The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-04
OLD MECKLENBURG
 FULL 'OF HISTORY Charlotte, N, G. Celebrates h. dependence on May 20 HOME OF STURDY PEOPLE Has Always Been Called Hornets Nest' Because of the Independence and Aegressiveness of It's
 Citizens.
HOME OF STURDY PEOPLE
BY FREDERIC j. HAskIN.

| AUo'"'H ms lHdhStTy OIt ne south, Is the 1 county seat of Mecklenburg county l North Carolina. To the great majority l of the people of the United States. the l Fourth of July is Independence Day, and
 the greatest of holidays; but to the peo- ] pie of Mecklenburg county the twentieth of May is the most significant of anni- versaries. On that day, in the year ITS,
 the delegates elected from the nine i militia districts in the county declared the political bands which had connected Mecklenburg county with the government of King George III to be sundered. and the people to be free and independent.
 The convention had met to consider ways and means to combat the oppression of the British governor. While 1t was in session, horseman galloped up with a hand bill telling the news of the battle of Lexington, fought just one month before by the New England patriots
 That settled the question and eleven days later the delegates met and provided for a new government by the adoption of a series of twenty resolves" Thus ended British rule in Mecklenburg, more than a year before the congress at Philadelphia, on the fourth of July, 1776. adopted the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson.
 Mecklenburg had taken part in the bat tie of the Alamance four years before
 and Meeklenburgers. disguised by paint ing their faces black, had destroyed the powder wagons being transported by Colonel Moses Alexander, commissary to the oppressive Governor Tryon. A few years later Lord Cornwallis marched through Charlotte, but the reception given him was such a hot one that he called the place "a hornets nest" "Hor- nets Nest it is to this day. On the monument erected to the signers of the Mecklenburg declaration of independence is a hornets nest in bold relief, bearing the graven worlds Let us alone" The Carnegie library has a hornets nest on its book-plate. Every possible way the words of Cornwalls have been adopted as the symbol of the spirit of the town.
 Like all county seats, the original Char lotte was built around a square, in the center of which stood the court house. One would look in vain now for this public square, yet the visitor to Charlotte is always given directions in terms of dis tance and direction from the square" The spot where the first court house stod is now at the intersection of Tryon and Trade streets. The square" has been built up for more than half cen tury and the street intersection IS just like any other place where two streets cross. In the intersection of the street car tracks is a great iron plate, sunk in the street which marks the spot where H. .I, AslRs TnFn O n
 But more enduring than iron plate Is the monument erected to the old court house in the every day speech of the people for to Mecklenburgers that spot will always be "the square"
 Mecklenburg county was organized In 1762 and was originally of much larger area than the present county. It was named in token of the intense loyalty of it's people to the English crown. Char lotte charming princess of the duchy o, Mecl1lenburg Storlitz,h ad become the bride and queen of George III in 176l She went to England in ship commanded BY Admiral Anson. The county from which Mecklenburg was created was named
 Anson in honor of the admiral. Hhe marriage of George and Charlotte was hailed with delight in the southern colo nies, and what was more natural than that the new county should be named
 
 that its county seat should bear her own nameP Tn further manifestation of loyalty, the principal street was named Tryon, for the crown governor or me colony None of the names have been changed, but a brief ten years was all that was necessary to turn that loce ot king and mother country into hate. ana
 to light the fires of independence wnien
 have never ceased to burn In Mecklen- burg.
 The independent nature of thes nor n cts" has a history which goes far back of that famous twentieth of May. Most of the people of the county were Scotch- - Irish-that Is, they were descendants of the Presbyterian Scotch who were sent to Ireland to colonize that rebel lious isle They believed firmly in four thfngs-God, the Bible. Hell and John Knox. Not least of these in their prac- tical religion was John Knox He had taught their fathers in Scotland IT princes exceed their bounds they may be resisted by force" a statement which has been called "the creed of republics in its first hard form
 When Thomas PoPlk called on the peo- ple of the nine militia districts of the county to send delegates to conven- ton to be held at the court house on May 19. 1775, there were seven Presby- terian churches in the county. These seven churches are extant today. housed in new and better buildings, perhaps, hut still known as the seven revolu- tionary churches" In these houses Of worship. sturdy ministers preached a militant gospel, and re-echoed the brave words of Knox. One of them was the principal orator in the convention which | framed the declaration. These Scotch - Irish Mecklenburgers have given to the | Irnited States two of it's presidents Andrew Jackson and James K Polk l From the same community, just across | the line in South Carolina. sprang John 1 C. Calhoun, They have furnished many other famous warriors and statesmen and they are now furnishing competent captains to lead the armies of Industry Not the Presbyterians alone brought | to Meek enburg the spirit or freedom ! that would brook no tyranny The first settlers were Germans from Western Pennsylvania, followed by the Scotch l Irish from the same source and rom
 Virginia. Then came Huguenots from Charleston, exiled victims of an oppres- sion the terrors of which no British subject in America ever knew. Eng | lishmen came too but few of them
 were leaders in the independence move
 ment. The Scotch Irish and the Hu- | guenot blood has commingled in the | Presbyterian congregations of the coun- tv. the German ancestry is shown ir
 the Lutheran and German Reformed l churches. The old established church | is now the Protestant Episcopal, oi | course and the Methodists and other | churches have grown up in later days | Nevertheless, the county is still Pres