USA > North Carolina > Watauga County > A history of Watauga County, North Carolina. With sketches of prominent families > Part 13
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Thomas Bingham.
J. A. Crisp.
D. B. Phillips.
9 From the "North Carolina Manual."
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A History of Watauga County
1893. W. C. Fields, of Alleghany.
1895. W. H. Farthing, of Watauga.
1897.
J. M. Dickson, of Ashe.
1899.
W. C. Fields, of Alleghany.
190I. 1903. H. M. Wellborn, of Ashe.
1905.
S. A. Taylor, of Alleghany.
1907. E. F. Lovill, of Watauga.
1909. Robert L. Doughton, of Alleghany.
I9II. John M. Wagoner, of Alleghany.
1913. E. S. Coffey, of Watauga.
1915. Robert L. Ballou, of Ashe.
E. F. Lovill.
L. H. Michael. Thomas Bingham.
W. B. Councill, Jr.
L. H. Michael, of Watauga.
William H. Calloway.
Lindsay H. Michael.
C. W. Phipps. W. D. Farthing.
Smith Hageman.
Smith Hageman.
John W. Hodges. A. W. Smith.
Superior Court Clerks .- The first clerk was probably ap- pointed by Judge Anderson Mitchell, who held the first court. A fine cherry tree stands alone in the field near where the old barn stood. The fleas which attended as witnesses, jurors and spectators are still remembered for their cordial reception of their human rivals. The first clerk elected by the people was George M. Bingham, of Cove Creek, but owing to an impedi- ment in his speech, he resigned at the first term, Mr.
McClewee, an attorney resident in Boone at that time, being ap- pointed to fill the unexpired term. This was probably in 1850. Then followed Col. J. B. Todd, Henry Blair, W. J. Critcher, appointed to fill the term for which Col. J. B. Todd had been elected in 1868, but which he could not fill because he could not take the "iron-clad oath" of Reconstruction. Owing to the de- struction of the records when the court house was burned in 1873, it is impossible to give the dates accurately prior to that time, but from then on the records show that J. H. Hardin served from 1874 to 1882; J. B. Todd from 1882 to 1894; M. B. Blackburn from 1894 to 1898; John H. Bingham from 1898 to 1902; Thomas Bingham from 1902 to 1910, and W. D. Farthing from 1910 to the present time, 1915.
The registers of deeds were Rev. Joseph Harrison, from about 1850 to 1860, or thereabout; Rev. D. C. Harman, till 1865; Joseph Harrison, till 1870; W. W. Presnell, from 1870 to 1886;
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A History of Watauga County
Eugene Blackburn, from 1886 till his death, when W. W. Pres- nell was appointed to fill out his term; then came M. B. Blackburn, from 1888 to 1890; then Calvin J. Cottrell, from 1890 to 1894; then John W. Hodges, from 1894 to 1898; then J. M. May, from 1898 to 1908, followed by W. Roy Gragg, from 1908 till now, 1915.
Sheriffs .- Michael Cook, 1849 to 1852; John Horton, 1852 to 1856; D. C. McCanless, 1856 to 1859 (January) ; Sidney Deal, till 1860; A. J. McBride, from 1860 to 1866; 1 Jack Hor- ton, from 1866 to 1876; A. J. McBride, from 1874 to 1882; D. F. Baird, 1882 to 1886; J. L. Hayes, 1886 to 1890; D. F. Baird, 1890 to 1894; W. H. Calloway, 1894 to 1900; W. B. Baird, 1900 to 1904; J. W. Hodges, 1904 to 1908; D. C. Reagan, 1908 to 1912; E. R. Eggers, for part of Reagan's un- expired term; Asa Wilson, elected 1912, but resigned, and E. R. Eggers appointed by county commissioners to fill out term to 1914; W. P. Moody, elected in 1914. Sidney Deal lived where J. W. Farthing now lives, and was elected sheriff by the people in 1860, but joined the army, and the remainder of his term was filled by Jack Horton. Deal moved across the Blue Ridge after the close of the Civil War.
