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Archiver > NCROWAN > 2008-11 > 1228071125
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Subject: Re: [NCROWAN] Index C-D
Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:52:05 -0500
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-----Original Message-----
From: Debra Black <>
To: ncrowan county rootsweb <>
Sent: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 1:09 pm
Subject: Re: [NCROWAN] Index C-D
Thank you so much Jan, my husband and I both suffer from disabilities too; so
going to do research is difficult...I will only ask for a few names at a time,
because I do not want to over whelm you or wear out my welcome:
Cash, Cline; Chamberes
Chamberes:
Chambers, 7-8,
...The writer has been indebted to a number of persons for the facts which he has
recorded. Miss Christine Beard, a granddaughter of John Lewis Beard, and of John
Dunn, Esq.-now eighty years of age, with a remarkably retentive memory-has
furnished personal recollections of the Town of Salisbury, covering seventy years.
She has also treasured up the stories heard in her youth from the lips of her
ancestors, running back to the first settlement of the County. Messrs. J. M. Horah
and H. N. Woodson, the Clerk and the Register, kindly gave access to the old records in the Courthouse, dating back to 1753.
John S. Henderson, Esq., Rev. S. Rothrock, Rev. H. T. Hudson, D. D., Rev. J. J.
Renn, Rev. J. B. Boone, Rev. J. Ingle, Rufus Barringer, Esq., Dr. D. B. Wood, M.
L. McCorkle, Esq., Mrs. N. Boyden, and others, have either prepared papers in
full, or furnished documents and manuscript statements that have been of special
service. Mrs. P. B. Chambers furnished the diary of her grandfather, Waightsti
ll
Avery, Esq. Col. W. L. Saunders, Secretary of State, and Col. J. McLeod Turner,
Keeper of the State Capitol, very kindly furnished, free of charge, a copy of the
Roll of Honor of the Rowan County soldiers in the Confederate Army.
45,
...At the June term of 1753, the Court proceeded to select a place for the erection of a
courthouse, pillory, stocks, and gaol. The action of the Court is substantially as
follows: “The courthouse, gaol, and stocks shall be located where the ‘Irish
Settlement’ forks, one fork leading to John Brandon’s, Esq., and the other fork
along the old wagon road over Grant’s Creek, called Sill’s Path, and near the most
convenient spring.” John Brandon, as stated before, lived six miles south of
Salisbury, on the Concord Road, and “Sill’s Path” was probably the Beattie’s Ford
Road, crossing Sill’s Creek about seventeen miles west of Salisbury. The most
“convenient spring” is thought to be a spring in the garden of the late Dr.
Alexander Long, where Jacob Franck’s ordinary and still-house were afterwards
established, the lot afterwards owned by Matthew Troy, the father-in-law of the
late Maxwell Chambers. The exact site of the courthouse was the center of our
present Public Square, at the intersection of Corbin and Innes Streets, where the
great town well now is. Tradition says that this spot-originally considerably higher
than it now is-was a famous “deer-stand,” where the rifleman st
ood,
59-60,
THE COMMON
It was customary for the towns in England to have a “Common” or open tract of
public land in their immediate vicinity, where the cattle might graze at will, where
the children might play, and the gatherings of the citizens be held on extraordinary
occasions. In accordance with this custom, the Act of the Assembly specifies a
“Common” in connection with the town of Salisbury. Its precise locality has been
difficult to determine, but the Act appears to describe it as lying “on each side of
the Western Great Road leading through the frontiers of this Province.” If this
“Western Great Road” was Beattie’s Ford Road of modern days, crossing Grant’s
Creek at the bridge near the head of McCay’s pond, the said road ran through the
westward of town, leaving Corbin Street with “Temple” or Fisher Street, running
diagonally through the square occupied by the late Dr. Jos. W. Hall, and back of
the residence of the late Judge Caldwell-now the residence of M. L. Holmes. The
“Common” on each side of this road would include the square now occupied by
the grounds of the Presbyterian manse, and the spring that was anciently on it, as
well as the spring at the head of the stream starting behind Paul Heilig’s residence,
and running through the grounds of the “National Cemetery.” Persons still living
remember when these grounds were unoccupied and covered with small
60 HISTORY OF ROWAN20COUNTY
oaks and chinquapin bushes. In a plan of the town made about sixty years ago, now
lying before the writer, these lots are marked as belonging to Troy, Chambers,
Caldwell, Thomas Dixon, H. C. Jones, Dr. Polk, John Beard, Louis Beard,
Lauman, Brown, Woodson, etc. These lots, originally constituting the Common,
had probably been recently sold, perhaps as a financial enterprise to relieve the
town of some unfortunate debt, or to carry out some promising scheme of internal
improvement that was destined never to see light. It is a matter of profound
astonishment that town corporations will part with grounds that would make
desirable parks or breathing places, for a mere trifle, and condemn the citizens to
live in a long, unbroken line of houses, unrelieved by shade, when they might so
easily retain a Common or Park, where the inhabitants might resort at will in
summer weather, and refresh themselves by breathing the pure air that comes
whispering through the rustling leaves of the trees. It is really more difficult, in
some of our larger towns, to escape from the dust and glare of the streets and
painted houses into a pleasant and shady retreat, than it is in the great cities where
the land is worth hundreds of dollars per square yard.
