Wayne County, NC - Heritage Series

Reprinted with permission of the Mount Olive Tribune and cannot be 
reproduced without permission. 
Transcribed by Barbara Kawamoto.

                   Did Mary Slocumb Make the Ride?

"Our Heritage"
By Claude Moore

   Mr. Moore, did Mary Slocumb really make the ride from Mount Olive to 
Moore’s Creek Bridge on the night of February 26, 1776?  As an historian, I 
have to reply, "It is an interesting story, and I do believe that she made 
a famous ride during the American Revolution, but it may have been to the
Battle of Rockfish near Wallace in August 1781, rather than to the Battle of
Moore’s Creek Bridge on February 27, 1776."  Here in Eastern North Carolina,
we have heard the tradition all of our lives, and even though I was young 
in 1925, I do remember when the remains of Ezekiel and Mary Slocumb were 
moved from the plantation family cemetery, one mile north of Mount Olive, 
and were re-interred at Moore’s Creek Battleground.  All the old families of
Wayne were familiar with the tradition of the heroic ride.

   The late Judge Henry A. Grady of Clinton, an authority on local history, 
believed that she made the ride.  During the bicentennial of the American 
Revolution, we were depicting this one claim that Mount Olive had to 
Revolutionary fame when the question was raised whether or not we had 
documentary evidence that Mary Slocumb made the ride.  Judge Grady’s poem, 
"Mary Slocumb’s Ride" was published in The Tribune on February 17, 1976.  On
February 27, 1976, we had a program on the Campus at Mount Olive College 
commemorating the ride, which was televised and was shown on Channel 7.  
Several Mary Slocumb’s descendants were present for the occasion.

   Who was Mary Slocumb?  She was born on February 10, 1760, in Bertie 
County, and was the daughter of Thomas Hooks.  When she was very young, her 
parents moved to Duplin County, and settled on a plantation six miles east 
of Faison.  She married Ezekiel Slocumb of Wayne County, who was born in 
1760.  She died at the age of 76 on March 6, 1836.  Mary Slocumb had the
following brothers and sisters:  William, Thomas, Hillary, David, Charles, 
Susannah, Fannie (Watkins) and Leonia.  The Honorable Charles Hooks was a 
member of the new Congress. Ezekiel and Mary Slocumb’s oldest son, Jesse, 
was also a member of Congress.

   What about the "alleged" ride?  Mrs. Elizabeth Ellet, wrote a book around
1848, entitled "Women of The American Revolution," in which she published 
for the first time the story of the ride. Mrs. Ellet stated that she had 
Mary Slocumb’s own version of her ride and of the Battle of Moore’s Creek 
Bridge.  In the narrative, Mrs. Slocumb is quoted as saying that her husband
had left home with the Militia, and two nights later she had a vision that 
she saw her husband wounded on a battlefield.  She arose, had the horse 
saddled and rode down the Wilmington Road until she heard guns firing.  The
Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge was over and her husband was not wounded, but
his friend, Frank Cogdell was wounded, and was lying in the same spot she 
had seen in her vision. She helped to nurse the wounded and returned to her 
home.  In 1851, John H. Wheeler published a "History of North Carolina," in
which he quoted Mrs. Ellet’s story.

   If the date of Ezekiel Slocumb’s birth is correct on his gravestone, he 
would have been too young at 16 to serve in The Militia in 1776.  I do 
believe that Mary Slocumb was interviewed by someone in her old age and that
her memory was not clear and that she was talking about the Battle of 
Moore’s Creek Bridge when she really meant the Battle of Rockfish, which was
fought five years later.

   Just the same, during the Wayne County Bicentennial, we want to remember
the names of Ezekiel and Mary Slocumb whether she made the ride or not. They
represent the fine spirit of patriotism, which made American Independence
possible.     

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Barbara Kawamoto <bakawamoto@earthlink.net>

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