“If This House Could Talk” – historical essay

Today’s blog post is about the last story in my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories.

*Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories*, by Janet Morrison

The house

Actually, “If This House Could Talk” is more of an essay than a short story. It is written from the viewpoint of an old abandoned one-and-a-half-story wooden farmhouse that I saw a thousand times in my life.

That house fascinated me because it did not face the main road. It faced a dirt driveway that led to a couple of other houses. Often, when we would pass it, my father would point and say, “the old Snell place was over there.” I didn’t know any Snells and, as a child, did not care that they once “lived over there.”

It was only after I was an adult and discovered the 1777 estate papers of my Morrison 4^th-great-grandparents that I discovered that Francis Snell taught my 3^rd-great-grandfather in the 1770s. By then, I had also met a descendant of Mr. Snell’s who lived in Ohio.

Why is it that you don’t know what questions to ask your parents until after they are gone? But I digress.

The essay/story

“If This House Could Talk” is set in the 1970s, a few years before the house at the center of this essay was demolished. After doing some genealogical and Civil War research, I discovered some incredible things about the family that occupied that house in the mid-1800s.

I did not know the history of the house until I was researching the 72 men and boys from Rocky River Presbyterian Church in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, who were killed or died of disease during the Civil War.

“If This House Could Talk” gives that house an opportunity to tell us what it witnessed during that time as it reminisced about a much different time more than 100 years earlier. There were happy times and sad times for the family that house sheltered when it was young.

What kind of memories is your home making, in case a writer decides to let it talk years from now?

Links to the blog posts about the other 12 stories

I hope you have enjoyed reading about each of the stories in Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories over the last several months in my blog. If you like my book or know someone who might, tell them that they can get a print or electronic copy on Amazon or a print copy at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC.

Update on Hurricane Helene recovery in North Carolina

As we get further away from September 2024’s Hurricane Helene, it is easy to forget how long it takes for a place and a people to recover from a natural disaster of such proportions. I have little new to report since my last update on February 2.

Hurricane Helene has dropped from the news cycles even here in North Carolina, except for an occasional reference, but I’m still trying to shine an occasional light on the recovery on my blog.

Via Facebook I keep up with some of the things Beloved Asheville has done and continues to do since the hurricane. As of last week, Beloved Asheville delivered its 140th new home to a family who lost their home in the flood. After living in an RV for 17 months, another family finally has a home. It might just look like a mobile home to a lot of people, but it is life-changing for this family. To learn more about Beloved Asheville, go to https://www.belovedasheville.com.

Several roads remain closed in the mountains due to the record-breaking rain (upwards of 30 inches in some places) during Hurricane Helene. For example, I read that Sampson Road in Watauga County reopened a couple of weeks ago after two sections were washed out during the storm. When a road “washes out” in the mountains, it often means that the road and all the soil beneath it slid down the mountainside. It is a feat of engineering to rebuild the roadbed so the road can be reconstructed. That is one reason why recovery takes so long in the mountains.

Portions of the Blue Ridge Parkway have not reopened since Hurricane Helene. I-40 at the North Carolina-Tennessee border remains just one lane in each direction with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit. Highway construction is hampered by snow and ice in the winter months.

The National Park Service reported: “As of February 12, 2026, many sections of the Parkway remain closed due to winter weather, though recreation is authorized at your own risk in these areas. Specific closures include a bridge rehabilitation project from milepost 63.5 to 63.9, with detours in place. Visitors should exercise caution, as ungated sections may still be accessible but are subject to emergency closures.”

There were at least 57 landslides in the 269 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. Work is ongoing and has moved into Phase 2 in which repairs to 21 landslides between milepost 318.2 and 323.4 are underway, with completion expected by fall 2026. That includes the North Toe River Valley Overlook, Chestoa View Trail, and Bear Den Overlook.

Sign blocking travel by car, bike, or on foot on National Park Service property on Blue Ridge Parkway at Asheville, NC, June 10, 2025 — A road closure sign on the Blue Ridge Parkway in June 2025.

