-----Original Message----- From: Debra Black <craft1952@hotmail.com> To: ncrowan county rootsweb <ncrowan@rootsweb.com> 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 Chamberes: Chambers, 7-8, ...The writer has been indebted to a number of persons for the facts which he has recorded. Miss Christine Beard, a granddaughter of John Lewis Beard, and of John Dunn, Esq.-now eighty years of age, with a remarkably retentive memory-has furnished personal recollections of the Town of Salisbury, covering seventy years. She has also treasured up the stories heard in her youth from the lips of her ancestors, running back to the first settlement of the County. Messrs. J. M. Horah and H. N. Woodson, the Clerk and the Register, kindly gave access to the old records in the Courthouse, dating back to 1753. John S. Henderson, Esq., Rev. S. Rothrock, Rev. H. T. Hudson, D. D., Rev. J. J. Renn, Rev. J. B. Boone, Rev. J. Ingle, Rufus Barringer, Esq., Dr. D. B. Wood, M. L. McCorkle, Esq., Mrs. N. Boyden, and others, have either prepared papers in full, or furnished documents and manuscript statements that have been of special service. Mrs. P. B. Chambers furnished the diary of her grandfather, Waightsti ll Avery, Esq. Col. W. L. Saunders, Secretary of State, and Col. J. McLeod Turner, Keeper of the State Capitol, very kindly furnished, free of charge, a copy of the Roll of Honor of the Rowan County soldiers in the Confederate Army. 45, ...At the June term of 1753, the Court proceeded to select a place for the erection of a courthouse, pillory, stocks, and gaol. The action of the Court is substantially as follows: “The courthouse, gaol, and stocks shall be located where the ‘Irish Settlement’ forks, one fork leading to John Brandon’s, Esq., and the other fork along the old wagon road over Grant’s Creek, called Sill’s Path, and near the most convenient spring.” John Brandon, as stated before, lived six miles south of Salisbury, on the Concord Road, and “Sill’s Path” was probably the Beattie’s Ford Road, crossing Sill’s Creek about seventeen miles west of Salisbury. The most “convenient spring” is thought to be a spring in the garden of the late Dr. Alexander Long, where Jacob Franck’s ordinary and still-house were afterwards established, the lot afterwards owned by Matthew Troy, the father-in-law of the late Maxwell Chambers. The exact site of the courthouse was the center of our present Public Square, at the intersection of Corbin and Innes Streets, where the great town well now is. Tradition says that this spot-originally considerably higher than it now is-was a famous “deer-stand,” where the rifleman st ood, 59-60, THE COMMON It was customary for the towns in England to have a “Common” or open tract of public land in their immediate vicinity, where the cattle might graze at will, where the children might play, and the gatherings of the citizens be held on extraordinary occasions. In accordance with this custom, the Act of the Assembly specifies a “Common” in connection with the town of Salisbury. Its precise locality has been difficult to determine, but the Act appears to describe it as lying “on each side of the Western Great Road leading through the frontiers of this Province.” If this “Western Great Road” was Beattie’s Ford Road of modern days, crossing Grant’s Creek at the bridge near the head of McCay’s pond, the said road ran through the westward of town, leaving Corbin Street with “Temple” or Fisher Street, running diagonally through the square occupied by the late Dr. Jos. W. Hall, and back of the residence of the late Judge Caldwell-now the residence of M. L. Holmes. The “Common” on each side of this road would include the square now occupied by the grounds of the Presbyterian manse, and the spring that was anciently on it, as well as the spring at the head of the stream starting behind Paul Heilig’s residence, and running through the grounds of the “National Cemetery.” Persons still living remember when these grounds were unoccupied and covered with small 60 HISTORY OF ROWAN20COUNTY oaks and chinquapin bushes. In a plan of the town made about sixty years ago, now lying before the writer, these lots are marked as belonging to Troy, Chambers, Caldwell, Thomas Dixon, H. C. Jones, Dr. Polk, John Beard, Louis Beard, Lauman, Brown, Woodson, etc. These lots, originally constituting the Common, had probably been recently sold, perhaps as a financial enterprise to relieve the town of some unfortunate debt, or to carry out some promising scheme of internal improvement that was destined never to see light. It is a matter of profound astonishment that town corporations will part with grounds that would make desirable parks or breathing places, for a