Tag: Josh Stein

Blowing up the King’s gunpowder in 1771

My blog today is about my favorite local history story. It was 254 years ago last Friday – May 2, 1771, that a group of teenage boys and young men from Rocky River Presbyterian Church in present-day Cabarrus County, North Carolina, decided to blow up a shipment of King George III’s gunpowder.

The Regulator Movement in Rowan and Alamance counties to our north was reaching a boiling point in April 1771. Word reached the settlement of Scottish immigrants at Rocky River that a shipment of gunpowder was coming from Charleston, South Carolina to Charlotte and on to Salisbury, North Carolina. That gunpowder was destined to be used to put down the Regulators.

The Regulator Movement never took hold in present-day Cabarrus County (which was part of Mecklenburg County), but there was a strong and growing anti-Royal government sentiment here. Destruction of that gunpowder shipment would be detrimental to the government.

Nine teenage boys and young men from Rocky River decided to take matters into their own hands. They found out the munitions wagon train of three wagons would camp for the night of May 2 at the muster grounds near or along the Great Wagon Road in what is now Concord, North Carolina.

They blackened their faces to disguise themselves and sworn an oath on a Bible that they would never tell what they were about to do and would never reveal the names of the participants. They set out for the militia muster grounds some nine miles away and surprised the teamsters and guards. They had no desire to harm those men, so they led them and their animals to a safe distance away.

The gunpowder and blankets were gathered into a pile, and a train of gunpowder was laid. James White, Jr., fired his pistol into the trail of gunpowder. The resulting explosion was heard some nine miles away in the vicinity of Rocky River Presbyterian Church. Some people thought it was thunder, while others thought it was an earthquake.

Photo by Vernon Raineil Cenzon on Unsplash

The nine perpetrators made their way home, cleaned themselves up, and said nothing about their overnight adventure.

The Battle of Alamance took place on May 6, 1771, and the Regulator Movement was effectively put down by the royal government. Governor William Tryon proclaimed on May 17, 1771, that he would pardon the rebels if they would turn themselves in by May 21.

That deadline was extended until May 30. Some of the perpetrators headed for Hillsborough to turn themselves in, but they were warned along the way that it was a trick. Governor Tryon planned to have them hanged. Some returned to the cane brakes of Reedy Creek, not far from the church, while others fled to Virginia and Georgia.

In a trail which began on May 30, 1771, twelve Regulators were found guilty of high treason. Six were hanged.

Perhaps news of that trial reached Rocky River or maybe half-brothers James Ashmore and Joshua Hadley simply feared that one of the other gunpowder perpetrators would disclose their identities. For whatever reason, Ashmore and Hadley went independently to tell Colonel Moses Alexander what they knew. Imagine their surprise when they ran into each other on Colonel Alexander’s front porch!

James Ashmore pushed his way into the Colonel’s house and told him he was ready to talk. He was taken to Charlotte on June 22, 1771, where he gave a sworn deposition before Thomas Polk, a Mecklenburg County Justice of the Peace.

Ashmore revealed the names of the other eight young men who had conspired and carried out the attack. The search for the men began in earnest. Several of them narrowly escaped capture, and their stories and more details of the progression of the case through the colony’s royal government at included in my book, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1, which is available from Amazon in e-book and paperback and at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC.

William Tryon became Governor of New York and Josiah Martin was appointed Governor of North Carolina. Twenty-nine “inhabitants of Rocky River & Coddle Creek Settlement” (including my great-great-great-great-grandfather) signed a petition asking Governor Martin to pardon the perpetrators, but the request was denied.

Photo by Kate Remmer on Unsplash

For nearly a year, the women of Rocky River Presbyterian Church provided food and clothing for the perpetrators who hid in the cane brakes along Reedy Creek. Rev. Hezekiah James Balch prayed openly for the young men’s safety from the church’s pulpit. Their identities remained a well-kept secret.

The young men were fugitives until independence was declared. After the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was issued on May 20, 1775, followed by the Mecklenburg Resolves eleven days later, all county citizens were considered to be in rebellion.

Back to the present

Yesterday was “May Meeting” at my home church, Rocky River Presbyterian in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. It wasn’t a “meeting.” It was more like an annual homecoming. It dates back to 1757. It is held on the first Sunday in May. The 11:00 a.m. worship service includes The Lord’s Supper/communion.

