USA > North Carolina > Sketches of North Carolina, historical and biographical : illustrative of the principles of a portion of her early settlers > Part 41
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In that unfortunate battle in which Gates was defeated and De Kalb slain, this man received three wounds, the pains of which never left him, and went with the honorable scars to his grave. Two facts about this man are of enduring interest, that he was a Christian, and a soldier of the Revolution, that poured out blood and carried wounds for his country. One is recorded here,-the record was too brief to make mention of the other. Would that some hand that can guide the iron-pen would fill out this record ; and go on through this yard, and throughout the whole community of Carolina, and tell to posterity the names, and where lies the dust of the men who suffered in the Revolution : how it would catch a stranger's eye ! how it would throb the heart of a descend- ant, travelling from the far South or West to visit the sepulchre of his ancestor !
" It is the fortune of war," said Captain McDowell, of the army of His Majesty George III., while plundering this man's house, in a foraging party, during the brief sojourn of Cornwallis in Charlotte in the year 1780. "Is it soldier-like to plunder a helpless family so, and leave us nothing ?" said the wife and mother. "But, madam, we must have something to eat, and these rebels won't bring it in." " And have you no women and children at home ?" "What is your name, madam?" " McDowell is our name." "McDowell ! that is my name ; where are you from ?" "Our family came from Scotland, Sir." " Aye ! and very likely then ye are kin of mine ; I have some here in America." Calling in his men, saying they had got enough from that house, he added, " An' likely ye have some of your family amongst the rebels ; but it is the fortune of war. Good- bye ! it is the fortune of war."
" Carried these scars from the battle-field to his grave !" How that deed chiselled in this stone would move the heart of every pas- senger. And if the actions of the dead were briefly hinted at upon their tomb-stones, how coming generations would read in the en- closure at Sugar Creek,-ABRAHAM ALEXANDER, Elder in the
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Church, and President of the Convention, May 20th, 1775; and in Hopewell, near the Arma Libertatis of Bradley, DAVIDSON fell at Cowan's Ford, resisting the Invasion of 1781 ; and in Bethany, HALL, Captain of a Company, and Chaplain to the Regiment in actual service in the Revolution ; and as they read feel the unut- terable emotions of a soul stirred up to deeds of excellence by the memory of these worthies, the like of whom the world cannot soon see again.
Men begin to trace their origin to the emigration from Ireland with conscious exultation ; and the actors, and the deeds, and the very places of Revolutionary events are invested with a constantly increasing interest. Where are they ? is the inquiry of the patri- otic and the young ; and could this money-seeking age but antici- pate the eagerness with which the coming generations will search for the tombs and the battle-fields, and the scenes of patriotic ex- ploits on the line of march from Camden to Guilford, it would blush.
But look around a little, see this peculiar fashion of these records of the dead, which mark the period immediately following the Revolution :- they are made with raised letters, and contrast with those less shapely older, and these smoother new ones, that are deeply chiselled. The very fashion of the monuments proclaims that we are in a changing world. You may count the generations, from the low and rudely sculptured head-stones of the old settlers, through the more erect and stately, and the embossed letters, to the polished marble of to-day. There is one class peculiar, and not unpleasing. On a single head-stone, in parallel columns, are the short record of man and wife ; joined in life, joined in death, joined in the recollection of the living, and in the hopes of eternity, they are not separated in the grave or the monuments of the tomb. You may see one erected by a surviving partner, in which the column for the dead, filled up, stands waiting for the inscription that death shall put upon the other.
None of these monuments have stood a century. Very many, whose shape and workmanship tell you they have a claim to be numbered among the oldest in this yard, are to the memory of little children. As in actual life, more have died in infancy than in old age ; so here, in the early times of this congregation, more monuments were raised for the young than for the old, and most for infants. Did these people love their parents less ? or was it the tender affection of faith, softening the hearts of emigrants and their children, and protecting from the intrusion of careless feet, and
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larger sepulchres, the little graves, where slept the sweet flowers, plucked so soon away, not to perish, but to bloom in heaven for ever ? Religion is amiable, faith is lovely : and Christ has bound the Christian heart to heaven more strongly by the little ones he has gathered in his arms and blessed. And when did the departure of threescore years and ten so open the fountain of tears, as when the little one has gone away ? What multitudes have said, in bitter tears, " I will go down into the grave to my child, mourning."
