Gaston County’s
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Thursday, February 3, 2022
Good news for great people! Volume 88 • Issue 5
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• Belmont • Cramerton • Lowell • McAdenville • Mount Holly • Stanley
Thursday, February 3, 2022
Dixon Village construction begins By Alan Hodge alan@cfmedia.info
Site work has started on the Habitat for Humanity of Gaston County Dixon Village project on Lee Rd. off Hickory Grove Rd. in North Belmont. The development will contain 28 homes and will occupy 7.5 acres. Crews have started working clearing the property of trees and underbrush and an official groundbreaking took place last Monday. Habitat Gaston completed its Phase One fundraising by meeting a goal of $1.5 million dedicated to the neighborhood’s infrastructure. The start of Phase Two fundraising also began following Monday’s groundbreaking. The $1.2 million goal will go directly toward the construction of the Habitat homes. Each Habitat residence will
cost an estimated $150,000. “We are elated to get this innovative project off the ground and build beautiful homes where families can thrive,” said Kay Peninger, executive director of Habitat Gaston. “Dixon Village will provide more than just a house; this neighborhood will offer a community, a sturdy foundation and a homeownership dream fulfilled for many Gaston families.” Plans are for the site work to be done by late April. “We have contracted with Site Works to perform the horizontal work for the Dixon Village project,” Penninger said. “They began working December 6, 2021 and are targeting April 25, 2022 for completion. We do hope that we can begin pouring pads for two to four homes before See DIXON, Page 3
On Monday, Habitat for Humanity Gaston County executive director Kay Peninger (fourth from left) and other dignitaries held an official groundbreaking event for the Dixon Village housing project on Lee Rd. in North Belmont. Photo by Alan Hodge
This marker is also at the Hunter gravesite at Hawthorne and Catawba St. in Mt. Holly.
Former slave Ransom Hunter was an entrepreneurial pioneer Muddy River Distillery founder/owner Robbie Delaney seen with rum aging in oak barrels. This is just a fraction of the product they have on hand. Photos by Alan Hodge
Belmont’s Muddy River Distillery growing by leaps and bounds By Alan Hodge alan@cfmedia.info
One of Belmont’s most innovative and interesting small businesses, as well as a tourism destination, Muddy River Distillery, is growing at a prodigious rate. But it may not be in town much
longer. Muddy River was started back in 2011 by husband and wife team Robbie and Caroline Delaney. The idea to start a rum distillery- the first in North Carolina- came to Robbie when he spotted a magazine
article on the subject while flying back to Charlotte from a construction job in Texas. Work in the construction industry was drying up and he was casting about, looking for another career. Not only that, but the constant travel was making spending time
with Caroline logistically problematic. “I got excited when I read the magazine article,” Robbie said. “I started doing research on what it would take to build a still and to begin distilling.” According to Robbie, a See DISTILLERY, Page 4
One in a series of Black History Month stories remembering prominent African-American people and places in our area. By Alan Hodge alan@cfmedia.info
Ransom Hunter rose from the bonds of slavery to become one of Mt. Holly’s leading businessmen and citizens and though he died a century ago, his name is still remembered to this day. Hunter was born a slave on a plantation near Charleston circa 1825. As a boy he was sold to the Hoyle family who owned a large farm near Dallas and Stanley in Gaston
County. Just before the Civil War broke out in 1861, Hunter’s owner set him free and gave him a plot of land near the Catawba River that Hunter named “Freedom”. It is believed that Hunter was the first free black in Gaston to own property. Though the land was rugged, Hunter pitched in and through his sweat and sinew created a prosperous farm. During Reconstruction following the war, Hunter’s hard work enabled him to purchase additional land in what is today’s appropriately See HUNTER, Page 7
