Lowric I Istory

THE Lowric I istory AS ACTED IN PART BY Henry Berry I i O . LOWRIE. o A. W. McLEAN, R. D. CALDWELL, President. Vice-Prest. C. B. TOWNSEND, A. E.WHITE, Active Vice-Prest. Vice-Prest. A. W. PEACE, A. T. McLEAN, Cashier. Asst. Cashier. The Bank of Lumberton CAPITAL $100,000.00 Assets and Responsibility Over One-half Million Dollars .... LUMBERTON, N. CAROLINA. ORGANIZED 1897 ^mmm mf tn If you want your money with a Bank that has stood the test of time—that deals promptly, squarely and liberally with its patrons; that pays the highest possible rate of interest, within conservative bounds, for your idle money; in fact, if you are seeking the services of an ex- perienced, safely managed Bank, call on us or write for information. We invite small accounts as well as the large ones ......... Yours for service, A. W. PEACE, Cashier. Four per cent, interest paid on Savings Deposits, Com- pounded Every Three Months THE LOWRIE HISTORY AS ACTED IN PART BY Henry Berry Lowrie, THE Great North Carolina Bandit, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HIS ASSOCIATES. ILLUSTRATED. Band in the Being a Complete History of the Modern Robber County of Robeson and State of North Carolina. WITH AN APPENDIX. PUBLISHED BY Lumbee Publishing Company, lumberton, n. c. COPYWRIGHTED BY E. E. PAGE, 1909. \ \P_" INTRODUCTORY s® <IN In re-publishing this book which records the events of a period of Robeson county's history in the years of 1 864-' 74, the publishers have thought it fitting and proper, in justice to the race of people, (some of whose representatives figure in and are the leading characters of the facts recorded), that a supplement should be added, showing the growth and steady improvement of the Indians of Robeson County, and to accomplish this desired end we do not know of anything better than to copy, in part, an article written by Col. A. F. Olds, of Raleigh, N. C, who visited this saction of Robeson County and came in personal touch with the Croatan Indians, and has therefore written from personal ob- servation. We are therefore indebted to Col. Olds for this interesting bit of history, which forms the appendix to this volume. It will be remembered that the facts recorded in this book were written by one who knew the cause and result of this unfortunate period of Robeson's history, having lived "through the thick or the fight", and gained the information recorded by actual experience. The historian referred to is Mrs. Mary C. Norment, of Elrod,N. C, from whom the copy-right of this book has been purchased by the publishers. This is the fourth edition of this history. THE PUBLISHERS. The Lowrie History. GENEALOGY. James a tall Lowrie, well-proportioned, fine looking, respectable Indian first settled in Robeson county about the year 1769. This was Bladen county at that time. On the 9th of August, 1769, James Lowrie bought a tract of land containing one hundred acres from Wil- liam Fort, to whom it was granted by George II. in 1748. He also entered another tract of land containing three hundred acres adjoining the above tract, the grant being signed by George III. On the above men- tioned tracts of land, now owned by the heirs of the late Col. Archibald McEachern, James Lowrie first settled. About five hundred yards below the residence of Col. McEachern, in a bend of the swamp, is shown the place where James Lowrie resided. McPhaul's mills, on the same swamp, are distant about three miles. This swamp was called Lowrie Swamp, after James Lowrie, who resided on it. A ford at the time he lived there crossed the swamp at his residence. Here he raised stock, farmed in a small way and kept a tavern during the Revolutionary War. James Lowrie first came to Robe- son (then Bladen county)from Bute county, (now Frank- lin and Warren counties) in company with Silas Atkins, who emigrated also from Bute county, from that portion now called Franklin. OLher families also, viz. the Thompsons, Kitchens Coles, Drakes, Moores, Humphreys, Bridgers, and whose descendants still live in Robeson, THE LOWRIE HISTORY. 