USA > North Carolina > Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913 > Part 14
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of W. O. Wolf's storeroom, the late Rev. B. H. Merrimon having been the contractor. In 1876 this gave way to a larger building with three stories, J. A. Tennent being the architect. In the erection of this a workman fell from the southwest corner of the tower to the ground and was killed. His name has been forgotten. The first jail was succeeded by a brick building now a part of the Library building; but a new jail was built afterwards on the site of the present city hall, its site being sold to the city when the Eagle street jail was built some years afterwards. The first jail was a very poor structure, every sheriff from 1799 to 1811 com- plaining of its insufficiency. In 1867 the county began to sell off portions of the public square on the north and south sides, thus reducing it to its present dimensions.
MORRISTOWN. John Burton's grant was "by private con- tract laid out for a town called Morristown, the county town of Buncombe county, into 42 lots, containing, with the exception of the two at the southern end, one-half an acre each, lying on both sides of a street 33 feet wide," which runs where the southern part of North Main street and the northern part of South Main street now are. 5 There were two cross streets across the public square. "Nobody seems to know why the name of Morristown was bestowed upon the place . . but there is a seemingly authentic tradition that it was named for Robert Morris, who success- fully financed the American Revolution, yet himself died a bankrupt."" About this time he owned large bodies of land in Western North Carolina; indeed it is shown in the record of one case in the Federal Court here (Asheville) that Robert Tate of York county, Pennsylvania, and William Tate, of Burke county, N. C., conveyed to him in one deed 198 tracts of land, only one tract of which, containing 70,400 acres and lying in what are now Yancey, Burke, and McDowell coun- ties, was involved in that litigation. The State grant for these lands was issued to Robert and William Tate on May 30, 1795, and they conveyed the same lands to Morris on August 15 of the same year. "The Tates were evidently the agents of Morris. Morris was one of the heroes of
the Revolution, and it is small wonder that .
the people should name it for him." His will (dated in 1804) was probated in McDowell county on April W. N. C .- 10
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21, 1891. In November 1797, the village was incorporated by the legislature as Asheville in honor of Samuel Ashe of New Hanover, governor.
OLD ASHEVILLE. On Thanksgiving Day, 1895, Miss Anna C. Aston, Miss Frances L. Patton and other ladies published a "Woman's Edition" of the Asheville Daily Citizen. It con- tained much valuable and important information of that city. But in February, 1898, Foster A. Sondley, Esq., a de- scendant of the Fosters and Alexanders of Buncombe county, and a leading member of the Asheville Bar, published a his- torical sketch of Buncombe county and Asheville, contain- ing practically all that could then be ascertained concerning the early history of this section. Hon. Theo. F. Davidson and the late Albert T. Summey also contributed their recol- lections. There was a woodcut reproduction of an oil paint- ing of Asheville by F. S. Duncanson, which was taken from Beaucatcher, and it appears that there were not more than twenty five residences in 1850 that were visible from that commanding eminence, all the buildings, including outhouses, not exceeding forty, and they were between Atkin, Market and Church streets. The painting itself, now owned by Mrs. Martha B. Patton, shows five brick buildings, the old Pres- byterian church, on the site of the present one, with the cupola on its eastern end, because the street ran there; the little old Episcopal church, on the site of the burned Trinity; the old jail, standing where the city hall now stands; Ravenscroft school, and the Rowley house, now occupied by the Drhumor building. The old jail was three stories high. The other buildings were white wooden structures, and included the central portion of the old Eagle hotel and the old Buck hotel. Mr. Ernest Israel also has a similar picture.
Dr. J. S. T. Baird's facile pen has given us an equally vivid picture of Asheville in his "Historical Sketches of Early Days," published in the Asheville Saturday Register during January, February and March, 1905, as it appeared in 1840. He records the facts that the white population then did not exceed 300, and the total number of slaves, owned by eight or nine persons, did not exceed 200. In the 400 acres embracing the northeastern section of the city, between the angle formed by North Main and Woodfin streets, he recalled but two dwellings, those of Hon. N. W. Woodfin and Rev. David
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McAnally, both on Woodfin street. There was an old tan- nery and a little school house near the beginning of what is now Merrimon avenue, the school having been taught by Miss Katy Parks, who afterwards became Mrs. Katy Bell, mother of Rev. George Bell of Haw Creek. This 400-acre boundary, now so thickly settled, was then owned by James W. Patton, James M. Smith, Samuel Chunn, N. W. Wood- fin and Israel Baird. There was a thirty-acre field where Doubleday now is, and was called the "old gallows field," because Sneed and Henry had been hanged there about 1835. Standing south of Woodfin and East of North and South Main streets to the southern boundary, there were but eight resi- dences, not including negro and outhouses.
