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B 847,096
THE HISTORY OF GUILFORD COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA
118175
SCIENTIA
ARTES
LIBRARY VERITAS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
ICHIGAN
TURBOR
.
سـ
1
:
..
JOHN M. MOREHEAD, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA.
OF
. HO
THE HISTORY OF GUILFORD COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA.
BY SALLIE W. STOCKARD,
A. B. (1897, Guilford College), A. B. (1898, University of North Carolina), A. M. (1900, University of North Carolina.)
"O would that my enemy might write a book." -Job.
KNOXVILLE, TENN .: GAUT-OGDEN CO., PRINTERS AND BOOK BINDERS. .
1902.
To
Col. James Turner Morehead, Dr. and Mrs. Charles D. McIver, Col. and Mrs. W. H. Osborn, Dr. and Mrs. Lewis Lyndon Hobbs, Mr. and Mrs. J. Wyatt Armfield, Major and Mrs. Joseph M. Morehead, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Moore Scales, Mrs. McAdoo-King and her children, Prof. P. P. Claxton and Prof. J. Y. Joyner.
To ¡Guilford County, her historic lore, her glorious past, and her wealth of promise for the future.
Copyright, 1902, by SALLIE W. STOCKARD.
1
Hist. - arne ... accen- 3.22-32 7894
"Rejoice we are allied To That which doth provide And not partake, effect and not receive ! A spark disturbs our clod ; Nearer we hold of God Who gives, than of His tribe that takes, I must believe.
-
Then, welcome each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting that bids not sit nor stand, but go! Be our joys three parts pain ! Strive, and hold cheap the strain; Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the throe."
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
GUILFORD COUNTY, ITS ESTABLISH MENT.
. .
II
CHAPTER II.
THE SETTLEMENT
13
CHAPTER III.
PREREVOLUTIONARY LAND GRANTS.
20
CHAPTER IV.
THE PART OF GUILFORD IN THE REVOLUTION. 24
CHAPTER V.
"MINUTE PACKET," 1782-'88.
33
CHAPTER VI.
NOTES FROM THE MINUTE DOCKET, 1795-1811
40
CHAPTER VII.
THE SLAVERY QUESTION
46
CHAPTER VIII. THE PART OF GUILFORD IN THE CIVIL WAR.
. .
52
CHAPTER IX.
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
55
CHAPTER X.
HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN GUILFORD
77
CHAPTER XI.
HISTORY OF RELIGION IN GUII.FORD.
114
CHAPTER XII.
THE TOWNS OF GUILFORD AND HISTORY OF
FAMILIES.
132
PREFACE.
History relates the rise and progress of the human spirit. History is the story of what has been done. It shows the free play of reason, and is mind objectified into strenuous, potential, fruitful activity.
Guilford County is the heart. of Piedmont North Carolina. Once it was the hunting-ground over which the Catawba Indian chased the buffalo and built his wigwam fires by the many whis- pering streams. By right of discovery the Spanish claimed pos- session until England assumed her place as mistress of the seas. In 1776 the British Colonies of America declared their power of self-government. Old Mecklenburg of North Carolina was the first to raise the flag of Independence. In 1861 North Carolina withdrew from the United States to become one of the Confederate States of America, and the star of destiny shone red above her. In five years the Old North State was again admitted into the Union. In the galaxy of nations the United States of America takes her place as the honored of all the world.
Guilford County is midway between the mountains and the sea. Greensboro, the County seat, is a city of twenty-two thou- sand inhabitants, situated a thousand feet above sea level, midway in the state from Raleigh and Charlotte, Asheville and Wilming- ton. High Point is twelve miles south of Greensboro.
Guilford is the typical Piedmont region. From her broad- backed ridges many creeks and rivers rise. Near the swell of land, Oak Ridge, two of the largest rivers of the state have their origin. Here the upper waters of the Dan of the Roanoke, and
6
PREFACE.
of Deep River and Haw River of the Cape Fear, almost inter- mingle in the loving gambols of childlike springs. The Great Alamance, the Little Alamance and the Stinking Quarter Creeks also have their source in this County. These waters turn more cotton-mill wheels than any other in North Carolina.
