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UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL

00015556337

This book may be kept out one month unless a recall notice is sent to you. It must be brought to the North Carolina Collection (in Wilson Library) for renewal.

Form No. A-369

THE GRANDFATHER PROFILE

By permission of the author and publishers of "The Carohna Mountains.

I

A HIS

WATAUGA

NORTH

ITY,

STON

f

1

IV	"itten at the request oj
loY M- Brown, V^	w Gracg, G. p. Hagaman,
' Bryan, F. * '	' C. Rees£, a. J. Grf'^v'^
. C. Rrv'r	: ft, T. E. Bingham,
^- ^'^	■ . Greer,

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^ V%i

A HISTORY OF

WATAUGA COUNTY,

NORTH CAROLINA.

WITH

Sketches of Prominent Families.

By JOHN PRESTON ARTHUR.

Written at the request of

Roy M. Brown, W. D. Farthing, W. R. Gragg, G. P. Hagaman,

W. L. Bryan, P. A. Ltnney, P. C. Younce, A. C. Reese, A. J. Greene,

R. C. Rivers, J. S. Winkler, I. G. Greer, T. E. Bingham,

D. D. Dougherty, M. B. Blackburn, L. Greer,

J. W. Hodges, B. B. Dougherty,

C. J. Cottrell, W. p. Moody,

D. J. Cottrell and

R. L. Bingham

Who guaranteed all costs of publication.

RICHMOND:

EVERETT WADDEY CO.

1915-

COPYRIGHTED BY JOHN P. ARTHUR, IQIS-

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Allison means "Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History," by Hon. John Allison, Nashville, 1896.

Asbury means Bishop Asbury's Journal, 3 volumes, out of print.

Booklet means "The North Carolina Booklet," published by the State D. A. R. Society, Raleigh, N. C.

Bruce means "Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road," by H. Addington Bruce, McMillan Co., N. Y., 1913-

Cobb means Address by Prof. Collier Cobb before the American Geographical Society in New York City, April, 1914-

Clark means "North Carolina Regiments in the Civil War," by Chief Justice Walter Clark, Goldsboro, 1901.

Clark means "The Colony of Transylvania" in the North Carolina Booklet, for January, 1904.

Col. Rec. means Colonial Records of North CaroUna, edited by W. L. Saunders, P. M. Hale, printer, Raleigh, 1886.

Crouch means "Historical Sketches of Wilkes County," by John Crouch, 1902.

DeRossett means "Sketches of Church History of North Carolina," by W. L. DeRossett, (Alfred WiUiams), Raleigh, 1890.

Draper means "King's Mountain and Its Heroes," by Dr. L. C. Draper, (Peter G. Thompson), Cincinnati, 1888.

Dagger means "Balsam Groves of the Grandfather Mountain," by Shep. Monroe Dugger, Banner Elk, N. C.

Fairchild means Ebenezer Fairchild's Diary of Trip from New Jersey to the Jersey Settlement, now in possession of Col. Wyatt Hayes, Boone, N. C.

Foote means "Foote's Sketches of North Carolina," out of print.

Harper means "Reminiscenses of Caldwell County in the Civil War," by G. W. F. Harper, pamphlet.

Haywood means "Bishops of North Carolina," by Marshall DeLancey Haywood, (Alfred WilHams), Raleigh, 1910.

Ives means "Trials of a Mind," etc., Boston and New York, i8'54-

Kephart means "Our Southern Highlanders," by Horace Kephart, Outing Publishing Co., New York, 1912.

Manual means "North Carolina Manual," issued by N. C. Hist. Comm., Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., Raleigh, 1913.

^ iii

IV BIBLIOGRAPHY

Moore means "The Rhymes of Southern Rivers," by M. V. Moore, M. E. Church, South, Book Co., Nashville, 1897.

Moore means "Roster of North Carolina Troops in Civil War," by John W. Moork, 3 volumes, Raleigh, 1882.

Morley means "The Carolina Mountains," by Mar(;aret W. Morley, Houghton-Mifflin, New York, 1913.

Murphey means "Papers of Arch. D. Murphey," 2 volumes, N. C. Hist. Comm., Raleigh, 1914.

Observer means Charlotte Daily Observer, Charlotte, N. C.

Rebellion Records means "The War of the Rebellion," Washington, D. C,

1897.

Rumple means "A History of Rowan County," by Rev. Jethro Rumple, 1881.

Sheets means "A History of Liberty Baptist Church," by Rev. Henry Sheets, Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., Raleigh, 1908.

Skiles means "A Sketch of Missionary Life at Valle Crucis," edited by Susan Fenimore Cooper, 1890.

Smythe means "A Tour of America," by Dr. J. F. D. Smythe.

Thwaites means "Daniel Boone," by Reuben Gold Thwaites.

Warner means "On Horseback," by Charles Dudley Warner, Houghton- Mifflin Co., New York, 1889.

Wheeler means "Historical Sketches of North Carolina," by John H. Wheeler, 2 volumes, 1851.

Williams means "History of the Baptists of North Carolina," by Rev. Charles Williams, Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., Raleigh, 1901.

Worth means "Correspondence of Jonathan Worth, N. C. Hist. Comm." Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., Raleigh, 1909.

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS

(Lines are numbered from the top of pages.)

LINE. PAGE.

"it" should be "inscriptions" 28 40

"whom" should be "who" 15 45

"recall" should be "recalls" 22 86

Insert "by a freshet, and the third church" first part of 8 103

"D. B." should be "J. B." Phillips last 132

"185S" should be "1859," according to W. E. Greene, Esq.... 19 138

"Sing Sing" should be "Albany County, N. Y." 6 154

"five" should be "four" 6 154

"Cove Creek" should be "New River" 28' 170

"Hamby" should be "Henley" 29 184

"lived on Beaver Dams and" should be omitted 4 201

"soon after his return from" should be "before his trip to". . 28 201

"called Harman Rock House" should be omitted 26 202

"Sharp's" should be "Sawyer's" 15 210

"bridge which replaced" should precede "old bridge" 4 224

"Harley" should be "Hartley" i 240

"Louise" should be "Nancy" 17 280

"ex-Sheriff W. B. Baird" should be "Capt. B. F. Baird" 18 280

"Rittenhouse, who married Mrs. Eliza PhilHps" should pre- cede "lives" 19 280

Blank should be filled by "Laura Martin" 35 315

Blank should be filled by "Miss Marilda EUett first, and then

Jane Brown" 36 315

"a Ray" should be "Margaret Duke" 5 316

Blank should be filled by "Jane Ray" 6 316

Blank should be filled by "Catharine Burkett" 7 316

"Ray ?" should be "Morris" 19 316

"a Ray" should be "Ella Ray" 22 316

"a I-ieeves" should be "W'infield Doub" 23 316

"Henry C." should be "Henr>' W." 26 316

"1829" should be "1827" 30 331

"Eleline" should be "Emeline A." 8 332

"Hiram" should be "William Carroll" 10 332

"Andrew" should be "Jacob" 14 353

"George" should be "William" 31 353

Both accounts of the Wilson families are said to be inaccurate.

DR. ARCHIBALD HENDERSON.

This gentleman writes (January 6, 1916) to the effect that if I had read an article by him, published in the A)iierican Historical Review for Octo- ber, 1914, and another, published in the Mississippi Historical Review. Volume I, December, 1914, I might have "tempered my prejudices and modified the oft'ensiveness of my tone" in my "polemics." (Pages 42 to 52.) Also that, in my references to himself, my tone lacked courtesy. I hasten to disclaim any intentional offensiveness or discourtesy. Having since read the two articles above referred to, however, I am unable to withdraw or modify any of the statements concerning the facts in ques- tion. On the contrary, I reaffirm that, aside from Dr. Henderson's unsup- ported statements, there is no satisfactory evidence as yet published that Boone owed Richard Henderson one cent ; that he was employed by Henderson to go to Kentucky in 1769; that Henderson & Co. ever paid him for his services out of the 400,000 acres they received from Virginia and North Carolina; that Richard Henderson ever conspired while he was on the bench to violate the law he had sworn to uphold by purchas- ing lands from the Indians, or that there was a wagon road across the North Carolina mountains in 1775. J. P. A.

Boone. N. C, January 10, igi6.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Chapter I. The relation of Watauga County and its residents to remainder of the mountains. Early settlers in eastern part of State. Difference between eastern and western settlers. Our Yankee ancestry. Critics eager to find fault. Our annals. Difference between "poor whites" and "mountain whites. Cooperation has ceased. Moonshining an inheritance. Penn- sylvania "Whiskey Rebellion." i

Chapter II. Similarity of Indians to Hebrews. A study in ethnology and philology. Speculations as to the begmnmg of things. Indians never residents of Watauga in memory of whites. Cherokees parted with title to land long ago. Old forts on frontier. Cherokee raids. First white settlers of Watauga. Linville family and falls ^2

Chapter III. The greed for land in the eastern section. Bishop Spangenberg sets out to get land for Moravians. He is rnisled and "wanders bewildered in unknown ways." Reaches delicious spring on Flat Top. Three Forks described. An Indian Old Field. Caught in a mountain snow-storm. Their route from Blowing Rock. Conflicting claims as to locality described 21

Chapter IV. No direct Daniel Boone descendants. Other Boone relatives. Jesse and Jonathan Boone. Their Three Forks membership. Marking the Trail of Daniel Boone. Boone Cabin Monument. Locating Trail. Cumberland Gap pedestal. Boone's Trail in other States. Congress urged to erect bronze statue there. Boone's first trip across Blue Ridge. Probability of re- location of trail. Improbability of the carving on the Boone Tree. Boone's relations with Richard Henderson considered 29

Chapter V. Backwoods Tories. Samuel Bright, loyalist. Patriots feared British influence with Indians. Bright's Spring and the Shelving Rock. Watauga County once part of Watauga Settle- ment. Doctor Draper's errors. W. H. OUis's contribution. No camp on the Yellow. Cleveland's parentage and capture. His rescue, etc. Greer's Hints, of two kinds. The Wolf's Den. Riddle's execution. Killing of Chas. Asher and other Tones. Ben Howard. Marking old graves by United States. Its niggardly policy. Battlefield in Watauga 53

Chapter VI. The Yadkin Baptist Association. Three Forks Baptist Church. List of its early members and officers. A great moral force in the community. Church trials, grave and gay. Other ancient happenings. First churches. Revivals 71

Chapter VII. Order of the Holy Cross. Picture of Watauga Valley in 1840. Valle Crucis as first founded. Rt. Rev._ L. S. Ives. Feeble and undignified imitation. Why Ives vacillated. Old buildings. Adobes and humble bees. Easter chapel. Spiritual

VI CONTENTS

PAQK

Starvation on the Lower Watauga. The Mission store. Death of Mr. Skiles. Removal of St. John's. Reinstitution of Mission, and School for Girls. Summer resort, also 78

Chapter VIII. Light on the Jersey Settlement. Meagre facts con- sidered. John Gano, preacher. Fairchild's diary. Adventures on road. Mr. Gano constitutes a church. A colonial document. Other ancient documents and facts. Letter from Morris Town, N. J., Church. The Fairchild ladies 87

Chapter IX. Democracy of the religion of the mountaineer. Our morals, as appraised by others. Pioneer Baptists. The Farthing family. A family of preachers. Rev. Joseph Harrison. Cove Creek Baptist Church. Bethel Baptist Church. Other early churches. Stony Fork Association. White's Spring Church. Methodist Churches. Henson's Chapel. A family of Methodist church preachers. M. E. Churches. Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans 97

Chapter X. Formation of county. Councill's influence. Three New England visitors. Doctor Mitchell's geological tour. Tennessee boundary line. Boundary line and Land Grant Warrants. Running State line. Watauga County lines. Watauga County established. Changes in county lines. Avery County cut off. Jails and court houses. To restore lost records. First term Sui>erior Court. Tied to a wagon-wheel. Roving spirit. Legislative and other officers. Watauga's contribution to Con- federacy and Federals. Population and other facts. Mexican War soldiers. Weather vagaries. Agricultural and domestic facts. Forests. Altitudes 114

Chapter XI. Boone incorporated. Its attractions. Miss Morley's visit. First residents of Boone. First builders. Saw-mills for new town. The Ellingtons. Other builders. First merchants, J. C. Gaines, Rev. J. W. Hall. Post-bellum Boone. Coffey Bros. Their enterprises. Newspapers. Counterfeiters 142

Chapter XII. Too many troops for limits of book. Keith Blalock. Four Coffey Bros. Danger from Tennessee side. Longstreet's withdrawal. Kirk's Camp Vance raid. Death of Wm. Cof?ey. Murder of Austin Coffey. Other "activities." Michiganders escape. Camp Mast. Watauga Amazons. Camp Mast sur- render. Sins of the children. Retribution? Paul and Reuben Farthing. Battle of the Beech. Stoneman's raid. Official account. A real home guard. Mrs. Horton robbed. No peace. Fort Hamby. Blalock's threat 159

Chapter XIII. Calloway sisters. Pioneer hunters. James Aldridge. His real wife appears. Betsy Calloway. Delila Baird. A belated romance. Colb McCanless. sheriff. His death by Wild Bill. Bedent E. Baird. Zeb Vance's uncle makes inquiry. Peggy Clawson. Other old stories. Joseph T. Wilson, or "Lucky Joe." "Long-Distance." An African romance. James Speer's fate. Joshua Pennell frees slaves. Jesse Mullins' "niggers." Cross- cut suit. Absentee landlord. "School Butter." Lee Carmichael. The musterfield murder. A Belle of Broadway 186

CONTENTS VU

PAGE

Chapter XIV. Fine Watauga County scenerj'- Cove Creek. Our flowers. Valle Crucis. Sugar Grove. Blowing Rock. Along the Blue Ridge. Moses H. Cone. Brushy Fork. Shull's Mills. Linville Valley and Falls. The Ollis family. Elk Cross Roads. Banner's Elk. A trip on foot. Meat Camp. Rich Mountain. The "Tater Hill." The Grandfather and Grandmother. Graft- ing French chestnuts. Beaver Dams. Boone's Beaver Dams trails. Beech Creek and Poga 209

Chapter XV. Ante-bellum education. Peculiarities of speech. We speak the best and purest English. Place-names. Kephart's dissertations. Ante-bellum pedagogues. Our schools. Penman- ship. Phillip Church. Jonathan Norris. Eli M. Farmer. Burton Davis. Todd Miller. The "Twisting Temple." Lees-McRae Institute. School-teachers. Normal school at Boone. Skyland Institute. T. P. Adams' long service. Silverstone public school. Walnut Grove Institute. Valle Crucis School for Girls. First agricultural instruction. Prominent in education. Lenoir School Lands. School-house Loan Fund. T. L. Clingman, a teacher. Mount Mitchell controversy 243

Chapter XVI. Gold mines and mining. First owners of Cranberry. Iron forges. Iron bounties. Some old hammermen. Cling- man's mining 263

Chapter XVII. First wagon roads. First across Blue Ridge. Caldwell and Watauga Turnpike. Yonahlossee Turnpike. Early road legislation. Earliest stopping places. First paper railroads. First railroad surveys 268

Sketches of Prominent Families Alphabetically Arranged 279

Index 357

-O

l^^cX Wj^^^u^^^ ^>'^'^'>\>'',

ILLUSTRATIONS.

The Grandfather Profile. By permission of author and publishers

of "The Carolina Mountains." Frontispiece

Col. William Lewis Bryan, Historian and Trail Finder 26

Daniel Boone Cabin Monument, erected by Col. W. L. Bryan,

October, 1912 32

The Old Perkins Place, where Cleveland was captured. Photograph

by Wiley C. Vannoy, Blowing Rock 60

The Wolf's Den, where Cleveland was rescued. Photograph by Wiley C.

Vannoy, Blowing Rock 62

The Three Forks Baptist Church. Photograph by Wiley C. Vannoy,

Blowing Rock 72

Bishop L. Silliman Ives, D. D. Photograph by John L. Vest, Forsyth

County, N.C 78

Residence of Rev. John Norton Atkins, and former home of the late

Rev. Henry H. Prout 82

Rev. Reuben P. Farthing 98

Col. Joe B. Todd, Clerk of the Superior Court 134

Boone, the County Seat of Watauga. Photograph by John L. Vest

Forsyth County, N.C 142

Mrs. William Lewis Bryan, who has lived in Boone since its organiza- tion, and for several years prior thereto 146

Aunt Delilah's Last Cabin Home. Photograph by L. G. Harris,

Cranberry, N. C 192

Horton Family Arms, and Explanation 206

The Blowing Rock. From an oil painting by the late W. C. Randall. . 214

Lake and Residence of Col. W. W. Stringfellow, Blowing Rock,

N. C. Photograph by Wiley C. Vannoy, Blowing Rock 218

Peaks of the Grandfather Mountain. By permission of author and

publishers of "The Carolina Mountains." 234

The Yonahlossee Road. By permission of author and publishers of

"The Carolina Mountains 238

The Appalachian Training School, and Howard's Knob, Boone,

N. C. Photograph by John L. Vest, Forsyth County, N. C 248

viii

ILLUSTRATIONS IX

Mission School at Valle Crucis, N. C. Photograph by L. G. Harris,

Cranberry, N. C 254

Hon. Thomas Lanier Clingman. From Clark's "North Carolina

Regiments." 258

The Deep Gap, the gateway to Watauga. Photograph by Wiley C.

Vannoy, Blowing Rock 268

Maj. Harvey Bingham, Soldier and Lawyer 282

Hon. E. Spencer Blackburn, M.C, Orator and Statesman 286

Dudley Farthing, Judge of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. . 308

Hon. L. L. Greene, Judge of the Superior Court 312

CoL. Jonathan Horton. Photograph by John L. Vest, Forsyth County,

N. C 322

CoL. Romulus Z. Linney, M.C, Wit, Orator, Lawyer and Statesman. . 328

THE MEN OF WATAUGA.

They told by the sibilant sea of the solemn

Blue mountains whose summits ascend to the sky, Where, cradled in solitude, world-weary pilgrims

Might find perfect rest, undisturbed by a sigh. They told of savannahs as smooth as a carpet,

Of golden fruits breaking their branches in twain; Of vast flocks of wild-fowl, the sunlight obscuring.

And buffalo haunting the billowy plain. They told of a land where the sweet-scented wild flowers

I'lash fair as the flame of a taper-lit shrine, Bedecking the meadows, bespangling the valleys.

And climbing the mountains, the sun to outshine. But they told of a cruel foe lurking in ambush.

For whose treachery nothing but blood could atone. Of fierce Chickamaugas and Cherokee bowmen,

Whose swift, stealthy darts sang a dirge all their own. But the rivers and mountains, the dim, distant mountains,

Rising range upon range to the ultimate sky- Could women and children surmount those blue masses?

Could even strong men those grim rock-cliflfs defy? Yes; North, west of Guilford, and South, west of Cowpens,

Those mountains had yielded to Boone and Adair; McDowell and Shelby had led through the passes

But to find them awaiting the "Hot-spur," Sevier. 'Twas the land that had haunted the dreams of the hunted

For which all the homeless and hopeless had prayed — Untrammeled by custom, unfettered by fashion,

Each man his own master, her mistress each maid. So, the hunter, his rifle and bullet-pouch bearing.

Blew a blast on his horn and the hounds thronged around, The oxen were yoked, and on wheels the small household

Started out to the West, a new Nation to found ! Through dim, ghostly woodlands and dew-jeweled meadows

They eagerly followed the track of the sun ; They rafted the rivers and conquered the Smokies,

From whose peaks they first saw the new homes they had won. They were men from Old Rowan, Burke, Craven and Chowan,

Wake, Anson and Surry and Currytuck's lights; And Mecklenburg sent of her sturdy young yeomen

Such men as subscribed to our "First Bill of Rights." They girdled the forests, they drained the morasses.

They builded of rude logs the Church and the Home — Through labor and sorrow and sore tribulation —

Faith for the foundation and love for the dome. And while these be the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon,

God's "Chosen" the heathen forever will smite; And in tears and in blood, with the lead of the rifle.

The Saxon his deeds will continue to write. And soon, on the banks of the sparkling Watauga,

Was cradled the spirit that conquered the West^ The spirit that, soaring o'er mountain and prairie.

E'en on the Pacific shore paused not to rest. For the first written compact that, west of the mountains,

Was framed for the guidance of liberty's feet, Was writ here by letterless men in whose bosoms

Undaunted the heart of a paladin beat! J. P. A.

CHAPTER I.

Several Forewords.

Our Home and Heritage. — Our home is a very small part of that vast region known as the Southern Appalachians, which a recent writer, Horace Kephart, has aptly called Appalachia. This elevated section covers parts of eight States, all of which are south of IMason and Dixon's line. It is in the middle of the temperate zone and, for climate, is unsurpassed in the world. The average elevation is about two thousand feet above tide- water. Blue Ridge is the name of the range of mountains which bounds this highland country on the east, though the western boundary is known by many names, owing to the fact that it is bisected by several streams, all of which flow west, while the Blue Ridge is a true water-shed from the Potomac to Georgia. The various names of the western ranges are the Stone, the Iron, the Bald, the Great Smoky, the Unaka and the Frog mountains. The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey has, however, of recent years, given the name Unaka to this entire western border, leaving the local names to the sections which have been formed by the passage of the Watauga, the Doe, the Toe, the Cane, the French Broad, the Pigeon, the Little Tennes- see and the Hiawassee rivers. With the exception of a few bare mountain-tops, which are covered by a carpet of grass, these mountains are wooded to the peaks. Between the Blue Ridge and the Unakas are numerous cross ranges, separated by narrow valleys and deep gorges. Over the larger part of this region are to be found the older crystalline rocks, most of which are tilted, while the forests are of the finer hardwoods which, when removed, give place to luxuriant grasses. The apple finds its home in these mountains, while maize, when grown, is richer in proteids than that of the prairie lands of Illinois.

Character of the Inhabitants in 1752. — Bishop Spangenberg, in the Colonial Records (Vol. IV, pp. 1311-1314), wrote from

I

2 A History of Watauga County

Edenton, X. C, that he had found everything in confusion there, the counties in conflict with each other, and the authority of the legislature greatly weakened, owing largely to the fact that the older counties had formerly heen allowed five representatives in the general assembly ; but, as the new counties were formed, they were allowed but two. It was not long, however, before the newer counties, even with their small representation, held a majority of the members, and passed a law reducing the rei)re- sentation of the older counties from five to two. The result of this was that the older counties refused to send any members to the assembly, but dispatched an agent to England with a view to having their former representation restored. Before any result could be obtained, however, there was "in the older coun- ties perfect anarchy," with frequent crimes of murder and rob- bery. Citizens refused to appear as jurors, and if court was held to try such crimes, not one was present. Prisons were broken open and their inmates released. Most matters were de- cided by blows. But the county courts were regularly held, and whatever belonged to their jurisdiction received the customary attention.

