Biography

David Fanning was not yet born when in 1755 his father, a landowning farmer in Virginia, drowned in the Deep River while looking for land in Orange County.[1] His mother moved them to what now is Wake County, but died when he was 8. Fanning eventually became a ward of a county justice in today’s Smithfield. He was treated mostly as a worker and otherwise neglected, but learned outdoor skills, horsemanship, and to read. He developed a scalp disease, likely eczema, that may have caused some baldness and led him to wear a wig in later years.[2] He first served in the militia at 16, and left home a year later. Fanning was taken in by a kinder family in Orange County for a period, and the wife cured his scalp issue. Fanning did carpentry for them and gained a reputation as a horse tamer. Eventually he moved to Upstate South Carolina, learned to trade goods with Native Americans[3], and became a farmer. He joined local Loyalist (“Tory”) militia in May 1775 that suppressed early rebels (“Whigs”). For three years Fanning fought a