Revolutionary War Soldier. Built McKendree Church.
Some Mooresville newspapers published in the 1940s-60s give his name incorrectly as John Love Washington Mayhew in articles about Mayhew family reunions. The original marriage license clearly says John Love Wm. Mayhew.
Son of James Mayhew and Jemima Lucas Mayhew.
Brother of Nancy Mayhew who married Alexander Calvert, a fourth-great-grandson of Governor Leonard Calvert of Maryland, son of the first Lord Baltimore and a second cousin of Col. Ninian Beall who was an associate and neighbor of the Mayhews in Prince George's County, Maryland. An unsourced family tree gives Jemima Lucas Mayhew's grandmother as Isabell Magruder Henry, great-granddaughter of Gov. James Braithwaite who was another second cousin of Gov. Leonard Calvert. It is not known whether that family tree is correct, but according to it, Nancy Mayhew married her 8th cousin.
Some descendants of James and Jemima Mayhew have claimed that her maiden name was Cole. Pat Mayhew Vincent (descendant of their son Alexander) joined the National Society, Daughters of the American Colonists, and her descent from John Cole of Maryland through Jemima (“Cole”) Mayhew was accepted by said lineage society. Her cousin Helen Mayhew Colbert also joined the D.C. State chapter, Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, on Robert Bruce Polk of Maryland and afterward added numerous supplemental lineages which were accepted, including: VINCENT COX, NICHOLAS JENKINS, JOHN JENKINS, and JOHN COLE.
Other researchers show James Mayhew's wife as Jemima Lucas, the daughter of James Lucas and Mary Henry and niece of Alexander Henry in Loudon County. James and Jemima Mayhew named a son Reason Lucas Mayhew. They moved from Prince Georges County, Maryland to Loudon County, Virginia with her uncles Alexander Henry and Lindores Henry, and James Mayhew had been Alexander Henry's overseer when he was younger.
It is of interest that mtDNA matches of descendants of Jemima Mayhew match that of Lucas descendants and appear to confirm that she was the daughter of James & Mary (Henry) Lucas, and granddaughter of Thomas Lucas and Dorothy (some say Letchworth). They also match descendants of Letchworths in England.
John Love William Mayhew married 26 Feb 1778 in Montgomery County, Maryland, to Elizabeth Self. They moved to Loudon County, Virginia.
Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War (1913) by Joseph Thompson McAllister, page 182: Listed in 1835 as among pensioners residing outside of Virginia, "as transferred from E. Tennessee records 4 March 1833): John Mayhew, Iredell Co., N.C., age 77.
Entered Revolutionary War as volunteer militia soldier 1777; joined main army near Germantown, PA. Guarded Hessians during 2nd tour of duty; was foot soldier during 3rd tour in Gloucester Co., VA during Siege of Yorktown. Settled Falling Creek in Bedford Co., VA 1794, then on Catawba River in Iredell Co., NC where he est. McKendree Chapel Methodist Church where they are buried
Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements & Rosters:
Pension application of John Mayhew S9401 f20VA
North Carolina Iredell County
On this 22 day of August 1832 personally appeared in open Court, being a Court of record, John Mayhew of the County of Iredell and State aforesaid aged about seventy-five years in February last, who being first sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed the 7th of June 1832, that he the said John Mayhew entered the service of the United States as a volunteer militia soldier for three months in Loudoun County Virginia in the year of the battle of Germantown [October 4, 1777] in the company commanded by Captain Spur [Richard Spurr], in the Regiment commanded by Colonel James Coleman; that they marched from Loudoun County by Hagerstown in the State of Maryland, Lancaster in the State of Pennsylvania where they remained about two weeks to have their arms repaired; from thence they went on towards Germantown, but did not arrive at Germantown till after the battle, and and the British being in possession of that place, presented the Regiment in which he was from approaching nearer to it than four or five miles as well as he now recollects; that they remained in the vicinity of Germantown till the expiration of his term of service, when he was discharged, but did not obtain a written discharge; that he distinctly remembers the fact of General Washington's having command of the Troops at this time, and place which he thinks was the Valley Forge; that he has not now in his possession any documentary proof of this his first term of service; that living now in North Carolina four hundred miles from the place of his former residence, it is not in his power to procure the testimony of persons knowing the fact that he did serve in the revolutionary war except the testimony of his Brother Aaron Mayhew whose deposition will be obtained and annexed to his declaration. The Reverend Jacob Hill a clergyman of the Methodist Church and residing near to me on the opposite side of the River in Lincoln County; and David McCreary who is my neighbor residing in Iredell County will it is believed be able to certify in the manner required by the rules of the Department, and that their certificate will, if obtained, be also annexed to this declaration. These gentlemen being fifteen or twenty miles from the Court House, and it being inconvenient now to produce them as witnesses is the reason their testimony is not offered at this time –
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service of the United States as a drafted militia soldier for the period of three months, but being otherwise occupied in business he hired a substitute, in the year as well as he now recollects, immediately following that in which he first served, – or perhaps, it might have been the second year afterwards, his memory not enabling him at this time to speak positively –
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service of the United States as a drafted militia soldier for the purpose of guarding the Hessians who had been
captured he thinks at the battle of Trenton [December 26, 1776]; that he was under the command of Captain Spur or Captain Lewis
1 of the County of Loudoun, but he cannot now say which of them was in service at this time; that the call was not for any particular period; that he remained in service for the purpose aforesaid as long as was deemed necessary.
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service all of the United States for the period of three months, as a drafted militia soldier in the County of Loudoun and State of Virginia in the company commanded by Captain Lewis and in the Regiment commanded by Colonel Clapum [Josias Clapham] in the year when Cornwallis was taken at York Town [October 19, 1781] in Virginia; that they marched from Loudoun County by Fredericksburg on to York Town. That the Regiment in which he served was ordered to the opposite side of the York River, to prevent the enemy from passing out in that direction; that he remained in this situation until the enemy was captured; and after that event the Regiment was ordered up the country to guard the Prisoners; that he does not now recollect whether his term of three months had expired or when he was discharged, but he remained in service as long as was deemed necessary, and on leaving the service did not obtain a written discharge – as to this term of service the said John Mayhew has other testimony to offer than that above referred to –
And the said John Mayhew hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any State.
Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid –
S/ A. Timonton, CCK S/ John Mayhew, X his mark
[James McRee, a clergyman, and David McCreary gave the standard supporting affidavit.]
State of North Carolina Iredell County: Before me Alexander Torrance one of the justices of the peace for the County aforesaid personally appeared Aaron Mayhew on the 8th day of September 1832 after being sworn in solemn form of law Saith to the best of his recollection his brother John Mayhew served in the revolutionary War three towers [tours] if not more each tour three months I believe.
Sworn to and subscribed before me
S/ A. Torrance S/ Aaron Mayhew, X his mark
State of North Carolina Iredell County
This day personally came John Mayhew before me the subscribing Justice of the peace for said County and being sworn in due form of law made the following additional declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the Act of Congress of the 7th of June 1832.
That by reason of old age and consequent loss of memory he is not able to swear positively to the length of his service but to the best of his recollection he served not less than the periods mentioned below
That his first tour in the Militia he was a volunteer under Captain Spur in the Regiment commanded by Colonel Coleman that he joined his Corps at Leesburg in Loudoun County Virginia joined the main Army near Germantown in Pennsylvania and remained with the Army under General Washington till the time of his service expired. – 3 months
His 2nd tour he was drafted for the purpose of guarding the Hessians under the command of either Captain Spur or Captain Lewis, is uncertain how long he was engaged not less than
1.00 [month]
1 There were three captains in the Loudoun militia by the name of Lewis: to wit: John, Joseph and Thomas.
His 3rd tour was in the foot and he was in the Army on the Gloucester side at the time of Cornwallis siege this service was for 3.00 [months]
7.00 [months]
He was born in Prince George County Maryland 13th February 1758.
He has a record of his age in a Bible in his Bible in his possession
He was living in Loudoun County Virginia at the time he was called into service & has lived in Iredell County North Carolina for 30 years where he now lives.
He was a volunteer in his final Service and in other services he was drafted as stated before.
He remembers to have seen General Washington, and others officers of the Army in the different service.
Colonel Clapham commanded the Regiment at Gloucester in which he served.
He never received any discharge that he now remembers.
He refers to James McRee D. D. and Aaron Mayhew.
Sworn & subscribed May 20, 1833 before
S/ J. Campbell, JP S/ John Mayhew, X his mark
[Facts in file Veteran died April 2, 1838 leaving a widow whose name is not given; there is no reference to the children, if any, of the veteran and his wife in this file.]
[Veteran was pensioned at the rate of $23.33 per annum commencing March 4th, 1831, for service as a private for 7 months in the Virginia militia]
STATESVTLLE RECORD & LANDMARK, THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1959:
"SOUTH IREDELL OUTPOST - McKendree Methodist Church, near Catawba River In the northeast corner of Iredell County, is marked as having been established in 1804. Away from the North Iredell churches, it remained a solitary outpost of Methodism in that section until the denomination began to spread there in the decade before the Civil War. It Is the scene of the Mayhew family reunion scheduled to be held Sunday in memory of its founder, John Washington Mayhew. Mayhew Reunion Is Set Sunday.
