Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

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Antebellum Days 1820-1852

1832 - St. Catherine Mine

Columbia professor James Renwick travels from New York to study Count Rivafinoli's operation of Charlotte's St. Catherine gold mine. Workers are using a method of extracting the pure gold from rocks that allows some of the precious metal to be washed away and lost. Renwick reports that St. Catherine will fail. A few years later he will be proved right. The mine will close during economic hard times, called a depression, in 1836-37.

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1835 - Prosperous Citizen

May 12, 1835 - Samuel McComb is appointed to select the site and supervise the building of Charlotte's Mint. He is well qualified. Ten years earlier, he discovered gold on his farm and now owns a gold mine. Since then, he has been a sheriff and served in North Carolina's lawmaking body, the General Assembly.

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1820 - Plank Road Journey

As commerce becomes more important, citizens are asked to devote their time to improving Mecklenburg County's roads. By laying split wood along the paths, workers hope to smooth the way for vehicles. Still, travel is unpleasant. Passengers and horses alike suffer injuries when the animals pulling stagecoaches lose their footing and stumble on the uneven roads.Muddy Traveling Along Carolina Highways Perils of Early Travel

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1852 - Train's a-comin'

October 28, 1852. The first passenger train arrives in Charlotte from Columbia, South Carolina! The entire town  and many visitors celebrate with fireworks, barbecue and a musical band. Within four years, Charlotte's telegraph office will open and the rail lines will run all the way to Goldsboro. Both will help the growing textile industry send its goods across the (North Carolina Whig, November 3, 1852, p.2, col.1)

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1845 - Rebuilding the Mint

March 3, 1845 - The U.S. Congress agrees to set aside, or appropriate, money to rebuild the Charlotte Mint. The facility, which made coins from gold mined in North Carolina, was destroyed by a fire last July. Congress will allow $35,000 to be spent on the project.

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1830 - Gold Fever

The gold rush attracts mining experts to Charlotte. Humphrey Bissell invests in the mines, and helps develop machines that drill for gold, then crush and compact it. Count Chevalier Vincent de Rivafinoli brings European workers to help increase the yield from the mines. Within just one, short three-month period, laborers will coax 3,800 ounces of gold from Charlotte's mines.

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1847 - War with Mexico

<p>The U.S. is at war with Mexico, which&nbsp;refuses to give up possession of Texas. In 1836, Mexican soldiers stormed the Alamo, a Spanish fort near San Antonio. Everyone inside, including American soldiers, was killed, sparking the cry, Remember the Alamo! Now, Charlotte&#39;s Mint superintendent, Green Caldwell, leads a battalion of troops into Mexico. When the war is over, the U.S. will own most of the Southwest.</p>

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1829 - President Jackson

The boy who grew up near Charlotte becomes America's seventh president. People think highly of Andrew Jackson. He has been an outspoken lawyer, military hero, and senator. As president, he will make decisions both to limit the power of the federal government and to assert it forcefully in its proper sphere. Some of his actions will bring great hardship to the Indian tribes that live in the Carolinas and neighboring states.

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1840 - Hard Times for Catawbans

The Treaty of Nation's Ford devastates the Catawba Indians, many of whom live along the border between North and South Carolina. South Carolina agrees to give the tribe $5000 to buy 300 acres of mountain land in Haywood County, N.C., then $2000 per year for five years. North Carolina refuses to give the tribe any money until the Catawbas actually give up the disputed land and leave. Many of the tribe will be left poor and homeless.

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1836 - Boomtown

January 8, 1836 - More than 50 gold mines now operate in North Carolina, and more are in Mecklenburg than in any other county. Some mines are named for places or their owners: Alexander, McComb, Davidson Hill. Others have more exotic names, like the Queen of Sheba and the King Solomon mines. As the cornerstone is laid today at Charlotte's Mint building on West Trade Street, the Queen City prepares to produce coins for the first time.

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