2020 01 Clinton Davie Dossier, January 2020 page 1
DAVIE DOSSIER
Issued by
Davie County Historical and Genealogical Society
Mocksville, North Carolina
January 2020, Issue 1
CLINTON
Davie Dossier, January 2020 page 2
DAVIE COUNTY HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
President, Linda Leonard
Vice President, Marcia Phillips
Secretary, Pat Mason
Treasurer, Marie Craig
Board of Directors, Claude Horn
Dossier Editor, Marie Craig
Webmaster, Marie Craig
Our Website is https://sites.google.com/view/dchgs .
Historical Data to research is http://www.daviecountync.gov/440/Genealogy-Local-History .
Other Websites about Davie County genealogy and history:
http://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Davie_County%2C_North_Carolina
REVISED URL for Davie County GenWeb:
http://ncgenweb.us/davie/
Meetings are on the fourth Thursdays at 7 pm at Davie County Library History Room.
January 25: old movie night, H. Lee Waters movies of Davie County in the 40’s
February 23, Sat., 10 am: instead of meeting, tour of Family History Center, 2780 Westchester Dr., Winston-Salem
March 28, Tour of Zion Chapel Methodist Church, discussion of renovation of one of Davie’s oldest churches
April 25, Randall Jones lecture and display; books for sale
May 4: Help with Daniel Boone Festival on the Square
June 27: Film of the Harold Frank Story, Prisoner of War in World War Two
September 26: Pearson Families and Cemetery, illustrated talk by Marie Craig
October 24: Report from Fort Dobbs in Statesville
November 21: Mark Hager and Harold Frank; photos of their trip to Europe, 75th anniversary
January 23: old movie night, H. Lee Waters movies of Davie County in the 40’s.
FUTURE CONFERENCES
National Genealogical Society: May 20-23, 2020 in Salt Lake City. See https://conference.ngsgenealogy.org/
Federation of Genealogical Society: September 2-5, Kansas City MO. See https://fgs.org/annual-conference/
Note: at the end of 2020, these two societies will merge.
RootsTech: February 26-29, 2020 in Salt Lake City. See https://www.rootstech.org/salt-lake/ Talks are archived.
Back issues of the Davie Dossier are online at
http://www.daviecountync.gov/440/Genealogy-Local-History .
More and more research items about Davie County are being uploaded for use on your computer at home.
See http://www.daviecountync.gov/440/Genealogy-Local-History .
Genealogy data in Bibles, Daniel Boone Family info, church history, and Flossie Martin records.
Davie Dossier, January 2020 page 3
CLINTON, The Town That Never Was
Article from The Salisbury Post written by George Raynor
River Transportation was Dream of Early Settlers in Area
[Hughes map at right]
Born of economic despair and fed upon wishful
thinking, Richmond Pearson’s dream of navigating the
Yadkin River had gossamer wings that trembled and
shattered under the impacts of reality.
Difficult as it was to penetrate the wilderness
and to establish new homes, the pioneers had found after
six decades that it was at least as difficult to get the
products from these fresh soils and new-found forests to
the markets.
After local needs for food were met, of what
value was it to send the surpluses to Charleston or
Richmond if the costs of shipping were as high as the
prices paid? The oxen were slow moving the roads
crude and at times impassable. The imported goods they
brought back had to be sold at far higher prices than paid
by those who lived on the coast.
Pearson probably wasn’t the first to quickly
recognize that the solution to the problem flowed past
his doorstep along the South Yadkin River at
Cooleemee. Flatboats could carry the cotton, grains,
corn and other products from the backwoods to the
coastal shipping towns. In fact this had been done on a
few North Carolina rivers for years.
Before 1790, Pearson was pressing the young
state to make a study to see if it was practical. No action
apparently was taken on his proposal, and in the early
1800s Pearson turned his energies to the buying and
developing of the largest series of plantations in Old
Rowan.
Erie Canal: But the dream of river
transportation hadn’t died. It was during the first two
decades of the 19th century when a New York City
governor, De Witt Clinton, was loudly promoting the
importance of a canal to open upstate New York to
navigation with a canal that would tie the Atlantic to the
Great Lakes. This, a great success, was the famous Erie
Canal.
So intrigued was Pearson with the prospects of
the Erie Canal -- it didn’t open until after Pearson’s
death in 1819 – that Clinton was chosen as the name of
the riverport where all these backwood products would
be collected for shipment downriver.
And the riverport was to be developed on lower
half of The Point. No doubt the Pearsons – he had
convinced his sons, Jesse and Joseph, to take part –
envisioned a large community for they laid off streets
and sites for public buildings. Pearson had bought the
property, a piece at a time over the years, some of the
parcels from the original grantees.
