History of Western North Carolina - Chapters 13-14



CHAPTER XIII.
HUMOROUS AND ROMANTIC

A FAITHFUL PICTURE OF THE PAST. "Somewhere about 1830," writes Judge A. C.
Avery, "my father had a summer house constructed of hewn logs, containing
four rooms and a hall, with outhouses, at the place now called Plumtree.
It remained till about 1909, when it was destroyed by fire. This was a
mile below the 'Quarter,' where the overseer kept house and my father's
sons, who successively managed the stock, stayed. There were a number of
negro cabins around the Craborchard proper, which was located, about half
a mile from where Waightstill W. Avery now lives. My father had large
meadows there, on which he raised a quantity of hay and wintered hundreds
of heads of cattle that ranged on the mountains in summer. These mountains
were the Roan and the Yellow, on whose bald summits grass grew luxuriantly.

HAYMAKING IN THE SUMMERTIME. "During August of every year, after laying by
his crop in Burke county, my father took a number of negroes and several
wagons and teams over to the Craborchard, and moved his family for a stay
of two months or more to his summer house at Plumtree. He hired white men
from all over Yancey county to help his negroes in saving the hay.

OPEN HOUSE AND GRAND FROLIC. "He kept open house at the summer place and
large parties of ladies and gentlemen went out there from time to time and
had a grand frolic. Many of the young people rode out on horseback, and
some of the ladies in carriages. Parties were continually riding out to
the Roan, the Yellow and to Linville Falls. The woods were full of deer,
and all the streams were full of speckled trout that could be caught with
redworm bait. So, the ladies and gentlemen fished in Toe river and its
tributaries while others of the gentlemen hunted deer, often killing them
near enough to the summer house for the shot to be heard."

WHERE THE BOYS WERE "HANGED." "The late James Gudger, who was brought in
his early infancy to his father's residence on Swannanoa, just settled,
and who, in 1830, and 1836, represented Buncombe county in the North
Carolina in the Senate, told his grandson, Capt. J. M. Gudger, that when
he was a very small boy it was the custom to send a number of boys with
bags of grain to mill to be ground, and leave it there until a month
later, when the boys would return with other grain and carry back the meal
ground from the first. He further said that usually a man accompanied the
party to put on the sacks when they should fall from the horses, but that
on one occasion as he, then a very small boy, was returning from the mill,
with his companions of about the same age, the man for some reason was not
along, and one of the sacks fell off on the Battery Park hill over which
they had to pass; that while endeavoring in vain to replace the sacks a
party of Indians came upon them, and from pure mischief threatened and
actually began to hang them; that the boys(1) were badly frightened, but
finally the Indians left them unharmed and they went on their way, and
that the hill was afterwards known through the country as 'the hill where
the boys were hung.'(1)

HANDLEN MOUNTAIN. "He still further said that the miller in charge of the
mill, whose name was Handlen, undertook to cultivate a crop on the
mountain on the western side of the French Broad, but as he did not return
to the settlement for a long while his friends became frightened, and in a
party went to the clearing, where they found him killed and scalped, and
his crop destroyed, and that from this incident that mountain took its
name of the Handlen mountain.(1)

"TALKING FOR BUNCOMBE." "Famous as Buncombe deservedly is, she has
acquired some notoriety that no place less merits. Her name has become
synonymous with empty talk, a incus a non lucendo. In the sixteenth
Congress of the United States the district of North Carolina which
embraced Buncombe county was represented in the lower house by Felix
Walker. The Missouri question was under discussion and the house, tired of
speeches, wanted to come to a vote. At this time Mr. Walker secured the
floor and was proceeding with his address, at best not very forceful or
entertaining, when some impatient member whispered to him to sit down and
let the vote be taken. This he refused to do, saying that he must 'make a
speech for Buncombe,' that is, for his constituents; or, as others say,
certain members rose and left the hall while he was speaking and, when he
saw them going, he turned to those who remained and told them that they
might go, too, if they wished, as he was 'only speaking for Buncombe.' The
phrase was at once caught up and the vocabulary of the English language
was enriched by the addition of a new term."(2)

ISOLATION OF MOUNTAIN NEIGHBORHOODS. So sequestered were many of these
mountain coves which lay off the main lines of travel, that persons living
within only short distances of each other were as though "oceans rolled
between"; as the following incident abundantly proves:

MONT. RAY'S FLIGHT, RETURN AND TRIAL.(3) Soon after the Civil War Mont.
Ray killed Jack Brown of Ivy, between Ivy and Burnsville, and went to
Buck's tanyard, just west of Carver's gap under the Roan mountain, where
he supported himself making and mending shoes till many of the most
important witnesses against him had gotten beyond the jurisdiction of the
court-by death or removal-when he returned and stood his trial in
Burnsville and was acquitted. He had never been forty miles away, had
remained there twelve years yet no one ever suspected that he was a
fugitive; yet no one ever suspected he was a fugative from justice.

A FORGOTTEN BATTLE-FIELD. The Star, a newspaper published in Sparta,
Alleghany county, in its issue of February 29, 1912, contained the
following: "A few years ago, along New river, near the northern border of
this county, was found what is believed to be indications of a battle of
which. no one now living has any knowledge, nor is there any tradition
among our people concerning it. On the land of Squire John Gambill, near
the bank of New river, after a severe rainstorm and wash-out, some white
objects were noticed lying on the ground. On examination these were found
to be human skulls and other parts of human skeletons. Further examinatidn
revealed other marks of battle, such as leaden balls buried in old trees
lying on the ground, etc. Squire Gambill's ancestors have resided in this
section for one and a half centuries; yet, they have never heard of the
occurrenes, nor had they any tradition of it. Who fought this battle? Why
was it fought? Was there a fort here? Was it fought between the whites and
Indians?" (See ante, p.108)

ANDREW JACKSON LOSES A HORSE RACE.(4) In the late summer or early fall of
1788, Andrew Jackson and Robert Love had a horse race in the Greasy Cove,
just above what is now Ervin, Tenn. It seems that Jackson's jockey could
not ride and "Old Hickory" was forced to ride his horse himself, while
Love's jockey was on hand and rode Love's horse winning the race. When the
result was known "just for a moment there was a deep, ominous hush; then a
pandemomuin of noise and tumult that might have been heard in the two
neighboring counties. Jackson was the chief actor in this riot of passion
and frenzy. His brow was corrugated with wrath. His tall, sinewy form
shook like an aspen leaf. His face was the livid color of the storm cloud
when it is hurling its bolts of thunder. His Irish blood was up to the
boiling point, and his eyes flashed with the fire of war. He was an
overflowing Vesuvius of rage, pouring the hot lava of denunciation on the
Love family in general and his victorious rival in particular. Col. Love
stood before this storm unblanched and unappalled-for he, too, had plenty
of 'sand,' and as lightly esteemed the value of life-and answered burning
invective with burning invective hissing with the same degree of heat and
exasperation. Jackson denounced the Loves as a 'band of land pirates'
because they held the ownership of nearly all the choice lands in that
section. Love retorted by calling Jackson 'a damned, long, gangling,
sorrel-topped soap stick.' The exasperating offensiveness of this retort
may be better understood when it is explained that in those days women
'conjured' their soap by stirring it with a long sassafras stick. The
dangerous character of both men was well known, and it was ended by the
interference of mutual friends, who led the enraged rivals from the
grounds in different directions."(4)

TWO OLD-TIME GENTLEMEN. Major O. F. Neal was a lawyer and farmer who lived
in Jefferson, and who died in 1894. He and his brother Ben were
punctilious on all matters of politeness. On one occasion, after a long
walk, they reached a spring. Ben insisted that, as the Major was a lawyer
and lived in town, he should drink first; but the Major claimed that as
Ben was the elder he must drink first. As neither would yield to the
other, they politely and good-naturedly refused to drink at all, and
returned home more thirsty than ever.

THE FIRST DEPARTMENT STORE. Two miles from Old Field, Ashe county, was
kept from about 1870 to about 1890 the first department store known. It
was kept by that enterprising merchant Arthur D. Cole, and the large, but
now empty, buildings still standing there show the extent of his business.
He kept as many as twelve clerks employed, and boasted that there were but
two things he did not carry constantly in stock, one being the grace of
God and the other blue wool. A friend thought he had him "stumped" one day
when he called for goose yokes; but Cole quietly took him up stairs and
showed him a gross which he had had on hand for years. He and his father
did more to develop the root and herb business in North Carolina than
anyone else. He failed in business, after nearly twenty years of success.

A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. Zachariah Sawyer, grandfather of George
Washington Sawyer, now register of deeds of Ashe county, came to Ashe from
east of the Blue Ridge eighty-odd years ago. He learned that he was
entitled to a share in a large estate in England and went there to collect
his interest. After he had been in that country a short time he wrote home
that he had succeeded in collecting his share and would soon start home.
He was never afterwards heard of.

WELBURN WATERS, HERMIT HUNTER OF WHITE TOP. In a well written book, Mr. J.
A. Testerman of Jefferson has drawn a striking portrait of this old-time
hunter and back-woodsman. The last edition is dated 1911. From it one
gathers that Waters was born on Reddy's river in Wilkes county, November
20, 1812, the son of John P. Waters, a French Huguenot, and a half-breed
Catawba woman. His conversion and his distraction at a conference held at
Abingdon, Va., in 1859 because he was afraid some harm would come to a new
hat he had carried to church are amusingly told, while his encounters with
wild beasts and his solitary life on White Top are graphically portrayed.

LOCHINVAR REDUX. "About the year 1816, John Holsclaw, a young and
adventurous hunter, and a regular lochinvar, as the sequel will show,
built a bark 'shanty' on the waters of Elk at the 'Big Bottoms,' where he
lived for many years. The romance of his life was that he went over to
Valle Crucis, a settlement only eight miles distant, and there by sheer
force of will, or love, I will not say which, carried away, captive, a
young daughter of Col. Bedent Baird, and took her over the mountains by a
route so circuitous that, from what her conductor told her, she verily
believed she was in Kentucky. She was kept in ignorance of where she
actually did live for many years, and only by accident found out better.
One day she heard a bell whose tinkle seemed strangely familiar. She went
to the steer on which it was hung and found that it belonged to her
father. This clue led to the discovery that, instead of being in Kentucky
she was not eight miles as the crow flies from her old home at Valle
Crucis. Of course she thanked her husband for the deception, as all women
do, and they lived happy ever afterwards.

"For many years after John Holselaw settled on the 'Big Bottoms of Elk'
with his youthful bride, they lived solitary and alone; and in after years
she was wont to tell how she had frightened away the wolves which prowled
around when her husband was away, by thrusting firebrands at them, when
they would scamper off a distance and make night hideous with their howls.
And how, in after years, when they built a rude log house with only one
small window to admit the light, and had moved into it, Mr. Holselaw
killed a deer and dressed it, and had gone away, a panther, smelling the
fresh venison, came to the house and tried to get in, screaming with all
the ferocity of a beast brought almost to the point of starvation. There
was no one in the house but the woman and one child, but she bravely held
her own till her husband returned, when the fierce beast was frightened
away. She lived to a great age, and only a few years ago died,(5) and lies
buried on a beautiful hillock hard by the place of her nativity, on the
land now owned by one of her nephews, Mr. W. B. Baird, one time sheriff of
Watauga."

WHO WAS SELLER AND WHO WAS SOLD? Col. Carson Vance lived on Rose's creek,
between Alta Pass and Spruce Pine before and during and after the Civil
War. He was a bright, but eccentric man. He was admitted to the bar and
practiced law to some extent. But he and a free negro named John Jackson
made up a plot at the commencement of the Civil War whereby they were to
go together to New Orleans, Vance as master and Jackson as slave. At New
Orleans Jackson was to be sold for all the cash he would bring, after
which Vance was to disappear. Then Jackson was to prove that he was a
"free person of color," regain his freedom and rejoin Vance on the
outskirts of New Orleans. It is said that this scheme worked successfully
and that Vance and Jackson divided the proceeds of the sale.

