USA > North Carolina > Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913 > Part 32
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It was said that the Indians had killed Neddy McFall's father and that he had a grudge against all Indians in conse- quence. So one day Neddy and Sam McGaha were together and saw an Indian seated on a log. Neddy told McGaha that the triggers on his rifle were "set," that is locked, and asked him to take a good aim at the Indian just for fun. Not knowing that the triggers were really "sprung," and that the slightest touch on the "hair-trigger" would fire the rifle, McGaha did as he was asked, with the result that the Indian fell dead. It is said that Neddy had to run for his life to es- cape the wrath of McGaha.
PRIVATE WM. NICODEMUS. An Indian named Christie lived on the site of the present town of Murphy, and a ford crossing Valley river between the two bridges of the present day was
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for years called the Christie ford. The first house built by a white man in Cherokee county was a large two-story log house with several rooms, erected by A. R. S. Hunter, originally of Virginia, but who moved into North Carolina from Georgia. Its furniture was of mahogany and was brought by Indians on their shoulders from Walhalla, South Carolina, there being no wagon roads at that time. Mr. Hunter, in about 1838, built a better house. General Wool and General Winfield Scott were entertained by the Hunters during the time of the removal of the Cherokees. Several of the United States soldiers engaged in that heart-rending process died and were buried near this old residence; but these remains were removed in 1905 or 1906 to the National cemetery at Marietta, Georgia. On one of the old headstones a single name is yet decipherable -that of Wm. Nicodemus.
CUPID AND THE GENERAL'S SURGEON. Fort Butler was on a hill not far from the Hunter home. Mr. Hunter had one child, a daughter, who married Dr. Charles M. Hitchcock, a surgeon on Gen. Wool's staff during the "Removal" and the Mexican War. They afterwards moved to California, where they acquired many valuable lands and settled at San Fran- cisco. They had one child, a daughter, Lily, who is now a Mrs. Coit, and spends much of her time in Paris, France. She still owns all the lands in Cherokee county which were acquired by her grandfather, Mr. Hunter. They embrace all the land between the Notla and the Hiwassee, the "Mead- ows," on the head of Tallulah creek in Graham county, and land in Murphy, where she owns a house near the west end of the bridge over the Hiwassee river.
A FRIGHTENED ENTRY-TAKER. The Entry-Taker's office was opened in Murphy on the last of March, 1842, when much excitement prevailed, as it was strictly a case of "first come, first served." It is said that so eager and demonstrative was the crowd that Drewry Weeks became alarmed and hid him- self in one of the upstairs rooms of the old jail, and that, when he was finally discovered, the rush that was made upon him was really terrifying. They broke out the window lights with their fists and handed or threw their bundles of entries and surveys through these openings. One land-hungry citi- zen, Stephen Whitaker by name, used to tell how he climbed upon the shoulders of the dense crowd of men who were packed
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in front of the window of the jail and scrambled and crawled on hands and knees over the heads of those who were so crowded together that they could not use their fists upon him, or dislodge him by allowing him to drop by his own weight, till he reached the window and so got a place near the head of the list. It is said, however, that the execrations and maledictions commonly called curses-which were hurled at him were enough to damn him eternally, if mere words could accomplish that result.
A STRANGE DREAM. Dr. J. E. West was drowned March 19, 1881, while attempting to ford the Tuckaseegee river at the Bear Ford, and remained in the water about two weeks, when Rachel Grant, a poor woman whose son Dr. West had been treating, dreamed that he came to her and on seeing him she expressed surprise and told him she thought that he was drowned. He told her that he was and wanted to tell her where to direct the men, when they came to search, where to find his body. He said to tell them to get into the canoe and pole toward two maples on the opposite side and when they got near the current that came around a rock to put their pole down and they would find him. When she awoke in the moring she dressed and walked up to the landing to see if it looked like she had seen it while dreaming. She was so impressed that she sat and waited till the searching party came, to whom she told her story. Of course, some were amused while a few had faith enough to follow her directions, and when they did so found the body in the precise place she had pointed out to them. Mrs. Grant is still living in this county, as well as some of those who found the body. It had floated about one-half mile.8
THE DELOSIA "MIND."9 A man named Edward Delosia, of Blount county, Tenn., claimed to have discovered a gold mine in the Smoky mountains years before the Civil War; and it is said that he left a "way bill" or chart telling where it might be found. This chart located it at some point from which the Little Tennessee river could be seen in three places coming toward the observer and in three places going from the observer. No such place has ever been discovered, though there are points on the Gregory and Parsons Balds from which the river can be seen in several places. It was said that De- losia claimed he had cut off solid "chunks" of gold with his
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hatchet. Many have hunted for it, and many more will con- tinue to seek it, but in vain. Many others had and still have what may very properly be termed the "Delosia Mind," or the belief that sooner or later they would or will discover minerals of untold value in these mountains.
