Tryon Resolves Chapter, NSDAR
Cherryville, North Carolina
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Tryon Resolves Chapter, NSDAR, Daughters lay a wreath at the Tryon Resolves monument outside Cherryville, North Carolina.
The Tryon Resolves was a document declaring resistance to the abuses inflicted upon the American colonies by the British Crown.
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The Tryon County historic marker is located on North Carolina Hwy 216, around 4 miles southeast of Cherryville.
The above map shows the approximate boundaries of Tryon County when it was founded in 1768. The original county spanned both North and South Carolina. Tryon County was divided into Lincoln and Rutherford Counties in 1779 and Cleveland and Gaston, as well as parts of Polk, McDowell, and Burke Counties, were subsequently formed from this land. On this map, the modern counties in North and South Carolina are outlined in green.
These boundaries have been based on a map by Elmer Oris Parker.
Tryon County, named for William Tryon, the fourth royal governor of North Carolina, was formed in 1768 to organize the area in western North Carolina between Mecklenburg County and Native American territory in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
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It included the following modern North Carolina counties: Rutherford, Cleveland, Gaston, Lincoln, parts of Polk, Burke, and McDowell.
Map courtesy of www.carolana.com
The home of Christian Mauney was determined to be near the center of the county and, therefore, was designated as the courthouse. This site is located approximately four miles southeast of what is now the town of Cherryville.
A marker donated by the Colonel Frederick Hambright Chapter, NSDAR, stands on the site of the Tryon County Courthouse, the home of Christian Mauney.
On Aug. 14, 1775, in response to news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, 49 residents of Tryon County met at the courthouse and drafted an “Association” that we now call the Tryon Resolves. In it, they pledged to take up arms and even risk their lives to defend their freedom.
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A month later, several of the signers formed the Tryon County Militia.
While not declaring independence from Great Britain, the document predates the Declaration of Independence by nearly a year.
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Many members of the Tryon Resolves Chapter, NSDAR, are descended from the signers of the Tryon Resolves, shown above.
Text of the Tryon Resolves
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"The unprecedented, barbarous and bloody actions committed by British troops on our American brethren near Boston, on 19th April and 20th of May last, together with the hostile operations and treacherous designs now carrying on, by the tools of ministerial vengeance, for the subjugation of all British America, suggest to us the painful necessity of having recourse to arms in defense of our National freedom and constitutional rights, against all invasions; and at the same time do solemnly engage to take up arms and risk our lives and our fortunes in maintaining the freedom of our country whenever the wisdom and counsel of the Continental Congress or our Provincial Convention shall declare it necessary; and this engagement we will continue in for the preservation of those rights and liberties which the principals of our Constitution and the laws of God, nature and nations have made it our duty to defend. We therefore, the subscribers, freeholders and inhabitants of Tryon County, do hereby faithfully unite ourselves under the most solemn ties of religion, honor and love to our county, firmly to resist force by force, and hold sacred till a reconciliation shall take place between Great Brittain and America on Constitutional principals, which we most ardently desire, and do firmly agree to hold all such persons as inimical to the liberties of America who shall refuse to sign this association."
Text Courtesy of www.carolana.com
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Members of the DAR and the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) celebrate the anniversary of the Tryon Resolves near the site each year.
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The Tryon Resolves