Gilbert Town Historic District

Gilbert Town is a historic district of about 459.5 acres northeast of Rutherfordton, North Carolina, now mostly farmland and woodland along Cathey's Creek. William Gilbert acquired land here from 1772 and ran a public house, store and blacksmith shop that made the settlement a stopping point on the frontier road to upland South Carolina. Gilbert held county and assembly offices and was buried in the Gilbert Cemetery in 1790. From 1781 to 1783 his house served as the Rutherford County courthouse. During the Revolutionary War the settlement was used by Patriot and Loyalist forces, and in September 1780 Major Patrick Ferguson camped there with about 1,000 troops before the Overmountain Men gathered against him. Gilbert Town was then used to hold prisoners and to care for wounded Patriot soldiers. A 2004 archaeological survey recovered musket balls, sword fragments and eighteenth-century nails and pottery from eight loci, although no eighteenth-century buildings remain standing.