People of the East and West. — Bishop Spangenberg. in the same letter, divided the inhabitants of the eastern counties into two classes — natives, who could endure the climate, but were indolent and sluggish, and those from England, Scotland and Ireland and from the northern colonies of America, the latter being too poor to buy land there. Some of these were refugees from justice, had fled from debt, or had left wife and children elsewhere — or, possibly, to escape the penalty of some crime. Horse thieves infested parts of this section. But, he adds in a postscript written in 1753: "After having traversed the length and breadth of North Carolina, we have ascertained that towards the western mountains there are plenty of people who have come from Virginia. Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and even from New England." Even in 1752 "four hundrea families, with horses, wagons and cattle have migrated to North Carolina, and among them were good farmers and very worthy people." These, in all probability, were the Jersey Settlers.

A History of Watauga County 3

The Great Pennsylvania Road. — On the 15th of February, 1 75 1, Governor Johnston wrote to the London Board of Trade that inhabitants were flocking into North Carohna, mostly from Pennsylvania, and other points of America "already over- stocked, and some directly from Europe," many thousands having arrived, most of whom had settled in the West "so that they had nearly reached the mountains." Jeffrey's map in the Congressional Library shows the "Great Road from the Yadkin River through Virginia to Philadelphia, Distance 435 Miles." It ran from Philadelphia, through Lancaster and York counties of Pennsylvania to Winchester, Va., thence up the Shenandoah Valley, crossing Fluvanna River at Looney's Ferry, thence to Staunton River and down the river, through the Blue Ridge, thence southward, near the Moravian Settlement, to Yadkin River, just above the mouth of Linville Creek, and about ten miles above the mouth of Reedy Creek. It is added that those of our boys who followed Lee on his Gettysburg campaign in 1863 were but passing over the same route their ancestors had taken when coming from York and Lancaster counties to this State in the fifties of the eighteenth century. (Col. Rec. Vol. IV, p. xxi.)

Our Yankee Ancestry. — As, to Southerners, all people north of Mason and Dixon's line are Yankees, there seems to be no doubt, if the best authorities can be trusted, that we are the sons of Yankee sires. Roosevelt (Vol. I, p. 137) tells us that as early as 1730 three streams of white people began to converge towards these mountains, but were halted by the Alleghanies; that they came mostly from Philadelphia, though many were from Charleston, S. C, Presbyterian-Irish being prominent among all and being the Roundheads of the South. Also that Catholics and Episcopalians obtained little foothold, the creed of the back- woodsmen being generally Presbyterian. Miss Morley says that so many of the staunch northerners — Scotch-Irish after the events of 1730, and Scotch Highlanders after those of 1745 — "came to the North Carolina mountains that they have given the dominant note to the character of the mountaineers" (p. 140). Kephart says that when James I, in 1607, confiscated the estates of the native Irish in six counties in Ulster, he planted them

4 A History of Watauga County

with Scotch and English I'resbyterians. giving long leases, but that as these leases began to expire the Scotch-Irish themselves came in conflict with the Crown, and then he quotes Froude to the effect that thirty thousand Protestants left Ulster during the two years following the Antrim evictions and came to America. Many of these finally settled in our mountains, among them be- ing Daniel Boone and the ancestors of David Crockett, Samuel Houston, John C. Calhoun, "Stonewall" Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. He might have added, also, those of Cyrus H. Mc- Cormick, Admiral Farragut, Andrew Johnson, James K. Polk, John C. Breckenridge, Henry Clay, John Marshall and Parson Brownlow.

Huguenots, Germans and Swedes. — But others came also : French Huguenots, Germans, Hollanders and Swedes, who set- tled the British frontier from Massachusetts to the Valley of Virginia, the mountain men who counted most coming from Lancaster, York and Berks counties, Pennsylvania. "That was true in the days of Daniel Boone and David Crockett, and also in the days of John C. Calhoun and William A. Graham, of those of Zeb Vance and Jeter C. Pritchard. There has not been one whit of admixture from any other source. Blood feuds have always been absent. The TifTanys have been able to draw on these mountains for some of their most skilful wood-carvers — a revival of their ancient home industries. I have heard in Pennsylvania within the last thirty years every form of expres- sion with which I am familiar in Western North Carolina, and some of them occur today around Worcester, Mass." ' Hence, we have in these mountains the sauerkraut of Holland and the cakes of Scotland.

Scum or Salt? — So much has been written in detraction of the Southern mountaineers that ignorant people conclude that they are the very scum of the earth. In all the admirable things Horace Kephart had to say in his "Southern Highlanders," the Northern reviewers found but a few sentences worthy of their notice, and these were, of course, of an unfavorable nature.

* Dr. Collier Cobb in an address before the Nationai Geographic Society, in New York City, in April, 1914.

A History of Watauga County 5

These were quoted and commented on by a reviewer in the Reviezv of Review's for July, 1914. In the same number of this periodical (p. 49) there is a picture under which is printed: "Center Peak of Grandfather Mountain, in Pisgah Forest, re- cently acquired by the Government from the Estate of George W. Vanderbilt." As the Grandfather mountain is at least ninety miles north of Pisgah Forest, the ignorance of the publishers of this magazine of conditions in our mountains is apparent. Kephart's few remarks which caught the eye of Northern re- viewers were that "although without annals, we are one in speech, manners, experiences and ideals, and that our de- terioration began as soon as population began to press upon the limits of subsistence." An examination of the statistics of population and wealth of Buncombe, Haywood, Jackson, Swain and Cherokee counties in 1880, before the railroad was built, and of 1910, will convince anyone that "population has not yet pressed upon the limits of production." Kephart also said that our "isolation prevented them from moving West . . . and gradually the severe conditions of their life enfeebled them physically and mentally." As opposed to that, Archibald D. Murphey says (Murphey Papers, Vol. II, p. 105) that North Carolina "has sent half a million of her inhabitants to people the wilderness of the West, and it was not until the rage for emigration abated that the public attention was directed to the improvement of" their advantages. This was written prior to November, 1819. Besides, anyone who will read the "Sketches of Prominent Families" in this volume will be convinced that Watauga County at least contributed its quota to the winning of the West. Miss Morley graciously records that, instead of deteriorating, the late George W. Vanderbilt put his main reli- ance on the native mountaineer in the development of his fairy- land estate, Biltmore (p. 149). "They were put to work, and, what was of equal value in their development, they were sub- jected to an almost military discipline. For the first time in generations they were compelled to be prompt, methodical and continuous in their efforts. And of this there was no complaint. Scotch blood may succumb to enervating surroundings, but at

6 A History of Watauga County

the first call to battle it was ready. Not only did the men do the manual labor, but, as time went on, the most capable of them became overseers in the various departments, until finally all the directors of this great estate, excepting a few of the highest officials, were drawn from the ranks of the people, who proved themselves so trustworthy and capable that in all these years only three or four of Riltmore's mountaineer employees have had to be dismissed for inefficiency or bad conduct."

Won the Revolution and Saved the Union. — Like Tenny- son's "foolish yeoman," we have been "too proud to care from whence we came," and it is a singular fact that in spite of all that has been written against us, no Southern mountaineer has taken the troulile to answer our detractors. And, when it is said that we have no annals, Mr. Kephart merely means that we have not written them, for he proceeds to prove that we have annals of the highest order. He credits the mountaineer with having been the principal force which drove the Indians from the Alleghany border (p. 151) and formed tlie rear-guard of the Revolution and the vanguard in the conquest of the West. He says : "Then came the Revolution. The backwoodsmen were loyal to the American government — loyal to a man. They not only fought ofT the Indians from the rear, but sent many of their incomparable riflemen to fight at the front as well. They were the first English-speaking people to use weapons of precision — the rifle, introduced by the Pennsylvania Dutch about 1700, which was used by our backwoodsmen exclusively throughout the war. They were the first to employ open-order formation in civilized warfare. They were the first outside colonists to assist their New England brethren at the siege of Boston . . . They were mustered in as the first regiment of the Continental Army (being the first troops enrolled by our Congress and the first to serve under a Federal banner). They carried the day at Saratoga, the Cowpens and King's Mountain. From the begin- ning to the end of the war, they were Washington's favorite troops." As to the Civil War. he says (p. 374) : "The Con- federates thought that they could throw a line of troops from Wheeling to the Lakes, and Captain Garnett, a West Point

A History of Watauga County 7

graduate, started, but got no further than Harper's Ferry, when mountain men shot from ambush, cut down bridges, and killed Garnett with a bullet from a squirrel rifle at Harper's Ferry. Then the South began to realize what a long, lean, powerful arm of the Union it was that the Southern mountaineer stretched through its very vitals, for that arm helped to hold Kentucky in the Union, kept East Tennessee from aiding the Confederacy and caused West Virginia to secede from Seces- sion!" There was no Breed's Hill nor Bull Run panic among them in the Revolution or in the Civil War period! Has New England, which has a superabundance of annals, any that will compare with these? And yet, it took an outsider to tell us of them !

Not the Poor Whites of the South. — According to Kephart (p. 356), the poor whites of the South descended mainly from the convicts and indentured servants which England supplied to the Southern plantations before the days of slavery. The cavaliers who founded and dominated Southern society came from the conservative, the feudal element of England. "Their character and training were essentially aristocratic and military. They were not town dwellers, but masters of plantations . . . These servants were obtained from convicted criminals, boys and girls kidnapped from the slums, impoverished people who sold their services for passage to America (p. 357). It was when the laboring classes of Europe had achieved emancipation from serfdom and feudalism was overthrown, that African slavery laid the foundation for a new feudalism in the Southern States. Its eflfect upon white labor was to free them from their thraldom ; but being unskilled and untrained, densely ignorant, and from a more or less degraded stock, these shiftless people generally became squatters on the pine barrens, and gradually sank lower in the scale till the slaves themselves were freed by the Civil War. There was then and still is plenty of wild land in the lowlands and they had neither the initiative nor the courage to seek a promised land far away among the unexplored and savage peaks of the western country."

8 A History of Watauga County

McKamie Wiseman's View. — This shrewd old mountaineer of Avery County, who is a wise man not only by name, but by nature also, had the true idea of the settlement of these moun- tains. He said that as population drifted westward from the Atlantic and downwards from western X'irginia and Pennsyl- vania between the mountain troughs, the game was driven into the intervening mountains, and that only the bravest and the hardiest of the frontiersmen of the borders followed it and re- mained after it had been exterminated. Tradition and early documents bear out this view, the first settlers of the mountains having been almost without exception the men who lived on the mountain-tops, at the heads of creeks and in out-of-the-way places generally, disdaining the fertile bottom lands of the larger streams, preferring the most inaccessible places, because of the proximity to them of the game. Others, with more money and less daring, got the meadows and fertile valleys for agriculture, while the true pioneers dwelt afar in trackless mountains, in hunting camps and caverns, from which they watched their traps and hunted deer, bear and turkeys. The shiftless and dis- heartened poor whites would soon have perished in this wilder- ness, but the hunters waxed stronger and braver, and their descendants still people the mountain regions of the South. And he thought, also, that many came down from the New Eng- land States because of the religious unrest and dissensions which marked the earlier history of that region, and came where men might worship God in their own way, whether that way were the way of Puritan or Baptist. To use his words, "It was freedom that they were seeking, and it was freedom that they found in these unpeopled mountains." Kephart puts it in another form only when he says (p. 307), "The nature of the mountaineer de- mands that he have solitude for the unhampered growth of his personality, wing-room for his eagle heart." As another said of the Argonauts. "The cowards never started, and the weaklings, died on the way." Mr. Wiseman died in July, 1915.

No Festering Warrens for Them. — Mr. Kephart also tells us (p. 309) that "our highlanders have neither memory nor tradi- tion of ever having been herded together, lorded over, perse-

A History of Watauga County 9

ciited or denied the privileges of free men," and that, "although life has been one long, hard, cruel war against elemental powers, nothing else than warlike arts, nothing short of warlike hazards could have subdued the beasts and savages, felled the forests and made our land habitable for those teeming millions who can exist only in a state of mutual dependence and cultivation." And, more marvelous still, he adds, "By compulsion their self-reliance was more complete; hence, their independence grew more haughty, their individualism more intense. And these traits, exaggerated as they were by the force of environment, remain unzveakened among their descendants to the present day."

Co-operation Has Ceased. — In the early time, co-operation was the watchword of the day. Neighbor helped neighbor, freely, gladly and enthusiastically. But, according to Kephart, all this has ceased, and we have become non-sociable, with each man fighting for his own hand, recognizing no social compact. Each is suspicious of the other. "They will not work together zealously, even to improve their neighborhood roads, each mis- trusting that the other may gain some trifling advantage over himself, or turn fewer shovelfuls of earth. Labor chiefs fail to organize granges or unions among them because they simply will not stick together . . ." He quotes a Miss Mills as say- ing, "The mountaineers must awake to a consciousness of them- selves as a people." Including all the Southern highlanders, we constitute a distinct ethnic group of close on to four million souls, and with needs and problems identical. The population is almost absolutely unmixed, and completely segregated from each other (p. 311). The one redeeming feature is a passionate attachment for home and family, a survival of the old feudal idea, while the hived and promiscuous life in cities is breaking down the old fealty of kith and kin (p. 312). "My family, right or wrong" is said to be our slogan, and it is claimed that this is but the persistence of the old clan fealty to the chief and the clansmen.

Moonshining an Inheritance? — Kephart seems to have made a study of blockading and moonshining, and to have reached the conclusion that they are really an inheritance, coming down to

10 A History of Watauga County

us from our Scotch and Irish ancestors, who resented the EngUsh excise law of 1659, which struck at the national drink of the Scotch and Irish, while the English themselves were then con- tent to drink ale. Our forebears killed the gangers in sparsely settled regions, while the better-to-do people of the towns bribed them. Thus the Scotch-Irish, settled by James I in the north of Ireland, to replace the dispossessed native Hibernians, learned to make whiskey in little stills over peat fires on their hearths, call- ing it poteen, from the fact that it was made in little pots. Finally, these Scotch-Irish fell out with the British government and emigrated, for the most part, to western Pennsylvania, where they brought with them an undying hatred of the excise laws. When, therefore, after they had helped to establish a stable gov- ernment, an excise law was adopted by Congress, these Scotch- Irish were the very first to rebel. And it was to George Washington himself that the task fell of suppressing their re- sistance to the United States !

The Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion. — Owing to bad roads and the want of markets, there was no currency away from the seaboard. But. condensed into distilled spirits, a ready sale and easy transportation were found for the product of the grain of the mountaineers. For they could carry many gallons on a single horse or in a single wagon and get a fair price from people living where money circulated. When, therefore, they were required to pay a heavy tax on their product, they rebelled. When the Federal excisemen went among them, they blackened themselves and tarred and feathered these intruders on their rights. These "revenuers" then resigned, but were replaced by others. If a mountaineer took out a license, a gang of whiskey boys smashed his still and inflicted bodily punishment on him. All attempts to serve warrants resulted in an up-rising of the people, and, on July 16, 1794, a company of mountain militia marched to the house of General Neville, in command of the excise forces, and he fired on them, wounding five and killing one. The next day a regiment of 500 mountain men, led by Tom the Tinker, burned Neville's house and forced him to flee, one of his guard of United States soldiers being killed and sev-

A History of Watauga County ii

eral wounded. On August i, 1794, 2,000 armed mountain men met at the historic Braddock Field, and marched on Pittsburg, then a village. A committee of Pittsburg citizens met them. The mob of 5,400 men were then taken into town and treated to strong drink, after which they dispersed. The Governor of Pennsylvania refused to interfere, and Washington called for 15,000 militia to quell the insurrection. He also appointed com- missioners to induce the people to submit peacefully. Eighteen ring-leaders were arrested and the rest dispersed. Two of the leaders were convicted, but were afterwards pardoned. Even a secession movement was imminent, but as Jefferson soon became President, the excise law was repealed and peace restored. There was no other excise tax till 1812, when it was renewed, only to be repealed in 1817. From this time till 1862 there was no tax, and after that time it was only twenty cents a gallon. In 1864 it was raised to sixty cents a gallon and later in that year to $1.50, to be followed in 1865 by $2.00 a gallon. The result was again what it had been in Great Britain — fraud around the cen- ters of population and resistance in the mountains, the current price of distilled spirits even in the North being less than the tax. In 1868 the tax was reduced to fifty cents, and illicit stilling prac- tically ceased, the government collecting during the second year of the existence of this reduced tax three dollars for every one that had been collected before (p. 163). Since then every in- crease has resulted in moonshining in the mountains and graft in the cities. The whiskey frauds of Grant's administration in- vaded the very cabinet itself. So it seems the spirit of resistance makes moonshiners of us all, just as Shakespeare said that con- science makes cowards of us all.

CHAPTER II.

Forerunners of Watauga.

Likeness of the Indians to the Hebrews. — The following has been condensed from the Literary Digest for September 21, 1912, page 472: "William Penn saw a striking likeness between the Jews of London and the American Indians. Some claim that the stories of the Old Testament are legends in some Indian tribes. In the Jewish Encyclopedia it is said that the Hebrews, after the captivity, separated themselves from the heathen in order to observe their peculiar laws ; and Manasseh Ben Israel claims that America and India were once joined, at Bering Strait, by a peninsula, over which these Hebrews came to America. All Indian legends affirm that they came from the northwest. When first visited by Europeans, Indians were very religious, worship- ping one Great Spirit, but never bowing down to idols. Their name for the deity was Ale, the old Hebrew name for God. In their dances they said 'Hallelujah' distinctly. They had annual festivals, performed morning and evening sacrifices, oflFered their first fruits to God, practiced circumcision, and there were 'cities of refuge,' to which offenders might fly and be safe; they reck- oned time as did the Hebrews, similar superstitions mark their burial places 'and the same creeds were the rule of their lives, both as to the present and the future.' They had chief-ruled tribes, and forms of government almost identical with those of the Hebrews. Each tribe had a totem, usually some animal, as had the Israelites, and this explains why, in the blessing of Jacob upon his sons, Judah is surnamed a lion, Dan a serpent, Ben- jamin a wolf, and Joseph a bough." There are also resemblances in their languages to the Latin and Greek tongues, Chickamauga meaning the field of death, and Aquone the sound of water.

A Study in Ethnology and Philology. — W'^e have seen that the legends show that the Indians came from the northwest. It must be remembered, however, that although they were of one

12

A History of Watauga County 13

color, they were of different tribes and spoke different tongues or dialects. There is not a labial in the entire Cherokee lan- guage, while the speech of the Choctaws, Creeks, Tuscaroras, Algonquins and many other tribes is full of them. They were nomads, wandering from place to place. The Cherokees were admittedly the most advanced of the Indians since the Spaniards decimated the Incas and Aztecs. They were certainly the most warlike. The name "Cherokee" has, however, no significance in their language, as they call themselves the Ani-Kituhwagi and the Yunwiga, or real people. This is likewise true of most of the names of streams and mountains which bear, according to popular belief, Indian names ; for in the glossary, given in the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1897, Part I, James Mooney, its author, shows that their meaning has been lost, if, indeed, they ever had a meaning in the Indian tongue. A glance through that collection of Cherokee words will dispel many a poetic idea of the significance of such words as Watauga, Swannanoa, Yonahlossee and others as mellifluous. How came this about? He offers no theory. But Martin V. Moore, who once did business in Boone, has published a small volume, "The Rhyme of Southern Rivers," ' in which he makes it appear that most, if not all, of these names of streams and mountains have their roots in the languages of Europe and Asia. He cites an instance when an Indian was asked whether the Catawba tribe took their name from the Catawba River or the river from the tribe? The Indian answered by asking, "Which was here first?" If it was possible for one European or Asiatic tribe or clan to cross into America before Bering Strait divided the two continents, it was possible for many to have crossed also. If one tribe or clan spoke one tongue, other tribes which crossed probably spoke different languages. Thus, America might have become peopled with representatives of many peoples, each speak- ing a different dialect, and thus giving different names to the several streams and mountains along and among which they for a time abided. If this be so, it is easy to believe that the root or

^ This was originally published in Harper's Monthly for February, 1883, but without its introductory. It was published in complete form by M. E. Church, South, Pub. Co., Nashville, Tenn., 1897.

14 A History of Watauga Comity

origin of many so-called Indian words can be found in the Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Persian, African, Chinese and Japanese lan- guages. That many names of Southern rivers show such possi- bilities is made plain by this little volume.

"The Other Way About," as the I'Lnglish say, would make it possible that these Appalachian mountains being the oldest land in the world — older far than that of the Nile, the Euphrates and the Jordan — were really the birth-place and cradle of the ances- tors of the polyglot races which now people Europe and Asia ; for, if it was possible for people to come to America from those countries, it was equally possible for people to go from America there. So that, instead of being the New World, America is really the Old World. But, to the proofs :

Words Derived from the Hebrews. — According to Mr. Moore, "te" or "de" in Hebrew means "deep." In its oldest form in Hebrew, it is "te-am," or "te-ho-ma," meaning deep waters — "am" or "homa" denoting waters. "Perpetuity" in Hebrew was denoted by "na." "The fact is illustrated," to quote Mr. Moore's words, "in the Hebrew name 'ama-na' — the river known in Isaiah," Iviii, v. ii (p. 99). Chota, the City of Refuge, as it is called in Cherokee, "was governed by the same laws as those which obtained among the Jewish nations of antiquity" (p. 89). . . , Telico, Jellico and Jerico (p. 44) are cognate words, and Pocataligo was the title of the river of that name in South Caro- lina, "long famed as one of the cities of refuge among the aborigines." Likewise, he shows that "toah" or "toe" is from the Hebrew "neph-toah," "the name of a water noted in Jewish history" (p. 29).

