In the last half of the 18th century, more than 20,000 Highland Scots, including John Gilchrist and the father of Col. Archibald McEachern, immigrated to the Cape Fear Region of North Carolina, the largest Highland Scot settlement in America.
Many left Scotland after 1746, the year the Scots rallied under Prince Charles Stuart only to suffer defeat by the British at the Battle of Culloden.
The Scots in the Cape Fear Region were divided in their sympathies during the Revolutionary War and the area around McPhaul's Mill was a center of Loyalist activity.
Many followed the appeal of their heroine, Flora MacDonald, and joined the Loyalists who suffered defeat once again at the Battle of Moore's Creek near Wilmington.
In 1781, Patriot General Rutherford defeated the local Loyalists in a final battle near Mill Prong.
During the last year of the Civil War, General Sherman passed through the area on his way to where the Battle of Bentonville, the largest Civil War Battle in North Carolina, was fought. His troops bashed in the family piano which once again resides at Mill Prong.
Upon arrival in the Cape Fear area, the Scots were hardworking and devoted themselves to the Presybterian Church, education and public affairs.
Their native language, Gaelic, was used in church services through the 19th century.
Mill Prong House Owners
- John Gilchrist (1740-1802), John Gilchrist, Jr. (1785-1868), Colonel Archibald McEachern (1788-1873) and Daniel Purcell McEachern (1836-1917), all lived at Mill Prong.
- Gilchrist Sr. and Jr. represented Robeson County in the House of Commons and State Senate off and on from 1792 to 1846.
- Daniel Purcell McEachern served Robeson County in the State Senate in 1879.
- Gilchrist Jr. founded Floral College near Maxton, the college bearing the distinction of being the first for women chartered in North Carolina and the second for woman chartered in the South.
- Gilchrist Jr. and McEachern the younger were antebellum graduates of the University of North Carolina.