General Elijah Clark, known as the "Hero of the Hornets Nest," was born in Edgecombe County, N.C., in 1733 and moved in 1774 to what was then part of Wilkes County, Georgia, now an area of Lincoln. When the Revolutionary War began, he became a colonel of militia, and his actions against the Tories gave him his nickname. He led American forces against the British at Alligator Creek, Kettle Creek, Musgrove’s Mill, Fish Dam, Blackstock`s, Long Cane, Beatties Mill, and in two sieges at Augusta, the last of them successful, and he later became a Brigadier General. Clark and members of his family are buried in the enclosed cemetery, and their graves were moved from original burial places near Graball, 10 miles north, to the Community House Grounds in Lincolnton in 1952 to prevent inundation by Clark Hill Lake, then moved again to the present site in 1955 after the establishment of Elijah Clark Memorial State Park by legislative enactment and by special dispensation of the Army Corps of Engineers.