A THRILLING BOAT RIDE. A large whale boat had been built at Robbinsville and hauled to a place on Snowbird creek just below Ab. Moody's, where it was put into the creek, and it was floated down that creek to Cheoah river and thence to John- son's post-office, where Pat Jenkins then lived. It was hauled from there by wagon to Rocky Point, where, in April, 1893, Cal- vin Lord, Mike Crise and Sam McFalls, lumbermen working for the Belding Lumber Company, got into it and started down the Little Tennessee on a "tide" or freshet. No one ever ex- pected to see them alive again. But they survived. By catch- ing the overhanging branches when swept toward the northern bank at the mouth of the Cheoah river the crew managed to effect a landing, where they spent the night. They started again the next morning at daylight and got to Rabbit branch, where the men who had been sent to hunt them found them. They spent three days there till the tide subsided, then they went on to the Harden farm, which they reached just one week after leaving Rocky Point. No one has ever attempted this feat since, even when the water was not high. The boat was afterwards taken on to Lenoir City, Tenn.
A FAITHFUL DOG. Many incidents occurred in which our pioneer mothers showed grit equal to that of their intrepid husbands. But there is one of the intelligence and faithful- ness of a dog that deserves to be recorded.
William Sawyer, one of the pioneers of that section, was liv- ing on Hazel creek, near where the famous Adams-Westfeldt copper lead was afterwards found. He left home one day in 1858, when there was what the natives call a "little blue snow" covering the landscape, taking with him his trusty rifle and his trustier dog. Together they went into the Bone Valley, on Bone creek, one of the head prongs of Hazel creek, and so called because a number of cattle had perished there from cold several years before, their bleaching bones remaining as a reminder of the blizzard that had locked everything in its icy fingers late in a preceding spring.
William Sawyer killed a large bear and proceeded to disem- bowel and skin him, after which he started home loaded down
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with bear meat. But he did not get far before he fell dead in the trail. The dog remained with him till after midnight, when, being satisfied that his master was dead, he left the cold body in the woods and proceeded back home. Arriving there just before day, the faithful animal whined and scratched on the door till he was admitted. Once inside the cabin, he kept up his whining and, catching the skirts of Mrs. Sawyer's dress in his mouth, tried to draw her to the door and outside the house. Quickly divining the dog's purpose and concluding that he was trying to lead her to her husband, she summoned her neighbors and followed. She soon discovered the body of her husband, cold and stiff.
AQUILLA ROSE. This picturesque blockader lives at the head of Eagle creek in Swain county. Soon after the Civil War he got into a row with a man named Rhodes a mile be- low Bryson City, and was shot through the body. As Rose fell, however, he managed to cut his antagonist with a knife, wounding him mortally. After this he went to Texas and stayed there some time, returning a few years later and set- tling with his faithful wife at his present home. It is near the Tennessee line, and if anyone were searching for an inac- cessible place at that time he could not have improved on Quil's choice. He was never arrested for killing Rhodes, self- defence being too evident. In 1912 he made a mistake about feeding some swill to his hogs and was "haled"-literally hauled -before Judge Boyd at Asheville on a charge of operating an illicit distillery near his peaceful home. It was his violation of the eleventh commandment, to "never get ketched"; but Quil was getting old and probably needed a dram early in the morning, anyhow. Judge Boyd was merciful, and it is safe to predict that Quil will keep that eleventh commandment hereafter.