By HOMER KEEVER
"The Mayhew family reunion will be held Sunday at McKendree's Methodist Church in the southwest corner of Iredell County. There will be dinner on the grounds and services with a special emphasis on Father's Day, honoring not only the present day fathers but also the pioneer father of the clan, John Washington Mayhew. He was part of a colony of Methodists from Bedford County, Va., who came to North Carolina just before 1800 and settled along the Catawba River just below Sherrill's Ford. Those on the west side of the river came in a group in 1787 and soon organized Rehobeth Church, the first Methodist society west of the Catawba and the place where tradition says the first camp meeting in America was held in 1794. Mayhew followed soon after the rest and settled on the east side of the river. On exhibit Sunday, along with Mayhew's last will and testament, will be the original deed to him for the Long and Alley lands along the river. That deed is dated 1793. The first of his deeds recorded in the Iredell County Courthouse is of the McEwen lands to John L. W. Mayhew, late of Bedford County. Va., in 1800. John Washington Mayhew was a local Methodist preacher and soon began preaching at his home. Just when Mayhew's Meeting House was built and the congregation organized on the east side of the river is, like the beginnings of most Methodist churches of the date, a little hazy, but the generally accepted date is 1804 — along with Pisgah and Snow Creek in the north end of the county and just four years after the deed was made to Prather's Meeting House to give Methodism its official start in Iredell.
"When John Mayhew died in 1838, his will provided for the continuation of the church. "I direct my executors," that will reads, "to lay out of my estate a sum sufficient for the erection over my grave and that of my wife after her decease tombstones, and that the same be walled round with stone and of size sufficient for reception and use of my family, and further order that there be laid off two acres of ground at the meeting house known as Mayhew's for a burial ground which I give to the Methodist society for that use and none other." The next year his son, Pressly Mayhew, carried out his wishes and made a deed to the land which contained the old meeting house of Osborn Tatum, Jesse Cornelius, Frederick Alley, Charles Edwards and William Edwards, Sr., trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Some of those trustees were of the colony of Virginians who came down and founded Rehoboth: others were among the leaders of Methodism as it spread across South Iredell in the decade just before the Civil War.
"Until 1850 the church that John Washington Mayhew founded had no connection with the Methodist movement in North Iredell. Then it appears in their records with its present name, McKendree's, named for the first native American who became bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, William McKendree, who tradition says was the first pastor of the Mayhew congregation. Before 1850 it was likely connected with either the Rehoboth Methodists across the river or with the crowing Methodism in the northern part of Mecklenburg. The North Iredell churches were first in the Virginia Conference and then in the North Carolina Conference, while the churches in Mecklenburg and across the river were in the South Carolina Conference until 1870. In 1850, though, McKendree's appears in the records of the Iredell Circuit, along with a small church by the name of Zoar. Then, after the organization of Rocky Mount Church a few years later, the South Iredell churches were formed into a South Iredell Circuit and a parsonage was built near Shepherds. It was part of the Mooresville Circuit all through the last half of the last century as Methodism spread by leaps and bounds throughout the south end of the county. Now along with Rocky Mount and another small church, Williamson's Chapel, it is a circuit of its own."
1793: John L. W. Mayhew first settled in Iredell County, N.C., although not shown in deeds until 1804. (ref., Mayhew History by Eleanora Mayhew McKay; various undated old newspaper clippings). Helen Handley did not believe this was true, citing the 1804 deed as the first deed.
1800: John Mayhew is shown in the census at Salisbury, Iredell Co., N.C.
1804: first recorded deed for John Mayhew in Iredell Co., N.C.
Charlotte Observer, The (NC)
2008-03-20
Section: LKN
Edition: THREE
Page: 1N
Column: AROUND THE LAKE
`THIS IS A PASSING IN HISTORY'
OLD HOME HAS TO MAKE WAY FOR ROAD'S WIDENING
JOE MARUSAK, Staff Writer
The last home remaining from the long-ago community of Mayhewtown is about to be leveled for the widening of Brawley School Road.
Built in the late 1800s, the two-story home sits at the intersection of Brawley School and McKendree roads near Lake Norman. Thousands of commuters zip along that stretch of road with probably no inkling of the 19th-century farming community that thrived there. Descendants of the Mayhew family, which settled the area in the late 1700s, lived in the home and ran a general store that stood across the road.
People in the community raised cotton, soybeans, oats and corn and bartered them at the store, descendant Alan Mayhew, 57, said. Mayhewtown had about 40 families each farming about 100 acres, and, at one point, had more people than Mooresville, he said. Much of Mayhewtown's farmland is now under Lake Norman.
I walked the grounds of the old home this week with Mayhew and his daughter, Marci Mayhew Morton, 31.
Alan Mayhew, president of Capital Mortgage Group at Brawley School and Oak Tree roads, pointed to the old root cellar below the home and where the outdoor privy and a cookhouse stood.
"This is a passing in history," he said. "It's kind of like a person today would not be able to survive how they did back then," given our conveniences of refrigeration and stores. "Would they know how to cure a ham?"
His great-grandfather, William "Absey" Abslam Mayhew, opened the store in the late 1800s. His grandfather, Thomas Holtshouser Mayhew, closed the store about the time of the Depression as much of unincorporated Mayhewtown's population shifted east to Mooresville, which grew because of its railroad lines.
Alan Mayhew's grandfather ended up farming for five or 10 years before working at the former Burlington Industries Mooresville Mills plant until he retired about 1963.
Mayhews haven't lived in the old Brawley School Road home in decades, but it has always remained close to who they are, Marci Morton said.
Local grading contractor Richard Abernathy bought the home from the Mayhew family and said he lived in it for 34 years, until the state condemned it in August for the widening.
The state must soon raze the home so Duke Energy can begin utility work before the widening, said Al Steib, a state right-of-way agent.
The official "let date," or the date the project is awarded to a contractor, for the widening from Chuckwood Road to before Interstate 77 is Aug. 19. The next phase, which includes the Interstate 77 exit, will be let on Feb. 19, 2009. Alan Mayhew smiled as he recalled how he got in trouble trying to climb the inventory racks of the two-story general store. He was 5 or 6 the last time he was there, he said.
Though the store is gone, Mayhew has its thick store ledgers from the early 1900s. Transactions such as the sale of 6 1/2 pounds of bacon for 65 cents and a box of unidentified pills for 20 cents were recorded in longhand. A gallon of molasses - we use corn syrup in everything today - cost 40 cents.
One customer used a mortgage as credit for goods from the store, Alan Mayhew noted on a page. "Most of the accounts were not paid in cash," he said.
Some folks bartered with muscadine and scuppernong that the store would then sell in Charlotte, he said. Hard to imagine now, but present-day Brawley School Road ran to Charlotte back then, he said.
Not far from the old homestead and store, Mayhews still gather for reunions each summer at McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church. Original settler John Love William Mayhew is buried in its cemetery.
The Continental Army veteran from Prince George's County, Md., likely chose to settle that spot because it was near the Catawba River and looked down on bottomland that could be farmed, Alan Mayhew said.
John Mayhew was a preacher and built a brush arbor there, founding Mayhewtown in 1793. Parts of the community lie beneath Lake Norman now.
An old house may be razed in the name of progress, I thought as I walked John Mayhew's burial grounds. But with folks like Alan and Marci and their descendants, the Mayhew legacy will likely always live on.
Mayhewtown
In 1970, Mayhew family members erected a large stone monument that recounts the family's local legacy dating to Mayhewtown's founding in 1793. The original Mayhew settlers built Mayhew Meeting House in a log building for religious services. The community eventually had a post office, a school and a country physician in Dr. John Moore.
The monument stood for decades on Brawley School Road and is now on the lawn of McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church, 291 McKendree Road, beside the cemetery where settler John Love William Mayhew is buried.
1. PHOTOS BY L.MUELLER - [email protected]. The Mayhew home, built in the late 1800s, is one of the homes that will be torn down to accommodate the widening of Brawley School Road. South Iredell once had a community larger than Mooresville: a farming community called Mayhewtown that dried up along Brawley School Road when the railroad lines were built miles away.; 2. Alan Mayhew's great-grandfather opened a community general store.; 3-4. A historical marker stands outside McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church, where John Love William Mayhew, the original settler of Mayhewtown, is buried. BELOW: A stained-glass window above the entrance to McKendree Chapel.; 5-6. PHOTOS BY L.MUELLER - [email protected]. A state sign along Brawley School Road still marks "Mayhew," once a thriving 19th-century farming community.; GRAPHIC: Map showing location of Mayhew.
Information from Bryan S. Godfrey, Henrico, Virginia.