LOVE FINDS A WAY. On the 21st of June, 1856, W. M. Blalock, commonly
called Keith Blalock, and Malinda Pritchard were married in Caldwell
county, close to the Grandfather mountain. In 1862 the conscript law of
the Confederacy went into operation, and Keith, though a Union man, was
clearly subject to conscription. There was no escape from it except by
volunteering. But to do that would be to part with his wife. So they
resolved to enlist together and seek their first opportunity of deserting
and getting over into the Federal lines. They went to Kinston, N. C., and
joined the 26th N. C. regiment, then commanded by Col. Zebulon B. Vance,
soon afterwards to become governor. This was on the 12th of April, 1862.
She wore a regular Private's uniform and tented and messed with her
husband. She enlisted and was known as Sam Bla1ock. She stood guard,
drilled and handled her musket like a man, and no one ever suspected her
sex. But they were too far from the Federal lines, with little prospect of
getting nearer. So Keith went into a swamp and rubbed himself all over
with poison oak. They sent him to the hospital in Kinston, where the
surgeons disagreed as to his ailment, and he was returned to his own
regiment, where his surgeon recommended his discharge. It was granted and
he left the camp. Then his wife presented herself to Col. Vance and said
that as long as they had sent her man home she wanted to go, too. An
explanation followed with confirmation "strong as proof of holy writ." She
was discharged. Keith joined the Union army and drew a pension. Mrs.
Blalock died March 9, 1901. He was called "Keith" because when a boy he
was a great fighter, and could "whip his weight in wild-cats," as the
saying went. At that time there was a fighter, full grown and of great
renown who lived at Burnsville, by the name of Alfred Keith. The boys
Blalock played with, "double-teamed" on him sometimes, but always got
thrashed. They then called him "Old Keith." He died in September, 1913, at
Montezuma.

THE WILD CAT. In February, 1848, when she was sixteen years old, Mary
Garland, afterwards the wife of Judge Jacob W. Bowman, killed a wild cat
which had followed some ducks into her yard. She hemmed it in a fence
corner and beat it to death with a "battling stick"--a stout, paddle-like
stick used to beat clothes when they are being washed. This was on Big
Rock creek, Mitchell county. Her cousins, Jane and Nancy Stanley, while
tending the boiling of maple sugar sap in a camp on the waters of Big Rock
creek in the spring of 1842, when sixteen and thirteen years old
respectively, killed a black bear which had been attracted by the smell of
sugar, by driving it into a small tree and killing it with an ax.

A MOONSHINER'S HEAVEN. Forty years ago Lost Cove was almost inaccessible,
except by trails; but last year (1912) a wagon road over three miles long
was constructed to it over the ridges from Poplar Station on the C. C. &
0. Railroad. Such a secluded place was a great temptation to moonshiners,
and when to its inaccessibility was added the fact that it was in dispute
between Tennessee and North Carolina, its fascinations became
irresistible. Accordingly John D. Tipton was accused of having begun
business by the light of the moon, as was evidenced by sundry indictments
in the United States court at Asheville. His example was soon followed by
others; but, whenever it appeared to Judge R. P. Dick. that the alledged
stills were in the disputed territory, he directed the discharge of the
defendants. However, a mighty change has taken place in Lost Cove within
the past few years, and not only is there no moonshining there now, even
when fair Luna is at the full,. but the good people will not suffer the
"critter" to be brought in from Tennessee. And better still, in 1910 they
built a school house and a church, and voted a special school tax, the
first school having been taught in 1911.

PEGGY'S HOLE. Three-quarters of a mile above Elk Cross Roads, now Todd, is
a high bluff, covered with laurel, pines and ivy. It is at a bend of New
river. About 1815 Mrs. Peggy Clauson was going to church on a bright
Sunday morning. Dogs had run a bear off the bluff into a deep hole at the
base of a cliff, and Mrs. Clauson saw him swimming around in the water.
She waded in and, seizing the brute by both ears, forced his head under
the water and held it there until Bruin had drowned. It has been called
Peggy's Hole ever since.

THE HERMIT OF BALD MOUNTAIN.(6) "In Yancey county, visible from the Roan,
and forty-five miles from Asheville, is a peak known as Grier's Bald,
named in memory of David Grier, a hermit, who lived upon it for thirty-two
years. From posthumous papers of Silas McDowell, we learn the following
facts of the hermit's singular history. A native of South Carolina, he
came into the mountains in 1798, and made his home with Colonel David
Vance, whose daughter he fell in love with. His suit was not encouraged;
the young lady was married to another, and Grier, with mind evidently
crazed, plunged into the wilderness. This was in 1802. On reaching the
bald summit of the peak which bears his name, he determined to erect a
permanent lodge in one of the coves. He built a log house and cleared a
tract of nine acres, subsisting in the meantime by hunting and on a
portion of the $250 paid him by Colonel Vance for his late services. He
was twenty miles from a habitation. For years he lived undisturbed; then
settlers began to encroach on his wild domains. In a quarrel about some of
his real or imaginary landed rights, he killed a man named Holland
Higgins. cleared on the ground of insanity, and returned home to meet
death at the hands of one of Holland's friends. Grier was a man of strong
mind and fair education. After killing Higgins he published a pamphlet in
justification of his act, and sold it on the streets. He left papers of
interest, containing his life's record and views of life in general,
showing that he was a deist, and a believer in the right of every man to
take the executive power of the law into his own hands."

OLD CATALOOCHEE STORIES. Owing to the fact that the late Col. Allen T.
Davidson spent much of his young manhood hunting and fishing in
Cataloochee valley, much of its early history has been preserved. From him
it was learned that years ago Zach White shot a deputy sheriff named
Rayburn when Col. Davidson was a boy, and hid near a big rock in a little
flat one half mile above the late Lafayette Palmer's home, where for years
Neddy MeFalls and Dick Clark fed him. He also stayed on Shanty branch near
where Harrison Caldwell now lives. This branch got its name from a shanty
or shed that Old Smart, a slave of Mitchell Davidson, built there while he
tended cattle for his master years before any white people ever lived in
that valley. The cattle ranged on the Bunk mountain and on Mount Sterling,
and one day when Neddy McFalls was looking for them to salt them he could
not find a trace of them anywhere. His nickname for Col. Davidson was
Twitty. Now the Round Bunk mountain stands between the lefthand fork of
the Little Cataloochee and Deep Gap, while the Long branch runs from the
balsam on Mount Sterling and between the headwaters of Little Cataloochee
and Indian creek. It was on the Long Branch that Col. Davidson and Neddy
McFalls were standing when the latter put his hands to his mouth and cried
out: "Low, Dudley, low!", Dudley being the name of the bull with the herd
of cattle; and almost immediately they heard Dudley from the top of Mount
Sterling give a long, loud low, and they knew that their cattle were
found. Richard Clark is the one who gave the name to the Bunk mountain.(7)
Neddy McFalls was a great believer in witchcraft. He carried a rifle that
had been made by a man of the name of Gallaspie on the head of the French
Broad river, while Col. Davidson's gun was known as the Aaron Price gun.
Neddy missed a fair shot at a buck one day and nothing could persuade him
from leaving Cataloochee and traveling miles to a female witch doctor who
was to take the "spell" off his gun. Jim Price was found dead of milk sick
west of the "Purchase," formerly the home of John L. Ferguson on top of
Cataloochee mountain, on another branch, also known as the Long branch. A
little dog, stayed with the body and attracted the searchers to it by
getting on a foot-log and howling.

It was said that the Indians had killed Neddy McFall's father and that he
had a grudge against all Indians in consequence. So one day Neddy and Sam
McGaha were together and saw an Indian seated on a log. Neddy told McGaha
that the triggers on bis rifle were "set," that is locked, and asked him
to take a good aim at the Indian just for fun. Not knowing that the
triggers were really "sprung," and that the slightest touch on the "hair-
trigger" would fire the rifle, McGaha did as he was asked, with the result
that the Indian fell dead. It is said that Neddy had to run for his life
to escape the wrath of McGaha.

PRIVATE WM. NICODEMUS. An Indian named Christie lived on the site of the
present town of Murphy, and a ford crossing Valley river between the two
bridges of the present day was for years called the Christie ford. The
first house built by a white man in Cherokee county was a large two-story
log house with several rooms, erected by A. R. S. Hunter, originally of
Virginia, but who moved into North Carolina from Georgia. Its furniture
was of mahogany and was brought by Indians on their shoulders from
Walhalla, South Carolina, there being no wagon roads at that time. Mr.
Hunter, in about 1838, built a better house. General Wool and General
Winfield Scott were entertained by the Hunters during the time of the
removal of the Cherokees. Several of the United States soldiers engaged in
that heart rending process died and were buried near this old residence;
but these remains were removed in 1905 or 1906 to the National cemetery at
Marietta, Georgia. On one of the old headstones a single name is yet
decipherable that of Wm. Nicodemus.

CUPID AND THE GENERAL'S SURGEON. Fort Butler was on a hill not far from
the Hunter home. Mr. Hunter had one child, a daughter, who married Dr.
Charles M. Hitchcock, a surgeon on Gen. Wool's staff durng the "Removal"
and the Mexican War. They afterwards moved to California, where they
acquired many valuable lands and settled at San Francisco. They had one
child, a daughter, Lily, who is now a Mrs. Coit, and spends much of her
time in Paris, France. She still owns all the lands in Cherokee county
which were acquired by her grandfather, Mr. Hunter. They embrace all the
land between the Notla and the Hiwassee, the "Meadows," on the head of
Tallulah creek in Graham county, and land in Murphy, where she owns a
house near the west end of the bridge over the Hiwassee river.

A FRIGHTENED ENTRY-TAKER. The Entry-Taker's office was opened in Murphy on
the last of March, 1842, when much excitement prevalled, as it was
strictly a case of "first come, first served." It is said that so eager
and demonstrative was the crowd that Drewry Weeks became alarmed and hid
himself in one of the upstairs rooms of the old jail, and that, when he
was finally discovered, the rush that was made upon him was really
terrifying. They broke out the window lights with their fists and handed
or threw their bundles of entries and surveys through these openings. One
land-hungry citizen, Stephen Whitaker by name, used to tell how he cllmbed
upon the shoulders of the dense crowd of men who were packed in front of
the window of the jail and scrambled and crawled on hands and knees over
the heads of those who were so crowded together that they could not use
their fists upon him, or dislodge him by allowing him to drop by his own
weight, till he reached the window and so got a place near the head of the
list. It is said, however, that the execrations and maledictions-commonly
called curses-which were hurled at him were enough to damn him eternally,
if mere words could accomplish that result.

