USA > North Carolina > Watauga County > A history of Watauga County, North Carolina. With sketches of prominent families > Part 3
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An Indian Incursion .- The same author says (p. 381, Vol. II) of other forts east of the Blue Ridge: "Forts were erected at Moravian Old Town (Bethabara) by the twelve Moravians first sent out to Wachovia, and by the settlers in the neighbor- hood two forts were erected: one in the town, including the church, and the other at the mill, half a mile distant. Into these forts the settlers in the neighborhood and even from the Mul- berry Fields near Wilkesborough took refuge, about seventy families in all, and here they continued in fort, occasionally, until
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the general peace of 1763. The people generally went to their homes in the fall or early in the winter, and returned to the forts in the spring, the winter being too severe for the Indians to make such long expeditions for the purpose of mischief. The forts were never attacked. The Little Carpenter, then the chief of the tribe [Cherokees], came at the head of 300 or 400 In- dians and killed several of the inhabitants. They [the Indians] remained for six weeks in the neighborhood and then returned. This was in the spring of 1755 or 1756."
Where They Crossed the Blue Ridge .- "They crossed the Blue Ridge at the head of the Yadkin and came down the valley of that river." They killed William Fish at the mouth of Fish's River. One Thompson, who was with him, was wounded with two arrows "while he and Fish were riding together through a canebrake." Thompson escaped and gave the alarm at Betha- bara. The people hastened to the forts, two men, Barnett Lash- ley and one Robison, being killed near the block house the next morning. "Lashley's daughter, thirteen years old," went to her father's house to milk the cows. "Nine Indians pursued her, but she escaped by hiding in the canebrakes until after dark, when she went to the fort, and was not surprised to learn of her father's death." This was in March, 1755 or 1756. The Indians came from the Cherokee towns on the Little Tennessee River. None ever lived in Watauga or Ashe since the whites settled in the piedmont country. In 1759 or 1760 another raid was made to the mouth of Smith's River in Rockingham County (p. 383), where they killed Greer and Harry Hicks on Bean Island Creek, and carried Hick's wife and little son back to Tennessee with them. They, however, were recovered when Gen. Hugh Wad- dell marched to the Cherokee towns later on. A company of rangers was kept employed by the State, commanded by Anthony Hampton, father of Gen. Wade Hampton, of the Revolutionary War, and greatgrandfather of Gen. Wade Hampton, twice gov- ernor of South Carolina (p. 384). Daniel Boone belonged to this company and he buried Fish, who had been killed by Little Carpenter.
First White Settlers of Watauga .- A letter from Lafayette Tucker, of Ashland, Ashe County, states that the descendants of
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the original Lewis who settled in that neighborhood claim that he came as early as 1730. Thomas Hodges, the first, came during the Revolutionary War and settled in what is now called Hodges Gap, two miles west of Boone, and Samuel Hix and James D. Holtsclaw, his son-in-law, settled at or near Valle Crucis at that time or before. Some of the Norris family also came about that time, but which one or ones cannot be determined now. These were Tories. Ben Howard did not settle in this county, but re- mained at his home on the Yadkin, though he took refuge in the mountains around Boone during the Revolutionary War, and for ten years prior to 1769 herded cattle in the bottom lands around Boone. He built what is now known as the Boone cabin in front of the Boys' Dormitory of the Appalachian Training School, marked in 1912 by a monument erected by Col. W. L. Bryan. 3 A quarter of a mile north of the knob, looming above Boone village and known as Howard's Knob, is a shallow cave or cliff, called Howard's Rock House, in which he is said to have lived while hiding out from the Whigs. Howard remained loyal to the British crown till 1778, when he took the oath of allegiance. (Col. Rec. XXII, p. 172.) His daughter, Sally, was switched by the Whigs near her home on the Yadkin because she refused to tell where her father was. She afterwards married Jordan Councill, Sr., and settled at what is now Boone, where Jesse Robbins has built a house, called the Buck-Horn-Tree place. Bedent Baird moved to Valle Crucis some time after Samuel Hix went there, but Baird was a Whig. David Miller must have settled on Meat Camp early, for he went as a member of the legislature to Raleigh in 1810. Bedent Baird went to Raleigh as a member of the legislature in 1808. Nathan Horton, ancestor of the large and influential Horton family, was a member in 1800.
