USA > North Carolina > Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913 > Part 46
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14These dates are from letters from Col. A. B. Andrews to J. P. A., dated July 19 and 21, 1913. 1$148 N. C. Reports, p. 59.
1 Letter of J. F. Hays to J. P. A., 1912.
17The Southern's line hay been extended from Bushnel to Eagle creek, on the Little Tennessee, sixteen miles; but it is used principally for hauling lumber. The scenery is unsurpassed.
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CHAPTER XXI
NOTABLE RESORTS AND IMPROVEMENTS
THE BUCK HOTEL. This ancient hostelry was built by the . late James M. Smith and stood where the new Langren hotel now stands. It was the first hotel west of the Blue Ridge, but when it was built is not stated in Asheville's Centenary (1898), the best authority we have on local ancient history. He was the son of Col. Daniel Smith of New Jersey, who died May 17, 1824, aged 67. James M. was born January 7, 1794, near the present Asheville passenger depot. His mother was Mary, a daughter of William Davidson, a cousin of Gen. William Davidson, who was killed at Cowan's Ford. 1 It was Gen. Davidson's brother Samuel who was killed by the Indians at the head of Swannanoa in 1781-82. James M. Smith married Polly Patton, a daughter of Col. John Patton, who was a mer- chant, hotel keeper, manufacturer, farmer, tanner, large landowner, and very wealthy. The Buck hotel stood till about 1907, when it was removed.
THE EAGLE HOTEL. 2 This was built by the late James Patton, father of the late James W. Patton, and grandfather of the late Thomas W. Patton. He was born in Ireland February 13, 1756, and came to America in 1783. He was a weaver, but soon became a merchant. In 1791 he met Andrew Erwin, who married his sister and became his partner in busi- ness. In 1807 they moved to the Swannanoa at what is known as the Murphy place where they remained till 1814, when they moved to Asheville, Mr. Patton opening a store and the Eagle Hotel-the central or wooden part. In 1831 he bought and improved the Warm Springs, and died at Ashe- ville September 9, 1846. 3 James W. Patton was born Febru- ary 13, 1803, and died in December, 1861. His life was full of good deeds. His son, Thomas W. Patton, was foremost in all good works, and in 1894 came to the rescue of Asheville in a crisis of her affairs as mayor on an independent ticket.
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THE HOT SPRINGS. "The Warm Springs on the French Broad had been discovered in 1778 by Henry Reynolds and Thomas Morgan, two men kept out in advance of the settle- ment to watch the movements of the Indians. They followed
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some stolen horses to the point opposite, and leaving; their own horses on the north bank, waded across the river. On the southern shore, in passing through a little branch, they were surprised to find the water warm." "The next year," says Ramsey, "the Warm Springs were resorted to by inva- lids." Soon after his graduation at Washington .College, Tenn., young Z. B. Vance was a clerk at this hotel. 4 (
Grant No. 668, dated July 11, 1788, and signed /at Fair- field, by Samuel Johnston, governor, conveyed to Gaser Dagg, or Dagy, or Dager, 200 acres of land on the south sfide of the French Broad river in Green county, including ,the Warm Springs. " This land was then supposed to be in Gifeen county, in what is now Tennessee. William Neilson then acquired an interest in the Springs for on April 27, 1829., Philip Hale Neilson, who appears to have inherited an undivided one- half interest to this property, conveyed it to Green K. Cessna, " who with Joseph L. Chunn and wife conveyed the entire property to James W. and John E. Patton, . by deed dated December 6, 1831, for $20,662.7 William Mathias appears to have kept the Hot Springs before John E. Patton took charge in 1832. He owned it till 1862, when J. H. Rum- bough bought it. He has owned it since.
