Report on Hawthorn House, Near King's Mountain National Military Park

Porter, Charles

Thomas Jefferson called it "The turn of the tide of success." The battle of Kings Mountain, fought October 7th, 1780, was an important American victory during the Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major patriot victory to occur after the British invasion of Charleston, SC in May 1780. The park preserves the site of this important battle. This report concerns the Hawthorn House near Kings Mountain National Military Park. preliminary historical report on the Hawthorn House was made in October, 1937, by Junior Historian, W. P. Brandon, who traced the chain of title to the Hawthorn property from 1785 to 1804. Mr. Brandon's report proved that a James Hawthorn owned property (1785-1794) in York County, S. C., on the northwest side of Catawba River, but inasmuch as Mr. Brandon had neither a plat nor metes and bounds describing this property, there was no way to identify it as being the site of the present so-called Hawthorn homestead. The problem facing the writer, then, was that of finding a plat map of the property in question, tying it in definitely with the farm on which the house now rests, or, failing to find a plat map, to get recognizable metes and bounds with a complete chain of title. Only by such means could one prove that the existing Hawthorn House rests on original Hawthorn property. Furthermore, it was necessary to prove that the James Hawthorn of the original deed (1785) was Col. James Hawthorn, rather than another person of the same name. The report concludes that, though positive proof is not available, the historical evidence in hand does indicate that it is = inherently probable that Col. James Hawthorn lived in the building traditionally called the Hawthorn House.

Report on Hawthorn House, Near King's Mountain National Military Park

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