THE GOLDEN CITY. Wm. H. Herbert owned a large bound- ary of land in Clay which had been entered for Dr. David Christie of Cincinnati, Ohio, before the Civil War, say about 1857 or 1858, the warrants having been issued to M. L. Brit- tain and J. R. Dyche, who assigned them to Dr. Christie. He gave bonds to the State in 1859; but the Civil War came on and Dr. Christie returned to the North, and failed to pay for them. On February 27, 1865, the North Carolina legislature passed an act authorizing any person to pay for these
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lands and take grants from the State for them. Wm. H. Her- bert paid what was due on Christie's bonds and took grants for the lands.
He then sold three hundred acres (Grant No. 2989) to Peter Eckels, of Cincinnati, about 1870, and about 1874 Peter Eckels divided this tract into lots (on paper only) calling it The Golden City. But it was "Wild Land" on Tusquittee mountain at the head of Johnson creek, and was not very val- uable. He sold several lots, however, to people in Cincinnati and years afterwards vain attempts were made to locate this Golden City.
A LARGE HEART. For several years after the Civil War and up to the time of his death the residence of the late John H. Johnson was the scene of much hospitality. The lawyers hurried through court duties at Murphy, Robbinsville and Hayesville in order to get to spend as much time as possible beneath his roof. It was at a certain hospitable house in Clay county that rose leaves were scattered between the mat- tresses and the sheets, and the table groaned with the good things provided by the owner, and which were deliciously served by his wife and five charming daughters. One love-sick "limb of the law" is said to have addressed four of them in quick succes- sion one bright Sabbath day in the early seventies only to be rejected by each in turn. It seems that these sisters had told each other of the proposals received, and that the ardent lover had sworn that he loved each one to distraction. So, when he made this declaration to the fourth and youngest, she asked him if he had not made the same protestation of love and devotion to her three elder sisters. He promptly admitted that he had. When she asked him how it was pos- sible for him to love four girls at once, he solemnly assured her that he had a heart as big as a horse collar.
BRUIN MEETS HIS FATE. It is a well authenticated fact that Mrs. Norton, then living in Cashier's Valley, was awak- ened one night while her husband was away from home, by hearing a great commotion and the squealing of hogs at the hog-pen near by. Her children were small and there was no "man pusson" about the place. The night was cold and she had no time to clothe herself, but, rushing from the cabin in her night dress and with bare feet, she snatched an axe from the wood-pile and hastening to the hog-pen, saw a large,
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black bear in the act of killing one of her pet "fattening hogs." She did not hesitate an instant, but went on and, aiming a well-directed blow at Bruin's cranium, split it from ears to chin and so had bear meat for breakfast instead of furnishing pork for the daring marauder.
NEDDY DAVIDSON AND "GRANNY" WEISS.10 Old Neddy Davidson, of Davidson river, was a mulatto who lived to be very old-some claiming that he was 116 years of age when he died. He was given his freedom by his master, Ben Davidson, and afterwards moved to Canada. But he re- turned to his old home on Davidson river before his death and about a year before that event Judge Shuford went to his house and spent half the day with him, listening to his stories of old times. He told of frequent fights at the Big Musters then common in this section, and of many other characters. Among the latter was a man named Johnson who used to live on Davidson river and "settled" what is now known as the Old Deaver (locally pronounced Devver) place. Some- thing like one hundred years ago a cattle buyer named Carson stopped all night with Johnson and discovered the following morning that all his money, two or three hundred dollars, was missing. Having no reason to suspect Johnson or his fam- ily of the theft, he left for his home. Shortly after his depart- ure Johnson was very seriously affected with gravel and sent for an old woman reputed to be a witch, known as "Granny" Weiss or Weice. She lived on the French Broad river, near the mouth of Davidson's river. On her way to attend the sick man she met his (Johnson's) wife carrying a lot of money. She explained to Granny Weiss that both she and her husband were convinced that his urinary affliction had been visited upon him because he had taken Carson's money and that it would not be relieved till the money had been thrown into the French Broad river.
A PRACTICAL "WITCH. " 11 Well, the story went, that if Granny was a witch, she was a wise and good one. For she immediately put her veto on throwing that money in the French Broad river. She admitted that its theft from Carson by Johnson was the real cause of the latter's sickness; but, insisted that instead of throwing the money into the French Broad the proper course would be to send for Carson, its true owner, and return it to him. This was done. Carson did
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not prosecute Johnson, but the true story got out and Johnson had to sell his place and move away.
