USA > North Carolina > Rowan County > A history of Rowan County, North Carolina > Part 18
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DAVID FRANKLIN CALDWELL
was born in 1792, and pursued his literary course at Chapel Hill. He studied law with the Hon. Archi- bald Henderson, of Salisbury, and entered public life as a member of the House of Commons from Iredell, in 1816, where he served several years. After a time he removed to Salisbury, and in 1829, 1830, and 1831, represented Rowan in the Senate of North Carolina. He was Speaker of the Senate in 1829. After this he pursued his profession as a lawyer with eminent success for a number of years. In 1844 he was promoted to the position of Judge of the Superior Courts of North Carolina.
Judge Caldwell was a stern, but impartial judge, and presided with great dignity, keeping the witnesses,
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jurors, and lawyers in good order. Many anecdotes are told of his eccentricities, all leaning to the side of simplicity, kindness, order, and decency. A lawyer, then quite young, was sick during the Court in Washington, and was visited very kindly by Judge Caldwell. At a Court the next week, the young lawyer, still quite feeble, managed to attend, and when a case was called in which he was interested, rose to speak. "Sit down, Sir," said the Judge, in his sternest tones. The lawyer sat down, as if thunder- struck. In a moment, however, he rose again to speak, and was told to sit down, in still more terrible tones. Again he sat down, not knowing what it all meant. Then the Judge said, "You are not able to stand up, and I will hear you from your seat." The lawyer was amazed at the unexpected turn of affairs, and knowing that he would not be allowed to stand, addressed the Judge from his seat. Upon a certain occasion, it is related, a young lawyer took his seat inside the bar dressed in peculiarly dandyish style. The Judge surveyed him from head to foot, and mut- tered to himself, "Hair parted in the middle," "Mus- tache," "Ruffled shirt," "Striped vest," "Straps," "Pumps." Then in thundering tones, "Get out of the bar!" Some older lawyer arose and informed the Judge that the young man was a lawyer, and had a right to a seat in the bar. "I beg pardon," said the Judge, "but I did not think that any lawyer had so little sense as to dress in that way."
Upon another occasion, the Judge asked a lawyer for a chew of tobacco. The lawyer handed him a piece
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of plug, bitten all around. The Judge turned it around and around in his hand, and remarked aloud, "Why don't you cut off your tobacco, like a gentleman, and not gnaw it off in that indecent way?"
Judge Caldwell had a high respect for honest labor. One day while passing the premises of a minister, he saw him with his coat off, spading up his garden. Lifting his hat in the old-time fashion of courtesy, he said: "Saint Paul used to labor with his own hands, and I am glad to see one minister who is not ashamed to follow his example."
His second wife lies buried under the lecture- room of the Presbyterian Church in Salisbury. For many years Judge Caldwell was in the habit of lifting his hat reverently every time he passed the corner.
In 1858, being then sixty-eight years of age, he felt it his duty to resign his seat on the judicial bench, un- willing to continue until he would become unfit for his duties. He died, in 1867, at the age of seventy-seven, and his remains, unmarked by a monument, are lying beside the resting-place of his first wife, near the mon- ument of the Hon. Archibald Henderson.
Judge Caldwell was twice married. He first married Fanny, the daughter of William Lee Alexander, Esq., and niece of Hon. Archibald Henderson. Their children were, William Lee, Archibald Henderson, Elizabeth Ruth, who married Col. Charles Fisher ; Richard Alexander Caldwell, Esq., Dr. Julius An- drew 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
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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 Chris- tian woman, of a meek and quiet spirit. During her widowhood, she and her half-brother, Maxwell Cham- bers, 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.
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 resi- dence now stands. Lord Cornwallis made his head- quarters 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 rais- ing the price of powder, and it was ordered that he be advertised as an enemy of his country. After the war he lived at Spring Hill, about two miles east of Salis- bury, where he raised a large family. He was mar- ried to the daughter of George Magoune, who had married Hester Long, the widow of John Long, and
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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 Pan- thea Troy, sister of Matthew Troy, Esq., and of the late Mrs. Maxwell Chambers.
