USA > North Carolina > Watauga County > A history of Watauga County, North Carolina. With sketches of prominent families > Part 20
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Valle Crucis .- According to a tradition well supported by the statements of many reputable cittizens of the present day, Samuel Hix and his son-in-law, James D. Holtsclaw came in 1779 from Cheraw, S. C., through the Deep Gap, to what is now known as Valle Crucis, and erected a palisade of split logs, with their sharpened ends driven into the ground, so as to enclose about an acre and a half surrounding the Maple Spring between the pres- ent residence of Finley Mast and that of his brother, Squire W. B. Mast. This was because they feared Indians, not know- ing of the agreement between the Watauga settlers and the Cherokees as to the land between the Virginia line and the ridge south of the Watauga River. After a time Hix became uneasy and retired to the wilderness near what is now Banner Elk, where he made a camp and supported himself by hunting and making maple syrup and sugar, thus avoiding service as an American or a Tory. At some time in his career he is said to have had a cabin in a cove in rear of the present residence of Squire W. B. Mast, then to have lived in the bottom above James M. Shull's present farm, afterwards moving down the Watauga River near Ward's Store, where he died long after the Revolutionary War. It is said that he never took the oath of alle- giance to the American cause and that whenever he came home for supplies his mischievous sons would frighten him by firing off a pistol made by hollowing out a buck-horn and loading the cavity with powder, the same being "touched off with a live coal." Just here it may be remarked-a fact not generally known-that if a live coal is not allowed to burn itself into ashes, it becomes a dead coal, which yet has elements of immortality in it to such an extent that, unless it is ground to powder, it remains charcoal indefinitely. Such coals, in beds of ashes, are still plowed up near the Lybrook farm, now the Grandfather Orphanage, one mile from Banner's Elk, still called by old people the Hix Im- provement, that being the place where Samuel Hix "laid out during the Revolutionary War." Whether he had a grant or other title to the Valle Crucis land seems immaterial now, as he had possession of it when Bedent Baird arrived toward the close of the eighteenth century, for Baird, with a pocketful of money, had to go a mile down the river to get a home in this wilderness
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of rich land. Then Hix is said to have sold his holdings to Benjamin Ward for a rifle, dog and a sheepskin, Ward selling it later on to Reuben Mast, while Hix moved down to the mouth of Cove Creek. Ward soon got possession of this also, and sold it to a man named Summers, who was living in a cabin on the left bank of Watauga River during a great freshet which lifted the cabin from its foundation and carried it and its inmates, the entire Summers family, to death and oblivion in that night of horrors. A faithful dog belonging to the family swam after the cabin and when it finally lodged against a rock, the dog would al- low no one to enter till he had been killed. The Hix Hole, just be- low David F. Baird's farm, is still so called because of the drown- ing there of James Hix and a Tester about 1835, when a bull was ridden into the river in order to recover the two bodies. Reuben Mast lived where D. F. Baird now lives, while Joel Mast lived where J. Hardee Talor resides. David Mast lived near where Finley Mast's large mansion now stands. Henry Taylor, whose father was Butler Taylor, came from Davidson County to Sugar Grove about 1849, married Emeline, daughter of John Mast, of that place, and then moved to Valle Crucis in time to get some of the money paid out for the construction of the Caldwell and Watauga turnpike. This road must have been begun prior to October, 1849, for Col. Joseph C. Shull remembers that William Mast had the contract to build the bridge across Watauga River one mile below Shull's Mills, and was at work on it the morning on which he drank the poison the slave girl, Mill, is supposed to have put in his coffee for breakfast, for he came to Col. Joseph C. Shull's father's home for medicine and returned to work on the bridge, but soon had to go home, dying that night at about the same time his wife died. It was to the valley above this that Bishop Ives came in 1843, where he erected the school and brotherhood described elsewhere. This valley was what the editor of the "Life of W. W. Skiles," Susan Fenimore Cooper, a descendant of Fenimore Cooper, author of the "Leather Stock- ing Tales," says the Indians would call a "one smoke valley" (p. 17), from the fact that but one family dwelt there in 1842. That family was that of Andrew Townsend, the miller, whose descendants still live nearby.
