USA > North Carolina > Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913 > Part 20
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DANGER IN CROSSING THE UNAKAS IN WINTER. Andrew Sherman and O'Neal, two lumbermen, left camp on the head of Tellico creek just before Christmas, 1899, intend- ing to cross the Unaka mountains south of the John Stratton Meadows, near Haw Knob, so as to reach Robbinsville in time for Christmas. They got as far as the Whig cabin where they bought some whiskey from Jim Brooksher; after which they started to cross the Hooper bald. A blizzard and heavy snowstorm began and continued all that night. They were never seen again alive. In September following Forest Den- ton found their skeletons near the Huckleberry Knob, where Sherman's remains were buried; but some physicians took O'Neal's remains home with them.
ORIGIN OF NAMES. Hazel creek was named from a patch of hazelnut bushes near its mouth; Noland creek was named for Andrew Noland, its first settler; Chambers creek for John Chambers; Eagle creek from a nest of eagles near its head; Twenty-Mile creek is so called because it is just twenty miles from the junction of Tuckaseegee and Little Tennessee rivers.
WILLIAM MONTEITH. He was the father of Samuel and the grandfather of Ellis, John, Robert and Western Monteith. He married Nancy Crawford.
W. N.C .- 14
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HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
COL. THADDEUS DILLARD BRYSON. He was born near the present railroad station called Beta, Jackson county, February 13, 1829, was married to Miss Mary C. Greenlee of Turkey Cove, McDowell county, April 4, 1871. He died at his home at Bryson City, January 2, 1890. He represented Jackson and Swain a number of years in the legislature. He was ap- pointed colonel-commandant of the Jackson county regiment militia, February 20, 1854, and was commissioned captain in the 20th N. C. Infantry of the Confederate army, September 7, 1861.
BRYSON CITY has one bank, three hotels, several boarding houses, a pump factory where columns and liquor logs are made, a roller mill of 35-barrel capacity, an ice plant, bottling works, a telephone system, a planing mill, lumber yards and builder's supplies, livery stables and a fine retail and whole- sale trade with the surrounding country. The town owns its own water system and watershed at Rich gap of 200 acres. The water is from mountain springs and is piped to a fine reservoir on Arlington Heights overlooking the town. There is also a sewerage system. The town owns its own water power plant three miles up Deep Creek which furnishes elec- tricity to operate the ice plant and the roller mill and the electric lights of the town, and has surplus power to sell. It has 140-horsepower capacity.
GRAHAM AND ROBBINSVILLE. Graham was formed in 1872, but it was represented in the legislature by the member from Cherokee till 1883, when George B. Walker, Esq., was elected to the house. The county commissioners-elect met at King & Cooper's store on Cheoah river, October 21, 1872, and were sworn in by J. W. King, J. P .; J. J. Colvard, John Gholey, G. W. Hooper, N. F. Cooper, and John Sawyer, commissioners, all being present. J. J. Colvard was elected chairman, and the official bond of William Carpenter, register deeds, was approved. So were also the bonds of John G. Tatham, as clerk, J. S. Hyde, as sheriff, Reuben Carver, surveyor, all of whom were sworn in. It was then ordered that the first term of the Superior court be held at the Baptist church in Cheoah township, about one mile from Robbinsville. Judge Riley Cannon held this court at that place in March, 1873; and the first court held in the court house in Robbinsville was the fall term of 1874. On the 7th of December, 1872, the commission-
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COUNTY HISTORY