Some Mooresville newspapers published in the 1940s-60s give his name incorrectly as John Love Washington Mayhew in articles about Mayhew family reunions. The original marriage license clearly says John Love Wm. Mayhew.
Son of James Mayhew and Jemima Lucas Mayhew.
Brother of Nancy Mayhew who married Alexander Calvert, a fourth-great-grandson of Governor Leonard Calvert of Maryland, son of the first Lord Baltimore and a second cousin of Col. Ninian Beall who was an associate and neighbor of the Mayhews in Prince George's County, Maryland. An unsourced family tree gives Jemima Lucas Mayhew's grandmother as Isabell Magruder Henry, great-granddaughter of Gov. James Braithwaite who was another second cousin of Gov. Leonard Calvert. It is not known whether that family tree is correct, but according to it, Nancy Mayhew married her 8th cousin.
Some descendants of James and Jemima Mayhew have claimed that her maiden name was Cole. Pat Mayhew Vincent (descendant of their son Alexander) joined the National Society, Daughters of the American Colonists, and her descent from John Cole of Maryland through Jemima (“Cole”) Mayhew was accepted by said lineage society. Her cousin Helen Mayhew Colbert also joined the D.C. State chapter, Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, on Robert Bruce Polk of Maryland and afterward added numerous supplemental lineages which were accepted, including: VINCENT COX, NICHOLAS JENKINS, JOHN JENKINS, and JOHN COLE.
Other researchers show James Mayhew's wife as Jemima Lucas, the daughter of James Lucas and Mary Henry and niece of Alexander Henry in Loudon County. James and Jemima Mayhew named a son Reason Lucas Mayhew. They moved from Prince Georges County, Maryland to Loudon County, Virginia with her uncles Alexander Henry and Lindores Henry, and James Mayhew had been Alexander Henry's overseer when he was younger.
It is of interest that mtDNA matches of descendants of Jemima Mayhew match that of Lucas descendants and appear to confirm that she was the daughter of James & Mary (Henry) Lucas, and granddaughter of Thomas Lucas and Dorothy (some say Letchworth). They also match descendants of Letchworths in England.
John Love William Mayhew married 26 Feb 1778 in Montgomery County, Maryland, to Elizabeth Self. They moved to Loudon County, Virginia.
Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War (1913) by Joseph Thompson McAllister, page 182: Listed in 1835 as among pensioners residing outside of Virginia, "as transferred from E. Tennessee records 4 March 1833): John Mayhew, Iredell Co., N.C., age 77.
Entered Revolutionary War as volunteer militia soldier 1777; joined main army near Germantown, PA. Guarded Hessians during 2nd tour of duty; was foot soldier during 3rd tour in Gloucester Co., VA during Siege of Yorktown. Settled Falling Creek in Bedford Co., VA 1794, then on Catawba River in Iredell Co., NC where he est. McKendree Chapel Methodist Church where they are buried
Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements & Rosters:
Pension application of John Mayhew S9401 f20VA
North Carolina Iredell County
On this 22 day of August 1832 personally appeared in open Court, being a Court of record, John Mayhew of the County of Iredell and State aforesaid aged about seventy-five years in February last, who being first sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed the 7th of June 1832, that he the said John Mayhew entered the service of the United States as a volunteer militia soldier for three months in Loudoun County Virginia in the year of the battle of Germantown [October 4, 1777] in the company commanded by Captain Spur [Richard Spurr], in the Regiment commanded by Colonel James Coleman; that they marched from Loudoun County by Hagerstown in the State of Maryland, Lancaster in the State of Pennsylvania where they remained about two weeks to have their arms repaired; from thence they went on towards Germantown, but did not arrive at Germantown till after the battle, and and the British being in possession of that place, presented the Regiment in which he was from approaching nearer to it than four or five miles as well as he now recollects; that they remained in the vicinity of Germantown till the expiration of his term of service, when he was discharged, but did not obtain a written discharge; that he distinctly remembers the fact of General Washington's having command of the Troops at this time, and place which he thinks was the Valley Forge; that he has not now in his possession any documentary proof of this his first term of service; that living now in North Carolina four hundred miles from the place of his former residence, it is not in his power to procure the testimony of persons knowing the fact that he did serve in the revolutionary war except the testimony of his Brother Aaron Mayhew whose deposition will be obtained and annexed to his declaration. The Reverend Jacob Hill a clergyman of the Methodist Church and residing near to me on the opposite side of the River in Lincoln County; and David McCreary who is my neighbor residing in Iredell County will it is believed be able to certify in the manner required by the rules of the Department, and that their certificate will, if obtained, be also annexed to this declaration. These gentlemen being fifteen or twenty miles from the Court House, and it being inconvenient now to produce them as witnesses is the reason their testimony is not offered at this time –
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service of the United States as a drafted militia soldier for the period of three months, but being otherwise occupied in business he hired a substitute, in the year as well as he now recollects, immediately following that in which he first served, – or perhaps, it might have been the second year afterwards, his memory not enabling him at this time to speak positively –
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service of the United States as a drafted militia soldier for the purpose of guarding the Hessians who had been
captured he thinks at the battle of Trenton [December 26, 1776]; that he was under the command of Captain Spur or Captain Lewis
1 of the County of Loudoun, but he cannot now say which of them was in service at this time; that the call was not for any particular period; that he remained in service for the purpose aforesaid as long as was deemed necessary.
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service all of the United States for the period of three months, as a drafted militia soldier in the County of Loudoun and State of Virginia in the company commanded by Captain Lewis and in the Regiment commanded by Colonel Clapum [Josias Clapham] in the year when Cornwallis was taken at York Town [October 19, 1781] in Virginia; that they marched from Loudoun County by Fredericksburg on to York Town. That the Regiment in which he served was ordered to the opposite side of the York River, to prevent the enemy from passing out in that direction; that he remained in this situation until the enemy was captured; and after that event the Regiment was ordered up the country to guard the Prisoners; that he does not now recollect whether his term of three months had expired or when he was discharged, but he remained in service as long as was deemed necessary, and on leaving the service did not obtain a written discharge – as to this term of service the said John Mayhew has other testimony to offer than that above referred to –
And the said John Mayhew hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any State.
Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid –
S/ A. Timonton, CCK S/ John Mayhew, X his mark
[James McRee, a clergyman, and David McCreary gave the standard supporting affidavit.]
State of North Carolina Iredell County: Before me Alexander Torrance one of the justices of the peace for the County aforesaid personally appeared Aaron Mayhew on the 8th day of September 1832 after being sworn in solemn form of law Saith to the best of his recollection his brother John Mayhew served in the revolutionary War three towers [tours] if not more each tour three months I believe.
Sworn to and subscribed before me
S/ A. Torrance S/ Aaron Mayhew, X his mark
State of North Carolina Iredell County
This day personally came John Mayhew before me the subscribing Justice of the peace for said County and being sworn in due form of law made the following additional declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the Act of Congress of the 7th of June 1832.
That by reason of old age and consequent loss of memory he is not able to swear positively to the length of his service but to the best of his recollection he served not less than the periods mentioned below
That his first tour in the Militia he was a volunteer under Captain Spur in the Regiment commanded by Colonel Coleman that he joined his Corps at Leesburg in Loudoun County Virginia joined the main Army near Germantown in Pennsylvania and remained with the Army under General Washington till the time of his service expired. – 3 months
His 2nd tour he was drafted for the purpose of guarding the Hessians under the command of either Captain Spur or Captain Lewis, is uncertain how long he was engaged not less than
1.00 [month]
1 There were three captains in the Loudoun militia by the name of Lewis: to wit: John, Joseph and Thomas.
His 3rd tour was in the foot and he was in the Army on the Gloucester side at the time of Cornwallis siege this service was for 3.00 [months]
7.00 [months]
He was born in Prince George County Maryland 13th February 1758.
He has a record of his age in a Bible in his Bible in his possession
He was living in Loudoun County Virginia at the time he was called into service & has lived in Iredell County North Carolina for 30 years where he now lives.
He was a volunteer in his final Service and in other services he was drafted as stated before.
He remembers to have seen General Washington, and others officers of the Army in the different service.
Colonel Clapham commanded the Regiment at Gloucester in which he served.
He never received any discharge that he now remembers.
He refers to James McRee D. D. and Aaron Mayhew.
Sworn & subscribed May 20, 1833 before
S/ J. Campbell, JP S/ John Mayhew, X his mark
[Facts in file Veteran died April 2, 1838 leaving a widow whose name is not given; there is no reference to the children, if any, of the veteran and his wife in this file.]
[Veteran was pensioned at the rate of $23.33 per annum commencing March 4th, 1831, for service as a private for 7 months in the Virginia militia]
STATESVTLLE RECORD & LANDMARK, THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1959:
"SOUTH IREDELL OUTPOST - McKendree Methodist Church, near Catawba River In the northeast corner of Iredell County, is marked as having been established in 1804. Away from the North Iredell churches, it remained a solitary outpost of Methodism in that section until the denomination began to spread there in the decade before the Civil War. It Is the scene of the Mayhew family reunion scheduled to be held Sunday in memory of its founder, John Washington Mayhew. Mayhew Reunion Is Set Sunday.
