USA > North Carolina > Watauga County > A history of Watauga County, North Carolina. With sketches of prominent families > Part 24
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The Ablest Schoolmaster .- But first and best among all these schoolmasters was Thomas Lanier Clingman, for, from 1843 till 1861, he was a teacher in every county in his congressional district. He spent a year or more in Watauga, mining in the Beech Mountains (1870, 1871) and is still well remembered by many of our older citizens. He was a fine angler and an un- erring shot with rifle or pistol. And, though he did not teach little children in ante-bellum log school houses, he was con- stantly instructing the "big" children of these mountains around their firesides and on the hustings-not by books, but by word of mouth, enforced and made indelible by apt illustrations and in most practical ways. There may be more book-learning among us now than in former days, but no people were better versed in all useful information concerning crops, plants, woodcraft, the mechanic arts, minerals and the laws of nature than our unlet- tered ancestors. General Clingman kept them fully informed as to the progress of the outside world in all matters which con- cerned their material welfare, and at the same time, far more than all others combined, kept the outside world posted as to the wonderful beauty, resources and advantages of this mountain region-its minerals, its physical phenomena and the progress
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of its inhabitants. Being a frequent contributor to Appelton's Journal, the National Intelligencer and other widely circulated periodicals, he was the first and only one to tell the world of the passing of the wonderfully brilliant meteor of 1860, of the de- structive waterspouts of 1876, and of the apparent earthquake at the head of Fines Creek, which he visited and explored in 1848 and 1851. Years before the United States established its meteorological station on Mitchell's Peak, General Clingman had explained why the climate of the Asheville Plateau is the dryest east of the Rockies, and it was entirely through his influ- ence that Dr. Arnold Guyot, of Princeton College, and Dr. S. B. Buckley visited and measured all the highest mountains in west- ern North Carolina just before the Civil War. Calhoun, as early as 1835, had foretold the existence of the Blacks as the highest mountains east of the Mississippi, and, although Professor Mitchell actually measured them soon afterwards, his services to science were negatived by the uncertain data he took con- cerning their altitude. Compared with the work of Clingman, Buckley and Guyot among all our mountains, Mitchell's baromet- rical measurements among the Blacks was inconsiderable.
Statesman, Soldier, Scientist .- When North Carolina makes up her jewels no gem among the brilliants that sparkle in her coronet of achievement will shine with "a purer, serener or a more resplendant light" than that of Thomas Lanier Clingman, for as statesman, soldier and scientist, as well as teacher, guide and friend, he was incorruptible, patriotic and inspiring. But for nothing that he did will his memory be more precious or more richly cherished than for his dignified and noble refusal to contend with an honorable gentleman whose mouth had been closed by death in an effort to establish the truth as to who had first visited and measured the highest peak of the Black Moun- tain chain.
Country Above Fame .- For at this time the country was torn and rent asunder by the demon of sectionalism, and Clingman found better use for his time and talents than in contending for an honor which, however great, was as dust in the scales when weighed against the welfare of his native State and section.
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Then, too, his fame was already secure, for he had met upon the arena of House and Senate the doughtiest and most skilful of the political gladiators of the fifties, and had lowered his sword to none. Looming blue-black on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, General Clingman knew that there was a yet statelier and more imposing pile than the Blacks, and that at the culmination of this gigantic range his name had been indis- putably and forever linked with the grandest mountain of the Appalachian system-Clingman's Dome of the Great Smoky Mountains !
Our Mountain Heights Still Doubtful .- Whether this in- comparable mountain be higher or lower than the disputed peak of the Blacks, is still a doubtful point, for we are told by Horace Kephart that all our mountains still remain to be measured ac- curately. He says (p. 56) : "Yet we scarcely know today, to a downright certainty, which peak is supreme among our South- ern highlands. The honor is conceded to Mount Mitchell in the Black Mountains, northeast of Asheville. Still, the heights of the Carolina peaks have been taken (with but one exception, so far as I know) only by barometric measurements, and these, even when official, may vary as much as a hundred feet for the same mountain. Since the highest ten or a dozen of our Carolina peaks differ in altitude only one or two hundred feet, their actual rank has not yet been determined. For a long time (p. 57) there was controversy as to whether Mount Mitchell or Clingman Dome was the crowning summit of eastern America. The Coast and Geodetic Survey gave the height of Mount Mitchell as 6,688 feet, but later figures of the United States Geological Survey are 6,711 and 6,712. In 1859 Buckley claimed for Clingman Dome of the Smokies an altitude of 6,941 feet. In recent gov- ernment reports the Dome appears variously as 6,619 and 6,660 feet. In 1911 I was told by Mr. H. M. Ramsour that when he laid out the route of the railroad from Asheville to Murphy he ran a line of levels from a known datum on this road to the top of Clingman, and that the result was 'four sixes' (6,666 feet above sea level). It is probable that the second place among the peaks of Appalachia may belong either to Clingman Dome or
Photo. by Vest.
