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Western
North Carolina, A History
From
Western North Carolina, A History (from 1730 to 1913) by
John Preston Arthur; 1914, Edward Buncombe Chapter of the Daughters
of the American Revolution, Asheville, NC. Reprinted 1996 by The
Overmountain Press, Johnson City, TN.
Chapter
III — Colonial Days
Though
the mountains were not settled during colonial days except north
of the ridge between the Toe and Watauga rivers, the people who
ultimately crossed the Blue Ridge lived under colonial laws and
customs, or descended from those pioneers who did. Therefore, colonial
times in North Carolina, especially in the Piedmont country, should
be of interest to those who would know how our more remote ancestors
lived under English rule. This should be especially true of those
venturesome spirits who first crossed the Blue Ridge and explored
the mountain regions of our State, whatever may have been the object
of their quest. For "when the first Continental Congress began
its sittings the only frontiersmen west of the mountains and beyond
the limits of continuous settlement within the old thirteen colonies
were the two or three hundred citizens of the Little Watauga commonwealth.
[1] For they were a commonwealth in the truest
sense of the word, being beyond the jurisdiction of any government
except that of their own consciences. In these circumstances they
voluntarily formed the first republican government in America. "The
building of the Watauga commonwealth by Robertson and Sevier gave
a base of operations and furnished a model for similar commonwealths
to follow.'' [2]
For
the first written compact that, west of the mountains,
Was framed for the guidance of liberty's feet,
Was writ here by letterless men in whose bosoms,
Undaunted, the heart of a paladin beat.
Earl
of Granville
There were eight Lords Proprietors to whom Carolina was originally
granted in 1663. Among them was Sir
George Carteret, afterwards Earl of Granville. [3]
On the 3d of May, 1728, the king of England bought North Carolina
and thus ended the government of the Lords Proprietors. But he did
not buy the interest of the Earl of Granville, who refused to sell;
though he had to give up his share in the government of the colony.
Hence, grants from Earl of Granville are as valid as those from
the crown; for in 1743 his share was given him in land. It included
about one-half of the State, and he collected rents from it till
1776, his dishonest agents giving the settlers on it great trouble.
Moravians
The
Moravians were a band of religious brethren who came to America
to do mission work among the Indians and to gain a full measure
of religious freedom. Their plan was to build a central town on
a large estate and to sell the land around to the members of the
brotherhood. The town was to contain shops, mills, stores, factories,
churches and schools. After selecting several pieces of lowlands,
Bishop Spangenberg bought from the Earl of Granville a large tract
in the bounds of the present county of Forsyth, and called the tract
Wachovia, meaning "meadow stream."[4]
On November 17, 1753, a company of twelve men arrived at Wachovia,
and started what is now Salem. This Bishop Spangenberg is spoken
of in Hill's "Young People's History of North Carolina"
as Bishop Augustus G. Spangenberg; while the Spangenberg whose diary
is quoted from extensively in the next few pages signs himself I.
Spangenberg. He will be called the Bishop, nevertheless, because
he "spake as one having authority."[5]
First
to Cross the Blue Ridge
Vol.
V, Colonial Records (pp. 1 to 14), contains the diary of I. Spangenberg;
of the Moravian church. He is the first white man who crossed the
Blue Ridge in North Carolina, so far as the records show, except
those who had prolonged the Virginia State line in 1749. He, with
his co-religionist, Brother I. H. Antes, left Edenton September
13, 1752, for the purpose of inspecting and selecting land for settling
Moravian immigrants. The land was to have been granted by Earl Granville,
and the surveyor, Mr. Churton, who accompanied the expedition, had
instructions from that proprietor to survey the lands, and as he
was to be paid three pounds sterling for each 5,000-acre tract,
he was averse to surveying tracts of smaller acreage. His instructions
limited him also to north and south and east and west lines, which
frequently compelled the good Bishop to include mountains in his
boundaries that he did not particularly desire. Having run three
lines this surveyor declined to run the fourth, and the Bishop notes
that fact in order to save his brethern the trouble of searching
for lines that were never run or marked. The surveyor, however,
did survey for the Bishop smaller tracts than those containing 5,000
acres, though reluctantly.
Quaker
Meadows
In Judge
Avery's "Historic Homes" (N.C. Booklet, Vol. IV, No. 3)
he refers to the fact that these meadows were so called from the
fact that a Quaker (Moravian) once camped there and traded for furs.
This Quaker was Bishop Spangenberg. He reached on November 12, 1752,
the "neighborhood of what may be called Indian Pass. The next
settlement from here is that of Jonathan Weiss, more familiarly
known as Jonathan Perrot. This man is a hunter and lives 20 miles
from here. There are many hunters about here, who live like Indians:
they kill many deer, selling their hides, and thus live without
much work." On the 19th of November he reached Quaker Meadows,
"fifty miles from all settlements and found all we thought
was required for a settlement, very rich and fertile bottoms. .