OLD WARM SPRINGS. 8 The old Patton hotel at Warm Springs faced the river and was on the left bank, a bridge crossing the French Broad at that point. 9 The thirteen large white pillars in front were very imposing looking, and represented the original States. The Lover's Leap rock was on the right bank of the river, and little less than half a mile above the hotel. It was a sheer precipice thirty or forty feet in height. What is now called Lover's Leap, on the left bank and a mile below, is much higher, but was not so precipitous in former days, the passage of the rail- road necessitating the blasting away of the lower portion of the cliff. Old Man Peters is said to have fallen from it years before the Civil War while coon-hunting, but recovered. The Hale Neilson property was at Paint Rock, and what is still called the Old Love road leaves the river about six miles below Hot Springs and joins the present road up Paint creek twelve miles east of Greenville, Tenn. It appears to be very little traveled these days, and is probably the one Bishop Asbury first used, crossing the French Broad at what is still put down
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on the United States contour maps as Love's Ferry. Thad- deus Weaver lived at the mouth of Paint creek, and the old Allen House, at the mouth of Wolfe creek, is still standing. The old Neilson hotel at Warm Springs was burned between 1821 and 1840. The present hotel faces the railroad, and has its back to the river.
FLAT ROCK. From that storehouse of information, "Ashe- ville's Centenary" (1898), we learn that in 1828 the turnpike from Saluda gap via Asheville was completed to Warm Springs, and that "brought a stream of travel through west- ern North Carolina." Among these were visitors from Char- leston, S. C., some of whom were attracted by the charming scenery and surroundings of Flat Rock. Charles B. Bar- ing bought land and built there, his deed bearing date September 13, 1830.10 Judge Mitchell King also bought land, his deed being dated October 28, 1829.11 There was a small hotel there kept by Williams Brittain, in which they probably stayed till they could build homes of their own. What is now the Major Barker place was the Mollineaux home. Following is from the history of Henderson (town and county) by Mrs. Mattie S. Chandler, written expressly for this work:
The home of Judge Mitchell King (who afterward donated the land upon which Hendersonville stands) was one of the very first built at Flat Rock, and numbers of his descendants continue to come there, maintaining handsome homes of their own. This place later passed into the ownership of Col. C. G. Memminger, and is now owned by the Smythes.
Count de Choiseul, one of the most famous of these old residents, modeled his dwelling there after the magnificent old French country homes. He lived there many years, until after the death of one of his sons in the War between the States. He then returned to France that his remaining son might in- herit his titles as well as his immense property there.
The old Urqhardt home, one time residence of Cora Urq- hardt, now Mrs. James Potter Brown, is practically unchanged. It belongs to the Misses Norton of Louisville, Ky., who spend the summers there.
Charles Baring came to Flat Rock from Charleston in 1820, and built in 1828 what is now the summer home of George J. Baldwin (prominent business man of Savannah). There are a
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HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
number of the descendants of the Barings who have lived for many years in this county, and they tell many interesting stories of this family. Charles Baring, member of the Banking firm of Baring Bros., London, came first to Charleston to negotiate a match between Lord Ashburton and a beautiful English widow then in Charleston, a Mrs. Heyward, sister of Lady Barclay. It proved to be a case of John Alden and Priscilla, he "asked her himself." They were married and early in their married life came to Flat Rock.
Mrs. Baring was brilliant, clever, well known in these early days in Charleston as a dramatic writer, and amateur actress. She entertained extensively and brilliantly at Flat Rock, her birthday balls having been quite famous. On this occasion she is said to have invariably worn a remarkable costume of purple velvet, with headpiece of purple plumes, and many diamonds. Judging from a very handsome portrait of her, now in the possession of a Hendersonville lady of her kin, she must have been very beautiful. Miss Sue Farmer of Hendersonville, daughter of Henry Tudor Farmer, and grand- niece of this lady, has in her possession many of Mrs. Bar- ing's belongings, among which are a quaint old jewel casket with glass handles, with many compartments and little secret drawers and pockets. In the Baldwin home, in what was Mrs. Baring's bedroom, there still remains the curious old wall paper with its designs of the Crusaders.
