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Burt Davis.-- This was the next teacher, but he taught at Soda
Hill school house and at Eli Brown's school house. Davis married Carolina Moretz
first, and, after her death, Martha Lookabill. His first wife was a daughter of
Squire Johnnie Moretz, and his second the daughter of David Lookabill. The latter
still lives on Elk Creek, above Todd. Davis himself, however, died about 1900.
Todd Miller, of Wilkes County, was the next of Colonel Bryan's
instructors, and he taught at the Ben Greene school house between the latter gentleman's
residence and where his son, Jacob, now lives on the Little Fork of Meat Camp
Creek. It was there that he went through Davies' arithmetic and ended his school
days. This was in the fall or winter of 1857, and after the Colonel had been clerking
for Joseph Councill and Allen Myrick. Before that he had studied Fowler's rithmetic.
That and the blue back spelling book were the only books he had during all his
school days. His mother told him that Dillsworth's Speller was the spelling book
which had preceded the blue back.
The Twisting Temple.-- Battle Bryan called the school house
on Meat Camp by this name because the frame was not exactly plumb and square,
but leant a little to one side. The district has kept that name ever since. The
house stood where Frank Reagan lives now. The district has, however, been divided
into the Tugman School and the Green Valley School, and a better house has replaced
the Twisting Temple. Still, this old Twisting Temple School District has furnished
one congressman, E. S. Blackburn; one lawyer, E. S. Blackburn; two teachers, two
hpysicians, the latter being Thomas Blackburn and B. W. Ferguson.
Lees-McRae Institute.-- Without the slightest flourishing of
trumpets or sounding of the big brass drum, Rev. Edgar Tufts came to Banner's
Elk about 1901 and established a boarding and day school for girls. This has been
successful from the geginning and continues to flourish. The terms are reasonable
nd the instruction thorough. Within recent years Grace Hospital was started, Mrs.
Helen Hartly Jenkins, of New York, having
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given more than anyone else. It is equipped with a complete
operating room and lboratory. It has several rooms for patients endergoing treatment.
The cool and pure mountain air aids much in all surgical operations. The Grandfather
Orphanage was started in the spring of 1914, the Lybrook farm having been secured
for that purpose. The capacity of the orphanage has been doubled already. Girls
are given practical instruction in many useful arts. The key to these benefactions
is "IN, OF, FOR," meaning that they are in the mountains, of the mountains
and for the mountain people. This tells the entire story eloquently. The church
which is nearing completion will be one of the most attractive architecturally
in the State. The two large conglomerate rocks or pudding stones on either side
of the entrance are in themselves rare curiosities. The school most sensibly closes
during the cold months of winter, and is open during the summer, spring and fall
months, opening in the spring and closing in December. The good already accomplished
and yet to be achieved in incalculable.
School Teachers in Boone Before Civil War.-- Miss Annie Rutledge,
from Wilkesboro, taught in the court house. Miss Barber, of Lenoir, taught in
the court house. While being driven in a buggy of Joshua Winkler from Lenoir to
Boone, with trunk on back of buggy, they met a man named Dooley as they came up
the mountain from Patterson towards Blowing Rock. They talked with him and started
on. Soon they found that the trunk was missing. Winkler went back, but never got
the trunk. It was never recovered.
Col. J. B. Todd also taught in the court house. After the Civil
War Henry Dixon, of ALamance, taught in the court house. W. B. and Robert Arrowood
and Professor Blake, of Davidson College, their uncle, taught in a small one-room
house which stood in the corner of the lot where Dr. J. W. Jones now lives, near
the present drug store. Professor Blake started the school, but left it in charge
of his nephews when he returned to Davidson. W. B. Arrowood is now a Presbyterian
preacher. They boarded with Dr. J. G. Rivers. Miss Margret Coffey taught in 1869.
After the Arrowoods, came Prof. John McEwen, who
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taught in Masonic Hall. James Warner taught here three months.
James H. Hall, of Mount Airy, also taught at Masonic Hall in 1874. Then came Mr.
McEwen. J. F. Spainhour and J. F. Hall taught at the academy which stood where
Calvin Cottrell's stable now stands. This consisted of two large rooms, one above
the other, and had been built but not quite finished by the Three Forks Baptist
Association. It turned the building over to the Boond Baptist Church, which finished
it. W. F. Shull was another teacher who had not been forgotten.
A Normal School at Boone.-- By chapter 229, Laws of 1885, a
normal school was authorized at Boone for the training of teachers, and a sum
not to exceed $500.00 was appropriated out of the University Normal School Fund
with which to pay instructors. This was a small beginning, but it has had a great
ending.
Appalachian Training School.-- In 1903, Professors B. B. and
D. D. Dougherty were teaching a private school at Boone, having succeeded in securing
the erection of a large and commondious building for that purpose. But in that
year the legislature incorporated the Appalachian Training School and made an
appropriation for its support. It had already begun, however, for in 1899 the
sim of $1,500.00 had been appropriated on condition that a like sum should be
provided by the people. By several yearly appropriations following the first,
the present plant was built, consisting of about a dozen builldings, a water power
electric light plant and library. There are 500 or more acres of valuable land
belong to the school. There are three sessions snnually, with an attendance of
from four to five hundred. There is a competent faculty.
T. P. Adams went to Raleigh at his own expense in 1905 and
urged the inauguration of the training school, and when in the late fall of the
year the science building was about to be left exposed to the elements all winter,
he carried mortar and brick for one month till the roof was on. He also insisted
on the purchase of the Edmisten farm, containing the present dam and electric
light plant, and in the face of much opposition from other directors, succeeded
in having the purchase completed before the option expired.
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Slyland Institute.-- This school was started about 1891 by
Miss Emily C. Prudden. She conducted it for a short time, after which it was turned
over to the American Missionary Association. About 1912 this association reconveyed
it to Miss Prudden, since which time it has not been open. It was a girls' school,
with industrial training, and did a vast amount of good. It was located at Blowing
Rock.
The Silverstone public school house is now said to be the best
in Watauga County, containing four large rooms and an auditorium with a seating
capacity of from 800 to 1,000 people. The chief movers and workers in this were
John Mast, Larkin Pennell, Newton Mast, A. J. Wilson, A. L. Wilson and T. P. Adams.
It cost, without paint or equipment, $2,000.00, all of which is fully paid. The
present term is five months, and in another year it will probably be nine full
months. Silverstone School District was the first in the State to vote a special
tax to continue the school two months and for compulsory attendance.
