Author: Bob Ervin
When John was about twelve years old his father sold the original plantation in Iredell County and purchased a larger one, more suited to the growing family, along the waters of Paw Creek in Mecklenburg County. Here is where he grew to manhood and, in 1773, shortly after reaching majority, received a grant of 216 acres in his own name on Paw Creek. This land lay "joining and between Adam Carruth's and George Cathey's lands".

There is no question about the shrewdness of the father and little things seem to indicate that while John's brothers may have been brought up to some manual labor as well as supervision of the plantation labor John seems to have been trained more along the lines of business management. He seem to have been the companion of his father and the intellectual leader of his brothers.

In 1774 he purchased a block of land in that part of Tryon County which was later to become Lincoln County. It was purchased from John Sloan, Jr., and the witnesses were William Cupples, the husband of E-& Ann Carruth and James Aston, the son of Alexander Aston who died back in Pennsylvania and for whom E-1 Walter had been an executor. Here John evidently established his home on Indian Creek and it was probably near this time that he married.
His wife was of the same Scotch-Irish stock. Her grandparents, John and Ann Cathey had settled in Paxtang Township, Penn., where John died in 1742. HIs son George joined the migration to North Carolina and eventually settled on a plantation in the Paw Creek neighborhood of the Carruths and Grahams. One of Elizabeth's sisters, Frances (Fannie) Cathey, married George Graham, the son of Mrs. Mary and brother of Gen. Joseph Graham. John Carruth and George Graham were to become close friends and their children, George Carruth and Polly Graham in the course of time married.

When the news of the battle of Lexington reached Charlotte the 19th of May 1775, one month after the battle, it arrived while a convention was in session. When the messenger reached the court house the people surrounded him and listened with amazement to the news that the British troops had fired upon a group of Americans killing more than a score. That thereupon the Minute Men had responded and forced the British troops to beat a precipitous retreat. The news had a double effect on the delegates. The sacrifice of the patriots incited their sympathy and the rout of the British encourage them to make a bold stroke for liberty.
A committee immediately went into session and prepared the famous Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence which was approved by the delegates at 2 o'clock in the morning of May 20th. Capt. James Jack was deputized to carry it to Philadelphia. When he reached Salisbury he was induced to permit the Declaration to be read there, in court which was in session. There it met with the approval of all except two lawyers, Dunn and Booth, who denounced it as treason and endeavored to prevent Capt. Jack's trip to Philadelphia. George Graham and John Carruth were among the dozen men who arrested the lawyers and took them to Charlotte for punishment.

John does not again appear in the public records of the war until on 12 Feb. 1779 he was one of a group of captains which were commissioned. Then, following the fight at Cowan's ford on the Catawba, 1 Feb. 1781, and the occupation of Salisbury by the British the Colonials attempted to reassemble a force under the command of Gen. Andrew Pickens of South Carolina. Historians have inferred that because the general was from South Carolina that these were South Carolina troops but actually they were simply Davidson's brigade of militia from Mecklenburg and Rowan. The infantry of this brigade was under the command of Colonel Locke of Rowan and Maj. John Carruth of Lincoln, Gen. Davidson having been killed at Cowan's ford.

In 1779 Tryon County was abolished and two new counties, Lincoln and Rutherford, were organized from its territory. In the establishment of Lincoln County the General Assembly appointed John Carruth as one of the Commissioners, the Town of Lincolnton was established to be of the county seat and by 1784 the court house, prison and stocks had been erected. John with the other Commissioners were continued as "Town Trustees and Directors". While the Town of Lincolnton was being established John's father passed away in 1782 and his will is one of the earliest Lincoln County documents in the court house at Lincolnton. John early used the new courts. The Apr. Sessions, 1784, list an action by John vs. Edw. Cornwall and Jno. Sloan.

John still retained his property on Paw Creek between the old Carruth and Cathey plantations but in 1785 he disposed of the lands on Indian Creek in Lincoln County. The Buffalo Creek area in Lincoln (now Cleveland) County was being opened up and John commenced accumulating rich lands in that section along Buffalo Creek and its tributary waters. In all, records have been found of grants to him of 3,661 acres in this area but these grants are distributed over the years and many were promptly resold. Nevertheless he did accumulate a great plantation which, together with his children's holdings, extended down Buffalo Creek well into present day Cherokee County, S.C. His plantation house, the location of which is shown on a map from "The first Actual Survey of the State of North Carolina", (1808) was on a bend of Buffalo Creek in present Cleveland County near where route 74 crosses the creek about five miles east of Shelby.
In 1798 his daughter Elizabeth married the sheriff of Lincoln County, Maj. Lawson Henderson, and from that union John was to become the grandfather of a future governor and leader of the new state of Texas, James Pinckney Henderson.

On June 8, 1828, at the ripe age of 78 years, John passed away. He was buried in the Buffalo Baptist Church cemetery in Cherokee County, S.C., near the graves of his wife and son Adam who had predeceased him. With the exception of the age on Adam's stone all three stones were in good shape in 1947 and a little cleaning cleared up Adam's. John's stone carries the title of Colonel but no authentic reason for this has been found as yet.

His will and administration papers are on file at the York County Registry of Probate. Probably the most interesting portion of these papers to modern readers was the list and values of the slaves given in the inventory.
1 Negrow Man Tom and Sarah his wife 250.--
2 Negrow Men Surray and Robertson 900.--
1 Negrow Man Phillip a blacksmith 650.--
1 Negro Boy Abraham 400.--
1 Negrow Woman Hannah and 3 childring 700.--
1 Negrow Woman Matildy and 3 Childring 700.--
1 Negrow Woman Darcas and 2 Childring 400.--
3 Megrows viz Charles, Silvy and Viney 725.--

Of these slaves, four, all children of Darcas, namely Charles, Sylvia, Viney and Moses were willed to George Carruth, in Trust for John's grandson, Rufus K. Carruth (son of Adam, dec'd) and were to be delivered, with their increase, to Rufus when he arrived at the age of twenty-one. The balance of the slaves went to John