. . Our survey begins seven or eight miles from the mouth of the
3d river where it flows into the Catawba. What lies further down
the river has already been taken up. The other [western] line of
the survey runs close to the Blue Ridge. . . . This piece consists
of 6,000 acres. We can have at least eight settlements in this tract,
and each will have water, range, etc. ...I calculate to every settlement
eight couples of brethren and sisters."
Buffalo
Trails
There
were no roads save those made by buffaloes. The surveyor was stopped
by six Cherokees on a hunt, but they soon became friendly. November
24th they were five miles from Table Rock, which with the Hawk's
Bill is so conspicuous from Morganton, where they surveyed the fifth
tract of land, of 700 or 800 acres.
Musical
Wolves
"The
wolves, which are not like those in Germany, Poland and Lapland
(because they fear men and do not easily come near) give us such
music of six different comets, the like of which I have never heard
in my life. Several brethren, skilled in hunting, will be required
to exterminate panthers, wolves, etc."
Old
Indian Fields
[6]
On November 28th they were camped in an old Indian field on the
northeast branch of Middle Little river of the Catawba, where they
arrived on the 25th, and resolved to take up 2,000 acres of land
lying on two streams, both well adapted to mill purposes. That the
Indians once lived there was very evident—possibly before the
war which they waged with North Carolina—"from the remains
of an Indian fort: as also the tame grass which was still growing
about the old residences, and from the trees." On December
3d they camped on a river in another old Indian field at the head
of a branch of New River, "after passing over frightful mountains
and dangerous cliffs."
Where
Men Had Trod
On the
29th they were in camp on the second or middle fork of Little river,
not far from Quaker Meadows "in a locality that has probably
been but seldom trodden by the foot of man since the creation of
the world. For 70 or 80 miles we have been traveling over terrible
mountains and along very dangerous places where there was no way
at all." One might call the place in which they were camped
a basin or kettle, it being a cove in the mountains, rich of soil,
and where their horses found abundant pasture among the buffalo
haunts and tame grass among the springs. The wild pea-vines which
formerly covered these mountains, growing even under the forest
trees most luxuriantly for years after the whites came in, afforded
fine pasturage for their stock. It also formed a tangled mat on
the surface of the earth through which it was almost impossible
for men to pass. Hence, the pioneers were confined generally to
the Indian and buffalo trails already existing. These pea-vines
return even now whenever a piece of forest land is fenced off a
year or two.
On
the Grandfather?
It would
seem that they had been misled by a hunter whom they had taken along
to show them the way to the Yadkin; but had missed the way and on
December 3d came "into a region from which there was no outlet
except by climbing up an indescribably steep mountain. Part of the
way we had to crawl on our hands and feet, and sometimes we had
to take the baggage and saddles from the horses, and drag them up,
while they trembled and quivered like leaves. The next day we journeyed
on: got into laurel bushes and beaver dams and had to cut 'our way
through the bushes. Arrived at the top at last, we saw hundreds
of mountain peaks all around us, presenting a spectacle like ocean
waves in a storm." The descent on the western side was "neither
so steep, nor as deep as before, and then we came to a stream of
water, but no pasture.... The next day we got into laurel hushes
and beaver darns and had to cut our way through the bushes.
Wandering
Bewildered in Unknown Ways
"Then
we changed our course—left the river and went up the mountain,
where the Lord brought us to a delicious spring, and good pasturage
on a chestnut ridge. . . . The next day we came to a creek so full
of rocks that we could not possible cross it; and on both sides
were such precipitous banks that scarcely a man, certainly no horse
could climb them... but our horses had nothing—absolutely nothing.
. . . Directly came a hunter who had climbed a mountain and had
seen a large meadow. Thereupon, we scrambled down . . . and came
before night into a large plain.
Caught
in a Mountain Snowstorm
"We
pitched our tent, but scarcely had we finished when such a fierce
windstorm burst upon us that we could scarcely protect ourselves
against it. I cannot remember that I have ever in winter anywhere
encountered so hard or so cold a wind. The ground was soon covered
with snow ankle deep, and the water froze for us aside the fire.
Our people became thoroughly disheartened. Our horses would certainly
perish and we with them."
In
Goshen's Land
"The
next day we had fine sunshine, and then warmer days, though the
nights were 'horribly' cold. Then we went to examine the land. A
large part of it is already cleared, and there long grass abounds,
and this is all bottom. Three creeks flow together here and make
a considerable river, which flows into the Mississippi according
to the best knowledge of our hunters." There were countless
springs but no reeds, but "so much grass land that Brother
Antes thinks a man could make several hundred loads of hay of the
wild grass. . . . There is land here suitable for wheat, corn, oats,
barley, hemp, etc. Some of the land will probably be flooded when
there is high water. There is a magnificent chestnut and pine forest
near here. Whetstones and millstones which Brother Antes regards
the best he has seen in North Carolina are plenty. The soil is here
mostly limestone and of a cold nature. . . . We surveyed this land
and took up 5,400 acres. . . . We have a good many mountains, but
they are very fertile and admit of cultivation. Some of them are
already covered with wood, and are easily accessible. Many hundred—yes,
thousand crab-apple trees grow here, which may be useful for vinegar.
One of the creeks presents a number of admirable seats for milling
purposes. This survey is about 15 miles from the Virginia line,
as we saw the Meadow mountain, and I judged it to be about 20 miles
distant. This mountain lies five miles from the line between Virginia
and North Carolina. In all probability this tract would make an
admirable settlement for Christian Indians, like Grandenhutten in
Pennsylvania. There is wood, mast, wild game, fish and a free range
for hunting, and admirable land for corn, potatoes, etc. For stock
raising it is also incomparable. Meadow land and pasture in abundance."
After "a bitter journey among the mountains where we were virtually
lost and whichever way we turned we were literally walled in on
all sides," they came on December 14, 1752, to the head of
Yadkin river, after having abandoned all streams and paths, and
followed a course east and south, and "scrambling across the
mountains as well as we could." Here a hunter named Owen, "of
Welsh stock, invited us into his house and treated us very kindly."
He lived near the Mulberry Fields which had been taken up by Morgan
Bryant, but were uninhabited. The nearest house was 60 miles distant.
The
First Hunters
The hunters
who assisted the Bishop in finding the different bodies of suitable
land were Henry Day, who lived in Granville, John Perkins, who lived
on the Catawba, "and is known as Andrew Lambert, a well-known
Scotchman," and Jno. Rhode, who "lives about 20 miles
from Capt. Sennit on the Yadkin road." John Perkins was especially
commended to the Brethren as "a diligent and true worthy man,
and a friend to the Brethren." The late Judge A. C. Avery said
he was called "Gentleman John," and that Johns river in
Burke was named for him.[7]
Settlers
from Pennsylvania
"Many
of the immigrants were sent to Pennsylvania, and they had traveled
as far west as Pittsburg early in the 18th century. The Indians
west of the Alleghanies were, however, fiercer than any the Quakers
had met; but to the southwest for several hundred miles the Appalachians
"run in parallel ranges . . through Virginia, West Virginia,
the Carolinas and East Tennessee and through these "long, deep
troughs between these ranges . . . Pennsylvanians freely wandered
into the South and Southwest . . . "and "between the years
1732 and 1750, numerous groups of Pennsylvanians—Germans and
Irish largely, with many Quakers among them—had been . . .
gradually pushing forward the line of settlement, until now it had
reached the upper waters of the Yadkin river, in the northwest corner
of North Carolina." [8]"Thus was the
wilderness tamed by a steady stream of immigration from the older
lands of the northern colonies, while not a few penetrated to this
Arcadia through the passes of the Blue Ridge, from eastern Virginia
and the Carolinas."[9]
Nick-a-Jack's
Cave
Almost
the first difficulties those who first crossed the mountains encountered
was from the depredations of renegade Indians and desperate white
men defiant of law and order. There was at this time (1777-78) a
body of free-booters, composed of "adventurous and unruly members
from almost all the western tribes—Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws,
Choctaws, and Indians from the Ohio, generally known as Chickamaugas.
Many Tories and white refugees from border justice joined them and
shared in their misdeeds. Their shifting villages stretched from
Chickamauga creek to Running Water. Between these places the Tennessee
twists down through the somber gorges by which the chains of the
Cumberland range are riven in sunder. Some miles below Chickamauga
creek, near Chattanooga, Lookout mountain towers aloft into the
clouds; at its base the river bends round Moccasin Point, and then
rushes through a gap between Walden's Ridge and the Raccoon Hills.
Then, for several miles, it foams through the winding Narrows between
jutting cliffs and sheer rock walls, while in its boulder-strewn
bed the swift torrent is churned into whirlpools, cataracts, and
rapids. Near the Great Crossing, where the war parties and hunting
parties were ferried over the river, lies Nick-a-jack's cave, a
vast cavern in the mountain-side. Out of it flows a stream up which
a canoe can paddle two or three miles into the heart of the mountain.
In these high fastnesses, inaccessible ravines, and gloomy caverns
the Chickamaugas built their towns, and to them they retired with
their prisoners and booty after every raid on the settlements."
French
and Indian War Land Warrants
[10].
The Chickamaugas lived on Chickamauga creek and in the mountains
about where Chattanooga now stands; they were kinsmen of the Cherokees.