Financial .- The debt of Watauga County is too small to be mentioned, there being only a few hundred dollars still due for the new court house. Real estate is assessed at about one-third of its real value. The tax rate for State and county combined is one per cent. of assessed value, being twenty-seven and two- thirds mills for State and seventy-two and one-third for county, and $2.30 on each poll. This is equivalent to about thirty-three cents on each hundred dollars. The towns have no debts and raise little or no money for street or other improvements, what is collected for any purpose being largely voluntary contribu- tions in many cases from the more progressive citizens and licenses from "shows," etc. County affairs are keenly looked after not only by the county commissioners, but by many citi-
10 Some claim that A. J. McBride was sheriff during the Civil War, and others that Jack Horton held the office from 1862 till 1876. Owing to the loss of the records 1873, it is impossible to ascertain the exact facts now. Some claim that Sidney Deal was elected sheriff in 1860, and served till he entered the Con- federate Army, while this is denied by others.
COLONEL JOE B. TODD. Clerk of the Superior Court.
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A History of Watauga County
zens who are eager to find a seam in the political armor of anyone offending in the way of extravagance, carelessness or fraud. Every dollar collected is applied as the law requires.
Watauga's Contribution to the Confederacy .- Company D, First Cavalry, was organized in Boone May II, 1861; first captain, Geo. N. Folk; first lieutenant, Joe B. Todd; second lieutenant, James Councill; third lieutenant, J. C. Blair.
Company B, 37th Regiment, organized September, 1861, in Boone. First captain, Jonathan Horton; first lieutenant, A. J. Critcher; second lieutenant, David Greene; third lieutenant, Jordan Cook.
Company E, 37th Regiment, was organized at Sugar Grove August 8, 1861. First captain, W. Young Farthing; first lieu- tenant, Paul Farthing; second lieutenant, W. F. Shull; third lieutenant, Isaac Wilson, Jr.
Company I, 58th Regiment, reorganized in Boone in July, 1862. First captain, Wm. Miller; first lieutenant, Wm. M. Hodges; second lieutenant, Jordan C. McGhee; third lieutenant, James Horton.
Company D, 58th Regiment, organized at Valle Crucis July 7, 1862. First captain, Rev. D. C. Harman; first lieutenant, Ben. F. Baird; second lieutenant, W. P. Mast; third lieutenant, Wm. Howington.
Company M, 58th Regiment, organized early in the winter of 1863 from Ashe and Watauga. First captain, Leonard Phillips; first lieutenant, Geo. W. Hopkins; second lieutenant, Thomas Ray; third lieutenant, J. Riley Norris, with about fifty of the men from Watauga.
Company A, 6th Cavalry Regiment; Captain B. Roby Brown, with twenty to twenty-five men from Watauga.
There were other companies made from Ashe and Watauga by William G. Bingham and Thomas Sutherland, who joined a Virginia regiment of cavalry, there being about twenty-five men from Watauga. There were five full companies that went from Watauga, each of which must have contained 150 men, from first to last, and parts of three additional companies that had
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A History of Watauga County
at least 100 Watauga men, besides the men from Watauga County who joined other regiments. By Moore's Roster, Watauga County actually furnished 671 men, and the Home Guard at Camp Mast must have contained 250 men. Col. W. W. Presnell, adjutant of the Nimrod Triplett Camp of Confederate Veterans, estimates that there must have been 900 men from this county in the service of the Confederacy, but there were most likely nearer 1,000.
Col. Presnell estimates that there were at least 100 men from Watauga County who went through the lines and joined the Federals, or remained in Watauga and worked for them in Watauga County during the closing months of the war.
