Volume X
Number 17
September 26
1942
THE STATE
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
Entered
»>
MfOnd-cUu metier. June 1, >933. it thi Poitofflre It lUMfh. North Carolini. under the Act of Mirth 3, 1879.
Lincoln
County
One of the oldest «-on 11-
ties in the western part
of the state. It has pro¬
duced many prominent
citizens in the service of
lioth the state and
nation.
The H-shaped home of Major General Robert F. Hoke in Lincolnton.
1ГО
was Lincoln County
named for?
(All right, if you insist: For
whom was Lincoln County named?)
And, with the exception of Pete
Murphy, R. C. Lawrence and a few
Monument which marks the site of
the Battle of Ramsaur’s Mill during
the Revolutionary War.
others, they all come forth with the
reply: “For Abraham Lincoln, Presi¬
dent of the United States!”
But that’s not so. Lincoln County
was formerly called Tryon, in honor
of William Tryon, Royal Governor.
His name wasn’t very popular «luring
the fight for American freedom and
so, when the General Assembly divid¬
ed the territory into two now counties
in 1779, the name of Tryon was rele¬
gated to the ash-can, and the names of
Lincoln and Rutherford were sub¬
stituted. Lincoln County was named
for General Benjamin Lincoln, of the
Revolutionary Army, and so was Lin¬
colnton, the county seat.
'|V|,EN wo were in Lincoln County re¬
cently, we ran into Dr. Lester A.
Crowell, Sr., ami while we were tell¬
ing him our purpose in being up
there, he motioned to a man who wns
passing and said: “Here's the very
man you want to go around with you :
he knows as much about Lincoln
County as anyone else — Major War¬
ren A. Fair."
Before we had been in Mr. Fair’s
company very long we couldn't help
but be impressed with the variety of
titles that were bestowed upon him by
people whom we met :
“’Morning, Major Fair."
"Howdy, Colonel Fair."
“How'rc you feeling, Captain?"
“Good morning, Judge Fair."
“Glad to see you, Mr. Fair.”
You see, lie saw service down in
Mexico, overseas, held rank in the
Army Reserve Corps and is also a
local judge; so that accounts for all
of those titles.
“Would you like to see General
Ramseur’s grave?’ asked the Colonel.
Wo told him we would, so we went
around to the churchyard, a few
blocks from the business section of
town and viewed the tombstone over
the General’s grave, lie participated
in twelve major engagements and was
mortally wounded at Cedar Creek.
Another Civil War General who
eaine from Lincolnton was Robert F.
Hoke. His capture of the Federal
force at Plymouth resulted in a tele¬
gram from Jefferson Davis promot¬
ing him to a major generalship.
North Carolina had eight major
generals in the war. Two of these —
Rnmseur ami Hoke — came from the
little town of Lincolnton. The town
also had another general in the war —
Robert D. Johnson, who later moved
to Alabama, where he
1н>еате
Gov¬
ernor.
Bv the way," -aid Major Fair. "1
reckon you’ve heard of the story about
Peter Stuart Ney, haven't you?"
“You mean the man who was sup-
t
