Mount Holly dedicating park to honor former slave’s legacy of freedom

MOUNT HOLLY, N.C. — Ancestors of the first Black man to own property in Gaston County say they’re humbled by a park built to honor him.

Ransom Hunter is legendary in Mount Holly. He was born into slavery, but the only picture of him remaining shows him standing proudly on the property he owned.

“Proud, humbled, very emotional,” said Jeff Wilson, Hunter’s great-grandson, as he stood near that same spot on Friday.

Hunter’s relatives say these bricks were part of his well. In 1860, he owned this and so much more.

“From this point here, three miles anywhere you looked, it was his property,” Wilson said.

The home vanished over time, but the City of Mount Holly built this park here in Hunter’s name.

“It was modeled after the front of the house, so the front of the playground looks like the front of the house that used to sit on this property,” said Eric Smallwood, Parks and Recreation director.

The park just off of Hawthorne Street isn’t quite complete yet. There will be educational signs put on a walking trail around the playground.

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“We are going to tell the story of Ransom Hunter and the family and this property,” Smallwood said.

They will tell the story of Hunter’s work as a blacksmith and how his land became a homestead for Black people.

“He brought people in, doctors, barbers, freedom,” Wilson said.

The park is at the heart of the community many Black people still call freedom.

“It means the world to me,” said Mount Holly City Councilman Ivory Craig Jr.

Craig grew up in this community. He walked by this area on the way to school. Now there is a park here where his children will play and learn about Ransom Hunter.

“Know that the legacy is going to continue, not just him, past us as well,” Craig said.

There was what people called a Freedom Rock here, it was the rock Ransom Hunter used to help people climb onto their horses and wagons. It was stolen, so the city replaced it with one that has the word love and hope written on it in marker and the word freedom engraved into the stone.

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