5 came to Bladen county, (now Robeson) from that part of North Carolina embraced now in the counties of Franklin, Warren, Nash and Edgecombe and settled here about the time that Silas Atkins first built on the tract of land now owned by "William H. Graham. James Lowrie, frcm whom all the Lowries in Robe- son descended, lived in Franklin county before he emigrated to Robeson. It was in Franklin county, N. C, that he was manumitted by his father, James Lowrie, of Virginia, who when Virginia became one of the United States, was elected a Judge, and was ever after- wards known as Judge Lowrie. He was of cavalier stock and characterized by elegance and refinement of manners, tall and commanding in personal appearance, urbane, courtly and genteel in his whole deportment. It was in Franklin county that James Lowrie married. His wife's maiden name was Sarah Kearsey, (nicknamed Sally Kearsy,) a half-breed Tuscarora Indian woman, and from this couple all the Lowries in Robeson trace back their origin. The above statement in regard to the origin of the Lowrie family in Robeson county is not current rumor, but a true statement, as given by James Lowrie him- self and corroborated by Silas Atkins, with whom he came to Robeson county in 1769, also confirmed by the late Neil Brown, Esq., who lived on Richland Swamp; by the late Mrs. Nancy Smith, mother of Rev. A.Smith, who also lived on Richland Swamp; by the late Samp- * son Bridgers, father of J. D. Bridgers, Esq., by Henry Thompson; by Nathan Thompson; by John Thompson, by Peter Monroe, and last, though not least, by the late John Gilchrist, Esq., long a practicing lawyer at the 6 THE LOWRIE HISTORY. Lumberton Bar, whose father bought out James Lowrie in 1791, at the close of the Revolutionary War. James Lowrie had three sons, viz: William, Thomas and James, and at the commencement of the Revolu- tionary War William, his oldest, being then about grown, entered into the struggle for independence and joined the brave and patriotic band, then under the command of that noble Whig patriot, Col. Thomas Rob- eson, after whom and in honor of whom Robeson county was named. William Lowrie made a good Whig soldier and fought side by side with the whites in every skirmish and battle in which Col. Robeson was engaged. Whilst piloting Col. Wade and his men across Drowning Creek, after a massacre at Piney Bottom, in Cumber- land county, William Lowrie received a severe sword cut in his left hand from a Tory named James McPher- son, who resided on the place then owned by Col. Charles Malloy, now Laurel Hill Church, in Richmond county. The skirmish between Col. Wade's men and the To- ries took place on the spot of ground on which Mont- pelier Church was erected, near Bettie's bridge, now Gilchrist's bridge, in the upper portion of Robeson county, immediately on Drowning Creek, in Robeson county, and William Lowrie carried the marks of this wound to his erave as a token of his devotion to the Whig cause. After the close of the Revolutionary War Wil- liam Lowrie received a pension for this same sword cut from the government up to the day of his death, as the records in the Pension Office at Washington City will show. The other two sons of James Lowrie, viz: Thomas and James, were of tender age and too young to enter THE LOWRIE HISTORY. 7 the service. The feelings and sentiments of James Lowie, their father, were on the Whig side, although he took no active part either way. Living, however, so near to McPhaul's Mill, (a distance of not more than three miles) the then general rendezvous or head-quar- ters of the Tories from the whole adjacent country, he became obnoxious to them on account of his son Wil- liam being in the Whig ranks. Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, pre- judices becoming so rife against him and his son Wil- liam, on account of Whig principles, James Lowrie sold out on Lowrie Swamp to John Gilchrist in 1791, and moved down on Drowning Creek, near his old friend Silas Atkins and settled on the place now known as "the Harper Ferry place." Here he kept a house of entertainment for the traveling public, in con- nection with a grocery or drinking saloon. Here he died, leaving land and negroes to his children and a good name to his posterity. Here, in Lowrie's grocery, Col. Vick, then merchandising at Fair Bluff, in Robe- son county. (Vicksburg in Mississippi being named after him) christened (to use a scotch phrase) all that region lying East of Drowing Creek and extending one or two Miies East of Bear Swamp with the euphonious soubrique t of Scuftietown, from the fact of the half breeds inhabit- ing that region congregating in Lowrie's grocery and after imbibing pretty freely of whiskey, in engaging in the broad shuffle, and also from the fact that it was generally a scuffle with these people to live — "to keep the soul and body together," owing to their improvident habits. After the death of James Lowrie, his son Wil- liam Lowrie married Bettie Locklaer, a half-breed Tuscarora Indian woman( Locklaer meaning "hold fast"). 8 THE LOWRIE HISTORY.

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