SOUTHWEST ASHEVILLE. Just north of Aston street was the brick store of Patton & Osborne, and later Patton & Summey, adjoining which was the tailor shop of "Uncle" Manuel, one of James W. Patton's slaves. Then came a white house which was kept for guests when there was an overflow crowd at the Eagle hotel. Between this house and the Daylight store, J. M. Smith some years later erected a two- story building for the use of Dr. T. C. Lester, a physician who came from South Carolina and settled here about 1845. He kept a sort of drug store, the first of its kind in Asheville. The negroes called it a shot-i-carry-pop, in their effort to call it an apothecary shop. Hilliard Hall now stands where it stood. Just above was the residence and place of business of James B. Mears, now the Daylight store. Then came Drake Jarrett's place-better known as the Coche7 place "where for many years the little short-legged 'monsieur' and his 'madam' dealt out that which Solomon says biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." Thus was reached what was the Chunn property, which, beginning at the lower side of T. C. Smith's drug store, ran straight back to Church street. Samuel Chunn had lived in a large brick house which fronted north, and which was later replaced by a building used as a banking house, known as the Bank building. This was about 1845. The Asheville branch of the Bank of Cape Fear occupied it till the Civil War period. The residence of A. B. Chunn stood on the corner now occupied by Pat McIn- tyre's grocery store. An old stable stood at the corner of Patton and Lexington avenues.
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CHURCH STREET. The grounds of the Methodist church extended from Patton avenue and Church street to the Aston property and several rods back, forming an oblong plat of several acres. On the corner of Patton avenue and Church street stood a large brick building used as a boarding house in connection with the school for girls which was taught for many years in the basement of the Methodist church. The late William Johnston afterwards bought and occupied this building as a residence. The land south of the Methodist church was used as a cemetery till long after the Civil War.
The Presbyterian church of that day stood nearly where the one of this day stands, opposite that of the Methodist church, and its cemetery extended down to Aston street. Near where Asheland and Patton avenues join the late James M. Smith had a large barn, which stood in a ten-acre field.
NORTHWEST ASHEVILLE. In the angle formed by North Main street and Patton avenue, in 1840, there were not many houses. Beginning at the north end, Mrs. Cassada-"Granny Cassie"- occupied a one-room house which stood where the Rankin tan house afterwards stood. She baked and sold ginger cakes, and brewed cider. Coming up North Main street was a house built by Israel Baird in 1839, now known as the Brandt property. Israel Baird had lived two and a half miles north of Asheville at what is now the Way place, but about 1838 he bought 40 acres, commencing at the junction of North Main street and Merrimon avenue, running west to the pres- ent auditorium, thence to Starnes avenue and thence back to North Main street. The only other building within this area was the wooden store and shoe-shop opposite the old Buck hotel, now occupied by the Langren hotel, and the barns, stables, sheds and cribs of J. M. Smith, which cov- ered a large portion of the lot lying between West College street, Walnut and Water streets. From the foregoing it is evident that the artist Duncanson did not get all the houses into his oil painting of 1850.
EAST AND SOUTH ASHEVILLE. In these sections of the town the land was owned by James M. Smith, James W. Patton, Montraville Patton, Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, Mrs. Morrison and Thomas L. Gaston, principally. The old Buck Hotel, a small frame building near it, what was known as the Dunlap store, the court house, the jail, the office of the Highland Messenger
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on what is now North Pack Square, east of the Gazette News office, were then the oldest houses in town. The old jail stood where the new Legal building now stands; the court house stood where Vance's monument stands, with the whipping post and stocks immediately in its rear. Mrs. Rose Morri- sons' residence occupied the site now covered by the present court house, while the store of Montraville Patton occupied the corner now used by the Holt Furniture Company. Lower down on South Main street lived William Coleman in a brick building in a part of which the post-office was kept. Later on Col. R. W. Pulliam lived there and Rankin and Pulliam did a large mercantile business. Just below this, embowered in green vines and fragrant flowers, was the stylish wooden dwelling occupied for years by Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, and was later to fall into such disrepute as to be called "Greasy Cor- ner." This, however, was about 1890 after the handsome old residence had for years been used as a negro hotel and restaurant. On it now stands the large Thrash Building.
