A History of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County

A History Of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Dr. Dan L. Morrill University of North Carolina at Charlotte E-mail comments to [email protected] Preface This is not an encyclopedic history of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The story is too complex and too big for the scope of a project such as this. There are important parts of the history of this community that are left out or barely mentioned. What this writer attempts to do is highlight the major themes and pivotal periods of our past and tell dramatic tales that document the nature and significance of each. The story ends in the early 1980s, because everything thereafter is current affairs. This writer asserts that two major themes have been present in the history of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County from the earliest days of Scots-Irish and German settlement in the 1740's until today. One is an intense desire for economic development and expansion. The other is the on-going saga of race. Whenever the pressures of the two have come into direct conflict, especially in the 1890s and in the 1960s and 1970s, economic considerations have won out. This writer has depended heavily upon the research and scholarship of others. Especially helpful were several M.A. Theses written by graduate students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Sadly, these manuscripts lie mostly unused and ignored. One must also make special mention of the superb scholarship produced by Paul Escott, Thomas W. Hanchett, Janette Greenwood, Jack Claiborne, Mary Norton Kratt, Mary Boyer, Frye Gaillard, Ken Sanford, and Alex Coffin. Hopefully, this book will encourage others to speak and write about this community's fascinating past. Remember, history is the past from the vantage point of today. That's why it is so instructive. This writer is deeply indebted to his wife, Mary Lynn Caldwell Morrill, who in this as in all other aspects of his personal life has shown untiring support, patience, and understanding. A direct descendant of Alexander Craighead, she possesses all of the best qualities of her Scots-Irish heritage. This book is dedicated to her. Chapter One Native Americans and the Coming of The White Man Off Elm Lane in southern Mecklenburg County there is a massive boulder that sits majestically beside the bed of Four Mile Creek. Children from a nearby suburban neighborhood often scamper to the top of the so-called "Big Rock," hopefully unaware of the hate-filled graffiti that mars its ancient face. This is an evocative place for those who care about the history of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Location Of The Big Rock The Big Rock was a campsite, rendezvous point, and observation post for the first human beings who inhabited what is now Mecklenburg County. They were Paleo or Ancient Native Americans whose forbearers had migrated from Asia across the Bering Strait made dry by advancing glaciers some 40,000 years ago. These initial nomads reached the Carolina Piedmont about 12,000 years ago. They had wandered over the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains in pursuit of big game. Living in highly mobile and lightly equipped groups, the Paleo Indians ambushed their prey, principally now extinct giant mammals, by thrusting spears into their flanks at close range. The Big Rock is an ancient campsite and observation post. The first Native Americans who resided here lived in tiny bands of one or a few families, rarely came in contact with other human beings, and inbred for centuries. They have left no evidence of permanent settlements, burial sites, pottery or agriculture; and, like the great majority of Native Americans, they never developed a written language. Despite the harshness of their existence, Paleo Indians saw their numbers increase in North America. Only the hardiest had completed the long trek from Asia, and the cold climate of the Ice Age may have eliminated many disease- causing organisms. Shelter In The Big Rock There is a small crevice or indentation on the backside of the eastern wall of the Big Rock. It would have provided protection from the strong, cold winds that blew across the almost treeless grasslands that covered the surrounding countryside in ancient times. Imagine what it must have been like for the small bands of Paleo Indians who spent wintry nights at the Big Rock thousands of years ago. The howl of wolves would have echoed in the pitch-black darkness. The men would have chipped stones into spear points, and the women would have roasted hunks of fatty meat in the flickering flames of the campfire. Arising at first light, these small assemblages of nomadic hunters would have resumed their ceaseless chase after the herds of mammoth, horses, camels and bison that meandered across the Piedmont landscape. About 10,000 years ago the glaciers started to retreat and deciduous forests began to predominate in this part of North America. Their habitat destroyed or massively altered, some large mammals, like the mammoth, disappeared, while others, like the camel and the horse, moved elsewhere. Paleo Indian traditions began to die out as the Native Americans adapted to their new environment. Archeologists have named the next cultural customs the "Archaic." Archaic people, who also visited the Big Rock, foraged for plants and hunted smaller game, such as rabbit, squirrel, beaver and deer. Still nomads, they roamed within smaller territories than had their predecessors, because to succeed as hunters and food gatherers they had to become intimately familiar with local plant life and with the habits of indigenous animals. Indians of this era were more technologically proficient than their forbearers. One of their most ingenious inventions was the atlatl, a spear- throwing device that enabled them to kill deer and other large game more easily. They also used grinding stones and mortars to crush nuts and seeds, carved bowls from soapstone, and polished their spear points into smooth and shiny projectiles. A momentous event in the history of the Native Americans of this region occurred about 2000 years ago. Indians of the so-called "Woodland" tradition began to practice agriculture and establish permanent settlements. Interestingly, the great majority of the Native Americans who inhabited what is now the Carolina Piedmont, including the Catawbas of this immediate area, were still following these Woodland customs when the first white men arrived in the 16th century. People of this tradition developed a sophisticated culture, replete with religious ceremonies and complex ethical systems. Their religion was polytheistic, meaning that Woodland Indians believed in many gods. Unlike followers of Judeo-Christianity, who divide existence into heaven and earth or separate celestial and terrestrial realms, Native Americans held that many spirits inhabit this world and that they must be appeased. Woodland Indians also had no concept of private property. Land was for use, not for ownership. Native Americans believed that carving up the earth into separate plots and fencing it off was as senseless as parceling out the air or cutting up the water. Such notions would come into direct conflict with the cultural values that white settlers would bring to the Carolina Piedmont. Replica of Woodland Indian Structure. The original permanent English settlement in North America appeared on the James River in Virginia in 1607, although European explorers had made contact with Native Americans along the Carolina coast as early as 1524, and the so-called Lost Colony had been established on Roanoke Island in 1585. Named in honor of the reigning King of England, James I, Jamestown struggled to survive until the discovery of tobacco gave the settlers a cash crop. Thereafter, new people began to arrive from Europe; and some traveled south from the James River into North Carolina in search of game and better land. The great majority of the white settlers of the Coastal Plain were Englishmen and Englishwomen who had come to the New World in search of greater economic opportunity. By the mid-1700's, writes historian Tom Hanchett, "the ports of New Bern and Wilmington, North Carolina, and Georgetown and Charleston, South Carolina, flourished where major river systems emptied into the Atlantic." The first English-speaking people to move through this region were merchants who brought finished goods, such as iron utensils, pots, and axes, on the backs of horses or on their own backs to trade for animal hides prepared by the Catawbas and other Native American tribes. The Catawbas and other inland tribes also traveled widely. Long before the arrival of the white man, Native Americans had established trade routes along footpaths that stretched from the mountains to the sea. White explorers and traders became familiar with this system of reliable, well-established Indian trails and adopted it for their own use. Title Page Of Lawson's Journal. On December 28, 1700, John Lawson set out in a large canoe from Charleston, South Carolina and headed upriver with ten companions and a favorite dog to explore the Carolina backcountry for the eight Lords Proprietors who had been awarded all the land south of Virginia and westward to the "South Seas." His journal paints a fascinating picture of the customs and habits of the Native Americans who resided in the Piedmont. Indigenous people lived along the banks of the rivers in small villages of bark-covered houses, each tribe controlling a few miles of a particular stream's course. Lawson and his compatriots saw countless corncribs as they paddled inland. Corn was the staple crop grown by North Americans of this region in soil that Lawson said was "red as blood" When Lawson traveled through the Piedmont there was a population of 4000 to 5000 Indians in at least six villages scattered along a twenty-mile stretch of the Catawba River.

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