Tradition informs us that Mr. Patton, not being able to procure a horse, or any conveyance, walked all the way from Charlotte to Newbern, about three hundred miles rather than not be present to vote with those determined on liberty or death.  Although then advanced in years, he showed all the enthusiasm of youth.  At the Provincial Congress which met at Hillsboro on the 21st of August, 1775, he was appointed Major of the second Continental regiment, with Robert Howe as Colonel, and Alexander Martin as Lieutenant Colonel.  Of his military record, in such high position, little is known, but we find him acting as a member of the Committee of Safety for Mecklenburg county, with very full powers, associated with John Paul Barringer and Martin Phifer.  They were a “terror unto evil doers.”  He was a man of considerable learning, of ardent temperament, and of Christian integrity.  He died near Concord, in Cabarras county, at a good old age, and is buried on the banks of Irish Buffalo Creek.  No monument marks his grave: 

     “They carved not a line, they raised not a stone. 
     But left him alone in his glory.”

John Phifer was born in Cabarrus county (when a part of Bladen) in 1745.  He was the son of Martin Phifer, a native of Switzerland, and of Margaret Blackwelder.  He raised a numerous family, who inherited the patriotic spirit of their ancestors.  The original spelling of the name was Pfeifer.  He resided on “Dutch Buffalo” Creek, at the Red Hill, known to this day as “Phifer’s Hill.”  He was the father of General Paul Phifer, grandfather of General John N. Phifer of Mississippi, and great grandfather of General Charles H. Phifer, a distinguished officer in the battle of “Shiloh,” in the late war between the States.  At the Provincial Council, held at Johnston Court House in December, 1775, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the first battalion of “Minute Men,” in the Salisbury District; General Griffith Rutherford, Colonel, and John Paisley, Major.  He was a member of the Provincial Congress which met at Hillsboro on the 21st of August, 1775, associated with Thomas Polk, Waightstill Avery, James Houston, Samuel Martin and John McKnitt Alexander; and also of the Congress which met at Halifax on the 4th of April, 1776, with Robert Irwin and John McKnitt Alexander.

By this latter body, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment commanded by Colonel Adam Alexander.  He was also a member of the Provincial Congress which met at Halifax in November, 1776, which formed our first Constitution, associated with Hezekiah Alexander, Waightstill Avery, Robert Irwin and Zaccheus Wilson, as colleagues.  He married Catharine Barringer, which latter name was originally spelled Behringer.