Because the Pearson land transactions were so
numerous and widespread, it is difficult to determine
which were made for the riverport and which for general
farming. But it is clear that his son, Jesse, who lived in
and near Mocksville, was his principal agent and partner.
Another strong son, Joseph, was living in Washington,
D.C., sold some of his lands for the development, later
retrieving them after the collapse of the promotion.
Cooleemee Plantation: It was Jesse’s
plantation, Cooleemee Hill, a few miles upriver, that was
sold to the Hairston family in 1817. A wedding gift of
Richmond to his son and bride, the sale brought $20,000,
enough at least to get the project moving.
The belief that water transportation was a cheap
and reasonable alternative to land transportation was as
old as man himself. Areas where it was offered naturally
prospered, and these tempted others to consider canals
and the clearing of obstructed rivers.
The needs were as obvious as the problems.
What wasn’t obvious was the solution to the problem of
navigating on the Yadkin. They envisioned a town on
the Point, as the shipping point, presumably to the mouth
Davie Dossier, January 2020 page 4
the Yadkin (Peedee) River at Georgetown, S.C. Produce
from the mountain the Piedmont, brought by boat or
wagon, would be gathered and shipped from there.
But the problems were many, too many it turned
out. The river bed was cluttered with rocks, Indian fish
traps, mill dams and even the extensive and rock Bean
Shoals.
River hazard: Below Clinton was the most
fearsome hazard on the river, the famous Narrows at the
site of the present Alcoa plant at Badin. It would be
difficult to clear this passageway even today; the most
powerful machine of 175 years ago was still the ox team.
Below this in South Carolina, at a long-lost town called
Sneedsboro, the river was again impassable.
Peter Hairston, in his history of the Cooleemee
Plantation, notes that Richmond Pearson, who had a
store in Salisbury, also had established one at
Sneedsboro. The founder of the town had arranged to
have a canal built there to go around the rocks.
To get around The Narrows, the Pearsons
planned to use the portage systems. The cargoes would
have to be unloaded on one side of The Narrows into
wagons and reloaded on the lower side. Hairston wrote
that Richmond and Jesse actually tried out this system,
and that Jesse spent much time in South Carolina
working on the system.
Seeking improvements: At this time, after the
end of the War of 1812, a notable North Carolina
visionary entered the picture.
Archibald Murphey of Hillsboro had long been
pressing the state for internal improvements and high on
his list of perceived needs was better transportation for
the Piedmont. He knew the Pearsons from their days in
the state legislature, and the Pearson proposal formed a
common ground.
One of the most brilliant men of his day,
Murphey clearly saw the needs of the interior and one of
his studies of state needs touched on internal
improvements. He persuaded the legislature to finance a
study of navigation problems on the Yadkin and an
engineer, Hamilton Fulton, did the study. He reported it
was a practical matter and recommended the work begin.
Murphey also had a family interest in the present
Davie County. His daughter, Cornelia Anne, first
married John Paine Carter, an early and important Davie
County landholder, and what with his business and
family affairs doubtless visited the area often. His
daughter was described by one of the contemporary
newspapers as one of the most beautiful and
accomplished women in the state.
Financial problems: Murphey later had severe
financial problems and served a short prison term
because of his bad debts. It’s not out of reason to
suppose that some of them may have had their origin in
his investment in the Yadkin Navigation Company. He
was an investor and the president of the short-lived firm.
The $20,000 Jesse Pearson received for his
Cooleemee Hill plantation – a fair price – was hardly
sufficient to meet the costs. While the charter authorized
the raising of $250,000, this was never approached. This
probably explains why it was decided to lay out and sell
the town lots at this point. The streets were named
Washington, Iredell, Haden, Union, Greene, Liberty,
Davie and Franklin. Forty six lots were sold on
December 22 and 23, 1818 for prices ranging from
$1,000 down to $100.
Pearson had also induced a number of outsiders
to invest in the project. These included John Calloway,
William Longhorn, Citizen Wood, John Burwell, all of
Virginia, and John C. Blum and Emanuel Shobert of
Salem.
Shoals canal: A canal had been cut to pass boats
through the Bean Shoals but by 1820 the project was in
trouble and apparently abandoned when further money
couldn’t be found. This wasn’t the last effort to tame the
Yadkin; two other attempts failed later in the century.
One writer contended later that a single building
was erected in the town; others don’t mention any. In a
cruel, but amusing, report on Nov. 21, 1820, the Western
Carolinian of Salisbury carried this story:
“Distressing fire breaks out in Clinton which
before its destructive progress destroyed one-third of the
town, that of the Grand East Square. It was truly a
melancholy sight but thanks for the people not building
them, no house but a great many stumps fell victims to
the all-devouring element.”