Linville Falls.4-One often wonders how these beautiful falls get their name of Linville. According to Archibald D. Murphey
3 Colonel Bryan, however, thinks Howard did not build this cabin, as Jordan Councill the second, Howard's grandson, always called it Boone's cabin. Col. J. M. Isbell, now deceased, told the writer in May, 1909, that Burrell, an old African slave, told him that Howard used it for his herders.
4 Some suppose that this river takes its name from the lin-tree, or as it is usually spelt, the lyn or linn, but the Linville family is the source of its name. This tree is what the Germans call the linden. It is scarce in these mountains now because of the fact that its branches are among the first to swell and bud in early spring, and great trees were cut wherever found in the forests in order that the cattle might eat the tender limbs.
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(Murphey Papers, Vol. II, p. 386), "Two men named Linville from the forks of the Yadkin went to hunt on the Watauga River between 1760 and 1770. They employed John Williams, a lad of sixteen, to go with them, keep camp and cook for them. They were sleeping in the camp when the Indians came on them and killed the Linvilles. They shot Williams through the thigh," but he escaped and rode a horse from the mouth of the Watauga "to the Hollows in Surry" in five days. He recovered from his wound and became a man of influence. It is now al- most certain that these falls have taken their name from these two men, who may have visited them before their last hunt and told the people of their location and beauty, for Dr. Draper (note, p. 183) records that the stream itself was named from the fact that in the "latter part of the summer of 1766 William Linville, his son and a young man had gone from the lower Yadkin to this river to hunt, where they were surprised by a party of Indians, the two Linvilles killed, the other person, though badly wounded, effecting his escape. The Linvilles were related to the famous Daniel Boone." It is a matter of record that a family by the name of Linvil-probably an economic way of spelling Linville-were members of Three Forks Baptist Church and lived on what is now known as Dog Skin Creek, or branch, but which stream used to be called Linville Creek. The membership of that church shows that Abraham, Catharine and Margaret Linvil were members between 1790 and 1800, while the minutes show that on the second Saturday in June, 1799, when the Three Forks Church were holding a meeting at Cove Creek, just prior to giving that community a church of its own, Abraham Linvil was received by experience, and in July fol- lowing, at the same place, Catharine and Margaret Linvil also were so received. Several of the older residents of Dog Skin, Brushy Fork and Cove creeks confirm the reality of the resi- dence of the Linville family in that community. In September, 1799, Brother Vanderpool's petition for a constitution at Cove Creek was granted, Catharine Linvil having been granted her letter of dismission the previous August.
CHAPTER III. Watauga's First Visitor.
The Greed for Land .- All the land had been taken up in 1752 east of Anson county, which was then the westernmost county of the State. (Col. Rec. Vol. V, pp. 2, 3.) It is now a small county just north of the South Carolina line. "As early as 1754 vacant public lands, as we would call them now, could be found in large bodies only in the back settlements near the mountains, and settlers were coming in there in hundreds of wagons from the northwards . The immigrants were said to be very industrious people, who went at once into the cultivation of hemp, flax, corn and the breeding of horses and other stock." (Col. Rec. Vol. V, p. xxi.) The McCulloh lands, consisting of 1,200,000 acres, were granted on the 19th of May, 1737, upon condition that 6,000 Protestants should be settled thereon and four shillings quit rents should be paid for each 100 acres by the 14th of March, 1756. These lands were sur- veyed and located on the heads of the Pee Dee, Cape Fear and Neuse rivers in 1744, in tracts of 100,000 acres each. (Id. xxxii.)
Bishop Spangenberg's Visit .- "In August, 1752, Bishop Spangenberg and his party set out from Bethlehem, Pa., for Edenton, N. C., to locate lands bought the year before from the Earl of Granville for the Moravian settlement. Leaving Eden- ton about the middle of September, their route lay through Chowan, Bertie, Northampton, Edgecombe and Granville, to its western border near the Virginia line, and thence along the Indian Trading Path, as near as can now be ascertained, to the Catawba River, thence up that river to its upper waters, thence by mistake over the divide to New River, thence back to the head waters of the Yadkin and thence down the Yadkin to Muddy Creek, where, some ten miles from the river and from 'the upper Pennsylvania road,' they found some 100,000 acres of land in
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a body unoccupied, which they proceeded at once to take up. In January, 1753, they returned home, having surveyed 73,037 acres of land, to which were added 25,948 acres surveyed by Mr. Churton in the same tract, making in all 98,985 acres. A general deed for the whole tract was made on 7th of August, 1753." (Col. Rec. Vol. V, p. 1146.) The names of the members of Bishop Spangenberg's party were: August Gottlieb Span- genberg, Henry Antes, Jno. Merk, Herman Lash and Timothy Horsefield. Their guides were Henry Day, who lived in Gran- ville county, near Mr. Salis'; Jno. Perkins, who lived on the Catawba River and was known as Andrew Lambert, a well known Scotchman, and Jno. Rhode, who lived about twenty miles from Captain Sennit on the Yadkin road.
