USA > North Carolina > Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913 > Part 2
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gives the names of Hampton, Rogers, McClure, Morgan, Rhodes, Foster and Bradley as indicative of the English, Scotch and Irish descent of our people-names that "are crowned with honor out in the big world." It is also a well- known fact that Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Admiral Farragut and Cyrus T. McCormick came from the same stock of people. She adds, very justly : "Bad blood there was among them, as well as good, and brave men as well as weak ones. The brave as well as the bad blood sometimes worked out its destiny in Vendetta and "moonshining," al- though there never existed in the North Carolina mountains the extensive and bloody feuds that distinguish the annals of Virginia and Kentucky." (P. 144).
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HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
THE MOONSHINER, she declares, (p. 201) is "a product of conditions resulting from the Civil War, before which time the moutnaineer converted his grain into whiskey, just as the New Englander converted his apples into cider. The act of distilling was not a crime, and became so only because it was an evasion of the revenue laws. . At the begin- ning of the Civil War for the sake of revenue a very heavy tax was placed on all distilled alcoholic liquors. After the war was over the tax was not removed, and this is the griev- ance of the mountaineer, who says that the tax should have been removed; that it is unjust and oppressive, and that he has a right to do as he pleases with his own corn, and to evade the law which interferes with his personal freedom." But, she adds : "Within the past few years the moonshiner, along with many time-honored customs, has been rapidly van- ishing.
AN APPRECIATION. Such just, truthful, generous and sym- pathetic words as the above, especially when found eminat- ing from a New Englander, will be highly appreciated by every resident of the Carolina mountains, as we are accus- tomed to little else than misrepresentations and abuse by many of the writers from Miss Morley's former home. Her descriptions of our flowers, our gems, our manners and cus- toms, our scenery, our climate and the character of our peo- ple will win for her a warm place in the affections of all our people. "The Carolina Mountains" is by far the best book that has ever been written about our section and our people. The few lapses into which she has been betrayed by incorrect information will be gladly overlooked in view of the fact that she has been so just, so kind and so truthful in the estimate she has placed upon our virtues and our section.
POOR COMFORT. Very little comfort is to be derived from the fact that some writers claim ("The Child That Toileth Not," p. 13) that a spirit of fun or a "great sense of humor" among the mountain people induces them to mislead strang- ers who profess to believe that in some sections of the moun- tains our people have never even heard of Santa Claus or Jesus Christ; by pretending that they do not themselves know any- thing of either. Indeed, a story comes from Aquone to the effect that a stranger from New England who was there to fish in the Nantahala river once told his guide, a noted wag,
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INTRODUCTORY
that he had heard that some of the mountain people had not heard of God or Jesus Christ. Pretending to think that the visitor was referring to a man, the guide asked if his ques- tioner did not mean Mike Crise, a timber-jack who had worked on that river a dozen years before, and when the stranger replied that he meant Jesus of Bethlehem, the wag, with a perfectly straight face, answered : "That's the very p'int Mike came from"-meaning Bethlehem, Pa. There- fore, when we read in "The Carolina Mountains (p. 117) that "The mountaineer, it may be said in passing, sells his molasses by the bushel," and (p. 220) that "Under the Smoky mountain we heard of a sect of 'Barkers,' who, the people said, in their religious frenzy, run and bark up a tree in the belief that Christ is there," we are driven to the conclusion that Miss Morley, the author, was a victim of this same irre- sistible "sense of humor."
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NOTES.
1Letter of R. D. W. Connor, Secretary N. C. Hist. Com., January 31, 1912. "Zeigler & Grosscup, p. 9.
"This mountain is said to be among the oldest geological formations on earth, the Laurentian only being senior to it. Roosevelt, Vol. III, 111-112.
"T. A. Low, Esq.
"Asbeville Centenary. "Ibid. "Ibid.
"Ibid. 1.Ibid.
11Zeigler & Grosscup, p. 222.
12Asheville Centenary
1"His letter to J. P. A., 1912. 1'Ibid.
" Roosevelt, Vol. I. p. 137. This entire chapter (ch. 5, Vol. I), from which the follow- ing excerpts have been taken at random, contains the finest tribute in the language to the pioneers of the South.
Ibid., 214.
17Ibid.
