March 27
Drive today from Charleston to Concord, NC with a stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch. Our campground, Glenwood Acres, is in the shadow of the Charlotte Speedway of NASCAR fame. It literally looms over everything around it. Nice park.
March 28
Laundry has to be done again today, seems like every other day. A nice laundromat was recommended by the campground manager, expensive but we were able to get four washers immediately. Bob ducked out to have a haircut at the salon next door, much needed. Folded all the clothes, got groceries and made our way back to the campground to fix our lunch. Lamb chops fixed on the George Forman grill and salad. After washing the dishes we set off for the Rocky River Presbyterian Church where we met the church administrator and the pastor. They gave us a guided tour of the sanctuary and booklets and maps of the prior church sites and graveyards.
The first cemetery was behind the “new” church, dedicated May 2, 1861, a beautiful red brick building. Here we found a lot of Spears markers. These were mostly second and third generation Spears graves.
From here we drove to the “Spears Graveyard” where the only Spears buried there is William Spears, born 1731, arrived in Carolina from Scotland in 1740, sired 10 children with his wife, Agnes Wallace, and died in 1803. The cemetery is a bit neglected with lots of leaves and branches on the ground but William’s monument is clearly visible.
Then a drive to see the “Spears House” later known as Caldwell Creek Farm and Eudy Farm. It is on the national register of historic homes, located near Concord, Cabarrus County, North Carolina. The farmhouse, built by William Spears,was constructed in stages and, prior to 1825, reached the form of a dogtrot. The original pen was probably built sometime between about 1760 and 1795 and the second pen was probably built between 1796 and 1800. The house was restored from 1982 to 1987. We drove into the driveway of the house and promptly met Jill Ray, the current owner of the house and 42 acres, who graciously invited us in to tour the house and see how she had restored it in the the 1980’s. At the time they bought the property they had to make the decision to build their “dream house” or put the money into renovating the tumbling down dogtrot oak log house. They decided to restore and keep it up for someday to be a museum. It is the oldest standing house in Cabarrus County. Jill showed us the interior and how one of the two buildings had to have two additional levels of logs installed in order to make the height right for incorporating the dogtrot and installing the single roof over the two halves and the dogtrot. The dogtrot space was used for the kitchen downstairs, the stairs and upstairs the bathroom (only one). We tore ourselves away to keep from trying to stay the night. Then the drive back to the campground of about 10 miles. Interesting things - William Spears owned all the land around the Spears Graveyard as a plantation so he was probably more wealthy than any later Spears will ever be. One story from Jill was that William’s grand-son, Columbus lived in the house many years and when one of his teenaged daughters died he was so distraught that instead of taking her body to the church (water may have been over the road) he buried her in the back yard of the house planting jonquils on her grave and one daffodil at the head. They still today come up that way every spring. Wow!
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