USA > North Carolina > Rowan County > A history of Rowan County, North Carolina > Part 4
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ORGANIZATION, BOUNDARY, ETC.
boundary, beginning at the southeast corner of Ran- dolph, ran due west along Earl Granville's south line, on the south side of Randolph, Davidson, Rowan, and Iredell, as they now lie (latitude thirty-five degrees, thrity-four minutes), to the Catawba River, a short distance above Beattie's Ford ; thence due west, cutting into Lincoln County, and running a few miles north of Lincolnton, through Cleveland and Rutherford, through Hickory Nut Gap, and on through Buncombe, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Cherokee, and on to the westward indefinitely. Old Rowan included in its ample domain the territory occupied today by thirty counties and parts of counties in North Carolina, be- sides the indefinite and unexplored regions of the west, as far as the South Seas, embracing the western section of Granville's vast inheritance. It is true, in- deed, that the region beyond the mountains in the early days was unknown, and in the farther West was the French territory of Louisiana, that practically cut down these gigantic proportions. But theoretically, and according to the Charter, such was its vast terri- tory.
It may not be amiss to recall to the mind of the student of North Carolina history that Charles II., of England, in the fifteenth year of his reign, granted to the Earl of Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, the Earl of Craven, Lord Berkeley, Lord Ashley, Sir George Carteret, and Sir John Colleton, the whole territory of America lying between latitude thirty-one degrees, thirty-six minutes and thirty-six degrees, thirty-one minutes north, and extending from the Atlantic Ocean
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
to the South Seas, or Pacific Ocean. After making the experiment of a Proprietary government for more than a half-century, under the famous constitution of Locke and Shaftesbury, and otherwise, seven of these Lords Proprietors surrendered their interest in the Carolinas to the Crown, in the third year of George II. (1729), for the sum of twenty-five hundred pounds (£2500) each, as stated in a previous chapter. But John, Earl of Granville, Lord Cartaret, and Baron of Hawnes, as he is styled, the son and heir of Sir George Carteret, declined to surrender his eighth part of the land, preferring to dispose of it to the settlers by means of special agents. In 1743, his eighth part was set off to him, and was situated between latitude thirty-five degrees, thirty-four minutes and the Vir- ginia line. His southern line began on the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Hatteras, crossed Pamlico Sound, passed on west not far from Washington, across the Conuties of Beaufort, Pitt, Greene, Wayne, and John- ston, on the north side of Moore, and so on westward along the line indicated as the south line of Rowan County. Granville does not appear to have exercised any authority over the people in his lands, nor any con- trol in the enactment or execution of the laws. He was simply a mighty landowner, with a vast body of desirable land to sell to the best advantage. After 1743 all grants and sales of lands were made in his name. The curious inquirer may look into the office of our Register of Deeds, in the Courthouse in Salis- bury, and see volumes upon volumes of old land deeds, reciting over and over again the titles and dignities of
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ORGANIZATION, BOUNDARY, ETC.
Earl Granville, conveying lands to the Allisons, An- drews, Brandons, Grahams, Lockes, Nesbits, etc., and signed by his Lordship's attorneys and agents, Fran- cis Corbin and James Innes, or by sub-agents William Churton and Richard Vigers.
It appears that the General Assembly of North Car- olina, at this early day, began to exercise more power than was entirely agreeable to the loyal government in England, and by the multiplication of counties the assembly was increased in numbers too rapidly. Hence the policy of repression was early adopted. In 1754, the year after the erection of Rowan County, King George II., in privy council, revoked the acts of 1753, establishing Rowan, Cumberland, and Orange Coun- ties. But upon a more thorough understanding of the subject, he was pleased the next year to allow the said counties to be re-established, and the Assembly at its sessions in 1756 did re-establish these counties, and validated all deeds and conveyances that had been made during the period of the royal revocation. It appears that the disapprobation of the King made no break in the Courts of Rowan County, for the record shows that they went on precisely as they would have gone on had the King fully approved. So far away were they from the Court of England, and so full of the spirit of independence, that they were ready to practice, if not assert, the inherent right of self-government.
The county having been established in March, 1753, in June of the same year the Court of Pleas and Quar- ter Sessions met somewhere in the county and pro- ceeded to their work. But where the first Court was
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
held, the writer has not been able to determine. There are several vague traditions and recollections that point to different times and places ; and with the hope that someone will be able to probe this matter to the bottom, these traditions are given.