ers considered three sites for the county seat : Rhea Hill, Fort Hill, and land of C. A. Colvards. They chose the first named. Junaluska, the Cherokee chief, lived at Robbinsville and is buried there. A tablet on an immense boulder marks his grave. Snowbird mountains, the Joanna Bald, the Hooper Bald, Huckleberry Knob, Laurel Top, the two Stratton Balds, the Hang Over, the Hay O, the Fodder Stack and the Swim Bald are the principal mountain peaks. They are the least known of any of our mountains. In them head the Santeetla, Buffalo, Snowbird, Sweet Water, the Yellow and Tallulah creeks, all of which flow into the Cheoah river. One hundred and fifty Cherokee Indians live on the head of Snowbird and Buffalo creeks. There is more virgin forest land in this county than in any other now. It has immense resources in water power, and the gorge at Rocky Point where the Little Tennessee goes through has great value as a power site. The Union Devel- opment Company has bought up many sites on these streams. In 1910-11 the Whiting Manufacturing Company bought up many of the lots and houses in Robbinsville and many thousands of acres of timber lands. Lafayette Ghormley is the grandson of the man of that name who lived near the mouth of Mountain creek, and the son of DeWitt Ghormley. Dave Orr went to his present home between Bear and Slick Rock creeks in 1866, and his fame as a hunter and trapper is now secure. Rev. Joseph A. Wiggins, a distinguished Methodist minister of this county, was born on Alarka creek in 1832, but moved with his father to Graham in 1840, when there was but one wagon road, that from Old Valley Town to Fort Montgomery, just constructed for the soldiers who removed the Indians in 1838. Dr. Dan F. Summey of Asheville was in charge of its con- struction. There were no mills except a few grist mills, andl wheat was "packed" on horses by a trail to a mill five mile from what is now Bryson City-a distance of about thirty miles. Indian relics were then plentiful at the head of Tallu- lah creek at what is called The Meadows. Mr. Wiggins mar- ried a daughter of George W. Hayes, after whom Hayesville was named. There was not a church in the county and but a few log school houses. He began to preach in 1859, and served four years as chaplain in the Confederate army, after which he rode circuits in Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia and Western North Carolina till stationed in Graham county
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His great-grandfather Garland Wiggins served in the Revolu- tionary War, as did his wife's great-grandfather, Edward Hayes. Andrew Colvard lived on Long Hungry branch, which got its name from the fact that a party of hunters was once detained there by high water till their rations gave out and they were for a long time hungry. The Stewarts of San- teetla came from Georgia and the Lovens from Ducktown, Tenn. John and Robert Stratton came from Monroe county, Tenn., in the thirties and settled on the Unaka mountains between the head of Sassafras ridge and Santeetla creek. John lived on the John Stratton Bald ten years and caught 19 panthers on Laurel Top, making "bacon" of their hams and shoulders. He came with nothing but his rifle, blanket, skillet and ammunition, but made enough herding cattle and selling deer and bear hams and hides, etc., to buy a fine farm in Monroe county, Tenn. On a rude stone on the John Strat- ton meadow is carved:
A. S. Was born 1787 Died 1839.
A State Line stone stands about a quarter of a mile away. John Ropetwister, Organdizer, Big Fat Commisseen and others moved from East Buffalo creek to Slick Rock during the Removal of 1838, where they remained in concealment till Col. Thomas arranged to have the remnant remain. They sent their women into Tennessee to swap bear and deer hides for meal. Thomas Cooper, the father of James W. Cooper of Murphy, lived on Tallulah three miles east of Robbinsville. There was a large and influential family of Crisps who settled on Stekoah, of whom Hon. Joel L. Crisp is a distinguished representative. Rev. Isaac Carringer came from the eastern part of this State and lived on Santeetla. He was a Baptist minister and died about 1897, highly respected. John Den- ton the most picturesque mountaineer in this section, moved from Polk county, Tenn., to Little Santeetla in 1879. In 1900 he was crippled while logging. He stands six feet three in his stockings. Soon after his arrival some of the bullies of Robbinsville tested John's pluck; but he worsted five of them in a fist fight, and since then he has lived in peace. His, wife's mother was Jane Meroney, and a first cousin of Jeffer-
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son Davis. She married a Turner, Mrs. Denton's given name being Albertine.
