403 East Main Street

Lincolnton, NC 28092
704-748-9098

704-732-9057 (fax)
www.lincolncountyhistory.com 

 

 

Magnolia Grove: (Magnolia Grove Road) This Federal-style brick mansion was built in 1824 by David Smith, whose wife, Elizabeth, was the daughter of the Reverend John Gottfried Arndt (the first Lutheran minister ordained in North Carolina). At this site, the first county courthouse and jail were constructed.

Ingleside: (NC 73) Constructed in 1817 for Daniel Forney, a member of Congress, this brick masterpiece is one of the finest antebellum Federal-style mansions in North Carolina. Benjamin Latrobe, the architect of the Capital Building, is said to have drawn the plans for Ingleside. It was at this site that Lord Charles Cornwallis camped the British army in January 1781 during his chase of Nathanael Greene and Daniel Morgan.

Vesuvius: (Vesuvius Furnace Road) The original portion of this Federal-style mansion was constructed in 1792, making it the oldest existing dwelling in the county. Joseph Graham, a young hero of the Revolutionary War, built the house as a centerpiece of his plantation here. Graham was one of the pioneers of the iron-making industry that flourished in Lincoln County from 1790 until the War Between the States. Near the mansion is the site of Vesuvius Furnace, one of the many iron furnaces that once dotted the landscape of eastern Lincoln County. Governor William Alexander Graham, the son of Joseph Graham, was born on the plantation.

Machpelah Presbyterian Church and Cemetery: (intersection of Old Plank Road and Brevard Place Road) Erected in 1848, the brick church building no longer houses an active congregation. Its first minister was Dr. Robert Hall Morrison, the first president of Davidson College and the father-in-law of three Confederate generals - Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Daniel Harvey Hill, and Rufus Barringer. Dr. Hall is buried in the adjacent cemetery, which predates the church. Among the other notable graves in the cemetery is that of Joseph Graham.

Rock Springs Campground: (Campground Road off NC 16) Moves to its current site in 1830, this campground represents the oldest camp meeting organized in North Carolina. Daniel Asbury, the famous Methodist circuit-rider, established Rock Springs in 1792. At the center of the campground stands the massive hand-hewn arbor, which seats more than one thousand persons.
Site of the Battle of Cowans Ford: (NC 73 at the Cowans Ford Dam overlook) Here on the morning of February 1, 1781, Patriots from the Lincoln and surrounding counties delayed the crossing of the Catawba River by Cornwallis and the British army and provided General Nathanael Greene and his ragged American army the badly-needed time to escape and to plan the miraculous retreat across North Carolina that came to a climax six weeks later at Guilford Courthouse.