USA > North Carolina > Watauga County > A history of Watauga County, North Carolina. With sketches of prominent families > Part 11
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A History of Watauga County
Methodist Church, which was soon afterwards erected (Deed Book Z, p. 142). The first Methodist Church at Hopewell was a small log house which stood in rear of the present home of Wiley W. Blackburn on the land of Joseph Miller. It had been built by Levi Blackburn and his sons about 1850, but afterwards a frame church was erected 100 yards above the site of the first log structure. This stood till about 1900, when the present house was built about 300 yards from the former. As well as Rev. Lorenzo Dow Cole, who for years has been the chaplain of the Nimrod Triplet Camp, Confed- erate States Veterans, now recalls, the first Methodist preacher in this county found Aunt Elizabeth Cooper on Meadow Creek, away back in the earliest days, and left an appointment at her house, and when Cyrus A. Grubb was a boy they were preaching in an out-house in her yard. Out of this in 1885 grew the pres- ent Cranberry Church. One of the earliest churches built was at John Morphew's, and later on near Laxton's Creek. About 1875 the Blackburns and Grahams built a church at Todd. It is called Blackburn Chapel. Rev. James Daly, Joseph Haskew and Clawton were presiding elders prior to the Civil War. Among the preachers who have served the Methodist Churches since the war are Messrs. George Stewart, G. W. Miles, L. L. Cralock, B. W. S. Bishop, Taylor, Wheeler, Cook, Cordell, Blair, Bagley, Vestal, Jones and Bennett.
A Family of M. E. Church Preachers .- William Matney and John Wright with their families came from England to America just after the close of the Revolutionary War and settled in Virginia, near the James River, William finally locating in Pittsylvania County, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a strict John Wesley type of a Methodist. Two of his children, John and James, are remembered yet by his North Carolina descendants, John having married Nancy Wright, a daughter of John Wright above named, and after a few years removed from Pittsylvania to a farm near the Moravian Falls, in Wilkes County, and, after most of his children were grown, he sold this farm and moved to Caldwell. He had a large family of children, was a scholarly man for his day, taught
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A History of Watauga County
school, conducted religious services and was an effective, old- time Methodist exhorter. All of his five boys married except one who died at fourteen, while all of his seven girls followed their example, one of them marrying Adam Hampton, of Watauga, and the others Caldwell and Wilkes County men. John Matney's eldest son, William, settled in Missouri; John was killed at the battle of Gettysburg, while James and Thomas became itinerant Methodist preachers of the M. E. Church. Thomas came to Watauga County just after the close of the Civil War, and James followed in 1871, both preaching in the bounds of the Blue Ridge circuit. James Matney organized six of the churches of this circuit, the first having been in 1865 and in the home of Samuel Brown, the grandfather of R. M. Brown. Thomas Matney had eight boys, six of whom were preachers. Two have died and two others have gone to other States, while two still remain members of the Blue Ridge Atlantic Confer- ence. Thomas Matney died at Montezuma, now in Avery County, while James Matney died at his home in Watauga, February 28, 1914, aged ninety-one years, his widow and three children still residing here. One son, Prof. W. W. Matney, resides in Asheville. The men of this family seem specially called to preach, and all are law-abiding citizens and friends of education, temperance and progress.
Methodist Episcopal Churches .- This branch of the Meth- odist Church did not begin its work in this section till after the close of the Civil War. There is a church of this denomination on the Blue Ridge, known as Brown's Chapel, and others at the mouth of Grassy Creek, on the head of Valley Creek and at Silverstone, and the Pine Grove Methodist Church one mile from Antioch Baptist Church on lower Watauga.
Primitive Baptists .- For years this church, also called Hard Shells, Anti-missionary, etc., Baptists, were the prevailing de- nomination of this entire mountain country. They were the pioneers and fought the first battles with sin in this wilderness, led by preachers who refused all compensation for their services as ministers of the gospel. A church of that faith is still flour-
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A History of Watauga County
ishing on the upper Watauga, near Shull's Mills. It seems that the real name of this denomination is simply "Baptists."