The thousands of us who are fans of the Blue Ridge Parkway can hardly wait for all of it to reopen. I’ve read hints that that might occur by the end of 2026.

One of my best vacations ever was a leisurely drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway from its beginning just southeast of Waynesboro, Virginia to its end near Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. The wildflowers were spectacular and so varied all along the 469 miles!

Businesses in the affected areas continue to rebuild and reopen. Many had to relocate and many will not reopen. Brother Wolf Animal Rescue, which I have mentioned in earlier blog posts, is relocating to higher ground in Asheville. I understand that the town of Lake Lure is well on its way to reopening for the summer tourist season and the lake itself is expected to be back to full-pond stage in May.

The town of Chimney Rock, just a few miles up US-74 from Lake Lure, is still in recovery mode, as the little tourist village was almost wiped off the map by the hurricane.

Life in my part of the state quickly returned to normal after the hurricane, with only small pockets of flooding, but life and the landscape were changed forever in various hard-hit parts of the Appalachian Mountains in the western part of North Carolina.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

“Secrets of a Foster Child” – historical short story

The eleventh story in my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, is about a fourteen-year-old foster child who is a veteran at changing homes and foster families.

Some foster children only have a trash bad to put their belongings in.
Photo by Sven Brandsma on Unsplash

In “Secrets of a Foster Child,” Lorraine finally found a family she felt a part of in 1948, just three years after World War II ended.

Things did not go as hoped, but she just might find dignity in a simple suitcase.

The dignity of a simple suitcase.
Photo by Shamblen Studios on Unsplash

In 2001, the congregation of the church I am a member of contacted the county’s Department of Social Services in search of a hands-on project. When we were told that many foster children have nothing but a garbage bag to carry their belongings in to a foster home, we knew we had found a project we could get excited about.

We collected enough new and like-new suitcases to make sure every foster child in the county had a suitcase. We hoped that would help them no longer think of themselves as “throwaway children.”

As you can see, if you have been reading my book or reading this series of blog posts about the stories in my book, I get my inspiration from many sources.

In case you have missed any of the previous blog posts about the stories in the book, here are the links:

Thank you for reading my blog and supporting my writing. Look for Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories on Amazon or at your favorite independent bookstore.

Where to find my book of historical short stories

If you cannot find it locally, you can visit my website, https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com, click on the book, then click on the Bookshop.org button. Through Bookshop.org you can order books from any independent bookstore in the United States. As an affiliate, I will make a commission from the sale of any book purchased through my website. Thank you!

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

The Book I Read in September 2025

I only read one entire book in September. I pre-ordered it early in the summer and had great expectations that it would contain some information to supplement my research about the Great Wagon Road.

The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim’s Journey on The Great Wagon Road, by James Dodson

Photo of the cover of The Road That Made America, by James Dodson — *The Road That Made America*, by James Dodson

Perhaps I should have done more research into the book itself. It was not what I expected, but I read the entire book. I did not want to miss a morsel of new detail about the Great Wagon Road.

I will not write a review of this book, because it very well might be my fault that I expected too much from it. I know from experience that it is difficult to recover a high rating once someone has left a mediocre review.

For what Mr. Dodson set out to write, he did an excellent job. It just wasn’t what I hoped for or needed.

If you are looking for a travelogue that is about half set in Pennsylvania and pretty much peters out when he gets to the northern piedmont area in North Carolina, you would probably enjoy this book. The author tells where he ate, where he stayed, and who he met along the way. He met some old friends along the way and he gives background details of their years of friendship. There is an emphasis on the Civil War battlefields along or near The Great Wagon Road, so a Civil War buff would find that of interest.

It just wasn’t what I hoped would supplement my research for the historical novel series I’m writing.

