USA > North Carolina > Rowan County > A history of Rowan County, North Carolina > Part 15
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
The second son, Dr. Alexander Long, late of Salis- bury, whose memory is still fresh in the minds of our citizens, spent the larger part of his life in Salisbury. He was for many years the leading physician in the county, and his practice was very extensive. He mar- ried Miss Mary Williams, of Hillsboro. At the or- ganization of the Presbyterian Church of Salisbury, Dr. Long became one of its original members, and one of its first ruling elders. He continued to be an elder until his death in 1877, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. Maria Long, daughter of Alexander Long, Esq., became the wife of the late Michael Brown, of Salis- bury, so long a prominent merchant and ruling elder of the Presbyterian Church. The houses of Dr. Long and Michael Brown were for many years the abodes of a bountiful hospitality. Ministers and agents for reli- gious objects always found there a cordial welcome and a generous entertainment. Harriet, another daugh- ter of Alexander Long, was married to the late George Brown, for a long period a leading merchant of Salis- bury. Rebecca Long married Capt. Edward Yarboro. The others were all well known, and exerted an in- fluence in their day. In the large family of Alexander Long, Sr., we have an element of Rowan society as it existed at the close of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. The family burying-ground of the Longs was on a high bluff near the river bank, a short distance below the ferry.
2. The next plantation on the Yadkin, and just be- low the Long place, was originally called the "Stroup Place," and in late years, the "Bridge Place." It was
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owned in those early days by Lewis Beard, son of John Lewis Beard, one of the first settlers of Salisbury. Some misunderstanding having arisen between Mr. Long and Mr. Beard concerning the right of the latter to keep a ferry on his lands, Mr. Beard secured from the Legislature the right to build a bridge over the river on his own lands. He therefore secured as an architect, Ithiel Towne, and erected a magnificent bridge, at a cost of thirty thousand dollars. For many years this bridge stood there, and spanned the stream, affording passage at all heights of the river. It was known in later years as "Locke's Bridge." Its piers may still be seen rising in their ruins above the waters, from the railroad bridge a half-mile below.
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 grandchil- dren 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 Salis- bury. 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 times in 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. An- other child of Lewis and Susan Beard, was Major
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John Beard, who died about five years ago at his home in Tallahassee, Fla.
3. The third plantation on the Yadkin, going down the stream, was owned by Valentine Beard. It was af- terwards known as Cowan's Ferry, and at present as Hedrick's Ferry. Valentine Beard was a Continental soldier in the Revolutionary War, and fought at the battles of the Brandywine and Germantown, and others, under General Washington. ] He married Margaret Marquedant, of Philadelphia, and at the close of the war settled at this place. Valentine Beard had three daughters. Elizabeth married Benjamin Tores. Maria married Dr. Burns, of Philadelphia, who was a sea captain. Dr. Burns settled in Salis- bury about 1819, and remained a few years, when he returned to Philadelphia. Dr. Burns' daughter, Mar- garetta, married the late Horace Beard of Salisbury, and their descendants still reside here.
Next below the place last named was one called the "Island Ford" place, including the island of one hun- dred acres lying above Trading Ford. This island is probably the one that is called the "Island of Aken- atzy," in the journal of Lederer's explorations, as found in Hawks' History of North Carolina. This place belonged to Lewis Beard, who owned the bridge above.
4. The next place, still going down, was the prop- erty of Capt. Edward Yarboro, of Salisbury. The house, occupied by tenants or overseers, stood just back of where St. John's mill now stands. Captain Yarboro lived in Salisbury, and had three daughters
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and two sons. Sally Yarboro was the second wife of William C. Love, and the mother of William and Julius Love. She and her husband lie buried just in the rear of Meroney's Hall. Nancy Yarboro mar- ried Colonel Beatty, of Yorkville, S. C., and Mary married Richard Long. Edward Yarboro, Jr., was the owner of the Yarboro House in Raleigh, and gave his name to it.
