USA > North Carolina > Watauga County > A history of Watauga County, North Carolina. With sketches of prominent families > Part 22
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Flannery, meaning not necessarily that he had no family, but that he might have been almost any Flannery, claimed the land in the flatwoods under Tater Hill, but left about 1849, after which a man named James, but whether John James or James John is not known, came and brought a pack of hounds with him. Hounds have to eat. So do wolves. In the duel to see which should eat the other, the wolves won. James thought his turn might come next, either to eat or to be eaten, so he returned to Alexander County, whence he had come, which, sad as that fate might be, was better than furnishing the funeral baked meat for a lupine holiday. Then, about 1902, came the late Romulus Z. Linney, who, remembering that his old namesake had been "fetched up" by wolves, boldly entered on this demesne and re- tained possession till his demise, demesne and demise having different meanings. But he built a rock wing to his four-room dwelling, which still stands and in which he spent many happy days. This is the gentleman who, before he had tasted of the delights of the Tater Hill, was offered a high office in Wash- ington, D. C. In declining it, he said that he would not give up his spring rambles in the Brushy Mountains of Wilkes for any office within the gift of the American people. But he gave them up for Tater Hill !
The Grandfather Mountain .- Following is Miss Morley's de- scription of this oldest mountain on earth :
"The path beyond the river [Watauga] is cut through dense kalmia and rhododendron maximum (our laurel) that make a wide band along the base of the mountain, then it leads up and up through the more open forest. There is no sweeter walk in the world than that up Grandfather Mountain, where the path winds among the trees, a canopy of leaves screening the sky, the forest shutting from view the outer world. Once there were large wild cherry trees on the slopes of the Grandfather, but the wood being valuable there are only saplings left, and a few patriarchs that, though useless for lumber, give an air of dignity to the forest in company with the clear gray shafts of the tulip trees, the grand old chestnuts, the oaks, the maples, beeches, birches, ashes and lindens that mingle their foliage with that of the pines and spruces.
PEAKS OF GRANDFATIIER MOUNTAIN By permission of author and publishers of "The Carolina Mountains."
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"You pass beside or under large detached boulders covered with saxifrages, sedums, mosses and ferns, and in whose crev- ices mountain-ash trees and twisted hemlocks have taken root as though for purposes of decoration, and in the damp hollows away from the path great jack vines hang from tree tops. The rock ledges sometimes make caves where bears were wont to live, for the Grandfather was once a famous place for bears. Squirrels still 'use on the mountain,' as the people say, and a 'boomer' will be apt to bark down at you as you go along. You hear the waters of a stream in the ravine below, and here and there you cross a natural garden of 'balimony' or some other precious herb that the people gather in the season. About two- thirds of the way up you take a path that branches off to the left and leads you over the mossy rocks to an open place on the edge of a gorge, where, looking off, you see the clear-cut profile of the Grandfather sculptured on the edge of a rocky bluff, the bushy hair that rises from the forehead consisting of fir trees that when whitened by the winter snow give a venerable ap- pearance to the stone face. Somewhat above this profile from this point is also visible another, with smaller and rounder fea- tures, which of course is the Grandmother.
"Returning to the main path and continuing the ascent, the way grows wilder, and, if possible, sweeter. One has a sense of rising spiritually as well as physically. At the base of a high cliff, framed in foliage and crowned with the rosy-flowered rhododendron catawbiense, gushes out the famous Grandfather Spring that is only ten degrees above freezing throughout the summer. Up to this point there is a bridle path; beyond here it is necessary to walk. The rose-bay still in bloom clings to the rocks, in whose crevices little dwarf trees have taken root along with the mosses, ferns and saxifrages.
"The path gets very steep and rocky. You are now among the balsam firs, those trees to name which is to name a perfume, and you go climbing up over their strong red roots. The pathway becomes a staircase winding about moss-trimmed rocks in whose crevices are tiny contorted balsams like Japanese flower-pot trees. Enormous coal-black lichens hang from the
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cliffs and the ground is softly carpeted with mossy growths and oxalis, out from whose pretty pale leaves look myriads of pink- and white blossoms. Long after the rhododendron catawbiense is done blooming below, one finds it in its prime on the high peaks of the Grandfather.