The Presbyterian, Southern .- There is a flourishing church of this denomination at Banner's Elk, which was established there about 1900, and another at Blowing Rock, established in 1898. That there are schools with both these churches goes without saying, as with this denomination beside the foundation stone of Christ and Him crucified is always laid still another foundation stone, EDUCATION. The good work these churches are doing is simply incalculable. With them, faith without works is dead, while to be in true fellowship with them, one must prove his faith by his works. Schools, hospitals, orphanages, domestic science and other practical and helpful enterprises, signalize this denomination wherever it is found. Gradually the descendants of the old Scotch Covenanters are returning to the home of their great-great-grandfathers, always to remain.
The Lutherans .- This church is the Protestant Church of Germany, having been founded long before Henry the Eighth established the Church of England. Martin Luther believed that the people were entitled to read and interpret the entire Bible, and to that end defied the Diet at Worms with words that will live forever: "Here I stand, God helping me. I can do no otherwise." The large German and Dutch element of our population required a church of this character, and one was established at Valle Crucis before Bishop Ives arrived in 1842. Among these were William Van Dyke, Andrew and Alexander and James Townsend, Harvey Hollers, Samuel Lusk, members of the Herman family, and David Shook, all Lutherans. Their church stood to the left of the road going from Mast's store at Valle Crucis toward the Mission School, in a little flat above Dr. Perry's, nearly opposite the site of the first Methodist Church. It was here that Christian Moretz preached, while others came occasionally. It is mentioned in the "Life of W. W. Skiles" that members of this church worshipped with the Valle Crucis Mis- sion during the time of Bishop Ives. Timothy Townsend is now a vestryman of the Episcopal Church at Valle Crucis. Prior to the establishment of this church at Valle Crucis, about 1845,
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A History of Watauga County
according to Alfred J. Moretz, his father, John Moretz, estab- lished the first Lutheran Church in the county, near Soda Hill, in a small school house. This church was visited in summer months by Lutheran ministers from Lincoln, Iredell and Catawba counties. These preached at first in German. Among the first of these preachers were Alfred J. Fox, of Lincoln ; Jonathan and Timothy Mosers, of Catawba, and Father Henry Goodman, of Iredell, and Adam Elfird, of Lincoln. The first sermon was preached at Lookabill school house. The Lutheran Church was not built there till after the Civil War, say, 1866 or 1867. A new church replaced the first about 1890. Another Lutheran Church was built about 1900 at the head of Meat Camp Creek. There is also one on Dutch Creek at Valle Crucis, while there is a small congregation at Gap Creek. The Moretz, Wine- barger, Woodring and Davis families, of Meat Camp, were at- tendants of these churches. There is a German Reformed Church at Blowing Rock, with Rev. John Ingle as pastor. The Lutherans, under the leadership of Rev. Mr. Carpenter, are pre- paring to build a church edifice in Boone.
The Episcopalians .- In addition to the facts stated in Chap- ter VII, it should be recorded that on June 26, 1882, the late D. B. Dougherty conveyed to the Diocese of North Carolina a lot in Boone opposite the late Dr. W. B. Councill's home place. (Deed Book "J," page 488.) Shortly thereafter George W. Councill was given the contract to build the present St. Luke's Church. After Mr. Savage's arrival, in 1903, a vestibule and chancel were added to the original building.
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CHAPTER X. County History.
Formation of the County .- In 1848 George Bower, called "Double Head" because of his wisdom and farsightedness, was in the State Senate from Ashe, and Reuben Mast in the House. Bower lived in Jefferson, while Mast lived near Valle Crucis, thirty-five miles from the county-seat, which rendered it very inconvenient for him and his neighbors to attend court. As Ashe County embraced in its limits not only what is now Watauga, but the present county of Alleghany also, it could very well spare the southern portion, which was too remote for con- venience. Besides, Jordan Councill, Jr., lived in the territory which it was sought to detach from the mother county, and his influence, which was great, was thrown for the new county. As he was the brother-in-law of Senator Bower, he naturally "had the ear of the court." A bill for a new county was, ac- cordingly, introduced in the legislature and passed in 1849.