HON. THOMAS LANIER CLINGMAN. Statesman, soldier, scientist.
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Guyot or LeConte of the Smokies, or to Balsam Cone of the Black Mountains. In any case the Great Smoky Mountains are the master chain of the Appalachian system, the greatest mass of highland east of the Rockies (p. 58). The most difficult and rugged part of the Smokies (and of the United States east of Colorado) is in the saw-tooth mountains between Collins and Guyot, at the headwaters of Oconalufty River."
Who Measured the Highest Peak ?- Dr. Arnold Guyot, of Princeton College (now University), published an article in the Asheville News, July 18, 1860, to the effect that Dr. Mitchell's measurements of this mountain failed to agree with each other ; that the location of the highest peak had remained indefinite, even in the mind of Dr. Mitchell himself, "as I learned it from his own mouth in 1856." At that time, 1860, the peak now called Mitchell's, or Mount Mitchell, was called Clingman's, while the peak now known to some as Clingman's was called Mount Mitchell. Dr. Guyot says of this: "If the honored name of Dr. Mitchell is taken from Mount Mitchell and transferred to the highest peak, it should not be on the ground that he first made known its true elevation, which he never did, nor himself ever claimed to have done, for the true height was unknown before my measurement of 1854 Nor should it be on the ground of his having first visited it, for, though after his death evidence which made it probable that he did [came out], he never could convince himself of it. Nor, at last, should it be because that peak was, as it is alleged, thus named long before, for I must declare that neither in 1854 nor later during the whole time I was on both sides of the mountain, did I hear of another Mount Mitchell than the one south of the highest, so long visited under that name, and that Dr. Mitchell himself, before ascending the northern peak in 1856, as I gathered it from a conversation with him, believed it to be the highest."
Politics or Public Opinion ?- Dr. Guyot further said in the same article that General Clingman "could not possibly know when he first ascended it [the highest peak] that anyone had visited or measured it before him, nor have any intention to do any injustice to Dr. Mitchell." General Clingman in 1884 told
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Charles Dudley Warner ("On Horseback," pp. 94 to 96) that he had been the first to discover the highest peak, and he also told this writer later that he had made this discovery by climbing a balsam tree on what was then called Mount Mitchell, the southern peak, and applying a spirit level to the surrounding horizon. Thus, the superior height of the northern peak was disclosed to him, and he then proceeded to measure and claim it. He told others the same story. Dr. Warner states that public sentiment awarded Dr. Mitchell this honor because of his tragic death. (Id. p. 95.) But was that all? Here is what Hon. Z. B. Vance, long Clingman's political opponent, said in a letter to Prof. Charles Phillips, dated Asheville, August, 1857:3 "Yet there are some who believe that Clingman superintended the creation of those mountains, and, therefore, has a right to know more about them than anyone else. The editor of the News [the late Major Marcus Erwin], who expects to go to Clingman when he dies (and perhaps will) is already beginning the war against the dead, as you will see by reference to that sheet of last week. I advised the Spectator men to keep per- fectly quiet, and would give the same advice to the doctor's friends elsewhere. Let us prepare our case in silence and wait patiently for the good feeling to operate among the mountain- eers, which is now going on admirably. In the meantime the proper efforts might be made to rectify Coke's map [which gave Clingman's name to the highest peak] and to push up the influ- ential journals at a distance, a thing that the faculty are better able to do than anyone else. Only one thing remains to be done, in my opinion, to make our proof complete-to have the bearings of the High Peak taken from Yeates' Knob and compared with Dr. Mitchell's memorandum thereof. I hope steps will be taken to do this before long, as Clingman intends doing it himself after the election. I understand, though I have not seen it, that Mitchell's map also puts that peak down as Mount Clingman. Is it true ? . .