By HOMER KEEVER
"The Mayhew family reunion will be held Sunday at McKendree's Methodist Church in the southwest corner of Iredell County. There will be dinner on the grounds and services with a special emphasis on Father's Day, honoring not only the present day fathers but also the pioneer father of the clan, John Washington Mayhew. He was part of a colony of Methodists from Bedford County, Va., who came to North Carolina just before 1800 and settled along the Catawba River just below Sherrill's Ford. Those on the west side of the river came in a group in 1787 and soon organized Rehobeth Church, the first Methodist society west of the Catawba and the place where tradition says the first camp meeting in America was held in 1794. Mayhew followed soon after the rest and settled on the east side of the river. On exhibit Sunday, along with Mayhew's last will and testament, will be the original deed to him for the Long and Alley lands along the river. That deed is dated 1793. The first of his deeds recorded in the Iredell County Courthouse is of the McEwen lands to John L. W. Mayhew, late of Bedford County. Va., in 1800. John Washington Mayhew was a local Methodist preacher and soon began preaching at his home. Just when Mayhew's Meeting House was built and the congregation organized on the east side of the river is, like the beginnings of most Methodist churches of the date, a little hazy, but the generally accepted date is 1804 — along with Pisgah and Snow Creek in the north end of the county and just four years after the deed was made to Prather's Meeting House to give Methodism its official start in Iredell.
"When John Mayhew died in 1838, his will provided for the continuation of the church. "I direct my executors," that will reads, "to lay out of my estate a sum sufficient for the erection over my grave and that of my wife after her decease tombstones, and that the same be walled round with stone and of size sufficient for reception and use of my family, and further order that there be laid off two acres of ground at the meeting house known as Mayhew's for a burial ground which I give to the Methodist society for that use and none other." The next year his son, Pressly Mayhew, carried out his wishes and made a deed to the land which contained the old meeting house of Osborn Tatum, Jesse Cornelius, Frederick Alley, Charles Edwards and William Edwards, Sr., trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Some of those trustees were of the colony of Virginians who came down and founded Rehoboth: others were among the leaders of Methodism as it spread across South Iredell in the decade just before the Civil War.
"Until 1850 the church that John Washington Mayhew founded had no connection with the Methodist movement in North Iredell. Then it appears in their records with its present name, McKendree's, named for the first native American who became bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, William McKendree, who tradition says was the first pastor of the Mayhew congregation. Before 1850 it was likely connected with either the Rehoboth Methodists across the river or with the crowing Methodism in the northern part of Mecklenburg. The North Iredell churches were first in the Virginia Conference and then in the North Carolina Conference, while the churches in Mecklenburg and across the river were in the South Carolina Conference until 1870. In 1850, though, McKendree's appears in the records of the Iredell Circuit, along with a small church by the name of Zoar. Then, after the organization of Rocky Mount Church a few years later, the South Iredell churches were formed into a South Iredell Circuit and a parsonage was built near Shepherds. It was part of the Mooresville Circuit all through the last half of the last century as Methodism spread by leaps and bounds throughout the south end of the county. Now along with Rocky Mount and another small church, Williamson's Chapel, it is a circuit of its own."
1793: John L. W. Mayhew first settled in Iredell County, N.C., although not shown in deeds until 1804. (ref., Mayhew History by Eleanora Mayhew McKay; various undated old newspaper clippings). Helen Handley did not believe this was true, citing the 1804 deed as the first deed.
1800: John Mayhew is shown in the census at Salisbury, Iredell Co., N.C.
1804: first recorded deed for John Mayhew in Iredell Co., N.C.
Charlotte Observer, The (NC)
2008-03-20
Section: LKN
Edition: THREE
Page: 1N
Column: AROUND THE LAKE
`THIS IS A PASSING IN HISTORY'
OLD HOME HAS TO MAKE WAY FOR ROAD'S WIDENING
JOE MARUSAK, Staff Writer
The last home remaining from the long-ago community of Mayhewtown is about to be leveled for the widening of Brawley School Road.
Built in the late 1800s, the two-story home sits at the intersection of Brawley School and McKendree roads near Lake Norman. Thousands of commuters zip along that stretch of road with probably no inkling of the 19th-century farming community that thrived there. Descendants of the Mayhew family, which settled the area in the late 1700s, lived in the home and ran a general store that stood across the road.
People in the community raised cotton, soybeans, oats and corn and bartered them at the store, descendant Alan Mayhew, 57, said. Mayhewtown had about 40 families each farming about 100 acres, and, at one point, had more people than Mooresville, he said. Much of Mayhewtown's farmland is now under Lake Norman.
I walked the grounds of the old home this week with Mayhew and his daughter, Marci Mayhew Morton, 31.
Alan Mayhew, president of Capital Mortgage Group at Brawley School and Oak Tree roads, pointed to the old root cellar below the home and where the outdoor privy and a cookhouse stood.
"This is a passing in history," he said. "It's kind of like a person today would not be able to survive how they did back then," given our conveniences of refrigeration and stores. "Would they know how to cure a ham?"
His great-grandfather, William "Absey" Abslam Mayhew, opened the store in the late 1800s. His grandfather, Thomas Holtshouser Mayhew, closed the store about the time of the Depression as much of unincorporated Mayhewtown's population shifted east to Mooresville, which grew because of its railroad lines.
Alan Mayhew's grandfather ended up farming for five or 10 years before working at the former Burlington Industries Mooresville Mills plant until he retired about 1963.
Mayhews haven't lived in the old Brawley School Road home in decades, but it has always remained close to who they are, Marci Morton said.
Local grading contractor Richard Abernathy bought the home from the Mayhew family and said he lived in it for 34 years, until the state condemned it in August for the widening.
The state must soon raze the home so Duke Energy can begin utility work before the widening, said Al Steib, a state right-of-way agent.
The official "let date," or the date the project is awarded to a contractor, for the widening from Chuckwood Road to before Interstate 77 is Aug. 19. The next phase, which includes the Interstate 77 exit, will be let on Feb. 19, 2009. Alan Mayhew smiled as he recalled how he got in trouble trying to climb the inventory racks of the two-story general store. He was 5 or 6 the last time he was there, he said.
Though the store is gone, Mayhew has its thick store ledgers from the early 1900s. Transactions such as the sale of 6 1/2 pounds of bacon for 65 cents and a box of unidentified pills for 20 cents were recorded in longhand. A gallon of molasses - we use corn syrup in everything today - cost 40 cents.
One customer used a mortgage as credit for goods from the store, Alan Mayhew noted on a page. "Most of the accounts were not paid in cash," he said.
Some folks bartered with muscadine and scuppernong that the store would then sell in Charlotte, he said. Hard to imagine now, but present-day Brawley School Road ran to Charlotte back then, he said.
Not far from the old homestead and store, Mayhews still gather for reunions each summer at McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church. Original settler John Love William Mayhew is buried in its cemetery.
The Continental Army veteran from Prince George's County, Md., likely chose to settle that spot because it was near the Catawba River and looked down on bottomland that could be farmed, Alan Mayhew said.
John Mayhew was a preacher and built a brush arbor there, founding Mayhewtown in 1793. Parts of the community lie beneath Lake Norman now.
An old house may be razed in the name of progress, I thought as I walked John Mayhew's burial grounds. But with folks like Alan and Marci and their descendants, the Mayhew legacy will likely always live on.
Mayhewtown
In 1970, Mayhew family members erected a large stone monument that recounts the family's local legacy dating to Mayhewtown's founding in 1793. The original Mayhew settlers built Mayhew Meeting House in a log building for religious services. The community eventually had a post office, a school and a country physician in Dr. John Moore.
The monument stood for decades on Brawley School Road and is now on the lawn of McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church, 291 McKendree Road, beside the cemetery where settler John Love William Mayhew is buried.
1. PHOTOS BY L.MUELLER - [email protected]. The Mayhew home, built in the late 1800s, is one of the homes that will be torn down to accommodate the widening of Brawley School Road. South Iredell once had a community larger than Mooresville: a farming community called Mayhewtown that dried up along Brawley School Road when the railroad lines were built miles away.; 2. Alan Mayhew's great-grandfather opened a community general store.; 3-4. A historical marker stands outside McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church, where John Love William Mayhew, the original settler of Mayhewtown, is buried. BELOW: A stained-glass window above the entrance to McKendree Chapel.; 5-6. PHOTOS BY L.MUELLER - [email protected]. A state sign along Brawley School Road still marks "Mayhew," once a thriving 19th-century farming community.; GRAPHIC: Map showing location of Mayhew.
Information from Bryan S. Godfrey, Henrico, Virginia.
Revolutionary War Soldier. Built McKendree Church.