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Sugar Grove .- Cutliff Harmon came from Randolph County to this place in 1791 and bought 522 acres of land from James Gwyn, it having been granted to him May 18, 1791. Cutliff married Susan Fouts first and a widow by the name of Eliza- beth Parker after the death of his first wife. It is Sugar Grove that is the most progressive of the Cove Creek towns, having electric lights, a roller mill, the first in the county, and a cheese dairy, established 5th June, 1915. It has also one of the finest school houses in the county. It was here also that Camp Mast was located during the Civil War. The land in this section is considered as about the best in the county. Col. Joseph Harrison Mast, who died September 8, 1915, had his residence here. He was in his prime one of the best and most substantial citizens of the county and still holds the respect and affection of all who knew him. The first roller mill in the county was established here. These people know what co-operation means and act accordingly. The cheese factory is the first that was established in the South, and promises to be successful.
Blowing Rock .- From the "Carolina Mountains" (pp. 350, 355) we learn that "from Blowing Rock to Tryon Mountain the Blue Ridge draws a deep curve half encircling a jumble of very wild rocky peaks and cliffs that belong to the foothill formations. Hence, Blowing Rock, lying on one arm of a horseshoe of which Tryon Mountain is the other arm, has the most dramatic outlook of any village in the mountains. Directly in front of it is an enormous bowl filled with a thousand tree-clad hills and ridges that become higher and wilder towards the encircling wall of the Blue Ridge, the conspicuous bare stone summits of Hawk's Bill and Table Rock Mountains rising sharp as dragon's teeth above the rest, while the sheer and shining face of the terrible Lost Cove cliffs, dropping into some unexplored ravine, come to view on a clear day. From far away, beyond this wild bowlful of mountains, one sometimes sees a faintly outlined dome, Tryon Mountain, under which on the other side one likes to re- member Traumfest, Fortress of Dreams.
"Off to the left from Blowing Rock, seen between near green knobs, the shoreless sea of the lowlands reaches away to lave
THE BLOWING ROCK.
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the edge of the sky. And looking to the right, there lies the calm and noble form of the Grandfather Mountain, its rocky top drawn in a series of curves against the western sky. Long spurs sweep down like buttresses to hold it. Trees clothe it as with a garment to where the black rock surmounts them.
"The view from Blowing Rock changes continually. The atmospheric sea that encloses mountain and valley melts the solid rocks into a thousand enchanting pictures. Those wild shapes in the great basin which at one time look so near, so hard and so terrible, at another time recede and soften, their dark colors transmuted into the tender blue of the Blue Ridge, or again the basin is filled with dreamlike forms immersed in an exquisite sea of mystical light.
"Sometimes the Grandfather Mountain stands solidly out, showing in detail the tapestry of green trees that hangs over its slopes ; again it is blue and flat against the sky, or it seems made of mists and shadows. Sometimes the sunset glory penetrates, as it were, into the substance of the mountain, which looks translu- cent in the sea of light that contains it. As night draws on, it darkens into a noble silhouette against the splendor that often draws the curves of its summit in lines of fire.
"Blowing Rock at times lies above the clouds, with all the world blotted out excepting the Grandfather's summit rising out of the white mists. Sometimes one looks out in the morning to see that great bowl filled to the brim with level clouds that reach away from one's very feet in a floor so firm to the eye that one is tempted to step out on it. Presently this pure white, level floor begins to roll up into billowy masses, deep wells open, down which one looks to little landscapes lying in the bottom, a bit of the lovely John's River Valley, a house and trees, perhaps. The well closes; the higher peaks begin to appear, phantom islands in a phantom sea; the restless ocean of mists swells and rolls, now concealing, now revealing glimpses of the world under it. It breaks apart into fantastic forms that begin to glide up the peaks and mount above them like wraiths. The sun darts sheaves of golden arrows in through the openings, and these in time slay the pale dragons of the air, or drive them fleeing into
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the far blue caverns of the sky, and the world beneath is visible, only that where the John's River Valley ought to be there often remains a long lake of snowy drift. Sometimes the clouds blot- ting out the landscape break apart suddenly, the mountains come swiftly forth one after the other until one seems to be watching an act of creation where solid forms resolve themselves out of chaos. The peaceful John's River Valley, winding far below among the wild mountains, is like a glimpse into fairyland, and one has never ventured to go there for fear of dispelling the pleasing illusion.
