Subject: song-Shucking of the Corn One of the slavery sections Jan Robison sent us today had an account of corn-shucking. It reminded me of a folk song : I've got a ship on the ocean, All lined with silver and gold, Before I'd see my true love suffer That ship would be anchored and sold. Chorus: "I'm going to the shucking of the corn, I'm going to the shucking of the corn, The shucking of the corn and the blowing of the horn I'm going to the shucking of the corn." I googled those words "going to the shucking of the corn" and got a few hits, even a recording of one corn-shucking song. Best, Lois

Jan, if you are not totally worn out from all these look-ups! Burke, 221, 248, 283, 290, 351 This is a very nice thing for you to do for all of us. Thanks Diane Miller ----- Original Message ----- From: <gc-gateway@rootsweb.com> To: <NCROWAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2008 3:20 PM Subject: Re: [NCROWAN] Heritage of Rowan County, North Carolina > This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. > > Author: JanRobison > Surnames: > Classification: queries > > Message Board URL: > > http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.northcarolina.counties.rowan/12357.1.1/mb.ashx > > Message Board Post: > > Hi, all! > > I have the Rowan Book on CD and will very happy to do lookups as I am now > housebound and need something to do!! > > Jan Robison > Sanford. Florida > > Important Note: > The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you > would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link > above and respond on the board. > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NCROWAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Hi, all, I have answered all the queries sent, I think... However, those of you who are in Digest mode, who merely clicked reply, I deleted your emails. Unless there is a definite subject in the subject line, most of us on list view just DELETE! If you are in Digest Mode, please understand that some of us are members of a multitude of maillists, not just this one, which results, sometimes, in HUNDREDS of emails a day.? We really just do not have the time to read every single email that shows up in our inboxes.? So, if you really want to learn things about your families, PLEASE put the names in the subject line! There are just SO MANY learned people on this list who are ready, willing, and able to help you...? So, if you requested a lookup and have not received an answer, try again, putting "CD lookup" in the subject line if you want that.? AND, if you read something that is of interest to you, PLEASE change the subject line to what is of interest so we may help you! Lack of information in the subject line is the biggest reason why people don't receive assistance... I, among many others, have SO MUCH information about the Rowan County folks...? Do yourselves a favor:? NAME THE PEOPLE IN THE SUBJECT LINE!!!!? The rest of us are here to help you!!! God Bless, Jan

Ah, I was wondering about the Part Three, not knowing if you mislabeled the parts you were sending or what.... Now I will have even more to read and relish! Lois On Dec 2, 2008, at 12:13 PM, janrobison2@aim.com wrote: > From > > A HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA > > CONTAINING SKETCHES OF PROMINENT FAMILIES > > AND DISTINGUISHED MEN > > WITH AN APPENDIX > > BY REV. JETHRO RUMPLE > > PUBLISHED BY J. J. BRUNER SALISBURY, N. C. > > 1881 > > Copyright DMK Heritage 2004 > > > > The following are excerpts from the above-mentioned book. > > > > Pages 142-143 > > > > Later in the, fall was the time for pulling and shocking the corn. > A huge long heap, > > or straight or crescent-shaped, containing thirty, > > 143 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY > > fifty, or a hundred loads of corn in the shucks, was piled up in > the barnyard. On a > > given day a boy was sent out to ask hands to come in to the > shucking on a night > > appointed. Fifty hands perhaps, might come just at dark. A rail > would be placed in > > the middle, and the hands divided by two captains who threw up > “cross and pile” > > for first choice of hands. Then came the race, the shouting, the > hurrahing, and the > > singing of corn songs if any negroes were present. And generally a > bottle of brandy > > was circulated several times and was sampled by most of those > present. Quite a > > number would sometimes get excited by the liquor, but it was > considered > > disgraceful to get drunk. Sometimes a fight would occur, especially > if the race was > > a close one. The winning side would try to carry their captain > around the pile in > > triumph, but a well-directed ear of corn, sent by some spiteful > hand on the beaten > > side, would strike a member of the triumphal procession, and thereby b > ad blood > > would be excited, and a promiscuous fight occur. But these were > rare accidents. > > After the corn was shucked, and the shucks put into a pea, came the > shucking > > supper-loaf, biscuits, ham, pork, chicken pie, pumpkin custard, > sweet cakes, apple > > pie, grape pie, coffee, sweet milk, buttermilk, preserves, in short > a rich feast of > > everything yielded by the farm. It required a good digestion to > manage such a feast > > at ten or eleven o’clock at night, but the hardy sons of toil had a > good digestion. Or > > if anything were wanting, a tramp of four or five miles, on an > opossum or coon > > hunt, lasting till one or two o’clock in the morning, would be > sufficient to settle the > > heartiest shucking supper that ever was spread on the farmers’ > tables in bountiful > > Old Rowan County. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NCROWAN- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: JanRobison Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.northcarolina.counties.rowan/12357.1.1.4.3.1.2/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Joseph, I don't know everything in the book, and I sincerely do not know how Rev. Rumple chose people to write about... The book was written in 1881. If I run across anything specific to the black community and/or slaves, I will certainly post it. I know this is of interest to everyone, too! The problem with searching is that some slaves, once they were freed, took the last name of their previous owner and some didn't. It is a difficult quest, no doubt! I'm sure there are others on the list who know much more than what Rumple wrote about in this book. How about posting a query about those ancestors about whom you know something? We can take it from there to look. I can, for example, search for first names instead of last names, manually. Send me what you do know and I'll see if anything results from a manual search. Please remember that the book was written in 1881. Jan Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.

From A HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA CONTAINING SKETCHES OF PROMINENT FAMILIES AND DISTINGUISHED MEN WITH AN APPENDIX BY REV. JETHRO RUMPLE PUBLISHED BY J. J. BRUNER SALISBURY, N. C. 1881 Copyright DMK Heritage 2004 The following are excerpts from the above-mentioned book. Page 54 JOHN AND THOMAS FROHOCK The name of JOHN FROHOCK, in beautiful round hand, appears as “Court Clerk” on the records as early as 1756; and for a number of years after the large volumes of land titles of various kinds are recorded in the same beautiful band, and authenticated over his signature. Step by step he grew very wealthy, chiefly, it would appear, by entering and selling public lands. The books are largely filled by conveyances either to him or from him. In his Will, dated 1768, and proved in 1772, there are named thousands of acres of land in Rowan County, in the forks of the Yadkin, near Salisbury, on Saxapahaw, on Tar River, and in Virginia, bequeathed 1y him to his two brothers, Thomas and William Frohock, besides thirty or forty slaves, one of which he liberated at death. He was once the owner of the lot on which the Watchman office and Crawford’s hardware store now stands, and in a transfer of said lot between John Frohock and William Temple Coles, the street now called “Fisher Street” is called “Temple Street.” He mentions neither wife nor child in his Will, and it is presumed that he was not married.20Besides the kindness shown in the education and liberation of his body servant, Absalom, he expressly enjoins that his debtors should not be oppressed or sued, but ample time given to them to pay their debts to his executors. His brother William does not appear to have resided here, but had his home in Halifax, though one of his daughters married and settled in the vicinity of Salisbury. Page 58-59 At its first establishment the little village of Salisbury was not provided with a Charter or municipal government, nor for twelve or fifteen years afterwards. But in 1770 an Act was passed by the Assembly for “Regulating the Town of Salisbury.” The preamble states that Salisbury is a “healthy, pleasant situation, well watered, 59 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY and convenient for inland trade.” Even at that early day Frohock’s-afterwards called McCay’s-millpond was in existence, and no doubt the deadly miasma rose from its broad surface of nearly a square mile in area, for we learn that Mr. Frohock’s residence on a hill on the southeast side of the pond, in later Years called “the Castle,” was regarded as an unhealthful place, and many of his slaves died annually of the fever. But the pond was separated from Salisbury by a forest growth, whose leafy branches absorbed or dissipated the noxious exhalations, so that for many years, even up to the present century, the town was resorted to for health by people from the lower portio ns of the State. And it is a happy circumstance that, after standing for over a hundred years, its present owners generously consented to cut the huge embankment and drain off the festering waters. Thus for the last half-dozen years the city is restored to its ancient condition of healthfulness, and the people from a warmer climate again begin to resort here, even in the summer time, without fear, especially those who desire to secure the benefit of the skill of our most excellent physicians. Page 85 MAJOR JAMES SMITH Of the many and brave men associated with our American Revolution, very few figured more prominently, or did more for the cause of liberty in this section of our State than the subject of this sketch. The son of James Smith, who emigrated from Holland to New Jersey, he, with a colony of young married men, came to North Carolina some time before the Revolution and settled on the left bank of the Yadkin River, and made what is known as the Jersey Settlement in Davidson County, then Rowan. In stature he was over six feet tall, straight as an arrow and of a commanding appearance. He was by occupation a planter, and was possessed of means in addition to the land he owned, which he obtained by grant from McCullough. He had slaves, by whom he was much loved, for, though they were carried off south by the Tories, they in time made their escape and returned to their old home. James Smith served as Ensign, in 1776, under King George III. (See report of Command ant of Court of Public Claims, held at Newbern, N. C., on the sixth day of November, 1756), to wit: “James Smith, an Ensign in Rowan County, was allowed his claim of twelve pounds and nineteen shillings (L12/19), for ranging on the frontier as per account filed” (State Records, Vol. XXII, page 842). At a council held at Newbern, November 10, 1769, “a commission of Peace and Dedimus of Rowan County” was issued to James Smith. Page 106-109 “At a meeting of the committee, August 8, 1774, the following resolves were unanimously agreed to: ...Resolved, That the African slave trade is injurious to this colony, obstructs the population of it by free men, prevents manufacturers and other useful immigrants from Europe from settling among us, and occasions an annual increase of the balance of trade against the colonies... In the next place they firmly declared that no person had a right to levy taxes upon them except their own representatives in As 109 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY sembly. This was the pivot on which the whole matter turned. And to prevent the arbitrary imposition of taxes, they proposed an indissoluble union and association of all the American Colonies, and do all in their power towards securing this union, by appointing Deputies to a Provincial Congress and recommending those Deputies to secure the appointment of representatives to a Continental Congress. The other resolutions concerning luxury, home manufacture, the slave trade, and sympathy with Boston, are subordinate to the others. Page 188 Mr. [Maxwell] Chambers never entered into regular business again, but became a general trader, and attended to the management of his large estate. He was eminently successful in accumulating property, and at his death had amassed a fortune of nearly a half-million dollars. He made arrangements for the removal and liberation of all his slaves at his death, and these plans were faithfully carried out by his executors, and between thirty and forty slaves were sent to the Northwest, and started in life in their new home.