My reading continues to suffer

I have been in a reading funk since January 20. Actually, it dates back to November 5, 2024. You can read between the lines and figure out why I have lost my desire to read. It is a sad and dangerous thing for a wannabe writer to stop reading.

My writing projects

This summer I finished writing and self-published I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter and I Need The Light! Companion Journal and Diary. They are available on Amazon and you can look for them at your favorite bookstore.

If can even order the devotional book (and soon, the companion journal) from your favorite independent bookstore by going to https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com, click on the book covers and place your order by using the Bookshop.org button.

I appreciate each of you who have ordered either or both books.

At the request of a distant cousin who is a very dedicated member of the Sons of the American Revolution, last week I set my short stories aside and wrote the honoring statements for four American Revolutionary War patriots and soldiers who are buried in Spears Graveyard of Rocky River Presbyterian Church in Cabarrus County, NC.

With that research and writing completed on Saturday evening, I turned my attention back to proofreading and editing my historical short stories. Stay turned for an announcement in a few weeks when I publish Traveling Through History: Historical Short Stories.

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, 35 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included five US highways, two state highways, and 28 state roads, meaning three state roads opened last week.

Of course, sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina will remain closed for another year or more, and I-40 at the Tennessee line will continue to be just two lanes at 35 miles-per-hour for a couple more years while five miles of the highway are being rebuilt in the Pigeon River Gorge.

But western North Carolina is open for business and tourists this fall. Just be aware that you might run into a detour, and you can’t drive the full length of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Janet

No place for a preacher’s son!

For today’s blog post, I’m taking advantage of a local history column I wrote for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper on August 23, 2006.

If you enjoy this post, you might enjoy the books in which I published the local history column articles I wrote from 2006 through 2012, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 and Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2. The story I’m sharing today is found in Book 1.

Photo of the front cover of Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1, by Janet Morrison — *Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1*,
by Janet Morrison

Photo of front cover of Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2, by Janet Morrison — *Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2*,
by Janet Morrison

The articles I wrote for the newspaper came primarily from the history of Township One in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, but many topics would be of general interest to anyone who enjoys reading about history. They are specific to Cabarrus County, yet many of them are indicative of life in rural and small-town America since the 1700s.

My books are available at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC and on Amazon.

Sit back, and prepare to be transported to a simpler time in the 1870s.

“Pioneer Mills: No Place For a Preacher’s Son”

Did you know that there is a written account of a child’s memories of the Harrisburg area in the 1870s?

The Rev. Joseph B. Mack came from Charleston, South Carolina in 1871 to be the pastor of Rocky River Presbyterian Church. When he and his family arrived, the manse the congregation was building for his family to live in was not completed.

Church member Robert Harvey Morrison moved his own family into a tenant house and gave the new minister’s family his home in the Pioneer Mills community. Pioneer Mills was a gold-mining boom town in the early- to mid-19^th century. It was apparently still a rip-roarin’ place in 1871.

Photo of the Robert Harvey Morrison House in Pioneer Mills Community in Cabarrus County, NC — Robert Harvey Morrison House

A special homecoming was held at the church on August 12, 1912. Rev. Mack’s son, Dr. William Mack, was unable to attend. He sent his regrets from New York and put some of his childhood memories on paper. Fortunately for us, his letter to homecoming master of ceremonies Mr. Morrison Caldwell was printed in the Concord newspapers the following week.

Dr. Mack wrote, “My first Rocky River recollection is getting off the train at Harris Depot and going in the dark to the home of Uncle Solomon Harris.” I don’t believe Dr. Mack was related to Mr. Harris. This was probably a term of endearment and respect.

He continued, “There we met Ed and ‘Little Jim’ (to distinguish him from ‘Big Jim,’ the son of Mr. McKamie Harris.) Uncle Solomon had the biggest fire-place I ever saw; it seemed as big as a barn door.