EAGLE HOTEL. Just below Eagle street stood and still stands the building then and for years afterwards known far and wide as the Eagle hotel, then owned by James Patton and later by his son James W. Patton. There were a large blacksmith shop just below this hotel, where Sycamore street now leaves South Main, and a tannery on the branch back of and below this. Joshua Roberts lived on the hill where Mrs. Buchanan lived until her recent death, and it was the last house on that side of the street.
LARGE LAND OWNERS. In the angle formed by Patton avenue and South Main street, according to Dr. Baird, the lands were owned principally by James M. Smith, Col. James M. Alexander, James W. Patton, and Samuel Chunn, but James B. Mears and Drake Jarrett owned from T. C. Smith's drug store down to and including Mears' Daylight store. The Methodist and Presbyterian churches owned and occupied the land now used by them for their present places of wor- ship. Within this area were eleven residences, two stores, two churches, two stables, one tanyard and one barn. At the corporate line on South Main street, at the forks of the road, lived Standapher Rhodes, and north of him was the blacksmith shop of Williamson Warlick whose sign read : "Williamson Warlick Axes," his axes being especially fine.
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He died and was succeeded there by Elias Triplett. Two hundred yards north was the home of Rev. William Mor- rison, a Presbyterian minister and the father of Mr. Theo- dore S. Morrison. J. M. Alexander afterwards lived in this house. Then came a tannery of J. M. Smith's. while David Halford occupied a residence at the corner of South Main . and Southside avenue, known as the Goodlake curve because of the reverse curve of the street railway tracks at that point. There was a frame house about halfway between the Hal- ford house and Mrs. M. E. Hilliard's residence. Mrs. Hil- liard's home site was formerly occupied by a large two-story frame house which stood upon the street, and was occupied at one time by Col. J. M. Alexander before he removed to "Alexander's," ten miles down the French Broad river. Then John Osborne occupied the Alexnader (Hilliard) house for a long time, to be followed by Isaac McDunn, a tailor. It was finally bought by the late Dr. W. L. Hilliard, and occupied as a residence. From his house to Aston street there was no dwelling, though a large stable belonging to the Eagle hotel stood where now stands the Swannanoa-Berkeley Hotel.
GEORGE SWAIN. He was born in Roxborough, Mass., June 17, 1763, and on September 1, 1784, he left Providence, R. I., for Charleston, S. C .; but as a storm had required that much of the cargo be thrown over board, Swain arrived at Charles- ton penniless. He walked to Augusta, Ga., where he lived a year, and then removed to Wilkes, afterwards Oglethorpe county, where he engaged in hat-making, and was a member of the legislature of Georgia five years, and of the Constitu- tional convention held at Louisville about 1795, in which year he moved to Buncombe county and settled in or near Ashe- ville, soon afterward marrying Carolina Lowrie, a sister of Joel Lane, founder of the city of Raleigh, and of Jesse Lane, father of Gen. Joseph Lane, Democratic candidate for Vice- President in 1860. She was the widow of a man who had been killed by the Indians. In the early part of his residence George Lane lived at the head of Beaverdam creek, where the late Rev. Thomas Stradley afterwards resided and died, and where, on January 4, 1801, David Lowrie Swain, afterwards judge, governor and president of the University, was born. Here the future statesman saw the first wagon ever in Buncombe brought up the washed out bed of Beaverdam
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creek in default of a road. At this sight, "he incontinently took to his heels and rallied only when safely entrenched behind his father's house, a log double cabin." "About 1805 a post-route was established on the recently constructed road through Buncombe county. In 1806, the post- office at Asheville was made the distributing office for Georgia, Tennessee and the two Carolinas, and George Swain became postmaster," the commission issuing in 1807. He was a rul- ing elder in the Presbyterian church. He used to say his father was a Presbyterian and an Arminian, and his mother was a Methodist and a Calvinist. He was a trustee of the Newton academy. He afterwards carried on the hatter's bus- iness in the house now called the Bacchus J. Smith place in Grove Park, where his son-in-law, William Coleman, succeeded him as a hatter. For some time before his death he was insane. He died December 24, 1829.
SAMUEL CHUNN. In 1806 he was chairman of the Bun- combe county court, having been a tanner for years, his tan- yard being where Merrimon avenue crosses Glenn's creek. In 1807 he was jailer, and from him Chunn's Cove took its name. He died in 1855, on the bank of the French Broad in Madison county at what is known as the Chunn place, where he had resided in his old age.
WILLIAM WELCH. He was at one time a member of the Buncombe county court, and in January, 1805, was coroner. He was interested in lands on what are now Haywood and Depot streets. He afterwards removed to Waynesville and married Mary Ann, a daughter of Robert Love. In 1829 he was a senator from Haywood county, a member of the con- stitutional convention of 1835 and for many years clerk of the court. He was born April 8, 1796, and died February 6, 1865.
