mB'i {!.■■ 1,'i'i'. mum- THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA THE COLLECTION OF NORTH CAROLINIANA C971.0^ A78w C.3 UNIVERSITY OF NC AT CHAPEL HILL ^^H 00032761066 ^^^^^ FOR USE ONLY IN [the north CAROLINA COLLECTION John P. Arthur. Western North Carolina A HISTORY (FROM 1730 TO 1913) BY JOHN PRESTON ARTHUR PUBLISHED BY I he Edward Buncombe Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, of Ashevlile, N. C. KALEIGH, N. C. BowABDs dc Brouqhton Pbintinq COMPAJjr 1»14 Copyright, 1914 By E. H. D. Morrison BIBLIOGRAPHY The references are to the names of authors or works as follows: Allen: means "A History of Haj^n-^ood County," by W. C. Allen, Waynes- ville, 1908. Asheville's Centenary: means an article by that name which was pub- lished in the Asheville Citizen in February, 1898, by Foster A. Sondley, Esq., of the Asheville Bar. Balsam Groves: means "The Balsam Groves of the Grandfather Moun- tain," by Shep. M. Dugger of Banner Elk, Watauga county. BjTd: means the "Writings of Col. Wm. Byrd of Westover," 1901. Carolina Mountains, by Margaret W. Morley, 1913 Col. Rec: means Colonial and State Records of North CaroUna. Draper: means "Kings Mountain and Its Heroes," by Dr. L. C. Draper. Dropped Stitches: means "Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History," by Hon. John Allison, Nashville, 1896. Dugger: means "The Balsam Groves" named above. Fifth Eth. Rep.: means the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1883-'84. Foote's Sketches: means "Foote's Sketches of North Carolina." Hart: means "Formation of the Union," by A. B. Hart, 1901. Heart of the AUeghanies: means a work of that name by Zeigler & Gross- cup, 1879. Herndon: means "Abraham Lincoln," by W. H. Herndon and J. W. Weik, 1892. Vol. I. Kerr: means W. C. Kerr's Report of the Geological Survey of North Carolina, 1875. McClure: means "The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln," by Ida M. TarbeU, 1896. McGee: means "A History of Tennessee," by R. G. McGee, American Book Company, 1900. Nineteenth Eth. Rep.: means the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1897. Polk: means "North CaroUna Hand-Book," by L. L. Polk, 1879, Raleigh. Ramsey: means "Annals of Tennessee," by Dr. J: G. Ramsey. Roosevelt: means "The Winning of the West," by Theodore Roose- velt, 1905, Current Literature Publishing Company. Tarbell: means "Life of Abraham Lincoln," by Ida M. Tarbell, Vol. I, 1900. Thwaites: means "Daniel Boone," by Reuben Gold Thwaites. Wd^ddell: means the "Annals of Augusta County, Va., " by Joseph A. Waddell, 1886, or the second volume, 1902. Wheeler: means "Historical Sketches of North Carolina," by John H. Wheeler, 1851. Woman's Edition: means the "Woman's Edition of the Asheville Citi- zen," published by the women of Asheville, November 1895. Zeigler & Grosscup: means "The Heart of the AUeghanies," by them, 1879. (5) CONTENTS Page Chapter I — Introductory 7 Chapter II — Boundaries 18 Chapter III — Colonial Days 60 Chapter IV — Daniel Boone 79 Chapter V — Revolutionary Days 96 Chapter VI— The State of Franklin 113 ChjVPTer VII — Grants and Litigation 131 Chapter VIII — County History 143 Chapter IX — Pioneer Preachers 215 Chapter X — Roads, Stage Coaches and Taverns 229 Chapter XI — Manners and Customs 248 Chapter XII — Extraordinary Events 292 Chapter XIII — Humorous and Romantic 327 Chapter XIV— Duels 356 Chapter XV — Bench and Bar 373 Chapter XVI — Notable Cases and Decisions 407 Chapter XVII — Schools and Colleges 420 Chapter XVIII — Newspapers 449 Chapter XIX — Swepson and Littlefield 457 Chapter XX — Railroads 469 Chapter XXI — Notable Resorts and Improvements 491 Chapter XXII — Flora and Fauna 512 Chapter XXIII — Physical Peculiarities 528 Chapter XXIV — Mineralogy and Geology 542 Chapter XXV — Mines and Mining 552 Chapter XXVI— The Cherokees 566 Chapter XXVII— The Civil War Period 600 Chapter XXVIII— Political 628 Appendix 652 Index 659 WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA A HISTORY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY Our Lordly Domain. Lying between the Blue Ridge on the East and the Iron, Great Smoky and Unaka mountains on the West, is, in North Carohna, a lordly domain. It varies in width from about forty miles at the Virginia line to about seventy-five when it reaches Georgia on the Southerly side. Running Northeast and Southwest it borders the State of Tennessee on the West for about two hundred and thirty miles, following the meanderings of the mountain tops, and embraces approximately eight thousand square miles. No- where within that entire area is there a tract of level land one thousand acres in extent; for the mountains are every- where, except in places where a limpid stream has, after ages of erosion, eaten out of the hills a narrow valley. Between the Grandfather on the east and the Roan on the west, the distance in a straight line is less than twenty miles, while from Melrose mountain, just west of Try on, to the corner of North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, is over one hundred and fifty miles. The Appalachians. According to the Smithsonian Insti- tution, the name Alleghany is from the language of the Dela- ware Indians, and signifies a fine or navigable river. ^ It is sometimes applied to the mountain ranges in the eastern part of the United States, but the Appalachians, first applied by De Soto to the whole system, is preferred by geographers. ^ The Grandfather Mountain. The Blue Ridge reaches its culmination in this hoary pile, with its five-peaked crown of archsean rocks, and nearly six thousand feet of elevation. (7) 8 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Of this mountain the follownng lines were written in 1898: TO THE GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN. 3 Oldest of all terrestrial things — still holding Thy wrinkled forehead high; Whose every seam, earth's history enfolding, Grim Science doth defy — Teach me the lesson of the world-old story, Deep in thy bosom hid; Read me thy riddles that were old and hoary Ere Sphinx and Pyramid! Thou saw'st the birth of that abstraction Which men have christened Time; Thou saw'st the dead world wake to life and action Far in thy early prime; Thou caught'st the far faint ray from Sirius rising. When through space first was hurled, The primal gloom of ancient voids surprising, This atom, called the World! Gray was thy head ere Steam or Sail or Traffic Had waked the soul of Gain, Or reed or string had made the air seraphic With Music's magic strain! Thy cheek had kindled with the crimsoned blushes Of mjrriad sunset dyes Ere Adam's race began, or, from the rushes, Came Moses, great and wise! Thou saw'st the Flood, Mount Arrarat o'er-riding. That bore of old the Ark; Thou saw'st the Star, the Eastern Magi guiding To manger, drear and dark. Seething with heat, or glacial ices rending Thy gaunt and crumbling form; Riven by frosts and lightning-bolts — contending In tempest and in storm — Thou still protesteth 'gainst the day impending. When, striving not in vain. Science, at last, from thee thy riddles rending. Shall make all secrets plain! The Peculiarities of the Mountains. Until 1835 the mountains of New Hampshire had been regarded as the loftiest of the AUeghanies; but at that time the attention of John C. Calhoun had been drawn to the numerous rivers which come from all sides of the North Carolina mountains and he shrewdly reasoned that between the parallels of 35° and 36° and 30', north latitude, would be found the highest pla- INTRODUCTORY teau and mountains of the Atlantic coast. The Blue Ridge is a true divide, all streams flowing east and all flowing west having their sources east or west of that divide. The Linville river seems to be an exception to this rule, but its source is in Linville gap, which is the true divide, the Boone fork of the Watauga rising only a few hundred feet away flowing west to the Mississippi. There are two springs at Blowing Rock only a few feet apart, one of which flows into the Yadkin, and thence into the Atlantic, while the other goes into the New, and thence into the Gulf of Mexico; while the Saddle Moun- tain Baptist church in Alleghany county is built so exactly on the line that a drop of rain falling on one side of the roof goes into the Atlantic, while another drop, falling on the opposite side ultimately gets into the Gulf. When the Alleghanies AVere Higher Than the Alps. What is by some called The Portal is the depression between the Grandfather on the East and the Roan mountain on the West. When it is remembered that the Gulf of Mexico once extended further north than Cairo, Illinois, and that both the Ohio and the Mississippi once emptied into that inland sea without having joined their waters, it will be easy to under- stand why these mountains must have been much higher than at present, as most of their surface soil has for untold ages been slowly carried westward to form the eastern half of the valley of the Mississippi from Cairo to New Orleans. Thus, the Watauga first finds its way westward, followed in the or- der named by the Doe, the Toe, the Cane, the French Broad, the Pigeon, the Little Tennessee and last by the Hiwassee. The most northerly section of this western rampart is called the Stone mountains, and then follow the Iron, the Bald, the Great Smoky, the Unaka, and last, the Frog mountains of Georgia. The Blue Ridge, the transverse ranges and the western mountains contain over a score of peaks higher than Mount Washington, while the general level of the plateau between the Blue Ridge and the mountains which divide North Carolina from Tennessee is over two thousand feet above sea level. Where most of these streams break through the western barrier are veritable canons, sometimes so nar- row as to dispute the passage of wagon road, railroad and river. For a quarter of a mile along the Toe, at Lost Cove, the railroad is built on a concrete viaduct in the very bed of 10 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA the river itself. The mountains are wooded to their crests, except where those crests are covered by grass, frequently forming velvety mountain meadows. The scenery is often grand and inspiring. It is always beautiful; and Cowper sings : "Scenes must be beautiful that, daily seen, Please daily, and whose novelty survives Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years." The Aborigines. This region was, of course, inhabited from time immemorial by the Indians. The Catawbas held the country to the crest of the Blue Ridge. To the west of that line, the Cherokees, a numerous and warlike tribe, held sway to the Mississippi, though a renegade portion of that tribe, known as the Chicamaugas, occupied the country around what is now Chattanooga. ^ Old pottery, pipes, arrow- and spear-heads are found at numerous places throughout these mountains; and only a few years ago Mr. T. A. Low, a lawyer of Banner Elk, Avery county, "picked up quite a num- ber of arrow-heads in his garden, some of which were splen- did specimens of Mocha stone, or moss agate, evidently brought from Lake Superior regions, as no stones of the kind are found in this part of the country."^ None of the towns of these Indians appear " to have been in the valleys of the Swan- nanoa and the North CaroUna part of the French Broad. " * Parties roamed over the country. Since many of the arrow- heads are defective or unfinished, it would seem that they were made where found, as it is unlikely that such unfinished stones would be carried about the country. The inference is that many and large parties roamed through these unsettled regions. "^ Numbers of Indian mounds, stone hatchets, etc., are found in several locaHties, but nothing has been found in these mounds except Indian relics of the common type. * AsHEViLLE ON AN Old Indian Battle-Ground? "There is an old tradition that Asheville stands upon the site where, years before the white man came, was fought a great battle, between two tribes of aborigines, probably the Cherokees and the Catawbas, who were inveterate enemies and always at war. There is also a tradition that these lands were for a long while neutral hunting grounds of these two tribes."^ Indian Names for French Broad. According to Dr. Ram- sey this stream was called Agiqua throughout its entire length; INTRODUCTORY H but Zeigler & Grosscup tell us that it was known as the Agiqua to the Over Mountain Cherokees [erati] only as far as the lower valley; and to the Ottari or Valley To\vns Indians, as Tahkeeosteh from Asheville down; while above Asheville "it took the name of ZiUicoah. " But they give no authority for these statements. Origin of the Name "French Broad." Mr. Sondley^" states that "as the settlement from the east advanced towards the mountains, the Broad river was found and named; and when the river, whose sources were on the opposite or western side of the same mountains — which gave rise to the Broad river [on the east] — became known, that ... its course tra- versed the lands then claimed by the French, and this new- found western stream was called the French Broad." Origin of the Name "Swannanoa." The same writer (Mr. Sondley), after considering the claims of those who think Swannanoa means "beautiful", and of those who think it is intended to imitate the wings of ravens when flying rapidly, is of opinion that the name is but a corruption of Shawno, or Shawnees, most of whom lived in Ohio territory, and he seems to think that Savannah may also be a corruption of Shawno, which tribe may have dwelt for a time on the Savannah river in remote times. He then quotes Mr. James Mooney, "that the correct name of the Swannanoa gap through the Blue Ridge, east of Asheville, is Suwah Nunnahi, or Suwali trail," that being the pass through which ran the trail from the Cher- okee to the Suwali, or Ani-Suwali, living east of the moun- tains. He next quotes Lederer (p. 57) to the effect that the Suwali were also called Sara, Sualty or Sasa, the interchange of the I and r being common in Indian dialects. The First White Men. It is difficult to say who were the first white men who passed across the Blue Ridge. There is no doubt, however, that there are excavations at several places in these mountains which indicate that white men car- ried on mining operations in years long since passed. This is suggested by excavations and immense trees now growing from them, which when cut down show rings to the number of several hundred. It is true that these excavations may have been made by the Indians themselves, but it is also possible that they may have been made by white men who were wandering through the mountains in search of gold, sil- 12 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ver or precious stones. Roosevelt (Vol. i, 173-4) says that unnamed and unknown hunters and Indian traders had from time to time pushed their way into the wilderness and had been followed by others of whom we know little more than their names. Dr. Thomas Walker of Virginia had found and named Cumberland river, mountains and gap after the Duke of Cumberland in 1750, though he had been to the Cumber- land in 1748 (p. 175). John SaiUng had been taken as a captive by the Indians through Tennessee in 1730, and in that year Adair traded with the Indians in what is now Ten- nessee. In 175G and 1758 Forts Loudon and Chissel were built on the headwaters of the Tennessee river, and in 1761 Wallen, a hunter, hunted near by . . . In 1766 James Smith and others explored Tennessee, and a party from South Caro- lina were near the present site of Nashville in 1767. De Soto. It is considered by some as most probable that De Soto, on the great expedition in which he discovered the Mississippi river, passed through Western North Carolina in 1540. ^ ^ In the course of their journey they are said to have arrived at the head of the Broad or Pacolet river and from there to have passed "through a country covered with fields of maize of luxuriant growth, " and during the next five days to have "traversed a chain of easy mountains, covered with oak or mulberry trees, with intervening valleys, rich in pas- turage and irrigated by clear and rapid streams. These mountains were twenty leagues across." They came at last to "a grand and powerful river" and "a village at the end of a long island, where pearl oysters were found." "Now, it would be impossible for an army on the Broad or Pacolet river, within one day's march of the mountains, to march westward for six days, five of which were through mountains, and reach the sources of the Tennessee or any other river, without passing through Western North Carolina."^- But the Librarian of Congress says: "There appears to be no au- thority for the statement that this expedition [Hernando De Soto's] entered the present limits of North Carolina. "^^ In the same letter he says that Don Luis de Velasco, "as vice- roy of New Spain, sent out an expedition in 1559 under com- mand of Luna y Arellano to establish a colony in Florida. One of the latter's lieutenant's appears to have led an expe- dition into northeastern Alabama in 1560." Also, that the INTRODUCTORY 13 statement of Charles C. Jones, in liis "Hernando De Soto" (1880), that Luna's expedition penetrated into the Valley river in Georgia and there mined for gold is questioned by Wood- bury Lowery in his "Spanish Settlements within the pres- ent limits of the United States" (New York, 1901, p. 367).'* There are unmistakable evidences of gold-mining in Macon and Cherokee counties which, apparently, was done 300 years ago; but by whom cannot now be definitely determined. How- ever, there is no Valley river in Georgia, and the probability is that the Valley river of Cherokee county, N. C, which is very near the Georgia line, was at that time supposed to be in the latter State. The Roundheads of the South. Towards this primeval wilderness three streams of white people began to converge as early as 1730. ^ * They were Irish Presbyterians, Scotch Sax- ons, Scotch Celts, French Huguenots, Milesian Irish, Ger- mans, Hollanders and even Swedes. "The western border of our country was then formed by the great barrier-chains of the AUeghanies, which ran north and south from Pennsyl- vania through Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas." Geor- gia was then too weak and small to contribute much to the backwoods stock; the frontier was still in the low country. It was difficult to cross the mountains from east to west, but easy to follow the valleys between the ranges. By 1730 emi- grants were fairly swarming across the Atlantic, most of them landing at Philadelphia, while a less number went to Charles- ton. Those who went to Philadelphia passed west to Fort Pitt or started southwestward, towards the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia. Their brethren pushed into the interior from Charleston. These streams met in the foothills on the east of the Blue Ridge and settled around Pittsburg and the headwaters of the Great Kanawha, the Holston and the Cumberland. Predominent among them were the Presby- terian Irish, whose preachers taught the creed of Knox and Calvin. They were in the West what the Puritans were in the Northeast, and more than the Cavaliers were in the South. They formed the kernel of the American stock who were the pioneers in the march westward. They were the Protestants of the Protestants; they detested and despised the Catholics, and regarded the Episcopalians with a more sullen, but scarce- ly less intense, hatred. They had as little kinship with the 14 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Cavalier as with the Quaker; they were separated by a wide gulf from the aristocratic planter communities that flourished in the tidewater regions of Virginia and the Carolinas. They deemed it a religious duty to interpret their own Bible, and held for a divine right the election of their own clergy. For generations their whole ecclesiastic and scholastic systems had been fundamentally democratic. The creed of the back- woodsman who had a creed at all was Presbyterianism ; for the Episcopacy of the tidewater lands obtained no foothold in the mountains, and the Methodists and Baptists had but just begun to appear in the West when the Revolution broke out. Thus they became the outposts of civilization; the van- guard of the army of fighting settlers, who with axe and rifle won their way from the Alleghanies to the Rio Grande and the Pacific. "They have been rightly called the Roundheads of the South, the same men who, before any others, declared for American independence, as witness the Mecklenburg Declara- tion. "^* "They felt that they were thus dispossessing the Canaanites, and were thus working the Lord's will in prepar- ing the land for a people which they believed was more truly His chosen people than was that nation which Joshua led across the Jordan. " ^ ^ A New Englander's Estimate. In her "CaroHna Moun- tains," (Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1913) Miss Margaret W. Morley, of New England, but who has resided about a dozen years in these mountains (Ch. 14) says that although North Carolina was originally settled "from almost all the nations of Europe," our mountain population, in "the course of time, became homogenious" ; that many had come to "found a fam- ily," and "formed the 'quality' of the mountains"; while others, "at different times drifted in from the eastern lowlands as well as down from the North." Indeed, the early records of Ashe county, show many a name which has since become famous in New York, Ohio and New England — such as Day, Choate, Dana, Cornell, Storie and Vanderpool. Continuing, Miss Morley says (p. 140) : "Most of the writers tell us rather loosely that the Southern mountains were originally peopled with refuges of one sort and another, among whom were criminals exported to the New World from England, which, they might as well add, was the case with the whole of the newly discovered continent, America being then the INTRODUCTORY 15 open door of refuge for the world's oppressed . . . but we can find no evidence that these malefactors, many of them 'indentured servants', sent over for the use of the colo- nists, made a practice of coming to the mountains when their term of servitude expired. . . . The truth is, the same people who occupied Virginia and the eastern part of the Carolinas, peopled the western mountains, English predomi- nating, and in course of time there drifted down from Vir- ginia large numbers of Scotch-Irish, who, after the events of 1730, fled in such numbers to the New World, and good Scotch Highlanders, who came after 1745. In fact, so many of these staunch Northerners came to the North Carolina mountains that they have given the dominant note to the character of the mountaineers, remembering which may help the puzzled stranger to understand the peculiarities of the people he finds here today. . . . The rapid growth of slavery, no doubt, discouraged many, who, unable to suc- ceed in the Slave-States, were crowded to the mountains, or else became the "Poor White" of the South, who must not be for a moment confounded wdth the "Mountain White," the latter having brought some of the best blood of his na- tion to these blue heights. He brought into the mountains and there nourished, the stern virtues of his race, including the strictest honesty, an old-fashioned self-respect, and an old-fashioned speech, all of which he yet retains, as well as a certain pride, which causes him to flare up instantly at any suspicion of being treated wnth condescension. . . . " She gives the names of Hampton, Rogers, McClure, Morgan, Rhodes, Foster and Bradley as indicative of the English, Scotch and Irish descent of our people — names that "are crowned with honor out in the big world." It is also a well- known fact that Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Admiral Farragut and Cyrus T. McCormick came from the same stock of people. She adds, very justly : "Bad blood there was among them, as well as good, and brave men as well as weak ones. The brave as well as the bad blood sometimes worked out its destiny in Vendetta and " moonshining, " al- though there never existed in the North Carolina mountains the extensive and bloody feuds that distinguish the annals of Virginia and Kentucky." (P. 144). 16 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA The Moonshiner, she declares, (p. 201) is "a product of conditions resulting from the Civil War, before which time the moutnaineer converted his grain into whiskey, just as the New Englander converted his apples into cider. The act of distilling was not a crime, and became so only because it was an evasion of the revenue laws. ... At the begin- ning of the Civil War for the sake of revenue a very heavy tax was placed on all distilled alcoholic liquors. After the war was over the tax was not removed, and this is the griev- ance of the mountaineer, who says that the tax should have been removed; that it is unjust and oppressive, and that he has a right to do as he pleases with his own corn, and to evade the law which interferes with his personal freedom." But, she adds : "Within the past few years the moonshiner, along with many time-honored customs, has been rapidly van- ishing. An Appreciation. Such just, truthful, generous and sym- pathetic words as the above, especially when found eminat- ing from a New Englander, will be highly appreciated by every resident of the Carolina mountains, as we are accus- tomed to little else than misrepresentations and abuse by many of the writers from Miss Morley's former home. Her descriptions of our flowers, our gems, our manners and cus- toms, our scenery, our climate and the character of our peo- ple will win for her a warm place in the affections of all our people. "The Carolina Mountains" is by far the best book that has ever been written about our section and our people. The few lapses into which she has been betrayed by incorrect information will be gladly overlooked in view of the fact that she has been so just, so kind and so truthful in the estimate she has placed upon our virtues and our section. Poor Comfort. Very little comfort is to be derived from the fact that some writers claim ("The Child That Toileth Not," p. 13) that a spirit of fun or a "great sense of humor" among the mountain people induces them to mislead strang- ers who profess to believe that in some sections of the moun- tains our people have never even heard of Santa Claus or Jesus Christ; by pretending that they do not themselves know any- thing of either. Indeed, a story comes from. Aquone to the effect that a stranger from New England who was there to fish in the Nantahala river once told his guide, a noted wag. INTRODUCTORY 17 that he had lieard that some of the mountain people had not heard of God or Jesus Christ. Pretending to think that the visitor was referring to a man, the guide asked if his ques- tioner did not mean Mike Crise, a timber-jack who had worked on that river a dozen years before, and when the stranger rephed that he meant Jesus of Bethlehem, the wag, with a perfectly straight face, answered : "That's the very p'int Mike came from" — meaning Bethlehem, Pa. There- fore, when we read in "The Carolina Mountains (p. 117) that "The mountaineer, it may be said in passing, sells his molasses by the bushel," and (p. 220) that "Under the Smoky mountain we heard of a sect of 'Barkers,' who, the people said, in their religious frenzy, run and bark up a tree in the belief that Christ is there," we are driven to the conclusion that IMiss Morley, the author, was a victim of this same irre- sistible "sense of humor." NOTES. ^Letter of R. D. W. Connor, Secretary N. C. Hist. Com., January 31, 1912. " -Zeigler & Grosscup, p. 9. 'This mountain is said to be among the oldest geological formations on earth, the Laurentian only being senior to it. ^Roosevelt, Vol. Ill, 111-112. 'T. A. Low, Esq. '.\shevilie Centenary. 'Ibid. sibid. •Ibid. '"Ibid. "Zeigler & Grosscup, p. 222. I'Asheville Centenary. I'His letter to J. P. A., 1912. nibid. isRoosevelt, Vol. I. p. 137. This entire chapter (cb. 5, Vol. I), from which the follow- ing excerpts have been taken at random, contains the finest tribute in the language to the pioneers of the South. "Ibid., 214. I'Ibid. W. .\ C. 1 CHAPTER II BOUNDARIES A Digression. The purpose of this history is to relate facts concerning that part of North Carohna which lies be- tween the Blue Ridge and the Tennessee line; but as there has never been any connected account of the boundary lines between North Carolina and its adjoining sisters, a digression from the main purpose in order to tell that story should be pardoned. Unfounded Traditions. It is said that the reason the Ducktown copper mines of Tennessee were lost to North Car- olina was due to the fact that the commissioners of North Carolina and Tennessee ran out of spirituous liquors when they reached the high peak just north of the Hiwassee river, and instead of continuing the line in a general southwest- wardly course, crossing the tops of the Big and Little Frog mountains, they struck due south to the Georgia line and a still-house. The same story is told as to the location of Ashe- ville, the old Steam Saw Mill place on the Buncombe Turn- pike about three miles south of Asheville, at Dr. Hardy's former residence, being its chief rival; but when it is recalled that two Indian trails crossed at Asheville, and the legislature had selected a man from Burke as an umpire of the dispute, it will be found that grave doubts may arise as to the truth of the whiskey tradition. ^ It was the jagged boundary between North and South Carolina and the stories attributing the same to the influence of whiskey that called forth the fol- lowing just and sober reflections : Abstemious or Capable in Strong Drink? Hon. W. L. Saimders, who edited the Colonial Records, remarks in Vol. V, p. xxxviii, that "there is usually a substantial, sensible, sober reason for any marked variation from the general direc- tion of an important boundary line, plain enough when the facts are known; but the habit of the country is to attribute such variations to a supposed superior capacity of the com- missioners and surveyors on the other side for resisting the power of strong drink. Upon this theory, judging from prac- (18) BOUNDARIES 19 tical results, North Carolina in her boundary surveys, and they have been many, seems to have been unusually fortunate in having men who were either abstemious or very capable in the matter of strong drink; for, so far as now appears, in no instance have we been overreached." - A Sanctuary for Criminals. Prior to the settlement of these boundary disputes grants had been issued by each col- ony to lands in the territory in controversy; which, according to Governor Dobbs, "was the creation of a kind of sanctuary allowed to criminals and vagabonds by their pretending, as it served their purpose, that they belonged to either province." ' "But," adds Mr. W. L. Saunders, "who can help a feeling of sympathy for those reckless free-lances to whom constraint from either province was irksome? After men breathe North Carolina air for a time, a very little government will go a long way with them. Certainly the men who publicly 'damned the King and his peace' in 1762 were fast ripening for the 20th of May, 1775. " " The First Grant of Carolina. Charles the Second's grant of Carolina in 1584 embraced only the land between the mouth of the St. Johns river in Florida to a line just north of Albemarle Sound; but he had intended to give all land south of the settlements in Virginia. This left a strip of land between the Province of Carolina and the Virginia settle- ments. 5 In 1665 the King added a narrow strip of land to those already granted. This strip lay just north of Albe- marle Sound, and its northern boundary would of course be the boundary line between Carolina and Virginia. It was about fifteen miles wide, and had on it "hundreds of fam- iUes, " which neither colony wished to lose. ® The First Survey. In 1709, both colonies appointed commissioners to settle this boundary. North Carolina appointed Moseley and John Lawson; but Lawson left his deputy, Colonel Wm. Maule, to act for him. ^ In 1710 these commissioners met Philip Ludwell and Nathaniel Harrison, commissioners from Virginia, but our commissioners insisted that the surveying instruments used by the Virginians were not to be trusted, and the meeting broke up without having accomplished anything except the charge from the Virginians that Moseley did not want the line run because he was trad- ing in disputed lands. ^ When the commissioners from these 20 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA two colonies did meet in March 1728, it was found that our commissioners had been right in 1710 as to the inaccuracy of the Virginia instruments, and the Virginians frankly admit- ted it. » North Carolina and Virginia Boundary. ^ ° On the 27th of February, 1728, WilUam Byrd, Will Dandridge, and Richard Fitzwilliam, as commissioners from Virginia, met Edward Moseley, C. Gale, Will Little and J. Lovick, as com- missioners from North Carolina, at Corotuck Inlet, and began the survey on the 27th day of March, and continued it till the weather got "warm enough to give life and vigor to the rat- tlesnakes" in the beginning of April, when they stopped till September 20, when the survey was renewed; and after going a certain distance beyond their own inhabitants the North Carolina commissioners refused to proceed further, and pro- tested against the Virginia commissioners proceeding further with it. ^ ^ In this they were joined by Fitzwilham of Vir- ginia. This protest was in writing and was delivered October 6, when they had proceeded 170 miles to the southern branch of the Roanoke river "and near 50 miles without inhabitants," which they thought would be far enough for a long time. To this the two remaining Virginia commissioners, Byrd and Dan- dridge, sent a wTitten answer, to the effect that their order was to run the line "as far towards the mountains as they could; they thought they should go as far as possible so that "His Majesty's subjects may as soon as possible extend themselves to that natural barrier, as they are certain to do in a few years;" and thought it strange that the North Carohna com- missioners should stop "mthin two or three days after Mr. Mayo had entered with them near 2,000 acres wathin five miles of the place where they left off." Byrd and Dandridge Continue Alone. The North Carolina commissioners, accompanied by Fitzwilliam of Vir- ginia, left on October 8th; but Byrd and Dandridge continued alone, crossing Matrimony creek, "so called from being a lit- tle noisy," and saw a little mountain five miles to the north- west "which we named the Wart." ^ ^ On the 25th of October they came in plain sight of the moun- tains, and on the 26th, they reached a rivulet which "the traders say is a branch of the Cape Fear." Here they stop- ped. This was Peters creek in what is now Stokes county. ^ ^ BOUNDARIES 21 It was on this trip that Mr. Byrd discovered extraordinary virtues in bear meat. This point ^ "* was on the northern bound- ary of that part of old Surry which is now Stokes county. The "Break" in the Line Accounted for. A glance at the map will show a break in the line between Virginia and North Carolina where it crosses the Chowan river. This is thus accounted for:^* Governors Eden of North Carolina and Spottswood of Mrginia met at Nansemond and agreed to set the compass on the north shore of Currituck river or inlet and run due west; and if it "cutt [sic] Chowan river between the mouths of Nottoway and Wiccons creeks, it shall Continue on the same course towards the mountains; but it it "cutts Chowan river to the southward of Wiccons creek, it shall con- tinue up the middle of Chowan river to the mouth of Wiccons creek, and from thence run due west." It did this; and the survej' of 1728 was not an attempt to ascertain and mark the parallel of 36° 30', but "an attempt to run a line between cer- tain natural objects . . . regardless of that line and agreed upon as a compromise by the governors of the two States." ^^ The Real ]\Iilk in the Cocoanut. Thus, so far as the Colonial Records show, ended the JSrst survey of the dividing line between this State and Virginia, which one of the Virginia commissioners has immortalized by his matchless account, which, however, was not given to the world until 1901, when it was most attractively published by Doubleday, Page & Co., after careful editing by John Spencer Bassett. But Col. Byrd does not content himself in his "Writings" with the insinuation that the North Carolina commissioners and Mr. Mayo had lost interest immediately after having entered 2,000 acres of land within five miles of the end of their survey. He goes further and charges (p. 126) that, including Mr. Fitzwilliam, one of the Virginia commissioners, "they had stuck by us as long as our good liquor lasted, and were so kind to us as to drink our good Journey to the Mountains in the last Bottle we had left!" He also insinuates that Fitz^viUiam left because he was also a judge of the Williamsburg, Virginia, court, and hoped to draw double pay while Byrd and Dandridge con- tinued to run the line after his return. But in this he exult- antly records the fact that FitzwiUiam utterly failed. The Ninety-Mile Extension in 1749. In October, 1749, the line between North Carolina and Virginia was extended 22 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA from Peters creek, where it had ended in 1728 — which point is now in Stokes county — ninety miles to the westward to Steep Rock creek, crossing "a large branch of the Mississippi [New River], which runs between the ledges of the moun- tains" — as Governor Johnston remarked — "and nobody ever drempt of before." William Churton and Daniel Weldon were the commissioners on the part of North Carolina, and Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson on the part of Virginia. "It so happens, however, that no record of this survey has been preserved, and we are today without evidence, save from tradition, to ascertain the location of our boundary for ninety miles." 1' This extension carried the line to within about two miles east of the Holston river; and we know from the statute of 1779 providing for its further extension from that point upon the latitude of 36° 30' that it had been run considerably south of that latitude from Peters creek to Pond mountain, from which point it had, apparently without rhyme or reason, been run in a northeastwardly direction to the top of White Top mountain, ^ ^ about three miles north of its former course, and from there carried to Steep Rock creek, near the Holston river, in a due west course. The proverbial still-house, said to have been on White Top, is also said to have caused this aberration; but the probability is that the commissioners had a more substantial reason than that. The Last Extension of This Line. In 1779 North Caro- lina passed an act^^ reciting that as "the inhabitants of this State and of the Commonwealth of Virginia have settled them- selves further westwardly than the boundary between the two States hath hitherto been extended, it becomes expedient in order to prevent disputes among such settlers that the same should be now further extended and marked." To that end Orandates — improperly spelled in the Revised Statutes of 1837, Vol. ii, p. 82, "Oroondates" — Davie, John Williams Caswell, James Kerr, William Bailey Smith and Richard Henderson should be the commissioners on the part of North Carohna to meet similar commissioners from Virginia to still further extend it. But it was expressly provided that they should begin where the commissioners of 1749 had left off, and first ascertain if it be in latitude 36° 30', "and if it be found to be truly in" that latitude, then they were "to run from thence due west BOUNDARIES 23 to the Tennessee or the Ohio river; or if it be found not truly in that latitude, then to run from said place, due north or due south, into the said latitude, and thence due west to the said Tennessee or Ohio river, correcting the said course at due intervals by astronomical observations. " ^ » Colonial Records. Vol. iv, p. 13.) The Line Run in 1780. Richard Henderson was appoint- ed on the part of North Carolina, and Dr. Thomas Walker on that of Virginia, to run this line, and they began their task in the spring of 1780; and on the last day of March of that year Col. Richard Henderson met the Donelson party on its way from the Watauga settlements to settle at the French Lick, in the bend of the Cumberland. (Roosevelt, Vol. iii, p. 242.) But nine years before, in 1771, Anthony Bledsoe, one of the new-comers to the Watauga settlement, being a practical surveyor, and not being certain that that settlement was wholly within the borders of Virginia, extended the line of 1749 from its end near the Holston river far enough to the west to satisfy himself that the new settlement on the Watauga was in North Carohna. ^ i Disputed Carolina Boundary Lines. From the Prefa- tory Notes to Volume V, Colonial Records, p. 35, etc., it appears that the dispute between the two Carolinas as to boundary lines began in 1720 "when the purpose to erect a third Province in Carolina, ^ 2 with Savannah for its northern boundary," began to assume definite shape, but nothing was done till January 8, 1829-30, when a line was agreed on "to begin 30 miles southwest of the Cape Fear river, and to be run at that parallel distance the whole course of said river;" and in the following June Governor Johnson of South Caro- lina recommended that it run from a point 30 miles south- west of the source of the Cape Fear, shall be continued "due west as far as the South Sea," unless the "Waccamaw river lyes [sic] within 30 miles of the Cape Fear river," in which case that river should be the boundary. This was accepted by North Carolina until it was discovered that the "Cape Fear rose very close to the Virginia border," 23 and would not have "permitted any extension on the part of North Caro- lina to the westward." Meanwhile, both provinces claimed land on the north side of the Waccamaw river." 24 in 1732 Gov. Burrington [of North Carolina] published a proclama- 24 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA tion in Timothy's Southern Gazette, declaring the lands lying on the north side of the Waccamaw river to be within the Province of North Carolina, to which Gov. Johnson [of South Carolina] replied by a similar proclamation claiming the same land to belong to South Carolina; and also claiming that when they [the two governors] had met before the Board of Trade in London to settle this matter in 1829-'30, Barrington had "insisted that the Waccamaw should be the boundary from its mouth to its head," while South Carolina had contended that "the line should run 30 miles distant from the mouth of the Cape Fear river on the southwest side thereof, as set forth in the instructions, and that the Board had agreed thereto, unless the mouth of the Waccamaw river was within 30 miles of the Cape Fear river; in which case both Governor Barring- ton and himself had agreed that the Waccamaw river should be the boundary." The omission of the word "mouth" in the last part of the instructions Governor Johnson thought "only a mistake in wording it. " ^ ^ The Line Partially Run in 1735. In consequence of this dispute commissioners were appointed by both colonies, who were to meet on the 23d of April, 1735, and run a due west line from the Cape Fear along the sea coast for thirty miles, and from thence proceed northwest to the 35th degree north latitude, and if the Hne touched the Pee Dee river be- fore reaching the 35th degree, then they were to make an offset at five miles distant from the Pee Dee and proceed up that river till they reached that latitude; and from thence they were to proceed due west until they came to Catawba town; but if the town should be to the northward of the line, "they were to make an offset around the town so as to leave it in the South government." They began to run the hne in "May, 1735, and proceeded thirty miles west from Cape Pear . . . and then went northwest to the country road and set up stakes there for the mearing^^ or boundary of the two provinces, when they separated, agreeing to return on the 18th of the following September. " In September the line was run northwest about 70 miles, the South Carolina commis- sioners not arriving till October. These followed the hne run by the North Carolina commissioners about 40 miles, and finding it correct, refused to run it further because they had not been paid for their services. A deputy survej^or, how- BOUNDARIES 25 ever, took the latitude of the Pee Dee at the 35th parallel and set up a mark, which was from that date deemed to be the moarins or boundary at that place. Line Extended in 1737 and in 17G4. In 1737 the line was extended in the same direction 22 miles to a stake in a meadow supposed to be at the point of intersection with the 35th parallel of north latitude.-^ In 1764 the line was ex- tended from the stake due west 62 miles, intersecting the Charleston road from Salisbury, near Waxhaw creek -^ at a distance of 61 miles. The "Line of 1772." In 1772, after making the required offsets so as to leave the Catawba Indians in South Carolina in pursuance of the agreement of 1735, the line was "ex- tended in a due west course from the confluence of the north and south forks of the Catawba river to Tryon mountain." But North Carolina refused to agree to this line, insisting that "the parallel of 35° of north latitude having been made the boundary by the agreement of 1735, it could not be changed without their consent. . . . The reasons that controlled the commissioners in recommending this course . . . were that the observations of their own astronomer, President Cald- well of the University, showed there was a palpable error in running the line from the Pee Dee to the Salisbury road, that line not being upon the 35th parallel, but some 12 miles to the South of it, and that "the line of 1772" was just about far enough north of the 35th parallel to rectify the error, by allowing South Carolina to gain on the west of the Catawba river substantially what she had lost through misapprehen- sion on the east of it." North Carolina in 1813 "agreed that the hne of 1772" should be recognized as a part of the bound- ary. ^^ "The zig-zag shape of the line as it runs from the southwest corner of Union county to the Catawba river is due to the offsets already referred to, and which were neces- sary to throw the reservation of Catawba Indians into the Province of South Carolina." Northern and Southern Boundaries. The peace of 1783 \\'ith Great Britain did nothing more to secure our west- ern limits than to confirm us in the control of the territory already in our possession; for while the Great Lakes were rec- ognized as our northern boundary, Great Britain failed to formally admit that boundary till the ratification of the Jay 26 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA treaty, on the ground that we had failed to fulfill certain promises; and while she had likewise consented to recognize the 31st parallel as our southern boundary, it had been secretly agreed between America and Great Britain that, if she recov- ered West Florida from Spain, the boundary should run a hundred miles further north than the 31st parallel. For this land, drained by the Gulf rivers, had not been England's to grant, as it had been conquered and was then held by Spain. Nor was it actually given up to us until it was acquired by Pinckney's masterly diplomacy. (Roosevelt, Vol. iii, p. 283 et seq.) France's Duplicity. The reasons for these reservations were that while France had been our ally in the Revolution- ary war, Spain was also the ally of France both before and after the close of that conflict; and our commissioners had been instructed by Congress to "take no steps without the knowledge and advice of France." It was now the interest of France to act in the interest of Spain more than in that of America for two reasons, the first of which was that she wished to keep Gibralter, and the second, that she wished to keep us dependent on her as long as she could. Spain, however, was quite as hostile to us as England had been, and predicted the future expansion of the United States at the expense of Flor- ida, Louisiana and Mexico. Therefore, she tried to hem in our growiih by giving us the Alleghanies as our western boundary. The French court, therefore, proposed that we should content ourselves with so much of the trans-Alleghany territory as lay around the head waters of the Tennessee and between the Cumberland and Ohio, all of which was already settled; "and the proposal showed how important the French court deemed the fact of actual settlement. " But John Jay, supported by Adams, disregarded the instructions of Congress and negotiated a separate treaty as to boundaries, and gave us the Missis- sippi as our western boundary, but leaving to England the free navigation of the Mississippi. ^ (Roosevelt, Vol. iii, p. 284.) Inchoate Rights Only Under Colonl^l Charters. "In settling the claims to the western territory, much stress was laid on the old colonial charters; but underneath all the verbiage it was practically admitted that these charters con- ferred merely inchoate rights, which became complete only after conquest and settlement. The States themselves had BOUNDARIES 27 already by their actions shown that they admitted this to be the case. Thus, North Carolina, when by the creation of Washington county — now the State of Tennessee, — she rounded out her boundaries, specified them as running to the Mis- sissippi. As a matter of fact the royal grant, under which alone she could claim the land in question, extended to the Pacific; and the only difference between her rights to the regions east and west of the river was that her people were settling in one, and could not settle in the other. " (Roosevelt, Vol. iii, p. 285.) Western Lands an Obstacle. One of the chief objec- tions to the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, which Congress formulated and submitted to the States November 15, 1777, by some of the States was that each State had con- sidered that upon the Declaration of Independence it was pos- sessed of all the British lands which at any time had been in- cluded within its boundary; and Virginia, having in 1778, cap- tured a few British forts northwest of the Ohio, created out of that territory the "County of lUinois," and treated it as her property. Other States, having small claims to western ter- ritory, insisted that, as the western territory had been secured by a war in which all the States had joined, all those lands should be reserved to reward the soldiers of the Continental army and to secure the debt of the United States. Maryland, whose boundaries could not be construed to include much of the western land, refused to ratify the articles unless the claim of Virginia should be disallowed. It was proposed by Vir- ginia and Connecticut to close the union or confederacy with- out Maryland, and Virginia even opened a land office for the sale of her western lands; but without effect on Maryland. At this juncture. New York, which had less to gain from western territory than the other claimants, ceded her claims to the United States; and Virginia on January 2, 1781, agreed to do likewise. Thereupon Maryland ratified the articles, and on March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation were duly put into force. From that date Congress was acting under a written charter or constitution. (Hart, Sec. 45.) Cession of Western Territory. When, at the close of the Revolution, it became necessary that Congress take steps to carry out the pledge it had given (October 10, 1780) to see that such western lands should be disposed of for the common 28 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA benefit, and formed into distinct repul^lican States under the Union, it urged the States to cede their western territory to it to be devoted to the payment of the soldiers and the payment of the national debt. The northern tier of States soon after- wards ceded their territory, with certain reservations; but the process of cession went on more slowly and less satisfac- torily in the southern States. Virginia retained both juris- diction and land in Kentucky, while North Carolina, in 1790, granted "jurisdiction over what is now Tennessee," but every acre of land had already been granted by the State. (Hart, Sec. 52). This, however, is not strictly true, much Tennessee land not having been granted then. The Carolinas Agree to Extend "The Line of 1772." In 1803 the Legislature of North Carolina passed an act (Rev. Stat. 1837, Vol. II, p. 82) for the appointment of three com- missioners to meet other commissioners from South Carolina, to fix and establish permanently the boundary line between these two States "as far as the eastern boundary of the terri- tory ceded by the State of North Carolina to the United States. This act was amended in 1804, giving "the governor for the time being and his successor full power and authoriy to enter into any compact or agreement that he may deem most advisable" with the South Carolina and Georgia authori- ties for the settlement of the "boundary lines between these States and North Carolina." But this act seems only to have caused confusion and necessitated the passage of another act in 1806 declaring that the act of 1804 should "not be con- strued to extend or have any relation to the State of Georgia. " (Rev. Stat. 1837, p. 84.) Commissioners Meet in Columbia in 1808. ^ ** Commis- sioners of the States of North and South Carolina, however, met in Columbia, S. C, on the 11th of July, 1808, and among other things agreed to extend the line between the two States from the end of the line which had been run in 1772 "a direct course to that point in the ridge of mountains which divides the eastern from the western waters where the 35° of North latitude shall be found to strike it nearest the termination of said line of 1772, thence along the top of said ridge to the western extremity of the State of South Carolina. It being understood that the said State of South Carolina does not mean by this arrangement to interfere with claims which the BOUNDARIES 29 United States, or those holding under the act of cession to the United States, may have to lands which may lie, if any there be, between the top of the said ridge and the said 35° of north latitude." Agreement of September, 1813. ^ ^ But, although the commissioners from the two States met at the dc'signated point on the 20th of July, 1813, they found that they could not agree as to the ''practicability of fixing a boundary line according to the agreement of 1808," and entered into an- other agreement "at McKinney's, on Toxaway river, on the fourth day of September, 1813," by which they recommended that their respective States agree that the commissioners should start at the termination of the line of 1772 "and rim a line due west to the ridge dividing the waters of the north fork of the Pacolet river from the waters of the north fork of Saluda river; thence along the said ridge to the ridge that divides the Saluda waters from those of Green river; thence along the said ridge to where the same joins the main ridge which divides the eastern from the western waters, and thence along the said ridge to that part of it which is intersected by the Cherokee boundary line run in the year 1797; from the center of the said ridge at the point of intersection the line shall extend in a direct course to the eastern bank of Chatooga river, where the 35° of north latitude has been found to strike it, and where a rock has been marked by the aforesaid com- missioners with the followdng inscription, viz.: lat. 35°, 1813. It being understood and agreed that the said lines shall be so run as to leave all the waters of Saluda river within the State of South Carolina; but shall in no part run north of a course due west from the termination of the line of 1772." The commissioners who made the foregoing agreement were, on the part of North Carohna, John Steele, Montfort Stokes, and Robert Burton, and on the part of South Carolina Joseph Blythe, Henry Middleton, and John Blasingame. Rev. Stat. 1837, Vol. ii, p. 86). Commissioners Appointed in 1814. Pursuant to the above provisional articles of agreement North Carohna in 1814 ap- pointed General Thomas Love, General Montfort Stokes and Col. John Patton commissioners to meet other commission- ers from South Carolina to run and mark the boundary line between the two States in accordance with the recommenda- 30 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA tion of the commissioners who had met and agreed, "at Mc- Kinney's, on Toxaway river, on the 4th of September, 1813." (Rev. Stat. 1837, Vol. ii, p. 87). Around Head Springs of Saluda River. ^ - But these commissioners met and found, "by observations and actual experiments that a course due west from the termination of the line of 1772 would not strike the point of the ridge divid- ing the waters of the north fork of Pacolet river from the waters of the north fork of Saluda river in the manner con- templated, . . . and finding also that running a line on top of the said ridge so as to leave all the waters of Saluda river within the State of South Carolina would (in one place) run a little north of a course due west from the termination of the said line of 1772," agreed to run and mark a line "on the ridge around the head springs of the north fork of Saluda river," and recommended that such line be accepted by the two States. Termination of 1772 Line Starting Point of 1815 Line. Therefore the Legislature of North Carolina passed an act (Rev. Stat. 1837, Vol. ii, p. 89) fixing this Hne as "beginning on a stone set up at the termination of the line of 1772" and marked "N. C. and S. C. September fifteenth, eighteen hun- dred and fifteen," running thence west four miles and ninety poles to a stone marked N. C. and S. C, thence south 25° west 118 poles to the top of the ridge dividing the waters of the north fork of the Pacolet river from the north fork of the Saluda river . . . thence to the ridge that divides the Saluda waters from those of Green river and thence along that ridge to its junction with the Blue Ridge, and thence along the Blue Ridge to the line surveyed in 1797, where a stone is set up marked N. C. and S. C. 1813; and from this stone "a direct line south 6834° west 20 miles and 11 poles to the 35° of north latitude at the rock in the east bank of the Chatooga river, marked latitude 35 AD: 1813, in all a distance of 74 miles and 189 poles." Confirmation of Boundary Lines. In 1807 the North Carolina Legislature passed an act (Rev. Stat. 1837, Vol. ii, p. 90) which "fully ratified and confirmed" these two agreements, and another act (Rev. Stat. Vol. ii, p. 92) reciting that these two sets of commissioners "in conformity with these articles of agreement" had "run and marked in part the boundary BOUNDARIES 31 line between the said States." This act further recites that the North CaroHna commissioners "have reported the run- ning and marking of said boundary Hne as follows: "To commence at Ellicott's rock, '» and run due west on the 35° of north hxtitude, and marked as follows : The trees on each side of the line with three chops, the fore and aft trees with a blaze on the east and west side, the mile trees with the number of miles from Ellicott's rock, on tlie east side of the tree, and a cross on the east and west side; whereupon the line was commenced under the superintendance of the undersigned com- missioners jointly: Timothy Tyrrell, Esquire, surveyor on the part of the commissioners of the State of Georgia, and Robert Love, surveyor on the part of the commissioners of the State of North Carolina — upon which latitude the undersigned caused the line to be extended just thirty miles due west, marking and measuring as above described, in a conspic- uous manner throughout; in addition thereto they caused at the end of the first eleven miles after first crossing the Blue Ridge, a rock to be set up, descriptive of the line, engraved thereon upon the north side, Sep- tember 25, 1819, N. C, and upon the south side 35 degree N. L. G.; then after crossing the river Cowee or Tennessee, at the end of sixteen miles, near the road, running up and down the said river, a locust post marked thus, on the South side Ga. October 14, 1819; and on the north side, 35 degree N. L. N. C, and then at the end of twenty-one miles and three quarters, the second crossing of the Blue Ridge, a rock engraved on the North side 35 degree N. L. N. C, and on the south side Ga. 12th Oct., 1819; then on the rock at the end of the thirty miles, engraved thereon, upon the north side N. C. N. L. 35 degrees, which stands on the north side of a mountain, the waters of which fall into Shooting Creek, a branch of the Hiwassee, due north of the eastern point of the boundary line, between the States of Georgia and Tennessee, commonly called Montgomery's line, just sLx hundred and sLxty-one yards." The Legislature then enacted "That the said boundary line, as described in the said report, be, and the same is hereby fully established, ratified and confirmed forever, as the bound- ary line between the States of North Carolina and Georgia. " The last section of the act confirming the survey of the line from the Big Pigeon to the Georgia line, as run and marked by the commissioners of North Carolina and Teimessee in 1821, (Rev. Stat. 1837, Vol. ii, p. 97) provides "that a line run and known by the name of Montgomery's line, beginning six hundred and sixty-one yards due south of the termination of the line run by the commissioners on the part of this State and the State of Georgia, in the year one thousand eight hun- dred and nineteen, ending on a creek near the waters of Shoot- ing Creek, waters of Hiwassee, then along Montgomery's 32 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA line till it strikes the line run by commissioners on the part of North Carolina and Tennessee in 1821, to a square post marked on the east side N. C. 1821, and on the west side Tenn, 1821, and on the south side G. should to be the divid- ing line between North Carolina and Georgia, so soon as the above line shall be ratified on the part of the State of Georgia. " ORIGIN OF THE WALTON WAR. "North Carolina claimed for her southern boundary the 35th degree of north latitude. The line of this parallel, however, was at that time supposed to run about twelve miles north of what was subsequently ascertained to be its true location. Between this supposed line of 35° north latitude and the northernmost boundary of Georgia, as settled upon by a convention between that State and South Carolina in 1787, there interv^ened a tract of country of about twelve miles in width, from north to south, and extending from east to west, from the top of the main ridge of mountains which divides the eastern from the western waters to the Mississippi river. This tract remained, as was supposed, within the chartered limits of South Carolina, and in the year 1787 was ceded by that State to the United States, subject to the Indian right of occupancy. When the Indian title to the country therein described was ceded to the United States by the treaty of 1798 with the Cherokees, the eastern portion of this 12-mile tract fell within the limits of such cession. On its eastern extremity near the head-waters of the French Broad river, immediately at the foot of the main Blue Ridge Mountains, had been located, for a number of years prior to the treaty, a settlement of about fifty families of whites, who, by its ratification became occupants of the public domain of the United States, but who were outside of the territorial jurisdiction of any State. These settlers petitioned Congress to retrocede the tract of country upon which they resided to South Caro- lina, in order that they might be brought within the protection of the laws of that State. A resolution was reported in the House of Repre- sentatives from the committee to whom the subject had been referred, favoring such a course, but Congress took no efTective action on the sub- ject, and when the State boundaries came finally to be adjusted in that region the tract in question was found to be within the limits of North CaroUna.''^" The Walton War. That there should have been great confusion and uncertainty as to the exact boundary lines between the States in their earher history is but natural, especially in the case where the corners of three States come together, and still more especially when they come together in an inaccessible mountainous region, such as characterized the cornerstone between Georgia, South and North Caro- BOUNDARIES 33 Una. And that renegades and other lawless adventurers should take advantage of such a condition is still more natural. It is, therefore, not surprising to read in "The Heart of the AUeghanies, " (p. 224-5) that: "In early times, criminals and refugees from justice made the fastnesses of the wilderness hiding places. Their stay, in most cases, was short, seclusion furnishing their profession a barren field for operation. A few, however, remained, either adopting the wild, free life of the chase, or preying upon the property of the community." Walton County. Such a community existed at the com- mencement of the last century on the head waters of the French Broad river in what are now Jackson and Transyl- vania counties. Some even claimed that this territory be- longed to South Carolina. But Georgia, about December, 1803, created a county within this territory and called it Walton county. Georgia naturally attempted to exercise jurisdiction over what it really believed was its owti territory, and North Carolina as naturally resisted such attempts. Consequently, there were "great dissentions, . . . the said dissentions having produced many riots, affrays, assaults, batteries, woundings and imprisonments." The North Carolina and Georgia Line. On January 13, 1806, Georgia presented a memorial to the House of Rep- resentatives of Congress, complaining that North Carolina was claiming lands Ijdng within the State of Georgia, and asking that Congress interpose and cause the 35th degree of north latitude to be ascertained and the line between the two States plainly marked. The Twelve Miles "Orphan" Strip. This was referred to a committee which, on February 12th, reported that "be- tween the latitude of 35° north, which is the southern boundary claimed by North Carolina, and the northern boundary of Georgia, as settled by a convention between that State and South Carolina, intervenes a tract of country supposed to be about twelve miles wide, from north to south, and extending in length from the western boundary of Georgia, at Nicajack, on the Tennessee, to his northeastern hmits at Tugalo, and was consequently within the limits of South Carolina, and in the year 1887 it was ceded to the United States, who [sic] accepted the cession." This territory remained in the posses- sion of the United States until 1802, when it was ceded to the w. N. c. 3 34 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA State of Georgia, when the estimated numl^er of settlers on it was 800. It was not known where these settlers came from; but the land had belonged to the Cherokees until 1798 when a part of it was purchased by the whites by treaty held at Tellico. 3 5 Walton County, Georgia. At the earnest entreaty of these inhabitants Georgia in 1803 formed the inhabited part of this territory into Walton county and appointed commis- sioners to meet corresponding commissioners to be appointed by North Carolina to ascertain and mark the line. But Congress took no definite action on this report. A Survey Agreed Upon. The two States, in 1807, came to an agreement as to the basis of a survey. In a letter dated at Louisville, Ga., December 10, 1806, Gov. Jared Irwin to Gov. Nathaniel Alexander of North Carolina, enclosed sun- dry resolutions adopted by the legislature of Georgia, and announced that that body had appointed Thomas P. Carnes, Thomas Flournoy and William Barnett as commissioners to ascertain the 35th° of north latitude *'and plainly mark the dividing line between the States of North Carolina and Geor- gia. " On January 1, 1807, Gov. Alexander enclosed to Gov. Irwin a copy of an act of the legislature passed at the preced- ing session assenting to the proposition of Georgia and ap- pointing John Steele, John Moore and James Welbourne •commissioners on the part of North Carolina. It was sub- sequently agreed that the commissioners from both States should meet at Asheville June 15, 1807; Rev. Joseph Caldwell, president of the North Carolina University, was the scientist for North Carolina, while Mr. J. Meigs represented Georgia -in that capacity. The Record. In the minute docket of the county court of Buncombe, pp. 104 and 363, the proceedings of these com- missioners are set forth in full, sho-vving that Thomas Flour- noy, one of the Georgia commissioners, did not attend but that on the 18th of June, 1807, the others met at Bun- combe court house and agreed on a basis of procedure, the most important point being that the 35th parallel was to be first ascertained, after which it was to be marked and agreed on as the line. This they proceeded to do, with the result that on the 27th of June, at Douthard's gap on the summit of the BOUNDARIES 35 Blue Kidge, they signed a supplemental agreement to the effect that they had discovered by repeated astronomical ob- servations that the 35th degree of north latitude is not to be found on any part of said ridge east of the line established by the general government as the temporary boundary between the white people and the Indians, and having no authority to proceed over that boundary "in order to ascertain and mark that degree," they agreed that Georgia had no right to claim any part of the territory north or west of the Blue Ridge and east or south of the present temporary line between the whites and Indians; and would recommend to the Georgia Legislature that it repeal the act which had established the county of Walton on North Carolina soil. Both sets of commissioners then agreed to recommend amnesty for all who had been guilty of violating the laws of either State under the assumption that it had no jurisdiction over that territory. Following is the story as to how they had reached this agree- ment: The "Astonishment" of the Georgians. ^^ These scien- tists made their first observations at the house of Mr. Amos Justice, which they supposed to be on or near the dividing line of 35° north latitude, but discovered that it was "22 miles with- in old Buncombe," which astonished them; for Mr. Sturges, the Surveyor General of Georgia, had previously ascertained this meridian to be at the junction of Davidson's and Little rivers. But, said the Georgia commissioners in their report to their governor, they were "accompanied by an artist [sic] appointed by the government [of the United States] whose talents and integrity we have no reason to doubt," whose observations accorded very nearly with their own; they "were under the necessity of suspending our astonishment and pro- ceeding on the duty assigned us." Supplementary Agreement at Cesar's Head. When they got to the junction of Davidson and Little rivers and found that they were still 17 minutes north of the 35th meridian, they "proceeded to Csesar's Head, a place on the Blue Ridge about 12 horizontal miles directly south and in the vicinity of Douthet's Gap, which was from 2' 57" to 4' 54" north of the 35th parallel. They then signed the supplementary agreement of June 27. 36 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Georgia's Sporting Blood. On December 28, 1808, Gov. Irwin of Georgia wrote to Governor Stone of North Carolina, asking for the appointment of a new commission on the part of North Carolina to meet one already appointed by the leg- islature of Georgia; but Gov. Stone declined in a communi- cation of March 21, 1809, in which he states that it "does not readily occur to us on what basis the adjustment is to rest, if not upon that where it now stands — the plighted faith of two States to abide by the determination of commissioners mutu- ally chosen for the purpose of making the adjustment those commissioners actually made". On December 7, 1807, North Carolina had adopted and ratified the joint report of the com- missioners of the two States and on December 18 "passed an act of amnesty for offenders within the disputed territory. " ^ ^ Georgia is Snubbed. ^ ^ But Georgia sent still another petition to Congress by way of appeal, and its legislature on December 5, 1807, "put forth an earnest protest against the decision arrived at by their own commissioners." But al- though on April 26, 1810, Mr. Bibb of Georgia, asked the United States to appoint some person to run the dividing line, and it was referred to a select committee on the 27th of the following December, that committee never reported. Georgia must have become reconciled, however, for in 1819 its legislature refused relief to certain citizens who had claimed land in this disputed territory. Contour Map and 35th Parallel. The late Captain W. A. Curtis, for a long time editor of the Franklin Press, said, in "A Brief History of Macon County," (1905) p. 23,^8 that "it has long been accepted as a fact that the southern bound- ary of Macon and Clay counties, constituting the State line between North Carolina and Georgia, is located on the 35th parallel of north latitude. This is either a mistake or else the latest topographical charts are incorrect. According to the charts a straight line starts from the top of Indian Camp mountain on the southern boundary of Translyvania county, 6^ miles north of the 35th parallel, and dips somewhat south of west until it reaches the Endicott (Ellicut) Rock at the corner of South Carolina exactly on the 35th parallel, and, instead of turning due west at this place, it continues on a straight line for about twenty miles, or to 83 3^^ degrees west longitude, which is near the top of the Ridge Pole, close by BOUNDARIES 37 the southwest corner of Macon county; then it turns due west, running parallel with the 35th, and about one mile south of it, on towards Alabama. One peculiarity of this survey is that Estatoa, or Mud Creek Falls, which has long been considered as being in Georgia, are, according to the map, in North Carolina. ]\Iud creek crosses the State line a few yards above the falls into North Carolina, and at about half way between the falls and the Tennessee river passes back into Georgia. But, by examining some old records belonging to the State Library at Raleigh in 1881, I am convinced that the line between the States of Georgia and North Carolina has never been correctly surveyed." The North Carolina and Tennessee Boundary. By the Cessions Act, Revised Statutes, 1837, Vol. ii, p. 171, North Carolina authorized one or both United States Senators or any two members of Congress to execute a deed or deeds to the United States of America of the lands west of a line begin- ning on the extreme height of the Stone mountain, at the place where the Virginia line intersects it, running thence along the extreme height of the said mountain to the place where Watauga river breaks through it, thence a direct course to the top of the Yellow Mountain, where Bright's road crosses the same, thence along the ridge of said mountains between the waters of Doe river and the waters of Rock creek to the place where the road crosses the Iron mountain, from thence along the extreme height of said mountain, to where Nole- chucky river runs through the same, thence to the top of the Bald mountain, thence along the extreme height of the said mountain to the Painted Rock, on French Broad river, thence along the highest ridge of the said mountain to the place where it is called the Great Iron or Smoky mountam, thence along the extreme height of said mountain to the place where it is called Unicoy or Unaka mountain, between the Indian towns of Cowee and Old Chota, thence along the main ridge of the said mountain to the southern boundary of this State." The 10th section provided that "this act shall not prevent the people now residing south of French Broad, between the rivers Tennessee and Pigeon, from entering their pre-emp- tions on that tract, should an office be opened for that purpose under an act of the present general assembly." 38 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA To Pay Debts and Establish Harmony. The reasons for making this cession are set out in the act itself and are to the effect that Congress has "repeatedly and earnestly recom- mended to the respective States . . . claiming or owning vacant western territory," to make cession to part of the same, as a further means "of paying the debts and establish- ing the harmony of the United States;" "and the inhabitants of the said western territory being also desirious that such cession should be made, in order to obtain a more ample pro- tection than they have heretofore received." The act also provides that neither the land nor the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be estimated in ascertaining North Carolina's proportion of the common expense occasioned by the war for independence. Also that in case the lands laid off by North Carolina for the "officers and soldiers of the Continental line" shall not "contain a sufficient quantity of lands fit for cultiva- tion to make good the quota intended by law for each, such officer or soldier who shall fall short of his proportion may make up the deficiency out of lands of the ceded territory." Having been admonished by the claim of the citizens of Watauga that until Congress should accept the ceded territory they would be in a state "of political orphanage," the legislature, later in the session of 1784, had been careful to pass another act by which North Carolina retained jurisdiction and sover- eignty over the land west of the mountains, and continued in force all existing North Carolina laws, "until the same shall be repealed or otherwise altered by the legislative authority of said territory." The act ordering the survey is ch. 461, Potter's Revisal, p. 816, Laws 1796. The First Tennessee Boundary Survey. From the narratives of David Vance and Robe rt Henr^^ of the battles of Kings Mountain ^ ^ and Cowan's Ford, as well as from the dairy of John Strother, can be gathered a fine account of the survey from Virginia to the Painted Rock on the French Broad and the Stone on the Cataloochee Turnpike. The sur- vey began on the 20th of May and ended Friday the 28th of June, 1799. The original of Strother's diary is filed in the suit of the Virginia, Tennessee & Carolina Steel and Iron Com- pany vs. Newman, in the United States court at Asheville, N. C. The actual survey began May 22d, "at a sugar-tree and beech on Pond mountain, so called from two small ponds on it." BOUNDARIES 39 Both trees are now gone, and a stone four feet by two feet by sixteen inches in thickness, is buried in the ground where they stood, with a simple cross, east and west, chiseled upon it. Its upjier surface is level with the ground, and it was placed there in 1899 or 1900 by a Mr. Buchanan of the United States coast survey. Marion Miller and John and Alfred Bivins assisted him. Mr. Miller still lives within a mile and a half of the corner rock. Strother's party set out from Asheville May 12, and reached Capt. Robert Walls on New River, where Strother arrived on the 17th, and met with Major Mussendine Mathews, of whom Judge David Schenck says'"' that he "rep- resented Iredell county in the House of Commons from 1789 to 1802 continuously. He was either a Tory or a Cynic, it seems." They were awaiting the arrival of Col. David Vance and Gen. Joseph McDowell, but as they did not come, Strother went to the house of a Mr. Elsburg on the 18th. The Party Gathers. Col. Vance and Major B. Collins arrived on the 19th, and they all went to Captain Isaac Weaver's. They were General Joseph McDowell, Col. David Vance, Major Mussendine Mathews, commissioners; John Strother and Robert Henry, surveyors; Messers. B. ColHns, James Hawkins, George Penland, Robert Logan, Geo. David- son, and J. jMatthews, chain-bearers and markers; Major James Neely, commissary; two pack-horse men and a pilot. They camped that night on Stag creek. On the night of the 23d of May they camped "at a very bad place" in a low gap at the head of Laurel Fork of New river and Laurel Fork of Holston at the head of a branch, "after having passed through extreme rough ground and some bad laurel thickets." A road now runs through that laurel thicket, built since the Civil War, and runs from Hemlock postoffice, where there is now a narrow gauge lumber railroad and an extract plant, to Laurel Bloom- ery, in Tennessee. A small hotel now stands half on the North Carolina and half on the Tennessee side of the line those men then ran, and the gap is called "Cut Laurel" gap because it is Uterally cut through the laurel for a mile or more. * ^ Thou- sands of gallons of blockade whiskey used to be carried through that gap when there was nothing but a trail there. It is called by Mr. Strother a low gap, but it is one of the highest in the mountains. On the 28th they went to a Mr. Miller's and got a young man to act as a pilot. Strother went from Miller's 40 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA "to Cove creek, where I got a Mr. Curtis and met the company in a low gap between the waters of Cove creek and Roan's creek where the road crosses the same," on Wednesday night, the 29th. Crossed Boone's Trail. This, in all probability, is the gap through which Daniel Boone and his party had passed in 1769 on their way to Kentucky. It is between Zionville, N. C. and Trade, Tenn., and the gap is so low that one is not con- scious of passing over the top of a high mountain. Tradition says that an Indian trail went through the same gap, and traces of it are still visible to the north of the present turn- pike. The young man who had been employed as a pilot at Mr. Miller's house on the 28th was found on the 29th not to be a "woodsman and of course he was discharged." On June 1st they came to the "Wattogo" river, where they killed a bear, "very poor," upon which and "some bacon stewed together, with some good tea and johnny cake we made a Sab- bath morning breakfast fit for a European Lord." There is a tradition among the people living near the falls of the Watauga at the State line, that the line between the peak to the north of the falls and the Yellow mountain was not actually run and marked; but the field notes of both Strother and Henry show that the line was both run and marked all the w&y. The reason the line was run from the peak north of the Watauga to the bald of the Yellow was because the act required it to be run in precisely that way; the language being "to the place where Watauga river breaks through it [the mountain], thence a direct course to the top of the Yellow Mountain where Bright's road crosses the same." As it is impossible to see the Yellow from the river at the falls where the river breaks through, it was necessary to get the course from the top of the peak north of the river. Rattlebugs. On Saturday, June 1st, they came upon "a very large rattlebug, " which they "attempted to kill, but it was too souple in the heels for us. " On the night of May 31st they had had "severe lightning and some hard slaps [sic] of thunder." Laurel and Ivy. There are some who, nowadays, contend that ivy and laurel did not grow in these mountains while the Indians occupied them, and cite as proof that it is almost BOUNDARIES 41 impossible to tincl a laurel log with rings indicating more than a hundred years of growth. But Bishop Spangenburg men- tions having encountered laurel on what is supposed to have been the Grandfather mountain in 1752, and John Strother, in his diary of the survey between Virginia and North Caro- lina in 1799, repeatedly mentions it, both before and after crossing the ridge which divides the waters of Nollechucky from those of the French Broad. What are now known as the "Ivory Slicks," is a tunnel cut through the otherwise impen- etrable ivy on the slope between the Hang Over and Dave Orr's cabins on Slick Rock, south of the Little Tennessee. Two Wagon Roads Across the Mountains. Even at that early date there seem to have been two roads crossing the mountains into Tennessee, for the very next call of the statute is "thence along the ridge of said mountain between the waters of Doe river and the waters of Rock creek to the place where the road crosses the Iron mountain." Bright used to live at the Crab Orchard, long known as Avery's Quarters, about a mile above Plum Tree, and where W. W. Avery now lives. * ^ On the 5th of June Major Neely "turned off the line today and went to Doe river settlements for a fresh supply of provisions," and was to meet them at the Yellow mountain, where on that day the trees were "just creeping out of their Avinter garb," and where "the lightning and thunder were so severe that they were truly alarming." From "the yellow spot" on the Yellow, whither they had gone to take observations, but were prevented by the storm, "we went back and continued the line on to a low gap at the head of Roaring or Sugar creek of Towe [sic] river and a creek of Doe river at the road leading from Morganton to Jonesborough, where we encamped as wet as we could be." This fixes the main road between North Caro- lina and the Watauga settlement, which had been finished in 1772, and over which Andrew Jackson was to pass in the spring of 1788. * ^ Robert Henry mentions a Gideon Lewis as one of the guides from White Top mountain, and it is re- markable that a direct descendant of his and having his name is now living at Taylor's Valley, near Konarok, Va., and that several others now live near Solitude or Ashland, N. C. Was This Ever "No Man's Land"? When the survey- ing party came to the Yellow they found that the compass had been deflected when it had been sighted from the peak just 42 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA north of Watauga Falls, caused doubtless by the proximitj^ to the Cranberry Iron mountain, of whose existence apparently they then had no knowledge. Of late years some have supposed that the "territory between the Iron mountain and the Blue Ridge, after the act of cession, was left out of any county from 1792 or 1793 till 1818 or 1822, and was without any local government till it was annexed to Burke county." L. D. Lowe, Esq., in the Watauga Democrat of July 3d, 1913, gave the following explanation: "It is quite true that there was no local government, but it was not for the reason that this part of the territory was not claimed by Burke county; but it was because the lands had been granted to a few, and there were only a limited number of people within the territory to be governed, hence there was very little attention paid to it." In previous articles in the same paper he had shown that "the reason this territory had not been settled at an earlier date" was because "the State had been paid for more than three hundred thousand acres embraced within the boundaries of six grants, " but had failed to refer to the fact that "these grants or some of them had especially excepted certain other grants within their boundaries — for example, certain grants to Waightstill Avery, Reuben White, John Dobson and others. Within the past twenty-five years it has been clearly demon- strated that some of the Cathcart grants run with the Ten- nessee line for 14 miles." Home Comfoets. "Mr. Hawkins and myself went down to Sugar creek to a Mr. Currey's, where we got a good supper and a bed to sleep in," continues the diary. Evidently the food in the camp had about given out, for we hear nothing more of meals "fit for a European Lord;" but, instead, of the comforts of good Mr. Currey's bed and board. Here too they "took breakfast with Mrs. Currey, got our clothes washed and went to camp, where IMajor Neely met us with a fresh supply of provisions. It rained all day [and] of course we are still at our camp at the head of Sugar creek." Pleasant Beech Flats. The next day they crossed "high spur of the Roan mountain to a low gap therein where we encamped at a pleasant Beech flat and good spring. " An}^ one who has never seen one of these "pleasant beech flats" would scarcely realize what they are like. As one ascends any of the higher mountains of North Carolina, the BOUNDARIES 43 size of all the trees perceptibly diminish, especially near the six thousand feet line, to be succeeded, generally, on the less precipitous slopes, by miniature beech trees, perfect in shape, but resembling the so-called dwarf-trees of the Japanese. They really seem to be toy trees. John Strotiier's Flowers of Rhetoric. It was here that they "spent the Sabbath day in taking observations from the high spur we crossed, in gathering the fir oil of the Balsam of Pino which is found on the mountain, in collecting a root said to be an excellent preventative against the bite of a rattle- snake, and in visioning the wonderful scene this conspicuous situation affords. There is no shrubbery grows on the tops of this mountain for several miles, say, and the wind has such a power on the top of this mountain that the ground is blowed in deep holes all over the northwest sides. The prospect from the Roan mountain is more conspicuous [extensive?] than from any other part of the Appelatchan mountains." Cloudland. a modern prospectus of the large and comfortable hostelry, called the Cloudland hotel, which has crowned this magnificent mountain for more than thirty years, the result of the ardor and enterprise of Gen. John H. Wilder of Chattanooga, Tenn., could not state the charms of this most charming resort, now become the sure refuge of hundreds of sufferers from that scourge of late summer and early autumn and kno\\Ti'as hay fever, more invitingly. Unsurpassed View. Of the magnificence of this view a later chronicler has this to say: "That view from the Roan eclipses everything I have ever seen in the White, Green, Cat- skill and Virginia mountains. " This is a statement put into the mouth of a Philadelphia lawyer in 1882 by the authors of "The Heart of the Alleghanies, " p. 253. Mountain Moonshine. On Monday they "proceeded on between the head of Rock creek and Doe river, and en- camped in a low gap between these two streams. The next day they went five or six miles to the foot of the Iron mountain to a place they called Strother's Camp, where they had some good songs, "then raped [wrapped] ourselves up in our blank- ets and slep sound till this morning." Here "Cols. Vance and Neely went to the Limestone settlements for a pilot, returned to us on the line at two o'clock with a Mr. Collier as pilot and two gallons whiskey, we stop, drank our own health 44 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA and proceeded on the line. Ascended a steep spur of the Unaker mountain, got into a bad laurel thicket, cut our way- some distance. Night came on, we turned off and camped at a very bad place, it being a steep laurelly hollow," but the whiskey had such miraculous powers that it made the place "tolerably comfortable." Bad Luck on the Thirteenth. On Thursday the 13th, if they were superstitious, the expected bad luck happened; for here they were informed that for the next two or three days' march the pack-horses could not proceed on the line — that is, could not follow the extreme height of the mountain crest. This was a calamity indeed; but what was the result? How did these men meet it? We read how: Between Hollow Poplar and Greasy Cove. "Myself [John Strother] together with the chain-bearers and markers packed our provisions on our backs and proceeded on with the line, the horses and rest of the company was conducted round by the pilot a different route. We continued the line through a bad laurel thicket to the top of the Unaker mountain and along the same about three miles and camped at a bad laurelly branch." On Friday, however, they came "to the path crossing [the Unaker mountain] from Hollow Poplar to the Greasy Cove and met our company. It rained hard. We encamped on the top of the mountain half a mile from water and had an uncomfortable evening. " Devil's Creek and Lost Cove. It seems that the infor- mation Mr. Collier had given "respecting the Unaker moun- tain was false," and Mr. Strother prevailed upon the com- missioners to discharge him on Saturday the 15th of June. They then crossed the Nolechucky "where it breaks through the Unaker or Iron mountain." Here it is that that match- less piece of modern railroad engineering, the C. C. &. O. R. R., disputes with the "Chucky" its dominion of the canon and transports from its exhaustless coal mines in Virginia hundreds of tons of the finest coal to its terminus on the Atlantic coast. Robert He_nry Meets His Fate. Here, too, it being again found "impracticable to take horses from this place on the line to the Bald mountain, Mr. Henry, the chain-bearers and markers, took provisions on their backs [and] proceeded on the line and the horses went round by the Greasy Cove and BOUNDARIES 45 met the rest of the company on Sunday on the top of the Bald mountain, where we tarried till Tuesday morning." "Tarrying" in the Greasy Cove. One cannot help wondering why they "tarried" here so long; but no one who has ever visited that "Greasy Cove" and shared the hospital- ity of its denizens need long remain without venturing a guess; for it is a pleasant place to be, with the "red banks of Chucky" still crumbling in the bend of the river and the ravens croak- ing from their clifi's among the fastnesses of the Devil's Look- ing Glass looming near. ■* ■• The C. C. & O. have their immense shops here now, covering almost a hundred acres of land. Vance's Camp. From the Bald mountain, now in Yancey county, it seems that Col. Love became their pilot; and five or six miles further on in "a low gap between the head of Indian creek and the waters of the south fork of Laurel, we encamped and called it Vance's Camp." The richness of the moun- tains is noted. The Grier Bald. This Bald is sometimes called the Grier Bald from the fact that David Grier, a hermit, lived upon it for thirty-two years. * ^ Grier was a native of South Carolina who, because one of the daughters of Col. David Vance refused to marry him, built himself a log house here in 1802, just three years after Colonel Vance had passed the spot, and it is probable Grier first heard of it through this gentleman. In a quarrel over his land he killed a man named Holland Higgins and was acquitted on the ground of insanity "and returned home to meet his death at the hands of one of Hol- land's friends." Boone's Cove. On Wednesday the 19th of June, after having suffered severely the previous night from gnats, they went to "Boone's Cove, between the waters of Laurel and Indian creeks," while on the 20th they had to pass over steep and rocky and brushy knobs, with water scarce and a consid- erable distance from the line. All day Friday their horses suffered from want of water and food, part of the way being impassable for horses; while on Saturday it took them "four hours and 23 minutes" to cut their way one and one-fourth miles to the top of the mountain, where, after getting through the laurel, they "came into an open flat on top of Beech moun- tain where we camped till Monday at a good spring and excel- lent range for our horses." 46 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA A Recruit of Bacon. On Monday, the 24th of June, their provisions began to fail them again, but they proceeded on the line six miles and "crossed the road leading from Bar- nett's Station to the Brushy Cove and encamped in a low gap between the waters of Paint creek and Laurel river. " *^ They had a wet evening here; but as they "suped on venison stewed with a recruit of bacon Major Neely brought in this day from the Brushy Cove settlement," we may hope their lot was not altogether desolate; for it is possible that this enterprising commissary, Major Neely, might have brought them something besides that "recruit of bacon"; for it will be recalled that on a former occasion he went for a pilot and returned not only with a pilot but with two gallons of a liquid that "had such marvelous powers" that it made a very "bad place" "tolerably comfortable." Barnett's Station. At any rate, they knew they were nearing the end of their long and arduous journey, for they had now reached the waters of Paint creek, which they must have known was in the neighborhood of the "Painted Rock," their destination. The Barnett Station referred to above was probably Barnard's old stock stand on the French Broad river, five or six miles below Marshall. Off the Track for Awhile. After losing their way on the 25th and "having a very uncomfortable time of it" on Paint creek, they got on the "right ridge from the place we got off of it and proceeded on the line five miles and encamped between the waters of F. B. R. [French Broad river] and Paint creek. " "Hasey" and "Anctoous." Thursday 27. This morning is cloudy and hasey. The Commissioners being anctoous to get on to the Painted Rock started us early"; but they took a wrong ridge again and had to return and spend an uncom- fortable evening. Dropping the Plummet from Paint Rock. However, on Friday, the 28th day of June, 1799, they reached the Painted Rock at last and measured its height, finding it to be "107 feet three inches high from the top to the base," that "it rather projects out," and that "the face of the rock bears but few traces of its having formerly been painted, owing to its being smoked by pine knots and other wood from a place at its base where travellers have frequently camped. In the year 1790 it was not much smoked, the pictures of some BOUNDARIES 47 humans, wild beasts, fish and fowls were to be seen plainly made with red paint, some of them 20 and 30 feet from its base." Animal Pictures Have Disappeared. How muoh more satisfactory this last sentence would have been if he had only added: "I saw them." For, as the rock appears today, the red paint seems to be nothing more or less than the oxida- tion of the iron in the exposed surfaces, while all trace of "some humans, wild beasts," etc., mentioned by him have entirely disappeared. The Real "Painted Rock." However, he leaves us in no doubt that they had reached the real Painted Rock called for by the Act of Cession, ceding "certain lands therein de- scribed"; for he goes on to say that, while "some gentlemen of Tennessee wish to construe as the painted rock referred to" another rock in the French Broad river "about seven miles higher up on the opposite or S. W. side in a very obscure place," that "it is to be observed that there is no rock on French Broad river that ever was known as the painted rock but the one first described, which has, ever since the River F. Broad was explored by white men, been a place of Pub- Hck Notoriety." Surpasses a "Best Seller" of To-day. This is the next to the concluding sentence in this quaint and charming nar- rative — a narrative that one hundred and fifteen years after it was penned can still be read with more interest than many of the so-called "best sellers" of the present day. "We then went up to the Warm Springs where we spent the evening in conviviality and friendship. " The Loneliness of Bachelorhood. But it is in the very last sentence that one begins to suspect that John Strother was at that time a bachelor, for we read : "Saturday, 29th. The Company set out for home to which place I wish them a safe arrival and happy reception, as for myself I stay at the Springs to get clear of the fatigue of the Tour." One wonders whose bright eyes made his "fatigue" so much greater than that of the others and kept him so long at the springs. To THE "Big Pigeon." The line from the Painted Rock to the Big Pigeon was run a few weeks later on by the same 48 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA commissioners and surveyors; but we have no narrative of the trip, which, doubtless, was without incident, though the way, probably, was rough and rugged. Second Tennessee Boundary Survey. North Carolina having acquired by the treaty of February 27, 1819, all lands from the mouth of the Hiwassee "to the first hill which closes in on said river, about two miles above Hiwassee Old Town; thence along the ridge which divides the waters of the Hiwassee and Little Tellico to the Tennessee river at Talas- see; thence along the main channel to the junction of the Cowee and Nanteyalee; thence along the ridge in the fork of said river to the top of the Blue Ridge; thence along the Blue Ridge to the Unicoy Turnpike road; thence by straight line to the nearest main source of the Chastatee; thence along its main channel to the Chattahoochee, etc.,"^^ it became necessary to complete its boundary line from the Big Pigeon at the Cataloochee turnpike southwest to the Georgia line. To that end it passed, in 1819 (2 R. S. N. C, 1832), an act under which James Mebane, Montford Stokes and Robert Love were appointed commissioners for North Carolina for the pur- pose of running and marking said line. These commissioners met Alexander Smith, Isaac Allen and Simeon Perry, com- missioners representing Tennessee, at Newport, Tenn., at the mouth of the Big Pidgeon, July 16, 1821; and, starting from the stone in the Cataloochee turnpike road which had been set up by the commissioners of 1799, they ran in a southwest- wardly course to the Bald Rock on the summit of the Great Iron or Smoky mountain, and continued along the main top thereof to the Little Tennessee river. The notes of W. Dav- enport's field book give as detailed an account of the progress of these commissioners and surveyors as did John Strother's in 1799; but as they met no one betw'een these two points there was little to relate. The same or another party might follow the same route to-day and they w^ould meet no one. But Mr. Davenport does not call the starting point a "turn- pike." He calls it a "track," which was quite as much as it could lay claim to, the present turnpike having been built from Jonathan's creek up Cove creek, across the Hannah gap, passing the Carr place and up the Little Cataloochee, through Mount Sterling gap, as late as the fifties. ^ ^ At twenty miles from the starting point they were on "the top of an extreme BOUNDARIES 49 high pinnacle in view of Sevierville. " At 22 miles they were at the Porter gap, from which, in 1853, Eli Arrington (^f Waynes- ville carried on his shoulders W. W. Rhinehart, dying of milk-sick, three miles tlown the Bradley fork of Ocona Luftee to a big poplar, where Rhinehart died. Near here, although they did not know it then, an alum cave was one day to be discovered, out of which, in the lean years of the Southern Confederacy, Col. William H. Thomas and his Indians were to dig for alum, copperas, saltpeter and a little magnesia to be used in the hospitals of this beleaguered land, in default of standard medicines which had been made contraband of war. Arnold Guyot and S. B. Buckley. Here, too, Arnold Guyot, the distinguished professor of geology and physical geography of Princeton college, came in 1859, following Prof. S. B. Buckley, and made a series of barometric measurements, not alone of the Great Smoky mountain chain, but also of that little known and rugged group of peaks wholly in Tennessee, knoNVTi as the Bull Head mountains. Doubtful of a Road Ever Crossing the Smokies. Surveyor Davenport noted a low gap through which "if there ever is a wagon road through the Big Smoky mountain, it must go through this gap." Well, during the Civil War, Col. Thomas, with his "sappers and miners," composed of Cherokee Indians and Union men of East Tennessee, did make a so-called wagon road through this gap, now called Collins gap; and through it, in January, 1864, General Robert B. Vance carried a section of artillery, dragging the dismounted cannon, not on skids, but over the bare stones, only to be captured himself with a large part of his command at Causbey creek two days later. But no other vehicle has ever passed that frightful road, save only the front wheels of a wagon, as it is dangerous even to walk over its precipitous and rock- ribbed course. No other road has ever been attempted, and this one has been abandoned, except by horsemen and foot- men, for years. Not even a wagon track is visible. On the 7th of August they came at the 31st mile to Meigs' Post. At the 34th mile they came in view of Brassto^vn; and next day, at the 45th mile, they reached the head of Little river, and must have been in plain view of Tuckalecchee Cove and near Thunderhead mountain, both immortalized by Miss Mary N. Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock) in her stories of the w. N. c. — 4 50 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Tennessee mountains. On the 11th they were at the head of Abram's creek, which flows through Cade's Cove into the Little Tennessee at that gem of all mountain coves, the Har- den farm at Talassee ford. On the 13th they came to a "red oak ... at Equeneetly path to Cade's cove." This is only a trail, and is at the head of one of the prongs of Eagle creek and not far from where Jake and Quil Rose, two famous mountaineers, lived in the days of blockade stills. Of course they did not still any! On this same unlucky 13th, they came to the top of a l^ald spot in sight of Talassee Old Town, at the 57th mile. This is the Harden farm spoken of above, and is a tract of about 500 acres of level and fertile land. On the 16th they passed over Parsons and Gregorj^ Balds. On this day also they crossed the Little Tennessee river "to a large white pine on the south side of the river at the mouth of a large creek, 65th mile." From there on to the Hiwassee turnpike the boundary line is in dispute, the case being now before the Supreme Court of the United States. One of the marks still visible is that made on the 19th, at the 86th mile, "a holly tree . . . near the head of middle fork of TelUco river." They were then close to what has since been known as State Ridge, on which in July, 1892, William Hall, stand- ing on the North Carolina side of the line, was to shoot and kill Andrew Bryson; and if these surveyors had not done their work well, Hall might have suffered severely; for, all uncon- sciously, this man was to invoke the same law Carson and Vance and other noted duellists had relied on, when they "fought across the State line."^^ Zim. Roberts, who lives under the Devil's Looking Glass, says that a healthy white oak tree, under which Hall was standing when he fired at Bryson, began to die immediately and is now quite dead. On the 20th of August they were at "the 89th mile, at the head of Beaver Dam" creek of Cherokee county, N. C, and not far from the Devil's Looking Glass, " an ugly cHff of rock, where the ridge comes to an abrupt and almost perpendicular end. On that day, at the 93d mile, they came to "the trad- ing path leading from the Valley Towns to the Overhill set- tlements," reaching the 95th mile on that path before they paused. That Sahara-Like Thirst. On the 24th, at the 96th mile, they w^ere on the top of the Unicoy mountain, and on BOUNDARIES 51 the same (l:i\- they reached "the hickory and rock at the wagon road, tlic lOlst mile, at the end of the Unicoy moun- tain." It was here that tradition says that the Sahara-Uke thirst overtook the party; as from the 101st mile post their course was "due south 15 miles and 220 poles to a post oak post on the Georgia line, at 23 poles west of the 72d mile from the Nick-a-jack Old Town on the Tennessee river." Tuyon's Boundary Line. "In the spring and early sum- mer of 1767 there were fresh outbreaks on the part of the Indians. Governor Tryon had run a boundary-line between the back settlements of the Carolinas and the Cherokee hunt- ting-grounds. But hunters and traders would persist in wan- dering to the west of this line and sometimes they were killed."^" Indian Boundary Lines. Almost as important as the State lines were the Indian boundary lines; but most of them were natural boundaries and have given but little trouble. There was one notable exception, however, and that is the Meigs and Freeman Line. According to the map of the "Former Territorial Limits of the Cherokee Indians," ac- companying the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Eth- nology, 1883-84, there were three lines run to establish the boundary between the Cherokees and the ceded territory under the treaty of October 2, 1798; the first of which was run by Captain Butler in 1798, and extending from "Meigs' post on the Great Stone mountain to a fork of the Keowee river in South Carolina known as Little river. But, accord- ing to the text * ^ the line was not run till the summer of 1799, and is described as "extending from Great Iron moun- tain in a southeasterly direction to the point where the most southerly branch of Little river crossed the divisional line to Tugaloo river." However, "owing to the unfortunate de- struction of official records by fire, in the year 1800, it is im- possible to ascertain all the details concerning this survey, but it was executed on the theory that the "Little River" named in the treaty was one of the northermost branches of Keowee river." ^^ Return J. Meigs and Thomas Freeman. But, "this sur- vey seems not to have been accepted by the War Depart- ment, for on the 3d of June, 1802, instructions were issued by the Secretary of War to Return J. Meigs, as commissioner, 52 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA to superintend the execution of the survey of this same por- tion of the boundary. Mr. Thomas Freeman was appointed surveyor. "^^ "There were three streams of that name in that vicinity. Two of these were branches of the French Broad and the other of the Keowee.' ' Expediency Governed. "If the line should be run to the lower of these two branches of the French Broad, it would leave more than one hundred white families of white settlers within the Indian territory. If it were run to the branch of the Keowee river, it would leave ten or twelve Indian vil- lages within the State of North Carolina." It was, therefore, determined by Commissioner Meigs to accept the upper branch of the French Broad as the true intent and meaning of the treaty, and the line was run accordingly; whereby "not a single white settlement was cut off or intersected, and but five Indian families were left on the Carolina side of the line." Location of the "Meigs Post." In a footnote (p. 181-2) Commissioner Meigs refers to the plat and field-notes of Sur- veyor Freeman, but the author declares that they cannot be found among the Indian office records. ^ ^ Also that there is "much difficulty in ascertaining the exact point of departure of the 'Meigs Line' from the great Iron Mountains. In the report of the Tennessee and North Carolina boundary com- missioners in 1821 it is stated to be "313^ miles by the cource of the mountain ridge in a general southwesterly course from the crossing of Cataloochee turnpike; 9}/^ miles in a similar direction from Porter's gap; 213/2 miles in a northeasterly direction from the crossing of Equovetley Path, and 333^^ miles in a like course from the crossing of Tennessee river." ... It was stated to the author by Gen. R. N. Hood, of Knoxville, Tenn., that there is a tradition that "Meigs Post" was found some years since about 13^2 miles southwest of Indian gap. A map of the survey of Qualla Boundary, by M. S. Temple, in 1876, shows a portion of the continuation of "Meigs Line as passing about 13^^ miles east of Qualla- town." Surveyor Temple mentions it as running "south 50° east (formerly south 523^2° east)." Meigs' Post should have stood at the eastern end of the Hawkins Line which had been run by Col. Benj. Hawkins and Gen. Andrew Pickens in August, 1797, pursuant to the treaty of July 2, 1791, com- BOUNDARIES 53 mencing 1000 yards above South West Point (now Kingston) and running south 76° east to the Great Iron Mountain. ^ * ''From tliis point the Hne continued in the same course until it reached the Hopewell treaty line of 1785, and was called the "Pickens Une."^^ The Hopewell treaty line ran from a point west of the Blue Ridge and about 12 miles east of Hen- dersonville, crossed the Swannanoa river just east of Asheville, and went on to ^McNamee's camp on the Nollechucky river, three miles southeast of Greenville, Tenn. "The supposition is that as the commissioners were provided with two survey- ors, they separated, Col. Hawkins, with Mr. Whitner as sur- veyor, running the line from Clinch river to the Great Iron Mountains, and Gen. Pickens, with Col. Kilpatrick as sur- veyor, locating the remainder of it. This statement is veri- fied so far as Gen. Pickens is concerned by his own written statement." ^^ Col. Stringfield Follows the Line. George H. Smathers, Esq., an attorney of Wa>Tiesville, says there is a tradition that the Meigs and Freeman posts were really posts set up along this line, and not marks made on living trees; but Col. W. W. Stringfield of the same place writes that he measured nine and one-half miles southwestwardly of Porter's gap "and found Meigs' post, a torn-dowTi stone pile on the top of a smooth mountain. . . . Meigs' and Freeman's line was as well marked as any line I ever saw; I traced this line south 521/2 ° east, from Scott's creek to the top of Tennessee mountain, between Hayw'ood and Transylvania counties, a few miles south of and in full view of the Blue Ridge or South Carolina line ... I found a great many old marks, evidently made when the line was first run in 1802. I became quite familiar with this line in later years, and ran numerous lines in and around the same in the sale of the Love "Speculation" lands. . . . Many of these old marked trees can still be found all through Jackson county, on the waters of Scott's creek. Cane or Wurry-hut, Caney Fork, Cold or Tennessee creek, and others." ^^ When he was running the line he was told by Chief Smith of the Cherokees, Wesley Enloe, then over 80 years old. Dr. Mingus, then 92 years old, Eph. Connor and others, that he was on the Meigs line. Return Jonathan Meigs. "He was the firstborn son of his parents, who gave him the somewhat peculiar name 54 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Return Jonathan to commemorate a romantic incident in their own courtship, when his mother, a young Quakeress called back her lover as he was mounting his horse to leave the house forever after what he had supposed was a final refusal. The name has been handed down through five gen- erations. "59. . . Treaty of 1761. ^"^ The French having secured the active sympathy of the Cherokees in their war with Great Britain, Governor Littleton of South Carolina, marched against the Indians and defeated them, and in 1760, concluded a treaty with them, under which the Cherokees agreed to kill or im- prison every Frenchman who should come into their country during the war. But as the Cherokees still continued hos- tile South Carolina sent Col. Grant, who conquered them in 1761, and concluded a treaty by which "the boundaries be- tween the Indians and the settlements were declared to be the sources of the great rivers flowing into the Atlantic ocean." As the Blue Ridge is an unbroken watershed south of the Potomac river, this made that mountain range the true east- ern boundary of the Indians. This treaty remained in force till the treaty of 1772 and the purchase of 1775 to the north- ern part of that boundary, or the land lying west of the Blue Ridge and north of the Nollechucky river. It remained in force as to all land west and south of that territory till 1785 (November 28), called the treaty of Hopewell. Treaty of 1772 and Purchase of 1775. The Virginia authorities in the early part of 1772 concluded a treaty with the Cherokees whereby a boundary line was fixed between them, which was to run west from White Top mountain, which left those settlers on the Watauga river within the Indian limits, whereupon, as a measure of temporary relief, they leased for a period of eight years all the country on the waters of the Watauga river. "Subsequently in 1775 (March 19) they secured a deed in fee simple therefor," . . . and it em- braced all the land on "the waters of the Watauga, Holston, and Great Canaway [sic] or New river." This tract began "on the south or southwest of the Holston river six miles above Long Island in that river; thence a direct line in nearly a south course to the ridge dividing the waters of Watauga from the waters of Nonachuckeh (Nollechucky or Toe) and along the ridge in a southeasterly direction to the Blue Ridge BOUNDARIES 55 or line dividing North Carolina from tho Cherokee lands; thence along the Blue Ridge to the Virginia line and west along such line to the Holston river; thence down the Holston to the beginning, including all waters of the Watauga, part of the waters of Holston, and the head branches of the New river or Great Canaway, agreeable to the aforesaid boundaries." « ^ Treaty of Hopewell, 1785. Hopewell is on the Keowee river, fifteen miles above its junction with the Tugaloo. It was here that the treaty that was to move the boundary line west of the Blue Ridge was made. This line began six miles southeast of Greenville, Tenn., where Camp or McNamee's creek empties into the NoUechucky river; and ran thence a southeast course "to Rutherford's War Trace," ten or twelve miles west of the Swannanoa settlement. This "War Trace" was the route followed by Gen. Griffith Rutherford, when, in the summer of 1776, he marched 2,400 men through the Swannanoa gap, passed over the French Broad at a place still known as the "War Ford"; continued up the valley of Hominy creek, leaving Pisgah mountain to the left, and crossing Pigeon river a little below the mouth of East Fork; thence through the mountains to Richland creek, above the present town of Waynesville, etc. From the point where the line struck the War Trace it was to go "to the South Carolina Indian bound- ary." Thus, the line probably ran just east of Marshall,. Asheville and Hendersonville to the South Carolina line, though its exact location was rendered "unnecessary by rea- son of the ratification in February, 1792, of the Cherokee treaty concluded July 2, 1791, wherein the Indian boundary line was withdra^vn a considerable distance to the west." ^^ North Carolina's Indian Reservation. Meantime, how- ever. North Carolina being a sovereign State, bound to the Confederation of the Union only by the loose articles of confederation, in 1883, set apart an Indian reservation of its own; which ran from the mouth of the Big Pigeon to its source and thence along the ridge between it and the waters of the Tuckaseigee (Code N. C, Vol. ii, sec. 2346) to the South Carolina line. This, however, does not seem to have been supported by any treaty. The State had simply moved the Indian boundary line twenty miles westward to the Pigeon river at Canton. 56 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Treaties of 1791 and 1792. The treaty of 1791 was not satisfactory to the Indians and another treaty supplemental thereto was made February 17, 1792, which in its turn was followed by one of January 21, 1795, and another of October 2, 1798. They all call for what was afterwards run and called the Meigs and Freeman line, treated fully under that head.^^ Treaty of February 27, 1819. This treaty cedes all land from the point where the Hiwassee river empties into the Temiessee, thence along the first ridge which closes in on said river, two miles above Hiwassee Old Town; thence along the ridge which divides the Avaters of Hiwassee and Little Tellico to the Tennessee river at Talassee; thence along the main chaimel to the junction of the Nanteyalee; thence along the ridge in the fork of said river to the top of the Blue Ridge; thence along the Blue Ridge to the Unicoy Turnpike, etc. This moved the line twenty miles west of what is now Frank- lin. 6 4 Treaty of New Echota, December 29, 1835. By this treaty the Cherokees gave up all their lands east of the Mis- sissippi river, and all claims for spoliation for $5,000,000, and the 7,000,000 acres of land west of the Mississippi river, guar- anteed them by the treaties of 1828 and 1833. This was the treaty for their removal, treated in the chapter on the East- ern Band. ^ ^ The Rainbow Country. During the year 1898 while Judge H. G. Ewart was acting as District Judge of the U. S. Court at Asheville, some citizen^ of New Jersey obtained a judgment against the heirs of the late JMesser Fain of Chero- kee county for certain land in the disputed territory, known as the Rainbow Country because of its shape. The sheriff of Monroe county, Tennessee, armed with a writ of possession from the Tennessee court, entered the house occupied by one of Fain's sons and took possession. Fain had him arrested for assault and trespass, and he sued out a writ of habeas corpus before Judge Ewart, who decided the case in favor of Fain; but the sheriff appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the 4th circuit, and Judge Ewart was reversed. There- upon Fain sued out a writ of certiorari before the Supreme Court of the Dnited States; but after the writ had been granted Fain decided not to pay for the printing of the BOUNDARIES 57 large record, and the ease was dismissed for want of prose- cution. This was one of the forerunners to Htigation with Tennessee. Recent Boundary Disputes. There is now pending be- fore the Supreme Court of the United States a controversy between the State of Tennessee and the State of North Caro- lina over what is known as the "Rainbow" country at the head of Tellico creek, Cherokee county. Tennessee claims that the line should have followed the main top of the Unaka mountains instead of leaving the main ridge and crossing one prong of Tellico creek which rises west of the range. This is probably what should have been done if the commissioners who ran the line in 1821 had followed the text of the statute literally; but they left the main top and crossed this prong of Tellico creek, and their report and field-notes, showing that this had been done were returned to their respective States and the line as run and marked was adopted by Tennessee as well as by North Carolina. ^ ^ Lost Cove Boundary Line. In 1887, Gov. Scales, under the law providing for the appointment of a commission to meet another from Tennessee to determine at what point on the Nollechucky river the State line crosses, appointed Cap- tain James ]\L Gudger for North Carolina, J. R, Neal be- ing his surveyor; but there was a disagreement from the outset between the North Carolina and the Tennessee com- missioners. The latter insisted on going south from the high peak north of the Nollechucky river, which brought them to the deep hole at the mouth of lost Cove creek, at least three quarters of a mile east of the point at which the line run for the North Carolina commissioner reached the same stream, which was a few hundred yards below the mouth of Devil's creek. The North Carolina commissioner claimed to have the original field-notes of the surveyors, and followed them strictly. Neither side would yield to the other, and the line remains as it was originally run in 1799. The notes followed by Captain Gudger were deposited by him with his report with the Secretary of State at Raleigh. See Pub. Doc. 1887, and Dugger v. McKesson, 100 N. C, p. 1. Macon County Line. The legislature of North Carolina provided for a survey between Macon County, N. C, and Rabun county, Ga., in 1879, from EUiquet's Rock, the cor- 58 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ner of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to the "Locust Stake", and as much further as the line was in dis- pute. L. Howard of ]\Iacon county was the commissioner for North CaroHna. (Ch. 387, Laws 1883.) Tennessee Line Between Cherokee and Graham. The line between these two counties and Tennessee was ordered located by the county surveyors of the counties named ac- cording to the calls of the act of 182L See Ch. 202, Pub. L. 1897, p. 343. notes. lAsheville's Centenary. 2Col. Rec, Vol. V, p. xxxix. 'Ibid. rating Nymph Eelio, wlio, like a loquacious Wife, will always have the last word, and Some- times return three for one. " They Brought no Capons for the Parson. - * Some of the people were apprehensive that the survey would throw their homes into Virginia. "In that case they must have sub- mitted to some Sort of Order and Government; whereas, in North Carolina, every One does what seems best in his own Eyes. There were some good Women that l)rought their children to be Baptiz'd, but brought no Capons along with them to make the solemnity cheerful. In the meantime it was Strange that none came to be marry'd in such a Multi- tude, if it had only been for the Novelty of having their Hands Joyn'd by one in Holy Orders. Yet so it was, that tho' our chajilain Christen'd above an Hundred, he did not marry so much as one Couple during the whole Expedition. But marriage is reckon'd a Lay contract, as I said before, and a Country Justice can tie the fatal Knot there, as fast as an Arch- bishop." Gentlemen Smell Liquor Thirty Miles." "We had several \'isitors from Edenton [who] . . . having good Noses, had smelt out, at 30 Miles Distance, the Precious Liquor, with which the Liberality of our good Friend Mr. Mead had just before supply 'd us. That generous Person had judg'd very right, that we were now got out of the Latitude of Drink proper for men in Affliction, and therefore was so good as to send his Cart loaden with all sorts of refreshments, for which the Commissioners return'd Him their Thanks, and the Chap- lain His Blessing." Getting up an Appetite for Dog. ^^ "The Surveyors and their Attendants began now in good earnest to be alarm- ed with Apprehensions of Famine, nor could they forbear look- ing with Some Sort of Appetite upon a dog that had been the faithful Companion of their Travels." Poverty with Contentment. - •* The following is Col. Byrd's idea of some of our people who lived near Edenton in 1728: "Surely there is no place in the world where the Inhabitants live with less labor than in North Carolina? It approaches nearer to the descrip- tion of Lubberland than any other, by the great felicity of the Climate, the easiness of raising provisions, and the Slothfulness of the People. . . . 74 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA The Men, for their Parts, just like the Indians, impose all the Work upon the poor Women. They make their Wives rise out of their Beds early in the morning, at the same time that they lye and Snore, till the sun has run one third his course, and disporst all the unwholesome damps. Then, after Stretching and Yawning for half an Hour, they light their Pipes, and, under the Protection of a cloud of Smoak, venture out into the open Air; tho', if it happens to be never so little cold they quickly return Shivering into the Chimney corner. When the weather is mild, they stand leaning with both their arms upon the corn-field fence, and gravely consider whether they had best go and take a Small Heat at the Hough; but generally find reasons to put it off till another time. Thus they loiter away their lives, like Solomon's Sluggard, with their arms across, and at the Winding up of the Year Scarcely have Bread to Eat. To speak the truth, 'tis aversion to Labor that makes People file off to N. Carolina, where Plenty and a warm Sun confirm them in their disposition to Laziness for their whole Lives." Our Commissioner Treats the Parson to a Fricassee OF Rum. 2 s The chaplain went once to Edenton, accompanied by Mr. Little, one of the North Carolina commissioners, "who to shew his regard for the Church, offer'd to treat Him on the Road with a fricassee of Rum. They fry'd half a Doz- en Rashers of very fat Bacon in a Pint of Rum, both of which being disht up together, served the Company at once for meat and Drink." The Democracy of the Colonists.-^ "They are rarely guilty of Flattering or making any Court to their governors, but treat them with all the Excesses of Freedom and Famil- iarity. They are of opinion their rulers wou'd be apt to grow insolent, if they grew Rich, and for that reason take care to keep them poorer, and more dependent, if possible than the Saints in New England used to do their Governors." The Men of Alamance. ^Meantime the exactions of the British tax collectors had brought on the Regulators War, and the battle of Alamance in May, 1771, resulted in the departure of a "company of fourteen families" from "the present county of Wake to make new homes across the mountains. - ^ The men led the way and often had to clear a road with their axes. Behind the axmen went a mixed procession of women, children, dogs, cows and pack-horses loaded with kettles and beds." These settled in Tennessee on the Watauga river. James Robertson, "a cool, brave, sweet-natured man was the leader of the company." Then came John Sevier and many others. In the language of the COLONIAL DAYS 75 Hon. (u'orgo Bancroft, historian and at that time minister to Enf!;hinii, "it is a mistake if anyone have supposed that the Reguhitors were cowed down by their defeat at Akimance. Like the mammoth, they took the bolt from their brow and crossed the mountains." Of them and those who followed them, Hon. Jolm AUison in his "Dropped Stitches of Ten- nessee History" (p. 37) says: "The people who made it possible for Tennessee to have a centennial were a wonderful people. Within a period of about fifteen years they were ongaRod in throe revolutions; pai-ticipatcd in organizinp; and lived under five dilTerent governments; established and adinini.stered the first free and independent government in America, founded the first churcli and the first college in the Southwest; put in operation the second newspaper in the 'New World West of the AUoghanies' ; met and fought the British in half a dozen battles, from Kings Mountain to the gates of Charleston, gaining a victory in every battle; held in check, beat back and finally expelled from the country four of the most power- ful tribes of Indian warriors in America; and left Tennesseans their fame as a heritage, and a commonwealth of which it is their privilege to be proud." The Freest of the Free. The historian, George Ban- croft, exclaims: "Are there any who doubt man's capacity for self-government? Let them study the history of North Carolina. Its inhabitants were restless and turbulent in their imperfect submission to a government imposed from abroad; the administration of the colony was firm, humane and tran- quil when they were left to take care of themselves. Any government but one of their own institution was oppres- sive. North CaroHna was settled by the freest of the free. " ^ ^ The First Public Declaration of Independence. This was made at Halifax, N. C, by the Provisional Congress, April 12, 1770, when its delegates to the Continental Con- gress were authorized to concur with other delegates in "declaring independence and forming foreign alliances," reserving the right of forming a constitution and laws for North Carolina. The Scotch-Irish; Their Origin and Religion.