Latin, Manchu and Persian. — "The root word of the Missis- sippi River is traced to the Latin words 'meto' and 'messis.' whence come our words 'meter* and 'measure,' denoting in the original sense a gathering together, tersely characteristic of a stream which gathers to itself the waters of so many different lands" (p. yy). He also traces the root word of "saluda" to the Latin "salio" to leap (p. 41) or a "stream springing out of high places." In "unaka," the name of the mountains south of the Little Tennessee River, unquestionably "a native Indian word,"

A History of Watauga County 15

he finds a marked likeness to the Latin "unus," "unica" and our EngHsh equivalent "unique" (p. 92). "Watauga" has the Latin root "aqua," meaning water. Then, too, "esta" or "aesta," in Latin, refers to summer months, or leisure time, which, com- bined with the Hebrew "toah" or "toe," makes up our "Estatoe" river (p. 29). "Esseeola" is given as the native name of the river now called Linville, "ola" being from the Manchu dialect word "ou-li," meaning river; and if Miss Morley is right in thinking that it was named for the linden trees on its banks, one cannot help wondering if "esse," in Manchu, means linden ! Mr. Moore thinks "catawba" is from the Persian root "au-ba" or "aub," of which the California writing is Yuba, meaning cat- fish, which is certainly characteristic of our Carolina stream of that name. He also calls attention to the fact that neither the Cherokees nor the Japanese use the letter "r" in their dialects ; and that the old Romans used "1" and "r" interchangeably, just as do the Cherokees (p. 50).

First Settlers of Watauga. — The Cherokee Indians were the first settlers of this county, but there is no record that white men ever came into actual contact with them in what is now Watauga county. Boone does not seem to have encountered any on his trip in 1769 until he reached Kentucky. Neither did Bishop Spangenburg on his trip in 1752. James Robertson saw none on his first trip to the Watauga Settlement in 1769, nor in 1770, when he brought his family with him to the new settlement on the Watauga River. Indeed, Virginia had concluded a treaty with the Cherokees in 1772 fixing the top of the Blue Ridge as the eastern boundary, and a line running due west from the White Top mountain (where North Carolina, Virginia and Ten- nessee join), and the general impression then was that this line included the Watauga Settlement near what is now Jonesboro, Tenn. But in 1771 Anthony Bledsoe extended the Virginia line far enough west to satisfy himself that the Watauga Settlement was not in Virginia territory, and, therefore, not within the treaty limits of 1772. This fact caused those settlers to lease for eight years all the country on the waters of the Watauga River. On March 19, 1775, the Watauga settlers bought in fee

1 6 A History of Watauga County

simple all the land on the waters of the Watauga, Ilolston and New Rivers. The western boundary of this tract ran from six miles above Long Island of the Holston, south, to the dividing ridge between the Watauga and the Toe rivers, thence in a south- easterly direction to the Blue Ridge, thence along the Blue Ridge to the Virginia line. This embraced the whole of Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany counties. So that, from 1775 on, the Indians had no right to be in this territory, and, altiiough Wheeler tells us that Ashe was partially settled as early as 1755 by white people — principally h.unters — there is nothing to tell us that the Indians ever lived here except arrow heads, broken bits of pottery and so forth. '

The Cherokees Kept Faith. — Up to the commencement of the Revolutionary War there is no evidence that the Cherokees lived north of the dividing ridge between the Toe and Watauga clear up to the \'irginia line. Thus, whether the lease and deed to the Watauga settlers near Jonesboro were legal or not, the untutored savage stood manfully to this agreement. It is true that war parties were sent through this territory to make trouble for the settlers east of the Blue Ridge, but they had no abiding place west of that divide. Bishop Spangcnberg was here in December, 1752, but he saw no Indians, though speaking of an "old Indian field." There is a tradition in the settlement near Linville Falls and Pisgah Church (Altamont), now in Avery County, that William White was the first settler in that locality whose name is now remembered and lived where Melvin C. Bickerstafif now resides, but that another had preceded him at that place, and that while hunting one day he saw from a ridge a party of Indians kill two white men who were "lying out" in that locality in order to escape service in the Revolutionary War, and trample their bodies beyond sight in a mud-hole which then stood near the present residence of Rev. W. C. Franklin. This settler did not reveal himself to the Indians, but, hastening to his own cabin half a mile away, escaped with his wife and child to Fort Crider (which, in 1780, Dr. Draper tells us, p. 185, note, was situated on "a small eminence within the present limits of

2 Rev. W. R. Savage, of Blowing Rock, and W. S. Farthing, of Beaver Dams, have large collections of Indian relics.

A History of Watauga County 17

Lenoir"), after having been forced to eat while on the journey through the rough mountains the small pet dog which followed them. There is also another tradition that the American forces followed a party of marauding Cherokees to the rock cliff just above Pisgah Church in that locality, but retreated because the savages were too strong for them. These, however, are the only traditions diligent enquiry has revealed. There is, however, other evidence of forays across the Blue Ridge by Cherokees ■ from their towns on the Little Tennessee.

Some Old Forts.— According to Archibald D. Murphey (Murphey Papers, Vol. II, pp. 385, 3^6), "there was a chain of forts from Black Water of Smith's River in Rockingham near to the Long Island of Holston : i, the fort at Bethabara; 2, Fort Waddell at the Forks of the Yadkin; 3, Fort Dobbs on the Catawba; 4, Fort Chisholm on New River, and 5, Fort Stalnaker near the Crab Orchard." Just where the fort on New River was located it is now difficult to determine, though it was probably at Old Field or Three Forks, as they were on the road from Wilkes- borough to Long Island in the Holston. The Crab Orchard was most likely two miles west of what is now called Roan Moun- tain, just in the edge of Tennessee. It is now only a flag station, however, the Gen. John Winder road from Roan Mountain station through Carver's gap, three miles southeast of the gap of the Yellow, starting from the latter station to the top of the Roan mountain, where, during the eighties, hundreds of visitors spent the ''hay fever months" in comfort. The immense hotel there has been abandoned now, however, and the doors and windows are being carried away every day by marauders, the caretaker having left in 1914-

An Indian Incursion.— The same author says (p. 381, Vol. II) of other forts east of the Blue Ridge: "Forts were erected at Moravian Old Town (Bethabara) by the twelve Moravians first sent out to Wachovia, and by the settlers in the neighbor- hood two forts were erected: one in the town, including the church, and the other at the mill, half a mile distant. Into these forts the setders in the neighborhood and even from the Mul- berry Fields near Wilkesborough took refuge, about seventy famihes in all, and here they continued in fort, occasionally, until

1 8 A History of Watauga County

the general peace of 1763. The people generally went to their homes in the fall or early in the winter, and returned to the forts in the spring, the winter being too severe for the Indians to make such long expeditions for the purpose of mischief. The forts were never attacked. The Little Carpenter, then the chief of the tribe [CherokeesJ, came at the head of 300 or 4CX) In- dians and killed several of the inhabitants. They [the Indians] remained for six weeks in the neighborhood and then returned. This was in the spring of 1755 or 1756."

Where They Crossed the Blue Ridge. — "They crossed the Blue Ridge at the head of the Yadkin and came down the valley of that river." They killed William Fish at the mouth of Fish's River. One Thompson, who was with him, was wounded with two arrows "while he and Fish were riding together through a canebrake." Thompson escaped and gave the alarm at Betha- bara. The people hastened to the forts, two men, Barnett Lash- ley and one Robison. being killed near the block house the next morning. "Lashley's daughter, thirteen years old." went to her father's house to milk the cows. "Nine Indians pursued her, but she escaped by hiding in the canebrakes until after dark, when she went to the fort, and was not surprised to learn of her father's death." This was in March, 1755 or 1756. The Indians came from the Cherokee towns on the Little Tennessee River. None ever lived in Watauga or Ashe since the whites settled in the piedmont country. In 1759 or 1760 another raid was made to the mouth of Smith's River in Rockingham County (p. 383), where they killed Greer and Harry Hicks on Bean Island Creek, and carried Hick's wife and little son back to Tennessee with them. They, however, were recovered when Gen. Hugh Wad- dell marched to the Cherokee towns later on. A company of rangers was kept employed by the State, commanded by Anthony Hampton, father of Gen. W^ade Hampton, of the Revolutionary War, and greatgrandfather of Gen. Wade Hampton, twice gov- ernor of South Carolina (p. 384). Daniel Boone belonged to this company and he buried Fish, who had been killed by Little Carpenter.

First White Settlers of Watauga. — A letter from Lafayette Tucker, of Ashland, Ashe County, states that the descendants of

A History of Watauga County 19

the original Lewis who settled in that neighhorhood claim that he came as early as 1730. Thomas Hodges, the first, came during the Revolutionary War and settled in what is now called Hodges Gap, two miles west of Boone, and Samuel Hix and James D. Holtsclaw, his son-in-law, settled at or near Valle Crucis at that time or before. Some of the Norris family also came about that time, but which one or ones cannot be determined now. These were Tories. Ben Howard did not settle in this county, but re- mained at his home on the Yadkin, though he took refuge in the mountains around Boone during the Revolutionary War, and for ten years prior to 1769 herded cattle in the bottom lands around Boone. He built what is now known as the Boone cabin in front of the Boys' Dormitory of the Appalachian Training School, marked in 1912 by a monument erected by Col. W. L. Bryan." A quarter of a mile north of the knob, looming above Boone village and known as Howard's Knob, is a shallow cave or cliff, called Howard's Rock House, in which he is said to have lived while hiding out from the Whigs. Howard remained loyal to the British crown till 1778, when he took the oath of allegiance. (Col. Rec. XXH, p. 172.) His daughter, Sally, was switched by the Whigs near her home on the Yadkin because she refused to tell where her father was. She afterwards married Jordan Councill, Sr., and settled at what is now Boone, where Jesse Robbins has built a house, called the Buck-Horn-Tree place. Bedent Baird moved to Valle Crucis some time after Samuel Hix went there, but Baird was a Whig. David Miller must have settled on Meat Camp early, for he went as a member of the legislature to Raleigh in 1810. Bedent Baird went to Raleigh as a member of the legislature in 1808. Nathan Horton, ancestor of the large and influential Horton family, was a member in 1800. Linville Falls." — One often wonders how these beautiful falls get their name of Linville. According to Archibald D. Murphey

3 Colonel Bryan, however, thinks Howard did not build this cabin, as Jordan Councill the second, Howard's grandson, always called it Boone's cabin. Col. J. M. Isbell, now deceased, told the writer in May, 1909, that Burrell, an old African slave, told him that Howard used it for his herders.

* Some suppose that this river takes its name from the lin-tree, or as it is usually spelt, the lyn or linn, but the Linville family is the source of its name. This tree is what the Germans call the linden. It is scarce in these mountains now because of the fact that its branches are among the first to swell and bud in early spring, and great trees were cut wherever found in the forests in order that the cattle might eat the tender limbs.

20 A History of Watauga County

(Murphey Papers, Vol. II, p. 386), "Two men named Linville from the forks of the Yadkin went to hunt on the Watauga River between 1760 and 1770. They employed John Williams, a lad of sixteen, to go with them, keep camp and cook for them. They were sleeping in the camp wiien the Indians came on them and killed the Linvilles. They shot Williams through the thigh," but he escaped and rode a horse from the mouth of the Watauga "to the Hollows in Surry" in five days. He recovered from his wound and became a man of influence. It is now al- most certain that these falls have taken their name from these two men, who may have visited them before their last hunt and told the people of their location and beauty, for Dr. Draper (note, p. 183) records that the stream itself was named from the fact that in the "latter part of the summer of 1766 William Linville, his son and a young man had gone from the lower Yadkin to this river to hunt, where they were surprised by a party of Indians, the two Linvilles killed, the other person, though badly wounded, effecting his escape. The Linvilles were related to the famous Daniel Boone." It is a matter of record that a family by the name of Linvil — probably an economic way of spelling Linville — were members of Three Forks Baptist Church and lived on what is now known as Dog Skin Creek, or branch, but which stream used to be called Linville Creek. The membership of that church shows that Abraham, Catharine and Margaret Linvil were members between 1790 and 1800, while the minutes show that on the second Saturday in June, 1799, when the Three Forks Church were holding a meeting at Cove Creek, just prior to giving that community a church of its own, Abraham Linvil was received by experience, and in July fol- lowing, at the same place, Catharine and Margaret Linvil also were so received. Several of the older residents of Dog Skin, Brushy Fork and Cove creeks confirm the reality of the resi- dence of the Linville family in that community. In September, 1799. Brother Vanderpool's petition for a constitution at Cove Creek was granted, Catharine Linvil having been granted her letter of dismission the previous August.

CHAPTER III.

Watauga's First Visitor.

The Greed for Land. — All the land had been taken up in 1752 east of Anson county, which was then the westernmost county of the State. (Col. Rec. Vol. V, pp. 2, 3.) It is now a small county just north of the South Carolina line. "As early as 1754 vacant public lands, as we would call them now, could be found in large bodies only in the back settlements near the mountains, and settlers were coming in there in hundreds of wagons from the northwards . . . The immigrants were said to be very industrious people, who went at once into the cultivation of hemp, flax, corn and the breeding of horses and other stock." (Col. Rec. Vol. V, p. xxi.) The McCulloh lands, consisting of 1,200,000 acres, were granted on the 19th of May, '^yyj^ upon condition that 6,000 Protestants should be settled thereon and four shillings quit rents should be paid for each 100 acres by the 14th of March, 1756. These lands were sur- veyed and located on the heads of the Pee Dee, Cape F^ar and Neuse rivers in 1744, in tracts of 100,000 acres each. (Id. xxxii.)

Bishop Spangenberg's Visit.— "In August, 1752, Bishop Spangenberg and his party set out from Bethlehem, Pa., for Edenton, N. C, to locate lands bought the year before from the Earl of Granville for the Moravian settlement. Leaving Eden- ton about the middle of September, their route lay through Chowan, Bertie, Northampton, Edgecombe and Granville, to its western border near the Virginia line, and thence along the Indian Trading Path, as near as can now be ascertained, to the Catawba River, thence up that river to its upper waters, thence by mistake over the divide to New River, thence back to the head waters of the Yadkin and thence down the Yadkin to Muddy Creek, where, some ten miles from the river and from 'the upper Pennsylvania road,' they found some 100,000 acres of land in

21

22 A History of Watauga County

a body unoccupied, which they proceeded at once to take up. In January, 1753, they returned home, having surveyed 73,037 acres of land, to which were added 25.948 acres surveyed by Mr. Churton in the same tract, making in all 98,985 acres. A general deed for the whole tract was made on 7th of August, I753-" (Col. Rec. Vol. V, p. 1146,) The names of the members of Bishop Spangenberg's party were: August Gottlieb Span- genberg, Henry Antes, Jno. Merk, Herman Lash and Timothy Horsefield. Their guides were Henry Day, who lived in Gran- ville county, near Mr. Salis'; Jno. Perkins, who lived on the Catawba River and was known as Andrew Lambert, a well known Scotchman, and Jno. Rhode, who lived about twenty miles from Captain Sennit on the Yadkin road.

The First Visitor to Watauga County. — So far as there is any authentic record to the contrary. Bishop Spangenberg and his party were the first visitors to Watauga county. Following is the record of this visit. (Col. Rec. Vol. IV, p. 10, etc.) :

"December 3. 1752. From the camp on a river in an old Indian field, which is either the head or a branch of New River, which flows through North Carolina to Virginia and into the Mississippi River. Here we have at length arrived after a very toilsome journey over fearful mountains and dangerous cliffs. A hunter whom we had taken along to show us the way to the Yadkin, missed the right path, and we came into a region from which there was no outlet, except by climbing up an indescrib- ably steep mountain. Part of the way we had to crawl on hands and feet; sometimes we had to take the baggage and saddles and the horses and drag them up the mountains (for the horses were in danger of falling down backward — as we had once had an experience), and sometimes we had to pull the horses up while they trembled and quivered like leaves.

"Arrived at the top at last, we saw hundreds of mountain peaks all around us, presenting a spectacle like ocean waves in a storm. We refreshed ourselves a little on the mountain top, and then began the descent, which was neither so steep nor as deep as before, and then we came to a stream of water. Oh, how refreshing this water was to us ! We sought pasture for our

A History of Watauga County 23

horses and rode a long distance, until in the night, but found none but dry leaves. We could have wept with sympathy for the poor beasts. The night had already come over us, so we could but put up our tent. We camped under the trees and had a very quiet night. The next day we journeyed on; got into laurel bushes and beaver dams and had to cut our way through bushes, which fatigued our company very much.

"Then we changed our course — left the river and went up the mountain, where the Lord brought us to a delicious spring and good pasturage on a chestnut ridge. He)sent us, also, at this juncture two deer, which were most accfeptable additions to our larder. The next day we came to a creeK so full of rocks that we could not possibly cross it, and on both sides were such precipitous banks that scarcely a man, and certainly no Tiorse, could climb them. Here we took some refreshments, for we were weary. But our horses had nothing — absolutely nothing; this pained us inexpressibly. Directly came a hunter who had climbed a mountain and had seen a large meadow. Thereupon we scrambled down to the water, dragged ourselves along the mountain and came before night into a large plain.

"This caused rejoicing for men and beasts. We pitched our tent, but scarcely had we finished when such a fierce wind storm burst upon us that we could scarcely protect ourselves against it. I cannot remember that I have ever in winter anywhere encoun- tered so hard or so cold a wind. The ground was soon covered with snow ankle deep, and the water froze for us aside the fire. Our people became thoroughly disheartened. Our horses would certainly perish and we with them. The next day we had fine sunshine, and then warmer days, though the nights were 'horri- bly' cold. Then we went to examine the land. A large part of it is already cleared and there long grass abounds and this is all bottom.

"Three creeks flow together here and make a considerable river which flows into the Ohio, and thence into the Mississippi, according to the best knowledge of our hunters. In addition, there are almost countless springs and little runs of water which come from the mountains and flow through the country, making

24 A History of Watauga County

almost more meadow land than one could make use of. There is not a trace of reeds here, but so much grass land that Brother H, Antes thinks a man could make several hundred loads of hay of the wild grass, which would answer very well if only it be cut and cured at the proper time. There is land here suitable for wheat, corn, oats, barley, hemp, etc. Some of the land will probably be flooded when there is high water. There is a mag- nificent chestnut and pine forest near here. Whetstones and mill stones, which Brother Antes regards the best he has seen in North Carolina, are plenty. The soil is here mostly limestone and of a cold nature. The waters are all liigher than on the east side of the Blue Ridge. We surveyed this land and took up 5,400 acres in our lines. We have a good many mountains, but they are very fertile and admit of cultivation. Some of them are already covered with wood and are easily accessible. Many hundred, yes, thousands — crab-apple trees grow here, which may be useful for vinegar. One of the creeks presents a number of admirable seats for milling purposes.

"This survey lies about fifteen miles from the Mrginia line, as we saw the Meadow Mountain and judged it to be about twenty miles distant. This mountain lies five miles from the line between Virginia and North Carolina. In all probability this tract would make an admirable settlement for Christian In- dians, like Gradenhutten in Pennsylvania. There is wood, mast, wild game, fish and a free range for hunting, and admirable land for corn, potatoes, etc. For stock raising, it is also in- comparable." (From this favored spot they went through the mountains by Reddy's river to the Mulberry Fields and entered land in the neighborhood of what is now Wilkesborough and the Moravian Falls, which took its name from them.)

Where Was This Indian Old Field? — The question arises as to the location of the old Indian field at the head of a prong of New River, where 5,400 acres of land were surveyed and taken up. It will help one to determine this by ascertaining the route by which it had been reached. The entry in the diary immediately preceding that of December 3d, the date on which this spot was described, is November 29, 1752, and was written

A History of Watauga County 25

at the camp "at the upper fork of the second or middle river which flows into the Catawba not far from Quaker Meadows." This indicates that there are three streams which flow into the Catawba at or near Quaker Meadows. There is nothing in the diary to indicate which he calls the first of these "Httle rivers," but there is no doubt as to the third. It is the entry of November 24th "from the camp in the fork of the third river which empties into the Catawba near Quaker Meadows, about five miles from Table Mountain," now called Table Rock. That could be none other than the Linville River, and, as Johns River is the next below that, it follows that it must necessarily be the "second" or "middle little river." Following up Johns River, he had come on the 25th to the mouth of Wilson's Creek, where he took up 2,000 acres. This is the lower fork of Johns River. The upper fork of this river is at Globe, where the Gragg prong joins the main stream and where Carroll Moore had a mill years ago. It was at this upper fork of middle little river that the following description of the Globe was written:

"With respect to this locality where we are now encamped, one might call it a basin or kettle. It is a cove in the mountains, and is very rich soil. Two creeks, one larger than the other, flow through it. Various springs of very sweet water form lovely meadow lands. Mills may easily be built, as there is fall enough. Below the forks the stream becomes quite a large one. Of wood there is no lack. Our horses find abundant pasture among the buflFalo haunts and tame grass among the springs, which they eat greedily, and certainly the settlers of this place can very soon make meadows if they wish. Not only is the land suitable for hemp, oats, barley, etc., but there is excellent wheat land here also. There is also abundance of stone, not on the land, but on the surrounding mountains . . . This survey would contain in itself all the requisites to make comfortable farms and homes for about ten couples."

While there, "A hunter whom we had taken along to show us the way to the Yadkin missed the right path, and we came into a region from which there was no outlet except by climbing up an indescribably steep mountain. Part of the way we had to

26 A History of Watauga County

crawl on hands and feet. Sometimes we liad to take the bag- gage and saddles and the horses and drag them up the moun- tains . . . and sometimes we had to pull the horses up, while they trembled and quivered like leaves. Arrived at the top, we saw hundreds of mountain peaks all around us, present- ing a spectacle like ocean waves in a storm." Could this have been any other place than Blowing Rock ?

Their Route from Blowing Rock, — From this point they went down to a stream, where they got water, but no pasturage, and, consequently, they "continued on a long distance" the same day, camping, at last, after nightfall, beneath trees, but without having found pasturage for their horses. This stream must have been either Flannery's Fork — now Winkler's Mill Creek — or the middle fork of New River, but where they camped can- not be determined, though it seems certain that they camped there on the 30th of November. On the first of December they "journeyed on ; got into laurel bushes and beaver dams" and had to "cut a way through the bushes," but, being fatigued with this task, they changed their course during this day and "left the river and went up the mountain, where the Lord brought us to a delicious spring and good pasturage on a chestnut ridge." The next day, December 2d, they came to a creek so "full of rocks that we could not possibly cross it. and on both sides were such precipitous banks that scarcely a man, and certainly no horse, could climb them." But there was no pasturage. It was then that "a hunter, who had climbed a mountain and had seen a large meadow," guided them "into a largo plain." the spot described with so much particularity. But. on that night of December 2d. a terrible wind and snow storm assailed them and caused them to suffer very much, but it passed, and the next day, December 3d. they made their investigations and described the goodly land to which they thought they had been providen- tially guided.

