The militiamen of the frontier settlements of North and South Carolina were a unique group, historians say.
“A piece of white paper pinned to his hunting cap was his uniform,” said one historian in the History of Western North Carolina by John Preston Arthur and updated by Jeffrey C. Weaver. “A wallet of parched flour or a sack of meal was his commissariat; a tin cup, a frying pan and a pair of saddlebags, his only impedimenta; his domestic rifle, a Deckard or a Kutter, and sometimes a sword, made in his own blacksmith shop, constituted his martial weapons; a horse capable of long subsisting on nature’s bounty was his means of rapid mobilization or ‘hasty change of base;’ a sense of manly duty performed, his quarter’s pay.”
Matthew Maybin, one of the first settlers into what is today Henderson County, was one of these militiamen.
Maybin was purchasing land in what is today Henderson County in 1784. His land purchases, all east of the Continental Divide, predate any land purchases of William Mills.
Maybin was the first settler into the Green River community.
The ancestor of the large Maybin clan in the Green River community was born in 1756 in Northern Ireland. He left Belfast on Oct. 16, 1772, on the ship Pennsylvania Farmer. This was a Scots family who had moved to Northern Ireland after the conquest of Ireland by the English.
He arrived in Charleston, S.C., on Dec. 19, 1772.
Maybin first obtained land along the Broad River in South Carolina. When the Revolutionary War began, he fought with Patriot forces in at least five battles.
Maybin joined the Patriot cause in 1775 in the Ninety-Six District of South Carolina under Capt. Thomas Gordon. In 1776, he again volunteered with Col. Lisle’s Regiment to “guard the frontier from the depredations of Cherokee Indians.” The Cherokee fought with the British during the Revolution and mounted attacks against pioneer settlers. Maybin fought through 1777 and in the spring of 1778 was with troops in Georgia.
The winter of 1779-80 found Maybin at Col. John Earle’s station on the North Pacolet River where he remained leading scouting expeditions until 1782. This site was on today’s Spartanburg County, S.C., and Polk County, N.C., line along the Pacolet River. The North Pacolet River flows from the Mountain Page community of Henderson County, through Polk County and into Spartanburg County, S.C.
In the fall of 1782, Maybin moved his family from the Newberry District of South Carolina to Earle’s Station and continued to fight with the Patriots until his discharge. This site was described at the time as being in Rutherford County. Its location today, along the Pacolet, was either today’s Polk County, N.C., or the extreme upper section of Spartanburg County, S.C., that borders Polk County along the Pacolet River.
According to Maybin’s pension application, he lived seven or eight years on the Pacolet, then moved to land along the Green River in 1787. This move was into today’s Green River community.
It is a documented fact that Matthew Maybin had purchased land in what is today Henderson County before he actually moved his family from the Pacolet River area in 1787.
On Aug. 25, 1784, Matthew Maybin entered the first of hundreds of acres of land that he eventually purchased. This purchase was on both sides of the Green River near John Earle’s upper line. John Earle purchased land on Cabin Creek in the Green River community in 1783.
On Feb. 6, 1789, Matthew Maybin and Andrew Miller entered land on the “North Pacolet River above Mine Mountain, including the head branches of the Pacolet River near the dividing ridge between the Pacolet River and Green River.” This land is located in today’s Mountain Page community within Henderson County and in the traditional Green River community.
On July 20, 1791, Matthew Maybin and Andrew Miller entered land on the “north side of Green River, bordering Col. Day and Miller’s land.” Maybin later purchased Miller’s part of this land.
On April 26, 1794, Matthew Maybin and David Miller entered land on a “branch of Green River under Bluff Mountain.” Another entry is for land on “both sides of the North Pacolet River near Ezekiel Pott’s line.”
There are numerous other land deeds recorded in Rutherford County recording land purchased and/or sold by Matthew Maybin in what is now Henderson County.
At one time Maybin owned land from Mine Mountain in the Mountain Page community, the headwaters of the North Pacolet River above today’s Lake Hosea in the Mountain Page community, along both sides of the Green River in the Green River community, along Cabin Creek in the Green River community, on Rock Creek in the Green River community, land in what is today the Greenville Watershed in South Carolina between the communities of Mountain Page and Green River, and land almost to what is now considered the Flat Rock community.
He sold much of this land, but kept hundreds, if not thousands, of acres in the Green River community along today’s Green River Road, Rock Creek Road and Cabin Creek Road.
Matthew Maybin died in 1845. His wife, Ann Murphey Maybin, died in 1843. Their graves are located in a cemetery with only unmarked field stones. The cemetery is located within a field nursery off Green River Road.
The Maybin family and the Daughters of the American Revolution erected monuments to Maybin and his family. The names of his 12 children are listed. Several of these children and grandchildren are most likely buried in the old cemetery.
One of his descendants, Jane, married a descendant of another Revolutionary War soldier, William Capps.
It is known that Jesse Lee Maybin, who served with the 64th N.C. Regiment in the Civil War, is buried in the cemetery. He enlisted in the 64th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. B, in July 1862. He was present through June 1863. There are no further military records. He died in 1872.
There were two other men with the surname of Maybin who served in the Confederate Army from Henderson County. Neither of their grave sites is known.
For several years descendant Theron Maybin attempted to maintain the cemetery by himself.
Sawbriars, sumac, wild cherry and poison ivy grow rapidly in the cemetery and make walking through the area difficult. The plot measures about 40-by-25 feet.
Crawling through briars, the cemetery survey team, who published the book “Henderson County, North Carolina Cemeteries,” counted 12 field stones. When Theron Maybin cleared the area later and counted about 22 stones. Volunteers with the Henderson County Cemetery Advisory Board again crawled through the briars that had re-appeared in just a couple of years and counted 31 field stones. The correct number is unknown.
The most recent cleanup was conducted by members of Girl Scout Troop 444 in Fletcher. They raked dirt and pulled up weeds.
The girls said they appreciated the sense of history associated with the Maybin cemetery.
“Matthew Maybin is a really historical person,” one girl said. “He’s very important to our history. That’s why it’s important to get this cemetery cleaned up.”
The outing was a good way for the girls to do something fun and give back to the community at the same time, added troop leader Andrea Hummert.
As part of the cleanup, the troop placed a park bench in the cemetery for people to have a place to sit when they come to visit. The girls also hung a birdhouse in a nearby tree.
Theron Maybin said he appreciated the hard work of the girls in helping to restore and preserve the cemetery.
Due to the location of the cemetery and the rapid growth of briars, sumac and saplings, this cemetery disappears quickly. Regular maintenance on the cemetery is not conducted.
The cemetery is on the property of Marshall Beddingfield and is on the county’s GIS cemetery layer.