-^ "Men will not be fully able to understand Carolina till they have opened the treasures of history and drawn forth some few particulars respecting the origin and religious habits of the Scotch-Irish and become familiar with their doings previous to the Revolution — during that painful struggle — and the 76 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA succeeding years of prosperity; and Carolina will be respected as she is knwon, " In Pioneer Days. ^ " The men and boys wore moccasins, short pantaloons and leather leggings, hunting shirts, which were usually of dressed deerskin, cut like the modern shirt, open the entire length in front and fastened by a belt. In this belt were carried a small hatchet and a long, sharp hunting knife. They wore caps of mink or coon skin, with the tail hanging behind for a tassel. The rifles were long, muzzle- loading, flint-locks, and in a pouch hung over one shoulder were carried gun-wipers, tow, patching, bullets, and flints, while fastened to the strap was a horn for powder. The women and girls wore sun bonnets, as a rule, and had little time to spend on tucks and ruffles. There was no place at which to buy things except the stores of Indian traders, and they had very few things white people wanted. . . . The pioneer moved into a new country on foot or on horse back and brought his household goods on pack horses. They were about as follows : The family clothing, some blankets and a few other bed clothes, with bed ticks to be filled with grass or hair, a large pot, a pair of pothooks, an oven with lid, a skillet, and a frying pan, a hand mill to grind grain, a wooden trencher in which to make bread, a few pewter plates, spoons, and other dishes, some axes and hoes, the iron parts of plows, a broadax, a froe, a saw and an auger. Added to these were supplies of seed for field and vegetable crops, and a few fruit trees. When their destination was reached the men and boys cut trees and built a log house, split boards with the froe and made a roof which was held on by weight poles, no nails be- ing available. Puncheons were made by splitting logs and hewing the flat sides smooth for floors and door shutters. Some chimneys were made of split sticks covered on the in- side with a heavy coating of clay; but usually stones were used for this purpose, as they were plentiful. The spaces between the log walls were filled in by mortar, called chinks and dobbin. Rough bedsteads were fixed in the corners of the rooms farthest from the fire place, and rude tables and benches were constructed, with three-legged stools as seats. Pegs were driven into the walls, and on the horns of bucks the rifle was usually suspended above the door. Windows were few and unglazed. Then followed the spinning wheel, COLONIAL DAYS 77 the reel, and the hand loom. Cards for wool had to l>e bought. The horses and cattle were turned into the woods to eat grass in summer and cane in winter, being enticed home at night by a small bait of salt or grain. The small trees and bushes were cut and their roots grubiied up, while the larger trees were girdled and left to die and become leaf- less. Rails were made and the clearing fenced in, the brush was piled and burnt, and tlic land was plowed and planted. After the first crop the settler usually had plenty, for his land was new and rich. Indeed, the older farmers of this region were so accustomed to clearing a "new patch" when the first was worn out, instead of restoring the old land by modern methods, that even at this time they know little or nothing of reclaiming exhausted land. Cooking was done on the open hearths by the women who dressed the skins of wild animals and brought water from the spring in rude pails, milked the cows, cut firewood, spun, wove, knit, washed the clothing, and tended the bees, chickens and gardens. When the men and boys were not at work in the fields they were hunting for game. After the first settlement time was found for cut- ting down the larger trees for fields, and the logs were rolled together by the help of neighbors and burned. The first rude cabin home was turned into a stable or barn and a larger and better log house constructed. When the logs had been hewed and notched neighbors were invited to help in raising the walls. The log-rollings and house-raisings were occasions for large dinners, some drinking of brandy and whiskey, games and sports of various kinds. There were no schools and no churches at first, and no wagon roads; but all these things followed slowly. Other Early Explorers. In the case of Avery v. Walker, (8 N. C, p. 117) it appears that Col. James Hubbard and Captain John Hill had "been members of Col. George Do- horty's party" and explored "the section of country around Bryson City, Swain county, shortly before April 22, 1795"; that Col. John Patton, the father of Lorenzo and Montreville Patton of Buncombe, and who o^vned the meadow land on the Swannanoa river which was sold to George W. Vander- bilt by Preston Patton, and the "haunted house" at the ford of that river, when the stage road left South Main street at what is now Victoria Road and crossed the Swannanoa, there, 78 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA instead of at Biltmore, was then county survej^or of Bun- combe, and refused to survey land on Ocona Lufty for Waight- still Avery because it was "on the frontier and the Indian boundary had not then actually been run out, and it might be dangerous to survey near the line." Also that Dohorty's party had a battle with the Indians at the mouth of Soco creek, and that what is now Bryson city was then called Big Bear's village. In Eu-Che-Lah v. Welch (10 N. C, p. 158) will be found an exhaustive study of the laws of Great Britain in colonial days regarding the granting of Indian lands and of the various treaties made by the State with the Cherokee In- dians since July 4, 1776. NOTES. iRoosevelt, Vol. Ill, 276 to 280. 2Ibid. 'Hill, pp. 32, 116. ^Ibid., p. 121 sibid., pp. 89, 90, 116. 'There were other Old Fields, doubtless made by Indians years before America was discovered, at the mouth of Gap creek in Ashe; at Valle Crucis in Watauga, at Old Fields of Toe in Avery, at "The Meadows" in Graham, and at numerous other level places. 'There is a family of Perkinses living at Old Field now, 1912, the descendants of Luther Perkins. sThwaites, p. 14. 'Ibid., p. 15, and Col. Rec, Vol. IV, p. 1073. '"From R. G. McGee's "A History of Tennessee." iilbid. i2Thwaites, pp. 46-47. isibid., p. 37. "Ibid., p. 41. isibid., p. 42. isibid., p. 48. "Ibid., p. 59. isQol. Rec, Vol. Ill, pp. xii and 194. Thwaite also says: "There was for a long time neither law nor gospel, upon this far-away frontier. Justices of the Peace had small authority. Preachers were at first unknown." "Daniel Boone," p. 33. "Byrd, 60-61. 2»Ibid., 62. 2ilbid, 63. 2 2lbid. 2 3Ibid., 66-67. "Ibid., 75-76. 2slbid., 76. 2 6Ibid., 80-81. 2'McGee, p. 214. 2 8Asheville's Centenary. 2 9Foote's Sketches, p. 83. soCondensed from G. R. McGee'a "A History of Tennessee." CHAPTER IV DANIEL BOONE Just as seven cities contended for the honor of having been the birthplace of Homer; so, too, many states are proud to boast that Boone once Hved within their borders. But North Carohna was the home of his boyhood, his young manhood and the State in which he chose his wife. From his home at Hohnan's Ford he passed to his cabin in the village of Boone on frequent occasions, making hunting trips from that point into the surrounding mountains. From there, too, he started on his trips into Kentucky. From an address read by Miss Esther Ransom, daughter of the late U. S. Senator Matt. W. Ransom, to Thomas Polk Chapter, D. A. R., the following is copied : "It has been argued that Boone did not fight in the Revolutionary- war. This is true. He was too busy fighting Indians in Kentucky, the 'dark and bloodj' ground.' Let me impress it upon you that but for Boone and Clark and Denton and the other Indian fighters there wouldn't have been any Revolutionary war; no Kings Mountain, no Guilford Court House, no Yorktown. The Indians were natural allies of the British. British money supplied them with arms and ammunition and King George III was constantly inciting them through his officers, to murder and destroy the Patriots. "Just suppose for a moment if, at Kings Mountain where the moun- tain men surrendered Ferguson they, in their turn, had been surrounded by five hundred or a thousand Indians. The day would have ended in dire disaster and it would have taken another Caesar to have rescued the Patriots from that terrible predicament. "Daniel Boone did as much or more service for our country in fight- ing Indians and keeping them back as if he had served in the war with Washington and Green. "Like Washington, Boone was a surveyor. He surveyed nearly all the land in Kentucky. He was a law maker. He passed a law for the protection of game in Kentucky and also one for keeping up the breed of fine horses. "Roosevelt in his vigorous EngUsh calls him 'Road-Builder, town-maker and Commonwealth founder,' and when Kentucky had representation in Virignia, Boone sat in the house of commons as a Burgess. "He might be styled the ' Nimrod' of the United States, for truly ' He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.'" (79) 80 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA John Finley. Finley was the Scotch-Irishman who had descended the Ohio river as far as Louisville in 1752; and who, after Boone's return from his trip to the Big Sandy in 1767, turned up at Boone's cabin at Holman's Ford in the winter of 1768-69. ^ He had suggested when on the Brad- dock expedition that Boone might reach Kentucky "by fol- lowing the trail of the buffaloes and the Shawnese, northwest- ward through Cumberland gap."- "ScaUng the lofty Blue Ridge, the explorers passed over Stone and Iron mountains and reached Holston Valley, whence they proceeded through Moccasin gap of Clinch mountain and crossed over interven- ing rivers and densely wooded hills until they came to Powell's Valley, then the furthest limits of white settlement. Here they found a hunters' trail which led them through Cumber- land gap. " ^ If they did this by the easiest and shortest route, they passed up the Shawnee trail on the ridge between Elk and Stony forks through Cooks gap, down by Three Forks of New river, through what is now Boone village and Hodges gap, across the Grave Yard gap down to Dog Skin creek, following the base of Rich mountain to State Line gap be- tween Zionville and Trade to the head of Roan creek to the crossing of the two Indian trails at what is now Shoun's Cross Roads, and thence over the Iron mountains. Any other route would have been deliberately to go wrong for the sake of doing so. From any eminence that route seemed to have been marked out by nature. Benjamin Cutbirth. This name was pronounced Cut- baird according to the recollection of Cyrus Grubb, a prom- inent citizen of Watauga, and Benjamin Cuthbirth's name appears on the records of Ashe county as having conveyed 100 acres of land on the South Fork of New river to Andrew Ferguson in 1800. This is the same "Scotch-Irishman" who had married Elizabeth Wilcoxen, a neice of Daniel Boone, at the close of the French and Indian war, and when he was about twenty-three years old. In 1767 he and John Stuart, John Baker and John Ward, crossed the mountains and went to the Mississippi river, where they spent a year or two, go- ing even to New Orleans. •* Holman's Ford. About this time Daniel Boone moved sixty-five miles west from the Yadkin settlement near Dutch- DANIEL BOONE 81 man's creek, "choosing his final home on the upper Yadkin, just above the mouth of Beaver creek. * Col. James M. Is- bell's grantfather, Martin, told him that Daniel Boone used to live six miles below James M. Isbell's present home near the bank of the Yadkin river, on a little creek now known as Beaver creek, one mile from where it flows into the Yadkin river, near Holman's ford. The Boone house was in a little swamp and canebrake surrounding the point of a ridge, with but one approach — that by the ridge. The swamp was in the shape of a horse-shoe, with the point of the ridge pro- jecting into it. The foundations of the chimney are still there, and the cabin itself has not been gone more than 52 years. Alfred Foster who owned the land showed Col. Isbell the cabin, which was still there during his boyhood, and he remembered how it looked. His grandmother, the wife of Benjamin Howard, knew Boone well as he often stayed with her father, Benjamin Howard, at the mouth of Elk creek, now Elkville. ® Boone's Trip to Kentucky. There is no evidence except the inscription on the leaning beech at Boone's creek, nine miles north of Jonesboro, Tenn., that Boone was at that spot in 1760. Thwaite's life of Boone, compiled from the Draper manuscript in the Wisconsin State library, says that in the spring of 1759, Boone and two of his sons went to Culpepper county, Virginia, where he was employed in hauling tobacco to Fredericksburg, and that he was again a member of Hugh Waddell's regiment of 500 North Carolinians, when, in 1761, they fought and defeated the Cherokees at Long Island on the Holston. He cites the inscription but gives no other facts. ^ As 1769 is generally considered the date of his first trip across the mountains, it becomes important to state that Thwaite (p. 69) says that, in 1767, Boone's brother-in-law, John Stewart, and Benjamin Cutbirth, who had married Boone's niece, and several others, went west as far as the Mississippi, crossing the mountains and returning before 1769; and that Boone himself, and William Hall, his friend, and, possibly. Squire Boone, Daniel's brother, in the fall of 1767, still desiring to get to Kentucky — of which he had been told by John Finley, whom he had met in the Braddock expe- dition — crossed the mountains into the valleys of the Hol- w. X. c. 6 82 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ston, and the Clinch, and reached the headwaters of the west fork of the Big Sandy, returning to Holman's Ford in the spring of 1768. Colonel James M. Isbell. According to the statement made by this gentleman, in ]\Iay, 1909, Benjamin Howard, his grandfather, owned land near the village of Boone, and used to range his stock in the mountains surrounding that picturesque village. He built a cabin of logs in front of what is now the Boys' Dormitory of the Appalachian Training School for the accommodation of himself and his herders whenever he or they should come from his home on the head waters of the Yadkin, at Elkville. Among the herders was an African slave named Burrell. When Col. Isbell was a boy, say, about 1845, Burrell was still alive, but was said to have been over one hundred years of age. He told Col. Isbell that he had piloted Daniel Boone across the Blue Ridge to the Howard cabin the first trip Boone ever took across the moun- tains. Boone's Trail. ^ They went up the ridge between Elk creek and Stony Fork creek, following a well-known Indian trail, passed through what is now called Cook's gap, and on b}^ Three Forks church to what is now Boone. There is some claim that Boone passed through Deep gap; but that is six miles further north than Cook's gap, and that much out of a direct course. If Boone wanted to go to Kentucky he knew his general course was northwest ; and having reached the town of Boone or Howard's cabin, his most direct route would have been through Hodge's gap, down Brushy Fork creek two miles, and then crossing the Grave Yard gap to Dog Skin creek; then along the base of Rich mountain, crossing what was then Sharp's creek (now Silverstone) to the gap between what is now Zionville in North Carolina and Trade in Tennessee. He would then have been at the head of Roan's creek, do^\Ti which he is known to have passed as far as what is now knoA\Ti as Shoun's Cross Roads. There, on a farm once owned by a Wagner and now by Wiley Jenkins, he camped. His course from there in a northwesterly direction would have led him across the Iron and Holston mountains to the Holston river and Powell's Valley. There is also a tradition that he followed the Brushy Fork creek from Hodge's gap to Cove creek; thence do\vn Cove creek to Rock House DANIEL BOONE 83 branch at Dr. Jordan B. PliiUips— also a descendant of Ben- jamin Howard— across Ward gap to the Beaver Dams; tlien across Baker's gap to Roan's creek; thence down it to its mouth in the Watauga at wliat is now Butler, Tenn. Also, that when he got to the mouth of the Brushy fork he crossed over to the Beaver Dams through what has for many years been called George's gap; antl thence over Baker's gap.'^ If he took either of these routes he preferred to cross two high mountains and to follow an almost due southwest course to following a well-worn and well-known Indian trail which was almost level and that led directly in the direction he wished to go. A road now leaves the wagon road nearly opposite the Brushy Fork Baptist church, about three miles from Boone, and crosses a ridge over to Dog Skin creek, and thence over the Grave Yard gap to Silverstone, Zionville, and Trade, thus cutting off the angle made by following Brushy Fork to its mouth. 1" Tradition says the Indian trail also crossed Dog Skin and the Grave Yard gap. Yet, while this seems to be the most feasible and natural trail, the venerable Levi IVIorphew, now well up in ninety, thinks Boone had a camp on Boone's branch of Hog Elk, two miles east of the Winding Stairs trail, by which he probably crossed the Blue Ridge, which would have taken him four miles northeast of Cook's gap, and Col. Bryan states that there is a tradition that Boone passed through Deep gap, crossed the Bald mountain and Long Hope creek, through the Ambrose gap and so into Tennessee. No doubt all these routes were followed by Boone during his hunting trips through these mountains prior to his first great treck into Kentucky; but on that important occasion it is more than probable that, as his horses were heavily laden with camp equipage, salt, ammunition and supplies, he fol- lowed the easiest, most direct, and most feasible route, and that was via Cook's gap, Three Forks, Hodges' gap, across Dog Skin, over the Grave Yard gap, to Zionville and Trade and thence to what is now knowTi as Shoun's Cross Roads. Boone's Cabin Monument. The chimney stones of the cabm in which it is said that Boone camped while hunting in New river valley are still visible at the site of that cabin where It is said Boone was found one snowy night seated by a roar- ing fire when the young couple who had occupied it the night before and had allowed their fire to go entirely out, returned 84 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA from a trip to the Yadkin for a "live chunk" with which to rekindle it; but which they had dropped in the snow when almost at Boone's cabin, thus putting it out, and leaving them as badly off as when they had set out that morning. Boone had struck fire from his flint and steel rifle and caught the spark in tow, from which he had kindled his blaze. Upon this site, that public-spirited citizen, the venerable and well-informed Col. W. L. Bryan, now in his 76th year, has erected an impos- ing stone and concrete monument, whose base is seven by seven feet, with a shaft 26 feet in height. On the side facing the road is the following inscription, chiseled in white marble: "Daniel Boone, Pioneer and Hunter; Born Feb. 11, 1735; Died Sep. 26, 1820." On the opposite side of the monument on a similar stone is the following: "W. L. Bryan, Son of Battle and Rebecca Miller Bryan; Born Nov. 19, 1837; Built Daniel Boone Monument, Oct. 1912. Cost S203.27." Boone's Watauga Relatives. WiUiam Coffey married Anna Boone, a sister of Jesse Boone and a neice of Daniel Boone. She had another brother called Israel Boone. Jesse Boone undoubtedly lived in a cabin which used to stand in a field four miles from Shull's mills and two miles from Kelsey post office, where he had cleared a field. The chimney foun- dation is still shown as his. On the 8th of July, 1823, Jesse Boone conveyed to William and Alexander Elrod for $600 350 acres of land on Flannery's fork of New River and on Roaring branch, about two miles southeast of Boone village; adjoining land then being owned by John Agers, Jesse Council and Russell Sams, and now owned in part by J. W. Farthing. This deed was registered in Book M, page 391, of Ashe county records, July 2, 1841. When Jesse Boone's sister, Anna Cof- fey, was nearly one hundred years old she talked with Mr. J. W. Farthing while he was building a house for her grand- son Patrick Coffey, on Mulberry creek, Caldwell county, in 1871. Mr. Mack Cook of Lenoir is a direct descendant of Daniel Boone's brother, Israel, Boone and has a rifle and pow- der horn that used to belong to him. Arthur B. Boone of Jacksonville, Fla., claims direct descent from Daniel Boone, and his son Robbie E. Boone, has a razor said to have been the property of Daniel Boone. There are many others who are related to the Boone family. Col. W. L. Bryan thinks that Thwaites is mistaken in stating that Rebecca Boone was the DANIEL BOONE 85 daughtor of Joseph Bryan, as hor father's name was Morgan, from whom he himself and WiUiam Jennings Bryan are tli- rectly deseendetl. ' ' Smitli Coffey was born in 1832 in Cald- well county, and says that Jesse was a brother of Daniel Boone, and had three daughters; Anna, who married William Coffey; Hannah, who married Smith Coffey, and Celie, who married Buck Craig. The Smith Coffey who married Han- nah Boone was the present Smith Coffey's grandfather. Smith Coffey's father moved to Cherokee in 1838 and set- tled on Hiwassee river four miles above Murphy, after which he moved to Peach Tree creek where he died a year later, his family returning to Caldwell. In 1858 Smith returned to Cherokee and lived on a place adjoining the farm of George Hayes on Valley river, and had a fight with that gentleman concerning a sow just before the Civil War. Nevertheless he joined Hayes' company, when the war began, which became Company A in the Second N, C. Cavalry. After the battle before New Bern, Hayes resigned and returned to Cherokee, and William B. Tidwell of Tusquitte, now Clay county, was elected captain from the ranks, and retained that place till the close of the war. ■ The Henderson Purchase. Although the purchase of In- dian lands by white men had been prohibited by royal proc- lamation ' ^ as early as October 7, 1763, and although much of the territory was in the actual possession of the Indians, Richard Henderson and eight other private citizens deter- mined to buy a large tract of land in Kentucky and the north- ern part of Middle Tennessee. To anticipate somewhat, it may be here stated that this intention was carried out but afterwards repudiated by both Virginia, which claimed the Kentucky portion, and North Carolina, which claimed the Tennessee tract, and Henderson and his associates were par- tially compensated by grants of much smaller bodies of land;^' nevertheless, at the treaty of Hopewell, S. C, on the Keowee river, fifteen miles above its junction with the Tuga- loo, on the 18th of December, 1785, Benjamin Hawkins, An- drew Pickens, Joseph Martin and Lachlan Campbell, com- missioners representing the United States, had the face to deny the claim of the Indians to this identical territory — contending that they had already sold it to Henderson and associates. ^ * 86 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Boone's Split-Bullet. About 1890 John K. Perry and another were felling trees in Ward's gap on Beaver Dams, Watauga county, when Perry's companion cut a bullet in two while trimming a young poplar. He remarked that it might have been fired there by Daniel Boone, as it was on his old trail. Perry said that whether Boone fired it or not it should be a Boone bullet thereafter. So, he filed two cor- ners off a shingle nail and pressing the point of the nail thus filed on to the clean surface of the split bullet made the first part of a B. Then he finished the second part by pressing the nail below the first impression, and found he had a per- fect B. Filing a larger nail in the same way he made the impression of a D, which completed Boone's initials. This was shown around the neighborhood for a number of years, and most people contended that the bullet really had been fired from Boone's rifle. But in June, 1909, Mr. Perry dis- closed the joke rather than have the deception get into se- rious history. Daniel Boone, the Path Finder. From Chief Justice Walter Clark's "The Colony of Transylvania," (N. C. Booklet, Vol. iii, No. 9) we learn that Boone was a wagoner under Hugh Waddell in Braddock's campaign of 1755, when Boone was 21 years old; and that "in the following years he made the acquaintance of Col. Richard Henderson, who, struck with Boone's intelligence, and the opportunity for fortune offered by the new lands south of the Ohio, since known as Kentucky, organized a company, and employed Boone in 1763 to spy out the country ^ ^ . . . Years passed before it took final shape. Boone is knowTi to have made one of his visits to Kentucky in 1769, and was probably there earlier. ^ ^ In 1773 he again attempted to enter Kentucky, carrying his family, but was driven back with the loss of six men killed by the Indians, among them his eldest son at Wallen's gap." But in 1768 Henderson had been appointed a judge, which position he held till 1773 and which probably delayed his land scheme; but in 1774 Nathaniel Hart, one of Hender- son's partners, journeyed to the Otari towns to open negoti- ations with the Cherokees for the grant of suitable territory for a colony of whites. On March 17, 1775, the Overhill Cherokees assembled at the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga, pursuant to an order of their chief, Oconostata, where a treaty DANIEL BOONE 87 was mado and signed hy liim and two otluM- cliiofs, Savanoo- koo and Little Carpenter (Atta Culla Culla), by which, in consideration of £12,000 in goods, the Cherokees granted the lands between the Kentueky and Cumberland rivers, em- bracing one-half of what is now Kentucky and a part of Ten- nessee. But Dragging Canoe, a chief, had opposed a treaty for four days, and never consented to it. The share of one brave was only one shirt. But, the Cherokees had no title to convey, as this land was a battle-ground where the hostile tribes met and fought out their differences. Besides, this con- veyance of the land by Indians was unlawful under both the British and colonial laws. Henderson called this grant Tran- sylvania. As soon as Henderson thought this treaty would be signed he started Boone ahead on March 10, 1775, with 30 men, to clear a trail from the Holston to Kentucky — the first regular path opened in the wilderness. The Boone Family. Many people of the mountains claim descent or collateral relationship with Daniel Boone. His father was Squire Boone, who was born in Devonshire, England and came to Pennsylvania, between 1712 and 1714, when he was about 21 years old. He maried Sarah Morgan July 23, 1720. Their children were Sarah, Israel, Samuel, Jonathan, Elizabeth, Mary, Daniel, George, Edward, Squire and Hannah, all born at Otey, Penn. Daniel was the sixth child and was born November 2, 1734. Edward was killed by Indians when 36 years old, and Squire died at the age of 76. Daniel married Rebecca Bryan, daughter of Joseph, in the spring of 1756. Daniel's children were James, Israel, Susannah, Jemima, Lavinia, Rebecca, Daniel Morgan, John B. and Nathan. The four daughters married. The two eldest sons were killed by Indians, and the three younger emigrated to Missouri. ^ ^ None of Daniel's children was named Jesse, but there was a Jesse Boone who lived just west of the Blue Ridge, about four miles east of Shull's Mills and one mile west of Kelsey postoffice in Watauga county, N. C. This was on what has been called "Boone's Fork" of Watauga river. The Calloways. Among the Kentucky pioneers was Col. Richard Calloway ' ^ Two of his daughters, Betsy and Fanny, were captured with Jemima, Boone's second daugh- 88 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ter, in a boat at Boonesborough, Ky., on the 17th of July, 1776. They were recovered unharmed soon afterwards ; ^ ^ and in the following August Betsy was married to Samuel Henderson, one of the rescuing party. ^ " Jemima Boone afterwards married Flanders Calloway, a son of Colonel Cal- loway. 2 ^ It was this Colonel Calloway who accused Boone of having voluntarily surrendered 26 of his men at the Salt Licks; that when a prisoner at Detroit he had engaged with Gov. Hamilton to surrender Boonesborough, and that he had attempted to weaken the garrison at Boonesborough before its attack by the Indians by withdraA\dng men and officers, etc.;^^ but Boone was not only honorably acquitted, but promoted from a captaincy to that of major. Related to this Colonel Calloway was Elijah Calloway, son of Thomas Cal- loway of Virginia, who "did much for the good of society and was a soldier at Norfolk, Va., in the War of 1812." ^^ John Calloway represented Ashe county in the House in 1800, and in the Senate in 1807, 1808, 1809; and Elijah Calloway was in the House from 1813 to 1817, and in the Senate in 1818 and 1818, and 1819. One of these men is said to have walked to Raleigh, supporting himself on the way by shooting game, and in this way saved enough to build a brick house with glass windows, the first in Ashe, near what is now Obid. He was turned out of the Bear creek Baptist church because he had thus proven himself to be a rich man; and the Bible said no rich man could enter the kingdom of heaven. The church in which he was tried was of logs, but the accused sat defiantly during the trial in a splint-bottomed chair, which he gave to Mrs. Sarah Miller of that locality. This may have been Thomas Calloway, whose grave is at Obid, marked with a long, slender stone which had marked one of the camping places of Daniel Boone. - ^ An Important Historical Contribution. Dr. Archi- bald Henderson, a descendant of Richard Henderson, pub- lished in the Charlotte (Sunday) Observer, between the 16th of March and the 1st of June, 1913, a series of articles entit- led "Life and Times of Richard Henderson," in which much absolutely new matter is introduced, and numerous mistakes have been corrected in what has hitherto been accepted as history. It is especially valuable regarding the Regulators' agitation and the part therein borne by Richard Henderson. DANIEL BOONE 89 Dr. Henderson is a member of the faculty of the University of North Carohna, of the State Library and Historical Associa- tion, and of the American Historical Association, and in the forthcoming volume, soon to appear, he will put the result of years of study and research into permanent form. He may be relied on to give adequate authority for every state- ment of importance concerning his remarkable kinsman and the times in which he lived. Henderson's Share in Boone's Explorations. Roose- velt, Ramsey and other historians have related the bare fact that Boone went on his first trip into Kentucky in 1764 at the instance of Richard Henderson; but in these papers the details of the association of the two men are set forth. Cer- tainly as early as 1763, Boone and Henderson, then a lawyer, met, and discussed the territorj^ lying to the west of the moun- tains. Henderson was seated as a Superior Court judge at Salisbury, March 5, 1868, and ceased to represent Boone as attorney in litigation then pending before the Superior Court of Rowan county; but in March, 1769, when the distinguished Waightstill Avery, then fresh from his birthplace, Norwich, Conn., and from Princeton College, where he had graduated in 1766, made his first appearance before the bar of that county, we are told that he might have seen also "the skilled scout and hunter, garbed in hunting shjrt, fringed leggings and moccasins, the then little known Daniel Boone," who attended that term of court in defence of a lawsuit, and must have (as shown by the sequel) conferred with Judge Hen- derson at this time about his contemplated trip into Tennessee and Kentucky in the interest of himself, John Williams and Thomas Hart, Henderson's first associates in the coloniza- tion enterprize he contemplated even at that early date, and while holding a commission as judge of the colony.-* The Six Nations' Claims to "Cherokee." Before Rich- ard Henderson's appointment as judge by Governor Tryon in 1768, he and Hart and Williams had engaged Boone to spy out the western lands for them as early as 1764, though the proclamation of George IV, in 1763, forbidding the East- ern Colonists to .settle on lands west of the Blue Ridge, may have retarded their plans for "securing title to va.st tracts of western lands, and no move was made by Henderson to that end until after the treaty of Fort Stanwx in 1768, by 90 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA which Great Britain had acquired by purchase from the Six Nations their unwarranted claim to all the territory east and southeast of the Ohio and north of the Tennessee rivers, which territory had always been claimed by the Cherokees, and that country was then known as "Cherokee." ^^ Title of the Cherokees. "The ownership of all the Kentucky region, Avith the exception of the extreme north- eastern section, remained vested absolutely in the tribe of Cherokee Indians. Their title to the territory had been acknowledged by Great Britain through her Southern agent of Indian Affairs, John Stuart, at the Treaty of Lochaber in 1770." 27 King George's Proclamation Made to be Broken? Dr. Henderson insists that the King's proclamation forbid- ding the acquisition of Indian lands by the settlers was uni- versally disregarded by the settlers of the east. And while he points out that Richard Henderson obtained an "opinion, handed down by the Lord Chancellor and the Attorney Gen- eral, " which "cleared away the legal difficulties" in the way of securing "an indisputable title from the Indian owners and . . . to surmount the far more serious obstacle of Royal edict against the purchase of lands from the Indians by pri- vate individuals, he would doutbless have been justified in his purchase by the popular sentiment of the day in view of the universal disregard of the Royal Proclamation of 1763." Dr. Henderson points out that "George Washington expressed the secret belief of the period when he hazarded the judgment that the Royal Proclamation of 1763 was a mere temporary expedient to quiet the Indians, and was not intended as a permanent bar to Western Civilization. . . . George Wash- ington, acquiring vast tracts of western land by secret pur- chase, indirectly stimulated the powerful army that was carrying the broadax westward. . . . It is no reflection upon the fame of George Washington to point out that, of the two, the service to the nation of Richard Henderson in promoting western civilization was vastly more generous in its nature and far-reaching in its results than the more selfish and pru- dent aims of Washington. " ^ * Henderson's Title. "The vahd ownership of the terri- tory being [now] actually vested in the Cherokees, Hender- son foresaw that the lands could be acquired only by lease DANIEL BOONE 91 or by purchase from that tril)e, and lie forthwith set about acquiriufz; an accurate knowledge of tlie territory in question. To get tliis information the services of Daniel Boone were secured, and the latter must have "conferred with Judge Henderson at Salisbury where he was presiding over the Superior Court, and plans were soon outlined for Boone's journey and expetlition. At this time Boone was very poor and his desire to pay off his indebtedness to Henderson [law- yer's fees] made him all the more ready to undertake the exhaus- tive tour of exploration in company with Finley and others"; but "at the time of Boone's return to North Carolina Judge Henderson was embroiled in the exciting issues of the Regu- lation. His plan to inaugurate his great western venture was thus temporarily frustrated; but the dissolution of the Superior Court (under the judiciary act of 1767) took place in 1773," and left Richard Henderson free to act as he saw fit. 2 9 Henderson and Daniel Boone. "In the meantime, Daniel Boone grew impatient over the delay . . . and on September 25, 1773, started from the Yadkin Valley . . . for Kentucky, with a colony numbering eighteen men, besides women and children;" but, being attacked by Indians, and some of Boone's party, including his own son, having been killed, "the whole party scattered and returned to the set- tlements. This incident is significant evidence that Boone was deficient in executive ability, the power to originate and execute schemes of colonization on a grand scale . . . Boone lacked constructive leadership and executive genius. He was a perfect instrument for executing the designs of others. It was not until the creative and executive brain of Richard Henderson was applied to the vast and daring project of West- ern colonization that it was carried through to a successful termination." ^^ Henderson's Scheme Denounced. "When, on Christmas Day, 1774, there was spread broadcast throughout the colony of North Carolina 'Proposals for the encouragement of set- tling the lands purchased by Messrs. Richard Henderson & Co., on the branches of the Mississippi river from the Chero- kee tribe of Indians,' a genuine sensation was created." Archi- bald Neilson, deputy auditor of the colony, asked : "Is Richard Henderson out of his head?" and Governor Josiah Martin 92 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA issued "a forcible-feeble proclamation against Richard Hender- son and his confederates in their daring, unjust and unwar- rantable proceeding. In letters to the Earl of Dartmouth, Martin speaks scathingly of 'Henderson, the famous invader,' and of 'the infamous Henderson and his associates' whom he dubs 'an infamous company of land Pyrates.' He denounced their project as a 'lawless undertaking,' and 'an infraction of the royal prerogative.' But these 'fulminations' were un- heeded and 'the goods already purchased were transported over the mountains in wagons to the Sycamore Shoals.' " ^ ^ Failure of the Transylvania Colony. "Serious dan- gers from without ])egan to threaten the safety and integrity of the colony. While the Transylvania legislature was in session, Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina inglori- ously fled from his 'palace', and on the very day that his emissary, a British spy, arrived at Boonesborough, Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, escaped to the pro- tection of the British vessel, the 'Fowey' ... At Oxford, N. C, on September 25, 1775, the proprietors of the Tran- sylvania company drew up a memorial to the Continental Congress, then in session at Philadelphia, for the recognition of the Transylvania company as the fourteenth American colony; but this was refused "until it had been properly ac- knowledged by Virginia." Application was then made to the Virginia convention at Williamsburg for recognition, but the effort of Henderson, assisted by Thomas Burke, was "de- feated chiefly through the opposition of two remarkable men : George Rogers Clark, w^ho represented the rival settlement of Harrodsburg in Kentucky, and Patrick Henry, who sought to extend in all directions the power ajid extent of the 'Ancient Dominion of Virginia.' Under pressure of Henderson's repre- sentations, Virginia finally acknowledged the validity of the Transylvanians' claims against the Indians; but boldly con- fiscated the purchase, and made of Transylvania a county of Virginia. Instead of the 20,000,000 acres obtained by the treaty of Sycamore Shoals, Virginia granted the company 200,000 acres between the Ohio and Green rivers, and North Carohna later granted to the company a like amount on Powell and Clinch rivers in Tennessee." ^ ^ Henderson and James Robertson. Dr. Archibald Hen- derson claims for his kinsman the honor of "having accom- DANIEL BOONE 93 plished for Tennessee, in the same constructive way as he had done for Kentucky [at Boonesborough], the pioneer task of estabHshing a colony in tlio midst of the Tennessee wilder- ness, devising a system of laws and convening a legislature for the passage of those laws." This was nothing less than the settlement of Nashborough (now Nashville) and the coun- try surrounding it; for he claims that "under Henderson's direction Robertson made a long and extended examination of the region in the neighborhood of the French Lick, just as Boone in 1769-1771 had made a detailed examination under Henderson's direction of the Kentucky area. Upon his re- turn to the Watauga settlements on the Holston, Robertson founil many settlers ready and eager to take the great step towards colonization of the new lands, inspired by the prom- ise of Henderson and the enthusiastic reports of Robertson and his companions." It was while Henderson was engaged in surveying the line between Virginia and North Carolina — "the famous line of latitude of 36° 30' "—"that the Watauga settlers set out for the wilderness of the Cumberland. Part of these settlers went by water — do\\Ti the Tennessee and up the Cumberland rivers — under the leadership of Col. John Donelson, father of Mrs. Andrew Jackson, and the others, under Robertson, overland. Donelson's diary records the meeting of Richard Henderson on Friday, March 31, 1780. Henderson not only supplied the party with all needed in- formation but informed them that "he had purchased a quan- tity of corn in Kentucky to be shipped at the Falls of Ohio (Lousville) for the Cumberland settlement. . . . James Robertson's party had already arrived and built a few log cabins on a cedar bluff above the 'Lick', when Donelson's party arrived by boat, April 24,1780. Henderson himself ar- rived soon afterwards, and, assisted by James Robertson, drew up and adopted a plan of civil government for the col- ony. A land office was established; the power to appoint the entry-taker was vested in Henderson, as president of the Transylvania company, and the Transylvania company was to be paid for the lands at the rate of 26 lbs., 13 shillings and 4 pence, current money, a hundred acres, as soon as the com- pany could assure the settlers a satisfactory and indisputable title. This resulted in perpetual non-payment, since in 1783, North Carolina, following \'irginia's lead, expropriated the 94 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA lands of the Transylvania company, granting them in com- pensation a tract of 200,000 acres in Powell's Valley." Hen- derson returned to North Carolina, and died in 1785, aged fifty; and although memorials in his honor have been erected in Tennessee and Kentucky, his grave at Nutbush creek in North Carolina is unmarked; "and North Carolina has erected no monument as yet to the man who may justly be termed the founder of Kentucky and Tennessee." ^^ The Shadow of Coming Events. '* "One sentence of this backwoods constitution [of Nashborough], remarkable in its political anticipation, is nothing less than that establishing for the first time in America the progressive doctrine of which so much is heard today, the recall of judges . . . and must for- ever be associated in American history with the names of Henderson and his coadjutor, Robertson : 'As often as the people in general are dissatisfied with the doings of the judges or triers so to be chosen, they may call a new election in any of the said stations, and elect others in their stead, having due respect to the number now agreed to be elected at each station, which persons so to be chosen shall have the same power with those in whose room they shall or may be chosen to act.'" Boone's Trail. The North Carolina Society of tlie Daugh- ters of the American Revolution marked Boone's trail in North Carolina by planting iron tablets bolted to large boulders at Cook's Gap, Three Forks' Church, Boone Village, Hodge's Gap, Graveyard or Straddle Gap, and at Zionville, in October, 1913. Addresses were made at Boone courthouse October 23, 1913, by Mrs. W. N. Reynolds, State Regent, Mrs. Lindsay Patterson, chairman of committee on Boone's trail, and Mrs. Theo. S. Morrison, Regent of Edward Buncombe Chapter. Record Evidence of the Residence of the Boones. Jonathan Boone sold to John Hardin (Deed Book No. 5, p. 509, Ashe county) 245 acres on the 15th of September, 1821, for $600 — on the North side of New river and on both sides of Lynches' Mill creek, adjoining Jesse Councill's line, and running to Shearer's Knob. This was near the town of Boone. The John Hardin mentioned above was the father of John and Joseph Hardin of Boone, and his wife was Lottie, the daugh- ter of Jordan Councill, Sr., and the daughter of Benjamin Howard. On the 7th of November, 1814, Jesse Boone entered DANIEL BOONE 95 100 acres on the head waters of Watauga river, l)ogiiining on a maple, Jesse Coffey's corner, and obtained a grant therefor on the 29th of November, 1817. (Deed Book "F," Ashe county, p. 170.) NOTES. 'Thwaitos' "Daniel Boone," pp. 22, 60. Mbia.. 23. >Ibid., 73. *Ibia., p. 66. 'Statement of James M. Isbell to J. P. A. in May, 1909, at lattor's home. •It "conld still be seen, a few yeans ago, at the foot of a range of hills some .seven and a half miles above Wilkesboro, in Wilkes county." Thwaites' " Danic^l Boone," p. 68. 'That inscription is not legible now. Tiie picture of it opposite page 56 of Thwaites' "Daniel Boone" shows that, if it had been made in 1760 it would not have been legible in 1S56 when Captain \V. T. Pritchett of Jouesboro, Tennessee, was a boy, as he stated was the case in June, 1909, to J. P. A. 'Some think Boone went down Brushy Fork to Dr. Phillips's present home on Cove creek and crossed Phillips' gap to Beaver Dams and thence by Baker's gap to Roan's creek. This, however, would not have brought him to Shoun's Cross Roads, below which about three-fourths of a mile he is said to have made a camp on the old Wagner farm, now owned by Wiley Jenkins. •Dr. Jordan B. Phillips has always heard that George's gap is so called from George Finley who so often hunted with Boone. '"Holland Hodges says Dog Skin creek is so called because settlors on it used to kill all stray dogs to get their skins for tanning. "Thwaites, 25. > 'Martin's North Carolina, Vol. II, p. 339, cited in Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1883-84, p. 149. "Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, p. 204, cited in Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1883-84, p. 149. "Fifth .\nnual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1883-S4, p. 153. "Thwaites' "Life of Boone," p. 21. "The only evidence of that is the inscription on the beech tree nine miles north ot Jonesboro, Tennessee, about killing a bear on that tree in 1760. "Thwaites, pp. 1, 2, 25, 43. "Thwaites' ' Daniel Boone," p. 117. "Ibid., p. 1356. »»Ibid., p. 143. >'ll)id., p. 158. »sibid., p. 165-7. »>'■ Footprints on the Stands of Time," by Dr. A. B. Cox, p. 106. '•Statement of T. C. Bowie, Esq., to J. P. A., in September, 1912. •'"Life and Times of Richard Henderson," Charlotte Observer, April 6, 1913. "Ibid., May 11, 1913. "Ibid. "Ibid. "Ibid. »»Ibid. »'Ibid. »2lhi(i. "Ibid., June 1. "Ibid. CHAPTER V REVOLUTIONARY DAYS Our Part in the Revolution. ^ In the summer of 1880 "the British were making a supreme effort to dismember the colonies by the conquest of the Southern States." "They thought," says Holmes, "that important advantages might be expected from shifting the war to the rich Southern colonies, which chiefly upheld the financial credit of the Confederacy in Europe, and through which the Americans received most of their military and other supplies." "The militiaman of Western North Carolina was unique in his way. Regarded by his government, in the words of Governor Graham, as 'a self-supporting institution,' he went forth to service gener- ally without thought of drawing uniform, rations, arms or pay. A piece of white paper pinned to his hunting cap was his uniform; a wallet of parched flour or a sack of meal was his commissariat; a tin-cup, a frying-pan and a pair of sad- dle-bags, his only impedimenta; his domestic rifle — a Deckard or a Kutter— and sometimes a sword, made in his own black- smith shop, constituted his martial weapons; a horse capable of 'long subsisting on nature's bounty' was his means of rapid mobihzation or 'hasty change of base'; a sense of manly duty performed, his quarter's pay. Indeed, his sense of propriety would have been rudely shocked by any suggestion of reward for serving his endangered country. . . An expert rider and an unerring shot, he was yet disdainful of the discipline that must mechanaze a man into a soldier or convert a mob into an army ... he was so tenacious of personal freedom as to be jealous of the authority of officers chosen by his vote." The Mecklenburg Resolves. Alamance was but the forerunner of the declaration of independence at Mecklen- burg, the proof of which follows : Hon. George Bancroft, the historian, and at the time ]\Iin- ister to England, WTote to David L. Swain, at Chapel Hill, July 4, 1848, as follows : "The first account of the Resolves 'by the people in Charlotte Town, Mecklenburg County,' was (96) "X^V-^J \^- » • I - Ci (From a daguprreotype taken when he was in his 94th year.) REVOLUTIONARY DAYS 97 sent over by Sir James Wright, then Governor of Georgia, in a letter of the 20th of June, 1775. The newspaper thus trans- mitted is still preserved, and is in number 498 of the South Carolina Gazette and Country Journal. ' Tuesday, June 13, 1775. I read the Resolves, you may be sure, with reverence, and immediately obtained a copy of them, thinking myself the SOU" discoverer. 1 tlo not send you the copy, as it is iden- tically the same with the paper you enclosed to me, but I for- ward to you a transcript of the entire letter of Sir James Wright. The newspapers seem to have reached him after he had finished his dispatch, for the paragraph relating to it is added in his own handwriting, the former part being written by a secretary. . . . It is a mistake if any have supposed that the Regulators were cowed down by their defeat at Ala- mance." The Men of Ashe and Buncombe. As many of those who hatl taken part in the Mecklenburg Resolves bore their part in the Revolutionary War which followed, and then moved into Ashe and Buncombe counties, west of the Blue Ridge, the interest of their descendants in the reality of that heroic step is intense. As, also, many of these men were with Sevier and McDowell in the expedition to and battle of Kings Mountain, the following account of their experiences through the mountains of Western North Carolina and of the landmarks which still mark their old trails must be of equal importance. Western North Carolinians Won the Revolutionary War. ' After the battle of Alamance, the defiance declared at public meetings, the declaration of independence at Meck- lenburg and at Halifax; after Gates' defeat at Camden, Au- gust 16, 1780, and Sumter's rout at Fishing creek, Corn- wallis started northward to complete the conquest of Vir- ginia and North Carolina. "At this dark crisis the Western North Carolinians conceived and organized and, with the aid which they sought and received from Virginia and the Wa- tauga settlement [the latter being then a part of North Caro- lina] now in Tennessee, carried to glorious success at Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780, an expedition which thwarted all the plans of the British commander, and restored the almost lost cause of the Americans and rendered possible its final triumph at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. This w. N.C. — 7 98 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA expedition was without reward or the hope of reward, under- taken and executed by private individuals, at their own instance, who furnished their own arms, conveyances and supplies, bore their o^vn expenses, achieved the victory, and then quietly retired to their homes, leaving the benefit of their work to all Americans, and the United States their debtors for independence." Vance, McDowell and Henry. "The white occupation of North Carolina had extended only to the Blue Ridge when the Revolution began"; but at its close General Charles McDowell, Col. David Vance and Private Robert Henry were among the first to cross the Blue Ridge and settle in the new county of Buncombe.^ As a reward for their services, no doubt, they were appointed to run and mark the line between North Carolina and Teimessee in 1799, McDowell and Vance as commissioners and Henry as s urveyor- While on this work they wrote and left in the care of Robert Henry their narra- tives of the battle of Kings Mountain and the fight at Cowan's ford. After his death Robert Henry's son, Willian LL,_H£iu:^, furnished the manuscript to the late Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, and he sent it to Dr. Lyman C. Draper, of Wisconsin. On it is largely based his "King's Mountain and its Heroes" (1880). David Vance. He was the grandfather of Governor and General Vance; "came south with a great tide of Scotch-Irish emigration which flowed into the Piedmont country from the middle colonies between 1744 and 1752, and made his home on the Catawba river, in what is now Burke, and was then Rowan county, where he married Miss Brank about 1775; and here, pursuing his vocation as a surveyor and teacher, the beginning of the Revolutionary war found him. He was one of the first in North Carolina to take up arms in support of the colonies, and in June, 1776, was appointed ensign in the second North Carolina regiment of Regular Continental troops, and shortly thereafter was promoted to a lieuten- ancy, and served with his regiment until May or June, 1778, "when the remnant of that regiment was consolidated with other North Carolina troops. He served at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and was with Washington at Val- ley Forge through the terrible winter of 1777-78. In command of a company he fought at Ramseur's Mill, CowTDens, and King's Mountain in 1780-81. His son David was the father REVOLUTIONARY DAYS 99 of Zebulon and Robert B. Vance, the United States senator and Confederate general respectively, was a prominent and influential citizen of his time, and a captain in the War of 1812, which, however, terminated before his regiment reached the theater of war. Captain William Moore. He was from Ulster county, Ireland, and was the first white man to settle west of the Blue Ridge in Buncombe. He was with his brother-in-law, Griffith Rutherford when that officer came through Buncombe in 177G on his way to punish the Cherokees, and was struck with the beauty and fertility of the spot on which he after- wards settled, six and a half miles west of Asheville, the pres- ent residence, remodeled and enlarged, of Dr. David M. Gudger. He was a captain of one of Rutherford's com- panies. He returned in 1777 and built a fort on the site above referred to, obtaining a grant for 640 acres from Gov- ernor Caswell soon afterwards, for "land on Hominy creek, Burke county." But he had to leave his new home for the Revolutionary War, in which he served gallantly, returning at its close with his own family — his wife being Gen. Ruth- erford's sister — and five others. He had three sons, William, Samuel, and Charles, and three daughters, all of whom mar- ried Penlands, brothers. William and Samuel moved to Georgia, and Charles, the youngest, fell heir to the home place. Of him Col. Allen T. Davidson says in The Lyceum for April, 1891, page 24, that he had been born in a fort on Hom- iny creek "and was one of the most honorable, hospitable, open-hearted men it was my good fortune to know, whom I was taught by my parents to revere and respect; and I can now say I never found in him anything to lessen the high es- timate placed upon him by them." Mountain Tories. There was a man named Mills men- tioned in "The Heart of the Alleghanies" as living in Hen- derson county during the Revolutionary War; local tradi- tion says there was a Tory named Hicks who at some time during the Revolutionary War built himself a pole cabin on what is now the Meadow Farm near Banners Elk; but which was for years known as Hick's Improvement. Benjamin How- ard built what is known as the Boone cabin for the accommo- dation of himself and his herders when they were looking after the cattle grazing on the mountains near what is now the 100 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA town of Boone. Howard's Knob, where he is said to have had a cave, and Howard's creek are named for him. His daughter Sarah married Jordan Council, Sr., a prominent citizen, and they Hved near the oak tree that has buck-horns embedded in its trunk, near Boone village. There is also here, at the spring, a large sycamore tree which grew from a switch stuck in the moist soil by Jesse Council, eldest son of Jordan Council, about one hundred years ago. Howard was a Tory. Some of the Norris family are said to have been Tories also; and two men, named White and Asher, were killed by the Whigs near Shull's Mills during the Revolutionary War. * There were, doubtless, other Tories hidden in these mountains during those troublous times. Daniel Boone himself was not above suspicion, and escaped conviction under charges of dis- loyalty at Boonesborough, Ky., by pleading that his acts of apparent disloyalty were due to the fact that he had been "playing the Indians in order to gain time for getting rein- forcements to come up." ^ The Norris Family. William Norris settled on Meat Camp, and his brother Jonathan on New river, about 1803, probably, as William was less than ninety when he died in 1873. Thomas Hodges came to Hodges' gap one, and a half miles west of what is now Boone, during the Revolutionary War. He came from Virginia, and brought his family with him. He was a Tory and was seeking to keep out of taking up arms against Great Britain when he came to his new home. There was a Norris in this section who was also a Tory. Thomas Hodges' son Gilbert married a daughter of Robert Shearer who lived on New River, three miles from Boone, and died there about 1845. Robert Shearer was a Scotchman who had fought in the American army. In 1787 Gilbert was born, and lived at the place of his birth in Hodges' gap till his death in December, 1862. Hollard Hodges, a son of Gilbert, was born there July 18, 1827, and is still there. He still remembers that about 1856 he and Jordan McGhee in one day killed 432 rattlesnakes on a rocky and cliffy place on the Rich mountain about three miles from Boone; and that he has always heard that Ben. Howard had entered all the land about Hodges gap. His wife was born Elizabeth Councill, and is a grand-doughter of Jordan Councill, Sr., whose wife was Sallie, daughter of Ben. Howard. REVOLUTIONARY DAYS 101 Henderson County Heroes. In her history of Hender- son county, written for this work, Mrs. Mattie S. Candler says, "here are unquestionably numbers of quiet sleepers in the little old and neglected burying grounds all over the county who followed Shell\v and Sevier at Kings Mountain," and mentions the grandfather of Misses Ella and Lela McLean and Mrs. Hattie Scott as having fought against his immediate relatives in the British army on that occasion, receiving a se- vere wound there. Elijah Williamson is said to have lived in Henderson county on land now owned by Preston Patton, his great grandson. Williamson was born in Virginia, moved to Ninety-Six, S. C, and afterwards settled on the Patton farm, where he planted five sycamore trees, naming each for one of his daughters. They still stand. Samuel Fletcher, ances- tor of Dr. G. E. Fletcher and of Mrs. Wm. R. Kirk and Miss Estelle Edgerton of Hendersonville, owned an immense tract adjoining the Patton farm, to which it is supposed he came about the time that Elijah Williamson did. Descendants of Revolutionary Heroes. Representatives of several Revolutionary soldiers reside in these mountains, among whom are the Alexanders, Davidsons, Fosters, McDowells, Coffeys, Bryans, Penlands, Wisemans, Aliens, Welches, and scores of others, w^ho fought in North Caro- lina. Others are descendants of Nathan Horton, who was a member of the guard at the execution of Major Andre, when he carried a shot-gun loaded with one ball and three buck- shot. J. B. Horton, a direct descendant, has the gun now. J. C. Horton, who lives on the South Fork of the New River, near Boone, has a grandfather's clock which his ancestor, Nathan Horton, brought with him from New Jersey over one hundred years ago. The late Superior Court Judge, L. L. Greene of Boone, and the Greenes of Watauga generally, trace their descent directly from General Nathanael Greene, who conducted the most masterly retreat of the Revolutionary War, when he slowly retired before Cornwallis from Camden to Yorktown, and won the applause of even the British. ^ The Old Field. Where Gap creek empties into the South Fork of New River is a rich meadow on which, according to tradition, there has never been any trees. It has been called the "old field" time out of mind. It was here that Col. Cleveland was captured by a notorious Tory named Riddle 102 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA and his followers during the Revolutionarj'^ War. ^ The apple tree under which it is said he was seated when surprised and captured is still standing in the yard of the old Luther Per- kins home, ^ now occupied by a son of Nathan Waugh. The tree is said to be 180 years old. It is three feet in diam- eter six feet from the ground, and still bears fruit. It is said that Mrs. Perkins sent her daughter to notify Ben Greer And Joseph Calloway of Cleveland's capture and that they followed him by means of twigs dropped in the river as he was led up stream, having joined the party of Captain Cleve- land, who had gone in pursuit. Greer lived four miles above Old Field and Calloway two miles below. It is said that Greer shot one of the captors at Riddle's knob, to which point Cleveland had been taken, and that the rest fled, Cleve- land himself dropping behind the log on which he had been seated while slowly writing passes for his captors. It is also claimed that Ben. Greer fired the shot which killed Col. Fer- guson at Kings Mountain. ^^Roosevelt says Ferguson was pierced by half a dozen bullets. (Vol. iii, 170). The Wolf's Den. Riddle's knob is ten miles north of Boone, and is even yet a "wild and secluded spot, being very near the noted Elk Knob, the place where this noted Tory had his headquarters. It is known as the "Wolf's Den," and is the place where the early settlers caught many young wolves." About 1857 Micajah Tugman found Riddle's knife in the crevices of the Wolf's Den. It was of peculiar design, the "jaws" being six inches long, and the handle was curved. ^ * Benjamin Cleveland. This brave man was born in Vir- ginia May 26, 1738. When thirty-one years of age he came to North Carolina to live, settling in Wilkes county. In 1776 he became a Whig. He was himself somewhat cruel, as it is related of him that "some time after this (his capture at Old Field) this same Riddle and his son, and another was taken, and brought before Cleveland, and he hung all three of them near the Mulberry Meeting House, now Wilkesborough. " ^ ^ Cleveland weighed over three hundred pounds, and his men called him "Old Roundabout," and themselves "Cleveland's Bull Dogs." The Tories, however, called them "Cleveland's Devils." He was a captain in Rutherford's expedition across the mountains to punish the Cherokees in 1776, for which REVOLUTIONARY DAYS 103 service he was made a colonel, and as such rendered great service in suppressing Tory bands on the frontier. He raised a regiment of four hundred men in Surry and Wilkes counties and with them took part in Kings Mountain fight. Before he died he weighed over 450 pounds, but was cheerful and witty to the end, which came in October, 1806.'^ Dr. Draper's Account. In his "Kings Mountain and Its Heroes," Dr. Draper tells us (Ch. 19, p. 437, et seq.) that the Old Fields belonged to Colonel Cleveland, and served, in peaceful times, as a grazing region for his stock, and there his tenant, Jesse Duncan, resided. On Saturday, April 14, 1881, accompanied only by a negro servant, Cleveland rode from his "Round About" plantation on the Yadkin to the Old Fields, where he spent the night. Captain William Riddle, a son of Col. James Riddle of Surry county, both of whom were Roj'alists, was at that time approaching Old Field from Virginia, with Captain Ross, a Whig captive, and his servant, enroute to Ninety Six, in South Carolina. Cap- tain Riddle's party of six or eight men, reached the home of Benjamin Cutbirth, some four miles above Old Field, on the afternoon of the day that Cleveland arrived at Jesse Dun- can's, and abused Cutbirth, who was a Whig and suffering from wounds he had but recently sustained in the American cause. Riddle, however, soon left Cutbirth's and went on to the upper end of Old Fields, where Joseph and Timothy Perkins resided, about one mile above Duncan's. Both these men were absent in Tory service at the time; but Riddle learned from their women that Cleveland was at Duncan's "with only his servant, Duncan and one or two of the Callo- way family." Riddle, however, was afraid to attack Cleve- land openly, and determined to lure him into an ambush the next morning. Accordingly, that night, he had Cleve- land's horses secretly taken from Duncan's to a laurel thicket "just above the Perkins house," where they were tied and left. But, it so happened, that on that very Saturday, Rich- ard Calloway and his brother-in-law, John Shirley, went down from the neighboring residence of Thomas Calloway, to see Col. Cleveland, where they remained over night. On the following (Sunday) morning, discovering that his horses were missing, Cleveland and Duncan, each with a pistol, and Cal- loway and Shirley, unarmed, went in pursuit, following the 104 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA tracks of the stolen horses, just as Riddle had planned. "Reaching the Perkins place, one of the Perkins women, knowing of the ambuscade, secretly desired to save the Colo- nel from his impending fate, and detained him as long as she could, while his three companions went on, Cleveland follow- ing some httle distance behind." She also followed, retard- ing Cleveland by enquiries, until his companions had crossed the fence that adjoined the thicket, where they were fired upon by Riddle's men from their places of concealment. Calloway's thigh was broken by the shot of Zachariah Wells, but Duncan and Shirley escaped. Cleveland "dodged into the house with several Tories at his heels." There he sur- rendered on condition that they would spare his life; but when Wells arrived he swore that he would kill Cleveland then and there, and would have done so had not the latter "seized Abigal Walters and kept her between him and his would-be assassin." Riddle, however, soon came upon the scene and ordered Wells to desist; after which, "the whole party with their prisoner and his servant were speedily mounted and hurried up New river," traveling "mostly in its bed to avoid being tracked, in case of pursuit." Two boys, of fourteen and fifteen, "Daniel Cutbirth and a youth named Walters," had resolved to waylay Riddle on his return to Benjamin Cutbirth's, and rescue whatever prisoners he might have with him; but they were deterred from their pur- pose by the size and noise of Riddle's party as they passed their place of concealment that Sunday morning. Riddle's party got dinner at Benjamin Cutbirth's where one of Cut- birth's daughters was abused and kicked by Riddle because of her reluctance in serving Riddle's party. After dinner Riddle's party proceeded up the bed of New river to the mouth of Elk creek, where the new and promising town of Todd now flourishes at the terminus of a new railroad now building from Konarok, Va., Cleveland meanwhile breaking off overhanging twigs and dropping them in the stream as a guide to his friends who, he knew, would soon follow in pur- suit. "From the head of the south fork of Elk, they as- cended up the mountains in what has since been knowTi as Riddle's Knob, in what is now Watauga county, and some fourteen miles from the place of Cleveland's captivity," where they camped for the night. Meantime, early that REVOLUTIONARY DAYS 105 Sabbath morning, Joseph Calloway and his brother-in-law, Berry Toney, luul called at Duncan's, and hearing firing in the direction of Perkins's home, hastened there; but, meeting Duncan and Shirley in rapid flight, they learned from them that Richard Calloway had been left behind for dead and that Cleveland was either dead or captured. Duncan, Shir- ley and Toney then went to notify the people of the scattered settlements to meet that afternoon at the Old Fields, while Joseph Calloway rode to Captain Rol)ert Cleveland's place on Lewis Fork of the Yadkin river, a dozen miles distant. His brother, William Calloway, started forthwith up New river and soon came across Benjamin Career and Samuel McQueen, who readily joined them, and together they fol- lowed Riddle's trail till night overtook them ten miles above the Old Fields, where Calloway and McQueen remained, while Greer returned to pilot whatever men might have gathered to engage in the pursuit of the Tories. Greer soon met Robert Cleveland and twenty others at the Old Fields, and all started at once, reaching Calloway and Mc- Queen before day Monday morning. John Baker joined Calloway and McQueen to lead the advance as spies or ad- vance guards; and, soon after sunrise, the nine men who were in advance of the others fired upon Riddle's party, while Cleveland tumbled behind the log on which he was slowly writing passes for his Tory captors. But Wells alone was shot, being hit as he scampered away by William Calloway, and was left as it was supposed that he had been mortally wounded. Riddle and his wife mounted horses and escaped with the others of his band. "Cleveland's servant, who had been a pack-horse for the Tory plunderers," was rescued with his ma.ster. Captain Ross, Riddle's Virginia prisoner, was also rescued. Shortly after this Riddle captured on Kings creek at night two of Cleveland's noted soldiers, David and John Wither- spoon, who resided with their parents on Kings creek, and spirited them many miles away in the mountain region on Watauga river. Here they escaped death by taking the oath of allegiance to the King of England, and were released; but as soon as they reached their home, David hastened to notify Col. Ben. Herndon, several miles down the Yadkin, who with a party of men, under the guidance of the Witherspoon brothers, returned and captured Riddle and two of his noted associates, 106 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Reeves and Gross, who were taken to Wilkesboro and "executed on the hill adjoining the village on a stately oak. . Mrs. Riddle," who seems to have accompanied her husband on his wild and reckless marauds, "was present and witnessed his execution." Wells had been captured and hanged by Cleve- land a short time before. (P. 446.) David and John Witherspoon. Of these heroes Dr. Draper says (p. 461), "David was a subordinate officer — per- haps a lieutenent — in Cleveland's regiment at Kings moun- tain, and his younger brother John was a private." They were of Scotch origin, but natives of New Jersey. David was born in 1758 and John in 1760. They were collateral rela- tives of John Witherspoon, president of Princeton college, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Each afterwards represented Wilkes in the legislature. David died in May 1828 while on a visit to South Carolina, and John in Wayne county, Tenn., in 1839. Captain WiUiani Harrison Wither- spoon, of Jefferson, was descended from John Witherspoon, and was born near Kings creek, January 24, 1841. He was a sergeant major of the 1st N. C. Infantry, was shot in the leg at Seven Pines in 1862, and in the forehead at Spottsyl- vania Court House, May 12, 1864, returning for duty in less than two months. He surrendered with Lee at Appomattox, after serving four years and nine days in the Confederate army. His wife was born Clarissa Pennell in Wilkes county. In the Spring of 1865, while seven of Stonemen's men — three negroes and four white men — were trying to break into her father's stable near Wilkesboro, for the purpose of stealing her father's horses and mules, she warned them that if they persisted she would shoot; and as they paid her no heed, she did actually shoot and kill one of the white robbers, and the rest fled. Gen. Stoneman, when he heard of her conduct, sent her a guard and complimented her highly for her courage and determination. The Perkins Family. J. D. Perkins, Esq., an attorney at Kendrick, Va., in a letter to his brother, L. N. Perkins, at Boone, N. C, of date December 1, 1913, says that his ances- tors Joseph and Timothy Perkins were tax gatherers under the colonial government of Massachusetts about the com- mencement of the Revolutionary War, but removed to Old Fields, Ashe county on account of political persecution. They REVOLUTIONARY DAYS 107 remained loyal to the King during the whole of the Revolu- tionary War, and Timothy was killed somewhere in Ashe in a Tory skirmish. Timothy left several sons and one daugh- ter, Lucy, J. D. Perkin's great grandmother, who married a man named Young. Joseph also left sons and daughters. *'I have forgotten the names of most of our great grand uncles," wrote ,L D. Perkins in the letter above mentioned, "hut I remember to have heard our mother tell about seeing 'Clranny Skritch,' a sister to our great-great-grandfather, and who was very old at that time, and living with one of her Perkins relatives up on Little Wilson. Our mother was then quite small and the old lady (Granny Skritch) was very old and confined to her bed; but our mother was impressed with Granny Skritch's loyalty, even then, to King George, and the manner in which she abused the Patriot soldiers in her talk." Other Important Facts. Dr. Draper says (p. 435), "In the summer of 1780 he (Cleveland) was constantly employed m surpressing the Tories — first in marching against those as- sembled at Ramsour's mill, reaching them shortly after their defeat; then in chasing Col. (Samuel) Bryan from the State, and finally in scouring the region of New River including the Tory rising in that quarter, capturing and hanging some of their notorious leaders and outlaws." Cleveland's Character. Dr. Draper tries to temper the facts of Benjamin Cleveland's career as much as possible, but that this hero of the Revolutionary War was inhumanly cruel, cannot be disguised. His compelling a horse-thief, socalled — for he had not been tried — to cut off his own ears with a case knife in order to escape death by hanging, was inexpres- sibly revolting. (P. 447). Cleveland lost his "Round About Farm" "by a better title" at the close of the war, and moved to the "fine region of the Tugalo on the western border of South Carolina" and "though the Indian title was not yet extinguished," he resolved to be among the early squatters of the country, and "removed to his new home in the forks of the Tugalo river and Chauga creek in the present county of Oconee" in 1785. He served many years as a "judge of the Court of Old Pendleton county, with General Pickens and Col. Robert Anderson as his associates, . . . 'frequently taking a snooze on the bench' says Governor B. F. Perry, while the lawyers were making long and prosy speeches." He 108 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA was defeated for the legislature in 1793 by seven votes. "He had scarcely any education," and "was despotic in his nature" declares Dr. Draper; but "North Carolina deservedly commemorated his services by naming a county after him." Here he died and was buried; but "no monument — no inscrip- tion — no memorial stone — point out his silent resting place." (P. 453-4.) Ashe a Battle Ground. From Robert Love's pension papers it appears that the first battle in which he took part was when he was in command of a party of Americans in 1880 against a party of Tories in July of that year. This band of Tories was composed of about one hundred and fifty men, and they were routed "up New River at the Big Glades, now in Ashe county, North Carolina, as they were on the way to join Cornwallis." "In the year 1780 this declarent was engaged against the Torys at a special court first held on Toms creek down the New river, and afterwards upon Crip- ple creek; then up New river . . . then, afterwards at the Moravian Old Town . . . making an examination up to near the Shallow Ford of the Yadkin . . . rout- ing two parties of Tories in Guilford county, hanging one of the party who fell into his hands up the New River, and another, afterwards, whom they captured in Guilford." This activity may explain the presence of the mysteriuos battle ground in Alleghany county. (See ch. 13, "A Forgotten Bat- tlefield.") The Big Glades. This may be the Old Field, and it is most probable that this is the spot reached and lauded by Bishop Spangenberg in 1752. (See ch. 3, "In Goshen's Land. ") But whether they are identical with that locality or not, the following is an account of that well-known spot: Short Story of an Old Place. This land was granted to Luther Perkins by grant No. 599, which is recorded in Ashe county July 28, 1904, Book WW, page 254. But the grant itself is dated November 30, 1805, while the land was entered in May, 1803. This tract is the one on which the apple tree stands under which Cleveland is said to have been captured; but it is probably not the first tract nor the best, which was conveyed by Charles McDowell, a son of Gen. Charles McDowell of Revolutionary fame, to Richard Gentry for $1,000 in REVOLUTIONARY DAYS 109 1854. There seems to be several hundred acres in that bound- ary, beginning on a Spanish oak in the line of Joseph Perkins's Old Field Tract, and crossing Gap creek. There is no record in Ashe county, of how Charles McDowell got this place, though he probably inherited it. Richard Gentry divided his property into three parts, two in land and one in slaves. Adolphus Russeau, who married one of Gentry's daughters got the land now owned by Arthur Phillips. Nathan Waugh got the other tract, while James Gentry, a son, took the slaves. It was on this tract that the first 100 bushels of corn to the acre of land in Ashe county was raised by Richard Gentry. He was a mem- ber of the family of whom Dr. Cox said in his "Foot Prints," (p. 110): "The Gentry family have been distinguished for their principles and patriotic love of constitutional liberty and justice." Of Hon. Richard Gentry himself he said (p. 116): "He married a Miss Harboard and his residence was at Old Field. He was a Baptist preacher, justice of the peace and clerk of the Superior Court and a member of both branches of the legislature." Sword-tilt Between Herndon and Beverly. "The depredations of the Tories were so frequent, and their conduct so savage, that summary punishment was demanded by the exigencies of the times. This Cleveland inflicted without ceremony. General Lenoir relates a circumstance that occur- red at Mulberry Meeting-house. While there, on some pub- lic occasion, the rumor was that mischief was going on by the Tories. Lenoir went to his horse, tied at some distance from the house, and, as he approached, a man ran off from the oppo- site side of the horse. Lenoir hailed him, but he did not stop; he pursued him and found that he had stolen one of the stir- rups of his saddle. He carried the pilferer to Colonel Cleve- land, who ordered him to place his two thumbs in a notch for that purpose in an arbor fork, and hold them there while he ordered him to receive fifteen lashes. This was his peculiar maimer of inflicting the law, and gave origin to the phrase, *To thumb the notch.' The punishment on the offender above was well inflicted by Captain John Beverly, whose ardor did not stop at the ordered number. After the fifteen had been given, Colonel Herndon ordered him to stop, but Beverly continued to whip the wincing culprit. Colonel Herndon drew his sword and struck Beverly. Captain Bev- no HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA erly drew also, and they had a tilt which, but for friends, would have terminated fatally," ^'* Shad Laws' Oak. There is a tree on the public road in Wilkes, which to this day bears the name of "Shad Laws' Oak, " on which the notches, thumbed by said Laws under the sen- tence of Cleveland, are distinctly visible. ^ ^ Sevier, the Harry Percy of the Revolution. When "General Charles McDowell, finding his force too weak to stop Ferguson," "crossed the mountains to the Watauga settlements, he found the mountaineers ready to unite against the hated Ferguson. . . . These hardy men set out to search for Ferguson on September 25 (1780). They were armed with short Deckard rifles, and were expert shots. They knew the woods as wild deer do, and from boyhood had been trained in the Indian ways of fighting. They fur- nished their own horses and carried bags of parched flour for rations." ^^ According to Dr. Lyman C. Draper's "Kings Mountain and Its Heroes," page 176, Sevier followed the Gap creek from Mathew Talbot's Mill, now know^n as Clark's Mill, three miles from Sycamore Shoals, "to its head, when they bore somewhat to the left, crossing Little Doe river, reaching the noted 'Resting Place,' at the Shelving Rock, about a mile beyond the Crab Orchard, where, after a march of some twenty miles that day, they took up their camp for the night. . . . Here a man named Miller resided, who shod several of the horses of the party." The next morning, Wednesday, the twenty-seventh (of September, 1880,) . . . they reached the base of the Yellow and Roan mountains and ascended the mountain by following the well-knowoi Bright's Trace, through a gap between the Yellow mountain on the north and the Roan mountain on the south. The sides and top of the moun- tain were "covered shoe-mouth deep with snow." On the 100 acres of "beautiful table land" on top they paraded and discharged their short Deckard rifles; "and such was the rar- ity of the atmosphere, that there was little or no report." Here two of Sevier's men deserted. They were James Craw- ford and Samuel Chambers, and were suspected of having gone ahead to warn Ferguson of Sevier's approach. Sevier did not camp there, however, as there was still some hours of daylight left after the parade and refreshments, but "passed REVOLUTIONARY DAYS 1 1 1 on a couple of miles, descending the eastern slope of the moun- tains into Elk Hollow, a slight depression between the Yellow and Roan mountains, rather than a gap; and here, at a fine spring flowing into Roaring creek, they took up their camp for the night. Descending Roaring creek on the 28th four miles they reached its confluence with the North Toe river, and a mile below they passed Bright's place, now Avery's; and thence down the Toe to the noted spring on the Davenport place, since Tate's, and now known as the Childs place, a little distance west of the stream." HAYWOOD IN THE REVOLUTIONAIIY WAR. "Long before white people had come into the mountain country, all the land now included in Haywood county was occupied by the war- like Cherokecs. As the western frontier of civilization, however, ap- proached the Indian territory, the simple natives of the hills retired farther and farther into the fastnesses of the mountains. While the Regulators were resisting Tryon at Alamance and the patriots under Caswell and Moore were bayonetting the Tories at Moore's Creek Bridge, the Cherokees of what is now Haywood county were smoking their pipes in peace under the shadows of Old Bald or hunting along the banks of the murmuring Pigeon and its tributaries. "When, however, the tide of western immigration overflowed the French Broad and began to reach the foothills of the Balsams the Cher- okees, ever friendly as a rule to the white man, gave up their lands and removed to the banks of the Tuckaseigee, thus surrendering to their white brothers all the land eastward of a line running north and south between the present town of Waynesville and the Balsam range of moun- tains. Throughout the period of the early settlement of Hajrwood county and until the present the most friendly relations have existed between the white people and the Cherokees. "Only one incident is given by tradition which shows that any hos- tile feeling existed at any time. It is related that a few Indians from their settlement on the Tuckaseigee, before the close of the eighteenth century, went across the Smoky mountains into Tennessee and stole several horses from the settlers there. A posse of white men followed the redskins, who came across the Pigeon on their way home, encamped for the night on Richland near the present site of the Hardwood factory in Waynesville. While encamped for the night, their white pursuers came up, fired into them, recaptured the horses, and began their joiu-ney back to Tennessee. The Indians, taken by surprise, scattered, but soon recov- ered themselves and went in pursuit of the white men. At Twelve Mile creek they came upon the whites encamped for the night. Indian fashion they made an attack, and in the fight which ensued one white man by the name of Fine waa killed. The Indians, however, were driven off. Before leaving their camp next morning the white men took the body of their 1 12 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA dead comrade, broke a hole in the ice which covered the creek, and put him in the ice cold water to remain until they could return for the body. A big snow was on the gi'ound at the time, and it was bitter cold. From this story Twelve Mile creek came to be called Fines creek. "Haywood county's citizenship has always been at the front in times of war. From the best information obtainable it is quite certain that most of the earliest settlers had been in the Continental army and fought through the entire war of the Revolution, and later on many of them were in the war of 1812. Still later a number of these veterans of two wars moved to the great and boundless West, where the hazardous life might be spent in fighting savage tribes of Indians. "As best it can be learned, only seven of these grand old patriots died and were buried within the confines of Haywood county, to-wit: at Waynesville, Colonel William Allen and Colonel Robert Love; at Canton, George Hall, James Abel, and John Messer; at upper Fines creek, Hughey Rogers; at Lower Fines creek, Cliristian Messer. There were doubtless others, but their names have been lost. "All of these old soldiers were ever ready to fight for their homes. They came in almost daily contact with the Cherokee Indians, once a great and warlike tribe controlling the wilderness from the glades of Florida to the Great Lakes. While these savages were friendly to the settlers it was ever regarded as not a remote possibility that they might go upon the warpath at any time. Hence our forefathers had them constantly to watch while they were subduing the land."" NOTES. »N. C. Booklet, Vol. I, No. 7, p. :5. ^Dropped Stitches, 2, p. 17. 'Asheville's Centenary. ^McDowell entered land and settled his children near Brevard. ^Captain W. M. Hodge's statement to Col. W. L. Bryan of Boone, 1912, in letter from latter to J. P. A., November 26, 1912. 'Thwaites, p. 167. 'N. C Booklet, Vol. I, No. 7. 'Wheeler's History of North Carolina, p. 444. •He was probably related to "Gentleman George" Perkins who had piloted Bishop I. Spangenberg's party in 1752. Col. Rec, Vol. V, pp. 1 to 14. '"This tradition is also preserved in the family of Prof. Isaac G. Greer, professor of history in the Appalachian Training School, Boone. "From Col. W. L. Bryan's "Primitive History of the Mountain Region," written in 1912 for this work. i^Wheeler's History of North Carolina, p. 444. isN. C. Booklet, Vol. I, No. 7, p. 27. '^Wheeler's History of North Carolina, p. 445. •'Ibid., citing Mss. of General Wm. Lenoir. i«Hill, p. 189. I'AUen, p. 21. O > o OS o CHAPTER VT THE STATE OF FRANKLIN The Act of Cession of Tennessee. As Congress was heavily in debt at the close of the Revolutionary War, North Carolina, in 1784, "voted to give Congress the twenty-nine million acres lying between the Alleghany mountains and the Mississippi river. "^ This did not please the Watauga sel- lers, and a few months later the legislature of North Carolina withdrew its gift, and again took charge of its western land because it feared the land would not be used to pay the debts of Congress. These North Carolina law makers also "ordered judges to hold court in the western counties, arranged to enroll a brigade of soldiers, and appointed John Sevier to command it." - Franklin. In August, 1784, a convention met at Jones- boro and formed a new State, with a constitution providing that lawyers, doctors and preachers should never be mem- bers of the legislature; but the people rejected it, and then adopted the constitution of North Carolina in November, 1785, at Greenville. They made a few changes in the North Carolina constitution, but called the State Franklin. John Sevier was elected governor and David Campbell judge of the Superior court. Greenville was made the capital. The first legislature met in 1785; Landon Carter was the Speaker of the Senate, and Thomas Talbot clerk. William Gage was Speaker of the House, and Thomas Chapman clerk. The Con- vention made treaties with the Indians, opened courts, organized new counties, and fixed taxes and officers' salaries to be paid in money, corn, tobacco, whiskey, skins, etc., includ- ing everything in common use among the people. ' Tennessee's View of the Act of Cession. "The set- tlers lived and their public affairs were conducted under the jurisdiction of the County Court of Pleas and Quarter Ses- sions for a period of about six years, in a quiet and orderly manner; but ever since that IMay day of 1772 when they organized the first "free and independent government," their dream had been of a new, separate and independent (n3) w. n. c. — 8 1 14 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA commonwealth, and they began to be restless, dissatisfied and disaffected toward the government of North Carolina. Many causes seemed to conspire to increase their discontent. The first constitution of North Carolina had made provision for a future State within her limits, on the western side of the Alleghany mountains. The mother State had persistently refused, on the plea of poverty, to establish a Superior Court and appoint an attorney general or prosecuting officer for the inhabitants west of the mountains. In 1784, many claims for compensation for military services, supplies, etc., in the campaigns against the Indians, were presented to the State government from the settlements west of the AUeghanies. North Carolina was impoverished; and, notwithstanding the fact that these claims were just, reasonable and honest, it was suggested, and perhaps believed, 'that all pretenses were laid hold of (by the settlers) to fabricate demands against the government, and that the industry and property of those who resided on the east side of the mountains were become the funds appropriated to discharge the debts contracted by those on the west. ' Thus it came about that, in May, 1784, North Carolina, in order to relieve herself of this burden, ceded to the United States her territory west of the AUe- ghanies, provided that Congress would accept it within two two years. At a subsequent session, an act was passed re- taining jurisdiction and sovereignity over the territory until it should have been accepted by Congress. Immediately after passing the act of cession. North Carolina closed the land office in the ceded territory, and nullified all entries of land made after May 25, 1784. "The passage of the cession act stopped the delivery of a quantity of goods which North Carolina was under promise to deliver to the Cherokee Indians, as compensation for their claim to certain lands. The failure to deliver these goods naturally exasperated the Cherokees, and caused them to commit depredations, from which the western settlers were of course the sufferers." (McGhee's History of Tennessee). "At this session the North Carolina Assembl3^ at Hillsboro laid taxes, or assessed taxes arid empowered Congress to collect them, and vested in Congress power to levy a duty on foreign merchandise. "The general opinion among the settlers west of the AUeghanies was that the territory would not be accepted by Congress . . . and STATE OF FRANKLIN 115 that, for a period of two years, the people in that territory, being under the protection neither of the government of the United States nor of the State of North Carolina, would neither receive any support from abroad nor be able to command their own resources at homo — for the North Csirolina act had subjected them to the payment of taxes to the United States government. At the same time, there was no relaxation of Indian hostilities. Under these circumstances, the great body of people west of the AUeghanies coneludetl that there wa.s but one thing left for them to do, and that wtis to adopt a constitution and organize a State government of their own. This they proceeded to do." (McGhee's History of Tennessee.) Sevier and North Carolina. In this condition of affairs the State of Franklin had been organized. The cession act was repealed and a judge sent to Tennessee to hold court; but there were two rival governments attempting to exer- cise power in the Watauga settlement, and there were, in con- sequence, frequent clashes, between Col. John Tipton's forces, representing North Carolina, and those of John Sevier. Accord- ing to Roosevelt, from whose history* the balance of this ac- count has been taken, the desire to separate from the Eastern States was strong throughout the west owing to the unchecked ravages of the Indians and the refusal of the right to the set- tlers to navigate the Mississippi. The reason the Watauga settlers seized upon the first pretext to separate from the mother State was because most of them were originally from Virginia, and in settling where they did, supposed they were still on Virginia soil. Then, too, North Carolina had a weak government, and Virginia was far more accessible to the pioneers than the Old North State. While Kentucky had settled up after the Revolutionary War with "men who were often related by ties of kinship to the leaders of the Virginia legislatures and conventions," the North Carolina settlers who came to Watauga "were usually of the type of those who had first built their stockaded hamlets on the bank of the Watauga, and the first leaders of Watauga continued at the head of affairs." Many of these, including Robertson and Sevier, had been born in Virginia, where there was intense State pride, and felt little loyalty to North Carolina. It is, however, but just to say that James Robertson had no part in this attempt to set up a separate State government, he having already gone to the French Licks where he had estab- lished a government which was as loyal to North Carolina as 116 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA its remoteness admitted. North Carolina herself wished to be rid of the frontiersmen, because it was poor and felt the burden of the debts contracted in the Indian wars of the border. Then, too, the jurisdiction of the State courts had not been extended over these four western counties, Davidson, Wash- ington, Sullivan and Greene, although they sent representa- tives to the State legislature at Hillsborough. Consequently, those counties became a refuge for outlaws, who had to be dealt with by the settlers without the sanction of law. In June 1784 the legislature passed an act ceding all the western lands to the Continental Congress, to be void in case Con- gress did not accept the gift within two years; but continuing its sovereignty and jurisdiction over the ceded lands. Even the members from these four counties then in the legislature of the mother State voted for the cession. It was a time of transition between the weakness of the Confederation and the adoption of the constitution of 1787; but North Carolina did not propose to allow this new State to set up for itself without her formal and free consent. It therefore set about reducing the recalcitrants to submission, and soon the last vestige of the Sevier government had become extinct. Colonel John Tipton. Although this gentleman had at first favored the separation, he had opposed putting the act of independence into force till North CaroHna could be given an opportunity to rectify the wrongs complained of, and it was he who became the leader in the suppression of Sevier's government. About March, 1788, a writ was issued by North Carolina courts and executed against Sevier's estate, the sher- iff seizing his negroes, and taking them to the house of Col. Tipton on Sinking creek for safe keeping . . . Sevier, with 150 men and a light field-piece, marched to retake them, and besieged Tipton and from thirty to forty of his men for a couple of days, during which two or three men were killed or wounded. Then the county lieutenant of Sullivan with 180 militia came to Tipton's rescue, surprised Sevier at dawn on the last of February, 1788, killing one or two men and taking two of Sevier's sons prisoners. Tipton was with dif- ficulty dissuaded from hanging them. This scrambling fight marked the ignoble end of the State of Franklin. Sevier fled to the uttermost part of the frontier, where no writs ran, and the rough settlers were devoted to him. Here he speedily STATE OF FRANKLIN 117 became engaged in the Indian war, during wliicli some ma- rauding Indians killed eleven women and children of the fam- ily of John Kirk on Little river, seven miles south of Knox- ville while Kirk and his eldest son were absent. A Blot on Sevier's Escutcheon. Later on young Kirk joined about forty men led by Sevier to a small Cherokee town opposite Chilhowa. These Indians were well known to have been friendly to the whites, and among them was Old Tassel, or Corn Tassel, "who for years had been foremost in the endeavor to keep the peace and to prevent raids on the settlers. They put out a white flag; and the whites then hoisted one themselves. On the strength of this, one of the Indians crossed the river, and on demand of the whites fer- ried them over. Sevier put the Indians in a hut, and then a horrible deed of infamy was perpetrated. Among Sevier's troops was young John Kirk, whose mother, sisters and broth- ers had been so foully butchered by the Cherokee, Slim Tom and his associates. Young Kirk's brutal soul was parched with longing for revenge, and he was, both in mind and heart, too nearly kin to his Indian foes greatly to care whether his vengeance fell on the wrong-doers or on the innocent. He entered the hut where the Cherokee chiefs were confined, and brained them with his tomahawk, while his comrades looked on without interfering. Sevier's friends asserted that he was absent; but this is no excuse. He knew well the fierce blood- lust of his followers, and it was criminal negligence to leave to their mercy the friendly Indians who had trusted to his good faith; and, moreover, he made no effort to punish the murderer." The Horror of the Frontiersmen. Such was the indig- nation wnth which this deed was received by the better class of backwoodsmen that Sevier's forces melted away, and he was obliged to abandon a march he had planned against the Chickamaugas. The Continental Congress passed resolutions condemning such acts, and the justices of the court of Abbe- ville, S. C, with Andrew Pickens at their head "wrote to the people living on Nollechucky, French Broad and Holstein" denouncing in unmeasured terms the encroachments and out- rages of which Sevier and his backwoodsmen had been guilty. "The governor of North Carolina, as soon as he heard the news, ordered the arrest of Sevier and his associates [for trea- 118 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA son] doubtless as much because of their revolt against the State as because of the atrocities they had committed against the Indians. . . . The Governor of the State had given orders to seize him because of his violation of the laws and treaties in committing wanton murder on friendly Indians; and a warrant to arrest him for high treason was issued by the courts." Sevier Is Arrested for High Treason. Sevier knew of this warrant, and during the summer of 1788 led his bands of wild horsemen on forays against the Cherokee to^vns, never fighting a pitched battle, but by hard riding taking them by surprise. As long as he remained on the frontier he was in no danger; but late in October, 1788, he ventured back to Jonesborough, where he drank freely and caroused with his friends. He soon quarreled with one of Tipton's side, who denounced him for the murder of Corn Tassel and the other peaceful chiefs. "Finally they all rode away; but when some miles out of town Sevier got into a quarrel with another man; and after more drinking and brawling, he went to pass the night at a house, the owner of which was his friend. Mean- time, one of the men with whom he had quarreled informed Tipton that his foe was within his grasp. Tipton gathered eight or ten men and early next morning surprised Sevier in his lodgings. Sevier could do nothing but surrender, and Tip- ton put him in irons, and sent him across the mountains to Morganton in North Carolina." Dr. Ramsey's Account of the Arrest. In his Aomals of Tennessee (p. 427) this writer copies Haywood's History of Tennessee : "The pursuers then went to the A\adow Broom's, where Sevier was. Tipton and the party with him rushed forward to the door of common entrance. It was about sun- rise. Mrs. Brown had just risen. Seeing a party with arms at that early hour, well acquainted with Colonel Tipton, prob- ably rightly apprehending the cause of this visit, she sat her- self down in the front door to prevent their getting into the house, which caused a considerable bustle between her and Colonel Tipton. Sevier had slept near one end of the house and, on hearing a noise, sprung from his bed and, looking through a hole in the door-side, saw Colonel Love, upon which he opened the door and held out his hand, saying to Colonel STATE OF FRANKLIN Love, '1 surrender to you.' Colonel Love led him to tiie place where Tipton and Mrs. Brown were contending about a passage into the house. Tipton, upon seeing Sevier, was greatly enraged, and swore that he would hang him. Tipton held a pistol in his hand, sometimes swearing he would shoot him, and Sevier was really afraid that he would put his threat into execution. Tipton at length became calm and ordered Sevier to get his horse, for that he would carry him to Jones- boro. Sevier pressed Colonel Love to go with him to Jones- boro, which the latter consented to do. On the way he requested of Colonel Love to use his influence that he might not be sent over the mountains into North Carolina. Colonel Love remonstrated to him against an imprisonment in Jones- boro, for, said he, 'Tipton will place a strong guard around you there; your friends will attempt a rescue, and bloodshed wall be the result'. ... As soon as they arrived at Jonesboro, Tipton ordered iron hand-cuffs to be put on him, which was accordingly done. He then carried the governor to the residence of Colonel Love and that of the widow Pugh, whence he went home, leaving Sevier in the custody of the deputy sheriff and two other men, with orders to carry him to Morganton, and lower down, if he thought it necessary. Colonel Love traveled with him till late in the evening. "Before Colonel Love had left the guard, they had, at his request, taken off the irons of their prisoner. ... A few days afterwards James and John Sevier, sons of the Gov- ernor, . . . and some few others were seen by Colonel Love following the way the guard had gone. . . . The guard proceeded with him to Morganton where they deliv- ered him to William Morrison, the then high Sheriff of Burke county. . . . General McDowell and General Joseph McDowell . . . both followed him immediately to Morganton and there became his securities for a few days to visit friends. He returned promptly. The sheriff then, upon his own responsibility, let him have a few days more to visit friends and acquaintances. ... By this time his two sons . . . and others, came into Morganton with- out any knowledge of the people there, who they were, or what their business was. Court was . . . sitting in Morganton and they were with the people, generally, without 120 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA suspicion. At night, when the court broke up and the people dispersed, they, with the Governor, pushed forward towards the mountains with the greatest rapidity, and before morning arrived at them." Roosevelt Repudiates the Sensational Account. In a foot note on page 226, Vol. iv, Roosevelt says: "Ramsey first copies Haywood and gives the account correctly. He then adds a picturesque alternative account — followed by later writers — in which Sevier escapes in an open court on a celebrated race mare. The basis for this last account, so far as it has any basis at all, lies on statements made nearly half a century after the event, and entirely unknown to Hay- wood. There is no evidence of any kind as to its truthfulness. It must be set aside as mere fable." The late Judge A. C. Avery, in 1889, published in the Morganton Weekly Herald a third account, to the effect that after having been released on bond a few days Sevier surrendered himself to the sheriff of Burke and went to jail; that afterwards, when his case was called the sheriff started with him to the court, but Se- vier's friends managed to get him separated from the sheriff and to open a way for him to his horse then being held near by. But this, too, rests upon what old men of thirty years prior to 1889 said their fathers had told them. Sevier's Second Treason Against the State. Miro in New Orleans and Gardoqui in Washington, were the chief representatives of Spain in America in 1778, and the unrest "in the West had taken the form, not of attempting the capture of Louisiana by force, but of obtaining concessions from the Spaniards in return for favors to be rendered to them. Clark and Robertson, Morgan, Brown and Innes, Wilkinson and Sebastian, were all in correspondence with Gardoqui and Miro, in the endeavor to come to some profit- able agreement with them. Sevier now joined the number. His new-born State had died; he was being prosecuted for high treason; he was ready to go to any lengths against North Carolina; and he clutched at the chance of help from the Spaniards. At the time North Carolina was out of the Union (not having yet ratified the Constitution) so Sevier committed no offense against the Federal Government." So, when Gardoqui heard of the fight between Sevier's and Tipton's men, STATE OF FRANKLIN 121 he sent an omissary to Sevier, who was in the mood to grasp "a helping hand stretched out from no matter what quarter." He had no organized government back of liim, but he was in the midst of his successful Cherokee campaigns, and he knew the reckless Indian figiiters would gladly follow him in any movement, if he had a chance of success. He felt that if he were given money and arms, and the promise of outside assist- ance, he could yet win the day. He jumped at Gardoqui's cautious offers; though careful not to promise to subject him- self to Spain, and doubtless with no idea of playing the part of Spanish vassal longer than the needs of the moment required. In July he wrote to Gardoqui, eager to strike a bargain with him, and in September sent him two letters by the hand of his son, James Sevier, who accompanied White [Gardoqui's emissary] when the latter made his return journey to the Federal Capital." In one of these letters he assured Gardo- qui "that the western people had grown to know that their hopes of prosperity rested on Spain, and that the principal people of Franklin were anxious to enter into an alliance with and obtain commercial concessions from, the Spaniards. He importuned Gardoqui for money, and for military aid, assur- ing him that the Spaniards could best accomplish their ends by furnishing these supplies immediately, especially as the struggle over the adoption of the Federal Constitution made the time opportune for revolt. . . . He sent them to New Orleans that Miro might hear and judge their plans, neverthe- less nothing came of the project, and doubtless only a few peo- ple in Franklin ever knew that it existed. As for Sevier, when he saw that he was baffled, he suddenly became a Fed- eralist and an advocate of a strong central government; and this, doubtless, not because of love of Federalism, but to show his hostility to North Carolina, which had at first refused to enter the new Union. Thus the last spark of independent life flickered out in Franklin proper. The people who had set- tled on the Indian borders were left without government. North Carolina regarding them as trespassers on the Indian territory. They accordingly met and organized a rude gov- ernmental machine, on the model of the Commonwealth of Franklin; and the wild little State existed as a separate and 122 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA independent republic until" the new Federal government included it in the territory south of the Ohio."^ Washington county sent Sevier as a representative to the North Carolina legislature in 1789, and late in that session he was reluctantly admitted. He was also a member of the first Congress of the United States from North Carolina, March 4, 1789 to March 3, 1791, and was elected the first gov- ernor of Tennessee. Sevier and Tipton. It must be admitted that Sevier had, upon the repeal of the act of session "counselled his fellow citizens to abandon the movement for a new State" ^ and after the expiration of his term and the collapse of the Franklin government he wrote to one of the opposing party, not per- sonally unfriendly to him, that he had been dragged into the Franklin government by the people of the county; that he wished to suspend hostilities, and was ready to abide by the decision of the North Carolina legislature; but that he was determined to share the fate of those who had stood by him, whatever it might be. "^ John Tipton, on the other hand, while favoring the formation of an independent State at the outset, voted against putting the new government into imme- diate operation, presumably because he hoped that when the mother State realized the seriousness of the defection in Wa- tauga, she would remedy the wrongs of which the frontiersmen had complained. In this he was right; but when in Novem- ber, 1785, the convention met at Greenville to provide a per- manent constitution for the new State, he favored the adop- tion of a much more radical charter as a remedy for the ills under which the people suffered than Sevier, whose influence secured the adoption of the constitution of the very State from which the western people had withdrawn. To some this document favored by Tipton seems absurd, but it had been drawn by no less a man than the redoubtable Sam Hous- ton, afterwards president of the Republic of Texas. James Robertson. In May, 1771, James Robertson, his brother Charles, and sixteen families from Wake county reached Watauga, preceding Sevier by about one year. Rob- ertson at once became the brains of the settlement — its balance wheel, so to speak. Robertson and Sevier proved themselves to be, "with the exception of George Rogers Clark, the STATE OF FRANKLIN |23 greatest of the first generation of trans-Allegliany Pioneers," for they were the fathers of the first self-governing body in America. For there on the banks of the sparkling Watauga Was cradled the spirit that conquered the West— The spirit that, soaring o'er mountain and prairie, E'en on the Pacific shore paused not for rest. In 1779-1780 he founded the Cumberland settlement where Nashville now stands, and Roosevelt gives him the chief credit for the tuition under which those frontiersmen were governed from the first, » though Richard Henderson was present, counselling and aiding. When, however, Hender- son's title proved null, he returned home, while Robertson remained, and piloted the settlers through the dangers of that early day. Thus, though he had no share in Kings Mountain, he was at that time doing a work quite as impor- tant as fighting the British; for he was guiding the most remote of the western settlements in America on the difficult path of self-government. Sevier's Spring at Bakersville. There is a fine spring at Bakersville, nearly in front of the old Penland House, now the Young hotel, at which it is said that Sevier and his party stopped and rested after leaving Morganton. About 1850 an old sword was found near this spring, and was supposed to have been lost by one of these mountaineers. They reached Cathey's, or Cathoo's, plantation that night, after coming 20 miles from Elk Hollow, at the mouth of a small eastern tribu- tary of the North Toe flowing north from Gillespie's gap, and called Grassy creek. Here they camped. It is near what is now Spruce Pine on the line of the Carohna, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad. "On Friday the 29th they passed up Grassy creek and through Gillespie's gap in the Blue Ridge, where they divided; Campbell's men, at least, going six or seven miles south to Henry Gillespie's, and a little below to Colonel William Wofford's Fort, both in Turkey Cove; while the oth- ers pursued the old trace in a easterly direction, about the same distance, to the North Cove, on the North Fork of the Catawba, where they camped for the night in the woods, on the bank of that stream, just above the mouth of Honeycutt's creek." 124 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Sycamore Shoals Monument. Monuments have been placed along this route to mark it permanently; Sycamore Shoals, Tennessee, at Elk Hollow, at the mouth of Grassy creek near Spruce Pine, and at the junction of Honeycutt's creek and the North Fork, near a station on the C. C. & O. Railroad kno^\^l as Linville Falls. The monument at Syca- more Shoals is beautiful, and was erected September 26, 1909, by Bonny Kate, John Sevier and Sycamore Shoals chapters, D. A. R. Here it was that the patriots on their way to Kings Mountain assembled under Sevier, Shelby and Camp- bell, September 25, 1780. On the southern face is the inscrip- tion: "The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon." Also a statement that Fort Watauga, the first settlers' fort built west of the AUeghanies, was erected here in 1770. Also a statement that ''Here was negotiated the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals under which Transylvania was acquired from the Cher- okees, March 19, 1775." Robert Love. He was born near the Tinkling Spring Meeting house, Augusta county, Va., May 11, 1760. His father was Samuel, son of Ephraim Love, captain of the Col- onial Horse; and his mother Dorcas, second daughter of James Bell, to whom had been issued on the formation of Augusta county, October 30, 1745, a "commission of the Peace. "^ Samuel Love and Dorcas Bell were married July 3, 1759. Robert Love was christened by Rev. John Craig, who was pastor of the Tinkling Spring church from 1740 to 1764. * " It was at this old church that the eloquent James Waddell, afterwards immortalized by Wm. Wirt, was pastor for sev- eral years, though he did not become "The Blind Preacher" till after the Revolutionary War and he had removed to Gor- donsville, his blindness having been caused by cataract. Robert Love's pension papers show ^ ^ that he was on the expedition un- der Col. Christie in 1776 against the Cherokees; that he was at Fort Henry on Long Island of the Holston in 1777; that he was stationed in 1778 at the head of the Clinch and Sandy rivers (Fort Robertson), and operated against the Shawnees from April to October; that from 1779 to 1780 he was engaged against the Tories on Tom's creek, New River, and Cripple creek, at Moravian Old Town, and at the Shallow ford of the Yadkin, under Col. Wm. Campbell; that in 1781 he was engaged in Guilford county "and the adjoining county" against Corn- STATE OF FRANKLIN 125 wallis, aiul "was in a severe battle with his unny at White- sell mill and the Rudy ford of the Haw river, under Gen. Pickens; that from this place, with Capt. Wm. Doach, he was sent back "from the rendezvous at the Lead Mines to col- lect and bring more men;" that in 1782 he "was again sta- tioned out on the frontiers of the Clinch, at Fort Robertson from June to October." He was living in Mont- gomery, now Wythe county, Va., when he entered the service in 1776, and after the Revolutionary War, his parents being dead, he moved with Wm. Gregory and his family to Wash- ington county, N. C. (now Tennessee), in the fall of 1782. Having moved to Greasy Cove, now Erwin Tenn., he married Mary Ann Dillard, daughter of Col. Thomas Dillard of Pittsylvania county, Va., on the 11th day of September, 1783; and on the 5th of April, 1833, he made application for a pen- sion under the act of Congress of June 7, 1832, attaching his commission signed by Ben. Harrison, governor of Virginia; but, a question having arisen as to the date of this commis- sion Andrew Jackson wrote from The Hermitage on October 12, 1837, to the effect that he had known Col. Love since the fall of 1784, and that there "is no man in this Union who has sustained a higher reputation for integrity than Col. Robert Love, with all men and with all parties, although himself a uniform democratic RepubUcan, and that no man stands deservedly higher as a man of great moral worth than Col. Love has always stood in the estimation of all who knew him. " Even this endorsement, however, did not serve to secure the pension; but when E. H. McClure of Haywood filed an affi- davit to the effect that the date of the commission was 1781 or 1782, official red-tape had no other refuge, and granted the pension. He was a delegate to the Greenville convention of the State of Franklin, December 14, 1784, and voted to adopt the constitution of North Carolina in.stead of that proposed by Sam Houston. ^ - In 1778 he was engaged against the Chick- amauga Indians as colonel of a regiment operating near White's fort. ' 3 He also drew a pension from the State (Colonial Records, Vol. xxii, p. 74). He and John Blair represented Washing- ton county (formerly the State of Franklin) in the North CaroUna legislature in November, 1889 {Ibid., Vol. xxi, p. 194). Later in the same session John Sevier appeared and 126 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA was sworn in as an additional representative from the same county {Ibid., pp. 584-85). Love was also a justice of the peace for Washington county in October, 1788. {Ibid., Vol. .xxii, p. 702); and the journal of the North Carolina State convention for the ratification of the constitution of the United States shows that Robert Love, Landon Carter, John Blair, Wm. Houston and Andrew Green were delegates, and that Robert Love voted for its adoption. (Ibid., Vol. xxii, pp. 36, 39, 47, 48). He moved to Buncombe county, N. C, as early as 1792, and represented that county in 1793, 1794, 1795^* in the State Senate. According to the affidavit of his brother. Gen. Thos. Love, Robert Love "was an elector for president and vice- president when Thomas Jefferson was elected, and has been successively elected ever since, down to (and including) the election of the present chief magistrate, Andrew Jackson." ^^ This affidavit is dated April 6, 1833. In a letter from Robert Love to William Welch, dated at Raleigh, December 4, 1828, he says that all the electors were present on the 3d "and gave their votes in a very dignified manner and before a very large concourse of people," the State House being crowded. ^ ^ Fif- teen cannon were fired "for the number of electoral votes and one for the county of Haywood., and for the zeal she appeared to have had from the number of votes for the Old Hero's Ticket. It was submitted to me to bring forward a motion to proceed to ballot for a president of the United States and of course you may be well assured that I cheerfully nominated Andrew Jackson. ... I was much gratified to have that honor and respect paid me. From the most authentic accounts . . . Adams will not get a vote south of the Potomac or west of the mountains. Wonderful what a majority! For Jackson 178 and Adams only 83, leav- ing Jackson a majority of 95 votes. So much for a bargain and intrigue." ^'' The reason for firing an extra gun for Hay- wood county was because that county had cast a solid vote for Robert Love as elector for Andrew Jackson, such staunch Whigs as William Mitchell Davidson and Joseph Cathey hav- ing induced their fellow Whigs to refrain from voting out of regard for their democratic friend and neighbor, Robert Love. He carried the vote to Washington in a gig that year. He STATE OF FRANKLIN 127 named the town of Waynesville for his friend "iMiid" Anthony Wayne, with wlioni he had served at Long Island during the Revolution. In 1821 he was one of the commissioners who ran the bound- ary line between North Carolina and Tennessee from Pigeon river south. On the 14th day of July, 1834, he was kicked on the hip by a horse while in Green county, Tenn., and so crippled that he had to use a crutch till his death. * « The gig, too, had to be given up for a barouche, drawn by two horses and driven by a coachman. His cue, his blue swallow-tailed coat, and knee breeches with silver knee-buckles and silk stockings are remembered yet by a few of the older people. He died at Wa>Tiesville, July 17, 1845, "loved by his friends and feared by his enemies. " i ^ He was largely instrumental in having Haywood county established, became its first clerk, defeating Feli.x Walker for the position; and in 1828, he wrote to Wm. Welch (December 4) from Raleigh: "The bill for erecting a new county out of the western part of Burke and northeastern part of Buncombe after severe debate fell in the house of commons, on its second reading by a majority against it of three only. The bill for the division of Haywood county has passed the senate the third and last reading by a majority of seven; and, I suppose, tomorrow it will be taken up in the house of commons and in a few days we will know its fate. I do not like the division line, but delicacy closes my mouth for fear its being construed that interest was my motive." ^^ He left an estate which "at one time was one of the largest estates in North Carolina." ^i "He acquired great wealth and died respected, leaving a large fortune to his children." He was the founder of Waynesville. "Besides the sites for the pubUc square, court-house and jail, land for the cemetery and several churches was also the gift of Col. Love." Of him and his brother Thomas, Col. Allen T. Davidson said: 22 "These two men were certainly above the average of men, and did much to plant civilization in the county where they lived, and would have been men of mark in any community. " Edmund Sams. In "Asheville's Centenary," Dr. Sond- ley tells us that this pioneer was "one of the first settlers who came from Watauga," and established a ferry at the place 128 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA where the French Broad is now crossed by Smith's Bridge; had been in early life an Indian fighter, and lived on the west- ern side of the French Broad at the old Gaston place. He was later a soldier in the Revolution. In 1824 his son Ben- oni Sams represented Buncombe in the House. General Thomas Love. He was a brother of Robert Love, and was born in Agusta county, Va., November 15, 1765. The date of his death is not accurately known, as he removed to Maury county, Tcnn., about 1833.2 3 p^of. W. C. Allen, in his "Centennial of Haywood County", says (p. 55) that he was a soldier of the Revolution, and served under Wash- ington," but this must have been towards the close of that struggle, as he could not have been quite eleven years of age on the 4th of July, 1776. ^ * At the close of that war, however, "he went to East Tennessee and was in the Sevier-Tipton war when the abortive State of Franklin was attempted. " ^ ° Ramsey's "Annals of Tennessee" (p. 410) records the fact that on one occasion one of Tipton's men had captured two of Sevier's sons, and would have hanged them if Thomas Love had not argued him out of his purpose. He was one of Tipton's followers, but he showed Tipton the unworthiness of such an act. "He came to what is now Haywood county about the year 1790. When Buncombe was formed in 1791 he became active in the affairs of the new county," continues Prof. Allen. In 1797 he was elected to the house of commons from Buncombe, and was re-elected till 1808, when Haywood was formed, largely through his efforts. There is a tradition ^ ^ that in 1796 he had been candidate against Philip Hoodenpile who represented Buncombe in the commons that year, but was defeated. For Hoodenpile could play the violin, and all of Love's wiles were powerless to keep the political Eurydices from following after this fiddling Orpheus. But Love bided his time, and when the campaign of 1797 began he charged Hoodenpile with showing contempt for the common herd by playing the violin before them with his left hand; whereas, when he played before "the quality," as Love declared, Hood- enpile always performed with his right hand. This charge was repeated at all the voting places of the county, which bore such significant names as Upper and Lower Hog Thief, Hardscrabble, Pinch Stomach, etc. Hoodenpile who, of course, could play only with his left hand, protested and STATE OF FRANKLIN 129 denied; but the virus of class-feeling had been aroused, and Hoodenpile went down in defeat, never to rise again, while Love remained in Buncombe. "From the new county of Haywood General Love was one of the first representatives, the other having been Thomas Lenoir. Love was continu- ously reelected from Haywood till 1829, with the exception of the year 181G. Who it was that defeated him that year does not appear, though John Stevenson and Wm. Welch were elected to the house and Hodge Ilaborne to the senate. This Hodge Raborne was a man of influence and standing in Hay- wood county, he having been elected to the senate not only in 1816, but also from 1817 to 1823, inclusive, and again in 1838; but whether it was he or John Stevenson who defeated Thomas Love, or whether he ran that year or no, cannot now be determined. - ^ William Welch was a nephew by marriage of Thomas Love, and it is not likely that he opposed him. Gen. Love moved to Macon county in 1830, where his wife died and is buried in the Methodist church yard of the town of Franklin. He was one of the commissioners for North Carolina who ran the line between this State and South Caro- lina in 1814.2^ "He resided in Macon for several years, and then removed to the Western District of Tennessee; was elected to the legislature from that State, and was made pre- siding officer of the senate. He was a man of very fine appear- ance, more than six feet high, very popular, and a fine elec- tioneer. Many amusing stories are told of him, such as carrying garden seeds in his pocket, and distributing them" with his wife's special regards to the voter's wife. - ^ His service in the legislature for such an unprecedented length of time was due more to his genial manner and electioneering •methods, perhaps, than to his statesmanship; though, unless he secured what the voters most desired he would most prob- ably harve been retired from public life. He never was so retired. A Curious Bit of History. William Blount, a native of this State and brother of John Gray Blount to whom so much land had been granted, was territorial governor of Tennessee until it became a State, and was then elected one of its first senators; but served only from 1796 to 1797. He was charged in the United States senate with having entered into a con- spiracy to take Louisiana and Florida from Spain and give W. N. C.-9 130 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA them to England in the hope that England would prove a bet- ter neighbor than had Spain, which had restricted the use of the Mississippi. Articles of impeachment were brought against him in 1797 by the House, and on the day after he was expelled by the Senate. But the impeachment trial was to have pro- ceeded, and an officer was sent to arrest him. But Blount refused to go, those summoned to aid the officer refused to do so, and the trial would have proceeded without him in December, 1798, if Blount's attorney had not appeared after the Senate had formed itself into a court and filed a plea that Blount had not been an officer of the United States when the offence charged was committed, and it was decided, 14 to 11, that the Senate had no jurisdiction, on the ground that a senator is not a civil officer of the United States. The specific charge was that Blount had made an attempt to carry into effect a hostile expedition in favor of the British against the Spanish possessions in Florida and Louisiana, and to enlist certain Indian tribes in the same. ' ° NOTES. iHill. p. 215. 2Ibid. 'Dropped Stitches, 28; McGee, p. 80. "Potter's Revisal, p. 442. "From "Dropped Stitches," pp. 71-72. '^Potter's Revisal, p. 435. i3Ibid., p. 456. "Ibid., p. 436. '^Potter's Revisal, p. 457. isRook No. 4, p. 230. I'Book 2, p. 458. 1^3,534 acres already granted are excepted from this boundary. I 'Book 4, p. 230. 2 The lands embraced in this sale aggregated one million and seventy-four thousand acres. The tax title stood all tests. Love v. Wilbourn, 5 Ired., N. C. Rep., p. 344. 2iWill book E, p. 42. 22Book 22, p. 88. 23Book 22, p. 393. ^''Daniel Webster represented the defendant in this case, and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney filed a dissenting opinion. 2»So called because it is almost exactly three miles in length. 26From letter of December 5, 1912, from Hon. A. C. Avery to J. P. A. s'Rev. St. 1837, Vol. II, p. 190. 2 8Ibid., p. 209. 29Ibid., p. 210. Note : For Forge Bounty grants see ch. 293, laws 1788, Potter's Revisal, p. 592. CHAPTER VIII COUNTY HISTORY Buncombe County. ^ In 1781 or 1782 settlers from the blockhouse at Old Fort, McDowell county as it is now, crossed the mountains to the head of the Swannanoa river, and became trespassers on the Cherokee territory, the Blue Ridge at that time being the boundary line. Samuel Davidson, his wife and child were among the first. They brought a female negro slave with them, and settled a short distance east of Gudger's ford of Swannanoa river, and near what is now Azalea. He was soon afterwards killed by Indians, and his wife and child and slave hurried through the mountains back to Old Fort. An expedition to avenge his death set out, with the late IMajor Ben. Burgin, who died at Old Fort in November, 1874, at the age of ninety-five, among the number and conquered the Indians at the mouth of Rock House creek. By this time, however, several other settlements had been effected on the Swannanoa from its head to its mouth by the Alex- anders, Davidsons, Smiths and others, the earliest being about the mouth of Bee Tree creek, a little above this being the Edmundson field, the first cleared in Buncombe. Soon an- other company passed through Bull gap and settled on upper Reems creek, while still others came in by way of what is now Yancey county and settled on lower Reems and Flat creeks. Some of the people who had been with Sevier at Watauga settlement, settled on the French Broad above the mouth of Swannanoa, and on Hominy creek. Some from South Carolina settled still higher on the French Broad. The Cheery Name of Buncombe. ^ The Swannanoa was now recognized as the dividing line between Burke and Ruth- erford counties, from portions of which counties Buncombe was subsequently formed, and named for Edward Buncombe, who had been a colonel in the Revolutionary War. ^ In 1791 David Vance and William Davidson, the former representing Burke and the latter Rutherford, agreed upon the formation of a new county from portions of both these counties west of the Blue Ridge, its western boundary to be the Tennessee line. (143) 144 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA First Court at the Gum .Spring. * In April, 1792, at the residence of Col. William Davidson on the south bank of the Swannanoa, half a mile above its mouth, subsequently called the Gum Spring place, Buncombe county was organized, pur- suant to the act which had been ratified January 14, 1792. On December 31, 1792, another act recited that the com- missioners provided for in the first act had failed to fix "the center and agree where public buildings" should be erected, and appointed Joshua Inglish, Archibald Neill, James Wilson, Augustin Shote, George Baker and John Dillard of Buncombe, and Wm. Morrison of Burke, commissioners in place of Phil- lip Hoodenpile, William Brittain, Wm. Whitson, James Brit- tain and Lemuel Clayton, who had failed to agree, to select a county seat. There was rivalry for this position, many contending for the "Steam Saw Mill Place on the road after- wards known as the Buncombe Turnpike Road about three miles south of Asheville, where Dr. J. F. E. Hardy resided at the time of his death," says Dr. Sondley in his Ashe- ville's Centenary. They selected the present site, which at first was called INIorristo^vTi. As the Superior court was at this time held at Morganton, five men from Buncombe were required to serve there as jurors, for the July term, 1792. These were Matthew Patton, Wm. Davidson, David Vance, Lambert Clayton and James Brittain. The first court house stood in the middle of the street upon the public square at the head of what is now Patton avenue, and was of logs. The first county court held there was on the third Monday in July, 1793. In January, 1796, commissioners were appointed to lay off a plan for public buildings; but in April, 1802, the grand jury complained that the county had no title to the land on which the jail, etc., stood, and in April, 1805, steps were taken to secure land for a public square. In April, 1807, the county trustee, or treasurer, was ordered to pay Robert Love one pound for registering five deeds made by individuals for a public square. . . . The next court house was made of brick, a little further east, in the erection of which the late Nicholas W. Woodfin, while a poor boy, carried brick and mortar. This gave way to a handsome brick building fronting on Main street, which was destroyed by fire on the 26th day of January, 1865. Some years later a small one -story brick structure was built nearly in front COUNTY I IISTORY 145 of ^^'. O. Wolf's storeroom, the late Rev. B. H. jMerrimon having been the contractor. In 1876 this gave way to a larger building with three stories, J. A. Tennent being the architect. In the erection of this a workman fell from the southwest corner of the tower to the ground and was killed. His name has been forgotten. The first jail was succeeded by a brick building now a part of the Library building; but a new jail was built afterwards on the site of the present city hall, its site being sold to the city when the Eagle street jail was built some years afterwards. The first jail was a very poor .structure, every sheriff from 1799 to 1811 com- plaining of its insufficiency. In 1867 the county began to sell off portions of the public square on the north and south sides, thus reducing it to its present dimensions. MoRRiSTOWN. John Burton's grant was "by private con- tract laid out . . . for a town called Morristo\vn, the county town of Buncombe count}', into 42 lots, containing, with the exception of the two at the southern end, one-half an acre each, lying on both sides of a street 33 feet wide," which runs where the southern part of North Main street and the northern part of South IMain street now are. ^ There were two cross streets across the public square. "Nobody seems to know why the name of Morristown was bestowed upon the place . . . but there is a seemingly authentic tradition that it was named for Robert Morris, who success- fully financed the American Revolution, yet himself died a bankrupt."