ASHEVILLE

THE town of Asheville was founded by John Burton. What street in Asheville bears his name? What has ever been done by the town to honor her founder? In fact, how many of Asheville's people ever heard of John Burton ? Is it not high time that this shameful negligence should cease?

On the 7th day of July, 1794, John Burton obtained from the State of North Carolina a grant for 200 acres of land in Buncombe County, having its northern boundary formed by a line extending from a point in Charlotte Street near the mouth of Clayton Street, west-wardly along Orange Street, and further on to a point in the late Captain M. J. Fagg's lot east of North Main Street; its southern boundary formed by a line running from the entrance of the Martin property at the eastern end of Atkin Street, westwardly along Atkin Street and further on to a point in the rear of the Ravenscroft property; while its eastern boundary extended northwardly along the northern part of Valley Street through the grounds of the College Street public school, formerly the Asheville College for Young Women, and along the southern part of Charlotte Street; and its western boundary extended through the lot now occupied by the Asheville postoffice building. This tract was thenceforth known as the Town Tract.

At about the same time John Burton obtained from the State of North Carolina a grant to another tract of land of the same size and dimensions, immediately north of the Town Tract. This other tract became known as the Gillihan Tract.

Before these grants were issued and while his only claim to them was that acquired by entry, John Burton had planned and marked out a town upon that part of the Town Tract which lies along Main Street southwardly from the present College Street to the bend in South Main Street where are now the Hilliard residence and the old car shed. This land was "by private contract laid out for a town called Morristown, the county town of Buncombe County," into 42 lots

containing, with the exception of the two at the southern end, one-half of an acre each, lying on both sides of a street thirty-three feet wide, which runs where the southern part of North Main Street and the northern part of South Main Street now are. Each lot had a frontage on this street of five poles, except the two small ones above mentioned, and they all extended back from the street sixteen poles.

The town was named by the County Court in April, 1793, Morris-town, although sometimes it was called Morriston, Morris, and once even, the Town of Morris, and still more generally Buncombe Courthouse. It had but one other street, which was of the same width as Main Street and was planned to extend along the eastern end of Patton Avenue and straight on across the public square for an equal distance beyond the square. An alley of fifteen feet in width crossed the Main Street at the junction of Sycamore and South Main Streets. A reduced copy of this plan of the town as laid out is here given.

It will be observed that two of these lots were not numbered, and it is probable that they were intended to be reserved for public buildings. It will be further observed that the land now constituting the Public Square was then laid off into private lots except that part of it included in Main Street. Nobody seems to know why the name of Morristown was bestowed upon the place, and any conjecture as to the person or place in whose honor the name was given could amount to nothing more than a mere guess.

The county court, which, at its first session in April, 1792, and at all its subsequent sessions up to and including that of April, 1793, had met at the house of Colonel William Davidson on the southern side of Swannanoa River at the Gum Spring above mentioned, but which, according to tradition, was so numerously attended at its first session as to render it necessary, after organization, to adjourn to Davidson's barn and complete that meeting there, began its meeting on the third Monday of July, 1793, to sit "at the court house in Morris-town." At their last preceding meeting on Tuesday of that session, which began "on third Monday in April, A Domini, 1793," the following entry appears upon their minutes:

"Ordered by the court that William Davidson be allowed 25 pounds for the use of house to hold court in.

"Scite for Court house settled and fixed upon.

"State of North Carolina, Buncombe County, s s. :

"We the commissioners appointed by Act of 1792 to settle and place the court house, prison and stocks, do certify that WE have agreed and hereby do agree that the court house shall stand as near to the big branch between the Indian graves, and Swannanoa, not exceeding or extending more North than the Indian graves and nearest and best situation to the ford of said Branch, where the present wagon road crosses the same—the stocks and prison to be convenient to the court house.

"John Dillard, "George Baker, "Austin Chote, "William Morrison. "Witness,

"Philip Hoodenpile. "Named, Morristown.

"Ordered by the court that the place fixed upon by the commissioners, for erecting the court house prison and Stocks be named Morristown."

"Court adjourned till the third Monday in July, to meet at Morristown."

