USA > North Carolina > Rowan County > A history of Rowan County, North Carolina > Part 9
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He was married to a daughter of Richard Brandon, an early patriot of Rowan County, and had at one time four sons in the Revolutionary War. One of these sons, Lieut. George Locke, was killed by the British at Kennedy's Farm, between Charlotte and Sugar Creek Church, in a skirmish, when Lord Corn- wallis captured Charlotte, on the twenty-sixth of Sep- tember, 1780. His remains were interred at his father's residence, near Salisbury.
Col. Francis Locke, who was appointed Colonel of the First Rowan Regiment by the Provincial Congress, in April, 1776, with Alexander Dobbins as Lieutenant- Colonel, James Brandon First Major, and James Smith Second Major, was a nephew of the Hon. Mat- thew Locke. Colonel Locke was in the command of General Ashe in the beginning of 1779, when that officer was sent to Georgia, unprepared, with two thou- sand North Carolina militia. Against the remon-
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strances of General Ashe, General Lincoln pushed these troops forward at Brier Creek, where they were surprised and defeated by General Prevost. Colonel Locke was one of the court-martial to examine into that disastrous affair. The unfortunate General Ashe, being broken in spirit by the result of this transaction, retired from the army and was no more in active service. The reader will remember that it was Col. Francis Locke who, with four hundred men from Rowan and Mecklenburg, attacked and defeated the Tories at Ramsour's Mill, on the twentieth of June, 1780, in a hard-fought battle, against a superior force entrenched on ground of their own choosing. In this battle seven Whig captains, namely: Falls, Knox, Dobson, Smith, Bowman, Sloan, and Arm- strong, were killed, and the bodies of six of them sleep under a brick monumental structure, on the southern brow of the rising battleground, about fifty or sixty yards from the present public road. The remains of Captain Falls were carried to his home in Rowan, near Sherrill's Ford, on the Catawba, and there interred. His sword was in the possession of the late Robert Falls Simonton, his grandson, at the time of his death four years ago.
In Thyatira graveyard stands a monument to the memory of the Hon. Francis Locke, which states that he was born on the thirty-first of October, 1766, elected Judge of the Superior Court in 1803, elected Senator of the United States in 1814, and died in January, 1823. He never married.
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The Hon. Matthew Locke, as before stated, married a daughter of Richard Brandon, and left eight sons, as follows: George, killed near Charlotte; William, died young; John, died young; Francis, moved West; Richard, Matthew, James, and Robert.
Gen. Francis Locke, nephew of the above, and probably a son of Francis or George, mentioned in the beginning of this article, also married a Brandon, and left four sons, viz .: Francis, John, William, and Matthew. This genealogical notice was obtained by Gen. R. Barringer from Mrs. David Parks, of Char- lotte, née Locke.
A generation or two ago the Locke family in Rowan County was numerous, and held a prominent place in public affairs. But by removals and deaths it has come to pass that few of that name remain. Still, in the female line, there are prominent citizens in Rowan and adjoining counties who worthily represent the blood of the statesmen, counselors, and warriors who once proudly bore the name of Locke. And it is well that one of our principal townships has been deputed to carry down that honorable name to posterity. Our people cannot afford to lose the patriotic influence that is exerted by the names of the sages and heroes of past generations.
SAMUEL YOUNG
The traveler who leaves Salisbury on the Western North Carolina Railroad, after passing over Grant's Creek and Second Creek, will begin to see, on his right, a wooded range of hills or small mountains
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looming up near by. It is only a few hundred feet in height, yet high enough to be seen for twenty or thirty miles around. Here the Indian's watchfire, or signal fire beacon, would have flashed its light to different mountain peaks-to Dunn's Mountain, to the Pilot, and to King's Mountain, sixty miles away to the south- ward. This eminence is called Young's Mountain, and is named after Samuel Young, the subject of this sketch.
Somewhere about 1750 an Irishman came over the waters, and joined in the stream of emigration that was flowing through Western Carolina. With a skill that marked him out as a man of foresight, he selected, entered, or purchased a body of land containing not less than four thousand acres, the richest in Rowan County. It lay up and down Third Creek from the church to Neely's old mill, a distance of three or four miles, and included the mountain mentioned before. He chose for his residence a spot about two hundred yards from Third Creek, on land now belonging to Mrs. John Graham, not far from the site of the church. The first grant of his is dated March 25, 1752, and is for three hundred and forty acres, from Earl Granville. This was before the County of Rowan was formed, and the land is described as lying on "Third Creek, County of Anson." In 1756, Michael Dickson, weaver, sold to Samuel Young, planter, five hundred and twenty-five acres on the north side of Third Creek.