Jordan Councill, Jr.'s, Influence .- This gentleman for years kept the only store in this section. He fixed prices of all things in which he dealt. He bought large steers for as low as nine dollars each, and drove them and the larger cattle to the Valley of Virginia, frequently accompanied by his brother-in-law, George Bower. From Virginia they went north and bought their stocks of goods, shipping them by water to Richmond, Va., and from there by canal boat to Lynchburg, from which point they were brought by wagon to Boone and Jefferson. Other goods were shipped by water to Fayetteville, from which they were brought by wagon to Boone. Councill would load wagons with deer hams and hides, butter, cranberries, dried fruit, bees- wax, tallow, etc., and, drawn by six horses, these wagons were hauled to Charleston, S. C. With the wagon train went droves of mules and horses, which were sold along the road to planters and goods purchased with the proceeds. He unwittingly hauled
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A History of Watauga County
a rat in a goods box from Charleston to Boone on one occasion. He drove cattle-fat cows and heifers-to Charlotte and Con- cord. Large droves of cattle, horses and mules passed through Boone from Kentucky to the South and East before and since the Civil War. Hogs were driven through before, but not since, the Civil War. When the location of the county seat was to be determined it was the influence of Jordan Councill, Jr., that fixed it near his store and dwelling. Some wanted the court house at Brushy Fork and others at Valle Crucis. It would most probably have been located at the Muster Ground, half a mile east of Boone, if Benjamin Councill, Sr., had been willing to donate the ground for that purpose, but as Ransom Hayes and Jordan Councill, Jr., were willing to donate twenty-five acres each, it was determined to locate the court house where F. A. Linney's residence now stands, Hayes deeding twenty-five acres between the branch above Blackburn's hotel, then called Upper Branch, and the branch that flows by the new post office, then called the Middle Branch, and Councill a like amount of land between the Middle and Lower Branches, as the stream that flows west of the Critcher hotel-the old Coffey hotel-was called.
Three New England Visitors .- Watauga has had three dis- tinguished visitors from New England: Dr. Elisha Mitchell, of the North Carolina University; Charles Dudley Warner, and Miss Margaret W. Morley. To our everlasting regret, we pleased only that last of these, but, as she was the most recent, it is hoped that we had improved since the visits of the other two. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend," said Solomon thousands of years ago. If so, then Dr. Mitchell and Mr. Warner were our friends indeed, for they "spoke right out." As Dr. Mitchell's remarks were in letters to his wife and not intended for the public, nothing he wrote rankles, but while we are anxious to attribute the Warner strictures to dyspepsia, he certainly "stuck to what he said," having preserved what he wrote for Harper's Magazine in 1884, and repeated it in book form (On Horseback) in 1888.1 He certainly flayed us, sparing
1 "On Horseback."
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A History of Watauga County
nothing and nobody. And if, in this Land of the Sky, he saw a bird or a bee or a sunbeam; if a single pleasant odor from the chalices of the wild flowers was wafted to his nostrils, if a bird sang within his hearing or a child's prattle appealed to him once during the whole of that two hundred miles' journey through the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina in the liquid gold of our summer sunlight, he left no record of it in the saturnine account of his trip which he published to the world. On the other hand, Miss Morley, who passed over a part of this same route a few years later, saw the sunshine imprisoned in our flowers, heard the strains of invisible choirs in babbling brook and singing bird, and recognized angel faces in the countenances of little children clinging to those whom Mr. Warner called their "frowsy" mothers.2 Mr. Warner's chief trouble seemed to be flies. Whenever he stopped, there seemed to him to be nothing but flies. They were not only in the ointment, but in the amber also. And no wonder, for on leaving Abingdon, Va., the saddle he rode was discovered to have been smeared the previous winter with tallow. Seat, pommel, cantle, stirrup leathers and saddle skirts, all had been covered with tallow, which had been well rubbed in when they were put away the winter before. Mr. Warner discovered this before he started on his journey, and bought white overalls, which served to protect his trousers from the grease. This grease, mixed with the dust of the road, at- tracted the flies, and hinc ille lacrima, or words to that gen- eral effect.
Dr. Mitchell's Geological Tour.ยช-In July, 1828, this gentle- man of New England birth and North Carolina adoption, for he was then a slave-owner, made a tour of the mountain coun- ties at the expense of the State, and "determined" several speci- mens of minerals that were submitted to him. He passed over the Ballou iron mines, the Ore Knob copper mines, the mica mines near Beaver Creek, the porcelain clay on Howard's Creek, and was near the Elk Mountain copper vein; he visited the
2 "The Carolina Mountains," Houghton-Mifflin Co., Boston, 1913.
" This diary was published by the University of North Carolina in its James Sprunt Historical Monograph, No. 6, 1905. It should be widely read.
