Project Appleseed

A student named Ben who lives near Ramseur, NC, shared the following history with the group at a recent clinic at our home range. He followed up with me in an email, which I've copied below (with his permission) including links and images. These events appear to have taken place less than 2 miles from the home range where we were all sharing stories and honing our marksmanship. I've looked around the forum, but I haven't seen mention anywhere yet about Maj. Gen. Baron de Kalb and the importance of Cox's Mill near the current RWVA range. Ben's assumption is that continental troops would have been foraging and hunting on what is now the home range. I'd love help learning more if I've missed something in our archives.

Ben's email:

I wanted to follow up with some more information about the history that unfolded right around the Project Appleseed home range in Ramsuer, NC!

In the mid 18th century the land had emptied out when the Saponi indians migrated to Fort Christanna in Virginia for better trade and protection. The land adjacent to the range was granted to Harmon Cox (sometimes written Herman Cox), a member of the Cane Creek Society of Friends (Quaker). In fact, there were so many members of the Cox family settled on this section of Deep River that it was called "The Cox Settlement".



You can see the original land grant (1758) for 665 acres in the special collections at the Randolph County Library. These early grants are interesting because they are not oriented north and they are measured out in "chains" of distance from particular landmarks - in this case a dogwood, a black oak, a white oak, a black oak, and Youngblood's path.



It looks like my estimate was a little off. Buffalo Ford, right below Harmon Cox's mill, is 1.9 miles from the range. So, 70 chains (22 yards to a chain) is only about half the distance. Since there isn't a land grant directly east of Harmon Cox from this era, it makes me think the range itself would have probably been open hunting/foraging land at that time.

Harmon Cox's mill, and his brother Thomas Cox's mill across the river were the most important public utilities for the community, and Buffalo Ford was one of only 4 crossing points for Deep River before 1800. See Warren Dixon's (local amateur historian) write up to nominate Buffalo Ford as a cultural heritage site.

 https://www.randolphlibrary.org/hlpc/buffalofordnomination.pdf

 It was not only the gathering point for the southern department of the continental army in July of 1780, but was also the headquarters of Col. David Fanning during the following 1-2 years of backcountry fighting.

Harmon Cox himself was sentenced to death by Governor Tryon in May of 1771 for his support of the Regulator Movement. He was pardoned at the last minute by taking an oath of allegiance, but many of his neighbors were less fortunate. The Cox Settlement on Deep River was ground zero for the Regulators and it's where Governor Tryon came after Alamance to burn the crops and houses of the movement's leaders.

 https://www.ncpedia.org/history/colonial/regulator-movement

Some people consider the Regulator uprising to be the start of the American Revolution in North Carolina - but most histories don't include it because the Regulators were not seeking independence per se, they were seeking a just government. But, it does certainly illustrate the widespread unrest across the colonies leading up to the events of 1775.

Interesting find, thanks for sharing.