USA > North Carolina > Guilford County > The History of Guilford County, North Carolina > Part 2
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The Pennsylvania and Nantucket Quakers did not mingle and inter-marry with the Scotch-Irish, whose whole modus vivendi was the opposite of their own.
Almost all the members of the denomination at the present day who are "birth right," can trace their descent from one or both of these sources, and those who congratulate themselves upon their Nantucket origin may be interested in the following doggerel which was supposed tersely to describe those same ancestors.
The Rays and Russells coopers are,
The knowing Folgers lazy, A lying Coleman very rare,
And scarce a learned Hussey, The Coffins noisy, fractious, loud,
The silent Gardners plodding,
The Mitchells good, The Bakers proud,
The Macys eat the pudding,
The Lovetts stalwart, brave and stern,
The Starbucks wild and vain, The Quakers steady, mild and calm,
The Swains sea-faring men, And the jolly Worths go sailing down the wind.
In a letter of Tryon to the Board of Trade, August, 1766 (Col. Rec., Vol. 7, page 248), he said :
"I am of opinion that this province is settling faster than any on the continent. Last autumn and winter upwards of one thou-
NOTE: The greater portion of the county, even within our present boundaries. was at this time without white inhabitants. The beautiful middle region was the highway of traders from the eastern colonies of N. C. and Virginia with the Indians west and south. Dr. Wiley's address on Alamance Church, see also Records at Salisbury N. C., bks. 1-7, at Register's office. Guilford was a strategic point. Many of those who settled here afterwards went west.
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sand wagons passed through Salisbury with families from the northward, to settle in this province chiefly; some few went to Georgia and Florida, but liked it so indifferently that some of them have since returned.
"The dispatch of patents I have granted since my administra- tion will show to your Lordships the great increase of settlers in the western or back counties. These inhabitants are a people dif- fering in health and complexion from the natives in the maritime parts of the province, as much as a sturdy Briton differs from a puny Spaniard."
Governor Tryon regarded this territory "as of great value, being perhaps the best lands on this continent, particularly Her- man Husbands', who had (in May, 1771) on his plantation about fifty acres of as fine wheat as perhaps ever grew, with clover meadows equal to any in the Northern Colonies." (Col. Rec., Vol. 8, page 615.)
These people did not live in crude log cabins. Many of them had comfortable homes, hiproofed, with dormer windows, built of brick or frame material. They had wealth; they loved beauty. All worked, continually stirring from four o'clock in the morning till late at night. Industry at length brought luxury and plenty. They were a pastoral and agricultural people such as good living never spoils, but, on the contrary, develops in them spirit and energy.
Spacious fields of wheat, corn, buckwheat and patches of flax and cotton surrounded their homes. Sometimes a hundred bee hives added another charm to the garden, with its lilacs, roses, sweet lavender and daisies.
The home itself was like a colony of bees in which there were no drones. It was a custom that no young woman should marry until she possessed forty or more bed-quilts, counterpanes and
NOTE: These Nantucket settlers were not the first Friends to come to North Carolina, and it is likely that Henry Phillips, who, in 1665, came to Albemarle from New England, was seeking a refuge from the tyranny of Massachusetts, where Friends suffered martyrdom on Boston Common.
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snowy sheets that she had made herself. These articles of her handiwork she embroidered with all sorts of needlework.
The women wove for the whole family, tow shirts, barndoor breeches and silken gowns. They sold great quantities of cloth, wagonloads of butter, cheese and honey. They raised silk, flax, cotton and wool, and manufactured these products for sale. They sold green apples and chestnuts all winter.
People lived without much expense. They had no fear of work. The men prided themselves on their physical strength. A friendly fight as a test was not infrequent, while even old men wrestled occasionally. It was customary for a company of men and boys to collect on Saturday evenings at a mill or cross-roads. One described a circle. Upon banter being given two men stepped into the ring and they laughed at black eyes and hard knocks. They boxed each others' ears as a joke, and gouged and bit each other for fun.
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CHAPTER III.
PRE-REVOLUTIONARY LAND GRANTS.
From the Register of Deeds, Rowan County,* Books 1-7, at Salisbury, North Carolina.
The Province of Carolina, embracing that territory which is at present North and South Carolina, and extending westward to the Pacific Ocean, was, under a grant issued by King Charles II. of England, the property of eight Lords Proprietors. In 1729 the right to this land was surrendered to the King by all the lords except Granville, who retained his one-eighth part.
"In 1743 Granville's interest was laid off in severalty. It embraced the northern portion of North Carolina, and extended as far south as the Mont- gomery County line, or near it, and thus included the lands in Guilford County.