Mr. Young appears as one of the magistrates of Rowan County, at an early day, and he was a promi-
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nent actor in public affairs for many years. Suppos- ing him to have been twenty-five or thirty years old upon his arrival here, he would be a man of mature years, between fifty and sixty, at the opening of the Revolutionary War. At that time of trial our people needed the wisest counselors and the most prudent leaders. Among these, Rowan County selected Samuel Young. When the patriotic and courageous John Harvey, as speaker of the Assembly, and chairman of the Permanent Committee of Correspondence for North Carolina, issued his proclamation, in 1774, call- ing upon the people to elect members to a Provincial Congress, to be held in Newbern, Rowan County chose Moses Winslow and Samuel Young, and the Borough of Salisbury chose William Kennon, Esq., as their Representatives. This Congress was opened August 25, 1774. The reader who wishes to know the opinions of that Congress upon the subject of human rights will find a series of resolutions adopted by them, on pages 734-37 of Vol. I, Fourth Series, of Peter Force's American Archives. These resolutions struck the keynote of American liberty, though they did not hint at independence. We have at hand no means of deciding as to the authorship of those reso- lutions, since the Congress very wisely and prudently kept their minutes anonymously. But as to the source of their inspiration there can be little doubt. On pages 360-61 of the second volume of Colonel Wheeler's History, we find a series of resolutions by the Com- mittee of Safety of Rowan, adopted August 8, 1774, just seventeen days before the Provincial Congress
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met. Samuel Young of Third Creek, and William Kennon of Salisbury, were members both of the Rowan Committee and the Provincial Congress, and went directly from the former to the later. They doubtless carried a copy of the Rowan resolutions to Newbern. A careful inspection of the two papers will show that the paper of the Congress is an amplifi- cation and modification of the Rowan paper, employ- ing the same general course of thought, and some- times toning down the warmer and more independent expressions of the Rowan paper. The author of the Rowan Resolutions is not named, but there was on the Committee a number of persons capable of composing it, such as William Kennon, the chairman; Samuel Young, John Brevard, Matthew Locke, and others. This paper, while it affirms loyalty to the House of Hanover, and is no premature Declaration of In- dependence, nevertheless bodily affirms the rights of free men, the right to be free from all taxation except such as is imposed by their representatives. It pro- poses a general association of the American Colonies to oppose all infringements of their rights and privileges ; discourages trade with Great Britain; de- clares that homespun clothing ought to be considered a badge of distinction, respect, and true patriotism. This is the first extended declaration of principles and purposes I remember to have seen. There were meet- ings in other counties, where true patriots expressed their sympathy and offered help to the Boston suffer- ers, but they usually contented themselves with ap-
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proving the assembling of a Provincial and Continental Congress, without declaring their principles in detail.
After the adjournment of the Provincial Congress of 1774, Mr. Young was appointed by the Rowan com- mittee to correspond with said Congress, and to see that its resolutions, as well as those of the Continental Congress, were carried out.
On the first of June, 1775, Samuel Young appears as chairman of the Rowan Committee of Safety, and was directed to draw up an address to the several militia companies of the county, and was made military treasurer of the county. At the same time an address was prepared to be sent to the Mecklenburg Com- mitttee. This address to Mecklenburg expresses the desire that greater unity may be secured in supporting the common cause, and "that we may have one con- stitution as contained in Magna Charta, the Charter of the Forest, the Habeas Corpus Act, and the Charter we brought over with us, handed down to posterity ; and that under God, the present House of Hanover, in legal succession, may be the defenders of it." That was Wednesday, June 1, 1775, the week of Court in Salisbury, when Captain Jack brought the Charlotte Declaration to Salisbury, handed it to Colonel Kennon, who caused it to be read in open Court, according to Captain Jack's certificate.
In August, 1775, Samuel Young was again sent as a member of the Provincial Congress at Hillsboro, along with Matthew Locke, William Sharpe, Moses Win- slow, William Kennon, and James Smith. This Con- gress appointed as field officers of the Rowan "Minute
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Men," Thomas Wade of Anson, Colonel; Adlai Os- borne of Rowan, Lieutenant-Colonel, and Joseph Har- ben of Rowan, Major.