mere trifle, and condemn the citizens to live in a long, unbroken line of houses, unrelieved by shade, when they might so easily retain a Common or Park, where the inhabitants might resort at will in summer weather, and refresh themselves by breathing the pure air that comes whispering through the rustling leaves of the trees. It is really more difficult, in some of our larger towns, to escape from the dust and glare of the streets and painted houses into a pleasant and shady retreat, than it is in the great cities where the land is worth hundreds of dollars per square yard. 60-61, Continued from above: The Act provides that all inhabitants of Salisbury shall have free access to all natural springs and fountains, whether on private lots or on the Common, and that it was lawful for anyone to “cut and fell,” and app ropriate to his own use, any tree or trees standing on the Town Common.” That was before the exquisite poem, beginning “Woodman, Spare That Tree,” was composed, and the early inhabitants were more anxious to enjoy their liberties, and to have an open grazing place for their cattle, than to have a shady park for public resort. It is worthy of notice that a strict “hog law” prevailed in the sylvan shades of the ancient borough of Salisbury. Cows were indeed a privileged class, and might roam at will over the streets and Common, but it was enacted that “no inhabitants of said town shall, on any pretense whatsoever, keep any hog or hogs, shoat or pigs, running at large within the corporate limits of said town, under a penalty of twenty shillings,” while anyone had the right to “shoot, kill, or destroy” the offending pig at sight. As a protection against fire, every householder was required to keep a ladder, and two good leather buckets. Fast riding and fast driving incurred a penalty of five shillings for each offense. It further appears that the pio61 HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY neer settlers were provided with a market-house for the mutual benefit of the buyer and seller. Taking them all in all, the municipal regulations of 1770 were good and wholesome, and in some particulars might still stand as models. The gentlemen who were authorized, as Town Commissioners, to put these regulations into execution were prominent citizens, selected for their standing and their fitness for the high trust, and were generally the owners of a large real estate in the town. The list is as follows: William Steel, John Dunn, Maxwell Chambers, John Louis Beard; Thomas Frohock, Wm. Temple Coles, Matthew Troy, Peter Rep, James Kerr, Alexander Martin, and Daniel Little. These Commissioners were appointed by the General Assembly, and in ease of a vacancy, the place was to be supplied by appointment of the Justices of the Rowan Inferior Court. Holding their offices for a term of years, or during life, these Commissioners would be able to mature and carry out extended schemes of improvement, without having before their eyes the constant fear of being left out the next year if they should chance to offend any of the people by the conscientious and faithful discharge of unpopular duties. This was the conservatism of monarchy, and doubtless it had its evils as well as the fickleness and instability of popular democracy. Perhaps the best results would be secured by a policy lying between these two extremes. 103-104, The events at the opening of the war are to he accounted for, first on the principle that old men, especially lawyers, are slow and cautious in exchanging their allegiance. None knows so well as they what are the results that follow in the wake of revolution. They are in the habit of looking at results and consequences. A second cause is found in the characteristic violence and intolerance of such times of excitement and struggle. Reports fly rapidly and gain ready c redence. That Committee of Safety actually resolved that good old Maxwell Chambers, their Treasurer, be publicly advertised as an enemy to the common cause of liberty, for raising the price of his goods above that of the year past. Furthermore Dunn and Boote were men of great influence, and the easiest way to dispose of them was to send them away without a hearing. No doubt, if granted a hearing, they would have cleared themselves of all acts or purposes of hostility to American liberty. But this the Committee did not know. Colonel Kennon, being the leader in this affair, seems to have removed from Salisbury to Georgia, at or about the time that Dunn and Boote returned. So far as known to the writer he lived an honored and useful life in the State of his adoption. One of his descendants was in Salisbury a few years ago, but he knew little of his ancestor.