"Though Granville retained no political power, his right in the soil carried with it the right to appoint land officers and agents, thus forming a sort of government in a government, and involving complications which added to those grievances which helped to prepare the way for the 'Revo- lution.'" (Dr. C. H. Wiley's Address on Alamance Church.)
In 1744, September the seventeenth, George II. granted the Earl of Granville one-eighth part of North and South Carolina.
In 1745 George II. granted Henry Eustice McCulloh eight tracts of land in the Province of North Carolina, each tract containing twelve hun- dred and fifty acres. That part of McCulloh's land in Guilford County lay on the head waters of the Alamance and Stinking Quarter Creeks. Parcels of it were sold to William Rose, Peter Amick, Nathaniel Robinson, Jeremiah Kimbro, James O'Neal, Solomon Grace and Smith Moore. The remainder of McCulloh's lands in Guilford County was confiscated to the use of the State, and by an act of the Legislature of 1795 it was granted to the trustees of the University of North Carolina. McCulloh's land was within the limits of Granville's part of North Carolina.
* Rowan County was set up from Anson County in 1758. Orange County was once a part of Granville County. From Rowan and Orange, Guilford County was erected in 1770.
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NORTH CAROLINA.
In 1753 James and his wife Jeane Graham, of Anson County, sold to William McKnight, for five shillings, a parcel of land in Anson County on a branch of Buffalo Creek, six hundred and forty-one "Eackers," "Be ye same more or less, yielding and paying ye yearly rent of one pepper corn at ye Feast of St. Mickals ye Archangel only if ye same be then demanded."
In 1753 William Renolds and Rachel, his wife, of Orange County, conveyed by deed to their son, Jeremiah Renolds, two hundred and sixty- six acres of land on Polecat Creek.
In 1753 Tabuland Gant (also spelled Gaunt, Gauant) bought of James Carter, for five shillings, six hundred and thirty-two "acors by esti- mation," on the south fork of Deep River.
In 1753, in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of George II. of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., Henry Beddingfield sold William Mebane six hundred acres on the North Buffalo Creek for the sum of forty-five pounds, current money of Virginia. To this indenture Alexander Mebane and John Thompson were witnesses.
In 1753 Granville granted Robert Rankin a tract of four hundred and eighty acres for three shillings proclamation money.
In 1753 Granville sold John Cunningham a grant of six hundred and forty acres of land on Reedy Fork Creek for three shillings.
In 1754 George Jordenjur sold to Jonathan White three hundred and twenty acres of land on the south side of Hogin's Pond, south of Haw River. To this indenture Daniel Weldon, Blake Baker and Edward Under- hill were witnesses.
In 1754 Granville granted Alexander Mebane a tract of six hundred and forty acres of land on the upper branches of the Great Alamance. A yearly rent of twenty-five shillings was agreed upon.
In 1755 Henry Ballinger sold David Renolds, for five shillings, a tract of land on South Polecat Creek. "A yearly rent of one pepper corn" was agreed upon, "if the same be demanded." In May of that year Gran- ville sold Henry Ballinger a tract of land on the same stream.
In 1755 Granville's agents granted Robert Thompson a tract of four hundred and sixty-four acres on the north side of Reedy Fork. Robert Thompson was the first man killed in the Battle of Alamance, 1771.
In 1755 Robert Rankin and his wife, Rebekah, sold William Denny six hundred and forty acres of land in Rowan County.
In 1755 Granville sold George Finley a tract orr the north side of the Reedy Fork, in Orange County.
In 1755 Robert Jones sold John Blair, of Virginia, land on the Dan River.
In 1755 Granville sold Anthony Hoggett, for three shillings proclama- tion money, four hundred and eighty acres on Deep River. Granville also
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in the same year granted Philip Hoggett four hundred and twenty acres on Deep Creek.
In 1756, November the ninth, Granville granted John McNight that tract of land on both sides of Nix's Creek, a branch of the Reedy Fork of Haw River. To this indenture the signature of Peter Henley, Chief Justice of Rowan County, is affixed. Mordecai Mendenhall came to this territory at or before this time. He owned many hundred acres of land on Deep River.
In 1756 Granville granted John Kirkpatrick a tract of land embracing three hundred acres in the Parish of St. Luke, on the Buffalo Creek. In the same year Granville granted John Rhodes, for ten shillings, a tract joining Robert Harris's land on the north fork of Haw River.
In 1750 Granville granted Joseph Ozburn 640 acres of land on the Reedy Fork of Haw River.
