Hezekiah Alexander, an Early Statesman

Of Scotch-Irish ancestry, Hezekiah Alexander's family had immigrated to Maryland prior to 1670. His father was a tanner, who became a magistrate and an elder in the Presbyterian church. Alexander learned the trade of a blacksmith and moved to Cumberland (now Franklin) County on the Pennsylvania frontier. He married Mary Sample in 1752.

When the French and Indian War broke out, their property became a dangerous place to be and threatened by severe Indian attacks, so they moved to Piedmont North Carolina, where some of Hezekiah's relatives had already moved. There he rose to prominence, becoming a magistrate, an elder of Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church, and was instrumental in forming Queen's College, the first college chartered south of Virginia and the only school for training Presbyterian ministers south of New Jersey. Hezekiah's involvements and accomplishments during the Revolutionary War are too numerous to mention here, and could be material for a blog of its own. 

He built a stone house that would have been considered a mansion in its day in Mecklenburg County. He spent his last years with his family. He had seven sons and three daughters. He died in 1794 and was buried in the cemetery at Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church. You can tour his home, one of the earliest ones in the area, now located in Charlotte.

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