She it was who built the far-famed St. John-in-the-Wil- derness, the Episcopal church at Flat Rock, said to be the oldest of its denomination in the State. Both she and her husband are buried under the floor of this church, and the tablets erected to their memory are in the church.
At the age of seventy, Charles Baring was married a second time to a young lady, Miss Constance Dent, daughter of Com- modore Dent of Charleston. He then built another home, which was known for many years as the Rhett place, and on which spot now stands the beautiful new Highland Lake Club, with its numerous cottages and buildings, and which on summer evenings presents such a brilliant scene, where hundreds of wealthy visitors come to spend the summer.
The well-known old Farmer Hotel was built by Charles Baring, and kept by his nephew and ward, Henry Farmer, for many years. It was perhaps better known as the Flat
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Rock Inn and gained quite a reputation for the old Southern hospitality dispensed there. It was built in 1850, and stands practically unchanged; through having fallen into disuse in late years, it has grown rather dilapidated. After Mr. Far- mer's death it was sold to a company of the Charlestonian residents and used as a country club.
Henry Tudor Farmer, father of the one named above, was born in England, and though he never lived in Flat Rock for any time he is said to have written some of his later verse there. In "The Nineteenth Century," by Wm. Gilmore Simms, state historian of Southern History, under date of 1869, a very detailed account of his works is given, extracts as fol- lows: "He lived in New York for some time before coming to Charleston. There he made the acquaintance of all the wits about town. He was intimate with Francis, the most famous of reminiscents. He has jested at the Cafe with Hal- leck and Drake of the firm of the 'Croakers.' He knew Bryant and Sands Hillhouse and Percival at their beginnings, and himself published a volume of poems both in New York and London. His work is highly complimented for its skill and dainty imagery, as well as the easy-flowing rhythm."
As SEEN THROUGH NORTHERN EYES. In the "Carolina Mountains," we read (p. 112): "Long before the train had surmounted the barrier of Blue Ridge, the beauty and salu- brity of the high mountains had called up from the eastern lowlands people of wealth and refinement to make here and there their summer homes. The first and most important of these patrician settlements was at Flat Rock, the people coming from Charleston, the center of civilization in the far South, and choosing Flat Rock because of its accessibility, and because the level nature of the country offered opportunity for the development of beautiful estates and the making of pleasure roads through the primeval forests that in those days had not been disturbed. Into this great, sweet wilder- ness, now quite safe from Indians, these children of fortune brought their servants and their laborers, and selecting the finest sites whence were extensive views of the not too distant mountains, surrounded by the charming growths of the region, in a land emblazoned and carpeted with flowers, built their homes of refuge from the burning heat and equally burning mosquitoes of the coastland. . These people drove
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HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
in their own carriages, accompanied by a retinue of servants and provision wagons. . . This procession up the moun- tains had fewer trappings on the horses and less gayly attired escort than did those of the olden time; but we may be sure that the carriages of the gentlefolk of the eighteenth century were pleasanter conveyances than the mule-litters of the Middle Ages, and we may also be sure that no lovelier faces looked out from the gorgeous retinue on its way across the hills of the past than could be seen in the carriages where sat the ladies of the New World, with their patrician beauty and their gracious manners. And, although the escort of the New World travelers did not number one thousand gayly dressed cavaliers, it consisted of a retinue of those ebony chil- dren of the sun, who loved the pleasant journey, and loved their gentle lords and ladies-for all this happened in those halcyon days 'before the War' when . . . the real 'quality' cherished their slaves and were greatly loved by them."
