the caption reads:
FERGUSON'S PLATE
His tableware was divided after his death at the Battle of Kings Mountain. Handed down by Joseph McDowell of Pleasant Garden to his descendants, owned now by his great grand daughter Margaret Erwin McDowell of Morganton, N.C.
(from History of the McDowells and Connections, by John Hugh McDowell, pub. 1918, C. B. Johnston, page 260)