USA > North Carolina > Rowan County > A history of Rowan County, North Carolina > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
296
HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
"whom he was for?" He replied that he did not know whether they were friends or foes, but if he had to die, he would die with the truth in his mouth-he was for liberty. He was then told to put on his clothes, that they had more of his sort, and they would slay them all together. He went with them, but when he arrived at the main body, he was agreeably surprised to learn that they were all Whigs, and that they had met for a jollification after the battle of Ramsour's, and wished to have him in their company.
After the British crossed the Catawba at Cowan's Ford, McCorkle made a narrow escape. He was in the affair at Torrence's Tavern, with his friend Smith, and these two were either acting as a kind of rear guard, or were sent back to reconnoiter, but before going far they were discovered by the British, and wheeling attempted to rejoin their comrades. Smith's horse bolted through the woods, and he was killed. The enemy pursued McCorkle until he came up to the little band of Whigs, who had formed in Tor- rence's Lane. The little party fought the British troopers under Colonel Tarleton, until the smoke be- came so dense that they could not tell whether they were among friends or enemies. As the smoke cleared off a little, McCorkle discovered that he was among the redcoats, and putting his hands on a stake-and- ridered fence he leaped through just as three or four sabers struck the rail above him. They all retreated and made good their escape-none being killed except Smith, before named. Several British soldiers were killed and buried east of the Featherston House. Mc-
297
OLD FAMILIES OF ROWAN
Corkle bore the title of Major, whether won during the war or after the war in the militia is not known. He survived all the dangers of the war, and returned to his peaceful home, and was respected and esteemed by his neighbors. His wife died after the war, and some time about 1794 or 1795 he was again married. His second wife was Elizabeth Brandon, daughter of Richard Brandon, and niece of Matthew Locke. This was the lady that furnished the breakfast to General Washington in 1791 as he passed through Rowan County. By his first marriage to Miss Work, Major McCorkle had two sons, Matthew and Alexander Work. These men lived on Mountain Creek, but never married. Alexander W. McCorkle was a man of wealth and of fine judgment and business talents. He was frequently called upon to advise his neigh- bors in business affairs, and to aid them in making deeds and conveyances.
By his second wife (Elizabeth Brandon), Major McCorkle had several children.
I. Wm. B. McCorkle, who was a merchant in Wadesboro for about forty years. This son married Mary, the daughter of William Marshall, of Anson County. This William Marshall and his father, James Marshall, and his son, Clement Marshall, were leading men of Anson County, and represented their fellow- citizens often in the Legislature. (See Wheeler's His- tory of Anson.) The children of William B. Mc- Corkle were: James Marshall McCorkle, Esq., of Salisbury; Dr. John R. McCorkle, of Mooresville ; William A. McCorkle, of Jefferson County, Tenn .;
298
HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
and his daughters, Sarah, Mary, Cornelia, and Caroline.
2. The second son of Francis McCorkle by his second wife was Francis McCorkle, who lived on Mountain Creek, and married Elizabeth Abernathy. Their children were: Matthew Locke McCorkle, Esq., of Newton; Thomas, David, and Fanny. David died during the war, in the Confederate army.
3. Another son was named Thomas, who moved to Georgia.
4. Another son of Maj. Francis McCorkle was John H., who moved to Tennessee. His son, Dr. Francis Marion McCorkle, collected the principal facts of this article.
5. A daughter named Elizabeth married Jephtha Sherrill, and was the mother of Henderson Sherrill, who lived in Hickory Nut Gap for a long time. He served in the Legislature.
6. A daughter named Agnes married John Kirk, and lived in Lincoln County.
Besides the old families already mentioned, who came to Rowan County at its first settlement, there were others who came after the War of the Revolu- tion, and near the close of the century. Among the most distinguished of these was
THE HENDERSON FAMILY
This family was descended from Samuel Hender- son, of Hanover County, Va., whose ancestors were from Scotland, where the name of Henderson was conspicuous among the leaders in both civil and
MR. A. H. BOYDEN
299
OLD FAMILIES OF ROWAN
ecclesiastical affairs for several generations. Samuel Henderson married a Miss Williams, whose ancestors came from Wales. A son of this couple was the dis- tinguished Colonial Judge, Richard Henderson, who came with his father to Granville County, N. C., in 1745. Richard read law with his cousin, Judge Wil- liams, for a year, and was then licensed with en- comiums upon his talents and acquirements. He soon rose to the highest ranks of his profession. He was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court, and sustained his dignified position with fidelity and honor during the exciting and dangerous period of the Regu- lation up to the time when the troubles of the country closed the courts of justice. After an honorable and eventful career, he closed his life in Granville County in 1785.