AVERY COUNTY. This was created in. 1911, out of portions of Watauga and Mitchell counties, principally. 41 At an election held August 1, 1911, Old Fields of Toe was selected as the county seat. It so happened that this land had been granted to Col. Waightstill Avery November 9, 1783. It was in his honor that this, the 100th county, was named, while the county seat was called Newland, in honor of Hon. W. C. Newland, of Lenoir, then the lieutenant governor of the State. The jail and court house were completed sufficiently to allow court to be held in April, 1913, Judge Daniels presiding. There are two legends concerning the reason this tract was called the Old Fields of Toe. L. D. Lowe, Esq., in the Watauga Democrat of June 19, 1913, states that one legend relates that Estatoe, the daughter of one of two rival chieftains, fell in love with the son of the other; but her father refused his consent, which caused a bloody war between the two factions. But Estatoe caused a pipe of peace to be made with two stems of ti-ti so that two could smoke it at once. The two rival chiefs assembled their respective followers on the bank of the river, and smoked till peace was concluded and Estatoe mar- ried her lover. The other legend is that found in The Balsam Groves of the Grandfather mountain (p. 221), and in it Esta- toe is made to drown herself because she could not wed her Indian lover because of her father's implacable opposition.
AVERY COUNTY'S LONG PEDIGREE. "It was a part of Clarendon in 1729; of New Hanover in 1729; of Bladen in 1734; of Anson in 1749; of Rowan in 1753; of Surry in 1770; of Burke in 1777; of Wilkes in 1777; of Ashe in 1799; of Yancey in 1833; of Caldwell in 1841; of Watauga in 1849; of Mitchell in 1861; so that that portion taken from Caldwell and attached to Avery in 1911 represents the eighth subdivision; and that from Watauga the tenth; which is a record probably unsur- passed."42 The principal reason for the formation of this new county was the inaccessibility of Bakersville to most of the inhabitants of Mitchell, it being in the northeastern part of that county and only two and a half miles from the Yancey line. 43 Lineville City, two miles from Montezuma and Pinola, is "the cleanest town in the North Carolina mountains east of Asheville, and the only place of the kind where guests
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HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
have a large, ideal zone for golf."^^ The same author speaks of the Yonahlossee road, running from Linville City to Blow- ing Rock, as the Appian Way which ran from Rome via Naples, to Brundesium, and claims that the latter was not more inter- esting than the former. "" The world will one day admit that the fine scenery of North Carolina has its culmination in Avery county.
1From Asheville's Centenary.
?Ibid.
"Ibid.
"Ibid.
"Ibid.
"Bourne's Asheville Code, 1909, vi. Scaife s. Land Co., 90 Federal Reporter (p. 238.) The deed from Tate to Morris is on parchment nearly fifteen feet in length. It was written by an English law clerk, and still looks like copperplate. At page 165 of the Colonial Rec- ords is found a letter from Robert Morris to the governor of North Carolina in refernece to a settlement of the account between this state and the United States, in which he refers to the proposed arbitration in which this State proposed to appoint one arbitrator and retain power of objecting to the other!
Pronounced Cochay. He was a Frenchman who had been brought to the Sulphur Springs by Col. Reuben Deaver as a confectionery and pastery cook. ·Will Book B, p. 103, September 23, 1844.
.Dr. A. B. Cox's "Footprints on the Sands of Time," p. 107.
1ºRecord Book Superior Court, not paged.
11Ibid.
12From information furnished by Hon. A. H. Eller, 1912.
1ªIbid.
14Ibid.
1&Ibid.
1'Ibid.
17 Allen.
18Col. Allen T. Davidson, in The Lyceum, January, 1891.
1ºIbid.
2.Ibid.
11 Nineteenth Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology, p. 43.
12Vol. II, Rev. St., 1837, p. 195.
""" A Brief History of Macon County," by Rev. C. D. Smith Franklin, 1905. "The organization of the county took place nine years after the survey of the lands and the loca- ion of the site for the town of Franklin."
"Ibid.
