Lockville, North Carolina

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The historic community of Lockville or Ramsey's Mill is located along the north side of the Deep River in southeastern Chatham County, North Carolina, near the modern town of Moncure. The Deep River marks the boundary between present-day Chatham and Lee County, North Carolina. Ramsey’s Mill and Lockville area were historically a part of Chatham County. Lee County was not formed until 1907. Ramsey’s Mill and Lockville are situated along a historic road of considerable antiquity. This road, not the same as modern U.S. Route 1, historically connected Fayetteville on the Cape Fear river with Pittsboro in Chatham County.

Ramsey’s Mill and Ramsey’s Tavern at Lockville were constructed in the mid to late eighteenth century. Located along a major road between Cross Creek and Pittsboro, part of a regional road system connecting the central Piedmont and Coastal Plain regions, the mill and tavern were prominent travel destinations during the late eighteenth and most of the nineteenth centuries. The sites are identified as places British Revolutionary War troops bivouacked during Cornwallis’ trek to the North Carolina coast after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. General Greene’s troops also stayed in the Ramsey’s Mill area after pursuing Cornwallis to the Deep River. This association with the American Revolution has given the mill and tavern a special place in local lore and history. The Lockville Lock, Dam and Powerhouse property is an industrial and transportation feature which occupies a prominent position on the local landscape. The canal and lock system operated from about 1856 through the remainder of the nineteenth century. The lock and canal were converted into a water-powered electrical generating power plant in about 1899, and the dam, canal (modified into a power plant turbine race) and power plant have remained prominent features on the landscape throughout the present century. Both the Lock and Dam and Ramsey’s Mill, received considerable attention in the late 1950s and 1960s when plans were being made to relocate old U.S. Highway 1 to its present location. The highway alignment crossed the Lockville canal, passed through the site of a mill (Barringer’s Roller Mill) and beside the ruins of Ramsey’s Mill. The road cut for this alignment, located north of the river, also encompassed the site of Ramsey’s Tavern, obliterating any traces of it. Concern by local historians about the impending destruction to the Ramsey’s Mill/Lockville site led to an effort to salvage materials from the mill site before it was destroyed. Some, if not all, of the mill stones were taken to the offices of the North Carolina Archives and History in Raleigh.

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