By his marriage with Elizabeth Keeling, he left a number of children, several of whom became citizens of Salisbury. His daughter, Fanny, as already men- tioned, became the wife of Judge Macay. His son Leonard was distinguished for his knowledge of the law, and became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. But the son that became the honor and pride of Rowan was the
HON. ARCHIBALD HENDERSON
He was born in Granville County, August 7, 1768, and was educated in his native county, and studied law with his relative, Judge Williams. He came to Salis- bury about 1790, and soon rose to eminence in his profession. Judge Murphy, in 1827, said that he was
300
HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
the most perfect model of a lawyer that our bar had produced. From an elaborate eulogy, written by Hon. A. D. Murphy, and found in Colonel Wheeler's Sketches, we glean the following characteristics. He was a man of great dignity of character, and held him- self above the little passions and prejudices of men. He delighted in studying the constitution and jurispru- dence of his country, and his knowledge assumed a scientific cast. He had great respect for authority and glorified in the fact that he lived under a government of laws. When he entered a Court of Justice he felt his responsibility as an expounder of the law, and the guardian of the rights of his clients. To his associates at the bar he was courteous, and to the younger mem- bers of his profession he was especially kind and in- dulgent, rendering them aid when he could in the management of their cases. His speeches were gen- erally brief, pointed, and conclusive, and in great causes his eloquence was irresistible. He did not badger witnesses, as third-rate lawyers are in the habit of doing, but was as polite and decorous to them as to the Court. As he advanced in life he became more accustomed to interpret the laws by the rules of com- mon sense, and lost reverence for artificial rules, be- ing desirous to strip off the veil of mystery from every branch of the law, and root out all the remains of a ridiculous pedantry that so often makes the rules of justice unintelligible to the common mind." It is related that, in 1818, when the Legislature created the Supreme Court of North Carolina, Archibald
30I
OLD FAMILIES OF ROWAN
Henderson was spoken of as one of the Justices, along with John Lewis Taylor and John Hall. Having an extensive and lucrative practice at the bar, and taking special delight in the active duties of an advocate, he went before the Legislature, of which he was a mem- ber, and courteously declined the honor, at the same time assuring them that his brother, Leonard Hen- derson, was better qualified for the duties and respon- sibilities of that office than himself, and that it would be more congenial to his tastes. The Legislature thereupon accepted his declination, and elected his brother in his stead.
Archibald Henderson represented his district in Congress from 1799 to 1803, and the Town of Salis- burg three times in the General Assembly. He was married to Sarah Alexander, daughter of William Alexander, of Cabarrus, and granddaughter of Col. Moses Alexander, of Colonial times. Her brother, the Hon. Nathaniel Alexander, of Mecklenburg, was elected Governor of North Carolina in 1805, and is represented as a worthy member of a family yet fruit- ful in talent and patriotism. From this marriage of Archibald Henderson with Sarah Alexander there sprang two children-the late Archibald Henderson, of Salisbury, and Jane Caroline, now Mrs. Judge Boyden.
Archibald Henderson studied at Yale College and at the University of Virginia. Returning home, he settled down near Salisbury. Possessed of an ample estate, and being of a quiet disposition, he did not feel the necessity or possess the disposition to enter into any of the active and stirring professions of life, but
302
HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
devoted his attention to reading and the management of his estate. He served his fellow-citizens as a mag- istrate, and for a while as a member of the Governor's Council. A staunch and intelligent Democrat, his opinions had great weight with his political party.
He married Miss Mary Steele Ferrand, a grand- daughter of Gen. John Steele, and lived at the seat of General Steele, near Salisbury. His children were: Lieut. Leonard Henderson, who was killed at the battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia; John Steele Hen- derson, Esq., now a member of the Salisbury bar; Richard Henderson, a lieutenant in the United States Navy, now in active service; and Mary, still at home. Archibald Henderson died within the present year (1880), and his remains were interred beside his father's grave in the Lutheran graveyard in Salisbury.
