USA > North Carolina > Watauga County > A history of Watauga County, North Carolina. With sketches of prominent families > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32
190
A History of Watauga County
Betsy Calloway .- Ben Calloway says that his mother told him that she had dug many a pound of sang with a child strapped to her back. That is, she had had to go into the mountains to dig sang when her youngest children were too small to be left at home, and carried them with her from the necessity of the case. "She was the master sanger you ever seed" is the way one old man expressed her industry and devotion to her children. For sang was the only cash article in those days, and it brought only about ten cents a pound. But Betsy could make a living in no other way, except when, occasionally, she could get a job of scouring or washing to do for some friendly woman for her meals and meals for her children. She was also a master sugar maker, if accounts may be trusted, and worked several "sugar orchards" through the mountains. Her old kettle, in which the sap was boiled, is still to be seen at Foscoe in the yard of the home of former Sheriff W. H. Calloway. The first shoes Ben Aldridge ever had were bought by Betsy with the proceeds of the sale of sang dug by him. She had to take the sang sometimes as far as Abingdon, and this particular sang which Ben had dug was sold by her at Blountville, Tenn. As the sang was gradually becoming scarce, she went to Big Sandy to sang, taking Harrison with her. It was while on this trip that she spent a night at James Aldridge's cabin. She had no feeling against James Aldridge's first wife, but told him, though he had lied to her, to bring his children and she would do the best she could by them. Once when in a sugar camp on Watauga she saw tracks of a bear in the snow and knew that they were those of a she-bear with cubs, as bears do not come out of winter quarters when snow is on the ground except to get sustenance upon which their cubs could draw. Harrison, her eldest son, killed the mother bear and caught the cubs. Betsy sold the maple sugar for ten cents a pound and the syrup for ten cents a gallon. When Harrison was seven years old his mother was baptized in Lin- ville River, near Fred Ledford's, by Rev. Robert Patterson, at the Elkhorn Meeting House. She took care of all preachers who came to her home, and Ben was always glad to see them come, as then he "got something good to eat." He used to put corn
191
A History of Watauga County
into dried bladders and tie the bladders to chickens, which, when they heard the rattle, became frightened and flew across the table at which the preachers were eating. Once he tied such a con- trivance to the horns of a "billy-buck," as he terms a goat, and he nearly ran himself to death. Betsy Calloway died about 1900 and is buried in the Moody graveyard above Foscoe.
Delilah Baird .- She was born about 1807, and when eighteen years of age left her home with John Holtsclaw, who had been a member of Three Forks Church and a moderator of that con- gregation at its meeting in October, 1821. There is evidence also that he was a preacher. He had a wife and seven children living at the time Delilah eloped with him, about the year 1825, for their first child, Alfred B. Baird, was born March 7, 1826.ª Delilah knew of his marriage, but she went with him, claiming that she believed that he was going to take her to Kentucky. Instead, he took her to the Big Bottoms of Elk, one mile from what is now Banner Elk, where he kept her in a camp at the mouth of a branch which empties into Elk almost directly in front of and about three hundred yards distant from the resi- dence of James W. Whitehead. This was a bark camp, built against the trunk of a large fallen tree. It was here that her first child was born. Later on they moved into a rude cabin lower down the creek and near an apple tree which still stands in Mr. Whitehead's meadow. It was there that she fought wolves with firebrands when they came too near the house, seek- ing to devour a young calf which she kept in a pen near her chimney. She also "sanged" on the Beech Mountain, and finally recognized one of her father's steers, with a large bell fastened to its neck, and knew that she was not in Kentucky. She soon established communications with her home connections, and would ride up a ridge and across Beech Mountain to get such supplies as she required and sell her sang and maple sugar. She knitted socks and stockings while riding on the road to and from her old home. She brought dried grass in a sheet in order to get seed for the meadow around her new home.
4 According to Mrs. Sallie Hackney, of Neva, Tenn., Delilah Baird was three years younger than her first cousin, Alexander Baird, who was born April 5, 1804.
