Alexander family papers

Hezekiah Alexander was born around 1728 in Cecil county, Maryland to James and Margaret McKnitt Alexander. He learned the blacksmith trade in his early years and moved to Cumberland county, Pennsylvania as a young man, where he married his wife, Mary Sample, in 1752. Hezekiah and his wife fled Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War and by 1764 had settled near the Catawba River in the Piedmont of North Carolina.

Alexander quickly rose to prominence in the newly created Mecklenburg county, where Gov. Tryon appointed him county magistrate in 1768 and he served as an elder at Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church. He also played a part in the creation of Queens College in 1771, the first college chartered south of Virginia. As tensions with Britain heated up, Alexander joined Meckleburg's Committee of Public Safety and took part in the adoption of the Mecklenburg Resolves, which declared all British laws null and void. During the Revolutionary War, Alexander served on the local Committee of Safety and Council and helped raise and finance the Patriot forces. He also helped determine civilian and military policy in the province. Hezekiah attended the Halifax congress in 1776 and played a major role in drafting the North Carolina Constitution and Bill of Rights.

After the war, Alexander continued to farm at his plantation and served as county magistrate until 1794. He died on July 16, 1801 and was buried in the Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church cemetery.

Source: https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/alexander-hezekiah