Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913, Part 5

Author: Arthur, John Preston
Publication date: 1973
Publisher: Spartanburg, S.C., Reprint Co
Number of Pages: 744

USA > North Carolina > Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913 > Part 5

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"We then went up to the Warm Springs where we spent the evening in conviviality and friendship."

THE LONELINESS OF BACHELORHOOD. But it is in the very last sentence that one begins to suspect that John Strother was at that time a bachelor, for we read:

"Saturday, 29th. The Company set out for home to which place I wish them a safe arrival and happy reception, as for myself I stay at the Springs to get clear of the fatigue of the Tour."

One wonders whose bright eyes made his "fatigue" so much greater than that of the others and kept him so long at the springs.

TO THE "BIG PIGEON." The line from the Painted Rock to the Big Pigeon was run a few weeks later on by the same

HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

commissioners and surveyors; but we have no narrative of the trip, which, doubtless, was without incident, though the way, probably, was rough and rugged.

SECOND TENNESSEE BOUNDARY SURVEY. North Carolina having acquired by the treaty of February 27, 1819, all lands from the mouth of the Hiwassee "to the first hill which closes in on said river, about two miles above Hiwassee Old Town; thence along the ridge which divides the waters of the Hiwassee and Little Tellico to the Tennessee river at Talas- see; thence along the main channel to the junction of the Cowee and Nanteyalee; thence along the ridge in the fork of said river to the top of the Blue Ridge; thence along the Blue Ridge to the Unicoy Turnpike road; thence by straight line to the nearest main source of the Chastatee; thence along its main channel to the Chattahoochee, etc.,"47 it became necessary to complete its boundary line from the Big Pigeon at the Cataloochee turnpike southwest to the Georgia line. To that end it passed, in 1819 (2 R. S. N. C., 1832), an act under which James Mebane, Montford Stokes and Robert Love were appointed commissioners for North Carolina for the pur- pose of running and marking said line. These commissioners met Alexander Smith, Isaac Allen and Simeon Perry, com- missioners representing Tennessee, at Newport, Tenn., at the mouth of the Big Pidgeon, July 16, 1821; and, starting from the stone in the Cataloochee turnpike road which had been set up by the commissioners of 1799, they ran in a southwest- wardly course to the Bald Rock on the summit of the Great Iron or Smoky mountain, and continued along the main top thereof to the Little Tennessee river. The notes of W. Dav- enport's field book give as detailed an account of the progress of these commissioners and surveyors as did John Strother's in 1799; but as they met no one between these two points there was little to relate. The same or another party might follow the same route to-day and they would meet no one. But Mr. Davenport does not call the starting point a "turn- pike." He calls it a "track," which was quite as much as it could lay claim to, the present turnpike having been built from Jonathan's creek up Cove creek, across the Hannah gap, passing the Carr place and up the Little Cataloochee, through Mount Sterling gap, as late as the fifties. 48 At twenty miles from the starting point they were on "the top of an extreme

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high pinnacle in view of Sevierville." At 22 miles they were at the Porter gap, from which, in 1853, Eli Arrington of Waynes- ville carried on his shoulders W. W. Rhinehart, dying of milk-sick, three miles down the Bradley fork of Ocona Luftee to a big poplar, where Rhinehart died. Near here, although they did not know it then, an alum cave was one day to be discovered, out of which, in the lean years of the Southern Confederacy, Col. William H. Thomas and his Indians were to dig for alum, copperas, saltpeter and a little magnesia to be used in the hospitals of this beleaguered land, in default of standard medicines which had been made contraband of war.

ARNOLD GUYOT AND S. B. BUCKLEY. Here, too, Arnold Guyot, the distinguished professor of geology and physical geography of Princeton college, came in 1859, following Prof. S. B. Buckley, and made a series of barometric measurements, not alone of the Great Smoky mountain chain, but also of that little known and rugged group of peaks wholly in Tennessee, known as the Bull Head mountains.

