Major William Chronicle, our community's namesake
By Gabriel Bell
Most residents of Chronicle do not know why this area is so named. This is unsurprising, as most residents of Chronicle have no idea that they live in a place called Chronicle. The name, like all names for our section of Catawba County, passed out of common usage around the same time the smartphone became ubiquitous. As the world grew smaller, the need to name every unincorporated community and minor crossroads grew smaller with it. Now, most residents of Chronicle think this place has no name and no history. This could not be further from the truth.
The town of Chronicle is named for Major William Chronicle, a hero of the American Revolution. Born in 1755 along the banks of the Catawba River, young William received only the most elementary of formal education. He was taught primarily by family tutors, clergymen, and occasionally by the local schoolmaster. For much of his early life, he grew up in the Chronicle family home, known as Mansion House, in Belmont, North Carolina.
His father, William Chronicle Sr., supported the Regulator Rebellion, a North Carolinian precursor to the American Revolution. He opposed the renaming of the area to Tryon County in honor of the British governor of North Carolina. William Sr. instilled in his son from a young age a distrust and loathing for the corrupt British colonial authority.
Before the age of twenty, Chronicle joined the militia of Tryon County (which then encompassed Lincoln and Catawba counties, among others). By 1775, he was organizing and leading the troops in the Snow Campaign of South Carolina, one of the earliest major military operations of the Revolutionary War.
When Lincoln County (then encompassing Lincoln and Catawba county) was formed in 1779, Chronicle was one of the first officers elected to the newly established Lincoln County Militia. Now Major Chronicle, he took part in several battles, including Ramseur’s Mill in Lincolnton.
Lord Charles Cornwallis, a British Major General, was assigned command of the southern theatre during the war. The British, who believed there were still many loyalists in the south, devised a plan to garner support with loyalists and form British militia units across the south. This “southern strategy” saw success, especially in South Carolina.
Disturbed by reports of patriot militias in western North Carolina, Cornwallis dispatched Major Patrick Ferguson to the mountains in an attempt to garner loyalist support and put down the rebellion. The major claimed that he would, “march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword.” Ferguson’s tactics were seen as brutal, but proved effective as he drew over a thousand men to his side.
In response, militias from North Carolina and modern-day Tennessee began to pursue Ferguson and his men. Chronicle’s regiment, led by Colonel William Graham, was among them. They amassed a force that included between 60 and 80 men from Lincoln County (which at the time also encompassed Catawba County). Along with the other militia regiments, they surrounded Ferguson at King’s Mountain in October of 1780. Ferguson deployed only the most basic of defenses, believing that American resistance would crumble.
William Graham was sick and was called away before the battle, leaving the young Major Chronicle in command of his Lincoln County militiamen. He personally led the charge up the mountain, advancing on the British position in front of his men. He called out, “Face to the mountain, boys!” Moments later, he was struck in the chest by a bullet and mortally wounded. He was only twenty-five feet from the British position at the moment of his death.
The battle concluded in a resounding American victory. Major Ferguson was killed, the loyalists were routed, and the victory set in motion a chain of events that led to the successful conclusion of the Revolution. Without Ferguson and his men, Cornwallis’ southern strategy was doomed to fail. Thomas Jefferson called the battle “the turn of the tide of success.”
William Chronicle was only 25 at the time of his death. He had no wife and no children. His horse was brought to his father’s stable, who, upon seeing it, knew that his son had been killed. His pistols, sword, and spurs were given to his half brother James McKee, who eventually inherited all else that he owned.
After the battle, most of the Lincoln County militiamen returned to their homes, including several who lived in the area around the Little Mountain. It is likely that the area was first called Chronicle then, in honor of their fallen commander.
The first official usage of the name for the area occurred when a United States Post Office was established at Chronicle in 1851. The post office served the area in various locations until 1904. The name was used colloquially long afterwards, officially on government maps until at least 1980, and in newspapers into the 21st century.
Chronicle is also memorialized on monuments at Kings Mountain State Park, historical markers in Belmont, and at the Chronicle Mill, now an apartment complex, named in his honor in 1901.
Now, we at the Chronicle Chronicle continue the tradition of honoring a great hero of the American Revolution.