5. Just below Trading Ford, on a high bluff, stood the residence of Albert Torrence. The house is still conspicuous from afar, and has been named of late years by a poetical friend, "The Heights of Gowerie." It was from these heights that Lord Cornwallis' artil- lery cannonaded General Greene, while writing his dispatches in the cabin on the other side of the Yad- kin. Albert Torrence, an Irishman, chose this airy situation for his residence, and from the edge of the bluff he could watch the windings of the silver stream, dotted with a cluster of beautiful islets, and beyond could see lying the fertile farms of the famed Jersey Settlement. Albert Torrence married Elizabeth Hackett, of Rowan County. In this family there grew up four sons and one daughter. Hugh the eldest son married a Miss Simonton, of Statesville, and died early. Albert married a daughter of Judge Toomer, of Fayetteville, and settled in that city. James died young. Charles married first Miss Elizabeth L. Hays, of Rowan County, and after her death, Miss Philadel- phia Fox, of Charlotte. His residence was southeast of Charlotte, on the Providence Road, about a mile from the Public Square. The daughter of Albert
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Torrence married William E. Powe, of Cheraw, and settled at the Bruner place, five miles east of Salis- bury, on the Chambers' Ferry Road, where they reared a large family of sons and daughters, only two of whom remain in Rowan-Dr. Albert Torrence Powe, and his sister, Mrs. Hackett, who reside at the family homestead. At the organization of the Presbyterian Church in Salisbury, Albert Torrence became a mem- ber, and one of the first bench of elders. His re- mains, with those of his wife and several of their children, and of Mr. Powe, are sleeping in the En- glish graveyard in Salisbury, under broad marble slabs, near the entrance. Albert Torrence died in 1825, aged seventy-two years.
6. Next to the Torrence place was the farm of Gen. John Steele, of Salisbury. General Steele was the son of William and Elizabeth Steele, and was one of the most distinguished native-born citizens of Salis- bury. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Max- well, and she was a native of West Rowan. She was first married to Mr. Gillespie, by whom she had a son and daughter, as mentioned on a former page. Her son, John Steele, was born in Salisbury, November 1, 1764, and was educated in the schools of the town. He commenced life as a merchant, but soon turned his attention to farming, in which he was eminently successful. In 1787 he became a member of the Leg- islature of North Carolina. In 1790 he was a member of the first Congress of the United States under the Constitution. He was appointed by General Wash- ington, first Comptroller of the Treasury of the
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GEN. JOHN STEELE
FIRST COMPTROLLER-GENERAL OF THE CURRENCY UNDER WASHINGTON
(From Miniature by Peale)
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United States, which office he held until 1802, when he resigned, though solicited by Mr. Jefferson to con- tinue. He occupied many other prominent stations, and filled them all with faithfulness and success. On the day of his death-August 14, 1815-he was elected to the House of Commons of North Carolina. A singular story is told of a circumstance that oc- curred at his death. During the time he was comp- troller he presented to his native town a clock-the one now on the courthouse-and a bell. The night of General Steele's death, the clock commenced striking, and continued to strike many hundreds of times, until it was run down. Hugh Horah, a watchmaker, had the clock in charge, but he could do nothing with it. It was doubtless, all things considered, a singular co- incidence, and calculated to beget a superstitious awe in the minds of the people. In 1783, John Steele mar- ried Mary Nesfield, of Fayetteville. Three daughters lived to grow up and marry. Ann married Gen. Jesse A. Pearson. Margaret married Dr. Stephen L. Ferrand, and was the mother of Mary, the wife of the late Archibald Henderson, Esq .; and Ann, who married the late John B. Lord, Esq., afterwards the late Rev. John Haywood Parker, and lastly T. G. Haughton, Esq.
Eliza, daughter of Gen. John Steele, married Col. Robert MacNamara, a native of Ireland, but for a time a prominent citizen of Salisbury. Colonel Mac- Namara's children are all dead except Louise, now in a convent, and Eliza, who married Dr. Lynch, of Co- lumbia, S. C. General Steele erected the house oc-
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cupied by the late Archibald Henderson, Esq. There he died, at the age of fifty, and near his residence he was laid to his rest, where a memorial stone, con- secrated by conjugal and filial affection, testifies to his character "as an enlightened statesman, a vigilant pa- triot, and an accomplished gentleman." General Steele's wife survived him for many years. Salisbury has special reason to be proud of the exalted character and faithful services of her honored son. Second to a sense of duty, there is probably no higher incentive to the faithful discharge of public trusts than the hope of transmitting an honored name to posterity ; but if posterity forgets their honored ancestors, then neither the dread of shame nor love of honor is left to inspire men to an honorable course of life.