"Near the village of Blowing Rock, at the beginning of those green knobs between which one looks to the lowlands, is a high cliff, the real Blowing Rock, so named because the rocky walls at this point form a flume through which the northwest wind sweeps with such force that whatever is thrown over the rock is hurled back again. It is said that there are times when a man could not jump over, so tremendous is the force of the wind. It is also said that visitors, having heard the legend of the rock, have been seen to stand there in a dead calm and throw over their possessions and watch them no more in anger than in mirth as they, obedient to the law of gravity instead of that of fancy, disappeared beneath the tree tops far below.
"Blowing Rock, four thousand feet above sea level, is a won- derfully sweet place. The rose-bay and the great white rhodo- dendron maximum crowd against the houses and fill the open spaces, excepting where laurel and the flame-colored azaleas have planted their standards. And in their seasons the wild flowers blossom everywhere; also the rocks are covered with those crisp, sweet-smelling herbs that love high places, and sedums and saxifrages trim the crevices and the ledges.
"Blowing Rock is also noted for the great variety of new mushrooms that have been captured there, though one suspects that this renown is due to the fact that the mushroom hunters happened to pitch their tents here instead of somewhere else. For other parts of the mountains can make a showing in mush- rooms, too."
Some Blowing Rock Attractions .- Besides the Blowing Rock itself, from which a fine view can be had, there are the Ransom
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and Grand Views. There are several drives and trails in and near the Rock, some of which surpass in sylvan beauty any to be seen on the Biltmore estate, as the former are through primeval forests, notably the drive between the Stringfellow and Cone Lakes. The Randall Memorial Work Shop was conceived by the late W. G. Randall, who was born in Burke County, North Carolina, and after many hardships obtained an education and became a famous artist in oils. He spent his summers in Blow- ing Rock, where he died, after living nearly twenty sum- mers there. His remains lie in Washington, D. C. His wife was Miss Anna Goodlow, of Warren County, North Carolina. It is in this Work Shop that the manual industries of the moun- tain people are preserved and fostered. There are an old- fashioned hand loom, spinning wheels, etc., in this building. The Blowing Rock Exchange is near by, and its object is to afford a greater opportunity to the home people to sell home-made arti- cles, such as woven rugs, coverlids, embroidered bedspreads, laces, articles made of laurel, baskets, etc. In it are a library, a fine collection of Indian relics and mineral specimens. In front of the Work Shop is a garden of rare wild and cultivated plants and one of the two sundials in Watauga County. This garden is the result of the labors of Rev. William Rutherford Savage, who was born in Pass Christian, Miss., October 20, 1854; was graduated at the Episcopal Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Va., and moved to Blowing Rock in September, 1902. He is a worthy successor to the late Rev. W. W. Skiles, of Valle Crucis fame. In the words of Rev. Edgar Tufts, Mr. Savage has done more than any other to create a fraternal feeling among all the denominations of the mountains.
Ante-Bellum Residents .- Col. James Harper, Sr., of Lenoir, built a frame summer residence at what is now the H. W. Weeden Fairview house, about 1858, and spent the summers there till the Civil War began. John Bryant lived where the Blowing Rock hotel stands, on land belonging to Col. James Harper. Edmund Greene lived near the present site of the Greene Park hotel, and Isaac Greene where the Boyden house now stands. Joseph Greene lived near the present site of the German Reformed Church. Amos Greene lived on the opposite
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side of the road from the present residence of Mrs. Dr. Reeves, and Lot Estes had his home between the present residence of Col. W. W. Stringfellow and the creek. Len Estes, his son, built the mill and dam after the Civil War, but sold out to Colonel Stringfellow and went West. He kept summer boarders and looked like General Grant. William M. Morris bought the Amos Greene place about 1874 and opened a house for summer board- ers. He was most successful, and the good things he furnished for his boarders to eat will be forever remembered by all who had the good fortune to sit at his table. He had a most remark- able little bench-legged cow, which gave oceans of the richest milk imaginable. His deep featherbeds were good for tired legs after a day's wading in the creeks fishing for speckled trout. He sold out to Dr. L. C. Reeves, however, and moved east of the Blue Ridge. W. W. Sherrell bought the Harper property and opened two or three small houses for summer boarders about 1877 or 1878 at Fairview. This is now the Weeden place. Robert Greene, father of the late Judge L. L. Greene, lived where the Cone Lake now is. The Kirk Fort was in the Blowing Rock Gap, and trees were felled for some distance down the road so as to give an open view of the country to the east. After Gen. M. W. Ransom became interested in the place, its growth was rapid, and the completion of the Yonahlossee turnpike in 1900 assured its success.
