EXPLORATIONS

IN 1670, John Lederer, a German, under the patronage of Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, made his famous journey into Carolina. He arrived among the Sara or Suala Indians, and from that place took a southwest course. This probably carried him into northern South Carolina, but might have carried him up the Hickorynut Gorge.

In 1673, James Needham and Gabriel Arthur were sent out with eight Indians and four horses by Colonel Abraham Wood from the place of the last-named gentleman, a little below the Falls of Appomattox River in Virginia, where now stands the City of Petersburg. The purpose of the expedition was to explore the country of the Tomahitan Indians, now identified with the Cherokees. Needham and his party proceeded west and southwest on a nine days' journey to an Indian town called Sitteree. From that place they entered the mountains, and, after passing five rivers running toward the west and travelling fifteen days from Sitteree, they reached the Tomahitan town, situated on the sixth river, which ran more to the west and was almost certainly the Little Tennessee. From this town it was eight days' journey to the Spanish settlement in Florida. The expedition started on May 17, 1673, and James Needham on his return reached Wood's place September 10, 1673, having left Gabriel Arthur among the Tomahitans until he could get back, in order to learn the Indian language. On September 20, 1673, James Needham set out on his return to the Tomahitan town, but was murdered on the way by an Occoneechee Indian named John. Gabriel Arthur did not get back to Wood's place until June 18, 1674.

This seems to have been the first trip of an Englishman to the Cherokee country. Its ultimate purpose was to establish a trade with the Indians of that land. Such was its result. It is very probable that in this expedition James Needham and Gabriel Arthur passed from the country at the foot of the Blue Ridge into the region of the mountains where the rivers ran to the west and crossed through the Hickory-

nut Gorge or the Swannanoa Gap; and, since no mention is made of passing westwardly down a stream as soon as they had passed the crest of the first high ridge, it is more likely than not that the road lay through the Hickorynut Gorge, and that Sitteree and Sara were the same place.

CHEROKEES

The mouth of the Swannanoa and the country surrounding it appears to have been a well-known spot even before its settlement by the Europeans.

The Cherokees, as has been stated, were always inimical to the whites, and during their occupation of this country frequently descended from their mountain homes upon the settlers in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and what is now the State of Tennessee. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, the British, through their agents, the principals of whom were John Stuart and Alexander Cammeron, succeeded in inducing these Indians to enter into an alliance with themselves. Emboldened by this alliance and the unsettled state of affairs among the colonists, the Cherokees became peculiarly troublesome to the white settlers and their raids were further and in greater number and more disastrous than ever before. It became necessary to strike a blow against them which would deter them from the repetition of these outrages.

In the execution of a plot formed between them and their foreign allies, the Cherokees, on the very day the British fleet attacked Charleston, made a daring incursion upon the frontier settlements of South Carolina. This gave rise to a concerted attempt, though not executed entirely in co-operation, on the part of the surrounding States to subjugate these troublesome savages. Georgia sent an expedition northward against them, which seems to have effected something but not much. The Virginia expedition under Col. William Christian, which passed through East Tennessee, was somewhat more successful; but the principal of these expeditions was led by General Griffith Rutherford, of North Carolina, who in September, 1776 (Colonial Records of North Carolina, vol. 10, p. 788), with an army of 2,400 men, marched across the Blue Ridge at Swannanoa Gap, leaving the head of the

Catawba on the first day of September, passed down the Swannanoa River to within a short distance of its mouth, and thence up the French Broad River which he crossed at a ford about two miles above the Swannanoa, still called in commemoration of that event, the War Ford; then passed up. the valley of the Hominy, crossing that stream twice, and crossed Pigeon River a little below the mouth of East Fork. Thence passing through the mountains to Richland Creek a little above the present town of Waynesville, he ascended that creek and marched on to the Tuckaseigee River. Here he crossed at an Indian town. Still proceeding, he crossed the Cowee Mountain, where he had a slight skirmish with the Indians, and passed on to within thirty miles of the middle settlements of the Cherokees on the Tennessee River.

