After the speaking was over on Centennial night, the Mayor (Colonel Johnston) ascended the stand, and congratulated the large audience upon the excellent order and good feeling which had prevailed from the beginning to the end of the exercises.  He thanked those present for their attendance and participation in the honors and festivities of the occasion.

Then commenced the pyrotechnical display which had been witnessed to some extent during the intervals of the addresses.  The “rocket’s red glare,” without the “bombs bursting in air,” gave proof on that night our people were there.  The streets, and the houses in the vicinity were never before so handsomely illuminated, and a brilliant and appropriate closing scene of “the day we celebrate” conspicuously displayed on a broad waving banner.  Hundreds of the descendants of the patriots of Mecklenburg, and surrounding country, were present, as well as a goodly number of descendants of kindred spirits from the Cape Fear region, whose ancestors proved themselves “rebels” by stamping underfoot the stamp paper intended for the use of the Colony—­an act “worthy of all Roman, or Grecian fame.”  The celebration of the 20th of May, 1875, was a grand success—­such a celebration as has never before occurred in the history of North Carolina, and will never again be witnessed by the present generation.  May the Centennial of the 20th of May, 1975, be still more successful, pass off with the same degree of order and good feeling, and be attended with all the blessings of enlightened civil and religious liberty!

JAMES BELK—­A VETERAN INVITED GUEST.

Among the honored invited guests of the Mecklenburg Centennial, on the 20th of May, 1775, was James Belk, of Union county (formerly a part of Mecklenburg), now upwards of one hundred and ten years old!  As recorded in a family Bible, printed in Edinburg in 1720, he was born on the 4th of February, 1765.  He still resides on the same tract of land upon which he was born and raised, his father being one of the original settlers of the country.  He is a man of fine intelligence; acted for many years as one of the magistrates of Mecklenburg county, and is still well preserved in mind and body.  He recollects the death of his father, who was mortally wounded in the Revolutionary war, near the North Carolina line, and knows that his mother, fearing the mournful result, visited the place of conflict, and found him, severely wounded, in the woods near the road-side.  She assisted him to their home, but soon afterward had him transferred to the residence of his grandfather for better attention, where he died.

He remembers distinctly the great meeting in Charlotte (then upwards of ten years old) on the 20th of May, 1775, when a Declaration of Independence was read by Colonel Polk, and heard his father speak of it, in presence of the family, after his return from Charlotte.  His mother seemed to be greatly disturbed, supposing it would bring on war.  Although then but a youth of tender years, the scene and the declaration made an indelible impression upon his memory.  He says his recollection of events of that period, and a few years subsequently, is more vivid and distinct than those which transpired thirty years ago.