192
A History of Watauga County
After awhile poor Fanny Calloway, whose place in her hus- band's heart and home Delilah had usurped, came, an humble sup- pliant, to her door, asking to be allowed to spin, weave, wash, hoe or do anything that would provide John Holtsclaw's children with bread. John Holtsclaw was getting old and it behooved him to provide for his real wife before he should go to his long account. Instead, he made a deed to Delilah Baird for 480 acres of land in the Big Bottoms of Elk, which had been granted in 1788 when that part of the State was in Wilkes County. But he made her pay him $250.00 for it." His wife, Fanny, was thus left to the cold charity of the cold world, and his and her chil- dren had to make their own way as best they could. That way, we may be sure, was not an easy one, especially for poor Fanny. But nothing is surer in this world than the solemn asseveration of the Bible: "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I will repay." He kept that promise. He always keeps that promise. Among Fanny's children was a girl named Raney. Raney had a hard time at first, but she finally married Abraham Dugger, for years the chief owner and manager of the Cranberry mine. After his death she married Daniel Whitehead, and their son, James W. Whitehead, now owns all the broad acres which John Holtsclaw had deeded to Delilah Baird and away from his own legitimate children, and not one foot of that land or of any of the land nearby which Delilah got from the State belongs to her de- scendants.6
A Sordid, If Belated, Romance .- Sometime in the summer of 1881, when Delilah Baird was seventy-four years old, she spent the night with Ben Dyer's mother on Cove Creek. It was there that she determined to write to Ben, offering him a home and support for his life, and adding, "my folks are lawing me to death," and asking him to come and help her defend her rights. At this time she dressed gaily and was supposed to be demented, but a commission de lunatico inquirendo, consisting of Smith Coffey and two others, found that she still had mind enough to manage her own affairs. After the usual manœuvres of courting
5 The deed is dated May 2, 1838, Book N, p. 515, Ashe County.
6 Deed Books R., p. 274, A., p. 498, and U., p. 98. She had a daughter, named Aurilda, who married Levi Moody.
Photo. by Harris.
AUNT DELILAH'S LAST CABIN HOME. Showing two bear traps which were made by Abe and George Dugger.
193
A History of Watauga County
couples, Dyer agreed to come upon the terms stated, and Miss Delilah wrote in September following that she was delighted that he was to come, assuring him again that she had plenty "and all we will have to do is to sit back and enjoy ourselves." But Miss Delilah was too non-committal for Dyer, and he did not come, neither did he write again till November 14th, when he wrote acknowledging her "second letter," indicating that she had written "twice to his once," a thing no coy maiden ever should do. Just what that last missive really contained is not known, for the judgment roll in which this romance is preserved (Judg- ment Docket A, p. 172, Clerk's Office, Watauga County) does not contain it. But in Dyer's answer he states, "You make me a new proposal in your last letter, which is more than I could expect you to do," adding that he could never repay her except "with my love and kindness towards you." As he himself stated, in 1883, that he was then seventy-two years old, three years Miss Delilah's senior, these old people may be said to have been progressing rapidly and smoothly along the primrose path of love and should, therefore, have known that they were rapidly nearing a precipice.
So, to make a long story short, he came, saw and was not conquered. Neither was she. For she paid him nothing, gave him no home, and allowed him to return to Texas "loveless and forlorn." Then, in May, 1882, in an action before D. B. Dougherty and J. W. Holtsclaw, justices of the peace, he sued Miss Delilah for his expenses going and coming and while here. They gave him exactly $47.50, railroad fare to and from Texas. He appealed, and a jury of "good men and true" gave him ex- actly the same amount and not one cent more. Moral: Better let the women have their own way. Miss Delilah died about 1890 and is buried in the Baird graveyard at Valle Crucis. Some- time prior to her death, October 20, 1880, she lived with her son, Alfred Burton Baird, in a small log cabin, which still stands directly in front of James W. Whitehead's home. This cabin was shingled with yellow pine shingles when it was built in 1859, and, although it has never been repaired, the roof does not leak to this day.