A STRANGE DREAM. Dr. J. E. West was drowned March 19, 1881, while
attempting to ford the Tuckaseegee river at the Bear Ford, and remained in
the water about two weeks, when Rachel Grant, a poor woman whose son Dr.
West had been treating, dreamed that he came to her and on seeing him she
expressed surprise and told him she thought that he was drowned. He told
her that he was and wanted to tell her where to direct the men, when they
came to search, where to find his body. He said to tell them to get into
the canoe and pole toward two maples on the opposite side and when they
got near the current that came around a rock to put their pole down and
they would find him. When she awoke in the morning she dressed and walked
up to the landing to see if it looked like she had seen it while dreaming.
She was so impressed that she sat and waited till the searching party
came, to whom she told her story. Of course, some were amused while a few
had faith enough to follow her directions, and when they did so found the
body in œhe precise place she had pointed out to them. Mrs. Grant is still
living in this county, as well as some of those who found the body. It had
floated about one-half mile.(8)

THE DELOSIA "MIND."(9) A man named Edward Delosia, of Blount county,
Tenn., claimed to have discovered a gold mine in the Smoky mountains years
before the Civil War; and it is said that he left a "way bill" or chart
telling where it might be found. This chart located it at some point from
which the Little Tennessee river could be seen in three places coming
toward the observer and in three places going from the observer. No such
place has ever been discovered, though there are points on the Gregory and
Parsons Balds from which the river can be seen in several places. It was
said that Delosia claimed he had cut off solid "chunks" of gold with his
hatchet. Many have hunted for it, and many more will continue to seek it,
but in vain. Many others had and still have what may very properly be
termed the "Delosia Mind," or the belief that sooner or later they would
or will discover minerals of untold value in these mountains.

A THRILLING BOAT RIDE. A large whale boat had been built at Robbinsville
and hauled to a place on Snowbird creek just below Ab. Moody's, where it
was put into the creek, and it was floated down that creek to Cheoah liver
and thence to Johnson's post-office, where Pat Jenkins then lived. It was
hauled from there by wagon to Rocky Point, where, in April, 1893, Calvin
Lord, Mike Crise and Sam McFalls, lumbermen working for the Belding Lumber
Company, got into it and started down the Little Tennessee on a "tide" or
freshet. No one ever expected to see them alive again. But they survived.
By catching the overhanging branches when swept toward the northern bank
at the mouth of the Cheoah river the crew manimd to effect a landing,
where they spent the night. They started the next morning at daylight and
got to Rabbit branch, where the men who had been sent to hunt them. They
spent three days there till the tide subsided, then they went on to the
Harden farm, which they reached just one went after leaving Rocky Point.
No one has ever attempted this feat since, even when the water was not
high. The boat was afterwards taken on to Lenoir City, Tenn.

A FAITHFUL DOG. Many incidents occurred in which our pioneer mothers
showed grit equal to that of their intrepid husbands. But there is one of
the intelligence and faithfulness of a dog that deserves to be recorded.

William Sawyer, one of the pioneers of that section, was living on Hazel
creek, near where the famous Adams-Westfeldt copper lead was afterwards
found. He left home one day in 1858, when there was what the natives call
a little blue snow covering the landscape, taking with him his trusty
rifle and his trustier dog. Together they went into the Bone Valley on
Bone creek, one of the head prongs of Hazel creek, and so called because a
number of cattle had perished there from cold several years before, their
bleaching bones remaining as a reminder of the blizzard that had locked
everything in its icy fingers late in a preceding spring.

William Sawyer killed a large bear and proceeded to disembowel and skin
him, after which he started home loaded down with bear meat. But he did
not get far before he fell dead in the trail. The dog remained with him
till after midnight when being satisfied that his master was dead, he left
the body in the woods and proceeded back home. Arriving there just before
day, the faithful animal whined and scratched on the door till he was
admitted. Once inside the cabin, he kept up his whining and, catching the
skirts of Mrs. Sawyer's dress in his mouth, tried to draw her to the door
and outside the house. Quickly divining the dog's purpose and concluding
that he was trying to lead her to her husband, she summoned her neighbors
and followed. She soon discovered the body of her husband, cold and stiff.

AQUILLA ROSE. This picturesque blockader lives at head of Eagle creek in
Swain county. Soon after the Civil War he got into a row with a man named
Rhodes a mile below Bryson City, and was shot through the body. As Rose
fell, however, he managed to cut his antagonist with a knife wounding him
mortally. After this he went to Texas and stayed there some time,
returning a few years later and settling with his faithful wife at his
present home. It is near the Tennessee line, and if anyone were searching
for an inaccessible place at that time he could not have improved on
Quil's choice. He was never arrested for killing Rhodes, self-defence
being too evident. In 1912 he made a mistake about feeding some swill to
his hogs and was "haled" literally hauled before Judge Boyd at Asheville
on a charge of operating an illicit distillery near his peaceful home. It
was his violation of the eleventh commandment, to "never get ketched"; but
Quil was getting old and probably needed a dram early in the morning,
anyhow. Judge Boyd was merciful, and it is safe to predict that Quil will
keep that eleventh commandment hereafter.

THE GOLDEN CITY. Wm. H. Herbert owned a large boundary of land in Clay
which had been entered for Dr. David Christie of Cincinnati, Ohio, before
the Civil War, say about 1857 or 1858, the warrants having been issued to
M. L. Brittain and J. R. Dyche, who assigned them to Dr. Christie. He gave
bonds to the State in 1859; but the Civil War came on and Dr. Christie
returned to the North, and failed to pay for them. On February 27, 1865,
the North Carolina legislature passed an act authorizing any person to pay
for these lands and take grants from the State for them. Wm. H. Herbert
paid what was due on Christie's bonds and took grants for the lands.

He then sold three hundred acres (Grant No. 2989) to Peter Eckels, of
Cincinnati, about 1870, and about 1874 Peter Eckels divided this tract
into lots (on paper only) calling it The Golden City. But it was "Wild
Land" on Tusquittee mountain at the head of Johnson creek, and was not
very valuable. He sold several lots, however, to people in Cincinnati and
years afterwards vain attempts were made to locate this Golden City.

A LARGE HEART. For several years after the Civil War and up to the time of
his death the residence of the late John H. Johnson was the scene of much
hospitality. The lawyers hurried through court duties at Murphy,
Robbinsville and Hayesville in order to get to spend as much time as
possible beneath his roof. It was at a certain hospitable house in Clay
county that rose leaves were scattered between tresses and the sheets, and
the table groaned with the good things provided by the owner, and which
were deliciously served by his wife and five charming daughters. One love-
sick "limb of the law" is said to have addressed four of them in quick
succession one bright Sabbath day in the early seventies only to be
rejected by each in turn. It seems that these sisters had told each other
of the proposals received, and that the ardent lover had sworn that he
loved each one to distraction. So, when he made this declaration to the
fourth and youngest, she asked him if he had not made the same
protestation of love and devotion to her three elder sisters. He promptly
admitted that he had. When she asked him how it was possible for him to
love four girls at once, he solemnly assured her that he had a heart as
big as a horse collar.

BRUIN MEETS HIS FATE. It is a well authenticated fact that Mrs. Norton,
then living in Cashier's Valley, was awakened one night while her husband
was away from home by hearing a great commotion and the squealing of hogs
at the hog-pen near by. Her children were small and there was no "man
pusson" about the place. The night was cold and she had no time to clothe
herself, but, rushing from the cabin in her night dress and with bare
feet, she snatched an axe from the wood-pile and hastening to the hog-pen,
saw a large, black bear in the act of killing one of her pet "fattening
hog. She did not hesitate an instant, but went on and, aiming a well-
directed blow at Bruin's cranium, split it from ears to chin and so had
bear meat for breakfast instead of furnishing pork for the daring marauder.

NEDDY DAVIDSON AND "GRANNY" WEISS.(10) Old Neddy Davidson, of Davidson
river, was a mulatto who lived to be very old-some claiming that he was
116 years of age when he died. He was given his freedom by his master, Ben
Davidson, and afterwards moved to Canada. But he returned to his old home
on Davidson river before his death and about a year before that event
Judge Shuford went to his house and spent half the day with him, listening
to his stories of old times. He told of frequent fights at the Big Musters
then common in this section, and of many other characters. Among the
latter was a man named Johnson who used to live on Davidson river and
"settled" what is now known as the Old Deaver (locally pronounced Devver)
place. Something like one hundred years ago a cattle buyer named Carson
stopped all night with Johnson and discovered the following morning that
all his money, two or three hundred dollars, was missing. Having no reason
to suspect Johnson or his family of the theft, he left for his home.
Shortly after his departure Johnson was very seriously affected with
gravel and sent for an old woman reputed to be a witch, known as "Granny"
Weiss or Weice. She lived on the French Broad river, near the mouth of
Davidson's river. On her way to attend the sick man she met his
(Johnson's) wife carrying a lot of money. She explained to Granny Weiss
that both she and her husband were convinced that his urinary affliction
had been visited pon him because he had taken Carson's money and that it
would not be relieved till the money had been thrown into the French Broad
river.

A PRACTICAL "WITCH"(11) Well, the story went, that if Granny was a witch,
she was a wise and good one. For she immediately put her veto on throwing
that money in the French Broad river. She admitted that its theft from
Carson by Johnson was the real cause of the latter's sickness; but,
insisted that instead of throwing the money into the French Broad the
proper course would be to send for Carson, its true owner, and return it
to him. This was done. Carson did not prosecute Johnson, but the true
story got out and Johnson had to sell his place and move away.

A PATHETIC STORY. Mr. John Lyon of Great Britain was an assiduous
collector of our plants, and was probably in these mountains prior to
1802. "He, however, spent several years there at a subsequent period, and
died at Asheville in September, 1814, aged forty-nine years." In Riverside
cemetery, Asheville, is a small tombstone bearing the following
inscription: "In Memory of John Lyon, who departed this life Sept. 14,
1814, aged 49 years." From a letter written by the late Silas McDowell of
Macon county, N. C., to Dr. M. A. Curtis, author of "Woody Plants of North
Carolina," and dated October, 1877, we learn that Lyon had been "a low,
thick-set, small man of fine countenance," and had come from Black
Mountain in the early autumn of 1814, sick; that he took a room in the
Eagle hotel. Also that for two summers prior to that time he had been seen
in Asheville by Mr. McDowell. Lyon and James Johnston, a blacksmith from
Kentucky, and a man of great size had become friends. So when Lyon took to
his bed, Johnston had a bed placed in the same room for his own use, and
attended the botanist at night. The boy, Silas McDowell, had also become
attached to Mr. Lyon, and on the day of his death had gone to his room
earlier than usual. "This day throughoni[?] had been one of those clear
autumnal days," continues this letter, "when the blue heavens look so
transcendantly pure! but now the day was drawing fast to a close, the sun
was about mnking behind the distant blue mountains, its rays gleaming
through a light haze of fleecy cloud that lay motionless upon the western
horizon, and which the sun's rays were changing to that bright golden tint
that we can look on and feel, but can't describe. The dying man caught a
glimpse of the beautiful scene and observed: 'Friend Johnston, we are
having a beautiful sunset-the last I shall ever behold--will you be so
kind as to take me to the window and let me look out?' Johnston carried
him to the window took a seat and held the dying man in a position so that
his eyes might take in the beautiful scene before him. With seraphile look
he gazed intently, uttering the while a low prayer--or rather the soul's
outburst of rapturous adoration and praise. After the sun sank out of
sight, and the beautiful scene faded out, he exclaimed: 'Beautiful world,
farewell! Friend Johnston lay me down upon my bed-I feel as if I can sleep-
I may not awake-kiss me Johnston-now farewell.' He fell asleep in a short
time and soon all was still. All of John Lyon that was mortal was dead."

The kind-hearted blacksmith left Asheville soon afterward, but soon met
and married a lady of property in Alabama, and had two sons.(12)

Soon after the death of John Lyon friends in Edinburgh, Scotland, sent the
tombstone that now marks his grave. His grave had been in the graveyard of
the First Presbyterian church, but was removed to Riverside in 1878, the
late Col. Allen T. Davidson and Mr. W. S. Cornell, the keeper of the
cemetery, bearing the expense.

