History of Davidson's Fort (as we know it for now)
Davidson’s Fort was built in 1776 by
North Carolina Militia soldiers for the defense of settlers
against the Cherokees.
Conflicts between Native Americans and
European settlers were violent throughout the eighteenth
century. The conflict was primarily about
land, as settlers continually broke treaties by moving into
land reserved to the Cherokees. In
1763, the British made a treaty with the Cherokee Nation
agreeing that Europeans would not settle as far west as the
Blue Ridge Mountains. It has often
been said that the crest of the Blue Ridge formed the border
between colonial and Cherokee land, and this has been a
simple way to explain the intended effect of the treaty.
The reality, however, is more complicated.
According to the proclamation made by Governor Tryon
when the treaty of 1763 was made, the boundary was a line
beginning where the South Carolina boundary with the
Cherokee ended at Reedy River. The line
then ran about 60 miles north to Tryon Mountain (now called
White Oak Mountain, near Columbus, NC), then continued in a
straight line to Chiswell’s mines in Virginia.
(You can find Tryon’s proclamation in The Colonial
and State Records of North Carolina, edited by William
L. Saunders, vol. VII, pp. 502-503; you can access this
source online at docsouth.unc.edu/csr. ) According to
this line, the present town of Old Fort lies west of the
boundary in Cherokee territory.
Another reality is that the settlers were pretty much
prepared completely to disregard any treaty made by the King
and his agents, and so continued moving further west.
Thus in the early to mid 1770’s several settler
families took up land in what is now McDowell County,
including the brothers John, Samuel, William, George and
perhaps Thomas Davidson.
The four Davidson brothers were the
sons of another John Davidson who, with his brother George
and/or his oldest son George, settled in what is now Iredell
County in the 1740’s. It would have been
a favor to posterity if the Davidsons had not recycled the
same first names in every generation. The
multiplicity of Davidsons with the same first names – sons,
uncles, cousins, brothers – causes considerable confusion in
Davidson family records. It also makes it
difficult to determine which Davidson owned which tracts of
land and even confuses which individuals were actually
involved in stories both handed down and written.
We do know, however, that the elder John Davidson
mentioned above had a brother named George Davidson , and
that this George Davidson was the father of General William
Lee Davidson who was killed at the Battle of Cowan’s Ford in
1780. We also know that the elder John
had five sons – George, Thomas, twins Samuel and William,
and John who was called “One-Eyed” because of a rifle
misfire in his childhood or youth.
In addition, we know that Davidsons of every name
owned considerable amounts of land in the
present Old Fort area, as early as the 1770’s.
Davidson’s Fort was built on land owned by Davidsons,
though which Davidson owned the Fort site is unclear at
present. For more on this subject, see
“Digression on Land Ownership” below.
As the American Revolution continued,
the Cherokees sided with the British against the Americans,
and Americans accused the British of instigating Cherokee
violence against settlers. The summer of
1776 saw an increase in Cherokee violence against settlers
on the Catawba, particularly in present McDowell and Burke
Counties. Davidson’s Fort was built
during this time, no doubt in response to the increase in
Cherokee attacks. There are several
slightly different stories regarding who built the fort,
when and why:
