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Page 140
enclose, fifty-four degrees Fahrenheit; while the rainfall
of the region, most of which comes in the growing season, is seventy inches, being
greater than that of any other portion of the United States, except Puget Sound
region. The United States has recently acquired an immense reserve in the neighborhood
of Blowing Rock. The Lenoir timber lands were sold in 1915 for $40.00 per acre.
They are near the Grandfather.
Banks and Banking.—Watauga has three banks, one, the
Watuaga County Bank, Boone, was organized in 1904 with $10,000.00 capital. This
was increased in 1908 to $12,000.00, in 1914 to $16,800.00 and in 1915 to $17,000.00.
It has never declared a dividend of less than twelve per cent, since George P.
Hageman became cashier, and once declared eighteen per cent. The Blowing Rock
Bank was organized about 1904 with $5,000.00 capital, which has been increased
to $16,000.00. It has thriven also. The Valle Crucis Bank was organized in 1914
with a capital of $8,000.00. The cattle industry requires much money, and all
kinds of stock thrive in this county.
Altitudes.—The following heights have been taken from
S. M. Dugger's "Balsam Groves of the Grandfather Mountain" (p. 286);
Blowing Rock, 4,090; Boone, 3,332; Valle Crucis, 2, 726; Shull's Mills, 2,917;
Cook's Gap; 3,349; Banner Elk, 3,900; Beech Mountain, 5,522; Hodges Gap, 3,376;
Hanging Rock, 5,237; Sugar Mountain, 5,289; Grandfather, 5,964; Dunvegan, 4,924;
Howard's Knob, 4,451; Bald of Rich Mountain, 5,368; Sugar Loaf, 4,705; Snake Mountain,
5,594; Elk Knob; 5,555; Flat Top, 4,537; Deep Gap, 3.105; Elk Park, 3.180; Cranberry,
3.160; Montezuma, 3,882; Linville, 3,800; Yonah Lossee Road, from 4,000 to 5,000;
Beacon Heights, 4,650; Grandmother, 4,686; Linville Gap (Guyot), 4,100; United
States, 4,081; McCanless Gap, 4,250; White Top, 5,530; Toe River Gap, 5,188; High
Pinnacle, 5,690; Mount Mitchell, 6,711; Clingman's Peak in Blacks, 6,611; Roan
Mountain High Knob, 6,313; Big Yellow, 5,500; Cold Spring Mountain, 5,915; Caney
Fork Divide, 6,370; Double Spring Mountain, 6,380; Enos Plott Balsam, 6,097; Amos
Plott Great Divide, 6,278; The Pillar of the Smoky, 6,255; Mt. Henry, 6,373; South
Peak,
Page
6,299; Thermometer Knob, 6,157; Mt. Guyot, 6,636; Mt. Alexander,
6,299; Mt. LeConte of the Bullheads, 6,612; Mt. Stafford, 6,535; Mt. Curtis, 6,566;
Master Knob, 6,013; Mt Love of the Smokey, 6,443; Clingman's Dome, 6,619; Mt.
Buckley, 6,599; Mt. Collins, 6,188; Thunderhead, 5,520; Devil's Court House in
Whitesides, 6,049; Rocky Bald of the Nantahalas, 5,822; Tusquittee Bald, 5,314;
Watauga is probably the highest county in general altitude of North Carolina,
being over 3,000 feet above sea level.
Mount Washington, of New Hampshire is 6,286. There are, therefore,
twenty-three peaks in North Carolina which are higher. There are twenty-three
other peaks over 6,000 feet, but less than 6,286. There are seventy-nine which
exceed 5,000, but fall short of 6,000 feet. It should be borne in mind, however,
that all these measurements are barometric, and therefore, inexact, according
to Horace Kephart's "Southern Highlanders."
Page142 .
CHAPTER XI.
The Town of Boone.(1)
Incorporation.-- This town was not incorporated till the session
of the Legislature of 1871-72 (Ch. 50), when it was regularly chartered and its
boundaries defined. But this act was amended in 1872-73 (Ch. XXXI, p. 411) by
extending the corporate limits so as to begin at a stake half a mile north of
the court house and running thence to a stake half a mile east of the court house;
thence to a stake half a mile south of the court house; thence to a stake half
a mile west of the court house, and to the beginning. W. L. Bryan was its first
mayor and has held that office intermittently for twenty-five years.
Its Attractons.-- As Boone is on no large stream, it is far
distant from the moisture arising from rivers and creeks. It is not high enough
to be caught in low-hanging clouds, and is free from their damp and clinging mists.
The town is 3,332 feet above tidewater, with a spring, summer and autumn climate
unsurpassed in the mountains. it is picturesquely situated at the base of Rich
Mountain and almost directly under Howard's Knob. Its popuation consists of a
homogeneous citizenship, with no very wealthy and no very poor people in its make-up.
Its death rate is less than that of any other town of its size in the State. Its
schools, both primary and norma, afford abundant opportunity for the education
of all. The school poopulation of the Appalachian Training School is better behaved
and more appreciated by the citizens of Boone than that of any other school or
college town in the State. Boone has a public library of its own, and access to
many thousands of volumes in the library of the appalachian Training School. It
has three churches, one bank, a Masonic hall and three hotels. There is no
__________
Note: (1) Most of the facts for this chapter were furnished by Col. and Mrs. Wm.
Lewis Bryan, the oldest residents of the place. I am also indebted to them for
so much other information which I have embodied in this book, that to credit them
with each item would be almost impossible. Colonel Bryan, indeed, is almost as
much the author of the work as I am myself. J. P. A.
Page 143
reason why Boone should not become the best and largest summer
resort in the State. Inexhaustible springs on Rich Mountain afford more pure water
thn a po;ulation of twenty thousand could consume. Boone has electric lights and
garages and livery stables. Its population is about 700 souls. It has local and
long-distance telephones, several physicians, and a drug store. The view from
Howard's Knob is unsurpassed inthe State.
Miss Morley's Visit to Boone.-- From her "Carolina Mountains"
(pp. 355 to 360) the following detached setences and paragraphs are taken:
"Leaving Blowing Rock one day in mid-June, you perhaps will walk away to
Boone, some ten miles distant, three miles of the way a lane close-hedge on either
side with gnarled and twisted old laurel trees heavily-laden with bloom so that
the crisp flower cups shower about you as you pass and the air is full of their
bitter, tonic fragrance. Large rhododendrons stand among the laurel, but their
great flower clusters are as yet imprisoned beneath the strong bud-scales. When
the laurel is done blooming, you will perceive that yo must come this way again
for the sake of the rhododendrons. Little streams of crystal clearness come our
from under the blossoming laurel, flash across the road, and disappear under the
laurel on the other side. How sweet the air where all the odors of the forest
are interwoven with the bitter-sweet smell of the close-pressing flowers! How
the pulse quickens as one steps along. Is that a bird? Or is it your own heart
singing?
"Before the first freshness of that laurel-hedged road
has begun to dim from familiarity, you emerge into the open where the view is
of wide, rolling slopes, green hills and valleys dotted with roofs, and beyond
these the great blue distant mountains with roofs, and beyond these the great
blue distant mountains soaring up into the sky. That steep hill to your left is
bright red with sorrel, a sorry crop for the farmer, but a lovely spot of color
in the landscape. You climb up this sorrel-red hill to the top of Flat Top Mountain,
up over the rough stones and the dark red sorrel to where the view is wide and
fine. But Flat Top Montain offers you more than a view. It is noon when you
Page 144
get there, for you have not hurried, but have stopped every
moment to smell or to see, or just to breathe and breathe as though you could
thus fill your bodily tissues with freshness and fragrance to last into your remotest
life. As you climb up Flat Top, you detect a fragrance that does not come from
the flowers, a warm, delicious fragrance that makes you look eagerly at the ground.
Seeing nothing, you go on half disappointed, half buoyant with the certainty of
sucess--ah, it comes again, that delicious warm fragrance. You abandon yourself
to primitive instincts and trusting your senses turn about and walk straight to
where the ground is red with ripe strawberries. You sit down on the warm grass
and taste the delectable fruit. A bird is singing from a bush as though sharing
in your pleasure. When you have gathered the best within you lie back and watch
the clouds sailing like white swans across the sky. Then you take out the bread
you have brought, the most delicious bread ever baked, for it has in some magical
way acquired a flavor of blossoming laurel and rippling brooks and blue sky and
the joy of muscles in motion, of deep-drawn breath, of the lassitude of delicious
exercise, with a lingering flavor of the spicy berries whose fragrance is in the
air about you. Such bread as this is never eaten within the walls of a house.
And then you rest on the warm hillside fanned by the coll breeze, for no matter
how hot the summer sun, there is always a cool breeze in the high world at the
back of the Grandfather. Before starting on, you must taste again of the exquisite
feast spread for you and the birds, whose wings you hear as they come and go,
fearless and ungrudging, for there is enough for all.
"Further along on the mountain stands an old weather-boarded
house whence you see Boone in the distance lying so sweetly among its mountains.
A path here leads you down to a deserted cbin in a lovely hollow. That well-worn
path at the door-step leads to the spring only a few steps away, such a spring
as one is always looking for and is always finding at the back of the Grandfather.
Its water is icy cold and it is walled about with moss-covered, fern-grown stones.
This cabin in the lovely hollow, with its ice-cold spring, the surrounding fruit
trees, the
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signs of flowers once cultivated, gives you a strange impulse
to stop here, like a bird that has found its nest, but you go on along a woodsy
by-road, whose banks are covered with pale green ferns, and where the large spiraea
in snowy bloom stands so close as almost to form a hedge. The velvety dark-green
leaves of wild hydrangea crowd everywhere, its broad flat heads of showy buds
just ready to open. Enormous wild gooseberries invite you to taste and impishly
prick your tongue if you do. The blackberries make a great show, but are not yet
ripe. The roadside now and then is bordered with ripe strawberries. This shady
way brings you again into the 'main leadin' road' you left some distance back
when you climbed and sorrel-red hill to the top of Flat Top Mountain, and which
now also has its wealth of flowers, among which the pure-white tapers of the galax
shine out from the woods, while here and there a service tree drops coral berries
at your feet.