Thanks so much Jan! I look forward to reading this (all of the past posts) and learning so much more about the background of how times were for my ancestors than I would likely find anywhere else in one such easily accessible package. It is so kind of you to share your information with us! I also hope my adult children will read this someday, and my grandchildren too, if ever I should be so lucky as to have some! Lois

From A HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA CONTAINING SKETCHES OF PROMINENT FAMILIES AND DISTINGUISHED MEN WITH AN APPENDIX BY REV. JETHRO RUMPLE PUBLISHED BY J. J. BRUNER SALISBURY, N. C. 1881 Copyright DMK Heritage 2004 The following are excerpts from the above-mentioned book. Page 210-212 SPELLS AND CHARMS Intimately connected with this witchcraft was the beliefs in spells and charms. This was very common among the negroes, and perhaps continues to this day. Nothing was more common than to account for certain obscure diseases as the result of a “trick.” The sick person was said to be “tricked.” This was supposed to be done in various ways, but very frequently by making some mixture of roots, hair, parings of fingernails, and other ingredients, tying the compound up in a cloth, and laying it under a doorstep, or piece of wood or stone where the victim had to tread, or perhaps was put into the spring or well. In such emergencies the only refuge was a “trick 211 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY doctor” or conjurer, who knew how to brew a medicine, or repeat a charm more potent than the spell laid on. Such “trick doctors” were to be found in the memory of persons still living. They were generally men of a shrewd, unscrupulous character, who managed to delude the minds of the gullible victims of trickery. He who was weak enough to believe in the “trick,” was not hard to=2 0be persuaded and imposed upon by the conjurer. Marvelous stories were told of the skill of these conjurers. So potent was the skill of one of these that he needed no lock on his crib or smokehouse. All he did was to draw a circle in the dust or earth around his premises, and the thief who dared enter that magic circle would be found standing there next morning, with his bag of stolen meat or corn on his shoulder. One of these conjurers was believed to have the power of taking some straws and turning a thief’s track upside down, and compelling him to come and stand on the reversed track. The premises of a man with such a reputation were generally safe without lock or key. To do them justice, the conjurers were generally very moderate in their charges, seeming to find their reward in the reputation which they achieved among their neighbors. And their counter-charms and potions were generally innocent, and only calculated to work upon imagination. Sometimes they used real remedies, supplementing them with certain passes and motions. For instance, many years ago, a boy cut his foot badly with an ax. The wound was loosely and awkwardly bound up, and the blood continued to flow, until the lad was like to die. In this emergency a neighbor was sent for about midnight to staunch the blood by “using” for it. He came promptly, and carefully unbound the foot, washed off the clotted blood, adjusted the lips of the wound, and bound on it the fleshy scrapings of sole leather. After this, he took another sharp tool, a drawing knife, and made various passes over the foot, at the same time muttering some cabalistic words-perhaps a verse from the Bible. The remedy as a whole was eminently successful, but the patient was disposed to attribute the cure to the careful adjustment, and the astringent properties of oak bark absorbed in tanning by the scrapings of the leather, rather than to the magic “passes” and the muttered words. It was believed that if witch rabbits sucked the cows it would cause them to give bloody milk. The remedy for this was to milk the cow through a knothole of a piece of rich pine plank, and the reader may have seen, as the writer has, such pieces of plank, with a knothole in them, hanging up beside the kitchen, and ready for use at any time. In those days a worn horseshoe nailed over the door was regarded as a spell against witch power, and the cause of good 212 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY luck. At present it has become the fashion to form many ornaments after the horseshoe pattern as a symbol of good luck. Some persons believed that if a rabbit ran across the road from the right to the left hand, it foreboded bad luck, but if from the left to the right, good luck. To catch the first glimpse of the new moon through the branches of the trees was a token of trouble during the next month, but if seen in the open sky the first time it was the harbinger of a prosperous month. For a funeral procession to st op before getting off the premises or plantation was a sign that another funeral would soon take place from the same house. But the great embodiment of signs was the moon, and in many families scarcely anything of importance was undertaken without first inquiring whether it would be in the “dark” or the “light” of the moon. The Salem almanac was and is an institution that no prudent believer in the signs would think of dispensing with corn, potatoes, turnips, and beans, in fact everything, must be planted when the sign is right, in the head, or the feet, or the heart, in Leo or Taurus, in Aquarius or Pisces, in Gemini or Cancer, according as large vegetables or many vegetables are desired. Briars are to be cut and fence foundations laid exactly in the right sign, or success is not expected. In fact, attention to the signs frequently superseded attention to the seed and the soil, and the proper method of cultivation, and has probably done much to retard agricultural progress. There is a charm in the mysterious that fascinates the untutored mind; and many would rather be skillful in discerning the signs than prudent in bestowing productive labor. It would be an endless task to enumerate all the superstitious notions that have floated through the popular mind, and that have been the theme of serious conversation and meditation among the people, in the century and a half that has passed since this region was peopled. With many, these superstitions have been but a fancy, a curious20theme of discussion, not seriously believed. But others have been the slaves of these unfounded notions, and have been made miserable by the howling of a dog, or the ticking of a “death watch” in the wall. As the light of education and religion is more widely diffused, this slavery has passed away, and there are probably few today who are willing to confess their belief in the notions that still linger in their minds as traditions of their fathers.

From A HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA CONTAINING SKETCHES OF PROMINENT FAMILIES AND DISTINGUISHED MEN WITH AN APPENDIX BY REV. JETHRO RUMPLE PUBLISHED BY J. J. BRUNER SALISBURY, N. C. 1881 Copyright DMK Heritage 2004 The following are excerpts from the above-mentioned book. Page 151 According to the above list there were fifty householders in Salisbury in 1793. It has been usual to estimate an average of five inhabitants to each family. This would make a population of two hundred and fifty. But besides these white families, there were a few families of free negroes as well as the household servants in the various wealthier families. There were also a number of ordinaries, or village inns, in the borough, with their attendants and boarders. From these sources we may suppose there might be counted probably one hundred and fifty or two hundred more, making a total population of four hundred, or four hundred and fifty, in Salisbury at the close of the last century. Page 154 Besides his extensive landed estate, Alexander Long was the owner of a hundred or more slaves, and had a valuable ferry over the Yadkin at the mouth of Grant’s Creek, besides valuable fisheries on the river. In those days the Yadkin abounded with shad, and immense quantities were caught in Mr. Long’s fisheries. He had a large family of sons and daughters-John, Alexander, William, Richard, James, Nancy, Maria, Rebecca, Harriet, and Carolina. Page 163 He was on the committee that fixed the location of the University of North Carolina. The gigantic poplar tree is still standing in the University Campus, under which General Davie was resting when his negro servant reported that he had found a fine spring near by, and lots of mint growing by its side, and that he thought that was the very place for the college. Page 194-195 HON. BURTON CRAIGE the youngest son of David Craige, Jr., was born in Rowan County, March 13, 1811, at the family residence on the south fork of the Yadkin, a few miles above the point, or junction of the two rivers. His early days were spent on the farm and in attending the schools which the neighborhood afforded. About 1823-25, he attended a classical school taught in Salisbury by the Rev. Jonathan Otis Freeman. >From this school he went to the University of North Carolina, where he was graduated in the Class of 1829. Returning to Rowan, he for three years edited The Western Carolinian, and studied law 195 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY under David F. Caldwell, Esq., and was licensed in 1832. The same year of his licensure he was elected to the Legislature from the Borough of Salisbury. The Borough embraced nearly the same territory comprised in the present Salisbury Township, and was a relic of the old Colonial times when Newbern, Edenton, Wilmington, Bath, Halifax, and Salisbury were each entitled to a representative in the Assembly. The convention which met in Raleigh, June 4, 1835, to amend the constitution of N orth Carolina, abolished Borough representation, and the counties thenceforth sent representatives according to population. In the old Borough system the free negroes were allowed, by sufferance, without specific legal right, to vote at elections, but under the revised constitution this was forbidden. Mr. Craige was wont to describe with much zest how the different political Parties under the old system were in the habit of herding and penning the free negroes, and low white voters also, in the “Round Bottom” and elsewhere, guarding, feeding, and treating them for several days before elections, and then marching them into town and “voting” them en masse. Sometimes the opposite Party would make a raid upon one of these pens, at the last moment, and carry off their voters in triumph. These abuses, among other things, led to the abolition of the Borough system.