Walnut Grove Institute.-- In December, 1903, Finley P. Mast
agreed to give three acres on the Old Meeting House hill, where the Cove Creek
Baptist Church used to stand, for a school building and campus. T. C. McBride,
J. H. Bingham, D. C, W. H. and J. C. Mast agreeing to give $100.00 each, and to
procure all subscriptions possible, begun work and finished the school house in
August, 1904. It is large and convenient. This district then voted a tax of thirty
cents on each hundred dollars of property and ninety cents on each poll for six
years, without a dissenting vote. In 1910 the same tax was renewed for five years,
with but two votes in the negative. Not one dollar was paid to complete the actual
work of construction of the institute, W. E. Dugger, Ben. Dugger, J. C. Smith,
D. C., W. H., J. H. and J. C. Mast doing the work themselves.
Other Schools and Academies.-- Cove Creek Academy was built
about 1885, Enoch Swift, J. H. McBride, W. F. Sherwood and Asa Wilson being active
in its inauguration and subsequent support. Rev. Wiley Swift, who is so active
in the cause of the factory children's interests, is a son of Enoch Swift. The
academy at Valle Crucis was built about 1909, and W. W. Mast,
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T. H. Taylor, T. C. Baird, J. M. Shull, D. F. Mast, W. E. Shipley,
C. D. Taylor, W. H. Mast and D. F. Baird were its principal promoters.
Valle Crucis School for Girls.-- On the site of the old Ives
school has been reared several large and convenient buildings in which a school
for girls is taught. It was opened about 1903, Rt. Rev. Junius M. Horner, bishop
of the Missionary District of Asheville, being ex-officio its head and directing
mind. Many of the girls of the neighborhood have taken advantage of this opportunity
to gain an education, while at the same time learning many useful lessons in domestic
affairs. Great good is being accomplished and the people are coming more and more
to apprenciate the advantages offered by this school.
First Agricultural Instruction.-- From De Rosset's "Church
History of North Carolina" we learn that Bishop Ives had a herd of blooded
cattle sent to Valle Crucis, from which it was intended to produce a finer breed
of cattle in this section. Also, from Haywood's "Bishops of North Carolina,"
that the Valle Crucis Farm was early put under the direction of a young agriculturist
from New York, which was the first practical instruction ever given in any school
or college in North Carolina.
Prominent in the Cause.-- Messrs. D. D. and B. B. Dougherty,
of Boone, have been and still are active in the cause of education, as is also
Col. E. F. Lovill, who for years has done yeoman service for the Appalachian Training
School without reward or the hope of reward. He has been for years chairman of
the board of trustees. These gentlemen also have been active in trying to get
railroads to this section, and have not abated one whit of their efforts because
of failure. Moses H. Cone, deceased, late of Blowing Rock, not only built a school
house there, but agreed to contribute four dollars for every dollar that was given
by anyone else. His loss was irreparable.
The Lenoir School Lands.-- On the 16th day of February, 1858,
the late William Avery Lenoir conveyed to Thomas Farthing, trustee, five tracts
of mountain lands, aggregating about two thousand acres, lying principlly on Beech
Creeek and the waters of Curtis's Creek and Elk River. The considerations moving
him thereto were his appreciation of "the kind regard
Page 255
manifested toward him by the citizens of Watauga County, to
promote the settlement of this new county and the education of the children in
the same, and Thomas Farthing's promise to execute the trust without charge or
deducation except for taxes, etc." Mr. Farthing was the trustee who was to
sell such lands as he could and invest the proceeds in interest-bearing securities
for fifteen years after the date of the deed, and then turn the sum so resulting
over to such a school board as the State might provide, and if none were so provided,
to the school authorities of Watauga County for the education of its children.
The Civil War came on, however, and Thomas Farthing died without having executed
the trust, whereupon his widow and heirs and W. W. Lenoir, represinting the estate
of W. A. Lenoir, also deceased, on the 11th of August, 1877, joined in a deed
conferring this trust on R. H. Farthing, son of Thomas. The lands have been sold
and the proceeds applied as directed. (deed Book L, p. 409.)
School House Loan Fund.-- By chapter 372, Laws 1911, a permanent
fund was established to aid in the construction of school houses. This fund was
provided from the "fines, forfeitures and penalties" in criminal cases,
and the same was to be loaned to such school committees as might need such money
to aid in the erection of school houses, to be repaid in ten annual instalments,
the whole bearing only four per cent. interest.
Samuel Lusk.-- This gentleman was not a schoolmaster, but he
was a most conscientious stonemason, and was employed to build a chimney for a
schoolhouse on Mat Camp. When the chimney was finished it drew well--very well
indeed, but it was in the wrong direction, and instead of drawing the smoke from
the firepace up the flue and out at the top of the chimney, it drew the air from
the top of the chimney down into the schoolroom, thereby causing the chimney to
smoke outrageously. It was said by James Reagan that it even drew the buzzards
out of the sky. This hurt Uncle Sammy's feelings inexpressibly. He came from Lincoln
County to the Castle Settlement a few miles above what is now called Todd, but
afterwards moved to Dutch Creek, near Valle Crucis, where he died, leaving a family
of highly respected children.
Page 256
Col. W. W. Presnell.-- This gentleman lost an arm in the Civil
War and had to teach thereafter for a livelihood. His wife also lost an arm during
the same trying period while helping to feed a cane mill. The first schoolmaster
to whom he went was Eli Mast, who taught in one of the sang factories in the meadow
just below Joseph Ward's barn on the old Whittington property. This was about
1847 or 1848. Mark Holtsclaw, Thomas Smith, Wm. Carver, Col. Joe B. Todd, Joshua
Fletcher, Larkin Pips, Smith Reece, Jacob Hayes, D. C. Harman and Thomas Hodges
were other schoolmasters who taught public schools on Brushy Fork from 1848 till
the Civil War. Colonel Presnell also tells of a man called "Master"
Huff, a school teacher, master being the most common designation for teachers
at that time. He taught writing by causing the students to make straight marks,
to which were added loops, called pot-hooks. The Dillsworth Speller prececed the
Blue Back many years.
The Ablest Schoolmaster.-- But first and best among all these
schoolmasters was Thomas Lanier Clingman, for, form 1843 till 1861, he was a teacher
in every county in his congressional district. He spent a year or more in Watauga,
mining in the Beech Mountains (1870, 1871) and is still well remembered by many
of our older citizens. He was a fine angler an an unerring shop with rifle or
pistol. And, though he did not teach little children in ante-bellum log school
housed, he was constantly instructing the "big" children of these mountains
around their firesides and on the hustings--not by books, but by word of mouth,
enforced and made indelible by apt illustrations and in most practical ways. There
may be more book-learning among us now than in former days, but no people were
better versed in all useful information concerning crops, plants, woodcraft, the
mechanic arts, minerals and the laws of nature than our unlettered ancestors.
General Clingman kept them fully informed as to the progress of the outside world
in all matters which concerned their material welfare, and at the same time, far
more than all other combined kept the outside world posted as to the wonderful
beauty, resources and advantages of this mountain region--its minerals, its physical
phenomena and the progress
Page 257
of its inhabitants. Being a frequent contributor to Appelton's
Journal, the National Intelligencer and other widely circulated periodicals, he
was the first and only one to tell the world of the passing of the wonderfully
brilliant meteor of 1860, of the destructive waterspouts of 1876, and of the apparent
earthquake at the hed of Fines Creek, which he visited and explored in meteorological
station on Mitchell's Peak, General Clingman had explained why the climate of
the Asheville Plateau is the dryest east of the Rockies, and it was entirely through
his influence that Dr. Arnold Guyot, of Princeton College, and Dr. S. B. Buckley
visited and measured all the highest mountains in western North Carolina just
before the Civil War. Calhoun, as early as 1835, had foretold the existence of
the Blacks as the highest mountains east of the Mississippi, and, although Professor
Mitchell actually measured them soon afterwards, his services to science were
negatived by the uncertain data he took concrning their altitude. Compared with
the work of Clingman, Buckley and Guyot among all out mountains, Mitchell's barometrical
measurments among the Blacks was inconsiderable.
