs. Charlotte Holman, James W. Osborne.
Spruce McCoy Osborne graduated at Chapel Hill in 1805; studied medicine; entered the army as surgeon; was killed at the massacre of Fort Mimms.
Ephraim Brevard Osborne studied medicine; married in Alabama; settled in Texas; left a large family; one of whom, Colonel Edwin Osborne, distinguished himself in our late war; another is Ezekiel Knox Polk Osborne an attorney at Charlotte, N. C., and a third is Frank J. Osborne a civil engineer.
Col. Osborne has taken orders and is now an Episcopal minister, settled in North Carolina; he married Fanny Moore, his cousin, in the second degree, a daughter of Harriet and Alexander Duncan Moore, of Wilmington, North Carolina; they have five children.
Nancy Cecilia Osborne married Mr. Byers of Iredell county; left a large family.
Eliza Tabitha married Mr. Alexander Hogan; left no children.
Panthea L. Osborn married Colonel Houston; lived in Alabama; has one descendant, Thomas Houston, twenty-one years of age; studying for the Methodist ministry at the Vanderbilt University, Tennessee.
Franklin Washington Osborne studied medicine; died in Mobile, Alabama, a victim of yellow fever, whilst devoted to his practice.
We have met among the memoirs, published at the time of the death of Hon. James W. Osborne, one of the most distinguished members of this family, whose memory is still warmly cherished, an obituary notice so just and so full, that we here insert it. It is from the pen of General D. H. Hill.
“The nations of the earth, the most distinguished in history for prowess in the field, wisdom in legislation, progress in science and art, purity of taste in polite literature, and refinement in the social circle, are preciseiy those which have most cherished the memory of their heroes statesmen, scholars and patriots. It has been well said that the land which erects no monuments to its illustrious dead, will soon cease to produce men worthy of a place in history. To neglect departed greatness is to degrade living eminence.
“The Bible, with its wonderful adaptation to the wants of our race, sanctions cherishing tender recollections of the saints of the Lord. ‘The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.’ ‘The memory of the just is blessed.’ Here we have a prophecy and a command, both involving a high obligation and a glorious privilege—to keep fresh and green in the minds of men the memory of those who died in the full hope of a blessed immortality. And thus the friends of the late Hon. J. W. Osborne, feel that in attempting a tribute to his exalted worth, they are discharging a sad but gracious duty. It is meet that we should revere the memory of a man of mighty intellect, of profound scholarship, and of matchless eloquence, who brought all his rare and varied gifts and accomplishments and laid them as an humble offering at the foot of the Cross. There remains nothing now of his manly person and noble mein, of his vast learning and attainments, but
‘The knell, the shroud, the coffin and the grave,The deep, damp vault; the darkness and the worm.’“His simple faith in Christ was worth a thousand-fold more than all his talents and acquirement,
and the lesson of his life comes home to every bosom, “With all your gettings, get understanding.” We can now think with grateful satisfaction that those great powers of mind, which were our pride and astonishment on earth, are ever expanding in knowledge, ever getting new revelations of Divine love and ever attaining new degrees of holiness.
“The saddest sight on our afflicted earth is that of a man of great gifts, culture and refinement, living out of Christ and deliberately choosing to spend his eternity with the coarse, the brutal and the depraved. With heartfelt gratitude we adore that distinguishing love which made our illustrious countryman choose that good part which shall not be taken away.
“Judge Osborne was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, on the 25th of December, 1811, and died in Charlotte on the 11th August, 1869, so that he had hardly passed the meridian of life, and until a short time before his death, ‘his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.’
“He took his degree at Chapel Hill in June, 1830. At the University he specially delighted in mathematics, and his success in that study was eminent. His logical mind peculiarly fitted him for the exact sciences. Hence, a distinguished lawyer said of him, that he had the first legal mind in the State, though his varied and extensive reading kept him from being as familiar with the formula and technicalities of the law, as were some of the routine lawyers. But his keen perceptions and accurate judgment made him know what the law ought to be in any new case presented.
“The extent and variety of his reading was truly marvelous. There was scarcely a subject which he had not looked into, if indeed he had not thoroughly mastered it. Few clergymen outside of our Theological Seminaries were so well read in theology. He said to the writer of this, that there was a charm about the study of theology which no other reading possessed for him; and he devoured huge volumes of theologic lore with the most eager relish.
“As an instance of the multifariousness of his learning, it may be mentioned that long before the Civil War, he had been a profound student of military history and science. During the siege of Yorktown, he gave a Division Commander such masterly reasons for its evacuation and so supported by authority and precedent, that he went to General Johnston and repeated them. Again, when the battle was in progress at Mechanicsville on the first of the seven days’ fights around Richmond, the same officer received a letter from the Judge suggesting the very movement that our troops were making. Just after the battle of Chancellorsville, he wrote: ‘Lee has crushed Hooker with one wing of his army. Let the other be thrown rapidly to Murfreesboro, annihilate Rosecranz and seize the waters of the Mississippi above Grant at Vicksburg.’ There is every reason to believe that many Confederate officers thought that this would be a wiser move than the advance into Pennsylvania.
“Fluency of speech was a natural gift with Judge Osborne, and this, combined with his vast acquaintance with books, made his language the very choicest Anglo-Saxon. His warmhearted, genial, pleasant manner, and bright, kindly face added a charm to the whole, which was absolutely irresistible. He had no equal as a conversationalist, and his intimate friends can never forget the grace and fascination of his address. And so his ready command of the best words, his learning, his enthusiasm, his sonorous voice and graceful delivery, made him one of the very first orators in the land. We confess that we have been more impressed by him than by Mr. Clay, or even by Mr. McDuffie.
“The magic spell thrown around Judge Osborne in the social circle and on the hustings was his imperturbable good temper, and that proceeded from his large hearted humanity, his sincere and unaffected love for his race. He had a kind word and a pleasant smile for everybody, simply because he loved mankind. He
needed not a veil of charity to cover their crimes and frailties; in his own simple guilelessness he did not see their faults. Those who had known him for thirty and forty years, say that they never saw him angry. He had not an enemy among the people with whom he has lived since early manhood. We doubt whether he has one in the world, notwithstanding the many important trusts committed to him, the duties of which he discharged faithfully and fearlessly. We have seen his antagonists quail beneath his bold, yet courteous, advocacy of the truth. Yet the most remarkable thing in the career of this great man, was the hold he had upon the hearts of men of every creed and party, although in his official capacity he had often been opposed to the interests and wishes of many.
“A brief summary of the incidents in his life, and of the positions held by him, will show how universal must have been the confidence in his integrity, and how great must have been the fascination of his amiability and philanthropy, since he was enabled to discharge all his duties conscientiously without giving offense and without making an enemy.
“He studied law at Hillsboro, with Hon. Wm. A. Graham, and was admitted to the bar at Charlotte, in 1833. He took a high stand in his profession at the very outset and maintained it always. This was not due merely to his genius, his learning, and his eloquence, but in a large degree to his unselfish and sympathetic nature, which made him adopt his client's cause as his own and identify himself thoroughly with the interests, the views, and the feelings of the client.
“He was twice Elector for the State at large, first in the Clay campaign, and then in the contest between Seymour and Grant. He was appointed by President Fillmore, Superintendent of the United States Mint at Charlotte, which office he held for four years. He was chosen by Governor Ellis to fill a vacant Judgeship in 1859, and the General Assembly confirmed the selection November 26, 1860. His decisions as a Judge, were eminently wise, and just, and no breath of suspicion ever soiled the spotlessness of his ermine. At the time of his death he was a Senator in the General Assembly, as Mecklenburg still honored her own eminent men and was not disposed, like some other counties, to trust her interests to ignorant and incompetent persons or greedy adventurers from abroad.
“But it is as the Christian gentleman, we love to think of our illustrious statesman. He was sincerely and unaffectedly devout; a lover of God and man. The Bible was a lamp to his feet and a light to his path. For near twenty years he was a ruling elder in the church at Charlotte. In the last trying scenes of life his faith in Christ was firm and unshaken. He could then say with the Psalmist: “My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
“It has been a favorite theory with Christian poets and divines, that the characteristics of the saints on earth will be preserved in Heaven, ennobled, elevated and purified from all carnal taint. Jeremiah in glory will be distinguished for his pensive meditations, Isaiah for his researches into the mystery of redeeming love, John will carry his loving disposition with him, Paul will retain his zeal and his energy. The refined nations of antiquity held similar views, and hence the classic allusions to death as an eclipse, obscuring for a season, but afterward allowing the same luminary to delight and to dazzle.
“We who were in the belt of the late total eclipse, observed a black spot projected on the lower limb of the sun. Gradually, the dark shadow crept higher and higher. The great orb sent out sickly and more sickly rays. The cattle came lowing home. The bewildered fowls of the air sought their roosts. The black spot crept higher and yet higher, until darkness covered the sky, with here and there a star sending forth a ghastly and unnatural light. Then the
sun, like a mighty giant, threw off the black mantle and came forth in all his strength, beauty, and majesty, rejoicing our hearts with the same glorious beams that had been hid for a time.
“And thus, as our friend was a star of the first magnitude, we contemplate his death as a temporary eclipse, and believe that when the shadows of earth have passed away, the brilliant intellect that dazzled us below, will shine out with renewed effulgence above. We cannot but think, too, that a man of his rare sweetness of temper and forgetfulness of self, will find congenial companionship, amid the rejoicing and unselfish hosts of Heaven throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity.”
Randolph A. Shotwell, represented Mecklenburg county in 1876. He is a native of Virginia—born in West Liberty, December 14, 1844. He was at school in Pennsylvania when the war commenced; and determining to unite his fortunes with those of his native land, “ran the blockade” through Washington and the Federal lines, and joined the 8th Virginia Volunteers, in time for the battle of Leesburg, and was engaged in many battles and skirmishes including among them Gettysburg.
In 1864 he was captured while scouting, and held as a spy, and suffered many privations and hardships. After the war was over he came, in 1866 to North Carolina, and started the Journal of Commerce with Col. S. D. Pool. In 1868 he started the Vindicator at Rutherford. In 1870 he established the Citizen at Asheville. He was arrested and carried to Raleigh, where he was tried before Judge Bond for an alleged connection with the Invisible empire, and condemned. He was sentenced to six years imprisonment in the Albany Penitentiary and a fine of $5,000. At the intercession of Colonel Moseby, Plato Durham, and others, a pardon was issued by President Grant.
On his return (November 1872) he became associated with General D. H. Hill as editor, and acted as such until 1877. He was elected (1876) a member of the Legislature from Mecklenburg county, by 821 majority.
Robert Payne Waring is one of the worthiest citizens of Mecklenburg county. He was graduated at the University of Virginia, and became a commonwealth's attorney from 1855 to 1859, when he was appointed United States Consul to St. Thomas Island in the Danish Indies. He filled this responsible and honorable position with signal ability, reflecting great credit upon our government. In June, 1861, he returned to the United States where he was arrested and held as a prisoner of state, in New York, until October following. After the most thorough investigation, no charge could be presented against him. He had only, with his usual urbanity, lifted his cap in passing a vessel on the water which bore the emblem of the infant Confederacy.
Upon his release, he returned to North Carolina, raised a company in June 1862, served as captain till April, 1865, when he was captured and kept at Camp Chase until July of the same year. He then returned to his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, and became editor of the Daily Times.
So fearless and outspoken was his condemnation of the politico-military administration, that he was arrested by the military commandant, in time of peace, and tried before a court-martial where he was defended by Hon. B. F. Moore, and Ed. Graham Haywood. Conviction was a foregone conclusion, and he was offered the alternative of paying a fine of $300, in three days, or suffering six months imprisonment in Fort Macon.
Such treatment gave him notoriety and his paper a wider circulation. It was by his able editorials he contributed largely to the change of administration at the ballot box. Mr. Waring had been elector on the Buchanan ticket. In 1870 he was sent to the Legislature, where an important and novel question met him at the threshold: “Should North Carolina place herself
on, record as the first American State to exercise the power of impeaching a Governor?” Troops had been raised by this Governor, ostensibly to ferret out the perpetrators of two mysterious murders, but without a resort first to the posse comitatus—worst of all, this was done on the eve of a general election. The best citizens of the State, in two counties, had been arrested without the pretense of indictment, or information, and incarcerated as common felons to await trial by a contemptible militia court-martial and this, too, in a time of profound peace. Should such conduct, at the suggestion of probable Federal interference be overlooked, or should an example be made for posterity? Criminals who had robbed the state of millions had escaped, whereas the intended defendant was never suspected of sharing in their spoils. Mr. Waring's position was not doubtful. Liberty is more valuable than money, and eternal vigilance is its price. His influence was acknowledged in appointing him on the committee which prepared the articles of impeachment, and which selected Messrs. Graham, Bragg, and Merrimon, prosecutors. Messrs. Smith, Boyden, Conigland and McCorkle appeared for the defendant. (See sketch of W. W. Holden, in Wade county section.) He has since been returned by increased majorities, generally, to the State Senate, serving in that body on the Judiciary Committee, and chairman of that on Internal Improvements.
He has borne himself worthy of his antecedents, and is ever alive to anything that touches the dignity of the State. He is a strict constructionist of the Constitution as also of the obligations of a gentleman. He has been twice married—first to a daughter of Hon. Louis D. Henry, and second, to the daughter Rev. N. Aldrich, of whose charming society he has recently been bereft. Since the organization of the present Inferior Court of Mecklenburg county, he has been unanimously chosen as chairman at every election,—a terror to evil doers and a praise to those who do well.
CHAPTER XLI.MOORE AND NEW HANOVER COUNTIES.
Hon. Archibald McNeil resided in Moore county. The records show that he represented this county in the House in 1808-09, and in the State Senate in 1811-15-20-21-22, and was elected a member of Congress (27th)—1821-23, and re-elected (29th)—1825-27.
Hon. Archibald McBryde, also a resident of this county, was a member of Congress (XIth), 1809-11, and a member of the State Senate in 1813-14.
Governor Benj. Williams Moore of county was elected a member of Congress (3rd)—1793-95, and Governor of the State, 1799; and re-elected in 1809. In 1807-09 elected a member of the State Senate. As General Davie had accepted the Mission to France, Benjamin Williams was chosen his successor as Governor. The new Governor was a plain man of small pretensions. He was simple, modest, and of irreproachable character. He died in Moore county at his residence, recently occupied by Dr. Charles Chalmers.
He married Mary Eaton Jones, daughter of Robin Jones of Halifax, by whom he had two sons, Allen and Willie; both of whom were educated in Eton College, England.
Dr. George Glasscock, during the early days of our State, resided in this county at Cross Hill. Dr. Glasscock was a native of Virginia. His mother was the sister of Mary Ball, the mother of Washington. Dr. Glasscock during the march of Cornwallis and the raids of Fanning, was with the Whigs as Surgeon.
He married Martha Howard and raised a family of ten children, five sons and five daughters, and his descendants are among the most enterprising and useful of our citizens. Dr. Glasscock was murdered in 1787 at the instigation of Colonel Philip Alston.
A cluster of houses soon acquired the character of a town on the Cape Fear River, about 1730, on the site now occupied by the town of Wilmington. Lots were surveyed and the village was known as New Liverpool. In 1735, John Watson obtained a grant for 640 acres of land including the embryo city, and changed its name of Newton. In 1739, this name, by an act of the assembly, was changed to Wilmington, in honor of Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, the patron of Governor Gabriel Johnston.
Sir Spencer Compton, third son of Earl of Northampton, was created Baron of Wilmington, January 5, 1727; Viscount of Pevensy in 1730; Member of Parliament and Speaker of the House of Commons. He was for some time President of the Privy Council, and upon the resignation of Sir Robert Walpole in February 1742, was appointed first Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He died July 2, 1742. (Martin's History, 294; Collins Peerage, III., 257; Uni. Mag., V., 242.)
There is no portion of the State that was more devoted to the cause of liberty during the Revolution, than the Cape Fear section; none that more readily contributed its men and means to its support. These glowing records exist, and the fearless acts and heroic devotion of her sons are written on the pages of history, and if gathered, would form an imperishable monument to their valor and patriotism.
Will not some son of New Hanover from this “embarrassment of riches,” preserve, and present these memorials in gratitude to worth and valor? They would form a volume of thrilling interest and greatest value.
The bold action of the New Hanover people during the Stamp Act trouble was unsurpassed by that of any other community. They seized the Stamp Master in the Governor's Mansion, and forced him to swear not to execute his office. In consequence of their action, particular restrictions were laid on the Commerce of Wilmington, and the people embodied under the leadership of John Ashe, marched to Ft. Johnson, where the Governor was, and demanded redress, which was accorded.
In 1774 when the bill shutting up the Port of Boston, was enacted by the British Parliament, the citizens of Wilmington declared by public resolutions: “The cause of Boston to be the common cause of America;” and the next month sent by Parker Quince a ship-load of provisions to their suffering and beleaguered countrymen.
The patriotic people of New Hanover formed a Committee of Safety, with which thepeople of Brunswick, Bladen, Duplin, and Onslow united; and when the Royal Governor (Martin) summoned his Council to meet him in January, 1776, on board of a Sloop of War, in the Cape Fear River, this committee informed the members of the Council that “the safety of the country would not allow them to attend the Governor.”
The proceedings of this committee from November, 1774 to October, 1775, have been printed from the original records, (Raleigh, Thos. Loring, 1844), and prove the fearless conduct of the people.
The first conflict of arms after the military organization of the State, occurred in this county at Moore's Creek bridge, February 27, 1776, when the colonists, under Caswell and Lillington met the royal forces, under MacDonald and routed them with great loss.
Among those devoted to the cause of the people and whose life was laid down in the struggle, was Cornelius Harnett, of whom a biographical sketch has been presented (page 46). He is buried in Wilmington.
The Ashe family, whose services and whose sacrifices in the cause of our country deserve to be held in the perpetual memory of posterity, is identified with this county.
Jones in his “Defense of North Carolina,” says:
“The Ashe family contributed more to the success of the Revolution than any other in the State. General John Ashe and his sons, Captain Samuel Ashe and his son William, Governor Samuel Ashe and his son Samuel, Colonel John Baptista, were all in constant service.”
Every member of the Ashe family able to bear a musket was in the army.
Some of this family have been already alluded to, in sketches of Judge Thomas S. Ashe and John B. Ashe.
We now present a genealogical table of this distinguished family, followed by sketches of such others as particularly deserve attention.
The family is of English origin and long settled in Heightsbury, an ancient borough on the river Willy in Wiltshire, England.
*John Baptista Ashe, the founder of the family in North Carolina, was the friend of Lord Craven, one of the Lord Proprietors of the Province, and on this account visited the shores of the new world.
He was prominent, active, and decided in the affairs of the colony.
In 17725 he appeared as Counsel for Governor Burrington who was then indicted for sedition and treasable practices. I copy from the Rolls Office, London, the following:
‡“1730, Dec. 14. Instructions issued to Governor Burrington with his commission as Governor of North Carolina, under the great seal. William Smith, Nath. Rice, James Tenour, Robert Hatton, Edmund Porter, John Baptista Ashe, Jas. Hallard, Matthew Rowan, Richard Eyans, Cornelius Harnett, and John Porter, Sen., named in the instructions as Council:”
I copy from the same office, the following extract from a Dispatch to the Duke of New Castle, from Governor Burrington, dated February 20, 1732.
“Immediately before the Assembly met, Mr. Price, the Secretary, and Mr. Ashe, came together from the Cape Fear to Edenton, the seat of Government. Mr. Ashe when qualified, began immediately to oppose me in the council. He gained Mr. Smith and Mr. Porter to join him.
“Mr. Ashe is altogether bent on mischief. I have been a great friend to him. My benefits he has returned with ingratitude.
“He is a great villian, and is unworthy of sitting as Councillor in this Province.”
The Governor adds, in the same dispatch that “Cornelius Harnett, another of the council, was bred a merchant in Dublin, and settled at Cape Fear in this colony: “I am humbly of opinion that Harnett's sitting in the council is a disgrace to it,” (page 63).
On November 10, 1732, on the complaint of George Burrington, Governor, to Wm. Owen, one of the Justices of the General Court, that John Baptista Ashe, did write and publish certain scurrilous libels to defame said Governor, was committed to goal, until he gave bond and security to appear before the Justices of the General Court of the province.” (See page 78.)
Mr. Ashe filed information, in return, which the General Court, (William Little, Chief Justice; William Owen, Macrora Scarborough, Justices) held at Edenton, last Tuesday in October, 1732, having duly heard and considered, decided as their unanimous opinion, that the said information being a prosecution against the said
* Memoir of General John Ashe by A. M. Hooper, Wilnig, 1854; Uni Mag III, 366.‡ Records of Board of Trade, London Proprieties, N. C. No. 22, p. 37.George Burrington, Esq., now Governor, for a crime or offense alleged to be done by him whilst Governor; which by act of Parliament is ordained elsewhere to be heard, and for that the said court cannot compel the said Governor, here to appear or answer thereto; they cannot hear or determine the same, and will not proceed in judgment. William Little, Chief Justice (page 79).
Thereupon Mr. Ashe, Nath. Rice, Secretary, and John Montgomery, Attorney General, addressed a memorial to the Lord Commissioners, at home, of great power, charging and impeaching Governor Burrington of public misdemeanors and private wrongs, and praying protection against oppression and relief against wrongs.
I copy further from the Rolls Office in London, the following letter of Governor Burrington, to Duke of New Castle.
“NORTH CAROLINA,
June 5, 1734.
“MAY IT PLEASE YOUR GRACE:
Having lived in this Province for some years without receiving any money from the King, or the country, I was constrained to sell not only my household goods, but even my linen, plate and lands and stocks. The many sicknesses that seized me and their long continuance have greatly impaired my constitution and substance. My affairs and health being in a bad condition, I humbly desire my Lord Duke, will be pleased to obtain His Majesty's leave for my return to England.
I am with profound duty, My Lord Duke Your Grace's most humble and most devoted servant. GEORGE BURRINGTON.”
He was allowed to return, and he died a melancholy death; rioting as was his custom all night, he was found dead in the streets of London, one morning in the Bird Cage Walk, St. James Park.
Gabriel Johnston succeeded Burrington 1734. He died in 1735, leaving issue: I. John, II. Samuel, and III. Mary.
GENEALOGY OF THE ASHE FAMILY.
John Baptista Ashe, the progenitor of the family, was a lawyer practicing in the colony of North Carolina, early in the eighteenth century. He married Elizabeth Swann, the sister of Colonel Samuel Swann, and eminent lawyer, compiler of the Acts of the Assembly (1752) known as “Yellow Jacket,” and speaker of the Assembly, and along with Swann and others settled on the Cape Fear. He was a man of wealth and of culture. His literary abilities are attested by his correspondence with the Home Government arraigning Governor Burrington for his excesses in the administration of the affairs of the colony. He was the Speaker of the Assembly in 1727, and Member of the Council in 1730.
He was fearless in his denunciation of Burrington, who procured his imprisonment by a sub- He lies buried at Gravely, four miles south of Wilmington, now in possession of Marsden Bellamy.
I. General John Ashe was born in North Carolina, in 1720; educated at Harvard College, a popular leader and an eloquent speaker. Was speaker of the Assembly from 1762 to 1765. He opposed the Stamp Act, and from that time until his death, in 1781, was the active and constant champion of the cause of the colonists.
Married Rebecca (sister of General James Moore, and Judge Maurice Moore). To them were born (a) John, a Major in the North Carolina line; (b) Samuel, commanded a troop of light horses at the North during the war of ’76; (c) Harriet, married, first, to Davis—second to Laspiere; (d) Eliza, married to William H. Hill, Member of Assembly 1794, of Congress 1799; United States District Attorney and appointed to the Federal bench by President Adams. To them were born Joseph Alston Hill, an orator of great brilliancy, died, at an early age, in 1830, and among other descendants may be mentioned Wm. Henry Wright, United States Engineers; Griffith J. McRee; Judge Samuel Hall, of the
Supreme Court of Georgia; (e) Mary, married to William Alston of Waccamaw, South Carolina, whose son, Joseph Alston, was Governor of South Carolina, 1812-1814, and married Theodosia, daughter of Aaron Burr; (f) William, lost at sea on a privateer, during the Revolution; (g) A'Court; (h) Anna. None of General Ashe's sons left issue.
II. Governor Samuel Ashe, was born on the Cape Fear, 1725; educated at Harvard; studied law with his uncle, Samuel Swann; became an early, active and zealous adherent of the cause of the colonies; appointed by the Provincial Congress, one of the Council of Thirteen to govern the State, before the adoption of the Constitution, and acted as its president; Speaker of the Senate, 1777, and one of the three judges first chosen under the Constitution. He remained on the bench until 1795, when he was elected Governor, which office he filled three terms. He died in 1813. He married, first, Mary, (daughter of John Porter who was one of the incorporators of the town of Wilmington, who when an infant in 1711, was rescued by his mother, a daughter of Governor Lillington, from an Indian then in the act of dashing his brains out against the house), by whom he had (a) John Baptista, (b) Cincinnatus, and (c) Samuel.
After the death of his first wife, he married Elizabeth Merrick, by whom he had several children, only one of whom, Thomas, arrived at maturity; (a) Colonel John Baptista Ashe, just mentioned (also see page 204) served throughout the war of 1776, was Lieutenant Colonel of the North Carolina line; Speaker of the House 1785; Member of Continental Congress 1787; and of the United States Congress; elected Governor in 1802, he died however, before qualifying. He married Miss Montford, a sister of Mrs. Wilie Jones, whose famous repartee to Colonel Tarleton will long be remembered. Their son Samuel Porter Ashe married Mary, a daughter of Colonel William Shepperd—issue, John B. and Stephen.
(b) Cincinnatus was lost at sea in a privateer with his cousin William.
(c) Samuel, born 1763, entered the army at the age of sixteen, captured at Charleston, with General Lincoln; suffered terribly on prisonship; after exchange served with Lafayette and afterward with General Greene. He died in 1835; he married Elizabeth, a daughter of Colonel William Shepperd—issue, (a) Betsy, wife of Owen Holmes, (b) Mary Porter, wife of Dr. S. G. Moses of St. Louis, (c) John B., Member of Congress from Tennessee, who married Eliza Hay and moved to Texas, (d) William S., born 1813—died 1862, Member of Congress, 1849-55; married Sarah Ann Green, and had Samuel A'Court (News Observer, Raleigh), John Grange and others, (e) Thomas married Rosa Hill, (f) Dr. Richard Porter of San Francisco, married Lina Loyall, (g) Susan, married to David Grove, (h) Sarah, married to Judge Samuel Hall of Georgia.
Thomas (the son of Governor Samuel Ashe and his second wife, Elizabeth Merrick) married Sophia Davis and had issue: (1) Pascal Paoli, who married Elizabeth Strudwick, a daughter of Colonel W. F. Strudwick by Martha, the sister of Colonel William Shepperd, and had many descendants, among them Dr. William Cincinnatus Ashe of Alabama; Hon. Thomas S. Ashe (see page 6) of the Supreme Court of the State, and Dr. Edmund F. Ashe of Wadesboro. (2) Richard, who married Anna Moore and left issue: Richard J. Ashe of California. (3) Thomas, who married Elizabeth, sister of Admiral Bell, United States Navy, who left issue resident in Alabama.
III. Mary, born 1723, married George Moore and left issue.
General John Ashe (born 1720—died 1781) son of John Baptista, and his wife, Elizabeth Swann, was born at Gravely, Brunswick county, in 1720. His education was liberal and was, it is believed, finished at an English University.*
* A Memoir of General John Ashe of the Revolution, by A. M. Hooper and Griffith McRee, Wilmg. 1854.He entered public life in 1762, as a Member of the Colonial Assembly, and was chosen speaker of this body.
His uncle, Samuel Swann, had filled this important position for nearly twenty years, with great dignity. The speaker of the popular branch of the Assembly held a commanding position, and was looked upon as the hereditary defender of the rights of the people. In this high place he in 1765 opposed the Stamp Act, and resisted its enforcement. He so informed Governor Tryon openly and fearlessly. As soon as Colonel Ashe was informed of the approach of the vessel containing the stamps, supported by the efforts of Colonel Waddell, he embodied a company of New Hanover militia, and prepared for an open conflict.
When the Proclamation of the Governor, (issued January 6, 1765) announced the arrival of the stamps, Colonel Ashe demanded an interview with the Stamp Master (Houston) who was the guest of the Governor, which was refused. Ashe threatened to burn the house, and proceeded to execute the threat. The Governor yielded, and Houston was surrendered. He (Houston) was taken to the Market House and made to sign a written pledge “never to perform the duties of his office.”
In 1770-71 Colonel Ashe was again elected to the Lower House by the people. The troubles with the Regulators now commenced, and Colonel Ashe with Caswell, and others equally distinguished in after days in the cause of the people, felt it a duty to sustain the Government. These have been already alluded to.
Colonel Ashe with his regiment was in the battle at Alamance, and demonstrated that he was not led by any factious opposition to the Governor, but stood prompt and willing to sustain the power of the Government. This may have been an error, but Colonel Ashe thought his course was in the line of duty.
In 1773, he was elected to the Assembly, and was with John Harvey, Hewes, Harnett, Howe, Johnston, and Vail, a committee of correspondence with the sister colonies, relative to the proceedings of the British Parliament, and in 1774 he was with Caswell, Edwards, Harnett, Hewes, Howe, Allen Jones, and Samuel Johnstone, a committee to reply to Governor Martin's speech.
This Assembly of March, 1774, was prorogued by the Governor to May 26, and dissolved on March 30, by Proclamation. Colonel Ashe and others entered an Association this year, by which they “bound themselves by every tie of religion, honor, and nature, to be ready to go forth and sacrifice their lives, and fortunes in resisting force by force, to secure the safety and freedom of their country.”
When it was ascertained that the Governor (Martin) did not intend to call another assembly, Colonel Ashe with John Harvey, Wm. Hooper, Willie Jones, Samuel Johnston, and James Iredell, projected a Provincial Congress, causing delegates to be elected to meet at New Berne on August 25, 1774.
The Governor issued a proclamation on August 15, 1774, “condemning all elections and assemblies of the people, and warning all officers of the King to prevent such illegal meetings.”
The Provincial Congress did meet at the time and place designated.
In 1775, Colonel Ashe was appointed on the Committee of Safety at Wilmington, and resigned his commission as Colonel, which he held under the Royal Government, and accepted the same rank by election by the people. This is the first instance of the acceptance of a military commission under the authority of the people.
Apprehending that Martin meditated plans to extend the fortifications of Fort Johnson, on July 17, 1775, he attacked it with a force of 500 men and reduced it to ashes.
This overt act of violence was denounced by Governor Martin in a Proclamation of August 8, 1775, “as a most treasonable outrage.” In
the same proclamation, he denounced the intended meeting of the Provincial Congress at Hillsboro, on August 20, 1775.
The Provincial Congress held a second session at New Berne on April 4, 1775, in defiance of this proclamation, and proceeded to place the State under military organization.
Colonel Ashe and his brother-in-law, Colonel Moore, were rival candidates for the command of the 1st Regiment. To the command Colonel Moore was elected, with Francis Nash as Lieutenant Colonel and Thomas Clark as Major.
Of the 2d Regiment, Robert Howe was elected Colonel, with Alexander Martin as Lieutenant Colonel, and John Patton as Major.
With patriotism and unabated zeal, Colonel Ashe returned home and raised a regiment at his own expense, on a pledge of his estate. So enthusiastic was the feeling, that his recruits unhesitatingly received the promissory notes of Colonel Ashe in lieu of pay.
This Congress (at Hillsboro, August 20, 1775) also substituted a form of civil rule (the Governor having fled) administered through
I. A Provincial Congress.
II. District Committees of Safety.
III. County and Town Committees.
By the Provincial Congress that assembled at Halifax on April 4, 1776, Colonel Ashe was promoted to the rank of a Brigadier General, and took immediate command of the detachments ordered for General Moore.
In 1779 he marched to the defense of Georgia, and took post at Briar Creek. Here, on March 3, 1779, he was surprised and defeated by a superior force of British Regulars.
At the request of General Ashe, General Lincoln ordered a Court Martial to examine into this unhappy affair.
The Court Martial decided that “General Ashe did not take all the necessary precautions which he ought to have done, to secure his camp, and to obtain timely intelligence of the movements, and approach of the enemy. But they entirely acquit him of every imputation or a want of personal courage, and that he remained as long on the field, as prudence and duty required.”*
In 1781, General Ashe returned to his residence at Rocky Point, broken down in body and mind, by misfortune and disease. Wilmington was at this time a British Post, commanded by Major Craig, (afterward Sir James Craig) and Ashe was obliged to conceal himself in the recesses of Burgaw Swamp, and only visit his family by stealth.
He was betrayed to Major Craig by Manuel, his confidential servant. A party of Dragoons was sent to capture him. In his attempt to escape, he was shot in the leg, and captured. He was taken as a prisoner to Wilmington and finally paroled. He died October, 1781, at the house of Colonel John Sampson, in Sampson county, on his way to the back country where he was removing his family.
General Ashe was five feet, ten inches in height, of olive complexion, brown hair, dark hazel eyes, aquiline nose; features clear and well defined, figure not large but rather slender, and graceful in his carriage.
He married Rebecca, the daughter of General Maurice Moore, sister of General James and Judge Maurice Moore, by which union he had seven children, one of whom, Mary, married Mr. Alston of South Carolina, whose son Joseph was the Governor of South Carolina (1812-14) and who married Theodosia, the only daughter of Aaron Burr.
Another daughter of General Ashe, Elizabeth, married Hon. William H. Hill, who represented the Wilmington district in Congress, from 1799 to 1803. He was the son of William Hill, the ancestor of the distinguished family of that name on the Cape Fear. William Hill, the father, was a native of Boston; a graduate of Harvard in 1756, came to North Carolina on account of his health and settled at Brunswick where he taught school.
* A full account of this Court is to be found in Moultrie.He married Margaret, daughter of Nathaniel Moore, and the grand-daughter of James Moore, Governor of the two Carolinas by the daughter of Sir John Yeamans. His eldest son, John, was a Lieutenant at the battle of the Eutaw Springs, and his son William the subject of this sketch, was distinguished in public life. He studied law and was an eminent advocate. William had a fine voice, and was fluent, eloquent, and impressive. He was appointed by General Washington, United States District Attorney for North Carolina; was in the Senate of the State in 1794 and represented his district in Congress (6th and 7th) 1799 to 1803. It was his fortune to have served in Congress in troubled times. Party feeling ran high and bitter. The election of President (in 1801) for the first time devolved on the House. William Hill voted with Dickson, Grove and Henderson for Burr, against Alston, Macon, Stanford, Stone, and Spaight for Jefferson.
He was a decided Federalist. He married Elizabeth, daughter of General John Ashe. From this union sprung:
1. William Henry Hill.
2. Marry, who married Dr. James F. McRee, and had Griffith J. McRee and others.
3. Julia, who married Dr. Ezekiel Hall, and had Judge Samuel Hall, of Georgia, and others.
4. Joseph Alston Hill, who died young, but not until he had developed talents of peculiar brilliancy. He was a member of the bar. In the Legislature 1826-27-30; born 1800—died 1830.
5. Anna, one of the daughters of W. A. Hill, married Mr. Charles Wright, a son of Judge Joshua Granger Wright,* born 1768; in Legislature from 1792 to 1800; Speaker of House 1800; elected Judge 1809; married Susan Bradly; died 1811, leaving eight children.
It is to be regretted that more has not been recorded of Judge Wright, but the data given of his public services will enable some more capable pen to preserve the memory of the services and talents of this distinguished man.
His oldest son, Charles, was a genius in fun and quite an amateur in the Drama. He graduated at the University in 1817, and studied law. He possessed great vivacity, quick apprehension, fluent and eloquent. He was the President of the Wilmington Branch Bank of the State, and was esteemed, useful and intelligent, of a genial temper and great hilarity. He bid fair to become an able advocate and useful citizen, but his untimely death in 1821, at the early age of 31, destroyed such hopes. His son, William Henry Wright, of United States Army, whose early education was conducted by Rev. Adam Empie (whose wife was Anne, the daughter of Judge Wright) and by whom he was prepared for William and Mary College, where he graduated with honor. He studied law with his uncle, Joseph A. Hill. He soon abandoned this study and was appointed a Cadet, at the United States Military Academy; here he was diligent and studious, and after graduating was selected by Colonel Thayer as his assistant in the construction of Fort Warren.
In 1844, Lieutenant Wright published a “Treatise on Mortars.”
In November, 1845 he obtained a furlough to visit Wilmington, where he was taken ill, and died at the residence of his uncle Dr. J. F. McRee, on December 28, aged 31.
He married Eliza, daughter of J. R. London, Esq., by whom he had two children.
William A. Wright, (born 1807—died May, 1878) third son of Judge Joshua G. Wright, was educated at the University, and graduated in 1825 at the early age of 18. He studied law, to the faithful and laborious practice of which, he devoted the energies of his life. Mr. Wright was the early and devoted advocate of Internal Improvements. He was one of the original corporators of the Wilmington and Raleigh, now the Wilmington and Weldon Rail Road—elected a Director in 1836, and continued so until his death. He married Ann Eliza, daughter of
* See Uni. Mag., May 1853. II., 187.William Hill, who survives him, with two married daughters and a son.
Governor Samuel Ashe, son of John Baptista Ashe, (born 1725—died 1813) was educated at Harvard, and studied law. He, however, served throughout the Revolutionary War, in various military and civil capacities.
He was a Member of the Provincial Congress at Hillsboro, on August 21, 1775, and one of the council of thirteen to whom the government of common wealth was committed. He was also a member of the convention that met at Halifax, on April 4, 1776, and also of the same, in November, 1776, which formed the State Constitution.
In 1777 he was chosen one of the three Judges under the State Government, John Williams and Samuel Spencer, being the others, which he resigned on being elected Governor of the State, 1795.
As a Judge he was firm, upright in character, clear-headed and progressive. In the case of Bayard and wife against Singleton, the idea was first enunciated by him that the courts had the power to pronounce a Statute of the Legislature unconstitutional. To those who had been trained to assert the omnipotence of the British Parliament, this seemed little short of treason; but it is now settled law and considered as one of the bulwarks of liberty.
He married first Mary Porter, and afterwards Mrs. Elizabeth Merrick, by whom he had
Thomas, who married Davis—whose son, Pascal Paoli was the father of Judge Thomas S. Ashe whose biography we have already given.
By his first wife he had
I. John Baptista Ashe.
II. Samuel. He died in 1813, and was buried at the Neck Plantation, where many of the descendants of the name, now
“Sleep the sleep that knows no waking.”John Baptista Ashe (born 1748—died 1795,) son of Governor Samuel Ashe, was distinguished as a soldier and a statesman. Early in the Revolution, he was appointed a captain in the 6th Regiment of Continental Troops (Colonel A. Lillington's). He had previously been under fire at Alamance in 1771, and was badly treated by the Regulators. He was with General Greene at the hard fought battle of the Eutaws (September 1781).
After the close of the war he was elected to that august body, the Continental Congress, in 1787, and a member of the First Congress of the United States—1789 to ’91, and re-elected to the next Congress, 1791-93.
During his career in the Continental and United States Congress he displayed the same untiring opposition to sectional power, that had characterized the name of Ashe. Fisher Ames of Massachusetts, was a Member of Congress with Ashe, and their views were antagonistic. One, intensely northern; the other, southern. On calling the roll, this became so noticeable that some one wrote—
“Fisher Ames and others say Aye,John Baptista Ashe says Nay.”In 1795, he was elected from Halifax to the Legislature, and by that body elected Governor, but died before being inaugurated, leaving one son.
Samuel Ashe, the son of Governor Samuel Ashe, (born 1763—died 1835), was brave, modest, and unobtrusive. He early entered the army, and served to the close of the war. The following is copied from the records of the Pension Bureau, which relates in a brief and modest manner his military service.
Samuel Ashe, on June 10, 1828, filed an application under Act of 1822 and declared that he was an officer of the Continental Line of the Revolution as Lieutenant, and served as such to the end of the war, (sworn to before Thomas F. Davis, Clerk of Court of Pleas for New Hanover county, North Carolina.)
A letter is on file with this application by Mr. Ashe, which states “he in the early part of 1779, being about seventeen years of age, received a subaltern's commission in the 6th Regiment of
North Carolina Line. He joined the North Carolina Line at Charleston, and by orders of Brigadier General Hogan; and he was appointed a Lieutenant in 1st North Carolina Regiment, commanded by Colonel Thomas Clarke. At the surrender of Charleston on May 12, 1780, he was taken prisoner at Haddull's Point, where he remained until Summer of 1781, when he was exchanged and sent under a flag to Jamestown, Virginia. There he joined the army under the Marquis De La Fayette. In August or September, with certain North Carolina troops he joined the Army of the South under command of General Greene, under whose command he continued until peace.”
He married Elizabeth Shepherd, by whom he had:
I. John B. Ashe, who moved to Tennessee, and was a representative in Congress from that State in 1843-45.
II. William Shepard Ashe, born 1814; lawyer by profession, rice planter and farmer. Elected to State Senate in 1846-48, and elected Member of Congress (31st,) 1849, and re-elected to 32nd and 33rd, when he declined a re-election and in 1855 became President of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, in which position he continued until his death. He was a man of indomitable energy, and perseverance; of irresistible personal popularity. As evidence of this he urged and procured the passage of the North Carolina Railroad by a Democratic Legislature which was not favorable to such improvement. Another instance of his great influence over his associates and his magnetic power in controlling men occurred in 1854, in procuring an appropriation of $150,000 for the Cape Fear River, from a Democratic Congress. Finding some of his Democratic friends decidedly against the work, he persuaded them to retire for awhile and they did so. Soon the House was without a quorum, and it became necessary to go out to get a quorum, to take the vote, and they were called in. The bill passed.
In the war (1861) he was of pronounced Southern feelings and was in charge of the transportation of the Confederacy with the rank of Major.
He met a tragic death—returning from Wilmington on a hand-car, on September 14, 1862, to his home, the mail train near the bridge over the North East River, ran over the hand-car, inflicting such injuries on him that he died the next day.
He married Sarah Green; and of a once large and happy family, only two now remain—Capttain Samuel A. Ashe of Raleigh, and Willie, his sister.
William Swann was the eldest son of Samuel Swann and his wife, Sarah, daughter of Governor William Drummond. This Samuel Swann was the first of the name in North Carolina.
His grandfather, William, had been Collector of the Royal Customs in Virginia, and he held the same office at Edenton.
Samuel was Speaker prior to 1715. He had nine children by his first marriage two of these, William and Thomas, were Speakers of the Lower House. He was born May 11, 1653. He married a second time, Elizabeth, daughter of Major Alexander Lillington, and the widow of Colonel John Sandal. By this marriage he had Sarah, the wife of Frederrick Jones, Elizabeth, wife of John Baptista Ashe; Samuel who was also Speaker, and the greatest man of the name, and Major John Swann. The second Samuel, born October 31, 1704, married and left three children.
Edward Mosely married Anne Lillington, aunt of Samuel and John Swann, who was the widow of Henderson Walker.
On July 11, 1787 Samuel Swann fell in a duel with John Bradley. Moore's History Vol. I., 376.
William Hooper, who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, (born 1742—died 1790), was a resident of Wilmington. He was a native of Boston, the son of Rev.
William Hooper, a member of a Congregational church in Boston. He was liberally educated, and graduated at Cambridge 1760. He studied law, under James Otis, and settled about 1767 in Wimington, to practice his profession. He soon became distinguished for eloquence, and learning. In the case of the heirs of Governor Dobbs, to recover a landed estate of Abner Nash who married the widow of Dobbs, he exhibited extraordinary power. In 1773 he represented the town, and in 1774 the county in the General Assembly.
From 1773 to 1777, he was a Member of the Continental Congress, and during this period appended his name to the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776.
On his return to private life, he resided at his seat at Masonboro Sound, about eight miles from Wilmington, but the occupation of that place by Major Craig, compelled him to seek safety in flight.
After the evacuation by the enemy (in November 1781) he returned and shortly afterward removed to Hillsboro. His days were soured by political collisions, and the disgust he felt and expressed for some measures of legislation. He died at Hillsboro, October, 1790, leaving a widow (nee Clark, daughter of Thomas Clark of Boston) two sons and a daughter. One of his sons, William, was the father of the late Dr. William Hooper, Professor of Languages in the University, the best prose writer of his day; also of Thomas, a Lawyer, and of James, who was a merchant.
An article in a Raleigh Journal, says that “there is a street called Bloodworth, in that capital,” and asks, “who was Bloodworth; for,” it adds, “we never heard of this distinguished man.” This proves the evanescence of all human honors, and of popularity, and the importance of preserving the names and fame of those who “have done the State some service.”
It is but little that we could gather, but that may be better than nothing.
He was a Member from New Hanover, in 1779, to 1794, with some intermissions. He was in the Continental Congress, 1786, and of the First Congress of the United States, 1789 to ’91, and a Senator in Congress from 1795 to 1801, and afterwards collector of customs at Wilmington. He died August 14, 1814.
When the question as to locating the seat of Government for the State, came up in the General Assembly, and the contest was narrowed down to Fayetteville or Raleigh, it was by his vote the latter was selected; by this act he sacrificed his popularity.
In gratitude to him, the Commissioners, who laid out the city of Raleigh, perpetuated his name by calling one of the streets after him.
He was not highly educated, but like Judge Williams was a devoted patriot and of much usefulness in the State Councils. Few men of his day possessed broader views or a stronger will. He was intensely radical, almost a red Republican in his views and as intolerant of opposition as was General Thomas Person. (Moore I. 246)
Edward Jones (born 1763—died 1842) was brother to William Todd Jones, the Irish patriot. Born near Belfast; a merchant; settled in Wilmington, but failed as a merchant. He then studied law, and attained high distinction. His commanding talents, his genial manners, and benevolent temper rendered him a universal favorite. He was elected a Member of the Assembly from Wilmington, in 1788, and by repeated elections to ’91, when he was elected Solicitor General of the State. In this capacity Mr. Jones displayed great learning and talents. In prosecution of the great frauds in 1796, he completely eclipsed the pretentious Blake Baker, then the Attorney General. (Moore I. 13.)
He died in Pittsboro, August 8, 1842. He was the friend and patron of Johnson Blakely, (born October 1781—lost at sea 1814); who was the son of an Irish emigrant; born at Seaford in the County Down, Ireland, in October, 1781. His
father came to Wilmington with his wife and two small children, and in a short time after his arrival, he died. Colonel Jones with the spontaneous generosity of an Irishman, took charge of the boy, fed, clothed and educated him. He was sent to the University. He felt that this charge on his patron was not proper, and his friends procured for him, February 5, 1800, an appointment as Midshipman in the United States Navy. He sailed under Commodore Preble to the Mediterranean; for his activity, assiduity, and exemplary conduct, he soon was promoted. In 1814, he sailed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in command of “The Wasp,” for the English coast; he encountered, on July 28, 1814, the sloop of war “Reindeer.” An action ensued and the “Reindeer” was captured. Her Captain and First Lieutenant were killed, as also many of the crew. This won for Captain Blakely the applause of the nation and the thanks of the State.
He fell in with the “Avon,” in August following, which ship, after a severe action, surrendered to Blakely.
From the 1st to 15th August, Blakely took fifteen ships from the English. One of these, the “Atlanta,” he placed under a Prize Master, and sent home with dispatches. This is the last authentic intelligence ever received from Captain Blakely.
His ship may have been sunk in a sea fight, or foundered. And so perished, at the early age of thirty-three, this gallant officer.
He married (December 1813) Jane, daughter of Mr. Hooper of New York; left one daughter, Udney. In December, 1816, the Legislature adopted her as “the child of the State,” and ordered that she be educated and maintained at the expense of North Carolina.
The widow of Captain Blakely married a second time. Dr. Abbot of Santa Cruz, and removed to that place, taking the daughter with her. The daughter married in 1841, when about twenty-six years old and died in 1842, without issue. (Uni. Mag., February, 1850.)
James Innes of Wilmington. Much interest is connected with this name, since from his will, duly proven in 1759 before Governor Dobbs, the “Innes Academy” had its origin. In April of that year, the Legislature passed an act incorporating the Academy with Samuel Ashe, A. McLain, William Hill, and others as Trustees. Before the Academy building was completed a theatrical corps had been organized in Wilmington, and an arrangement was made between them and the trustees, that the lower part of the building should be fitted up and used exclusively as a Theatre. This arrangement was carried out, by a perpetual lease made to the “Thalian Association.”
The name of Colonel Innes is frequently met in the accounts of the State. He was born in Scotland, and lived at Point Pleasant, on the North East Branch of the Cape Fear River, about seven miles from Wilmington. He had been an officer of rank in the British Army, and was distinguished in the expedition against Carthagena, in South America. He was considered a man of mark and possessed of considerable estate.
When Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, applied to President Rowan, then acting Governor of North Carolina, for aid to check the French and Indians on the Ohio, Colonel Innes marched at the head of the North Carolina troops to Winchester, Virginia. This was in 1754. Washington Irving, in “Life of Washington,” gives an account of this campaign, and states that “the North Carolina troops rendered no service.”
The Legislature of North Carolina voted sixty thousand dollars for subsistence of the forces under Colonel Innes, but this was soon exhausted and such was the feeling at Williamsburg that not a dollar was voted to retain the force sent to defend them. The North Carolina troops had to return to prevent starvation. Col. Innes was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the entire
forces by Gov. Dinwiddie, of Virginia, and retained this position until the arrival of Gov. Braddock in 1755. He died shortly afterwards at Winchester, Virginia.
We further discover that after the death of Colonel Innes, his widow, Jean, married Francis Corbyn, Lord Granville's agent, who lived below Edenton, and who was seized in 1759, by the people, taken to Enfield, compelled to give bond to produce his books, and disgorge his illegal fees.
Further research of some patient investigator of history may discern more of the life and services of Colonel Innes, which, as he was one of the early settlers of the Cape Fear, would be of great interest.
GENEALOGY OF THE DAVIS FAMILY.
Four brothers, Jehu, John, William, and Roger Davis emigrated from South Carolina, to the Cape Fear about 1723.
I. Jehu Davis, married Miss Assup, an Irish lady and had issue—four children: (1) Jehu; (2) Thomas; (3) Ann, and another daughter.
(1) Jehu Davis (son of Jehu the elder) married Elizabeth Eagles and had issue two daughters: (a) Jane, and (b) Elizabeth.
(a) Jane married John Pugh Williams and had issue: (1) Rebecca, who married Alfred Moore (son of Judge Alfred Moore) and had issue: Susan, who married Hugh Waddell, and Elizabeth who married Francis N. Waddell.
(2) Elizabeth E. who married John Haywood (Treasurer of North Carolina) and had issue: Fabius J., Elizabeth Rebecca, Francis, and E. Burke.
(3) Mrs. Hall, who had issue, Mildred who married Alfred Waddell.
(b) Elizabeth married Maurice Jones, and had issue: (1) Margaret, who married Richard Eagles, and had issue: Richard W. Eagles; Nancy, who married Jacob Brewster; and Margaret, who married John Brewster; (2) Sarah Jones, who married Dr. Nath. Hill, (his second wife) and had issue: Nath. M. Hill.
(2) Thomas Davis (son of Jehu the elder) married Mary Moore, daughter of George Moore (who was the son of “Old King Roger Moore,” the “chief gentleman in all Cape Fear,” and grandson of the first Governor James Moore of South Carolina) and had issue: (1) Jehu, (2) George, (3) Rebecca, (4) Sophia, (5) Jane, (6) Ann, and (7) Thomas F. Davis.
(1) Jehu married Jane Quince and had issue: Thomas I. Davis (who married Mary Elizabeth Watters, and had William W. and Fred S. Davis, Mary Quince, Annie W. Miller, Rebecca, Jane, Sallie, Kate, and Julia Davis) and Mary Davis who married John Poisson and had issue: Jehu D. and Louis J. Poisson.
(2) George, married Mildred Watters, no issue.
(3) Rebecca married James Moore (son of General James Moore) and had issue: Junius A. who married Eliza Clitheral, and Sophia married Samuel Strudwick.
(4) Sophia married Thomas Ashe (son of Governor Samuel Ashe) and had issue: Thomas Ashe, Richard Ashe, and Pascal Paoli Ashe (father of Hon. Thomas S. Ashe, Justice Supreme Court of North Carolina; Cincinnatus, Edmunds and others).
(5) Jane married Dr. Nath. Hill (his first wife) and had issue (1) Mary, who married John A. Lillington, and had John A., Margaret H., Mary and Sarah Jane; (2) Jane, who married Parker Quince; (3) Sarah, who married Lewis Toomer; (4) Margaret married, first, Evan Jones; second, Dr. Jas. Henderson.
(6) Ann Davis married Richard Quince and had issue: Nancy, died unmarried.
(7) Thomas F. Davis married, first, Sarah Isabella Eagles, and had issue: (a) Thomas F. Davis (Bishop of South Carolina), (b) Junius Davis, (c) Eliza, (d) George and (e) Joseph; married, second, Anna Cutlar and had issue: Horatio Davis.
(a) Thomas F. Davis (Bishop of South Carolina) married, first, Elizabeth Fleming and had
issue: Thomas F., who married Mary McCaa; married, second, Ann Moore and had issue: (1) Ann E., (2) Sallie married John S. Porcher, (3) James M. married Miss De Saussure, (4) John, (5) Bruce married Miss Reynolds, (6) Junius married Sallie De Saussure.
(b) Junius married Ann Swann and had issue: George, Josephine, Annie.
(c) Eliza married Dr. Louis J. Poisson and had issue: (1) Frederick D. who married Lucy Anna Cutlar, (2) Marianna married Du Brutz Cutlar.
(d) George Davis (Senator and afterward Attorney General C. S. A) married, first, Mary A. Polk (daughter of General Thomas G. Polk) and had issue: Junius, Mary E., Emily P. married John E. Crow, Louis P., Isabel E. married S. P. Shotter, Meeta A. married, George Rountree; second, Monimia Fairfax, and had issue: Mary F. and Monimia C.
(3) Ann Davis (daughter of Jehu the elder) married Richard Quince.
II. John Davis (brother of Jehu the elder) married a daughter of John Moore (son of James) and had issue: Jessie, who married, first, Governor Dobbs, and second, Governor Abner Nash.
III. Roger Davis (brother of Jehu the elder) married a daughter of Nathaniel Moore (brother of “Old King Roger” Moore) and had issue: John (who married Harriet Ashe), William and Roger.
Bishop Thomas Frederick Davis (born 1804—died 1871) was a native of Wilmington; he was carefully educated and graduated at the University in 1822, in same class with Lucius Polk, Gov. A. Rencher and others. He studied law, and practiced for a time with success. But his tastes and feelings led him to advocate higher and more important interests than those of a worldly character; he relinquished the bar to take Holy orders. He was most acceptable as a teacher of religion, and his public utterances were marked with sincere piety and glowing eloquence. He was chosen Bishop of South Carolina and consecrated in 1853, in New York, and for nearly a quarter of a century administered to his loving congregations in holy things. Physical infirmity (the loss of eye sight) clouded the later days of his life. He died in December 1871, leaving the church, his country and his family, to mourn his loss.
His brother, Hon. George Davis, (born March, 1820) now resides in Wilmington. His early education was conducted by W. H. Harden and completed at the University, where he graduated in 1838; he studied law and was admitted to the bar, in 1841, of which he is at this time, “a well deserving pillar,” and stands in the front ranks of the profession. His efforts as an Essayist and Lecturer, have been most successful. His address at the University in 1835* and recently “An Episode on Cape Fear History,” display his accuracy as a historian, and his style as a writer.
He was a delegate to the Peace Congress at Washington in 1861, to devise some plan by which the evils of civil war might be averted. With such able coadjutors as Barringer, Morehead, Reed and Ruffin, Mr. Davis might well have hoped for an honorable peace. But all was in vain and his counsel was unheeded.
He was elected a Senator from North Carolina, in 1862, to the Confederate Congress; in 1864, was succeeded by Hon. William A. Graham. He was then appointed Attorney General of the Confederate States, which he held until the war closed. Since that time, he has devoted himself to his profession, with an assiduity that nothing can divert.
Mr. Davis has been twice married; first, to Mary, the daughter of the late General Thomas G. Polk, and secondly to Miss Fairfax, daughter of Dr. Orlando Fairfax of Richmond, Virginia.
Hugh Waddell (born 1799—died 1878) resided
* South Atlantic.—Mrs. Cicero W. Harris, January 1879—245.at the time of his death in Wilmington; he was born at Newfield, his father's plantation in Bladen county, on March 21, 1799. He was the grandson of General Hugh Waddell, of the Regulation War, as also of General Francis Nash, who fell in battle, at Germantown, October 4, 1777.
Our annals do not present any name of a more illustrious ancestry. His father, John Waddell who married Miss Nash, spared no pains to prepare his promising son for the great battle of life. He graduated at the University, (1818) in the same class with James K. Polk, Bishop Greene of Mississippi, Dr. R. H. Morrison, General Thomas J. Green, Hamilton C. Jones, and others. He, for awhile, studied medicine but abandoned it for the law, of which profession he became a distinguished member.
He settled in Hillsboro, and there spent a long and laborious life. He went, after the war, to Wilmington and there remained with his son, Hon. A. M. Waddell, until his death.
He was fond of public life and was a favorite with the people. He represented Orange county in 1828 in the Commons, and in 1844, and ’46 in the Senate, of which he was, in 1836-37 the Speaker. He was a gifted debater, a warm partisan (for he lived in party times); and very decided in his views. In private life he was genial, generous and gentle.
He died at Wilmington on Saturday, November 2, 1878. He was the third of five brothers of whom three survived him: Maurice Q. Waddell of Chatham county; Francis N. Waddell of Orange, and Alfred M. Waddell of Louisiana.
His sons are Dr. Douglas Waddell of Chatham; Hon. Alfred M. Waddell; Hugh Waddell now of Washington, and Cameron Waddell of Marion, South Carolina.
Alfred M. Waddell, son of Hugh Waddell, of whom we have just given a brief sketch, was born in Hillsboro, September 16, 1834. His education was conducted at Bingham's school, the Caldwell Institute at Hillsboro, and at the University, where he graduated in 1853. He studied Law; was Clerk of the Court of Equity for New Hanover county; delegate in 1860 to the National Convention which nominated John Bell for President, and Edward Everett for Vice President of the United States; Editor of the Wilmington “Daily Herald” for one year, 1860; served in the Confederate Army as Lieutenant Colonel of Cavalry; elected to Congress, (42nd, 43rd, 44th) 1871-79, and served as Chairman, in the latter Congress, of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, the duties of which he discharged with singular ability, and unspotted integrity. He was a candidate for the 46th Congress, but from overconfidence on the part of his friends in his success, and unusual zeal on the part of the opposition, he was defeated by Daniel L. Russell.
Colonel Waddell, however, possesses qualities that well fit him for public stations; scrupulous integrity, high qualifications and laborious habits, combined with an amiable disposition and an accommodating temper. He has been twice married and has an interesting family.
Owen Holmes (born 1796—died 1841) was distinguished as a lawyer and statesman; he was Elector for President in 1826 and voted for Van Buren. He was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Courts in 1836, by the Legislature, which elevated position he declined to accept. He died at Wilmington, June 1841, of appoplexy.
John Cowan was the eldest son of Colonel Thomas Cowan, one of the old settlers of Wilmington. He began life as a merchant, but soon abandoned this to accept the position of Cashier of the Wilmington Branch of the State Bank, which position he held at the time of his death, being then but thirty-five. He was much esteemed for his amiable qualities, his courtly manners, and his admirable business talents.
Edward B. Dudley long resided in Wilmington, but he was a native of Onslow county, where his father was a wealthy planter. In spite
of the defects of his early education, by his enterprise and force of character, he arose to high distinction. He entered public life as a Member of Legislature from his native county, Onslow, in 1811-13; he then moved to Wilmington, and was elected from the town in 1816-17 and again in 1834. He was the last representative from this ancient town, for the Convention of 1835 abolished the borough representations.
His course was distinguished in the public coucils as one devoted to the cause of the internal improvement of the State; he was liberal and patriotic; he subscribed $25,000 to construct the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, and became its first President.
In 1829, he was elected a Member of the twenty-first Congress; after one Congress he declined a re-election, for the reason, as he stated himself, that Congress was no place for an honest man.
The amended constitution of 1835, gave the election of the Governor, to the vote of the people; and without any action or solicitation on his part, he was nominated and elected the first Governor of North Carolina elected by the people. At the expiration of the second term, Governor Dudley retired from public life, and returned to his home in Wilmington, where he died, October 30, 1855.
Governor Dudley was in person of the first type of our race; of large, commanding presence; of genial manners and pleasant address. He was a statesman of enlarged and liberal views, of generous impulses, and of unspotted integrity; true to party and friends, in which his zeal at times carried him beyond the bounds of prudence; his speeches and addresses evince no superior ability, but are marked by good sense and patriotism; his ample fortune enabled him to give expression to the generosity of his nature—he was a charitable and obliging neighbor; a devoted husband, an indulgent father, and a sincere friend.
He married Elizabeth, the daughter of William H. Haywood, of Raleigh; the sister of William H. Haywood, Jr., Senator in Congress (1843-46) and sister of the wife of Governor Charles Manly, by whom he had several children, among them:
I. Christopher.
II. Eliza, married Purnell.
III. William H., married Baker.
IV. Margaret, married McIlhenny.
V. Jane, married Johnson.
Rev. Adam Empie, who lived and died in Wilmington, was Rector of the Parish of St. James, for a long time discharging his sacred duty with great fidelity. He married a daughter of Judge Wright.
On his election to the Presidency of William and Mary College in Virginia, in 1827, he removed to Williamsburg with his family; he resigned this position in 1835, and accepted the Rectorship of St. James Church in Richmond, which had been built expressly for him, and named in compliment of his old parish in Wilmington, and here he officiated, until increasing years and declining health compelled his resignation. He then returned to the scene of his early labors to die among the people with whom he had passed so many years, having finished his course on earth he calmly passed away; leaving behind him a record of a well spent life.
Rt. Rev. William M. Green resided for a long time in Wilmington.
“The venerable Bishop of Mississippi is still living; distinguished for his wisdom, the kindness of his nature, the earnestness of his piety, and the almost saintly purity of his life. The soldier of the Cross from early manhood, he has ever walked in an atmosphere of love; lavishing upon all around him the bounties of his goodness, and the warmth of his affections. Holding the most exalted position in the Church, he is always the devoted, unaffected, humble man of God—so gentle, yet so wise; so loving, yet so firm; so modest, yet so influential, long may he be spared to the people of his diocese, his hosts of friends,
and to the church of which he is an honored ruler.
“He graduated at the University in 1818, and for a time was a professor in the Institution.”
North Carolina was early the scene of evangelization on the part of the Episcopal Church. As early as August 13, 1587, at Raleigh's Colony, on Roanoke Island, the chieftain, Manteo, was admitted into the “fellowship of Christ's flock” by holy baptism, (Anderson's Colonial Church, I., 75,) and five days after that event Hakluyt (III. 341) gravely informs us that “Eleanor, daughter of the Governor, and wife of Ananias Dare, one of the assistants, was delivered of a daughter in Roanoke and the same was christened the Sunday following, and because this child was the first Christian borne in Virginia she was named Virginia Dare.” And so around Roanoke Island as a nucleus is formed the County of Dare, and its county seat is named Manteo. Although this settlement so soon passed away and the successful colonization of this portion of the State was left for other days and less pious hands, still the churches, as the minutes of the General Convention show, attained no little strength in North Carolina prior to the Revolutionary war. After the Revolutionary war the affairs of the church were naturally at their lowest ebb.
From 1817 to 1823 Bishop Richard Channing Moore, of Virginia, was in charge of the Episcopal churches of North Carolina; until at a convention in 1794, held at Tarboro, the Reverend Charles Pettigrew was elected Bishop, (see the sketch of this prelate under head of Tyrrell County,) and the convention applied for his consecration. Bishop White in his memoirs (p. 172) states that Mr. Pettigrew set off to attend the Convention, but was unable to reach Philadelphia in time, abandoned his efforts and soon afterward died. From 1794 to 1817 all was dreary; then the coming of Reverend Adam Empie and Reverend Bethel Judd, the one at Wilmington and the other at Fayetteville, laid the foundation of the restoration of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina. In May 22, 1823, John Stark Ravenscroft, D. D., (see his sketch under head of Wake County,) was consecrated Bishop of the diocese; he died in 1830. On September 23, 1831, Levi Silliman Ives, D. D., was consecrated, (see his sketch under head of Wake County,) but on his defection was deposed October 11, 1853, when the Right Reverend Thomas Atkinson, D. D., LL.D., assumed the Episcopal chair to which he was consecrated October 17, 1853.
RIGHT REVERNED THOMAS ATKINSON, D. D., LL. D.
There have been more brilliant men in public service—men of more marked characteristics who have stamped their individuality upon the age in which they lived, and men of more extraordinary genius, but it is seldom that a character is found so complete, so harmonious, so evenly balanced and so thoroughly rounded in all of its proportions, so symmetrical and beautiful in the essentials of a godlike man as that of the late venerated Bishop of North Carolina, Thomas Atkinson, D. D., LL. D.
The influence for good of such a character and of such a life as his cannot be over-estimated. As the refreshing dew falls alike upon the delicate plant and the coarser fibre of the weed, causing each to bloom and blossom, so does such a life shed its influences around. The mere man of the world, and even the thoughtless and the dissolute could not but feel their better nature stirred within them by the force of such an example and the beauty of such a life. We cannot contemplate too frequently such a character, and we should be thankful that there is virtue enough still left among men to enable them to recognize the embodiment of so much goodness in human nature. Though dead, he yet speaks to us by his example—an example of such holiness of life that it should excite us who still survive, to strive earnestly to imitate it.
It has been thought that a brief sketch of this distinguished divine could not fail to be of interest,
and not inappropriate to the Reminiscences.
The grandfather of Bishop Atkinson was the son of a clergyman of the Church of England. He was himself born, baptized and brought up in the church, and never belonged to any other religious body. He came to this country in early youth, and after his marriage to Miss Pleasants, of Curls Neck, on the James River, Va., settled near Petersburg, in Dinwiddie County, on a farm known as Mansfield, named after the great English jurist, Lord Mansfield. The Bishop's parents were Robert and Mary Tabb Atkinson, who inherited the family seat Mansfield, and to them eleven children were born. Thomas, the subject of this sketch, being the sixth in order, was born on August 6, 1807. Upon reaching the age of sixteen he was sent to Yale College, but remained there not quite a year, owing to a difficulty in which he became involved with the faculty and which was strikingly illustrative of his character even at that early age.
Some of his college companions, in the exuberance of youth and without the least malice aforethought, indulged on one occasion a little too freely in the juice of the grape, and became boisterously mischievous, not maliciously so, but recklessly as boys frequently are even in the absence of any stimulant. Young Atkinson was not one of the rioters nor was he connected in any way with the frolic, but knew all the parties who were engaged in it. He was summoned before the faculty and called upon to disclose their names. This he respectfully but firmly refused to do, stating that he was incapable of acting the part of a spy or informer. He was then told that his refusal would result in his expulsion from college. They little understood the character of the youth who stood before them when they supposed that a threat, or a fear of punishment would cause him to do that which his high-toned sense of honor forbade, and he was consequently dismissed and returned to his home. His conduct in that matter met the entire approval of his parents, and but a few years before his death it happened that on one occasion, in the freedom of social intercourse while narrating some incidents of his early life he referred to that episode, quietly remarking in connection with it that he had never felt any regret for the course he pursued.
In 1825 he entered Hampden-Sidney College, Va., joining the junior class, and graduated at nineteen years of age with distinction in a class that numbered among its members the eloquent John S. Preston and Wm. Ballard Preston, the latter Secretary of the Navy during the administration of General Taylor. He married in 1828 Josepha G., a daughter of John and Jane Wilder, of Petersburg, and she and his immediate family, two sons and a daughter, still survive him.
About the time of his marriage he was licensed to the bar and practiced his profession with great success, and would, without doubt, have risen to distinction as a jurist, had it not pleased God to call him to a different sphere of action. November 18, 1836, he was admitted into the order of Deacons in the Protestant Episcopal Church by the Right Reverend William Meade, Bishop of Virginia. He entered immediately upon the duties of his sacred office in the city of Norfolk, first as assistant to Rev. Dr. Parks, then minister of Christ Church. Within a year after his ordination to the Deaconate he was elevated to the Priesthood by the Right Rev. R. Channing Moore, D. D., and accepted a call to St. Paul's Church, Norfolk, May 7, 1837, where he remained about twelve months. He then removed to Lynchburg in the latter part of the year 1838. Here he labored with great acceptability as rector of the parish of St. Paul's until 1843, when he was called to Baltimore to succeed the Rev. Dr. Henshaw, in the rectorship of St. Peter's Church in that city, Dr. Henshaw having been elected Bishop of Rhode Island.
His abilities were at once recognized, and such was the regard felt for him that Grace Church
was built for him and he was made its rector in 1852. His connection with that parish was of short duration, however, for in 1853 the Diocese of North Carolina called upon him to be its Bishop. He accepted the call October 17th, and was consecrated the same year in St. John's Chapel, in the city of New York, at the same time with the Rev. Thomas F. Davis, D. D., a native of Wilmington, N. C., who had been elected Bishop of South Carolina. Bishop Brownell, of Connecticut, presiding, assisted by Bishops McIlvaine, of Ohio; Doane, of New Jersey; McCoskry, of Michigan, and Otey, of Tennessee. On that occasion the lines of English and American succession were reunited, Bishop Spencer, of Madras, and Bishop Medley, of Fredericton, taking part in the act of consecration. After his consecration he resided in Raleigh for a short time and then took up his abode in Wilmington, which city continued to be his home until his death on January 4, 1881. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Trinity College, Hartford, 1846, and that LL D. from the University of North Carolina, 1862, and also from the University of Cambridge, England, 1867.
Bishop Atkinson assumed charge of the Diocese of North Carolina at a very trying time in its history. Bishop Ives, the successor of the great Ravenscroft, had abandoned his charge and had joined the Roman Catholic communion. There was great anxiety throughout the Diocese as to the effect upon the Church in North Carolina of the defection of their chief pastor and it was feared that he who should be called to that high office would meet with more than ordinary difficulty in calming the troubled waters and bringing order out of chaos. It required administrative ability of a high order, firmness without obstinacy, self reliance and fearlessness in the discharge of duty, a personal magnetism and a character unimpeached and unimpeachable. Dr. Atkinson upon whom the choice fell was personally known to but few in the Diocese. The hand of God was evident in the selection, for under his wise administration, dissensions ceased, confidence was restored and the Diocese remained true to the teachings of the uncompromising Ravenscroft and to the “faith once delivered to the saints.”
Bishop Atkinson was a singularly prospered man in every way, a fact brought prominently forward by Bishop Lay of Easton, in his admirable memorial sermon before the Diocesan convention at Raleigh in May 1881, a discourse from which most has been drawn in the prepration of this article. Said he, “I would set in the forefront of this discourse the expression of our devout gratitude to Almighty God for the tenderness of his life long dealings with Thomas Atkinson, late Bishop of North Carolina. Few lives have ever been so even and prosperous, so laden with substantial blessings, so shielded from calamnity.” Though never a wealthy man, the Bishop had enough for the gratification of his tastes, enough to enable him to practice a liberal hospitality and to avoid debt which he would never incur, for he would not owe any man anything but love; enough to aid a friend and to assist the needy, and his charity was large. In his domestic relations he was peculiarly blest. He had fifty three years of wedded happiness and children were born unto him and yet, during all that time there was never a death in his immediate family. Surely God blessed Thomas Atkinson.
In his personal endowments also he was greatly favored. It is told of the late Bishop Elliott of Georgia, who was one of nature's noblemen in every way, that once at a country tavern where he had stopped for the night, a poor inebriate was recklessly bantering the bystanders when his attention was arrested by the appearance of the stately Bishop. Awed and sobered for the moment by his commanding look and towering form he turned to him and exclaimed “who are you; are you a Judge, a member of Congress or Governor of the State? Well, if
you aint any of these you ought to be.” Very similar to the feeling expressed by that poor creature towards Bishop Elliott, was that felt in the presence of Bishop Atkinson. He was eminently dignified and commanding, yet courteous and affable in manner, with a sensitive deference for the opinions and feelings of others, yet with a full and steady reliance upon himself. He would attract attention in any assembly and would be at once recognized as a leader of men. As he passed along the crowded thoroughfares, men would involuntarily turn to gaze upon so noble a specimen of manly dignity. He was intensely intellectual yet keenly alive to all the kindly impulses and more gentle virtues of our nature, a truly great man and remarkable in this, that in whatever circle he moved whether in the church, in society, or in the ordinary duties of life he exercised a mighty influence for good. His example was the reflex of the precepts he inculcated. He was a devout lover of the truth for the truth's sake, had no concealments but was open as the day, was true to his convictions, to his friends and kinsfolk, and above all, to his God. While gentle unto all men, he was never pliant; ruling his Diocese with firmness, yet with mildness, and tempering justice with the benign influences of mercy; though a leader of the hosts of God, yet childlike in submission to the will of his heavenly Father; kindly in his nature, warm in his affections, active in good works.
His mind was more massive than brilliant or imaginative and its operations were marked with a degree of intellectual energy which ever commanded attention. As a pulpit orator he was distinguished for keen powers of analysis, sound logic and effective reasoning. His style was chaste, not florid, and more conversational than declamotory, not disdaining ornament but using it simply by way of illustration, and yet his oratory was often fervid. But his great power lay in the faculty he possessed of impressing all who heard him, with his sincereity, no one could doubt it, and this had an overpowering influence upon all with whom he came in contact. He was strong in debate, a close reasoner and if the premises he laid down were admitted, there was no escape from his conclusions. He had naturally, a clear insight into character, was a searching preacher and could track sin through all its hidden ways with unerring skill and so God blessed his work and the labor of his hands.
In the House of Bishops his influence was very great and we have been told that he never rose to speak without commanding the attention of the members. This influence was shown in a marked manner in the General Convention of the Church field at Philadelphia in 1865, immediately after the close of the war. Bishops Atkinson and Lay thinking that no time should be lost after the fall of the Confederacy in seeking a resumption of our organic relations with the portion of the church from which we had been separated, attended that convention not knowing how they would be received. We again quote from the memorial sermon, already referred to; says Bishop Lay:
“We came into a community exultant with victory and enthusiastic in loyalty, disposed to take for granted that to return, was to ask forgiveness. To the tact, the gentleness, the manly out-spokenness of Bishop Atkinson the Church is indebted for the favorable result of this venture. After considerable discussion the matter was referred to a committee consisting of the five senior Bishops. After two days this committee reported a preamble and resolutions. In these we could not possibly concur. All eyes were upon Bishop Atkinson as he answered the appeal made to him. He knew that he had that to say which must needs be distastful to men full of exultation at the Southern downfall. With no diffidence and with no temper, rather with the frankness of a child uttering his thoughts, he opened all his mind. We are asked, said he, to unite with you in returning thanks
for the restoration of peace and unity. The former we can say, the latter we cannot say. We are thankful for the restoration of peace, but we are not thankful for the unity described in the resolution, re-establishing the authority of the Nattional Government over all the land. We acquiesce in that result, we will accommodate ourselves to it and will do our duty as citizens of the common government, but we cannot say that we are thankful. We labored and prayed for a very different termination, and if it had seemed good to our Heavenly Father would have been very thankful for the war to result otherwise than it has resulted. I am willing to say that I am thankful for the restoration of peace to the country, and unity to the Church. His language ‘in consideration of the return of peace to the country and unity to the Church,’ was adopted by a vote of sixteen to seven, the Southern Bishops being excused from voting. Thus by his promptitude, by the frankness with which he met the immediate issues, by his calm determination to allow no censure to be cast upon those with whom he had been associated, he secured a speedy adjustment of all possible differences and promoted no little the spirit of toleration and kindness.”
The Diocesan Convention of North Carolina, which was appointed to be held at Raleigh on the second Wednesday in May, 1865, did not assemble in that city until the 13th of September, having been postponed by the Bishop until that time.
