History
With Fire and Sword
It was September of 1780, and British Major Patrick Ferguson had had enough. The Revolutionary War was in its fifth year and the British turned their attention to the southern colonies. British leaders believed that many citizens in this south remained loyal to King...
Jonathan Tipton of Kings Mountain Fame and His Descendants
Major Jonathan Tipton was one of the Overmountain Men who marched from Tennessee to Kings Mountain and fought in the 10/7/1780 battle that was “the turning point of the America Revolution” (Thomas Jefferson). Besides traveling along the Overmountain Victory Trail...
John Sevier’s Mitchell County Connections
Heralded hero of the Battle of Kings Mountain and first governor of the new state of Tennessee (elected 5 additional times), John Sevier has several connections to Mitchell County. John’s grandfather was Valentine “The Huguenot” Sevier, born 1678 in Paris, France, but...
The Cherokee Wars
When the French and Indian War ended in 1763, territory from the Atlantic to the Mississippi was ceded to Britain by France. Native Americans living in the area looked to the Crown to protect them from incursions of land-hungry settlers, but the Proclamation of 1763...
Footsteps for Freedom ~ The Road to Kings Mountain – Part 1 ~ The Proclamation of 1763
The Mitchell County Historical Society presents Footsteps for Freedom: The Road to Kings Mountain. These articles will highlight our role in what Thomas Jefferson declared was “the turning point of the American Revolution,” – the Battle of Kings Mountain. In 1763,...
1955 – The Museum of North Carolina Minerals is Opened With Great Fanfare at Gillespie Gap
On June 17, 1955, the Museum of NC Minerals was officially opened at Gillespie Gap with North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges presenting the museum to United States National Park Service Director Conrad L. Wirth. The museum was a joint project between the state of...
David Baker ~ Soldier of the Revolution and Founder of Bakersville
Historical records indicate that the area around what today is called Bakersville was known at one time as Baker’s Place and/or Baker’s Plantation. To date, the first confirmed use of the name Bakersville is as a designated post office—1827, in newspapers as...
North Carolina Rhododendron Festival: Roots and Twigs
The beautiful Rhododendron flower is celebrated worldwide. These celebrations include festivals in Port Logan, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Muroji, Japan; Taranaki, a bit south of New Plymouth, New Zealand: Florence, OR; Me, CA; Plymouth, MA; and tad closer to home,...
The Civil War – A Series of Three Stories
Off To War, 1861 A series of three Civil War Stories published in the Mitchell News-Journal in 2011 By Pat Turner Mitchell Most of us have heard of an ancestor who fought in the War Between the States. Farther south people call it the War of Great Unpleasantness. Most...
Mitchell County’s Reverend Stephen Morgan Greene
Stephen Morgan Greene was born March 22, 1838, to Joseph S. and Mary “Polly” Collis Greene in the Greene Cove area on Cane Creek, Yancey County at the time and now Mitchell. He was named Stephen Morgan after his uncle Rev. Stephen Morgan Collis, his mother’s brother....