"Much of the information about the citizens of Franklin and Macon was furnished by Henry G. Robertson, Esq.
" In 1852 he represented Macon in the House of Commons.
17Henry G. Robertson, Esq., to J. P. A., 1912.
"Ibid.
"Connor.
"Written for this history by Mrs. Mattie S. Candler of Hendersonville.
"Zeigler & Grosscup.
""The county seat was named in honor of Judge Archibald D. Murphey, who was elected to the Superior court bench in 1818 and resigned in 1819. He spelt his name, how- ever with an "e'
"Deed Book G, p. 139, et seq.
"Madison county records.
"See ante, page 7.
"Facts as to Alleghany county furnished by Hon. S. F. Thompson.
17Deed Book C. p. 30.
"Deed Book E, p. 203.
"Facts Furnished by Hon. George A. Shuford.
40What used to be called Davidson's River settlement is now known as Pisgah Forest.
Caldwell also contributed to this territory.
42L. D. Lowe, Esq., in Watauga Democrat, May 23, 1913.
"Ibid.
"Balsam Groves, 223.
"The same author claims that the Old Fields of Toe, now Newland, was a muster ground before the Civil War, p. 180.
CHAPTER IX PIONEER PREACHERS
SOLITUDE AND RELIGION. The isolation of the early set- tlers was conducive to religious thoughts, especially among the uneducated ministry of that day. This is impressively told in the following paragraph:
"There was naught in the scene to suggest to a mind familiar with the facts an oriental landscape-naught akin to the hills of Judea. · Yet, ignorance has license. It never occurred to Teck Jepson [a local preacher in the novel] that his biblical heroes had lived elsewhere. . He brooded upon the Bible narratives, instinct with dramatic movement, enriched with poetic color, and localized in his robust imagination, till he could trace Hagar's wild wanderings in the fastnesses; could show where Jacob slept and piled his altar of stones; could distinguish the bush, of all others on the "bald," that blazed with fire from heaven when the angel of the Lord stood within it; saw David, the smiling stripling, running and holding high in his right hand the bit of cloth cut from Saul's garments while the king had slept in a cave at the base of Chilhowie mountain. And how was the splendid miracle of translation discredited because Jepson believed that the chariot of the Lord had rested in scarlet and purple clouds upon the towering summit of Thunderhead that Elijah might thence ascend into heaven?"1
EARLY PREACHERS. Staunton, Lexington and Abingdon, Vir- ginia, and Jonesboro, Tenn., and Morganton, N. C., have been largely Presbyterian from their earliest beginning. Not so, however, Western North Carolina in which the Baptists and Methodists got the "start" and have maintained it ever since, notwithstanding the presence almost from the first of the Rev. George Newton and many excellent ministers of the Presby- terian faith since his day. The progress of the Methodists was due largely, no doubt, to the frequent visits of Bishop Asbury.
THE FIRST METHODIST BISHOP. "In the year 1800 Bishop Francis Asbury began to include the French Broad valley in his annual visits throughout the eastern part of the United States, which extended as far west as Kentucky and Ten- nessee."? He was so encouraged by the religious hunger he
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HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
discovered in these mountain coves that he continued his visits till November, 1813, notwithstanding the rough fare he no doubt frequently had to put up with. Following ex- tracts are from his "Journal":
AT WARM SPRINGS IN 1800.
(Thursday, November 6, 1800.) "Crossed Nolachucky at Querton's Ferry, and came to Major Craggs', 18 miles. I next day pursued my journey and arrived at Warm Springs, not, however, without an ugly accident. After we had crossed the Small and Great Paint mountain, and had passed about thirty yards beyond the Paint Rock, my roan horse, led by Mr. O'Haven, reeled and fell over, taking the chaise with him; I was called back, when I beheld the poor beast and the carriage, bottom up, lodged and wedged against a sapling, which alone prevented them both being precipitated into the river. After a pretty heavy lift all was righted again, and we were pleased to find there was little damage done. Our feelings were excited more for others than ourselves. Not far off we saw clothing spread out, part of the loading of household fur- niture of a wagon which had overset and was thrown into the stream, and bed clothes, bedding, etc., were so wet that the poor people found it neces- sary to dry them on the spot. We passed the side fords of French Broad, and came to Mr. Nelson's; our mountain march of twelve miles calmed us down for this day. My company was not agreeable here-there were too many subjects of the two great potentates of this Western World, whisky, brandy. My mind was greatly distressed."
