WHEN A HOME FEELS LIKE A JAIL--Houses, continued--Uncle Henry Dellinger's house Doubles as a Gaol

When Tryon County was divided the Tryon Courthouse fell in Lincoln county, but too near its western border for public convenience. The courts for part of the years 1783 and 1784 were held at the house of Capt. Nicholas Friday. His residence stood on the east side of the river, seven miles south of Lincolnton. The courts of July and October sessions, 1784, were held at the house of Henry Dellinger, and his spring house was designated as the "gaol." This spring house was a two-story affair, the lower stone, the upper logs; the upper story was used as the public jail. Some of the prisoners escaping, the sheriff was ordered "to make use of a room in Henry Dellinger's house to be strengthened for the purposes of a common gaol." The sheriffs, for protection against the escape of prisoners from these very odd jails, always entered on the court record their "protest against the sufficiency of said gaol." The site of Henry Dellinger's home is Magnolia, six miles southeast of Lincolnton . . . .

 from Alfred Nixon's History of Lincoln County.
Henry was a brother of Mary Magdalene Dellinger Costner, Peter Costner's wife.

After the battle of Alamance, no Patriot wanted to live in "Tryon" County, of course. Another Dellinger, John, was a signer of the Tryon Resolves and also a fighter at King's Mountain.

Today one of the Dellinger cousins runs the oldest grist mill in North Carolina.

http://littleswitzerlandweather.info/jdellinger.shtml

There was a PBS piece on it, apparently.