-----Original Message----- From: Debra Black <[email protected]> To: ncrowan county rootsweb <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 1:09 pm Subject: Re: [NCROWAN] Index C-D Thank you so much Jan, my husband and I both suffer from disabilities too; so going to do research is difficult...I will only ask for a few names at a time, because I do not want to over whelm you or wear out my welcome: Cash, Cline; Chamberes Chambers 106, This Committee of Safety began its sessions, according to these Minutes, on the eighth of August, 1774, seventeen days before the assembling of the first North Carolina Provincial Congress. This committee was probably chosen at the time appointed for electing. members to the General Assembly of the Province, or it may have come into existence before that time in obedience to the wishes of the people. The members of the committee were chosen from all parts of this grand old county, and numbered twenty-five. The following is a list of their names: James M, McCay, Andrew Neal, George Cathey, Alexander Bobbins, Francis McCorkle, Matthew Icke, Maxwell Chambers, Henry Harmon, Abraham Denton, William Davidson, Samuel Young, John Brevard, William Kennon, George Henry Barringer, Robert Bell, John Bickerstaff, John Cowden, John Lewis Beard, John Nesbit, Charles McDowell, Robert Blackburn, Christopher Beekman, William Sharpe, John Johnson, and Morgan Bryan. 109, Having affirmed their political creed, the Committee adjourned until the twen ty-second of September, 1774. At the next meeting, William Kennon appears as chairman and Adlai Osborne as clerk. Their first business was to read and approve the resolves of the Provincial Congress that had met in the interval, and take steps towards carrying them out. Maxwell Chambers was appointed treasurer of the committee, and an order issued that each militia company in the county pay twenty pounds (£2O), proclamation money, into his hands. As there were nine companies of militia in the county, this would aggregate the sum of one hundred and eighty pounds (£180), or between four and five hundred dollars. This money was to be used by the committee at discretion, for the purchase of powder, flints, and other military munitions. This conduct, as early as September, 1774, showed that the idea of resistance was growing up rapidly in the minds of the patriots of Rowan. This committee fixed the price of powder, and examined carefully into the political sentiments of the people. If they were not satisfied with a man’s conduct, they did not hesitate to declare him an enemy to liberty, and to put him under suitable restraint. They also, in after days, took control of Court matters, allowing some to enter suits against others, and forbidding some. No doubt many of their acts were arbitrary in a high degree, and sometimes an infringement of the liberty they proposed to protect. But when the storm of war was about to break upon the country, the committee acted vigorously, awaking zeal, suppressing dis affection, embodying militia companies, providing ammunition, and doing all they could to support the cause of freedom. Nor did they confine themselves to deliberation, but they took the field. General Rutherford, Colonel Locke, Gen. William Davidson, and others, won for themselves honorable names in many a march and skirmish, and many a hard-fought battle. 115, “Resolved, That this Committee present their cordial thanks to the said young ladies for so spirited a performance, look upon their resolutions to be sensible and polite; that they merit the honor, and are worthy the imitation of every young lady in America.” What a pity that we have not a copy of these spirited resolutions, and the names of the fair signers! They were probably similar to those entered into by the Mecklenburg and Rowan ladies four years later, including perhaps a resolution in behalf of simplicity in dress, abstinence from luxuries, and sympathy with the cause of independence, not yet declared at Philadelphia. And then the names! Who were they? Daughters of the Brandons, Lockes, Youngs, Chamberses, Gillespies, Osbornes, Davidsons, Winslows, Simontons, Brevards, Sharpes, no doubt; but the dainty signatures to the “spirited performance” are lost, and the fair signers that signed them have moldered away. For is it not one hundred and four years since all this was done? A further illustration of matronly zeal and self-denial in behalf of the cause of liberty will be recited in its proper place. 134, Upon entering t he town Lord Cornwallis took up his headquarters at the house of Maxwell Chambers, a prominent and wealthy Whig, a merchant of Salisbury, a former member of the Rowan Committee of Safety, and its treasurer. After the war, Maxwell Chambers moved to Spring Hill, about three miles east of Salisbury. His eldest son was named Edward Chambers, who was the next owner of “Spring Hill.” The lath William Chambers, whose monument stands near the wall in the Lutheran graveyard, was the son and heir of Edward Chambers. During the Revolution, Maxwell Chambers lived on the west corner of Church and Bank Streets—the corner now occupied by the stately and substantial mansion of S. H. Wiley, Esq. The house of Mr. Chambers used by the British Commander remained standing until about ten years ago, and its old-fashioned and quaint appearance is familiar to everyone whose recollection can run back ten or twelve years. It is surprising that none was found to show Mr. Lossing, in 1749, this relic of the Revolution. During these two days of occupation the British buried some soldiers on the spot known as the “English-Graveyard,” and from this circumstance it is said to have derived its name. But it was a burying-place before that time. Near the center of it, leaning against a tree, there is an ancient headstone of some dark material, that says that Capt. Daniel Little, who died in 1775, lies buried there. It is more probable that it was called the “English’? in distinction from the Lutheran” or “German” graveyard, on the eastern side of town. Colonel Tarleton stopped at John Louis Beard’s, in the eastern part of town, the north corner of Main and Franklin Streets. Mr. Beard, being a well-known Whig, was absent in the army at the time, and so the entertaining devolved upon Mrs. Beard. But Colonel Tarleton, it seems, was perfectly able to take care of himself, and made himself quite at home. When he wanted milk he ordered old Dick-the negro servant-to fetch the cows and milk them. Mrs. Beard had a cross child at the time, whose crying was a great annoyance to the dashing colonel. Upon one occasion his anger overleaped the bounds of gentlemanly courtesy, and he ordered the child to be choked to stop its crying. Mrs. Beard was very much afraid of him, and we may well suppose that she did all she could to please him.