USA > North Carolina > Rowan County > A history of Rowan County, North Carolina > Part 8
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CHAPTER XIII
MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS
In the last chapter it was mentioned that Rowan County was represented in the Provincial Congress by Griffith Rutherford, James Smith, Matthew Locke, Moses Winslow, William Kennon, William Sharpe, Samuel Young, and John Brevard. These were doubt- less the most influential and prominent men in the county, chosen, not from party prejudice, but because they possessed the confidence of their fellow-citizens. It will doubtless be interesting, after the lapse of a hundred years, to gather up, and reflect upon, the his- tory and the character of the men who exercised such an influence upon public affairs.
It will be observed, as we progress, that they were chosen from different sections of the county, and dif- ferent settlements. In those early days the country was not filled up with farms and families, as now, but the people gathered in settlements, where lands were most fertile, and society was considered most desirable. Prominent among these settlements was the Grant's Creek region, stretching from near the Mecklenburg (now Cabarrus) line, along the west side of Salisbury, to the Yadkin River, about two miles above Trading Ford. This region was filled up with the Lockes, Brandons, Grahams, Nesbits, Allisons, Rutherfords,
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
JAMES GRAHAM RAMSAY, M. D.
STATE SENATOR ; MEMBER SECOND
CONFEDERATE CONGRESS; A DESCENDANT OF JAMES GRAHAM
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MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS
Lynns, Gibsons, Frohocks, and others, whose descend- ants still remain in the county.
From this region, in 1775, was chosen, to represent Rowan County in the Provincial Congress at New- bern
GEN. GRIFFITH RUTHERFORD
The Rutherfords are Scotch-Irish, and one of the families in the "Land of Bruce." The family is men- tioned in the early annals of Scotland as friends of King Ruther, from whom they received the name, and large tracts of land. For centuries they have been classed among the most ancient and powerful families in Teviotdale, on the borders of England. They have intermarried with the royal families, and from inherited honors and from honors conferred have been prominent among the nobility. The mother of Sir Walter Scott was a Rutherford.
The Rev. Samuel Rutherford, the author of the Rutherford Letters, was one of the ablest leaders of Presbyterianism. He was sent as a delegate from Scotland to Westminster to defend that faith. This, together with his political opinions freely expressed, caused some of the family to be banished from Scot- land, and to take refuge in Ireland, where John Rutherford was married to Miss Griffith, an exile from Wales. Their son Griffith came to America with his son-also called Griffith-and settled near Salisbury, Rowan County, N. C. This son-the sub- ject of this sketch-married Elizabeth Graham, a sis- ter of James Graham, who was also descended from a
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
long line of noble Scotch ancestors. Both families lived in what was then called the Locke or Thyatira settlement. They had five sons and daughters. Their eldest son, Major James Rutherford, was killed in the battle of Eutaw. In 1770, the subject of this sketch was a captain of militia under Governor Tryon, but joined James Graham and others and formed the Regulators against Tryon the following year. He was appointed a member of the Committee of Safety, and was a juryman in the trial of Tories in 1775. He was a member of the Provincial Congress which met at Halifax, April 4, 1776. He and Matthew Locke represented Rowan County. He was also a member of the Provincial Congress of 1775. In April of 1776, he was appointed brigadier-general, and in the same month was a member of the Constitutional Conven- tion. In September, he marched at the head of twenty-four hundred men into the Cherokee country, and killed a number of Indians, destroyed their crops, burned their habitations; and finally forced them to sue for peace and surrender a part of their lands. In this campaign, his loss was only three men killed. He returned to Salisbury, and disbanded his army at that place. He commanded a brigade at the battle of Sanders Creek, near Camden, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. He was first sent to Charleston, S. C., and later taken to St. Augustine, Fla., where he remained until exchanged, June 22, 1781. He again took the field, and was in command at Wilmington when the town was evacuated by the British at the close of the war.