CURIOUSLY CONTRIVED ROPE AND POLE FERRY.
"North Carolina,-Saturday 8. We started away. The cold was severe upon the fingers. We crossed the ferry, curiously contrived with a rope and pole, for half a mile along the banks of the river, to guide the boat by. And O the rocks! the rocks! Coming to Laurel river, we fol- lowed the wagon ahead of us-the wagon stuck fast. Brother O'H. mounted old Gray-the horse fell about midway, but recovered, rose, and went safely through with his burden. We pursued our way rapidly to Ivy creek, suffering much from heat and the roughness of the roads, and stopped at William Hunter's."
AT THOMAS FOSTER'S.
"Sabbath Day, 9. We came to Thomas Foster's, and held a small meeting at his house. We must bid farewell to the chaise; this mode of conveyance by no means suits the roads of this wilderness. We were obliged to keep one behind the carriage with a strap to hold by, and pre- vent accidents almost continually. I have health and hard labor, and a constant sense of the favor of God."
BLACKSMITH, CARPENTER, COBBLER, SADDLER AND HATTER.
"Tobias Gibson had given notice to some of my being at Buncombe courthouse, and the society at Killyon's, in consequence of this, made an appointment for me on Tuesday, 11. We were strongly importuned to
.
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stay, which Brother Whatcoat felt inclined to do. In the meantime we had our horses shod by Philip Smith; this man, as is not infrequently the case in this country, makes wagons and works at carpentry, makes shoes for men and for horses; to which he adds, occasionally the manu- facture of saddles and hats."
REV. GEORGE NEWTON AT METHODIST SERVICE.
"Monday, 10. Visited Squire Swain's agreeable family. On Tues- day we attended our appointment. My foundation for a sermon was Heb. ii, 1. We had about eighty hearers; among them was Mr. Newton, a Presbyterian minister, who made the concluding prayer. We took up our journey and came to Foster's upon Swansico (Swannanoa)-company enough, and horses in a drove of thirty-three. Here we met Francis Poythress-sick of Carolina-and in the clouds. I, too, was sick. Next morning we rode to Fletcher's, on Mud creek. The people being unex- pectedly gathered together, we gave them a sermon and an exhortation. We lodged at Fletcher's."
A LECTURE AT BEN. DAVIDSON'S.
"Thursday, 13. We crossed French Broad at Kim's Ferry, forded Mills river, and made upwards to the barrens of Broad to Davidson's, whose name names the stream. The aged mother and daughter insisted upon giving notice for a meeting; in consequence thereof Mr. Davis, the Presbyterian minister, and several others came together. Brother What- coat was taken with a bleeding at the nose, so that necessity was laid upon me to lecture; my subject was Luke xi, 13."
DESCRIBES THE FRENCH BROAD.
"Friday, 14. We took our leave of French Broad-the lands flat and good, but rather cold. I have had an opportunity of making a tolerably correct survey of this river. It rises in the southwest, and winds along in many meanders, fifty miles northeast, receiving a number of tributary streams in its course; it then inclines westward, passing through Bun- combe in North Carolina, and Green and Dandridge counties in Tennes- see, in which last it is augmented by the waters of Nolachucky. Four miles above Knoxville it forms a junction with the Holston, and their united waters flow along under the name of Tennessee, giving a name to the State. We had no sinall labor in getting down Saluda mountain."