Some Mooresville newspapers published in the 1940s-60s give his name incorrectly as John Love Washington Mayhew in articles about Mayhew family reunions. The original marriage license clearly says John Love Wm. Mayhew.
Son of James Mayhew and Jemima Lucas Mayhew.
Brother of Nancy Mayhew who married Alexander Calvert, a fourth-great-grandson of Governor Leonard Calvert of Maryland, son of the first Lord Baltimore and a second cousin of Col. Ninian Beall who was an associate and neighbor of the Mayhews in Prince George's County, Maryland. An unsourced family tree gives Jemima Lucas Mayhew's grandmother as Isabell Magruder Henry, great-granddaughter of Gov. James Braithwaite who was another second cousin of Gov. Leonard Calvert. It is not known whether that family tree is correct, but according to it, Nancy Mayhew married her 8th cousin.
Some descendants of James and Jemima Mayhew have claimed that her maiden name was Cole. Pat Mayhew Vincent (descendant of their son Alexander) joined the National Society, Daughters of the American Colonists, and her descent from John Cole of Maryland through Jemima (“Cole”) Mayhew was accepted by said lineage society. Her cousin Helen Mayhew Colbert also joined the D.C. State chapter, Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, on Robert Bruce Polk of Maryland and afterward added numerous supplemental lineages which were accepted, including: VINCENT COX, NICHOLAS JENKINS, JOHN JENKINS, and JOHN COLE.
Other researchers show James Mayhew's wife as Jemima Lucas, the daughter of James Lucas and Mary Henry and niece of Alexander Henry in Loudon County. James and Jemima Mayhew named a son Reason Lucas Mayhew. They moved from Prince Georges County, Maryland to Loudon County, Virginia with her uncles Alexander Henry and Lindores Henry, and James Mayhew had been Alexander Henry's overseer when he was younger.
It is of interest that mtDNA matches of descendants of Jemima Mayhew match that of Lucas descendants and appear to confirm that she was the daughter of James & Mary (Henry) Lucas, and granddaughter of Thomas Lucas and Dorothy (some say Letchworth). They also match descendants of Letchworths in England.
John Love William Mayhew married 26 Feb 1778 in Montgomery County, Maryland, to Elizabeth Self. They moved to Loudon County, Virginia.
Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War (1913) by Joseph Thompson McAllister, page 182: Listed in 1835 as among pensioners residing outside of Virginia, "as transferred from E. Tennessee records 4 March 1833): John Mayhew, Iredell Co., N.C., age 77.
Entered Revolutionary War as volunteer militia soldier 1777; joined main army near Germantown, PA. Guarded Hessians during 2nd tour of duty; was foot soldier during 3rd tour in Gloucester Co., VA during Siege of Yorktown. Settled Falling Creek in Bedford Co., VA 1794, then on Catawba River in Iredell Co., NC where he est. McKendree Chapel Methodist Church where they are buried
Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements & Rosters:
Pension application of John Mayhew S9401 f20VA
North Carolina Iredell County
On this 22 day of August 1832 personally appeared in open Court, being a Court of record, John Mayhew of the County of Iredell and State aforesaid aged about seventy-five years in February last, who being first sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed the 7th of June 1832, that he the said John Mayhew entered the service of the United States as a volunteer militia soldier for three months in Loudoun County Virginia in the year of the battle of Germantown [October 4, 1777] in the company commanded by Captain Spur [Richard Spurr], in the Regiment commanded by Colonel James Coleman; that they marched from Loudoun County by Hagerstown in the State of Maryland, Lancaster in the State of Pennsylvania where they remained about two weeks to have their arms repaired; from thence they went on towards Germantown, but did not arrive at Germantown till after the battle, and and the British being in possession of that place, presented the Regiment in which he was from approaching nearer to it than four or five miles as well as he now recollects; that they remained in the vicinity of Germantown till the expiration of his term of service, when he was discharged, but did not obtain a written discharge; that he distinctly remembers the fact of General Washington's having command of the Troops at this time, and place which he thinks was the Valley Forge; that he has not now in his possession any documentary proof of this his first term of service; that living now in North Carolina four hundred miles from the place of his former residence, it is not in his power to procure the testimony of persons knowing the fact that he did serve in the revolutionary war except the testimony of his Brother Aaron Mayhew whose deposition will be obtained and annexed to his declaration. The Reverend Jacob Hill a clergyman of the Methodist Church and residing near to me on the opposite side of the River in Lincoln County; and David McCreary who is my neighbor residing in Iredell County will it is believed be able to certify in the manner required by the rules of the Department, and that their certificate will, if obtained, be also annexed to this declaration. These gentlemen being fifteen or twenty miles from the Court House, and it being inconvenient now to produce them as witnesses is the reason their testimony is not offered at this time –
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service of the United States as a drafted militia soldier for the period of three months, but being otherwise occupied in business he hired a substitute, in the year as well as he now recollects, immediately following that in which he first served, – or perhaps, it might have been the second year afterwards, his memory not enabling him at this time to speak positively –
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service of the United States as a drafted militia soldier for the purpose of guarding the Hessians who had been
captured he thinks at the battle of Trenton [December 26, 1776]; that he was under the command of Captain Spur or Captain Lewis
1 of the County of Loudoun, but he cannot now say which of them was in service at this time; that the call was not for any particular period; that he remained in service for the purpose aforesaid as long as was deemed necessary.
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service all of the United States for the period of three months, as a drafted militia soldier in the County of Loudoun and State of Virginia in the company commanded by Captain Lewis and in the Regiment commanded by Colonel Clapum [Josias Clapham] in the year when Cornwallis was taken at York Town [October 19, 1781] in Virginia; that they marched from Loudoun County by Fredericksburg on to York Town. That the Regiment in which he served was ordered to the opposite side of the York River, to prevent the enemy from passing out in that direction; that he remained in this situation until the enemy was captured; and after that event the Regiment was ordered up the country to guard the Prisoners; that he does not now recollect whether his term of three months had expired or when he was discharged, but he remained in service as long as was deemed necessary, and on leaving the service did not obtain a written discharge – as to this term of service the said John Mayhew has other testimony to offer than that above referred to –
And the said John Mayhew hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any State.
Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid –
S/ A. Timonton, CCK S/ John Mayhew, X his mark
[James McRee, a clergyman, and David McCreary gave the standard supporting affidavit.]
State of North Carolina Iredell County: Before me Alexander Torrance one of the justices of the peace for the County aforesaid personally appeared Aaron Mayhew on the 8th day of September 1832 after being sworn in solemn form of law Saith to the best of his recollection his brother John Mayhew served in the revolutionary War three towers [tours] if not more each tour three months I believe.
Sworn to and subscribed before me
S/ A. Torrance S/ Aaron Mayhew, X his mark
State of North Carolina Iredell County
This day personally came John Mayhew before me the subscribing Justice of the peace for said County and being sworn in due form of law made the following additional declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the Act of Congress of the 7th of June 1832.
That by reason of old age and consequent loss of memory he is not able to swear positively to the length of his service but to the best of his recollection he served not less than the periods mentioned below
That his first tour in the Militia he was a volunteer under Captain Spur in the Regiment commanded by Colonel Coleman that he joined his Corps at Leesburg in Loudoun County Virginia joined the main Army near Germantown in Pennsylvania and remained with the Army under General Washington till the time of his service expired. – 3 months
His 2nd tour he was drafted for the purpose of guarding the Hessians under the command of either Captain Spur or Captain Lewis, is uncertain how long he was engaged not less than
1.00 [month]
1 There were three captains in the Loudoun militia by the name of Lewis: to wit: John, Joseph and Thomas.
His 3rd tour was in the foot and he was in the Army on the Gloucester side at the time of Cornwallis siege this service was for 3.00 [months]
7.00 [months]
He was born in Prince George County Maryland 13th February 1758.
He has a record of his age in a Bible in his Bible in his possession
He was living in Loudoun County Virginia at the time he was called into service & has lived in Iredell County North Carolina for 30 years where he now lives.
He was a volunteer in his final Service and in other services he was drafted as stated before.
He remembers to have seen General Washington, and others officers of the Army in the different service.
Colonel Clapham commanded the Regiment at Gloucester in which he served.
He never received any discharge that he now remembers.
He refers to James McRee D. D. and Aaron Mayhew.
Sworn & subscribed May 20, 1833 before
S/ J. Campbell, JP S/ John Mayhew, X his mark
[Facts in file Veteran died April 2, 1838 leaving a widow whose name is not given; there is no reference to the children, if any, of the veteran and his wife in this file.]
[Veteran was pensioned at the rate of $23.33 per annum commencing March 4th, 1831, for service as a private for 7 months in the Virginia militia]
STATESVTLLE RECORD & LANDMARK, THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1959:
"SOUTH IREDELL OUTPOST - McKendree Methodist Church, near Catawba River In the northeast corner of Iredell County, is marked as having been established in 1804. Away from the North Iredell churches, it remained a solitary outpost of Methodism in that section until the denomination began to spread there in the decade before the Civil War. It Is the scene of the Mayhew family reunion scheduled to be held Sunday in memory of its founder, John Washington Mayhew. Mayhew Reunion Is Set Sunday.
