Haw River

In the chronology

Dated events connected with this place, earliest first. See these 22 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1701 John Lawson's party fords the Haw and meets a Virginia pack train in the Haw Fields On the last stages before Occaneechi Town, Lawson's party stripped in cold weather to ford the Haw River, which he described as running among boulders the size of houses. The next day, crossing the rich land known as the Haw Fields, they met a pack train of thirty loaded horses and four or five men led by Massey, an Englishman from Leeds trading out of Virginia, and reached the Occaneechi town about three that afternoon. People: John LawsonInternet Archive: Douglas L. Rights, "The Trading Path to the Indians", North Carolina Historical Review 8 (1931), p. 417
2. 1752 Bishop Spangenberg's party travels the Trading Path across the new Orange County Seeking land for the Moravians, Bishop Spangenberg set out from Edenton with the surveyor William Churton and followed the Trading Path from near present Warrenton to the Yadkin. His travel schedule names stages at Sennett's, eight miles beyond Patrick Bogin's, and Maprin's, eighteen miles on, then the Haw River eight miles farther and a Dutchman's fifteen miles past it. Rights identified these as Sinnott's mill east of Hillsborough, the Mebane place on the Haw Fields road, and the ford near present Swepsonville. People: William ChurtonSearch the index · Internet Archive: Douglas L. Rights, "The Trading Path to the Indians", North Carolina Historical Review 8 (1931), p. 407
3. September 1752 The county court contracts for a courthouse and prison near Piney Ford The justices chose a site north of the Haw River within two miles of Piney Ford and gave Marmaduke Kimbrough the contract for a frame courthouse and a log prison. They met at the site in December, but the buildings were probably never finished.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 19
4. 1756 Moravians record a visit from Indians living at a fort near the Haw River The Moravian settlers near present Winston-Salem recorded a visit in 1756 from Indians described as Cherokees from the fort near Haw River. The Haw was then in Orange County and a long way from any known Cherokee town, and the entry places an Indian settlement in the county decades after the Piedmont was supposed to be empty of them.Excavating Occaneechi Town (UNC Press): Pre-Revolutionary War
5. 1764 John Armstrong contracts with Henry McCulloh to run a mill on the Haw River John Armstrong of Orange County and Henry McCulloh of Halifax County made a contract about the operation of a mill on the Haw River.Search the index · UNC Libraries, Wilson Special Collections Library: John Armstrong Papers, 1764 and undated
6. March 22, 1768 Settlers west of the Haw River call Orange County's representatives and vestry to a settlement at the courthouse Inhabitants on the west side of the Haw River addressed Orange County's Assembly men and vestrymen, asking them to fix a day before the next court to meet at the courthouse and settle accounts of taxes and officers' fees, and declaring they would pay no more taxes until they had a full settlement.Documenting the American South, Colonial and State Records: Regulators' Advertisement No. 5, address from inhabitants near Haw River to the Orange County Vestry and General Assembly representatives, March 22, 1768
7. August 27, 1768 William Chavis of Granville County sells 320 acres on the Haw River William Chavis of Granville County, who held land beside the Saponi settlement on William Eaton's land and appears to have been of part Indian descent, sold Joseph Pritchit 320 acres on both sides of the Haw River from a 1751 grant. Hazel notes the tract lay near where Saponi families would settle about twenty years later.North Carolina Archaeological Society: Forest Hazel, Occaneechi-Saponi Descendants in the North Carolina Piedmont: The Texas Community, Southern Indian Studies 40 (1991), p. 10
8. February 1771 Regulators marching on New Bern turn back at Haw River Regulators from Rowan, Orange and Granville gathered under James Hunter to march on New Bern, where Herman Husband was jailed. They broke up at Haw River on hearing that a grand jury had declined to indict him and he had been released on February 8. People: James Hunter, Herman Husband, Rednap HowellNash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 21
9. May 12-14, 1771 Tryon's army halts at Colonel Mebane's for Sunday worship on the march to Alamance Leaving Hillsborough on May 11, Tryon stopped on Sunday at Colonel Mebane's for divine service, then marched to the Haw River, where 23 mounted men under Captain Bullock joined as his only cavalry. He ordered his troops not to take property and reached Alamance Creek on May 14. People: William TryonInternet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 202
10. February 25, 1781 Pyle's defeat near the Haw River Henry Lee's Legion and Andrew Pickens's militia attacked a few hundred Loyalist recruits under Dr. John Pyle who were riding to join Cornwallis at Hillsborough. Mistaking Lee's men for Tarleton's cavalry, the Loyalists were cut down, with more than 90 killed, on Michael Holt's land, then in Orange County and now in southern Alamance. People: Andrew PickensNC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources: Pyle's Defeat (Highway Historical Marker G-22)
11. 1818 Mary Mendenhall keeps Union School near Woody's Ferry on the Haw In 1818 Union School, about a mile south of Woody's Ferry on the Haw River in Orange County, was in the charge of Mary Mendenhall.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 135
12. July 4, 1823 Citizens near Murphey's mills hold a Fourth of July muster, oration and dinner Citizens near Murphey's mills celebrated Independence Day with David Nelson presiding, a reading of the Declaration by Victor M. Murphey and an oration by Dr. James A. Craig. A band led the procession, two infantry companies under Captains Russell and McDaniel fired a round for each state, and Captain William Jones served the dinner before twenty-four toasts.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, July 16, 1823, p. 3