USA > North Carolina > Watauga County > A history of Watauga County, North Carolina. With sketches of prominent families > Part 19
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was sold to John Whittington and taken to Tennessee, while Silas was taken to Texas with his mistress and her husband, Jacob Mast.
James Speer lived on Beaver Dams and had no more brains than were absolutely necessary. He and two others agreed that all three should go to South Carolina, where Jim was to color his face with lampblack and suffer himself to be sold as and for a slave of African parentage, and that after the money had been paid over, he was to remove the lampblack and escape back to Beaver Dams, where the proceeds of the little game were to be divided into three equal parts. This may have been done, but as Jim did not get his third, he and one of his partners were heard to quarrel about the division at one of the Big Musters near Boone. It was not a lawyer who insisted that the letter of the bargain had been fully carried out when the proceeds of the sale had been simply divided into three equal parts, but one of Jim's own partners, who had never studied law an hour in all his life. Nor was it in accordance with any sentence of any court of record or otherwise that Jim disappeared from the face of the earth and has remained "gone" ever since. A skeleton was found about 1893 in some cliffs, usually called "rock cliffs," in rear of J. K. Perry's residence on Beaver Dams, and some have supposed that these bones used to belong to Jim Speer.
Joshua Pennell manumitted his slaves by his will, and his nephew, Joshua Winkler, as executor, took them to Kansas and set them free. Many still remember their passage through Boone just prior to the Civil War. Joshua Winkler and Joshua Pennell had lived in Wilkes County, but Winkler soon after his return from Kansas bought land in Watauga and removed to this county, where he died. Among other valuable properties ac- quired by him was the old Noah Mast farm near St. Jude post office, afterwards conveying one-half thereof to his son, William F. Winkler.
Jesse Mullins' "Niggers."-Jesse Mullins and his wife were getting old just prior to the commencement of the Civil War. They owned two negroes in addition to the farm which still goes by the name of the Mullins farm, on the South Fork of
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New River, about four miles from Boone. There is also a small hill or mountain which is still known as the Mullins Mountain. There were two "interests" who had their eyes on those slaves, and one night the slaves disappeared. The next heard of them was the arrest of two young men in a Southern city for trying to sell slaves without themselves being able to show how they got them. It is supposed that the "interest" which had been out- generaled by the one abducting the slaves had caused the arrest of these young men. They were released and the slaves re- turned to their true owners. It is said that the most famous Grecian Sphinx, that of Thebes in Bœotia, once proposed a riddle to the Thebans, and killed all those who tried but failed to give the correct answer. Œdipus solved the riddle, whereupon the Sphinx slew herself. There is many an Œdipus yet living in Watauga County who might solve the riddle of the taking and carrying away of these darkies and of the arrest and imprison- ment of their captors. So, too, they might tell who was one of Jim Speer's partners, and whose grave is said still to smoke in a certain church yard in this county of Watauga.
Cross-Cut Saw and Cross-Cut Suit .- Just before the Civil War, how long no one now knows, Noah Mast, claiming that he had loaned Hiram Hix a cross-cut saw, sued him for its re- covery. Hix had some affliction of the eye-lids, rendering it necessary that he should prop them open with his fingers in order to see. He and his wife lived under a big cliff near the mouth of Cove Creek, called the Harmon Rock-House.8 This cliff projected out a considerable distance and the open space was enclosed with boards and other timbers, thus affording some degree of comfort even in winter, the smoke going out of a flue built against the side of the cliff. Here Hix kept a boat and charged a nickel to put passengers across the river. He also built a sort of cantilever bridge, the first in the world, most probably, using two firm rocks which extended into the stream, thus forming a narrow channel at that point. Based upon these immovable rocks were two long logs, hewn flat on the upper surface, one projecting from each bank toward the other, but not
8 The first white child born in Watauga County is said to have been born in this rock cliff ; but its name is not known.
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meeting above mid-stream by several feet-too wide a gap to be jumped by ordinary folk. The shore ends of these logs were weighted to the ground by huge stones piled on them. Hix kept a thick and broad plank which was just long enough to bridge this gap between the projecting ends of the two logs. Upon the payment of five cents Hix would place this board in position and the foot-passenger could then pass over dry-shod. This was a "cantilever" because he claimed he couldn't leave her in posi- tion. Whether the revenue from his boat and board was suffi- cient to pay his lawyers in the suit Mast had brought against him for that cross-cut saw or not, Hix managed to keep it in court till he won it, thus throwing Mast in the costs, which is a very undesirable place to be thrown. This was one of the first suits to be tried in the new town of Boone, and a boy who heard one of the lawyers ask a witness what there was that was "peculiar" about that saw, was so struck by the word "peculiar" that he remembers it to this day, when he is an old man.