Along the Blue Ridge .- We will now notice the people who originally lived along the Blue Ridge, from Deep Gap to Coffey's Gap. Solomon Green lived in the Deep Gap, and was a good citizen and entertained the traveling public. He was the son of "Flatty" Isaac Green, who lived on Meat Camp near the noted Brown place of 640 acres, the lower part of which is now owned by Lindsey Patterson, of Winston-Salem, and the upper part by L. A. Green, who lives near. L. A. Green is a son of "Little" John Green, who was a son of Richard Green, all of whom are well to do people. The next settled place on the Ridge was called the Old Ellison place, where William Blackburn now lives. The next was the home of the Rev. John Cook, a Baptist minis- ter and a son of Michael Cook, of Cook's Gap, and he lived six
E
Photo. by Vannoy.
LAKE AND RESIDENCE OF COLONEL W. W. STRINGFELLOW, BLOWING ROCK.
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miles east of Boone, where his grandson, A. B. Cook, now lives, and is better known as "Burt" Cook. From this point, going west along the Ridge, we next reach the home of the old pioneer, Michael Cook, who first settled in the noted Cook's Gap and from whom it took its name. He had six sons, to wit: John, Adam, David, Robert, Michael and William. There were at least two daughters, one of whom married Aaron Hampton and the other Rice Hayes. From this point we go to John and Joshua Storie's, where George Storie now has a store. George is a grandson of John, his father having been Walter, who mar- ried a Miss Powell, of Caldwell. Walter lost his life in the Civil War. These two families were hard working and industrious people and owned adjoining farms, the voting place being called Storie's Barn. Jesse, son of John Storie, is probably the only one living of the two old families. This takes us to what is now Blowing Rock, four miles further west, to the old Green settle- ment, where the two noted brothers, Joseph and Benjamin Green, lived. These brothers were so much alike that their neighbors could scarcely tell them apart. Isaac Green, called "Mountain" Isaac, lived at what is now the Boyden place, where he reared a large family. Amos Green lived where Mrs. Sallie Reeves, widow of the late Dr. L. C. Reeves, now lives. He had a large family. Alexander Green, son of Benjamin, lived where Mr. Lance now lives, one mile east of Blowing Rock. His father used to live there before him, while Joseph Green lived east of Green Park hotel. He was the grandfather of Mrs. W. L. Bryan. A small Reformed Lutheran Church stands on part of the land. Warren Green, youngest son of Joseph, was killed when Stoneman raided Boone. Robert Greene lived where Cone's Lake now is. He was the father of Judge L. L. Greene, his wife having been Chaney Elrod, whose father lived two miles south of Boone, where J. Watts Farthing now lives. Lot Estes married Chaney Green, a daughter of Benjamin Green, and lived where Colonel Stringfellow's house now stands. Five miles west lived McCaleb Coffey at what is called Coffey's Gap. He married Sally Hayes, a sister of Ransom Hayes. They had four boys and no girls. The boys were Jones, Thomas, Ninevah and
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John. All were killed in the Civil War except Jones and he was badly wounded. No one else lived on the Blue Ridge from Coffey's Gap west till after the Grandfather was passed. Finley and Jesse Gragg probably moved to the top of the Ridge after the Civil War.
Moses H. Cone .- He began to acquire real estate in the vicinity of Blowing Rock about 1897, and secured over 3,500 acres of land before his death at Baltimore, Md., December 8, 1908. The mansion he erected on Flat Top Mountain is second only to that of George W. Vanderbilt near Asheville. The lake in front of that residence is one of the picture places of the mountains. He died childless and intestate, but his widow and brothers and sisters have joined in the creation of the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park for the public "in perpetuity," after the death of his widow, by donating the above land. Moses H. Cone was born at Jonesboro, Tenn., June 29, 1857. He married Miss Bertha Landau, of Baltimore.
An Established Pleasure Resort .- Blowing Rock went up top as a pleasure resort soon after the completion of the turn- pike from Lenoir and Linville City. Many people bought land and built summer homes there. Hotels and boarding houses began to go up and to multiply year by year. Livery stables, bowling alleys, automobiles, drug stores, churches, stores of all sorts soon became numerous and provided for the amusement and needs of a growing summer population. It has a flourishing bank also, a long-distance and local telephone line, several physi- cians, and everything to make life pleasant for the permanent resident and the transient guest. The views are unsurpassed. Schools provide for the education of the children, and all sorts of games, entertainments and amusements go on from morn till night all seasons of the year. The mails are adequate, and Charlotte and Raleigh papers reach "The Rock," as it is called, on the day they are issued. In other words, everything that is essential to a first-class pleasure resort is provided, and all tastes and purses can be suited, as the range of hotel and boarding . house accommodation is extensive. Blowing Rock is established beyond question as one of the finest and most popular pleasure resorts of the South.