Every delegate to that Convention, will remember that period of doubt and anxiety when the proposition to renew friendly relations with the Northern portion of the Church was submitted. Some were strongly averse to taking any action in the matter and were opposed to the Bishop's attending the Convention at Philadelphia. We were a conquered people, at the mercy of an exultant and arrogant foe, and the indignities which had been heaped upon us in matters political warranted the assumption that they would be continued even in our spiritual affairs. We were soured by defeat and its ruinous results and were in no mood to court the favor of those whose shouts of triumph were still sounding in our ears. Besides, we feared that the amiability of the Bishop's nature, his conservative temperament, the strong ties of affection existing between himself and his associates in the Episcopate and his anxiety to renew fraternal relations with Northern brethren might exercise a controlling influence over him at the sacrifice of his better judgment. The result showed that we had been unjust in thought towards our Northern brethren, and also how greatly we had underestimated the grandeur of our Bishop's character. His bearing was worthy of himself and of the high position he held as the peer of those in whose presence he stood. Rather than have surrendered a principle or compromised his self-respect he would have gone to the stake without hesitation.
Bishop Atkinson was a man of large brain, a just man, fair minded and liberal, a lover of books and a thinker, and notwithstanding the cares and responsibilities of his office found time to keep up with the best literature of the day, and frequently in the lecture-room delighted large audiences from the rich stores of his varied learning. But it was as an expounder of divine truth, as a ruler in the Church that he was most distinguished. He was conservative by nature, not timid and yet not aggressive. His prudence and his wisdom were manifest to all. When these are combined as they were in him, with a sincere and unselfish piety, they are irresistible. The flourishing condition of the Diocese over which he presided for more than a quarter of a century, shows how faithfully and well he did his work. Few men were more honored and beloved than he, not only by his own flock but by all classes and conditions, “for this Duncan had borne his faculties so meek, had been so clear in his great office” that all peoples did do him reverence.
Surely we have great cause for thankfulness for the example of such a life, prolonged as it was beyond the period assigned by the Psalmist as the limit of human existence, for it is such men as he was, men of prayer and men of truth, who constitute the strength and power of a State: For more than forty years he was a faithful minister of the Gospel, but the time at length approached for the aged warrior of the cross to cease from his labors. To him death had no terrors, for his life had been but a preparation for eternity. His house was in order, for lengthening shadows had long been gathering around him, and so at last when the summons came on the evening of January 4, 1881, it found him ready and he gently fell asleep—a peaceful, blessed sleep, and bishops and priests, the high and the low, the rich and the poor, a vast multitude gathered around his bier with bowed heads and stifled sobs as he was borne onward to the grave—for he was a good man. On the 7th of January, 1881, he was interred under the altar of St. James’ Church, Wilmington, North Carolina, of which parish he was once rector.
The aforegoing sketch is nearly verbatim the sketch prepared by Colonel James G. Burr, and published in the “New South,” edited and published at Wilmington by Edward A. Oldham.
Colonel William McRee of United States Engineer Corps, (born 1787—died 1833), is the subject of a memoir written and published in Wilmington; by it our attention is called to a worthy and almost forgotten son, whose military talents, according to the testimony of Mr. Calhoun, General Scott and others, was of the highest order.
His father was Collector of Customs and an officer in the Revolutionary War, and died in 1801. He was born in 1787; educated at West Point, in 1803, and was made, in 1807, a Captain of Engineers, and promoted to Major in 1812. In the war of 1812 he was engaged on our Northern borders, under Scott, Brown, Gaines and others, and was particularly distinguished in the battles of Lunday's Lane, and Fort Erie, and won from General Scott the eulogium, that in his opinion and perhaps in the opinon of the whole army, that he combined more genius with high courage than any officer in the war of 1812. Shortly after the battle of Fort Erie, he was promoted to Colonel by brevet.
In 1815 he was sent to Europe for the purpose of examining the military schools and fortifications—and on his return made an able report. In 1819, indignant that a foreigner—General Bernard—should be appointed in the Engineer Corps, he resigned. He died of cholera in May, 1833, and was buried at St. Louis, Missouri. His name is preserved on a beautiful fort at Pensacola.
He left two brothers, Dr. James F. McRee of Wilmington, and Major Samuel McRee, United States Army. Uni. Mag. X. 196.
Dr. James F. McRee married Mary Ashe, daughter of W. H. Hill. He was the father of Griffith J. McRee, who married Penelope, daughter of Governor Iredell—the author of the “Life and Correspondence of Judge Iredell.”
William B. Meares (born December 8, 1787, died October 11, 1841), deserves to be remembered among the distinguished men of this county; successful as a Lawyer and Planter.
His first appearance in public life was as Member of the Legislature in 1818, from the borough and as a Member in the State Senate in 1828-29-30-33.
“He was of great force of character, independent, decided in his opinions, and bold and fearless in expressing them. His mind was more solid than brilliant, and more practical than imaginative. He never, at the bar or in the Legislature, or on the hustings, attempted to influence his hearers by any appeal to their feellngs; but relied solely upon the strength of argument; clear and concise statements, and sound logic.
He was, when in the Legislature, a candidate for the Senate of the United States, and had he lived, would have risen to high distinction in the National Councils as he had already occupied in the State Legislature. But he died suddenly in
the meridian of his life and the full maturity of his powers.” (Thalian Association.)
Lewis H. Marsteller (born May 6, 1794, died March 3, 1860) was a native of Virginia but was long a resident and the Representative of New Hanover in the Councils of the State, and prominent in the politics of the country. He represented New Hanover in the Commons in 1833-34, and in the Senate in 1835-36. He was also a Member of the Convention of 1835. Modest and retiring in his disposition, he was a close observer of men and measures, and distinguished for his prompt attention to every duty. These qualities, with a clear head and amiable temper, gave him unbounded popularity. He was at one time the most popular man in the country and was never defeated for any position for which he was a candidate before the people.
He was a decided politician of the Democratic faith. He was appointed Collector of the Port of Wilmington, by Mr. Van Buren, and, until his health gave way, Clerk of New Hanover County Court.
He was a useful citizen and honest and faithful in every relation of life. (The Thalian Association.)
Joseph C. Abbot, Senator in Congress, and Member of the Legislature, resided in New Hanover County. He was a native of New Hampshire—born in Concord in 1825; received an Academic education and studied law, and was Editor of the Manchester American and other papers. Entered the United States Army in 1861, raised a Regiment and was elected Colonel. In 1865 was brevetted Brigadier General, “for gallant conduct at Fort Fisher.”
In 1867, was elected to the State Constitutional Convention, and in 1868 a Member of the Legislature, by which body he was chosen Senator in Congress. His term expired in 1871. He has been extensively engaged in Agricultural and Manufacturing pursuits at his home near Wilmington, and for a time was collector of the port of Wilmington. He died on October 9, 1881.
Daniel Lindsay Russell resides in Wilmington. He was born in Brunswick County, August 7, 1845; he was educated at the Bingham School in Orange County and at the University. Read Law and was licensed to practice in 1868. He was elected to the Legislature in 1864, from Brunswick County, and re-elected in 1865. He was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Courts in April, 1868, and served six years in this responsible and elevated position. In 1871, he was elected to the Constitutional Convention, from the County of Brunswick, and in 1876 a Member of the Legislature. He was elected a Member of the 46th Congress as a National Republican, receiving 11,011 votes against 10,730 for Alfred M. Waddell.
Colonel Henry K. Burgwyn resided in this County. He was the eldest son of an intelligent and wealthy gentleman on the Roanoke river, bearing the same name, who, with Thomas Pollock Burgwyn and Thomas Pollock Devereux, were heirs of the late Thomas Pollock.
Thomas P. Devereux was long a distinguished member of the Bar, reporter of the Supreme Court, and greatly esteemed as a man of learning and culture.
They are lineal descendants of Governor Thomas Pollock, who is referred to on page 29. Their father resided in New Berne, and their uncle George, on the Cape Fear. The immense Roanoke estates of George Pollock descended to them. Young Harry Burgwyn was worthy of his lineage. He was only twenty-two years old when he commanded the 26th Regiment. To gallantry and courage in the field, he united a gracious demeanor and inviting manner, with peerless personal beauty. His appearance at the head of his Regiment realized the description of his namesake at Agincourt:
“I saw young Harry,—with his beaver on,His cuisses on his thighs gallantly arm'd—Leap from the ground like feather'd Mercury,And vaulted with such ease into his seat,As if an angel dropp'd down from the cloudsTo turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,And ‘witch the world with noble horsemanship.’ ”
He led his Regiment on the fatal field of Gettysburg, and out of 800 men there fell, with their chivalric young leader, 549 in that desperate battle; all the field officers being killed or wounded.
Robert Strange was the second son of Hon. Robert Strange, at one time one of the Judges of the Superior Courts of Law and Equity, and subsequently in the Senate of the United States as a member from our State. See Wheeler II, 130. Mr. Strange was born in Fayetteville, July 27, 1823; graduated from the University at the early age of 17, and adopted the profession of the Law. Shortly after his admission to the Bar he removed to Wilmington and soon became a prominent actor in public affairs. He represented the County of New Hanover in the Legislature from 1852 to 1854, and was regarded as one of the most influential members of that body. He was also State Solicitor and for many years a director in the Bank of Cape Fear. To mental capacities of a high order he added great culture and unusual stores of varied and accurate knowledge. As a profound lawyer he occupied a most enviable position among his professional brethren, and as a sound jurist and eloquent advocate he was second to none within the limits of the State. Few men possessed in so great a degree the confidence of the public and few so well deserved the same, for his integrity was spotless. Gentle and unobstrusive in manner, yet firm and decided in his convictions, with a natural dignity that inspired respect and a chivalric sense of honor that recoiled from the faintest approach of “things unworthy,” he was at all times and under all circumstances the high-toned gentleman, and of him was truly said by the Right Reverend Thomas Atkinson, as he stood by his bier, “Here lies the most spotless man I ever knew.”
He was true to his fellow men, to his friends, to his family and kin, and as true as mortals can be, to his God! A christian gentleman who to the grace of this life added those of the purer life to come. A brilliant future lay before him; positions most gratifying to laudable ambition and which he would have eminently adorned; but suddenly, in the midst of the argument of a case in Court, he received his summons to a higher tribunal, to appear before that Great Judge from whose decision there is no appeal. He died January 24, 1877, in the 53d year of his age, cut down in the full meridian of his powers. Amicus usque at aras.
Mr. Strange's first wife was Sarah Caroline, the second daughter of Thomas Henry Wright, who was the second son of Judge Joshua Granger Wright (see p. 304,) and one of the most noted financiers of the State, President of the celebrated Bank of Cape Fear from its origin until his death. This was a man of many accomplishments, but especially distinguished for his financial ability and his devotion to the church. He was one of the founders of St. James’ church in Wilmington, the oldest parish in the State.
Mr. Wright married Mary Allan, daughter of a Scotch merchant, who survived him with a family of four sons and four daughters.* The eldest daughter Anne Eliza, married Hon. O. P. Meares, son of W. B. Meares, a distinguished lawyer. He is now Judge of the Criminal Court of New Hanover.
* Their sons were Dr. Adam E. Wright, Captain James A. Wright (killed in the war) Lieutenant Joshua G. Wright and Maj. Thomas C. Wright, (also killed in the war) and the daughters were, Anne Eliza, Sarah Caroline, Susan and Mary Augusta. The third daughter married Dr. W. H. Hall, of New York and the youngest married Mr. Clayton Giles, a merchant of Wilmington.By his first marriage Mr. Strange had three sons; Thomas Wright, Rev. Robert, and Joseph Huske, a merchant in New York City. His second wife was Bettie Andrews, a sister of Col. A. B. Andrews, and a grand-daughter of John D. Hawkins, Esq., of Warren County. To them were born two daughters, the older of whom was named for his first wife, Caroline Wright, and the second was named Jane Hawkins.
CHAPTER XLII.NORTHAMPTON COUNTY.
Among the revolutionary worthies distinguished for virtue and patriotism who lived in this County was General Allen Jones, whose services we have recorded with those of his distinguished brother, Willie Jones. See p. 196.
Matt. Whitaker Ransom was born in Warren County, North Carolina, October 8, 1826. His father Robert Ransom, was a man of superior intelligence, the son of Seymour Ransom, who was a half-brother of Nathaniel Macon On the maternal side Senator Ransom is descended through his mother Priscilla Whitaker, from the distinguished family of that name in Halifax County. He was from his boyhood ambitious of acquiring knowledge and distinction; and having passed through the preparatory course of studies at home and at the Warrenton Academy, he was sent to the University of the State, where he graduated in 1847 in a class which embraced a number of young men who afterwards achieved reputation in the world. Among these was the late General James Johnston Pettigrew, with whom he divided the first honors. Mr. Ransom made the study of Law a part of his collegiate course, under the instruction of the late Judge Battle, and was thus prepared while still in his twenty-first year, to take his place at the Bar upon leaving the University. His father was an earnest Whig, and young Ransom was thus a Whig by inheritance, in the midst of a County which was Democratic in the proportion of nearly ten to one. These circumstances, however, had no tendency to keep down the ambitious aspirant to popular favor. His numerous and influential family connections were nearly all Democrats and faithful friends; so that with superior talents and attainments far beyond his years, with the aid of a fine person, captivating manners and an eloquent tongue, he at once took high rank at the Bar. Politically he was in a hopeless minority in the County of Warren; but his brilliant debut at the Bar attracted the attention of the Whigs in other parts of the State, and in 1852 his name was placed on the Whig electoral ticket. In December of that year, when only twenty-six years of age, he, a Whig, was elected Attorney-General of the State by a Democratic Legislature, in competition with the Hon. William Eaton, a Democrat and lawyer of high standing and character, against whom there was not and could not have been a serious ground of complaint. General Ransom attributes these early successes to the judicious counsels of his father; but they attest at the same time his own superior talents, his address, and knowledge of men, for which his later life has been distinguished.
In 1855 General Ransom resigned the office
of Attorney-General. During the years that he held it new political issues had arisen to divide parties, upon which he felt constrained to differ from his Whig friends, though never to be alienated from them personally and socially. He could not follow them in their denial of or efforts to curtail the political rights of Roman Catholics and Foreign-born citizens, and he thus naturally drifted into association with the Democratic party. The fact is well remembered by men who have passed the meridian of life that these short-lived political issues had much to do with the final overthrow and dissolution of the Whig party; and now for many years past, General Ransom has been re-united under the Democratic banner, with the great majority of his old Whig friends.
It was during his incumbency of the Attorney-Generalship that General Ransom married Miss Exum, a daughter of Joseph Exum, Esq. of Northampton, a lady of rare excellence who has blessed and adorned her husband's household and career in life. It was about this time that he moved his residence to that County. In 1858 he was elected to the Legislature, and again in 1860, in the County of his adoption.
Although deeply attached to the South by all the ties of patriotism and personal interest, he was a pronounced Unionist, from a conviction that Southern rights and welfare would be imperilled by secession, and could only be preserved within the Union. But when secession became an accomplished fact, against his earnest protest and opposition, and when it became a necessity to take sides in the impending conflict, he hesitated not a moment in espousing the cause of the State and of the South.
In 1861 he was selected by the State as one of three Peace Commissioners, sent to Montgomery, Alabama, in the hope of averting the calamities of civil war. His associates were Ex-Governor Swain, President of the University, and the late John L. Bridgers, Esq. Failing in this peaceful mission, he returned home, and entered the military service.
The fact is interesting to note that General Ransom volunteered as a private soldier, but was immediately appointed by Governor Ellis to the honorable and responsible rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the 1st North Carolina Infantry, with which he marched to the seat of war in Virginia. He was afterwards chosen by the officers, Colonel of the 35th Infantry, and was soon promoted to a Brigadier Generalship. In 1865 he was again promoted, to the rank of Major General, and was entrusted with command as such; but in that supreme crisis of the Confederacy he failed, however, to receive the formal commission. General John B. Gorden has written a letter to General M. J. Wright, compiler of the Confederate records, affirming that General Ransom was promoted to the rank of Major-General “for most distinguished gallantry.”
The limits appropriated to this brief sketch render it impracticable to enter upon a narrative of General Ransom's military services. It must suffice to say that they were distinguished and important, and served to place him among the foremost leaders of the people in North Carolina in that disastrous struggle. While yet a Colonel, he was seriously wounded in the breast and right arm (from which he still suffers,) in one of the battles before Richmond and Petersburg. His gallantry on this occasion led to his rapid promotion. But his achievements when clothed with higher command, on wider fields of action, must be left to the historian, or to the more pretentious biographer.
At the close of the war General Ransom addressed himself to the elevated and patriotic task of restoring true peace, liberty and union, by instilling in the minds of the people the idea that the disastrous results of the struggle were irreversible. He saw clearly that there
was no hope for the South in the indefinite future that lay before us all, but in a frank recognition of this truth; and his was the honor, in virtue of superior sagacity and courage, to take the lead in the statesman-like work of reconstructing popular sentiment. There were many able men in North Carolina at that day who had ardently participated in the struggle for Southern independence—sound lawyers, practical statesmen, skilled in affairs—but it remained for Matt. W. Ransom to confront the people with the unwelcome truth, that they had passed through a revolution which could never go backward, and that all their hopes for the future must turn upon their unreserved acceptance of the results of that revolution and adaptation to them. At Henderson in 1869, he delivered an eloquent address to the thousands who were assembled at the Agricultural Fair, and it is not too much to say that all thoughtful men present were startled and delighted by his bold utterances. He was listened to with attention by all, and the salutary truths that day proclaimed by a man who had been a gallant soldier in the service of the confederacy had their echo returned from every part of the State.
It was in this spirit that in a memorial address at the dedication of the Confederate Soldier's Cemetery at Raleigh, he uttered the beautiful sentiment, “I thank God that there are flowers enough in this beautiful land of the South to strew alike upon the graves of those who fell in the Grey and in the Blue; and that there are hearts large enough, and hands gentle and generous enough to perform this holy duty.”
In January 1872 General Ransom was elected to the United States Senate. In December, 1876, he was re-elected; and again, for the third time that honor was accorded him, in January, 1883. His career in that body has been one of great usefulness to the State and to the country. He speaks rarely, but always effectively. In 1875 he made an elaborate speech, the printed copy of which is entitled, “The South faithful to her duties.” It attracted wide attention by its broad, liberal and unsectional spirit, and by many passages of true eloquence.
Perhaps no man who has ever represented the State has been so successful in procuring appropriations for its rivers and harbors, and for public buildings. As a member of a body in which his party is in a minority, his success in carrying out his purposes has been remarkable. Without the sacrifice of principle, in the slightest degree, his habitual courtesy inspires confidence and wins favor with men of the most diverse views, while his knowledge of men often enables him to bring them over to his own. As a Senator, the purpose of General Ransom has been to develope his State and the South, and to pacificate the country.
It is worthy of mention that General Ransom has associated his name permanently with that of the nation's capital, by his success in procuring large appropriations for removing or filling up the unsightly, pestilence-breeding flats, or marshes that have accumulated in the Potomac river, in front of the city. The supervision of this important work has been very properly entrusted, by his political opponents, the Republican majority of the Senate, to a sub-committee of which he is the Chairman.
ORANGE COUNTY.
The Capital of this County was in 1753, called Childs, after the Attorney General of the Colony, and in 1765, its name was changed to Hillsboro’, by Governor Tryon, in honor of his illustrious patron the Earl of Hillsboro’, to whom in a despatch, Tryon predicted its early prosperity and renown. His own name, and the name of his accomplished wife and sister still give locality to its streets. It is a lovely, healthful and a finished place; has not grown much, but is about the same as it was a century ago. It has been always distinguished for the intellectual and social qualities of its hospitable inhabitants. The centre of stirring events in our early struggles for liberty, its citizens were leaders in the war of the Regulation. Here the Royal standard was displayed by Cornwallis and here he rested, gathering strength to give battle at Guilford Court House. It was here the Governor of the State (Burke) was seized and carried to Charleston by Fanning. It was here the Convention met in 1788, to consider the Constitution, which was rejected by that body.* It is distinguished still as the home of those giants in intellect of the State. Distinguished too for the eloquence and piety of its clergy, as also for learning and ability of its Bar, the excellence and perfection of its schools and the morality and decorum of its citizens.
Its resident citizens of anti-revolutionary history were Edmund Fanning, Ralph McNair, James Hogg, Francis Nash, Thomas Burke, Governors Caswell and Nash, William Hooper and Judge Moore; names all connected with many interesting events, before, during and subsequent to the Revolution. During the Revolution President Monroe, Gov. Rutledge of South Carolina, Col. Williams of King's Mountain, Generals Gates and Smallwood, Col. Lee, Lord Cornwallis, Col. Wilson Webster, Col. Tarleton and others, were sojourners during a brief period.
Henry E. Cotten, Esq., some years ago published in the Southern Literary Messenger a sketch of the history of this town. But it has disappeared from our libraries, and we have made frequent ineffectual efforts to obtain a copy from Richmond. This on a more extended scale is a tribute eminently due from a grateful population to their illustrious dead.
Uni. Mag. (1861.) X., 374.
The early history of the men of Orange County proves the sturdy spirit of her son in opposing unlawful power.
The troubles as to taxes and extortions by the Crown Officers, which began as early as 1771, culminating in the battle of Alamance, have already been alluded to. (See page 1.) The chief cause of their troubles was the conduct of Edmund Fanning, (born 1737, died 1818,) who was the son of Col. Phineas Fanning, born in Connecticut. He was an accomplished scholar, a graduate of Yale, (in 1757,) which college conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1803.
He studied law and settled in Hillsboro’ in 1763; and was appointed Clerk of the Court and Register of the County. He was elected a member of the Colonial Assembly. By his thirst for wealth, his exorbitant charges for fees, and his intemperate zeal in regard to the unfortunate regulators, he became odious to the people; in so much that they burnt his house, which stood where the Masonic Hall now is
* “One cause of its rejection by this Convention was a letter of Mr. Jefferson, which was read in the Convention; that while the most philosophic of our statesmen were desirous that nine states should ratify, and thus secure the new government, still he recommended that four should reject, and thus insure the proposed amendments.” Moore XVI.in Hillsboro’, and beat him severely. To escape their anger, he accompanied Governor Tryon to New York,* as secretary, in 1771. He raised a regiment and became its commander. Active and vindictive he served in several battles and was twice wounded. In 1775 he was driven from his house in New York by the people and his effects seized, and he retreated on board of the “Asia,” a man-of-war, for safety.
In 1794 he was appointed Governor of Prince Edward's Island, and in 1808 was commissioned as General. He took up his residence in England in 1815 where in 1818 he died, leaving a son Fredrick and two daughters. The celebrated lawyer, John Wickham, of Richmond, was his nephew, and who under the advice of Genl. Fanning accepted a Commission for a time in the British Army. The late Col. Alex. Fanning, of the U. S. A., Capt. Edw. Fanning and Nathaniel Fanning, late of the U. S. Navy, were nephews of Genl. Fanning.
Thomas Burke, born 1747, died 1783, lived and died in this County and had an eventful and romantic career.
“He was a native of Ireland and a man of letters”. Son of Ulrick Burke, of Galway. He was highly educated, and studied medicine; emigrated from Ireland in 1764, and came to Accomac County, Virginia, where he engaged in the practice of his profession. He became dissatisfied with medicine and studied Law; removed to Norfolk and in 1774 finally settled in Hillsboro’. The next year, being a ready and enthusiastic speaker, he became prominent in politics, and his generous temper made him popular with the people. He represented the County with Thomas Hart in the Provincial Congress at New Berne, the 4th of April 1775, and at Halifax in November 1776. He took an active part in framing the State Constitution. In December he was, with William Hooper and Joseph Hewes, appointed delegate to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia where he served until July 1781, when he was elected by the Legislature Governor of the State, by acclamation. He was very popular with the Whigs on account of his patriotism, and consequently as odious to the Tories. On the 13th of September, 1781, a band of Tories led by David Fanning, before day-break seized Governor Burke, tied him on a horse, and carried him to the British headquarters at Wilmington; from thence he was taken to Charleston, where he was placed on James’ Island, as a prisoner on parole. John Huske, of Fayetteville, his private secretary, was also captured and imprisoned with Govenor Burke and was placed with many desperate characters. Fearing for his life, as he was very obnoxious to them, he escaped after an imprisonment of four months. In April 1782, he resumed his place as Governor at Salem. In December he was defeated by Alexander Martin for Governor.
This was the severest blow of misfortune—after all his trials, sacrifices and sufferings, to be discarded by those for whom he had done so much and suffered so much, was more than his nature could bear. Borne down by such feelings of sorrow he died at Hillsboro’ a few days before Christmas, beloved and mourned by a large number of admiring friends. His patriotic services and his undeserved misfortunes should have condoned far greater faults.
There is but little doubt, says Moore I., (page 358,) “that disappointment and mental anguish caused his premature death.”
He married Mary Freeman, of Norfolk, Virgina and left one daughter surviving, who moved to Alabama, where she resides. In a letter she states of her father's personal appearance, that he was “of middle stature, well formed, much marked by the small pox, which caused the loss
* Drake in his “Dictionary of Am. Biography,” says that Col. F. married a daughter of Governor Tryon. Sabine makes the same statement.of his left eye. The remaining eye was an expressive mild blue.”
He was a brother, or near kinsman of Judge Edamus Burke, of South Carolina, equally eccentric, and like Edamus Burke full of genius, fun and frolic, of whom many anecdotes are still remembered.
Col. William Shepperd, of Long Meadows, (his ancestral home, near Hillsboro, N. C.,) was a conspicuous member of the State Senate; he was an officer of the North Carolina line during the revolution of 1776—a terror to “The Tories.”
Many are the legends of his prowess, which enlivens the blazing pine knots of “the Old North State,” but sweeter far are the memories of his benevolence.
Let one instance for each characteristic suffice for this sketch. One to show that “bread cast upon the waters will return after many days,” and the other to remind a wavering patriotism and hesitating honesty of that great self-sacrifice and stern devotion to principle, which were the secrets of the success of our patriotic grandfathers, and which not only were rewarded, but will descend in mantles of glory to the third and fourth generation! Colonel Shepperd had married Miss Elizabeth Haywood, sister of Judge Haywood, of North Carolina, then removed to Tennessee. Her sister married a lawyer named Captain William Bell, clarum et venerabile nomen. He died, leaving a lovely family without support, and although Colonel Shepperd's family was numerous, yet he adopted the orphaned family as his own. They are since known to history, as Captain William H. Bell, of the United States Army; Admiral Henry H. Bell, U. S. N.; Captain John Bell, U. S. N.; a daughter married to Mr. McNair, of Edgecombe County; a daughter Elizabeth J., who married Thomas Ashe, grandson of Gov. Ashe, the youngest brother of Paoli Ashe, and another married to Dr. Howell, of West Tennessee; another Miss Haywood, a sister of Mrs. Col. Shepperd, married Mr. Johnstone, of North Carolina, and moved to Tennessee; another married Mr. Duffie, an eminent lawyer of North Carolina, and after his death Dr. Buchanan, of St. Stephens, Ala.; and after his death Mr. Adlai Osborne; she left one son, Egbert. Judge Jas, Osborne, the distinguished judge, was a son of Adlai Osborne by his first wife, Miss Walker, of Wilmington. A sister of Col. Wm. Shepperd—Martha—married Major Wm. F. Strudwick, of Hillsboro, a member of Congress. She left Sam Strudwick, of Alabama; Dr. Edward Strudwick, of Hillsboro, and Eliza, who marraied Paoli Ashe, (grandson of Gov. Sam Ashe) formerly of New Hanover, afterward removed to Alabama; and Martha married to Col. Elisha Young; and Margaret, a famous beauty, wife of Egbert Osborne. Captain William Bell (the protege of Col. Shepperd,) whilst a young lieutenant in the army, invented a contrivance for turning round heavy ordnance with great rapidity; for this invention, under a “relief bill,” the Government appropriated to him the sum of $25,000, which money he invested in the growing city of St. Louis, Missouri, and so became immensely wealthy. When about to die, immediately after the close of our civil war, Captain Bell added a codicil to his will, January 11, 1866, distributing one-eighth of his magnificent fortune, in the following significant words: “To the descendants of my benefactor, William Shepperd, of Orange County, North Carolina.”
The other incident is a legend of bloody war during the revolution. R. C. in the “Farmer and Mechanic” most graphically writes as follows of Col. Wm. Shepperd:
He was very short, spare built man, of plain, insignificant appearance, and the farther disadvantages of a very thin, piping voice, with one eye; no one in search of a hero would have
given him a second thought, and yet that spare frame was knit together with joints as flexible as a politican's principles, and muscles like bands of finely tempered steel; and through that solitary eye looked forth a spirit that no danger could appal, no adverse fortune subdue or dismay. A democrat of intensest dye he affected the roughest costume, and in an age when gentlemen never wore aught but “purple and fine linen,” he clothed himself with homespun, woven on his plantation, and shoes made by his own negroes.
He had organized a partizan force of Minute men, some four or five hundred strong, men who dwelt peaceably enough at home, until a runner notified them that Shepperd had work for them to do, when at the rendezvous would gather a band of rough but resolute men ready to execute any plan, however daring and hazardous, of their idolized chief.
An English officer named Patton was then raiding through Orange and the adjoining counties, carrying terror and devastation with him. Born a gentleman and a soldier, and of superb physical developement, he mocked at fear and utterly devoid of conscience, staunch in his loyalty to the king, and with a goodly scorn of American rebels, he showed no quarter; rapine, violence, and murder marked every step of his onward progress, and none were able to stay his course.
Col. Shepperd and his troopers returning home after the disastrous battle of Briar Creek found Patton devastating the country, and riding rough-shod over the people. Plan after plan to capture him was devised, but Col. Patton was as wary a soldier as he was brutal as a man, and time and again he slipped through Shepperd's toils, and laughed him to scorn.
Finally Shepperd was ordered on some expedition that withdrew his forces from the neighborhood, and Patton getting wind of it, came down into the lion's den, quartered at “Long Meadows” for a night and a day, and although treating Mrs. Shepperd with extreme courtesy, (for Patton, though absolutely without humanity to women as women never failed to treat a lady of his own rank with the most finished courtesy of manner) appropriated the Colonel's stock, provender, and plantation supplies like the free-booter that he was.
Col. Shepperd returning one night to visit his wife, whom he passionately loved, discovered that Patton was in the neighborhood, and laid a plan to capture him.
Summoning his immediate body-guard of twenty picked men, he stationed thirteen of them in an old deserted school house to lie in wait, while he and the others reconnoitered. Returned to the school house, what was his anger and astonishment to find the building “empty, swept and garnished,” and a card tacked up by Col. Patton to tell the reason why.
Patton also had been out reconnoitering, and came to the school house, where a pack of cards and jug of whiskey were helping the ambuscade to forget their duty. All the muskets were piled near the door, and their owners sitting cross-legged on the floor were deep in the mysteries of card playing, while the sentry lifted the jug to his head a time or so too often.
Stepping lightly to the door, Col. Patton seized one of their own muskets, and levelling it at the absorbed card-players, cried out in his ringing voice of irresistable command: “Surrender to Col. Patton of his Majesty's forces, or I will shoot every man of you.” Half drunk, wholly surprised, and with instinctive obedience of soldiers to a born commander, they at once surrendered. Still holding his musket at point blank range, Patton made one of the men advance and hand him the muskets one by one, stock foremost. Then he was required to tie his comrades, each man with his own halter, the horses were in turn secured to their masters,
and thus yoked together man and beast, the crest fallen thirteen were marched ahead of their captor to the British camp. A sorry enough spectacle, truly!
A fiery, passionate man, Col. Shepperd's rage and mortification were indescribable. His desire to capture Patton became a perfect frenzy, and he bent all his energy to its accomplishment.
If a man will, he can, generally; and Col. Sheppard's hour came at last.
Not very long after the disgraceful capture of his men, there was to be a sale in the neighborhood. People had submitted, if they were not subdued, Patton rode or walked through the land a very Lord Paramount, and none dared gainsay or resist. He was going to attend the sale, not as a bidder, but to take vi et armis whatever he saw fit. Shepperd stationed some of his men below, and above the point of attack that he had selected, early on the day of the sale, and then dressed like a common farmer, as he always did, and with a loose halter over his arm, he mounted his horse and took a bridle path through the woods that would bring him out into the road that Patton must take to reach the sale. A house occupied by a man named Smith was on the left of the road, above the lower ambuscade of Shepperd's men.
Down the road came Patton riding a superb black mare, dressed in full British uniform, and presenting a very brillant and splendid appearance. He was tall, large, and superbly handsome, and in courage and high soldierly qualities fully Shepperd's equal. As he rode gallantly on in all the pride of conscious beauty and power, out of a bridle path to his right rode a small ill-favored man, who saluting him awkwardly, as he rode alongside, said: “I bought some colts not long ago from a man named Smith, who lives somewhere on this road, and they have strayed away, and I expect they have gone back to their old home, so I am looking for them. Can you tell me where Smith lives?”
“Oh, yes,” said Patton carelessly, raising his right arm and pointing across the road, “he lives across the road yonder.” He had turned his face as he spoke, and in that instant a pair of wiry arms were clasped around him like a vice, and a small piping voice cried out, “Col. Patton, you are my prisoner, sir.” Patton was a stammerer in his speech, and he stuttered out, angrily. “It is a damned lie, sir. I am no man's prisoner;” struggling desperately to loose himself. He had not reckoned on the immense strength hidden away in the small body of his captor, and his efforts availing nothing. Drawing his sword with his left hand he essayed to cut himself loose, but Shepperd was so small, and so close to him that the slashes did not touch him. Patton shortened his sword, and cut and thrust mercilessly until the arm that pinioned him was gashed and stabbed in a dozen places, but the resolute little Colonel never flinched. This, though long in the telling, occupied only a moment, and the horses feeling loose bridles on their necks broke and ran, landing both riders in the road. Patton being the heaviest fell underneath, and when Shepperd's troopers came hurrying up, attracted by the riderless horses passing them, for everybody knew Patton's black mare, a superb English thoroughbred, they found the stubborn little Colonel holding his prostrate foe in an embrace that seemed riveted like bands of steel.
The arrival of reinforcements made the contest hopeless for Patton, who had been badly hurt by his heavy fall, and he said: “I surrender, and claim the usage of a soldier and a gentleman.” Shepperd at once relieved him, and when Patton was helped to his feet, he held out his sword and said: “To whom do I surrender?” “Col. William Shepperd, sir,” answered
the Colonel with a ring of triumph in his voice.
“Colonel Shepperd!” exclaimed Patton, in the utmost amazement and chagrin as he looked at the small, insignificant speaker. “Yes, sir, Col. Shepperd, who has promised to hang Col. Patton whenever he caught him,” said Shepperd, drawing from his pocket a pair of handcuffs which he had carried for months for the purpose of braceleting Patton if ever captured.
With a spring like a tiger Patton shook himself free from the troopers that surrounded him, and catching up a limb of a fallen tree he put his back against a large oak, and exclaimed, “Col. Shepperd, you shall never subject me to the disgrace of handcuffs; I will die first. I claim the usage of war, to be treated like an officer and a gentleman. I will never submit to be handcuffed.”
“You are a robber, and a murderer, and have forfeited all the consideration due a soldier, sir,” answered Shepperd, bitterly. “I wear the uniform of a British officer, sir, and I demand to be treated like an officer of his Majesty's army. I give you my word of honor to make no effort to escape. I will go alone with you, or any one else to headquarters. I will consider myself your prisoner and deport myself accordingly without constraint, but I never submit to personal indignity, and no man will handcuff me alive.”
“Shepperd was no fool; and he saw plainly enough that Patton would make a desperate resistance, in which he would have to be either killed outright, or so badly hurt that he would be unfit for travel, so the plan of handcuffing him was abandoned, and accepting his parole, Shepperd made ready, and both men mounted their horses, and set off alone for Gates's headquarters near Asheville, eating, sleeping, and riding together like brothers until they reached the American camp where Shepperd turned his prisoner over to the authorities, and he was tried by drumhead court martial, condemned, and executed.
Hon. Augustin Shepperd, a member of Congress for thirty years, was his nephew, and he was the father of William and Mrs General Pender; Captain Frank Shepperd, of Georgetown, and Hamilton Shepperd, Esq., of Warrenton, Va., are his near kinsmen. One of his sisters Pamela, married Col. Paoli Ashe, from whom descended Hon. Thomas S. Ashe, of the Supreme Bench of North Carolina, and other brilliant men. Col. Shepperd left three sons, William, Egbert and Henry, all of whom afterwar dmoved to the Western District of Tennessee.
Two of his sons married daughters of Marmaduke Johnson, Esq., a wealthy gentleman, of Warrenton, Va., William, his eldest son, was most happily married to Mary Haywood, and their daughter, Mary, is the wife of John L. T. Sneed, Chief Justice of Tennessee, who was a nephew of the illustrious Judge William Gaston, of North Carolina. Col. Shepperd's daughters were equally fortunate in their alliances. Of his daughters two were married to the two Governors, Ashe of North Carolina, that is—Elizabeth married Col. Sam. Ashe, son of Gov. Sam. Ashe, and had William S. Ashe and others; Mary married Samuel Porter Ashe, son of Col. John Baptista Ashe (the oldest son of Gov. Sam. Ashe, a U. S. Senator, elected Governor, but died before qualifying.) He was a citizen of Fayetteville before he removed to Tennessee, his oldest daughter, Sarah married Wm. Barry Grove, a member of Congress and a banker in Fayettesville; Susan married David Hay, Esq., a gentleman of fortune, whose sister, Susan, was the first wife of Judge Wm. Gaston.
David Grove, a son of Wm. Barry Grove and Sarah, married Susan Hay Ashe, a daughter of Sam. Ashe and Elizabeth. John Baptista
Ashe a son of Col. Sam. Ashe and Elizabeth, (he was a member of Congress from Tennessee) married Elizabeth Hay, daughter of David and Susan Hay.
The youngest daughter, Margaret Lucia, married to Dr. John Rogers, several years after the death of Col. Shepperd, who died at Hillsboro. Dr. Rogers was an Irishman by birth, and for a short time in the United States Navy; a graduate of Georgetown, D. C., came to Wilmington about 1815, and became a teacher there, for Rev. Dr. Empie, and afterwards Col. Hill—about 1822 to 1826 had charge of the Academy of Hillsboro. To these was born Dr. J. Webb Rogers, July 11, 1822, at “Long Meadows,” the old North Carolina homestead of his grand-father, a graduate of the College of New Jersey at Princeton.
He became an Episcopal clergyman, built six churches in Tennessee; and becoming a convert to the Roman Catholic faith, returned to the profession of the law, which he had studied in early life. He is an author of several theological and poetical works. The children of Dr. J. Webb Rogers have already attained such distinction as to entitle them to much more than passing notice.
Two sons, J. Harris Rogers and Wm. Shepperd Rogers are both electricians. By the middle name of the older son named, the alliance of the two families is noted. Arthur Harris, his maternal ancestor, was the bosom friend of William Shepperd, and served with him in the State Legislature. The names of Hon. Isham G. Harris, U. S. Senator, Hon. Wm. R. Harris, Gen. Buckner Harris, Elisha Harris, a wealthy planter before the late war, Dr. George C. Harris, dean of St. Mary's Cathedral, Dr. G. Whitson Harris, the famous surgeon, and many other names not unknown to fame, are all grouped around this family centre.
These descendants, the Rogers, have by their patents in connection with electricity, obtained great reputation and have become immensely wealthy.
The Mebane family have been very well known and esteemed in Orange County, and its descendants have not only been distinguished in this section, but have pervaded Tennessee Kentucky, Mississippi, Indiana, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and other sections. (Revo. Incidents in the old North State, by E. W. Caruthers.)
Colonel Alexander Mebane, the founder of the family in North Carolina, came from the North of Ireland, emigrated to America and settled in Pennsylvania, where he remained for several years. He removed to Hawfields, in Orange County, before the revolution. He was an industrious, upright man, thrifty in worldly matters, and soon acquired considerable wealth.
Under the Royal Government he received a commission as Colonel and was made a Justice of the Peace. When the revolution began he and all of his sons were decided and became active defenders of the rights of the people, when opposed to the oppressions of the Crown. On this account the British and Tories devastated his property. He was too old to be an active soldier himself, but his sons were brave and zealous defenders of the cause of independence. He had six sons: 1st William, 2nd Robert, 3d Alexander, 4th John, 5th James, 6th David.
William Mebane was a captain in the revolution and a member of the Senate in the State Legislature in 1782; married first to Miss Rainy, second to Miss Abererombie, but had no issue.
Robert was the soldier of the family, a Colonel in the Continental army. He was with General Rutherford in his campaign in 1776 against the Overhill Cherokee Indians and in many battles with the British and Tories, in which he displayed unflinching courage. In the battle of Cane Creek, in an endeavor to intercept the fierce marauder Fanning, who had seized the Governor, Colonel Mebane displayed great valor, and when General Butler had ordered
a retreat, Colonel Mebane rushed before the retreating party, stopped them and turned the defeat into victory. Towards the close of the battle ammunition becoming scarce, he passed along the line bare headed, carrying powder in his hat and distributing it among the men, urging them to continue the fight. He was afterwards, with his Regiment on the Cape Fear, fighting the Tories. But he was notified that his services were needed in the northern part of the State and he set out, accompanied only by his servant. On his return he came upon a noted Tory and horse thief, Henry Hightower, who was armed with a British musket. Fearless of the consequences Mebane pursued him; when within striking distance and with his arm uplifted, Hightower suddenly wheeled and shot him dead. He was the model of a soldier, brave, fearless, of active and commanding presence.
Alexander Mebane was the statesman of the family, born in Pennsylvania, 26th of November, 1744. He was a member of the Provincial Congress at Halifax, 16th December 1776, that formed the State constitution, and of the convention at Hillsboro’ which rejected the constitution of the United States. He was a member of the Legislature from Orange County, from 1783 to 1793 and in the latter year was elected a member of the United States (3rd) Congress and re-elected, but died before taking his seat on 5th of July; 1795. He was distinguished for sound practical sense, stern integrity and indomitable firmness. He was married, first to Mary Armstrong, of Orange County; second, to Miss Claypole, of Philadelphia.
He left several children, James, William and Dr John A. Mebane, of Greensboro’. His son, James Mebane, inherited his father's talents as a statesman, was one of the first students who entered the University and the founder of the Dialectic Society, which perpetuates his memory by his life-size portrait that may still be seen in their hall. He was a member of the Legislature in 1808,-’9, ’10, ’11, ’22, ’23 and ’28. In 1821 he was elected Speaker of the House.
He married Elizabeth, the only child of William Kinchen, by which union he had six children, five sons and one daughter. Among these is Giles Mebane, the faithful and able Senator in the Legislature (1877-78) from Orange, Person and Caswell. Kinchen, an older son, was a Presbyterian clergyman. The younger sons were James and Lemuel.
Dr. Alexander Wood Mebane, a son of William, was born in this County, liberally educated, graduated in Philadelphia and settled in Bertie County on the Chowan river, where he became one of the successful and enterprising men of that section. He was a man of unblemished reputation, faithful to every duty, active and energetic in every good work and enterprise. These qualities and abilities were duly appreciated, for in 1829 and 1830, he was elected member of the House of Commons and in 1833, ’34, ’35, and 36, he was in the Senate; and in 1848 he was a candidate for Elector on the Cass ticket in opposition to Kenneth Rayner. This was his last public service.
He married Mary Howe, a lady of fine estate, by whom he had several children, one of whom was the wife of the Hon. John Pool. Grandison and Howe were brothers; Mary Frances and Mrs. Jordan were sisters of Dr. Mebane.
Colonel John Mebane, son of Alexander Mebane, senior, and brother of Alexander Mebane, junior, resided in Chatham. He was a member of the Legislature from 1790 to 1811. About the close of the war of ’76 he married Mrs. Sarah, widow of William Kinchen, by whom he had two children, John Briggs Mebane, who was a member of the Legislature in 1813; and Mr. Thomas Hall, of Rockingham County.
Captain James Mebane was active in the revolutionary struggles. He married Margaret Allen, of the Hawfields.
David Mebane, the youngest son of the patriarch of this family, was not old enough to be of much service in the war of the revolution. He, however, served in two campaigns and did all in his power. He represented the County of Orange in the Legislature in 1808, 1809-’10. He married Ann Allen, of the Hawfields and left a large family, among them George A. Mebane of Mason Hall, merchant and Post-Master.
Brig. Genl. Francis Nash was the brother of Governor Abner Nash, whose biography we have recorded. (See page 132.)
He was much respected, and in the colonial period of the state, was a member of the Superior Court under the Royal rule.
When the revolution commenced he was on the 22d of April, 1776, appointed Lt. Colonel of the first Regiment of North Carolina troops in the Continental establishment (Jas. Moore, Col.; and Thos. Clark, Maj.;) upon the death of Col. Moore, he became Colonel. He was subsequently promoted to be a Brigadier-General, and ordered to join the Grand Army of the North under Washington.* He commanded a brigade at the battle of Germantown (Oct. 4, 1777,) where he received a mortal wound. His thigh was shattered by a spent cannon ball and the same shot killed his aid, Major Witherspoon, son of Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, President of Princeton College.
He was buried at Kulpsville, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, twenty-six miles from Philadelphia. By the patriotism and liberality of John F. Watson, a monument has been placed over his remains.
The Continental Congress on Nov. 4th 1777, passed the following:
“Resolved, that his excellency Governor Caswell, of North Carolina, be requested to erect a monument of the value of five hundred dollars, at the expense of the United States, in honor of the memory of Brigadier-General Francis Nash, who fell in the battle of Germantown on the 4th day of Oct. 1777, bravely contending for the independence of his country.”
This pledge is yet unredeemed. Pro pudor!
General Nash married Sally, daughter of Judge Maurice Moore, leaving one daughter, Sally, who married John Waddell and who had ten children, viz: I, Haynes married Fanning; II, Frank married Moore; III, Hugh married Susan Moore; IV, Maurice; V, Sally married DeRossett; VI, John; VII, Alfred; VIII, Mary; IX, Claudea; X, Fanny married John Swan.
Frederick Nash, (born 1781, died 1858,) son of Governor Abner Nash and nephew of General Francis Nash, was born on the 9th February, 1781, in the old colonial palace at New Berne, his father then being Governor, the successor of Richard Caswell, first governor elected under our State constitution.
His education was conducted by Rev. M. Pattillo, a Presbyterian minister of piety and learning, at Williamsboro, Granville County, and he was prepared for college by Rev. Thomas P. Irving, of New Berne, a divine, and scholar of eminent attainments; he graduated at Princeton, in 1799, in same class with John Forsythe, of Georgia; Jas. C. Johnston, of Edenton, and others. He returned home and commenced the study of the Law, in the practice of which from his ability, learning and assiduity, he attained high distinction. It was natural, from such qualifications, that his fellow citizens should look to him as a suitable representative in the halls of Legislation. In 1814-15 he represented
* Extract from Journal, of the Continental Congress, “July 14, 1775, Resolved that General Nash proceed Immediately with the Virginia and North Carolina troops, together with Colonel Procter's corps of artillery to join General Washington.”New Berne in the Legislature, where, from his ability and purity of character, he wielded great influence. He continued to reside at New Berne in the practice of his profession until 1808, when he removed to Hillsboro’, and purchased the residence of his friend, Judge Cameron, where he resided till his death. In 1814-15 and 1816-17 he represented Orange County in the Legislature, and in 1818 was elected one of the judges of the Superior Courts. He possessed those qualities which Lord Campbell has designated as essential to a good judge: “Patience in hearing, eveness of temper, and kindness of heart.” He served eight years in this laborious and important position when he resigned; and in 1827-28 represented Hillsboro’ in the House of Commons. He was again elected in 1836 to the Superior Court Bench, and in 1844 succeeded Judge Gaston as one of the justices of the Supreme Court. On the resignation of Judge Ruffin he was made Chief Justice. Here was a field where his extensive learning, his amenity of temper and his “even-handed justice” had full employment. He occupied this important post till his death, which occurred at Hillsboro’ on 5th December, 1858.
He married Mary Kallock, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and left a large family.
Among them: I, Frederick; II, Henry K.; III, Shepperd; IV, Sally; V, Maria.
For much of this sketch we are indebted to the Memoir of Judge Nash, by the late Hon. John H. Bryan. Uni. Mag., X., 257.
Archibald Debow Murphey, (born 1777, died 3rd February, 1832,) son of Colonel Archibald Murphey, was born in Caswell County, near Milton. His early education was conducted by Rev. Dr. David Caldwell, and finished at the University, where he graduated in 1799, in the second class graduated at that institution. In this class were Francis Nash, William Benton, John Phifer and others. Such was his reputation as a scholar, that he was appointed to the chair of Ancient Languages in the University, which he filled acceptably for three years, when he resigned and studied law under William Duffy, then residing in Hillsboro. He rapidly advanced in his profession, at that period, adorned by the ability of such legal celebrities as Cameron, Norwood, Nash, Seawell, Yancey, Ruffin, Badger and others. Among these he held a high position, and which fully justified the remark of Pinkney that the Bar was not a place where false and fraudulent reputation for talents can be maintained. His practice for years was not exceeded by that of any lawyer in the State; and his success was equal to its extent. Particularly did he excel in the Equity branch of the profession and in the examination of witnesses. In 1818 he was elected one of the judges of the Superior Courts, and in this elevated position he well sustained his reputation for learning and ability which had been so well established at the Bar. He commanded the admiration of the profession and the people, by the courtesy, patience, dignity and justice of his rulings. After riding the circuit for two years he resigned, and returned to the less laborious and more germane practice of his profession. From 1812 to 1818 he was a Senator in the Legislature from Orange County In this new arena he was more conspicuous than he had been at the Bar, or on the Bench, and wielded a larger influence than any other member in the Councils of the State. In 1819 he published “A Memoir of Improvements Contemplated, and the Resources and Finances of the State,” dedicated to Gov. Branch, which will rank with the efforts of a Clinton or a Calhoun, and which elicited from the North American Review, high commendations. With his mind absorbed in the gigantic schemes of internal improvements, at the same time he assiduously labored in his profession and literary pursuits. Judge Murphey conceived the purpose
of writing the History of the State. He knew her resources; he was familiar with her early records; he had studied her interests; he had visited every section from the mountains to the seaboard; he knew personally every leading man of eminence or intelligence in the State. He had gathered material from every source, public and private, at home and abroad. He fully felt the importance and the necessity of a good history of the State. In a letter to General Joseph Graham, (20th July, 1821,) he says:
“We want such a work, we neither know outsiders; nor are we known to others. We want pride; we want independence; we know nothing of our State and we care nothing about it.”
At his instance, the Legislature through Mr. Gallatin our Envoy in England caused the offices of the Board of Trade in the Rolls offices in London, to be explored, a rich mine never developed; he corresponded with Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison and other literary men of other states, and with the families of Govs. Burke, Caswell, Johnston, and with many revolutionary officers then living, as Generals Graham Lenoir, Col. Wm. Polk and others all of whom contributed their treasures of knowledge freely to him.
The Legislature in 1826, upon his application, granted authority to him to raise by a lottery, a sum sufficient to carry out his patriotic intentions. But beyond publishing one or two chapters on the Indians, ill health and decayed fortune arrested this great enterprise; poverty and adversity clouded the evening of his days. He died at Hillsboro’, February 3rd, 1832, and is buried in the Presbyterian grave yard, a few feet from the front door of the church. He left two sons, Dr. V. Moreau Murphey, of Macon, Mississippi, and Lieutenant P. U. Murphey of the Navy (since dead,) and several grand children, among whom Judge Archibald Murphey Aiken, who worthily sustains the high reputation of his illustrious patronomic and ancestor.
We acknowledge our indebtedness for much of the material of this truthful memoir to the able address of Gov. W. A. Graham. (N. C. Uni. Mag. Aug., 1860.)
William Norwood, born 1767 died 1840, one of the Judges of the Superior Courts of North Carolina, was a native of Orange county. He was elected a member of the Legislature from Hillsboro’ in 1806, and re-elected in 1807.
He was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Courts in 1820 and after serving with great acceptability for sixteen years, he resigned in 1836, on account of his ill health; he died in 1840.
Dr. William Montgomery, born 1791, died 1844, long a resident, and a representative from this county, entered public life in 1824, as a Senator from Orange county in the Legislature, and served till 1834, when he was was elected a member of the 24th Congress (1835-’37) and continued to the 25th and 26th Congress, 1841 where he declined further public life. He was distinguished for the inflexibility of his political principles, and his fidelity to his party.
Willie Person Mangum, born 1792, died Sept. 14th, 1861, a native and resident of this County was born in 1792, and educated at the University where he graduated in 1815, in the same class with John H. Bryan, Isaac Croom, Francis L. Hawks, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr. and others. He studied law, and became so distinguished in the profession that in 1819 at the early age of 28 he was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Courts. He had been the previous year, elected a member of the Legislature. In 1823 he was elected a member of the 28th Congress (1824) and re-elected to the next Congress, after 1826 he was again elected a Judge of the Superior Courts. In
1829 he was elected and voted for Jackson; in 1831, he was elected Senator in Congress and served till 1836 when, under instructions, he resigned. His party came again into power, and 1841 he was again elected Senator and re-elected in 1847 and served till 4th March, 1854. He lived in high party times, and his political life was chequered with alternate success and defeat. Yet he bore the one with dignity and moderation, and the other with calmness and resignation.
In 1837 he received the electoral vote of South Carolina for President. On the death of Gen. Harrison (1841) and the accession of Mr. Tyler to the Presidency, he was elected as presiding officer in the Senate, and through the term of Mr. Tyler's administration held this dignified position.
He now retired from the busy theatre of politics in which he had been so prominent an actor, to his country home at Red Mountain. His latter days were clouded by sorrow at the loss of a favorite son in battle. He died at home on Sept. 14th, 1861.
He married Miss Cain of Orange.
Thomas H. Benton, (born 1782, died 1858,) was born near Hillsboro, N. C., at Hart's Mills, March 14th, 1782. He was educated at the University, but never graduated. He studied law under St. George Tucker at William and Mary College, Va. He entered the United States Army, but soon resigned his commission as Lieutenant Colone; and in 1811 settled in Nashville, Tenn., where he commenced the practice of law. After a short time he emigrated to St. Louis, Missouri, and became connected with the press. He soon arose to position and influence, and in 1820 was elected to the Senate of the United States. To the Senate he was repeatedly re-elected for “thirty years,” and there was no public measure from 1821 to 1851 in which he did not take an active part; every subject he discussed was exhausted by his research and powers of investigation. He was a decided democrat, and the chief supporter of Jackson and Van Buren in the Senate. His long term of service caused others, who wished his place, to supplant him, by strong efforts they were finally successful. He was, however, returned to 33rd Congress (1853-55) as a member of the House. He then retired from public service and devoted the balance of his life to the compilation of his Register of Debates. He died at Washington City April 10th, 1858.
General Geo. B. Anderson, (born April 12, 1831, died Oct. 16, 1862,) was the son of William E. Anderson, born near Hillsboro. His mother was Eliza, daughter of Geo. Burgwyn, of New Hanover.
His education was conducted by William Bingham, and at the Caldwell Institute, until 1848, when he was, on the recommendation of Hon. A. W. Venable, appointed a cadet at the United States Military Academy, where he graduated in 1852. He was then appointed Lieutenant of Dragoons. After spending six months in the Cavalry School, at Carlisle, he was appointed assistant to Lt. Parke of the Engineers and ordered to locate the route for a railroad to California. This duty performed, he joined his regiment in Texas, and marched over to Fort Riley, Kansas, where the troops were constantly engaged in arresting predatory parties, headed by Lane and Ossawatomie Brown, or Missouri mobs. When the war of 1861 began he resigned his commission in the United States Army, and hastened to North Carolina to share the fortunes of his native State. He was the first officer of the old army who tendered his sword and services to North Carolina. He was appointed on May 18, 1861, by Gov. Ellis, colonel to the 4th Reg't, N. C. troops; John A. Young, of Charlotte, was the Lt. Col., and Bryan Grimes, of Pitt, Major. The Regiment after being organized at Garysburg,
marched to the front. Though engaged in slight skirmishes at Williamsburg, the 4th Regiment did not receive its real baptism till May 31, in the bloody battle of Seven Pines. Here, in the absence of General Featherston, Colonel Anderson commanded a Brigade, consisting of the 49th Va., Col. (Ex-Gov.) Wm. Smith; 27th and 28th Georgia, and the 4th N. C. The latter went into this battle with 520 men and 27 officers. It lost 86 men killed, 376 wounded, and 24 officers. Such was the gallant bearing and skillful conduct of Colonel Anderson, that he received the highest encomiums from his commander, Gen. D. H. Hill, and was promoted on June the 9th to be a Brigadier-General, and the 2nd, 4th, 14th and 20th regiments of North Carolina troops were assigned as his brigade.
In the series of battles around Richmond the brigade earned an immortality of renown. At Malvern Hill, Gen. Anderson was wounded in the hand. At the battle of Sharpsburg, Sept. 17th, he occupied a prominent position on slightly rising ground. While thus exposed he was struck by a minnie ball near the ankle joint and fell. He was carried with difficulty and danger to the rear, and subsequently across the Potomac to Sheperdstown. Accompanied by his brother, Lieutenant Robert Walker Anderson, who was afterwards killed, May 5th, 1864, in the Wilderness, he was carried in a wagon up the valley to Stanton, thence by rail to Raleigh. Here at the residence of his brother, Wm. E. Anderson, he received every attention that science and affection could offer. After a fortnight of intense suffering, mortification set in, and amputation was resorted to, as the last hope, but he sank under the operation. On the 16th of Oct. 1862, his pure and noble spirit departed for another and better world.
He was buried in the city cemetery with obsequies suitable to his gallant conduct, and his heroic death. He married Nov. 8th, 1857, Miss Mildred Ewing, of Louisville.
While endeavoring to sketch the heroes, statesmen and patriots, the patient and laborious educator of our day should not be neglected. We extract from “the Living Writers of the South,” the following tribute to the carefulness and merits of one of our most distinguished men in that useful profession of education—William Bingham.
He is of the third generation of a race of teachers—teachers who have always maintained a prominent place in that honorable calling. Colonel Bingham was born a school master. He was born on July 7th, 1835, and has followed like the “puer Ascanius” of Virgil in the “passibus equis” of his illustrious sires, his father and grand father. After due preparation by his father, he entered the University and graduated in 1856 in the same class with Clement Dowd, (Mr. Dowd's thesis at this commencement was “the corrupting influences of political controversy,”) John T. Gilmore, Thos. B. Slade and others, attaining the first distinction throughout the course.
This nursery of so many distinguished youths of our State, the Bingham School, was established by the Rev. William Bingham in 1793, it was removed from New Berne to Hillsboro and still survives in undiminished usefulness the pride and ornament of the State. He commenced teaching at 12 years of age, and in 1861 was an author of a text book in Latin.
He has published:
1. A Grammar of the Latin, with exercises and vocabularies, Greensboro, 1863.
2. Cæsar's Commentaries with notes 1864.
3. A Grammar of the English language, 1867, which is pronounced to be the best grammar ever published in the United States.
Col. Bingham is preparing an edition of Sallust's “Jugurthine War, and Conspiracy of Cataline.”
Without some reference to this alma mater, the University of North Carolina, a book of reminiscenses of eminent North Carolinians would be incomplete.
When we consider the extended list of her alumni, who have risen to eminence and to become ornaments of their native land, both at home and in other States; so many of that band of graduates have become laurel crowned and honored in every sphere of life's duties, that their alma mater cannot but feel elated with much of the same pride, which the poet says, swelled the breasts of the mother of the gods on Mount Olympus, as she looked upon her children:
See all her progeny, illustrious sight!Behold and count them as they rise to sight,She sees around her in the blest abode,A hundred sons, and every son a god!Therefore, I have extracted from a published address of the late Hon. William H. Battle, delivered June, 1865, the following reminiscences:
It is the boast of our State that in its organic law, provision is made for the instruction of her youth in all useful learning. By the 41st section of the Constitution it is declared: “That a school or schools shall be established by the legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices; and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities.” The merit of those who adopted this wise provision cannot be duly appreciated, without adverting for a moment to the time at, and the circumstances under which it was made. The war of the Revolution had but fairly commenced, and the Declaration of Independence had only a few months before been promulgated, when a convention of the people met at the town of Halifax for the purpose of preparing a constitution or form of government for the State. The country was poor, the people generally but slightly educated, and the war then raging was of doubtful issue, yet the members of the convention were resolved that their posterity should enjoy the advantages of education which had been denied to the most of them. There can be no doubt that a large majority of those members had been instructed only in the plain rules of reading, writing and arithmetic, but destitute as they were of book learning, they had, in the business of social and political life, improved their mental faculties, and had thereby educated themselves to a due appreciation of the rights and privileges to which, as free men, they were entitled. A few, and but a few of them, were men who had been more favored by fortune, and were well instructed in all the branches of a classical and scientific education. Prominent among these were Richard Caswell, Thomas Burke, John Ashe, Samuel Ashe, Abner Nash, David Caldwell, Joseph Hewes, Thomas Jones, Allen Jones, Willie Jones, Cornelius Harnett, Archibald McLaine and Waightstill Avery. Richard Caswell was president of the convention, and Thomas Burke was chairman of the committee on the constitution. They were both eminent lawyers, and it is to them and their enlightened compeers that we are indebted to that section of the constitution from which have emanated our University, our Colleges and our noble system of Common Schools. The constitution was ratified the 18th day of December, 1776, and the war ceased by a definite treaty of peace which secured our independence in September, 1783; but was not until the year 1789 that the financial condition of the State justified the legislature in making the necessary expenditures for the foundation of a University. In that year the charter of this institution was granted, and among the patriotic and enlightened members who advocated it, no one stood more conspicuous than Gen'l William R. Davie. Of his efforts on that occasion, the late Judge Murphey,
who delivered the first annual address before your Societies, thus spoke in that address: “The General Assembly resolved to found our University. I was present at the House of Commons, when Davie addressed that body upon the bill granting a loan of money to the Trustees for erecting the building of this University, and although more than thirty years have since elapsed, I have the most vivid recollections of the greatness of his manner and the powers of his eloquence upon that occasion.” After the grant of the charter, the first object which engaged the attention of the Trustees, was to fix upon a site for the institution. The first Board consisted of forty members who resided in various parts of the State; and were all men distinguished for position and influence. The committee appointed by them for the purpose, after a careful examination of many places which had been suggested them as suitable, selected Chapel Hill. This place was so-called from its being the site of one of the anti-revolutionary churches of the English Establishment. The church building is said to have stood on the lot now occupied by Capt. Richard S. Ashe. It may not be uninteresting to revert to the terms in which the location was spoken of in one of the public journals of that day:
“The seat of the University is on the summit of a very high ridge. There is a gentle declivity of 300 yards to the village, which is situated in a handsome plain considerably lower than the site of the public buildings, but so greatly elevated above the neighboring country as to furnish an extensive landscape. The ridge appears to commence about half a mile directly east of the college buildings, where it rises abruptly several hundred feet.
This peak is called Point Prospect. The flat country spreads off below, like the ocean, giving an immense hemisphere, in which the eye seems to be lost in the extent of space.”
The building committee, having in the year 1793 secured a competent contractor in the person of Mr. James Patterson, of Chatham County, the 12th day of October in that year was fixed upon for laying the corner stone of the first building. The following account of the ceremony subsequently appeared in the journal to which we have already referred: “A large number of the brethren of the Masonic order from Hillsboro’, Chatham, Granville and Warren attended to assist at the ceremony of placing the corner stone, and the procession for this purpose moved from Mr. Patterson's at 12 o'clock in the following order: The Masonic brethren in their usual order of procession, the Commissioners, the Trustees not commissioners, the Hon. Judge McKay and other public officers; then followed the gentlemen of the vicinity. On approaching the south end of the building the Masons opened to the right and left, and the Commissioners, etc., passed through and took their place. The Masonic procession then moved on round the foundation of the building, and halted with their usual ceremonies opposite the southeast corner, where William Richardson Davie, Grand Master of the Fraternity, etc., in this State, assisted by two Masters of Lodges and four other officers, laid the corner-stone, enclosing a plate to commemorate the transaction.”
The Rev. Dr. McCorkle, a member of the Board of Trustees, then made an appropriate and eloquent address to his fellow members and the spectators, which closed as follows: “The seat of the University was next sought for, and the public eye selected Chapel Hill, a lovely situation, in the centre of the State, at a convenient distance from the capital, in a healthy and fertile neighborhood. May this hill be for religion as the ancient hill of Zion; and for literature and the muses may it surpass the ancient Parnassus! We this day enjoy the pleasure of seeing the corner stone of the University, its
foundation, its material, and the architect of the buildings, and we hope ere long to see its stately walls and spire ascending to their summit. Ere long we hope to see it adorned with an elegant village, accommodated with all the necessaries and conveniences of civilized society.” This address was followed by a short prayer, which closed with the united Amen of an immense concourse of people.
The building, since called the East, having been sufficiently prepared, Mr. Hinton James, of Wilmington, the first student, arrived on the Hill the 12th day of February, 1795, and the exercises of the institution were soon after commenced. The first instructor was the Rev. David Kerr, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, who was Professor of Ancient Languages, and he was assisted by Samuel Allen Holmes in the preparatory department. Shortly afterwards Charles W. Harris, a native of Iredell County, in this State, and a graduate of Princeton College in New Jersey, was appointed Professor of Mathematics, but he held the office only one year, when he was succeeded by the Rev. Joseph Caldwell, who was also a graduate of Princeton, and a native of New Jersey. The first commencement, at which the degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred, was held in the year 1798, when seven young gentlemen, among whom was Mr. Hinton James, received that degree.
For several years after the erection of the first building, the accommodations for the students, both in the collegiate and the preparatory department, remained nearly the same. The old Chapel and the East were the only edifices, and the latter was then only two stories high, and contained but sixteen rooms. The old chapel was the Aula Personica in which the degrees were for many years conferred.
The South building was commenced, carried up a story and a half, and then left for a long time in an unfinished state. We are told by Dr. Hooper in his admirable address before Alumni of this institution, entitled “Fifty Years Since,” that the students who could not well prepare their lessons in the crowded dormitories of the East, were in the habit of erecting cabins in the corners of the unfinished brick walls of the South, where they could pursue their studies to better advantage. But Dr. Caldwell, who was then President, could not long endure this state of things; and by his active exertions, the sum of twelve thousand dollars was raised by subscription, which enabled the Trustees to have the South building completed. This was done in 1812; and about the year 1824, the West building was erected and an additional story was put upon the East. Shortly afterwards the new chapel was built; and in 1848 extensions were added to the East and West buildings, which was done mainly for the accommodation of the two Literary Societies, whose two rooms in the third story of the South had become too small for the increased number of members. The buildings since erected have been the University library, and the wings to the East and West. The two last were finished and prepared for occupation only a short time before the commencement of the war. The beautiful and commodious Society Halls contained in them have been the admiration of all beholders.
At the commencement of the institution, and for several years afterwards, the range of studies was very contracted. Greek was not introduced into the course until 1804, and in the year 1807, we learn that Morse's Geography was one of the principal studies of the Sophomore class. The higher mathematics were not introduced until the Rev. Elisha Mitchell came here as professor of that science in 1819. The same year witnessed the advent of Denison Olmsted as the first Professor of Chemistry; and in the year following, the Rev. Shepherd K. Kollock, was in like manner the first Prosessor
of Rhetoric and Logic. After that time the number and variety of studies were greatly increased, and it is believed that the present college curriculum is on as high a scale as any in the United States.
The University has, in the main, been fortunate in its governors and instructors. During the first nine years of its existence, it had no president, but was under the management of a professor as a presiding officer; that officer, however, was, for the greater part of the time, the same distinguished gentleman who afterwards became its first president. Of his eminent merits in that respect it is unnecessary for me to speak at this time and in this place. The beautiful monument erected to his memory by the Alumni of this institution, and which now graces and adorns the college campus, fully attests his claim to distinction, not only as the head of the University, but as a learned divine and an early and efficient advocate of a system of internal improvements and of common schools in the State. His presidency extended from his first appointment in 1804, until his death in 1835, with the exception of an interval of four years, from 1812 to 1816, during which the unsuccessful administration of Dr. Robert H. Chapman occurred. Of the present incumbent,* I shall say nothing, except that he has filled the office with distinguished success for nearly thirty years. In administering the affairs of college, and in business of instruction, the presidents were aided by a succession of many learned and able professors. Of those who are now members of the faculty, it will not be expected of me to speak; and of those who have gone from us and are still living, I will merely refer you to Dr. William Hooper and John DeBerniere Hooper, to Bishop Green, of Mississippi, to Professor Hedrick, and to Drs. Deems, Wheat and Shipp. Among the dead there are several names which the friends of the University ought not to permit to be forgotten. There was Charles W. Harris, to whose brief sojourn here we were indebted for Dr. Caldwell; there was Archibald D. Murphey, who afterwards became one of the most distinguished jurists and statesmen of North Carolina; the Rev. William Bingham, of whom Chief Justice Taylor said, that as a teacher of a school he was well qualified to raise its reputation, “by the extent of his acquirements, the purity of his life, and the judgment by which he accommodated the discipline and instructions of the school to the various talents and dispositions of the youth.” There was Dr. Ethan A. Andrews, so well known for his classical labors; and Dr. Olmsted, who, as Professor of Natural Philosophy at Yale College, so greatly increased the reputation which he had established as Professor of Chemistry here; there was Nicholas M. Hentz, a learned man, but not so widely known as his accomplished wife, Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz; there was Walker Anderson, who afterwards removed to Florida and became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of that State; and finally there was Dr. Elisha Mitchell, whose varied, extensive and profound literary and scientific acquirements were lost to the world a few years ago by a tragical event which sent a pang of sorrow to every votary of science throughout the land.
In referring to the instructors of the institution, the tutors should not be passed over without a notice. Among the living and the dead, they have very able and distinguished representatives. Among the living are ex-Governor Morehead, Hamilton C. Jones, Anderson Mitchell, Giles Mebane, Judge Manly, ex-Secretary Jacob Thompson, and others whose names may yet swell the trump of fame. Among the dead, I would point you to James Martin, afterwards a Judge of the Superior Court; to Gavin Hogg, long one of the ablest lawyers of
* Hon. David L. Swain.the State; to Lewis Williams, who was a member of the House of Representatives so long that he acquired the name of father of the House; to William D. Moseley, for many years Speaker of the Senate in this State, and afterwards Governor of Florida; to James H. Otey, the able and learned Bishop of Tennessee; to the Rev. Joseph H. Saunders, whose early death cut short a bright career of usefulness in his church; to Edward D. Simms, whose growing reputation as a professor in the University of Alabama was closed by death before he had attained the meridian of his years; and to Abraham F. Morehead, the youngest member of a distinguished family, who would doubtless have greatly increased the fame of that family, had he not died in the earliest dawn of manhood. I name with peculiar sadness George P. Bryan, George B. Johnston, Iowa Royster and E. Graham Morrow, who have so recently been consigned to soldiers’ graves.
From this hasty and imperfect sketch of the origin and history of the University, it appears clearly and strongly that the founders of our republic and their successors, have always had a deep sense of the importance of a collegiate education. The enquiry is naturally presented, how far their hopes have been realized from this institution; in other words, with what measure of success has it been attended in promoting and advancing the weal of the State? A practical solution of this enquiry may perhaps be obtained by ascertaining, if we can, what influence the men who received their education here have had in the management and direction of the affairs of the General and State governments. It is unnecessary on this occasion, to go into minute details on this subject, but we can say in general, and say with certainty, that there is scarcely an office or place of profit or trust, or any position in the business of life, professional or non-professional, ecclesiastical or lay, military or civil, which has not been filled, time and again, by some one who has received his education, in whole or in part, at this University. To the general government it has furnished one President, at least five members of the cabinet and four ministers to foreign courts, while of the number which it has sent to the Senate and House of Representatives it is difficult to make a reckoning. In the State government there is hardly any office which has not been filled by those who have gone forth from these halls. It has its representatives in the highest places of the church, among the leaders at the bar, and in the chambers where suffering humanity most needs the aid of educated science and skill. It has supplied banks and railroads with presidents, clerks and superintendents. It sends its Alumni to explore mines and to construct railroads; and above all and best of all, it furnishes to agriculture and commerce some of their most enlightened, energetic and skillful votaries.
The exciting times through which we have just passed and are now passing, have prevented me from bringing more particularly to your attention the men whom our University has sent forth to act their parts in the world. It is only by the offices which they have filled, or the places which they have occupied, that I have recalled them to your recollection. Many of them have paid the great debt of nature, and gone to render to their Maker an account of their stewardship. Others are still living to perform, it may be, higher duties to their country, and to obtain greater rewards for themselves. Of all these, dead or living, I have nothing further to say. But with your indulgence, I will occupy a few more moments of your time in recalling from the dim recollections of the past the names of a few men, each of whom was regarded as the college genius of the day, and who with well directed energies and a longer life, might have left a name which the world would not willingly have let die.
William Cherry was a native of Bertie County, and was graduated here in the year 1800. While in college he was not a very diligent student, but his aptitude for learning was so marvellous that, it was said, he could prepare his lesson after the recitation bell had commenced ringing. Having selected the law as his profession, he had already attained an extensive practice and a high rank at the Bar, when his career was cut short by death, caused by intemperance, at the early age of twenty-seven. Those who were engaged in practice with him could not but wonder at the admirable manner in which he managed his causes, knowing as they did that the time which he ought to have spent in the preparation of them, was passed at the card table and around the intoxicating bowl. A story is still remembered, that on one occasion, in the forgetfulness caused by a deep debauch, he opened an important cause by making a very able argument on the wrong side; but being made aware of his mistake just as he was about to close, he, immediately, with admirable presence of mind, commenced a reply for his own client, by saying that the argument which he had just made was what he supposed would be urged by his opponent, and that he would proceed to answer it, and expose its fallacy. Tradition, however, reports that his first argument was so masterly that he could not answer it successfully, and thus lost his cause.
About fifteen years after Mr. Cherry left the University a young man from the County of Nash was, with many others, suspended from college in consequence of what was long known as the great rebellion of 1817, which resulted in the expulsion of the leaders, Messrs. George C. Drumgoole and William B. Shepard, and the resignation of the President, Dr. Chapman. The expelled members both afterwards became distinguished men, but talented as they undoubtedly were, they were decidedly inferior in genius to their classmate and friend, Thomas N. Mann. He became a lawyer, and at the time when he fell a victim to consumption, while under thirty years of age, he was one of the best read and most profound lawyers in the State. Though so young, he was appointed by the then President of the United States as Charge d’ Affaires to Central America and died while on his way to the court of that country.
In the year of 1824, Thomas Dewes, a young man from the County of Lincoln, took his degree of Bachelor of Arts, dividing with Prof. Simms, Judge Manly and ex-Governor Graham the highest honor of the class. His parents were poor, and it is said resorted to the humble occupation of selling cakes for the purpose of procuring means for the education of their promising boy. After his graduation, he studied law and commenced the practice with every prospect of eminent success, when, unhappily, a morbid sensitiveness of temperament drove him to habits of intemperance, during one of the fits of which he came to an untimely end. His name which ought to have gone down to posterity on account of great deeds achieved by extraordinary talents, will probably be remembered only in connection with a happily turned impromptu epitaph. When ex-Governor Swain was at the Bar, he was, on a certain occasion, at the same Court with Messrs. James R. Dodge, Hillman and Dewes. Mr. Swain had seen somewhere a punning epitaph on a man named Dodge, which ended with the couplet that
“After dodging all he could,He couldn't dodge the devil.”This he wrote on a piece of paper and handed it to the other members of the Bar, whose merriment it very much excited. After a while it reached the hands of Mr. Dodge himself, who, seeing from whom it came and supposing that Hillman and Dewes were participes criminis, immediately wrote on the back the following:
“Here lie a Hillman and a Swain,Their lot let no man chooseThey lived in sin and died in pain,And the devil has his Dews.”Those who are familiar with the playful and happy turn of thought and expression which distinguish the lighter writings of Washington Irving will not be surprised to learn that Mr. Dodge is his nephew.
