01/12/2024
By LANE DYER, Columnist - The Wilkes Record
If you are familiar with the local history of the American Revolution, then you will have heard of the Cleveland brothers, Colonel Benjamin Cleveland and Captain Robert Cleveland. Two big men who were larger than life in every way. They are heroes in every sense of the word.
The Clevelands led militiamen from what is now Wilkes County to fight on the frontier, across the mountains, against the Native American tribes being displaced by European settlers. They were also Patriots who fought throughout the Revolutionary War against British forces, including the colonials who sided with Britain, known as Loyalists or Tories. And, in their greatest moment, they fought heroically at the Battle of Kings Mountain, the American victory that President Thomas Jefferson called the turning point of the Revolutionary War. It was during this battle that the independence-minded Patriots finally stopped losing battles and began to win, in their years long struggle against the British and their Loyalist allies.
Many of us with roots in Wilkes County are descended from the Clevelands, especially Robert who stayed here after the war ended and had at least 15 children (sources differ, with some reporting 16 or 17 children) He’s my own 5th great-grandfather. Captain Cleveland died in 1812, and he is buried in a small family cemetery right next to the long, winding Parsonsville Road in Purlear.
Benjamin Cleveland, his more famous brother, commanded the local militia and served in the North Carolina legislature as a Representative and Senator. He left Wilkes County after the war ended, settling along the Tugaloo River on the South Carolina-Georgia border. His two sons, and two other Cleveland brothers also moved there.
Captain Robert Cleveland did not leave and is much better remembered in Wilkes County. After the American Revolution, he spent the rest of his life here, raising a large family, farming, and some sources say, distilling fine corn liquor. He served as a presidential elector for Thomas Jefferson in 1800. Cleveland’s log home, built in 1779, and a marvel of construction at the time, still stands today. It is considered to be the oldest dwelling in Wilkes County.
In 1986, this cabin was moved from Purlear to the Wilkes Heritage Museum campus in Wilkesboro and has been fully restored. Nowadays, it can be toured by museum visitors and provides a window into what everyday life was like in Wilkes County over two hundred years ago.
Captain Cleveland’s grave is well maintained, bordered by an old but still stout wrought iron fence. There are about a dozen marked graves inside the fence. Over the years, I must have ridden past this cemetery a hundred times without ever noticing it, or realizing who was buried there. It’s no tourist attraction and there is no parking area. There is just enough room to pull a car off on the shoulder of the road.
On the day we visited, my brothers, Jim, Les, and I did just that, parking along the deserted road for a few minutes, while we walked over to view the small graveyard. Looking at Robert Cleveland’s headstone, I was struck by how little we all know about him and his brother today, and what a shame that is, given all they did to free Wilkes County, and North Carolina, from tyranny.
I don’t recall learning much about the great revolutionary conflict that birthed our nation in school. I’m sure we were assigned some chapter to read with the details but, if so, it made no lasting impression on me. Besides, that’s no way to teach our living history. History is brought to life through storytelling. The 1770s and early 1780s was a time of great turmoil, with enemies who ambushed each other, shot each other dead in gunfights, set houses afire, and even hanged the men who opposed them. It was a brutal, dangerous, and violent time, but it was necessary if a new nation was to be created. Passion is required for the telling of this history.
I’m attempting to add some of that passion in my book about Wilkes County and the Cleveland brothers during the American Revolution. When I began, I had little idea of what this would entail. I knew so little of our history that I was basically starting from scratch. Now, after months of research, I have a deep appreciation of the role our forefathers played in that revolutionary struggle, these men who gave everything they had to give, in order to bring America into being.
The Tory Oak, which tells the story of the Cleveland brothers during the American Revolution, is currently being published here in The Wilkes Record in serial format, one chapter a week. In the spring of 2024, the book will be available on Amazon, in the Wilkes Heritage Museum Gift Shop, and at the Wilkes County Public Library.
Lane Dyer, an award-winning novelist and journalist, who wrote The Notorious Outlaw Lige Church and The Fort Hamby Gang, became a contributing columnist for The Wilkes Record in 2022. Topics for his weekly columns range from stories of his youth to Wilkes County history to observations on modern life. These columns are collected in Reflections From Wilkes County, Volume I, and Volume II (forthcoming). In 2023, he also edited and released a new, annotated, and unabridged edition of Historical Sketches of Wilkes County, a book of early Wilkes County history originally published in 1902 by Wilkes County newspaperman John Crouch. Dyer grew up in Wilkes County in the 1960’s and 1970’s. After graduating from West Wilkes High School, he completed a four-year tour in the U.S. Air Force. Following his military service, he returned home and received his degree from Appalachian State University. Afterwards, Dyer spent over thirty years in public service, overseeing state and federal programs that aid veterans and other North Carolinians in finding employment. His books are all available at the Wilkes Heritage Museum, on Amazon, and at the Wilkes County Public Library.