Thence he sent out a detachment of one thousand men to proceed by forced marches so as to surprise the enemy. On their way this detachment was attacked by about thirty Indians who fired and immediately fled, having wounded one man in the foot. This body then passed on to the Towns, which had been evacuated before their arrival, and destroyed them. From here General Rutherford went with nine hundred men, leaving the main body and taking ten days' provisions, against the Valley Settlements, or Middle Towns, or Valley Towns. He was, however, without an intelligent guide and was so much embarrassed by passing the mountains at an unaccustomed place that he failed to find five hundred Indians who had been lying in ambush at the common crossing place for several days. He destroyed the greater part of the Valley Towns, killed twelve Indians, took nine of them and made prisoners seven white men from whom he got four negroes, a considerable quantity of leather, one hundred pounds of gunpowder and two thousand pounds of lead, estimated to be worth two thousand five hundred pounds, which they were conveying to Mobile.

In the valley of the Little Tennessee River he burned the Indian towns of Watauga, Estotoa and Ellojay. Here in the 14th of September Colonel Williamson who, in command of the South Carolina expedition, aided by the Catawba Indians, had crossed the mountains near the sources of the Tennessee at the common crossing place two days after Rutherford and, falling into the ambuscade above mentioned,

had been attacked in a narrow pass near the present town of Franklin by the Indians in ambush who killed twelve of his men and wounded twenty more, but had put the Indians to flight, joined General Rutherford on September 14, 1776, after the latter had partly destroyed the Valley Towns.

Another expedition penetrated into the present State of Tennessee, burning Indian villages, destroying their crops and driving them from their homes, until so effectual a blow had been stricken, and so completely had the Indians been subdued that never afterwards did they in any considerable numbers or as an organized body venture to give trouble to the white settlers. This expedition destroyed thirty or forty Indian towns and in his skirmishes at Valleytown, Ellojay and near Franklin, General Rutherford lost only three men. (See Colonial Records of North Carolina, vol. 10, p. 860.)

He then returned by the same route, which for many years after bore the name of "Rutherford's Trace."

The chaplain of this expedition was Rev. James Hall, D.D., a Presbyterian preacher in charge of the churches of Statesville (then called Fourth Creek), Concord and Bethany, and whose work extended from the South Yadkin to the Catawba. Upon Rutherford's call for troops this gentleman volunteered his services, and acted throughout the campaign. Capt. Chas. Polk, who commanded a company in this expedition, says in his diary that:

"On Thursday the 12th September we marched down the river three miles to Cowee town and encamped. On this day there was a party of men sent down this river (Nuckessey) ten miles to cut down the corn; the Indians fired on them as they were cutting the corn, and killed Hancock Polk, of Col. Beekman's regiment"; and again on Saturday the 14th, "we marched to Nuckessey town, six miles higher up the river and encamped. On Sunday the 15th, one of Capt. Irwin's men was buried in Nuckessey Town. On Monday the 16th, we marched five miles, this day with a detachment of twelve hundred men, for the Valley Town, and encamped on the waters of Tennessee River. Mr. Hall preached a sermon last Sunday; in time of sermon the Express we sent to the South army returned home. On Tuesday

the 17th, we marched six miles, and arrived at a town called Nowee, about twelve o'clock; three guns were fired and Robert Harris, of Mecklenburg was killed by the Indians, said Harris being in the rear of the army. We marched one mile from Nowee, and encamped on side of a steep mountain without any fire."