By HOMER KEEVER
"The Mayhew family reunion will be held Sunday at McKendree's Methodist Church in the southwest corner of Iredell County. There will be dinner on the grounds and services with a special emphasis on Father's Day, honoring not only the present day fathers but also the pioneer father of the clan, John Washington Mayhew. He was part of a colony of Methodists from Bedford County, Va., who came to North Carolina just before 1800 and settled along the Catawba River just below Sherrill's Ford. Those on the west side of the river came in a group in 1787 and soon organized Rehobeth Church, the first Methodist society west of the Catawba and the place where tradition says the first camp meeting in America was held in 1794. Mayhew followed soon after the rest and settled on the east side of the river. On exhibit Sunday, along with Mayhew's last will and testament, will be the original deed to him for the Long and Alley lands along the river. That deed is dated 1793. The first of his deeds recorded in the Iredell County Courthouse is of the McEwen lands to John L. W. Mayhew, late of Bedford County. Va., in 1800. John Washington Mayhew was a local Methodist preacher and soon began preaching at his home. Just when Mayhew's Meeting House was built and the congregation organized on the east side of the river is, like the beginnings of most Methodist churches of the date, a little hazy, but the generally accepted date is 1804 — along with Pisgah and Snow Creek in the north end of the county and just four years after the deed was made to Prather's Meeting House to give Methodism its official start in Iredell.
"When John Mayhew died in 1838, his will provided for the continuation of the church. "I direct my executors," that will reads, "to lay out of my estate a sum sufficient for the erection over my grave and that of my wife after her decease tombstones, and that the same be walled round with stone and of size sufficient for reception and use of my family, and further order that there be laid off two acres of ground at the meeting house known as Mayhew's for a burial ground which I give to the Methodist society for that use and none other." The next year his son, Pressly Mayhew, carried out his wishes and made a deed to the land which contained the old meeting house of Osborn Tatum, Jesse Cornelius, Frederick Alley, Charles Edwards and William Edwards, Sr., trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Some of those trustees were of the colony of Virginians who came down and founded Rehoboth: others were among the leaders of Methodism as it spread across South Iredell in the decade just before the Civil War.
"Until 1850 the church that John Washington Mayhew founded had no connection with the Methodist movement in North Iredell. Then it appears in their records with its present name, McKendree's, named for the first native American who became bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, William McKendree, who tradition says was the first pastor of the Mayhew congregation. Before 1850 it was likely connected with either the Rehoboth Methodists across the river or with the crowing Methodism in the northern part of Mecklenburg. The North Iredell churches were first in the Virginia Conference and then in the North Carolina Conference, while the churches in Mecklenburg and across the river were in the South Carolina Conference until 1870. In 1850, though, McKendree's appears in the records of the Iredell Circuit, along with a small church by the name of Zoar. Then, after the organization of Rocky Mount Church a few years later, the South Iredell churches were formed into a South Iredell Circuit and a parsonage was built near Shepherds. It was part of the Mooresville Circuit all through the last half of the last century as Methodism spread by leaps and bounds throughout the south end of the county. Now along with Rocky Mount and another small church, Williamson's Chapel, it is a circuit of its own."
1793: John L. W. Mayhew first settled in Iredell County, N.C., although not shown in deeds until 1804. (ref., Mayhew History by Eleanora Mayhew McKay; various undated old newspaper clippings). Helen Handley did not believe this was true, citing the 1804 deed as the first deed.
1800: John Mayhew is shown in the census at Salisbury, Iredell Co., N.C.
1804: first recorded deed for John Mayhew in Iredell Co., N.C.
Charlotte Observer, The (NC)
2008-03-20
Section: LKN
Edition: THREE
Page: 1N
Column: AROUND THE LAKE
`THIS IS A PASSING IN HISTORY'
OLD HOME HAS TO MAKE WAY FOR ROAD'S WIDENING
JOE MARUSAK, Staff Writer
The last home remaining from the long-ago community of Mayhewtown is about to be leveled for the widening of Brawley School Road.
Built in the late 1800s, the two-story home sits at the intersection of Brawley School and McKendree roads near Lake Norman. Thousands of commuters zip along that stretch of road with probably no inkling of the 19th-century farming community that thrived there. Descendants of the Mayhew family, which settled the area in the late 1700s, lived in the home and ran a general store that stood across the road.
People in the community raised cotton, soybeans, oats and corn and bartered them at the store, descendant Alan Mayhew, 57, said. Mayhewtown had about 40 families each farming about 100 acres, and, at one point, had more people than Mooresville, he said. Much of Mayhewtown's farmland is now under Lake Norman.
I walked the grounds of the old home this week with Mayhew and his daughter, Marci Mayhew Morton, 31.
Alan Mayhew, president of Capital Mortgage Group at Brawley School and Oak Tree roads, pointed to the old root cellar below the home and where the outdoor privy and a cookhouse stood.
"This is a passing in history," he said. "It's kind of like a person today would not be able to survive how they did back then," given our conveniences of refrigeration and stores. "Would they know how to cure a ham?"
His great-grandfather, William "Absey" Abslam Mayhew, opened the store in the late 1800s. His grandfather, Thomas Holtshouser Mayhew, closed the store about the time of the Depression as much of unincorporated Mayhewtown's population shifted east to Mooresville, which grew because of its railroad lines.
Alan Mayhew's grandfather ended up farming for five or 10 years before working at the former Burlington Industries Mooresville Mills plant until he retired about 1963.
Mayhews haven't lived in the old Brawley School Road home in decades, but it has always remained close to who they are, Marci Morton said.
Local grading contractor Richard Abernathy bought the home from the Mayhew family and said he lived in it for 34 years, until the state condemned it in August for the widening.
The state must soon raze the home so Duke Energy can begin utility work before the widening, said Al Steib, a state right-of-way agent.
The official "let date," or the date the project is awarded to a contractor, for the widening from Chuckwood Road to before Interstate 77 is Aug. 19. The next phase, which includes the Interstate 77 exit, will be let on Feb. 19, 2009. Alan Mayhew smiled as he recalled how he got in trouble trying to climb the inventory racks of the two-story general store. He was 5 or 6 the last time he was there, he said.
Though the store is gone, Mayhew has its thick store ledgers from the early 1900s. Transactions such as the sale of 6 1/2 pounds of bacon for 65 cents and a box of unidentified pills for 20 cents were recorded in longhand. A gallon of molasses - we use corn syrup in everything today - cost 40 cents.
One customer used a mortgage as credit for goods from the store, Alan Mayhew noted on a page. "Most of the accounts were not paid in cash," he said.
Some folks bartered with muscadine and scuppernong that the store would then sell in Charlotte, he said. Hard to imagine now, but present-day Brawley School Road ran to Charlotte back then, he said.
Not far from the old homestead and store, Mayhews still gather for reunions each summer at McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church. Original settler John Love William Mayhew is buried in its cemetery.
The Continental Army veteran from Prince George's County, Md., likely chose to settle that spot because it was near the Catawba River and looked down on bottomland that could be farmed, Alan Mayhew said.
John Mayhew was a preacher and built a brush arbor there, founding Mayhewtown in 1793. Parts of the community lie beneath Lake Norman now.
An old house may be razed in the name of progress, I thought as I walked John Mayhew's burial grounds. But with folks like Alan and Marci and their descendants, the Mayhew legacy will likely always live on.
Mayhewtown
In 1970, Mayhew family members erected a large stone monument that recounts the family's local legacy dating to Mayhewtown's founding in 1793. The original Mayhew settlers built Mayhew Meeting House in a log building for religious services. The community eventually had a post office, a school and a country physician in Dr. John Moore.
The monument stood for decades on Brawley School Road and is now on the lawn of McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church, 291 McKendree Road, beside the cemetery where settler John Love William Mayhew is buried.
1. PHOTOS BY L.MUELLER - [email protected]. The Mayhew home, built in the late 1800s, is one of the homes that will be torn down to accommodate the widening of Brawley School Road. South Iredell once had a community larger than Mooresville: a farming community called Mayhewtown that dried up along Brawley School Road when the railroad lines were built miles away.; 2. Alan Mayhew's great-grandfather opened a community general store.; 3-4. A historical marker stands outside McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church, where John Love William Mayhew, the original settler of Mayhewtown, is buried. BELOW: A stained-glass window above the entrance to McKendree Chapel.; 5-6. PHOTOS BY L.MUELLER - [email protected]. A state sign along Brawley School Road still marks "Mayhew," once a thriving 19th-century farming community.; GRAPHIC: Map showing location of Mayhew.
Information from Bryan S. Godfrey, Henrico, Virginia.