CHAPTER XXII
DISTINGUISHED MEN IN ROWAN
Before leaving this part of the History of Rowan County it is necessary that the reader should become acquainted with a number of distinguished men who made their homes in Salisbury for a longer or shorter time. One of these was a permanent citizen; the others tarried here for a season. Among these we mention first
WAIGHTSTILL AVERY, EsQ.
The University of North Carolina Magazine for 1855 contains a sketch of Mr. Avery, and his private Journal for 1767; and Colonel Wheeler's Sketch of Burke County contains a brief biography, from which we condense the following account.
Waightstill Avery was of Puritan stock, and was born in Norwich, Conn. He completed his literary studies at Princeton College, in 1776. From this place he went to Maryland, and studied law under Littleton Dennis, Esq. It is stated that he was tutor for a year in Princeton. This was probably his last year as a student, and he was doing double duty, and at the same time was reading law, for we find him in the be- ginning of 1767 setting out for North Carolina. His journal shows that he was a diligent student of his-
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tory and law after he began his course as a lawyer here.
On the fifth of February, 1767, he rode into Eden- ton, N. C. On the third of March he reached Salis- bury, and made the acquaintance of Associate Judge Richard Henderson, Samuel Spencer, Esq .- after- wards Judge Spencer, John Dunn, Esq., Alexander Martin, Esq .- afterwards Governor Martin, Wil- liam Hooper, Esq., Major Williams, and Edmund Fanning, Esq. Colonel Frohock entertained him at his plantation two miles from Salisbury, and Avery describes his house as "the most elegant and large within one hundred miles." On the first Sunday after his arrival he "heard the Rev. Mr. Tate preach." After going to Hillsboro he journeyed to Wilmington, and thence to Brunswick, where he obtained from Governor Tryon license to practice law in this Prov- ince. From Brunswick he passed by Cross Creek, and thence to Anson Courthouse. Anson Courthouse was not then at Wadesboro, but at a place called Mount Pleasant, about a mile west of the Pee Dee River, and a short distance below the Grassy Islands. Here Avery took the attorney's oath, April 13, 1767, and the next day began his work by opening a cause against a hog thief. From Mount Pleasant he went to Mecklenburg, met Adlai Osborne, Esq., and on Sunday, April 23, heard Rev. Joseph Alexander preach-probably at Sugar Creek. Here he engaged board with Hezekiah Alexander. On the fourth of May we find him again in Salisbury, where he en- gaged a year's board with Mr. Troy at twenty pounds
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(£20) a year, deducting for absences. On the six- teenth of May "he rode out five miles to Dunn's Mountain, in order to enjoy an extensive prospect of the country." At the August term of Rowan Court he was employed in no less than thirty actions. Again in November he was in Salisbury, and was chosen King's Attorney, in the absence of Major Dunn. During this year Mr. Avery practised law at Salisbury, Anson Courthouse, Charlotte, and Tryon Courthouse, and at once obtained a large number of clients. In 1775 and 1776 he was a member of the Provincial Congress, and was appointed on the com- mittee to revise the statutes of the Province. In 1778 he was made Attorney-General of the State, and shortly thereafter he married and moved to Jones County. But finding that his health was impaired by the climate of the eastern country, in 1781 he removed to Burke County, and settled on a beautiful and fer- tile estate on the Catawba River, known by the name of Swan Pond, afterwards the home of his son, Col. Isaac T. Avery.
Waightstill Avery devoted himself to his profes- sion, but was chosen to represent Burke County in the Legislature a number of times. He was industrious and methodical, and he was the owner of the most ex- tensive and best selected library in Western North Carolina. "He died in 1821 in the enjoyment of an ample estate, the patriarch of the North Carolina Bar, an exemplary Christian, a pure patriot, and an honest man."
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In 1778, Mr. Avery married Mrs. Franks, a widow lady of Jones County, near Newbern, by whom he had three daughters and one son. The son, Col. Isaac T. Avery, occupied the paternal estate at Swan Pond, and reared a large family there, among whom were the late Col. Waightstill W. Avery, Col. Moulton Avery, and Judge Alphonso C. Avery, now on the bench of North Carolina. These all deserved well of their country, but their history belongs to Burke, and not to Rowan County.