In the years 1781 and 1782 Samuel Young served as a member of the Legislature of North Carolina. After this period we have no record of his life and actions. He lived, however, long enough to see the cloud of war roll away, and the bright sun of peace and independ- ence shine upon his adopted country, to see the con- stitution of the United States adopted, and George Washington inaugurated as the first President of the Republic.
From his last Will and Testament, dated August 24, 1793, and proved in Court November 9, 1793, we gather that he closed his earthly career some time be- tween these dates-the fall of 1793. From this docu- ment it appears that he left seven children to inherit his estate, viz .: William, Janet, Samuel, James, Margaret, John, and Joseph. William, the eldest, was married and had a son named Samuel, to whom his grandfather left a small legacy by his Will. Of this William Young there are many traditional stories told, especially with regard to his presence of mind in dan- ger, and his remarkable activity. Upon a certain oc- casion, as he was about to cross Third Creek on a foot- log, at the head of Neely's Pond, he saw a panther in the act of springing upon him from the opposite bank. It was the work of a moment to level his gun and pull the trigger. The shot met the panther as he sprang, and striking it in the head the ferocious beast fell dead in the middle of the stream. In 1781, while Lord
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Cornwallis was moving up the Yadkin, in pursuit of General Greene, his encampment was at a Mrs. Camp- bell's, near Rencher's Ford-his line of tents extending from where Mr. William Watson now lives to the farm of Mr. Robert Johnston. Tradition says that William Young, then a young man, moved with curi- osity, strayed unexpectedly into the British camp, and suddenly found himself hemmed in and ordered to sur- render. But instead of surrendering, he trusted to his fleetness and agility, and actually leaped over three covered wagons in succession, and so escaped. Follow- ing the British as they were about to cross South Fork at Rencher's Ford, he was unexpectedly approached by some cavalrymen. Starting off up the hill at full speed, he soon distanced the troopers and again es- caped. Another story is that he won a wager from a British officer by beating the most active soldier that could be produced in feats of agility.
The second son, Samuel, received by his father's Will a plantation near Cathey's Meeting - house, (Thyatira). The oldest daughter, Janet, was mar- ried to a man named Webb, and their oldest child, Samuel Webb, received a small legacy from his grand- father. James' portion was allotted to him on Coddle Creek, near the Wilmington Road. Margaret married John Irvin, and three of her sons are named Christo- pher, Joseph, and John-the last still living near Third Creek Church, at the ripe age of seventy years. John had his portion of land on Third Creek, and Joseph, the youngest, according to Scotch-Irish customs, re- ceived the home place as his patrimony. From these
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are descended many families, such as the Irvins, Foards, Kilpatricks, Matthews, Woods, and others. Mr. Young evinced his Presbyterianism in his Will by providing a sum to purchase for each of his children a Bible and a Westminster Confession of Faith. But his library seems to have been his special delight, com- posed as it was of about one hundred volumes of standard works. He left this library to be divided into lots and kept by his five sons-the lots to be ex- changed as they might desire. But no book of any lot was to be loaned, hired, or otherwise disposed of, un- der the penalty of forfeiture of all claim to the library ; and in the event the sons should jointly agree to a loan, exchange, or sale, then the whole library was to be sold, and the proceeds paid over to the two daugh- ters. Books of this library are still to be found in Third Creek. As it may be interesting to the curious to know what kind of books were found in an intelli- gent planter's library one hundred years ago, I give the list that accompanies the Will: "Henry's Com- mentary, Burket on New Testament, Theory of the Earth, Derham on Isaiah, Beatty on Truth, Lee's Law Commonplaced, Muller's Fortification, Der- ham's Astrotheology, Life Puffen- dorff's History of Europe, Salmon's Gazette, Law of Evidence, Salmon's Geography, Black- stone's Commentaries, Mair's Bookkeeping, Brown's Dictionary of the Bible, Hobbs on Human
Nature, Nature of the Passions and Affections, Athenian Sport, Virgil, Owen on Sin, Man of Pleas- ure, Various Subjects, Nature Displayed, Moor's Dia-
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logues, The Soul of Astrology, Locke's Essays, Dry- den on Poesy, Cruikshank's History of the Church, Cunn's Euclid, Gulliver's Travels, Baxter on Religion, Addison's Spectator, Watson's Body of Divinity, Book of Gauging, Young's Night Thoughts, Salmon's Chro- nology, Junius' Letters, Matho, Stackhouse (6 vols.), Flavel's Works (8 vols.), Cole's Dictionary, Oziel's Logic, Abridgement of Irish Statutes, Religion of Na- ture, Young Man's Companion, Atkinson's Effectum, Tisset, 'Seller's Navigation, Theory of Fortification, The Independent Whig, Parker's Justice."