Probably this funeral discourse of the Rev. Mr. Hall* was the first sermon ever preached in the mountains of Western North Carolina. For an extended biographical notice of this gentleman see Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, page 315. [*Discusses the origins of Rev. Hall. "... The settlements along Fourth Creek and South Yadkin, from which the congregations of Bethany, Tabor, Fourth Creek or Statesville, and Concord, were ultimately formed, all being called Fourth Creek for a length of time, were of the names of Harris, Alexander, Hill, Luckey, Bone, King, Patterson, Shnipe, Henry, Morrison, Johnson, McKnight, Stevenson, Watts, Hall, Boyd, Milligan, Adams, Scroggs, McLean, Allison, Purviance, Warson, Ireland, Sloan, McLelland, Potts, Snoddy, Murdock, Bell, and Archibald. Coming from Pennsylvania here, these people naturally looked to the Synod of Philadelphia, and the Presbyteries of which it was composed, for their ministers; and being many of them pious people, their "supplications" for ministerial labor appear very early on the records of the Synod..]

Of General Griffith Rutherford, the commander of this expedition, a few words would not be out of place here. But little is known of his early history. He was an Irishman by birth, brave and patriotic, but "uncultivated in mind or manners." At the beginning of the war he resided in the Locke settlement, west of Salisbury. In 177.5 he represented Rowan County at Newbern, and in 1776 was a member from that county of the Provincial Congress which met at Halifax on the 4th of April, 1776. At this Congress on the 22d day of April, 1776, he was created Brigadier General for the Salisbury District. After this expedition he commanded a brigade of the American army in the ill-fated battle of Camden, fought in August, 1780, at which he was taken prisoner. After his capture his place was taken by General William Davidson, who soon after was killed at Cowan's Ford. When exchanged General Rutherford again took the field, and commanded at Wilmington when that town was evacuated by the British. In 1786 he represented Rowan County in the Senate of North Carolina, but soon afterwards removed to Tennessee. Here, on September 6, 1794, he was appointed president of the Legislative Council. He died in Tennessee near the beginning of the last century. Both that State and North Carolina have commemorated his services by each giving his name to one of their counties. The following letter from the distinguished general would seem to verify one of the statements just made in regard to him:

"North Carolina, Rowan County.

"Whereas, a certan John Auston, Late of Tryon County, is charged of being an Enomy To Ammerican Liberty & also

Refuses to take the oath Proscribed by the Counsel of Safety of this Provance,

"These are therefore to Command You to Take the sd. Auston Into youre Possession & him safely keep in youre Gole Till furder Orders.

"Given Under my hand this 13 Day of July, 1776.

"griffith rutherford. "To the Golor of the Gole of Salisbury District."

Apparently the brave soldier must have been as great a terror to the school teachers as he was to the Indians, whom in another letter he characterizes as a "barbarious Nation of Savages," and was no mean rival of the late Josh Billings. So it was, however, with many of these heroes of American Independence. They were more skilled in doing great deeds than in telling of them, in execution than narration.

From a report of William Moore, one of the captains of this expedition, to General Rutherford, dated on November 17, 1776, we learn that his company, which seems to have acted independently and in a second expedition, started out on October 19, 1776, and marched over the mountains to Swannanoa, which they passed near the French Broad River, and then after crossing the latter marched up Hominy Creek and passed on to Richland Creek, thence to the Tuckaseigee River, "through a Very Mountainous bad way." This river they crossed, and coming to "a Very plain path, Very much used by Indians, Driving in from the Middle Settlement to the Aforesaid Town" (the Town of Too Cowee), they continued their march along this path about two miles, when they came to an Indian town which they attacked. This town is said to have occupied the site of the residence of the late Colonel William H. Thomas on the western bank of the Tuckaseigee. The Indians fled. After plundering the town Capt. Moore and his party set fire to its 25 houses, and marched on further down the river for a short distance.

On this expedition "between Swannanoa and French Broad River," they came upon signs of five or six Indians. Thirteen men set out by moonlight in pursuit of these, and followed them for eight miles, but were unable to overtake them that night, "Until Day-light

appeared when they Discovered upon the frost that One Indian had gone Along the Road! they pursued Very Briskly about five miles further and came up with the sd. Indian, Killed and Scalped him."