From A HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA CONTAINING SKETCHES OF PROMINENT FAMILIES AND DISTINGUISHED MEN WITH AN APPENDIX BY REV. JETHRO RUMPLE PUBLISHED BY J. J. BRUNER SALISBURY, N. C. 1881 Copyright DMK Heritage 2004 The following are excerpts from the above-mentioned book. Pages 142-143 Later in the, fall was the time for pulling and shocking the corn. A huge long heap, or straight or crescent-shaped, containing thirty, 143 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY fifty, or a hundred loads of corn in the shucks, was piled up in the barnyard. On a given day a boy was sent out to ask hands to come in to the shucking on a night appointed. Fifty hands perhaps, might come just at dark. A rail would be placed in the middle, and the hands divided by two captains who threw up “cross and pile” for first choice of hands. Then came the race, the shouting, the hurrahing, and the singing of corn songs if any negroes were present. And generally a bottle of brandy was circulated several times and was sampled by most of those present. Quite a number would sometimes get excited by the liquor, but it was considered disgraceful to get drunk. Sometimes a fight would occur, especially if the race was a close one. The winning side would try to carry their captain around the pile in triumph, but a well-directed ear of corn, sent by some spiteful hand on the beaten side, would strike a member of the triumphal procession, and thereby b ad blood would be excited, and a promiscuous fight occur. But these were rare accidents. After the corn was shucked, and the shucks put into a pea, came the shucking supper-loaf, biscuits, ham, pork, chicken pie, pumpkin custard, sweet cakes, apple pie, grape pie, coffee, sweet milk, buttermilk, preserves, in short a rich feast of everything yielded by the farm. It required a good digestion to manage such a feast at ten or eleven o’clock at night, but the hardy sons of toil had a good digestion. Or if anything were wanting, a tramp of four or five miles, on an opossum or coon hunt, lasting till one or two o’clock in the morning, would be sufficient to settle the heartiest shucking supper that ever was spread on the farmers’ tables in bountiful Old Rowan County.

From A HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA CONTAINING SKETCHES OF PROMINENT FAMILIES AND DISTINGUISHED MEN WITH AN APPENDIX BY REV. JETHRO RUMPLE PUBLISHED BY J. J. BRUNER SALISBURY, N. C. 1881 Copyright DMK Heritage 2004 The following are excerpts from the above-mentioned book. Pages 204 - 208 CHAPTER XXV AFRICAN SLAVERY The history of society in Rowan County would not be complete without a glimpse at the system of domestic slavery as it existed here from the first establishment of the county. The early settlers were slaveholders, and on the register’s volumes you will find here and there a “Bill of Sale” for a negro slave, and in the volumes of Wills you will see how the fathers of the early days bequeathed the negro man Pompey, or Caesar, or Ned, or Foe, to one son, and Scipio, or Hannibal, or Cato, or Adam to anther son, while their daughters received bequests of negro girls and women, by the names of Bet and Sal, Luse and Dinah. The question may sometimes have been raised in their minds whether it was right to hold men and women in perpetual slavery; but when they opened their Bibles and read how Abraham bought slaves and had slaves born in his house; and how Moses, by divine direction, provided for the release and redemption of Hebrew slaves, but left no provision for the release of the slave of foreign birth, but allowed him to be bought and sold at the will of their masters; and when they read how slavery was recognized by Christ and his apostles, their doubts as to the rightfulness of the institution in the sight of God vanished. They did not feel themselves responsible for its introduction among them. That had been accomplished a hundred years and more before their time, when the Dutch sold slaves to the Virginians at Jamestown, in 1620, or when citizens of Massachusetts, in 1636, built a slave ship at Marblehead and sent it to Africa for slaves. Barncroft relates that the representatives of the people ordered the negroes to be restored to their native land, and imposed a fine twice the price of a negro upon anyone who should hold any “black mankind” to perpetual service. He, however, ingeniously admits that the law was not enforced, and that there was a disposition in the people of the colony to buy negroes and hold them as slaves forever (History United States, Vol. 1, Chapter 5). Stephens, in his History, states that many of the most prominent men of the Colony of Massachusetts purchased slaves out of the first cargo brought from Africa, in 1638, in the Marblehead slave ship, “Desire.” As population drifted into North Carolina, slavery came along with it-from Virginia, from Pennsylvania, and from more Northern States. And when, in time, it was discovered that slavery was 205 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY an unprofitable institution in the bleaker regions of New England, and the moral sentiments of the people began to recognize it as unlawful=2 0as well as unprofitable, many of the slaves were sold off to more genial latitudes. The mild climate, the fertile soil, and the unreclaimed wilderness of North Carolina furnished an inviting field for the employment of slave labor. And in general, just as fast as the early settlers accumulated enough money to purchase a slave, it was expended in that way. This was peculiarly the case with the English and Scotch-Irish settlers, and the immigrants from Virginia, but not so prevalent among the German settlers, though many of them also followed the same practice. As stated before, the records of the early days of Rowan show the presence of slaves in the county. At the first census, in 1790, there were 1,839 negroes in the county, including the territory now embraced in Davidson and Davie, as well as Rowan. In 1800 there were 2,874 negroes. In 1830 the number had increased to 6,324. The separation of Davie and Davidson Counties reduced the number to 3,463 in 1840, and it rose to 4,066 in 1860. In the last-named year the white population of Rowan was 10,523, or about two and one-half whites to each negro. The character of Rowan County slavery was generally mild and paternal. On a few plantations, probably, where a considerable number of slaves were quartered, and it was necessary to employ an overseer, there was severity of discipline, and hard labor; for the overseer himself was a hireling, and it was important for his popularity that he should make as many barr els of corn and as many bales of cotton as possible, with the least outlay of money and provisions. But even then the overtasked or underfed slave had access to his master, either directly or through the young masters and mistresses, who felt a personal interest in the slave, and would raise such a storm about the ears of a cruel overseer as would effectually secure his dismissal from his post. The slave represented so much money, and aside from consideration of humanity, the prudent and economical owner could not afford to have his slave maltreated and his value impaired. There was of course room for abuse in all this, and there were heartless and tyrannical masters, and there were oppressed and suffering slaves, just as there is tyranny and oppression in every form of social existence in this fallen and ruined world. But with many families, where there were only a few slaves, the evils of servitude were reduced to a minimum. The slave was as warmly clothed, as securely sheltered, and as bountifully fed as his master. He worked in the same field, and at the same kind of work, 206 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY and the same number of hours. Sometimes the clothing was coarser and the food not so delicate; but often the clothing was from the same loom and the food from the same pot. The negro had his holidays too-his Fourth of July, his Christmas, and his General Muster gala day. And where the family altar was established, evening and morning the neg roes, old and young, brought in their chairs and formed a large circle around the capacious hearth of the hall-room, while the father and master priest opened the big family Bible, and read the words of life from its sacred pages. And when the morning and evening hymn were sung, the negroes, with their musical voices, joined in and sang the “parceled lines” to the tune of Windham or Sessions, Ninety-fifth or Old Hundred. They worshiped in the same church with their masters, comfortably seated in galleries constructed for their use, and when the Lord’s supper was administered, they came forward and sat at the same tables where their masters had sat, and drank the sacred wine from the same cups. In all this we are not affirming that there was social equality, or that the slave was always contented with his lot in life. No doubt be often chafed under the yoke of bondage, and sometimes when his master dealt hardly with him he ran away, and hid in the swamps and thickets, sustaining life by stealing, or by the aid of his fellow servants who sympathized with him and who faithfully kept his secret from his master. Our weekly newspaper used to have pictures of fugitive negroes, with a stick over their shoulders, and with a bundle swinging to it, and the startling heading in large capitals “RUNAWAY.” Something after this style: And many a time white children on their way to or from school, would almost hold their breath as they pa ssed some dark swamp or deserted house, when they remembered that a RUNAWAY had been seen in the neighborhood. Generally the runaway got tired of lying out in a few weeks, especially if winter was near, and voluntarily came home and submitted to whatever punishment was decided upon. 207 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY Occasionally there were cruel hardships suffered by them. When the thriftless master got in debt, or when the owner died and his estate was sold at vendue, or if the heartless master chose, the negro husband and wife might be separated, or parent and child might be sold from each other, one party falling into the hands of a negro trader, and carried off to Alabama or Mississippi. Such cases occurred at intervals, and under the laws there was no help for it. But in all such cases the feelings of humane and Christian elements of the community were shocked. Generally, however, arrangements were made to purchase, and keep in the neighborhood, all deserving negroes. As sales would come on it was the habit of the negroes to go to some man able to buy them and secure their transfer to a desirable home. Sometimes, however, all this failed, and the “negro trader” having the longest purse would buy and carry off to the West husbands or wives or children against their will. Older citizens remember the gangs of slaves that once marched through our streets with a hand of each fastened to a long chain, in double file, sometimes with sorrowful=2 0look, and sometimes with a mockery of gayety. The house of the trader was, perhaps, a comfortable mansion, in some shady square of town. Near the center of the square, and embowered in trees and vines, was history prison for the unwilling.There a dozen or two were carefully locked up and guarded. Other cabins on the lot contained those who were sub missive and ‘willing to go. On the day of departure for the West the trader would have a grand jollification. A band, or at least a drum and fife, would be called into requisition, and perhaps a little rum be judiciously distributed to heighten the spirits of his sable property, and the neighbors would gather in to see the departure. First of all one or two closely covered wagons would file out from the “barracoon,” containing the rebellious and unwilling, in handcuffs and chains. After them the rest, dressed in comfortable attire, perhaps dancing and laughing, as if they were going on some holiday excursion. At the edge of the town, the file and drum ceased, the pageant faded away, and the curious crowd who had come to witness the scene returned to their homes. After months had rolled away the “trader’s” wagons came back from Montgomery, Memphis, Mobile, or New Orleans, loaded with luxuries for his family. In boxes and bundles, in kegs and caskets, there were silks and laces, watches and jewelry, ribbons and feathers, candies and tropical fruits, wines and cordials, for family us e and luxurious indulgence, all the profits of an accursed traffic in human flesh and blood, human tears and helpless anguish and oppression. This was the horrible 208 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY and abominable side of this form of social institution. It was evil, wretchedly evil. But it had and has its counterpart in the social evils of the poorer classes of all ages and all lands. Multitudes today, by inexorable necessity, by poverty and the demands for certain kinds of service, are as hopelessly enslaved by circumstances as these were by law. This is not alleged as an excuse or apology for a crying evil, but only as an intimation that he who is without sin may consistently throw stones at the vanished specter of African slavery in the Southern States. And glad are we that the specter has vanished from our fair land.