"Up among the balsam firs and about the rocks grow large sour gooseberries and enormous sweet huckleberries, and it was here we found a new and delicious fruit. The bushes crowding the woods in places were loaded with bright red globes the size of a small cherry, each dangling from a slender stem. These delightful berries were mere skins of juice, tiny wine-bottles full of refreshment for a summer day . . we discovered them
on other mountains, though never much below an altitude of six thousand feet Up through the spruces and balsams you mount in the resplendent day, lingering at every step Thus climbing through the resplendent day you reach the sum- mit, 'Calloway's High Peak,' the highest point on the mountain, but from which one cannot command the circle of the horizon. It is necessary to get the view from two points, which is all the better. The rocks at the lookout towards the south being covered with heather, one can lie on the delightful couch studded all over with little white starry flowers, to rest and receive the view
In the distance lies White Top, on whose summit three States meet
"Leaving this place and walking on to the point that looks to the south, one shares the feelings and almost the faith of Michaux. The view is very impressive, because of that steep descent of the mountain into the foothills, the long spurs sweep- ing down in fine lines to a great depth The Black Mountains stand forth very high and very blue, and beyond them, among the many familiar forms, are distinguished what one sup- poses to be the faint blue line of the Smokies, or is it the nearer Balsams ? Sooner or later you will find your way to McRae's, which is to the south side of the Grandfather what Calloway's is to the north side, a farmhouse, where you can stay awhile. There is a trail over the end of the Grandfather by which you can go directly from Calloway's to McRae's, but to
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strike this trail you have to walk down the Linville River, which, rising in an open space but a stone's throw from the head of the Watauga, flows in quite the opposite direction, and through so narrow a pass that you have to keep crossing and recrossing it, no small matter in a season of rains, for there are no foot logs at all . But the Linville is one of the streams you are glad to know through all its sparkling length, from the spring behind the Grandfather to where it escapes in wild glee through the gorge below the falls. There are peacocks at McRae's, and Mr. McRae has not forgotten how to play on the bagpipes thiat have so stirred the blood of his race . But you will have to coax him to do it. McRae's stands on the Yonahlossee road that connects Linville, just below the mountain, with Blowing
Rock From McRae's there is a path up the Grand-
father to another peak reached by a very sweet climb through the balsams, which, in this region, are smaller and more companionable than the straight giants of the Black Mountains, these of the Grandfather being twisted and friendly and pro- foundly fragrant. From this peak one can see in all directions, excepting where one of the Grandfather's black summits ob- structs the view.
"It is the lichens growing an the rocks that give so sombre an appearance to the top of the Grandfather, those big, black lichens with loose and curled up edges. Grandfather's black, rocky top is eight miles long, and once Mr. Calloway (with the assistance of others) blazed out a rude trail so that we could all take that wonderful knife-edge walk up in the sky over the peaks of the Grandfather, Indian ladders-that is, a tall tree trunk from which the branches have been lopped, leaving pro- truding ends for steps-helping us up otherwise insurmountable cliffs.
"The Yonahlossee road ought to be followed early in the sum- mer, for then the meadowy tops of the long spurs are like noble parks created for man's pleasure. The rhododendron catar- biense lies massed about in effective groups and covered with rosy bloom, beyond which one looks out over a wide landscape of mountains and clouds. From these open, flower-decked spaces
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the road passes into the shadowy forest, to emerge upon a bushy slope where blazing reaches of flame-colored azaleas astound your senses. There are other flowers along the way, but you scarcely see them, intoxicated as you are with the glory of the rhododendrons, and after them the azaleas, for these marvelous growths almost never blossom within sight of each other. You would say they know, like ladies at a ball, how important it is to avoid each other's colors.
"Under the trees along the roadside the earth is covered with a superb carpet of large and handsome galax leaves, for the Grandfather is distinguished by the great beauty and abundance of its galax. Laurel, too, claims standing room on the side of the grand old mountain, and here, as elsewhere, one notices the apparent capriciousness of the laurel, which forms an impene- trable jungle for long stretches and then stops short, not a laurel bush to be seen for some distance, when with equal sud- denness it reappears again.