Guilford County has an almost uniform soil and forest growth. Oak, hickory, walnut, persimmon and maple abound. The soil of the wide ridges is of yellow, sandy, gravelly loam underlaid by a yellow and red clay.
The southern part of the County belongs to the cotton zone; the western part to the tobacco zone. Guilford is the wheat- growing and fruit-raising County of the State. Before the War mining was carried on profitably. Gold and copper are found on the south side of the Southern Railway, which bisects the County, and iron on the north side.
Guilford County is rectangular, 28 miles east and west, 24 miles north and south. There are eighteen townships, namely: Oak Ridge, Summerfield, Center Grove, Monroe, Madison, Wash- ington, Deep River, Friendship, Morehead, Gilmer, Jefferson, Rock Creek, High Point, Jamestown, Sumner, Fentress, Clay and Green.
In regard to the people of this County succeeding chapters will show. How really to know them is by experience. In no way does one come closer to understanding them than by writing the history of their county.
In the history of Guilford County only four dates have any- thing like a general value. These are: 1750, when the first settle- ment was made; 1774, when the Quakers freed their slaves and began to agitate the slavery question; 1840, when the Whig idea attained supremacy and the internal improvement and educational wave began to break over the country; and 1865, the close of the Civil War. Around these dates each of these ideas has hovered like a shadow with a penumbra fainter and fainter in effect.
7
PREFACE.
However absurd and unpatriotic it may seem to some rich people, I undertook this work as a business enterprise and I hoped to earn some money out of it.
.
I hope this work will awaken in the young people a deeper interest in the land they live in. I wish to see a building, commo- dious and imposing, erected at the State Normal College for the purpose of preserving the history of North Carolina, the relics which show the life and the development of the people of this state. The State Historical Society, the Colonial Dames, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the Con- federacy and other historical organizations would be interested in having such a building, fire-proof and secure, as a receptacle for this objective teaching of history. A hall for this purpose will be erected somewhere soon or late.
The portraits of Governor John M. Morehead, Judge Gil- mer, Governor Scales, Judge R. P. Dick, Dr. Calvin H. Wiley, Dr. J. Henry Smith and some others would be an adornment for the Greensboro Public Library. A statue of John M. More- head will perhaps some time be erected near the depot of the Southern Railway in Greensboro, to commemorate the name of him who did more for the North Carolina Railroad than any other, and thus hastened industrial activity in the state. It would beautify the square on which the courthouse is situated if walks were laid off, grass plots and flower beds were made, over which beautiful fountains played. The fine old Roman roads in Eng- land were the beginning of her civilization and prosperity. Such macadam roads as lead out from Summer Avenue in Greensboro, if they were all through the County, would be a credit to any people. It would be an honor to Guilford if every school-house in her borders was made attractive without and within. Horti- culture should be taught in the public schools.
The Audubon Society, organized through the interest and energy of Prof. T. Gilbert Pearson, of the State Normal College, for the study and preservation of birds, is an advance both indus-
,
8
PREFACE.
trially and educationally ; birds affect agriculture and the natural products of a country ; this society creates the love and study of natural history.
The organization of the Society for the Improvement and Beautifying the Public Schools in North Carolina, during the spring term of 1902 at the State Normal College, is an advance- ment to the cause of education. Miss Laura Kirby, of Goldsboro, is its president. The plan of the society is to organize the women throughout the State in this movement.
The Southern Education Board, of which Mr. Robert C. Ogden is chairman, has inaugurated the greatest philanthropic movement this country has probably known in its history. The Civil War left the South impoverished. This body of men of both North and South have come together for the sake of humanity to do what can be done for the education of the Southern youth for the development and salvation of America.
