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Tha Qharlotta lama aad Democrat, Charlotte, V. C.• •and vul-and de-r to see 3 in the Ives and lat well-r change leer, bis e of the ito that leoeia of al air of a sneak,sted ever e White oe a gen-iat they t was an 3 under-Barney” :an be aHISTORY OF CHARLOTTE. N. C.se Karr, ature for yathanksie a few e should bad been en. Hisi, and af-but thisi married t lawful 1 and 2. ain mar-BegleyS. Su-in a fee of dol-om the ollected woollen ided to three to ive halt, Co.f cheese England, ie to the i to the oth camebat they than the ith, may n out of BrooklynHarbor, ‘8 visited tie. The alverton, iy in the sided in3 school,alverton, ever seen e Point, years of laughter, rely it is Asia and in Itome darkness i City of3 Calver-in a hun-has been ,s having eef sellad choiceitter ha* i pound, tple here that do advance ,er to the speciallyH.i Depart-ho entire unties of 11 but a romineut two and in 1881.0 a small nia. All ea. The1 border-.nting inentirely compari-Yirgiuia ) ; South rida 99 ; Louisiana ’ennesseentire cot-of 11 per md aver-I by 89. one crop of 1880. in South e of the the tem-rift.action of also too h. BothI in some age. In-bree suc-lacement idition iB Virginia, kanss it ulf coast lition are th Caro-orgia 89 ; isippi 88 ; nsas 85 :tsual, and reciation. v growth, avors at-ralence of f returns ither the issuranoeWRITTEN FOE THECharlotte Home and Democrat,BY MRS. U. M. LThis letter was signed bj Peter Daniel,somely inJohn Alexander, Wm. Bronaugb, W. Brent, John Mercer, Thoa. Ludwell Lee, Samuel Selden, Thoa. Fitzhugh and Robt. Washington. The last named gentleman iB the cousin to whom Gen. Washington left in his will his “gold-headed cane having my arms engraved upon it; and the spy glass which formed part of my equipage during the late war.The people bad borne many wrongs, but still they had no thought of rebelling against their rightful King. It is true, they rebelled against Lord Granville’s surveyors, and successfully held on to their lands, but they probably knew that Lord Carteret, Earl of Granville, was no favorite of old King George, and probably not permanently in favor with the then KiDg George 2d. He had had the audacity to propose that the Prince of Wales should take to wife a daughter of the King of France. Now George the 1st hated the French King and the French people with a bitter hatred which amounted to ferocity. He took the sug-;estion as a personal insult, dismissed Iranville from his service; and notwithstanding the advocacy of the Duchess of Kendal, never lorgave him. But king’s must die as well as other people, and the next King allowed Granville to hold office. He was made Secretary of State in 1742, just one year previous to the time when his listed agents were stalking through our country with their surveying instruments. But that was a small matter compared with later wrongs. Years rolled on and George 2d too died and a young and popular Prince came to the throne. Would not he do something for the oppressed colonies? lie gloried in the love and loyalty of his subjects—would he allow them to be illegally oppressed. Alas poor young King, what could he do against the crafty old statesmen who were used to ali sorts of political infamy and corruption? They put the matter to him in this way : “The war (with the Frenchin Canada) had been undertaken to protect the American colonies; and from its successful termination, the colonists were the sole gainers. As they had profited by the war, they ought to help to pay the expenses of the war. The government was terribly in want of money, aud Lord Bute tried to raise it by having recourse to a tax upon cider. lie found he had made a fearful mistake. The strength ol the Lories lay then, as it does still, in the agricultural districts, and the cider counties were agricultural, and of all the English counties, the most loyal. But their loyally could not Bland this. Bute had to resign in consequence and George Grenville came into power. It was be who suggested the Stamp Act. He prepared the bill, aud cariied it through Parliament. George III assented, and “has ever since been held up by his enemies, at home and abroad, as a tyrannical, or at least, an unconstitutional, Prince.”The obnoxious Act was repealed in a year or two, but then came Townsend’s taxes ou glass, paper, tea, c., and then the storm ol rebellion. It was now too late to stem the tide.