After the worship service, we all gather around a long wire “table” for Dinner in the Grove except on the occasional year now like yesterday when it rains or has poured rain all night and we have to eat inside the fellowship hall. Everyone brings their best and favorite homemade dishes and it is the biggest feast you can imagine.

Imaging May Meeting 1771

The more I study and contemplate the blowing up of the King’s munitions wagon train by members of Rocky River Presbyterian Church on May 2, 1771, the more I try to travel back in my mind’s eye to May Meeting 1771.

Everyone for miles around knew that the King’s gunpowder had been blown up on Thursday night. Everyone probably had a pretty good idea who among them had participated in the act of civil disobedience.

I imagine the hushed conversations under the large oak, scalybark hickory, red cedar, and poplar trees in the former church grove a couple of miles from our present sanctuary where the congregation met in a log church.

Local people were, no doubt, coming to grips with which side they were going to attach their allegiances in the inevitable coming war. Most, as it turned out, would choose to be patriots. After all, they had left Scotland and some had left Ireland in search of a better life, and they were pretty sure the King of England was not offering them a better life. He was placing more and more taxes and tariffs on them.

On Sunday, May 5, 1771, I imagine individual men carefully approached one or two men they knew they could trust and then they made quiet comments about the gunpowder explosion while they roughed the hair on the heads of their little boys who were too young to know the gravity of the situation.

I imagine many of the individual women did the same with their trusted friends while they small daughters clung to their long skirts.

And I’m sure the teenagers huddled in their usual groups and talked about what had happened on Thursday night. There was, no doubt, speculation about which of their friends had taken part in the attack.

I can imagine them quietly calling the roll, so to speak, and speculating about why Robert Davis was not at church that day. Or why were Ben Cochran and Bob Caruthers in serious conversation away from the crowd? Had they taken part? How much trouble were they really in? What was going to happen to the boys and young men who were guilty? How would they be punished?

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, 56 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included four US highways, four state highways, and 48 state roads.

This from https://governor.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2025/05/01/governor-stein-announces-55-million-grants-have-been-distributed-nearly-3000-western-north-carolina: “Governor Josh Stein announced that the Dogwood Health Trust, the Duke Endowment, and the State of North Carolina have distributed $55 million to 2,812 small businesses through the Western North Carolina Small Business Initiative. These grants are supporting western North Carolina businesses impacted by Hurricane Helene and bolstering regional economic recovery. More than 7,300 businesses applied.

“’These grants will go a long way in helping western North Carolina’s beloved small business owners keep their doors open after Helene,’” said Governor Josh Stein. “’But the volume of unfunded applications makes it crystal clear – more help is desperately needed. I’m ready to work with the legislature to deliver support for small businesses that power our mountain economy.’”

After being closed for seven months, Morse Park at Lake Lure, NC partially reopened last weekend. The 720-acre lake itself remains drained as storm debris, silt and sediment are still being removed.

The village of Chimney Rock, NC was nearly wiped off the face of the earth by Hurricane Helene. It had been hoped that the town and Chimney Rock State Park would open by Memorial Day, but that’s not going to be possible. The security checkpoint will continue until further notice. You must have a pass to enter and travel through the village on the temporary road. NCDOT is working on a temporary bridge in the village to help restore access to the state park. The park has not announced a reopening date. The notice I read last Wednesday night from the Village indicated that construction of a new US-64/US-74A/NC-9 has begun.

Until my next blog post

Get a good book to read.

Don’t forget the good people of Ukraine, Myanmar, and western North Carolina.

Janet

One Decision Changed the Course of History

Perhaps you need to be of a certain age to recognize the name of Hyman G. Rickover. Or perhaps you are not aware that he was born in Russia on this date in the year 1900.

His parents made the decision to leave Russia and settle their family in Chicago in 1906. When I read that, it struck me how just one decision made by an individual or a couple can change the course of history.

Statue of Liberty Photo by tom coe on Unsplash

Rickover graduated from the US. Naval Academy. He went on to work his way up through the ranks to head the Naval Reactors Branch of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and head of the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Division. He was instrumental in the design and construction of the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine.

He was known as a blunt man who sometimes butted heads with political leaders. Nevertheless, he went down in history as “Father of the Nuclear Navy.” The Soviet Union was unable to match the nuclear power held by the US military during the Cold War, and Admiral Rickover’s contributions and service were very much credited with that standing.