"Soon now you cross the deep, wide ford of Mill River
on a footbridge, substantial and with handrail, and where you stop of course to
look both up and down the stream overhung with foliage, and just beyond which
is a pretty house with its front yard full fo roses. It is only two miles from
here to Boone, and you breathe a sigh of regret at being so near the end of the
day's walk; yet when you find yourself in Mrs. Coffey's little inn with its bright
flowers you are glad to sit down and think over the events of the day.(2)
"Boone is at the foot of Howard Knob; is a pretty snuggle
of houses running along a single street. Boone says it is the highest county seat
in the United States [she should have added: 'east fo the Rockies'] and that Daniel
Boone once stayed in a cabin near here, whence its name. However all that may
be, the lower slopes of Howard Knob are pleasantly cultivated and valleys run
up into the mountains in all directions, as though on purpose to make a charmong
setting for Boone the county seat.
"That first visit to Boone!--what a sense of peac one
had in remembering that the nearest railroad was thirty miles away [it is now
at Todd, only ten miles north]; and then--what is
__________
Note: (1) This is the identical in that in 1884 was to Charles Dudley Warner,
Anathema and Maranatha.
Page 146
that?--a telephone bell rings its insistent call and Boone
is talking with Blowing Rock, or Lenoir, or New Youk City, or Heaven knows where!
For though this part of the country was last to get into railroad communication
with the outer world, it was by no means the last to grasp the opportunities within
reach.
"With what delicious weariness one sinks to sleep after
the day's walk over the hills! Your eyes seem scarcely to have closed when a loud
noise wakens you with a start--what is it? nothing excepting that the day's work
has begun, broad daylight flooding in at the window. Breakfast is ready, coffee,
cornbread, fish from some near sparkling stream, rice, hot biscuit, eggs, wild-plum
sauce, honey and wild strawberries--you can take your choice or eat them all.
And what a pleasant surprise to find everything seasoned with the wonderful appetite
of childhood that reappears on such occasions as this!
"Your body seems borne on wings, so light it feels as
you leave the inn and again take to the road. Back to Blowing Rock: No, indeed;
not even though you could return, part way at least, by another road. The wanderlust
is on you--the need of walking along the high valleys among the enchanted mountains.
That seems the thing in life worth doing. As you leave Boone you notice a meadow
white with ox-eyed daisies, and among them big red clover-heads, and, if you please,
clumps of black-eyed Susans--for ll the world like a summer medow in the New England
hills. Ripe strawberries hand over the edge of the road.
"From Boone to Valle Crucis you must go the longest way,
for so you get the best views, the people tell you. And so you go a day's walk
to Valle Crucis, where the Episcopal settlement lies in the fine green little
valley."(1)
Old Map of the Town of Boone.-- When the town was formed the
county court, with Judge Dudley Farthing as its chairman, laid it off into streets
and lots, the main street running east and west being called King Street, the
first street to the north of it and parallel with it was named Queen Street, while
the street running between the present Watauga County Bank
__________
Note: (1) In her "Carolina Mountains" Miss Morley says that even our
roosters crow with a Southern accent.
Page 147
Building and the law ovvice of E. S. Coffey, Esq., was designated
as Water Street. The broad street running south from King Street and between the
present residence of Mr. R. C. Rivers and Fletcher and Lovill's law offices and
passing down in front of the present jail was called Burnsville Street, as it
led to the Burnsville road.
First Residents of Boone and Vicinity.-- The land on which
Boone stands, from about the present Methodist parsonage to the forks of the road
near I. W. Gross's residence, belonged originally to John and Jerry Green, two
brothers. One of them lived in a large log house between the present Judge Green's
residence and the storehouse just west of it, and the other in the orchard on
the lot wher Dr. J. W. Jones now lives. One of them sold to Jordan Councill, Jr.,
and the other to Ransom Hayes. Then Jordan Councill, Jr., built the present large
old Councill house and the store in which Richard Green now lives. These were
the first houses in Boone proper, if we except the log residence of Jordan Councill,
Sr., which stood a few hundred yards east, at the Buck Horn Tree place. There
wa another house which stood in the orchard near the present Blackburn hote. It
was a small clapboarded house, with only one room. Ben Munday and family occupied
it first and afterwards Ellington Cousins and family, dark of skin, lived there
till Cousins built a house up the Blackburn branch in rear of the Judge Green
house. It is still known as the Cousins Place. Then B. J. Crawley built the store
and residence across the branch in rear of W. R. Gragg's house and above the Watauga
County Bank. The next house, now occupied by R. C. Rivers and family, was first
occupied by Jesse McCoin. Prior to 1857 Jesse McCoin and Robert Sumter oved away
and Col. J. B. Todd rented the Rivers house from Jordan Councill, Jr., after he
was elected clerk. Then Captain J. L. Phillips moved in and remained till Dr.
J. G. Rivers cam in 1865. Next was the James Tatum storehouse, which stood where
W. L. Bryan now lives.
The First Builders.-- Soon after Boone was formed Jordan Councill,
Fr., built a residence on the lot now occupied by R. C. Rivers as a home. Indeed,
the front rooms of that residence are
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the same that Jordan Councill, Jr., had erected there. He also
built a house on the site now occupied by the new post office, just west of the
middle branch. This house was afterwards moved to the rer of the residence and
used as a kitchen. It still stands to the south of the wing added to the ront
by Mr. Rivers. Mr. Councill also built, between the dwelling and the last named
house, a small room for Solomon Crisp, where the latter made boots and shoes and
sold whiskey. He came from Caldwell County and continued in business in that store
ffrom about 1850 till about 1857, when Myrick and White took it. Crisp was in
the Civil War and sill lives near Patterson. The residence which Jordan Councill,
Jr., built was used by his tanner, Jesse McCoin, and the house he erected on the
present post office site was used as a residence by Robert Sumter, another tanner.
They lived ther till about 1856, when they returned to the east of the Blue Ridge,
from which they had come. B. J. Crawley came from Forsyhthe County early in the
fifties, and built a storehouse and dwelling on Water Street, just across the
branch from the Watauga County Bank. He soon afterwards let M. T. Cox have the
buildings. Cox after leaving Boone had a store at Soda Hill also, where Joel Norris
sold goods for him. Crosby returned to Forsythe before the Civil War. Cox then
closed out and went into business at Rutherwood, now Virgil, with Henry Blair,
under the firm name of Cox & Blair. J. C. Blair, Henry's son, was chief clerk.
But the firm became involved and Cox left some of his creditors in the lurch and
went to Arkansas. The Soda Hill store was sold out by the sheriff. Elisha Green,
however, followed Cox to Arkansas and succeeded in collecting some money for a
few of his creditors, while Henry Blair, at great sacrifice, succeeded in paying
off the firm debts of Cox & Blair. Allen Myrick and Noah White, of Guilford,
moved into Crisp's store about 1857, and ran till about 1862, when they married,
closed up their business and moved to Texas. Both had been widowers, but Myrick
married a Miss Coffin, of Guilford County, the marriage being performed at High
Point, while White married Titia Moore, a Ddaughter of Reed Moore, of Three Forks.
Then was built the James W. Council house and store, opposite
Page149
the Blair hotel. Next came the house just east of the Blair
hotel. It was built by Levi Hartley, of near Lenoir, for a Whiskey saloon. His
sons, Nathan and Samuel, conducted the business, however, Levi never having moved
to Boone. His sons carried on the rum business there till just before the Civil
War. Nathan Hartley married Louisa McGhee and died in the Civil War. Samuel Hartley
married a daughter of a man who lost his mind trying to invent an augur which
would bore a square hole. Sam died in Lenoir after the Civil War. He was a good
citizen and much respectied. T. J. Coffey and brother bought the property and
added to it, and T. J. Coffey lived there after his marriage till he moved to
the Hall house. George and Phillip Grubb then built a residence on the corner
now occupied by the law offices of Lovell and Fletcher, and a blacksmith shop
near the present jail. They swapped this property to john frser for property in
Taylorsville, N. C. Frazer moved in, went to the War of 1861, returned to Boone,
and afterwards moved to Caldwell County. George Grubb quit the blacksmith business
and went to carpentering. His brother, Phillip, left this country about 1860 and
never returned.
Saw Mills for Boone.-- Jordan Councill, Jr., bought a saw mill
from David Sands on the east prong of New River, two miles from George H. Blair's
present home. Councill afterwards sold it to Michael Cook, the second. William
Elrod built a saw mill over the north or Boone fork of New River, near where the
bridge now crosses that stream on the turnpike, two miles southeast of Boone,
and in front of J. Watts Farthing's present home. Thomas Blair, who lived where
William Trivett now lives, near where the three forks of New River join, built
a saw, grist and carding mill near where the Turnpike turns up the Middle Fork
of New River. He swapped to Harrison Edmisten for a farm on John's River soon
after the Civil War. These three mills were bought or built for the sole purpose
of producing lumber with which to build the new town of Boone, and must have been
in operation about 1849 or 1850.