"The splendid slopes of the Grandfather are enchanting also' when autumn colors them-deep red huckleberry balds, trees wreathed in crimson woodbine, vivid sassafras, tall gold and crimson and scarlet forest trees-it seems more like the bril- liant display of a northern forest. You would say that the outpouring of fragrance must pass with the summer. Not so. As you walk among the trees in their thin, bright attire you have a feeling of their friendliness. The forest, as it were, breathes upon you, you are drowned in the sweetness of resinous per- fumes that distil from a thousand pines, firs and hemlocks. When the leaves of the trees are growing scarce and changing to duller hues, into the open spaces witch-hazel weaves its gold-wreathed wands and brightens the woods like sunshine.
"Turning to the right from the Yonahlossee Road, a short distance up from McRae's, you walk along under the chestnut trees just beginning to open their burs, away from the Grand- father out over a beautiful spur that ends in an open, rounded summit. The road to this place has side paths that lead you to high cliffs, whence you look off towards Blowing Rock, and where the sweetest of mountain growths cling to the crevices
THE YONAHLOSSEE ROAD
By permission of author and publishers of "The Carolina Mountains."
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and drape the edges of all the rocks. For some reason the trees here are small, the chestnuts being not much larger than bushes, but the nuts are proportionately large, the largest nuts one ever saw on our native chestnut trees, and they are peculiarly sweet, again a hint to the fruit-makers, who from this could doubtless create a nut as large as the chestnuts of France and as sweet as those of America. The summit of this little mountain of the large chestnuts is one of your favorite places to go for a day of rest and contemplation. It is a lovely, soothing place, as it ought to be, for it is the Grandmother Mountain."
Grafting French Chestnuts .- Mr. Jack Farthing, of Tim- bered Ridge, demonstrated some years ago that French and Italian chestnuts, when grafted to the native trees, will produce as large chestnuts as those imported as French and Italian, and Newton Banner also has several trees so grafted which are never failing.
Dr. Buxton's Description .- A letter from Rev. Jarvis Bux- ton, which speaks with greatest admiration of the grand sunrise seen from the top of the Grandfather Rock, is thus quoted in the "Life of Skiles" (p. 50) :
"I have seen the glorious sunrise at sea, but nothing of sky at sea ever filled my vision with such deep impressions of glory as came from those gorgeous skies-brilliant hues ever shifting, dissolving and re-combining, ever growing in brightness as the morning advanced, till the vast heavens seemed filled with the glory and flame of color; while below, stretching far away into the azure, the hills still slept their lowly sleep of silence, with the heavens all aglow above them."
Beaver Dams .- There is no more picturesque section than this in all the North Carolina mountains, nor is there any popu- lation more self-respecting and law-abiding. It has never known lawlessness, depravity or loose living. Schools and churches have been common since it became sufficiently settled to support them. From an account book kept by the late Dudley Farthing, his son, Col. Henry Harrison Farthing, of Timbered Ridge, can tell most, if not all, of the residents of this section in 1826 and 1827. George Wilson lived on Fork Ridge, which is between
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Cove and Beaver Dam creeks; Benjamin Harley lived where Lewis Farthing now lives ; Joel Dyer, father of Ben., lived where James Cable now lives; Micajah Lunsford lived up under the Stone Mountain, where the Millsaps and Eggers now live, but his family moved to Tennessee after the death of Micajah; a man named Wallace lived in the "Pick Breeches" country, which is on the right of the Baker's Gap road, going west, between where the Millsaps and Eggers families now live and the top of the mountain." Col. Phineas Horton told Mr. W. S. Farthing forty years ago (1875) that he had helped to build the road up Beaver Dams and over Baker's Gap, which was the main thoroughfare from North Carolina to Tennessee in 1826, and over which drovers took their stock of all kinds, but principally hogs. Mrs. William W. Farthing, widow of the minister of that name, lived just below Bethel Church, though the house is now gone, and entertained the traveling public. Her husband died there in January, 1827, having lived there only since the previous November. Thomas Curtis lived where Lee Osborn now lives at the foot of the George Gap road on the Cove Creek side, and he said that the first clearing on Beaver Dams was the field in which the Farthing graveyard now is and where a log cabin stood. It was there that the first log-raising and log-rolling, or clearing, took place on Beaver Dams. Curtis's sons went west, but in 1910 a greatgrandson, Webb Mast, by name, came back and had a picture taken of the old Ben Webb house site. The Webb cabin stood above the place where Alfred Trivett now lives, Webb having moved to middle Tennessee after he sold to Rev. W. W. Farthing in 1826. One of Ben Webb's daughters married Reuben Mast and died in that old cabin. Reuben Mast then married one of Thomas Curtis's daughters and moved to Texas. It was in this first cabin that Bishop Asbury stayed on one of his trips through Beaver Dams and when it was covered by only a few boards. When Mrs. W. W. Farthing kept the tavern on Beaver Dams, an old man stayed all night there and
7 Big and Little Hessian are names given to two peaks on the Tennessee- North Carolina line, near Zionville. They are said not to be really named Hessian, but Hay-Shin, because although they are the shin or shank of the mountain they have hay on them, nevertheless. Some claim that they are named the Big and Little Ration because "out-lyers," during the Civil War got their rations there, the rations being left by friends and relatives living near.