The History of Guilford County was undertaken at the sug- gestion of several prominent men of this County. Its accomplish- ment is largely due to Mr. Victor Clay McAdoo. My thanks are due Col. James T. Morehead, Dr. Charles D. McIver, Mr. A. M. Scales and Mr. V. C. McAdoo for presenting the interests of this book before the County Board of Trustees. Upon their request the Board granted one hundred dollars. To. Col. Morehead, Mr. Scales, Prof. J. Y. Joyner, Prof. W. C. Smith, Mrs. L. L. Hobbs and others I wish to make grateful acknowledgment for reading various parts of the manuscript. The excellent library of the Greensboro Female College has been of service to me. Prof. P. P. Claxton has given some very helpful suggestions. To Hon. W. H. Ragan, as Chairman of the County Board of Trustees, and to Col. W. H. Osborn, as Mayor of Greensboro, I express my thanks.
This book may be severely criticised. A chapter from the Kingdom of Glory would be distasteful to some folks. The writ- ing of this history, the collection of the data, and getting up the subscriptions, has indeed been hard work. This has been no child's
.
9
PREFACE.
play. The writing of local history is truly arduous. It is hard to write history, hardest of all to write local history. Advice has not been wanting. May all the good live immortal and all the bad be buried.
SALLIE WALKER STOCKARD.
Greensboro, N. C., 1902.
.
1
JUDGE JOHN A. GILMER, . LAWYER, SOLDIER, STATESMAN. SEE PAGE 172.
HISTORY OF GUILFORD COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA.
-
CHAPTER I.
GUILFORD COUNTY-ITS ESTABLISHMENT.
Guilford County was erected in 1770 by an Act of the General Assembly then in session at Newbern. The Act creating it reads as follows :
"An Act for erecting a new County between the Towns of Salisbury and Hillsboro, by taking part of the Counties of Rowan and Orange.
I. Whereas, the great Extent of the respective Counties of Rowan and Orange, render the attendance of the Inhabitants of Part of Rowan County, and the Inhabitants of the upper Part of Orange County, to do public Duties in their respective Counties, extremely difficult and expen- sive: For Remedy whereof,
II. Be it enacted by the Governor, Council, and Assembly, and by the Authority of the same, That a Line beginning at a Point twenty-five Miles due West of Hillsborough, running thence North to the Virginia Line, then West to a Point due North of the Painted Springs, then South to Anson Line, then along Anson and Cumberland Lines to a Point due South of the Beginning, then North to the Beginning, be erected into a distinct County by the name of Guilford County, and Unity Parish."
This is accompanied by a foot-note which says: "The Origi- nals being missing."
The Act is copied from the Laws of North Carolina, printed in 1791 by J. A. Iredell, "Anno Regni Georgii III., Regis Magnæ Britanniæ, Francia, & Hibernia, Undecimo."
The new county was called Guilford in honor of Lord North, the Earl of Guilford, who was a Tory, King George III.'s Prime Minister, and "one who bowed to the royal will, and endeavored to
12
GUILFORD COUNTY,
carry out George III's favorite policy of 'governing for, but never by, the people.'"
This new county was strongly Whig. Dr. David Caldwell, Alexander Martin, six times Governor of North Carolina, General Gillespie, James Hunter and William Rankin were Whigs of no uncertain soundings. This was the hotbed of the Regulation movement. The people of Orange and Rowan petitioned the Legislature requesting that among various reforms relating to taxes, fees, etc., an Act be passed "to divide the county."*
Therefore Guilford County was erected, a concession to the Regulators. As Guilford was established at the request of such wilful Whigs, why was it called by the name of the English premier ? It seems quite human to cover the point of yielding with the name of the High Priest of the Tories. Perhaps it was to inspire loyalty to the King's policy. The tone of that Legislature was Tory, Tryon was governor. Did he name Guilford?
Guilford County has always been Whig in principle. Internal improvements, public education and industrial development are Whig ideas.
Randolph County was formed, in 1779, from Guilford, and named in compliment to the Randolph family in Virginia, dis- tinguished for patriotism and talents. (See Wheeler's History.)
Rockingham County was formed, in 1785, from Guilford County, and named for Charles Watson Wentworth, Marquis of Rockingham, a distinguished friend of America in the English Parliament, who acted with William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, in opposition to Lord North. He was premier of England in 1782. (See Wheeler's History.)