John and Ellington Cousins.-- These brothers came from near
East Bend, Forsythe County, soon after Boone was formed, bringing white women
with them. Ellington's wife was Margaret
Page 150
Myers and John's was named Lottie. Ranson Hayes sold Ellington
an acre of land up the Blackburn branch, where he built a house and lived in 1857,
having moved from the house in the orchard below the road near the present BLackburn
hotel. He ha two daughters. Sarah Married Joseph Gibson and moved to Mountain
City, Tenn., where he carried on a tannery for Murphy Brother, but he afterwards
returned to this State and lived at or near Lenoir, finally going West, wher he
remains. Ellington died at Boone and his widow an aughter, nicknamed "Tommy,"
went with Gibson and his wife to Mountain City, where whe also married. John lived
near Hodges Gap and at other places, dying at the Ed. Shipley place, near Vallle
Crucis. He had several children.
Other Builders.-- Joseph C. Councill built the brick house
now used as the office of the Watauga Democrat long before the Civil War. The
workmen employed in its construction were Bartlett Wood and J. C. McGee. Wood
was a mason, carpenter and cabinet maker. Councill moved to Texas after the Civil
War, where he married, but he returned to Boone and died there. Bartlett Wood
helped build the first court house and a dwelling house which stood between the
present residence of W. L. Bryan and what is now the Blair Hotel, among the first
houses built in Boone. Wood resided in this house till shortly before the Civil
War, when he took a contract and moved to Shouns Cross Roads, Tenn., where he
remained till his death.
Hotels.-- Jordan Councill, Jr., and Ransom Hayes, who lived
where Mrs. L. L. Green now lives, kept boarders before the Civil War and took
care of such travelers and court attendents as came to Boone till about 1870,
when T. J. and W. C. Coffey opened their hotel, soon followed by W. L. Bryan,
who built and conducted the present Blair hotel in December, 1870. It is not generally
known, but Squire James W. Councill and Elisha Green built the frame of a large
hotel on the site of the Blair hotel at the beginning of the Civil War, but were
not able to complete it. When Kirk's regiment came in March or April, 1865, they
took the timbers and made a stockade around the court house, using also for the
same purpose the timbers of the
Page 151
incomplete house built by William F. Fletcher and which then
stood on the lot where M. B. Blackburn now has aa bee yard. J. J. Horton built
a store and dwelling where the Blackburn hotel now stands about 1880 and where
he carried on merchandising for several years. When M. B. Blackburn was elected
clerk of the Superior Court in 1894, he moved to Boone and occupied the dwelling
which now stands above and to the north of the new residence of Dr. H. McD. Little,
which was completed in 1913. Then M. B. Blackburn sold goods in a store near Mrs.
L. L. Green's residence and bought the hotel property, having exchanged his Meat
Camp farm for it. He enlarged and improved the original house considerably, and
has conducted a mercantile establishment and hotel there ever since.
One of the first houses built in Boone was that which stands
above Dr. Little's present residence. The frame of that house was cut and put
together by Jacob Cook at Cook's Gap about 1850, when Sheriff Jack Horton bought
it and moved it to its present location. Joac Horton married a Mast and lived
on Cove Creek, where his son, James Horton, ow lives. But when he was elected
sheriff in 1852 he came to Boone, Michael Cook having been appointed sheriff by
the court when the county was organized. Horton and Cook tied in the race before
the people and tie was cut by the casting vote of Squire James Reagan, a justice
of the peace, who voted for Horton in the contest before the county coutr. Horton
then moved into the house above Dr. Little's.
The First Merchants of Boone.-- Jordan Councill, Sr., lived
where Jesse Robbins has recently built two cottages, and near which stood the
old Buck Horn oak. Jordan Councill, Jr., son of Jordan, Sr., built and occupied
the old frame residence which still stands north of the road to Jefferson. It
was probably the first frame house built in the county, and was for years the
finest house in this section of the State. The store house used by Jordan Councill,
Jr., stood west of his residence and between the office building erected by Dr.
W. R. Councill and the road. The store house was afterwards moved across the road
to its present location, and is now occupied as a residence by R. M. Greene.
Page 152
What is now Boone was for years known as Councill's Store,
and as early as 1835 a post office was in existence there. Sheriff Jack Horton
had a store house which stood on the present court house lot, fronting what is
now M. B. Blackburn's hotel. It stood on the same side of the street as the present
new court house and nearly in front of where that building now stands. In this
store Horton sold Whiskey, goods and kept a sort of harness and saddlery shop.
He also conducted a tan-yard on the lot near the branch which runs below Blackburn's
present upper barn, where traces of thevats are still visible. James Todd, of
Rowan County, was the saddler, and William F. Fletcher, of Lenoir, was the tanner
and harnessmaker. Fletcher is said to have been related to William Lenoir and
married Sarah Dula, of Yadkin Valley. He lived till ten or twelve years ago, when
he died in poverty. He had neglected the hides which were being tanned in 1857,
and Col. W. L. Bryan was employed to make such hides as had not been too badly
damanged into shoes. These hides had been removed from the Horton vats to those
of Henry Hardin, which stood where they still stand, in rear of the present residence
of Joseph Hadin, one mile east of Boone and on the north side of the Jefferson
road. Here these damanged hides were finished. It was soon after this that Jacob
Rintels, who had been in copartnership with Samuel Witkowsky above Elkville on
the Yadkin River, came to Boone and rented Sheriff Jack Horton's store room, where
he remained for about one year, removing his stock of goods to the store room
and residence which had been built by Jordan Coucill, Jr., for his son, James
W. Councill, on the land now occupied by the residence of J. D. Councill, opposite
the Blair hotel. James W. Councill hasd kept goods in this store for awhile, but
closed out and rented the store room to his cousin, Joseph C. Councill, son of
Benjamin Councill. Rintels got Milly Bass, a respectable white woman, to keep
house there for him, and W. L. Bryan boarded there while he clerked for Rintels.
He occupied this building for a year or two, when Rintels moved to Statesville.
W. L. Bryan bought the debts due Rintels and then, with Moretz Wessenfeld, opened
a store in the same building. But Wessenfeld soon had to go to
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the army, when W. L. Bryan bought him out and continued to
sell goods there till Stoneman's raid, March 28, 1865. This building was burned
late in the fall of 1878, and the present dwelling was erected by Jas. W. Councill,
father of J. D. Councill, assisted by his sons, th following spring. James H.
Tatum, of Iredell, cme soon after Boone was established, and built a store on
the lot now occupied by the residence of W. L. Bryan, part of the foundation of
that store still serving as part of the foundation for the residence. Tatum ran
a store there everal years and then rented it to Joseph C. Councill, who sold
goods across the street to the store and residence built by Jordan Councill, Jr.,
for his son, James W. Then Allen Myrick kept store there for Shilcutt & Bell,
of Randolph County. Bell came to Boone several times, but soon closed out and
went to Texas. Then Gray Utley, who married Tatum's daughter, got an interest
in the land and sold it to Col. Wm. Horton and E. S. Blair shortly after the Civil
War. Blair was the Brother-in-law of Wm. Horton, and sold his interest in the
land to him, Col. Jonathan Horton obtaining a one-half interest therein also.
Jonathan Horton and Mrs. Rebecca Horton, widow of William, sold the lnd to W.
L. Bryan about 1889. Sheriff Jack Horton occupied this store while as an office,
and then E. S. Blair sold goods there for Rufus L. Patterson & Co., of Patterson,
for a few years after the Civil War. Then Col. William Horton and Blair sold goods
there for awhile. The old storehouse was removed and a large new store erected
in its place. It was well built and greatly admired. Colonel Bryan kept a large
stock of goods there till the night of July 4, 1895, when the store and goods,
with a dwelling which stood between the store and what is now the Blair hotel,
and a large barn in rear, were burned by James Cornell and Marion Waycaster, who
had been hired to burn this property by Lloyd, Judd, Tyce and Mack Wagner. Their
object was to burn the evidence which Colonel Bryan, who was United States Commissioner,
had locked in his safe against Tyce Wagner for robbing the mail. Judd, Lloyd and
Mack were sentenced to the State penitentiary for ten years each,
Page 154
Waycaster got twenty years and Cornell five years, the latter
having turned State's evidence. They were convicted by a jury at Boone, at the
spring term, 1896, of Superior Court, presided over by Judge Geo. W. Brown (Minute
Docket D, p. 102). Tyce was convicted in the United States Court of robbing the
mail and sent to Sing Sing for five years. Governor Russell pardoned all who had
been sent to the State penitentiary. By the first of March, 1870, W. L. Bryan
had completed the store room at the west end of what is now known as the Blair
Hotel, now used as the parlor, and carried on business there till September, 1873,
for M. V. Moore, of Lenoir, when he bought Moore out and continued the business
there till 1889, when he moved into the new store room he had built on the site
of the Tatum store.
Joseph C. Gaines, of Caldwell, built the Rnsom Hayes brick
house about 1851 or 1852. It was one story high, with a ground plan of forty by
twenty feet, with brick partition through center. It had a chimney at each end,m
and both gables ran up to the rafters. Hayes' boy waited on Gaines and the latter
laid all the brick in eight days. He was paid $70.00 for his work, besides board.
This house stoon on the north side of the road from Brushy Fork just before it
reaches Boone, and its foundations are now the foundations of the two-storied
brick house occupied by Mrs. L. L. Green, the Hayes house having been burned.
Calvin Church, of Wilkes County, built the brick house occupied by Judge L. L.
Green till his death, and since then by his widow. It is two stories high. Church
lived on the Watauga River at the Franklin Baird pace below Valle Crucis, and
died there, and Henry Taylor was executor of his estate.
Post Bellum Boone.-- Rev. J. W. Hall was a Baptist preacher
and performed the marriage ceremony when Judge L. L. Green was married to Miss
Martha Horton, daughter of Sheriff Jack Horton, and when J. Watts Farthing was
married to Miss Rivers, daughter of Dr. J. G. Rivers, both marriages having been
solemnized in the Masonic Lodge of Boone on the first day of March, 1876. Mr.
Hall was also a carpenter and cabinet maker. He did the wood work on the second
court house. After going
Page 155
to McCowell County, he went to Clay County and thence to Georgia,
where he remained. But before leaving Boone finally he went for a time to Mountain
City, Tenn., where he learned to fram dwelling and other houses by nailing the
uprights to the silld, instead of mortising and tenoning them, as had been the
universal practice before that time. On his return from Mountain City to Boone
he built the dwelling now owned and occupied by W. Columbus Coffey in accordance
with the new method. Squire D. B. Dougherty built a small house for the post office
just east of the Critcher hotel soon after the Civil War. It was enlarged and
improved and used by D. Jones Cottrell as a store room about 1909 and since. St.
Luk's, the Episcopal Church, was built about 1882 or 1883. The residence now owned
and occupied by J. C. Fletcher, Esq., was built by Dr. L. C. Reeves, of Alleghany
County. He married Sallie Councill, daughter of J. W. and Mollie Councill. Dr.
Reeves moved to Blowing Rock, where he died. J. C. Fletcher bought this property
about 1896, and has occupied it ever since. He married Mill Carrie H. Bryan, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Bryan, December 16, 1896. In 1913 he was appointed examiner
of land titles under the Week's law for the acquisition of national forest lands.
Soon after the CivilWar, in which he had served, Major Harvey Bingham bought the
lot of land where Brannock's residence now stands, and laid the foundation for
a home there, but Rev. J. W. Floyd, a retired Methodist minister, from east of
the Blue Ridge, bought and finished the house and lived there several years, dying
there about 1888. Then Joseph F. Spainhour, Esq., a lawyer, now living in Morganton,
bought and enlarged the house and lived there till he sold the place to the Hinckels,
of Lenoir (Deed Book N, p. 63). Benjamin Brannock then bought the place nd has
lived there since.
Thomas Greer built the Beech house in rear of the residence
of W. C. Coffey, between 1865 and 1868, and died there, having moved there from
the head of Elk after the marriage of his daughter with T. J. Coffey. Although
weatherboarded now, it is really a hewed log house, in the hewing of the logs
for which Captain Cook, a son of Michael Cook, took a large part.
Page 156
J. G. Rivers came from Bluff City, Tenn., in 1863 to Cove Creek,
N. C., on account of his Southern principles. In the spring of 1865 he moved to
Boone and bought the residence now occupied by his son, R. C. Rivers, from Captain
J. L. Phillips, who had owned the property, having bought it from Jordan Councill,
Fr., about 1860, and having moved there from Todd. Phillips was a most estimable
gentleman, and was a certain in the 58th North Carolina Regiment, under Col. John
B. Palmer. He was shot in the forehead by a pistol bullet during a battle in Tennessee,
and while in a hospital his brains actually oozed out of the wound. Notwithstanding,
he got well apparently and returned to his old home at Todd, where he taught school
and made shoes, but in two or three years died from the effects of the old wound.
His wife was a sister of the Miss Greer who married T. J. Coffey. Phillips was
a brave and honorable citizen.
Coffey Brothers.-- Thomas J. and W. C. Coffey, two brothers,
had carried on business at what is now Butler, Tenn., but on the lefft bank of
Roan Creek, before the Civil Wr. They had to leave on account of their Southern
principles after the war commenced. They returned to their old home in Caldwell
County and remained till after the close of the war, when, in 1866, they moved
to Boone and opened a store in the store room which stood where J. D. Councill's
residence now stands. But W. C. Coffey opened a branch store at Zionville and
moved there about 1867. T. J. Coffey lived in the Brown cottage just east of the
Blair hotel after his marriage to Miss Curtis, of Wilkes County, till the Coffey
hotel and store, now occupied by Murray Critcher, was completed in 1870.
Coffey Brothers' Enterprises.-- Thos. J. Coffey and brother
used to operate a wagon, harness and saddle business in Boone for years after
the Civil War. These wagons were taken to Kenltucky and exchanged for horses and
mules which were driven South and sold. The Wagons were made about two hundred
yards east of the house now occupied by Wilson A. Beech; the saddles and harness
were manufactured in rooms on the second story of the present Brick Row, east
of the Critcher hotel. John Allen made the wagons and Joshua Setzer made the harness
and
Page 157
saddles. They also tanned hides in front of what is now the
residence of W. A. Beech. They bought hided in the South, in bales, besides tanning
hides for local farmers.
Newspapers.-- The Watauga Journal was the first paper in Boone;
was started by a man named McLaughlin, of Mooresville, and was Republican in politics.
McLaughlin left and went to Johnson City, where he became chief of police. The
Enterparise succeeded the Journal in 1888 and was conducted by Judge L. L. Greene
and Thomas Bingham during the Harrison campaign, stopping soon after his election
in 1888. The Watauga Democrat was also begun in 1888 by Joseph Spainhour, Esq.,
and the Democratic party. John S. Williams also was connected with it, but R.
C. Rivers and D. B. Dougherty took charge July 4, 1889, and it has been sonducted
since then by R. C. Rivers. The Watauga News was established in January, 1913,
by Don H. Phillips, as an independent paper, but it suspended after having existed
for about a year.
Population.-- The town has grown so much since the census of
1910 that the figures there given would be misleading now. Within the corporate
limits, without including the school population of about 300, it is thought there
are something over 400 people. This is a pretty constant quantity, as there are
but few visitors to the town in the summer season, almost all stopping at Blowing
Rock and semingly unconscious of the fact that Boone is on the map at all.
Counterfeiters.-- From about 1857 and till 1875 or thereabouts
a gang of counterfeiters and horse thieves carried on their business from Taylorsville
to Cincinnati, Ohio. Boone was one of their headquarters. Dark and blood-curdling
stories are still told of the secret murders and robberies which occurred in a
house near Taylorsville, which stood near a body of water. It is said that the
owner of this house enticed travlers to stop over night with him and that they
were never heard of again. When, years afterwards, the pond was drained saddles
and bridles were found at the bottom, heavily weighted with stones. It was supposed
that the horses were hidden in the woods till a favorable opportunity offered,
when they were driven across the mountains
Page 158
to Cincinnati, Kentucky and Tennessee and sold. The basement
of an old, unfinished house which had been built by W. F. Fletcher, framed and
covered, was used as a hiding place for the horses as they passed through Boone,
being tied under that dilapidated building during the nights they stayed in that
town. When the dwelling of the man living near Taylorsville was removed after
his death, skeletons of human beings were found underneath the floor. A woman
saw a man chasing another near this house at dusk one evening, and reported the
facts to the sheriff. Investigation revealed nothing but tracks, but when the
road was changed later on, a human skeleton was found buried near a ford under
the bank of a creek. About 1872 or 1873 Watauga County was flooded with counterfeit
ten-dollar bills on the Bank of Poughkeepsie, of New York. They were thick, badly
printed bills and were far too green in color to deceive experts, but they passed
current here for some time. The house in which these men congregated at intervals
stood near the present site of the county court house till about 1883, when it
was removed.
Page 159
Chapter XII
War Times and Afterwards.
A Hopeless Task.--It would take several volumes the size of
this to give the history of the troops sent from Watauga County into the Civil
War. Their record is partially preserved in Clark's North Carolina Regiments,
Moore's Roster and elsewhere. Only some of the principal events which occurred
in this county and in those portions of this section which were once a part of
Watauga County can he given. There were at least one thousand men from Watauga
in the Confederate army and one hundred in the Federal, Company I of the Thirteenth
Tennessee Cavalry having no less than thirty-three Wataugans in its ranks. Col.
George N. Folk was the first to enlist volunteers in this county, and the response
which his call met with was but the forerunner of many more enlistments soon to
follow. Many men composing the Fifty-Eighth North Carolina Regiment, Col. J. B.
Palmer's, went from this county, though a large part of it was then embraced in
the newly formed county of Mitchell. Indeed, Colonel Palmer's home on the Linville
River had been in Watauga from the time it was purchased and the residence built
in 1858 till the new county was formed in 1861. The old county line then ran below
his residence along Pisgah Ridge, and a voting precinct, at Levi Franklin's house,
now the upper part of Potter Brown's meadow, is still remembered by some of the
older residents of Boone and vicinity. It was the most remote of all in the county,
and the messenger bearing the returns usually did not arrive at the court house
in Boone till after midnight. That he managed to get here even as late as that
was due to the practice prevailing at the time, of keeping "tab" on
the votes as they were cast, removing them from the hat into which they were usually
deposited, examining them, and crediting each candidate for whom they had been
cast with the vote to which he was entitled. Thus, the count was kept as rapidly
as the ballots were deposited.
Page 160
But, and this seems to have been an important feature of the
matter, some ballots were always left in the to show that the voting was still
going on, or that the precint had not closed. Consequently, when the sun set on
the first Thursday in August of election years, there were but a few ballots remaining
to be counted, which was soon done and the messenger dispatched with the result
to Boone. Captain Willie M. Hodges, still hale and active at the age of eighty-three,
remembers attending that precinct in 1850 or 1852 in the contest between Michael
Cook and Jack Horton for sheriff. He took some of the juice of the peach with
him, a gallon and a half, to be exact, and carried the precinct overwhelmingly
for Cook, his uncle, or, to be exact again, thirty-eight out of forty votes. Th
dancing which took place at Franklin's house during that day in which barefoot
girls and women joined, was the most vigorous, if not the most graceful, he ever
witnessed. He still wonders how it was that those bare feet did not wear through
to the quick.(1)
"Keith" Blalock.--It might seem almost as if the
history of the Civil War in Watauga were inextricably interwoven with the life
and adventures of W. M. Blalock, commonly called " Keith" Blalock, a
nic-name given him because of the fact that Alfred Keith, of Burnsville, was a
great fighter during Blalock's youth, and as he was something of a fighter himself,
his boy companions called him "Keith." Keith and his wife, born Malinda
Pritchard, lived "under the Grandfather" when the Civil War commenced,
and both became members of Zeb Vance's 26th Regiment, he as W. M. and she as Sam
Blalock. She wore a private's uniform and tented and messed with Keith. She watched
the men "when they went in swimming" near Kinston, but never went in
herself. Keith was a Union man and joined only to avoid conscription and in the
hope that opportunity might offer for him to desert to the Union lines. But the
fortunes of war did not afford this chance as speedily as he wished, so he went
into the bushes and covered himself with poison oak. When this took effect the
army surgeons were puzzled as to the nature
__________
Note: (1) He also wonders if one of the Franklins, who had his tax list there,
ever got it straightened out after the dance was over and peach-juice exhausted.