Wherever you turn, you see the influence of the continually moulding power of poetry and music. How deep into the heart the sacred songs of a worshipping congregation, sung by fathers and children and great-grandchildren, shoot their influence, and mingle with the springs of thought, and carry along the rhythm of the poetry and the cadence of the song, sacred from immemorial time. Read this :-
In memory of MARGARET GILMOR, who died March 30th, 1805. A good economist through life. In all respects was she A tender mother, virtuous wife. Deceased 3 score & 3.
And this on the tomb of a young person- Stop, careless youth, and read, And as you read consider How soon the worm may feed On you and I together.
You feel at once the cadence and rhyme of David's Psalms in metre, as sung in times past by the churches in Scotland, and by many still in America.
Mrs. Alexander, of Poplar Tent, in her Birthday Meditations, everywhere shows that the Bible gave her the truths for a foun- dation, her catechism, the framework of her thoughts, and Watts the peculiar fashion. Watts's Psalms and Hymns have been sung these sixty years or more in Poplar Tent; and the version of Rouse is still sung part of every Sabbath in public worship in Stecle Creek.
Of the four ministers laid in the yard, three were of the Seccd- ing Church and congregation, as they are called, whose place of worship, called Little Steele Creek, is but a short distance to the south. The congregations are much intermingled, and both have retained a partiality for David's Psalms in metre.
It is more than probable that all the congregations of the Scotch
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and Irish origin would, in the southern and southwestern States, have become one body after the Revolution, having few causes of division, and many to draw them into closer union, could they have agreed upon their Psalmody, or used with each other the kindness and discretion that has been, and now is, exercised in Steele Creek. In some places the ineradicable prejudices of the old, that had sung, as their fathers did, Psalms of sacred melody, till they had become sweet to their ears and sweeter to their hearts, were not dealt with as tenderly as they might have been, in what seemed their unreasonableness in opposing all improvement as in- novation. In other cases the opposition to the use of Watts, or any more modern versification, was carried to a degree of bitter- ness unbecoming the cause. In consequence, many congrega- tions were split, and some that had been, and still are, reckoned Presbyterians, were found arrayed under the name of Seceder or Associate, not in war, but in self-defence.
The sacred songs of a congregation, and the tunes chosen for their public worship, are a type of the piety of the people. The Presbyterian church has happily retrograded for the last few years, and sought for old paths, and the good way, to find rest. Had not the Assembly afforded so excellent and grave a collection of Psalms and Hymns for public worship, the ebbing tide would not have stopped at Watts's Version, it would have retreated fur- ther, and old Rouse would have been sung again in many con- gregations. Many hymns had crept into use, as profane to the years of multitudes of the pious, and as indissolubly connected with irreverent thoughts, as in the minds of many the organ is with high church notions " and all papistrie," and the flute and the violin with all revelry. Congregations have been rent by an attempted change of their psalmody, and many more that now seem firmly united might be rent asunder by a hymn book, or a flute, or an organ.
Of the four ministers that lie in this yard, two were brothers ; they lie side by side under one broad tablet, Francis and James Pringle. The latter was pastor of the Seceder church, on Steele Creek, and the former of a church in Ohio. Francis died on a visit to his brother, on the 15th of March, 1818, in the fourth year of his ministry, and the twenty-ninth year of his age ; James on the 28th of the succeeding October, in the fifth year of his ministry, and the thirtieth year of his age. The two bereaved congregations united and erected one broad, white, marble slab, to cover the graves of the two pastors, united in their infancy and
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youth, united in their religion, undivided in death, and the hope of a glorious resurrection.
On the numerous monuments around you may read the names of the old families that formed the band of emigrants to this now populous neighborhood ;- Neely, Hart, Porter, Bigham, Sloan, M'Dowell, Grier, Herron, Vance, Davis, Tagart and Allen. Many of these names are found among the early settlements in the Valley of Virginia, which were formed a short time previously to this on Steele Creek.
