Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/356

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the reason that the state, while maintaining the cause of independence by resolutions and declaration, refused to furnish the means to secure it. He died in North Caro- lina, September, 1788.

McDowell, Charles, born in Winchester,' Virginia, in 1743, son of Joseph McDowell, who emigrated from Ireland about 1730, and after a residence of several years in Penn- sylvania settled first in Winchester, Vir- ginia, and subsequently at Quaker Meadows, on Catawba river. North Carolina. His family is distinguished from that of his cousin John by the name of the "Quaker Meadow McDowells/' At the beginning of the revolution he was g^ven command of a large district in western North Carolina. C>n the British invasion in 1780 he organ- ized troops, fortified posts, and in June at- tacked the enemy on Pacolet river and com- pelled their surrender; subsequently gained victories at Musgrove Mill and Cace Creek, but after the reverses of the colonists at Savannah, Charleston and Fishing Creek, his army was disbanded, and he resigned his command previous to the battle of King's Mountain. He was state senator in 1782- 88, and a member of the lower house in 1809-11. He died in Burke county. North Carolina, March 21, 1815. His wife, Grace Greenlee, was noted for her prudence and daring. Her first husband. Captain Bow- man, of the patriot army, was killed at the battle of Ramson's Mill. After her mar- riage with McDowell, she aided him in all his patriotic schemes, and while he was secretly manufacturing in a cave the pow- der that was afterward used at King s Moun- tain, she made the charcoal in her fireplace, carr>*ing it to him at night to prevent detec-

tion. After the battle she nursed the sol- diers. A party of marauders having plun- dered her house in the ab.sence of her hus- band, she and some of her neighbors, pursued, and captured them, and at the muzzle of her gun she compelled them to re- turn her property. She was the mother of a large family. Charles' brother Joseph, born in Winchester, Virginia, in 1756, was familiarly known as **Quaker Meadows Joe,** to distinguish him from his cousin of the same name. He served against the frontier Indians previous to the revolution, and under his brother Charles in all the battles in western North Carolina before that of Kings Mountain, where he commanded the North Carolina militia, with the rank of major. He was in the state house of com- mons in 1787-92, was a member of the North Carolina constitutional convention in 1788. and was instrumental in its rejection of the United States constitution. He was elect- ed to congress in 1792, served until 1799, and was active in opposition to the Federal party. He was boundary commissioner in 1797 for running the line between Tennes- see and North Carolina ; a general of militia ; and the recognized leader of the Republican party in the western counties. He died in Burke county. North Carolina.

Oldham, William, born in Berkeley coun- t}, Virginia, about 1745; was a captain in the continental army. He resigned in 1779 and settled on the Ohio river, where he be- came a leader against the Indians ; served in Gen. Arthur St. Clair's expedition, as com- mander of a regiment of Kentucky militia, and was killed on the Maumee river, near the present site of Greenville. Ohio, Novem- ber 4, 1791.

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