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A History of Watauga County
Grandfather and did not recognize the tamarack tree nor the great age of the rocks of that ancient pile, thinking they "be- longed to the transition of Tennessee," whatever that may or may not mean. But he made no report of his journey and seemed never to have suspected that copper, iron and mica of great wealth and abundance existed at the points indicated. But he did find fault with one of our ladies because she wiped her soiled hands on her clean apron just before she began to mix the meal for his bread, and called some of the women with whom two hunters were living illicitly "schquaws, very pretty ones, but schquaws notwithstanding." He visited Robert Shearer's, where he met his "pretty daughter and her husband, a good-hearted fellow, not half good enough for her." He preached at Three Forks Baptist Church, stopped at Jordan Councill's store, which he found open on Sunday, and visited Noah Mast, David Miller and several others.
The Tennessee Boundary Line .- In 1784 North Carolina passed an act to give Congress twenty-nine million acres lying between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi River. Congress needed the money with which to pay off debts incurred during the Revolutionary War, but that was not the principal reason for the cession of this great territory, much of the best portions of which had been already granted to settlers. Up to that time the people of the ceded territory had presented many claims for com- pensation for military services, supplies, etc., in campaigns against the Cherokees, in the strict justness of which the mother State did not altogether believe. On the score of poverty North Carolina had refused to establish a Superior Court in this terri- tory, called the Watauga Settlement, or to appoint a prosecuting officer. The four counties comprising the settlements west of the mountains were Davidson, Washington, Sullivan and Greene, and their representatives voted in the legislature for the ces- sion. The act of cession provided, however, that the sovereignty and jurisdiction of North Carolina should continue over the ceded territory until it should be accepted by Congress, and made the act void if Congress should not accept the gift within two years. As most of the Watauga settlers were originally
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A History of Watauga County
from Virginia, the majority were anxious for an excuse to with- draw from North Carolina and set up a government of their own. The result was the attempt to establish the independent State of Franklin, with John Sevier at its head. This attempted secession failed and North Carolina resumed full jurisdiction over the disputed territory before March, 1788. Congress ac- cepted the cession of the territory, and in 1796 the State of Tennessee was organized. In 1796 North Carolina ordered a survey of the boundary line between the two States.
Boundary Line and Land Grant Disputes .- Any map of North Carolina will show that the line between it and Ten- nessee runs due south from the Hiawassee River, instead of following the general southwestern direction with the trend of the mountains. The case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1914, between Tennessee and North Carolina, grew out of a dispute over the line at the head of Telico and Citico Creeks, just north of the Hiawassee River, being what is called the Rainbow Country. Telico and Citico Creeks rise much further east than the points at which the State line crosses those streams, the mountain range bending eastward instead of fol- lowing the general southwestern course of the range. The Supreme Court decision is to the effect that, as it was originally run and marked there, and both States adopted that line soon thereafter as being in accord with the Act of Cession, each State is bound thereby. Why Tennessee consented to this loss of ter- ritory may be accounted for by the fact that the line runs due south from the Hiawassee River to the Georgia line.4 There is, however, no evidence that the commissioners agreed to exchange what North Carolina gained in the "Rainbow" country for what Tennessee gained south of the Hiawassee. But, in making that trade, North Carolina lost the Ducktown copper mines !
Military Land Warrants .- When the Tennessee territory was ceded to Congress the act provided that all military land warrants that had been given to soldiers of the Revolution- ary War, and all entries previously made in the ceded territory,
4 Archibald D. Murphey anticipated trouble on this account because of the claim Tennessee was making in November, 1819, that the mountain range did not extend south of the Hiawasse river. Murphey's papers, Vol. II, p. 190.