C
UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM NORTH CAROLINA AND DESCENDANT OF MAJOR JAMES SMITH
MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS 139
During the continuance of the war, he was a State Senator from 1777 to 1780, and from 1782 to 1786. In the year 1786, he removed to Tennessee, and settled in Sumner County. In 1794, George Washington, our first President, appointed General Rutherford a mem- ber of the Territorial Legislature which met at Knox- ville, Tenn. The Knoxville Gazette, of date 1794, contains account as follows, viz .: "On Monday last, the General Assembly of the Territory commenced their first session in this town. Gen. Griffith Ruther- ford, for distinguished services in the Legislature of North Carolina, is appointed president of the Legisla- tive Council."
Rutherford County, N. C., was formed in 1779, and Rutherford County, Tenn., in 1803; both were named in honor of this distinguished Revolutionary soldier and statesman, Griffith Rutherford, who died in Sum- ner County, Tenn., in 1800, in old age and full of honors.
The following sketch of another distinguished member of the Provincial Congress, and soldier of the Revolution, was prepared for this article by one of his descendants, LEE S. OVERMAN, Esq.
MAJOR JAMES SMITH
Of the many and brave men associated with our American Revolution, very few figured more prom- inently, or did more for the cause of liberty in this section of our State than the subject of this sketch.
The son of James Smith, who emigrated from Hol- land to New Jersey, he, with a colony of young mar-
-
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
ried men, came to North Carolina some time before the Revolution and settled on the left bank of the Yadkin River, and made what is known as the Jersey Settle- ment in Davidson County, then Rowan.
In stature he was over six feet tall, straight as an arrow and of a commanding appearance. He was by occupation a planter, and was possessed of means in addition to the land he owned, which he obtained by grant from Mccullough. He had slaves, by whom he was much loved, for, though they were carried off south by the Tories, they in time made their escape and returned to their old home.
James Smith served as Ensign, in 1776, under King George III. (See report of Commandant of Court of Public Claims, held at Newbern, N. C., on the sixth day of November, 1756), to wit: "James Smith, an Ensign in Rowan County, was allowed his claim of twelve pounds and nineteen shillings(£12/19), for ranging on the frontier as per account filed" (State Records, Vol. XXII, page 842).
At a council held at Newbern, November 10, 1769, "a commission of Peace and Dedimus of Rowan County" was issued to James Smith (Vol. 8 of Colonial Recorder, page 149).
In the Court of Pleas and Quarter Session of Rowan County, in 1772 (on minute docket of Rowan County, 1768-72), is the following: "Wednesday, fourth of November, 1772, Griffith Rutherford, Colonel, and James Smith, Captain, produced their commission in open Court, qualified, and signed the test agreeable to law."
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MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS
James Smith served as justice presiding over the "Court of Pleas and Quarter Session for Rowan County," under King George III., during the years 1770-71-72-73-74-75, at Salisbury, N. C.
In 1775, he took a prominent and active part in every movement tending to throw off the yoke of tyranny and looking to the Declaration of Independ- ence by the country at large. He was a member of the Committee of Safety for Rowan County, and so far as we are able to find out was present at every meeting thereof. During this same year he was ap- pointed to address the citizens of his county upon the subject of American freedom, was chairman of the Committee to examine certain citizens as to their po- litical sentiment, and also was one of the Committee of "Secrecy, Intelligence, and Observation." Also, he was chosen by the friends of liberty in his county to represent them in the Convention of Patriots Adverse to the Oppression of Great Britain, which met at Hills- boro, on the twenty-first of August of the same year.
At the Halifax Congress, April 22, 1776, he was ap- pointed Major of the Salisbury District, of which Francis Locke was Colonel, and Griffith Rutherford, Brigadier-General. He was a member of the Provin- cial Congress which met at Halifax on the twelfth day of November, 1776, and which framed our first civil Constitution. In 1777 he was a member of the House of Commons, with Matthew Locke as his asso- ciate and Griffith Rutherford in the Senate.
