THE WEDDING OF 1761will be held on Saturday, June 2nd, 2012

Folding Wedding Invitation
1722 Form of Marriage taken from Book of Common Order
Wedding Details

FREE EVENT (donations appreciated)
WHEN: 11:00
WHERE: Historic Rural Hill

After moving into Mecklenburg County with his sister Mary, John Davidson "settled on the east side of the Catawba River in the present Hopewell Church section."1 Here he established himself as a blacksmith "On the Catawba River, some four miles northwest of Hopewell, was the plantation of Samuel Wilson, Sr. (1711-1778). He was an Englishman of good family connections "at home" and is believed to have been a son of Major Wilson of Leeds and a brother of the distinguished artist, Benjamin Wilson. Samuel Wilson appears to have been one of the earliest and best established of the settlers on the river."1 On June 2, 1761, John Davidson married Violet Wilson, Samuel Wilson’s second daughter. She was nineteen and he was twenty-six. It is said that John’s lack of wealth at that time was made up by his strong work ethic which, according to legend, led him to iron a set of wagon wheels on the morning of his wedding day. "John was put in comparatively easy circumstances when his father-in-law gave him a fine tract of land…. A two-room cabin of heart pine logs was the first home of Mr. and Mrs. John Davidson. In time, the log house grew to an eight-room dwelling, clapboarded without and sealed within. This place was known then or sometime later as "Rural Retreat" and was a hundred yards or so north of the site of the future brick homestead to be called "Rural Hill"11Chalmers-Gaston Davidson, PH.D, Major John Davidson of "Rural Hill" Mecklenburg County, N.C. (Charlotte, N.C. 1943), 5-9

The Wedding of 1761" a Historic Rural Hill community history event, will be held on June 2, 2012 at 11:00. This unique experience will portray the 1761 wedding of John Davidson to his bride, Violet Wilson. Come and see the unique traditions of the time, some of which have been passed down to present day! After the "wedding" there will be a community celebration of colonial proportions featuring music, bowl carving, blacksmithing, and presentations of hearth cooking, pre - revolution militiamen, animal feeding, and much more!

For further information about this and other community history events please contact Rural Hill’s director of education, Zac Vinson, at zac@ruralhill.net.