The next and last college genius to whom I shall call your attention was the late Gen. James Johnston Pettigrew. Born in the County of Tyrrell, he was prepared for college at the celebrated school of William J. Bingham, a son of the Rev. William Bingham already mentioned, and entered the Freshman class here in the year 1843. His whole college course was a continued series of literary triumphs. In a class containing many members of more than ordinary talents he was among the best, if not the very best, in all his studies; but mathematics was his speciality. In that he was far ahead of all his classmates. I well remember being present at the examination of the class on Astronomy, when the learned Professor, after having worried several members by putting questions which they could not answer, called up Mr Pettigrew. As he did so one of the class, in a whisper loud enough to be heard half across the room, said, “You can't stick him,” and sure enough he couldn't. After taking the Bachelor's degree, and after a short term of service in the Naval Observatory in Washington city, he selected the Law as his profession, and went to Europe to perfect himself in that department of it called the civil law. On his return he settled in Charleston and became connected in practice with his distinguished relative, the late Hon. James L. Petigru, who was perhaps the ablest and most profound lawyer in South Carolina. During his brief residence there he became one of the representatives of the city in the Legislature of the State. While a member of that body he greatly distinguished himself by sending in from a committee a minority report against a scheme then proposed for taking steps towards the reopening of the slave trade. He himself constituted the minority, and his report was so profound in its views, and so convincing in its arguments, that the proposed measure failed to secure the sanction of the Legislature, though strongly urged in a report agreed upon by all the other members of the committee.
When the war broke out between the North and the South he espoused the cause of his section of the country. After some service at Charleston he came to this State, was elected Colonel of one of its regiments and was afterwards promoted to the rank of Major-General. Of his merits as a soldier and an officer it is unnecessary for me now to speak. His untimely death, in a slight skirmish near the banks of the Potomac during General Lee's retreat from Pennsylvania, caused his friends and his country to deplore an event which extinguished the light of his genius long ere it had attained its meridian splendor.
My young friends, my task is done and no one can feel more sensibly than myself how imperfectly it has been accomplished. No one can know more fully than myself how difficult it has been to withdraw my thoughts from the unhappy condition of our country and apply them to the work of attempting to prepare an offering worthy of your acceptance.
In the commencement of my address I had occasion to refer to the low condition to which the war had suddenly reduced our beloved University. Its declension was as great as it was sudden. Before the war it had attained, in a very few years, a height of prosperity of which scarcely a parallel can be found in any country. In the extent and variety of its studies, the number and ability of its instructors and the number of its students, it surpassed nearly all similar institutions in our own section of the
country, and was beginning to rival the old, time-honored establishments of Yale and Harvard. In the year 1858 its catalogue showed a larger number of under graduates than that of any other college in the United States, except Yale. All this success was accomplished in a very short time. A glance at the rapidly increasing ratio of its graduates will illustrate the truth of my remark. For the first ten years after the date in which degrees were conferred by the University, the number of students who received the Baccalaureate was 53; for the second decade it was 110; for the third 259; for the fourth 146; for the fifth 308; for the sixth 448; and for the seventh the annual number was going on at a rate which would have produced 882, nearly the double of that which immediately preceded it.
Another striking manifestation of the growing fame and the wide-spreading influence of the University was afforded by the honor of having had among the visitors at each of the commencements of 1847 and 1859 the then President of the United States and a part of his cabinet. On the first of these occasions one of her own sons came to greet his fair mother, and on the second a stranger from a distant State came to do her honor.
The editor deems that no apology to the reader is needed for completing this sketch of the history of the University from the pen of an illustrious father, by adding the following from the pen of his illustrious son.
Hon. Kemp P. Battle, the President, on University day 1883, in Gerrard Hall, gave a most interesting History of the Buildings of the University of North Carolina:
This anniversary day commemorates the laying of the corner stone of the Old East Building, on the 12th of October, 1793. I have already recounted at length the celebration of that momentous event, when Wm. Richardson Davie, in stately dignity, arrayed in his Grand Master's Regalia, with his silver trowel in the hand which had weilded the warrior's sword, surrounded by Alfred Moore, W. H. Hill, Treasurer John Haywood, Alexander Mebane, John Williams, Thomas Blount, Frederick Hargett, and other eminent men of that day, including the generous donors of our land, Benjamin Yergain, Colonel John Hogan, Matthew McCauley, Christopher Barbee, Alexander Piper, James Craig, Edward Jones, John Daniel, Mark Morgan and Hardy Morgan, gave tangible form to the institution, for which he had labored with such persistent energy and wisdom, while Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle invoked the blessing of Heaven on the enterprise.
The building was of humble size, only two stories high, with 16 rooms, designed for the occupancy of four students each, but it sheltered many able young men struggling hard and struggling successfully for the inestimable benefits of diciplined minds—such men as Judge Archibald Murphey, Governor John Branch and Francis L. Dancy, John L. Hawkins, Wm. Hardy Murfree, Judge John Cameron, Judge James Martin, Judge John R. Donnell, Gavin Hogg and Chancellor Williams of Tennessee, of the earlier students, not to mention the names of great men who inhabited it in succeeding years.
The Old East was intended only as the South wing of a grander structure looking to the East, to front a wide avenue, nearly a mile long, leading through the forests eastwardly to the conspicuous eminence of which Gen. Davie speaks: “This peak,” he says, “is called Point Prospect. The flat country spreads out below like the ocean, giving an immense hemisphere, in which the eye seems to be lost in the extent of space.” The name has by the mutation of time become singularly inappropriate. The growth of trees and brushwood has shut out the “prospect” and the irreverent successors of Davie, not being able to see the
“Point,” have with tar-heel obstinacy and tarheel appropriateness changed it into “Piney.”
It will doubtless interest you to hear a few sentences in Davie's own language, describing the laying of this corner stone. He says: “A large number of the brethren of the Masonic Order from Hillsboro, Chatham, Granville and Warren attended at the ceremony of placing the corner stone; and the procession for this purpose moved from *Mr Patterson's at 12 o'clock, in the following order: the Masonic brethren in their usual order of procession; the commissioners; the Trustees, not commissioners; the Hon. Judge Mackay and other public officers; then followed the gentlemen of the vicinity. On approaching the south end of the building the Masons opened to the right and left and the commissioners, &c., passed through and took their places. The Masonic procession then moved on around the foundation of the building and then halted with their usual ceremonies, opposite the Southeast corner, where Wm. Richardson Davie, Grand Master of the Fraternity, &c., in this State, assisted by two Masters of Lodges and four other officers, laid the corner stone, enclosing a plate to commemorate the transaction.”
“The Rev. Dr. McCorckle then addressed the Trustees in an excellent discourse suited to the occasion.” I give only a few sentences. He commenced by saying: “It is our duty to acknowledge that sacred scriptual truth, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it; except the Lord watcheth the city, the watchman walketh but in vain.” He then contended that “the advancement of learning and science is one great means of ensuring the happiness of mankind.” * * * “Liberty and law call for general knowledge in the people and extensive knowledge in the matters of State; and these demand public places of education.” * * * “How can glory or wealth be procured and preserved without liberty and laws?” * * * “Knowledge is wealth, it is glory, whether among philosophers, ministers of State or Religion, or among the great mass of the people. Britons glory in the name of a Newton and honor him with a place among the sepulchres of their Kings. Americans glory in the name of a Franklin, and every nation boasts of her great men, who has them. Savages cannot have, rather cannot educate them, though many a Newton has been born and buried among them.” * * * “Knowledge is liberty and law. When the clouds of ignorance are dispelled by the radiance of knowledge, power trembles, but the authority of the laws remain inviolable.” * * * “And how this knowledge, productive of so many advantages to mankind, can be acquired without public places of education, I know not.” Dr. McCorckle concludes as follows: “The seat of the University was sought for, and the public eye selected Chapel Hill, a lovely situation, in the centre of the State, at a convenient distance from the capitol, in a healthy and fertile neighborhood. May this hill be for religion, as the ancient hill of Zion; and for literature and the muses may it surpass the ancient Parnassus. We this day enjoy the pleasure of seeing the corner-stone of the University, its foundation, its material and the architect for the building, and before long we will see its stately walls and spires ascending to their summit. Ere long we hope to see it adorned with an elegant village, adorned with all the necessaries and conveniences of civilized society.”
“The discourse,” says Davie, “was followed by a short and animated prayer, closed with the united Amen of an immense concourse of people.”
* NOTE.—Mr. Patterson was the architect. His temporary dwelling was on Cameron Avenue East.The hopes thus expressed so earnestly by Dr. McCorckle, we on this day, ninety years from the delivery of his noble discourse fully realize. We see around us eight stately buildings, from which have issued five thousand students, in long procession, dispersing over this broad Southern land to take their places among its strongest and wisest and best leaders, in peace and in war. The great institution thus inaugurated has supplied with mental nourishment our fathers and grand-fathers, sheds its lustrous influence on us to-day, and will be an educational luminary to all the ages which are to follow.
The Old East was designed to be no ephemeral structure. The foundation is a stone wall three feet thick. The mortar is of two measures of lime to one of sand. The sleepers are 3 by 10 inches and are only 14 inches apart. The timbers are of the best heart, the bricks carefully made on the University grounds and burnt hard as the imperishable rocks. The lime was burnt likewise on our own land from shells brought by boat from Wilmington to Fayetteville and thence hauled by wagon. Among the donations of this period I find 50 bushels of shells by Richard Bennehan, grand-father, as the royal charters say, “of our well-beloved cousin and trusted counsellor,” Paul C. Cameron.
The Old East continued in its primitive condition until 1824, when its roof was adorned by another story nearer to the skies. At the same time the Old West was built of a corresponding size. In 1848 the length of both was extended towards the north so as to admit new Society Halls and Libraries. I remember well the ceremonies of the inauguration of the new Hall, of which I was a member. I violate no confidence in describing them, because by general consent the seal of secrecy was removed. The Professor of Rhetoric, a graduate of the class of 1818, still surviving, the venerable Bishop Green, of the Episcopal diocese of Mississippi, a classmate of President Polk, of Rev. Dr. Morrison, now living, the first President of Davidson College, and of our good old friend, Gen. Mallett, of New York, opened the exercises with prayer. A young lawyer of the class of 1841, now regarded as one of the most cultured members of that profession our State has produced, who, notwithstanding he has attained the honor of being the second law officer of a country of 50,000,000 people, has not lost a particle of his early love for the University, Gen. Phillips, delivered an address, which for appropriateness and literary ability, I have never heard surpassed and seldom equalled.
The first President of the Society in 1795 was still living, the venerable James Mebane, who had occupied the high office of Speaker of the Senate. His father, Alexander Mebane, one of the early members of Congress under the constitution of 1789, had been one of our early Trustees, was one of the committee who selected the site of the University and assisted in laying the corner stone. As James Mebane had a distinguished father, so he had a distinguished son, likewise Speaker of the Senate, one of the best of men, Giles Mebane, of Caswell. I had the eminent honor of sitting by the side of this noble father of the Dialectic Society, and presiding jointly with him over its deliberations. I wish that I could produce the words of wisdom which fell from his lips on that night. The oil portrait over the President's chair in the Dialectic Hall is a perfectly faithful image of the President of 1795. He was of stately figure, tall and ponderous. His bearing was like Washington's, grave and dignified, always courteous, but repelling familiarity. He was seated on an elevated platform. In front were officers of the Society. I recall Thomas Settle, the Vice President, who showed then the powers which have made him so eminent since, once a Judge of the Supreme Court of
North Carolina, now Judge of the District Court of the United States for Florida. The Secretary was Washington C. Kerr, the State Geologist, one of the most eminent scientific men this University or the State has produced. The President of the Society, a marked contrast to the President of 1795, sat on the same platform, on his right. While the old President's weight was near 230, the new balanced about 100 pounds. He was thin even to cadaverousness. He was conspicuous as one of the smallest boys in college. Whatever dignity he had was borrowed for the occasion. He was a hard student, but jokes and laughter were more natural to him in those days than severity or even gravity of demeanor.
Having thus presided over the Dialectic Society, jointly with the first President, I feel that I have a kind of Apostolic succession in that body.
Having finished the story of the Old East and West buildings, I return to my starting point.
The lots of the village of Chapel Hill were sold on the same 12th of October, 1793, the price for all, about $3,000, being considered highly satisfactory. It was pressingly necessary to provide a residence for the President, or presiding Professor, and also a Steward's Hall, wherein the hungry students of the period might turn hog and hominy, beef and potatoes and the juicy “collards” into muscle and bones and brains and nerves. The President's Mansion is the house on the Avenue west of the New West Building, which we are now getting ready for the occupancy of our Professor of Physics and any company which he may bring with him from Bonny Maryland. In that house were sheltered David Kerr and Joseph Caldwell and Dr. Chapman, then it passed into the possession of Dr. Elisha Mitchell, who fell a martyr to his love of scientific accuracy on the loftiest srmmit of the Black Mountains. President Caldwell preferred to rest under his own vine and fig tree, the present residence of Prof. Hooper, which was purchased by the University after Caldwell's death. The old President's house contained in the small room at the head of the stairs, the library of the institution.
The Steward's Hall was situate nearly opposite the New East Building in the centre of Cameron Avenue. It was there that most of the students for many years boarded at Commons, paying for the first year $30, or $3 per month, for the next four years $40 per year or $4 per month, in 1800 rising to $57 per year, in 1805 to $60, in 1814, under the inflated war prices to $66.50, in 1818 to $95, or $9.50 per month, in 1839 to $76, when the system was abandoned and every man made his own contracts for the supplies of life. It was in this building that the “Balls” of the old days were given, at which tradition hath it, venerable Trustees and Faculty, even the great President himself, together with their pupils, with hair powdered and plaited into “pigtails”, and legs encased in tight stockings and knees resplendent with buckles, mingled in the mazy dance with the beauteous damsels of the day, whose brilliant dresses and angelic beauty far be it from me to describe. I must for that purpose call into my service the scientific pens of my unmarried professors, glowing with electric energy and chemical forces, or of Dr. Manning's students, so well qualified by researches into the ancient laws, to give information on such antiquarian matters.
At the Commencement of 1881 we had a most eloquent and instructive address to the students by an excellent specimen of the old school, an octogenarian, Gen. Mallett, of New York, lately called to his final home. I introduced him as having received his diploma 63 years before that day, and stated that for 70 years he had never taken a glass of ardent spirits,
and therefore that he had still the inestimable blessings of meus sana in corpore sano, and that other still greater blessings, mens sibi conscia recti. In his autobiography, printed only for his relatives—a copy being given our Historical Society at the urgent request of Mrs. Spencer, we find an account of the Ball given in compliment to his class, when graduating. I must extract a description of his dress:
“The style of costume,” says Gen. Mallet, “and even the manners of the present generation are not in my opinion an improvement on a half century ago. The managers would not admit a gentleman into a ball-room with boots, or even a frock coat; and to dance without gloves was simply vulgar. At Commencement Hall, (when I graduated, 1818,) my coat was broadcloth of sea-green color, high velvet collar to match, swallow-tail, pockets outside with lapels, and large silver-plated buttons; white satin damask vest, showing the edge of a blue undervest; a wide opening for bosom ruffles, and no shirt collar. The neck was dressed with a layer of four or five three-cornered cravats, artistically laid, and surmounted with a cambrick stock, pleated and buckled behind. My pantaloons were white canton crape, lined with pink muslin, and showed a peach blossom tint. They were rather short, in order to display flesh colored silk stockings, and this exposure was increased by very low cut pumps with shiny buckles. My hair was very black, very long and queued. I should be taken for a lunatic or a harlequin in such costume now.”
I challenge Mr. Chief Manager Roberts to produce a dress as gorgeous as this on any student of the Ball of 1883.
Having provided dormitories for sheltering the students and food for their bodily sustenance, and halls for their mental instruction, the Trustees next addressed themselves for provision for the religious and moral training. The old ante-revolutionary Chapel of the Church of England, from which the place took its name, originally New Hope Chapel, the place being likewise New Hope Chapel Hill, had gone to decay. A building under the control of the Trustees must be erected. When it was barely above the ground the treasury ran low; when the strong box was tapped it gave a hollow sound. An old bachelor, one of that class, which having no immediate claims on its bounty, sometimes redeems by beneficence to public objects their failures in social duty, came to their releif. His name was Thomas Person. He had been an ardent lover of liberty, had sympathized with the Regulators in their abortive effort to shake off colonial oppressors, and had suffered from the ravages of Tryon's army. He was prominent in resisting the exactions of the British Government, which led to the war of Independence. He appeared at Newbern as a delagate from Granville to the first Assembly held in defiance of the royal authority in August, 1774, of which that noble patriot, John Harvey, was moderator. He was one of the thirteen Council of Safety which was the supreme Provisional Government, after the end of the Royal authority. He assisted in 1776, as a member of the Congress at Halifax, in forming our State constitution, in which alone of all others was a provision requireing the establishment of a University. He was the first Brigadier General of the District of Hillsboro. He was among the band of forty of the greatest men the State had in 1789—the first Board of Trustees of the University, among whom were six Governors; eight Judges, of whom two were Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States; fifteen members of Congress, of whom three were Senators, besides able men like Archibald Maclaine, Frederick Hargett, Stephen Cabarrus, Wm. Lenoir, Joel Lane, John Haywood, Joseph McDowell, Joseph Graham, and others, who were great in war, or as
trusted officers or legislators of our State, or in the pursuits of private life. With these Person was a fit associate. As Senator from Granville he gave his vote for the new institution. He did more. He put his hand into his pocket. He pulled out and dropped into its treasury shining gold. In grateful memory of his services to the State the General Assembly gave his name to a gallant little county carved out of old Orange. In gratitude for his generous gift the Trustees called the new Chapel after him—Person Hall—or as it still appears on the diploma, Aula Personica.
In this Hall our ancestors worshipped for nearly fifty years. On its platform verdant Freshmen and sapient Sophomores and dignified Juniors spouted about “They tell us, sir, that we are weak,” and “Blind old Bard of Scio's Rocky Isle,” and “Boys standing on Burning Decks,” and “Lindens when the Sun was low,” and on grand Commencement occasions “most potent, grave and reverend Seniors made Latin Salutatories, in which every allusion to “formosissimæ puellœ Septentrionalis Carolinnœ,” (all the Latin the boys understood), was greeted with tumultuous applause, delivered valedictories loaded with mournful farewells, and dissertations in Literature, Science and History, worthy to live forever—or at any rate to fill the pages of a University Monthly,
Although this building is named Person Hall, yet, because of its use as a church on Sundays and for morning and evening prayers, it gained the name of “the Chapel,” and when Gerrard Hall was built, the former was called and is so known to this day by old students as “the Old Chapel.” I have heard recent students speak of Physics Hall, but that is a desecration. “Throw Physic(s) to the dogs”. I would as soon steal the old General's monument and convert it into a door-step, as purloin his name from his building. So whenever a visitor asks you where is Dr. Venerable's Industrial Museum, which he has collected and arranged with such intelligent skill, carry him straight to PERSON HALL.
A larger Hall was needed for the growing institution. The building where we now are assembled was begun in 1822. It was called after another revolutionary hero—not a bachelor, but childless. He was a native of Carteret, but long a resident of Edgecombe, Major Chas. Gerrerd. He served in the war of the revolution from the beginning to the end. As a soldier he was “brave, active and persevering.” His character as a citizen, husband, father, friend and neighbor was justly admired by all who knew him. His rank in the army (Lieutenant) entitled him to a grant of 2560 acres, which he located at the junction of Yellow Creek with Cumberland river, not far below the city of Nashville. I hold in my hand the original grant sealed with the great seal of the State. This tract, the fruit of his toil and suffering and blood, he regarded with peculiar affection, and when he bequeathed this, with some 10,000 acres additional’ which he had purchased, he requested in his will that it should perpetually remain the property of the University. For 35 years the Trustees regarded this wish as sacred. But after this long experiment, after losses from neglect and perfidy of agents and the onerous charges of high taxes, while the black cloud of debt hung over the institution, they concluded with sorrow to authorize its sale. Two of their ablest lawyers, Gaston & Badger, after examination reported the following resolution,
“WHEREAS, The Trustees of the University of North Carolina have been compelled to direct a sale of a valuable tract of land, bequeathed by Major Charles Gerrard, with the request that the same might be perpetually retained by the University, and
WHEREAS, They are solicitous not only to manifest their own sense of the liberality of
the donor, but as far as may be practicable to perpetuate its remembrance,
Resolved. Therefore that $2,000, part of the purchase money of said land shall be applied to the finishing of the new Hall at the University, and that the same shall be called by the name of ‘Gerrard Hall.’ ”
Five years afterwards this resolution was carried into effect. I wish you to note particularly the spelling of the name of the old hero. The original will and the orbituary notice in the North Carolina Journal, published at Halifax, by Hodge & Wills, Oct. 16th, 1797, give the name Gerrard. Judges Gaston and Badger in their resolution have the same spelling, which I am particular about, because unfortunate carelessness has often confounded our benefactor's name with that of Stephen Girard, the benefactor of Philadelphia. I am quite sure that in every respect, except in wealth and money-making cunning our gallant lieutenant of the revolution was vastly the superior of the Philadelphia trader.
I witnessed once in this Hall one of those exhibitions of uncontrolable, unreasoning fright, which sometimes happen to crowds and which the ancients attributed to temporary madness, inspired by the God, Pan. A cry was raised “the Gallery is falling!” There was a rush of the crowd amid screams of terror. There was for a moment imminent danger of trampling to death in the narrow stair-cases. I recall vividly how firm and severe was the attitude of President Swain, of Morehead, Graham, Battle, and other Trustees, who sat on the rostrum. There was no serious damage done. Some gallant young men, who were on the outside, displayed their heroism by catching in their arms the frightened damsels leaping from the windows, but I heard no complaints on either side. A $100 reward offered on the spot failed to detect the giver of the false alarm.
An architect's examination proved that not Sampson, in all his long-haired glory, could have pulled down the galleries, even if they were loaded with bad Philistines, instead of good North Carolinians, but still additional pillars were inserted and other alterations made to give public confidence and afford larger room.
When this Hall was built it was intended to have a broad avenue running along the Southern wall, East and West. Hence the porch on the South side of the building. The merchants of the village claimed that this would injure their trade by diverting travel from Franklin Street, and the plan was abandoned to the mystification of all who do not know this veracious history.
We will now return to what we call the South, but what was known for many years as the “Main” Building, the old plan of grand structures to face the East, just as the capitols at Washington and Raleigh, were faced under the influence of orientalization was soon abandoned, and the European plan of a quadrangle—in old times a veritable prison in which the students were locked at night, giving rise to the expression “being in quad,” was adopted, probably at the suggestion of Dr. Caldwell and Prof. Harris, who were educated at Princeton. Its corner stone was laid in 1798. Its walls reached the height of a story and a half, and then remained roofless for years. Dr. Wm. Hooper in his “50 Years Since,” a most interesting and amusing production, tells how the students of that day packed in the East Building four in a room, built cabins in the corners of the South in order to secure greater privacy for devotion to their books, and how, “as soon as spring brought back the swallows and the leaves, they emerged from their den and chose some shady retirement, where they made a path and a promenade,” like the Peripateties of ancient Greece. He states moreover, what sounds strange to us, that holidays were sometimes
given for the curious reason that the inclemency of the weather prevented study.
To finish this building was the great problem of the young University. The Trustees in despair did not hesitate to practice what was common in old time, even for building churches and denominational schools, but which the sounder morals of our day make a criminal offence; the raising of money by lotteries. I have their circular of 1802, announcing with sanctimonious gravity that “the interests of the University of North Carolina and of learning and science generally, are concerned in the immediate sale of these tickets.” The highest prize was $1,500, and was drawn by Gen. Lawrence Baker, of Gates. The lucky number, 1138, was announced as an important item by the Metropolitan Journal, the Raleigh Register.
Still the building was unfinished, and still the intellectual squatters of the University sat sub divo, as the Professor of Latin would say. President Caldwell mounted with heroic energy his stick-back gig and painfully traveled over the State in 1809, and again in 1811, soliciting subscriptions.
It would be interesting to contrast his journeys with those of the present day, when one can dine in Goldsboro’ and breakfast next morning in Asheville. The battle of New Orleans occurred on the 8th of January, 1815. The news did not reach Raleigh until the 17th of February. Prof. Charles W. Harris writes in 1795 to Dr. Caldwell, at Princeton, that his best way of reaching Chapel Hill is to buy a horse and sulky and thus travel in his own conveyance, selling the same at Chapel Hill. He is confident that the trip can be made in thirty days.
Last week the President of 1883 left New York at a quarter before four o'clock in the afternoon, in a luxurious coach, which ran so smoothly that reading and even writing was easy. So well lighted at night that he read with comfort and pleasure Anthony Trollope's most interesting autobiography until bed-time at Washington, then went regularly to bed, had a refreshing night's rest, and dined next day at a quarter before two in the afternoon at home—less than twenty-two hours.
It was doubtless the achings and weariness of these journeys which caused Dr. Caldwell 20 years after to astonish the State by his eloquent and practical Carlton letters, advocating the N. C. Rail Road from the Tennessee line to Beaufort. His labors were successful. He secured about $12,000, and while our people were going crazy over the naval victories of 1814 the rejoicing students moved into the completed “South Building.” The corner-stone was laid the year when the great Napoleon gained the first victory of the Pyramids, the year before he usurped the power of 1st Consul; it was finished the year when he laid down the imperial title for a petty throne in Elba, the year before his final ruin at Waterloo. When that corner stone was laid the land was ringing with preparations for a war with France. The building was ready for occupancy while we were fighting England. It has lately sheltered cavalry of the conquering Union army in the great civil war.
It was one of the grandest buildings in North Carolina in those days. It afforded ample recitation rooms. It furnished for a third of a century halls and libraries for the two societies, which before its erection were forced to meet by turns in Person Hall. I have thought that it should have been called in honor of the Father of the University, Gen. Davie. The omission thus to recognize his great services has been rectified by the happy thought of a gifted lady, on whom the Muses of History and Poesy have benignly breathed, Mrs. C. P. Spencer, by calling the historical tree which sheltered the venerable men, who under its shade located the site of the University, which
in spite of a century's storms and the fierce assault of the thunderbolt, still rears its majestic head above the neighboring oaks, the Davie Poplar.
In 1852 the Trustees did tardy honor to the first benefactors of the University. The charter was granted in 1789. The first meeting of the Board was held in 1790 at the flourishing town of Fayetteville. The President of the Board was a King's Mountain hero, Gen. Wm. Lenoir who has given his name to a county and town of our State-the last survivor of this illustrious forty-dying in 1839 at the age of 88. Gen. Benjamin Smith, of Brunswick, then a member, made the first donation for the cause of higher education in North Carolina. He gladened the hearts of all present by the gift of 20,000 acres of land in Tennessee. It is true they were not immediately available. They were afterwards surrendered to the Chickasaws and subsequently repurchased by the Government. It was forty years before they were made available. They were ultimately sold for $14,000, after being shaken up by the greatest earthquake, which has afflicted America since its discovery, into lakes and hills. The proceeds went into the endowment and were swallowed up by the great civil war, which with more terrible voracity than a hundred earthquakes engulped so much of the wealth and population of the Southern Country.
Benjamin Smith was a man of mark. He was in youth an aide-de-camp of Washington in the disastrous defeat on Long Island. He was conspicuous for his gallantry under Moultrie. By his fiery eloquence the militia of Brunswick volunteered to serve under him in the threatened war against France. He was fifteen times Senator from Brunswick. He was chosen Governor in 1810. His county called its capital, Smithville, in his honor. His name survives too in the bleak and stormy island at the mouth of the Cape Fear. The land he gave us, as was also the land of Gerrard, was won by valor and blood in the war for freedom. Their sacrifices were not useless. Their monuments are far more enduring than brass or marble. Centuries will come and go. Families will grow great and be extinguished. Fortunes will be made and lost. Offices will be struggled for and ambitious hopes realized, but the names of the contestants will vanish as if written on the sea shore. Reputations blazing in pulpit, or forum, and senate chamber will fade as rapidly as the meteor's path. But the blessings of the gifts of Person, Gerrard and Smith will never cease. For nearly a century they have planted learning and sound principles in the minds of men over all our Southern land. In all the ages to come their work will go on. The thousand young men, who will have their mental panoply supplied from the University armory to engage in life's varied conflicts, will hold their names in honor. As long as the University lasts they will never be forgotten, and the University will last forever!
I will say only a few words of the New West buildings. Prior to 1850 the highest number of students was 170. After the discovery of the California gold mines, and consequent increase in the supply of the circulating medium, there ensued wonderfully prosperous times for all the world, and especially for our Southern States. The old North Carolina families who had carried their lares and penates into the fertile regions of the Southwest sent back their sons to their native State for education. Students swarmed into the University. They overflowed the old building and were camped in little cottages all over the town from Couchtown to Craig's. In 1858 there were as many as 456, of whom 178 were from other States than North Carolina. The New East and New West were built for their accommodation, and finished in 1859. The two
societies aided in a considerable degree in the construction and adornment of their beautiful Halls and library rooms. Probably no Societies in America have superior accommodations in these respects, and I am bound to say that in my opinion, no Societies, by intelligent and honest devotion to the purposes of their creation better deserve them. Long may they flourish.
We come at last to the Memorial Hall, which though about to take a winter nap, will in the spring, we hope, rise rapidly in all its harmony and grandeur. I have already explained to the students that a miscalculation as to the cost was made by the architect, and hence a delay is necessary in order to replenish our Treasury. I desire it to be understood that very experienced builders think that the work ought to be stopped for a while in order to allow the timbers to dry. They are green as yet, and greenness is a fault in architectural as well as intellectual timbers. After being securely covered so that the rain and snow shall not reach them, the great rafters will by the end of winter shrink to their final dimensions and support their majestic roof with no warpings or distortions.
Such a Hall is necessary, in order to enable us to accommodate our visitors—the people of North Carolina. We have gained much odium by turning from our door the good citizens, who made long journeys in order to hear the eloquence of our Representatives and Graduates. Every person, rich and poor, who desires, should have, and shall have a comfortable seat during our commencement exercises.
This hall will supply all our needs. It will hold 2450 seated without crowding, and if needed 4000 can be pleasantly cared for by utilizing the aisles. You can gain a vivid idea of its proportions by noting that the New West Building can be placed in it, centre to centre, and whirled around without touching its walls.
It will be a Memorial Hall, not alone of my predecessor, who so long and so ably presided over this institution, Gov. Swain, but of all the departed good and great—Trustees, Professors, Alumini—who have aided and honored the University. It will be a Memorial of those gallant Alumni who, at the call of our State, gave up their lives in the great civil war. Though God gave them not the victory, and though we will not question the wisdom of the decision of the All-Wise, yet we must always honor the courage, the devotion to duty, the high resolve and the willing sacrifice of our Confederate Dead.
A writer in the News-Observer, says the plan of honoring the great and worthy men of the University of our State, trustees, professors and students, by placing on the walls of Memorial Hall tablets in their memory, has met with great favor. Such has been its reception that we are able to pronounce it crowned with success.
We have not seen the list of all for whom tablets have been pledged, but we have heard of the following, who are certainly deserving of the highest honor-for example, there is Samuel Johnston, the first named of the board of trustees, that of 1789; forty of the most illustrious men of the day. Gov. Johnston was the first who held executive power in our State, having been president of the provincial council of 1775, which was our provisional government. He was president of the convention which adopted the constitution of the United States; also one of the first Senators, where he he ranked with the ablest men of America. He was afterwards judge and governor.
Tablets are also engaged for Gen. Wm. Lenoir, of King's Mountain fame, who was the first president of the first board of trustees, and and the last survivor of the board, dying in
1839; also to Benjamin Hawkins, one of the first Senators of the United States; to Judge Archibald Murphey, probably the most progressive man in the annals of North Carolina; to Gov. Morehead, one of the ablest governors any State ever had; to the great jurist and financier, Judge Duncan Cameron; to the pure and steadfast Gov. Worth; to the wise statesman, Bartlett Yancey; to the distinguished botanist, Louis DeSchweinitz; to the active revolutionary patriot, Archibald Maclaine; to our eminent fellow citizen, John H. Bryan; to the scholar and eloquent divine, Dr. Wm. Hooper; to the gallant general, Bryan Grimes, to Judge Battle, than whom no State ever had a purer judge or more upright citizen; to Burtyn Craige, who as a publicman, and ardent lover of North Carolina and a strong lawyer has had few equals; to Michael Hoke, who so well illustrated our people by his manly characteristics, whose brilliancy ranked him with the giants of his generation. We mention these as occurring to our minds just now, and hope to be furnished with a complete list at an early day.
This memorial hall will be the grandest historical building in the South. Mr. P. C. Cameron, chairman of the building committee, promises that the next commencement (1885) shall be held in it.
Associated with the University of North Carolina is the name of Charles Force Deems, D. D., L. L. D., who was an inhabitant, “part and parcel” of her fame from 1842 to 1848. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 4th, 1820. He is a graduate of Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, in the class of 1839. In his twentieth year, he was made general agent of the American Bible Society, and chose North Carolina as his field of labor, and ever since he has claimed that State as his home—though greatly honored in New York City and elsewhere, he always speaks of North Carolina as “home”.
Here he became adjunct professor in logic and rhetoric in the University at Chapel Hill in conjunction with Doctor, (now Right Reverend Bishop) Green and remained for five years, when he accepted the chair of Natural Science in Randolph-Macon College, Virginia, which position he occupied for one year. Returning to North Carolina, he was stationed at New Berne, and became a delegate to the General Conference held at St. Louis; it was during its session that he was elected president of the Greensboro’ Female College; he had charge of this institution for five years. In 1854 he returned to the regular work of the ministry, and after preaching at Goldsboro’ and at Wilmington, he was re-elected to the General Conference, where he was chosen president of the Centenary College of Louisiana He has been repeatedly invited to professorship and presidencies of colleges, but it was in December 1865 that Dr. Deems removed to New York City, and there engaged in literary labor and in July 1866 began to preach in the chapel of the University; his congregation there assembled soon crystalized into a new society and became known as the “Church of the Strangers.” In 1870, through the munificence of the famous railroad magnate, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who became a devoted friend of Dr. Deems, this congregation found its home by the purchase of the Mercer Street Presbyteran Church, (No 4. Winthrop Place,) where they were most solemnly installed October 9, 1870, and has since become one of the great institutions of the great commercial metropolis.
Dr. Deems received his degree of doctor of divinity from the Randolph-Macon College when he was only thirty years of age, and in 1877 the University of North Carolina conferred upon him the honorary degree of L.L. D.
He is the author of more than a dozen volumes of different religious works, among
which may be mentioned “The Home Altar;” “What Now”; “Annals of Southern Methodiem”; “Weights and Wings” and “Who was Jesus?”
He is one of the Council of the University of New York, a Director of the American Tract Society and a life member of the New York Historical Society founded by another North Carolinian, Rev. Dr. F. L. Hawks. Dr. Deems is the president of the American Institute of Christian Philosophy, of which he was the chief founder.
In Patton's “Lives of the Clergy,” we find the following, touching this eminent divine: “He is impassioned even in argument, and there is in all that he writes and says the glow of earnest and sincere feeling. In his preaching there is a display of the finest powers of the national orator and thorough scholar. His thoughts are rapid and are all aglow with beautiful sentiment and tender emotion, which can only be imparted by extensive learning.
Dr. Deems enjoys great popularity at the South, and was esteemed one of the foremost theologians and public men in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Dr. Deems has shown his love of North Carolina by founding a fund for the help of young men pursuing their education in the University of North Carolina. It is a memorial to his son, Lieutenant Theodore D. Deems, who fell in our civil war. Mr. William H. Vanderbilt's munificence and the accrued interest has carried the “Deems’ Fund” to over twelve thousand dollars.
Paul Carrington Cameron, of Orange County North Carolina, the second son of Hon. Duncan Cameron and his wife Rebecca Bennehan, was born Sept. 25th, 1808 at Stagville, Orange County, the residence of his gradfather, Richard Bennehan.
He received his education partly at the University of North Carolina (1825-26) and partly at what is now Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. At this latter Institution he graduated, July 1829. He read law in Raleigh in the office of his father Judge Cameron, looking forward to the practice of that profession with eager ambition. Like many other southern gentlemen, however, he was heavily weighted at the start by circumstances and responsibilities that could neither be delegated nor ignored, and found himself compelled to turn his energies and abilities into channels where the sense of duty fulfilled alone must be his reward, where no hopes of laurels to be achieved, or the enjoyments that are found in congenial studies would stimulate his effort. A large landed interest, and the guardianship of numerous slaves demanded his care, and he became of necessity a planter, managing not only his own estate, but his fathers, and those of various near relatives committed to his charge in the States of North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.
Mr. Cameron has exhibited in the conduct of these responsibilities for more than fifty years, an administrative and financial ability, an energy and an integrity which would have secured him high honors on any field of action. His career has been characterized by the simple straight-forward devotion to what he conceived duty in every relation of life. As a son, as the head of a family, as a citizen, and as the guardian of nineteen hundred slaves, his course may challenge inquiry, and would doubtless repay it. The very mistakes of such men are instructive. That Mr. Cameron has never erred, no one will affirm; that he has been able to please every body in the conduct of his wide and multifarious interests is equally doubtful; but his strict sense of honor, of justice, and his unflinching adherence to what appeared to him right, at the time, have never been called in question.
He engaged with great earnestness in all agricultural improvements, advocated the early introduction
of all labor-saving machines, and the adoption of the best and most intelligent systems of farming. He was President of the first agricultural society organized in the county of Orange, North Carolina, and his address at its first meeting is yet a model of practical suggestion and sagacious forecast. Mr. Cameron has also been always an ardent supporter of internal improvements and though incurring losses occasionally as all pioneers in such work do, has always been a large stockholder and contractor on our rail-roads. On the building of the North Carolina Central Rail-Road he was the first man to enter on the work and the first to complete his section. Subsequently he succeeded Col. Fisher as its President, and was for years one of its Directors. A director also for the last ten years of the R. & G. and of the R. & A. Air Line Railroad's He was a member of the State Senate in 1856. Wherever an important committee could procure. Mr Cameron as its chairman, the public has long felt secure that the business in hand would be done, and well done. His conservative attitude towards the old has always been accompanied by most intelligent and discrimining liberality towards the new, and this fine spirit keeps him now in advanced life, still fresh and indomitable, en rapport with all around him, accepting the new order of thing and making the best of the inevitable with unimpaired judgment and sagacity.
Mr. Cameron has never sought office, and never has accepted it but at the call of duty and when he felt he could serve the State. The successful management of his large estates and their complicated interests, the performance of his duty to his own family, and large circle of friends, the exercise of an ample and genial and truly southern hospitality have sufficiently employed his energies. He was one of the very few southern planters whom emancipation found free from debt, so that he retained his landed property and reestablished his fortune on the new basis, with undiminished credit and success.
His army of slaves had ever received strict humane attention. He took pride in the knowledge that all his dependants were well fed, clothed and housed, and that their condition might challenge comparison with that of any in the fifteen slave States of the Union. When freed at the close of the civil war, they parted from their master with kindly feeling, and the elder ones greet him yet, whenever they chance to meet him, with the same exhibition of attachment. He has a right to be as proud of this record as of any other of his life's work's, and he probably is, for he tells with some zest in these latter days of a family of negroes devised to him by a friend “for emancipation,” whom he settled in Liberia under the care of the American Colonizaton Society, providing them with house and food for twelve months, and one thousand dollars in gold as an an outfit. They returned from Africa and presented themselves at his door in Orange County, begging him to take them back.
Reviewing his life in a late letter to a friend, Mr. Cameron writes: “Best of all I have been a trustee of the University of North Carolina, steadfast and true to its every interest at all times, and anxious now to make it in the future the best ornament of the State.”
When the University was restored and reorganized after the calamities that befel it upon the death of Gov. Swain, he was made Chairman of the Committee on Repairs, and in fact did all the work. Its speedy rehabilitation, and re-occupation in 1875 were due to his energetic oversight. He has been since an active and influential and most judicious member of the Executive Committee to which is entrusted the practical conduct of the affairs of the Institution. One striking evidence of the public estimation of the value of Mr. Cameron's
services, is seen in the fact that he was unanimously elected Chairman of the Alumni Association and continued for a succession of years against his earnest protest as not being a graduate.
Mr. Cameron is a capital public speaker. He goes to the point, commands attention, and is always effective. Those who have been so fortunate as to hear his singularly neat, elegant, and impressive short speeches on various occasions at the University Commencements will remember them long as models of their kind. His frequent visits in term time to the University and short, unpremeditated addresses to the students, present him in a most amiable and interesting light. His fine ruddy complexion and bright dark eye, surrounded by an aureole of snow-white curling hair, his air of habitual command, conjoined with the fine courtesy of a through-bred gentleman of the old school afford a picture that our young people will do well to keep in mind.
One aspect of Mr. Cameron's character which should not be omitted in even a slight sketch, is his benignant interest in young people, and in their pleasures. For years he has made a point of being a spectator at the Commencement dances, giving them dignity, and endorsing their claims to public respect by his presence.
He stands now representative to the rising generation of a class of men, the like of whom will never again be seen in our country. Their faults as well as their virtues have been the product of a system of life now passed away forever. The southern slaveholders will figure in History, will adorn the pages of Romance, and will be held up alternately to the admiration, and the scorn of mankind as magnate, as despot, as tyrant or as patriarch, according as friend or foe shall depict him. We who know them well, who recall the high-toned chivalrous gentleman, the ardent and patriotic citizen, the generous friend and neighbor, the devoted husband and father, the just and humane master—we take courage when we reflect that the Final Judge of all is not a man. He alone knows through what difficulties the southern planter went forward to his duty; how fearfully weighted by his inheritance;—how blinded, how hampered, how weakened by circumstances which neither he nor his fathers could control.
Remembering what we do, we look with reverence and affection on those who remain. Their failings have vanished from our vision with the system that brought them to light, and we bid our young men take courage by the example of their virtues to go on in the path of duty, self-sustained, fearless and persevering.
Mr. Cameron married, Dec. 20th 1832, Anne, daughter of Chief Justice Ruffin at his residence on the Alamance. This union has secured his domestic happiness now for more than fifty years. Seven of their children have lived to maturity. Their home the centre for many years of a large and amiable hospitality, and interesting family connection was at Farintosh, their plantation in Orange county, but of late they reside chiefly in Hillsboro’.
Julian Shakspeare Carr was born at Chapel Hill the seat of the University of North Carolina, in the county of Orange, October 12th, 1845. His father, John W. Carr, descended from a Scotch family, is a gentleman of consideration in the county, who, before and since the war, has filled the responsible stations of Magistrate, Justice of the Inferior or county court, and County Commissioner. His mother is of the highly respectable family of Bullock, of Granville county, and a sister of Colonel Robert Bullock, a distinguished citizen of Florida.
Mr. Carr acquired the rudiments of education in the vicinity of his home, and was prepared
for college under the tuition of J. L. Stewart, Esq., now a prominent lawyer resident at Clinton. He spent nearly two years at the University, beginning in June, 1862, but in the early part of 1864, before attaining to nineteen years of age, he enlisted in the Third North Carolina Cavalry, which was then at Dinwiddie Court House, and with little time for soldierly training, he was brought face to face with the enemy, in some of the fiercest conflicts of the desperate and protracted struggle before Petersburg—among them Thatcher's Run and Burgess’ Mill. A writer, Mr. H. V. Paul, with opportunities for obtaining correct information, states that the command to which Mr. Carr belonged very gallantly assisted in covering the retreat of the army from Petersburg to Appomattox, and during the engagement was cut in two at Five Forks. He never lost a single day's duty during the entire period of his service, was a general favorite among his comrades, and preferred to be simply a private, in order to be among “the boys,” although he carried in his pocket a detail as an officer on the staff of General Barringer.
At the close of the war Mr. Carr returned to his college course at the University, but remained only one session. He then engaged in merchandisining the town; but soon becoming dissatisfied with his prospects in that small, secluded community, he gave up the business, and set out upon a tour of observation through the South and West. Passing through Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi, and at length reaching Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, he decided to locate in that thriving town. He immediately entered into business with an uncle and a Mr. Kingsbury, under the name and firm of Carr & Kingsbury. This was in 1868. He continued in this connection for about eighteen months, when the opportunity offered of his engaging in a business near his birth-place, which was destined to eclipse in magnitude and importance, in the near future, anything his imagination, or day dreams, could have conceived of.
It seems that Mr. Carr is indebted to the foresight of his father for the idea of quitting Arkansas to return home, and engage in the manufacture of tobacco. We are told by Mr. Paul that after a residence at Little Rock for eighteen months, “his father saw an opportunity of purchasing a third interest in W. T. Blackwell's tobacco factory, at Durham, and being anxious that his son should settle nearer home, insisted and prevailed upon him to return. Accordingly, in 1870, he joined that firm, and ever since had the entire control of its mercantile and financial departments.”
And this brings us to the original history of the greatest business enterprise which North Carolina—perhaps the South—has ever known; a brief sketch of which will be presented.
Among the several suits in which W. T. Blackwell & Co. have been involved by the necessity of defending their business against encroachments, is that of a party who applied in 1877, to the Commissioner of Patents, for the Registration of the Durham Bull Trade Mark. This application was made more than seven years after W. T. Blackwell had become the purchaser, at auction sale, made by Mager Green, the Executor of J. R. Green, of the said Trade Mark and Factory. It is alleged, however, that the applicant brought suit in Iredell County in 1875, as the assignee or partner of J. R. Green, against Blackwell & Co. But this was five years after Blackwell's purchase, and after Blackwell & Co. had raised the business of the firm, under the Durham Bull Trade Mark from a position of insignificance, and little value, to one of world-wide fame and princely revenue.
From depositions taken in this case before a Justice of the Peace in the Autumn of 1877, in Orange County, the following facts are derived.
They are of historical value and interest, since they leave no doubt about the origin of this, the greatest southern business enterprise; an enterprise which has inaugurated and given impulse to the grand career of industrial development upon which the State has entered.
Mr. James R. Blacknall, a different name, the readers will notice, from the future proprietor of the great Durham factory—stated in his deposition that the first parties he ever knew to manufacture smoking tobacco at Durham were Morris & Wright, in the year 1860. This firm was succeeded in 1861 and 1862 by Blacknall & Morris, and during these latter years W. H. Bowles became a partner, when the firm took the name of Blacknall, Morris & Co.
In June 1862, W. P. Ward bought out Bowles; and John R. Green in November bought out Morris and Blacknall, when the firm became Ward & Green. They were equal partners, and engaged in the manufacture of chewing and smoking tobacco. This firm held together until sometime in 1864, when, perhaps in March, Ward bought Green out. Their business had been, mostly, the manufacture of chewing tobacco. Ward continued it until November 1865, when he in turn sold out to Green.
Up to this time there was but one tobacco factory at Durham, which place was little more than a way station on the North Carolina railroad, twenty-six miles west of Raleigh. The “factory” had the appearance of a cow-house, the top of which was scarcely ten feet above the ground, while around it, within a distance of a few hundred yards were perhaps a dozen small dingy dwellings, a country store or two, a smithy, and, as may be supposed, a whisky shop. Such was Durham, nineteen years ago, and for some years later. A more dreary, inauspicious outlook—one less calculated to inspire the hope of future developements cannot be imagined.
The frequent mutations in the proprietorship of the sole Durham tobacco factory, up to the close of the war, as above recounted, can leave no doubt that the business was far from being prosperous or remunerative.
But it seems that in the spring of 1865, an incident befell the establishment, such as, in the ordinary course of human affairs, is accounted a great disaster, but which in this case turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and the source of the greatest good fortune. In April of that year, it will be remembered, at the close of the war, and after the suspension of hostilities, the two armies of General Sherman and General Joe Johnson were encamped around Durham station. Green, who was then the owner of the factory, had stored away in his ware-house many thousand pounds of the finest smoking tobacco, which is grown no where else in such perfection, as in that vicinity. It is not in the nature of soldiers, at such a time, with pay-day remote, to stand on ceremonies; and “not to put too fine a point upon it,” they helped themselves bountifully to Green's tobacco. He had not at that time adopted the famous Trade Mark, and it is to be supposed that he had not arrived at the perfection in the manufacture which his successors have attained to; but the inherent virtues of the old Granville and Orange weed could not be mistaken, or confounded with the inferior products of other less favored regions of the earth. The opposing hosts lay encamped in the vicinity of Durham station only a few days, but long enough to become familiar with the locality, and with the name of the tobacconist whom they had so liberally patronized. They were soon mustered out of the service by the belligerents and returned to their respective homes; not doubtless, without a pipe-full or two, in their wallets, at any rate with a lively recollection of the fragrant Durham antidote to all the imaginary ills that flesh is heir to. The
consequence was that from their distant homes, from Maine to Texas, they sent their orders to Mr. Green for his unrivaled smoking tobacco. They boasted of its virtues to their neighbors, and regaled their senses with its odors; and thus was laid the foundation of the world-wide celebrity of the Durham smoking tobacco.
The introduction of the Durham Bull as the conspicuous characteristic of the Trade Mark was not made until the Autumn of 1866. This fact rests upon the testimony of more than one witness. James Y. Whitted, a manufacturer of tobacco at Hillsboro’ and a man whose character is avouched by his neighbors, deposed that he, in the year 1866, suggested to Green, the idea of adopting the Durham Bull as his Trade Mark, and that Green acted upon the suggestion, in the Autumn of that year. Several other deponents state that Green never used the Bull as a Trade Mark prior to that date. But the conclusive proof of this fact is the certificate of copy-right taken out by Green in the Clerks Office of the Southern District of New York, May 2nd, 1866, which makes no reference to the Bull. In this copy-right the brand is in the following words: “Genuine Durham Smoking Tobacco manufactured by J. R. Green, the right whereof he claims as proprietor in conformity with the act of Congress, &c.”
Ward deposed that up to the time he resold to Green in November, 1865, there was no representation of a Bull, nor any part of a Bull used on packages of smoking tobacco, or any sign by any one at Durham. The absence of any reference to the Bull as a Trade Mark in the above certificate of the copy-right, coupled with this testimony of Ward, a partner or sole owner in 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1865, is fatal to any claim founded on an alleged purchase of an interest in the Trade Mark, at an earlier date. Indeed, Ward became a partner in the business before Green purchased an interest, and could not fail to be thoroughly informed in regard to its history.
In 1869 J. R. Green disposed of a half interest in his business to W. T. Blackwell and James R. Day. These gentlemen, up to that date, were engaged in the sale of manufactured tobacco at Kinston in the lower part of the State. The terms of the contract are stated in a paper signed by J. R. Green, and dated, Durham, March 30, 1869. Green acknowledges the receipt from Blackwell and Day of fifteen hundred dollars, “to be used in the manufacture of tobacco for the present year, and it is hereby agreed that the full amount shall be used for the tobacco business exclusively and for no other purpose, for twelve months from date; and it is hereby agreed that J. R. Day, of the firm of Blackwell & Day, is to give all his personal attention to the management of the business; and that I agree to give such attention to the business as my health will admit, and at the expiration of twelve months we are to divide equally all the profits, if there be any, between myself and Blackwell & Day, after allowing me one thousand dollars for the rent of factory and the advantages of my trade, and in case of loss each party interested shall bear their proportionable part.”
[SIGNED]
J. R. GREEN.
This contract is doubly interesting, as forming at once, an important link in the narrative, and as illustrating the contrast between the small begining, and the vast progress made within a few brief years, of this remarkable enterprise.
Mr. Green's health was failing. Early in July, 1869, he went to the Catawba Springs, in the hope of finding relief; but he continued to sink rapidly, and died on the 21st day of that month. He left a will, in which his father Mager Green, was named as Executor.
The latter, in pursuance of the authority
derived from the will, in November, advertised the tobacco factory, the ground on which it stood, the brand and Trade Mark for sale privately. The advertisement was published in both the Raleigh Sentinel and Standard, the leading newspapers of the State, published nearest the property. The sale, however, was not effected under this advertisement, and the Executor again advertised the property for sale, at auction, on the 9th of April, 1870. This advertisement was posted at various places in Orange, and contiguous counties, and the sale took place in accordance with its terms. William T. Blackwell became the purchaser. The price paid was two thousand two hundred and ninety-two dollars. The conveyance was made to William T. Blackwell, without naming his partner, Mr. Day; but the latter appears to have retained his interest.
Mr. Julian S. Carr being produced as a witness by Mr. Blackwell, deposed that in September, 1870, he connected himself with Messers Blackwell and Day, who were manufacturing both plug and smoking tobacco, in Durham, under the firm name of W. T. Blackwell. The term of co-partnership was for three years, during which they continued to operate under the firm name of W. T. Blackwell, and to use the Trade Mark, “Genuine Durham Smoking Tobacco,” in connection with the side view of a Durham Bull. The name on the labels was W. T. Blackwell, successor to J. R. Green & Co. Neither Mr. Day nor Mr. Carr, by the terms of their partnership, acquired any interest in Blackwell's brand or Trade Mark. They only acquired a right to use it during the three years of their partnership. Mr. Carr states that he, on behalf of Mr. Blackwell, paid the purchase money for the property, including the Factory, the lot on which it stands, the brand and Trade Mark, at Hillsborough, the county town on the 31st day of August, 1871.
Mr. Carr, in response to a question, by Blackwell's counsel explained his duties in connection with the establishment, as follows “I had” he says, “entire charge of the office duties of W. T. Blackwell, and of W. T. Blackwell & Co.; superintended and directed their correspondence, managed their finances, lines of credit, etc. The firm of W. T. Blackwell expired by limitation the 12th day of September, 1873; immediately thereafter, on the same day, the same parties, to wit: W. T. Blackwell, James R. Day and myself, associated ourselves in business under the firm name of W. T. Blackwell & Co. and they continued to use the same Trade Mark as that used by the firm of W. T. Blackwell, to wit: “Genuine Durham Smoking Tobacco,” with the side view of a Durham Bull, in gilt letters, on steel blue paper; there was this change, however, made in the wording of the label used by W. T. Blackwell & Co.: where the label of W. T. Blackwell read “Successor to J. R. Green & Co.,” the label used by W. T. Blackwell & Co. reads “Successors to W. T. Blackwell.”
Mr. Carr, in reply to a question by the Respondent's counsel, states that the year before he entered into the partnership Blackwell manufactured less than ninety thousand pounds of tobacco, and employed, not exceeding one dozen hands, and that in the course of the current year, 1877 when the deposition was given, Blackwell & Co., had in one week shipped eighty odd thousand pounds of smoking tobacco, upon which they paid the United States Government an Internal Revenue tax of more than nineteen thousand dollars. In the month of April of that year they paid the Government sixty thousand dollars in taxes on tobacco, while their average monthly taxes were forty thousand dollars, or nearly half a million in twelve months. During this time they employed in the manufacture of smoking tobacco alone two hundred and twenty-five hands.
In reply to the question “to what is the increase and growth of your business attributable?” Mr. Carr replied that they attributed their success to the superior quality of the tobacco grown in the adjacent country, to their careful selection of the best, to extensive advertising, and to the energy with which the business had been conducted.
The peculiar fitness of Mr. Carr for the management of a great enterprise is best attested by the extraordinary success which has attended his labors. When he entered the firm of W. T. Blackwell & Co., the business was small, insignificant, indeed, if compared with what it soon became. The whole machinery of administration was to be organized, and adapted to the rapidly growing business, and it required an organizing and directing talent of a high order to meet the constantly recurring emergencies. The history of this country has shown that it requires no extraordinary amount of talent to fill the office of Secretary of the Treasury, for instance, with passable credit. The new appointee, selected from considerations of his political standing and services to the party; or with reference to the equitable distribution of honors among the States, steps into office, finding the machinery in motion, polished and oiled; and for months, his great duty is not to direct, but to learn from his subordinates. The experienced messenger who brings him a paper to sign, properly made out by an obscure clerk, recorded by another, docketed by half a dozen others, and certified by auditors, comptrollers, and other heads of bureaus, becomes the new Secretary's first instructor. What he fails to learn from the messenger, he ekes out day by day, and week by week, from the chiefs of the several branches of his department. If he is an apt scholar, he may, in the course of twelve months begin to understand the motive powers, and operations of the department of which he has been the nominal head, and which the country gives him the credit of being the controlling spirit. But persons who have had opportunities of seeing and knowing how public affairs are managed at the seat of Government, are well aware of the insignificant part played by new heads of departments. And such minute knowledge of affairs is necessary to a just appreciation of a genius like that of Alexander Hamilton, who at thirty-one years of age, organized and successfully administered the Treasury Department. His successors have only to learn their routine duties from their subordinates. He planned them, and adapted them to the situation of the country, under an entirely new form of Government. And akin to the great achievement of Hamilton has been the work of Mr. Carr. Beginning from next to nothing, he has developed a vast enterprise, involving the employment of many hundred thousand dollars, and nearly a thousand men, women and boys. He has wisely directed capital to the most useful applications; he has assigned to an army of laborers, their several places and spheres of duty, and by the judicious subordination of ranks and employments, which are various and unlike, he preserves order and co-operation, to the common end of producing the best results.
Among the most gratifying incidents connected with this great and successful North Carolina manufacturing enterprise, is the fact that it originated with, and has been directed, in all its stages of development, by natives of the State. Taken in connection with many similar ventures in the manufacture of tobacco, cotton and other articles, within the last few years, there is left no ground for longer holding the idea that yankee, or northern genius alone, is equal to such achievements. It is circumstances that developemen. Slavery absorbed all the active capital of the south, and applied it almost exclusively to agriculture. Capital
was thus applied for two reasons. In the first place, it required too great an out-lay of capital to engage in manufacturing with slave labor, in competition with the free labor of the North. To realize this fact, it is only necessary to imagine that the great firm of Blackwell's Durham Tobacco Company, in addition to their half a million of capital, invested in grounds, buildings, machinery, and raw material, were under the necessity of owning as slaves, eight hundred laborers, worth an average of one thousand dollars each.
Here, then, was the great obstacle to Southern enterprise before the war. But the impediment being removed, we see in all directions the development of Southern genius for business enterprises of every kind—nowhere, however, with such astonishing results as at Durham, North Carolina, and by the renowned firm of Blackwell & Co., of which Mr. Carr has been to a great extent the organizing and directing spirit.
The business of the company has grown steadily and rapidly from the time Mr. Carr became a partner and director of its affairs. We have seen that, prior to that time, Mr. Blackwell, by his sagacity and enterprise and with his very limited capital, had been able to turn out nearly ninety thousand pounds of the manufactured article in a year. The product of the establishment is now about four million of pounds, or nearly a fifty-fold increase in fourteen years. Mr. B. employed a dozen hands, all told; the company last year employed seven hundred and fifty; and still the work goes on increasing. Before the considerable reduction which was made in the tobacco taxes, in May, 1882, the company paid for stamps, in a single year, $645,691.33. And who must not be amazed at the statement in view of the fact that thirty-five years ago, and prior thereto, the whole revenue of the State Government was only about eighty thousand dollars! If any one had predicted at that time that the young men and women, and many who had reached middle life, would live to see the day when a manufacturing company on North Carolina soil, to be located at a place which then had no name, would pay taxes to the United States Government eight times greater than the State tax; he might have escaped arrest and confinement as a harmless lunatic, but on no other grounds.
The flourishing town of Durham, now containing 4,000 industrious inhabitants, owes its existence to the Blackwell-Durham Tobacco Company. It is true that similar and dissimilar industries have grown up all around it, but they all owe their success to the world-wide renown achieved by this great establishment.*
In 1882 Mr. Blackwell sold his entire interest in the company; and in January, 1883, the purchasers obtained a charter under the laws of the State. The authorized capital is one million; and a half million was paid in at the time. Mr. Julian S. Carr became the President of the company, and a principal share-holder; Mr. M. E. McDowell, Vice-President, and Mr. Jno. A. McDowell, Secretary; Sam'l H. Austin, Jr., Treasurer.
By genuine goodness of heart and affability of manners, by integrity and liberality Mr. Carr has endeared himself to all classes of the people; to rich and poor; to those to whom he employs, and to those with whom he deals, and has social intercourse. He takes an active part in the benevolent movements of the day, is a firm and efficient supporter of religion, and
* Since the Author of these Reminiscences wrote his sketch of “Durham,” the county of Durham has been erected by an act of the Legislature, dated February 28th, 1881. And one of the most prosperous counties of the State owes its name and sudden growth to the enterprise inaugurated by W. T. Blackwell and Company. Whether the County should be established or not was left to a vote of the people embraced in the territory. The election was held on the 2nd Thursday in April and the Justices of the Peace met on the 1st Monday in May. The act of the Legislature authorizing this action was ratified February 28th, 1881.has been made a trustee of the University and member of the Executive Committee, and trustee of Trinity College. He is also President of the Board of Trustees of the Methodist Female Seminary at Durham; and doubtless its best patron; President of the Board of Trustees, Greensboro Female College, Greensboro. He is Vice-President of the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Company, and holds the same relation to the companies organized for the manufacture of wool and of wooden wares. He is Vice-President of the North Carolina State Exposition, and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Tobacco Association.*
Mr. Carr was married, in 1873, to Miss Nannie Graham Parish, daughter of the late Col. D. C. Parish, a gentleman of high standing and for a number of years mayor of the new and thriving town of Durham.
He is still a young man, but has already attained to a high place in the regards of the people. In spite of his manifold duties as the head of a great manufacturing establishment, he has found time to store his mind with a knowledge of literature, and to keep abreast of current events in the political world. If his ambition should lead in that direction, he is destined to fill a still higher place in the public eye, and to apply his remarkable talents for business to the business of the people.
NOTE.—The heartfelt tribute to the memory of Chief-Justice Thomas Ruffin, so long a resident of this County, will be found in Alamance County, page 3. That of Governor William A. Graham, also a resident of Hillsboro’, will be found in Lincoln County, page 232.
Two more illustrons characters cannot be found; the glory of our race, the inheritance of our State, their fame prevaded the civilized world.
* In politics Mr. Carr is a Democrat. He was a delegate to the late Democratic National Convention at Chicago, and was honored by the State Delegation with the position on the Committee of Resolutions, or “Platform.”CHAPTER XLIII.PASQUOTANK COUNTY.
Connected with memories of the County is the name of John L. Baily, born August 13th, 1795; died June 30th, 1877 late one of the Judges of the Superior Courts of the State; who was the son of Gabriel Baily and born in Pasquotank County. He was educated at Chapel Hill, and studied law with Governor Iredell, at Edenton. In 1824 he represented this County in the House of Commons and was elected to the Senate in 1827 and 1828; he was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Courts in 1836, which position he filled with honor to himself and the great satisfaction of the country. He resigned in 1863. As a Judge he was patient, impartial, kind and learned; as a citizen, just and loyal; as a friend, sincere and genial. Preferring the bracing climate of Buncombe County, even to that of his native County, he removed to Asheville some years ago, where he died. His amiable wife, daughter of Thomas Brownrigg, of Chowan County, had died a few years before him. He was the father of Thomas B. Baily and Wm. H. Baily, Esqs., of Charlotte, as also of Mrs. Caine.
William Biddle Shepard, born 1799; died 1832; resided and represented this County. He was born in New Berne; the son of William Shepard, who was the father of a family noted family for their talents and eloquence. He married Mary, daughter of John Blount, by whom he had ten children, viz:
I. Ann, married Ebenezer Pettigrew; II. John, who first married Maria Long, second,—Gamble; III. Wm. Biddle; IV. Mary, married John H. Bryan; V. Frederick Blount, VI. Hannah, single; VII. Penelope, single; VIII. Charles, in Congress, who married first, Jones, second, Donnel; IX. Richard; X. James B.
William, the subject of our present sketch, was the second son, and was educated at the University, where he stood high for scholarship, but he never graduated because of an unfortunate difficulty which occured at the time; he studied law and practiced with success; his first entrance into public life was as a member of the twenty first Congress (1829-31) and he served till 1837 when he declined a re-election. He was a member of the State Legislature for several sessions, from 1838 to 1850, and was very popular from his decided state-rights opinions, and the ability and firmness with which he maintained them.
He died in Elizabeth City, in 1852; he was twice married, first to Miss Cazenove, of Alexantlria, and second to Miss Collins, of Edenton.
George W Brooks, was born March 16, 1821 in this County; his father, Wm. C. Brooks, was an eminent merchant of Elizabeth City, who came from Gates County. His ancestors were amongst earliest settlers in the Albemarle region of the State and emigrated from Virginia. Branches of the same family are still in Virginia and at one time were one of the leading families of Essex and the adjacent Counties.
His mother's maiden name was Catharine B. Davis, of Pasquotank. She first married Captain Hugh Knox. After the death of Captain Knox, she married Mr. Brooks, and so was the mother of Judge Brooks. Her ancestors were also amongst the earliest settlers in Pasquotank County and were
prominent in their County, many of them filling important positions in the Legislature of the State and the local posts of trust at home.
Judge Brooks was mostly educated at Belvidere in Perquimans County, North Carolina. The Society of Friends in that section, as early as the year 1834, had founded an Academy at that place, which from the foundation to the present, has taken high rank amongst the best schools of the country. At the school many of the men now prominent in Eastern North Carolina were educated and some, distinguished for practical worth, in other States.
In 1844 he was licensed to practice law in the County Courts of the State and in 1846 was admitted as an attorney in the Superior Courts.
From his first entrance at the bar he was successful. The numerous friends of his father, made so by his kindness, rectitude and fidelity, flocked to the support of the son, and gave him at once a start in life. His first appearance was not flattering. He was slow and almost painfully awkward from embarrassment and diffidence; but still, amidst the tribulation which a young lawyer endures at first in the presence of a critical audence, he displayed a power of endurance and pertinacity, that was at once recognized as the talisman of success. He was penniless when he came to the Bar, and in 1861 at the beginning of the war he had accumulated a large estate, which was admitted by all to have been justly and honoraably acquired.
At the beginning of the war he owned a large number of slaves, all of them purchased by him and nearly all purchased at their own request to save them from the hands of the negro-buyer. For some years before 1861, he predicted their emancipation and often when asked to purchase a negro he refused upon the ground, that the tenure of ownership was in the near future to end.
His arguments upon this subject were distasteful to public sentiment and grew to be the subject of harsh criticism amongst the leading democrats of his region; many of his personal and warmest friends frequently remonstrated with him, against his utterance of opinions so widely at variance with the wishes and convictions of the public.
He made no political speeches and no harangues to the public; but he claimed the right to express his private opinion upon public matters, and he never yielded that right to public clamor or private remonstrance. In 1852 he consented to represent his native County in the Legislature of the State. He only consented to prevent a division in the Whig Party in his county. He served with perfect acceptability to his constituents one term, but positively refused to accept a renomination. He has always refused to mingle in the strife of politics.
He was a firm adherent of the Whig Party up to the civil war. During that war he was an avowed Union man; though his conduct was calm and quiet, and showed his actions to be the result of conviction, produced by reflection rather than mere sentiment, the result of the passions of the hour.
During the whole civil war he was the same,—true to his conviction of the ultimate triumph of the Federal Government, yet kind to opponents and always ready to succor the distress of Federal or Southern sufferers.
In August 1855, he was appointed Judge of District Court for the District of North Carolina, and his nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate in January 1866. In 1866 he was elected a delagate to the Convention which met to frame a Constitution for North Carolina. He stood high in that body, but with the close of that Convention his relation with the public ceased except as a judge.
The business in the federal Courts of North Carolina before the war was nominal. The
terms of the Circuit Courts rarely consumed a week, and a few hours sufficed to dispose of the dockets of the District Courts.
Since the war the Circuit Courts have usually continued for several weeks at each term and the labor of the judges has been severe and constant. Hundreds of cases have been tried in open court at each term, and the business at chambers has been quite as laborious as in the court room. The district courts have also been crowded since 1867 with cases in bankruptcy, besides a large accession of other questions upon the Revenue Laws of the United States and questions of private right.
No judge performed more labor since 1866 than Judge Brooks; and in the discharge of his duties he won and retained the highest respect of the Bar of North Carolina, for learning, for courtesy and practical good sense. His decisions are rarely questioned and the people regarded him as an honor to the bench.
Besides the ordinary business of the Court in which he presided, he was called upon to determine questions under the recent amendments to the Constitution of the United States at a time of intense excitement, when there was serious alarm felt lest a fearful strife should break forth, growing out of the points upon he was called to adjudicate.
In the year 1870, Governor Holden declared several Counties of North Carolina in a state of insurrection and sent troops who arrested and held in custody a number of citizens of those Counties. These sued out writs of habeas corpus from Chief-Justice Pearson, of the State Court. The writs were issued, but by direction of the Governor the prisoners were not returned. An act of the Legislature of North Carolina had been passed, empowering the Governor upon good cause to declare any County in insurrection and to employ the miltia force to repress such insurrection.
When the Governor refused the prisoners in obedience to the writs issued by Chief-Justice Pearson, that Judge declared that he had no power to proceed and that the power of the judiciary was exhausted. The prisoners still remained in military custody.
Immediately they procured writs from Judge Brooks, returnable before him at Salisbury in August, 1870. The questions arising upon these proceedings were of the gravest kind, involving the construction of the 14th amendment to the Constitution of the United States and the act of February fifth, 1867, passed in pursuance thereof. The prisoners were supposed to be Democrats, seeking relief at the hands of the federal government from the wrongs of their own State officers; the counsel for the prisoners, all leading Democrats, filed argument upon argument to convince the Court that the Federal arm ought to interfere. The Judge was easy to convince; he had common sense, the text of the Constitution, the written statute and the bias of a life-time on his side. He extended the Ægis of the Federal Constitution over the citizen of the United States and proclaimed to eternity that the United States is a nation charged to vindicate the wrongs of the subject in every corner of its domain and armed with power to resist the tyranny of any or either of the several States.
He granted the writ of habeas corpus and extended the federal jurisdiction to the case.
The prisoners exulted in their liberty and a shout of triumph went up from the people and the press over the result. The Judge enjoyed an ovation such as seldom honors the bench, and at the time, no honor would have been too great for the State to lay at his feet.
The decision referred to, although it did present at the time only a local aspect, is, in fact, a national one, and may one day form the basis of an opinion of as wide notoriety as the Dred Scott case. It in fact ranks with it in
interest, and like it must form the departure for clashing political creeds hereafter.
Judge Brooks married Margaret, daughter of James Costin, of Gates County, on June 20, 1850, and he had five children: Three sons, William, George and James, and two daughters; Margaret and Sally. He died at his home in Elizabeth City on January 6th, 1882, amid the regrets of the Country at the loss of so pure and good a man.
Gen. James Green Martin, born 1819, died October 1878, was a native of this county. He was educated at the United States Military Academy and graduated June 30th, 1840, in the same class with Sherman, Thomas and others. He was assigned to the Artillery and performed the varied duties of that service, at home and abroad with credit. He was engaged in the war with Mexico; and was severely wounded at the battle of Cherubusco, on the August 20th, 1847, from which he lost his right arm. He was brevetted Major “for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Contrereas and Cherubusco.” On the commencement of the civil war, he was stationed at Fort Riley. He promptly resigned his commission in the United States Army, and tendered his services to his native State. The Governor appointed him Adjutant General of the State, a most important position, and well did he fill it, for it was under his provident care that the troops of the State were organized, equipped and amply provided for. It was his suggestion that the “blockade running” ships were first employed to bring clothing and supplies from Europe for the troops and the people. In 1862 when he had accomplished his duties as Adjutant General, he was commissioned Brigadier General and labored faithfully, zealously and gallantly to the close of the war; which found him at Asheville. Pleased with the advantages of climate, and the salubrity of this section, he resolved to make it his home; here he remained, till his death. He was the law partner of Hon. John L. Baily, whose genial and generous temper was so germain to that of Gen. Martin. He was twice married. By his first wife, Miss Reed of New Castle, Delaware, he had four children. His second wife was the daughter of the late Hon. Charles King, who was the son of Rufus King.
John Pool* is a native of Pasquotank County, born June 16, 1826, educated at the University at which he graduated in 1847. Studied law and practiced it successfully. Elected to the State Senate in 1856 and again in 1865. He was a member of the State Convention in 1865 and was the Whig candidate for Governor in 1858, but was defeated by Governor Ellis.
He was elected Senator in Congress in 1868 and served till March, 1873.
Mr. Pool's course in public life has been marked by a strict adherence to his views of right; never pandering to party or persons to secure popularity. This devotion to duty has doubtless, while it secured him friends, produced some political enemies. He has retired from the arena of politics and devotes his time to the duties of his profession.
No further seek his merits to disclose,Or draw his frailties from their quiet abode.He has been twice married; first to Miss Sawyer, by whom he has one daughter [Mrs. Mills;] and second to Mary, daughter of Dr. A. W. Mebane, by whom he has a son and two daughters.
Lucian D. Starke, long a resident of Elizabeth City, was raised in Suffolk, Virginia. His native ability is excelled by his cultivated
* Mr. Pool died in Washington City on August 16th, 1884.manners. He edited “the Pioneer,” a democratic paper at Elizabeth City, with much ability, and was for a time Collector of the Port. He entered the army during the Civil War, serving on the Staff of the late lamented Col. William F. Martin.
PERQUIMANS COUNTY.John Harvey is a name that should ever be cherished in the early annals of our history. He was a prominent leader in the Assembly, and was for a long time Speaker in the House and was Moderator of that band of heroes who met at New Berne in 1774, in open defiance to the Royal Governor as advocates of liberty and independence. Unfortunately, he died before independence was secured; but his name and his efforts are entitled to our respect and gratitude. His name is still preserved by many families in this region, and his patriotism duly remembered.
Josiah T. Granbury was long a useful and honorable citizen of this County. He was distinguished for his success as a farmer—one of the most extensive in this fertile section of the State. But his means and fortunes were wrecked by the vicissitudes of the civil war, and his active spirit sunk under its calamities. In his views of statemanship he was a devoted admirer of the tenets of Jefferson and Jackson; so strong and fixed were these opinions that they tinged his whole life.
His only child married Lucius J. Johnson, who shared with Mr. Granbury his political preferences, his high intellectual acquirements and his devotion to duty. “Mr. Johnson,” says Moore, “was of that stock of men which made the upper portion of Chowan celebrated for a century past, for its patriotism and intelligence.” He was greatly beloved as a man, and respected as a faithful and able advocate. He died, Major of the 17th N. C. State Troops, with his face to the foe in the last battle of Kinston in March 1865.
J. W. Albertson is a native of this county; of Quaker parentage, born September 9, 1826. Educated at Belvidere Academy and at the Friends’ Boarding School in Guilford County. He studied law and was licensed to practice in 1849. Elected to the Legislature in 1852. In 1856 he became a Democrat on principle. Elected Solicitor in 1868, and was so acceptable and faithful that he was appointed Judge of the Superior Court in April, 1872.
On the resignation of Richard C. Badger, in 1878, he was appointed by the President District Attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, which position he discharged with credit to himself and satisfaction to his country.
William H. Bagley, is a native of Perquimans county, born July 5th, 1833, son of Col. Willis H. Bagley, long the Sheriff of this county, a popular and useful citizen. He was liberally educated under John Kimberly, at the Hertford Academy. For a time he was editor of the
Sentinel in Elizabeth City; studied law and was licensed in 1859. Although opposed to secession, yet when the State actually embarked in the war, he felt it to be his duty to share her fortunes, and so entered the Confederate service as a private, but was soon made a First Lieutenant in the Eighth Regiment N. C. Troops. He was in the battle of Roanoke Island, where he was taken prisoner. After his exchange he was appointed Captain of his company, and subsequently promoted to be Major of the 66th Regiment where he served on the coast defenses in North and South Carolina, and Georgia, until his resignation in 1864. He had been elected to the Senate, from the first Senatorial District, composed of the counties of Perquimans and Pasquotank in Aug. 1862, and was re-elected in 1864. In July 1865 he was appointed by President Johnson Superintendent of the Mint at Charlotte; but being unable to take the test oath he was prevented from filling that position. In December of that year he was Private Secretary of Gov. Worth; at the close of which service he was elected Clerk of the Supreme Court of the State, which elevated position he now holds. He is a prominent member of the order of Odd Fellows and has been M. W. Grand Master, and held the highest honor of the order in his State. He married (March 1st 1866,) Adelaide, daughter of Gov. Worth, for whose biography see Randolph County.