From A HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA CONTAINING SKETCHES OF PROMINENT FAMILIES AND DISTINGUISHED MEN WITH AN APPENDIX BY REV. JETHRO RUMPLE PUBLISHED BY J. J. BRUNER SALISBURY, N. C. 1881 Copyright DMK Heritage 2004 The following are excerpts from the above-mentioned book. Page 62-65 CHAPTER IX RELIGION AND CHURCHES, WITH A RESUME OF THE PARISH LAWS The early settlers of Rowan County were religious people. The Presbyterians, of Scotch-Irish extraction, were probably the most numerous in the section now comprising Guilford County, in the Jersey Settlement, in Western Rowan and Iredell counties. The Lutherans and German Reformed (the latter sometimes called Calvin congregations, and Presbyterians), prevailed in parts of Guilford, Davidson, East and South Rowan, and Catawba Counties. I name the regions as they are now known, but they were all then in Rowan. In Davidson and Randolph there were Baptist churches. In Salisbury, in the “Jerseys,” and elsewhere, there were some members of the Church of England. It is probable that William Temple Coles and his family, John Dunn, perhaps Corbin and Innes and the Frohocks were attached to that communion. We infer this simply from their nativity and their connection with Earl Granville and Governor Dobbs, as agents or officers of the crown. In regard to Dunn we have a more certain tradition, as we shall hereafter mention. It will be remembered that ST. LUKE’S PARISH was established contemporaneously with the county, as a part of the great system of government here wrought out, or attempted; as nearly conformed to the system of the mother country as practicable. During the administration of Governor Dobbs-in 1754, according to Wheeler-ten years later according to other authorities (See Wheeler, p. 357; Caruthers’ Caldwell, p. 175), steps were taken to provide for the ministry of the word according to the rubric of the Church of England. A petition, signed by thirty-four persons in the County of Rowan, and addressed to Governor Dobbs, represents: “That His Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects in this county, who adhere to the liturgy and profess the doctrines of the Church of England, as by law established, have not the privileges and advantages which the rubric and canons of the Church allow and enjoin on all its members. That the Acts of the Assembly calculated for forming a regular vestry in all the counties have never, in this county, produced their happy fruits. That the County of Rowan, above all counties in the Province, lies under great disadvantages, as her 63 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY inhabitants are composed almost of all nations of Europe, and instead of a uniformity in doctrine and worship, they have a medley of most of the religious tenets that have lately appeared in the world; who from dread of submitting to the national Church, should a lawful vestry be established, elect such of their own community as evade the Acts of the Assembly and refuse the oath, whence we can never expect the regular enlivening beams of t he holy Gospel to shine upon us.” >From the fact that there were only thirty-four signers to this petition from the vast territory of Rowan, we may naturally infer that the population in those days was hopelessly plunged into “Dissent.” And yet it was the purpose of the far-away rulers of England, and of the North Carolina Assembly, to have the Province conform as far as possible to the ecclesiastical system at home. And so the parish system of England, as far as practicable, was incorporated in the system of North Carolina law. What that system was, can be gathered from a voluminous Act, of thirty-three sections, passed by the General Assembly at Wilmington in 1764. Other Acts and regulations of the same general tenor had been adopted on various occasions before, but the Act of 1764-with a supplementary one in 1765-is the most full, and gives an impartial view of the system as perfected, just before the final downfall of the whole scheme at the Declaration of Independence in 1776. I will endeavor to give an impartial resumé of the parish system. According to this “Act” the Freeholders of each county, on Easter Monday of every third year, were required to elect twelve vestrymen to hold said office for the term of three years. A “Freeholder” according to existing laws was a person who owned at least fifty acres of land, or a lot in some town. These Freeholders were required to vote for vestrymen under a penalty of twenty shillings equal to two dollars and fifty cents in specie-and the vestrymen so elected were required to subscribe an oath that “they will not oppose the doctrine, discipline, and liturgy of the Church of England, as by law established”; and in case of refusal to qualify, any vestryman elect was to be declared incapable of acting in that capacity. Out of the twelve vestrymen two church wardens were to be chosen, who were required to hold office at least one year, under a penalty of forty shillings, equal to five dollars in specie or sterling money, and they were to forfeit five pounds (£5) if they did not set up their accounts for public inspection in the courthouse. These vestries might appoint one or more clerks, or readers, to perform divine service at such places as they might designate. 64 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY The vestry were also empowered to lay a tax of ten shillings proclamation money, on each “taxable” in the county, for the purpose of building churches or chapels, paying ministers’ salaries, purchasing a glebe, erecting “mansions or parsonages,” etc. “Taxables,” as we gather from another Act, were all white male persons over sixteen years of age, all negroes, mulattoes, and mustees, both male and female, over twelve years of age, and all white persons male and female over twelve years of age who intermarried with negroes or persons of mixed blood. Such a tax, faithfully collected, would have yielded an immense revenue for the support of religion. Being a poll t ax, and not a property tax, it fell heavily upon the poor, and lightly on the rich. The tax thus levied was to be collected by the sheriff, as the other taxes, and paid over to the vestry; and in case of refusal, the sheriff was required to “distrain” the goods of the delinquent and sell them at public auction, after publishing the sale by posting it on the courthouse door, the church door, and by public announcement to the people immediately after divine service. (See Davis’ Revisal of North Carolina Laws, Edition 1173, pp. 304, 309.) By an “Act” passed in 1765, during the administration of William Tryon as Lieutenant-Governor, and called an “Act for establishing an orthodox clergy,” it was provided that every minister of a parish was to receive a stated salary of £133, 6s., 8d., and for each marriage solemnized in the parish, whether he performed the ceremony or not, provided he did not refuse, twenty shillings; for preaching each funeral, forty shillings. In addition to this he was to have the free use of a “mansion house” and “glebe,” or “tract of good land” of at least two hundred acres, or twenty pounds (£20) additional until such time as the “mansion house” and “glebe” were provided. The “mansion house was required to be thirty-eight feet in length, and eighteen feet in width, and to be accompanied with a kitchen, barn, stable, dairy, and meat house, with such other convenience s as they may think necessary.” (Sec Davis’ Revisal, 1773, pp. 338-39.) From this it will appear that the Assembly of North Carolina made a fair and liberal provision for the support of her parish ministers, and with the exception of the glebe, which he need not cultivate himself, rendered him “free from worldly cares and avocations.” But the difficulty lay in putting these regulations into effect. In Governor Dobb’s letter to the “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,” he informs the Society, in 1764, that in North Carolina “there were then but six clergymen, though there were twenty-nine parishes, and each parish contained 65 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY a whole county.” (Rev. R. J. Miller’s letter to Dr. Hawks, 1830.) The fact was that a large part of the population were “Dissenters,” and they resisted every effort to settle a parish minister over them, and thus refused to subject themselves to additional taxation. In Unity Parish, in Guilford County, the people elected non-Episcopalians for vestrymen, and it became necessary for the Assembly to dissolve the vestry and declare their actions null and void. (See Caruthers’ “Caldwell.”) But let Parson Miller, in the letter above referred to, tell how matters were conducted in Rowan County, and in Salisbury especially. He says: “Subsequently to the year 1768, the Rev. Mr. (Theodore Drane) Draig came to Salisbury, in Rowan County, which was then St. Luk e’s Parish, and so far succeeded as to be able to have a small chapel erected in what is called the Jersey Settlement, about nine or ten miles east of Salisbury. But the opposition made to his settlement as rector of that parish, by the Presbyterians, was so very rancorous as to raise great animosity in their minds against all his endeavors to that end-they being far the most numerous body, having several large congregations well organized in the adjacent counties, and one of them in the vicinity of Salisbury. I well remember an anecdote told me by Dr. Newman [and] John Cowan, Sr., in their lifetime, and indeed by several others in the vicinity of Salisbury, some of whom may yet be living: ‘That on Easter Monday, when an election according to the then law of the Province was to be held for the purpose of electing vestrymen, the Presbyterians set up candidates of their own persuasion and elected them, not with any design either to serve or act as vestrymen, but merely to prevent the Episcopalians from electing such as would have done so.’ This caused much bitter animosity to spring up between the parties, and so, much discouraged the reverend gentleman. Perhaps the approach of the Revolutionary War had its influence also; but be that as it may, after a four years’ fruitless effort to organize an Episcopal congregation in this section, he left it as he found it, without any” (Rev. Mr. Miller’s letter in Church Messenger, October 15, 1879). A full sketch of each of the churches of Salisbury will be furnished in the future chapters, but so much was deemed necessary here, to give a glimpse of the early days before the Revolution. To the stirring times immediately preceding the great struggle for American liberty we must now direct our attention, for Rowan County was rather before than behind her neighbors in that struggle, as the record will show.