13
194
A History of Watauga County
"Cobb" McCanless .- David Colvert McCanless was a son of James McCanless, whose wife was a Miss Alexander, said to have been nearly related to Hon. Mack Robbins, former con- gressman from Statesville. James McCanless came from Iredell County to Shull's Mills and resided near the present Robbins hotel at that place. James was a man of education and taught school where Mrs. Martha Phipps now lives. He was also a cabinet-maker, some of his work being still preserved. James and his brother, David, of Burnsville, were both "fine fiddlers." For some reason, now unknown, Phillip Shull refused to grind James' corn for him on his mill. This mill, built about 1835, was washed away about 1861 and never replaced, though the neighborhood still retains its name. McCanless went before a magistrate and got the usual penalty for such refusal to grind corn without good excuse. Shull still refused and McCanless still collected the penalty till at last Shull gave in. Colvert was always called "Colb" or "Cobb," and he was Jack Horton's deputy when the former was sheriff from 1852 to 1856. It was then that "Colb" announced himself as a candidate against Horton. It is said that the oral duel that then ensued, on Meat Camp, was fierce. "Colb". ran and won. He and Horton had frequent fist fights, both being powerful men physically-Horton, of medium height, but thick set, and McCanless tall and well proportioned. McCanless was a strikingly handsome man and a well-behaved, useful citizen till he became involved with a woman not his wife, after which he fell into evil courses. As sheriff he was tax collector and also had in his hands claims in favor of J. M. Weath, a Frenchman, who sold goods throughout this section in job lots. As there was no homestead then, what- ever an officer could find in a defendant's possession was subject to levy and sale. January 1, 1859, came and soon afterwards came also a representative from Weath for a settlement with McCanless.
On the morning of January 6th "Colb" set out for Boone, ac- companied by Levi L. Coffey, a near neighbor, then about twenty- seven years of age. "Colb" told Weath's man that he had made many collections for Weath, but had offsets against some of them
195
A History of Watauga County
and could settle the balance due only by an interview with Weath himself. Therefore, he would join Weath's man at Blow- ing Rock the following morning and go with him to Statesville. He and Jack Horton, who was on McCanless' official bond, then took a ride together, after which Horton sold his horse to one of the Hardins and McCanless immediately bought the same horse for the exact price Hardin had paid for it. During the same day McCanless conveyed certain real estate to his brother, J. Leroy McCanless. Subsequently, on the first day of March, 1859, J. L. McCanless conveyed the same land to Jack or John Horton, and on that day Jack Horton conveyed it to Smith Coffey. In a suit between Calvin J. Cowles against Coffey it was alleged and so found by the jury that these conveyances from D. C. to J. L. McCanless and from him to Jack Horton had been given to defraud the creditors of D. C. McCanless (88 N. C. Rep. p. 341). Horton is said also to have secured McCanless' saddle pockets with many claims in them against various people in Watauga County, these pockets having been left by McCanless in a certain store in Boone for that very pur- pose, thus securing Horton as far as possible from loss by reason of his liability on McCanless' official bond. McCanless also had the proceeds of a claim which as sheriff he held against Wilson Burleson, who then lived near Bull Scrape, now Montezuma, Avery County. This money was due to J. M. Weath also, and which, for safe-keeping, had been placed by McCanless with Jacob Rintels in Boone, in whose store Col. W. L. Bryan was then clerking, then known as the Jack Horton Old Store. Late that sixth of January McCanless called on Rintels for the money, with the request that as much as possible be paid in gold and silver. This was done. McCanless then started on the road to Wilkes County, where he claimed he was to pay the money over to Robert Hayes on an execution, having told Levi Coffey not to wait for him, as he was not going to return home that night. But instead of continuing on to Wilkes, McCanless went only as far as Three Forks Church, where he doubled back and went up the Jack Hodges Creek and through the Hodges Gap to Shull's Mills, where he was joined by a woman. They went
196
A History of Watauga County
together to Johnson City, where their horses and saddles and bridles were sold to Joel Dyer. There they took the train for the West. After D. C. McCanless had been away several months, J. L. McCanless, his brother, followed him, but soon returned and took west with him D. C. McCanless' wife, who was born Mary, daughter of Joseph Greene, her children, her father and mother and his own sisters, who had married Amos Greene and Isaac Greene, sons of Joseph Greene.
"Wild Bill" Kills McCanless .- News came to Watauga dur- ing the Civil War that "Colb" McCanless had been killed in Kansas, but it was not till 1883 that the details became known. But in that year D. M. Kelsey published "Our Pioneer Heroes and Their Daring Deeds" (pp. 481, et seq.), Scannel, publishers, from which the following facts were gleaned: that what was known as the McCanless Gang were impressing horses in Kan- sas, as they claimed, for the Confederate government, but in reality for themselves. James Butler Hicok, otherwise known as "Wild Bill," was connected with a stage line at Rock Creek, fifty miles west of Topeka, Kansas. There he occupied a "dug-out," the back and two sides of which were formed of earth of the hill- side, into which a thatched cabin had been built. There, also, on the 16th day of December, 1861, in a fight with ten of McCanless' gang, all but two of the latter were killed by "Wild Bill" and his friends. Among those killed are mentioned Jim and Jack Mc- Canless. It is supposed that one of these was David Colvert McCanless. J. LeRoy McCanless is now living at Florence, Colorado, as a good citizen and highly respected man. Rev. W. C. Franklin, their nephew, resides at Altamont.
