USA > North Carolina > Watauga County > A history of Watauga County, North Carolina. With sketches of prominent families > Part 21
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1 One of the sons of Newton Banner has about a fourth of an acre in ginseng, near Sugar Grove. Others have large patches of it also. Many have very small plots of ground in shaded corners where a few plants are tended.
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Shull's Mills .- From this point to the Linville Gap is full of historical incidents and romantic occurrences. It was in the field in front of the Joseph C. Shull home, near the cattle barn, that young Charles Asher was shot by White's men after the Revolutionary War, and soon after he had married a daughter of David Hix and settled in the orchard below the Shull house. Here also came James Aldridge soon after he had left the Big Sandy and his wife and five children to commence life anew with Betsy Calloway, as a hunter and trapper. Rev. Henry H. Prout came there, too, and built Easter Chapel, and it was there that Edward Moody and his wife lived lives of usefulness and in- spiration to all who came into contact with them. There, too, came Jesse Boone, a nephew of Daniel, and built a cabin on one prong of Watauga River, which has ever since borne the name of the Boone Fork. Col. Walter W. Lenoir, soldier, lawyer, legislator and philanthropist, settled just above Shull's Mill at the close of the Civil War and built, or, rather, improved a mill there which has ever since been known as Lenoir's Stonewall Mill. The Grandfather Mountain looms above it on one side and the Hanging Rock on the other. It was in this neighborhood that many of the most tragic events of the Civil War occurred, while just across the Linville Gap is the romantic valley of Altamont, the old home of the Palmers and Childses, who had been lured from New York and Massachusetts to pass their days in these enchanting surroundings. It was the broad bottoms and other attractions that made Bishop Ives apply to Phillip Shull, the father of Joseph C., for a deed to what was then Shull's Mills, embracing the present Shull holdings as well as those of Alex. Moody across Lance's Creek. And it is as well to state here that Lance's Creek was so called because Lance Estes first lived on its waters, but sold out to Len. Estes February 8, 1830. The Shull Mills land was granted to Charles Asher in 1788, when it was supposed to be in Washington County, Tennessee, and by him conveyed to Joseph White in 1792, and by Joseph to Ben- jamin White in 1798. It was from this neighborhood, also, that Cobb McCanless rode to Boone with young Levi L. Coffey on that January morning in 1859, where he was confronted with
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the agent of the Weyeth's, for whom he had been collecting money, but to return that night and take the fatal step of ab- sconding with trust funds from which there was no return. The old bridge across Watauga River, one mile below Shull's Mills, still called the Old Bridge Place, and on which William Mast had been at work when, in October, 1849, the poison he and his wife had drunk that morning in their coffee began to make its fatal effects felt, fell down in 1909 while Wood Young was passing over it in a wagon drawn by two mules; while Zeb Dana was killed there in 1883 at night when returning with horses which he thought he had borrowed and their owners thought he had stolen. The old Caldwell and Watauga Turn- pike crossed the river at this point, but after the Civil War (1870) Col. Joseph C. Shull changed it so as to cross at the present ford and run in front of his residence, instead of in rear, as it had done before, thereby avoiding a moist and boggy place near his well.
Linville Valley .- One scarcely thinks of this region-from Linville Gap to Linville Falls-as a valley, for it is more like a high ridge upon the crest of which a silver stream winds its romantic way, with "here a blossom sailing, and here and there a lusty trout, and here and there a grayling." And, most won- derful, even incredible, it seems, is the fact that its course from Linville Gap to the Linville Falls is east of the Blue Ridge. The Humpback Mountain lies between the stream and the eastern lowlands, and looks for all the world like the Blue Ridge, but such is not the case. And more wonderful still is the fact that just over Pisgah Ridge is one prong of the Tow River, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Following this ridge out, one comes to the ridge which divided the waters of the Watauga from those of the Toe, and the Cherokee territory to the south from the Watauga Settlement's lands to the north. Indians were seen there under the cliff just above Pisgah Church before the Revo- lutionary War, to which point they had been chased by troops from below the Blue Ridge. A man named Fullward evidently lived on the branch between the old J. B. Palmer house and the store now occupied by Bickerstaff and Stroup, as that branch is
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called for in grant No. I of Burke County land. This grant is dated December 17, 1778, and is to J. McKnitt Alexander and William Sharp, for 300 acres, covering what will always be known as the Palmer Place on Linville River .? It is signed by Governor Caswell and has the old bees-wax seal hanging to the grant by an old ribbon. Who Fullward was no one can now tell, but there was also another early settler whose name even has been forgotten and who lived where M. C. Bickerstaff now resides. William White, after whom the Billy White Creek of this place is called, then lived at the Bickerstaff place, but he moved to Missouri about 1821, when that territory was opened up to settlement. White sold to James Erwin and he to J. B. Palmer. George Crossnore settled what is still called the Crossnore Place, where Benjamin Aldridge now lives, and he was probably a hunter. The postoffice and neighborhood still bear his name. William Davis, a soldier of the Revolution, stole his wife, a Carpenter, from Ashe, and settled at what is still called the Davis Mountain, now the Monroe Franklin place, and which Warsaw Clark now owns, one mile and a half above the Cross- nore place, where Kate, the five year old daughter of Davis, is buried under an apple tree. It is said that he first gave the name of the Cow Camp to a creek of that name which runs into Toe River because of the fact that, having no feed for his cattle, he camped near them on that creek and supplied them with lin tree limbs, called laps, from the time the buds began to swell till the grass came. Another reason is given, however, for this name, which is that there was abundance of stagger-weed on the creek, and when the cattle ate it, as they did, their owners camped on the creek in order to doctor them.