The First Visitor to Watauga County .- So far as there is any authentic record to the contrary, Bishop Spangenberg and his party were the first visitors to Watauga county. Following is the record of this visit. (Col. Rec. Vol. IV, p. 10, etc.) :
"December 3, 1752. From the camp on a river in an old Indian field, which is either the head or a branch of New River, which flows through North Carolina to Virginia and into the Mississippi River. Here we have at length arrived after a very toilsome journey over fearful mountains and dangerous cliffs. A hunter whom we had taken along to show us the way to the Yadkin, missed the right path, and we came into a region from which there was no outlet, except by climbing up an indescrib- ably steep mountain. Part of the way we had to crawl on hands and feet; sometimes we had to take the baggage and saddles and the horses and drag them up the mountains (for the horses were in danger of falling down backward-as we had once had an experience), and sometimes we had to pull the horses up while they trembled and quivered like leaves.
"Arrived at the top at last, we saw hundreds of mountain peaks all around us, presenting a spectacle like ocean waves in a storm. We refreshed ourselves a little on the mountain top, and then began the descent, which was neither so steep nor as deep as before, and then we came to a stream of water. Oh, how refreshing this water was to us! We sought pasture for our
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horses and rode a long distance, until in the night, but found none but dry leaves. We could have wept with sympathy for the poor beasts. The night had already come over us, so we could but put up our tent. We camped under the trees and had a very quiet night. The next day we journeyed on; got into laurel bushes and beaver dams and had to cut our way through bushes, which fatigued our company very much.
"Then we changed our course-left the river and went up the mountain, where the Lord brought us to a delicious spring and good pasturage on a chestnut ridge. He sent us, also, at this juncture two deer, which were most acceptable additions to our larder. The next day we came to a creek so full of rocks that we could not possibly cross it, and on both sides were such precipitous banks that scarcely a man, and certainly no horse, could climb them. Here we took some refreshments, for we were weary. But our horses had nothing-absolutely nothing ; this pained us inexpressibly. Directly came a hunter who had climbed a mountain and had seen a large meadow. Thereupon we scrambled down to the water, dragged ourselves along the mountain and came before night into a large plain.
"This caused rejoicing for men and beasts. We pitched our tent, but scarcely had we finished when such a fierce wind storm burst upon us that we could scarcely protect ourselves against it. I cannot remember that I have ever in winter anywhere encoun- tered so hard or so cold a wind. The ground was soon covered with snow ankle deep, and the water froze for us aside the fire. Our people became thoroughly disheartened. Our horses would certainly perish and we with them. The next day we had fine sunshine, and then warmer days, though the nights were 'horri- bly' cold. Then we went to examine the land. A large part of it is already cleared and there long grass abounds and this is all bottom.
"Three creeks flow together here and make a considerable river which flows into the Ohio, and thence into the Mississippi, according to the best knowledge of our hunters. In addition, there are almost countless springs and little runs of water which come from the mountains and flow through the country, making
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almost more meadow land than one could make use of. There is not a trace of reeds here, but so much grass land that Brother H. Antes thinks a man could make several hundred loads of hay of the wild grass, which would answer very well if only it be cut and cured at the proper time. There is land here suitable for wheat, corn, oats, barley, hemp, etc. Some of the land will probably be flooded when there is high water. There is a mag- nificent chestnut and pine forest near here. Whetstones and mill stones, which Brother Antes regards the best he has seen in North Carolina, are plenty. The soil is here mostly limestone and of a cold nature. The waters are all higher than on the east side of the Blue Ridge. We surveyed this land and took up 5,400 acres in our lines. We have a good many mountains, but they are very fertile and admit of cultivation. Some of them are already covered with wood and are easily accessible. Many hundred, yes, thousands-crab-apple trees grow here, which may be useful for vinegar. One of the creeks presents a number of admirable seats for milling purposes.
