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There are more pirate festivals in North Carolina than you can shake a peg leg at, but one in Lincoln County stands out. For one thing, it’s more than 200
There are more pirate festivals in North Carolina than you can shake a peg leg at, but one in Lincoln County stands out. For one thing, it’s more than 200
A pirate festival in the foothills might sound odd, but the story behind this celebration, and the buccaneer who inspired it, is one for the history books.
There are more pirate festivals in North Carolina than you can shake a peg leg at, but one in Lincoln County stands out. For one thing, it’s more than 200 miles from the coast. For another, Lincolnton’s Pirate Day has something the rest don’t: the grave of a man believed to be one of the most infamous pirates of all, Jean Laffite.
The grave, located in the cemetery of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, is the final resting place of one Lorenzo Ferrer, who arrived in Lincolnton in 1839 and died there in 1875, at age 96. Ferrer became an active citizen and helped found the local Freemason’s Lodge, but people always wondered about his background. Soon, a rumor started: Maybe Ferrer wasn’t really Ferrer. Could he actually be the pirate Jean Laffite, known for his role in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812?
Stories swirled around Laffite and his brother Pierre, both privateers and pirates. In one historical account, Laffite was injured in a battle with Spanish warships in 1823 and died the next morning. Or did he? A longtime local legend claims that Laffite faked his death and fled to Mississippi, where he met the Henderson family, who owned the Woodside estate in Lincolnton. Laffite befriended several of the Henderson brothers and soon moved to town.
Laffite’s fate would have stayed a legend if Lincolnton natives and mother-daughter writing team Beth Yarbrough and Ashley Oliphant hadn’t gone searching for answers. Yarbrough is a history buff, photographer, and writer who chronicles historic Southern houses, and Oliphant is a writer and a retired English professor.
The pair spent two years traveling the country to find answers behind the lore, searching archives, tax rolls, and marriage certificates. They really struck gold when they discovered an early 19th-century sword that Ferrer had donated to the Freemason’s Lodge. It appeared to have letters scratched into the scabbard. They found an antique metals expert in Raleigh who confirmed that the letters spelled “Jn Laffite.” Finally, they had physical evidence to connect Ferrer to Laffite.
After their book, Jean Laffite Revealed: Unraveling One of America’s Longest-Running Mysteries, was published in 2021, Lincolnton embraced the discovery with its first pirate festival, which featured a magic show, a Freemason dressed as Laffite, and walking tours of Ferrer’s homes. This year, the city will celebrate once again with a 5K, visits to the Ferrer grave, and other pirate-themed activities at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
For a pirate who tried to retire to a quiet life, Lincolnton’s little festival and race may be exactly the right way to commemorate him: on the run.
For the more than 720,000 veterans who call our state home, North Carolina’s deep military tradition is a lived point of pride. Our former and current service members — and the communities that support them — are beacons of bravery and possibility.