Let us now turn to the monument of the patriot Humphrey Hunter, near the Session-house on the southwestern corner; and on which headstone, read
SACRED to the memory of the Rev. HUMPHREY HUNTER, who departed this life August 21st, 1827, in the 73d year of his age. He was a native of Ireland, and Emigrated to America at an early period of his life. He was one of those who early promoted the cause of freedom in Mecklenburg county, May 20th, 1775, and subsequently bore an active part in securing the Independence of his country. For nearly 38 years he labored as a faithful and assiduous Ambassador of Christ, strenuously enforcing the necessity of repentance, and pointing out the terms of Salvation. As a parent he was kind and affectionate ; as a friend warm and sincere ; and as a Minister persuasive and convincing.
Reared by the people of Steele Creek church.
Mr. Hunter undoubtedly merited all that is said of him on the monument. Of that race of people of whom Gordon in his His- ยท tory of Ireland says-" so great and wide was the discontent, that many thousands of the Protestants emigrated from those parts of Ulster to the American settlements, where they soon appeared in arms against the British government and contributed powerfully by their zeal and valor, to the separation of the colonies from the empire of Great Britain." Of whom also, Col. Tarleton in the His- tory of his campaigns in 1780 and 1781, speaking of the first irrup tion of the British troops under Lord Rawdon, into the Waxhaw settlement, on the borders of North Carolina-" the sentiments of
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the inhabitants did not correspond with his Lordship's expecta- tions ; he then learned, what experience confirmed, that the Irish were the most averse of all the settlers to the British government in America." He was born on the 14th of May, 1755, in the" vicinity of Londonderry, in the North of Ireland, the native place of his father. His paternal grandmother was from Glasgow, Scot- land ; and his maternal from Brest, in France. The blood of the Scotch and the Huguenot was blended in Ireland, and the de- scendants emigrated to America and flourished in the soil of Caro- lina.
Deprived by death of his father in his fourth year, young Hunter embarked at Londonderry with his widowed mother for Charleston, S. C., on the 3d of May, 1759, on board the ship Helena. Arriving on the 27th of August, the family in a few days proceeded to Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, where the mother purchased land in the Poplar Tent congregation, and remained for life. As the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty was one of the principal causes of his mother's emigration, it is not wonderful that young Hunter grew up with a spirit jealous of encroachment from the English crown.
From the time of his reaching Mecklenburg till his twentieth year, little is known of him. We are left to the conjec- ture that he grew up familiar with all the labors and privations of a frontier life, by which he became fitted to endure the fatigues and sufferings of a military expedition.
He attended the convention in Mecklenburg, May 20th, 1775, as one of the numerous crowd of spectators assembled on that exciting occasion. In his account of the meeting prefixed to his copy of the Declaration of Independence, he thus writes con- cerning the battle of Lexington, which took place on the 19th of April : "That was a wound of a deepening gangrenous nature, not to be healed without amputation. Intelligence of the affair speedily spread abroad, yea flew, as if on the wings of the wind collecting a storm. No sooner had it reached Mecklenburg than an ardent, patriotic fire glowed almost in every breast ; it was not to be confined ; it burst into a flame ; it blazed through every corner of the country. Communications from one to another were made with great facility. Committees were held in various neighborhoods ; every man was a politician. Death rather than slavery, was the voice comparatively of all."
Soon after the Declaration of Independence, a regiment was raised in Mecklenburg, under Col. Thomas Polk, and Col. Adam
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Alexander, to march against some tories who were embodied in the lower part of the State. Mr. Hunter went as a private in the company of Capt. Charles Polk, nephew of Col. Thomas Polk. The tories dispersed at the approach of this force, and the regiment speedily returned without bloodshed or violence.
Mr. Hunter then commenced his classical education at Clio's Nursery, in Rowan county (now Iredell), under the instruction of Rev. James Hall. The following certificates, preserved by Mr. Hunter, show the order of the congregation, and the care with which the morals of youth were watched over by church officers and instructors in schools. The first appears to have been required for his honorable standing at Clio's Nursery :
" This is to certify, that the Bearer, Humphrey Hunter, has lived in the Bounds of this Congregation upwards of four years, and has Behaved himself Inoffensively, Not being Guilty of any Immoral Conduct known to us, Exposing him to Church Censure, and is free from public Scandal. Given under our hands at
" Poplar Tent, this 18th "Ruling "JAMES ALEXANDER, J. Ross, day of October, 1778. Elders. ROBERT HARRIS."