The legislature which created the county appointed a committee to determine the location of the county town. There were two places thought of for the site. One of these was where until of late years stood the old brick residence of Dr. J. F. E. Hardy and later of Mr. R. P. Walker about two miles south of Swannanoa River on the road from Asheville to Hendersonville and for many years called the Steam Saw-mill Place, because the first saw mill operated by steam ever in Western North Carolina had been located on that place and there sawed the thick planks which were used to build the plank road between Asheville and Hendersonville. The other place at which it

had been suggested to put the county town was on or near the site of the present city of Asheville and about on its principal or Main Street. The people from the northern part of the new county favored the locality on which part of Asheville stands and half of the committee appointed to decide the matters was of their view. The people from the southern part of the new county favored the locality south of Swannanoa River and the other half of the committee was of these people. The committee could not agree on the site for the town. The next legislature appointed a new committee, composed equally of men from the southern end of the county and men from the northern end of the county. But this time it took the precaution to add to the new committee William Morrison from Burke County as an impartial odd member. Again the committee-men from the north end of the county and the committee-men from the south end of the county failed to agree. Then the matter was determined by vote of William Morrison, the man from Burke County. The three members of the new committee who were from the northern end of the county joined with William Morrison in the report, which the three members of the committee from the south end of the county did not sign.

It is probable that the name of Morristown was given to the town thus located in honor of William Morrison, whose vote on the committee decided the dispute, his name being abbreviated as too long for convenience when the word "town" was added and as it was not uncommon in those days when speaking of men with rather long names to abbreviate the names by exciding the latter parts. This suggestion gains weight from the fact that the town's name was soon changed to Asheville, probably because the giving of the name of the man who decided the controversy against the southern portion of the county to the county town was disagreeable to the losers. This suggestion as to the origin of the name of Morristown given to the new county town is offered as a conjecture in the total absence of any record or tradition or other reasonable theory which would tend to explain the name.

The Indian graves here spoken of appear to have been rather unfortunate as a place for the determination of a controverted matter, as this was. There was a place known at that time as "the Indian graves," about a half mile further south. It was on the hill on which

stands the residence of the late Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, lately owned by Mrs. S. E. Buchanan. This place is so called in more than one of the old deeds. (See Register's Book B, page 40.) There is, however, a well-supported tradition, handed down by the late E. H. Cunningham and the late Montraville Patton, that somewhere in the space between the Public Square and the Battery Park hill, called in the old deeds invariably by the name of the Stony Hill, were some Indian graves at the gap between these points where an old Indian trail ran across from south to north at the lowest spot, now in Patton Avenue (once much lower than at present) and marked on the south by the building once occupied in part by the Young Men's Christian Association and opposite Raysor's Drug Store and on the north by the Raysor's Drug Store; and that these graves were known as the "Indian Graves," and this gap as the "Indian Grave Gap." This tradition has been preserved by the late Mr. R. B. Justice, and was derived by him from the old men above mentioned, who had spent their lives in the vicinity of Asheville. The Big Branch mentioned in this report is that which a short while after became known as Gash's Creek, and in later years was called Town Branch, and is now commonly known by the meaningless name of Cripple Creek. It is the stream which runs by the passenger station at Asheville. Here it should be remarked that the place where the Public Square now is has been from time to time very much lowered by grading and that at one time there was here the very sharp top of a hill, so sharp, in fact, that old men have told me they remembered distinctly that, at one time, a man standing at the southwestern corner of the Public Square could not see the top of a high covered wagon standing on Main Street where College Street crosses it. This last mentioned site of Indian graves is certainly so situated as to make it most probable in view of the report of the commissioners locating the town that this tradition is correct. The Indian graves on the Hardy hill could not have been those referred to in the report since there is no big branch between that place and Swannanoa, and since the town was actually placed "exceeding or extending more north than" that place.