Statesman, Soldier, Scientist.-- When North Carolina makes
up her jewels no gem among the brilliants that sparlke in her coronet of achievement
will shine with "a purer, serener or a more resplendant light" than
that of Thomas Lanier Clingman, for as statesman, soldier and scientist, as well
as teacher, guide and friend, he was incorruptible, patriotic and inspiring. But
for nothing that he did will his memory be more precious or more richly cherished
than for his dignified and noble refusal to contend with an honorable gentleman
whose mouth had been closed by death in an effort to establish the truth as to
who had first visited and measured the hisghes peak of the Blck Mountain chain.
Country Above Fame.-- For at this time the county was torn
and rent asunder by the demon of sectionalism, and Clingman found better use for
his time and talents than in contending for an honor which, however great, was
as dust in the scales when whighed against the welfare of his native State and
section.
Page 258
Then, too, his fame was already secure, for he had met upon;
the srena of House and senate the doughtiest and most skilful of the political
gladiators of the fifties, and had lowered his sword to none. Looming blue-back
on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, General Clingman knew that there
was a yet statelier and more imposing pile than the BLacks, and that at the culmination
of this gigantic range his name had been indisputably and forever linked with
the grandest mountain of the Appalachian system-Clingman's Dome of the Great Smoky
Mountains!
Our Mountain Heights Still Doubtful.-- Whether this incomparable
mountian be higher or lower than the disputed peak of the Blacks, is still a doubtful
point, for we are told by Horace Kephart that all our mountains still remain to
be measured accurately. He says (p. 56): "Yet we scarcely know today, to
a downright certainty, which peak is supreme among out Southern highlands. The
honor is conceded to Mount Mitchell in the Black Mountains, northeast of Asheville.
Still, the heights of the Carolina peaks have been taken (with but one exception,
so far as I know) only by barometric measurments, and these, even when official,
may vary as much as a hundred feed for the same mountain. Since the highest ten
or a dozen of our Carolina peaks differ in altitude only one or two hundred feet,
their actual rank has not yet been determined. For long time ( p. 57) there was
controversy as to whether Mount Mitchell or Clingman Dome was the crowning summit
of eastern America. The Coast and Geodetic Survey gave the height of Mount Mitchell
as 6,688 feet, but later figures of the United States Geological Survey are 6,711
and 6,712. In 1859 Buckley claimed for Clingman Dome of the Smokies an altitude
of 6,941 feet. In recent government reports the Dome appears variously as 6,619
and 6,660 feet. In 1911 I was told by Mr. H. M. Ramsour that when he laid out
the route of the railroad from Asheville to Murphy he ran a line of levels from
a known datum on this road to the top of Clingman, and that the result was ‘four
sixes' (6,666 feet above sea level). It is probable that the second place among
the peaks of Appalachia may belong either to Clingman Dome or
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Guyot or LeConte of the Smokies, or the Balsam Cone of the
Black Mountains. In any case the Great Smoky Mountains are the master chain of
the Appalachian system, the greatest mass of highland east of the Rockies (p.
58). The most difficult and rugged part of the Smokies (and of the United States
east of Colorado) is in the saw-tooth mountains between Collins and Guyot, at
the headwaters of Oconalufty River."
Who Measured the Highest Peak?– Dr. Arnold Guyot, of
Princeton College (now University), published an article in the Asheville News,
July 18, 1860, to the effect that Dr. Mitchell's measurments of this mountain
failed to agree with each other; that the location of the highest peak had remained
indefinite, even in the mind of Dr. Mitchell himself, "as I learned it from
his own mouth in 1856." At that time, 1860, the peak now called Mitchell's,
or Mount Mitchell, was called Clingman's, while the peak now known to some as
Clingman's was called Mount Mitchell. Dr. Guyot says of this: "If the honored
name of Dr. Mitchell is taken from Mount Mitchell and transferred to the highest
peak, it should not be on the ground that he first made known its true elevation,
which he never did, nor himself ever claimed to have done, for the true height
was unknown before my measurement of 1854 . . . Nor should it be on the ground
of his having first visited it, for, though after his death evidence which made
it probable that he did [came out], < himself convince could never>Nor,
at last, should it be because that peak was, as it is alleged, thus named long
before, for I must declare that neither in 1854 nor later during the whole time
I was on both sides of the mountain, did I hear of another Mount Mitchell than
the one south of the highest, so long visited under that name, and that Dr. Mitchell
himself, before ascending the northern peak in 1856, as I gathered it from a conversation
with him, believed it to be the highest.
Politics or Public Opinion?– Dr. Guyot further said in
the same article that General Clingman "could not possibly know when he first
ascended it [the highest peak] that anyone had visited or measured it before him,
nor have any intention to do any injustice to Dr. mitchell." General Clingman
in 1884 told
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Charles Dudley Warner ("On Horseback," pp. 94 to
96) that he had been the first to discover the highest peak, and he also told
this writer later that he had made this discovery by climbing a balsam tree on
what was then called mount Mitchell, the southern peak, and applying a spirit
level to the surrounding horizon. Thus, the superior height of the northern peak
was disclosed to him, and he then proceded to measure and claim it. He told others
the same story. Dr. Warner states that public sentiment awarded Dr. Mitchell this
honor because of his tragic death. (Id. P. 95.) But was that all? Here is what
Hon. Z. B. Vance, long Clingman's political opponent, said in a letter to Prof.
Charles Phillips, dated Asheville, August, 1857:(1) "Yet there are some who
believe that Clingman superintended the creation of these mountains, and, therefore,
has a right to know more about them than anyone else. The editor of the News [the
late Major Marcus Erwin], who expects to go to Clingman when dies (and perhaps
will) . . . is already beginning the war against the dead, as you will see by
reference to that sheet of last week. I advised the Spectator men to keep perfectly
quiet, and would give the same advice to the doctor's friends elsewhere. Let us
prepare our case in silence and wait patiently for the good feeling to operate
among the mountaineers, which is now going on admirably. In the meantime the proper
efforts might be made to rectify Coke's map [which gave Clingman's name to the
highest peak] and to push up the influential journals at a distance/ a thing that
the faculty are better able to do than anyone else. Only one thing remains to
be done, in my opinion, to make our proof complete–to have the gearings
of the High Peak taken from Yeate's Knob and compared with Dr. Mitchell's memorandum
thereof. I hope steps will be taken to do this before long, as Clingman intends
doing it himself after the election. I understand, though I have hot seen it,
that Mitchell's map also puts that peak down as Mount Clingman. Is it true? .
. ."
In the same letter Senator Vance speaks of certain certificates
from Big Tom Wilson and others, but their contents are not disclosed. There was
also published in the same paper a copy
__________
Note: (1) Published by R. D. W. Connor, secretary N. C. Hist. Com., in Charlotte
Observer, p. 11. Jan. 24, 1915.
Page 261
of an address to solicit from citizens of North Carolina and
friends of Dr. Mitchell funds for the removal of his body to the highest peak
and the erection of a monument there. Five thousand dollars was asked for, but
nowhere in that address can be found any claim that Dr. Mitchell either discovered
or measured the highest peak. Its language is: "in view of the fact that
he was the first to visit these mountains and to make known their superior height
to any east of the Rocky Mountains, and that he spent a great portion of his time
and finally lost his life in exploring them," the subscriptions were asked.
As the result of this appeal, is also published a subscription list containing
the names of only ten subscribers, with William Patton at the head for $100.00,
and the entire amount aggregating only $195.00.
Big Tom Wilson was with Dr. Mitchell on his first trip, when
it is claimed that he measured the highest peak, and his certificate should settle
the controversy. But where is it? Where is the data showing the comparison of
the "bearings of the High Peak from Yeates' Knob with Dr. Mitchell's memorandum
thereof?" Did Mitchell's geography or map concede the highest peak to General
Clingman? We are in the dark as to these matters. But we have Judge David Schenck's
report of an interview with Big Tom on the subject.
The Crucial Question.– Did Dr. Mitchell ever visit the
peak which now bears his name? "Big Tom" Wilson is the only witness,
and upon his testimony rests the validity of the claim that he did. What is that
testimony? Simply this: that the search party with Wilson first "examined
the area of ground on Mitchell's Peak, where the doctor went, and ghen going to
the trail he [the doctor] was directed to take, and, finding no sign, they commenced
the descent towards the south side by the east prong. They had not gone more than
a quarter of a mile until Adniram D. Allen found an inpression in the moss . .
." This was the first trace of the doctor, and, after following it some distance,
they went back to "examine where the track first left the peak . . .and found
that the doctor had taken a ‘horse trail' by mistake for the trail which
led to ‘Big Tom's'" This is every shred of evidence concerning the
peak in the interview between Wilson and judge David Schenck on the 26th day
Page 262
of September, 1877, and which was published in the Charlotte
Democrat of November 2, 1877. From it can be deducted only that there was no "sign"
of the doctor's having been on "the area of ground on Mitchell's peak,"
but that when "they commenced the descent towards the south side," the
very side on which stood the peak which had always been called Mitchell's, they
found the first sign in the moss "not more than a quarter of a mile away."
There is no evidence that they went to the south which he was going when they
found his track in the moss. What is meant by "where the track first left
the peak" and that he took "a horse trail by mistake for the trail which
let to Big Tom's" is all that even vaguely points to the fact that the doctor
had been on the northern, or highest, peak.
Dr. Kemp P. Battle's Error.-- In an article on Dr. Mitchell,
written by Dr. Battle, the last survivor of the University Faculty of June, 1857,
and published in the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, March,
1915, he refers (p. 161) to "Letters from the Raleigh Register in reply to
General Thomas L. Clingman, who claimed that Dr. Mitchell was never on the highest
peak of the Black Mountains, but that he, Clingman, was the true discoverer. He
caused W. D. Cooke to designate on his wall-map the highest peak as Mt. Clingman.
On the death of the Doctor he gracefully surrendered his claim. It is now conceded
that Dr. Mitchell was right. He is confirmed by the United States Geological Survey
of 1881-‘2, the highest and final authority." Dr. Battle is right in
saying that Gen. Clingman "gracefully surrendered his claim," but it
is not "conceded that Dr. Mitchell was right," and the United States
Survey simply ascertained the highest peak among the Blacks, but did not and could
not prove Dr. Mitchell had ever been upon that spot.
Clingman's "Speeches and Writings."– North
Carolina has not yet reared any monument to this one of her greatest sons. But
in his "Speaches and Writings," published by himself after the Civil
War, he has erected to his own memory a monument more eloquent that "storied
urn or animated bust," and more enduring than bronze effigy or marble cenotaph.
Page 263
CHAPTER XVI
Gold and Other Mines.
Gold Mining.-- Some time in the fifties, Joe Bissell, of Charlotte,
worked every branch which runs from the Muster Field Hill, east of Boone, looing
for goland finding some. The branch running from Joseph Hardin's was worked almost,
if not quite, down to the river, especially wherre it passes through the old Reuben
Hartley place, now occupied by Farthing Edmisten. Henry Blair worked the same
stream afterwards, just before the Civil War, and sold dust at eighty cents a
pennyweight. Blair used a hand-rocker, fifty cents a day being at that time the
price for labor. Others also worked the branch running from the Muster Ground
southeast by Eli Hartley's. The next work was done by Ison Doby for J. C. Councill
about 1858-59 just ehere the Moretz and Hartzog saw mill now stands, and below
the road where Robert Bingham lives. This stopped when the Civil War began, but
afterwards John and Dick Haney, brothers, came from about King's Mountain and
leased Henry and Joseph Hardin's branch, but failed. Colonel Bryan cashed some
of the gold offered by them at first, and it was all right, but later on the dust
became mixed with copper filings, and the Haney brothers did not try conclusions
with Uncle Sam as to their responsibility for this mistake. This was about 1870-72.
Phillip Chandler, from east of the Blue Ridge, worked same stream about 1858-59.
Colonel Bryan and George Dugger worked around the edge of the Muster Field, but
the dust was too fine. When the former was a boy there was a deep hole or shaft
still open on the Muster Field which had been dug by old time miners. Miss Eliza
Jordan, youngest daughter of Jordan Council, the first, is said to have panned
out enough gold near Joseph Hardin's to pay for a new silk dress before the Civil
War. She afterwards married, first George Phillips, and then Rittenhouse Baird.
Page 264
First Owners of Cranberry.-- Sometime about 1780 Reuben White
took out a grant for 100 acres covering the Cranberry iron vein, and Waighstill
Avery obtained four small grants surrounding White's grant (100 N. C. Rep. 1,
127 Id. 387). In 1795 William Cathcart was granted 99,000 and 59,000 acres in
two tracts, covering almost all of what is now Mitchell and Avery counties. Isaac
T. Avery inherited Waightstill Avery's interest in this land and to numerous 640
acre grants along the Toe River. John Brown became agent for the Cathcart grants,
and as these conflicted with the Avery lands, a compromise was effected, under
which I. T. Avery got a quit claim to about 50,000 acres in 1852, including the
Cranberry mines, excepting the RRfeuben White tract, which had passed to William
Dugger by a chain of deeds, he having contracted to sell to John Harding, Miller
and another. Hoke, Hutchinson and Sumner got title from Hardin, but had to pay
several thousands of dollars to Brown and Avery to settle their claims upon the
Cranberry ore bank. The forge-bounty grant to these lands obtained by the Perkinses
was sold by order of court for partition at Morganton and bought in by William
Dugger; but before getting title to the land, Dugger agreed that I. T. Avery and
J. E. Brown, son of John, should each have a one-third interest in the mineral
outside the original grant to Reuben White. This agreement, however was not registered,
and the Supreme Court at Morganton, under which the decree of sale for partition
had been made, having been abolished after the Civil War, and the clerk of that
court, James R. Dodge, having died, an ordiance of the State convention of 1866
empowered the clerk of the Supreme Court at Raleigh to execute the title which
Dodge should have made to William Dugger, but made no reference to Brown's and
Avery's interests therein. To still further complicate matters, William Dugger
had sold his interest without excepting these equitable claims upon the mineral
rights in the property. But Brown and Avery gave notice of their claims and compelled
the purchasers to pay them for their interest in the minerals.
Iron Forges.-- There were three of these in what was Watauga
County: Crnberry, Toe River and Johnson forges. The first grew out of the discovery
of the Cranberry metallic
Page 265
ore by Joshua, Ben and Jake Perkins, of Tennessee, who in a
rough play at a night feast and frolic at Crab Orchard, Tenn., after a log-rolling,
had attempted to remove the new flax shirt and trousers from Wright Moreland,
and had injured him sufficiently to arouse his anger and cause him to take out
a warrant for them. They escaped to North Carolina, where they supported themselves
by digging sang. In search of this herb, they discovered the Cranberry ore, and
having been concerned in the Dugger forge on Watauga River four miles above Butler,
Tenn., constructed a dam about half way between Elk Park and the Cranberry Company's
store, only nearer to the Boone Road than to the present railroad. Here they put
in a regular forge with all the equipment used in that day, including the water
trompe, furnce, goose-nest, hammer, etc. This was about 1821. Soon after they
started heir forge Abraham Johnson, the agent of John Brown, the land speculator,
built a forge on the left bank of the Toe River, three-quarters of a mile above
the mouth of White Oak Creek and near the mouth of Cow Camp Creek. He got some
of his ore from a deposit near by, but also hauled ore from the Cranberry vein.
Still later on, William Buckhannon had a forge built by one Calloway one-half
a mile above what is now Minneapolis, on Toe River, but he had little or no ore
mearer than that at Cranberry, from which he also drew his supply. After the Perkinses
had been at work some time they are said to have applied for and obtined a grant
from North Carolina for 3,000 acres of land for having made 3.,000 pounds of iron,
but shortly thereafter John Brown, who kept a keen eye out for squatter and trespassers
on what was then the Tate and Cochran land, though then claimed by him under a
junior or Cathcart grant, convinced the perkinses that he held a superior title
to theirs, and they bought his title to the land. They then sold to William and
Abe Dugger, who came from the old Dugger forge above Butler and operated he mine
till Abe's death, when, being offended with his son, George, for having married
Carolina McNabb, a perfectly respectable girl, left his interest in the mine to
his three daughters, Mattie, who afterwards married Jerry Green; Nancy, who had
married Charles Gaddy, and Elizabeth, who had married Joseph Grubb, leaving George
only
Page 166
fifty acres just below the law office of L. D. Lowe, Esq.,
at Banner's Elk. John Hardin became grardian of Mattie, then unmarried, taking
posesion of the mine about 1850 and retaining it till sometime during the Civil
War. With him went Peter Hardin, then twelve years old, who remained with the
Cranberry mine longer than any other in its existence. Peter was the son of a
Creek Indian whom Nathaniel Taylor, of Elizabethton, Tenn., had brought with him
from the Battle of the Horse Shoe in 1814, and who was named Duffield, after an
academy at Elizabethton, according to Dr. Job's reminisenses of that town. Jordan
Hardin, son of John, took possession of the mine during the Civil War and worked
from forty to sixty men, making iron for the Confederate government. This iron
was in bars for the manufacture of axes and was hauled to Camp Vance, below Morganton,
by Peter Hardin, one four-horse load every month, winter as well as summer. It
was sometime during or after the posession of the Hardins that a man named Dunn
had some connection with Cranberry, but exactly what could not be ascertained
accurately. Thomas Carter, who had operated a pland for the manufacture of guns
at Linville Falls during the Civil War, and Gen. Robert F. Hoke then obtained
an interest in the Cranberry mine and forge, and General Hoke sold the property
to the present company, Carter, in May, 1867, having agreed to convey his interest
therein to Hoke for $44,000.00. When, however, Carter tended Hoke a deed therefore,
Hoke gave him a sight draft on a New Youk band for the price agreed to be paid.
This draft was not paid. The money to meet it was to have been provided by the
sale of the property by Hoke to Russell and his associates, who refused to take
it because Carter would not deliver the deed for his interest till he had been
fully paid. Carter got an injunction against the sale, and the Supreme Court upheld
Carter. (Carter v. Hoke, 64 N. C., 348.) Carter and Hoke soon effected a compromise
and the title to the property was thus settled. After Hoke nd Company sold the
property soon after the Civil War it remained in the control of Peter Hardin,
who kept the hotel and looked after the property generally for many years. He
was allowed to make and sell all the iron he wished and to operate a small
Page 267
saw mill. When the present company began to build the railroad
from Johnson City to the forge, Peter Hardin kept a store at Cranberry and was
postmaster, keeping all the accounts of the employees of the company and delivering
all the mail, etc., although he could not read a line, the clerical work having
been done by his wife and her daughters by a former marriage. White people stopped
at Pets's hotel and were well entertained by these care-takers. They still live
near Elk Park, and have the respect and confidence of all who know them. They
are called colored people, but their good names are as white as those of the pest
people in the State. Abram Johnson died at his home near what is now Vale, on
the E. T. & W. N. C. R. R., in the house which stood where Bayard Benfield
now lives, near the mouth of White Oak Creek, and is said to have been a soldier
in the War of 1812. His wife died there August 18,1889, and he October 15, 1881,
aged about 107 years, according to the record of Jacob Carpenter, of Altamont.
Some Old Hammermen.-- Among those who worked at iron mines
in this county were Jess Sizemore, at Johnson's forge, and Jack Mayberry, _______Grandire,
Wash Heaton, Elisha Stanley and George Dugger, all at Cranberry.
Gen. Thos. L. Clingman's Mining.-- This enterprising gentleman
mined on Beech Creek in Watauga County in 1871, and a branch in that locality
still bears this name. (Deed Book 3, p. 595.)
Oil and Gas Mining.-- About 1901 it was thought that oil had
been seen on a pool of water near N. L. Mast's store on Cove Creek, and the Carolina
Valley Oil and Gas Company sank a well there, but abandoned it. The flat formation
of the rock strata on Cove Creek and about Ward's store on Watauga River seems
to indicate petroleum. There were options taken by the Carolina Valley Oil and
Gas Company on lands in the vicinity of Sutherland. J. A. Zins and Joseph Bock,
of Minnesota, worked a copper mine on Elk Knob in 1899, but they fell out among
themselves and quit work.