I. There is a vague impression floating in certain legal circles here, that an old "Docket" has been seen in our courthouse, dating back a number of years be- fore the establishment of the county. If this be so, there must have been some kind of itinerant or circuit Court held at occasional times on the frontiers. But of this I have seen no historical or documentary proof whatsoever.
2. There is a tradition that the first Courts were held in the Jersey Settlement, not far from Trading Ford, on a place once owned by Thales McDonald, now the property of Mr. Hayden; and the venerable oaks that shaded the premises were pointed out some twen- ty-five years ago, and may be still standing. This is rendered somewhat probable from the fact that the Jer- sey lands were early occupied, and were probably more thickly settled at that period than the region between the Yadkin and the Catawba. In connection with this location there is another tradition that preliminary steps were once taken to lay out a town in the vicinity of Trading Ford. With such a beautiful stream, easily capable of being made navigable from the Narrows far up into the mountains, the wonder is that a town has not long since sprung up in that delightful region.
Another tradition, that has been constant in one family, is that the first Courts of Rowan were held in
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ORGANIZATION, BOUNDARY, ETC.
a building that stood on the premises now owned by Miss Mclaughlin, about thirteen miles west of Salis- bury. This place is midway between Thyatira and Back Creek churches, and not far from Sill's Creek. An old door is still preserved there, which the family say has always been known to have belonged to the building in which the Court was held.
It is possible that there is substantial truth in all these traditions. In those early days the General As- sembly of the Province was migratory, being held at Edenton, Newbern, Wilmington, and Hillsboro, and it is not impossible that one or two of the first Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of Rowan were held out- side of Salisbury, before a courthouse was erected. The early records contain no mention of the place where the Courts were held, and the first leaf is missing.
CHAPTER V
-
THE FIRST COURT
As stated on a former page, it is not certainly known where the first Court was held. But from the records in the office of the Superior Court Clerk, in Salisbury, it appears probable that it was held in June, 1753, only a few months after the county was established. The names of the justices who presided at the Courts the first year were Walter Carruth, Thomas Lovelatty, James Carter, John Brandon, Alexander Cathey, Squire Boone, Thomas Cook, Thomas Potts, George Smith, Andrew Allison, John Hanby, Alexander Os- borne, James Tate, and John Brevard. We know, or have some reasons for conjecturing, the neighborhoods from which several of these magistrates came. Walter Carruth owned lands, and probably resided, on the east side of Coddle Creek, adjoining the McKnights, in the Prospect neighborhood. James Carter owned the lands in the southeast quarter of Salisbury, on both sides of Water Street, and on towards Crane Creek, now called Town Creek, and probably lived in the pres- ent corporate limits of the town. John Brandon lived six miles south of Salisbury, near the Concord Road, on the plantation now owned by Charles H. Mckenzie, Esq. Alexander Cathey lived on Cathey's Creek, near
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
Thyatira Church, and was the ancestor of the late Alexander Long, M. D., of Salisbury. Squire Boone lived on the Yadkin, at Alleman's or Boone's Ford, and was the father of the great hunter and pioneer, Daniel Boone, of Kentucky. At this place young Daniel spent the days of his boyhood, and no doubt often hunted over the hills and through the thickets of the Yadkin. Thomas Potts probably lived in the Jersey Settlement, where Potts' Creek, running into the Yadkin River just below the site of the Indian Town of Sapona, perpetuates his name. George Smith was probably from the same neighborhood, where a prominent family of that name still resides. Andrew Allison owned large tracts of land on Fourth Creek, a few miles from Statesville, where a large and influential family of that name may still be found. Alexander Osborne lived on the headwaters of Rocky River, about two miles north of Davidson College. He was a leading man in the community, a colonel, the father of Adlai Osborne, and the ancestor of the late eloquent and popular Judge James W. Osborne, of Mecklen- burg. John Brevard was probably from the same neighborhood, a little farther west, and not far from Beattie's Ford, on the Catawba. At least this was the neighborhood of the Brevards, one of whom, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, is reputed to be the composer of the celebrated Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Of Lovelatty, Cook, Hanby, and Tate the writer has no knowledge, though doubtless some of their de- scendants may be still residing among us. There is a Ford on the Catawba, and a postoffice in Caldwell
Daniel Boone
This picture of the famous frontiersman appears on frontispiece to Colonel Roose- velt's "Winning of the West," Vol. 2. The facsimile signature is taken from a mar- riage certificate in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Rowan County, North Carolina.