W. N. C .-- 2
CHAPTER II
BOUNDARIES
A DIGRESSION. The purpose of this history is to relate facts concerning that part of North Carolina which lies be- tween the Blue Ridge and the Tennessee line; but as there has never been any connected account of the boundary lines between North Carolina and its adjoining sisters, a digression from the main purpose in order to tell that story should be pardoned.
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UNFOUNDED TRADITIONS. It is said that the reason the Ducktown copper mines of Tennessee were lost to North Car- olina was due to the fact that the commissioners of North Carolina and Tennessee ran out of spirituous liquors when they reached the high peak just north of the Hiwassee river, and instead of continuing the line in a general southwest- wardly course, crossing the tops of the Big and Little Frog mountains, they struck due south to the Georgia line and a still-house. The same story is told as to the location of Ashe- ville, the old Steam Saw Mill place on the Buncombe Turn- pike about three miles south of Asheville, at Dr. Hardy's former residence, being its chief rival; but when it is recalled that two Indian trails crossed at Asheville, and the legislature had selected a man from Burke as an umpire of the dispute, it will be found that grave doubts may arise as to the truth of the whiskey tradition. 1 It was the jagged boundary between North and South Carolina and the stories attributing the same to the influence of whiskey that called forth the fol- lowing just and sober reflections:
ABSTEMIOUS OR CAPABLE IN STRONG DRINK? Hon. W. L. Saunders, who edited the Colonial Records, remarks in Vol. v, p. xxxviii, that "there is usually a substantial, sensible, sober reason for any marked variation from the general direc- tion of an important boundary line, plain enough when the facts are known; but the habit of the country is to attribute such variations to a supposed superior capacity of the com- missioners and surveyors on the other side for resisting the power of strong drink. Upon this theory, judging from prac-
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BOUNDARIES
tical results, North Carolina in her boundary surveys, and they have been many, seems to have been unusually fortunate in having men who were either abstemious or very capable in the matter of strong drink; for, so far as now appears, in no instance have we been overreached." ?
A SANCTUARY FOR CRIMINALS. Prior to the settlement of these boundary disputes grants had been issued by each col- ony to lands in the territory in controversy; which, according to Governor Dobbs, "was the creation of a kind of sanctuary allowed to criminals and vagabonds by their pretending, as it served their purpose, that they belonged to either province."' "But," adds Mr. W. L. Saunders, "who can help a feeling of sympathy for those reckless free-lances to whom constraint from either province was irksome? After men breathe North Carolina air for a time, a very little government will go a long way with them. Certainly the men who publicly 'damned the King and his peace' in 1762 were fast ripening for the 20th of May, 1775.""
THE FIRST GRANT OF CAROLINA. Charles the Second's grant of Carolina in 1584 embraced only the land between the mouth of the St. Johns river in Florida to a line just north of Albemarle Sound; but he had intended to give all land south of the settlements in Virginia. This left a strip of land between the Province of Carolina and the Virginia settle- ments. 5 In 1665 the King added a narrow strip of land to those already granted. This strip lay just north of Albe- marle Sound, and its northern boundary would of course be the boundary line between Carolina and Virginia. It was about fifteen miles wide, and had on it "hundreds of fam- ilies," which neither colony wished to lose. 6
THE FIRST SURVEY. In 1709, both colonies appointed commissioners to settle this boundary. North Carolina appointed Moseley and John Lawson; but Lawson left his deputy, Colonel Wm. Maule, to act for him. 7 In 1710 these commissioners met Philip Ludwell and Nathaniel Harrison, commissioners from Virginia, but our commissioners insisted that the surveying instruments used by the Virginians were not to be trusted, and the meeting broke up without having accomplished anything except the charge from the Virginians that Moseley did not want the line run because he was trad- ing in disputed lands. 8 When the commissioners from these
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HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
two colonies did meet in March 1728, it was found that our commissioners had been right in 1710 as to the inaccuracy of the Virginia instruments, and the Virginians frankly admit- ted it. 9
NORTH CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA BOUNDARY. 10 On the 27th of February, 1728, William Byrd, Will Dandridge, and Richard Fitzwilliam, as commissioners from Virginia, met Edward Moseley, C. Gale, Will Little and J. Lovick, as com- missioners from North Carolina, at Corotuck Inlet, and began the survey on the 27th day of March, and continued it till the weather got "warm enough to give life and vigor to the rat- tlesnakes" in the beginning of April, when they stopped till September 20, when the survey was renewed; and after going a certain distance beyond their own inhabitants the North Carolina commissioners refused to proceed further, and pro- tested against the Virginia commissioners proceeding further with it. 11 In this they were joined by Fitzwilliam of Vir- ginia. This protest was in writing and was delivered October 6, when they had proceeded 170 miles to the southern branch of the Roanoke river "and near 50 miles without inhabitants," which they thought would be far enough for a long time. To this the two remaining Virginia commissioners, Byrd and Dan- dridge, sent a written answer, to the effect that their order was to run the line "as far towards the mountains as they could; they thought they should go as far as possible so that "His Majesty's subjects may as soon as possible extend themselves to that natural barrier, as they are certain to do in a few years;" and thought it strange that the North Carolina com- missioners should stop "within two or three days after Mr. Mayo had entered with them near 2,000 acres within five miles of the place where they left off."