MAXWELL CHAMBERS
the younger, was a distant relative of the family al- ready 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 the gen- eral 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 :
I. William Nesbit, died November 22, 1799, aged sixty-four years.
2. Adelaide Fulton, daughter of John and Mary Fulton, died at two weeks of age.
3. Mary Fulton, died January 5, 1806, aged forty- five years.
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(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.
IO. 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
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residence of Thomas J. Meroney, on Main Street. His early education was probably secured in Salis- bury, and he entered into business here with his uncle, a Mr. Campbell, from which we infer that his mother's maiden name was Campbell. After conducting busi- ness 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 Nes- bit place, on Innes Street, now the home of R. J. Holmes, and here they ended their days. Mr. Cham- bers never entered into regular business again, but be- came a general trader, and attended to the manage- ment of his large estate. He was eminently success- ful 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 faith- fully carried out by his executors, and between thirty
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and forty 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.
"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
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paper was somewhat ostentatiously presented to Mr. 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, per- haps equal in value to the gifts of all the others com- bined, 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 he 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 visi- tors, 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 por- trait, with that of her husband, hangs 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. Among these, brief mention must be made of
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HON. JOHN GILES
He was a native of Salisbury, and a descendant, by his mother's side, of the early lawyer, John Dunn, Esq. He was graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1808. He studied law, and settled in his native town, where he practiced his profession for more than thirty years. The name of Jack Giles, as he was familiarly called, was known in the whole western part of the State. He was the clerk of the Rowan Superior Court for many years; and was elected to Congress from his district in 1829, but was compelled to decline because of ill health. He never married, but maintained his mother and his sisters handsomely while he lived. One of his sisters was the second wife of John Fulton, after whom one of the streets of Salisbury is named, and also the Salisbury lodge of Freemasons. But the last race of the Gileses and Fultons has been laid in the grave.
HON. WILLIAM C. LOVE
represented the Salisbury District in Congress in 1815. He was a Virginian by birth, and reared at the Univer- sity of that State. He studied law and removed to Salisbury, where he first married Elizabeth, a daugh- ter of the Hon. Spruce Macay, by whom he had one child, the late Robert E. Love, Esq. His second wife was Sally Yarboro, daughter of Capt. Edward Yarboro, and granddaughter of Alexander Long, Esq., of Yadkin Ferry, by whom he had two children, William and Julius Love. William C. Love
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and his second wife both lie buried in the private burying-ground of the Yarboro family in Salisbury, just in the rear of Meroney's Hall, on the spot where the hotel for colored people now stands.
THE FISHER FAMILY
The Hon. Charles Fisher was a native of Rowan County, and was born October 20, 1779. His father came to North Carolina before the Revolution, and was an officer of militia during the war. The subject of this notice was educated by Rev. Dr. John Robin- son, of Poplar Tent, and by the Rev. Dr. McPheeters, of Raleigh. He studied law and obtained license to practice, but soon abandoned the bar for the more stirring scenes of political life. He enjoyed the con- fidence of the people of Rowan County as fully as any man who ever lived in the county, and they delighted to honor him with every office for which he ever asked their suffrages. In 1819 he represented Rowan in the State Senate, and in the same year was elected from the Rowan District for Congress. After this term he again served Rowan County in the State Legisla- ture, and was a member of the Convention of 1835, called to amend the State Constitution. In 1839 he was again elected to Congress, over Dr. Pleasant Hen- derson, though the latter was a most popular man, and the champion of a Party supposed to be in the majority. Mr. Fisher was one of the most active and energetic men in the State, and an unyielding advocate of State rights against Federal encroachments and usurpations.
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Near the close of life he became a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and strove to discharge his duty to his Creator, as he had endeavored to do his duty to his country.