The Elk Knob Copper Mine.-- On the 22d of August, 1900, John
Castle agreed to convey to the Zinns-Bach Minning & Lumber Co. 100 acres on
Elk Knob, and mining was soon begun there for copper. The scheme was soon abandoned,
however. (Book W, p. 495.)
Page 268
Chapter XVII
Roads and Railroads.
First Roads.--From John Crouch's "Historical Sketches
of Wilkes" (1902) we learn that Hamilton Holton (or Helton?) obtained a charter
for a turnpike from Holman's Ford to New River in Ashe. This road passed through
Deep Gap, Old Fields and on to Jefferson and Virginia and south to Three Forks,
Brushy Fork, Cove Creek, and west to Meat Camp, crossing the New River at The
Bend, near what is now called the Salmond's place, but which formerly belonged
to the Ferguson's of Wilkes. From there it went to the top of the ridge between
the river as it runs in two directions, thence west, passing Moretz Mill, and
on up to Meat Camp to the gap between Rich and Snake mountains to Trade in Tennessee.
Later came a road from Jefferson to Boone, via Elk Cross Roads, and from Sugar
Grove up Beaver Dams over Baker's Gap to Tennessee. The road up Cove Creek probably
stopped for a long time at Zionville, and some say that there was only a trail
from there to Shoun's Cross Roads for years.
The First Roads Across the Blue Ridge.--According to "The
Archibald D. Murphey Papers," published by the State Historical Association,
1915 (Vol. II, p. 185), Wilkesborough may be taken as the point on the Yadkin
from which they (roads) diverge in different directions across the mountains.
One runs to the north into the counties of Grayson and Wythe in Virginia, passing
the Blue Ridge at Elk Spur Gap. Two roads run to the west, one crossing the Ridge
at Reddy's River Gap, passes by Ashe court house and, forking, it extends to the
northwest into the counties of Russell and Washington in Virginia, and to the
west of Jonesborough in East Tennessee. The other, called Horton's Turnpike, passes
the Ridge at the Deep Gap, and runs through the southwestern parts of Ashe County,
on to Jonesborough. Another road leads from Wilkesborough
Page 269
to the southwest, passes Morganton and crosses the Ridge at
Swannanoa Gap. The mountain can be easily passed at each of these gaps, and if
the roads were good, the inconvenience of crossing the mountain would be disregarded.
The roads have been badly laid out; they are badly made, and the population in
many parts is too weak to keep the roads in even tolerable repair. All these roads
should be made at the public's expense.
Caldwell and Watauga Turnpike.--The General Assembly of 1846
and 1847 (Ch. CV) passed an act to incorporate the Caldwell and Ashe Turnpike
Company, the State to provide $8,000.00 when $5,000.00 had been subscribed, which
was altered in 1850-51 so that the name should be the Caldwell and Watauga Turnpike
Company, while the capital stock was increased from $10,000.00 to $12,500.00,
whatever amount of the increase that might not be subscribed within six months
to be taken by the State. The president and directors were authorized to change
the route on the Blue Ridge where it exceeded one foot in twenty so as to reduce
it to that standard, and otherwise improve the road, while all hands within two
miles who were then required to work on roads were required to work on this road,
but should not be required to work any other roads or to pay toll on this. This
act was ratified January 21, 1851 (Ch. CLXIV, p. 463). By chapter 131, Laws of
1881, the Turnpike Company was authorized to surrender to Watauga County "so
much of said turnpike as lies west of the top of the Blue Ridge at the Yadkin
Springs," etc. Chapter 445, Laws of 1893, authorized the State to sell its
interest in this road and apply the proceeds to the construction of the Boone
and Blowing Rock Turnpike. The charter was repealed in 1911, but in 1913 a new
charter was granted, the people living along the road not being able to keep it
in condition.
The old road passed along the mountain side above the former
residence of Smith Coffey at the Old Bridge place, one mile below Shull's Mills,
while the turnpike crossed the Watauga River on the old bridge and followed the
Woody bottoms to Shull's Mills on the right bank of the river, passing west of
Phillip Shull's old house, which was of logs, and
Page 270
faced west. Joseph Shull changed the road so that it crossed
the river at the ford near Robbins' store and east of the house, now a frame structure
which faces east. Old Albany, nine-passenger stage coaches, swinging on straps,
passed over this road from 1855 to 1861, going from Lincolnton, via Lenoir, Blowing
Rock, Shull's Mills, Valle Crucis, Sugar Grove, Zionville, Shoun's Cross Roads,
Taylorsville--now Mountain City--to Abingdon, Va., and they were operated by a
man of the name of Dunn, of Abingdon. It was a daily line each way, with stands
at John Mast's at Sugar Grove and at Joseph Shull's, where J. M. Shull now lives.
This road undoubtedly served to open up and encourage the settlement
of Watuaga County, and was an excellent one for that day. But Blowing Rock, Banner's
Elk, Linville City, Boone and Valle Crucis were growing rapidly, and in 1893 an
act was passed authorizing the State to sell its interest in the Caldwell and
Watauga Turnpike Company and apply the proceeds to the construction of the Boone
and Blowing Rock Turnpike Company, in the building of which the late Thomas J.
Coffey was very active. This new road diverted much travel from the old turnpike.
The turnpike company from Lenoir to Blowing Rock had already absorbed much of
the original Caldwell and Watauga turnpike, leaving only the stretch between Blowing
Rock and the Tennessee line belonging to the company. By chapter 17, Laws 1911,
it was authorized to sell or lease any of its road bed or other property to any
other turnpike company, and if such a sale should be made it might wind up its
affairs. Section 2 of this act, however, authorized the company to turn over the
road from Shull's Mills to Blowing Rock to the county of Watauga, which was done,
and the county required to keep it up as a public road. But there were too few
people living near it to keep it in good condition, and, accordingly, some of
the citizens living near secured a charter for a turnpike company from the Secretary
of State, known as the Valle Crucis and Blowing Rock Turnpike Company, to run
between those points. Its capital stock is $3,000.00, and its charter was granted
June 4, 1914.
Page271
Yonahlossee Turnpike Company.--About the year 1890 S. T. Kelsey,
formerly of Kansas, but later of Highlands, Macon County, N. C., went to Watauga
County, and a turnpike company was chartered to build and maintain a road from
Linville City to Blowing Rock, passing clear around the eastern base of the Grandfather
Mountain and running along the crest of the Blue Ridge, much of the distance being
north and east of that picturesque and ancient mass of stone and earth. The distance
is eighteen miles and it cost less than $18,000.00. It is decidedly the best and
most level road in the mountains.
Elk Park and Banner's Elk.--A road was constructed between
these places about 1895 and serves the country through which it passes admirably.
Early Road Legislation.(1)--In 1850-51 Charles McDowell and
Hugh Taylor, of Burke, and John Franklin, of Watauga, were appointed commissioners
to lay off a public road from Charles McDowell's in Burke via Upper Creek, Jonas
Ridge, Old Fields of Toe River to Cranberry Forge in the county of Watauga. (Ch.