BYRD AND DANDRIDGE CONTINUE ALONE. The North Carolina commissioners, accompanied by Fitzwilliam of Vir- ginia, left on October 8th; but Byrd and Dandridge continued alone, crossing Matrimony creek, "so called from being a lit- tle noisy," and saw a little mountain five miles to the north- west "which we named the Wart." 12
On the 25th of October they came in plain sight of the moun- tains, and on the 26th, they reached a rivulet which "the traders say is a branch of the Cape Fear." Here they stop- ped. This was Peters creek in what is now Stokes county. 18
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BOUNDARIES
It was on this trip that Mr. Byrd discovered extraordinary virtues in bear meat. This point 14 was on the northern bound- ary of that part of old Surry which is now Stokes county.
THE "BREAK" IN THE LINE ACCOUNTED FOR. A glance at the map will show a break in the line between Virginia and North Carolina where it crosses the Chowan river. This is thus accounted for:1' Governors Eden of North Carolina and Spottswood of Virginia met at Nansemond and agreed to set the compass on the north shore of Currituck river or inlet and run due west; and if it "cutt [sic] Chowan river between the mouths of Nottoway and Wiccons creeks, it shall continue on the same course towards the mountains; but it it "cutts Chowan river to the southward of Wiccons creek, it shall con- tinue up the middle of Chowan river to the mouth of Wiccons creek, and from thence run due west." It did this; and the survey of 1728 was not an attempt to ascertain and mark the parallel of 36° 30', but "an attempt to run a line between cer- tain natural objects . . . regardless of that line and agreed upon as a compromise by the governors of the two States." 1 6
THE REAL MILK IN THE COCOANUT. Thus, so far as the Colonial Records show, ended the first survey of the dividing line between this State and Virginia, which one of the Virginia commissioners has immortalized by his matchless account, which, however, was not given to the world until 1901, when it was most attractively published by Doubleday, Page & Co., after careful editing by John Spencer Bassett. But Col. Byrd does not content himself in his "Writings" with the insinuation that the North Carolina commissioners and Mr. Mayo had lost interest immediately after having entered 2,000 acres of land within five miles of the end of their survey. He goes further and charges (p. 126) that, including Mr. Fitzwilliam, one of the Virginia commissioners, "they had stuck by us as long as our good liquor lasted, and were so kind to us as to drink our good Journey to the Mountains in the last Bottle we had left!" He also insinuates that Fitzwilliam left because he was also a judge of the Williamsburg, Virginia, court, and hoped to draw double pay while Byrd and Dandridge con- tinued to run the line after his return. But in this he exult- antly records the fact that Fitzwilliam utterly failed.
THE NINETY-MILE EXTENSION IN 1749. In October, 1749, the line between North Carolina and Virginia was extended
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HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
from Peters creek, where it had ended in 1728-which point is now in Stokes county-ninety miles to the westward to Steep Rock creek, crossing "a large branch of the Mississippi [New River], which runs between the ledges of the moun- tains"-as Governor Johnston remarked-"and nobody ever drempt of before." William Churton and Daniel Weldon were the commissioners on the part of North Carolina, and Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson on the part of Virginia. "It so happens, however, that no record of this survey has been preserved, and we are today without evidence, save from tradition, to ascertain the location of our boundary for ninety miles." 17
This extension carried the line to within about two miles east of the Holston river; and we know from the statute of 1779 providing for its further extension from that point upon the latitude of 36° 30' that it had been run considerably south of that latitude from Peters creek to Pond mountain, from which point it had, apparently without rhyme or reason, been run in a northeastwardly direction to the top of White Top mountain, 18 about three miles north of its former course, and from there carried to Steep Rock creek, near the Holston river, in a due west course. The proverbial still-house, said to have been on White Top, is also said to have caused this aberration; but the probability is that the commissioners had a more substantial reason than that.