HON. SPRUCE MACAY
As early as the year 1762 we have accounts of the Macay family in Rowan County. In that year James Macay obtained from Henry McCulloh a grant of four hundred and thirty acres of land on Swearing Creek, near the Jersey Meeting-house. This was part of a vast body of land, amounting to one hundred thousand acres, which George II., in 1745, granted to Henry McCulloh, Esq., of Turnham Green, County of Middlesex, England. These lands are described as situated in the Province of North Carolina, lying on the "Yadkin or Pee Dee River or branches thereof," and called Tract No. 9. This tract lay in Earl Granville's division of land, but the Earl and his agents recognized McCulloh's title, and the fact is recited at large in many old grants. On this tract James Macay settled and reared his family.
In 1775, William Frohock executed a deed to James Macay, Esq., Benjamin Rounceville, and Herman Butner, trustees of the United Congregation of the
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Jersey Meeting-house, consisting of the professors of the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, and the Baptists, for three acres and twenty poles of land, including the meeting-house and the burying-ground. The witnesses to the deed are James Smith and Peter Hedrick, and the land was part of a tract devised by John Frohock to his brother, William Frohock. Though the meeting-house had been standing since 1755, it appears that they had no legal title until the above date. If we may judge from the order of the names, compared with the order of denominations, we would conclude that Macay represented the Episco- palians, Rounceville the Presbyterians, and Butner the Baptists.
Spruce Macay was probably a son of James Macay. At all events he was from that neighborhood, and was buried there, with others of his family. At that early period, the Rev. David Caldwell, D. D., was conducting his classical school, on Buffalo, in Guilford County- then a part of Rowan, about forty miles from the Jer- seys. Thither young Spruce Macay was sent for his literary training. He probably read law under John Dunn, Esq., of Salisbury, or it may be Waightstill Avery, who practised in these Courts. He was licensed to practice law about the beginning of the Revolu- tionary War, and devoted himself with energy to his profession, and soon became such a proficient that students came to him for instruction. In 1776, Wil- liam R. Davie, just graduated at Princeton College, commenced the study of law in Salisbury, and the current opinion is that his preceptor was Spruce
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Macay. His residence was on lot No. 19, of the West Ward, the property now owned by Mrs. Nathaniel Boyden, and his law office was in front of his dwelling on Jackson Street. In 1784, Mr. Macay had another pupil, who was in after years honored with the highest office in the United States. This was Andrew Jack- son. Parton, in his Life of Jackson says: "At Salis- bury, he (Jackson) entered the law office of Mr. Spruce Macay, an eminent lawyer at that time, and, in later years, a judge of high distinction, who is still remembered with honor in North Carolina." In 1790, Spruce Macay was appointed Judge of the Superior Courts of law and equity.
By his marriage he became connected with a family distinguished as lawyers and judges in North Caro- lina. He married Fanny, the daughter of that emi- nent jurist of Colonial times Judge Richard Henderson, and sister of the Hon. Archibald Henderson of Salis- bury, and Judge Leonard Henderson of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. By this marriage Judge Macay had one child, a daughter named Elizabeth, who married the Hon. William C. Love, of Salisbury, and was the mother of the late Robert E. Love, Esq., of Salisbury. After the death of his first wife, Judge Macay married Elizabeth Hays, of Halifax, N. C., by whom he had three children-Alfred Macay, who died early, in Salisbury; Fanny, who married George Locke, son of Richard Locke, and moved to Tennessee; and William Spruce Macay, who first married Miss Belle Lowry, daughter of Richard Lowry, Esq., of Rowan; and after her death Miss
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Annie Hunt, daughter of Meshack Hunt, Esq., of Yadkin County, and granddaughter of Hon. Meshack Franklin. The only daughter of this union, Annie, died recently, and with her death the family became extinct in this county.
Judge Macay bought the Frohock lands and mills, near Salisbury, on Grant's Creek, and owned lands in Davidson County. By inheritance with his wife, by industry and economy, he accumulated a large estate. He died in 1808, and his remains lie interred in the graveyard of Jersey Meeting - house, in Davidson County, by the side of his kindred.