CLXXI, p. 473) In 1852 Alfred Miller, Jonathan Horton, James Ragen, M. T. Coxe
and Reuben Mast were appointed commissioners to view, lay off, alter or amend
so much of a public road from Holman's Ford by way of Deep Gap at Solomon Green's
and the Rich Mountain, near Welch's store, to the Tennessee line as lay within
the limits of Watauga County. (Ch. CLII, p. 579) In 1854-55 (Ch. 214, p. 216)
Reuben Mast, M. F. Cox, James Ragan, Alfred Miller and John Moretz were appointed
commissioners to survey and improve the public road from the Wilkes County line
by way of Meat Camp Creek to the Tennessee line, at or near Welch's store. At
the same session (Ch 219, p222) Michael Snider, Jourdan C. Hardin, for Watauga,
and three men from Yancey, were appointed commissioners to lay off a public road
from the Tennessee line at Wm. D. Hose's, via Cranberry and Arthur Erwin's to
the McDowell County line, near Charles McKinney's, so as to intersect the public
road leading from Burnsville to Morganton. At
__________
Note:(1) Just prior to the formation of Watauga County (Ch. XCVIII, Laws of 1846-'47)
a public road was authorized from Council's store in Ashe (now Boone) to Bedfore
Wiseman's in Yancey County, at the mouth of Three Mile Creek.
Page 272 the same session (Ch. 224, p. 224) it was provided
that all public roads to be built in Watauga after the date of the ratification
of the act shall not be required to be more than twelve feet wide where side-cutting
is necessary and used, and where blasting is necessary and used such roads shall
not be required to be more than eight feet wide. The county and superior courts
were given concurrent jurisdiction of all indictments against overseers of Watauga
County roads. By the laws of 1876-77 (p. 175), John R. Hodges, Daniel Wheeler
and John Elrod were authorized to locate the road authorized by the act of 1870
(Ch. 254), and by the same laws (Ch. CLXXXIX, p. 365) the road form Phineas Horton's
store in Wilkes was altered by changing the Stony Fork road so as to run to John
Key's, and then up Stony Fork at Larkin Bishop's mill, and thence to Deep Gap.
By the same laws (Ch. LII, p. 673) the citizens of Watauga and Caldwell counties
were allowed to pass free all toll gates of Catawba and Watauga Turnpike Company.
By the laws of 1870-71 (Ch. 254, p. 409) a public road was authorized from Phineas
and A. H. Horton's store in Wilkes County to Boone, running up Elk Creek and crossing
the Blue Ridge by the most practicable route. As seen above, this road was not
built till after the laws of 1876-77 had been passed. By chapter 68, laws of 1874-75
(p. 59), a road was authorized to be constructed from Boone to the Caldwell and
Watauga Turnpike at a point on the Blue Ridge between Wm. Morris' and L. Henly's,
and by the laws of the same year (Ch. 109, p. 601) a road was authorized from
a point on the Caldwell and Watauga Turnpike, where the old Morganton road intersects
the same in Watauga County, and thence via Wm. Welch's and Elisha Lewis' to M.
C. Coffey's, thence with a dividing ridge via Thomas Right's and A. J. McClean's,
so as to intersect the Morganton road at the Globe Church in Caldwell County.
The Earliest Stopping Places.--The first and only taverns or
inns or public houses, as they were variously called, were Solomon Greene's which
was in Deep Gap, to the right of the old State road running from Wilkesboro through
that gap via what is now Boone, Hodges' Gap, Sugar Grove, through George's
Page 273
Gap and Baker's Gap to Roan's Creek in Tennessee. Squire Wm.
P. Welch lives there now. Col. Jonathan Horton kept the next place, which was
on New River, one mile below Three Forks Church, where Rudy Vannoy now lives.
There were no other stopping places from there to Benjamin Webb's, where Rev.
William Farthing afterwards lived and died. It was on Beaver Dams. These were
then the places of "entertainment," though private houses then "took
in" travelers as they do now. While Webb was keeping this house, it is said
that James Ward went there "a-courtin'." Webb arose early and began
mowing grass before breakfast, and came in to meal wet and hungry. Ward was just
getting out of his bed, and "stretching," exclaimed, "I feel like
I could stretch a mile." "I wish you would," cried Webb, "
and I wish you would stretch it towards your own home, too."
The First Paper Railroads.--In January, 1851, the legislature
appropriated twelve thousand dollars to be used in the survey of a route for a
railroad from Salisbury to the Tennessee line "at or near the place where
the French Broad River passes into the State of Tennessee." This may be said
to have been the first of the almost numberless steps to get a railroad across
the Blue Ridge. It is evident, however, that it was not then contemplated to build
a road through any part of Watauga County, which had just been formed. But at
the next session of the legislature, in 1852 (Ch. CXXXVI), the North Carolina
and Western Railroad Company was incorporated, and Jordan Councill, Jonathan Horton,
Reuben Mast and John Morris, or any three of them, were authorized to open books
of subscription to the capital stock in the town of Boone. The road was to commence
at Salisbury and run thence by the most practicable route across the Blue Ridge
to the Tennessee line. Its capital stock was to be three million dollars. It was
not confined to any route, and Watauga County might have stood a chance to profit
thereby if the most practicable route over the Blue Ridge had been found within
its borders. But it was not, the Swannanoa Gap having been chosen. At the same
session another railroad was incorporated, to run so as to follow down the
Page 274
Little Tennessee River to the Tennessee line. This was called
the Blue Ridge Railroad. Neither road came as far as the mountains of North Carolina
till after the Civil War. But the door of hope was not entirely closed to Watauga,
for in February, 1855 (Ch. 227), the Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio Railroad was
incorporated, to run with one or more tracks and to be operated by steam, animal
or other power between Charlotte, N. C., and some point on the East Tennessee
and Virginia Railroad, at or near Jonesboro, in Washington County, Tenn., and
form such connection by way of Moccasin Gap of Clinch Mountain in the State of
Virginia, by the most practicable line to the head waters of Big Sandy River,
thence the most eligible route to the Ohio River. Commissioners were appointed
to open books of subscription on the first Monday of July, 1854, and be kept open
for twenty days, Sundays excepted, between 10 a. m. and 4 p. m. at Boone and many
other places, including points in Tennessee and Virginia. This road must have
crossed the Blue Ridge near the Coffey Gap and followed the Watauga River to Jonesboro.