DOUBTFUL OF A ROAD EVER CROSSING THE SMOKIES. Surveyor Davenport noted a low gap through which "if there ever is a wagon road through the Big Smoky mountain, it must go through this gap." Well, during the Civil War, Col. Thomas, with his "sappers and miners," composed of Cherokee Indians and Union men of East Tennessee, did make a so-called wagon road through this gap, now called Collins gap; and through it, in January, 1864, General Robert B. Vance carried a section of artillery, dragging the dismounted cannon, not on skids, but over the bare stones, only to be captured himself with a large part of his command at Causbey creek two days later. But no other vehicle has ever passed that frightful road, save only the front wheels of a wagon, as it is dangerous even to walk over its precipitous and rock- ribbed course. No other road has ever been attempted, and this one has been abandoned, except by horsemen and foot- men, for years. Not even a wagon track is visible. On the 7th of August they came at the 31st mile to Meigs' Post. At the 34th mile they came in view of Brasstown; and next day, at the 45th mile, they reached the head of Little river, and must have been in plain view of Tuckaleechee Cove and near Thunderhead mountain, both immortalized by Miss Mary N. Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock) in her stories of the

W. N. C .- 4

HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

Tennessee mountains. On the 11th they were at the head of Abram's creek, which flows through Cade's Cove into the Little Tennessee at that gem of all mountain coves, the Har- den farm at Talassee ford. On the 13th they came to a "red oak . . . at Equeneetly path to Cade's cove." This is only a trail, and is at the head of one of the prongs of Eagle creek and not far from where Jake and Quil Rose, two famous mountaineers, lived in the days of blockade stills. Of course they did not still any! On this same unlucky 13th, they came to the top of a bald spot in sight of Talassee Old Town, at the 57th mile. This is the Harden farm spoken of above, and is a tract of about 500 acres of level and fertile land. On the 16th they passed over Parsons and Gregory Balds. On this day also they crossed the Little Tennessee river "to a large white pine on the south side of the river at the mouth of a large creek, 65th mile." From there on to the Hiwassee turnpike the boundary line is in dispute, the case being now before the Supreme Court of the United States. One of the marks still visible is that made on the 19th, at the 86th mile, "a holly tree . . . near the head of middle fork of Tellico river." They were then close to what has since been known as State Ridge, on which in July, 1892, William Hall, stand- ing on the North Carolina side of the line, was to shoot and kill Andrew Bryson; and if these surveyors had not done their work well, Hall might have suffered severely; for, all uncon- sciously, this man was to invoke the same law Carson and Vance and other noted duellists had relied on, when they "fought across the State line."49 Zim. Roberts, who lives under the Devil's Looking Glass, says that a healthy white oak tree, under which Hall was standing when he fired at Bryson, began to die immediately and is now quite dead. On the 20th of August they were at "the 89th mile, at the head of Beaver Dam" creek of Cherokee county, N. C., and not far from the Devil's Looking Glass," an ugly cliff of rock, where the ridge comes to an abrupt and almost perpendicular end. On that day, at the 93d mile, they came to "the trad- ing path leading from the Valley Towns to the Overhill set- tlements," reaching the 95th mile on that path before they paused.

THAT SAHARA-LIKE THIRST. On the 24th, at the 96th mile, they were on the top of the Unicoy mountain, and on

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the same day they reached "the hickory and rock at the wagon road, the 101st mile, at the end of the Unicoy moun- tain." It was here that tradition says that the Sahara-like thirst overtook the party; as from the 101st mile post their course was "due south 15 miles and 220 poles to a post oak post on the Georgia line, at 23 poles west of the 72d mile from the Nick-a-jack Old Town on the Tennessee river."

TRYON'S BOUNDARY LINE. "In the spring and early sum- mer of 1767 there were fresh outbreaks on the part of the Indians. Governor Tryon had run a boundary-line between the back settlements of the Carolinas and the Cherokee hunt- ting-grounds. But hunters and traders would persist in wan- dering to the west of this line and sometimes they were killed. " 5 0

INDIAN BOUNDARY LINES. Almost as important as the State lines were the Indian boundary lines; but most of them were natural boundaries and have given but little trouble. There was one notable exception, however, and that is the

MEIGS AND FREEMAN LINE. According to the map of the "Former Territorial Limits of the Cherokee Indians," ac- companying the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Eth- nology, 1883-84, there were three lines run to establish the boundary between the Cherokees and the ceded territory under the treaty of October 2, 1798; the first of which was run by Captain Butler in 1798, and extending from "Meigs' post on the Great Stone mountain to a fork of the Keowee river in South Carolina known as Little river. But, accord- ing to the text 51 the line was not run till the summer of 1799, and is described as "extending from Great Iron moun- tain in a southeasterly direction to the point where the most southerly branch of Little river crossed the divisional line to Tugaloo river." However, "owing to the unfortunate de- struction of official records by fire, in the year 1800, it is im- possible to ascertain all the details concerning this survey, but it was executed on the theory that the "Little River" named in the treaty was one of the northermost branches of Keowee river. " 5 2

RETURN J. MEIGS AND THOMAS FREEMAN. But, "this sur- vey seems not to have been accepted by the War Depart- ment, for on the 3d of June, 1802, instructions were issued by the Secretary of War to Return J. Meigs, as commissioner,

HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

to superintend the execution of the survey of this same por- tion of the boundary. Mr. Thomas Freeman was appointed surveyor." "3 "There were three streams of that name in that vicinity. Two of these were branches of the French Broad and the other of the Keowee."