Absentee Landlords .- Just as the Scotch used to steal cattle and the Irish of the present day complain of the exactions of landlords who do not live in Ireland, so, too, did our Scotch and Irish fellow citizens make trouble for those living east of the Blue Ridge who drove their cattle to the Watauga mountains in the spring and took them back home in the fall. Colonel Ed- mund Jones used to pasture cattle on the Rich Mountain, General Patterson on Long Hope and the Finley family on the Bald. All these lived east of the Blue Ridge. It is only about one mile from the Wolf's Den on Riddle's Knob to the Long Hope Moun- tain, in which rises Long Hope Creek. The Bald, or the Big Bald, as it is often called, contains ninety acres without a tree, and it, the Pine Orchard Mountain, Riddle's Knob and Black Mountain, form a sort of basin through which Long Hope Creek flows into the North Fork of New River, near Creston. Most of this used to be covered with forests, though much clearing has been done since the pioneer days. B. R. Brown and Lindsey Patterson own much land there now. Much of it used to belong to Gen. Sam. Patterson, of the Yadkin Valley. Henry Barlow and family used to live in a cabin in this basin, but Lindsey
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Triplett had taken his place. A man named Byrd was the first who ever lived there, and his cabin was covered with shingles which were pinned on with wooden pins. The cabin and field around it are still called the Byrd cabin and the Byrd field. Nelson Grimsley also stayed in that cabin, and subsequent to the Civil War came Wayne Miller, after whom followed Thomas Stevens, only to be succeeded by the Greer family, who are there now. Thomas Isbell, of King's Creek, probably owned the Bald first, and then the Finley family. But, whoever owned the land, the people living around resented the pasturing of cattle there by non-resident owners. When W. S. Davis, who was born July 24, 1832, can just remember, probably in 1844 or 1845, a dozen or more men were indicted for killing cattle, among whom were Buckner Tatum, Squire John McGuire, James Greer, Samuel Wilcox and others. According to Mr. Davis, they were tried at Wilkesboro, probably on account of local prejudice against the landowners. So serious were the cases that Buckner Tatum preferred another atmosphere to the free air of Ashe, as it was then, sold out to Elisha Tatum in 1845 and left the country for- ever, going to Georgia. It is said that Sam. Wilcox killed forty head of cattle on the Bald one rainy morning before breakfast, and then moved hastily and permanently to Kentucky.9
"School Butter."-When W. S. Davis was about eighteen years old, say in 1850, he suffered with his back, but was able to be up and about, though not fit for hard work. About this time the people in the neighborhood of the Lookabill school house on Meat Camp met to agree upon a more convenient point for the school house, and that school district had settled on the site and gone to work cutting the logs for the building. This site was close to where Edmund Miller now lives on Grassy Creek. These log-choppers "threw in" and raised enough money to pay for a gallon of brandy. Someone borrowed a gallon jug from Aunt Katy Moretz, and "put it on" W. S. Davis to go after the brandy, he having been selected because he could not chop logs. The still was at the old Councill place, where the Widow Reagan now lives. Davis set out upon this errand, but meeting Wm.
9 Finley Greer's statement to C. A. Grubb.
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Proffit on the way and learning from him that there was no brandy at the still, he started back, his jug still empty. On the road to the still, however, he had passed the old Lookabill school house, during recess, and thirteen boys then at play there caught hold of his old brown coat and threatened to put him in the branch. Davis asked that the teacher be consulted, and the latter sent word to let Davis alone, which the boys accordingly did. But, on his return trip, Ben Ferguson slipped out of school without permission, tin cup in hand, and asked Davis for a drink of the brandy which Ben thought was in the jug. Davis turned up the jug to prove his statement that there was nothing in it. Then Ferguson asked, "Bill, ain't you afeard to say 'school butter?'" Davis did not know the consequences of saying "school butter," and answered, "No; I'll say 'school butter' when- ever I please." Thereupon Ferguson hastened back to the school house and told the assembled boys that Bill Davis had "hollered 'school butter.'" That was enough, for teacher, boys and girls started pell-mell after the offender. When Davis was about twenty steps from the school house he heard a noise, and, looking back, saw the school children running toward him. He ran, but was overtaken, Lorenzo Dow Allen, the school master, having taken a short-cut and headed him off. Davis warned them of what the consequence would be in case anyone touched him. Jackson Miller, being nearest, got the lick which Davis aimed at the head of his foremost assailant. The jug broke, leaving only the handle in Davis' hand. Davis defied the next one to "come on," but he did not come. All this happened on top of the hill, and it is called Jug Hill to this day.