After a long and honored and useful life, he died far away from home, in Hillsboro, Miss., on the seventh of May, 1849. No monument marks his grave. His ashes should rest here, in one of the ceme- teries among the honored dead of Rowan. Mr. Fisher married Christina, daughter of Lewis Beard, Esq., of Salisbury, by whom he had several children. One son died in infancy. His daughter Mary married a Mr. Hill, and removing to Georgia died there a few years ago. Christine, another daughter, still resides in Salisbury. His other son
COL. CHARLES FREDERICK FISHER
was the noble son of a noble sire. He was born in Salisbury in 1816. His preparatory education was conducted in the classical schools of Salisbury, and from them he was transferred to Yale College. He never studied any of the professions, but devoted his attention to agriculture and mining, and for several years was associated with Dr. Austin in the publica- tion of The Western Carolinian. In 1854-55, he was a member of the State Legislature from Rowan County. He succeeded the Hon. John M. Morehead as president of the North Carolina Railroad, in 1855, and continued to preside over the interests of that great State enterprise, with eminent skill and ability, until 1861.
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When the alarm of war rang throughout the land in 1861, Mr. Fisher at once proceeded to raise and equip a regiment, at the head of which he took the field in the early part of July. This regiment, the Sixth North Carolina, had been ordered to Winches- ter, Va., where it was in the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston when the army of the Shenandoah was ordered to Manassas to reinforce General Beaure- gard. Owing to a wreck on the line of railway, there was a delay in the transportation of the troops which threatened disaster, and gave Colonel Fisher an op- portunity to render an important service by repairing the track with the aid of the trained railroad men who composed a large part of his command. As a reward for his efforts, the Sixth Regiment was allowed to embark on the next train that left for Manassas, and reached there in time to be ordered into battle by General Beauregard at the most critical period of the action, when their help was greatly needed, shortly after two o'clock in the afternoon. Colonel Fisher then led his regiment almost immediately to the bril- liant charge on Rickett's Battery, which destroyed and captured that formidable artillery, and proved the turning point of the battle. From that minute, as the official reports clearly prove, the Federal army went down to defeat, but Colonel Fisher himself died in the hour of his triumph, falling gloriously in the charge in which he was leading his men. In an address on this subject, delivered in Charlotte, N. C., on October 12, 1901, Hon. John S. Henderson says: "The
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COL. CHAS. F. FISHER
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ground where the Sixth Regiment fought and de- stroyed McDowell's most formidable batteries marked the extreme point of the Federal advance towards Manassas. This is the truth of history, and Colonel Fisher fell in the forefront, at the time when the tide of battle had been first turned back, and victory had been assured to the Confederate army by the heroic and successful fighting of himself and the Sixth Regiment."
It was a gloomy day in Salisbury when the remains of her chivalrous son were brought home, and sorrow- fully laid in their resting-place in the Salisbury ceme- tery (Lutheran graveyard).
Colonel Fisher married Elizabeth Ruth Caldwell, oldest daughter of Hon. David F. Caldwell, in July, 1845, by whom he had several children, who were left in the orphanage to the care of his sister, Miss Christine Fisher. The names of these children are Frances, Annie, and Frederick. Miss Frances Fisher, under the nom de plume of Christian Reid, has achieved an enviable reputation as a writer of elegant fiction. Her volume, entitled the "Land of the Sky," possesses the merit of being a faithful delineation of the choicest scenery in Western North Carolina, elegantly and attractively written. This charming book has been the means of attracting many visitors to our beautiful mountains, and has rendered it quite fashionable for tourists to visit this region, where the loftiest mountains east of the Mississippi stand grouped together in stately grandeur.
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THE CRAIG FAMILY
The traditions of this family relate that their ancestors came direct from Scotland to Rowan County, without stopping, as most of the families did, in the Northern States. They were adherents of "Prince Charles" in his efforts to regain the throne of his fathers, and after the fatal battle of Culloden, April 16, 1746, they deemed it expedient to seek safety in America.