A PATHETIC STORY. Mr. John Lyon of Great Britain was an assiduous collector of our plants, and was probably in these mountains prior to 1802. "He, however, spent several years there at a subsequent period, and died at Asheville in September, 1814, aged forty-nine years." In Riverside cemetery, Asheville, is a small tombstone bearing the follow- ing inscription: "In Memory of John Lyon, who departed this life Sept. 14, 1814, aged 49 years." From a letter writ- ten by the late Silas McDowell of Macon county, N. C., to Dr. M. A. Curtis, author of "Woody Plants of North Caro- lina," and dated October, 1877, we learn that Lyon had been "a low, thick-set, small man of fine countenance," and had come from Black Mountain in the early autumn of 1814, sick; that he took a room in the Eagle hotel. Also that for two sum- mers prior to that time he had been seen in Asheville by Mr. McDowell. Lyon and James Johnston, a blacksmith from Kentucky, and a man of great size, had become friends. So, when Lyon took to his bed, Johnston had a bed placed in the same room for his own use, and attended the botanist at night. The boy, Silas McDowell, had also become attached to Mr. Lyon, and on the day of his death had gone to his room earlier than usual. "This day throughout had been one of those clear autumnal days," continues this letter, "when the blue heavens look so transcendantly pure! but now the day was drawing fast to a close, the sun was about sinking behind the distant blue mountains, its rays gleaming through a light haze of fleecy cloud that lay motionless upon the western horizon, and which the sun's rays were changing to that bright golden tint that we can look on and feel, but can't describe. The dying man caught a glimpse of the beautiful scene and observed: 'Friend Johnston, we are hav- ing a beautiful sunset-the last I shall ever behold-will you be so kind as to take me to the window and let me look out?' Johnston carried him to the window, took a seat and held the dying man in a position so that his eyes might take in the beautiful scene before him. With seraphic look he gazed intently, uttering the while a low prayer-or rather the soul's outburst of rapturous adoration and praise. After the sun sank out of sight, and the beautiful scene faded out,
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he exclaimed: 'Beautiful world, farewell! Friend Johnston, lay me down upon my bed-I feel as if I can sleep-I may not awake-kiss me Johnston-now farewell.' He fell asleep in a short time and soon all was still. All of John Lyon that was mortal was dead."
The kind-hearted blacksmith left Asheville soon afterward, but soon met and married a lady of property in Alabama, and had two sons. 1 2
Soon after the death of John Lyon friends in Edinburgh, Scotland, sent the tombstone that now marks his grave. His grave had been in the graveyard of the First Presbyterian church, but was removed to Riverside in 1878, the late Col. Allen T. Davidson and Mr. W. S. Cornell, the keeper of the cemetery, bearing the expense.
THE JUDGE, THE WHISTLERS, AND THE GEESE. Judge J. M. Cloud of Salem rode the mountain circuit in 1871 and in 1872. He was a fearless and honest man whose knowledge of law consisted mainly in his knowledge of human nature, and in his own good sense. He was very eccentric and, apparently, the fiercest and sternest of jurists; but he was really a tender hearted gentleman. He was a bachelor and affected to hate whistling and the noise of geese and chickens; but he himself could shake a log house with his snoring. He was very fond of boiled sweet corn. On one occasion one of the lawyers who arrived at a certain noted hostelry at Valley Town in advance of the Judge told the landlady that his Honor had sent word by him to be sure to save him for supper twelve ears of corn and three bundles of fodder, the usual "feed " for a horse ! Judge Cloud never forgave this joke. When he got to Asheville, several of the most mischievious young men serenaded him with sweet music at first and then with cat-mewing, tin pans and cow bells. One of their number, Mr. Samuel G. Weldon, made the others believe that the Judge had issued a bench warrant for their arrest for contempt of court, and two of them left town pre- cipitately.
When the Judge got to Bakersville he was annoyed by a gang of geese which prowled the streets around the court house and hissed-hissed-hissed. Judge Cloud called the sheriff and ordered him to kill the geese. The sheriff told Stokes Penland, now living at Pinola, to shut the geese up in a barn till the judge left town. Stokes, a mere boy then,
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did so. When court "broke," as final adjournment is called, the sheriff presented his bill for $12. "What is this for?" fiercely demanded the judge. "For the twelve geese you ordered me to kill," answered the sheriff. "Show me their dead bodies," returned the Judge "or I'll not pay one cent." The sheriff called up Stokes, thinking he would carry out the joke and pretend that he had actually killed the geese. But he had failed to tell the boy what was expected of him. So he asked him: "What did you do with those twelve geese the judge told me to have killed?" "I shut them up in the barn, and they are there yet," was the surprising but truthful answer. At another court, however, that at Marshall, the geese had really been killed and the judge was forced to pay for them, willy nilly.