THE LAST EXTENSION OF THIS LINE. In 1779 North Caro- lina passed an act 19 reciting that as "the inhabitants of this State and of the Commonwealth of Virginia have settled them- selves further westwardly than the boundary between the two States hath hitherto been extended, it becomes expedient in order to prevent disputes among such settlers that the same should be now further extended and marked." To that end Orandates-improperly spelled in the Revised Statutes of 1837, Vol. ii, p. 82, "Oroondates"-Davie, John Williams Caswell, James Kerr, William Bailey Smith and Richard Henderson should be the commissioners on the part of North Carolina to meet similar commissioners from Virginia to still further extend it. But it was expressly provided that they should begin where the commissioners of 1749 had left off, and first ascertain if it be in latitude 36° 30', "and if it be found to be truly in" that latitude, then they were "to run from thence due west
23
BOUNDARIES
to the Tennessee or the Ohio river; or if it be found not truly in that latitude, then to run from said place, due north or due south, into the said latitude, and thence due west to the said Tennessee or Ohio river, correcting the said course at due intervals by astronomical observations."?º Colonial Records. Vol. iv, p. 13.)
THE LINE RUN IN 1780. Richard Henderson was appoint- ed on the part of North Carolina, and Dr. Thomas Walker on that of Virginia, to run this line, and they began their task in the spring of 1780; and on the last day of March of that year Col. Richard Henderson met the Donelson party on its way from the Watauga settlements to settle at the French Lick, in the bend of the Cumberland. (Roosevelt, Vol. iii, p. 242.) But nine years before, in 1771, Anthony Bledsoe, one of the new-comers to the Watauga settlement, being a practical surveyor, and not being certain that that settlement was wholly within the borders of Virginia, extended the line of 1749 from its end near the Holston river far enough to the west to satisfy himself that the new settlement on the Watauga was in North Carolina. 2 1
DISPUTED CAROLINA BOUNDARY LINES. From the Prefa- tory Notes to Volume V, Colonial Records, p. 35, etc., it appears that the dispute between the two Carolinas as to boundary lines began in 1720 "when the purpose to erect a third Province in Carolina, 22 with Savannah for its northern boundary," began to assume definite shape, but nothing was done till January 8, 1829-'30, when a line was agreed on "to begin 30 miles southwest of the Cape Fear river, and to be run at that parallel distance the whole course of said river;" and in the following June Governor Johnson of South Caro- lina recommended that it run from a point 30 miles south- west of the source of the Cape Fear, shall be continued "due west as far as the South Sea," unless the "Waccamaw river lyes [sic] within 30 miles of the Cape Fear river," in which case that river should be the boundary. This was accepted by North Carolina until it was discovered that the "Cape Fear rose very close to the Virginia border," 23 and would not have "permitted any extension on the part of North Caro- lina to the westward." Meanwhile, both provinces claimed land on the north side of the Waccamaw river."24 In 1732 Gov. Burrington [of North Carolina] published a proclama-
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HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
tion in Timothy's Southern Gazette, declaring the lands lying on the north side of the Waccamaw river to be within the Province of North Carolina, to which Gov. Johnson [of South Carolina] replied by a similar proclamation claiming the same land to belong to South Carolina; and also claiming that when they [the two governors] had met before the Board of Trade in London to settle this matter in 1829-'30, Barrington had "insisted that the Waccamaw should be the boundary from its mouth to its head," while South Carolina had contended that "the line should run 30 miles distant from the mouth of the Cape Fear river on the southwest side thereof, as set forth in the instructions, and that the Board had agreed thereto, unless the mouth of the Waccamaw river was within 30 miles of the Cape Fear river; in which case both Governor Barring- ton and himself had agreed that the Waccamaw river should be the boundary." The omission of the word "mouth" in the last part of the instructions Governor Johnson thought "only a mistake in wording it." ?5
THE LINE PARTIALLY RUN IN 1735. In consequence of this dispute commissioners were appointed by both colonies, who were to meet on the 23d of April, 1735, and run a due west line from the Cape Fear along the sea coast for thirty miles, and from thence proceed northwest to the 35th degree north latitude, and if the line touched the Pee Dee river be- fore reaching the 35th degree, then they were to make an offset at five miles distant from the Pee Dee and proceed up that river till they reached that latitude; and from thence they were to proceed due west until they came to Catawba town; but if the town should be to the northward of the line, "they were to make an offset around the town so as to leave it in the South government." They began to run the line in "May, 1735, and proceeded thirty miles west from Cape Fear . . . and then went northwest to the country road and set up stakes there for the mearing 26 or boundary of the two provinces, when they separated, agreeing to return on the 18th of the following September." In September the line was run northwest about 70 miles, the South Carolina commis- sioners not arriving till October. These followed the line run by the North Carolina commissioners about 40 miles, and finding it correct, refused to run it further because they had not been paid for their services. A deputy surveyor, how-
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BOUNDARIES
ever, took the latitude of the Pee Dee at the 35th parallel and set up a mark, which was from that date deemed to be the mearing or boundary at that place.