Not only did he thus appear in the public assemblies of our country, in behalf of the people's rights, but no
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
one was more active than he in repelling the Tories. He buckled on his sword at every call, and was always at the front, fighting for freedom and his native land. He made several campaigns with his regiment against the British, and engaged in several hard-contested bat- tles, until he was severely wounded, when he was fur- loughed home. He had not been long returned be- fore the Tories heard of his whereabouts, and being eager for their prize they sought him immediately. Mr. Sloan, who lived in the neighborhood, had heard of their designs, and sent his servant, Ben, to inform the Major of his danger. Poor Ben, who lived until 1860 to tell the tale, was destined never to deliver his message, for before he had proceeded far, Captain Wood and forty men overtook him, shot him through and left him for dead. They then went to the Major's residence and demanded his surrender. His wife, Clara, met them at the door, as tradition has it, with one of the long-handled frying-pans which were used in those days, and defied them. She was soon over- powered, however, and her husband was seized, and with John Paul Barringer, of Mecklenburg, and others, carried to Camden, S. C., and imprisoned. Soon he was attacked with smallpox, and died. His good and brave wife followed him and nursed him in his last moments. She saw his remains deposited in the grave, and returned to comfort her three children she had left behind. Of these children, James, who was only twelve years old at the time of his father's capture, was for a long time Sheriff of Rowan, and of Davidson after the division. Sheriff Smith's daughter, Alice,
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married Fielding Slater, who for many years was also Sheriff of Rowan County, which office he filled with great acceptability to the people. Also two of his sons now live in the county of Davidson, fit representa- tives of their honored ancestor. In both counties there are many descendants of this brave and noble man, all of whom are noted for their good character and moral worth as public-spirited citizens.
Intimately associated with General Rutherford and Major Smith, in the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, and in the public affairs of Rowan County during and after the War of the Revolution, was
HON. WILLIAM SHARPE
While Rutherford represented the Central Rowan, or Grant's Creek, section, and Smith came from the "Jerseys" or Eastern Rowan section, Sharpe was from the West, and represented that region now included in Iredell County.
William Sharpe was the eldest son of Thomas Sharpe, of Cecil County, Md., and was born in that State, December 13, 1742. In the year 1763 he immigrated to North Carolina, and settled in Mecklen- burg County, where he married the daughter of David Reese. Mr. Reese was from Pennsylvania-the brother of the Rev. Thomas Reese, a prominent minister in Mecklenburg, and afterwards in South Carolina. David Reese was a leading citizen in his day, and his name is honored with a place among the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
Mr. Sharpe, soon after his marriage, moved to Rowan County, and in the Revolution took an early and decided part in all public affairs, and was a staunch advocate for independence. At the formation of the Committee of Safety for Rowan County in 1774, William Sharpe was selected as a member, and his name is attached to the minutes of the Committee as secretary. At the adjournment of the Committee, in 1776, the minutes appear to have been left in his hands, and were preserved in his family, until they were brought to light by the researches of Prof. E. F. Rockwell, and published in 1851, in Wheeler's Sketches of North Carolina.
In 1775 he represented Rowan in the Provincial Congress at Newbern and Hillsboro, and he was also a member of the convention that formed the first con- stitution of the State, at Halifax, in 1776. The same year he acted as aide to General Rutherford in his campaign against the Cherokee Indians.
In 1779 he was the representative of the Salisbury District in the Continental Congress of Philadelphia. At the battle of Ramsour's Mill, June, 1780, two of Captain Sharpe's sons, William and Thomas, served under the command of Col. Francis Locke. William was in command of a Company and conducted himself with distinguished gallantry. It was a shot directed by him that struck down one of the Tory captains, near the close of the action, and thus contributed to the speedy termination of the battle in favor of the patriots.
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MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS
Mr. Sharpe, during the Revolutionary War, was a magistrate of Rowan County and his name appears frequently on the records as one of the presiding Justices in the County Court. On the seventh of February, 1785, he presented a lawyer's license, and took the customary oath of an attorney. After this period he appears as a lawyer in many cases in Court, and enjoyed, as Dr. Hunter says, an extensive practice.
Mr. Sharpe died in 1818, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, leaving a widow and twelve children. These children, with his own reputation for distin- guished services, constitute his legacy to his country.
In concluding this sketch I will mention that, be- sides his sons, by whom the name of Sharpe is perpetuated, there were two raughters, who became mothers of extensive and influential families. The eldest of these was named Matilda, and was united in marriage to William W. Erwin, of Burke County. Their union was blessed with a family of fifteen chil- dren, many of whom have held prominent and honora- ble positions in the State, and their descendants are still found as honored and useful citizens in the Pied- mont regions of North Carolina.