^ About this time he o\vned large bodies of land in Western North Carolina; indeed it is shown in the record of one case in the Federal Court here (Asheville) that Robert Tate of York county, Pennsylvania, and William Tate, of Burke county, N. C, conveyed to him in one deed 198 tracts of land, only one tract of which, containing 70,400 acres and lying in what are now Yancey, Burke, and McDowell coun- ties, was involved in that litigation. The State grant for these lands was issued to Robert and William Tate on May 30, 1795, and they conveyed the same lands to Morris on August 15 of the same year. "The Tates were evidently the agents of ^Morris. . . . Morris was one of the heroes of the Revolution, and ... it is small wonder that . . the people . . . should name it for him." His will (dated in 1804) was probated in McDowell county on Aj^ril W. X.C. 10 146 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA 21, 1891. In November 1797, the village was incorporated by the legislature as Asheville in honor of Samuel Ashe of New Hanover, governor. Old Asheville. On Thanksgiving Day, 1895, Miss Anna C. Aston, Miss Frances L. Patton and other ladies published a "Woman's Edition" of the Asheville Daily Citizen. It con- tained much valuable and important information of that city. But in February, 1898, Foster A. Sondley, Esq., a de- scendant of the Fosters and Alexanders of Buncombe county, and a leading member of the Asheville Bar, published a his- torical sketch of Buncombe county and Asheville, contain- ing practically all that could then be ascertained concerning the early history of this section. Hon. Theo. F. Davidson and the late Albert T. Summey also contributed their recol- lections. There was a woodcut reproduction of an oil paint- ing of Asheville by F. S. Duncanson, which was taken from Beaucatcher, and it appears that there were not more than twenty five residences in 1850 that were visible from that commanding eminence, all the buildings, including outhouses, not exceeding forty, and they were between Atkin, Market and Church streets. The painting itself, now owned by Mrs. Martha B. Patton, shows five brick buildings, the old Pres- byterian church, on the site of the present one, with the cupola on its eastern end, because the street ran there; the little old Episcopal church, on the site of the burned Trinity; the old jail, standing where the city hall now stands; Ravenscroft school, and the Rowley house, now occupied by the Drhumor building. The old jail was three stories high. The other buildings were white wooden structures, and included the central portion of the old Eagle hotel and the old Buck hotel. Mr. Ernest Israel also has a similar picture. Dr. J. S. T. Baird's facile pen has given us an equally vivid picture of Asheville in his "Historical Sketches of Early Days," pubhshed in the Asheville Saturday Register during January, February and March, 1905, as it appeared in 1840. He records the facts that the white population then did not exceed 300, and the total number of slaves, o^vned by eight or nine persons, did not exceed 200. In the 400 acres embracing the northeastern section of the city, between the angle formed by North Main and Woodfin streets, he recalled but two dwelhngs, those of Hon. N. W. Woodfin and Rev. David COUNTY HISTORY 147 McAnally, both on Woodfin street. There was an old tan- nery anil a little school house near the heginning of what is now Merrimon avenue, the school having Ix'en taught by Miss Katy Parks, who afterwards became Mrs. Katy Bell, mother of Rev. George Bell of Haw Creek. This 400-acre boundary, now so thickly settled, was then owned by James W. Patton, James M. Smith. Samuel Chunn, N. W. Wood- fin and Israel Baird. There was a thirty-acre field where Doubleday now is, and was called the "old gallows field," because Sneed and Henry had been hanged there about 1835. Standing south of Woodfin and East of North and South Main streets to the southern lioundary, there were but eight resi- dences, not including negro and outhouses. Southwest Asheville. Just north of Aston street was the brick store of Patton & Osborne, and later Patton & Summey, adjoining which was the tailor shop of "Uncle" Manuel, one of James W. Patton's slaves. Then came a white house which was kept for guests when there was an overflow crowd at the Eagle hotel. Between this house and the Daylight .store, J. M. Smith some years later erected a two- story building for the use of Dr. T. C. Lester, a physician who came from South Carolina and settled here about 1845. He kept a sort of drug store, the first of its kind in Asheville. The negroes called it a shot-i-carry-pop, in their effort to call it an apothecary shop. Hilliard Hall now stands where it stood. Just above was the residence and place of business of James B. Mears, now the Daylight store. Then came Drake Jarrett's place — better known as the Coche^ place "where for many years the little short-legged 'monsieur' and his 'madam' dealt out that which Solomon says biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." Thus was reached what was the Chunn property, which, beginning at the lower side of T. C. Smith's drug store, ran straight back to Church street. Samuel Chunn had lived in a large brick house which fronted north, and which was later replaced by a building used as a banking house, known as the Bank building. This was about 1845.* The Asheville l)ranch of the Bank of Cape Fear occupied it till the Civil War period. The residence of A. B. Chunn stood on the corner now occupied by Pat Mcln- tyre's grocery store. An old stable stood at the corner of Patton and Lexington avenues. 148 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Church Street. The grounds of the Methodist church extended from Patton avenue and Church street to the Aston property and several rods back, forming an oblong plat of several acres. On the corner of Patton avenue and Church street stood a large brick building used as a boarding house in connection with the school for girls which was taught for many years in the basement of the Methodist church. The late William Johnston afterwards bought and occupied this building as a residence. The land south of the Methodist church was used as* a cemetery till long after the Civil War. The Presbyterian church of that day stood nearly where the one of this day stands, opposite that of the Methodist church, and its cemetery extended down to Aston street. Near where Asheland and Patton avenues join the late James M. Smith had a large barn, which stood in a ten-acre field. Northwest Asheville. In the angle formed by North IVIain street and Patton avenue, in 1840, there were not many houses. Beginning at the north end, Mrs. Cassada — "Granny Cassie" — occupied a one-room house which stood where the Rankin tan house afterwards stood. She baked and sold ginger cakes, and brewed cider. Coming up North Main street was a house built by Israel Baird in 1839, now known as the Brandt property. Israel Baird had lived two and a half miles north of Asheville at what is now the Way place, but about 1838 he bought 40 acres, commencing at the junction of North Main street and Merrimon avenue, running west to the pres- ent auditorium, thence to Starnes avenue and thence back to North Main street. The only other building within this area was the wooden store and shoe-shop opposite the old Buck hotel, now occupied by the Langren hotel, and the barns, stables, sheds and cribs of J. M. Smith, which cov- ered a large portion of the lot lying between West College street. Walnut and Water streets. From the foregoing it is evident that the artist Duncanson did not get all the houses into his oil painting of 1850. East and South Asheville. In these sections of the town the land was owned by James M. Smith, J'ames W. Patton, Montraville Patton, Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, Mrs. Morrison and Thomas L. Gaston, principally. The old Buck Hotel, a small frame building near it, what was known as the Dunlap store, the court house, the jail, the office of the Highland Messenger COUNTY HISTORY 149 on what is now North Pack Square, east of the Gazette News office, were then tlie oldest houses in towai. The old jail stood where the new Legal building now stands; the court house stood where Vance's monument stands, with the whipping post and stocks innnediately in its rear. Mrs. Rose Morri- sons' residence occupied the site now covered by the present court house, while the store of Montraville Patton occupied the corner now used by the Holt Furniture Company. Lower down on South Main street lived William Coleman in a brick building in a part of which the post-office was kept. Later on Col. R. W. PuUiam lived there and Rankin and Pulliam did a large mercantile business. Just below this, embowered in green vines and fragrant flowers, was the stylish wooden dwelling occupied for years by Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, and was later to fall into such disrepute as to be called "Greasy Cor- ner." This, however, was about 1890 after the handsome old residence had for years been used as a negro hotel and restaurant. On it now stands the large Thrash Building. Eagle Hotel. Just below Eagle street stood and still stands the building then and for years afterwards known far and wide as the Eagle hotel, then owned by James Patton and later by his son James W. Patton. There were a large blacksmith shop just below this hotel, where Sycamore street now leaves South Main, and a tannery on the branch back of and below this. Joshua Roberts lived on the hill where Mrs. Buchanan lived until her recent death, and it was the last house on that side of the street. Large Land Owners. In the angle formed by Patton avenue and South Main street, according to Dr. Baird, the lands were owned principally by James M. Smith, Col. James M. Alexander, James W. Patton, and Samuel Chunn, but James B. Mears and Drake Jarrett owned from T. C. Smith's drug store dowTi to and including Mears' Daylight store. The Methodist and Presbyterian churches owTied and occupied the land now used by them for their present places of wor- ship. Within this area were eleven residences, two stores, two churches, two stables, one tanyard and one barn. At the corporate line on South Main street, at the forks of the road, lived Standapher Rhodes, and north of him was the blacksmith shop of Williamson Warlick whose sign read : "Williamson WarUck Axes," his axes being especially fine. 150 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA He died and was succeeded there by Elias Triplett. Two hundred yards north was the home of Rev. William Mor- rison, a Presbyterian minister and the father of Mr. Theo- dore S. Morrison. J. M. Alexander afterwards lived in this house. Then came a tannery of J. M. Smith's, while David Halford occupied a residence at the corner of South Main and Southside avenue, known as the Goodlake curve because of the reverse curve of the street railway tracks at that point. There was a frame house about halfway between the Hal- ford house and Mrs. M. E. Hilliard's residence. Mrs. Hil- liard's home site was formerly occupied by a large two-story frame house which stood upon the street, and was occupied at one time by Col. J. M. Alexander before he removed to "Alexander's," ten miles down the French Broad river. Then John Osborne occupied the Alexnader (Hilliard) house for a long time, to be followed by Isaac McDunn, a tailor. It was finally bought by the late Dr. W. L. Hilliard, and occupied as a residence. From his house to Aston street there was no dwelling, though a large stable belonging to the Eagle hotel stood where now stands the Swannanoa-Berkeley Hotel. George Swain. He was born in Roxborough, Mass., June 17, 1763, and on September 1, 1784, he left Providence, R. I., for Charleston, S. C; but as a storm had required that much of the cargo be thrown over board, Swain arrived at Charles- ton penniless. He walked to Augusta, Ga., where he lived a year, and then removed to Wilkes, afterwards Oglethorpe county, where he engaged in hat-making, and was a member of the legislature of Georgia five years, and of the Constitu- tional convention held at Louisville about 1795, in which year he moved to Buncombe county and settled in or near Ashe- ville, soon afterward marrying Carolina Lowrie, a sister of Joel Lane, founder of the city of Raleigh, and of Jesse Lane, father of Gen. Joseph Lane, Democratic candidate for Vice- President in 1860. She was the widow of a man who had been killed by the Indians. In the early part of his residence George Lane lived at the head of Beaverdam creek, where the late Rev. Thomas Stradley afterwards resided and died, and where, on January 4, 1801, David Lowrie Swain, afterwards judge, governor and president of the University, was born. Here the future statesman saw the first wagon ever in Buncombe brought up the washed out bed of Beaverdam COUNTY HISTORY 151 creek in default of a road. At this sight, "he incontinently took to his heels and rallied only when safely entrenched behind his father's house, a log double cabin." "About 1805 a post-route was established on the recently constructed road through Buncombe county. ... In 1806, the post- office at Asheville was made the distributing office for Georgia, Tennessee and the two Carolinas, and George Swain became postmaster," the commission issuing in 1807. He was a rul- ing elder in the Presbyterian church. He u-sed to say his father was a Presbyterian and an Arminian, and his mother was a Methodist and a Calvinist. He was a trustee of the Newton academy. He afterwards carried on the hatter's bus- iness in the house now called the Bacchus J. Smith place in Grove Park, where his son-in-law, William Coleman, succeeded him as a hatter. For some time before his death he was insane. He died December 24, 1829. Samuel Chunn. In 1806 he was chairman of the Bun- combe county court, having been a tanner for years, his tan- yard being where Merrimon avenue crosses Glenn's creek. In 1807 he w^as jailer, and from him Churm's Cove took its name. He died in 1855, on the bank of the French Broad in Madison county at what is known as the Chunn place, where he had resided in his old age. William Welch. He was at one time a member of the Buncombe county court, and in January, 1805, was coroner. He was interested in lands on what are now Haywood and Depot streets. He afterwards removed to Waynesville and married Mary Ann, a daughter of Robert Love. In 1829 he was a senator from Haywood county, a member of the con- stitutional convention of 1835 and for many years clerk of the court. He wsls born April 8, 1796, and died February 6, 1865. Colonel William Davidson. He was a son of John Da- vidson and first cousin of Gen. Wm. Davidson, who succeeded Griffith Rutherford in the generalship when the latter was captured at Camden. Gen. Davidson was killed February 1, 1781, at Cowan's ford of Catawba river. Col. Davidson was a brother of the Samuel Davidson who was killed by the Indians in 1781-2 at the head of the Swannanoa river, and was the first representative of Buncombe county in the State Senate, taking a prominent part in the preparations made by the 152 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA North Carolinians for the Battle of Kings Mountain. He was the father of William Mitchell Davidson of Haywood county, whose son, Col. Allen T. Davidson, was a prominent lawyer and represented this section in the Confederate Congress. William Mitchell Davidson. He was born January 2, 1780, and died at Rock Island Ferry, on the Brazos river, Washington county, Texas, May 31, 1846, and was buried in the Horse Shoe Bend of that stream in the private burying ground of Amos Gates. On January 10, 1804, he married Ehzabeth Vance (who was born on Reem's creek. Buncombe county. North Carolina, March 23, 1787), the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Geo. Ne^^on. She died at the home of her son, Col. Allen Turner Davidson, on Valley river, Cher- okee county, April 15, 1861. They settled on a beautiful farm on Jonathan's creek, in Haywood county, where they remained until October 24, 1844, when the family went to Santa Anna, III., where they remained until the first of March, 1845, when they again set out for Texas. They settled on Wilson's creek of Collin county in April. From there they moved to Rock Island Ferry, where Mr. Davidson died. The family then returned to North Carolina — April, 1847. One cause of his removal to Texas was an unfortunate mercantile venture which he had made with his sons, W. E., H. H., an A. T., at Waynesville, in 1842. The story of the adventures of this family to and from Texas at that early day, as preserved in a manuscript written by John M. Davidson, one of W. M. Davidson's sons, reads more like a romance than a sober recital of real facts. (See Appendix.) Isaac B. Sawyer. Was born on Tuskeegee creek in Macon, now Swain, county in 1810. James W. Patton, John Burgin and 'Squire Sawyer were, for years, the three magistrates composing the Buncombe county court. He was the first mayor of Asheville and was clerk and master for many years before the Civil War and until the adoption of the Code. He was the father of Captain James P. Sawyer, who for years was the president of the Battery Park bank, a successful merchant and a public spirited and enterprising citizen. Isaac B. Sawyer died in 1880. James Mitchell Alexander. He was born on Bee Tree creek. Buncombe county. May 22, 1793. His grandfather, John Alexander, of Scotch-Irish descent, was a native of Rowan COUNTY HISTORY 153 county, whoro lie married Huchel Daviilson, a sister of Wil- liam ami Samuel Davidson, and resitled in Lincoln county, during the Revolutionary war. They were afterwards among the first settlers of Bvmcombe, but moved to Harper's river, Tenn. His son, James Alexander was born in Rowan, Decem- ber 23, 175(). He fought on the American side at Kings Mountain, and Cornwallis's camp chest, captured by him, was in Buncombe in 1898 when "Asheville's Centenary" was writ- ten by F, A. Sondley, Esq. March 19, 1782, he married in York district, South Carolina, Miss Rhoda Cunningham, who had been born in Pennsylvania, October 13, 1763. They then moved to Buncombe with their father and uncle and settled on Bee Tree, where he died in the Presbyterian faith. James Mitchell Alexander was their son, and on September 8, 1814, he married Nancy Foster, oldest child of Thomas Foster, who was born November 17, 1797. In 1816 he removed to Asheville and bought and improved the Hilliard property on South Main street. He was a saddler, and at this house he lived till 1828, carrying on his trade and keeping hotel. In 1828, upon the completion of the Buncombe turnpike, he bought and improved the place on the right l)ank of the French Broad, ten miles from Asheville, afterwards famous as Alex- ander's hotel, also carrying on a mercantile business there. In the latter part of his life he turned over this business to his son, the late Alfred M. Alexander, and one of his sons-in-law, the late Rev. J. S. Burnett, and improved the place three miles nearer Asheville called Montrealla, where he died June 11, 1858. His wife died January 14, 1862. Andrew Erwin. He is the man to whom Bishop Asbury referred as "chief man." He was born in Virginia about 1773 and died near the War Trace in Bedford county, Tenn., in 1833. When seventeen years old he entered the employment of the late James Patton, afterwards becoming his partner as inn-keeper and merchant at Wilkesborough. In 1800-01 he was a member of the House of Commons from Wilkes. He was Asheville's first postmaster. In 1814 he moved to Augusta, Ga. Thomas Foster. He was born in Virginia October 14, 1774. In 1776 his father, William Foster came with his family and settled midway between the road leading to the Swannanoa river by way of Fernihurst from Asheville. He 154 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA married Miss Orra Sams, whose father, Edmund Sams, was one of the settlers from Watauga. After his marriage Thomas Foster settled on the bank of Sweeten's creek, afterwards called Foster's Mill creek, the first which enters Swannanoa from the south above the present iron bridge on the Hender- sonville road. He was a member of the House of Commons from Buncombe from 1809 to 1814, both inclusive, and repre- sented that county in the State senate in 1817 and 1819. He died December 24 (incorrectly on tombstone December 14), 1858. He was a farmer and accumulated a considerable property. A large family of children survived him. His wife died August 27, 1853. He is mentioned in Wheeler's History of North Carolina, Bennett's Chronology of North Carolina and Bishop Asbury's journal. Weaverville, Buncombe County. The greater part of the early settlers of this country was made up of men and wom- en seeking rehgious liberty. This motive no less prompted the immigrants from Northern Europe than the great body of Scotch-Irish that emigrated to this country from Scotland and Ireland. In Pennsylvania and do'^Ti through the valley of the Shenandoah we find the Dutch of Holland and the Scotch-Irish, living side by side dominated by a single purpose. One of the pioneers in Buncombe county came from the valley of Virginia from this large Dutch settlement into what is now Buncombe county, and was the ancester of the large family of Weavers now living in that section. Previous to 1790 John Weaver and wife, Elizabeth, with their infant son (Jacob), came from Virginia via the Watauga in Tennessee, crossing the Ball mountain in what is now Yan- cey county, and settled on Reems creek, near the present town of Weaverville. From the first census of the United States 1790 (see page 110) it appears that John Weaver was a resident of Burke county, which then included what is now Buncombe county. His family then consisted of wife, tw^o daughters and one son under sixteen years of age. From this it is evident that he reached North Carolina sometime between 1786 and 1790. In the office of Register of Deeds for Bun- combe county, in Book No. 1 at page 100, is recorded a deed from John McDowell of Burke county, conveying to John Weaver of Buncombe county 320 acres of land; consideration 100 pounds; description, "On both sides of Reems creek and COUNTY HISTORY 155 on both sides of the path leading from (Jreen river to Nola- chuckee." This is interesting inasmuch as it seems to locate the old Indian trail from the east to the lands west of Unakas. There is little doubt that this young pioneer brought his young wife and infant son from the Watauga over this trail in quest of a permanent home. John Weaver was born December, 17G3, and died December, 1830. In his will, probated April Session, 1831, was found the following names: wife, Elizabeth; daughters, Susannah, Christiana, Mary, Elizabeth, Matilda and Catherine; sons| Jacob, James, John (better known as Jack), Christopher G., and Michael Montreville. From this family of six daughters and five sons sprang the largest number of descendants, or most numerous group of related families in Buncombe county, springing from one ancestor. Some of the oldest related families living in Buncombe county have their origin in more than one ancestor; for instance, the Baird family sprang from two brothers, Zebulon and Bedent; the Alexander family, from James Alexander, followed by a brother, nephew and other kinsmen; the Davidson family, from Samuel and Wil- liam. These last named pioneers entered Buncombe county from the east through the Swannanoa gap. John Weaver, as stated above, came from Virginia and entered this county from the northern section and what is now Yancey county. His oldest son, Jacob, married Elizabeth Siler of Macon county. From this union were born four sons and three daughters, John S., Jesse R., William W., and James Thomas, Elizabeth^ Saphronia and Mary. All these children of Jacob Weaver married and became the heads of families living in Buncombe county. Their descendants constitute the large majority of Weavers and Weaver relations now living in this county. John S. Weaver first married Mary Miller of Bolivar, Ten- nessee; she died in 1867 and his second wife was Mary Mc- Dowell of Macon county, daughter of Silas McDowell. Jesse R. Weaver married Julia Coulter of Greenville, Tennessee. William Weimer Weaver married Evalin Smith of Buncombe county, daugiiter of Samuel Smith. James Thomas Weaver married Hester Ann Trotter of Macon county. Elizabeth Weaver married Burdie Gash. Saphronia Weaver married Jamison McElroy. Mary Weaver married Robert V. Black- 156 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA stock. Nearly all of the living descendants of these families now live in Buncombe county, except the McElroy family, which moved to Arkansas shortly after the Civil War. The next child of the pioneer, John Weaver, was Susannah, who married a Mr. McCarson; from these are descendants living in this and adjacent counties. The second daughter, Christiana, married Samuel Vance, uncle of Z. B. Vance, who later moved to Bedford county, Tennessee. The third daughter, Mary, married Henry Addington of Macon county, where many descendants from this union still live. The fourth daughter, Catherine, mar- ried Andrew Pickens from South Carolina, who settled in Buncombe county. Rev. R. V. Pickens, Tarpley Pickens, Christly Pickens, Mrs. Eliza Gill, and Mrs. Martha Carter, who became the heads of large families in this county, were sons and daughters of Andrew and Catherine Pickens. The fifth daughter, Elizabeth, married Robert Patton Wells. From this union were many sons and daughters, some of whom, known to the writer and living in Buncombe county, were Robert C. Wells, W. F. Wells, Saphronia, who married Capt. R. P. Moore, Jane, who married Dr. Micheaux, and Matilda, who married Mathias Faubion of Tennessee. The sixth daughter of John Weaver, Matilda, married Jefferson H. Garrison. From this union were born sons and daughters in this and adjacent counties. Two sons, William and John, were gal- lant soldiers in the Civil War. Referring to the sons of John Weaver, other than Jacob, who has already been referred to, James first married a Miss Barnard. Their daughter, Christiana, married William R. Baird, and these were the parents of Capt. I. V. Baird, Wil- liam Baird, Zebulon Baird, Dr. Elisha Baird, John R. Baird, Misses Mollie and Catherine Baird, all now living in Bun- combe county, except Dr. Elisha and John R. Baird, who died within the last ten years. James Weaver's second mar- riage was to Mrs. Gilliland. Children were born to James Weaver by both of these unions, but they moved in early life to Tennessee and Missouri. James Weaver first represented Buncombe county in the low- er house of the legislature in 1825, serving with David L. Swain. He was subsequently re-elected to this office in 1830, 1832, 1833 and 1834, serving with William Orr, John Clayton and COUNTY HISTORY 157 Joseph Henry resepectivcly. l.utcr he moved to Cocke county, Tennessee, died July 28, 1854, and was buried on the old homestead, at the place known as Weaver Bend, just Ix'low Paint Rock. Subsequently, one of his daughters removed his remains and re-interred them at Knoxville, Tenn. Over- looking this grave, and on the very apex of a high, steep moun- tain, at Weaver Bend, is a small white cross set in a rock, by whose hands no one knows. It can be seen from the car window as the train moves through the river gorge 500 feet below. It is a tradition that some Jesuits placed a few of these crosses on conspicuous promontories through the Smoky mountains long before any of the settlements had been made by white men. However, this may be, this little emblem has rested on this western "Horeb" for possibly two cen- turies, looking out and towards the rolling rivers and alluvial valleys of East Tennessee, which to the early settlers was a real land of promise flowing with milk and honey. John, or Jack, Weaver married and lived on the French Broad river just above the mouth of Reems creek. Some of his descendants are still living in this county; of those who moved elsewhere little is now known. Chri-stopher G. Weaver married a Miss Lowry and lived on Flat creek three miles north of Weaverville. He died in early life and has no descendants now living in Buncombe county. Montreville Michael Weaver was the youngest son of John Weaver. He was born August 10, 1808, married Jane Baird. To this union was born four sons and five daughters. The sons were Fulton, who died unmarried, and Capt. W. E. Weaver, who married Miss Hannah Baird and is now living at Weaverville, N. C. The third son, John, married Miss Garrison, neither of whom is now living. Dr. Henry Bascomb Weaver mar- ried Miss Hattie Penland, daughter of Robert Penland of Mitchell county, N. C. Dr. Weaver is now living in Ashe- ville, a practicing physician who possesses the confidence and esteem of those who know him. The daughters of Mon- treville Weaver: Mary Ann, married Dr. J. A. Reagan; Martha, married Dr. J. W. \'andiver; Margarette, married Capt. Wylie Parker; Catherine, married Dr. I. A. Harris; Ehza, married D. H. Reagan; all of whom have many descend- ants living in Buncombe county. Montreville Weaver, the 158 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA last surviving child of the family of John Weaver, died in September, 1882. Among these people are many strong men and women who have left their impress upon the communities in which they lived and have largely contributed to the upbuilding of the country. John Weaver the First left the information with his children that his father was a Holland gentleman. Other information obtainable indicates that his father came from Holland to Pennsylvania, and in company with other brothers and kinsmen of the same name settled near Lancaster, Penn- sylvania, later migrating across Maryland into the valley of the Shenandoah in Virginia. The name of Weaver appears frequently in the public records about Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania, and in Virginia. From the report of Mr. H. J. Ecke- rode, the Archivist of the State of Virginia, it appears that there were two men by the name of John Weaver in the Re- olutionary War from Virginia. One of these men was from Augusta county. In the same report also appear the fol- lowing Weavers : Aaron Weaver, Princess Ann county, Till- man Weaver, Captain of Fauquier Militia. From the Penn- sylvania Archives, Third Series, Vol. 23, appear the names of Captain Martin Weaver and Captain Jacob Weaver of Fifth and Seventh Companies of the Tenth Pennsylvania Regiment (see pages 314 and 383), The commissions of these men bear date July 1, 1777, and January 13, 1777, respectively. Other Weavers who figured in the Revolution- ary history of Pennsylvania are George, Dolshen, Daltzer, Daniel, Henry, Adam, Jacob and Joshua. In fact this name appears in some muster roll of United States forces in every conflict in which the country has been engaged, beginning with the subjugation of the savage tribes, through all the wars with England and down to the Spanish-American war of recent date. It is easy to believe that these Dutch people found con- genial friends and neighbors in the Scotch-Irish people that were thro^m together in the valley of the Shenandoah. They were all dominated by a single purpose, to hew out for them- selves and their posterity a civil and ecclesiastic system, free from the domination of king or pope. There is no doubt but that the ancestors of these Dutch people were the loyal sup- porters of Wilham, Duke of Nassau, called "WilUam the COUNTY HISTORY 159 Silent' ' who broke the power of CathoHe Spain over the Neth- erUuuIs in his defeat of PhiUp the Second in the latter part of the Sixteenth Century. Ashe County. The act to establish the county of Ashe is one of the shortest on record. It was passed in 1799 (Laws of N. C, p. 98) and provides that "all that part of the county of Wilkes lying; west of the extreme height of the Appalacliian mountains shall be, and the same is hereby erected into a separate and distinct county by the name of Ashe," followed later by an act to establish permanently the dividing line between Ashe and Buncombe counties, the same to begin at "the Yadkin spring, and thence along the extreme height of the Blue ridge to the head spring of Flat Top fork of Elk creek, thence do\\Ti the meanders of said creek to the Ten- nessee line." The first record of the county court of Ashe is at the May term, 1806, with Alexander Smith, John McBride and Charles Tolliver, esquires, present. The following were the jurors : Sidniah Maxwell, foreman, James Sturgill, Allen Woodruff, Samuel Griffith, Seth Osborn, George Koons, John Green, James Dickson, Levi Pennington, Benjamin Hubbard, Charles Kelly, James Murphy, Wm. Harris, Alex. Lethern, Sciras Fairchilds. Edward King was appointed constable to attend the grand jury. Elisha Collins was excused from road duty "by reason of infirmity." At the February Term, 1807, James Cash recorded his "mark" for stock, being a crop and sHt and under keel on the right ear; and Elijah Calloway and Mathias Harmon were qualified as justices of the peace. The jury appointed to "view the road from Daniel Harper's into the Elk spur road" made report that it "was no road." From the Old Court Records. If there was a term of the Superior Court held in Ashe county prior to the March term, 1807, there is no record of it. On the 9th day of March of that year, however, Francis Locke presided as judge, and appointed John McMillan clerk, with bond of £2,000. Thomas McGimsey was appointed clerk and master, but resigned at the September Term, 1807. The grand jurors were Nathan Horton, foreman, James Bunyard, David Earnest, John Brown, Eli Cleveland, Joseph Couch, John Koons, Jonathan Baker, Elijah Pope, Jesse Ray, Samuel C. Cox, John Holman, Joshua Cox, Elijah Calloway, John Judd, Alex. Johnson, Morris 160 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Baker, Wm. Weaver. Henry Hardin, constable, was sworn to attend the jury. Only two cases were tried, the first of which was John Cox v. Isaac H. Rohinett and Nathan Gordon, debt, judgment for £596, 14-6d and costs. At the Septem- ber term, 1807, Judge Spruce McCay presided and fined the delinquent jurors £10 each, but afterAvards released them. Six cases were tried. Judge Francis Locke returned for the Spring Term, 1808, and Judge Samuel Lowrie followed him at the Fall term. At the September term, 1810, on motion of Robert H. Burton, who was to become judge and preside at a future term, Samuel Cox, sheriff, was amerced, ?im, for not returning execution in the case of Robert Nail v. Jno. Burton and others. At the March term, 1811, Peter Hart was committed to jail for 24 hours and fined 40 shillings for making a noise and contempt of court, and Gideon Lewis and John Northern were fined 20 shillings each for not answering when their names were called. Judge Henderson presided at the March term, 1812, when John A. Johnson resigned his appointment as clerk and master. John Hall presided at the September term, while at the March term, 1813, the jury acquitted Wm. Pennington of rape. At this term Waugh & Findlay recovered judgment for $55.063>2 against Elizabeth Humphries, but judgment was arrested and a new trial or- dered. Duncan Cameron presided at the March term, 1814, while at the September term, 1815, the jury found that Wm. Lambeth, indicted for malicious mischief (Betty Young pros- scutrix) had taken "a mare from his cornfield to a secret place and stabbed her to prevent a repetition of injuring his crop, but were unable to say whether he was guilty or not and the judge, Hon. Leonard Henderson, ordered that a tran- script of the bill of indictment and verdict be sent to the Conference court. At the September term, 1817, Judge Low- ery did not get to court on Monday, but arrived the follow- ing Tuesday, and ordered Thomas Calloway, county surveyor, to survey the land in dispute between Thomas McGimsey and Elisha Blevins. There is a grant to Gideon Lewis to 200 acres on Spring branch, entered September 16, 1802, of date November 27, 1806, and a grant to Reuben Farthing for 200 acres on Beaver Dams, entered July 4, 1829, of date Decem- ber 5, 1831. Benjamin Cutbirth conveyed 100 acres on South Fork of New river to Andrew Ferguson, the execution of COUNTY HISTORY 161 which cKh'cI was proven by the oath of Joseph Couch at the May term, 1800, of the county court. Second Jail West of the Blue Ridge. The first jail stood behind what is now the Jeft'erson Barj^ain store, con- ducted by Dr. J, C. Testerman, from which some of the logs were removed to and made into the old stable in east Jefferson, where they are still visible. The next jail was of brick and stood on the site of the present jail on Helton road, and was built, probably, about 1833. It was burned in the spring of 1805 by men in the uniform of the United States army. A pris- oner set the jail on fire about 1887 and Felix Barr repaired it. Jefferson. A tract of fifty acres was deeded to Ashe county on which the town of Jefferson was built early in the 18th century; but the records of the grantor and grantee are lost. A map in the possession of G. L. Park, Esq., is sup- posed to have been made about 1800. It was made by J. Harper and shows the location of all lots, the court house and the crossing of the Helton road. The first court house was of logs and stood at the intersection of this road and the road running east and west, and now known as Main street. The next court house was of brick, and stood flush with Main street, in front of the present structure, and was built about 1832 or 1833, according to statement of Edmund C. Bartlett to Felix Barr, who also remembers seeing the date on a tin gutter, the tin w^ork having been done by Lyle & Wilcox of Grayson county, Va. The present court house was built in 1904, the old road for Helton still going by it, but passing on both sides now, in narrow alleys or lanes, but coming to- gether again before crossing the gap of the Phoenix mountain, nearly two miles to the north. There is a conflict of opinion as to where the first court was held, some claiming that it was in an old log church in the meadow immediately in front of the present court house and known as the McEwen meadow, and others that it was held in an old Baptist church half a mile from Jefferson on the Beaver creek road, near which a Mr. and Mrs. Smithdeal kept a tavern and on the opposite side of the road. The three rows of black-heart cherry trees on the main street give not only shade but an air of distinction not noticeable in newer towns, while the colonial style of several of the houses indicates a degree of refinement among the earlier inhabitants sadly missing from many places of equal w. N.C. — u 162 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA antiquity. Like Charleston, S. C, Jefferson has the air of having been finished years ago; but as the Methodist Conference has appropriated S20,000 and the citizens of Ashe $10,000 to build a school and college, and Mrs. Eula J. Neal, widow of the late J. Z. Neal has conveyed eight or ten acres of choice land for that purpose, and as a railroad from Virginia is ex- pected soon, Jefferson is looking to the future with pride in her past and a determination to achieve greater and greater results. Before the coming of railroads Asheville was no larger than Jefferson is now, nor had it any greater evidences of culture and education than is here indicated by the citi- zenship of Jefferson. The large numbers of negroes in and around Jefferson indicate that the former residents were men of wealth and leisure. In 1901, the legislature incorporated the Wilkesboro and Jefferson Turnpike company^, and five years later a finely graded road was completed between those two places. By the terms of this act the State furnished the convicts while the stockholders furnished the provisions and paid the expenses. This road has been of greater help to North Wilkesboro than to Jefferson; but if the town of Jef- ferson and the county of Ashe would secure trackage rights over the narrow gauge road now operated for lumber exclu- sively between Laurel Bloomery, Tenn., and Hemlock, N. C, and then secure convicts to complete the line to Jefferson, under the same terms as were granted for the building of the turn- pike, and operate it by electricity, it need not wait for the pleasure of lumber companies to construct a standard gauge road at their convenience Old Buildings. The building now known as Jefferson Inn was built in two parts by the late George Bower. The part used by the Bank of Ashe was built first, but the date can- not be determined definitely, and the eastern part some years later. The frame building next to the east was George Bow- er's store, in which the postoffice was kept, and holes in the partitions are still visible which had been used for posting letters. James Gentry was killed one snowy Christmas night about the year 1876, in front of this building while Mont. Hardin was keeping hotel. Douglas Dixon was tried for the murder, but was acquitted. It was in this building also that Judge Robert R. Heath, sick and delirious, inflicted a wound upon himself from which he afterwards died (May COUNTY HISTORY 163 26, 1871). The hand-forgod hinp;os and window fastenings indicate that tlie building is old. Waugh and Bautliott Houses. But what is still known as the Bartlett liouse, east of the present postoffice, is prob- ably the oldest house in town. It was occupied by Sheriff E. C. Bartlett, grandfather of the Professors Dougherty of Boone. Another old building is that still known as the Waugh house, notwithstanding its modern appearance. It is now a part of the ]\Iasonic building, apparently, but its main body, like the Bartlett house, is of logs. In it Waugh, Poe and Murchison sold goods in the first part of the nineteenth century. Certain it is that to this firm there were grants and deeds to land at a very early date, and the first map of Jeft'erson was made by J. Harper for Wm. P. Waugh, the senior member of this firm; Mathias Poe, the third member is said to have lived in Tennessee; but Col. Murchison for years occupied the large old residence which still stands on the hill at the eastern end of town. Early Residents of Jefferson, Ashe County. Nathan H. Waugh moved to Jefferson from Monroe county, Tenn., in 1845. He was born April 24, 1822. Among those living in Jefferson in 1845 were Col. George Bower, Rev. Dr. Wagg, a Methodist preacher, and the Rev. William Milam, also a Methodist preacher, and the jailer; also Sheriff E. C. Bart- lett, CjTus Wilcox, a tinner, George Houck, blacksmith, whose daughter married Cyrus Grubb of the Bend of New river; and Wm. Wyatt. Daniel Burkett, who lives one mile South of Jefferson and whose daughter married Rev. Dr. J. H. Weaver of the Methodist Church, South. William Willen, an Englishman and a ditcher, lived one mile east of Jeft'erson on the farm now owned by D. P. Waugh. Mrs. Lucy A Carson moved to Jefferson in 1870, and remembers as residents at that time S. C. Waugh, Wiley P. Thomas, Mrs. America Bower, Dr. L. C. Gentry, Rev. James Wagg, J. E. and N. A. Foster, E. C. Bartlett. The Fosters delivered salt to Ashe county during the Civil War. Mrs. Milam owned a residence opposite J. E. and N. A. Foster's, but gave the lot to Adam Roberts, colored, who subsequently sold it and built the brick house on the hill to the south of town. The Carson house, brick, was built in 1845, Geo. Bower giving John M. Carson, 164 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA his brother-in-law, the lot on which it stands. Captain Joseph W. Todd built the house to the west of the Carson resi- dence in 1870, and the Henry Rollins house had been built long before that time. The Negro mountain was so called because a runaway negro, during or before the Revolutionary War, escaped and hid in a cave on the mountain till his hid- ing place was discovered and he was recaptured and returned to his master east of the Blue Ridge. The Mulatto mountain is said to have taken its name from the color of the soil, but no plausible reason w^as given for the names applied to the Paddy and Phoenix mountains. Aras B. Cox. Aras B. Cox was born in Floyd county, Va., January 25, 1816, and married Phoebe Edwards, Febru- ary 23, 1845. They settled in Ashe county. In 1849 he was elected clerk of the Superior Court, and also in 1853. He sold his farm in Alleghany county, and bought one seven miles from Jefferson. He was in the Confederate War. He was a distinguished physician and the author of "Footprints on the Sands of Time," pubhshed at Sparta, N. C, in August, 1900. He died soon after. Colonel George Bower. So higly regarded was Col. Bowser for his wisdom and sagacity that he was almost uni- versally called "Double Headed Bower," or "Two Headed Bower." He was born in Ashe county, January 8, 1788. His father was John Bower, whose -will as recorded in Ashe county disposed of considerable property. ^ George was a merchant, farmer, live-stock raiser and hotellist at Jefferson. He mar- ried a Miss Bryant first, and after her death Miss America Russeau. He was elected State Senator when Andrew Jack- son was elected president both times. ^ He became one of the bondsmen of John McMillan as clerk of the Superior Court as early as the September term, 1813. ^ ° At sub- sequent terms he was appointed clerk and master and gave bond as such. ^ ^ He owned a large number of slaves and many State bonds. He was drowned in the Yadkin river, October 7, 1861. His will was probated in 1899, Book E, p. 387. His widow married Robert R. Heath, w^ho was born in New Hampshire October 25, 1806, and died at Jef- ferson, May 26, 1871. "He was an able lawyer and an up- right judge," is engraved on his tomb. Mrs. Heath then COUNTY HISTORY I65 married Alston Davis. She was born February 2G, 181G, and died May 25, 1903. Her will was probated in 1903, Book E, p. 524. A Tragic Death. In October, 1801, George Bower fol- lowed a runaway slave to the ford of the Yatikin river. He was in his carriage, and the negro driver told him the river was too swollen to admit of fording it at that time. Col. Bower, insisting, however, the colored man drove in. The cur- rent took the carriage with its single occupant far beyond the bank. Col. Bower was drowned, but the driver and horses escaped. Stephen Thomas. This gentleman was a progressive and valuable citizen of Creston, having kept a store and tavern there. He was born in May, 1796, and died in May, 1864. His wife was a daughter of Timothy Perkins. He reared a splendid family. ' - David Worth. He was descended from William Worth, who emigrated from England in the reign of Charles the Second. His father had ouTied considerable property under the Com- monwealth, but at the Restoration it had been confiscated, and his family scattered in search of safety. William had a son, Joseph, born in Massachusetts, and Joseph's son Daniel, mar- ried Sarah Husey. Daniel Worth was a son of Joseph and was born in Guilford county, October 15, 1810. Daniel Worth was the father of David Worth, who came to Creston about 1828, and died December 10, 1888. He was a tanner by trade. He also was a most valuable citizen and highly re- spected. He married Miss Elizabeth Thomas, daughter of Stephen Thomas. She was born January 18, 1821, and died October 22, 1895. ^^ Zachariah Baker. He lived at Creston and was a suc- cessful farmer and stock raiser. His wife was Miss Zilphea Dickson. They reared a large family of influential and suc- cessful citizens. One of his .sons, John, married Delilah Eller, and the other, Marshall, married Marv Eller, a daughter of Luke Eller. ^ * The Graybeals. They are said to be of Dutch ancestry, are generally thrifty and successful folk, and own much real estate and live stock. They are honest, frugal and among the best citizens of Ashe. 166 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Jacob, Henry and John Eller. They were sons of Chris- tian Eller, once a resident of the Jersey Settlement in David- son county. The two former came to Ashe and settled on the North Fork of New river, reared large families, and were successful, useful, respected citizens. Their sons were Peter, Luke, William, John, David and Jacob. John settled on the South Fork and later moved to Wilkes. His sons were Sim- eon, David, Absalom, John and Peter, who reared large fam- ilies which are scattered over Western North Carolina, Ten- nessee, Virginia, Iowa and Nebraska. ^ ^ Some Early Settlers of Ashe. ^^ "These noble, self- sacrificing men and women of the early times endangered their lives and braved many hardships in the wild Indian coutry to open the way to happy homes, schools, churches and the blessings of our present civilization. Some of these were Henry Poe, Martin Gambill, Thomas Sutherland, Tim- othy Perkins, Captain John Cox, Henry Hardin, Canada Richardson, James Douglas, Daniel Dickson and Elijah Cal- loway. Besides these were many others whose names awaken much unwritten history : Miller, Blevins, Ham, Reeves, Woodin, Barr, Baker, Eller, Goodman, Ray, Burkett, Gray- beal, Houck, Kilby, Ashley, Jones, Gentry, Smith, Plummer, Lewis, Sutherland, McMillan, Colvard, Barker, Senter, Max- well, Calhoun, Sapp, Thomas, Worth, Oliver and others." Haywood County,^'' "In the legislature of 1808, Gen- eral Thomas Love, whose home was near where the 'Brown' house now stands back of the McAfee cottage in Waynesville, and who was that year representative from Buncombe county in the General Assembly, introduced a bill having for its pur- pose to organize a county out of that portion of Buncombe west of its present western and southwestern boundary and extending to the Tennessee line, including all the territory in the present counties of Haywood, Macon, Jackson, Swain, Graham, Clay, and Cherokee. The bill met with favor, was passed, ratified and became a law December 23, 1808. "On Richland creek, about the year 1800, the neucleus of a village had been formed on the beautiful ridge between its limpid waters and those of Raccoon creek. The ridge is less than a mile wide and attracted settlers on account of the pic- turesque mountains on either side and the delightfulness of the climate. At that early time a considerable population was COUNTY HISTORY 167 already there. Several men, who were well known in the State and who afterwards became prominent in jiublic affairs, had built homes ui)on that nature favored spot and were living there. Sueh men as General Thomas Love, Colonel Robert Love, Colonel William Allen, John Welch, and others of Rev- olutionary fame were leaders in that community. Without changing his residence General Thomas Love was a member of the State Legislature, with two or three years intermission, from 1797 to 1828, for nine years as a member from Buncombe county and the remainder of the time from Haywood. Most of the time he was in the House of Commons but for six years he was also in the Senate. Colonel Robert Love served three years in the senate from Buncombe county, from 1793 to 1795. William Allen and John Welch were veterans of the Revolu- tion and men of considerable influence in that community. "As already stated that law was ratified on December 23, 1808, but it did not become operative until early in the year 1809. On the fourth Monday in jVIarch of that year the justices of the peace in the territory defined by the act erect- ing the county met at Mount Prospect in the first court of pleas and quarter sessions ever held in the limits of Haywood county. The followang justices were present at that meeting: Thomas Love, John Fergus, John Dobson, Robert Phillips, Abraham Eaton, Hugh Davidson, Holliman Battle, John Mc- Farland, Phillip T. Burfoot, William Deaver, Archibald McHenry, and Benjamin Odell. "One of the first things the court thus constituted did was to elect oflacers for the new county. There were several can- didates for the different positions, but after several ballots were taken the following were declared duly elected: Clerk of the court, Robert Love; Sheriff, William Allen; register of deeds, Phillip T. Burfoot; constable of the county, Samuel HoUingsworth; entry taker, Thomas St. Clair; treasurer, Rob- ert Phillips; stray master, Adam Killian; comptroller, Abra- ham Eaton; coroner, Nathan Thompson; solicitor, Archi- bald Ruffin; standard keeper, David McFarland. "Thus officered the county of Haywood began its career. The officers entered at once upon their respective duties, and the county became a reality. The first entry in the register's book bears date of March 29th, 1809, signed by Philip T. 168 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Burfoot, and the first in the clerk's l)ook is the same date by Robert Love. "Until the court house and jail could be built the county officials met at private residences at Mount Prospect and prisoners were carried to jail in Asheville. Such proceedings were inconvenient and the commissioners appointed by the legislature, therefore, made haste to locate and erect the public buildings. It was expected that they would be ready to make their report to the court of pleas and quarter sessions as to the location of the county seat at the March session. Instead, however, they asked at that session to be indulged until the June term, and that request was granted. "On Monday, June 26, 1809, the court met at the home of John Howell. The old record names the following justices as being present: Thomas Love, Philip Burfoot, Hugh Da- vidson, John McFarland, Abraham Eaton, John Dobson, Wil- liam Deaver, Archibald McHenry, and John Fergus. At this meeting the commissioners named in the act of the legislature erecting the county made their report, in which they declared that it was unanimously agreed to locate the public buildings somewhere on the ridge between Richland and Raccoon creeks at or near the point then called Mount Prospect. As the commissioners were clothed with full power to act, it required no vote of the justices, but it is more than probable that the report was cheerfully endorsed by a majority of the justices present. "At this June term of the court, the first for the trial of causes, the following composed the grand jury: John Welch foreman, William Welch, John Fullbright, John Robinson, Edward Sharteer, Isaac Wilkins, Elijah Deaver, David McFarland, Wilham Burns, Joseph Chambers, Thomas St. Clair, John Shook, Wilham Cathey, Jacob Shock, and John St. Clair. The following grand jurors for the next term of the Superior court that was to be held in Asheville in September: HoUiman Battle, Hugh Davidson, Abraham Eaton, Thomas Lenoir, Wilham Deaver, John McFarland, John McClure, Fehx Walker, Jacob McFarland, Robert Love, Edward Hyatt and Daniel Fleming. This was done because of the fact that no Superior court was held in Haywood for several years after the formation of the county; but all cases that were appealed from the court of pleas and quarter sessions came up by law COUNTY HISTORY 169 in the Superior court of Buncombe county at Ashevillo. For this court Haywood county was hound by law to send to Asheville six grand jurors and as many more as desired. Y< "At the June term inspectors of election, that was to take place in August, were also selected. There were then two voting precincts, and this election was the first ever hold in the county. For the precinct of Mount Prospect the follow- ing inspectors were appointed: George Cathey, WiUiam Deaver, John Fergus, and Hugh Davidson. For the precinct of Soco, Benjamin Parks, Robert Reed, and Robert Turner were appointed. "In the location of the public buildings at Mount Prospect, there was laid the foundation of the present little city of Waynesville. Tradition says and truthfully, no doubt, that the name was suggested by Colonel Robert Love in honor of General Anthony Wayne, under whom Colonel Love served in the Revolutionary War. The name suited the community and people, and the village soon came to be known by it. In the record of the court of pleas and quarter sessions the name of Waynesville occurs first in 181L "Some unexpected condition prevented the immediate erection of the public buildings. The plans were all laid in 1809, but sufficient money from taxation as provided for in the act establishing the county had not been secured by the end of that year. It was, therefore, late in the year 1811 before sufficient funds were in hand to begin the erection of the courthouse. During the year 1812 the work began and was completed by the end of the year. Mark Colman is said to have been the first man to dig up a stump in laying the foundation for that building. On December 21, 1812, the first court was held in this first court house." Haywood's Six Daughters. Formerly belonging to Hay- wood were Macon, Cherokee, Jackson, Swain, Clay and Gra- ham counties. Of many of the pioneer residents of these counties when they were a part of Haywood Col. Allen T. Davidson speaks in The Lyceum for January, 1891. Among them were David Nelson and Jonathan McPeters, Jonathans creek having been named for the latter. David Nelson was the uncle of Col. Wm. H. Thomas, and died at 87 highly respected and greatly lamented. "He was of fine physical form, honest, brave and hospitable." "Then there were 170 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Joshua Allison, George Owens, John and Reuben Moody, brothers, all sturdy, hardy, well-to-do men and good citi- zens, who, with Samuel Leatherwood constituted my father's near neighbors." "Joseph Chambers of this neighborhood moved to Georgia about the opening of the Carroll county gold mine, say, about 1831-32. He was a man of more than ordinary character, led in public affairs and reared an elegant family. His daughters were splendid ladies and married well. His wife was a sister of John and Reuben Moody." John Leatherwood was well kno\\Ti for his "thrift and industry, fine hounds, fine cattle and good old-time apple brandy; a good citizen who lived to a good old age. James McKee, father of James L. McKee of Asheville, lived on this creek, was sheriff of Haywood for many years, and died at an advanced age at Asheville. Near him lived Felix Walker. He was a man of great suavity of manner, a fine electioneer, insomuch that he was called "Old Oil Jug." He w^ent, after his defeat for Congress in 1824 by Dr. Robert Vance, to Mississippi, where he died about 1835. The manu- facture and sale of gensing was begun on Jonathans creek by Dr. Hailen of Philadelphia, who employed Nimron S. Jarrett and Bacchus J. Smith, late of Buncombe county, to conduct the business. It was abundant then and very profitable, the green root being worth about seven cents a pound. A branch of this business was established on Caney river in Yancey county. I well remember seeing great companies of moun- taineers coming along the mountain passes (there were no roads then only as we blazed them) with packed horses and oxen going to the "factory," as we called it; and it was a great rendezvous for the people, where all the then sports of the day were engaged in such games as pitching quoits, run- ning foot-races, shooting matches, wrestling, and, sometimes a good fist and skull fight. But the curse and indignation of the neighborhood rested on the man who attempted, as we called it, "to interfere in the fight, or double-team," or use a weapon. The most noted men were John Welch, John McFarland, Hodge Reyburn, Thomas Tatham, Gen. Thomas Love and Ninian Edmundson. The leading families of Hay- wood were the Howells, being two brothers, John and Henry, who came from Cabarrus about 1818; the Osborns; the Plotts, Col. Thomas Lenoir; the Catheys, Deavers, McCrackens, Pen- COUNTY HISTORY 171 lands, Bryers; David Russell of Fines creek, Peter Nolan, Robert Penland, Henry Brown, James Green, who was born in 1790, and was living in January, 1891, and many others. Joseph Cathey. He was born March 12, 1803, and died June 1, 1874, was a son of William Cathey, one of the first settlers on Pigeon river; was a delegate to the State conven- tion of 1835, and in the senate and declined further political honors. NiNiAN Edmundson. He was born in Burke, October 21, 1789, of IMaryland ancestry, and came with his father to Pigeon Valley prior to 1808, where the family remained. He was in the War of 1812; was four years sheriff of Haywood. He served several terms in the State senate and many in the house. He was a most successful farmer and useful citizen. He died in March, 1868, highly esteemed. James Robert Love. He was born in November, 1798, and died November 22, 1863. He represented Haywood county many times in the legislature. He married Miss Maria Williamson Coman, daughter of Col. James Coman of Raleigh, who died January 9, 1842, aged 75 years. This marriage occurred November 26, 1822. Charles Loehr, a German professor of music, taught his children music for years, and Loehr's son afterwards became professor of music at the Asheville Female college. Love was so anxious to encour- age the building of a railroad that he set aside a lot for the depot long before he died. He bought large boundaries of vacant and unsurveyed lands, and died wealthy. Dr. Samuel L. Love. He was born August 5, 1828, and died July 7, 1887. He received his diploma as a physician from the University of Pennsylvania; but was soon elected to the legislature, where he served many terms. He was a surgeon in 1861 on the staff of Gov. Ellis, and a delegate to the Consti- tutional convention of 1875. In 1876 he was elected State auditor. Thomas Isaac Lenoir. Was born on Pigeon river August 26, 1817, a son of Thomas Lenoir of Wilkes. He went to the State University, and did not return to Haywood till 1847. He was a farmer and stock raiser and a progressive citizen. On June 13, 1861, he married Miss Mary E. Garrett. He died January 5, 1881. His brother, Walter Lenoir, was a captain in the Confederate army, and spent much of his life 172 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA at Joseph Shull's in Watauga county, where he died July 26, 1890, aged sixty-seven years. He was graduated with high honor at the State University. He studied law and was admitted in 1845. He married Miss Cornelia Christian of Staunton, Va., in 1856, but she died soon afterward. He lost a leg in the Civil War at the battle of Ox Hill, September, 1862. William Johnston was the fourth son of Robert John- ston, Sr., and was born two miles from Druhmore, the county town of Down county, Ireland, July 26, 1807, his ancestors having emigrated from Scotland to Ireland in 1641. He came with his father's family to Charleston, South Carolina, in December, 1818, and settled in Pickens District, South Caro- lina. About 1828 he moved to Buncombe county and mar- ried Lucinda, the only daughter of James Gudger and his wife Annie Love, daughter of Col. Robert Love of Waynes- ville, March 18, 1830, and settled in Waynesville, where he accumulated a large fortune. About 1857 he moved with his family to Asheville. After the Civil War he, with the late Col. L. D. Childs of Columbia, South Carolina, became the owTier of the Saluda factory, three miles from that city. It was burned, however, and Mr. Johnston returned to Ashe- ville, where he died. He was admittedly the most success- ful business man in this entire section of the State; and some think that the same business ability, if it had been exerted in almost any other field, would have produced results that would have rivaled the fortunes of some of our merchant princes. Jerry Vickers was a tinner who worked for Wm. John- ston, and also made gravestones out of locust, paradoxical as that may appear; but his head-boards in WajTiesville ceme- tery, with names and dates neatly carved in this almost inde- structible wood, are still sound and legible today. Wm. Pinckney Welch. He was born in Waynesville November 14, 1838, and died at Athens, Ga., March 18, 1896. His mother's father was Robert Love, and his father was William the son of John Welch, one of the pioneers. The Welches came from Philadelphia soon after the Revolution- ary War. He attended school at Col. Stephen Lee's school in Chunn's cove, after which he went to Emory and Henry college, leaving there in May, 1861, to join the Confederate army. He was a lieutenant in the 25th N. C. regiment, and COUNTY HISTORY 173 took part in the l)attlos of from CJaiiies Mills to Malvern Hill, Sharpshurg, Fredericksburg and in the campaign near Kinston and Plymouth, Petersburg, Bermuda Hundreds, and surrendered as a captain with Lee at Appomattox. The sur- vivors of that war have named their camp after him. He practiced law after the war, was in the legislature in 1868 and 1870 and helped to imixnich Gov. Holden. He was mar- ried first to Miss Sarah Cathey, a daughter of Col. Joseph Cathey of Pigeon river, soon after the war, and on the 26th of January, 1875, he married Miss Margaretta Richards White of Athens, Ga., his first wife having died soon after marriage. No braver man ever lived than Pink Welch. The People of Macon. Macon was organized into a county in 1828 "and was singularly fortunate in the char- acter of the people who first settled it. ^ ^ It was first repre- sented in the legislature in 1831 by James W. Guinn in the senate and Thomas Tat ham and James Whitaker in the house, and was thereafter represented in the senate four times by Gen. Ben. S. Britton, with James Whitaker, Asaph Enloe, James W. Guinn and Jacob Siler and Thomas Tatham in the house." Luke Barnard, Wimer Siler, and his sons William, Jesse R., Jacob and John; John Dobson, John Howard, Henry Addington, Gen. Thomas Love, Wm. H. Bryson, James K. Gray, Mark Coleman, Samuel Smith, Nimrod S. Jarrett, George Dickey, Silas McDowell, George Patton, and William Angel were typical men of the early population. " Wm. and Jacob Siler having married sisters of D. L. Swain, and Jesse R. Siler having married a daughter of John Patton of Bun- combe, sister of the late lamented Mont. Patton, it is not difficult to account for the great moral worth of the county that now exists and has from its first settlement. Samuel Smith was the father of Bacchus J. Smith and Rev. C. D. Smith, and volunteered as a messenger to bear a letter from Gen. McDowell, at the Old Fort, to the principal chief of the Cherokees, at the Coosawattee to\vns about the close of the Revolutionary War. ' ^ The undertaking was full of peril, the whole country west of the Blue Ridge being then in the Cherokee Nation, then in arms, and before any white men lived in this country. The Coosawattee towns were on a river of that name in Georgia at least 250 miles away; but the mission was accomplished by this valiant man who aided 174 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA largely in bringing these people into peaceable terms with the whites. He moved to Texas, after having raised a family of distinguished sons in North Carolina, — dying in Texas when over ninety years of age. " ^ ° Franklin. This was called the Sacred Town by the Cher- okees-^ and was not named for Benjamin Franklin, as so many think, but for Jesse Franklin, once governor of this State. ^ - The county was named for John Haywood, treasurer of the State in 1787. According to Rev. CD. Smith in his Brief History of Macon county, p. 2, Macon was never a part of Buncombe county, because its western boundary line never extended west of the Meigs and Freeman line of 1802, and the territory embraced in Macon and a portion of Jackson and Swain was acquired from the Cherokees by treaty in 1817-18. In the spring of 1820 the State commissioners, Jesse Franklin and James Meabin, in accordance with an act of the legisla- ture, came to the Tennessee valley and organized for the survey of lands "a corps of surveyors of whom Captain Rob- ert Love, a son of Gen. Thomas Love, who settled the place at the bridge where Capt. T. M. Angel recently lived ^^, was chief. Robert Love had been an honored and brave captain in the war of 1812, was much respected on account of his patri'otic devotion to American liberty, and was consequently a man of large influence." Watauga plains, where the late Mr. Watson lived, was first settled upon for the county site and 400 acres, the land appropriated for that purpose, was located and surveyed there; but Captain Love favored the present site, and by a vote of all six companies of surveyors then in the field, on the ridge where Mrs. H. T. Sloan resided in 1905, the 400 acres appropriated was located. First Settlers in Franklin. Joshua Roberts, Esq., built the first house on the Jack Johnston lot, ''a small round log cabin;" but Irad S. Hightower built the first "house proper," one built of hewn logs on the lot where stands the AUman hotel. Capt. N. S. Jarrett bought the first house proper, then Gideon F. Morris got it, and then John R. Allman. Lindsey Fortune built a cabin on the lot where the Jarrett hotel stood in 1894, and Samuel Robinson built on the lot occupied in 1905 by Mrs. Robinson. Silas McDowell first built where the residence of D. C. Cunningham stood, and Dillard Love built the first house on the Trotter lot. N. S. COUNTY HISTORY 175 Jarrett l)uilt on the lot owned by S. L. Rogers, and Joliu F. Dobson first improved the corner lot owned in 1894 by C. C. Smith. James K. dray built the second hcwn-log house on the lot owned by Mrs. A. W. Bell, and Jesse R. Siler, one of the first settlers, built at the foot of the town hill where Judge G. A. Jones resided. He also built the second house on the Gov. Robinson lot and the brick store and dwelling owned in 1894 l)y the late Capt. A. P. Munday. James W. (luinn or iVIr. Whitaker built the house afterwards owned by Mr. Jack Johnston. John R. Allman opened the first hotel in Franklin, followed soon afterward by a house at the "foot of the hill" built by Jesse R. Siler. ^-^ Prominent Residents of Macon. ^ ^ James Cansler was born Feliruary 22, 1820, in Rutherford county, and died in Macon, July 24, 1907. He aided in the removal of the Cher- okees in 1836-38, and was a captain in the Civil war. Cap- tain James G. Crawford was born May 6, 1832, and in 1855 was appointed deputy clerk, being elected sheriff in 1858. He was a captain in the Civil War in the 39th regiment, serving till the end. He was in the legislature, and in 1875 was elected register of deeds, which place he held till near the end of his life. He married Miss Virginia A. Butler. One of the early settlers was Henry G. Woodfin, a physician and brother of Col. N. W. Woodfin of Buncombe. He was born December 27, 1811, and was married June 5, 1838 to Miss E. A. B. How- arth. He settled first on Cartoogechaye, but later moved to Franklin. He was a member of the county court, serving as chairman, and was in the legislature two terms. He died in 1881. He stood high as a physician and citizen. Dr. James M. Lyle came to Macon before the Civil War and formed a copart- nership with Dr. Woodfin. He married Miss Laura Siler, and after her death, he married Miss Nannie Moore. Dr. G. N. Rush, of Coweta station, was born in 1824, in Rock- ingham county, Va., and read medicine under Dr. A. W. Brabson, graduated in medicine at University of Nashville in 1854. He served in the legislature in 1876-7. In 1854 he married Miss Elizabeth Thomas. He died December 12, 1897. Dr. A. C. Brabson was born in Tennessee in 1842, served through the Civil War, graduated from the College at Nashville in medicine, 1866-67, married Miss Cora Rush, March 30, 1881. Mark May, son of Frederick and Nellie 176 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA May, was born in Yadkin county December 7, 1812, and married Belinda Beaman at the age of 24. Early in life he was ordained a Baptist minister, coming to Macon county after serving as a minister 17 years in Yadkin and two years in Tennessee. He is the father of Hon. Jeff May of Flats, N. C. Rev. Joshua Amnions was born in Burke, February 14, 1800, and moved to Macon in 1822, settled on Rabbit creek, was ordained a Baptist minister at Franklin in 1835, and died September 27, 1877, after a very useful life. Logan Berry was born December 18, 1813, in Lincoln county, and died February 8, 1910. He married Matilda Postell of Bun- combe, served as county commissioner, and was a useful and respected citizen. Stephen Munday was born in Person county about the beginning of the nineteenth century but moved to Buncombe county before the Civil War, where he built a mill at Sulphur Springs. He then moved to INIacon, and lived with his son, the late Alexander P. Munday at Aquone, till his death in the seventies. ^^ He was a useful and highly respected citizen. His son Alexander P. Munday married Miss Addie Jarrett a daughter of the late Nimrod ■ S. Jarrett, and they resided first at the Meadows in what is now Graham county about 1859, where they remained till after the Civil War, moving thence to Aquone where they died early in this century. Captain Nimrod S. Jarrett was born in Buncombe county in 1800, married a Miss McKee, and moved to Haywood county in 1830, engaging in the "sang" business, till he moved to Macon, where he resided at Aquone in 1835, afterwards at the Apple Tree place six miles down the river, and still later at Jarretts station on the Murphy railroad. He owTied large tracts of mountain lands, and the talc mine now operated at Hewitts. He was murdered in September, 1873, by Bayless Henderson, a tramp from Ten- nessee. Henderson was executed for the crime, at Webster, in 1874. John Kelly. He was born in Virginia, married a Miss Pierce, a neice and adopted daughter of Bishop Pierce, and moved to Buncombe where he lived till about 1819, when he moved to Macon to what is now known as the Barnard farm, but soon moved to the Hays place, waiting for the land sale, at which he bought a boundary of land lying in both Georgia and North Carolina, including Mud and Kelly's creeks in COUNTY HISTORY 177 Georgia. His third son, Samuel, was born in Wostmoreland county, Va., and in 1825 Imught land six miles from Franklin, where he lived till his death in 1852. He married Miss Mary Harry. Three of his sons enlisted in the Confederate army, wiiere one was killed in battle, the other two serving till the close of hostilities. They were N. J. and M. L. Kelly. -^ Nathan G. Allman.-s He was born in Haywood, Jan- uary 5, 1818, and came to Franklin in 1846, where he lived 46 years continuously. He was a merchant and hotel keeper, and died February 17, 1892. He was a useful and influential citizen. Dr. W. Levy Love, He was born in Chautauqua, N. ¥., Sep- tember 30, 1827, and early in life went to Kentucky with his father. There he joined the army and went to the war in Mexico, taking part in several battles. Returning, he was educated at Bacon college, Kentucky, where he also studied medicine, completing his course at Philadelphia. He then moved to Franklin, where, in 1868, he married Miss Maggie, a daughter of N. G. AUman. In this year he was elected to the State senate, where he served six years. He was also a lawyer, enjoying a fine practice. He died July 29, 1884. He was generally knowTi as Levi Love. Jackson Johnston. He was born in Pendleton district, S. C, November 25, 1820, and at sixteen years of age removed to Waynesville, where for several years he clerked for his brother William. While there, he married Miss Osborne of Haywood county; late in the forties he removed to Franklin, and became a merchant, accumulating a handsome fortune. His first wife having died he married Miss Eugenia Siler in 1859. She was a daughter of William Siler. His hospitality and humor were famous. He tlied April 10, 1892. He was charitable, intelligent and of high character. Thomas Tatham. He served in the State senate from Hay- wood in 1817, removed to Macon and served in the legislature from that county from 1831 to 1834 inclu.sive, after which he removed to Valley river where he died. He was a good man and left many friends. James Whitaker. He was born in Rowan April 3, 1779, one mile from Lexington, now Davidson. He was a justice of the peace in that county and removed to Buncombe in 1817, from which, in 1818 he was elected to the legislature and W. N.C. 12 178 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA served till 1823, and removed to Macon in 1828, lived one mile from Franklin, and was elected to the legislature in 1828 and served continuously till 1833. He was appointed Superior court clerk at the first term of Cherokee county, and was elected to the legislature from that county in 1832 and 1842. He died on Valley river November 2, 1871, aged 92 years. He was a man of great intellect, high character and unsullied reputation; a stern man, a strong Baptist and did perhaps as much for his church as any other man in the State. Yancey. Yancey county was formed in 1833. It was cut off from Burke and Buncombe. Three counties have since been partly formed out of Yancey. They are: Watauga in 1849; Madison in 1851; and Mitchell in 1861. Yancey county is now bounded on the north by Mitchell county and the State of Tennessee; on the east by Mitchell and McDowell counties; on the south by McDowell and Madison; on the west by Madison and Buncombe counties and the Tennessee line. Mt. Mitchell, the highest mountain in the eastern half of North America, is in Yancey county. It was named for Dr. Elisha Mitchell, a teacher in the University, who explored it. Mt. Mitchell is a part of the Black mountains which extend partly across this county. Yancey county contains eighteen mountain peaks that rise above 6,300 feet. These mountains are very fertile and are covered with great forests of gigantic trees. Cherry trees in Yancey often grow four feet, the walnut eight feet, and the poplar ten feet in diameter. The county was named for Bartlett Yancey, a native of Caswell county. He was educated at the University of North Carolina, studied law, and became eminent in his profession. He was twice a member of the Congress of the United States, and eight times a member of the senate of North Carolina. He was one of the first men in the State to favor public schools for all the people. The county seat of Yancey is Burnsville, named in honor of Capt. Otway Burns, of Beaufort, N. C. He won fame in the war of 1812 against England. With his vessel, the "Snap- Dragon," he sailed up and dowoi the Atlantic coast, captur- ing many English vessels and destroying the British trade. He had many wild adventures, and his name became a terror to British merchants. Finally the English government sent a war vessel, called the "Leopard," to capture Captain Burns. COUNTY HISTORY 179 The " Leopard " succeeded in capturing the "Snap-Dragon" while Captain Burns was on shore sick. After the war he was frequently a member of the legislature. A monument to his memory was recently erected at Burnsville. Yancey has an approximate area of 193,000 acres, with an average assessed value of S2.60 per acre. Over 40 per cent of the land is held in large tracts of 1,000 acres or more in extent. These holdings are valued chiefly for their timber and are held principally as investments. The tojiography is generally rough and the average eleva- tion is high. The Black mountain range in the southern portion of the county contains many peaks more than 6,000 feet high, and Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Rockies, rises to an elevation of 6,711 feet above sea level. In the northern and western sections of the county the ridges have an average elevation of about 4,000 feet above sea level, Bald mountain rising to 5,500 feet. Four considerable streams. South Toe and Caney rivers, and Jacks and Crabtree creeks, rise within the county, and flowing in a northerly direction empty into Toe river, which forms the northern boundary of the county. Mrs. Nancy Anderson Gardner. There are many old people in these mountains, but Mrs. Nancy Gardner of Burns- ville was 98 the 15th of January, 1913. She was in full pos- session of all her faculties, and in 1912 furnished for this his- tory a list of names of the first settlers of Yancey county. Her husband's father was Thomas Gardner, who was born in Virginia in 1793, and died in Yancey in 1853. He settled on Cane river when a boy. Her father was W. M. Anderson and her mother Patty Elkins, who was born in Tennessee in 1790. Her parents were married in 1809. James Anderson was from Ireland and served in Virginia with the Americans during the Revolutionary War, after which he moved (1870), first to Surry, and then to Little Ivy, where D. W. Angel now lives and where Mrs. Gardner was born, January 15, 1815. Her husband was William Gardner, to whom she was mar- ried March 22, 1832. Thomas Dillard, father of the wife of Robert Love, was her mother's uncle. She died early in 1913. First Settlers of Burnsville. Mrs. Gardner gave the following as the first settlers of Burnsville: John L. Williams and his sons Edward and Joshua; Dr. Job, Dr. John Yancey, 180 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Abner Jarvis, Dr. Jacob Stanley, Samuel Flemming, Gen. John W. McElroy, James Greenlee, John W. Garland, " Knock" Boone, Amos Ray, W. M. Westall, J. Bacchus Smith, Joseph Shepard, Adam Broyles, Mitchell Broyles, W. M. Lewis, John Woodfin, James Anderson, Milton P. Penland, Jack Stewart and John Bailey. First Settlers of Yancey. Among them Mrs. Gard- ner mentioned the following, giving also the names of their wives: Henry Roland, Berry Hensley, Ed. and James McMahan, Thomas Ray, Edward Wilson, Jacob Phipps, Jerry Boons, Hiram Ray, John Bailey, John Griffith, Joseph Shep- ard, Strowbridge Young, James Proffitt, James Greenlee, Blake Piercy, Thomas Briggs, John McElroy, Wm. Angel, James Evans, W. M. Angelin, John Allen, Rev. Samuel Byrd. Interesting Facts About Old Times. Mrs. Gardner's grandfather, James Anderson, was said to be the first Methodist west of the Blue Ridge. She remembered Parson Bro^vnlow and the "lie bill" suit and the sale of his bridle, saddle and horse; also that William Angel lived near the present site of Burns- ville but moved to Georgia, carrying his family and "One hundred geese, which they drove." She gave not only the names of the wives of the first settlers, but their children, and where the first settlers lived. Also, that John Bailey married Hiram Ray's daughter and donated the land for the town of Burnsville; that Joseph Shepard married Betsy Hor- ton, the grandparents of the late Judge J. S. Adams; that Thomas Ray married Ivey Hensley and lived in Cane river valley; that Jacob Phipps married Nancy Hampton, and lived four miles west of Burnsville; that Edward Wilson mar- ried Polly Gilbert and lived on Cane river; that Jerry Boone was a noted blacksmith and married Sallie McMahan. They lived where Burnsville now stands; also that Hiram Ray married a Miss Cox and was a wealthy and influential man. Also that Zepheniah Horton lived one mile west of Burns- ville, but none of his descendants now live in Yancey, though some live in Buncombe and the State of Kansas; that Henry Roland married Sallie Robinson and lived on Cane river; that Berry Hensley married Betsy Littleton, among whose de- scendants were B. S., W., and Jas. B. Hensley. Edward and James McMahan were the first settlers of Pensacola, and Strowbridge Young married Patty Wilson. She spoke of COUNTY HISTORY 181 James Proffitt as having liveil on Bald creek, and of liis direct descendants, hut did not give the name of his wife. She also spoke of James Greenlee as having married Polly Poteet and living on Cane river, hut having had no children; Blake Piercy who married Fanny Turner, and lived on Indian creek, Thomas Ikiggs who married Jane Wilson and lived on Bald creek, John McElroy who married Miss Jamison and lived on Bald creek, James Evans who married a Miss Bailey and lived on Jack's creek, W. M. Angelin who married Miss Betsy Austin and lived on Banks creek, John Allen who married Molly Turner, and the Rev. Samuel Byrd who married a Miss Briggs and lived in the northern part of the county, naming many of his descendants. Fine River Bottoms. Those splendid lands, extending from the mouth of Prices creek up Cane river to within two or three miles of Burnsville, were in possession of white people as early as 1787, and were originally granted to John McKnitt Alexander and Wm. Sharp. The 640-acre tract at the mouth of Bald and Prices creeks is owned by descendants of Thomas L. Ray, who was among the first settlers of Yancey county. The Creed Young place, originally the John Griffith farm, on Crabtree, about two miles from Burnsville, is another fine farm. Milton P. Penland was another early settler, and o^vTied valuable land near Burnsville. He was a man of influence and ability, Celo or Bolen's Pyramid. What is known on govern- ment maps as Celo Peak used to be called Bolen's Pyramid; but why either name should have been given to this northern- most peak of the Blacks is not known, though, as there is a Bolen's creek between it and Burnsville, it is probable that a man of that name once Uved near what is now called Athlone. . Henderson County, ^o Until 1838 Henderson was a part of Buncombe, and the story of its first settlement belongs to that county. ... But in 1838, when Hodge Rabun was in the senate and Montreville Patton and Philip Brittain were in the house, it was erected into a separate county and named in honor of Leonard Henderson, once chief justice of the State, the county seat also having been named in his honor. In 1850 it had only 6,483 population, while in 1910 it contained 16,262. 182 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA "The crest of the Blue Ridge, in Henderson county, is an undulating plateau, which will not be recognized by the trav- eler in crossing. The Saluda mountains, beyond Green river, are the boundary line of vision on the south. The general surface features of the central part of this pearl of counties vnW be best seen by a glance at the pictorial view from Dun Cragin, near Hendersonville." ^ ^ With a general altitude about that of Asheville, with broad river bottoms along the French Broad, Mud creek and else- where, its agricultural and grazing advantages surpass those of Buncombe; while as a summer and health resort, Hender- sonville, its county seat, with its fine and well-kept hotels and boarding houses, surpasses in many important respects the only town that exceeds it in population, the famed city of Asheville. The social charm of this beautiful place, as well as of Flat Rock and Fletcher, is at least not surpassed in Buncombe or in Asheville itself. Hendersonville has every- thing in the way of hotels, boarding houses, clubs, banks, street railways, parks, lights, water, livery and other advan- tages that could be wished. The points of interest in the immediate vicinity are numerous and appealing. Last sum- mer there were 15,000 visitors in to^\Ti and 25,000 in the county. The churches represent every denomination. John Clayton, of Mills river section, was in the legislature in 1827 and 1828, and in the senate in 1833. Largely through his influence Henderson was formed into a separate county. He was the grandfather of Mrs. Mattie Fletcher Egerton, first wife of Dr. J. L. Egerton and great-grandfather of IVIrs. Wm. Redin Kirk. He with his son, John, was among the first jurors of this county. R. Irvine Allen, brother of Dr. T. A. Allen, the latter being the oldest male inhabitant of this county, and Jesse Rhodes were among the chain-bearers when the county lines were first surveyed. A committee, consist- ing of Col. John Clayton, Col. Killian, and Hugh Johnston, was appointed to select and lay off a county seat, and their first choice was the land at what is now called Horse Shoe in 1839. But there was so much dissatisfaction with this that two factions arose, called the River and the Road parties, the River party favoring the Horse Shoe site, it having been on the French Broad river. In 1839, however, the Road party enjoined the sale in lots of the land selected at Horse Shoe, and COUNTY HISTORY 183 the controversy soon waxed so warm that the legislature autiiorized an election to determine the matter by popular vote, resulting in the success of the Road party. Judge Mitchell King of Charleston, S. C, who had been among the first settlers of this section and owned much of the land where Hendersonville now stands, conveyed fifty acres for the county site; and tiiis was laid off into lots and broad, level right-angled streets, and sold in 1840. Dr. Allen died early in 1914. Hendersonville. At the time the Civil War commenced there were on Main street, the Episcopal church, completed save for the spire; the Shipj) house, adjoining, which for- merly stood where the Pine Grove lodge now stands, and where Lawyer Shipp, father of Bartlett Shipp, Esq., lived. The present Sample home was then o^\^led by the Rev. Collin Hughes, the Episcopal clergyman. The old Virginia House stood on the corner now occupied by the First National bank, and was built by David Miller and William Deaver, the latter having been killed in the Civil War. It was conducted many years by Mr. C. C. Chase; but about eighteen years ago it became the property of Hall Poole. A still older house was the old hotel built by John Mills, and stood on the present site of the St. John. It later became the property of Colonel Ripley, and was kno^^^l far and wide as the Ripley House. There was nothing south of the court house site except the old Ripley residence, built by the Kings, and the house that is now Col. Pickens' residence. The only two houses stand- ing prior to the formation of Henderson county in the town of Hendersonville, and remaining unchanged now, are the Arledge house on Main street, and the stone office-building in front of the Pine Grove lodge, near the Episcopal church. Bowman's Bluff. About forty years ago a small colony of English people came to this section, and bought a vast acreage of land. Among them were the Valentines, well known in Hendersonville for many years, the Thomases, the Jeudweines, the Malletts (who still live on their place) and the Holmeses, still owTiing the place above referred to. It would be hard to describe this beautiful place. To the south of the old-fashioned house lies a tangle of garden, with its riot of vines, and its numerous overgrown arbors, and old trees trimmed in fantastic shapes. The house is approached by a long winding drive, between great old pines, and just in 184 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA front of the house is the immense bluff, whereon Avild crab- apples bloom in profusion. This falls away, a sheer descent many feet to the river below, and it was here that ■Marj'^ Bowman was said to have leaped to her death many years ago, desperate over a hopeless love. Centrally located to what was this English colony and on top of a hill, sits the little Episcopal church where they were wont to worship on Sunday, and which is used irregularly still. Mr. Frank Valentine, who came to America in this colony, was educated at Cambridge, England, graduated with highest honor, holding several degrees. He went from Bowman's Bluff to Asheville, and later moved to Hendersonville, where he spent his remaining days. He was known as one of the finest educators in Western North Carolina. Former Citizens. Peter Stradley Uved at Old Flat Rock, and in 1870 died there almost 100 years old, highly respected and loved; Joseph Dotson lived to the age of 104 on his farm near Bat Cave, and made baskets and brooms. He was cap- tured while in the Confederate army but escaped, running 18 miles over the ice. Govan Edney of Edneyville, also lived to a great age, and had a large experience as a hunter. Harvey Johnston and his wife once owned nearly all the land on the west side of South Main street, Hendersonville, and having no horse, managed to make fine crops notwithstanding. Robert Thomas, first sheriff of Henderson county, was killed by bush- whackers during the Civil War. Solomon Jones lived on Mount Hebron, and was known as a builder of roads, having con- structed one from Hendersonville to Mount Hebron, and an- other up Saluda mountain; lived to be nearly 100, and made his own tombstone. Business Enterprises. The Freeze Hosiery mills were opened June 15, 1912; the Skyland Hosiery Co., at Flat Rock make silk and cotton hose and have been operating several years; the Green River Mfg. Co., at Tuxedo, six miles south of Hendersonville, was started in 1909. They make combed peelers and Egyptain yarns, their annual output being 350,- 000 pounds; employing 250 hands, of whom 200 are skilled. They support an excellent school eight months every year; the Case Canning factory on the Edney\nlle road six miles from Hen- dersonville, at Dana, has a capacity of 500,000|cans a season; COUNTY HISTORY 185 the llfiulcrsuuville Light tt Power Co., 7' •> miles east of Hen- dersonville, have 1,250 horsepower, using only 400 at present; George Stephens operates a mission furniture factory, at Lake Kanuga, six miles out, where also is Kanuga elulj. Country Resorts. Besides the excellent hotels in Hender- sonville, there is a fine hotel at Osceola lake, one mile from town on the Kanuga road; Kanuga club on Kanuga lake; Highland lake club, one and a half miles out on the Flat Rook road, with cottages, is a stock company; Chimney Rock, twelve miles east, is in the Hickory Nut canon; Buck Forest, now the property of the Frank Coxe estate, was for years a sum- mer resort, and the falls in the vicinity are noted; Fletcher, near the Buncombe line is also popular, and the social charms of the neighborhood are well recognized; Buck Shoals is near, and the famous Rugby Grange, the attractive country estate of the West felts of New Orleans, is one of the "show-places" of Western North Carolina. A Literary Curiosity. A poem written on white satin in quatrain form, into each of which w^as incorporated a clause of the Lord's prayer, is known to have been written by Mrs. Susan Baring and is now in the possession of a Henderson- vilie lady. Settling the Graham Boundary Line. By ch. 202, Pub. Laws, 1897, 343, the county surveyors of Cherokee and Gra- ham were authorized to locate the line between these two coun- ties and Tennessee, according to the calls of the act of 1821. Cherokee and Murphy. As early as 1830 the legislature provided that the Indian lands west of Macon should remain under the jurisdiction of that county till a new county should be formed for them, whose count j^ seat should be named Mur- phy. (Rev. St. 1837, Vol. ii, p. 213 and p. 214). In 1842 the State granted to A. Smith, chairman of the County court, 433 acres for a court house, etc. (Deed Book A, p. 429, dated March 23, 1842.) ^^ Old County Buildings. The old jail was back of the J. W. Cooper residence and the whipping post stood near where a street now runs, and the first court house, a very plain and unpretentious affair, stood at the intersection of the two main roads from the country. The new court house was built where the present one now stands, in 1891, at a cost of about $20,000.. but it was burned in 1892. In 1893 and 1894 it 186 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA was rebuilt, as the marble foundations and brick walls stood intact after the fire, at a cost of $12,000. There was no insurance on the burned building. Preeminent Advantages. Murphy's location between two clear mountain rivers, its broad and almost level streets, its fine court house, schools and hotels form the nucleus around which a large city should grow. It has two competing rail- roads, and a climate almost ideal. Its citizens, too, are enter- prising and progressive, good streets and roads being appre- ciated highly Murphy's First Citizens. Daniel F. Ramseur kept the old "Long Hotel," with offices, that used to stand near the public square. Felix Axley was the father of the Murphy bar and of F. P. and J. C. Axley. J. C. Abbott lived at the old A. T. Davidson place, and was a leading merchant after the Civil War. Samuel Henxv , deceased, was an ante-bellum resident, was U. S. Commissioner for years, and a friend of the late U. S. District Judge R. P. Dick. A. M. Dyche (pronounced Dike) was sheriff, justice of the peace and a good citizen. S. G. R. Mount was postmaster and lived in the southern part of town. Dr. John W. Patton was a leading physician and lived near Hiwassee bridge. Mercer Fain lived where the Regal hotel stands now, and was a merchant, farmer and land speculator. Benjamin S. Brittain lived in East Murphy from the organization of the county till his death, and was register of deeds. Drewry Weeks lived on the northeast corner of the Square and was from the organization of the county till his death clerk of the old county court. Seth Hyatt, sheriff, lived where Capt. J. W. Cooper afterwards resided. John- son King lived where S. Hyatt had lived, and married his widow. He was a partner of the late Col. W. H. Thomas, and the father of Hon. Mark C. King, several terms in the legislature. Dr. C T. Ilrf^ers was another leading physician. Jesse Brooks was a i merchant and lived on what is now Church street. G. L. D. McClelland lived first on Church and after- wards on the east side of Main street and lived to be over ninety years of age, being highly esteemed. William Berry was a merchant and farmer; Xenas Hubbard was a tinner; James Grant was a merchant and kept store where the Dickey hotel now stands; John Rolen was a lawyer; J. J. Turnbill was a blacksmith, and a man of unusual sense. COUNTY HISTOr^Y |87 \\ iLLiAM liEALE. Tliis scliolarly man came to Murphy from Canada just prior to the Civil War and taught scliool; was several times sheritT, and lived on the south side of Hi- wassee bridge. David and John Henesea. Just after the Civil War they moved from a fine farm at the head of Valley river. John kept a hotel, now the residence of C. E. Wood. James W. Cooper. He moved to Murphy from Graham soon after the Civil War, and was a most successful lawyer and land speculator. Residents of Cherokee County. Among the more prom- inent may be mentioned Abraham Harshaw, the largest slave owner, four miles south of Murphy; John Harshaw, his brother; Abraham Sudderth, who owned the Mission farm six miles south of Murphy, where Rev. Humphrey Posey had established a mission school for the Cherokees; William Strange owned a fine farm at the mouth of Brasstown creek; Gideon Morris, a Baptist preacher, who married Yonaguska's daughter; Andrew Moore; David Taylor; David Henesea; James W. C. Piercy, who, from the organization of the county till his death, located most of the land in Cherokee; James Tatham, the father of Purd and Bent, who lived a mile west of Andrews; James Whitaker and his son Stephen, who lived near Andrews; Hugh Collett and his father, who lived just above Old Valley Town and were men of industry and integrity; Buck and Neil Colvard, who lived at Tomotla; Wm. Welch, who lived in the same neighborhood; and Henry Moss, who lived at Marble, Ute Hyatt living on the adjoining farm. Elisha P. Kincaid lived four miles east of Murpiiy, and above him lived Betty Welch, or Betty Bly or Blythe, the heroine of Judge Strange's romance, "Yonaguska." John Welch was her hus- band, a half-breed Cherokee, and an "Avenger of Blood." (See ch. 26.) In the western part of the county were Burton K. and George Dickey, Wm. C. Walker, who was killed at the close of the Civil War, having been colonel of the 29th X. C. regiment; Abel S. Hill, sheriff; Calvin C. Vest; and others, who lived on Notla. In the northern part lived Har- vey Davidson, sheriff and farmer; and the Hunsuckers, Black- wells, Longwoods, Gentrys and others. Goldman Bryson lived on Beaver Dam, and was said to have been at the head 188 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA of a band of banditti during the Civil War, and was followed into the mountains and killed by a party of Confederates. Andrew and Jeff Colvard were founders of large and influen- tial families. They were bold and daring frontiersmen and citizens of character and ability. "Old Rock Voyles, " as he was affectionately called, lived on Persimmon creek, ten miles from Murphy, and was a man of originality and humor. He lived to a great age. A Cemetery in the Cliffs. All along the crest of the ridges which terminate in rock cliffs on the bank of the Hi- wassee river about one mile below Murphy are large deposits of human bones, supposed to be the bones of Cherokees. The number of shallow graves on the crests of these ridges, cov- ered over by cairns of loose stones, indicate that this must have been the burial place of Indians for many years. Early Watauga and Boone History. The first court in Watauga was held in an old barn near the home of Joseph Hardin one mile east of Boone, Judge Mitchell presiding, and E. C. Bartlett being clerk. The first court house was built in Boone in 1850 by John Horton for $4,000, but was burned in 1873, with the records. The records were restored afterwards by legislative authority upon satisfactory evidence being furnished, and T. J. Coffey & Bro. in 1874 rebuilt the court house for $4,800, the building committee having been Henry Taylor, Dudley Farthing and Jacob Williams. The present fine court house was erected in 1904 by L. W. Cooper of Charlotte for $19,000. Alex. Green, J. W. Hodges and George Bobbins were the county commissioners. The first jail was of brick and built by Mr. Dammons for $400, and the second jail was a wooden building of heavy logs. On the sec- ond floor the timbers were twelve inches square, crossed with iron, and when it was torn away by W. P. Critcher in 1909 the logs were made into lumber of the finest grade. A splen- did new jail, with iron cages and rooms, was built in 1889 by Wm. Stephenson of Mayesville, Ky., for $5,000. The follow- ing have been sheriffs of Watauga : Michael Cook, John Horton, Cob McCanles, Sidney Deal, A. J. McBride, John Horton, A. J. McBride, D. F. Baird, J. L. Hayes, D. F. Baird, J. L. Hayes, D. F. Baird, W. M. Calloway, W. B. Baird, J. H. Hodges, D. C. Reagan. The following have been clerks: Mr. McClewee, J. B. Todd, Henry Blair, W. J. Critcher, J. COUNTY HISTORY 189 B. Todd, M. B. Blackburn, J. H. Bingham, Thomas Bingham, W. 1). Farthing. W. L. Bryan in 1872 started the Bryan hotel and conducted a first class hotel for 27 years. In 1865 T. J. CofTey & Bro. came to Boone, and started the Coffey hotel, where they main- tained an ui>to-date stopping place for many years. It is now i)eing contlucted by Mr. Murry Critcher. In 185S Marcus Holesclaw, Thomas Greene and William Horton ran for the legislature upon the issue of moving the court house from Boone to Brushy Fork, and Holesclaw was elected by one vote. This meant that the court house must be moved; and Holesclaw introduced the bill for that pur- pose; but Joe Dobson represented this district in the senate, and although he was from Surry county, he managed to keep Holesclaw's bill at the foot of the calendar until the legisla- ture adjourned. Of course, Holesclaw was never satisfied that his l)ill never reached a vote in the senate. From ordinary circumstances L. L. Green came from the farm, studied law and became a leader in politics; was elected judge and performed his duties well. His portrait hangs in the court room, to the left of the judge's stand, while on the right is a portrait of his friend. Major Bingham, who was a fine law- yer and a great teacher of law. His name and fame went out over the whole State. E. Spencer Blackburn was one of the most attractive men this section has produced. His father was Edward Blackburn, and his mother Sinthia Hodges. He was one of nine chil- dren. He was four times nominated for Congress, was elected twice; was assistant district attorney of the United States court, and died at Elizabethtown early in 1912. W. B, Councill was a student of the learned Col. G. N. Folk, who after being admitted to the bar was elevated to the position of judge of the Superior court of this judicial district. He declined a rcnomination. A Family of Preachers. WilHam Farthing came as a missionary from Wake county to Beaver Dams, now in Wa- tauga county, about 1826, but lived only three months after settling there. He bought what was then known as the Webb farm, about one-half mile from the principal Baptist church of that settlement. He had owned many acres near Durham before going to the mountains. His sons and those of John, 190 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA his brother, who soon followed him to Watauga, were men of the highest character and standing. Many of them have been preachers, and four brothers of his family were in the ministry. Like the descendants of the original Casper Cable who settled on Dry Run, just in the edge of Tennessee, no drop of rowdy blood ever developed in any of the descendants of the pioneer Farthings. Dudley, son of Wm. Farthing, was for years judge of the county court and chairman of the board of county commissioners. The Browns of Watauga. Joseph Brown came from Wilkes to Watauga long before the Civil War, and settled at Three Forks, where he married Annie Haigler, and reared eight children. Captain Barton Roby Brown of May Mead, Tenn., was a grandson, and married CaUie Wagner in 1864. He was in the Sixth North Carolina cavalry, and a gallant soldier. The Mast Family. Joseph Mast, the first of the name to come to Valle Crucis, Watauga county, was born in Randolph county, N. C, March 25, 1764, and on the 30th of May, 1783, married Eve Bowers who had been born between the Saluda and Broad rivers. South Carolina, December 30, 1758. Joseph was a son of John, who was brother of the Jacob Mast who became bishop of the Amish Mennonite church in Cones- toga, Pa., in 1788. They had left their native Switzerland together, and sailed from Rotterdam in the ship "Brother- hood," which reached Philadelphia November 3, 1750. John Mast was born in 1740, and shortly after becoming 20 years of age left his brother Jacob, who had married and was living near the site of what is now Elverson, Pa. John wandered on foot through many lonely forests, but finally settled in Randolph county, where Joseph was born. There he married a lady whose given name was Barbara. From Joseph and Eve Mast have descended many of the most substantial and worthy citizens of Western North Carolina, while the Mast family generally are people of influence and standing in Penn- sylvania, Ohio, Nebraska, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Cahfornia, Kansas, and in fact nearly every State in the Union. C. Z. Mast of Elverson, Pa., in 1911, published a volume of nearly a thousand pages all of which are devoted to an excellent record of all the Masts in America. John A. Mast was born on Brushy creek Sep- COUNTY HISTORY 191 timber 22, 1821). He married Martha Moore of Johns river, Deeember 5, 1850. He died February G, 1892. His pater- nal grandfather, John Mast, and maternal grandfather, Cut- litf Harman, were among the pioneers of this section, and were (lermans, settHng on Cove creek. His wife, Martha Mast, WHS born April 13, 1833. She died February 15, 1<)05. The Mouetz Family. John Moretz came from Lincoln- ton long before the Civil War and settled on Meat Camp, seven miles from Boone, where he built and operated a large mill, which was burned Init rebuilt. He prospered greatly, and his descendants are numerous and influential. The Shull Family. Philip P. Shull was born at Valle Crucis, February 15, 1797, and married Phoebe Ward of Tennessee. He died January 9, 18GG. His father, Simon Shull was one of the first settlers of this country, having been a German, and settled near Valle Crucis. His wife, Phcebe- was born May 28, 1801, and died September 29, 1882. Jo- seph Shull, who was desperately wounded in May, 1863, at the Wilderness fight, is a son of Philip P. Shull. The Councill Family. Jordan Councill, Sr., was the first of the name to settle in Watauga, then Ashe county. He mar- ried Sally, the daughter of Benjamin Howard, and from them have descended a long line of virile men and lovely women, who for years have been the backbone of this section. Other First Settlers were Amos and Edward Greene near Blowing Rock; Ransom Hayes at Boone; Jackson, Steven and Abner Farthing at Beaver Dams, James McCanless, Elisha Coffey, Amos Greene, Isaac Greene, Lee Foster and Joel Moody, at and near Shull's Mills; Maiden Harmon, Cal- vin Harmon, Seaton Mast, Lorenzo Whittington, and George Moody, on Cove creek. Henry Taylor came to Valle Crucis long before the Civil War and married a Miss Mast. Forgot How to Make an "S." In the graveyard of the old German Reformed church, one mile from Blowing Rock, is an old gravestone which, tradition says, was brought by a Mr. Sullivan from the Jersey settlement in Davidson county for the purpose, as he stated, of "starting a graveyard." On it are carved or scratched the following letters and numbers: E E c; 1794. This stone is said to mark the grave of the pioneer who brought it to Blowing Rock. But whether he died or was born 192 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA in the year given, is not known. It is quite evident that he had forgotten in which way an "S" is turned. Jackson County. While the late Michael Francis was in the senate and R. G. A. Love was in the house from Haywood in 1850-52, Jackson county was formed with Webster as the county seat. Daniel Webster had just died, and the naming of this town for him was a graceful concession to the Whig element of the country, while giving to "Old Hickory" the honor of naming the county for him pleased the Democrats. Col. Thaddeus D. Bryson, a son of Daniel Bryson of Scott's creek, was the first representative in the house from Jackson, while Col. W. H. Thomas represented it in the senate. John R. Dills, a member of the large and influential Dills family of Dillsborough, represented this county in 1856. Joseph Keener, an influential and valuable citizen represented the county in 1862, followed by W. A. Enloe, a representative of the ex- tensive and leading Enloe family of Jackson. Following are the names of some of the more prominent legislators : J. N. Bryson, E. D. Davis, G. W. Spake, F. H. Leatherwood, J. W. Terrell, J. M. Candler, R. H. Brown, W. A. Dills, C. C. Cowan, and John B. Ensley. The late John B. Love lived near Webster, and kept a store, W. H. Thomas being a part- ner for a while. Mr. Love owned much of the land in that section, and his sons settled on Scott's creek from Addie to Sylva. He also owned the famous "Gold Spring," near the head of Tuckaseegee, in the basin of which a small amount of gold was deposited each morning; but a blast ruined even that small contribution. He married a Miss Comans of Wake county. Philip Dills was another pioneer, and was born in Rutherford, January 10, 1808, and came with his father to Haywood soon after his birth, and about the time Abraham Enloe settled on Soco creek. . . . He was a useful and respected citizen. Abraham Battle was born in Haywood in 1809, and his father was one of the three men who came from Rutherford to Haywood with Abraham Enloe. Wm. H. Con- ley was another important citizen of Jackson before Swain was taken from it, and was born in 1812 within fifteen miles of Abraham Enloe's Ocona Lufty place, his father, James Con- ley having been the first white man to settle on that stream. James W. Terrell Avas born in Rutherford county, December 31, 1829, and at sixteen years of age, came to Haywood and COUNTY HISTORY 193 lived with his graiulfuther, Wni. D. l\.ili)atri('k, till 1852, when he went into business with the late Col. Wni. II. Thomas. In 1854 he was made disbursing agent for the Cherokoes, was a captain in the Civil War, and in the legislature for sev- eral terms. The late Daniel Bryson kept a hotel or stopping place on the turnpike road below Hall's and above Addie, in the turn of the road, where all the judges and lawyers stopped while attending the courts of the wetscrn circuit. He was a most excellent and useful citizen, and left several sons who have been prominent and influential citizens. Rev. William Hicks lived in Webster after the Civil War, where he taught school for two years; but in 1868 he was appointed presiding elder and moved to Hendersonville where he remained till 1873, when he returned to Webster and resumed his school. Later he moved to Quallatown where he taught school till he was appointed to a district in West Virginia, where he afterwards died. He was a fine public speaker, a Confeder- ate soldier, a member of the Secession convention from Hay- wood in 18G1, and with Rev. J. R. Long, in 1855, built up a large school near the junction of Richland and Raccoon creeks, giving the place the name of Tuscola. This school flourished till the beginning of the Civil War. Mr. Hicks also edited The Herald of Truth, a newspaper in Asheville, for a few years. He was born in Sullivan county, Tennessee, in 1820, became a Methodist preacher and came to Buncombe in 1848, hold- ing that year the first conference ever held in Haywood, the meeting being held at Bethel church. Webster and the Railroad. With the coming of the railroad, Webster, the county seat, found itself about three miles from that artery of trade and travel; and, soon after- ward, an agitation began for the removal of the court house to Dillsboro or Sylva, and has continued ever since. The question was submitted to the people but they voted to retain Webster as the county site; a new court house was built, and it was supposed that the matter had been settled forever; but in 1913 a more vigorous movement was started to change the county court house to Sylva, wdiich offered a bonus in case it should be done. The legislature of 1913 authorized the people to vote on the proposition, and the result changed the county site to a point between Dillsboro and Sylva, May 8, 1913. Webster is a pretty little town with many attractive and W. N.C. 13 194 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA useful citizens. The improvements along the line of railroad from Hall's to Whittier have been remarkable. The talc mine and factory of C. J. Harris at Dillsboro, the nickel mine nearer Webster of W. J. Adams, and the tannic acid plant at Sylva contribute much to the prosperity of these towns and to that of the county generally. With a railroad up Tuckaseegce a large tract of timber will find an outlet, and the copper mine on that stream may come into development. Jackson is a rich and productive county and its people are thriving and energetic. Lake Fairfield and Inn, and Lake Sapphire are in this county on Horsepasture creek. Ellicotte mountain is near the extreme eastern end of the county. Cashiers Val- ley, Chimneytop, Whiteside Cove and mountain, Glenville, East LaPorte, CuUowhee and Painter are places of interest and importance. Scott's Creek. As this creek was on the eastern border of the Cherokee country from which the Indians were removed, and as Gen. Winfield Scott was in charge of their removal in 1835-38, some suppose that the creek took its name from him; but in two grants to Charles McDowell, James Glascow and David Miller, dated December 3, 1795, (Buncombe Deed Book No. 4, p. 104) the State conveyed 300 acres on the Avaters of Scott's creek, waters of Tuckaseegee river, including the forks of Scotts creek and "what was said to be Scott's old lick blocks," and on the same date there was a further grant to the same parties to 300 acres on the same stream, including a cane brake, with the same reference to Scott's old lick blocks. (Book 8, p. 85.) But a careful search revealed no grant to any Scott in that section at or near that time; and the Scott who gave his name to this fine stream was doubtless but a landless squatter who was grazing and salting his cattle on the wild lands of that day. He probably lived in Haywood county, near the head of Richland creek. Madison County. It was formed in 1851 from Buncombe and Yancey; it was named for James Madison, while its county seat bears the name of the great chief justice, John Marshall. Jewel Hill or Lapland? It is almost forgotten that the postoffice at what is now Marshall was called Lapland in 1858, and that it used to be said that pegged shoes were first made there because the hills so enclose the place that it would be impossible for a shoemaker to draw out his thread to the COUNTY HISTORY 195 full witlth of his arms, and consctiurntly had to hainincr in pegs, which ho coukl do by striking up and down. It is also uncertain whether the name of Madison's first county seat is Jewel Hill or Duel II ill. One thing, however, is certain, and it is that there once was a spirited contest over keeping the scat of government there. There were several "settle- ments" which desired to become the county seat of Madison county, Lapland, on the French Broad river, being barred by the act of the legislature (1850-1), which provides that the "county seat is to be called Marshall which is not to be within two miles of the French Broad river. The principal candidates for this honor were "Bryants," Barnards and Jewel Hill. The last named was selected at first and several terms of court were held there. The location of the county site at Jewel Hill soon proved unsatisfactory, and the legislature of 1852-53 appointed a com- mission to fix the plan for a county government. They de- cided on what is now Marshall "on lands of T. B. Vance where Adolphus E. Baird now lives. " But a doubt as to the legality of this selection was immediately raised, though the county offices remained at Jewel Hill. But David Vance, in order to comply with the terms of the act, deeded to Madison county fifty acres of land for a town site, by deed dated April 20, 1853.3 3 The location of the county site entered into the politics of that year, and the legislature of 1854-55 (ch. 97, Pr. Laws) passed an act which provided for an election to be held the first Thursday in June, 1855, to determine whether the new location should stand or another location be chosen. In case a new location should be decided on, a commission of nine citizens was named, any five of whom might determine the new location; or if five did not agree, then they were to name two places, one of which should be on the French Broad river, one of which was to he chosen by a majority of the voters at an election to be held at a time to be fixed by the county court. The act further provided that "if the Supreme court now sitting [February, 1855] should decide that the location of the county seat at Adolphus Baird's" was lawful, then this act should be null and inoperative. Pursuant to this act the question as to whether the location of the county site at Adol- phus E. Baird's should stand or a new location be chosen was 196 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA decided at a popular election held on the first Thursday in June, 1855, pursuant to the act of 1852-53, and an order of the county court made at its April term, 1855. ^ * The votes for and against the present location, however, is not stated in the minutes; but there is a tradition that Marshall won by only one vote. At the fall term, 1855, of this court, a building committee was appointed and the building of a brick court house decided upon, which was ordered to be built in 1856. The records show, however, that the county court was still held at Jewel Hill up to the fall of 1859. There appears to be no record of any litigation to test the legality of the selection of the commissioners under the Act of 1852-53, notwithstanding the allusion to such a suit in the act itself. Old Residents of Madison. Dr. W. A. Askew was born on Spring creek in August, 1832, his father having been G. C. Askew, and his mother Sarah H. Lusk, daughter of Wm. Lusk, and a sister of Col. Virgil S. Lusk of Asheville. There were only four men living on Spring creek when G. C. Lusk settled there in 1820, and they were Wm. and Sam Lusk, a Mr. Craw- ford and Wm. Garrett. Later on Wm. Moody and Josiah Duckett of South Carolina, a soldier of the Revolution, came. Wm. Woody also lived there, and his son Jonathan H. Woody moved to Cataloochee and married, first Malinda Plemmons, and afterwards Mrs. Mary Caldwell, a widow. The Gaha- gans and Tweeds lived on Laurel, while on Turkey creek Jacob Martin, James Alexander, A. M. Gudger, R. L. Gudger, Wm. Penland, Robert Hawkins, Irwin West and John Alexander lived and prospered. Col James M. Lowrie, a half-brother of Gov. Swain, with John Wells, John Reeves, lived on Sandy Mush. Ebbitt Jones also lived on Sandy Mush; and on Lit- tle Sandy Mush G. D. Robertson, Jackson Reeves, Jacob and John Glance and others lived. Nathaniel Davis, Nathan Worley and the Worlej^s lived on Pine creek. James Nichols married a Barnard and lived at Marshall. Robert Farnsworth lived and died at Jewel Hill, where Mrs. Clark now lives, and was a son of David Farnsworth who kept a stock stand on the French Broad. James Gudger and his wife Annie Love also lived in this county, and Col. Gudger was a delegate to the State convention of 1835. Alleghany County. ^ ^ "Alleghany" is, in the language of the Delaware Indians, "a fine stream." Up to 1858-59 Alleghany COUNTY HISTORY 197 was a part of Asho. Win. Raloisli unci Elijah Thompson of Surry, James B. Gordon of Wilkes, and Stephen Thomas and John F. Green of Ashe were appointed commissioners by the act creating the county to locate the county seat, and had power to purchase or receive as a gift 100 acres for the use of such county, upon which the county site, to be called Sparta, should be located. In April, 1859 Wm. C. DeJournett, a Frenchman, of Wilkes, made a survey and plat locating the center of the county; James H. Parks and David Evans tlonated 50 acres where Sparta now stands, near the geographical center located by DeJournett, but the deed was destroyed by a fire which burned Col. Allen Gentry's house, and another deed was executed in 1866. In 1859 the county court ap- pointed commissioners to lay off and make sales of town lots, but at the next term revoked their appointment and directed them not to proceed. A mandamus was asked and the Supe- rior and Supreme courts both ordered that it be granted; but nothing further seems to have been done till the April term, 1866, when the county court appointed F. J. McMillan, Rob- ert Gambill, Sr., James H. Parks, Morgan Edwards and S. S. Stamper commissioners to lay off and sell lots from the tract donated for a county seat, etc.; and at the October term following these commissioners were directed to adver- tise for bids for building a court house, etc. But, at the Jan- uary term, 1867, all bids were rejected and the plans altered so that the court house and jail should be in one and the same building. This was the first term held in Sparta, and the court was composed of Morgan Bryan and Wm. L. Mitchell. The first term of the Superior court was held at Sparta in the spring of 1868, with Anderson Mitchell as presiding judge, J. C. Jones, sheriff, and W. L. Mitchell as foreman of the grand jury. Stephen Landreth was officer in charge of the grand jury. Before the Revolution. It seems that there were no settlers in Alleghany prior to the Revolutionary War; but it had been visited by hunters both from Virginia and the cen- tral part of this State, among whom were three brothers named Maynard from what is now Surry, who crossed the Blue Ridge and built cabins along Glade creek. This was about 1786, and they had lived there about six years when Francis Bryan, from Orange county, in 1793, located within five miles 198 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA of them. About the same time Joel Simmons, Wm. Wood- ruff and Crouce settled along the top of the Blue Ridge, thus making seven families in the county. But this was too much for the Maynard brothers, and claiming that the country was too thickly settled, they moved to Kentucky. But who was the first white man to visit this section is un- known; though Wm. Taylor, the Coxes, Gambills and Reeves probably lived in the borders of what is now Alleghany during the Revolutionary War. Two men named Edwards settled here also at an early date, viz: David and William Edwards. John McMillan came from Scotland in 1790 and was the first clerk of Ashe court. Joseph Doughton from Franklin county, Va., was an early settler, and represented Ashe in the House of Commons in 1877. Joseph Doughton was the youngest son of Joseph. This family has always been prominent in the county. H. F. Jones built the present court house for $3,475, and it was received September 4, 1880, J. T. Hawthorn and Alex. Hampton, building committee. Principal Office-Holders. The following are the names of those who have held the principal offices in the county. Senators: 1879, Jesse Bledsoe; 1880, F. J. McMillan; 1893, W. C. Fields; 1899, W. C. Fields; 1906, Stephen A. Taylor; 1909, R. L. Doughton; 1911, John M. Wagoner. Representatives: 1869, Dr. J. L. Smith; 1871, Robert Gam- bill; 1873, Abram Bryan; 1875, W. C. Fields; 1877, E. L. Vaughan; 1879 and 1881, E. L. Vaughan; 1883, Isaac W. Landreth; 1885, Berry Edwards; 1887, R. A. Doughton; 1891, R. A. Doughton; 1893, C. J. Taylor; 1895, P. C. Higgins; 1897, H. F. Jones, 1899; J. M. Gambill; 1901, J. C. Fields; 1903, R. A. Doughton; 1905, R. K. Finney; 1907, 1909, 1911, 1913, R. A. Doughton. Clerk of County Court: 1859 to 1862, Allen Gentry; 1862 to 1866, Horton Reeves; 1866 to 1868, C. G. Fowlkes. Clerk Superior Court: 1864 to 1868, Wm. A. J. Fowlkes; 1868 to October, 1873, B. H. Edwards. Edwards resigned and J. J. Gambill appointed. October 1873 to March 1882, J. J. Gambill; Gambill resigned and R. S. Carson appointed. March 1882 to 1890, R. S. Carson; 1890 to 1898, W. E. Cox; 1898 to 1910, J. N. Edwards; 1910 to 1914, S. F. Thompson. Sheriff: 1859 to 1864, Jesse Bledsoe; 1864 to 1870, J. C. Jones; 1870 to 1882, J. R. Wyatt; 1882 to 1884, Berry Edwards; COUNTY HISTORY 199 18S4 to 1885, George Bledsoe (died while in office); 1885 to 1888, W. F. Thompson; 1888 to 1894, W. S. Ganihill; 1894 to 1898, L. J. Jones; 1898 to 1904, D. R. Edwards; 1904 to 1908, S. A. Choate; 1908 to 1910, John II. Edwards; 1910 to 1914, S. C. Richardson. Register of Deeds: 1865 to 1868, Thompson Edwards; 1868 to 1880, F. M. Mitchell; 1880 to 1882, F. G. McMillan; 1882 to 1886, F. M. Mitchell; 1886 to 1892, J. C. Roup; 1892 to 1898, J. N. Edwards; 1898 to 1904, S. F. Thompson; 1904 to 1908, John F. Cox; 1908 to 1914, G. D. Brown. The following is a list of the first Justices of the Peace of the county: A. B. McMillan, John Gambill, Berry Edwards, John A. Jones, Solomon Jones, W. P. Maxwell, Solomon Long, Nathan Weaver, Wm. Warden, C. G. Fowlkes, F. J. McMillan, John Parsons, Caleb Osborn, Wm. L. Mitchell, C. H. Doughton, James Boyer, Wm. Anders, Thomas Edwards, Thomas Doug- lass, I. C. Heggins, Hiram Heggins, Morgan Bryan, A. M. Bryan, A. J. Woodruff, Alfred Brooks, Wm. T. Choate, Dan- iel Whitehead, Goldman Heggins, Absalom Smith, Martin Carico, Ruben Sparks, Spencer Isom, Chesley Cheek. Of this number. Dr. C. G. Fowlkes and Nathan Weaver are the only ones now living, 1912. First Marriage Certificate. This is a copy of the first marriage record in the county: "This is to certify that I married Calvin Caudill and Sarah Jones the 16th day of March, 1862. Daniel Caudill." Two Noted Lawsuits. What is probably the most im- portant lawsuit that ever existed in the county was W. D. Maxwell v. Noah Long, for the recovery of the "Peach Bottom Copper Mines" and for about 1000 acres of land. This cause was carried to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the United States Supreme Court. Polk, Fields, Doughton, Watson & Buxton represented Maxwell. Vaughan, Linney, and Judge Schenk represented Long. Maxwell finally gained the suit. Chief Justice Fuller writing the opinion. Another historical lawsuit in this county, was one of eject- ment, Wm. Edwards v. Morgan Edwards. This litigation was begun about the year 1864, and lasted nearly thirteen years. The action was moved to Ashe county at one time, and prob- 200 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ably to Watauga at another. It was finally disposed of at Spring term 1877 of Alleghany Superior Court. After a des- perate battle, which lasted for nearly a week, the jury gave a verdict in favor of Morgan Edwards. ^ ^ Mitchell's County Seat. By ch. 8, Pub. Laws of 1860-61 Mitchell county was created out of portions of Yancey, Watauga, Caldwell, Burke and McDowell; and by chapter 9 of the same laws it was provided that the county court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions should be "held in the house of Eben Childs on the tenth Monday after the fourth Monday in ]\Iarch, when they shall elect a clerk, a sheriff, a coroner, a register of deeds and entry-taker, a surveyor, a county solicitor, constables and all other officers. Thomas Farthing of Watauga, John W. McElroy of Yancey, Joseph Conley of McDowell, A. C. Avery of Burke, David Prophet of Yancey, John Harden of Watauga and James Bailey, Sr., of Yancey, were appointed commissioners to select a permanent seat of justice and secure fifty acres of land, to meet between the first of IMay and June, 1861. Tilmon Blalock, J. A. Person, Eben Childs and Jordan Harden were appointed commis- sioners to lay off town lots; "and said town shall be called by the name of Calhoun." A Hitch Somewhere. But, at the first extra session of 1861 (Ratified September 4, 1861), Moses Young, John B. Palmer of Mitchell, John S. Brown of McDowell, Wm. C. Erwin of Burke, and N. W. Woodfin of Buncombe were appointed commissioners to "select and determine a perma- nent seat of justice," to meet between October 1, 1861, and July 1, 1862. Still Another Hitch. By chapter 34, Private Laws, second extra session, 1861, the boundary lines of Mitchell were so changed as to detach from Mitchell and re-annex to Yancey all the country between the mouth of Big Rock creek and the Tennessee fine, so that the county line of iNIitchell should stop on Toe river at the mouth of Big Rock creek and run thence with the ridge that divides Rock Creek and Brum- metts creek to the State line at the point where the Yancey and McDowell turnpike road crosses the same. The Land is Donated. On the 17th of October, 1861, Lysander D. Childs and Eben Childs conveyed to Tilmon Blalock, chairman of the County Court, fifty acres of land COUNTY HISTORY 201 (DcchI Book C, p. 30) the wliicli fifty acres were to be used "for tho location thereon of a permanent seat of justice in said county; two acres for a public grave-yard, one acre for the site of a public school l)uildinf>;. and one-half acre to be devoted to each of the following denominations for the erec- tion thereon of church buildings; to wit: Episcopalians, Pres- byterians, Methodists and Baptists"; the location of lots in the grave-yard and for the school and church buildings to be made by the commissioners charged by law with the duty of laying off the town lots in said seat of justice. Calhoun. This town was not far from Spruce Pine and Ingalls, "on a lane leading from the Burnsville and Boone road."" It was what was afterwards called Childsville. But, although by chapter 61 of the second session of the laws of 1861, a term of the Superior court was directed to be held "for Mitchell county in the town of Calhoun on the sixth Monday after the fourth Monday each year," the county seat never assumed town-like proportions. The people never liked it; and at the first session of the legislature after the Civil War it was changed to the present site of what is now called Bakers- ville. But, it seems, it was first called Davis; for by chapter 2, Private Laws of 1868, the name of the "town site of Mitchell county" was changed from Davis to Bakcrsville. Bakersville. On the 27th of July, 1866, for $1,000 Ilob- bert X. Penland conveyed to the chairman of the board of county commissioners 29 acres on the waters of Cane creek "and the right of way to and the use of the springs above the old Baker spring . . . to be carried in pumps to any portion of said 29 acres. ^* This was a part of the land on which Bakersville is situated. In 1868 there was a sale of these lots, and at the December, 1868, session of the commis- sioners the purchasers gave their notes, due in one and two years for balances due on the lots. The first court house in Bakersville was built by Irby & Dellinger, of South Carolina, in 1867, and on the first of November, 1869, M. P. and W. Dellinger gave notice of a mechanic's lien in the building for work done under a contract for the sum of SI, 409. 