In the same letter Senator Vance speaks of certain certificates from Big Tom Wilson and others, but their contents are not disclosed. There was also published in the same paper a copy
3 Published by R. D. W. Connor, secretary N. C. Hist. Com., in Charlotte Observer, p. 11, Jan. 24, 1915.
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of an address to solicit from citizens of North Carolina and friends of Dr. Mitchell funds for the removal of his body to the highest peak and the erection of a monument there. Five thousand dollars was asked for, but nowhere in that address can be found any claim that Dr. Mitchell either discovered or meas- ured the highest peak. Its language is: "In view of the fact that he was the first to visit these mountains and to make known their superior height to any east of the Rocky Mountains, and that he spent a great portion of his time and finally lost his life in exploring them," the subscriptions were asked. As the result of this appeal, is also published a subscription list containing the names of only ten subscribers, with William Patton at the head for $100.00, and the entire amount aggregating only $195.00.
Big Tom Wilson was with Dr. Mitchell on his first trip, when it is claimed that he measured the highest peak, and his certifi- cate should settle the controversy. But where is it? Where is the data showing the comparison of the "bearings of the High Peak from Yeates' Knob with Dr. Mitchell's memorandum thereof ?" Did Mitchell's geography or map concede the highest peak to General Clingman? We are in the dark as to these matters. But we have Judge David Schenck's report of an in- terview with Big Tom on the subject.
The Crucial Question .- Did Dr. Mitchell ever visit the peak which now bears his name? "Big Tom" Wilson is the only wit- ness, and upon his testimony rests the validity of the claim that he did. What is that testimony? Simply this: that the search party with Wilson first "examined the area of ground on Mitchell's Peak, where the doctor went, and then going to the trail he [the doctor] was directed to take, and, finding no sign, they commenced the descent towards the south side by the east prong. They had not gone more than a quarter of a mile until Adniram D. Allen found an impression in the moss " ยท This was the first trace of the doctor, and, after following it some distance, they went back to "examine where the track first left the peak . and found that the doctor had taken a 'horse trail' by mistake for the trail which led to 'Big Tom's.'" This is every shred of evidence concerning the peak in the inter- view between Wilson and Judge David Schenck on the 26th day
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of September, 1877, and which was published in the Charlotte Democrat of November 2, 1877. From it can be deduced only that there was no "sign" of the doctor's having been on "the area of ground on Mitchell's peak," but that when "they com- menced the descent towards the south side," the very side on which stood the peak which had always been called Mitchell's, they found the first sign in the moss "not more than a quarter of a mile away." There is no evidence that they went to the south peak at all, where it is probable the professor went, and from which he was going when they found his track in the moss. What is meant by "where the track first left the peak" and that he took "a horse trail by mistake for the trail which led to Big Tom's," is all that even vaguely points to the fact that the doctor had been on the northern, or highest, peak.
Dr. Kemp P. Battle's Error .- In an article on Dr. Mitchell, written by Dr. Battle, the last survivor of the University Faculty of June, 1857, and published in the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, March, 1915, he refers (p. 161) to "Letters from the Raleigh Register in reply to General Thomas L. Cling- man, who claimed that Dr. Mitchell was never on the highest peak of the Black Mountains, but that he, Clingman, was the true discoverer. He caused W. D. Cooke to designate on his wall-map the highest peak as Mt. Clingman. On the death of the Doctor he gracefully surrendered his claim. It is now con- ceded that Dr. Mitchell was right. He is confirmed by the United States Geological Survey of 1881-'2, the highest and final au- thority." Dr. Battle is right in saying that Gen. Clingman "gracefully surrendered his claim," but it is not generally "con- ceded that Dr. Mitchell was right," and the United States Survey simply ascertained the highest peak among the Blacks, but did not and could not prove that Dr. Mitchell had ever been upon that spot.
Clingman's "Speeches and Writings."-North Carolina has not yet reared any monument to this one of her greatest sons. But in his "Speeches and Writings," published by himself after the Civil War, he has erected to his own memory a monument more eloquent than "storied urn or animated bust," and more enduring than bronze effigy or marble cenotaph.
CHAPTER XVI. Gold and Other Mines.
