A walk through the McDowell property at Quaker Meadows
I am going to help you visualize what the McDowell property at Quaker Meadows looked like in the mid- to late 1700s under Charles McDowell’s father, Joseph McDowell the elder, and later, when Charles himself “reinvented” the property. In the mid-1700s, Joseph the elder purchased a large tract of land adjacent to the Catawba River, which years before his arrival had been identified as “Quaker Meadows.”
Here he built a large log house, about 24-by-24 feet in size, with an overhang over the front porch and a second floor. In that timeframe it was considered fully functional, but unsophisticated compared to the homes of rich plantation owners in the eastern part of the state, who made their fortunes through the sale of tobacco, cotton, and rice.
This all changed in 1775 with Joseph the elder’s death. Our 18th-century neighbor, Charles McDowell, took it upon himself to build a new residence. It would measure up to the fictional home depicted on Fraser’s Ridge in the television series “Outlander.” No longer dependent on anyone else’s approval, he constructed his new house with pit-saw lumber versus logs and with 18 glass-paned windows, unlike the wooden shutters on the old house. By all accounts, this home in the “wilderness,” now painted on the outside in a subdued saffron color, was an example of the power of the dollar in the colonial economy.
Where Charles McDowell came up with all the money to construct such an eye-catching property? The answer is fairly simple: His father ran a very successful weaving business in Ireland before he set foot in the colonies and during his tenure in Virginia his fortune increased, certainly with enough money to be able to send both sons Charles and Joseph to college there. Documents provide evidence that the McDowells, while in Virginia, lived in “one of the finest homes in Winchester County.” Statements like this clearly indicate they were well-funded before moving south to the Catawba Valley.
If you were to set foot on Quaker Meadows in late September 1780, before the Overmountain Men and others gathered here, you would have seen the McDowell House out in the distance, near the current-day junction of N.C.181 and Bost Road, surrounded by fields separated by dry rails. At least 100 head each of cattle and sheep were grazing there, with a tobacco shed and large barn nearby. If you were to walk toward the house, you would pass by a well-kept stable and find inside it at least eight very well-maintained horses.
Looking around the back of the barn, a racetrack would come into view. This would have been an “Aha!” moment for you, with the clear realization the McDowells were part of the landed gentry in Burke County; they had enough money to participate in this very expensive hobby of the rich and powerful. Charles would go on to own 3,000 acres in the area, while brothers Joseph Jr. and John owned their own property in the same general area.
Still curious, you would have seen a loom house up ahead, situated not far from a blacksmith’s shop, where a huge man, weighing at least 300 pounds, was hard at work at the ford. A corn crib set outside it, just a few steps away. Farther out in the distance, it looked like what could have been a tobacco shed. Your eyes now itching, you could see a brickyard was not too far away, spewing black smoke from its chimney, in production mode. There were apparently quite a few everyday businesses that contributed to McDowell’s financial standing.
Not everything you would see on the property this day would give you a “good” feeling, for not too far from the stables sat two 16-by-16-foot log cabins. Peeking inside one of them, you would have seen a packed dirt floor with some crude pedestals set aside for beds. When your eyes settled on a little homemade doll made of cornstalks in the corner, you would know it was enslaved people who lived here, the “unknown Patriots of the Revolutionary War,” who supported the McDowell family during this period.
Next week, I will give you a “bird’s-eye view” of the McDowell House itself and more about its residents and their everyday lives.
Maj. (Dr.) John von Rohr is an academician and former military officer. He is a member of the Col. Alexander Erwin Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.