GEN. WILLIAM RICHARDSON DAVIE
Another distinguished gentleman who resided for a season in Salisbury was William Richardson Davie, afterwards Governor of the State of North Carolina. General Davie was born at Egremont, England, but came to America at five years of age, and was adopted by his maternal uncle, the Rev. William Richardson, the Presbyterian pastor of the Waxhaw and Provi- dence Churches. Davie was graduated at Princeton College in 1776, and the same year commenced the study of law in Salisbury-it is believed under the di- rection of Spruce Macay, Esq. In 1779 he raised a Company of cavalry, principally in the "Waxhaws," of which he was lieutenant. After the battle of Stono, where he was wounded, he returned to Salisbury and resumed his studies. In 1780, Davie raised a Com- pany of horse in Rowan County, which he led in the battle of the Hanging Rock, and with which he con-
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fronted the British in their northward march at Char- lotte, where he and his "Rowan Boys" made a bril- liant display of courage. He was with General Greene at Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk's Hill, and Ninety-Six. After the war he began his professional career, as a brilliant and powerful orator and states- man. 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. As Grand Master of the Masonic Fraternity, in October, 1793, General Davie laid the cornerstone of the col- lege, while Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle, of Rowan, made the address. In 1798, Davie was elected Governor of North Carolina, and the succeeding year was ap- pointed ambassador to France. It is said that he was introduced to Napoleon as General Davie, and that the haughty emperor sneeringly remarked in an audible aside, "Oui, Generale de melish." His mis- sion to France was the close of his public life. On his return he brought certain articles of costly furni- ture, and fitted up his residence in handsome style. Being a candidate for office shortly after, his opponent taunted him in public with aping the aristocracy of the old world, and so excited the prejudices of the people as to defeat him. He became disgusted with politics, and retired to his estate of Tivoli, near Lands- ford, S. C., where he died in 1820. He was regarded
GEN. ANDREW JACKSON AT THE AGE OF FIFTY
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as the most polished and graceful orator in North Carolina, in his day. Had he not quit public life at the early age of forty-seven, he might have shone as a star of the first magnitude along with Jefferson, Madi- son, Monroe, John Q. Adams, Burr, and Crawford. But such is public life, where the demagogue often supplants the patriot and the statesman.
ANDREW JACKSON
Foremost among the distinguished men who resided for a season in Salisbury was Andrew Jack- son. The reader, acquainted with his public career as a soldier and a statesman, will not object to a brief account of his early life, and especially of his sojourn in Salisbury. In 1765, Andrew Jackson, with his wife, two sons, and three neighbors-John, Robert, and Joseph Crawford-emigrated from Carrickfargus, Ire- land, to America, and settled in the "Waxhaws," on the boundary between North and South Carolina. While some of the company settled in South Carolina, Jack- son settled on Twelve Mile Creek, in Mecklenburg (now Union) County, N. C. In the spring of · 1757, Andrew Jackson died, and in a rude farm wagon his body was carried to the Waxhaw Church and deposited in the graveyard. The family did not return to their home on Twelve Mile Creek, but went to the house of George McKemie, a brother-in-law, not far from the church, and a quarter-mile from the boundary of the States, but in North Carolina. There Andrew Jackson, the younger, was born, the night after his father's funeral, March 15, 1767.
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Evidence for all this, most conclusive and convincing, was collected by Gen. Samuel H. Walkup, of Union County, in 1858, and may be found in the first volume of Parton's Life of Jackson. Three weeks after his birth, his mother removed with the family to the resi- dence of her brother-in-law, Mr. Crawford, in South Carolina. Here Andrew grew up, wild, reckless, daring, working on the farm, riding horses, hunting, going to old-field schools, and picking up a little edu- cation here and there. He also attended a school of a higher grade at Waxhaw Church, kept by Rev. Dr. Humphries, and he claimed to have attended the Queen's Museum College, in Charlotte, N. C. In these schools he acquired the rudiments of an English edu- cation, and perhaps "a little Latin and less Greek." Though only fifteen years old at the close of the Revo- lution, young Andrew Jackson took part in several skirmishes and other adventures in his neighborhood. At the close of the war he was an orphan, without brother or sister-without fortune-a sick and sor- rowful orphan. After a year or two of a reckless career, he began to look at life in earnest, and prepare for it. He taught school for a while, and gaining a little money he came to Salisbury in 1785, and entered as a law student in the office of Spruce Macay, Esq. He lodged in the "Rowan House," but he studied in the office of Mr. Macay, along with two fellow-stu- dents-Crawford and McNairy. The reader may re- member this little office on Jackson Street, as it stood until four years ago, immediately in front of the residence of the Hon. Nathaniel Boyden. Parton
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