The name "Craig," in the Scottish dialect, signifies a sharp, high rock or crag, and was probably given to the family, or assumed by them, because their hall or castle was situated upon some high rock, thus se- curing safety to life and property in the days of vio- lence and lawlessness. In the sixteenth century John Craig was one of the Scottish Reformers and a coad- jutor of John Knox. It was John Craig that pro- claimed the banns of marriage between Queen Mary and James Bothwell, but he openly denounced their union. Sir Thomas Craig, of Aberdeenshire, was a distinguished lawyer and Judge, who lived from 1538 to 1608, and through his oldest son, Sir Lewis Craig, he left descendants, among whom are several well- known names in the list of Scottish lawyers. It is impossible at this day to connect the Rowan family with that of the Reformer or Jurist, but these his- torical personages living three hundred years ago in Scotland show that the name comes down from olden times. The Rowan family seem to have been ad- herents of the Church of England, as is evinced both
MRS. FRANCES CHRISTINE FISHER TIERNAN ( CHRISTIAN REID)
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by family tradition and from existence of an old Book of Common Prayer, Cambridge edition of 1766, still in the possession of the family, with family rec- ords on its flyleaves.
About one and a half miles from the Trading Ford, near the road leading to Salisbury, is a place still known as "Craige's Old Field," where the ruins of old chimneys are still to be seen. Here Archibald Craige and Mary, his wife, settled about 1750. The title deeds taken out before the establishment of Rowan County are not registered here, but were probably registered at old Anson courthouse, at Mount Pleas- ant. But as early as 1756 we find deeds from James Carter and Hugh Foster, Township Trustees, to Archibald Craige, for lots in Salisbury. In 1758 there is a deed from Carter & Foster to Mary Craige. In the files of inventories in the Clerk's office we learn that Archibald Craige died May 20, 1758, and that Mary Craige administered on his estate. In 1764 there is the first mention of James Craige as the pur- chaser of some lots in Salisbury, and in 1779 there is the record of a grant from the State to James and David Craige for five hundred acres of land on the south side of the Yadkin River. Summing up their grants and purchases we find that James and David Craige were the owners, jointly and severally, of nearly two thousand acres of land on the main Yadkin, the south fork of Yadkin, and Abbott's Creek. Putting these traditions and records together, we conclude that Archibald and Mary Craige were the founders of the Rowan family; that when Archibald
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Craige died, in 1758, his sons being too young, his widow became administratrix of the estate, and that the two sons- James, the elder, and David, the younger-were grown men before the Revolutionary War. James was the purchaser of land in 1764, and must have been twenty-one years old at that time. In a bundle of settlement papers near the close of the Revolution we find the name of James Craige as Sheriff of Rowan County. We do not find that he ever married here. Perhaps he removed to some other part of the country.
From the record in the old Prayer Book we learn that David Craige was married to Polly Foster, July 23, 1776, nineteen days after the Declaration of In- dependence. Hugh Foster, one of the township trustees, writes himself as a farmer, and perhaps Mrs. David Craige was his daughter. This David Craige is the one mentioned in Colonel Wheeler's Sketches (Vol. I, page 80), as a lieutenant in Capt. William Temple Cole's Company in 1776. Colonel Wheeler further states that David Craige "was distinguished for his bravery and patriotic daring" in those stirring times. But the history of those daring deeds has been allowed to sink into oblivion, with those of his brave com- panions in the great struggle for independence. He died in November, 1784.
The children of David and Polly Craige, as recorded in the old Prayer Book, were : James Craige, born Feb- ruary 2, 1778; David Craige, born January 27, 1780; Lucy and Mary, born April, 1782 ; and Thomas Craige, born August 5, 1784.
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James Craige settled on the old Mocksville Road, six miles from Salisbury, where some of his descend- ants are still residing.
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