Conflicting Claims. — Three forks of New River, near Boone, the old field at the mouth of Gap Creek, and Grassy Creek, in Ashe County, have characteristics similar to those described, but only Grassy Creek has the limestone formation. Unless the

COLONEL WILLIAM LEWIS BRYAN. Historian and trail finder.

A History of Watauga County 27

good Bishop knew where the Virginia-North CaroHna Hne was, it is difficult to know why he stated that this spot was "about fifteen miles from the Virginia line," and the reason he gives for this conclusion is still more puzzling, as there is no mountain in Virginia five miles from the line now known as the Meadow Mountain, while the Bald, in Watauga County, is almost directly north of the three forks and apparently about twenty miles away. In reality, it is not over ten, but it is bald and looked like a meadow, at that time, with snow all over it. On the other hand. White Top is about twenty miles from Grassy Creek and four miles from Pond Mountain, the corner between North Carolina and Virginia and Tennessee. As this is bare around its crown of lashorns, it may be that it was called the Meadow Mountain at that time.

Col. W. L. Bryan's View. — After reading Bishop Spangen- berg's account of his trip west of the Blue Ridge, Colonel Bryan, of Boone, thinks that the Bishop got to the stream that forms Cone's Lake, near Blowing Rock, and rode north along the top of Flat Top ridge "a long distance" and camped under trees November 30th. That on December ist he got into laurel bushes and beaver dams on the middle fork of the south fork of New River, which he left and went back on Flat Top range to a spring, still known as Flat Top Spring, and now owned by Thomas Cannon, but which was first settled by Alex. Elrod some- time in the fifties. This spring is on land where there used to be large chestnut trees, and is the most noted spring near. On December 2d the Bishop was on either Winkler's Creek— form- erly called Flannery's Fork — or on the middle fork, though the rocks and clififs and precipices are more marked on Winkler's Creek than on middle fork, especially above or below what is now the Austin place, or where Moses Johnson has a mill. Colonel Bryan thinks that the mountain on which the hunter climbed was Flat Top peak, as from it the meadow in which the three forks join is plainly visible and the bald of Long Hope Mountain, lying almost due north, can be distinctly seen, and this was the mountain which the Bishop mistook for Meadow Mountain in Virginia, now known as White Top. Between the

28 A History of Watauga County

junction of the three creeks, forming Three Forks, and the first bend below that point there used to be a large crab orchard — say, about 1855 — and on the new road from Boone to the new electric power dam on south fork whetstones can be found.

Captain \V. H. Witherspoon. of Jefferson, thinks that the Meadow Mountain which Bishop Spangenberg saw was the WTiite Top, and that the stream where three creeks meet were the Naked. Ravens and Beaver Creeks, flowing into the south fork of New River, four or five miles east of Jefferson. He thought the Moravians had owned land there; that there is a limestone formation there, and that grindstones are found near. This is about fifteen miles from the Virginia line. White Top is visible from this point, and is about twenty miles distant. Also that there is a pine and chestnut forest south of the south fork of New River and between that river and the Blue Ridge.

CHAPTER IV.

Daniel Boone.

No Direct Daniel Boone Descendants in North Carolina. —

According to Thwaites and Bruce, the children of Daniel Boone were James, Israel, Susannah, Jemima, Lavinia, Rebecca, Daniel Morgan, John and Nathan. According to Bruce (p. 87), John was a mere infant in arms when his mother started with her family for Kentucky in September, 1773. John's middle name was Bryan, in honor of his mother's family name. Neither Jesse nor Jonathan Boone, who lived afterwards in Watauga County, were sons of Daniel Boone, nor was Anna, who married William Coffey. So far as the writer knows, there are no direct lineal descendants of Daniel Boone in North Carolina or Ten- nessee.

Boone's Watauga Relatives. — There is a tradition that Anna, a niece of Daniel Boone, was married in the log house which formerly stood on the site of the present residence of Joseph Hardin, a mile or more east of the town of Boone. Jesse Boone, a nephew of Daniel, certainly lived near the top of the Blue Ridge in a cabin which used to stand in a five-acre field four miles above Shull's Mills, to the right of the old Morganton road. The foundation stones of the old chimney and the spring are still pointed out. The land on which that cabin stood was entered by Jesse November 7, 18 14, and the grant for it was made November 29, 1817, the tract containing 100 acres, and beginning on Jesse Coffey's corner. (Ashe County deed book F, p. 170.) By a deed dated July 8, 1823, Jesse Boone conveyed to Wm. and Alex. Elrod 350 acres on Flannery's Fork (now Winkler's Mill Creek) of New River, and on Roaring Branch, two miles from the town of Boone, Mr. J. Watts Farthing now owning the deed. Anna Boone, the wife of Wm. Coffey, and Jesse Boone's sister, talked with this Mr. Farthing about the year 1871 while he was building a house for her grandson,

29

30 A History of Watauga County

Patrick Coffey, in Caldwell County. Hannah Boone, another sister of Jesse's, married Smith Coffey, the grandfather of the present Smith Coffey, of Kelsey post office. According to the family history of the Bryan family in the possession of Col. W. L. Bryan, of Boone, it was Morgan Bryan, and not Joseph, as all histories have it, who was the father of Rebecca Bryan, the wife of Daniel Boone. Bishop Spangenberg mentions the fact that Morgan Bryant had taken up land near the Mulberry Fields in 1752. (Col. Rec. Vol. V, p. 13.) According to the same family history, Morgan Bryan was the ancestor of Hon. W. J. Bryan, of Nebraska. Jesse, Anna and Hannah Boone were the children of Israel, a brother of Daniel Boone, not his own children. The same is true of Jonathan Boone, who sold to John Hardin, the grandfather of the present John and Joseph Hardin, of Boone. 245 acres on the 15th of September, 1821, for $600.00, the land being on what was then called Lynch's and Mill Creeks on the north side of New River, and adjoining the lands of Jesse Councill. and running to Shearer's Knob, near the town of Boone. ( Ashe County deed book S. p. 509.)

Jesse and Jonathan Boone. — These were members of Three Forks Baptist Church, which speaks well for these relatives of the great Daniel, for he was a religious man himself, his simple creed being: "For my part I am as ignorant as a Child all the Relegan I have to love and feer god believe in Jesus Christ Do all the good to my neighbors and my Self that I can and Do as Little harm as I can help and trust on God's mercy for the rest and I believe god never made a man of my principel to be Lost . . ." What was the creed of Jesse and Jonathan does not appear beyond that implied by their membership of this church. But that each overstepped the rules of that organiza- tion is apparent, the minutes revealing the following facts : That in March, 1818, there was a report that Jonathan Boone was drinking too much, but that at the next meeting he came for- ward and made excuses and was forgiven. However, in May, 1819, there was another report against him for drinking and get- ting drunk and not attending at church meetings, the result of which was: "\\'e consider him no more a member with us at

A History of Watauga County 31

this time." Before that, however, Jesse and his wife, "Saly," joined this church by letter, as did also his negro girl, Dina, and his brother, Jonathan. In November, 181 5, Jonathan was chosen an elder, and in February, 1816, he was ordained by Reuben Coflfey and Elijah Chambers. Jesse seems to have kept out of trouble for a long time, but in February, 1820, there was a report that he had requested Brother Jeremiah Green to re- move a land-mark — laid over — not proved. But, in "Aprile, 1820, a grievance" took place between Jesse Boone, of this church, and Brother Jesse Coffey, of the Globe church, and James Gilbert and Elisha Chambers, from the Globe church, and Anthony Reese and Robert Shearer, from this church, were ap- pointed to meet at Ben Green's on the second Saturday next ensuing "to set on the business." In June following this com- mittee reported that Jesse Boone had given Brother Jesse Coffey "some cause to be hurt with him." In September, 1820, Jesse Boone and Jonathan Wilson said "the church was not in order," and withdrew therefrom. This did not increase Jesse's popu- larity with the members, and he was excluded by a committee consisting of John Holtsclaw, Abijah Fairchild, Valentine Reese and Jacob Baker; but, in October, 1821, the terms were fixed upon which he might return, these terms being that he should make acknowledgment for having withdrawn and saying that the church was out of order. At this meeting the church also took up the charges of Brother Wilson and Brother Boone against Brother Shearer, who acknowledged all that had any "wate" (weight) in them; but the church found that Brother Boone was at fault because he said he could "not see his range, and we put him under suspense till he can give satisfaction." Jesse Boone having been excluded "from amonks us," his loyal wife began to absent herself from the meetings, and, accord- ingly, in January, 1823, she was sent for to come to meetings; but as she refused from time to time to do so, "Sister Poly Green," the messenger sent to secure her attendance, reported that Sister Boone had said that the church would have to "cut her off" for the reason that when she (Sister Boone) had joined the church there were many members in it with whom "she

32 A History of Watauga County

could not fellowship," but that as her husband had joined, she had followed him into the fold. She was excommunicated as a "disorderly member and declared to the world our unfellowship to her." In November following a letter of dismission was given "old Sister Boone," who may have been Jesse's mother, as it was probably not his wife, who wrote from McMinn County, Tennessee, asking for a letter of dismission. But this the church decided to withhold till it got "satisfaction," meanwhile writing "a friendly letter to her." This concludes the residence of the Boones in that part of Ashe which is now Watauga.

Marking the Trail. — On the 23d day of October, 1913, the tablet which had been placed at Boone village as one of the markers on the trail of Daniel Boone through these mountains was unveiled. This is one of six similar markers of iron-bolted- to-stone boulders erected in Watauga County in October, 1913, by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The most east- ern of these markers was placed at what is now called Cook's Gap, six miles east of the town of Boone ; the next is at Three Forks Baptist Church, three miles from Boone ; the third is in front of the court house at Boone ; the fourth is in Hodges' Gap, two miles west of Boone ; the fifth is at Grave Yard or Straddle Gap, four miles west of Boone, and the sixth and last is at Zionville, near the Tennessee line. The Edward Buncombe Chapter, D. A. R., of Asheville, was in charge of the unveiling of the marker at Boone. The exercises consisted of reading of the ritual of the D. A. R. society by the State Regent, Mrs. W. N. Reynolds, and responses by the audience, introductory re- marks by Col. Edward F. Lovill, prayer by Rev. J. M. Downum, and addresses by John P. Arthur, Prof. B. B. Dougherty and E. S. CoflFey, Esq., and songs by a choir, led by Prof. I. G. Greer. The county court house was filled. The veil was withdrawn from the marker, at the conclusion of these exercises, by the following little girls : Misses Margaret Beaufort Miller, a niece of Mrs. Lindsay Patterson ; Margaret Linney, Alice Councill, Lucy Moretz and Nellie Coffey, all having Revolutionary ances- tors. Short addresses were made in the open air to the people who had gathered around the marker by Mrs. W. N. Reynolds,

r

DANIEL BOONE CABIN MONUMENT Erected by Colonel W. L. Bryan, October, 191 2.

A History of Watauga County 33

State Regent; Mrs. Lindsay Patterson, chairman of the Com- mittee on Boone's Trail, and Mrs. Theodore S. Morrison, Regent of the Edward Buncombe Chapter.

Boone's Cabin Monument.— In October, 1912, just one year previous to the unveiHng of the markers along the Boone trail through Watauga, a monument of stone and concrete, far more imposing and substantial than any erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution, had been built on the identical spot on which once stood the log cabin in which Daniel Boone and his companions used to sleep when on their hunting trips through this section. This cabin has long since disappeared, but the stones of the chimney remained in their original bed or founda- tion till 191 1, and were well known by all in the vicinity as hav- ing been a part of the old Boone cabin or hunting camp. It was open to all who cared to use it in the old days before the country was settled. Whether Boone actually built it is imma- terial. He used it, as did all hunters and herders who found themselves in this locality near nightfall. Just south of it stands the Boys' Dormitory of the Appalachian Training School, a State-supported institution for the education of teachers. In this cabin Benjamin Howard and his herders used to keep their salt and cooking utensils when they visited this section to look after Howard's cattle, which he ranged in the upper valley of the New River. What is now the village or town of Boone stands near by, while over this picturesque Httle community looms Howard's Knob, 4,451 feet above the level of the sea. Tradition has identified this spot with both Boone and Howard as fully as tradition can identify any fact or place. The mountain was named for Howard and the cabin site for Boone. When Wa- tauga was formed, the legislature called the county-seat Boone because of the location of Boone's cabin within a few hundred feet of its court house. It is, therefore, as certain as anything can be that this is the identical site of Boone's old hunting cabin or camp.^

Thanks to Its Builder. — In 191 1 Col. William Lewis Bryan began work on this monument, alone and unaided by anyone.

1 While excavating for the foundation of the monument a pair of rusted bullet-molds was found.

34 -4 History of Watauga County

He was determined to mark the spot and to have Boone's trail through this county marked also before he died, for he was then well on past his seventieth birthday. The monument was completed in the fall of 1912, but there was no unveiling and no ceremony attending the consummation of Colonel Bryan's dream. When its erection was assured, several people contributed to its cost. When the trail was marked at Boone court house in Octo- ber, 1913, E. S. Coffey, Esq., a distinguished member of the Boone bar, presented a resolution of thanks to Colonel Bryan for his services in having this spot so appropriately and perma- nently marked. The resolution was adopted by a rising vote of the large audience which packed the court house to the dome. The monument contains the following inscriptions, chiseled in white marble tablets let in on the western and eastern faces : On the west front: "Daniel Boone, Pioneer and Hunter; Born Feb. II, 1735; Died Sep. 26, 1820." On the eastern face is the following: "W. L. Bryan, son of Battle and Rebecca Miller Bryan; Born Nov. 19, 1837; Built Daniel Boone Monument, Oct. 1912. Cost $203.37." Thwaite gives these dates as fol- lows (p. 6): Born November 2, 1734; died September 21, 1820 (p. 338).

Information About the Trail. — This same gentleman. Colonel Bryan, supplied the information which led to the location of the trail through Watauga County. He is a direct lineal descendant of a brother of Rebecca Bryan, the wife of Daniel Boone, and has all his life preserved all the traditions he has heard concern- ing Boone, his wife, his trail and hunting experiences in this section. He originated and inspired the idea of marking the trail through this county, and it is not too much to say that if the Daughters of the American Revolution had not marked it, he would have done it himself. He did, in fact, help place every marker in the county. But, after all the statements of the people living along the trail had been taken down and deposited with the North Carohna Historical Commission, there was never any doubt that these patriotic ladies would see to it that the trail was suitably marked. They took those statements and placed them with Mrs. Lindsey Patterson, as chairman of the Daniel Boone

A History of Watauga County 35

Trail Committee, and she, as in duty bound, collected all the other evidence available from all sources, and finally agreed to place the markers exactly where Colonel Bryan had recom- mended that they should be placed. It is not too much to say that but for Mrs. Patterson the trail would not have been marked till it was too late to locate it with any degree of certainty, and posterity will give both Colonel Bryan and Mrs. Patterson their full measure of gratitude for their patriotic work.

The Cumberland Gap Pedestal.— To Mrs. Patterson is also due much of the credit of interesting the chapters of her order to mark the trail in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, till today the entire trail is permanently marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution of those several States. The whole work was crowned on the 30th of June, 1915, by unveiling at Cumber- land Gap a substantial stone and concrete pedestal, bearing on its four faces tablets of the Daughters of the American Revo- lution of these several States. The North Carolina tablet was unveiled by Miss Elizabeth Cowles Finley, of Wilkesborough, N. C, a direct lineal descendant of John Finley; little Margaret Beaufort Miller, Wm. Hamilton Patterson, of Winston-Salem; Elinor Morrison Williamson, of Asheville ; Elizabeth Sharp, of New York City, and Elizabeth Shelton, all with Revolutionary ancestors.

Boone's Trail in Other States.— The Tennessee part of the trail traverses the four eastern counties, Johnson, Carter, Wash- ington and Sullivan . . . The first marker on Tennessee soil is at Trade, one mile from Zionville, N. C. ; the second is at Shoun's, nine miles due north, through a wild and picturesque gorge along Roan Creek. The third is at Butler, southwest four- teen miles from Shoun's and at the junction of Roan Creek and Watauga River; the fourth is about nineteen miles due north at Elizabethton ; the fifth, at Watauga, Carter County; the sixth is placed at Austin Springs, Washington County; the .eighth is at Old Fort, south end of Long Island, Sullivan County ; the ninth is at Kingsport, opposite the center of Long Island, where Boone gathered his men while the treaty of Sycamore Shoals was being negotiated, two miles from the Virginia line.

36 A History of Watauga County

The Virginia markers are at Gate City, the county seat of Scott County, one mile from Moccasin Gap ; the second marker in Virginia is at CHnchport; the third is at the Natural Tunnel; the fourth is at Duffield ; the fifth is at Fort Scott ; the sixth is at Jonesville, the county seat of Lee County ; the seventh is at Boone Path postofiice, A marker has been placed at two graves between Ewing and Wheeler's Station in Lee County, as prob- ably the place where James Boone, son of Daniel, was massacred by Indians. The eighth tablet was erected to mark the site of Fort Blackmore, where a colonial fort stood in Scott County, and where the Boone party rested in October, 1773, until March, 1775. Mrs. Robert Gray was in charge of marking the trail in Virginia, while Miss Mary Temple had charge of that in Ten- nessee. The first marker in Kentucky is at Indian Rock, a few miles from Cumberland Gap; the second is at the ford of the Cumberland River at Pineville; the third is at Flat Lick, in Knox County ; the fourth is on the farm of C. V. Wilson, near Jarvis's Store; the fifth is on the Knox and Laurel County line, near Tuttle ; the sixth is at Fairston ; the seventh is a boulder with Boone's name on it, three miles and a half from East Bern- stadt. This stone was placed in a churchyard and the marker placed on the stone. The eighth marker is in Rockcastle County near Livingston ; the next is at Boone's Hollow, near Bruch Creek, then Roundstone Station and lastly Boone Gap. In Madison County, Berea is the first marker ; then Estell Station, the site of Fort Estell, and the place where Boone's party was attacked by Indians and Captain Twitty killed. The last marker is at Boonesboro, there being fourteen markers in Kentucky, all placed under the direction of the State Chairman, Miss Erna Watson.

A National Spot and a National Hero. — Upon this pedestal in Cumberland Gap the Congress of these United States should soon erect a bronze statue of Daniel Boone, clad in hunting shirt, fringed leggings, moccasins, shot pouch, powder horn, hunting knife, tomahawk, etc., with the figure leaning slightly forward while peering from underneath the left hand toward the west, the right hand grasping the barrel of his long flint-lock Kentucky

A History of Watauga County 37

rifle, whose butt should be resting on the ground. The figure should have a coon-skin cap; for, although Thwaites says that Boone scorned the coon-skin cap of his time, it was none the less typical of the head-gear of all the pioneers of the time. Such a statue would identify this historic spot with this historic character and fix forever the costume, accoutrements and arms of the pion- eers of America. It is the most significant and suggestive place in America ; for, while Plymouth Rock was the landing place of the Puritans, Jamestown of the Cavaliers, Philadelphia of the Quakers and Charleston of the Huguenots, it was through Cum- berland Gap that both Roundhead and Huguenot, Puritan and Cavalier passed with the sober Quaker on their way to the Golden West. Boone was their greatest and most typical leader and exemplar. He was colonel and private, physician and nurse, leader and follower, hunter and hunted, as occasion demanded, but he was never a self-seeker or a swindler. His fame is now monumental, for he had no land to sell, no private fortune to make, and his record is one of unsulHed patriotism. He was simply a plain man, but a man all through. He was neither northerner nor southerner, easterner nor westerner, but all com- bined, and the men, women and children who followed the glow- ing footsteps of this backwoods lictor were the ancestors of those who people these United States today and make it the most enlightened, the most progressive and the most democratic nation in the world. That there should be no national monument to this man and on this spot seems incredible. The women and the States immediately concerned have done enough. They have marked every trail leading to this historic gateway. Let the nation act and place there a monument which shall be worthy of the place, the man, and the colossal events which they typify. History Itself Had Lost the Trail. — For years it had been supposed that Boone's trail from Holman's Ford to Cumberland Gap, especially that part which led through the North Carolina mountains, had been lost beyond recovery. It was known in a vague way that the county-seat of Watauga County, North Caro- lina, had been named in honor of this pioneer, but the impression prevailed that the little town had no other claims to its name

38 A History of Watauga County

than the empty compliment implied. Bruce (p. 53) records the fact that, after setting out from Holman's Ford, Boone and his companions were "compelled to turn from the beaten road and follow winding, scarcely discernable Indian paths along the ridges and through the valleys of the North Carolina mountains. And history itself soon loses sight of them." All that Boone himself told his biographer, the grandiloquent John Filson, was that "after a long and fatiguing journey through a mountainous wilderness, in a zvestivard direction," they came to the Red River in Kentucky. (Id. p. 54.) Bruce adds, what all historians agree upon, that "their route lay across the Blue Ridge and Stone and Iron Mountains, and through the valleys of the Hol- ston and the Clinch into Powell's Valley, where they discovered Finley's promised trail through Cifmberland Gap, and, following it, came at last into Kentucky." And this writer tells us some- thing else that is not generally known, which is that each man of Boone's party on that first trip of 1769 rode a horse and led another, which was loaded down with supplies, camp equipment, ammunition, salt, etc. (p. 52). From which it is plain that they never touched the Watauga River or its waters, thus eliminating the Beaver Dams route completely.