In 1757 Zebulon Guantt, wheelwright, sold John Hiat six hundred and thirty acres of land on the north of Deep River. William Shepperd and . his wife, Martha, sold Isaac Beason four hundred and eighty acres of land on the Deep River.
In 1757 Christopher Nation and his wife, Elizabeth, sold Benjamin Cox a tract of land on Polecat Creek.
In 1757 Henry Ballinger and Thomas Hunt bought of Richard Wil- liams fifty acres of land for five shillings. This tract the deed declares to be "for the use, benefit, privilege and convenience of a Meeting House which is already erected, and bears the name New Garden, for the Chris- tian people called Quakers to meet in for publick worship of Almighty God, and also the ground to bury their dead in."
In 1758 Mordecai Mendenhall and his wife, Charity, of Rowan County, sold Nathan Dick four hundred and fifty acres on Horsepen Creek. That year Uriah Woolman, merchant of Philadelphia, and Joseph Miller, yeoman of Chester County, Pennsylvania, bought of William Buis a tract of land on the Deep River. To this indenture Moses and John Mendenhall were witnesses.
In 1759 Granville granted William Mebane six hundred and thirty- six acres in St. Luke's Parish on South Buffalo, beginning at Kimbrough Corner and running along John McAdoo's line. In that year Granville granted John Boyd four hundred and sixty-seven acres on Reedy Fork.
In 1760 Thomas Donnell sold James Donnell three hundred and twenty acres of land on the North Buffalo for five shillings.
In 1762 Granville granted William Armfield five hundred and forty acres of land in St. Luke's Parish for ten shillings, or two dollars and a half. He also granted James Mendenhall for the same amount two hun-
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dred and four acres of land joining Richard Beason's land on Deep River ; and William Millican, six hundred and twenty acres of land on the same stream.
In 1763 John Nicks sold James Denny, of Pennsylvania, six hundred and fifty acres of land on the North Buffalo.
In 1764 Thomas Donnell sold Alexander McKnight land on the North Buffalo. In that year Robert Tate sold William Trousdale land on the North Buffalo.
In 1765 Henry Eustice McCulloh sold Robert Sloan two hundred and eight acres on Pott's Creek.
In 1766 Thomas Donnell sold Francis Cummings, for five shillings, four hundred acres of land on a branch of the South Buffalo.
In 1766 James Mathew, Sr., sold James Mathews, Jr., for one hun- dred pounds proclamation money, five hundred acres of land on the Alamance Creek.
In 1767 John Hodge sold Alexander Penny, for five shillings, three hundred and twenty-six acres of land on the Buffalo Creek, this being a part of a tract granted John Gillespie by Granville in 1762.
In 1768 Adam Mitchell sold John McKnight and William Anderson, as trustees for the Presbyterian Congregation and their successors, one acre of land on the waters of the North Buffalo, for twenty shillings. This land the deed affirms to be for the use of a Presbyterian Meeting House for those that are members of the Synod of Philadelphia and New York, and is "for that use forever, including the meeting house and the study house."
7 In 1769 Benjamin and Elizabeth Beason gave land on the Polecat Creek to their sons, William, Richard, Benjamin and Isaac Beason.
In 1770 Robert Forbis sold Welcome W. Hodge land on Joseph's Creek.
In 1770 Joseph Scales owned land on the Dan River.
In 1770 John Fraizer and Abigal, his wife, sold Thomas Buller land on the Deep River.
In 1770 James Graham, of Rowan, sold John McGee, of Orange, a tract on the Great Alamance. This was a part of the land sold by Her- man Husbands to James Graham in 1766.
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GUILFORD COUNTY,
CHAPTER IV. THE PART OF GUILFORD IN THE REVOLUTION.
The life of David Caldwell, by Dr. Eli Caruthers, gives the history of the society in North Carolina called the "Regulators." This society was organized about 1764. Dr. David Caldwell was the most prominent man then living in the heart of the territory in which the Regulation movement had its greatest strength. (See prefatory notes to the Colonial Records of North Carolina, Vol. 8.)
The Regulators were the first company of men banded together in the interest of home rule, or government by the American people in matters relating to their own business, and opposed to Great Britain. Hence their movement was the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Dr. Caruthers, the successor of Dr. Caldwell as both pastor and teacher, a biographer and historian, certainly regarded the movement of the Regulators as the beginning of the Revolution.