DISTINGUISHED PIONEERS. This writer continues: "The Lodge" was built by one of the English Barings, Charles, of bank- ing fame, on which place was a 'tumble -down stile,' like the one near Stratford-on-Avon." "Coming somewhat later, as friends of Mr. Baring," were Mr. Molyneux, British con- sul at Savannah, and Count de Choiseuil, French consul a the same place. "Perhaps the most cherished name of this mountain settlement was that of the Rev. John G. Drayton, for many years rector of St. John-in-the-Wilderness, and to whom the dignified and noble estate of Ravenswood at Flat Rock owes its origin, as well as the wonderful Magnolia Gar- dens on the Ashley river, near Charleston-gardens where one wanders away into a dreamland of flowers unlike any other dreamland in the world. . And always when talking to anyone of the old residents of Flat Rock, comes forth the name of Dr. Mitchell C. King, who, for more than half a century, was the greatly beloved physician of the com- munity, and who, while a student at the University of Got- tingen, formed so warm a friendship with a fellow student, known as Otto von Bismarck, that, for many years after, a regular correspondence was carried on 'between them' these letters being carefully preserved by the descendants of the doctor." She also mentions the Memmingers, the Rutledges
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the Lowndeses, the Elliotts, the Pinckneys, the Middletons and many others.
THE MAN WHO BROUGHT US TO THE SPRINGS. 12 Colonel V. Ripley, father of Mrs. Lila Ripley Barnwell, was one of the early settlers in Hendersonville. He was of English descent, his immediate branch of the family having come to New Eng- land in 1636. Colonel Ripley was a native of Virginia, from which state he came to North Carolina when quite a young man. He was a man of wide experience and fine business ability. In 1835 the business of mail contracts, extending from Florida when the state was a territory to the upper part of South Carolina, was almost entirely in his hands. This business was continued until June, 1855.
HIS WIFE AN AUTHORESS. 12 Mr. Ripley's first wife was the daughter of James M. Smith of Buncombe, who was the first white child to be born west of the Blue Ridge in Buncombe county, he having been born on Swannanoa. 13 During the War between the States, Col. Ripley was married to Mrs. Mary A. Ewart of Colum- bia, S. C., a lady of great culture, refinement and strong in- tellectuality. In her early years, Mrs. Ripley was an author of considerable distinction, and was a regular contributor to many of the leading magazines and periodicals of her day. Perhaps her most valuable production was "Ellen Campbell, of Kings Mountain," a prize story which was contested for by many of the well known writers of the South. The de- scription of the battle of Kings Mountain in this story is one of the most graphic ever given of that famous engagement. It increased enormously the circulation of the paper in which it was published. She was the author of "Edith Egerton," "Avalona" and several other novelettes, as also of many beautiful poems. 14 Mrs. Lila Ripley Barnwell, her daughter, has been inseparably identified with the later development of Hendersonville; she is well known in western North Caro- lina as a writer, and a broadly public-spirited woman, as well as a friend to all who need a friend-and this is saying much.
CASHIERS VALLEY. 15 About 1818 a man named Millsaps set- tled in the upper end of Cashiers Valley. Soon after that date James McKinney came to the valley and bought the lands then owned by Millsaps. A short time after, John Zachary and sons, Jefferson, Mordecai, Alfred, Jonathan, and W. N. C .- 82
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Alexander, came to the valley and settled in the lower end thereof. All the Zacharys seem to have been artizans. Alexander was a brick mason and also a brickmaker. He evidently burned the first bricks in the south end of Jackson county. Alfred was a hatter and made both fur and wool hats. It was customary in those days to take coon - skins or lambs- wool to his "shop" to be made up on shares. A good home-made wool or fur hat cost seventy-five cents. Mordecai Zachary was a carpenter and built a fine house for those days. The Zacharys built the first saw-mill in the valley.