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started away the next morning. He was never seen again alive, but some time afterwards a dead body was found at the mouth of the Stone Mountain Branch, and it was supposed to have been his, and it was also thought that he had left the road over the Baker Gap and gone to sleep in the woods, and, waking up, became bewildered and followed the branch to its mouth, where he starved or froze. His name was never learned. The body was buried in the graveyard where Rev. W. W. Farthing and his wife are buried, just above where Alfred Trivett now lives. The first mill on Beaver Dams was one mile above Bethel Church, where an old mill is still running today. The Timbered Ridge, on which Col. H. H. Farthing lives, was so called from the heavy timber which grew there. Behind his house, on a high plateau, is a most commanding view, easily reached by a well graded road, and from which the gorge of the Watauga River, the gloomy slopes of the great Beech Mountain, the valley of Cove Creek, and the Big and Little Hessian, the Bald and the Elk mountains can be plainly seen. It invites a magnificent hotel and summer resort adornments, and for climate is unrivaled.
Boone's Beaver Dams Trail .- The Cable family who first settled on Dry Run, just over the Baker Gap, claim that they were living on Boone's trail into Kentucky. That trail is said to have passed down Cove Creek to the place where Dr. J. B. Phillips now lives, from which point it left Watauga River, passed over Ward's Gap, and then followed a ridge down behind the homes of W. S. and J. H. Farthing, crossing the Beaver Dam Creek near where Alfred Trivett now lives-the old Ward and W. W. Farthing home-and passed on up the ridge by the Star Spring over the Star or Stair Gap to Roan's Creek in Ten- nessee. The Star Springs are at the foot of the Stone Mountain, one being at the head of the Stone Mountain Branch, which empties into Watauga River near W. A. Smitherman's farm, one mile below the Flat Shoals, the other being at the head of the Little Prong of Beaver Dam Creek, the two springs being scarcely 100 yards apart, but on opposite sides of a ridge. Star is the name given these springs because of particles of mica in them which shine like stars. There is little doubt that this was
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Boone's trail, but it seems not probable that he would have gone so much out of his way, when by going across the Grave Yard or Straddle Gap and over the mountain at Zionville, he could have got to Shoun's Crossroads on Roan's Creek, and thence followed the Laurel Creek almost directly to Abingdon, and thence to Cumberland Gap, a route many miles nearer than by going by Sycamore Shoals, and thence to Cumberland Gap, and over a more level country. He did go via Sycamore Shoals in 1775, but not in 1769.
Beech Creek and Poga .- The first man Col. H. H. Farthing remembers as living in the Beech Creek country was a man named Hately, who resided near the mouth of Beech Creek. This was long before the Civil War. I. Valentine Reese has lived a mile below since before the Civil War, where he has carried on a mercantile business. After the turnpike was finished down the river, say about 1854, the country began to settle up slowly, though it was used principally for ranging cattle, hunting and fishing. There was also a Harman settlement near the mouth of Beaver Dam Creek, but on the opposite side of the river, near what is now called the Cow Ford. But Golder Coun- cill Harman and John Tester settled there even before the turn- pike was built. The first settlers on Poga were Samuel Trivett, Phillip Church and Vincent Greer, although some man had set- tled on the Dark Ridge Branch before these came to that section. Vincent Greer lived in the Loggy Gap, he having married Jennie Brewer, "a big, portly woman, sir," to use a quite descriptive phrase of one of the neighbors. All Poga has been cleared within the recollection of men yet living. Poga is said to have derived its name from the alleged fact that a man got lost in that sec- tion and wandered around a long time. When found, he said he had been "pokin" around all day-hence poky or pogy. But in his "Rhymes of Southern Rivers," M. V. Moore claims that pogy is nothing but a corruption of boggy, which was also the name of the Elk River.