Gardiner, 213, PRESBYTERIANISM IN ROWAN is older than the organization of the county, not only in the affections and doctrines of the settlers, but in the form of organized Presbyterian congregations. On pages forty-six and forty-seven of the first volume of deeds in the Register’s office, we find it recorded that, on the seventeenth of January, 1753, John Lynn and Naomi Lynn gave a deed for twelve acres of land, more or less, on James Cathey’s line, in Anson County, “to a congregation belonging to ye Lower meetinghouse, between the Atking River and ye Catabo Do., adhering to a minister licensed from a Presbytery belonging to the old Synod of Philadelphia.” This deed was witnessed by Edward Cusick, John Gardiner, and William Brandon. On the eighteenth of January, 1753, a similar deed for twelve acres more, “on James Cathey’s north line,” was conveyed to the same congregation. From this we learn that there was an organized congregation of Presbyterians at this point, capable of purchasing land, and its popular name was the “Lower Meeting-house.” The second name by which it was known as “Cathey’s Meeting-house,” doubtless because in the neighborhood of the Catheys. Its third and present name was and is Thyatira. Whether it was an organized church, with its regularly ordained elders, at that early day, we have no means of determining. It is probable that some of the first settlers-the Catheys, Brandons, Barrs, Andrews, Grahams, or Nesbits-wer e ordained elders before leaving Pennsylvania, and exercised their office in planting a church near their new homes. 345 FIFTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT COMPANY C Private Gardiner, J. W.; en. July 4, 1862; a. 20; d. of d. Gardner,258, About the year 1794, a number of Episcopal families removed from Maryland to the western part of Rowan, among them two families of Barbers, and other families by the names of Gardner, Chunn, Harrison, Alexander, Lightell, Mills, Swan, Reeves, Burroughs, etc. The Rev. Richard W. Barber, of Wilkesboro, is descended from Elias Barber the patriarch of one branch of the Barber family, and the Rev. Samuel S. Barber, of Hyde County, is descended from Jonathan Barber, the patriarch of the other branch. 295, COMPANY K (ROWAN RIFLE GUARDS) ENTERED SERVICE APRIL 19, 1861. REORGANIZED AS COMPANY K FOURTH REGIMENT INFANTRY, MAY 30, 1861 Private Gardner, Frank S.; d. in hospital. 303, FIFTH REGIMENT INFANTRY COMPANY K Private Gardner, J. W.; en. July 15, 1862; d. May 3, 1863, Guinea Station. 336 FORTY-SIXTH REGIMENT COMPANY B Private Gardner, James; en. April 13, 1862; a. 38.

284, NINTH REGIMENT CAVALRY COMPANY F Private Fisher Charles H.; en. June 15, 1861; a. 20; w. 305, SIXTH REGIMENT OFFICERS, FIELD AND STAFF Charles F. Fisher, Col.; en. May 16, 1861; a. 40; k. Manassas, July 21, 1861. 320, FOURTEENTH REGIMENT COMPANY I Privates Todd, Giles; d. of d, 1863. Fred C. Fisher; attached to Gen. W. H. F. Lee’s Staff. A. H. Boyden; attached to Gen. R. F. Hoke’s Staff. 342, FIFTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT COMPANY A Private Fisher, J. R.; en. July 4, 1862; a. 24; w. at Fredericksburg at First and Second Battles. 349 SECOND REGIMENT (JUNIOR RESERVES) COMPANY B Officer Henderson Fisher, 3d. Sgt.

231, ST. JOHN’S CHURCH, SALISBURY Though this is the oldest Lutheran church in North Carolina, there was for a considerable period such a decline as almost amounted to extinction. Still there were Lutherans here, and they owned a lot and building that were used by occasional ministers of their own faith as well as by other denominations. In 1822, steps were taken to secure its reorganization. The Rev. Gottlieb Schober, president of the Synod that year, addressed a letter to the Lutherans of Salisbury urging them to gather up their forces, re-constitute their church, and claim their property. This letter had the desired effect, for the adherents of the church met, arid a paper was drawn up by the Hon. Charles Fisher pledging the signers to reorganize the church. This paper was dated September 20, 1822, and was signed by the following persons, viz.: John Beard, Sr., Charles Fisher, Daniel Cress, Peter Crider, John Trexler, John Beard, Jr., Peter H. Swink, Moses Brown, John H. Swink, Bernhardt Kreiter, Lewis Utzman, H. Allemong, M. Bruner, John Albright, and Henry Swinkwag. Efforts were at once made to secure a minister, but without success. About this time a fence was placed around the graveyard, which had lain for some time in a neglected condition. In 1825, the work of reorganization was begun again, and Messrs. John Beard, Sr., George Vogler, and Moses Brown were elected elders, and Messrs. Nathan Brown, George Praley, and Henry C. Kern, deacons. During the following year, 1826, the church was successfu l in its efforts to secure the Rev. John Reek, of Maryland, as pastor. He found but fourteen members at his arrival; but the next year there were thirty members in full communion. Mr. Reek remained with the church five years, and his labors among them were greatly blessed. In 1831, the pastor resigned and returned to Maryland. “After this time the congregation had such a continued and rapid succession of ministers, besides having been at times unsupplied with the stated means of grace, as not to be enabled to command the influence which the regular ministration of a permanent pastor might have given it.” 260, On the fifteenth day of September, 1827, Moses A. Locke, Charles Fisher, and John Beard, Jr., as executors of Lewis Beard, executed and delivered to John McClelland, James Martin, Stephen L. Ferrand, Thomas Chambers, Edward Yarboro, and Edward Cress, vestry of the Episcopal congregation of St. Luke’s Church, a deed in fee for Lot No. 11-one hundred and forty-four square poles—in the town of Salisbury-now the east corner of Church and Council Streets. 268, Mr. Davis removed to Camden, S. C., the latter part of the year 1846, after a continuous residence in Salisbury of ten years. He was admired, respected, and beloved by all who knew him. The parish records of St. Luke’s Church before the rectorship of Mr. Davis are lost, and the records kept by him are incomplete. Mrs. Jane C. Mitchell (now Boyden) is the first name among the list of confirmations, September 9 , 1837. The last name is Charles F. Fisher, September, 1846. Among the baptisms is this entry: “July 24, 1844, James Alexander Craige and George Kerr Craige, infants of Burton and Elizabeth Craige, Catawba County.” Among the burials are the following names: November, 1841, Mr. George Baker; August 22, 1843, Mrs. Mary N. Steele; January 24, 1844, W. D. Crawford.” Among the marriages are the following: 1843, Dr. George B. Douglas and Miss Mary Ellis; July, Mr. Charles F. Fisher and Elizabeth Caldwell; November, Mr. N. Boyden to Mrs. Jane Mitchell; Dr. R. Hill to Miss M. Fisher. The record of marriages before the year 1843 has not been preserved. 270, The Diocesan Convention met in St. Luke’s Church, Salisbury, May 24, 1849, and again on May 27, 1857. The delegates elected to the last-named were William Murphy, Charles F. Fisher, Benjamin Sumner, and Luke Blackmer, from St. Luke’s Church; 273, Since the year 1823, many of the most distinguished citizens of the State have either been communicants of St. Luke’s Church or members of its congregation. John W. Ellis was a member of the General Assembly, a Judge of the Superior Court, and Governor of the State. Richmond M. Pearson became Chief Justice of the State; and Nathaniel Boyden became a member of Congress and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. James Martin, Jr., Romulus M. Saunders, and David F. Caldwell were Judges of the Superior Courts. Mr. Saunders was also Attorney General of the State, and Minister P lenipotentiary to Spain. John Beard, Jr., Thomas G. Polk, Charles F. Fisher, John A. Lillington, John B. Lord, A. H. Caldwell, Stephen L. Ferrand, John L. Henderson, Richard H. Alexander, William Chambers, H. C. Jones, have been members of the General Assembly, in one House or the other; and many of them have occupied other important public stations. Archibald Henderson was a member of the Council of State under Governors Reid and Ellis. I have not included in the above list any persons now living. A large majority of the persons named were communicants. 274, 275, LOWER STONE, OR GRACE CHURCH lying in the center of the German population of Eastern Rowan is the parent of all the German Reformed Churches in Rowan County. The fathers and mothers of these inhabitants came into this region along with the Lutheran settlers about 1750, and their descendants may still be found on or near the old homesteads. The names of the Reformed families were Lingle, Berger, Fisher, Lippard, Peeler, Holshouser, Barnhardt, Kluttz, Roseman, Yost, Foil, Boger, Shupping, and others still familiar in that region. According to the custom of these early days, the settlers united in building a joint or union church. The first church erected by the Lutherans and Reformed jointly was a log church situated about six miles northeast of the present Lower Stone Church, which was called St. Peter’s Church. From a want of harmony or other unknown cause a separation took place, and the Lutherans built the Organ Church, and the Reformed b uilt the Lower Stone Church. Both these churches were of stone work, and were named, one from 275 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY it organ, and the other from the material of its building. The land for the Lower Stone Church was purchased from Lorentz Lingle for two pounds (£2), proclamation money. The deed bears the date of 1774, and conveys the land to Andrew Holshouser and John Lippard for the use of the “Calvin congregation.” The Reformed Church was distinguished from other denominations in these early days by the fact that they were followers of the great reformer of Geneva, John Calvin, who perfected the reformation that was begun in Switzerland by Ulric Zwingle. The site of this church is about four miles west of Gold Hill, on the Beattie’s Ford Road. The first structure was of logs, but they were not long content with so humble a building, judging rightly that a house erected for the worship of God ought to be superior to their own dwellings. The Lutherans had just completed their house of stone, and in the year 1795 the Reformed Church set about the erection of their church of the same material. The cornerstone was laid in 1795, under the pastorate of the Rev. Andrew Loretz. Col. George Henry Berger, who was a prominent member of the Rowan Committee of Safety before the Revolution, and Jacob Fisher, were the elders of the Church at this time, and were most active in the erection of the new church. But many trials and discouragements obstructed the good work, and it was not until November, 1811, sixteen years after the cornerstone was laid, that the building was completed and dedicated to the worship of God. In the services of that occasion Pastor Loretz was assisted by the Rev. Dr. Robinson, then and for many years the beloved pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Poplar Tent. Previous to the pastorate of the Rev. Mr. Loretz there were different pastors, whose names are unknown. The Rev. Mr. Beuthahn resided in Guilford County, organized churches, and preached among them, but supported himself chiefly by teaching a German school in the southeast corner of Guilford County.