As early as 1760 1grievances were made to the king, among others, because "illegal and arbitrary pecuniary claims were in- forced for the use of the governor and secretary." The land agents, 2deputy surveyors, entry takers and other officers of in- ferior grade in that department, encouraged by the example of their leaders, soon became as much adepts in the practice of chicane and extortion. 3This state of things continued, and perhaps be- came much worse, at least in the lower grades of office, until the people, unwilling to bear it any longer, undertook to regulate mat- ters themselves; so assumed the name Regulators. 4When all
NOTE: 1 See (2) Colonial Records Vol. 7, page 159. See Lite of David Caldwell, page 98, 185. 2 Life of David Caldwell, page 99. 8 66
4 66 .6 page 102.
page 107.
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NORTH CAROLINA.
legal means of redress had failed, they had recourse to an expres- sion of public sentiment by holding meetings in different parts of the country for the purpose; then they refused to pay illegal taxes or fees, and this brought about an open rupture with the govern- ment.
A large proportion of the men in Dr. Caldwell's congregations were Regulators.5 Herman Husbands, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, all of them Guilford County men, were guiding spirits in the movement.
In April, 1771, Governor Tryon marched up toward the Regulation section with an army to enforce the authority of his officials. He met several hundred Regulators, probably eleven hundred, just over the Guilford County line, on the banks of the Great Alamance Creek. Dr. David Caldwell was there to present resolutions of the Regulators and to ask for peace. Many mem- bers of his congregation were there, and others, to demand redress. A battle occurred, in which Tryon was victorious. But the Regu- lators thus made the first open resistance to British authority. Colonial Records of N. C., Vol. 8, shows that Tryon and his army then marched through the territory of the Regulators, "destroying everything that was in his power to destroy by fire and sword."
On May 30, 1771, the Superior Court of Oyer and Terminer, for the trial of the Regulators in the "back country," began at Hillsboro, N. C. Twelve men were tried and condemned for high treason.
"A PROCLAMATION .- Whereas, I am informed that many Persons who have been concerned in the late Rebellion are desirous of submitting themselves to Government I do therefore give notice that every Person who will come in either to mine or General Waddell's Camp, lay down their arms, take the oath of allegiance. and promise to pay all taxes that are now or may hereafter become due by them respectively, and submit to the Laws of this Country, shall have His Majesty's most gracious and free pardon for all Treasons, Insurrections and Rebellions done or committed on or before the 16th Inst., provided they make their submission on or before the 10th of June next. The following persons are however excepted
5 Their graves may be seen at Alamance and Buffalo graveyards.
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GUILFORD COUNTY,
from the Benefit of this Proclamation, Viz. All the Outlaws, the persons in Camp, and the under named persons, Samuel Jones, Joshua Teague, Samuel Wagones, Simon Dunn, Jr., Wilkerson, Sr., Edward Smith, John Bumpass, Joseph Boring, William Rankin, William Robeson, John Wink- ler, and John Wilcox. WM. TRYON."
"31 May, 1771."
See Col. Rec., Vol VIII., page 613.
The spirit of the Regulation movement was the same North Carolina love of liberty which in 1766 resisted the Stamp Act in Wilmington, when the British sloop-of-war Diligence arrived in the Cape Fear River, laden with stamps, and was peremptorily refused permission to land them. The Regulators were fired with the same zeal for liberty which actuated the men of Mecklenburg in 1775 when they declared independence. This love of liberty is found today in every North Carolinan.
"James Hunter, The Regulator," by Major Joseph M. More- head, gives conclusive evidence that the Regulators made the be- ginning of America's great struggle for freedom from Great Britain. All revolutions have begun in this way.
"North Carolina in 1780-81," by Judge David Schenck, has shown the history of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, when Greene so crippled Cornwallis and his army that they were forced to leave the state. The Battle of Guilford Courthouse was the beginning of the last act of the Revolution, which ended at York- town by the surrender of Cornwallis. The beginning of the Revolution was in Guilford County, because of unjust taxation ; so it was permitted her to strike the last great blow at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
Dr. Eli Caruthers and Judge David Schenck have exhausted the subject of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. To get a full view of the battle, its causes and its effects, read them. Also visit the battleground and see the various imposing monuments that tell the story of the part of Guilford in the Revolutionary War.
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NORTH CAROLINA.
In March, 1781, the forces of the American Revolution under the command of General Green met the forces of Great Britain under Lord Cornwallis on the field near Guilford Courthouse, then at old Martinsville.
Cornwallis had been attracted too far from his supplies. It seemed at first that he had won the battle, but Greene had so weakened his force as to compel him to retire to Wilmington, North Carolina. Thence he went to Yorktown, Virginia, and surrendered.