LINE EXTENDED IN 1737 AND IN 1764. In 1737 the line was extended in the same direction 22 miles to a stake in a meadow supposed to be at the point of intersection with the 35th parallel of north latitude. 37 In 1764 the line was ex- tended from the stake due west 62 miles, intersecting the Charleston road from Salisbury, near Waxhaw creek 28 at a distance of 61 miles.
THE "LINE OF 1772." In 1772, after making the required offsets so as to leave the Catawba Indians in South Carolina in pursuance of the agreement of 1735, the line was "ex- tended in a due west course from the confluence of the north and south forks of the Catawba river to Tryon mountain." But North Carolina refused to agree to this line, insisting that "the parallel of 35° of north latitude having been made the boundary by the agreement of 1735, it could not be changed without their consent. . The reasons that controlled the commissioners in recommending this course . . . were that the observations of their own astronomer, President Cald- well of the University, showed there was a palpable error in running the line from the Pee Dee to the Salisbury road, that line not being upon the 35th parallel, but some 12 miles to the South of it, and that "the line of 1772" was just about far enough north of the 35th parallel to rectify the error, by allowing South Carolina to gain on the west of the Catawba river substantially what she had lost through misapprehen- sion on the east of it." North Carolina in 1813 "agreed that the line of 1772" should be recognized as a part of the bound- ary. 29 "The zig-zag shape of the line as it runs from the southwest corner of Union county to the Catawba river is due to the offsets already referred to, and which were neces- sary to throw the reservation of Catawba Indians into the Province of South Carolina."
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN BOUNDARIES. The peace of 1783 with Great Britain did nothing more to secure our west- ern limits than to confirm us in the control of the territory already in our possession; for while the Great Lakes were rec- ognized as our northern boundary, Great Britain failed to formally admit that boundary till the ratification of the Jay
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HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
treaty, on the ground that we had failed to fulfill certain promises; and while she had likewise consented to recognize the 31st parallel as our southern boundary, it had been secretly agreed between America and Great Britain that, if she recov- ered West Florida from Spain, the boundary should run a hundred miles further north than the 31st parallel. For this land, drained by the Gulf rivers, had not been England's to grant, as it had been conquered and was then held by Spain. Nor was it actually given up to us until it was acquired by Pinckney's masterly diplomacy. (Roosevelt, Vol. iii, p. 283 et seq.)
FRANCE'S DUPLICITY. The reasons for these reservations were that while France had been our ally in the Revolution- ary war, Spain was also the ally of France both before and after the close of that conflict; and our commissioners had been instructed by Congress to "take no steps without the knowledge and advice of France." It was now the interest of France to act in the interest of Spain more than in that of America for two reasons, the first of which was that she wished to keep Gibralter, and the second, that she wished to keep us dependent on her as long as she could. Spain, however, was quite as hostile to us as England had been, and predicted the future expansion of the United States at the expense of Flor- ida, Louisiana and Mexico. Therefore, she tried to hem in our growth by giving us the Alleghanies as our western boundary. The French court, therefore, proposed that we should content ourselves with so much of the trans-Alleghany territory as lay around the head waters of the Tennessee and between the Cumberland and Ohio, all of which was already settled; "and the proposal showed how important the French court deemed the fact of actual settlement." But John Jay, supported by Adams, disregarded the instructions of Congress and negotiated a separate treaty as to boundaries, and gave us the Missis- sippi as our western boundary, but leaving to England the free navigation of the Mississippi. 2 (Roosevelt, Vol. iii, p. 284.)
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