Some Mooresville newspapers published in the 1940s-60s give his name incorrectly as John Love Washington Mayhew in articles about Mayhew family reunions. The original marriage license clearly says John Love Wm. Mayhew.
Son of James Mayhew and Jemima Lucas Mayhew.
Brother of Nancy Mayhew who married Alexander Calvert, a fourth-great-grandson of Governor Leonard Calvert of Maryland, son of the first Lord Baltimore and a second cousin of Col. Ninian Beall who was an associate and neighbor of the Mayhews in Prince George's County, Maryland. An unsourced family tree gives Jemima Lucas Mayhew's grandmother as Isabell Magruder Henry, great-granddaughter of Gov. James Braithwaite who was another second cousin of Gov. Leonard Calvert. It is not known whether that family tree is correct, but according to it, Nancy Mayhew married her 8th cousin.
Some descendants of James and Jemima Mayhew have claimed that her maiden name was Cole. Pat Mayhew Vincent (descendant of their son Alexander) joined the National Society, Daughters of the American Colonists, and her descent from John Cole of Maryland through Jemima (“Cole”) Mayhew was accepted by said lineage society. Her cousin Helen Mayhew Colbert also joined the D.C. State chapter, Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, on Robert Bruce Polk of Maryland and afterward added numerous supplemental lineages which were accepted, including: VINCENT COX, NICHOLAS JENKINS, JOHN JENKINS, and JOHN COLE.
Other researchers show James Mayhew's wife as Jemima Lucas, the daughter of James Lucas and Mary Henry and niece of Alexander Henry in Loudon County. James and Jemima Mayhew named a son Reason Lucas Mayhew. They moved from Prince Georges County, Maryland to Loudon County, Virginia with her uncles Alexander Henry and Lindores Henry, and James Mayhew had been Alexander Henry's overseer when he was younger.
It is of interest that mtDNA matches of descendants of Jemima Mayhew match that of Lucas descendants and appear to confirm that she was the daughter of James & Mary (Henry) Lucas, and granddaughter of Thomas Lucas and Dorothy (some say Letchworth). They also match descendants of Letchworths in England.
John Love William Mayhew married 26 Feb 1778 in Montgomery County, Maryland, to Elizabeth Self. They moved to Loudon County, Virginia.
Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War (1913) by Joseph Thompson McAllister, page 182: Listed in 1835 as among pensioners residing outside of Virginia, "as transferred from E. Tennessee records 4 March 1833): John Mayhew, Iredell Co., N.C., age 77.
Entered Revolutionary War as volunteer militia soldier 1777; joined main army near Germantown, PA. Guarded Hessians during 2nd tour of duty; was foot soldier during 3rd tour in Gloucester Co., VA during Siege of Yorktown. Settled Falling Creek in Bedford Co., VA 1794, then on Catawba River in Iredell Co., NC where he est. McKendree Chapel Methodist Church where they are buried
Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements & Rosters:
Pension application of John Mayhew S9401 f20VA
North Carolina Iredell County
On this 22 day of August 1832 personally appeared in open Court, being a Court of record, John Mayhew of the County of Iredell and State aforesaid aged about seventy-five years in February last, who being first sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed the 7th of June 1832, that he the said John Mayhew entered the service of the United States as a volunteer militia soldier for three months in Loudoun County Virginia in the year of the battle of Germantown [October 4, 1777] in the company commanded by Captain Spur [Richard Spurr], in the Regiment commanded by Colonel James Coleman; that they marched from Loudoun County by Hagerstown in the State of Maryland, Lancaster in the State of Pennsylvania where they remained about two weeks to have their arms repaired; from thence they went on towards Germantown, but did not arrive at Germantown till after the battle, and and the British being in possession of that place, presented the Regiment in which he was from approaching nearer to it than four or five miles as well as he now recollects; that they remained in the vicinity of Germantown till the expiration of his term of service, when he was discharged, but did not obtain a written discharge; that he distinctly remembers the fact of General Washington's having command of the Troops at this time, and place which he thinks was the Valley Forge; that he has not now in his possession any documentary proof of this his first term of service; that living now in North Carolina four hundred miles from the place of his former residence, it is not in his power to procure the testimony of persons knowing the fact that he did serve in the revolutionary war except the testimony of his Brother Aaron Mayhew whose deposition will be obtained and annexed to his declaration. The Reverend Jacob Hill a clergyman of the Methodist Church and residing near to me on the opposite side of the River in Lincoln County; and David McCreary who is my neighbor residing in Iredell County will it is believed be able to certify in the manner required by the rules of the Department, and that their certificate will, if obtained, be also annexed to this declaration. These gentlemen being fifteen or twenty miles from the Court House, and it being inconvenient now to produce them as witnesses is the reason their testimony is not offered at this time –
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service of the United States as a drafted militia soldier for the period of three months, but being otherwise occupied in business he hired a substitute, in the year as well as he now recollects, immediately following that in which he first served, – or perhaps, it might have been the second year afterwards, his memory not enabling him at this time to speak positively –
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service of the United States as a drafted militia soldier for the purpose of guarding the Hessians who had been
captured he thinks at the battle of Trenton [December 26, 1776]; that he was under the command of Captain Spur or Captain Lewis
1 of the County of Loudoun, but he cannot now say which of them was in service at this time; that the call was not for any particular period; that he remained in service for the purpose aforesaid as long as was deemed necessary.
And the said John Mayhew further declares that he again entered the service all of the United States for the period of three months, as a drafted militia soldier in the County of Loudoun and State of Virginia in the company commanded by Captain Lewis and in the Regiment commanded by Colonel Clapum [Josias Clapham] in the year when Cornwallis was taken at York Town [October 19, 1781] in Virginia; that they marched from Loudoun County by Fredericksburg on to York Town. That the Regiment in which he served was ordered to the opposite side of the York River, to prevent the enemy from passing out in that direction; that he remained in this situation until the enemy was captured; and after that event the Regiment was ordered up the country to guard the Prisoners; that he does not now recollect whether his term of three months had expired or when he was discharged, but he remained in service as long as was deemed necessary, and on leaving the service did not obtain a written discharge – as to this term of service the said John Mayhew has other testimony to offer than that above referred to –
And the said John Mayhew hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any State.
Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid –
S/ A. Timonton, CCK S/ John Mayhew, X his mark
[James McRee, a clergyman, and David McCreary gave the standard supporting affidavit.]
State of North Carolina Iredell County: Before me Alexander Torrance one of the justices of the peace for the County aforesaid personally appeared Aaron Mayhew on the 8th day of September 1832 after being sworn in solemn form of law Saith to the best of his recollection his brother John Mayhew served in the revolutionary War three towers [tours] if not more each tour three months I believe.
Sworn to and subscribed before me
S/ A. Torrance S/ Aaron Mayhew, X his mark
State of North Carolina Iredell County
This day personally came John Mayhew before me the subscribing Justice of the peace for said County and being sworn in due form of law made the following additional declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the Act of Congress of the 7th of June 1832.
That by reason of old age and consequent loss of memory he is not able to swear positively to the length of his service but to the best of his recollection he served not less than the periods mentioned below
That his first tour in the Militia he was a volunteer under Captain Spur in the Regiment commanded by Colonel Coleman that he joined his Corps at Leesburg in Loudoun County Virginia joined the main Army near Germantown in Pennsylvania and remained with the Army under General Washington till the time of his service expired. – 3 months
His 2nd tour he was drafted for the purpose of guarding the Hessians under the command of either Captain Spur or Captain Lewis, is uncertain how long he was engaged not less than
1.00 [month]
1 There were three captains in the Loudoun militia by the name of Lewis: to wit: John, Joseph and Thomas.
His 3rd tour was in the foot and he was in the Army on the Gloucester side at the time of Cornwallis siege this service was for 3.00 [months]
7.00 [months]
He was born in Prince George County Maryland 13th February 1758.
He has a record of his age in a Bible in his Bible in his possession
He was living in Loudoun County Virginia at the time he was called into service & has lived in Iredell County North Carolina for 30 years where he now lives.
He was a volunteer in his final Service and in other services he was drafted as stated before.
He remembers to have seen General Washington, and others officers of the Army in the different service.
Colonel Clapham commanded the Regiment at Gloucester in which he served.
He never received any discharge that he now remembers.
He refers to James McRee D. D. and Aaron Mayhew.
Sworn & subscribed May 20, 1833 before
S/ J. Campbell, JP S/ John Mayhew, X his mark
[Facts in file Veteran died April 2, 1838 leaving a widow whose name is not given; there is no reference to the children, if any, of the veteran and his wife in this file.]
[Veteran was pensioned at the rate of $23.33 per annum commencing March 4th, 1831, for service as a private for 7 months in the Virginia militia]
STATESVTLLE RECORD & LANDMARK, THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1959:
"SOUTH IREDELL OUTPOST - McKendree Methodist Church, near Catawba River In the northeast corner of Iredell County, is marked as having been established in 1804. Away from the North Iredell churches, it remained a solitary outpost of Methodism in that section until the denomination began to spread there in the decade before the Civil War. It Is the scene of the Mayhew family reunion scheduled to be held Sunday in memory of its founder, John Washington Mayhew. Mayhew Reunion Is Set Sunday.
