Rowan County, North Carolina

Geography, as is often the case with human migration, had a direct effect on the colonization of Rowan County, North Carolina. Situated between the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers, and around a hundred miles from the Atlantic Ocean, Rowan County offered the settler many attractive features. The rolling countryside, crossed by many year-round streams, made a pleasant setting for future homes. The land was fertile, well-watered, and virtually treeless except for occasional groves of oak and maple. In addition, the area that would be designated Rowan County on March 27, 1753 was very accessible—for the time—as a result of two frontier thoroughfares: one ran east and west and the other north and south. The Trading Path stretched from Fort Henry near Petersburg, Virginia westward into Rowan County where it crossed the Yadkin River at Trading Ford, and then continued on to South Carolina and Georgia. The Great Wagon Road started in Pennsylvania and went south through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia into North Carolina as far as the Trading Path, which it crossed just east of the Yadkin at Trading Ford. 

Historical background: For many years prior to 1729 the Province of Carolina belonged to eight Lords in England. They had full authority as to the disposition of the land as well as how the area was governed. Because of the relatively slow development of the province, and because the Lords received little profit from their holdings, a plan was devised to sell their holdings back to the King. One of the eight – Lord Granville – refused to go along with the plan. His share, which was one eighth of the Carolina Province, was transferred to him in 1744, and it was designated North Carolina. At that time the boundary of North Carolina, along the Atlantic, was roughly where it is today, but it stretched westward all of the way to the Mississippi River.

No political authority was included in the deeded transfer of land to Lord Granville. All governmental authority was vested in the Governor, as the King’s representative, and the elected assembly. On the other hand, the land administration set up by Lord Granville was beyond the control of either the Crown or the North Carolina Assembly. Because of this almost unheard, of arrangement there was a large degree of heavy-handedness by the agents of Lord Granville. In the beginning the land was not deeded but was—in effect—leased to the new pioneers as tenants. This arrangement, of course, was not popular, and settlement was slow. Around 1748 the tenant arrangement was abolished, and Granville’s agents began advertising in Britain and Europe. As a result, the movement of settlers into North Carolina began to pick up, and by 1753 when Rowan County was established new residents were flocking in daily.

Rowan County Demographics: John Larson, who traveled through the area in 1701, wrote in his journal: “The ’Chestnut-Oaks’ along the rivers are as tall as I have ever seen.” He further stated that the trees were so tall that his gun could not kill turkeys perched in the upper branches of the trees. This would seem to verify the name Yadkin (Yadkin River) which was derived from an Indian name referring to large trees. These trees provided a ready source for logs for the early log houses, and a resource for the saw mills that would come later.

The land was fertile, well-watered and virtually treeless except along the rivers and streams. The open country was covered with grassy meadows and pea vines, which was very suitable for grazing animals. It was also easy to clear for the planting of corn, grains, and tobacco.

The first white settlers found that the streams had many varieties of fish, and that the wooded areas were home to many species of animals and fowl. There were, of course, certain predatory animals—such as panthers, bears, and wolves—that the settlers did not consider welcome neighbors. There were, in fact, so many of these animals that after 1769 Rowan County began paying a bounty on wolves and panthers to encourage their extermination.

The Indians: The Saura and Sapona Indians had once lived along the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers, but were gone by the early 1700s, probably exterminated or absorbed by other tribes. The Catawba Indians replaced them, but they had moved further west when white settlers began arriving. The Cherokees were the largest Indian group in the Carolinas, and although their permanent settlements were beyond the Catawba tribe, near the Alleghany Mountains, their hunting and raiding parties ranged great distances.

From the outset Indians had, at times, posed an occasional threat to the peace and happiness of the settlers. Beginning in 1753, however, the year Rowan County was established, the frontier began experiencing sporadic attacks by small groups of Indians. The Cherokees were normally allies of the English, but the French, in an effort to claim all of the territory west of the Alleghany Mountains, from Canada to New Orleans, had built some sixty forts along this line to consolidate their claim. They had also won over many of the Indians tribes, and encouraged them to attack English frontier settlements. The English counter-measure was the formation of the Ohio Company for the sole purpose of establishing English settlements on the east bank of the Ohio River. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent young George Washington, with a company of militia, to the French to inform them that they were encroaching on land belonging to the King of England, and that they must move. When the French refused Washington attempted to remove them by force. This action started the French and Indian War, a war that would ultimately determine who would rule most of North America for the next several decades, and which culture would ultimately be embraced by most of the citizens therein.

As the French and Indian War progressed the natives, encouraged by the French, grew bolder, murdering and pillaging all along the Catawba and Yadkin Rivers. Several campaigns were mounted against the local Indian tribes by the English—the Cherokees being the most troublesome—but it was not until 1761, when Colonel James Grant and his troops destroyed the last of the warring groups in the area that a relative peace returned along the frontier.

