Agenda - 12-15-1998 - 8u - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 3 Page 5 Cabe - Pratt - Harris House Orange Co., NC The clan followed the migration pattern from Philadelphia into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. In the 1750s and 1760s the migration pattern extended southwestward into piedmont North 3 Carolina, with some of the family going on west to Tennessee. Barnaby McCabe (or Barney Cabe, as the name was later shortened) settled in Orange County, North Carolina in 1758. He may have been one of William Few's Maryland neighbors who had come down to look for land the previous year. After buying half (330 acres) of Few's large tract which lay on the northeast bank of the Eno, he registered his cattle mark and, with his wife Betsy Perkins, settled down to farming. A Presbyterian zealous about providing an education for his six children, he was probably one of group of neighbors who hired a teacher and erected a school (no longer in existence) at Few's Ford at the end of the present -day Cole dill Road. The school 'house was built on ungranted land adjoining Barney Cabe's land at the south. Barnaby Cabe did not depend entirely on farming for his livelihood. He found wagonage more lucrative. An expense account record from 1771 indicates that he served as a "waggoner" for Governor Tryon's Militia, carrying supplies for them as well as hauling prisoners to New Bern and serving as4a witness against the Regulators after the Battle of Alamance. Apparently Cabe became disillusioned with the royal government. In July 1730, Dr. Thomas Burke of Hillsborough (later elected Governor) wrote to the commander of the King's army in the South, Horatio Gates, advising that "my neighbor n1r. Cabe carries to your camp a wagon load of flour which he will deliver only to your order. He is disgusted with the haughty manners ?f the Commissaries and therefore will deliver them nothing." Barnaby Cabe was a supporter of the Royal government of the Province during the Regulator troubles in Orange and other counties, but he :•cgs a supporter of the Patriots' cause during the Revolution. According to local historian Jean Anderson, Barnaby also achieved another form of immortality: "His naine is that of magical docy in a South Carolina folktale from John's Island. All through the tale and through the years has come the refrain, 'Barney :IaCabe, Doodle- le -doo and Soo -Boy, your Massa calling you.'" Barnaby Cabe had two sons, both prominent and influential citizens in their community with extensive land 'holdings and political clout. His eldest son, John (born c. 1752) was elected to represent Orange County at the Provincial Congress in 1776. lie t✓as Orange County's representative in the House of Commons for four terms, and was for many years a justice of the peace 14