days, and is buried in the Stone Church graveyard.

_James Harris_ was from Eastern Mecklenburg (now Cabarrus county), a
neighborhood universally holding Whig principles. He was the Major in
Colonel Robert Irwin's regiment at the battle of the Hanging Rock, and
elsewhere performed important services during the war. Next to the
Alexanders the name Harris was most prevalent in Mecklenburg county
preceding the Revolution, and both still have numerous worthy
descendants among us to perpetuate the fair name and fame of their
distinguished ancestors.

_Matthew McLure_, one of the signers, was an early and devoted friend
of liberty. Some of his worthy descendants are still living among us.
Other descendants of the same patriotic family reside in Chester
county, S.C. One of his daughters married George Houston, who, with a
Spartan band of twelve or thirteen brave spirits, under Captain James
Thompson, beat back a British foraging party of over four hundred
soldiers, at McIntyre's Branch, on the Beattie's Ford road, seven
miles north-west of Charlotte. His son, Hugh Houston, served
throughout the Revolutionary war. The rifle used on that occasion by
George Houston is still in possession of the family. His son, M.M.
Houston, Esq., of Hopewell congregation, is one of the few grandsons
now living of the original signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration.

_William Graham_, an Irishman by birth, was one of the early advocates
of liberty in Mecklenburg county. He was intelligent and highly
respected by all who knew him. He lived on the plantation now owned by
Mrs. Potts, about four miles south-east of Beattie's Ford, on the
public road leading to Charlotte, where he died at a good old age.