John Phifer as colleagues.  He was again a delegate to the Provincial Congress which met at Halifax, on the 12th of November, 1776, which body formed our first Constitution.  His last civil services were as Senator from Mecklenburg county, in 1797,-’98-’99 and 1800.  For many years he was a worthy and influential Elder of the Presbyterian Church at Steele Creek.  He died on the 23rd of December, 1800, aged sixty-two years.

William Kennon was an early and devoted friend of liberty.  He was an eminent lawyer, resided in Salisbury, and had a large practice in the surrounding counties.  He was one of the prominent advocates for absolute independence at the Convention in Charlotte, on the 19th and 20th of May, 1775.  He, with Mr. Willis, a brother-in-law, Adlai Osborne, and Samuel Spencer (afterward Judge Spencer), took an active part in arresting two obnoxious lawyers, John Dunn and Benjamin Booth Boote, preceding the Revolution, in giving utterance to language inimical to the cause of American independence.

They were conveyed to Charlotte for trial, and being found guilty of conduct inimical to the American cause, they were transported to Camden, S.C., and finally to Charleston, beyond the reach of their injurious influence.  Colonel Kennon was a member of the first Congress which met at Newbern on the 25th of August, 1774, in opposition to royalty, and “fresh from the people,” with Moses Winslow and Samuel Young as colleagues.  He was also a delegate to the same place in April, 1775, with Griffith Rutherford and William Sharpe as colleagues; and to the Provincial Congress at Hillsboro, in August, 1775, associated with William Sharpe, Samuel Young and James Smith.  In 1776, he was appointed commissary of the first regiment of State troops.  He was ever active and faithful in the discharge of his duties.  Soon after the Revolutionary war he moved to Georgia, where he died at a good old age.

Benjamin Patton was one of the earliest settlers in the eastern part of Mecklenburg county (now Cabarrus).  He was a man of iron firmness and of indomitable courage.  Descended from the blood of the Covenanters, he inherited their tenacity of purpose, sagacity of action and purity of character.  He was an early and devoted friend of liberty.

He was a delegate to the Provincial Congress which met at Newbern on the 25th of August, 1774.  This was the first meeting of representatives direct from the people.  The royal Governor, Josiah Martin, issued his proclamation against its assembling, as being without legal authority.  It constitutes an illustrious epoch in our colonial history, transpiring nearly two years before Congress would dare to pass a national declaration.  Although it was not a battle, or conflict of arms, yet it was the first and leading act in a great drama, in which battles and blood were the direct and inevitable consequences.  Had Governor Martin the power at that time, he would have seized every member of this “rebellious” body and tried them for treason.  In this dilemma, he summoned his ever obsequious Council for consultation, who, becoming alarmed at the “signs of the times,” declared “nothing could be done.”