Boone Was a Hunter, Not a Farmer. — Boone came to Hol- man's Ford about 1761. Bruce says he brought his wife back from Virginia at the conclusion of the Cherokee campaign — to use his exact words, "as soon as peace had been made sure" — which could not have been till after the tri-State campaign against the Cherokees of 1761 (p. 43). Now, Holman's Ford is scarcely thirty miles from Cook's Gap on the Blue Ridge, and we are told that Boone's Cherokee campaign "had reawakened all his latent passion for adventure, and, although he brought his family back to the Yadkin as soon as peace had been made sure, he found it impossible to resume the humdrum life of a stay-at-home farmer. More than ever he relied on the products of the chase to supply him with a livelihood, and, since game had become scarce in the Yadkin Valley, he of necessity, as well as choice, embarked on long and perilous hunting trips" (p. 46), sometimes taking with him his oldest son, James, then a boy of eight, though more fre-

A History of Watauga County 39

quently he journeyed in absolute solitude, pressing restlessly forward on the trail of the retreating beasts of prey. Always, he noted, this led him towards the west, and ere long there re- curred to his mind the glowing tales he had heard from the trader Finley in the sad days of Braddock's campaign. It must be to Kentucky, the hunter's paradise, that the wild animals were fleeing. He had vowed to visit Kentucky. Now, if ever, while the Indians were at peace with the whites, was the time to fulfil that vow. But he soon discovered that it was no easy matter to reach Kentucky. In the autumn of 1767 he made his first start, accompanied by a friend named Hill, and, it is thought, by his brother, Squire Boone, named after their brave old father who had died two years before. The route followed was from the Yadkin to the valleys of the Holston and Clinch, and thence to the head waters of the west fork of the Big Sandy. Boone's plan was to strike the Ohio and follow it to the falls of which Finley had told him. But they had only touched the edge of eastern Kentucky when they were snow-bound and compelled to go into camp for the winter. Attempting to renew their journey in the spring, they found the country so impenetrable that they returned to the Yadkin. (Pp. 47, 48.)

Probability of the Re-location of the Trail. — From the fore- going, taken from Boone's latest biographer, it seems most prob- able that local tradition is correct, to the effect that Boone hunted all through the mountains of what is now Watauga County dur- ing several years preceding 1769, and knew the country thor- oughly. In Foote's Notes we learn that what is now Watauga, with Alleghany County and that part of the territory still known as Ashe, was settled as early as 1755. Wheeler (p. 2y, Vol. II) adopts this statement as true. Cook's Gap and Deep Gap were nearly due west from Holman's Ford. If Boone really followed "a westward direction" from Holman's Ford, he must have passed through one of these gaps, and, as Cook's Gap was the nearer, he probably went through that. If he followed the Hol- ston and the Clinch into Powell's Valley, he must have followed the route marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution Society through Watauga County to Shoun's Cross Roads, and

40 A History of Watatiga County

thence via Mountain City and down the Laurel fork of the Holston River. If the country was already settled when he passed through in May, 1769, the people who lived near his trail must have remembered it and told their children where it lay. There is great unanimity among their descendants that it fol- lowed the route chosen, except that some contend that it went through the Beaver Dams and across the Stair Gap' to Roan Creek in Tennessee. It may have done so, but the route over the mountains between Zionville, N. C, and Trade, Tenn., was much easier, as a buffalo trail led across it, and it was far more direct and practicable than that across Ward's Gap and the Stair Gap. When he got to Shoun's Cross Roads, he probably followed Laurel Creek, just as the little narrow gauge railroad does, over the divide to the Laurel fork of the Holston. He knew this route, having followed it twice before, once in 1761 to the Wolf Hills, and again in 1767 to the west fork of the Big Sandy. But he did not go by Butler, Tenn., wherever else he may have gone, unless he deliberately went many miles out of his westward way. The Boone Tree Inscription. — The inscription on what is called the Boone Tree, nine miles north of Jonesboro, Tenn., and near Boone Creek, grows more and more apocryphal with time. It never had any sponsor, at best, except the statement of Chancellor John Allison's letter in Roosevelt's "Winning of the West." The picture of it in Thwaites' "Daniel Boone," opposite page 56, shows that the letters were then legible, which could not have been the case if they had been put there in 1760. Bruce, in a foot-note on page 46, says that such a tree stood there until recently, but he gives facts which show it could not have been put there by Boone, for he shows, on page 39, that in April, 1759, the Cherokees forced an entrance into the fertile Yadkin and Catawba valleys, destroyed crops, burned cabins, murdered settlers, and dragged their wives and children into a cruel cap- tivity.' So sudden and severe was the blow that the stricken people had no opportunity to rally for an organized resistance,

' This is called Star Gap by some from particles of mica seen in the bottom of a spring at the base of the mountain, which shine "like stars." But others claim it is really the Stair gap, because a series of stair-like ledges of rock lead down from the gap on the western side. Bishop Asbury confirms this latter view. (Asbury's Journal, Vol. II, p. 189).

' The tree, a large leaning beech, was there in June, 1909, and is probably still flourishing, as is many another false witness.

A History of Watauga County 41

much less undertake an offensive campaign. Abandoning their farms, they hastened for sheher to the strong stockade of Fort Dobbs, or to hurriedly constructed "houses of refuge," or else, if they could possibly find the means to do so, fled with all their belongings to the settlements in the tidewater country. This was the course followed by the Boones, or, at least, by Squire Boone, his son Daniel and their respective families. Squire, it is said, went to Maryland. Daniel took Rebecca and their infant chil- dren to eastern Virginia, where he found employment at his old occupation of wagoner.

Boone's First Trip Across the Mountains. — Although Bruce, following the phantom of the Boone Tree legend, states that "as early as 1760 (at the very time when he says elsewhere, page 41, that Boone was with Waddell at Fort Prince George or in Virginia) he (Boone) was threading his way through the Watauga wilds where the first settlement in Tennessee was afterwards established," he cites no supporting facts and is clearly contradicted by every known fact and circumstance of this period. But there is evidence that "in 1761, at the head of a hunting party which crossed the Alleghanies that year, came Daniel Boone from the Yadkin, in North Carolina, and traveled with them as low as the place where Abingdon now stands, and there left them." (Pp. 46, 47.) This visit to the site of the present Abingdon, Va., is still preserved there in a tradition which claims that wolves attacked Boone's party while in that vicinity, which fact gave rise to the first name of that locality, "The Wolf Hills." This trip of 1761 was probably Boone's first visit beyond the Blue Ridge. Bruce says (p. 47) that Boone was again in the Tennessee country three years later, or in 1764, and that in 1765 he went as far south as Florida, and would have settled there but for the influence of his wife, Rebecca Bryan, of the Yadkin Valley. If he had remained in Florida, Bruce adds "assuredly he would never have won fame as the great pilot of the early West." So that, after all, the world owes as much to Rebecca Bryan as to Boone himself !

At Fort Prince George in 1760. — Instead of being on Boone's Creek, carving his name and hunting experiences on trees in

42 A History of Watauga County

1760, Daniel Boone was with Colonel IMontgomery in June of that year, driving the Cherokees from the vicinity of Fort Prince George at the head of the Savannah ; while, between then and 1759, he had been in eastern Virginia or about Fort Dobbs, for Bruce tells us (p. 40) that "so soon as he had satisfied himself that his little family would not be exposed to want [in eastern Virginia] he returned to the border, where he found thrilling events in progress. The Cherokees had laid desperate siege to Fort Dobbs, but had been gallantly beaten off by its garrison under command of Colonel Hugh Waddell, one of the foremost Indian fighters of his day. They had then renewed their depreda- tions in small war-parties, ultimately gathering in force to attack Fort Prince George . . ." After driving the Cherokees away from that fort, Montgomery marched his force of 1,200 men, among whom was Daniel Boone, still under command of Wad- dell, across the mountains to the Little Tennessee, where they were ambushed and forced to retreat to Fort Prince George. From this place Montgomery marched his regulars back to Charleston, S. C, where he embarked with them for New York. "Once more the frontier of Georgia and the Carolinas lay at the mercy of the copper-colored foe (p. 42)." The garrison at Fort Loudon on the Little Tennessee having surrendered, they were allowed to start back for Fort Prince George, but were attacked and many killed, the others being taken prisoners. This forced the three States of Virginia, North and South Carolina to agree on a joint invasion of the Cherokee country, and by June, 1761, two armies were on the march to that country, in the second of which Boone found a place still under Hugh Waddell. This provides for all of Boone's time from 1759 till late in 1761, which shows that he could not have "cilled a bar'' on that or any other tree near there in 1760. It is, however, very discouraging to note the persistence of falsehoods, if only they bear a flavor of romance about them.

Richard Henderson. — In a series of brilliant articles entitled, "Life and Times of Richard Henderson," which appeared in the Charlotte Observer in the spring of 1913, Dr. Archibald Hender- son, then the president of the North Carolina Historical Com-

A History of Watauga County 43

mission, makes the following claims for his ancestor : "Richard Henderson was recognized everywhere throughout the colony as a fair and just judge," but, notwithstanding that, the Regulators, who fought the battle of Alamance, unjustifiably prevented him from holding court at Hillsboro, visited their "cowardly incen- diary vengeance upon" him, and maliciously burnt his home and barn. Also, that but for his illness, Richard Henderson, who was a colonel as well as a judge, would have fought against these Regulators at the battle of Alamance/ That the reason Judge Henderson would not comply with the demands of the Regula- tors at Hillsborough in 1770 was because he would not "yield to the dictates of lawless and incensed anarchists." Also, that "the sentiment which animated the mob at Hillsboro was not one of animosity against Judge Henderson personally," their objection to him having been, seemingly, to the system and that he had been appointed by Governor Tryon and not by the king himself. This, however, was not the case with Judge Maurice Moore, who, according to Dr. Henderson, "was roundly denounced by the Regulators as 'rascal, rogue, villain, scoundrel' and other un- printable terms . . ." We are also told that "the demands made upon Judge Henderson by the treasonable mob at Hills- borough, had he attempted to accede to them, which is incon- ceivable, would have resulted in a travesty of justice." But, even before this, and notwithstanding the proclamation of King George in 1763, forbidding the purchase or lease of lands by individuals from the Indians, Judge Henderson was contemplating the pur- chase of the very lands the six nations of northern Indians had, by treaty at Fort Stanwix, in 1768, sold to Great Britain. Wash- ington himself was engaged in a like scheme in Virginia, we are told, but Dr. Henderson says : "It is no reflection upon the fame of George Washington to point out that, of the two, the service to the nation of Richard Henderson in promoting western colon- ization was vastly more generous in its nature and far-reaching in its results than the more selfish and personal aims of Wash-

* The real leaders of the western expansion were James Robertson and the fourteen families from the present county of Wake, who, in 1770 or 1771, had been driven to seek new homes beyond the reach of the exactions of the British tax collectors.

44 ^ History of Watauga County

ington." In order to carry out this plan, Judge Henderson in 1769 employed Daniel Boone at Salisbury, while Henderson was actually presiding over the court, to explore these western lands, Boone being "very poor and his desire to pay off his indebtedness to Henderson made him all the more willing to undertake the exhaustive tour of exploration in company with Finley and others."

The Patrick Henry of North Carolina. — Dr. Henderson con- tinues: "From this time forward [the expiration of his term as judge] Richard Henderson, described as the 'Patrick Henry of North Carolina,' sheds the glamor of local fame and enters into national history as one of the most remarkable figures of his day, and indubitably the most remarkable constructive pioneer in the early history of the American people." Elsewhere Dr. Hender- son speaks of his ancestor as the "Cecil Rhodes of America." Meantime, however, having returned from his two years' stay in Kentucky, we are told that Boone, grown impatient over the delay caused by Henderson's inability, for whatever reason, to further prosecute his plans at that time, recruited a body of set- tlers, and, on the 25th day of September, 1773. set out from Holman's Ford with eighteen men and some women and children, his own among the number, but his party vfzs attacked by Indians and were forced to return. From which facts Dr. Henderson draws the following conclusions: "Boone lacked constructive leadership and executive genius.' He was a perfect instrument for executing the designs of others. It was not until the creative and executive brain of Richard Henderson was applied to the vast and daring project of western colonization that it was car- ried through to a successful termination."

The English Spy. — From Judge Clark's article (X. C. Book- let, January, 1904) it appears that Richard Henderson's mother was a Miss Williams, and that he studied law under his cousin, John Williams, who, according to Wheeler (Vol. I, p. 58), was whipped by the Regulators, and was, presumably, the son of his mother's brother, and afterwards married his step-daughter.

' Richard Henderson's "constructive" genius seems to have resulted in the destruction both of himself and all who put their trust In him, especially Daniel Boone, whom Henderson left penniless in the wilderness of Kentucky.

A History of Watauga County 45

Elizabeth Keeling. Also, that "the British spy, Captain J. F. D. Smyth, in his 'Tour of America' (Vol, I, p. 124), [states that he] visited John Williams at his home in Granville about December, 1774, where he met Judge Henderson, whom he lauds as a genius, and says he did not know how to read and write till after he was grown. As Henderson became judge at the age of thirty-three, and as, besides, Smyth styles him Nathaniel Henderson and adds that Williams was said to be a mulatto and looked like one, no faith is to be given to any of his statements. He, however, says, probably with truth (p. 126), that Judge Henderson had made a secret purchase of territory from the Indians before his public treaty later on." This Captain Smyth might, therefore, be dis- missed without notice if we did not find in Roosevelt (Vol. II, p. 46) that, while Henderson was at Boonesborough in 1775, "a British friend of his" (whom a foot-note shows to have been Smyth) visited him there, indicating his knowledge of Hender- son's enterprise, and the further fact that Dr. Henderson himself, in his Observer articles of 1913, says: "It is interesting to note that just prior to the public announcement throughout the colony of this vast scheme of promotion [selling the Transylvania lands to unsuspecting frontiersmen], Dr. J. F. D. Smyth, the British emissary, met Richard Henderson at the home of Col. John Williams." But for the facts stated in Dr. Henderson's next succeeding article in the Observer on Richard Henderson, one might be tempted to connect this visit with the secret purchase of these lands above referred to, and to guess that it may have been a part of the policy of Great Britain at that time to get Americans interested in these Transylvania lands by low prices, etc., to such an extent that they would, rather than lose their holdings in them, adhere to the mother country in the impending struggle for independence, and thus form a rear-rank which should co-operate with the front rank of soldiers and loyalists in the Atlantic States. It would have been a most powerful and, possibly, successful bar to the achievement of our inde- pendence ; for, then, Sevier and his Watauga men would have fought against and not for us. But this, probably, was not the scheme that British emissary or scout, as Dr. Henderson also

46 A History of Watauga County

terms him, had in mind, for Dr. Henderson continues : "Though not the first settlement in point of time, for Henderson found several temporarily occupied camps nearby on his arrival, Boones- borough was the first settlement of permanent vitality in the heart of the Kentucky country. No Henderson and there would have been no Boonesborough. No Boonesborough and the American colonies, now convulsed in a titanic struggle, might well have lost to Great Britain, at the close of the Revolution, the vast and fertile possessions of the transniontane wilderness."

Was Even the Treaty a Sham? — Assuming that Dr. Smyth, Richard Henderson's friend and guest, spoke ex cathedra when he declared that a secret treaty had been already effected before the 25th of March, 1775, which is the one that was published to the world as the real thing, what shall be thought of the follow- ing from Judge Clark's "Colony of Transylvania," before quoted ?

"The treaty was debated, sentence by sentence, the Indians choosing their own interpreter. It was only signed after four days' minute discussion and after fierce opposition from a chief known as Dragging Canoe. The goods must have been put at a high valuation, for one brave, who received as his share only a shirt, contemptuously said he could secure more with his rifle in one day's hunting. On the other hand, the Indians received full value, for they had in truth no title to convey, and they plainly told Henderson he would have great trouble to obtain or hold possession on account of other tribes. The territory was not occupied and owned by the Cherokees, nor, indeed, by any tribe, but was a battle-field, where hostile bands met to fight out their quarrels." No wonder then that Dr. Henderson says that these fifty thousand dollars worth of goods were transported across the mountains of North Carolina in six wagons two years before, as other historians agree, any road was opened across them !

The Romantic Side of Boone. — Most of us love to think of him in the light of Kipling's "Explorer," animated by the "some- thing-hidden-go-and-find-it" spirit, rather than as the servant of any man or set of men on his 1769 trip to Kentucky; and while it

A History of Watauga County 47

is no reflection on his character if he was actually employed to spy out the western lands, is it not a reflection upon Richard Henderson to say at this late day that he was actually scheming while a judge on the bench to violate the law?" As well as can be gathered from the Charlotte Observer's articles (Life and Times of Richard Henderson), it appears that when in 1773 Henderson's term as judge expired by limitation of the judiciary act of 1767, he learned "through the highest English legal au- thorities . . . according to the most recent legal decision rendered in England on the subject, purchases by individuals from Indian owners were legally valid. Without royal grant, Patrick Henry in Virginia, in 1774, was negotiating for the pur- chase of part of the very territory Henderson desired. Two years earlier the Watauga settlers leased from the Cherokees the lands upon which they resided— a preliminary to subsequent purchase . . . The opinion handed down by the Lord Chancellor and the attorney general cleared away the legal diffi- culties.'" This, apparently, was Henderson's justification for proceeding to violate the Royal Proclamation against purchasing lands from the Indians. His plea that the Cherokees really owned the land seems to be based on the sole claim that "their title to the territory had been acknowledged by Great Britain through her Southern agent of Indian affairs, John Stuart, at the Treaty of Lochaben in 1770." Dr. Henderson told H. Add- ington Bruce that Judge Henderson, "in developing his Transyl- vania project and purchasing Kentucky from the Cherokees, acted under the advice of an eminent English jurist, 'in the closest confidence of the King,' and that he, therefore, regarded the enterprise as having the royal sanction," which view of the case Mr. Bruce understood Professor Henderson would soon set forth in a biography of Richard Henderson. That promise was

« There can be no doubt that Doctor Henderson claims that It was Tudee Henderson's purpose to carry out this plan at the time he is said to have employed Boone in 1769; for he says Judge Henderson saw the significance of lit fnT^ ^^^""^If /J^^fV^- ^°,^ '^""^'^^^ that the lands could be acquire^d only from o^ the Reg'ultti^n "''' *"'' ^'^° ^^' temporarily "frustrated by th^e excitinTissue'^

nf\^c°J f^'?^^""^ Henderson, then a private citizen, could have had knowledge

48 A History of Watauga County

evidently made during or prior to 1910, when Bruce's "Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road" was first published. The proof is still not forthcoming because Dr. Henderson's book is not yet printed. When it is published to the world it will undoubtedly surprise many historians and others who consider themselves well informed about the history of these times and events. It is a great pity that it could not have been presented to the world a hundred years ago, before such erroneous ideas of Richard Henderson became prevalent. It is also hoped that it will then be shown that Richard Henderson and his associates devoted the 400,000 acres of land which they obtained from Virginia and North Carolina to the making whole of all those who bought land from them, including the 2,000 acres which Boone received as compensation for his services, but to which he got no valid title. What Virginia did for Boone is not pertinent. What did Richard Henderson do? When these matters shall have been cleared up, North Carolina, no doubt, will be proud to erect a monument to his memory.

Forehanded "for Once." — It seems that it was Boone's busi- ness to recruit a party of roadmakers before he started from Sycamore Shoals, with the understanding that they were to meet at Long Island, in the upper Holston, just south of the Virginia line. "Thirty guns" or riflemen were secured, who, according to Felix Walker, afterwards congressman from this State, ex- plicitly agreed to put themselves "under the management and control of Colonel Boone, who was to be their pilot through the wilderness." Then, March 10, 1775, began the making of the Wilderness Road, by way of CHnch and Powell's Rivers and Cumberland Gap and Rock Castle River to the mouth of Beaver Creek where it empties into the Kentucky River.' This spot had been selected years before by Boone as an ideal place for the settlement, and there he began the choice of locations for him- self and his companions. When Henderson and his larger party

' As the Sycamore Shoals Treaty was not ratified till the 25th of March, Boone's departure on the 10th for the purpose of cutting the Wilderness Road, shows a degree of cock-sureness on the part of Henderson & Co., which gives additional force to the suggestion of the spy, Smyth, that a secret treaty had been already concluded ; which, if true, merely makes the public treaty a farce and fraud, and lends a still more sinister aspect to this affair.

A History of Watauga County 49

arrived three weeks later he made the "distinctly embarrassing discovery that Boone and his companions had preempted the choicest locations for themselves. Rather than have trouble, the tactful proprietor decided to leave them in undisturbed posses- sion and appease the rest by locating the site of the capital of Transylvania, not in the sheltered level chosen by Boone, but some little distance from it, on a commanding elevation overlook- ing the Kentucky." (Bruce, p. 117.)

Henderson's and Washington's "Continental Vision." — Dr. Henderson does not hesitate to give Richard Henderson what he considers his true place in the westward movement: "Washing- ton expressed the secret belief of the period when he hazarded the judgment that the royal proclamation of 1763 [forbidding individuals to buy or lease lands from the Indians] was a mere temporary expedient to quiet the minds of the Indians, and was not intended as a permanent bar to the Western civilization. Some years earlier, Richard Henderson, with the continental vision of Washington, had come to the conclusion that the un- chartered West offered unlimited possibilities in the shape of reward to pioneering spirits, with a genuine constructive policy, willing to venture their all in vindication of their faith. George Washington, acquiring vast tracts of Western land by secret purchase, indirectly stimulated the powerful army that was carrying the broad-axe westward ; Richard Henderson, with a large-visioned constructive policy of public promotion, coloniza- tion and settlement for the virgin West, conferred untold bene- fits upon the nation at large by his resolution, aggressiveness and daring. Washington and Henderson were factors of crucial im- portance in the settlement of the West and the advance of the pioneer army into the wilderness of Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio." Elsewhere (Neale's Monthly, p. 211) Dr. Henderson says : "George Washington and Richard Henderson, as land- lords, were vital factors in the development of the West."

Dr. Henderson's Original Discoveries. — Dr. Henderson promises to furnish not only documentary evidence to support all these statements, but photographic fac-similes in proof of the claim that Boone was indebted to Richard Henderson for legal

50 A History of Watauga County

services ' for a number of years prior to 1769, which had not been paid off prior to that date. Also, that the merchandise which was to be paid for the title of the Cherokees to the Tran- sylvania lands was transported by Richard Henderson, not accompanied by Boone, "in six wagon loads of goods from Hills- boro, N. C. (really from Fayetteville — then Cross Creek), to Sycamore Shoals, by wagon over the North Carolina mountains" by a route "discovered through researches made for me among old maps, showing wagon roads of North Carolina, dating as far back as 1770. The stages of the route I hope to give in my published book when it appears. Henderson also carried the goods from Sycamore Shoals to Martin's Station in Powell's Valley by wagon also ; from there to the future site of Boones- boro the goods were transported by pack-horses." '" Dr. Hender- son very properly "scrupulously omitted citation in my 'Life and Times of Richard Henderson' to authorities other than known or accessible books, such as the North Carolina Colonial Records, etc.," as upon these new authorities rests his "claim to original research and discovery."