When General Rutherford collected a brigade from Mecklen- burg, Rowan, and Guilford counties, to repel the aggressions of the Cherokee Indians, Mr. Hunter received the commission of lieutenant under Captain Rob't Mayben, in one of the three com- panies of cavalry that formed part of the corps. The campaign was successful ; the Indian forces were scattered, and their chiefs taken.
After this campaign Mr. Hunter resumed his classical studies at Queen's Museum, in Charlotte, under the care of Dr. McWhor- ter, who had removed from New Jersey to take charge of that in- stitution, with flattering prospects. Of the moral and religious character of the young man, the following certificate in the hand- writing of his instructor is testimony, viz. :
" That the bearer, Humphrey Hunter, has continued a student in Clio's Nursery from August, 1778, till last October ; that he applied to his studies with diligence ; was admitted to the sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper in Bethany Congregation ; has during the aforesaid Time conducted himself as a good member both of religious and civil Society, and is hereby well recommend[ed] to the Regard of any Christian Community where Divine Providence may order his Lot,-is certified by
" Bethany, Jan. 12, 1780.
" JAS. HALL, V.D.M "
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In the summer of 1780, Liberty Hall Academy, or Queen's Museum, as it was originally named, was broken up by the ap- proach of the British army under Lord Cornwallis, after the sur- render of Charleston, and the massacre of Buford's regiment on the Waxhaw, and the course of study never resumed under the direction of Dr. McWhorter, who returned to New Jersey. Upon the breaking up of the College, the younger students were com- mended to their parents and guardians, and the older were urged to take the field in the cause of their country. It is not to be sup- posed that young Hunter required much urging to take up arms with his fellow-citizens of Mecklenburg, who five years before had pledged " their lives and their honor." Upon the orders of General Rutherford to the battalions of the western counties of the State, a brigade assembled at Salisbury. For the first three weeks, Mr. Hunter acted as commissary, and afterwards as lieutenant in the company of Captain Thomas Givens. Having scoured the tory settlement on the north-east side of the Yadkin, the forces under General Rutherford joined the army of General Gates at Cheraw.
On the morning of the 16th of August, the unfortunate battle of Camden took place by the mutual surprise of the marching armies ; and the forces under Gates were completely routed. General Rutherford was wounded and taken prisoner, with many of his men. Mr. Hunter, soon after his surrender as prisoner of war, witnessed the death of the Baron De Kalb. He tells us, he saw the Baron, without suite or aide, and apparently separated from his command, ride facing the enemy. The British soldiers clapping their hands on their shoulders, in reference to his epaulettes, shouted, " a General, a rebel General !" Immediately a man on horseback (not Tarleton) met him, and demanded his sword. The Baron, with apparent reluctance, presented the hilt ; but drawing back, said in French, " Are you an officer, sir ?" His antagonist, perhaps not understanding his question, with an oath, more sternly demanded his sword. The Baron dashed from him, disdaining, as is supposed, to surrender to any but an officer, and rode in front of the British line, with his hand extended. The cry along the line of, " A rebel General," was speedily followed by a volley, and after riding some twenty or thirty rods, the Baron fell. He was im- mediately raised to his feet, stripped of his hat, coat, and neck- cloth, and placed with his hands resting on the end of a wagon. His body had been pierced with seven balls. While standing in this situation, the blood streaming through his shirt, Cornwallis,
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with his suite, rode up ; and being told that the wounded man was De Kalb, he addressed him-" I am sorry, sir, to see you ; not sorry that you are vanquished, but that you are so severely wounded." Having given orders to an officer to administer to the necessities of the wounded man as far as possible, the British General rode on to secure his victory ; and in a little time the brave and generous De Kalb, who had seen service in the armies of France, and had embarked in the cause of the American States, breathed his last.