Jane C. Henderson, daughter of the Hon. Archi- bald Henderson, was first married to Dr. Lueco Mitchell, from the eastern part of the State. Doctor Mitchell was a surgeon on the Caroline during the siege of New Orleans, in the War of 1812-a fine physician and a courteous and public-spirited gentle- man. He was an old-line Whig, and took a prominent part in the political affairs of his day. After the death of Dr. Mitchell, his widow became the wife of the
HON. NATHANIEL BOYDEN
then a successful lawyer in full practice. Mr. Boyden was a native of Massachusetts, born in Franklin Township, August 16, 1796, and graduated at Union College, New York, in 1821, and the next year re-
303
OLD FAMILIES OF ROWAN
moved to North Carolina and settled in Stokes County, and for a while engaged in teaching school. He studied law and was married to Ruth Martin, the daughter of Hugh Martin, Esq., of Stokes County. Our fellow-citizen, John A. Boyden, Esq., and the late Mrs. Ruth Nesbit, wife of Dr. A. M. Nesbit, and Nathaniel Boyden, Jr., are children by this marriage. Mr. Boyden represented Stokes County in 1838, and in 1840, in the Legislature. After the death of his first wife, he removed to Salisbury, in 1842. Here he rose rapidly in popular favor, and represented his adopted county several times in the Legislature, and his District in the Congress of the United States. He was an industrious, enterprising, and successful law- yer, and clients flocked to him wherever he practiced law. He possessed a wonderful memory, retaining in his mind not only the law bearing upon the case, but all the testimony, however voluminous, without noting it on paper. His eloquence was peculiar, always arresting attention, and his audience were always sure that he was saying something to the point. At the close of the late war he was again elected to the Con- gress of the United States, and in April, 1871, he was elected one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. After a long and active life, having filled many posts of honor, and exerting an influence over the minds and acts of his fellow-men, he fell asleep November 20, 1873. By his second marriage he left one son, Mr. Archibald Henderson Boyden, now doing business in Spartanburg, S. C.
304
HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
A brother of the Hon. Archibald Henderson and Judge Leonard Henderson, named John Lawson Henderson, resided in Salisbury for a number of years. He was also a lawyer, and resided on the lot once owned by John Dunn, Esq., now by P. P. Meroney. His practice was not as extensive as his brother's, and for a number of years he was Clerk of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. He spent much of his time in Raleigh, where he died and was buried.
Another distinguished member of the Henderson family residing in Salisbury, was Dr. Pleasant Hender- son. Dr. Henderson was the son of Major Pleasant Henderson, of Chapel Hill. Major Pleasant Hender- son was the son of Samuel Henderson, of Granville County, and the brother of the Colonial Judge Richard Henderson, and the cousin of the Hon. Archibald Henderson, of Salisbury. The children of Col. Pleas- ant Henderson, were Dr. Alexander Henderson, of Salisbury ; Eliza, the wife of Hamilton C. Jones, Esq .; William, and Tippoo Sahib. The latter name, together with the fact that Edward Jones, of Chatham, called a son of his, Hyder Ali, recalls a state of feeling with which we are now unfamiliar. Tippoo Sahib and Hyder Ali were two brave and powerful East Indian chiefs, who resisted the English authority in Hindustan, and so great was the animosity of many of our people against England, in the days immediately preceding and during the war of 1812-14, that these two men gloried in calling their sons after these fierce heathen chieftains, simply because they were England's ene-
305
OLD FAMILIES OF ROWAN
mies. Dr. Pleasant Henderson was for a long time the most popular physician in Western North Caro- lina. Handsome, genial, polite, skillful in his profes- sion, a jovial companion, and generous to a fault, the people loved him dearly. He lived for a long time unmarried, but at last married a lady as genial and accomplished as himself, Rebecca Wimbish, of Vir- ginia. He died about 1850, and his remains lie in the Oak Grove Cemetery, in Salisbury. No monument marks the spot where he sleeps, and perhaps nobody knows where his grave is. He left no children, and his widow married Judge Mills, of Texas.
Dr. Alexander Henderson was a widower when he came to Salisbury, leaving a couple of daughters with their mother's relatives, near Raleigh, to be educated. He afterwards married a Miss Wimbish, sister to his brother's wife. After practicing his profession here for a number of years, he removed to Alabama.
Eliza Henderson married, as before stated,
HAMILTON C. JONES, EsQ.