“Shortly afterwards we went to Pioneer Mills…. There… was the old Gold mine, Barnhardt’s store and McAnulty’s shoemaker shop…. While there I decided to become either a merchant or shoemaker, for Barnhardt’s store and McAnulty’s shop kindled young ambitions; better to ‘keep store’ or ‘mend shoes,’ than as a preacher’s son to be moving around from place to place.

“But Pioneer Mills was ‘no place for a preacher’s son.’ Soon we moved again; this time to the brand new brick parsonage, close by the church. We used to go to church in a big closed carriage drawn by two mules; now, every Sunday, we walked to church, going down a steep hill, across a branch, and through the grove to the famous old house of worship.”

Dr. Mack’s letter also read, “Those were happy years; happy in springtime with its apple blossoms, song birds, morning-glories and Tish McKinley’s Sassafras tea; happy in the summertime with its blackberries and plums, its bob-whites in the wheat fields, its lightning and thunder storms, its bare-footed boys and girls, and its bitter quinine to keep off third-day chills; happy in the autumntime, with its white fields of unpicked cotton and its beautiful trees with leaves of myriad hues; and happy in the wintertime, with its snows, its big hickory back-logs, its boys in boots red-topped and toes brass-tipped, its red-cheeked girls in wraps and ‘choke rags,’ and its Christmas Holidays and turkeys.”

Dr. Mack’s colorful memories paint an idyllic picture of life in Township #1 in the early 1870s. Will the children of 2006 have equally as wonderful memories?

(Published in Harrisburg Horizons newspaper, August 23, 2006.)

Resources: The Presbyterian Congregation on Rocky River, by Thomas Hugh Spence, Jr., 1954; The Concord Daily Tribune, August 16, 1912; and The Concord Times, August 19, 1912.

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, of the 1,468 road closures in North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene last September, 33 are still closed and 39 have partial access. Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line will be limited to one lane traffic in each direction with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit for the foreseeable future.

On a happy note, on Friday, a 38-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway opened from Asheville to Graveyard Fields and Mount Pisgah! This is south of Asheville.

Hurricane Erin

On the other end of the state, Hurricane Erin skirted the Outer Banks of North Carolina last week, dumping tons of sand and water on NC Highway 12. NC-12 is the only highway connecting Hatteras Island to the islands to the north. Crews are working to reopen the highway as soon as possible as the summer tourist season is winding down.

Janet

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.

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

#OnThisDay: Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, 1775

I have blogged about today’s topic before. I try to always mention it near the anniversary date of the event because it is a little-known fact in US history. Indeed, it rarely gets mentioned even by the local journalists and reporters in the Mecklenburg County, North Carolina area today. (Of course, most of them moved here from other parts of the country and they are not aware of our local history.)

I don’t know that I can improve upon my Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence blog from 2022, so I am taking the liberty to quote from it today.

From my May 23, 2022 blog post, “Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, 1775”:

Today, my blog is about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence in 1775 while present-day Cabarrus County was part of Mecklenburg County and its citizens played just as important a role in the declaration as anyone living in what is present-day Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

Friday, May 20, 2022 was the 247^th anniversary of the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

A recreation of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence

But what about the 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence?

I blogged about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence on May 21, 2018. To refresh your memory, or to introduce you to the topic if you aren’t aware of it, the following nine paragraphs are reblogged from that post:

My immigrant ancestors were among the Scottish Presbyterian pioneers who settled old Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Years of discontent in the American colonies were piled on top of the anti-British Crown feelings they brought with them across the Atlantic.

Weary of unfair taxes imposed by the Crown and the discrimination they were subjected to as Presbyterians slowly brought the settlers to the boiling point. An example of the persecution these Presbyterians felt were the Vestry and Marriage Acts of 1769. Those acts fined Presbyterian ministers who dared to conduct marriage ceremonies. Only Anglican marriages were recognized by the government.

In May of 1771 a group of young men from the Rocky River Presbyterian Church congregation in the part of Mecklenburg County that later became Cabarrus County, disguised themselves by blackening their faces and under the cover of darkness ambushed a shipment of Royal munitions traveling north on the Great Wagon Road. The supplies were destined for Rowan County to put down the Regulator Movement.