186, Judge Caldwell was twice married. He first married Fanny, the daughter of William Lee Alexander, Esq., and niece of Hon. Archibald Henderson. Their children were, William Lee, Archibald Henderson, Elizabeth Ruth, who married Col. Charles Fisher; 190, 191, 192, THE FISHER FAMILY The Hon. Charles Fisher was a native of Rowan County, and was born October 20, 1’179. His father came to North Carolina before the Revolution, and was an officer of militia during the war. The subject of this notice was educated by Rev. Dr. John Robinson, of Poplar Tent, and by the Rev. Dr. McPheeters, of Raleigh. He studied law and obtained license to practice, but soon abandoned the bar for the more stirring scenes of political life. He enjoyed the confidence of the people of Rowan County as fully as any man who ever lived in the county, and they delighted to honor him with every office for which he ever asked their suffrages. In 1819 he represented Rowan in the State Senate, and in the same year was elected from the Rowan District for Congress. After this term he again served Rowan County in the State Legislature, and was a member of the Convention of 1835, called to amend the State Constitution. In 1839 he was again elected to Congress, over Dr. Pleasant Henderson, though the latter was a most popular man, and the champion of a Party supposed to be in the majority. Mr. Fisher was one of the most active and energetic men in the State, and an unyielding advocate of State rights against Federal encroac hments and usurpations. Near the close of life he became a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and strove to discharge his duty to his Creator, as he had endeavored to do his duty to his country. 191 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY After a long and honored and useful life, he died far away from home, in Hillshoro, Miss., on the seventh of May, 1849. No monument marks his grave. His ashes should rest here, in one of the cemeteries among the honored dead of Rowan. Mr. Fisher married Christiana, daughter of Lewis Beard, Esq., of Salisbury, by whom he had several children. One son died in infancy. His daughter Mary married a Mr. Hill, and removing to Georgia died there a few years ago. Christine, another daughter, still resides in Salisbury. His other son COL. CHARLES FREDERICK FISHER was the noble son of a noble sire. He was horn in Salisbury in 1816. His preparatory education was conducted in the classical schools of Salisbury, and from them he was transferred to Yale College. He never studied any of the professions, but devoted his attention to agriculture and mining, and for several years was associated with Dr. Austin in the publication of The Western Carolinian. In 1854-55, he was a member of the State Legislature from Rowan County. He succeeded the Hon. John M. Morehead as president of the North Carolina Railroad, in 1855, and continued to preside over the interests of that great State enterprise, with eminent skill and ability, until 1861. When the alarm of war rang throughout the land in 1861 , Mr. Fisher at once proceeded to raise and equip a regiment at the head of which he took the field in the early part of July. This regiment, the Sixth North Carolina, had been ordered to Winchester, Va., where it was in the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston when the army of the Shenandoah was ordered to Manassas to reinforce General Beauregard. Owing to a wreck on the line of railway, there was a delay in the transportation of the troops which threatened disaster, and gave Colonel Fisher an opportunity to render an important service by repairing the track with the aid of the trained railroad men who composed a large part of his command. As a reward for his efforts, the Sixth Regiment was allowed to embark on the next train that left for Manassas, and reached there in time to be ordered into battle by General Beauregard at the most critical period of the action, when their help was greatly needed, shortly after two o’clock in the afternoon. Colonel Fisher then led his regiment almost immediately to the brilliant charge on Rickett’s Battery, which destroyed and captured that formidable artillery, and proved the turning point of the battle. From that minute, as the official reports clearly prove, the Federal army went down to defeat, but Colonel Fisher himself died in the hour of his triumph, 192 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY falling gloriously in the charge in which he was leading his men. In an address on this subject, delivered in Charlotte, N. C., on October 12, 1901, Hon. John S. Henderson says: “The ground where the Sixth Regiment fought and destroyed McDowell’s most formidable batteries marked the extreme point of the Federal advance towards Manassas. This is the truth of history, and Colonel Fisher fell in the forefront, at the time when the tide of battle had been first turned back, and victory had been assured to the Confederate army by the heroic and successful fighting of himself and the Sixth Regiment.” It was a gloomy day in Salisbury when the remains of her chivalrous son were brought home, and sorrowfully laid in their resting place in the Salisbury cemetery (Lutheran graveyard). Colonel Fisher married Elizabeth Ruth Caldwell, oldest daughter of Hon. David F. Caldwell, in July, 1845, by whom he had several children, who were left in the orphanage to the care of his sister, Miss Christine Fisher. The names of these children are Frances, Annie, and Frederick. Miss Frances Fisher, under the nom de plume of Christian Reid, has achieved an enviable reputation as a writer of elegant fiction. Her volume, entitled the “Land of the Sky,” possesses the merit of being a faithful delineation of the choicest scenery in Western North Carolina, elegantly and attractively written. This charming book has been the means of attracting many visitors to our beautiful mountains, and has rendered it quite fashionable for tourists to visit this region, where the loftiest mountains east of the Mississippi stand grouped together in stately grandeur.

43-44, A good part of the time of the first Court was taken up in registering the marks and brands which the citizens had invented to distinguish their cattle and other livestock; and the changes are rung on “crops,” “half-crops,” “slits,” and “swallow-forks,” in the “off” and “near” ear, and other quaint devices for marking. The cattle that were to be identified by the marks and brands registered in the Rowan Court, ranged over the meadows and prairies of the Yadkin, the Catawba, the Deep, the Saxapahaw, and the Dan Rivers. Constables were also appointed whose beats lay as much as a hundred miles from the seat of justice. These old “records” of the Rowan Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, for 1753-54-55-56, are full of interest to anyone who will take the trouble to decipher them. For instance, here is a list of constables and their beats for 1753. Preston Goforth for the South Fork of the Catawba. (This was for the region from Hickory to Lincoln.) John McGuire, south side of the Yadkin. John Attaway (?) for Dan River. John Robinson for south side of Yadkin, “from the mouth of Grant’s Creek to the ford of the same; thence across to the Trading Path; thence along said Path as far as Coldwater; thence with his Lordship’s line.” This shows that the Trading Path ran to the point where Coldwater Creek runs from Rowan into Cabarrus. “John Nesbit had his beat from James Cathey s Creek to the Western Path, as far as the fork of said Path. James Howard from Cathey’s Creek to Third Creek, and as far as the Division Ridge between the two settlements. Benjamin Winslow, as far as the Catawba River, and along the King’s line and Lamb’s Mill, and down as far as William McKnight’s. John Doller on Abbott’s Creek, as far as the Western Path. David Stewart on the north side of Yadkin, from Muddy Creek and upward. William Fisher for the district included in the Forks of Yadkin. James Watkins from the Orange line as far as Beaver Island Creek, on Dan River. James Hampton from Beaver Island Creek and upwards” (i. e., higher up the Dan). These names of men and local 44 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY ities show the extent of the jurisdiction of the Rowan Court, stretching from the Orange line and Dan River to the King’s line, and as far west as the south fork of the Catawba, northwest of Lincolnton. 155, Lewis Beard married Susan, the daughter of John Dunn, Esq., of Salisbury. Of their children, Mary married Major Moses A. Locke, for many years president of the bank in Salisbury. The grandchildren of Major Locke still reside at the Bridge place, near the river. Christine, another daughter of Lewis Beard, married Charles Fisher, Esq., a lawyer of Salisbury. From 1818 until his death in 1849, for nearly forty years, Charles Fisher was a leading man in Rowan County in public affairs, serving often in the State Legislature, and several times20in the United States Congress. His son, Col. Charles F. Fisher, was a leading man. He volunteered at the beginning of the late war, and fell in the first battle of Manassas, courageously fighting in front of his regiment. Another child of Lewis and Susan Beard, was Major John Beard, who died about five years ago at his home in Tallahassee, Fla.