Other Sources of information about Clinton:
The North Carolina Gazetteer by William S. Powell: “Clinton, former town in se Davie County (then Rowan) at
the junction of South Yadkin and North Yadkin rivers. Inc. 1818 by Yadkin Navigation Co. Some 100 lots were
sold before a panic in 1819 stopped work at the site. A post office existed here in 1822 but the town was
abandoned soon afterwards.”
Davie Dossier, January 1998, by David Joyner, pages 2 and 3 [available on library Website]
History of Davie County by James Wall, pages 100-102
Images of America, Davie County by Debra Dotson and Jane McAllister, page 115
The Davie Times, 12 May 1881, page 3
Clinton Folder in Community Section of vertical files at Davie County Public Library History Room
Davie Dossier, January 2020 page 5
artist’s concept of what was to be the beginning of a busy boat trade on the Yadkin River. Salisbury Post, 19 Feb. 1956
1835 map showing Clinton, Fulton, and Mocksville – no Winston!
Davie Dossier, January 2020 page 6
More Civil War Soldiers by Linda H. Barnette
Since I love history and genealogy, I decided to
try to find out how many of my 8 great -great-grand-
fathers actually fought in the Civil War. I knew already
that two of them had been soldiers because I had already
written about them. During my research for this project,
I found four more. Of the eight, one was too old and
another one too young. My main sources were the North
Carolina Troops books and 2 other locally written books,
a roster of Davie County troops and also one for
Davidson County troops.
First was my
grandfather Smith’s
grandfather, William
Harden Smith, who
was born in 1836 in
the Farmington area
of Davie County.
He married Phebe
James in 1856, and
they had 6 children,
including my grand-
father’s mother,
Rachel. William
enlisted in the
Confederate Army
when he was 27
years old and was a
private in Company F, 42nd regiment of North Carolina
troops. Pension records indicate that he was wounded in
his right hand in 1865, shortly before he was paroled.
He lived until 1919 and is buried in the Bethlehem
United Methodist Church Cemetery, where his
tombstone lists his service.
Another family member, James Ledbetter
Bowles, whose name is incorrectly listed in the N.C.
Troops book as James L. Bolds, was my great- great-
grandfather who married Jerusha Jacobs in 1850. They
were the parents of my great-grandmother, Lovie Belle
Bowles Dwiggins. James enlisted in Davie County on
March 18, 1862 when he was 28 years old, as a private
in Company F, 42nd Regiment , North Carolina troops.
There is no record of any particular war events involving
him, and he was paroled at Greensboro, NC on May1,
1865 and came home to farm in the Mocksville district
as he had done before the war. He died in 1909 and is
buried at Center United Methodist Church Cemetery,
where many of my family rest.
Newberry Potts was my Grandmother Hartley’s
grandfather. Born in 1843 to William and Sarah Potts,
he was also a private in company E of the 42nd regiment
of NC troops. Before the war, he worked for his father,
who was a cooper, in the Fulton district of Davie
County. Newberry enlisted at age 18 in 1862, was
paroled at Salisbury on June 5, 1865, and took the Oath
of Allegiance there as well. He married Edie Ann Carter
in 1868, and they had 4 children, one of whom was
James Potts, my great-grandfather. Newberry died in
1920 and is buried at Fork Baptist Church. His brother,
Hiram, also served in the army and returned home
safely.
The last one here is John Henry “Bud” Young,
born in 1830 in Davidson County, NC. He married Eliza
Brooks in 1850 and had 7 children, one of whom was
my great- grandmother, Eliza Young Hartley. John was
commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 66th
Regiment of the North Carolina Militia. However, he
apparently left the militia and served in the Home Guard.
A March, 1864 letter about him from Lt. Colonel Jesse
Hargrave reads: “Tell Mr. J. H. Young he is not exempt
and must report for service in your Home Guard.” I did
not find him listed in the North Carolina Troops book
but I found him in a book by Joshua Howard called
Forgotten Heroes: Davidson County, North Carolina
and the War Between the States. What Howard did was
to locate where Civil War soldiers were buried in his
county. Not surprisingly, John Henry Young is buried in
the Sandy Creek Lutheran Cemetery in Tyro, North
Carolina, where many of my other family members are
interred. He died in 1908, and his service in the
Confederate Army is listed on his tombstone. It reads as
follows: “CSA Veteran Second Lieutenant, Reeds
District 66th Regiment NC Militia and in Lt Colonel
Hargrave’s Home Guard” as well as listing his name as 2
LT John Henry “Bud” Young, Jr.
Although none of these men was killed or
severely wounded, I can only imagine the disruptions in
their lives by being taken away from their families and
their homes for several years. None of these people was
wealthy or owned slaves, yet they obviously felt the call
of duty to their country. All wars require great sacrifice.