"This survey lies about fifteen miles from the Virginia line, as we saw the Meadow Mountain and judged it to be about twenty miles distant. This mountain lies five miles from the line between Virginia and North Carolina. In all probability this tract would make an admirable settlement for Christian In- dians, like Gradenhutten in Pennsylvania. There is wood, mast, wild game, fish and a free range for hunting, and admirable land for corn, potatoes, etc. For stock raising, it is also in- comparable." (From this favored spot they went through the mountains by Reddy's river to the Mulberry Fields and entered land in the neighborhood of what is now Wilkesborough and the Moravian Falls, which took its name from them.)
Where Was This Indian Old Field ?- The question arises as to the location of the old Indian field at the head of a prong of New River, where 5,400 acres of land were surveyed and taken up. It will help one to determine this by ascertaining the route by which it had been reached. The entry in the diary immediately preceding that of December 3d, the date on which this spot was described, is November 29, 1752, and was written
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at the camp "at the upper fork of the second or middle river which flows into the Catawba not far from Quaker Meadows." This indicates that there are three streams which flow into the Catawba at or near Quaker Meadows. There is nothing in the diary to indicate which he calls the first of these "little rivers," but there is no doubt as to the third. It is the entry of November 24th "from the camp in the fork of the third river which empties into the Catawba near Quaker Meadows, about five miles from Table Mountain," now called Table Rock. That could be none other than the Linville River, and, as Johns River is the next below that, it follows that it must necessarily be the "second" or "middle little river." Following up Johns River, he had come on the 25th to the mouth of Wilson's Creek, where he took up 2,000 acres. This is the lower fork of Johns River. The upper fork of this river is at Globe, where the Gragg prong joins the main stream and where Carroll Moore had a mill years ago. It was at this upper fork of middle little river that the following description of the Globe was written:
"With respect to this locality where we are now encamped, one might call it a basin or kettle. It is a cove in the mountains, and is very rich soil. Two creeks, one larger than the other, flow through it. Various springs of very sweet water form lovely meadow lands. Mills may easily be built, as there is fall enough. Below the forks the stream becomes quite a large one. Of wood there is no lack. Our horses find abundant pasture among the buffalo haunts and tame grass among the springs, which they eat greedily, and certainly the settlers of this place can very soon make meadows if they wish. Not only is the land suitable for hemp, oats, barley, etc., but there is excellent wheat land here also. There is also abundance of stone, not on the land, but on the surrounding mountains . This survey would contain in itself all the requisites to make comfortable farms and homes for about ten couples."
While there, "A hunter whom we had taken along to show us the way to the Yadkin missed the right path, and we came into a region from which there was no outlet except by climbing up an indescribably steep mountain. Part of the way we had to
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crawl on hands and feet. Sometimes we had to take the bag- gage and saddles and the horses and drag them up the moun- tains . . . and sometimes we had to pull the horses up, while they trembled and quivered like leaves. Arrived at the top, we saw hundreds of mountain peaks all around us, present- ing a spectacle like ocean waves in a storm." Could this have been any other place than Blowing Rock?
Their Route from Blowing Rock .- From this point they went down to a stream, where they got water, but no pasturage, and, consequently, they "continued on a long distance" the same day, camping, at last, after nightfall, beneath trees, but without having found pasturage for their horses. This stream must have been either Flannery's Fork-now Winkler's Mill Creek- or the middle fork of New River, but where they camped can- not be determined, though it seems certain that they camped there on the 30th of November. On the first of December they "journeyed on; got into laurel bushes and beaver dams" and had to "cut a way through the bushes," but, being fatigued with this task, they changed their course during this day and "left the river and went up the mountain, where the Lord brought us to a delicious spring and good pasturage on a chestnut ridge." The next day, December 2d, they came to a creek so "full of rocks that we could not possibly cross it, and on both sides were such precipitous banks that scarcely a man, and certainly no horse, could climb them." But there was no pasturage. It was then that "a hunter, who had climbed a mountain and had seen a large meadow," guided them "into a large plain," the spot described with so much particularity. But, on that night of December 2d, a terrible wind and snow storm assailed them and caused them to suffer very much, but it passed, and the next day, December 3d, they made their investigations and described the goodly land to which they thought they had been providen- tially guided.
Conflicting Claims .- Three forks of New River, near Boone, the old field at the mouth of Gap Creek, and Grassy Creek, in Ashe County, have characteristics similar to those described, but only Grassy Creek has the limestone formation. Unless the
COLONEL WILLIAM LEWIS BRYAN. Historian and trail finder.