Fisher, (17, 18, 19,) 17 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY JOHN JOSEPH BRUNER, EDITOR John Joseph Bruner was born in Rowan County, N. C., on the Yadkin River, about seven miles from Salisbury, on the twelfth of March, 1817. He was the son of Henry Bruner, and Edith his wife, who was the youngest daughter of Col. West Harris, of Montgomery County, N. C. Colonel Harris married Edith Ledbetter, of Anson County, and was a field officer in the Continental Army. When the subject of this sketch was a little over two years old, his father died, and his mother returned with her two children, Selina and Joseph, to her father’s house in Montgomery. In the year 1825, he came to Salisbury, under the care of his uncle Hon. Charles Fisher, father of the late Col. Chas. F. Fisher, who fell at the battle of Bull Run. Mr. Bruner’s first year in Salisbury was spent in attending the school taught by Henry Allemand. This was about all the schooling of a regular style that he ever received, excepting after he grew up. The remainder of his education was of a practical kind, and was received at the case and press of a printing office. At the age of nine years, he entered the printing office of the Western Carolinian, then under the editorial control of the Hon. Philo White, late of Whitestown, N. Y. The Carolinian passed into the hands of the Hon. Burton Craige, in 1830, and then into the hands of Major John Beard, late of Florida, Mr. Bruner continuing in the office until 1836. In 1839, the lath M. C. Pendleton, of Salisbury, and Mr. Bruner, purchased the Watchman, and edited it in partnership for about three years. The Watchman had been started in the year 1832, by Hamilton C. Jones, Esq., father of the late Col. H. C. Jones, of Charlotte. The Watchman was a Whig and antinullification paper, and was intended to support (en. Andrew Jackson in his anti-nullification policy. In 1843, Mr. Bruner retired from the Watchman, and traveled for a while in the Southwest, spending some time in a printing-office in Mobile, Ala. Returning home, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Ann Kincaid, a daughter of Thomas Kincaid, Esq. The mother of Mrs. Bruner was Clarissa Harlowe, daughter of Col. James Brandon of Revolutionary fame, who married Esther Horah, an aunt of the late Win. H. Horah, so long known as a leading bank officer in Salisbury. Col. James Brandon was the son of William Brandon, who settled in Thyatira as early as 1752, and whose wife 18 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY was a Miss Cathey of that region. Having married, Mr. Bruner prepared for his life work by re-purchasing the Watchman, in partnership with the late Samuel W. James, in 1844. After six years, this partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Bruner became sole proprietor and editor of the Watchman, which he continued to publish until the office was captured by the Federal soldiers in the spring of 1865. After a few months, however, Mr. Bruner was permitted to re-occupy his dismantled office, and resume the publication of his paper. Three years=2 0later, Lewis Hanes, Esq., of Lexington, purchased an interest in the paper, and it was called the Watchman and Old North State. Retiring for a time from the paper, Mr. Bruner entered private life for a couple of years. But his mission was to conduct a paper, and so in 1871 he re-purchased it, and the Watchman made its regular appearance weekly until his death. At this date, the Watchman was the oldest newspaper, and Mr. Bruner the oldest editor in North Carolina. He was one of the few remaining links binding the antebellum journalist with those of the present day. The history of Mr. Bruner’s editorial life is a history of the program of the State. He was contemporary with the late Edward J. Hale, Ex-Governor Holden, Wm. J. Yates, and others of the older editors of the State. When he began to publish the Watchman, there was not a daily paper in North Carolina, and no railroads. In the forties and fifties, the Watchman was the leading paper in Western North Carolina, and had subscribers in fifty counties. None now living in Salisbury, and few elsewhere in the State, have had such extensive personal acquaintance and knowledge of men and things in the early years of this century. Names that have almost ceased to be spoken on our streets were familar to him. He knew such men as Hon. Chas. Fisher, Col. Chas. F. Fisher, Rowland Jones, Esq., Dr. Pleasant Henderson, Hamilton C. Jones, Esq., Hon. Burton Craige, the Browns, Longs, Cowans, Beards, Lockes, Hendersons, and hosts of others of a former20generation. He sat under the preaching of every pastor of the Presbyterian Church since its organization Dr. Freeman, Mr. Rankin, Mr. Espy, Dr. Sparrow, Mr. Frontis (by whom he was married’), Mr. Baker, and Rev. Dr. Rumple, who was his pastor and friend for more than thirty years. He was a scholar in the Sunday School when Thos. L. Cowan was superintendent, and was afterwards a teacher and superintendent himself. Col. Philo White his early protector, was a high-toned Christian man, and he so impressed himself upon his youthful ward that he those him for a model, emulated his example, and held his memory in cherished veneration to the end of his life. At the age 19 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY of seventeen, Mr. Bruner was received into the communion of the Presbyterian Church of Salisbury, and in 1846 he was ordained a ruling elder in that Church, and continued to serve in that capacity through the remainder of his life. He was a sincere, earnest, and consistent Christian, and faithful in the discharge of all private and public duties of the Christian profession. The family altar was established in his household, and he brought up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Mr. Bruner died, after a lingering illness, March 23, 1890. His end was peace. As he gently passed away-so gently that it was difficult to tell when life ended and immortality began-a brother elder by his bedside repeated the lines: “How blest the righteous when he dies! When sinks a weary soul to rest; How=2 0mildly beam the closing eyes How gently heaves the expiring breast!” In many things Mr. Bruner was an example worthy of imitation. His memory must ever shine as one of the purest, sweetest, best elements of the past. His character was singularly beautiful and upright. His life was an unwritten sermon, inestimably precious to those who will heed the lessons which it teaches, and to whom grace may be given to follow his good example. He was emphatically a self-made man. His learning he acquired by his own unaided efforts; his property he earned by the sweat of his brow; and his reputation he achieved by prudence, wisdom, and faithfulness in all the duties of life. By his paper he helped multitudes of men to honorable and lucrative office, but he never helped himself. Politically, Mr. Bruner never faltered in his allegiance to those principles to which he believed every true Southern man should adhere. Up to the very last he was unflinching and unwavering in his love for the South, and in his adherence to the very best ideals and traditions of the land of his nativity. At no time during his life did he ever “crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, that thrift might follow fawning.” In the very best sense of the word, he was a Southern gentleman of the old school. The old South and the new were all one to him-the same old land, the same old people, the same old traditions, the land of Washington, of Jefferson, of Calhoun and Jackson, of Pettigrew and Fisher, of Graham and Craige, of Stonewall Jackson, of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.

272, 273, The following statistics of St. Luke’s Parish may prove of interest to the curious. Under Mr. Davis, confirmations, 33; baptisms, 90. Under Mr. Parker, confirmations, 35; baptisms, 105. Under Mr. Haughton, confirmations, 29; baptisms, 110. Under Mr. Tillinghast, confirmations, 86; baptisms, 53. Under Mr. Murdock, confirmations, 132; baptisms, 128. During Mr. Murdock’s rectorship of eight years, the communicants have increased more than one hundred per cent. The number of communicants in the county is 224; of which there are at St. Luke’s, 118; at Christ Church, 72; and at St. Andrew’s, 34. The whole number of Episcopal Church people is about seven hundred. The largest confirmation class under Mr. Davis-May 16, 1840-numbered nine, including John B. Lord, Mrs. Ann Lord, Misses Julia Beard, Christian Howard, and others. Some of the names in the other classes are William Chambers, Charles Wheeler, William Locke, William Murphy, Marcus Beard, Samuel R Harrison, Eliza Miller, Jane Wheeler, Ellen Woolworth, Ellen Howard, Rose Howard, Mary S. Henderson, and Augusta M. Locke. Mr. Parker’s largest class numbered 12 March 28, 1858-including John Willis Ellis, Louisa M. Shober, Julia Ann Blackmer, Alice Jones, Sarah H. Mitchel, Ann Macay, and Ellen Sumner. Some of the names in the other classes are Mary Murphy, Julia Long, Helen B. Bryce, Sophie Pearson, Mary McRorie, Laura Hend erson, Jane A. Howard, Luke Blackmer, Nathaniel Boyden, James Murphy. Mr. Haughton0s largest class numbered eleven-January 29, 1860-including Archibald Henderson, John M. Coffin, Fanny Miller, H. C. Jones, Jr., Frances C. Fisher. Some of the names in the other classes are Mary Locke, J. M. Jones, Elizabeth Vanderford, Henrietta Hall, Annie McB. Fisher, Alice L. Pearson. Mr. Tillinghast’s largest class-November 21, 1869-numbered eight, including Laura C. Murphy, John R. Ide, Julia Ide. Some of the names in the other classes are Robert Murphy, Jr., Charlotte C. Mock, Anna May Shober, Lewis Hanes, Mary E. Murphy, Leonora Beard, May F. Henderson. Mr. Murdock’s largest class-October 6, 1873-numbered thirty-four, including Francis E. Shober, Jr., William C. Blackmer, William Howard, A. J. Mock, and Fanny Kelly. Some of the names in the other classes are Walter H. Holt, Charles F. Baker, Peter A. Frercks, Belle Boyden, Joseph O. White, Annie Rowzee, Caroline McNeely, Penelope Bailey, Clarence W. Murphy, Annie Cuthrell, George A. Kluttz, and Lillian Warner. Some of the most influential and distinguished names which have adorned the annals of Rowan County have been communicants or 273 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY adherents of the Episcopal Church. I have already spoken of the ante-Revolutionary period. Between that period and the year 1823, when Bishop Ravencroft made his first visitation to Salisbury, the following may be confidently claimed as friendly to Episcopacy, to wit: Maxwell Chambers, Matthew Tray, Anthony and John Newnan, Thomas Frohock, Lewis Beard, Spruce Mac ay, Alfred Macay, Matthew and Francis Locke, Joseph and Jesse A. Pearson, John L. and Archibald Henderson, John Steele, William C. Love, and many others. 338 FORTY-NINTH REGIMENT COMPANY C Officers P. B. Chambers, Capt.; pr. to Major; resigned. 339 FORTY-NINTH REGIMENT COMPANY C Private Chambers, R. M.; en. March 19, 1862; a. 22; d. of d. April 23, 1863.