Blowing up three wagons loaded with gunpowder and other supplies, the teens and young men who perpetrated the deed were declared outlaws by the Royal Governor and had to go into hiding until May 20, 1775 when all the citizens of Mecklenburg County were declared to be rebels against the British Crown.

On May 20, 1775, the citizens of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina declared themselves to be free and independent of the rule of Great Britain. It was a sober and sobering declaration not entered into lightly. Those American patriots meant business, and they knew the risks they were taking.

Archibald McCurdy, an Elder in Rocky River Presbyterian Church, heard the document read from the steps of the log courthouse in Charlotte. When he got home, he and his wife, Maggie, listed everyone they knew of who could be trusted in the coming fight for American independence.

No original copies of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence survive today. The local copy was lost in a house fire at the home of one of the signers. The copy taken to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia by Captain James Jack on horseback was also lost. Later, signers of the document recreated it from memory.

Nevertheless, those of us who were raised on stories of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and the brave souls who risked their lives to sign it know that the document was real. The blood of the American patriots still flows in our veins and their spirit of freedom still beats in our hearts.

Don’t mess with our freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, or our freedom of assembly!

Until my next blog post

Just for the pleasure of it, read a good book.

Take time for friends and family.

Don’t forget the people of Ukraine.

Janet

Do you associate volcanoes with North Carolina?

Now that I have your attention… today’s blog post is about ancient history. This is one of the topics I wrote about in Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2.

Photo of a volcano by Guille Pozzi on Unsplash.com. — Photo by guille pozzi on Unsplash

Harrisburg, North Carolina sits inside a 22-mile syenite or ring dike. One can get a feel for it from several high points in the area, such as when traveling south from Concord on US-29 near the intersection with Union Cemetery Road. It’s like looking across a gigantic bowl.

Another possible place from which to catch a glimpse of the “bowl” is on NC-49 southbound after you pass Old Charlotte Road. The Charlotte downtown skyline is visible briefly from that location as well as the one referenced above on US-29.

*Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2*, by Janet Morrison

What, you may ask, is a syenite or ring dike? I’m no expert on volcanology, but my understanding is that it is a circular dike around a volcano.

According to 2001 Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes, by David Ritchie and Alexander E. Gates, Ph.D.:

“If magma is removed from the magma chamber beneath a volcano, it can undergo caldera collapse. The volcano and the area around it collapse because they are no longer being held up by the liquid. A series of concentric faults and cracks develop around the collapsing volcano. As they do, magma will squeeze up around the cracks and faults forming ring dikes.”

I’ll take their word for it.

In 1966, U.S. Geological Survey geologist Harry E. LeGrand and Henry Bell III led a scientific excursion in Cabarrus County to study our ring dike and other interesting rock and mineral deposits in the county.

You might be able to access a pdf of “Guidebook of Excursion in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, October 22-23,1966” by going to https://www.carolinageologicalsociety.org. Search for “1960s Field Trip Guidebooks” and then scroll down to find that particular guidebook.

The Harrisburg area has experienced a population explosion since 1966. The landmarks noted in the 1966 guidebook are either gone or more difficult to locate today. The concentric rings that were reportedly visible from the air in 1960 by R.G. Ray might not still be intact.

If you’d like to know more about this topic, the 1849 meteorite; Harrisburg’s first organized housing and business development of 100 years ago; the Morrison-Sims Store and Old Post Office; the flood of 1886, the Piedmont Area Development Association (P.A.D.A) of the 1960s; earthquakes that have been felt here; McCachren’s Store; Rocky River bridges in the 1870s; the Sauline Players; a tribute to George L. Govan; Rocky River Academy; the Rocky River Presbyterian Church’s fourth sanctuary which was completed in 1861; a 1777 estate sale; Hugh Smith Pharr and his mill; a 1907 attempted train robbery; 1816 – the year without a summer;

Also: items such as milk, apples, and dry cleaning that were all delivered to homes in the mid-1900s; Blume’s Store; high-speed trains; the boundaries of Township 1; early Harrisburg education; Pharr Grist Mill on Back Creek; how electricity came to Harrisburg; a 1912 church homecoming; Pioneer Mills Gold Mine and Community; a fellow named Collett Leventhorpe; a 1911-1912 debating society; and the tenth anniversary of the Harrisburg Branch of the Cabarrus County Public Library system… please purchase Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2.

