When I Get Back to Tryon County
I've probably written before that the area I'm from was the colonial county Tryon from 1767 to 1780-something. I was never sure if there ever was an actual courthouse structure for Tryon County, because I know that when the area was reorganised after the Revolution as Lincoln County, court was held at first in someone's house (Catherine Bishir says it was a tavern).
I did a Google search on the Tryon County courthouse and one of the few relevant results was a page with a topographical map of the "Tryon County Courthouse Historical Site." I guess if there's anything there it's just a historical highway marker because I didn't find out much more about it. There's another Tryon County in New York (the guy went into office there after he left North Carolina).
I also tried to find how my ancestor Jacob Rhyne was related to the Thomas Rhyne who built a house near Stanley with "1799" in the brick. I don't think there's any question that they were related. From what I found yesterday I think Thomas was Jacob's nephew.
When I was trying to find out the above I found a website that was about a genealogy book named Our Kin, that's about families in my area. I've been aware of this all my life because my dad has it. What I didn't know is how old it is - it was first published in 1915. This runs counter to something that was stated in my Intro. to Public History class. The class sort of got into the "history of history," and something we read stated that while the FFV were into "pedigree" the majority of Southerners were not interested in genealogy until the 1970's, when the Bicentennial got folks interested in their pasts. I contradicted that statement in my big paper, and now I have a little concrete fact to go back and insert to support my statement.
Hee hee.
I should really shape up that paper and submit it for publication.