John Rich Ireland was born in Alamance County, North Carolina on May 18, 1841. Ireland served as the Deputy Sheriff of Alamance County in 1870, and in July of 1870, Col. George B. Bergen arrested him, along with several others for being members of the Ku Klux Klan. He was transferred to Yanceyville, Caswell County for trial, but when Governor Holden was later impeached and removed from office the charges were dropped. He died in Burlington on March 15, 1909.