FLAG Retirement Ceremony
On 14 November 2026, the Colonel Alexander Erwin Chapter Sons of the American Revolution, assisted by Boy Scout Troop #184 (sponsored by the 1st Baptist Church of Morganton), will be conducting a Flag Retirement Ceremony at the Capt. Charles McDowell House located at 119 St. Mary’s Church Rd., Morganton, NC 28655. The ceremony will start at 2pm.
A U.S. flag retirement ceremony is a solemn, dignified event to properly dispose of a worn, faded, or tattered American flag in accordance with the U.S. Flag Code (Title 36, U.S. Code, § 176(k)).
The public is welcome to attend this event. If you have a US Flag that you wish to retire, please feel free to bring it with you.
Depending on the amount of flags donated, some may have to be retired at a later date.
There is limited parking.
Venue
The Captain Charles McDowell, Jr. House at Quaker Meadows
The place name “Quaker Meadows” was given to the area by Joseph McDowell (1715-1771). He received two Crown Patents in 1749 and 1780. The acreage in the earlier grant contained a large meadow. Joseph named the area Quaker Meadows after his home in Frederick County, Virginia.
On this property, Joseph’s sons, Revolutionary War leaders Charles and Joseph, gathered the Overmountain Men on September 30, 1780. These patriot soldiers from Virginia, current-day Tennessee, and Wilkes and Surry Counties in North Carolina, met under a giant oak tree now known as the Council Oak and laid plans leading to the defeat of the loyalists under British Major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of Kings Mountain, a turning point of the Revolutionary War in the South.
The house at Quaker Meadows was built in 1812 by Captain Charles McDowell, Jr. in anticipation of his marriage the following year to his cousin, Anna McDowell of Pleasant Gardens. By1850, Charles and Anna had created a thriving estate of over 1500 acres.