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THE FIRST COURT
County called "Lovelady," perhaps a remembrance of Justice Lovelatty, of the Rowan County Court.
A good part of the time of the first Court was taken up in registering the marks and brands which the citi- zens had invented to distinguish their cattle and other livestock; and the changes are rung on "crops," "half- crops," "slits", and "swallow-forks," in the "off" and "near" ear, and other quaint devices for marking. The cattle that were to be identified by the marks and brands registered in the Rowan Court, ranged over the meadows and prairies of the Yadkin, the Catawba, the Deep, the Saxapahaw, and the Dan Rivers. Consta- bles were also appointed whose beats lay as much as a hundred miles from the seat of justice. These old "records" of the Rowan Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, for 1753-54-55-56, are full of interest to any- one who will take the trouble to decipher them. For instance, here is a list of constables and their beats for 1753. Preston Goforth for the South Fork of the Catawba. (This was for the region from Hickory to Lincoln.) John McGuire, south side of the Yadkin. John Attaway (?) for Dan River. John Robinson for south side of Yadkin, "from the mouth of Grant's Creek to the ford of the same; thence across to the Trading Path; thence along said Path as far as Cold- water; thence with his Lordship's line." This shows that the Trading Path ran to the point where Cold- water Creek runs from Rowan into Cabarrus. "John Nesbit had his beat from James Cathey's Creek to the Western Path, as far as the fork of said Path. James Howard from Cathey's Creek to Third Creek, and as
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
far as the Division Ridge between the two settlements. Benjamin Winslow, as far as the Catawba River, and along the King's line and Lamb's Mill, and down as far as William McKnight's. John Doller on Abbott's Creek, as far as the Western Path. David Stewart on the north side of Yadkin, from Muddy Creek and up- ward. William Fisher for the district included in the Forks of Yadkin. James Watkins from the Orange line as far as Beaver Island Creek, on Dan River. James Hampton from Beaver Island Creek and upwards" (i. e., higher up the Dan). These names of men and localities show the extent of the jurisdiction of the Rowan Court, stretching from the Orange line and Dan River to the King's line, and as far west as the south fork of the Catawba, northwest of Lincolnton. The following were the officers of the county, viz. :
Richard Hilliar, Deputy Attorney-General ; John Dunn, Court Clerk; James Carter, Esq., County Register ; John Whitsett, County Treasurer; Francis Corbin, Esq., Colonel of Rowan Regiment of Foot; Scotton Davis, Captain in Corbin's Regiment.
The following persons are named as composing the Grand and Petit Juries of the first Court, viz .: Henry Hughey, John McCulloch, James Hill, John Burnett, Samuel Bryant, John McDowell, James Lambath, Henry Dowland, Morgan Bryan, William Sherrill, William Morrison, William Linvil.
Samuel Baker asked this Court (1753) to declare his mill on Davidson's Creek (near Center Church) a public mill, and his request was granted. John Baker proved before this Court that his ear had been bitten
---
BOONE MEMORIAL CABIN
Erected on the site of the original Boone Cabin on the banks of the Yadkin River in Davidson County, North Carolina
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THE FIRST COURT
off in an affay (not cropped off for larceny), and ob- tained a Court certificate to that effect.
In those days innkeepers were not allowed to charge at their own discretion for the drinks and other enter- tainments which they furnished to their patrons, but the Court took the matter in hand and made a schedule of prices. In 1755, after fixing the prices for wine, whiskey, beer, etc., they decided that the keepers of ordinaries, inns, or taverns, should charge as follows :
For dinner of roast or boiled flesh, one shilling.
For supper and breakfast, each, six pence.
For lodging over night, good bed, two pence.
For stabling (24 hours), with good hay or fodder, six pence.
For pasturage, first twenty-four hours, four pence, every twenty-four hours after, two pence.
For Indian corn or other grain, per quart, two pence.
This was to be paid in Proclamation money, which was about on a par with Confederate the second or third year of the late war.