Slavery was legal in the 1700s in the Colonies, and as time passed some of the early pioneers developed large plantations. As this evolution progressed it became economically feasible to utilize large numbers of African slaves. It is known that James N. Erwin eventually owned several thousand acres in Rowan County. Thus it would not have been unusual for James N. Erwin to own multiple slaves—especially as his sons began striking out on their own—but it is probable that at the time he died he owned only one, for in his will he says, “…And also it is my will that my two mills and negro (singular) and the land whereon ye mills stands…be sold…”

As Pennsylvania’s population steadily increased, both from immigration and a high birth rate, the demand for land drove prices to a point that encouraged those seeking new horizons to look beyond Pennsylvania. Around 1750 rumors of new land grants in Virginia and the Carolinas began to circulate, and the old wanderlust many of us know so well excited the Irvines and the Pattersons. They had read some of Lord Granville’s advertisements and were aware that many of their Scots-Irish neighbors were selling out and moving south. Soon the draw of new opportunities was too strong to resist. As a result, Edward Irvine and some of the Pattersons decided to move to Augusta County, Virginia, but James Irvine opted for the raw frontier of the Carolinas. He petitioned Lord Granville for land and received a grant for two parcels along Second Broad Creek near the Yadkin River in North Carolina. Sometime between the birth of Isaac in 1750, and when James, Jr. was born in Salisbury in the Province of North Carolina in 1752, James Irvine (now spelling his name E-r-w-i-n) moved his family southward on the Great Wagon Road.

James Erwin’s land was near Salisbury, in an area that would be designated Rowan County on March 27, 1753. But it was a long way and a dusty journey from Chester County in William Penn’s colony. On the march a group of rifle-bearing woodsmen on foot took the lead; behind them came the pack animals led by the older boys; next came the wagons. A small common herd of hogs and cattle, that would form the nucleus of the livestock in their new settlement, brought up the rear. Behind the animals were men on horseback to round up strays, and finally, a rearguard of riflemen, again on foot.

Though the youngest children and many of the older women would ride in the ox-drawn wagons, the journey was not a pleasant one for anyone. A few of the travelers – other than those assigned to guard the animals – would have had riding horses, but most of the able-bodied family members of the wagon train would have walked alongside their wagons. An average day’s travel, for this type of combination train, did not exceed ten miles.

When the travelers reached the Yadkin River they most likely crossed the 300-yard-wide waterway by ferry at Ingles Crossing. On the opposite side of the river the Great Wagon Road broke up into a series of trails and old Indian paths, but Salisbury was only about twenty miles further on, and the path to it was well-traveled and obvious.

Many colonists, during the years of the French and Indian War, left their homes and retreated to the more pacified areas along the coast.James N. Erwin and his family, however, were products of a determined Scottish heritage, and it did not take them long to become established in the rugged frontier area. It is recorded that James purchased several additional tracts of land to add to the ones obtained from Lord Granville. They initially built a large fortified log house and two mills along the Yadkin River northeast of where the town of Salisbury would ultimately be and cleared fields for planting. They, like their neighbors, experienced occasional raids by roving bands of Indians, but these were minor distractions to the well-armed family, and they were soon harvesting crops.

The various operations on the sixteenth-century farm on the frontier were carried out with rude and simple implements. It can be logically presumed that it was no different on the James Erwin farm. Even so, the rich new virgin soil of the bottom lands, as well as that of the newly plowed uplands, produced bountiful crops. James Erwin, with his large family (six of his eleven children were sons), produced large crops of corn, wheat, oats and indigo. This was before the invention of the threshing machine, but the farmers of the day had worked out a labor-saving way to separate the wheat and oat grains from the stalks and chaff.

The farmer, when building his log barn, would usually add a threshing or tramping floor—usually twenty-five or more feet square—in his log-barn. His wheat and oats were harvested by cutting the grain stems with a hand scythe while the wheat was still slightly green (to keep the grain heads from shattering). He and his sons would then tie the grain in bundles and leave the bundles in “shocks” (several bundles stacked together vertically) in the field to finish drying. When the farmer deemed that the time was right the shocks of grain were carefully brought to the barn loft which was located above the threshing room. When it was “tramping time” bundles of wheat were dropped on the floor from the loft. A team of horses was then brought in to walk around and around on the grain until it was separated from the straw and chaff. Oat grains, however, being more easily crushed by the hard hooves, were usually separated by hand with flails.

James and his sons would harvest the corn crop later in the fall. The process was known as “pulling and shocking.” The corn stalks were pulled from the ground (with the corn ears still in the husks) and placed vertically in shocks in the field to dry. When the corn had dried to the point that the corn kernels could be easily stripped from the cob the shocks were brought from the field into the barnyard. An evening was chosen for the husking, and one of the younger sons would be assigned the task riding around to the surrounding neighbors with an invitation to participate in the “husking party.” In some cases, as many as fifty “hands” might show up for the event.

Prior to the arrival of his neighbors James, or one of his older sons, would have had a long rail placed in the barnyard, with an equal number of corn shocks placed on either side. The volunteers would start arriving about dusk, having already put in a long day in their own fields. Under light provided by lanterns and bonfires, two captains would be selected, and they in turn would choose their teams. Then it was time to race. On a signal from James they would proceed to shuck the corn ears from the corn stalks and husks; then the ear of corn would be brought across the rail, which in turn scraped the corn kernels from the cob. The kernels of corn would fall down on a canvas or wooden receptacle below the rail, and the bare cob would be tossed aside. This was done with much shouting, side challenges, and chanting. There was usually a jug present as well, and as the shucking progressed it was oftentimes passed around several times before it was empty. The liquor added to the excitement, but it was considered bad form to get drunk.