In 1748 Dr. Thomas Walker and a party of hunters came from Virginia
into Powell's Valley, crossing the mountains at Cumberland gap,
and named it and the river in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, Prime
Minister of England. In 1756-7 the English built Fort Loudon, 30
miles from Knoxville, as the French were trying to get the Cherokees
to make war on the North Carolina settlers. After the treaty of
peace between France and England in 1763 many hunters poured over
the mountains into Tennessee; though George III had ordered his
governors not to allow whites to trespass on Indian lands west of
the mountains, and if any white man did buy Indian lands and and
the Indians moved away the land should belong to the king. He appointed
Indian commissioners; but the whites persisted, some remaining a
year or more to hunt and were called Long
Hunters. Land warrants had been issued to officers and soldiers
who had fought in the French
and Indian wars and those issued by North Carolina wanted to
settle in what is now Tennessee. The Iroquois complained that whites
were killing their stock and taking their lands, and at a great
Indian council at Fort Stanwix, at Rome, N. Y., the northern tribes
gave England title to all their lands between the Ohio and Tennessee
rivers in 1767. But the Indian commissioners for the southern tribes
called a council at Hard Labor, S. C., and bought title to the same
land from the Cherokees. These treaties were finished in 1768. William
Bean in 1769 was living in a log cabin where Boone's creek joins
the Watauga. In 1771 Parker and Carter set up a store at Rogersville,
and people from Abingdon (called Wolf's Hill) followed, and the
settlement was called the Carter's Valley settlement. In 1772 Jacob
Brown opened a store on the Nollechucky river, and pioneers settling
around, it was called Nollechucky settlement. Shortly before Bean
had settled the Cherokees had attacked the Chickasaws and been defeated,
and the settlers got a ten years' lease from Indians for lands they
claimed. In May 1771, at Alamance,
Tryon had defeated the Regulators and many of them had moved to
Tennessee. Most settlers in Tennessee thought they were in Virginia,
but either Richmond or Raleigh was too far off, so they formed the
Watauga Association
in 1772 and a committee of 13 elected five commissioners to settle
disputes, etc., with judicial powers and some executive duties also.
It was a free government by the consent of every individual. When
the Revolutionary War began Watauga Association named their country
Washington District and voted themselves indebted to the United
Colonies for their share of the expenses of the war.
The
Watauga Settlement and Indian Wars
This
caused the British government to attempt the destruction of these
settlements by inciting the Cherokees to make war upon them. Alexander
Cameron was the Indian commissioner for the British and he furnished
the Indians with guns and ammunition for that purpose; but in the
spring of 1776, Nancy Ward, a friendly Indian woman, told the white
settlers that 700 Cherokee warriors intended to attack the settlers.
They did so, but were defeated at Heaton's Station and at Watauga
Fort. In these battles the settlers were aided by Virginia. James
Robertson and John
Sevier were leaders in these times. It was after this that Virginia
and North Carolina and South Carolina sent soldiers into the Cherokee
country of North Carolina for the extermination of the savage Cherokees.[11]
In August 1776 the Watauga Settlement asked to be annexed by North
Carolina, 113 men signing the petition,
all of whom signed their names except two, who made their marks.
There seems to be no record of any formal annexation; but in November,
1770, the Provisional Congress of North Carolina met at Halifax
and among the delegates present were John Carter, John Sevier, Charles
Robertson and John Haile from the Washington District. It is,
therefore, safe to conclude that Watauga had been annexed, for these
men helped to frame the first free constitution of the State of
North Carolina. But this Watauga Association seems to have continued
its independent government until February, 1778; for in 1777 (November)
Washington District became Washington county with boundaries coterminous
with those of the present State of Tennessee. Magistrates or justices
of the peace took the oath of office in February, 1778, when the
entire county began to be governed under the laws of North Carolina.
Thus, the Watauga Association was the germ of the State of Tennessee,
and although there is on a tree near Boone's creek an inscription
indicating that Daniel Boone killed a bear there in 1760, William
Bean appears to have been the first permanent settler of that section.
Indeed, this author states that Col. Richard Henderson, of North
Carolina, induced Boone to make his first visit to Kentucky in the
spring of 1769, and that James Robertson, afterwards "The Father
of Middle Tennessee," accompanied him; but stopped on the Wautaga
(sic) with William Bean and raised a crop, removing his family
from Wake county in 1770 or 1771.
Forts
Loudon and Dobbs
Fort
Loudon was on the Little Tennessee. It was attacked and besieged
by the Indians, and surrendered August 9, 1760, after Indian women
had kept the garrison in food a long time in defiance of their own
tribesmen.[12] In 1756 Fort Dobbs was constructed
a short distance south of the South Fork of the Yadkin.[13]
For the first few years Fort Dobbs was not much used, [14]
the Catawbas being friendly; but in 1759 the Yadkin and Catawba
valleys were raided by the Cherokees, with the usual results of
ruined crops, burned farm buildings, and murdered households. The
Catawbas, meanwhile, remained faithful to their white friends. Until
this outbreak the Carolinas had greatly prospered; but after it
most of the Yadkin families, with the English fur-traders, huddled
within the walls of Fort Dobbs, but many others fled to settlements
nearer the Atlantic.[15] In the early winter of
1760 the governors of Virginia and North and South Carolina agreed
upon a joint campaign against the hostiles, and attacked the Cherokee
towns on the Little Tennessee in the summer of 1760, completely
crushing the Indians and sent 5,000 men, women and children into
the hills to starve.[16] With the opening of 1762
the southwest border began to be reoccupied, and the abandoned log
cabins again had fires lighted upon their hearths, the deserted
clearing were again cultivated, and the pursuits of peace renewed.[17]
Remains
of Fort Loudon
In June,
1913, Col. J. Fain Anderson, a noted historian of Washington College,
Tenn., visited Fort Loudon, and found the outline of the ditches
and breastworks still visible. The old well was walled up, but the
wall has fallen in. He says there were twelve small iron cannon
in this fort in 1756, all of which had been "packed over the
mountains on horses," and that a Mr. Steele who lives at McGee's
Station—the nearest railroad station to the old fort—has
a piece of one of them which his father ploughed up over forty years
ago. The land on Which the fort stood now belongs to James Anderson,
a relative of J. F. Anderson, near the mouth of Tellico creek. But
no tablet marks the site of this first outpost of our pioneer ancestors.