Salisbury was well supplied with licensed ordinaries, or inns, in those days. The licensed houses were as follows : In 1755, John Ryle's ordinary was licensed. In 1756, John Lewis Beard, Peter Arrand, Jacob Franck, Archibald Craige, James Bower, and Thomas Bashford and Robert Gillespie received licenses. Jacob Franck occupied the lot where the late Dr. Alexander Long resided, and Bashford and Gillespie occupied the corner next to the present courthouse, i. e., corner of Corbin and Council Streets. Robert Gillespie was the
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
first husband of the celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Steele, of Salisbury, and the father of the wife of the Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle, D. D. A few years after this, Paul Barringer, Esq., of Mecklenburg (Cabarrus), bought the lot on the east corner of Corbin and Innes Streets, ninety-nine feet down Corbin and one hundred and ninety-eight feet down Innes, from a man who is described as an "ordinary keeper." From this it ap- pears probable that the corner now occupied by Kluttz' drugstore was occupied as an ordinary at an early day, as we know that it was at a later day, when Wil- liam Temple Coles kept an inn there, where John Dunn, Esq., died in the winter of 1782-83.
We may remark in passing that John Dunn and Wil- liam Monat were appointed attorneys by Governor Dobbs, and presented their Commissions to the Rowan Court in 1755. Of William Monat little or nothing appears in the records of Rowan County; but for thirty years John Dunn occupied a prominent place in the public affairs of Rowan County, both before and after the War of the Revolution. He deserved well of his country, and his name is embalmed in the hearts of a large circle of honored descendants, and his memory is perpetuated in the name of Dunn's Mountain, in sight of the Public Square of Salisbury, at the foot of which his remains lie interred. This name will often recur in the course of these sketches.
At the June term of 1753, the Court proceeded to select a place for the erection of a courthouse, pillory, stocks, and gaol. The action of the Court is substan- tially as follows: "The courthouse, gaol, and stocks
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THE FIRST COURT
shall be located where the 'Irish Settlement' forks, one fork leading to John Brandon's, Esq., and the other fork along the old wagon road over Grant's Creek, called Sill's Path, and near the most convenient spring." John Brandon, as stated before, lived six miles south of Salisbury, on the Concord Road, and "Sill's Path" was probably the Beattie's Ford Road, crossing Sill's Creek about seventeen miles west of Salisbury. The most "convenient spring" is thought to be a spring in the garden of the late Dr. Alexander Long, where Jacob Franck's ordinary and still-house were after- wards established, the lot afterwards owned by Matthew Troy, the father-in-law of the late Maxwell Chambers. The exact site of the courthouse was the center of our present Public Square, at the intersection of Corbin and Innes Streets, where the great town well now is. Tradition says that this spot-originally con- siderably higher than it now is-was a famous "deer- stand," where the rifleman stood, and with unerring aim brought down the fleet-footed doe or antlered stag, as he fled before the music-making pack of hounds.
The Court directed that the courthouse should be of frame work, weather-boarded, thirty feet long and twenty feet wide, a story and a half high, with two floors, the lower one raised two feet above the ground. It was to be provided with an oval bar, and a bench raised three feet above the floor, with a table and seat for the Clerk, and "cases" for the attorneys. There was to be a good window behind the bench, with glass in it, and a window near the middle of each side, and a
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
door in the end opposite the bench. This simple struc- ture of wood, with one door and three windows, ap- pears to us, after the lapse of a century and a quarter, to have been an insignificant affair. But doubtless it compared favorably with the finest structures to be found in the wilderness, only about ten years after the first settlers arrived, and it accorded well with the tem- per and the habits of those earnest and honest Justices who sat upon the "bench," and arraigned evildoers at their bar. No complicated suits, involving nice points of law, often came before them for adjudication, but rather affrays, trespass, and larcenies, with now and then a homicide, would make up the docket. Suits would not be apt to linger long. They did not erect a very large or very strong jail, for the culprit was apt to find himself speedily in the pillory or stocks, or at the whipping-post. I presume that few offenders escaped upon legal technicalities, or on the plea of in- sanity, for the administrators of the law were more likely to consult the dictates of primitive justice than the niceties of any written code or precedent.