THE JUDGE, THE WHISTLERS, AND THE GEESE. Judge J. M. Cloud of Salem rode
the mountain circuit in 1871 and in 1872. He was a fearless and honest man
whose knowledge of law consisted mainly in his knowledge of human nature,
and in his own good sense. He was very eccentric and, apparently, the
fiercest and sternest of jurists; but he was really a tender hearted
gentleman. He was a bachelor and affected to hate whistling and the noise
of geese and chickens; but he himself could shake a log house with his
snoring. He was very fond of boiled sweet corn. On one occasion one of the
lawyers who arrived at a certain noted hostelry at Valley Town in advance
of the Judge told the landlady that his Honor had sent word by him to be
sure to save him for supper twelve ears of corn and three bundles of
fodder, the usual "feed " for a horse! Judge Cloud never forgave this
joke. When he got to Asheville, several of the most mischievious young men
serenaded him with sweet music at first and then with cat-mewing, tin pans
and cow bells. One of their number, Mr. Samuel G. Weldon, made the others
believe that the Judge had issued a bench warrant for their arrest for
contempt of court, and two of them left town precipitately.

When the Judge got to Bakersville he was annoyed by a gang of geese which
prowled the streets around the court house and hissed-hissed-hissed. Judge
Cloud called the sheriff and ordered him to kill the geese. The sheriff
told Stokes Penland, now living at Pinola, to shut the geese up in a barn
till the judge left town. Stokes, a mere boy then, did so. When court
"broke," as final adjouinment is called, the sheriff presented his bill
for $12. "What is this for?" fiercely demanded the judge. "For the twelve
geese you ordered me to kill," answered the sheriff. "Show me their dead
bodies," returned the Judge "or I'll not pay one cent." The sheriff called
up Stokes, thinking he would carry out the joke and pretend that he had
actually killed the geese. But he had failed to tell, the boy what was
expected of him. So he asked him: "What did you do with those twelve geese
the judge told me to have killed?" "I shut them up in the barn, and they
are there yet," was the surprising but truthful answer. At another court,
however, that at Marshall, the geese had really been killed and the judge
was forced to pay for them, willy nilly.

AN ASHEVILLE POO BAH. In a municipal campaign in 1874, while the late
Albert T. Summey was mayor, he was opposed for re-election by the late
Col. John A. Fagg who declared in a speech that "Squire Summey held a
separate office for each day in the week, being mayor on Monday, United
States commissioner on Tuesday, justice of the peace on Wednesday, county
commissioner on Thursday, chairman of the board of education on Friday,
commissioner in bankruptcy on Saturday, and, in Prince Albert coat and
silk hat, elder of the Presbyterian church on Sunday. 'Myself and my wife,
my son George and his wife, us four and no more.'

MURDER OF DANIEL STERNBERGH. In 1874 G. W. Cunningham was arrested, tried
and convicted for having killed and robbed Sternbergh of Kansas 6th June,
1874, near Stepp's on the North Fork of the Swannanoa. The case was tried
in Madison, and the defendant executed after the Supreme Court had
confirmed his conviction. (72 N. C., 469)

WILL HARRIS, DESPERADO. At midnight, November 13, 1906, policemen Page and
C. R. Blackstook were summoned to a house on Eagle street, and when
Blackstock opened the rear door he was shot fatally by a mulatto man
supposed to have been Will Harris or _______ Abernathy of Mecklenburg.
Harris also shot Page in the arm as he went to headquarters to summon
help. Harris started up Eagle street and on the way killed Jocko
Corpening, a negro, and Ben Addigton, also colored.. As he turned into
South Main Harris shot a hole in the clothes of a negro named George
Jackson, and then started towards the square. Policeman J. W. Bailey
started to meet Harris, and placed himself behind a large telegraph post
on the northeast corner of the square and South Main; but Harris, with a
Savage rifle with steel-jacketed balls dropped on one knee and fired at
the post, the ball passing through it and through Policeman Bailey as
well, killing him. Harris turned back down South Main, firing at three
white men as he went, and at Kelsey Bell in a second-story window. There
was snow that day, but the next Harris was shot to death about eleven
o'clock in the forenoon near Fletcher's by a posse in pursuit.

THE LAST "BIG MUSTER." At the last Big Muster in Boone, which occurred on
the second Saturday of October 1861, the militia had a somewhat hilarious
time; and after it was over Gol. J. B. Todd, then clerk of the court,
stood valiantly at the court house door, and vainly waved his sword in a
frantic effort to prevent the sheriff and others from riding their horses
into the court room, and pawing the big bass drum which some one had
placed behind the bar for safe-keeping.

"FREEZING OUT OF JAIL." Joseph T. Wilson, nick-named "Lucky Joe," obtained
a change of venue from Watauga to Ashe Superior court at the November
term, 1883.(13) He had been indicted for stealing horses from Mloway and
Henry Maines of the North Fork; but before he was removed from the Boone
jail, a blizzard came on, and one morning Lucky Joe was found in his cell
frozen stiff. A doctor pronounced him dead or beyond recovery; but he was
taken to the Brick Row, an annex of the old Coffey hotel, and thawed out.
Still protesting that he was stiff and frozen he was allowed to remain in
that building a day or two, under guard. But one evening at dark the guard
locked the door and went out for more fuel. When he returned Lucky Joe was
absent. He was tracked through the snow three miles to the Jones place on
Rich mountain; but he could not be overtaken. The following spring
Alexander Perry, of Burke, captured him in one of the western States and
returned him to Ashe, where he was convicted and sentenced to ten years in
the penitentiary. There he became superintended of the prison Sunday
School, and had earned an early discharge; but when his baggage to be
examined it was discovered that he had stolen several articles from the
penitentiary itself, and he was made to serve his full term. Upon his
return to Watauga he studied law and tried to be "good" for several years;
but at the June Term, 1904,(14) he was convicted under one and pleaded
guilty to three indictments and was sentenced to five years on the Iredell
county roads, where he died soon afterwards. The stories of his career in
Kentucky would fill a volume. He was born in 1846 or 1847, and was a Civil
War pensioner.

A LONG - DISTANCE QUARREL. Long before the invention of telephones two
farmers of Beaver Dams, Watauga county, established the fact that they at
least had no need for wires and electricity, by indulging in the first
wireless telegraphy on record. Elijah Dotson and Alfred Hilliard each
owned a hill-side farm three miles apart. One morning Alf saw Elijah
resting in his field, and jokingly told him to go to work; whereupon
Elijah told Alf to go to a region devoid of snow and ice. This was the
commencement of an oral duel that lasted half the day, and until the
dinner horn summoned both to the midday meal. The success of this feat was
due to strong lungs rather than to any peculiar carrying power of the
atmosphere of Watauga, though it is the clearest and purest in the State.

A ROMANCE OF SLAVERY DAYS. On October 15, 1849, Silas Baker, a slave
belonging to Miss Elizabeth Baker, loved a negro woman named Mill or
Millie, the property of William Mast of Valle Crucis. About this time
Jacob Mast, William's uncle, returned from Texas, and the servants
discovered that he would soon marry Elizabeth Baker, and return with her
to Texas. That she would take Silas with her was most probable; and,
unless Jacob Mast should buy Millie and take her also, these dusky lovers
would be separated forever. It is likely that they satisfied themselves
that Jacob would not buy Millie; but probably reasoned that, if William
Mast and his wife were dead, there would be a sale of his slaves to settle
the estate, at which they hoped that Jacob would buy Millie. So, it is
supposed, for there was never any tangible proof against either, that
these two ignorant and infatuated lovers poisoned William Mast and his
wife by putting wild or poison parsnips into their coffee. But the scheme
miscarried; for, though William and his wife died that day (October 16),
Jacob Mast took Silas to Texas with him, while John Whittington bought
Millie and sold her to people in Tennessee, which effectually parted them
forever. Elbert Dinkins of Caldwell county was then teaching school in the
neighborhood, and was boarding at William Mast's; and he told Dr. J. B.
Phillips of Cove creek the above facts.

ANOTHER VERSION. Will Shull, a respected colored man, who was born March
10, 1832, claims that Millie's' motive was revenge for a severe
chastisement which she had received at the hands of her master, William
Mast, as punishment for having stolen a twenty-dollar gold-piece from his
own young master and playmate, Andrew Mast, a son of David and Polly Mast,
when she had been at this home washing clothes. Millie had given this
money to Charles, another negro, who belonged to John Mast of Sugar Grove,
to have changed for her; but Charles took the money to the store of Henry
Taylor at that place, and as he and Andrew Mast were courting Emeline and
Caroline, the two daughters of John Mast, Taylor asked Andrew if he could
change the money for him. When Andrew saw it he recognized it as his own,
as he had previously marked it. Charles, of course, laid the blame on
Millie, who in turn tried to hold the colored boy Will Shull responsible.
When Will heard of Millie's false charge, he loaded a small shotgun which
had but recently been given him and started to shoot Millie, but was
stopped by Mrs. Polly Mast, who told him Milh.e had confessed. Millie did
not wish to poison Mrs. Mira Mast, who did not usually drink coffee; but
on that fatal morning she had partaken with her husband, William Mast, of
the potion Millie had prepared for him alone. William Mast was then at
work on the bridge over the Watauga, a mile below Shull's Mills when he
was taken sick and got medicine from Philip Shull that morning. Will
acquits Sile.

SILAS BAKER AND HIS BUGLE. Rev. L. W. Farthing, however, who remembers
Sile well, says that the public sentiment of that day held Sile guilty as
the prime mover and instigator of the plot. He says that Sile was a large,
impudent black man, between thirty and forty years old, and blew a long
tin horn on his way to and from his work-a bugle. This was probably a
stage horn; for soon after the opening of the new turnpike down the
Watauga river stage coaches ran on it from Abingdon via Mountain City
(then Taylorsville), Trade, Sugar Grove, Shulls Mills, Blowing Rock, and
Lenoir, to Lincoluton. They were drawn by four horses and driven by
colored drivers, a Mr. Dunn of Abingdon having been the owner of the line.
One of the stands or stopping places, where the horses were changed, was
at John Mast's at Sugar Grove; another was at Joseph Shull's (where James
M. Shull now resides) and one was at the Coffey gap of the Blue Ridge,
where Jones Coffey now lives. These stages ran for several years prior to
1861, when they were withdrawn.

JIM SPEER'S FATE. About ten or twelve years prior to the Civil War, four
white men of Watauga county, went with James Speer of Beaver Dams to South
Carolina. Their names are still remembered by a few of the older citizens.
Speer was not considered "right bright," as the expression goes, meaning
that while he was not utterly imbecile, he was yet stupid or dense
intellectually. He agreed to be blacked and sold as a negro, with the
understanding that he was to "wash up" after they had returned home,
"escape" from bondage, and share in the proceedes of the sale. All these
things were done except the division of the spoils. At the next Big Muster
following Jim's return, a quarrel was overheard between him and his
confederates in the swindle, during which it is supposed Jim demanded his
share and threatened "to let the cat out of the bag" if it was not
forthcoming. He returned to his home on Beaver Dams and shortly afterwards
disappeared forever. It was supposed that he had been done away with.
About 1893 John K. Perry, Esq., found a human skeleton in the cliffs in
the rear of his dwelling on Beaver Dams, and still has the skull in his
possession. These are supposed to be the remains of Jim Speer.(15)

JOSHUA PENNELL. In 1859 or 1860, Joshua Pennell of Wilkes left a will
setting all his slaves free, and providing for their removal to a Free
State, and their support there until they could raise a crop. Pennell was
a bachelor. Joshua Winkler was made executor, and old citizens of Boone
remember seeing him and the negroes pass through that town one bright
Sabbath morning on their way to Kansas. Henry C. Pearson, Winkler's
brother-in-law, accompanied them also.(16)

"A WANDERING MINSTREL HE." During the seventies, William Murphy of
Greenville, S. C., wandered through these mountains making music every
day. He, like Stephen Foster, was regarded as a half-vagabond, but he was
tolerated for the pleasure his enchanted violin gave whenever he drew his
magic bow across its strings. There can be little doubt that men of his
genius feel the indifference and neglect of their contemporaries; and it
may be that, from their Calvaries of poverty, they, too, realize that we
know not what we do. For to them the making of music is their sole mission
here upon earth, and come poverty, obscurity or death, ay, come even
disgrace and obliquy, they, like Martin Luther at Worms, "can do no
otherwise, God helping them." Indeed, it is the highest form of worship,
and David's Psalms still live while all the Ptolemies of the past have
been forgotten. Foster's songs are linking earth to heaven more and more
as time goes on, and will be sung for eons and for eons. There can be no
higher destiny than that a man should pour out his full soul in strains of
haunting melody; and though Stephen Foster be dead and "the lark become a
sightless song," the legacy he has left behind him is more priceless and
more bountiful than those of the builders of the pyramids or the conquests
of Napoleon and Alexander.