CHAPTER XV.1 Schools.
Ante-Bellum Education .- Much has been written about the want of education of the mountain people. Some of it lias been deserved and some undeserved. There have always been schools in Watauga County. Tradition tells of schools as far back as the coming of the first settlers into this country. It is true that education was not general, neither was it of an ad- vanced type. But children were taught the rudiments-the three R's-from time immemorial. The minutes of Three Forks Church show chirography that would be a credit to the best pens- man of today,2 and while the spelling is sometimes erratic and lacks uniformity, the language is terse and plain, leaving no doubt as to its meaning. Some of the phrases are even more forceful than any of the present time, and the tendency to follow Bible language is marked, showing close Bible study. When a member was admitted to the church, the invariable formula was "a door was opened and received into the church." That the church doors are always open to any who would enter, goes without saying, but that "a door" was opened for the reception of that particular person seems far more expressive and forceful. "She confessed her transgression," was another phrase of strength and scriptural authority. And even now we have ex- pressions which transcend any that modern philology has substi- tuted for those of the sixteenth century. "He heired that land," is far more significant and direct than to say "he inherited" it. We "mend" when we improve in health, which is far better than to say that we "get better." "It don't differ" certainly is more economical and quite as expressive as "it makes no difference."
1 Space will not permit the record of public schools, a full account of which can be obtained from the reports of the Superintendent of Education.
2 John W. Owen appears to have recorded these minutes, which are correct in diction and spelling. Thomas Morris, a kinsman of Mrs. Geo. L. Van Dyke, was a fine scribe also, his copy-book, still preserved by her, showing specimens of his writings when he was a boy of twelve years, being remarkable. All writing of those days was done with a quill pen.
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But an adept at such matters has given an entire chapter to our short-comings, as well as to our long-goings in that respect. Hear him :
Peculiarities of Our Speech .- In chapter XIII Mr. Kephart sums up many of the most striking peculiarities of our speech which differentiate us from most people. Following is a con- densation of some of them: The insertion of sounds where they do not belong, as musicianer; the substitution of one sound for another, due to a change of vowels, as ruther for rather; difficulty in pronouncing diphthongs, as brile for broil; the occa- sional substitution of consonants, as atter for after; the con- version of nouns into verbs of action, as "that bear'll meat me a month ;" the coining of a verb from an adjective, as "much that dog, and see won't he come along;" the creation of nouns from verbs, as "I didn't hear no give-out at meetin'," or from an adjective, as "Nance took the biggest through at meetin'," and "a person has a rather," meaning preference; the use of cor- rupt forms of verbs, as gwine for going, het for heat; the formation of peculiar adjectives from verbs, as "them's the travelin'est horses I ever seed;" the use of verbs for adverbs, as "if I'd a been thoughted enough;" the use of the old syllabic plural, as in nesties, posties, beasties; the great abundance of pleonasms, as "I done done it," and "in this day and time;" the use of double, thribble and even quadruple and quintuple nega- tives, as "I ain't never seen no men-folks of no kind do no washing ;" intensifying expression, as "we had one more time," "we jist pintblank got to do it," etc. Biscuit-bread, ham-meat, rifle-gun, rock-clift, ridin' critter, cow-brute, man-person, women- folks, preacher man, granny-woman and neighbor people are common everywhere in the mountains.
We Are Commended for Much .- This author in the same chapter credits us with seldom being at a loss for words, even if we have to create them. They are, however, always produced from English roots, but if all else fails, we fall back on "spang," a coinage peculiarly our own. The use of the old English past tense of holp, stunk and swum is commended, holp being used both as a preterite and as infinitive, and he gives examples of a strong preterite with dialectical change of the vowel in brung,
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