Volume IX
Number 51
May 23
1942
THE STATE
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
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TUklf h. North Carolina, un-li-r thr A<4 ol March 3. 1**0.
Alexander County Courthouse at Taylorsville
Alexander County
Where you'll find the Brushy
Mountains, vast efuantities of
apples and a nicely struck bal¬
ance between agriculture anil
industry.
THIS time we want to toll you tho
itory about Alexander.
Xot Alexander tlio swoosc.
Nor Alexander of llio ragtime band.
But Alexander County. located in
the western Piedmont area of North
Carolina and bounded by Iredell. Ca¬
tawba. Caldwell, and Wilkes.
It was named for a member of t In-
Alexander family, but nobody seems
to know exactly which one. Anyway,
it was one of these three :
Nathaniel Alexander, Governor in
1805.
Abraham Alexander, chairman of
the Convention at Charlotte, May
20, 1775, that passed the Mecklen¬
burg Declaration of Independence.
William Julius Alexander, of
Mecklenburg, prominent civic lender
of his time.
You can take your ehoice. Person¬
ally, we sort of
Ь
toward Nathaniel,
the Governor.
Taylorsville i- the county seal, and
when we begin investigating the ori¬
gin of its name, Wo run into fur¬
ther difiieulties. John Louis Taylor
was a distinguished judge <»f X’ortli
Carolina, honored for bis learning,
integrity and kindness of disposition.
Zachary Taylor was president of the
I'nitcd State*. The town was named
for one of these two. We're of tin-
opinion that it was named for the
Judge, but thou that’s only our own
viewpoint, and the chances ore that
it’s wrong.
Alexander County was formed in
18-Id from Iredell, Caldwell, and
Wilkes.
John Swain is chairman of the Wake
County Board of Commissioners.
When he found out that wo were go¬
ing to go up to Alexander County In-
asked to go along; so both of us lit
out together.
First place we went upon reaching
Taylorsville was the ofliee of the Toy-
lorsville Times, which is run bv
Pom Teague and Conway Sharpe.
And they run a darned good paper,
too.
“We were wondering,’’ said Rom,
“when you were coining up to Alex¬
ander County. Ity rights yon should
have written us up first, because Alex¬
ander stands at the head of the list."
We apologized for tho delay.
"14 suggest that you see Kay Jen-
nings," In- >aid. “lie’s the mayor and
he knows a lot about the county."
We found the mayor in tin- court¬
house: and lie said yes; he’d be glad
to show us some of the interesting
things about Alexander. We intro¬
duced him to Mr. Swain, but the may¬
or didn’t seem to be particularly im¬
pressed.
A< we went out to the automobile,
Mr. Jennings pointed to a mountain
on the western horizon. “That’s Bar¬
rett's Mountain," be said.
“What about it?” inquired Mr.
Swain, who is always asking dumb
questions.
“In the days of early settlers in
this part of the state,’’ said Mr. den-
nings, “a man by the name of Barrett
built a road into Caldwell and Burke
enmities. It went over that mountain.
Win-n he had the road completed,
Mr. Barrett proceeded to install him¬
self and his gang in a cave near tin-
top of the mountain. When coaches
and other vehicles passed over the
mountain, Barrett and his confeder¬
ates would hold ’em up and rob them
of all their possessions."
Evidently a very ornery kind of an
individual. Barrett's Mountain is
about seven miles south we- 1 of Tay¬
lorsville.
Incidentally — congratulations to