Page 161
of his complaint, but they agreed that he was then unfit for
service and discharged him. Then "Sam" presented himself and convinced
his colonel, Zeb Vance, that he was no longer fit for duty either, his lawful
tent and messmate having been discharged. They returned to their home under the
Grandfather, but it was not long till Keith had cured his infirmity by the frequent
application of strong brine to the affected parts, brine being nothing more or
less than strong salt water. Then Confederate sympathisers wanted to know why
he did not return. Keith showed his discharge, and they answered by trying to
arrest and conscript him. He and "Sam" retreated still further up under
the Grandfather and lived in a rail pen. But they were followed even there, and
on one occasion Keith was so hotly pursued that he was shot in the left arm, and
had to take refuge with some hogs which had "bedded up" under the rocks.
Keith then went through the lines into Tennessee and became recruiting officer
for a Michigan regiment stationed in Tennessee. Whether true or not, Blalock believed
that Robert Green, who then lived in the Globe, but had also a place at Blowing
Rock, was in the party that had wounded him. Accordingly, when he and some of
his comrades met Green one day while he was driving his wagon from the Globe to
Blowing Rock, he shot Green as he ran down the side of the mountain, breaking
his thigh. Green's friends say that Blalock's crowd left him lying as he had fallen,
and that he managed to regain his wagon, turn it around and drive back home. Blalock's
friends say that after he had wounded Green, shooting him through his wagon body
and afterwards bragging on his marksmanship, he went to him, and finding him unconscious,
took him to his wagon, put him in it, turned the wagon around and started the
team in the direction of Green's home. This is doubted by Green's friends, however.
Robert Green was the father of the late Judge L. L. Green, of this county.
Four Coffey Brothers.-- To go back a little, Keith Blalock's
mother had married Austin Coffey, while Keith was a very little boy, and Coffey
reared him to manhood. Austin Coffey lived almost in sight of the home of his
brother, McCaleb Coffey, in the Coffey Gap of the Blue Ridge and on the old Morganton
Road.
Page 162
McCaleb was rather a Confederate sympathiser, having a son,
Jones, in the Confederate army. Austin was rather a Union man, though too old
to be drafted into the service. Of course, he sheltered and fed Keith and his
comrades whenever he or they came to his home. But William and Reuben Coffey were
pronounced Southern men, and active in forcing out-lyers and others subject to
conscription into the ranks of the onfederate army. Meantime, Blalock was taking
recruits through the lines into the Union army in Tennessee. Thus, a natural antagonism
sprang up between him and William and Reuben Coffey.
Danger from Tennessee.-- Up to the spring of 1864 the Union
element in the mountains had been rather timid, but as the tide of battle turned
against the Confederacy, and recruiting officers, of whom James Hartley was a
conspicuous example, increased throughout the mountain region, Union men and women
grew bolder. Then, too, there had been numerous desertions from the Southern army,
and men not only from these mountains, but from Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia,
were lying out in the mountains almost everywhere. Of course, they had to live,
and if those who could would not feed them, they naturally tried to feed themselves.
To do this they had to pilfer, steal and finally, in bands, to rob outright. A
state of guerrilla warfare was thus imminent, when an event occurred which almost
revolutionized matters in the mountains. This was Kirk's raid through the mountains
to Camp Vance, six miles below Morganton. That it had been successful was almost
a miracle, and the leaders of the Southern Confederacy realized the vulnerability
of its piedmont region to like incursions from East Ten-nessee. It should he remembered
that General Burnside had long been in possession of Knoxville, Tenn., and that
he might at almost any time send a large force through the mountains and destroy
the railroad from Richmond to Columbia, the main artery of the Confederacy. To
guard against this contingency, General Robert B. Vance, of Asheville, had been
placed in command of the Military District of Western North Carolina, as it was
officially designated. Also, that on the 7th of July, 1863, the General Assembly
of North Carolina had provided for the
Page 163
organization and equipment of the Home Guard, officially designated
as "The Guard for Home Defense," to be composed of all males between
eighteen and fifty years of age. In April, 1864, Gen. John W. McElroy, commanding
the forces around Burnsville, wrote to Governor Vance that "the county is
gone up," and that there was a determination on part of the people generally
"to do no more service in the cause."(1)
Longstreet's Withdrawal.-- General Longstreet had been detached
from Lee's army in Virginia and sent to East Tennessee in 1863, where, after the
Battle of Chickamauga, he drove the Federals back into Knoxville and besieged
that place. But Lee could not long do without Longstreet, and so, in January,
1864, Longstreet tried to withdraw from Knoxville and return to Richmond with
his army. No sooner, however, had Longstreet started than Burnside started after
him. In anticipation of this, General Vance was ordered to cross the mountains
through Haywood County and attack Burnside in flank as he pursued Longstreet.
Vance, however, was captured as soon as he reached the western slope of the Smoky
Mountains, and sent to prison, his force of about I,200 men of all arms retreating
back to Buncombe as best they might. Thus the Military District of Western North
Carolina was left without a general. But Col. J. B. Palmer, of the 58th North
Carolina, asked to be placed in command, and he was accordingly transferred early
in 1864 from his regiment in the western army and placed in command. But General
Lee wanted a West Point man in charge of this most important region, and assigned
General James G. Martin to that position. Meantime, Keith Blalock was passing
hack and forth between the lines and keeping the Federal authorities informed
of conditions around his old home "under the Grand-father." The mountains
were at that time practically defenseless. Camp Vance with a few hundred recruits
was the only force of moment between Knoxville and Salisbury, where were confined
thousands of Federal prisoners. Blalock had grown up with Joseph V. Franklin,
who was reared near Linville Falls and knew the country like a book. Col. George
W. Kirk was
__________
Note: (1)Rebellion Records, Series SI, Vol. LIII, p. 485.
Page 164
then in command of the Third North Carolina Mounted Infantry,
United States Army, and persuaded the military authorities to allow him to make
a raid to Camp Vance, release the conscripts there, steal an engine and train,
cut the wires, go on to Salisbury, release and arm the prisoners there and turn
them loose on the country. It was a daring scheme, and the wonder is that Kirk
was allowed to make the venture.
Kirk's Camp Vance Raid.-- With 130 men, including twelve Cherokee
Indians, on foot and carrying their rations and arms and blankets, Kirk left Morristown,
Tenn., June 13, 1864, and marched via Bull Gap, Greenville and the Crab Orchard,
all in Tennessee, crossed the Big Hump Mountain and went up the Toe River, passing
the Cranberry iron mine, where from forty to sixty men were detailed by the Confederate
government making iron, when they camped near David Ellis' house and where rations
were cooked for Kirk's men. On the 26th they scouted through the mountains, passing
Pinola and crossing Linville River. The following day they got to Upper Creek
at dark, where they did not camp, but keeping themselves in the woods all the
time, got to Camp Vance at daylight. Here they demanded its surrender, which was
agreed to. It had been Kirk's plan to take a locomotive and cars and such arms
as he might find at the Camp and go to Salisbury, where the Federal prisoners
confined there were to be released. Failing in that, he wanted to destroy the
bridge over the Yadkin, but a telegram had been sent before they could cut the
wire and that part of their scheme was abandoned. They captured 1,200 small arms,
3,000 bushels of grain, 279 prisoners, thirty-two negroes and forty-eight horses
and mules. Kirk also got forty recruits for his regiment, and then, after destroying
the locomotive he found there, three cars, the depot and commissary buildings,
he started to return. R. C. Pearson shot Hack Norton, of Madison County, one of
Kirk's men, at Hunting Creek, but Kirk got over the Catawba River and camped that
night. The next day they crossed John's River and Brown's Mountain, where they
were fired into by pursuing Confederates at 3 :30 pm. Kirk put some of his Camp
Vance prisoners in front, and one of them, B. A.
Page 165
Bowles, a drummer, was killed and a seventeen year old boy
wounded. Colonel Kirk was himself wounded here with several others of his command.
This was at Israel Beck's farm. They camped that night at top of the Winding Stairs
Road, where they were attacked next morning. Col. W. W. Avery and Phillip Chandler
were mortally wounded, Col. Calvin Houck was shot through the wrist and Powell
Benfield through the thigh. The attacking party then retreated and Kirk continued
his retreat, passing by Col. J. B. Palmer's home and burning it that morning.
Kirk and all his men escaped without further mishap. On July 21, 1864, General
Stoneman, wiring from Atlanta, thanked and complimented Kirk, but instructed General
Scofield at Knox-ville not to allow him to undertake another such hazardous expedition.
Joseph V. Franklin, now living at Drexel, N. C., was the guide. A man named Beech,
who had been wounded, was left at John Franklin's, near Old Fields of Toe, where
he was attended by Eleazer Pyatt. At Henry Barringer's, on Jonas's Ridge, some
of Kirk's men threw off some of the plunder they had captured, lest its weight
should retard their retreat. In his "Reminiscenses of Caldwell County"
(p. 51), G. W. F. Harper gives an account of an attack upon Kirk's retreating
men by ten men, including himself, at Moore's Cross Roads, where they captured
one prisoner, two mules and some arms. No mention of this is made in the official
report. (See Rebellion Records, Series i, Vol. XXXIX, Part I, p. 232.) Harper
also states that the detachment which attacked Kirk at the head of the Winding
Stairs was under command of Col. Allen Brown, from the garrison at Salisbury,
with militia and volunteers from Burke County, and was well armed. The pursuing
party was composed of about 1,200 men.
