[2] Since the boundaries of Tryon County (part of the Salisbury District) originally stretched into territory which was later found to belong to South Carolina (due to surveying errors), the Salisbury District was, for a time, the legal center of modern-day northwestern South Carolina as well.
[2] These districts were used to organize the North Carolina Minutemen Battalions for a six month trial as state troops, beginning on September 1, 1775.
[4][5] James Smith had served as the justice presiding over the "Court of Pleas and Quarter Session for Rowan County," under King George III, from 1770 thru 1775.
From 1775, he "took a prominent and active part in every movement tending to throw off the yoke of tyranny..."[2] On April 22, 1776, he was appointed to major in the Rowan County Regiment of the North Carolina militia, which was commanded by Colonel Francis Locke.
[5] The Salisbury District originally included Anson, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Surry, and Tryon counties.