Nathaniel Macon, Guilford Courthouse
This monument consists of a rough granite boulder with a bronze tablet bearing the inscription. It stands approximately 5-feet tall.
Images:
Bronze tablet
NATHANIEL MACON / WILLED THAT HIS MEMORIAL SHOULD / CONSIST ONLY OF RUDE STONES. / HERE THEY ARE.
Guilford Battleground Company
July 4, 1902
36.131790 , -79.847310
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"The Battle Ground Company," Greensboro Patriot Weekly (Greensboro, NC), September 1, 1902, 1-2 Link
"The Fourth at Guilford Battle Ground," Greensboro Patriot Weekly (Greensboro, NC), July 9, 1902, 1 Link
Baker, Thomas E. and Michael H. White. The Monuments at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, North Carolina, (Greensboro, NC: Guilford Courthouse NMP, 1991)
Grimes, J. Bryan. "Why North Carolina Should Erect and Preserve Memorials and Mark Historic Places: Address Before the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, Raleigh, N.C., November 4, 1909," ([Raleigh, NC: The News and Observer, 1909]), (accessed May 18, 2012) Link
Nathaniel Macon Letters, #1246-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Link
National Park Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. North Carolina National Register of Historic Places. "Inventory Form - Guilford Courthouse National Military Park," (accessed November 6, 2019) Link
Pittman, Thomas. Nathaniel Macon, (Greensboro, NC: Guilford Battle Ground Company, 1902), (accessed February 6, 2012) Link
Van Noppen, Addie. The Battle Field of Guilford Court House, (Greensboro, NC: Jos. J. Stone & Company, 1927), (accessed February 6, 2012) Link
Wilson, Clyde. 1991. “Macon, Nathaniel,” NCPedia.org, (accessed February 26, 2018) Link
“Nathaniel Macon,” Henderson Gold Leaf (Henderson, NC), July 10, 1902
“Nathaniel Macon,” The Historical Marker Database, HMdb.org, (accessed February 26, 2018) Link
“To Rear a Cenotaph to Macon,” The North Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), May 20, 1902
“To the Memory of Nathaniel Macon,” The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, NC), July 8, 1902
Yes
Granite and bronze
Judge David Schenck
Two monuments were dedicated on the same day, one to Macon and the other to Kerenhappuch Turner. The day’s featured oration was by Thomas M. Pitman on the life of North Carolina patriot and statesman Nathaniel Macon. G.S. Bradshaw gave a speech on Turner. U.S. Representative and later NC Governor W.W. Kitchin arrived late for the dedication but gave a speech during a dinner held later in the evening
Macon's wish was that no grief be expressed at his funeral. He requested that dinner and grog be served, that each friend cast a stone on his grave and that any memorial to him consisted only of “rude stones.”
Nathaniel Macon's graveside and memorial marker (dedicated in 1923) are located at Buck Spring Plantation Park, 193 Plantation Dr., Littleton, NC 27850.
[Additional information from NCpedia editors at the State Library of North Carolina: This person enslaved and owned other people. Many Black and African people, their descendants, and some others were enslaved in the United States until the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in 1865. It was common for wealthy landowners, entrepreneurs, politicians, institutions, and others to enslave people and use enslaved labor during this period. To read more about the enslavement and transportation of African people to North Carolina, visit https://aahc.nc.gov/programs/africa-carolina-0. To read more about slavery and its history in North Carolina, visit https://www.ncpedia.org/slavery. - Government and Heritage Library, 2023.]
Marker is in Guilford Courthouse National Military Park on the Monument Row walking trail, just north of the Visitor Center in Greensboro, NC.
The memorial is surrounded by mature trees of the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.
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