“Had Wolfe lived, or Lord Clive been put at the head of the Army,” says a modern British writer, “the American republic would have probably constituted, at this moment, an integral portion of the great British Empire.”But there is no use saying what “might have been.” The state of civilization in and around Charlotte in her earliest days could not have been far behind that of any English village of similar size. When George III came to the throne, the public roads were in a worse condition than those of the time of the Roman rule in the island. Agriculture was in an equally deplorable condition. There had been, however, a little improvement since the time of his father, George II. At that time the traveller who approached London from the west, was in danger of sinking even when he got to Knights-bridge, up to his saddle-girths in mud. As to Sussex county, Fuller states that the roads were so fearful, that an old lady, a Iriend of his, used to be dragged to church, in a coach drawn by six oxen. Lord Harvey states that on one occasion when Queen Caroline passed from St. James’ Palace to Kensington, she spent two hours on the road, aud that over and over agaiu the royal carriage stuck fast, and was at last upset by the wheel getting into a rut. Over roads of this description, the best mode of travelling was on loot or on horseback. Judges rode the circuit on horseback, and the bar walked or rode as iheir circumstances authorized. What little traffic iu goods was carried on between one part of the realm and another was carried on chiefly by pack horses. And yet about this time the sumptuous elegance of the toilettes of Maria Antoinette were attracting the admiration ot the fashionable world. Burke’s eloquence thrilled the hearts and charmed the taste of appreciative audiences, and Fox talked, with seductiye sweetness of liberty, equality and human brotherhood. Was it, or was it not, a civilized age ? A coterie of highly educated young men at that time lived in and around Charlotte to whom the names of Burke, Pitt, Fox and Sheridan were as familiar as those of Bismarck,Gladstone and Disraeli are to usThe splendid orations of Burke did not reach them quite as soon as the labored statistics of Gladstone or the frothy novels of Disraeli reach us; but they were appreciated quite as keenly when they did come.Wm. Richardson Davie, a graduate of Princeton and one of the most elegant and accomplished men of his age, lived with his uncle and foster father; Rev. Wm. Richardson, pastor of Providence Church, nine miles South of Charlotte.Waightstill Avery, the great-great* grandson of Goy. Wintbrop, lived three miles North of town, in the family of Hezekiah Alexander. He was a young lawyer of brilliant talents, and a thoroughly finished education, such as few young men of this day can boast of. He had graduated at two colleges of note— Yale and Princeton. The old homestead where he lived with his Iriend Alexander is still standing, and is, by far, the most interesting building now to be seen in Mecklenburg county. The houBe is of stone and bears on itu walls in two placeB the date of erection, 1774. Waightstill Avery’s law office was in Charlotte and he probably rode in daily. Dr. Ephraim Brevard was another gentleman of fine culture and talents, who graduated at Princeton in 1708, and who married Patsy Polk, the grand-daughter of Thomas Spratt. Dr. Isaac Alexander, son of the noble old citizen, Abrabam Alexander, was another Princeton graduate. James McCree, another college bred man of fine talents and culture, and subsequently known as the Rev. James McCree, D. D.,lived about two miles west of the town on the place recently owned by Dr. R. H. Morrison, M. D. Adlai Osborne, another Princeton alumnus, lived in the adjoining county of Rowan but was probably often engaged in earnest debate on Tryon street, in the company of bis first cousin and class mate, Dr. Ephraim Brevard. The Grahams, John, George aud Joseph, lived with their widowed mother on the next plantation to that of the McCree family. The eldest, Dr. John, was a graduate of Queen’s College here in Charlotte, and received bis medical education from Dr. Rush of Philadelphia.Col. Moses Alexander was also a resident of Mecklenburg and his office of Sheriff kept him much in Charlotte. He married his cousin, Miss Sarah Taylor Alexander, the descendant (daughter or ^rand-daughter) of John Alexander ol Stafford oounty, Virginia.John Alexander, who was the fourth son of the first Lord Sterling, came to America and settled in Virginia in 1660. I am informed that this family owned immense estates, including the 6ite of the present city i»t Alexandria, which received its name from them. Fairfax county, in which the city is situated, was formed from Prince William in 1742 and Prince William from Stafford in 1730. The first Board ol Trustees for this ancient