Abraham Alexander (12/9/1717 - 4/23/1786) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. The Alexander family is one of the most prolific of any in Mecklenburg County. Abraham descends from Scotch-Irish immigrants who came from Ulster to America. He was born in Maryland, the child of Elias and Sophia Alexander.
Ephraim Brevard (17??-1781) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. Dr. Brevard was one of this area's first physicians. He was born in Maryland and moved at a young age with his family to North Carolina.
William Graham (1740 - 7/17/1818) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish and first settled in Pennsylvania before coming to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Born in Ulster, Ireland, he married Margaret Graham of Rowan County. Her grandfather, James Graham, Sr., was from Inverrary, Scotland. Whether William and Margaret were related or just coincidentally had the same surname is unknown.
Bonnie Ethel Cone (June 22, 1907 – March 8, 2003) is best known as the driving force behind the development of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina. Dr. Cone, the daughter of C.J. and Addie Harter Cone, was born in Lodge, South Carolina. She earned an A.B. degree from Coker College and an M.S. from Duke University.
Adam Alexander (9/23/1728 - 9/13/1798) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. He, like most of the men reported to be signers, was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His family was from Ulster, Ireland, and they are interrelated to many of the Alexanders in Mecklenburg County. He spent his early years in Maryland, where he was born, and Pennsylvania.
H.E.C. Red Buck Bryant (January 3, 1873 - November 3, 1967), the son of Julia Parks and Henry Bryant, was a native of Mecklenburg's Providence Township. Though Red Buck Bryant wrote several small books, among them a biography of Charlotte Observer editor, J.P. Caldwell and a short history of Providence Presbyterian Church up to 1846, his major work was newspaper journalism.
Known as the Fighting Quaker, Nathaniel Greene (1742-1786) was a famous American Revolutionary War General who fought successful campaigns against the British in North and South Carolina. Greene was the son of Quaker parents who lived in Rhode Island. Because of his strong interest in the military, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), who oppose war for religious reasons, expelled him from Meeting.
Dorothy Counts (b. 1942) was the daughter of a Johnson C. Smith University professor.
Charles Alexander (b. between 1730 - 1735? d. circa 1802) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. History has not recorded a well rounded life of Captain Charles Alexander perhaps due to the shadow cast by his more noted brother, Adam, but it is recorded he was just as staunch a citizen of his adopted county as he was a patriot. It is believed he was born between 1730-35 in Somerset County, Maryland.
Well-liked as a newspaper writer and editor, J.P. Caldwell (1853-1911) was born near Statesville. He worked at the first newspaper in Iredell County before coming to Charlotte in 1872. He bought a Statesville newspaper, the Landmark, in 1880, but is best remembered for his partnership with industrialist D.A. Tompkins. In 1892 the two men formed a new publication from what had been known as the Charlotte Chronicle. It was the forerunner of today's Charlotte Observer. For all his prestige and respect in the community, Caldwell was not a highly educated man.