Our Family Tree

On October 19, 1765, Ephraim and Elizabeth settled on 640 acres of land on Fishing Creek in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, deeded over to them by William and Mary Moore. (10) One of the witnesses on this deed was William Dunlap, the uncle who raised Ephraim and Charles after their parents died. From time to time they moved to new lands along the western bank of the Catawba River, North Carolina, in the general direction of the Cumberland Gap, gateway to the west.

(10) Mecklenburg register of deeds book I, pages 343 and 344 gives year as 1765. Two deeds of 320 acres each, and the two witnesses who signed the deeds.

In each location Ephraim and his family lived, he held important positions. In the year 1768, he was appointed a commissioner of Tryon County by the Governor and the Assembly for the purpose of building a courthouse and a prison for the use of Tryon County, North Carolina. (12)

(12) Colonial Records, Volume 10, page 108.

In 1770 Ephraim was commissioned a Captain of a regiment of Tryon County foot soldiers for the purpose of fighting Indians. (13)

(13) From "Wheeler's Historical Sketches", Counties, North Carolina, page 62 and also "History of Old Tryon and Rutherford Counties, North Carolina" pages 20, 21, 23, and 24.

Also recorded 19 July 2004 in Find A Grave Memorial# 9122587, created by 'Margaret’s Daughter'

Created by Margaret's Daughter; Record added Jul. 19, 2004

(14) The Committee of Safety was a political term for which a body of men were to be gathered to form a militia group and train them as a body of one, for the purpose of protecting themselves, their families, and their country.

On December 23, 1776, Ephraim was elected as Justice of the peace for Rowan County, by act of legislature.

When Burke County was formed from the western portion of Rowan County in 1777, Ephraim represented that newly formed county in the General Assembly and was a member of the House of Commons, which convened in New Bern on November 15, 1777, and carried over into 1778.

"Old Caney Station Cemetery - The Caney Station cemetery, the oldest known burial ground in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, has disappeared from its original location. Many of the stones of the cemetery have been moved numerous times until now they rest in a location several hundred yards from that spot laid out as a sacred burial ground by the first residents of the Greenville area in about 1795.
"Gayle Carver, of Greenville, who takes such history seriously, is urging that a permanent monument be erected at the site of the original Caney Station and Caney Station cemetery on the T. T. Kennedy farm one and one half miles northwest of Greenville on the Luzerne Road. Caney Station was abandoned as a community when Greenville became the county seat in 1799, and soon, the cemetery was also abandoned and fell into disrepair under a growth of vines and brush. From time to time the stones have been moved about by previous land owners until now they are far from the original sites of the graves. Many of the county’s pioneer and civic leaders are buried in this cemetery, unmarked by any monuments at all. This includes the remains of two congressmen, who served in Washington in the fledgling years of this county. They are Alney M. McLean and Edward Rumsey, whose positions in life should warrant them more respect than their current burial places now offer."