Gold Mining .- Some time in the fifties, Joe Bissell, of Char- lotte, worked every branch which runs away from the Muster Field Hill, east of Boone, looking for gold and finding some. The branch running from Joseph Hardin's was worked almost, if not quite, down to the river, especially where it passes through the old Reuben Hartley place, now occupied by Farthing Ed- misten. Henry Blair worked the same stream afterwards, just before the Civil War, and sold dust at eighty cents a penny- weight. Blair used a hand-rocker, fifty cents a day being at that time the price of labor. Others also worked the branch running from the Muster Ground southeast by Eli Hartley's. The next work was done by Ison Doby for J. C. Councill about 1858-59 just where the Moretz and Hartzog saw mill now stands, and below the road where Robert Bingham lives. This stopped when the Civil War began, but afterwards John and Dick Haney, brothers, came from about King's Mountain and leased Henry and Joseph Hardin's branch, but failed. Colonel Bryan cashed some of the gold offered by them at first, and it was all right, but later on the dust became mixed with copper filings, and the Haney brothers did not try conclusions with Uncle Sam as to their responsibility for this mistake. This was about 1870-72. Phillip Chandler, from east of the Blue Ridge, worked same stream about 1858-59. Colonel Bryan and George Dugger worked around the edge of the Muster Field, but the dust was too fine. When the former was a boy there was a deep hole or shaft still open on the Muster Field which had been dug by old time miners. Miss Eliza Jordan, youngest daughter of Jordan Councill, the first, is said to have panned out enough gold near Joseph Hardin's to pay for a new silk dress before the Civil War. She afterwards married, first George Phillips, and then Rittenhouse Baird.
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First Owners of Cranberry .- Sometime about 1780 Reuben White took out a grant for 100 acres covering the Cranberry iron vein, and Waighstill Avery obtained four small grants sur- rounding White's grant (100 N. C. Rep. I, 127 Id. 387). In 1795 William Cathcart was granted 99,000 and 59,000 acres in two tracts, covering almost all of what is now Mitchell and Avery counties. Isaac T. Avery inherited Waightstill Avery's interest in this land and to numerous 640 acre grants along the Toe River. John Brown became agent for the Cathcart grants, and as these conflicted with the Avery lands, a compromise was effected, under which I. T. Avery got a quit claim to about 50,000 acres in 1852, including the Cranberry mines, excepting the Reuben White tract, which had passed to William Dugger by a chain of deeds, he having contracted to sell to John Hard- ing, Miller and another. Hoke, Hutchinson and Sumner got title from Hardin, but had to pay several thousands of dollars to Brown and Avery to settle their claims upon the Cranberry ore bank. The forge-bounty grant to these lands obtained by the Perkinses was sold by order of court for partition at Morganton and bought in by William Dugger; but before getting title to the land, Dugger agreed that I. T. Avery and J. E. Brown, son of John, should each have a one-third interest in the mineral outside the original grant to Reuben White. This agreement, however, was not registered, and the Supreme Court at Morganton, under which the decree of sale for partition had been made, having been abolished after the Civil War, and the clerk of that court, James R. Dodge, having died, an ordinance of the State conven- tion of 1866 empowered the clerk of the Supreme Court at Raleigh to execute the title which Dodge should have made to William Dugger, but made no reference to Brown's and Avery's interests therein. To still further complicate matters, William Dugger had sold his interest without excepting these equitable claims upon the mineral rights in the property. But Brown and Avery gave notice of their claims and compelled the purchasers to pay them for their interest in the minerals.
