Hezekiah Alexander (1728-1801) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. In 1774, Maryland native Hezekiah Alexander built a two-story stone house that remains the oldest dwelling in Mecklenburg County. The 600-acre plantation was home to Alexander, his wife Mary Sample, and their 10 children.
Richard Barry (ca. 1726-August 21, 1801) was born in 1726 in Pennsylvania. He immigrated to Mecklenburg through Maryland. Records indicate that he was a tanner and owned a business for many years. He is listed as one of Mecklenburg County's first magistrates. On February 6, 1764, he was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives from Mecklenburg County.
Henry Downs (May 5, 1728 - October 8, 1798) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. Virginian Henry Downs was trained as a surveyor. He and his wife left Virginia and moved to the Providence township in Mecklenburg. His religious ties were with the Providence Presbyterian Church, in southern Mecklenburg County, where he and his wife owned large tracts of land. He continued his surveying business, served as tax assessor and worked with some indigent people in Mecklenburg County.
John Frohock (?-1772) was a surveyor and one of the earliest residents of Mecklenburg County. As one of three Commissioners, he developed the town of Charlotte. Beginning in 1768, the Commissioners sold half-acre lots to persons willing to take up residence in the new "county town," where the court would meet quarterly.
Herbert Hill Baxter (May 31, 1894 - October 26, 1967) was the mayor of from from 1943-1949. Before becoming mayor, he served on the city council from 1935-1941. Herbert Baxter, a native of Boston, came to Mecklenburg County during World War I when he was stationed at Camp Greene. After the war he returned to Charlotte where he lived for the rest of his life. He founded the Central Lumber Company.
James Buchanan Buck Duke (1856-1925) was member of North Carolina's powerful Duke tobacco family. He was born near Durham,NC and was educated near his home and in New York.
Born on what was family farmland, William Franklin Graham (1918-2018), a Charlotte native, was known around the world as an evangelist who fervently shared the teachings of his faith.
Billy Graham was ordained in the Southern Baptist Convention in 1939. Within ten years, his ministry had grown significantly and he began traveling the world to spread his message. Millions of people have attended his gatherings, called crusades. He was a spiritual advisor to American presidents and was welcomed by heads of state around the world.
John Montgomery Belk (March 29, 1920- August 17, 2007) was the son of William Henry Belk, the founder of the Belk department stores. After graduating from Davidson College in 1943 and serving the in the United States Army, John Belk began work in the family business, becoming the chief executive officer in the 1950s and remaining in that post until 2006. He guided Belk’s transition from a loose alliance of stores into a more unified operation and its expansion into one of the largest retail chains in the South.
John Flennekin (3/7/1744 - ?) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. There are many people in this family with this name, and doing genealogical research is difficult. Family researchers say that his family came from Tryone, Ulster, Ireland about 1730 with other Scotch-Irish natives. They arrived in Philadelphia and later moved to Charlotte. His parents, James and Jean, had nine children. John married and had a son, John Oliver, who often gets confused with his father.
In an age when opportunities for women were extremely limited, Annie Lowrie Alexander made a place in history. She was the first woman in the South to practice medicine. She was born near Cornelius, N.C., the daughter of a prominent Mecklenburg citizen, Dr. John Brevard Alexander, and his wife, Ann Wall Lowrie. She graduated from the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia in 1884. She taught in Baltimore and received a medical license in 1885, having earned the highest grade in her class of 100 students.