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History of Sweetwater Valley
THE LENOIR FAMILY.
by William Ballard Lenoir.
Our destiny and character are in a great measure determined by heredity and environment. No biography is complete therefore without an answer to the questions: "Who were your ancestors, where and when born, whence came you and why?" Nations, provinces and neighborhoods have their own particular racial instincts and proclivities, their prejudices, likes and dislikes. Families have their own peculiar characteristics. One distinguishing trait of the Lenoir family is impatience of dictation from others where personal, political or religious liberty is concerned. If you make the mistake of telling one of them he must or must not do something, which he thinks should concern only himself and not the public good, he thereupon resolves himself into a committee of one to devise ways and means to do or not to do that very thing. This pertains especially to such matters as amusements, food, drink and clothing, as he deems these are purely personal matters.
St. Paul said: "If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while the world standeth." A truly commendable spirit, considering the fact that he was once a persecutor "even unto strange cities."
I believe as a rule the Lenoir’s have gone as far as they ought to relieve their fellow beings in distress, their time and money being at the disposal of their friends; but if one of them were asked, even by a friend or brother to refrain from something on account of some whim or fancy, I am afraid the answer would not be satisfactory. I have known few of them that would consent to regulate their diet according to the notions of another.
When Louis XIV in 1685 revoked the Edict of Nantes, the charter of religious liberty signed by Henry IV iri 1598, a number of the Lenoir’s left French soil forever. This they did not so much because they were enamored of the German, Martin Luther, or that the views of the gloomy and ascetic Calvin appealed to them, but because they resented the persecutions and tyranny then practiced by the Pope of Rome and Louis XIV.
When George III imposed a tax on the colonies they became ardent whigs and revolted, not that it would hurt them to pay the tax but because it was a violation of the Charter granted Carolina by King Charles II. Thus the spirit of Touchstone in "As You Like It": "If reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I give no man a reason on compulsion."
In 1861 the Lenoir’s in all parts of the south wished to stay in the Union. But when Mr. Lincoln issued his call for troops to whip them in when and if they seceded, they unanimously, with one accord, to a man and to a woman, did their level best to get out and stay out and wore sorry when they did not succeed. They were union men of their own volition but not on compulsion. Government should not be founded on the consent of those that govern.
In France the name Lenoir is not an uncommon one. It was first probably written Le Noir, then anglicized into Lenoir. The names Xavier and Cholmondeley have undergone still greater changes; now written in this country Sevier and Chumley. I have been told also that the Huguenots of the family even in France wrote the name "Lenoir" to distinguish themselves from the Catholics, who wrote it with a capital N. The Lenoir’s in France so far as I have been able to ascertain were farmers, traders, merchants, manufacturers, explorers, and occasionally art collectors and bankers. They have never risen to celebrity as advocates, soldiers or professional men. Nearly the same has been the case in our own country. Farmers, merchants and manufacturers will include nearly all of them. I have known only one lawyer and one physician of the name in Tennessee and North Carolina, and they did not depend on the practice of their profession for a living. They have never been soldiers for pleasure, pay, plunder or glory. They have been under arms only when they were assured their country needed their services. Nor have they been statesmen, orators or politicians. If ever one was a preacher or could write "Rev." before his name I have never heard of it. They never had the gift of fluent speech nor were fond of exhibiting themselves to the public gaze. Few of them were so fixed in the belief of the tenets of any one church organization as to feel called to preach. Some of them have represented their counties and districts in the lower and upper houses of the Legislature
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of their states, as the saying goes, with credit to themselves and their constituents, but I believe that is about as far as they ever got or aspired to. They were not adepts at intrigue or swapping votes on public measures.
They have always taken prosperity and adversity with equal complacency; never boasted of the one or complained at the other or appealed to the public for sympathy. Their nonchalant disposition was illustrated by one of the Lenoirs who was an explorer in the deserts of northern Africa. Early one morning one of his com-panions came to his tent in great excitement and shouted: "Lenoir, the Bedouins are attacking us." "Tell the fools to wait; I'm shaving," was the answer. But the "fools" wouldn't wait. His dead body was found with the razor still in his hand.
Lenoir is a favorite name for the villain in melodrama and dime novels. Mrs. Southworth uses it in "The Hidden Hand.'' The adjective '' noir'' means black; and black in name, black by nature is assumed. Yet they are not always pictured as villains in the play but are sometimes given the place of the hero, coming out with flying colors.
I might as well give at the outset the authorities on which I rely for statements made below:
Wheeler's History of North Carolina.
Historic Homes of North Carolina Part III.
Homer D. L. Sweet's History of Avery Family of Croton. Published at Syracuse, N. Y.
The Unpublished History of the Lenoir Family by Miss Laura Norwood of Lenoir, North Carolina.
Public and Family Records and Letters. Personal Conversations and Knowledge. This will save footnotes and special quotations. Any of the family friends desiring more specific and lengthy information would do well to consult the above authorities.
