They shared their knowledge and expertise in North Carolina. The Cornish miners had developed techniques for lode mining over several centuries, extracting tin and copper from their native land. As head of the Mecklenburg Gold Mining Company, he brought in as many as eighty expert miners from England, Germany, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, Italy, and France.Īmong the European workers, miners from Cornwall, England, had the greatest influence on North Carolina mining culture. Count Vincent de Rivafinoli, an Italian aristocrat and experienced mining engineer, was one of the most cultured and flamboyant foreigners in Charlotte. Humphrey Bissell, of Charleston, bought part of the McComb Mine and brought with him not only new technology but also “men experienced in South American mining.” At one Charlotte mine that employed almost a thousand workers, thirteen different languages were spoken. Many of the most important lode mines were located in or around Charlotte. People came from far and wide to make their fortunes. With Barringer’s discovery of “lode,” or underground, mining, the rush to North Carolina was on. Prior to this discovery, all of the mining conducted in North Carolina had been aboveground, or “placer,” mining. In 1825 Matthias Barringer discovered that gold could be found in veins of white quartz, and by following these veins of quartz into the ground, one could recover more gold. But then, as luck would have it, another event occurred that would greatly increase the numbers, and diversity, of people migrating to the state’s gold fields. The first newcomers to arrive were probably from neighboring states and somewhat resembled the people already living in western North Carolina. Of course, initially, local landowners did most of the mining. There is not much detailed information about those who first came seeking gold. Most of the people coming to North Carolina to find gold were not as notable as Thornton and company. By 1806, investors in this company included a former governor of Maryland and the treasurer of the United States. After learning of the gold, he purchased thirty-five thousand acres of land in Montgomery (now Stanly) County and formed the North Carolina Gold Mine Company. William Thornton, of Baltimore, Maryland, designer of the United States Capitol, was one of these seekers. Charlotte, the state’s largest city today, was merely a dusty little village.Īround 1805, only a few years after Conrad’s discovery, newspapers began reporting on gold-mining activities and people coming into the area to search for gold. They raised livestock and crops such as corn, wheat, barley, rye, and indigo, and traded primarily with Charleston, South Carolina, some two hundred miles to the south. He described these pioneers as “industrious people,” with most families having five to ten children. He found seventy-five Scots-Irish and twenty-two German families living there. Governor Arthur Dobbs visited the area in 1755 to survey land located in present-day Mecklenburg and Cabarrus counties that he had purchased ten years earlier. In the mid-1700s, the western portion of the southern Piedmont was a scarcely populated backcountry. Soon gold was being found in neighboring counties- Montgomery, Stanly, Mecklenburg, Rowan, and Union-and people anxious to find gold of their own began moving into the area. News of gold in Cabarrus County spread quickly. More gold was found in and along the creek, making Conrad’s father, John Reed, a very wealthy man. Twelve-year-old Conrad Reed was fishing in Little Meadow Creek on his family’s farm in Cabarrus County one day in 1799 when he found a seventeen-pound gold nugget. In 1799 an event occurred in the southern Piedmont that made North Carolina a very desirable place to live-the discovery of gold! See also: Gold Rush (Encyclopedia of North Carolina) Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of History Reprinted with permission from the Tar Heel Junior Historian.
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