The Ollis Family .- John Ollis was one of the first to settle in the Linville country, making his home just above Crossnore, where he cleared a field, still called by some the Ollis Place, while across the Fire-Scald Ridge is a rock called the Ollis
2 Col. J. B. Palmer, afterwards colonel of the 58th North Carolina, came from New York State in 1858, and built a large frame house there. Because of the execution for desertion of some of his soldiers, condemned by court-martial, he could not return there after the Civil War. His widow sold it in 1889 to Mrs. Anna K. Watkins, wife of Maj. G. R. Watkins, of U. S. Navy, retired, and she to C. E. Wood, trustee, in 1908. Kirk having burnt the Palmer house, Major Watkins erected the residence now on the old site.
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Deer Stand. He was of German extraction and was a soldier of the War of 1812, but was discharged at Salisbury after serv- ing only sixty days on account of physical disability. His chil- dren were Boston, John, Jr., Daniel, James and George, Sarah, who married a Harrel; Elizabeth, who married James Gragg, and Mary, who married Major Gragg. W. H. Ollis, one of John's sons, was born September 22, 1840, and married Melinda Harstin, January 25, 1866.
Other Early Settlers .- Harvey Clark settled near the Har- shaw place below Pinola; Andrew Bowers, at the Bowers' Gap; Abe Gwyn lived above Scaly, near Cranberry mines; Rad Ellis lived on the Fork Mountain, while Dr. Wm. Houston lived at what is now called Minneapolis, where he bought sang. Dr. Houston is said to have been seven feet tall. Bayard Benfield now lives where Abram Johnson first put up a forge. It is said that Johnson frequently looked for his jacket, as the vest is called here, while he had it on his person, and that the floor of his home was made of red hickory six inches thick and so closely joined that cracks were invisible. Tilmon Blalock lived on Beaver Creek, near Spruce Pine. Larkin Calloway built a little mill and lived at what is now Linville City, a little above, and his brother-in-law, Torry Webb, lived where the lake now is. Mathias Carpenter came from Pennsylvania and settled on New River in Ashe. It was his daughter who married William Davis. His son, Jacob, moved to Three Mile Creek, where he died July 18, 1856, aged eighty-six years. His son, Jacob, of Altamont, was born January 4, 1833. Henry Dellinger came from Burke about 1834 and settled where Linn Dellinger now lives. Henry salted and tended cattle in the mountains for the Erwins; John Franklin lived at the Old Fields of Toe and was one of Cobb McCanless's deputies. Wesley Johnson, a son of Abraham's, went to Utah and died there in 1880, aged eighty-one years.
Elk Crossroads .- As Elk Creek comes into the South Fork of the New River at this point, it has been a noted place for many years. Riddle and his men passed there with Ben Cleve- land after they had captured him at Old Fields in April, 1781.