Many of our citizens remember this genial gentle- man, who passed from our midst only a few years ago. His country home was Como, three miles south of Salisbury, on the Concord Road. From Colonel Wheeler's Sketches we learn that Mr. Jones was a na- tive of Virginia, born in Greenville, in 1798, and grad- uated from the University of North Carolina in 1818, in the same class with President James K. Polk, Bishop Greene, Robert Hall Morrison, D. D., and other dis- tinguished men. He read law with Judge Gaston at
306
HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
Newbern, and soon entered public life as a member of the Legislature, serving a number of terms. For some years he was Solicitor and reporter for the Su- preme Court of North Carolina. While engaged in public affairs he exercised a great influence, and his speeches were listened to with attention by all. In July, 1832, Mr. Jones started The Carolina Watchman, in the interest of the Whig Party, and continued to edit the same for a period of seven years. His paper rendered efficient service, and at one time he was invited to transfer it to Raleigh, but declined to do so. In 1839 he sold the paper to Pendleton & Bruner, and the last- named editor has continued, with two or three short suspensions, to edit and publish The Watchman ever since-a period of forty-one years.
As a humorist, Mr. Jones was not often excelled, possessing an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes, and the power to relate them by word or by pen in a manner peculiarly and irresistibly ludicrous. By his marriage with Eliza Henderson, he left five children-Col. Hamilton C. Jones, a lawyer and brave soldier in the late war, now practicing his profession in Charlotte; Capt. Martin Jones; Martha, married to Mr. Tate, of Morganton ; Julia ; and Alice, married to Mr. Broad- nax, of Rockingham County. Mr. Jones died a few years ago (1887) and the home where he so long lived passed into other hands. A short time ago the residence was consumed by fire, and nothing but the trees and the outbuildings mark the spot once so well known among us.
307
OLD FAMILIES OF ROWAN
Another family of Old Rowan was
THE PEARSON FAMILY
Richard Pearson, the founder of this family, was a native of Dinwiddie County, Va., and came to North Carolina at nineteen years of age, and settled in the Forks of the Yadkin, then Rowan, now Davie County. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, Richmond Pearson was a lieutenant in Captain Bryan's Company, and settled the political affinity of his Company by whipping his captain in a fist fight, as related in a previous chapter. Captain Pearson was present when Cornwallis crossed Cowan's Ford on the Catawba, in 1781, and witnessed the fall of the brave Gen. William Davidson. He was a merchant and a planter, and at an early day succeeded in navigating the Yadkin River. He is said to have established a combined land and water route, as follows: From his mills on the South Fork, by boat down the Yadkin to the Narrows; thence by land below the Grassy Is- lands; then again by the river to Sneedsboro, which was then a rival of Cheraw. Perhaps when the Yad- kin is opened as far as Bean's Shoals, or Wilkesboro, for light draught steamers, according to the plan now undertaken, it will be found that communication may be practicable to the sea by water, and thus reduce the freights now exacted for heavy articles on the rail- road.
Richmond Pearson was twice married. His first wife was Miss Hayden, and she bore him three sons and a daughter, namely: Gen. Jesse A. Pearson,
308
HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
Hon. Joseph Pearson, Richmond Pearson, and Eliza- beth.
By his second marriage Richmond Pearson had six children-Sarah, Eliza, Charles, Richmond Mum- ford, Giles N., and John Stokes Pearson. Most of these children occupied prominent and responsible positions in their day. Jesse A. Pearson represented Rowan County in the Legislature five times. In 1814, he was colonel of a regiment that marched against the Creek Indians under Gen. Joseph Graham. He was first married to a daughter of Gen. John Steele, and afterwards to a Mrs. Wilson, whose daughter by a former husband was the first wife of Archibald Carter, Esq., of Davie.
Hon. Joseph Pearson was a lawyer, represented the borough of Salisbury in the House of Commons, and was a member of Congress from 1809 to 1815.
Richmond Pearson, though never in public life, was an active, enterprising man. He is celebrated for having passed over the falls of the Yadkin in a boat, with two companions. Nobody else is known to have attempted this hazardous enterprise.