Bedent E. Baird .- There is probably no more picturesque character among the pioneers of this section than that of Bedent E. Baird. He was a man of fine education and possessed the best library west of the Blue Ridge. He was what would be called in these days an agnostic, and was independent in thought and deed. He was one of the first to represent Ashe County in the legislature and was for many years a magistrate. He named one of his sons for Euclid, the geometrician. It is said that his testimony was once challenged on the score of his unorthodox
197
A History of Watauga County
belief, and that when he answered that he had taken the oath as a magistrate, the presiding judge at the trial refused to allow the challenger to go behind that statement.
No Water-Power by a Dam-Site .- It is also related of him that he told Bishop Ives, who was looking for a good site for a water power, that he could show him the finest site for such a power in the world. The Bishop, keen to develop the country, then followed Squire Baird to the top of the Beech Mountain over the cart-road which Baird had had constructed nearly to the highest point, after which they followed a trail to the north prospect or pinnacle of the Beech. This is a sheer precipice, or rather overhanging shelf of rock, overlooking the head of Beech Creek. "This," remarked Baird to the Bishop, "is the finest site for a water power in the mountains." "But where is the water?" asked his Reverence. "That is your part of the busi- ness," returned Baird, chuckling; "I have provided the site-all I agreed to do."
Who Were These Old Bairds ?- That many of the first set- tlers of this county came from New Jersey seems to be con- firmed by the fact that Dr. Gilbert Tennent, of Asheville, has a book which is called the "History of the Old Tennent Church," compiled by Rev. Frank Symes, its pastor, and printed by George W. Burroughs, at Cranberry, N. J. In it is published a diagram of the pews of the church, one of which in 1750 was held by Zebulon and the other by David Baird. The church was then called the Freehold Church, but is now known as the Tennent Church. It still stands in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Just what relationship these Bairds hold to the Bedent Baird of Watauga and the Bedent and Zebulon Baird of Buncombe in 1790 seems to be a riddle beyond solution at the present day. But that Zeb Vance's mother, who was a Baird, was related to the Bairds of Watauga is about as certain as any unprovable fact can well be, for family names, family traits and physical family resemblances are so marked as to be unmistakable.
A Mysterious Enquiry .- Early in January, 1858, Bedent Baird received a newspaper, on the margin of which was written a few lines, in which the claim was made that Bedent E. Baird
198
A History of Watauga County
was akin to the writer, who, however, failed to sign his name.' But he had given his post office, that of Lapland, in Buncombe County, but now called Marshall, the county seat of Madison. Bedent E. Baird, then, in 1858, in his eighty-eighth year, an- swered this unknown writer, sending his letter to Lapland, but he received no answer. From this letter we learn that John Baird and a brother came from Scotland in the Caledonia and settled in the Jerseys, meaning in New Jersey. This John Baird had married a woman named Mary Bedent, and they named their first child Bedent Baird-the very first of the name "that was ever on the face of the earth." Their seventh son was named Ezekiel and he married Susanna Blodgett, whose father was killed in the ambuscade near Fort Duquesne at the time Brad- dock also met his death. Ezekiel Baird moved to North Caro- lina, where Bedent E. Baird was born about 1770. Ezekiel Baird's brother, Bedent, was married three times "and reared three numerous families at or near the German Flats, Canada." Ezekiel Baird's other five brothers also married and reared fami- lies "who helped to break the forests and settle five or six of the southwestern States."