He also says that Companies D, B and E were in the eastern or Virginia army, while the other companies were in the western army.11
Population and Other Facts .- The population since 1850 follows :
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
3,400
4,957
5,287
8,160
10,61I
13,417
13,423
But for the pigeonholeing of a bill which Marcus Holtsclaw had passed by the House of Commons in 1858, the court house would have been changed from Boone to Brushy Fork, Holts- claw having been elected over Thomas Greene and William Horton by one vote on the issue of making that change. But Joseph Dobson, of Surry, represented Watauga in the Sen- ate that year, and he put Holtsclaw's little "bill to sleep."
That our pioneer ancestors spun, wove, knitted, made rope, tanned hides, dyed, made shoes, boots and moccasins; made pails, buckets, cradles, bee-gums, ladles, chairs, plows, sleds, wagons, knives, guns, and almost every tool then in use goes without saying, for they were cut off from the world and mark- ets of all kinds. Dyes were obtained from yellow oak, from hickory, which dyes yellow; butternut dyes brown, black wal-
11 By joint resolution No. 56, of the General Assembly of North Carolina, 1915, the State Historical Commission was authorized to correct and amend Moore's Roster of Confederate troops from North Carolina so as to include all who were actually in the service of the Southern Confederacy, the present list being faulty and incomplete.
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A History of Watauga County
nut dyes dark brown, sumac dyes yellow, alder dyes reddish, dogwood dyes red, madder dyes red, bedewood dyes purple, dye-flowers and snuff weed dye yellow, copperas dyes yellow, and burnt copperas red. To "set" dyes they used laurel leaves, copperas, alum, salt, etc. Honey and maple sugar and syrup were the sole "sweetening" we had before sorghum came in shortly before the Civil War. Reaping hooks preceded scythes and cradles many years. Grain was threshed out on cloths by the use of flails made of hickory sapplings beaten soft two feet from the large end.
Soldiers of Mexican War .- The government does not place "monuments" over the graves of dead Mexican soldiers, pre- sumably, else George Wright, whose body lies near that of Moses Yarber, would be similarly honored. He has a son living in the Beech Mountains who doubtless could furnish full information for a tombstone, but, jemooney Christmas! just think what it would cost! How many other dead Mexican soldiers are buried in these mountains is unknown, and the government does not seem to care. A few are still living, here and there, among them being Benjamin Pritchard, now living on Roaring Creek, still neat and soldierly, and Nehemiah P. Oaks, who lives within a mile or so of Elk Park. Pritchard was born on the Blue Ridge, near the Mckinney Gap, about 1825, and remembers that on one occasion a Mexican threw every man in his regiment in wrestling contests. Then Pritchard was sent for and threw the Mexican three straight falls. He was a member of Captain John Blalock's company, of which A. T. Keith was a lieutenant. Blalock had to resign because of bad health, and when the men elected a man named Constable, who lived on Cane Creek, cap- tain, Keith also resigned, feeling that he had been slighted. John Payne was the colonel and Montford Stokes lieutenant- colonel of the regiment, which was the First North Carolina. Nehemiah P. Oaks was born on the Humpback Mountain, December 28, 1828, and belonged to the same company and regiment. He was also a member of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry, and draws two pensions. Pritchard also draws a pension for service in the Mexican War.
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A History of Watauga County
Assessments for Taxation in 1915 .- It will be interesting to compare the assessments of property this year with those for the years following the building of a railroad through this county. The increase in population between now and then will also be of interest.
Total real estate assessment in 1915 amounts to .. $1,783,983.00 Total personal property assessments for 1915 .... 948,866.00
Total assessments $2,732,849.00
The highest average assessment per acre was in Cove Creek, $14.17. The lowest average value per acre was Elk Township, $3.91.
The Weather .- It is colder in Watauga both summer and winter than in any other county of the State, probably, with the exception of Ashe, Alleghany, Avery and Haywood. The "cold Saturday" was February 8, 1835. The date of the Big Snow cannot be fixed, except that on the 2d and 3d days of December, 1886. But old people remember hearing of a snow that was so deep that all fences were obliterated from the landscape, and deer were slaughtered by the score. On the 5th of June, 1858, corn knee-high was killed in this county and all fruits and vege- tables, while white-oak trees between Boone and Jefferson were killed outright, some of their stumps being still visible. There was a frost at Blowing Rock July 26, 1876, while on February 13, 1899, the thermometer went to fourteen degrees below zero. On the 15th of May, 1835, there was snow while land was being laid off for corn and sugar water was being boiled for maple syrup on Brushy Fork.
