-----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: Chambers 168, The other daughter of Matthew Brandon, named Elvira, became the wife of the Rev. James Davidson Hall, then pastor of Thyatira Church, and left no children. Not far from Thyatira Church, many years ago, there lived two brothers named John Brandon and James Brandon. They were the sons of William Brandon, who settled there as early as 1752. Win. Brandon’s first wife was a Cathey, the mother of John and James. After her death he married a Widow Troy, of Salisbury, and moved to Kentucky. From William Brandon and his second wife there descended in the second generation a family of Davises. Two ladies of this name, granddaughters of William Brandon, lived for a while in Salisbury with Miss Catherine Troy, afterwards Mrs. Maxwell Chambers. One of these young ladies married George Gibson, and moved to Tennessee. The other died in Salisbury, after a short residence here. 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 w ere, William Lee, Archibald Henderson, Elizabeth Ruth, who married Col. Charles Fisher; Richard Alexander Caldwell, Esq., Dr. Julius Andrew Caldwell, 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. 187, 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 advert ised as an enemy of his country. After the war he lived at Spring Hill, about two miles east 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, I 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=2 0at two weeks of age. 3. Mary Fulton, 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. >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 probably 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 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 fo rty 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 the 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 house burned down, and the next day some friend took around a subscription paper for his benefit. The paper was somewhat ostentatiously presented to20Mr. 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, but 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, of whom but little mention can be made without swelling these Memoirs beyond the limits assigned.