Waightstill Avery
Morganton, Burke County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Waightstill Avery. First attorney general of North Carolina, 1777-79, member provincial congresses, colonel in Revolution. "Swan Ponds," his home, was 3 mi. S.W.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Waightstill Avery served as North Carolina's first attorney general from 1777 to 1779 and sat in the provincial congresses that steered the colony toward independence, also taking the field as a colonel during the Revolution. His home, "Swan Ponds," stood a few miles southwest of present-day Morganton in the Catawba Valley frontier.
Why it matters
Avery helped build the legal and governing framework of a brand-new state at the very moment America was inventing itself out of thirteen former colonies.
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