(Larger map) Footnotes

1754-1779

Cumberland County began as a 2,400-square-mile swath of backcountry territory, carved by the Colonial Assembly from Bladen Precinct in 1754. From that beginning, and for the first 25 years of its history as a county, the seeds had been planted - seeds that would shape the young county for generations to come. (Read more)

Early court records revealing It's not hard to find evidence that local officials got to work soon after the county's founding. Patriots meet at Liberty Point The opening volleys of the American Revolution set off a chain of events that echoed all the way to Cumberland County. Cross Creek, Campbellton merge Merchants in Wilmington wanted a town on the Cape Fear River to secure trade with the frontier country. (Map)

NOTABLES Duke of Cumberland John Newberry Flora Macdonald Robert Rowan The Rev. James Campbell CLASSICS Highlands shoe buckles A pioneer's pistol A record set in stone Communion cups

QUOTABLE
'(They) will dance for several nights together with the greatest briskness imaginable, their wind never failing them.' -- John Lawson, describing the Indians he encountered during a 1701 expedition in the Carolinas	'Whereas the Inhabitants of that part of Bladen County, within the Lines hereinafter mentioned, live at such a Distance from the Courthouse (then at present-day Elizabethtown), that it is very inconvenient for them to attend the ordinary Business of the County there; and there being a sufficient Number of Freeholders and others, within the Lines to support the Charges of a County among themselves: Therefore for the ease of said Inhabitants (this act is passed).' -- From the 1754 Colonial Council act establishing Cumberland County
'Dear Maggie: Allan leaves tomorrow to join Donald's standard at Cross Creek, and I shall be alone wi' my three bairns. Canna ye come and stay wi' me awhile? There are troublous times ahead I ween. God will keep the right. I hope all our ain are in the right, prays your good friend.' -- Letter written by Flora Macdonald dated Feb. 1, 1776, as her husband, Allan, planned to join Loyalist troops as they gathered before the battle at Moore's Creek Bridge 'So zealous was Mr. Campbell in the cause that in his public ministration he prayed for the success of American arms, until he was notified that a repetition of such a prayer would insure a bullet in his head.' -- From a speech given by the Rev. James Banks, recalling the Rev. James Campbell's support of the colonists against the British during the Revolutionary War, even though his Highlander church members were bound by their oath of allegiance to the crown