A 'pebble' found in NC tavern ruins was really a coded message among Colonial rebels

[csziggy]

9. The Regulators fought the British taxation in the Carolinas between 1765 and 1771

Two of my ancestors, father and son, were among the Regulators.

The War of the Regulation (also known as Regulator Movement) was an uprising in the British North America's Carolina colonies, lasting from about 1765 to 1771, in which citizens took up arms against colonial officials, whom they viewed as corrupt. Though the rebellion did not change the power structure, some historians consider it a catalyst to the American Revolutionary War. Others like John Spencer Bassett view that the Regulators did not wish to change the form or principle of their government, but simply wanted to make the colony's political process more equal. They wanted better economic conditions for everyone except slaves and Native Americans, instead of a system that benefited the colonial officials. Bassett interprets the events of the late 1760s in Orange and surrounding counties as "a peasants' rising, a popular upheaval.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Regulation

Since the tavern burned down in the 1760s that could have been during the period that the Regulators were rebelling - and it's in the right area.