85 subject to a set-off of about S200. The first court held in Bakersville was in a grove near the former Bowman house, when it stood on the top of the ridge above its present site. Judge A. S. Merrimon presided. The next court was held in a log house 202 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA built by Isaac A. Pearson. The present court house was built by the Fall City Construction Company, of Louisville, Ky. Transylvania.^^ This county was formed in 1861, while Marcus Erwin was in the senate and Joseph P. Jordan of Henderson county was in the house. M. N. Patton was its first representative, in 1864. Court was held in a store room on what is now Caldwell street, Brevard. The first regular court house was a small frame building which stood on site of present building. It was built by George Clayton and Eph. England, contractors, and was not quite complete in 1866. The first jail was also small and of wood. Both these buildings were moved across the street and are still in exist- ence. The present court house was built about 1874 by Thomas Davis contractor. Probit Poore built what is still known as the "Red House," before the Civil War; but it was not used as a hotel till William Moore opened it as such, and this was the first hotel in Brevard. In 1872 or 1873 Nathan McMinn built a store and afterwards a hotel where the present McMinn house stands and opened a hotel there about 1879. George Shuford, the father of Judge G. A. Shuford, used to o\ATi the Breese or Hume place in Brevard, and sold it to Meredith D. Cooper who built the present mansion, and sold it to Mrs. Hume. George Shuford bought the mill place from Ethan Davis and built a grist mill there, but when M. D. Cooper got it he built a flour mill, w^hich was burned. Cooper afterwards sold the mill to Mr. Lucas and he sold it to Mrs. Robert L. Hume, Avho conveyed it to her daughter, Mrs. Wm. E. Breese, the mill having been rebuilt. About 1800 George Shuford moved from Catawba county and bought land below Shuford's bridge on the French Broad river, and took up a lot of mountain land, considered valueless, but which is held today by John Thrash at S25 per acre. It is in the Little river mountains. John Clayton, father of John, George and Ephriam Clayton, settled on Davidson's river, above the mill, at the Joel Mackey place. The Gash family were originally from Buncombe. Leander S. Gash lived for a time in Hendersonville where he died. He was a prominent and influential man, having represented Henderson county in 1866 in the senate; while Thomas L. Gash repre- sented Transylvania in the house in 1874. Their ancestor had fought in the Revolutionary War. The Duckworths are COUNTY HISTORY 203 another large and influential family, John having settled at the mouth of Cherryfield creek on a part of the David Allison grant, which corners there, after following the present turn- pike from Boylston creek. It was here, too, that the Pax- tons lived. Just prior to the Civil War, while Transylvania was a part of Henderson county, many wealthy and fashion- able people from the lower part of South Carolina bought many of the finest farms and built what were palatial homes for those days. Among them were Frank McKune and William Johnston from Georgetown, S. C. Their fine teams and liveried servants are still remembered. Then, too, Rob- ert Hume built a stone hotel at the foot of the Dunn Rock, about four miles southwest of Brevard, where he kept many summer boarders prior to the Civil War; but, during that awful time, the hotel was burned; the ruins still standing. What is still knowTi as the Lowndes Farm, on the French Broad river, about five miles below Brevard, originally be- longed to Benjamin King, a Baptist minister, who married Miss Mary Ann Shuford; but when the Cherokee country was opened to the whites, Mr. King sold it to William Ward, a son of Joshua Ward. William Ward built the fine house which stands on the land still; his father having built Rock Hall, the present home of the Westons. Ephriam Clayton was the contractor who built the Lowndes house for William Ward, and it was then one of the show-places of Transylvania. The Wards were South Carolina rice planters, and quite wealthy; but during the Civil War William got into debt to Mr. Lowndes, a banker of Charleston, who obtained judgments and sold the land after the war, bidding it in, and afterwards plac- ing the farm in charge of a Scotch gardner named Thomas Wood, who immediately put the land in splendid condition — the amount spent for the land and improvements having cost the estate nearly one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Lowndes was very much attached to this place and spent much of his time there; but after his death, his grandson did not care much for it, and sold it, with stock and farm implements for a small sum to John Thrash, and he in time sold it to Col. Everett, a genial and popular gentleman of Cleveland, Ohio. He has improved the place greatly. The original farm now includes the James Clayton, the Wm. Allison and the Henry Osborne places — all fine farms. The late A. Tooraer 204 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Porter, of Charleston, started to build a home on top of a small mountain, three and one half miles down the French Broad river, and a Mr. Clarkson of South Carolina started a summer residence on the opposite side, but the war stopped both enterprises. A relative of the late P. T. Barnura, owns the Hankel place about three miles from Brevard on the French Broad river. He has an extensive chicken farm, containing 5,000 white Leghorns. His name is Clark. Buck Forest, nine miles south of Brevard on Little river, containing the shoals and three picturesque falls or cascades of that stream, graphically described the "Land of the Sky," Avas originally the property of Micajah Thomas, who after building a hotel there before the Civil War, kept summer boarders when deer hunting was popular; but after the war sold it to Joseph Car- son. The late Frank Coxe, Carson's brother-in-law, how- ever, paid for it, and in the litigation which followed retained the title and possession by paying Carson's estate about $12,000 in 1910. The Coxe estate have since bought large tracts of land in that neighborhood and it is said will create a large lake and build a hotel on the property. The Patton family of Transylvania is one of the largest and most influential of that section, the original of that name having owned from Clayton's to the Deaver farm, a distance along the French Broad river of about three miles. They were a large family, but there was land enough to go around to about a dozen children. No better people live anywhere than the Pattons. Cherry Field. In November, 1787, Gen. Charles McDow- ell and Willoughby Williams entered 200 acres in Ruther- ford county (Buncombe county Deed Book A, p. 533), "ad- joining the upper end of his Cherry Field survey on French Broad river and extending up to his Meadow Camp survey"; and in November, 1789, the State granted to Charles McDow- ell 500 acres on both sides of the French Broad river, includ- ing the forks of said river where the Path crosses to Estatoe (Deed Book No. 9, p. 200, Buncombe). This old Indian path to Estatoe crossed near Rosman. Ben Davidson's Creek, ^o On the 25th of July, 1788, Charles McDowell entered 500 acres in Rutherford county on Ben Davidson's river, including the Great Caney Cove two or three miles above the Indian Path, though the grant was not COUNTY HISTORY 205 issuctl till December 5, 1798 (Buncombe county Deed Book 4, p, 531), and in November, 1790, Ben Davidson got a grant for 040 acres in Rutherford county on botli sides of French Broad river, above James Davidson's tract, including the mouth of the Fork on the north side and adjoining Joseph McDowell's line, "since transferred to Charles McDowell." (Buncombe county Deed Book 1, p. 74.) Clay County and Hayesville. Clay county was enacted in 1861, but it was organized in 1864. The first sheriff was John Patterson, but he could not give the necessary bond and the commissioners appointed J. P. Chastine in his place. Then came James P. Cherry who was sheriff for many years. Wm. McConnell was the first register of deeds. John C. Moore, G. W. Bristol and Harvey Penland were the first County Commissioners. The county seat was named for George W. Hayes. He lived on Valley river near Murphy and was the father of Mr. Ham Hayes, who is still living. He was an extraordinary man and much respected. He had Clay county cut off from Cherokee while he was in the legis- lature. John H. Johnson of Tennessee, Robert Martin of Wilkes county, North Carolina, and Elijah Herbert of Wythe county, Virginia, married three daughters of John Alexander, of Ab- shers, Wilkes county. North Carolina, about 1823, and after- wards moved to Clay, then Cherokee county, when the Chero- kee lands were sold. They settled near Hayesville. Elijah Herbert, who had married Winifred Alexander, died in March, 1875, aged seventy-four years. John H. Johnson died about 1895. Robert Martin died about 1880. Cla}^ county lands are exceedingly fertile and, with the sparkling Hiwassee river flowing through the center from east to west, with its tributaries, Tusquittce, Brasstown, Sweet- water, Shooting Creek and various other smaller streams and hundreds of clear, sparkling springs, make it a well watered country. It is surrounded on three sides by mountains form- ing an amphitheatre overlooking a valley that is unexcelled for natural beauty. Its soil is adapted to the production of all the grains and grasses but more especially to the growth of apples. This county has long been noted for the morality of its people and the maintenance of a high school at Hayes- 206 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ville, the county seat, the courts seldom last longer than two days, and often only one day, and the jail is almost always free of prisoners. This county was settled largely by emigrants from the counties east of it. The Cherokee Indians were removed from this particular territory in the year 1838, but a number of pioneers had settled in the county prior to their removal. G. W. Hayes was the representative in the legislature from Cher- okee at that time and the county seat was named in his honor. The minerals of the county are gold, corundum, asbestos, gar- net, mica, kaolin, and iron. George W. Bristol came from Burke county in the spring of 1844 and settled at the Mission Farm on Peachtree creek. The Bristols came to Burke from Connecticut. His son, Thomas B. Bristol, was born in Burke county July 3, 1830, and mar- ried Mary Addie Johnson, a daughter of the late John H. Johnson of Tusquittee, January 22, 1852. He died January 19, 1907. His widow survived him till October 8, 1911. Archibald O. Lyon was born in Tennessee and married Miss M. E. Martin September 14, 1856. She was a daughter of Robert Martin, one of the first and most prominent settlers of Clay county. A. O. Lyon died February 16, 1885. He went to Raleigh soon after the Civil War and obtained a char- ter for a Masonic lodge at Hayesville, which was organized as Clay Lodge October 2, 1866. He was its Worshipful Mas- ter ten years and a faithful member for nineteen years. He was a progressive and successful farmer, and was loved and respected by all who knew him. James H. Penland also mar- ried one of John H. Johnson's daughters, Miss Fanny E, Johnson, as did H. G. Trotter of Franklin and Wm. B. Tid- well of Tusquittee two others. John C. Moore was one of the first settlers of Clay county and lived in an Indian hut which stood near a beech tree near John H. Johnson's house before the land sale. He came from Rutherford county and married Polly Bryson of Mills river. Their daughter, Sarah, married Wm. H. Herbert about the year 1851. W. P. Moore, universally called "Irish Bill," was a son of Joab Moore and was born in Rutherford county and was a brother of John C. Moore. He married Miss Hattie Gash of Transylvania county. He was a captain in the Confederate COUNTY MISTORY 207 army and "every inch a soldier." He is still livinji; at his? home on Tusfiuittee aged eiglity-three years Alexander Barnard settled on Hiwassee river, three miles above Hayesville. Eli Sanderson was born in Connecticut antl was the father of George W. Sanderson who died some years ago. He and William Sanderson were among the first settlers of Clay county. James Coleman was also among the first settlers and owned a large farm. William Hancock lived below Hayesville and Richard Pass came early from Georgia to Clay county. One of his daughters married S. H. Haigler of Hayesville. Joshua Harshaw was the original settler at the mouth of Rrasstown creek on a good farm. He came early from Burke county. Abncr Chastine came from Jackson county early and died about 1874 or 1875, when an old man. He left sev- eral children, among them having been J. P. Chastine the first sheriff of Clay county. Byron Brown married Miss Xancy Parsons and died about 1901. Daniel K. Moore, of Buncombe county, also lived on Brasstown. He married a Miss Dickey and was the father of Judge Frederick Moore. He is still living. Henry Piatt, the father of the present Rev. J. T. Piatt of Clay, was also an early settler, and died many years ago. George McLure came from Macon county long before the Civil War and settled near Hiwassee river. He was the father of W. H. McLure who has represented Clay county in the legislature. W. H. McLure married one of the daughters of R. S. Pass and was one of the California Forty-Niners. He stayed in California till the Civil War, when he returned to Clay county. The ^Mission farm is now partly owned by the heirs of a Mr. Sudderth, originally of Burke county. He was at one time sheriff of Clay and a gentleman of fine character. Fort Embree, one of the collecting forts at time of the removal of the Cherokees, was on a hill just one mile southwest of Hayesville. There is an Indian Mound at the mouth of Peachtree creek on the old Robert McLure farm. It is about the same size as that near Franklin. There is also a mound half a mile east of Hayesville which is highest of all these mounds. It is on the land of W. H. McLure and S. H. Alli- son, their line splitting the mound. 208 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Among other prominent citizens of Clay should be men- tioned Dr. D. W. Killian, Dr. John Duncan, Gailor Bristol and S. H. Allison's father, who came to Clay many years ago. S. H. Allison married Miss Elizabeth Lyon, daughter of A. O. Lyon. John O. Hicks was born in Rutherford county and was among the first school teachers in Clay county. He built up a splendid school at Fort Embree and afterwards moved to Hayesville. He represented Clay in the legislature. He closed his school in 1876 and moved to Walhalla, South Carolina, and then went to Texas, where he died in 1910. There is now a fine high school at Hayesville. It is in charge of Mr. N. A. Fessenden, who succeeded John 0. Hicks. Among those who have distinguished themselves after attend- ing this school are Rev. Ferd. C. McConnell, of Texas, one of the finest preachers of the Baptist church; George Truett, another fine preacher; and Hon. George Bell of the Tenth Georgia Congressional district. Swain County and Brysox City. The county was cre- ated in 1871. The first court house was a frame building, with the upper floor for a court room and the lower for a jail. The "cage" was a pen of logs, under the front outside stairs, and was used for misdemeanants only. The dungeon was a log room within a log room, the space between being filled with stones. A padlocked trapdoor from the floor above was the only entrance, reached by a ladder let down when required. Bryson City was first called Charleston, which name it retained sixteen years when it was called Bryson in honor of Col. Thad. Dillard Bryson who was instrumental in having the new county formed. Col. D. K. Collins built the first house there, Capt. Epp Everett the next, and James Raby and M. Battle fol- lowed. H. J. Beck was first clerk of court, Epp Everett sher- riff, D. K. Collins postmaster, and Wm. Enloe, B. McHane, and John DeHart county commissioners. OcoNALUFTY. The first settlers on this creek were Robert Collins, Isaac Bradley, John Beck, John ]Mingus, Abraham Enloe, after whom came the Hugheses, Connors, Floyds, Sher- rills, etc. Col. D. K. Collins' mother had thirteen children, of whom twelve lived to be gro'^m. Seven of her sons took part in the Civil War, one being killed. Their neighbor had eighteen children. The earliest settlers on Deep creek were the Shulers, Wiggins, and ]\Iillsaps. Those on Alarka were the Cochrans, Brendels, Welches, and DeHarts. COUNTY HISTORY 209 Robert Collins. He was the guide hiuI assistant of Pro- fessor Arnold Cluyot's surveying party in 1858-59, and Col. D. K. Collins was along as a helper, to carry the instruments, chain, stakes, etc. They followed the summit of the Smoky mountains from Cocke county, Tenn., to Blount county, Tenn., breaking up the party at JNIontvale springs, 16 miles from Maryville. Robert Collins was born on Oconalufty river September 4, 1800, married Elizabeth Beck, December 30, 1830, and died Ai)ril 9, 18G3, when he was an officer in charge of 500 troops, mostly Chcrokees, in Sevier county, Tenn. Eli Arrington. He helped to carry Rhynehart, who was ill of milk-sick in 1855, near Collins gap. Wain Battle was also one of the party who helped carry Rhynehart from the mountains. About two years later he was with Dr. John Mingus, Dr. Davis and a few others going to the Alum cave where Col. Thomas got magnesia and alum during the war, and took sick and died alone in one of the roughest countries in the mountains. He was found by Col. D. K. Collins and taken to his home in Waynesville. Danger in Crossing the Unakas in Winter. Andrew Sherman and O'Neal, two lumbermen, left camp on the head of Tellico creek just before Christmas, 1899, intend- ing to cross the Unaka mountains south of the John Stratton Meadows, near Haw Knob, so as to reach Robbinsville in time for Christmas. They got as far as the Whig cabin where they bought some whiskey from Jim Brooksher; after which they started to cross the Hooper bald. A blizzard and heavy snowstorm began and continued all that night. They were never seen again alive. In September following Forest Den- ton found their skeletons near the Huckleberry Knob, where Sherman's remains were buried; but some physicians took O'Neal's remains home with them. Origin of Names. Hazel creek was named from a patch of hazelnut bushes near its mouth; Noland creek was named for Andrew Noland, its first settler; Chambers creek for John Chambers; Eagle creek from a nest of eagles near its head; Twenty-Mile creek is so called because it is just twenty miles from the junction of Tuckaseegee and Little Tennessee rivers. WiLLiAiM MoNTEiTH. He was the father of Samuel and the gran,dfather of Ellis, John, Robert and Western Monteith. He married Nancy Crawford. W. N.C— 14 210 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Col. Thaddeus Dillard Bryson. He was born near the present railroad station called Beta, Jackson county, February 13, 1829, was married to Miss Mary C. Greenlee of Turkey Cove, McDowell county, April 4, 1871. He died at his home at Bryson City, January 2, 1890. He represented Jackson and Swain a number of years in the legislature. He was ap- pointed colonel-commandant of the Jackson county regiment militia, February 20, 1854, and was commissioned captain in the 20th N. C. Infantry of the Confederate army, September 7, 1861. Bryson City has one bank, three hotels, several boarding houses, a pump factor}^ where columns and liquor logs are made, a roller mill of 35-barrel capacity, an ice plant, bottling works, a telephone system, a planing mill, lumber yards and builder's supplies, livery stables and a fine retail and whole- sale trade with the surrounding country. The town OAvns its own water system and watershed at Rich gap of 200 acres. The water is from mountain springs and is piped to a fine reservoir on Arhngton Heights overlooking the town. There is also a sewerage system. The town owns its own water power plant three miles up Deep Creek which furnishes elec- tricity to operate the ice plant and the roller mill and the electric lights of the town, and has surplus power to sell. It has 140-horsepower capacity. Graham and Robbinsville. Graham was formed in 1872, but it was represented in the legislature by the member from Cherokee till 1883, when George B. Walker, Esq., was elected to the house. The county commissioners-elect met at King & Cooper's store on Cheoah river, October 21, 1872, and were sworn in by J. W. King, J. P.; J. J. Colvard, John Gholey, G. W. Hooper, N. F. Cooper, and John Sawyer, commissioners, all being present. J. J. Colvard was elected chairman, and the official bond of William Carpenter, register deeds, was approved. So were also the bonds of John G. Tatham, as clerk, J. S. Hyde, as sheriff, Reuben Carver, surveyor, all of whom were sworn in. It was then ordered that the first term of the Superior court be held at the Baptist church in Cheoah township, about one mile from Robbinsville. Judge Riley Cannon held this court at that place in March, 1873; and the first court held in the court house in Robbinsville was the fall term of 1874. On the 7th of December, 1872, the commission- COUNTY HISTORY 211 ers consideroil three sites for the county seat : Rhea Hill, Fort Hill, and land of C. A. Colvards. They chose the first named. Junaluska, the Cherokee chief, lived at Robljinsville and is buried there. A tablet on an immense boulder marks his grave. Snowbird mountains, the Joanna Bald, the Hooper Bald, Huckleberry Knob, Laurel Top, the two Stratton Balds, the Hang Over, the Hay 0, the Fodder Stack and the Swim Bald are the principal mountain peaks. They are the least known of any of our mountains. In them head the Santeetla, Buffalo, Snowbird, Sweet Water, the Yellow and Tallulah creeks, all of which flow into the Cheoah river. One huntlred and fifty Cherokee Indians live on the head of Snowbird and Buffalo creeks. There is more virgin forest land in this county than in any other now. It has immense resources in water power, and the gorge at Rocky Point where the Little Tennessee goes through has great value as a power site. The Union Devel- opment Company has bought up many sites on these streams. In 1910-11 the Whiting INIanufacturing Company bought up many of the lots and houses in Robbinsville and many thousands of acres of timber lands. Lafayette Ghormley is the grandson of the man of that name who lived near the mouth of Mountain creek, and the son of DeWitt Ghormley. Dave Orr went to his present home between Bear and Slick Rock creeks in 1866, and his fame as a hunter and trapper is now secure. Rev. Joseph A. Wiggins, a distinguished Methodist minister of this county, was born on Alarka creek in 1832, but moved with his father to Graham in 1840, when there was but one wagon road, that from Old Valley To^vn to Fort ^Montgomery, just constructed for the soldiers who removed the Indians in 1838. Dr. Dan F. Summey of Asheville was in charge of its con- struction. There were no mills except a few grist mills, and wheat was "packed" on horses by a trail to a mill five mile from what is now Bryson City — a distance of about thirty miles. Indian relics were then plentiful at the head of Tallu- lah creek at what is called The ^Meadows. Mr. Wiggins mar- ried a daughter of George W. Hayes, after whom Hayesville was named. There was not a church in the county and but a few log school houses. He began to preach in 1859, and served four years as chaplain in the Confederate army, after which he rode circuits in Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia and Western North Carolina till stationed in Graham county 212 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA His great-grandfather Garland Wiggins served in the Revolu- tionary War, as did his wife's great-grandfather, Edward Hayes. Andrew Colvard lived on Long Hungry branch, which got its name from the fact that a party of hunters was once detained there by high water till their rations gave out and they were for a long time hungry. The Stewarts of San- teetla came from Georgia and the Lovens from Ducktown, Tenn. John and Robert Stratton came from Monroe county, Tenn., in the thirties and settled on the Unaka mountains between the head of Sassafras ridge and Santeetla creek. John lived on the John Stratton Bald ten years and caught 19 panthers on Laurel Top, making "bacon" of their hams and shoulders. He came with nothing but his rifle, blanket, skillet and ammunition, but made enough herding cattle and selling deer and bear hams and hides, etc., to buy a fine farm in Monroe county, Tenn. On a rude stone on the John Strat- ton meadow is carved: A. S. Was born 1787 Died 1839. A State Line stone stands about a quarter of a mile away. John Ropetwister, Organdizer, Big Fat Commisseen and others moved from East Buffalo creek to Slick Rock during the Removal of 1838, where they remained in concealment till Col. Thomas arranged to have the remnant remain. They sent their women into Tennessee to swap bear and deer hides for meal. Thomas Cooper, the father of James W. Cooper of Murphy, lived on Tallulah three miles east of Robbinsville. There was a large and influential family of Crisps who settled on Stekoah, of whom Hon. Joel L. Crisp is a distinguished representative. Rev. Isaac Carringer came from the eastern part of this State and lived on Santeetla. He was a Baptist minister and died about 1897, highly respected. John Den- ton the most picturesque mountaineer in this section, moved from Polk county, Tenn., to Little Santeetla in 1879. In 1900 he was crippled while logging. He stands six feet three in his stockings. Soon after his arrival some of the bullies of Robbinsville tested John's pluck; but he worsted five of them in a fist fight, and since then he has lived in peace. His, wife's mother was Jane Meroney, and a first cousin of Jeffer- COLINTY HISTORY 213 son Davis. She marritHl a Turner, Mrs. Denton's given name being Albertine. AvEUY County. This was createtl in 1911, out of portions of Watauga and Mitchell counties, principally. '' ' At an election held August 1, 1911, Old Fields of Toe was selected as the county seat. It so happened that this land had been granted to Col. Waightstill Avery November 9, 1783. It was in his honor that this, the 100th county, was named, while the county seat was called Newland, in honor of Hon. W. C. Newland, of Lenoir, then the lieutenant governor of the State. The jail and court house were completed sufficiently to allow court to be held in April, 1913, Judge Daniels presiding. There are two legends concerning the reason this tract was called the Old Fields of Toe. L. D. Lowe, Esq., in the Watauga Democrat of June 19, 1913, states that one legend relates that Estatoe, the daughter of one of two rival chieftains, fell in love with the son of the other; but her father refused his consent, which caused a bloody war between the two factions. But Estatoe caused a pipe of peace to be made with two stems of ti-ti so that two could smoke it at once. The two rival chiefs assembled their respective followers on the bank of the river, and smoked till peace was concluded and Estatoe mar- ried her lover. The other legend is that found in The Balsam Groves of the Grandfather mountain (p. 221), and in it Esta- toe is made to drown herself because she could not wed her Indian lover because of her father's implacable opposition. Avery County's Long Pedigree. "It was a part of Clarendon in 1729; of New Hanover in 1729; of Bladen in 1734; of Anson in 1749; of Rowan in 1753; of Surry in 1770; of Burke in 1777; of Wilkes in 1777; of Ashe in 1799; of Yancey in 1833; of Caldwell in 1841; of Watauga in 1849; of Mitchell in 1861; so that that portion taken from Caldwell and attached to Avery in 1911 represents the eighth subdivision; and that from Watauga the tenth; which is a record probably unsur- passed."^- The principal reason for the formation of this new county was the inacccssil)ility of Bakersville to most of the inhabitants of ^Mitchell, it being in the northeastern part of that county and only two and a half miles from the Yancey line. * ' Lineville City, two miles from ]\Iontezuma and Pinola, is "the cleanest town in the North Carolina mountains east of Asheville, and the only place of the kind where guests 214 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA have a large, ideal zone for golf. "^* The same author speaks of the Yonahlossee road, running from Linville City to Blow- ing Rock, as the Appian Way which ran from Rome via Naples, to Brundesium, and claims that the latter was not more inter- esting than the former. * ^ The world will one day admit that the fine scenery of North Carolina has its culmination in Avery county. 'From Asheville's Centenary. 2Ibid. »Ibid. «Ibid. 'Ibid. •Bourne's Asheville Code, 1909, vi. Scaife v. Land Co., 90 Federal Reporter (p. 238.) The deed from Tate to Morris is on parchment nearly fifteen feet in length. It was written by an English law clerk, and still looks like copperplate. At page 1C5 of the Colonial Rec- ords is found a letter from Robert Morris to the governor of North Carolina in rcfernece to a settlement of the account between this state and the United States, in which he refers to the proposed arbitration in which this State proposed to appoint one arbitrator and retain power of objecting to the other! 'Pronounced Cochay. He was a Frenchman who had been brought to the Sulphur Springs by Col. Reuben Deaver as a confectionery and pastery cook. 8\\ ill Book B, p. 103, September 23, 1844. •Dr. A. B. Cox's "Footprints on the Sands of Time," p. 107. '"Record Book Superior Court, not paged. "Ibid. •2From information furnished by Hon. A. H. Eller, 1912. isibid. nibid. islbid. 161 bid. 1 'Allen. i8Col. Allen T. Da\'idson, in The Lyceum, January, 1891. I 'Ibid. 2°Ibid. 2iNineteenth Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology, p. 43. 2n'ol. II, Rev. St., 1837, p. 195. 25" A Brief History of Macon County," by Rev. C. D. Smith Franklin, 1905. "The organization of the county took place nine years after the survey of the lands and the loca- ion of the site for the town of Franklin." "Ibid. 2 5Much of the information about the citizens of Franklin and Macon was furnished by Henry G. Robertson, Esq. 2 'In 1852 he represented Macon in the House of Commons. 2'Henry G. Robertson, Esq., to J. P. A., 1912. 28Ibid. 2sConnor. '"Written for this history by Mrs. Mattie S. Candler of Hendersonville. 'iZeigler & Grosscup. '^The county seat was named in honor of Judge Archibald D. Murphey, who was elected to the Superior court bench in 1818 and resigned in 1819. He spelt his name, how- ever with an "e". "Deed Book G, p. 139, et seq. »*Madison county records. '^See ante, page 7. 'sFacts as to Alleghany county furnished by Hon. S. F. Thompson. '■Deed Book C, p. 30. >8Deed Book E, p. 203. "Facts Furnished by Hon. George A. Shuford. ^'What used to be called Da\ddson's River settlement is now known as Pisgah Forest. * 'Caldwell also contributed to this territory. *-'L. D. Lowe, Esq., in Watauga Democrat, May 23, 1913. "Ibid. "Balsam Groves, 223. <5The same author claims that the Old Fields of Toe, now Newland, was a muster ground before the Ci\al War, p. 180. CHAPTER IX PIONEER PREACHERS Solitude and Religion. The isolation of the early set- tlers was conducive to religious thoughts, especially among the uneducated ministry of that day. This is impressively told in the following paragraph: "There was naught in the scene to suggest to a mind familiar with the facts an oriental landscape — naught akin to the hills of Judea. Yet, ignorance has license. It never occurred to Teck Jepson [a local preacher in the novel] that his biblical heroes had lived elsewhere. He brooded upon the Bible narratives, instinct with dramatic movement, enriched with poetic color, and localized in his robust imagination, till he could trace Hagar's wild wanderings in the fastnesses; could show where Jacob slept and piled his altar of stones; could distinguish the bush, of all others on the "bald," that blazed with fire from heaven when the angel of the Lord stood within it; . . . saw David, the smiling stripling, running and holding high in his right hand the bit of cloth cut from Saul's garments while the king had slept in a cave at the base of Chilhowie mountain. And how was the splendid miracle of translation discredited because Jepson believed that the chariot of the Lord had rested in scarlet and purple clouds upon the towering summit of Thunderhead that Elijah might thence ascend into heaven? "i Early Preachers. Staunton, Lexington and Abingdon, Vir- ginia, and Jonesboro, Tenn., and Morganton, N. C, have been largely Presbyterian from their earliest beginning. Not so, however, Western North Carolina in which the Baptists and Methodists got the "start" and have maintained it ever since, notwithstanding the presence almost from the first of the Rev. George Newton and many excellent ministers of the Presby- terian faith since his day. The progress of the Methodists was due largely, no doubt, to the frequent visits of Bishop Asbury. The First Methodist Bishop. "In the year 1800 Bishop Francis Asbury began to include the French Broad valley in his annual visits throughout the eastern part of the United States, which extended as far west as Kentucky and Ten- nessee."^ He was so encouraged by the religious hunger he (215) 216 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA discovered in these mountain coves that he continued his visits till November, 1813, notwithstanding the rough fare he no doubt frequently had to put up with. Following ex- tracts are from his "Journal": At Warm Springs in 1800. (Thursday, November 6, 1800.) "Crossed Nolachucky at Querton's Ferry, and came to Major Craggs', 18 miles. I next day pursued my journey and arrived at Warm Springs, not, however, without an ugly accident. After we had crossed the Small and Great Paint mountain, and had passed about thirty yards beyond the Paint Rock, my roan horse, led by Mr. O'Haven, reeled and fell over, taking the chaise with him; I was called back, when I beheld the poor beast and the carriage, bottom up, lodged and wedged against a sapling, which alone prevented them both being precipitated into the river. After a pretty heavy lift all was riglitod again, and we were pleased to find there was little damage done. Our feelings were excited more for others than ourselves. Not far off we saw clothing spread out, part of the loading of household fur- niture of a wagon which had overset and was thrown into the stream, and bed clothes, bedding, etc., were so wet that the poor people found it neces- sary to dry them on the spot. We passed the side fords of French Broad, and came to Mr. Nelson's; our mountain march of twelve miles calmed us down for this day. ]\Iy company was not agreeable here — there were too many subjects of the two great potentates of this Western World, whisky, brandy. My mind was greatly distressed." Curiously Contrived Rope and Pole Ferry. "North Carolina, — Saturday 8. We started away. The cold was severe upon the fingers. We crossed the ferry, curiously contrived with a rope and pole, for half a mile along the banks of the river, to guide the boat by. And O the rocks! the rocks! Coming to Laurel river, we fol- lowed the wagon ahead of us — the wagon stuck fast. Brother O'H. mounted old Gray — the horse fell about midway, but recovered, rose, and went safely through with his burden. We pursued our way rapidly to Ivy creek, suffering much from heat and the roughness of the roads, and stopped at William Hunter's." At Thomas Foster's. "Sabbath Day, 9. We came to Thomas Foster's, and held a small meeting at his house. We must bid farewell to the chaise; this mode of conveyance by no means suits the roads of this wilderness. We were obliged to keep one behind the carriage with a strap to hold by, and pre- vent accidents almost continually. I have health and hard labor, and a constant sense of the favor of God." Blacksmith, Carpenter, Cobbler, Saddler and Hatter. "Tobias Gibson had given notice to some of my being at Buncombe courthouse, and the society at Killyon's, in consequence of this, made an appointment for me on Tuesday, 11. We were strongly importuned to PIONEER PREACMERS 217 stay, which Brother Whatcoat felt inclined to do. In the meantime we had our horses shod by Philip Smitii; this man, as is not infrequently the case in this country, makes wa-ons and works at carpentry makes shoes for men and for iiorses; to which he adds, occasionally the manu- facture of saddles and hats." Rev. George Newton at Methodist Seuvice. "Monday, 10. Vi.sited Squire Swain's agreeable family. On Tues- day we attended our appointment. My foundation for a sermon was Heb. 11, 1. We had about eighty hearers; amon- them was Mr. Newton a Presbyterian minister, who made the concludiuf; prayer. We took up our journey and came to Foster's upon Swansico (Swannanoa)-compiny enough, and horses in a drove of thirty-three. Here we met Francis Poythress-sick of Carolina— and in the clouds. I, too, was sick Ne.xt morning we rode to Fletcher's, on Mud creek. The people being une.x- pectedly gathered together, we gave them a sermon and an exhortation ^\e lodged at Fletcher's." A Lecture at Ben. Davidson's. "Thursday, 13. We crossed French Broad at Kim's Ferry, forded MiUs river, and made upwards to the barrens of Broad to Davidson's whose name names the stream. The aged mother and daughter insisted upon giving notice for a meeting; in consequence thereof Mr. Davis the Presijyterian minister, and several others came together. Brother What- coat was taken with a bleeding at the nose, so that necessity was laid upon me to lecture; my subject was Luke xi, 13." Describes the French Broad. "Friday, 14. We took our leave of French Broad-the lands flat and good, but rather cold. I have had an opportunity of making a tolerably correct survey of this river. It rises in the southwest, and winds along in many meanders, fifty miles northeast, receiving a number of tributary streams in its course; it then inclines westward, passing through Bun- combe in North Carolina, and Green and Dandridge counties in Tennes- see, in which last it is augmented by the waters of Nolachucky Four miles above Knoxville it forms a junction with the Holston, and their united waters flow along under the name of Tennessee, giving a name to the State. We had no small labor in getting down Saluda mountain." Again at Warm Springs. In October, 1801, we find this entry: " Monday, October 5. We parted in great love. Our company made twelve miles to Isaiah Harrison's, and next day reached the Warm Springs upon French Broad river." "Man and Beast 'Felt the jMighty Hills.' " "Wednesday, 7. We made a push for Buncombe courthou.se- man and beast felt the mighty hills. I shall calculate from Baker's to this place one hundred and twenty miles; from Philadelphia, eight hundred and twenty miles." 218 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Resting at George Swain's. "Friday, 9. Yesterday and today we rested at George Swain's." Quarterly Meeting at Daniel Killon's. "Sabbath Day, 11. Yesterday and today held quarterly meeting at Daniel Killon's, near Buncombe courthouse. I spoke from Isa. Ivii, 6, 7 and I Cor. vii, 1. We had some quickenings." A Sermon from N. Snethen. "Monday, 12. We came to Murroughs, upon Mud creek; here we had a sermon from N. Snethen on Acts xiv, 15. Myself and James Dou- that gave an exhortation. We had very warm weather and a long ride. At Major Britain's, near the mouth of Mills river, we found a lodging." At Elder Davidson's. "Tuesday, 13. We came in haste up to elder Davidson's, refreshed man and beast, commended the family to God, and then struck into the mountains. The want of sleep and other inconveniences made me unwell. We came down Saluda River, near Saluda Mountain : it tried my lame feet and old feeble joints. French Broad, in its meanderings, is nearly two hundred miles long; the line of its course is semi-circular; its waters are pure, rapid, and its bed generally rocky, except the Blue Ridge; it passes through all the western mountains." At William Nelson's at Warm Springs. Again in No- vember, 1802, we find this entry: "Wednesday, 3. We labored over the Ridge and the Paint Moun- tain : I held on awhile, but grew afraid of this mountain, and with the help of a pine sapling worked my way down the steepest and roughest parts. I could bless God for life and limbs. Eighteen miles this day contented us, and we stopped at William Nelson's, Warm Springs. About thirty travelers having dropped in, I expounded the scriptures to them, as found in the third chapter of Romans, as equally appUcable to nominal Christians, Indians, Jews, and Gentiles." Dinner at Barnett's Station. "Thursday, 4. We came off about the rising of the sun, cold enough. There were six or seven heights to pass over, at the rate of five, two or one mile an hour — as this ascent or descent would permit : four hours brought us to the end of twelve miles to dinner, at Barnett's station; whence we pushed on to John (Thomas) Foster's, and after making twenty miles more, came in about the going down of the sun. On Friday and Saturday we visited from house to house." "Dear William McKendree." "Sunday, 7. We had preaching at Killon's. William McKendree went forward upon 'as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God;' my subject was Heb. iii, 12, 13. On Monday I parted from dear WilUam McKendree. I made for Mr. Fletcher's, upon Mud creek; he received me with great attention, and the kind offer of every- thing in the house necessary for the comfort of man and beast. We PIONEER PREACHERS 219 could not be proviiilod on to tarry for tlie night, so wc set off after dinner and he accompanied us several miles. Wc housed for the night at the widow Johnson's. I wjxs happy to find that in the space of two years, Goil had manifested his Rooilness and his power in the hearts of many upon the solitary banks and isolated glades of French Broad; some sub- jects of grace there were before, amongst Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists. On Tuesday I dined at Benjamin Davidson's, a house I had loilged and preached at two years ago. We labored along eighteen miles, eight ascent, on the west side, and as many on the east side of tin; moun- tain. The descent of Saluda exceeds all I know, from the Province of Maine to Kentucky and Cumberland; I had dreaded it, fearing I should not be able to walk or ride such steeps; nevertheless, with time, patience, labor, two sticks and above all, a good Providence I came in about five o'clock to ancient father John Douthat's, Greenville County, South Caro- Una." Again at Nelson's. On October, 1803, we meet with this entry: "North Carolina. On Monday, we came ofT in earnest; refreshed at Isaiah Harrison's, and continued on to the Paint Mountain, passing the gap newly made, which makes the road down to Paint Creek much bet- ter. I lodged with Mr. Nelson, who treated me like a minister, a Chris- tian and a gentleman." Ivy Had Been Bridged in 1803. "Tuesday, 25. We reached Buncombe. The road is greatly mended by changing the direction, and throwing a bridge over Ivy." Sisters Kilion and Smith Dead. "Wednesday, 26. We called a meeting at Kilion's, and a gracious season it was : my subject was I Cor. xv, 38. Sister Kilion and Sister Smith, sisters in the flesh, and kindred spirits in holiness and humble obedience, are both gone to their reward in glory. On Thursday we came away in haste, crossed Swamoat (Swannanoa) at T. Foster's, the French Broad at the High (Long) Shoals, and afterwards again at Beard's Bridge, and put up for the night at Andrew Mitchell's : In our route we passed two large encamping places of the Methodists and Presby- terians : it made country look like the Holy Land." He Escapes from Filth, Fleas, and Rattlesnakes. "Friday, 28. We came up Little River, a sister stream of French Broad : it offered some beautiful flats of land. We found a new road, lately cut, which brought us in at the head of Little River at the old fording place, and within hearing of the falls, a few miles off of the head of Matthews Creek, a branch of the Saluda. The waters foaming down the rocks with a descent of half a mile, make themselves heard at a great distance. I walked down the mountain, after riding sixteen or eighteen miles, before breakfast, and came in about twelve o'clock to father John Douthat's; once more I have escaped from filth, fleas, rattlesnakes, hills, mountains, rocks, and rivers; farewell, western world, for awhile!" 220 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA At Fletcher's on Mud Creek. Again in October, 1805, we find the following entry: "North Carolina. We came into North Carolina and lodged with Wm. Nelson, at the Hot Springs. Next day we stopped with Wilson in Buncombe. On Wednesday I breakfasted with Mr. Newton, Presby- terian minister, a man after my own mind : we took sweet counsel to- gether. We lodged this evening at Mr. Fletcher's, Mud Creek. At Colonel Thomas's, on Thursday, we were kindly received and hospitably entertained. " Beds a Bench and Dirt Floor of School House. Again in September, 1806, we find the following entry: "Wednesday, 24. We came to Buncombe : we were lost within a mile of Mr. Killion's (Killian's), and were happy to get a school house to shelter us for the night. I had no fire, but a bed wherever I could find a bench; my aid, Moses Lawrence, had a bear skin and a dirt floor to spread it on." His Food Brings Back His Affliction. "Friday, 26. My affliction returned: considering the food, the labor, the lodging, the hard.ships I meet with and endure it is not wonderful. Thanks be to God! we had a generous rain — may it be general through the settlement!" / Camp Meeting on Turkey Creek. "Saturday, 27. I rode twelve miles to Turkey Creek, to a kind of camp meeting. On the Sabbath, I preached to about five hundred souls : it was an open season and a few souls professed converting grace." Rode Through Swanino River. "Monday, 29. Raining. We had dry weather during the meeting. There were eleven sermons and many exhortations. At noon it cleared up, and gave us an opportunity of riding home : my mind enjoyed peace, but my body felt the effect of riding. On Tuesday I went to a school house to preach: I rode through Swanino River, and Cane and Hooper's Creeks." Little and Great Hunger Mountain. "North Carolina, Wednesday, October 1. I preached at Samuel Edney's. Next day we had to cope with Little and Great Hunger moun- tains. Now I know what Mill's Gap is, between Buncombe and Ruther- ford. One of the descents is like the roof of a house, for nearly a mile: I rode, I walked, I sweat, I trembled, and my old knees failed; here are guUeys and rocks, and precipices; nevertheless the way is as good as the path over the Table Mountain — bad is the best. We came upon Green River." Warm Springs in 1807. Again on October, 1807, we find the following entry: "Friday 16. We reached Wamping's (Warm Springs). I suffered much today; but an hour's warm bath for my feet reheved me consider- ably. On Saturday we rode to Killon's." PIONEER PREACHERS 221 George Newton, an Israelite Indeed. "North Carolina, Sabbath, 18. At Buncombe courthouse I spoke from 2 Kings, vii, 13-15. The people were all attention. I spent a night under the roof of my very dear brother in Christ, George Newton, a Presliyteriiin minister, an Israelite indeed. On Monday we made Fletcher's; next day dined at Terry's, and lodged at Edwards. Saluda ferry brought us up on Wednesday evening. " Labored and Suffered, But Lived Near God. Again in October, 1808, we find the following entry: "On Tuesday we rode twenty miles to the Warm Springs, and next day reached Buncombe, thirty-two miles. The right way to improve a short day is to stop only to feed the horses, and let the riders meanwhile take a bite of what they have been provident enough to put into their pockets. It has been a serious October to me. I have labored and suf- fered; but I have lived near to God." Mr. Irwon (Erwin), A Chief Man. " North Carolina, Saturday, 29. We rested for three days past. We fell in with Jesse Richardson : He could not bear to see the fields of Buncombe deserted by militiamen, who fire a shot and fly, and wheel and fire, and run again; he is a veteran who has learned to 'endure hardness like a good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ.' On the Sunday I preached in Buncombe courthouse upon I Thess. i, 7-10. I lodged with a chief man, a Mr. Irwon. Henry Boehm went to Pigeon Creek to preach to the Dutch." WooTENPiLE Asks Pay in Prayer. In October, 1909, we find: "We crossed the French Broad and fed our horses at the gate of Mr. Wootenpile (Hoodenpile) ; he would accept no pay but prayer; as I had never called before he may have thought me too proud to stop. Our way now lay over dreadful roads. I found old Mr. Barnett sick — the case was a dreadful one, and I gave him a grain of tartar and a few com- posing drops, which procured him a sound sleep. The patient was very thankful and would charge us nothing. Here are martyrs to whiskey! I delivered my own soul. Saturday brought us to Killion's. Eight times within nine years I have crossed these Alps. If my journal is transcribed it will be as well to give the subject as the chapter and the verse of the text I preached from. Nothing like a sermon can I record. Here now am I and have been for twenty nights crowded by people, and the whole family striving to get round me." James Patton, Rich, Plain, Humble, Kind. "Sabbath, 29. At Buncombe I spoke on Luke .xiv, 10. It was a season of attention and feeling. We dined with Mr. Erwin and lodged with James Patton; how rich, how plain, how humble, and how kind! There was a sudden change in the weather on Monday; we went as far as D. Jay's. Tuesday, we moved in haste to Mud Creek, Green river cove, on the other side of Saluda." 222 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA At Vater Shuck's on A Winter's Night. Again, in December, 1810, we find the following entry: "At Catahoiiche (Catalouche) I walked over a log. But O the mountain — height after height, and five miles over! After crossing other streams, and losing ourselves in the woods, we came in, about nine o'clock at night, to Vater Shuck's. What an awful day! Saturday, December 1. Last night I was strongly afflicted with pain. We rode twenty-five miles to Buncombe." George Newton Almost A Methodist. "North Carolina, Sabbath, December 2. Bishop McKendree and John McGee rose at five o'clock and left us to fill an appointment about twenty-five miles off. Myself and Henry Boehm went to Newton's academy, where I preached. Brother Boehm spoke after me; and Mr. Newton, in exhortation, confirmed what was said. Had I known and studied my congregation for a year, I could not have spoken more appro- priately to their particular cases; this I learned from those who knew them well. We dined with Mr. Newton. He is almost a Methodist, and reminds me of dear Whatcoat — the same placidness and solemnity. We visited James Patton; this is, perhaps, the last visit to Buncombe." Speaking "Faithfully." "Monday. It was my province today to speak faithfully to a cer- tain person. May she feel the force of, and profit by the truth." The Hoodenpile Road is Open. In December, 1812, we find the following: "Monday, 30. We stopped at Michael Bollen's on our route, where I gave them a discourse on Luke, xi, 11-13. Why should we climb over the desperate Spring and Paint mountain when there is such a fine new road? We came on Tuesday a straight course to Barratt's (Barnett's), dining in the woods on our way." Back Again at Killion's. "North Carolina, Wednesday, December 2. We went over the moun- tains, 22 miles, to KUUon's." At Samuel Edney's and Father Mills's. "Thursday, 3. Came on through Buncombe to Samuel Edney's : I preached in the evening. We have had plenty of rain lately. Friday, I rest. Occupied in reading and writing. I have great communion with God. I preached at Father Mills's." In Great Weakness. Again, in November, 1813, we meet with this entry: "Sabbath, 24. I preached in great weakness. I am at Killion's once more. Our ride of ninety miles to Staunton bridge on Saluda river was severely felt, and the necessity of lodging at taverns made it no better." Valedictory to Presiding Elders. "Friday, 29. On the peaceful banks of the Saluda I write my vale- dictory address to the presiding elders." PIONEER PREACHERS 223 Killian's, so often mentioned with dilTcrent spellings in the foregoing extracts, is the present residence of Capt, I. C. Baird on Beaverdani.^ When the General Conference of the Methoilist Episcopal Church, South, met at Asheville in May, 1910, a gavel made of a portion of the banister of the old Killian home was presented to the presiding bishop. First Church in the Mountains. According to Col. W. L. Bryan of Boone, the first church established west of the Blue Ridge and east of the Smokies was at what is still called "Three Forks of New river in what is now Watauga county, a beautiful spot." It was organized November 6, 1790. The following is from its records: "A book containing (as may be seen) in the covenant and conduct of the Baptist church of Jesus Christ in Wilkes county, . . . New River, Three Forks settlement" by the following members: James Tom- kins, Richard Greene and wife, Daniel Eggers and wife, William Miller, Elinor Greene and B. B. Eggers. "This is the mother of all the Baptist churches throughout this great mountain region. From this mother church, using the lan- guage of these old pioneers, they established 'arms' of the mother church; one at what is now known as the Globe in Caldwell county, another to the westward, known as Ebi- nezer, one to the northeast named South Fork . . . and at various other points. Yet, it should be remembered that the attendance upon the worship of the mother church extended for many, many miles, reaching into Tennessee." After these "arms" had been established "there was organized Three Forks Baptist association, which bears the name to this day, and is the oldest and most venerated religious organiza- tion known throughout the mountains. Among the first pastors of the mother church were Rev. Mr. Barlow of Yadkin, George McNeill of Wilkes, John G. Bryan who died in Georgia at the age of 98, Nathaniel Vannoy of Wilkes, Richard Gentry of Old Field, Joseph Harrison of Three Forks, Brazilla Mc- Bride and Jacob Greene of Cove creek, Reuben Farthing, A. C. Farthing, John or Jackie Farthing, Larkin Hodges and llev. William Wilcox, the last named having been the last of the Old Patriarchs of this noted church to pass away. They were all farmers and worked in the fields for their daily bread. To the above list should be added Rev. D. C. Harmon of Lower Cove creek. Rev. D. C. Harmon, Rev. Smith Ferguson, who. 224 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA though they have been gone for many years, yet speak to some of those left behind."* Prominent Pioneer Religious Teachers.^ Among these were " Richard Gentry, Aaron Johnson, WiUiam Baldwin, Richard Jacks, David Smith, all of whom were Baptists favoring missions; and among the Alethodists were James Wagg, Samuel Plumer, A. B. Cox and Hiram and Elihu Weaver. " Rev. Humphrey Posey. Of this good man Col. Allen T. Davidson says in The Lyceum for January, 1891, p. 11, that James AVhittaker of Cherokee "and the Rev. Humphrey Posey established the leading (Baptist) churches in this upland country, to wit: Cane creek, in Buncombe county, and Locust Old Field in Haywood county, where the friends of these two men have worshipped ever since. . . . There they stand, monuments to the memory of these pioneers. . . . Perhaps the most remarkable man in this up-country was Rev. Humphrey Posey, who was born in Henry county, Va., January 12, 1780, was brought to Burke when only five years old and remained there until he reached manhood, was ordained a minister at Cane creek church in 1806. About 1820 he established a mission school at what is now known as the Mission Place on the Hiwassee river, seven miles above Mur- phy. He removed to Georgia in 1784, and died at Newman, Ga., 28 December, 1846. He was a man greatly endowed by nature to be a leader, of great physical force, with a profile much like that of the Hon. Tom Corwin of Ohio. He had a fine voice and manner, was singularly and simply eloquent. . . . In fact, by nature, he was a great man, and "his works do fol- low him." The effect of his mission schools have been seen for many years past, and many citizens of Indian blood are left to tell the tale. The Stradley brothers of Asheville were two other pioneer Baptist preachers of note. They had been in the Battle of Waterloo as members of Wellington's army before emigrating to America. Their record is known of all men in Buncombe county, and a long line of worthy descendants attest the sturdy character of the parent stock. Rev. Branch Hamline Merrimon. He was born in Din- widdle county, Va., February 22, 1802, and moved with his parents as far as Rogersville, Tenn., on their way to the Great West, when one member of the family becoming too ill to travel further, they stopped there permanently. He joined PIONEER PREACHERS 225 the Methodist Conference at Knoxville in 1824 and became an itinerant Methodist preacher, being assigned to this sec- lion. In 1829 he married Mary E. Paxton, a (kiugliter of Wilham Paxton and his wife Sarah McDowell, a sister of Gen. Charles McDowell of Revolutionary fame. William Paxton was born in Roxbridge county, Va., and came to Burke county, where at Quaker Meadows he married his wife. William Paxton and wife then moved to the Cherry Fields in what is now Transylvania county, where they bought and improved a large tract of fertile land, whither Mr. Mer- rimon and his wife followed. William Paxton was a brother of Judge John Paxton of Morganton, a Superior court judge from 1818 to 1826. He was also a near kinsman of Judge John Hall, a member of the first Supreme court of this State. Mr. Merrimon died at Asheville in November, 1886, leaving seven sons and three daughters. Chief Justice A. S. Merrimon was one of his sons, and Ex-Judge J. H. Merrimon of Asheville is another. Rev. Mr, Merrimon was a staunch Union man during the Civil War. The late Rev. J. S. Burnett was another pioneer Methodist preacher of prominence. United They Stood. "It is a striking fact in the char- acter of this primitive people," says Col. A. T. Davidson in The Lyceum for January 1891, "that they were entirely devoted to each other, clannish in the extreme; and when affliction, sorrow, trouble, vexation, or offence came to one it came to all. It was like a bee-hive — always some one on guard, and all affected by the attack from without. They were the constant attendants around the bed of the sick; suffered with the suffering, wept with those who wept, and attended all the funerals without reward, it never having been known that a coffin was charged for, or the digging of a grave for many long years. Is it a fact that these men were better than those of the present day, or does it only exist in my imagination? When I look back to them I think that they were the best men I ever knew; and the dear old mothers of these humble people are now strikingly engraved upon my memory. The men rolled each others' logs in common; they gathered their harvests, built their cabins, and all work of a heavy character was done in common and without price. The log meeting-house was reared in the same way, and it is W.N.C.-15 226 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA a fact that this was done promptly, without hesitation — regard- less of creeds or sect — all coming together with a will. The Baptists, "rifle, axe and saddle-bag men," or the Methodist "circuit rider" supplied the people with the ministry of the word; and it is pleasant to look back and reflect upon the enjoyment and comfort these humble people had in the admin- istration by these humble ministers in the long-ago. Then they came together and held what they called "union meet- ings," under arbors made with poles and brush, or, at the private residence of some good citizen — often at my father's. I remember distinctly that Nathaniel Gibson, of Crabtree creek, converted the top story of his mill house into one of these places of worship; and Jacob Shook, on Pigeon, the father of the family near Clyde, turned his threshing floor, in his barn, into a place of worship ; and near this was established about 1827 or 1828, Shook's Camp Ground. The good old Dutchman contributed or donated to the church ten acres of land, which have ever been kept for a place of public wor- ship. Rev. Wm. G. Brownlow.^ In the year 1832 Rev. Wm. G. Brownlow, a Methodist minister, afterwards better known as Parson B^o^vnlow and Governor of Tennessee, served as pastor of the Franklin circuit in Macon county. These were the days of intense reUgious prejudices and denominational controversies. Rev. Humphrey Posey, a kinsman of the late Ben. Posey, Esq., was at that time the leading minister of the Baptist church in this section. "It was impossible for men of the type of Brownlow and Posey to long remain in the same community without becoming involved in con- troversy. Nor did they. From denominational discussions their con- troversy degenerated into matters personal, a personal quarrel. Brown- low, as is well known, was a master of invective and his pen was dipped in vitriol. On July 23, 1832, he wrote Rev. Posey a 24-page letter which is still on file among the records of Macon court and which that gentle- man regarded as libelous. He thereupon indicted parson Brownlow, as appears from the com-t records. The first bill was found at fall term 1832. It is signed by J. Roberts, solicitor pro tern., and seems to have been quashed ; at any rate a new bill was sent and the case tried at spring term 1833. Wm. J. Alexander was the solicitor when the case was tried. The defendant pleaded not guilty but was found guilty by the jury, whether upon the ground that the "greater the truth the greater the libel" or not does not appear. He was sentenced to pay a fine and the costs. The amount of the fine was not given but the record discloses PIONEER PREACHERS 227 that it was paid by J. R. Siler, one of the leading citizens and original settlers, and a prominent member of the Methodist church. Execution issued for the coats and the return shows that on July 1, 1.S33, the sheriff 'levied on dun mare, bridle, saddle and saddle bags. Sold for $G5.50. Proceeds into oHice $53.83.' "There is a generally accredited story to the effect that when the sheriff went to levy on the Parson's horse, Brownlow was just closing a preaching service at Mt. Zion church — that he saw the sheriff approach- ing and knew the purpose of his coming, and before the sheriff came up Brownlow handed his Bible to one lady member of his congregation and his hynm book to another and that these books are still in the families of the descendants of these ladies. It is also said that when Brownlow started to conference that fall, J. R. Siler made him a present of another horse in lieu of the one that had been sold." William Gunnaway Brownlow was born in Virginia in 1805, and became a carpenter first and then a Methodist preacher. In 1828 he moved to Tennessee and in 1839 became a local preacher at Jonesboro and editor of The Whig, but moved to Knoxville, taking The Whig with him and continued its publication till the beginning of the Civil war. He preached many sermons defending slavery, and was defeated by Andrew Johnson for Congress in 1843. He wrote several books, the most famous of which was called Parson Bro^vnlow's Book, in which he gave his impleasant experiences with the Con- federates and his views on secession and the Civil War. He was a member of the convention which revised the constitu- tion of Tennessee in 1865, and was elected governor in 1865, and again in 1867. He was sent to the United States senate in 1869 where he remained till 1875. He died at Knoxville in April, 1877.^ Canario Drayton Smith. ^ He was a son of Samuel and Mary Smith, and was born in Buncombe April 1, 1813. His grandfather, Joseph Smith, was born on the eastern shore of Maryland, April 1, 1730, and his grandmother, Rebecca Dath (Welch), was born near the same place on April 1, 1739. In 1765 they moved to North Carolina, and on the journey C. D. Smith's father was born at a public inn in Albemarle county, Va., August 20, 1765. They first settled at Haw- fields in Guilford county, where they were living when the battle was fought in 1780. His maternal grandfather, Daniel Jarrett, was born in Lancaster county, Pa., December 18, 1747. He was of English blood. His grandmother Jarrett, whose maiden name was Catharine C. Moyers, was born in 228 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Lancaster county, Pa., February 9, 1753. She was a German woman. They were married October 25, 1772, moving to North Carolina shortly afterwards and settling in Cabarrus, where his mother, Mary Jarrett, was born June 23, 1775. Soon after the close of hostilities between the Cherokees and whites they moved to Buncombe county, where in 1796 his father and mother were married. They moved to Macon in the winter of 1819-20. At the sale of the Cherokee lands at Waynesville in September, 1820, his father bought the land kno^vn as the Tessentee towns, now Smith's Bridge, where C. D. Smith was reared to manhood. lie attended the subscription schools of the neighl^orhood, and in 1832 went to Caney river, then in Buncombe, now in Yancey, to clerk for Smith & McElroy, merchants, where he spent five years, buying ginseng principally, getting in in 1837 over 86,000 pounds which yielded 25,000 pounds of choice clarified root, which was barreled and shipped to Lucas & Heylin, Philadelphia, and thence to China. In the meantime Yancey had been created a county and John W. McElroy had been elected first clerk of the Superior court, making C. D. Smith his deputy. At a camp meeting held at Caney River Camp Ground in 1836, by Charles K. Lewis, preacher in charge, of the Black Mountain circuit, he was converted and joined the church. At the quarterly conference at Alexander chapel the following June he was licensed to preach by Thos. W. Catlett, presiding elder. He continued to preach till 1850 when he went on the supernumerary list on account of bad health. In 1853 he became agent for the American Colonization Society for Tennessee and sent to Liberia two families of emancipated negroes. In 1854 he became interested in mineralogy, and continued this study of mineralogy and geology till his death. He was assistant State Geologist under Prof. Emmons and a co-worker with Prof. Kerr. He is mentioned in Dr. R. N. Price's works on Methodism, and has an article in Kerr's Geology of North Carolina. He died in 1894. i"The Despot of Broomsedge Cove," by Mary N. Murfree. 2AsheviIle's Centenary. 'Reference is to 1898. *Froni "A Primitive History of the Mountain Region," by Col. W. L. Bryan. 'Facts Furnished by Hon. A. H. Eller of Ashe county, 1912. 'By Fred S. Johnston, Esq., of Franklin, N. C. 'McGee, p. 173. sFrom the "Autobiography of Dr. C. D. Smith," and statements of Henry G. Robert- eon, Esq. CHAPTER X ROADS, STAGE COACHES, AND TAVERNS Buffalo Trails and Tk.\ding Paths. It is probable that bufTaloes made the first roads over these mountains, and that the Indians, following where they led, made their trading paths by pursuing these highways. It is still more probable that the buffaloes instinctively sought the ways that were lev- elest and shortest between the best pastures, thus insuring a passage through the lowest gaps and to the richest lands. The same applies to deer, bear and other wild animals — they wanted to go by the easiest routes and to the countries which afforded the best support. It is still said in the mountains that when the first settlers wanted to build a new road they drove a steer or "cow-brute" to the lowest gap in sight and then drove it do^vn on the side the road was to be located, the tracks made by it being followed and staked and the road located exactly on them. The fact that John Strother mentions no trading paths in the 1799 survey simply indicates that the Indians had not used them for years in the territory north of the ridge between the NoUechucky and the French Broad. No doubt there had been trading paths until the whites came to inter- rupt their passage over the mountains. But Davenport mentions crossing several on the 1821 survey, viz.: the Cata- loochee track at the mouth of Big creek, "the Equeneetly path to Cades cove" at the head of Eagle creek, and at the GOth mile from Pigeon river, in "a low gap at the path of Eque- neetly to Tallassee. " Seven miles further on they came to another trading path of Cheogee (Cheoah) now known as the Belding trail. At the ninety-third mile they reached "the trading path leading from the Valley Towns to the Overhill Settlements" and reaching the ninety-fifth mile on the path before they paused. On August 24th they passed the white oak, 96th mile, on top of the Unicoi mountain, and on the same day reached the "hickory and rock at the wagon road, the 101st mile, at the end of the Unicoi mountain." Hard Roads to Build as Well as to Travel. Powder was scarce and tools were wanting for the construction of (229) 230 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA roads in the early days. Dynamite and blasting powder were then unknown. Ridges offered least resistence to the con- struction of a roadway because the timber on their crests was light and scattered and because, principal consideration, they were generally level enough on top to allow wagon wheels to pass up or down them. But they were frequently too steep even for the overtaxed oxen and horses of that time.^ The level places along creeks and rivers were the next places where roads could be built Avith least labor; but these were always subject to overflow; and cliffs shutting in on one side always forced the road to cross the stream to get lodgment on the opposite bank. Sometimes there were cliffs on both sides of the stream, and then the road had to run up the nearest ''hollow" or cove to the head of the branch flowing in it and across the gap down another branch or brook to the stream from which the road had just parted company. When there was no escape from it, "side-cutting" was resorted to; but as it took a longer road to go by a gentle grade than by a steep climb, the steeper road was invariably built. "Navigating Wagons." James M. Edney, in his Sketches of Buncombe Men in Bennett's Chronology of North Carolina, written in 1855, says: "Col. J. Barnett settled on French Broad seventy years ago, and was the first man to pilot or navigate wagons through Buncombe by putting the two big wheels on the lower side, sometimes pulling, sometimes push- ing, and sometimes carrying the wagon, at a charge of five dollars for work and labor done. "2 The First Road Builders. "Most of the work done at the earlier sessions of the county court of Buncombe related to laying out and working roads. These roads or trails, rude and rough, narrow and steep as they were, constituted the only means of communication between the scattered settlers of this new country, and were matters of first importance to its people. They were located by unlettered hunters and farmers, who knew nothing of civil engineering, and were opened by their labor, and could ill afford to spare time from the support and protection of their families. Roving bands of Indians constantly gave annoyance to the white settlers, and frequently where they found the master of the house absent, would frighten the women and children into taking refuge in the woods, and then burn the furniture and destroy the bedding ROADS. STAGE COACHES AND TAVERNS 231 which they found in the house. Many were the privations incident to a Hfe in a new country suffered by these early set- lers, and many were the hardships which they underwent at the hands of these predatory savages. We can scarcely wonder that they saw in the red man none of the romantic feature of character which their descendants are so fond of attributing to him. This state of affairs continued even up into the present century.^ The Hard, Unyielding Rocks. Whenever rock ledges and cliffs were encountered our road-builders usually "took to the woods." That is, they went as far around them as was necessary in order to avoid them. But, in some cases, they had to be removed; and then holes were drilled by driv- ing steel-tipped bars with sledge-hammers as far as practi- cable, which was rarely over two feet in depth. Into these gunpowder costing fifty cents per pound was poured, and a hollow reed or elder tubes filled with powder were thrust, and the earth tamped around these. A line of leaves or straw was laid on the ground a dozen feet or more from the tube, and slowly burnt its way to the powder. It was a slow and inef- fective method, and too expensive to be much used. Another and cheaper way was to build log heaps on top of the ledge of rock and allow them to burn till the rock was well heated, when buckets and barrels of water were quickly poured on the rock after removing the fire, which split the rock and permitted its being quarried. Stage-Coach Customs. In old times there were no reserved seats on stage coaches — first come, first served, being the rule. This resulted, oftentimes, in grumbling and disputes, but as a rule all submitted with gootl grace, the selfish and pushing getting the choice places then as now. Three pas- sengers on each seat were insisted on in all nine passenger coaches, and woe to that poor wight who had to take the middle of the front seat and ride backwards. Seasickness usually overcame him, but there was no redress, unless some- one volunteered to change seats. In dry and pleasant weather, many preferred a seat with the driver or on the roof behind him. Many pleasant acquaintances were made on stage coach journeys, and sometimes friendships and marriages resulted. Stages were never robbed in tliese mountains, however, as IMurrell and his band usually transacted their affairs further 232 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA west. Heated stones wrapped in rugs and blankets were sometimes taken by ladies during cold weather to keep their feet warm. Old Taverns. Whenever there was a change of horses, which usually happened at or near a tavern or inn, the pas- sengers would get out and visit the "grocery, " either to get warm inside or outside, frequently on both sides. Then, they would walk ahead and be taken up when the coach over- took them. When meals were to be taken there was a rush for the "washing place," usually provided "with several buck- ets of cold spring water and tin basins, with roller towels. Then the rush for the dining room and the well-cooked food served there. Most of these meals were prepared on open hearths before glowing beds of coals, in wide fire-places whose stone hearths frequently extended half across the kitchen floor. But riding at night grew very monotonous, and when possible the ladies remained at these taverns over night, resuming their journeys in the morning. First Roads. Boone's trail across the mountains in 1769 was the first of which there is any record, and that seems to be in dispute (see Chapter "Daniel Boone."). The next one was that followed by James Robertson and the sixteen fam- ihes who left Wake county after Alamance and found their way to the Watauga settlement in Tennessee. They prob- ably followed the Catawba to its head, crossing at the McKinney gap, and followed Bright's trace over the Yellow and thence down to the Doe and so on to the Watauga at Elizabethton.'* McGee says: "When the Watauga set- tlement became Washington county, in 1778, a wagon road was opened across the mountains into the settled parts of North Carolina . . . and in 1779 . . . Washing- ton county was divided into . . . Sullivan, etc."^ The Act of Cession, 1789, calls for the top of the Yellow moun- tain where "Bright's road crosses the same, thence along the ridge of said mountain between the waters of Doe river and the waters of Rock creek to the place where the road crosses the Iron mountain"; and John Strother, in his diary of the survey of 1799 between North Carolina and Tennessee, men- tions that the surveying party crossed "the road leading from Morganton to Jonesborough on Thursday, June 6, 1799." This road was north of the Toe or NoUechucky river and between ROADS. STAGE COACHES AND TAVERNS 233 it and the liright road over the Yellow; hut, as there are now two roads crossing between those points, it is imjjortant to ascertain which is the one openeil in 1778, as that, undoubtedly, was the first wagon road crossing the mountains. Chancellor John Allison speaks of Andrew Jackson crossing this road from Morganton to Jonesborough, Tcnn., in the spring of 1788, as early ''as the melting snow and ice made such a trip over the Appalachians possible."*^ It was "more than one huntlred miles, two-thirds of which, at that time, was without a single human habitation along its course." Practically all histories claim that Sevier and his men passed over the Bright Trace over the Yellow; but Col. W. L. Bryan of Boone, N. C, says that Sevier and his men passed through what is now known as the Carver gap, southwest of the Roan, and down Big Rock creek.'' And it does seem more probable that his men would have followed the wagon road, which Historian McGee says had been opened in 1778, from Sycamore Shoals, than a trail which must have taken them considerably further north than a road nearer the Nollechucky river would have been. But all these dates referring to that road were prior to the passing of the first wagon from North Carolina into Tennessee, mentioned in Wheeler's History of North Carolina as occurring in 1795.^ Indeed, John Strother mentions another "road" at a low gap between the waters of Cove creek (in what is now Watauga county) and Roan creek (in what is now Johnson county, Tenn.) ; but the road over which the first wagon passed into Tennessee in 1795 was probably the one Bishop Asbury traveled from 1800 to October, 1803, over Paint mountain to Warm Springs; and was not the road on the left side of the river leading down to the mouth of Wolf creek. This road is a mile and a half southwest of Paint Rock. Probably no road at that time followed the river bank there. It is certain, however, that in 1812 Hoodenpile had charge of a road from Warm Springs to Newport, Tenn., and was under contract to keep it in repair from the "top of Hopewell Hill (now Stackhouse) to the Tennessee line. "^ William Gillett had built it from Old Newport, Tenn., to the North Carolina line.'" It was on the right bank all the way. The Love road leaves the river six miles below the Hot Springs at the Hale Neilson house and joins main road 12 miles from Greenville, Tcnn. 234 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Path Crossing the Unaker Mountain. ^^ John Strother tells us that about the 13th of May, 1799, they came "to the path crossing from Hollow Poplar to the Greasy Cove and met our company." But what kind of a path that was he does not say. It was probably the road through the Indian Grave Gap, near the buffalo trail. For they were close to the Nollechucky river then, and Bishop Asbury's Journal records the fact that on Thursday, November 6, 1800, he crossed Nollechucky at Querton's Ferry, and came to Major Gragg's, 18 miles, arriving at Warm Springs next day. This road crossed the Small and the Great Paint mountains, for he mentions an accident that befell his horse after crossing both. This most probably was the road over which the first wagon passed in 1795 as recorded in Wheeler's history. In November 1802, the good Bishop "grew afraid" of Paint nountain "and with the help of a pine sapling worked my way down the steepest and roughest parts," on his way to Warm Springs where, at William Nelson's, he found that thirty travelers had "dropped in," and where he expounded to them the scripture as found in the "third chapter of Romans as equally applicable to nominal Christians, Indians, Jews and Gen- tiles. "^^ What New Road Was This? In October, 1803, he con- tinued to Paint mountain "passing the gap newly made, which makes the road down Paint creek much better. " The Hoodenpyle Road. In December 1812, Bishop Asbury asks "Why should we climb over the desperate Spring and Paint mountains when there is such a fine new road? We came on Tuesday a straight course to Barrett's (Barnett's) dining in the woods on our way." This must have been the Hoodenpyle road from Warm Springs to Newport, Tenn., which he was under contract to keep in order from Hopewell Hill to the Termessee line. This road follows Paint creek one mile and then crosses the mountains.'^ He moved to Huntsville Landing on the Tennessee river in the territory of Mississippi, where John Welch of Haywood, agreed to deliver to him on or before the first of May, 1813, 2,667 gallons of "good proof whiskey"; and on or before 14 of August, 1814, 1,500 gallons of the same gloom-dispelhng ehxir, for value received. No wonder Philip Hoodenpile could play the fiddle with his left handl^^ ROADS. STAGE COACHES AND TAVERNS 235 SwANNANOA Gap TiiAiL. This, doubtless, was the first road into Buncombe from the east, and led from Old Fort in McDowell county to the head of the Swannanoa river and Bee Tree creek where the first settlers stopped about 1782. How long after this it was before a wagon road was built through this gap does not appear; but it is recorded that the Bairds brought their first wagon through Saluda gap, some miles to the southwest, in 1793. Even that, however, at that date was probably only a very poor wagon road. But a wagon road was finally built through the gap Rutherford and his men had passed through in 1776 to subdue the Cher- okees. The Old Swannanoa Gap Road.'^ "The old road through this gap did not cross, as it has often been stated to have done, at the place where the Long or Swannanoa Tunnel is. In later years the stage road did cross at that place. But the old road crossed a half a mile further south. To travel it one would not, as in the case of the later road, leave Old Fort and pass up Mill Creek three miles to where Henry station, so long the head of the railroad, stood. He would leave Old Fort and go across the creek directly west for about a mile before going into the mountains. Then he would turn to the right, ascend the mountain, cross it at about one- half mile south of Swannanoa tunnel, and thence pass down the mountain until the road joined the later road above Black jNIountain station." Buncombe County Roads. In his very admirable work, "Asheville's Centenary" (1898), Dr. F. A. Sondley gives a fine account of the building of the first roads in Buncombe county. The first of these ran from the Swannanoa river to Da\ddson river, in what is now Transylvania county, crossing the French Broad below the mouth of Avery's creek, passing Mills river and going up Boydsteens (now improperly pro- nounced Boilston) creek; the second ran from " the wagon ford on Rims (now called Reems) creek to join the road from Tur- key cove, Catawba, to Robert Henton's on Cane river, after passing through Asheville. In July, 1793, the court ordered a road to be laid off from Buncombe court house to the Bull mountain road near Robert Love's. In 1795 a road was ordered to run from the court house to Jonathan McPeter's on Hom- iny creek; and at a later period two other roads ran out north 236 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA from Asheville to Beaver Dam and Glenn creek. Then fol- lowed the Warm Springs road, crossing Reems creek at the old Wagoner ford and through the rear of the old Alexander farm, crossing Flat creek" and ran on to the farm of Bedent Smith near the Madison county line, where it turned west and ran to the mouth of Ivy, thence to Marshall "and about one-half mile below that town turned to the east and ran with the old Hopewell turnpike, built by Philip Hoodenpyle, later known as the Jewel Hill road, to Warm Springs." On July 8, 1795, Governor Blount of the territory south of the Ohio river, now called Tennessee, suggested to the council of that territory the opening of a road from Buncombe court house to Tennessee; and Sevier and Taylor were appointed to act with Wear, Cocke, Doherty and Taylor to consider the matter, which resulted in the opening of a road from North Carolina to Tennessee, via Warm Springs, following the right bank of the French Broad to Warm Springs. In 1793 the Bairds "had carried up their four-wheel wagon across the Saluda gap, a road through which had been opened by Col. Earle for South Carohna for $4,000, and is probably the old road from Columbia, which passed through Newberry and Greenville districts," and yet known in upper South Caro- lina as the old State or Buncombe road. "There was already a road or trail coming from the direction of South Carolina to Asheville," crossing the Swannanoa at the Gum Spring, and known as the "road from Augusta in Georgia to Knox- ville." (Record Book 62, p. 361.) The New Stock Road. This road passes through Weaver- ville, Jupiter, Jewel Hill and through Shelton Laurel in Madi- son into Tennessee, and was built when Dr. Wm. Askew, who was born in 1832, was a boy, in order to escape the delays of waiting for the French Broad river to subside in times of freshets, and in winter, of avoiding the ice which drifted into the road from the river and sometimes made it impassable. But Bishop Asbury records the fact that on Tuesday, October 25, 1803, in coming from Mr. Nelson's at Warm Springs to K'Uian's on Beaver Dam, "the road is greatly mended by changing the direction and throwing a bridge over Ivy." This is probably part of the road that runs up Ivy creek from French Broad and crosses Ivy about a mile up stream, and then comes on by Jupiter to Asheville. If so, the New Stock ROADS. STAGE COACHES AND TAVERNS 237 must have started from that bridge across Ivy and run by Jewel Hill to the Te inesst^ line. The Buncombe Turnpike.'^ "In 1824 Asheville received her greatest impetus. In that year the legislature of North Carolina incorporated the now famous but abandoned Bun- combe Turnpike road, directing James Patton, Samuel Chunn ami (leorge Swain to receive subscriptions "for the purpose of laying out and making a turnpike road from the Saluda Gap, in the county of Buncombe, by way of Smith's, Maryville, Asheville and the Warm Springs, to the Tennessee line." (2 Rev. Stat, of N. C, 418). This great thorough- fare w'as completed in 1828, and brought a stream of travel through Western North Carolina. All the attacks upon the legality of the act establishing it were overruled by the Supreme court of the State, and Western North Carolina entered through it upon a career of marvelous prosperity, which continued for many years. Asheville and Greenville Plank Road.^^ "In 1851 the legislature of the State of North Carolina incorporated the Asheville & Greenville Plank Road Company, with authority to that company to occupy and use this turnpike road upon certain prescribed terms. A plank road was ocn- structed over the southern portion of it, or the greater part of it south of Asheville, and contributed yet more to Ashe- villes's prosperity. By the conclusion of the late war, how^- ever, this plank road had gone down, and in 1866 the charter of the plank road company was repealed, w^hile the old Bun- combe turnpike was suffered to fall into neglect. " Asheville Gets A Start. ^^ From the time of the build- ing of the Buncombe Turnpike road, Asheville began to be a health resort and summering place for the South Carolinians, who have ever since patronized it as such. The Watchese Road. In 1813 a company was organized to lay out a free public road from the Tennessee river to the head of navigation on the Tugaloo branch of the Savannah river. It was completed in 1813, and became the great high- way from the coast to the Tennessee settlements.^^ First Roads over the "Smokies." John Strother men- tions but two roads as crossing the mountains between Vir- ginia and the Pigeon river, that at "a low gap between the waters of Cove creek — in what is now Watauga county — 238 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA i and Roans creek — in what is now Johnson county, Tenn. — and that of "the road leading from ^iorgait, ton to Jones- borough," Tenn., between the Yellow and the Roan.** First Roads over the Unakas. Of the survey in 1821, from the end of the 1799 survey on Big Pigeon to the Georgia line is 116 miles; and yet, as late as 1821 there were but two roads crossing from North Carolina into Tennessee. They were "the Cataloochee track" where the 1799 survey ended and "the wagon road" at the 101st mile post on the Hiwassee river. *^ Little Tennessee River Road. Just when the wagon road from Tallassee ford up the Little Tennessee river was first constructed cannot be definitely ascertained. Some sort of a road, probably an Indian trail, may have existed for years before the coming of the whites into that section; but it is not probable, as a road near the river bank is simply impossible, while on the left side of the Little Tennessee is what is now known as the Belding Trail. But this name has only recently been bestowed on an ancient Indian trail which followed the Cheoah river to what is now Johnson post office and then cut across the ridges to Bear creek, passing Dave Orr's house, to Slick Rock creek, and thence down to Tallassee ford and the Hardin farm. Gen. Winfield Scott's Military Road. It is probable, however, that Gen. Winfield Scott had a military road con- structed from Calhoun, his headquarters in Tennessee, up to the junction of the Little Tennessee with the Tuckaseegee at what is now Bushnell; for we know that it was down this road that most of the Cherokees were driven during the Removal of 1838. But it was impossible for this road to follow the river bank beyond the Paine branch, where it left the river and by following that branch, crossed the ridge and returned to the river again, reaching it at what is now called Fairfax. For it was at the mouth of the Paine branch that Old Charley, the Cherokee, and his family made their break for liberty, and succeeded in escaping in 1838. Beyond Rocky Point, however, it is impossible even for modern en- gineers, except at a prohibitive cost, to build a road near the river bank, and the consequence has been that the road runs over a series of ridges, which spread off from the end of the Great Smoky range like so many figures, down to the Little ROADS. STAGE COACHES AND TAVERNS 239 Tennessee. Gen. Wool's soldiers built the road from Val- leytown to Robbinsville in 1836-7.-'' Crusoe Jack and Judge Fax. There is a tradition that, when the treaty of Tellico in 1789 was made, Crusoe Jack, a mulatto, got a grant to the magnificent Harden farm and that John Harden traded him out of it. Harden worked about fifty slaves on this farm, among whom was Fax, a mu- latto, who bought his freedom from John Harden, whose de- scendants still own this farm, and settled at Fairfax, where Daniel Lester afterwards lived for many years, and where Jeremiah Jenkins afterwards lived and died. Fax was called Judge Fax and kept a public house where he supplied wagoners and other travelers with such accommodations as he could. Old Wilkesborough Roads. The prinicipal road from Wilkesboro passed through Deep gap and went by Boone. The Phillips gap road was made just before the Civil War and after Arthur D. Cole settled on Gap creek and began his extensive business there it was much used. All freight came from Wilkesboro. The turnpike from Patterson over Blowing Rock gap passed down the Watauga river and ShuU's Mills to Valle Crucis, Ward's store. Beech, and Watauga Falls to Gardens' bluff in Tennessee, after which it left the Watauga river and crossed the ridge to Hampton and Doe river, going on to Jonesboro. It was surveyed about 1848 by Col. William Lenoir and built soon afterwards. David J. Farthing and Anderson Cable remember seeing the grading while it was being built, and Alfred Moretz of Deep Gap was present when sections of the road were bid off by residents, the bid- ding being near the mouth of Beech creek. The Western Turnpike. In 1848-9 the legislature passed an act to provide for a turnpike road from Salisbury to the line of the State of Georgia. The lands of the Cherokees were later pledged for the building of this "Western Turnpike," as it was officially called, and in 1852-3 another act was passed "to bring into market the lands" so pledged, and this act was later (Ch. 22, Laws 1854-5) supplemented by an act which gave the road the proceeds of the sales of the Cherokee lands in Cherokee, Macon, Jackson and Haywood counties. At the latter session another act was passed making Asheville the eastern terminus and the Tennessee line, near Ducktown, the western terminus of this road, and providing that it should 240 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA also extend to the Georgia line; but that the latter road should be only a branch of the main road. It also provided that in case the bridge across the French Broad river — presumably Smith's bridge at Asheville — could not be obtained on satis- factory terms, the route of the turnpike might be changed and a new bridge constructed. As this was not done, it is probable that satisfactory terms were made for the use of Smith's bridge, as it had been sold to Buncombe county about 1853. When this road reached the Tuckaseegee river "the influence of Franklin and Macon county was the prin- cipal force which took it across the Cowee and Nantahala mountains^^ The survey was made by an engineer by the name of Fox in 1849. It was completed over the Valley river mountains and Murphy in 1856. The late Nimrod S. Jarrett was chief of construction. Chapter 51, Laws of 1854-5 defined the duties of and powers of turnpike and plankroad compa- nies, and acts incorporating the latter throughout the State passed at that session extend from page 178 to page 216, showing their popularity. Smith's Bridge. Long before a bridge had been built across the French Broad at Asheville Edmund Sams, who had come from the Watauga settlement and settled on the west side of the French Broad at what was later known as the Gaston place about a mile above the mouth of the Swanna- noa operated a ferry there. He had been an Indian fighter, and later a soldier of the Revolution. He was also for years a trustee of the Newton Academy, and died on the farm of his father-in-law, Thomas Foster, near Biltmore. John Jar- rett afterwards lived at the western terminus of the present bridge, keeping the ferry and charging toll. Subsequently he sold it to James M. Smith, who built a toll bridge there, which he maintained till about 1853, when he died, after having sold the bridge to Buncombe county. After this it became a free bridge. In 1881 it was removed to make way for the pres- ent iron structure, but its old foundations are yet plainly to be seen.^- That old bridge was a single track affair without handrails for a long time before the Civil War, and nothing but log stringers on each side of the roadway. Col. J. C. Smathers of Turnpike remembers when, if a team began to back, there was nothing to prevent a vehicle going over into the river. Chapter 313, Laws, 1883, made it unlawful to ROADS. STAGE COACHES AND TAVERNS 241 drive or rido faster than a walk over the new double-track bridge at Asheville." Caurieu's Bridge. This was l)uilt about 1893, crossing the French Broad at the mouth of the Swannanoa river. It was afterwards sold to the county. Pearson's Bridge, near Riverside Park, was built by Hon. Richmond Pearson about this time, but afterwards taken over by the county. The Concrete bridge below the passenger depot was finished and opened in 1911. Gorman's Bridge. This is about five miles below Ashe- ville and was erected long before the war, but was washed away. It was replaced by the present iron structure, about 1900. The Anderson Road. About the year 1858 a road was made from the head of Cade's Cove in Blount county, Tenn., around the Boat mountain to what is now and was probably then the Spence Cabin at Thunderhead mountain. It was finished to this point, in the expectation that a road from the mouth of Chambers creek, below Bushnel, would be built over into the Hazel creek settlement, and thence up the Foster ridge and through the Haw gap to meet it. But North Caro- lina failed to do its part, and the old Anderson road in a ruin- ous condition, but still passable for footmen and horsemen, re- mains a mute witness to somebody's bad faith in the past. Great Road Activity. Between 1848 and 1862, while the late Col. W. H. Thomas was in the legislature, the statute books are full of charters for turnpike and plankroad com- panies all through the mountains. Many of these roads were not to be new roads but improvements on old roads which were bad; and some of the roads authorized were never built at all. The Jones gap road to Caesar's head, the road from Bakersville to Burnsville, the road from Patterson to Valle Crucis and on to Jonesboro, the road up Cove creek by trade and Zionville to what is now Alountain City, the road over Cataloochee to Newport, the road up Ocona Lufty, the road through Soco gap, the road up Tuckasecgee river and the Nantahala, through Red Marble gap, etc., were all chartered during that time. And Col. Thomas was especially' interested in the road from Old Valleyto\vn over the Snowbird moun- tain, via Robbinsville (Junaluska's old home) down the Che- owah river to Rocky Point, where he had built a bridge across W. N.C— 16 242 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA the Little Tennessee and was confidently awaiting the ap- proach of the Blue Ridge railroad, which has not arrived yet. Old Stage Coach Days. "From Greenville to Greenville" was the watchword when bids were made for the mail lines in those days. Each Greenville was sixty miles from Asheville. The stops between Greenville, S. C. and Asheville were, first, at C. Montgomery's, ten miles north of Greenville, then at Garmany's, twenty miles; then at Col. John Davis's, near the State line, where Col. David Vance was taken to die after his duel with Carson in 1827; then at Hendersonville; then at Shufordsville, or Arden, 12 miles, then at Asheville. Col. Ripley sold out to John T. Poole, of Greenville, S. C, about 1855, and he ran hacks till 1865 when Terrell W. Taylor bought him out and continued to run hacks till the Spartanburg & Asheville Railroad reached Tryon, about 1876. Old Stage Coach Contractors. J. C. Hankins of Green- ville, Tenn., used to have the line from that point to Warm Springs, his stages starting out from Greenville nearly oppo- site the former residence of the late Andrew Johnson, once President of the United States, and whose son, Andrew John- son, Jr., married Elizabeth, the second daughter of Col. J. H. Rumbough of Hot Springs. He stopped running this line, however, when the railroad reached Wolf Creek in 1868. The late Wm. P. Blair of Asheville, who used to run the old Eagle hotel, also ran the stage line from Asheville to Greenville, Tenn., (this was at the beginning of the Civil War) until his stock and coaches were captured by Col. G. W. Kirk. In July, 1866, Col. Rumbough ran the stage line from Greenville, Tenn., to Greenville, S. C. The ''stands," as the stopping places were called, were breakfast at Warm Springs, dinner at Marshall, supper at Asheville. Owing to the condition of the roads Col. Rumbough cut down, the toll gate at Marshall in July, 1866, and the matter was compromised by allowing him to apply the tolls to keeping the road in condition, in- stead of letting the turnpike company do it. Keen Competitors. Col. Rumbough ran the line about a year and a half, when Hon. A. H. Jones, congressman, got the contract, but failed to carry it out, and Col. Rumbough took it again. The Morganton Line. The stage line from Morganton to the "head of the railroad," as the various stopping place ROADS, STAGE COACHES AND TAVERNS 243 along the line as the road progressed toward Asheville were called, was running many years before the Civil War. After that, the late E. T. Clemmons of Salem came to Asheville and operated the line from Old Fort to Asheville. Through Hickory-Nut Gap. In 1834 Bedford Sherrill secured a four years' contract to haul the mails from Salis- bury via Linc'olnton, Schenck's Cotton mills, and Ruther- fordton to Asheville. He moved shortly afterwards to Hick- ory Nut gap, for years thereafter famous as one of the old taverns of the mountains. Ben Seney of Tennessee succeeded him as mail carrier on this route, but he did not complete his contract, giving it up before the expiration of the four years. Old fashioned Albany stage coaches were used. Hacks to Murphy. As the railroads approached Ashe- ville the hacks and stages were taken off. The late Pinckney Rollins ran a weekly hack hne, which carried the mail, from Asheville to jVIurphy from about 1870, and shortly afterward changed it to a daily line. But he failed at it, and lost much money. The stopping places in 1871 were Turnpike for dinner, Wa\niesville for supper, where a stop was made till next day. Then to Webster for dinner and Josh Frank's, two miles east of Franklin, for supper and night. The third day took the mail through Franklin to Aquone for dinner at Stepp's, at the bridge-^; and to Mrs. Walker's, at Old Val- ley TowTi, for supper. The next day the trip was made to Murphy for dinner, and back that night to Old Valley Town. As the railroad progressed toward Waynesville the hacks ran from the various termini to that town. From Salem to Jonesborough. As far back as 1840 stages or hacks ran from Salem via Wilkesboro, Jefferson, Creston, through Ambrose gap, Taylorsville, Term., to Jonesboro, Tennessee; but they were withdrawn at least ten years before the Civil War, after which Samuel Northington ran a hne of hacks from Jefferson to Taylorsville, now Mountain City, Tennessee. Stages were run from Lenoir via Blo\ving Rock, Shulls Mills and Zionville from 1852 to 18G1. Moonlight and the Old Stage Horn. In 1828, when "Billy" Vance kept the Warm Springs hotel, old fashioned stage coaches ran between Asheville and Greenville, Tenn., and Greenville, S. C.^* According to the recollection of Dr. T. A. Allen of Hendersonville, N. C, "the old stage line back 244 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA in 1840 was operated by the Stocktons of Maryland from Augusta, Ga., "via Greenville, S. C, Asheville, N. C., the Warm Springs and across Paint Mountain to Greenville, Tennessee. "The line from Greenville, S. C., to Greenville, Tenn., was sold to the late Valentine Ripley, who bought it and settled in Hendersonville about 1845." They ran Con- cord coaches — sometimes called Albany coaches — which were swung on leatlier braces and carried nine passengers inside, with a boot behind for trunks, and space on top and beside the driver for several additional passengers. The driver was an autocrat, and carried a long tin horn, which he blew as stopping places were approached, to warn the inn-keepers of the number of passengers to be entertained. Nothing was lovelier on a moonlit, frosty night than these sweet notes echoing over hill and dale: "O, hark, O, hear, how thin and clear, And thinner, clearer, farther going! O, sweet and far from chff and scar The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!" When the railroad was completed to Greenville, S. C, in 1855, Col. Ripley ran stages from Greenville, Tenn., to Green- ville, S. C, daily, though in 1853 he had been limited to the run from Greenville, S. C, to Asheville, N. C'^s Jefferson and Wilkesborough Turnpike. In 1901 the Wilkesborough and Jefferson Turnpike company was incorporated. (Private Laws, ch. 286) and the road was completed in five years. The State simply furnished the convicts and the stockholders the provisions and the expenses of the guard. Other Counties Get Good Roads. In 1911 Hon. J. H. Dillard secured the passage by the legislature of a road law under which Murphy township is authorized to issue $150,- 000.00 of six per cent bonds for the improvement of the roads, and the four main streets of the towTi and roads leading into the countr}'. Haywood had already done much for the improvement of its roads, while Watauga has undoubtedly the best roads west of the Blue Ridge, the roads to Blowing Rock, Shull's Mills, Boone, Valle Crucis and Banners Elk and Elk Cross roads being unsurpassed anyw^here. Carver's Gap Road. Chapter 63 of the Private laws ROADS. STAGE COACHES AND TAVERNS 245 of 1881 aiiieiuk'd fhaplcr 72 ul" Private laws of 186G-G7 l)y allowing John L. WiUlor, John E. Toppan and others to build a turnpike from WiKler's forge on Big Rock creek across Roan mountain to Carver's gap on the Tennessee State line; and to make a turnpike from Carver's gap down the valley of Little Rock creek to the ford of said creek at John G. Burli- son's dwelling house. Convicts to jNIake County Roads. On the 6th of Feb- raury, 1893, the Buncombe county commissioners approved a bill which had been introduced in the legislature by CJen. R. B. Vance to use convicts for working county roads, which has proven beneficent, except that negroes and whites are crowded together in too small quarters. Convicts prefer work in the open air to confinement in jails and penitentiaries. End of Toll Gates. On the 5th of September, 1881, the old Buncombe Turnpike company surrendered and the commissioners accepted its charter. The turnpike down the French Broad river having been turned over to the Western North Carolina railroad company for stock in that enterprise in 1869, all that was left to be surrendered was the road from the Henderson county line to Asheville, passing through Lime- stone township. Gradually each county took over the great Western Turnpike from Asheville to Murphy, thus abolishing toll gates along the road, the legislature having authorized this change. There are still toll gates on some roads, but they have been specially authorized bj^ legislative enactment, and are comparatively few, Yonahlossee and Elk Park roads being of the number. Rip Vanw^inkle Buncombe. From 1880 to 1896 Asheville had gone ahead by leaps and bounds, having in that time paved its streets, built electric railroads, hotels and private residences that are still the pride of all; but the county had stood still. Its old court house, jail and alms house were a reflection on the progress of the times. But in 1896, "Cousin Caney" Bro\A'n was elected chairman of the board of county commissioners, and graded a good road from Smith's bridge in the direction of his farm, using the county convicts for the work.^^ He had a farm at the end of the road, it is true, and was criticised for building the road; but it was such a well graded thoroughfare and such an object lesson that the people not only forgave him for providing a better road to 246 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA his home, but all commissioners who have followed him have been afraid not to contribute something to what he began. Mark L. Reed. Profiting by the example set by "Cousin Caney, " M. L. Reed spent a lot of good money building other roads which were macadamized, placing good steel bridges over creeks and rivers where they had long been needed, and in replacing the disgraceful old court house by a modern structure, and providing a jail that is ample for the demands of humanity and the times. A decent home was provided for orphan children of the county. The old alms house was given up and better quarters provided for the old and infirm of the county. "Cousin Caney" had set the pace, and soon other good roads and good roads sentiment followed. Buncombe Good Roads Association. The Good Roads Association of Asheville and Buncombe county was organized March 6, 1899, Dr. C. P. Ambler was the president and B. M. Jones secretary and treasurer. These officers have been continued in their positions ever since. Their object is the construction and improvement of roads. They have suc- ceeded in accomplishing much good — not the least of which are mile posts and sign boards. They raised S5,000.00 to improve the road from Asheville to Biltmore soon after its organization and $550 for the survey of the "crest of the Blue Ridge highway;" and constructed a horse-back trail to Mitchell's Peak. They are advocating the construction of other highways. YoNAHLOssEE TuRNPiKE. About 1890 the Linville Improve- ment company was formed, having among its stockholders Mr. S. T. Kelsey, formerly of Highlands, N. C, and before his building of that towm, of Kansas. Through his instru- mentality, largely, assisted by the Messers. Ravenel and Don- ald Macrae, the latter of Wilmington, there was constructed the most picturesque and durable highway in the mountains or the State. It begins at Linville City, two miles from Monte- zuma, Avery county, and runs around the eastern base of Grandfather mountain to Blownng Rock, a distance of twenty miles. It cost about $18,000 complete. It gave an impetus to other road-builders. A road w^as soon thereafter built from Blowing Rock to Boone, and from Valle Crucis to Ban- ners Elk. There are no finer roads in the State, and none ROADS. STAGE COACHES AND TAVERNS 247 built on more difficult ground. In 1912 they were the delight of numerous automobile owners. NOTES. 'Ashcvillo's Centenary. Till' first brakes were made of hickory saplings whose brunches were twined around the front axle and bent around the hind wheels; afterwards came " locking chains" attached to the body of wagons and then passed between tlie spokes of the wlieels to retard the vehicle's going down steep grades. Voung trees dragged on the road also served at tiinca. 'A.sheville's Centenary. ♦Roosevelt (\'ol. I, 225) records the fact that on his return from hii first visit to Watauga, in the fall of 1770, James Robertson lost his way, and for 14 days lived on nuts and berries, and abandoned his horse among impassible precipices. If he followed up the left bank of the Watauga and did not see that the Doe came into the former stream at what is now Elizabethton, it is easy to see how he followed up the left bank of the latter and got lost amid the precipices of what is now Pardee's Point. iRoosevelt, Vol. Ill, pp. 97-98. •" Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History," p. 4. 'Letter from Col. W. L. Bryan of Boone to J. P. A., December 3, 1912. '.Asheville's Centenary. Wheeler's History of North Carolina, p. 476. •Deed Book E., p. 121-2, Buncombe. '"Statement of Francis Marion Wells to J. P. A., July 15, 1912. Old Newport ia three miles above the present town, the railroad docs not pass the former at all. "This must have been a local name for this part of the range, for the real Unaka moun- tains are southwest of Little Tennessee river. '•This is spoiled Neilson. "Deed Book E, Buncombe, p. 122. "Ibid., p. 123. ".\shcville's Centenary. "From .Vsheville's Centenary. "See chapter on Cherokee Indians. "Deed Book E, Reg. Deeds, Buncombe county, pp. 122-123. "Davenport's Diary quoted in chapter on boundaries. '"Sketch of Graham County by Rev. Joseph A. Wiggins, February 3, 1912. "Capt. James W. Terrell in The Commonwealth, Asheville. June 1. 1893. '^Condensed from Asheville's Centenary. 18J8. '•But from 1872 dinner was taken at Capt. .\. R. Munday's. "Col. J. H. Rumbough to J. P. A., November 13, 1912. s'Dr. T. A. Allen to J. P. A., November 12, 1912. '•This was T. Caney Brown. CHAPTER XI MANNERS AND CUSTOMS Then and Now. Probably there was no more difference in the manners and customs of the early days than we should now see in a community of modern people situated as were our ancesters one hundred and fifty years ago. There was a spirit of co-operation then that made conditions much easier to bear than they might othermse have been. Those who remember the Civil War times in the South will recall that it is possible to get on without many things ordinarily consid- ered indispensible ; and that when it is the "fashion" to do without, simplicity becomes quite attractive. Calico gowns and ribbonless costumes used to look well on pretty women and girls during the war, and hopinjon was far better than no hopinjon. We imagine that we are far removed from a state of nature, but when the occasion arises we readily adapt ourselves to primitive manners and customs. The Rush for the Mountains. Long before the treaty of 1785 white men had passed beyond the Blue Ridge to hunt and trap. Ashe was sparsely settled long before Buncombe; but as soon as the land between the Blue Ridge and the Pigeon river was open for settlement legally, white men began to settle there, too. Where They Came From. Most of these early settlers came from east of the Blue Ridge, though many came from the Watauga Settlements in what is now Tennessee. Wolf Hill, now Staunton, contributed its quota, most of them going into what are now Ashe, Alleghany and Watauga counties. The charm of hunting lured many, but most who sought the mountains doubtless came from the mountainous regions of Scotland. After the French and Indian War several families that had gone into the Piedmont region of South Carolina, came through the Saluda gap and settled in what was then Buncombe, though now called Henderson and Transylvania. The Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania late in the Eighteenth century is also credited with having sent many good citizens into the mountains of western North Carolina. (248) MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 249 The Pioneer Spirit Persists. Roosevelt was the first historian that gave to the pioneers of western North CaroHiia and Tennessee tlieir rightful place in reclaiming from savage Indians the boundless resources of the Great West. Sam Houston, Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone went from our sacred soil, and added Texas and Kentucky to the galaxy of our starry flag; while Joseph Lane of Oregon first saw the light of day through the chinks of a dirt-fioor cabin that once stoodin the very shadow of what is still called Lane's Pinnacle of the rugged Craggies — a mute, yet eloquent, monument to that spirit of liberty, enterprize and adventure that still fills our army and navy ^\^th recruits for the Sandwich and Phil- ippine Islands of the Pacific. Yet, what visitor to that match- less canon beyond Hickory Nut pass, knows that in passing through Mine Hole gap six miles east of Asheville, he was within a stone's throw of the spot where Lane's father in the dawn of the last century spent laljorious days while mining for the precious ore that was to furnish horse-shoes, plough-shares and pruning-hooks for those who first tilled the savannahs of the Swannanoa and the French Broad? Did the pearls of Henry Grady's eloquence, erstwhile, drop scintilant, and thrill the nation from the Kcnnebeck to the Willamette, because his lightest gem was "shot through with sunshine"? Then know, O ye fools and blind, ye who never cast one longing, lingering look behind, that his grandfather was once sheriff of that Bun- coml)e county whose people are classed by such self-styled "national journals" as Collier's Weekly, wath the scorners of all law and order, because, forsooth, of the sporadic Allen epi- sode in Virginia. Wlio discovered that wonderland — the matchless valley of the far-famed Yosemite? James M. Roan of Macon county. North Carolina, in March of Fifty-one.^ He, with the Argonauts of the world, won his way to the Pacific coast, and left to others to dig from the dim records of the past some frail memorial of his heroic deeds. The spirit that drove him forth has never died, and todaj-, the mountains and hills of Idaho, Montana, Washington and Col- orado, are dotted with the homes and ranches of those whose feet first trod "where rolls the Oregon." And Onalaska's ice- ribbed hills are peopled with our kin, as will be every frontier region till Time shall be no more. Our ancestors were the Crusaders of American civilization, and "as long as the fame 250 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA of their matchless struggle shall linger in tradition and in song should their memories be cherished by the descendants" of the peerless "Roundheads of the South." Still, the incredulous may ask "Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust, or flat- tery soothe the dull, cold ear of death"? No; but if we will but heed while yet we may the silent voices of our worthy dead, and learn the lesson of the days now gone, we, taking hope, with Tennyson may cry : "Forward to the starry track, Glimmering up the heights beyond me, On, and always on!" The First Indian Massacres. Samuel Davidson was killed by Indians in 1781 or 1782 at the head of the Swan- nanoa river, near what is now Gudger's ford; and Aaron Burleson was killed on Cane creek in what is now Mitchell county about the same time, probably, though the date has been lost. He was an ancestor of Postmaster-General Burleson of President Wilson's Cabinet in 1914. Davidson had belonged to a small colony of whites which had settled around what is now known as Old Fort at the head of the Catawba river in what is now McDowell county. Among those settlers were the Alexanders, Davidsons, Smiths, Edmundsons, and Gudgers, from whom have come a long line of descendants now residing in Western North Carolina. Burleson probably belonged to the settlers around ]\Iorganton, and had ventured beyond the Blue Ridge to hunt deer. Davidson's purpose, however, had been permanent settlement, as he had built a cabin where his family was living when he was killed." Ashe County. Except in a few localities, there are few evidences of Indian occupation by Indians of the territory west of the Blue Ridge and North of the Catawba. At the Old Field on New River, near the mouth of Gap creek, in Ashe county, was probablj^ once a large Indian town, arrow- heads, spear points, pieces of pottery, etc., still being found there; but this section of the mountains had not been popu- lated by the red men for thirteen years before the treaty of 1785, the Indians having leased those lands in 1772, and in 1775, conveyed them outright.^ Buffaloes. Thwaite's "Daniel Boone" gives much infor- mation as to the buffaloes that once were in this section. "At first buffaloes were so plenty that a party of three or four men MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 251 with dogs, could kill from ten to twenty in a day; but soon the sluggish animals receded before the advance of white men, hid- ing themselves behind the mountain wall " (pp. 17, 18). "They exhiljited no fear until the wind blew from the hunters toward them, and then they would tlash wildly away in large droves and disappear" (p. 90). BufTalo trails led down the French Broad; and just north of the Toe and near the Indian (Irave gap the trail is still distinctly visible where it crossed the mountain. The valley of the French Broad was a well recog- nized hunting ground and probably it had contained many butYaloes; but as the Cherokees occupied most of the territory west of the Pigeon, it is more than likely that the bison family was not so numerous there; although in Graham county there are two large creeks which have been called Buffalo time out of mind. BufTalo used to herd at the head of the Yadkin river, and their trails crossed the mountains into Tennessee at several places. But this part of the mountains had been free of Indians for many years before 1750, when the whites began to settle there. Col. Byrd, in his "Writings" (p. 225), says that when near Sugar-tree creek when running the Divid- ing Line that his party met a lone buffalo two years old — a bull and already as large as an ox, which they killed. He adds that "the Men were so delighted with the new dyet, that the Gridiron and Frying Pan had no more rest all night than a Poor Husband Subject to Curtain Lectures." Roose- velt^ mentions that "When Mansker first went to the Bluffs (now Nashville) in 1769, the buffaloes were more numerous than he had ever seen them before; the ground literally shook under the gallop of the mighty herds, they crowded in dense throngs round the licks, and the forest resounded with their grunting bellows." One Virtue in Leather Breeches. Col. Byrd in his "Writings" (p. 212) has these observations upon the curing of skins by means of "smoak," as he invariably spells it : "For Expedition's Sake they often stretch their Skins over Smoak in order to dry them, which makes them smell so dis- agreeably that a Rat must have a good Stomach to gnaw them in that condition; nay, 'tis said, while that perfume con- tinues in a Pair of Leather Breeches, the Person who wears them will be in no danger of that Villainous insect the French call the Morpion" — whatever that may be. 252 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Some Insect Pests of Pioneer Days. This same versa- tile and spicy writer makes these sage remarks concerning cer- tain wood insects that have since that time cost these United States millions of dollars: "The Tykes (ticks) are either Deer- tykes, or those that annoy Cattle. The first kind are long, and take a very Strong Gripe, being most in remote woods, above the Inhabitants. The other are round and more gen- erally insinuate themselves into the Flesh, being in all places where Cattle are frequent. Both these Sorts are apt to be troublesome during the Warm Season, but have such an aver- sion to Penny Royal, that they will attack no Part that is rubbed with the juice of that fragrant Vegetable. And a strong decoction of this is likewise fatal to the most efficient Seedtikes, which bury themselves in your Legs, where they are so small you can hardly discern them without a Microscope. [Surely the man is talking about "chiggers. "] Horseflies and Musquetas. He says (p. 213) that Dit- tany "stuck in the Head-Stall of your Bridle" will keep horse flies at a "respectful Distance. Bear's Oyl is said to be used by Indians (p. 214) against every species of Vermin." He also remarks that the "Richer sort in Egypt" used to build towers in which they had their bed-chambers, in order to be out of the reach of musquetas, because their wings are "so weak and their bodies so light that if they mount never so little, the Wind blows them quite away from their Course, and they become an easy prey to Martins, East India Bats," etc. (p. 214). Fire-Hunting. This Gentleman of Old Virginia (p. 223) de- scribes an unsportsman-like practice of the early settlers of set- ting the woods afire in a circumference of five miles and driving in the game of all kinds to the hunters stationed near the center to slaughter the terrified animals. The deer are said "to weep and groan like a Human Creature" as they draw near their doom. He says this is called Fire-Hunting, and that "it is much practiced by Indians and the frontier Inhabit- ants." This, however, is not what was later known as fire- hunting, which consisted in blinding the deer with the light from torches at night only, and shooting at their eyes when seen in the darkness. Primogeniture Reversed. So hateful and unjust to our ancestors seemed the English rule which gave the eldest son MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 253 the real estate, that a custom sprang up of giviaj^ the young- est son the family homestead, which persists till this good hour. Each girl got a cow, a mare and sufficient "house- plunder" with which to set up house-keeping, but they rarely got any land, the husband being expected to provide that. This latter practice still exists, though girls now sometimes get land also. Game and Hunters. According to Thwaite's "Daniel Boone" (p. 18), "Three or four men, with dogs, could kill from ten to twenty buffaloes in a day," while "an ordinary hunter could slaughter four or five deer in a day. In the autumn from sunrise to sunset he could kill enough bears to provide over a ton of bear meat for winter use; wild turkeys were easy prey; beavers, otters and muskrats abounded; while wolves, panthers and wildcats overran the country." "Throughout the summer and autumn deerskins were in their best condition. Other animals were occasionally killed to afTord variety of food, but fur-bearers as a rule only furnish fine pelts in the winter season. Even in the days of abun- dant game the hunter was required to exercise much skill, patience and endurance. It was no holiday task to follow this calling. Deer, especially, were hard to obtain. The hab- its of this excessively cautious animal were carefully studied; the hunter must know how to imitate its various calls, to take advantage of wind and weather, and to practice all the arts of strategy" (p. 74). Commercial Side of Hunting. "Deerskins were, all things considered," continues Thwaite (p. 74), "the most remunerative of all. When roughly dressed and dried they were worth about a dollar each; as they were numerous and a horse could carry for a long distance about a hundred such skins, the trade was considered profitable in those primitive times, when dollars were hard to obtain. Pelts of beavers, found in good condition only in the winter, were worth about two dollars and a half each, and of otters from three to five dollars. Thus a horse-load of beaver furs, when obtainable, was worth about five times that of a load of deerskins; and if a few otters could be thrown in, the value was still greater. The skins of buffaloes, bears, and elks were too bulky to carry for long distances, and were not readily marketable. A few elk hides were needed, however, to cut into harness and straps, and bear and buffalo robes were useful for bedding." 254 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA How Game and Pelts Were Preserved. Thwaite con- tinues (p. 75), "When an animal was killed the hunter skinned it on the spot, and packed on his back the hide and the best portion of the meat. At night the meat was smoked or pre- pared for 'jerking,' and the skins were scraped and cured. When collected at the camps, the bales of skins, protected from the weather by strips of bark, were placed upon high scaffolds, secure from bears and wolves. Our Yadkin hunt- ers were in the habit, each day, of dividing themselves into pairs for company and mutual aid in times of danger, usually leaving one pair behind as camp-keepers. " Tow, rammed into the barrel of a "dirty" rifle took the oder of burnt powder, and was hung in trees near the fresh meat. This oder kept off wolves, wild cats, etc. The Plott Dogs. The motive which prompted the settle- ment of most of these mountain counties was the desire of the pioneers to hunt game. To that end dogs were necessary, the long bodied, long legged, deep mouthed hound being used for deer, and a sort of mongrel, composed of cur, bull and terrier, was bred for bear. The Plott dog, called after the famous bear hunter, Enos Plott, of the Balsam mountains of Haywood county, was said to be the finest bear dogs in the State. A few of them still exist and command large prices. Although most of the settlers were Scotch, collies and shepherd dogs did not make their appearance in these mountains till long after the Civil War. They are quite common now. When Land Was Cheap. Land was plentiful in those primitive times and as fast as a piece of "new ground" was worn out, another "patch" was cleared and cultivated until it, in its turn, was given over to weeds and pasturage. In all old American pioneer communities it was necessary to burn the logs and trunks of the felled trees in order to get rid of them, and the heavens were often murky with the smoke of burning log-heaps. The most valuable woods were often used for fence rails or thro^\ai upon the burning pile to be consumed with the rest. Fences built of walnut and poplar rails were not uncommon. "New ground" is being made now by scien- tific fertilization. Crude Cultivation. The ploughing was not very deep and the cultivation of the crops was far from being scientific. Yet the return from the land was generally ample, the seasons MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 255 usually provino; propitious. There was one year, however, that of 18G3, when there was frost in every month. There was still another year in which there could not have been very much rain, as there is a record of a large branch near the Sulphur Springs in Buncombe county having dried up completely. This was in August of the year 1830. (Robert Henry's Diary.) Unerring Marksmen. The flint-lock, long-barreled Ken- tucky rifle was in use in these mountains until the commence- ment of the Civil War. Game was abundant. Indeed, if the modern repeating arms had been in use in those days, the game upon which many depended, not only for food but for clothing as well, would have disappeared long before it did. The fact that the hunter could get but one shot from his gun resulted in making every Nimrod a sure marksman, as he realized that if he missed the first shot the game would be out of sight and hearing long before he could "wipe out" his trusty rifle, charge it with powder and with his slim hickory ramrod ram down the leaden bullet encased in buckskin, and "prime" his flint-lock pan with powder. Useful Peltries. The hams of the red deer were cured and saved for market or winter use, while the skins of both deer and bears were "dressed" with the hair left on them and made into garments or used as rugs or mats for the children to play upon before the wide fireplace, for bed coverings, or cut into plough lines and bridles, or made into moccasins. Out of the horns and hoofs of cows they made spoons and buttons, while from hollow poplar logs they constructed bee- hives, cradles for their children, barrels for their grain, ash hoppers, gums for their bees and what not. Cotton. Small patches of cotton were planted and culti- vated in sandy and sheltered spots near the dwellings, which generally reached maturity, was gathered and "hand-picked," carded and made into batting for quilts and cloaks, or heavy skirts for the women and girls. Jacks of All Trades. The men were necessarily "handy" men at almost every trade known at that day. They made shoes, bullets and powder, l^uilt houses, constructed tables, chairs, cupboards, harness, saddles, bridles, buckets, barrels, and plough stocks. They made their own axe and hoe-han- dles, fashioned their oun horseshoes and nails upon the anvil, 256 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA burnt wood charcoal, made wagon tires, bolts, nuts and every- thing that was needed about the farm. Some could even make rifles, including the locks, and Mr. John C. Smathers, now (1912) 86 years old, is still a good rock and brick mason, car- penter, shoemaker, tinner, painter, blacksmith, plumber, har- ness and saddle maker, candle maker, farmer, hunter, store- keeper, bee raiser, glazier, butcher, fruit grower, hotel-keeper, merchant, physician, poulterer, lawyer, rail-splitter, politician, cook, school master, gardener, Bible scholar and stable man. He lives at Turnpike, halfway between Asheville and Waynes- ville, and brought the huge trees now growing in front of his hotel on his shoulders when they were saplings and planted them where they now stand, nearly seventy years ago. He can still run a foot race and "throw" most men in a wrestle "catch as catch can." He is the finest example of the old time pioneer now alive. Industrious Women. But it was the women who were the true heroines of this section. The hardships and constant toil to which they were generally subjected were blighting and ex- acting in the extreme. If their lord and master could find time to hunt and fish, go to the Big Musters, spend Saturdays loafing or drinking in the settlement or about the country "stores," as the shops were and still are called, their wives could scarcely, if ever, find a moment they could call their own. Long before the palid dawn came sifting in through chink and window they were up and about. As there were no matches in those days, the housewife "unkivered" the coals which had been smothered in ashes the night before to be kept "alive" till morning, and with "kindling" in one hand and a live coal held on the tines of a steel fork or between iron tongs in the other, she blew and blew and blew till the splinters caught fire. Then the fire was started and the water brought from the spring, poured into the "kittle," and while it was heating the chickens were fed, the cows milked, the chil- dren dressed, the bread made, the bacon fried and then coffee was made and breakfast was ready. That over and the dishes washed and put away, the spinning wheel, the loom or the reel were the next to have attention, meanwhile keeping a sharp look out for the children, hawks, keeping the chickens out of the garden, sweeping the floor, making the beds, churn- ing, sewing, darning, washing, ironing, taking up the ashes, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 257 aiul luukiiig lye, \vatc'hin«; for tho hccs to swarm, ki'e])ing tlie cat out of tlie milk pans, dosing the sick children, tyinji; up the hurt fingers and toes, kissing the sore places well again, making soap, robbing the bee hives, stringing beans, for -win- ter use, working the garden, planting and tending a few hardy flowers in the front yard, such as princess feather, pansies, sweet- Williams, dahUas, morning glories; getting dinner, darn- ing patching, mending, milking again, reading the Bil)le, prayers, and so on from morning till night, and then all over again the next day. It could never have been said of them that they had "but fed on roses and lain in the Ulies of life." Fashion on a Back Seat. There was little thought of "finery," no chance to display the latest fashions, few drives or rides for pleasure, and only occasionally a dance, a quilt- ing party or a camp meeting. No wonder the sons and daugh- ters of such mothers are the best citizens of the "Old North State"! Pewter Platters and Pottery. The early settlers "burned their own pottery and delftware, "^ but most of their dishes and spoons were of pewter, though horn spoons were also in evidence. "They made felt hats, straw hats and every other article of domestic consumption." Most young people never saw a bolster, and pewter. plates are tied up with blue ribbons these days and hung on parlor walls as curiosi- ties. Frontier Kitchens and Utensils.'