Ruth, the second daughter of the Hon. William Sharpe, was married to Col. Andrew Caldwell, of Iredell County. Colonel Caldwell represented Iredell County in the House of Commons in 1806-07-08, and in the Senate in 1812-13.
His two sons, Judge David F. Caldwell, so long a prominent citizen of Salisbury, and the Hon. Joseph P. Caldwell, who represented his district in the
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
National Congress, sustained the reputation of their distinguished ancestor by their public services.
JOHN BREVARD
Another name on the list of members of the Provin- cial Congress of North Carolina was John Brevard. The family is of French extraction, and its history is associated with the stirring events that accompanied the Reformation of the sixteenth century, in France. The Calvinistic subjects of the French King were per- secuted and harrassed through long years, until driven to madness they allied themselves with the Prince of Condé, and attempted resistance. But their plans were discovered and frustrated, and they were sub- jected to still greater persecutions. At length, how- ever, Henry IV., by the famous Edict of Nantes, in 1598, granted equal rights to his Protestant and Catho- lic subjects. For about three quarters of a century the Huguenots, or French Calvinists, enjoyed com- parative safety, during which time they multiplied and prospered. At length, however, Louis XIV., in- stigated by Madame de Maintenon, began to renew the cruel work of persecuting his Protestant subjects, by imposing disabilities and fines upon them. In 1685 he revoked the Edict of Nantes, and endeavored to suppress all forms of worship except the Romish. By this cruel and short-sighted policy he drove from his dominions more than a half-million of his most · useful and industrious subjects - farmers, artisans, laborers, producers of all kinds. They crossed into Switzerland, Germany, Holland, England, wherever
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the frontiers were more easily passed. Among these Huguenot emigrants was a young man of the name of Brevard, who found his way to the north of Ire- land. Here he made the acquaintance of a family by the name of McKnitt, of Scotch extraction. He deter- mined to cast in his lot with this family in their pro- jected emigration to the New World. It happened that there was in the McKnitt family a fair young lass, for whom the ardent Huguenot conceived a ten- der passion, and responsive affection was awakened in the bosom of the maiden. The result was a marriage, and the young couple upon reaching America settled in a home on Elk River, in Maryland. There were born unto them five sons and a daughter. The eldest of these was John Brevard, the Rowan County farmer and member of the Provincial Congress.
Before his removal to North Carolina he was united in marriage to a sister of the Rev. Alex. McWhorter, D. D., a distinguished Presbyterian minister, who was for a short time president of "Queens Museum" Col- lege, in Charlotte.
John Brevard settled in Rowan County, about three miles from Center church, some time between 1740 and 1750, coming on with the first immigrants to that section. There he led a quiet and useful life, rearing a large family, consisting of eight sons and four daughters, whom he trained to be useful citizens. When the troublous times of the Revolution came, Brevard was an old man, but not too old to represent Rowan County in the Provincial Congress. And though too old to take the field, his sons gallantly
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
obeyed the call to arms, and entered into the military service. On that dark morning of the first of Feb- ruary, 1781, when Gen. William Davidson fell at Cowan's Ford, while resisting the passage of the British troops, Mr. Brevard's house was burned down by order of some of the British officers. A part of the invading army crossed at Beattie's Ford, and so passed directly by Brevard's house. The old gentleman was absent from home, and his daughters had been sent across a swamp, out of harm's way, leaving none but the venerable wife and mother at home. A British officer, riding up and taking a paper out of his pocket, declared that the house must be burned, alleging as a reason that Brevard had eight sons in the rebel army. Though the venerable matron tried to save some of her property, it was snatched from her hands, and cast into the flames. Gen. William Davidson, who. was killed that morning, was the son-in-law of John Bre- vard, having married Mary, his eldest daughter. Their son, William Lee Davidson, Esq., was an early friend and patron of Davidson College, and made a do- nation of the land upon which the College now stands. Dr. Ephraim Brevard, the secretary of the Mecklen- burg Convention, was the eldest son of John Brevard. Dr. Foote says of him: "He thought clearly; felt deeply; wrote well; resisted bravely, and died a martyr to that liberty none loved better and few un- derstood so well."