AN ASHEVILLE POO BAH. In a municipal campaign in 1874, while the late Albert T. Summey was mayor, he was opposed for re-election by the late Col. John A. Fagg, who declared in a speech that "Squire Summey held a separate office for each day in the week, being mayor on Monday, United States commissioner on Tuesday, justice of the peace on Wednesday, county commissioner on Thursday, chairman of the board of education on Friday, commissioner in bankruptcy on Sat- urday, and, in Prince Albert coat and silk hat, elder of the Presbyterian church on Sunday. 'Myself and my wife, my son George and his wife, us four and no more.' "
MURDER OF DANIEL STERNBERGH. In 1874 G. W. Cun- ningham was arrested, tried and convicted for having killed and robbed Sternbergh of Kansas 6th June, 1874, near Stepp's on the North Fork of the Swannanoa. The case was tried in Madison, and the defendant executed after the Supreme Court had confirmed his conviction. (72 N. C., 469.)
WILL HARRIS, DESPERADO. At midnight, November 13, 1906, policemen Page and C. R. Blackstock were summoned to a house on Eagle street, and when Blackstock opened the rear door he was shot fatally by a mulatto man supposed to have been Will Harris or - Abernathy of Mecklenburg. Harris also shot Page in the arm as he went to headquarters to summon help. Harris started up Eagle street and on the way killed Jocko Corpening, a negro, and Ben Addington, also colored. As he turned into South Main Harris shot a hole in the clothes of a negro named George Jackson, and then
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started towards the square. Policeman J. W. Bailey started to meet Harris, and placed himself behind a large telegraph post on the northeast corner of the square and South Main; but Harris, with a Savage rifle with steel-jacketed balls, dropped on one knee and fired at the post, the ball passing through it and through Policeman Bailey as well, killing him. Harris turned back down South Main, firing at three white men as he went, and at Kelsey Bell in a second-story window. There was snow that day, but the next Harris was shot to death about eleven o'clock in the forenoon near Fletcher's by a posse in pursuit.
THE LAST "BIG MUSTER." At the last Big Muster in Boone, which occurred on the second Saturday of October, 1861, the militia had a somewhat hilarious time; and after it was over Col. J. B. Todd, then clerk of the court, stood val- iantly at the court house door, and vainly waved his sword in a frantic effort to prevent the sheriff and others from riding their horses into the court room, and pawing the big bass drum which some one had placed behind the bar for safe-keeping.
"FREEZING OUT OF JAIL." Joseph T. Wilson, nick-named "Lucky Joe," obtained a change of venue from Watauga to Ashe Superior court at the November term, 1883.13 He had been indicted for stealing horses from Alloway and Henry Maines of the North Fork; but before he was removed from the Boone jail, a blizzard came on, and one morning Lucky Joe was found in his cell frozen stiff. A doctor pronounced him dead or beyond recovery; but he was taken to the Brick Row, an annex of the old Coffey hotel, and thawed out. Still pro- testing that he was stiff and frozen he was allowed to remain in that building a day or two, under guard. But one evening at dark the guard locked the door and went out for more fuel. When he returned Lucky Joe was absent. He was tracked through the snow three miles to the Jones place on Rich mountain; but he could not be overtaken. The fol- lowing spring Alexander Perry, of Burke, captured him in one of the western States and returned him to Ashe, where he was convicted and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary. There he became superintendent of the prison Sunday School, and had earned an early discharge; but when his baggage came to be examined it was discovered that he had stolen several articles from the penitentiary itself, and he was made to serve
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his full term. Upon his return to Watauga he studied law and tried to be "good " for several years; but at the June Term, 1904, 1 4 he was convicted under one and pleaded guilty to three indictments and was sentenced to five years on the Iredell county roads, where he died soon afterwards. The stories of his career in Kentucky would fill a volume. He was born in 1846 or 1847, and was a Civil War pensioner.
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