Cashiers Valley is a mountain plateau of the Blue Ridge 3,400 feet in altitude, from four to five miles long, and a mile and a half wide. Attracted by its climate, freedom from dampness, its utter isolation from the populated haunts of man, the rugged character of its scenery and deer and bear infested wildwoods, years since, wealthy planters of South Carolina drifted in there with each recurring summer. Now a few homes of these people are scattered along the highland roads. One residence, the pleasant summer home of Gen. Wade Hampton, governor of South Carolina in 1876, the earliest settler from the Palmetto State, is situated, as it appears from the road, in the gap between Chimney Top and Brown mountain, through which, twenty miles away, can be seen a range of purple mountains. A grove of pines surrounds the house. Governor Hampton formerly spent the summers here, engaged, among other pastimes, in fishing for trout along the head streams of the Chatooga, which have been stocked with this fish by the Hampton family, and in hunting deer. Chief Justice A. J. Willard of Colum- bia, S. C., afterwards had a residence nearby.
WHITESIDE COVE. 15 The first settler in Whiteside Cove was Barak Norton. He came from South Carolina and settled in the Cove about 1820. Barak Norton and others took up State grant No. 307 on the 24th day of December, 1838. Barak Norton in his own name took up State grant No. 322 on the 27th of December of the same year. His oldest daughter, Mira Norton, took up State grant No. 320 on same date of same year. He lived to the advanced age of 99 or 100 and died at James Wright's, about three miles north of Highlands, near Short Off, in 1868 or
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1870. His wife, Mary Norton, nee Nicholson, also lived to an advanced age of nearly 100 years. Barak Norton and his wife Mary were strong adherents to the Universalist belief and died strong in the faith.
HORSE COVE. 15 Soon after the settlement of Whiteside Cove and Cashiers Valley, Horse Cove was settled by George and William Barnes, Mark Burrill and Evan Talley. The Barnes families seem to have been the first to settle there. Gold was discovered about 1840.
DULA SPRINGS. These springs were opened to the public about 1900, and are the property of the Chambers family. There are several houses which afford accommodations for from thirty to fifty people on most reasonable terms. They are about two miles north of Weaverville, which is reached by an electric line from Asheville.
HIGHLANDS, MACON COUNTY. 15 Early in 1875 S. T. Kelsey and C. C. Hutchinson, of Kansas, bought 800 acres of J. W. Dobson, to which land Kelsey moved his family in February, 1875. T. Baxter White of Marblehead, Mass., followed in April. In May Hutchinson and family came, and White became postmaster, and for two years carried the mail in his coat pocket to Horse Cove and back. About 1877 Dr. George Kibbee came from Oregon, and, having been success- ful in treating yellow fever in Knoxville by using rubber beds and cold water baths, he went to New Orleans in 1879 when yellow fever was epidemic there. He contracted the disease there and died. Joseph Halleck of Minnesota, a brother of Gen. W. H. Halleck of the Civil War, kept the first hotel. In 1888-89 the Davis house was opened and was popular till 1909, when Miss Davis, who had kept it admirably, died. John Norton built a store in 1879, and Charles O. Smith of Indiana bought the Polly Norton farm and lived there till his death. Captain S. P. Ravenel of Charleston, S. C., came in 1879 and built a beautiful residence on the crest of the Blue Ridge, commanding a fine view, hauling all the lumber, ex- cept that for the frame, from Walhalla, S. C. By the aid of his family a Presbyterian church was built and dedicated by the Rev. Dr. Miller of Charlotte, N. C., in September, 1885. It need not be said that this little community has had excellent schools from the first. A debating society every Friday night used to keep things lively and brought the com-
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munity together. Mr. Kelsey was a practical disciple of good roads, going out and building them himself. Highlands is a fine town.
LINVILLE CITY. This beautiful little town was built and is owned largely by the Linville Improvement Company, which in 1890 was composed principally of S. T. Kelsey, S. P. Rav- enel and Donald MacRae. They built the Yonahlossee turn- pike from this town to Blowing Rock, about twenty miles distant, at a cost of about $18,000, less than $1,000 per mile. It is the most beautiful and best constructed mountain road in the State. But, at the time it was completed and the Linville River Railroad had reached Pinola and Montezuma, less than two miles distant, there were such serious dissen- sions among the directors of the company that a lawsuit resulted. Until it had been settled it was impossible to give clear title to any of the lots which had been largely advertised for sale. When the trouble was finally adjusted the golden moment had passed. 16 But Blowing Rock had benefited by the construction of the turnpike. There is a nice little inn and a fine lake filled with trout at Linville City. It is within the shadow of the Grandfather mountain and about 4,000 feet above sea level.