Murphy, too, is dead, but while he lived, like the grasshopper "beating
his tiny cymbals in the sun," he poured forth those matchless orisons that
none who ever heard them can soon forget. For, while he was not a creator,
he was the slave and seneschal of the masters who have left their melodies
behind them for the ravishment of a money-mad and sordid world. And when
he drew his magic bow across his violin's sentient strings, his genius
thence evoked sweet strains formed with soul to all who had the heart to
comprehended their message and their meaning.

Was it a jig or waltz or stately minuet? one's feet moved rythmically to
the "sweet melodic phrase." Was it dirge, lament or lovelorn lilt? one saw
again the hearse-plumes nod, sobbed out his heart with pallid Jeane, or
caught the note of bonny bird blythe fluting by the Doon. Was it martial
air or battle-hymn? then, once again, came forth the bagpipe's skirl, the
pibroch's wail, "what time the plaided clans came down to battle with
Montrose." Again, with change of air, there dawned once more that "reddest
day in history, when Pickett's legions, undismayed, leapt forth to ruin's
red embrace."

But best, ah, far, far best of all, was that wonder-woven race his fine
dramatic instinct had translated into song, in which the section-riven
days of 'Sixty-one were conjured back again from out their graves and
ghostly crements, and masqueraded full of life and hate and jealousy. For
then we saw, as if by magic, the mighty racer, Black Hawk, typifying the
North, and his unconquerable rival, Gray Eagle, the steel sinewed champion
of the South, start once again on that matchless contest on the turf at
Louisville. We heard again the wild, divided concourse cheer its favorite
steed along the track, and saw the stramiug stallions, foam-flecked with
sweat-now neck and neck, then one ahead, but soon overtaken, and both
flying side by side again, their flame-shot nostrils dripping blood-till
Gray Hawk, spent, but in the lead, dropped dead an inch without the goal,
his great heart broken, as the South's was doomed to be a few years
thence, when

"Men saw a gray gigantic ghost
Receding through the battle-cloud
And head across the tempest loud
The death-cry of a nation lost!

THE VALLEY OF COUSINS. Valle Crucis is called the Valley of Cousins
because of the kinship between its inhabitants. Ex-Sheriff David F. Baird,
a descendant of Bedent, says that all of Valle Crucis between the ford of
the river on the road to Cove creek up to the ford at Shipley's home was
sold by the original Hix who came to this section, for a shot-gun, a pair
of leggins and a hound dog. A man named Hix was drowned in a "hole" of
water in Watauga river below D. F. Baird's farm, and the place is called
the "Hix Hole" yet. This original Samuel Hix was the first settler of this
valley, but Bedent Baird was not long behind him. Bedent's son Franklin
was the father of David F. Baird who was born June 10, 1835, and was
sheriff from 1882 till 1886, and from 1890 till 1894. He went with his
uncle Joel Moody to carry the body of Rev. Wm. Thurston from its place of
temporary burial at Valle Crucis to Pittsboro, N,C., in 1856. Another
prominent family of this section, which inter-married with the Baird
family, is that of the Shulls. Frederick Shull and his wife came from
Germany about the year 1750. He was a weaver and paid for their voyage by
weaving while his wife worked in the field. Her name was Charity. Simon
Shull was a son of this marriage, and the father seven children by his
wife, Mary Sheifler, a daughter Phillip and Mary Ormatenfer Sheifier. She
was born in Loudon county, Va., May 5, 1772. Simon Shull was born in
Lincoln county, October 24, 1767. Simon Shull's children were Mary, Sarah,
Phillip, John, Joseph, Temperance and Elizabeth, born between March 19,
1793, and April 10, 1808. Joseph was the father of James M. Shull, and
Phillip of Joseph C. Shull. Simon Shull was married on Upper creek, Burke
county, by Rev. William Penland, March 25, 1790, and died February 12,
1813.

OTHER CLOSELY RELATED FAMILIES. Reuben Mast first lived where David F.
Baird now lives, but the place had been settled before Mast went there.
Reuben Mast sold it to John Gragg about 1849, and moved to Texas, where he
died. Gragg lived there till 1867 and sold to David Wagner, and moved to
Tennessee. David Wagner divided the place among his three sons, and David
F. Baird bought the shares of John and Daniel Wagner on the east side of
the river, about 1874. He had married a sister of these two Wagners in
1870. Joel Mast lived below the road at the place where Hardee Taylor
lives. David Mast lived where Finley Mast now lives. John Mast lived at
Sugar Grove, while Noah Mast lived on Watauga river where Wm. Winkler now
lives. These were brothers. Henry Taylor came to Sugar Grove from Davidson
county about 1849 and went into merchandising there. He married Emaline,
daughter of John Mast, buying the Joel Mast farm at public auction. Taylor
then moved to Valle Crucis, and bought the place where his son, T. Hardee
Taylor, now lives from Joel Mast about 1850 or 1851. He made his money by
selling to those who earned wages by the building of the turnpike. He was
born August 20, 1819. His wife was born January 5, 1826. They had six
children. After her death, September 21, 1880, he married Rachel Gray, by
whom he had four children. He died March 6, 1899, and his last wife died
March 3 of the same year. He bought the Ives land from Robert Miller
before the Civil War. Into the valley of Cove creek in 1791 came Cutliff
Harmon, from Randolph county, and bought 522 acres from James Gwyn, to
whom it had been granted May 18, 1791, his deed from Gwyn bearing date
August 6, 1791. Cutliff married Susan Fouts, and was about ninety years of
age when he died in 1838, his wife having died several years before, and
he having married Elizabeth Parker, a widow. He had ten children by his
first marriage, none by his second. Among his children were Mary, who
married Bedent Baird; Andrew, who married Sabra Hix; Eli, who married the
widow Rhoda Dyer (born Dugger); Mathias, who married and moved to Indiana;
Catherine, who married Benjamin Ward, and went west; Rebecca, who married
Frank Adams and moved to Indiana; Rachel, who married Holden Davis; Sarah,
who married John Mast; Nancy, who married Thomas Curtis, and Rev. D. C.
Harmon, born April 17, 1826, and died December 23, 1904. Among those who
came about the time Cutliff did were the Eggers, Smith, Councill, Horton,
Dugger, Mast and Hix families. The farm Cutliff bought is now owned by M.
C., D. F. and D. C. Harmon. "Patch farming" was the rule to the Globe on
Johns river for corn, as they raised only rye, buckwheat, Irish potatoes,
onions and pumpkins on the new and cold land of Watauga river. A common
diet was milk and mush for breakfast and soup and cider for dinner and
supper, according to Maiden C. Harmon in the Watauga Democrat of April,
1891. The intermarriage of these families has brought about a neighborhood
of closely related citizens, and Cove Creek and Valle Crucis are spoken of
as the Valley of Cousins, Sugar Grove being also a part of Valle Crucis.
Just down Watauga river from Valle Crucis is another settlement called
Watauga Falls. Among the first to settle there was Benjamin Ward, who had
seven sons, Duke, Daniel, Benjamin, Nicodemus, McCaleb, Jesse and James.
He also had three daughters, one of whom was named Celia. Benjamin Ward,
Sr., was a most enterprising and worthy man, and his widow lived to be 105
years of age, while their son Ben lived to be 110. Duke married Sabra,
widow of Andrew Harmon, and moved to Illinois; Ben. Jr., went to
Cumberland gap, and his son Duke came back and married Lucy Tester; while
Amos son of Duke, Sr., came back from Illinois and married Sally sister of
Lucy Tester. They had two sons, L. D. and .John the latter having been
killed before Richmond in 1863.

SAMUEL HIX, LOYALIST. According to Rev. L. W. Farthing, who was born April
18, 1838, and has lived in Beaver Dam township and at Watauga Falls
postoffice all his long life, Samuel was the name of the first Hix who
came to what is now Watauga county. He got possession of all of what is
now known as Valle Crucis, including the Sheriff Baird farm, either by
grant from the Crown or from the State, and was there during the
Revolutionary War. Being a Loyalist he kept himself concealed by retiring
to a shanty near Valle Crucis, still pointed out as his "Improvement." He
sold the Valle Crucis land for a rifle, dog and sheepskin to Benjamin
Ward, the latter later selling it to Reuben Mast. Hix then got possession
of the land at the mouth of Cove creek, but Ward got this also and sold it
to a family named Summers. This family, consisting of man and wife and
five children, were all drowned in their cabin at night during a freshet
in the Watauga river, and their dog swam about the cabin and would allow
no one to enter till it had been killed. This is still spoken of as the
"Summers Fresh"- the highest anyone now remembers. The bodies of the
family were recovered and are buried on the opposite side of the river
from the mouth of Cove creek. Samuel Hix in 1816 obtained a grant to 126
acres, on part of which Rev. L. W. Farthing now lives, and his grave-stone
still stands three miles below St. Judes postoffice, and a quarter of a
mile below Antioch Baptist church. Benjamin Howard took the oath of
allegiance to the American government in 1778 (Col. Rec., VoL 22. Page
172), but Samuel Hix seems never to have become reconciled. Even after the
war he hid out, coming home at dark for his supplies. His five boys were
mischievous and they manufactured a pistol out of a buck's horn, which
they fired by applying a live coal to the touch-hole, when their father
returned from the house carrying his rations, thus frightening him so much
that he would drop them and return to his concealed camp in the mountains.
The children of Samuel Hix were Golder, David, Samuel, Harmon and William;
Sally, who married Barney Oaks; Sabra, who married Andrew Harmon, who was
killed by a falling tree on L. W. Farthing's present farm, and Fanny who
never married. Samuel Hix cared more about hunting than anything else, and
it was said he knew where there was a lead mine in the mountains out of
which he ran his own bullets. James Hix and James (?) Tester, were drowned
in what is still known as the Hix "Hole" in Watauga river below Sheriff
Baird's farm, and Sam Tester rode his bull into the water in order to
recover the two bodies, about 1835. Samuel Hix had a negro slave named
Jeff, and two apple trees planted soon after his removal to the L. W.
Farthing place, one at Samuel's cabin and the other at Jeff's, lived till
within recent years.

(1. "Ashevllle's Centenary")
(2. Ibid)

(3. Stokes Penland's statement, October. 1912, at Pinola)

(4. Chapter 7 of "Dropped Stitches")

(5. Account by T. L. Lowe, Esq.)