PERSON COUNTY.General Henry Atkinson, of the U. S. Army, born 1802, died 1842, was a native of this county. He was appointed a Captain in the 3rd Regiment of Infantry, 1808; Colonel of 45th Infantry, 1814, and a Brigadier-General 1820. He was a gallant and active officer and commanded the Western Army at the defeat of the Sioux Indians, and took their celebrated Chief, Black Hawk, prisoner near Bad Axe River, 2d August, 1832.
He died at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 14th June, 1842. His brother, Richard Atkinson, was a Member of the Legislature from Person County, from 1807 to 1820, except 1815-’16. Like his distinguished brother, he was of military tastes, and was Colonel of a North Carolina Regiment in the war with the Creek Indians, in 1815-’16. He died in Person County on 3rd December, 1821.*
Edwin Godwin Reade, son of Robert and Judith A. Reade, was born November 19, 1812, at Mt. Tirzah, in Person County, in which county he has always resided. His father died while he was a child, and his early advantages were few.
His mother's means were limited, but she was a wise, christian woman and guided her sons, of whom she had three, with much care.
Edwin was liberally educated by Rev. Alexander Wilson, D.D. Studied law under Benjamin Sumner; obtained his license to practice in 1835, and practiced with profit and honor. In
* Dictionary of Am. Biography by Thomas S. Drake, Boston, 1872.1855 he was elected a Member of the (34th) Congress. He declined a re-election, and determined to retire from public life.
In 1861 he was prevailed upon by friends of the Union to be a candidate for a seat in the convention to oppose the secession of the State. He was elected by a large majority, but the convention was defeated by a popular vote. When another convention was soon after called, and when it was apparent that the State would secede, he was not a candidate. After Secession was accomplished by a vote of the convention, he cast his lot with his State. Judge Reade was elected to the Confederate States Senate, and served therein during the war.
In December, 1863, in his absence, and without his active solicitation, he was elected by the legislature a judge of the Supreme Court.
At the close of the war in 1865 he was appointed a judge in the Provisional Government.
In the fall of 1865 he was unanimously elected to the state convention, called to form a constitution, and was chosen President of that body by acclamation.
The legislature that met in Dec. 1865 elected him one of the Justices of the Supreme Court. In 1868, under the new government, he was nominated by both parties and elected by nearly a unanimous vote to the office of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; his term of office expired in 1878. He returned to his practice in Roxboro, where he resides.
He was married December, 1836, Emily A.L. Moore, daughter of Phillips Moore.
He was always a Whig and as opposed to secession has been a Unionist.
He is a clear, chaste and forcible writer, and was distinguished as an acute lawyer, and an eloquent and persuasive advocate and public speaker. He has been a member of the Presbyterian church from his youth and is now a ruling elder. He has discharged ably and well the duties of all the positions which he has ever occupied.
There lived near Roxboro, a Scotchman named James Williamson. His first wife was a daughter of Dempsey Moore. Of this marriage was born John Gustavus Adolphus Williamson, one of the most prominent sons of Person, a lawyer by profession, and an eminent statesman; represented his county in the House of Commons in 1823, was afterwards Consul to Venzuela and later appointed Chargé d'Affaires at Caraccas.
His second wife was Susan Paine, daughter of Major Paine, who lived at Paine's “Ornery.” Of this marriage were born three sons, Robert, James and Alexander; and four daughters, Mary, Parthenia, Annie and Madrid [named for the Capital of Spain.]
Mary married Mr. Donaho, who died in Milton. Parthenia married Judge Dick, father of the present Judge R. P. Dick. She is still living in Greensboro’. Susan married a brother of Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin, formerly of Hillsboro’. Madrid married a young lawyer by the name of Jones, and moved to Tennessee.
Dr. Robert Williamson, the oldest son of his second wife, was a prominent physician in Rockingham County, where he he died about the year 1843. James M., second son by same marriage, moved to Tennessee, and followed the law, represented this County in the State Legislature, 1834.
Alexander, the third son by the same marriage, was a successful merchant in Memphis, left a large estate.
The first we learn of the Barnett family is that, John Barnett, of Scotch-Irish descent, came to America and settled in Pennsylvania. His son John married Miss Currie of that State. He lived at Bailey's Bridge, on the line of Person and Halifax counties. This was then the famous place to settle questions of honor by the pistol. Immediately upon the Virginia
and North Carolina line the officers of the law in either State could be evaded by passing from one State to the other. It was here that Judge Cameron once vindicated the code.
John Barnett was summoned to cut out a direct road from Halifax C. H., in Virginia, to to Hillsboro’. Commencing at Halifax he came on by Adam's Creek. At this ford he was reminded by the red land of that in Pennsylvania. And fancying a similarity in its fertility he immediately went to the land-office and “took up” a large number of acres of land located here. This land fell into the hands of John W. Williams, as the heir or executor of one Towler.
A brother-in-law of this John’ Barnett, named Currie, also settled upon these lands, now occupied by J. M. Barnett, Esq., who also owned the Towler place. Thus we trace the Currie family of Caswell County.
Richard Stanford, was a Member of Congress from 1797 to 1816 continuously, nearly twenty years. He died in Washington City, in April, 1816, during the session of Congress, and lies buried in the Congressional Cemetery. He was a prominent politician of his day, and was the confidential friend of the distinguished John Randolph of Roanoke. Mr. Stanford's unexpired term was filled by Hon. Samuel Dickens, who often represented Person in the State Legislature, he removed in 1820 to West Tennessee, which was then called the Chickasaw purchase; he died there many years ago, full of wealth and the good will of his countrymen. Hon. James Cochran, (the maternal grandfather of James Cochran Dobbin,) was a native of Person, and a Member of Congress from 1809 to 1813; he lies buried at Lea's Chapel, five miles west of Roxboro’.
Hon. Robert Vanhook was a native of Person, he served in both branches of the State Legislature and was elected twenty-two times, from 1807 to 1834, the last year he had no opposition, and died before the convening of the Legislature. Major Isham Edwards [father of Col. L. C. Edwards,] was elected to fill the vacancy. Mr. Vanhook was a politician of the Jeffersonian school, he was not a great man mentally, though highly gifted in procuring the good will of the people and retaining it.
Hon. Thomas McGhee, [father of Montford McGhee, Esq.,] was a wealthy farmer on Hyco, and served five sessions in the State Legislature [lower branch] 1826-’29-’30-’31-’33, and was Governor's council during the administrations of Dudley and Morehead and was many years president of the bank at Milton.
His son, Montford McGhee, born in this county, on December 4, 1822, was educated at the University; graduated in 1841, in the same class with Thos. L. Avery, R. R. Bridgers, Wm. J. Clarke, John W. Ellis, John F. Hoke, Charles and Samuel F. Phillips. He studied law with Judge Butler, and spent some time at Harvard College. He removed to Caswell County, and was a delegate to the Convention in 1865, and as Representative in 1862 and 1866. Elected to the Legislature in 1879, and since continued to 1882 with great acceptability. He has attained high distinction as a writer, and his eulogy on Governor Graham ranks him with the most polished writers of the State.
He is at present a prominent member of the Legislature and of the bar. Highly esteemed by his friends and his associates as a gentleman and a scholar. He has recently been appointed by the State Board of Agriculture, Commissioner of Agriculture, succeeding Col. L. L. Polk, [1880.]
He married a daughter of Judge Badger in 1854.
John W. Cunningham, resides in this County. He was born in Petersburg, Virginia on Feb. 6th, 1820; educated at Bingham Academy, and at the University, where he graduated in 1840, in the same class with David A.
Barnes, Tod R. Caldwell, C. C. Graham. Lucius I. Johnston, Wm. Johnston, O. H. Prince, William M. Shipp, Calvin A. Wiley and others. He was elected to the Senate in 1852-’4-’6 and 8; was a member of the Convention 1861, (secession.) Reelected to the Senate in 1864, ’66-’72 and 1876. Councillor of State under Govrs. Ellis and Clark, and member of the Convention of 1875. These manifestations of public confidence and regard evince the proper appreciation of Mr. Cunningham's integrity and ability. He married Miss Sue Somerville of Warrenton.
CHAPTER XLIV.PITT COUNTY.
Dr. Robert Williams of Pitt County, was distinguished in the Revolutionary War, as a devoted Patriot, a skilful Surgeon and able Physician. He served as surgeon during the whole war, and after the war was over he devoted his services to his extensive practice. He was selected by the people to fill many positions of honor and trust. He was a member of the Convention that met at Hillsboro, July 21st, 1788, to consider the Federal Constitution; and was repeatedly elected to the Legislature of the State for nearly thirty years, [from 1786 to 1814.] He was also a member of the Convention of 1835, that met at Raleigh to revise the State Constitution.
He died in Pitt County on November 12, 1842, aged 83, much esteemed and much regretted.
Byran Grimes, Major-General C. S. A., born Nov. 2, 1828; died Aug. 14, 1880.
“— He was not born to shame;Upon his brow shame was ashamed to sit,For it was a throne where Honor might be crownedSole monarch of the universal earth.”The tragic death of General Grimes, and the assassin-like mode by which it was accomplished, produced a thrill of sorrow throughout the State, and added interest to the exalted traits that adorned his character. He was born, lived, and died in Pitt County.
There are few counties in North Carolina whose early record is more distinguished by devotion to liberty than the county of Pitt. Its inhabitants, as early as July, 1775, under the ties of religion, honor and regard for posterity, resolved to execute the measures of the General Congress, then sitting at Philadelphia, and to oppose the execution of the arbitrary and illegal acts of the British Parliament.” These resolutions were signed by John Simpson, chairman, and ninety-two others. Among these signers was the great-grand father of General Grimes. His grand-father [William] was a leading and influential patriot, and represented Pitt County in 1793 and ’94, the date of his death. His father, whose
patronymic he bore, was a most upright, honest, and enterprising farmer, and raised his sons to that useful and honorable avocation. On these sons he bestowed every advantage that wealth and education could present. General Grimes was born November 2d, 1828; and graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1848, in the same class with Victor Clay Barringer, [now a judge in Egypt,] Oliver H. Dockery, [in Congress 1867, ’68, ’69, ’71,] Seaton Gales, late Document Clerk to the House of Representatives; Willie P. Mangum, Jr., [now Consul of the United States in China,] Judge Oliver P. Mears, and others. Averse to political excitement and public position, he embraced the pursuit of agriculture, and was distinguished for his success and enterprise in a section of the State distinguished for its fertility and prolific productions. He, however, in the exciting times of 1861, was a member of the convention at Raleigh that seceded from the Union. With his characteristic sincerity he sustained his opinions and convictions of duty by his deeds. He entered the Confederate service, and was appointed by Governor Ellis, major of the 4th Regiment of North Carolina State Troops, commanded by George B. Anderson as colonel, and John H. Young as lieutenant-colonel. He served throughout the whole war. He was among the first to enter the field and was the last to quit it. Such was his gallantry and devotion to the cause that he was distinguished in every prominent battle in Northern Virginia. He was with Lee at Sharpsburg and Gettysburg, and was severely wounded at South Mountain. For his gallantry he was promoted through the several grades of service and attained the position of Senior Major-General of Stonewall Jackson's corps. In these fearful ordeals his brave spirit had never quailed, and he gallantly led his troops in the desperate and furious strife. Like Henry, of Navarre, at Ivry, he was ever “foremost in the fray,” and, like Henry, urged his troops to combat.
“Press where you see my white plume shine amidst the ranks of war,
And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre.”
This poetic idea was realized by General Grimes, for his division made the last charge Appomattox. The history of that last effort of the Lost Cause tells us that General Lee, seeing the last gallant and fruitless chargd asked “What troops are those?” When told that it was a North Carolina division, his placid face brightened and he exclaimed, “God bless North Carolina! She is the first and last in every charge.”
I add, “God bless Pitt County!” Her son, Henry Wyatt, was the first offering on the altar of his country at Bethel in 1861, and her son, Grimes, led the last charge at Appomattox. Pitt, glorious Pitt, the alpha and omega of the civil war!
The war ended, General Grimes returned to his home and to its peaceful pursuits. But his active and useful career was soon to be terminated by a tragic end. On Saturday evening, the 14th, of August, 1880, General Grimes was returning from Washington to his home in his buggy. A lad, about twelve years of age, named Bryan Sattherwaite, was with him. When about two miles from his residence, near Bear Creek, about six o'clock in the evening, he was fired upon by some miscreant in ambush and killed. His death occurred in a few moments after the fatal shot was fired. Thus perished one of the purest and best men of the State.
Prominent in his character was his devoted patriotism, his modest and decided conduct, his devotion to truth, and his abhorrence of any kind of artifice or intrigue. Decided, honest and firm in his opinions, he expressed them with dignity, firmness and courtesy. His gallantry in the field was only excelled by his kindness to and scrupulous regard for his troops.
“His life was gentle, and the elementsSo mixed in him, that Nature might stand upAnd say to all the world, This was a man.”General Grimes was the ready and devoted friend of every movement to advance the wellfare and prosperity of his State. He was the steady and consistent advocate of all improvements and of education. He was the constant friend and patron of his Alma Mater, in so much so, that one of the literary societies (the Philanthropic) has procured his portrait, executed by that faithful artist, Wm. Garl Browne, to whose genius and talent our State is deeply indebted for the preservation of the features of so many of her distinguished sons. The following letter to Mr. Browne, postmarked on the same day he was killed, is probably the last letter that General Grimes ever wrote.
“WASHINGTON, N. C., August 12, 1880.
W. GARL BROWNE, ESQ.,
“Washington City, D. C.
“MY DEAR SIR: Your letter forwarded through Mr. Cowper to hand. When the portrait is completed, please put it in a suitable frame and write in paint colors and small letters on the back of the canvas, “Bryan Grimes, Major-General Provisional Army Confederate States,” also your own name as artist. Have it boxed and addressed to the Philanthropic Society, Chapel Hill, N. C., care of Messrs. James Pender, C. B. Aycock and Locke Craige, committee. Prepay the freight by express, at same time notify the gentlemen that you have, by my request, shipped the box to their address. Send original portraits back to Raleigh, care of Pulaski Cowper, and send your bill for it all to me. I will not insult you by asking if the portrait is well done, for I know otherwise it could not come from your hand.
Very truly yours,
BRYAN GRIMES.”
(Postmarked 14th August, 1880, the day he was killed.)
The perpetrator of his foul assassination was never convicted; the alleged cause was that General Grimes became an important witness in some criminal matter, and the parties took this means to prevent his testimony from being given.
General Grimes was twice married; first to Miss Bettie Davis, and second to Miss Charlotte Bryan, daughter of the late Hon. John H. Bryan, (member of Congress 1825-27,) and leaves a large family to deplore his untimely fate.
In Moore's “History of North Carolina” is the following tribute to General Grimes: “In the disastrous, final retreat there were many brave deeds done by the troops of North Carolina. Especially did Major-General Bryan Grimes and Brigadier General William R. Cox distinguish themselves. General Grimes had won his way to the proud position he then held amid the few immortals surviving the many glorious conflicts waged by the Army of Northern Virginia. His bravery and devotion were supervised by an intelligent and scrupulous regard for his command, and no officer rendered fuller or more patriotic duty to the Southern cause.” General Grimes furnished the historian with a most interesting sketch of the closing scenes of the conflict in Virginia. From this narrative I make a number of extracts: “About 9 o'clock,” says General Grimes, “I heard the roar of artillery in our front, and in consequence of information received, I had my command aroused in time, and passed through the town of Appomattox Court House before daylight, where, on the opposite side of the town, I found the enemy in my front. Throwing out skirmishers and forming a line of battle, I reconnoitred and satisfied myself as to their position, and awaited the arrival of General
Gordon for instructions, who, awhile before day, accompanied by General Fitz Lee, came to my position, when we held a council of war. General Gordon was of the opinion that the troops in our front were cavalry, and that General Fitz Lee should attack. Fitz Lee thought that they were infantry, and that Gordon should attack. They discussed the matter so long that I became impatient, and said it was the duty of some one to attack, and that too immediately; and I felt satisfied that they could be driven from the cross-roads occapied by them, which was the route it was desirable our wagon train should pursue, and that I would undertake it. Whereupon Gordon said: “Well drive them off;” I replied, “I cannot do so with my division alone, but require assistance.” He then said, “You can take the other two divisions of the corps.” About this time it was becoming sufficiently light to make the surrounding localities visible.
“I then rode down and invited General Walker, who commanded a division on my left composed principally of Virginians to ride with me, showed him the position of the enemy, and explained to him my views and plan of attack. He agreed with me as to its advisability. * * * The enemy, observing me placing these troops in position, opened upon me with four pieces of artillery. I then gave the signal to advance; at the same time Fitz Lee charged those posted at the cross-roads, when my skirmishers attacked the breastworks, which were taken without much loss on my part; also capturing several pieces of artillery and a large number of prisoners, I at the same time moving the division up to the support of the skirmishers en echelon by brigades, driving the enemy in confusion for three-quarters of a mile beyond a range of hills covered with oak under-growth. * * * I then sent an officer to General Gordon announcing our success and that the Lynchburg road was open for the escape of the wagons, and that I awaited orders. Thereupon I received an order to withdraw, which I declined to do, supposing that General Gordon did not understand the commanding position which my troops occupied, but he continued to send me orders to the same effect which I still disregarded being under the impression that he did not comprehend our favorable location, until finally I received a message from him with an additional one as coming from General Lee to fall back. * * * As my troops approached their position of the morning, I rode up to General Gordon and asked where I should form line of battle. He replied, “Anywhere you choose.”
“Struck by the strangeness of the reply, I asked an explanation, whereupon he informed me that we would be surrendered. I expressed very foreibly my dissent at being surreadered, and indignantly upbraided him for not giving me notice of such an intention, as I could have escaped with my division, and joined General Jo. Johnston, then in North Carolina; furthermore, that I should then inform my men of the purpose to surrender, and whomsoever desired to escape that calamity could go with me, and galloped off to carry this idea into effect. Before reaching my troops, however, General Gordon overtook me, and placing his hand on my shoulder, asked me if I was going to desert the army and tarnish my own honor as a soldier; that it would be a reflection upon General Lee and an indelible disgrace to me that, I, an officer of rank, should escape under a flag of truce which was pending. I was in a dilemma and knew not what to do, but finally concluded to say nothing to my troops on the subject. * * * We were then beyond the creek at Appomattox Court House, and stacked arms amid the bitter tears of bronzed veterans, regretting the necessity for captulation.”
Dr. Richard H. Lewis, the most distinguishocculist
and aurist in North Carolina, was born on the 18th of February, 1850, in Pitt County; the son of Richard Henry Lewis, of Edgecombe, who was the son of Erwin Lewis, of that County, whose father, Erwin Lewis, moved to Edgecombe from Brunswick County, Virginia, and was a descendant of Henry Lewis one of the three brothers who came to Virginia from England in 1695, and who settled in Brunswick, Charles settling in Augusta County, and John on the James River.
He entered the Freshman class at the University at Chapel Hill in July 1866, and remained there until the republicans broke it up in 1868, having completed his sophomore year. He obtained his first distinction the second session of the Freshman, and during the whole Sophomore year. From Chapel Hill he went to the University of Virginia, and there remained for two years, the last in the study of medicine. The first was devoted chiefly to the study of belles lettres, and he received a diploma in Moral Philosophy and French. He entered the Medical Department of the University of Maryland, in Baltimore, and graduated there in the following spring, March 1871. After graduation he was appointed assistant physician of the University Hospital and the following year was elected Resident Physician. Devoting himself exclusively to one branch of the profession—namely, diseases of the eye and ear, he became fitted for it by taking a course under Prof. J. J. Chisolm of Baltimore, and afterwards at the Royal London Ophthalmie Hospital, Moorsfield, London. He first settled in Savannah, in the spring of 1875, and was elected Professor of Diseases of the Eye and Ear, in the Savannah Medical College.
Married to Miss Cornelia V. Battle, daughter of Hon. Kemp P. Battle, on February 13th, 1877, he gave up a successful practice in Savannah and returned to North Carolina to settle. His license to practice in this State was obtained from the State Board of Medical Examiners, and he joined the State Medical Society at Salem in the following May. At the meeting of the Society in Wilmington in May 1880, he he was elected a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners, Dr. Hicks vice of Granville, resigned.
RANDOLPH COUNTY.Jonathan Worth, son of Dr. David Worth, was born in Guilford County, N. C., November 18th, 1802. He died in 1869. He received a fair English education, at the neighboring “old field schools,” being much indebted to William Reynolds for the solid training he there received. At the age of 18 years he was sent to the academy at Greensboro’, where he remained for two and a half years. His conduct there was marked for his diligence and proficiency in his studies. His father being unable to continue him longer at the academy, he took charge of a school, near the residence of Hon. A. D. Murphey, in Orange County, and commenced reading law under the direction of that learned and distinguished lawyer. On April 20th, 1824, he married Martitia Daniel, a niece of Judge Murphey, and in January, 1825, he obtained his
license to practice law. Soon afterwards he settled at Asheboro’, Randolph County, and commenced the practice of his profession. Owing to extreme diffidence and the total absence of anything like oratorical display, others not more, (and perhaps less,) learned, took the lead of him in practice. Not withstanding his great need of professional gains, at this period, he has been often heard to remark, that he would rather lose a fee than make a speech. After lingering at the bar for several years, with few clients, he determined as a means of overcoming this diffidence, to become a candidate for the Legislature, hoping the canvass might give him more assurance. He was elected (1830,) ahead of his competitors. The next year, (1831,) he was again a candidate and re-elected. At this session, he distinguished himself by the introduction of resolutions denouncing nullification, which, after an able but stormy debate, in which he participated, passed the House by a large majority. After this term in the Legislature he seems to have withdrawn from politics and devoted himself to his profession, as we find him busy at the courts in his circuit, and surrounded by clients. This attention to his profession brought such success and pecuniary ease, as that he was again induced by his friends, to become a candidate for the Legislature in 1840, on the Harrison ticket, and was elected to the Senate by an overwhelming majority.
At the session of 1840, the leading legislative measure was the putting in operation of a system of Public Schools. He was made Chairman of the Joint Committee on Education and, as such, drew up and reported a bill which passed both Houses, all the prominent provisions of which remained unchanged until the system of Public Schools was broken up by the civil war.
He was always an admirer of Henry Clay; and, in 1841, he opposed the Hon. A. Rencher for Congress, Mr. Worth charging that certain political acts of his opponent indicated, on his part, a meditated defection from the support of Mr. Clay. Mr. Worth was defeated.
He again applied himself diligently to the practice of his profession, with success, until in 1845, when a convention of delegates from the Connties composing his Congressional distriet nominated him for Congress. He accepted the nomination and entered the field, but was defeated by his competitor, Gen. Alfred Dockery.
After this he devoted himself assidiously to to the practice of his profession until 1858, when he was elected to the State Senate from Randolph and Alamance Counties. In the Session of 1858-59, he introduced resolutions raising a Joint Select Committee to investigate the management of the N. C. Railroad, of which Committee he was made Chairman. His report upon this subject, and the debates which grew out of it, were, by far, the most important topics before that Legislature; and a controversy, through the newspapers, resulted between Mr. Worth and Mr. C. F. Fisher, the the President of the Road, the severity of which was only surpassed by the ability displayed. It is believed that good to the State was the result of this investigation and controversy, and it cannot be unjust to his lamented competitor, to say that Mr. Worth, throughout the contest, more than met the expectation of his friends.
Mr. Worth was re-elected to the Senate in 1860-61. This period is made memorable by the secession of the Southern States from the Union. Having always disbelieved in the doctrine of secession, Mr. Worth was among the foremost and the most active in resisting a disruption of the Union, and in endeavoring to prevent his own State from throwing herself into the vortex of revolution. In the Legislature, he voted against submitting the question
of calling a convention to the people, and the Legislature deciding against him, he addressed a circular letter to his constituents advising them to vote against the convention as the surest way to defeat secession. His advice was heeded, not only by his own constituents, but by the people of the State. Subsequently, however, a convention was called and the ordinance of secession passed. Mr. Worth declined to be a candidate for this convention. With the other prominent Union men of the South, after secession was accomplished, he gave his adhesion to the de facto government, and acted in good faith towards it.
In 1862-63, he was elected to the lower House of the Legislature, and at the session of 1862 was elected Public Treasurer of the State, over Hon. D. W. Courts, the popular incumbent of that office. He was re-elected without opposition, in 1864, and held the position until the State government was overthrown by the Federal forces in 1865.
In the same year he was appointed to the same position under the provisional government organized by President Johnson; but resigned, in a short time, and became a candidate for Governor against Provisional Governor Holden.
Mr. Worth was elected by a large majority, and entered upon the discharge of Executive duties on the discontinuance of the Provisional government, which took place December 28th, 1865.
He was re-elected Governor in 1866, by an increased majority, defeating, in turn, his old competitor for Congress, Gen. Alfred Dockery, He continued in the Executive office until July, 1868, when the then government was superseded by that organized under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress—surrendering the position, under a protest, denying the constitutionality of these acts of Congress, and the legality of his removal.
The following eloquent and able protest of Governor Worth is preserved to show the high handed course of the “powers that be,” at this time and the supremacy of the military over the civil government:
State of North Carolina,
Executive Department.
RALEIGH, July 1st, 1868.
Gov. W. W. Holden,
Raleigh, N. C.
SIA; Yesterday morning I was verbally notified by Chief Justice Pearson, that, in obedience to a telegram from Gen. Canby, he would, to-day, at 10 A. M., administer to you the oath required preliminary to your entering upon the discharge of the duties of Civil Governor of the State; and that, thereupon, you would demand possession of my office.
I intimated to the Judge my opinion that such proceeding was premature, even under the reconstruction legislation of Congress, and that I should probably decline to surrender the office to you.
At sundown, yesterday evening, I received from Col Williams, Commandant of this military post, an extract from the General Order, No. 120, of General Canby, as follows:
“Headquarters 2nd Military District.
CHARLESTON, S. C., June 30th, 1868.
General Order, }
No. 120.
(EXTRACT.)
“To facilitate the organization of the new State governments, the following appointments are made: To be Governor of North Carolina, W. W. Holden, elect, vice Jonathan Worth removed; to be Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, Tod R. Caldwell, Lieutenant Governor elect, to fill an original vacancy—to take effect July 1st, 1868, on the meeting of the General Assembly of North Carolina”.
I do not recognize the validity of the late election under which you, and those co-operating with you, claim to be invested with the civil government of the State. You have no evidence of your election, save a certificate of a Major-General of the United States Army.
I regard all of you as, in effect, appointees of the military power of the United States, and not as “deriving your powers from the consent of those you claim to govern.” Knowing, however, that you are backed by military force here, which I could not resist if I would, I do not deem it necessary to offer a futile opposition, but vacate the office, without the ceremony of actual eviction, offering no further opposition than this my protest.
I would submit to actual expulsion, in order to bring before the Supreme Court of the United States the question as to the constitutionality of the legislation under which you claim to be the rightful Governor of the State, if the past action of that tribunal furnished any hope of a speedy trial. I surrender the office to you under what I consider military duress, without stopping, as the occasion would well justify, to comment upon the singular coincidence, that the present State Government is surrendered as without legality, to him, whose own official sanction, but three years ago, declared it valid
I am, very respectfully,
JONATHAN WORTH,
Governor of North Carolina.
He continued to reside at the city of Raleigh until his death, which occurred September 5th, 1869, in the 67th year of his age.
In the space allotted to the distinguished sons of the Old North State in this volume, it is impossible to do justice to so long, eventful and well-spent a life.
Gov. Worth was a good lawyer, a faithful legislator, an expert financial officer, and an able governor. In nothing that he ever did was there any attempt at display, and he made no speeches “for Buncombe.” Indeed, he was thoroughly practical, and most remarkable for the accuracy of his judgment and the soundness of his conclusions; which, after all, is the nearest approach to the perfection of human wisdom. The State may have produced more brilliant sons, but none of sounder judgment or who, from their stand-point, labored with an eye more single to her best interests. It was his fortune to administer the affairs of the State amid a period of delicacy, danger and excitement. But such were the purity of his motives and the fidelity of his conduct that during his “administration as Governor not a single instance occurred in the State when a Sheriff had to summon either civil or military aid to execute the process of the law.” Beginning life without fortune, but industrious, practical, prudent, honest, receiving from his native State the noblest reward she had to bestow, his success and example may well be pointed to the young men of the State for encouragement and imitation.
The characteristics which marked his public conduct, governed him in his private relations. To these may be added intense affection for his family and friends, to whom he was kind and indulgent, and for whom he could not do enough. He married (1824) Martita Daniel, a niece of Judge Murphey, whom he left a widow with six children, one son and five daughters. He lived to see all of his children married. One of his daughters married Maj. William H. Bagley, Clerk of the Supreme Court, and his only son, David G. Worth, is now the most prominent commission merchant in the city of Wilmington.
Col. Andrew Balfour was a resident of this County. He was a native of Scotland, and came to this country in 1772, and settled, first at New Port, R. I. Among those whose lives were sacrificed to the cause of freedom, says Caruthers, in his admirable little work;* and whose patriotic services deserve to be remembered, was Andrew Balfour. The first notice we have of him, in North Carolina, is a letter to his wife, dated Salisbury, July, 1774; that he had bought a plantation in Randolph county, at the headwaters of the Uharee. When the Revolutionary war came, he determined to join the defenders of his adopted Country, and was appointed Colonel of the County, and became active and prominent. He was elected a member of the Legislature (the first after Randolph County was created), in 1780. In the fall of that year he and Jacob Shepherd, who was a prominent Whig, were captured by a party of Tories from the Peedee, but were rescued by Captain Childs, from Montgomery. One of the victims, Shepherd, left the neighborhood, but Balfour remained only, to meet an untimely fate. A narrative of Judge Murphey furnished for the Uni. Mag., by Gov. Swaim gives an account of this most bloody affair: “In one of his predatory excursions, he (Fanning) went on Sunday, the 9th of March, 1782, to the house of Andrew Balfour, which he had plundered three years before. One of Balfour's neighbors (Cole), rode at full-speed to
* Revolutionary Incidents, &c., by Rev. E. W. Carathers, Phila., 1854, p. 297.Balfour's house, and warned him of the danger. Balfour had hardly got out of his house, before he saw Fanning galloping up. He ran, but one of Fanning's party (named Authrey) fired at him and broke his arm. He returned to his house and entered it; his daughter and sister clung to him in despair. Fanning and his troop immediately entered, tore the women away with violence, and threw them on the floor, and held them under their feet till they had shot Balfour. As he fell Fanning shot him through the head, and he died instantly. An indictment was found against Fanning, at the Superior Court at Hillsboro’, for this murder, but he was never apprehended.”
A sketch of this desperado (Fanning) is recorded on page 112.
His sister and her aunt Margaret went to Salisbury to reside; Mrs. Balfour, who had not come from Rhode Island as yet to join her husband, with her two little children, now came to this State and joined them; their misfortunes met with cordial sympathy from the kind people of that place. In a few years an arrangement was made, by the influence of Gen. Steele, to appoint her post-mistress, the profits of which yielded a comfortable support. The duties of this position she discharged with fidelity and satisfaction for many years. His daughter, Tibby, married John Troy, and had John Balfour Troy (in Legislature from Randolph in 1827), and Rachel, who married Lewis Beard, now of Mississippi.
Col. Balfour's son, Andrew, married Mary, daughter of John Henly, who was a member of the Society of Friends, and had nine children—all of whom removed west, except Eliza, wife of Col. Drake, of Asheboro’.
The third and only remaining child of Col. Balfour, Margaret, married Hudson Hughs, of Salisbury, one of whose daughters married Samuel Reeves.
Herman Husbands, who resided for a long time on Sandy Creek, in this County was conspicuous in the Regulation troubles. (See page 1.)
He was a native of Pennsylvania and is said to have been a relative of Benjamin Franklin. He was a man of indomitable firmness, great shrewdness, and of strong native intellect. He enjoyed the confidence of the people, who often elected him to the Legislature before the Revolution. But his independent course rendered him obnoxious to the friends of Royalty.
I extract from the Journals of the House of Assembly at New Berne: “20 Dec., 1770. On motion the House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, to take into consideration the conduct of Herman Husbands, a member of this House.”
After some time spent therein the Chairman reported:
“1. That Herman Husbands is one of the Regulators and principal mover in the late seditions—and is unworthy of a seat in this House, and that he be immediately expelled. This resolution was agreed to by the House and whereupon Husbands appeared at the bar of the House, and the Speaker pronounced the said sentence.”—Colonial Doc. 174.
The same day the following resolution was passed: “Thomas Pearson is charged by Mr. McKnight as guilty of extortion and usury, and unworthy of a seat in this House. Maurice Moore and Mr. Locke, and others appointed a committee to enquire into the facts.”
“—25 Jan. Resolved that Richard Henderson, who appeared as prosecutor of several charges against Thomas Pearson, pay all costs”
—“31 Jan. Husbands arrested by order of Gov. Tryon for a libel and put in the New Berne jail.—Ib. 175.
After the battle of Alamance (16 May 1771)
he retreated to Maryland, and thence to Pennsylvania.
In a letter in the Rolls office, in London, from President Hassell, dated 9th of August, 1771, is this extract.
“In a letter I received by express from Governor Eden, of Maryland, dated 9th ult, he had received information that Herman Husbands, with eight or ten of his associates were there, and he could not arrest him, as he could not identify him. I answered by the same express, and sent a young man who could swear to the identity of Husbands; I sent also a copy of a proclamation offering large rewards for taking them. I wrote also to President Nelson, of Virginia, and President Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, requesting them to aid in Husbands’ apprehension.” Col. Doc. 178.
A reward was offered for him by Gov. Tryon. He was the ready and determined opponent of illegal oppression. He was concerned with Gallatin and Breckenridge in the whisky insurrections in 1794, apprehended and taken to Philadelphia. By the influence of Dr. David Caldwell, who happened to be in Philadelphia at the time, Dr. Rush and others, he was released, and died on his return home.
Hon. John Long was born in London County Va., but long a resident of Randolph County. He was a man of unblemished reputation, of strong native intellect, and of much public spirit. He was Senator from Randolph in the Legislature in 1814-15; and elected a member of 17th Congress, (1821-23,) and re-elected to 19th and 20th (1825) Congresses. His death was the result of a singular accident. He was in feeble health for some time, and on the day previous to his death, he walked out on his farm; whilst attempting to climb a fence, he fell, the top rail falling upon him. He was enabled by great exertion to walk back to his house, but died on the next day. He left several children.
CHAPTER XLV.RICHMOND AND ROCKINGHAM COUNTIES.
Alfred Dockery, born December 11, 1797, died December 3, 1873, in Richmond County; he was born within a mile of the residence at which he lived and died. His father, Thos. Dockery, was a poor man. He reared a large family of children, but one of whom is now living, Dr. Henry Dockery, of Hernando, Mississippi. Thos. Dockery was unable to give his children, even at that early day, the simplest elements of an education. Alfred was the eldest of the children, and the heavy burden of providing the means of subsistence for his younger brothers and sisters devolved on him. Hence, his education in early life was entirely neglected, and he was often heard to say that he had never attended school for three months consecutively in his life. In 1823 he married Sallie Turner, of Anson County, with whom he lived in uninterrupted felicity until his death, which occurred December 3d, 1873, leaving seven children surviving him. General Dockery, as he was familiarly called, began life on a small scale as a farmer, and by industry and energy amassed quite a handsome estate. He lost much
of this by the late war, but by unconquerable energy he retrieved his fortunes, and died possessed of a fine property.
General Dockery made his first appearance in public life as a member of the House of Commons from the County of Richmond, in 1822. He was then twenty-five years of age. Having devoted some thirteen years to laying the foundations of his fortune, during which time he had made much progress in the acquisition of useful knowledge, he consented to serve the people of Richmond in the Convention of 1835, which was called to remodel the old Constitution adopted by the Congress at Halifax in 1776. In this body, of which he was an industrious and faithful member, he was governed by liberal and generous views, and no doubt gathered rich lessons of knowledge and experience from such men, his associates, as Gaston, Macon, Toomer, Seawell, Meares, Edwards and others. The Whig party, which was formed in 1833, carried the elections in North Carolina in 1836. A strong Whig influence, based on a demand for a general reform in federal affairs and for a system of internal improvements by the State government, swept the old Jackson Democratic party from power, and Edward B. Dudley, of New Hanover, was elected Governor. General Dockery was elected to the Senate of the State Legislature from Richmond, in 1836, as a Whig, and he continued to serve the County in the Senate up to 1844 inclusive, making a continuous service of ten years in that body. In 1845 he was an independent Whig candidate for Congress in the Randolph District, against the regular nominee, Hon. Jonathan Worth, and was elected by more than nine hundred majority. In 1847 he declined a re-election; but, in 1851, impelled by a strong love for the Union, which he believed to be in peril, he boldly bore the Whig Union flag against the organized power of secession led by Hon. Green W. Caldwell, of Mecklenburg, and after one of the most animated canvasses that ever occurred in the State, he was elected to Congress by twelve hundred majority. At the peril of his life in this canvass, (for his District ran along the South Carolina line,) he boldly proclaimed everywhere his undying attachment to the Union, even declaring that, if elected, he “would vote men and money to whip South Carolina back into the Union, if she attempted to secede.” The excitement was intense, and he was in constant personal danger, yet nothing could deter him from a stern and fearless performance of duty. In 1854 he was the Whig candidate for Governor of the State against Governor Bragg, and was defeated by only about 2,000 majority. The State, which had gone Whig in 1836 by 6,000 majority, in 1840 13,000, in 1842 by 5,000 in 1844 by 3,000, in 1846 by 8,000, began to pass into the hands of the Democrats in 1848, the Whig majority that year being only 875, on account of the strength with the people of the Free Suffrage issue broached by Governor Reid. In 1850 the State went Democratic by nearly 3,000 majority, and in 1852 by nearly 6,000. It was under these circumstances, with this large majority against him, that General Dockery took the field as the Whig candidate. The exhibition of mental power and physical endurance on the part of both candidates, Bragg and Dockery, mark this as the campaign of campaigns in this State.
The people of Western North Carolina cherish his memory with much affection. They owe no small debt of gratitude to the man who did so much in 1854 to coerce the reluctant Democracy of the east and centre into a more active support of internal improvements, without which the Western portion of the State are shut in from the world and deprived of the means and advantages which are indispensible to their progress and prosperity.
General Dockery was always a Union Whig. He deplored the dissolution of that grand old party, which he regarded as the strongest link in the chain which held the States together. With Washington, Hamilton, Webster and Clay, he held the Union to be indissoluble. He, of course, profoundly deprecated secession, and faithfully and earnestly warned the people to the last moment of the awful, far-reaching calamities which must flow from it; yet, when the issue was joined in battle between the two sections, his sympathies were with his native South, and he gave without a murmur six sons to the army, one of whom, John Morehead Dockery, a noble youth, fell a victim to camp disease. After the war, never having lost his ingrained conviction of the necessity of one great common government for all the States, he earnestly advised reconciliation and harmony, and lived to see the Union reconstructed on the basis of the equal rights of all, with no star on its ensign “erased or polluted,” and destined, as he fondly hoped, to endure for all time. After the war his participation in public affairs was not so active or constant as it had previously been, yet such was the confidence reposed in his judgment and patriotism by his fellow-citizens of the County of Richmond, that in 1865 they elected him unanimously to the State Convention called under the Provisional Government then in operation. The duties of this position he discharged with his accustomed intelligence and honesty; and in 1866, much against his wish, he was nominated by the original Union men of the State for the office of Governor. There was no prospect whatever of his election. He declined to canvass in the then unsettled condition of the country, as he could not perceive that any good would result from a canvass. The vote he received would have been doubled if he had taken the field and addressed the people in the different sections of the State. He evinced on this occasion his usual disregard of self when a high public duty was to be performed, first, in consenting to the use of his name when his defeat was known to be inevitable, and secondly, in endorsing the so-called Howard amendment, under which he was himself with many of his Union friends, debarred from office.
Under the new State government General Dockery occupied for a time the position of President of the Board of Directors of the State Penitentiary.
Much of the success of the Board in its management of the affairs of the Penitentiary, is due to his prudence, honesty, firmness and strong common sense.
General Dockery was a zealous member of the Baptist Church, and was deservedly influential in its Conventions and Associations, and was for many years a trustee of Wake Forest College. His benevolence was proverbial. The poor and needy of all races always found in him a friend. No one really in need of help was ever turned away empty from his door. His contributions during his lifetime to the churches and to different institutions of learning, aggregate a large sum.
Oliver H. Dockery, son of the above, was born on August 12th, 1830, reared and resides in Richmond County. He has been carefully educated; graduated at the University in 1848, in the same class with Victor C. Barringer, Seaton Gales, Strange, and others; he then read law, but never practiced it. He was elected a member of the Legislature 1858 and 1859, and an elector on the Bell and Everett ticket in 1860, and made a gallant but unsuccessful canvass; uner the force of circumstances he was for a time a captain in the Confederate service, but soon took a decided stand for the re-establishment of the national government, and the re-construction of the State. He was elected to fill an unexpired
term in the 40th Congress, (1867) over Thomas C. Fuller, and re-elected to the 41st Congress, 1869-71. He was a candidate for the next Congress, but was defeated by A. M. Waddell.
Col. Dockery has been twice married: his present wife is a daughter of the late Judge Settle, and sister of Judge Settle, of the U. S. District Court in Florida.
He was the Republican candidate for Congress in 1882, before the people of the State at large, and was defeated by Judge Risden T. Bennett, by a small majority.
Gov. Joseph Roswell Hawley is a native of Richmond County; born Oct. 31st, 1826; removed to Connecticut in 1837; graduated at Hamilton College, New York in 1847; read law and was editor of the “Hartford Evening Press,” in 1857; entered the army in 1861 as Captain in the 1st Reg. Connecticut Volunteers; attained the rank of Brigadier, and was brevetted Major-General. In 1866 was elected Governor of Connecticut; President of the National Republican Convention in 1868, and was elected a member of the 42nd Congress, (1873,) and re-elected to the 43rd and 46th Congresses. He was made President of the Centennial Commission in 1876.
Walter Leak Steele, was born April 18th, 1823, at Steele's Mills on Little River in the northwestern part of Richmond County. His father was Thomas Steele, who was a Member of the House of Commons, and his mother was Judith Mosely Leak. His paternal grandfather came to this country from England, near Carlisle, in the army of Lord Cornwallis and surrendered at Yorktown. He settled first in Granville, where he was married and thence removed, successively to Montgomery and Richmond; in the latter County he died. His maternal grandfather was Walter Leak, who was born in Buckingham County, Va., but removed with his father to Anson County, a few years prior to the war of the Revolution and settled on the Peedee river. He was a rebel soldier in that war. The subject of this sketch, after attending the ordinary country schools, until he was fourteen years old, went to the Preparatory Department, at Randolph Macon College, then located at Boydton, Va. After entering college and remaining but part of a session, he left and matriculated at Wake Forest College. He remained there but one session, and in January 1840, entered the Freshman class at Chapel Hill, at which place he graduated in June 1843, with the second distinction; but for what he thought a slight violation of college law, but which the Faculty viewed, no doubt properly, in a different light, causing his exodus from the Institution, he would have graduated in 1843. Three months after leaving college he was married to Harriet A. Crawford the youngest daughter of Thomas Crawford of Paris, Tennessee.
In 1846, after a bitter personal contest, he was elected to the House of Commons from the County of Richmond, re-elected in 1848 and 1850. In 1852 he was Senator from Richmond and Robeson. In 1854, was again a member of the House. In 1856, having determined to support Mr. Buchanan for the Presidency, regarding the contest as solely between the Democrats and the Republicans, which latter party had absorbed the Whig Party, at the North. He was a candidate for the Senate, and defeated by Gen. Alfred Dockery. In 1858, he was again a candidate, and elected. In 1861, he was the Principal Secretary of the Convention which passed the ordinance of secession, or separation, as it is called in the journals of that body. He was for a short time in the army, as a private in the 3d Regt. of State troops, but never in any engagement. He offered to raise a cavalry company, but the tender was refused by Gen. Holmes. His wife having
died, leaving a family of small children, he was again married in 1864, to Mary J. Little of Anson County, a daughter of his cousin, Thomas S. Little.
In 1868, he “took the stump,” in opposition to “the Reconstruction Acts,” deeming them a flagrant violation of the Constitution. In 1872 he was on the Greeley electoral ticket, for the 6th District, canvassing it in company with Judge Thos. S. Ashe, who was then the Democratic candidate for Congress.
In 1852, while a member of the Senate, he was elected by the Legislature one of the Trustees of the University, and continued as such until a change in the Constitution, by Act of Congress, when he was displaced by Gov. Holden. The Constitution having been amended, he was again elected in 1872, and took an active part in resuscitating the Institution, and is now a member of the Board.
In 1876 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the U. S. for the term beginning March 4th, 1877, and re-elected in 1879, without opposition. In 1878, he delivered the address before the Alumni Association of the University, at the annual Commencement. During this Congress he was a member of the committees on Agriculture and Revolutionary Pensions and on Railway and Canals. His course was quiet and modest, seldom participating in debates. He made two somewhat elaborate speeches, one on “silver currency” and the other upon “taxation.” He is a free-trader, so far as it is practicable, believing that“ Peter ought not to be robbed for Paul's benefit.” He is a strict constructionist, and believes that, “that is the best Government which governs the least.” He regards the Constitution as the only bond of union, thinks it the Supreme Law, as are all acts passed in pursuance of it. He regards the Government as one of limited powers and all those powers are enumerated in the Constitution and “expressio unius, est exclusio alterius.” Even when a State is inhibited the use of a power, the United States do not have it, unless it is granted.
Alfred Moore Scales was born November 26, 1827, at Ingleside, the old homestead, in this county. He is the son of Dr. Robert H. Scales, who married Jane W. Bethell. His grandfather, Nathaniel Scales, was for several years a member of the Legislature, his wife was named Annie Allen. The maternal grandfather was General William Bethell, also a member of the Legislature, his wife was named Mary Watt. Beyond this little is known of his ancestors. There is a tradition in the family handed down from father to son which says that the first Scales who came to this country was quite a youth, not more than twelve years of age; that he come from England, and not until after the ship had lost sight of land was he found in the cabin. The captain of the vessel was much enraged and threatened to throw him overboard. The little fellow was not intimidated, but entreated the captain not to molest him and that upon his arrival in America he might sell him to pay his passage money, and he would stand by the contract. To this the captain agreed, and so on their arrival in America he was sold. His master proved to be an unfeeling, hard-hearted man, who fed him badly, clothed him slightly, and worked him hard. But the lad was active, industrious and faithful. He attracted the attention of a humane man in the neighborhood, who saw the sufferings of the youth, and kindly furnished him with warm clothing, for which young Scales paid him when he became of age, as he had promised. He fulfilled his contract to serve until he became twenty-one, and the first money he made for himself was used to pay for the clothing so kindly furnished by the neighbor. From this boy the Scales family in Rockingham had its origin, such an ancestor is certainly more creditable than the
proud, aristocratic
* * * * * * “blood.
That has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood.”
Dr. Scales, the father of General Scales, had seven sons and three daughters. Every son was in the civil war, except one who was disabled, three sons and one son-in-law died of wounds and diseases incurred and contracted in the war.
General Scales was educated at the Caldwell Institute and fitted to enter the junior class at college.
Then he entered at Chapel Hill in 1846, but only remained for one session. He sought employment, and was placed in charge of a free school with the pay of $15 per month, and before the first month ended was offered double the amount to continue the school as a subscription school, with the promise of an increase of salary. The offer was accepted and at the end of the year, the salary was again increased. He was then made tutor in the Caldwell Institute, but resigned after one year's service to begin the study of law with Judge Settle, afterward with Judge Battle, and so he paid his own way until he was located in the practice of his profession. He was made County Solicitor in 1852 and as such was most acceptable to the people and the bar. He became a member of the House of Commons for 1852-53, and stood as candidate for Congress in the District in 1854, which had always given the Whigs a majority of at least one thousand. His competitor, Col. R. C. Puryear, was very popular and an able man. He had already served one term in Congress, but his majority was very much decreased by General Scales. In 1854 General Scales was again sent to the Legislature, where he served as Chairman of the Committee on Finance. He was nominated for Congress by acclamation in 1857 against his former competitor and was elected to the 35th Congress by a majority of seven hundred. After two years service he was unanimously renominated and canvassed the District against General Jas. M. Leach. The contest was exciting—their friends were well-satisfied with the champions chosen. The District was Whig in sentiment and General Leach received a majority of the suffrage.
He was made Clerk and Master of the Court of Equity of Rockingham County in 1858, and this he held until the civil war began.
He was nominated with Governor D. S. Reid on the ticket in favor of the Convention of 1860, opposed by Dr. E. T. Brodnax and Thomas Settle. The discussion was made by Settle and Scales, as Governor Reid was in Washington City, serving on the Peace Conference. General Scales did not favor immediate secession; several States had already severed their relations with the General Government, and he took the ground that a convention was necessary to place our State in a condition to act as she might deem best, and she could only be heard by her convention. He wished to save the Union of the States; if this failed, then we should not hesitate to declare our intentions and act with the other Southern States, and share one common fate. The opponents made the contest a question of union or dissolution, and when the contest began at least two-thirds of the people were against any convention. They had only one week in which to discuss the points, and Scales was beaten by only 150 majority.
In 1861 he was one of the electors of the State at Large on the Breckenridge and Lane ticket. In this, as in every other act of his political career, he evinced his firm, undeviating devotion to democratic principles,—which can be said of very few in these times of political tergiversation. Many, it is true, have since joined the Democratic ranks, but General Scales is one of the original panel, not a talesman or time-server in any sense.
Shortly after this Mr. Lincoln issued his call for troops. A convention was called and General Scales was put forward as a candidate but he declined, saying: “That every man who was able should go to the field and that there might be perfect unanimity at home, he advised the election of Dr. Brodnax and Governor Reid, since their age would prevent their service in the field.
Gen. Scales volunteered at the beginning of the war as a private, but was at once elected Captain of his company. He was subsequently promoted to be Colonel, and then to be Brigadier-General. He was in the battle of Williamsburg, those around Richmond, the battle of Fredericksburg (in which Gen. Pender was wounded and Gen. Scales, as senior Colonel took command of the brigade.) He was also in the battle of Chancellorsville, where he was severely wounded, and for his gallantry and coolness on that field received a high tribute from the gallant General Pender. He took part in the battle of Gettysburg and was again severly wounded and again received the encomiums of his division commander, General Pender, who died from wounds received in that battle. In the same ambulance they were borne to Staunton, Va. He was in the battles from Orange C. H. to Petersburg, and in many skirmishes. He returned to his profession when the civil war had ended, and was a candidate for the convention called to change our State Constitution, and was elected, but the convention was not ordered by a majority of the people. In 1872 he was prominently urged to make the canvass for the Governorship, but was compelled to decline, because of his disabilities. He was elected a member of the 44th, 45th, 46th, and 47th Congresses, (1874 to 1881.) In the two last named he has served as chairman on Indian Affairs.
We have thus given a faithful detail of the services of General Scales. The advice of the Roman philosopher to the historian, is that it is not lawful to extol too much, because some future act may mar the record, but we sincerely say that a more sincere, patriotic and pure public man does not exist in this or any other country. No one doubts where to find him; he is in the foremost van, when his country, or her interests, or honor is at stake. Cautious and courteous, he is calm and considerate in council, and when resolved is as firm and devoted in action. No one has a firmer seat in the affections of his constituents, or could command greater respect of his colleagues in Congress, and when he speaks is listened to with proper respect. His reports on various important questions are valuable state-papers, showing eminent ability, research and the early training of a judicial mind
[He was re-elected to the 48th Congress, receiving 12,532 votes to 9,932 votes for Winston, liberal.
At the election held November 4th, 1884, General Scales was elected Governor of the State, receiving 143,249 votes against Dr. Tyre Yorke's 123,010, a majority of 20,239.]—Ed.
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY.Hon. Thomas Settle, sen'r. born 1791; died 1857; was born in this County. He was distinguished for his ability as a statesman and as a judge, and esteemed for his virtues, learning, and deportment. He entered public life as a member of the House of Commons from Rockingham in 1816 and in 1817 succeeded Bartlett Yancey as Representative in the 15th Congress, and was re-elected to the 16th Congres (1819-21,) when he declined re-election. He was succeeded by Romulus M. Saunders. In 1826 he was again returned to the Legislature, and re-elected in 1827-28. During the latter years he was Speaker of the House. His course as a member of the Legislature was marked by patriotism, consistency, and dignity. When the fiery crusade of party was directed against the banker's institutions of the State, led by the unscrupulous energy of Robert Potter, the bill was carried by one vote to prosecute and crush the banks, as Speaker, Judge Settle voted with the minority and prevented its passage.
In 1832 he was elected one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, which elevated position he held for nearly a quarter of a century with great satisfaction to the country and credit to himself. Increasing years caused his resignation. His health, from the labor of a long life, failed, and, universally lamented, he died in August, 1857.
He married Henrietta, the daughter of Azariah, and the sister of Hon. Calvin Graves.
We give a correct genealogy of this family from reliable and authentic sources. It is seldom that a family less numerous can show more distinguished members. In this table there are the names of two Senators in U. S. Congress, and four members in the House of Representatives, three judges, a governor, and a formidable aspirant for the Presidency, besides others distinguished for their ability integrity and virtues.
(For the genealogy of the Settle family, see after sketch of Gov. Reid, page 391.)
Thomas Settle jr., son of the above, whose sketch has just been presented, was born Jan. 23rd, 1831.
He was liberally educated, and graduated at the University in 1850, in the same class with John Manning, W. C. Kerr, and others. He read law with Judge Pearson, and was licensed to practice in 1854. During the administration of Gov. Reid, who had married his sister, he was for a time the private secretary of the Governor.
This was his first entrance on the stormy sea of political life, which was germane to his tastes, and in which he has had a prosperous voyage. He was elected a member of the Legislature, from 1854 to 1859; the latter year he was chosen Speaker of the House. He was one of the Electors in 1856, and cast with others the vote of the State for Mr. Buchanan.
In 1860 he advocated the claims of Stephen A. Douglas, for the Presidency. How far personal preferences influenced his judgment (for they were closely connected by marriage), is not known, but doubtless the matchless genius and brilliant eloquence of this distinguished statesman greatly moved his supporters.
In February 1861, he was the candidate of the Union party for a seat in the Convention,
and he was triumphantly elected over an active and able opposition. But the Convention, defeated by the popular vote, never met. Although a Union man, and opposed to the doctrine of secession, yet when the war actually commenced, he joined his fortunes with those of his State and entered the army as Captain of a company in the 3rd Reg. of Volunteers to serve for twelve months. Upon the expiration of his term of enlistment, Mr. Settle returned from the army, and was elected Solicitor of the 4th Judicial Circuit and won much praise by the vigorous and faithful performance of his duty. He was elected in 1865 a member of the (Holden) convention, held at Raleigh, October 12th, 1865, and in the same year to be a Senator in the Legislature, of which body he was chosen Speaker. A rare instance in the history of the State, where the same person so young was honored with the Speakership of each House. He took an active and prominent part in the convention in devising manner to reconstruct the broken down walls of our political Zion. In April, 1868, he was elected one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State. This elevated position he held until 1871, when on February 18th, of that year, he was commissioned Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Peru. He was also President of the National Convention that nominated Grant. After a short residence abroad, he returned home, and in 1872 he was nominated as a candidate for Congress, in the Fifth Congressional District, opposing General James M. Leach. This was a contest involving fierce and frequent contests, but General Leach was elected by 268 majority. Leach received 10,735, Settle 10,487.
He was re-appointed one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the State, which he held until he was nominated as the Republican candidate for Governor in 1876, and was defeated by Governor Vance, by more than 13,000 votes; Vance receiving 123,307 votes, and Settle 110,178. This closed Judge Settle's career for the present in our State, as he was appointed Judge of the United States District Court for the northern district of Florida, Jan. 30th, 1877, and now resides at Jacksonville, in that State. Judge Settle married (as the genealogical diagram shows) Mary, daughter of Tyre Glenn, and has many children to inherit his genial disposition and many kind qualities.
David Settle Reid is a native of this County the son of Reuben Reid; born April 13th, 1813. He was educated in the schools of the County and studied law. But he was more distinguished as a faithful and frank statesman than as a lawyer. Bold and intrepid, he often led where the timid doubt, and when success had followed his efforts all conceded the sagacity and justice of his plans. His first appearance in public life was in 1835, as Senator from Rockingham County. Such was the wisdom of his course, that he was continuously re-elected by the people until 1840. He was then elected a member of the 28th Congress (1843-45), and re-elected to the 29th Congress (1845-47). In 1848 he was nominated for Governor by the Democratic State Convention, without his knowledge or consent. The opposition had triumphed and was jubilant over victory won in a hundred fields, and defeat seemed to be the certain prospect of the Democrats. The opposition was well-organized and their leader Charles Manly, able, genial and popular.
But Mr. Reid felt it to be his duty to attempt what his friends felt certain he could accomplish. He did make a gallant canvass, and so reduced the majority, that their leaders felt and knew, as the English at Guilford, that “such another victory would ruin them.” At the next convention, although he had written a decided letter that under no circumstances could he be again a candidate, he
was nominated and elected Governor of the State.
In 1853 he was elected to the Senate of the United States, and served continuously until 1859.
The great lever which moved the incubus of the Whig party, used by Governor Reid, was the question of free suffrage. It may be that Governor Reid and his many friends may see, and that too not in the far future, that they committed a blunder.
Governor Reid was keenly alive to the great troubles then approaching. He had been long in Congress, and most observant of the affairs of the nation. He felt that the ship of state, built by our fathers, and which was freighted with all our hopes and happiness, was drifting on a lee-shore, and in peril. He would have had this bitter cup to have passed from him, and with this hope, he was a delegate with the sage and the wise of our country to the “Peace Congress,” at Washington in the year of 1861. But futile were its efforts. The storm had arisen, and no human power could avert its fury Yet Governor Reid viewed with calm philosophy and resignation these sad occurrences and though priviledged by age from going to the field, still he contributed by his counsels in the Confederate Congress, to urge such measures as would enure to the benefit of his country.
Since the war he has remained at his home attending to his family, his farm and his practice.
There are few men in the State who enjoy more of the respect, regard, and the affection of the people than Governor Reid, for unaffected simplicity of character, stern integrity, and unsullied purity of life. The most prominent trait in the character of Governor Reid is the consistency and uniformity of his political career. Cautious and circumspect in forming his opinions, and when once formed, his firmness and ability in maintaining them. No one who knows him, or who has observed his long, successful and brilliant career, can ever doubt where to find him—the unwavering supporter of popular rights and democratic principles.
He married, as will be seen by the genealogical diagram, Henrietta, daughter of Judge Thomas Settle, sen'r.
Josiah and John Settle, two brothers, came from England. John Settle located in Virginia. Josiah Settle located in what is now called Rockingham county, North Carolina. He was the father of David Settle, who married Rhoda Mullins, and had issue: I Thomas, born 1789. He entered public life as a member of the House of Commons in 1816; was elected in 1817 and 1819 a member of Congress, when he declined re-election. Appeared again in public life in 1826 as a member of the House of Commons, and was re-elected in 1827-28. The last year he was Speaker of the House. In 1832 elected Judge of the Superior Court. Married Henrietta Graves; died 1857. To whom were born: 1. Thomas, born 1831. Elected to Legislature in 1854-55-56, during the last two years was Speaker of the House. Elected to the Senate and made President of the Senate in 1865-66. Elected Solicitor of the Fourth Judicial Circuit in 1859, held this position for nine years with the exception of one year, when he was in the Confederate army. Elected Judge; Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of N. C. in 1868. Appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Peru 1871; resigned in the spring of 1872. Was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of N. C. in the fall of 1872 by Gov. Caldwell.
Resigned in 1876 to accept the Republican nomination for Governor; was appointed District Judge of Federal Court for northern district of Florida in 1877, by President Grant.
Married Mary Glenn; had (a) Nettie, (b) Mary, (c) Thomas, (d) Douglas, (e) Elizabeth, (f) Caroline, (g) David, (h) Florida, (i) Julia.
2. David, born 1841; elected to Legislature 1870-72. 3. Henrietta, married David Settle Reid, and had Thomas Settle Reid and Reuben David Reid. 4. Caroline, married Hugh K. Reid. 5. Fanny, married 1st to John W. Covington, and had Fanny and Nettie, 2nd to O. H. Dockery, and had Oliver and Carrie May.
II Josiah, III Benjamin, Legislature 1831-34; IV Elizabeth, married Reuben Reid and had David Settle Reid, born 1813; in the Legislature 1835-40; Congress 1843-47; Governor 1850-64; before his second term as Governor expired was elected U. S. Senator 1854-59.
V Mary married Robert Martin and had Martha Drenen Martin, who married Stephen A. Douglas, born 1814 in Vermont, Judge in Illinois 1841; Congress 1843; Senator 1847; died 1861. They had Robert and Stephen A; VI Lucinda, married John W. Ellington; VII Matilda, married James Patrick; VIII Frances, married John Dilworth, had Andrew Dilworth at one time comptroller of the State of Mississippi.
John Henry Dillard, one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, is a native of Rockingham county, and not having the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance, we adopt a well-written sketch giving the dates of his life and services, from the Raleigh Observer, which is perhaps more acceptable than any sketch we could prepare.
He was born near Leaksville in Rockingham county in 1825. He was a student at the University of North Carolina, and after completing his sophomore year went to William and Mary College, Virginia, where he graduated with high distinction. He was admitted to practice law in North Carolina at the age of 21; moved to Patrick county, Virginia, and was elected Commonwealth's Attorney, which office he filled with high credit to himself for several years. He married Anna J., daughter of the late Col. Martin, of Henry county, Virginia. After a few years he returned to the county of Rockingham, North Carolina, and devoted himself to the practice of his profession with great diligence and success. He was elected County Attorney of Rockingham, and served in that capacity for several years, and was always noted for the accuracy with which his bills of indictments were framed, so much so that his “forms,” passing into the hands of other prosecuting attorneys, have been used with unvarying success by them. Having been appointed Clerk and Master in Equity, he became, at an early age, enamored of and devoted to Equity Jurisprudence, in which, in the after years of his practice he has become pre-eminently distinguished.
At the commencement of the late war, he was elected Captain of a company of volunteers from his native county, and served the Confederacy with fidelity in the 45th Regiment of N. C. Troops. At the close of the war, he resumed the practice of his profession with the greatest zeal and diligence, and with renewed success and ability, that he attained such eminence, both at the Bar of the Circuit and Supreme Court, as to merit from the late Chief Justice Pearson the compliment of being the ablest equity lawyer in North Carolina.
He removed from Rockingham county to Greensboro in 1868 and associated himself in the practice of law with Col. Thomas Ruffin, of Orange, then a resident of Greensboro, and Col. John A. Gilmer, of Greensboro the style of the firm being Dillard, Ruffin & Gilmer.
Since the death of Chief Justice Pearson, in connection with Judge Dick, he has established and conducted with success a law school in the city of Greensboro, at the same time maintaining
a large and lucrative practice in the several counties in the 7th and 8th Judicial Districts.
Mr. Dillard is a man of imposing personal appearance, great simplicity and geniality of manner, and remarkably courteous, especially to the younger members of the legal profession, who always receive from him the heartiest sympathy and encouragement and entertain for him a respect and admiration amounting often to the warmest affection. He has always been decided in his political views, and a faithful member of the Democratic party, though never a partisan nor an aspirant for political preferment.
Mr. Dillard is an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Greensboro, and a gentleman of unimpeachable character and incorruptable integrity, devoted to the institutions of the State, and ardently attached to every enterprise that tends to the moral and material growth and prosperity of North Carolina.
Hamilton Henderson Chalmers; at present Associate Justice (1878) of the Supreme Court of Mississippi, was born in Rockingham County, N. C., Oct. 15th, 1835. He is the son of Joseph W. Chalmers, and Fanny Henderson his wife, a niece of Chief Justice Leonard Henderson. Joseph W. Chalmers resided in Halifax County, Va., but Hamilton was born at the residence of his maternal grandfather in North Carolina. Shortly after his birth, the father removed with his family from Virginia, first to Tennessee, and subsequently to Holly Springs, Miss., where Hamilton grew to manhood. Joseph W. Chalmers, soon became one of the foremost lawyers of his adopted State, and was successively Chancellor and elected State Senator, being the successor in the Senate of Hon. Robt. J. Walker, upon the accession of the latter to the Secretary-ship of the Treasury. Senator Chalmers died at the early age of forty-six years, and was cut off in a career which bade fair to make his name illustrious in the annals of Mississippi. Hamilton, his second son was graduated at the University of Mississippi 1853, read law at Jackson in the law office of his relative, Hon. O. C. Glenn, then Attorney General, and one of the most brilliant orators in the State. He resided for a short time in New Orleans, and there studied the civil law and was admitted to the bar. On the outbreak of the civil war he returned to Miss., and during the war served upon the staff of his brother, Gen. J. R. Chalmers, and of Gen. P. B. Starke Settling in Hernando, Miss., at the close of hostilities, he devoted himself with great vigor to the practice of his profession and rose rapidly to its front rank. He was an ardent and active participant in the politics of the period, and though seeking no office became a prominent leader in the Democratic party of the State. Upon the accession of the Democracy to the control of the State in 1875, in obedience to the almost unanimous wish of the bar of his section, he was appointed to his present seat upon the Supreme bench at the early age of forty, being, with the exception of Judge Starkey, the youngest man who ever occupied the position in Miss. Judge Chalmers married Emily H. Erwin, daughter of Sidney Erwin and Caroline Carson, his wife, of Burke County, North Carolina, and is thus by marriage connected with two of the most prominent and extensive families of Western North Carolina. His older brother, Jas. R. Chalmers was a general officer of great distinction in the Confederate army and is now (1878) a prominent and influential member of Congress from Mississippi.
[On Jan. 4th, 1885, Judge Chalmers died, at Jackson, Miss.—Ed.]
James R. Dodge died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Chalmers Glenn, in Rockingham County, on the night of February 24th, 1880. He was bright and cheerful to the last, and though in good health and spirits, for the
ast few years he had always expressed himself as only waiting for his Master's call. His quiet, peaceful death was certainly in accord with the proverb that had been his guide through life. “Keep innocency, and cleave to the thing that is right, and that will give a man peace at last.”
The following sketch of his life is in a great measure gleaned from a manuscript written by himself only three months before his death, and given to his wife to keep for the benefit of his children and grand-children. It was, of course, never intended for publication, but a part of it is copied by permission, feeling it would be of great interest and that, as he says it “may aid the young by showing that energy and strict integrity will after many vicissitudes, lead to a peaceful old age, and if joined to christian faith, may lead to something better.” “I fear,” says he, “I have not profited much by his advice, (all that my excellent father, after his misfortunes, had to give,) except in one thing: ‘be strictly honest,’ and in this respect, I am now, in my old age, willing to face the world.”
Mr. Dodge was born October 27th, 1795, in Johnstown, a village on the Mohawk, in the State of New York, famous as the residence of Sir William Johnson, the former Governor of all the Indian tribes in the North. Full of life and vivacity, and fond of all field sports, he received a good Academic education, and although his father wished him to finish at Union College, his great desire was to see undiscovered lands, and to join Western expeditions. When he was seventeen years old the war of 1812 began, and as his father was a Brigadier-General, and in command at Sackett's Harbor, he was with him as an aid. Full of glee and perfectly happy, he there saw company and sights that he enjoyed; Commodore Chauncey and Captain Woolsey of the Navy, and Col. McComb, afterwards commander-in-chief of the army, were guests at his father's table. This life suited him so well that after their discharge and the return of his father to Albany, where he then lived, he joined as a volunteer in a company called “the Albany Independent Volunteers,” Capt. Judson, and they marched to Brooklyn Heights, to meet Gen. Packenham, and remained there until Gen. Packenham changed his course for New Orleans, where he met Gen. Jackson and defeat.
After peace he became a clerk in his uncle's store, in New York city, and passed some years in his family. Enjoying the most refined society, with a promise and prospect of getting into business through his uncle's aid, he yet believed he could achieve a more splendid success in the South, and embarked in the brig John, in October 1817, for Charleston, S. C., recomended in the best letters from New York that the city could afford. When off the coast of Virginia they encountered a most terrific storm which kept all hands and the passengers at the pumps for thirty-six hours, and they finally put in at Norfolk, Va. Here he met an old friend, Hiram Paulding, afterwards an Admiral, then a midshipman on the Macedonian, which was dismantled and partially wrecked in the same storm. “While” (I quote his own words,) “in Norfolk during the repairing of the brig, I made an excursion to Petersburg, Va., to see something of Southern life. But my fate was sealed, for better or worse; the brig John was condemned, my Charleston trip and hopes destroyed, and I made a speculation, the cause of all my future misery and happiness. After struggling for two years, ruin came, and in the year 1820, still full of hope and armed with the kindest letters from all who had known me in Petersburg, and also with a license to practice law in Virginia, given me, I fear, more of favor than desert, like Christian in the Pilgrim's Progress did his sins, I strapped on my back my new debt of many thousands, jumped into the stage, then our only conveyance, and
landed in the streets of Raleigh, not knowing one human being in North Carolina, and not having fifty dollars. But Ruffin and others to whom my letters were directed, gathered around me. That noble court, Taylor, Henderson and Hall, repeated my license. Badger, Archibald Henderson and Gaston honored me with a friendship that lasted during their lives. They are now no more, and with Manly and Guion, and a number more known afterwards, now, although of different denominations, all fill christian graves. Soon collections that had been given me in Petersburg, brought me to old Stokes, and at the County court at Germanton, I found the same reception from John Morehead, Thos. Settle, Augustine H. Shepperd, Nicholas L. Williams, and others, now all gone except the last He was my fate; through him I became acquainted with his niece, then a small girl, but of a family famous for excellent wives. Her uncle Lewis Williams was in Congress with my uncle William Irving, of New York, and in process of time she became my wife.”
Mr. Dodge was a member of the Episcopal church, and as a delegate to the Episcopal Convention that elected him, voted for Bishop Ravenscroft. During his life he filled many places of honor and trust, as Solicitor of the Superior Court for the Lincolnton district; for twelve or fourteen years Clerk of the Legislature; and also for many years Clerk of the Supreme Court in Morganton. He was married to Miss Susan Williams on May 24th, 1826, and resided in Wilkesboro’ for eight years. After he was elected Solicitor he removed to Lincolnton, where he resided four years. He was succeeded by his old friend Hamilton C. Jones, as Solicitor; and “then, upon consultation with my sympathizing and truly pious wife, we retired to the banks of the Yadkin, our cottage and farm. She managed at home, and I labored night and day at Court, at Raleigh and at Morganton. At home we were always happy; care or trouble never entered our door, and these years were far the happiest of my life. After many years of toil had passed, I well remember the look of my old friend Ruffin, then Chief Justice, when I handed to my old friend Jacob Ramsour $700.00, which was the last debt I owed on earth. He was paid, and it is still the last.”
“The moral of this sketch is, persevere and do not look back, and our apparent misfortunes may be blessings in disguise.”
ROWAN COUNTY.In a dispatch from the Royal Governor, Arthur Dobbs, now on file in the Rolls Office, London, dated 1754, the population of Rowan County is stated to be 1,416 whites and 54 blacks. He states:
“Salisbury, then just laid out, had seven or eight log houses. We have fixed on a place for a fort, (called Fort Dobbs,) on Third Creek where it falls into the Yadkin.” Col. Docs. 125
Judge Murphey, (Uni. Mag. 293,) states: “The first settlers of Rowan, near Salisbury, before 1751, were Paul Biffle and John Whitesides, on Grant's Creek to the north; John Dunn, John Gardiner, Alexander Douglas, on Crane Creek to the south; Matthew Locke, Francis Locke, John Brandon, Alexander Cathey and James Graham on the west. James Carter and Hugh Foster owned the land upon
which the town was built. Elias Brock and John Whitesides built the first court-house.”
This commences the record of this venerable County, “ab urbe condita.” From that time and through all the trials of the revolution to the present day the people of Rowan have been distinguished for their patriotism and devotion to liberty. They were decided in opposition to the illegal exactions of the crown officers, which produced on the Regulation troubles; the journal of their Committee of Safety (from 1774 to 1776,) proves their sturdy resistance to wrong and their ardent support of justice. This journal has been preserved and printed. (Wheeler II, 360.)
Prominent among the names of this committee is the name of Hugh Montgomery; he was a native of Ireland. At an early age he fell in love with a Miss Moore, who was of noble birth. This was strongly opposed by her friends, but the attachment was reciprocated—and she was conveyed secretly on board of a ship, where she met her lover and was married; the youthful pair escaped in safety to America. He was himself of a goodly stock, a near relative of General Richard Montgomery, who fell in the battle of Quebec, (Dec. 1775). He settled first in Pennsylvania and afterward removed to Salisbury, North Carolina. He was constant and active in promoting the cause of independence and was one of the most fixed and forward of the daring spirits of that day. Among whom were Griffith Rutherford, John Brevard, Matthew Locke, John Louis Beard, William Sharp, Max well Chambers, Wm. Kennon, Geo. Henry Barringer, John Nesbit and Charles McDowell.*
By his enterprise and industry he amassed a handsome fortune. He died at Salisbury Dec. 23d, 1779, leaving one son and seven daughters. His son, Hugh Montgomery jr. married Miss Parnell of Virginia, and by her he had several children; one of whom Lemuel P. Montgomery was Col. of the 39th Regiment U. S. Infantry. He fell in the battle of the Horse-Shoe March 27th, 1814, in the 25th year of his age, the first to mount the breast-works and was pierced by a ball through the head.
The eldest daughter married Dr. Anthony Newman, who settled in Nashville, and whose son, Lemuel Daniel Newman, was born in North Carolina, then moved to Georgia; was a Lieutenant in the 4th Regiment U. S. army and commanded the Georgia volunteers in the action with the Florida Indians, distinguished himself in an atack on the Creek Indians in Autossee Towns in Dec. 1813, and was severely wounded at Camp Defiance Jan., 1814. He was a member of Congress from Georgia, from 1831 to 1833. He died in Walker County, Georgia, in 1851.
The second daughter married Mr. Stewart, who settled in Greensboro’, Tennessee, where his family now reside.
The third daughter married Mr. Blake, whose grandson, James Blake, distinguished himself in the war with Mexico under General Taylor.
The fourth daughter married Captain Edwin Ingram, of Richmond County, who entered the army of the Revolution as a private and rose to the rank of captain. He was “the Marion” of the State, daring and active in the cause. He was tendered on account of his services and losses, five hundred pounds by the General Assembly of North Carolina which he declined to accept. He was the grandfather of Maj. Sanders M. Ingram, of Richmond, who behaved so gallantly under Taylor and Scott in Mexico.
The fifth daughter, married Colonel David Campbell, distinguished at the battle of King's Mountain; he moved to Tennessee and established Campbell Station. Several of his sons were distinguished in the Indian wars, under Jackson and Harrison; especially William B.
* Mr. M was a prominent member of the Provincial Congress from Rowan, that met at Hillson o’ August 21st, 1775.Campbell, who was born in Tennessee. He was Attorney General of the State, served in the Cherokee and Creek wars; elected to Congress from Tennessee, from 1837 to 1843. He was Colonel of the 1st Regt. of Tennessee Volunteers in the Mexican war, and distinguished himself at the battles of Monterey, National Bridge and Cerro Gordo. From 1850 to ’53, he was elected Governor of the State of Tennessee, and in 1857 was chosen by a unanimous vote of the Legislature, Judge of the Circuit Court. In 1862 he was appointed by Lincoln a Brigadier-General in the Union army, which his health caused him to decline. At the close the war he was again elected a member of 39th Congress, (1865-’67,) and died at Lebanon, Tennessee, Aug. 19th, 1867.
