Have you ever wondered how Stanback Ferry Road was named?
Stanback Ferry Road was first known as the Mask’s Ferry Road. It had played an important role in the history of North Carolina for more than 150 years (1770s through the 1920s). The name is found spelled Masque, Maske, and is misspelled Marks on old maps and documents.
The site of the ferry was on the Pee Dee River between present-day Anson and Richmond counties. The ferry was on the old road from Cheraw, South Carolina to Asheboro. It was the principal route from the southern states to the North.
It was on the south side of the Pee Dee River near Mask’s Ferry that the Anson Committee for Independence met in 1775, where Gen. Horatio Gates crossed en route from Hillsborough to Camden, South Carolina, where Capt. Kimbrough was defeated in 1780 and where Confederate troops crossed in March of 1865, ahead of Sherman’s troops.
An act of the Colonial Assembly of 1774 empowered the justices of Anson County to establish “free ferries” at Mask’s Ferry and Blewett’s Ferry for court days, official elections, meetings of the vestry and for general musters of the troops. Near here was the original Anson County courthouse at the Mount Pleasant site where in 1775 in a massive independence meeting, delegates were elected to the Hillsborough Congress.
Virginia Col. Porterfield, with a detachment of Virginia troops, met Gen. Gates on the south side of the Pee Dee River at Mask’s Ferry on Aug. 1, 1780. The troops camped nearby and gathered supplies which had been scarce during their march through the Sandhills. They ground their grain at the May’s Mill in Anson County.
At Mask’s Ferry, Gen. Gates issued a proclamation to all citizens of the Carolinas, which was to assemble under his auspices to vindicate the rights of America. This was dated Aug. 4 at the headquarters on the Pee Dee in the fifth year of Independence. There was considerable correspondence to and from Gen. Gates in 1780 with references made to Mask’s Ferry.
A letter dated Sept. 13, 1780 from Gen. Jethro Summer states the following: A party of men under Capt. Herrick chased after some Tories and defeated them at Mask’s Ferry on Sept. 10, killing several and taking 11 prisoners, including Daniel McDonald, who was a sergeant.
Mask’s Ferry was evidently sold at the March Term of Court in 1781 when it was ordered that Thomas Stanback would maintain a tavern at Mask’s Ferry. From that time onward, Mask’s Ferry became known as Stanback’s Ferry, until it closed about 1928.
Present-day Stanback Ferry Road crisscrosses throughout Wadesboro and Lilesville townships in Anson County. During the Civil War, the ferry was owned by W.P. Stanback. Just prior to World War II, many units of the Army conducted extensive maneuvers in the area, crossing and recrossing the river from Stanback’s Ferry.
Although the exciting activities of the past have appear to be gone forever, they are not entirely forgotten, though much of our history has been lost. This material was extracted from Col. Jeffrey F. Stanback’s article in the July 25, 1952 issue of the Stanly News & Press of Albemarle.
Steve Bailey is employed with the Anson County Historical Society and has specialized in local African-American family history for 20 years.