Iron Forges .- There were three of these in what was Wa- tauga County : Cranberry, Toe River and the Johnson forges. The first grew out of the discovery of the Cranberry metallic
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ore by Joshua, Ben and Jake Perkins, of Tennessee, who in a rough play at a night feast and frolic at Crab Orchard, Tenn., after a log-rolling, had attempted to remove the new flax shirt and trousers from Wright Moreland, and had injured him suffi- ciently to arouse his anger and cause him to take out a warrant for them. They escaped to North Carolina, where they sup- ported themselves by digging sang. In search of this herb, they discovered the Cranberry ore, and having been concerned in the Dugger forge on Watauga River four miles above Butler, Tenn., constructed a dam about half way between Elk Park and the Cranberry Company's store, only nearer to the Boone road than to the present railroad. Here they put in a regular forge with all the equipment used in that day, including the water trompe, furnace, goose-nest, hammer, etc. This was about 1821. Soon after they started their forge Abraham Johnson, the agent of John Brown, the land speculator, built a forge on the left bank of the Toe River, three-quarters of a mile above the mouth of White Oak Creek and near the mouth of Cow Camp Creek. He got some of his ore from a deposit near by, but also hauled ore from the Cranberry vein. Still later on, William Buckhannon had a forge built by one Calloway one-half a mile above what is now Minneapolis, on Toe River, but he had little or no ore nearer than that at Cranberry, from which he also drew his supply. After the Perkinses had been at work some time they are said to have applied for and obtained a grant from North Carolina for 3,000 acres of land for having made 3,000 pounds of iron, but shortly thereafter John Brown, who kept a keen eye out for squatters and trespassers on what was then the Tate and Cochran land, though then claimed by him under a junior or Cathcart grant, convinced the Perkinses that he held a superior title to theirs, and they bought his title to the land. They then sold to William and Abe Dugger, who came from the old Dugger forge above Butler and operated the mine till Abe's death, when, being offended with his son, George, for having married Caro- lina McNabb, a perfectly respectable girl, left his interest in the mine to his three daughters, Mattie, who afterwards married Jerry Green; Nancy, who had married Charles Gaddy, and Elizabeth, who had married Joseph Grubb, leaving George only
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fifty acres just below the law office of L. D. Lowe, Esq., at Banner's Elk. John Hardin became guardian of Mattie, then unmarried, taking possession of the mine about 1850 and re- taining it till sometime during the Civil War. With him went Peter Hardin, then twelve years old, who remained with the Cranberry mine longer than any other in its existence. Peter was the son of a Creek Indian whom Nathaniel Taylor, of Elizabethton, Tenn., had brought with him from the Battle of the Horse Shoe in 1814, and who was named Duffield, after an academy at Elizabethton, according to Dr. Job's reminiscenses of that town. Jordan Hardin, son of John, took possession of the mine during the Civil War and worked from forty to sixty men, making iron for the Confederate government. This iron was in bars for the manufacture of axes and was hauled to Camp Vance, below Morganton, by Peter Hardin, one four-horse load every month, winter as well as summer. It was sometime dur- ing or after the possession of the Hardins that a man named Dunn had some connection with Cranberry, but exactly what could not be ascertained accurately. Thomas Carter, who had operated a plant for the manufacture of guns at Linville Falls during the Civil War, and Gen. Robert F. Hoke then obtained an interest in the Cranberry mine and forge, and General Hoke sold the property to the present company, Carter, in May, 1867, having agreed to convey his interest therein to Hoke for $44,- 000.00. When, however, Carter tendered Hoke a deed therefor, Hoke gave him a sight draft on a New York bank for the price agreed to be paid. This draft was not paid. The money to meet it was to have been provided by the sale of the property by Hoke to Russell and his associates, who refused to take it be- cause Carter would not deliver the deed for his interest till he had been fully paid. Carter got an injunction against the sale, and the Supreme Court upheld Carter. (Carter v. Hoke, 64 N. C., 348.) Carter and Hoke soon effected a compromise and the title to the property was thus settled. After Hoke and Com- pany sold the property soon after the Civil War it remained in the control of Peter Hardin, who kept the hotel and looked after the property generally for many years. He was allowed to make and sell all the iron he wished and to operate a small
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saw mill. When the present company began to build the rail- road from Johnson City to the forge, Peter Hardin kept a store at Cranberry and was postmaster, keeping all the accounts of the employees of the company and delivering all the mail, etc., although he could not read a line, the clerical work having been done by his wife and her daughters by a former marriage. White people stopped at Pete's hotel and were well entertained by these care-takers. They still live near Elk Park, and have the respect and confidence of all who know them. They are called colored people, but their good names are as white as those of the best people in the State. Abram Johnson died at his home near what is now Vale, on the E. T. & W. N. C. R. R., in the house which stood where Bayard Benfield now lives, near the mouth of White Oak Creek, and is said to have been a sol- dier in the War of 1812. His wife died there August 18, 1880, and he October 15, 1881, aged about 107 years, according to the record of Jacob Carpenter, of Altamont.
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