Abstract:
Part 1 of the Story of Charlotte series, \"Parcel of Blockheads,\" introduces the first settlers of Mecklenburg County, who were primarily Scots Irish Presbyterians migrating from Pennsylvania and Maryland. Settlement was sparse and riddled with disorder, for religion and land were points of contention. The arrival of the surveyor Henry Eustace McCulloh in 1765 sparked a riot and legal debate over who owned the land in Mecklenburg County, eventually leading to the construction of a courthouse in what became Charlotte.