Admiral Rickover served in the United States Navy for 63 years, retiring in 1982.

Imagine how world history might have taken a different turn in the 1950s and beyond if Rickover’s parents had decided to stay in Russia in 1906.

Some reflections

After thinking about how one decision can change or set the path for the rest of our lives, as it did for Hyman G. Rickover and his parents, I thought about the decision made by my ancestors.

What about the day in the mid-1700s when my Morrison great-great-great-great-grandparents decided to leave Scotland and sail to America?

What about the day they decided to purchase land in the wilderness of North Carolina and set out down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania?

What about the day my father applied for a job at Martin Aircraft in Middle River, Maryland and uproot his young family at the start of World War II?

What about the day he and Mama decided to move back to North Carolina as soon as the war was over?

What about the day Grandpa Morrison decided how to divide his farm among his three sons. His decision about what land to give his youngest son determined where I grew up and once again live today!

If my father had inherited the land Grandpa left to Uncle Gene, my parent’s house would have been destroyed by a tornado in the 1940s.

If my father had inherited that part of the farm instead of Uncle Gene, he would have rebuilt that house after the tornado just as Uncle Gene and Aunt Louise did. In that case, I would now be faced with the imminent construction of an 1,100-house development literally in my back yard. Thanks to Grandpa’s decision, I will live around the corner from that massive development and will, for the time being, still enjoy the beauty, tranquility, and wildlife of the woods behind my house.

Decisions.

And those are just examples from my Morrisons. My life and world view have been molded by the thousands of decisions made by all my ancestors. The same is true for you. Have you ever stopped to think about that?

Sometimes we agonize over a decision, and sometimes we make a choice on a whim. We usually have no idea how our decisions will affect those who come after us. We can make their lives easier or more difficult. We all just do the best we can with the information we have at the time.

Try not to judge your ancestors, and grant yourself forgiveness and grace for the choices you wish you hadn’t made. You did the best you could at the time. Like your ancestors, you did not have a crystal ball to see into the future.

Hurricane Helene Update

At the request of NC Gov. Josh Stein, FEMA’s Transitional Shelter Assistance program extended coverage of temporary housing in rental units/motels until May 26, 2025, for people who lost their homes in September in western NC due to Hurricane Helene. The coverage had been scheduled to end on January 18. With sub-zero temperatures and windchills in the negative double digits for days, people being turned out of temporary rental housing would have been another disaster for those individuals and families. Temporary housing assistance will not automatically be extended for everyone. Each case is periodically reviewed.

President Trump visited the Asheville area on Friday and talked about water in California, making Canada the 51st state, and what a good-looking guy Franklin Graham is. When he managed to focus on where he was, he said several times that he would be going out “to the site,” which sounds like the disaster was limited to one location. It actually covers hundreds of square miles of pockets of destruction in a challenging terrain.

Trump also said that NC had been treated “very unfairly” by FEMA, but the mayor of Asheville said she wasn’t sure what he was basing that remark on. Trump said he wants to overhaul FEMA or perhaps get rid of it. He left the impression that FEMA hasn’t done anything to help western NC since Hurricane Helene. He wants money to go through “us” (did he mean him? He said, “through us”) directly to the states and not through FEMA. He also talked about putting a litmus test on states before they could get federal disaster funds.

(I’m sure FEMA is not perfect, but to claim the agency has failed NC just is not true. There is confusion over what FEMA’s role is in a disaster. It will be interesting to see how disasters in the future are addressed if FEMA is overhauled or dismantled. There’s always room for improvement.)

As of Friday, 183 roads in North Carolina are still closed due to Hurricane Helene, including Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line. There is no estimate for when the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina will be fully reopened.

In these remaining 183 cases, it’s not just a matter of resurfacing a road, some cases involve reconstructing entire roadbeds (many on the side of mountains), reconstruction of infrastructure, and reconstruction of bridges. County roads, state highways, and Interstates 26 and 40 have been affected.

Until my next blog post

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

I hope you are reading a good book. I just finished reading The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

What decision(s) have you and your ancestors made that you realize now had long-range and perhaps unanticipated ramifications?

Remember the people of Ukraine, western North Carolina, and Los Angeles County.

Janet