Micajah “Cage” Durham (1804-1864)

Micajah “Cage” Durham

Birth

1804

Death

1864 (aged 59–60)

Burial

Sunset Cemetery

Shelby, Cleveland County, North Carolina, USA Add to Map

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Bio:
(From History of Old Tryon and Rutherford Counties North Carolina, 1730-1946, by Clarence W. Griffin):
“Micajah Durham was always largely engaged in and with public interests, although never personally interested in public office. It is said of him that he lived fifty years ahead of his time. He built churches and school houses, employed the teachers and supported the preachers, very largely at his own expense. Without formal education he was a great collector and reader of books and possessor of scientific instruments beyond the custom of the community and his time.
He was a confirmed advocate of States' Rights and it is said that he made the first secession speech on the steps of the Capitol in Raleigh, being denied the right to make it inside the house.
He enlisted as a private in Company E, 18th North Carolina Regiment in 1862, although above military age, and was killed in battle.

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GBK - [email protected]

Inscription

"Micajah Durham, 1804-1864, son of Charles Alexander Durham and Patience Davis. A Leader of His People in Thought and Deed; Advocate of States' Rights; Member of the North Carolina Secession Convention May 1861 to May 1862. Following four sons, tho' far over the military age, he enlisted as a private soldier in Lane's Brigade of the Confederate Army Sept. 7, 1862 and was killed in action and buried in a nameless grave at the Battle of the Wilderness May 6, 1864. A reader of books; lover of things of the Spirit; he rode horseback from Rutherford County, North Carolina, to New York City and again to Charleston to hear Jenny Lind sing." Micajah Durham was a brother of Berryman Hicks Durham.