Misconceptions About Colonel Henderson. — Assuming that Dr. Henderson shall be able to establish these facts, which is not questioned, there is no one who has suffered more at the hands of historians than his ancestor, Richard Henderson. For the general impression of him is that he and his father had been part and parcel of the office-holding oligarchy or "ring" that dominated county government under Governor Tryon, Henderson's father having been sheriff and himself under-sheriff; also, that, as a judge, Richard Henderson was personally obnoxious to the Regulators because he at least had not prevented "the legal tyrannies and alleged injustices of county officials," and was "so terrorized that during the night he mounted a fast horse and galloped out of town," "

* This must have been a large fee that required Boone to go in debt to get supplies for his journey (Bruce, p. 62) and to spend two years of his life in the ■wilderness.

'0 From Doctor Henderson's letter to J. P. A., June 11, 1913. The new material, discovered by Doctor Henderson, after laborious investigation extending over years, "was not accessible to or even known to R. G. Thwaites, biographer of Daniel Boone, or to H. Addington Bruce, author of "Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road."

" Bruce, p. 97.

A History of Watauga County 51

when in the fall of 1770, while hearing cases at Hillsborough, his court room was invaded by a mob and minor officials were beaten. People generally believe that the grievances of the Regulators were genuine wrongs from which they, at great risk, were seek- ing to escape ; that these Regulators were not anarchists," but American patriots making the first stand for American liberty, bravely and openly and against great odds. They do not believe that Judge Henderson refused the demands of these oppressed people out of any high regard for the law, but because he wished to carry out the mandates of Tryon, by whom he had been ap- pointed to the bench. Nevertheless, they were willing to believe that he was incapable of deliberately planning to violate the proclamation of 1763 against the purchase of lands from the In- dians by individuals while he himself was presiding over a court of justice and drawing the pay of the colony or of the Crown of England for discharging the duties of a judge of the Superior Court of the colony of North Carolina. They supposed that Daniel Boone went to Kentucky in May, 1769, not because he had been paid to aid Henderson to violate the law he was sworn to uphold, but because John Finlej had spent the winter before at Holman's Ford and had persuaded Boone that he could guide him to Kentucky by crossing the mountains to the westward. It was the general belief, also, that it was not in consequence of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1768, but of the victory over the northwestern Indians at the Great Kanawha, September 10, 1774, which prompted Henderson and Hart to visit the Otari towns the following October for the purpose of getting from the Cherokees what was a worthless paper title to the Transylvania lands, and that Henderson especially, who was a lawyer, knew that "neither the British government nor the authorities of Vir- ginia or North Carolina would recognize the authority" of the Cherokees to convey title thereto, and that instead of being a worthy scheme of national expansion, it was really a "bold, audacious dash for fortune." (Walter Clark in North Carolina Booklet, January, 1904, p. 7.) And, unfortunately, it is also the

" It seems strange to have a North Carolinian write in such terms of the Regulators, whom we have been taught to revere as heroes and patriots.

52 A History of Watauga County

general belief that Henderson at least cared little for the ruin that he must have known would follow the failure of his title to the lands which he was trying to sell to the untaught pioneers." For he speaks of them in his journal as "a set of scoundrels who scarcely believed in God or feared the devil." Certain it is that when all hope of profit disappeared, so did also Henderson and his associates, leaving Daniel Boone, with his helpless family, in the wilderness with a worthless title to two thousand acres of land, which had been his sole compensation for risking his life and cutting out the Wilderness Road for Henderson and his followers to travel over. And the claim upon which so much stress is laid, that Henderson shared "with Washington the vision of Western expansion," is made ridiculous when the Watauga Settlement of 1769 is remembered and it is recalled that Harrods- burg, only thirty miles southwest from Boonesboro, had been settled in 1774; also, that two weeks before Boone's arrival at Boonesborough (April i, 1775) this same Harrodsburg, after having been abandoned in 1774, had been re-occupied by as hardy pioneers as any who came w^ith Boone, and that about the same time two other settlements nearby were made at Boiling Springs and Logan's Station. Roosevelt says that with the failure of his title in both Virginia and North Carolina, "Henderson, after the collapse of his colony, drifts out of history." (Winning of the West, Vol. n, p. 64.) To some people of simple minds it might almost seem that it would have been better that Richard Hender- son should be allowed to remain out of history, unless, indeed, it can be shown that he restored to poor, deluded Daniel Boone the 2,000 acres he had been duped into accepting as his share of the enterprise, for both Virginia and North Carolina together donated outright to Henderson and company 400,000 acres of land, out of which it does seem that Boone should have been made whole. Daniel Boone, penniless, remained in the wilder- ness and was the real leader of the great western expansion.

" A largely signed memorial was sent to the Virginia Convention In 1776 by these settlers, from which it appears that the price of the land had been advanced from twenty to fifty shillings a hundred acres, all of which was to be paid down; that 70,000 acres at the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville) had been reserved to the proprietors and their friends. It implored His Majesty, the King, to vindicate his title from the Six Nations ; and asked to be taken under the protection of Virginia.

CHAPTER V.

During the Revolution.

Backwoods Tories. — Roosevelt (Vol. II, p. 70) says: "The backwoodsmen, the men of the up-country, were, as a whole, ardent adherents of the patriotic or American side. Yet there were among them many loyalists or Tories, and these Tories in- cluded in their ranks much the greatest portion of the vicious and disorderly elements. This was the direct reverse of what ob- tained along portions of the seaboard, where large numbers of the peaceable and well-to-do people stood loyally by the king. In the up-country, however, the Presbyterian Irish, with their fellows of Calvinistic stock and faith, formed the back-bone of the moral and order-loving element, and the Presbyterian Irish were almost to a man staunch and furious upholders of the Con- tinental Congress . . . The Tories were obnpxious under two heads (pp. 72, y^) 5 they were allies of a tyrant who lived beyond the sea, and they were the friends of anarchy at home. They were felt by the frontiersmen to be criminals rather than ordinary foes. They included in their ranks the mass of men who had been guilty of the two worst frontier crimes — horse- stealing and murder . . . and the courts sometimes executed summary justice on Tory, desperado and stock-thief, holding each as having forfeited his life."

Samuel Bright, Loyalist. — We should not be surprised, there- fore, to learn that there is a tradition still preserved at Ingalls and Altamont post offices, in what is now Avery County, but which formerly was a part of Watauga, that Samuel Bright, along whose "trace," according to Draper (p. 177), Sevier's men passed on their way to King's Mountain, September 27-28, 1780, was a Tory of the Tories, and while he might have claimed the Crab Orchard,^ a mile below the confluence of the Roaring Creek

^ Owing to the several counties in whicti this land has been it is impossible to get record evidence of Bright's ownership, if he ever held title. Local tradition claims that the Crab Orchard was embraced in both the Cathcart and Waight-

53

54 -^ History of Watauga County

with the North Toe River, his home was two miles northeast of Alta Pass, where the C. C. & O. R. R. crosses the Blue Ridge, and stood near what is now a tram-road for lumber hauling. Joe Lovin now lives one-fourth of a mile southwest from the old Bright chimney mounds, which are still distinguishable. Indeed, Robert Lee Wiseman, a direct descendant of William Wiseman, the first settler of that locality, has the original grant and knows the location of the old Bright place not only from tradition, but from having surveyed the lands originally granted to Samuel Bright. One of these grants is numbered 172 and calls for 360 acres in Burke County. The grant is dated March 5, 1780, though the land was processioned June 28, 1774, by Will Daven- port, who owned "the noted spring on the Davenport place, since Tate's, and now known as the Childs place." spoken of by Dr. Draper (p. 178). The grant is registered in book No. 3 of Burke County, and was signed by J. C. Caswell, Governor, and counter- signed by "In Franck, Pri. Sec." The land was surveyed by C. W. Beekman, county surveyor of Burke, August 10, 1778, while the chain carriers were Thomas White, afterwards Major White, of McDowell's regiment, and James Taylor White. The land granted lies on both sides of Toe River, and a part of it is now owned by W. H. Ollis as part of his home tract, and the balance by J. L. Wiseman. The seal attached is of chalk or plaster of Paris and bees wax, one-quarter of an inch thick and three inches in diameter. On one side is a female figure with staff and liberty cap in one hand and an open scroll in the other. The obverse face contains a female figure, a cow and a tree, while beneath these figures are "Independence MDCCLXXVI." This seal is not impressed upon the paper, but is detached from it, being connected with it by a double tape ribbon. Around the border is what appears to be E Pluribiis Unum and Sua Si Bona, though a defacement of the wax renders some of the letters un- certain. Tradition is here borne out by the State and Colonial Records in Volume XXII (p. 506), which records that Samuel

still Avery grants, and that the representatives of these two claimants rom- promised the matter by Avery paying John Brown, Cathcart's representative, 12% cts. per acre for the tract, and talcing possession. John Ollis, father of W. H. Ollis, helped to clear it "back in the Forties."

A History of Watauga County 55

Bright, after having witnessed the trial and conviction at Sahs- bury before Judge Samuel Spencer, March 6, 1777, of one William Anderson, of having stolen from one Jowe, and the branding of the said Anderson on the ball of the thumb of his left hand with the letter T, signifying thief, was brought before the same stern judge to answer the charge of having committed sundry misdemeanors against the State by encouraging the ene- mies of said State. But Samuel evidently knew on which side his bread was buttered, and took the benefit of the governor's proclamation, promising amnesty to all who would come in and take the oath of loyalty to the patriot cause, and got off scott- free.

Thirty-Nine Lashes on the Bare Back. — Now William Wise- man, who had been born in London, England, on St. James Street, Clarkville or Clarkwell Park, February 2, 1741, and ap- prenticed to a joiner, fearing service in the British army, stowed himself away on a merchant vessel in 1761, and, after lying con- cealed three days and nights, revealed himself to the captain, and upon arrival at a port in Connecticut was sold to pay his passage money; was bid in by a master joiner, who gave him his liberty and a box of tools upon proof that Wiseman could make as good a chest as he could himself. "What those old fellows were after," said an old citizen in speaking of Wiseman, "was free- dom ;" and as there was much religious persecution in the north- ern colonies about that time, WilHam Wiseman took his took aboard a sailing vessel and finally settled at the place at which W. H. Ollis now lives. Here he married a Davenport, sister, no doubt, to the Davenport of Davenport Place spoken of by Dr. Draper. He was the very first settler in that locality, and became a justice of the peace. To him was brought one day the wife of Samuel Bright, charged with having stolen a bolt of cloth from a traveling peddler. She was convicted by him, and as the ped- dler insisted that he should pass sentence upon her, he did so, and as there was no sheriff to inflict it, he enforced it himself — "thirty-nine lashes, well laid on."

Patriots Feared the Indians. — Now, the Cherokees had ceded the lands on the Watauga and its waters to the Watauga settlers,

56 A History of Watauga County

but Roosevelt tells us (Vol. II, p. 74) that they "still continued jealous of them." and that the Cherokees "promptly took up the tomahawk at the bidding of the British" (p. 75). As Bright and Wiseman lived south of the ridge which divided the Toe from the Watauga, their homes were within Indian territory at this time. Therefore, Magistrate Wiseman had been afraid to lay the lash on Mrs. Bright's bare back during the absence of her husband, who was on a hunting expedition at that time, lest upon his return he should incite the Indians to burn his cabin and scalp him in the bargain. But he was worse afraid of the peddler, who threatened to report him to the great judge, Samuel Spencer, at Salisbury, if he did not carry out the sentence he had himself imposed. He was, therefore, much perturbed till Bright and a family named Grant left the country, passing over the Bright Trace and by the Bright Spring on the Bald place of the Yellow into Tennessee. Aunt Jemima English, who was born Wiseman, daughter of the original William, justice of the peace, etc., May 6, 1804, but lived to a green old age, not only preserved these traditions, which she had at first had from her father, but she believed that the Grant family which left with the Brights were the family from whom Gen. U. S. Grant, of the U. S. army, sprang.

Bright's Spring and the Shelving Rock. — We must not forget that "the gap between the Yellow Mountain on the north and the Roan Mountain on the south" (Draper, p. 177) was once a part of Watauga County (see chapter X on Boundary Lines). It was here that two of Sevier's men, James Crawford and Samuel Chambers, deserted and went ahead to tell Ferguson of Sevier's approach. It was here also, according to local tradition in the mouth of everyone in May, 1915. that one of Sevier's men froze to death and was buried in the edge of the bald of the Yellow. Draper, however, says nothing of such an occurrence, though he does say (p. 177) that the "sides and top of the mountain were covered with snow, shoe-mouth deep, and on the summit there were about one hundred acres of beautiful table-land, in which a spring issued [Bright's], ran through it and over into the Watauga." This latter fact, not generally known, coupled with the still more important fact that all of Watauga County on the

A History of Watauga County 57

waters of Watauga River was once a part of Washington County — formerly Washington District — of the famous and im- mortal Old Watauga Settlement of Sevier, Robertson and Tipton, may well "stir a fever in the blood of age and make the infant's sinews strong as steel." For Col. Henry H. Farthing, of Tim- bered Ridge of the Beaver Dams, and Col. Joseph C. Shull, of Shull's Mills, have each a grant from the State to lands in their neighborhood, described as being in Washington County, North Carolina. Shull's grant is numbered 841 to Charles Asher for 300 acres in the county of Washington on both sides of Watauga River, and dated nth July, 1788. It is signed by Samuel Johnston, Governor, and countersigned by Jas. Glascow, Secre- tary of State. On it is a certificate from the county register, Samuel Greer, dated May 28, 1819, that it is a true copy from the records. The Farthing grant is to John Carter for 300 acres in the county of Washington, beginning on two white oaks standing near the path that leads across Stone Mountain to Cove Creek and on the west side of the Beaver Dam Creek. It is dated November 17, 1790, and is numbered 947, and recorded in the office of the Secretary's office, page 234. For, when the Watauga settlers set up house-keeping on their own hook, they had named the territory they had acquired from the Indians by lease and purchase Washington District, and in 1777, before they tried to secede, calling the new State Franklin, North Carolina converted Washington District into Washington County. (Laws 1777, ch. 126.) Dr. Draper continues: "Thence from Talbot's Mill to its head, where they bore somewhat to the left, crossing Little Doe River, reaching the noted 'Resting Place,' at the Shelving Rock, about a mile beyond the Crab Orchard, where, after a march of about twenty miles that day, they took up their camp for the night. Big Doe River, a bold and limpid mountain stream, flowing hard by, afforded the campers, their horses and beef cattle abundance of pure and refreshing water. Here a man of the name of Miller resided who shod several of the horses of the party."

Even Homer and Dr. Draper Sometimes Nod. — Notwith- standing all the pains Dr. Draper took to get the facts for his excellent "Kings Mountain and Its Heroes," his failure to visit

58 A History of Watanga County

the actual scenes along the route of the King's Mountain men is responsible for the error in the statement that the Big Doe River, floiving hard by, afforded the campers, etc., abundance of pure and refreshing water." The nearest point from the Shelv- ing Rock to the Big Doe River is at least one mile and a half where that stream flows through the Crab Orchard, and the route to it is over a rather high ridge and by a rough trail. But the Little Doe, with enough pure and refreshing water for all the men and stock then in what is now Tennessee, flows within one hundred yards of the Shelving Rock, on which there has been placed a bronze tablet about two feet square with the following inscription :

First Night's

Encampment of

KING'S MOUNTAIN MEN

SEPTEMBER 26, 1780.

They Trusted in God and Kept Their Powder Dry.

Placed by John Sevier Chapter, D. A. R., 1910.

A Busy Forge. — But he was right in stating that a man of the name of Miller resided at the Shelving Rock and shod their horses, for Squire W. H. Ollis, of Ingalls, N. C, furnished this identical information to the Historical Society of New Jersey in 1872, saying that "x\bsalom Miller told me that his father lived at Shelving Rock in September, 1780, and shod the horses of some of the King's IMountain men while they camped under the Shelving Rock." As most of Sevier's men were practical black- smiths, we may well imagine that Johnson's forge was a busy place early on the morning of September 2y, 1780, and well up into that day, and that, while some were shoeing the horses,

A History of Watauga County 59

others were busy at bellows and anvil, hammering out horse- shoes and nails, thus leaving none of the available tools idle for a moment. For the way up what is now called Hampton's Creek to the gap of the Yellow was even steeper in those days than it is now, with rocks galore to wrench the shoes from the best shod horses. Dr. Draper tells us that on this day the men, weary of driving the herd of cattle with which they had started, killed such as were necessary for a temporary supply of meat and abandoned the rest, thus considerably delaying the march of the day, "following the well-known Bright's Trace, through a gap between the Yellow Mountain on the north and the Roan Moun- tain on the south. The ascent was not very difficult along a com- mon foot-path." But, for three miles at least, it was very steep and rocky, as the same old Trace, now used as a "near cut," still bears witness most eloquently. Arrived at the gap, now grown up with trees, they had a parade on the Yellow and fired ofif their short Deckard rifles "for fun." This was but a short day's march — seven miles — making twenty-seven miles from Sycamore Shoals in two days. Here, at a conference of the officers, Colonel Campbell was appointed to the chief command. (Note on page 178.) On the 28th they descended Roaring Creek by Bright's Trace, then following the bank of the stream very much as does the rude and rough wagon road of today, to its mouth in North Toe River, one mile from the North Carolina Crab Orchard, or Avery's Quarter, as it is now known. Here, at the mouth of Roaring Creek, lives Tilmon McCurry, who thinks that the Samuel Chambers who had deserted the night before, finally settled in Buncombe County, North Carolina, but what became of James Crawford seems not to be known. Only a short dis- tance from the mouth of Roaring Creek is that of Powder Mill Creek, a short distance up which latter stream Dorry and Loddy Oaks made enough powder in the dim and distant past with which to buy a negro man, and, no doubt, obtained the bounty referred to in Wheeler's History of North Carolina (Vol. H, p. 52). From the mouth of Roaring Creek, however, Bright's Trace is now no longer followed, the Cranberry and Spruce Pine Road having usurped its usefulness, but it can be traced still as

6o A History of Watauga County

it takes its almost straight course to the crossing of Toe River, almost a mile above Spruce Pine, at which place a small monu- ment marks Sevier's route.

They Did Not Camp on the Yellow, — Bright's Spring in North Carolina is a mile north of the gap between the Yellow and the Roan. It is in a field that in 1780 contained a bald place of about 100 acres, though the Humps, lying near, have since been cleared and the bald place is now much larger than it was then. There is also another spring on the Tennessee side, near the gap, called also Bright's Spring. It is true the ground is said to have been covered with snow when they camped there, but that 1,040 men ' and horses could have supplied themselves with water on the top of that mountain would have been an impossibility. Dr. Draper says in unmistakable language that they "passed on a couple of miles, descending the eastern slope of the mountains into Elk Hollow — a slight depression between the Yellow and Roan Mountains, rather than a gap — and here at a fine spring flowing into Roaring Creek they took up their camp for the night" (p. 178). Yet, the general impression is that these men camped on the Yellow Mountain that night !

Oliver Cromwell's Descendant. — Dr. Draper records the fact that Col. Benjamin Cleveland claimed direct descent from Oliver Cromwell, from a liaison with Elizabeth Cleveland, "a beauty of the time of Charles the First" (pp. 425, 426), but this story is doubted by the eminent historian. Cleveland was mistaken in acting as though cruelty \vas Cromwell's chief virtue.

Cleveland's Capture at Old Fields. — Dr. Draper says that this doughty warrior was captured at this place, which he is said to have owned, on the 22d day of April, 1781, while on a visit to his tenant, Jesse Duncan, at the lower end of the Old Fields — probably the very spot at which the late Nathan Waugh lived and died. Captain William Riddle was the leader of the gang which captured him, they having stolen his horses from Duncan's barn the night before and led them up south fork of New River

' The force which started from Sycamore Shoals consisted of : Colonel Camp- bell's men, 200 ; Colonel Shelby's, 240 men ; Lieutenant-Colonel Sevier's, 240 men ; McDowell's party, who had retreated from Cowen's Ford, 160 men ; (Draper, p. 149) ; Arthur Campbell, with 200 men (Id. p. 175), making in ail 1,040 men.

Photo, by Vannoy.

THE OLD PERKINS PLACE.

Where Cleveland was captured.

A History of Watauga County

6i

into a laurel thicket just above the house then occupied by Joseph and Timothy Perkins, about one mile distant There were six or eight men with Riddle, and when they reached Benjamin Cut- birthl home the day before, four miles above Duncan s home, and failed to get any information from him, they abused him shamefully and left him under guard. Cleveland ran mto the ambush prepared for him and was captured and taken into the Perkins house, which stood on the site of the house m which Nathan Waugh's son, Charles, now resides The illustration shows the present house and apple tree in its front under which it is said Cleveland was sitting when captured. Into this house of the Perkinses, Zachariah Wells followed Cleveland and at- tempted to shoot him, but that brave(?) man seized Abigail Walters, who was present, and kept her between him and his would-be assassin (p. 440). Cleveland was then taken up New River to the mouth of Elk Creek, and thence to "what has since been known as Riddle's Knob." (See illustration.) This is some fourteen miles from Old Fields and in Watauga County Here they camped for the night (p. 441)- But they had been followed by young Daniel Cutbirth and a youth named Walters, Jesse Duncan, John Shirley, William Calloway, Samuel McQueen and Benjamin Greer, while Joseph Calloway mounted a horse and hastened to notify Captain Robert Cleveland, Ben's brod.er, on Lewis' Fork of the Yadkin. Five of these in advance of Robert s party fired on Riddle's gang at the Wolf's Den early the next morning, and Cleveland dropped behind the log on which he had been sitting slowly writing passes for the Tories, eanng that when he should finish doing so he would be killed. Only Wells was wounded, the rest escaping, including Riddle's wife. As it was thought that Wells would die from his wound, he was let on the ground to meet his fate alone. But he ^^^^^^^^ About 1857 Micajah Tugman found a curious knife m the Wolf s Den, supposed to have been Riddle's.

Greer's Hint.— This "hint" is thus accounted for by Dr Draper in a note at foot of page 442: "Greer was one of

s These boys had planned to rescue Cleveland, but they thought better of it when Riddle's force came in sight.