Scripture, theology, literature, history, military tactics, navigation, poetry-a good library of the best books, graced the shelves of the Third Creek patriot and planter. His library shows that he was a man of no ordinary taste and judgment. Drinking in knowl- edge from so many and such healthful fountains, we can well understand why he was put forth by his fellow-citizens in times of trial and danger.
The facts and traditions above written were gathered from Wheeler's History, American Archives, a note from Dr. D. B. Wood - a greatgrandson of Samuel Young, Mr. Franklin Johnston, and others.
MOSES WINSLOW AND ALEXANDER OSBORNE
The southwestern corner of Old Rowan County was occupied by a noble and patriotic race of people one hundred years ago. There you will find the original home of families known by the names of Davidson, Reese, Hughes, Ramsay, Brevard, Osborne, Winslow, Kerr, Rankin, Templeton, Dickey, Braley, Moore,
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Emerson, Torrence, Houston. There the Rev. John Thompson closed his labors, and lies sleeping in Ba- ker's graveyard. His daughter, the widow Baker, afterwards married Dr. Charles Harris of Cabarrus, the ancestor of the late William Shakespeare Harris, Esq. Prominent among these families were the Os- bornes and Winslows.
ALEXANDER OSBORNE
was born in New Jersey in 1709, and came to Rowan County about 1755. He settled on the headwaters of Rocky River, and called his place "Belmont." A neighbor of his selected for his residence the name of "Mount Mourne," after a mountain in Ireland. An- other, not to be outdone in names, called his place "Purgatory." These names are still familiar to the people of that section. Osborne was a colonel in the Colonial Government, and a man of influence in his day. He married Agnes McWhorter, the sister of the Rev. Dr. McWhorter, for some time president of Queens Museum, in Charlotte. Their place was the home of the early traveling missionaries to the South. Here the Rev. Hugh McAden stopped, in 1755, and preached at the "New Meeting House" nearby (Center). Here about the same time was established the "Crowfield Academy," where David Caldwell taught a few years later. In Center Church yard is a double headstone, telling the inquirer that Alexander Osborne died on the eleventh day of July, 1776, and his wife, Agnes, two days earlier. He probably never heard of the Declaration of Independence, made seven
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days before his death. He had gone to a brighter world, where the alarms of war never come. These parents left two children-Adlai Osborne and Jean Os- borne. Adlai was graduated at Princeton College in 1768. His name appears as Clerk of the Rowan County Court under the Royal Government, and he held that post in the New Government until 1809. He died in 1815. Among his children were two sons whose names are distinguished. The one was Spruce Macay Osborne, who was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1806, became a surgeon in the army and was killed in the War of 1812, at the massacre of Fort Mimms. The other son, Edwin Jay Osborne, the father of the late Hon. James W. Osborne, of Charlotte, was himself an eminent lawyer, distin- guished for his learning and eloquence. Intimately connected with the Osborne family, was the family of
MOSES WINSLOW
Benjamin Winslow or Winsley, as it was first writ- ten, obtained a grant of eight hundred and twenty-five acres of land, "on both sides of the South Fork of Davises Creek-waters of Catawba River," under date of May II, 1757. A still earlier grant to Benjamin Winslow, under date of March 25, 1752, is for five hundred and eighty-seven acres, in the same neigh- borhood, adjoining the lands of John McConnell. This is described as lying in Anson County, Parish of
This was before Rowan was erected into a county. In 1758, Benjamin Winslow, Sr., made a deed of gift to his son, Benjamin Winslow, Jr., of five hundred and
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thirty-five acres, adjoining the lands of Hugh Lawson, Patrick Hamilton, Mrs. Baker, and Moses White. From these records we get a glimpse of families resid- ing in the neighborhood. The first Moses White em- igrated from Ireland about 1742, and married the daughter of Hugh Lawson, named above. James White, son of the above couple, and the eldest of six brothers, was a soldier of the Revolution, but moved to East Tennessee in 1786, and was one of the original founders of the now flourishing city of Knoxville. He was distinguished for his bravery, energy, and talents, and was a brigadier-general in the Creek War. His illustrious son, Hugh Lawson White, was a Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, a Senator of the United States, president of the Senate, and in 1836 a candidate for President of the United States. His re- mains sleep peacefully under the vines and grass of the churchyard of the First Presbyterian Church of Knoxville.