BLOWING ROCK. In 1875 William Morris lived at Blow- ing Rock and took a few summer boarders. The fame of his culinary art, or that of his wife, spread and brought his place to the attention of the late Senator M. W. Ransom. He bought and built a summer home there. Others followed. The Green Park Hotel, the Watauga Hotel and other fine hostelries were built, and when the Yonahlossee turnpike was completed Blowing Rock was quite popular. There is no finer scenery anywhere, the water is pure and hotels and private boarding houses numerous. The following have fine homes at this charming place: Col. W. W. String- fellow; Miss Esther Ransom, of Weldon; Mr. E. H. Hughes, of Charleston, S. C .; Prof. W. J. Martin, of Davidson Col- lege; Rev. C. G. Vardell, of Red Springs; Mrs. Moses H. Cone, Mr. A. W. Washburn, of Charlotte; Mr. Elliott Dangerfield, of New York; Rev. J. S. Vance, of Nashville, Tenn .; Mr. D. A. Tompkins, of Charlotte; Mr. E. H. Wil- liamson, of Fayetteville; Judge G. W. Gage, of Chester, S. C .; Mrs. W. G. Randall, of Greensboro, N. C .; Rev. D. E.
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Snapp, of Baltimore, Md .; Mr. J. Lamb Perry, of Charleston, S. C .; Mrs. W. G. Randall, and many others.
ROARING GAP HOTEL. Within the last few years Roaring Gap, on the crest of the Blue Ridge and at the head of Roaring river, has become a popular summer resort, with a large and well-arranged hotel, commanding fine views. There are also a number of nice cottages. It is nearly 3,500 feet above sea level.
THOMPSON'S BROMINE ARSENIC SPRINGS. Nine miles from Jefferson is a mineral spring, hotel and outbuildings, situated 3,000 feet above sea level, that is almost a specific for eczema, all forms of skin troubles and all kidney and bladder affec- tions. It can be reached from Troutdale, Va., (leaving Nor- folk & Western train at Marion, Va., for Troutdale) or from Wilkesboro, N. C., on Southern Railway, from which it is distant forty miles. It opens May 15. H. M. Wiley is the proprietor and the postoffice is Crumpler, Ashe county, N. C.
MOSES H. CONE. He was born at Jonesborough, Tenn., June 27, 1857, and died at Baltimore, Md., December 8, 1908. In September, 1897, he began the acquisition of the 3,500 acres of land which make up what is now Flat Top Manor. 17 He died childless and intestate; but his widow, Mrs. Bertha Lindau Cone, and his brothers, and sisters, Ceasar Cone and wife, Jeannette Cone, L. N. Cone, Julius W. Cone, Bernard M. Cone and wife of Guilford county; Frederick W. Cone, Moses D. Long and his wife, Carrie Cone Long, of Buncombe; Sydney M. Cone and wife, and C. and E. Cone of Baltimore, Md., in May, 1911, in recognition of "the deep love and last- ing affection" for the people of Watauga of Moses H. Cone, conveyed to the Cone Memorial Hospital, a corporation of Guilford county, the whole of the Flat Top Manor and three smaller tracts which had been acquired by Mrs. Cone since her husband's death-the entire propety, aggregating 3,517 acres-to be called the "Moses H. Cone Memorial Park," to be used as "a park and pleasure ground for the public in perpetuity," in order "to make an everlasting memorial" to the said Moses H. Cone. A life estate in this property is, however, reserved to Mrs. Cone, and a plat of ground 400 feet square in which Moses H. Cone is buried. 18 There are scores of poor people in Watauga county who will never for- get the goodness of Moses H. Cone.
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