Agricultural .- Patch farming was the rule for years, only small clearings being possible because of the sparseness of the population. Corn could not be raised at all for many years till the land was opened up to the sunlight. Owing to the stumps and roots, it was difficult to plough the ground at first, and the planting was done with the hoe. Gradually the land became warm enough to produce and mature corn or maize. Cabbages
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A History of Watauga County
and all root crops flourished from the first settlement. Buck- wheat and rye did well long before wheat, oats and other small grain began to thrive. Stock were fed on Irish potatoes and buckwheat, as is still the case in some places. Long, red Irish potatoes were carried in the arm as are ears of corn, and horses got fat on them. Hogs were kept in the mountains all winter, as the mast rarely failed. When a very cold or snowy time came, corn was carried to these hogs, beds were made for them in sheltered places, under cliffs and in caves of rocks, but for many it was literally a case of "root hog or die." Col. W. L. Bryan has a bronze medal and a diploma which were awarded to him at the Columbian Exposition for the best buckwheat. If a colony of Swiss could be induced to try their lot with us, they could demonstrate the fact that on our mountain slopes, prop- erly terraced, we could raise grapes, fruit of all kinds, and goats and cattle without number. Cheese factories have been already established at Sugar Grove, June 5, 1915, and elsewhere. The factory at Sugar Grove was the first established in the South. It is already thriving. With a little harder work and more scientific methods, wealth would follow agriculture in Watauga.
Mountain Forests .- In his address before the American Geo- graphical Society in New York in April, 1914, Prof. Collier Cobb, of the University of North Carolina, said that seventy-six per cent. of this section is still forest cover, or a little more than three million acres of forest land is found in the sixteen moun- tain counties; that the mountains of North Carolina are the oldest forest land on the continent, and the botanists and plant geographers are agreed that the deciduous forests of eastern North America have been derived from the forests of these mountains, in which they reach their greatest development; that while the hardwoods of the northern United States have migrated from the mountains since the last glacial period, it seems equally certain that the coniferous growth on the Balsams and other high mountains was forced south at the time of the greatest extension of the ice sheet, and is able to survive now only in the cooler atmosphere of our high mountains, where the mean an- nual temperature is forty-eight degrees, and, in the valleys they
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A History of Watauga County
enclose, fifty-four degrees Fahrenheit; while the rainfall of the region, most of which comes in the growing season, is seventy inches, being greater than that of any other portion of the United States, except the Puget Sound region. The United States has recently acquired an immense reserve in the neigh- borhood of Blowing Rock. The Lenoir timber lands were sold in 1915 for $40.00 per acre. They are near the Grandfather.
Banks and Banking .- Watauga has three banks, one, the Wa- tauga County Bank, Boone, was organized in 1904 with $10,000.00 capital. This was increased in 1908 to $12,000.00, in 1914 to $16,800.00, and in 1915 to $17,000.00. It has never declared a dividend of less than twelve per cent. since George P. Hagaman became cashier, and once declared eighteen per cent. The Blow- ing Rock Bank was organized about 1904 with $5,000.00 capital, which has been increased to $16,000.00. It has thriven also. The Valle Crucis Bank was organized in 1914 with a capital of $8,000.00. The cattle industry requires much money, and all kinds of stock thrive in this county.