There were four Lenoir brothers that came to America after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV on May 2, 1685. One of these four brothers came across the ocean in his own vessel. He therefore was probably a resident of Nantes, as this has been a great commercial and shipping point from the time of the Bo-
man occupation. He must have come almost directly to New York City. In the archives of the Old French Church is a Baptismal Record of which the following is a translation:
"Baptism Today, 6th October, 1696.
After the prayer of the evening has been baptized in this church, Isaac, son of Isaac Lenoir and of Anne, his father and mother, born on the 25th of last September and presented to his baptism by Auguste Grassot and Susanne Hulin, Godfather and Godmother, and baptized by M. Peiret, Minister.!"
(Signed) I. LENOIR.
SUSANNE HULIN.
PEIRET, Minister. AUGUSTS GRASSOT.
At this time New York was an English possession, having passed from the hands of the Dutch in 1674. New York City then included only the territory between the Battery and Wall Street.
In one of his voyages this Lenoir's vessel was lost "in a storm, carrying him to a seaman's grave." As however he was not heard from after his departure from New York this is mere conjecture. This was in the day of piracy, and he may have been captured by pirates. He was, I understand, the great grandfather of William Lenoir who settled in Wilkes County, N. C.
In what is now Caldwell County in the "Happy Valley" of the Yadkin River, surrounded by a grove of magnificent hemlocks and oaks, stands the colonial mansion of General William Lenoir, spoken of above. It was built by him after the Revolutionary War in 1785. Near this mansion is the family burying ground containing the remains of many of the Lenoir family. In this is a large monument of beautiful marble impressive in its silent majesty. It dominates the landscape and rises above the other monuments of children and grandchildren as his name and fame is above theirs. On this monument is the epitaph, which is almost an epitome of the history of his life. It is in a fine state of preservation, and reads as follows:
Here Lies
All That Is Mortal Of
WILLAM LENOIR
Born May 8th, 1751.
Died May 6th, 1839.
"In times that tried men's souls he was a genuine whig. As a lieutenant under Rutherford and Williams in 1776, and as a captain under Cleveland at King's Mountain he proved himself a brave soldier. Although a native of another state, yet North Carolina was proud of him as her adopted son. In her services he filled the several offices of major-general of militia, president of the Senate, first president of the Board of Trustees of the university, for sixty years justice of the peace and chairman of the court of Common Pleas. In all these high public trusts he was found faithful. In private life he was no less distinguished as an affectionate husband, a kind father and a warm hearted friend. The traveler will long remember his hospitality and the poor bless him as a benefactor."
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"Ferguson had dally Information of the advancement of the Whigs and was so on the alert that men on foot would not be able to overtake him; therefore orders were given that as many as had or could procure horses go In advance as mounted Infantry, there not being a single dragoon In the Whig army. Whereupon about six hundred were prepared and marched oft about sunrise on the sixth day of October, 1780, leaving the footmen, about 1,500 In number, encamped
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HISTORY OF SWEETWATER VALLEY
on Green River under the command of Major Joseph Herndon. They, the six hundred, marched all day to Cowpens, where they were joined by Colonel Williams with a few South Carolina militia. They started to camp but were ordered forward. They marched all night and In the morning Joined the forces of Shelby, Sevler, Cleaveland and Campbell. They marched in four columns: Colonel Winston commanded the right-hand column, Cleaveland the left, and Shelby and Sevier the middle columns. As Colonel Campbell had come the greatest distance, from the State of Virginia, he was complimented with the command of the whole detachment."
(He then tells of the battle and highly important results. His own personal part in the engagement he relates as follows):
"I was captain of a company and left them at Green River, except six of them who procured horses and went with us. I went as a common soldier, and did not pretend to take command of those that belonged to my company, but fell in immediately behind Colonel Winston, In front of the right-hand column, which enabled me to give more particular account of the progress of that part of the army than any other. Before the battle Adjutant Jesse Franklin (afterward Governor of North Carolina), Captain Robert Cleaveland and myself agreed to stand together and support each other; but at the commencement of the battle enthusiastic zeal caused us all to separate. Each being anxious to effect the grand object, no one appeared to regard his own personal safety. As to my own part from where we dismounted, instead of going on to surround, I advanced the nearest way toward the enemy under a heavy flre, until I got within about thirty paces. * * * About that time I received a slight wound In my side and another in my left arm; and after that a bullet went through, my hair, where It was tied, and my clothes were cut In several places. From the account I have given of the battle It will be understood that it was bought on our side by militia alone. By that victory many militia officers procured swords who could not possibly gel any before; neither was it possible to procure a good supply of ammunition."
The above was written not to give a history of the battle but show what part William Lenoir, also the Clevelands, took in it. Rather than miss the fight he surrendered his position as captain and left his company at Green River and marched and fought as a private in the ranks. Thus he showed that he appreciated the sacrifices of the men who had come from beyond the great mountains, through pathless wilds almost, to their relief.
Until of late years the New England historians of the United States, notably in the school histories, gave little space and attached little importance to that expedition