The sixth daughter married General James Wellborn, of Wilkes County, whose eldest daughter married Newton Cannon, Governor of Tennessee (for sketch of whom see page 189.) The seventh daughter married Montford Stokes, who was Governor of North Carolina, (for sketch of whom see Wilkes County.)
Connected with Rowan and her distinguished personages is the name of Elizabeth Steele. It was at her house in Salisbury on the evening of February 1st, 1781, that “the Fabius of America,” General Nathaniel Greene arrived, after a hard day's ride through the rain, alone, fatigued, hungry, penniless and down-hearted; as he expressed himself to Dr. Read who had charge of the sick and wounded prisoners at this place. Mrs. Steele heard this, and the fire of patriotism was augmented by the deep sympathy, which is ever the prominent feeling in a true woman's heart. Hardly had the General seated himself at a well-spread table, before a cheerful fire, when Mrs. Steele entered, and reminded her distinguished guest that she had overheard his desponding remarks, she drew from under her apron two small bags of specie, her earnings for years. “Take them” she said “for you will want them, and I can do without them.” “Never” says his biographer, “did relief come at a more needed moment.” The hero resumed that night his dangerous journey, for the British army under Lord Cornwallis, had that day crossed the Catawba and was advancing on Salisbury. This scene has been made the subject of both painting and sculpture. On the wall hung a picture of George the 3d, which had been sent as a present from England to Mrs. Steele, by some friends at Court Filled with the painful memories of the sufferings of his country, and of the blood that even that day had been spilled in its defence by the myrmidons of power, General Greene took the picture from the wall and wrote on its back “Oh George, hide thy face and mourn,” and replaced it with its face to the wall.
Mrs. Steele died in 1790. She was twice married. By her first husband she had a daughter, who married Rev. Samuel McCorkle; by her second husband, (William Steele,) she had General John Steele (born Nov. 1st, 1764, died Aug. 14th, 1812,) who was born in Salisbury. He was educated as a merchant, but as soon as he arrived at manhood he devoted himself to agriculture and politics.
In 1787 and 1788, he was elected a member of the Legislature from the borough of Salisbury. In the latter year he was also a member of the Convention at Hillsboro, (July 21st, 1788,) to consider the Constitution of the United States, and with Davie, Iredell, Johnston and others made active but fruitless efforts for its adoption. His course on this occasion did not affect his popularity, for the next year he was elected a member of the first Congress of the United States (1789-91) and was re-elected to the next Congress, (1791-93.) In 1794 he was again elected a member of the Legislature, and re-elected in 1795. On July 1st
1796, he was appointed by General Washington first Comptroller of the Treasury, which he held throughout the remainder of Washington's administration, all of Adams’, and resigned in 1802, in opposition to the wishes of Mr. Jefferson. In 1806, he was again in the Legislature, and that year succeeded Gen. Davie as Commissioner to adjust the boundaries between North and South Carolina. This delicate, protracted and difficult negotiation was managed by him with singular address and ability. In 1811-12 and 13, he was again elected to the Legislature and in 1811 was Speaker of the House. On Aug. 14th, 1812, he was again elected, and on that day he died.
From the varied and important positions held by General Steele from his early manhood, to the day of his death is seen the warm attachment and confidence of his countrymen for him, and their high appreciation of his services and ability.
He married in 1783, Mary Nesfreid, who survived him many years, by whom he had (I) Ann, who married Jesse A. Pearson; (II) Margaret who married Dr. Stephen L. Farrand; (III) Eliza, who married Col. Robert MacNamara.
A daughter of Dr. Ferrand, married to A. Henderson, recently died. Their son, John S. Henderson has entered the theatre of public life, enjoying the confidence and hopes of a large circle of admiring friends. He is quite young; being born June 6th, 1846. He has been liberally educated, at Dr. Wilson's Academy and the University. At the age of eighteen he entered the army as a private in company B, 10th North Carolina Regiment and served as a private to the close. He was elected as the conservative candidate to the Constitutional Convention of 1871, though the Convention was not held. He was elected to the Convention of 1875, and took a leading position. He was elected to the House in November 1876, by 1006 majority.
[At the election held November 4th, 1884, he was elected to the House of Representatives from the seventh Congressional District, receiving 14,262 votes, against 10,851 for Mr. Ramsay.—Ed.]
William Kennon appears among the leading patriots of the County. We regret that the records of the County give so little information as to his life and services.
The proceedings of the Committee of Safety for Rowan County, of which he was often chairman prove his vigilance and activity in the cause of independence. He was a member of the Provincial Congress, which, in opposition to the Royal Government, met at New Berne in August 1774, and also in the same place in 1775. He was one of the Convention or Committee, that met at Charlotte on May 20, 1775. The memorial of John Dunn shows that he, (with Adlai Osborne, Samuel Spencer, and Mr. Willis, Kennon's brother-in-law,) were active in apprehending said Dunn and expatriating him. He resided in Salisbury and was an attorney.
Dunn, as shown by his memorial was a man of ability, and of character, but of mistaken views. Murphey tells us “that he was a native of Ireland, and in consequence of some private feud, suddenly left his native land, and came to America, where he settled on Reid's Creek, and married Mary Reid. He followed, for a livelihood, teaching and shoe-making. He studied law and removed to Salisbury where he practiced with much success. He was the Colonel of the Rowan Militia, and in 1771 marched to Hillsboro’ to protect the Court against the intimidations of the Regulators.*
After the war was over, Dunn returned to Salisbury where he ended his days, and lies buried
* See Uni. Mag. I. 204.within three miles of that place. He left two daughters, one of whom married a son of John Louis Beard, of whom John Beard of Florida is a son. The other daughter married Mr. Fisher who was the mother of the Hon. Charles Fisher, of whom we shall soon hear.
John H. Steele, (born 1792, died 1865), was born in North Carolina, a relative of General Steele. He was Governor of the State of New Hampshire in 1844 to 1846, and died at Petersboro’, New Hampshire, July 2, 1865. We know but little beyond this, and the fact that while our State has given Senators and Governors to the south and southwest, she has also given Governors to two of the Yankee States—Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut and John H. Steele, of New Hampshire.
Griffith Rutherford was long a resident of Rowan, lived in the Locke settlement and was distinguished in the Indian and Revolutionary wars for his valor and enterprise.
He was a native of Ireland and first appears in North Carolina history as a member of the Legislature from Rowan in 1775, at New Berne. He served as Senator, and was re-elected, with some intermissions, till 1786. His first essay in arms was in 1776, when he commanded an army of 2400 men, raised to subdue “the Overhill Cherokee Indians;” this he did most completely and with great slaughter. He was an active member of the Committee of Safety and on April 22, 1776, was appointed one of the six Brigadier-Generals by the Provincial Congress at Halifax. He commanded his brigade at the ill-fated battle of Camden, (Aug. 1780,) where he was taken prisoner. He was sent to Charleston, and from thence to Augustine with Col. Elijah Isaacs, taken also at Camden; Lieut. Col. Stephen Moore and Col. Henderson; on June 22, 1781, they were exchanged. He again took the field, and took command at Wilmington, when that place was evacuated by the British. After the war was over he removed to Tennessee and served in the Councils of that State.
His name is preserved both in North Carolina and Tennessee, by calling counties after him, and we regret that so little is known of his services and character.*
Blanche, daughter of General Rutherford, married a son of General Matthew Locke
The Locke family was once a large, influential and patriotic family in Rowan. The first of this race came from Ireland to America in the 17th century, and settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. From thence, three brothers: Matthew, Francis and George, came to North Carolina. Matthew and Francis settled in Rowan and George in Iredell County.
General Matthew Locke, (born in 1730, died 1801,) was by nature energetic, public spirited and popular. The determined foe to every form of oppression, fraud or peculation. In the excitement as to illegal fees exacted by the Crown officers and wrung from an oppressed people, he was their friend and adviser. He was in 1771 with Herman Husbands appointed by the people to receive the fees due the sheriff and Clerk of the Court. He was elected in 1776 a member of the Provincial Congress at Halifax, and to the same body in Nov. 1776, which formed our first State Constitution. He was continued a member of the Legislature under the Constitution in 1777 to 1792. He was elected a Brigadier-General of State troops. In 1793 he was elected a member of 3rd, 4th and 5th Congresses, 1795 to 1799, and was succeeded by Archibald Henderson. He died September 7, 1801. He married Mary, daughter of Richard Brandon, a name distinguished in the annals of those troubled times, for devotion to popular rights and the cause of freedom, and left a family of thirteen children, eight sons
* A list of the prisoners sent to St. Augustine is found in Johnson's Traditions of the Revolution, 318.and five daughters. Four of his sons were at one time in the Revolutionary army; among them was:
George Locke, who contended bravely and fell in the cause of his country. He was active in harrassing the advance of the British army, under Cornwallis, in 1780.
While the British were encamped at Charlotte, Col. Wm. R. Davie ordered Capt. John Brandon, and Lieut. Joseph Graham, with twenty-five men to reconnoitre their camp; when they marched within fifty yards of their lines, Brandon proposed to advance and deliver a volley, which they did. Tarleton's troop gave chase and pursued the Americans; when Graham, Locke and others had seen that their capture was imminent they turned off from the main road; Graham was sabred, and left for dead; Locke was killed and Brandon owed his life to the fleetness of his horse, and was chased at full speed to Davie's camp. This statement of this melancholy affair is from a son of Col. Brandon, (A. W.,) whose father had narrated the facts to him.
Another son of Gen. Matthew Locke, John, married Blanche, the daughter of Gen. Griffith Rutherford; another son married Margaret, daughter of Caleb Phifer; and a daughter of Gen. Locke married Martin Phifer. Another daughter, Ann, married Andrew Beard, of Burke County, and another, Jane, married Gen. Robt. Weakly, of Tennessee.
The following is a copy of the inscription of the head-stone over his grave in the graveyard of Thyantira church:
“In Memory of MATTHEW LOCKE, ESQ., Died 7th Sept., 1801; aged 71.
A promoter of civilization, a Legislator and a patriotic friend of his country; in his private character a a tender husband, an affectionate parent, and an indulgent master, ever a friend to the poor; and attentive to his happiness in that state, where we contemplate his existence, leaving memory to retain him here.”
Col. Francis Locke, a brother of Gen. Matthew Locke, though not a statesman as was his distinguished brother, was a true and tried soldier in the perilous period of our revolutionary struggles. He commanded a detachment of men in the revolution, and on the 22d of June 1780, attacked at Ramsour's Mill, near the present town of Lincolnton, a superior force of Tories under the command of Cols. Bryan and Moore, and routed them with great slaughter. A full account of this battle from the pen of General Graham may be found in the history of North Carolina. [Wheeler II, 227.]
He married (the sister of Gen. Matthew Locke's wife,) the daughter of Richard Brandon, and left four sons and three daughters. Among them were, (I) John, who was a Major in the Revolutionary war, died April 1833, aged eighty-two years. (II.) Francis, born in Rowan County 1766, appointed Judge Dec. 1803; resigned 1813; elected Senator in Congress, 1815, and resigned without taking his seat as Senator; Presidential Elector 1809. Died, (unmarried,) in 1823.
Hon. Spruce McCay, was born, lived and died in Rowan County. He was educated by the Rev. David Caldwell; studied law, and arose to eminence and usefulness. He was appointed Judge of the Superior Courts in 1790, and died in 1808.
He married Fanny, daughter of Richard Henderson. William S. McCay was the only son of this union.
James Martin, was the son of Col. James Martin and resided for many years in Salisbury. He graduated at the University in 1806, in the same class with Judge John A. Cameron, Durant Hatch and others. He read law and soon attained such rank in the profession that in 1826 he was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Courts. He resigned in 1835. He married Miss Alexander, and removed to Mobile, Alabama, where he died.
George Mumford represented this County in
1810 and in 1811, and this district in Congress in 1817. He attended a ball at Washington City in the dead of winter; the exposure brought on diptheria, and December 31, 1815, it terminated his life. He was succeeded by Hon. Charles Fisher.
The progenitor of the Pearson family was Richmond Pearson, born 1770, died 1819, who was a native of Dinwiddie County, Virginia, and came, when only nineteen years old, to North Carolina and settled in the forks of the Yadkin.
When the Revolutionary war came on, he joined the army and was appointed a Lieutenant in Captain Bryan's Company; the first muster that occurred after the Declaration of Independence. Pearson requested some of his men to load their guns. Bryan came on the ground and ordered those men into ranks. Pearson declined, and tendered his resignation to Bryan, who immediately ordered his arrest, which was resisted. They then came to a parley, and as Bryan advocated the cause of the Loyalists, and Pearson the rights of the people, it was finally agreed by all parties, that on a day fixed, the question between the opinions should be settled by a fair fist fight, and whichever whipped, the company should be commanded by the victor. They met, they fought, the lieutenant was conquered; so the “Fork” company was for liberty, and Bryan's party on Dutchman's Creek, was for the King. This circumstance was narrated to me by Chief-Justice Pearson, and shows by what slight circumstances, events of magnitude are often influenced. Captain Pearson and his company did good service in harrassing the advance of Cornwallis’ columns, and was at the passage of the Catawaba on July 1, 1781, when General Davidson was killed. He was a successful planter and an enterprising merchant. He died in 1819, leaving one daughter, Betsy, who marired Judge John Stokes, a Colonel in the Revolutionary war; severely wounded at Buford's defeat, where he lost an arm. He was appointed United States District Judge in North Carolina by General Washington. He was the brother of Governor Montford Stokes. Stoke County was called in honor of him. He died in Fayetteville, October, 1790.
Jesse A. Pearson, the son of Richmond, represented this County in the House of Commons in 1808, ’9,-’14 and ’15. He commanded a regiment in 1814, in General Graham's brigade, and moved against the Cherokee nation, to repress their hostilities; afterwards he was elected Major-General of the militia of the State. He was a soldier, “sudden and quick in quarrel;” he fought a duel with General Montford Stokes, near Salisbury, in which Gen. Stokes was wounded.
He married first a daughter of General Steele, and second Mrs. Wilson, whose daughter, by a former husband, married Archibald G. Carter, of Davie County. He died in 1823 and left no issue.
Joseph Pearson, also a son of Richmond, was a native of Rowan County. He was a lawyer by profession and a politician. He represented the borough of Salisbury in 1804 and ’5 and this District in the 11th, 12th and 13th Congresses, 1809-’15. Like his brothers he was ready to make good his words by his acts. About 1811, whilst in Congress, he fought a duel on political grounds, with Hon. John J. Jackson, of Virginia. He died in Salisbury on Oct. 27th, 1834. He was thrice married, first to Miss McLinn; second Miss Ellen Brent; and third Miss Worthington of Georgetown, D. C.
Richmond Pearson, son of Richmond, and brother to the above was active and enterprising, but never in public life. He was devoted to agriculture and the internal improvements of the State. He, with George Fisher, in a boat, passed the falls of the Yadkin.
By his second marriage he left:
I. Sarah, who married Isaac Croom.
II. Eliza, who married W. G. Bentley of Bladen;
III. Richmond M. (See sketch below.)
IV. Giles, who died 1847.
V. John Stokes Pearson, who married Miss Beattie of Bladen County in 1848.
Richmond M. Pearson, (born June 1805, died 1878,) Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, was a son of the last named and the grandson of the progenitor of the family; he bore the patronimic of both. His early education was conducted by John Mushat of Statesville and at Washington city under the care of his uncle Joseph Pearson. He graduated at the University in 1823, in the same class with Daniel W. Courts, Robert B. Gilliam, Isaac Hall and others. He studied law with Judge Henderson, and was licensed to practice in 1826. He entered public life as a member from Rowan in the House of Commons in 1829, and continued until 1832; with David F. Caldwell, Thos. G. Polk and Charles Fisher, as colleagues. We pause to admire the distinguished delegation then representaing this County and Borough, rarely equalled and never excelled. Presenting Speakers to both houses, (in 1830,) Caldwell in the Senate, and Fisher in the House.
In 1835, he was a candidate for Congress. His opponents were Abram Rencher and Burton Craige. Mr. Rencher was a State-rights Democrat, Mr. Craige a nullifying southern statesman and Mr. Pearson an old line Whig, or Federalist. The address of Mr. Pearson, to the freemen of the 9th Congressional district, was a powerful document, an early demonstration of his acute reasoning powers for which he became so distinguished. He was opposed to nullification as a doctrine dangerous to the existence of the government. Mr. Rencher was elected; Mr. Pearson accepted his defeat with that calmness which was characteristic of his nature.
In 1836 Mr. Pearson was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Courts, Thomas P. Devereux being his competitor, in 1848 he was elevated to the Supreme Court Bench, (to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Daniel,) Robert Strange and Wm. H. Battle were his opponents.
In 1858 on the death of Chief Justice Nash he was appointed his successor. In 1865 he was a candidate for the Constitutional Convention held that year, and was defeated by Mr. Haynes, but the same year was (under the new Constitution,) again elected Judge of the Supreme Court; and by his associates, (Justices Battle and Reade,) again appointed Chief Justice. In 1868 upon a reorganization of this Court, he was by the people elected Chief-Justice, being nominated on both tickets, and this elevated and responsible position he held until his death January 5th, 1878; his life ended in paralysis of the brain, at Winston, as he was going to Raleigh to attend the January term of the Supreme Court.
He married first Miss Williams, daughter of Col. John Williams, by whom he left several children, and second Mrs. Bynum, relict of Gen. John Gray Bynum, nee McDowell, daughter of Capt. Charles McDowell of Burke County. We have sketched in an accurate manner the public services of Judge Pearson in chronological order. As a Judge he was unquestionably one of the ablest of his day. Judge McKoy who presided at a meeting of the Bar in Raleigh, on the occasion of Judge Pearson's death, stated: “As perhaps the great common-law lawyer of his age and time, I would say in my opinion no greater has ever lived. His loss will be felt and deeply deplored by those long accustomed to look for the productions of his brain and pen to illumine their journey through the mazes and labyrinths heretofore marked by no guide save principle, and no beacon save the lights of legallore.
“He taught the young to reason, and when once a conclusion was arrived at by the student,
it was such a conclusion as satisfied the investigating mind in its search of truth; and did honor to the teacher who planned and led the young mind along the channel of patient thought and thorough investigation. Although it was not my fortune, said Joseph McKoy, to have availed myself of his admirable training, yet as often as I met in argument those mental athletes, trained by his master hand, I have regretted that fate which denied to me similar advantages.”
For many years Judge Pearson held at his home, at Richmond Hill, a law-school, where hundreds of young men have been trained, who now adorn the profession.
Illustrious as is his fame as a Judge, yet it is due to the integrity of history to say, that his course, to the minds of many, in the exciting and troubled scenes of 1871, shows more of the partizan than the patriot, and it was not passed unnoticed by the representatives of the people. His course in virtually denying the great writ of right, the habeas corpus, in the cases of Moore and Kerr, was the subject of much complaint, and tarnished the judicial ermine, that should always be worn pure, unstained and without reproach.*
Charles Fisher, (born 1789, and died 1849,) was born in Rowan County. His father removed from Shenandoah County, Virginia, before the Revolution, and served as a Captain in that war. He was educated by Rev. Dr. John Robinson, of Poplar Tent, Cabarrus County, and by the Rev. Dr. McPheeters, of Raleigh; then read law, but never practiced.
He entered public life as a Senator, in the Legislature of 1818. The next year he was elected over Dr. W. Jones, a member of the 15th Congress, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Hon. Geo. Mumford, and was re-elected to the next, 16th, (1819-’21) Congress over Hon. John Long, when he declined a re-election. He was succeeded by Henry W. Conner. He determined to apply himself to his private business and the care of his young and increasing family, but the people elected him in 1822, to the House of Commons, and with few interruptions, he was re-elected till 1836; in 1831 he was chosen Speaker. He was a member of the Convention of 1835, to amend the Constitution of the State. This, as has been often before observed, was the ablest body ever assembled in the State, and amid the galaxy of talent there displayed, Mr. Fisher shone conspicuous. “Primus inter pares” His efforts on religious toleration, freedom of suffrage, popular rights, and other subjects were much approved and marked him as an astute statesman. He was one of the committee who drafted the Constitution, and was one of the most useful and active members of the Convention. In 1839, he was again brought forward as a candidate for Congress; his party was in a hopeless minority, the opposition was active and the candidate Dr. Pleasant Henderson was exceedingly popular. Mr. Fisher was elected by 183 votes. After serving this Congress, (the 26th,) he declined being a candidate.
In 1845, while absent from the State, he was nominated again for Congress. At first he refused to be a candidate on account of his private affairs, as the district was then represented by a popular man (Hon. D. M. Barringer,) and the Whig party predominated. Mr. Fisher against his wishes and interests, was nevertheless persuaded to be a candidate. He entered into this canvass, as he did everything else, with determination, zeal and activity. Mr. B. was elected by 27 votes. This was the only election in which Mr. Fisher was ever defeated before the people.
He was the choice of his party in 1846, as Governor of the State, but by a letter to the
* See pages 110 and 367 as to opinion of Judge Pearson, in the Kerr case.Convention, (he being absent from the State,) he informed them that he was forced by his his private affairs to decline. This declination produced great confusion. Green W. Caldwell was then nominated, but he declined, and James B. Shepard was nominated by the Central Committee, and defeated. Mr. Fisher's private business forced him to frequent visits to the West. On his return from one of these trips he was taken ill at Hillsboro’, Scott County, Mississippi, where after an illness of ten days he died on May 7th, 1849.
He married Christiana, the daughter of Lewis Beard, by whom he had several children, one of them, Charles F., was Senator in the Legislature in 1854, and President of the Central Railroad. In 1861 he was appointed Colonel of the 6th Regiment North Carolina Troops and marched to Virginia. He fell July 21st, 1861, in the battle of Mannassas. No purer offering was made in the cause of his country, than this excellent and gallant man. A letter from Gen. Thos L. Clingman to Col. S. D. Pool, published in “Our Living and Our Dead,” dated at Asheville, 1873, describes his heroic death: “Colonel Fisher moved his regiment by the flank, into the pines. About sixty yards from the woods Rickett's battery was stationed; Colonel Fisher did not see the battery until he had passed it. Captain Isaac Avery's company was just opposite the battery. Finding themselves in this dangerous proximity, they fired into the battery at only sixty yards distance, this fire killed most of the cannoneers and their horses. The men ran down on them and finished the survivors with their muskets and bowie knives. Immediately after this, Colonel Fisher having passed the battery, received a ball which penetrated his brain and he fell dead about thirty yards to the rear of the battery they had taken. Captain Avery stated to me that while he was for a moment, on one of the captured pieces, he saw Colonel Fisher, who had moved forward to reconnoitre, waving his rifle above his head triumphantly. There was a regiment, they thought from Alabama, about two hundred yards to their rear, which continued to fire upon them—it was this fire that killed young Mangum and several others. Many think it probable that Colonel Fisher was thus killed. His regiment had advanced so far to the front and was on the ground so lately occupied by the enemy in heavy force, that the mistake was natural.
“The services of Colonel Fisher and his regiment cannot be overestimated on this occasion. Neither then, nor at any time since, have I doubted that this movement saved the day to the Confederacy.”
Colonel Fisher was of indomitable energy, of enthusiastic temperament, brave and bold as a lion, and gentle and as pure as a woman. A more gallant and chivalric knight never couched a lance, or wore a sword. His pure and unselfish character, his irreproachable life his high sense of honor, his devotion to his duty, his manly courage tempered by a gentleness and courtesy, as rare as it was winning, was seen and felt by all who knew him. He fell at his post of duty, in a cause in which, afterwards many thousands offered up their lives; but never was there a nobler or purer spirit, than Charles F. Fisher. He died, as his brave spirit would have desired had he had the choice; on the field of victory, happy in the purity and brilliancy of his life and in the circumstances of his death. He could say as Cicero of Agricola. “Tu vero felix! non vitæ tantum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis.”
History informs us, in the early part of this century a great battle was fought on the banks of the Danube. A determined charge on the Austrian centre gained the victory for France. The courage and example of one soldier, who there fell, contributed to the success
of the charge. Ever since at the parades of his battalion, the name of Latour d’ Auvergne was first called; when the oldest Sergeant stepped to the front and presenting arms, answered “Died on the field of honor.” When in Spirit-Land, beyond the grave, where the shades of the gallant dead assemble, when the glorious roll-call is made, and the name of Fisher is reached, it will be for the majestic spirit of a Jackson, ora Lee to advance and pronounce the proudest eulogy of our race. “Died on the field of duty.”*
Colonel Fisher married a daughter of Hon. David F. Caldwell, by whom he had his lovely and accomplished daughter, Miss Frances C. Fisher, author of many interesting works, among them “Valarie Aylmer,” “Morton House” and others, under the nom de plume of Christian Reid. Of her first work, which has placed her high among the writers of fiction in this country, Mr. Leon of the Mobile Register says: “Before Cooper, Simms, Hawthorne and other pens had made light literature respectable, production of home works of fiction had dwindled into a mere farce. Since the war, novels by American authors that have attracted attention can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Three of these are of Southern birth. One of these is “Valarie Aylmer.” No work has called forth more general and more honest criticism and the result has been highly favorable. The style is pure, clear and free from affectation and pedantry, which gives promise of a vigor that can but grow into a brilliant future.
“This work is one of graceful and pleasant description not without rare strength in character outlining, but with the promise of powerful shading in society picturing.”
The New York Evening Post, reviews that book: “Valarie Aylmer is undeniably quite charming and as a literary work is worthy of praise.
“Christian Reid, the pseudonymous author, shows on every page a wide acquaintance with literature, not that encyclopedic pedantry which is so manifested by certain novelists, and ranges from Talmud to Tennyson, but an easy familiarity with the best authors, and a love for all they have in them, pure and lovely and of good report. No reader of “Valarie Aylmer” will lay down the book without sharing in our own desire to hear from Christian Reid again.”
John W. Ellis, (born 1820; died 1861,) late Governor of North Carolina, son of Anderson Ellis, was a native of Rowan County, of that portion now known as Davidson County. His early education was conducted by Robert Allison, at Beattie's Ford; continued at Randolph Macon, and finished at the University, where he graduated in 1841, in the same class with Thos. L. Avery, R. R. Bridgers, Robert Burton, Wm. J. Clark, Wm. F. Dancy, John F. Hoke, V. Mc. Bee, Montford McGehee, Richmond N. Pearson, Charles Phillips, Saml. F. Phillips, Thos. Ruffin, Jas. G. Shepherd, Robert Strange jr., Jas. F. Taylor and others. A large class and distinguished in after life for their ability and usefulness. He read law under Judge Pearson and was admitted to the bar in 1842: when he opened a law office in Salisbury; and there he practised with great success.
In 1844 he was elected a member of the House of Commons from Rowan, with Hon. Nathaniel Boyden, and Maj. John B. Lord as colleagues, (with a constituency opposed to his political views, as were his distinguished associates.) This proved the early and just appreciation on the part of the people of his worth and of their confidence in his character as a statesman; he was re-elected in 1846; and in 1848. His course in the Legislature was marked by candor, liberality and philanthropy. To his political opponents he was tolerant and candid, and his liberal support of the internal
* Gen. Richard Taylor on Jackson.improvements of the State, in supporting the Central and other rail roads in the country; and his support of the bill which he offered for the erection of an Asylum for the Insane (on the memorial of that “White Winged Messenger of Mercy,” Miss Dix,) will perpetuate his philanthropy “to the last syllable of recorded time” So highly were his services appreciated that at this session (1848) he was elected one of the Judges of the Superior Courts of the State.
Among the youngest men (being only 28,) ever elected in the State, to so high a position. His career as Judge received the approbation of the bar and the press, and the country justified the wisdom of this selection.
As a Judge he was quick to perceive, prompt to decide and firm to act. Patient and polite, genial in private intercourse and easy of access without hauteur or levity, he bore his high honors to the satisfaction of the whole people of the State, and was so universally esteemed that in 1858, he was elected the Governor of the State, by the people by more than 16,000 votes over the eloquent and gifted, McRae.
He was re-elected Governor, by a large majority over Hon. John Pool. His administration fell upon troubled times. The civil war was inaugurated, and he, as Governor, was called upon by the President to furnish troops to carry it on. This he promptly refused.
On 15th of April, 1861, the President issued his proclamation for seventy five thousand men “in order to suppress combinations opposed to the government and to cause the law to be duly executed, to suppress wrongs already committed to repossess the forts, places and property which have been seized from the Union; orders more particularly to be sent through the War Dept.”
To this Governor Ellis, replied on the same date: “Your despatch is received and if genuine, which its extraordinary character leads me to doubt, I have to say in reply that I regard the levy of troops made by the administration a usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina.
“I will reply more in detail when your call is received by mail.”
The health of Governor Ellis, never robust, under the pressure of these fearful events so rapidly accumulating, completely gave way, and he died July 1861, at the White Sulphur Springs, amid the regret of his friends and to the great loss of the State.
Gov. Ellis had been twice married, first to a daughter of Col. Philo White, in 1843; and second to Miss Daves of New Berne.
Nathaniel Boyden (born 1795, died 1873,) was long a resident and a representative of Rowan. He was a native of Massachusetts, educated at the Williams College and graduated in 1821, and at Union College, Schenectady, New York. He came the next year to North Carolina, and took up his abode in Guilford County. He had studied law before he came south, and obtained his license in this State to practice in 1823 and removed to Stokes County near Germantown where he resided till 1832, teaching school, when he removed to Surry County, which he represented in 1838 and 1840. In 1842 he removed to Salisbury where he resided until his death. He represented Rowan in the Senate 1844, and in 1847 was elected a member of the 30th Congress. In 1865 he was a member of the State Convention. In 1868 he was elected to the 40th Congress, and in 1871 one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the State, this elevated position he held until his death, which occurred at Salisbury on Nov. 5th, 1873.
Judge Boyden was possessed of a strong and well balanced mind, highly cultivated and of an extraordinary memory. His professional career
was marked by untiring industry, rectitude of deportment and scrupulous fidelity to his clients, with strong moral courage that was ready for the discharge of any duty devolving upon him, and a thorough knowledge of his profession. These essential elements crowned his life with success. During his residence in Stokes he married Ruth, daughter of Hugh Martin Esq., by whom he had several children, and in Dec. 1845 he married Jane, relict of Dr Mitchell, and the daughter of the late Archibald Henderson of Salisbury, whose character and life has been already sketched. (See page 181.)
Burton Craige (born 1811, died 1875,) was a native of Rowan County, the son of David Craige. He was educated by Rev. Jonathan Otis Freeman, and at the University, where he graduated in 1829. He studied law, and in 1832 entered the Legislature as a member from the Borough of Salisbury, and also in 1834, he was elected to the 33th, 34th, 35th and 36th Congresses (1853 to ’60.) He was a member of the State Convention of the 20th of May 1861, and introduced the ordinance of Secession, which passed unanimously. He was a member of the Confederate Congress, and a hearty sympathizer in the Southern cause.
Members of Confederate Congress:
1861. George Davis, William T. Dortch, (Senate.) Wm. N. H. Smith, Thomas Ruffin of Wayne, T. D. McDowell, A. W. Venable, John M. Morehead, R. C Puryear, Burton Craige, A. T. Davidson.
1864. Wm. A. Graham, Wm. T. Dortch, (Senate.) Wm. N. H. Smith, R. R. Bridgers, Thos. C. Fuller, James M. Leach, J. T. Leach, of Johnston, Josiah Turner, John A. Gilmer, Jas. G. Ramsey, Burgess S. Gaither and Geo. W. Logan.
Mr. Craige was a man of warm feelings, and generous impulses, of high sense of honor, and at times rash, impulsive and impetuous. He died at Concord, Cabarrus County, on Dec. 30th, 1875.
Mr. Craige married Elizabeth, daughter of Col. James Erwin of Burke County, by whom he had several children; among them Kerr Craige, who represented Rowan in 1872, and is now a practicing lawyer in Salisbury.
Hamilton C. Jones, (born 1798,) resided for many years and died in this County. He was a native of Greenville, Va.; liberally educated. He graduated at the University of North Carolina in the same class in 1818, with Bishop Green, Robert Donaldson, Robert H. Morrison, Wm. D. Mosely, James K. Polk, Hugh Waddell, and others. He read law with Judge Gaston at New Berne, and after being admitted to the bar, settled at Salisbury, where he practiced with success. He entered public life as a member from Rowan in 1827, and was re-elected in 1828, and in 1838 and 1840. In the latter year he was elected Solicitor of this Judicial District, and re-elected in 1844. He was a faithful and active officer. From his pen originated the amusing articles on Cousin Sally Dillard, and other productions. He was considered a genial companion, full of wit. All his efforts in the Legislature were enlightened by his exquisite genius and humor.
Francis E. Shober resides in Salisbury, but is a native of Salem, where he was born, March 15, 1831. He was educated at a Moravian settlement, and at the University where he graduated in 1851, in the same class with David Miller Carter, Bartholomew Fuller, Benj, S. Hedrick, Rufus L. Patterson, and others. He studied law, and was licensed in 1853. When the dark days of 1861 came, Mr. Shober opposed secession, and in 1862 was elected to the Legislature as a Conservative and re-elected in 1864. He was elected a member of
Congress (1869-71,) and re-elected to the next Congress.
At the opening of 46th Congress, he was elected Acting Secretary of Senate, which position he now holds.
Mr. Shober married May Wheat, daughter of Rev. Dr. Wheat, who is as distinguished in literary and religious society, for his learning and his piety, as his lovely daughter is for her winning manners and her virtues.
This family is well known in North Carolina, distinguished for talent, industry and integrity. Gotleib, (in Legislature 1806,-’08,) established at Salem the first paper manufactory in North Carolina; and Emanuel, who often represented Stokes County from 1819 to 1828.
CHAPTER XLVII.RUTHERFORD COUNTY.
John Paxton, resided for a long time in this County. He was a native of Virginia, and removed to this State, and settled at Morganton. Here he became a merchant, but was not successful and failed. He was a candidate for Congress in 1817, and defeated by Hon. Felix Walker. He studied law late in life, in this he was more fortunate; and in 1818 he was elected by the Legislature, one of the Judges of the Superior Courts, and was not excelled for integrity, patience and ability. He died whilst returning from the Edenton Circuit in 1826, at Judge Hall's house in Warren County.
Felix Walker, born 1753, died 1828, resided a long time in this County, and was its representative in the Legislature and of this District in Congress. He was a native or Virginia, born in Hampshire County, on the 19th of July, 1753, and was reared to mercantile pursuits. His grandfather, John Walker, emigrated from Derry, Ireland, in 1720, and settled in Delaware, where he married and where his son, John, was born, on arriving at the age of manhood, his father went to Virginia, where he married and resided for a long time. He was a volunteer in the Regiment, commanded by George Washington and was pressnt at the ill-fated battle of Monongehala, (July 9, 1755.) He afterward removed to Lincoln, (then Tryon County,) and settled on Seipe's Creek, about ten miles east of Lincoln. About this time, the Cherokee Indians committed many outrages. He joined the army under Col. Grant and marched against the Cherokees. A battle was fought in the fall of 1762, in which Grant was repulsed by the Indians. On his return he settled on Crowder creek, about four miles from King's Mountain. He was a decided friend of American independence, and became a member of the first convention at Hillsboro, in July 1775, and a member of the Provincial Congress held at that place, Aug. 20th, 1775. All his grown sons were active in the war. In August 1775, he was the first to sign a document, which was signed by every freeholder in Tryon County, agreeing to unite in defense of national freedom.*
He died in 1796. He had eight sons and no daughters. The eldest of these sons is the subject of this sketch, (who was born, as already stated in Hampshire County, Virginia, on July
* This document was found among the papers of Gen. William Graham of Rutherfordton. It was noticed in Jones’ defense, and copied in Wheeler's History of North Carolina. p. II. 226,19th, 1753.) He was bound as an apprentice for four years, to a merchant in Charleston, (George Parker.) After being released from this service, he was placed with Dr. Joseph Dobson, where he received all the education he ever possessed. He went in 1755 with Colonel Richard Henderson, to Kentucky, (then called Louisa.) Colonel Henderson had made a purchase in that section, from the Cherokee Indians, at Long Island on the Holston, they united their forces with Daniel Boone, who was their pilot to “the promised land.” The company amounted to thirty persons.
Among these were Captain William Twitty; Samuel Coburn, James Bridges, Thomas Johnson, John Hart, William Hicks, James Peck, and Felix Walker were of this company, from Rutherford County. They were the first explorers of this section, and were charmed with the brilliant prospects before them. A sad reverse however overtook them on their way. On March 25th, 1775, before day, they were fired upon by Indians. Captain Twitty was killed, Walker was severely wounded, and the camp dispersed. Mr. Walker's life was for a time in extreme jeopardy. By the unremitting attention of Colonel Boone, he recovered, and in July returned to his farther's home in Rutherfordton. After remaining home some months he went to the Watauga, a branch of the Holston, which heads in the mountains, opposite Ashe County. The County of Washington had just been formed and he was appointed by the people, clerk of the first court ever heard of in this section. He continued in office for four years. The war of the Revolution then raging, his patroitic spirit caused him to go to Mecklenburg and join the army. On recommendation of Colonel Thomas Polk he was appointed Lieutenant in Captain Richardson's Company, in Colonel Isaac Huger's Regiment. He marched to Charleston in May, 1776, and was stationed on James’ Island. At this time the Indians in Western Carolina became very troublesome, and he returned home as Captain of a Company of Light Dragoons, to protect the frontier. He was stationed at Nollachuckey. The Indians were subdued; he re-returned to Watauga and resumed his duties as Clerk of the Court. When Rutherford County was erected from Tryon, since become Lincoln (in 1779,) he was appointed Clerk of the Court. He resided at Cane Creek for many years, attended to his farm and his duties as Clerk of the Court, which duties he discharged to the great satisfaction of the community and with profit to himself.
In 1792 he was elected a member of the House of Commons from Rutherford County to the Legislature, then sitting at New Berne, and elected again in 1793 and 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 and 1804,
In 1817 he was elected a member of the 15th Congress, and was re-elected to the 16th and 17th Congresses. In his first election the Hon. John Paxton was his opponent. He was succeeded by Dr. Robert B. Vance. His course in Congress was calm and sedate rather than showy. A devoted friend of General Jackson; he defended his conduct of the war with the Seminoles. He was the author of the phrase that has become historical in politics, “Talking for Buncombe.”
He removed soon after leaving Congress, to Clinton, Mississippi, where he died in 1828.
General Walker was twice married; first, Susan, daughter of Colonel Charles Robinson, who died soon after her marriage; second. Isabella, daughter of William Henry, of York District, South Carolina, by whom he had several children. One of his grandsons (S. R. Walker) now resides in New Orleans, and with whose aid, and the autobiography of General Walker, this sketch is chiefly compiled.
Colonel Wm. Graham, born 1742, died 1835, was long a resident of this section of this State. He
was born in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1742, and came to North Carolina previous to the Revolution. He owned lands in Tryon County. His patriotic principles were well known, and when the Revolution commenced, as Commanding-officer, he had the general superintendency of several Forts on the frontier of the State.
He was a member from Lincoln County, of the Provincial Congress which met at Halifax, on Nov. 12th 1776, which formed the State Constitution. He was in command, in 1776, of the Regiment from Lincoln and Rutherford Counties, which marched under General Rutherford, against the Cherokee Indians.
In the expedition of 1780, that marched from Charlotte for the relief of Charleston, he commanded a Regiment from Lincoln County. On their arrival at Charleston they found the city so completely invested, that they could afford no relief. The Regiment returned, and united with General Rutherford, in the attack upon the Tories, under the command of Col. Moore at Ramsour's Mill, but too late to render aid, as the Tories had two hours before been defeated.
In Sept. 1780, he marched with his Regiment to join Colonels Campbell, Sevier and Shelby, at King's Mountain, but on account of ill health did not participate in that glorious victory.
General Graham full of years and full of honors, died in April 1835. He married Mrs. Susan Twitty, widow of Capt. Twitty, who had been killed by the Indians, when with Daniel Boone in Kentucky, (see sketch of Felix Walker page 408.)
John Gray Bynum, represented this County in the Senate of the State Legislature in 1840, 1850 and 1862, but was a native of Stokes County. Graduated at the University in 1833, he studied law with Judge Gaston, and practiced with much success. He was bold, incisive and aggressive in his character as a politician and distinguished for his enterprise and ability. He removed from Rutherfordton to Wilmington where he died October 17th, 1857.
He left a son and a widow, nee McDowell, who afterwards married Hon. Richmond M. Pearson. His brother, William Preston Bynum, was one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, and distinguished for his integrity, firmness, and ability. Judge Bynum resided at Charlotte, and married Eliza, the daughter of the late Bartlett Shipp, of Lincoln County.
John Baxter, born March 5, 1819, represented this County in the Legislature of North Carolina 1842, and of the County of Henderson in 1852 and 1856, he now resides in Knoxville, Tenneesee. He read law with James E. Henry, of Spartinburg District, South Carolina, and was admitted to the bar in 1841. In 1852 he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons. He removed to Tennessee and continued to practice his profession there. He is at present Judge of the U. S. District Court, and resided at Knoxville, Tennessee.
SAMPSON COUNTY.Gabriel Holmes, born 1769, died 1829, was a man distinguished in the service of the State, a native of this County. He resided at Clinton. His classical education was conducted by Rev. Dr. McCorkle, of Iredell County, and finished at Harvard University, he then read law with Chief-Justice Taylor, at Raleigh. He was a gentleman of polished manners, of a kindly disposition and of great popularity with the people. At an early period of his age (1793) he was elected a member of the Legislature and contined by successive elections until 1813.
In 1821 he was elected by the Legislature Governor of the State; and in 1825 he was elected a member of the 19th and re-elected to the 20th Congress (1827-’29). He died September 26, 1829, and his grave-stone in the Congressional Cemetery, at Washington, marks this event.
General Theophilus Hunter Holmes was born in Sampson County in 1804, and was the son of Governor Gabriel Holmes, and was a grandson of Theophilus Hunter, of Wake. He married Miss Laura Wetmore, a niece of Hon. Geo. E. Badger, and sister of Mrs. P. A. Wiley, Mrs. Samuel J. Hinsdale, Rev. Dr. Geo. B. and Wm. R. Wetmore. He was a brother of Lucius Holmes, an eminent lawyer of Sampson County. He leaves a daughter and three sons. He graduated at West Point in the same class with Jefferson Davis and served with distinction in the Seminole war in Florida, and the Mexican war, in which he was breveted for gallantry. He was for some time Commander of Governor's Island in New York. He resigned early in 1861, and tendered his services to his native State, was appointed Brigadier-General by President Davis and rose to the rank of Major-General and Lieutenant-General in the Confederate army. He served two years in the trans-Mississippi department, where he directed the movement of forty thousand soldiers. He was one of the few men in the Confederacy who declined promotion. While in Little Rock, Arkansas, without any solicitation, President Davis tendered him a commission as Lieutenant-General. He declined the promotion, and it was not until President Davis again pressed it on him that he accepted. He died in June 1880, after a lingering illness at his home in Cumberland County.
William Rufus King, born April 7, 1786, died April 17, 1853; an illustrious statesman, was a native of this County. His ancestors were from the north of Ireland, and among the earliest settlers on the James River in Virginia. His father, William King, was an intelligent and successful planter and a popular and useful citizen. He was a member of the State Convention of Virginia, which adopted the Federal Constitution; removed to North Carolina and became a member of the Legislature from Sampson County. His mother was of Huguenot descent. Mr. King was sent to the University of North Carolina when only twelve
years old. He entered the law-office of Wm. Duffy, of Fayetteville, and came to the bar in 1805. He was elected a member of the Legislature in 1806 and re-elected in 1808 and 1809, but on being, during the latter year, elected Solicitor of this Judicial Circuit, he resigned his seat in the Legislature. In August of the next year he was elected a member of the 12th Congress when only twenty-four years old, but did not take his seat until the fall of that year, at the 1st Session of the 12th Congress, (1811 and ’13.)
The advent of Mr. King in Congress was at a period of unexampled excitement. The powers of England and France seemed to rival each other by orders and decrees in their efforts to destroy American commerce. Every attempt that reason could suggest to have them repeal these unlawful acts were in vain. The nation demanded at the hands of Congress decided and vigorous action, even to the hazard of war Mr. King unhesitatingly arrayed himself on the side of the bold and patriotic spirits of the House, who were determined to repel aggression by force and maintain the rights and honor of the nation.
The Berlin, Milan and Ramboulét decrees were repealed by France, and indemnity subsequently granted; but England persisted in carrying out her nefarious “Orders in Council.” No alternative was left but an appeal to arms, the ultima ratio of nations. In June 1812, war with England was declared by the United States, Mr. King voting and advocating this measure.
He was re-elected to the 13th Congress, (1813-15) and continued to support with all his influence every measure that would enable the government to prosecute the war to a successful termination. The war being closed in 1816, Mr. King resigned his seat in Congress to take the position of Secretary of Legation, to Hon. William Pinkney, appointed Minister to Naples and Russia. Mr. King spent two years in Europe studying the institutions of the various governments and the condition of their people. On his return home he moved (1818-’19) to Dallas, in the then Territory of Alabama, and was a member of the Convention which formed a Constitution for the State, and from that State (with John W. Walker as a colleague) he was elected a Senator in Congress. He was continued in this exalted position by repeated elections till 1844, when he was appointed Minister to France; where he remained until the summer of 1846, when he returned. In 1848, on the resignation of Hon. Arthur P. Bagby as Senator, who was appointed Minister to Russia, Mr. King was appointed by the Governor of Alabama his successor in the Senate, and in the next year he was elected for the full term, by the Legislature.
In 1850, on the death of General Taylor, Mr. Fillmore succeeded him as President. By a unanimous vote of the Senate, Mr. King was elected to the Presidency of that illustrious body.
In 1852 he was placed by the Democratic Convention on their ticket as Vice-President with General Pierce as President. But his long and successful career was now brought to a close. His failing health had compelled him to seek the mild climate of Cuba, and he there took the oath as Vice-President before the American Consul. He returned to his home at Cahawba, Alabama, where he died on April 17, 1853.
Mr. King never married. His long political career was marked by acts of noble generosity and patriotism; no stain ever effected his character. He was a fit type of the Chevaliers of old, who were “without fear and without reproach.”
James Martin, senior, who resided in this County, was a native of New Jersey, and
moved to North Carolina, May, 1774. He was brother to Governor Alexander Martin, (already mentioned on page 188.) His military career is best recorded in his own statement on oath, filed in the Pension Bureau of the Government.
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, Stokes County. } ss:
On the 17th day of October, A. D. 1832, personally appeared in open Court before the Judge of the Superior Court of Law for the County of Stokes in the State of North Carolina, now sitting, James Martin, senior, aged ninety years in May last, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth, on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress, passed January 7th, 1832. That he entered into the service of the United States of America in the Revolutionary war, and served as herein stated.
In May, 1774, I removed from the State of New Jersey to Guilford County on the Dan River, and on the 22d day of April, 1774, I was appointed Colonel-Commandant of the Guilford Regiment of Militia by Samuel Johnson, President in Congress, then sitting, and afterwards made Governor of this State, and soon after there was an insurrection of the Scotch Tories in the year 1775, in and about Fayetteville. I was ordered by my brother, Alexander Martin, who was appointed Colonel of Second Regular Regiment to raise the Guilford Militia and march them to Fayette, as ordered by Congress in order to suppress them, when I accordingly went, and marched to Fayette where said Colonel Alexander Martin was placed, having been made Colonel of the Second Regiment in the regular service of the United States, but previous to my having marched there the Scotch Tories had embodied and had started to Wilmington, but were met by an armed force of Militia commanded by Colonel Caswell, and a battle ensued at a place called Moore's Bridge, and he killed their Commander as he attempted to cross said bridge, and the rest took to flight; and said Colonel Martin and myself took most of their head men and imprisoned them, and then I was ordered home with my Regiment. The time I spent in raising them, until I returned home, was about two months as near as I can recollect, for I kept no written journal.
About the middle of June, 1776, soon after the above campaign, I was called upon and commanded by General Rutherford, of Rowan, to raise as many of the Guilford Militia as I could muster, to march them to join him at the Catawba River, and to march thence to the Cherokee towns of the Indians in order to destroy them. Accordingly I marched with about 4000 Militia men and joined the General as he ordered. Lieutenant-Colonel John Paisley assisted me to raise the men, and marched with us, and thence he marched to the Turkey Cove at the foot of the Blue Ridge, and thence crossed over it to the Swanano to Pigeon River, thence to French Broad River, and thence to Tennessee River where we came to some of their towns, which we burnt, and cut down their corn; moving from one town as we destroyed it and marched to another. Our Commissary had about 3000 beeves and pack-horses loaded with sacks of flour, and where we encamped one night the beeves and pack-horses destroyed the whole of it to the very stumps, and destroyed the grass to the bare ground.
General Rutherford took the pick of the better half of the army and went to the “Over Hills,” as they were called, and left me with the remainder of the troops to guard the provisions until he came back. He was gone about two or three weeks before he returned, but had no skirmishes with the Indians, and I believe saw none, and destroyed some of their towns as he reported; and while he was gone to the Southern Army of the Militia on the same intention, we had marched through our camp and fell into an ambuscade the Indians had made about a mile and a half from my camp and had a smart skirmish with them. I heard their guns firing very plain, and the Commander sent to me for assistance, and in the mean time I sent a Colonel Cleveland with about 150 men for his assistance, but before Cleveland got to them they had routed the Indians and killed about ten or twelve of them, and they lost about as many of their Militia men.
I had sent out scouts every day to reconnoitre the country but never happened to fall into their ambuseades; and after having destroyed all their towns and corn we marched for home by orders from our General. A few of the Indians had skulked about our camp, and a few of our men, when they caught them out single, they killed, but had no battle with them. And from the time I received the orders
to raise the Militia, until we returned home, (the orders to raise the Militia came to me about the middle of June, 1776, and we did not return until about the last of October or first of November, 1776,) being about four months in service in all.
After our return he had some little relaxation, until an express was sent to me from our Court Honse, that Tories in the south end of the County, now called Randolph County, were in a state of insurrection with one William Fields, their head Colonel, and wished to go to the British at Wilmington. I repaired to the Court House directly and ordered out Samuel Gilaspie, our Captain of Light Horse Company and took Fields, their leader and brother, and three or four more of their leaders, and brought them prisoners to the Court House, and our jail not being sufficient I sent them to Hillsboro’ jail, and previously I had ordered all their guns taken from them and all they could find among the disaffected and bring them to the Court House and give them to the honest Wnig party that had none, and the time I spent at the Court House to order the suppression of the Tories in our County could not be less than six weeks, off and on, and I returned home to Dan River where I then lived; this is from recollection, as I said before, for I kept no journal.
In 1781, about the 1st of January or the last of December, 1780, I was ordered and commanded by General Green to raise and call upon the Guilford Militia en masse, and to equip themselves as the law directs, and for me to come and join in his camp under the regular service and not to report without leave, but guns were wanting by a number of the men, and I had to have recourse to impress and borrow as many as I could get, and I could raise only about 200 to go with me to camp, and they hearing that the British were marching towards us in Guilford, it struck such a terror on them that some of that number deserted before the battle at Old Martinsville; however I marched and joined General Green with what I had, and we retreated before the British until we came to Roanoke and crossed the river at Boyd's Ferry and come to Halifax Court-House in Virginia and encamped two or three weeks. The British had followed us in sight of the river, and sometimes were facing our rear, but no skirmishes took place at that time and they returned again to Guilford County where they harrassed and plundered the inhabitants as they pleased; and General Green, in Halifax, had encamped more than three weeks, and re-crossed the Roanoke River and marched back in Caswell County and thence to part of Guilford, just manœuvering about until he could collect all the Militia of the different counties of the State, and also from Virginia, to meet the enemy for battle. And I came and marched with General Greene to the High Rock Ford on the Dan River and camped there on the east side of it, and the British manœuvering on the west side of the County, and General Greene after halting there about three weeks thought he had collected all the forces from Virginia and lower counties of the State resolved to move toward the British to give them battle, as he did.
He came to Guilford's old Court-House where he made a halt, and hearing that the British was moving towards him he drew up his men in three lines about 100 yards behind each other and waited the advance of the British. I was posted in the front line with scarce a complete Captain's company, commanded by Captain Forbes, a brave, undaunted fellow. We were posted behind a fence and I told the men to set down until the British, who were advancing, came near enough to shoot; when they came in about 100 yards, a British officer with a drawn sword, driving up his men. I asked Captain Forbes if he could take him down; he said he could for he had a good rifle, and asked me if he should shoot then; I told him to let him come in 50 yards and then take him down, which he did. It was a captain of the British army, and at that instant General Greene sent his aid-de-camp for me to go to him, and I went and asked him his command. He told me as he had begun battle, and I had not a complete regiment, he wished me to go with Major Hunter to the Court House in case of a defeat, to rally the men, which we did, and collected about 500, and was marching them to the battle ground when I met General Stephens, of the Virginia Corps, retreating. I asked him if the retreat was by General Greene's orders. He said it was. I then retreated with him and ordered the men to repair to the Troublesome Iron Works to outfit as General Greene had ordered me, which we obeyed. The British then took possession at the Court-House, and after a few days they moved off towards Wilmington. General Greene hearing of their movements, started after them, but our Militia of the country being so disheartened I could not bring any to join him again. This was in 1781;
the time I spent then from the time I received orders, was about two months.
In 1778 or 1779, I forget which, a party of Tories commanded by one Bryan, their leader, on the Yadkin River, rose in a body in Surry County, and started to join the British at Wilmington, and being informed of it by express, I ordered out Captain Gilaspie with his Light Horse Company, and I went with them; I got on their track, pursued as far as Warry Creek and found they had got out of our reach and returned back again. The time we spent then until we returned home, was about six weeks, that is one month and fifteen days.
We had then some relaxation until the year 1781, of better than two months, when about the 1st of July I was ordered by General Rutherford, of Rowan, to raise part of my Regiment, and to join him on his way to Wilmington to try to dislodge a British Major Craig stationed there. I raised about 200 Militia men and marched and joined him at the Raft Swamp, and hearing a number of Tories had taken refuge in it, General Rutherford took about one-half of the army and myself the other; he entered the north end of it, and I the south end. We made our way with much difficulty through bogs and morasses, and some of the men and horsemen mired, (but got out again,) but found no Tories nor anybody else, save several camps which we supposed had been made by them. Hence we proceeded towards Wilmington, but battled at a small stockade, Fort Roslea, about 20 miles from Wilmington of the southeast branch of the Cape Fear River, near Fred'k Jones, and near a bridge over it, and our army camped on the north side of it. While we contemplated to storm the said Fort we were saved the trouble and danger without fighting by their vacating, which we supposed was ordered by Maj. Craig, posted at Wilmington. At this time we heard of the capture of the British General Cornwallis, being taking by General Washington at Yorktown, near the mouth of James river. We marched then to the town of Wilmington which we found was vacated by the British Major Craig, and supposed it was by the order of his British General—I think his name was Clinton, to leave the State and come to him, and we thought it very lucky by their vacating the town we were released from the danger of fighting, so we were ordered home again. And the time we spent on this campaign was from about the 1st of July until we got home again, the 25th November, the same year, 1781, was about four months. The whole time I was in the service was sixteen months and eleven days; this from my best recollection of memory, for I kept no written journal.
JAS. MARTIN.
Sworn and subscribed in open Court the year and day aforesaid, this 17th day of October, 1832.
THOS. ARMSTRONG, Clerk
This terminated his military career. He represented Stokes County in the Legislature in 1791 and 1792. He left an interesting family; one of them was Judge James Martin, already mentioned, page 400.
John Martin, a native of Essex County, Virginia, moved to North Carolina, in 1768. He was active in Revolutionary times, subduing the Tories, and making forays on them. In politics as in war, he was active, spirited, and successful. He represented Stokes County in the Legislatures of 1798, 1799, 1811 and 1812. He, like Yorick, was “a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent humor.” He died in April, 1822, and left many children to inherit his genial wit and humor. The mother of General John Gray Bynum and of Judge W. Preston Bynum was his daughter.
[Sketch of Joseph Winston will be found on page 168, that of Benjamin Forsythe on page 167. Both illustrious residents of this County.]
SURRY COUNTY.
In 1775 this was a frontier County and was considered to extend with the territorial limits of North Carolina to the Mississippi. Its early inhabitants were the devoted friends of American liberty. In that year (1775) her heroic men formed a Committee of Safety; its journal has been preserved, as also are names worthy of record. Benjamin Cleveland was the Chairman, William Lenoir its Secretary, Joseph Winston, Jessie Walton, John Hamlin, Samuel Freeman, Benjamin Herndon, Charles Lynch, John Armstrong, James Hampton, Richard Goode, George Lash, David Martin, Charles Waddle and others, were its members. Their resolutions breathe a determined resistance to oppression and formed a government simple and effective for the protection of the citizen.
Benjamin Cleveland, the chairman of this committee, was one of the most active and resolute heroes of the Revolution and worthily is his name preserved in one of the most beautiful counties of the State. He devoted himself to the cause of liberty. He was in the Provincial Congress which met at Hillsboro’, August 21, 1775 and he was appointed an Ensign in the 2nd. Continental Regiment, raised by the State, commanded by Robert Howe. His name does not appear in the rolls of this regiment, which service was long and active, but we have abundant proof that Colonel Cleveland was an active, resolute and useful officer, and a terror to the Tories. On one occasion two men, (Jones and Coil), abandoned and atrocious characters, were brought before him. Cleveland, after consulting some of the leading men of the community, hanged them. For this act he was indicted in the Superior Court of the district at Salisbury for murder, but on a petition to the Legislature he was pardoned.
Soon after this event he was taken prisoner by some Tories at the Old Fields, on New River, to which place he had gone alone on private business. They took him some distance into a secluded portion of the country, and first required him to give them passes to protect them from the Whigs. He knew when this was accomplished they would kill him. He was some time in writing the passes, as he was but an ordinary pensman, and he was in no particular hurry. While thus engaged, his brother, Captain Robert Cleveland, with a party of men, knowing the peril of his brother, pursued and fired upon them. They incontinently fled; and so Colonel Cleveland's life was saved. Several months after this, one of these same Tories, Riddle, his son and another man, were captured and brought before Cleveland. He hanged all three of them at the Mulberry Field Meeting House, where the town of Wilkesboro’ now stands. Such resolution and promptness was called for by the daring and desperate conduct of the Tories.
He was, although daring and rash, a most useful officer. He commanded the left wing of the Americans at the battle of King's Mountain, October 7, 1780, and was engaged in the battle of Guilford Court House.
When Wilkes County was taken from Surry (1777) he was one of the first members elected to the Legislature; and in 1779 was elected to the Senate. He had an impediment in his speech, which prevented any effort at oratory; but he was as brave as he was patriotic. For
sometime he was the surveyor of Wilkes County.
It is related of Col. Cleveland that he owned a copy of a very remarkable book, entitled, “The Life and Adventures of Mr. Cromwell, the natural son of Oliver Cromwell,” written by a man who was the son of a great beauty, named Elizabeth Cleveland, a daughter of an officer of the palace of Hampton Court, who had attracted the attention of the King, Charles I, and who, when Oliver Cromwell assumed the reigns of government, won his sympathies; and the author of that book was their offspring. The mother subsequently married a Mr. Bridge and disappeared from further notoriety. This book was published after the author's death in 1731; a French translation appeared in 1741, and again it was printed in 1760. To this book Col. Benjamin Cleveland attached great store, asserting that through its author he rightfully claimed descent from Oliver Cromwell.
In his work on the Cromwell family, Noble denounces this book as too marvelous to be true, and whilst Noble, Guizot and others, who have written of Cromwell, assert that he most probably had natural children, yet the extraordinary adventures recited in that book make it appear to be a fictitious narrative.
A most singular vanity and quaint conceit! We know that the Clevelands derive their name from a tract in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England, yet called Cleveland. John Cleveland came early to Virginia and settled in Prince William County, on that since celebrated stream, Bull Run. Here Benjamin was born, May 26, 1738; subsequently he removed to Orange County, Va., and there married Miss Mary Graves and in 1769 removed, with his father-in-law and family to North Carolina, settling on Roaring creek, in that part of Rowan afterwards Surry, and later Wilkes’ County. In 1775 (Sept. 1), he became an ensign in Col. Robert Howe's regiment. He was in the Cross Creek expedition 1775; in the Cherokee war under Gen. Rutherford, 1776; at Brier Creek in 1778-79. At Ramsour's Mill, and chased Bryan's band from the State; he was also in the expedition to New River. The brightest laurels won by Cleveland were gathered on King's Mountain. Hayne speaks of him thus—
Now by God's grace, we have them,” cried Cleveland, my noble colonel he,Resting to pick a Tory off, quite cooly, on his knee;“Now by God's grace, we have them, the snare is subtly set,The game is bagged: we hold them safe as pheasants in a net.”He was ever a source of terror to the Tory; his subsequent career was a terrible ordeal and his adventures were most thrilling.
But they were incidents of the time. “Cleveland's Heroes” or “Cleveland's Bull Dogs,” welcome names to the patriots, became “Cleveland's Devils” to the Tories.*
William Lenoir, born 1751, died 1839; the Secretary of the Committee of Safety for Surry County, just alluded to; was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, on April 20, 1751, the youngest of a family on ten children. When he was only eight years old, his father moved to Tarboro’ North Carolina. His education was limited, and was obtained by his own personal exertions. When about twenty years of age he married Ann Ballard, of Halifax, and in March, 1775, moved to the County of Surry (since erected into Wilkes County) and settled near Wilkesboro’. He was early an active and decided agent favoring the cause of independence. In a private diary of his, of which I have a copy in manuscript, he says: “I was a member of the Committee for Surry County, and clerk thereof for about eighteen months, and duly attended its regular meetings at a distance of
* Draper's King's Mountain.fifty miles from home, without reward or fee. I was appointed Justice by the Congress and was one of the first appointed by the General Assembly, and under which I still act.”
He served in the Indian war as a Lieutenant under General Rutherford, in Captain Cleveland's Company, where he suffered great hardships. After this campaign was over, he was constantly engaged in subduing the Tories, who were daring and dangerous. In the battle of King's Mountain he was a Captain in Colonel Cleveland's Regiment, and in this desperate and bloody victory was wounded in the arm and side. He was also at the defeat of Pyles, near Haw River, and in the engagement his horse was killed under him. He raised a company and endeavored to unite with General Greene at the battle of Guilford, but did not succeed. After the war he returned home, and was an active and useful citizen. He was the oldest magistrate in the County; a Trustee of the University; member of the Senate from 1781 to 1795, and for years Speaker of the Senate. He was a member of the Convention that sat at Hillsboro’ to consider the Constitution of the United States, and took an active part in its discussion.
The latter part of his life was devoted to reading and retirement, and he manifested much anxiety for the destiny of our Republic, that at a day, in the near future, from abuse and corruption, and the wild theories of politicians it would follow the fate of the republics of other days, and so utterly fail.
His character was one of great moral worth, and pure patriotism; his friendships were sincere and ardent; his hospitality, open and unbounded. Full of years and full of honors he departed this life May 6, 1839, at his home, Fort Defiance, Wilkes County. He married, as already stated, Ann Ballard, of Halifax. The County of Lenoir worthily preserves his name in grateful memory.
The Williams family is one of the most extensive as well as most talented families of our State. Its branches have extended to the West and the Southwest; and wherever they are they have marked their career by enterprise and intellect.
The annexed diagram will explain more fully and the descriptive statement will enable us to know all about the Williams family.
The progenitor of this family was Nathaniel Williams, a native of Hanover County, Virginia. He had four sons and one daughter: I, Robert; II, Betsy; III, John; IV, Nathaniel, and V, Joseph. I, Robert settled in Pittsylvania County, Virginia; a lawyer; married Sarah Lanier; issue: (a) Nathaniel, Judge of Superior Courts in Tennessee; (b) Polly, wife of Matthew Clay, member of Congress 1797-1813; (c) Lucy, wife of Robert Call; (d) Patsy, wife of John Henry; (e) Sarah, wife of James Chalmers, (they lived in Halifax, Virginia, the grand-parents of Gen'l Jas. R. Chalmers, member of Congress from Mississippi;) (f) Elizabeth, wife of Rev. John Kerr, member of Congress, father of John Kerr, also a member of Congress 1853-1855, and of Mary Mary G. Kerr, wife of Nicholas L. White, (see V. j. below,) and of Martha, wife of Dr. Frank Martin; (g) Frances, wife of Thomas D. Connally, of Tennessee; to them was born Rev. John Kerr Connally, (who married Alice C., a daughter of James Thomas, of Richmond, Va.,) Mary E., wife of James Turner Morehead, son of Governor J. M. Morehead, and Fannie, married to C. W. Guerrant, of Rockingham, N. C.; (g) Frances, wife of Gen. Barcilia Graves.
II, Betsy, married to Hieks; III, John married Williamson, settled in North Carolina; issue: (a) Christopher H., member of Congress from Tennessee 1837-1843 and 1849-1853; (b) Elizabeth, married to General Azeriah Graves, grand-parents of Judge Thomas Settle. IV, Nathaniel, married and had issue: (a) Robert,
appointed Governor of Mississippi by President Jefferson; (b) Nathaniel, and (c) Elizabeth, married to Baldwin, of Louisiana. Joseph, the fourth and youngest son of Nathaniel Williams, of Hanover, Virginia, when he came to North Carolina was employed to aid his cousin Joseph in mercantile pursuits. He was in the Revolutionary War, and attained the rank of major; was engaged in several severe skirmishes with the Tories, who were desperate and daring in this section, and to whom Major Williams was especially obnoxious. He made many narrow escapes. He raised ten children—eight sons and two daughters. He was elected Clerk of the Court in Surry County, and continued in that position until his death in 1828. He married Rebecca Lanier, of Granville. Issue: (a) Robert, who, Lanman says, was born in Caswell County; he was highly endowed by nature and of a cultivated mind; the friend of education and of every improvement in the welfare of the State. He was the indefatigable Treasurer of the University, and for years one of its most earnest and faithful trustees; during the war he resided in Raleigh, and became the Adjutant-General of the State, and to this day the records of that office, as kept by him, are models of accuracy and neatness; the only perfect copy of all the acts of the General Assembly from 1776 were collected through his labor and industry; he was a Representative in Congress from 1797 to 1803, and in 1805 was appointed Commissioner of Land Titles in Mississippi Territory, and there served for four years; he then removed to Tennessee and thence to Louisiana, where he died; he was a lawyer by profession; married Rebecca Smith, of Granville. (b) Joseph, Clerk of Surry Superior Court; married Susan Taylor; issue: (I) Susan, wife of James R. Dodge, (see page 393,) to them were born (1st) Richard Irwin Dodge, Col. U. S. A.; (2d) Annie, wife of Chalmers L. Glenn, of Rockingham; (3d) Mary H. Dodge, of Winston, Forsythe County, N. C. Col. Richard Irwin Dodge has one son, Frederick P. Dodge, of New York City; Mrs. Chalmers L. Glenn has three children: James D., of Rockingham, in Legislature of 1881-83; Robert B., an attorney in Stokes County, in Legislature of 1881-83; and Edward T. B., of C. F. and Y. V. R. R.
To Joseph and Susan Taylor Williams were also born (II) Rebecca, wife of Frank Dedrick, and (III) Midshipman John T. Williams, of Warrenton.
(c) John, the third son of Joseph Williams, moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he commenced the practice of the law and was very successful. During the Seminole War he raised a troop of volunteers, composed of intelligent and high-toned gentlemen; among them were Hugh L. White, Thomas L. Williams, and others. After a victorious campaign he returned home, where he found a commission appointing him colonel of the 39th Regiment of Infantry, U. S. A. He was ordered to the Creek Nation, and in the engagement of Tohopeka, or the Horse-Shoe, his regiment bore the brunt of the battle. The report of General Jackson on this sanguinary conflict did not, in the opinion of Colonel Williams, do justice to his regiment, and hence the long enmity between them. From 1815 to 1823 he was a Senator in Congress, highly respected for his integrity and ability. In 1825 he was appointed by Mr. Adams, Envoy to the Central American States. He married Melinda, daughter of General James White and sister of Judge Hugh L. White, the candidate against Martin Van Buren for the Presidency of the United States. He was the father of Joseph L. Williams, member of Congress from 1839 to 1843; of Colonel John Williams, of Knoxville, and of Margaret, first wife of Chief Justice Pearson, of North Carolina. He died at Knoxville, August 7, 1837.
(d) William, a successful merchant and farmer, lived at Strawberry Plains, East Tennessee. He married Sarah, daughter of Colonel King, of Virginia; issue: Sarah, married to Rev. Thomas Stringfield.
(e) Lewis, who lived and died in political strife. He was born about 1782, educated at the University, where he graduated in 1808.
He entered political life as a member of the House of Commons in 1813, and was re-elected in 1814. He became a Representative in Congress in 1815, and continued a member as long as he lived. Whilst attending Congress he died on February 23, 1842. Greatly esteemed for his sterling independence and his integrity, his abilities were such that by common consent he was styled “the Father of the House.” Mr. Adams’ oration on the occasion of his death was a beautiful tribute to his worth, as was also the brilliant effort of Mr. Rayner. He never married.
(f) The twin-brother of Hon. Lewis Williams was Thomas L. Williams, long the Chancellor of Tennessee; he married Polly McClung, a niece of Judge Hugh L. White. The following are their issue: (1st) Rebecca, wife of the son of Gov. Shelby, of Kentucky; (2d) Melinda, wife of Chief Justice Napton, of Missouri; (3d) Margaret, wife of Hon. John G. Miller, Member of Congress from Missouri, and afterward of H. W. Douglas, of Nashville, Tennessee, and (4th) of Mrs. Dr. J. Walker Percy, of Huntsville, Alabama.
(g) Rebecca, married Colonel John H. Wimbish, of Virginia; issue: Rebecca, wife of Dr. Pleasant Henderson, and afterward of Hon. Roger Q. Mills, Member of Congress from Texas.
(h) Dr. Alexander, who married Catherine Dixon, only daughter of Colonel William Dixon, first Postmaster (1782) of Greenville.
(i) Fannie, married Colonel John P. Erwin, of Nashville, Tennessee.
(j) Nicholas Lanier, the last and youngest son of Joseph Williams, is now in his 79th year; resides at Panther Creek, enjoying a green old age, and preserving the respect and regard of all who know him. He was a member of the Council of State and also a Trustee of the University. He married Mary G. Kerr; issue: (1st) Bettie, wife of John A. Lillington; (2d) Joseph, a Trustee of University, 1875, married M. Lou, daughter of Tyre Glenn, of Yadkin County; issue: Glenn and Mary; (3d) Lewis, who lives in the old homestead in Yadkin; married Sarah A., daughter of Colonel Wm. G. Smith, of Anson County; issue: Mary G., Eliza Helms, William Smith, Lena Pearl, and Lanier Williams.
Jesse Franklin, born 1760, died 1824, the son of Bernard and Mary Franklin, the third of seven sons, was born in Orange County, Virginia, March 24, 1760. His education was limited. His father removed to Surry County just previous to the commencement of the war. The Tories were so troublesome, plundering the Whig families of everything valuable, that a fort was built near Wilkesboro’, in which they secured themselves and families when actively engaged away from home. Troops were raised to suppress these outrages, when Jesse joined Colonel Cleveland, his maternal uncle, to disperse them. Of Colonel Cleveland as a partisan leader and his severity toward the Tories we have already written. Franklin was in the battle of King's Mountain as Adjutant of Colonel Cleveland's battalion, and displayed great courage. When the enemy was conquered, the commanding officer, after the fall of Ferguson, delivered the sword of that soldier to Franklin, saying, “You deserve it, sir!” This was preserved for a long time in the family as an heirloom. He was also at the battle of Guilford Court House. He performed some further unimportant military services, in partisan warfare against the Tories, who formed a large part of the population in this section. After the war most of these Tories left this part of the State.
After discharging a soldier's duty in the field, Mr. Franklin then became useful as a representative of the people. He entered the House of Commons as a member from Surry in 1793, re-elected 1794, and in 1795 he became a Member of the 4th Congress. In 1797 he was again elected to the Legislature, and in 1799 he was elected a Senator in Congress, and served until 1805. In 1804 he was chosen President of the Senate. It is worthy here to remark that at this date the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House (Nathaniel Macon) were both of the delegation from North Carolina. Proud days for the old North State!
In 1805 and 1806 he was elected Senator of the State Legislature; and in 1807 he was again returned to the Senate of the United States, and there served until March 4, 1813. Governor James Turner, of Warren, was his colleague in the Senate. His course in this highest legislative body of the world was marked by profound sagacity and elevated patriotism. The high appreciation of his abilities and his integrity is shown by his election as President of the Senate and his appointment as leading member on the most responsible committees. He was placed on the committee on the celebrated ordinance of 1787; also on the case of Smith, of Ohio, implicated in the treason of Burr, and in other important positions.
He was a warm advocate of Mr. Madison and of his war measures; and as violently opposed
to all monopolies and banks. At the close of his term he declined a re-election, hoping to spend the balance of his days in repose and retirement; but he accepted the appointment, at the special request of General Jackson, of commissioner to treat with the Chickasaw Indians on the Bluff, where Memphis now stands.
In 1820 he was elected by the Legislature to succeed Governor John Branch; and, after this duty, he retired from the toils and excitements of public life; and in 1824 his long, eventful and useful career was terminated. He was dignified and commanding in person, clear and decided in his opinions, and displayed great sagacity and common sense in all his actions.
Meshach Franklin, the brother of Governor Jesse Franklin, was distinguished as a statesman and politician in Surry County. He entered public life as a member of the House of Commons in 1800, and was elected a Member of the 10th Congress (1807) and served till 1815; afterward became a member of the State Senate in 1828-29. He died in December, 1841.
Jesse Franklin Graves, one of the Judges of the Superior Court, a native of Surry County, is the grandson of Governor Franklin, whose sketch we have just given. He was born August 31, 1829. He read law under Judge Pearson, and was a member of Governor Ellis’ council. He served in the Legislature in 1876-77, but has wisely preferred the quiet practice of the law to the varying fortunes of politics.
CHAPTER XLVIII.TYRRELL COUNTY.
Mention has been made of Colonel Edward Buncombe. Joseph Buncombe, the uncle of Colonel Edward Buncombe, the namesake of Buncombe County, came from the Island of St. Kitts, West Indies, (where there were several of the same name, John among the number;) and purchased from the Moseleys the farm now known as “Buncombe Hall,” in that part of Tyrrell which is now Washington County, North Carolina. One of the Moseleys was Secretary of State for a long time, and as all entries of land were made in his office, he was aware of the location of all the unentered lands in the State, and was thus enabled to make large entries for himself. At what date Joseph Buncombe came over to this country cannot be gathered from the records or the memory of the oldest inhabitant. He resided for several years at Buncombe Hall, and the cellar of his house is still visible not far from the creek, in close proximity to an Indian fort, on the margin of the swamp; of him, at this day, little seems to be known. He returned to the West Indies on a visit, where he died, and devised Buncombe Hall to his nephew, Colonel Edward Buncombe.