62 A History of Watauga County

Cleveland's heroes. One of his fellow soldiers stole his tobacco from him, when he threatened he would whip him for it as soon as he should put his eyes on him. Cleveland expostulated with Greer, telling him his men ought to fight the enemy and not each other. 'I'll give him a hint of it, anyway,' said Greer, and when he met the tobacco pilferer he knocked him down. Greer's hint was long a by-word in all that region. — Col. W. W. Lenoir." It is claimed that Greer killed Colonel Ferguson at King's Moun- tain. If so, Greer's hints were rather rough.

Greer Gets Another Kind of Hint. — Just twenty years after the memorable capture and rescue of Cleveland by Greer, to wit: on the first Saturday of April, 1801, the Three Forks Baptist Church, of which he was a member, gave Cleveland's "hero" a "hint" to appear at the next meeting of that organization and answer to the charge — not of having looked upon the wine cup when it was red — but of having partaken of the apple juice after it had been distilled. Brother and Sister Wilcoxen were cited to appear as witnesses against him. But Ben did not take the hint, neither did he continue his membership with that church !

The Wolf's Den Tradition. — There is still a tradition in the neighborhood of the Wolf's Den that Ben Greer killed or wounded Riddle at that place soon after Cleveland's rescue, one version saying that Riddle was only wounded and then taken to Wilkes and hanged. Indeed, the place in the gap between Pine Orchard and Huckleberry Knob, through which the wagon road from Todd to Riddle's Fork of Meat Camp Creek now runs, is still pointed out as that at which Greer and his men camped in the cold and wind, without fire or tent, till they saw the camp- fire on Riddle's Knob flame up, after which they crept up to that lonely spot and either killed or wounded the redoubtable Tory. But Dr. Draper has an altogether different story to tell about Riddle's capture and execution.

Cleveland Hangs Riddle. — Dr. Draper says (p. 444) that soon after Cleveland's rescue Riddle and his men made a night raid into the Yadkin Valley, where, on King's Creek, they cap- tured two of Cleveland's soldiers, David and John Witherspoon, and "spirited them away into the mountain region on the Wa-

Photo, by Vannoy.

THE WOLF S DEN.

Where Cleveland was rescued.

A History of Watauga County 63

tauga River in what is now Watauga County," where both were sentenced to be shot, when it was proposed that if they would take the oath of allegiance to the king, repair to their home and speedily return with the O'Neal mare — a noble animal — and join the Tory band, their lives would be spared. This the Wither- spoons agreed to, and returned with not only the mare, but with Col. Ben Herndon and a party also, when they captured Riddle, Reeves and Goss, "killing and dispersing the others." These were taken to Wilkesboro, court-martialed and executed" on the hill adjoining the village, "on a stately oak, which is yet (1881) standing and pointed out to strangers at Wilkesboro." Wells, too, his wounds still unhealed, was captured and taken to Hughes' Bottom, one mile below Cleveland's Round About home-place, and hanged by plow lines from a tree on the river bank, without trial and in spite of the protestations of James Gwyn, a lad of thirteen, whose noble nature revolted at such barbarity. But Cleveland's cruelty was too well known to need further comment, for it is recorded of him that he once forced an alleged horse-thief to cut off his own ears with a dull case knife to escape death by hanging — all without trial or evidence of any kind whatever (p. 447). Cleveland moved to South Carolina at the close of the Revolutionary War, where he died while sitting at the breakfast table, in October, 1806, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. Cleveland County in this State was named in his honor. Dr. Draper says he was buried in the forks of the Tugalo and Chauga, Oconee County, South Caro- lina, but his grave with a stone marking it is in the churchyard of New Hope Baptist Church, near Staunton, Wilkes County, North Carolina, according to several recent statements of Col. J. H. Taylor, the father of Mrs. John Stansbury, of Boone. However, some claim that this is Robert Cleveland's grave-stone. So much for two versions of Riddle's death.

But there is still another, for Col. W. W. Presnell, for many years register of deeds for Watauga County and a brave one- armed Confederate soldier, still points out at the foot of a ridge north of James Blair's residence, on Brushy Fork Creek, two low rock cliffs, between which and the hollow just east of them

64 A History of Watauga County

stood until recently a large white-thorn tree upon which \V. H. Dugger and other reputable citizens of a past day said Cleveland had hanged Riddle and three of his companions. Certain it is, according to Dr. Draper (p. 445), that "Colonel Cleveland was active at this period in sending out strong scouting parties to scour the mountain regions, and, if possible, utterly break up the Tory bands still infesting the frontiers." Others say that two of these men were named Snecd and the third was named Warren.

The Killing of Charles Asher.— Col. Joseph C. Shull has among his papers grant No. 841 to Charles Asher to 300 acres of land in the county of Washington, on both sides of the Watauga River, dated the nth day of July. 1788. Charles Asher located this land at what was afterwards and still is known as ShuU's Mills in Watauga County, North Carolina, after having married one of the daughters of Samuel Hix, the Tory who settled first at V'alle Crucis and afterwards hid out at the Lybrook place near Banner's Elk. His son was surprised in his new log cabin in what is now Colonel ShuU's orchard, by Joseph White's men soon after the close of the Revolutionary War.* Asher ran, but was sliot and killed, his body falling where it was buried, near Colonel ShuU's cow barn in the meadow in front of his resi- dence.

Benjamin Howard. — This gentleman was the first transient boarder in the vicinity of Boone, for he built the cabin which stood in front of the Boys' Dormitory of the Appalachian Train- ing School and on the site of which Col. W. L. Bryan has erected a substantial monument. Howard's home was near Elk- ville on the Yadkin, but as he herded cattle in the valley of New River, he built this hut for the accommodation of himself and his herders. When too hotly pressed by the Whigs or American Patriots, Howard sheltered himself in a cave at the base of a long, low cliff a quarter of a mile north of the knob above the

♦ Joseph White was a major in Col. Joseph McDowell's regiment after the Revolutionary War (Col. Rec, Vol. XXII, p. 460), and went on three tours with small detachments on the north-west side of the Blue Ridge. (Id., p. 99.) In "North Carolina : A History," published by Edward Buncombe Chapter D. A. R., It is erroneously stated (p. 100) that White also was killed. White is mentioned by Doctor Draper, pp. 149-199 and 257, while on page 474 it is stated that White probably commanded a company at King's Mountain.

A History of Watauga County 65

town of Boone which has borne his name for years. His daughter, SalHe, when still a child, is said to have endured a severe switching rather than reveal his whereabouts when met in the road one day by a band of men in search of her parent. She married Jordan Councill the first. Her father took the oath of allegiance to the United States in 1778, however (Col. Rec. Vol. XXn, p. 172), and Miss Sallie soon afterwards became a staunch American herself.

Edward Moody, Patriot. — Under a large white-oak tree, two feet in diameter, on a sunny ridge overlooking the site of his earthly home, is a rather small, white marble stone bearing the following meager inscription :

EDW'D MOODY,

HOWE'S, VA. MIL. REV. WAR.

When one reflects that this memorial was erected by the gov- ernment of the United States on the Fourth day of July, 1910, in the presence of the largest gathering of people that has ever taken place in Watauga County, and remembers that the stone is intended to mark the grave of one of the heroes of the Amer- ican Revolution, one's heart does not swell with any great amount of pride or gratitude. Yet, that is all there is to mark the last resting place of a brave man who shed his blood that these United States might be free ! That is all to tell coming generations that here lies the dust of a patriot and a gentleman. Even the dates of his birth and death have been forgotten. But while he lived no man stood higher in the love and respect of all who knew him. He was the husband of "the Widow Moody" to whom the Rev. Henry H. Prout paid a glowing tribute in the "Life of W. W. Skiles."

William Jonas Braswell, Hero. — In a lonely field now owned by W. H. and Harstin Ollis, under two hickory trees, a third of a mile above the old Gen. Albertus Childs' place on Three Mile Creek, is another one of those "monuments" at the unveiling or dedication of which our great government occasionally invites

66 A History of Watauga County

its citizens to be present. It contains an even more economical inscription than that of poor Edward M6ody. It follows:

WM. BRASWELL,

N. C. MIL.

REV. WAR.

"That's the crap," as our farmers say in derision of a small offering. This was unveiled to the light of day and to the indig- nation of all right-thinking people in 1913, the crowd in at- tendance numbering nearly five hundred. That seems to be all this great and powerful government could find out about this dead hero, now without a vote. But others remember something else of him, John Wise, born May 9, 1835, relating that Braswell lived on Lower Creek in Burke County, and hunted through the country lying between that locality and Black Mountain, in what is now Yancey. He had relatives in Pensacola, near Big Tom Wilson's old home, "under the Black." When a very old man, Braswell, his wife and a girl named Yarber started late one fall from Lower Creek to Pensacola to visit people named Mace, relatives of his wife, probably. They had to spend the night in camp under a rock on a high ridge leading up from Burke to the Linville country, then and now a much used highway for local travel, a wagon road now replacing the former trail. They could not procure fire, and a cold-snap coming on, the old man "froze down," to use Captain Wise's forceful phrase. When the chill morning dawned his w'ife and the Yarber girl met Jacob and William Carpenter at the ford of Linville River, to which point they had hastened through the darkness, seeking aid. The women went on to Carpenter's house in the meadow in front of Captain W'ise's present residence, while the two Car- penter men hastened on to the camp rock, where Braswell was found, very low, but still alive. Placing him on a horse, they managed to keep him there by walking on each side of him and holding him in the saddle till they reached home. There he died after having revived for a short time, and was buried where the so-called "monument" now stands. His name w'as William

A History of Watauga County 67

Jonas Braswell, but to have spelled all that out on a tomb-stone would have required, at five cents a letter, at least fifty cents more ! Hence, etc. The present wagon road does not pass very near the old camp rocks, but they are still remembered, while the high ridge on which they stand have preserved that part of a hero's name which a niggard nation consigned to oblivion, for it has been called ever since "Jonas's Ridge."

William Davis— What?— Hero? Patriot? Let us see. His grave is near the road in front of the Gen. Albertus Childs' house on Three Mile Creek, now owned and occupied by Robert Moseley. Two common "mountain rocks" mark the place of his burial. Two other graves beside his are similarly designated. No munificent government, proud of his record, has "sought his frailties" or his virtues "to disclose." Why? For he was a soldier of the Revolutionary War as well as those over whose ashes grave-stones have been erected. Who knows? Probably a bit of red-tape was missing somewhere. Maybe his name does not appear on any roster or muster roll. Yet, in the Congres- sional Library, at the nation's capital, is an allegorical painting called "History." It represents a gray-haired sire telling the story of the past to his son, and this son telling the same story with additions to his son, and so on down the line till the printed page is reached. The name of that oral story is "Tradition." Well, tradition says that William Davis was not only a brave soldier, but a mighty hunter as well, when the wilderness was to be conquered and weaklings stayed at home and sneered at the illiterate and the lowly. Davis came to America with William Wiseman and William Penley long before the Revolution. He settled first in Virginia and afterwards came to Ashe County, where he married Frances Carpenter, sister of the first Jacob Carpenter. Then he moved to what is still called Davis Moun- tain, near Crossnore, on the upper waters of Linville River. When the game was exhausted there, he moved to Three Mile Creek and built four log houses "all in a row," with communi- cating doors between and a chimney at each end. Standing before a blazing fire in one end of the house, with the three intervening doors open, one looks through four large, low-

68 A History of Watauga County

ceiled, comfortable rooms to cherry-red flames leaping up the chimney at the farther end — one of the "fairest pictures of calm content that mortal ever saw." The date of the building of this old structure is recorded on one of the inside logs, but it has been ceiled over and cannot now be seen. But it was made there many, many years ago. The present Jacob Carpenter, his great- nephew, of Altamont, knows the date of his birth and death, but they would cost the United States some "good money" to have them carved on a 12 x 24-inch stone. Davis died November 18, 1841, when 114 years of age. Still, as he had no middle name, it does seem that the Government, with a big G, might "sort of look after" Uncle Billy, who fought his battles for him before Uncle Sam was born, he having been shot through the hips at King's Mountain. His wife, who sleeps beside him, was cer- tainly a heroine, whether Uncle Billy was a hero or no, for on one occasion, in February, while in a sugar camp on Davis Moun- tain, he had to be away from her on a cold night. One of her cows found a calf that night, and Mrs. Davis brought it to camp with her and fought off the wolves with fire-brands till morning.

A Revolutionary Welshman, — On the south fork of New River, on Harvey Phillips' farm at McGuire post office, is the grave of a soldier of the Revolutionary War. His name is Jones, but the given name has been lost. That he was a Welsh- man is implied by his name. Close by him sleeps Benjamin Blackburn, another Revolutionary soldier, from whom has de- scended a long line of useful and honored citizens.

Moses Yarber. — The United States has also been equally generous to her dead and gone soldiers of the War of 1812, for, in the same graveyard which holds the ashes of Edward Moody, our great government has erected another monument, which, at five cents a letter, including apostrophes, must have cost at least thirty cents more than did Edward Moody's. But it managed to spell out his full name, instead of contracting it as it did with the latter's given name, recording it as Edw'd, instead of Edward, thus saving at least five cents, assuming that the comma cost a nickel. As the enduring marble embalms his name and record, we have the following:

A History of Watauga County 69

MOSES YARBER

McNEIL'S CO.

S. C. MIL.

WAR 1812.

These abbreviations stand for whatever the reader may elect to attribute to them, the punctuation rendering the following story as intelligible as any : "Moses Yarber McNeil's County, saw cow Millie Warranted 1812."

Two of Yarber's daughters live within two miles of his grave, Jemimah and Catharine, the former having been born April 27, 1825, and the latter February 18, 1830. Moses was blessed with other children also — William, born February 23, 1810; Annie, born July 15, 1816; Mary Ann, born June 9, 1818 — but they have been dead a number of years. Moses himself died Novem- ber 30, 1867. But just think what an unheard-of sum it would have cost our Government — again that big G — to have recorded that fact — with every abbreviation possible, sixty-five cents ! His daughters knew the date of his death when, on the 4tli day of July, 1910, this stone was erected. They knew also that Moses had married Elizabeth Edwards, a daughter of Henry Edwards, of Darlington District, South Carolina, and a soldier of the Revolutionary War. Thus, these two old ladies, in poverty and alone, have the proud consciousness that their father's full name will be preserved as long as that gravestone endures, if only posterity has the intelligence to guess that his name was Yarber and not McNeil, but what interpretation it will give to the balance of the inscription must always be proble- matical. Moses and his family moved to Flat Top, now Linville City, about 1838, and from there to their present home in 1855. They have no votes, these good women; if they had, it is likely that they would have also a pension apiece. Sic transit!

Two Old Tory Knobs.— On Riddle's Fork of Meat Camp are two knobs or peaks which are known, one as Hagaman's Knob and the other as Wiley's Knob, from the fact which tradi- tion still maintains, that at their bases two Tories, hiding out

70 A History of Watauga County

during the Revolutionary War, made their headquarters. They were, doubtless, a part of Riddle's gang.

Old Battle in Watauga? — In Robert Love's pension papers it is said that "he was in command of a party of Americans in 1780 against a party of Tories in July of that year." This band of Tories was composed of about 150 men, and they were routed up New River at the Big Glades, now (1833) in Ashe County, North Carolina, as they were on their way to join Cornwallis." Col. W. L. Bryan says that the Big Glades were on the south fork of New River, near Deep Gap.

Guarded Major Andre. — Nathan Horton, whose grave-stone in Three Forks churchyard records the fact that he was a sol- dier of the Revolutionary War, according to a tradition still preserved in his own family, guarded Major Andre when the latter was executed for treason, at which time he carried a shot- gun loaded with one ball and three buck-shot. A fine old Grand- father clock of mahogany, with elaborate face and works, brought by Nathan Horton from New Jersey when he emigrated to Ashe soon after the Revolution, is now in the home of J. Grit. Horton, on New River, five miles from Boone.

Following are the names of other Revolutionary soldiers who lived and died in Watauga: Benjamin Bingham, great uncle of Hon. Thomas Bingham, who is said to have fired the last gun at Yorktown, Va. ; John Adams, born in France and came over with Lafayette's soldiers as a drummer-boy of sixteen years, remaining, concealed in a flour barrel, at Philadelphia, when Lafayette returned to France; the brothers, George, Absalom and William Smith, were in the \^irginia army and at Corn- wallis's surrender at Yorktown.

CHAPTER VI.

Three Forks Association.

Yadkin Baptist Association.— This association constituted the Three Forks association in 1790. From it many other churches had been organized east of the Blue Ridge.'

In 1779 King's Creek Church, in Caldwell, and Beaver Creek, in Wilkes, were organized. A few years later Brier Creek in Wilkes, was constituted. It had many "arms, and from it grew Lewis Fork, in Wilkes, and Old Fields Church, m Ashe County. Three Forks was constituted by the Yadkm Bap- tist Association. It became an association itself in 1840.

"In 1790 Three Forks Church, the first in Watauga, was con- stituted Part of the original members of this church came from the Jersey Settlement Church. Cove Creek was the second church in Watauga, being organized in I799- At first these churches had only log houses in which to worship. The floors were rude, and large cracks were in the walls, so that they were often uncomfortable in winter. But the praises of God rang out from the lips and hearts of these old Baptist fathers. These churches first joined the Strawberry Association in Virgmia, but in 1790 withdrew to organize the Yadkin Association. The first ministers of this body were George McNeil, John Cleveland, William Petty, William Hammond, Cleveland Cofifey, Andrew Baker and John Stone . . . Later on the Mountain, Catawba and Brier Creek Associations were formed, and so the Yadkin Baptists continued steadily to grow."

Three Forks Baptist Church.— This was the first church es- tablished west of the Blue Ridge, excepting only the one estab- lished at the Old Fields, which, according to Mr. Williams, was established "a few years after"— 1779- It was organized No-

1 Williams' History of the North Carolina Baptists.

= According to Rev. Henry Sheet's History, "arms" were church communities which had not been regularly organized into constituted churches.

71

72 A History of Watauga County

vember 6, 1790, according to the records now in the keeping of the clerk, Mr. John C. Brown, of New River. These records show that "the Baptist Church of Jesus Christ in Wilkes County, New River, Three Forks Settlement," was organized by James Tomkins, Richard Greene and wife, Daniel Eggers and wife, William Miller, Elinor Greene and B. B. Eggers. This soon became the mother church, from which went out "arms" to the Globe, to Ebeneezer and to South P^ork and other places. At- tendants came to Three Forks from all this section, many com- ing even from Tennessee. Among the first pastors of this mother churcli are : Richard Gentry, of Old Fields ; John G. Bynum, who died in Georgia; Mr. Barlow, of Yadkin; Nathaniel Vannoy, George McNeil, of Wilkes ; Joseph Harrison, of Three Forks ; Jacob Greene, D. C. Harmon, Smith Ferguson, Brazilla McBride and Jacob Greene, of Cove Creek ; Jackie Farthing, Reuben Farthing and A. C. Farthing, William Wilcox and Larkin Hodges. They earned their bread in the sweat of their faces and worked in the Master's vineyard without money and without price. They have all gone to their reward in heaven.

Membership from 1790 to 1800. — James Tompkins, Richard Green, Daniel Eggers, Ellender Green, William Miller. Mary Miller, Phoebe Eggers, Sarah Coleman, Avis Eggers, Elizabeth Tompkins, Ben. Cutbirth, Anna Wilcoxon, Lidia Council, Benj. Baylis, Eliz. Cutbirth. Sarah Baylis, James Chambers, Anna Chambers. John Faugerson, Ebineezer Fairchild, James Jackson, Catharine Hull. Joseph Sewel, Ezekiel England, Ruth Tompkins, Christeana Reese, Valentine Reese, Samuel Ayers, Elijah Cham- bers, Moses Hull, Joseph Ayers, William Tompkins, Benj. Green, Sam'l Wilcoxon, Sr., Garsham Tompkins, John Reese, Hodges Counsel, Mary Fairchild, Sarah Green, Sarah Reese, Charity Ayers. James Profifitt. James Calloway. Jeremiah Green. Sarah Hull, Joannah Eggers, James Faugerson, Elizabeth Hull, Martha Chambers, Landrine Eggers, Nathan Horton, Mathew Counsel, Nancy Chambers, Rachel Chambers, Jesse Counsel, Comfort Wade, Edward Stocksdale. Edieth Stocksdale, Joseph Tompkins, Susannah Brown, Sam'l Wilcoxon, Jr., Thomas Wade, Samuel Baker, John Ayers, Sam'l Castle, Martha Castle, Abraham

A History of Watauga County 73

Eaton, Jno. Parr, Mary Parr, Jonathan Allen, Jas. McCaleb, Mary McCaleb, Anne Doneky, Catharine Allen, Wm. Davis, Rebekah Fairchild, Richard Orzgathorp, Jno. Vanderpool, Ellen Vanderpool, Catharine Hull, Sam'l Vanderpool, Sam'l Pitman, Winant Vanderpool, Jr., Anna Vanderpool, Winant Vanderpool, Naomi Vanderpool, Keziah Pitman, Abraham Vanderpool, Sarah Davis, Abraham Linvil, Susannah Vanderpool, Peter Regan, Rebekah Regan, Catharine Linvil, Margaret Linvil, Maryann Isaacs, Mathias Harmon, Mary Harmon, Jno. Holes- clavvT, Jane Vanderpool, Jacob Reese, Catharine Brown, Hannah Phillips, Jeremiah Buck, Sarah Shearer, Jno. Shearer, Valentine Reese, Jr., Mary Eggers, Jonathan Buck, John Brown, Hannah Reese, Elisha Chambers, David Coleman, James Jackson, Jr., Elizabeth Horton, Henry Chambers, Rachel Brown, Anna Reese, Mary Reese, Eliz. Reese, Isaac Reese, Landrine Eggers' negro man by name of George, Anthony Reese, Asa Chambers, Com- fort Stocksdale, Samuel Northern, Susanna Fairchild, Mary Owens, William Owens, Daniel Eggers, Jr., Henry Earnest, Gracy Shearer, Susannah Brown, Debby Lewis, Benj. Brown, Mahala Eggers, Elizabeth Morphew, Margaret Chambers, Rob- ert Shearer, Jane Triplet, Richard Lewis, John Ford, Benj. Tompkins, Lyon Wilcoxon, Benj. Greer, Barnet Owens, Susan- nah Owens.