It appears that the dividing of the County of Guilford from Orange and Rowan was a political division for the purpose of separating the "Insurgents from Orange and left them in Guil- ford." "The spirit of the Revolution was twin-born with the County of Guilford." t
* See North Carolina Colonial Records, Vol. VIII., Preface, pp. xvii-xviii.
+See the Oration of Maj. Jos. M. Morehead on "James Hunter."
.
1
13
NORTH CAROLINA.
CHAPTER II. THE SETTLEMENT.
About 1749 the first settlers came to this section. At that time a heavy stream of migration was pouring into North Caro- lina. In the portion of the State marked by the present towns of Greensboro, Salisbury, Concord and Charlotte, the Scotch-Irish and German settled.
To the territory now known as Guilford County people repre- senting three nations, the Scotch-Irish, the German exiles from the Palatine and the English Quakers, came. These people were dissenters seeking religious liberty as well as homes for wives and children. From the colony of William Penn, where they had first set foot on American soil, they passed on through Virginia, where the Church of England was already established, and traveled through a wild country to a milder climate and the freedom of forest and river to be found in Piedmont North Carolina. In the beautiful scope of country that later became Guilford County these three peoples settled, building their homes amid the fertile, rolling plains and wide ridges of Middle Carolina. The houses, manners and customs of the lands they had left were soon firmly fixed upon the new country.
In central Guilford the Scotch-Irish settled; in east Guilford the Germans built their homes ; while in west Guilford the English Quakers took up their abode. A band of Welsh also came to this section.
In central Guilford were: the Archers, the Brannocks, the Caldwells, the Dennys, the Donnells, the Foulkes, the Gillespies, the Gorrells, the Hunters, the Kerners, the Lindsays, the McAdoos, the McMikels, the Osbornes, the Stokes, the Sanders and the
14
GUILFORD COUNTY,
Weatherlys. (Mr. Robert M. Sloan of Greensboro is authority for this.)
In east Guilford were: the Albrights, the Clapps, the Cobbs, the Cobles, the Fousts, the Holts, the Keims, the Linebergers, the Sharps, the Shoffners, the Straders, the Summers, the Reitzells, the Whitsells, the Whitsetts and the Wyricks.
In west Guilford were: the Armfields, the Beasons, the Chip- mans, the Coffins, the Elliotts, the Edwards, the Gardners, the Horneys, the Mendenhalls, the Pughs, the Starbucks, the Stan- leys, the Welborns.
One band of Scotch-Irish came from Lancaster County, Penn- sylvania ; another poured into the province by way of Charleston, South Carolina. These two streams met in central Guilford. A company called the Nottingham Company of Pennsylvania bought a large tract of land on the Buffalo and Reedy Fork Creeks. (See Life of Caldwell.) These were the blue-stocking Presbyterians. On the headwaters of the Alamance the *followers of Whitfield built their homes. Old Alamance Church was the nucleus of the neighborhood.
"From the stock of Scotch-Irish in the north of Ireland," say Hawks, Swain and Graham in their History of the Revolution, page 51, "came the Carolina immigrants. They reached the place of their settlement by two different avenues of approach; the one portion came to America by the Delaware River, landing in Phila- delphia ; the other touched our shores at Charleston, South Caro- lina. They struck into the fertile country of Virginia, and in Carolina the two tides of migration met. The line of their settle- ments across the whole state from North Carolina to Virginia may be traced through Charlotte, Concord, Salisbury, Lexington, Greensboro, Milton and the head waters of the Roanoke." "Our forefathers," says Dr. C. H. Wiley in his address on the Centen- nial of Alamance Church, "came not as adventurers or hunters, not as outlaws and wanderers, but as intelligent men, with good
* These were Presbyterians who had been influenced to emotionalism by John Wesley.
15
NORTH CAROLINA.
worldly substance, with needed implements of industry, with civi- lization and the church."
The characteristics of the Scotch-Irish are mainly noticeable in thought-movements. From this stock have come our public men, soldiers, politicians, statesmen, agitators. Morehead, Gilmer, Wiley were Scotch-Irish. In the first battle for American rights, that of Alamance, in 1771, and the last decisive battle of the Revo- lution, that of Guilford Courthouse, of 1781, the Scotch-Irish were most prominent.