Lee Carmichael .- Davis feed this attorney and he appeared for him, he having been bound over by Squire Eli Brown to the Superior Court, but Carmichael neglected the case and then Davis employed Quincey F. O'Neil, of Jefferson. The case was tried four years later and Davis was acquitted, only one witness, Ben Ferguson, having been examined for the State, and the judge directing acquittal. It had cost Davis over one hundred dollars, however. Burton Craig, of Salisbury, was the solicitor who prosecuted. There are several variants of this story, but
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the above is from W. S. Davis himself, the only survivor of the incident. This Lee Carmichael loved the cup that first cheers and inebriates a little later on. That, probably, is why Davis had to fee O'Neil. Then Carmichael ran for Congress and was defeated. He died soon afterwards.
The Musterfield Murder .- As an aftermath of the Civil War, say about 1870, there turned up in several of the more secluded sections of the Southern mountains "men with a past." Whence they came and whither went, no one knew. Among these was a man who called himself Green Marshall, who suddenly and with- out invitation put in an appearance on what is now universally and enthusiastically called Hog Elk, just east of the Blue Ridge, but still in Watauga County. He lived in the family of young Troy Triplett. Together they came to Boone one day and had a quarrel near the court house. Later on that day they left town together, and when they got half a mile away the quarrel was renewed at the old Muster Ground and Marshall stabbed Triplett, wounding him so badly that Triplett died several days later at the house of Henry Hardin, one mile east of Boone. Marshall hid that night in the house of a colored woman named Ailsey Council,10 her home being beyond the ridge in rear of Prof. D. D. Dougherty's present home, almost south of Boone, ultimately escaping for a time, but being caught later near Hog Elk. He was tried and convicted of manslaughter and served his sentence. No one knows where he came from nor where he went after his term was up. It was remarked after this murder that Marshall had never been seen without an open knife in his hand. Luke Triplett, the dead man's father, put up a rough mountain rock in the shape of a rude slab, four feet high and twelve to fourteen inches broad, on the spot on which his son had been stabbed. He had chiseled on the stone his son's name and a rude effigy, showing the outline of a man's form and a wound from which blood was apparently flowing. It stood there several years, but disappeared. It is said that the blood from the real wound changed the color of the vegetation on which it had fallen for several years.
10 Ailsey Councill is said to have named what is now known as Straddle Gap, between Brushy Fork Baptist Church and Dog Skin Creek, in which a Boone Marker has been placed. This gap used to be called Grave-Yard Gap.
QUOD VULT. V
ALDE
horton.
HORTON FAMILY ARMS.
EXPLANATION .- A stag's head, silver; attired, gold. Crest out of the waves of the sea proper, a tilting spear, erect, gold; enfiled with dolphin, silver, finned, gold, and charged with a shell. Motto: "Quod vult, valde vult." "What he wills he wills cordially and without stint."