On the death of Joseph Buncombe, Dr. Lenox and Robert West, of Bertie, went to the West Indies for the purpose of making a speculation out of Colonel Buncombe, and offered to purchase his estate in Carolina. His wife, Eliza, advised against a sale, and remarked that the land must be valuable, or those gentlemen would not have come so far to purchase, and prevailed upon him to go and see it first himself, which he did in 1765, or thereabouts. On viewing the land, he was pleased with it, and returned to St. Kitts in 1766 for the purpose of moving his family to Carolina. On his return he found a new accession to his family in the person of Eliza Taylor Buncombe. When this child was twelve months old the Colonel removed his family to Buncombe Hall—he then being twenty-four years of age. Between his first and second visits, the “old Hall,” with fifty-five rooms in it, was built for him by Colonel Lee. He brought with him a chaplain, a physician, two or three ladies, friends of Mrs. Buncombe, a shepherd for his sheep, a flock of two hundred, a hind for his cattle, and upward of two hundred negroes, thinking to cultivate sugar. The maiden name of Mrs. Buncombe was Eliza Taylor. At the age of six years the little girl, Eliza Buncombe, was sent to New York to boarding school, and boarded with the family of Mr. Abram Lott, at that time Treasurer of the State, and a consignee of Colonel Buncombe, and a very wealthy man. With this family she remained for ten years. The other children, Hester and Thomas, were
placed under the tutelage and protection of Cullen Pollock, Esq., of Edenton, I presume, after the death of Mrs. Buncombe and after the Colonel went into the army. The former event seems to have taken place not many years after her arrival in this country. On attaining womanhood, (sixteen or seventeen,) Eliza Buncombe was married to John Goelet, Esq., of New York, and was regarded, generally, as a most beautiful woman, and, from various accounts, not far short of Scott's apostrophe—
“Ne'er did Grecian chisel traceA nymph, a naiad or a grace.Of lovelier form or finer face.”When the colonists were in open rebellion against the mother country, on account of the oppressive stamp and tea acts, the revolution in its full blaze, and the British forces on our shores, Edward Buncombe, having become something of a politician, and being a brave, chivalric gentleman, of a sanguine temperament, and burning with patriotic ardor to bare his bosom to the battle's rage in defense of his adopted country's rights was appointed by the State Provincial Congress, which met at Halifax April 4, 1776, colonel of the Fifth Regiment of North Carolina troops—he immediately conceived the idea of raising, by enlistment, a regiment of soldiery, principally from the counties of Washington and Tyrrell, and sent out recruiting officers to others. He soon succeeded in raising a regiment, at his own expense, which he quartered and drilled at Buncombe Hall for about one year, preparatory to joining the army under Washington. By a simple computation it may be seen that the raising and quartering of a regiment which, probably, at that time consisted of from 500 to 700 men, for about one year, by a private individual, was a matter of no small expense; hence the magnitude and justice of the unliquidated claim which the heirs of Colonel Buncombe have, from time to time, asserted as due them by the Nation. Full of ardor, and enjoying, to an unlimited degree, the confidence of his troops, with his blushing honors crowding upon him in anticipation, young and buoyant, he sallied forth to the scene of war and joined General Washington's army, but at what point the writer has not been enabled to discover. He served in the Revolutionary War to the date of the battle at Germantown, (1777,) at which time and place he received his mortal wound. As a wounded officer, he was put on his parole, and on one occasion, being at the house of one of Washington's generals, he remained standing. At length, being asked by the General who he was, the Colonel made a response, characteristic of the man, “I am Colonel Edward Buncombe, Fifth Regiment of North Carolina troops, of Buncombe Hall, North Carolina, and a gentleman, and if a gentleman should come to my house, I would ask him to take a seat and a glass of wine.” At this rebuke the General smiled, and accordingly invited him to both. The Colonel, being somewhat convalescent of his wounds, went to an evening party at a friend's house in the city, and while descending the stairway, by some means or other fell over the railing, which fall, together with his wounds, resulted in his death. He died in Philadelphia at the age of thirty, leaving Cullen Pollock and Dr. Lenox executors of his will. His wife, Eliza, died anterior to the war, and her remains were deposited in the middle aisle of St. Paul's Church, Edenton. The Colonel's sister, Mrs. Ann Caines, and Mrs. Buncombe's brother, the Rev. Samuel Oakes Taylor, have frequently written to the family in Carolina, and their letters are still extant. When the Colonel left for the war, he made Cullen Pollock his agent, who leased out Buncombe Hall and the negroes thereon to one Cook for $800 per annum for four years. This Cook was cousin to the Colonel, but possassed a name of not very “genteel memory,” and of him, in connection with the Buncombe family, might be said what Coriolanus said of Rome:
“Thou hast lost the breed of noble blood.”
Immediately on the death of the Colonel, this Cook broke open a closet almost hermetically sealed with wax, and surreptitiously abstracted therefrom all the silverware and plate, which was afterward seen in possession of his heirs, with the initials E. E. B. on them. He cut down, for firewood, the left-hand side of the beautiful avenue leading from the gate to the house, and finally paid the price of his lease, $3,200, by a certificate of discharge in bankruptcy at Edenton. This agent, Cullen Pollock, was so negligent that he permitted a large portion of the Buncombe Hall tract to escheat for the non-payment of taxes. Colonel Buncombe's estate was sued to pay for Eliza Buncombe's board for ten years, and several negroes were necessarily sold.
Colonel Buncombe's popularity seems to have been commensurate with his hospitality; as proofs conclusive of the former the following incidents may suffice: His repeated elevations to the State Legislature, his appointment by the
Legislature to the Coloneley, taking his horses from his carriage three miles from the Court House, then situated near the mouth of Scuppernong River, at Mrs. Bateman's, and the populace bearing him upon their shoulders to and from the Court House. When his friend, Cullen Pollock, forsiding with the Loyalists, was tarred, feathered, and shot at through his windows, his carriage thrown over the dock, etc., so indignant was Colonel Buncombe that he buckled on his arms, took his body servant with him, manned a boat and went to Edenton, and dared the man or set of men who were at the head of the assault to show themselves. The instigator was Nat. Allen, who, though regarded at the time as a Hotspur, thinking with Falstaff that “discretion was the better part of valor,” secreted himself in his house until the Colonel had left town. Their object undoubtedly was to drive Mr. Pollock away and confiscate his estate. Buncombe County, in selecting a name for their County, duly appreciated the memory and eminent military services of Colonel Buncombe, and did themselves great credit.
As an illustration of his proverbial hospitality, he often entertained most sumptuously a great many friends after the true style of a West India gentleman, his table being spread with the richest viands, which palled not on the most fastidious epicurean taste; his door-latch was alway hanging on the outside, and when he had gentlemen at his house whose company he particularly appreciated, to prevent their leaving he had the bridge taken up and hid in the swamp till he was willing they should leave. On his gatepost, according to tradition, and the fact is mentioned in “Jones’ Defense of North Carolina,” was inscribed this distich—
“Welcome allTo Buncombe Hall.”Noble generosity, hospitality unparalleled! His particular associates and friends were Cullen Pollock, Dr. Lenox, Judge Iredell, Gov. Johnston, Mr. Ria, of Norfolk, Mr. Donaldson, of Petersburg, Va., and others. And for such a voluntary sacrifice of life and fortune in the cause of his adopted country did he, during his life, or have his heirs since his immolation upon the altar of that country, received at her hands anything like fair indemnification or even adequate compensation. All history tells us of the “ingratitude of Republics.” It has become merged into a political aphorism. What a shameful commentary this upon the text deduced from the preceding notes. Another instance of his giving succor to the oppressed, against an infuriate majority, may be found in the case of poor Davidson, a Tory, who, when his life was in jeopardy from the Republicans, found a refuge in the carriage of Colonel Buncombe, who carried him to his house and thus protected him from lawless violence. His reward is not of earth, but of heaven, for military prowess and chivalric valor on the “tented field,” and for gentlemanly deportment and urbanity of manner in private life have been permitted to pass away, by an ungrateful country, without its suitable and merited requital. “Sic transit gloria mundi.”
“Oh! pity if thy holy tearImmortal decks the wing of time;’Tis when the soldier's honor'd bierDemands the glitt'ring drop sublime.For who from busy life removedSuch glorious, dang'rous toil has prov'd,As he who, on the embattled plain,Dies bravely fighting, or nobly slain?”One of his daughters married Dr. Goelet, of Washington; another, Mr. Clark, of Bertie County.
Colonel Buncombe was distinguished for his undaunted courage, his martial appearance, and his open, unstinted hospitality; worthy is his name preserved in one of the most lovely Counties of our State.
The Pettigrew family is of French origin, but at an early period branches settled in both Scotland and Ireland. James Pettigrew, of the Irish branch, was an officer in King James’ army, at the battle of the Boyne, (1690) between William and James II. He emigrated to America in 1740,* and rested for awhile in Pennsylvania; then went to Virginia, thence to North Carolina, and finally settled in Abbeville, South Carolina, where he lived to a good old age. When he removed from North Carolina he left his third son, Charles, who had been born in Pennsylvania in 1743. This gentleman's early education was, in part, conducted by the Rev. Mr. Waddle, (Wirt's famous “Blind Preacher,”) and in 1773 he was made Master of the Public School at Edenton by Governor Martin. In 1775 he went to England to be admitted to holy orders, and was ordained by the Bishop of London. He returned to North Carolina and devoted himself to his field of labor. For years he was Rector of the Church at Edenton. He married Mary, daughter of Col. John Blount, and thus became connected
* For many facts and much of this sketch, see Memorial of J. Johnston Pettigrew, Brigadier General in Confederate army, by W. H. Trescott, Charleston, 1870.with an influential family. His sympathies with his countrymen were not confined to his priestly relations, for in 1780 he accompanied the troops called into service for a Southern campaign. Soon after the Revolution efforts were made to build up more efficiently the brokendown walls of the Church, and in 1794 he was unanimously chosen, by the Convention, Bishop of the new Diocese; but he died before his consecration.
Bishop Pettigrew left one son, Hon. Ebenezer Pettigrew, who inherited not only the estate, but the genius, energy and excellence of character of his father. He was born near Edenton March 10, 1783, and took charge of the estate, on Lake Phelps, draining and improving that noble plantation by skill, science and enterprise. For years he devoted himself entirely to agricultural pursuits, avoiding politics and public life. He was elected to the Senate of the State Legislature in 1809 and 1810, and was nominated as a candidate for the twenty-fourth Congress, (1835-37,) in opposition to Dr. Thomas H. Hall, one of the most popular and influential men of the then dominant party, (Jackson—Democrat,) and was triumphantly elected. As an evidence of the regard and confidence of his neighbors, he received every vote but three in Tyrrell County.
Such was the acceptability of his public service in Congress that he could have been re-elected without opposition, but he peremptorily refused to serve. He now devoted himself exclusively to the pursuits of agriculture. Under his example and advice the country was vastly improved. He taught his neighbors how to drain and cultivate the soil, and how to lay off their canals and ditches. His own farm, on the margin of his beautiful lake, was the subject of universal admiration. Strangers from a distance visited it to view its beauties and the magnitude of the work. His life was one of labor and usefulness, and he left behind him the impress of his energy and intellect. He certainly did more to build up the County, to improve and enrich it, than any man of his age. He married, May 17, 1815, Anne, eldest daughter of William Shepard, Esq., of New Berne. Mr. Shepard was the father of Hon. William B. Shepard, Hon. Charles B. Shepard, and James B. Shepard, and of Mrs. John H. Bryan. He died at Magnolia, in Tyrrell County, July 8, 1848, leaving several children, among them (the third son) was—
J. Johnston Pettigrew, who was born at Lake Scuppernong, Tyrrell County, North Carolina, on July 4th, 1828. The earlier part of his life was passed with his maternal grandmother; from his seventh to his fifteenth year he was at the school of Mr. Bingham, in Hillsboro’; in May, 1843, he entered the University of North Carolina, then under the charge of that eminent and successful preceptor, Governor D. L. Swain; his collegiate career was so brilliant as to have become a college tradition. When he graduated in 1847 the faculty, the trustees and the press were exultant, and predicted for him a future of brilliant success; the event of his graduation is an era in the history of that ancient institution. Nor were his classmates ordinary competitors, they were powerful in the generous struggle for knowledge, which Bacon says “is power.” Their success in after life is evidence of their mental superiority. Among them were Alfred Alston, Duncan L. Clinch, Eli W. Hall, John Pool, Matt. W. Ransom, Charles E. Shober, and Thos. G. Skinner, and others. That the universal acknowledgment of his merits was not confined to the partiality of friendship may be inferred from the fact that Mr. Polk, then the President of the United States, himself a graduate in 1818 of the University, who was present at the commencement, and accompanied by Commodore Maury, at his suggestion, tendered to Mr. Pettigrew the position of Assistant Professor in the National Observatory, at Washington City. Crowned with the honors of his alma mater, and promoted by the appreciation of the Chief Magistrate of the Republic, with the regard of his teachers and the affection and admiration of his associates, and a large and influential connection, who were proud of his promise and powerful to sustain him in the career of ambition; with great mental gifts highly cultivated, the vista of life opened to Mr. Pettigrew bright and promising. His position at Washington was one that afforded access to the best society, as well as opportunities of distinction in the scientific world.
The offices of the Observatory were eminently filled by Maury, Newcome, and others. But from a restless disposition, so often the companion of genius, which prefers conflict with men in the battle of life rather than the secluded pursuits of science, he remained only for a short time at the Observatory. He felt “cribbed, cabined, and confined” in the cloisters of that institution. Accordingly he entered the law office of James Mason Campbell, of Baltimore, and commenced the study of law; upon the invitation of his distinguished relative,
James L. Pettigrew,* he completed his law studies in his office. After his admission to the bar, at the instance of his friends, who wished him to have every advantage that a finished education could present, he embarked in 1850 on a tour in Europe, where he spent two years in visiting England, Ireland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, studying their civil and military institutions, their laws, and their forms of government. While at Madrid he was tendered the post of Secretary of Legation by Mr. Barringer, then our envoy to Spain; this he declined. He returned home and commenced the practice of his profession at Charleston, in connection with his relative, James L. Pettigrew. Although he enjoyed great success, yet his connection with the bar was but of short duration, for the excitement of politics had superior charms. He took an active interest in the convention of the State to send delegates to the Cincinnati convention, and in October, 1856, he was chosen a member of the Legislature from the City of Charleston. His career as a politician was brief, but brilliant and useful. He was defeated in the October election of 1858. This disappointment enabled him to carry out a purpose long cherished by him. He felt an irrepressible desire for military service; when a student at Berlin he had endeavored to procure admission into the Prussian Army. He again went to Europe and offered his services to the Sardinian Government; his application was successful, but on his way to join the army, he met the news of the peace of Villa-Franca, which put an end to his journey. He devoted to study a few months in Spain, and returned home at the close of 1859, when he wrote a book, “Spain and the Spaniards”—a book of the greatest interest and the sole memento left of his talents as an author. Mr. Pettigrew returned from Europe and was convinced, as he long had feared, that the conflict between the sections of our country was only a question of time, and that, too, not very remote. With this conviction he had been desirous of experiencing active military service abroad on a large scale; therefore he closely studied works on military science in various modern languages. On his return he devoted himself to the improvement of the militia organizations. He was elected Captain of a rifle company, which he drilled in the zouave tacties—its efficiency he had seen exhibited in Paris. Events of great importance now crowded upon each other. The State of South Carolina seceded from the Union, and called upon her sons to rally to the support of that government which they had been taught to love and obey. Major Anderson had suddenly evacuated Fort Moultrie and secured Fort Sumter under cover of the night. Fort Sumter was fired upon and surrendered, and we were in the presence of civil war. The unexpected occupation of Fort Sumter precipitated events. Pettigrew was ordered by Governor Pickens to demand of Anderson the evacuation of that fort. The result of that demand we give in Pettigrew's own words:
“To F. W. PICKENS, Governor.
“SIR: I have the honor to report that pursuant to the instructions of your Excellency, I proceeded this morning to Fort Sumter in company with Major Ellison Copers, Acting Adjutant of my regiment. We were courteously received by Major Anderson, the commanding officer. I stated to him in the presence of all his officers that you had been astonished at the reception of the news of his having transferred his garrison to Fort Sumter; that by the understanding between the State of South Carolina and the President the property of the United States was to be respected, and on the other side the military posts should remain in an unchanged condition. In a word, the question was to be considered a political, not a military one. I enforced strongly that we had performed our part of this agreement; that we had discountenanced and repressed every attempt of the people upon the property of the United States, and I demanded in your name that affairs should be restored to their previous condition. He replied that he was a Southern man in his feelings upon the question at issue, and had so informed the Department when appointed; that he knew nothing of the agreement mentioned; that he was the military commander of all the forts in the harbor, and did not consider that he had reinforced them in merely transferring his garrison from one to another; that he had been informed that he would be attacked in case the report of our Commission was unfavorable; that Fort Moultrie was indefensible against an ordinary skillful attack; that he had acted entirely on his own responsibility. He declined to yield to my demand.
“Very respectfully,
“J. JOHNSTON PETTIGREW.”
All hopes of peace were ended, and each section
* This should be spelled Pettigru; the South Carolina branch kept the French terminal in their name.—ED.prepared to take part in the bloody arbitrament presented. The feeling of the South was well expressed by Colonel Pettigrew, who in July, 1861, received a stand of colors for his regiment, (to which he had been appointed,) and on receiving them said: “The flag of the Republic is ours no more. That noble standard which so often has waved over victorious fields now threatens us with destruction. In all its former renowns we participated; Southern valor bore it in its proudest triumphs, and oceans of Southern blood have watered the ground beneath it. Let us lower it with honor and lay it reverently upon the earth.” Colonel Pettigrew was offered the position of Adjutant-General under the belief that his administrative ability could accomplish more good in organizing the forces of the State than by restricting him to a single regiment. But he preferred the active duties of the field, and declined. At the request of General Beauregard, and with the approbation of the Executive, he proceeded to organize a rifle regiment. Companies were rapidly raised and tendered to him, and his selection of field and staff officers agreed on. The regiment was tendered to the Secretary of War, at Montgomery, then the seat of the Confederate Government. The views of the War Department were not to receive organized regiments, but only companies, reserving to itself the selection of field officers. This was not agreeable, and the several companies composing the regiment, unwilling to accept officers unknown to them, sought and obtained admission into other regiments. This left Colonel Pettigrew without a command, but his ardent temperament would not allow him to be an idle spectator in the fearful strife then imminent. He went to Richmond, to which place the Confederate Government had been removed, and tendered his services. He was only in Richmond a few days when he received a letter from the Governor of North Carolina, informing him he had been appointed and commissioned Colonel of the Twelfth Regiment of North Carolina troops. On the next day he started to his command at Raleigh. He was soon ready for the fray, and marched with his troops to the front only a few days too late to participate in the first battle of Manassas. During the winter of 1861-62 he was encamped at Evansport, on the Potomac, and then at Charleston, where his high military attainments, his untiring devotion to duty, so won the admiration and esteem of all associated with him that without his knowledge he was appointed Brigadier. He called on the President, and to his surprise he declined the appointment on the ground that he had never been under fire, never handled troops in action, and that no man who had never been seriously tried in battle should be appointed to be a Brigadier-General. The President replied that he “was fully satisfied with General Pettigrew's qualifications; that he had been besieged by applications for brigadiership upon every conceivable ground—this was the first instance of an officer refusing promotion.” Neither yielded, and Colonel Pettigrew returned to Fredericksburg and remained there a few days. At the expiration of that time General French, his brigade commander, was ordered to Wilmington. Major-General Holmes, commanding at Fredericksburg, sent for Colonel Pettigrew and urged his acceptance, and said: “Colonel Pettigrew, it is important to this command and to the country that you take this office: I regard it as your duty to do so.” Pettigrew yielded his own convictions, and wrote a letter of acceptance.
Soon after this General Pettigrew was ordered to Yorktown, and with Whiting's Division was engaged in the battle of Seven Pines; while the battle was raging he was instructed to drive the enemy from a position in the woods, where they were strongly posted. The position had been before attempted by a regiment, which had failed. In making the attack the regiment was exposed to a fire of a battery of artillery on the flank. Pettigrew, leading one of his regiments, was attempting to carry the position by assault when he was wounded. An attempt was made to remove him from the field; exhausted from the loss of blood, he enquired how the day had gone, and when told that it was against us, he insisted that the men should leave him and go to the front to join their company. It was reported that he was killed, and his friends mourned for him as if dead; he had been taken prisoner and was sent to Fort Delaware. When exchanged, still suffering from his wounds, he repaired to his command, near Petersburg, and joined his brigade in the army of Northern Virginia, under General Lee. He took part in the battle of Gettysburg. In the first day's fight, Pettigrew and his brigade were in the thickest of the battle, and proudly bore his banner against the retreating foe. His bravery was conspicuous; his cool and heroic conduct was magnetic; it inspired his decimated command to action and daring.
“I never realized before,” said Capt. Jos. Davis, “the worth of one man. His presence
and his cheering commands nerved the arms of all.”
On the second day his command was held in reserve. On the third day Pettigrew was placed in charge of Heth's division, and in that fatal and gallant charge, on Cemetery Hill, he was in the line on the left of Pickett's command. His was not a supporting column. Pickett reached the crest of the hill and held it awhile. Pettigrew having greater obstructions did not reach that point. Both were repulsed by an overwhelming force which occupied an impregnable position. Pettigrew fell painfully wounded; Burgwynn, Marshall, McCrea and Iredell, all sons of North Carolina, here gave up their lives, and proved that North Carolina had followed the Confederate banners to the furthest point. The bright, warm beams of the sun on the 1st day of July, 1863, shone on 3,000 as gallant men in Pettigrew's brigade as ever shouldered a musket; on the morning of the 4th only 825 were left.
The Confederate army fell back upon Hagerstown without any annoyance from the enemy, and crossed the Potomac at Williamsport and Falling Waters. General Longstreet's corps, of which Heth's division formed a part, crossed at the latter place. On the morning of the 14th of July, 1863, this division, after a weary night's march, stopped for rest and breakfast about a mile and a quarter from the bridge, at Falling Waters. For some inexplicable reason General Heth had not thrown out any pickets; about 9 o'clock, while he, General Pettigrew and several other officers were walking to the left of the division, their attention was attracted by a small squad of cavalry riding out of a wooded valley about a mile off. Their small number, (about twenty-five,) and their proximity, led General Heth to suppose they were a Confederate troop, and before the error was discovered they had reached the group of officers, when a few scattered shots were fired by these reckless troopers in sight of the whole division. They made their escape as rapidly as they had made their attack. General Pettigrew was shot through the bowels and mortally wounded. He was carried to the house of Mr. Boyd, half-way between Martinsburg and Winchester, where, on the 17th of July, 1863, three days after being wounded, in the early stillness of a summer morning, his gallant spirit rested with his God. He died as he had lived, a brave and noble man.
The Bishop of Louisiana, who was with him on the sad and solemn occasion, declared that “in a ministry of near thirty years, I never witnessed a more sublime scene of Christian resignation and of hope in death.”
When we study his earnest, noble and self-sacrificing character, his modest and reticent demeanor, his brave and daring courage, his solid and extended acquirements, we can realize the loss to our country and our State in his death, and with Burke exclaim: “When death, by one stroke, makes such a dispersion of talent, virtue and accomplishments, we feel the vanity of all earthly pursuits. What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!”
John Hooker Haughton, eldest son of John and Mary R. Haughton, was born in Chowan, August 29, 1810. He received his academic education in the town of Edenton, and was graduated from the University, in 1832, with Thomas L. Clingman, Thomas S. Ashe, James C. Dobbin, William F. Davidson, Robert B. Burton, Thomas B. Hill, and others. He read law with his distinguished kinsman, Thomas B. Haughton, of Chowan, and settled in Tyrrell, to which County his parents had previously removed. There he practiced his profession until 1837, when he removed to Chatham, and located at Pittsboro’. In this large County, populated by a thrifty and intelligent people, he soon acquired a lucrative practice, and became a leader at the bar in this and adjoining counties. In 1857, having purchased a plantation in the County of Jones, he removed to New Berne, where, following his profession with unabated zeal and vigor, he soon ranked among the foremost lawyers at that bar, distinguished in the history of the State for its able advocates and jurists. Mr. Haughton was thrice married. His first wife was a daughter of that influential, hospitable and genial gentleman, Dr. Robert Williams, of Pitt. His second wife was Miss Eliza Alice Hill, whom he married in 1838. Miss Hill was a daughter of Col. Thomas Hill, of the Cape Fear section, a gentleman of wealth and high social position. By this marriage Mr. Haughton became connected with many of the prominent families of the lower Cape Fear. Mr. Haughton's third wife was Miss Martha Harvey, of New Berne, whom he married in 1868. She died May 26, 1876, and he survived her only four days. Mr. Haughton belonged to the Whig party, and, until his removal to New Berne, was the acknowledged leader of that party in the County of Chatham. He represented Chatham both in the House of Commons and in the Senate, and he was, during his whole life, prominently connected with all the political movements in the State. He was nominated for
Congress, but the district being largely Democratic, was defeated by the Hon. James C. Dobbin. As a public speaker, Mr. Haughton was clear, logical and forcible. As a lawyer he was learned, laborious and zealous, and always commanded a leading practice in the Courts he attended. Mr. Haughton was cheerful and social in his disposition, fond of anecdotes and told a story well. In all the domestic relations he was kind, affectionate, tender and true. He discharged all his duties with intelligence and fidelity to his country and State. In fact, he was a man of unusual public spirit and liberality, and by his large subscriptions to works of internal improvement greatly impaired his estate. The war between the States deprived him of his ample fortune and brought, with increasing years, much trouble and anxiety; yet he maintained his cheerfulness to the last, illustrating how a good man could bear adversity as well as prosperity with equanimity.
Dr. Edward Ransom resides at Columbia, in this (Tyrrell) County. He is a native of Virginia, born in Gloucester County on the 12th of February, 1833. He was educated at the University of Virginia and graduated at Hampden-Sidney. He was first elected to the Senate in 1873, and in 1874 was elected an Elector on the Grant ticket. In 1875 he was elected on an Independent platform from Tyrrell County to the Constitutional Convention. The position of parties and of the State was critical in the extreme. On the preliminary question of adjournment the parties were so evenly divided that upon his vote depended whether the body should organize. Dr. Ransom was elected President and turned the scale by which the State was redeemed. Dr. Ransom's course was approved by the State and by his own constituents, for he was elected to the Legislature the next year.
A biographical sketch of that eminent North Carolinian, Dr. Edward Warren, (Bey,) will be found in the article immediately following the preface, page xlix.
WAKE COUNTY.“Beneath the rule of menEntirely great, the pen is greater than the sword.Behold the arch magician's wand! In itself ’tis nothing,But catching sorcery from a master's hand,And aided by the gigantic power of the press,It paralyzes the thrones of monarchs.”—Bulwer.
“Few persons have ever lived in North Carolina,” says an editorial in the North Carolina University Magazine, February, 1854, “whose biography would be more interesting than that of the late Joseph Gales, born 1761, died 1841.” It is deemed proper to preface the sketch now attempted by some historical memoranda of the press in our State.
Martin informs us in his History of North Carolina (vol. II, 54) that a printing press was, in 1749, imported into the Province, and set up at New Berne, by James Davis, from Virginia. This was greatly needed, for from the want of such an establishment the laws were in manuscript, scarce, defective and inaccurate.
The first book printed was “A Revisal of the Laws, by Edward Moseley and Samuel Swan,” and, from its homely binding, was familiarly known as The Yellow Jacket. A copy of this edition is in the Library of Congress, presented by Hon. Samuel F. Phillips. When the Government was moved from New Berne to Wilmington, in 1764, Andrew Stuart set up a press in the latter town, and issued the first number of the North Carolina Gazette and Weekly Post-Boy. This was followed by the Cape Fear Mercury, in 1769, which was countenanced and sustained by the Committee of Safety, but discontinued at an early period of the Revolution, It was in this paper that Gov. Martin first saw, as he expressed it, “the most infamous publication of a set of people, styling themselves a Committee for the County of Mecklenburg, most traitorously declaring the entire dissolution of the laws, government and constitution of this country.” A copy of this paper was forwarded in the dispatch of Gov. Martin to his Government, dated 20th of June, 1775, which paper was withdrawn for Mr. Stevenson on the 15th of August, 1837, and has since never been recovered. There was no newspaper in the State from this date until the 28th of August, 1783, when Robert Keith issued, at New Berne, the first number of the North Carolina Gazette, or Impartial Intelligencer and Weekly General Advertiser. This was followed by the North
Carolina Gazette, printed by F. X. Martin, at New Berne, 1794. The list of newspapers established before the publication of the Raleigh Register, by Joseph Gales, in 1799, may be found in the University Magazine, III, 46.
The family of Gales came from Eckington, England, where Joseph, the subject of our present sketch, was born. With no patrimony save probity, aided by capacity and industry, he commenced the great battle of life, receiving as good an education as the country afforded. At the age of thirteen he was bound for a term of seven years to the trade of book-binding and printing, and he became master of the craft. He married, in 1784, Winifred Marshall, daughter of John Marshall, of Newark-upon-Trent, and established himself at Sheffield, Yorkshire, as printer and publisher. In 1787, with little capital, but with what is more valuable than money, “the character of an honest and industrious business man,” he issued the first number of the Sheffield Register, which, by its high tone, probity of purpose and ability, had an unprecedented circulation. “His lines had fallen in pleasant places,” and he prospered. The happiness of his domestic circle was enhanced by the birth of several children, among them were Joseph, born at Eckington, April 10, 1786, died at Washington, July, 1860, and Sarah, born at Sheffield, 1789, afterward the wife of W. W. Seaton. Mr. Gales was aided, as an assistant editor, by a prepossessing youth who became an invaluable friend, and finally his successor as editor of his journal. This youth was James Montgomery, the poet.
The troubled waves of the French Revolution reached the shores of England and excited the whole country. No district was more convulsed than Sheffield. Mr. Gales and his co-editor sympathized with the cause of reform. Riots took place. Dr. Priestly's house was attacked. Hamilton Rowan escaped to America, as did Priestly. Emmet was hanged. The habeas corpus act was suspended. The printing of an insurrectionary letter to the London Club was traced to Gales’ printing office, and Mr. Gales was only saved from arrest and the jail by placing the German ocean between him and his persecutors. He safely reached Amsterdam and went thence to Hamburg. There he was joined by his family, and in September, 1794, they embarked for America, landing in Philadelphia, then the seat of Government. Here the stenographic skill of Mr. Gales found ready employment, as the art of short-hand, in which Mr. Gales was well versed, was then almost unknown in the United States. He soon purchased a paper, the Independent Gazetteer, from the widow of Col. John Oswald. Years of prosperity now followed the dark days that they had passed. They met a warm welcome, and found many of their old English friends, as Dr. Priestly and others, refugees from oppression. The yellow fever, in 1799, again visited Philadelphia, and Mrs. Gales was one of the victims. Mr. Gales yielded to the inducements presented by some of the members of Congress from North Carolina, and decided to remove to Raleigh. He disposed of his paper to Samuel Harrison Smith, who, in 1800, accompanied the Government to Washington, where his journal was rebaptized as the National Intelligencer.
With the characteristic kindness of a pure and simple-hearted people, Mr. Gales found a cordial welcome in North Carolina, and he at once established a journal, reviving the name and motto of the one with which he had fought so brave a contest in Sheffield, the Raleigh Register. Here, at this kind and genial capital of a noble old commonwealth, more than an ordinary lifetime was passed, tranquilly and happily, by Mr. Gales, who enjoyed in its lovely climate the blessings of health and the respect of a generous community. Surrounded by warm friends and a family of affectionate and gifted children, the autumn of life came to him with its mellow influences, and Mr. Gales sought repose from the constant labors of prolonged and active employment. Mr. Gales decided to remove to Washington, where his son, Joseph, and his daughter, the wife of Col. Seaton, resided, to spend the remainder of his days. This announcement produced some excitement in the place where Mr. and Mrs. Gales had so long resided, and were so warmly respected. They could not be parted from silently and without emotion. A public dinner, at which every respectable citizen was present, was prepared, and over which Governor Swain presided; guests from a distance, among them Chief Justice Marshall and Judge Gaston, united to pay tribute in expressions of respect and affection to their venerable and beloved friend.
Governor Swain, in his address, June 4, 1867, at Raleigh, on the erection of a monument to Jacob Johnson, father of Andrew Johnson, offers this grateful tribute to the memory of Joseph Gales: “The venerable Joseph Gales was the senior of the editorial fraternity in years and journalistic experience. No one that knew him ever thinks of him but as the impersonification of kindness, benevolence and charity. His
eldest son, Joseph Gales, jr., at Washington, was joined by W. W. Seaton, who had married his sister. Col. Seaton had edited a paper at Raleigh, and the names of Gales and Seaton were transferred from the head of the Register to the National Intelligencer, the Register returning to its original status, with Joseph Gales, sr., as editor, continued the assurance so familiar to newspaper readers of the last generation: ‘Ours are the plans of fair delightful peace, unwarp't by party rage, to live like brothers.’ ” Raleigh thus gave to Washington city a brace of editors, trained in the office of the Raleigh Register, who published, for nearly a half a century, a paper that, for ability, fairness, courtesy, dignity, purity and elegance of style, was pronounced by a competent judge to compare favorably with the London Times, and certainly second to no gazette in this country.”
Joseph Gales, sr., came to Washington, and in his declining years found congenial occupation for his generous nature in managing the affairs of the African Colonization Society; and surrounded by respect, friendship and affection, were the last days of Joseph Gales on earth spent. He died in 1841. His venerable wife, whose genius had aided his labors, and whose intelligence had brightened his checkered life, had already preceded him by two years to that—
“Bourne from whence no traveler returns.”
The Register passed into the hands of his third son, Weston Raleigh Gales, who edited it until his death, July, 1848, and was succeeded by his son, Seaton Gales, born 1828, died 1878, whose premature death all who knew him so deeply regret. We trust a short sketch of him will not be unacceptable to our readers. He was born in the city of Raleigh, May 17, 1828, and graduated at the University in June, 1848. On the death of his father, in the following month, he took charge of the Register, and, although only twenty years of age, conducted it with ability and dignity.
On the commencement of the war he entered the army, and served four years as Adjutant-General of a brigade in Northern Virginia, and did a soldier's duty in nearly all the battles fought by that army. After the war he continued his editorial duties, and was associated from 1866 to 1869 with Rev. William E. Pell in the management of the Raleigh Sentinel, which under their joint efforts acquired great popularity and influence. He was nominated in 1875 as a candidate for the Convention to amend the Constitution. His canvass was able, eloquent and active; but his party was defeated. As an orator he was fluent, ready, and eloquent; and as a lecturer, instructive, pleasing, and learned. His addresses on Odd-Fellowship, in behalf of the Oxford Orphan Asylum, and at Charlotte on the Centennial celebration, were very appropriate and exceedingly graceful. He was appointed Superintendent of the Document Room of the House of Representatives at the opening of the Forty-fifth Congress, which position he held at the time of his sudden and unexpected death, on December 2, 1878. He left a wife and children to mourn their irreparable loss.
Henry Seawell, born 1772, died 1835, lived and died in Raleigh. He was a native of Franklin County; a man of strong native intellect, but of little education. He often represented Wake County in the Legislature; from 1790-1800, 1801-2, 1810-12 in the Commons; and 1821-26, 1831-32 in the Senate. In 1810 he was appointed by the Governor one of the Judges of the Superior Courts, but the Legislature did not ratify the appointment. In 1813 he was elected Judge, which he resigned in 1819. In 1832 he was again elected Judge, which he held until his death, 11th October, 1835. About 1820 he was appointed by the President one of the Commissioners under the Treaty with Ghent. He married the daughter of Colonel John Hinton, and left a large family.
A few men of the State were better known and more highly appreciated as an advocate, judge, statesman, and financier than Duncan Cameron, born 1777, died 1853. He was a native of Mecklenburg County, Virginia. Bishop Meade in his work, “Old Churches, Ministers, and Families in Virginia,” says:
“This family was ancient and highly respectable. There were four brothers (two of them ministers) who came to America from Scotland. Rev. John Cameron, one of these, succeeded Mr. Craig. He was educated at the King's College, at Aberdeen. His first charge in America was St. James’ Church, in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. In 1784 he went to Petersburg, and after spending some years there he went to Nottaway Parish. He taught school, and was made Doctor of Divinity by the College of William and Mary. As a teacher he was thorough and methodical, stern and authoritative, but he made good scholars. He continued Rector of Cumberland Parish until his death in 1815. His successor was the Rev. Jno. Micklejohn, whose name often occurs in North Carolina history, but not as a regular minister.”
Rev. John Starke Ravenscroft succeeded him, who in 1823 was consecrated Bishop of the diocese of North Carolina. Dr. Cameron married Miss Nash in Charlotte, Virginia, by whom he had several children, who inherited his virtues, piety and abilities. Among these was the distinguished subject of our present sketch, who was born in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, in 1777. He studied law with Paul Carrington; came to the bar of North Carolina in 1798 and settled in Hillsboro’, and there commenced the practice. By his assiduity and acquirements he soon attained fame and fortune. In 1800 he was appointed Clerk of the Court of Conference, (then the court of last jurisdiction,) and prepared and published the reports of cases decided in that court. It was entitled, “Reports of Cases Determined by the Judges of the Superior Courts of Law and Equity of the State of North Carolina, at their meeting on the 10th June, 1800, held pursuant to an act of Assembly for settling questions of law and equity arising in the circuit, by Duncan Cameron, Attorney-at-Law, Raleigh, from the press of Hodge & Boylan, Printers of the State, 1800.” This was an octavo of 108 pages. In 1804 this court, which had been styled the Court of Conference, was made a court of record. The judges were required to reduce their opinions to writing, and file them, and deliver the same viva voce in open court. The following year (1805) the name was changed from the Court of Conference to the Supreme Court, and converted from a temporary to a permanent tribunal. Chief Justice Taylor, “the Mansfield of North Carolina;” Judge Hall, proverbial for integrity, amiability and sound common sense, and Judge Henderson, who in genius, judgment and power of fascination in social intercourse, was without a peer, were, says Governor Swain, the three Judges in 1822. Francis L. Hawks was the reporter, who had not yet attained his 25th year, but gave promise of that distinction he afterward attained in another sphere as a brilliant writer, a learned divine, and eloquent speaker, who enjoyed a higher transatlantic reputation than any other American in the line of his profession. William Drew, of Halifax County, standing on the thin partition which divides great wit and phrensy, was Attorney-General. Of the bar were Wm. Gaston, facile princeps, Archibald Henderson, Joseph Wilson, Judges Murphey, Ruffin and Seawell; Hogg, Mordecai, Badger, Devereux and James F. Taylor. In 1806, 1807, 1812 and 1813 he represented Orange County in the House of Commons. In 1814 he was elected Judge of the Superior Court, vice Edward Harris deceased, which he resigned, after presiding with satisfaction to the bar and the country, in 1816. In 1819, 1822, and 1823 he was in the Senate of the Legislature. In 1819 he was chosen President of the State Bank. His course in the Legislature was marked by dignity, urbanity and patriotism—especially in the exciting period of the war with England; he was a leading and unflinching advocate for its active prosecution. He was the devoted friend of internal improvement, and of all schemes to develop the resources of the State, with which subject no one was more familiar. He was a member of the Board of Internal Improvement, and there was no one in whose judgment and opinion people had more confidence and respect.
As a financier he was unrivaled, not only by the clearness of his judgment as from the integrity of his character and the proverbial caution of the race from which he came. For years he presided over the largest banking institution of the State, “the Bank of the State of North Carolina,” whose affairs he conducted with unparalleled skill and success. He was elected its President in September, 1831, and resigned in January, 1840, and was succeeded by the late George W. Mordecai, who married his daughter. In private life he was a sincere and unshrinking friend, a kind neighbor, just and charitable. But, yet in his younger days at least, he observed the advice of Polonius:
“Beware of entrance into quarrel,But being in, so bear thyself that the opposerWill beware of thee.”About 1804 he had an affair of honor with William Duffey, Esq., in which Judge Cameron was wounded. But in the course of his long life, and especially its close, his career was marked by Christian sincerity and benevolence, and he was a devoted and humble member of the church. He married, in 1803, Rebecca, daughter of Richard Bennehan, by whom he had several children.
Moses Mordecai was a native of Warren County, and the eldest of the large and talented family. He read law with George Fitts, and settled in Raleigh, and became one of the most able lawyers of the State. He died at Raleigh at an early age. His brothers were:
Samuel, studied medicine under Dr. Stephen Davis, graduated at Philadelphia and moved to Mobile, where he acquired fame and fortune.
Alfred, graduated at West Point, was sent
with McClellan to Europe to report upon the improvements in warfare. On the commencement of the Civil War he resigned his commission.
George W., who was a lawyer, President of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad, and also of the Bank of the State of North Carolina. He died a few years ago universally respected and regretted.
Edmund B. Freeman, was born at Falmouth, in the State of Massachusetts, in 1795, and died in 1848. In 1805 he was brought to this State by his father, the Rev. Jonathan Otis Freeman, who for many years was at the head of many classical schools of a high character—as Murfreesboro’, Salisbury, and elsewhere. The son, after completing his education, devoted himself to the study of the law, and after due preparation was admitted to practice. He, however, never attended much to the profession. In early life he became editor of the Halifax Compiler, a paper published in the town of Halifax. About the year 1830 he was elected reading clerk of the House of Commons, and continued to fill that office by successive elections for several years. In 1835 he was chosen principal clerk to the Convention which was then called to amend the Constitution of the State. About the same time he was appointed deputy clerk of the Supreme Court, and continued to act as such, with a short intermission, until the death of his principal, John L. Henderson, Esq., in 1845. He was then appointed by the judges principal clerk of the court, and continued in the office until his death, which occurred on July 3, 1848, the very day on which the court itself expired, being abolished by the adoption of the new Constitution. As clerk of their court, the judges had the most exalted opinion of Mr. Freeman's eminent integrity and capacity, and the members of the bar with whom he was brought into contact and close relations had not only the most implicit confidence in him, and regard for him, as an officer, but also affection for him as a man. Indeed, it has been truly said of him that he was honest, competent and faithful in every public duty which he was ever called upon to discharge, and that in all the relations of private life he was kind-hearted, generous and true. He was twice married: first to Miss Mary McK. Stith, of Halifax, by whom he had one child, and then to Mrs. Foreman, the widow of Wm. Foreman, of Pitt County, who died many years before him, without leaving any children by him. His only child, a daughter, married Hamden S. Smith, Esq., of Raleigh, who died a few years ago, leaving his widow and three sons, who are still living.
We should do injustice to merit and to long and faithful public service were we not to record the character and services of a servant of the State, William Hill, who for nearly forty years was Secretary of State, and died in this responsible position.
William Hill was born in Surry (now Stokes) County, N. C., on the 23d of September, 1773, and died in Raleigh on the 29th of October, 1857, being eighty-four years, one month and six days old.
Of his early life little is known beyond the few brief reminiscences occasionally narrated by himself. His father, who removed from Caroline County, Va., was a Baptist minister, a sterling patriot and an honest man. During the war of the Revolution his stirring appeals stimulated the Whigs of this section. He was Chaplain in the American army at the battle of Guilford Court-house. His son William was then about eight years old, and he well recollected hearing the roar of the artillery, being only four miles distant from the field of battle. He has been heard to relate that a short time prior to this battle a band of Tories called at his father's house, where he and his mother were, and inquired for his father. On being told that he was not at home they departed, avowing their intention to hang him if they found him. He had incurred their hate by his devotion to the patriot cause. He was a member of the convention that met at Hillsboro’ in August, 1775, to improvise a system of government for the State. The maiden name of his wife, the mother of the subject of this memoir, was Eliza Halbert. She was a native of Caroline County, Va.
The late Secretary had in youth but limited educational facilities. He followed the plow for several months during the year to obtain money sufficient to pay his tuition at school the remainder of the year. At the early age of sixteen he taught school, thus improving his mind while he earned a livelihood.
In the month of July, 1795, having obtained a letter of introduction from Major Mark Hardin, of Chapel Hill, to James Glasgow, then Secretary of State, he came to Raleigh and entered his (Glasgow's) office as a clerk. Associated with him in the like capacity was William White, Esq., who succeeded Glasgow in office in 1798. He continued in the same position under Secretary White until about January,
1803, when he was married to Miss Sarah, daughter of Col. John Geddy. Col. Geddy was a staunch Whig. He was captured by the British and imprisoned for a long time in Charleston, S. C. He was a member of the first convention of the people held in the State on the 25th of August, 1774, at New Berne; also of the convention held at Hillsboro’ on the 21st of August, 1775; and he represented Halifax County in the State Legislature from 1774 to 1835.
A son and four daughters, all now living, were the fruits of this marriage. His wife died on February 14, 1833. A short time after his marriage he engaged in the mercantile business at Haywood, Chatham County, where he remained but a short time, returning to Raleigh during the year 1804. Here, for a while, he followed the same pursuit, at Richard Smith's old stand, Mr. Smith being then his clerk. At the session of the Legislature of 1804-5 he was appointed Magistrate for Wake County. At the February term of the court of pleas and quarter sessions in the year 1806, he was elected Register of the County; and at February term, 1807, he was elected County Court Clerk, which office he held until he was elected Secretary of State in November, 1811, succeeding William White, who died in October, 1811.
In the year 1834 or 1835 he again married. His second wife was Mrs. Frances C. Blount, relict of Joseph Blount, Esq., of Chowan County. Her maiden name was Connor. She is a lineal descendant from John Archdale, a Quaker, who succeeded Philip Ludwell as Governor of Carolina in the year 1694. By this marriage there was no issue.
At the burning of the old Capitol in 1831, Mr. Hill succeeded, by strenuous efforts, in preserving the records of his office, and had them removed to what is now the site of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. By laboring incessantly he succeeded in arranging all his papers before the meeting of the Legislature.
He held the office of Secretary of State, through all the mutations of party, to the day of his death.
Mr. Hill joined the M. E. Church in 1811, when Bishops Asbury and McKendree preached in the old State-house. He was baptized privately, by immersion. There was then no church building in Raleigh. The first church built here was that of Rev. Mr. Glendening, a Unitarian, and the building is now used as a shop. It is situated on Hargett street, near the shop of David Royster, sr. The next church was the Presbyterian, and the next the Methodist. The only person now living in Raleigh who joined the church with Mr. Hill is Wesley Whitaker, sr.
Many years ago he journeyed to Tennessee, then an almost unbroken forest. At that time it was a perilous undertaking. Robberies were by no means uncommon, and Indian outrages were of frequent occurrence. The passage of the mountains, too, was fraught with danger, as there were but few roads, and they almost impassable. While there he met a widow lady with an infant, left by her husband's death in a land of strangers, friendless and alone. She was endeavoring to make her way back to her relatives in Carolina. Obedient to the generous impulses of his nature he endeavored to secure her comfort and to shield her as far as he could from the hardships incident to the journey, frequently carrying her infant for hours in his arms. In 1811, when a candidate for the office he so long and worthily filled, he was opposed by a gentleman of deserved popularity and powerful family influence. Twice they received each an equal number of votes. Several members of the Legislature were confined to their rooms by sickness, and a committee was appointed to visit them and obtain their votes. One of these gentlemen, a brother of the widow above mentioned, but an entire stranger to Mr. Hill, recollected hearing his sister speak of the kindness shown her by him, and cast his vote, on that account, for William Hill. That one vote secured his election.
Mr. Hill had two brothers, one of whom is still living. The other was at the battle of the Horse Shoe, under Gen. Jackson, and was called by the Indians “Captain Big John Hill.” He has been dead several years.
In conclusion we append an article, published several years ago in the Asheville Messenger, and supposed to have been written by the late Gen. John G. Bynum:
“William Hill—Secretary of State. Perhaps there is not a gentleman in North Carolina who has held office as long, or given as general satisfaction to the whole State through its representatives and private business intercourse, as the one whose name stands at the head of this article. James Glasgow was the first Secretary of the State of North Carolina after the declaration of Independence. He held that office until 1798, and was succeeded by William White, who held it till removed by death in 1811, when the present Secretary took possession of an office
that he has held without interruption over forty years; ever faithful, ever at his post. Mr. Hill was born in Surry County, on Dan River, in 1773, we believe; his father was a Baptist, and was first recommended to consideration by a letter (now in the Secretary's office) from Mark Hardin to Glasgow. Amid all the changes of political strife, the contention, ascendency and overthrow of parties in the State, and the consequent scrambling for office, the finger of proscription has never been applied to our now venerable citizen and faithful public servant. In glancing at the order in which he has the books and papers pertaining to his office arranged, while paying him a visit in June last, we were struck with the order, precision and methodical arrangement of everything belonging to this important public office. After years of labor, he has just completed the arrangement of every book and paper in his office in alphabetical order. He begins with the counties commencing at A and going through, then he takes up the names in the same order; then in the file of his papers, he takes up the years beginning with the first records at 1694. The counties are arranged from 1735, and State papers from 1776. A reference may be now had by him to anything pertaining to the history of the State and the Colony that has been preserved, in a moment's time, for the last 150 years, now shrouded in the gloom of by-gone days, and many and singular and woeful are the musty records that are now imprisoned and speechless upon his shelves. The first grants given by the State of North Carolina were dated in 1777. Mr. Hill is now in a green old age, and little to hope from the pleasures of this fleeting world more than that consciousness, which is of more value than gold, of having honestly and faithfully performed his part upon the stage of human action, with an eye single to truth, honesty and the glory of his God.
“His probation upon the confines of this earth is fast approaching that point ‘where the good man meets his fate, and evinces to the world the excellence of religion and the blissful reward of a virtuous and consistent course of conduct. Such men are a blessing to the world in life, glorify their Creator in death, and leave the world the better for having lived in it, and their friends ‘not without hope.’ Mr. Hill has long been a faithful attendant, a sincere worshiper and a consistent member of the Methodist Church. Long may he live to adorn her communion, and spread abroad in society the sweet influences of virtue, honor and religion, and when he dies may his exit be calm, triumphant and peaceful, for—
‘Death is the crown of life;Were death denied, poor man would live in vain.Death wounds to cure; we fall, we rise, we reign,Spring from our fetters, hasten to the skies,Where blooming Eden withers from our sight.The King of Terrors is the Prince of Peace.’ ”His son, Dr. William G. Hill, was long a resident in Raleigh, and much respected as a generous and kind friend and skillful physician. He died a few years since universally esteemed. His son, Theophilus H. Hill, is named among “the Living Writers of the South,” by James Wood Davidson, A. M., 1869. He is also a native of the vicinity of Raleigh, born 1836. He is a lawyer by profession, and at one time edited the Spirit of the Age. He wrote verses early in life, always under impulse or inspiration, without system or object. A small volume of Mr. Hill's production appeared in 1861, entitled “Hesper and other Poems,” full of fire, irregular, hasty and crude. His later poems, Narcissus, A Gangese Dream, The Pit and the Pendulum and Sunset, give proof of the poetic genius he possesses, when regulated by study and system. Rev. Dr. Craven, the President of Trinity College, pronounces The Song of the Butterfly one of the finest of this kind of poetry in the English language. Much may be hoped in the future of Mr. Hill. The critic in “The Living Writers of the South,” on Mr. Hill's productions, says that he has been too careless of the gift he possesses, trusting too much to the inspiration of genius, rather than to reflection and study; that there is something of the moody style of Poe and not enough of cheerful romance is his poems.
Mrs. Betty M. Zimmerman was a native of North Carolina, the daughter of Rev. Thomas Meredith, an eminent divine of the Baptist denomination, and who resided near Raleigh, editor of the Baptist Recorder. Some years ago she married R. P. Zimmerman, of Georgia. For several years she resided in Augusta, but the shadow of death there fell upon her life and clouded its brightness, for there sleeps her boy, to whom she alludes in the beautiful poems, Three Years in Heaven and Christmas Tears. Since the war she has lived in Atlanta. Her writings display genius and taste, and with study and application she would rank among the best of “The Female Writers of the South.”
Andrew Johnson, born 1808, died 1875, was a native of Raleigh. He presents a notable instance of a man rising from the humblest ranks
of society, reared in ignorance and indigence, who by integrity, energy and perseverance attained the highest positions of honor and distinction. His father, Jacob Johnson, lived and died in Raleigh; his death was hastened by exertions in saving the life of a friend from drowning.
In the Raleigh Star of January 12, 1812, the following obituary notice appeared:
“Died, in this city on Saturday last, Jacob Johnson, who for many years occupied an humble but useful station. He was the city constable, sexton and porter to the State Bank. In his last illness he was visited by the principal inhabitants of the city, by all of whom he was esteemed for his honesty, sobriety, industry, and his humane, friendly disposition. Among all by whom he was known and esteemed, none lament him, except perhaps his own relatives, more than the publisher of this paper, for he owes his life on a particular occasion to the kindness and humanity of Johnson.”
His son Andrew was left an orphan at a tender age. He was apprenticed to a tailor, and worked at the trade until he was seventeen years old. He never had the advantages of school. It is said that he was taught to read by his wife, but this is doubtful. He told me that he was when a boy delighted to hear Dr. William G. Hill read, as he often did, to the boys at work from the speeches of Burke, Pitt and others from the Columbian Orator, but he did not know a letter of the alphabet. Dr. Hill, seeing the interest he took in the book, gave the book to him. This was the first book he ever owned, and from this book, by application and industry, he, unaided by any one, learned to read. He felt the importance of knowledge and resolved—
“With such jewelsAs the aspiring mind brings from the caves of knowledgeTo win his ransom from those twin jailers of the daring heart.Low birth and Iron fortune.”And in this fearful and unequal contest his efforts were successful. He moved to Greenville, Tennessee, and married; here his conduct was so exemplary that in 1830 he was chosen mayor of the place; in 1835 he was elected to the State Legislature, and from 1843 to 1853 was a Representative in the Congress of the United States. “Here,” says Forney of the Press, in his flowing, expressive style, “we knew him well, a calm, quiet man, usually, who bore the reputation among the members of being too radical and fond of impracticable reforms. But when roused he was impetuous, rash and dogmatic. He took no advice from any one, neither from the precepts of history nor the examples before him. He never yielded his opinions or condescended to explain them, or ask other persons for their opinion. He seemed to delight in alarming the timid or irresolute by the rapid advance of his theories and ultraisms.” His land system and judiciary reforms were so ultra to them that it was predicted that he would be shipwrecked in the storm he had himself evoked, and swallowed up by the waves of radicalism. But he knew the workings of the popular tide intimately and thoroughly. The storm came upon him and his opponents. It elevated him and crushed them forever. The people had confidence in him, for he sprung from the people—they “loved him because he first loved them.” In 1853 they nominated him for Governor (when the State had first been carried by the Whigs against General Pierce) in opposition to Gustavus A. Henry, an able, active and practiced statesman, whose eloquence won for him the title of “The Eagle Orator,” yet, with these odds, Johnson fearlessly entered the field, and by argument and truth overcame the elegant and ornate Henry. But the campaign of 1855 was most critical in the political wars of Governor Johnson, as it was the most important. The canvass commenced with the meteoric advent of the American party which was visible in the political horizon. It had just begun its career of unparalleled and brilliant success, and had swept within its orbit men of all parties and of all principles. This new organization, called “the Know Nothing party,” a most appropriate name, was so called from the secrecy and mystery of its rites, binding its votaries by oath to oppose the election of all foreigners and Catholics, and to so amend the Constitution that all foreigners should remain for twenty-one years, after reaching this country, before they should be permitted to vote. Never did a task appear more hopeless than any opposition to this powerful and progressive party. Yet Johnson buckled on his armor for the fray—the more formidable the advance the heavier was his resistance and the heavier were his blows. The election of Mr. Gentry, his opponent, seemed so certain that Johnson's friends invited him to withdraw, or at least begged him to be more moderate in his declamation and less hostile and aggressive in his attacks. But he spurned their timid counsel, and opened his campaign by heavy and stalwart blows, which fell heavier as the contest thickened; victory perched on Johnson's
banner, and he obtained a triumphant majority. In 1857 he was elected a Senator of the United States, which he resigned in 1862 on being appointed Military Governor of Tennessee. These were troublous and perilous times, but Governor Johnson bore himself as became a man of courage and discretion. In 1864 he was elected Vice-President, and on the death of Lincoln (April 15, 1865,) he became President of the United States. His course as President did not please the dominant party, and on February 22, 1868, the House of Representatives adopted resolutions of impeachment, founded chiefly on alleged misconduct under the tenure-of-office act. He was tried by the Senate, organized as a high court of impeachment, and acquitted. After his term as President expired he returned to his home in Tennessee, and was elected again Senator in Congress for the term commencing 1875, and sat during the extra session. He died soon after this at his residence, July 31, 1875. The verdict of the country was that he was an honest and remarkable man.
Three brothers, Joel, Joseph and Jesse Lane, removed from the County of Halifax, on the Roanoke, more than one hundred years ago, to Wake County, (formed 1770,) then Johnston, (1746.) Colonel Joel Lane built on Hillsboro’ street, in Raleigh, the residence of the late Wm. Boylan, and was one of the wealthiest and best known of these brothers. He was a member of the Provincial Council, which met at Hillsboro’ August 21, 1775. The General Assembly in June, 1781, met at his house; Colonel Lane was at this time Senator from Wake, and continued to represent the County up to the date of his death in 1795. On April 4, 1792, he conveyed one thousand acres of land to the State immediately contiguous to his residence, at Wake Court House, upon which the City of Raleigh now stands.*
General Joseph Lane, Governor Henry S. Lane, Senator and Governor of Indiana, and the late George W. Lane, Judge of United States Court of Alabama, were cousins, the grandsons of Jesse and great nephews of Colonel Joel Lane.
Joseph Lane was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, on December 14, 1801. In 1804 his father migrated to the West, and settled in Henderson County, Kentucky. Thence, in the year 1816, his son went into Warwick County, Indiana, where he became a clerk in a mercantile house, a position in which he remained some years. Having married and fixed his abode, as he then thought, for life, in Vanderburgh County, young Lane soon gained the confidence and esteem of the people, and at the election of 1822 was chosen by the voters of that County and Warwick a member of the Indiana Legislature. He was barely eligible when he took his seat, and though at that early age “a man of family,” he seems, from the accounts of his contemporaries, to have presented at his entrance into public life the appearance of quite a juvenile legislator. Hon. Oliver H. Smith, for several years a United States Senator, and a political opponent of General Lane, in a work recently published, thus described his appearance at the opening of the Legislature, of which body he himself was also a new member: “The roll calling progressed as I stood by the side of the clerk. ‘The County of Vanderburgh and Warwick,’ said the clerk. I saw advancing a slender, freckled-faced boy, in appearance eighteen or twenty years of age. I marked his step as he came up to my side, and have often noticed his air since; it was General Lane, of Mexican and Oregon fame in after years.”
The youthful representative of Vanderburgh and Warwick was subsequently frequently re-elected by the voters of those Counties, and continued to serve them, at intervals of one or two years, in one or the other branch of the Legislature, from the year 1822 to 1846, a period of twenty-four years. To any one who knows the fidelity of General Lane to the high and responsible public trusts confided to him, it is needless to say, that as a member of the Indiana Legislature he was vigilant, active and efficient. Tenacious of the rights and zealous to promote the interests of his constituents, he was at the same time just and liberal in his views on all questions affecting the rights and interests of other portions of the State. At a time when it was thought that Indiana, over-burdened with debt, would be compelled to repudiate, he labored untiringly to save the State from this deep disgrace, and had the satisfaction at last of seeing his efforts crowned with success.
* The commissioners to whom this conveyance was made were Frederick Hargett, Willie Jones, Joseph McDowell, Thomas Blount, Wm. Johnson Dawson and Jas. Martin. The place was fixed by an ordinance of the convention that met at Hillsboro’ August, 1788. The corner stone of the State House was laid in December, 1792, and in December, 1794, the General Assembly met in it for the first time. It was consumed by accidental fire on June 21, 1831, and on July 4, 1833, the corner stone of the present State House was laid. The first Legislature of North Carolina met at the house of Richard Sanderson, on Little River, in Perquimans County, in 1715. Up to this time the Legislature had no local habitation.Always capable of expressing his views clearly and forcibly on every subject of legislation, General Lane justly thought that too much of the time of all legislative bodies was consumed in idle and unprofitable debate. He accordingly did not obtrude his opinions on the body of which he was a member, on all occasions, whether suitable or unsuitable; but strove to discharge his legislative duties in a way which, if not quite so ostentations, he well knew was far more creditable to himself and useful to his constituents.
An ardent supporter of the administration of General Jackson and Martin Van Buren as long as the latter followed “in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor,” General Lane took an active part in the struggles between the Democratic and old Whig parties, and by his great weight of character and frequent and laborious canvassing, he infused a spirit like his own into the Democracy of his State.
In the spring of 1846 the war commenced between the United States and Mexico, and a call was made upon Indiana for volunteers. Among the first to respond to this call was Joseph Lane. Without waiting for a commission from the President, regardless of every consideration of self interest or self aggrandizement, looking only to the fact that his country required his services, he enlisted as a private in Captain Walker's company, Second Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. His fellow-soldiers, however, had no idea of permitting to remain in the ranks one whom nature had so obviously endowed with the qualities of a commander. He was accordingly, on the completion of the regiment, unanimously elected Colonel. Soon after, on the recommendation of the Indiana delegation in Congress, and without any solicitation on his part, President Polk sent him a commission of Brigadier-General.
The first service, if service it can be called, required of General Lane, after his arrival in Mexico was extremely irksome and disagreeable. Stationed by order of the commanding-general, with his brigade, in a swamp on the banks of the Rio Grande, he was compelled to remain inactive several months. Here, under the swelting heats of a tropical sun, his troops were decimated by the diseases peculiar to that pestilential climate. He, himself, was almost the only man belonging to the brigade who was not prostrated at some period during their long confinement on that fatal spot. At length the welcome order came to advance to Saltillo, of which place, on his arrival, he was appointed by General Butler civil and military Governor. Here, however, he was not long permitted to remain, being ordered, with his command, after the battle of Monterey, to join General Taylor.
On February 22 and 23, 1847, was fought the great battle of Buena Vista, which in nothing, save the number of the combatants, falls short of the most famous of modern times. The disposition of the American troops by the commanding-general was such that, during the engagement, the brigade of General Lane was in the hottest of the fight from the beginning to the end. The hostile operations of the opposing armies, resulting in the great battle of the 23d, commenced on the heights around Buena Vista on the 22d. On the afternoon of that day, the Mexican lines being sufficiently advanced, a shell thrown from a howitzer, by order of Santa Anna, was the signal for the attack. Immediately a heavy fire, in continued rolling volleys, was opened by the Mexican light troops under Ampudia, upon the American skirmishers on the opposite ridge of the mountain. The Americans replied with spirit, and the firing was kept up with much animation on both sides, but without any definite result, until darkness put an end to the combat, and both parties retired, to await a renewal of the strife on a more extended scale on the following day.
On the morning of the 23d the battle was renewed, and raged with the greatest fury throughout the day. The first movement of Santa Anna was to turn the left flank of the Americans. Four companies, under Major Gorman, were despatched by Gen. Lane to intercept this movement. Soon after, three companies of the Second Illinois, and three of Marshall's Kentucky regiments, were sent to Gorman's assistance. While these troops were engaged with the enemy on the brow of the mountain, a large body of Mexicans, six thousand strong, advanced to the plain, toward the position held by Gen. Lane. He immediately formed his little band, now reduced to 400 men, into line, to receive the onset of this immense force. Hardly was this movement completed when the Mexicans opened a tremendous fire from their entire line, which was returned by the Americans with promptness and good effect. “Nothing,” says an eye-witness, “could exceed the imposing and fearful appearance of the torrent of assailants, which, at this moment, swept along toward the little band of Lane. The long lines of infantry delivered a continued and unbroken sheet of fire. But their opponents, though few in number, were
undismayed, and defended their position with a gallantry worthy of the highest praise. Several times I observed the Mexican lines, galled by the American musketry, and shattered by the fearful discharges from O'Brien's battery, break and fall back, but their successive formations beyond the ridge enabled them to force the men back to their position, and quickly replace those who were slain.”
Thus commenced the battle on the plain of Buena Vista on the morning of the 23d, and continued to rage with unabated fury and varying success to that close of that memorable and eventful day. In proportion to the violence and impetuosity of the assaults of the Mexicans on the American lines, was the steady and unshaken firmness with which those assaults were received. If at any time a regiment, overcome by superior numbers, was compelled to give way, another quickly advanced to the rescue, drove back the enemy, and enabled it to regain its former position. In this way the Mexican General was kept at bay, his strength defied, his most skillful combinations and manœuvers baffled and defeated by his vigilant and active foe. Late in the afternoon, finding stratagem and force alike unavailing, the day drawing to a close and no chasm yet opened for his legions in the ranks of the enemy, Santa Anna determined, by assailing the weakest part of the American line with an overwhelming force, to make a last desperate effort to win the day. Collecting all his infantry, he ordered them to charge the Illinois and Kentucky regiments. These brave troops made a gallant resistance against the fearful odds opposed to them; but, seeing their leaders fall, and overpowered by vastly superior numbers, they gave way and began to fall back. Gen. Lane, at this critical moment, hastened forward with his brigade, and opening a destructive fire upon the Mexicans, checked their advance, and enabled the retreating regiments to form and return to the contest. This was Santa Anna's last struggle on that hotly-contested and bloody field. Night spread her mantle over the scene of conflict. The weary Americans sank to repose on a gory bed, expecting a renewal of the strife on the following day. Morning came—but no enemy appeared. Silently during the night, Santa Anna, with his shattered legions, had retired, leaving the victorious Americans masters of the field.
Gen. Lane, having been transferred in the summer of 1817 to the line of Gen. Scott's operations, reached Vera Cruz in the early part of September. On the 20th of that month he set out toward the City of Mexico with a force of about two thousand five hundred men, consisting of one regiment of Indiana and one of Ohio volunteers, two battalions of recruits, five small companies of volunteer horse, and two pieces of artillery. This force was subsequently augmented at Jalapa by a junction with Major Lally's column of one thousand men, and at Perote its strength was further increased by a company of mounted riflemen and two of volunteer infantry, besides two pieces of artillery. Several small guerrilla parties appeared atdifferent times on the route and attacked the advance and rear guards, but were quickly repulsed; and the column continued its advance unmolested along the great road leading through Puebla to the City of Mexico.
At this time Col. Childs of the regular army, with a garrison of five hundred effective troops and one thousand eight hundred invalids, was besieged in Puebla by a large force of Mexicans commanded by Santa Anna in person. This general, notwithstanding his many defeats, with a spirit unbroken by misfortune, and an energy that deserves our highest admiration, however much we may reprobate the cause in which he was engaged, had collected the remnant of his beaten army, determined, if possible, to wrest Puebla from the grasp of the American general, Scott, and thus cut off his communications with the sea coast. The gallant Childs well understood that the maintenance of his post was of the utmost importance to the success of the campaign. Every officer and soldier under his command seemed also to comprehend the immensity of the stake; and both officers and soldiers exhibited the loftiest heroism, and the most unyielding fortitude, in meeting the dangers and enduring the fatigues and privations of a protracted siege. Aware that a strong column, under Gen. Lane, was marching from Vera Cruz to their relief, the great object to be gained by the garrison was time. Santa Anna, also aware of Gen. Lane's approach, redoubled his exertions to carry the place by storm, superintending the operations of the corps in person, directing the guns to such parts of the defenses as appeared most vulnerable, and watching with intense anxiety the effect of every shot. Convinced at length by the obstinate resistance of the besieged, and the lessening distance between him and his advancing and dreaded foe, that he must abandon his position and encounter the “Marion of the war” in an open field, he silently and cautiously withdrew, and with the main body of his troops moved in the direction
of Huentla, intending, when Gen. Lane had passed that point, to make an attack upon his rear, while another strong force should assail him at the same time from the direction of Puebla. Gen. Lane being informed of Santa Anna's movements, at once penetrated his designs. With the promptness of decision displayed in all his military operations, he divided his force, leaving the Ohio volunteers and a battalion of recruits, with two field guns, to guard the wagon trains. With the remainder of his column he marched, by a route diverging from the main road, directly toward Huentla.
On the morning of October 9th the people of Huamantla were startled and dismayed to behold the formidable and glittering array spread out over the neighboring hills. White flags were immediately hung out in a token of submission, and the place seemed to have surrendered without a blow from its panic-stricken inhabitants. But suddenly the advanced guard, under Captain Walker, having entered the town, was assailed on every side by volleys of musketry. He immediately ordered a charge upon a body of 500 lancers, stationed with two pieces of artillery in the plaza. A furious and deadly combat ensued. Gen. Lane advancing at the head of his column encountered the heavy reinforcement ordered up by Santa Anna, who had now arrived with his whole force. Soon the roar of battle resounded through every street, and street and plaza were reddened with blood and covered with heaps of the slain. The Mexicans, for a short time, combated their assailants with the energy and fury of despair. But the steady and well-directed valor of the soldier of the “Republic of the North,” bore down all opposition. The Mexican ranks were broken and thrown into disorder; the order to retreat was given; and the American flag waved in triumph over the treacherous city of Huentla.
This was the last field on which Santa Anna appeared in arms against the United States. This remarkable man, universally acknowledged to be able and active, was never a successful commander. Whether this want of success is to be ascribed to the superior generalship of the leaders and prowess of the troops opposed to him, or to his own instability of purpose in the very crisis of battle, when vigor and decision are most required, we will not stop to inquire. Having, during the progress of the war, collected several large armies, and led them to defeat, he had determined with that which remained to him to make a last effort to retrieve his fortunes, and Huentla was selected as the Waterloo, where his waning star should shine out in cloudless effulgence, or sink to rise no more. If he did not encounter a Wellington on that field, he encountered one who, with Wellington's courage, united many of the higher qualities of a military commander. Perhaps he relied upon Gen. Lane's want of experience; but the courage and conduct of the latter at Buena Vista should have admonished him of the hopelessness of a contest in an open and equal field with such an officer, at the head of troops comparatively fresh, in high spirits, with full confidence in the skill and courage of their leader, and burning to rival the heroic deeds of their countrymen at Chapultepec and Cerro Gordo. Although Santa Anna from this time withdrew from an active participation in the contest between the belligerent nations, the bloody drama in which he had played so conspicuous a part was not yet closed. Much remained to be done to complete the conquest so auspiciously begun on the banks of the Rio Grande and prosecuted with such vigor by Scott in the valley of Mexico. Many bloody fields were yet to be won; many desperate bands of guerrillas yet to be defeated and dispersed, to render the subjugation of the country complete.
Defeated at Huentla, the remnant of the Mexican force fell back on Atlixo, where, on October 18th, a large body, with munitions and supplies, and two pieces of artillery, were collected, under the orders of Gen. Rea. Gen. Lane hearing of the concentration of the enemy's troops at that point, hastened with the small force at his disposal to attack them. After a long and fatiguing march on a hot and sultry day, he encountered the enemy strongly posted on a hill-side, within a mile and a half from Atlixo. The Mexicans made a show of desperate resistance, but being vigorously assaulted by the cavalry, closely followed by the entire column, they gave way and fled in confusion toward the town. It was not until after night-fall that the whole command of Gen. Lane reached Atlixo, having marched ten Spanish leagues since eleven o'clock in the forenoon. Disposing his troops in such manner as to command the approaches by the main roads, he opened a vigorous cannonade from a height which commanded the town. The guerrillas, however, had fled, and the authorities having soon after surrendered the place into his hands, his weary troops entered the town and sought the repose they so much needed.
It is impossible, within the limited space alloted to this sketch, to present a detailed account
of all Gen. Lane's military operations at this period. In authentic histories of the war and official documents filed in the archives of government, the reader will find the record of his achievements—his long and toilsome marches by night and by day over a wild and rugged country, full of narrow defiles and dangerous passes; his frequent surprises of the enemy; his sudden incursions far away into remote valley and plain; his fierce combats and glorious victories. At Tlaxcala, Matamoras, Jalapa, Tulancingo, Zacuataplan, as at Huentla and Olintla, Mexican valor yielded to the force of his impetuous and well-directed assaults. On every field the ranks of the enemy went down before the thundering charge of his cavalry, the fierce onset of his resistless infantry. The fame of his achievements soon spread through Mexico, and the terror with which the enemy was inspired by his death-dealing blows and almost ubiquitous presence, was equaled only by the unbounded confidence and enthusiasm infused into his followers by his gallant bearing, and the prestige of a name ever relied on by them as the sure guarantee of victory. For one quality as much as any other, perhaps more than even his dauntless courage, Gen. Lane was distinguished throughout the war—humanity to the vanquished. His bright fame was unsullied, his escutcheon untarnished by a single act of wanton outrage or cruelty during the whole time he bore a commission in the American army. When the fight was over and the victory won, the field of carnage where a short time before foeman had met foeman in deadly conflict, presented the spectacle of stern and swarthy warriors imbued with the humane spirit of their leader, bending over the heaps of the dying and the dead, selecting now a friend and now a foe. from whom the vital spark had not yet fled, staunching his wounds, and if the sufferer had not yet passed beyond the power of human aid to save, restoring him by their kind ministrations to life and health, family, home and friends. An officer thus distinguished for courage and humanity; unyielding fortitude under the severest privations; an originality and promptness in the formation of his plans, surpassed only by the boldness and rapidity of their execution; a celerity of movement which annihilated time and distance; with a power of endurance that defied hunger and thirst, heat and cold—such an officer, never for a moment relaxing his exertions, and daily adding some new name to the list of his conquests, could not fail to attract the attention and excite the admiration of the army, and win the approbation and applause of his countrymen in all parts of the United States. There was a tinge of romance in his exploits which possessed on irresistible attraction, and captivated the imagination of all classes of admirers. But imagination has had little to do with the final judgment which his countrymen have pronounced upon his conduct. The parallel traced at the time between his deeds and character and those of an illustrious hero of the Revolution, suggested to his countrymen a suitable way of testifying their appreciation of his services and admiration of his character; and they have, with a unanimity which shows that the parallel is not altogether imaginary, bestowed upon him a title, prouder than any ever conferred by a patent of nobility from prince or potentate—the title of “The Marion of the Mexican War.”
On March 10, 1848, the treaty of peace between the United States and Mexico was ratified by the Senate. General Lane remained some months in Mexico after peace was concluded, directing the movements and superintending the embarkation of troops returning home.
Returning to the United States in July, a few days after he reached home he was appointed by President Polk Governor of the Territory of Oregon. This appointment, entirely unsolicited, General Lane, against the wishes of many of his friends, concluded to accept; and having made the necessary preparations, started across the plains in September, with an escort of twenty men. After a journey across the plains and mountains, full of peril and hardship, he arrived in Oregon in March, 1849, and immediately organized the Territorial Government.
Of the ability with which he performed the duties of Governor, no better testimony could be given than is furnished by the fact that when superseded by Governor Gaines, on the accession of General Taylor to the Presidency, he was elected by the people of Oregon Delegate in Congress, a position which he long held.
The military career of General Lane did not close with the termination of hostilities between the United States and Mexico. In Oregon he was destined to add other laurels to those already won. The Indians of that territory gave the whites much trouble, destroying lives and property, and thereby greatly impeding the progress and retarding the settlement of the country. In 1853 occurred a formidable outbreak on Rogue river, in the southern part of
Oregon. General Lane immediately collected a force, composed of settlers, miners and a few officers and soldiers of the regular army, attacked the Indians near Table Rock, and after a desperate conflict, in which he was severely wounded, drove them from their position. Following up this success with great vigor, he administered such chastisement that they soon gave up the contest, and were glad to accede to any terms of peace.
He continued in Congress till the admission of Oregon as a State, when he was chosen Senator in Congress until 1861.
In 1860 he was nominated as Vice-President with Mr. Breckenridge, but defeated. He has since retired from public life, but his gallant son, Lafayette Lane, born 1842, elected a member to the 44th Congress, 1875-77, worthily bears his name and his honors—the worthy son of a gallant father.