COLONEL WILLIAM DAVIDSON. He was a son of John Da- vidson and first cousin of Gen. Wm. Davidson, who succeeded Griffith Rutherford in the generalship when the latter was captured at Camden. Gen. Davidson was killed February 1, 1781, at Cowan's ford of Catawba river. Col. Davidson was a brother of the Samuel Davidson who was killed by the Indians in 1781-2 at the head of the Swannanoa river, and was the first representative of Buncombe county in the State Senate, taking a prominent part in the preparations made by the
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North Carolinians for the Battle of Kings Mountain. He was the father of William Mitchell Davidson of Haywood county, whose son, Col. Allen T. Davidson, was a prominent lawyer and represented this section in the Confederate Congress.
WILLIAM MITCHELL DAVIDSON. He was born January 2, 1780, and died at Rock Island Ferry, on the Brazos river, Washington county, Texas, May 31, 1846, and was buried in the Horse Shoe Bend of that stream in the private burying ground of Amos Gates. On January 10, 1804, he married Elizabeth Vance (who was born on Reem's creek, Buncombe county, North Carolina, March 23, 1787), the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Geo. Newton. She died at the home of her son, Col. Allen Turner Davidson, on Valley river, Cher- okee county, April 15, 1861. They settled on a beautiful farm on Jonathan's creek, in Haywood county, where they remained until October 24, 1844, when the family went to Santa Anna, Ill., where they remained until the first of March, 1845, when they again set out for Texas. They settled on Wilson's creek of Collin county in April. From there they moved to Rock Island Ferry, where Mr. Davidson died. The family then returned to North Carolina-April, 1847. One cause of his removal to Texas was an unfortunate mercantile venture which he had made with his sons, W. E., H. H., an A. T., at Waynesville, in 1842. The story of the adventures of this family to and from Texas at that early day, as preserved in a manuscript written by John M. Davidson, one of W. M. Davidson's sons, reads more like a romance than a sober recital of real facts. (See Appendix.)
ISAAC B. SAWYER. Was born on Tuskeegee creek in Macon, now Swain, county in 1810. James W. Patton, John Burgin and 'Squire Sawyer were, for years, the three magistrates composing the Buncombe county court. He was the first mayor of Asheville and was clerk and master for many years before the Civil War and until the adoption of the Code. He was the father of Captain James P. Sawyer, who for years was the president of the Battery Park bank, a successful merchant and a public spirited and enterprising citizen. Isaac B. Sawyer died in 1880.
JAMES MITCHELL ALEXANDER. He was born on Bee Tree creek, Buncombe county, May 22, 1793. His grandfather, John Alexander, of Scotch-Irish descent, was a native of Rowan
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county, where he married Rachel Davidson, a sister of Wil- liam and Samuel Davidson, and resided in Lincoln county, during the Revolutionary war. They were afterwards among the first settlers of Buncombe, but moved to Harper's river, Tenn. His son, James Alexander was born in Rowan, Decem- ber 23, 1756. He fought on the American side at Kings Mountain, and Cornwallis's camp chest, captured by him, was in Buncombe in 1898 when "Asheville's Centenary" was writ- ten by F. A. Sondley, Esq. March 19, 1782, he married in York district, South Carolina, Miss Rhoda Cunningham, who had been born in Pennsylvania, October 13, 1763. They then moved to Buncombe with their father and uncle and settled on Bee Tree, where he died in the Presbyterian faith. James Mitchell Alexander was their son, and on September 8, 1814, he married Nancy Foster, oldest child of Thomas Foster, who was born November 17, 1797. In 1816 he removed to Asheville and bought and improved the Hilliard property on South Main street. He was a saddler, and at this house he lived till 1828, carrying on his trade and keeping hotel. In 1828, upon the completion of the Buncombe turnpike, he bought and improved the place on the right bank of the French Broad, ten miles from Asheville, afterwards famous as Alex- ander's hotel, also carrying on a mercantile business there. In the latter part of his life he turned over this business to his son, the late Alfred M. Alexander, and one of his sons-in-law, the late Rev. J. S. Burnett, and improved the place three miles nearer Asheville called Montrealla, where he died June 11, 1858. His wife died January 14, 1862.