After seven days' confinement in a prison-yard in Camden, Mr. Hunter was taken, with about fifty officers, to Orangeburg, S. C., where he remained without hat or coat until Friday, the 13th of November, about three months from the time of his captivity. On that day he went to visit a friendly lady, who had promised him a homespun coat. On his way he was met by a horseman of Col. Fisher's command, who accused him of being beyond the lines, and sternly ordered him back to the station ; threatening him with confinement, and trial for breach of his parole. Hunter explained, and apologized, and promised, but all to no purpose. "To the station !" " take the road !" Up the road went the rebel whig, sour and reluctant, and made indignant by the frequent goading with the point of the tory royalist's sword. Passing a large fallen pine, from which the limbs had been burned, he suddenly leaped the trunk. The horseman fired one of his pistols,-missed his aim, and leaped his horse after him. Hunter adroitly leaped the other side the trunk, and began throwing at the horseman the pine knots that lay thick around. The second pistol was discharged, but without effect. By a blow of a well-aimed pine knot the horse- man was brought to the ground, and disarmed by his prisoner. Hunter returned the tory his sword, on condition that he should never, on any condition, make known that any of the prisoners had crossed the forbidden line, or any way transgressed, promising himself to keep the whole matter of the late rencontre an inviolable secret.
On the following Sabbath a citation was issued by Col. Fisher, directing all militia prisoners to appear at the Court-House by 12 o'clock on Monday. The affair had been discovered. During the contest, the horse galloped off to the station with the saddle and holsters empty, and when the dismounted rider appeared a little time after with the bruises of the pine knots too visible to be denied, the curious inquiries that followed, baffled all his efforts at concealment ; it was soon noised abroad that one or more of the
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prisoners had broken parole and attacked an officer. The report reaching the Colonel's ears, the order was issued for their appear- ance at the Court-House. On Sabbath night, Hunter and a few others, expecting close confinement would follow their assembling on Monday noon, seized and disarmed the guard and escaped. He was nine nights in making his way back to Mecklenburg, lying by during the day to avoid the patroles of the British, and sustaining himself upon the greenest of the ears of corn he could gather from the unharvested fields.
In a few days after his return home, he again joined the army, and became a lieutenant of cavalry under Col. Henry Hampton, and attached to the regiment under Col. Henry Lee, received a wound in the battle at the Eutaw Springs, where so much personal bravery was displayed. His military services closed with that campaign ; and he returned home with a good name, his bravery unquestioned and his integrity unsullied.
He resumed his classical studies at the school taught by the Rev. Robert Archibald, near Poplar Tent, as appears by the fol- lowing certificate, in the irregular hand and crooked lines of his preceptor, which is the only evidence at hand of the classical school in that congregation immediately after the war.
" Mecklenburg, St. N. Carolina,
"This is to certify, that the bearer, Humphrey Hunter, has been some years at this school in the capacity of a student; and during the term has conducted himself in a sober, genteel and Christian manner ; and we recommend him as a youth of good character, to any public seminary where Divine Providence may cast his lot.
" Certified and signed by order of the trustees, this 3d day of Nov., 1785.
" ROBERT ARCHIBALD, V.D.M."
This certificate of character appears to have been given as a requisite for holding his standing at Mount Zion College, his Alma Mater. The following from the hand of Mr. Archibald was also given at the same time, and probably for the same purpose.
" Mecklenburg, State of North Carolina.
" This is to certify that the bearer, Humphrey Hunter, has lived in the bounds of this congregation from his Infancy, and be- haved himself in a sober and Christian manner, is in full com-
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munion with the church, and clear of all public scandal known to us ; and we recommend him to the care of any Christian society where God in his providence may cast his lot. Certified and signed by order of sessions, at Poplar Tent, this 3d of November, 1785.
" ROBT. ARCHIBALD, V.D.M."
During the summer of 1785 he was entered as a student of Mount Zion College, at Winnsborough, in South Carolina, which after the war for a time supplied the place of Liberty Hall, or Queen's Museum, at Charlotte, in completing the classical educa- tion of young men desirous of entering upon professional life.
The following is a copy of his degree, granted by the trustees of that institution, which has long since passed away, after having been for a time a shining light directing in the path of science and literature, Alumni that have honored their Alma Mater and the church, men in whom any institution may have gloried. The original is in beautiful German Text.
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