After the corn kernels were separated from the cobs, and safely stored in the bins, it was customary for the farmer’s wife to provide a “shucking supper.” Agnes Erwin and her daughters probably worked most of the day putting the feast together. It would usually consist of ham, pork, chicken pie, pumpkin custard, sweet cakes, apple pie, coffee, sweet milk, buttermilk, and various fruit preserves; in short, a rich feast of everything that the farm produced. It required a good digestion system indeed to manage such a repast at ten or eleven o’clock at night.

James N. Erwin eventually acquired several hundred acres in addition to his original Granville land purchase. His holdings had the potential to produce much more than his family and his livestock could consume. The market for the surplus grain and indigo, as well as for the excess flour that had been processed in James’ mills, was several hundred miles away, but as time passed, he shipped more and more of his excess to the central markets along the Atlantic.

There was always a “slack season” between the “laying by” (planting) of crops and harvesting time. That was the time for the James and his older sons to hunt squirrels, tramp four or five miles behind dogs on a ‘possum or coon hunt, stalk deer for winter meat, or go after a bear just for the sport of it. In the early days the waters of the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers had plentiful numbers of shad, trout, pike, bream, eels and catfish, and the Erwin fisherman seldom returned home without a heavy string of fish. Fishing was fun even then, but it was also something to do that was beneficial to the diets of the various family members.

As time passed, and the area became more “civilized,” the tanner and shoemaker, the hatter, as well as the weaver, began to ply their trades around the countryside from horse-drawn wagons. There were traveling blacksmiths as well, but most farmers, and/or their sons, did their own blacksmithing.  Wandering tinkers came around at intervals as well, with their crucibles for molds for spoons, plates and dishes. They would melt the broken pieces of pewter fragments that had been so carefully preserved by the farmer’s wife, and transform them into bright new pieces in his molds.

The women of the rural households had many talents that have been lost to their descendants. Almost every farm house in the 1700s had a wool carding machine, and a large and small spinning wheel. James and Agness Erwin had five daughters, and they would have learned early how to separate the wool and cotton fibers, and how to peddle and operate the spinning wheel. It was common for a visitor, as he or she approached the house after the morning chores were “done up,” to hear the deep bass rumbling of the large wheel, or the buzzing of the little flax wheel as its hooked “flyers” whirled the thread around until it was sufficiently twisted.

One of the weekly chores that took a lot of time and effort in the Erwin households in the early days was doing the family washing. Until the early 1900s the common practice was to boil soiled clothing outdoors in a big cast iron pot. On wash day a fire was built under the pot – with a little water in the bottom to keep it from cracking – and as the fire heated the pot water was added. If the family was fortunate enough to have a stream close by the women would do their work on the bank of the stream; if not they would have to draw the necessary water from a well. While the water was heating the clothes were rinsed in cold water to remove some of the dirt, and if there were stubborn spots, such as dirt on their men’s pants, they would be scrubbed on a scrub-board or on a flat rock. When the water boiled soap would be added. In the 1750s era, in fact for the next hundred years or so, the soap used in country households was homemade from animal fat and ashes. The next step would be to boil the clothes for about twenty minutes. The pot was stirred every so often with a large wooden paddle, allowing the soap to work through completely. What was being washed depended on how long they would be boiled. Men’s work clothing would, of course, require more time in the boiling water than a load of the family underclothing. When it was time to take the clothes out they were removed with the paddle and put into a tub of cold water for a first rinse.  After the first rinse they were wrung out by hand and then the process was repeated two more times in clean water.

It was a common practice to boil the least dirty items first, progressing down to the most soiled items last, usually without changing the water in the hot water pot. Water and soap would necessarily be added to the pot over the fire as the wash day progressed, and one person – usually a younger member of the family – would be designated to add wood to the fire in order to keep the water boiling. As the wash day progressed the clothes lines – probably strung between trees – gradually filled up.

The next step – also monumental – was the chore of ironing. All of the women’s dresses and aprons were ironed. The men’s work clothes were rarely ironed, but their Sunday white linen shirts would have been given the same attention as the frilly blouses of the women. Flat irons of various shapes and sizes were used, but the average iron weighed about four pounds. The smaller and lighter ones were used for ruffles and fancy items. They were heated on a cast iron plate in the fireplace in the cool months, and outside over a fire when the weather was hot. In later times they would be heated over the central woodstove or cooking range.  The average household probably had four or so irons so that as one iron became cool it could be returned to the hot surface and replaced by a hot one. The more desirable irons had a removable iron and wood handle that could be snapped off when it was heated. A portable ironing table, or “board,” was used so that it could be set up close to where their heat source was. In the winter it most likely would have been next to a window that allowed enough light in for the task at hand, and in warmer times ironing was probably done under a tree in the yard or under a lean-to next to the house.