municipality were, Thomas, Lord Fairfax, William Fairfax, George Fairfax, Philip Alexander, John Carlyle, Gerrard Alexander and Laurence Washington. The John Alexander who resigned his office of Justice of the Peace, in consequence of the passage ql.lhe Stamp Act,was probably a brother of Mrs. Moses Alexander.Col. Moses Alexander’s sons, William Lee Alexander, married a daughter of Judge Henderson; another, Governor Nat., a grand-daughter of Thomas Spratt, Margaret Polk. This lady, who was said to have been remarkably lovely, was known in Charlotte as Peggy Polk. She left no children. Gov. Nat. Alexander was the first Governor which Charlotte gave to the State. He and his wife are buried iu our old Cemetery behind the 1st Presbyterian Cnurch. Ob, what a pity that, with all the education aud really fine culture of these early settlers, the history ol Charlotte and Mecklenburg, the history of our town and county was not written. How much is now lost which would have been of the greatest interest to their descendants.In 1766 the clouds of rebellion began to darken the sky, and the mutterings of its distant thunder were heard. But as yet, the atmosphere of Mecklenbuig remained clear. William Tryon was probably born and nurtured iu ihe belief that the people were made tor the rulers, and not the rulers for the people. But the Rev. Alexander Craighead, who in this year went to his eternal rest, had taught them a different docirine. Gov. Tryon counted on the loyally of Meckleubuig, aud iu the Summer of 1768, came up in person to sojourn for awhile and review the militia troops. The first gentleman whom he visited in our county was Maj. Phifer. I do not know exactly where this gentleman’s house stood, but it was iu that part of the county which is now embraced in Cabarruc. From the Governor’s own Diary (procured by Hon. George Bancroft from the Stale Paper Office in London) we learn that he left Hillsboro on the 17ih of August and reached Salisbury on the following day. Only remainiug iu Salisbury one night he proceeded to Maj. Martin Phifer’s, where he continued until the following Monday, went lo church on the Suuday intervening and heard the Iiev. Mr. Luther, a Dutch clergyman, preach. This is the only record we have of Mr. Luther, dating two years after the death of the Rev. Alexander Craighead, who had no brother in the ministry in all this region of countryduring his life lime. He was “like aSosparrow aloue upon the house top.Mr. Luther must have been a new coiner. The Rev. Hugh McAden (ancestor of our fellow-townsmen, Messrs. Rufus aud JohnoAden) had gone through these counties preaching some thirteen years previous to this period. From Maj. Phifer’s ou the 22d, Gov. Tryon and his staff proceeded to Capt. Polk’s. Capt. Thomas Polk lived on the place near Charlotte which he had inherited by right of his wife Susannah, from his tather-in-law, Thomas Spratt. Here on Tuesday the 23d, the militia, numbering about nine hundred men, were reviewed.On Weduesday the 24th the Governor returned to Maj. Phifer’s, which seems to have been his favorite place of sojourn.On the following Friday, 26th, a grand review of troops took place at Salisbury. Col. Alexauder Osborne called on the Governor to receive his orders for conducting the review. He lived at his residence, Belmont, within a few miles of the Catawba, and his only son, Adlai, had this year graduated at Princeton. After the review of the eleven companies Gov. Tryon ordered the Captains and field officers to repair to Mr. Montgomery ’a, where he held a conference with them in regard to the transactions between him and the Regulators. Col. Osborne made an address, and after speaking warmly in support of the royal government, read a letter from Ilawfieidb signed by four Presbyterian ministers, Reverends Hush Vc-Aden, Henry Patitls, James Cresswell and David Caldwell.On the day after the review the Governor’s party again returned to Maj. Phifer’s, where they remained until the 4th of September following.During his stay here he rode out with Maj. Phifer and Col. Palmer to see where the Commissioners left off the line that was run, twenty-two years previously, between his Majesty and Earl Granville. They found four trees standing in a square, marked with notches aud blazes; on one ol them G. R. (George Rex) was cut. This tree stood about five or six hundred yards east of Cold Water Creek. On a large gum they found the letters C. (William Chnrton) 1746.” This was the name of the surveyor. Business first and pleasure afterwards. Gov. Tryon spent the 31st in making calls on the neighboring gentlemen ; first on the list was Capt. John Paul Barringer, whose cellar was well stocked with wine, and whose rich meadow was undergoing its last mowing for the season. TheSaceful and apparently easy sweep of e scythes tempted the representative of royalty to try his own dainty hands at swinging the bright blade of rural industry. How well he succeeded in haymaking, history does not state. The next call was upon Col. Moses Alexander, the aristocratic Sheriff of the county, who agreed to furnish provisions and wagons for the Mecklenburg volunteers who were going to assist ip putting down the naughty Regulators.