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Wm. Howell, Wm. Ray, Solomon Younce and G. and Joseph Tatum were early settlers. It has always been a stopping place and a noted "stand" for the sale of goods and provisions. James Todd and Hugh A. Dobbins kept a store there before the Civil War and several others have sold goods there since. It is now called Elkland by the Virginia-Carolina Railroad, having for several years borne the name of Todd. Col. E. F. Lovill, of Boone, kept a store there after the Civil War, and then moved to Boone, where he has practiced law ever since. The comple- tion of the Virginia-Carolina Railroad to that place in 1915 promises to make of it a large town in the near future. All of Elkland is now in Ashe County, the legislature making the line follow the creek from its mouth to the Blackburn ford. The Tatum place was first granted to Thomas Farmer in 1788, when this was a part of Wilkes County. Farmer sold to John Lipps in 1796 for £70, "current money." (Deed Book C, p. 598.) Lipps sold to Susanna Holman in 1799 for same amount (E, p. 241), and she sold to William Clawson in 1802 (A, p. 534), who held it till 1835, when he sold it to Ebeneezer Clawson, and he to Buckner Tatum in 1836 (L, p. 122), and in the year 1845 Buckner sold it to Elijah Tatum, the father of John L., its present owner (N, p. 483).
Banner's Elk .- John Holsclaw was the first permanent resi- dent of this place, though Samuel Hix had occupied a place in the laurel a short distance away at what is now the Grandfather Orphanage. Baker King and Ben Dugger at some time had a camp on that very land.3 It was there, too, during the stormy days of 1863 to 1865 that Lewis and Martin Banner piloted many an escaped Federal prisoner and Union man trying to get through the lines into Tennessee. Only a few in the secret knew of the place-Dan Ellis, of Elizabethton, Tenn .; Harrison Church, another conductor of the underground railroad, and Keith Blalock were admitted into the inner temple. Andrew Bowers lived in what is still known as the Bowers' Gap and gave his name to the Bowers' Mountain between Banner's Elk and Valle Crucis. Down on Elk, Abram Gwyn lived at what is still
3 This camp is called for in deed from John Holtsclaw to Delilah Baird of date May 2, 1838, to the Big Bottoms.
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called the Ford of Elk. George Dugger came later on and set- tled about where the road to Dr. Jenning's hotel leaves the turn- pike. This, however, was on the Shawnehaw side of the ridge. There were no clearings of any extent at Banner Elk, except those at the Hix Improvement, which was very small, and at the Big Bottoms, but there were two "deadenings," one called the Moses Deadening, and the other the Lark Chopping. But nearly one hundred years ago Martin Banner had walked through from Surry to Nashville, accompanied by a single companion and having one horse between them. He passed through Banner Elk and determined to return there at some future time. Ac- cordingly, in 1845 he returned with his family, crossing Watauga River at a ford opposite the place Walter Baird now lives, it being then the home of Bedent Baird, and followed his cart way or wagon road to his place on Beech Mountain, where he turned to the left by the Roland clearing and reaching Banner's Elk at what is now called Balm. But he did not stop there, pitching his tent permanently near what is now the Lowe Hotel. His brother, Lewis, came three or four years later and built his cabin where his daughters, Mrs. Wetmore and Miss Nannie Banner, now live, a mile above Martin's home. Levi Moody and Joel Eggers lived above Lewis Banner's house. Martin Banner moved across Sugar Mountain Gap and built a new home near the head of the North Fork of Toe River in 1866. Some time later he was on a visit at Eb Harris's home near what is now Montezuma, where he died as the result of a fall. He was born February 7, 1808, and died February 19, 1895. John Franklin and Marcus Tuttle also lived near Montezuma at that time. It was then called Bull Scrape because, being on the very crest of the Blue Ridge, there is a current of cool air constantly stirring and the cattle on the ranges thereabout used to assemble there in the heat of the day and lie under the trees while the amorous bulls pawed the ground around and locked horns over their bovine love scrapes. Close to what is now Linville City, a rather small city, but remarkably clean and attractive, lived Tyree Webb, then a very old man. The road through the McCanless Gap, reaching from Banner Elk to Linville Gap, was not con-
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structed till about 1895, though a trail went through there "furder back" than anyone now remembers.4 Behind a thick laurel, near where Napoleon Banner now lives, was the camp of a man named Ollis, who was hiding out during the Revolutionary War. Ashes and coals can still be plowed up near that place. He used to live, as did Samuel Hix, by hunting and making a crop of potatoes in a little patch, ekeing out his simple fare with maple syrup and sugar from the maple trees which had made this sec- tion their home time out of mind, and which give its name to Sugar Mountain. After awhile Burton Baird, Delilah's son, married the Widow Keller, and her daughter Aurilda, called "Rildy" for short, married Levi Moody. Below Harrison Al- drich's house on head of Watauga River lived Tom Fudge and two old maids, one of whom was named Laudermilk, for whom he milked, tended garden and did other work." He had a little gun with a very short barrel. He was a little dried-up man, but useful to these two forlorn women. William Baird lived at what is now called Matny. Mike Snider lived at what is now called Elk Park, where he operated a small grist mill. Down at Old Fields of Toe lived James Calloway and the Maxfield family, the Clarks and Braswells living above that place, and there after the Civil War Gen. Robert F. Hoke and associates, James Wilson and Sam. McD. Tate, decided that sheep raising in these mountains would be profitable, got control of the Old Fields of Toe, imported a genuine Scotch shepherd and a genuine Scotch shepherd dog, several fine bucks, and then bought up over a hundred natives ewes. It did not pay as well as had been ex- pected, native dogs being too much for the one imported collie. Even the tie-tie business for pipe stems was carried on. John Hardin and his son, Jordan, moved from the Hardin place, a mile
4 Shep. M. Dugger, the distinguished author of the "Balsam Groves of the Grandfather Mountain," and his brother-in-law, J. Erwin Calloway, built the Grandfather hotel, half a mile from Linville Gap, in 1885; but it was burned in 1914. It served a good purpose as a resting-place for tourists to the Grand- father Mountain.