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good Bishop knew where the Virginia-North Carolina line was, it is difficult to know why he stated that this spot was "about fifteen miles from the Virginia line," and the reason he gives for this conclusion is still more puzzling, as there is no mountain in Virginia five miles' from the line now known as the Meadow Mountain, while the Bald, in Watauga County, is almost directly north of the three forks and apparently about twenty miles away. In reality, it is not over ten, but it is bald and looked like a meadow, at that time, with snow all over it. On the other hand, White Top is about twenty miles from Grassy Creek and four miles from Pond Mountain, the corner between North Carolina and Virginia and Tennessee. As this is bare around its crown of lashorns, it may be that it was called the Meadow Mountain at that time.
Col. W. L. Bryan's View .- After reading Bishop Spangen- berg's account of his trip west of the Blue Ridge, Colonel Bryan, of Boone, thinks that the Bishop got to the stream that forms Cone's Lake, near Blowing Rock, and rode north along the top of Flat Top ridge "a long distance" and camped under trees November 30th. That on December Ist he got into laurel bushes and beaver dams on the middle fork of the south fork of New River, which he left and went back on Flat Top range to a spring, still known as Flat Top Spring, and now owned by Thomas Cannon, but which was first settled by Alex. Elrod some- time in the fifties. This spring is on land where there used to be large chestnut trees, and is the most noted spring near. On December 2d the Bishop was on either Winkler's Creek-form- erly called Flannery's Fork-or on the middle fork, though the rocks and cliffs and precipices are more marked on Winkler's Creek than on middle fork, especially above or below what is now the Austin place, or where Moses Johnson has a mill. Colonel Bryan thinks that the mountain on which the hunter climbed was Flat Top peak, as from it the meadow in which the three forks join is plainly visible and the bald of Long Hope Mountain, lying almost due north, can be distinctly seen, and this was the mountain which the Bishop mistook for Meadow Mountain in Virginia, now known as White Top. Between the
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junction of the three creeks, forming Three Forks, and the first bend below that point there used to be a large crab orchard- say, about 1855-and on the new road from Boone to the new electric power dam on south fork whetstones can be found.
Captain W. H. Witherspoon, of Jefferson, thinks that the Meadow Mountain which Bishop Spangenberg saw was the White Top, and that the stream where three creeks meet were the Naked, Ravens and Beaver Creeks, flowing into the south fork of New River, four or five miles east of Jefferson. He thought the Moravians had owned land there; that there is a limestone formation there, and that grindstones are found near. This is about fifteen miles from the Virginia line. White Top is visible from this point, and is about twenty miles distant. Also that there is a pine and chestnut forest south of the south fork of New River and between that river and the Blue Ridge.
CHAPTER IV. Daniel Boone.
No Direct Daniel Boone Descendants in North Carolina .- According to Thwaites and Bruce, the children of Daniel Boone were James, Israel, Susannah, Jemima, Lavinia, Rebecca, Daniel Morgan, John and Nathan. According to Bruce (p. 87), John was a mere infant in arms when his mother started with her family for Kentucky in September, 1773. John's middle name was Bryan, in honor of his mother's family name. Neither Jesse nor Jonathan Boone, who lived afterwards in Watauga County, were sons of Daniel Boone, nor was Anna, who married William Coffey. So far as the writer knows, there are no direct lineal descendants of Daniel Boone in North Carolina or Ten- nessee.
Boone's Watauga Relatives .- There is a tradition that Anna, a niece of Daniel Boone, was married in the log house which formerly stood on the site of the present residence of Joseph Hardin, a mile or more east of the town of Boone. Jesse Boone, a nephew of Daniel, certainly lived near the top of the Blue Ridge in a cabin which used to stand in a five-acre field four miles above Shull's Mills, to the right of the old Morganton road. The foundation stones of the old chimney and the spring are still pointed out. The land on which that cabin stood was entered by Jesse November 7, 1814, and the grant for it was made November 29, 1817, the tract containing 100 acres, and beginning on Jesse Coffey's corner. (Ashe County deed book F, p. 170.) By a deed dated July 8, 1823, Jesse Boone conveyed to Wm. and Alex. Elrod 350 acres on Flannery's Fork (now Winkler's Mill Creek) of New River, and on Roaring Branch, two miles from the town of Boone, Mr. J. Watts Farthing now owning the deed. Anna Boone, the wife of Wm. Coffey, and Jesse Boone's sister, talked with this Mr. Farthing about the year 1871 while he was building a house for her grandson,
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