William Woods Holden resides in Raleigh, a native of Orange County, where he was born November 24, 1818. His early education was at an “old field school” until he was sixteen years old, when he was employed at Dennis Heartt's printing office, in Hillsboro’, N. C. At the age of eighteen he went to Raleigh and was employed in the office of Thomas J. Lemay, Esq. He read law and was admitted to the bar in 1841. But his appropriate element was the press. In June, 1843, he purchased of Thomas Loring the Raleigh Standard, which he conducted for twenty-five years with unparalleled ability and success. No paper in the State ever wielded a more powerful influence in North Carolina. It killed and made alive. Although it was thought at the time to be an unmeaning and empty boast, yet history records that its favor did make the political fortunes of many, while its frowns withered, with upas-like influence, the hopes of others. In 1846 Mr. Holden was elected a member of the House of Commons from Wake County, but this was not the arena suited to his character or his tastes, and he declined a re-election. He served several years as a member of the Literary Board, under the administrations of Governors Bragg and Ellis. He was also one of the commissioners of the Deaf and Dumb Institution and of the Insane Asylum. He was a member of the Secession Convention in 1861, and signed the ordinance separating North Carolina from the Union. During the war Mr. Holden was a sufferer, and his office was ravaged by violence. On May 29, 1865, he was appointed by the President Provisional Governor of North Carolina under the reconstruction plan of President Johnson. In 1866 he was offered the mission to San Salvador, which he declined.*
In April, 1868, he was elected Governor of the State for four years by popular vote over Judge Thomas S. Ashe, which stood 92,235 for Holden and 73,594 for Ashe. Parties were now arrayed in angry antagonism, and madness and misrule marks this era. Matters came to such a crisis that the House of Representatives on December 20, 1870, presented eight articles of impeachment against Governor Holden “for high crimes and misdemeanors” to the Senate, which as a high court of impeachment proceeded to try the same. Chief Justice Pearson presided; the managers appointed by the House were Thomas Sparrow, chairman; James G. Scott, of Onslow; Wm. G. Welch, of Haywood; T. D. Johnston, of Buncombe; G. A. Gregory, of Martin; Jno. W. Dunham, of Wilson; C. W. Broadfoot, of Cumberland. Governors W. A. Graham and Thomas Bragg and Judge A. S. Merrimon were counsel for the managers. Nor were the counsel for the respondent obscure or less able. They were Hon. W. N. H. Smith, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Nathaniel Boyden, J. M. McCorkle, Edward Conigland and Richard Badger, Esquires. After a patient examination of the testimony and arguments by both sides, the Senate did, March 22, 1871, by a vote of two-thirds of the members, pronounce W. W. Holden guilty of the charges contained in six of the eight articles, and pronounced the sentence that “he be removed from the office of Governor and disqualified to hold any office of trust, honor or profit under the State of North Carolina”—the first of the United States to get rid of a Governor in this way. After this event Governor Holden, (succeeded by Todd R. Caldwell as Governor,) came to Washington, and for a time was the editor of the National Republican. After being for a time in this position he returned to Raleigh and was appointed Postmaster of that place. Gov. Holden is now in “the sear and yellow leaf of life.” He has been twice married: first to Miss A. Young in 1841, and second to Louisa Virginia Harrison, by whom he has an interesting family. In this sketch we have tried to state only acknowledged facts, without extenuation or “setting down aught in malice.” History will
* His defeat by Governor Worth in 1865 is recited in the sketch of that gentleman under head of Randolph County.show that he was “more sinned against than sinning.”
Judge Daniel G. Fowle resides in Raleigh. He was born and raised in Washington, Beaufort County, the son of the late Samuel R. Fowle, a prominent merchant at that place, a native of Boston, and a useful citizen. He studied law and has attained eminence in his profession. He served in the army as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Thirty-first Regiment and as Adjutant-General of the State. In 1865 he was appointed by Governor Holden one of the judges of the Superior Court. He is now in the successful practice of his profession and a prominent candidate for Governor, and known as the silver-tongued orator. He has been twice married: first to a daughter of Judge Pearson, and then to Mary, daughter of Dr. Fabius J. Haywood, of Raleigh.
John Watrous Beckwith is now the Episcopal Bishop of Georgia. He is a native of Raleigh, son of Dr. John Beckwith, and graduated at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. He read law and practiced for a time, but exchanged, as Hawks and others, the bar for the pulpit. He was ordained as a deacon at Wilmington in 1854, and a priest at Warrenton in 1856. He was residing in Maryland at the opening of the war, and, as his brother Polk, felt it a duty to God and his country to join the suffering South. He entered as Chaplain, served through Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia until the war ended. He then took charge of St. John's Church at Savannah, and in 1868 was consecrated Bishop of Georgia. He is a fluent speaker and blessed with winning eloquence.
The Right Reverend John Stark Ravenscroft, D. D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the North Carolina diocese from the date of his consecration, April 22, 1823, to the date of his death, March 5, 1830, was during a part of his episcopate a resident of the city of Raleigh. We collate from a memoir by Mr. Walker Anderson, attached to the edition of his “Works,” the following: Bishop Ravenscroft, born in the year 1772 upon an estate near Blanford, County of Prince George, Virginia, long a possession of his family. He was the only child of Dr. John Ravenscroft, a gentleman of fortune, educated for the practice of medicine; the mother was a daughter of Mr. Hugh Miller, a Scotch gentleman resident of the same County, both parents being descended on the mother's side from the extensive and respectable family of Bollings. He says: “Though a native of Virginia, of which State my progenitors, as far back as I have been able to trace them, with the exception of my maternal grandfather, were also natives, yet my first recollections are of Scotland, my parents having removed there from Virginia the same year in which I was born; and after an interval of about two years spent in the north of England purchased and settled finally in the south of Scotland, where my mother and two sisters still reside.” Here his father died, 1780, and his mother availed herself of the excellent opportunity which Scotland afforded of giving her son a classical education; after he had finished his course at one of the most respectable grammar schools in that country, she placed him at a seminary of somewhat higher grade in the north of England, where, besides continuing his classical studies, he was instructed in mathematics, natural philosophy and other sciences. He left Scotland and reached Virginia in January, 1789, then just seventeen years old. He came to look after the remains of his father's property. In this he was so far successful as to be subsequently in easy if not affluent circumstances. He entered William and Mary College, intending to devote himself to the study of the law, of which Mr. Wythe was then the professor, but owing to the extreme laxity of discipline in the college, joined to the large pecuniary allowance made by his guardian, habits of extravagance and dissipation were induced, and he did not derive any great benefit from the lectures of this eminent lawyer. This fact is frankly confessed in the autobiographical sketch referred to. It does not appear that he was ever licensed in the profession, but in Williamsburg he formed the acquaintance of a lady, whose lovely character appears from that time to have exerted an influence over his wayward disposition sufficiently powerful to counteract the adverse influence of his former bad habits and want of religious principles, and to make him the estimable and respectable man he afterward became, until the more powerful operation of Divine grace brought him into God's ministry. About the year 1792 he visited Scotland for the last time, converted his inheritance into money, which justified him in marrying the estimable lady just referred to, on his return to Virginia. This event occurred a short time previous to his coming of age, when he married the daughter of Lewis Burwell, of Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and settled in Lunenburgh County, not far from Mr. Burwell; here he devoted himself to the usual pursuits of a country life. As a husband, a master and a member of society, Mr. Ravenscroft was
everything that was estimable, and the absurd stories of his fondness for gaming and other low vices are utterly groundless. It is true that his good qualities were all obscured by a more than ordinary neglect and perhaps contempt of religious obligations. And it is this that led him, when afterward connected with the church, to loathe himself to the degree which was so remarkable a trait of his religious character. But many a mere moralist has built his claims for acceptance with his God upon a foundation far more slender than the morality which Mr. Ravenscroft practiced during this period of his life, though without any reference to his accountability. Some groundless stories respecting the immediate causes and manner of his conversion have been related, and even published, but it is well for Mr. Ravenscroft's own reputation that he left in writing an excellent, interesting and detailed account of the rise and progress in his heart of that great change by which he “put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man and put on the new man.” Up to that time that he lived without “God in the world,” as he himself was ever most ready to acknowledge, and his life had been the mere details of an ordinary irreligious life, passed in the obscurity of the country, possessing neither novelty or instruction.
Though blessed in many ways, more especially with a wife who seems to have found her happiness in promoting his; with an estate that was equal to his utmost wishes, and with the respect and affection of a large circle of friends, he yet experienced that truth which enters so largely into the experience of every man, that the happiness of this world is empty and unsatisfying, and his well-informed mind, after a night of delusion, was brought to the conviction that “here was not his rest.” This he thought he found in a body of Christians then called Republican Methodists; and influenced by a personal attachment for one of their preachers, Mr. John Robinson, of Charlotte County, he and his wife, “who opened her mouth with wisdom, and whose tongue was the law of kindness,” took membership with that body. This was in the year 1810; in 1815 he became much exercised on the subject of the ministry, believing he was called thereto, and was earnestly solicited by his brethren to assume its duties. He was compelled, after thoroughly canvassing the matter, to look to the Protestant Episcopal Church for that deposit of apostolic succession, in which alone is the verifiable power to minister in sacred things, to be found in the United States. On February 17, 1816, Bishop Moore gave him letters of license as a lay-reader, and on April 25, 1817, in the Monumental Church at Richmond he was made deacon, and, for reasons satisfactory to the Bishop and standing committee of the diocese, at the same time he had conferred upon him the orders of priesthood, being ordained thereto on May 6, 1817, at Fredericksburg; he returned to his parishes of Cumberland, in Lunenburg, and of St. James, in the County of Mecklenburg. Having lost his wife in 1814, he was married to his second wife in 1818, a Miss Buford, of Lunenburg County, whose consistent Christian character was at once a comfort and an aid to him during their union.
In 1823 he received an invitation to take charge of the large and flourishing congregation at Norfolk, but not conceiving that any call of duty accompanied this invitation, he promptly declined it, “as nothing in the shape of emolument could move him from where he was, and induce him to sacrifice his predilections and attachment to his own flock.” He was shortly afterward “called” to the Monumental Church, in Richmond, to be the assistant of that venerable prelate, Bishop Moore. For the good of the church, Mr. Ravenscroft was preparing to yield to what he considered as an imperative call of duty and to accept this invitation, when a call of a yet more imperative nature reached him from North Carolina, coming under circumstances which at once forbade a rejection.
The church in North Carolina had shared the same fate during the Revolutionary war that had involved all other portions of it in this country in so much gloom and depression. The violent prejudices, to the injustice of which it is hardly necessary to recur, which had brought odium and persecution upon its ministers elsewhere, existed here in their full vigor. The effect, indeed, of these prejudices seems to have been more remarkable in North Carolina than any where else, the church being identified as one of the concomitants of royalty. The cry of “down with it, down with it even to the ground,” accomplished the wishes of the enemies of the church; and long after this Zion had arisen from the dust and put on her beautiful garments, in other portions of her borders, her children here had still to weep when they remembered her. It was not until the year 1817 that three clergymen who had been called to the towns of Fayetteville, Wilmington and New Berne, encouraged by some influential laymen in the two last-mentioned towns, proposed a
convention for the purpose of organizing the church in this State. A convention was accordingly held in New Berne, June, 1817, attended by three clergymen and six or eight lay delegates. The second convention was more numerously attended, and the church from that time continued rapidly to increase, or, to speak more properly, to revive from her long and deadly torpor. At a convention held in Salisbury, attended by all the clergy and an unusually full delegation of laymen, in the year 1823, Mr. Ravenscroft was unanimously elected bishop of the diocese, and furnished with the requisite testimonial; he received his high commission in the city of Philadelphia, April 22, 1823, where he received his consecration at the bands of the venerable Bishop White, Bishops Griswold, Kemp, Croes, Bowen and Brownell being also present and assisting.
Bishop Ravenscroft was only required to devote one-half of his time to the diocese, the other portion was used in the pastoral charge of the congregation at Raleigh. He set out on his Episcopal tour in June, within one month after his consecration.
His devotion to both his diocese and parish always continued unremitted, besides “the care of all the churches,” which to a mind so solicitous as his, respecting every thing that concerned their well being, was a source of constant and corroding anxiety. The mere physical labor of his annual visitations was an immense strain on his system. The farthest western County was more than three hundred miles distant from the more eastern, and yet long after disease had established itself in his enfeebled body he punctually and resolutely made his yearly visits to both sections, and these were only discontinued a short time previous to his death, when he had become utterly incapable of travel.
In 1828 he was compelled to give up his pastoral duties in the congregation at Raleigh; immediately the large congregations of New Berne and Wilmington both sought his services, interrupted and hindered as they were, but these he declined, and selected the village of Williamsborough (now in Vance County) as the place of his residence, the congregation of that parish being small and never had the benefit of regular services. About this time he lost the whole of his worldly substance by a surety debt, the issue of which was his utter financial ruin; and yet a greater misfortune befell him, for, in January, 1829, he lost his faithful spouse by death. Yet was he willing to meet the will of God, and so confiding in that blissful hope of immortality, he lingered until March 5, 1830, the date of his death. His remains were deposited beneath the chancel of Christ Church at Raleigh.
In person, Bishop Ravenscroft was large and commanding, with a countenance in its general aspect, perhaps, austere, but susceptible of the most benevolent expression. His manner corresponded with his person, especially when exercising his ministerial functions, being remarkably dignified, and so solemn and impressive as to inspire all who had witnessed it with reverence. As a man he was liberal in his views, independent in his principles, just almost to punctiliousness, honest in his intentions, warm and kind in his feelings, bold and fearless in the cause of truth, and remarkably regardless of self in all he said or did.
As a citizen he was warmly attached to the free institutions of our country, and was often heard to rejoice that the church, of which he was an overseer, was untrammeled by any alliance with the civil power.
As a neighbor, he was kind and charitable, being considerably skilled in medicine; he was, while resident in Virginia, the chief physician in his neighborhood, and performed the laborious duties attached to this beneficent species of charity with cheerfulness and alacrity.
As a minister of the divine word, Bishop Ravenscroft was faithful, diligent and zealous. He loved to proclaim the goodness of God and the glad tidings of the gospel; and his appeals to the hearts and understanding were fervid and animated. He preached the gospel in its utmost purity. His success as a preacher no doubt arose in part from the familiarity which his early experience had given him with all the recesses of the unconverted heart, and the searching fidelity with which he portrayed its utmost secret workings. Not like the spy who had merely discovered the outward defenses of the enemy's camp, but like one who had been born and bred within its precinets, he knew every assailable point, every defenseless outpost, and bearing down upon it with impetuous force, it was impossible to withstand the assault.
His solemn and impressive manner, his finely modulated voice, his commanding figure, and evident earnestness in the sacred cause in which he was engaged, never failed to command the attention and to move the hearts of his auditory; all were constrained to admit his zeal and singleness of purpose. Long may the mild influence of his pious example continue to bless the church which he so dearly loved, and may she ever pay a grateful and merited tribute to his memory.
Levi Silliman Ives, D. D., LL. D., was born in Meriden, Conn., September 16, 1797, but at a very early age removed with his parents to Turin, Lewis County, New York, where he lived until he attained his fifteenth year, and was then entered at the academy in Lowville. During the later months of the war with Great Britain he was in the military service of the United States, but upon the return of peace he became a student once more, and joined the classes at Hamilton College in 1816.
At first he studied for the Presbyterian ministry, but before he was ordained was compelled to leave the college by a very serious illness, and when health was restored he changed his religious views and united himself to the Protestant Episcopalians. He removed to New York city in 1820, and studied theology with Bishop Hobart, by whom he was ordained in August, 1822; three years afterward he married Rebecca, a daughter of the bishop. His first mission was to Batavia, in Genessee County, New York; subsequently he was called to Trinity Church, Philadelphia, where he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop White, and in 1827 removed to Lancaster, Penn., where he had charge of Christ Church. In the next year he served as an assistant minister at Christ Church, New York city, for about six months, when he became rector of St. Luke's in that city; here he remained until he was consecrated bishop of the diocese of North Carolina in September, 1831. In North Carolina he became popular for his efforts in behalf of education, and his success in providing for the spiritual welfare of the slave population.
His works on theology, entitled the “Apostles’ Doctrine and Fellowship,” New York, 1844, and the “Obedience of Faith,” New York, 1849, gained him great distinction as a theologian. When the excitement as to the Oxford tracts began in the Episcopal Church, he made a strong effort in favor of that movements, and so alienated from himself the confidence of his diocese.* From that time his position became exceedingly uncomfortable and most unhappy, and while in Rome in 1852 he openly allied himself with the Church of Rome. Such an act, as might be expected, received the severe denunciations of the Protestant religious papers, and Doctor Ives defended his course in the publication of a book, entitled “The Trials of a Mind in its Progress to Catholicism,” (London and Boston, 1834.) On his return to America he became professor of rhetoric in St. Joseph's Theological Seminary, and lectured in the convents of the Sacred Heart and of the Sisters of Charity, in New York city. He also occasionally lectured in public, and became active in the cause of the Church of Rome as president of the conference of St. Vincent de Paul. To him the City of New York is indebted for the establishment in 1858 of the “Catholic Male Protectory,” and the “House of the Angels,” a home for vagrant and orphan children of Catholic parentage; both of these were eminently successful, and were subsequently removed to West Chester County, in that State. Until his death, in 1868, he was president of these institutions. Dr. Ives was a very able but strangely erratic gentleman, and a most eloquent speaker; his conversion to the Romish Church was an exceedingly unfortunate circumstance, and without honor or profit; on the contrary, it drew upon him a great amount of obloquy, and will give his name for ever hereafter a notoriety most undesirable,* over which his sincerest friends lament as over a premature death.
Rev. Richard Sharp Mason, D. D., was for a long time a resident of Raleigh, and the rector of the Episcopal Church, from 1840 until his death in 1875. He was a man of deep and diversified learning, and of exemplary and agreeable manners. A native of the Island of Barbadoes, one of the English West India Islands, where he was born December 29, 1796, he was brought to this country when quite young by his parents, and educated in Philadelphia. He was admitted by Bishop White in 1817 as deacon of the Episcopal Church, and became rector of Christ Church, New Berne. In 1820 he was received into the order of priests by Bishop Moore (Rich'd Channing) in St. Paul's Church, Edenton. Dr. Mason remained some ten years in New Berne, a faithful, active pastor, and an earnest, self-denying missionary; for the church had then scarcely any foothold
* It is an error to say that Bishop Ives made a strong effort in favor of the Oxford movement, and so alienated from himself the confidence of his diocese. Bishop Ives in common with perhaps a large majority of his clergy heartily sympathized with that movement, as it was only carrying out those church principles for which Bishop Ravenscroft had contended. Bishop Ives allenated the confidence of his diocese by endeavoring to introduce Romish practices, especially auricular confession, and to maintain that they were authorized by the church.—J. B. C., jr.* I think the first words most accurate. Bishop Ives’ friends could not have felt his death a sad event, except that it would have parted them. They felt his defection to Rome much more deeply than they could have felt his death.—J. B. C., jr.in this diocese beyond the limits of New Berne, Wilmington and Fayetteville; to these Dr. Mason rejoiced to minister.
In 1828 he was elected president of Geneva, now Hobart, College, New York, which he exchanged in 1835 for the presidency of Newark College, in Delaware. There he trained many pupils who became distinguished in after life; he remained for five years, when he became the rector of Christ's Church, at Raleigh, and here, for the space of an ordinary lifetime, he discharged his sacred duties with zeal, integrity and great usefulness. All who knew Dr. Mason can testify to the purity of his life and the sincerity of his character. He died 1875 universally loved and respected, leaving a wife and several children. Mrs. Mason is quite an authoress, and is named among “Southland Writers,” and one of “the Living Female Writers of the South,” (by May T. Tardy, Philadelphia, 1870,) for possessing great merit as a writer, and genius as an artist in sculpture; had she devoted her life to art, she would have rivaled Harriet Hosmer or Vinnie Ream in excellence. Her head of General Lee, cut in cameo, is said to be an exquisite work.
James Saunders, son of William Saunders and Betsy Hubbard, his wife, daughter of Thomas Hubbard, was born April 25, 1765, in Lancaster County, Virginia, where the Saunders family had been established for near a century. On February 16, 1790, he left the old homestead intending to go to the then far West, but by the persuasion of relatives was prevailed upon to remain for near three years in the County of Brunswick, Virginia, when having abandoned his purpose to go West, he came to North Carolina and settled in the Edenton district. On January 7, 1798, he married Hannah, widow of Jacob Simons, of Chowan County, and daughter of James Sitterzen, of Perquimans County, who, with Zebulon Clayton, Richard Sanderson, James Sumner, Thomas Doctar, Jacob Chancey, Joseph Sutton, Nathaniel Carruthers, John Stephey, Marmaduke Norfleet, John Stephenson and Thomas West, were on March 23, 1734, appointed by Governor Gabriel Johnston, “by and with the advice and consent of His Majesty's council, justices of the peace for the precinct of Perquimans, to set and hold a court on the third Monday in the months of April, July, October and January yearly.”
The only child of this marriage was Joseph Hubbard Saunders, who was born in Chowan County on December 26, 1800. He was educated at home in the country and in the town of Edenton until he was about fifteen years of age, when he was sent to Raleigh to school, where he remained until January, 1819, when he entered the University of North Carolina, joining the sophomore class, half advanced. In June, 1821, he graduated with distinction, being, as his contemporaries said, the best writer in the college. After his graduation he remained at the university as a tutor and as a student at law with Judge Nash. Abandoning the study of the law for the study of theology with a view to entering the church, he resigned his tutorship upon the death of his father in 1824, and returned to Edenton, and for several years was in charge of the academy at that place.
On February 6, 1831, in Richmond, Virginia, he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Moore, and on March 18, 1832, at Warrenton, North Carolina, he was made a priest by Bishop Ives of the Episcopal Church. In 1832 and 1833 he was in charge of the Episcopal Church at Warrenton, preaching also at stated periods at Louisburg, Williamsboro’, Halifax and Scotland Neck. On April 25, 1833, he married Laura Lucinda Baker, daughter of Dr. Simmons Jones Baker, of Martin County, North Carolina. In 1834 he removed to Raleigh in consequence of the establishment of the Episcopal school, of which institution he was one of the principal promoters, and had been appointed chaplain. In spite of the favorable auspices under which it was managed the attempt to establish a diocesan school for the education of boys in North Carolina proved, for causes unnecessary here to mention, unsuccessful, and in the fall of 1836 he moved to Pensacola, Florida, having received a call to the charge of the parish there, mainly through the instrumentality of Judge John A. Cameron and Judge Walker Anderson, then citizens of the place, but formerly of North Carolina. On October 24, 1839, he died of fever, the yellow fever being epidemic at that time, and was buried under the vestry room of his church.
A man of great learning united with rare practical sense, of deep and unaffected piety, and of tireless energy, it was his fortune to take a prominent part in shaping the destiny of the church he loved so well, both in his native and in his adopted State. When he entered its ministry in North Carolina it had no bishop and but a handful of clergy; before he left it an impetus had been given that is felt to this day. That day was the seed time, the present is the harvest. How he accomplished so much
in so short a time is a wonder to every one who recalls that he died ere he was yet forty years of age. To this day even he is always referred to in North Carolina as “the Reverend Mr. Saunders.” In what esteem he was held in Florida will be shown by an extract from a letter from Hon. Walker Anderson, afterward chief justice of the Supreme Court of Florida, to Rev. W. M. Green, then professor at the University of North Carolina, now the venerable bishop of Mississippi:
PENSACOLA, FLORIDA, October 27, 1839.
“MY DEAR SIR: It has been a long time since we interchanged a letter, and it is a sad occasion that prompts me now to renew our correspondence. We have lost a beloved and valued friend, and I know it will afford you a mournful pleasure to learn some particulars of his last hours. Our excellent pastor, the Rev. Mr. Saunders, has been removed from his labors on earth to his reward in heaven, and left a whole community in tears. He died on Thursday morning, the 24th instant, after a distressing illness of eight days with malignant brain fever. You have heard doubtless of the terrible scourge with which our near neighbor, Mobile, has been visited this fall. Among the fugitives from that place many came here, and, bringing the seeds of disease with them, they came only to linger and die among strangers. There were, therefore, many calls upon the sympathy of all; none responded to such calls more freely than our dear friend. He was continually abroad day and night with the sick and dying, exposing himself fearlessly to the sun and the dews. On the Sunday before his illness commenced he preached at the request of the Commodore of the squadron here on board of the flagship, and on his return complained that he felt the sun beating powerfully on his head as he was preaching; for the service was on deck, and his being elevated brought his head near to the awning, which was between them and the sun. Though he felt his head affected from this time, he did not complain much of it, and on Tuesday night, being called up at midnight to visit a young lady who was dying with yellow fever, he went, having to walk near a half mile in a high, keen wind. He was up the whole night, and spoke to me afterward of the severe trial of feeling he underwent from the painful circumstances of the death-bed he attended. On Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock he was taken with a chill, followed by high fever. From the first he had the best medical advice, the fleet surgeons from both the American and French squadrons being assiduous in their attention, and I need not say he was nursed as faithfully as the most devoted love could dictate by his anxious and sorrowing people. His disease at first seemed to be a common bilious fever, such as has prevailed lately to some extent among us, but which is usually mild and easily managed, and in his case it seemed to yield readily to the prescriptions, but on Monday we began to perceive indications of an affection of the brain, and during that night we could no longer mistake the malignant character of the attack. On Thursday morning after waking from a sleep of some hours his mind was greatly obscured, and before that night came a dismal darkness had settled over his fine and well-balanced intellect. He raved incessantly and incoherently, but in all his wanderings God and Christ and heaven was the burden of his thoughts. He was ever going through some of the services of the church or in a loud and anxious tone exhorting his people. He would call on us to pray, and with a devout and impassionate manner repeat scraps from the Prayer Book, and once he got as far in the Lord's Prayer as the petition ‘Thy will be done.’ This continued with but little intermission for forty-eight hours; for even when his strength failed him by bending your ear to his lips you would find he still was whispering about the church and kindred topics. He sunk to rest without apparent suffering, though while his extremities were chilling with the damps of death, the heat of the top of his head was almost painful to the touch. Not a single glimmering of reason was permitted to cheer those who watched his parting struggle. He was buried on the afternoon of Thursday with more than the ordinary marks of respect. The floor of of his vestry room was removed and his grave dug beneath the spot in which he was in the habit of sitting when there. The vestry, besides addressing a letter of condolence to his widow, full of admiration for his character and sorrow for his loss, have determined to erect a tablet to his memory. So universal was the reverence in which he was held that on the day of his death and funeral the stores of the whole city were closed, the Creoles and Catholics uniting heartily with his own people in this demonstration of respect, and the officers of the French squadron, which is lying in our harbor, attended the services in full uniform.”
By his marriage with Miss Baker he left four
children: 1. Richard Benbury, born in Raleigh, March 12, 1834; 2. William Lawrence, born in Raleigh, July 30, 1835; 3. Anne, born in Pensacola, April 20, 1837; 4. Joseph Hubbard, October, 1839.
I. Richard was educated liberally, and graduated at the University in June, 1854, and after a course of study in chemistry, established himself at Chapel Hill as a chemist and druggist, and has been ever since engaged, except when absent in the army, which in response to the call of the Governor he entered as a member of the Orange Light Infantry, commanded by Captain R. J. Ashe, and was elected second lieutenant; went with his company to Raleigh April, 1861, and formed part of the First Regiment North Carolina Volunteers, Col. D. H. Hill, known as “the Bethel Regiment,” and was engaged in the battle. He was promoted and commissioned as captain and A. Q. M. of the regiment. He was mustered out after the expiration of his term of service. He married in November, 1856, at the residence of her uncle, Frederick Stanton, Mary Stanton, daughter of late Gerard Brandon, ex-Governor of that State. They have had five children, and reside at Chapel Hill.
II. Wm. Lawrence Saunders, the present Secretary of State, was born in Raleigh, July 30, 1835; graduated in June, 1854; studied law with Judge Battle, and admitted to the bar 1856. He moved to Salisbury, and resided there till the civil war opened; he volunteered in April, 1861, as a member of the Rowan Rifle Guards, commanded by Captain Frank McNeely, and ordered to Fort Johnston, below Wilmington. He was appointed a lieutenant in the Rowan Artillery, then in camp of instruction near Weldon. This battery was with the 4th Regiment North Carolina troops, and with this regiment marched to Manassas Junction, arriving there a few days after the battle. Having been appointed captain by Governor Clark, he returned to Salisbury and enlisted a company of infantry for the war, and took it to Raleigh for instruction at Camp Mangum; they became a part of the 46th Regiment North Carolina troops, Colonel Hall. In May, 1862, the regiment was ordered to Goldsboro’, thence to Richmond, and then to Drury's Bluff, where it became a part of General J. G. Walker's brigade. He was twice wounded, once at the first battle of Fredericksburg in the right cheek, and at the Wilderness in May, 1864, very severely, the ball entering the left corner of his mouth and passing out at the back of the neck on the right side. In 1862 he was promoted to be major; in 1863 he was made a lieutenant-colonel, and on January 1, 1864, he was elected colonel of his regiment. His military career terminated at Appomattox by the surrender of Lee on April 9, 1865, when and where he was paroled.
After the war closed, with his health and strength much impaired by his wounds, he returned to Florida and engaged in planting. In 1870 he returned to this State and was elected Secretary of the Senate, and re-elected in 1872, when with his brother-in-law, Major Englehard, he established the Wilmington Journal, winning great reputation as a sagacious political writer. This had great influence in achieving the final triumph of the Democratic power in the State. In November, 1876, he established the Observer. On the death of Major Englehard, February 15, 1879, he was appointed his successor as Secretary of State, which important position he now occupies, to the gratification of the people of North Carolina. He is keenly alive to the success and progress of her institutions. His recent letter, February 21, 1880, to Colonel John D. Taylor, of Wilmington, on the subject of the sale or no sale of the North Carolina railroad, was allowed to be one of the ablest arguments presented on that side. He is now in the prime of life, and may he be spared for many years of usefulness to his country.
He married February 3, 1864, at the house of Thomas Barnes, near Marianna, Florida Call, third daughter of the late John W. Cotten. In July, 1865, his wife died. We have not attempted to enlarge this sketch by any display of the usefulness, ability or talent of Colonel Saunders. This can be done at some future time by abler hands.
IV. Joseph Hubbard Saunders, named for his father, graduated at the University in June, 1860. When the war began he joined in April, 1861, the Orange Light Infantry, Captain Ashe. In December he was appointed a lieutenant by Governor Clark in Company A, 33d Regiment, then under instruction at Raleigh, commanded by Colonel L. O'B. Branch.
This regiment was ordered to New Berne, and after General Branch's promotion, assigned to his brigade. After the engagement at New Berne, the brigade was ordered to Virginia and assigned to command of General A. P. Hill. In 1862 he was promoted to be captain; in 1863 to be major, and in 1864 to be lieutenant-colonel. He was in all the severe engagements of Northern
Virginia. He was twice wounded—once at second Manassas in the right shoulder, and again at Gettysburg, very severely; the ball entered the left nostril and passing out the left ear. His wound was supposed to be mortal, and he was left on the field. He was captured by the enemy and carried to Chester Hospital, and after some months to Johnson's Island, where he was imprisoned until March, 1865. He was then paroled for exchange and returned home. He resides with his mother, unmarried.
William Ruffin Cox was born in Scotland Neck, North Carolina; he removed to Tennessee, and was educated at Franklin College, near Nashville; after graduating he became a student of the Lebanon Law School, and being licensed to practice, opened an office in Nashville. Before the civil war began he had returned to North Carolina, and settled in Edgecombe County, where he engaged himself in agricultural interests. In the civil war he was early commissioned major of the 2d North Carolina State troops, and soon attained the rank of brigadier-general in the armies of the Confederacy, and commanded his division in the last charge of the Army of Northern Virginia a few hours before the flag of truce announced the surrender at Appomattox. And so North Carolina justly claims that at Bethel she bore the first assault at arms, and at Appomattox she fired the last gun in defense of the liberties of the South.
Since the war General Cox returned to the practice of the law at Raleigh; for six years he was the solicitor of the Metropolitan district, and afterward he was appointed judge of the Superior Court for the same district, which he resigned to canvass his district for election to the United States House of Representatives; he was elected to the 47th Congress over Moses A. Bledsoe. General Cox is one of the trustees of the University of the South; was a delegate to the Democratic convention which met in New York, and was elected to the St. Louis Democratic convention but declined the honor, and for several years was chairman of the State Democratic convention. In every public position to which he has been called his course has been marked with fidelity, integrity and talent. His first wife was Penelope, daughter of James S. Battle; his second wife is a daughter of Bishop Lyman.
Octavius Coke resides in Raleigh, a member of the legal profession. He is a native of Virginia, born at Williamsburg, October 4, 1840. Educated at William and Mary College, he studied law and became a member of the bar in 1860. When the civil war began he enlisted in the 32d Virginia Infantry, and soon attained the rank of captain, and so served during the whole contest. He was severely wounded at the battle of Sharpsburg and of Five Forks. When the war ended he settled in Chowan County, where he married Miss Wood. He was a Democratic elector in 1872, and a member of the State Senate in 1876. He has now permanently located in Raleigh, (1880,) and is chairman of the State Democratic committee. His brother, Richard Coke, became Governor of the State of Texas, and now represents that State in the United States Senate.
A sketch of Dr. Richard H. Lewis, the celebrated oculist, will be found in Pitt County, of which he is a native.
Donald William Bain is a native of Raleigh, born April 2, 1841. Educated at Mr. Lovejoy's Academy. He entered the service of the State in the office of comptroller under Governor Brogden, in 1857, where he served until appointed chief clerk of the treasury, which position he now holds. In February, 1867, he was appointed Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. The systematic business habits he has used render his services invaluable and most satisfactory; he has the regard and confidence of every one who knows him.
Hon. Kemp P. Battle in his centennial address, “Early History of Raleigh,” page 44, says of insurrections: It is impossible for us to imagine what terror rumors of insurrections among slaves caused our ancestors. They created a wild panic in which reason and sense had no part. We find such rumors common in the early part of the century. The most notable was in June, 1802, when the discovery that one Frank Sumner had embodied a company of thirteen men under his leadership as captain, threw the whole country from Tar river to the Atlantic into consternation. Volunteer companies were organized for patrolling and arresting suspected persons. Martial law reigned supreme. The writ of habeas corpus was suspended in practice, though not by law, as to the negro race. At the time one hundred men were locked up in Martin County jail. Captain Frank Sumner for his ill-timed ambition was promptly hung by judgment of a special court, and his deluded followers were glad to escape—one with the loss of his ears, one with branding, the rest with flogging.
A similar panic about that time occurred in
Franklin County, but after great excitement in all middle North Carolina, and many arrests, the accused were pronounced “not guilty” by the court hastily convened for the emergency.
When Nat. Turner's massacre of fifty-five persons occurred in Southampton, Virginia, in 1831, the whole of Raleigh was placed under arms. The able-bodied were divided into four companies, each to patrol the streets every fourth night. The old men were organized as Silver Grays. The fortress was the Presbyterian Church, and it was agreed that whenever the State House bell should sound the women and children were to hasten to its protecting walls. At last one night O'Rourke's blacksmith shop took fire. It was night, says my informant, whose hair is frosted now; but he remembers as vividly as if it were yesterday, the women with disheveled hair and in their night clothes running for life through the streets. It was no laughing matter to them. One of our most venerable and intelligent old ladies, (and she is an uncommonly brave women,) although she disbelieved the stories, yet when she heard the loud clangor of the bells at midnight, drew her children around her, determined to beg the enemy to kill them first so that she might see them safe in death rather than be the first to die, leaving them to brutality and torture. But her son, then a mere boy, brandished his deceased father's sword and prepared to defend the household. I hope he will pardon me for mentioning an act so much to his credit. It was our Raleigh poet—James Fontleroy Taylor.
The negroes were frightened more than the whites. They fled and hid under houses, in garden shrubbery, lay between corn rows, anywhere for safety. There never was a time when the colored people of Raleigh would have risen against our people. It is greatly to the credit of both races that notwithstanding party animosity and sudden emancipation, the kindly personal feeling between the whites and their old servants has never been interrupted. See ante, pages, 127, 128, 222 and 223, touching these matters.
CHAPTER XLIX.WARREN COUNTY.
Gen. Jethro Sumner lived and died in Warren County. His father emigrated from England and settled near Suffolk, Va. His son emigrated to Bute (since 1779 Franklin and Warren Counties) and was sheriff of Bute for some years. When the Revolutionary war began he was appointed, in April, 1776, Colonel of the third regiment of Continental troops by the Provincial Congress of the State of North Carolina. He joined the Grand Army of the North under Washington, and after a campaign he was appointed Brigadier-General and ordered to join General Gates in the South. He behaved with gallantry at Camden. He then joined General Greene and was with him in his southern campaign, and commanded the North Carolina troops at the hard-fought battle of Eutaw, September 8, 1781, where his charge with bayonets contributed to the success of that decisive battle. This was one of the severest battles and decisive of the whole Revolution. General Greene's first line was composed of Marion's, Sumter's and Col. Pleasant Henderson's Regiments, Lee's Legion and Pickens’ Corps. The second line was composed of Sumner's Brigade of North Carolina Continentals, under Col. John B. Ashe, Major Armstrong, and Major Blount, with the Virginians on the left and Marylanders in the center. The British were driven from the field, and only escaped annihilation by seizing a large brick house, from which their fire was so destructive that Greene forebore further attack. The force of each was about 2,000 men; of these, 1,200 were left on the field. More than half the force of Greene were North Carolinians. The first line behaved well, but the second line sustained the brunt of the fight. The charge by Sumner with fixed bayonets was brilliant, and the proud Englishman was beaten at his favorite weapon. Many men of each line were transfixed by their opponents, and thus “fighting fell.”
The war being over, General Sumner resigned, and married a wealthy widow (Mrs. Heiss) of New Berne, by whom he had three children; one of these, Mary Sumner, married Hon. Thomas Blount. (See page 158.)
General Sumner lies buried in Warren County, near the road between Louisburg and Warrenton, near the old Shocco Chapel. The stone that marks his grave bears this inscription: “To the memory of Gen. Jethro Sumner, one of the heroes of 1776.”
The Hawkins family is one of the most extensive as well as one of the most respectable in the State. They have pervaded not only our own State, but many other portions of the south and southwest, and wherever they have gone they have left indelible traces of genius, enterprise, integrity and patriotism.
The family is of English origin; emigrated to this country about the reign of Queen Anne, 1705, and settled in Gloucester County, in Virginia, where the founder of this family, Philemon Hawkins, was born, on September 28, 1717. He removed from Gloucester County, Va., at the age of twenty, to Warren (then Bute) County, in this State.
Philemon Hawkins was enterprising and energetic. Born to but little fortune, reared to hard labor, with little or no education, without patronage or powerful friends, he boldly resolved to make for himself a name and place, in a new country, inhabited then only by Indians and semi-savage whites. His industry, energy and capacity caused the country around him to grow, and he grew with it. He prospered beyond even his own hopes or the expectations of his friends. His reputation and position is shown by the fact that he was an officer in the Colonial Government, and was aid to Governor Tryon in the battle of Alamance. From his own position in society, and the liberal means at his command, he exerted much influence. He was given to hospitality and kindness; no private house in the whole borders of the State was better known and none where more enlarged and unstinted hospitality dispensed than at the house of Col. Philemon Hawkins, sr. He enjoyed the regard and respect of the community. He lived in the enjoyment of a well-spent life, and died in 1801, in the eighty-third year of his age. He married Delia Martin, by whom he had six children, four sons and two daughters, as shown by this genealogical table:
Philemon Hawkins, the founder of the family, was the son of Philemon Hawkins, of Virginia, born in Gloucester County, Va., in 1717; married Delia Martin and had issue: I. Delia, married to L. Bullock, no issue; II. Colonel John, married a sister of Hon. Nathaniel Macon, and had (1) Col. Joseph, whose daughter married to Williams, (2) Gen. Micajah, (3) Gen. John H., (4) Philemon, (5) a daughter, married to Baker, (6) another married to Williams, (7) and another married to Alston.
III. Philemon, son of Philemon, jr., of Pleasant Hill, born 1752, married Lucy Davis, died 1833, had twelve children: (1) William, Governor, married Ann Boyd, and had eight children: (a) Lucy, married (1st) Coleman, (2d) Conner; (b) Emily, married to Nutall, (c) Matilda, (d) William J., (e) Celestia, married to Amis, (f) Mary, (g) Henrietta; (2) John D., married Jane Boyd, and had eleven children: (a) Ann, married to Young, (b) Lucy, married to Cane, (c) Mary, married to Jones, (d) Virginia, married to Anderson, (e) James, (f) Frank, (g) Dr. William J., (h) John D., (i) Philemon, (k) Alexander, (l) Jane; (3) Joseph W., married Mary Boyd, and had eight children: (a) Alexander, (b) Peter, (c) Philemon H., (d) George, (e) William D., (f) Ann Leister, (g) Lucy Henderson, (h) Rufus; (4) Benjamin F., married Sally Persons, and had Thomas, Henry and Benjamin; (5) Philemon, (6) George, (7) Frank, died unmarried, (8) Eleanor, married to Sherwood Haywood, and had nine children: (a) Nancy, married to William A. Blount, (b) Sally, (c) Rufus, (d) Lucy, married to Bryan, (e) Delia, married (1st) to Williams, (2d) to George E. Badger, (f) Frank, (g) Robert E., (h) Maria, (i) Richard; (9) Ann, married William P. Little, and had seven children: (a) Lucy, married to Terry, (b) Mary, married to Mosely, (c) Thomas P., died unmarried, lived in Hertford County, (d) George, (e) Minerva, married to Graham, (f) William, (g) Susan, married to Dr. Charles Skinner; (10) Delia, married to Stephen Haywood, and had five children: (a) Margaret, (b) Dallas, (c) Lucinda, (d) Sally, (e) Philemon; (11) Sarah, was the second wife of Col. William Polk, of Raleigh, had issue: (a) Lucius, (b) Leonidas, (c) Mary, first wife of George E. Badger, (d) Rufus, (e) George W., (f) Susan, married to Kenneth Rayner, (g) Andrew; (12) Lucy Davis Ruffin, first wife of Louis D. Henry, no issue.
To Philemon Hawkins and Delia Martin were also born (IV.) Benjamin, born 1754, died 1816; in Congress, 1782; Indian agent, 1785; U. S. Senator, 1789; he had one son, Madison, and three daughters. (V.) Joseph, died unmarried.
(VI.) Ann, married to Micajah Thomas; no issue.
Benjamin Hawkins (born 1754, died 1816) was born in Bute, now Warren County, the son of Col. Philemon Hawkins, sr., and Delia, his wife. He was reared in habits of industry and economy. His education was the best the country afforded. With a younger brother (Joseph) he was sent, after being prepared at other institutions, to Princeton College, where they remained until the war closed its walls, he being then in the senior class. The study of languages seemed to be his forte, and he was familiar with not only the Latin and Greek, but also was proficient in the modern languages, especially the French. This accomplishment caused General Washington to invoke his aid in his intercourse with the French officers, and he was for awhile a member of Washington's military family. He was at the battle of Monmouth with Washington in 1779, probably as a volunteer aid. In 1780 he was selected by the Legislature as commercial agent to procure supplies at home or abroad for the support of the war; he repaired to the West Indies and procured munitions, arms and provisions, and shipped them on board of vessels belonging to John Wright Stanley, (the father of John Stanley,) then a wealthy merchant at New Berne. These vessels with their cargoes were captured by the British, which ruined the fortunes of Mr. Stanley, and when he applied to the State for indemnity, and was refused, he sued Colonel Hawkins individually, but the court held that the contracts of an agent of the State did not bind him individually. In September, 1782, he was elected by the Legislature a member of Congress in the old Confederation, and re-elected in 1783; he was present at Annapolis that year and witnessed the resignation of Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the armies of America; March 21, 1785, he was appointed with Daniel Carroll and William Perry to treat with the Cherokees and all other Indians south of them. He was also appointed by Congress with Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin and Lauchlin McIntosh, to negotiate with the Creeks. They concluded the treaty of Joephinton, and also the treaty with the Creeks of Hopewell. In 1786 he was again elected a member of Congress to serve until 1787, and in 1789 he was elected Senator in Congress, with Samuel Johnston as a colleague, the first two United States Senators chosen to represent this State; he took his seat January 13, 1790, and served for six years. After his term in the Senate had expired he was appointed by the President “agent for superintending all Indians south of the Ohio.” In 1801 he was reappointed by Mr. Jefferson joint commissioner with Generals Wilkerson and Pickens to negotiate treaties with the Chickasaws, Choctaws and Natches. It is a well-known trait in Indian character that whenever war is waged in their vicinity their belligerent and restless temper will cause them to take a part. When General Jackson was carrying on the war with the Creeks it was deemed best by the Government that a regiment should be raised among the friendly Indians to prevent their joining the enemy. The regiment was raised and Hawkins was appointed Colonel, and the celebrated half-breed McIntosh, Lieutenant-Colonel. This regiment was supplied for a time by Colonel Hawkins at his own charge. Colonel Hawkins from exposure and bad health wished to resign the charge of his responsible appointment as superintendent, but the Government seemed unwilling to give him up. He died in this service June 6, 1816, leaving one son and three daughters. He was a man of literary attainments, and left works on “Topography” and “Indian language,” valuable and interesting. “A sketch of the Creek country” from his pen has been printed by the Georgia Historical Society at the private expense of Wm. B. Hodgson.
Colonel Joseph Hawkins was a son of Philemon and brother of above. In 1782-83 and 1812-13 he was in the Legislature; educated, as we have stated, at Princeton. His namesake (son of Colonel John Hawkins) was in 1825 Comptroller of the State. General Micajah Thomas Hawkins, a son of Colonel John Hawkins, was in the Senate of the State in 1823 and in 1827, and a member of Congress from 1831 to 1841. He served again in the Legislature of 1846. General John H. Hawkins entered the Legislature in 1809, and served in the Senate of 1830-31, and in the House of 1835-36. Philemon, second son of Philemon, was in the Legislature of 1803-6, 1807-8, 1810-11, 1817-18. Governor William Hawkins, son of Philemon Hawkins, jr., was in the Legislature of 1804-5, and elected Governor in 1811; died in 1812. For Sarah Hawkins, who married Colonel William Polk, see sketches p. 201, and of their sons, General Lucius J. Polk, see p. 202, and Bishop Polk, see p. 284.
James G. Brehon, who was a surgeon of the Revolution, died at his residence in Warrenton on April 8, 1819, at an advanced age. He was a native of Ireland, where he had received a
liberal education. He emigrated to America and settled for a time in Maryland. In the records of the committee of safety of Maryland, October, 1776, is an order for Dr. Brehon to deliver up to Timothy Bowers all the books on physic, or any other kind in his possession taken on board of any of the captured vessels at St. George Island. (Force's Am. Arch., vol. 2, 654.) He removed to Warrenton and began to practice, but the war raged and he was appointed a surgeon in the navy, and served at different posts to the close of the war, when he returned to his profession. He was distinguished for his skill as a surgeon and his learned scientific researches. He was celebrated for generous hospitality and his unrivaled colloquial powers. (See Dr. Toner on the Revolutionary Surgeons.)
Nathaniel Macon, born Dec. 17, 1758, died June 29, 1837; was born, lived and died in Warren County. To attempt to mention all the services of this patriot, from his entrance in public life as a soldier of the Revolution to its close as Senator in Congress, (1827,) would comprise the history of our Republic at important and interesting epochs, but neither our plan or abilities will permit this attempt. We propose to confine ourselves to facts and dates, leaving to the historian to delineate and present his character, a character so unique yet so perfect, so grand and yet so simple, so eccentric and yet so unselfish and pure.
His ancestors were from Virginia; he was sent to Princeton College, where he pursued with diligence his studies till the war of the Revolution closed that institution. He returned home and entered the army as a private soldier in a company commanded by his brother, where he served for some years. This step was marked by an idiosyncrasy so peculiar to his whole life, and so different from the ordinary conduct of men. He not only refused rank which was open to him, but refused any compensation for his service. He marched with his company to South Carolina, then the theater of war, and had his full share of all the hardships and disasters of that terrible campaign. He was present at the fall of Fort Moultrie, the surrender of Charleston, the defeat of Camden, and the rapid retreat of Greene across the upper part of North Carolina. He was in camp on the banks of the Yadkin when a summons came to Mr. Macon, from the Governor of North Carolina, to attend a meeting of the General Assembly to which he had been elected by the people of Warren County without his knowledge and in his absence; he declined to go. This incident came to the knowledge of General Greene, who sent for the young man and asked him the reason of this unexpected course—this preference of a camp destitute of every comfort, and with gloomy prospects, to a comfortable seat in the Legislature. Mr. Macon, in his sententious way, said “his country needed the services of all her sons—that he had seen the faces of the British many times, and as yet never saw their backs, and he meant to stay in the army until he did.” Greene instantly saw the material of which the man was made—devoted patriotism—and determined to utilize it. He told him “that he could do more good as a member of the Legislature than as a soldier, and that in the army he was but one man, but in the Legislature he might urge many to furnish supplies by showing the utter destitution and distress he had seen; that it was his duty to go.” Only under such orders and such high promptings did he leave the army, and by his influence contributed to obtain supplies which enabled Greene to face Cornwallis at Guilford Court House, fight him, and drive him from the South then and forever, for this forced the British to retreat upon Wilmington, and then followed Yorktown. The military career of Mr. Macon here ended, and his political life, so long and so successful, began. He was elected the first Senator in 1780, from the County of Warren, and served continuously until 1785. From this time he devoted himself to his farm and family until 1791, when he was elected a member of the 2d Congress, in which he was continued until 1815, when he was chosen Senator in place of Francis Locke, resigned, and was continued by repeated elections until 1828, when he resigned his office as Senator in Congress, as trustee of the University, and as a justice of the peace in a laconic note of two lines. During this service he was elected Speaker of the House 1801 to 1806, and President of the Senate in 1825-26-27. At one time, 1804, the State of North Carolina gave a President to the Senate of the United States in Governor Jesse Franklin, and a Speaker of the House in Nathaniel Macon. His political life thus continued over forty years by free elections of the people and the Legislature. He was a Representative in Congress under Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison, and Senator under Madison, Monroe and John Quincy Adams. Although offered again and again high executive office, he never accepted any office except from the people or their immediate
representatives, the Legislature. He venerated Washington; he had an affectionate regard for Madison and Monroe, but Mr. Jefferson was to him his Magnus Apollo of politics. He was a devoted friend of Jackson and his constant supporter. His last public office (1836) was as elector in the support of Van Buren for President. He often spoke in Congress, always sententious, decided and to the point. It is regretted that in his day few short-hand reporters or that no Congressional Record existed, but Mr Benton has recorded that “he spoke more good sense while getting in his chair and getting out of it, than many delivered in long and elaborate speeches.” He allowed no reporter to amplify or condense his remarks. He was opposed to all nepotism, and in his long public career of forty years in Congress he never once recommended any relative of his to public office. What a contrast with modern times. He never attended a convention or cancus, for he said he trusted them once and then they cheated him. He was a hard-money man, as the only constitutional currency. He said that this was right, for he had seen the evils of paper money, and meant to save the people from it. He was opposed to all pensions to officers and soldiers of the Revolution, and refused any pension for himself, although entitled to one, for he urged that all had been rewarded by the establishment of independence and freedom, and that was sufficient in itself. On this principle he voted against the bill for Lafayette's benefit. On the rights of the States to secede he addressed the following letter to S. P. Carson, dated—
“BUCK SPRINGS, February 9, 1833.
“SIR: I have received your letter of the 24th ulto.
“There can be no doubt that the United States are in a deplorable situation, and that the publication of the opinion you desire would be useless. My opinion has never been a secret, and I have always stated it to those who wanted to know it. In the year 1824, the Constitution was buried. The Senators who were then present will, it is believed, recollect the fact, and was never afterward quoted by me while I continued in the Senate. The opinions of General Washington, Mr. Jefferson and Governor Clinton were known but not respected. I never believed that a State could nullify and remain in the Union, but always believed that a State could secede when she pleased, provided she would pay her proportion of the public debt.
“This right I have considered the best guard to public liberty and the public justice that could be desired, and it ought to have prevented what is now felt in the South—oppression.
“A government of opinion established by sovereign States cannot be maintained by force. The use of force makes enemies, and enemies cannot live in peace.
“NATHANIEL MACON.”
His private character was but a reflex of his public career. He was exact, just and cautious, not wealthy, he did not covet riches, but lived independently and within his means. Punctual in all his obligations he paid as he went, avoiding all suretyship and debt. When in his last illness and he knew, as he had been informed by his physician, that it was fatal, he asked for his bill of the physician and paid it, and so died not owing a cent to any man. His house, plain and simple, always had a welcome for all. In person he was portly, of strongly marked features, and of pleasant address.
No portrait it is believed of him is extant, for he would never allow one to be taken. On one occasion while in the discharge of some public duty, an artist attempted to take his likeness. When it was discovered, Mr. Macon was indignant and threatened to prosecute the offender. His chirography was like his character, simple, plain and determined, without ornament or affectation.
He was devoted to agriculture, and often in the recess of Congress worked with his hands in gathering his crops. In his dress he was plain but always neat. He wore a suit all of the same material, of superfine navy blue, in the fashion of the olden time; a hat made of a coon skin, broad brimmed, with fair-topped boots outside of the pantaloons, for he said that leather was stronger than cloth. In religion he inclined to “the Baptist persuasion,” and he was an earnest and constant student of the Bible. He married Hannah Plummer, and had two daughters, one of whom married William Martin, and the other William Eaton; he died at home suddenly, June 29, 1837. He had selected his burial place many years before his death, a spot of land barren and stony, and not likely ever to be cultivated; and employed two of his neighbors to make his coffin of the plainest material, so it could be paid for before it was used. Such was Nathaniel Macon.
James Turner, born 1766, died 1824, was a native of Virginia, born in Southampton County. His father, Thomas Turner, moved to Warren
County, then Bute, when his son was very young. His advantages in education were but few. He early enlisted in the cause of independence, and was a private in the same company with Mr. Macon. He entered public life as a member of the House of Commons in 1798; re-elected in 1799 and 1800; and elected to the Senate in 1801-2; in the latter session, 1802, he was elected Governor of the State. In 1805 he was elected one of the Senators in Congress, and served until 1816, when he resigned. He was firm in his support of the war measures of the Government, and in this he differed from his colleague, Governor Stone. He was a man of great personal worth, a faithful representative and a sincere friend. He died August 15, 1824. He was thrice married: 1. To Mary Anderson, of Warrenton, in 1793, by whom he had four children: Thomas, Daniel, Rebecca, who married Hon. George E. Badger, and Mary, there was one daughter, probably Mary, who married Dr. Pope, of Warrenton; 2. Mrs. Anne Cochran; 3. Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, who survived him, leaving two daughters, Sally P. (wife of Hon. Mark Alexander, of Mecklenburg County, Virginia) and Ann, wife of Henry Coleman, of Virginia.
His son, Daniel Turner, was born in Warren County, 1796. He was educated at West Point; in 1814 was appointed a lieutenant of artillery. He was stationed on Long Island, and aided General Swift in superintending the defenses of New York harbor. He then was ordered to Plattsburg under General Macomb. The war being over he resigned in 1815. In 1819-23 he was a member of the House of Commons, and was elected a member of the 20th Congress, (1825-27,) and was succeeded by Robert Potter. He for a time was the principal of the Warrenton Academy, distinguished alike for his learning and amiability. He was appointed navy agent at Mare's Island, California, where he resided until his death. He married a daughter of Francis S. Key, of Washington City, distinguished as a lawyer and the author of our national song, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Kemp Plummer, long a distinguished resident of Warren County, was a native of Virginia, born 1769. He read law with Chancellor Wythe and settled in Warrenton. He was a member of the Legislature in 1794 in the Commons, and in 1815-16 was elected to the Senate. He married Susan Martin, by whom he had a large family. One of his daughters was the wife of Hon. William H. Battle, late of Chapel Hill, and the mother of Hon. Kemp Plummer Battle.
John Hall, born 1767, died January, 1833, resided and died in this County. He was a native of Virginia, born at Waynesboro’, the son of Edward and Eleanor Hall, nee Stuart. His father came from Ireland, settled first in Pennsylvania and moved to Virginia in 1736; he was in moderate circumstances. The mother's family were of wealth and distinction. Judge Archibald Stuart and Alexander H. H. Stuart, Secretary of the Interior under Fillmore, were among its members.
Judge Hall was educated at William and Mary College, where he was fellow-student of the Right Reverend John Starke Ravenscroft. He studied law at Staunton, Virginia, under his relative, Judge Stuart. In 1792 he settled in Warrenton, North Carolina, where he resided until his death. His correct and studious habits and his extensive learning were duly appreciated, and won for him the esteem and respect of all who knew him. His merits attracted the attention of the Legislature, and in 1800 elected him one of the judges of the Superior Courts, upon the adoption of the present Superior Court system in 1806, and he rode the circuit regularly until 1818, when on December 12 of that year he was elected with Leonard Henderson and John L Taylor to the Supreme Court bench, which position he held until a painful and distressing malady compelled him to resign (in December, 1832) and caused his death soon after; this occurred at his residence in Warrenton, January 29, 1833. His biographer and pupil (William Eaton, jr., Esq.,) from whose admirable memoir of Judge Hall much of this brief sketch has been collated, states of him: “Although not a man of showy or brilliant endowments, he had a sound judgment and varied and extensive learning. In uprightness, impartiality and independence; in the patient and laborious duties of his high office; in kindness and courtesy, he had no superior in North Carolina—a State that has produced so many jurists of rare judicial excellence.” Although in political feeling he was of the Jeffersonian school, he had too correct a sense of the proprieties of his position to be active in political contests, and was free from all partisan or political influences. In 1829 he was, while on the bench, elected one of the electors on the Jackson ticket. He was an active and bright member of the Masonic fraternity, and in 1804 presided as Grand Master of the order in the State. In private life he was simple and unaffected, frank and sincere,
of unaffected modesty, humane and benevolent. He was prompt and punctual in the payment of his debts. In person he was considerably above the middle size, agreeable features, florid complexion and a face indicative of amiability and candor. He died a communicant of the Episcopal Church, the sacrament of which was administered to him in his own chamber shortly before his death by Rev. Joseph H. Saunders, then rector of Emanuel Church at Warrenton. He married Mary Weldon, who died August, 1852, leaving eight children. Among these was Edward, who was born 1795. He was an educated gentleman; graduated at the University of North Carolina in same class of 1815 with F. L. Hawks, Willie P. Mangum, and R. D. Spaight. He studied law and became so devoted to his profession that in 1841 he was appointed judge of the Superior Courts. Very few of his opinions were overruled, and he was considered one of the most learned judges of the State. For many years preceding his death he retired from all business. He was a gentleman of great purity of character and integrity. He died in November, 1877, in the eighty-second year of his age, unmarried.
Blake Baker resided and represented Warren County in the House of Commons in 1807. He had previously been the Attorney-General of the State (1794 to 1803) and in 1808 was appointed one of the judges of the Superior Courts by the Governor; not being elected by the Legislature his commission expired in the same year. He died in 1818. He married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Christopher Clark, of Bertie County, the aunt of Governor Henry T. Clark, but had no issue.
William Miller represented this County in 1810 in the House of Commons, and from 1811 to 1814, and had for his colleague William R. Johnson, distinguished for his success with race horses, to which amusement the people of Warren are still much addicted. In the year 1814 Mr. Miller was elected Governor of the State, and served till 1817. His administration was during the war with England, and Governor Miller nobly sustained all the war measures of Mr. Madison and promptly and efficiently aided in its vigorous prosecution. In March, 1825, he was appointed by the President charge d'affaires to Guatemala, Central America, and died while on that mission.
Weldon Nathaniel Edwards, born 1788, died 1873, was long a resident and representative of this County. He was a native of Northampton, born about two miles from Gaston; he read law with Judge Hall. He succeeded Governor Miller in 1814 as a member of the Legislature, and was re-elected in 1815. In 1816 he was elected a member of the 15th Congress, succeeding Mr. Macon, who had been elected to the Senate and served until the 18th Congress, 1825-27, when he declined a re-election to Congress, and was succeeded by Daniel Turner. He was elected to the Senate of the State in 1833, and served till 1844. He was a delegate in 1835, with Mr. Macon, to the convention to amend the State Constitution. In 1850-52 he was elected again, and chosen to preside over the Senate. In 1861 he was elected to and was chosen President of the convention which met at Raleigh on May 20, 1861. This body passed the ordinance of secession of North Carolina from the Union, and it closed the political career of Mr. Edwards, which in life to him had been so full of promise and enjoyment, and which closed under circumstances of sorrow and melancholy. The war and its sad effects had impaired his large estate, the desolation of his section and losses of his friends pressed deeply upon his generous and humane disposition. He died December 18, 1873. He married, in 1823, Lucy Norfleet, of Halifax, with whom he lived for more than fifty years in quiet and unbroken felicity.*
There are few families that have produced members who have served their country with more integrity and ability than the Bragg family. The father, Thomas Bragg, was a citizen and native of Warren County. He was industrious and intelligent, a house carpenter by trade. It was while he was engaged in repairing the old State House that it was destroyed by fire, the elaborate and matchless statue of Washington, made in Italy by Canova, being lost in the flames.† His wife was a lady of extraordinary energy and intelligence, who imparted to her children the same decided traits of character that she possessed. This accords with the remark of Dr. Rush in his work “On the Mind,” that he “never read of a great man who did not have an active and intelligent mother,” verifying the trite adage, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” Dickens says, “The virtues of mothers are visited
* Although naturally depressed by the sufferings of his people, yet his last days were spent in peace and plenty—his estate was worth near $100,000.—ED.† An appropriation was made to rebuild the Capitol at a cost of about $300,000. The commissioners for re-building were Samuel F. Patterson, then Treasurer of the State; Duncan Cameron, Alfred Jones, Charles Manly and Beverly Daniel.on their children, as well as the sins of the fathers.”
Three sons were born to this couple in Warren County, N. C.: John, Braxton and Thomas.
John Bragg, born 1808, died 1878, was born in Warrenton. His father, though in moderate circumstances, afforded him every advantage of education. He was sent to the best schools in the country, and to the University, where he graduated in the same class of 1824 with William A. Graham, Matthias E. Manly, David Outlaw and others. Many of these subsequently attained the highest positions in the State, as these sketches prove. He studied law with Hon. Edward Hall, son of Judge John Hall, and practiced with great success for five years. He was elected a member of the House of Commons in 1830, and by successive elections until 1835. In the latter year he was appointed by General Jackson a member of the Board of Visitors of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Soon after this he removed to Mobile, Ala. During the Presidential canvass of 1836 he was associate editor of the Mobile Register. As a polemical writer, he possessed great power, and acquired influence and reputation as a journalist. So competent an authority as Colonel Forsyth pronounced him “without any superior as a political writer in the State of Alabama.” In 1837 and until 1840 he was the attorney for the Bank of Mobile, and in 1842 he was appointed, by Governor Fitzpatrick, judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit; afterward he was elected to this position by the Legislature over Gen. George W. Crabb. At the expiration of his term of office (six years) he was unanimously re-elected by the same body. During the time, however, the election of judges was transferred from the Legislature to the people. Although it was well known that Judge Bragg was decidedly averse to the innovation, and stood aloof from the canvass, the people elected him by a large majority over Aaron B. Cooper, of Monroe.
As a judge, he was considered austere and unbending. Rigidly upright in his own conduct, he was unsparing to any attempt at fraud or chicanery. His virtues were of the Roman type.
In 1851 the Democratic party had become sadly disorganized in the Mobile district, and in order to harmonize the contending factions, which his non-interference in active politics enabled him to effect, he consented to be a candidate for Congress, and was elected by a majority of nearly 2,000 votes over Hon. C. C. Langdon. He served during only one session in Congress, positively declining a re-election. He felt that there was such a decadence of public integrity and personal virtue at Washington, as compared with the days of Macon, who was his model of a statesman, that “the post of honor was a private station.”
Retiring from all professional as well as political pursuits, he did not appear again in public affairs till his election to the Constitutional Convention of 1861, as the representative from Mobile County. Disqualified by age and former pursuits from military service, he remained on his farm in Lowndes County during the war. There (April 12, 1865) he was subjected to the grossest personal indignities, his farm wantonly destroyed, and his dwelling burned over the heads of his wife and children by the troops of General Wilson. He moved to Mobile, where he died on August 10, 1878.
He married a sister of Dr. William R. Hall, of Lowndes County, Ala. His brother, Captain William Bragg, of Wilcox County, died in the Confederate army. His distinguished brother, Thomas Bragg, (born November 9, 1810, died January 21, 1872,) was a native of Warren County, son of Thomas and Margaret Bragg. His education began at the Warrenton Academy, with such teachers as Geo. W. Freeman, afterward Bishop of Arkansas, and Bishop Otey, of Tennessee, and was completed at the Military Academy at Middletown, Conn., under Captain Allen Partridge, where he remained nearly three years. He then commenced the study of the law under Judge John Hall, and after obtaining his license he settled in Jackson, Northampton County, N. C., where he practiced his profession with brilliant success. In 1842 he was elected a member of the House of Commons, where he took a high position, and was the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. In 1854 he was elected Governor of the State by the Democratic party, over that veteran politician, Gen. Alfred Dockery, and was re-elected, in 1856, over that excellent and able statesman, John A. Gilmer. In 1858-59 he was elected Senator in Congress, which he resigned in 1861, when his State withdrew from the Union.
On February 22, 1862, when the Confederate Government was organized at Richmond, Mr. Davis tendered Governor Bragg the position of Attorney-General. This high duty he performed with great ability until 1863, when he was succeeded by Hon. George Davis. He returned to his profession; but the vicissitudes of the war made a deep impression on his mind. In the summer of 1870, when civil liberty and private
rights were menaced by lawless power on the one hand, and “a wild species of justice” on the other, his efforts were unremitting in the support of justice and order. He, with others, addressed the following note to Judge Bond, then holding the United States Circuit Court at Raleigh:
“RALEIGH, September 30, 1871.
“Hon. H. L. BOND, Judge of U. S. Circuit Court.
“SIR: We have the honor, in the interest of the peace of the people of North Carolina, to address you this note.
“The fact that a secret, unlawful organization, called ‘the Ku Klux or Invisible Empire,’ exists in certain parts of the State has been manifested in the recent trials before the court in which you preside. We condemn without reservation all such organizations. We denounce them as dangerous to all good government, and we regard it as the eminent duty of all good citizens to suppress them. No right-minded man in North Carolina can palliate or deny the crimes committed by these organizations; but we think if the further prosecution of the persons charged with these offenses were continued until November term, it would enable us to enlist all law-loving citizens of the State to make an energetic and effectual effort for the restoration of good order. We assure you that we believe before the November term of the Circuit Court that this unlawful organization will be effectually suppressed.
“In presenting these considerations to your honor, we declare that it is our duty and purpose to exert all the influence we possess and all the means in our power to absolutely suppress the organization, and to secure a lasting and permanent peace to the State. The laws of the country must and shall be vindicated. We are satisfied, and give the assurance, that the people of North Carolina will unite in averting and forever obliterating an evil which can bring nothing but calamity to the State. In the name of a just and honorable people, and by all the considerations which appeal to good men, we solemnly protest that these violations of law and public justice must and shall cease.
“We have the honor to be, etc.,
“THOMAS BRAGG, GEO. V. STRONG, DANIEL G. FOWLE, JAS. H. BATCHELOR, B. F. MOORE, WM. M. SHIPP, M. W. RANSOM, WILL. H. BATTLE, R. H. BATTLE, jr., and D. M. BARRINGER.”
In a reply, dated October 2, 1871, Judge Bond stated that he was unable to comply with this modest and reasonable request.
The last public service of Governor Bragg was his connection as counsel for the managers in the impeachment of Governor Holden, which has already been referred to. (Page 441.)
From the hour of the arrest of private citizens in Alamance and Caswell Counties to the conviction of Holden, the mind of Governor Bragg was never free from deep anxiety, and from the grave responsibilities resting on him as the leading and great tribune, guarding the rights and liberties of the people. So heavy and severe were his labors that when he left the impeachment chamber he went an invalid to his sick room, a broken-down, afflicted man. The silver cord of his life had been broken; the health-giving influences of mineral springs and medicine had lost all their power. His life had now come to its end. Surrounded by his afflicted and disconsolate family, in full possession of his vigorous intellect, and in a calm reliance on the rewards promised to an honest, useful and well-spent life, Gov. Thomas Bragg departed this life at Raleigh, January 21, 1872.
“Call no man good till he dies,” said the illustrious ancient; and now that death has closed the scenes of his long, useful and eventful life, we can, without fear of reversal, pronounce Governor Bragg worthy of the esteem and reverence with which his memory is cherished by a grateful community. He was a good as well as a great man.
A correspondent, in one of the papers of the day, has recorded that he witnessed “the last of earth” with this distinguished man. He says: “Holding his hand with affection, I saw the last evidences of life slowly pass away from him. Never shall I forget the calmness and composure with which, a few moments before he died, he uttered these words: “I have no doubt that I have my sins to answer for; all men must so account. I have endeavored to lead an exemplary life; I have never seen the time that I felt I could be persuaded, through favor, affection, reward, or the hope of reward, to do otherwise than my conscience would dictate to me, as right and proper. The future has been, and is now, a deep, dark mystery.”
Governor Bragg needs no eulogy. The people hold his memory in respectful reverence.
He married in Petersburg, Va., and left a large family.
“Green be the turf above thee,Friend of my better days!None knew thee but to love thee;None named thee but to praise.”—Halleck on the death of Drake.Braxton Bragg, (born 1815, died 1876,) son of Thomas and Margaret Bragg, was born in this County.
After proper early education, he was appointed, in 1833, a cadet at the U. S. Military Academy from the Warren district, Gen. Micajah T. Hawkins being then member of Congress. He graduated in 1837, and was appointed a lieutenant of the Third Artillery. In 1839 to 1843 he served in Florida in the war with the Seminoles. He was breveted captain for gallant conduct in Mexico at the defense of Fort Brown, May 9, 1846, and major, for gallantry at Monterey, September 23, 1846; breveted lieutenant-colonel for Buena Vista 1847, and appointed major of First Cavalry March 3, 1855. He resigned January 3, 1856, and resided on his plantation, at Thibodeaux until our civil war began. He was appointed a brigadier-general (March, 1861) in the Confederate army, and assigned to command at Pensacola. In February, 1862, he was was made a major-general, and joined the army of the Mississippi in command of the Second Corps, and bore an important part in the battle of Shiloh. He was made general in place of A. S. Johnson, and succeeded Beauregard in command of that army after that battle. In August he entered Kentucky, and was compelled to retire after the battle of Perryville, October 9, 1862. He was then relieved from this command, but was soon restored, and took command of the army opposed to Rosecrans. After the battle of Murfreesboro’, December 31, 1862, where he gained partial success, he was compelled to retire. On September 19, 1863, he defeated Rosecrans at Chickamauga, and on November 25, 1863, he was defeated by General Grant at Missionary Ridge, and again was relieved of his command. At Wilmington he was again placed in command, just before its capture by the Union forces. After the war he led a quiet life, and died very suddenly, (falling dead in the street,) from a disease of the heart, at Galveston, on September 27, 1876. Thus ended the last of this triumvirate of genius, of worth and talent.
The memory of Gen. Thomas J. Green should be guarded well and protected in love. He, generous to a fault, noble and grand, fiery and impulsive, heard the Texan cry for freedom, left a home of luxury, sought the field where blood like water flowed, unsheathed his sword in defense of a stranger's land, and bravely fought for unknown homes. The cry of the oppressed reached his ears and was echoed in his unselfish heart—that heart gave its first beat of life ’neath Warren's sky—bravely and nobly he fought, his blood stained the plains and broad prairies of Texas land; the “Lone Star State” was saved from Mexican persecution, and his chivalric nature was satisfied. Years passed, but Warren's memory remained still fresh in his mind, he returned, settled, and many yet there are who remember with pleasure how Esmeralda's door, whether touched by the hands of rich or poor, ever swung upon the hinges of hospitality. But he, too, who had aided so much to build the temple of fame, passed away just as the blood-bespattered flag of our land was unfurled for its last mighty effort in the southern heavens, but in passing away his noble heart beat with a quickened pulse of pride, for he knew that his only son, shrouded in the patriotic mantle of his sire, was battling for Warren, Carolina and the South.
From the graceful pen of E. A. Oldham, of the New South, we find that Wharton J. Green is of an old Warren County stock, his ancestors being among the earliest settlers of that County, then a part of old Bute. Losing his mother at four years of age, his father, Gen. Thomas J. Green, placed him with a maternal uncle while he went off to engage in the struggle for Texan independence, just then beginning. The latter was forth with commissioned a Brigadier-General by the Congress of the young republic and directed to return to New Orleans and raise a brigade for active service. This he speedily accomplished, consuming in the effort almost his entire private means. Returning to Texas on the day that Santa Anna, who had been captured at San Jacinto, was to have sailed for Vera Cruz, General Green assumed the responsibility of bringing him ashore and detaining him a prisoner of war—an act which was approved by the succeeding Congress.
Subsequently he was captured with the illfated Mier expedition, every tenth man of which was shot in cold blood, by order of his former captive, the then tyrant of Mexico. After twelve months’ confinement in the Castle of Perote he and seven others effected their escape by drilling a hole through an eight foot wall. On his arrival in Texas he wrote and published an account of the expedition. Upon the annexation of Texas, General Green returned to his native County, where he lived and died.
Naturally of an adventurous disposition, he helped to settle three different States, and was during his life a member of the Legislature of five, including the first one of California. Foote in his history of Texas says of him, that he did
more toward achieving the independence of that Republic than any other who figured in the revolution.
His only son partook of his roving nature in his younger days, and tried various schools in different States, including Lovejoy's Academy, at Raleigh; Georgetown College; a preparatory course for Harvard, in Boston; West Point Military Academy; University of Virginia, and Cumberland University.
On his marriage in 1858, he devoted a year to foreign travel. Returning in 1859, he settled on his farm on Shocco creek, Warren County. Although educated for the law his predilection for country life and agricultural pursuits induced him to abandon it shortly after obtaining his license. Nurtured in the school of State's rights, with the resolutions of ’98 as his vademecum and Mr. Calhoun his political high priest, and believing as fervently as he did in his own existence that the only hope for the permanency of our system of government lay in the strictest construction of the Constitution, it was but natural that he should have espoused with ardor the cause of his State when the right to resume delegated powers came to be settled by the arbitrament of arms.
When it became known in the beginning of 1861 that the Federal Government had determined to reinforce and victual the beleagured garrison of Fort Sumter, he hurried to Charleston to tender his services to the Governor of South Carolina, and arrived in time to hear the first gun of the mighty struggle which it ushered in. Returning home, he volunteered in the Warren Guards, which was one of the three first companies to reach the State encampment at Raleigh. It was shortly afterward assigned to the (2d) twelfth regiment, which was the second to leave the State and report for duty in Virginia. While in camp at Norfolk he was, without solicitation on his part, authorized by the War Department to raise a regiment of his own to be attached to Wise's Legion. Before his two last companies arrived in camp, hearing of the fall of Hatteras, and feeling assured that Roanoke Island would be taken because it should be the next point of attack, he was permitted on his own application to proceed thither, thereby losing rank, inasmuch as he had to take that of lieutenant-colonel commanding, the regiment not being complete so as to permit him to take the grade above.
He reached the Island on February 8, 1862, the morning of the day of surrender and after it had been virtually decided on. Protesting against its being done, he was sent forward with his command (the 2d North Carolina Battalion) to intercept the Federal advance, the officer in command promising to reform the other commands and come to his assistance. They met and repulsed Burnside's advanced regiments, and were in line of battle when a white flag passed them from the rear in token of surrender.
Subsequently he was wounded during the siege of Washington, North Carolina, and afterward wounded and captured at Gettysburg. He was detained a prisoner at Johnson's Island until within a week of the surrender. Probably no man in the South felt more keenly the final blow, for none was more conscientiously devoted to the cause or more sanguine of its successful issue. Nevertheless, recognizing “The Nation” as an established fact after Appomattox, he in common with others similarly minded bowed to the inevitable. His only ambition since has been to see his State resume her place at the council board of States, the recognized peer of any under the altered condition of affairs, as she certainly was of all before the change took place. He is essentially “a new man,” never having held a civil position of any kind. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention in New York, in 1868; to a similar convention in St. Louis, and elector on the Democratic ticket of 1868. All his life, however, he has been a close student of passing events, and his reading confined almost exclusively to history and governmental polity. His political articles have appeared from time to time in many of the leading papers of the day, and indicate an aggressive tone of thought. The defense and advancement of his State and section is evidently the controlling impulse in all he writes.
He was nominated for Congress in the 2d district some six years ago against Governor Brogden, the Republican candidate, and consented to run only to keep his own party together, being fully conscious of the hopelessness of success.