5 In 1857 Newton, Ab. and Luther Banner, caught trout in the North Toe River, and ran with them to the head of Banner Elk, crossing at Sugar Gap, replenishing the water as they went, and this stocked Elk Creek above Elk Falls. Rev. H. H. Prout also stocked Linville River above the Falls from head of Watauga River.
" A man named Birchfield was probably among the first settlers at the Old Fields of Toe, dying there of milk-sick many years ago.
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east of Boone, and lived at Cranberry forge from about 1850 till after the Civil War, during which Jordan had charge of the property. John Hardin died in 1873. Between these places and Banner's Elk there was constant communication. The rapid development of Banner's Elk and its surrounding country, in- cluding all the places named herein, is too recent to need record- ing here. The coming of the Rev. Edgar Tufts, however, was the most fortunate event in the history of that section. (See chapter on Schools.)
On Foot to Banner's Elk .- Miss Morley gives us this account of her trip to Banner's Elk. Does that "gold tree" still stand we wonder? The only way to find out is to go and see.
"From Valle Crucis to Banner Elk, under the Beech Moun- tain, is another day's walk, when again you take the longest way up Dutch Creek to see the pretty waterfall there and where the clematis is a white veil over the bushes, and up the steep road by Hanging Rock where the gold tree grows. This is an oak, known far and near because its top is always golden yellow. The leaves come out yellow in the spring, remain so all summer, and in the fall would doubtless turn yellow if they were not al- ready that color. The people say there is a pot of gold buried at the roots, but this pleasant fancy has not taken a serious enough hold to menace the life of the tree.
"Stopping at a picturesque, old time log house to rest, a little girl invites you to go to the top of Hanging Rock, which invita- tion you gladly accept, thereby getting one of the most enjoyable walks of the summer, your little guide telling you all the way about the flowers and the birds and stopping under an over- hanging cliff with great secrecy to show you a round little bird's nest with eggs in it cleverly hidden in the moss. One suspects it was the chance to show this treasure that led the child to propose the long climb to the top of the mountain. The goose- berries of Hanging Rock are without prickles, perhaps because the wild currants growing there have stolen them. Imagine prickly currants! There is plenty of galax on Hanging Rock, the mosses and sedums and all the other growths that make mountain tops so agreeable. The top of Hanging Rock is a
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slanting ledge, from which the mountain gets its name. At Banner Elk you will want to stay awhile, it is so pretty, and you will also want to climb the beautiful Beech Mountain with its grassy spaces and its charming beech groves.
"From Banner Elk you take the short walk over to 'Callo- ways,' close under the shadow of the Grandfather, and from here the long and beautiful walk down the Watauga River at the base of the Grandfather, then along the ridges back to Blowing Rock, watching as you go details of the mountain beneath whose northern front you are passing. The open benches, the rocky bluffs and abrupt, tree-clad walls of this side of the mountain, which we call the back of the Grandfather, are not impressive like those long southern slopes sweeping from a summit of a little less than six thousand feet down into the foothills. For the mountain on this side is stopped by the high plateau from which it rises. Yet it is good to be at the back of the Grandfather. From the Watauga road we see the profile from which the moun- tain is said to have received its name, although one gets a better and far more impressive view of it from a certain point on the mountain itself.
"And so you return to Blowing Rock after days of wander- ing, only to rest awhile and start again, gaining endurance with every trip until the ten miles' walk that cost you a little weari- ness becomes the twenty miles' walk that costs you none. You cannot tire of the road, for every mile brings new sights, new sounds, new fragrances, new friends, new flowers, one charm of walking here being the endless variety. No two days are alike; each has its own pleasant adventures."