Death of William Coffey.-- Kirk's raid in 1864 emboldened the
Unionists in Watauga County, and Blalock went about in Federal uniform, fully
armed. Between August, 1864, and February, 1865, the people of this section were
harassed beyond measure, for not only had the deserters and outlyers to be fed
by submitting to their thefts and robberies, but a body of men calling themselves
Vaughan's Cavalry, and claiming to be Confederates,
Page 166
came from Tenuessee to Boone on their way to Newton for the
purpose of recruiting their horses, it was alleged, but to keep out of danger
also, most probably. These men were worse than Kirk's or Stoneman's men, according
to old people still living, stealing horses and mules and everything else they
fancied. What they did not like they destroyed, throwing out of doors many of
the household goods of the defenceless women and children. Col. W. L. Bryan and
J. W. Councill followed them to Newton and recovered two horses they had stolen
from the latter in 1865. In these circumstances, there is no wonder that Blalock
hunted out his enemies. Reuben Coffey was first sought, but he was not at home
when Keith called. He and his aids then went to William Coffey's field, forced
him to go half a mile with them to James Gragg's mill, and to sit astride a rude
bench, where he was shot, Blalock turning over that act to a man named Perkins,
because of the fact that William Coffey was the brother of Austin Coffey, Keith's
step-father. In 1864 Keith also had what he called a "battle" with Jesse
Moore in Carroll Moore's orchard, in which Jesse was wounded in the heel and Keith
had an eye shot out. Pat, a son of Daniel Moore, had a thigh broken in same fight.
This was in the Globe, in CaIdwell, however.
The Murder of Austin Coffey.(1)-- These activities soon brought
some of Colonel Avery's battalion on the scene, and a party of Captain James Marlow's
company went to McCaleb Coffey's house in the Coffey Gap. There they found Austin
Coffey, who was recognized by John B. Boyd, and arrested. Boyd left his prisoner
with Marlow's men and went on home in the Globe. That was Sunday, February 26,
1865. Nothing was seen of Austin Coffey after that till his body was discovered
a week later in the woods by searchers sent out by his widow. All sorts of stories
have been circulated as to what really happened to Austin, and it was only recently
that what is probably the true account was obtained from J. Filmore Coffey, of
Foscoe. This gentleman is a son of Austin Coffey, having been born in 1858. When
he became a man and had married he stopped one
__________
Note: (1) Austin Coffey was the son of Jesse Coffey, and was born in 1818, and
died on the 27th of February, 1865.
Page 167 night in 1882 at the house of a man named John Walker,
near Shelby. When Walker learned Coffey's name and that he was the youngest son
of Austin Coffey, Walker told him that he, Walker, had been a member of Marlow's
company when Austin was turned over to them; that they had taken him to a vacant
house about half way between 'Shull's Mills and Blowing Rock, known then as the
Tom Henley place, where Nelson Coffey now lives, one-half mile west of the Blowing
Rock Road. There a fire was kindled and Coffey went to sleep on the floor before
it. While he was sleeping this John Walker was detailed to kill Austin Coffey,
but refused. It was then that a base-born fellow, named Robert Glass, or Anders,
volunteered to do the act, and while the old man slept shot him through the head.
The body was taken to a laurel and ivy thicket near by and hidden. One week later
a dog was seen with a human hand in his mouth. Search revealed the body. Glass,
after suffering much mental torture, died long before 1882 in Rutherford County.
J. F. Coffey acquits both John Boyd and Major A. C. Avery of all complicity in
his father's death.
Other "Activities."-- About this time Levi Coffey,
a son of Elisha, threw in his fortunes with Blalock and his companions, and when
Benjamin Green and his men tried to arrest Levi at Mrs. Fox's house, above what
is now Foscoe, the latter ran out of the house and was shot in the shoulder, but
he escaped. This was during the autumn of 1864, as well as can now be determined.
This caused the bushwhackers, as Blalock and his followers were called, when they
were not called robbers outright, to turn against the Greens, and finding that
Lott Green, a son of Amos, was at his home near Blowing Rock, they went there
at night to arrest or kill him. Lott was expecting a physician to visit him that
night, and when someone knocked at his door, he, thinking that the doctor had
arrived, unsuspectingly opened it. Finding who his visitors really were, he drew
back, slamming the door to. It just so happened that there were at that time in
the house with Lott his brother, Joseph; his brother-in-law, Henry Henley, the
latter of the Home Guard, and L. L. Green, afterwards a judge of the Superior
Court, then but seventeen
Page 168 years old, but also a member of the Home Guard. The
bush-whackers are said to have been Keith Blalock, Levi Coffey, Sampson Calloway,
son of Larkin, Edmund Ivy, of Georgia, a deserter from the Confederate army, Adolphus
Pritchard, and ---------- Gardner, of Mitchell. Blalock demanded that all in the
house surrender, whereupon Henly asked what treatment would be accorded them in
case they surrendered, and Blalock is said to have answered: "As you deserve,
damn you." Henley then slipped his gun through a crack of the door and fired,
wounding Calloway in the side. The bushwhackers then retired, and the Green party,
who followed, saw blood. Calloway was left at the house of John Walker, two miles
above Shull's Mills. Henly led the party at Green's house, excepting L. L. Green,
to Walker's, and surrounded it. Henly was at the rear and shot Edmund Ivy as he
ran out, killing him. Blalock called to a woman to open the gate, and Mrs. Medie
Walker, born McHaarg, did so. Through this gate Blalock and his company escaped.
A little later on, February 26, 1865, Captain James Marlow's infantry, expecting
to unite with a detachment of cavalry under Nelson Miller at Valle Crucis, went
to Austin Coffey's house and arrested Thomas Wright and Austin, Alex. Johnson,
who claimed to be a recruiting officer for Kirk, having just left and gone to
McCaleb Coffey's house.(1) The infantry followed, taking Wright with them, but
Wright's wife and Blalock's mother, then Mrs. Austin Coffey, went a nigh-way and
gave warning to the inmates of McCaleb's house before the infantry arrived by
calling out in a loud voice that the "rebels" were coming. Thereupon,
Johnson dashed out of the door, and although fired on, escaped unhurt. Most of
the infantry followed Johnson, but John Boyd, in charge of four or five men, entered
the house, where they found Sampson Calloway, he having been removed from the
Walker house which Henly had attacked. Calloway got into bed and was not arrested,
but Austin Coffey was arrested, as before related. All now agree that Austin Coffey
did not deserve his fate: that he was a big-
__________
Note: Brooks and Smoot, "two preacher men." also engaged in piloting
Union men through the lines to Tennessee, via Elk Cross Roads, Sutherland and
Cut Laurel Gap, were killed on the left of the road to Blowing Rock, beyond where
Kilby Hartley lives, by the Home Guard.
Page 169
hearted man, who had fed confederates as well as Union men
at his house. He was a Union man, but not active in arresting Southern sympathizers,
and had tried to prevent the raids on Lott Green's and Carroll Moores' houses.
Two Michiganders Escape.-- Reuben Coffey, sick of living in
a turmoil with his neighbors, had left the Globe and moved to a house on Meat
Camp, but needing some household articles he had left at his Globe home, returned
during this winter, accompanied by his daughter, Millie, who was riding a white
horse. The robbers had taken all of McCaleb Coffey's horses, and when the white
horse appeared McCaleb threw a "grise" of corn over his back to be taken
to Elisha Coffey's mill by Miss Millie. On their way down the mountain Reuben
and his daughter met two men, who said they were from Michigan and had escaped
from prison. They were not in uniform, neither were they armed. Reuben had a gun
and arrested them, after which he took them by McCaleb Coffey's house to David
Miller's, one mile away, hoping to get Miller to go with him and them to Camp
Mast on Cove Creek, but Miller excused himself, and Reuben went on alone with
his prisoners. When they got to the intersection of the turnpike with the old
Morganton Road, about two miles above Shull's Mills, one of the prisoners called
Reuben's atten-tion to some rude benches standing on one side of the road, and
when he looked in the direction indicated the other seized his gun, while his
companion struck Reuben a blow on the back of his head with a heavy stick. In
the ensuing scuffle the two overcame Reuben and took his gun away from him. At
that moment, after having tried to shoot him and failing only because the cap
snapped, they heard Wilson Beech, a boy, returning at a gallop from the mill,
when they ran off and escaped. This boy, now an elderly man, remembers that he
was working in the field at McCaleb Coffey's, with Polly Hawkins as a helper,
when they saw James C. Coffey coming down the road on foot. He said, "Hurrah!
the war is over." This, however, was in April, 1865.
The Sins of the Children.-- Leading up to the surrender of
this camp are several ver distressing cirsumstances. Levi Guy, who lived on Watauga
River near its falls and its passage into
Page 170
Tennessee, was an old man during the Civil War. His three sons,
Canada, Enoch and David, were active Union men. Their enemies called them robbers.
There were near the head of North Fork of New River several men of the name of
Potter and others named Stout. Thomas Stout, another old man, had three sons,
Abram, Daniel and John, who, with the Potters and Guys, were charged with many
depredations throughout this region. One night in 1863 a band of men, among whom
were supposed to have been the three Guy "boys," as they were called,
went to the home of Paul Farthing on Beaver Dams, where Lewis Farthing now lives,
and after demanding his surrender, fired into the log walls of his residence.
