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FAYETTEVILLE AND HER MINISTERS.

CHAPTER XXXIII

FAYETTEVILLE AND HER MINISTERS.

THE Scotch had a village called Cross Creek about a mile from the Cape Fear River, at head of boat navigation, soon after their settlements became numerous on the river. The name of the village took its origin from the curious fact that the two small streams, Cross Creek and Blunt's Creek, the one coming from the South and the other from the West, met and apparently separated, and forming an island of some size, again united and flowed on to the river. It was said that the streams, when swelled by rains, would actually cross each other in their rapid course to form a junction. This belief arose from the circumstance that floatwood coming down the stream, would sometimes shoot across the commingling waters in the direction of its previous course, and floating round the island, would fall into the united current. The action of a mill-dam prevents the recurrence of this phenomenon. There are persons still living who have witnessed the occurrence.

In the year 1762, by an act of Assembly a town was laid out embracing Cross Creek, and named Campbelton, from a town of that name in Argyleshire, in Scotland, from which and its neighborhood many of the emigrants had come. The object of the Legislature was to form a trading town upon the Cape Fear, of which Wilmington should be the seaport, to take the produce from the upper part of the State, particularly the settlements upon the Yadkin, and prevent the traffic being diverted to the seaports of South Carolina.

In 1771 a public road was opened to the Yadkin, and ultimately to Morganton, and various inducements held out to attract the course of trade from the fertile West to Fayetteville and Wilmington.

In 1784, on the occasion of the visit of the Marquis Lafayette, as a token of respect for his character and admiration for his services, the inhabitants proposed a change of name from Campbellton to Fayetteville.

While the town was called by the legislative name of Campbelton, and the country name of Cross Creek, the noted Flora