Fayetteville played an important role during the American Revolution. It is the place where delegates from all counties, towns and boroughs from around the state gathered at The Old State House-site of the current day Market House-in 1789 to ratify the U.S Constitution. It is also where fifty-five Patriot supporters gathered to sign the Cumberland Association in 1775. The document was recorded as being signed at a place called Liberty Point and the document is now more popularly known as The Liberty Point Resolves.
By all accounts, Robert Rowan was the leader of the group of men who signed the document, which was a resolution that supported independence by the colonists from the Royalist rule of Great Britain. The men who signed the document consisted of taverners, merchants, planters as well as military leaders of the region who had also been involved with local government, commerce and Committees of Safety. Rowan himself had served as a colonial sheriff and legislator. Other notable figures to have signed the document were Lewis Barge, a local tavern keeper who had arrived in Cross Creek from Philadelphia, and other merchants, including James Gee, who was a hatter in the village.
The signing of the document followed events in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts in 1775 in which British authority had been challenged. After word circulated about the uprising, North Carolina became an early colony to publicly challenge British rule. The Liberty Point Resolves document, Cumberland Association, was one of a series of similar documents that were signed across the state.
The names of all of the signers have been transcribed on a stone which sits at the intersection of Bow and Person Street in downtown Fayetteville inside an iron clad fence. The names are also listed on the original historical document itself, which is being preserved at the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina.
Throughout decades and now centuries, organizations of Fayetteville residents have held commemoration and anniversary ceremonies to mark the occasion of the signing of the document and to remember those who bravely stood against retribution and stood for their beliefs by “sacrificing their lives and fortunes” against a powerful monarchy. The local Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution chapters, in conjunction with other organizations, began an annual commemoration in downtown Fayetteville around 2021, and this year will mark the 250th anniversary of the signing.
The event will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 21, on the grounds of First Presbyterian Church at the corner of Bow and Ann St in downtown Fayetteville and will include a ceremony hosted by the Marquis de Lafayette Chapter NC Society, Sons of the American Revolution, The Liberty Point Chapter N.C. Society Daughters of the American Revolution, The Col. Robert Rowan Chapter N.C.Society Daughters of the American Revolution, The Isham Blake Chapter N.C. Society Children of the American Revolution and The Lafayette Society. Everyone is welcome to attend.

(Photo: The celebration of the 248th Commemoration of the Liberty Point Resolves was held at the stone on Bow and Person streets in downtown Fayetteville. The stone bears the names of the signers of the document. Photo courtesy of David Dowless Jr.)