60-61,
Continued from above:
The Act provides that all inhabitants of Salisbury shall have free access to all
natural springs and fountains, whether on private lots or on the Common, and that
it was lawful for anyone to “cut and fell,” and app
ropriate to his own use, any tree
or trees standing on the Town Common.” That was before the exquisite poem,
beginning “Woodman, Spare That Tree,” was composed, and the early inhabitants
were more anxious to enjoy their liberties, and to have an open grazing place for
their cattle, than to have a shady park for public resort.
It is worthy of notice that a strict “hog law” prevailed in the sylvan shades of the
ancient borough of Salisbury. Cows were indeed a privileged class, and might
roam at will over the streets and Common, but it was enacted that “no inhabitants
of said town shall, on any pretense whatsoever, keep any hog or hogs, shoat or
pigs, running at large within the corporate limits of said town, under a penalty of
twenty shillings,” while anyone had the right to “shoot, kill, or destroy” the
offending pig at sight. As a protection against fire, every householder was required
to keep a ladder, and two good leather buckets. Fast riding and fast driving
incurred a penalty of five shillings for each offense. It further appears that the pio61
HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
neer settlers were provided with a market-house for the mutual benefit of the buyer
and seller.
Taking them all in all, the municipal regulations of 1770 were good and
wholesome, and in some particulars might still stand as models.
The gentlemen who were authorized, as Town Commissioners, to put these
regulations into execution were prominent citizens, selected for their standing and
their fitness for the high trust, and were generally the owners of a large real estate
in the town. The list is as follows: William Steel, John Dunn, Maxwell Chambers,
John Louis Beard; Thomas Frohock, Wm. Temple Coles, Matthew Troy, Peter
Rep, James Kerr, Alexander Martin, and Daniel Little. These Commissioners were
appointed by the General Assembly, and in ease of a vacancy, the place was to be
supplied by appointment of the Justices of the Rowan Inferior Court. Holding their
offices for a term of years, or during life, these Commissioners would be able to
mature and carry out extended schemes of improvement, without having before
their eyes the constant fear of being left out the next year if they should chance to
offend any of the people by the conscientious and faithful discharge of unpopular
duties. This was the conservatism of monarchy, and doubtless it had its evils as
well as the fickleness and instability of popular democracy. Perhaps the best results
would be secured by a policy lying between these two extremes.
103-104,
The events at the opening of the war are to he accounted for, first on the principle
that old men, especially lawyers, are slow and cautious in exchanging their
allegiance. None knows so well as they what are the results that follow in the wake
of revolution. They are in the habit of looking at results and consequences. A
second cause is found in the characteristic violence and intolerance of such times
of excitement and struggle. Reports fly rapidly and gain ready c
redence. That
Committee of Safety actually resolved that good old Maxwell Chambers, their
Treasurer, be publicly advertised as an enemy to the common cause of liberty, for raising the price of his goods
above that of the year past. Furthermore Dunn and Boote were men of great
influence, and the easiest way to dispose of them was to send them away without a
hearing. No doubt, if granted a hearing, they would have cleared themselves of all
acts or purposes of hostility to American liberty. But this the Committee did not
know. Colonel Kennon, being the leader in this affair, seems to have removed from
Salisbury to Georgia, at or about the time that Dunn and Boote returned. So far as
known to the writer he lived an honored and useful life in the State of his adoption.
One of his descendants was in Salisbury a few years ago, but he knew little of his
ancestor.
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