(6. From "The Heart of the Alieghanles," p.271)

(7. So called from its fancied resemblance to a bunk)

(8. Letter of Col. D. K. CoIllas to J. P. A., June 7, 1912)

(9. Frequently called "mind" for mine)

(10. Related by Judge G. A. Shuford)
(11. Ibid)

(12. From same letter)

(13. Minute Docket B. p.202, Watauga)
(14. Ibid., E, p. 352)

(15. Statements of J. K. Perry and W. L. Bryan, May, 1913)

(16. Statement of W. L. Bryan. July, 1913)



CHAPTER XIV.
DUELS

THE LAW OF DUELING. From the beginning of the nineteenth century the
practice of dueling had been common throughout America, the North, even,
not being exempt, as witness the fatal encounter between Aaron Burr and
Alexander Hamilton. North Carolina had, in 1802, (Rev. Stat., Ch. 34, sec.
3) made it a crime to send a challenge or fight a duel or to aid or abet
in doing either; but, according to the strict letter of the law, it would
be no crime to send a challenge from without the State or to fight a duel
on the soil of another State, and in all the duels fought in this section
great care was taken to go across the State line into either South
Carolina or Tennessee. No effort, apparently, was ever made to punish
those who as principals, seconds or surgeons had participated in such
encounters, it having been considered that the law of North Carolina had
not been violated unless the duel had actually been fought on its soil. No
duel was fought within the State; but in the Erwin-Baxter and the Hilliard-
Hyman duels, the challenges had most probably been sent and accepted in
Buncombe county. However, as such matters were of a secret and
confidential nature, it is likely that no evidence of such challenges was
ever presented to a grand jury of that county, as, if it had been, true
bills would doubtless have been returned against those charged with having
sent or accepted the challenges. For dueling was never approved by the
common people of this section, and its practice was confined strictly to a
small class of professional men and politicians. The quarrels of farmers,
merchants and others were settled in the good old fist and skull, or rough
and tumble, style, in which knives and pistols were never used. Section
two of Article XIV of the Constitution of North Carolina of 1868 gave
dueling its death blow forever; for, while there is nothing more sacred
than a politician's honor, prior to 1868 nothing had been found that could
prevent him from fighting duels for its preservation; whereas, the moment
he discovered that unless he found some other means of protecting it he
would have to forego the honor of holding office in North Carolina, he
immediately and forthwith discovered a way!

THE JACKSON-AVERY DUEL. At some time prior to the admission of Tennessee
into the Union Andrew Jackson and Waightstill Avery, lawyers, fought a
duel on "the hill on the south side of Jonesboro, Tenn. It seems to have
been arranged that neither party desired to injure the other, and both
fired into the air, pistols being the weapons used. John Adair was Avery's
second, Jackson's being unknown.

"There are two versions as to the cause of the duel, the first being that
Jackson had ridiculed Avery's pet authority-Bacon's Abridgment-and Avery,
in his retort, had grown, as he afterward admitted, too sarcastic,
intimating that Jackson had much to learn before he would be competent to
criticise any law book whatever. Jackson sprang to his feet and cried: 'I
may not know as much law as there is in Bacon's Abridgment, but I know
enough not to take illegal fees.' Avery at once demanded whether he meant
to charge him with taking illegal fees, and Jackson answered 'I do sir,'
meaning to add that he had done so because of his ignorance of the latest
law fixing a schedule of fees. But Avery had not waited for him to finish
his sentence and hissed in Jackson's teeth 'It's as false as hell.' Then
Jackson had challenged Avery and Avery had accepted the challenge. When
they had arrived on the ground and exchanged shots, they shook hands;
after which Jackson took from under his arm a package which he presented
to Avery, saying that he knew that if he had hit Avery and had not killed
him the greatest comfort he could have would be Bacon's Abridgment.' When
the parcel was opened it contained, cut to the exact size of a law book, a
piece of well cured bacon.

"The other version is that Avery promised to produce Bacon's Abridgrnent
in court the following morning and that Jackson had gone to Avery's room
and removing the book had substituted a piece of bacon in its stead in
Avery's green bag. When Avery opened this bag in court the next day and
the bacon fell out, he was so incensed that he challenged Jackson at once.
The challenge had been accepted and shots exchanged, whereupon each had
expressed himself as satisfied and the matter ended."(1)

COL. F. A. OLDS' ACCOUNT. In Harper's Weekly for December 31, 1904, is an
account of this duel which had and still has the approval of Hon. Alfonzo
C. Avery, oldest descendant then living of Hon. Waightstill Avery. It
contains the challenge, which follows:

August 12, 1788.
Sir:
When a man's feelings & character are injured he ought to seek a speedy
redress; you recd a few lines from me yesterday & undoubtedly you
understand me. My character you have In{ured; and further you have
insulted me in the presence of a court and a large audience. I therefore
call upon you as a gentleman to give me satisfaction for the same. I
further call upon you to give me an answer immediately without
Equivocation and I hope you can do without dinner until the business is
done; for it is consistent with the character of a gentleman when he
Injures a man to make speedy reparation, therefore I hope you will not
fail in meeting me this day from yr Hbl. St.
Col. Avery. Yrs. ANDW. JACKSON.
"P.S.-This Evening after court is adjourned."

THE FACTS OF THE CASE. These were told to Judge A. C. Avery by his father
Col. Isaac T. Avery, who was the only son of Waightstill Avery. "When the
latter practiced law in Mecklenburg, N. C., he and young Jackson were well
acquainted. Avery was elected in 1777 the first attorney general of North
Carolina. He afterwards married a lady who lived near Newberne, in Jones
county, and soon after this marriage resigned and settled in Jones,
becoming colonel of that county's yegiment of militia. His command was not
in active service during the Revolution, except in some occasional
troubles with the Tories, until it was called out when Lord Cornwallis
invaded North Carolina. . . . He secured the passage of a bill creating
the county of Washington, which embraced the whole State of Tennessee, and
then became the leading member of the bar at Jonesboro, which was the
county seat. At the close of the Revolutionary War Andrew Jackson went to
Burke county and applied to Waightstill Avery to take him as a boarder at
his country home and instruct him as a law student. Col. Avery told him he
had just moved to the place, and had built nothing but cabins, and could
not grant his request. Jackson went to Salisbury, studied law there [under
Judge Spruce McCay], and settled at Jonesboro, until the new county of
Davidson (with Nashville as the county seat) was established. . . . Just
before the challenge to fight was sent by Jackson, Avery appeared in some
laws at Jonesboro as opposing counsel to Jackson, and ridiculed the
position taken by Jackson, who had preceded him in argument. Jackson
considered the argument insulting and sent him the challenge. Col. Avery
was raised a Puritan. He graduated at Princeton with the highest honors in
1766, and remained there a year as a tutor, under the celebrated Jonathan
Edwards and the famous Dr. Witherspoon, who signed the Declaration of
Independence as a representative of New Jersey. Avery was a Presbyterian
and opposed on principle to dueling, but he so far yielded to the
imperious custom of the time as to accept the challenge and go to the
field, with Colonel, afterwards Governor, Adair of Kentucky as his second.
After the usual preliminaries he allowed Jackson to shoot at him, but did
not return the fire. There-upon, having shown that he was not afraid to be
shot at, Avery walked up to young Jackson and delivered a lecture to him,
very much in the style a father would use in lecturing a son. Avery was
very calm, and his talk to the brave young man who had fired at him was
full of good sense, dispassionate and high in tone, and was heard with
great attention by the seconds of both parties, who agreed that the
trouble must go no further, but should end at this point, and so then and
there a reconciliation was effected between these two brave spirits. Col.
Avery took the challenge home and filed it, as he was accustomed to file
all his letters and papers, endorsing it 'Challenge from Andrew Jackson.'"

THE VANCE-CARSON DUEL. To the late Silas McDowell of Macon county we are
indebted for many facts concerning the duel between Dr. Robert Brank Vance
of Buncombe and Hon. Samuel P. Carson of Burke. Mr. McDowell was the
friend of both these gentlemen; and, although he waited forty-nine years
after the duel had been fought, and himself was in his eighty-first year
before committing his recollection of that lamentable event to paper, it
must be accepted as the most authentic, because the only, account now
available of that affair. Hon. A. C. Avery of Morganton, in in an article
published in the North Carohna Review (Raleigh) for March, 1913, has
supplemented this statement with many important facts bearing on the
principals and seconds concerned; and from these two statements the
following facts have been carefully compiled:

SAMUEL P. CARSON. He was the son of Col. John Carson and of his wife, who,
before her marriage to him, had been the widow of the late Gen. Joseph
McDowell of Pleasant Gardens, N. C. He, like his father, was a Democrat,
and was young, handsome, eloquent, magnetic, blessed with a charming
voice, delighting in all the pleasures and Opportunities of a healthful,
vigorous physique. He was educated at the "Old Field Schools" of the
neighborhood till he reached his nineteenth year, when he was taken into
the family of his half brother, Joseph M. Carson, where he was taught
grammar and directed in a course of reading with an eye to political
advancement; and before he was 22 years of age he represented the county
of Burke in the legislature, defeating his kinsman James R. McDowell for
that place. He was born about the year 1797, and was about four years
younger than Dr. Vance. Even when a boy he was a great favorite not only
with people of his own walk in life, but was worshipped by the negroes on
his father's plantation. His mother was a Methodist and young Samuel was a
great favorite at camp meetings where his deep-toned and harmonious voice
led in their congregational singing. He was also popular with ladies.

GEN. ALNEY BURGIN. He was Carson's second, and was a social and political
leader of Burke county, having several times been elected to the
legislature. He preserved the challenge which Mr. Carson sent by him to
Dr. Vance. This challenge had been written by Carson at Pleasant Gardens
and was dated September 12, 1827, taken to Jonesboro, Tenn., and sent from
there in order to avoid a violation of the law of North Carolina regarding
dueling; for he states in the challenge: "I will do no act in violation of
the laws of my State; but as you have boasted that you had flung the
gauntlet before me, which in point of fact is not true; for, in the
language of chivalry, to fling the gauntlet is to challenge-to throw down
the iron glove;.... but, if you are serious, make good your boast; throw
the gauntlet upon neutral ground; then, if not accepted, boast your
victory." He notified Dr. Vance that he would pass through Asheville to
meet friends in East Tennessee, where he would spend a week at Jonesboro,
and expected to receive an answer by way of Old Fort, near which place
Gen. Burgin lived. His son, Joseph McD. Burgin, was the father of Mrs.
Locke Craig, the wife of the present governor.

HON. WARREN DAVIS. This gentleman was a South Carolinian, a cousin of John
C. Calhoun, a member of Congress, a man of decided ability, and
"thoroughly conversant with the intricate rules of the Code Duello." He
was called in by Mr. Carson as an additional second because Gen. Burgin
was not well versed in the punctuho of the duello, and Davis "was expected
in the arrangements for the encounter and any correspondence that might
ensue, to protect Carson."

ROBERT BRANK VANCE. He was born in Burke county about 1793, and was the
son of David Vance, who, after serving as an ensign under Washington,
married the daughter of Peter Brank, who lived about a mile from
Morganton, and fought as captain of a company in McDowell's regiment at
Ramseur's Mill, Cowpens and Kings Mountain, while uncle, Robert Brank, for
whom Dr. Vance was named, had the reputation of being one of the most
daring soldiers in his company. Young Vance was a fine scholar as a school
boy; but, owing to an affliction which had settled in his left leg that
member had been shortened about six inches and retarded his physical
development that when fully grown he was only five feet and five inches in
height. His face, how ever, was handsome, and his "mind was of no common
order." His family were Presbyterians and he attended the Newton academy
near Asheville, afterwards graduating from an unnamed medical school and
commencing the practice of medicine in Asheville in 1818. But, having
drawn a five-thousand dollar prize in a lottery, and his father having
willed him a large portion of his estate, Dr. Vance purchased a fine
library and retired from practice three years after opening his office. He
was encouraged by his friends, and especially by young Samuel P. Carson,
then in the legislature from Burke, to oppose Felix Walker, whose
popularity then "was in the descending node," for Congress, but declined
to do so till 1823, when he ran for Congress and was elected by a majority
of one vote. It was said that when he appeared in Congress John Randolph
of Roanoke, struck by his diminutive size and physical deformity,
remarked, "Surely that little man has come to apply for a pension." But
Vance soon convinced the strong men of the house "that Aesop's mind could
be hid but not long, under an Aesop's form, and at the close of the term
he had the respect of every distinguished man in the house." The most
important measure before the session was an appropriation of $250,000--"
and many townships of land" for Gen. Lafayette; and for this measure Vance
voted.