Although a pronounced partisan, he is reserved, diffident and retiring in his nature; ever fearful of giving unintentional offense and perhaps a little too sensitive in taking it. Four years ago he purchased the famous “Tokay Vineyard,” near Fayetteville, where he and his family now reside. Naturally one of the loveliest spots in the State, it has, under the enthusiastic efforts of its proprietor, been very materially beautified and improved. It is said
to be the largest single vineyard in the South, if not this side of the Rocky Mountains. While opposed to prohibitory legislation on principle, he is nevertheless a friend of temperance, and believing that that cause can be best subserved by the work in which he is engaged, he is a vine grower through convictions of its moralizing influence as well as those of self interest.
He received the nomination for Congress from this, the third, district, at the hands of the Warsaw convention on the 96th ballot and on the third after his name had been presented. He made an active and effective campaign, and will we believe make an active and efficient member of the House of Representatives, (48th Congress.) He was renominated and elected to the 49th Congress.
The Joneses of Warren are well known. Mr. Macon's mother was a Jones.
Edward Jones was the progenitor of a numerous offspring.
Robert H. Jones was distinguished as a lawyer and statesman. He was a member of the Legislature in 1816-17-18, and 1823-26-27. He was appointed U. S. District Attorney by Mr. Jefferson, and Attorney-General of the State, 1828. His brother, Edward, was the father of Joseph Sewall Jones, the author of “The Defense of North Carolina;” another, Hill, was a Methodist preacher. His brother, on the paternal side, William J. Jones, was a man of excellent sense and of much popularity. He represented the County in 1827-28, and was the first sheriff elected by the people.
CHAPTER L.WATAUGA COUNTY.
Watauga County, in its capital or County town, preserves the name of Daniel Boone, (born August 22, 1734, died, 1820.) He was a native of Berks County, Pa. His father came to North Carolina while Daniel was a small boy, and settled in the Forks of the Yadkin. Here the scenes of his youth and of his early manhood were passed.
In 1769 Boone, accompanied by bold and adventurous spirits, left home for the dark and bloody ground of Kentucky, and from that date to 1771 was with them exploring the rich and lovely regions, although constantly exposed to the attacks of the Indians. In 1774 he conducted a party to the falls of the Ohio, and built a fort where Boonsboro’ now stands; here he repulsed at various times the attacks of the savages. In December, 1775, a furious assault was made by which Boone lost one man and another wounded; but the Indians were repulsed with great slaughter, and appeared to be reconciled. This caused the whites to be less guarded. On July 14, 1776, as three young ladies (two of them daughters of Colonel Calloway and one of them a daughter of Colonel Boone) were strolling in the woods, they were captured by the Indians. At the time Boone was off hunting, but when he returned, without any aid or waiting to collect a force, he followed the trail of the Indians, and came in sight of them, and by his unerring rifle killed two, recovered the girls and returned to the fort in safety. One of these married Samuel Henderson, the brother of Judge Henderson and Pleasant Henderson. This romantic incident obtained more notoriety by its mention in “The Last of the Mohicans,” by James Fennimore Cooper.
In 1778, while engaged in making salt at the Licking River, he was captured and taken to Detroit. He was adopted into an Indian family, and hearing an attack was to be made on the fort at Boonsboro’, he made his escape, and reached the fort, 160 miles distant, in four days, during which he had but one meal. He found the fort in a bad condition and put everybody to work to repair it. The Indians, finding Boone had escaped, postponed the attack.
On August 8 a large force appeared before Boonsboro’ and demanded its surrender. The assailants were four hundred and forty-four Indians and eleven Frenchmen, commanded by Captain Duquesne. Boone requested a parley of three days, at the end of which he informed the French commander he would defend the fort to the last extremity. A treaty was agreed upon. After signing it he was informed that it
was a custom to shake hands, and the moment the savages took hold of each white man's hand they endeavored to hold him fast. Boone felt the sinewy grasp, and his companions were betrayed into a like perilous position. Now arose a mighty struggle, a contest for life—
“Now gallant Boone, now hold thy own,No maiden's arm is ’round thee thrown;That iron grasp thy frame would feelThrough bars of brass and triple steel.”Fortune favors at this moment of peril her gallant son, and the knife of Boone found a bloody sheath in his adversary's bosom; his men and himself escaped to the fort. The Indians were compelled to raise the siege after a heavy loss and retired. Such was the life that Boone led until the defeat of the Indians by Wayne, in 1792, which brought peace to this lovely section. Boone, when this new territory came into the Union, by carelessness on his part, and cunning and chicanery of others, lost his possessions in Kentucky. This he did not much regret, as he said the country had become too crowded, and “he wanted more room.” He went to Missouri, where he lost his wife, in 1813, and he returned to the house of his son,* Major Nathan Boone. In 1810 he went to live with his son-in-law, Flanders Calloway, and died at Chariton, Missouri, September 26, 1820. (Drake's Dictionary of “American Biography of Men of the Times,” 1876.)
The character of Boone represents the type of the men in the early age of our Republic, brave, enterprising, noble and generous; nor is his character confined to our own country; it has been celebrated in the exquisite lines of Byron.
“Of all menWho passes for life and death, most luckyIs Daniel Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky.Crime came not near him. She is not the childOf solitude. Health shrank not from him.For her home is in the rarely-trodden wild.”“And tall and swift of foot were theyBeyond your dwarfing city's pale abortions,Because their thoughts had never been the preyOf care or gain. The green woods were their portions.Motion was in their days, not in their slumbers,And cheerfulness the handmaid of their toll;Nor yet too many or two few their numbers;Corruption could not make their hearts her soil.Serene, not sullen; even the solitudesOf this unsighing people of the woods.”—Don Juan, viii, lvi.John Sevier, born September 23, 1745, died September 24, 1815, was a contemporary of Boone and possessed many similar traits of character with that daring, distinguished and enterprising patriot. He was a member of the 1st Congress (1790) from North Carolina, from a portion of territory formed that year into the State of Tennessee.
General Sevier descended from an ancient family in France whose name was Xavier, and his own uniform, bold and unique signature is something like that chirography. The chirography is a beautiful and curious specimen. His father, Valentine Xavier, was born in London, and emigrated to America in the first part of the last century—settled on the Shenandoah, in Virginia, where John Sevier was born about 1744.
When but a young man he married Miss Sarah Hawkins, by whom he had six children.
She was delicate, and never moved from Eastern Virginia, but died there soon after the birth of her sixth child.
During Sevier's visit to his family in 1773, Lord Dunmore, the Governor of Virginia, then fitting out an expedition against the Shawnees and other tribes north of the Ohio river, presented to Sevier the commission of captain, to command a company raised under his own eye and care in the County of Dunmore. This expedition ended with the perilous and fearful battle of Point Pleasant, where James Robertson and Valentine Sevier entitled themselves to much honor and distinction.
The settlers on the Holston, Watauga, and Nolachucka were beyond the influence and power of the State laws and executive officers of North Carolina, and therefore, as wise men, who knew the advantage of laws and officers, acknowledged as authoritative, they, in 1772, adopted a form of government called the “Watauga Government,” and they elected John Sevier as one of four delegates to a convention at Halifax, North Carolina. He attended a session of the General Assembly, and in 1777 procured the establishment of a district and the extension of State laws, establishment of courts, &c. The patriotic sentiments of the man were avowed in the selection of the name for this district where he had cast his lot, and where were the bold and hardy pioneers with whom he was associated. This was “Washington District,” North Carolina. The people had enjoyed the advantage of their inchoate and infant government of Watauga from 1772 to this date, and had accomplished many things worthy of note. They opened paths across the mountains, felled the forests,
* Major Nathan Boone was afterward a lieutenant-colonel in the United States army, and died at Springfield, Miss., January, 1857, aged 75.opened fields, built forts and houses, “subdued the earth,” and began rapidly to “replenish it,” for “they married, and were given in marriage;” and the State of North Carolina, some years afterward, deemed a good opportunity presented for her to gain the credit of an act of “supererogation,” and passed laws to confirm marriages and other deeds and doings of these wayward “children in the woods.”
July 21, 1776, “Old Abraham,” in command of a band of Cherokees from Chilhowee mountains, attacked the Watauga fort, commanded by Sevier and Robertson; and, as the best feat performed, he chased the “lovely Catharine to the captain's arms;” and we have heard her say she used to feel ready to have another such a race and leap over the pickets to enjoy another such an introduction.
On this same day was fought the battle of the Flats. Other skirmishes occurred here and there at different times.
Captain Sevier was actively engaged in the expedition of Colonel Christian, ordered out by Virginia, and joined the Virginia troops at “Double Springs,” and he neglected no opportunity to pursue the Indians or chastise them for any of their insults or outrages. He promptly united with others, without envy, or jealousy, or reservation, and he as readily fitted out expeditions from his own neighborhood and with his own means, without boasting, without fear, and with never a failure. In 1777 he was made lieutenant-colonel.
In 1778 it is probable that his first wife died, for on August 14, 1779, he was married to Miss Catharine Sherrill, of whom it is truly and handsomely said, “she could outrun, outjump, walk more erect, and ride more gracefully and skillfully than any other female in all the mountains round about or on the continent at large.”
In 1779 Captain Sevier raised troops, entered the Indian territory, burned their towns, made prisoners, and fought the successful battle of “Boyd's Creek.”
A few days after the battle of Boyd's Creek, Colonel Sevier was joined by Colonel Arthur Campbell with a Virginia regiment, and by Colonel Isaac Shelby with his troops from Sullivan County, North Carolina, and afterward these three colonels in harmony scoured the Cherokee country, scattered hostile bands, destroyed the homes of the Indians, and then returned to their own in better security and some more confidence of peace.
The critical year of the American Revolution was 1780, certainly so as regarded the Southern States. Charleston surrendered, Gates defeated, reverses here and there; money exhausted, provisions, clothing and ammunition scarce, many hearts fainting, fearful and desponding—taking shelter under British protection-certificates.
The tories were numerous, desperate and daring. The British in possession of South Carolina, Georgia and parts of North Carolina and Virginia, the hopes of the patriots were feeble, and the sun of independence well nigh obscured. But soon it beamed forth on the heights of King's Mountain, (October 7, 1780,) which achievement has been frequently referred to in these pages. Sevier had his full share of the dangers, and has received full credit for the same—a sword and a vote of thanks were extended to him by the Legislature of North Carolina. He rendered other important military services at Musgrove's Mill and other places against the British and tories, and afterward in defending the frontiers against the ravages of the Indians, and in 1781 he conducted several expeditions to the Chicamauga towns. Peace being made with England, yet no peace came to this section; for in 1784 “the State of Franklin” mingled in the seething cauldron of political excitement, and Sevier set up a government independent of the State of North Carolina. Our space and limits do not allow us to give the history of this very interesting epoch in the life of Sevier. In 1788 he was arrested and imprisoned in the jail at Morganton. The mild measures of the old mother State toward her young and wayward daughter, granting pardons to individuals, and yielding up a section already beyond her control, induced Sevier and his party to come into measures of compromise. The County was ceded to the United States, and organized as “the Territory south of the Ohio river.” The probationary territorial stage was passed through; Tennessee was created a State, and John Sevier (1796-1801) was chosen Governor, and afterward from 1803-9. In 1811 he was elected a member of Congress from Tennessee, with Felix Grundy and John Rhea as colleagues, and was re-elected in 1813. In 1815 he was persuaded by Mr. Madison to accept the appointment of commissioner to adjust the difficulties with the Creek Indians. This duty, considering his age and health, was too severe, and while engaged in its services he was taken sick at an encampment on the east side of the Tallapoosa river, near Decatur, Georgia, where on September 24, 1815, he died.
WAYNE COUNTY.
Goldsboro’, the capital of Wayne, is situated near the center of the County, about a mile from the Neuse river. The land on which the town is located was originally owned by Arnold Borden, Lemuel H. Whitfield, Wright Langstone and James Rhodes, and called in token of regard after M. T. Goldsboro’, the assistant engineer of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. On February 23, 1839, the first train reached Goldsboro’. The first building erected in the village was by Mr. Borden for a hotel. In 1848 the County seat, which was at Waynesboro’, was moved to Goldsboro’.
Ezekiel Slocumb was a native of Wayne County, and rendered important service to his country in the Revolutionary struggle. He was at the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, February 27, 1776, the earliest battle in the Revolution in the South, and he would say his wife, too, was there. Her heroic and romantic conduct is noticed in Mrs. Ellett's “Women of the Revolution,” and also in Wheeler's History of North Carolina, II, 457. She was one of the most remarkable women of her day. Her maiden name was Hooks, sister of Hon. Charles Hooks, who was a member of Congress in 1816, 1819-25 from the Wilmington district, and who moved to Alabama. She was born in Bertie County in 1760. During her husband's absence in the army she took the entire charge of his farm, and she used to say she did all the work a man ever did except mauling rails, and to do away with that exception she went out “one day and mauled a few.”
Mr. Slocumb was an officer in the battle of Camden, (August 16, 1780,) where General Gates was defeated by Lord Cornwallis. On the march of the British Army in 1781, after the battle of Guilford, from Wilmington to Virginia, his farm was visited and ravaged by the troops, and Slocumb, in attempting to protect his friends and family, had many narrow escapes. He, with the aid of Major Williams, raised a troop of about two hundred men and followed the royal army, succeeded in cutting off their foraging parties, and greatly harrassed the enemy until they crossed the Roanoke, when, with his troop, he joined La Fayette, and was at Yorktown October 19, 1781. Then he resigned and returned to his home blessed with the esteem of his brother officers and the respect of his fellow-citizens. The latter so appreciated his services that they tendered him every position of honor and trust in their gift. He was a member of the House of Commons in 1808, also 1812-18. Their son Jesse was elected a member of Congress 1809-21, and died while a member, December 20, 1820, and was succeeded by William S. Blackledge, of New Berne.
In the Congressional Cemetery at Washington are cenotaphs erected to members of Congress who died before their terms of office expired. We copy from one of these as follows: “In memory of Hon. Jesse Slocumb, a Representative of the United States from the State of North Carolina, died December 20, 1820, aged forty years.”
A biographical and historical account of the Slocum and Slocumb families of America was published by the author, Charles E. Slocum, M. D., Ph. D., of Syracuse, New York, in 1880. The work is well executed, handsomely printed, illustrated with portraits and the family arms in colors. The Hon. Edward Salter, (a member of the Legislature in New Jersey in 1857-8-9, and Speaker in 1859,) has also given the results of his investigation into the history of the Slocumb family. He says that the family in America is supposed to have been Anthony Slocum or Slocome, as his name was sometimes given, who, after he came to this country, settled at Taunton, Massachusetts, and who was one of the first purchasers of Dartmouth, in the same State. He had a son, Giles, who settled near Newport, Rhode Island, and who in turn had sons, Giles, born March 27, 1647; Nathaniel, born December 25, 1652, and John. The last two settled in Monmouth, New Jersey, about 1667. John Slocum, better known as Captain John Slocum, became quite prominent in the country. In 1683 he was appointed by the Colonial Legislature captain of the militia, and the same year was appointed Chief Ranger of the County. The duties of this office were to keep a register of all horses and cattle in the County, and to visit all parts of the County to see that no stolen stock was bought or sold,
and he was authorized to employ as many deputies as he thought necessary. Tradition says he was one of the three men who first owned the land at and in the vicinity of the now famed summer resort, Long Branch. His brother Nathaniel lived on land adjoining his. Captain John Slocum married Meribah, daughter of George Parker, of Rhode Island, and it is said died without issue, but descendants of his brother are now numerous, and living where their ancestors settled over two centuries ago.
In Ward's history of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, the genealogy is given of what is probably a branch of this family, who spell their name Slocomb. There is a tradition that three brothers decided to adopt three methods of spelling the name, that the descendants might know from which one they descended. Among the earlier settlers of Virginia, whose names are given in Holten's List of Emigrants, the only one which approaches that of this family is Davey Slowcome, who came from London, 1636.
In England an ancient family of landed gentry, in Somersetshire, were the Slocombes, and from them it is probable the American family descends. Lanman's Biographical Dictionary of Congressmen gives the name of the Hon. Jesse, formerly a member of Congress from North Carolina, as Slocum, but the original records of Congress show that he himself spelled it Slocumb. The noted general in the late war, one of Sherman's division commanders in his “March to the Sea,” Henry W. Slocum, born 1827, who was a member of the 41st and 42d Congresses from New York, spells his name as does the New Jersey branch. The grandfather of Hon. Jesse Slocumb was Joseph. There was a person of this name admitted freeman at Newport, Rhode Island, 1727, after which his name does not again appear there. About this time, and during a few years subsequent, there was quite an exodus from Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, and it is probable that this Joseph was among the number. He had two sons, John, Charles and Ezekiel; the latter was the father of the Hon. Jesse.
The arms and crest of this ancient family of Slocumbes, as described in both Burke and Fairbank's “Armories of Landed Gentry” are as follows:
“Arms: On a fess gu betwe three griffins’ heads covped sa., as many sinister wings or.
“Crest: A griffin's head gu betwe two wings expanded or.”
The derivation of the name is probably from combe, generally meaning a valley, but more literally cut-shaped depressions in hillsides; and sloe, a kind of wild plum. It may have been that the first who received the surname of Slocumbe owned a combe or valley noted for sloes, or lived near one; or perhaps from some noted person of the name Combe, an ancient surname, wearing the leaves of the blackthorn or sloe as a badge or emblem, as the Earl of Anjou wore the sprigs of broom as a badge or emblem of humility, from which came the surname of Broome in the Plantaganet royal family of England. The blackthorn, or sloe, is an emblem of difficulty, and a sprig of it worn by the first Slocombes might mean “Valley men difficult to overcome,” or hard to conquer.
In Ireland the sloe was designated by the Irish word airne (arny,) and from this comes the surname Arney, and it is often found at the end of names of places, as in Killarny, meaning church of the sloes; Clonarny, sloe meadows; Mullarny, mountain of sloes, etc.
Thomas Ruffin was born in Franklin County, the son of Henry J. G. Ruffin, who was the son of Etheldred Ruffin and Mary, daughter of William Haywood. His father represented Franklin County in the Senate in 1828. Colonel Ruffin was liberally educated. He graduated at the university in 1841. He studied law and removed to Missouri where he from 1844 to 1848 served as the attorney for the 9th judicial district. He returned to North Carolina and was elected to the 33d Congress, (1853-55,) and was continuously re-elected until 1861. During the 37th, 38th and 39th Congresses (1861 to 1867) the State had no representatives in the United States Congress. At the beginning of the civil war he was appointed a captain in the 1st North Carolina Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Robt. Ransom, and behaved with great gallantry in the many battles in which this regiment was engaged. He was the colonel of the regiment; when in battle near Fairfax Court House he was severely wounded, from the effects of which he died at Alexandria, Virginia, in October, 1863.
Samuel Ruffin came to North Carolina from Virginia in 1752. High sheriff of Edgecombe in the time of George III; had (1) Lamon Ruffin and (2) Etheldred Ruffin, lived in Edgecombe, afterward Greene, who married Mary Haywood, issue thereto: (a) Samuel, (b) Sarah, (c) Henry John Gray, (d) Charity Ann, (e) Peggy Elizabeth and (f) James.
(b) Sarah, married Henry or John Haywood; issue, John Hayward and Samuel R. Haywood.
John married Rebecca Palmer; issue, John, Rebecca, Sarah and Susan. Samuel R., married Eliza Perry; issue, Allen, Mary and others.
(c) Henry John Gray, in Legislature from Greene and Franklin, married Mary Tartt; issue, Peminah Watson Ruffin; Lamon, died in C. S. A.; Etheldred, died in C. S. A., married Elizabeth Kennedy; (issue, Mary Lee, married to John E. Woodward, and had Thomas Ruffin Woodward and John E. Woodward,) Sally Blount Ruffin, Patrick Henry, Lafayette, Dr. George W., died in C. S. A., Thomas, member of U. S. and C. S. Congress, colonel 1st North Carolina Cavalry, killed at Bristow Station; Mary Haywood, married Samuel Geraldin Williams; issue, Mary L. E. Williams; William Haywood, (who married Agnes K. Chadwick; issue, Samuel Ruffin, married Blanche Forster, and had James Forster Ruffin, Hanson Chadwick Ruffin, William Haywood, Thomas, Susan Drum and Mary Tartt Ruffin,) and to John Gray and Mary Tartt Ruffin was also born Samuel Ruffin, who married Anne Haywood, daughter of William H. Haywood, United States Senator.
(d) Charity Ann, married to — Wood; issue, Julius Wood, (married Miss McConico; issue, four children,) William Haywood Wood, Frank Wood, who married and had four children; (e) unmarried; (f) James Ruffin, married Miss Stanton, and had Willie and Elizabeth, who married Gray Little, and had two daughters.
Curtis H. Brogden, born December 6, 1816, was born, reared and resides in Wayne County, about ten miles southwest of Goldsboro’. His grandfather, Thomas Brogden, was of English and Scotch origin, who came from Maryland and settled in Wayne County before the Revolutionary war. He was noted for his physical strength and activity, and also, like all Irishmen, he was noted for his genial temper and generosity. He literally “carried his heart in his hand.” Having served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, he afterward married a Miss Pierce, and his son, Pierce Brogden, was the father of the subject of our present sketch; an industrious, hard-working farmer of unblemished character. He married the daughter of John Beard, an Irishman, who possessed all the noblest traits of Irish character. She was a most exemplary, Christian woman, and to her example and her pious influences may be traced that high moral character for which her son has ever been distinguished. For this son of her love and hopes she cherished the fondest affection. She encouraged his love of books, and lived to see him respected for his virtues and abilities, and the honored representative of the people. His early days were, from the circumstances of his family, devoted to labor on a farm. He worked every summer to make a support, and in the winter after the crops were stored away attended school, but whether in the field or at home, he never neglected his books. When he had attained sufficient education he was employed to teach “an old field school,” which duty he discharged to the advantage of his pupils and great acceptability to his patrons. Whatever he attempted he “did with all his might,” and was always successful; while his generous disposition and his genial manner rendered him popular and caused him “to win golden opinions from all sorts of men.” His career in political life is interesting and romantic. He had never attended a militia muster until he was by age ordered to the muster field. The second time he attended he was made captain of the company, and soon arose by successive promotions in the service to be major-general. He had never heard a political speech, or seen a candidate for the Legislature until the day that he became, by the wishes of the people, a candidate himself, on July 4, 1838. On that day he ploughed until eight o'clock, rode ten miles to the Court House, mustered three hours in the field, and marched to the Court House where the candidates for the Legislature announced themselves. After the others had spoken he unexpectedly to every one announced himself also as a candidate in a speech which surprised his audience, and won for him a triumphant election by the largest majority ever given in the County for any candidate. When he took his seat in the House he was the youngest member of a body composed of such men as William A. Graham, Michael Hoke, Kenneth Rayner, Robert B. Gilliam, David S. Reid, Hamilton C. Jones and others. Among “these burning and shining lights” he was not obscure. If not a practiced politician he was an attentive and close observer. It was remarked of him that he learned more and faster than any one in the Assembly. When he spoke he realized Fielding's advice, “a man speaks better when he knows what he is talking about.” Being a devoted Democrat, he openly expressed his sentiments, and sometimes encountered opposition.
On a notable occasion Hon. Kenneth Rayner undertook to measure swords with him, thinking to disarm him with ease, but he came “to shear, and got shorn himself.”
Such was the prudence and sagacity of his course that for ten successive sessions he was elected from Wayne to the Legislature. At the session of 1856-57 he was elected Comptroller of the State, and was re-elected for ten years, receiving the approbation of the Legislature and the support of both parties. The finance committees of each session examined his accounts, and invariably complimented his fidelity, accuracy and neatness. In 1868 Governor Brogden was chosen an elector on the Presidential ticket, and presided over the Electoral College, when it met at Raleigh in December, and cast the vote of the State for Grant and Colfax. The same year he was elected a trustee of the University, and in 1869 a State director in the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad.
For many years he presided as one of the justices of Wayne County Court, which his acquaintance with the fundamental principles of the law (for he had read law and received a license to practice) eminently fitted him.
In the “North Carolina Manual,” of 1874, p. 364, it is stated that William Thompson was State Senator from Wayne County in 1852, 1854 and 1856; this is an error, as the “Journals” of the Senate show that Governor Brogden was the Senator from Wayne during the years mentioned.
In 1869, because of his well known integrity and ability, he was appointed collector of internal revenue; but as he never had received any office, save from the people or the Legislature, although the place was a lucrative one, he declined it. He was again elected, in 1868 and 1870, to the Senate, and served until 1872, when he was elected by the people Lieutenant-Governor of the State, after an active canvass, by a majority of 2,000 votes. On July 14, 1874, on the death of Gov. Todd R. Caldwell, he assumed the duties of Governor of the State. His course as Governor has challenged the admiration and respect of every citizen of the State. Cautious in his conduct, firm in his decisions, liberal to his friends, while just to those who differed from him, his administration will descend in history as an example worthy of remembrance by all. His inaugural address was a model document.
On May 20, 1875, he delivered an address at the Centennial, celebrated in Charlotte, which was highly elequent, poetic and patriotic. And the next year, as Governor, he represented the State at the Centennial celebration in Philadelphia on July 4, 1876.
In 1876 he was elected a member of the 45th Congress over Wharton J. Greene, and served on the important committee “on the revision of the laws regulating the counting of the electoral votes for President and Vice-President,” of which Hon. Milton J. Southard was chairman. This question should be settled, or at some future day it will prove the rock upon which our national ship of State will be seriously injured, if not wrecked.
After his term in Congress had expired, (March 4, 1879,) Governor Brogden retired to his home in Wayne in possession of the sincere regard of his friends and the high respect of all parties.
Governor Brogden has never married. Politics (like painting to Michael Angelo) has been too jealous a mistress to allow any rival in his affections.
The example presented in the life and career of Governor Brogden is well worth the study of every youth of our nation. From the plough he, by good conduct, reached the presidency of the Senate and the Governorship of the State, and a seat in Congress.
William T. Dortch was born in Nash County in 1824, now resides at Goldsboro’, in this County. He is no relation to William B. Dortch, of Tennessee. He graduated at the University in the same class (1849) with Kemp. P. Battle, Peter M. Hale, Charles R. Thomas and others. Mr. Dortch read law with B. F. Moore, and practiced with such success that he is the acknowledged head of the profession in his section of the State. He was elected to the Legislature (House) in 1858 and 1860, and was Speaker till September, 1861, when he (with George Davis as colleague) was chosen Senator from North Carolina; and again 1864, with William A. Graham as a colleague.
Since the war closed he has pursued his profession, yet he takes a great interest in whatever concerns the honor and welfare of his State. He was active in opposing the sale of the Western Railroad to Messrs. Best & Company; and in the Senate (1880) he was most decided and active, but he was overruled, and the sale has been accomplished. Time will prove who was right. He still pursues his profession in partnership with his son, Isaac F. Dortch, (born 1849,) who represented the County of Wayne in the House in 1874, the Counties of Wayne and Duplin in the Senate of 1876. He married Lucy, a daughter of Dr. Thomas Hogg. Mr. Dortch is clear and cool in his judgment, slow to form his opinion, but when once convinced and determined, he is as firm as the rock of Gibraltar.
WILKES COUNTY.
Montford Stokes (born 1760, died 1842,) lived for a long time and represented this County in the Legislature—in the Senate, 1826, and in the Commons in 1819-29 and 1830. He was the son of Allen Stokes, born in Halifax County. His early days were spent on the ocean in the employ of Josiah Collins, sr., sailing out of the port of Edenton. Leaving the merchant service, he entered the infant navy of our Revolution, and served under Commodore Stephen Decatur, the father of the distinguished commodore of the war of 1812, who was killed by Barron in a duel in 1820. During one of his cruises his vessel was captured by the British, in 1776, near Norfolk, and he was confined on board of the prison ship, in New York harbor, where his sufferings were intense. After the war he abandoned the sea and removed to Salisbury, where for many years he was the Clerk of the Superior Court, and with superior abilities he discharged his duties with great satisfaction. His intelligence and clerical accomplishments led to his selection as principal clerk of the Senate; here, he acquired such powerful influence that he was elected Senator in Congress in 1815 and until 1823. He had been previously elected to this distinguished station and had declined it. In 1830 he was elected by the Legislature Governor of the State over Richard Dobbs Spaight, jr. His old friend, General Jackson, appointed him, in 1831, Indian agent in Arkansas, where he resided until his death in 1842. Governor Stokes in his character was unquestionably a man of genius, learning and of the highest courage. But his roving, rollicksome disposition predominated over his better qualities, and careless of his own; he was greatly harrassed in pecuniary matters. He was of unquestioned courage, and “sudden and quick in quarrel.” He fought a duel, near Salisbury, at Mason's old field, with Jesse A. Pearson, to whom we have already alluded, (page 401,) and was severely wounded, the effects of which he carried to his grave.
Governor Stokes was twice married: first, to Miss Irwin, in Tarboro’, the sister of the gallant Captain Henry Irwin, of the Second North Carolina Continental troops, who fell at Germantown in 1777, by whom he had one daughter, Mary Adelaide, who married, first, Hugh Chambers, of Salisbury, and, second, William B. Lewis, of Nashville, Tenn. Mr. Lewis was one of the auditors of the Treasury from 1827 to 1837 under Jackson, and whose only daughter married, about 1830, Mons. Pageot, the French Minister, and now resides in Paris. Major Lewis died 1864. Governor Stokes married a second time Rachel, a daughter of Hugh Montgomery, by whom he had ten children, five sons and five daughters.
I. Hugh M., well educated, graduated at the University in the same class (1815) with John H. Bryan, Isaac Croom, Edward Hall, Lemuel Hatch, F. L. Hawks, Willie P. Mangum, Priestly Mangum, Richard Dobbs Spaight, and others. Read law with Judge Murphey, succeeded his father as clerk of the Superior Court of Rowan for two years, resigned and settled in Wilkesboro’ and practiced law; elected a member of the House of Commons in 1819. Taught school until he died.
II. David, for some years a midshipman in the United States Navy, was dismissed from this service and entered the revenue marine service. He married in Norfolk.
III. Rebecca Camilla, married Major Wm. C. Emmett, a native of Maryland, but lived in Tennessee, at Murfreesboro’, then moved to Nashville. After some years, removed to North Carolina, where they lived until the death of Mrs. Emmett, when he returned to Tennessee and married a second time.
IV. Thos. J., married in Wilkes County, removed to Tennessee, where he lived and died, leaving several children.
V. Sarah M., married Joseph W. Hackett, who lived and died in Wilkes County.
VI. Henry J., died young.
VII. Montford Sidney, born October 6, 1810, was a midshipman in the United States Navy, in which he served some five years, when he resigned and returned home. When the war with Mexico began, North Carolina put a regiment in the field, of which Robert T. Paine, of Chowan, was colonel; John Fagg, of Buncombe, lieutenant-colonel; Montford S. Stokes, of Wilkes, major. The conduct of Major Stokes was so commendable that he was voted a sword by his regiment. In the late civil war he was appointed colonel of the first regiment
of North Carolina State troops, with Matt. W. Ransom as lieutenant-colonel. In the battle of Chickahominy he was, on June 26, 1862, severely wounded, and died at Richmond on July 7 following. He died like a hero and a patriot. The following account, written at the time, is given of the death of Colonel Stokes:
“After visiting my friend, who had been wounded severely, I went to the hospital to see Colonel Stokes. As soon as I saw the prostrated and mutilated form of poor Stokes, I felt that he had fought his last battle, and soon would join that—
‘Mighty caravanWhich halts at night-time in the vale of death.’His surgeon stood mournfully by. His cheek had the pallor of death; his eye had lost its luster, and his hands had the clammy coldness of dissolution. He needed stimulants, the doctor suggested, and I asked him if I should procure some for him. He replied with promptness, opening mournfully his languid eyes: ‘Yes, I should be glad to have some, but the other boys here need it as much as I, and we cannot get enough for all. I am very thankful, but do not wish that you should trouble yourself for me.’ These were the last words I ever heard from the lips of M. S. Stokes. How characteristic of the man. The celebrated reply of the generous and gallant Sydney on the fatal field at Zutphen, when he passed the cup of water from his dying and parched lips to those of a suffering soldier, so lauded in history, does not excel in self-sacrifice, philanthropy and moral grandeur this dying remark of the brave Stokes. Such are the jewels of North Carolina, and none more brilliant than this.”
VIII. Catherine, married Dr. Alexander, a native of Mecklenburg, and moved to Alabama.
IX. Ann, married Hon. Roland Jones, a native of Rowan County, but a resident of Shreveport, Louisiana. He was a judge and was a member of 33d Congress, 1853-55. He died in the midst of his family at Shreveport.
X. Rachel Adelaide, married Lemuel P. Crane, of Louisiana, a lawyer. He died, leaving several children. Mrs. C. still resides at Shreveport. She and her sister, Mrs. Jones, are the sole survivors of Governor Stokes’ family.
General James B. Gordon was a native of this County, and was of the most accomplished and of the most gallant officers. He was much loved and esteemed by all who knew him. He entered the service as a lieutenant in Colonel Stokes’ regiment. He served in the Legislature, 1850, as a member from Wilkes. He was made major of the 1st North Carolina regiment and afterward transferred to 1st regiment of cavalry—the crack regiment in the service commanded by Colonel Robert Ransom. He so distinguished himself in many battles that he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general on May 11, 1864; at Yellow Stone Tavern, near Richmond, in a raid of General Sheridan, he was killed; with him fell at the same time the lamented and daring General J. E. B. Stuart, of Virginia. Of so elegant a gentleman, so gallant a soldier, Aristo might well have said: “Natura il fece epoi ruppe la stampa!” Nature having formed him, then broke the mould in which he was cast.
WILSON COUNTY.Richard W. Singletary resides in Wilson, but is a native of Beaufort County, born February 10, 1837; educated at Lovejoy's Academy, and the University where he graduated in 1858, in same class with Wm. M. Coleman, John A. Gilmer, James T. Morehead, James T. Scales and others. He read law, but never practiced the profession, owing to his ill health. He entered the army as a volunteer in Company H, 27th North Carolina troops, and rose rapidly to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was wounded at Sharpsburg September 17, 1862, where his regiment lost two-thirds of its number in killed and wounded. In consequence of his wound, Colonel 8. resigned, but in a few months after he accepted a captaincy in the 44th regiment, and was wounded in the battle of Spottsylvania Court House, which caused him to retire from the service. After the war he moved (in 1868) to Wilson and became engaged in editing the Plain Dealer.
He was elected in 1875 a member of the Constitutional Convention, and in 1876 a member of the House.
FINALE.
We have now finished our book of Reminiscences of the Men of North Carolina, which we trust will prove acceptable to the kind people of whom, and for whom, it has been compiled.
Doubtless, as we anticipated in the beginning, some worthy names have escaped mention, and others have been recorded that might as well, perhaps, have been omitted. However that may be, it has been a labor of love and the study of a lifetime.
We do not believe that genealogical trees or doomsday books are the essentials of human happiness, yet we do believe in “pride of family” to a certain extent. There was a time once, in this republican land of ours, when many glorified themselves in ignoring the fact that they came from a distinguished ancestry, as if the spirit of our democratic institutions opposed any reference to family histories. That we were born of an honest and industrious race for several generations back was quite sufficient, and so it may be. And yet if a man were asked if he had a grandfather, we would logically infer that he must have had one, but this he could not assert as a historical or legal fact, unless there was some record of that fact.
This indifference to family records is passing away, and now our people are taking more interest in such researches. These annals of our venerated ancestry certainly are not—
“Airy tongues, that syllable men's names,On sands and shore.”We trust they have answered the question so forcibly put by one of the distinguished sons of the State: “Who are the people of North Carolina, and what was their origin and career?” And so remind their descendants of those noble men who lived and died for their country—
“In ourselves their souls existA part of ours.”The only merit claimed by us is the patient and painstaking labor, which has cheerfully been bestowed in collecting them together, and so presenting them to my countrymen as a garland of glorious memories to refresh and regale the senses of our kind readers. And so we close with the sentiment so beautifully expressed by Judge Whiting, already alluded to: “Let it not be thought that we are working for ourselves alone, or for those now living. Let us hope that thousands yet unborn will bless the patient and pious hands that have rescued from oblivion these precious memorials of men—
“Whose tongues are silent quite;Whose bodily forms are reminiscencesFading.”“All these were honored in their generations and were the glory of their times. There be of them that have left a name behind them that their praises might be reported. * * * Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth forevermore.”—Ecclesiasticus, xliv, 7-14.
INDEX.| PAGE | PAGE | PAGE | |||
| Abbot, Gen. Joseph | 319 | Ashe, Samuel Acourt | 306 | Biggs, Asa | 253 |
| Adams, John, on Caswell | 105 | Ashe, Thomas S. | 6 | Bingham Academy | 336 |
| Aiken, Gen. | 61 | Ashe, William S. | 306 | Bingham, William | 336 |
| Alamance, battle of | 1, 103, 381 | Atkinson, Gen. Henry | 370 | Bishops from North Carolina to other States | 284 |
| Atkinson, Bishop Thomas | 313 | ||||
| Albertson, J. W. | 369 | “Atticus” attacks Gov. Tryon | 51 | “Black Beard” | 116 |
| Alexander, Abram | 263, 266, 277 | Blackledge, Wm. S. | 137, 464 | ||
| “Atticus letters” of Maurice Moore | 51 | Blakely, Johnson, U. S. N. | 307 | ||
| Alexander, Adam | 263 | Blake, James | 396 | ||
| Alexander, R. | 263 | Avery, Alphonso C. | 81 | Bloodworth, Timothy | 307 |
| Alexander, Ezra | 263 | Avery, genealogy | 76 | Blount family | lvii, 11, 12, 130 |
| Alexander, genealogy | 268 | Avery, Waightstill | 76, 270 | Blount, Willie | 32 |
| Alexander, George | 97 | Avery, Waightstill W. | 81 | Blount, Simon | 223 |
| Alexander, George A. | 271 | Blount, Thomas | 158 | ||
| Alexander, Hezekiah | 264 | Badger, Geo. E. | 18, 142 | “Bon Homme Richard” | 198 |
| Alexander, John McKnitt | 264, 268, 269 | Bagley, William H. | 369 | Boone, Daniel | 461 |
| Baker, Gen. Lawrence S. | 126 | Borland, Solon | 22 | ||
| Alexander, M. W., address on Mecklenburg Declaration | 265 | Baker, Blake | 456 | Boyden, Nathaniel | 406 |
| Bailey, John L. | 365 | Bragg family | 456 | ||
| (Not Bally, as spelled in text.) | Branch, John | 208 | |||
| Alexander, Nathaniel | 97 | Bain, Donald W. | 449 | Branch, L. O'B. | 211 |
| Alexander, William Julius | 289 | Balburnie, William | 64 | Brandon, Matthew | 97 |
| Balch, Rev. Hezekiah J. | 95, 270, 277 | Brevard family | 237, 243 | ||
| Allen, William | 126 | Brickell family | 216, 218 | ||
| Alston, Philip | 112 | Balfour, Andrew | 380 | Bridgers, Robert R. | 166 |
| Alston, Willis | 204 | Barlow, Arthur | 101 | Brehon, Dr. James G. | 452 |
| Amidas, Philip | 101 | Barnes, David A. | 221 | Brooks, Judge George W. | 111, 235, 365 |
| Anderson, Geo. B. | 335 | Barnett family | 371 | ||
| Anderson, Robert W. | 336 | Barringers | lxi, 96 | Briar Creek | 303 |
| Annandale | 121 | Battle family | 160 | Brogden, Curtis H. | 466 |
| Armfield, Robert F. | 225 | Battle, Elisha | 160 | Brown, John | 218 |
| Armistead, Walker K. | 136 | Battle, Kemp P. | 162, 449 | Brown, Bedford | 107, 109, 111 |
| Armstrong, William J. A. | 220 | Battle, William H. | 160 | Bryan, Francis | 140 |
| Ashe, genealogy | 8, 300 | Baxter, John | 410 | Bryan, John H. | 140 |
| Ashe, John Baptista | 7, 204, 299, 305 | Beard, John | 466 | Bryan, Nathan | 226 |
| Beard, Maj | 172 | Brunswick County, resistance to the stamp act, 1766 | 39 | ||
| Ashe, Gen. John, resistance to stamp act | 40, 298, 300 | Beckwith, John W. | 442 | ||
| Benton, Thomas H. | 335 | ||||
| Bennet, Risden Tyler | 8 | “Buffaloes” | 127 | ||
| Ashe, Samuel | 301, 305 | (Not Richard, as printed.) | Buford's defeat | 279, 285 | |
| Ashe, Samuel Porter | 301 | Bibb, William W. | 108 | Burke, Gov. Thomas, | 112, 188, 325 |
| Ashe, Gov. Samuel | 305 | Biffle, Paul | 395 |
| PAGE | PAGE | PAGE | |||
| Buncombe, Col. Edward | 56, 240, 421 | Charleston, siege of | 240, 286 | Court House of Hertford burned | 217 |
| Charlotte occupied by the British | 239 | ||||
| Burgess, Dempsey | 99 | Cowan, John | 311 | ||
| Burgess, Thomas | 157 | Charlotte, memories of | 255 | Cowan Ford battle, Feb. 1, 1781, | 228 |
| Burrington, Gov. George | 300 | Charlotte, U. S. branch mint at | 289 | ||
| Burrington, Gov. George, on the Moores | 50 | Cowles, Calvin J. | 289 | ||
| Cherry, William | 342 | Cox, William R. | 449 | ||
| Burrow, George | 129 | Chowan favors independence | 117 | Craige, Burton | 407 |
| Burgwyn, Henry K. | 319 | Craige, Major James, British service | 52 | ||
| Burns, Otway | 102 | Chowan Baptist Female Institute | 222 | ||
| Burr, Theodosia | 303 | Craighead, Alexander | 275, 276 | ||
| Burton, Hutchins G. | 200 | Chronicle, William | 176 | ||
| Burton, Robert | 179 | Churton, agent of Lord Granville | 171 | Craighead, Thomas B. | 279 |
| Burton, Robert H. | 179, 249 | Crane, Lemuel P. | 469 | ||
| Bynum, John Gray | 410 | Cilly, Clinton A. | 99 | Croom, Hardy B. | 226 |
| Civil War began and closed, when? | 274 | Croom, Major | 129 | ||
| Cabarrus, Stephen | 122 | Cunningham, John W. | 373 | ||
| Caldwell, Andrew | 224 | Clark, James W. | 34 | Crowell family | 203 |
| Caldwell, Dr. Charles | 97, 225 | Clark, Gov. Henry T., | lxii, 158 | Cross Creek, memories of | 35 |
| Caldwell, David, D. D. | 187, 278 | Clark, William J. | 143 | ||
| Clay's debts paid by James C. Johnson | 120 | “Dalton” on Gaston | 138 | ||
| Caldwell, Judge David F. | 225 | Daniel, Judge J. J. | 206 | ||
| Caldwell, Dr. Elam | 225 | Cleveland, Benj. | 416 | Daniel, J. R. J. | 206 |
| Caldwell, Greene W. | 289 | Clinch, Gen. Duncan L. | 165 | Daniel, Gen. Junius | 206 |
| Caldwell, Joseph P. | 225 | Clingman, Thomas L. | 72 | Davidson, John | 271 |
| Caldwell, Todd R. | 94 | Clinton, Sir Henry | 46 | Davidson, Gen. William | 228, 238, 240 |
| Calhoun, John C. | 65, 129, 279 | Cogdell, Richard | 129 | ||
| Cambreling, C. C. | 12, 13 | Cochran, James | 372 | Davie, William R. | 199 214, 255, 267, 269, 277, 278 |
| Camden, battle of | 105, 175 | Coke, Octavius | 449 | ||
| Cameron, Rev. John | 430 | Coleman, Daniel | 98 | Davis, Bishop | 309, 310 |
| Cameron, Duncan | 267, 431 | Compton, Sir Spencer | 298 | Davis, Charles | 310 |
| Cameron, Paul | 355 | Conigland, Edward | 296 | Davis, George | 310 |
| Campbell, Farquard | 145 | Cook, James, Capt. C. S. N. | 19, 20 | Davis, Joseph J. | 173 |
| Campbell, David | 396 | Daves, John P. | 128, 215 | ||
| Cane Creek, battle of | 84 | Congresses, provincial | 6 | Dawson, William Johnston | 118 |
| Cannon, Newton | 189 | Congresses, Confederate, North Carolina delegation | 407 | Declarations of Independence, May 20, 1775, and July 4, 1776, their construction and destruction | 238, 241 262, 269, 270, 275, 277, 278 |
| “Cape Fear Mercury” | 132, 262, 279 | ||||
| Capitol of North Carolina. (See State House.) | Constitutions of States, when framed | 41, 42 | |||
| Capehart, Tristram | 220 | Conventions, State, on North Carolina Constitution | 42 | DeGraaffenreidt | 128 |
| Capehart, Cullen | 220 | ||||
| Capehart, Archibald A. | 221 | ||||
| Carr, Julian S. | 357 | Constitution of United States rejected | 133 | Deems, Charles Force | 354 |
| Carson family | 88 | Dewes, Thomas | 342 | ||
| Carson, Samuel P. | 65 | Corbyn, Francis | 309 | Devereux, Thomas P. | 319 |
| Carrington, Paul | 431 | Core Indians | 101 | Dickens, Samuel | 372 |
| Caswell, Gov. Richard | 103 | Cornwallis, Lord | 186 | Dickerson, James P. | 238, 288 |
| Carter, David M. | 223 | Cotten, Arthur | 217 | Dick, John M. | 192 |
| Catawba River, passage of, by Lord Cornwallis | 228 | Cotten, Godwin | 43 | Dick, Robert P. | 192 |
| Cotten, James | 5 | “Diligence,” the sloop of war, brings the royal stamps to Wilmington | 39 | ||
| Chalmers, Dr. Charles | 297 | Cotten, John | 217 | ||
| Chalmers, Hamilton Henderson | 393 | Cotten, Henry E. | 324 | ||
| Courts, Judges of U. S., in North Carolina | 139 | Dillard, John H. | 194, 392 | ||
| Chapel Hill | 58, 337 | Dixon, Joseph | 185 |
| PAGE | PAGE | PAGE | |||
| Dobbin, James C. | 107, 149 | English statutes in force | 147 | Genealogy of—(Continued.) | |
| Dockery, Alfred | 382 | Epidemic, 1816, in Bertie County | 35 | Barringer | lxi, 96 |
| Dockery, Oliver A. | 384 | Barnett | 371 | ||
| Dobbs, Gov. | 128 | Episcopal Church | 117, 313, 316, 317 | Battle | 163 |
| Dodge, James R. | 393 | Blount | lvii, 130 | ||
| Douglas, Stephen A. | 389, 391 | Eppes, John W. | 200 | Bragg | 456 |
| Dowd, Clement | 67 | Erwin, W. W. | 224 | Brevard | 237, 243 |
| Donnel, John R. | 139 | Etheridge, Emerson | 154 | Brickell | 218 |
| Donnel, Richard S. | 19 | Eutaw Springs, Sept. 8, 1781 | 36, 450 | Carson | 88 |
| Downs, Henry | 273 | Caswell, Gov. Richard | 106 | ||
| Dortch, William T. | 467 | Eve, O. B., life saved in battle by Masonry | 11 | Clark | lxii, 158 |
| Dortch, Isaac F. | 467 | Clinch, Gen. Duncan L. | 165 | ||
| Drake, John H. | 172 | Everett, Edward, on Gaston | 139 | Cotten | 217 |
| Dudley, Edward B. | 311, 312 | Craighead, Rev. Dr. Alexander | 278 | ||
| Duels— | Ewell, Gen., compliments the troops of North Carolina | 207 | |||
| Baxter and Erwin | 135 | Crowell | 203 | ||
| Branch and Forsyth | 90 | Davidson | 271 | ||
| Bynum and Jennifer | 135 | Davis | 309 | ||
| Cameron and Duffy | 90 | Fanning, David, Tory | 112, 381 | Donnel, Richard S. | 139 |
| Carson and Vance | 90, 93, 135 | Dudley, Gov. Edward B. | 312 | ||
| Fanning, Edmund | 51, 324 | Forney | 244 | ||
| Clingman and Yancey | 75, 135 | Felton, Boone | 106 | Gaston | 139 |
| Fisher, Charles | 403 | Graham | 229 | ||
| Cilly and Graves | 99 | Fisher, Charles F. | 404 | Hawkins | 451 |
| Flanner and Walker | 135 | Fisher, Frances C. | 405 | Haywood | lxii, 158 |
| Henry and Stanley | 135, 148 | Flenniken, John | 273 | Henderson | 179, 183 |
| Flag, first of U. S. | 198 | Hill | 303 | ||
| Harris and Yellowly | 135 | Folk, George N. | 99 | Iredell | 124 |
| Howe and Gadsden | 44, 135 | Forney family | 244 | Johnston, Chowan | 120 |
| Jones and Johnson | 135 | Forsythe, Col. Benjamin | 167 | Jones | 202 |
| Law and Blanchard | 135 | Forsythe, James N. | 167 | Lillington | 48 |
| Stanley and Spaight | 134 | Fowle, Daniel G. | 442 | Locke | 400 |
| Stanley and Inge | 135 | Franklin, State of | 463 | Lowrie | 287 |
| Stokes and Pearson | 401 | Franklin, Jesse | 420 | McDowell | 82 |
| Simpson and Whitehurst | 135 | Franklin, Meshack | 421 | Mebane | 330 |
| Frazer, James | 214 | Montgomery, Rowan | 396 | ||
| Dunn, John | 395, 398 | Freeman, Edmund B. | 432 | Moore | 51, 52 |
| Durham tobacco interests | 363 | Freeman, Jonathan Otis | 432 | Morehead | 192 |
| Furches, David M. | 225 | Morrison, Rev. Robert H. | 177 | ||
| Early on Ramseur | 248 | Furman, Robert M. | 75 | ||
| Easton, John | 129 | Nash | 332 | ||
| Eaton, John H. | 205 | Gale, Christopher, of Edenton | 114 | Osborne | 291 |
| Eaton, Mrs., and Jackson's Cabinet | 206, 208, 288 | Pearson | 401 | ||
| Gales, Joseph, sr. | 428 | Pettigrew | 423 | ||
| Edenton | 116 | Gales, Weston R. | 430 | Phifer | lxvi, 96 |
| Eden, Gov. Charles | 116 | Garret, Thomas M. | 33 | Polk | 260, 285 |
| Edwards, Weldon N. | 456 | Gaston, Dr. Alexander | 129 | Ruffin | 465 |
| Edwards on D. L. Swain | 62 | Gaston, William | 33, 137, 171 | Saunders | 448 |
| Education in North Carolina | 256, 257, 258, 259 | Gatling, Dr. Richard Jordan | 106, 221 | Settle | 391 |
| Sheppard | 365 | ||||
| Ellis, Hon. John W. | 405 | Gatling, Dr. John | 106 | Shepperd | 329 |
| Embargo opposed by Gov. Stone | 32 | Genealogy of— | Shipp | 249 | |
| Alexander | 268 | Slocumb | 464 | ||
| Empie, Rev. Adam | 312 | Ashe | 8, 300 | Spaight | 135 |
| Engelhard, Joseph A. | 166 | Avery | 76 | Stanley | 136 |
| PAGE | PAGE | PAGE | |||
| Genealogy of—(Continued.) | Guilford Court House battle described by James Martin, sr. | 413 | Hill, William H. | 303 | |
| Steele | 398 | Hilliard, Henry W. | 153 | ||
| Stokes | 468 | Hillsboro’, Henry E. Cotten's sketch of | 324 | ||
| Strange | 320 | Guion, Dr. Isaac | 136 | ||
| Taylor | 147 | Guion, Haywood W. | 250 | Hines, Richard | 158 |
| Turner | 455 | Guthrie, John J. | 14 | Hogg, Gavin | 124 |
| Williamson | 371 | Hoke, John F. | 246 | ||
| Williams | 418 | Habeas Corpus | 110, 111, 235 | Hoke, Michael | 245 |
| Wright | 304 | Hale, Edward J. | 154 | Hoke, Robert F. | 245 |
| Wynns | 216 | Hager, the tory, kills Gen. Davidson | 241 | Holden, William W. | 110 220, 297, 367, 379, 441, 458 |
| Yancey | 106 | ||||
| Germantown battle, Oct. 4, 1777 | 157, 240 | Hall, Edward | 456 | Holmes, Gabriel | 411 |
| Hall, Judge John | 455, 457 | Holmes, Gen. Theophilus H. | 411 | ||
| Germans in Cabarrus County | xxxix | Hambright, Frederick | 176 | ||
| Hanging Rock, battle of | 271 | Holmes, Owen | 311 | ||
| Gettysburg battle | 165, 426 | Hamilton, Col. John, loyalist | 214 | Holt, Thomas M. | 4 |
| Gillaspie, James | 156 | Hooks, Charles | 156 | ||
| Gilliam, Henry H. | 117 | Hancock, Susan J. | 287 | Hooper, William | 306 |
| Gilliam, Robert B. | 111, 182 | Hardy, Washington M. | 88 | Horse-shoe or To-ho-pe-ka, battle of, 1814 | 229, 419 |
| Gilmer, John A. | 192 | Harnett, Cornelius | 46, 299 | ||
| Glasgow, James | 129, 205 | Harris, Dr. Charles | 97 | Howe, Robert | 42, 46 |
| Glasscock, Dr. George | 298 | Harris, Maj. Thomas | 97 | Howard, Martin | 51 |
| Goelet, Dr. | 423 | Harris, William S. | 97 | Houston, William, put under pledge not to execute the stamp act | 40, 302 |
| Goldsboro’ | 464 | Harris, Robert and James | 273 | ||
| Gordon, James B. | 469 | Harper, James C. | 13, 98 | ||
| Graaffenreidt and the Swiss palatines | 128, 129 | Harper, Robert Goodloe | 175 | Houston, James | 246 |
| “Hatteras,” a poem | 16 | Huguenots | 238 | ||
| Graham, Gen. Joseph | 227, 231 | Harvey, John | 367 | Hunt, Memucan | 184 |
| Haughton, John H. | 427 | Hunt, William | 184 | ||
| Graham, George | 231, 237 | Hawkins family | 451 | Hunter, Dr. C. L. | 176 |
| Graham, Edward | 140 | Hawks, Francis L. | 140 | Hunter, Humphrey | 175 |
| Graham, William | 273 | Hawks, John | 128, 263 | Husband, Herman | 174, 179, 381 |
| Graham, William A. | 231, 232 | Hawley, Joseph R. | 385 | ||
| Graham, William A. jr. | 237 | Haywood family | lxiii, 114, 158 | Hussey, John B. | 156 |
| Graham, John W. | 237 | Haywood, John | 113, 204 | ||
| Grant, James, of Iowa | 208 | Henderson, Pleasant | 113, 180, 461 | Impeachment and trial of Gov. Holden | 220, 441 |
| Granbury, Josiah T. | 369 | ||||
| Graves, Calvin | 108 | Henderson, Richard | 51, 179 | Indians—Tuscaroras, Natchez and Chickasaws | 101, 196, 224 |
| Greene, Rt. Rev. William M. | 312 | Henderson on Person | 175 | ||
| Henderson, Archibald | 181 | ||||
| Greene, Gen. Nathaniel | 397, 453 | Henderson, Leonard | 182 | Independence— | |
| Henderson, John Lawson | 183 | In Chowan County | 117 | ||
| Green, Gen. Thomas J. | 459 | Henderson, James P. | 248 | In Craven County | 129 |
| Green, Col. Wharton J. | 459 | Henderson, John S. | 398 | In Duplin County | 155 |
| Gregory, Isaac | 99 | Henry, James L. | 69 | In Mecklenburg County | 269 |
| Gregory, William | 99 | Henry, Louis D. | 148 | Ingram, Edwin | 396 |
| Grimes, Gen. Bryan | 373 | Hewes, Joseph | 122 | Inues, Col. James | 308 |
| Griswold, Conn., massacre at fort, in Revolutionary War | 79 | Hicks family | 178 | Insurrection among slaves | 127, 222, 449 |
| Highlanders | 145 | ||||
| Hill, Gen. A. P., eulogy on Gen. Pender | 165 | Iredell, James, Judge | 120, 123 | ||
| Grove, William Barry | 146 | ||||
| Grundy, Felix | 56, 463 | Hill, Gen. Daniel Harvey | 290 | Iredell, Gov. James, jr. | 120, 123 |
| Gudger, J. C. L. | 75 | Hill, Whitmill | 30, 253 | ||
| Guilford Court House, battle of | 185, 186 | Hill, William | 303, 432 | Irwin, Henry | 157, 468 |
| Hill, Dr. William G. | 434 | Irwin, Robert | 274 |
| PAGE | PAGE | PAGE | |||
| Ives, L. Silliman, bishop of N. Carolina | 143, 313, 445 | Judiciary system of North Carolina | 147, 160, 182 | MacBryde, Archibald | 297 |
| MacCay, Hon. Spruce | 400 | ||||
| Judiciary, qualifications of | 181 | MacClure, Matthew | 274 | ||
| Jack, James | 266, 286 | MacCullock, H. Eustace | 208 | ||
| Jackson, Andrew | 90, 205, 224, 287 | Keerl, Thomas M. | 139 | MacCullock, Benjamin | 208 |
| Kendrick, J. G. | 27 | MacDonald, Flora | 145 | ||
| Jackson connected with Vance family | 64 | Keenan, Owen R. | 156 | MacDowell, Thomas D. | 38 |
| Keenan, Thomas | 156 | MacDowell, Silas | 252 | ||
| Jackson and Carson | 92 | Kennon, William | 274, 398 | McDowells | 82 |
| Jackson and the Mecklenburg Declaration | 268 | Kerr, John | 110 | McFadden, Fort | 273 |
| King, William R. | 411 | McGehee, Thomas | 372 | ||
| Jackson and the Craigheads | 279 | King's Mountain | 64 84, 169, 176, 246, 418, 463 | McGehee, Montford | 372 |
| McIntire's Creek skirmish | 231 | ||||
| Jarvis, Thomas J. | 125 | Kirk, Col. George W. | 110 | McKay, James J. | 37 |
| Jefferson, Thomas, diary of | 278 | Kirkland, Ann, at Salem Academy | 172 | McKnitts | 238 |
| McLean, Dr. William | 246, 272 | ||||
| Jefferson, Thomas, on the effects of the battle at King's Mountain | 169 | Ku-Klux-Clan | 110, 235, 458 | McNeil, Archibald | 297 |
| McRae, Duncan K. | 153 | ||||
| Lafayette, Gen., visits North Carolina | 222 | McRee | 123, 318 | ||
| Jefferson, Thomas, on Washington | 9 | Macon, Nathaniel | 453 | ||
| Lane, Joseph, Joel and Jesse | 436 | Macon on secession | 454 | ||
| Jefferson and the Mecklenburg Declaration | 262, 277, 278 | Macon on Caswell | 105 | ||
| Lanier, Robert | 169 | Manly, Basil | 112 | ||
| Law, Israel G. | 170 | Manly Charles | 113 | ||
| Johnson, Andrew | 434 | Lawson, John | 50, 101 | Manly, Matthias E. | 143 |
| Johnson, Charles | 122, 123 | Leach, James M. | 155 | Mann, N. | 209 |
| Johnson, Jonas | 157 | Lee, Gen. Robert E., on Pender | 165 | Manney, Thomas | 217 |
| Johnson, Thomas D. | 76 | Manning, John | 216 | ||
| Johnson, Fort, destroyed by Gen. John Ashe | 302 | Lee, Gen. Robert E., on Branch | 213 | Mangum, Willie P. | 124, 334 |
| Marsteller, Lewis H. | 319 | ||||
| Johnstone family and the marquisate of Annandale | 121 | Lee, Gen. Robert E., on North Carolina troops | 374 | Marshall on Iredell | 123 |
| Martin, Alexander | 188 | ||||
| Lee, Gen. Henry, on Davidson | 241 | Martin, Francois X. | 129 | ||
| Johnstone, Gov. Samuel | 118, 123 | Martin, Gen. James G. | 368 | ||
| Lenoir, William | 352, 353, 417 | Martin, Judge James | 400 | ||
| Johnstone, Gabriel | 118, 300 | Lewis, William B. | 468 | Martin, James, sr. | 412 |
| Johnstone, John | 120 | Lewis, Dr. Richard H. | 376 | Martin, Joseph John | 254 |
| Johnstone, James C. | 120 | Liberty Hall, or Queen's Museum | 230, 255, 263 | Martin, Josiah, last royal governor of North Carolina | 41, 132 |
| Johnstone, Dr. Samuel | 118, 119 | ||||
| Lillington, Gen. | 47 | ||||
| Johnstone, Rev. Samuel J. | 120 | Lincoln's surrender, (1780) | 240 | Martin, Josiah, his account of the battle of Moore's Creek | 104 |
| Jones, Allen | 196, 321 | Lisle, Lady Alice | 217 | ||
| Jones, Cadwallader | 196 | Little, William, chief justice | 115 | ||
| Jones, Edward | 307 | Mason, Rev. Richard S. | 445 | ||
| Jones, Hamilton C. | 407 | Locke family | 400, 453 | Masonry, Free | 9, 10, 11, 120 |
| Jones, James | 217 | Long, John | 382 | Matthews, Massendine | 64 |
| Jones, John Paul | 198 | Long, Henry W. | 216 | Maynard, Lieut., kills Blackbeard | 116 |
| Jones, Pride | 201 | Love, Robert | 69 | ||
| Jones, Robert H. | 461 | Lord Proprietors relinquish their patent | 171 | Meade, Bishop of Va. | 174 |
| Jones, Edward | 461 | Meares, William B. | 318 | ||
| Jones, Willie | 196 | Lowrie, Samuel | 287 | Mebane family | 330 |
| Joyner, Andrew | 200 | Lynch law, origin of the name | 172 | Mecklenburg County, Declaration of Independence, 1775 | 41, 95, 201, 227 228, 241, 260 to 275, 281 |
| Judd, Rev. Bethel | 313 | ||||
| Judiciary, U. S., in North Carolina | 139, 253 | MacAden, Rufus Y. | 3 |
| PAGE | PAGE | PAGE | |||
| Mecklenburg and the Regulators | 259 | “Ninety-six” | 261 | Penn, John | 178 |
| Norcum, Dr. James | 124 | Person, Thomas | 174 | ||
| Mendenhall, George C. | 192 | North Carolina and South Carolina separated | 50 | Pettigrew, Charles | 313, 423 |
| Merrimon, Hon. Augustus S. | 69 | Pettigrew, Ebenezer | 424 | ||
| North Carolina men who have become distinguished abroad | 12 | Pettigrew, Gen. J. Johnston | 343, 424 | ||
| Meredith, Lewis | 216 | ||||
| Mexican War | 437, 459 | Phifer family | lxvi, 96, 275 | ||
| Michal, Dr. G. W. | 93 | North Carolina kind and generous to settlers | 13, 99 | Phillips, Charles | 63 |
| Micklejohn, Rev. John | 174 | Phillips, Rev. James | 62 | ||
| Miller, Mrs. Mary Ayer | 153 | North Carolina, education in | 256 | Phillips, Samuel F. | 63 |
| Mint, U. S., at Charlotte | 289 | Phillips, Mary | 172 | ||
| Mitchell, Elisha | 63 | North Carolina, presiding officers of both Houses of Congress from | 122, 453 | Pickens, Israel | 93 |
| Montrose, a Graham legend | 229 | Plummer, Kemp | 455 | ||
| Polk, Charley | 284 | ||||
| Moore's Creek battle, Feb. 27, 1776 | 48, 51, 52, 104, 298 | North Carolina in Cabinet | 151 | Polk, Ezekiel | 260 |
| North Carolina Provincial Congresses | 6 | Polk, James K. | 260 | ||
| Polk, Leonidas | 284 | ||||
| Moore, Alfred | 48, 52, 102 | North Carolina restored to the Union | 210 | Polk, Lucius J. | 202 |
| Moore, Bishop Richard C. | 313 | Polk, Robert | 260 | ||
| Moore, Augustus | 126 | Norwood, Benjamin | 179 | Polk, Thomas | 261, 281, 282, 283 |
| Moore, Bartholomew F. | 209 | Nullification | 91 | ||
| Moore, Charles | 230 | Polk, William H. | 201 | ||
| Moore, Dr. Godwin C. | 217 | Oath, Regulators’ as to crown officers | 4 | Polk, William, son of John | 285 |
| Moore, Maurice | 50, 300 | Pollock, Gov. Thomas | 129, 319 | ||
| Moore, Dr. Thomas J. | 292 | Odem, John B., personates Gen. Winfield S. Scott | 126 | ||
| Moore, William Armistead | 126 | Pool, John | 368 | ||
| Moravians | 2, 170 | Porter, Alexander, on the birthplace of Jackson | 287 | ||
| Mordecai, George W. | 432 | Ogden, Aaron | ii | ||
| Mordecai, Moses | 431 | Ogilvy, Lady | 121 | Potter, Henry | 148 |
| Morehead, John M. | 189, 192 | Orangeburg, S. C., siege of | 201 | Potter, Robert | 184 |
| Moring, J. M. | 115 | Osborne, Alexander | 291 | Porterfield, Denny | 35 |
| Mosely, Edward | 48, 227, 306 | Osborne, Adlai | 291 | Porterfield, James | 35 |
| Mosely, W. D. | 227 | Osborne, Edward Jay | 291 | Price, Charles | 156 |
| Morrison, Neil | 274 | Osborne, Judge James W. | 292, 296 | Pultney, name assumed by Johnstone | 121 |
| Morrison, Rev. Dr. Robert Hall | 177, 231 | Osborne, Spruce McKay | 293 | ||
| Montgomery, Col. Lem. P. | 396 | Outlaw, David | 33 | Query, John | 275 |
| Montgomery, Hugh | 396 | Outlaw, George | 32 | Queen's Museum | 230, 243, 255, 263 |
| Mumford, George | 400 | Owen, John | 37 | ||
| Murfree family | 215 | Owen, James | 37 | ||
| Murfreesboro’ | 215 | Raft Swamp battle | 228 | ||
| Murphey, A. D. | 333 | Palace, Royal, New Berne | 128 | Raleigh, Sir Walter | 101 |
| Palatines | 128 | Ramseur's Mill, battle of | 84 | ||
| Nash, Abner | 132 | Patterson, Samuel F. | 98 | Ramseur, Gen. Stephen D. | 246 |
| Nash, Francis | 52, 133, 232 | Patterson, Rufus L. | 98 | Ramsay, Dr. J. G. M., on Jackson's copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration | 268 |
| Nash, Frederick | 133, 332 | Patton, Benjamin | 274 | ||
| Negroes, admirable conduct in Civil War | 127 | Patton, John | 14, 188 | ||
| Patton, Montraville | 86 | ||||
| New Berne | 128 | Pattillo, Rev. II | 182 | Ramsay, Dr. J. G. M., on Jackson's love for Craighead | 279 |
| New Berne Council of Safety | 129 | Paxton, Judge John | 408 | ||
| Pearson family | 401 | ||||
| Newland, David | 93 | Pearson, R. C. | 94, 110, 367, 403 | Ransom, Edward | 428 |
| Newman, Dr. Anthony | 396 | Ransom, Matt. W. | 321 | ||
| Newton, George | 396 | Pender, William D. | 165 | Ravenscroft, Bishop John Starke | 171, 313, 442 |
| Nicaragua | 20 | Pender, Lee's eulogy on | 165 |
| PAGE | PAGE | PAGE | |||
| Rayner, Kenneth | 219 | Singletary, George E. B. | 14 | Tarleton, Banastre | 186, 197, 286 |
| Reade, Edwin G. | 370 | Singletary, Richard W. | 469 | ||
| Reese, David | 275 | Sitgreaves, John | 139, 199 | Tayloe, Charles F. | 20 |
| Reese, George | 275 | Skinner, Joseph B. | 125 | Tayloe, Jonathan | 30 |
| Regulators, their oath | 4 | Skinner, Rev. Thomas E. | 125 | Taylor, James F. | 450 |
| Regulators, their punishment | 1, 259 | Slaves, insurrection of | 222 | Taylor, John Louis | 146 |
| Slocumb, Ezekiel | 464 | Tea, resolutions against | 118 | ||
| Reid, David S. | 390 | Slocumb family | 464 | Teach (see Blackbeard) | 116 |
| Rencher, Abram | 115 | Smart, Susan | 285 | Thermal Belt | 252 |
| Robertson, James | 462 | Smith, Gov. Benjamin, aide to Washington | 53, 54, 352 | Thomas, Charles R. | 143 |
| Roberts, William P. | 177 | Thompson, Jacob | 109 | ||
| Robinson, Rev. John | 95 | Smith, William H. | 219 | Thompson, Richard | 189 |
| Robinson, James Lowrie | 251 | Smith, William A. | 226 | Thurman, Allen G. | 126 |
| Rocky Mount, battle at | 271 | Snap Dragon | 102 | Toole, Henry I. | 157 |
| Rodman, William B. | 19 | Spaight, Richard D. | 133 | Toomer, John D. | 148 |
| Rogers, Dr. John, his family | 330 | Speight, Jesse | 185 | Tourgee, Albion W. | 111, 194 |
| Spencer, Samuel | 5 | Troops in Revolutionary War | 186 | ||
| Ruffin, Thomas | 2, 465 | Spottsylvania C. H., battle of | 207 | ||
| Russell, Daniel L. | 319 | Troops in late Civil War | 234 | ||
| Rutherford, Griffith | 37, 399 | Springs family | 263, 272 | Transylvania Land Co. | 180 |
| Rutherford, John, a tory | 37 | Stanford, Richard | 372 | Troy, Wesley C. | 153 |
| Stamp Act in North Carolina | 39, 40 | Tryon, Gov. | 4, 40, 128, 226 | ||
| Salem Academy | 172 | Tryon Palace | 128 | ||
| Salter, Edward | 129 | Stanley family | 17, 135 | Tryon, destroyers of his ammunition train | 95 |
| Saunders, Rev. Joseph H. | 446 | Staples, John N. | 195 | ||
| Saunders, Romulus M. | 106 | Starke, Lucien | 8, 368 | Turner, James | 454 |
| Saunders, William L. | 448 | State House location | 436 | Turner, Daniel | 455 |
| Sawyer, Lemuel | 99 | State House burned, June, 1831 | 456 | Tuscaroras | 196, 200 |
| Sawyer, Samuel T. | 100 | “The University;” its sketch by Hon. William H. Battle | 58, 163, 337 | ||
| Scales, Gov. Alfred M. | 386 | Stedman, Elisha | 57 | ||
| Scales, James I. | 195 | Steele, John, Gov. of New Hampshire | 399 | ||
| Schenck, David | 249, 250 | “The University;” its buildings, by Hon. Kemp P. Battle | 344 | ||
| Schoffoldites, tory | 273 | Steele, John, Salisbury | 397 | ||
| Scott, Gen. Winfield | 126 | Steele, Mrs. Elizabeth | 397 | ||
| Seabury, Bishop Samuel, tutor of Waightstill Avery | 78 | Steele, Walter L. | 385 | ||
| Stephens, John W., killed | 111 | Unitas Fratrum | 171 | ||
| Stevenson, Andrew W., borrowed the “Cape Fear Mercury” | 262, 279 | ||||
| Seaton, William W. | 170, 428 | Vance family | 64 | ||
| Seawell, Henry | 430 | Vance, David | 65 | ||
| Secession | 406, 441, 454 | Stokes, Montford | 468 | Vance, Dr. Robert | 64, 97 |
| Settle, Thomas, sr. | 389 | Stokes family | 468 | Vance, Gen. Robert B. | 68 |
| Settle, Thomas, jr. | 389 | Stone, David | 30, 31, 32 | Vance, Zebulon B. | 60, 65 |
| Seven Pines, battle of, May 31, 1862 | 223 | Stone, Zedekiah | 30 | Venable, Abram W. | 183 |
| Stony Point | 215 | Van Hook, Robert | 372 | ||
| Sevier, John | 462 | Strange, Robert | 149 | ||
| Sharpe, William | 224 | Strange, Robert | 320 | Wachovia Tract, Washington's visit to | 171 |
| Shaw, Henry M. | 154 | Strudwick, Elizabeth | 172 | ||
| Sheering, Charles, killed | 112 | Stuart, Lady Aune | 216 | Wachovia Tract, Bishop Ravenscroft's visit to | 171 |
| Sheppard family | 139 | Sugar Creek Church | 277 | ||
| Sheppard, William B. | 365 | Sumner, Gen. Jethro | 131, 450 | Waddell, Alfred M. | 311 |
| Shepperd, William | 326 | Swain, David L. | 56 | Waddell, Hugh | 39, 310, 311 |
| Shipp, Bartlett | 249 | Swain, George | 57 | Waddell, Maurice Q. | 311 |
| Shipp, William M. | 249 | Swan, Samuel | 300, 306 | Walker, Felix | 408 |
| Shober, Francis E. | 407 | Swan, William | 306 | Walker, Gen. William, in Nicaragua | 24 |
| Shotwell, Randolph A. | 296 | Tobacco at Durham | 363 |
| PAGE | PAGE | PAGE | |||
| Waring, Robert Payne | 296 | Wiley, J. McC. | 98 | Williamson, James | 371 |
| Warren, Dr. Edward, (Bey) | xlix, 127 | Wiley, Patrick H. | 34 | Williamson, Dr. Hugh L. | 122, 267 |
| Wheeler family | i | ||||
| Warren, Judge Edward J. | 19 | Wheeler, Dr. John | i | Wilson, Thomas J. | 172 |
| Washington as described by Jefferson | 9 | Wheeler, John, jr. | ii | Wilson, Louis D. | 164 |
| Wheeler, John H. | ii, 289 | Wilson, Joseph | 289 | ||
| Washington despairs in 1779 | 215 | Wheeler, Junius, U. S. A. | ii | Winchester battle, Sept. 1864 | 248 |
| Wheeler, Samuel Jordan | ii | ||||
| Washington city attacked by Early, July, 1864 | 248 | Whitesides, John | 395 | Winslow, Warren | 152 |
| Whitson, Dr. J. McD. | 93 | Winston, Joseph | 168 | ||
| “Wasp,” under Blakely takes the “Reindeer,” “Avon,” and the “Atalanta” | 308 | White, Hugh L. | 223 | Winston, Patrick H. | 34 |
| White, lost colony of | 101 | “Wingfield” | 127 | ||
| White, William | 106 | Worth, Gov. Jonathan | 377 | ||
| Wiley, Rev. Calvin H. | 194 | Wright, Joshua Granger | 304 | ||
| Waxhaw settlement | 279, 286, 287 | Wiley, J. McCaleb | 98 | Wright, William A. | 304 |
| Williams, Gov. Benjamin | 203, 297 | Wright, William H. | 304 | ||
| Webster, Col. Wilson, letter to, by Lord Cornwallis | 187 | Wynns, James D. | 120, 216 | ||
| Williams, James | 178 | Wynns, Gen. Thomas | 216 | ||
| Williams, John | 178 | “Wyoming” letters of Eaton | 205 | ||
| Webster, Daniel and Carson | 92 | Williams, Lewis | 419 | ||
| Williams, Nicholas L. | 420 | ||||
| Welling, Dr. J. C., quoted | 269, 276 | Williams, Joseph | 113 | Yancey, Bartlett | 106 |
| Williams, Marmaduke | 108 | Yancey, William L. | 73 | ||
| Wellborn, Gen. James | 189, 397 | Williams, Robert | 108 | Yeates, Jesse J. | 221 |
| Williams, Dr. Robert, of Pitt | 373 | Young, Robert S. | 79 | ||
| Wilson, Joseph Harvey | 289 | ||||
| Wilson, Zacchens | 275 | Williams, Samuel | 5 | Zimmerman, Mrs. Betty M. | 434 |
| Winston, Joseph | 168 | Wilmington | 298 | Zinzindorff, Count | 171 |
I am unable to find a search tool for documents digitized by ECU. If there is not one, it makes using the digitized versions exceedingly difficult. If there is a search function, it is well hidden and could be placed in a more user-friendly location. Other than that, I have been pleased with the resources you have digitized but have been frustrated at having to search long and hard for the words I am seeking. I did try the PDF which is word-searchable, but the term in Google that led me to this resource did not appear when I searched the PDF.