Excerpt from Biographical Sketches of the Early Settlers of the Hopewell Section and Reminiscences of the Pioneers and Their Descendants by Families There is no more historic place in America than Mecklenburg county, and in the county no spot so conspicuous for men of daring and chivalric deeds in Revolutionary times as the Hopewell settlement. This section was settled by that sturdy Scotch-Irish element who appear to have been born in the Presbyterian faith, strongly imbued with a love of liberty, religious freedom, and fair play. The majority of the pioneers came from Maryland and Pennsylvania. The section of which we write is bounded on the west by the Catawba river, taking its name from the tribe of Indians who roamed over this portion of North Carolina long after the white people established homes on its borders; bounded on the east by a high ridge without a single water course running across it for twenty miles. The rain falling on the west side flows into the Catawba, and all on the east side to Rocky River. In the early days of the settlement the southern and northern boundaries extended respectively for a few miles north of Charlotte to Beattie's Ford, twelve miles northwest of Hopewell church. The lands were well watered, somewhat rolling, much of it prairie in fine grass and wild pea-vines, very fertile, and all capable of easy cultivation, except a small area covered with "nigger-head rock." It was once believed that only a wild and rugged climate and scant soil could produce the highest type of manhood, but the heroes of the Revolution, and their descendants in the last great struggle between the States, prove that it is more in the race than in the locality. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.