^ "Dishes and other utensils were few — some pewter plates, forks and spoons; wooden bowls and trenchers, with gourds and hard-shelled squashes for drinking mugs. For knife, Boone doubtless used his belt weapon, and scorned the crock plates now slowly creeping into the valley, as calculated to dull its edge. " . . . Grinding corn into meal, or cracking it into hominy, were, as usual with primitive peoples, tasks involving the most machin- ery. Rude mortars and pestles, some of the latter ingeni- ously worked by springy "sweeps," were commonly seen;^ a device something like a nutmeg grater was often used when the com was soft;^ two circular millstones, worked by hand, were effective, and there were some operated by water power. Medicine and Superstition. "Medicine was at a crude stage, many of the so-called cures being as old as Egypt, while others were borrowed from the Indians. The borderers firmly W. X. C.-17 258 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA believed in the existence of witches; bad dreams, eclipses of the sun, the howling of dogs, the croaking of ravens, were sure to bring disasters in their train. "^ Teas made of bur- dock, sassafras, catnip, and other herbs are still in use. Lye poultices were considered sovereign remedies for wounds and cuts. Hair bullets shot from guns against barn doors were sure to drive away witches. Tangled places in a horse's mane or tail were called "witches' stirrups," in which the witches were thought to have placed their feet when riding the animals over the hills. ^^ Mullein was cultivated for medicine for horses and cows. Nailless Houses. Nails were scarce in those days and saw mills few and far between, rendering it necessary for them to use wooden pins to hold their ceiling and shelving in place and to rive out their shingles or "boards" for their roof cov- ering and puncheons for their door and window "shutters" and their flooring. Thin boards or shingles were held in posi- tion upon the roof rafters by long split logs tied upon them with hickory withes, or held in place by laying heavy stones upon them. There is still standing in the Smoky mountains a comfortable cabin of one large room, floored and ceiled on the inside, and rain and wind proof, in the construction of which not a single nail was used. This cabin was built in 1859 and is on the Mill Creek Fork of Noland Creek in Swain county. First Houses. A single room was as much as could be built at first, then followed a shed, a spring house, a stable and crib. Then would come the "double" log house. In some of these houses there might be as many as six rooms, including two garret or loft rooms above the two main rooms of the house, and two shed rooms or lean-tos. After saw mills became more general, frame houses were erected, often of from eight to twelve rooms, with the kitchens detached from the main dwelling. But the log cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was born, and now enshrined in a marble palace at Hogdensville, Ky., is a fair sample of the average home of pioneer clays. "Chinked and Dobbed." The walls of these log houses were "chinked and daubed." That is, the spaces between the logs were filled with blocks or scraps of wood and the interstices left were filled with plain, undisguised mud — lime being too expensive to be used for that purpose. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 259 The Great "War Governor's" Home. The house in which Hon. Zol)ulon Baird Vance, the great War Governor and statesman of the Old North State Hved for many years is on Reems Creek in Buncombe county. It consisted of a single large room below and a garret or loft above, reached by rude stairs, almost a ladder, running up in one corner near the chimney. There was also a shed room attached to the rear of this house. Some of us are quite "swagger" nowadays, but we are all proud of our log-cabin ancestry. Unglazed Windows. Windows, as a rule, were scarce. The difficulty and expense of glazing them were so great as to preclude the use of many. Most of those which found place in the walls of the house were made by removing about 18 inches from one of the wide logs running the length of the house and usually opposite the huge fire place. It rarely con- tained any sash or glass and was closed by a sliding shutter running in grooves inside the wall. It was rare that upstairs or loft rooms contained any windows at all. Primitive Portiers. Privacy was obtained by hanging sheets or counterpanes from the overhead sleepers or "jists," as the joists were almost universally called. Behind these screens the women and girls dressed when "men folks" were present, though their ablutions were usually performed at the "spout" or spring, or in the room after the male element had gone to their work. Sometimes a board partition divided the large downi-stairs room into two, but as this made a very dark and ill-ventilated bedroom far removed from the light of the front and back doors and cut off from the heat of the fire place, this division was not popular or general. The Living Room. Usually, in more primitive days, the beds, mostly of feathers, were ranged round the room, leav- ing a large open space in the middle. The dining table stood there or against a wall near the fireplace. The hearth was wide and projected into the room two feet or more. A crane swung from the back of the chimney on which pots were hung from "pot hooks," — familiar to beginners in writing lessons — and the ovens were placed on live coals while their lids, or as they were generally called "leds, " were covered with other live coals and left on the broad hearth. In the kitchen of the old Alitchell Alexander hotel or "Cattle stand," eleven miles below Asheville on the French Broad, there is still standing 260 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA and in daily use a deep old fireplace ten feet wide, the hearth of which projects into the room eight or nine feet. The water bucket with a curved handled gourd stood on a shelf just inside the door. Usually there was no wash pan, the branch or spout near by being deemed sufficient for all purposes. A comb in a box under a small and imperfect looking-glass was usually hung on the wall over the water bucket. Around the walls behind the beds on pegs were hung the skirts of the girls and women; and, if the men of the house o^\^led any extra coats or trousers, they hung there, too. On the tops of boxes or trunks, usually called "chists, " were folded and piled in neat order the extra quilts, sheets and counterpanes. Some of these counterpanes or "coverlids" were marvels of skill and beauty in color and design and all were woven in the loom which stood at one end of the porch or shed in front of the house. There was also a wooden cupboard nailed against the wall which contained racks for the plates and dishes. Beneath this was a place for the pots and pans, after the cook- ing was over. Where Colonial Art Survives.^^ Mrs. Eliza Calvert Hall has discovered recently that "in the remote mountains of the South, where civilization has apparnetly stood still ever since the colonial pioneers built their homes there," they still make coverlets that are rich "in texture and coloring" and are "real works of art," Of course we are also told that this art was first brought to America through New England ; but she fails to state that it was also brought to Philadelphia, Charles- ton and every other American port through which English, Scotch or Irish women were admitted to America. That it has perished everywhere else, and still survives among us, might indicate that civilization instead of having stood still, in the mountains has at least held its owm there, while it has receded in New England. That, however, is immaterial. Cer- tain it is that Mrs. Finley Mast of Valle Crucis is now at work on an order from President Wilson, and expects soon to see specimens of her handiwork in the White House of the nation. Slanders by the "unco' Guid." Because in the spring of 1912 the Allen family of the mountains of Virginia "shot up" the court at Hillville, the entire "contemporary mountaineer" is condemned as resenting "the law's intrusion," partly, per- MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 261 haps, because he himself enjoys few of the benefits of civilized society.^- We regret the ignorance of this self-styled "national weekly" and others who defame us, and in view of the exploits of the "gunmen" of Broadway a few months later'' recall with complacency the louse that gave occasion for that im- mortal prayer : "Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us." Little of good about the mountain whites is ever published North of Mason and Dixon's line. The Walauga Democrat of July 10, 1913, records the fact that a few days before a journalist of New Canaan, Conn., and a photograi)her and illustrator of New York, had visited Boone, and that they had distinctly stated that their sole object in visiting these mountains was to look up "the des- titution, ignorance and vice among the mountain whites." They were surprised to learn that the Applachian Training School was located in Boone, and wanted no facts as to the good it was accomplishing. Their names were stated in the Democrat. In "The Child That Toileth Not," Thomas R. Dawley, Jr., (1912) has presented many photographs of the most destitute and degenerate of the mountain population, ignoring the splendid specimens of health and prosperity he met every day. About 1905 a "lady" from New York had two photographs taken of the same children at Blowing Rock. In the first they were dressed in rags and outlandish clothing; in the second, they wore most tasteful and becoming garb. She labeled the first "Before I Began," and the second, "After Three Weeks of Uplift Work." She had offered a prize to the child who should appear for the first picture in the worst clothing, and another prize for the child who should dress most becomingly for the second. The work of Miss Prudden and of Miss Florence Stephenson is appreciated by us; but our slanderers only make our blood boil. For, in the Outlook for April 26, 1913, appeared "The Case of Lura Sylva, "show- ing the filth, destitution, depravity and degrading surround- ings of a twelve-year-old girl "which" we are told is "not an unusual" story of similar conditions "in a prosperous farming community of the Hudson river valley." Nothing worse has ever been written of any of the "mountain whites" than is there recorded of this girl. Let your charity begin at your own home. Charles Dudley Warner made a horseback trip from Abingdon, Va., to Asheville in August, 1884. He saw 262 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA absolutely nothing on that trip which he could commend. ("On horseback," 1889) except two pianos he found in the home of the Worths at Creston. He was, however, lavish with his fault finding. Every Home a Factory. Manufacture means hand-made. Therefore, since few homes manufacture anything today, we have made no progress in manufactures, but have receded from the time when every home was a factory. We have instead simply adopted machinery and built factories. Some Lost Arts. Those who never lived in a mountain- ous country are often surprised at the sight of what we call sleds, slides or sledges, made of the bodies of small trees with crooked ends, turning upward like those of sleigh runners, though much more slumsy and heavy. As these runners wore down they were "shod" by tacking split saplings under them. Sleds can be hauled on steep hill-sides where wheeled vehicles would turn over or get beyond control going down hill. Our "Union" carpenters of this day could not build a house with the materials and tools of their pioneer ancestors, nearly all of whom were carpenters. Modern carpenters would not know what "cracking" a log was, for instance; and yet, the pioneer artizans of old had to make their boards by that method. It consisted in driving the blade of an ax or hatchet into the small end of a log by means of a maul, and inserting w^ooden wedges, called "gluts." On either side of this first central "crack" another crack was made, and gluts placed therein. There were usually two gluts placed in each crack and each was tapped in turn, thus splitting the log uniformly. These two riven pieces were next placed in "snatch-blocks," which were two parallel logs into which notches had been cut deep enough to hold the ends of these pieces, which were held in position with "keys" or wedges. The upper side of this riven piece was then "scored" with a broad ax and then "dressed" with the same tool, the under edges being beveled. The length of these pieces, now become puncheons, w^as usu- ally half the length of the floor to be covered, the two ends resting on the sleeper running across the middle of the room. The beveled edges were placed as near together as possible, after which a saw was run between them, thus reducing the uneven edges so that they came snugly together, and were air tight when pinned into place with wooden pegs driven through MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 263 augur-holes into the sills and sleepers. Hewed logs were first "scalped," that is the bark was removed with an ax, after which the trunk was "lined" with a woolen cord dipped in moist charcoal, powdered, which had been made from locust bark. This corresponded to what is now called a chalk-line. Then four of these lines were made ilown the length of the log, each pair being as far apart as the hewed log was to be thick — usually four to six inches — one pair being above and the other pair below; after which the log was "blocked" with an ax, by cutting deep notches on each side about four feet apart. These sections were then split from the sides of the log, thus reducing its thickness to nearly that desired. Then these sides were "scored" and then dressed till they were smooth. The block on which the "Liberty Bell" of Phila- delphia rests still shows this "scoring," or hacks made by the broad-ax. Houses were framed on the ground by cutting the ends of the logs into notches called "saddles" which, when placed in position, fitted like joiner work — each log having been numbered while still on the ground. When the logs were being placed in position they were lifted into place on the higher courses by means of what were called "bull's-eyes." These were made of hickory saplings whose branches had been plaited into rings and then slipped over the logs, their stems serving as handles for pulling, etc. Roofing Log Houses. Modern carpenters would be puz- zled to roof a house without nails or shingles or scantling; but their forbears accomplished this seemingly impossible task with neatness and dispatch. After the main frame or "pen" of the house was up, two parallel poles were laid along and above the top logs, and "gable" logs were placed under these, the gable logs being shorter than the end logs of the house. This was continued till the gable end was reached, when the "ridge pole" was placed in position, being held there with pegs or pins. The frame of the roof was now ready, and "boards," or rough shingles were riven from the "blocks" or sections of chestnut, poplar or white oak, though the latter would "cup" or twist into a curved shape if "laid" in the "light" of the moon. The lower ends of the lowest row of "boards" rested against the flat side of a split log, called the "butting pole," because the boards butted upon it. Upon the lower row of boards, which were doubled in order to cover the cracks in 264 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA the under tier, a single row of boards was then laid, the first row being held in place by a split log laid on them and made fast by pegs driven through their ends and into the ends of the poles under the boards. These were also supported by ''knees." The various pieces of roofing were called eve- bearers, rib-poles, weight poles, etc., etc. Tanning Hides and Making Shoes. According to Col. W. L. Bryan, every farmer had his tan-trough, which was an excavation dug out of a poplar or chestnut log of large size, while some had two troughs in one log, separated by leaving a division of the log in place. Into these troughs ashes or lime was placed, diluted with water. Skins should always be salted and folded together a few days till all the blood has been drawn out; but salt was high and scarce, and this process was often omitted. When "green" hides were to be tanned at once, they were first "fleshed," by being placed on the "fleshing block" and scraped with a fleshing knife — one having a rounded edge. This block was a log with the upper surface rounded, the lower end rest- ing on the ground and the upper end, supported on pegs, reaching to a man's waist. Fleshing consisted in scraping as much of the fat and blood out of the hide as possible. When hides were to be dried before being tanned, they were hung lengthwise on poles, with the flesh side upper- most, and left under shelter till dry and hard. Hair was removed from green and dry hides alike by soaking them in the tan-trough in a solution of lime or wood ashes till the hair would "shp" — that is, come off easily. They were then soaked till all the hme or ashes had been removed, after which they were placed again on the fleshing bench and "broken" or made pliable, with a breaking-knife. They then went into the tan-trough, after having been split lengthwise into two parts, each of which was called a "side." The bottom of the tan-trough was lined with a layer of bark, after which a fold of a "side" was placed on the bark and another layer of bark placed above the upper fold of the side; then the side was folded back again and another layer of bark placed on it, and so on till the tan-trough had been filled. Then water was turned or poured in, and the mass allowed to remain two months, after which time the bark and water were renewed in the same manner as before. This in turn remained another MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 265 two months, when the l)ark ami water were again renewed. Two niontlis longer completed the process, making six months in all. This was called "the cold-ooze" process, and while it required a much longer time it made better leather than the present hot-ooze process, which cooks and injures the leather. The hide of every animal bearing fur is thicker along the back-bone than elsewhere, and after the tanning process this was cut off for sole leather, while the rest was blacked for "uppers," etc. The under side of the thin or "uppers" leather w'as then "curried" with a knife, thus making it as smooth as the upper side. Sole leather, however, was not curried ordinarily. "Buffing" was the removal of the "grain" or upper surface of the hide after it had been tanned, thus making both sides alike. Smaller skins w^ere tanned in the same way, and those of dogs, coons, ground hogs, etc., were used for "whang" leather — that is, they were cut into strings for sewing other leather with. Horse collars, harness and moccasins thus joined will outlast those sewed with thread. The more valuable hides of smaller animals were removed from the carcass without being split open, and were then called "cased" hides. This was done by splitting open the hind legs to the body and then pulling the skins from the carcass, fore legs and head, after w^hich they were "stretched" by inserting a board or sticks inside, now^ the fur-side, and hanging them up "in the dry" till dried. Other less valu- able skins were stretched by means of sticks being stuck into the four "corners" of the hide, tacked to the walls of the houses under the eaves and allowed to dry. The women made moccasins for the children by doubling the tanned deer skin along the back, laying a child's stocking along it so that the sole of the stocking was parallel with the fold in the skin, and then marking around the outline of the stocking, after which the skin, still doubled, was cut out around the out- line, sewed together with "whang" leather, placed on a last till it was "shaped," after wiiich it was ready for wear. The new moon in June was the best time for taking the bark from trees. White and chestnut oak bark was preferred, the outer or rough part of the bark having been first removed with a drawing knife, which process was called "scurfing" or "scruf- fing. " The bark was then piled, inside up, under shelter, and allowed to dry. Among the personal effects of Abraham 266 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Lincoln's grandfather were "a drawing-knife, a currying- knife, and a currier's knife and barking iron."''* Lime was scarce in most localities in this section, and ashes were used instead. Every deer's head was said to have enough brains to "dress" its hide.'^ The brains were rubbed into the hair of the hide, after which the hide was folded together till the hair would "shp," when the hide was placed in the tan- trough and tanned, the brains thus taking the place of lime or ashes. After vats came in bark mills came also. Elizabethan English? Writers who think they know, have said that our people have been sequestered in these mountains so long that they speak the language of Shake- speare and of Chaucer. It is certain that we sometimes say "hit" for it and "taken" for took; that we also say "plague" for tease, and when we are willing, we say we are "consent- able." If we are asked if we "care for a piece of pie," we say "yes," if we wish to be helped to some; and if we are invited to accompany anyone and wish to do so, we almost invariably say "I wouldn't care to go along," meaning we do not object. We also say "haint" for "am not" "are not" and "have not," and we invite you to "Ught" if you are riding or driving. We "pack" our loads in "pokes," and "reckon we can't" if invited "to go a piece" with a passerby, when both he and we know perfectly well that we can if we will. Chaucer and Shakespeare may have used these expressions : we do not know. We are absolutely certain, though, that "molases" is as plural as measles; and ask to be helped to "them" just as con- fident that we shall be understood as people of greater cul- ture hope their children will soon recover from or altogether escape "them," meaning only one thing, the measles. Though we generally say we "haven't saw," it is the rarest thing in the world when we do things "we hadn't ought to," and we never express surprise or interest by exclaiming, "Well, I want to know." On the other hand we have Webster for our authority that "hit" is the Saxon for it; and we know ourselves that "taken" is more regular that "took"; Webster also gives us the primary meaning of "plague": anything troublesome or vexatious; but in this sense applied to the vexations we suffer from men, and not to the unavoidable evils inflicted on us by divine providence; while "tease" means to comb or card, as wool; to scratch, as cloth in dress- MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 267 ing, for the purpose of raising a nap; and to vex with impor- tunity or impertinence." Surely one may be in a mood or condition of consent, and when so, why is not he "consent- able"? Webster also says that "care" means "to be inclined or disposed; to have regard to; with "for" before a noun, and "to" before a verb;" while "alight" is "to get do^v^l or descend, as from horseback or from acarriage, " the very sense in which we invariably use it, our only fault consisting in keeping the "a" silent. Webster does not authorize the use of "pack" as a verb transitive, in the sense of bearing a burden, but he gives "burden or load" as the meaning of the noun "pack"; while a "poke" is "a pocket; a small bag; as, a pig in a poke." A "piece" is a fragment or "part of anything, though not separated, or separated only in idea," in which sense going "a piece" (of the way, understood) is quite intelligible to some of us who do not know our letters. Being, in our o^vn estimation, at least, "as well as common," in this respect as in many others," we still manage to understand and to be understood"; and claim that when we "want in," we gener- ally manage to "get" in, whether we say "get" or not. Still, in these respects, we may "mend," not improve; and who shall say that our "mend" is not a simpler, sweeter and more significant word than "improve"? But we do mispronounce many words, among which is "gardeen" for guardian, "col- ume" for column, and "pint" for point. The late Sam Lovin of Graham was told that it was improper to say Rocky "Pint," as its true name is "Point." When next he went to Asheville he asked for a "point" of whiskey. We even take our mispronounciation to proper names, and call Aletcalf "Madcap"; Pennell "Pinion"; Pilkington "Pilkey"; Cutbirth "Cutbaird"; Mast "Moss"; Presnell "Pressly"; Moretz "Morris"; and Morphew "Murphey." "Mashed, mum- micked and hawged up," means worlds to most of us. Finally, most of us are of the opinion of the late Andrew Jackson, who thought that one who could spell a word in only one way was a "mighty po' excuse for a full grown man." Horse Tr.\ding. '® "It is an interesting sight to watch the proceedings of a shooting-match. If it is to be in the afternoon, the long open space beside the creek, and within the circle of chestnut trees, where the shooting is to be done, is empty; but, just as the shadow of the sun is shortest, they 268 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA begin to assemble. Some of them come on foot; others in wagons, or, as is most generally the case, on horseback gal- loping along through the woods. The long-haired denizen of the hidden mountain cove drops in, with his dog at his heels. The young blacksmith, in his sootj^ shirt-sleeves, walks over from his way-side forge. The urchins who, with their fish- rods, haunt the banks of the brook, are gathered in as great force as their ''daddies" and elder brothers. "A unique character, who frequently mingles with the crowd, is the 'nat'ral-born hoss-swopper.' He has a keen eye to see at a glance the defects and perfections of horse or mule (in his own opinion), and always carries the air of a man who feels a sort of superiority over his fellow men. At a prancing gait, he rides the result of his last sharp bargain, into the group, and keeps his saddle, with, the neck of his horse well arched, by means of the curb-bit, until another mountaineer, with like trading propensities, strides up to him, and claps his hand on the horse's mane. "An examination on the part of both swappers always results in a trade, boot being frequently given. A chance to make a change in horseflesh is never let slip by a natural- born trader. The life of his business consists in quick and frequent bargains; and at the end of a busy month he is either mounted on a good saddle horse, or is reduced to an old rack, bhnd and lame. The result will be due to the shrewdness or dullness of the men he dealt with, or the unexpected sickness on his hands of what was considered a sound animal." Frolics. ^^ The banjo and the fiddle have been as con- stant companions of the pioneers of the mountains of North Carolina as the Bible and the HjTim Book. The country "frolics" or "hoe-downs", were necessarily less recherche than the dances, hops and germans of the present day, for, as a rule, the dancing had to take place on the uneven punch- eon floors and in a very restricted space, often procured by the removal of the furniture of the kitchen or bed room, for usually a dwelling rarely had more than these two apart- ments, in the earlier days. Poor Illumination. Owing to the fact that kerosene was unknown in the pioneer days, there was but poor illumination for those little mountam homes, generally consisting of but one large room and a shed or lean-to in the rear. Tin candle MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 269 molds and heavy wicks were used with tlie tuiluw of beeves and deer for making of candles, which gave but a poor light. Bear's oil in a saucer, with a spun cotton thread wick also served to light the houses. As there were only a few books, the early settlers did not feel the want of good lights as much as we would at this time. So, when the days grew short and the nights long, our forbears usually retired to their beds soon after dark, which meant almost fourteen hours in bed if they waited for daylight. But, usually, they did not wait for it, arising long before the sun came above the horizon, building huge fires and beginning the day by the light of the blazing logs. This is one reason so many of those people saw the "falling of the stars" on the early morning of the thirteenth of Novem- ber, 1833. Twenty years ago there were still living scores of people who \ntnessed this extraordinary and fearful sight. Danger from Wild Animals. Panthers, wild cats, wolves and bear were the most troublesome depredators and they were the means of much serious damage to the stock of the settlers, most of which was driven to the mountain ranges, where luxuriant grasses abounded from May till October. Colts, calves and pigs were frequently attacked and destroyed by these "varmints," as the settlers called them. But while there was little or no danger to human beings from these ani- mals, the black bear being a notorious coward, unless hemmed up, the "women folk" were "pestered" by the beautiful and, on occasion, malodorous pole-cat or skunk, the thieving o'pos- sum, the mink, weasel, etc., which robbed the chicken roosts after dark. Moles and chipmunks, also destroyed their "gar- den truck" in early summer, while hawks and eagles played havoc with their fowls, and crows pulled up the young corn and small grain which had not been sown deep enough. The Original "Houn Dawg." Hounds were the princi- pal breed of dogs employed by the pioneer. Crossed with the more savage species, the hound also made a good bear dog, and the Plott bear dogs were famous in the pursuit of Bruin. Some settlers kept a pack of ten or jBfteen hounds for deer dogs. The Dark Side of the Cloud. But from Thwaite's "Daniel Boone" we gather much that robs the apparent charm of pioneer hfe of something of its attractiveness. 270 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA "Among the outljdng settlers, much of the family food came from the woods, and often months would pass without bread being seen inside the cabin walls" (p. 58). "For head cov- ering, the favorite was a soft cap of coon-skin, with the bushy- tail dangling behind; but Boone himself despised this gear, and always wore a hat. The women Avore huge sunbonnets and loose gowns of homemade cloth; they generally went barefoot in summer, but wore moccasins in winter" (p. 29). These moccasins were "soft and pliant, but cold in winter, even when stuffed with deer's hair and leaves, and so spongy as to be no protection against wet feet, which made every hunter an early victim to rheumatism." That many prison- ers were massacred is also an evidence of the harshness of these times. Touchstone and Terpsichore. There were shooting matches at which a young steer was divided and shot for, foot races, \ATestling bouts, camp-meetings, log-rollings, house- raisings and the "Big Musters" where cider and ginger cakes were sold, which drew the people together and promoted social intercourse, as well as the usual religious gatherings at the "church houses." Singing classes and Sunday Schools, now so common, were not at first known in these mountains, and, indeed, even Sunday Schools are of comparatively recent origin. When a young couple were married they were usually sere- naded with cow horns, tin pans and other unearthly noises. This is still the custom in many parts of the mountains. Agri- cultural fairs were unknowTi in the olden daj^s. Horse-racing over ordinary roads, horse-swapping and good natured con- tests of strength among the men were also in vogue generally. Before the Days of "Bridge." Among the women and girls there were spinning, carding, reeling and knitting matches, and sometimes a weaving match. ^ ^ Quilting parties were very common, and, indeed, the quilting frame can still be observed in- many a mountain house, suspended from the ceiling above, even in the modern parlor or company room. All sorts of superstitions attended a quilting — the first stitch given being usually emblematic of the marriage of the one making it and the last of the death of the person so unfor- tunate as to have that distinction. Of course the coverlid or top of the quilt, usually a patchwork of bright scraps of cloth carefully hoarded and gathered from all quarters, had been MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 271 prepared in advance of the gathering of the quilting party, and the quilting consisted in spreading it above the wool or cotton rolls spread uniformly on a white clotii and stitching the upper and lower cloths together. Hence the great con- venience of the quilting frame which held the quilt and was lowered to a point about waist high. The "Causus Belli." At school it was customary for the larger boys to bar the teacher out when a holiday was ardently desired. This was accomplished by placing themselves inside the school room and barring the door by placing the rude and backless benches agamst it and refusing to remove them. As there was but one door and no windows the teacher was help- less, and, after threatening and bullying for a time, usually left the boys in possession of the school house till the following day, when no one w^as punished. For anyone, be he friend or foe, but especially a stranger to holler "school butter" near a school was to invite every urchin to rush from the room; and the offender had either to treat the scholars or be soundly thrashed and pelted. In Monroe county, Tennessee, near Madisonville, in the year of grace 1893, this scribe was dared and double-dared to holler those talismanic words as he passed a county school, but ignominiously declined. "Ant'ny Over." A game almost universal with the chil- dren of that day was called " Ant'ny Over. " Sides were chosen, one side going to one side of the house and the other to the other. A ball was tossed over the roof by one side, the prob- lem being whether it would reach the comb of the roof and fall on the other side. If it did so and was caught by one on that side, that side ran around the house and tried to hit somebody on the other side with the ball; if they succeeded the one hit had to join the other side, and the side catching the ball had to throw it over the house and so on until one side lost all children. The rule was for the side tossing the ball to cry "Ant'ny!" as they were ready to throw the ball and when the other side hollered "Over!" the ball was thrown. Mountain Lager Beer. Methiglen, a mildly intoxicating drink, made by pouring water upon honey-comb and allowing it to ferment, was a drink quite common in the days of log rollings, house raisings and big musters. It was a sweet and pleasant beverage and about as intoxicating as beer or wine. Lawflt, Moonshine. "Ardent spirits were then in almost 272 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA universal use and nearly every prosperous man had his whis- key or brandy still. Even ministers of the gospel are said in some instances to have made and sold liquor. A barroom was a place shunned by none. The court records show license to retail issued to men who stood high as exemplary members of churches. On November 2, 1800, Bishop Asbury chronicles that "Francis Alexander Ramsey pursued us to the ferry, franked us over and took us to his excellent mansion, a stone house; it may not be amiss to mention that our host has built his house, and taken in his harvest without the aid of whiskey. " MooNSHiNiNG. Before railroads were constructed in these mountains there was no market for the surplus corn, rye and fruit; and it was considered right to convert these products into whiskey and brandy, for which there was always a market. When, therefore, soon after the Civil War, the United States government attempted to enforce its internal revenue laws, much resistance was manifested by many good citizens. Grad- ually, however, illicit distilling has been relegated to a few irresponsible and ignorant men; for the penalty inflicted for allowing one's land to be used as the location for a still, or to grind corn or malt for illicit stillers, or to aid them in any way, is great enough to deter all men of property from violating the law in this regard. IMoonshining is so called because it is supposed that it is only while the moon is shining that illicit stilling takes place, though that is erroneous, as much of it is done during the day. But, as these stills are located, usually, in the most out-of-the-way places possible, the smoke arising during the day from the stills attracts attention and final detection. Stills are usually located on small, cold streams, and on wild land little adapted to cultivation. Some- times, however, stills are situated in the cellar or kitchen or other innocent looking place for the purpose of diverting sus- picion. Neighbors, chance visitors, the color the slops give to the streams into which they drain, and other evidence finally lead to the arrest of the operators and the destruction of the stilling plant and mash. The simplest process is to soak corn till it sprouts, after which it is dried and ground, making malt. Then corn is ground into meal, and it and the malt are placed in tubs with water till they sour and ferment, making mash. This mash is then placed in the still and boiled, the steam passing through a worm or spiral metal tube which rests in a MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 273 cooling tub, into which a stream of running water pours con- stantly. This condenses the steam, which falls into the "singling keg"; and when a sufficient quantity has been pro- duced, the mash is removed from the still, and it is washed out, after which the "singlings" are poured into the still and evaporated, passing througii the worm a second time, thus becoming '"doublings," or high proof whiskey. It is then tested or proofed — usually by shaking it in a bottle — when its strength is determined by the bubbles or "beads" which rise to the top. It is then adulterated with water till it is "right, " or mild enough to be drunk without blistering the throat. Aj^ples antl peaches are first mashed or ground, fermented and evaporated, thus becoming brandy. Still slops are used to feed cattle and hogs, when practicable, but moonshiners usually have to empty their slops upon the ground, from which it is sure to drain into some stream and thus lead to dis- covery. Still slop-fed hogs do not produce as firm lard as corn-fed animals, just as mash-fed hogs do not produce as good lard as corn-fed hogs, though the flesh of mast-fed hogs is considered more delicate and better flavored than that of any other kind. Blockading is usually applied to the illegal selling of moon- shine whiskey or brandy. The Strength of Union. The following account of the cooperation common among the early settlers is taken from " A Brief History of Macon County" by Dr. C. D. Smith, published in 1905, at Franklin: "It was the custom in those early days not to rely for help upon hired labor. In harvesting small grain crops the sickle was mostly used. When a crop was ripe, the neighbors were notified and gathered in to reap and shock up the crops. The manner was for a dozen or more men to cut through the field, then hang their sickles over their shoulders and bind back. The boys gathered the sheaves together and the old men shocked them up. The corn crops were usually gathered in and thrown in great heaps alongside the cribs. The neighbors were invited and whole days and into the nights were often spent in husking out a single crop. I have seen as many as eighty or ninety men at a time around my father's corn heap. If a house or barn wa.s to be raised the neighbors wore on hand and the building was soon under roof. Likewise, if a man had a heavy clear- ing, it was no trouble to have an ample force to handle and put in heaps the heaviest logs. It was no unusual thing for a man to need one or two thousand rails for fencing. All ho had to do was to proclaim that he would have a 'rail mauling' on a given day, and bright and early the W. N. C— 18 274 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA neighbors were on the ground and the rails were made before sun-down. This custom of mutual aid, cultivated a feeling of mutual dependence and brotherhood, and resulted in the most friendly and neighborly intercourse. Indeed, each man seemed to be on the lookout for his neighbor's comfort and welfare as well as his own. It made a community of broad, liberal- minded people, who despite the tongue of gossip and an occasional fist- icuff in hot blood, lived in peace and good will one toward another. There was then less selfishness and cold formality than now. ... I am free to admit that there has been improvement along some lines, such, for instance, as that of education, the building of church-houses, style of dress, etc., but I am sure that there has been none in the sterner traits of character, generosity, manliness, patriotism, integrity, and public spirit." Giants in Those Days. It also appears from the same very admirable sketch of Macon county, that when a new road was desired a jury was appointed to lay it off and divide it into sections as nearly equal as possible, the work on each section being assigned by lot to the respective captains of militia companies, and that the work was done without com- pensation. Dr. Smith cites an instance when he saw " men taking rock from the river with the water breast deep to aid in build- ing wharves. They remained until the work was finished." Fist and Skull. "There was another custom in those bygone days which to the pres- ent generation seems extremely primitive and rude, but which, when an- alyzed, shows a strong sense of honor and manliness of character. To settle minor disputes and differences, whether for imaginary or real per- sonal wrongs, there were occasional fisticuffs. Then, it sometimes oc- curred in affairs of this kind, that whole neighborhoods and communities took an interest. I have known county arrayed against county, and state against state, for the belt in championship, for manhood and skill in a hand-to-hand tussel between local bullies. When these contests took place the custom was for the parties to go into the ring. The crowd of spectators demanded fairness and honor. If anyone was disposed to show foul play he was withheld or in the attempt promptly chastised by some bystander. Then, again, if either party in the fight resorted to any weapons whatever, other than his physical appendages, he was at once branded and denounced as a coward, and was avoided by his former associates. While this custom was brutal in its practice, there was a bold outcropping of character in it, for such affairs were conducted upon the most punctilious points of honor. . . . This custom illustrates the times and I have introduced it more for the sake of contrast than a desire to parade it before the public." HoEN AND Bone. Buttons were made from bones and cow's horns, while the antlers of the red deer were almost indispen- MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 275 sable as racks for the loiijz; harreli'd flint-lock rifle, hats, cloth- ing or other articles usually suspended from pegs and hooks. Dinner anil powiler horns were from cow's horns, from which the "picker" and "charger" hung. Ink bottles were made from the small ends of cow's horns, powder was carried in these water-proof vessels, while hounds were called in from the chase or "hands" were summoned from the fields by toots upon these far-sounding if not musical instruments. During the Civil War, William Silvers of Mitchell county made combs from cow's horns, filing out each separate tooth after boiling and "spreading" the horns into flat surfaces. He sold these for good prices, and once made a trip to Ashe- ville M'ith a wagon for a full load of horns as the neighbor- hood did not supply the demand. Gunpowder Bounty. ^^ "In 1796 Governor Ashe issued a proclamation announcing that in pursuance of an Act to provide for the public safety by granting encouragement to certain manufactures, Jacob Byler, of the county of Bun- combe, had exhibited to him a sample of gunpowder manu- factured by him in the year 1799 and also a certificate prov- ing that he had made six hundred and sixty-three pounds of good, merchantable, rifle gunpowder; and therefore, he was entitled to the bounty under the Act (2 Wheeler's History of North Carolina, 52). This Jacob Byler, or rather Boyler, was afterward a member of Buncombe County court, and in the inventory of his property returned by his administrator after his death in October, 1804, is mentioned "Powder mill irons. " Elizabethton's Battle Monument. On a massive monu- ment erected in 1910 at Elizabethton, Tenn., to the soldiers of all the wars in which Tennessee has participated is a marble slab to the memory of Mary Patton who made the powder with which the battle of Kings Mountain was fought. This was made on Powder Mill branch. Carter county, Tennessee. On what is still known as Powder Mill creek in old Mitchell, so long ago that the date cannot now be fixed with certainty, Dorry and Loddy Oaks made powder near where the creek empties into Toe River. Zeb Buchanan now owns the land. Wanderlust. Alexander Thomas, A. J. ]\IcBride, and Marion Wilson, all of Cove creek, Watauga county, went to California in 1849, crossing the plains in ox carts, and mined 276 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA for gold. Captain Young Farthing helped to carry the Chero- kees to the West in 1838, as did also William Miller, Col. James Horton and others of Watauga. They were paid in land warrants to be located in Kansas, but the warrants were usually sold for what they would bring, which was little. Jacob Townsend of near Shull's ]\Iills was a pensioner of the War of 1812. Colonel J. B. Todd, Peter Hoffman and Jason Martin of Watauga were in the Mexican war. A number of others volunteered from these mountains, but were never called out. Forge Bounty Land Grants. One of the first needs of these pioneers was iron, and in 1788 (Ch. 293, Laws of N. C. as revised by Potter J. L. Taylor and Bart Yancey, Esqs., 1821) the legislature passed an act by which 3,000 acres of vacant lands "not fit for cultivation most convenient to the different seats is hereby granted for every set of iron works, as a bounty from this State to any person or persons who will build and carry on the same." One or more tracts for each set of works was to be entered and a copy of the entry trans- mitted to the next court that should be held in the county, when a jury of twelve persons of good character should view the land and certify that it was not fit for cultivation. Iron works were then to be erected -within three years, and when it should be made to appear to the court that 5,000 weight of iron had been made the grant was to be issued. "Three forges where it was made grew up in Buncombe county, one on Hominy creek, upon the old Solomon Luther place, which belonged to Charles Lane; another on Reems Creek at the Coleman mill place, which belonged to the same man, but was sold by him in 1803, to Andrew Baird; the third was on Mills river, now in Henderson county on what has ever since been called the Forge mountain, on which are also the Boils- ton gold mines. The iron ore for this purpose was procured at different places in Buncombe county." ^^ The State granted to Thomas Calloway, November 21, 1807, 3,000 acres of land in Ashe county (Deed Book D, p. 88) and to William Daniel, David Worth, IMoses L. Michael and R. Murchison 2,000 acres in Ashe county, in 1854. (Deed Book U, p. 62.) Grants were also issued to the late Messer Fain in Cherokee, and some of the pigs are still in existence there. Dates of Working Old Iron Mines. From " The Iron MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 277 Manufacturer's Guide" (1859. l)y J. P. Lesley) we find that Harbard's Blooniory Forge near the mouth of Helton creek was built in 1807 and washed away in 1817; that the Cran- berry liloonicry For^^e on Cranberry was built in 1820, and rebuilt in 1850; that North Fork Bloomery Forge eight miles northwest of Jefferson on New river, was built in 1825; aban- doned in 1829; washed away in 1840; Ballou's Bloomery Forge, at Falls of North Fork of New river, 12 miles north- east of Jefferson, was built in 1817; washed away in 1832 by an ice freshet; Helton Bloomery Forge, on Helton creek, 12 miles north-northwest of Jefferson, was built in 1829; washed away in 1858; another forge was built one and one-fourth miles further down in 1802, but did not stand long; Laurel Bloomery Forge, on Laurel creek, 15 miles west of Jefferson, built in 1847; abandoned in 1853; Toe river Bloomery Forge, five miles south of Cranberry Forge, built in 1843; Johnson's Bloomery Forge, six miles south of Cranberry Forge, built in 1841; Lovingood Bloomery Forge, on Hanging Dog, Cherokee county, two miles above Fain's Forge, built from 1845 to 1853; Lower Hanging Dog Bloomery Forge, five miles north- west of :\Iurphy, built in 1840; Killian Bloomery Forge one- half miles below Lower Hanging Dog Forge, built in 1843, abandoned 1849; Fain Bloomery Forge, on Owl creek, two miles below Lovingood Forge, built in 1854; Persimmon creek Bloomery Forge, on Persimmon creek 12 miles southwest of Murphy, built in 1848; Shoal creek Bloomery Forge, on Shoal creek, five miles -west of Persimmon creek Forge, built about 1854; Palsey Forge, built by John Ballon at mouth of Helton in 1859 and rebuilt by W. J. Pasley in 1871 (it is now aban- doned); New River Forge on South Fork of New river, one- half mile above its junction with North Fork; built 1871, washed away in 1878. Uriah Ballon of Crumpler, N. C, has gold medals for the best magnetic iron ore from the Louis- iana Purchase Exposition and from the World's Fair at Paris inmiediately afterwards, which was taken from these mines. The lands are now the property of the Virginia Iron & Coke Company. Pioneer Thors and Forges. Iron was manufactured at these old time forges about as follows : When the ore was in lumps or mixed with rock and dirt it was crushed by "stomp- ers, " consisting of hardwood beams 6x6 inches, which were raised 278 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA and dropped by a cogged horizontal revolving shaft. When the ore was fine enough it was washed in troughs to separate it from as much foreign matter as possible. It was then ready for the furnace, which consisted of a rock base 6x6 feet and two and one-half feet high. On three sides of this base walls of rock were erected two and one-half feet high, leaving one side open. A nest was left in the bottom of this base or hearth, through the middle of which a two inch blast pipe ran, and projecting above it. Air was furnished to this pipe by a stream of water passing through wooden tubes 12x12 inches. A small fire of chips was started in this nest above the mouth of the blast pipe. Over this fire three or four bushels of char- coal was placed and blown into a white heat. Upon this charcoal a layer of ore was spread, and as it was heated, an other layer of charcoal was placed above, and on it still another layer of ore. This was gradually melted, the molten ore set- tling into the nest and the silica remaining on top. Into the mass of melted iron an iron bar would be thrust. This bar was used simply to form a handle for the turning of the ore that adhered to it after it had been withdrawn and placed on the anvil to be hammered. The melted ore thus drawn out was called a "loop." The hammer and the anvil were about the same weight, 750 pounds each, with an eye through, 6x12 inches. They were in- terchangeable. The anvil was placed on white-oak beams, about the size of a railroad cross-tie, which spanned a pit dug in the ground in order to give spring to the blow made by the hammer. Through the eye of the hammer a beam of strong wood was fastened, the other end working on a pivot or hinge. Near this hinged end was a revolving shaft shod with four large iron cogs, each about six inches long and five inches square, and each having a rounded corner. These cogs lifted the ham- mer handle rapidly, while above the handle a wooden "bray" overcame the upward thrust, and gravity drove the hammer downward upon the heated mass awaiting it on the anvil. The blows thus dealt were rapid and heavy and could be heard under favorable conditions ten or more miles. Silent Finger Signals. It was the duty of the "tender," the chief assistant of the hammerman, to withdraw the loop from the furnace and place it on the anvil, when the hammer- man took the end of the handle and signaled with his fingers MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 279 laid on the handle to the teniler to i)egin hammering, which was done by the latter allowing the water to strike the wheel which worked the hammer shaft. Two fingers indicated more rapid hammering, tiiree still more rapid hammering, and the withdrawal of all fingers meant that the hammering should cease. When the foreign matter had been hammered out of the looj), it was divided into two or more loops of 25 to 30 pounds each ; a short iron bar, to serve as handles, was welded to each piece, and they were again placed in the furnace and re-heated and then hammered into bars from 9 to 12 feet in length, or divided into smaller pieces for wagon-tires, hoe- bars, axe-bars, plough-shares, plough-molds, harrow-teeth bars, horse-shoe irons, and gun"skelps. " There was an extra charge for "bandage" in the case of wagon-tires, because they were hammered out thinner. In finishing up each bar or smaller piece of iron the tender would pour cokl water on its surface to give it a hard and smooth finish. Giant "Hammermen." The hammerman soon became a veritable giant in his arms, and it is related of one of the older Duggers that he could insert an arm into the eye of the hammer and another into that of the anvil and strike the two together. For miles below the water powers which drove these forges the streams were muddy with the washings from the ore. For years iron thus made was the principal commodity of trade. The ends of the iron bars were bent like the runners of a sled, and as many of these bars were bound together by iron bands as could be dragged over the rough trails by a single ox. In this crude fashion many tons of iron found a market on farms remote from wagon roads. Expensive Hauling. It took from three weeks to a month to go from Asheville to Charleston or Augusta by wagon before the Civil War. The roads were bad, and those in charge of the wagons camped on the roadside, cooking their own meals. No wonder freight rates were high, and that peo- ple did without much that seems indispensible now. It is said that Waugh, INIurchison & Poe, early merchants of Jef- ferson, hauled their goods from Wilmington, N. C. The late Albert T. Summey says that : "goods were hauled from Au- gusta and Charleston and cost from S1.75 to $2.00 per hun- dred. Salt cost in Augusta SI. 25 for a sack of 200 lbs. Add S4.00 for hauling, and it is easy to understand why people 280 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA thought it cheap when they could buy it for $5.00." As late as the spring of 1850 it took Deacon WiUiam Skiles of Valle Cruces three weeks to ride horseback from Plymouth, N. C. to Watauga. ^ i Rifle Guns. ^^ The word "rifle" is too generic a term for the average mountaineer; but he knows what a "rifle-gun" is. Some of the older men have seen them made — lock, stock and barrel. The process was simple : a bar of iron the length of the barrel desired was hammered to the thickness of about three-sixteenths of an inch and then rolled around a small iron rod of a diameter a little less than the caliber desired. After this, the rolled iron was welded together gradually — only three or four inches being wielded at a time because it was not practicable to do more at a single "heating" without also welding the rod which was inside. This rod was with- drawn from the barrel while it was being heated in the fur- nace and alloW'Cd to cool, and when the glowing barrel was withdrawn from the fire the rod was inserted and the weld- ing would begin and be kept up till the bar inside began to get too hot, after which it was withdra^vn and cooled while the barrel was being heated again, and then the same process was repeated till the work was clone. The caliber of the barrel was now smaller than desired, but it was enlarged by drilling the hole with a steel bit operated by water-power. The spiral grooves inside the barrel were made by small pieces of steel, two inches long, with saw-teeth on the edges, which served the purpose of filing the necessary spiral channels. The cali- ber was determined by the number of bullets which could be molded from a pound of lead, and usually ran from 80 to 140. The caliber of rifles is now measured by the decimels of an inch, regardless of the number of bullets to the pound of lead. No hand-made rifle was ever knowm to burst. The locks, hammers, triggers, guards, ramrods, etc., were all made on the common anvil. ^ ^ Primitive Tools and Methods. Dutch scythes for cut- ting grass have been in the mountains time out of mind, but English scythes for the same purpose did not come into use in some of the counties till about 1856-7. Cradles for cutting small grain were employed about 1846; before which time reaping hooks had been used entirely. Before thrashing ma- chines arrived small grain was separated from the stems by MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 281 means of flails, as in the old Bible days of the threshing floors — only in western North Carolina a smooth place was made in the hillside, if there was no level ground elsewhere, cloth was spread dowTi over it, and the grain beaten out by flails. After this had been done, what was known as a ''riddle" was used to free the grain of straw and chaff, sheets or coverlids of beds being used to fan the chaff away as the grain fell. Tlien came the sieve to separate the grain from all heavy foreign matter, after which it was ground in grist mills, and bolted by sifting it through thin, loosely woven cloth wound over a cylindrical wooden frame revolved by hand, a labor often im- posed by the indolent miller on the boy who had brought the grist to mill. The miller never made any deduction from his toll because of this labor, however. Ground Hog Threshers. When the threshing machine came, about 1850, it was a seven days wonder. It was what was known as the "ground-hog" thresher, and required eight horses to pull it from place to place. It was operated by horse power also, which power was communicated to the ma- chine by means of a tarred cotton rope in place of a band or sprocket chain, both of which came later. The grain and straw came from the machine together and were caught in a big sheet surrounded by curtains. The straw was raked from the top of the grain by wooden forks made from saplings or the limbs of trees. Steel pitchforks did not come into gen- eral use in these mountains till about 1850. A ground hog thresher could thresh out about 100 bushels a day with the help of about 16 hands, while the modern machine can easily thresh out over 400 bushels with the assistance of 10 hands; but as the extra hands of the olden time charged nothing for their labor, and felt honored by being allowed to take part in such glorious work, no complaint was ever heard on that score. Mowing machines did not come into general use in this sec- tion till 1869 or 1870. Even the North refused them till England took them up. - •* The Handy Blacksmith. Tools of all kinds were made by the ordinary blacksmiths of the country at ordinary forges. They made axes, hatchets, drawnng-knives, chisels, augurs, horse-shoes, horse-shoe nails, bolts, nuts and even pocket knives! Fish and Fish Traps. Fish abounded in all mountain 282 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA streams, and "a good site for a fish trap" was the greatest recommendation which a piece of land could have. These places were always the first entered and granted. In them fish by the barrelful would sometimes be caught in a single night where the trap was well situated and strongly built. Fishing at night in canoes by torchlight with a gig was a fa- vorite sport as well as profitable practice and it was much in- dulged in. " - ^ Above vertical falls trout could not pass. Elk river, above the Great Falls, had no trout till 1857 (D. L. Low in Watauga Democrat, June 26, 1913), when men placed them there. Grist Mills. "The first consideration, however, with these primitive inhabitants, was the matter of grist mills. Hence at the first session of the [Buncombe] county court we find it 'Ordered that William Davidson have liberty to build a grist mill on Swannanoa, near his saw mill. Provided he builds said mill on his own land.' This was in April, 1792. In January, 1793, it was 'Ordered that John Burton have liberty to build a Grist mill on his own land, on a branch of French Broad River, near Nathan Smith's, below the mouth of Swannanoa,' Apparently Davidson's mill was not built, *'but John Burton's was on Glenn's creek a short distance above its mouth. " When the Clock Stopped. There were a few old seven- day clocks brought by the first settlers, but as a rule watches and clocks were few. Men and women learned to guess the time with some accuracy by looking at the sun on clear days, and guessing at it on cloud}^ Following is a description of the usual time-piece : "The clock consisted of a knife mark, ex- tending north from one of the door-facings across the punch- eon next to it. When the mark divided the sunshine that fell in at the door from the shadow of the facing, it was noon. All other hours were guessed at : on cloudy days the clock stopped." 2^ Culture and Manufacture of Flax. The flax seed were sown thick, and when the plant was mature it was pulled up by the roots and spread on the ground to dry. Then it was bound in bundles and pilaced in a dry place till the envelope surrounding the fiber was decomposed. Sometimes it was scattered over the snow to bleach the lint. It was then re- bound in small bundles and when the farmer was ready it MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 283 was opened and placed on the "brake," which consisted of four or five wooden slats parallel to each other through which wooden knives passed, driving the flax stems between. After the flax was thus broken a handful of it was placed on the end of an upright board which had been driven into the ground, and struck smartly by a wooden swingling knife in order to knock off the small pieces of straw from the fiber. Then the fiber was drawn through the hackle, which consisted of a board from whose surface projected five or six inches a row of iron spikes, which served to separate the tow from the flax. The tiax was then spun on the low wheels, now sometimes seen in drawing rooms, gilded and beribboned, but never used. Then it was wound on spools from which it was reeled into hanks. In the elder day the women had to count the revo- lutions of the reels, but before the Civil War a device was invented by which, after 100 revolutions, the reel would crack, and the housewife thus knew a hank had been reeled off. The flax thread was then ready to be spooled and placed on the warping bars from which it was wound on the beam of the loom. From this beam it was put through gears and slays of split reeds, thus making the warp. After this, other flax thread was reeled off on quills from the hanks and placed in shuttles which were shot through the warp as the tread opened it, and the thread thus placed between the warp was driven back against the first thread by means of the battern, thus making loose cloth. Wool was shorn, washed, dried, picked, carded, spun, reeled on to brooches with shuck cores from the spinning wheel, when it was ready to be woven or knitted. Churches and Schools. The early settlers were Scotch- Irish, as a whole, and their descendants are a hardy, hospit- able and enterprising pouplation. They were about equally divided in the War between the States and are still almost equally divided in politics. Until the coming of the railroads there had been necessarily much of primitiveness in their houses, clothing and manners; but religion has always been a strong and controUing factor in their lives. Churches have always existed here; but school-houses had been few and small and very little attention had been given to education. But, since the railroads have penetrated into this region, all this has changed, and dwelling houses have improved, cloth- 284 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ing and manners have changed, and it is the exception nowa- days to find a boy or girl of twelve years of age who cannot read and write. Militia Muster Days. On the second Saturday of Oc- tober each year there was a general muster at each county seat, when the various companies drilled in battalion or regi- mental formation; and each separate company met on its local muster grounds quarterly, and on the fourth of July the commanding officers met at the court house to drill. The Big Musters called most of the people together, and there was much fun and many rough games to beguile the time. Cider and ginger cakes were sold, and many men got drunk. There was also some fighting, but seldom with stones or weapons. Salable Products. Apples, hog meat, deer hams, chest- nuts, chinquapins, butter, honey, wax, lard, eggs were the commodities they usually took to market, returning heavily laden with salt, yarn, pins, needles, tools, crockery ware, am- munition and a few cooking utensils. They relied principally upon herbs for such medicines as they used; they wove their own cloth upon hand looms, spinning the wool into thread and hetcheling or hatcheling out the flax. As sewing machines had not yet been invented, the women and girls cut out and sewed together all the garments used by themselves, their children and " the men folks" generally. No Money. According to Col. A. T. Davidson in The Lyceum, for January, 1891, the older people "had no money to buy with. . . . All the necessaries of life were pro- cured from the markets in Georgia and South Carolina. It was a three weeks' trip with a wagon to Augusta, Georgia. For this market the neighborhood would bunch their prod- ucts, bring their forces together and make trips to Augusta loaded with bacon, peltries and such other marketable arti- cles as would bear transportation in this simple way. The return for these products was sugar, coffee, salt and molasses; and happy was the family on the return of the wagons to be able to have a jugful of New Orleans black molasses. And how happy the children were to meet their fathers and broth- ers again, and have them recite the many stories of the trip. We then bought salt by the measure, a bushel weighing about seventy pounds. The average price on the return of the wagon was about three dollars per bushel. It was interesting MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 285 to see the people meet to get from the wagons their portion of the retvu-n load; and happy was the small family that got a half hushel of salt, oO cents worth of coffee and a gallon of molasses. There was a general rejoicing, all going home sat- isfied and happy, content with their small cargoes, confident that they hatl enough to do them for the next year. It is remarkable how simply and carefully they lived, and with what earnestness and hope they went to their daily toil, ex- pecting nothing more than this small contribution to their luxury for a year to come. Stock Raising.-' "The borders in the valley of Virginia and on the western highlands of the Carolinas were largely engaged in raising horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, which grazed at ^^^ll upon the broad slopes of the eastern foothills of the Alleghanies, most of them being in as wild a state as the great roving herds now to be seen upon the semi-arid plains of the far West." The same occupation was followed by those who passed west of the foothills of the Alleghanies, and is kept up till this day. Those who had bought up the wild lands at low figures encouraged cattle herders to pasture or "range" their stock there. In the first place it gained their good will, and in the second it enabled landowners to become aware of the presence of any squatters who might seek to hold by ad- verse possession. Two other reasons were that landowners could not have prevented the ranging of cattle except by fenc- ing in their lands, an impossible task at that time, and the suppression of fires in their incipiency. Certain it is, that all sorts of stock were turned into the mountains in May, where they remained till October, with weekly visits from their own- ers for purposes of salting and keeping them gentle. After awhile a market was found on the coast for the cows, sheep, horses and hogs, and they were driven there in the late sum- mer and during the fall. "There annually passed through Buncombe county an average of 150,000 hogs, driven on foot about eight miles daily, which required 24 bushels daily for each 1,000 and were fed on corn raised in Buncombe."-^ Stock "Stands." There were many "stock stands" along the French Broad river in ante-railroad days, for the turnpike from Asheville to the Paint Rock was a much traveled thor- oughfare. Its stockholders made money, so great was the travel. - ^ James Garrett had -a stand about one mile below 286 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA the Hot Springs. Then there was another opposite the Hot Springs, known as the White House, and kept by the late John E. Patton. At the mouth of Laurel creek was still another stand kept by David Farnsworth. Just above the railroad station now called Putnam's is where Woolsey had a stand, while Zach. Candler had another at Sandy Bottoms. Then came Hezekiah A. Barnard's stand at what is still called Barnards, though it used to be called "Barnetts, " and oppo- site the mouth of Pine creek Samuel Chunn gave bed and board to the weary drovers and feed to "his dumb driven" cattle, sheep, hogs, horses, mules or turkeys. At the lower end of what is now Marshall, Joseph Rice lived and at the upper end of that narrow village David Vance kept a tav- ern — a long one — probably 150 feet in length, huddled be- tween the stage road and the mountains. Samuel Smith accommodated all travelers and their belongings at the mouth of Ivy, and Mitchell Alexander was the Boniface at Alex- ander's. Hezekiah Barnard used to boast that, while David Vance at Lapland, now Marshall, had fed 90,000 hogs in one month, he himself had fed 110,000 in the same period of time. Aquilla Young, of Kentucky, also made his boast — he had driven 2,785 hogs from Kentucky to North Carolina in a single drove. ^ " Old Road Houses. "The stock stands, as the hotels be- tween Asheville and Warm Springs were called, were generally 'well kept.' They began four miles below Asheville, at five miles there was another, at seven and a half miles still an- other, at ten another, and another at thirteen and a half. After this, at 16, 18, 21, 22, 28, 33, 36, 37, 40 and 47 mile- posts there were still other hotels. "Many of them have entirely gone, and actually the ground upon which some of them stood has disappeared. The road, with a few points excepted, is but a A\Teck of its former self. It was once a great connecting link between Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia, and the travel over it was immense. All the horses, mules, cattle, sheep and hogs were driven over this route from the first mentioned States to the latter, and the quantities of each and all used then was very much greater than now. In October, November and December there was an almost continuous string of hogs from Paint MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 287 Rock to Asheville. 1 have known ten to twelve droves, con- taining from 300 to one or two thousand stop over night and feed at one of these stands or hotels. Each drove was 'lot- ted' to itself, and 'corned' by the wagon-load, the wagon being driven through each lot with ten or a dozen men scat- tering the corn right, left and rear, the load emptied and the ground literally covered. The drivers of these hogs were furnished large rooms, with immense log-heap fire-places and a blanket or two each, that they furnished themselves. They would form a semi-circle upon the bare floor, their feet to the fire, and thus pass the night; that they slept, I need not tell you. After driving 20 to 50 hogs from daylight to dark they could eat without coaxing and sleep without rocking. The travel over this thoroughfare was the life of the country."'' Old Time Country Stores. "Corn, sixty years ago, was 'the staple production'; the culture of tobacco was not thought of. These hotel men, manj' of them, kept little stores, bartered or sold everything on a credit; and in the fall they would advertise that on certain days they would receive corn in payment of 'store accounts,' and then the farmers would bestir themselves. They would commence dehvering frequently by daylight and continue it until midnight. I have seen these corn wagons strung out for a mile and as thick as they could be wedged. They were more anxious to pay accounts then than some of us are now; but it was pay or no credit next year. Each merchant had his 'trade,' and there was no getting in debt to one and then skip to an- other. The price allowed for corn was almost invariably fifty cents per bushel, the hotel men furnishing it to drovers at about 75 cents. They charged the drovers from twenty to twenty-five cents 'per diet,' meaning per meal for their drivers, asking the whole in lame hogs at so much per pound, or a due-bill from the manager to be paid as he returned home after having made sale of his stock, cash being only rarely if ever paid. These lame hogs taken on bills were kept until a suitable time for killing — a cold spell being necessary to save the meat — when they were slaughtered and converted into bacon and lard. " ' ' Hog-Killin' Time. "This hog killin' was a big time, and 'away 'fo' day' as the negroes, who were the principal partic- ipants, would say, twenty to thirty hands would build im- 288 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA mense log-heap fires; \\'ith, first, a layer of wood and then a layer of stones, which continued till satisfactory dimensions were reached, when the fire was applied and kept burning until the stones reached a red-heat. In the meantime, a platform would have been made out of puncheons, slabs or heavy plank, at one end of which and very near the fire a large hogshead (or scalding tub), filled with water, was placed. Then the hot stones were transferred to the water till a proper temperature for scalding was reached, and a certain number of hogs having been shot and 'stuck' (bled by sticking long knives in the throat), two stout men would plunge each hog into the hot water and twist and turn it about until the hair would 'slip,' when it would be drawn out and turned over to other hands, who, with knives, would remove all the hair from the hog, and then hang it by its hind legs, head down, on a long horizontal pole, where it would we washed and scraped down, opened, the entrails removed, and after cool- ing, be cut to pieces, thus making hams, shoulders and mid- dlings. Then it would be salted down, the fat having been taken from all parts. This fat was stewed into lard, from which the boy's dainty 'cracklings' was removed. How well I remember the enjoyment I had on these occasions, in broil- ing upon the hot stones the 'melts,' making a delicacy that I think would be relished even now; and in blowing up and bursting the 'bladders,' frequently saving up a lot of them for Christmas 'guns.' " ^ ^ Our Depots Sixty Years Ago. "Forty years ago Char- leston and Augusta were our depots; think of it — thirty to sixty days in going and returning from market! Our people then thought little or nothing of hitching up four or six mules, once or twice a year, and starting to market . . . with forty to fifty hundred pounds of bacon and lard, flour and corn meal, dried fruit, apples and chestnuts . . . and bring back a barrel or two of molasses and sugar, a keg or so of rice, a few sacks of salt and coffee, a little iron, a hun- dred or two pounds of nails and a box or so of dry-goods. " ^ ^ Roads Sixty Years Ago. "But the roads then were charming. I can remember when the road from Asheville to Warm Springs, every foot of it, was better than any half-mile of Asheville streets. Old Colonel Cunningham's 'mule and cart' and two or three hands traversed it from beginning to MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 289 end of year, removing every loose stone and smoothing up every place. All travel was then by private conveyance or stage, there being several four-horse coaches out from Ashe- ville daily. " ^ ■• Agriculture and Wit Sixty Years Ago. Of tho farming along the French Broad between Ashoville and Warm Springs sixty years ago, we road that "the lands were in a high state of cultivation, exceedingly high a great deal of it, as one would infer in passing along the foot of many steep hills and looking up to the top, seemingly almost perpendicular; and yet I have ploughed over some of the worst of them many a day, and was often indignant at the surprise expressed and sarcastic remarks made by the passer-by. One would ask if we did our planting with 'shot-guns'! Another, when were we go- ing to move, as he saw that we had our land rolled up ready for a start! The Kentucky horse-drovers would say the water of the French Broad was so worn out by splashing and dash- ing over and against the rocks that it was actually not fit for a horse to drink!" Herbs and Roots. Ginseng was for years the principal herb that commanded cash in this section, but at first it brought, when green, only seven cents a pound. It is now worth six dollars or more. ' ^ But gradually a market was developed for many other native herbs, such as angelico, blood root, balm of gilead buds, yellow and white sarsaparilla, shamonium (Jamestowm or gympsum weed), corn silk (from maize), corn-smut or ergot, hverwort, lobelia, wahoo bark, Solomon's seal, polk root and berries, pepper and spear-mint, poppy and rose leaves, and raspberry leaves. Dried black- berries since the Civil War also find a ready market. Arthur Cole on Gap creek in Ashe county once did an immense l)usi- ness in herbs, and the large warehouses still standing there were used to store the herbs which he baled and shipped north. Ferns, galax leaves and other evergreens are gathered by women in the fall and winter and find ready sale. A Low rvIoNEY Wage. Laborers and lawyers were poorly paid in the old days, and the doctors of medicine fared httle better. A fee of one hundred dollars in a capital case was considered the "top notch" by many leaders of the bar, while the late David Ballard of Ox creek. Buncombe county, who died about 1905 at the age of eighty-odd years, used to say W. N. C— 19 290 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA that, when he was a young man, he "had worked many a day for 25 cents a day and found himself." But 25 cents in those days would buy more than a dollar would now, and, as most of the trading was by barter, money was not missed as much as might be imagined. Stores were few and most of the things we now consider indispensable were unknown to many of the poorer people. Besides, everything that was indispensable was made at home, and things that were not indispensable were cheerfully dispensed with. Dyes. Madder dyed red; walnut bark and roots dyed brown; bedewood bark dyed purple; dye-flowers and snuff weed dyed yellow; copperas dyed yellow, and burnt copperas dyed nearly red. All black dyes rot wool. Dyes fade unless "set" in the thread — that is, made fast before the thread is placed in the loom. Laurel leaves, copperas, alum, and salt set dyes. The ooze from boiled walnut roots and bark was used to dye the wool before it was spun. It was dipped and dried, and dipped and dried again and again till the proper color had been attained. The dye pot stood on the hearth nearly all the time, as it had to be kept warm. Some dye plants were grown in the gardens, but they usually grew wild. NOTES. iThe Century Magazine for September, 1890. sAsheville's Centenary. 3Fifth Eth., Rep. 147. ^Roosevelt, Vol. Ill, p. 225. ^Asheville's Centenary. sThwaites, p. 30. 'Hominy creek in Buncombe got its name from a hominy mill with a pestle worked by water. sThese graters are still used in many places. sThwaites, p. 32. loThwaites, p. 32. The late Col. Allen T. Davidson used to tell of a famous hunter named "Neddy" McFalls who traveled from Cataloochee to Waynesville to have a witch doctor — a woman — remove a "spell" he thought someone had put on his Gillespie rifle. ii"Book of Hand-woven Coverlets," by Eliza Calvert Hall. i^CoUier's Editorial, April 6, 1912. John Fox, Jr.'s novels. "The murder of the gambler, Rosenthal, in August, 1912, on Broadway, New York, N. Y. uTarbell, Vol. I, p. 5 isByrd, 212. i^Zeigler & Grosscup, p. 96. I'Ibid., 94-96. i^There is a spinning-wheel on Grassy Branch in Buncombe county on which PoUy Henry spun mon^ thread than Judge Burton's daughter in 1824. I'Asheville's Centenary. 2 "Ibid. siProm "A Life of Deacon William West Skiles." 22Asheville's Centenary. ^^Description furnished by Col. David J. Farthing of Butler, Tenn. This applies only to the guns whose barrels were not bored out. The late Col. Allen T. Davidson used to tell of a famous gun-maker, who lived near Cherry Fields at the head of the French Broad river, whose "rifle guns" were much sought. The iron bars from which they were made were called "gunskelps." His name was Gillespie. 24Mace's "School History of U. S.," 1904, p. 287. 2 ^Asheville's Centenary. 26"Balsam Groves," p. 17. 2'Thwaites, p. 35. 28A. T. Summey in Ashe\'ille's Centenary. 29John A. Nichols' statement to J. P. A., July, 1912. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 291 y ••Upon the organization of the Western Division of the W. N. C. R. R. Co., the stock and property ol the Huncoinbe Turnpike Co. wen- exchanged for an equal amount of stock in tho Western Division. Shipp'.s Liuid Com. Report, pp. 284-285. t"Col. J. .\t. Ray in Lyceum, p. 16, December, 1890. 1^ »nbid.. p. 17. t.4>''>Ibid., p. 16. JQj >«The reference was to a time .shortly before any pnvinK had been done in Aslieville. • K- "In the ".Autobiography of Rev. C. D. Smith," p. 2, we find that gin-seng was " manu- factured," and Col. A. T. Davidson in the Lyceum for Jaiiuary, 1891, p. 5, speaks of the "factory." Dr. Smith also says this herb was gathered "in Nladison, Yancey, a portion of Buncombe, Mitchell, Watauga, .\she, and .\llogliany counties." Col. Davidson speaks of Dr. Ilailen and Dr. Smith, of Lucius & Heylin of Philadelphia, as the merchants to whom it was shipped. • CHAPTER XII EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS JuNALUSKA. In the fall of 1910 the General Joseph Wm- ston Chapter, D. A. R., unveiled at Robbinsville, Graham county, a metal tablet, suitably inscribed, to Junaluska and Nicie his wife. The tablet was attached to a large boulder which had been placed on the graves of these two Cherokees. Mrs. George B. Walker of Robbinsville read a paper in which was given the chief facts of the career of this noted Indian chieftain; among which was the recovery by him of an Indian maiden who had been sold into slavery and taken to Charles- ton, S. C, by proving by microscopic tests that her hair had none of the characteristics of the negro's. He also, on sep- arate occasions, saved the lives of Rev. Washington Lovin- good and Gabriel North, whom he found perishing from cold in the mountains. He went with the Cherokees to the west in 1838, but returned, and was allowed to remain, the legislature of North Carolina of 1847 having, by special act, made him a citizen and granted him 337 acres of land near what is now Robbinsville. The Battle of the Horse Shoe was fought August 27, 1814, according to Alfred M. Williams' Life of Sam Houston (p. 13), and on March 27th, according to others. It was called the Battle of To-ho-pe-ka, and was fought in a bend of the Tallapoosa river, Alabama, by Gen. Andrew Jack- son in the Creek War. It was fortified across the neck of the peninsula by a fort of logs against which Jackson's small cannon were ineffective. But in the rear there were no forti- fications except the river itself, so that Gen. Coffey, Jackson's coadjutor, could not cross. But Junaluska sw^am the river and stole the canoes of the Creeks, strung them together and paddled them to the opposite shore, where he filled them with a large number of Cherokees, recrossed the river, led by him- self, and attacked in the rear while Jackson attacked in front, Sam Houston and his Tennesseans scaling the walls and grap- pling the Creeks hand to hand. The Creeks asked and received no quarter, Houston himself being desperately wounded. This ended the last hope of the Creeks as a nation. I-su-nu- la-hun-ski, which has been improved into Junaluska, is Cher- (292) EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 293 okee for "I tried but failed," and was given this chief because at the outset of the Creek War lie had boasted that he would exterminate the Creeks, but, at first, had failed to keep his promise. The following is the inscription on the tablet: "Here lie the bodies of the Cherokee chief Junalusku, and Nicie, his ^\ife. Together with his warriors, he saved the life of General Jackson, at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, and for his bravery and faithfulness North Carolina made him a citi- zen and gave him land in Graham county. He died Novem- ber 20, 1858, aged more than one hundred years. This monu- ment was erected to his Memory by the General Joseph Win- ston Chapter, D. A. R., 1910." Before his death Junaluska conveyed his land to R. M. Henry. But Sheriff Hayes admin- istered on the estate of the deceased Indian and got an order from the court for the sale of the land to make assets. Under the sale Gen. Smythe of Ohio became the purchaser, and took possession. The case was carried to the United States court, where Henry won. But Judge Dick held that it was a case in equity, and set aside the verdict of the jury, heard the evidence himself and decided it in favor of Smythe. Henry did not appeal. See record in office of clerk of United States court, Asheville. It was decided in the seventies. Peyton Colvard. This pioneer was of French extraction, the name originally having been spelt Calvert, according to the Rev. Mr. Verdigans of the Methodist Church, South. Peyton Colvard came to Ashe county after the Revolutionary War. The Colvards of Cherokee and Graham are descend- ants, as is also Dr. J. W. Colvard of Jefferson, Ashe county. Part of Negro Mountain Falls. About the year 1830 Peyton Colvard lived in a log building which stood on the site of the present Jefferson Cash store of Dr. Testerman, and on the morning of February 19, 1827, the day his daughter Rachel, now the wife of Russell Wilbar of Texas, was born, a huge mass of rock fell from the top of Negro mountain and ploughed a deep furrow, still visible, do\\Ti its side for a quarter of a mile. The main mass of this rock, almost intact, is still visible, with a small tree growing on it, while large trees have since grown in the ravine left by the fall of this immense boulder. The Falling of the Stars. Several people still living remember this wonderful and fearful event. Col. John C. Smathers, who then lived on Pigeon river above Canton, remem- 294 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA bers it distinctly. He remembers hearing women wailing and men praying. Francis Marion Wells, still living on Grass creek in Madison county, remembers it also. He is now over ninety-two years of age. Mrs. Eliza Burleson, still living on the head of Cane creek in Mitchell county, remembers the occurrence. She also is over ninety-two years of age. Frankie Silver's Crime and Confession. According to Mrs. Lucinda Norman, the only living sister of Charles Silver, now (1912) 88 years of age and residing at Ledger, Mitchell county, N. C, Frances Stewart Silver murdered her husband, Charles Silver, at what is now Black Mountain Station on the Carohna, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad — the mouth of the South Toe river — on the night of December 22, 1831. ^ She was tried before Judge Donnell, June Term, 1832, and convicted at Morganton, where she was executed July 12, 1833. On appeal her conviction was affirmed by Judge Ruffin (14 N. C, 332). She escaped from jail but was recap- tured. She cut her husband's head off with an ax, and then dismembered the body, after which she tried to burn portions of it in the open fireplace of her home. She left a poem lament- ing her fate, in which she refers to "the jealous thought that first gave strife to make me take my husband's life." She also pleads that her "faults shall not her child disgrace." She also relates in the poem that "With flames I tried him to consume But time would not admit it done. " She must have been educated better than the average woman of that day. Finding that she could not get rid of the body by burning it, she concealed portions of it under the floor, in rock cliffs and elsewhere, claiming that he had gone off for whiskey with which to celebrate Christmas, and had probably fallen into the river, which had soon thereafter frozen over. A negro with a "magic glass" was brought from Tennessee, and as the glass persisted in turning downward, the floor was removed and portions of the body found. The weather growing warmer other parts of the remains revealed them- selves, a little dog helping to find some. Two Baird Families. Indicative of the almost utter desolation of these early scattered mountain communities is the story of the two Baird families. On the 20th of April, EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 295 1795, John Burton sold to Zcbulon and Bedent Baird all his lots in Asheville "except what lots is [already] sold and maid over. " ^ In 1819 Bedent Baird represented Ashe county in the House of Commons. He was not the Bedent who had bought the lots from John Burton. •• Certain it is that another Bedent Baird lived at Valle Crucis in what is now Ashe county, and his descendants constitute a large and influential family in that county at this time, just as the Bairds of Buncombe do in that county. But these two families seem never to have heard of the existence of the other till the 28th of January, 1858, when Bedent E. Baird wrote to Adolphus E. Baird at Lapland, now Marshall, in answer to Baird's note of enquiry, which he had penciled on the margin of a news- paper. In that note he had claimed Bedent as a relative and stated that he resided at Lapland; but he failed to sign his name or state the county in which Lapland was situated. A. E. Baird received the letter promptly, but seems never to have answered it. In it Bedent gave a full family history; and the letter was published in full in the Asheville Gazette News on February 20, 1912. This letter was read and preserved by the numerous Bairds in Buncombe but no one seems to be able to trace the exact relationship between the Buncombe and the Watauga Bairds. That they are the same family no one who knows them can doubt, as they look, and, in many things, act alike, besides having the same given names in many cases. ^ The Cold Saturday. This date is fixed in Watauga by the fact that John Hartley was born on that day, which is set down in his family Bible as February 8, 1835. On June 5, 1858, a freeze killed corn knee-high, and all fruits, vegetables and white oak trees between Boone and Jefferson, according to the recollections of Col. W. L. Bryan of Boone. There was a slight frost at Blowing Rock on the night of July 2G, 1876. There was snow on the Haywood mountains June 10, 1913. "The Big Sno"w\" Just when occurred what old people call the "big" snow cannot be determined to the satisfaction of everyone. Mrs. Eliza Burleson, of Hawk, Mitchell county, and the mother of Charles Wesley Burleson of Plum Tree, was born on the 5th of April, 1820, on Three Mile creek, her father having been Bedford Wiseman. She married Thomas Burleson, now deceased, in 1840, and after the Big Snow, and 296 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA still remembers the hunters who came to her father's house from Ivlorganton with guns and dogs and w^ell nigh exter- minated the deer, which could not run on the frozen surface of the deep snow, their sharp hoofs plunging through the crust, thus rendering locomotion impossible. Strange to say, near this very place is now the largest private collection of deer in the mountains — Bailey's deer-park being well stocked, while a small number of deer still wander wild in the neighborhood and are hunted every fall. George W. Vanderbilt's and the Murchison deer parks also contain a number of these animals, as well as several other smaller collections. "Snew, Blew and Friz." T. L. Lowe, Esq., of Banner Elk, thinks that two hundred years ago elk, moose or caribou roamed these mountains, and that there was little or no under- brush or laurel or ivy then. He speaks of a big snow which fell during the Fifties which recalled Dean Swift's great snow in England, when he said "first it blew, then it snew and then it friz." A large number of deer were killed at this time for the same reason, the frozen crust. In Watauga they still tell of a big snow which entirely obliterated all evidence of fences and shrubbery; but the year seems to have been prior to 1850. Other Weather Extravagancies. From Robert Henry's diary we learn that in "the summer of 1815 no rain fell from the 8th of July till the 8th of September. Trees ched. " Also that, "on the 28th day of August, 1830, Caney branch (which runs by Sulphur spring five miles west of Asheville) ceased to run. Tom ]\Ioore's creek and Ragsdale's creek had ceased to run some days before ; the corn died from the drouth. This has been the driest summer in sixty years to my knowledge. Our spring ceased to run for some weeks previous to the above date." Again: "The summer of 1836 was the wettest summer in seventy years in my remembrance." This is the climax: "Thursday, Friday, and Saturday next before Christmas, 1794, were the coldest days in seventy years," though as he had been born in 1765 he could not then have been quite thirty years of age himself. A Modern "Big Snow." On the 2d and 3d of December, 1886, a snow three feet in depth fell in Buncombe and adjoin- ing counties. On December 6th the newly elected officers of Buncombe county were required by law to present their offi- cial bonds to the county commissioners for approval; but, EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 297 owing to tlie suuw, it was impossible to travel vwy far. As a consequence R. H. Cole, who had been elected register of deeds, aiul .). v. Hunter, who had been elected treasurer, could not provide bonds acceptable to the commissioners, and .1. H. Patterson who had been defeated was appointed register of deeds, and J. IT. Courtney, who had also been defeated, was appointed treasurer. Two Recent Cold Snaps. On the night of February 7, 1895, there was a dangerous fire on Pack Square, Ashe- ville, threatening for awhile the entire southeastern section of the city. The thermometer was seven degrees below zero. On the morning of February 13, 1899, the thermometer was 13^ below zero at Asheville. Mount Mitchell. « In 1835 Prof. Elisha Mitchell made the first barometrical measurements of our mountains, and his report was the first authoritative announcement of the superior altitude of the highest southern summit to that of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. In 1844 he and Gen. T. L. Clingman took observations in the Balsam, Smoky and Black mountains, and Gen. Clingman subsequently pub- lished a statement to the effect that he had found a higher peak in the Blacks than the one measured by Dr. Mitchell. "It was admitted that Gen. Clingman had measured the high- est point, the only question being whether that peak was the same as that previously measured by Dr. Mitchell." Discoverers Dispute. To settle the matter Dr. Mitchell ran a series of levels from the terminus of the railroad near Morganton to the half-way house built by Mr. William Patton of Charleston, S. C, in 1856. From this place Dr. Mitchell started alone to Big Tom Wilson's in Yancey by the route he had followed in 1844. He intended to meet his son Charles at an appointed place on the Blacks the following Monday, he having left the half-way house Saturday, June 27, 1857. His son waited and searched for him till Friday following, when news of the professor's disappearance reached Ashe- ville, and many men set out to search for him. On the fol- lowing Tuesday Big Tom Wilson, who had been the professor's guide in 1844, discovered his trail and found the body in a pool of water at the foot of a waterfall, since called Mitchell's creek and Mitchell's fall. The body was taken across the top of the Blacks to Asheville and there interred in the Pres- 298 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA byterian church yard; but a year later it was taken back to the Peak and buried there. ^ ^ The Merits of the Controversy. Dr. Arnold Guyot of Princeton College, in an article published in the Asheville News, July 18, 1860: "The statements Dr. Mitchell made, at different times, of the results of his measurements failed to agree with each other, and, owing to unfavorable circum- stances and the want of proper instruments, the precise loca- tion of the points measured, especially of the highest, had remained quite indefinite, even in the mind of Dr. Mitchell himself, as I learned it from his own mouth in 1856. ... I may, perhaps, be permitted to express it as my candid opinion (without wishing in the least to revive a controversy happily terminated) that if the honored name of Dr. Mitchell is taken from Mount Mitchell and transferred to the highest peak, it should not be on the ground that he first made kno\vn its true elevation, which he never did, nor himself ever claimed to have done; for the true height was not known before my measurement of 1854, and the coincidence made out quite recently may be shown, from abundant proofs furnished by himself, to be a mere accident. Nor should it be on the ground of his having first visited it; for, though, after his death, evi- dence which made it probable that he did [came out,] he never could convince himself of it. Nor, at last, should it be because that peak was, as it is alleged, thus named long before; for I must declare that neither in 1854, nor later, during the whole time I was on both sides of the mountain, did I hear of another Mount Mitchell than the one south of the highest, so long visited under that name; and that Dr. Mitchell himself, before ascending the northern peak, in 1856, as I gathered it from a conversation with him, believed it to be the highest. Dr. Mitchell has higher and better claims, which are universally and cheerfully acknowledged by all, to be forever remembered in connection with the Black Mountain. . . . From these facts it is evident that the honorable senator [T. L. Clingman] could not possibly know when he first ascended it that anyone had visited or measured it before him, nor have any intention to do any injustice to Dr. Mitchell. . As to the highest group in the Great Smoky Mountains, how- ever, I must remark that, in the whole valley of the Tucka- seegee and Oconaluftee, I heard of but one name applied to the EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 299 liighest point, and it is that of Mount Clingnuui. 'I'hc great- est authority arountl the peak, Robert CoUins, Esq., knows of no other. . . . Gen. Chngnian was the leader of a party which made, in 1858, the first measurement, and the party was composed, besides himself, of Mr. S. P. Buckley and Dr. S. L. Love. He caused Mr. Collins to cut a i)ath six miles to the top, which enabled me to carry there the first horse . ever seen on these heights. . . . The central or highest peak is therefore designated as Clingman's Dome, the south peak, the next in height, as JMount Buckley, the north peak as Mount Love." The Monument. The monument to Professor Elisha ]\Iitchell, on the crest of the highest peak east of the Rocky mountains, was completed August 18, 1888. It is bolted to the betl-rock itself, is of white bronze — an almost pure zinc — treated under the sandblast to impart a granular appear- ance, cause it to resemble granite, and prevent discoloration; and was made by the Monumental Bronze Company, of Bridgeport, Conn. It was erected by Mrs. E. N. Grant, a daughter, and other members of Prof. Mitchell's family. Its dimensions are about two and one-half feet at the base and about twelve feet high. It is a hollow square and without any ornamentation. Vandals have shot bullet holes in it and an ax blade has been driven into one of its sides. Professor W. B. Phillips, now the professor of Geology at the University of Texas, had charge of its erection. It contains the follow- ing inscriptions: Upon the western side, in raised letters is the single word: " iMITCHELL" On the side toward the grave is the following: "Erected in 1888. "Here lies in hope of a blessed resurrection the body of Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D.D., who, after being for 39 years a professor in the Univer- sity of North Carolina, lost his Hfe in the scientific exploration of this mountain in the 64th year of his age, June 27th, 1857."'' A Memorable Riot. During the Seymour and Blair cam- paign of 1868 a riot occurred on the public square at Asheville in which one negro was killed and two others seriously wounded. Trouble had been expected, and when a negro knocked a young Mississippian down, twenty or more pistols were discharged 300 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA into the crowd of negroes, while from several store doors and second-story windows shotguns and rifles were discharged into the fleeing blacks. That night a drum was beaten in the woods where now is Aston park and a crowd of negroes assem- bled there, and reports spread that they would burn the town. Messengers were sent to surrounding to^vns, and by daylight three hundred armed white men from adjoining counties arrived. For two weeks the streets were patrolled at night. Oscar Eastman, in charge of the Freedman's Bureau, had an office in the Thomas building on the southwest corner of the square; but after the riot Eastman could not be found for several days, as it was thought he had incited the negroes to arm themselves with stout hickory sticks and shout for Grant and Colfax, the immediate casus belli. Giles McDowell, a large, bushy -headed negro and a Democrat, came up South Main street and shouted "Hurrah for Seymour and Blair," whereupon the other negroes made a rush for him, during which the young Mississippian was knocked down. Giles fled; but another darky by the name of Jim Greenlee fell on his face at the first shot, groaning and hollering. After the shoot- ing was over it developed that Jim was unhurt, but had wisely pretended to be hurt in order to keep anyone from firing at him. In 1874, Eastman, who had made himself very obnox- ious, was indicted in Buncombe Superior court twenty-five times for retailing whiskey and once for gambling. At the Spring Term of 1869 George H. Bell, William Blair, Erwin Hardy, Gaston McDowell, Ben. Young, Natt Atkinson, J. M. Alex- ander, J. W. Shartle, E. H. Merrimon, Henry Patton, Simon Henry, Robert Patton, John Lang and Armistead Dudley, pleaded guilty to the charge of riot, and were taxed with the costs. A Backwoods Abelard and Eloise. The tomb of the Priest Abelard and his sweetheart Eloise, in Paris, is visited by greater numbers than that of Napoleon. But the grave of poor, ignorant and deluded Delilah Baird near Valle Crucis is neglected and unknown. Yet she as truly as Eloise gave her life for love; for although she knew that John Holsclaw was a married man, she thought he was taking her to Kentucky when as a child of fifteen she followed him to the Big Bottoms of Elk in the spring of 1826, where she lived a life of faithful- ness and devotion to her lover and their son and daughter, and EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 301 iliecl constant and true to her role as his widow in Ciotl's .sight, if not in that of man's. Having sold her land the poor re- pressed, stinted creature indulged in gay dressing in her later years, which caused some of her relatives to fear that she was not competent to manage her money matters; but a com- mission of which Smith Coffey was a member, found that she was. (Deed Books R., p. 574, and A., p. 498.) In 1881-82 she wTote to a childhood friend, not a former sweetheart, Ben Dyer, at Grapevine, Texas, to come and protect her interests and she would give him a home. He came, but was not satisfied, and on May 26, 1882, sued her for his trav- eling expenses and the worth of his time; but recovered only S47.50, the price of a ticket to Texas. (Judgment Roll and Docket A., p. 172, Watauga county; See Chapter 13, "Loch- invar Redux.") NiMROD S. Jarrett, In the early fall of 1873 Bayliss Hen- derson, a desperado from Tennessee, wandering about, heard that Col. N. S. Jarrett would leave his home at the Apple Tree place on the Nantahala river, six miles above Nantahala station on the Western North CaroHna Railroad, and the same distance below Aquone, where his daughter, ^Irs. Alexander P. Munday, and her husband Uved. Henderson had been told that Jarrett would carry a large sum of money with him as he had to go to Franklin to settle as guardian for wards who had become of age. On a bright Sunday morning he was to start alone, as Henderson had been told, and on that morning he did start and alone. Half a mile below the home where Micajah Lunsford used to live he overtook Henderson, who was strolling idly along the road. Henderson walked a short distance by Jarrett's horse, but falling back a pace drew his pistol and shot the Colonel in the back of the head at the base of the brain. He took his watch and chain and the little money he had in his pocket, and hearing some one coming he waded across the Nantahala river and watched. The person he had heard was Mrs. Jarrett, the dead man's wife, a cripple, who had ridden rapidly in order to overtake her husband and ride with him to Aquone where she was to have stayed till he returned from Franklin. She went on and told Micajah Lunsford and a crowd soon gathered about the body. The footprints of a man near the body were measured, but before the body was removed Henderson came upon the scene. It 302 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA was noticed that the heels of his shoes were missing, but that in other respects his shoes made a print exactly like those which had been there before his arrival. He was arrested and taken to Franklin. The trial was removed to Jackson county, where he was convicted and hanged, the Supreme court refusing a new trial. (68 N. C.) While Henderson was in Macon jail he sent a man named Holland to a certain tree near the scene of the murder, where he found the watch, chain and money. Later on Henderson escaped and went back to the place where he had lived before the murder, but was found hiding in a brush-heap soon afterwards and returned to prison. Col. Jarrett was 73 years old. A Forgotten Crime. In the spring of 1855 the home of Col. Nimrod S. Jarrett at Aquone, Macon county, was burned in the day time, and one of his children, a little girl, perished in the flames, though her mother had gone into the burning dwelling in the effort to find and rescue her, and had been dragged out by force. About 1898 a man named Bill Dills died on the head of Wusser creek, and confessed that he had set fire to the house in order to prevent suspicion falling on him for having stolen several small sums of money, his idea being that their loss when discovered, would be attributed to the fire. Quaking Bald. "The most famous of the restless moun- tains of North Carolina is 'Shaking Bald.'" The first shock, which occurred February 10, 1874, was followed in quick succession by others and caused general alarm in the vicinity. This mountain for a time received national attention. Within six months more than one hundred shocks were felt. The general facts of these terrestrial disturbances have never been disputed, but concerning their cause, there has been widely diversified speculation. Is there an upheaval or subsidence of the mountains gradually going on? Are they the effect of explosions caused by the chemical action of min- erals under the influence of electric currents ? Are they the effect of gases forced through fissures in the rocks from the center of the earth, seeking an outlet at the surface? These are questions on which scientists differ. Be the cause what it may, there is no occasion to fear the eruption of an active volcano. "The famous Bald mountain forms the north wall of the valley. Its sterile face is distinctly visible from the porch EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 303 of the Logan hotel. Caves simihir to Bat cave are high on its front. In 1874 Bald mountain pushed itself into prominence by shaking its eastern end with an earthquake-like rumble, that rattled plates on pantry shelves in the cabins of the val- leys, shook \Wndows to pieces in their sashes, and even star- tled the quiet inhabitants of Rutherfordton, seventeen miles away. Since then rumblings have occasionally been heard, and some people say they have seen smoke rising in the atmos- phere. There is an idea, wide-spread, that the mountain is an extinct volcano. As evidence of a crater, they point to a fissure about half a mile long, six feet wide in some places, and of unmeasured depth. This fissure, bordered with trees, extends across the eastern end of the peak. But the crater idea is effectually choked up by the fact that the crack is of recent appearance. The crack widens every year and, as it widens, stones are dislodged from the mountain steeps. Their thundering falls from the heights may explain the rumbling, and their clouds of dust account for what appears to be smoke. The widening of the crack is possibly due to the gradual up- heaval of the mountain."^ Trial of Thomas W. Strange. On the 27th day of April, 1876, Thomas W. Strange was acquitted in Asheville for the murder on the 19th of August, 1875, of James A. Murray of Haywood county before Judge Samuel Watts and the follow- ing jurors: W. P. Bassett, J. L.Weaver, John H. Murphy, Owen Smith, W. W. McDowell, B. F, Young, John Chesbrough, G. W. Whitson, S. M. Banks, W. A. Weddin, and P. F. Pat- ton. W. L. Tate of Wajmesville was the soUcitor. There was much feeling in Haywood and Buncombe counties because of this acquittal. During his confinement in jail Preston L. Bridgers, his friend, voluntarily stayed with Thomas Strange. The court was held in the chapel of the Asheville Female College, now the high school. Judge Watts was from the eastern part of the State and was nick-named "Greasy Sam." "Big Tom" Wilson. Thomas D. Wilson, commonly known as "Big Tom," on account of his great size, was born Decem- ber 1, 1825, on Toe river, near the mouth of Crabtree creek, in the Deyton Bend. The "D" in his name was solely for euphony. He married Niagara Ray, daughter of Amos L. Ray, and settled at the Green Ponds, afterwards known as the Murchison boundary. The place was so called because of 304 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA several pools or ponds in Cane river, on the rock bottom of which a green moss grows. He died at a great age a few years ago. He was a great woodsman, hunter and trapper — a typical frontiersman, picturesque in appearance and original in speech and manner. He is said to have killed over one hundred bears during his life. His knowledge of woodcraft enabled him to discover Prof. Mitchell's trail, resulting in the recovery of his body, when the scientist lost his life on Black mountain in the summer of 1857. ^ ' Lewis Redmond, Outlaw. He was part Indian, and was born and reared in Transylvania count3% having "hawk-like eyes and raven-black hair." When fifteen years of age he was taken into the family of "Uncle Wash Galloway," a pioneer farmer of the county, and after he was grown and had left his home at Galloway's, he began " moonshining. " War- rants were issued for his arrest, but the deputy United States marshals were afraid to arrest him. jNIarshal R. M. Doug- lass, however, deputized Alfred F. Duckworth a member of a large and influential family of Transylvania county. Red- mond had sworn he would not be arrested, but young Duck- worth went after him notwdthstanding. Another deputy by the name of Lankford accompanied him. They came up vnth Redmond in the neighborhood of the East Fork, March 1, 1876. Redmond and his brother-in-law Ladd were driving a wagon. Duckworth told Redmond to stop, as he had a warrant for his arrest. Redmond stopped the wagon, and asked to hear the warrant read. Duckworth dismounted from his horse and began reading the warrant, but holding his pistol in one of his hands while he did so. Redmond said, "All right, put up your pistol, Alf, I will go along with you." While Duckworth was putting his pistol in his pocket, Ladd passed a pistol to Duckworth, and before "a man standing near by could speak, " Redmond put the pistol to Duckworth's throat and fired. Then he and Ladd jumped from the wagon and ran. Duckworth followed them a dozen or more steps, firing his pistol as he ran; but fell in the road from the shock of his wound. He died soon after being taken to his home, and Redmond escaped. Redmond was caught later in South Carolina for some offence committed there, but escaped. ^ Later on he was captured in Swain county at or near Maple Springs, five miles above Almond. He was living in a house EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 305 wliich cominanckHl a view of the only approach to it, a canoe hinilinu; antl trail leading from it. A posse crossed in the night and were in iiiiling near-by when daylight came. Redmond left the house and went in the upper part of the clearing with a gun to shoot a squirrel. One of the posse ortlered him to surrender. Redmond whirled to shoot at him, when another of the posse fired on him from another quarter, filling his back with buckshot, tlisahling but not killing him. He was taken to Bryson City, and while recuperating from his wounds received a visit from his wife. She managed to give him a pistol secretly which Redmond concealed under his pillow. A girl living in the house found it out, and told Judge Jeter C. Pritchard, who was one of the men guarding him at that time. He told his companions, and it was agreed that he should disarm him. This was done, warning having first been given Redmond that if he moved he would be killed. " Redmond served a term in the United States prison at Albany N. Y., and after being released moved to South Carolina, where, I am informed, he killed another man, an officer, and was again sent to prison. " ^ During the term of Gov. Wade Hamp- ton a long petition, extensively signed by many ladies of South Carolina, was presented to the governor for his pardon. He called himself a "Major," and claimed to be dying of tuberculosis. The pardon was granted in 1878, and Red- mond has given no trouble since. He was never tried for killing Duckworth. ^ ° Escape of Ray and Anderson. In the summer of 1885 several prisoners escaped from the county jail on Valley street in Asheville. The}^ were J. P. Sluder, charged with the mur- der of L. C. Sluder; C. M. York, also charged with another murder; and E. W. Ray and W. A. Anderson of Mitchell county, who had been convicted in Caldwell county — Ander- son of murder and Ray of manslaughter, for the killing of three men in a struggle for the possession of a mica mine in [Mitchell county. The last two men were members of prom- inent families. On the night of July 3, 1885, these men with an ax broke a hole in the brick wall of the jail, and escaped. Thej^ had forced the sheriff, the late J. R. Rich, and J. D. Henderson, the jailor, into the cage in which the prisoners were confined, when they were tied and gagged. The military company was called out to recapture the prisoners, but with- W. N. C— 20 306 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA out result. Proceedings were instituted against Rich and Henderson for suffering these escapes, but both were acquitted in January, 1886. Phenomena Noted and Explained. In his "Speeches and Writings" (Raleigh, 1877), Gen. Thomas L. Clingman has described and explained many phenomena, among which was the meteor of 1860 (p. 53), which was originally published in Appleton's Journal, January 7, 1871; the falling of several destructive watcr-spouts in Macon and Jackson counties (p. 68) on the 15th of June, 1876; and what he terms "low volcanic action" in the mountains of Haywood, at the head of Fines creek, which he visited in 1848 and 1851, and which had caused "cracks in the solid granite . . . chasms, none of them above four feet in width, generally extending north and south" where large trees had been thro^\Ti do\\Ti, hillocks on which saplings grew obliquely to the horizon, showing they had attained some size before the hillocks were elevated. He again visited this place in 1867, when he saw evidences of further disturbances, a large "oak tree of great age and four or five feet in diameter having been split open from root to top and thrown down so that the two halves lay several feet apart" (p. 78 et seq.). This was first published in the National Intelligencer of November 15, 1848. A Crime Necessitating Legislation. It was on the Cher- okee county boundary line that on the 11th day of July, 1892, William Hall shot and killed Andrew Bryson. He stood on the North Carolina side of the boundary line between the two States and, shooting across that line, killed Bryson while he was in Tennessee. William Hall and John Dickey were tried with Hall as accessories before the fact, and all were convicted of murder at the spring term of the Superior court of Cherokee county in 1893. But the Supreme court granted a new trial at the February term of 1894 ^ ^ on the ground that Hall could not be guilty of homicide in Tennessee. This decision was immediately followed by efforts on the part of the State of Tennessee to extradite the defendants under the act of Con- gress, but the Supreme court of North CaroUna held on habeas corpus proceedings ^ 2 that no one can be alleged to have fled from the justice of a State in whose domain he has never been corporeally present since the commission of the crime. The prisoners were discharged and have never been tried again in EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 307 North Carolina. These decisions were followed by remedial legislation embodied in the Acts of 1895, Chapter 109, making similar homicides crimes in North Carolina as well as in Ten- nessee. The Emma Burglary. Following are the facts of a sensa- tional burglary which occurred in Buncombe county Febru- ary 8, 1901, as taken from the case of the State v. Foster, 129 N. C. Reports, p. 704: "Indictment against Ben Foster, R. S. Gates, Harry Mills and Frank Johnston, heard by Judge Frederick Moore and a jury, at June (Special) Term, 1901, of the Superior Court of Buncombe County. From a ver- dict of guilty and judgment thereon, the defendants appealed. "The facts are substantially tvs follows : "D. J. McClelland was the owner of a store at a place called 'Emma', a few miles from the city of Asheville, in the county of Buncombe. Samuel H. Alexander is his clerk, and had been for more than three years boarding in the family of McClelland and sleeping in the store. There was a room in said store building fitted up and furnished with a bed and other furniture as a sleeping apartment, in which said Alexander kept his trunk and other belongings, and slept there, and had done so regularly for three years or more. On the night of the 8th of February, 1901, he (closed and fastened all the windows and outer doors of said store building, and between eight and nine o'clock he went into his bed- room, but, thinking some customer might come, and not being ready to retire, he left a lamp burning in the store-room. There was a partition wall between his sleeping-room and the store-room, in which there was a doorway and a shutter, but the shutter was rarely ever closed and was not closed that night. Soon after he went into his sleeping room, he heard a noise at one of the outer doors of the store building, and, think- ing it was some one wanting to trade, he went to the door and asked who was there. Some one answered 'We want to come in; we want some coffee and flour.' He then took down the bar used in securing the door, unlocked the same, and when he had opened the door about twelve inches, still having the knob in his hand, two men forced the door open, rushed in the house, covered him with pistols, told him to hold up his hands, that they had come for business. With the pistols still drawn upon him, they marched him into his bed-room, where they searched him and the things he had in his room, taking his pistol and other things. They then carried him into the store-room and made an effort to break into the postoffice department, there being a postoffice kept there. But not succeeding readily in getting into this, they abandoned it for the present, saying they supposed there was nothing in it, e.xcept postage stamps, and they would attend to them later. They then turned their attention to an iron safe and compelled him to assist in opening it, one of them still holding his pistol on him. After the safe was open and one of them going through it, taking what money and other valuables he found, a cat made a noise in the back part of the store, and the man 308 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA with the pistol bearing on him turnod his attention to that; and, as he did so, Alexander seized his own pistol they had taken from his room and which the man who was robbing the safe had laid on the end of the counter, and shot the man robbing the safe, and also shot the other man, but, in the meantime, the man whose attention had been attracted by the cat shot Alexander. They were all badly shot, but none of them died." This testimony was that of Alexander alone, neither prisoner going on the stand. Henry Mills and R. S. Gates, indicted as being present, aiding and abetting, were tried with Ben Foster and Frank Johnston, charged as principals. All were convicted of burglary in the first degree. The judgment was sustained and Ben Foster and Frank Johnston were hanged at Asheville, the governor having commuted the sentence of the two others to life imprisonment in the penitentiary. Nancy Hanks Tradition. For a hundred j-ears a tradi- tion has persisted in these mountains to the effect that between 1803 and 1808 Abraham Enloe came from Rutherford county and settled, first on Soco creek, and afterwards on Ocona Lufty, about seven miles from Whittier, in what is now Swain county; that he brought with his family a girl whose name was Nancy Hanks; that this girl lived in Enloe's family till after his daughter Nancy ran away with and married a man named Thompson, from Hardin county, Ky. An inti- ■ macy had grown up between Nancy Hanks and Abraham Enloe, and a son was born to her, which caused Enloe's wife, whose maiden name had been Edgerton, to suspect that her husband was the father of Nancy's child. Soon after the birth of this child, the tradition relates, Mrs. Nancy Thomp- son came to visit her parents and on her return to Kentucky or Tennessee took Nancy Hanks and her son with her, much to Mrs. Enloe's relief. Abraham Enloe is said to have been a large, tall, dark man, a horse and slave trader, ^ ■* a justice of the peace and the leading man in his community. Thus far the tradition as given above is supported by such repu- table citizens as the following, most of whom are now dead: Col. Allen T. Davidson, whose sister Celia married into the Enloe family, Captain James W. Terrell, the late Epp Ever- ett of Bryson City, Phillip Dills of Dillsborough, Abraham Battle of Haywood, Wm. H. Conley of Haywood, Judge Gil- more of Fort Worth, Texas, H. J. Beck of Ocona Lufty, D. K. EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 309 Collins of Bryson C^ity, Col. W. H. Thomas and the late John D. Mingus, son-in-law of Abraham Enloe. Abraham Lincoln Tells of His Parentage. That the child so born to Nancy Hanks on Ocona Lufty was Abraham Lincoln is support etl l)y the alleged statements that in the fall of 1861 a young man named Davis, of Rutherford, had, during the fifties, settled near Springfield, Til., where he became intimate with Abraham Lincoln and "in a private and confidential talk which he had with ?klr. Lincoln, the latter told him that he was of Southern extraction; that his right name was, or ought to have been, Enloe, but that he had always gone by the name of his step-father. " ' * After the Civil War a man representing himself as a son of Mrs. Nancy Thompson, a daughter of Abraham Enloe of Ocona Lufty, called on the late Col. Allen T. Davidson, a la^vyer, in his office in Asheville, and told him that President Lincoln had appointed him Indian agent or to some other office in the Indian service "because he (Lincoln) was under some great obligation to Thompson's mother, and desired to aid her, and at her request he made her son Indian agent." ^^ CoL Davidson as a lawyer had settled the Abraham Enloe estate, had heard of this tradition all his life and had no doubt as to its truth. There is another version to the effect that the child Abraham was not born till after his mother had reached Kentucky and also that Felix Walker, then congressman from the mountain district, aided Nancy Hanks in getting to Ten- nessee, where Thompson lived. "Truth is Stranger than Fiction." The above facts or statements have been taken from a small book of the name given, by James H. Cathey, once a member of the North Carolina legislature, and a resident of Jackson county. It was published in 1899. The various statements upon which the tradition was based are set forth in detail, accompanied by short biographies of each person named. No one can read these accounts without being impressed with their air of truthfulness. Evidence Sustaining the Enloe Parentage. The late Captain James W. Terrell refers to an article in Bledsoe's Re- view "in which the writer gives an account of a difficulty between Mr. Lincoln's reputed father and a man named Enloe" (p. 47) and states, as one of the reasons for sending 310 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Nancy Hanks to Kentucky, the fact that at that time some of the Enloo kindred were Uving there (p. 49). On page 54, a Judge Gihnore, hving then within three miles of Fort Worth, Texas, told Joseph A. Collins of Clyde, Haywood county, North Carolina, that he knew Nancy Hanks before she was married, and that she then had a child she called Abraham; that she afterwards married a man by the name of Lincoln, a whiskey distiller, and very poor, and that they lived in a small house. ^ ^ Col. T. G. C. Davis of St. Louis, Mo., a native of Kentucky, a cousin of President Jefferson Davis, a lawyer who once practiced law- with Mr. Lincoln in Illinois, is quoted as saying that he knew the mother of Lincoln; that he was raised in the same neighborhood; and that it was generally understood, without question, in that neighborhood, that Lincoln, the man that married the Pres- ident's mother, was not the father of the President, but that his father's name was Enloe" (p. 78). The foregoing are the most important facts alleged; but there is one statement, on page 55, to the effect that a man named Wells visited the Enloe home while Nancy Hanks was there and witnessed a disagreement or coolness between Enloe and his wife on her account. This man said he had gone there while selling tin- ware and buying furs, feathers and ginseng for William John- ston of Waynesville. This could not have been true, as Wil- liam Johnston did not emigrate from Ireland to Charleston till 1818. Soon after the appearance of this book the writer visited Wesley Enloe at his home on Ocona Lufty for the pur- pose of learning what he could of his connection with Abraham Lincoln; but, like the correspondent of the Charlotte Observer of September 17, 1893 (quoted on pages 63 et seq.), I did not observe any likeness between him and the pictures of Mr. Lincoln which I had seen, as Mr. Enloe was blue-eyed and jBiorid. He also stated to me that he had never heard his father's name mentioned in his family in connection wdth Abraham Lincoln's, just as he stated to that correspondent, on page 70. Clark W. Thompson. Col. Davidson was a man of such unquestioned integrity that any statement from him is worthy of belief; and in the interest of truth a letter was written to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, on March 8, 1913, asking "whether a man named Thompson was ever EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 311 appointiHl by President Lincoln to some position in the Indian Service," and on the 25th of the same month, Hon. F. H. Abbott, acting commissioner, wrote as follows: ". . . You are advised that the records show that Clark W. Thompson, of Minnesota, was nominated by President Lincoln to be Su- perintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern superintendcncy on March 26, 1861, and his appointment was confirmed by the Senate on the following day. There is nothing in the rec- ord to show reasons influencing this appointment. . . . " Of course this does not prove that Clark W. Thompson was a son of Mrs. Nancy Enloe Thompson, and is merely given for what it may be worth. In "The Child That Toileth Not," Major Dawley, its author, says (p. 271): "Where Mingus creek joins Ocona Lufty, in a broad bottom, is an old, partially demolished log-house, used as a barn, in which tradition says that Nancy Hanks, the mother of Lincoln, served as a house girl," etc. The Nancy Hanks History. As opposed to this tradi- tional evidence we have the voluminous history of Nickolay and Hay, ]\Ir. Lincoln's secretaries, called "Abraham Lin- coln," in which the fact that the immortal President's mother was married to Thomas Lincoln June 12, 1806, by Rev. Jesse Head, at Beechland, near Elizabethton, Washington county, Ky., and a copy of his marriage bond for fifty pounds, as was then required by the laws of Kentucky, is set forth in full, with Richard Barry as surety. In addition to this, there was published by Doubleday & McClure Co., New York, in 1899, by Carolina Hanks Hitchcock, "Nancy Hanks, the Story of Abraham Lincoln's Mother," giving in detail the facts of her birth in Virginia, her removal to Kentucky with her family, and her marriage to Thomas Lincoln on the date above given, and many other facts which, it would seem, place this date beyond all doubt. Col. Henry Watterson, in an address, presenting the Speed statue of Lincoln to the State of Ken- tucky and the Nation, November 8, 1911, said: "Let me speak ^\^th some particularity and the authority of fact, tardily but conclusively ascertained, touching the . maternity of Abraham Lincoln. Few passages of history have been so greatly misrepresented and misconceived. Some confusion was made by his own mistake as to the marriage of his father and mother, which had not been 312 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA celebrated in Hardin county, but in Washington county, Kentucky, the absence of any marriage papers in the old court house at Elizabethton, the county seat of Hardin county, leading to the notion that there had never been any marriage at all. It is easy to conceive that such a discrepancy might give occasion for any amount and all sorts of partisan falsifi- cation, the distorted stories winning popular belief among the credulous and inflamed. Lincoln himself died without surely knowing that he was born in honest wedlock and came from an ancestry upon both sides of which he had no reason to be ashamed. For a long time a cloud hung over the name of Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln. Persistent and intelligent research has brought about a vindication in every way complete. It has been clearly established that as the ward of a decent family she lived a happy and indus- trious girl until she was twenty-three years of age, when Thomas Lincoln, who liad learned his carpenter's trade of one of her uncles, married her, June 12, 1806. The entire record is in existence and intact. The marriage bond to the amount of 50 pounds . . . was duly recorded seven days before the wedding, which was solemnized as became well-to-do folk in those days. The uncle and aunt gave an 'infare', to which the neighboring countryside was invited. Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham, one of the best known and most highly respected of Kentuckians, before his death in 1885, wrote at my request his remembrances of that festi- val and testified to this before a notary public in the ninety- sixth year of his age." (The affidavit is set forth in full.)^^ Why the Tradition Persists. After reading the foregoing article, a feeling of indignation naturallj^ arises that anj-one should longer doubt or discuss the legitimacy of the Great Emancipator, and it was that feeling which led to an exami- nation of the "authority of fact tardily but conclusively ascer- tained touching the maternity of Abraham Lincoln." Nat- urally, too, the story was ascribed to "partisan falsification." Nicolay and Hay's account seemed to fix the date of the mar- riage as in June, 1806, since the marriage bond is dated on June 10th; and Miss Tarbell has settled the exact date as of June 12th of that year. So far, so good. But ]\Iiss Tarbell states (Vol. I, 7) that Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock had compiled the genealogy of the Hanks family, which, "though EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 3 1 3 not yet printed, has fortunately cleared up the mystery of her birth." This little l)ook, now out of print, *** was obtained after great trouble, and what was found? That instead of clearing up the niystery of Nancy Hanks' birth, Mrs. Hitch- cock has only made confusion worse confounded. In fact, she shows that Thomas Lincoln married an altogether differ- ent Nancy Hanks from the one the President remembered, the one Dennis Hanks knew, and the one Herndon has so particularly describetl in his carefully prepared work on the origin of Abraham Lincoln. She also discredits every sub- sequent statement by trying to show that Thomas Lincoln was not "the shiftless character" he has been represented as being (p. 54). After that, one naturally looks with suspi- cion upon every statement of fact in the little volume. The Lineage of Lincoln's Real Mother. Almost imme- diately after the death of Mr. Lincoln his former law partner. Win. H. Herndon, Esq., set out to interview every member of the Lincoln and Hanks families then living. He kept up this investigation for years. What did Abraham Lincoln himself have to say as to who his mother was? Herndon says (p. 3) that in 1850, while they were in a buggy together, going to Menard county court, Lincoln told him that his mother "was the daughter of Lucy Hanks and a well-bred but obscure Virginia farmer." Who that farmer was is not stated; but Lucy Hanks, after the birth of Nancy, married a man named Henry Sparrow, and Nicolay and Hay say that Nancy Hanks was sometimes called Nancy Sparrow (Vol. I, p. 7). Hern- don also says with exactness (p. 10) that "Nancy Hanks, the mother of the President, at a very early age, was taken from her mother Lucy — afterwards married to Henry Sparrow — and sent to live with her aunt and uncle, Thomas and Betsy Sparrow, fnder this same roof the irrepressible and cheer- ful waif, Dennis Hanks, . . . also found shelter. " Now who was Dennis Hanks? He was the illegitimate son of Nancy Hanks and Friend. Which Nancy Hanks was this? The sister of Lucy Hanks (p. 10). Miss Tarbell calls him Dennis Friend (pp. 14 and 25) and says misfortune had made him an inmate of Thomas Lincoln's Indiana home. The Lineage of Mrs. Hitchcock's Nancy Hanks. Her father was Joseph Hanks and her mother Nancy Shiplej', and was born February 5, 1784, (p. 25) and came with her parents 314 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA from Virginia to Kentucky about 1789, and settled near Eliza- bethton in what is now Nelson county (p. 40). Her father died January 9, 1793, and his will was probated May 14, 1793, by which her brother Joseph got all her parents' land and she herself got a pied heifer, although there were eight children — Joseph Hanks, Sr.'s widow and his son William being executors (pp. 43-45). Miss Tarbell adopts the same Uneage for her Nancy (p. 8), and they both place this Nancy in the home of Lucy Shipley, wife of Richard Berry, when Nancy was nine years old. Physical Characteristics of Lincoln's Real Mother. Herndon says (p. 10) that "at the time of her marriage to Thomas Lincoln, Nancy was in her 23d year. She was above the ordinary height in stature, weighed about 130 pounds, was slenderly built, and had much the appearance of one inclined to consumption. Her skin was dark; hair dark bro^vn; eyes gray and small; forehead prominent; face sharp and angular, with a marked expression of melancholy which fixed itself in the memory of everyone who ever saw or knew her. ..." Physical Features of Mrs. Hitchcock's Nancy. "Bright, scintillating, noted for her keen wit and repartee, she had withal a loving heart," is Mrs. Hitchcock's (p. 51) notion of Nancy Hanks' manner. "Traditions of Nancy Hanks' appearance at this time [of her marriage] all agree in calling her a beautiful girl. She is said to have been of medium height, weighing about 130 pounds (p. 59), Hght hair, beauti- ful eyes, a sweet, sensitive mouth, and a kindly and gentle manner." In another place (p. 73) she says that when Nancy Hanks went to her cousins', Frank and Ned Berry, the legend is that "her cheerful disposition and active habits were a dower to those pioneers." Frank and Ned were sons of Richard Berry. Herndon 's Thomas Lincoln. "Thomas was roving and shiftless. . . . He was proverbially slow of movement, mentally and physically; was careless, inert and dull. He had a liking for jokes and stories. . . . At the time of his marriage to Nancy Hanks he could neither read nor write (p. 8). . . . He was a carpenter by trade, and essayed farming, too ; but in this, as in almost every other undertaking, he was singularly unsuccessful. He was placed in possession EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 315 of several tracts ot" laiul at clifTerent times in his lite, but was never able to pay for a single one of them" (p. 9). He hunteil for game only when driven to do so by hunger (p. 29). Mrs. Hitchcock's Thomas Lincoln. "Thomas Lincoln had been forced to shift for himself in a young and undevel- oped country (p. 56). He had no bad habits, was temper- ate and a church-goer" (p. 54). She quotes an affidavit of Dr. C. C. Graham to the effect that he was present at the marriage of Thomas Lincoln, but he says nothing more of him, except that he had one feather bed, and when the doctor was there, Thomas and his wife slept on the floor. This same Dr. Graham is quoted as saying that it is untrue that Thomas kept his family in a doorless and windowless house. But Miss Tarbell (p. 19) and Herndon (p. 18) say that Thomas Lincoln kept his family in a "half-face camp" for a year, and that after the cabin was built it had but one room and a loft, with no window, door or floor; not even the traditional deer-skin hung before the exit; there was no oiled paper over the opening for light; there was no puncheon floor on the ground . . . and there were few families, even in that day who were forced to practice more make-shifts to get a living"; and that sometimes the only food on the table was potatoes (p. 20). And yet Mrs. Hitchcock says he was not shiftless! Abr.\ham Lincoln and His Parents. Mr. Herndon says (p. 1) that if Mr. Lincoln ever mentioned the subject of his parents at all it was with great reluctance and with sig- nificant reserve. "There was something about his origin he never cared to dwell upon." To a Mr. Scripps of the Chi- cago Tribune, in 1860, Mr. Lincoln communicated some facts concerning his ancestry which he did not wish to have pub- lished then and which Scripps never revealed to anyone" (p. 2). In the record of his family which Mr. Lincoln gave to Jesse W. F'ell, he does not even give his mother's maiden name; but says that she came "of a family of the name of Hanks." (Footnote on page 3). He gives but three lines to his mother and nearly a page to the Lincolns. And "Mr. Lincoln himself said to me in 1851 . . . that whatever might be said of his parents and however unpromising the early surroundings of his mother may have been, she was highly intellectual by nature, had a strong memory, acute 316 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA judgment, and was cool and heroic" (p. 11). His school days he never alluded to; and Herndon says he slept in the loft of the Indiana cabin, which he reached by climbing on pegs driven in the wall, while Miss Tarbell says that "he slept on a heap of dry leaves in a corner of the loft" (p. 19), while his parents reclined on a bedstead made of poles rest- ing between the logs and on a crotched stick, wdth skins for the chief covering." Although in the highest office in the land for four years before his death, Mr. Lincoln left his mother's grave unmarked, and when his father was dying he allowed sickness in his own family to deter him from paying him a last visit, writing instead a letter advising him to put his trust in God. Herndon's Estimate of the Hankses. "As a family the Hankses were peculiar to the civilization of early Ken- tucky. Illiterate and superstitious, they corresponded to that nomadic class still to be met with throughout the South, and known as 'poor whites.' They are happily and vividly depicted in the description of a camp-meeting held at Eliza- bethton, Ky., in 1806, which was furnished me in August, 1865, by an eye-witness (J. B. Helm). 'The Hanks girls', narrates the latter, 'were great at Camp-meetings,'" and the scene is then described of a young man and young woman with their clothing arranged for what was to follow, who approached and embraced each other in front of the congregation: "When the altar was reached the two closed, with their arms around each other, the man singing and shouting at the top of his voice, 'I have my Jesus in my arms, sweet as honey, strong as baconham. ' She was a Hanks, and the couple were to be married the next week; but whether she w^as Nancy Hanks or not my, informant does not state; though, as she did marry that year, gives color to the belief that she was. But the performance described must have required a little more emo- tion and enthusiasm than the tardy and inert carpenter was in the habit of manifesting" (p. 12). Confirmation of the Enloe Tradition. One might suppose that the Enloe story has no other basis than that re- corded in ]\Ir. Cathey's book. But this is far from being the fact, though most of the biographers of Lincoln make no reference to the Enloes whatever. But Mr. Herndon, on page 27, remarks of Thomas Lincoln's second wife, Sarah EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 317 Rusli, that her social status is fixed by the comparison of a nei<:;hl)or who contrasted tlie "hfe among tlie llankses, tiie LiiKH)his, and the Enloes witli that among the Bushes, Sarah having married Daniel Johnston, the jailer, as her first matri- monial venture. Dr. C. C. Graham, in his hundredth year, made a statement as to the Lincoln family, which is publislied in full by McClure's in magazine form and called "The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln," bj' Ida M. Tarbell. This is dated in 1896. Herndon and all the biographers agree that, although so old. Dr. CJraham was a competent witness as to Lincoln's early life. Lideed, all of pages 227 to 232 of this little maga- zine book are devoted to testimonials establishing his credi- bility. But, although Tarbell's Life of Lincoln is an enlarge- ment of this magazine story, and contains four large volumes, very little of Dr. Graham's long statement, covering over five closely printed pages, is preserved. And among the things that have been suppressed is this: "Some said she (Nancy Hanks, Thomas Lincoln's first wife) died of heart trouble, from slanders about her and old Abe Enloe, called Inlow while her Abe, named for the pioneer Abraham Linkliorn, was still living." Neither Mrs. Hitchcock nor Miss Tarbell seems to have attached the slightest importance to this state- ment. But that is not all. Herndon records the fact (p. 29) that when he interviewed Mrs. Sarah Bush Lincoln, Thomas Lincoln's second wife, in September, 1865, "She de- clined to say much in answer to my questions about Nancy Hanks, her predecessor in the Lincoln household, but spoke feelingly of the latter's daughter and son." Thus, it will be observed, that most of the testimony on which the stories concerning Nancy Hanks are based do not rest on the fabrications of his political enemies, but on the statements and significant silence of himself, his friends, rela- tives and biographers. The Calhoun Tradition. If anywhere in the world Lincoln had enemies, it was in South Carolina. If anywhere in the world a motive could exist to ruin his political fortunes, it was among the politicians of the Palmetto State. It is true that for years there has been an intangil)le rumor about John C. Calhoun and Nancy Hanks; but the world must perforce bear witness that such rumors have met with little or no encourag^.'ment from the people of that State. Yet, dur- 318 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ing all the years that have flown since early in the last century, many men and women knew of a story which connected the name of the Great NuUifier with that of Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln. It has lain untold all these years; but in 1911, Mr. D. J. Knotts of Swansea, S. C, brought it to the light of day. The reason for this delay was due to the respect that the custodians of the secret entertained for the wishes of the Calhoun family. For, even now, some of those to whom the facts had been communicated by Judge Orr and Gen. Burt, will not permit their names to be used in con- nection vnth the story. But the main facts seem to be well established bj^ other testimony, and although these articles have been before the public since 1910, no one has as yet attempted their refutation. Abbeville "District," as it was called, in South Carolina, was the home of John C. Calhoun and of Gen. Armistead Burt, who married Calhoun's niece. They were fast friends and political supporters of State Rights. Judge James L. Orr was born in Craytonville, S. C, May 12, 1822, and was in Congress from 1849 to 1859, having been speaker of the 35th Congress. He thus began his congressional career the year after jNIr. Lincoln had com- pleted his single term; but John C. Calhoun was serving then as senator, dying March 31, 1850. Judge Orr was probably born in the very tavern which had previously been kept by Ann Hanks at Craytonville, as Orr's father certainly kept the same hostelry during his life. The Story is Told at Last. During 1911 the Columbia State published four articles on the "Parentage of Lincoln," by D. J. Knotts, of Swansea, S. C. Briefly stated, his story is to the effect that in 1807, John C. Calhoun began the prac- tice of law in Abbeville county, where he lived till his removal to Fort Hill in 1824. Anderson county was not established tin 1828; but in 1789 Luke Hanks died and left a will, which was probated in Abbeville county in October of that year, by which his widow, Ann Hanks, a relative of Benjamin Harris of Buncombe county, N. C, and John Haynie were made execu- tors. No deed can be found to land of Luke or Ann Hanks, but there is a grant to 210 acres to her brother in 1797. How- ever, the appraisers of the property under Luke Hanks' ^^dll valued these 210 acres at one dollar per acre, and the personal property at $500. Just how long after Luke's death it was EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 319 that his ^^^do^v, Ann Hunks, took cluirgc of a tavern at the cross roads, called Craytonville and Claytonville, was not stated; but it is alleged that she kept this tavern in 1807, and for several years thereafter. This cross-roads place is between Anderson, Abl)eville and Pendleton — all flourishing towns at this time. At this tavern John C. Calhoun stopped in going to and from the courts, and became involved in a love affair with Ann Hanks' youngest child, Nancy. At this tavern also stopped Abraham Enloe on his way South from Ocona Lufty with negroes and stock for sale. With him came as a hireling Thomas Lincoln, the putative father of the President. Nancy Hanks began to be troublesome and Mr. Calhoun is said to have induced Thomas Lincoln to take her with him on his return with Abraham Enloe — paying him $500 to do so. Lincoln is said to have conducted Nancy to the home of Abraham Enloe, where she became a member of the family. This is a confirmation of the Enloe tradition, except that Nancy is said to have gone there from Ruther- ford county. The Petition for Partition. Ann Hanks, who seems to have had a life estate in the 210 acres of land, must have died about 1838 or 1839, for we find that Luke Hanks' heirs tried to divide the property without the aid of a lawyer, mak- ing two efforts to that end, but failing in both. In 1842, however, an Anderson attorney straightened things out bj- bringing in Nancy Hanks as the twelfth child of Luke and Ann Hanks, and the property was divided into twelve equal shares, it having been alleged that Nancy Hanks had left the State and that her whereabouts were unknown. Col. John Martin became the purchaser of this land, which is in a neigh- borhood called Ebenezer, and is within three or four miles of the tavern at Craytonville. Lincoln is Told of a Remarkable Resemblance. Li 1849, while John C. Calhoun and Gen. Burt were attending Congress, young James L. Orr, not yet a member, but wishing to see the workings of that body over which he was one day to preside, matle a visit to Washington, D. C, and as he had gro^\^l up \vith the Hanks family near Craytonville, he was at once impressed wath the remarkable resemblance between those Anderson county Hankses and a raw-boned member from the State of Illinois, by name Abraham Lincoln. He 320 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA told Lincoln of the fact, and the latter replied that his mother's name was Nancy Hanks. Thereupon, it is stated, Orr wanted to go into particulars, but Lincoln at once became reticent and would not discuss the matter further. This aroused Orr's suspicions, and on his return to Anderson he mentioned it to the Hankses of Ebenezer, who having but recently heard the almost forgotten story of John C. Calhoun's connection with Nancy and her disappearance from the State early in the century (in the partition case) related it to Judge Orr in all its details. Gen. Burt also became possessed of the story, but guarded his secret jealously, his wife being Calhoun's niece. But, when Lincoln was assassinated Judge Orr, who was a brother in-law of Mrs. Fannie Marshall, a second cousin of John C. Calhoun, told her and her husband what he had learned from the Anderson Hankses; and in 1866 Gen. Armi- stead Burt, under the seal of an inviolable secrecy, told what he knew to a group of lawyers all of whom were his friends. So inviolably have they kept this secret that even to this day several of them refuse to allow their names to be mentioned in connection with it. But the Hankses also told their family physician. Dr. W. C. Brown, the story of their kinswoman and John C. Calhoun, and he mentioned it to others. John Hanks, also, is said to have told Dr. Harris that Nancy Hanks had gone to an uncle in Kentucky when her condition became knowm at the Enloe farm; for it seems that a Richard Berry has been located as buying land in Anderson county in 1803, and as disappearing entirely from the records of Anderson county thereafter. Mr. Knotts introduced much other evidence, and has accu- mulated much additional testimony since, which he will soon publish in full, giving book and page of all records and full extracts from all documents. Minor Matters. Mr. Knotts also states that Dr. W. C. Brown was a brother of "Joe" Brown, the "War Governor" of Georgia; that Mr. Herndon's first hfe of Lincoln contained several statements which Lincoln had made as to his illegiti- macy; but that friends of Lincoln "had tried to recall the volumes and failed to get a few of them in for destruction"; but that Mr. Knotts had secured a copy, from which he made (pp. 5 and 6) the following statement: "Mr. Herndon, says Mr. Weik, his co-laborer in the work, spent a large amount of time EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 321 and trouble hunting down tliis tradition in Kentucky, and finally I'ounil a family in Bourbon county named Inlow, who stated to him that an older relative, Abraham Inlow, a man of wealth and influence, induced Thomas Lincoln to assume the paternity of Abraham Lincoln, whose mother was a nice looking woman of good family nam(>d Nancy Hanks, and that after marriage he removed to Hardin or Washington county, where this infant was born. " Mr. Knotts also makes the point that there could have been no contemporaneous record of Lincoln's birth, and that he made the date himself in the family Bil)le, years after he became a man; that in that record he nowhere records the fact or the date of his father's marriage to Nanc}' Hanks, although he is careful to record his father's second marriage to Sarah Bush Johnston, and his o^^^l mar- riage to ]\Iary Todd; also that he speaks of his sister Sarah, when she married Aaron Grigsby, as the daughter of Thomas Lincoln alone; and when she died, he again speaks of her as the daughter of Thomas Lincoln and wife of Aaron Grigsby, but never mentions her as the daughter of Nancy Lincoln. No one has ever accounted for the mutilation of the family record made by Abraham Lincoln himself in the family Bible. In every instance in which discredit might fall on Nancy Hanks, the dates have been carefully obliterated in some vital point. Surely Lincoln's political enemies did not do this thing, the doing of which has cast more suspicion on his legitimacy than all things else combined. The Rutherford County Hankses. When this last tradition was called to the writer's attention, it was apparent that the only way to discredit it was to follow the clue which stated that the Nancy Hanks of Abraham En- loe's household had gone there from Rutherford county. Accordingly, diligent enquiries were instituted in the counties of Rutherford, Lincoln and Gaston w'ith the result that no trace could be found of Nancy Hanks in either of them, or elsewhere in the State. All persons who seemed to know anything of the Hanks family referred to Mr. L. M. HolTman of Dallas, N. C., who WTote, June 2, 1913, to the effect that for several years he had been working on a genealogical history of all the families who first settled that section from whom he is descended. Among these were a Hanks famil}-; and while he obtained 600 manuscript pages concerning all the W. N. C— 21 322 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA other families from which he has descended "the want of time and the difficulty of getting rehable information . has caused me (him) to nearly close my (his) search. . . . " Further correspondence resulted in discovering little more than that there once existed a Bible of the Hanks family in the possession of the Jenkins family; but Mr. Hoffman, who examined and made extracts from it, found nothing of record regarding Nancy Hanks. He then gave several discoveries that he made, and adds: "This only illustrates how I failed to get anything like a connected story of the Hanks family. There are several of the Hanks family here still, but they know almost nothing of their ancestors. . . . " When it is remembered that there are several Hanks men in Anderson county, S. C, who are said to resemble Abraham Lincoln in a most striking way, it is evident that the probabilities are largely that Nancy Hanks went to Abraham Enloe's from South Carolina rather than from Rutherford county, N. C. The Tennessee Tradition. On the farm of G. W. Wag- ner, formerly o^\aied by Isaac Lincoln — a few miles from Elizabethton and opposite the little station called Hunter — is a tombstone on which is carved: "Sacred to the memory of Isaac Lincoln, who departed this life June 10, 1816, aged about 64 years." ^^ In McClure's Early Life of Lincoln, Isaac Lincoln is mentioned as one of the brothers of Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of the President (p. 223). Tradition says that to this farm came Thomas Lincoln after the death of his father in 1788 had, according to Miss Tarbell (p. 6), turned him " adrift to become a wandering laboring boy before he had learned to read." Tradition also says that a Nancy Hanks at one time lived in that neigh- borhood; but that Thomas was so shiftless that his Uncle Isaac drove him away, when Nancy disappeared also. The lady referred to on page 73 of J. H. Cathey's book by Col. Davidson was his sister, Miss Elvira Davidson, who was a vis- itor in the home of Felix Walker, one of whose sons she after- wards married; and it was while there, according to her state- ment to her niece, that she had seen Abraham Enloe call Felix Walker to the gate and talk earnestly with him, and that when Walker came back he told Mrs. Walker Abraham Enloe had arranged with him (W^alker) to have Nancy Hanks taken to Tennessee, instead of Kentucky, when Mrs. Walker re- EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 323 mai'kecl tliat Mrs. Enloe would "be happy asaiii. " Mrs. Enloe and Mrs. Walker were great friends. Elvira David- ;?on was a young girl at this time. She first married Joseph Walker and years afterwards was left a widow. Her second husband was Thomas Gaston, whose descendants are in Bun- combe today. The South Carolina Record. This record is in the office of the Ordinary, corresponding to that of probate judge in most States, its numljer is 964, and is entitled: " Valentine Davis and wife, applicant, r. Luke Ilonie and others." The summons in relief was filed before William McGee, Ordinary of Anderson District, S. C, December 26, 1842; it relates to the real estate of Ann Hanks, and is recorded in real estate book, volume 1, p. 59. The summons is to the "legal heirs and representatives of Ann Hanks, who died intestate," and requires the parties named therein — among whom is Nancy Hanks — to appear on the 3d day of April, 1843, and "show cause why the real estate of Ann Hanks, deceased, situated in said district on waters of Rocky river, bounding Brig. R. Haney, John Martin and others, should not be divided or sold, allotting the same as it proceeds among you." Valentine Davis was appointed and consented to act as the guardian ad litem of the minor heirs named in the summons; a large number of heirs accepted legal service of the summons; while the Ordinary notes that he "cited" several others to appear in court, etc. A rule was also issued December 26, 1842, to twenty-seven of the defendants "who reside without the State," among whom is the name of Nancy Hanks, all of whom are required to "appear and object to the sale or division of the real estate of Hanks on or ])efore the third day of April next, or their consent to the same will be entered of record." There is also in this record an assignment to Mary Hanks by her son James R. Hanks, of Crittenden county, Kentucky, of his interest "in the real estate of my grandmother Ann Hanks, which came to me by right of my father, George Hanks, which was sold by the Court of Ordinary in Anderson District, South Carolina, in June, 1843, which claim or claims I re- nounce to my said mother Mary during her natural life, from me, my executors or assigns, so long as the said Mary Hanks shall live, but at the said Mary's death to revert back me to and my heirs," etc. 324 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA This assignment of interest is dated April 1, 1844, and was probated before James Cruce, justice of the peace of Crittenden county, Ky., by Wilham Stinson and Reuben Bennett, subscribing witnesses, on the first of April, 1844. The record fails to show any receipt from Nancy Hanks for her share in the proceeds of this real estate, which would seem to indicate that she was dead and that her heirs received no actual notice of this proceeding. The foregoing excerpts have been furnished bj' Thomas Allen, Esq., of the Anderson, S. C, bar. Reality of Isaac Lincoln's Residence. Of the resi- dence of Isaac Lincoln and Mary (nee Ward) his wife, in what is now Carter county, Tenn., there can be no doubt, the deed books of that county showing many conveyances to and from Isaac Lincoln, one of which (B, p. 14) is indexed as from Isaac "Linkhorn" to John Carter, which bears the early date of March 4, 1777, and conveys 303 acres on the north side of Doe river known by the name of the "Flag Pond," for one hundred pounds. The deed, however, is signed "Isaac Lincoln," not "Linkhorn"; but it was not regis- tered till July 22, 1806. Lincoln and Carter are both described as of "Watauga" simply. Other conveyances show that he owned several lots in what is now Eliza- bethton, the county seat of Carter county (B, 18). There is also a conveyance from Johnson Hampton, with whom Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks are said (according to a letter from D. J. Knotts to J. D. Jenkins, 1913) to have gone from Abraham- Enloe's to Thomas Lincoln's brother's home on Lynn mountain, five miles above Elizabethton, on Watauga river. But this conveyance is dated March 13, 1834, and is to Mordeca (sic) Lincoln and John Berry of the "county of Green and Carter," Tenn. (Book D, p. 373). The site of the cabin in which Isaac and Mary lived is still pointed out at the base of Lynn mountain. Isaac and Mary Lincoln Slaveowners. The will of Isaac Lincoln, dated April 22, 1816, is filed in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of Carter county, Tenn., and, though yellow with age, is in a good state of preservation. By it he leaves all his property to his wife Mary; and when her will (filed in the same ofl^ice) is examined, it is found to bequeath at least 28 negroes, naming each one separately, EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS 325 niul providin}^ for the support of two of thcin during life. William Stover, who got the bulk of her estate, was the son of her sister and Daniel Stover; and Phoebe Crow, wife of Campbell Crow, to whom she left the "negro girl Margaret and her four children, to wit: Lucy, Mima, Martin and Mahala, was Phoel)e Williams, a niece of Mary Lincoln. Campbell Crow was left "the lower plantation, it being the one on which he now lives, adjoining the land of Alfred M. Carter on the west and south and of John Carriger on the east." To Christian Carriger, Sr., she bequeathed seven negroes; to ]\Liry Lincoln Carriger, wife of Christian Carriger Sr., she left two negro girls. Christian Carriger, Sr., had married a sister of Mary Lincoln. Daniel Stover — J. D. Jenkins' great-grandfather — married another sister of JNIary Lincoln. Daniel Stover's son William had a son Daniel, who married Mary, a daughter of Andrew Johnson, the suc- cessor of Abraham Lincoln in the Presidency, and he (John- son) died in her house, a few miles above Ehzabethton, July 31, 1875. P. T. Brummit lives there now. It was not a part of the Lincoln farm. The house is still visible from the rail- road, the log portion thereof having been torn away; but the room in which Andrew Johnson died, in the second story of the framed addition to the original house, still stands. W. Butler Stover, great-grandnephew of Mary Lincoln, of Jonesboro (R. F. D.), Tenn., still has ^klary Lincoln's Bible; but he wTote (March 6, 19U) that "it gives no dates of births or deaths or marriages of any of the Lincolns." William Stover was Butler Stover's grandfather and inherited the farm on which Mary and Isaac Lincoln are buried, as their tombstones attest, Mary's stating that she died August 27, 1834, "aged about 76 years." It is said that Isaac and Mary Lincoln had but one child, a boy, who was drouTied before reaching manhood. ]\Irs. H. M. Folsom of Elizabeth- ton is related to Mordecai Lincoln, while Mrs. W. M. Vought of the same place was a Carriger. Dr. Natt Hyder, who died twenty-odd years ago, and whose widow still lives at Gap Creek, in the Sixth District, told James D. Jenkins that old people had told him — "Old Man" Lewis particu- larh- — that Abraham Lincoln was born on the side of Lynn mountain, and was taken in his mother's arms to Kentucky, going by way of Stony Fork creek and Bristol. An anony- 326 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA mous writer — supposed to be 13. Clay JMiddleton — in an article which was published in the Carter County A^ews, February 13, 1914, says: "Tradition says that it was here, in the beautiful Watauga Valley, so rich in history, that the young Thomas Lincoln first met and wooed the gentle Nancy Hanks, whose name was destined to become immortal through the achievements of her illustrious son. Tradition further says that for a while before Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks left for Kentucky they lived for a time together as common law husband and wife in a little cabin on Lj'nn mountain, which overlooks the Watauga valley. I have been informed that old people in that vicinity still recall the site of what was knowm as the Tom Lincoln cabin, and traces of the spot where the cabin stood still remain in the way of stone foundations, etc." He also cites as "a little singular that the life of Andrew Johnson in a way should be inter- woven with the name of Lincoln, whom he succeeded as President of the United States. When he married Miss Eliza McCardle, at Greenville, Tenn., it was 'Squire Mordecai Lincoln who performed the ceremony. His daughter iVIary married Col. Dan Stover, the great nephew of Isaac Lincoln.' " NOTES. 'Statements made to J. P. A. in 1912. 2Letter from S. J. Silver to J. P. A., dated November 18, 1912. 'Zebulon settled near French Broad River in Buncombe county, 2J-^ miles below Ashe- ville, where the National Casket Factorj' is now, and died there years ago. ^Bedent settled on Beaver Dam, two miles north of Asheville, at what is now the Way place, where he died in 1839. Letter of Dr. J. S. T. Baird to J. P. A., December 16, 1912. Dr. Baird died in April, 1913. ^Andrew, a brother of Zebulon and Bedent Baird, settled in Burke; but the Valle Crucis Baird did not claim descent from him John Burton was really the founder of Asheville, as on July 7, 1794, he obtained a grant for 200 acres covering what is now the center of that city. Condensed from Ashe^^lle's Centenan.-. He afterwards moved to Ashe County and in April, 1799, he entered 200 acres near the Virginia line. Deed Book A., p. 339. ^Condensed and quoted from T. L. Clingman's" Speeches and Writings," pp. 138, et seq. 'University Magazine of 18SS-89. ^Zeigler & Grosscup, p. 245. 'Letter of C. C. Duckworth to J. P. A., May 1, 1912. 1 "Letter from C. C. Duckworth to J. P. A., Mav 1, 1912; letter from D. K. Collins, June 7, 1912; statement of Hon. J. C. Pritchard, June, 1912. In •'The Child That Toileth Not" (p. 448) Pickens county, S. C, is given as the one in which Redmond held forth twenty years ago, etc. ^^State V. Hnll, 114 N. C, p. 909. ^'State V. Hall, 115 N. C, p. 811. I'For Hon. Z. B. Vance's account of the finding of Prof. Mitchell's body, see "Balsam Groves of the Grandfather Mountain, " by S. M. Dugger (p. 261). In this appears a list of those who assisted in the search. From this account it seems that what is now known as Mitchell's Peak was put down in Cook's Map as Mt. Clingman. and that Prof. Mitchell insisted that he had measured it in 1844, while Gen. Clingman claimed to have been the first to measure it. i<"Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction," pp. 130-137-139. i^Ibid., p. 86. i^Ibid., p. 74. '^According to Herndon, Thomas set up house-keeping in Indiana with the tools and liquor he had recovered from his capsized river boat, p. 17. "From Louisville Courier Journal, of Thursday, Novmber 9, 1911. i8"The Storj' of Abraham Lincoln's Mother," by Carolina Hanks Hitchcock, 1889. ''Tradition as related by James D. Jenkins, Esq., recorder of Ehzabethton, Tenn., who also stated that Isaac Lincoln's wife was Sarah Stover, of Pennsylvania. Also that President Andrew Johnson had died on the Isaac Lincoln farm. CHAPTER XII HUMOROUS AND ROMANTIC A Faithful Picture of the Past. "Somewhere about 1830," writes Judge A. C. Avery, "my father had a summer house constructed of hewn logs, containing four rooms and a luill. with outhouses, at the place now called Plumtree. It remained till about 1909, when it was destroyed by fire. This was a mile below the 'Quarter,' where the overseer kept house and my father's sons, who successively managed the stock, stayed. There were a number of negro cabins around the Craborchard proper, which was located about half a mile from where Waightstill W. Avery now lives. My father had large meadows there, on which he raised a quantity of hay and wintered hundreds of heads of cattle that ranged on the moun- tains in summer. These mountains were the Roan and the Yellow, on whose bald summits grass grew luxuriantly. Haymaking in the Summertime. "During August of every year, after laying by his crop in Burke county, my father took a number of negroes and several wagons and teams over to the Craborchard, and moved his family for a stay of two months or more to his summer house at Plumtree. He hired white men from all over Yancey county to help his negroes in saving the hay. Open House and Grand Frolic. "He kept open house at the summer place and large parties of ladies and gentlemen went out there from time to time and had a grand frolic. Many of the young people rode out on horseback, and some of the ladies in carriages. Parties were continually riding out to the Roan, the Yellow and to Linville Falls. The woods were full of deer, and all the streams were full of speckled trout that could be caught with red worm bait. So, the ladies and gentlemen fished in Toe river and its tributaries while others of the gentlemen hunted deer, often killing them near enough to the summer house for the shot to be heard." Where the Boys Were "Hanged." "The late James Gudger, who was brought in his early infancy to his father's residence on Swannanoa, just settled, and who, in 1830, and (327) 328 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA 1836, represented Buncombe county in the North CaroHna Senate, told his grandson, Capt. J. M. Gudger, that when he was a very small boy it was the custom to send a number of boys with bags of grain to mill to be ground, and leave it there until a month later, when the boys would return with other grain and carry back the meal ground from the first. He further said that usually a man accompanied the party to put on the sacks when they should fall from the horses, but that on one occasion as he, then a very small boy, was returning from the mill, with his companions of about the same age, the man for some reason was not along, and one of the sacks fell off on the Battery Park hill over which they had to pass; that while endeavoring in vain to replace the sacks a party of Indians came upon them, and from pure mis- chief threatened and actually began to hang them; that the boys ^ were badly frightened, but finally the Indians left them unharmed, and they went on their way, and that the hill was afterwards kno^vn through the country as 'the hill where the boys w^ere hung. ' ^ Handlen Mountain. "He still further said that the mil- ler in charge of the mill, whose name was Handlen, undertook to cultivate a crop on the mountain on the western side of the French Broad, but as he did not return to the settlement for a long while his friends became frightened, and in a party went to the clearing, where they found him killed and scalped, and his crop destroyed, and that from this incident that moun- tain took its name of the Handlen mountain. ^ "Talking for Buncombe." "Famous as Buncombe de- servedly is, she has acquired some notoriety that no place less merits. Her name has become synonymous with empty talk, a Incus a non lucendo. In the sixteenth Congress of the United States the district of North Carolina which embraced Buncombe county was represented in the lower house by Felix Walker. The Missouri question was under discussion and the house, tired of speeches, wanted to come to a vote. At this time Mr. Walker secured the floor and was proceed- ing with his address, at best not very forceful or entertain- ing, when some impatient member whispered to him to sit down and let the vote be taken. This he refused to do, saying that he must 'make a speech for Buncombe,' that is, for his constituents; or, as others say, certain members rose HUMOROUS AND ROMANTIC 329 and loft the hall while he was speaking and, wiien he saw them going, he turned to those who remained and told them that they might go, too, if they wished, as he was 'only speaking for Buncombe.' The j^hrase was at once caught up and the vocabulary of the English language was enriched by the addition of a new term. "- Isolation of Mountain Neighborhoods. So sequestered were many of these mountain coves which lay off the main lines of travel, that persons living within only short distances of each other were as though "oceans rolled between"; as the following incident abundantly proves : jMont. Ray's Flight, Return and Trial.^ Soon after the Civil War Mont. Ray killed Jack Brown of Ivy, between Ivy and Burnsville, and went to Buck's tanyard, just west of Carver's gap under the Roan mountain, where he supported himself making and mending shoes till many of the most important witnesses against him had gotten beyond the juris- diction of the court — by death or removal — when he returned and stood his trial in Burnsville and was acquitted. He had never been forty miles away, had remained there twelve years; yet no one ever suspected that he was a fugitive from justice. A Forgotten Battle-Field. The Star, a newspaper pub- lished in Sparta, Alleghany county, in its issue of February 29, 1912, contained the following : "A few years ago, along New river, near the northern border of this county, was found what is believed to be indications of a battle of which no one now living has any knowledge, nor is there any tradition among our people concerning it. On the land of Squire John Gambill, near the bank of New river, after a severe rain- storm and wash-out, some white objects were noticed lying on the ground. On examination these were found to be human skulls and other parts of human skeletons. Further exami- nation revealed other marks of l)attle, such as leaden balls buried in old trees lying on the ground, etc. Squire Gambill's ancestors have resided in this section for one and a half cen- turies; yet, they have never heard of the occurrence, nor had they any tradition of it. Who fought this battle? Why was it fought? Was there a fort here? Was it fought between the whites and Indians?" (See ante, p. 108.) Andrew Jackson Loses a Horse Race. '' In the late summer or early fall of 1788, Andrew Jackson and Robert 330 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Love had a horse race in the Greasy Cove, just above what it now Ervin, Tenn. It seems that Jackson's jockey could not ride and "Old Hickory" was forced to ride his horse him- self, while Love's jockey was on hand and rode Love's horse, winning the race. When the result was known "just for a moment there was a deep, ominous hush; then a pande- monium of noise and tumult that might have been heard in the two neighboring counties. Jackson was the chief actor in this riot of passion and frenzy. His brow was cor- rugated with wrath. His tall, sinewy form shook like an aspen leaf. His face was the livid color of the storm cloud — when it is hurling its bolts of thunder. His Irish blood was up to the boiling point, and his eyes flashed with the fire of war. He was an overflowing Vesuvius of rage, pouring the hot lava of denunciation on the Love family in general and his victorious rival in particular. Col. Love stood before this storm unblanched and unappalled — for he, too, had plenty of 'sand,' and as Hghtly esteemed the value of life — and an- swered burning invective with burning invective hissing with the same degree of heat and exasperation. Jackson denounced the Loves as a 'band of land pirates' because they held the ownership of nearly all the choice lands in that section. Love retorted by calling Jackson 'a damned, long, gangling, sor- rel-topped soap stick.' The exasperating offensiveness of this retort may be better understood when it is explained that in those days women 'conjured' their soap by stirring it with a long sassafras stick. The dangerous character of both men was well known, and it was ended by the interfer- ence of mutual friends, who led the enraged rivals from the grounds in different directions." ■* Two Old-Time Gentlemen. Major O. F. Neal was a law- yer and farmer who lived in Jefferson, and who died in 1894. He and his brother Ben were punctilious on all matters of politeness. On one occasion, after a long walk, they reached a spring. Ben insisted that, as the Major was a lawyer and lived in town, he should drink first; but the Major claimed that as Ben was the elder he must drink first. As neither would yield to the other, they politely and good-naturedly refused to drink at all, and returned home more thirsty than ever. HUMOROUS AND ROMANTIC 331 The FiKsT Department Stoue. Two nulcs from Old Iecause Gen. Burgin was not well versed in the punctillio of the duello, and Davis "was expected in the arrangements for the encounter and any correspondence that might ensue, to protect Carson." Robert Brank Vance. He was born in Burke count}' about 1793, and was the son of David Vance, who, after serv- ing as an ensign under Washington, married the daughter of Peter Brank, who lived about a mile from Morganton, and fought as captain of a company in McDowell's regiment at Ramseur's Mill, Cowpens and Kings Mountain, while his uncle, Robert Brank, for whom Dr. Vance was named, had the reputation of being one of the most daring soldiers in his company. Young Vance was a fine scholar as a school boy; but, owing to an affliction which had settled in his left leg, that member had been shortened about six inches and so retarded his physical development that when fully grown he was only five feet and five inches in height. His face, how- ever, was handsome, and his "mind was of no common order." His family were Presbyterians and he attended the Newton academy near Asheville, afterwards graduating from an unnamed medical school and commencing the practice of med- icine in Asheville in 1818. But, having drawn a five-thousand- dollar prize in a lottery, and his father having willed him a large portion of his estate. Dr. Vance purchased a fine library and retired from practice three years after opening his office. He was encouraged by his friends, and especially by young Samuel P. Carson, then in the legislature from Burke, to oppose Felix Walker, whose popularity then "was in the descending node," for Congress, but declined to do so till 1823, when he ran for Congress and was elected by a majority of one vote. It wassaid that when he appeared in Congress John Randolph of Roanoke, struck by his diminutive size and physical deformity, remarked, "Surely that little man has come to apply for a pension." But Vance soon convinced the strong men of the house "that Aesop's mind could be hid. 362 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA but not long, under an Aesop's form, and at the close of the term he had the respect of every distinguished man in the house." The most important measure before the session was an appro- priation of $250,000 — "and many townships of land" for Gen. Lafayette; and for this measure Vance voted. Friends Become Political Rivals. In 1825 Samuel P. Carson and Dr. Vance were opposing candidates for Congress, and Carson was elected; but in 1827 Dr. Vance invited some of his friends to meet at Asheville, and announced that he would oppose Carson's re-election, and would insist on his de- feat because he had voted for an appropriation of $25,000 to the citizens of Alexandria, Virginia, which had been recently de- stroyed by fire. To this meeting Silas McDowell was invited, but his opposition to Vance's idea that Carson could be defeated because of this vote displeased all of Vance's friends, but not Vance himself. Vance and Carson accordingly were opposing candidates in 1827, and at the first meeting at Ashe- ville Carson spoke first; but, in reviewing his course in Congress, he omitted to refer to his vote for the appropriation for the cit- izens of Alexandria. When Dr. Vance spoke he called atten- tion to the fact that Carson had not referred to that vote, whereupon Carson answered that the city had been destroyed by fire and its citizens left homeless and destitute; and that Vance himself, if he had been in Carson's place, would have voted hkewise, because "I think he has a heart." Vance retorted that if those who had applauded Carson's statement "could admire, as some seem to do, the heart promptings that send a man's benevolent hand into some other man's pocket than his own, all I have to say about it is — I can't." Upon this Carson answered that "until Vance should with- draw the charge that he had put his hand into another's pocket to save his OAvn, " they could be friends no longer; and proceeded to charge Vance with inconsistency as he himself had voted when in congress for the larger donation to Lafayette. Thereupon Vance charged Carson with being a demagogue, and when Carson replied that but for Vance's diminutive size he would hold him to account for his "vile utterances," Vance retorted: "You are a coward and fear to do it." This closed the debate. The Casus Belli. According to Mr. McDowell, Car- son's failure to challenge Vance, after having been pubHcly DUELS 363 called a coward, coniinned Vanci- in his Ijclii-f tiiat lie would not fight; this idea of Carson's cowardice having been suggested in the first instance by Carson's refusal to accept a challenge from Hugh M. Stokes, a lawj-er, and a son of Gen. Muniford Stokes of Wilkes, on the alleged ground that young Stokes had forfeited his right to recognition as a gentleman because of his intemperate indulgence in strong drink. A second meeting of \'ance's friends was soon hold at Ashevillc, but from it Silas ^McDowell was excluded. There it was deter- mined that \'ance should attack the character of Carson's father "on a floating tratlition that, after the defeat of our army at Camden, Carson, with many other hitherto patriotic citizens of North Carolina, had applied to Cornwallis, while near Charlotte, to protect their property. The tradition went so far as to include many of the patriotic men of Mecklenburg county. Up to this day that tradition is an historic doubt." But Judge Avery points out that Col. John Carson had been elected by the people of Burke to attend the convention held at Fayetteville for the Constitution of 1787 of the United States, as a sufficient refutation of the charge as applied to him. But, at the next joint debate, which was at Alorganton, Vance used these words: "The Bible tells us that 'because the fathers have eaten sour grapes, their sons' teeth have been set on edge.' . . . My father never ate sour grapes and my competitor's father did. ... In the time of the Revolutionary War my father. Col. Vance, stood up to fight, while my competitor's father. Col. Carson, skulked, and took British protection." The Insult Is Resented. All of Samuel P. Carson's brothers were present when this statement was made "and made a move as though they would attack Vance, when prominent citizens interfered and the excitement calmed down." The election resulted in Vance's defeat, three to one, \'ance getting only 2,419 votes. Afterwards, "Col. Carson wTote Vance an ill-natured and abusive letter, to which Vance sent the brief reply. ... 'I can have no alterca- tion with a man of your age; and, if I have aggrieved you, you certainly have some of your chivalrous sons that will protect you from insult.' A few days thereafter Gen. Alney Burgin came to Asheville ... to enquire which one of Colonel Carson's sons Vance alluded to in his lines to his 364 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA father," and Vance replied "Sam knows well enough I meant him. " Then the challenge was delivered and acceptetl. The Duel. It was agreed that three weeks should elapse before the duel, which was to be fought at Saluda Gap, on the line between North and South Carolina, on the Greenville turnpike. Gen. Franklin Patton was Vance's second and Dr. George Phillips his surgeon, while Dr. Shuflin was Carson's surgeon. "A few special friends attended as spectators, and, though invited by both gentlemen," Mr. McDowell did not go. Davy Crockett, who, according to Dr. Sondley, in " Asheville's Centenary," had married a Miss Patton, of Swannanoa, is said to have been present as a friend of Carson's. The distance was ten paces and the firing was to be done between the words "Fire, One, Two, Three," with rising or falling pistols. Vance chose the rising and Carson the falling mode; and at the word "Fire," Car- son sent a ball entirely through Vance's body, entering one and a half inches above the point of the hip and lodging in the skin on the opposite side. It does not appear that Vance fired at all. Vance died the next day, thirty-two hours after having received his wound, at a hotel on the road, probably Davis's. Contrition. When he saw that Vance had been wounded Carson expressed a wish to speak to him, but was led away; and before his death Vance expressed regret that Carson had not been permitted to speak with him, and stated that he had "not the first unkind feeling for him." Vance also told Gen. Burgin that he had fallen where he had always wished to die — "on the field of honor." He was buried at the family grave-yard on Reems creek. Carson's Subsequent Career. Mr. Carson went on to Congress after the duel, was elected a delegate to the State convention of 1835, moved to Texas and became Secretary of State in David G. Burnett's cabinet, never returning to North Carolina. The result of this duel is said to have embit- tered his life. Mr. McDowell hints at an attachment for Miss Donaldson, the pretty niece of Andrew Jackson; but Carson died unmarried. Premonition. It is quite evident that Vance expected to be killed; for he made his will (dated November 3, 1827) in which he referred to the approaching duel, and after his death it was admitted to probate, though, when the court house DUELS 365 was destroyeil iu tlu' spriiiji; of 18G5, the record book containing it was destroyed. Fortunately, however, a certified copy had been obtained prior to the fire, whicli copy is still in existence. - Judge Avery also states that Dr. Vance stopped at his father's house on his way to the dueling ground "anil though almost everyone knew what was about to occur, no allusion was made to it by the family in conversation with their guest. The impression was made on some of the family that \'ance seemeil sad. Though recklessly fearless, it was natural that he should seem depressed in view of the prospect that he or Carson, or both, would probably be killed." Vance's jMotive. Although Mr. McDowell had been "excluded" from the second conference between Vance and his friends at Asheville, he and Dr. Vance lodged at the same house at Morganton, and he said : "When Vance returned to our room ... I remarked to him, ' Doctor, you have this day sounded the death knell over yours or Carson's grave — perhaps both.' To this Vance answered: 'There is no fight in Carson. I wish he would fight and kill me. Do you wish to know why? I will tell you: ^ly life has no future prospect. All before me is deep, dark gloom, my way to Congress being closed forever, and to fall back upon my profession or former resources of enjoyment makes me shud- der to think of. Understand me, McDowell, I have no wish to kill or injure Carson; but I do wish for him to kill me, as, perhaps, it would save me from self-slaughter.'" Would such a statement have been made except to a trusted friend and under the sacred seal of friendship? CoL. John Carson's Implacability. Judge Avery tells us that, after the Morganton insult. Col. Carson agreed to forego his privilege of challenging Vance only upon the prom- ise of his six sons that if "Samuel Carson should first challenge Vance, and, if he should fall, then the oldest son, Joseph McDowell Carson, should challenge him, and if every one of the six should fall in separate encounters with Vance, then the old Colonel should be at liberty to wipe out the insult to the family by meeting Vance on the field of honor." He adds: "Vance was not only mistaken in expecting a back down, but in fact he was provoking a difficulty with six cool and courageous men, everyone of whom was a crack marks- man. " But that was not all. Judge Avery further states that Warren Davis, Carson's second, refused to "act as his 366 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA second unless he would promise to do his best or use his utmost skill to hit Vance." Dr. Vance must have known who Davis was and why he had been brought from South Carolina, as well as of the marksmanship of the six Carsons; and that he had deliberately offered a deadly insult to the venerable head of an old and distinguished family because he believed that Samuel P. Carson would not fight is almost incredible. That Dr. Vance should wish to be killed by his boyhood's friend is even more unbelievable. But, whatever his motive, crit- icism of his conduct was silenced above his open grave; for he went to his death with a courage that was sublime; and for more than three quarters of a century censure has remained dumb, "with a finger on her lips and a meaning in her ej^es. " Judge Avery's Account. In his "Historic Homes of North Carolina" (in the N. C. Booklet, Vol. IV, No. 3) the late Hon. A. C. Avery recorded the fact that on the night after the debate between Vance and Carson at Morganton, Samuel P. Carson, his six brothers and his father agreed that if the father would not challenge Vance Samuel would do so, and if he fell each son in succession should challenge Vance till he should be killed. In the event that all the seven Car- son sons should fall, then, Col. Carson, the father would send a challenge. It is also stated that Carson went to Tennessee to send the challenge in order not to violate the law of this state; and that David Crockett was one of Carson's friends at the duel. Just before taking his position on the field Carson told Warren Davis that he (Carson) could hit Vance where- ever he chose, but preferred not to inflict a mortal wound. Thereupon, Davis said: "Vance will try to kill you, and if he receives only a flesh wound, he will demand another shot, which will mean another chance to kill you. I will not act for you unless you promise to do your best to kill him." Car- son promised, and Vance fell mortally wounded, Carson la- menting that the demands of an imperious custom had forced him to wreck his own peace of mind in order to save the honor of his family. In 1835 Carson was elected to the Constitu- tional Convention of that year. He emigrated to Texas in 1836, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1836 in that State, and Sam Houston made him secretary of State. Carson was active in securing the annexation of Texas. The Biographical Congressional Directory, 1911, says that Carson "after his retirement from Congress moved to Arkansas; died DUELS 367 in Hot Springs, Ark., in November, 1840" (p. 532). The same work (p. 1070) says that Vance "moved to Nasliville, Nash county, where he held several local positions." All of whicli is wrong. It does not give the date of his birth or of his ileath •The Clingman- Yancey Duel. ^ "Although kind, social and friendly in his private intercourse, Gen. Thomas L. Cling- man 's character is not of that negative kind so concisely described bj^ Dr. Johnson of one 'who never had generosity enough to acquire a friend, or spirit enough to provoke an enemy.' Whenever the rights of his State and his personal honor were infringed, he was prompt and ready to repel the assailant. He has followed the advice of Polonius to his son: ' Beware of entrance Into a quarrel; but being in, So bear thyself that thy opposer Will beware of thee.' "In 1845, Hon. William Yancey, of Alabama, well known in his day as 'a rabid fire eater,' attempted some liberty with General Clingman. A challenge ensued. Huger, of South Carolina, was Yancey's friend; and Charles Lee Jones, of Washington City, was the friend of Clingman. They fought at Bladenburg. "Mr. Jones, the second of General Clingman, in his graphic description of this duel, published in the Capital, states: " 'After the principles had been posted, Mr Huger, who had won the giving of the word, asked, "Are you ready? FIRE !" "' Mr Clingman, who had remained perfectly cool, fired, missing his adversary, but drawing his fire, in the ground, considerably out of line, the bullet scattering dust and gravel upon the person of Mr. Chngman. After this fire the difficulty was adjusted.' "Hon. Kenneth Rayner, the colleague of Mr. Clingman in Congress, who was on the ground, states that ' he had never seen more composure and firnmess in danger than was mani- fested by Mr. Clingman on this occasion. ' On seeing his friend covered by the dust and gravel, and standing at his post unmoved he thought he was mortally wounded. He rushed to him and asked him if he was hurt. 'He has thrown some dirt on my new coat, ' he replied. ... On other occasions, as with Hon. Edward Stanley and others. Gen. Clingman has evidenced a proper regard for his own honor Ijy repelling the insults of others. " 368 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Erwin-Baxter Duel. At some time between 1851 and 1857 the late Major Marcus Erwin and the late Judge Jolm Baxter fought a duel with pistols at Saluda Gap on the Green- ville, South Carolina, turnpike. Judge Baxter was shot in the knuckle of the right hand, the ball ranging up and along the right arm to the shoulder. It was not a serious wound, but disabled its recipient for a second shot. It was claimed by Baxter's friends that he was opposed to dueling, and had not fired to hit Erwin. Erwin's friends retorted that if his right arm had not been pointing toward Erwin when Erwin's bullet struck Baxter's knuckle, the ball would not have ranged up it to his shoulder. •* The late Dr. Edward Jones of Hen- dersonville was Erwin's second and the late Dr. W. L. Hil- liard was Erwin's surgeon. Terrill W. Taylor was Baxter's second and Dr. W. D. Whitted his surgeon. ^ Result of a Political Quarrel. It is agreed that the cause of this duel was politics pure and simple; but the special offence alleged has been forgotten. Judge A. C. Avery writes : "My recollection is — in fact, I know — that the duel was fought just south of our State line at Saluda gap. According to my best recollec- tion it occurred in 1852, soon after Gen. Clingman and others had fol- lowed Calhoun in opposing the compromise measure of 1851 and had been put beyond the pale of the Whig party, on that account. Marcus Erwin was editing a Democratic paper established shortly before that time in Asheville. My impression is that the name of the paper was the News. I know it was sent to me at the Bingham School. My im- pression is that Erwin had written some very strong articles or edito- rials advocating the doctrine of State's Rights. Mr. Baxter, who then lived in Hendersonville, wrote a communication to the Whig paper in which he criticised Mr. Erwin, calling him the 'Fire-eating Editor of the Neivs' (if that was the name of the paper); and in answer to him Mr. Erwin wrote a very caustic criticism of Mr Baxter, in which he. said, enclosing the article, in substance, that Mr. Baxter had called him a fire-eater; but that, while he did not devour that element, Mr. Baxter would find him ready and willing to face it. This editorial, as I recollect it, called forth a challenge from Baxter, which was accepted and Mr. Erwin selected Saluda as the place for the duel. Judge Avery thinks Dr. Jones was Erwin's second and Dr. Whitted of Hendersonville was Baxter's surgeon, but could not recall Ba.xter's second."^ "But Dr. J. S. T. Baird, who remembers seeing Judge Baxter at court while the Doctor was its clerk, between 1853 and 1857, with his hand bandaged from the effects of the wound, scouts the idea that Baxter sent the challenge. Elias Gibbs, who now (1912) lives near Henderson- ville, was sitting talking to Mr. Baxter when the challenge came. Col. DUELS 369 Bjixter road tlu" i-halleuge, showed it to him, tlun tore it into minute scraps and threw them on the floor. He accepted, and with his second, Terrell Taylor, father of Mrs. Joseph Bryson, went on hors('-I)ack to the South Carolina line, fearinj; the law in his own state. His (Baxter's) wife's suspicions became aroused after he left, so, she with a number of slaves gathered the torn fragments together and read them, discovering her husband's whereabouts. Col. Baxter was tinged with Quakerism, was a very conscientious and honorable man. When it came to figliting the duel, a large crowd of citizens had learned of it, and were present. Col. Baxter did not wish to show the white feather by not standing up, but without any intention of injuring his opponent, shot at his feet."'^ Major Erwiii was, by many, considered the "brainiest" man in the State; while Air. Baxter afterwards moved to Tennessee where he was made United States circuit judge, and served with distinction till his death. The Hyman-Hilliard Duel. In the Summer of 1855 John D. Hyman, editor of the Spectator said in his paper that the mail service was not as efficiently conducted as when it had been under the management of the Whigs. Dr. W. L. Hil- liard, now deceased, was then the postmaster, and a partner of the late Dr. J. F. E. Hardy. ^ Besides this, both were Democrats. Dr. Hilliard sent Dr. Hardy to Col. Hyman with a polite request for a retraction and apology, which were refused. Thereupon a challenge to mortal combat followed, which was promptly accepted, rifles designated as the weapons, and Paint Rock on the Tennessee line agreed on as the place of meeting. Dr. Hilliard had married the year before Miss Margaret Love, a daughter of Col. J. R. Love, and was living over the drug store of Dr. Thomas C. Lester in a brick building, then on the site now occupied by the Falk Music Store. Between this and what is now Aston street, then a mere lane, lived Mr. James Patton. In the rear of Dr. Hilliard 's apartments were his barn and stable, with a single exit, that on South Main street. The postoffice was just above his house and on that street. Capt. James P. Sawyer, or Captain Frank M. Miller, was the clerk in charge. Now, Col. Hyman and his party had left the day before the duel was to be fought; but Drs. Hilliard and Hardy and Col. David Coleman, Dr. Hilliard's second, knew that the authorities had been informed of the contemplated duel and that they would be arrested if they should openly attempt to W. N. C— 24 370 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA leave towTi. So they waited till nightfall, when they had the plank from the rear wall of the stable removed and slipped their horses out into the lane that is now Aston street. They were afraid also that if they followed the most direct route to Paint Rock, that down the eastern bank of the French Broad, they might be arrested. Consequently, they crossed the French Broad at Smith's Bridge and went down the left-hand side of the river. But it is forty miles to Paint Rock, and ride as hard as they could through the dark night, dawn was breaking when they reached the bridge at Warm Springs. As the duel was fixed for sunrise the Hyman party began to fear that the doctor had been arrested, but Col. John A. Fagg, who lived at Paint Rock, said that he knew Hilliard and that they need have no apprehensions. According to the recollection of Francis Marion Wells, now 91 (1912) years old, and living on Grass creek, Madison county, within less than one mile from where the duel was fought, the Hyman party arrived at Paint Rock the day before that on which the duel was to be fought. People living in the neigh- borhood began to suspect the truth, and the authorities of Cocke county, Tennessee, were notified. So that when the Hilliard party reached the scene early on the morning of the day set for the duel, from forty to fifty men had assembled to see what might occur. Among these were peace officers of North Carolina. The belhgerants, realizing that a duel in the circumstances would most likely be interfered with by the authorities of North Carolina or Tennessee, announced publicly that the effort to have the encounter take place had been abandoned and all parties started on their return to Asheville. This seemed to have accompHshed its purpose, for no one followed. But when Hot Springs was reached the parties merely crossed to the left or western bank of the French Broad, not for the purpose of ascending the river to Ashe- ville, but of descending it to the Tennessee line by a road lead- ing to the mouth of Wolf creek. As they passed Mr. Wells' house he noted particularly the men who were present: They were John D. Hyman and John Baxter, his second, and Dr. Charles Candler, his surgeon. With Dr. W. L. Hilliard was his second, Marcus Er-wdn, ^ and Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, his sur- geon. Col. John A. Fagg was along to show the way. The duel was fought with rifles at fifty paces just about 100 yards DUELS 371 over the North Carolina line. Dr. C'aiuller told Wells that he weighed the powder and lead that went into eaeh rifle. The roail on which the tliul was fought is partly grown up now, coming into the new road in a slightly oblique direction from the gap of the little ridge. The spot is about one and a half miles west of the French Broad river. As the party returned Col. John Baxter shouted to Squire Wells as he passed: "No- body hurt," which proved to be true. Only one shot was exchanged, a second shot not having been demanded. There is a tradition that but for the fact that Col. Fagg cried "Halt!" as the commands to fire were being given, Hyman would prob- ably have killed Hilliard, as the latter fired first, his ball striking the ground near Hyman's feet. Also that Hyman's bullet clipped a button from Hilliard's coat. A One-Sided Duel Across the State Line. All uncon- sciously two men of Cherokee county imitated famous duel- ists of former years by standing in one State and killing a man in another: On the nth day of July, 1892, WilUam Hall and John Dockery were on the "State Ridge," which is the boundary line between North Carolina and Tennessee. They had a warrant for the arrest of Andrew Bryson whom they soon descried coming up the ridge in front of them. They hid behind a large oak tree until Bryson came within gunshot range, when Hall told him to surrender. Bryson was then just over the line and in Tennessee, whereas Hall and Dockery were in North Carolina. Instead of surrendering, Bryson started to draw his gun, when he was shot and killed. The case was tried and the defendants found guilty at the spring term, 1893, of the Superior court of Cherokee county. ^ " A new trial was granted by the Supreme court at the February term of 1894, on the ground that at common law there could be no conviction unless the men who were killed were within the jurisdiction of the court at the time the shot was fired. ' ^ The defendants were re-tried and acquitted. The legislature at its next session passed a statute making such an act murder. ^ - NOTES. 'From "Dropped Stitches," Ch. VIII. 'It was probated in January, l-^'iS, and the certified copy wa8 made March 11, 1S48. •Hon. J. H. Wheeler's " Reminiscences." 'Hon. A. C. Avery to J. P. A., Dec. 12, 1912. »Dr. T. A. .-Vllen of Hendersonville writes, November 12, 1912, that Dr. W. D. Whitted was Baiter's surgeon and T. W. Taylor may have been his second. But Col. \Vm. M. 372 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Davies, a distinRuished teacher of law at Asheville, was a boy in Hendersonville at the timo, and insists that John D. Hyman was Baxter's second. It is difficult to state posi- tively who the second was. ^Letter from Judge Avery to J. P. A. 'Mrs. Mattio S. Candler's "History of Henderson County," 1912. As Judge Avery heard of it while he was at Bingham's school and graduated there in 1857. it is clear that the duel was not prior to that date. 'Dr. Hilliard was born in Georgia in 1823. He practiced medicine in Asheville nearly forty years, and stood in the front rank. He was a surgeon in the Confederate army from May, 1861, to August, 1863, when he took charge of a ho.spital in Asheville. After the war he resumed practice, and died in 1890. From Dr. G. S. Teniient's " Medicine in Bun- combe," 1906. 'Dr. VV. D. Hilliard, Dr. W. L. Hilliard's son, and Theo. F. Davidson, however, agree in saving that Col. David Coleman was Dr. W. L. Hilliard's second. "114 N. C. Reports, p. 909. 11115 N. C. Reports, p. 811. •^Chapter 109, Laws of 1895. CHAPTER XV BENCH AND BAR' First Judiciary Act.- In 1777 (Ch. 11"), p. 281) the State was divided into six districts, viz. : Wilmington, New Bern, Halifax, Hillsborough and Salisbury, in each of which places a Superior court for the trial of civil and criminal causes should be held, to consist of three judges who were to hold office during good behavior, the jurisdiction and terms l)eing prescril)ed. It is sometimes thought that the Superior court was not established till 180G; but that is a mistake; the act of 1806 having simply prescribed two terms in each county after having changed the districts into so many circuits (Ch. 693, Laws 1806, p. 1050) but with the same jurisdiction. County Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. ^ These courts were provided for in the same chapter, and their juris- diction and terms prescribed. (P. 297, et seq.) Appeals. Provision was made in the act of 1777 (Ch. 115) for appeals from the County courts of Pleas and Quarter Ses- sions to the Superior courts, but none from the decisions of the Superior courts, till 1799. In that year was established (Ch. 520) * A Conference Court, consisting of all the Superior court judges, who were to meet at Raleigh on the 10th day of June and December of each year, appoint a clerk and decide all "questions of law and equity which had arisen upon the cir- cuit before any of the judges of the Superior courts, which the judge sitting may be unwilling to determine, and shall be desirous of further consideration thereon, . . . [by] a conference with the other judges; or where any questions of law or equity have already arisen on the circuit, and have remained undecided by reason of a disagreement of the judges on the circuit. " (See 2nd ]\Iurphy's Reports.) Name Changed to Supreme Court. In 1805 (Ch. 674, p. 1039) "the name and style of the court of conference shall hereafter be that of the Supreme court of North Carolina," and it was made the duty of the sheriff of Wake county to attend its sessions. It was not, however, till 1818 (Ch. 962) that the Supreme court, composed of judges elected for the (373) 374 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA purpose of hearing appeals, etc., alone, was provided for. The court was to consist of three judges to be elected by the legis- lature and to hold office during good behavior. Terms were to be held in Raleigh i\Iay and November 20th of each year. ' Tennessee Superior Court.'' "The act of the general assembly of North Carolina, providing for or establishing a Superior court of Law and Equity for the counties of David- son, Sumner and Tennessee, was not passed till November, 1778. . . . The first volume of the original record of the minutes of the Superior Court ... for the District of Washington — then the 'Western District' — at Jonesboro, shows that David Campbell alone held that court from the February term, 1788 (which was the first term), until the February term, 1789, at which latter term the record shows that Judge McNairy appeared and sat with Judge Campbell." Judge Spruce McCay. This judge held the second term of the Superior court of Ashe county, in September, 1907. He had married a daughter of Gen. Griffith Rutherford, and lived at SaHsbury. ^ It was he who had held the August, 1782, term of the "Court of Oyer and Terminer & Gaol De- livery," in Jonesborough, in what was then Washington Dis- trict, now in Tennessee. "He had the court opened by proc- lamation, and with all the formality and solemnity charac- terizing the opening of the English courts. On the first day of the term, John Vann was found guilty, by a jury, of horse- stealing, the punishment for which, at that time, was death. On the same day the record contains an entry to the effect that 'the Jury who passed upon the Tryal of Vann beg Leave to Recommend him to the Court for Mercy'; but no mercy was shown him by 'the Honl. Spruce McCay, Esqr.' . During the week two more unfortunates — Isaac Chote and William White — were found guilty of horse-stealing; and, on the last day of the term (August 20), Judge McCay disposed of all three of these criminals in one order, as follows : 'Ord. that John Vann, Isaac Chote & Wm. White, now Under Sen- tence of Death, be executed on the tenth day of September next.' This is the whole of the entry. "^ The author, John AUison, now a chancellor of Tennessee, says : "It is not probable that a parallel proceeding can be found in judicial history." He adds that "tradition in that country gave Judge McCay the character of a heartless tyrant." But the BENCH AND BAR 375 juries of that daj' and section of Nortli Carolina seem to have been equal to the occasion; for at the same term of court the following incident is mentioned : "The juries could not be driven or intimidated into giving verdicts contrary to their convictions; and whenever they differed with the judge — and they always knew his views — in a case of weight or serious results, they would delil)erately disperse, go to their homes, and not return any more during that term of court. In a case styled 'State v. Taylor,' the record shows that the jury was sworn and the defendant put on 'Tryal.' Nothing more appears except the following significant entry : 'State v. Taylor. The jury having failed to come back into court, it is therefore a mistrial.'"^ "Lewis and Elias Pybourn." At the May Term, 1783, at Jonesborough, an order was made allowing these men "who is at this time Lying out" to return home upon giving bond for good behavior, which, probably was done. But whether it was done or not, seven years later, at the August term of the same court, 1790, Elias Pybourn was convicted of horse- stealing, and was sentenced to "the public pillory one hour. That he have both his ears nailed to the pillory and severed from his head; that he receive at the public whipping post thirty-nine lashes well laid on; and be branded on the right cheek with the letter H, and on his left cheek with the letter Joseph Culton's Right Ear. At the November Term, 1788, at Jonesborough, Joseph Culton proved by the oath of Alexander Moffit that he had lost his left ear in a fight with a certain Charles Young, and prayed that the same be entered on record, and it was so ordered. Without Pass or Recommendation. When a stranger came into the Watauga settlement he was asked to account for his being there, and if his explanation proved to be un- satisfactory, he was required to give bond for his good beha- vior or to leave. Wm. Clatry was a " trancient person " and was required to give security for his behavior, and return to his family "within five months," he having confessed that he had left home and taken up with another woman. However, it is not to Judge Spruce McCay to whom we are indebted for the following. A Gruesome Record. At the March Term, 1809, of the Superior court of Ashe, Judge Francis Locke presiding, the 376 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA case of the State v. Carter Whittington, indicted for per jury- was tried, the following names appearing as those of the jurors : James Dixon, Charles Sherrer, Daniel Moxley, Jo- siah Connolly, Young Edwards, Alex. Latham, Wm. Powers, Andrew Sherrer, Chris Crider, Thomas Tirey (Tire?), Charles Francis, Jesse Reeves. The jury found the defendant Carter Whittington "guilty in manner and form as charged in the bill of indictment." David and Elijah Estep, sureties, thereupon delivered up Carter AVhittington, and he was ordered into the custody of the sheriff. "Reasons in arrest of judgement in the case of Carter Whittington were filed by Mr. AIcGimsey, * his attorney — after solemn argument, the reasons are over- ruled by the court. " " JUDGMENT. "Fined £10, and the said Carter Whittington stand in the pillorj' for one hour, at the expiration of which time, both his ears to be cut off and entirely severed from his head, and that his ears so cut off be nailed to the pillory by the officers and there remain till the setting of the sun, and that the sheriff of this county carry this judgment immediately into execution, and that the said Carter Whittington be confined until the fine and fees are paid. . . . SoUcitor's fees of £1-6-8 paid by deft." The Unwritten Law^ in 1811. ^ At the March term, 1811, of the Superior court of Ashe, Samuel Lowery, judge presid- ing, an order was made for the removal to Wilkes court, to be held on the third Monday of ]\Iarch, of the case of the State V. William Tolliver, indicted for the murder of a man named Reeves; and the sheriff of Ashe was required to "procure a sufficient guard of eight men from the proper officers of the militia to convey safely the said William Tolliver to the Superior court of Wilkes county," thus indicating either that there was danger of a lynching or a rescue. Tradition says that Tolliver was acquitted at Wilkesboro on the ground that Reeves had attempted liberties with Tolliver's wife. Robert Henry of Buncombe defended him. Hanging of David Mason. When Dr. W. A. Askew was about fifteen years old he stayed all night with the late James Gudger, the ancestor of most of the Gudgers of this section, in what is now Madison county. Young Askew was then on his way from his home on Spring creek to see the "hanging" of a man named David Mason who had been convicted of the murder of his wife by cutting her throat in Haj^'ood county. , Askew rode to "towTi" (Asheville) with Dr. Montraville W. BENCH AND BAR 377 Ciuilger, a son of "Old Jiininie. " The cv'uk'ncc upon which Morj2;an had been fonvifted indicated that he had shpped up on his wife while she was cardinjj; in her cabin home and killed her. Pierce Roberts was the sheriff of Buncombe then, and the execution took place in the woods below and behind Col. Lusk's residence on College Street, or where .J. D. Henderson's residence now stands — there being two accounts as to its location. This must have been between 1847 and 1850. When asked on the gallows if he had anything to say Morgan called up Aaron FuUbright and another man whose name Dr. Askew has forgotten and pointing his finger at them said : "You have sworn my life away." Twenty-five years ago (1887), according to Dr. Askew, a woman in Sevier county, Tennessee, confessed on her death- bed that she had killed David Mason's wife. Col. Davidson's Recollections of the Bar. The late Col. Allen T. Davidson, in the Lyceum for May, 1891, says: "I entered the profession of the law January 1, 1845, with Gen. R. M. Henry and J. A. B. Fitzgerald as my classmates. We were the stu- dents of Michael Francis of Waynesville. . . The gentlemen then in full practice were Joshua Roberts, Geo. W. Candler, Felix Axley, John Rolen, Michael Francis, N. W. Woodfin, John Baxter, George Baxter, Col. B. S. Gaither, Wm. Shipp, Gen. R. M. Henry and J. A. B. Fitz- gerald. These constituted the bar and rode the circuit, as we did then, until about 1855, when Judge A. S. Merrimon, Senator Z. B. Vance, Maj. Marcus Erwin, Gen. B. M. Edney, P. W. Roberts, and Col. David Coleman were added to the list. . . . Several distinguished law- yers left the profession just as I entered, Gen. John G. Bynum and Gen. T. L. Clingman, who, added to the list, made an array of talent and sound ability rarely met with. . . The court usually began in Cherokee (where I then lived) in March and September, and we all joined and made the circuit from thence eastward to Asheville, where I usually stopped. We traveled together on horseback, stopped at the same hotels in the towns, and at the same way.side inns in the country; and it was not unusual to have ten or fifteen of us together at one of these country stopping places, where the wit and humor of the profes- sion broke loose in all its force, and good humor ruled the house. It is a fact that nearly all of tho.se mentioned were gentlemen of fine humor, and but few given to strong drink, so that the jest and humor were of the best character, without bolstering or noise. Mr. N. W. Woodfin was remarkable for his humor, clear-cut and original. Mr. Candler excelled in his country stories . . and when he took the floor he usually held it in silence till the climax, when there were uprorious bursts of applause. Mr. J. W. \\'oodfin was the sunshine of the circle, was always in a good humor, and told a story well. ... I recall many of the stopping places, the first going from Asheville being James Patton's be- 378 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA yond the Pigeon. Here we would meet a good-humored fine old gentle- man as landlord, with his big country fire-places, and roaring hickory wood fires, a table groaning with all that was desirable to eat, good beds and plenty of cheer, supper, lodging and breakfast, horse well fed and groomed, bill fifty cents, and this was uniform for twenty years. So at Daniel Bryson's on Scott's creek, same fare and same bill. At Wm. Walker's at Valleytown, one of the best houses in Western North Caro- lina, the bill for man and horse was fifty cents. A great staying place was N. S. Jarrett's on the Nantahala, at a place called Aquone. Here we met, here we chased the deer, here we beguiled the trout in that crystal stream with the fly, here we whiled away many a pleasant summer after- noon in these attractive sports. Good, dear old friends! I can see you all now'" in fancy; but this vanishes and I remember that you are no more. ... I must be allowed to close with a general resume in- tended to embrace the years between 1845 and 1861 : the profession was able, studious, painstaking and thorough. I have been an honest and careful observer of many deliberative assemblies; have watched with much care and interest the application and power of the human mind so as to learn from careful observation how great men, so-called, look at subjects and reach conclusions . . . but after all I am bound to say that the trial of cases in the mountain circuit has impressed me more than the proceedings of any other body of men I have ever met for its sincerity, force and logic. Here we were, in a large and extensive district of country, the courts distantly situated, without books, at each town finding only the Revised Statutes and perhaps a digest; yet with these we tried our cases ably and well, and our contentions have been well sustained by adjudged cases. In court the common law pleading prevailed, beginning with the writ, thus bringing the defendant into court. Upon the appearance of the defendant the issues were joined and the case was ready for trial without circumlocution or clerical tal- ent. The fight was an old-field, drawn out set-to. As Judge Read says : "We drew the sword and threw away the scabbard; or, in less classical words, "The Devil take the hindmost." It is a fact, however, that with all the spirit with which the case was tried, often with the mani- festation of temper, no unkind or angry feeling ever went outside the court house, and we all closed the circuit to enter our homes as friends." Judge v. Judge. When the county seat was at Jewel Hill Dr. J. S. T. Baird was clerk. A church was used for this purpose and having a window the sash of which was made to open by shding along horizontally instead of being raised, as is usual, the presiding judge, needing air, tried to raise this sash, and failing kicked a hole in the glass. For this the late Col. John A. Fagg, then Chairman of the County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of Madison county, fined his Honor, the presiding Judge, ten dollars and his Honor paid it! BENCH AND BAR 379 Certificate as to Why Right Ear Was Missino. From the minutes of the Count}' court of Buneoml)e, ()ctol)er, 1793, it appears tliat it was "Ordered by court tluit Thomas Hopper, upon his own motion, have a certificate from the clerk, certi- fying that his right ear was bit off by Philip Williams in a tight between said Hoj^per and Williams. Certificate issued." This was necessary in order that the loss of a part of his ear might not cause those ignorant of the facts to conclude that the missing part had been removed as a punishment for per- jury or forgery. Where the Sow-Skin Lay. As far back as 1840, prob- ably, James Gwynn of Wilkes county was solicitor of this cir- cuit, which embraced all the mountain counties except Ashe. James Gwynn of the East Fork of Pigeon river, Haywood county, is a near relative and bears his honored name. He married a ]\Iiss Lenoir of Fort Defiance, and was a man of very decided ability, though of little education. His spelling was execrable, but his power over a jury was great. Judge J. L. Bailey and Gen. Clingman knew and appreciated his ability, and through them two anecdotes survive. When Nathan asked David for an opinion of the man who took the ewe-lamb of another, and David had expressed himself thereon, then "Nathan said unto David, Thou art the man. " ^ ^ When attempting to quote this to a jury Mr. Gwynn got the names of the principal actors confounded with two other Biblical characters, and after detailing the circumstances of a hog- stealing case, pointed with his finger at the defendant and ex- claimed: "As Abraham said unto Isaac, Thou art the man." The other story was also of a hog stealing case; but had refer- ence specifically to a sow. The sow had been stolen and her flesh eaten. But the sow's skin had been discovered, and it was upon it and the place of its concealment near the defend- ant's home, that the sohcitor relied for a conviction. "Where, gentlemen of the jury," he asked impressively, "was the sow skin?" He raised himself on his toes and shouted the answer: "Far up under the shadder of the Big Yaller, where the rocks are rough, and the waters run deep, and the laurels wave high (crescendo) the sow skin lay!" Sad Ending of a Prison Sentence. ^ ' About the year 1856 or 1857 a talented and highly respected physician of Hendersonville by the name of Edward II. Jones took umbrage 380 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA at something a tailor by the name of A. J. Fain had said or done, both being politicians to some extent. Jones probably considered Fain his social inferior. At any rate, instead of appealing to the code of honor, as was the custom of that day, Dr. Jones entered Fain's tailor shop and literall}' carved him to death. He was indicted and the case removed to Ruther- fordton, where the late Colonels N. W. and John W. Wood- fin defended, while the late John Baxter prosecuted. Jones was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the Rutherford jail. While serving that sentence he, in a fit of despondency, cut his throat and died. Asheville's First Attorneys. "At its first session in April, 1792, the county court elected Reuben Wood, Esq., 'attorney for the state.' He is the first lawyer who appears as practicing in Buncombe county. Waightstill Avery, the first attorney general of North Carolina, attended at the next session of the court and made therein his first motion, which "was overruled by the court." At this term Wallace Alexander also became a member of the Buncombe bar. Joseph McDowell appeared at October term, 1793, pre- sented his license, took "the oath of an attorney, and was ad- mitted to the bar in said county." On the next day James Holland "came into court, made it appear (by) Mr. Avery and Mr. Wood, that he has a license to practice as an attor- ney — but had forgot them." He too was admitted as an attorney of the court. At January court, 1794, Joseph Spen- cer proved to the court that he had hcense to practice, and was likewise admitted as an attorney of the court, and at April term, 1795, upon the resignation of Reuben Wood, he was elected solicitor of the county. The next attorney admit- ted was Bennett Smith. Upon motion of Wallace Alexander in April, 1802, Robert Williamson was admitted to the prac- tice. ^ Robert Henry . ^ ^ "Then, in July, 1802, on motion of Joseph Spencer, and the production of his county court license, Robert Henry, Esq., became an attorney of the court. This singular, versatile and able man has left his impress upon Buncombe county and Western North Carolina. Born in Tryon (afterward Lincoln) ^oun ty, North Carohna. on February 10, 1765, in a rail pen, he was the son of Thornas Henry , an emigrant from the north of Ireland. ^ ^ When Rob- ert was a schoolboy he fought on the American side of Kings BENCH AND BAR 381 Mountain, and was hiully wounded in the hand by a bayo- net thrust. Later lie was in the heat of the liglit at Cowan's Ford, and was very near Gen. William Davidson when the latter was killed. After the war he removed to Buncombe county antl on the Swannanoa taught the first school ever held in that county. He then became a surveyor, and after a long and extensive experience, in which he surveyed many of the large grants in all the counties of western North Caro- lina and even in middle Tennessee, and participated in 1799, as such, in locating and marking the line between the State of North Carolina and the State of Tennessee, he turned his attention to the study of law. In January, 1806, he was made solicitor of Buncombe county. He it was wdio opened up and for years conducted as a public resort the Sulphur Springs near Asheville, later knowTi as Deaver's Springs and still more recently as Carrier's Springs. On January 6, 1863, he died in Clay county, N. C, at the age of 98 years, and was 'undoubtedly the last of the heroes of Kings Mountain. ' To him we are indebted for the preservation and, in part, authorship of the most graphic and detailed accounts of the fights at Kings Mountain and Cowan's ford which now exist. He was the first resident lawyer of Buncombe county." Colonel Davidson's Recollections of Robert Henry. "I must not omit ... to mention Robert Henry, who lived, owned and settled the Sulphur Springs. He was an old man when I first knew him, say fifty years ago [that was in 1891]; he had then re- tired from the profession of the law which he had practiced many years. This was before I knew him well. He was tedious and slow in conver- sation, but always interesting to the student. He had been a fine law- yer, and remarkable in criminal cases.'* He could recite his experi- ences of cases in most minute detail. He insisted that, underlying all, there was invariably a principle which settled every rule of evidence and point of law. I chanced to get some of his old criminal law books, such as Foster's Crown Law, Hale's Pleas of the Crown, etc., and I found them well annotated with accurate marginal notes, showing great industry and thought in their perusal. He had a grand history in our struggle for independence; was at Charlotte when the Declaration of Independence was made;'* but, being a boy at this time, he did not understand the character of the resolutions; l>ut .«:aid he heard the crowd shout and declared themselves freed from the British government. He afterwards fought at the battle of Kings Mountain and was severely wounded in the hand and thigh, by a bayonet in the charge of Fergu- son's men. "'^ 382 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Michael Francis. Col. Allen T. Davidson, in the same paper, has left this record concerning this man, once known as "the Great Westerner": "]\Iichael Francis was a Scotchman, educated in Edinburgh, a thor- ough schohir, was one of those warm hearted, florid Scotchmen so char- acteristic of Bonnie Scotland. He weighed three hundred and thirty pounds, was one of the most forcible and clear logicians at the bar, was remarkable for his study and observation of the human mind. He was always a complete master of the facts of his cases, and was able to de- duce from them the true intent of the mind of the witness, and had a happy and forcible way of illustrating the methods by which the ordi- nary intellect reaches conclusions. He had studied human nature so closely that he could divine the secret intents of the heart. As a conse- quence, he was a power invincible before a jury. Added to this, he was a thorough lawj'er, able to cope with the best, and remarkable for his power of condensation and forcible expression. He was a pioneer in the settlement of many new points of law in this circuit, as many cases ar- gued by him before the Supreme court will attest. . . . He was a great platform speaker and a leader in the formation of political senti- ment. He was a member of the house and senate and discharged every public duty with honor and credit. . . . He was my good pre- ceptor whom I have closely studied and tried to follow." Israel Pickens and Others. ^ ^ The next la'\^yers admitted in that county were, in the order in which their names are given: Thomas Barren, Israel Pickens, Joseph Wilson, Joseph Car- son, Robert H. Burton, Henry Harrison, Saunders Donoho, John C. ElHott, Henry Y. Webb, Tench Cox, Jr., A. R. Ruf- fin, and John Paxton. These were admitted between Janu- ary, 1804, and October, 1812, from time to time. Probably the most distinguished of them were Israel Pickens, repre- sentative of the Buncombe District in the lower house of the Congress of the United States from 1811 to 1817, inclusive, and afterwards governor of Alabama and United States senator from that State; Joseph Wilson, afterwards famous as a solic- itor in convicting Abe Collins, Sr., and the other counter- feiters who carried on in Rutherford county in the first quar- ter of this century extensive operations in the manufacture and circulation of counterfeit money; and Robert H. Burton and John Paxton, who became judges of the Superior courts of North Carolina in 1818. David L. Swain. ^ ^ The first lawyer of Buncombe county who was a native thereof was the late Gov. D. L. Swain. Born, as has been already stated, at the head of Beaverdam, BENCH AND BAR 383 on January 4, 1801, he was ocUicatod under the Rev. George Newton and the Rev. Mr. Porter at Newton Academy, where he hatl for chissmates B. F. Perry, afterward governor of South Carohna, Waddy Thompson, of South CuroHna, dis- tinguished as congressman and minister to Mexico, and M. Patton, R. B. Vance and James W. Patton of Buncombe county. In 1821 he was for a short while at the University of North Carolina. In December, 1822, he was of the Eden- ton Circuit, and in 1832 became, and for five years continued to be, a representative of Buncoml^e county in the House of Commons of the State, in 1829 was elected solicitor, admitted to practice law in 1824, became governor of the State. After the expiration of three successive terms as governor, he be- came president of the University of North Carolina in 1835, and continued in that place until August 27, 1868, the time of his death. He was largely instrumental in securing the passage of the act incorporating the Buncombe Turnpike Company, and to him more than to any other man North Carolina is indebted for the preservation of her history and the defence of her fame. His early practice as a law^-er was begun in Asheville. For further details than are given here in regard to the life of this truly great man, the reader is referred to Wheeler's History of North Carolina, and his Reminiscences, and to the more accurate lecture of the late Governor Z. B. Vance on the Life and Character of Hon. David L. Swain. "Old Warping Bars.''^^ Governor Swain was tall and ungainly in figure and awkward in manner. When he was elected judge the candidate of the opposing party was Judge Seawell, a very popular man, whom up to that time, his opponents, after repeated efforts with different aspirants, had found it impossible to defeat. "Then," said a member of the legislature from Iredell county, "we took up Old Warping Bars from Buncombe and warped him out." From this re- mark Mr. Swain acquired the nickname of "Old Warping Bars," a not inapt appellation, which stuck to him until he became president of the University when the students be- stowed upon him the name of "Old Bunk." He continued to be Old Bunk all the rest of his life. While he was prac- ticing at the bar the la\\'yers rode the circuits. Beginning at the first term of the court in which they practiced, they fol- 384 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA lowed the courts through all the counties of that circuit. Among Swain's fellow lawyers on the Western Circuit were James R. Dodge (afterwards clerk of the Supreme court of the State and a nephew of Washington Irving), Samuel Hill- man and Thomas Dews. Dodge, Hillman, Swain and Dews. ^ ^ On one occasion these were all present at a court in one of the western coun- ties and Dodge was making a speech to the jury. Swain had somewhere seen a punning epitaph on a man whose name was Dodge. This he wrote off on a piece of paper and passed it around among the lawyers, creating much merriment at Dodge's expense. After the latter took his seat some one handed it to him. It read : "Epitaph on James R. Dodge, Attorney at Law. "Here lies a Dodge, who dodged all good, And dodged a lot of evil; But, after dodging all he could He could not dodge the devil." ''Mr Dodge perceived immediately that it was Swain's writing, and supposed that Hillman and Dews had had some- thing to do with it. He at once wrote this impromptu reply : "Another Epitaph on Three Attorneys. " Here lies a Hillman and a Swain — Their lot let no man choose. They lived in sin and died in pain, And the devil got his Dews." ^'^ Their Lives a Part of the State's History. "Of the late Thomas L. Clingman, who was for many years a member of the Asheville bar, the late Gov. Z. B. Vance, who was born in Buncombe county, and began life as a lawyer in Asheville, and to whose memory a granite monument upon her public square is now in process of erection,-^ and the late A. S. Merrimon, chief justice of North Carolina, who studied law at Asheville and continued his practice here till about 1867, it is unnecessary to speak here. Their careers have recently closed and are known to all who care for Asheville or her affairs." ^ 2 CoL. Nicholas W. Woodfin. " Soon after Gov. Swain be- gan the practice, Nicholas W. Woodfin became a lawyer, and served as the connecting link between the old times and the BENCH AND BAR 385 luodeni bar l\)r many years. He was burn in Jiiuifonibe county on the uj^per Freneli Broad river, and be^an life under tile most unfavorable eireumstances, and for awhile labored under the greatest disadvantages. He became, however, one of North Carolina's most famous and astute lawyers. But few men have ever met with such distinguished success at the bar as he. He w^as Buncombe's representative in the State senate in 1844, 1846, 1848, 1850, 1852. In the course of his career he acquired a large fortune, and owned great quanti- ties of land in Asheville and its neighborhood. With the practice of law he carried on an extensive business as a farmer, in which he was famous for the introduction of many useful improvements in agriculture. He it was who first introduced orchard grass in Buncombe county, and turned the attention of her farmers to the raising of cattle on a large scale and the cultivation of sorghum. " - ^ He was born in old Buncombe, now Henderson, countjs January 29, 1810, and was married to Miss Eliza Grace ^^IcDowell at Quaker Meadows, near Morganton, the 16th of June, 1840, afterwards residing on North Main street, Ashe- ville, N. C, now a girls' school, till his death. May 23, 1875, she surviving him less than one year. He was always identi- fied with any movement for the uplift and progress of his State, and especially of Buncombe county. Much has been written of his success as a lawyer, his humanitarianism, his devotion to his family and his care of his aged parents. Colonel John W. Woodfin. He was born in what is now Henderson county in 1818, married Miss Maria McDowell at Quaker Meadows, and lived in Asheville. He was a bril- liant lawyer, a brave soldier, and formed one of the first com- panies in Buncombe county, saying he had enlisted for the war. He was killed by Kirk's men at Hot Springs in the fall of 1863. The First Trl\l. ^ •« The first case tried in Buncombe county was that of the State v. Richard Yardly, in July, 1792. He was indicted for petit larceny, was convicted, and appealed to Morgan [Burke] Superior court. The first civil suit was that of ir. Avery v. William Fletcher, which was tried by order of the court on the premises on the third Monday in April, 1795, by a jury summoned for that purpose. The first pauper pro- vided for by the court was Susannah Baker with her child. W. X. C— 25 386 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA The first processioning was in April, 1776, when William Whitson the processioner thereof returned into court "the processioning of a tract of two hundred acres of land, on the east side of French Broad river about one mile and a quarter from AIorristo^\^l, the place whereon James Henderson now lives," dated April 20, 1796. This embraces the property lying on Park avenue and in that vicinity. Its eastern boun- dary line is formed in part by the Lining Branch, the small branch immediatelj^ eastward of, and for some distance par- allel with. Depot street. The first will admitted to probate therein was that of Jonas Gooch in July, 1792.-^ The first dower assigned was to Demey Gash, widow of Joseph Gash, April, 1805." To Suppress Vice and Immorality. ^ s Mr. Sondley men- tions also that at the October term, 1800, the Rev. George Newton, the first Presbyterian preacher in Buncombe, pre- sented to the court a petition from the Presbytery of Con- cord which "humbly sheweth" many gross immorahties as abounding among our citizens all of which were in violation of laws already enacted. Wherefore, they asked that those laws be "carried into vigorous execution." At the January term, 1801, the court resolved to exert itself to suppress "such enormous practices." Judicial Sanction of a Lottery.-^ In January, 1810, the court ordered that the managers of the Newton Academy lottery "come into court and enter into bond for the discharge of office and took the oath of office. " This lottery was prob- ably for educational purposes. "Twenty-Five Lashes on His Bare Back, Well Laid On. "2^ Such was the order of the court in 1799, when the jury had found Edward Williams guilty of petty larceny. This was to be inflicted at the public whipping post; but an appeal was "prayed," and it may be that Edward Williams got off. Adjudged Fit "to be Set Free. "-^ At this term the court adjudged that Jerry Smith, a slave belonging to Thomas Foster, was a fit person to be set free and emancipated, and the clerk was ordered to issue a license or certificate to the said Jerry Smith for his freedom "during his, the said Jerry's, natural life." BENCH AND BAR 387 Buncombe's First Fairs. -^ At the July torm, 1790, the court ordered two fairs to be established in Buncombe to commence the first Thursday and Friday in November fol- lowing and the first Tiiursday and Friday in June following, and continue on said days annually, "without said court should find it more convenient to make other alterations. " First Case of Mother-in-Law. - ^ At the July term, 1802, it was ordered that the deposition of Caty Troxell, to the effect that her daughter Judith had married John Morrice on the nineteenth and twentienth of May, 179G, and that for two years they had Uved together "for the space of two years in all possible connuptial (sic) love and friendship," after which, "without cause assigned or any application for a divorce," he had "absconded and has never been heard of by his said wife or any other person." In the description which followed he is described as having been at that time "upwards of twenty large odd years of age . . . with his speech rather on the shrill key. " Power of County Courts. ^ ^ "All the elections to county offices at this time from sheriff and clerk, register of deeds, cor- oner, entry taker, surveyor and treasurer, down to treasurer of public buildings and standard keeper, were made by the county court. Superior Courts.-^ "It will be remembered, too, that at the beginning the Superior courts were held at Morganton. In 1806, the legislature of the State, after reciting that 'the delays and expenses inseparable from the constitution of the courts of this State do often amount to a denial of justice, the ruin of suitors, and render a change in the same indispen- sibly necessary, ' enacted ' that a Superior court shall be held at the court house in each county in the State twice in every year,' and divided the State into six circuits, of whicht he last comprised the counties of Surry, Wilkes, Ashe, Buncombe, Rutherford, Burke, Lincoln, Iredell, Cabarrus and Mecklen- burg, and directed the courts to be held in Buncombe the first Monday after the fourth Monday in March and Sep- tember. " Randall Delk's Conviction." "Thus in 1807 was held Buncombe's first Superior court, in the spring of that year. The first trial for a capital offence in Buncombe county was that of Randall Delk. This trial occurred in 1807 or 1808. 388 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Delk had fled after the commission of the offence to the In- dian nation, but he was followed, brought back, tried, con- demned and hung. This was the first execution in Buncombe county, and took place just south of Patton avenue opposite to the postoffice. It is said that soon after a negro was exe- cuted in the county, but the third capital execution in Bun- combe is the most celebrated in her annals. Judicial Murder.-^ "Subsequent to the execution of Delk and between the years 1832 and 1835, inclusive, Sneed and Henry, two Tennesseeans, were charged with highway robbery committed upon one Holcombe at the Maple Spring, about one-half mile east of the [former] city water works, on the road until recently traveled up Swannanoa. This was then a capital offence. They strenuously insisted that they had won from Holcombe in gambling the horse and other articles of which he claimed that they had robbed him. They were convicted, however, and hanged in the immediate vicintiy of the crossing of East and Seney streets. The field here was until recently known as the Gallows Field. The trial created intense public excitement, and it has always been the pop- ular opinion that it was a judicial murder. It is said that after their conviction they sent for Holcombe, who shrank from fac- ing them, and that the subsequent life of this man was one of continued misfortune and suffering." Col. a. T. Davidson's Recollection of This Execu- tion. ^^ "The first time I ever was in Asheville was in 1835 when I was sixteen years of age. It was on the occasion of the hanging of Sneed and Henry. The town was then small; to me, however, it seemed very large. I remember distinctly Wiley Jones, sheriff, and Col. Enoch Cunningham, captain of the guard. The religious services at the scaffold were conducted by Thomas Stradley and Joseph Haskew. What a surging, rushing, mad, excited crowd! This was my introduction to the county." Dr. J. S. T. Baird's Reminiscences. About the year 1855 Know-Nothingism was rampant even in Buncombe, and Dr. J. S. T. Baird was temporarily won by its wiles; but he soon deserted. From 1853 to 1857 Dr. Baird was clerk of Buncombe county court, and was called to attend a term at Jewel Hill, ]\Iadison county. Neely Twxed was the clerk and Ransom P. Merrill sheriff; the latter was killed by the BENCH AND BAR 389 fornuT at .Marshall iii a i)olitical quarrel after the Civil War. SheritY Merrill made a return on a ji. Ja. as follows : "Trew Sareh made. No goods, chatties, lands or tenements to he found in my county. The defendant is dead and in hell, or in Texas, I don't know which." For this facetiousness Judge Caldwell summoned the sheriff to the bar and gave him a reprinuuul. Dr. Ixiird defeated Philetus W. Roberts, incum- bent, in 1853, .1. M. Israel in 18")5, and Silas Dougherty for clerk of courl in 1857. The following recollections of incidents and members of the l)ar are taken from Dr. J. S. T. Baird's sparkling "Reminis- cences" [about 1840] published in the Asheville Saturday Register in 1905. Court House. "The court house was a brick building two stories high and about thirty-six by twenty-four feet in dimensions. The upj^er room was used for court purposes and was reached by a flight of stone steps about eight feet wide, and on the front outside of the building, commencing at the corners at the ground and rising gradually till they formed a wide land- ing in front of and on a level with the door of the court room. The judge's bench or pulpit, as some called it, was a sort of box open at the top and one side, with plank in front for the judge to lay his 'specks' on. He entered it from the open space in the rear and sat on an old stool-bottom chair, which raised his head parely above the 'spectacle board.' There was room enough in this little box for such slim men as Judge J. L. Bailey, David Caldwell, David Settle and others of their build, but when such men as Judge Romulus M. Saunders came along he filled it plumb 'up.' Most of the lower story was without floors or door shutters and furnished comfortable quarters for Mr. James M. Smith's hogs and occasionally a few straggling cattle that could not find shelter elsewhere. In Terror of the Whipping-Post. ''It will be remembered that in those days the great terror set up before rogues was the whipping-post where the fellow convicted of lar- ceny got thirty-nine lashes well laid on his bare back with long keen switches in the hands of the sheriff. This writer never had the heart to witness but one of these performances. A fellow by the name of Tom G. had been convicted of stealing a dozen bundles of oats and ordered by the court to be whipped. The sheriff. Pierce Roberts, took this writer and some other boys, and went to Battery Park hill, which was then a dense chinquapin thicket, and there cut eight of the nicest and keenest switches to be found and, returning, took Mr. G. from the jail, placed his feet and hand? in the stocks, and stripping him 'stark naked' from neck to hips, laid upon his bare back thirty-nine distinct stripes from some of which the blood oozed out and ran down his back. Five 390 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA strokes were given with each switch save the last, and with it four. The sheriff was merciful and made his strokes as light as possible, yet he gave him a blooming back to carry out of the state with him, for he went in- stanter. "M" FOR Manslaughter. "In that day the penalty for manslaughter was branding in the palm of the right hand with a red hot iron shaped to the letter M. I saw one fellow taken through this barbarous process and this was enough for me. He was convicted and ordered to be branded. The sheriff went to the tinner's shop and procured a little hand stove filled with good live coals and brought it into the court room and, putting his branding iron into it, soon had it to a white heat. In the meantime the prisoner's hand and arm were securely strapped to the railing of the bar, and then all things were ready. During the branding the prisoner was required to repeat three times the words : 'God save the state,' and the duration of the branding was limited by the time in which he could repeat those words. In this case the prisoner's counsel, General B. M. Edney, who was a rapid talker, had gotten the consent of the judge, inasmuch as the prisoner was much agitated and slow spoken anyway, for him to repeat the words for his cUent. When the hot u-on was applied, for some reason, the general got tangled and his mouth did not go off well, but the iron was doing its work and the fellow was writhing and groaning all the same. At this juncture the general sprang forward, and knocking the iron aside, said : 'Mr Sheriff, you have burnt him enough.' The judge then taking his hands from over his face, heaved a sigh of relief and ordered the prisoner turned loose. A story was told of a fellow who, a few years before this, was branded by the sheriff whose name was David Tate. The prisoner was a man of wonderful nerve. He felt very resentful toward the sheriff whom he considered responsible for all his suffering. When the iron was applied he repeated the required words three times in a firm voice. Saying : 'God save the State, God save the State, God save the State,' and then raising his voice to a high pitch he yelled out : ' d — n old Dave Tate'! This last is tradition. I will not vouch for the truth of it. Yet grotesque scenes often charac- terized the courts of that day. Old Lawyers. "The bar of Asheville in 1840 was not large in numbers but was e.x- ceedingly strong in all the qualities that go to make up a grand and noble profession. General Thomas L. Chngman early turned aside from his profession and gave his Ufe to poHtics, in which field he maintained through a long career and to the day of his death the purity of his es- cutcheon. Although not as magnetic in his personahty as some men, yet a wiser statesman or braver soldier or truer, grander man and patriot North Carolina has never produced. The people especially of Western North Carohna owe to his memory a lasting monument. "Ezekiel McClure, was a man of good attainments in the law, but being enamored of rural life, gave up his profession at an early day and spent his life quietly in the country. BENCH AND BAR 391 Not a "Skelper." "Williiim Williams went from the mercantile counter to the bar but failed to reach 'the top.' I will not class him with the 'skelpers'; but then he was what Capt. Jim Gudf^or woidil t(>nn 'shifty.' The word 'skelper' in fox hunter's parlance when applied to a dog means one that for want of bottom, cannot come down to 'dead packing' and follow the game tlrough all its windings and doublings, but short cuts and skims the high ridges and jumps high to sec and ciiich the game unawares. Gen. Bayles M. Edney, Wit. "Generiil Bayles M. Edney was a man of fine physique, who always kept his whiskers trimmed 'a la mode'. He was of commanding appear- ance and possessed of sparkling wit and infinite and pleasing humor. He wixs a stormer before a jury." The Nominal Fine and the Real Cow. -^ One of his clients in Yancey county, having been convicted, was called up for sentence. Col. Edney urged in mitigation that he was a poor man and a good citizen, and the Court said he would impose a nominal fine of twenty dollars. Whereupon, Bayles retorted that it would take not a nominal but a real cow to pay that nominal fine. Joshua Roberts, Old-Time Gentleman. ' " " Mr. Roberts, about the time of which I [Dr. Baird] write (1840), established a most pleasant and delightful home on the French Broad, about where the Southern depot now stands, and there he spent his life and raised a large family. To bear testimony to the high character and noble, sterling qualities of such a man as Joshua Roberts is a privilege of which I am glad to avail myself. He was truly a model old-time gentleman; a law- yer by profession, though not engaging largely in practice at the bar. It was said of him, by those who were capable of judging, that he had no superior as far as knowledge of the law was concerned. He was especially held in high esteem by the boys and young men toward whom his manner was always kindly and gracious. He took great interest and pride in the institution of Free Masonry and was the first and, for many years, the Worshipful Master of Mt. Hermon Lodge. He loved to bring men into the order for he believed in and practiced its principles. Another Charming Family. •"' o " His family consisted of four sons and four daughters. The sons were Philetus W., John M., William and Martin; the daughters were Miss Aureha, 392 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA who married a Methodist minister, Rev. Mr. Wells; Miss Sarah, who married Mr. John H. Christie; Miss Harriett, who married Rev. William M. Kerr, well known to many citizens of Asheville and father of INIr. J. P. Kerr; Miss Jane, who married Dr. George W. Whitson, who is also well known to our people. Philetus W. Roberts.^" "Philetus W. Roberts was an able young lawyer and was just entering upon a career which promised great usefulness and success when the Civil War came up, in which he sacrificed his life for his country. This writer succeeded him as clerk of the Superior court of Bun- combe in 1853 . . . and I have never known a more scrupulously honest and conscientious man in all my life." Otium "Cum" Dignitate. ^ " General Robert M. Henry, who came to the bar some later, was a fine lawyer, but a great lover of "rest and ease." He loved to hear and tell good jokes and laugh in his deep sepulchral tones. From 1868 to 1876 he was solicitor of the Western circuit. Judge Riley H. Cannon. ^ ° Riley H. Cannon, who came in about this time, was a modest and even-timed man. He was not prominent until after the war when he was made a judge of the Superior courts of the State. Col. John W. Woodfin. ^° Maj. John W. Woodfin came to the bar, I think, about 1845. He was a man of splendid qualities all round. He was a magnetic man, a genial, sunny man. While not possessing the "heft" of his brother Nicho- las as a lawyer, he was nevertheless a fine lawyer and suc- ceeded well in his profession. In his forensic efforts he often found occasion to deal in bitter sarcasm and keen and wither- ing invective, which he could do to perfection for he was a master of both. He was a handsome, dashing and brave man, and gave his life for his country's cause. "How sleep the brave who sink to rest By all their country's wishes blest. There honor comes a pilgrim gray, To bless the turf that wraps their clay. " Col. N. W. Woodfin's Charming Family. ^ ^ Mr. Woodfin married Miss Eliza McDowell, daughter of Col. Charles McDowell of Burke County. She was a queenly woman and most gracious and lovable in her disposition. The family, consisting of three daughters, who are all now [1905] BENCH AND BAR 393 living in Aslu'ville, are as follows: Miss Anna, so well l)eloved by all the people of Asheville; Mrs. Lillie Jones, widow of Mr. Benson Jones, who died many j'ears ago, and ]\Irs. Mira Holland. George W. Candler. ' " Almost the exact counterpart of Mr. N. W. Woodfin was George W. Candler. Here was a sturdy, stalwart, rugged man of the people, with brawn and brain to match, a powerful frame encasing a big, warm heart, and all presided over by a masterly intellect. When he began to planth imself for a legal battle on the "Serug" style, it was like a mighty giant placing his feet and clothing his neck and gathering his strength to upturn everything that came in his way, and he generally did so. He, too, was a close stu- dent of human nature and knew where to feel for a respon- sive chord. This and his exceeding plain manner made him a "power" before a jury. He generally won his cases. He was fond of rural life and loved much more to wade in the creeks and fish than to "bother with courts." We shall see few, if any, more like him. He was my valued friend and I cherish with affection his memory. Non-Residext Lawyers. ' ° Those who attended the courts of Buncombe from other counties were: Col. John Gray Bynum, Col. Burgess S. Gaither, Col. Waightstill W. Avery, Col. John Baxter, George Baxter, Esq., Samuel Fleming, Michael Francis and William Bryson, with occasionally some others. These were all exceedingly strong lawyers and when they were all present with our local bar and with such judges to preside as Romulus M. Saunders or David R. Caldwell or John L. Bailey or David Settle, John M. Dick or Mathias Manly, it was "court right and commanded universal respect." Sticklers for Fashion as Well as Form. ^ " The law- yers of that day almost universally dressed in regulation style and not as they do now. A coat of the finest French broad- cloth of swallow-tail or cutaway style with fine doe-skin cas- simer pants, silk or satin vest, "nine biler" silk hat, ruffled and fluted bosom shirt and French calf-skin boots and a hand- some necktie, made up the lawyer's suit. Young Men of Ability. ^o "From about 1849 to 18.52, there came to the bar of Asheville half a dozen young men who, for brilliancy and real ability, have never been equaled at any bar in the State, coming as they did so nearly at the 394 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA same time. There were Philetus W. Roberts, ^Marcus Erwin, Newton Coleman, David Coleman, Zebulon B. Vance, James L. Henry, and Augustus S. Alerrimon. All these were men of the first order of ability and those of them who lived to maturer manhood all made their mark, not only in their pro- fession, but in the councils of the State and nation as well and some have left their names emblazoned high on the roll of fame, but of all of those of whom I have written, there is no one left to greet me today. They have all passed to the 'other shore' and are resting with the great silent host. May we see them all again in that 'great bright morning.'" Joseph W. Todd, Esq., was born in Jefferson September 3, 1834, was admitted to the bar after the Civil War, in which he had served gallantly. He is said to have been the only lawyer who ever told a joke (successfully) to the State Supreme court. He was never a very ardent student, but his wit, humor and resourcefulness, at the bar and on the hustings, were marked. He died June 28, 1909. His contest with the Rev. Christian Moretz for the legislature in the seventies is still remembered for the vigor and energy displayed by both candidates. He gave the name of "red-legged grass-hoppers" to the internal revenue agents, who, soon after the Civil War, were the first to wear leather leggins in their peregrinations through the mountains in search of blockade stills. Those who remember the famous joint canvass of Gov. Vance and Judge Thomas Settle in the summer of 1876 for the office of governor will recall that Vance made much capital of the red-legged grass-hoppers, a name he applied to all in the service of the general government, until Settle showed that two of Vance's sons were in the ser- vice of the United States, one in the naval academy and the other at West Point. Mr. Todd's daughter still preserves a caricature of this canvass. He married Sallie Waugh of Shouns, Tenn. "Twenty-Dollar Lawyers." Under the act of 1868-69, (ch. 46) any male twenty-one years of age could, by proving a good character, and paying a license tax of twenty dollars — that was the main thing in the eyes of the carpet-bag legis- lators of that time — get a license to practice -law in North Carolina without undergoing any examination as to academic or legal knowledge whatever. Under it several lawyers began practice of this "learned profession." This act, however, was repealed in 1872. BENCI I AND BAR 395 Marcus Erwix, He was the son of Lcandcr Erwin and a prandson of Wni. Willoupihhy Erwin and a p,roat grandson of Arthur Erwin. His fath(>r rcinovod from Burke county to New Orleans, from which phice ]\Iarcus was sent to Center College in Kentucky, where he was a college-mate of Gen. John C. Breckenridge. After graduation Marcus Erwin was study- ing law in New Orleans when the Mexican War began, in which he served six months. After this war he came to Asheville and became editor of the News, a Democratic paper, after having changed from Whig politics on account of the acquisition of new territory. His connection with this paper led to a duel with the late John Baxter. Later he became a prominent laywer and Democratic leader, and was elected solicitor of the large district extending from Cleveland to Cherokee. He was a member of the legislature in 1850, 1856 and 1860. " He was a powerful prosecutor, and maintained as high a reputation as B. S. Gaither and Joseph Wilson had established."'' He was a Secessionist, and in the discussion between himself and Governor John M. Morehead in the State senate in 1860-61 made an especially powerful and memorable speech. He joined the Confederate Army and became a major in a battalion of which 0. Jennings Wise, a son of Henry A. Wise of Virginia, was lieutenant-colonel. This battalion was captured in the fall of 1861 at Roanoke Island. Major Erwin "rendered volunteer service subsequently in the southwest. He ran as a candidate for the Confederate Congress, but was defeated. In 1868 he cast in his lot with the Republican party, and afterwards became assistant district attorney of the United States, where he displayed great ability." He was a man of varied attainments and versatile talents, and spoke a number of modern languages. He was famihar with the best literature and was one of the most effective and eloquent of political speakers. Governor Vance is said to have dreaded meeting Major Erwin on the stump more than any other. Their debates may be likened to the storied duel between the battle-ax of Richard and the cimeter of Saladin. Calvin Monroe McCloud. He was born at Franklin, Macon county, N. C, February 9, 1840, where he obtained only a com- mon school education. He volunteered in the Confederate Army, where he served till the close of the War. In 1805-66 he studied law in Asheville under the late Judge J. L. Bailey. On the 5th 396 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA of July, 1866, he married Miss Ella Pulliam, daughter of the late R. W. Pulliam. He formed a partnership with the late N. W. Woodfin for the practice of law. He died June 20, 1891. He was a public spirited citizen and did much to promote the welfare of Asheville and the community, having been among 'the first to agitate a street railway, gas, telegraph, and other enterprises. Judge Edward J. Aston. He was born in November, 1826, in Rogersville, Term. He married Miss Cordelia Gilliland in November, 1852, moving to Asheville in 1853, where he en- gaged in the drug, stationery and bookstore business. He was three times mayor of Asheville and a director of the first railroad. He was among the first to see Asheville's great future as a health and pleasure resort. He not only donated books but suppHed the first room for the Asheville public library. In 1865 he added real estate to his business, and later on insurance, soon becoming head of the firm of Aston, Rawls & Co. He is credited with having originated the idea of making Asheville the sanatorium of the nation. He devoted much time and large means to the distribution of circulars and literature setting forth the advantages of this climate. In 1871 he interested the Gatchel brothers in establishing the first sanatorium at Forest Hill. Then he got Dr. Gleitz- man of Germany to open another in Asheville. It was largely through his influence that the Rev. L. M. Pease established his school for girls here. He also had much to do with get- ting the late G. W. Pack to build a home in Asheville. Judge Aston was so called because he had studied law, but had aban- doned the practice. He died in 1893. Post-Bellum Lawyers. Space can be given to only a few of the more prominent attorneys who came to the bar after the Civil War and have passed beyond the nisi prius courts. William Henry Malone wrote several valuable law books, his "Real Property Trials" being indispensable; Melvin E. Carter for years was one of the most prominent and able of the Asheville bar, enjoying an extensive practice, and being a sound lawyer; T. H. Cobb was one of the clearest and most forceful of attorneys; Kope Elias of Franklin en- joyed an extensive practice in Cherokee, Macon, Clay, Gra- ham and Jackson counties. For a sketch of Gen. James G. Martin, who came to the bar late in life, after the Civil War, BENCH AND BAR 307 see chapter 27. He was one of the commissioners in the inves- tigation of the Swepson and Littleliekl frauds. Judge John Baxter. He was the son of WiUiam Baxter and Catherine Lee, and was born at Ilutherfordton, N. C, March 19. 