I found the site and downloaded the article by NC historian,
Mitchell. He spent a lifetime as head of Archives & History, and
married Fannie Memory Blackweller in later life. So for the tid-bits
in the Byrd article.
Robert Payne was said to have been a chain-carrier on the
dividing line. Wish they too had been named. But it makes sense that
he would choose a piece of land he had seen. What a scene.
On that small map is “Berry Hill”, the center in early Pittsy.
co. Peter Perkins, J.P. 1767 had county seat there. Peter was a capt.
in the Rev. and Col. in the Pittsy. Mllitia. (Remember our Paynes &
Wares, also Col.’s) Court House records show estate named “Bury
Hill”, because many soldiers killed at the Battle of Guilford
Courthouse were buried there. That the estate was used for a hospital
is clear. Historian, Maude Carter Clements writes of it.
Byrd: “At 2:55 we come to a broad stream entering left: Cascade
Creek, whose tributaries rise several miles to the north near Stills
Mt. and the communities of West Fork and Allen.”
On cascade Creek, two miles north of the Dan confluence, on
Sept. 28, 1803, formation of a Latin grammar school was announced by
Mr. John W. Caldwell, ” a gentleman, (very rich), of much
respectability, who will teach the Latin & Greek languages to
perfection; also English he will teach in its various branches….”
So You see our families did not grow up in ignorance.
Also with Byrd was his Astrolobe expert, MAYO, for whom two
rivers are named. Now this is a very important story, so more in
depth later. It was he who was a Col. in revolution and was the
center of one of the most famous stories.
Washington called Peter Francisco “the Hercules of the
Revolution.” One of his many miraculous feats was saving Col. Mayo.
In 1780 he was in the VA Militia and fought at the first Battle of
Camden in SC that August 16, when the American General Horatio Gates
opposed General Lord Charles Cornwallis. Gates was routed. In the
confusion Francisco and his commander, Col. Mayo became separated from
their unit and were nearly captured. Francisco bayoneted a British
horseman, took his mount. Pretending to be a redcoat, he led enemy
troops away from Mayo, evaded them, and gave the horse to Mayo, who
escaped.
A generation later his gr. dau., in San Philippe, TX will be the
baby sitter for my mother’s 2 older sisters, Theo. & Imogene. Years
later in Ft. Worth, Mayo will become the first art teacher in their
schools. Imogene Stanfield, now married, ( to Jay Freeman) will make
their home in Mayo’s large house. Imogene left to mother five of the
paintings of Mayo, given to her, which I now have. I plan to return
them to FT Worth, if they want them. (Ha.!!!) I know they will.
Young Mayo, and young Robert Payne, who would have thought they
would have experienced so very much.