At the Indian town which they burned it was discovered that all but two of the inhabitants had fled. These two endeavored to make their escape, but, according to Capt. Moore, "we pursued to the Bank & as they were Rising on the Bank on the Other Side we fired upon them and Shot one of them Down & the Other getting out of reach of our shot & making over to the Mountain. Some of our men Crossed the river on foot & pursued & some went to the ford & Crossed on horse & headed him, Killed & Scalped him with other."

At the end of their expedition they took three prisoners and recovered some horses belonging to the whites. These horses they returned to their owners. Here they were forced by lack of provisions to begin their return, and the captain informs us: "That night we lay upon a prodigious Mountain where we had a Severe Shock of an Earthquake which surprised our men very much. Then we steered our course about East & So. E. two days thru Prodigious Mountains which were almost Impassable, and struck the road in Richland Creek Mountain. From thence we marched to Pidgeon river, Where we Vandued off all Our Plunder. Then there arose a Dispute Between me & the whole Body, Officers & all, concerning selling off the Prisoners for Slaves. I allowed that it was our Duty to guard them to prison or some place of Safe Custody till we got the approbation of the Congress Whether they should be sold Slaves or not, and the Greater part swore Bloodily that if they were not sold for Slaves upon the spot they would Kill & Scalp them Immediately, upon which I was obliged to give way. Then the 3 prisoners was sold for 242 pounds. The Whole plunder we got including the Prisoners Amounted Above 1,100 pounds."

The captain concludes his somewhat remarkable report to his superiors in the following original manner:

"Dear Sir, I have one thing to remark, which is this, that where there is separate Companys United into one Body without a head Commander of the whole I shall never Em-

bark in such an Expedition Hereafter; for where every Officer is a Commander there is no commander. No more at present, but Wishing you, sir, with all true friends too Liberty all Happiness, I am, sir, Yours, &c.

"william moore. "On the service of the United Colonies."

The prodigious mountain here mentioned was the Balsam Mountains.

It was while Captain William Moore's company was encamped on this expedition in a bend of Hominy Creek near the Sulphur Spring and not far from the southwestern corner of the present City of Asheville and there awaiting the arrival of Captain Harden's troops from Tryon County, who came through Hickorynut Gap, that, as is said, some of Moore's men, ignorant of the presence in the neighborhood of any human being not connected with the expedition, put some poison into a near-by rivulet tributary to Caney Branch in order to destroy wolves known to be prowling about the camp, and thus unintentionally killed a young Cherokee who was lurking there as a spy on the movements of the white men and who chanced to drink from the rivulet where the poison was and who thereafter, in the agonies of death, pronounced a curse upon the place. Many misfortunes have attended the owners of that land where the Indian was poisoned and buried in a grave yet to be seen; and it is a common belief in that vicinity that these misfortunes are to be attributed to this curse of the young Cherokee.

Ramsey in his Annals of Tennessee, in speaking of an expedition from the Watauga settlement under Col. John Sevier in 1781 against the Indians of the town of Tuckasejah on the headwaters of the Little Tennessee and the adjacent towns, tells us that in this expedition fifty warriors were slain, fifty women and children taken prisoners, and fifteen or twenty Indian towns with their granaries of corn were burned, with a loss to the whites of one man killed and one wounded. "The command," he says, "went up Cane Creek and Crossed Ivy and Swannanoa"; and that "This campaign lasted twenty-nine days and was

carried on over a mountainous section of country never before traveled by any of the settlers and scarcely ever passed through even by traders and hunters."

Of an expedition of a later date carried on by Tennesseeans against the Indians of Western North Carolina, this writer quotes the pilot of the expedition as saying that: "The next morning we started and in a few days were at Coosawatee, where an exchange of prisoners was made instead of at Swannanoa, as at first proposed. This was about the 20th of April, 1789."

