Marking county's history
Written by Chris Gilfillan (O-N-E Editor) - 5 July 2006

   This Fourth of July Derick Hartshorn had his nose in front of the computer
and one finger on an obscure citation.  Hartshorn lives for genealogy; he
breaths it and can't stop talking about it.  Despite hailing from Springfield
Mass., he's obsessed with the Confederate States of America.

   While everyone else celebrated their Independence Day with a brew and a bun,
Hartshorn was updating his Web site, dedicated to the preservation and
collection of Confederate soldiers from the "land West of the Catawba."  "It's
highly addicting," Hartshorn said on Tuesday.  "It's like a drug."

   Hartshorn will be taking part in the memorialization of six Wilson soldiers
who fought in the Confederacy, one has the honor of being Newton Wilson - the
person for whom the city of Newton was named for.  Newton Wilson died at the
battle of Gettysburg at the age of 18.  Hartshorn said, though, Newton's name
was actually Isaac, although he preferred to drop the Isaac part, bowing to the
renowned physicist.  The memorial will be part of the Wilson family reunion on
Sunday, which will begin at 10 a.m.  And at 3 p.m. at the Startown/Jenkins
cemetery six - of the more than 20 Wilson family members who fought in the Civil
War - will be honored.

   Hartshorn really got his first introduction to the Confederacy when he
started researching his wife's genealogy and found the abundance of Confederate
soldiers who were his descendants, at least by law.  Hartshorn lived in Catawba
County for 39 years, and has been researching genealogy for all of them,
especially after meeting his wife of 25 years in Statesville at a Zodiac Club
dance.  "Neither of us wanted to go, so we me each other and didn't go back,"
Hartshorn recalled.

   Since then Hartshorn, who is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans
through a cousin, has combed obituaries and census records finding inconvenient
and obscure connections between the families of the county, and has been
documenting his results, because "anything that is not cited is mythology."  One
of his most recent tastes of bronzing the history of Catawba County's 2,000
Confederate soldiers was to commemorate the "fallen 600" with a monument in
downtown Newton on Aug. 18, 2005.

   Since then, Hartshorn has raised funds for grave stones for the Cline
family's fallen confederate soldiers in June.  At this point, Hartshorn shrugs
off anyone who deems it odd that someone from the North would be researching the
Confederate soldiers, after all Hartshorn feels like the Civil War is fraught
with inconsistencies, due to the fact that the "winners write the history."
"It's really a process of re-education," Hartshorn said.

   "A lot of people feel like all Confederate causes are racist, but I can
assure you that the sense of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is not racist
whatsoever."  Hartshorn went on to read the group's charge, which was written by
the Lt.  General Stephen Dill Lee, and reads that they are dedicated to the
"defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his
history, the emulation of his virtues, and the perpetuation of those principles
which he loved."

   Those principles are what Hartshorn says have been mixed in the 140 years
since the war.  He said Confederate soldiers were fighting for their country -
the Confederate States of America - and "against the federal government."
"People don't just rise up against each other," he said.

   His mission behind the genealogical data, is to help the county, recognize
both its genealogical past and its Civil War past.  One example he points to is
Newton's Old Soldiers Reunion parade, which he seemed to have mixed feelings
about, saying the purpose of the parade is to remember that 10 percent of the
county's men fought in the Civil war.  If converted to recent times, that's
15,000 men.  "It is a time to be celebrated, and today the Sons of the
Confederate Veterans have been relegated to float No. 50 or 60," Hartshorn said.

   Hartshorn, who has been retired for the past 16 years after working as an
engineer at General Electric before, said his goal now is to photograph all the
graves in Catawba County.  And eventually record and set the record straight for
the history of Catawba County's Civil War veterans through his Web site, which
begins with the fitting message for the 5,400 pages he's created:  "This is how
I occupy my spare time."  Hartshorn's Web site is www.hartshorn.us and from that
point one can research the Hartshorn family's history along with excepts from
the history of Catawba County.