From the Salisbury Post: Sons of American Revolution to mark graves at Thyatira
SALISBURY — The Sons of the American Revolution will conduct grave markings Saturday in Rowan County and Charlotte.
The group will mark three graves at 10 a.m. in the cemetery at Thyatira Presbyterian Church, 220 White Road in Mount Ulla.
To be marked are the final resting places of Matthew Locke, Col. Francis Locke and Maj. John Locke.
Matthew Locke came to Rowan County in 1752 and served on the Committee of Safety and in the Provincial Congress before the Revolutionary War. During the war, he was a brigadier general of the militia forces for the Salisbury District. After America won its independence, he served in the state legislature and Congress. He had four sons who were soldiers in the Revolutionary War.
Francis Locke, a nephew of Matthew Locke, was appointed colonel of the First Rowan Regiment by the Provincial Congress in April 1776. He is remembered for a battle in June 1780 in which he and 400 men from Rowan and Mecklenburg counties defeated the Tories at Ramseur’s Mill in Lincoln County.
Maj. John Locke was a son of Matthew Locke and a militia soldier.
After the ceremony at Thyatira, the group will travel to Charlotte, where its members will mark the grave of Lt. George Locke of Rowan County. He was killed in September 1780 by the British in a skirmish at Kennedy’s Farm, which was then near Charlotte. He was buried near where he fell.