Westward
the Course of Empire Takes Its Way
From
Judge A. C. Avery's "Historic Homes of North Carolina"
(N. C. Booklet, Vol. iv, No. 3) we get a glimpse of the slow approach
of the whites of the Blue Ridge "According to tradition the
Quaker Meadows farm near Morganton was so called long before the
McDowells or any other whites established homes in Burke county,
and derived its name from the fact that the Indians, after clearing
parts of the broad and fertile bottoms, had suffered the wild grass
to spring up and form a large meadow, near which a Quaker had camped
before the French and Indian War, and traded for furs." This
was none other than Bishop I. Spangenberg, the Moravian, who, on
the 19th of November, 1752, (Vol. v, Colonial Records, p.6) records
in his diary that he was encamped near Quaker Meadows "in the
forest 50 miles from any settlement."
The
McDowell Family
Judge
Avery goes on to give some account of the McDowells: Ephraim McDowell,
the first of the name in this country, having emigrated from the
north of Ireland, when at the age of 02, accompanied by two sons,
settled at the old McDowell home in Rockbridge county, Virginia.
His grandson Joseph and his grandnephew "Hunting John"
moved South about 1760, but owing to the French and Indian War went
to the northern border of South Carolina, where their sturdy Scotch-Irish
friends had already named three counties of the State, York, Chester
and Lancaster. One reason for the late settlement of these Piedmont
regions was because the English land agents dumped the Scotch-Irish
and German immigrants in Pennsylvania, from which State some moved
as soon as possible to the unclaimed lands of the South.
"Hunting
John" and His Sporting Friends
"But
as soon as the French and Indian war permitted the McDowells removed
to Burke. 'Hunting John' was so called because of his venturing
into the wilderness in pursuit of game, and was probably the first
to live at his beautiful home, Pleasant Gardens, in the Catawba
Valley, in what is now McDowell county. About this time also his
cousin Joseph settled at Quaker Meadows; though 'Hunting John' first
entered Swan Ponds, about three miles above Quaker Meadows, but
afterwards sold it, without having occupied it, to Waightstill Avery.
. . The McDowells and Carsons of that day and later reared thorough-bred
horses, and made race-paths in the broad lowlands of every large
farm. They were superb horsemen, crack shots and trained hunters.
John McDowell of Pleasant Gardens was a Nimrod when he lived in
Virginia, and we learn from tradition that he acted as guide for
his cousins over the hunting grounds when, at the risk of their
lives, they, with their kinsmen, James Greenlee and Captain Bowman,
[who fell at Ramseur's Mill in the Revolutionary War] traveled over
and inspected the valley of the Catawba from Morganton to Old Fort,
and selected the large domain allotted to each of them."
Log-Cabin
Ladies' Whims
"They
built and occupied strings of cabins, because the few plank or boards
used by them were sawed by hand and the nails driven into them were
shaped in a blacksmith's shop. I have seen many old buildings, such
as the old houses at Fort Defiance, the Lenoir house and Swan Ponds,
where every plank was fastened by a wrought nail with a large round
head sometimes half an inch in diameter. From these houses the lordly
old proprietors could in half an hour go to the water or the woods
and provide fish, deer or turkeys to meet the whim of the lady of
the house. They combined the pleasure of sport with the profit of
providing their tables.... 'Hunting John' probably died in 1775."
Living
Without Law or Gospel
William
Byrd, the Virginia commissioner who helped to run the boundary between
North Carolina and Virginia in 1728, wrote to Governor Barrington,
July 20, 1731,[18] that it "must be owned
that North Carolina is a very happy country where people may live
with the least labor that they can in any part of the world,"
and are accustomed to live without law or gospel, and will with
great reluctance submit to either." This is still true of North
Carolina, except the statement—which was never true—that
we were accustomed to live without law or gospel in 1731; for when
this identical gentleman was seeking to get paid for his services
as a commissioner to run the boundary line in 1728, he wrote the
Board of Trade that the Reverend Peter Fountain, the chaplain of
that survey "christened over 100 children among the settlers
along the line in North Carolina."
