Answer: The Rock Island Woolen Mill was built in about 1848 and many kinds of wool fabrics were made there.  Right before the Civil War started, they produced the fabric for making Confederate uniforms.  After the war, around 1870, the warehouses for this company (located in downtown Charlotte) and the mill ceased to operate.  At the time it was operating, it would have been one of the first mill villages in the Carolinas.  The listing for the sale of the property indicated there were 12 to 15 cottages located near the mill, plus there was a small Methodist chapel there which was served occasionally by a traveling minister.  The mill employed approximately 53 people according to the 1850 census records.

By 1852, the factory produced black and gray cassimeres (sic), some which were being sold in Wilmington for 87 ½ cents a yard.  Tweed, jeans and kersey were also made, and wool was bought for 25 cents a pound.  (From” The History of Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte from 1740 – 1903., Vol. 1. By D. A. Tompkins, p. 127.)

The mill was located at the end of Rock Island Road on the Catawba River near the Beaverdam Creek.  Water power was used to operate the mill.

Answer: McClintock School on Erwin Road was built by the Rosenwald organization after the freedom of the slaves in Steele Creek.  This black school is one of only two Rosenwald schools still standing in Mecklenburg County.  McClintock school is now on the Mecklenburg County Historic Properties list.

For more information see McClintock (African-American) School on the Steele Creek Historical & Genealogical Society web-page.

Answer: Shopton, which was shortened over the years from “Shop Town”, began between 1882 and 1890.  At that time, Steele Creek Road was called the “Fort Mill Road” and veered to the east just past the present store where another road, called the River Road (now Shopton Road West) veered to the southwest. 

Joseph Hayes built the store that is now called Byrum general Store in about 1883 or 1885.  In the area around the store was John Summerville, the blacksmith, William Thompson, another blacksmith, John Blanchard, a “boot and shoe maker”,  and Rufus Grier, who operated a saw mill and a cotton gin.  The store was a typical general store where you could buy all of the staples needed: food, clothes, dishes, farming utensils,  and various other supplies, You could get your horses shoed, have tools made by the blacksmith, have your cotton ginned, and have lumber sawed to build your buildings.   It was the hub of the community.

Answer: The McDowell House, located on S. Tryon St. (York Road) where Beam Road intersects with S. Tryon.

The Neal House, located near the intersection of Westinghouse Blvd and Shopton Road West, between Withers Rd. and the Withers Cove bridge.

Revised answer: The McDowell House apparently is not on the National Historic Register. Application apparently was made to place the Neel House on the register, but it is not clear that this ever occurred. According to the national Register of Historic Places web site (http://www.nps.gov/nr/), the Steele Creek Presbyterian Church and Cemetery and the Hayes-Byrum General Store are on the National Register.

Answer: After the end of the Revolutionary War, the funds of the state were drained and the state could not pay the militia men for their service.  Property was issued to the state in what is now Tennessee and the soldiers were paid by receiving land grants in Tennessee.  The size of the grant was based on the rank in service at the end of the war.  These grants started to be issued In 1790 to 1805, and either the soldier himself or his family moved to Tennessee to take up their grants of land.  The many men in Steele Creek who had fought in the war were getting older and many of them stayed but their sons moved to obtain more land than they could have in Steele Creek.  In many cases, parents were left with, in most cases, only their oldest son remaining to care for them and inherit the land in Steele Creek and the rest of the sons moved.  In a lot of cases, their daughters had married men who were moving to TN also.  So during that time, the population of Steele Creek was greatly diminished.  There were some generals in the militia that received as much as 12,000 acres in TN.  The average for a private was 640 acres.  The other ranks fell in between that in acreage.

Answer: Shopton was the location of the “festivals”.  The annual events had political rallies with many running for election coming out from Charlotte to campaign and make political speeches.   The rallies were not just for local candidates but included candidates for state offices, and people came from all over the area to hear them.  There was no media in that day, other than newspapers which were expensive, so this was an only opportunity for many to hear from a candidate.

The highlight of the day was a tournament that consisted of a horses being decorated with lowers, and small rings were hung with red cloth covering them.  Men would ride the horses with a type of lance and try to spear the rings.  The winner got to crown the queen of the tournament.  In later years, the horses were replaced by bicycles.

Answer: Steele Creek High School was located near the intersection of York Rd. (S. Tryon) and Sandy Porter Road.  It was a two story building when it was built in 1900 and in 1923, it was consolidated with the newly build Steele Creek School near the intersection of York Rd. (S. Tryon) and Erwin Road.

After the Steele Creek High school was closed, the school board deeded the property back to the community.  Because of the condition of the upper story and roof, it was removed, and a new roof put on the first floor.  It was called Central Community House and many organizations in the community used it for meetings.  In the early 1990s, the Miller home next door to it and the property the community house  was purchased for commercial use and the community house was moved to the Steele Creek Athletic Association ball fields.

Answer: In the Colonial Records of South Carolina is a license issued to the Bigger family to run a ferry across the Catawba River to the NC side in 1774.  It continued as Bigger’s Ferry until the early 1800s when the Mason family purchased the property on both sides of the river.  It was then called Mason’s Ferry.  After the Mason property on the NC side of the river was purchased by R. C. Youngblood in 1851, the ferry was then run by a Mr. Wright.  It remained Wright’s Ferry until the new Buster Boyd bridge was built (Hwy 49-Yorkville – York Rd.) in 1923 at which time Lake Wylie had been made and the ferry was disassembled and the site flooded by Lake Wylie.

Answer: Dixie High School

Answer: Browhill was near where Piney Top and Wilmount Roads terminated into Dixie Road.   The old general store was located across the road that went into the old airport terminal on West Blvd.  It was close to where later the “Ma” Duncan restaurant sat at the corner of  West Blvd and Wilmount Rd.  The name was derived from the names of Brown and Berryhill, two of the families that lived in the area.  Browhill community came into being about the end of World War I and 20 years later a runway was built for the new air service coming into Charlotte.  Later during World War II, the air field was expanded to train pilots and that runway began to replace people who lived in the airport area.  After the war when the airport began to expand, more neighbors were moved from the area, and of course, today neither Dixie, Browhill, Juneau, Lodo, or Berryhill school area plus some areas south of the airport exists.  All have been bulldozed away to built two more runways.

After the Civil War, the minister was removed from the white church because during the war he thought the slaves should be able to read and write so they could read the Bible. He took the list of the African-Americans and helped them form their own church.  The Rev. Samuel C. Alexander was the first minister of McClintock and after forming it with ex-slaves from the lower Steele Creek area, he went to the Berryhill area and formed Mt. Olive Presbyterian Church to serve the ex-slaves from old Steele Creek Presbyterian Church.  He felt the need for African-American ministers, and he and another minister from Pennsylvania, where Rev. Alexander was from,  started a school called Biddle Institute in 1786.  That school later became known as Johnson C. Smith University.  The first African-American minister at McClintock was Rev. Ijams.

McClintock’ church and school (built as a Rosenwald school) on Erwin Road are still standing.  The church, after the fire in the belfry in the 1950s, was changed to its present day exterior, completely covered with brick, but the inside of the church is still the same church that was built in 1870 to 1880.  As stated in question #3, McClintock school on the church lot, is on the Mecklenburg Co. Historic properties list.