The book also contains nearly 150 pages of my research notes on subjects I didn’t get to write about when I wrote a local history newspaper column from 2006-2012.

Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 and Book 2 are available in paperback at Second Look Books, 4519 School House Commons in Harrisburg, NC.

Second Look Books, 4519 School House Commons, Harrisburg, NC

They are also available in paperback and e-Book from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BW2QMLHC/.

An infographic ad for Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Books 1 and 2

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

I hope you get to spend quality time with friends and family.

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

P.S. Please visit https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com and subscribe to my e-Newsletter. Next issue due out the first week of January!

Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, Revisited

Even though we can’t show you an original copy of this declaration, it is written on our hearts as the descendants of those who whole-heartedly supported it as they prepared for the inevitable war against King George III of Great Britain.

The Americans’ beef wasn’t with the people of Great Britain – many of them were their relatives and friends – their beef was with the King – and they knew their friends and relatives back in Scotland were secretly wishing them well for they were also under the thumb of the King.

The year was 1775. The date was May 20.

The people of Mecklenburg County in the backcountry of North Carolina had had all they could take of King George and the oppressive laws and taxes he and the British Parliament continued to impose on the American colonists. After all, the reason most of them had left Europe was to escape monarchs who had little or no regard for their subjects.

The years leading up to May 20, 1775 had been tense. On May 2, 1771 a group of Mecklenburg County residents had taken matters into their own hands and blown up a shipment of munitions King Charles had ordered to be transported from Charleston, South Carolina to Rowan and Orange counties in North Carolina to put down The Regulator Movement.

The perpetrators of that gunpowder plot had been declared traitors and were still being hunted down by the Royal Government authorities when the county militias sent representatives to a convention in Charlotte to debate political conditions. The result was the writing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence more than a year before the more famous one was written in Philadelphia.

The document set out the citizens’ grievances and declared themselves free and independent of Great Britain. Sadly, the original copy of the declaration was lost in a fire at the home of John McKnitt Alexander on April 6, 1800. The Declaration was reconstructed from the memories of those who had written it and signed it.

There are Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence doubters today, but I have no doubt that it existed. It was followed just 11 days later by the Mecklenburg Resolves, which was a similar document.

Captain Archibald McCurdy of the Rocky River Presbyterian Church area of old Mecklenburg County that is present-day Cabarrus County, stood at the Mecklenburg County log courthouse steps and heard the Declaration read. He went home and told his wife, Maggie, they needed to make a list of the people they knew they could trust. There were a few Loyalists in the area.

Whatever you’re doing this Saturday, May 20, take a moment to reflect on what the brave people of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina did 248 years ago. If you live in the United States of America, ponder the stand they took on that day. The King proclaimed them to be in a state of rebellion, and the men who signed the document risked their very lives by proclaiming they were free.

Since my last blog post

Spring is finally in full force here in North Carolina. All I have to do is put a hanging basket of pretty flowers on a hook on the side porch and I can count on “Mama Bird” – a Carolina Wren – to build a nest in it. She’s done is for decades.

Having bronchitis and no set schedule allowed me time to do some reading last week. I have some interesting books to tell you about in my May 22 and June 5 blog posts.

I continue to remind folks on Facebook to purchase my local history books. I’m trying not to be a nuisance.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read, including Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Books 1 and 2, as well as The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

Don’t forget to visit my website (https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com) and subscribe to my newsletter. I have special plans for May 20 and I can’t wait to tell you all about them in my July newsletter!