The Germans, who settled east of the Scotch-Irish, had come from the Palatine, driven by the scourge of war from what was once their happy home. Up the Rhine from Cologne the Thirty Years' War had left terrible devastation .. Thousands of these people came to America upon William Penn's invitation. With them they brought that love of domestic life so marked a characteristic of the race. For many years their German speech excluded them from public offices, but they were among the fighters in the Regulation War and among the Whigs of the Revolution. Their manners and customs are German, their old German Bibles and text-books are extant.
Unlike both German and Scotch-Irish was the Quaker in his territory in western Guilford. It is this element which makes the history of Guilford unique in North Carolina. The Scotch-Irish and German may be found in many other counties in the state; but not these three together. In the conjunction of these a clash- ing of ideas came about which has made history. In the question of slavery Guilford County history is vital not only in this State but touches national life as well. The aggravating element kept the Scotch-Irish mind active. Out of the active Scotch-Irish mind came the impulse for internal improvements in North Carolina.
In England, Quaker and Presbyterian had alike suffered re- ligious persecution. They were impelled by the same purpose to
NOTE: In time of the Revolution and before it, William Rankin lived in Guilford on the North Buffalo; Walter Denny lived near by: Col. Daniel and Col. John Gillespie, Ralph Gorrell, Hantz McBride and John Thom lived in the vicinity of Greensboro; James Hunter, Robert Bruce, James Mendenhall and Henry Ballinger lived north and west of Greensboro
16
GUILFORD COUNTY,
gain for themselves new homes and freedom to worship as they chose. About the same time, and probably together, they had journeyed to Guilford County. Though they had much in com- mon they were yet unlike. In the Quaker settlement the hip-roofed houses and the various crafts are manifestations of English train- ing. Besides the Quakers who came from Pennsylvania about 1749, a band of Nantucket Quakers came to this territory in 1771 ; another band of emigrant Quakers came here from eastern North Carolina ; others still were of Welsh extraction. Among these last were the Benbows, Brittains, Hoskins and others.
The following, taken from S. B. Weeks' "Southern Quakers," pages 107-108, gives us some interesting information concerning the Guilford County Quakers :
"The island of Nantucket being small and its soil not very produc- tive, a large number of people could not be supported thereupon. The population of the island still increasing, many of the citizens turned their attention to other parts and removed elsewhere. A while before the Revo- lutionary War, a considerable colony of Friends removed and settled at New Garden, in Guilford County, N. C. William Coffin (1720-1803) was one of the number that thus removed about 1773. Obed Macy, writing of the period about 1760, says that because of the failure of the whale fishery some went to New Garden, N. C. About the outbreak of the Revolution, because of derangement of their business by the war, some went to New York and North Carolina.
"In 1764, Friends had begun investigations to find out who were the original Indian owners of their new homes, in order that they might pay them for the land, as they were trying to do at Hopewell, Va. It was reported that the New Garden section belonged to the Cheraws, who had been since much reduced and lived with the 'Catoppyes,' Catawbas. In 1780 two-thirds of the inhabitants of Nantucket were Quakers. Among their leaders were the Coffins, Starbucks, Folgers, Barnards, Husseys.
"During a period of five years there were no less than forty-one cer- tificates recorded at New Garden Monthly Meeting from Nantucket out of a total of fifty certificates received. .
"In this number there were eleven families, including many that have since been prominent in Guilford County. Among them were: Libni Coffin, William Coffin, Jr., William, Barnabas, Seth (and wife), Samuel (and family), Peter and Joseph Coffin; Jethro Macy, David, Enoch, Na- .
17
NORTH CAROLINA.
thaniel, Paul (and family), Matthew (and five children) and Joseph Macy; William, Gayer, Paul (and family), and William Starbuck; Richard, Wil- liam, Stephen and Stephen Gardner; Tristrim, Francis and Timothy Bar- nard; Daniel, Francis and Jonah Worth; John Wickersham, William Reece, Jonathan Gifford, Reuben Bunker, Nathaniel Swain, Thomas Dixon."
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