Peggy Clawson .- One of the strongest characters of the past was that of Peggy Clawson, who resided in the neighborhood of Elk Cross Roads. She was the wife of William Clawson, though for some time it was doubtful whether this was to be the case, as her evident inclination was to have him simply the husband of Peggy Clawson. For, tradition says, in a most friendly spirit, that they occasionally "fell out and kissed again with tears." On one of these occasions, as the story goes, for it is also told of Ezra Stonecypher, she had driven him to take refuge under the bed. Thinking she had him conquered at last, she told him that if he ever said another "crooked word to her, she would kill him." "Ram's Horn, Peggy, if I die for it!" came the prompt and defiant answer to her challenge. She was a member of the Three Forks Church in July, 1832, for at that time she was excommunicated from that church for "beating her son." However, in due time, namely, in the following October,
" Adolphus E. Baird, an uncle of Governor Z. B. Vance, is now known to have been the one who wrote the unsigned words on the newspaper referred to.
199
A History of Watauga County
she "made open acknowledgment for her transgression and was restored to full membership." One morning she was near the cliff or bluff between John L. Tatum's present home and Todd, covered with laurel, pines and ivy bushes, making maple sugar. A dog chased a bear into the river, and she got into the canoe tied near by, poled out to the bear swimming in a deep hole at the base of the cliff, and drowned it by holding its head under the water with the canoe pole. After this exploit, it being Sat- urday, she walked down to the Old Fields Baptist Church in time for morning service.
Some Other Old Stories .- Welborn Waters was employed after the Civil War to exterminate all the wolves from the Vir- ginia line to the Bald Mountain in Yancey. He undertook the task and succeeded, howling in imitation of wolves when on the mountains, and they, unsuspectingly, coming to him, he killed them. It is related, however, of the old Lewises, as the first wolf hunters in these mountains were called, that wishing to get the bounty offered for wolf scalps, they would not kill the grown wolves, especially the females, as they wished them to bear as many litters as possible, the scalp of a young wolf being paid for as well as that of an old one. It is related till this day that the Wolf's Den on Riddle's Knob took its name from the fact that the Lewises went in there in search of wolves and usually found and killed a litter every spring.
Joseph T. Wilson, commonly called "Lucky Joe," was in jail in Boone at the November term of the Superior Court during a very cold spell, and, pretending to have frozen in his cell, was removed in an apparently unconscious state to the Brick Row joining the Critcher hotel, then the old Coffey hotel. Here he was resuscitated by the late Dr. W. B. Councill, but instead of taking him back to jail to freeze all over again, they left him in the Brick Row with a guard. He persuaded that guard to go out and get some more fuel, and while he was gone the frozen man escaped from the room and the State. He was recaptured in Ohio by Alexander Perry, of Burke, however, brought to Elk Park and thence taken by the then sheriff, David F. Baird, to Morganton to jail, where he remained till the next term of Ashe
200
A History of Watauga County
court, to which his lawyers had had his case moved on account of alleged prejudice in Watauga County. He was convicted in Ashe and served ten years in the penitentiary for stealing horses from Alloway and Henry Maines, of North Fork. While in the penitentiary he became superintendent of the prison Sunday School, and by apparent good conduct had earned a reduction from the full term of his sentence. When, however, his belong- ings were examined it was found that he had pilfered many small articles from the penitentiary itself, and consequently lost what he had earned by good behavior in all other respects. When he got back home he studied law and led an exemplary life till about 1904, when he again came before the court, was convicted and sent to the Iredell County roads for five years' sentence. There he died, aged nearly sixty years.
Elijah Dotson and Alfred Hilliard quarreled once, standing at a safe distance apart, a mile or more, one being in his own field and the other in his own field also. This occurred on Beaver Dams before the Civil War and no telephone wires connected them. This difficulty arose from a cordial and sincere invitation extended by Dotson to Hilliard to visit certain grid-irons "where the worm dieth not and the fire is not 'squinched.'" It is also said that Hilliard and his wife late in life joined the church, and being dissatisfied with their marriage, which contract had been solemnized by an unsaintly justice of the peace, had the knot retied by a minister of the gospel regularly ordained.
An African Romance .- On the 16th day of October, 1849, Mr. and Mrs. William Mast, then living where the Shipleys now live, near Valle Crucis, were poisoned by drinking wild parsnips in their coffee. It was said by some that a slave woman named Mill or Milley had been whipped for having stolen twenty dollars from Andrew Mast, and poisoned William Mast out of revenge. Others say the crime was committed by Mill and her slave lover, Silas Baker, in the hope that if Mill's master and mistress were dead, she would have to be sold, and that Jacob Mast, who was about to marry Miss Elizabeth Baker and move to Texas, would buy her and thus prevent these dusky lovers from future separa- tion. Although there was no direct evidence against either, Mill
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.