[to be continued.]a cow in Hardin county, Ky., recently gave birth to a calf that had seven well formed legs and eight hoofs.Synopsis of N. G. Supreme Court Decisions.June 1882.Howerton, and others vs. Henderson, from Granville.—This was an application by defendant for a certiorari to bring up an appeal from the Superior court of Granville. Upon docketing ihe appeal the plaintiff moved to dismiss it upon the grounds that it was not docketed in time and that the appeal bond had not been justified. Motion allowed and this application presented.The court says : 1st. When counsel forthe appellee in the case agreed to and signed the statement of the case on appeal whatever imperfection there may have been in the appeal bond given was waived.2d. It is sufficient if appeals takeu from the Superior court be docketed at the ensuing term of this court. The practice which obtained under the Rev. Code, cb. 4, sec. 25, of docketing appeals at the “term next ensuing,” has not been abrogated by any provision of the C. C. P. or by any rule of this court.3d. When there is nothing that savors ol a lack of diligence in the conduct of a petitioner or his counsel, and where the petition is made in time aud the reason that the appeal was not docketed al the ensuing term of the court, was altogether on account of the unexpected indisposition of the clerk, the petition should be granted.4th. If a petitioner fails to set forth in his application the merits of his case, even so far as to present a pritna facie case ; if it stood alone, his motion would be denied; but the defect would be remedied, where he accompanies bis petition with the statement of the case, as presented in this court, and is allowed to read the same without objection. Writ to issue as prayed for.Mauney vs. Gidney, Administrator, from Cleaveland.—This is an application to rehear the case, and is based upon the ground that his appeal was taken before the decision in BryBou vs. Lucas, 85 N. C., 397, where it was for the first time held that an appeal bond to avail for any purpose must be justified by the sureties ibeie o, and inasmuch as the practice had hitherto and almost universally been different, he was unavoidably surprised.The court says: That a practice so ueueral ami thus apparently sanctioned, furnishes an excuse to the plaintiff for his inadvertence or negligence and warrant*-the equitable interference of the court, to prevent its working him an injury ; though it must be expressly understood that no such indulgence will be shown to appeals hereafter to be taken, but that the requirements of the statute will be steadily adhered to. Motion allowed.Stale vs. Payne, from Buncombe.—Defendant was indicted lor stealing a horse. He offered evidence tending to show that he was of unsound mind and not criminally responsible and asked the court so to charge. The error assigued consists in charging that “the burden was upon the defendant to show by a preponderance of evideuce that his was such a state of mental weakness or mental decision that he did not know the nature and equality ol the act and that it was wrong.”The court eays : Had his Honor, instead of charging that the defendant mast prove his deleuse iu excuse of the crime, “by a preponderance of evidence” had told them, he must prove it to the satisfaction of the jury, his charge would have been in conformity to the most approved forms. His Honor did not seem to have his attention directed to the distinction between proof required to establish an offense and that offered in mitigation, excuse or justification. In the former case the State is required to prove an essential element, which must be established beyond a reasonable doubt; in the latter, it is only necessary that the jury should be satisfied that the matter in mitigation, justification or excuse is true. The doctrine of reasonable doubt never applies to the condemnation of a prisoner, but to his acquittal.Where the State does not appeal, makes no complaint and it is the appeal of the defendaut, and where he has not been prejudiced by the charge, though there may be error “when the error complained of in a judge’s charge is in no .degree prejudicial to the defendant” it is held to be uo ground for a venire de novo. No error. Affirmed. -Dobson and others vs. Simonton and others, from Iredell.