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A Belle of Broadway .- Elizabeth Eagles, of New York City, married Nathan Horton in that place July 10, 1783. She was a daughter of John Eagles and a belle of what is now the metrop- olis of America. They went first to the Jersey Settlement, after- wards moving to Holman's Ford, from which place they came with William Miller and his wife, Mary, and their son, David, and Ebenezer Fairchild and family to what is now Cook's Gap, six miles east of the town of Boone. This is one of the most historic places in America, for whatever may have been his course from there westward, there is no doubt that Daniel Boone and his companions passed through this gap in May, 1769, on their first trip into Kentucky. It is, moreover, one of the love- liest places on the Blue Ridge, being practically a tableland, from whose rolling hills views of unsurpassed loveliness stretch away on every hand. Rome, that "sat on her seven hills and from her throne of beauty ruled the world," had no lovelier outlook than this. It is through this gap, also, that the first railroad to cross the Blue Ridge into Watauga County is most apt to come. But Jonathan Buck, a hunter, had been there before them, as had also Richard Green. These had built hunting camps, Buck on what is still known as Buck's Ridge, and Green at Cook's Gap. All these people had been members of the Jersey Settlement, as had also been James Tompkins and James Jackson, and after- wards became members of Three Forks Church. The grant of 640 acres of land at this place to William Miller bears date May, 1787, and it was doubtless entered some time before. Tomp- kins' name still adheres to one of the knobs near Deep Gap, and the Jackson Meeting House on Meat Camp Creek will keep his memory alive for years yet to come, for it was the first school house built in this section. Corn and wheat could not be raised in this section at that early time, and these settlers on the Blue Ridge found themselves in the dead of winter without other food than wild meat and Irish potatoes, of which they had garnered a goodly crop. William Miller and Nathan Horton, therefore, took four horses, all they had, and went down to the Yadkin Valley for a supply of grain. When they were gone the fire in Mrs. Horton's house went out, and as she did not know
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how to kindle another from flint and punk and steel," she and David, the son of William and Mary Miller, set out on foot to go down to the head of Elk Creek to get fire from the Lewis family, who were then her nearest neighbors. The distance is stated to be five and eight miles, either of which was a long, hard journey for this delicately reared lady. But they got there and started back with a chunk of fire, she bearing her baby boy, William, in her arms.12 But David stumbled just before they got back to the Horton residence and the "chunk" fell into the snow, then ten inches deep on the ground, putting the fire out entirely. It was then that Mrs. Horton sat down on a log and cried. But she took new courage very soon, and they went on, she telling David that they could milk the cows, drink the milk and get between the feather beds and so keep from freezing till Nathan Horton and William Miller should return. But when they ap- proached the home they saw smoke issuing from the chimney, and upon entering found Richard Green sitting contentedly be- fore a blazing fire. "This is my camp, madam," is said to have been Green's first greeting. "It is my home," was Mrs. Horton's ready answer, "as we have patented the land on which it stands, but when my husband returns he will pay you whatever may be right for the improvements you have put upon the land." This was done, Green getting four deer and two bear skins for his camp. Miller also bought out Jonathan Buck, whose camp he had preempted, paying him in furs also.
11 Mrs. Battle Bryan knew better, however. She opened the frizzin which covers the pan of a flint-lock and removed the powder from pan and touch-hole, filling the latter with tallow. She then replaced the powder in the pan and snapped the gun, having placed tow nearby. "Or, a piece of roughened steel" was hooked over the forefinger, and the punk and flint held between thumb and fore- finger of other hand was struck against the steel, the spark catching in the punk, commonly called "spunk."
12 This baby was destined to be the grandfather of William Horton Bower, member of Congress in 1888.
CHAPTER XIV. Some of Our Show-Places.
Fine Scenery .- The scenery of Watauga County is as fine as any in the mountains of North Carolina. From Blowing Rock, the Grandfather, the Bald, Howard's Knob, Riddle's Knob, Elk Knob, the Buzzard Rocks and Dogs Ears views can be had that are sublime. Between Banner Elk and Montezuma are two im- mense rocks, called the Chimneys, seventy-five and ninety feet high, which have never been photographed, but which are strik- ing objects of nature. Hanging Rock above Banner Elk and the North Pinnacle of the Beech Mountain are accessible and afford fine views. Dutch Creek Falls, within half a mile of the Mission School at Valle Crucis, slide over a rock which seems to be eighty feet high, and Linville Falls, now in Avery County, have two falls, each about thirty-five feet in height. Elk Falls, three miles from Cranberry, are well worth a visit, while the rapids of Elk Creek below the old Lewis Banner mill are wild and attractive. Watauga Falls, just west of the Tennessee line, and, therefore, in Tennessee, are not really "falls" in the sense of hav- ing a sheer fall of water in a perpendicular direction, but they are a series of cascades pouring over gigantic rocks in a gorge grand and gloomy in the extreme. It is rarely visited, however, many people imagining that a post office called Watauga Falls between Beech Creek and Ward's Store are the real falls, while in fact there are no falls there whatever. The turnpike leading from Valle Crucis to Butler, Tenn., passes in less than half a mile from the real falls, which, however, are not visible from the road. The "walks" are a series of natural stepping stones across the Watauga River below Flat Shoals, near the Tennessee line. At all times of ordinary high water one can cross on these stones dry-shod. The Wolf's Den on Riddle's Knob is well worth a visit. From the Rock House at the Jones or Little place, and from Tater Hill, both on Rich Mountain, fine views can be had.