A
"Bird" Who Spelt His Name Improperly
In spite
of his animadversions upon the pioneer settlers of the eastern part
of our State, we must always incline to forgive Col. William Byrd
of Westover after reading his piquant and learned disquisitions
upon many matters in the "Dividing Line." He must truly
have been what we of more modern times call a "Bird,"
although he spelt his name with a y.
Where
Every Day Was Sunday
[19]
Following are Col. Byrd's Pictures of Colonial Days: "Our Chaplain,
for his Part, did his Office, and rubb'd us up with a Seasonable
Sermon. This was quite a new Thing to our Brethren of North Carolina,
who live in a climate where no clergyman can Breathe any more than
Spiders in Ireland. For want of men in Holy Orders, both the Members
of the Council and Justices of the Peace are empowered by the Laws
of that Country to marry all those who will not take One another's
Word; but for the ceremony of Christening their children, they trust
that to chance. If a parson come in their way, they will crave a
Cast of his office, as they call it, else they are content their
offspring should remain Arrant Pagans as themselves. They account
it among their greatest advantages that they are not Priest-ridden,
not remembering that the Clergy is rarely guilty of Bestriding such
as have the misfortune to be poor.... One thing may be said for
the Inhabitants. of that Province, that they are not troubled with
any Religious Fumes, and have the least Superstition of any People
living. They do not know Sunday from any other day, any more than
Robinson Crusoe did, which would. give them a great Advantage were
they given to be industrious. But they keep so many Sabbaths every
week, that their disregard of the Seventh Day has no manner of cruelty
in it, either to servants or cattle."
Nymph
Echo in the Dismal Swamp
[20]
Once, when separated from their companions, Col. Byrd "ordered
Guns to be fired and a drum to be beaten, but received no Answer,
unless it was from that prating Nymph Echo, who, like a loquacious
Wife, will always have the last word, and Sometimes return three
for one."
They
Brought No Capons for the Parson
[21]
Some of the people were apprehensive that the survey would throw
their homes into Virginia. "In that case they must have submitted
to some Sort of Order and Government; whereas, in North Carolina,
every One does what seems best in his own Eyes. There were some
good Women that brought their children to be Baptiz'd, but brought
no Capons along with them to make the solemnity cheerful. In the
meantime it was Strange that none came to be marry'd in such a Multitude,
if it had only been for the Novelty of having their Hands Joyn'd
by one in Holy Orders. Yet so it was, that tho' our chaplain Christen'd
above an Hundred, he did not marry so much as one Couple during
the whole Expedition. But marriage is reckon'd a Lay contract, as
I said before, and a Country Justice can tie the fatal Knot there,
as fast as an Archbishop."
Gentlemen
Smell Liquor Thirty Miles
[22]
"We had several Visitors from Edenton [who] . . . having good
Noses, had smelt out, at 30 Miles Distance, the Precious Liquor,
with which the Liberality of our good Friend Mr. Mead had just before
supply'd us. That generous Person had judg'd very right, that we
were now got out of the Latitude of Drink proper for men in Affliction,
and therefore was so good as to send his Cart loaden with all sorts
of refreshments, for which the Commissioners return'd Him their
Thanks, and the Chaplain His Blessing."
Getting
up an Appetite for Dog
[23]
"The Surveyors and their Attendants began now in good earnest
to be alarmed with Apprehensions of Famine, nor could they forbear
looking with Some Sort of Appetite upon a dog that had been the
faithful Companion of their Travels."
Poverty
with Contentment
[24]
The following is Col. Byrd's idea of some of our people who lived
near Edenton in 1728:
"Surely
there is no place in the world where the Inhabitants live with
less labor than in North Carolina? It approaches nearer to the
description of Lubberland than any other, by the great felicity
of the Climate, the easiness of raising provisions, and the Slothfulness
of the People.... The Men, for their Parts, just like the Indians,
impose all the Work upon the poor Women. They make their Wives
rise out of their Beds early in the morning, at the same time
that they lye and Snore, till the sun has run one third his course,
and disperst all the unwholesome damps. Then, after Stretching
and Yawning for half an Hour, they light their Pipes, and, under
the Protection of a cloud of Smoak, venture out into the open
Air; tho', if it happens to he never so little cold they quickly
return Shivering into the Chimney corner. When the weather is
mild, they stand leaning with both their arms upon the corn-field
fence, and gravely consider whether they had best go and take
a Small Heat at the Hough; but generally find reasons to put it
off till another time. Thus they loiter away their lives, like
Solomon's Sluggard, with their arms across, and at the Winding
up of the Year Scarcely have Bread to Eat. To speak the truth,
'tis aversion to Labor that makes People file off to N. Carolina,
where Plenty and a warm Sun confirm them in their disposition
to Laziness for their whole Lives."