CHAPTER VI
THE COURTHOUSE BUILT
The contract for building the courthouse was taken by John Whitsett, the County Treasurer, but for reas- ons not explained it was not finished until 1756, at which time the Court met in the building for the first time. Before this time the Court probably met in private houses, or in the public room of some con- venient ordinary. At the second term of the Court, October, 1753, the Justices adjourned once to the house of James Alexander, and at another time afterwards to Peter Arrand's (Earnhardt?) ordinary. James Alexander seems to have been a resident of Salisbury, where he died in 1754. We conclude from this fact that the second term of the Court was held in Salis- bury. And since the common gaol, pillory, and stocks were already up and in use in 1754, we have con- clusive evidence that the Courts from and after that date were held near these public buildings. Tradi- tion states that the old gaol building was located at or near the site of the present old gaol building, now standing at the northwest corner of Corbin and Lib- erty Streets. Arrangements were early made to se- cure suitable lands for the
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
TOWNSHIP OF SALISBURY
At the Court in 1753, Edward Hughes, Esq., was appointed trustee for Rowan County, and directed to "enter" forty acres of land, at the place selected for the "County Seat," and to see that a title was secured from Earl Granville's agents. At the same time, John Dunn, Esq., and John Whitsett, the Treasurer, were directed to see that the land was laid off in a manner suitable for the purpose intended. It appears that Mr. Hughes did not succeed in securing immediately the forty acres required by the Court, though some of the public buildings were at once erected. The deed for the Township lands is dated February 11, 1755. At that date William Churton and Richard Vigers, agents for Earl Granville, having received a grant from Francis Corbin, Granville's attorney-conveyed by deed six hundred and thirty-five (635) acres of land for "Salisbury Township," to James Carter, Esq., and Hugh Foster, farmer, trustees-including the land upon which the public buildings had been erected. The deed for the land calls for the following distances, vis. :
"BEGINNING at a point near the 'Public Square'- James Carter's corner, and running due east with James Carter's line, 66 chains; thence north 3714 chains; thence west 10312 chains; thence east 371/2 chains, crossing Crane Creek three times ; thence north, 66 chains, crossing Crane Creek, to the beginning." The Township lands, the streets, and the streams are pretty fairly represented in the following diagram.
UGHTERS
OF
TH
NOILA
RIČAN
REVO
BOONE TRAIL 1769
FROM THIS TOWN RICHARD HENDERSON IN BEHALF OF HENDERSON AND COMPANY DESPATCHED DANIEL BOONE JOHN FINDLAY, JOHN STUART JOSEPH HOLDEN JAMES MOONEY AND WILLIAM COOLEY TO EXPLORE THE WILDERNESS OF KENTUCKY.
ERECTED BY ELIZABETH MAXWELL STEELE CHAPTER D. A.R
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THE COURTHOUSE BUILT
"The point near the public square, James Carter's Corner," appears from an old map of the town, drawn about fifty years ago, and now in the possession of Miss C. Beard, to have been in the middle of
H
W
Creek
E
Crane
S
Corbin or Main Street, in front of the present store of R. J. Holmes.
It will be seen from the above diagram that several small streams took their rise in the Township lands,
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
no doubt each of them much more bold than now, and flowing with pure and sweet water. As the Indians had for several years given place to the white settlers, and the practice of burning off the country employed by the Indians for the purpose of securing open hunt- ing grounds having been suspended, the ground began to be covered by a beautiful young forest growth. Under the shelter of these young trees, and with the ground covered with luxuriant herbage, the streams were fuller and purer than in modern days. There is reported to have been a fine spring of water rising near the eastern corner of the Episcopal Church yard, with a stream flowing between the site of the present courthouse and jail. The tokens of former culverts are still to be seen near the courthouse. After cross- ing Corbin Street the stream was joined by another flowing from Franck's Spring. Here Jacob Franck, in 1756, obtained license to keep a village inn, and on this lot he afterwards run a distillery, for the benefit of those whose thirst could not be adequately quenched by the purer and wholesomer waters of his spring. No doubt many of the affrays and murders that claimed the attention of the Court took their origin in the firewater that was brewed in the boiling caldrons and flowed trickling down through the coiling worm of Jacob Franck's distillery, licensed and perhaps patronized by themselves. We notice that on several occasions the Court imposed fines upon jurymen who were not able to serve because of drunkenness. The distiller and render reaped the profits, the Court had
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THE COURTHOUSE BUILT
the trouble, and the citizens of the county had to bear the burden of the expense.
It is to be regretted that there is a propensity to change the names of places as time moves on. This is often a real inconvenience and a positive loss ; for it not infrequently happens that lines and boundaries cannot be identified because of this change. The popular modern name for the stream that flows south- east of Salisbury is "Town Creek," but in the deed conveying the Township lands it is rightly called "Crane Creek," and the lines cross it four times. It is so called in Colonel Byrd's History of the Dividing Line. There are other deeds for lands higher up the stream that call it by that name. The next stream flowing on this side of Dunn's Mountain was anciently called "Middle Crane Creek."
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