Of these there were received by experience: Three in 1790, three in 1791, twenty-nine in 1792, seven in 1793, none in 1794, two in 1795, none in 1796, one in 1797, one in 1798, sixty in 1799. Received by letter in 1790, one; in 1792, eight; in 1793, one; in 1795, four; in 1796, seven; in 1797, two; in 1798, six; in 1799, nine. The following were dismissed by letter: Jeremiah Green, in 1793; Samuel Ayers, Benj. Bayless, Sarah Bayless, Joseph Sewel, Garsham Tompkins, Ruth Tompkins, Joseph Tompkins, Wm. Tompkins, in 1794; Jesse Counsel, Lydia Counsel, Mathew Counsel, in 1795 ; Elijah Chambers, Samuel Wilcoxon, Anna Wilcoxon, Sam'l Wilcoxon, Jr., in 1797; Jona- than Allen, Catharine Allen, James McCaleb, Mary McCaleb, Thomas Wade, Comfort Wade, Mary Reese, in 1798. Elizabeth Tompkins died in 1796. The following were excommunicated:

74 ^ History of Watauga County

Sarah Hull, Ezekiel England, Susannah Brown, Jesse Counsel, in 1794; James Callaway, Samuel Ayers, in 1795; William Miller, James Jackson, Landrine Eggers, Hodges Counsel, in 1796; Mary Miller, in 1797; Samuel Wilcoxon, Jr., Moses Hull, in 1798; Jno. Ayers, Daniel Eggers, Phoebe Eggers, Mahala Eggers, Martha Chambers, in 1799; William Owens, in 1801. It must not be concluded, however, that these had been guilty of very serious offences, for most, if not all, of them were restored to full membership by recantation.

The One Great Moral Force. — In the early days, when courts were few and far between and settlers scattered here and there, the only influence for good in pioneer communities was the church. This proved to be the case in this portion of Ashe County from 1790 to 1800. Nothing seemed too trivial for the correction of the church. What now appear very venial offences, were tried, frequently with the result of expulsion, but always with the assurance of restoration upon proper submission and repentance. Among the more serious offences thus punished were one case of adultery in 1794, one case of drinking to excess in 1795, one case of disposing of property to defraud creditors in 1798, and in 1799 a man confessed to fornication. This is a fine record for ten years in this far-away community. Among the more trivial matters of which the church took notice in the first thirty years of its existence were John Brown's confession of "being so overcome by passion as even to strike a man ;" Comfort W^ade was excommunicated for having told Phoebe Eggers that a certain piece of cloth was cross-barred and others that it was tow linen, but at the next meeting her husband obtained a new hearing, when she was acquitted (April, 1801). In January, 1853, Burton and Damarcus Hodges were cited to appear and answer to the charge of having joined the Sons of Temperance. In December, 1801, Brother Parr was tried and acquitted for letting his children "go naked," and at the same meeting Polly Owens was publicly excommunicated for allowing her daughter to "request a certain young man to meet her, and accordingly he did, when they spent the whole time of public worship talk- ing and laughing," but soon afterwards, the mother "having

A History of Watauga County 75

acknowledged her transgression," she was restored to full mem- bership. In April, 1802, Benj. Brown was acquitted of having attended the races at Elizabethton, and in July, 1802, Brother John Brown was cited to answer the charge of having joined the Masons, and in August was excommunicated therefor.' At the same meeting an unnamed charge against Brother Hull was tried, and it was found that he had done nothing "worthy of death or bonds." A second protest was also then entered against the subject of double marriages "as being against the word of God." "Cathern" Hull was excommunicated because her con- duct at Cove Creek had not been agreeable to the gospel and not giving the church satisfaction. Sister Eggers had a griev- ance against Brother Hull and Brother Reese "for refusing to talk with her about her distress, and for saying her daughter had a fambly and had not." Hull was reproved for this. But in March, 1803, Brother Hull was excommunicated for not com- plying with his bargain, whatever that might have been. In April of the same year it was shown that the report was proven false that "Sary Reese had said that it took three persons to com- plete a sermon delivered by Brother McCaleb, to wit : Brother McCaleb, Brother Richard Green and the devil." Again, in May, 1807, James Proffitt was excommunicated for having joined the Masons, while in July, 181 1, Henry Chambers was acquitted of the charge of not having paid a just debt. In the following month Jeremiah Green was cited to appear to answer to the charge of having allowed "his daughter to go with a mar- ried man," and a letter of dismission was refused him till he should debar her from his home. This daughter, however, was restored to full membership in June, 1812. As this was before Noah Webster had established a uniform system of spelling, each man spelt "according to the dictates of his own conscience," just as they worshipped, and so, in July, 1816, we find a com- plaint that was "throad out of doors." In July, 1802, Brother

3 The language of the minute shows the frequent use of "of," not now so common: -first, of joining of them (the Masons) ; second ?/ • ''*'°^'°f i'L'*; ^1^ third, of refusing to obey the church." Again, in July, 1802, it is recorded that we enter our solemn test against its (double marriage) being agreeable to the Word of God." Our modern expression Is "protest against/' which seems a contra- diction in terms.

76 A History of Watauga Comity

Shearer's name is spelt Shirrow. In April, 1801, "a letter was received from Brother Wade, requesting a re-hearing of his wife's excommunication, and stating that "he stood with her except she got another." At the June meeting following she was acquitted. There are several instances of male members having been chosen to act as singing clerks, though it is prob- able that then, as now, the female members did most of the singing and made the best music.

Other Ancient Happenings. — The last Saturday in April, 1792, was set apart as a day of fasting and prayer, and at the same meeting James Chambers was "approbated to exercise his gift in preaching." In August, 1793, James Chambers, Ebe- nezer Fairchild and Samuel Wilcoxon were sent as delegates to the assembly at Eaton's Meeting House. Dutchman's Creek, near Daniel Boone's old home, while in February, 1793, James Tompkins and Richard Green were sent to the association at Brier Creek to "seek for union." In January, 1795, a brother was suspended for "drinking to excess, using profane speeches, singing vain songs and dancing." In March, 1800, the first "solemn protest was entered against double marriage," and in July following James Chambers, James McCaleb and Shadrack Brown were sent to the association at Fox Creek, Grayson County, Va. In November, 1800, John Brown and Elisha Cham- bers were elected singing clerks, and in August, 1802, Brother Hull was "cited for going to law contrary to an act of this church." In January, 181 5, Brother Boone laid an allegation against Brother Hartley for "not giving good usage at his mill," and in February following and again at a called meeting during same month Hartley was admonished.

First Churches. — There seems to be no record of the building of the first church which stood on the site of the present struc- ture, though tradition says it was merely a log cabin, without chimney or windows. The first Robert Shearer in 1790 lived on the hill above the present site of Three Forks Church, and it was in his home that the church was constituted. Robert's grandfather is said to have lived just below the dam of the A. T, school on New River. Certain it is that within the memory

A History of Watauga County 77

of men now living, in the fall of 1856 and in 1857 services were held in the second or third log house which stood there, and that the worshippers had frequently to leave the church and warm themselves by a fire under the tall oaks which grow near by. There is a tradition that a heavy fall of snow crushed the roof of the building in about 1830, but it is certain that in October, 1805, James McCaleb and James Morphew were appointed trus- tees to "form a plan of a roof for our Meeting House, and divide three-fourths of the work between the male members, leaving one-fourth part for the Jenerosity of those that are not members . . ." In the following December four dollars in Brother Shearer's hands were spent for nails for the roof. There is a record, however, of the building of the present struc- ture, for on November 3, 1866, Robert Shearer, Eli Brown and Ransom Hayes were appointed commissioners to build a new church, which was completed in the summer of 1867.

Revivals. — There was a protracted meeting in January and February, 1853, which continued for thirteen days, Larkin Hodges and John Cook being the ministers in charge. There were seventy-seven conversions and admissions by letter. There was another great revival in September, 1866, with Joseph Har- rison and A. C. Farthing as ministers, at which there were forty- three conversions. But there were "lean seasons" also, for, though the church flourished from its foundation in 1790 till 1800 and afterwards, there was no business recorded from October, 1808, till March, 1809, nor in May and June and August and December of the latter year. Again, in April and May, October and December, 181 1, and in January, February, April, May, June, September, October and November, 1812, and from September, 1823, till July, 1824, there seems to have been no business. In February, 1807, the only instance on record, there was no meeting on account of the weather. The first pastor was Brother Chambers, elected in September, 1792.

CHAPTER VII. Order of the Holy Cross.

A Graphic Picture. — In 1840 a botanist from New York visited what is now V'alle Crucis, and on his return interested Bishop L. SilHman Ives, then bishop of the Episcopal Church of North CaroHna, in this locahty. Following is a description of the country at that time: ' "In 1840 the valley of the Watauga, in North Carolina, was a secluded region, isolated and forgotten, a mountain wilderness, showing only here and there the first rude touches of civilization. The narrow, winding trail or foot-path, the rough sled-road, often dangerous for wheels, here and there a log cabin, with a narrow, rough clearing about it, or at long intervals a rude saw-mill or grist mill, with perchance a small^ unpainted frame dwelling, or a blacksmith shop and a humble backwoods store, marking the beginning of a hamlet, such were the only traces of human habitation to be found on the banks of the stream. But the highland valley was magnificent in natural beauty. It lay in the elevated country between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, nearly three thousand feet above the sea, while grand old mountains of successive ranges, broken into a hundred peaks, rose to nearly double the height on either hand, many so near that their distinctive features could be clearly seen, while others were only dimly outlined in the distance. These mountain ranges were peculiarly interesting, differing in some particulars from those of any other parts of the country. The vegetation was singularly rich and varied. The valley, entirely shut in by forest-clad mountains, was watered by three small, limpid streams, two of them leaping down the hillsides in foam- ing cascades; the principal stream, formed by the junction, after a short course of two miles, passing through a narrow gorge, threw itself into the Watauga."

» From William West Sklles' "A Sketch of Missionary Life at Valle Crucis, 1842-1862." Edited by Susan Fenimore Cooper, 1890, pp. 5, 6.

78

Photo, by Vest.

L. SILLIMAN IVES, D. D. Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of North CaroHna.

A History of Watauga County 79

Valle Crucis.— There is, perhaps, more interest in this place and its romantic history than in any other in Watauga County. It is called the Valley of the Cross because of the fancied re- semblance to that symbol of our faith caused by two creeks, each flowing from an opposite direction into Dutch Creek — Clark's, which rises under the Grandfather and flows into the right bank of Dutch Creek, which has its sources in Hanging Rock, while nearly opposite the mouth of Clark's Creek, and coming in from the left, is Crab Orchard Creek, flowing from the neighborhood of Banner's Elk/ There is a dreamy spell which hangs over this little valley, lending its charm to the story of the spiritual doubts that once perplexed the soul of a good man in his struggles to see the true light of Christianity. He was not the first, nor will he be the last, to grope in semi- darkness, turning hither and thither in his bewilderment ; loving and clinging to past ties, yet dreading to follow where they led ; adventuring by fits and starts on uncertain paths, and, like a frightened child, returning again to the known ways of his childhood and earlier manhood, till, at last, the final step was taken beyond all recall.

Rt. Rev. L. Silliman Ives.— Second bishop of North Carolina, from May, 183 1, to December 22, 1852,' was born September 16, 1797, in Meriden, Conn., and in his youth was a Presbyterian. In his young manhood he became an EpiscopaHan, while in later years he made his submission to the Catholic Church of Rome. He is said to be the only bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America who ever went over to the Roman Catholic Church. He became rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in New York City, married Rebecca Hobart, daughter of the Rt. Rev. John Henry Hobart, Episcopal bishop of New York State, to which union was born one child who did not live to maturity. While quite young he served a short time with the troops under General Pike in the War of 1812, after which he determined to study for the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, and for that

2 According to DeRossett's Church History of North Carolina, Valle Crucis was named in honor of an old English abbey by that name. Its altitude is 2,726 feet.

' He published "The Trials of a Mind in Its Progress to Catholicism," 233 pages, Boston and New York, in 1854.

8o A History of Watauga County

purpose, in 1816, entered Hamilton College, New York, at Clin- ton, where he remained but a year, when, his health failing, he changed his faith and, in 1819, began to study for the Episcopal ministry. After his visit to Italy in 1852, he became professor of rhetoric in St. Joseph's Theological Seminary, New York, and lectured in the convents of the Sacred Heart and Sisters of Charity and in public. He established in New York City two charitable institutions for the protection of destitute Catholic children, of both of which he was president. He published many works. He died in Manhattanville, N. Y., October 13, 1867, and was buried in the Catholic Protectory, Westchester County, New York. His wife, who was born February 6, 1803, died August 3, 1863. Bishop Ives served the Catholic Church only as a layman, being barred from the priesthood on account of his marriage.

"A Feeble and Undignified Imitation." — From "The Bishops of North Carolina," from which most of the above was taken, we learn (p. 112) that by "1849 the Mission at Valle Crucis had begun to drift away from the teachings of the Church, and was fast becoming a feeble and undignified imitation of the monas- tic institutions of the Church of Rome," but, with the exception of this error, we are told in "Sketches of Church History in North Carolina" (p. 2)2>7) that "Whatever we may think of the strange ideas and practices which Bishop Ives engrafted on to the associate work which he established at Valle Crucis, his conception that this was the most practical and efficient way to reach the scattered populations of the mountains was fully justi- fied in the results which remain to this day." On page 80 of the same work we read that there had been three ordinations, one priest and two deacons, at Valle Crucis, while at least eight young men had there prepared for the ministry. William R. Gries, William Passmore, George Patterson, Frederick Fitz Gerald. Joseph W. Murphey, Richard Wainwright Barber, Charles T. Bland, William West Skiles, Thomas F. Davis, Jr., and others were at one time or another connected with this mis- sion. So concerned was the Church throughout the State by the rumors which came from the mountains as to this brotherhood,

A History of Watauga County 8 1

or "Order of the Holy Cross," that United States Senator George E. Badger issued a booklet on the Doctrines of Bishop Ives, and that this interest has not subsided is shown by the very interest- ing account of Valle Crucis which was published in the Messen- ger of Hope for February, 1909.

Cause of His Vacillation. — In the spring of 1848 Bishop Ives had a severe attack of fever while in attendance upon the gen- eral convention in New York City. From this, it is claimed, he never recovered his mental poise. It is also stated (p. 132) in the "Bishops of North Carolina" that his father died from a self-inflicted wound while temporarily insane, while Bishop Ives' own brother wrote, February 25, 1853 (p. 133), that there was a tendency to insanity in the family. It is stated in the "Life of W. W. Skiles" (p. 91) that at the convention of the Church, held at Fayetteville in 1851, the committee of inquiry reported the bishop as being "in a high state of nervous excitement, arising either from bodily disease or constitutional infirmity, in which he admitted that he had been insensibly led to teaching and be- lieving opinions on matters of doctrine, of the impropriety of which he was then fully satisfied. He mentioned having toler- ated the Romish notion of the Invocation of Saints, Auricular Confession and Absolution, but had always abhorred the doc- trine of Transubstantiation, while the spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist was the doctrine our church teaches," and he signed a paper to the above effect.

The Old Buildings. — These were a saw mill, a log kitchen and dining room, a log dwelling containing four rooms and a frame building (60' x 20') with a room at each end for teachers, together with a large hall for school purposes in the center, all on the ground floor, while over the whole was a dormitory for boys. All of these were ready for use and occupancy in 1845. "The adobes used in the buildings were made of clay and straw as usual, and were considered to be of good quality. But they soon began to crumble away, and in the course of the summer they were attacked by an unforeseen enemy — the humble bees took possession of them, burrowing into the fresh clay to such an extent that the walls in many places looked like honey-combs,

82 A History of Watauga County

and were so mucli weakened that they gave way in places under the weight above them." From which it was concluded by the students that there could have been no humble bees in Efi^pt in the time of the Pharoahs (p. 37).

Easter Chapel.^ — Less than a mile below the home of the Widow Moody, on the left bank of the Watauga River and two miles above Shull's Mills, is the site of this old chapel, now gone. A "man in affliction" had given Mr. Prout $300.00, out of which he built Easter Chapel on a large rock two hundred yards from the Watauga River, with a spring at its base. It was of logs, hewn by Levi Moody, the widow's son, "a good, guileless man." It was fifteen feet wide by forty feet long, and had a little chancel at the east end, with oaken altar beneath a narrow window. The roof was steep, and each side wall contained a small window. The rafters showed from the inside, while rude benches afforded seats for those who came to worship. It was called Easter with especial reference to the doctrine of the resurrection and in connection with the devotion of the moun- taineers in keeping that great festival. The Grandfather Moun- tain looms in the distance. But a limb from an overhanging tree crushed in the roof of the chancel, and the balance of the build- ing, after the Civil War, went rapidly to decay. A wind-storm on the 4th of Alarch, 1893, threw the walls to the ground, all except two of the sills, which still remain, slowly passing into dust and decay. The logs out of which these walls had been built were of poplar, and were three feet broad by four or five inches thick. Thus, three of them sufficed to make a wall nine feet high. If this be doubted, a small cabin now (1915) stand- ing near will substantiate the fact of the possibility of such a thing, as one of its walls has but three logs in it, each log being three feet broad. Rev. J. Norton Atkins now owns the house formerly built by Rev. Henry H. Prout which stands near,* though Mrs. J. F. CofTey owns the rock on which the chapel used to stand. The perennial spring, however, spoken of in a note on page 96 of Skiles' Life, has disappeared, blasting for a new road, which was never built, having caused it to sink.

* Rev. W. R. Savage purchased this tract from Isabella Danner, or Dana, she having "hpired" it from her father, Larkin Calloway. (Deed Book 6, p. 209.) Mr. Savage sold it to Mr. Norton.

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A History of Watauga County 83

The Widow Moody. — Among those spoken of with affec- tion by Mr. Prout was Mrs. Edward Moody. She was a sister of Col. John Carter, for whom Carter County, Tennessee, was named and in honor of whose wife EHzabethton, the capital of that county, was called. She and her husband came from Au- gusta County, Virginia, soon after the Revolutionary War, in which he had fought and where he was seriously wounded. Of her Mr. Prout said : "The house of the Widow Moody was long a sort of social center on the Upper Watauga. Here the mis- sionary [himself] first learned, in 1842, that a log cabin may shelter happy people. More generous, sweeter Christian hospi- tality, more glad, more cheerful kindness are seldom met with than this worthy family showed me when a stranger and alone. There was a native refinement and a balance of judgment about the character of the mother of the family. I shall not soon forget her invariable reply to the inquiries of her friends when asking after her welfare — she was blind, with many infirmities, and yet the answer of Christian faith never failed: 'Thank God, no reason to complain.' There was in that far-off settle- ment a simplicity of manner, a generous tone, not often ex- celled, a graceful modesty, an unassuming dignity, very rare, but in harmony with the grand and beautiful scenery of the region" (p. 87). This house was two stories high, with two shed-rooms, and contained six rooms in all. It stood in the old orchard between the Grave Yard Ridge, where Edward Moody is buried, and the former residence of Sheriff Calloway.

The Lower Settlement.— Rev. W. W. Skiles had most to do with the establishment of a school and church at this point, which is at Ward's store, several miles below Valle Crucis. The first service was held in a small log cabin. "Men and women came in, many on foot, some on horseback, the wife in sun-bonnet and straight, narrow gown, riding behind her husband. Here and there a woman was seen mounted on a steer, with a child or two in her arms, while the husband, walking beside them, goad in hand, guided the animal over the rough path. The women all wore sun-bonnets or handkerchiefs tied over their heads. Some were bare-footed. There were many more feet than shoes in

84 A History of Watauga County

the congregation. The boys and girls, even when full grown, were often bare-footed. This was, no doubt, the first service of our church held in that region. And it was declared to be the first religious service of any kind held on the Watauga for seven years" (p. 13). This statement was confirmed by Rev. L. W. Farthing, who then lived on Beaver Dams, near by, but now lives within a few hundred yards of the site on which old St. John's Chapel first stood. Owing to the inaccessibility of the place and the fewness of preachers, no service had been held there during the time stated." The log house soon became too small, and a larger one was obtained. "The pupils tried very hard to learn their lessons well. Occasionally some of the parents would come in and pore intently over the spelling book" (p. 14).

At the Store. — Mr. Skiles kept store at Valle Crucis for the Mission, as well as practiced medicine and taught school. "Or a load of goods, brought with great toil over the mountain roads from Morganton or Lenoir, consisting of tea, cofifee, sugar, mustard, pepper, salt, farm tools, nails, screws, etc., a few pack- ages of the more common medicines . . . boots and shoes, school books, paper, pens, ink, with a very modest supply of general stationery; needles, pins, thread, tape, buttons, with perchance a few pieces of calico, flannels and shirting . . ." "Some few, very few, in fact, came in rude wagons, others on horseback, some on steers, many on foot. Most of them carried a gun, a backwoods custom very common in that region; fre- quently a hound or two followed. The sack of grain was car- ried on the shoulders by those on foot. The men were, many of them, clad in home-spun tow shirts and short trousers, with- out coat or shoes even in winter. They were rarely in a hurry, the movement of the country people of that region almost always being slow and deliberate. They were strong, healthy, quiet and composed, frequently ruddy from exposure. A number smoked

' There was only a trail from Beaver Dams to the Hix Settlement. A chopped- out way, known as Daniel Boone's trail, led from Elizabethton up Watauga river, via Beech Creek and Windy Gap. It was by this trail that Rev. James Eden came to the Hix Settlement to preach the sermon of Andrew Harman when he was killed some six years before Mr. Prout came. Mr. Harman had been killed by a tree which fell on him.

A History of Watauga County 85

corncob pipes ; even women rode on steers with children in their arms (p. 11 1). Seven deer within hmits of Valle Crucis were killed in 1854" (p. 114).

After the Civil War. — From the death of Mr. Skiles, there was no minister in this section representing the Episcopal Church till Rev. George H. Bell was ordained in 1883. At his instance St. John's was moved from its beautiful situation near Ward's Store, on Lower Watauga, six miles below Valle Crucis, to its present location on the right bank of Watauga River, two miles higher up the stream. Its location is fine, but the change was made not so much for a better site as for the purpose of serving both the upper and lower communities, there then being no mission or chapel above that point. Now, however, that there is a chapel at the Mission School at Valle Crucis, it would be better if St. John's were on its former site. Rev. Milnor Jones succeeded Mr. Bell, coming in 1895 and remaining three years. This was made a missionary district