Our
Commissioner Treats the Parson to a Fricassee of Rum
[25]
The chaplain went once to Edenton, accompanied by Mr. Little, one
of the North Carolina commissioners, who to shew his regard for
the Church, offer'd to treat Him on the Road with a fricassee of
Rum. They fry'd half a Dozen Rashers of very fat Bacon in a Pint
of Rum, both of which being disht up together, served the Company
at once for meat and Drink."
The
Democracy of the Colonists
[26]
"They are rarely guilty of Flattering or making any Court to
their governors, but treat them with all the Excesses of Freedom
and Familiarity. They are of opinion their rulers would be apt to
grow insolent, if they grew rich; and for that reason take care
to keep them poorer, and more dependent, if possible than the Saints
in New England used to do their Governors."
The
Men of Alamance
Meantime
the exactions of the British tax collectors had brought on the Regulators
War, and the battle
of Alamance in May, 1771, resulted in the departure of a "company
of fourteen families" from "the present county of Wake
to make new homes across the mountains.[27] The
men led the way and often had to clear a road with their axes. Behind
the axmen went a mixed procession of women, children, dogs, cows
and pack-horses loaded with kettles and beds." These settled
in Tennessee on the Watauga river. James
Robertson, "a cool, brave, sweet-natured man was the leader
of the company." Then came John
Sevier and many others. In the language of the Hon. George Bancroft,
historian and at that time minister to England, "it is a mistake
if anyone have supposed that the Regulators were cowed down by their
defeat at Alamance. Like the mammoth, they took the bolt from their
brow and crossed the mountains." Of them and those who followed
them, Hon. John Allison in his "Dropped Stitches of Tennessee
History" (p.37) says:
"The
people who made it possible for Tennessee to have a centennial
were a wonderful people. Within a period of about fifteen years
they were engaged in three revolutions; participated in organizing
and lived under five different governments; established and administered
the first free and independent government in America, founded
the first church and the first college in the Southwest; put in
operation the second newspaper in the 'New World West of the Alleghanies';
met and fought the British in half a dozen battles, from Kings
Mountain to the gates of Charleston, gaining a victory in every
battle; held in check, beat back and finally expelled from the
country four of the most powerful tribes of Indian warriors in
America; and left Tennesseans their fame as a heritage, and a
commonwealth of which it is their privilege to be proud."
The
Freest of the Free
The historian,
George Bancroft, exclaims: ''Are there any who doubt man's capacity
for self-government? Let them study the history of North Carolina.
Its inhabitants were restless and turbulent in their imperfect submission
to a government imposed from abroad; the administration of the colony
was firm, humane and tranquil when they were left to take care of
themselves. Any government but one of their own institution was
oppressive. North Carolina was settled by the freest of the free."
[28]
The
First Public Declaration of Independence
This
was made at Halifax, N. C., by the Provisional Congress, April 12,
1776, when its delegates to the Continental Congress were authorized
to concur with other delegates in "declaring independence and
forming foreign alliances," reserving the right of forming
a constitution and laws for North Carolina.
The
Scotch-Irish; Their Origin and Religion
[29]
"Men will not be fully able to understand Carolina till they
have opened the treasures of history and drawn forth some few particulars
respecting the origin and religious habits of the Scotch-Irish and
become familiar with their doings previous to the Revolution—during
that painful struggle—and the succeeding years of prosperity;
and Carolina will be respected as she is known."
In
Pioneer Days
[30]
The men and boys wore moccasins, short pantaloons and leather leggings,
hunting shirts, which were usually of dressed deerskin, cut like
the modern shirt, open the entire length in front and fastened by
a belt. In this belt were carried a small hatchet and a long, sharp
hunting knife. They wore caps of mink or coon skin, with the tail
hanging behind for a tassel. The rifles were long, muzzle-loading,
flint-locks, and in a pouch hung over one shoulder were carried
gun-wipers, tow, patching, bullets, and flints, while fastened to
the strap was a horn for powder. The women and girls wore sun bonnets,
as a rule, and had little time to spend on tucks and ruffles. There
was no place at which to buy things except the stores of Indian
traders, and they had very few things white people wanted. . . The
pioneer moved into a new country on foot or on horse back and brought
his household goods on pack horses. They were about as follows The
family clothing, some blankets and a few other bed clothes, with
bed ticks to be filled with grass or hair, a large pot, a pair of
pothooks, an oven with lid, a skillet, and a frying pan, a hand
mill to grind grain, a wooden trencher in which to make bread, a
few pewter plates, spoons, and other dishes, some axes and hoes,
the iron parts of plows, a broadax, a froe, a saw and an auger.