186, 187, 188, 189, Judge Caldwell was twice married. He first married Fanny, the daughter of William Lee Alexander, Esq., and niece of Hon. Archibald Henderson. Their children were, William Lee, Archibald Henderson, Elizabeth Ruth, who married Col. Charles Fisher; Richard Alexander Caldwell, Esq., Dr. Julius Andrew Caldw ell, and Fanny McCoy, married to Peter Hairston, Esq. After the death of his first wife, he married Mrs. Rebecca M. Troy, née Nesbit, the widow of the late Matthew Troy, Esq., and the half-sister of the late Maxwell Chambers, Esq. Her remains are interred beneath the Presbyterian lecture-room, near to Mr. Chambers’ grave. She was an earnest Christian woman, of a meek and quiet spirit. During her widowhood, she and her half-brother, Maxwell Chambers, lived east of town, where Capt. John Beard now lives. Afterwards, they purchased and lived in the residence where Mrs. Dr. Joseph W. Hall now lives. At the same time, Mrs. Troy, the mother of Matthew Troy, and her daughter, Catherine Troy, lived in the house where R. J. Holmes now resides, on Innes Street. THE CHAMBERS AND TROY FAMILIES We have already drifted into some account of one or two members of these families, but a fuller account may be interesting. During the Revolutionary War, Maxwell Chambers, the elder, resided in Salisbury. He lived on the place where Mr. S. H. Wiley’s residence now stands. Lord Cornwallis made his headquarters in this house, in 1781. Maxwell Chambers was the treasurer of the Committee of Safety for Rowan, in 1775-76, and was a true patriot, though he once fell under the censure of the Committee for raising the price of powder, and it was ordered that he be advertised as an enemy of his country. After the war he lived at Spring Hill, about two miles=2 0east of Salisbury, where he raised a large family. He was married to the daughter of George Magoune, who had married Hester Long, the widow of John Long, and mother of Alexander Long, Esq. Maxwell Chambers had nine sons, named William, Maxwell-who was graduated at Chapel Hill in 1809, Henry, Joseph, Samuel, Edward, Thomas, Otho, and John. Henry became a lawyer, and Maxwell a physician; the others were farmers. They all died early in life, some of them unmarried, and it is not known that any of their descendants are now living in this county. The late William Chambers was a son of Edward Chambers, but left no children. John Chambers married Panthea Troy, sister of Matthew Troy, Esq., and of the late Mrs. Maxwell Chambers. 187 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY MAXWELL CHAMBERS the younger, was a distant relative of the family already mentioned, and was the son of Joseph and Mary Chambers, of Salisbury. Beneath the lecture-room of the Presbyterian Church in Salisbury, there are ten graves, nine of them covered with marble slabs, and one marked by a headstone. As there is historical matter inscribed on those slabs, and as the general public never see these inscriptions,20I will give the epitaphs in substance. Commencing next to the wall, we find the first monument and the oldest, with this inscription: 1. William Nesbit, died November 22, 1799, aged sixty-four years. 2. Adelaide Fulton, daughter of John and Mary Fulton, died at two weeks of age. 3. Mary F ulton, died January 5, 1806, aged forty-five years. (a) She was first married to Joseph Chambers, by whom she had one son, Maxwell Chambers. (b) She was next married to William Nesbit, and had two children, David M. and Rebecca M. Nesbit. (c) She was again married, to John Fulton, and had one child, Adelaide Fulton. 4. David M. Nesbit, son of William and Mary Nesbit, died October 19, 1811, aged twenty-five years. 5. Henry M. Troy, son of Matthew and Rebecca M. Troy, died July 8, 1824, aged eleven years, eleven months, and fifteen days. 6. Laura Troy, daughter of Matthew and Rebecca M. Troy, died November 16, 1828, aged eighteen years, one month, one day. 7. Rebecca M. Caldwell, second wife of Hon. D. F. Caldwell, died November 28, 1855, in the sixty-fifth year of her age. 8. Panthea Jane Daviess, daughter of Robert and Anne Daviess, of Mercer County, Ky., died May 20, 1835, aged sixteen years. 9. Catherine B. Chambers, consort of Maxwell Chambers, and daughter of Matthew and Jane Troy, died November 27, 1852, aged sixty-seven years, seven months, and three days. 10.Maxwell Chambers, died February 7, 1855, aged seventy-five years, one month, and fourteen days.0A >From the above figures we gather that Maxwell Chambers was the son of Joseph and Mary Chambers, and was born on the twenty-third of January, 1780. Tradition states that he was born in the house now the residence of Thomas J. Meroney, on Main Street. His early education was=2 0probably secured in Salisbury, and he 188 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY entered into business here with his uncle, a Mr. Campbell, from which we infer that his mother’s maiden name was Campbell. After conducting business here for awhile, Mr. Campbell and Mr. Chambers went to Charleston and set up in mercantile business there. Here Mr. Chambers laid the foundation of his fortune, and after awhile he returned to Salisbury and lived with his widowed half-sister, Mrs. Rebecca M. Troy. After a time he married Miss Catherine B. Troy, the daughter of Matthew Troy the elder, and sister of Matthew Troy the younger. It is said that an attachment had long existed between this couple, but Mr. Chambers had thought himself too poor to marry in his younger days. But when he had amassed a considerable fortune, of perhaps one or two hundred thousand dollars, and she being the owner of about thirty thousand dollars, they considered themselves in proper circumstances to marry, though both were somewhat advanced in life. They settled at the Nesbit place, on Innes Street, now the home of R. J. Holmes, and here they ended their days. Mr. Chambers never entered into regular business again, but became a gen eral trader, and attended to the management of his large estate. He was eminently successful in accumulating property, and at his death had amassed a fortune of nearly a half-million dollars. He made arrangements for the removal and liberation of all his slaves at his dea th, and these plans were faithfully carried out by his executors, and between thirty and forty slaves were sent to the Northwest, and started in life in their new home. Besides legacies to many of his kindred and friends, and to the church of his choice, he left a residuary legacy to Davidson College, which would have amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars if the College had obtained all he intended for it. But owing to the limitations of its Charter, the College could not receive the whole amount, and a considerable sum went to his heirs that were next of kin. The inscription on the marble slab that covers his remains is probably as fair a delineation of character as was ever put upon a monument, and it is here given: “In his business he possessed the clearest foresight and the profoundest judgment. “In all his transactions he was exact and just. “In social life, dignified, but confiding, tender, and kind. “In his plans, wise, prudent, and successful. “In his bestowments his hand was not only liberal but often munificent. 189 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY ”In the close of his life he set his house in order, willed his soul to God, and th e greater part of his estate to the cause of education, through the church of his choice.” Mr. Chambers was not promiscuously liberal, but only to the objects he considered worthy, and in his own way. Upon a certain occasion a poor man had his=2 0house burned down, and the next day some friend took around a subscription paper for his benefit. The paper was somewhat ostentatiously presented to Mr. Chambers, but he utterly refused to subscribe. He was of course severely criticized for his illiberality; but while the critics were handing his penuriousness around, Mr. Chambers quietly ordered one of his servants to get ready a cart, and he and his good wife filled it with flour, meal, lard, bacon, bed-clothing, and other things to the value of nearly fifty dollars, perhaps equal in value to the gifts of all the others combined, and the poor man found himself richer than he had been before the fire. Mr. Chambers never mixed business and charity together. He would give and take the last cent due in a trade, and when be chose to give, he gave liberally. His good wife, familiarly known as “Aunt Kitty,” was the soul of kindness. She was an earnest and devout Christian, and full of faith and good works. To her pastor, living on a salary rather small, and with a large family, and many visitors, she made weekly, and sometimes daily donations, amounting in the year to some hundreds of dollars. For some years before her death she was blind, b ut still patient, submissive, and charitable. Her portrait, with that of her husband, bangs in the parlor of the manse in Salisbury, as perpetual memorials of their benefactions. Rowan County has been the home of a number of other distinguished men,=2 0of whom but little mention can be made without swelling these Memoirs beyond the limits assigned. 197, Governor Stokes removed from Salisbury about 1812, and settled in Wilkesboro. He was first married to Mary, the daughter of Col. Henry Irwin, who fell at the battle of Germantown. By her he had one daughter, named Adelaide, who became the wife of Henry Chambers, of Rowan. 199, The citizens of Rowan had a general parade in Salisbury, followed by an illumination at night. Capt. John Beard had an immense framework, something like old-time warping bars, erected in front of his house, with candles blazing on every part of the structure. At the foot of it was a table filled with decanters and bottles containing choice liquors, and all his friends were invited to drink to the general joy. Mr. Edward Chambers, son of the elder Maxwell Chambers, made a speech to the ladies, in which he assured them that now the embargo was raised they would have less work to do, inasmuch as they could purchase goods from Europe. But all this joy was premature. The good news had hardly reached the most distant parts of the country before President Madison was assured that the British Minister had exceeded his20instructions, and that the “Orders in Council” would not be revoked. And so the President at once issued another Proclamation countermanding the first. And so matters went on, English ships searching American vessels wherever found, with now and then a naval battle. 245, A great many of the old families were undoubtedly members of the Church of England. Nearly all the English people and their descendants naturally belonged to that Church. So did the Welsh. More than half of the Protestants of Ireland have always owed allegiance to the same religious faith. I think it probable that the following-named persons, living in this county before the Revolution, were Church of England people: John Frohock, William Giles, Matthew Locke, Maxwell Chambers, James Macay, John Dunn, William Temple Coles, Benjamin Boothe Boote, James Carter, Hugh Forster, William Churton, Richard Viggers, William Steele, Thomas Frohock, Matthew Troy, James Kerr, Daniel Little, Alexander Martin, Francis Locke, James Dobbin, Alexander Dobbin, Arichibald Craige, David Craige, James Brandon, John Nesbit, Anthony Newnan, James Smith, and Richmond Pearson. The Howard family were also here then, and were members of the English Church. 260, The new building of Christ Church was consecrated by Bishop Ravenscroft, July 17, 1827, in the presence of a large concourse of people, the customary deed having been executed on the day previous. The Bishop was assisted in the services by the Revs. Thomas Wrigh t, R. S. Miller, and William M. Green. The latter is now the venerable and beloved Bishop of Mississippi. This church was situated about twelve miles west of Salisbury, near the Statesville Road --about one mile belo w the point where Third Creek station on the Western North Carolina Railroad is now located. In his report of this consecration, to the Fayetteville Convention, 1828, the Bishop speaks of the congregation of Christ Church as a “large body of worshipers, the second in number of communicants in the Diocese.” On the fifteenth day of September, 1827, Moses A. Locke, Charles Fisher, and John Beard, Jr., as executors of Lewis Beard, executed and delivered to John McClelland, James Martin, Stephen L. Ferrand, Thomas Chambers, Edward Yarboro, and Edward Cress, vestry of the Episcopal congregation of St. Luke’s Church, a deed in fee for Lot No. 11-one hundred and forty-four square poles—in the town of Salisbury-now the east corner of Church and Council Streets. 266-267, The twenty-fourth convention of the Diocese met in St. Luke’s Church, Salisbury, Wednesday, May 13, 1840. St. Andrew’s 267 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY Church, Rowan County, was admitted into union with the convention. Vestrymen were Philip Rice, Jacob Correll, Samuel Turner, Joseph Turner, and John Watson. Delegates to convention, Joseph Owens, William Heathman, Samuel Turner, and John Watson. From St. Luke’s, A. Henderson, John B. Lord, Charles A. Beard, William Ch ambers. From Christ Church, J. E. Dobbin, William Chunn, Thomas Barber, Joseph Alexander. Among the names of many other lay delegates I find the following: Dr. John Beckwith, Raleigh; Thomas S. Ashe, Wadesboro . Convention sermon was preached by Rev. G. W. Freeman, D.D.