By HOMER KEEVER
"The Mayhew family reunion will be held Sunday at McKendree's Methodist Church in the southwest corner of Iredell County. There will be dinner on the grounds and services with a special emphasis on Father's Day, honoring not only the present day fathers but also the pioneer father of the clan, John Washington Mayhew. He was part of a colony of Methodists from Bedford County, Va., who came to North Carolina just before 1800 and settled along the Catawba River just below Sherrill's Ford. Those on the west side of the river came in a group in 1787 and soon organized Rehobeth Church, the first Methodist society west of the Catawba and the place where tradition says the first camp meeting in America was held in 1794. Mayhew followed soon after the rest and settled on the east side of the river. On exhibit Sunday, along with Mayhew's last will and testament, will be the original deed to him for the Long and Alley lands along the river. That deed is dated 1793. The first of his deeds recorded in the Iredell County Courthouse is of the McEwen lands to John L. W. Mayhew, late of Bedford County. Va., in 1800. John Washington Mayhew was a local Methodist preacher and soon began preaching at his home. Just when Mayhew's Meeting House was built and the congregation organized on the east side of the river is, like the beginnings of most Methodist churches of the date, a little hazy, but the generally accepted date is 1804 — along with Pisgah and Snow Creek in the north end of the county and just four years after the deed was made to Prather's Meeting House to give Methodism its official start in Iredell.
"When John Mayhew died in 1838, his will provided for the continuation of the church. "I direct my executors," that will reads, "to lay out of my estate a sum sufficient for the erection over my grave and that of my wife after her decease tombstones, and that the same be walled round with stone and of size sufficient for reception and use of my family, and further order that there be laid off two acres of ground at the meeting house known as Mayhew's for a burial ground which I give to the Methodist society for that use and none other." The next year his son, Pressly Mayhew, carried out his wishes and made a deed to the land which contained the old meeting house of Osborn Tatum, Jesse Cornelius, Frederick Alley, Charles Edwards and William Edwards, Sr., trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Some of those trustees were of the colony of Virginians who came down and founded Rehoboth: others were among the leaders of Methodism as it spread across South Iredell in the decade just before the Civil War.
"Until 1850 the church that John Washington Mayhew founded had no connection with the Methodist movement in North Iredell. Then it appears in their records with its present name, McKendree's, named for the first native American who became bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, William McKendree, who tradition says was the first pastor of the Mayhew congregation. Before 1850 it was likely connected with either the Rehoboth Methodists across the river or with the crowing Methodism in the northern part of Mecklenburg. The North Iredell churches were first in the Virginia Conference and then in the North Carolina Conference, while the churches in Mecklenburg and across the river were in the South Carolina Conference until 1870. In 1850, though, McKendree's appears in the records of the Iredell Circuit, along with a small church by the name of Zoar. Then, after the organization of Rocky Mount Church a few years later, the South Iredell churches were formed into a South Iredell Circuit and a parsonage was built near Shepherds. It was part of the Mooresville Circuit all through the last half of the last century as Methodism spread by leaps and bounds throughout the south end of the county. Now along with Rocky Mount and another small church, Williamson's Chapel, it is a circuit of its own."
1793: John L. W. Mayhew first settled in Iredell County, N.C., although not shown in deeds until 1804. (ref., Mayhew History by Eleanora Mayhew McKay; various undated old newspaper clippings). Helen Handley did not believe this was true, citing the 1804 deed as the first deed.
1800: John Mayhew is shown in the census at Salisbury, Iredell Co., N.C.
1804: first recorded deed for John Mayhew in Iredell Co., N.C.
Charlotte Observer, The (NC)
2008-03-20
Section: LKN
Edition: THREE
Page: 1N
Column: AROUND THE LAKE
`THIS IS A PASSING IN HISTORY'
OLD HOME HAS TO MAKE WAY FOR ROAD'S WIDENING
JOE MARUSAK, Staff Writer
The last home remaining from the long-ago community of Mayhewtown is about to be leveled for the widening of Brawley School Road.
Built in the late 1800s, the two-story home sits at the intersection of Brawley School and McKendree roads near Lake Norman. Thousands of commuters zip along that stretch of road with probably no inkling of the 19th-century farming community that thrived there. Descendants of the Mayhew family, which settled the area in the late 1700s, lived in the home and ran a general store that stood across the road.
People in the community raised cotton, soybeans, oats and corn and bartered them at the store, descendant Alan Mayhew, 57, said. Mayhewtown had about 40 families each farming about 100 acres, and, at one point, had more people than Mooresville, he said. Much of Mayhewtown's farmland is now under Lake Norman.
I walked the grounds of the old home this week with Mayhew and his daughter, Marci Mayhew Morton, 31.
Alan Mayhew, president of Capital Mortgage Group at Brawley School and Oak Tree roads, pointed to the old root cellar below the home and where the outdoor privy and a cookhouse stood.
"This is a passing in history," he said. "It's kind of like a person today would not be able to survive how they did back then," given our conveniences of refrigeration and stores. "Would they know how to cure a ham?"
His great-grandfather, William "Absey" Abslam Mayhew, opened the store in the late 1800s. His grandfather, Thomas Holtshouser Mayhew, closed the store about the time of the Depression as much of unincorporated Mayhewtown's population shifted east to Mooresville, which grew because of its railroad lines.
Alan Mayhew's grandfather ended up farming for five or 10 years before working at the former Burlington Industries Mooresville Mills plant until he retired about 1963.
Mayhews haven't lived in the old Brawley School Road home in decades, but it has always remained close to who they are, Marci Morton said.
Local grading contractor Richard Abernathy bought the home from the Mayhew family and said he lived in it for 34 years, until the state condemned it in August for the widening.
The state must soon raze the home so Duke Energy can begin utility work before the widening, said Al Steib, a state right-of-way agent.
The official "let date," or the date the project is awarded to a contractor, for the widening from Chuckwood Road to before Interstate 77 is Aug. 19. The next phase, which includes the Interstate 77 exit, will be let on Feb. 19, 2009. Alan Mayhew smiled as he recalled how he got in trouble trying to climb the inventory racks of the two-story general store. He was 5 or 6 the last time he was there, he said.
Though the store is gone, Mayhew has its thick store ledgers from the early 1900s. Transactions such as the sale of 6 1/2 pounds of bacon for 65 cents and a box of unidentified pills for 20 cents were recorded in longhand. A gallon of molasses - we use corn syrup in everything today - cost 40 cents.
One customer used a mortgage as credit for goods from the store, Alan Mayhew noted on a page. "Most of the accounts were not paid in cash," he said.
Some folks bartered with muscadine and scuppernong that the store would then sell in Charlotte, he said. Hard to imagine now, but present-day Brawley School Road ran to Charlotte back then, he said.
Not far from the old homestead and store, Mayhews still gather for reunions each summer at McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church. Original settler John Love William Mayhew is buried in its cemetery.
The Continental Army veteran from Prince George's County, Md., likely chose to settle that spot because it was near the Catawba River and looked down on bottomland that could be farmed, Alan Mayhew said.
John Mayhew was a preacher and built a brush arbor there, founding Mayhewtown in 1793. Parts of the community lie beneath Lake Norman now.
An old house may be razed in the name of progress, I thought as I walked John Mayhew's burial grounds. But with folks like Alan and Marci and their descendants, the Mayhew legacy will likely always live on.
Mayhewtown
In 1970, Mayhew family members erected a large stone monument that recounts the family's local legacy dating to Mayhewtown's founding in 1793. The original Mayhew settlers built Mayhew Meeting House in a log building for religious services. The community eventually had a post office, a school and a country physician in Dr. John Moore.
The monument stood for decades on Brawley School Road and is now on the lawn of McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church, 291 McKendree Road, beside the cemetery where settler John Love William Mayhew is buried.
1. PHOTOS BY L.MUELLER - [email protected]. The Mayhew home, built in the late 1800s, is one of the homes that will be torn down to accommodate the widening of Brawley School Road. South Iredell once had a community larger than Mooresville: a farming community called Mayhewtown that dried up along Brawley School Road when the railroad lines were built miles away.; 2. Alan Mayhew's great-grandfather opened a community general store.; 3-4. A historical marker stands outside McKendree Chapel United Methodist Church, where John Love William Mayhew, the original settler of Mayhewtown, is buried. BELOW: A stained-glass window above the entrance to McKendree Chapel.; 5-6. PHOTOS BY L.MUELLER - [email protected]. A state sign along Brawley School Road still marks "Mayhew," once a thriving 19th-century farming community.; GRAPHIC: Map showing location of Mayhew.
Information from Bryan S. Godfrey, Henrico, Virginia.
Family Members
Siblings
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