Added to these were supplies of seed for field and vegetable crops,
and a few fruit trees. When their destination was reached the men
and boys cut trees and built a log house, split boards with the
froe and made a roof which was held on by weight poles, no nails
being available. Puncheons were made by splitting logs and hewing
the fiat sides smooth for floors and door shutters. Some chimneys
were made of split sticks covered on the inside with a heavy coating
of clay; but usually stones were used for this purpose, as they
were plentiful. The spaces between the log walls were filled in
by mortar, called chinks and dobbin. Rough bedsteads were fixed
in the corners of the rooms farthest from the fire place, and rude
tables and benches were constructed, with three-legged stools as
seats. Pegs were driven into the walls, and on the horns of bucks
the rifle was usually suspended above the door. Windows were few
and unglazed. Then followed the spinning wheel, the reel, and the
hand loom. Cards for wool had to be bought. The horses and cattle
were turned into the woods to eat grass in summer and cane in winter,
being enticed home at night by a small bait of salt or grain. The
small trees and bushes were cut and their roots grubbed up, while
the larger trees were girdled and left to die and become leafless.
Rails were made and the clearing fenced in, the brush was piled
and burnt, and the land was plowed and planted. After the first
crop the settler usually had plenty, for his land was new and rich.
Indeed, the older farmers of this region were so accustomed to clearing
a "new patch" when the first was worn out, instead of
restoring the old land by modern methods, that even at this time
they know little or nothing of reclaiming exhausted land. Cooking
was done on the open hearths by the women who dressed the skins
of wild animals and brought water from the spring in rude pails,
milked the cows, cut firewood, spun, wove, knit, washed the clothing,
and tended the bees, chickens and gardens. When the men and boys
were not at work in the fields they were hunting for game. After
the first settlement time was found for cutting down the larger
trees for fields, and the logs were rolled together by the help
of neighbors and burned. The first rude cabin home was turned into
a stable or barn and a larger and better log house constructed.
When the logs had been hewed and notched neighbors were invited
to help in raising the walls. The log-rollings and house-raisings
were occasions for large dinners, some drinking of brandy and whiskey,
games and sports of various kinds. There were no schools and no
churches at first, and no wagon roads; but all these things followed
slowly.
Other
Early Explorers
In the
case of Avery V. Walker, (8 N. C., p.117) it appears that Col. James
Hubbard and Captain John Hill had "been members of Col. George
Dohorty's party" and explored "the section of country
around Bryson City, Swain county, shortly before April 22, 1795";
that Col. John Patton, the father of Lorenzo and Montreville Patton
of Buncombe, and who owned the meadow land on the Swannanoa river
which was sold to George W. Vanderbilt by Preston Patton, and the
"haunted house" at the ford of that river, when the stage
road left South Main street at what is now Victoria Road and crossed
the Swannanoa, there, instead of at Biltmore, was then county surveyor
of Buncombe, and refused to survey land on Ocona Lufty for Waightstill
Avery because it was "on the frontier and the Indian boundary
had not then actually been run out, and it might be dangerous to
survey near the line." Also that Dohorty's party had a battle
with the Indians at the mouth of Soco creek, and that what is now
Bryson city was then called Big Bear's village. In Eu-Che-Lah
V. Welch (10 N. C., p.158) will be found an exhaustive study
of the laws of Great Britain in colonial days regarding the granting
of Indian lands and of the various treaties made by the State with
the Cherokee Indians since July 4, 1776.
Notes:
1.
Roosevelt (Roosevelt, Theodore. "The Winning of the West,"
1905, Current Literature Publishing Company), Vol. III, 276 to 280.
2. Ibid.
3. Hill, p. 31-32.
4. Ibid., p. 121.
5. Ibid., p. 89, 90, 116
6. There were other Old Fields, doubtless made by
Indians years before America was discovered, at the mouth of Gap
creek in Ashe; at Valle Crucis in Watauga, at Old Fields of Toe
in Avery, at "The Meadows" in Graham, and at numerous
other level places.
7. There is a family of Perkinses living at Old
Field now, 1912, the descendants of Luther Perkins.
8. Thwaites (Thwaites, Reuben Gold. "Daniel
Boone"), p. 14.
9. Ibid., p. 15 and Col. Rec. (Colonial and State
Records of North Carolina), Vol. IV, p. 1073.
10. From R. G. McGee's "A History of Tennessee."
11. Ibid.
12. Thwaites, pp. 46-47.
13. Ibid., p. 37.
14. Ibid., p. 41.
15. Ibid., p. 42.
16. Ibid., p. 48.
17. Ibid., p. 59.
18. Col. Rec. (Colonial and State Records of North
Carolina), Vol. III, pp. xii and 194. Thwaites also says: "There
was for a long time neither law nor gospel, upon this far-away frontier.
Justices of the Peace had small authority. Preachers were at first
unknown." "Daniel Boone," p. 33.
19. Byrd ("The Writings of Col. Wm. Byrd of
Westover," 1901), 60-61.
20. Ibid., 62.
21. Ibid., 63.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid., 66-67.
24. Ibid., 75-76.
25. Ibid., 76.
26. Ibid., 80-81.
27. McGee, p. 214.
28. Asheville's Centenary (An article published
in the Asheville Citizen in February 1898, by Foster A. Sondley,
Esp. of the Asheville Bar. )
29. Footes Sketches (of North Carolina), p. 83.
30. Condensed from G. R. McGee's "A History
of Tennessee."
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