It had been agreed by the people of this neighborhood that, in case any house
should be attacked, horns or trumpets should be blown, so that all who heard the
signal might hasten to the assistance of those in trouble. This alarm was sounded
from the upper story of Paul Farthing's house by his women folk, while he fired
at the at-tacking party from the rooms below. Several neighbors heard the alarm
and started to the rescue. Among these was Thomas Farthing, and he was shot dead
as he approached the house, the robbers taking flight immediately thereafter.
Some time later Levi Guy was captured by some of the Confederate Home Guard and
hanged, although he protested that he had done nothing more than shelter his own
sons when they came to his house for food and beds. Paul Farthing was falsely
charged with having been concerned in this deed.
While Isaac Wilson, son of Hiram, was ploughing in his field
at the head of the North Fork of Cove Creek, bushwhackers, among whom are supposed
to have been Potters and Stouts, slipped up on him and shot him dead. Soon thereafter
Canada Guy and a boy named Jacob May, a son of Jeff May, of Roan Creek, Tenn.,
were captured by Daniel Sheppard and some of Captain Price's men of Ashe County,
near Sutherland, and hanged, though it is said that May was innocent and was ex-honorated
from all complicity by Guy before he was killed.
__________
Note: (1)It is said that Sheppard was afterwards captured and hanged on a dogwood
in Johnson County, Tenn., but that the rope broke. Jeff May, his captor, then
took the halter from Sheppard's horse and strangled Sheppard to death with it.
Page 171
After this it is claimed that Paul Farthing's house was again
attacked at night, but that he returned the fire and wounded or killed one of
the assailants, as blood was seen on the road leading away from the dwelling.
Then, sometime afterwards - dates are lacking all through this period - Old Man
Thomas Stout, father of the Stout boy or boys charged with having been concerned
in the killing of Isaac Wilson, was captured by Confederate Home Guards in the
spring of 1864 and taken to Hiram Wilson's on Cove Creek, where he was kept all
night. Big Isaac Wilson, a cousin of "Little" Isaac, the slain man;
Jay or Jehu Howington and Gilbert Norris are said to have started with Stout next
day for Camp Vance, below Morganton, and after having been told to go "the
nigh-way." Thomas Stout was never seen alive again. Two months later James
H. Presnell was cow-hunting on Rich Mountain and found a shoe. He reported this
to his brother, Col. W. W. Presnell, when he got back to their home on Brushy
Fork. The next day the two brothers went back to the place at which the shoe had
been found, and within fifty paces they found what remained of the body of Thomas
Stout, including his gray hair. It had been placed in the cavity formed by the
blowing down of an oak tree; logs had then been placed beside the body and the
whole covered with brush and leaves. Not far off, dangling from a leaning white
oak, was the hickory thong by which he had been hanged, with the noose still in
a circular form, though it had been cut in two when the body was removed. Colonel
Presnell reported these facts to Abram Lewis, an officer at Camp Mast, and soon
afterwards Thomas Stout's widow had the remains removed and buried near her home.'
Thus was the Bible promise reversed, that the sins of the fathers should be visited
upon the children; but, alas, the sins of the children are much oftener visited
upon their fathers!
Retribution?--It became necessary sometime in the fall of 1864
to gather the crop of Big Isaac Wilson on the head of the
__________
(1) E. B. Miller, of Meat Camp, says that on the 10th of April, 1865, he was near
the Little Cavit of the Rich Mountain, and hearing some one sobbing, went to the
place from which the sound came. There, at the root of the tree,, stood Mrs. Tom
Stout with the bones of her husband in her apron, crying as her heart would break.
Page 172
North Fork of Cove Creek. Friends of Thos. Stout knew of this
and were lying in wait when the men came with fell purpose. They shot and killed
Howington(1) and James Norris, a son of Gilbert's, while Big Isaac himself was
severely wounded, but recovered. It is said that Gilbert Norris afterwards went
blind. All concerned in the death of old Levi Guy are said to have speedily come
to a bad end, also.
Some Watauga Amazons.-- In "the course of human events"
it so happened in John Walker's lifetime, as it had in the Declaration of Independence,
that things had got past all endurance. He was a soldier in Camp Mast, but he
was sick and tired of it all. John wanted to be well out of it, but he did not
wish to desert. Therefore, when it came time for him to spend a week at the home
of his father, Meredith Walker, he got Levi Coffey and Erwin Calloway, a brother
of W.H. Calloway, afterwards sheriff, to "capture" him at the end of
his week at home. But it would never do for Levi to be known in the matter, as
he was Johnn's best friend, and for Calloway to capture him ujnaided might seem
to smack of complicity. But it had so chanced that, asome time before, Henderson
Calloway had brought in from Tennessee a full United States officer's uniform,
shoulder-straps, belt and sword. Adorned in these, it was hoped that Erwin would
not be recognized, but where were the "assisting force" to come from?
Levi was not long in answering. His own wife, Edith and Elvira Taylor, Catharine
and Jemima Yarber and Frankie Danner were "force" enough for the occasion.
So he got them to assume male attire and armed them with "stick guns."
At night Erwin Calloway, panoplied in full regimentals, marched his squad into
the Walker yard and halted them at the front door, himself rapping for admittance.
John and his women folk, with white faces, appeared and opened the door. Erwin
demanded his surrender, the female guard, with sergeant Levi Coffey remaining
in the dark, but still dimly visible. There was a parley, John's women pleading
for him, with tear-bedimmed
__________
Note: (1) Dr. J. G. Rivers lived at the Swift place on Cove Creek and was the
first to hear of the killing of these men. He ran his horse to camp Mast and reported
the facts, and the entire camp hastened to the scene. Doctor Rivers was with Howington
asked him why it was so hard for him to die. Rivers asked if he had anything on
his mind. He said he had helped hang old man Thomas Stout, and had nnever known
any peace since. He then died.
Page 173
eyes. Erwin went inside, leaving Levi to keep the sentinels
outside alert and watchful, which he did by gruff commands. But erwin was obdurate,
and tore John away from the arms of his family and marched him to the squad outside.
For Effect Jonathan McHaarg was also captured at the same time and place, the
women of the family alone being ignorant of the deception practiced. Meantime,
however, it had become bruited about that Yankees were in the gap of the mountain,
and France and Wilts Beech, two boys, were started on horses for Camp Bingham
to bring assistance. These were met by Erwin's squad and turned back, while John
Walker was taken on to a ridge and rock cliff just above Elisha Coffey's Mill,
afterwards known as Lenoir's Stonewall Mill, where he was fed by Elisha whenever
he went out to feed his hogs. It was about one week later that John walked into
his home, apparently much crippled up and sorely distraught, but bearing an iron
clad paper-writing with his signature attached, a duplicate of one he declared
the Yankees in Tennessee had compelled him to sign while in captivity in order
to secure his parole. Of course this was merely a fake, but it worked, for when
Bingham sent for John the messenger advised John to respect his parole, and he
was left at home till the surrender at Appomattox and ever thereafter.
Camp Mast at Sugar Grove.-- Captain Price had a company of
the Home Guards at Jefferson, while Major Harvey Bingham had two companies at
a camp on Cove Creek, four miles above Valle Crucis, which had been named in honor
of the Mast family. It was just below the old Mast Mill, now called Pete Mast's
Mill. Geo. McGuire was captain of one company and Jordan Cook of the other. The
land on which it stood is now occupied by the residence and grounds of Boone Deal.
Only one-half of the force was in camp at any one time, the other half being at
their homes every alternate week. The camp consisted of wooden shacks and tents.
There were also some fortifications around it. Many wounded Confederate soldiers
formed part of the garrison of Home Guards stationed there. The men were rather
poorly armed, and Major Avery's battalion was on its way to supply them with better
weapons in February, 1865, when it was surrendered, as will more fully appear
later on.
Page 174
The Battle on the Beech.-- In the fall of 1864 nine men went
to James Farthing's home, a mile and a half below what is now Ward's Store on
lower Watauga River, robbed him, shot him and left him for dead. They then went
a mile further up, to Reuben P. Farthing 's, claiming to be Confederates. Thomas
Farthing was up stairs in Reuben's house, wounded. But he had a pistol, and hearing
what was passing below, put his head out of the widow and ordered the nine men
to leave. They did so, but took several horses from one of Thomas Farthing's brothers
as he was going with them to the pasture. Word was sent to Major Bingham, who
immediately came with eighteen men. Rations for three days were then cooked by
the Farthings for these men, and they followed the horses to Cranberry and recaptured
them, returning to the old Joel Eggers place near Balm, where they stayed that
night. Captain James Hartley was notified of their presence there, and supposing
that they would return to Valle Crucis by the Bower's Gap, secreted himself and
thirteen of his men there and awaited Bingham's approach. But Bingham had decided
to return to Reuben Farthing's below Ward's Store for the purpose of returning
the recaptured horses. There is a wagon road there now, but then there was only
a trail. One of Hartley's runners informed him of Bingham's purpose, and Hartley,
taking a near way up the ridge, arrived in time to confront them at the place
now owned by Lee Gwaltney, seven miles from Ward's Store and one mile from what
is now Balm. This spot is about half way between the Hanging Rock and the South
Pinnacle of the Beech, but then known as the Abe Baird land. In the fight which
ensued Richard Kilby was killed and Elliott Bingham, a brother of the Major's,
so badly wounded that he died afterwards. These men belonged to major Bingham's
battalion. None of Hartley's men was hurt. The Confederates retreated, although
they greatly outnumbered the attacking force. A. J. McBride, of Bingham's command,
although a preacher, cursed and swore when ordered to retreat.