But the most distinguished of the family was Rich- mond M. Pearson. He was born in 1805, prepared for college by John Mushat, at Statesville, and grad- uated at the University of North Carolina in 1823. He studied law under Judge Henderson, and was licensed to practice in 1826. From 1829 to 1832 he represented Rowan County in the House of Com- mons. In 1836, he was elected Judge of the Superior Court, and in 1848 he was transferred to the Supreme
309
OLD FAMILIES OF ROWAN
Court of North Carolina. In 1866, he became Chief Justice, with William H. Battle and E. G. Reade as Associate Justices. In 1870, under the Shoffner Bill, Governor Holden ordered George W. Kirk, with a considerable body of troops, to march into Alamance, Orange, and Caswell Counties. Many arrests were made, and among others those of Josiah Turner and John Kerr, afterwards Judge Kerr. When applied to for writ of habeas corpus for some of these im- prisoned citizens, Judge Pearson promptly granted it, but declined to attach Kirk for disobeying it, declar- ing that the "judiciary was exhausted." Though the decision bore severely upon the prisoners, it is difficult to see how a Judge could enforce the writ, with the Governor in command of the troops of the State, and hostile to the rights of the citizen. In January, 1878, Chief Justice Pearson died on his way to Raleigh to hold the January term of the Supreme Court. Moore in his History says of him, that "His strong native ability, profound learning, and long judicial career have made him immortal in legal circles. It is prob- able that he was the profoundest jurist ever born in Rowan County.
For a number of years, Judge Pearson resided at Richmond Hill, near Rockford, in Surry County. There he conducted a law school, and students from all parts of the State flocked to his school for instruc- tion.
Giles N. Pearson, a younger brother of Chief Jus- tice Pearson, was also a lawyer by profession, and re- sided in Mocksville. He married a daughter of An-
310
HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
derson Ellis, Sr., of Davidson County, a sister of Governor Ellis. He died in 1847, leaving a wife and five children, several of them still surviving.
Gov. JOHN W. ELLIS
was a native of Davidson County, then Rowan, and was born on the twenty-third of November, 1820. The family of the Ellises, for several generations, lived in the famed Jersey Settle- ment, on the eastern banks of the Yadkin, and several of them accumulated fortunes. Anderson Ellis, Sr., gave to his children the advantage of a good education, and most of them became prominent and useful citizens. John Willis was early sent to a classical school, taught by Robert Allison, Esq., at Beattie's Ford. After spending a season at Randolph- Macon College, in Virginia, he went to the University of North Carolina, where he was graduated in 1841. His legal studies were pursued under Judge Pearson. He opened a law office in Salisbury, and by his dili- gence and talents soon won a place in public confi- dence. He bore the reputation of a hard student, and the passer-by would see the light of Ellis' lamp until long after midnight. Two years after his licensure he was chosen to represent Rowan County in the House of Commons, and he continued in that place until 1848, when he was elected Judge of the Superior 'Court, when only twenty-eight years of age. He held this important post with credit to himself and honor to the State until 1858, when he was elected Governor of North Carolina over John Pool, of Pas-
3II
OLD FAMILIES OF ROWAN
quotank. The issue between Ellis and Pool was what was called the ad valorem system of taxation, a sys- tem defended with great ingenuity by Pool and the Whigs, but which failed to carry the Party into power. When, in 1861, President Lincoln called upon Gov- ernor Ellis for troops to serve against South Carolina, the Governor called for twenty thousand men-not to help to reduce South Carolina, but for whatever side the Convention of North Carolina should take. The Convention met and passed an ordinance of secession, May 20, 1861. Governor Ellis devoted all his energies to meet the demands of the hour. But his health failed him, and he resorted to the Red Sul- phur Springs, in Virginia, to restore his strength. But the flame of life flickered only a moment longer, and he died on the seventh of July, 1861, only a few weeks after the battle of Big Bethel, when Gen. (then Col.) D. H. Hill met and defeated Gen. B. F. Butler. Thus it was that his brave spirit departed from earth just as the storm of war began to burst over the devoted South. His remains sleep in quiet, in Oak Grove Cemetery, in Salisbury, where a shaft of polished marble marks his resting-place.
Governor Ellis first married Mary, only daughter of Hon. Philo White, a scion of the Brandon stock, and her remains lie by the side of his, under another mar- ble shaft.
He was married a second time to Miss Daves, a lady of Newbern, N. C., and left two daughters.
312
HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
THE CALDWELL FAMILY
In the eastern part of Iredell County, then Rowan, there lived a hundred years ago a substantial citizen by the name of Andrew Caldwell. He was of that sturdy, Scotch-Irish stock that peopled so much of this region of the country. He married Ruth, the second daughter of the Hon. William Sharpe. He was a leading man in his county and often represented his fellow-citizens in the Legislature. He had a num- ber of children, among them three sons widely known, viz .: Hon. David F. Caldwell, Hon. Joseph P. Cald- well, of Iredell, and Dr. Elam Caldwell, of Lincolnton. But we are more particularly interested in Hon. D. F. Caldwell, so long a citizen of Rowan County.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.