From these deeds, and other sources, we learn that Benjamin Winslow had three children - Benjamin, Moses, and Mary. Of these we propose to record a few facts.
Alexander Osborne and Benjamin Winslow were near neighbors, living only two or three miles apart. As a matter of course their boys, Moses and Adlai, were early companions and associates. Adlai Osborne had a fair young sister-pretty Jean Osborne, the rose of Belmont. It was the same old story, told under the leafy oaks of Rowan, and pretty Jean Osborne be- came the bride of young Moses Winslow. This was
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in 1760. They settled upon some of the Winslow lands, according to the custom of the day; for the original settlers, tinctured with European notions, rarely gave land to their daughters, but divided the in- heritance among the sons. The home of this couple was not far from Center Church-the property owned by the late Sidney Houston, Esq. For sixteen years their home was without children. But in the eventful year of 1776 came the first child, a daughter whom they named Dovey. She grew up to be a famous beauty and belle of that region. Her heart was at length won by Dr. Joseph McKnitt Alexander, son of John McKnitt Alexander. Her life was not a long one, but she left one son, Moses Winslow Alexander, who lived about ten miles north of Charlotte on the Statesville Road. Some of his children are still living.
On the first day of February, 1771, Cornwallis' troops crossed the Catawba River and marched to- wards Salisbury. In their march several houses were burned down. When they reached the house of Moses Winslow, knowing that he was a prominent man, a member of the Provincial Congress, and on the Rowan Committee of Safety, the soldiers applied the torch to his residence. At the same time some ruffian soldiers were endeavoring to cut from Mrs. Winslow the capacious outside pockets, so fashionable in that day, in which she had deposited some of her household valuables. While she was helplessly submitting to the indignity Lord Cornwallis himself rode up, and in obedience to the instincts of an English gentleman
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ordered them to desist, and to extinguish the fire kindled against the house.
Moses Winslow lived to be eighty-three years of age. He and his wife sleep in the graveyard of Center Church, where her father and mother are resting side by side.
Besides their beautiful daughter, Dovey, they had two other daughters, named Cynthia and Roscinda. The reader may have remarked that while these venera- ble pioneers were apt to name their sons after one of the patriarchs, prophets, or twelve apostles, with now and then a selection from the kings of England, they gave poetical or fanciful names to their daughters -Cynthia, Roscinda, Lillis, or Juliette. Cynthia Winslow was married to Samuel King, and was the mother of the well-known and talented Junius and Albert King. Roscinda Winslow married her cousin, William J. Wilson, and their daughter, Mary Wilson, became the wife of Ezekiel Polk-the grandfather of the President, James Knox Polk. Our illustrious North Carolina statesman, the late Hon. William A. Graham, was also a descendant of Mary, the sister of Moses Winslow. So likewise was Col. Isaac Hayne, of Charleston, with numerous other prominent and influential citizens. The old homesteads have fallen to ruins, and the plowshare of strangers, who never heard the names of these noble old families, runs smoothly over the ground where their altar fires once burned brightly. Emigration has borne them' away, and in the new States the old names are found. But North Carolina should treasure up their history as an
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incentive to noble deeds in the days of trial yet to come.
Before closing these sketches, I must put on record all that is known here of the history of one who left his name on the records of our Courts and Com- mittees.
WILLIAM KENNON
appears prominent among the actors in public affairs at the opening and during the first years of the war. He was a lawyer, and it is supposed that he came to Salisbury from Wilmington, or from some other por- tion of Eastern Carolina. On the twenty-fifth of Au- gust, 1775, he represented the town of Salisbury in the Provincial Congress at Newbern. As early as the eighth of August, 1774, he was chosen as a mem- ber of the Rowan Committee of Safety, and on the twenty-seventh of September of the same year, he ap- pears as chairman of this Committee, with Adlai Os- borne as Clerk. Colonel Kennon was a very zealous patriot, and his name appears among the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of May 20, 1775. The appearance of his name on that paper can be accounted for only on the theory that the Mecklenburg patriots had no very rigorous committee on credentials on that occasion. Colonel Kennon seems to have been the prime mover in the abduction of John Dunn and Benjamin Boothe Boote, Esqs. Whether the young lawyer, so popular among the people, was jealous of the old lawyers, who got the most of the legal business of Salisbury, or whether the old lawyers, always the
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