Altitudes .- The following heights have been taken from S. M. Dugger's "Balsam Groves of the Grandfather Mountain" (p. 286) : Blowing Rock, 4,090; Boone, 3,332; Valle Crucis, 2,726; Shull's Mills, 2,917; Cook's Gap, 3,349; Banner Elk, 3,900; Beech Mountain, 5,522; Hodges Gap, 3,376; Hanging Rock, 5,237; Sugar Mountain, 5,289; Grandfather, 5,964; Dunvegan, 4,924; Howard's Knob, 4,451; Bald of Rich Mountain, 5,368; Sugar Loaf, 4,705; Snake Mountain, 5,594; Elk Knob, 5,555; Flat Top, 4,537; Deep Gap, 3,105; Elk Park, 3,180; Cranberry, 3,160; Montezuma, 3,882; Linville, 3,800; Yonah Lossee Road, from 4,000 to 5,000; Beacon Heights, 4,650; Grandmother, 4,686; Linville Gap (Guyot), 4,100; United States, 4,081 ; McCanless Gap, 4,250; White Top, 5,530; Toe River Gap, 5,188; High Pinnacle, 5,690; Mount Mitchell, 6,711; Cling- man's Peak in Blacks, 6,611; Roan Mountain, High Knob, 6,313; Big Yellow, 5,500; Cold Spring Balsam, 5,915; Caney Fork Divide, 6,370; Double Spring Mountain, 6,380; Enos Plott Balsam, 6,097; Amos Plott Great Divide, 6,278; The Pillar of the Smoky, 6,255; Mt. Henry, 6,373; South Peak,
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A History of Watauga County
6,299; Thermometer Knob, 6,157; Mt. Guyot, 6,636; Mt. Alex- ander, 6,299; Mt. LeConte of the Bullheads, 6,612; Mt. Staf- ford, 6,535; Mt. Curtis, 6,566; Master Knob, 6,013; Mt. Love of the Smoky, 6,443; Clingman's Dome, 6,619; Mt. Buckley, 6,599; Mt. Collins, 6,188; Thunderhead, 5,520; Devil's Court House in Whitesides, 6,049; Rocky Bald of the Nantahalas, 5,822; Tusquittee Bald, 5,314. Watauga is probably the high- est county in general altitude in North Carolina, being over 3,000 feet above sea level.
Mount Washington, of New Hampshire, is 6,286. There are, therefore, twenty-three peaks in North Carolina which are higher. There are twenty-three other peaks over 6,000 feet, but less than 6,286. There are seventy-nine which exceed 5,000, but fall a little short of 6,000 feet. It should be borne in mind, however, that all these measurements are barometric, and, there- fore, inexact, according to Horace Kephart's "Southern High- landers."
CHAPTER XI. The Town of Boone. 1
Incorporation .- This town was not incorporated till the ses- sion of the legislature of 1871-72 (Ch. 50), when it was regularly chartered and its boundaries defined. But this act was amended in 1872-73 (Ch. XXXI, p. 411) by extending the corporate limits so as to begin at a stake half a mile north of the court house and running thence to a stake half a mile east of the court house; thence to a stake half a mile south of the court house ; thence to a stake half a mile west of the court house, and thence to the beginning. W. L. Bryan was its first mayor and has held that office intermittently for twenty-five years.
Its Attractions .- As Boone is on no large stream, it is far distant from the moisture arising from rivers and creeks. It is not high enough to be caught in low-hanging clouds, and is free from their damp and clinging mists. The town is 3,332 feet above tidewater, with a spring, summer and autumn climate unsurpassed in the mountains. It is picturesquely situated at the base of Rich Mountain and almost directly under Howard's Knob. Its population consists of a homogeneous citizenship, with no very wealthy and no very poor people in its make-up. Its death rate is less than that of any other town of its size in the State. Its schools, both primary and normal, afford abundant opportunity for the education of all. The school population of the Appalachian Training School is better behaved and more appreciated by the citizens of Boone than that of any other school or college town in the State. Boone has a public library of its own, and access to many thousands of volumes in the library of the Appalachian Training School. It has three churches, one bank, a Masonic hall and three hotels. There is no
1 Most of the facts for this chapter were furnished by Col. and Mrs. Wm. Lewis Bryan, the oldest residents of the place. I am also indebted to them for so much other information which I have embodied in this book, that to credit them with each item would be almost impossible. Colonel Bryan, indeed, is almost as much the author of the work as I am myself. J. P. A.