A good project for you: How many of your eight great grandfathers (or great great grandfathers if you’re a younger
person) fought in the Civil War? There are a lot of lost stories of heroism of the military men and the wives and mothers
left back home to continue the work of farming, housekeeping, and raising children. Davie County had 317 fatalities
(27.6% of those in the service) in that war, and they are listed on the Davie County Veterans’ Memorial on the square in
Mocksville. The book The Civil War Roster of Davie County, North Carolina lists and describes all 1,147 men who
served from Davie County.
Davie Dossier, January 2020 page 7
BOOKS AND MAPS FOR SALE, prices include postage and tax; check to DCHGS (no cash or credit card)
Title Author Total Cost # Cost
Davie County. A Brief History, paperback James W. Wall, 128 pages $6.50
The Boone Families in Davie County Wall, Howell Boone, Flossie Martin $8.00
Davie County Marriages 1836-1900 Nancy K. Murphy $25.00
Davie County Marriages 1901-1959 Nancy K. Murphy $25.00
Davie County Cemeteries, a 2-volume set D.C. Historical/Gen. Soc. $55.00
1850 Federal Census-Davie County Forsyth Genealogical Society $15.00
1860 Federal Census-Davie County Nancy K. Murphy and Everette Sain $20.00
1870 Federal Census-Davie County Nancy K. Murphy and Everette Sain $20.00
POSTCARDS OF DAVIE CO. SCENES, (set of 8) $2.50
Maps: Prices below, postage is $5, mailing tube is $2; example: all 4 maps cost $12
Lagle Land Grant Map, $2
Hughes Historical Map, 1700's, drawn in 1977, $1
J.T. Alderman Map, 1887 , $1
Wilson F. Merrell Map, 1928, $1
Davie County Heritage Book, cost is $45; Make check to Davie Co. Heritage Book. Use DCHGS address below.
The Historic Architecture of Davie Co., $13; History of Davie County, hardback, by James W. Wall, $13 . Make check
to Davie County Public Library. Use DCHGS address below.
Davie County History Books by Marie Craig. Check to Marie Craig, 139 Sterling Dr., Mocksville NC 27028:
● History of Davie County Schools, 318 pages, has photos, locations, longitude/latitude, names of students, and
teachers. There is an 18 page index of 3,222 names. 318 pages. $43
● Davie County in World War One, 670 biographies of Davie men and women who served, photographs, old
letters, description of military bases, and extensive index. 400 pages. $45
● Davie County Veterans’ Memorial, has lists of all war deaths, biographies and photos of WW2, Korean,
Vietnam, and Beirut Bombing deaths. Tom Ferebee’s talk at the dedication in 1987. 190 pages. $33.
● Remembering Davie County Protection and Service Personnel, contains biographies of the five law
enforcement personnel who died on duty and also photos and descriptions of the monument erected in their
memory. The monument also honors all first responders in Davie Co. Paperback, 14 pages. $17.
● Davie County in the Spanish-American War, contains biographies of the 15 men who served in this war and the
resulting war in the Philippines. 65 pages. $20
● Mary Ellen’s Diary, 1924, the fictitious diary of a twelve year old girl in 1924 in Mocksville. Included are
clippings and illustrations to verify the events. Paperback. 49 pages. $15.
Looking Back at Davie County II by Charles Crenshaw and Ron Smith. $45. Mail orders to Charles Crenshaw, 421
Park Avenue, Mocksville NC 27028
Davie County Mavericks, Four Men Who Changed History, the stories of Daniel Boone, Hinton Helper, Thomas
Ferebee, and Peter Ney in Davie County, by Marcia Phillips. $25. Mail orders to Marcia Phillips, 315 McClamrock
Road, Mocksville NC 27028.
DCHGS, 371 North Main Street, Mocksville NC 27028
Davie Dossier, January 2020 page 8
Davie County Historical and Genealogical Society
371 North Main Street
Mocksville NC 27028
If you would like to receive your Dossier as a PDF attachment in an E-mail instead of a paper copy,
please send an E-mail message to the editor at dchgslist@gmail.com.
Please state “E-mail my Dossier instead of mailing a paper copy” and include your E-mail address. This
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MEMBERSHIP for a calendar year is still just $5.00/year. Life Membership is $100 per person.
We are 501(c)(3) and dues are tax deductible.
Below is a registration form for your use; checks, payable to the Society.
DAVIE COUNTY HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY (DCHGS)
Davie County Public Library, 371 Main Street
Mocksville, North Carolina 27028
NAME ________________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS _____________________________________________________________________
E-MAIL ADDRESS ______________________________________________________________
Send my copy by E-mail instead of paper; yes, no