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A History of Watauga County
should be reserved for the satisfaction of those warrants and entries in case the holders of the same might not be able to sat- isfy them out of land fit for cultivation in North Carolina. Many of these warrants had not been so satisfied. Congress accepted these conditions. However, in 1803, at the request of Tennessee, North Carolina granted Tennessee power to is- sue grants and perfect titles in this reserved territory as fully as could North Carolina, except that North Carolina reserved the right to issue military warrants exclusively, which act Ten- nessee ratified August 4, 1804, and Congress April 18, 1806. But, as time went on, very little territory was left in Tennes- see except Indian lands, to which the Indian rights had not been extinguished. As, however, North Carolina had exe- cuted to Tennessee title to all the Tennessee territory by deed dated February 25, 1790, Congress, in order to make this power effective, had to cede to the latter State nearly half of the vacant lands within its limits, which it did by the same act by which it had ratified North Carolina's grant in 1803 to Tennes- see of equal power with herself to issue grants and perfect titles, except military warrants, namely the act of April 18, 1806. All the territory to which title still remained in Con- gress was the Chickasaw Indian Reservation, which by treaty of 1818 vested in Congress. Congress then empowered Ten- nessee to satisfy North Carolina claims out of lands lying west and south of the line prescribed in the act of April 18, 1806. North Carolina notified holders of her military warrants of this, and caused the muster roll to be published and transcribed, but went on thereafter to issue additional military warrants until the muster roll had been filled. But, in 1840, some of these mili- tary land warrants and some entries also remained unsatisfied. Tennessee, claiming that she had already provided for all valid military land warrants, refused to made provision for those still outstanding. But this provision had required the submission of such claims to a commission which had been appointed by Ten- nessee alone, and had ceased to exist from October 22, 1822, so that no North Carolina military land warrants issued after that date could be submitted to that commission. Under these cir-
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A History of Watauga County
cumstances Robert Love, of Haywood County, prepared and submitted to Congress a memorial in 1816, and succeeded, ap- parently, in getting these claims satisfied, and another memorial was drawn up and sent to Congress by Archibald Murphey January 29, 1824, according to Murphey's Papers (Vol. II, pp. 320, 328). Many of these military land warrants were held by the descendants of Revolutionary soldiers in Ashe, afterwards Watauga County.
Running the State Line .- As the Cherokees occupied the territory southwest of the Big Pigeon River in what is now Haywood County, no provision was made for running the line beyond that point. Generally speaking, the line was to follow the tops of the Stone, the Smoky and the Unaka Mountains from Virginia to Georgia, but to be surveyed and marked only from Virginia to the Pigeon. The surveying party consisted of Col. Joseph McDowell, David Vance, Mussendine Matthews, speaker of the House, commissioners. John Strother and Robert Henry were the surveyors. The party met May 19, 1799, at Captain Isaac Weaver's, near what is now Tuckerdale, a station on the new Virginia-Carolina Railway, in Ashe County. The chain bearers and markers were B. Collins, James Hawkins, George Penland, Robert Logan, George Davidson and J. Mat- thews. James Neely was commissary. In addition, there were two pack horse men and a pilot. The survey began on the 20th of May and ended the 28th of June, 1799. They camped on the night of the 23d of May in the Cut Laurel Gap, whence they sent John Strother down to David Miller's on Meat Camp to get a young man to act as pilot, but Strother failed to do so, and then went on "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." This road must have been the Indian trail which passed over the low gap between what is now Zionville, N. C., and Trade, Tenn. Traces of this trail can still be seen to the right of the present wagon road. It was this trail that Boone followed on his first trip into Kentucky. The new pilot was discharged on the 28th because he proved "not to be a woodsman;" and on June Ist
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A History of Watauga County
they came to the Wattogoo River. This was a short distance above Watauga Falls, where they killed a lean bear, just out of winter quarters, which they ate "with bacon and johnny cake on Sunday morning." As the act of cession required the line to be run from the "place where the Watauga River breaks through the mountain a direct course to the top of the Yellow Mountain where Bright's Road crosses the same," and as the Yellow was not visible from the river bed, the surveyors had to go back to the peak overhanging the Falls and get the bearing of the Yellow from that point. The diaries of Strother and Henry show that the line was actually run and marked from the Watauga Falls to the top of the Yellow, though a local tradition maintains that the party simply found the easiest path to the top of the Yellow, without surveying or marking a straight line from the point where the river breaks through the mountain. It was here that the Cranberry vein deflected their compasses. It was on Satur- day, June Ist, that they came across a very large rattlesnake, which Strother called a rattlebug. They tried to kill it, but "it was too souple in the heels for us." In Robert Henry's diary he mentions Gideon Lewis as the guide from White Top Mountain to the place where they sent for another, when they got to the head of Meat Camp. One of his descendants, David Lewis, lives near Ashland, and Rev. Gideon Lewis, a Dunkard minister, lives now in Taylor's Valley, Tenn. Most of the Lewises of Watauga are descended from the same Gideon who piloted these surveyors along the State line in 1799.
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