1810. He was admitted to the bar in 1840. He married Orra Alexander, daughter of James M. Alexander of Buncombe, June 26, 1842. He was a member of the legis- lature from Rutherford county in 1842. He lived for several years in Hendersonville, but afterwards removed to Asheville. About 1852 he fought a duel with tiie late Marcus Erwin, Esq., and was wounded in the hand. He moved to Knox- ville, Tennessee, in J\Iay, 1857. He was a strong Union man during and before the Civil War. He was appointed United States Circuit Judge by President Hayes in December, 1877, for the sixth circuit — Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan. Some of his decisions are said to stand high with the English courts. He died at Hot Springs, Arkansas, April 2, 1880, and was buried in Cray cemetery, Knoxville, Tennessee. Judge J. C. L. Gudger. He was born in Buncombe county, July 4, 1837. His father was Samuel Bell Gudger and his mother Elizabeth Siler Lowery, a daughter of James Lowery who held a captain's commission in the war of 1812. He was educated at Sand Hill academy and Reems Creek high school, now known as Weaverville college. He was ad- mitted to the bar in August, 1860. He enlisted in the 25th N. C. Infantry July 22, 1861, and served till the close of the war. He moved to Waynesville December, 1865. He was married to Miss Mary Goodwin Willis of Buncombe county August 28, 1861. He was elected judge of the Superior court in August 1878, and served eight years. He held a position in the United States Treasury for years. He died January 29, 1913. Judge William L. Norwood. He was bom in Franklin county, N. C, July 1, 1841. His father was James H. Nor- wood, a native of Hillsborough and a graduate of the State University. In 1846 James H. Norwood moved with his fam- ily to Haywood county and engaged in the practice of the law, and for several years conducted a classical school. In 1852 he was murdered at Sargents Bluff on the Missouri river, while serving as agent of the Sioux Indians. W. L. 398 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Norwood was graduated from Bingham's School in 1856, after which he attended the school of Leonidas F. Siler in Alacon county. He taught school in Haywood county till 18G1, when he enlisted in Arkansas and served throughout the war. He was admitted to the bar in 1866, and was elected judge of the Superior court in November, 1894, from which position he resigned in 1899. On March 4, 1872, Judge Norwood mar- ried Miss Anna Duckworth of Brevard. He died about 1909. Judge Eugene Douglas Carter. He was the eldest son of Thomas D. and Sarah A. E. Carter, and was born May 18, 1856, in North Cove, McDowell county, was educated at Col. Lee's school in Chunn's cove, at Wafford College, at Weaverville College, and at the University of North Carolina. He married Miss Sallie M. Crisp in June, 1877, at Fayette- ville, and began the practice of law at that place, but soon removed to Asheville, where he was several times elected solicitor of the Criminal court of Buncombe county, making an excellent prosecutor. He was appointed by Gov. Russell in the summer of 1898 to fill the vacancy caused by the sup- posed resignation of Judge W. L. Norwood as judge of the Superior court. But Judge Norwood denied that he had legally resigned, and began quo warranto proceedings to re- cover the office, which abated by Judge Carter's death, Octo- ber 10, 1898. Judge Carter evinced throughout his Ufe a high order of Uterary and oratorical talent. As an advo- cate he had no superior at this bar. Judge John Lancaster Bailey. He was born August 13, 1795, in eastern North Carolina; was married June 21, 1821, to jNIiss Priscilla E. Brownrigg; was admitted to the bar at some date prior to 1821; was representative from Pasquotank county in House of Commons in 1824 and a senator in 1828 and 1832 ; was a delegate to the State Convention of 1835; was elected judge of the Superior court January 11, 1837, and resigned there- from November 29, 1863, after a service of over twenty-six years; practiced law at Elizabeth City, and also taught law there, probably up to the time of his election as judge. It was about the time of his election as judge or a few years afterward that he removed to Hillsboro, and with Judge Nash taught school there. In 1859 he moved to Black Mountain, near what is now the intake of the Asheville water system and Mrs. J. K. Connally's summer home, where he taught a BENCH AND BAR 399 law scliool from 18.")9 to ISGl. He moved to Asheville in 1865 and taught a law school there until al)out 187G. He also practiced law in Asheville in copartnershij) with the late Gen. J. G. Martin. He dird June 20, 1877. .Judfj;e Bailey was loved and honored by all as an able and upright lawyer and a worthy and useful citizen. (For fuller sketch see "Bio- graphical History of North Carolina, \o\. IV, p. 52, and Vol. VI, p. 6.) Judge Fred Mooue was born in Buncombe countj^ on the 10th tlay September, 1869. He was the son of Daniel K. ]\Ioore, and the grandson of Charles Moore and the great- grandson of William Moore, one of the pioneers who helped to drive back the Indians and establish peace in this section. He attended school at Sand Hill near his home, and was ad- mitted to the bar at the September term, 1892, of the Supreme court. He spent part of his youth in Macon and Clay coun- ties, and began the practice of the law at Webster, Jackson county as a partner of his cousin, Hon. Walter E. Moore. In 1893 he removed to Asheville and formed a copartnership with another cousin, Hon. Charles A. Moore. In 1898 he was elected judge of the Superior court of this judicial dis- trict. He died in August, 1908. Judge Moore's mother was a Miss Dickey of Cherokee, and his wife a Miss Enloe of Webster. He tried many important cases, and his rulings and decisions were fair and sound. His life was as nearly blameless as it is possible for human lives to be. When first made a judge he was probably the youngest who ever served on the Superior court. Judge George A. Jones. He was born in Buncombe county February 15, 1849, a son of Andrew and Margaret Jones. He attended Sandhill Academy on Hominy creek while it was open during the Civil War, and early in the seventies removed to Franklin, Macon county, where he became an assistant in the high school and later principal. He was admitted to the bar in 1878, having married in December, 1875, Miss Lily Lyle, daughter of Dr. J. M. Lyle and Mrs. Laura Siler Lyle, his wife. There were six children by the union, and after the death of his first wife, he married, Janu- ary 31, 1895, ]\Iiss Hattie B. Sloan, by whom he had four children. She was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Sloan. In 1889 Judge Jones represented ]Macon county 400 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA in tlie legislature. In 1891 he was elected solicitor of the twelfth judicial district, and was re-elected in 1895, serving two full terms. In 1901 he was appointed by Gov. Aycock judge of Superior court of the newly created sixteenth judicial district and served about two years, when he resumed the practice of law at Franklin, where he died August 13, 1906. Judge Robert P. Dick. Judge Dick was for many years U. S. district judge for the district of western North Caro- lina, having been appointed soon after the close of the Civil War, and serving continuously till July, 1898, when President McKinley appointed Hamilton G. Ewart of Hendersonville to that position; but as the senate failed to act upon this ap- pointment the President sent his name to three successive sessions of the senate. But as that body persisted in its refusal either to reject or confirm this appointment. Judge Ewart's name was withdrawn and that of Hon. James E. Boyd sent in instead. This appointment was confirmed in 1900, Judge Ewart having served since July 13, 1898. Judge Dick had a great deal to do wath the trial and sentencing of those who had violated the internal revenue laws, and was always considerate and merciful in imposing punishment on the poor people who were found guilty in this court, "thirty days in jail and a hundred dollars fine" being the almost universal sentence. Judge Leonidas L. Greene. He was born in Watauga county, in November, 1845, and was elected Superior Court Judge in 1896, and served as such till his death, November 2, 1898. Hon. Charles H. Simonton. Judge Simonton of Charleston, N. C, was Circuit judge of the United States for a number of years, succeeding the late Judge Hugh Bond of Baltimore of KuKlux fame. Upon his death in May, 1904, President Roosevelt appointed Hon, Jeter C. Pritchard judge of this circuit, and he w^as confirmed by the senate without reference to the ju- diciary committee. He qualified June 1st, 1904, having re- mained in Washington as judge of the District court there to try an important case by special request of President Roose- velt. Colonel Allen Turner Davidson. He was born on Jon- athan's creek, Haywood county. May 9, 1819. His father was William Mitchell Davidson and his mother Elizabeth Vance "-^^ J\c^Cl>^f-!^ BENCH AND BAR 401 of Burke county, a daughter of Captain David Vance of Rev- olutionary fame. William Davidson, first senator from Buncombe county and a soldier of the Revolutionary War, was the father of William jMitchell Davidson, and a cousin of Gen. William Davidson who was killed at Cowan's Ford. Col. Allen T. Daviilson attended the country schools of his day, anil at twenty years of age he was employed in his father's store at Wa>niesville, and in 1842 married Miss Elizabeth A. Howell. He began the study of law, and in 1843 became clerk and master in equity of Haywood county, being admitted to the bar in 1845. In 1846 he removed to Murphy, Cherokee count3% then a remote backwoods place. He at once took a leading place at the bar of the western circuit, and during his sixteen years residence there served as solicitor of Chero- kee county, and became one of the leading lawyers of this section. In April, 1860, he became president of the Mer- chants and Miners Bank. The secession convention of 1861 chose him one of the delegates from Macon county to the provisional congress of the Southern Confederacy. He served out the pro- visional term and was elected in 1862 a member of the permanent congress, serving till the spring of 1864, being succeeded by the late Judge G, W. Logan of Rutherford county. In 1864-65 he served as a member of the council of Governor Vance, and at the same time acted as agent of the commissary depart- ment of the State in supplying the families of Confederate soldiers in this section. In the fall of 1865 he settled in Frank- lin, Macon county, and in 1869 he came to Asheville to live, buying and occupj'ing the Morrison house, which stood where the present county court house stands. He soon became leader of the Asheville bar, and continued in active practice till 1885, when he retired. He died at Asheville, January 24, 1905. Following is an editorial which appeared in the Ashe- ville Gazette-News on that date: "The last survivor of the Coufederatc Congress is no more. After a long and eventful life he has now been introduced to the mystery of the Infinite. He has read the riddle of life in the darkness of death. He knows it all now. The veil has been lifted and the fontracted vision of earth has been expanded into the measureless profundity of eternity. Born, lived and died — behold the great epitome of man. "The announcement of the passing of this historic figure from the familiar scenes of life will awaken sorrow in many hearts from the Blue \V. N. C— 26 402 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Ridge to the Unakas and the Great Smokies, for it was upon this ele- vated stage that his active Ufe was spent. It was here that he began, a strong-limbed herder of cattle upon the verdant slopes and ghostly balds of the Cataloochee mountains, that career of activity that led him by successive stages to the bar, to the Confederate Congress, to the chan- cel-rail of the church, and to a warm place in the hearts of many of the best people of the State. "Twelve years ago (1893) he stood on the Bunk mountain in Hay- wood county with a boyhood companion (Lafayette Palmer) and pointed out the place of the lick-logs where he had been wont to repair at inter- vals to tend the cattle pastured there; and, looking fondly around at the once famiUar scene, said, as great tears streamed down the age-fur- rowed face, 'Good-bye, world!' That was his last visit to that sacred spot, and he said then that he would never look upon that scene again. Probably there was no tie that he had to break as age grew upon him that caused him a sharper pang than the parting from his beloved moun- tains. Certainly no man will be more missed by the people who live in these mountains than this man who bade them farewell so many years ago. "Col. Davidson was a strong and rugged character. He had strong passions, strong muscles, strong intellect. He wore his heart upon his sleeve. He was open and above-board in his likes and dislikes. He was a true and faithful friend and a bold and unconcealed enemy. Meeting in mid-life the stormy discords of civil strife in a community rent asunder over the question of union or disunion, it was inevitable that he should have awakened animosities. "But no man had any reason to doubt where Allen Davidson stood* on personal, public or other questions. He spoke his mind freely and fearlessly. He hated shams and pretenses with holy hatred. "From 1865 until 1885 he was admittedly the leader of the bar of what was then known as the Western Circuit, extending to Cherokee in the west and to Yancey and Mitchell in the north. There was no large case tried in this section between the years named in which he did not take a conspicuous and important part. Bold, aggressive and persist- ent, he stormed the defences of his opponents with all the dash and elan of a Prentiss or a Pinckney. "Like a true poet he was 'dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, the love of love.' His sense of humor was acute and never fail- ing. No adversity could quench it. Some of his remarks will live as long as the traditions of the old bar survive. He knew the life and hab- its of the mountain people better, perhaps, than any other man at the bar, and his speeches always pointed a moral and adorned a tale. Juries and judges were swayed by his intense earnestness, for he always made his client's cause his own. "Even in his old age he 'was yet in love with life and raptured with the world.' He rejoiced in his youth as, with halting foot-step he went downward to the grave; but for him the evil days came not nor did the years draw nigh in which he said : 'I have no pleasure in them.' Strong, vigorous and healthy in mind and body, he enjoyed to the utmost the BENCH AND RAR 403 good things of life and made no hypocritical pretense of despising thera. With splendid phj'sieal development he towered among his fellows like a giant, and to him fear was an alien and a stranger. "He was a kind-liearted and charitable man, loving to give of what- ever he had of worldly gooils, sympathy or kindly deeds. He was a faithful and affectionate husband, father, friend. A commanding and picturesque figure has pivssed from our midst." His widow still survives him, and of his children the fol- lowing still emulate his name and example most worthily: Hon. Theo. F. Davidson, late attorney general of the State; Mrs. Theodore S. Morrison, Mrs. W. B. Williamson, Mrs. William S. Child, Robert Vance Davidson, for several terms attorney general of Texas, Wilber S. David.son, president of the First National Bank of Beaumont, Texas Judge James L. Henry. He was born in Buncombe ^ — ■ county, in 1838, and received only such education as the schools of the county afforded. He was a son of Robert Henry and Dorcas Bell Love, his wif e. He was elected Supe- rior court judge of the eighth judicial district in 1868, and served till 1878, having previously acted as solicitor for that district. ^ ^ He was editor at the age of nineteen of the Asheville Spectator, served in the Civil War as adjutant of the 1st North Carolina Cavalry, and on Hampton's and Stewart's staffs, and as colonel of a cavalry battalion stationed at Asheville. He died in 1885. Col. David Coleman. He was born in Buncombe county Feliruary 5, 1824, and died at Asheville March 5, 1883. His father was William Coleman and his mother Miss Cynthia Swain, a sister of Governor D. L. Swain. He attended New- ton Academy and entered the State University, and just prior to graduation entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduated, and served in the navy till he resigned in 1850, return- ing to Asheville and entering upon the practice of law. In 1854 he was the Democratic candidate for State senator, defeating Col. N. W. Woodfin, and was reelected in 1856, defeating Zebulon Baird Vance, the only defeat by the people Vance ever sustained. In 1858 Coleman and Vance were rivals for Congress, but Vance won. Coleman was one of the few men of this section who were secessionists, and was appointed to the command of a ship, but the delays in its fitting out tried his spirit beyond endurance and he entered the army, and was a.ssigned to a battalion which afterwards became the 404 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA 39th North Carolina regiment, of which he was colonel. He resumed the practice of the law after the War, and was emi- nent as a lawyer. He was solicitor for a time and represented Buncombe county with Gen. Clingman in the State convention of 1875. He was a highly cultivated gentleman, a brave soldier and a lawyer above all chicanery. He never married. Gov. Swain was the first boy to enter the State University from the west, David Coleman was the second, and James Alfred Patton, a son of James W. Patton, the third. ^ ^ Judge Riley H. Cannon. The following extract is taken from his obituary, written by the Hon. Robert D. Gilmer, late attorney general of North Carolina: "He was born in Bun- combe county March 26, 1822, went to school at Sandhill Academy, was graduated from Emory and Henry College, Virginia; married Ann Sorrels October 18, 1850, to whom four children were born, namely, George W., once postmas- ter at Asheville, Eva, Lula A., and Laura. He was admitted to the bar in 1851, was appointed judge of the Superior court in 1868, and wore the judicial ermine during a troubled period in our State history. It was said, even by his political oppo- nents, that he never allowed it to trail in the dust of party rancor or become soiled by the stains of partial rulings. He was a member of the Methodist Church for thirty years. He died in that faith February 15, 1886. He was an honest man. " Jacob W. Bowman was born in what is now Mitchell county July 31, 1831, and died at Bakersville, June 9, 1905. He married Miss Mary Garland in 1850. He was admitted to the bar before the Civil War, and was appointed United States assessor of internal revenue by Gen. Grant April, 1869. Gov- ernor Russell appointed him Superior court judge in November, 1898, to fill an unexpired term. He received the nomination of the Republicans for the full term, but was defeated by Judge Councill, Democrat. Judge George W. Logan. He was born in Rutherford county. He lived near the Pools at Hickory Nut Falls, where he kept a tavern. He was elected to the Confederate Con- gress and qualified in May, 1864. He was a Superior Court judge from 1868 till his death in 1874. Judge Joseph Shepard Adams. He was born at Straw- berry Plains, Tennessee, October 12, 1850, and died at War- BENCH AND BAR 405 renton, X. C, April 2, 1911. His father was Rev. Stephen B. Adams and his mother Miss Cordeha Shepard. His father estabUshed a school at Burnsville, Yancey county, before the Civil War, which was known as Burnsville Academy. Joseph Adams was a pupil at this academy, and afterwards attended the school of Col. Stephen Lee in Chunn's Cove. He was graduated with honor from Emory and Henry College, Vir- ginia, in 1872. He studied law at Asheville untler the late Judge J. L. Bailey, and was soon afterwards admitted to practice, opening an office at Bakersville. He was elected sohcitor of the Eighth district soon after beginning practice and served in that capacity eight years. In 1877 he married Miss Sallie Sneed Green of Greensboro, N. C. She died November 16, 1901, leaving six children surviving. In 1885 he moved from Statesville to Asheville and began the prac- tice of law, which he continued till his election to fill out the unexpired term of the late Judge Fred Moore in 1908. He was elected for a full term in 1910. Alfonzo Calhoun Avery. He was the son of Isaac T. and the grandson of Waightstill Avery, and was born at Swan Ponds near Morganton, Burke county, September 11, 1835. He died at Morganton, June 13, 1913. He attended Bingham School in Orange county and graduated from the State Uni- versity as A. B. in 1857, first in his class. He was admitted to practice before the county courts in June, 1860, and before the Superior courts in 1866. He was an officer in the Sixth North Carolina regiment, and later became major and adju- tant general of Gen. D. H. Hill's division. Later he was on the staffs of Generals Breckenridge, Hood and Hindman. In 1864 he was made colonel of a battahon in western North Carolina, was captured near Salisbury by Stoneman's army, and confined at Camp Chase till August, 1865. In 1861 he married at Charlotte Miss Susan W. Morrison, a sister of Mrs. "Stonewall" Jackson, and after her death he married Miss Sarah Love Thomas in 18S9. She was a daughter of the late Col. W. H. Thomas of Jackson county. In 1866 he was elected State senator from the Burke district, and aided in building the Western North Carolina Railroad to Asheville and in locating the State hospital for the insane at Morganton. He was presidential elector in 1876, and in 1878 he was elected judge of the Superior court. In 406 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA 1889 he was elected associate justice of the Supreme court, and resumed the practice of his profession in 1897, at Mor- ganton, and was active till his death. In 1889 the State Uni- versity conferred upon him the degree of doctor of laws, and for more than twenty-five years he was a ruling elder of the Morganton Presbyterian church. NOTES. 'A sketch of the judges of this State to 1865 will be found in the fourth volume of Battle's Digest, by W. H. Battle, Esq., and in Vol. II, Rev. St. N. C, p. 527 et seg., is a "Sketch of the Judicial History of North Carolina," with a list of the judges and attorney generals since the adoption of the constitution. It also contains a sketch of the judicial procedure under the proprietary government. 103 N. C. Rep. has history of Supreme court. U'otter's Re%'isal, p. 281 and p. 1050. 3Ibid., p. 297. Ubid., p. 887. 'Chief Justice Pearson is said to have pronounced Judges Leonard Henderson and John Hall the most profound jurists ever in North Carolina. 'Dropped Stitches. 'Potter's Revisal, p. 1039. ^Battle's Digest. ^Dropped Stitches, pp. 51-52. 'Ibid., pp. 52-53. 8Mr. McGimpsy was one of the ancestors of Judge Jeter C. Pritchard of Asheville. 'Ashe county record — -not paged. '"Soon after the formation of one of the newer counties Judge Boykin gave a defend- ant his choice between thirty days in jail and one week at the only hotel in town. The defendant chose the jail. This was since the war, however. iiRecollection of Hon. J. H. Merrimon and Dr. T. A. Allen, Sr. i^Asheville's Centenary. I'Thomas Henry also was a soldier of the Revolution, and although he died soon there- after, his name appears as a pensioner. Col. Rec, Vol. XVII, p. 217, where it appears that, he was paid through A. Lytle £60, 15s, 8d, according to the" Abstracts of the N. C. Line" settled by commissioners at Halifax from September 1, 1784, to February 1, 1785. He fought at Eutaw Springs. i<"I have myself heard my grandfather Michael Shenck, of Lincolnton, N. C, speak of Mr. Henry as "a great land lawyer'." D. Schenck, Sr., March 28, 1891, in note to "Nar- rative of the Battle of Cowan's Ford," published by D. Schenck, Sr. isHe said he asked his father what the shouting was about, and he answered that "They are declaring for Liberty." W. L. Henry's affidavit filed with Mecklenburg Decla- ration Committee in 1897. "Col. A. T. Davidson in Lyceum, p. 24, April, 1891. I'Asheville's Centenary. "Ibid. "Ibid. 2 "According to Judge James H. Merrimon, Hillman and Dews lived at Rutherford- ton. He does not know the given name of Mr. Hillman, but states that Mr. Dew's was Thomas, and that in crossing the Green river he was drowned while yet a very young man, not much if any over twenty-five years of age. He says that the late Mr. N. W. Woodfin considered Dews the ablest man in the State of his age. 2 'The reference is to 1898, the monument having been completed in that year 2 2The same is true of Governor Swain, Generals Sevier, Waightstill Aver>-, the two McDowells, Ruthertord, Shelby, Pickens, and others of Revolutionary fame, and little or no space can be spared in this volume in re-recording what has been already written and preserved of them. 2 3Asheville's Centenary. 2^1 bid. 26Ibid. "Ibid. 2'Ibid. 2SThe Lyceum, April, 1891, p. 23. ^'Related by Judge Geo. A. Shuford. '"From Reminiscences of Dr. J. S. T. Baird, published in 1905. 'iProm Mrs. Mattie S. Candler's History of "Henderson County." '2J. H. Wheeler's " Reminiscences. " "Miss Fanny L. Patton in the "Woman's Edition of the .\she\-ille Citizen," November 28, 1895. CHAPTER XVI NOTABLE CASES AND DECISIONS Not Especially Contentious. Considering our ancestry and former isolation, we are not more contentious or liti- gious than others of our kind; but it must be admitted that we sometimes indulge in a lot of unnecessary litigation. Some of us are accused even of taking delight therein. Mr. J. H. Martin tells of an old Covenanter who announced with glee that all his children were married off, all his own debts paid, and that he had nothing else to do now but "to spend the balance of his life a-lawin'." Owing to the legislation regard- ing land grants and the registration of deeds, etc., much liti- gation has arisen, notably the large case of Gilbert v. Hopkins, involving many thousands of acres of land in Graham and Cherokee counties. That case was tried before Judge Connor in the U. S. Court at Asheville in 1910, but the jury disagreed. It was tried again before Judge Boyd at the same place, and he decided it in favor of defendants, plaintiffs appealing. A new trial was granted. But as no final decision has been reached in it, no results can be stated here. In it are involved almost everj' point of real estate law possible to arise. Pains have been taken to refer in this work only to the most notable cases that have been heard and decided. Each was of interest at the time it was tried. Litigation and Legislation. James McConnell Smith was the first white child born west of the Blue Ridge, in Buncombe county, but he will be remembered longer than many because of his will. He died December 11, 1853, leaving a will by which he devised to his daughter, Elizabeth A., ^^^fe of J. H. Gudger, certain real estate in Asheville, "to her sole and separate use and benefit for and during her natural life, with remainder to such children as she may leave surviving her, and those repre- senting the interest of any that may die leaving children."^ A petition was filed in the Superior court asking for an order to sell this property, and such an order was made and sev- eral lots were sold with partial payments made of the pur- chase money, when a question was raised as to the power of the court to order the sale of the property so devised. In (407) 408 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Miller, ex 'parte (90 N. C. Reports, p. 625), the Supreme court held that land so devised could "not be sold for partition dur- ing the continuance of the estate of the life tenant; for, until the death of the life tenant, those in remainder cannot be ascertained." The sales so made, were, therefore, void. But years passed and some of the property became quite valuable, while another part of it, being unimproved, was non- productive, and a charge upon the productive portion. But there seemed to be no remedy till the city of Asheville con- demned a portion of the productive part for the widening of College Street. The question then arose as to how the money paid by the city for the land so appropriated to public use should be applied. On this question the Supreme court de- cided in Miller v. Asheville (112 N. C. Reports, 759), that the money so paid by way of damages should be substituted for the realty, and upon the happening of the contingency — the death of the life tenant — be divided among the parties en- titled in the same manner as the realty would have been if left intact. Upon this hint, on the petition of the life tenant and the remaindermen, a special act was passed by the legislature (Private Laws of N. C, 1897, Ch. 152, p. 286) appointing C. H. Miller a commissioner of the General Assembly to sell the land, the proceeds to become a trust fund to be applied as the will directs. This was done; but the Supreme court {Miller v. Alexander, 122 N. C, 718) held this was in effect an attempted judicial act and therefore unconstitutional. The legislature after- wards passed a general act, which is embodied in section 1590 of the Revisal, for the sale of estates similarly situated, and under this authority some of the land was sold and the pro- ceeds were applied to the construction of a hotel on another part. The proceeds, however, proved insufficient to com- plete the hotel, and in an action brought to sell still more of this land for the purpose of completing the hotel, the Supreme court held in Smith v. Miller (151 N. C, p. 620), that, while the purchasers of the land already sold had received valid title to the same, still as the hotel, when completed, would not be a desirable investment, the decree for the sale of the other land, in order to provide funds for its completion, was void because it did not meet the statutory requirements that the interests involved be properly safeguarded. NOTABLE CASES AND DECISIONS 409 A Long Legal Battle. In July, 1897, the First National Bank of Aslieville failed, and indietments were found in in Greensboro against W. E. Breese, president, W. H. Pen- land, cashier, and J. E. Dickerson, a director, for violating the United States banking laws. - In 1909 Breese and Dicker- son were tried on a new indictment at Asheville before Judge Purnell, Judge of the United States District court of the Eastern District of North Carolina, assigned to hold the court for this trial. The defendants were convicted, but took an appeal and a new trial was granted. In 1902 Breese alone was tried at Asheville before Judge Jackson of Virginia, and there was a mistrial. In the same year the case was sent to Charlotte and there was another mistrial. He was tried there again and convicted, and sentenced to seven years in the pen- itentiary; but the court of appeals quashed the indictment because two members of the grand jurj^ who found the true bill had not paid their poll taxes. This apparently ended these cases, as the offences by this time had been barred by the statute of limitations. But District Attorney Holton resurrected the indictment found first at Greensboro in 1907, and Breese and Dickerson were tried at Asheville upon that before Judge Newman of Atlanta, in the summer of 1909, and convicted. They were sentenced to two years and to a fine of S2,500 each, but appealed. The court of appeals were unable to agree and, in November, 1911, certified the case to the Su- preme court of the United States. In the spring of 1912 a motion was made before that court to advance the case upon the docket. It was granted and the appeal decided adversely to the defendants in October, 1912. The Solicitorship. In the controversies over the SoHcit- orship in this section, between Ewart and Jones, ^ McCall and Webb, ■• McCall and Zachery, ^ and McCall and Gardner, the impression has gone out that, in one or the other of these cases, the Supreme court reversed its holding in Hoke v. Hen- derson, ^ to the effect that an office to which a salary was attached was property, and that the legislature could not de- prive one elected to such an office of his rights by abolishing the position. This, however, is wrong, as that case was not overruled until August, 1903, in Mile v. Ellington (134 N. C. Reports, 131). Many Legal Points Settled. The Western Carolina 410 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Bank was chartered in 1887 (Ch. 48) and began business in January, 1889. It failed, however, October 12, 1897, and its officers executed a deed of assignment to Lewis Maddux, its president, and L. P. McCloud, its cashier; but the Bat- tery Park Bank and other creditors commenced an action against the bank for the purpose of setting this deed of assign- ment aside; in consequence of which Judge H. G. Ewart, judge of the Circuit Criminal court, undertook to appoint receivers of the property. A few days later Judge W. L. Norwood, holding Superior court in Clay county, appointed the same parties receivers, there being doubt as to Judge Ewart's jurisdiction. ^ George H. Smathers alone, however, acted as receiver, the others having declined or resigned. There was a class of creditors which filed a general creditors' bill between the date of the appointment of receivers by Judge Ewart and the date of the appointment by Judge Nor- wood, who thus sought to secure priority over the assets not affected by the lien of creditors who had obtained judgments before justices of the peace, as many had done; but the Su- preme court refused priority to those thus seeking to secure it.^ There were many other questions settled in the ensuing litigation, for Receiver Smathers was removed and W. W. Jones, Esq., appointed in his place in May, 1902; and he immediately began to collect the assets of the bank, and to compel Madison county to pay certain of its bonds which he held among the assets of the defunct bank. The Supreme court decided that each stockholder was liable to the extent of double the amount of his stock. ^ It at first denied the mandamus asked for to compel the commissioners of Madi- son county to levy a tax to pay its bonds ^ " but on a rehearing granted the mandamus. (137 N. C, 579.) The question as to whether a married woman could escape her liability as a stockholder was also settled adversely to such claim. ^ ^ In pursuit of the stockholders it became nec- essary for the receiver to get the legislature to pass an act authorizing him to sue outside the State. ^ ^ LiNviLLE Litigation. S. T. Kelsey and C. C. Hutchinson had started Highlands; but Mr. Hutchinson, who was to have provided the money, found himself unable to do so, and Mr. Henry Stewart, editor of the agricultural depart- NOTABLE CASES AND DECISIONS 411 ment of n New York newspaper, bought, through Kelsey, all the laiul Huteiiinson was to iiave paid for. Then Stewart broke with Kelsey and the latter turned his attention to the development of the Linville eountry. Mr. S. P. Ra venal, Sr., advanced S500 for preliminary investigations, which resulted in the formation, about 1890, of tlie Linville Im- provement Company with Messrs. Ravenal and Kelsey and the late Mr. DonaKl MacRae of Wilmington, N. C, as the principal stockholders. Neither Ravenal nor MacRae held a majority of the stock, thus giving Kelsey the balance of power. There were three distinct lines of policy advocated by each of these gentlemen. Mr. MacRae wanted to bond the prop- erty for the construction of a railroad from Cranberry; Mr. Kelsey wished to establish an industrial center at Linville City; and Mr. Ravenal opposed both, but wanted to estab- lish a health and pleasure resort at Linville City, sell lots and hold the 15,000 acres of timber land the company had acquired for future development. After a while Mr. Thomas F. Par- ker succeeded Mr. Ravenal and Mr. Hugh MacRae succeeded his father, Mr. Donald MacRae. These two could not agree and Mr. Kelsey, siding with the McRaes, a receiver was applied for and appointed between September 1, 1893, and September 1, 1894. These disagreements among the stockholders of the Lin- ville Improvement Company in relation to the general policy to be pursued by the officers in control, and especially in respect to the method of liquidating the outstanding indebt- edness and encumbering the property of the company, were involved in an action brought against that company by T. B. Lenoir, executor of W. W. Lenoir, and decided by the Su- preme court. (See 117 N. C. Reports, p. 471.) Thomas F. Parker had been president from September 1, 1893, to September 1, 1894, and Harlan P. Kelsey secretary for the same time. A special master had rejected the claims of these two officers for pay for services during this time, and the court held that they should have been allowed to prove that they had a contract for employment with the company for the entire year and not only up to the time of the appoint- ment of a receiver. After a while Mr. MacRae offered to sell his interest or buy that of Mr. Ravenal at a certain price. Mr. Ravenal sold. 412 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA A railroad was finally built to Pinola and Montezuma, two miles from Linville City. But the golden opportunity had passed. For, while the company was constructing the Yonah- lossie turnpike from Linville City around the base of the Grandfather mountain to Blowing Rock, erecting a fine hotel and constructing a large dam for a lake at Linville City, the press was ringing with praises of the beauty of the scenery, the healthfulness of the surroundings and the general attract- iveness of the place. Visitors came in numbers from various parts of the country and wished to invest in lots and build cottages. But, as the property was in litigation, titles could not be made to the lots, and the boom subsided. Blo\ving Rock, however, which before had been a mere hamlet, sud- denly developed rapidly and substantially, and is today one of the finest and most attractive health and pleasure resorts in the mountains. Color of Title. In all countries one who enters upon land and holds possession under any paper writing of record that proclaims to the world that he is there by some real or pre- tended authority will secure title by adverse occupancy sooner than will he who "squats" upon land without any pretence that he has any right to be there other than his bare posses- sion. In the early days of North Carolina the State granted large tracts of land to William Cochran and William Tate in July, 1795; and in July, 1796, just one year later, William Cathcart secured grants which were found to lap on those lands already granted to Tate and Cochran. It was impos- sible for Tate and Cochran to put settlers on their lands at that time, and having the senior grant they rested on their rights. But Cathcart was unwilling to lose any portion of the land he had paid the State ten cents an acre for, even though part of it was already the property of Tate and Coch- ran. So, in September, 1838, he leased all this disputed land to Abram Johnson, put him in possession of a part of it, and told him to exercise rights of ownership over as much as he did not actually occupy as he could. In order to do this Johnson built a forge near the Old Fields of Toe, and cut timber and burnt charcoal at many other places on the land. More than one hundred years after all these grants had been taken out the Supreme court decided that Cathcart's lease to Johnson was color of title to the lands described therein, NOTABLE CASES AND DECISIONS 413 and that his title had ripened in seven years after the date of the lease and Johnson's entry and occiipanc}', the lease havinjz; been duly recorded in jNIorganton. Thus a junior grunt had held over its senior, because of this color of title. (Cochran v. Improvement Co., 127 N. C, 387.) Adams v. Westfeldt. As early as 1850 or 1851, the late Stephen Munday entered land on Little Fork ridge, the Fos- ter ridge, south and southeast of Haw Gap, and south of Thunderhead mountain, because he believed that copper was in the land; but positive indications of its existence were not found until about 1858. The war coming on and interest dying out, nothing further was done about investigating the indications until about 1899. In 1869 George Westfeldt of New Orleans bought, at the bankrupt sale of E. H. Cunningham, four tracts of land on the waters of Hazel creek which had been granted to the latter. In 1877 Westfeldt, through his agent, Tennent, tried to locate these tracts, but had to call in Wm. R. McDowell, who lived near Franklin, to assist. He located them several miles from where Tennent thought they lay. About 1888 copper was discovered on one of these tracts and men named Cook, Hall, Mark Bryson and others attempted to find what grant covered the copper deposit. They discovered that Epp. Everett of Bryson City had several grants which he had not succeeded in locating satisfactorily, but which he appeared to think were several miles from the Westfeldt lands. It was charged that, in attempting to locate one of these grants on the copper vein, Adam Wilson had hacked a tree and then smoked the hacks with pine splinters in order to give the marks the appearance of age. On the other hand, Adams' side claimed that persons in the interest of Westfeldt had chopped the marks entirely out of a corner tree and had car- ried the marks off in the block of wood which had been re- moved. From this smoked tree it was claimed the line had been run in 1890; but it was not satisfactory, and was aban- doned, until in 1899, when W. S. Adams, of Massachusetts, bought up the Everett grants and took possession of the cop- per lands. An old man living in Tennessee by the name of Proctor, who had carried the chain when the Everett grants were originally located, was brought to the land to help establish Adams' contention as to the location. Westfeldt 414 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA had warned Adams not to trespass on this land and, in 1901, he sued Adams in Swain county and won the suit. But a new trial was granted by the Supreme court on the ground of the admission of incompetent evidence. The case was, by consent, removed to Haywood county, where the North Caro- lina Mining Company was made an additional defendant, and it set up a claim to the land in dispute, under the act of 1893, for determining adverse claims to real estate. Westfeldt won again, but the Supreme court granted still another new trial, because the trial judge had failed to call proper attention to the difference between substantive evidence and evidence that went merely to the credibility of a witness. Then the North Carolina Mining Company brought its bill in equity in the United States court for the Western District of North Carolina, to clear the title of the cloud placed upon it by Westfeldt's claim to the land. Judge Pritchard decided that he had jurisdiction, notwithstanding the pendency of the ac- tion between substantially the same parties in the State court. He heard the testimony, sitting as a chancellor, and without a jury to enlighten the court upon the disputed facts; and a short time before the case was to have been tried in Hay- wood, he filed his decree holding against Westfeldt. After several years of effort the Supreme court of the United States decided that Judge Pritchard had not had jurisdiction when he took the case from the Superior court of Haywood county, and in 1910 the cause was tried at Waynesville, the plaintiff winning. The Supreme court of North Carolina in 1912 set the verdict aside, however, and the case will have to be tried again. ^ ^ Both Westfeldt and Adams have since died. An Erroneous Impression. It is sometimes said that the Supreme court of North Carolina has decided that a munici- pality may legally freeze a prisoner to death. This is wrong, the decision in Aloffit v. AsheviUe having held quite to the contrary (103 N. C, p. 237). It was decided that when towns are "exercising the judicial, discretionary or legisla- tive authority conferred by their directors, or are discharging a duty imposed solely for the public benefit, they are not liable for the negligence of their officers, unless some statute subjects them to hability for such negligence." Conse- quently, they held that the city was not liable for a severe NOTABLE CASES AND DECISIONS 415 2old and illness caustHl to Moffit by confincmont, January 5, 1887, in a cell in a room from which wimlow lights had l)een broken, the city having provided fuel and a stove and police officers to keep the room comfortable. Cr\nberuy Magnetic Iron Mines. From Hon. A. C. Avery of Morganton it has been learned that about 1780 Reuben White took out a grant for tlie 100 acres supposed to cover the iron deposit at these mines, and that Hon. Waightstill Avery took out four small grants surrounding the Reul)en White grant. ' * In addition, he took out hundreds of 6-40-acre grants, covering almost all of the North Toe valley from its source to Toecane, except that here and there along the valley some older grants intervened. He also took grants to lands along Squirrel, Roaring, Henson and Three -Mile creeks, and the lower valley of South Toe and Linville riv- ers. In 1795 William Cathcart took out two large grants, one known as the "99,000-Acre Tract" and the other as the "59, 000- Acre Tract," which two grants covered practically all of what is now JXIitchell and Avery counties, except some tracts along the Blue Ridge, and embrace all the tracts along the streams theretofore granted to Waightstill Avery. He devised all these lands to his son, Isaac T. Avery. A controversy arose between the father of John Evans Brown, agent for the claimants under the Cathcart grants, which resulted in the execution of compromise deeds in 1852, by which I. T. Avery got a quit claim to about 50,000 acres of land, so as to include most of the land de- scribed, including the Cranberry Mines. The Reuben White tract had in the meantime passed by a succession of con- veyances to William Bugger, who sold his interest to Hoke, Hutchinson and Sumner; Bugger, Avery and Brown having entered into a written agreement under which Avery and Brown were to hold one-half of one-fourth each of the min- eral interest in all the Bugger land outside of the Reuben White tract. . . . But, before Bugger conveyed to Hoke, Hutchinson and Sumner, he had contracted to sell to John Harding, Miller and another, and had put Harding in possession, so that the Hoke purchase was from Harding and associates, taking the legal title from Bugger. Judge A. C. Avery, as executor of his father's (I. T. Avery) estate, gave notice to Hoke and company of the equitable claim of Brown 416 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA and Avery in three thousand acres, embracing the Cranberry- ore bank, before they bought from Dugger, and in the ensu- ing litigation compelled Hoke and Company to pay between fif- teen and twenty thousand dollars for the Brown and Avery interests in the Cranberry ore bank. Before the Litigation Began. Exactly when the Cran- berry Iron mine was first operated cannot be determined now. Joshua Perkins and a man named Asher built what was afterwards knowm as the Dugger mine, on the right bank of the Watauga in what is now Johnson county, Tenn., and four miles above Butler. Remains of the old forge are still visible there, just above the present iron bridge, the forge itself having been washed away in the freshet of 1886 or 1887. Tradition says that Perkins and Asher sold this forge to Wil- liam, Abe and John Dugger, and then went to Cranberry and built the forge there. These Dugger brothers were the sons of Julius Dugger who o^Tied a farm on the right bank of the Watauga, opposite Fish Springs; and soon took charge of the forge Perkins had built at Cranberry. But when either forge was built "no man knoweth. " Only one fact could be secured, and that was that in November, 1886, Joshua Perkins bought a bill of goods at Curtis and Farthing's store at Butler. All agree that he was then over eighty years of age, and that he died soon afterwards. Assuming, then, that he was eighty-six years of age in 1886, and that he was at least twenty-one when he built the Dugger forge four miles above Butler, the Cranberry forge most probably was built not earher than 1821 to 1825. Benjamin Dugger was also concerned in this Cranberry forge, but afterwards went to Ducktown, Tenn. Upon his death John Hardin went into possession of the mine, either by his own right or as guard- ian of Abie's heirs. It was sold by John Hardin or his son Councill Hardin, to Gen. R. F. Hoke for $10,000 and he sold to the company now owning it. Shep. M. Dugger, in his "Bal- sam Groves of the Grandfather Mountain" (p. 15), says: "In the year 1850 the now famous Cranberry Iron mines were in their infantile state of development. The Dugger family had been the first to build forges and hammer iron in Ten- nessee, and the writer's grandfather and great uncle had now crossed the line, and purchased the mines and tilt-hammer forge at Cranberry." NOTABLE CASES AND DECISIONS 417 The Carter and Hoke Litigation. Tlionuis D. Carter had an equitable contract for the sale of a part of the interest held under bond for title by John Hardin, Miller and another, and this led to the litigation which culminated in the case of Thomas D. Carter v. Robert F. Hoke and others (64 N. C. Rep., p. 348). It appears that, in May, 1867, the plaintiff agreed to convey his interest in the Cranberry Iron mines to Gen. Hoke and others for S44,000, and when he tendered a deed there- for he was given a sight draft on a New York bank for the amount of the purchase money, which draft was protested and never paid; but that the reason it had not been paid was because it had been well understood by the parties to the transaction that, although it was a sight draft, the funds to meet it were to have been provided by the proceeds of a sale of the same property by Hoke and associates to another pur- chaser, which contemplated sale Carter had defeated. Upon this state of facts a receiver was appointed and the sale of the property was enjoined. At the Spring term, 1869, of the Superior court of jNIadison county, Hoke moved to dissolve the injunction and end the receivership. Upon the hearing of that motion it appeared that Hoke and associates had effected another sale of the property to the Russells and asso- ciates, for 850,000, and they claimed to have been inno- cent purchasers without notice. Judge Henry granted the motion; but on appeal the Supreme court continued the injunc- tion against a sale of the property till Carter had been paid and the question as to whether the Russells were innocent purchasers had been tried. Hoke and company soon after- wards compromised with Carter and the title to the property was thus settled so far as Carter was concerned. A Further Story of the Litigation. The interests of the original purchasers of the White and Avery Ore-Bank tracts, as well as the interests of the claimants of adjacent lands under a forge bounty grant (junior to the o9,000-acre grant of 1790), were sold for partition under a decree of the Supreme court at its session at Morganton before the Civil War, and was bought by William Dugger. He subsequently paid the purchase money and got a decree that James R. Dodge, clerk of the Supreme court at Morganton, should make title to him. Before getting his title, however, but after he had paid the purchase money, William Dugger en- W. X. C— 27 418 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA tered into an agreement with Isaac T. Avery and J. Evans BrowTi that the three should hold an equal one-third interest in all the mineral outside of the original White Ore-Bank tract. But this agreement seems not to have been registered; and, the Civil War coming on, the sessions of the Supreme court at Morganton were abolished. Then Col. Dodge, the clerk, died without having made title to William Dugger. Meantime, Judge A. C. Avery secured through Hon. B. F. Moore an ordinance of the Convention of 1866 authorizing Mr. Free- man, who was then clerk of the Supreme court at Raleigh, to make the title to William Dugger which Col. Dodge should have made. Clerk Freeman made this title to Dugger, but failed to include in it any reference to the equitable agree- ment which had been made between William Dugger, Isaac T. Avery and J. Evans Brown to the effect that each should have a one-third interest in the property outside of the orig- inal White Ore-Bank tract. William Dugger, too, had sold his interest in the property without excepting the two-thirds interest equitably owTied by Avery and BrowTi, and executed a deed therefor. These purchasers were proposing to sell under their deed from Dugger \^dthout notice to Avery and Brown; whereupon Judge A. C. Avery, as executor of Isaac T. Avery, who had died, and J. Evans Brown gave notice of their equity to the proposed purchasers, and thereby com- pelled the purchasers from Dugger to buy their interest in the property. This covered all interests in the property. ^ ^ The Nantahala Talc Case. About 1895 or 1896 there was considerable litigation over the rich and valuable talc and marble mine or quarry at Hewitts in Swain county. Thomas and others had bought from the late Alexander P. Munday, as executor of the late Nimrod S. Jarrett. The Nantahala Marble and Talc Company of Atlanta had also bought land adjoining from the same party. On a question of the location of a boundary line between these properties the case was tried at Asheville before the late Judge Paul, United States district judge of Virginia, who had been trans- ferred to this jurisdiction for the purpose of hearing this case. He decided it in favor of Thomas and his co-plaintiffs; and it was appealed to the circuit court of appeals, where in Feb- ruary, 1901, this decision was sustained. (106 Fed. Rep., p. 379, and 76 Fed. Rep., p. 59.) NOTABLE CASES AND DECISIONS 419 NOTES. 'Mr*. Eliz!\l>(>tli Sniitli died in October, 1912. '\V. H. IVuliind, liiiviiig iitireed to furuisli viiliiable information to tho Kovcrnment, was not tried. 'UtJ N. C.oTO. M26 .\. C. 760. ^4 Dov.. p. I. •Dev., p. 1. 'fia/uT r. Bank. 132 N. C. 769. 'Bank v. B.mk, 127 N. C. Rep., 432. 'Smalhira t. Bank. 13.i N. C. 410. ^ojones c. Com , 135 X. C. Kep.. p. 215. >'fii:ery of Con- cord (P'oote's Sketches on North Carolina, 297). He lived on Swannanoa until 1814, when he removed to Bedford county, Tennessee. There for many years he was principal of Dick- son Academy and pastor of the Presbyterian church in Shel- byville, and there he died about 1841.'' "At that time there was a building which had been used for church and school purposes, kno^^^l as Union Hill Academy. The house, which was a log one, was removed and in 1809 a brick house took its place. In the same year its name was changed to that of Newton Academy."^ Here for many years the people resorted to preaching and sent their children to school, and buried their dead. In 1857 or 1858 the brick building between the present academy and the grave yard was removed and the brick academy now there was erected. (See Clayton v. Trus- tees, 95 N. C, 298.) Dr. Erastus Rowley. "The old Newton Academy was the only institution in the county which, up to 1840, had ever been dignified with as big a name as that of Academy. This was a very old structure when I first entered it in 1844. Dr. Erastus Rowley taught here that year. The house was a very long one and rather wide — one story, divided into two rooms — one very long room and one small one. It was built of brick and stood on the top of the knoll some distance above where the present one stands. Many of the older men of this section received their education at this widely known institution and its fame has always been almost co-extensive with that of Asheville. " ' Dr. Samuel Dickson, "In 1835 Dr. Samuel Dickson, a Presbyterian minister, established here a seminary for young ladies, which was most successfully carried on for many years. It was a school which even in this day of improved educational methods would stand in the highest rank. Miss Marguerite Smith of Rhode Island also taught in this building at the same time. At it were educated all the girls in this sec- tion of the country. Dr. Dickson lived and carried on this school in the first brick house put up in Asheville. It was a handsome colonial residence, knowai afterwards as the 'Pul- liam place,' on South Main street. The first woman who ever became a regular practitioner of medicine in America was a member of this school, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. " ^ " SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 425 Colonel Stephen Lee, Soldier and Schoolmaster. "Dr. Erastus Kowloy also taught the nuilo school at the old Newton Academy for quite a while. He was a 'Yankee' but a most excellent teacher, as well as a fine preacher. Col. Stephen Lee, about this time, established a school for boys on the Swannanoa four miles from Asheville, which had a wide reputation and he did good in all this mountain section. It may be said without intended disparagement to others that Col. Lee's equal as a teacher has scarcely been found in this country; his memory lingers with and is blessed by many of the 'old boys' of today. "Col. Lee's school for boys was far famed and many of the best citizens of this country and South Carolina remembered with gratitude, not only the drilling in Latin and Greek re- ceived from this most successful educator, but also the les- sons in high toned honor and manhood imparted by this knight 'without fear and without reproach.' Col. Lee came from South Carolina and opened his school first in a large brick house built by himself on Swannanoa, knowTi as 'The Lodge' — afterwards famous as the hospitable summer resi- dence of Mr. William Patton. Colonel Lee afterwards moved to Chuim's Cove, where he taught until, at the call of his country, he and his sons and his pupils enlisted in the cause which they believed to be right. He was a graduate of West Point, and distantly related to Gen. R. E. Lee. "^^ Col. Stephen Lee, son of Judge Thomas Lee of Charleston, S. C, was born in Charleston, June 7, 1801, was educated at West Point and for some years after taught in the Charles- ton College. In September, 1825, he was married to his cousin, Caroline Lee, also of Charleston; they had fifteen chil- dren, nine boys and six girls. Some years after he was married he moved to Spartanburg, S. C, where he lived only a few years, moving with his family to Buncombe county, N. C. In Chunn's Cove he started his school for boys, which he kept up as long as he lived, except for two or three years in the sixties, a part of which time he was in command of the 16th N. C. Regiment, serving his country in West Virginia and the rest of the time drilling new recruits and preparing them for service. Besides serving himself, he sent eight boys into the Confederate army, four of whom gave their lives to the cause. At the close of the war he returned to his school du- 426 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ties and prepared many young men for their life work. He died in 1879, and is buried in the Asheville cemetery. Mrs. Morrison and Miss Cousins' School. Another school now long passed away, and existing only in the tender memories of its pupils, was taught for girls by Mrs. Morrison and Miss Cousins, on Haywood street, the present residence of Dr. H. H. Briggs. Sand Hill School. Captain Charles Moore, son of Cap- tain Wm. Moore, was a man of ability and learning, a strict Presbyterian and a most useful citizen, who early realized the importance of education to a people so isolated as were the men of his time. Consequently, early in the nineteenth cen- tury he erected a small frame building on his farm, since famous as Sand Hill School. It was a school house and church for ministers sent out by the Mecklenburg Presby- tery, and later became the most useful institution of learn- ing west of the Blue Ridge, to which boys from all the sur- rounding counties came as long as Captain Moore lived. Among them were the late James L. Henry, Superior court judge; J. C. L. Gudger, Superior court judge; the late Riley H. Cannon, Superior court judge, and Judge George A. Jones of ]\Iacon, who held the position of judge by appointment for nearly two years. Among those living, are Captain James M. Gudger, Sr., sohcitor; J. M. Gudger, Jr., member of Congress; H. A. Gudger, chief justice of the Panama Canal Zone; Supe- rior Court Judge Geo. A. Shuford, Judge Charles A. jNIoore, the late Hirschel S. Harkins, former internal revenue collector for this district; the late Fred Moore, Superior court judge; the late James Cooper, a prominent lawyer of Murphy; Hon. W. G. Candler, member of the legislature; Thomas J. Candler, Dr. James Candler, and Dr. David M. Gudger. Captain Charles Moore is said to have been largely instrumental in erecting the first Presbyterian church in Asheville. He in- sisted on employing only the most competent teachers for Sand Hill School, among them being Prof. Hood and W. H. Graves, both highly educated teachers. He died about the close of the Civil War. Professor S. F. Venable, a graduate of the University of Virginia, also taught at Sand Hill. . Another Early School. Bishop Asbury records the fact that in September, 1806, he and Moses Lawrence lost their way in Buncombe county when within a mile of Killion's SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 427 on Beaverdain creek, and spent tlie night in a school house, without a fire. The floor of this school room was of dirt, on which Moses slept, while the Bishop had a "bed wherever I could find a l)ench. " This was not Newton Academy, for he had already recorded the fact that he knew the Rev. Ceorge Newton in November, 1800. Besides, Newton Acad- emy was more than three miles from Killion's. Just where this school house was seems to have escaped the knowledge of all our local historians. Silas McDowell. He was born in York District, S. C, in 1795, and for three sessions was a student at Newton Academy, near Asheville. He was apprenticed to learn the tailor's trade at Charleston, S. C, and worked as such at Morganton and Asheville. He married a niece of Governor Swain, and moved to Macon county in 1830, where for sixteen years he was clerk of Superior court. He was a practical mineralogist and geologist, botanist and a scientist of original views. His descriptions of mountain peaks attracted much attention; but his "Theory of the Thermal Zone" gave him great reputation and was published in the Agricultural Re- ports of the United States. He died in Macon county, July 14, 1879. A Benevolent "Squeers. "^^ A most unique character among the teachers of that day was Robert Woods or "Uncle Baldy," as he was generally called, for his head was bald as a door knob with the exception of a light fringe at the base of his cranium. Although a finished classical scholar and per- fect in mathematics as well as all the higher branches taught in that day, he would not teach in the higher schools, but preferred to labor in what was then known as the "old field," where there was seldom anything taught but the elementary branches — such as spelling, reading, writing "ciphering." Occasionally he would have a boy who wanted to take a little Latin or Greek, or the higher mathematics, which he was thoroughly competent to teach. He was singular and very economical in his notions of dress. He made one suit last him for many years. I can see him now in imagination, with a long tail blue jeans coat that came down to his knees and which had seen service so long that the threads of white fill- ing were showing plainly. The collar was large and when turned up came nearly to the top of his head. His pants 428 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA were of heavy "linsey woolsey" of deep brown color and very baggy. His vest was of the same material and buttoned up to his chin, with a good flap at the top, his shirts were of heavy red or purple flannel, his shoes were of a style of heavy home made comfortable brogan that were very generally worn in that day. This was his dress and the only one I ever saw him wear. When he was not hearing recitations he constantly walked the floor of the school room from end to end with a swinging walk with his hands crossed upon his back and in one of them a six foot birch "tidivator, " and when he would catch a boy with his eyes wandering or at meanness he would give him a keen rap across the shoulders and say in a savage tone, "mind your book." In the summer time when the flies were bad he would tie a large red bandanna handkerchief over his head which he could arrange something after the fash- ion of a woman's sunbonnet and thus he could save fighting the flies, but with all his queer ways and habits he was a most excellent, useful and successful teacher and a good old gen- tleman. For many years he taught acceptably in various parts of this county. First School House in Ashe. The first school house in Jefferson was of logs and stood on a branch in the eastern end of Jefferson in a lot owned by Felix Barr, just left of the black- smith shop. He removed it in 1873 or 1874. A fine spring is near the former site. BuRNSviLLE Academy. In 1851 Rev. Stephen B. Adams, now deceased, of the Methodist Church, established the Burns- ville Academy and taught there several years. He was the father of Judge Joseph S. Adams, also now deceased. Out of this grew Mars Hill College, which was established by the most prominent members of the Baptist denomination in 1857, after realizing the necessity for such a college. Thomas Ray, John Radford, E. D. Carter, Daniel Carter, Stephen Ammons, Shepard Deaver, Rev. J. W. Anderson and Rev. Humphrey Deweese were prominent in establishing this institution. During part of the Civil War the buildings were used by the soldiers, but after the close of that struggle the buildings were repaired and others added. It has done and still is doing great good. Weaverville College was established by the Metho- SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 429 (list Church, South, about the year 1856. It is situated on land where formerly camp meetings were hekl. It has been greatly enlarged and imjiroved of late years. It is co-educational. It has done excellent work in the past and continues to do the same iu)w. AsHEviLLE ]\Iale Academy. In 1847-48 the citizens of Asheville erected a brick l)uilding on the north side of what is now College street about a hundred yards east of Oak. It stood till August, 1912, when it was removed. In it Prof. James H. Norwood taught till about 1850, when he removed to Waynesville, where he remained till shortly before the Civil War, when, having been appointed Indian agent in the Northwest, he removed there and was afterwards killed by the Indians. During part of the time he taught at this academy Col. Stephen Lee also taught there, but soon removed to Chunn's cove. Asheville Female College. About 1850 or 1851 this college was established on the land now bounded on the north by Woodfin, on the east by Locust, on the south by College and on the west by Oak streets. Part of it is used as a hotel and the remainder is now the high school's property. At first it was Holston Conference Female College, but was afterwards known as the Asheville Female College, and subsequently as the Asheville College for Women. It prospered and had a large patronage from the start under the presidency of Dr. John M. Carlisle, Dr. Anson W. Cummings, Dr. James S. Kennedy, Dr. R. N. Price, Dr. James Atkins, Mr. Archibald Jones. Asheville School for Girls. This was begun in 1911, with Miss Ford as principal, assisted by several competent teachers. It occupies the handsome and commodious resi- dence built by Col. N. W. Woodfin at the corner of North Main and Woodfin streets, Asheville, and enlarged by the late Dr. J. H. Burroughs. Sulphur Springs School. William Hawkins taught in the school house on the hill above Sulphur Springs from 1838 till long after 1845. A school had been maintained at that place by Robert Henry's influence and largely at his ex- pense since 1836. The grave yard still there is just back of the place where the old school house stood. The late Riley Cannon, the Jones, Hawkins and Moore children attended school there in the old days. 430 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Mrs. Hutsell's Girls' School. Mrs. Hutsell, the wife of the Rev. Mr. Hutsell, a Methodist preacher, taught a school for girls about four miles west of Sulphur Springs from 1840 to 1853, and took some of the scholars to board at her house. Her husband and Francis Marion Wells of Grassy Creek, Madison county, were brothers-in-law. "Order of the Holy Cross" at Valle Crucis. ^' In 1840 a gentleman from New York, in search of rare wild flow- ers, wandered into Valle Crucis. He called this beautiful vale to the attention of Bishop Levi S. Ives of the Protestant Episcopal Church, who, on July 20, 1842, held services there and promised to send a missionary. In December, 1842, Rev. Henry H. Prout arrived and began work in the Lower Settlement, near the Tennessee line. In August, 1843, Bishop Ives returned and purchased 125 acres of land which was subsequently increased to 2,000 acres. His first intention was to "make this valley an important center of work for the entire diocese, to include a missionary station, a training school for the ministry, and a classical and agricultural school for boys." The necessary buildings having been constructed in 1844, school was opened early in 1845, with thirty boys which number increased to fifty during that summer. Rev. Mr. Thurston was at the head of the mission and of the school. There were seven candidates for the ministry, several of whom were assistant teachers. Upon the death of Mr. Thurston the Rev. Jarvis Buxton, then a candidate for holy orders, took charge of the school and Mr. Prout carried on the mis- sionary work. But Dr. Buxton removed to Asheville in 1847, where he became rector of Trinity church, resigning that posi- tion in March, 1890. This withdrawal from Valle Crucis was in consequence of the introduction into the mission of Valle Crucis by Bishop Ives, in June 1847, of the "Order of the Holy Cross," planned by himself and which he intended, it was said, to develop into a monastic institution. The Bishop was the General of the Order, the members of which were divided into three classes: those in the abbey at Valle Crucis only taking the mediaeval vows of chastity, poverty and obedience; others taking lighter vows; and some taking Hghter vows still. Both the clergy and laity might belong to either class. The Rev. Mr. French was appointed Superior, Mr. Buxton SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 431 having doclincHl the appointment. Many divinity students became eonnectetl with the order, but none of them alian- doned the church. The chapel having been ^lestroyed by fire, the little band rebuilt it by themselves, locating it in a little grove at the foot of a hill. Instead of bells a bugle was used to summon them to worship, and to work. Rev. Wil- liam West Skyles of Hertford county, had joined the mission in 18-14 as a farmer, and was ordained a deacon in August, 1847. He was now called "Brother William," while the Rev. Mr. French was addressed as "Father William." All were required to work the farm two hours every day. But reports of the new order had spread through the diocese, funds had failed to arrive, but the committee on the State of the church at the convention held at Wilmington in 1848, favored the mission, saying that its importance "is immense as the nursery of a future ministry because of its retirement, ... its hardy and useful discipline and great economy. " At the convention held at Salisbury in May, 1849, Bishop Ives gave assurance that "at this religious house no doctrine will be taught or practice allowed" not in accord with the principles and usages of the church, "the property of the establishment having been secured to the church for the use of the mission on the specified conditions." At a later day the Bishop declared that from the date of the convention at Salisbury the order had been dissolved. Its regular existence, therefore, scarcely covered two years. The committee on the state of the church having reported in 1849 that they had assurances on which they could rely that "no society whose character, rules and practices are at variance with the spirit if not with the laws of this church is at present in existence in this diocese," the convention ordered 1,000 copies of the report distributed throughout the diocese. In July, 1849, Bishop Ives visited Valle Crucis, however, and addressed a pastoral letter to the diocese which was considered a defiance and a partial retrac- tion of the assurances he had given the convention during the previous May. Consequently, funds for the mission almost entirely ceased, and some of the students sought work elsewhere. Mr. French left the mission in the winter of 1850 and Bishop Ives appointed the Rev. George Wetmore to take charge of Valle Crucis. At the convention of 18.50, held at Elizabeth City in May, Bishop Ives alluded to his assurances 432 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA of 1849, in which he had denied private confession, absolution and Christ's real presence in the Eucharist, etc., and still claimed that there had been no heresy or schism. A committee in 1851 investigated Valle Crucis and reported that the Bish- op's explanation was satisfactor3\ Bishop Ives visited Valle Crucis in the summer of 1852 and consecrated Easter chapel above Shull's Mills. In Sep- tember, 1852, he asked for SI, 000 and six months' leave of absence. He sailed for Europe and on the 22d of December, 1852, he resigned as bishop and declared his "intention to make his submission to the church of Rome. " He had been bishop over twenty years. Dr. Thomas Atkinson, who had been rector of Grace church, Baltimore, was elected to suc- ceed him May 22, 1853. The title of the Valle Crucis property was never in the Episcopal church. It was sold by Dr. Ives' legal representatives to Robert Miller who worked the mis- sion grounds as a farm. The little chapel which Rev. Mr. Skiles had succeeded in having built on Lower Watauga at a cost of $700, was consecrated by Bishop Atkinson August 22, 1862. Mr. Skiles, who had done many deeds of charity and love, died at the home of Col. J. B. Palmer near what is now Altamont, in Avery county, December 8, 1862. His remains were interred in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist, December 18, 1862. This chapel was removed in 1882 to a spot higher up the Watauga river, near St. Jude postoffice, and in 1889 Mr. Skiles' remains were re-interred in the new churchyard under the direction of Rev. George Bell of Asheville. The Episcopal church has purchased a large part of the original mission property and now maintains a flourishing school for girls there. The buildings are large, handsome and modern, the orchards and farms are well cultivated and the work accomplished is uplifting and enduring. The prin- cipal credit for this work is due Right Reverend Junius M. Horner, Bishop of Asheville, who since his consecration in 1900 has been untiring in building up at this favored spot a useful and elevating school for girls. An investigation of this work and the success which is already evident will con- vince the most skeptical of its value and importance. Valle Crucis School for Girls. " The school property consists of a farm of 500 acres, woodlands, apple orchards, SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 433 dairy farm, vcgetahlo garcU'ii and poultry yard. It is in Watauga county. There are two fine buildings, Auxiliary Hall and Auchnuity Hall. Auxiliary Hall was built with that portion of money given the Bishop of Asheville, Rt. Rev. Junius yi. Horner, from the united ofl'erings of 1901, added to other smaller gifts. It is a frame building of handsome proportions, and contains the assembly hall for the school and six class rooms on the first floor; the dining room and kitchen on the second floor; and a dormitory for two teachers and twelve girls, on the third floor, with linen closets and bath rooms adjoining. "Auchmuty Hall is the regular dormitory building for the school. It is built of concrete blocks, and has thirty rooms with capacity for six teachers and sixty girls. The ground floor has office for the principal, a living room, and a prayer room, where daily morning and evening prayers are said. This building was put up at a cost of $15,000, the gift of friends personally interested in the school and missionary work. These buildings are well designed for school purposes and those in authority are diligent in carrying out the deliberately planned policy of the school, viz. : that of making this a model school industry, that shall be sufficiently economic to be self- supporting after the equipment of $50,000 is completed and an endo\\'ment of $50,000 is added to insure the sal- aries of the necessarj^ teachers in the school. It is the policy of the Bishop of Asheville to have here an industrial school which will educate women, home makers, so that the growing generation of men and women from the Appalachian mountains shall be the type known as 'faithful unto death.' " Half a century ago a school for boys was opened at Valle Crucis by Bishop Ives who named the place because of the natural formation of the valleys, Valle Crucis, or the Vale of the Cross. " The property of the school, however, was lost to the church until a few years ago when sufficient interest in the mountain region was awakened to enable the church to buy back the best portions of the old school farm and commence the erec- tion of the present industrial school." Skyland Institute at Blowing Rock was established about twenty-five years ago (1891) by Miss E. C. Prudden, and is supported by the American Missionary Association. It is a girls' school with industrial training. W. N. C— 28 434 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Mast Seminary. This is at Mast postoffice on Cove creek, Watauga, and is the gift of Mr. N. L. Mast to the Presbyte- rian Church. It is only a little over two years old, but will flourish. Both sexes taught. Watauga Academy. This was established in the summer of 1899 by Messers D. D. and B. B. Daugherty at Boone, their childhood home. They are brothers. ^ * The Dougherty family, both men and women, not only in Ashe and Watauga, but in Johnson county, Tenn., also, have for years been zeal- ous in the work of education, religion and the uplift of their States. This was the beginning of the Appalachian Training School. Cove Creek Academy. Twenty years ago (1893) this useful and successful school in the western part of Watauga county, was presided over by Mr. Julius C. Martin, now a distinguished lawyer of Asheville. It flourished under his management as principal, and has continued on the road to success. Asheville Free Kindergarten. Miss Sara Garrison was a teacher in 1889 in a kindergarten school in the factory district. In the same year an association was formed and two kindergartens established and placed in charge of Miss Garrison and IVIiss Slack of Baltimore. They were so suc- cessful that a training school was established for fitting women to teach such schools, and Mrs. Orpha Quale of Indian- apolis taught a class of eight young ladies. Four kindergar- tens were in operation. Mr. George W. Pack having donated a school building necessitated the incorporation of the asso- ciation in 1892. He met most of the expenses of one of the teachers who worked at half rates rather than have the school suspend. In 1894 only two kindergartens were in operation and Mr. George W. Vanderbilt opened another for colored children in the Young Men's Institute at his own expense. A New England lady secured $200 from friends in Boston and the Asheville board of aldermen gave $150 for a kinder- garten to be re-estabhshed in the factory district. The public kindergartens were suspended for want of funds in the year 1912, but arrangements have been made to re-open them. BuRNSviLLE Baptist College. About the time the Presbyterians established their college at Burnsville the Bap- tists erected a large and handsome set of college buildings, which have done a great work ever since. SCMOOLS AND COLLEGES 435 Bingham School was founded in 1793, at Mebaneville, N. C, by Rev. Wni. Bingham, who was succeeded by the late W. J. Bingliam, and he by the late Col. Wm. Bingham. After the death of the last named, in 1873, Major Robert Bingham became superintendent. The military feature, introduced during the Civil War, has been retained. This school was removed to Ashevillo under Col. Robert Bingham's super- intendence in the fall of 1891; though the original Bingham School, as it is claimed, continues to flourish at Mebaneville. Both schools are doing well. Rural Libraries. Small but carefully chosen libraries have been placed in our country schools. This means that six hundred thousand country children have such opportun- ities of enriching their lives by reading as were never before offered to the young people of North Carolina. Alleghany Schools. Sparta has had a high school almost from the beginning of the town. Prof. Brown having located there in 1870, and with the exception of short intervals, has had charge of it ever since. There are also a good many academy buildings at Whitehead, Laurel Springs, Scott- ville, Piney Creek, Elk Creek and Turkey Knob. In 1909 the Orange Presbytery established a high school at Glade Valley, there being four buildings, all steam-heated and mod- ernly equipped. Baptist ^Mountain Missions and Schools. Mr. A. E. Brown has furnished a list of schools which are maintained by the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Church. A tract gives the following information: " Some Mountain Mission School work in this region is being done by Northern Methodists, the CongregationaHsts, the Disciples and the Southern Presbyterians. Aside from the work done by Southern Bap- tists, however, the Northern Presbyterians are doing the largest Moun- tain Mission School work in the South. Here and there in the moun- tain region Baptists have tried to operate schools all along during the past, but not until the Home Mission Board put the denomination be- hind the educational efforts in the mountains was there any perma- nency in the work. The people have responded nobly to the leadership and backing furnished by the Home Board. Southern Baptists are probably better equipped for this work than any other denomination. This is ground on which to base a deepened sense of responsibility and not ground for any unworthy pride. " To sum up : There are more white people per square mile in the mountains than in any region of equal size in the South. The isolation 436 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA of the mountains is for lack of means for inter-communication, and not for lack of people. " There are more native born American whites ready to be trained and to profit by training in this district than in any other." The schools in the mountains of North Carolina follow: " Mars Hill College, Mars Hill. Five buildings, nine teachers, 360 stu- dents; territory, Madison county and part of Buncombe; draws students from every section of the South. " Yancey Institute, Burnsville. Four buildings, five teachers, 261 stu- dents; territory, Yancey county. " Mitchell Institute, Bakersville. Two buildings (with the third to be erected in the near future), four teachers, 140 students; territory, Mitchell and Avery counties. " Fruitland Institute, Hendersonville. Four buildings, seven teachers, 221 students; territory, Hendersonville, Transj^lvania and Polk counties. " Round Hill Academy, Union Mills. Three buildings, six teachers, 169 students; territory, Rutherford and McDowell counties. " Haywood Institute, Clyde, N. C. Two buildings, four teachers, 80 students; territory, Haywood county. " Sylva Institute, Sylva. Four buildings, three teachers, 87 students; territory, Jackson and Macon counties. " Murphy Institute, Murphy. Three buildings, three teachers, 96 stu- dents; territory, Cherokee and Clay counties, N. C, and Polk county, Tennessee." John O. Hicks, Pedagogue. ^ ^ John 0. Hicks, originally from Tennessee, built a school at Hayesville just at the close of the Civil War that has been a noted high-school ever since. Hicks, after some thirty years of successful teaching, turned the school over to N. A. Fessenden of Boston, Mass., and went to Walhalla, South Carolina, and after a few years teaching at that place moved to Texas, where he died in 1910. The same school that John 0. Hicks organized and built up at Hayesville is still in operation with an enrollment of over two hundred. The influence that has gone out from this school has permeated the whole county until the public schools of the county are unsurpassed. From this school have gone out hundreds of men and women who are prominent over the United States. Among them are the Revs. Ferd. McConnell, Geo. W. Truett and T. F. Marr; the Doctors W. S., M. H., and W. E. Sanderson of Texas and Oklahoma ; lawyers, O. L. Anderson, J. H. and Luther Truett and the lamented Judge Fred Moore. Appalachian Training School was incorporated in 1903, succeeding the private school of Professors B. B. and SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 437 D. I). Dougherty, ;it Boone. It began in 1899 when SI, 500 was appropriatetl on condition that an equal sum should be providetl from private sources. In addition, §2,000 per annum was appropriated for maintenance. With the first S3, 000 appropriated the present brick administration build- ing was started. Other appropriations followed and other buildings were erectetl until in 1911 the maintenance fund was increased to S10,000 per annum for all succeeding years. There have been contributions from people in every State east of the Mississippi river except from New England. There are now 500 acres of valuable land, six large buildings, farm houses and barns, two dormitories and a mess hall. There are three sessions annually of four and a half months in the fall and spring, and two and a half months in summer. Aver- age attendance is 200, while over 400 were taught in 1911. There is a full faculty. Board for women is S6.50 and for boys $7.50 per month. In 1913 the legislature appropriated $15,000 to erect a brick dormitory for girls capable of holding 200 students. It is in course of erection. A Camp School. There is a summer camp which comes to Bryson City every summer, and is situated on the left bank of the Tuckaseegee river about half a mile below the to^vn. It is composed of boys from various colleges who thus pursue their studies through the summer. They live in tents, but the kitchen and mess hall are of wood. The professors have their families with them and live in the same camps. Solitude, or Ashland. Toward the close of the nine- teenth century Professor F. M. Wautenpaugh of Omaha, Neb., succeeded in having a large and convenient building erected on a high hill overlooking Solitude, and for four or five years conducted a business college and high school most satisfactorily. But the stockholders grew impatient for a dividend on the money they had invested in the enterprise and the school closed. It is now o\vned by a religious society popularly kno\\Ti as the Holiness People. A religious paper, called The Sword of the Lord, is published monthly at Solitude by Rev. E. L. Stewart. There is also a public school house, neat and attractive, which is attended by about 140 children. Baptist High School, Murphy. The Baptist high school occupying the site of the former residence of the late Ben Posey, Esq., a distinguished lawyer, was built in 1906-7, and 438 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA afterwards enlarged. There are dormitories and other build- ings. It is in the southern part of towTi, about half a mile from the court house. The Murphy Graded School. The Murphy graded school cost S30,000 and stands on Valley River avenue in the eastern part of the to-wm, midway between Murphy and East Murphy. It is built after the colonial style and overlooks Valley river from its site on a splendid elevation. It has twelve class rooms, a library, an auditorium, a principal's office, closets, electric lights and water. It was built in 1909 and is a credit to the community. CuLLOWHEE Normal and Industrial School. " In 1888, a number, of the leading citizens of Cullowhee, desirous of a better school than the ordinary public school of that day, organized themselves into a board of trustees for the estab- lishment of what was to be known as the Cullowhee High School. They procured the services of Prof. Robert L. Mad- ison as principal, and under his leadership and supervision the school began to flourish and make rapid progress. In 1893, the institution was recognized by the State, and through the efforts of Hon. Walter E. Moore, representative from Jack- son, an appropriation was secured for the purpose of establish- ing a Normal department of the school for the training of teachers. At the session of the General Assembly, in 1905, through the efforts of Hon. Fehx E. Alley, representative from Jackson, the appropriations were still further increased and the name of the school was changed to Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School, the institution then becoming a State school for the training of teachers. "The State has recently erected a large and commodious home for young ladies. The building was designed by a com- petent architect, is well furnished, and is equipped with water works, steam heat and electric lights. The administration building is furnished with patent desks and chairs, is lighted by electricity and heated by steam. The handsome audi- torium is seated uath opera chairs and will accommodate six hundred persons. The institution has a newly installed sewerage system and is supplied with an abundance of pure water from distant mountain springs. The electric light and steam heating plants are both located on the school grounds and owned and operated by the institution. SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 439 ** The supreme purpose of the school is the development and training of teachers. It proposes not only to give the student training in the funtlanientul and cultural branches of study, but so to train him or her as to prepare them to teach. " Mission Work of Northern Presbyterians. In the summer of 1884 Dr. Thomas Lawrence was a guest of Rev. L. M. Pease, originally of New York city, who, with his wife, had fountlcd the famous Five Points mission in New York city, but who had removed to Asheville in the seventies, and had started and was then conducting a school for girls. On a drive into the country Dr. Lawrence was impressed with the fine looks and intel- ligence of some boys he saw at a school, and Mr. Pease offered to devote all his landed property near Asheville for a training school for girls of the vicinage. At that time the Home Mission Board was seeking a location for some such training school. The result of this conversation was the transfer of this property to the Home Mission Board. The late Mrs. D. Stuart Dodge was active and influential in effecting this. The terms were satisfactory to all concerned, and a life armuity from the pri- vate purse of the Rev. D. Stuart Dodge, D. D., of New York, having been secured to Mr. and Mrs. Pease, the Home Industrial school was soon thereafter organized, in 1887, with Mr. Pease as superintendent and JMiss Florence Stephenson as principal, a position she still holds. The success of this school encour- aged the evangelization of the mountain region and the Nor- mal and Collegiate Institute was opened in September, 1892, with Dr. Lawrence as president and Mrs. Lawrence as prin- cipal, with a faculty of fourteen expert teachers and officers, on part of the Pease property. Dr. Lawrence retired when he reached seventy-five years of age in 1907, and Prof. E. P. Childs succeeded him. Thereafter five other boarding schools have been established in this section, it being the policy of the Presbyterian Church to hand these flourishing schools to their respective conununities just as soon as they are able to assume the expense and responsibility of their support and manage- ment. Of the twenty-two elementary day schools planted during the last quarter of a century in the more sequestered and needy communities seven have been successfully trans- ferred to local public school authorities. The remaining fifteen are still doing good work; while in four other centers additional social, kindergarten and Sabbath school work is 440 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA being done under the management of the board. Miss Flor- ence Stephenson, Miss Mary Johns, Miss Julia Phillips, Miss Frances Goodrich, Dr. J. P. Roger, a Christian physician, have done a great work for our people and their names are house- hold words in many a mountain cabin. Dr. G. S. Basker- ville made a success of the farm school on the Swannanoa river, after the school had been organized by Prof. Samuel Jeffries, a graduate of the agricultural department of Cornell University, in 1893. Dr. J. P. Roger is in charge of the farm school now. The following is a list of the schools and churches estab- lished in Western North Carolina, exclusive of those established elsewhere in the South: Normal and Collegiate Institute, 1902. Prof. E. P. Childs, president. Miss Mary F. Hickok, principal. Fifteen teach- ers and officers. Average enrollment, 304. Home Industrial School (preparatory to the Normal and Collegiate Institue), 1887. Miss Florence Stephenson, principal. Teachers and ofl&cers, ten. Average enrollment, 140. Pease Home (for little girls), 1908. Miss Edith P. Thorpe, matron. Adjunct to Home Industrial School, and furnishing school of practice for Normal and Collegiate Institute. These three boarding schools for girls occupy, with the chapel, manse, and superintendent's home, the beautiful suburb of Asheville, ceded by ^Ir. Pease. The whole plant is valued at S200,000. Farm School, nine miles from Asheville, on the Swamianoa river, 1895, J. P. Rogers, superintendent. Sixteen teachers and officers. Spacious school and farm buildings and 650 acres of fertile land. These four flourishing boarding schools form the Asheville group. Their success has been largely possible through the wise counsel and constant beneficence of Dr. D. Stuart Dodge, New York City, who inherits a name which has, for three generations, been synonymous with philanthropy. Bell Institute, Walnut, IMadison county, 1908. Miss Mar- garet E. Griffith, principal. Five teachers and officers. Average attendance, 284; 65 boarders. Value of school prop- erty, $12,000. Dorland Institute, Hot Springs, Madison county, 1887. SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 441 Establislu^l by tlio late Dv. Jjuke Dorliuul, in liis okl age, after a long life of eminent usefulness in other fields. Miss Julia E. Phillips, principal. Eleven teachers and officers. The plant is valued at 840,000, and provides school room and dormitory accommodations for 70 girls, farm and home for 30 boys, having, in addition, an attendance of GO day pupils. Stanly McCormick Academy, Burnsvillc, Yancey county. Prof. Lowrie Corry, principal. Seven teachers and officers. Six buildings, including school building, principal's home, separate dormitories for boys and girls. Average attendance, 20G; 50 boarders. Building and grounds valued at $46,000. This prosperous academy has a magnificent patron in Miss Nettie McCormick, Chicago, 111. Besides the schools of higher grade, above mentioned, a successful academy was maintained more than ten years at Marshall, which prepared for and subsequently gave place to the excellent graded school now being maintained by the public authorities. In addition to these boarding schools, 21 elementary day schools were meanwhile being planted in the remotest and most inaccessible regions, under carefully trained Christian teachers — fourteen in ^Madison, four in Buncombe, and three in Yan- cey county, tvith an average attendance of 1,200 pupils, under 41 teachers. The moneys invested in school buildings and teachers' homes, the people contributing as they were able, would aggregate 830,000. In accordance with their policy, as already remarked, the board, in the more recent years, has been gradually retiring from these fields as the local authorities became able and willing to take over the work. The value of properties in buildings and lands, held for educational purposes, including the seven boarding and 21 day schools, aggregates $400,000, not to make mention of the salaries of, on an average, more than 100 efficiently trained teachers necessarily employed. Col. Robert Bingham, one of the most experienced and eminent educators of the commonwealth, in an article pub- lished in the North American Review, refers to the prudence and wisdom which has characterized the administration of this mission school work, and says, in substance: "Of all the moneys donated by northern philanthropists for the better- ment of education in the South, those contributed by the 442 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Northern Presbyterian Church has been most judiciously and wisely expended." The list of the organized churches is as follows: Oakland Heights, Asheville, Buncombe county; College Hill, Riceville, Buncombe county; Reems Creek, Reems Creek, Buncombe county; Brittain's Cove, Brittain's Cove, Buncombe county; Jupiter, Jupiter, Buncombe county; Cooper's Memorial, Marshall, Madison county; Barnard, Barnard, Madison county; Allanstand, Allanstand, Madison county; Big Laurel, Big Laurel, Madison county; Borland Memorial, Hot Springs, Madison county; Burnsville, Burnsville, Yancey county. Southern Presbyterian Church Schools. ^ ^ Glade Valley School, near Sparta; organized 1910; boarding and day school for boys and girls; buildings and furnishings worth $20,000. Five teachers in regular service; 130 students; full academic course; board and tuition per month, $10. Lees-McRae Institute, at Banner Elk; established 1901; boarding and day school for girls; industrial, there being no servants. Buildings, furnishings and farm worth $25,000. Eight teachers; 165 students; usual academic course with manual training. Tuition and board per month, $8. Lees-McRae Institute at Plumtree; organized 1902; board- ing and day school for boys; industrial, large fann connected with school; buildings, farm, furnishings, stock, etc., worth $22,000. Five teachers and about 110 students. Course prepares for freshman class in good college. Board and tui- tion, $8, many of the students making as much by their oa\ti labor. Mission Industrial School, near Franklin; organized 1911; boarding and day school for girls; industrial, no servants. Buildings and furnishings worth $10,000. Five teachers and 75 students. Course same as that of best high schools. Board and tuition, $8 per month. The Maxwell Home and School, near Franklin; organized 1911, for homeless boys who are destitute. Manual train- ing, chiefly, the farm containing 500 acres. Buildings, fur- nishings and farm, worth $15,000. Three teachers, capacity for 30 boys at present. With $50 to get a start, a boy can make his own way here. Mountain Orphanage. At Balfour, established in 1905 by Home Mission Committee of Asheville Presbytery. Mr. SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 443 and Mrs. A. H. Temple have charge of 10 children. Property worth So.OOO. Colored People's Schools.'^ "Very soon after the war the importance of the education of the colored people, now citizens and voters, was impressed upon the minds of the thinking people of this section. The first effort in this direc- tion was the parochial school of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which was opened in 1870, and was taught by Miss A. L. Chapman of Rochester, N. Y. After two years she was succeedeil by Rev. Mr. Berry, who was both pastor and teacher. This double office has been filled without inter- ruption by educated and influential colored men up to the present time, and many heads of families look back with gratitude to the Uttle room on South Main street, and the parochial school building on Valley street, where the rudi- ments of an education were obtained, and foundations of character laid, which have been a blessing to them and their households. "In 1885 Rev. L. M. Pease, recognizing the importance of hand, as well as head and heart training, erected a building for an Industrial school on College street, and opened it the same autumn with three thoroughly educated colored teachers. At the close of the school year, being financially unable to continue it, he deeded the property to the Woman's Board of Home Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which continued the work under the superintendence of Rev. Newell Albright, whose health was such as to require a residence in this climate. When Mr. Albright resigned after one year, the school was thoroughly organized and established and has continued to do excellent work under the superintendence of Miss A. B. Dole, who, by her judicious management of the race question, and devotion to the interests of the colored people, has made many friends among both races. "Rev. C. E. Dusenberry of the Presbyterian Church has a parochial school on Eagle street, under the auspices of the Holston Presbytery, where industrial work is taught to some extent, and a kitchen garden conducted. The purpose of this is to teach correct methods of housekeeping, such as mak- ing fires, washing dishes, setting and waiting on tables, laun- dry and chamber work. "In the Victoria suburb a combined chapel and school house 444 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA was erected five years ago by a donation from Mr. Taylor of Cleveland, O., where a flourishing day school has greatly benefited the population. Mrs. W. J. Erdman was the pro- jector and manager of this school till her removal to Phila- delphia one year ago. The teacher's salary is paid by the Freedman's Board of the Presbyterian Church, by which they are also appointed. "In 1892, Mr. Stevens, the principal of the public school for colored pupils, was greatly impressed with the necessity of an institution for colored young men on the plan of the Y. M. C. A. He set about devising plans for the erection of a building for this purpose, and made a journey during vacation to Bar Harbor, Me., for the purpose of soliciting aid from Mr. George Vanderbilt. In this he was successful, and Mr. Charles McNamee was commissioned to erect a struc- ture, suitable for the purpose contemplated, on the corner of Eagle and Market streets. It is a fine, substantial building with a tiled roof. There are stores and offices on the first floor and a large lecture hall. On the second floor is a library and reading room, a parlor and school room and the office of the superintendent. This was occupied by Mr. Stevens for one year, and the following one by Mr. John Love, an Asheville boy, who was graduated at Oberlin, 0., and resigned one year ago to take work in Washington, D. C. The present incumbent is B. H. Baker, a graduate of Howard University. "The lecture hall has been in demand for lectures, con- certs, exhibitions and entertainments, and on Sunday after- noons for a song service with a large attendance. There is a religious service one night in the week, a night school for boys and a kindergarten eight months in the year. " Charles McNamee, Esq., for many years the attorney and adviser of Mr. George W. Vanderbilt, who erected the Young Men's Institute at the corner of Eagle and Spruce streets, Asheville, for the use of colored people, about the year 1893, in a letter dated October 24, 1895, says that he is the trustee of the property and that "It was the original intention that the income of the building over and above the running expenses should be devoted to paying Mr. Vanderbilt back the prin- cipal and interest of the cost of the building and ground." The foregoing references are to times prior to November, 1895. Mrs. Hetty Martin. This good lady was the wife of the SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 445 late GoiKTul Jaiuos Green Martin. They c-une to Asheville during the Civil War, after which they faced poverty with brave hearts, Mrs. Martin was the daughter of the ate Charles King, prcsiilent of Columbia College, New York, grandilaughter of Rufus King, first American minister to the Court of St. James, and a sister of General Rufus King of the United States army. Notwithstanding her northern birth and ancestry, Mrs. Martin's fidelity to the South was unquestioned. Recognizing the fact that if left to their own resources the newly enfranchised negro race of the South must necessarily retrograde, Mrs. ]\Iartin soon after the Civil War exerted herself to advance their educational and religious training. It was through her in- fluence that St. Mathias Episcopal church was organized and for years supported by the aid of white people. She also assisted in the erection and furnishing of the fine new church that crowns one of the hill-tops in the eastern part of Asheville, and in which so manj' reputable and self-respecting colored men, women and children have received spiritual guidance. Her influence for good in this community is incalculable. ^Iiss Anna Woodfin. This good woman is a daughter of Col. N. W. Woodfin, and although a confirmed invalid for many years, she has, nevertheless, exerted a wonderful in- fluence for good in this community. In 1884 she was largely instrumental in organizing the Flower Mission, of which she is still an honored member. This was intended to be "an auxiliary to the State branch of that department of the Na- tional Woman's Christian Temperance Union, with the object of carrying flowers to the homes of the sick and destitute, to prison cells, to hospitals and almshouses." Bible texts and songs and readings often went with the flowers. Its work revealed the need of a hospital and, as the society was inter- denominational, the cooperation of all the churches was secured, and soon the Mission Hospital was opened in 1885. The Associated Charities is also an outgrowth of this grand scheme. Donation of a Library. About 1905 Professor Charles Hallet Wing, of Brighton, Mass., donated to the county of Mitchell on certain conditions a large and well-arranged library building and 15,000 selected and valuable books, a book-bindery, etc., all situated at Ledger, on the road from 446 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Marion to Bakersville, where Professor Wing lived several years and gave the people in the neighborhood the free use of his library, besides binding without charge any pamphlets or books in need of such treatment. Professor Charles Hallet Wing. Of this public-spir- ited gentleman we read (Carolina Mountains, p. 326) that "after many years of notable service as professor of chem- istry in the Boston Institute of Technology" he came to Ledger, Mitchell county, N. C, "before there had been any change in the customs of the country, to escape the turmoil of the outer world. Professor Wing vehemently disclaimed any share in changing — he would not call it ' improving ' — the life of the people, but he made his charming log house, his barn and outbuildings, also his fences with their help." He also built a school house and library building, provided two teachers, and himself "conducted a manual training department." There were 250 applicants for admission to his school the first year it was opened, ranging from six to forty years in age. This school was successfully conducted "without the infliction of any sort of punishment." Fifteen thousand books were sent there by friends of Prof. Wing, and the library was kept by a native youth who was taught to rebind books, "as some of the most used books were those that had been discarded by the Boston Pubhc Library." Small traveling libraries of seventy-five volumes each were sent around the country and loaned. "The library was free, with rules, but no fines, and it is illustrative of the quality of the people that the rules were not broken and that at the end of the first year not a book was missing, none had been kept out overtime, while less than six per cent of those taken out had been fiction" (p. 327). George W. Pack. Elsewhere has been mentioned the donation by this gentleman of a valuable library building to the city of Asheville, and his aid to the free kindergartens of that city. Brevard Institute. This school for training girls and boys in the practical things of life is situated near Brevard, and was started in 1895. "Besides the ordinary academic subjects and special religious training the pupils are taught 'a dread of debt, promptness in attending to business obli- gations of every sort, a love for thoroughness and accuracy SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 447 in doing work of every sort, self-control in the expenditure of money, anil a knowledge of simple business transactions.'" There is also a business course, a department of music and one of domestic art. (Carolina Mountains, pp. 225-226.) Allenstand Cottage Industries. This is a form of settlement work which began, "long before the present wave of prosperity had drawn near the mountains," in the north- western portion of Buncombe county "away up on Little Laurel, near the Tennessee line . . . and close under the wild Bald mountains." It was "formerly a stopping place or 'stand' for drovers who stopped over night with their cattle, sheep, horses and swine" on their way from Tennessee to South Carolina. Here old-fashioned spinning, weaving and dyeing were revived and are being taught. (Carolina Mountains, pp. 226-228.) BiLTMORE Industries. From the same work (p. 231) we read that wood-carving is taught and practiced at Biltmore, as well as old-fashioned spinning, weaving and dyeing, and also embroidery, some of the graduates in wood-carving carving chairs for the great establishment of Tiffany of New York, and more than one hundred of the pupils are earning a livelihood by the wood-carving craft. Scotch Blood Answers First Cry to Battle. From the Carolina Mountains (p. 149) we learn that although the men of these mountains had remained for years without an ideal and were without opportunity to display their natural ability and trustworthiness of character, nevertheless, when George W. Vanderbilt began his operations at Biltmore he employed these very men and kept them under an almost iron discipline. He found "the Scotch blood at the first call to battle ready," and now "all the directors of the great estate, excepting a few of the highest officials, are drawn from the ranks of the people, who proved themselves so trust- worthy and capable that in all these years only three or four of Biltmore's mountaineer employees have had to be dis- charged for inefficiency or bad conduct." NOTES. 'Hill, p. 375. 'Ibid.. 376. Ki. U. McCJee'-s, p. 110. •From ■•Alexander-Davidson Reunion," 1911, by F. A. Sondley, Esq., p. 24. •Col. J. M. Ray in Lyceum, p. 19, December, 1890. •Col. .\llon T. Davidson in Lyceum, p. 6, Januarj-, 1891 'A^heville Centenary. Note: Newton .\eademy is on the east side of South Main Street, Ashe\iUe, and nearly opposite the Normal and Collegiate Institute. 448 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA 'From .ludEa J. C. Pritchard's address before Normal and Collegiate Institute, 1907. '"Reminiscences" of Dr. J. S. T. Baird, 1905. ■"Ibid. iilbid. i2Ibid. •'Condensed from William West Skiles' "A Sketch of Missionary Life," 1842-1S62. Edited by Susan Fenimore Cooper, N. Y., J. P. Pott & Co., Publishers. '*From facts furnished by Prof. D. D. Dougherty. •5By G. H. Ilaigler, Hayesville. N. C. '^Information furnished by Hev. R. P. Smith, superintendent and treasurer. •'Woman's Edition, Asheville Citizen. The references arc prior to November, 1S95. CHAPTER XVIII NEWSPAPERS Highland Messenger. At some time prior to 1842 the late Joshua Roberts and Rev. David R. McAnally founded the first newspaper ever printed in Asheville, the Highland Messenger. John H. Christy, a practical printer, was asso- ciated with them in its pubhcation. He married Miss Ann Aureha Roberts August 23, 1842, which must have been after the paper had been started, she having been a daughter of Joshua Roberts. J. H. Christy subsequently moved to Athens, Ga., where he published for many years the weekly Southern Watchman, and during Reconstruction was elected member of Congress from the Athens district, but was not allowed to take his seat on account of political disabilities. His son is now one of the publishers of the Andrews Sun. Dr. David R. McAnally was a Methodist preacher and moved to St. Louis, Mo., where he edited the Christian Advocate. He was sometimes mentioned in connection with the bishopric in the Southern Methodist Church. James M. Edney obtained control of the Highland Mes- senger and it afterwards became the Spectator. It was edited by John D. Hyman, who moved to Asheville about 1853, and Z. B. Vance. In it, in 1857, Gov. Vance published an account of the finding of Prof. Elisha Mitchell's body. ^ Thomas Atkin, of Knoxville, established the Asheville News about 1848 or 1850 and it ran a long time under that name. The late Major Marcus Erwin as editor wrote brilliantly for it. This paper, although nominally independent, supported Major W. W. Rollins for the State senate in 1866. On the day the election returns had to be made, Lee Gash, of Hen- derson county, was 27 votes ahead of Major Rollins, at sun- down, with the votes of Mitchell county still not in. At ten o'clock that night the Rev. Stephen Collis arrived with them, having been delayed by high water. There were 770 votes for W. W. Rollins and only one vote for Mr. Gash; but thej' had arrived a few hours too late. ^ The Asheville Citizen. This paper, at first a weekly, was established by Randolph Shotwell, who came to Ashe- (449)— W. N. C— 29 450 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA ville from Rutherford in 1869. About 1870 Col. V. S. Lusk sent a bill to the grand jury, while he was solicitor, against certain men for Ku-Kluxing some negroes, and the grand jury threw it out. There then ensued some newspaper controversy, and the next Col. Lusk knew of it was a blow, dealt by Shot- well, knocking him to his knees. While in this position Lusk fired upward and wounded Shotwell in both legs. Shotwell gave Lusk a Masonic sign and Lusk fired no more. This happened on the public square about 1870 or 1871. Shot- well sold the Citizen to Natt Atkinson and went to Ruther- ford, after having been convicted of assault upon Lusk, sentence having been suspended at Lusk's request. Shotwell was soon afterwards convicted of Ku-Kluxing and sent to the Albany penitentiary, but was pardoned by Gen. Grant upon application of Col. Lusk, who had then been appointed United States district attorney. John P. Kerr's Recollections. In a letter dated June 11, 1912, Col. John P. Kerr, a veteran newspaper man, and now private secretary to Gov. Craig, wrote as follows: "The first newspaper published in Asheville within my recollection was the News and Farmer. I am sure that this was the successor of the News, which had been printed by Rev. Thomas (?) Atkins, a Methodist preacher, subsequent to and perhaps during the war. R. M. Stokes was the editor of the News and Farmer, as I recollect, in 1868-1869. The printing office was in the building now known as the 'Hub,' N. W. Pack Square and N. Main street. It was up stairs. Stokes subse- quently moved his paper to Union, S. C. The Pioneer, a weekly Repub- lican paper, was also being published in Asheville in 1868-1869. I began my apprenticeship as a printer on this paper. It was at this time edited by A. H. Dowell, with C. W. Eve as local editor. This paper was founded, I think, by A. H. Jones who represented this district in Congress at this time. The office was on the third story of the Patton Building, corner S. Main and S. E. Pack Square. Capt. Atkinson printed a paper in the rear room on the second story of the same building that the News and Farmer occupied, and I set type for him as a printer. About 1869 or 1870 the News and Farmer was purchased by Randolph Shotwell, who changed its name to the Asheville Citizen. Between 1870 and 1874 R. M. Furman took hold of the Citizen. His office was in the basement of the same building, the 'Hub.' ^ Randolph A. Shotwell was either associated with Furman or else he ran another paper for a short time in Asheville diu-ing the period above mentioned. Thomas D. Carter started during this same period the Expositor; which also had its office in this same building when it began, but it was subsequently moved to the Legal Building, which covered the site now occupied by the big Gates building, and I think became the property of Gen. R. B. Vance, then a NEWSPAPERS 451 member of Congress, ami \v;us edited by his biotlier-in-l;iw, Maj. \V. II. Maloiie. Durinti this period Jordan Stone became associated with Furinan in the Citizen, as did also Col. J. D. Cameron. I feel sure that the Citizen was a daily when I returned to Aslu>ville in 1887. After an absence of several years Jordan Stone sold his interest in the paper about 1S88, and went to California. Subsequently, perhaps about a year later, R. M. Furman sold his interest, and Col. J. D. Cameron ran the Citizen for a few weeks or months alone. The paper was then sold to Capt. T. W. Patton and J. G. Martin. Mr. Martin soon sold his interest and in either 1889 or 1890 a company was formed composed of T. W. Patton, W. F. Randolph, A. E. Robinson and John P. Kerr, who took charge of the paper. This was continued for only one year, after which Randolph Robinson and Kerr ran the paper until 1889, with F. E. Robinson as editor. In 1889 J. P. Kerr sold his interest to Dr. W. G. Eggleston, who became the editor. Dr. Eggleston remained with the paper for less than a year. After this there were a number of changes in the ownership of the paper which can be more accurately ascertained by the files of the paper itself. In 1887 Theodore Hobgood was running a daily paper in Asheville called the Advance. Its offices were in the basement of the old Legal Building. The present Gazette-News was the outgrowth of the Advance. " I have no definite recollection as to the various steps in the life of the Gazette-News. After the sale or discontinuance of the Advance, Theo- dore Hobgood and Fitzgerald began the publication of a morn- ing newspaper in the Barnard Building, or the building which preceded it. This ran only a short time when they sold it to W. F. Randolph and John P. Kerr, who ran it only a few weeks. This was about 1888. The Asheville Register was the name of a Republican weekly paper published for a number of years, and founded, I believe, by R. M. Deaver. R. B. Roberts was its editor for some years." The Asheville Citizen Publishing Company was incor- porated April 1, 1890, A. H. Fuller, T. W. Patton, J. G. Martin and T. A. Jones being named as incorporators. It was the influ- ence of this paper largely which secured the election of the late Capt. T. W. Patton as mayor on an independent ticket, in May, 1893. The Asheville Daily Gazette was established in March, 1896. It was incorporated as the Gazette Publishing Company April 2, 1897, Fred A. Johnson, J. M. Johnson and James E. Norton being named as incorporators. Mr. Norton, who had had fifteen years experience in reportorial and editorial posi- tions on the New York Tribune, Times, Commercial Adver- tiser and Brooklyn Eagle, continued in active management of the editorial and business affairs of the paper, except for a short 452 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA interval in the fall of 1898 (?) when the late Robert M. Fur- man had control of the editorials, till 1903-04, when the paper was sold to the Evening News Publishing Company. It was then converted into an afternoon paper, the Citizen, which before that had been an evening paper, having taken the field as a morn- ing journal. The Gazette was a Republican paper during the last three years of its existence. Geo. L. Hackney had the two papers combined as the Gazette-News, under which name it has continued to flourish. Watauga Democrat. It was started by Joseph Spainhour and the Democratic party prior to June 13, 1888. R. C. Riv- ers, its present owner, and D. D. Dougherty took charge July 4, 1889. Mr. Rivers has been with it since. Watauga Enterprise and News. The former ran in Boone in 1888, L. L. Green and Thomas Bingham conducting it. The News was begun in January, 1913, * by Don. H. Phillips. Jefferson Observer. This paper is a weekly Democratic paper, published at Jefferson, xAshe county, and was established about 1901 by Talbott W. Adams, formerly of Edgefield county, S. C. He is still in control of it. A Republican paper was started in 1909 but failed. It was called the Jefferson Watch- man, and ran only three or four months. In 1910 an effort was made to revive it under the name of the Industrial-Repub- lican Publishing Company of Jefferson, N. C, but it failed. General Erastus Rowley Hampton. For several years, during 1890 and thereafter. Gen. Hampton published a weekly paper in Jackson county. Franklin Press. This Democratic weekly was con- ducted by the late W. A. Curtis at Franklin, Macon county, for a number of years prior to his death in 1900. It is still flourishing. The Carolina Baptist was the first newspaper printed in Hendersonville. In 1855 Rev. James Blythe, W. C. Berin and J. M. Bryan, as editors, started this paper, but later Prof. W. A. G. Brown became its editor. A copy was recently shown dated June 22, 1859. Hendersonville Hustler. This newspaper was started in Hendersonville ten or a dozen years ago and is still flour- ishing. Now M. L. Shipman, Commissioner of Labor and Printing, is its editor and proprietor. NEWSPAPERS 453 From the Report of the Commissioner of Labor and Printing, weekly newspapers. County Mitchf'Il. Town Bakers ville Bryson City Name of Paper Transylvania ' Brevard Watauga Boone Yancey Burnsville Ashe I Jefferson Mitrhfll County Kroniclc. Bryson City Times Sylvan Valley News Watauga Democrat Eagle Recorder Editor T. M. Gosorn H. W. Carter O. L. Jones R. B. Wilson R. C. Rivers J. M. Lyon W. T. Adams Proprietor T. H. Gosorn H. W. Carter Jones & Wilson R. C. Rivera Eagle Pub. Co. W. T. Adams Captain Natt Atkinson was born November 15, 1832, in Mc.Minn county, Tenn., near Charleston. He was a graduate of Hiwassee College and of Col. Wilson's private school in Alamance county, N. C. He married Harriet Newell Baird, daughter of Mary and Israel Baird, of Buncombe county, N. C ' February 2, 1858. There were twelve children. He was admitted to the Asheville bar in 18G8, and practiced law till 1873. He purchased the Asheville Citizen in 1870, and edited the same for three years following, when he sold that paper and moved to a farm on Swannanoa river, where he remained till 1882, when he returned to Asheville and entered the real estate business, which he continued till his death, August 25, 1894, at Salisbury, N. C. He was one of the most useful and enterprising of Asheville's citizens, encouraging every enter- prise of merit, and forgetting his own interest in that of the community. He was the president of the Atlanta, Ashe- ville and Baltimore Railroad Company, and began the actual construction of the first street railway in Asheville under what IS known as the Farinholt charter, which he sold to E. D. Davidson and associates, thus defeating an attempt that was making to build and operate a steam railway through the streets of Asheville and insuring the present electric system. He was also interested in the construction of other railways, and was really the father of the graded schools of Asheville. He was elected to the legislature of 1879 and by legislation secured largely through his efforts saved the State what he estimated to be $175,000. He was a captain in Gen. AI. \aughan's brigade of the Confederate Army, and was one of the personal escort of Hon. Jefferson Davis on his flight southward from Richmond via Charlotte in April, 1865. 454 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA The Lyceum. This monthly was pubHshed m Asheville from May, 1890, until some time in 1892. Tilman R. Gaines of South Carolina was its editor and proprietor. In it were pubUshed many papers of value, among which should be mentioned "Reminiscenses of Western North Carolina," by Col. Allen T. Davidson; "Poets of the South," by L. M. Hatch; "Persecution of the Jews," by W. H. Malone; "Pro- tection of Birds," by J. D. Cameron; "State Landlordism and Liberty," by Judge C. E. Fenner; "Two Days with Gen. Lee at Charleston," by Col. L. M. Hatch; " Reminiscenses of Forty Years Ago," by Col. J. M. Ray; "Should Women Vote?" by H. B. Stevens, and an address by Col. Charles W. Woolsey on "The Asheville Art Club." The Asheville Evening Journal. About September, 1889, this paper started on its career, Messers. Clegg & Dono- hue being its editors and proprietors. Its advertisement in the Lyceum of September, 1890, (p. 22) mentions that it "is now in its second year. " The Asheville News and Hotel Reporter. This was a weekly paper which began publication in January, 1895, at Asheville with the late Natt Rogers as editor and the late Richard M. Furman as manager and pubhsher. It was intended as an advertising medium for hotels principally, but soon reached a wider sphere of usefulness, and until the health of Mr. Rogers became too much impaired it enjoyed a period of popularity and considerable prosperity. Its life was about sixteen months. Robert McKnight Furman. He was born September 21, 1846, at Louisburg, N. C, and enlisted in the Confeder- ate army in the spring of 1862, and served till the close of the Civil War. He moved to Asheville in the spring of 1870, and in 1873 he was married at Tarboro to Miss Mary Mathewson. He edited the Asheville Citizen from 1873 till Messers J. D. Cameron and Jordan Stone joined him, after which the three conducted that paper till about 1880. He moved to Raleigh in 1898 and became editor of the Morning Post, which flour- ished under his management till after his death at Beaufort, N. C, May 12, 1904. Thomas Walton Patton. He was for several years editor of the Asheville Citizen, during which time its columns were open to all public spirited causes. He was born at Ashe- NEWSPAPERS 455 ville, May 8, 1 S U , his father, James W. Patton, having been a son of James Patton, one of the pioneers of Ashevillo. His mother was Miss Clara Walton of Burke, and his grandmother on his father's side was a daughter of Francis Reynolds of Wilkes county. His mother's father was Andrew Kerr of Kelso, Scotland. He was educated by Col. Stephen Lee, from whose school he was graduated in 1860, after which he went to Charleston, S. C, and entered the office of his uncle, Thomas Kerr, a cotton factor. He enlisted in the Buncombe Rifles in April, 1861, and at the expiration of the six months' enlistment, he reenlisted, becoming captain of company "C" of the Sixtieth North Carolina Infantry, in which he served till the surrender of Johnston's army. In 1862 he married at Greens- boro, Ala., }iliss Annabella Beaty Pearson. In 1866 he removed to Alabama, where his wife and child soon afterwards died. He returned to Asheville and went into co-partnership \^dth the late Albert T. Summey, in the mercantile business, for a short time. In 1871 he married Miss Martha Bell Turner, a daughter of James Calder Turner, a civil engineer who aided in the laying out and construction of the Western North Caro- lina railroad to Asheville. He and his sister. Miss Frances L. Patton, soon became active in all charitable and philan- thropic work. He was elected a county commissioner in 1878, when he made it his first business "to visit the county paupers, whom he found 'farmed out' to the lowest bidder and living in huts far from the public road or any possibility of public inspection," which system he immediately abolished. He also visited the jails regularly, keeping up the practice of visiting prisoners and paupers till his death. "When, in 1893, he considered that the city administration was extravagant, if not actually corrupt, he did not hesitate one instant, but declared himself an independent candidate for mayor," and was overwhelmingly elected. His two terms as mayor, for S25 a month as a salary, resulted in much "economy, honesty, progressiveness and effit'iency" which reduced "expenses one- half without in the least diminishing the efficiency of the public service." In April, 1898, he enlisted in the First North Carolina regiment, and served in Cuba, as adjutant. His object was to influence the younger men for good, and the survivors of that war have named the local camp in his honor. He did much, \vith his sister. Miss F. L. Patton, to establish 456 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA and operate the Mission Hospital, the Children's Home, and other works of benevolence. He died at Philadelphia, November 6, 1907, and was buried at Asheville with every mark of respect. Thomas Deweese Carter. He was born on Little Ivy in what is now Yancey county, February 14, 1834, and died July 29, 1894. He married Miss Sarah A. E. Bro^\^l of McDowell count3% August 14, 1855. He owTied a large interest in the Cranberry iron mine in Mitchell, now Avery, county, and during the Civil War manufactured tools there for the Confederate government. About 1870 he wrote a series of spirited articles on the political situation for the Raleigh Sen- tinel and the Asheville Citizen. This was the commencement of a long and active experience as a militant newspaper editor, for his power as a writer of virile English was pronounced. In the spring of 1872 he came to Asheville and began a series of articles concerning the Swepson and Littlefield frauds, publishing his communications in the Citizen, till Captain Natt Atkinson, its editor and owner, sold that paper to Robert M. Furman, which necessitated the launching of a new weekly known as the Wester7i Expositor, by Col. Carter. This paper immediately attracted attention not only throughout the State, but the New York Herald paid editorial tribute to the vigor of the Expositor's well written and vigorous editorials. Just about 1876 Col. Carter sold the Expositor to the late W. H. Malone, retaining only control of the editorials till after the great campaign of 1876, when the Democrats again gained control of the political affairs of North Carolina. NOTES. >A copv of this article can be found in ' ' The Balsam Groves of Grandfather Mountain, ' by S. M. Dugger, p. 261. nV. W. Rollins to J. P. A., May 31, 1912. 