Make time for family and friends.

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Happy Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence Day on Saturday!

Janet

Local History is Revealed in National Archives Holdings

The first documented gold discovery in the United States was here in present-day Cabarrus County, North Carolina in 1799. The discovery by a little boy playing in Little Meadow Creek led to gold fever in the area. Numerous gold mines were dug and mined to various levels of success.

In fact, there was enough gold found in the southern piedmont of North Carolina that a branch of the United States Mint was built in Charlotte in 1836 and 1837. It opened for the production of gold coins in 1837.

A trip to the National Archives at Atlanta (which is in the Atlanta suburb of Morrow, Georgia) a few years ago gave me the opportunity to look at ledger books from the Mint in Charlotte. Within those pages I recognized names from my community.

Register of Gold – Branch Mint – Charlotte

I’m blogging about some of that information today to give you an example of the type of documented local history I included in Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2. Although the book (and Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1) concentrate on Harrisburg, both books do include articles about other communities in Township One.

One of the communities rich in history in the township is Pioneer Mills. Little more than a quiet crossroads now, it was a center of activity in the mid-1800s after the discovery of gold and the opening of Pioneer Mills Gold Mine.

I recognized names such as John C. Barnhardt from the Pioneer Mills community as taking 123 ounces of amalgam to the Charlotte Mint on August 31, 1843, for which he was paid $2,340.33. That was no small sum of money in 1843!

Robert Harvey Morrison, on whose land the Pioneer Mills Gold Mine was located, was paid more than $4,000 for the gold bars and amalgam he took to the Mint from late in 1846 into early 1850.

Other names I recognized in the Mint ledgers included two other Barnhardts, Robert R. King, three men with the surname Treloar, and R.B. Northrop.

Comparing US Census records, Charlotte Mint records, and various years of Branson Business Directories helped me get a better idea of what the Pioneer Mills Community must have looked like 150 to 180 years ago. There was a general store, a dry goods store, a blacksmith, a school, and a post office, In 1869, Pioneer Mills Community had three physicians.

Gold mining brought people from Canada, Great Britain, and New York to Pioneer Mills. Gold mining, no doubt, brought some undesirable people into the community, which led the wife of the pastor of Rocky River Presbyterian Church to say in the early 1870s that Pioneer Mills “is no place for a preacher’s son!”

If you’d like to read more about the history and people of Cabarrus County, North Carolina, you might enjoy Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Books 1 and 2. They are available in paperback at Second Look Books in Harrisburg and in paperback and for Kindle from Amazon.

By the way, you can visit the research room at the National Archives at Atlanta (in Morrow, Georgia) by appointment only. Visit the website for more information: https://www.archives.gov/atlanta.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

I hope you spend time with family and good friends.

And, as always, remember the people of Ukraine and count your blessings.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Janet

Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, 1775

In case you think I’m spending too much time this month blogging about our local history, just keep in mind that May is an important month of historical events in Cabarrus County, North Carolina.

My May 2, 2022 blog post, __#OnThisDay: 251^st Anniversary of 1771 Gunpowder Plot__ was about patriots’ blowing up the king’s munitions just off the Great Wagon Road in present-day Cabarrus County.

Friday, May 20, 2022 was the 247^th anniversary of the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

But what about the 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence?

Don’t mess with our freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, or our freedom of assembly!

Until my next blog post

I’m considering taking a week off from writing my blog, unless something interesting comes along and begs to be written. Next Monday, May 30, is Memorial Day in the United States of America. It is a day to remember all the men and women who have lost their lives while serving in the armed forces of the United States.

I hope you have a good book to read until I blog again on June 6.

Take time for a relaxing hobby and spend some time with friends and family.

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

Janet's Writing Blog

Tag: rocky river presbyterian church

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Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, Revisited

Local History is Revealed in National Archives Holdings

Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, 1775

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