This same writer speaking of an expedition under the command of General Sevier which set out against the Indians under an order from Governor Blount of Tennessee (then a territory not so named), made on September 27, 1793, says: "Indians were seen at the Warm Springs and at the plantation of Charles Robertson on Meadow Creek, probably watching the motions of the guard who were stationed for the protection of the frontier on French Broad. These guards were stationed in four blockhouses—at Hough's, at the Burnt Canebrake, at the Painted Rock and at the Warm Springs, and scouted regularly between these blockhouses, and up to Big Laurel, where they met the Buncombe scout."

There is a tradition of yet another expedition under the conduct of Sevier which passed up the French Broad River to the mouth of New Found Creek, and thence up that creek and on west and returned down the valley of the Hominy. Probably it was one of the same.

SETTLEMENTS

Shortly after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, in 1784, or 1785, settlers from the headwaters of the Catawba and the adjacent country, whose frontier establishment was the blockhouse at Old Fort, began to cross the mountains into the Swannanoa valley. Among the first of these was Samuel Davidson, who came in with his wife and infant child and one female negro slave and settled upon Christian Creek of the Swannanoa, a short distance east of Gudger's Ford near the present railroad station called Azalea. He had been here but a short while when one morning he went out to find his horse. Soon his

wife heard the report of guns, and, knowing too well what had happened, she took her child and the servant and made her way along the mountains to the Old Fort. An expedition from there at once set out to avenge the death of Davidson. They found him on the mountain near his cabin, killed and scalped, and buried his body on the spot

where it was found and where his grave may still be seen. It is further said that they met and conquered the Indians in a battle fought near the Swannanoa River in that neighborhood or about Biltmore.

Probably it is to this pursuing party that the tradition handed down by John S. Rice as received by him from John Rice, David Nelson and William Rhodes, three hunters and Revolutionary soldiers, relates. It is that, at a time prior to white settlement of the lower Swannanoa Valley, some Cherokees were returning from depredations on the whites and being pursued by the latter, were overtaken at about the Cheesborough Place, a mile above Biltmore, where a fight occurred between the two parties which continued at the canebrakes there at intervals for eleven days, in which many Indians were killed, principally near the ford of Swannanoa River in the neighborhood of the old John Patton House, later known as the Haunted House, where the old Buncombe Turnpike crossed that stream, until the Indians retreated across the French Broad and the fight ended. They crossed the last-named river at a shoal just below the mouth of Swannanoa. During most of this fight the whites encamped at a noted spring just north of Swannanoa River about one hundred yards above the Biltmore

Concrete Bridge where there is now a garage. It was an old Indian camping place. The early white hunters in this region went chiefly to the North Fork of Swannanoa.

Soon several white settlements were made on the Swannanoa, the earliest of them being the "Swannanoa Settlement," made in 1784-1785 by the Alexanders, Davidson and others about the mouth of Bee Tree Creek. A little above that place is the old Edmuns or Jordan Field, the first land cleared by a white man in Buncombe County. Soon another company passed over the Bull Mountain and settled upper Reems Creek, while yet another came in by way of what is now Yancey County, and settled on the lower Reems Creek and Flat Creek. At about the same time, or not long afterward, some of the Watauga people who had been with Sevier on some one of his expeditions against the Indians, settled on the French Broad above and below the mouth of the Swannanoa, and on Hominy Creek; while still other settlements appear to have been effected from upper South Carolina, yet higher up on the French Broad.

At the treaty of Long Island of Holston, the North Carolina commissioners entered into certain agreements with the Overhill Cherokees, but in their report recommended to the State a treaty with the Cherokees of the Middle Towns and Valley Towns by which might be secured the intervening territory now constituting the Asheville Plateau. For such a treaty the State began to make arrangements and, in anticipation of it, provided in 1783 for the granting of land as far west as Pigeon River. It was under this statute of 1783 that the settlements just mentioned were formed.