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BOONE, THE COUNTY SEAT OF WATAUGA, 1915.
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A History of Watauga County
reason why Boone should not become the best and largest sum- mer resort in the State. Inexhaustible springs on Rich Moun- tain afford more pure water than a population of twenty thousand could consume. Boone has electric lights and garages and livery stables. Its population is about 700 souls. It has local and long-distance telephones, several physicians, and a drug store. The view from Howard's Knob is unsurpassed in the State.
Miss Morley's Visit to Boone .- From her "Carolina Moun- tains" (pp. 355 to 360) the following detached sentences and paragraphs are taken :
"Leaving Blowing Rock one day in mid-June, you perhaps will walk away to Boone, some ten miles distant, three miles of the way a lane close-hedged on either side with gnarled and twisted old laurel trees heavily-laden with bloom so that the crisp flower cups shower about you as you pass and the air is full of their bitter, tonic fragrance. Large rhododendrons stand among the laurel, but their great flower clusters are as yet imprisoned be- neath the strong bud-scales. When the laurel is done blooming, you will perceive that you must come this way again for the sake of the rhododendrons. Little streams of crystal clearness come out from under the blossoming laurel, flash across the road, and disappear under the laurel on the other side. How sweet the air where all the odors of the forest are interwoven with the bitter-sweet smell of the close-pressing flowers! How the pulse quickens as one steps along. Is that a bird? Or is it your own heart singing ?
"Before the first freshness of that laurel-hedged road has begun to dim from familiarity, you emerge into the open where the view is of wide, rolling slopes, green hills and valleys dotted with roofs, and beyond these the great blue distant mountains soaring up into the sky. That steep hill to your left is bright red with sorrel, a sorry crop for the farmer, but a lovely spot of color in the landscape. You climb up this sorrel-red hill to the top of Flat Top Mountain, up over the rough stones and the dark red sorrel to where the view is wide and fine. But Flat Top Mountain offers you more than a view. It is noon when you
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A History of Watauga County
get there, for you have not hurried, but have stopped every moment to smell or to see, or just to breathe and breathe as though you could thus fill your bodily tissues with freshness and fragrance to last into your remotest life. As you climb up Flat Top, you detect a fragrance that does not come from the flowers, a warm, delicious fragrance that makes you look eagerly at the ground. Seeing nothing, you go on half disappointed, half buoyant with the certainty of success-ah, it comes again, that delicious warm fragrance. You abandon yourself to primitive instincts and trusting your senses turn about and walk straight to where the ground is red with ripe strawberries. You sit down on the warm grass and taste the delectable fruit. A bird is sing- ing from a bush as though sharing in your pleasure. When you have gathered the best within reach, you lie back and watch the clouds sailing like white swans across the sky. Then you take out the bread you have brought, the most delicious bread ever baked, for it has in some magical way acquired a flavor of blos- soming laurel and rippling brooks and blue sky and the joy of muscles in motion, of deep-drawn breath, of the lassitude of de- licious exercise, with a lingering flavor of the spicy berries whose fragrance is in the air about you. Such bread as this is never eaten within the walls of a house. And then you rest on the warm hillside fanned by the cool breeze, for no matter how hot the summer sun, there is always a cool breeze in the high world at the back of the Grandfather. Before starting on, you must taste again of the exquisite feast spread for you and the birds, whose wings you hear as they come and go, fearless and ungrudging, for there is enough for all.
"Further along on the mountain stands an old weather-boarded house whence you see Boone in the distance lying so sweetly among its mountains. A path here leads you down to a deserted cabin in a lovely hollow. That well-worn path at the door-step leads to the spring only a few steps away, such a spring as one is always looking for and is always finding at the back of the Grandfather. Its water is icy cold and it is walled about with moss-covered, fern-grown stones. This cabin in the lovely hollow, with its ice-cold spring, the surrounding fruit trees, the
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