Many American and English soldiers died on the battlefield of Guilford Courthouse and in the county surrounding. New Garden Meetinghouse was used as a hospital for the British. In the graveyard there are large square graves, under a great oak tree, containing the last of British soldiery on this territory.
GREENE AND CORNWALLIS.
Between Cornwallis and Greene there seems to have been a difference similar to that between America and England. They were representative men, each of his own country. Cornwallis was a member of the House of Lords, born at London, educated at the famous Eton College. City-bred men are different from those of the country. So Cornwallis was true to his birth and his training when, at Brandywine, he evinced much coolness and bravery. He could fight gallantly and show kindness too. In his encampment at Jamestown he pressed the mill into service, took all the meal, flour, meat, wheat; took the cow, the mother's last chance for feeding her children. Mrs. Judith Gardner Mendenhall demanded her cow of the General, saying that she needed it and must have it for the support of her children. Cornwallis had the cow re- turned and ordered the soldiers to let her alone. "He was an accomplished soldier. While he did not himself commit acts of cruelty, he allowed his subordinates to do so without rebuke."
Marching from the Battle of Guilford Courthouse through the state, he found disappointment instead of supplies awaiting him
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at Wilmington. He moved to Yorktown, where he was obliged to surrender. From Yorktown he was sent, in 1786, to the East Indies, as governor and commander-in-chief. He fought gallantly the Sultan of Mysore. Upon his return to England he was ap- pointed master-general of Ireland. Later he was minister pleni- potentiary to France. In 1800 he received the appointment of governor-general of India, where he died, in 1805.
So England regarded him as a brave soldier and a diplomat. He must have felt himself to be superior to the backwoodsmen and their rustic Rhode Island commander.
Nathaniel Greene had no special lordship to sustain. It re- quired great energy and wit on the part of Greene to meet an English earl and general with his well-trained body of soldiers, famous for their record-the best in the world at the time. They had fought with Wolf, with Wolf had scaled the Heights of Abraham. Greene knew that fight he must, and think as well as fight-something Cornwallis had done beforehand, so probably packed away his thinking cap. Greene and Cornwallis were about equally matched, except in this respect: Greene did the thinking, Cornwallis relied upon training.
Those daily readings of Greene, in his Rhode Island home, on the subject of military tactics, served to entertain and occupy his youth, like that of Napoleon on the Island of Corsica. But the real benefit came later when, in the flower of his life, this fund of resourceful reading was like a mine of gold to America.
Greene and Cornwallis had been ordered South by their respective governments ; chance pitted them against each other. They resembled each other physically. Neither was over medium height, both broad-shouldered. Cornwallis was forty-three, Greene thirty-nine. An eye of each was impaired. One was America, fresh, resourceful, self-dependent, a maker, or shifter, of circum- stances. One was England, proud, sure of herself. Both had been at the Battle of Brandywine.
"Greene was born May 26th, 1742. His father was a miller, an anchor-smith, and a Quaker preacher. In early life he followed the plow
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NORTH CAROLINA.
and worked at the forge. He had no educational advantages in his youth, was born and reared in obscurity. But he is an example of what good principles, native sense, industrious habits and careful improvement of time can accomplish. A British officer said, 'Greene is as dangerous as Washington; he is vigilant, enterprising and full of resources. With but little hope of gaining any advantage over him, I never feel secure when encamped in his neighborhood.'" (Garden's Anecdotes, p 76.)
Battle is the game of chess nations play at. Had Greene lost this one, the population of Guilford County and of North Carolina would probably be today entirely different, for the ancestors of her people would have been mutilated or destroyed by Tories, dogs and scavengers of war.
"Cornwallis led a country dance; The like was never seen, sir; Much retrograde and much advance, And all with General Greene, sir. They rambled up and rambled down, Joined hands and off they ran, sir ; Our General Greene to old Charlestown And the Earl to Wilmington, sir."
In Guilford and her neighbors the strife was kept well stirred. There were loyalists here true to the kingdom of Great Britain. These had property and did not like to see a change in government. There were also "Tories," rapacious, wicked, who hated all Whigs and the American cause. Their leader was David Fannen, a scrawny, raw-boned man with the scaldhead, bitter, spiteful, re- vengeful with the soul of an Indian. His band of Tories was almost omnipresent in its cruelty to Whigs. The novel, "Ala- mance," by Dr. C. H. Wiley, gives a good idea of what the Tories were in Guilford County. Dr. Caruthers gives a good history of this period in his books, "The Old North State," first and second series.
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