It has not been built yet, though nature had graded a road-bed for it from the
foundation of the world. The track was completed from Charlotte to Statesville
before the Civil War, but the iron and cross ties were removed and laid down upon
a grade constructed by the government of the Confederate States from Greensboro
to Danville, Va., early in the Civil War. The track was relaid between Charlotte
and Statesville soon after the close of hostilities, but it has never passed through
the Coffey Gap or down the Watauga River, which still opens inviting arms to its
construction. By chapter XL (Laws 1871-72) the Charlotte and Taylorsville Railroad
Company was authorized to build a road from Troutman's depot on the A. T. &
O. R. R., in Iredell County, to Taylorsville, and thence, by or near Lenoir and
Boone, the most practicable route, to some point on the Tennessee line. This stopped
at Taylorsville, however, and is there yet. Just where the North Western North
Carolina Railroad Company, amended by chapter XLVII (Laws 1871-72), was to run
is immaterial, as it never came to Watauga or near it under that name. At the
same session the upper division
Page 275
of the Yadkin Railroad Company was incorporated to run from
Salisbury to Wilkesboro and thence to the Tennessee or Virginia line, but it too
stopped before reaching God's country. The Carolina Narrow Guage Railroad Company
was chartered to run from the South Carolina line via Dallas, Lincolnton, Newton,
Hickory Tavern to the town of Lenoir, but no further. It has observed its original
charter and is at Lenoir still--very still. By chapter XXV, Laws 1872-73, the
Carolina Narrow Gauge (name spelt right this time without any legislative authority
whatever!) was authorized to consolidate with the Chester and Lenoir Narrow Gauge
Railroad Company if stockholders of both companies were willing. They were, but
Lenoir is still the head of the railroad. The State found good employment for
its convicts by making them build railroads, and this policy was continued with
general approval till recently, when certain statesmen in the eastern part of
the State, having secured all such aid as was required for their immediate needs,
tried to discontinue the custom absolutely, but failed. It was in the hope of
such aid that some of the enterprising citizens incorporated the Watauga Railway
Company (Ch. 411, Pr. Laws, 1905), which, by chapter 408, Laws of 1909, was authorized
to be transferred to W. J. Grandin and his associates upon certain conditions;
but two years having elapsed and those conditions not having been complied with,
the legislature (Ch. 316, Laws 1911) gave Grandin and associates twenty months
longer, after which time, if they had not commenced work, etc., the powers and
property so assigned were to revert to the original incorporators. By chapter
11, Pr. Laws of 1913, the Watauga Railway Company was authorized to become part
of the Watauga and Yadkin River Railroad Company. In 1912 the county of Watauga
voted $100,000.00 to aid in the construction of this road, upon certain conditions,
which were never fulfilled. At the session of the legislature of 1915 it was determined
to continue the convicts on this railroad construction. The East Tennessee and
Western North Carolina Railroad was finished to Cranberry in 1882, coming from
Johnson City via Elizabethton, Tenn. The Linville Railroad Company extended this
line to Pinola or Saginaw in
Page276
1900, but it is now under the management of the E. T. &
W. N. C. R. R. This road was for several years the nearest to Watauga County,
Pinola being only twenty-four miles from Boone, but in May, 1915, the Virginia-Carolina
Railway from Abingdon, Va., was completed to Todd, now called Elkland, and is
in operation. This is about eleven miles from Boone.
First Railroad Surveys.--Major William Cain, a distinguished
member of the faculty of the University of North Carolina, has furnished many
valuable facts as to the first surveys for railways made through Watauga County.
It seems that in 1859 a line was run from about Patterson, in Caldwell County,
known as Kuper's line, which required the tunneling of the Blowing Rock Ridge
and Watauga Gap, thence along the north side of the Grandfather to the head of
Watauga River, and down that stream to Elizabethton, Tenn. This line would be
expensive to construct, but it would eliminate, by the use of deep tunnels, a
great deal of the elevation that has to be overcome on the line through Cook's
Gap. Nothing was done, however, till the winter of 1881, when General Imboden
obtained a charter from the North Carolina legislature for the South Atlantic
and Ohio Railway Construction and Operation Company, (Ch. 41, Laws 1881, p. 87)
This charter recited that representations had been made that the Tinsalia Coal
and Iron Company of Virginia were the owners of valuable coal mines in Virginia
and were building a narrow gauge railroad from their mine in Big Stone Gap to
Bristol, Tenn.-Va., and had also obtained a charter from Tennessee to extend their
line to some convenient point on the North Carolina State line so as to pass through
Watauga and Mitchell counties. Upon these and other representations the above
charter was granted for a narrow gauge railway, and C. L. Dwight, a civil engineer
of South Carolina, was employed to make the survey. As he was engaged at that
time on another, the main task of locating the road fell on Major Wm. Cain, and
he ran the line so as to come up Elk Creek through Cook's Gap, thence passing
two or three miles from Boone through a gap to the Watauga watershed, thence north,
grading down along the sides of Rich Mountain with much curving,
Page 277
until finally the line took a westerly direction and reached
the level of the Watauga River some few miles before reaching the Tennessee line.
There were about 2,000 feet to be overcome from east of the Blue Ridge, with seventeen
miles development to make the rise to Cook's Gap, but there were no tunnels. Major
Cain was a pioneer in putting the heavier grades on the tangents and the lighter
on the curves--a practice then unheard of, but now universal. To reach the valley
of the Elk from his initial point near Patterson, he had to wind around many little
peaks of the Bull Ruffin Ridge at one point and curve around the heads of several
valleys in order to reach Elk Creek, where for a few miles the fall of the creek
was greater than his grade, but he eventually caught up with it and reached the
valley with his grade line successfully. The average grade was approximately 150
feet to the mile. From Cook's Gap the fall to the Watauga is not so great, its
elevation being 3,349, just seventeen feet more that that of Boone, and the Watauga
River at Shulls Mills 2,917, and at Valle Crucis 2,726, but the slopes are smoother
than the line east of Cook's Gap. He began this line on the 21st of March, 1881,
and when near the Tennessee line was called to another road, June 18, 1881, Mr.
Dwight then taking charge. But the chief promoter fell out with the president
of the road, who had the financial backing, and nothing was done after the survey
was finished.
A Great Inter-Montane Road.--There was a road, to run from
Sparta to Asheville, planned and partially constructed somewhere about 1868, Coffey
Brothers, of Boone, having a contract for the construction of two miles running
from the Musterfield, through the town to the branch above the Blackburn hotel,
and thence through the Bryan and Gragg farms to Poplar Grove Church, where it
was to follow down Lance's Creek to Shull's Mills. Robert Shearer had the mile
running from the Musterfield towards the Three Forks Church. It was during this
period that the road was changed just east of the John Hardin home to its present
location and beyond the Musterfield so as to run north of its old location. The
grade from Todd was also made at this time, the old road going directly up a very
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steep hill. But the new road from the high hill beyond the
Perkins home and between it and Sands was surveyed by T. L. Critcher four years
ago and built by the county. One of these days, believer, a railroad will run
from Sparta to Jefferson and from there to Boone, or near it, and thence over
the Linville Gap and down Linville River to near the falls, thence to the Toe,
crossing that stream to Cane River, Weaverville and Asheville. Then the mountain
people can go from north to south and from south to north without having to zig-zag
across the mountains from east to west and then back again, as at present, without
getting to their destination even then. Such a railroad would tap every transmontane
railroad and wagon road, would get all the lumber, grain, fruit, minerals, stock
and passengers that now have to go miles and miles out of the way to get a few
miles north or south. Besides, the public could then learn that all the scenery,
climate and pure water of the mountains of Western North Carolina are not confined
between Old Fort and Murphy. Then the wonderland of Madison, Yancey, Mitchell,
Avery, Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany would be revealed in its unsurpassed loveliness.
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