ANDREW ERWIN. He is the man to whom Bishop Asbury referred as "chief man." He was born in Virginia about 1773 and died near the War Trace in Bedford county, Tenn., in 1833. When seventeen years old he entered the employment of the late James Patton, afterwards becoming his partner as inn-keeper and merchant at Wilkesborough. In 1800-01 he was a member of the House of Commons from Wilkes. He was Asheville's first postmaster. In 1814 he moved to Augusta, Ga.
THOMAS FOSTER. He was born in Virginia October 14, 1774. In 1776 his father, William Foster came with his family and settled midway between the road leading to the Swannanoa river by way of Fernihurst from Asheville. He
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married Miss Orra Sams, whose father, Edmund Sams, was one of the settlers from Watauga. After his marriage Thomas Foster settled on the bank of Sweeten's creek, afterwards called Foster's Mill creek, the first which enters Swannanoa from the south above the present iron bridge on the Hender- sonville road. He was a member of the House of Commons from Buncombe from 1809 to 1814, both inclusive, and repre- sented that county in the State senate in 1817 and 1819. He died December 24 (incorrectly on tombstone December 14), 1858. He was a farmer and accumulated a considerable property. A large family of children survived him. His wife died August 27, 1853. He is mentioned in Wheeler's History of North Carolina, Bennett's Chronology of North Carolina and Bishop Asbury's journal.
WEAVERVILLE, BUNCOMBE COUNTY. The greater part of the early settlers of this country was made up of men and wom- en seeking religious liberty. This motive no less prompted the immigrants from Northern Europe than the great body of Scotch-Irish that emigrated to this country from Scotland and Ireland. In Pennsylvania and down through the valley of the Shenandoah we find the Dutch of Holland and the Scotch-Irish, living side by side dominated by a single purpose.
One of the pioneers in Buncombe county came from the valley of Virginia from this large Dutch settlement into what is now Buncombe county, and was the ancester of the large family of Weavers now living in that section.
Previous to 1790 John Weaver and wife, Elizabeth, with their infant son (Jacob), came from Virginia via the Watauga in Tennessee, crossing the Ball mountain in what is now Yan- cey county, and settled on Reems creek, near the present town of Weaverville. From the first census of the United States 1790 (see page 110) it appears that John Weaver was a resident of Burke county, which then included what is now Buncombe county. His family then consisted of wife, two daughters and one son under sixteen years of age. From this it is evident that he reached North Carolina sometime between 1786 and 1790. In the office of Register of Deeds for Bun- combe county, in Book No. 1 at page 100, is recorded a deed from John McDowell of Burke county, conveying to John Weaver of Buncombe county 320 acres of land; consideration 100 pounds; description, "On both sides of Reems creek and
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on both sides of the path leading from Green river to Nola- chuckee." This is interesting inasmuch as it seems to locate the old Indian trail from the east to the lands west of Unakas. There is little doubt that this young pioneer brought his young wife and infant son from the Watauga over this trail in quest of a permanent home.
John Weaver was born December, 1763, and died December, 1830. In his will, probated April Session, 1831, was found the following names: wife, Elizabeth; daughters, Susannah, Christiana, Mary, Elizabeth, Matilda and Catherine; sons, Jacob, James, John (better known as Jack), Christopher G., and Michael Montreville. From this family of six daughters and five sons sprang the largest number of descendants, or most numerous group of related families in Buncombe county, springing from one ancestor. Some of the oldest related families living in Buncombe county have their origin in more than one ancestor; for instance, the Baird family sprang from two brothers, Zebulon and Bedent; the Alexander family, from James Alexander, followed by a brother, nephew and other kinsmen; the Davidson family, from Samuel and Wil- liam. These last named pioneers entered Buncombe county from the east through the Swannanoa gap. John Weaver, as stated above, came from Virginia and entered this county from the northern section and what is now Yancey county. His oldest son, Jacob, married Elizabeth Siler of Macon county. From this union were born four sons and three daughters, John S., Jesse R., William W., and James Thomas, Elizabeth, Saphronia and Mary. All these children of Jacob Weaver married and became the heads of families living in Buncombe county. Their descendants constitute the large majority of Weavers and Weaver relations now living in this county. John S. Weaver first married Mary Miller of Bolivar, Ten- nessee; she died in 1867 and his second wife was Mary Mc- Dowell of Macon county, daughter of Silas McDowell. Jesse R. Weaver married Julia Coulter of Greenville, Tennessee. William Weimer Weaver married Evalin Smith of Buncombe county, daughter of Samuel Smith. James Thomas Weaver married Hester Ann Trotter of Macon county. Elizabeth Weaver married Burdie Gash. Saphronia Weaver married Jamison McElroy. Mary Weaver married Robert V. Black-
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