Surrender of Camp Mast.-- It is difficult to get the exact
date of the fall of this mountain stronghold, for weak as it was, it was all there
was at that time, but T. P. Adams, of Dog Skin
Page 175
Creek, says it was the 5th of February, 1865. As he was one
of the captured garrison, he probably knows. Assuming that this is the correct
date, on the 4th of February of that year Captain James Champion, of Indiana,
a recruiting officere for the Federals, gathered at Banner Elk about one hundred
Union men, most of whom were armed after one fashion or another, But many of them
had no weapons at all. He marched them that day to Valle Crucis, where they halted,
killed one of Henry Taylor's beevs, cooked it and had supper. This dispatched,
Captain Champion made them a speech, in which he told them of his plans. But,
he added, that if there was any man in the party who expected to loot or rob or
burn or destroy any property not strictly contraband, he must fall out, as all
he expected to do or allow to be done was to burn the camp, capture the garrison
and disable the arms found there. Out of 123 men in his command, twenty fell out,
indicating that they had joined in the hope of plunder only. With James Isaacs
for guide, the residue started, following the public road to the old Ben Councill
place at what has been called Vilas since Cleveland's first post-master general
was in office. They crossed Brushy Fork Creek at this point and took the ridge
between that tream and Cove Creek, and came down upon Camp Mast just before a
chill dawn. It seemed, however, as they passed over the frozen ground, that the
clang of their horses' shoes had aroused every dog in Christendom, and just before
reaching the camp a flock of sheep became frightened and fled helter-skelter down
the ridge toward the camp, with bells jingling and sheep bleating, thus making
a veritable pandemonium. But the camp was still asleep, and Champion's men were
placed at regular intervals around it, each second man being required to build
a fire. When the plaid dawn gave way to the roseate sunrise and reveille sounded,
the sleepy garrison looked out upon the frozen hills but to discover that they
were indeed encompassed round about, if not by an army with banners, at least
by an apparent wall of smoke and fire. Champion had divided his force into three
companies, one under I. V. Reese, the second under Aaron Voncannon, while he remained
in charge of the third. General Franklin, General being his baptismal
Page 176
name and not a mere empty title of military rank, was sent
forward with a flag of truce, returning soon afterwards with Captain George McGuire,
who was native and to the manner born, but afterwards supected by some to have
conspired with Champion for the surrender of the Camp, as the latter had selected
a time when Major Harvey Bingham had gone to Ashe to confer with Captain Price
as to some desired co-operation between the two forces. McGuire reported hat he
had taken a vote and found that about sixty of his men favored surrende, while
eleven voted to fight. He was sent back for the names of those on each side of
the question, and soon returned with them. The minority was overruled and garrison
surrendered, all being over by nine o'clock that winter morning. They were taken
down Cove Creek, crossing Watauga River at the old Ben Baird place, and followed
the old Bedent Baird Road over Beech Mountain to George Dugger's, and thence to
where Sam Banner lived, where Keith Blalock's son joined them, taking charge of
the prisoners. When these reached Ham Ray's at Shell Creek in Tennessee most of
those who had voted to surrender were paroled and discharged, while all of those
who had voted to fight, except T. P. Adams, were sent on to Camp Chace. McGuire
went on, but not to Camp Chace. He rode with the officers and never returned to
this State.
Paul and Reuben Farthing.-- When the question of surrendering
was put to the garrison at Camp Mast, Paul Farthing declared that the surrender
of the Camp meant the surrende of his life. Miss Sophronia Mast, a daughter of
the venerble Joseph Mast, of Sugar Grove, and Miss Melinda Williams, now the wifr
of Mr. Wesley Holtsclaw, were returning at dawn from having sat up all night with
a sick neighbor, when they discovered that they were within the lines of Champion's
men encircling the camp. They were detained there, and while waiting to be allowed
to proceed to their homes advised Paul Farthing and his nephew to escape by following
the strem under the bushes growing on the bank of the creek flowing hard by, but
they said it had grown too light and that they would be discovered and killed.
Paul Farthing, however, gave Sophronia his pistol,, knife and pocket-book,
Page 177
and Dr. J. G. Rivers, who was also of the surrendered garrison,
entrusted some things to Miss Williams, and these articles were afterwards faithfully
delivered by these two young girls, Miss Mast afterwards becoming the wife of
Captain Newton Banner. The two Farthings, Paul and his nephew, Reuben, did die
at Camp Chase, just as they had predicted would be the case if surrendered.
Stoneman's Raid.--General stoneman reached Boone in the forenoon
of March 28, 1865. The day was fair. Some men in the house which stood where J.
D. Councill's residence now stands, among whom was W. Waightstill Gragg, fired
on the head of the column as it came down the road from Hodges Gap. This was enough:
Warren Green was killed; so were Jacob M. Councill and Ephraim Norris. The following
were wounded: Calvin Green, son of Alexander Green; Sheriff A. J. McBride, Thomas
Holder, son of Elisha; John Brown, son of Joseph Brown, of Gap Creek, and W. Waightstill
Gragg, of the First North Carolina Cavalry, who was then at home on a furlough.
The house from which the shooting had been done, now J. D. Cuncill's, was converted
into a hospital and the Federal surgeon did his best for the wounded. Calvin Green
was taken to the old JOrdan Councill house. He had been badly wounded, but recovered.
McBride had been shot in the breast, but the ball followed a rib and lodged near
his spine, from which the federal surgeon removed it, while McBride lay onhis
stomach on the floor, without anaesthetics of any kind. Holder's wound was in
the hip and groin. He lived on Howard's Creek, but is now dead. Brown had his
ankle broken. Gragg's wound was not very severe. He lived a short distance above
the house now occupied by BenjaminBrannock. After the firing from the Councill
house, Stoneman's men charged, and all who were in that house or near it ran through
the fields toward the foot of Howard's Knob. Hence, all were wounded in the rear,
except Mc Bride, who was hit in the breast. The housein which Jacob M. Councill
was killed is called the Mark Hodge house. It still stands, in the rear of Benjamin
Councill's home, though untenented now. Jacob had been ploughing and was putting
his harness up when one of Stoneman's men
Page 178
came to the door and shot him dead, notwithstanding his protestations.
A colored woman, Phoebe by name, who had been at work with him, saw the deed.
Offical Account.-- Major-General George Stoneman's command,
consisting of a cavalry division and a battery of artillery, left Knoxville March
21, 1865, and camped at Strawberry Plains, and by the 27th forded Doe River and
crossed the Smokey Mountains into North, moving out at 5:00 a. m. March 28th and
reaching Boone about eleven o'clock that morning. Here the division divided, the
first brigade taking the route to Yadkin River, while part of the remainder when
through Deep Gap to Wilkesboro. Col. George W. Kirk, in command of the second
and third North Carolina Mounted Infantry, United States Army, left Taylorsville,
Tenn., on the 5th of April and came to Boone, where he was joined next day by
Brigadier-General Davis Tillson. On the morning of the 7th Major Bahney left with
the second North Carolina Mounted Infntry for Deep Gap, and Major W. W. Rollins,
with 200 men of the third North Carolina Infantry, went to Blowing Rock Gap, called
by army officers Watauga Gap, while Colonel Kirk, with 406 men, remained in Boone.
General Tillson gave instructions for building rough but formidable field works
and collections of as large a supply of forage and subsistence as possible, while
Kirk was instructed to barricade the Meat Camp road leading through State Gap
and also a road not then on General Tillson's military map, leading through Sampson
Gap, between Deep and Watauga Gaps, a few miles from the latter. On the 27th of
April the second and third North Carolina Mounted Infantry were moved toward Asheville,
reaching there on the 30th. (Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XLIX, Part I, pp.
323 to 337.) Signal stations on mountain tops were established from Butler, Tenn.,
to Lenoir, N. C.
Obeyed Orders.-- Boone court house was pierced with holes to
fire through, while a barricade was made around it of timbers taken from an unfinished
building which then stood where the Blair hotel now stands, and from another half
finished house then standing near Blackburn's present hotel. Deep Gap and
Page 179
Blowing Rock also were fortified, traces of both fortifications
being still visible. William P. Welch, now living at Deep Gap, recalls the fort
and many incidents connected with the fortivication of that place. It was a palisaded
fort enclosing about one acre and ditched around. The J. D. Councill house stands
now on the site of his father's residence, destroyed by fire in the fall of 1878,
which was used as a hospital for the wounded soldiers who fell in that skirmish.
Other Details.-- From the same source (p. 330) it is learned
that when camped ten miles west of Jonesboro, Tenn., the train came up and "the
First and Second Brigades drew all the rations the men could cry conveniently.
On the 26th of March the command moved, cutting loose from all incumbrances in
the way of trains. One wagon, ten ambulances and four guns with their caissons
were the only wheeled vehicles that accompained the expedition . . . On the 27th
a portion of the command moved up the Watauga River, and after halting for a short
time at the mouth of Roan Creek to feed, mmarched until 12: p. m., when we bivouacked
on the eastern slope of the Iron Mountain until daylight, when the march was resumed.
About 10:00 a. m. on the 28th, when approaching the town of Boone, it was learned
that there was a meeting of the home guard in that town to take place on that
day. Major Keogh, aide-de-camp to Major-General Stoneman, went forward with a
detachment of the Twelfth Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry and surprised and routed
the rebels, killing nine(1) and capturing sixty-eitht. . . . At Boone the command
separated, General Stoneman, with Palmer's Brigade (First), going by way of Deep
Gap to Wilkesborough, whilst I, with Brown's Brigade (Second) and the artillery,
moved toward the place by the Flat Gap road. . . . At 9:00 p. m. Brown's Brigade
arrived at Patterson's factory, at the foot of the Blue Ridge, and found an ample
supply of corn and bacon. I remained in rear to give my personal attention to
the artillery, which did not arrive at the factory until 7:00 a. m. on the 29th.
After feeding and resting, the march was resumed at 11:oo a. m., a guard having
been left in charge of the forge and subsistence
__________
Note:(1) Only three men were killed, and five wounded.
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