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MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS
HON. MATTHEW LOCKE
From the first volume of records in the office of the Register of Deeds in Salisbury, we learn that, from 1752 to 1754, there were three men by the name of Locke-probably brothers-who acquired titles to land in Rowan County. One of these was Francis Locke, who purchased over a thousand acres from John Brandon, called the "Poplar Lands," on both sides of the wagon road leading from the Yadkin River to the "Irish Settlement." In 1752 there was a grant from Earl Granville to George Locke of a tract in the neighborhood of "Poplar Spring," adjoining the lands of John Thompson. These tracts are said to be on the south side of the Yadkin, but whether near that stream or not is not mentioned. In 1752 there was a grant of six hundred acres from Earl Granville to Matthew Locke. From these three persons sprang the numerous families of Lockes that resided in Rowan County in the closing years of the last and the opening years of the present century.
But it is with special reference to the last-mentioned of the three, the Hon. Matthew Locke, that this article is penned.
He was the owner of a fertile tract of land, on the east side of Grant's Creek, about five miles south of Salisbury, adjoining the plantations of John Brandon, James Allison, and John Nesbit. The family mansion stood on the Concord Road, at or near the place where Dr. Scott's residence was, now the home of Mr. Philip Owens.
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
Mr. Locke was born in 1730, and was probably a grown young man when he came to the county, and contributed his part in laying the foundations of society; and when the Regulation troubles arose he was in the prime of life, having already established a reputation for capacity in business and integrity in the most delicate of trusts. In 1771, when the people of Rowan were groaning under the pressure of ex- orbitant taxation, and a committee of the people had met the clerk of court, sheriff, and other officers of the crown, and exacted from them a promise to return all moneys received by them over and above their law- ful fees, Matthew Locke was among those selected as proper persons to receive and return to the people these unlawful fees. As General Waddell soon ap- peared in Salisbury with the Governor's troops, and the whole scheme of the Regulation was crushed out in the battle of Alamance only two months after this appointment, it is probable that no indemnity for the past was secured; but the appointment of Locke for the discharge of such a delicate duty shows the confi- dence reposed in him by his fellow-citizens.
He was chosen to represent Rowan in the Provincial Congress, which met in Hillsboro, August 20, 1775, along with James Smith, Moses Winslow, Samuel Young, William Kennon, and William Sharpe. Mr. Locke was chosen by this Congress, along with Maurice Moore, Richard Caswell, Rev. Henry Patillo, and others, to confer with such persons as entertained religious or political scruples with respect to associat- ing in the common cause of America, to remove those
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MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS
scruples, and to persuade them to co-operate with the friends of liberty.
Mr. Locke also served on the committee, along with Caswell, Hooper, Johnston, Hewes, Spencer, and others, which prepared the plan for the regulation of the internal peace of the Province in the absence ( !) of Governor Martin. He also served on Committees of Public Finance, Ways and Means, for arrangement of minute men, commissaries, and other important matters. At a meeting of the Provincial Council, held at Johnston Courthouse, October 18, 1775, Matthew Locke, Esq., was appointed paymaster of the troops stationed in the District of Salisbury, and also of the minute men in said District, and Richard Caswell, the "Southern Treasurer," was directed to pay into his hands five thousand two hundred and fifty pounds (£5,250) for that purpose.
At the meeting of the Provincial Congress, at Hali- fax, April 4, 1776, Mr. Locke, with General Ruther- ford, represented Rowan County, and was made chairman of the Committee on Claims, to settle and allow military and naval accounts. He was also on the Committee of "Secrecy, Intelligence, and Observa- tion," was appointed to receive, produce, and purchase firearms for the soldiers of Rowan County. In view of these facts, gathered from the minutes of the North Carolina Provincial Congress, as found in Peter Force's "American Archives," it appears that Mr. Locke was a working man in public affairs, and that he was entrusted with much of the important business
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of the Congress, especially such as related to the public finances.
After the formation of the State Constitution, Matthew Locke was chosen to represent Rowan County four successive years : 1777-78 in the House of Commons, and the two succeeding years, 1781-82, he was a member of the Senate. After this he served six years again in the House of Commons-making in all twelve years in the Legislature.
From 1793 to 1799 he was a member of the Con- gress of the United States. His public services lasted almost as long as his life, for in 1801, the seventy-first year of his age, he departed this life.
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