Meat Camp .- This was one of the first places to be settled in Ashe County, William Miller, the Blackburns and James Jack- son going there from the Jersey Settlement as early as 1799, while Ebenezer Fairchild, of the same colony, settled on How- ard's Creek, only a short distance away. Jackson's grave is still pointed out in the woods near the site of the old Jackson Meet- ing House, while the cabin of an old hunter named Abbey stood in what is now the garden of John C. Moretz. Brown got the first grant to land on this creek, part of the Lindsey Patterson
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farm, before he had ever seen it, having entered it from the natural boundaries furnished him by Daniel Boone and his associates. The cabin in which the old hunters stored their meat and hides when on hunts in this region stood in a rocky patch just above the bend of Moretz's mill pond, the foundation of the old chimney still showing above ground. It was this camp and the use to which it was put as a sort of primitive packing house that gave the name of Meat Camp to the creek. John Moretz and his wife and family came to Meat Camp in September, 1839. There was already an old mill there when he came, which he bought from Samuel Cooper, who then moved to Meadow Creek. The dam of the old mill was of logs, but John Moretz put sixty men to work erecting the stone dam which still stands. With the grinding and other work of the mill was also a carding machine. But late in the fall of 1847 the mill burned, the supposed act of an incendiary, as it occurred just before day. But he rebuilt, leaving out the linseed oil feature only. After his death Alfred J. Moretz tore that mill down and built the one which still stands. Alfred Moretz moved to his present home at Deep Gap in April, 1885.
The Rich Mountain .- This mountain deserves its name, for it is richer than most bottom lands. This is true of the top as well as of the slopes and coves. It is said that Ezra Stonecypher lived in a cabin above T. P. Adams' barn, and ashes and charcoal are still plowed up there. But, like Daniel Boone, Ezra loved plenty of elbow-room, and so, when a man moved on to Cove Creek and settled there, Ezra moved to Norris's Fork of Meat Camp and built a poplar log cabin. This was several miles from the Cove Creek intruder, and Ezra was happy for a time, but only for a time, as another pushing person obtruded himself on Meat Camp and settled there, which was the straw that broke the camel's back, for Ezra pulled up stakes and moved to Kentucky. One of his sons met Col. Thomas Bingham there during the Civil War, and proved that he knew all about Rich Mountain and that section of the county. Then Dr. Calloway, it seems, got a grant to two tracts called the Big and Little Cay-vit (Caveat?), and after awhile, say about 1840 or 1845, Col. Edmund Jones got
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title to some of the mountain and pastured his cattle there. Sev- eral people have lived at what is still called the Jones Place on Rich Mountain, but Allen Beech went there from Caldwell in 1848 and remained several years, his son, Allen W., having been born there February II, 1854. The late Hon. R. Z. Linney bought the Tater Hill and other land on the Rich Mountain about 1902 and had a turnpike built from the Rich Mountain Gap above Boone to the gap in Rich Mountains above Silverstone, through which a road from Meat Camp passes over to Cove Creek and Zionville. Dr. H. McD. Little owns part of the Rich Mountain and pastures many cattle there. The two-story rock house on Dr. Little's land was built by Col. R. Z. Linney and stands on what is also known as the Jones Place. Part of this rock house fell down in June, 1915.
The Tater Hill .- No one ever makes any apology for calling this striking mountain peak by its real name-Tater Hill. For it was never a potato hill, potatoes being mere ornaments for the skill of French chefs. Taters are what we were "raised" on, while city children were "reared" on potatoes. The first man to see the charm of this lonely spot was one Chapley Well- burn. He entered it in April, 1799, four hundred acres of it, and lived there, probably hunting for a living, the people who live on lower levels being the only ones who indulge in the pas- time of earning a "livelihood." Well, he thought he had a title to that land, and in 1876 J. B. Todd, by order of the court, con- veyed this title to one of his descendants in Wilkes (Deed Book R, p. 108). But Alfred Adams knew a thing or two, one of them being that adverse possession under color of title would "ripen" that title into an "indefeasible estate of inheritance," or words to that general effect. So he got the very best "color" "the air," to wit, a grant from the sovereign State of North Carolina- not from Sovereign Linn, who was living in this county at that time. Adams occupied about three hundred acres of his grant, and when he locked horns with H. M. and W. N. G. Wellburn, through his grantee, John H. Bingham, about the year 1902, over the entire four hundred acres and other lands also, he won three hundred of them handily. (See Minute Docket E, p. 154, Clerk's Office.) It developed in the trial of that suit that one
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