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Cove Creek .- From Sugar Grove to the Tennessee line Cove Creek is so thickly settled as to be almost a continuous village. Several creeks come down from Rich Mountain and Fork Ridge, and on such streams many people live and thrive. For Cove Creek is recognized as the Egypt of Watauga County. It con- tains some of the most fertile land in the State. Its people are progressive and co-operate in all public enterprises. Beginning at Zionville, near the Tennessee line, there is a succession of villages, including Mable, Amantha, Sherwood, Mast and Sugar Grove. Two large flouring mills are on the creek, while there is the first cheese factory ever established in the county in flour- ishing condition at Sugar Grove. Churches, schools and masonic lodges dot the hillsides. Hospitality reigns in every household. The people are prosperous and happy and helpful. From a point near the mouth of Sharp's Creek, looking toward Rich Mountain, is a view that is as beautiful as any in the mountains. A forest of young lin trees has been set out on one of the worn- out hillsides and will soon be in fine condition; also grafted chestnut trees-that is, native chestnut trees on which have been grafted French and Italian shoots. A sang garden or orchard is flourishing nearby, while the town of Sugar Grove and vicinity is lighted up with electric lights. Bath tubs supplied with clear spring water are found in many of the dwellings, and an air of prosperity and progress pervades the entire community of Cove Creek. Automobiles and the latest improved farm machinery show the temper and spirit of the people. In short, there is no forward step which can be taken at this stage of its growth that Cove Creek has not taken. Silverstone, in the shadow of the Rich Mountain, is one of the loveliest of all the villages of this vicinity, though it is some distance from Cove Creek. It is, how- ever, part and parcel of that locality.
"The Biggest Show on Earth."-This is the boast of the Barnum-Bailey shows, but it falls far short of being as fine a show as the wild flowers of Watauga County make from May till December. Nowhere else on earth do the rhododendron, the azalea and the mountain ivy or calico bush called kalmia grow to such perfection as here. Nowhere else on earth do botanists find
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so large and fine a variety of wild flowers of all kinds. The rho- dodendron maximum is, as its name indicates, the largest of the rhododendron family, which derives its name from two Greek words meaning a rose tree. Both its leaves and its blooms are larger than any other variety. It is what we call mountain laurel, as distinguished from the ivy or calico bush, which has spotted, bell-shaped blooms. But we make no distinction between it and what botanists call the rhododendron catawbiense, which has a smaller leaf and bloom and the bloom being more like the rose in color. The largest trunks of the rhododendron are six inches in diameter and the trees twenty feet high. In her "Carolina Mountains" Miss Morley gives most impassioned and poetic descriptions of the Watauga flowers, saying, among other charm- ing things, that "all flowers are imprisoned sunshine in a figurative sense, but of no others does that seem so literally true as of 'the flame-colored azaleas' (p. 50), to see the perfect fire of which you must come to their mountains." She also calls attention to the fringe bush, and asks how it came to the Grandfather Mountain "when all the other members of its family live in that remote Chi- nese empire so mysteriously connected with us through the life of the plants ?" In this class she places the silver bell tree, the azalea, the fringe bush, the wisteria and ginseng. And she calls atten- tion to the rhododendron vaseyii, which sheds its leaves in autumn. This was thought to have become extinct, but it is still found on the north side of the Grandfather (p. 59). But all these flowers are surpassed by the lovely blooms of our apple and cherry trees in May and June, for nowhere in the world are apples and cherries finer or more abundant than here, the Moses H. Cone orchard at Blowing Rock and that at Valle Crucis producing fruit as fine and in greater abundance than almost any other orchards in the world. Kelsey's Highland Nursery at Linville City makes a business of selling all our wild flowers. Rev. W. R. Savage, of Blowing Rock, cultivates many of them in his garden. Mrs. W. W. Stringfellow, of the same town, also takes great pride in cultivating both tame and wild flowers and in distributing bulbs and seeds gratuitously among the mountain people.
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