EXPEDIENCY GOVERNED. "If the line should be run to the lower of these two branches of the French Broad, it would leave more than one hundred white families of white settlers within the Indian territory. If it were run to the branch of the Keowee river, it would leave ten or twelve Indian vil- lages within the State of North Carolina." It was, therefore, determined by Commissioner Meigs to accept the upper branch of the French Broad as the true intent and meaning of the treaty, and the line was run accordingly; whereby "not a single white settlement was cut off or intersected, and but five Indian families were left on the Carolina side of the line."

LOCATION OF THE "MEIGS POST." In a footnote (p. 181-2) Commissioner Meigs refers to the plat and field-notes of Sur- veyor Freeman, but the author declares that they cannot be found among the Indian office records. 54 Also that there is "much difficulty in ascertaining the exact point of departure of the 'Meigs Line' from the great Iron Mountains. In the report of the Tennessee and North Carolina boundary com- missioners in 1821 it is stated to be "3112 miles by the cource of the mountain ridge in a general southwesterly course from the crossing of Cataloochee turnpike; 912 miles in a similar direction from Porter's gap; 2112 miles in a northeasterly direction from the crossing of Equovetley Path, and 3312 miles in a like course from the crossing of Tennessee river." . It was stated to the author by Gen. R. N. Hood, of Knoxville, Tenn., that there is a tradition that "Meigs Post" was found some years since about 112 miles southwest of Indian gap. A map of the survey of Qualla Boundary, by M. S. Temple, in 1876, shows a portion of the continuation of "Meigs Line as passing about 1}2 miles east of Qualla- town." Surveyor Temple mentions it as running "south 50° east (formerly south 5272° east)." Meigs' Post should have stood at the eastern end of the Hawkins Line which had been run by Col. Benj. Hawkins and Gen. Andrew Pickens in August, 1797, pursuant to the treaty of July 2, 1791, com-

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mencing 1000 yards above South West Point (now Kingston) and running south 76° east to the Great Iron Mountain. 55 "From this point the line continued in the same course until it reached the Hopewell treaty line of 1785, and was called the "Pickens line." 56 The Hopewell treaty line ran from a point west of the Blue Ridge and about 12 miles east of Hen- dersonville, crossed the Swannanoa river just east of Asheville, and went on to McNamee's camp on the Nollechucky river, three miles southeast of Greenville, Tenn. "The supposition is that as the commissioners were provided with two survey- ors, they separated, Col. Hawkins, with Mr. Whitner as sur- veyor, running the line from Clinch river to the Great Iron Mountains, and Gen. Pickens, with Col. Kilpatrick as sur- veyor, locating the remainder of it. This statement is veri- fied so far as Gen. Pickens is concerned by his own written statement." 57

COL. STRINGFIELD FOLLOWS THE LINE. George H. Smathers, Esq., an attorney of Waynesville, says there is a tradition that the Meigs and Freeman posts were really posts set up along this line, and not marks made on living trees; but Col. W. W. Stringfield of the same place writes that he measured nine and one-half miles southwestwardly of Porter's gap "and found Meigs' post, a torn-down stone pile on the top of a smooth mountain. . . . Meigs' and Freeman's line was as well marked as any line I ever saw; I traced this line south 5272 ° east, from Scott's creek to the top of Tennessee mountain, between Haywood and Transylvania counties, a few iniles south of and in full view of the Blue Ridge or South Carolina line . . . I found a great many old marks, evidently made when the line was first run in 1802. I became quite familiar with this line in later years, and ran numerous lines in and around the same in the sale of the Love "Speculation" lands. . . . Many of these old marked trees can still be found all through Jackson county, on the waters of Scott's creek, Cane or Wurry-hut, Caney Fork, Cold or Tennessee creek, and others." 58 When he was running the line he was told by Chief Smith of the Cherokees, Wesley Enloe, then over 80 years old, Dr. Mingus, then 92 years old, Eph. Connor and others, that he was on the Meigs line.

RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS. "He was the firstborn son of his parents, who gave him the somewhat peculiar name

HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

Return Jonathan to commemorate a romantic incident in their own courtship, when his mother, a young Quakeress called back her lover as he was mounting his horse to leave the house forever after what he had supposed was a final refusal. The name has been handed down through five gen- erations. " 5 9

TREATY OF 1761. 60 The French having secured the active sympathy of the Cherokees in their war with Great Britain, Governor Littleton of South Carolina, marched against the Indians and defeated them, and in 1760, concluded a treaty with them, under which the Cherokees agreed to kill or im- prison every Frenchman who should come into their country during the war. But as the Cherokees still continued hos- tile South Carolina sent Col. Grant, who conquered them in 1761, and concluded a treaty by which "the boundaries be- tween the Indians and the settlements were declared to be the sources of the great rivers flowing into the Atlantic ocean." As the Blue Ridge is an unbroken watershed south of the Potomac river, this made that mountain range the true east- ern boundary of the Indians. This treaty remained in force till the treaty of 1772 and the purchase of 1775 to the north- ern part of that boundary, or the land lying west of the Blue Ridge and north of the Nollechucky river. It remained in force as to all land west and south of that territory till 1785 (November 28), called the treaty of Hopewell.

TREATY OF 1772 AND PURCHASE OF 1775. The Virginia authorities in the early part of 1772 concluded a treaty with the Cherokees whereby a boundary line was fixed between them, which was to run west from White Top mountain, which left those settlers on the Watauga river within the Indian limits, whereupon, as a measure of temporary relief, they leased for a period of eight years all the country on the waters of the Watauga river. "Subsequently in 1775 (March 19) they secured a deed in fee simple therefor," . . . and it em- braced all the land on "the waters of the Watauga, Holston, and Great Canaway [sic] or New river." This tract began "on the south or southwest of the Holston river six miles above Long Island in that river; thence a direct line in nearly a south course to the ridge dividing the waters of Watauga from the waters of Nonachuckeh (Nollechucky or Toe) and along the ridge in a southeasterly direction to the Blue Ridge

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or line dividing North Carolina from the Cherokee lands; thence along the Blue Ridge to the Virginia line and west along such line to the Holston river; thence down the Holston to the beginning, including all waters of the Watauga, part of the waters of Holston, and the head branches of the New river or Great Canaway, agreeable to the aforesaid boundaries." 61

TREATY OF HOPEWELL, 1785. Hopewell is on the Keowee river, fifteen miles above its junction with the Tugaloo. It was here that the treaty that was to move the boundary line west of the Blue Ridge was made. This line began six miles southeast of Greenville, Tenn., where Camp or McNamee's creek empties into the Nollechucky river; and ran thence a southeast course "to Rutherford's War Trace," ten or twelve miles west of the Swannanoa settlement. This "War Trace" was the route followed by Gen. Griffith Rutherford, when, in the summer of 1776, he marched 2,400 men through the Swannanoa gap, passed over the French Broad at a place still known as the "War Ford"; continued up the valley of Hominy creek, leaving Pisgah mountain to the left, and crossing Pigeon river a little below the mouth of East Fork; thence through the mountains to Richland creek, above the present town of Waynesville, etc. From the point where the line struck the War Trace it was to go "to the South Carolina Indian bound- ary." Thus, the line probably ran just east of Marshall, Asheville and Hendersonville to the South Carolina line, though its exact location was rendered "unnecessary by rea- son of the ratification in February, 1792, of the Cherokee treaty concluded July 2, 1791, wherein the Indian boundary line was withdrawn a considerable distance to the west. " 6 2

NORTH CAROLINA'S INDIAN RESERVATION. Meantime, how- ever, North Carolina being a sovereign State, bound to the Confederation of the Union only by the loose articles of confederation, in 1883, set apart an Indian reservation of its own; which ran from the mouth of the Big Pigeon to its source and thence along the ridge between it and the waters of the Tuckaseigee (Code N. C., Vol. ii, sec. 2346) to the South Carolina line. This, however, does not seem to have been supported by any treaty. The State had simply moved the Indian boundary line twenty miles westward to the Pigeon river at Canton.

HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

TREATIES OF 1791 AND 1792. The treaty of 1791 was not satisfactory to the Indians and another treaty supplemental thereto was made February 17, 1792, which in its turn was followed by one of January 21, 1795, and another of October 2, 1798. They all call for what was afterwards run and called the Meigs and Freeman line, treated fully under that head. "

TREATY OF FEBRUARY 27, 1819. This treaty cedes all land from the point where the Hiwassee river empties into the Tennessee, thence along the first ridge which closes in on said river, two miles above Hiwassee Old Town; thence along the ridge which divides the waters of Hiwassee and Little Tellico to the Tennessee river at Talassee; thence along the main channel to the junction of the Nanteyalee; thence along the ridge in the fork of said river to the top of the Blue Ridge; thence along the Blue Ridge to the Unicoy Turnpike, etc. This moved the line twenty miles west of what is now Frank- lin. 64

TREATY OF NEW ECHOTA, DECEMBER 29, 1835. By this treaty the Cherokees gave up all their lands east of the Mis- sissippi river, and all claims for spoliation for $5,000,000, and the 7,000,000 acres of land west of the Mississippi river, guar- anteed them by the treaties of 1828 and 1833. This was the treaty for their removal, treated in the chapter on the East- ern Band. 6 5

THE RAINBOW COUNTRY. During the year 1898 while Judge H. G. Ewart was acting as District Judge of the U. S. Court at Asheville, some citizens of New Jersey obtained a judgment against the heirs of the late Messer Fain of Chero- kee county for certain land in the disputed territory, known as the Rainbow Country because of its shape. The sheriff of Monroe county, Tennessee, armed with a writ of possession from the Tennessee court, entered the house occupied by one of Fain's sons and took possession. Fain had him arrested for assault and trespass, and he sued out a writ of habeas corpus before Judge Ewart, who decided the case in favor of Fain; but the sheriff appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the 4th circuit, and Judge Ewart was reversed. There- upon Fain sued out a writ of certiorari before the Supreme Court of the United States; but after the writ had been granted Fain decided not to pay for the printing of the

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large record, and the case was dismissed for want of prose- cution. This was one of the forerunners to litigation with Tennessee.

RECENT BOUNDARY DISPUTES. There is now pending be- fore the Supreme Court of the United States a controversy between the State of Tennessee and the State of North Caro- lina over what is known as the "Rainbow" country at the head of Tellico creek, Cherokee county. Tennessee claims that the line should have followed the main top of the Unaka mountains instead of leaving the main ridge and crossing one prong of Tellico creek which rises west of the range. This is probably what should have been done if the commissioners who ran the line in 1821 had followed the text of the statute literally; but they left the main top and crossed this prong of Tellico creek, and their report and field-notes, showing that this had been done were returned to their respective States and the line as run and marked was adopted by Tennessee as well as by North Carolina. 66

LOST COVE BOUNDARY LINE. In 1887, Gov. Scales, under the law providing for the appointment of a commission to meet another from Tennessee to determine at what point on the Nollechucky river the State line crosses, appointed Cap- tain James M. Gudger for North Carolina, J. R. Neal be- ing his surveyor; but there was a disagreement from the outset between the North Carolina and the Tennessee com- missioners. The latter insisted on going south from the high peak north of the Nollechucky river, which brought them to the deep hole at the mouth of lost Cove creek, at least three quarters of a mile east of the point at which the line run for the North Carolina commissioner reached the same stream, which was a few hundred yards below the mouth of Devil's creek. The North Carolina commissioner claimed to have the original field-notes of the surveyors, and followed them strictly. Neither side would yield to the other, and the line remains as it was originally run in 1799. The notes followed by Captain Gudger were deposited by him with his report with the Secretary of State at Raleigh. See Pub. Doc. 1887, and Dugger v. Mckesson, 100 N. C., p. 1.

MACON COUNTY LINE. The legislature of North Carolina provided for a survey between Macon County, N. C., and Rabun county, Ga., in 1879, from Elliquet's Rock, the cor-

HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

ner of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to the "Locust Stake", and as much further as the line was in dis- pute. L. Howard of Macon county was the commissioner for North Carolina. (Ch. 387, Laws 1883.)

TENNESSEE LINE BETWEEN CHEROKEE AND GRAHAM. The line between these two counties and Tennessee was ordered located by the county surveyors of the counties named ac- cording to the calls of the act of 1821. See Ch. 202, Pub. L. 1897, p. 343.

NOTES.

1Asheville's Centenary.

Col. Rec., Vol. V. p. xxxix. "Ibid.

"Ibid.

"Hill, p. 31-32.

"Ibid., p. 33.

"Ibid., p. 89.

"Ibid., p. 88.

.Ibid., 89.

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Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913, Part 5

Author: Arthur, John Preston Publication date: 1973 Publisher: Spartanburg, S.C., Reprint Co Number of Pages: 744

Author: Arthur, John Preston
Publication date: 1973
Publisher: Spartanburg, S.C., Reprint Co
Number of Pages: 744