FRIENDS BECOME POLITICAL RIVALS. In 1825 Samuel P. Carson and Dr. Vance
were opposing candidates for Congress, and Carson was elected; but in 1827
Dr. Vance invited some of his friends to meet at Asheville, and announced
that he would oppose Carson's re-election, and would insist on his defeat
because he had voted for an appropriation of $25,000 to the citizens of
Alexandria, Virginia, which had been recently destroyed by fire. To this
meeting Silas McDowell was invited, but his opposition to Vance's idea
that Carson could be defeated because of this vote displeased all of
Vance's friends, but not Vance himself., Vance and Carson accordingly were
opposing candidates in 1827, and at the first meeting at Asheville Carson
spoke first; but, in reviewing his course in Congress, he omitted to refer
to his vote for the appropriation for the citizens of Alexandria. When Dr.
Vance spoke he called attention to the fact that Carson had not referred
to that vote, whereupon Carson answered that the City had been destroyed
by fire and its citizens left homeless and destitute; and that Vance
himself, if he had been in Carson's place, would have voted likewise,
because "I think he has a heart." Vance retorted that if those who had
applauded Carson's statement "could admire, as some seem to do, the heart
promptings that send a man's benevolent hand into some other man's pocket
than his own, all I have to say about it is--I can't." Upon this Carson
answered that "until Vance should withdraw the charge that he had put his
hand into another's pocket to save his own," they could be friends no
longer; and proceeded to charge Vance with inconsistency as he himself had
voted when in congress for the larger donation to Lafayette. Thereupon
Vance charged Carson with being a demagogue, and when Carson replied that
but for~ Vance's diminutive size he would hold him to account for his
"vile utterances," Vance ret6rted "You are a coward and fear to do it."
This closed the debate.

THE CASUS BELLI. According to Mr. McDowell, Carson's failure to challenge
Vance, after having been publicly called a coward, confirmed Vance in his
belief that he would not fight; this idea of Carson's cowardice having
been suggested in the first instance by Carson's refusal to accept a
challenge from Hugh M. Stokes, a lawyer, and a son of Gen. Mumford Stokes
of Wilkes, on the alleged ground that young Stokes had forfeited his right
to recognition as a gentleman because of his intemperate indulgence in
strong drink. A second meeting of Vance's friends was soon held at
Asheville, but from it Silas McDowell was excluded. There it was
determined that Vance should attack the character of Carson's father "on a
floating tradition that, after the defeat of our army at Camden, Carson,
with many other hitherto patriotic citizens of North Carolina, had applied
to Cornwallis, while near Charlotte, to protect their property. The
tradition went so far as to include many of the patriotic men of
Mecklenburg county. Up to this day that tradition is an historic doubt."
But Judge Avery points out that Col. John Carson had been elected by the
people of Burke to attend the convention held at Fayetteville for the
Constitution of 1787 of the United States, as a sufficient refutation of
the charge as applied to him. But, at the next joint debate, which was at
Morganton, Vance used these words: "The Bible tells us that 'because the
fathers have eaten sour grapes, their sons' teeth have been set on
edge."... My father never ate sour grapes and my competitor's father did.
...In the time of the Revolutionary War my father, Col. Vance, stood up to
fight, while my competitor's father, Col. Carson, skulked, and took
British protection."

THE INSULT IS RESENTED. All of Samuel P. Carson's brothers were present
when this statement was made "and made a move as though they would attack
Vance, when prominent citizens interfered and the excitement calmed down."
The election resulted in Vance's defeat, three to one, Vance getting only
2,419 votes. Afterwards, "Col. Carson wrote Vance an ill-natured and
abusive letter, to which Vance sent the brief reply. . . . 'I can have no
altercation with a man of your age; and, if I have aggrieved you, you
certainly have some of your chivalrous sons that will protect you from
insult.' A few days thereafter Gen. Alney Burgin came to Asheville . . .
to enquire which of Colonel Carson's sons Vance alluded to in his lines to
his father," and Vance replied "Sam knows well enough I meant him." Then
the challenge was delivered and accepted.

THE DUEL. It was agreed that three weeks should elapse before the duel,
which was to be fought at Saluda Gap, on the line between North and South
Carolina, on the Greenville turnpike. Gen. Franklin Patton was Vance's
second and Dr. George Phillips his surgeon, while Dr. Shuflin was Carson's
surgeon. "A few special friends attended as spectators, and, though
invited by both gentlemen," Mr. McDowell did not go. Davy Crockett, who,
according to Dr. Sondley, in "Asheville's Centenary," had married a Miss
Patton, of Swannanoa, is said to have been present as a friend of
Carson's. The distance was ten paces and the firing was to be done between
the words "Fire, One, Two, Three," with rising or falling pistols. Vance
chose the rising and Carson the falling mode; and at the word "Fire,"
Carson sent a ball entirely through Vance's body, entering one and a half
inches above the point of the hip and lodging in the skin on the opposite
side. It does not appear that Vance fired at all. Vance died the next day,
thirty-two hours after having received his wound, at a hotel on the road,
probably Davis's.

CONTRITION. When he saw that Vance had been wounded Carson expressed a
wish to speak to him, but was led away; and before his death Vance
expressed regret that Carson had not been permitted to speak with him, and
stated that he had "not the first unkind feeling for him." Vance also told
Gen. Burgin that he had fallen where he had always wished to die" on the
field of honor." He was buried at the family grave-yard on Reems creek.

CARSON'S SUBSEQUENT CAREER. Mr. Carson went on to Congress after the duel,
was elected a delegate to the State convention of 1835, moved to Texas and
became Secretary of State in David G. Burnett's cabinet, never returning
to North Carolina. The result of this duel is said to have embittered his
life. Mr. McDowell hints at an attachment for, Miss Donaldson, the pretty
niece of Andrew Jackson; but Carson died unmarried.

PREMONITION. It is quite evident that Vance expected to be killed; for he
made his will (dated November 3, 1827) in which he referred to the
approaching duel, and after his death it was admitted to probate, though,
when the court house was destroyed in the spring of 1865, the record book
contaning it was destroyed. Fortunately, however, a certified copy had
been obtained prior to the fire, which copy is still in existence.(2)
Judge Avery also states that Dr. Vance stopped at his father's house on
his way to the dueling ground "and though almost everyone knew what was
about to occur, no allusion was made to it by the family in conversation
with their gnest. The impression was made on some of the family that Vance
seemed sad. Though recklessly fearless, it was natural that he should seem
depressed in view of the prospect that he or Carson, or both, would
probably be killed."

VANCE'S MOTIVE. Although Mr. McDowell had been "excluded" from the second
conference between Vance and his friends at Asheville, he and Dr. Vance
lodged at the same house at Morganton, and he said: "When Vance to our
room . . . I remarked to him, 'Doctor, you have this day sounded the death
knell over yours or Carson's grave perhaps both.' To this Vance answered:
is no fight in Carson. I wish he would fight and kill me. Do you wish to
know why? I will tell you: My life has no future prospect. All before me
is deep, dark gloom, my way to Congress being closed forever, and to fall
back upon my profession or former resources of enjoyment makes me shudder
to think of. Understand me, McDowell, I have no wish to kill or injure
Carson; but I do wish for him to kill me, as, perhaps, it would save me
from self-slaughter."' Would such a statement have been made except to a
trusted friend and under the sacred seal of friendship?

COL. JOHN CARSON'S IMPLACABILITY. Judge Avery tells that, after the
Morganton insult, Col. Carson forego his privilege of challenging Vance
only upon the promise of his six sons that if "Samuel Carson should first
challenge Vance, and, if he sho'uld fall, then the oldest son, Joseph
McDowell Carson, should challenge him, and if every one of the six should
fall in separate encounters with Vance the old Colonel should be at
liberty to wipe, out the insult to the family by meeting Vance on the
field of honor." He adds: "Vance was not only mistaken in expecting a back
down, but in fact he was provoking a difficulty with six cool and
courageous men, everyone of whom was a crack marksman." But that was not
all. Judge Avery further states that Warren Davis, Carson's second,
refused to "act as his second unless he would promise to do his best or
use his utmost skill to hit Vance." Dr. Vance must have known who Davis
was and why he had been brought from South Carolina, as well as of the
marksmanship of the six Carsons; and that he had deliberately offered a
deadly insult to the venerable head of an old and distinguished family
because he believed that Samuel P. Carson would not fight is almost
incredible. That Dr. Vance should wish to be killed by his boyhood's
friend is even more unbelievable. But, whatever his motive, criticism of
his conduct was silenced above his open grave; for he went to his death
with a courage that was sublime; and for more than three quarters of a
century censure has remained dumb, "with a finger on her lips and a
meaning in her eyes."

JUDGE AVERY'S ACCOUNT. In his "Historic Homes of North Carolina" (in the
N. C. Booklet, Vol. IV, No.3) the late Hon. A. C. Avery recorded the fact
that on the night after the debate between Vance and Carson at Morganton,
Samuel P. Carson, his six brothers and his father agreed that if the
father would not challenge Vance Samuel would do so, and if he fell each
son in succession should challenge Vance till he should be killed. In the
event that all the seven Carson sons should fall, then, Col. Carson, the
father would send a challenge. It is also stated that Carson went to
Tennessee to send the challenge in order not to violate the law of this
state; and that David Crockett was one of Carson's friends at the duel.
Just before taking his position on the field Carson told Warren Davis that
he (Carson) could hit Vance where ever he chose, but preferred not to
inflict a mortal wound. Thereupon, Davis said: "Vance will try to kill
you, and if he receives only a flesh wound, he will demand another shot,
which will mean another chance to kill you. I will not act for you unless
you promise to do your best to kill him." Carson promised, and Vance fell
mortally wounded, Carson lamenting that the demands of an imperious custom
had forced him to wreck his own peace of mind in order to save the honor
of his family. In 1835 Carson was elected to the Coistitutional Convention
of that year. He emigrated to Texas in 1836, was a member of the
Constitutional Convention of 1836 in that State, and Sam Houston made him
secretary of State. Carson was active in securing the annexation of Texas.
The Biographical Congressional Directory, 1911, says that Carson "after
his retirement from Congress moved to Arkansas; died in Hot Springs, Ark.,
in November, 1840" (p.532). The same work (p.1076) says that Vance "moved
to Nashville, Nash county, where he held several local positions." All of
which is wrong. It does not give the date of his birth or of his death.

THE CLINGMAN-YANCEY DUEL.(3) "Although kind, social and friendly in his
private intercourse, Gen. Thomas L. Clingman's character is not of that
negative kind so concisely described by Dr. Johnson of one 'who never had
generosity enough to acquire a friend, or spirit enough to provoke an
enemy.' Whenever the rights of his State and his personal honor were
infringed, he was prompt and ready to repel the assailant. He has followed
the advice of Polonius to his son:

'Beware of entrance
Into a quarrel; but being in,
So bear thyself that thy opposer
Will beware of thee.'

