A Simple Man
John Reed (Johannes Reith) was a Hessian soldier who left the British army near the conclusion of the Revolutionary War and came to settle near fellow Germans living in the lower Piedmont of North Carolina. Most of the people dwelt on modest family-run farms in rural areas, where they raised small grain crops such as corn and wheat.

The life of farmer John Reed would have been long forgotten had it not been for a chance event one Sunday in 1799. On that day, Reed's son Conrad found a large yellow rock in Little Meadow Creek on the Reed farm in Cabarrus County. This rock reportedly weighed 17 pounds and for three years was used as a doorstop at the Reed house.

In 1802 a Fayetteville jeweler identified the gold nugget. He purchased it for the asked price of $3.50-one-tenth of one percent of its true value.

The following year John Reed began the Reed mining operation by forming a partnership with three local men. The partners supplied equipment and workers to dig for gold in the creek bed, while Reed provided the land. The returns were to be divided equally. The men mined mainly in the off-season from farming, giving first priority to raising their crops. Before the end of the first year, a slave named Peter had unearthed a 28-pound nugget. Using only pans and rockers to wash the creek gravel, the part-time miners recovered an estimated yield of one hundred thousand dollars by 1824.

The Fever Spreads
Hearing of Reed's good fortune, other Piedmont farmers began exploring their creeks and finding gold. Men and women, both young and old, worked in the gold fields. Foreigners joined them, including the skilled Cornishmen from England.

"Placer," or creek, gold mining led to underground mining when it was learned in 1825 that the metal also existed in veins of white quartz rock. The search for underground or "lode" gold required much more money, labor, and machinery. Underground work at Reed was not begun until 1831. Four years later a family squabble resulted in a court injunction that closed the mine for a decade.

John Reed was a wealthy man when he died in 1845. Soon the Reed mine was sold at public auction. The mine changed hands many times through the years until 1912, when the last underground work took place there. Placer miners found the last large nugget at Reed in 1896. The yield of the mine in large nuggets alone ultimately totaled more than one hundred pounds.

Some of the fascinating features include a Confederate display, a quilting room, a World War I room, and a sewing room, all filled with artifacts from a time long departed.

 
The Eastern Cabarrus Historical Society Museum is housed in the main building of the former Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute. This institution, in several different forms, existed from the mid-1850s until 1933. In fact, the college was here before the town of Mount Pleasant incorporated

Civil War History
The citizens of Cabarrus County organized Company H of the Eighth Regiment, which was comprised of North Carolina State Troops. The Regiment was organized at Camp Macon, near Warrenton, North Carolina, in August 1861.

Colonel Robert Ransom mustered the Eighth Regiment in September 1861. Company H participated in many conflicts along the Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina coasts from September 13, 1861 to April 17, 1864. On April 17th, the company fought in a battle at Plymouth. The company suffered 15 casualties, three were killed, two mortally wounded and the others severely wounded. From April 20, 1864 to May 16, 1864, the regiment fought in battles up and down the North Carolina and Virginia coasts.

On June 3, 1864, the company fought in a battle at Cold Harbor. Here, Lieutenant Colonel Murchison, commander of the Eighth Regiment, was killed and Major R.A. Barrier of company H was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and commanded to the end of the war. Barrier led the regiment through many battles until April 26, 1865 when the army surrendered.

On May 2, 1865, the regiment was paroled and they returned to their respective homes. The Eighth Regiment fought 3 years and 8 months. Over 1,300 enlisted and at the end, there were 150 present. They were under fire 200 times.