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Brushy Fork .- John Holtsclaw, son of James D., who was the son-in-law of Samuel Hix, moved from Valle Crucis in 1801, when the road was finished down Brushy Fork and built and operated the Buck Horn tavern, which stood in the field to the left of the road going down the creek opposite Floyd Ward's present home. Buck horns were nailed to a large white oak which stood in front of the old tavern. Valle Crucis was then off the main road to Tennessee, and John had come to Brushy Fork to be in the current of the western movement. Later on a school house was built near this old tavern, which has long since disappeared, and the small mound on which it stood is still pointed out. Marcus Holtsclaw, son of John, lived at several places on Brushy Fork. John also built and operated a grist mill a third of a mile below the Brushy Fork Baptist Church, on the right of the road going down, a sycamore stump still marking the site of the old dam. Almost opposite the old dam site, but to the left of the road, still stands an old stone chimney which fur- nished a fireplace for a cabin which stood on ten acres of land which John Tomlin in 1830 to 1835 contracted to buy and pay fifty dollars for. He put up the walls of a large log house, Alfred Hately hewing the logs, but Tomlin was unable to finish paying for the property and it fell back to its original owner. Tomlin sold goods at what is now called Vilas. His wife was a daughter of John J. Whittington, but she left him and went to Missouri. What became of him is not known, except that he also left Brushy Fork, never to return. John J. Whittington lived a quarter of a mile below and on the right of the road, and the old Whittington graveyard is on the hill on the right of the road, while the Hagaman graveyard is on the left. John Holts- claw's youngest son is buried there. He had married Nancy, a daughter of Moses Hateley. There was a sang factory at the Whittington place as far back as W. W. Presnell can remember. It was in charge of Bacchus J. Smith, of Buncombe, who in turn was the agent of Dr. Hailen, of Philadelphia. The sang factory stood just below Joseph Ward's present home. M. Granville Hagaman first lived and sold goods right after the Civil War in a house where Andrew Greer now lives. He also bought sang
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there, and Col. W. W. Presnell gathered and sold to him $47.00 worth of sang at twenty-five cents a pound in exactly twenty- two days.1 Where Samuel Flannery now lives is the site of the original home of Thomas Hagaman, who settled there before the Civil War, coming from the Fork Ridge. The Ben Councill house at Vilas, built of brick, was completed about 1845 by a man from Tennessee by the name of Mace, while Polly Cornell cooked for the work hands. In 1827 the parents of Col. W. W. Presnell reached Brushy Fork, coming through the Coffey Gap on the old John's River Road from near Taylorsville. His mother, Mary Munday, was born at the Black Oak Ridge and his father, Solomon Presnell, in Union County in 1810. Where the widow of ex-Sheriff A. J. McBride now lives, nearly oppo- site the Ben Councill brick house at Vilas, is where the old Tomlin and Ben Councill store house stood. It was built of logs. On the hill above the present residence of Wm. L. Henson is the site of the first Methodist Church that was ever built in Watauga County, but it seems never to have been completed, though Colonel Presnell says that his mother told him services were held there soon after she came to this settlement in 1827. It is at Vilas' that Ben Councill built a large mill for that day and time (1845), and from that place the road forked, one prong going through the Councill Gap to Valle Crucis and the other to Sugar Grove, from which point it went through the Mast Gap to Valle Crucis, as well as on down Cove Creek to Watauga River and up the Cove Creek to Tennessee. The Whittington family finally moved to Missouri. The Dugger family of Cove Creek are de- scendants of Benjamin Dugger, who came from Yadkin Elk in 1793 or 1794 to Brushy Fork and entered land there, and for whom the Dugger Mountain and creek east of the Blue Ridge are named. There were three Dugger brothers who came from Scotland and stopped awhile near Petersburg, Va., named Ben- jamin, Daniel and Julius. Ben stopped at Yadkin Elk, Daniel went to Kentucky and Julius settled near Fish Springs on the Watauga River, Tennessee. It was from Julius' children that the Banner's Elk Duggers descended.
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