—To the report of the referee’s finding of fact there was no exception. The referee rules, that the creditors who have sued out and been restrained from prosecuting supplemental proceedings by the injunction, are entitled to priority of payment according to the several dates at which the process was sued out against persons indebted to the bauk out ol these respective debts when recovered by the receiver ; and that all creditors ol docketed judgments, according to the date of docketing of each, have a preference out of the general fund to the extent of the value of any land on which ttiey thereby became liens under the statute. TJi» ruling was affirmed below and plaintiffs appeal. The inquiry is as to the legal validity of the judgments and nupplementary proceedings to enforce them, rendered on process which issued after the de facto existence of the corporation ceased and was served upon its former de facto officers.The court says:—The dissolution of the bank is established at a time long anterior to the bringing of any of the suits. Alter June 1, 1876 there was no such corporation as the Bank of Statesville in fact or in law and there copld be no de factp officers to bind it by their acts, or op whom legal process could be served. A defunct corporation, like a natural person who dies, cannot be brought into court by process served upon officers or agents who were such when it lived. All such agencies cease with its dissolution except as provided in ch. 26 Bat. Revisal, and its effectB and property are then to be administered in accordance with these statutory provisions. The receiver is the administering office and the rights and priorities of creditors as existing at the time of dissolution cannot be displaced or disturbed by the active diligence of creditors exercised afterwards. The same rule prevails as in the administration of deceased debtors. Van Glohn vs. DeRossett, 81 N. C., 467.There is no doubt of the right of plaintiffs, not parlies to the judgments, to be allowed to impeach them and show their nullity. In the action every creditor is at his election an adversary contestant of the claims of s 11 others, and all redress is open to him that would be to the debtor himself.This decision is upon the grounds that the bank having ceased to act after the 1st day of June, 1876, and all of its supposed officers having since abdicated their functions, the judgments recovered upon the processes so served as the referee finds, are nullities, apd no priority has been thereby acquired by the creditors. Judgment reversed. Error.Dr.N. C., Ins first vice-pi cal associalB. M. *invented a claimed, wi the same ti to put any — Oxford jAged.— Madison c age of 11! hearty, hai the past wi 1812, and r officers of f that time, many wintlt;State eighth ann lina State 1 Salem last dent; W. I Hunter, Tr was delivei Reports frc ceived, and milted.The elecyear was I Dr. J. F. Dr. C. J. V dent; Dr. 2nd Vice F Charlotte, Salem,Trei for the nex An elect board was E. Turner three yearsPostm AS' spector, Th Ileason, po charging h sand dollar2^“ Mr,Fishery, inN. C., in ad last week, and saved ■ days and n all on the I In additionmany were sold at gre; get clear o: by corapeti of the largiAttemptoners, con tempted to by making cell in whic the prison) succeeded i his body tl when their and he was hole by the skin iiotdh.R«show that increase in last year, larger.In Rus8i if not an jet for the oil cooking as ing soap a:The grea London, th running in uiuety secc when it st of ten milt or five railW~ ThConfederat of the batt Gettysburj entertained Assooiatior on the bai their depart3T Thnominated Commissio York, chai chusetts; vania; Aus Ambler, ORobert P. I John W. I: can F. KerWool-CLIIThe under Carding and solicit Ihe pi chinery is ne and th«*y fee (action to pa Wool will and promptl. J. G. ShanApril 28, 1A freslLiver and K and Baker’s ceived byMay 19, ISA consign: bers, from best in the n:May 26,18H ACorner C(Land add: CORN, FLCChoi.We are re friends and t our line as L fully solicit sApril 21,1NO 3PATENT Compounds, ry examinati free. Our “I free everywlEstablishe June 2,18!Pled100 BarreApril 7, U
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Charlotte Home And Democrat
Charlotte, North Carolina, US
Fri, Jun 16, 1882
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USA 20 Sep 2022
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