"In 1845, Hon. William Yancey, of Alabama, well known in his day as 'a
rabid fire eater,' 'attempted some liberty with General Clingman. A
challenge ensued. Huger, of South Carolina, was Yancey's friend; and
Charles Lee Jones, of Washington City, was the friend of Clingman. They
fought at Bladenburg [Maryland].

"Mr. Jones, the second of General Clingman, in his graphic description of
this duel, published in the Capital, states:

"After the principles had been posted, Mr Huger, who had won the giving of
the word, asked, "Are you ready? FIRE!"

"'Mr Clingman, who had remained perfectly cool, fired, missing his
adversary, but drawing his fire, in the ground, considerably out of line
the bullet scattering dust and gravel upon the person of Mr. Clingman.
After this fire the difficulty was adjusted.'

"Hon. Kenneth Rayner, the colleague of Mr. Clingman in Congress, who was
on the ground, states that 'he had never seen more composure and firmness
in danger than was manifested by Mr. Clingman on this occasion.' On seeing
his friend covered by the dust and gravel, and standing at his post
unmoved he thought he was mortally wounded. He rushed to him and asked him
if he was hurt. 'He has thrown some dirt on my new coat,' he replied....
On other occasions, as with Hon. Edward Stanley and others, Gen. Clingman
has evidenced a proper regard for his own honor by repelling the insults
of others."

ERWIN-BAXTEE DUEL. At some time between 1851 and 1857 the late Major
Marcus Erwin and the late Judge John Baxter fought a duel with pistols at
Saluda Gap on the Greenville, South Carolina, turnpike. Judge Baxter was
shot in the knuckle of the right hand, the ball ranging up and along the
right arm to the shoulder. It was not a serious wound, but disabled its
recipient for a second shot. It was claimed by Baxter's friends that he
was opposed to dueling, and had not fired to hit Erwin. Erwin's friends
retorted that if his right arm had not been pointing toward Erwin when
Erwin's bullet struck Baxter's knuckle, the ball would not have ranged up
it to his shoulder.(4) The late Dr. Edward Jones of Hendersonville was
Erwin's second and the late Dr. W. L. Hilhard was Erwin's surgeon. Terrill
W. Taylor was Baxter's second and Dr. W. D. Whitted his surgeon.(5)

RESULT OF A POLITICAL QUARREL. It is agreed that the cause of this duel
was politics pure and simple; but the special offence alleged has been
forgotten. Judge A. C. Avery writes:

My recollection is--in fact, I know--that the duel was fought just south
of our State line at Saluda gap. According to my best recollection it
occurred in 1852, soon after Gen. Clingman and others had followed Calhoun
in opposing the compromise measure of 1851 and had been put beyond the
pale of the Whig party, on that account. Marcus Erwin was editing a
Democratic paper established shortly before that time in Asheville. My
impression is that the name of the paper was the News. I know it was sent
to me at the Bingham School. My impression is that Erwin had written some
very strong articles or editorials advocating the doctrine of State's
Rights. Mr. Baxter, who then lived in Hendersonville, wrote a
communication to the Whig paper in which he criticised Mr. Erwin, calling
him the 'Fire-eating Editor of the News' (if that was the name of the
paper); and in answer to him Mr. Erwin wrote a very caustic criticism of
Mr Baxter, in which he said, enclosing the article, in substance, that Mr.
Baxter had called him a fire-eater; but that, while he did not devour that
element, Mr. Baxter would find him ready and willing to face it. This
editorial, as I recollect it, called forth a challenge from Baxter, which
was accepted and Mr. Erwin selected Saluda as the place for the duel.
Judge Avery thinks Dr. Jones was Erwin's second and Dr. Whitted of
Hendersonville was Baxter's surgeon, but could not recall Baxter's
second."(6)

"But Dr. J. S. T. Baird, who remembers seeing Judge Baxter at court while
the Doctor was its clerk, between 1853 and 1857, with his hand bandaged
from the effects of the wound, scouts the idea that Baxter sent the
challenge. Elias Gibbs, who now (1912) lives near Hendersonville, was
sitting talking to Mr. Baxter when the challenge came. Col. Baxter read
the challenge, showed it to him, then tore it into scraps and threw them
on the floor. He accepted, and with his second Terrell Taylor, father of
Mrs. Joseph Bryson, went on horse-back to South Carolina line, fearing the
law in his own state. His Baxter' wife's suspicions became aroused after
he left, so, she with a number of slaves gathered the torn fragruents
together and read them, discovering her husband's whereabouts. Col. Baxter
was tinged with Quakerism, was a very conscientious and honorable man.
When it came to fighting the duel, a large crowd of citizens had learned
of it, and were present. Col. Baxter did not wish to show the white
feather by not standing up, but without any intention of injuring his
opponent, shot at his feet."(7)

Major Erwin was, by many, considered the "brainiest" man in the State;
while Mr. Baxter afterwards moved to Tennessee where he was made United
States circuit judge, and served with distinction till his death.

THE HYMAN-HILLIARD DUEL. In the Summer of 1855 John D. Hyman, editor of
the Spectator said in his paper the mail service was not as efficiently
conducted as when been under the management of the Whigs. Dr. W. L.
Hilliard, now deceased, was then the postmaster, and a partner of the late
Dr. J. F. E. Hardy.(8) Besides this, both were Democrats. Dr. Hilliard
sent Dr. Hardy to Col. Hyman with a polite request for a retraction and
apology, which were refused. Thereupon a challenge to mortal combat
followed which was promptly accepted, rifles designated as the weapons,
and Paint Rock on the Tennessee line agreed on as the place of meeting.

Dr. Hilliard had married the year before Miss Margaret Love, a daughter of
Col. J. R. Love, and was living over the drug store of Dr. Thomas C.
Lester in a brick building, the on the site now occupied by the Falk Music
Store. Between this and what is now Aston street, then a mere lane, Mr.
James Patton. In the rear of Dr. Hilliard's apartments were his barn and
stable, with a single exit, that on Main street. The postoffice was just
above his house on that street. Capt. James P. Sawyer, or Captain Frank M.
Miller, was the clerk in charge.

Now, Col. Hyman and his party had left the day before the duel was to be
fought; but Drs. Hilliard and Hardy and Col. David Coleman, Dr. Hilliard's
second, knew that the authorities had been informed of the contemplated
duel and that they would be arrested if they should openly attempt leave
town. So they waited till nightfall, when they had the plank from the rear
wall of the stable removed and slipped their horses out into the lane that
is now Aston street. They were afraid also that if they followed the most
direct route to Paint Rock, that down the eastern bank of the French
Broad, they might be arrested. Consequently, they crossed the French Broad
at Smith's Bridge and went down the left-hand side of the river. But it is
forty miles to Paint Rock, and ride as hard as they could through the dark
night, dawn was breaking when they reached the bridge at Warm Springs. As
the duel was fixed for sunrise the Hyman party began to fear that the
doctor had been arrested, but Col. John A. Fagg, who lived at Paint Rock,
said that he knew Hilliard and that they need have no apprehensions.

According to the recollection of Francis Marion Wells, now 91 (1912) years
old, and living on Grass creek, Madison county, within less than one mile
from where the duel was fought, the Hyman party arrived at Paint Rock the
day before that on which the duel was to be fought. People living in the
neighborhood began to suspect the truth, and the authorities of Cocks
county, Tennessee, were notified. So that when the Hilliard party reached
the scene early on the morning of the day set for the duel, from forty to
fifty men had assembled to see what might occur. Among these were peace
officers of North Carolina. The belligerants, realizing that a duel in the
circumstances would most likely be interfered with by the authorities of
North Carolina or Tennessee, announced publicly that the effort to have
the encounter take place had been abandoned and all parties started on
their return to Asheville. This seemed to have accomplished its purpose,
for no one followed. But when Hot Springs was reached the parties merely
crossed to the left or western bank of the French Broad, not for the
purpose of ascending the river to Asheville, but of descending it to the
Tennessee line by a road leading to the mouth of Wolf creek. As they
passed Mr. Wells' house he noted particularly the men who were present:
They were John D. Hyman and John Baxter, his second, and Dr. Charles
Candler, his surgeon. With Dr. W. L. Hilliard was his second, Marcus Erwin,
(9) and Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, his surgeon. Col. John A. Fagg was along to
show the way. The duel was fought with rifles at fifty paces just about
100 yards over the North Carolina line. Dr. Candler told Wells that he
weighed the powder and lead that went into each rifle. The road on which
the duel was fought is partly grown up now coming into the new road in a
slightly oblique direction from the gap of the little ridge. The spot is
about one and a half miles west of the French Broad river. As the party
returned Col. John Baxter shouted to Squire Wells as he passed: "Nobody
hurt," which proved to be true. Only one shot was exchanged, a second shot
not having been demanded. There is a tradition that but for the fact that
Col. Fagg cried "Halt!" as the commands to fire were being given, Hyman
would probably have killed Hilliard, as the latter fired first, his
striking the ground near Hyman's feet. Also that Hyman's bullet clipped a
button from Hilliard's coat.

A ONE-SIDED DUEL ACROSS THE STATE LINE. All unconsciously two men of
Cherokee county imitated famous duelists of former years by standing in
one State and killing a man in another:

On the 11th day of July, 1892, William Hall and John Dockery were on the
State line between North Carolina and Tennessee. They had a warrant for
the arrest of Andrew Bryson whom they soon descried coming up the ridge in
front of them. They hid behind a large oak tree until Bryson came within
gunshot range, when Hall told him to surrender. Bryson was then just over
the line and in Tennessee, whereas Hall and Dockery were in North
Carolina. Instead of surrendering, Bryson started to draw his gun, when he
was shot and killed. The case was tried and the defendants found guilty at
the spring term, 1893, of the Superior court of Cherokee County.(10) A new
trial was granted by the Supreme court at the February term of 1894, on
the ground that at common law there could be no conviction unless the men
who were killed were within the jurisdiction of the court at the time the
shot were fired.(11) The defendants were re-tried and acquitted. The
legislature at its next session passed a statute making such an act
murder.(12)

(1. From "Dropped Stitches," Ch. VIII)

(2. It was probated in January, 1828, and the certified copy was made
March 11, 1848)

(3. Hon. J. H. Wheeler's "Reminiscences")

(4. Hon. A. C. Avery to J. P. A., Dec. 12, 1912)

(5. Dr. T. A. Allen of Hendersonville writes, November 12, 1912, that Dr.
W. D. Whitted was Baxter's surgeon and T W. Taylor may have been his
second but Col. Wm. M. Davies, a distinguished teacher of law at
Asheville, was a boy in Hendersonville at the time, and insists that John
D. Hyman was Baxter's second. It is difficult to state positively who the
second was.)

(6. Letter from Judge Avery to J. P. A.)

(7. Mrs. Mattie S. Candler's "History of Henderson County," 1912. As Judge
Avery heard of it while he was at Biogham's school and graduated there in
1857. It is clear that the duel was not prior to that date.)

(8. Dr. Hirnard was horn in Georgia in 1823. Be practiced medicine in
Asheville nearly forty yeam, and stood in the froot rank. He was a surgeon
in the Confederate army from May, 1861, to August, 1863, when he took
charge of a hospital in Asheville. After the war he resumed practice, and
died in 1800. From Dr. G. S. Teonent's "Medicine in Buncombe," 1906.)

(9. Dr. W. D. Hilliard, Dr. W. L. Hilliard's son, and Theo. F. Davidson,
however, agree in saying that Col. David Coleman was Dr. W. L. Hilliard's
second.)


(10. 114 N. C. Beports, p.909)

(11. 115 N. C. Reports, p.811)

(12. Chapter 169, Laws of 1885)