'In July, US71, the late Captain Xatt .\tkinson was running the Weehly Citizen, and con- tinued to do so till 1873. when the late Robert M. Furman took charge of it. *The Watauga Journal was the first paper ever published in Boone, but was soon suc- ceeded by the Enterprise, both being Republican. The Journal was started by a Mr. Mc- Lauchlin of Mooresville, X. C but he afterwards removed to Johnson City, Tenn. The Watauga News suspended publication in 1914. Nicholas W. Woodfix. CHAPTER XIX SWEPSON AND LITTLEFIELD That the "evil that men do Hves after them while the good is oft interred with their bones" seems to be untrue in the case of the frauds of Swepson and Littiefield. The former was a native of North Carolina and Littiefield of IMaine. Together, they managed to sell about $4,000,000 of the bonds of the Western North Carolina railroad, which had been endorsed by the State, and appropriated the proceeds to their own use. This delayed the building of that road from 1869 to 1880. But most of the younger people have never even heard of this gigantic theft. The true story as told to the Shipp Fraud Investigating Commission follows in condensed form, and every statement in this chapter not otherwise noted was taken from that report between pages 220 and 498. Soon after the Reconstruction election of 1868 there was a special session of the legislature which, by an act ratified August 19, 1868, divided the Western North Carolina railroad into the Eastern Division — to extend from Salisbury to Ashe- ville — and the Western Division — to extend in two lines, one to Paint Rock and the other to Duckto^vn, in Tennessee. The State also agreed to take two-thirds of the stock of the Western Division, which was authorized to issue its stock, not exceeding §12,000,000, for the completion of these two lines. Under this act, subscriptions were invited, and 3,080 shares of stock subscribed. Of this stock ]\Iilton S. Little- field, a carpet-bag adventurer, subscribed to 2,000 shares and Hugh Rejmolds, of Statesville, to 1,000 shares. But only five per cent of eighty shares subscribed by citizens along the line of this proposed road was paid in cash, Littiefield and RejTiolds giving their drafts for five per cent of their subscrip- tions, payable to the order of Geo. W. Simpson, who was elected president at the meeting to organize the Western Division, which was held in Morganton October 15, 1868. Four direc- tors, representing the private stockholders, and eight, repre- senting the State, were also elected at that meeting. As, however, the whole of the Western Division was required to be under contract for its construction before the State could (457) 458 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA be called on for its subscription, the directors made a contract with M. S. Littlefield for this work; but it w^as understood that it was a mere nominal contract, for the purpose of com- plying with the terms of the charter, the actual work to be let afterwards to bona fide contractors. But, as no provision had been made for a special tax levy to pay the interest on the bonds, the act did not accomplish its purpose. Mr. Swepson went to Raleigh in the fall of 1868 and urged the passage of another bill through the legislature to cure this defect; but was told by Littlefield and a man named John T. Deweese, who were lobby la^^yers, that he would get no bills through the legislature unless he paid the same percentage that all the other railroad presidents had agreed to pay — viz., "ten per cent in kind of the amount of the appropriations." Swepson agreed to this and claimed that he afterwards "paid Little- field $240,000 in money and some bonds for his services in procuring the passage" of the necessary legislation (Ch. 7 and 20, Laws 1868-9). Swepson had certified to the Executive of the State on October 19, 1868, "that the entire road had been let to contract"; and at some subsequent date he received from the State treasurer $6,367,000 of special tax bonds of the State, and began hypothecating or selling them in New York. But in the spring of 1869 the case of the University Rail- road V. H olden (63 N. C, p. 410) came before the Supreme court on the question of the constitutionality of the special tax bonds authorized to be levied for the railroad; and Chief Justice Pearson, believing that his associates on that bench would be compelled to agree with his reasoning, WTote an opinion declaring those bonds unconstitutional, meaning to submit it to his brethern for their approval or rejection. So confident was he that they would agree wdth his conclusions, that he told Col. Wm. Johnson, a lawyer and an intimate friend, that the court had decided the University Railroad bonds to be unconstitutional. He then read his opinion to Col. Johnson, and Johnson told Swepson on Thursda3% July 1, 1869, that "he had just seen the opinion in Judge Pearson's room" and that it "made the whole of the special tax bonds unconstitutional. " ^ But, before the decision of the court was announced, a motion was made by Judge Fowle for a fur- ther hearing. The motion was granted and the majority of the judges, concurred in holding the University railroad act SWEPSON AND LITTLEFIELD 459 to be constitutional, thus over-rulinji; the chief justice, who, however, filed a dissenting opinion. Mr. T. H. Porter, rep- resenting Soutter and Company, stock brokers of New York City, came to Raleigh and arranged with the lawyers for the rehearing. There was much discussion in the State as to this decision. According to the testimony of James C. Turner, as given be- fore the Shipp Fraud Commission (p. 307), G. W. Swepson told him in New York "on more than one occasion that he had in his pocket a decision adverse to the one given and published by the court, and that it had cost a large amount to obtain the published opinion." Indeed, Mr. Swepson himself swore (p. 207) that his proportion, as president of the Western Divi- sion of the Western North Carolina railroad was "60 State bonds, charged as paid attorneys, and the following cash charges: Paid attorneys in Raleigh $2,000. Attorneys, es- tablishing validity of bonds, 821,250. " When it is remembered that there were ten railroads to which bonds aggregating S25, 250,000 were authorized to be issued at the same session as the University railroad bonds had been authorized, Swep- son's proportion of expenses in securing a favorable decision would indicate the expenditure of an enormous sum of money. But the Shipp Fraud Commission examined Judges R. M. Pearson, E. 0. Reade, W. B. Rodman and R. P. Dick, four of the Supreme court judges, upon the question of obtaining this decision, and found that none of these judges knew of any improper or corrupt means or practice concerning it. The only thing that could be construed as of a doubtful character was Judge Rodman's statement, to the effect that, in August 1869, after the decision had been rendered, G. W. Swepson voluntarily offered his personal guarantee to a brokerage firm in New York for the margin on §100,000 of special tax bonds for ten days; but claimed that, as the bonds had not been sold till after the expiration of ten days, Swepson's liability had ended and the loss had been charged to the judge. As this is the only instance in the history of the State in which our Supreme court was even suspected of having been cor- ruptly influenced, it is pleasant to be able to record the fact that the men who paid out the money and the men who re- ceived it have left their testimony on record completely exon- erating the members of the court. Yet ! 460 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA T. H. Porter, in a letter of May 31, 1870, states that Badger, Fowle, Col. E. G. Haywood, and Judge S. J. Person, attor- neys, agreed to undertake the case for S15,000, and if they won, they were to receive an addition in State bonds. Judge Daniel G. Fowle testified before the Shipp Fraud Commis- sion (p. 463) that he and his associates had received the cash and bonds agreed upon, the suit having been won. It appears that the only roads which Mr. Porter represented in this suit Avere the two divisions of the Western North Carohna, the Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford, and the Western railroad companies. - Twenty-five of the bonds received by the attorneys were those of the Wilmington, Char- lotte and Rutherford railroad and fifty of the Western Division of the Western North Carolina railroad — the Western rail- road seemingly not having contributed any. (This was not the Western North Carolina Railroad, however.) As Swepson's share was $60,000 in bonds and $21,250 in cash, and as the attorneys got $75,000 in bonds and $15,000 in money, nearly $100,000 in bonds, and $6,250 in cash remain unaccounted for. It may be that Soutter & Co., the New York brokers represented by Mr. Porter, got this difference. But, as indicative of the methods then in vogue, John T. Deweese, represented by Swepson as Littlefield's partner, had difficulty in settling with the Atlantic, Tennessee & Ohio railroad for services in getting the legislature to authorize that road to issue its bonds (ratified February 3, 1869) in exchange for a like amount of State bonds, and gave Mr. R. C. Kahoe $4,000 of these bonds to act as nominal plaintiff in an action to restrain the State treasurer, D. A. Jenkins, from issuing $2,000,000 of these bonds. John T. Deweese, the real party in interest not having been a tax payer, sued out the injunc- tion in June, 1869; and R. Y. McAden, Swepson's nephew, settled this suit by handing over more than $100,000 of these bonds. Of these bonds. Judge Watts got $5,000, "in accord- ance with the contract between Deweese and himself, as stated in the report of the Bragg committee." Fowle and Badger, lawyers associated with E. G. Haywood, Esq., re- ceived $16,000 of these bonds for their services in this case, but returned them to the railroad company upon becoming satisfied that it was really a blackmailing scheme. As, by the time the bonds were issued, they had fallen in price to less than 30 cents on the dollar, the Atlantic, Tennessee & Ohio SWEPSON AND LITTLEFIELD 461 railroad returned to the State treasurer all except such as had been used in compromising the injunction suit. According to the testimony of Col. N. W. Woodfin before the Shipp Fraud Commission (p. 291) Swepson and Littlefield intended to build the Western Division, but to do it upon mortgage bonds, and otherwise so leave it in debt as to enable themselves to buy it in when sold for the debt. In the mean- time, the money for which the special tax bonds might be sold was to be used by them "in speculation and otherwise, in order to strengthen themselves to buy it." But, long before this time, people of the mountain section were clamoring that work should begin on the railroad, while Swepson was trying to sell as many of the bonds of the Western Division as possible before the price declined in consequence of the sudden flooding of the market with the special tax bonds to which the other nine railroads were also entitled. On various pretexts he postponed the signing of actual contracts for actual work until he could obtain better prices for his bonds, and caused the State treasurer, D. A. Jenkins, to issue some of the bonds for the Western Division prior to all others, and to dechne to furnish bonds to the other railroads entitled to them on the ground that the plate from which they were to be printed had been broken. A question had arisen in New York as to Swepson's right to sell the bonds of the Western Division, and at a called meeting of the directors, held in Ashe- ville, July 2, 1869, the president of the company was "author- ized to sell any securities of the company, or to pledge them for loans when in his judgment the interests of the company required it; and in case such securities be sold to invest the proceeds in such way as he may deem best." A certified copy of the above resolution was sent to him in New York. Swepson and Directors. At this time no one in North Carolina stood higher in public respect than George W. Swep- son, while the directors were of the best people in this section. They did not, and had no reason to, suspect him of duplicity. They had had no experience either in the building of railroads or the management of corporations. He told them that un- less he could sell the bonds he could not build the railroad, and that he could not sell them unless they gave him full authority not only to sell but to apply the proceeds as he saw fit. They gave it unsuspectingly and in full confidence in 462 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA him. No breath of suspicion ever fell upon any of them in consequence, or that they shared any of Swepson's ill-gotten gains. They had done in good faith what they believed right in order to secure the speedy building of the railroad. On the 13th of October, 1869, at a meeting of the stock- holders at Asheville, ISl. S. Littlefield was elected president in place of G. W. Swepson, who refused to serve any longer on the ground that "his management had been a good deal censured and he was suspected of improper conduct . by the Western people. . . . " Gen. Clingman, Col. Davidson and Col. Woodfin opposed the election of Littlefield to office. So outspoken had become the criticism of the management of this railroad and the sale of all the special tax bonds that the legislature, by an act which was ratified March 24, 1870, appointed J. L. Henry, N. W. Woodfin, W. P. Welch, W. G. Candler and W. W. Rollins commissioners to "examine fully into the affairs of the Western Division and to make a full and final settlement of all accounts and liabilities of Geo. W. Swepson, and to collect all assets" and apply the same to "the construction of the railroad." It had full power and was authorized to sit in New York or elsewhere. But by the time this commission was appointed both Swep- son and Littlefield had left the State, the latter never to return. The commissioners, however, immediately took up their work, going to Washington and New York, and effected a set- tlement with Swepson before the act appointing them was repealed, which was done at the session of 1873-74. (Ch. 119.) The grand jury of Buncombe county returned a true bill against Swepson and Littlefield (Minute Docket E., No. 32) for conspiracy to defraud the State; and by a joint resolution of January 25, 1871, the governor was requested to offer a reward of $5,000 for the delivery of Milton S. Littlefield to the sheriff of Buncombe county. But Littlefield was in Florida, Holland or England, and the governor of Florida refused to grant an order for his extradition from that State. The settlement which the commission had effected with Swepson was dated the 16th day of April, 1870, at Washington, D. C, and was probably the best possible in the circmnstances, as Swepson made it appear that he had already so encumbered all his tangible property that if SWEPSON AND LITTLEFIELD 463 a suit were brought "it was almost certain that nothing would be realized." Swepson was frightened and penitent, and Lit- tlefield was not present to inspire him with courage. Now, as tlu' directors had authorized Swepson to sell and pledge these securities and invest their proceeds as he saw fit, and as they had not advertised that the contracts would go to the lowest bidders, and as, in the contracts themselves, no time limit was made the "essence of the contract," it was plain that Swepson and Littlefield were not alone to blame for the condition into which the affairs of the Western Division had fallen. In his testimony before the Shipp Fraud Commis- sion Judge J. H. Merrimon said (p. 277): "It appeared to me, from what I saw at the meetings of the board of directors, which I attended, that they were a useless l^ody of men; did nothing, and if they had any power or authority to do any- thing, the}' seemed never to exercise it, except when they were told by Swepson." By this compromise Swepson paid $50,000 cash and gave his drafts on Littlefield as president of the Jacksonville, Pensa- cola and Mobile railroad and endorsed by M. S. Littlefield and G. W. Swepson as president of the Florida Central rail- road, aggregating 8264,000, payable four and twelve months after date, $164,000 of which was secured by a mortgage on certain lands of Swepson's in North Carolina, the said lands to be discharged upon payment on each tract as follows: Eagle hotel in Asheville upon payment of $ 5 , 000 Gid Morris place of 1,600 acres upon payment of 12,000 David Hennessee lands in Cherokee upon payment of . . 7 , 500 Charles Moore place of 600 acres upon payment of 6,500 The Shar]) place of about 300 acres upon payment of. . 3,000 The Woodfin place in Macon county upon pament of. . 2,000 The Jarrett place on Nantahala river upon payment of. 5,000 The Horshaw lands on Valley river upon payment of . . . 5 , 500 The Fain lands in Cherokee county upon payment of. . 5,000 $51,^00 In addition to the above, upon which no amount was fixed for their redemption, the mortgage was to cover the marble and lime lands in Catawba county, owned in co-partnership with Dr. A. M. Powell, "about 90,000 acres in Alacon, Cherokee and Clay counties, known as the Olmstead lands, and a lot of about 50,000 acres held by Joseph Keener in trust for Geo. W. Swepson. " 464 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA It was further agreed that the draft for $164,000 might be paid in railroad iron delivered at Portsmouth, Virginia; and that if an umpire, to be appointed by N. W. Woodfin and M. W. Ransom, in case they could not agree, should decide that Swepson had not been authorized by his board of direc- tors to invest the proceeds of the sales of these bonds in these Florida railroads, then Swepson was to guarantee that $880,- 000 of the amount of $1,287,436.03 transferred in Florida railroad securities should be paid or made fully secure; and that, otherwise, there should be no such o])ligation on Swepson's part. In addition to the above the agreement provided that an interest in the above named railroad, amounting to $1,287,- 466.03, should be transferred and conveyed to the Western Division of the Western North Carolina Railroad Company. It developed soon afterwards that, although Swepson claimed to have turned over these securities in the Florida railroads to Littlefield, yet, when the latter became president of the Western Division, in October, 1869, he then stated that they were the property of the Western Division, having been pur- chased 'with the proceeds of the sale of the special tax bonds of said railroad, but had been pledged with Edward Houston, of Georgia to secure the payment of a large indebt- edness of Littlefield to said Houston, and were about to be sold. Thereupon the Western Division obtained an injunc- tion in the Supreme court of the State of New York in Octo- ber, 1870, restraining Littlefield and Houston from making the sale. But, before the order could be served, Houston "fled with the said stock and bonds from New York to New Jersey, and from there to Georgia, in order to avoid the law and keep fraudulent possession" of the securities, which right- fully belonged to the Western Division. This stock consisted "of about 4,370 shares (being nearly the entire capital stock)" of the Florida Central Railroad Company, "which company had then no mortgage debt upon its hne of railroad, which was sixty miles long, completed and in good running order." The bonds of the Pensacola and Georgia railroad and of the Tal- lahassee railroad amounted to $1,000,000, and cost Swepson $720,000 of the proceeds of the special tax bonds of the West em Division, including "some stock in said company and pay- ing expenses incident to such purchases." These railroads had been sold in March, 1869, under foreclosure, and brought SWEPSON AND LITTLEFIELD 465 in b}' the trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund of the State of Florida for SI. 400,000, "the amount of the whole mortgage indebtedness of both of the railroads. " Thus, the Western Division had secured legal title to a majority of the stock of an unencumbered railroad 60 miles in length and owned ten-fourteenths of two other Florida railroads absolutely unencumbered. If, therefore, the settlement effected at Washington had stood intact, there is little doubt but that the courts would have confirmed the interest of the Western Division in these three Florida railroads, as its money had been invested in them. But Col. Woodfin was soon called to London, England, where a supplemental settlement was made on the 10th of November, 1870, with Littlefield, representing the Florida railroads, by which he agreed to take for the interest of the Western Division in those Florida railroads 800 eight per cent bonds of the State of Florida, of $1,000 each, and enough rails, etc., to lay 53 miles of railroad down the French Broad river to Paint Rock, including sidings, etc. This iron was to be delivered duty free at Norfolk, Va., in three lots, aggregating 1,800 tons, and the rest at New York, the last shipment to be completed by September 1, 1871. An additional shipment was to be made of 1,000 tons to New York, wHth the necessary chairs and spikes to lay the same, by Sep- tember 1, 1871, "the shipping of which the said S. W. Hop- kins & Co. are to guarantee." But, to get this settlement, j\Ir. Woodfin had to agree in writing that he would pay a claim of $20,000 held by Henry Clews & Co., of New York, against Geo. W. Swepson, and to leave the 800 Florida bonds with Hopkins & Co. for sale at such price as Mr. Woodfin should direct. Mr. Woodfin also receipted for two hundred pounds sterUng, paid him at that time. With the lights before him, this was a most excellent settlement. He did not know of the complications existing in Florida. This iron was shipped according to agreement but was diverted by Hopkins & Co., to Detroit, Mich., for the purpose of completing the Rock Fish Railroad, a branch of the Michi- gan Central. Major Rollins discovered this before the iron was actually laid dowTi, and attached it. Mr. Woodfin arrived soon afterwards from New York with a warrant for the arrest and a requisition for the return to New York of S. W. Hop- W. N. C— 30 466 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA kins, the contractor, with whom Major Rollins had thought he was about to effect a satisfactory settlement. The officer from New York would not wait till this settlement could be effected and hurried his prisoner, Hopkins, back to New York City. By the time the case was to be heard on the question of ownership of the iron the clerk who had identified it for Major Rollins had disappeared and the iron and SI 0,000 in cash which had been deposited to indemnify the real o^^^le^ of the iron was lost to the State. The clerk had been ''seen." But that was not to be the end of the bunco game by any means; for in May of the very year of which in April he had signed the Washington agreement, Geo. W. Swepson, while president of the Florida Central railroad had, without any authority of the board of directors of that road, issued $1,000- 000 of bonds, which he signed as president in Washington, D. C, and caused one H. H. Thompson, who was not the treasurer of that road, to sign as such treasurer, F. H. Flagg being then the lawful treasurer. But Swepson and Littlefield gave Houston, to whom Littlefield was in- debted, Littlefield's note for $163,000 secured by 4,370 shares of stock and 103 Pensacola and Georgia rail- road bonds, and the $1,000,000 of Florida Central railroad bonds, which were to be fraudulently issued by them. Thus, the value of the interest in the Florida railroads had been sur- reptitiously reduced very materially if not altogether destroyed; for in January, 1871, Littlefield paid his $163,000 note and ob- tained from Houston the surrender of the collateral which had been given to secure its payment. Then, one Thomas E. Cod- rington appeared on the scene and got possession of the fraud- ulent $1,000,000 of Florida Central bonds, which, under acts of the Florida legislature of June 24, 1869, and January 28, 1870, he surrendered to the State of Florida, and obtained in their stead a like number of Florida State bonds. But, strange to relate, Codrington got, instead of Florida State bonds, $1,000,000 of bonds of the Jacksonville, Pensacola and INIobile Railroad Company, which had been authorized by act of the Florida legislature of June 24, 1869, but of which only $3,000,000 of an authorized issue of $4,000,000 had been issued by the gov- ernor of Florida. Thus, apparently, had been cured the ille- gahty of the same amount of bonds which Swepson had issued in Washington for the benefit of the Florida Central Railroad SWEPSON AND LITTLEFIELD 467 Company, to which the signature of H. H. Thompson, the fictitious treasurer, had been attached. For this transaction, in January, 1872, Governor Harrison Reed of Florida was impeached and removed, and after the carpet-bag regime was entirely overthroNNii in 1876, and Hon. Thomas Settle of North Carolina had been appointed judge of the district court of the northern district of Florida, a hope was entertained that a court of equity would place the Western Division of the Western North Carolina Railroad in at least as good a position as it had occupied when its money had been originally invested in the three Florida railroads, and would not allow it to suffer by the illegal and fraudulent acts of those who had ceased to be its agents when those acts had been committed. Now, Major Rollins had been elected president of the West- ern Division of the Western North Carolina railroad upon the disappearance of M. S. Littlefield and, subsequently, to the presidency of the Eastern Division, and, followed the railroad's interest into Florida, and the control of the Florida railroads. Accordingly, in February, 1877, he instituted a suit in equity in the circuit court of the United States for the Northern district of Florida, in which the Western Division of the Western North Carolina railroad sought to have the bonds of the Florida Central railroads, which had been ex- changed for Florida State bonds, declared unlawful; but Judge Joseph P. Bradley, one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, in an opinion filed May 31, 1879, dismissed the bill with costs, on the ground that the Western Division of the Western North Carolina railroad, by agreements made at Washington and in London, had "acquiesced in the issue of the bonds and only claimed to share in the proceeds there- of." The Supreme Court of the United States afterwards affirmed this decision in a case entitled Florida Central Rail- road Company v. Schutte and others, upon the ground that, in the language of Chief Justice Waite: "There can be no doubt that the governor of Florida was active in promoting the sale, as was also the chairman of the commission appointed by the General Assembly of North Carolina. The bonds were taken at once to London and from there put on the market in Holland where most or all of these sales appear to have been made. The bonds were undoubtedly steeped 468 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA in fraud at their inception, but they were nevertheless State bonds on the market in a foreign country, etc." The court held in effect that as the Western Division had adopted the property purchased by an embezzler with its money, its rights were subordinate to those of innocent purchasers of the same class of securities, and were charged with all the liens Swep- son had put upon them. ' North Carolina afterwards repudiated all of these special tax bonds along with others which had been issued by the carpet-bag government of 1868-70. NOTES. 'In Galloway v. Jenkins (63 N. C, p. 147) the Supreme Court had held only a short time before that the State could not contract a debt to build a new railroad except by an affirmative vote of the people, because to do so before the bonds of the State had reached par would violate Art. 5, Sec. 5, of the State Constitution; although it is true that in this case Judges Reade and Settle had dissented. 'Hon. Samuel W. Watts was the Superior court judge who had issued the injunction in June, 1869. Shipp's Fraud Com. Rep. , p. 447 >103 U. S. Rep., 327 (13 Otto— 118-145). William H. Thomas, 'Father of Western North Carolina Railroad." CHAPTER XX RAILROADS The First Railroad Project.* "When, about the year 1836, a railroad from Cincinnati to Charleston, which should pass through Ashevillc, was projected, Robert Y. Hayne, the great South Carolinian who had vanquished Daniel Webster in debate, was made its president. At a meeting of this com- pany, held in Asheville in 1839, Mr. Hayne, who had continued to be its president, became dangerously ill, and died here September 24, 1839, in the old Eagle Hotel building." The railroads which had been built prior to 1845 "were all in the eastern portion of the State. The need of a road toward the mountains was strikingly sho\\Ti by the failure of the crops in the western counties. - Owing to this failure, even the necessaries of life became dear in that section. Corn rose from fifty cents to a dollar and a half a bushel; and yet, at the same time, corn in the eastern counties was rotting in the fields for lack of a market, and fish were being used to enrich the ground. The condition of the [wagon] roads in 1848 was, however, such as to discourage further expense. " A Crop Failure Started Railroad Interest. This general failure of crops in the mountain regions called atten- tion to the want of communication between the two sections of the State; and in 1850-51 $12,000 was appropriated by the legislature to survey a route for a railroad from Salisbury to the Tennessee line where the French Broad river passes into Tennessee. The Western North Carolina Railroad. Although it is generally supposed that the Western North Carolina railroad had its genesis in 1855, the North Carolina and West- ern railroad, to run from Salisbury to the Tennessee line, was chartered as early as 1852 (Ch. 136). Its authorized capital stock was $3,000,000. Nothing of consequence, how- ever, was accomplished under this charter. Legislative History. "In 1854 the State of North Carolina was completeing the construction of her great work, the North Carolina railroad, and emboldened by this success and having in view a connection of her then existing system (469) 470 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA of railroads with the proposed Blue Ridge railroad, and so with the Great West, there was passed an act entitled: 'An Act to incorporate the Western North Carolina Railroad Com pany,' ratified February 15, 1855 (Laws of North Caro- lina 1854-55, eh. 228, p. 257), which, after reciting the pur- pose 'of constructing a railroad to effect a communication between the North Carolina railroad and the Valley of the Mississippi,' provided for the organization of a corporation under the style of Western North Carolina Railroad Company, with power 'to construct a railroad, with one or more tracks, from the town of Salisbury on the North Carolina railroad, passing by or as near as practicable to Statesville, in the county of Iredell, to some point on the French Broad river, beyond the Blue Ridge, and' if the legislature shall hereafter determine, to such point as it shall designate, at a future session. ' Four years later, when the line had been located from Salisbury to the French Broad river at Asheville, the general assembly supplemented this original charter and definitely fixed the route of the proposed line in an act entitled: 'An Act to amend an Act entitled: "An Act to incorporate the Western North Carolina Railroad Company" passed at the session of 1854-55, and also an act amendatory thereof passed at the session of 1856-57' (Ratified February 15, 1859. Private Laws of North Carolina 1858-59, ch. 170, p. 217). » This directed that the survey be continued 'from the point near Asheville to which the survey has already been made, extend- ing west through the valley of the Pigeon and Tuckaseegee rivers, to a point on the line of the Blue Ridge railroad on the Tennessee river, or to the Tennessee line at or near Ducktown, in the county of Cherokee, ' and thereby located a line which would connect the North Carolina railroad with the Blue Ridge railroad, an extension which has since been realized, without the Blue Ridge railroad connection, in the existing Murphy branch. "As the legislature was intent, however, on effecting some western connection for the North Carolina system of rail- roads, the Western North Carolina was not limited to an alliance with the Blue Ridge railroad, but it was provided that the extension from Asheville might be ' down the French Broad river, through Madison county, to the line of the State of Tennessee at or near Paint Rock, ' which might ' connect RAILROADS 471 with any company that has been formed or may be formed to complete the railroad connection with the East Tennessee and Virginia railroad. ' " * Surveys were accortlingly made for both of these proposed lines, and these surveys were duly approved by the legisla- ture at its next session in an act ratified February 18, 1861. (Private Laws of North Carolina 1860-61, ch. 138, p. 154). "The alternative, or Paint Rock line so authorized, being that of Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston, which had been pronounced in the reports of the engineer read at the Knoxville convention in 1836 to be extraordinarily feasible for a railroad, would no doubt have been originally adopted by the Western North Carolina but for the fact that in 1859 the Blue Ridge railroad was still considered certain of construction, while the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and Charleston Railroad Company, which held the Tennessee franchise to carry on the old Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston line from Paint Rock to a connection with the East Tennessee and Virginia railroad at Morristown, was finan- cially weak. "As the securing of a through trunk line was the principal object for which the construction of the Western North Car- olina was undertaken, the proposed Blue Ridge connection accordingly dictated the adoption of the line from Asheville toward Murphy as the main line of the Western North Caro- lina and it was so considered as late as 1868 when the Con- stitutional convention, then in session, passed an ordinance entitled: 'An ordinance for the completion of the Western North Carolina Railroad,' ratified March 14, 1868 (Ordi- nances of 1868, ch. 50, p. 100), which provided that no part of the subscription of the State to the Western North Carolina should be used in the construction of branch lines, except the line to Paint Rock, until 'the main trunk line of said rail- road shall have been completed to Copper Mine, at or near DucktouTi' and furthermore that the General Assembly 'is hereby authorized and directed to make such further appro- priation or subscription to the capital stock of said railroad company as will insure the completion of said road at the earliest practicable day.' " The Paint Rock line, thus relegated to the status of a branch, was not, however, abandoned, but it was considered that the 472 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Tennessee enterprise of the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and Charleston was primaril}^ interested therein, as is evidenced by the act entitled: 'An Act to amend the Charter of the Western North Carolina Railroad' ratified March 4, 1867, (Pubhc Laws of N. C. 1866-67, ch. 94, p. 152), which author- ized the Western North Carolina to construct its line from Asheville to Paint Rock upon the 'Tennessee Gauge,' and to so maintain it until the entire line was completed, and the gauge of the North Carolina railroad could be established thereon uniformly. 'It was the reahzation of the Paint Rock line in 1881, however, that opened the only railroad which has ever been built through the southern ranges of the Appalachian Mountains. " •* Route and Connections. It will be seen from the above how the route was changed from that originally contemplated. ^ It was never purposed to build this railroad by way of Frank- lin; as that town was on the proposed Blue Ridge line from Walhalla, S. C, and it was the intention to connect with that line; but this connection was contemplated at some point west of Franklin, Ducktown, Tennessee, having been consid- ered at one time as the point of junction, due to ignorance of the topography of the western part of the State, as the connection must necessarily have been somewhere on the Little Tennessee, that stream rising in Raburn gap, Ga. Rapid Progress. The Western North Carohna railroad was chartered by an act which was ratified February 15, 1855, and work was begun and the railroad completed and put into operation to within a few miles east of ]\Iorganton by the summer of 1861. A contract had been given to Crockford, Malone & Co., in September, 1860, when Dr. A. M. Powell was president of the railroad company, for the completion of the road from a point near Old Fort to the western portal of the Swannanoa tunnel, for a specified sum, plus 20 per cent for contingencies. These contractors stopped work in the spring of 1861 on account of the war, having done about S27,- 000 worth of work. Soon after the close of the Civil War, while Mr. Caldwell was president and Capt. Samuel Kirkland was chief engineer, the road was completed to Mor- ganton by paying 50 per cent increase on estimates made previous to the war, the increase being due to depreciation of currency. Colonel W. A. Eliason was elected chief engineer in 1868 and RAILROADS 473 continued as such till April, 1871. Previous to 18G8 Col. Elia^^on luul l)('i>n assistant engineer. The line had been changed in the winter of 1800-01 for a considerable distance on sections 0, 7, 8, 9 and 10 and this reduced the estimates by §171,293. Location on the Blue Ridge Changed. The route up the eastern slope of the 131ue Ridge was changed after the war to one with longer, safer and lighter grades than those of the original survey. ^ Engineers and Mountain Work. While Col. J. W. Wilson was chief engineer Col. S. W. McD. Tate became president, and in October, 1800, the board of directors ordered the resumption of work west of Morganton, and the precedent of paying 50 per cent advance was followed. In January, 1808, the contract for the work from Old Fort to the western portal of the Swannanoa tunnel was let to John Malone & Co., diminished by the work which had been done by Crock- ford, Malone & Co., plus 50 per cent to the original estimates. A Proposition was afterwards made to Col. Wilson that, if he would turn over $200,000 of first mortgage bonds of the road, the chief engineer would make out estimates for $701,000 in addition to what he had received, which would be a majority of the $1,400,000 bonds authorized by the act of December 19, 1800. This proposition was made at the Boyden House in Salisbury in December, 1870, and the object was claimed to be to get control of the majority of the bonds and thus prevent a forced foreclosure of the railroad: " Some time in the fall of 1809 I had conversation with Col. Tate in relation to the condition of the road. '' . . . In one of those conversations in Morganton it was suggested that the sale of the road could not be forced unless a majority of the bonds got into the hands of one person. I suggested to Col. Tate that probably the contract with John Malone & Co. could be made useful in preventing the sale; that they claimed compensation for their work according to the old estimates and contract with Crockford and Malone. I thought they were bound by the estimates on the line as changed by me, but that I would sign the estimates according to the old notes, with the understanding that 000 of the bonds were to be delivered to Maj. Wilson, and 200 were to be placed in my hands ; for the whole was to be held so that they would not be put on the 474 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA market and get into the hands of the New York speculators, and thereby endanger the sale of the road. The 800 were to be divided between Maj. Wilson and myself, so that no one was to have a majority of the bonds. 'Col. Wilson declined this proposition,' as it was ' much more than was due me, and I regarded the transaction as corrupt.' " * A Change of Officers. Dr. J. J. Mott succeeded Col. Tate as president of this division of the road, Col. Tate becom- ing financial agent when he secured the State bonds issued on account of the company. The office of financial agent was abolished in 1869. Col. Tate accounted for all these bonds before the Bragg committee, which found his official conduct correct. John Malone & Co. The firm of John Malone & Co., was composed of John Malone, J. W. Wilson and Mr. Golds- borough of Maryland. J. W. Wilson had been the chief engineer and superintendent of the road from the summer of 1864 until the provisional governor was appointed in 1865. He was afterwards reappointed by the directors named by Gov. Worth and held the position until the spring of 1867, when he resigned in order to go into business. Up to September, 1871, John jMalone & Co., had been paid for their work about $600,- 000, the estimate of the whole contract having been $1,959,- 000, two-thirds of which was to be paid in cash and one-third in stock, leaving $220,000 still due to the contractors. The Swepson and Littlefield frauds brought all work to a stop in 1870. (See Chapter XIX.) Western Division Abolished. At its session of 1873-74 the legislature repealed the act appointing the Woodfin commis- sion and required the commissioners to turn over all the books and property of the Western Division to the directors of the Western North Carolina railroad, upon whom devolved the former duties of the commissioners; and the legislature of 1876-77 required the president of the railroad to report what property he had acquired from Swepson and Littlefield in his settlement with them. This Western Division consisted of the Murphy and Paint Rock lines. The Eastern Division was the line from Salisbury to Asheville. Early Litigation. The Western North Carolina railroad got into trouble with its creditors, and, in 1874-75, we find a joint resolution to ascertain what the claims against the road RAILROADS 475 could be bought for, aiul another joint resolution to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States from the de- cision of the United States court at (jreensboro in the case of Henry Clews, Hiram Sibley and others v. the Western Division of the Westei-n North Carolina railroad, and, finally (Ch. 150) an act to authorize the purchase of the road under the decree for its sale at not more than $850,000, with authority to issue seven per cent bonds to that amount, secured by a mort- gage of the property; and to complete the road to Paint Rock and Murphy, the State to have three-fourths of the stock and the private stockholders the other third. "By an act ratified March 13, 1875 (laws of North Carolina 1874-75, ch. 150, p. 172), the Governor, Curtis H. Brogden, the president of the senate. R. F. Armfield, and the Speaker of the House, James L. Robinson, were constituted a com- mission with power to purchase the Western North Carolina railroad at the forthcoming sale in the Sibley suit for not exceeding $850,000, the amount which had been adjudged due on the outstanding first mortgage bonds issued by the Eastern Division. In order to force through the negotiations for the purchase of the outstanding claims, this commission was later authorized to prosecute an appeal in the Sibley suit to the Supreme Court of the United States, by resolution adopted March 20, 1875. (Laws of North Carohna 1874-75, p. 405. See also a resolution concerning the expenses of this commis- sion, ratified January 11, 1877, Laws of North Carolina 1876-77, p. 582.) "This finally resulted in the execution of an agreement under date of April 17, 1875, whereby all the parties in interest, including the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia, the North Carolina Railroad Company and McAden, assigned all their claims to the State commission consisting of Messrs. Brog- den, Armfield and Robinson, in consideration of their agree- ment to purchase and reorganize the Western North Caro- lina, and to issue new first mortgage bonds for $850,000 to be ratably distributed among the parties in interest. This agreement was thereupon carried out, and reorganization by the State followed; the new corporation, hereinafter styled Western North Carolina Railroad Company No. 2, taking possession of the property on October 1, 1875." ^ Organization. By chapter 105 of the laws of 1876-77 the 476 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Western North Carolina railroad was organized with a capital stock of S850,000, three-fourths of which belonged to the State and one-fourth to the private stockholders to be appoint- ed according to their several interests. The State also under- took to furnish 500 convicts to work on the road and the governor was authorized to buy iron to lay the track from the then terminus near Old Fort. It was also provided that when the road should have been completed to Asheville the convicts were to be divided equally, one-half to work on the Paint Rock line and the other half on the Murphy division, and that after the line should have been completed to Paint Rock, all the convicts were to be employed on the line to Murphy. Apparently, however, the State became uncertain as to the securities of the Richmond & Danville railroad for its lease of the Western North Carolina Railroad, for on the 23d of January, 1877, a joint resolution was adopted to enquire into the sufficiency of those securities. In 1879 the Western Division was abolished and consolidated with the Eastern Division under the name of the Western North Carolina Railroad Company. MW. J. Best & Co. A special session of the legislature was called and by an act of March 29, 1880, (Ch. 26) the State agreed to sell the Western North Carolina railroad to Wm. J. Best, Wm. R. Grace, James D. Fish and J. Nelson Tappan subject to the mortgage of 1875 for $850,000, on which the purchasers were to pay the interest, etc. The agreement of April 27, 1880, between Wm. J. Best et at. and the State of North Carolina, among other things, recited : " The Act of March 29, 1880, and provides in consideration of the deUvery of a deed by the Commissioners named in said act to the United Trust Company, to be held in escrow, that the purchasers will : " 1. Complete the line to Paint Rock on or before July 1, 1881, and to Murphy on or before January 1, 1885. " 2. Repay to the State all moneys expended on the road after March 29, 1880. " 3. Pay to the State $125 per annum rent for each of five hundred able-bodied convicts. " 4. That no bonds will be issued except as provided in the act. " 5. That they will deliver $520,000 of their first mortgage bonds, when issued and $30,000 cash, to make up the aggregate of $550,000, invested by the State in the property, to the State Treasurer. RAILROADS 477 " 6. That they will pay the interest on the outstanding $850,000 of W. N. C. No. 2 bonds."'" Clyde, Logan and Buford. "Clyde, Logan and Buford, in 1880, loaned W. J. Best money and he failed to pay same back and forfeited the road, he assigning all his interest to Messrs. Clyde, Logan and Buford on May 28, 1880.' ' • " These men controlled both the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company and the Richmond and West Point Terminal Company. ' ' The Richmond and Danville. The Richmond and Danville Railroad Company at one time owned the Richmond and West Point Terminal Company, and afterwards the Richmond and West Point Terminal Company bought the Richmond and Danville. Under the assignment from Best the Rich- mond Terminal Company came into control of the Western North Carolina and immediately proceeded with the work, issuing two mortgages for this purpose. ^ ^ "The Richmond Terminal Company acquired the Western North CaroUna in the interest of the e.xpanding R. &. D system to extend its line from a connection at Salisbury with the North CaroUna Railroad, which the R. & D. was operating in 1880 under lease. "For the next five years while the construction of the Western North Carolina was being completed the operation was carried on in the name of Western North Carolina No. 3 as is evidenced by an act entitled : " 'An Act empowering the Western North Carolina Railroad Company to construct telegraph and telephone lines on its right of way.' "Ratified March 6, 1885. "Laws of North CaroUna 1885, ch. 294, p. 542, which authorized the company to do a general telegraph business, but in 1886, when the R. & D. was assuming the operation of most of the Richmond Terminal lines in its own name, the following lease was executed : "'Western North CaroUna Railroad Co., to Richmond and DanviUe Railroad Company, lease dated April 30, 1886 : Term Ninety-nine years. Rental : Net earnings above fixed charges. (Abrogated May 5, 1894.)' "'=^ Richmond Terminal. "From this it will be seen that the property was operated as the Western North Carolina but was held by the Richmond Terminal Company up to April 30, 1886, from which time to May 5, 1894, when the Southern Railway purchased the property, it was operated by the Rich- mond & Danville under lease. "'^ The State Sells the Railroad. By an act of 1883 (ch. 241) the State agreed to sell the road to Clyde, Logan and 478 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Buford, assignees of W. J. Best and associates, provided they should complete it to the mouth of the Nantahala river by- September 1, 1884, and should keep at work beyond that point 75 convicts. They were also required to purchase of the State treasurer S520,000 of the coupon bonds of the West- ern North Carolina railroad which they had deposited with the State treasurer under sections 12 and 24 of the act of March 29, 1880. The road was finished into Andrews in the summer of 1889 and to Murphy in 1891. Soon thereafter, to wit, on June 15, 1892, the old Richmond & Danville Rail- road went into the hands of receivers, Fred W. Hidekoper, Reuben Foster, and, later on, Samuel Spencer, and emerged therefrom as the Southern Railway Company, August 22, 1894, when the order was made confirming the sale of the road which had been made by Charles Price, special master, on August 21 at Salisbury, for $500,000. Completion of the Railroad. From 1869 and thereafter for several years, passengers were taken from Old Fort, the terminus of the railroad, to Asheville in stage coaches operated by the late Ed. T. Clemmons, contractor. Jack Pence "drove the mountain," as the end of the line nearest Old Fort was called, handling "the ribbons" over six beautiful white horses. The part of the trip do^vn the mountains was always made at night, but there was never an accident. After several years the road was completed to a station called Henry's, where it remained till 1879, when it had been finished to Azalia, 130 miles west of Sahsbury. The .formidable Blue Ridge had been successfully surmounted at last. The Andrews Geyser. A hotel and geyser-Uke fountain were maintained at Round Knob from about 1885 to about the close of the last century, when the hotel was burned. The fountain had ceased some time before that; but in 1911 George F. Baker of New York, as a testimonial to the ser- vices Col. A. B. Andrews had rendered in the development of Western North Carolina, restored the fountain at his own expense. • It throws a stream of water 250 feet into the air. Arrival at Various Points. ^ * The railroad was completed to Biltmore on Sunday, October 3, 1880; to Alexanders, 10 miles below Asheville on the French Broad, on the 4th day of July, 1881, and to Paint Rock January 25, 1882. The bridge at Marshall was finished June 15, 1882. The Murphy RAILROADS 479 branch was completed to Pigeon river, now Canton, January 28, 1882, reaching Waynesville later in the same year. Progress West of Waynesville. If the original plan to have a tunnel through the Balsam mountain had been adhered to the terminus of the road must have remained at Waynesville many years; but the road was built over the mountain by a dilhcult and dangerous grade, and the work which had been done on the tunnel in 1869 and 1870 was abandoned. This Balsam gap is the highest railroad pass east of the Rocky mountains, being about 3,100 feet above sea level. . . . The road was completed to Dillsboro in 1883 and to Bryson city in 1884. It reached Jarrett's station, or Nantahala, at the mouth of the Red Marble creek, Novem- ber 23, 1884. Here it stayed a long time, due to the fact that a tunnel had been contemplated through the Red Marble gap of the Valley River Mountain; but after the grading had been completed nearly to the gap it was discovered that the soil would not support the roof and sides of a tunnel, and the whole work had to be done over again and the roadbed placed on a much higher grade. This serious error cost many thou- sands of dollars and long delay. The road was finished to Andrews in the summer of 1889, and its entrance into Mur- phy was celebrated in 1891, on the same day the corner- stone of the fine new court house was laid. The original survey required the road to go by old Valley Town, but it was changed. Several of the convicts who helped to build this road settled in Murphy when their terms expired and are making good citizens Spartanburg and Asiieville Railroad. This road was com- pleted to Saluda, twelve miles east of Hendersonvillc in 1879, and to Hendersonvillc about 1882. It was necessary that Buncombe county should contribute to the building of this railroad. Buncombe's Subscription. On the 5th of August, 1875, there were 1,944 votes for subscription to §100,000 of the stock of the Spartanburg and Asheville railroad, and only 242 votes against subscription, and the bonds were issued, bearing six per cent interest and due in twenty years. But they were issued only as the grading was completed and amounted at the end to only $08,000 in all. These bonds were refunded at par by new bonds dated July 1, 1895, due in twenty 480 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA years, under Chapter 172, Public Laws 1893. But at the meet- ing of the RepubHcan board of county commissioners on De- cember 27, 1897, they ratified a contract which had been made by the board and Hon. A. C. Avery, Mark W. BrovvTi and Moore & Moore, attorneys, to contest the vahdity of the bonds in a case entitled the County Commissioners v. W. R. Payne, County Treasurer. This attempted repudiation was used by the Democrats to defeat the Republicans in November, 1898. But the Democrats themselves after- wards employed counsel to carry out the repudiation of these bonds on the ground that the bill had not been read on three separate days in each house. However, certain holders of these bonds soon brought an action in the District court of the United States, which held that the bonds were valid. Richmond Pearson's Bill. Having secured the S100,000 subscription from Buncombe county, the officers of this road seemed satisfied to keep its terminal at Hendersonville indefi- nitely. Consequently, in 1885, Hon. Richmond Pearson, of Buncombe, introduced a bill in the legislature to declare forfeited the charter of the Spartanburg and Asheville Ptailroad Company, but before it could be read a second time, the railroad company began work and in 1886 completed the road to Asheville. During the time the road's terminus remained at Hendersonville Buncombe county was paying interest on the $98,000 of bonds which had been issued. The South and Western Railroad. The South and West- ern railroad was completed from Johnson City, Tennessee, to Huntdale, Yancey county. North Carolina, in 1900. It was afterwards built to Spruce Pine in 1904. The Southern Railway in the Manger. From the decision of the Supreme court in the case of the Johnson City Southern Railway against the South and Western Railroad Company ^^ it is clear that the Southern Railway Company in 1907 attempted to defeat the building of this incomparable railroad now crossing the mountains from Marion, North Carohna, to Johnson City, Tennessee, by alleging that it (the Southern) was seeking to condemn land along the North Toe river in Yancey county for the purpose of constructing a railway from the coal fields to tidewater, when in point of fact it "did not in good faith intend to construct a railroad over the line RAILROADS 481 in controversy," but had caused the Johnson City railroad to be "incorporated for the purpose of hindering, delaying and obstructing the building of a railroad along the North Toe by the South antl Western Railway Company which was in good faith constructing a railroad from Johnson City . . . to Spruce Pine in North Carolina, and was oper- ating the same." ^* The Southern's Plan. The plan of the Southern Rail- way had been to pretend that it meant to build a railroad along this river, although it was well aware that the South and Western had already built such a road along the stream from Johnson City to Spruce Pine; and, by appealing to the courts, to prevent the real road from changing its track from the east to the west bank of the river in order to obtain a bet- ter grade, which it had commenced to do in November, 1905, while the dummy corporation the Southern railway was using for this purpose had not been incorporated till December of the following year. Upon this the court said : Courts Not to be Used to Prevent Progress. " It is not of so much interest to the public which of two corporations build the road as it is that, by using the courts in the way suggested, they prevent either from doing so. If the course proposed by the 'Southern Railway' be permitted, the State has granted her franchise, with its sovereign power, to her own hindrance. If in creating two corporations she has conferred power upon both by which, through the instru- mentality of her own courts, the building of railroads may be retarded, if not ultimately defeated, and her mountain fastnesses remain locked in their primitive isolation, the legislature may well consider whether some restriction should not be put upon corporations enjoying such power. If the course proposed by the 'Southern Railway' be permitted, railroad building may be 'tied up' indefinitely by repeatedly renewed condemnation proceedings, contested until the end has been reached, and then withdrawn, only to be repeated in another form." ^^ The Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad. The South and Western, also known as the "Three C's, " but now the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio, was completed to Marion, in 1908. It is the best constructed railroad in the mountains, the grades and curvatures being far less than those of the Southern from Old Fort to Morristown. W. N. C— 31 482 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Alleged Peonage. During the time the heavy work on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge was being done, con- struction companies were given contracts for the building of certain sections of the line. Among these contractors was the Carolina Construction Company. Labor was hard to get, and in order to secure laborers this Construction Com- pany paid the expenses of certain men to their camp. They worked half a day and slipped ofif, were followed, captured, returned to camp and imprisoned till nightfall, when they were taken out and severely whipped. The facts appear in Buck- ner v. South & Western Railway Co., 159 N. C, going up on appeal from Buncombe county. This was knovsm as the ''peonage case." TriE Snow Bird Valley Railroad. The Kanawha Hard- wood Company, with that progressive and public spirited Vir- ginian, J. Q. Barker, at its head, came in 1902 and constructed the Snow Bird Valley logging railroad for a distance of fifteen miles from Andrews over the Snow Bird mountains to the head of Snow Bird creek in 1907-08. The Cherokee Tanning and Extract Company began business in 1903, and the Andrews Lumber Company, under the management of Mr. H. R. Camp- bell, came in the spring of 1911, and have since completed fifteen miles of logging railroad of standard gauge into heavily timbered lands in Macon county on Chogah creek. This com- pany has also built a saw mill near Andrews with a capacity of 80,000 feet a day. East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad. This road was completed from Johnson City, Tenn., via Ehzabethton to the Cranberry iron mines in 1882. It is a narrow gauge road. In 1900 or thereabout it was extended to Pinola or Saginaw, in what is now Avery county. This extension was paid for in cofTee for a long time, funds being short, and was called the Arbuckle line. Its real name, how- ever, is Linville River Railroad Company, and was built by E. B. Camp, who owned a considerable body of timber near Saginaw, the company operating the road and saw mills being the Pinola Lumber and Trading Company. Both companies went into the hands of a receiver, how- ever, and were bought in by Isaac T. Mann of Bramley, W. Va. He got the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company in- RAILROADS 483 terestcd in it and both properties finally went to that company, including a very good inn, called the Pinola Inn. A majority of its stock was transferred to the Cran- berry Iron and Coal Company in April, 1913 by the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company. IIendehsonville and Brevard Railroad. This road was built in 1894 by the late Tam C. McNeeley. Thos. S. Boswell was the engineer, and after it went into the hands of a receiver in 1897 he operated it as superintendent, when it was bought by J. F. Hays and associates, who afterwards organized The TransiTiVania Railroad Company, and in 1900 ex- tended the road to Rosman, N. C, a point ten miles southwest of Brevard. From there it was to have been constructed to Seneca, S. C, which would have given a shorter route south from Asheville by 35 miles; but the Southern Railway leased it and that put an end to that scheme. In 1903 this road, as the Transylvania railroad, was extended to Lake Toxaway, nine miles beyond Rosman, and it was in this year that the Tox- away Inn was built, the lake having been dammed in the same year, Thos. S. Boswell having been the engineer. "The building of the Transylvania road and its extension, resulted in the construction of the plant of the Toxaway Tanning Company at Rosman, N. C, in about 1901, as I recall. This has also resulted in the development of the Gloucester Lumber Company at that place; this concern is operating 20,000 acres on the western end of the Pisgah Forest tract of the Vanderbilt estate and have their mills located at Rosman, and carry on quite a large operation, with probably 20 miles of railroad. Also, at Rosman is located the plant of the Shaffer Lumber Company, and they have a line of railroad running to the south from Rosman and have quite a large operation with their mills located on their line of road. Also, the building of the Transylvania resulted in the location of the plant of the Brevard Tanning Company at Pisgah Forest, two miles northeast of Brevard, which has had a very successful operation." ^^ The Elkin and Alleghany Railroad. The great draw- back to Alleghany county has been the lack of a railroad. The legislature of 1907 authorized the State to furnish not less than 50 convicts for the purpose of constructing a railroad from Elkin to Sparta. The State took stock in this road 484 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA to the amount of the work done by the convicts, and the work of grading was begun in tlie fall of 1907. In the early part of the year 1911 the directors, John T. Miles, Capt. Roth, H. G. Chatham, R. A. Doughton, A. H. Eller, C. C. Smoot, Henry Fries and others, succeeded in interesting John A. Mills in this enterprise, and he helped to procure the financial aid. And now the railroad has every appearance of being rapidly pushed to completion. The train is now running to the foot of the mountain, nearly halfway to Sparta. The Pigeon River Railroad. This was one of the first enterprises planned by the Champion Fiber Company; but it decided that a flume from Sunburst to Canton would be cheaper and answer its purposes as well as a railroad. This proved impracticable, on account of difficulties in securing rights of way; and a railroad was commenced a few years ago, of standard gauge, and it is now completed. Georgia and North Carolina Railroad. The Georgia and North Carolina railroad, from Marietta, Cieorgia, to iNIurphy (ch. 167, Laws of 1870-71) was the first railroad to run into Cherokee, and the late Mercer Fain was its first president and was the most active in its construction. It reached Murphy in 1888, and at first was a narrow gauge. It was afterwards absorbed by the Marietta and North Georgia railroad, which extended it from Blue Ridge, Georgia, to Knoxville, leaving the Murphy end a mere branch. It was originally intended that this road should go down the Hiwassee and Tennessee rivers to Chattanooga, but others had already obtained a charter for a road by that route which they refused to surrender or assign except upon prohibitive terms. Hence the route via Blue Ridge was adopted. The dog-in-the- manger policy has thus prevented a road down the Hiwassee river and has not produced any benefit to those who not only would not build themselves but would not allow others to do so. The Appalachian Railroad. There is also a short railroad which leaves the Murphy branch about five miles east of Bry- son City and runs a short distance up Ocona Lufty creek. Tallulah Falls and Franklin Railroad. This road was completed from Cornelia, in Georgia, via Tallulah Falls and Rabun Gap to Franklin, in 1908. It affords an outlet for a large section of this region, and practically makes the whole of Macon county tributary to Georgia. If the Southern RAILROADS 485 Railway wouKl fomplcte the link between Franklin and Al- mond, and down the Little Tennessee river from Bushnel to Maryville, Tenn., Franklin would have two other outlets, one into our own State via Asheville, and into Tennessee via Bushnel and Murphy. ^ ^ This is more of the dog-in-the- manger spirit. The Damascus Lumber Company Railroad. In 1902 the Hemlock Extract Company, D. K. Stouffer, manager, was built, and several years afterwards the Damascus Lumber Company built a narrow gauge railroad from Laurel Bloomery in Tennessee, on the Laurel Railway Company's line, over the Cut Laurel gap. It is operated exclusively as a logging road, but the grade, generally, is good enough for a standard road, and there is no reason why it should not be electrified and operated as it is for freight and passengers. Its terminus at Hemlock is only 19 miles from Jefferson, the county seat of Ashe county, the grade dowm Laurel creek to the North Fork of the New river is good, and the road should be extended to Jefferson at least, the principal barrier to mountain roads having been overcome in the passage of the Cut Laurel gap. The Tennessee and North Carolina Railroad was com- pleted to the mouth of Big creek on the Pigeon river about 1897, and then extended two miles up to Mount Sterling post office, where there has been a large saw mill plant since about 1900. The design is to complete this line up the Pigeon to Canton at least; and ultimately up the Pigeon to Sunburst, and thence into Transylvania county. Should it get as far as the mouth of Cataloochee creek it will have tapped the finest body of virgin hardwood timber left in the mountains. Asheville and Craggy Mountain Railway. On March 29, 1901, the city of Asheville authorized the Craggy Mountain R nil way Company to transfer its rights over Charlotte street to the reorganized Asheville Street Railroad Company. Mr. R. S. Rowland operated this road to Overlook Park, on Sunset Moun- tain, several summers; but, by September, 1904, he had dem- onstrated to his own satisfaction that it could not be made to pay. In that month it was torn up and the rails and ties used to build a track from the Golf Club to Grace and thence to the French Broad river at Craggy Station on the South- ern Railway, and the Weaver Power Company plant and dam, then but recently erected, and to the factory of the 486 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA William Whittam Textile Company, which had been incor- porated February 1, 1902. He also built a trestle across the French Broad river to the opposite bank, where the Southern Railway established a station called Craggy. Quarry. IVIeantime, however, not losing sight of the objective point of the Craggy Railway Company, Air. How- land graded a roadbed and laid a track for a steam railroad from the new Music Hall at Overlook Park, to Locust Gap, a distance of about two miles, and opened a new quarry about a quarter of a mile from the IMusic Hall, with a track ex- tending down to it. He also leased a part of the old James M. Smith property, in rear of the present Langren Hotel, where he established bins, and from which he sold all sorts of stone, bringing it dowTi the mountain by a steam dummy engine, and hauling it through the streets of Asheville with a large electric motor engine. The ties and rails on the track to Locust Gap and to the new quarry were also taken up and placed on the railroad leading to Grace and Craggy Station. He also graded a traction road from near Locust Gap through the lands of J. W. Shartle, C. A. Webb and others to Craven Gap at the head of Beaver Dam creek, and thence to within half a mile of Bull Gap at the head of Ox creek on the North and Bull creek on the south. This road is to form a part of the projected automobile road from Asheville via jMitchell's Peak, and thence along the crest of the Blue Ridge to Blow- ing Rock. During this time Mr. Howland experimented with steam traction engines; but they were not satisfactory for the mountain roads. Asheville Loop Line Railway. Mr. Howland operated the railroad down, to Craggy Station and to the Elk Mountain Cotton Mill till April, 1906, when he sold that portion of the railroad between New Bridge on the Burnsville road and Craggy Station to the Southern Railway, but continued to run cars from the Golf Club to New Bridge. The sale of the lower portion of this railroad also carried with it the corporate rights, etc., of the Asheville and Craggy Mountain Railroad Company, and it then became necessary to organize the Asheville Loop Line Railway to operate what was left of the Craggy Moun- tain Railway. This company, during the summer of 1906, leased from the Southern Railway that portion of the railway between New Bridge and Craggy Station and operated the en- RAILROADS 487 tire line from the Clolf Club to the river. The water im- pouiulecl by the Weaver Power Company dam was called Lake Tahkeeostee, and proved quite an attraction to summer visitors who were in Asheville in great numbers during the season. The railroad paid a slight profit. Asheville Rapid Transit Railroad. During the fall of 1906 Messrs. Culver and Whittlesey, attorneys, and Mr. R. H. Ting- ley, civil engineer, of New York City, got control of the Loop Line railroad and determined to rel)uild the track to the Music Hall on Sunset mountain. To do this they formed a new corporation called the Asheville Rapid Transit Com- pany, December 18, 1906, and in March of 1907 obtained a franchise to build an electric railway from the corner of Water street and Patton avenue across North Main street, and thence along Merrimon avenue to a point near the Manor, and thence over private property to the Golf Club. In order to secure this concession from the city they deposited $1,000, to be forfeited in case they did not commence to build the rail- way into to\vTi by the following September and complete it within a few months thereafter. Merrimon Avenue Line. These gentlemen secured enough money to reconstruct the track up the mountain to the Music Hall, which was in full operation by July 4, 1907, on which day two thousand passengers were transported over the new road. They continued to operate the road during the summer and opened a restaurant and moving picture show at Overlook Park. But the money they had expected to borrow for the completion of the railway into the city via Merrimon avenue could not be obtained, and they abandoned the enterprise, turning the property back to Mr. R. S. How- land in the spring of 1908. As there were several local debts due by the company the board of aldermen very consider- ately returned the $1,000 which had been deposited as a forfeit, upon the abandonment and release by the company of all rights on the streets, on condition that it should be so applied. In June, 1908, Mr. R. S. Howland took charge of the company again; but the company, not hav- ing paid the Asheville Electric Company for the power which had been furnished for some time previous, the latter company refused to supply electric current for the operation of cars to Sunset mountain. An arrangement, however, was 488 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA soon afterwards made for power to operate the cars from the Golf Club to New Bridge and this continued to be done till August 27, when the Rapid Transit Company was placed in the hands of a receiver. It was sold in December, 1908, to R. S. Howland and associates for S25,000. By an arrange- ment between Messrs. LaBarbe, Moale & Chiles and R. S. Howland the latter was to have the roadbed from the Golf Club to New Bridge and certain other property, and the former the track up the mountain and ten acres around Music Hall. This led to some litigation between these parties, which, however, was adjusted in 1911. East Tennessee and North Carolina Railroad. During 1909 R. S. Howland built a trolley railroad from New Bridge to Weaverville, thus giving a continuous line from Grace to Weaverville. By a subsequent agreement with the Ashe- ville Electric Company and the Asheville and East Tennessee Railroad Company, as this Weaverville railway company is called, under its charter, the latter has the right to operate its cars over the track of the former from Grace to Pack Square. This line passes over ]\Ierrimon avenue under a franchise granted the Asheville Electric Company by the city soon after its rights over that avenue had been abandoned by the Rapid Transit Company. Both the Merrimon Avenue line in the city and the railway from Grace to Weaversville have proven great conveniences to the public. Sunset Mountain Railway Company. Under this name LaBarbe, Moale and Chiles operated the road up Sunset moun- tain to Music Hall during the summer of 1910, but soon sold it to the E. W. Grove Park Company, who also bought about 300 acres on Sunset mountain from the Howlands. The track has been removed and the roadbed converted into an automobile road. The Hiwassee Valley Railroad. In 1913 Clay and Cher- okee counties each voted $75,000 for the construction of a rail- road from Andrews via Marble dowTi the Hiwassee river to Hayesville, crossing Peach Tree and Hiwassee at the Clay county line. It will be 35 miles long, standard gauge, etc., and will be operated by electricity from a power plant to be erected on Hiwassee river. A question has arisen as to the legality of the vote, and the company is now enjoined from proceeding further in securing aid from either county. J. RAILROADS 489 Q. Barker is president, and Samuel Cover, treasurer, and D. S. Russell, seeretary. Better Than Raising Corn and Coti'on. If Ashe, Clay, Graham, and Watauga counties, four of the richest counties in the mountains naturally, had railroads the enhanced value of their property would give the State a larger and more constant revenue from taxation than she now derives from the raising of uncertain crops of cotton and corn on the State farms by working her convicts in that malarious section of the State. If these convicts were taken to the healthful and in- vigorating climate of the mountains and put to work grading railroads, for their support in provisions alone, it would not be long before every county west of the Blue Ridge would be adequately served with an outlet for their crops, lumber and minerals, while new health and pleasure resorts would be opened up for summer tourists and health seekers. Ashe is less knowm than any mountain county, but it is the finest of them all, agriculturally and in minerals and water power. Yet in the decade between 1900 and 1910 its popu- lation decreased from 19,581 to 19,074. Clay's population fell from 4,532 in 1900 to 3,909. Yet the lands of Clay are rich and productive and its jail is empty nine-tenths of the time. Watauga, which in many respects is unsurpassed, gained only a little over one hundred inhabitants in the same period. These three fine counties are really retrograding for want of railroads. If the increase in population and wealth of Buncombe in 1880, before railroads reached its borders, com- pared with its population and wealth in 1913, is an index of what railroads accomplish for communities, it will be evident that the convicts could be more advantageously employed in the mountains building wagon- and railroads than in raising precarious crops of cotton and corn near Weldon. The territory that in 1911 was erected into the county of Avery is more mountainous and was formerly more inac- cessible than any other part of the mountains. Yet, having a railroad, it gained nearly 2,000 in population in the last ten years. Other Railroads. In November, 1912, the county of Watauga by a large majority voted $100,000 toward the con- struction of a railroad through Cook's Gap, Boone and down the Watauga river, and the State has since provided thirty 490 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA convicts for work thereon. Work has already begun. The Virginia - Carohna Railway obtained from the Legislature of North Carolina in 1911, authority to construct a railroad from its line in Grayson and Washington counties, Virginia, into the counties of Ashe and Watauga, and in June, 1913, let the entire line to the Callahan Construction Company, from Konarok, Va., via Jefferson to Todd, or Elk Cross Roads; all grading to be completed by July, 1914. That the link between Canton and the mouth of Big creek, near Mount Sterling post office, will be built shortly seems probable, as the line has only to follow the Pigeon river to complete this link, thus opening up a large boundary of timber and acid wood and bark in the Cataloochee valley. There is also hope that a railroad will be built from Saginaw (Pinola) to Mortimer or Collettsville. A lumber road from Black Mountain station to Mitchell's peak is being constructed rapidly. The Blatherskite Railroad. This road has been build- ing (in the newspapers) for ten years or more, but never hauls any freight or passengers. It is quiescent until there is talk of a bona fide railroad, and then it develops a state of activity and construction (still in the newspapers) wherever it is pro- posed to locate such new railway. NOTES. 'From Asheville's Centenarj-. sHill's, p. 259. 'Col. Wm. H. Thomas ^^as more active ia securing this amendment than anyone else. ^Harrison's Legal History of the Lines of the Southern Railway. 'Under the act incorporating the Western North Carolina R. R., commissioners were appointed to take subscriptions to the capital stock in Salisbut y, Lincolnton, Newton, Statesville, Henderson ville, Lenoir, Boone, Taylorsville , Morganton, Marion, Rutherford- ton, Shelby, Mocksville, and Asheville. The act provided for the construction of a rail- road to effect a communication between the North Carolina R. R. and the Valley of the Mississippi, no route being specified. *Shipp Fraud Com. Rep., pp. 250 and 307. 'Wm. A. Eliason Testimony, Shipp Fraud Com., p. 357. 8J. W. Wilson before Shipp Fraud Commission, p. 365. 'Harrison's "Legal Histoi y of the Lines of the Southern Railway." •"Fairfax Harrison's "Legal History of the Lines of the Southern Railway." 1 'Letter from Col. A. B. Andrews to J. P. A., July, 1912. •^Fairfax Harrison's " Legal History of the Lines of the Southern Railway." "Letter from Col. A. B. Andrews to J. P. A., .July, 1912. i^These dates are from letter- from Col. A. B. Andrews to J. P. A., dated July 19 and21, 1913. "HS N. C. Reports, p. 59. isLotter of J. F. Hays to J. P. A., 1912. "The Southern's line ha? been extended from Bushnel to Eagle creek, on the Little Tennessee, sixteen miles; but it is used principally for hauling lumber. "The scenery is unsurpassed. CHAPTER XXI NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS The Buck Hotel. This ancient hostelry was built by the late James M. Smith and stood where the new Langren hotel now stands. It was the first hotel west of the Blue Ridge, but when it was built is not stated in Asheville's Centenary (1898), the best authority we have on local ancient history. He was the son of Col. Daniel Smith of New Jersey, who died May 17, 1824, aged 67. James M. was born January 7, 1794, near the present Asheville passenger depot. His mother was Mary, a daughter of William Davidson, a cousin of Gen. William Davidson, who was killed at Cowan's Ford. ^ It was Gen. Davidson's brother Samuel who was killed by the Indians at the head of Swannanoa in 1781-82. James M. Smith married Polly Patton, a daughter of Col. John Patton, who was a mer- chant, hotel keeper, manufacturer, farmer, tanner, large landowner, and very wealthy. The Buck hotel stood till about 1907, when it was removed. The Eagle Hotel. - This was built by the late James Patton, father of the late James W. Patton, and grandfather of the late Thomas W. Patton. He was born in Ireland February 13, 1756, and came to America in 1783. He was a weaver, but soon became a merchant. In 1791 he met Andrew Erwin, who married his sister and became his partner in busi- ness. In 1807 they moved to the Swannanoa at what is known as the Murphy place, where they remained till 1814, when they moved to Asheville, Mr. Patton opening a store and the Eagle Hotel — the central or wooden part. In 1831 he bought and improved the Warm Springs, and died at Ashe- ville September 9, 1846. ' James W. Patton was born Febru- ary 13, 1803, and died in December, 1861. His life was full of good deeds. His son, Thomas W. Patton, was foremost in all good works, and in 1894 came to the rescue of Asheville in a crisis of her affairs as mayor on an independent ticket. The Hot Springs. "The Warm Springs on the French Broad had been discovered in 1778 by Henry Reynolds and Thomas Morgan, two men kept out in advance of the settle- ment to watch the movements of the Indians. They followed (491) 492 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA some stolen horses to the point opposite, and leaving their own horses on the north bank, waded across the river. On the southern shore, in passing through a little branch, they were surprised to find the water warm." "The next year, " says Ramsey, "the Warm Springs were resorted to by inva- lids." Soon after his graduation at Washington College, Tenn., young Z. B. Vance was a clerk at this hotel. * Grant No. 668, dated July 11, 1788, and signed at Fair- field, by Samuel Johnston, governor, conveyed to Gaser Dagg, or Dagy, or Dager, 200 acres of land on the south side of the French Broad river in Green county, including the Warm Springs. ^ This land was then supposed to be in Green county, in what is now Tennessee. William Neilson then acquired an interest in the Springs for on April 27, 1829, Philip Hale Neilson, who appears to have inherited an undivided one- half interest to this property, conveyed it to Green K. Cessna, ^ who with Joseph L. Chunn and wife conveyed the entire property to James W. and John E. Patton, by deed dated December 6, 1831, for $20,662. ^ WiUiam Mathias appears to have kept the Hot Springs before John E. Patton took charge in 1832. He owned it till 1862, when J. H. Rum- bough bought it. He has owned it since. Old Warm Springs. ^ The old Patton hotel at Warm Springs faced the river and was on the left bank, a bridge crossing the French Broad at that point. ^ The thirteen large white pillars in front were very imposing looking, and represented the original States. The Lover's Leap rock was on the right bank of the river, and little less than half a mile above the hotel. It was a sheer precipice thirty or forty feet in height. What is now called Lover's Leap, on the left bank and a mile below, is much higher, but was not so precipitous in former days, the passage of the rail- road necessitating the blasting away of the lower portion of the cliff. Old Man Peters is said to have fallen from it years before the Civil War while coon-hunting, but recovered. The Hale Neilson property was at Paint Rock, and what is still called the Old Love road leaves the river about six miles below Hot Springs and joins the present road up Paint creek twelve miles east of Greenville, Tenn. It appears to be very little traveled these days, and is probably the one Bishop Asbury first used, crossing the French Broad at what is still put down NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS 493 on the United States contour maps as Love's Ferry. Thad- deus Weaver lived at the mouth of Paint creek, and the old Allen House, at the mouth of Wolfe creek, is still standing. The old Neilson hotel at Warm Springs was burned between 1821 and 1840. The present hotel faces the railroad, and has its back to the river. Flat Rock. From that storehouse of information, "Ashe- ville's Centenary" (1898), we learn that in 1828 the turnpike from Saluda gap via Asheville was completed to Warm Springs, and that "brought a stream of travel through west- ern North Carolina." Among these were visitors from Char- leston, S. C, some of whom were attracted by the charming scenery and surroundings of Flat Rock. Charles B. Bar- ing bought land and built there, his deed bearing date September 13, 1830. i« Judge Alitchell King also bought land, his deed being dated October 28, 1829. ^ i There was a small hotel there kept by Williams Brittain, in which they probably stayed till they could build homes of their own. What is now the Major Barker place was the Mollineaux home. Following is from the history of Henderson (town and county) by Mrs. Mattie S. Chandler, written expressly for this work: The home of Judge IMitchell King (who afterward donated the land upon which Hendersonville stands) was one of the very first built at Flat Rock, and numbers of his descendants continue to come there, maintaining handsome homes of their own. This place later passed into the ownership of Col. C. G. Memminger, and is now owned by the Smythes. Count de Choiseul, one of the most famous of these old residents, modeled his dwelling there after the magnificent old French country homes. He lived there many years, until after the death of one of his sons in the War between the States. He then returned to France that his remaining son might in- herit his titles as well as his immense property there. The old Urqhardt home, one time residence of Cora Urq- hardt, now Mrs. James Potter Bro%Mi, is practically unchanged. It belongs to the Misses Norton of Louisville, Ky., who spend the summers there. Charles Baring came to Flat Rock from Charleston in 1820, and built in 1828 what is now the summer home of George J. Baldwin (prominent business man of Savannah). There are a 494 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA number of the descendants of the Barings who have lived for many years in this count}'', and they tell many interesting stories of this family. Charles Baring, member of the Banking firm of Baring Bros,, London, came first to Charleston to negotiate a match between Lord Ashl:)urton and a beautiful English widow then in Charleston, a Mrs. Heyward, sister of Lady Barclay. It proved to be a case of John Alden and Priscilla, he "asked her himself." They were married and early in their married life came to Flat Rock. Airs. Baring was brilliant, clever, well kno^vn in these early days in Charleston as a dramatic writer, and amateur actress. She entertained extensively and brilliantly at Flat Rock, her birthday balls having been quite famous. On this occasion she is said to have invariably worn a remarkalsle costume of purple velvet, wdth headpiece of purple plumes, and many diamonds. Judging from a very handsome portrait of her, now in the possession of a Hendersonville lady of her kin, she must have been very beautiful. Miss Sue Farmer of Hendersonville, daughter of Henry Tudor Farmer, and grand- niece of this lady, has in her possession many of Mrs. Bar- ing's belongings, among which are a quaint old jewel casket with glass handles, with many compartments and little secret drawers and pockets. In the Baldwin home, in what was Mrs. Baring's bedroom, there still remains the curious old wall paper with its designs of the Crusaders. She it was who built the far-famed St. John-in-the- Wil- derness, the Episcopal church at Flat Rock, said to be the oldest of its denomination in the State. Both she and her husband are buried under the floor of this church, and the tablets erected to their memory are in the church. At the age of seventy, Charles Baring was married a second time to a young lady, ]\Iiss Constance Dent, daughter of Com- modore Dent of Charleston. He then built another home, which was knowm for many years as the Rhett place, and on which spot now stands the beautiful new Highland Lake Club, wdth its numerous cottages and buildings, and which on summer evenings presents such a brilliant scene, where hundreds of wealthy visitors come to spend the summer. The well-kno\\Ti old Farmer Hotel was built by Charles Baring, and kept by his nephew and ward, Henry Farmer, for many years. It was perhaps better known as the Flat NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS 495 Rock Inn and gained quite a reputation for the old Southern hospitahty dispensed there. It was built in 1850, and stands practically unchanged; through having fallen into disuse in late years, it has grown rather dilapidated. After Mr. Far- mer's death it was sold to a company of the Charlestonian residents and used as a country club. Henry Tudor Farmer, father of the one named above, was born in England, and though he never lived in Flat Rock for any time he is said to have written some of his later verse there. In "The Nineteenth Century," by Wm. Gilmore Simms, state historian of Southern History, under date of 1869, a very detailed account of his works is given, extracts as fol- lows: "He lived in New York for some time before coming to Charleston. There he made the acquaintance of all the wits about town. He was intimate with Francis, the most famous of reminiscents. He has jested at the Cafe with Hal- leck and Drake of the firm of the 'Croakers.' He knew Bryant and Sands Hillhouse and Percival at their beginnings, and himself published a volume of poems both in New York and London. His work is highly complimented for its skill and dainty imagery, as well as the easy-flowing rhythm." As Seen Through Northern Eyes. In the "Carolina Mountains," we read (p. 112): "Long before the train had surmounted the barrier of Blue Ridge, the beauty and salu- brity of the high mountains had called up from the eastern lowlands people of wealth and refinement to make here and there their summer homes. The first and most important of these patrician settlements was at Flat Rock, the people coming from Charleston, the center of civiHzation in the far South, and choosing Flat Rock because of its accessibility, and because the level nature of the country offered opportunity for the development of beautiful estates and the making of pleasure roads through the primeval forests that in those days had not been disturbed. Into this great, sweet wilder- ness, now quite safe from Indians, these children of fortune brought their servants and their laborers, and selecting the finest sites whence were extensive views of the not too distant mountains, surrounded by the charming growths of the region, m a land emblazoned and carpeted with flowers, built their homes of refuge from the burning heat and equally burning mosquitoes of the coastland. . . . These people drove 496 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA in their own carriages, accompanied by a retinue of servants and provision wagons. . . . This procession up the moun- tains had fewer trappings on the horses and less gayly attired escort than did those of the olden time; but we may be sure that the carriages of the gentlefolk of the eighteenth century were pleasanter conveyances than the mule-litters of the Middle Ages, and we may also be sure that no lovelier faces looked out from the gorgeous retinue on its way across the hills of the past than could be seen in the carriages where sat the ladies of the New World, with their patrician beauty and their gracious manners. And, although the escort of the New World travelers did not number one thousand gayly dressed cavaliers, it consisted of a retinue of those ebony chil- dren of the sun, who loved the pleasant journey, and loved their gentle lords and ladies — for all this happened in those halcyon days 'before the War' when . . . the real 'quality' cherished their slaves and were greatly loved by them. " Distinguished Pioneers. This writer continues: "The Lodge" was built by one of the English Barings, Charles, of bank- ing fame, on which place was a 'tumble -down stile,' like the one near Stratford-on-Avon." "Coming somewhat later, as friends of Mr. Baring," were Mr. Molyneux, British con- sul at Savannah, and Count de Choiseuil, French consul a the same place. "Perhaps the most cherished name of this mountain settlement was that of the Rev. John G. Drayton, for many years rector of St. John-in-the- Wilderness, and to whom the dignified and noble estate of Ravenswood at Flat Rock owes its origin, as well as the wonderful Magnolia Gar- dens on the Ashley river, near Charleston — gardens where one wanders away into a dreamland of flowers unlike any other dreamland in the world. . . . And always when talking to anyone of the old residents of Flat Rock, comes forth the name of Dr. Mitchell C. King, who, for more than half a century, was the greatly beloved physician of the com- munity, and who, while a student at the University of Got- tingen, formed so -(Varm a friendship with a fellow student, known as Otto von Bismarck, that, for many years after, a regular correspondence was carried on 'between them' these letters being carefully preserved by the descendants of the doctor." She also mentions the Memmingers, the Rutledges NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS 497 the Lo^^^^de.s(^s, tlic Elliotts, the Pinckneys, the Midilletons and many others. The Man Who Brought Us to the Springs. '^ Colonel V. Ripley, father of Mrs. Lila Ripley Barnwell, was one of the early settlers in Hendersonville. He was of English descent, his innneiliate branch of the family having come to New Eng- land in 1G30. Colonel Ripley was a native of Virginia, from which state he came to North Carolina when quite a young man. He was a man of wide experience and fine business ability. In 1835 the business of mail contracts, extending from Florida when the state was a territory to the upper part of South Carolina, was almost entirely in his hands. This business w^as continued until June, 1855. His Wife an Authoress. ' - Mr. Ripley's first wife was the daughter of James M. Smith of Buncombe, who was the first white child to be born west of the Blue Ridge in Buncombe county, he having been born on Swannanoa. ' ^ During the War between the States, Col. Ripley was married to Mrs. Mary A. Ewart of Colum- bia, S. C, a lady of great culture, refinement and strong in- tellectuality. In her early years, Mrs. Ripley was an author of considerable distinction, and was a regular contributor to many of the leading magazines and periodicals of her day. Perhaps her most valuable production was "Ellen Campbell, of Kings Mountain," a prize story which was contested for by many of the well known writers of the South. The de- scription of the battle of Kings Mountain in this story is one of the most graphic ever given of that famous engagement. It increased enormously the circulation of the paper in which it was published. She was the author of "Edith Egerton, " "Avalona" and several other novelettes, as also of many beautiful poems. ' ■• Mrs. Lila Ripley Barnwell, her daughter, has been inseparably identified with the later development of Hendersonville; she is well known in western North Caro- lina as a writer, and a broadly public-spirited woman, as well as a friend to all who need a friend — and this is saying much. Cashiers Valley. ^ ^ About 1818 a man named IMillsaps set- tled in the upper end of Cashiers Valley. Soon after that date James McKinney came to the valley and bought the lands then owned by Millsaps. A short time after, John Zachary and sons, Jefferson, Mordecai, Alfred, Jonathan, and w. N. C— 32 498 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Alexander, came to the valley and settled in the lower end thereof. All the Zacharys seem to have been artizans. Alexander was a brick mason and also a brickmaker. He evidently burned the first bricks in the south end of Jackson county. Alfred was a hatter and made both fur and wool hats. It was customary in those days to take coon -skins or lambs -wool to his "shop" to be made up on shares. A good home-made wool or fur hat cost seventy-five cents. Mordecai Zachary was a carpenter and built a fine house for those days. The Zacharys built the first saw-mill in the valley. Cashiers Valley is a mountain plateau of the Blue Ridge 3,400 feet in altitude, from four to five miles long, and a mile and a half wide. Attracted by its climate, freedom from dampness, its utter isolation from the populated haunts of man, the rugged character of its scenery and deer and bear infested wildwoods, years since, wealthy planters of South Carolina drifted in there with each recurring summer. Now a few homes of these people are scattered along the highland roads. One residence, the pleasant summer home of Gen. Wade Hampton, governor of South Carolina in 1876, the earliest settler from the Palmetto State, is situated, as it appears from the road, in the gap between Chimney Top and Brown mountain, through which, twenty miles away, can be seen a range of purple mountains. A grove of pines surrounds the house. Governor Hampton formerly spent the summers here, engaged, among other pastimes, in fishing for trout along the head streams of the Chatooga, which have been stocked with this fish by the Hampton family, and in hunting deer. Chief Justice A. J. Willard of Colum- bia, S. C, afterwards had a residence nearby. Whiteside Cove. ^ ^ The first settler in Whiteside Cove was Barak Norton. He came from South Carolina and settled in the Cove about 1820. Barak Norton and others took up State grant No. 307 on the 24th day of December, 1838. Barak Norton in his own name took up State grant No. 322 on the 27th of December of the same year. His oldest daughter, Mira Norton, took up State grant No. 320 on same date of same year. He lived to the advanced age of 99 or 100 and died at James Wright's, about three miles north of Highlands, near Short Off, in 1868 or NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS 499 1870. His wife, Mary Norton, nee Nicholson, also lived to an advanced age of nearly 100 years. Barak Norton and his wife Mary were strong adherents to the Universalist belief and died strong in the faith. Horse Cove. ^ ^ Soon after the settlement of Whiteside Cove and Cashiers Valley, Horse Cove was settled by George and William Barnes, Mark Burrill and Evan Talley. The Barnes families seem to have been the first to settle there. Gold was discovered about 1840. DuLA Springs. These springs were opened to the public about 1900, and are the property of the Chambers family. There are several houses which afford accommodations for from thirty to fifty people on most reasonable terms. They are about two miles north of Weaverville, which is reached by an electric line from Asheville. Highlands, Macon County. ^ ^ Early in 1875 S. T. Kelsey and C. C. Hutchinson, of Kansas, bought 800 acres of J. W. Dobson, to which land Kelsey moved his family in February, 1875. T. Baxter White of Marblehead, Mass., followed in April. In May Hutchinson and family came, and White became postmaster, and for two years carried the mail in his coat pocket to Horse Cove and back. About 1877 Dr. George Kibbee came from Oregon, and, having been success- ful in treating yellow fever in Knoxville by using rubber beds and cold water baths, he went to New Orleans in 1879 when yellow fever was epidemic there. He contracted the disease there and died. Joseph Halleck of Minnesota, a brother of Gen. W. H. Halleck of the Civil War, kept the first hotel. In 1888-89 the Davis house was opened and was popular till 1909, when Miss Davis, who had kept it admirably, died. John Norton built a store in 1879, and Charles 0. Smith of Indiana bought the Polly Norton farm and lived there till his death. Captain S. P. Ilavenel of Charleston, S. C, came in 1879 and built a beautiful residence on the crest of the Blue Ridge, commanding a fine view, hauling all the lumber, ex- cept that for the frame, from Walhalla, S. C. By the aid of his family a Presbyterian church was built and dedicated by the Rev. Dr. Miller of Charlotte, N. C, in September, 1885. It need not be said that this Uttle community has had excellent schools from the first. A debating society every Friday night used to keep things lively and brought the com- 500 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA munity together. Mr. Kelsey was a practical disciple of good roads, going out and building them himself. Highlands is a fine town. LiNviLLE City. This beautiful little town was built and is owned largely by the Linville Improvement Company, which in 1890 was composed principally of S. T. Kelsey, S. P. Rav- enel and Donald MacRae. They built the Yonahlossee turn- pike from this town to Blowing Rock, about twenty miles distant, at a cost of about $18,000, less than $1,000 per mile. It is the most beautiful and best constructed mountain road in the State. But, at the time it was completed and the Linville River Railroad had reached Pinola and Montezuma, less than two miles distant, there were such serious dissen- sions among the directors of the company that a lawsuit resulted. Until it had been settled it was impossible to give clear title to any of the lots which had been largely advertised for sale. When the trouble was finally adjusted the golden moment had passed. ^ ^ But Blowing Rock had benefited by the construction of the turnpike. There is a nice little inn and a fine lake filled with trout at Linville City. It is within the shadow of the Grandfather mountain and about 4,000 feet above sea level. Blowing Rock. In 1875 WilHam Morris lived at Blow- ing Rock and took a few summer boarders. The fame of his culinary art, or that of his ^\'^fe, spread and brought his place to the attention of the late Senator M. W. Ransom. He bought and built a summer home there. Others followed. The Green Park Hotel, the Watauga Hotel and other fine hostelries were built, and when the Yonahlossee turnpike was completed Blowing Rock was quite popular. There is no finer scenery anywhere, the water is pure and hotels and private boarding houses numerous. The following have fine homes at this charming place: Col. W. W. String- fellow; Miss Esther Ransom, of Weldon; Mr. E. H. Hughes, of Charleston, S. C; Prof. W. J. Martin, of Davidson Col- lege; Rev. C. G. Vardell, of Red Springs; Mrs. Moses H. Cone, Mr. A. W. Washburn, of Charlotte; Mr. Elliott Dangerfield, of New York; Rev. J. S. Vance, of Nashville, Tenn.; Mr. D. A. Tompkins, of Charlotte; Mr. E. H. Wil- liamson, of Fayetteville; Judge G. W. Gage, of Chester, S. C; Mrs. W. G. Randall, of Greensboro, N. C; Rev. D. E. NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS 501 Snapp, of Baltimore, Mil.; Mr. J. Lamb Perry, of Charleston, S. C; Mrs. W. G. Randall, and many others. Roaring Gap Hotel. Within the last few years Roaring Gap, on the crest of the Blue Ridge and at the head of Roaring river, has become a popular summer resort, with a large and well-arranged hotel, commanding fine views. There are also a number of nice cottages. It is nearly 3,500 feet above sea level. Thompson's Bromine Arsenic Springs. Nine miles from Jefferson is a mineral spring, hotel and outbuildings, situated 3,000 feet above sea level, that is almost a specific for eczema, all forms of skin troubles and all kidney and bladder affec- tions. It can be reached from Troutdale, Va., (leaving Nor- folk & Western train at Marion, Va., for Troutdale) or from Wilkesboro, N. C., on Southern Railway, from which it is distant forty miles. It opens May 15. H. M. Wiley is the proprietor and the postoffice is Grumpier, Ashe county, N. C. Moses H. Cone. He was born at Jonesborough, Tenn., June 27, 1857, and died at Baltimore, Md., December 8, 1908. In September, 1897, he began the acquisition of the 3,500 acres of land which make up what is now Flat Top Manor. ^ ^ He died childless and intestate; but his widow, Mrs. Bertha Lindau Cone, and his brothers, and sisters, Ceasar Cone and wife, Jeannette Cone, L. N. Cone, Julius W. Cone, Bernard M. Cone and wife of Guilford county; Frederick W. Cone, Moses D. Long and his wife, Carrie Cone Long, of Buncombe; Sydney M. Cone and wife, and C, and E. Cone of Baltimore, Md., in May, 1911, in recognition of "the deep love and last- ing affection" for the people of Watauga of Moses H. Cone, conveyed to the Cone Memorial Hospital, a corporation of Guilford county, the whole of the Flat Top Manor and three smaller tracts which had been acquired by Mrs. Cone since her husband's death — the entire propety, aggregating 3,517 acres — to be called the "Moses H. Cone Memorial Park," to be used as "a park and pleasure ground for the public in perpetuity," in order "to make an everlasting memorial" to the said Moses H. Cone. A life estate in this property is, however, reserved to Mrs. Cone, and a plat of ground 400 feet square in which Moses H. Cone is buried. ^ * There are scores of poor people in Watauga county who will never for- get the goodness of Moses H. Cone. 502 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA The Lindsay Patterson Farms. This gentleman, with his Revolutionary War ancestry, and his estimable Avife, not content with trying to preserve the history of this section, has purchased two fine farms in Watauga, one on Meat Camp creek, five miles north of Boone, containing 350 acres, and the other, eight miles further north, containing 2,000 acres, and lying in Watauga and Ashe counties. This latter is called the Bald Mountain farm, because the mountain on which it lies is largely bare of forests. Grain, hay, potatoes, and vege- tables are produced in abundance on the Meat Camp farm; while horses, mules, cattle, ponies, sheep, hogs, turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens, flourish and grow fat on the other. AsHEviLLE Sulphur Springs. On the last day of February, 1827, Robert Henry and his slave Sam discovered this spring, five miles west of Asheville, and about the year 1830 his son- in-law. Col. Reuben Deaver, built a wooden hotel on the hill above and began taking summer boarders. Such was the patronage that an addition had to be made to the hotel every year. As many as five hundred are said to have been there at one time, and the neighborhood was ransacked for beds, bedding, chairs, and provisions. Most of the visitors came from South Carolina, among whom were the Pinckneys, Elmores, Butlers, Pickenses, Prestons, Alstons, Kerrisons, and others. Mr. John Keitt was the first person buried on Sul- phur Springs hill, August 27, 1836. ^ ^ The fact that the Pinck- neys were almost constant visitors accounts for the prevalence of the given name Pink in the neighborhood of Asheville. The Alstons reserved the corner rooms on the second floor from May till frost every season. Besides the hotel, an L-shaped building, there were cabins on the grounds. There were bowling alleys, billiard tables, shuffle-boards and other games. A large ball-room and a string band, composed of free negroes from Charleston and Columbia, provided the music for dancing. One of these negroes was named Randall, who had been presented with a purse of 85,000 by the white people of South Carolina for having given information about a con- templated negro insurrection at Charleston;-" and another of these musicians was named Lapitude, who OA\Tied a plan- tation near Charleston and forty slaves. He was a man of some education, and the manner of a Chesterfield. ^ ^ From its opening till 1860 there were more summer visitors at NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS 503 Deaver's Springs than in Asheville. Col. James M. Ray gives us this picture of Asheville sixty years ago: "Well, what of Asheville in these long past years? It was about like Leicester or Marshall — a very small village on the 'turn- pike,' midway between the two Greenvilles. The two 'ho- tels'. Eagle, and Buck, even many years later, not doing near the business of many of the country inns or stock stands on the Warm Springs road. For anyone to stop at either of these two hotels longer than for dinner or for the night was not thought of; though a few summer visitors would sometimes make a short stop in passing through to Deaver's Springs or to Warm Springs, Wade Hampton and others with fast teams driving from Asheville to Warm Springs for dinner. " ^ 2 Xhe old hotel was burned in December, 1862, was rebuilt by E. G. Carrier — of brick this time — in 1887, and known, first as Carrier's Springs and then as The Belmont. It was again burned in September, 1891, while under the management of Dr. Carl Von Ruck. From 1889 till 1894 an electric railway ran from Asheville to the spring, but it was abandoned. Cloudland Hotel. In 1878 Gen. J. H. Wilder of Knox- ville built a hotel on the top of the Roan mountain and opened it for guests, having previously constructed a wagon road from Roan Mountain Station on what is now the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad. Later he built a much larger hotel, which met a public want admir- ably, as it afforded sufferers from hay-fever immediate relief. It is built across the State line between Tennessee and North Carolina, and guests frequently sleep with one part of their bodies in one state and the rest in the other. It was very popular till a few years ago, when it was closed, but will soon be reopened. Eagle's Nest, near Waynesville, has divided this patron- age with the Cloudland since 1900. In the year 1900 Mr. S. C. Satterthwait of Waynesville built a hotel on top of one of the highest of the Balsams, calling the range the Junaluskas. It is five miles from Waynesville and is reached by a good wagon road. It is 5,0.50 feet above sea-level, and is one of the hay-fever resorts in this section, Cloudland hotel on the Roan, 6,000 feet, being the only other. Tents supplement the rooming accommodations when desired. Accommodations for about 100 guests. The magnificent Plott Balsam mountain is in full view. 504 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Balsam Inn. Soon after the completion of the railroad to Balsam gap, seven miles west of Waynesville, Christie Broth- ers of Athens, Ga., opened a railroad eating house at that point, and furnished venison, wild turkey and mountain trout and the best cuisine in the State. They had only rough and small houses, and did not seek any patronage except from railroad passengers. But about 1905 a large and commodi- ous hotel was erected there, with accommodations for many guests. Baths, acetylene lights, music and other attractions keep the hotel filled during the summer season. Our First Landscape Architect. Our first settlers sought house sites near springs, caring little for views or being viewed. Knolls and commanding eminences were too far from water, as a rule, and required a climb up-hill to reach. In 1821 the late Dr. J. F. E. Hardy came to Asheville from Newberry District, S. C, where he had been born in 1802. His first residence was on the southwest corner of Eagle and South Main streets, at one time the finest residence in Ashe- ville, where he resided for fifteen years after his marriage to Miss Jane Patton in 1824, In 1840 he married Miss Erwin of Morganton, and soon afterwards moved to Swannanoa Hill at the corner of Biltmore road or South Main street and the Swannanoa river. This is on a hill, and the roads and approaches, lined with white pines, cedars and other trees and shrubbery, still make this one of the prettiest places in this section. But when he first improved it, it was far in advance of anything theretofore seen in these parts. It commands a fine view. Here he hved till 1860, when he bought Belle- view on the eastern side of South Main street, another com- manding hill with a splendid view. The winding roadway, bordered by pines and cedars, which led from the road to the house, is still intact except at the lower end, where the former road, now street, has been dug down far below its former level, leaving the entrance to the approach road high in the air. INIrs. Bucannon now o\\tis this property. Soon after the Civil War Dr. Hardy built the brick house on the west side of the Hendersonville road beyond Biltmore, which com- manded another fine view. Here he died at the age of eighty. He was one of the most eminent physicians of his day. He was of commanding presence, with the manner of a lord. At his home was dispensed much of the hospitality for which NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS 505 this section was noted, distinguished strangers finding tliere entertainment and intelligence at least equal to that of larger places. His son, Dr. J. (letUlings Hardy, succeeded to his practice, and no call ever went unanswered by him. BiLTMORE, Soon after the opening of the Battery Park Hotel Mr. George W. Vanderbilt of New York visited Ashe- ville and was at once struck with its possibilities. He tried at first to secure Fernihurst, owned by Mrs. J. K. Connally, but failing, turned his attention to the land south of the Swannanoa and east of the French Broad. Charles McNamee, Esq., a lawyer of New York, and a kinsman, first took options and deeds in his own name ; but it soon became noised about that he was buying for Mr. Vanderbilt and prices began to soar. The first deed recorded is from J. G. Martin, trustee and commissioner, to the Williams property, and is dated September, 1889, followed by many others till the 16th of June, 1890, when Henry Allen White conveyed 134 acres directly to Mr. Vanderbilt, after which there was no attempt to disguise the fact that this gentleman, " having all the world before him where to choose," had chosen Buncombe as the site of his future home. The influence of this choice on the outside world was immense. These purchases of small tracts have resulted in the accumulation of about 12,500 acres in what is called Biltmore House tract, and about 100,000 acres in Buncombe, Transylvania and Henderson counties in. what is known as Pisgah Forest. The services of Frederick Law Olm- stead, the distinguished landscape architect of New York, were secured, and he planned the roads, bridges, forests, lakes, water- falls, etc., on the Biltmore House tract. Those roads are un- surpassed by even the drives in Central Park, New York, being kept in perfect condition at all times. Biltmore house was begun in 1891 and completed in 1896. This house was modeled after Chateau Blois, France; and the Rampe Douce, or gentle slope, immediately in front of the house l)ut Ijeyond the la^\^l known as the Esplanade, is a close imitation of a like construction at Vaux le Vicomte, France. The garden to the right of the front of the house and on a lower level than the esplanade is called the "walled garden," and the stone images or sphinxes on the four gate posts at the entrances were brought from Egypt, and are the busts of women on the bodies of lions couchant. They are said to be of great 506 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA age. Fine tapestries, paintings, statuary and other objects of art, with a large library of rare books, have been gathered into the house. Fountains, conservatories, dairies, vegetable gardens, model farms, and other attractions add to the beauty and charm of the place, probably the finest private residence in America. Birds and wild animals are protected on this estate, and on the lakes wild ducks are seen in \vinter when they cannot be found on the rivers nearby. Pisgah Forest was bought for its forests, and Hon. Gifford Pinchot was placed in charge as forester. Pisgah Forest. Mr. Vanderbilt was the first to see the paramount necessity for forest conservation. Pisgah Forest prospered under the expert guidance of Mr. Pinchot till he was succeeded by Mr. Schenck, who for years con- ducted a school of forestry. Biltmore village, at the end of South Main street of Asheville, is planned after English villages, with the ivied church, the hedges and the "simple village green." But it is not probable that any English vil- lage is as spick and span as Biltmore is every day, where streets, lawns, hedges, sidewalks, drains and shrubbery are constantly on dress parade — an object lesson in municipal government without politics. The National Park Commission and Mr. Vanderbilt could not agree on a price for Pisgah Forest in June, 1913, but after Mr. Vanderbilt's death, March 5, 1914, his widow sold the entire tract. "The Beautiful Sapphire Country." The completion of the railroad to Lake Toxaway in 1900 led to the following developments, and were due largely to the energy and enter- prise of Mr. J. F. Hays : The Toxaway property as a whole was made up of property purchased from the receivers of the Sapphire Valley Company, and other smaller properties. The Fairfield Inn, on Lake Fairfield, was built, together with the dam for the lake, in 1896. The Franklin Hotel at Brevard, which was a part of this same operation, was built in the year of 1900. Later the Franklin was sold to a Mr. Robinson and associ- ates, of Charlotte, N. C, and they are at present owners of that property. The Toxaway property was sold in 1911 under foreclosure, and is now held as the property of Mr. E. H. Jennings of Pittsburgh, Pa. Toxaway Inn, as well as Fairfield Inn, and The Franklin, had their greatest success in the years 1904-1907. NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS 507 Waynesville White Sulphur Spring. This spring was discovered by "Uncle" Jerry, a slave of the late James R. Love, in 1845 or 184G. Col. Love soon after built a large residence there, which he occupied till his death in 1SG4. It was burned in August, 1885. Col. W. W. Stringficld, who had married his daughter Maria, Ijuilt a brick hotel on the site of this residence after it had been burned, about 1880.^' It is now owned by Ben Johnston Sloan. It is less than one mile from Waynesville. Epp's Spring. This was the property of the late Epp Everett of Bryson City, and is about five miles from that town on the right bank of the Tuckaseegee river, at the mouth of Cane Brake branch. It is a chalybeate spring, and there are one or two cabins there. Old Valley Town Tavern. This famous hostelry was kept by the late Mrs. Margaret Walker for a number of years after the Civil War, and was popular with lawyers and their clients. Although there was no court house there, the lawyers would hurry through Graham, Cherokee and Clay county courts in order to get to spend as much time at this hotel as possible. The Langren Hotel. This fine structure of reinforced concrete was finished and thrown open July 4, 1912. It is near the Pack Square, Asheville, and stands on the much litigated Smith property on the corner of North Main and College streets, where formerly stood the old Buck hotel. It is a commercial and tourist hotel, and popular. Kenilworth Inn. This handsome hotel was opened about 1890. It stood on the eminence above the junction of South Main street and the Swannanoa river road, and from it Craggy and the Blacks were visible. It was popular until its de- struction by fire at 3 a. m., April 14th, 1909, J. M. Gazzam of Philadelphia, chief owner, escaping at the risk of his life and the expense of great injuries from which he afterwards re- covered. It was insured for S70,000. Oakland Heights. This hotel was built by the late Alex- ander Garrett and his son, Robert U. Garrett, in 1889. It afterwards became a girls' school, and then a hotel, having passed into the hands of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions. It then became Victoria Inn, and during 1911 was purchased by the Catholic Church and is now St. Gene- vieve's College, a most excellent school for girls. 508 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA The Grand Central Hotel. This was built by the late S. H. Chedester. It was afterwards operated as the Hotel Berkeley, but in 1911 was converted into a department store by Solomon Lipinsky. Margo Terrace. This home-like hotel was built by ]Miss Gano in 1889. In 1904 it became the property of Pat Branch, who in 1912 doubled its capacity and greatly improved its outward appearance. Vance's Monument. This handsome granite column was erected on the PubUc Square at Asheville in 1897, George W. Pack, after whom the Square was soon named, having con- tributed S2,000 — and the public, SI, 300 — for its erection to the memory of Zebulon Baird Vance, Buncombe's most dis- tinguished and honored citizen and great "War Governor." George W. Pack Memorial Library. This was estab- lished in 1879, and had many homes before the late George W. Pack donated the fine building on Pack Square in 1899. Battery Park Hotel. Having a railroad did not by any means complete Asheville's happiness; for it had no hotel accommodations at all commensurate with the tide of travel which immediately set in. At this juncture came the late Col. Frank Coxe, who built the present Battery Park Hotel. It was opened July 12, 1886, with Col. C. H. Southwick manager. It has remained the principal hotel of Asheville ever since. It has been twice enlarged and frequently im- proved. For several years it was managed by the late E. P. McKissick. It is a credit to this community, and has become an indispensable asset. The Telegraph Line. The first telegraph line reached Asheville July 28, 1877, with Samuel C. Weldon as operator. Through the efforts of the late Capt. C. M. McLoud, the line was soon afterwards extended to Hendersonville. Then Mr. Weldon became the owner and operator thereof till the railroad company took it off his hands. Other Enterprises. The Asheville Cemetery Company was incorporated August 4, 1885; the Telephone Company, October 1, 1885; the Western North Carolina Fair, January 30, 1884; the Gas and Light Company, May 25, 1886. In 1887 Alex, and R. U. Garrett built the Oakland Heights Hotel. The Swannanoa Hotel was completed in 1879 and opened for business in the summer of 1880. NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS 509 AsHEViLLE Street Railway. This most necessary com- mon carrier was built by Dr. S. Westray Battle, James G. Martin, W. T. Ponniman, and E. D. Davidson, the latter of New York, and began to run in January, 18S9. It failed in 1893 and was sold out in 1894, and bid in by White Brothers of New York. It finally went into the Asheville Electric Company's properties, and is now part of the Asheville Power and Light Company. "The Drummer's Home." This hotel at Murphy, pre- sided over by Mrs. Dickey for years, has made a name for itself that will endure. It was for years the most popular house west of Asheville. West Asheville. In 1885 Mr. Edwin G. Carrier and fam- ily moved to Asheville from ^Michigan. He soon afterwards bought several hundred acres of land west of the French Broad river, including the Sulphur Springs and the J. P. Gaston tracts of land. In 1887 he built a large brick hotel on the site of the wooden structure that was burned during the Civil War, and soon thereafter, 1891, constructed an electric rail- way from Asheville to Sulphur Springs, crossing the French Broad river near the mouth of the Swannanoa on a fine steel bridge. This railway first ran only to the passenger station; but, on October 13, 1891, it was granted a franchise by the city to extend its line through Depot street, Bartlett street and French Broad avenue to the corner of West College and North Main streets. It stopped, however, at what is now the corner of Haywood street and Battery Park Place, then called Government street. It was called the West Asheville and Sulphur Springs Railway Company. A race track was established just south of Strawberry Hill and between the Sulphur Springs railway and French Broad river. A grand-stand was erected and a high fence built around the race track. There were several exciting races, all of which were well attended. Sunset Mountain. During the summer of 1889, Capt. R. P. Foster and the late W^alter B. Gwyn, Esq., completed a railway from Charlotte street to a point on Sunset mountain, knoAATi as the "Old Quarry," near which is a fine spring, and from which can be had one of the finest views in this section. This road was operated by a small steam engine, called a "dummy," and was chartered as the "Asheville & Craggy 510 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Mountain Railway Company," its objective being the top of Craggy mountain. On November 28, 1890, the city granted this company a charter to build its track and operate its cars along Charlotte street northward to the city limits in that direction. This line was quite popular. Richard S. Howland. In 1904 Lewis Maddux, as receiver of the Asheville Street Railway Company, strung a trolley wire from Chestnut street along Charlotte street to what used to be kno^vn as the "Golf Club" and operated cars to that point by an arrangement with Mr. Gwyn. In 1901 Richard S. Howland, Esq., came from Providence, R. L, and bought property near the foot of Sunset mountain and erected a fine residence there. He acquired control of the Craggy Mountain Railway and completed it to the top of the mountain, where he erected a music and dance hall. He also obtained the right to operate his cars to the public square. The terminus of the railroad was called Overlook Park. CoGGiNS Springs. These springs are near Bull creek, and are chalybeate and sulphur water. There are no hotels or boarding places, except farm houses, near. They are about eight miles east of Asheville. The Grove Park Hotel. This unique and costly series of grottoes, built of rough mountain rock, was completed in 1913 (July), in the E. W. Grove park, near Asheville. It is said to have cost one million dollars. Asheville's Gravity Line. During Mayor jNIiller's ad- ministration Charles T. Rawls was chairman of the finance committee, and was most active and energetic. He visited Atlanta and studied the system of municipal government of that city and succeeded in getting its best features adopted by Asheville, especially the manner of keeping the books and accounts. At his instance, and largely through his influence, the city voted $200,000 of four per cent bonds for the adoption of a gravity water works system, by which the water of the North Fork of theSwannanoa river is conveyed through a sixteen- inch pipe to the city. The contract for constructing this line was awarded to M. H. Kelly in August, 1903. The city ac- quired about 9,500 acres of land above the intake on which there is no human habitation. Certain patriots did what they could to force the city to pay them an exorbitant price for land claimed or controlled by them, and litigation followed. NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS 511 The city finally got this land at a reasonable price. The re- turns from this water system, after all expenses have been paid, are sufficient to pay the interest on the city's entire bonded debt of about one million dollars. Mr. Rawls was elected mayor, but his health temporarily broke do^^^l before his time expired. He got the legislature to authorize the aldermen to tax the cost of building sewers on the abutting property instead of paying for them out of the general fund. ^^ The result has been the most complete and satisfactory sewer system in the South. Col. James G. Martin. He was a son of Gen. James G. Martin, and from 1885 to 1893, when he removed to New York City, was the leader in most of the public enterprises in Asheville and Western North Carolina. He died in 1912, aged about 59 years. He was a most useful citizen. George Willis Pack, of Cleveland, Ohio, was a most generous friend to Asheville, having donated 11 acres of land for Aston Park, about four acres for a court house, a kinder- garten school, a library building, and most of the money for the Vance ]\Ionument. NOTES. 'AsheWUe's Centenary. 2Ibid. >Ibid. *J. H. Wheeler's " Reminiscenses. " 'Buncombe County Deed Book A, p. 491. •Ibid, Deed Book No. 16, p. 74. 'Ibid, p. 413. 'Statements of Captain B. F. Patton, March 25, 1913. He spent his boyhood at Old Warm Springs. Mrs. M. A. Chambers of Columbia, S. C, now in her uin 'tieth year, remem- bers visiting this hotel, Hickorj' Xut Falls, r.nd Flat Rock, when a girl, about 1833. 'Charles Dudley Warner ("On Horsehack," p. 135), in 1884, called this hotel "a pala- tial hovel." '"Buncombe County Deed Book No. 16, p. 375. "Ibid, p. 193. '^From Mrs. Mattie Smathers Chandler's history of Henderson county. ".As Ashe county was settled in 1755, according to Wheeler's History (p. 27), many white children were born in that county years before James M. Smith was born in Bun- combe county. i