Although he never visited Charlotte, this English landowner was important to the founding and settling of the Queen City. George Selwyn (1719-1791) attended prestigious Eton College and Oxford. Selwyn entered Parliament, Britain's lawmaking body, in 1747. Although he served until 1780, his career as a legislator was unremarkable.
Mary Anna Jackson (1831-1915) was the wife of General Thomas Stonewall Jackson. She was born near Charlotte and was educated at Salem Academy from 1847-49. In Virginia, she met Jackson, and they married in 1857. Only one of their children survived infancy.
When the Civil War began, Mrs. Jackson returned to Charlotte. In 1863, General Jackson was mortally wounded in battle. Mrs. Jackson traveled to his bedside and was with him when he died. Mrs. Jackson lived at her Charlotte home on West Trade Street.
Dr. Charles G. McManaway (1855-1918) came to Charlotte in 1888, and practiced medicine in the city for over thirty years. He was a charter member of the Mecklenburg Medical Society. Dr. McManaway was born in Bedford County, Virginia. He received his medical training at Baltimore College and the Medical College of Louisville, Kentucky.
Henry Severs (August 13, 1915 - January 30, 1992) was one of the original members of the Mecklenburg County Alcohol Beverage Control Board. The board was created in 1946.
Prior to joining the ABC Board, Mr. Severs had a lengthy career in law enforcement. He joined the Mecklenburg County Police Department in 1937. He was with the department for ten years, at one time served as Acting Chief of the Force.
Charlotte Kelly (August 31, 1897 - January 30, 1988) was a professional astronomer. She graduated from Wellsley College in 1919. Her first position was at the Observatory of the Univerity of Virginia's Leander McCormick Observatory. At the Observatory her work involved researching the distance of stars.
Best remembered for the hundreds of poems he wrote, this Scotland County native was also a lawyer and teacher. John McNeill's (1874-1907) work was first published in the campus journal of Wake Forest College, where McNeill was valedictorian of the class of 1898.
Thomas Spratt (1685-1757) was one the first white settlers in Mecklenburg County and was the first to cross the Yadkin River with a wagon. When Spratt came to the area he first settled on Rocky River, near Concord. Trouble with local Indians precipitated his migration further south. He resettled in a location that is now the intersection of Caswell and Randolph roads, behind Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte. The first court ever convened in Mecklenburg County was held at Thomas Spratt's home.
Documentation
Dorothy Simpson Masterson (July 28, 1897 - March 22, 1991) has been called Charlotte's First Lady of the Theatre. She was an experienced and professionally trained actress. Mrs. Masterson studied drama at the Perry Manville School and studied theatre directing at the Southwestern School of the Theatre in Dallas, Texas. Her acting experience included work in Decatur, Illinois, and in radio shows in Chicago.
Neill Morrison (1728 - 9/1784) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. Neill, son of James Morrison, was born in Philadelphia and married Annabelle Johnston of New Castle, Delaware. Neill, Annabelle, and James moved to the Four-Mile Creek area of Mecklenburg County in Providence township.
George Stephens (1873-1946) was a banker, and a pioneer in Charlotte's real estate development. He was a native of Guilford County, North Carolina. He was a graduate of UNC, now UNC-CH, and later served on the University's Board of Trustees.
Stephens' business career in Charlotte began in 1896. He was a founder in 1901 and later president of the Southern States Trust Company, which evolved into the American Trust Company.