AGAIN AT WARM SPRINGS. In October, 1801, we find this entry:
"Monday, October 5. We parted in great love. Our company made twelve miles to Isaiah Harrison's, and next day reached the Warm Springs upon French Broad river."
"MAN AND BEAST 'FELT THE MIGHTY HILLS.' "
"Wednesday, 7. We made a push for Buncombe courthouse: man and beast felt the mighty hills. I shall calculate from Baker's to this place one hundred and twenty miles; from Philadelphia, eight hundred and twenty miles."
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HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
RESTING AT GEORGE SWAIN'S.
"Friday, 9. Yesterday and today we rested at George Swain's."
QUARTERLY MEETING AT DANIEL KILLON'S.
"Sabbath Day, 11. Yesterday and today held quarterly meeting at Daniel Killon's, near Buncombe courthouse. I spoke from Isa. Ivii, 6, 7 and I Cor. vii, 1. We had some quickenings."
A SERMON FROM N. SNETHEN.
"Monday, 12. We came to Murroughs, upon Mud creek; here we had a sermon from N. Snethen on Acts xiv, 15. Myself and James Dou- that gave an exhortation. We had very warm weather and a long ride. At Major Britain's, near the mouth of Mills river, we found a lodging."
AT ELDER DAVIDSON'S.
"Tuesday, 13. We came in haste up to elder Davidson's, refreshed man and beast, commended the family to God, and then struck into the mountains. The want of sleep and other inconveniences made me unwell. We came down Saluda River, near Saluda Mountain : it tried my lame feet and old feeble joints. French Broad, in its meanderings, is nearly two hundred miles long; the line of its course is semi-circular; its waters are pure, rapid, and its bed generally rocky, except the Blue Ridge; it passes through all the western mountains."
AT WILLIAM NELSON'S AT WARM SPRINGS. Again in No- vember, 1802, we find this entry:
"Wednesday, 3. We labored over the Ridge and the Paint Moun- tain : I held on awhile, but grew afraid of this mountain, and with the help of a pine sapling worked my way down the steepest and roughest parts. I could bless God for life and limbs. Eighteen miles this day contented us, and we stopped at William Nelson's, Warm Springs. About thirty travelers having dropped in, I expounded the scriptures to them, as found in the third chapter of Romans, as equally applicable to nominal Christians, Indians, Jews, and Gentiles."
DINNER AT BARNETT'S STATION.
"Thursday, 4. We came off about the rising of the sun, cold enough. There were six or seven heights to pass over, at the rate of five, two or one mile an hour-as this ascent or descent would permit : four hours brought us to the end of twelve miles to dinner, at Barnett's station; whence we pushed on to John (Thomas) Foster's, and after making twenty miles more, came in about the going down of the sun. On Friday and Saturday we visited from house to house."
"DEAR WILLIAM MCKENDREE."
"Sunday, 7. We had preaching at Killon's. William McKendree went forward upon 'as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God;' my subject was Heb. iii, 12, 13. On Monday I parted from dear William McKendree. I made for Mr. Fletcher's, upon Mud creek; he received me with great attention, and the kind offer of every- thing in the house necessary for the comfort of man and beast. We
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could not be prevailed on to tarry for the night, so we set off after dinner and he accompanied us several miles. We housed for the night at the widow Johnson's. I was happy to find that in the space of two years, God had manifested his goodness and his power in the hearts of many upon the solitary banks and isolated glades of French Broad; some sub- jects of grace there were before, amongst Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists. On Tuesday I dined at Benjamin Davidson's, a house I had lodged and preached at two years ago. We labored along eighteen miles, eight ascent, on the west side, and as many on the east side of the moun- tain. The descent of Saluda exceeds all I know, from the Province of Maine to Kentucky and Cumberland; I had dreaded it, fearing I should not be able to walk or ride such steeps; nevertheless, with time, patience, labor, two sticks and above all, a good Providence I came in about five o'clock to ancient father John Douthat's, Greenville County, South Caro- lina."
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