Charles II., King of Great Britain and Ireland, granted, in 1663, a large quantity of land stretching across the continent of North

America to eight men under the name of Carolina. On June 30, 1665, he confirmed this with boundaries enlarged on the northern and southern sides. This included North Carolina. The grantees were called Lords Proprietors. After sixty-four and sixty-six years the successors of these Lords Proprietors, except John, Lord Carteret afterwards Earl of Granville, who owned one-eighth, conveyed the land to George II., King of Great Britain and Ireland. Lord Carteret's share was laid off to him in severalty on September 7, 1744, in the northern part of North Carolina and its southern border was run part of the way from the Atlantic Ocean west, but the line was not surveyed across the mountains. If extended it would run through Buncombe County, passing near Buena Vista, and leaving Asheville and all the northern part of that county within the Granville Land. When the treaty at Paris of 1783 between the King of Great Britain and Ireland, of the one part, and the thirteen American States, of the other part, ended the Revolutionary War, North Carolina claimed this Granville Land as having passed to her from the heirs of the Earl of Granville, who were alien enemies, and granted it to various persons. These heirs claimed that under the provisions of that treaty their title was not divested, and brought suit in the United States Court at Raleigh to test the matter. This suit caused great anxiety in North Carolina. The Governor, in a message to the legislature, urged prompt and active attention to it. On a trial at Raleigh in 1806 the decision was against the Granville heirs who carried the case to the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was dismissed for want of proper prosecution. Had the Granville heirs won, every title to land in Asheville and in northern Buncombe County would have been invalid, except in cases where a title had matured by adverse holding.

John Carteret was the grandson of George Carteret, one of the eight original Lords Proprietors of Carolina. He was the son of George Carteret, first baron Carteret, and was born April 22, 1690. When, on September 22, 1695, his father died, John Carteret, as oldest surviving son, became, at five years of age, Baron Carteret. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, and made D.C.L., July 12, 1756. Dean Swift said of him that "with a singularity scarce to be justified, he carried away more Greek, Latin, and

philosophy than properly became a person of his rank; indeed, much more of each than most of those who are forced to live by their learning will be at the unnecessary pains to load their heads with." On May 25, 1711, Lord John Carteret took his seat in the House of Lords. During the reign of George I., Lord Carteret held various public appointments, and was particularly successful in two or three diplomatic missions in which he brought about peace between Sweden, Prussia, Denmark and Hanover, and became Lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1724. When George II. came to the throne in 1727 Lord Carteret received, from time to time, numerous appointments to important positions; and in 1743 he was present at the battle of Dettingen. He became president of the council in 1751, having by the death of his mother, Countess of Granville, on October 18, 1744, become Earl of Granville. After a life spent principally in the public service, he died at Bath on January 2, 1763, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. He was a man of great learning, being eminent as a classical scholar and "master of all the modern languages." "Lord Granville," said Lord Chesterfield, "had great parts, and a most uncommon share of learning for a man of quality. He was one of the best speakers in the House of Lords, both in the declamatory and the argumentative way. He had a wonderful- quickness and precision in seizing the stress of a question, which no art, no sophistry, could disguise to him. In business he was bold, enterprising, and overbearing. * * * He was neither ill-natured nor vindictive, and had a great contempt for money; his ideas were all above it. In social life he was an agreeable, good-humored, and instructive companion, a great but entertaining talker. * * * His political knowledge of the interest of princes and of commerce was extensive, and his notions were just and great. His character may be summed up in nice precision, quick decision, and unbounded presumption." Horace Walpole said that of the five great men who had lived in his time, "Lord Granville was most a genius of the five; he conceived, knew, expressed what he pleased." William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, said of Lord Granville that "in the upper department of government he had not his equal, and I feel a pride in declaring that to his patronage, to his friendship, and instruction, I owe whatever I am."

This was the man who once owned the territory on which Asheville stands and of which, except a small strip on the south, Buncombe County is composed, John Carteret, Earl of Granville.

The act establishing the County of Buncombe was ratified on the 14th day of January, 1792, and, by the terms of that act, certain commissioners therein named were directed to determine the place where the county town and the county's public buildings should be.

This act creating Buncombe County reads, in its early portions, as follows:

"An act forming the western parts of Burke and Rutherford counties into a separate and distinct county.

"Whereas the western parts of Burke and Rutherford counties are very inconvenient to the court-houses in the said counties, which renders the attendance of jurors and witnesses very burthensome and expensive, and almost impossible in the winter season; and in order to remedy the same,

"1. Be it enacted, &c. That all that part of the counties of Burke and Rutherford, circumscribed by the following lines, viz.: Beginning on the extreme height of the Apalachian mountain, where the southern boundary of this state crosses the same, thence along the extreme height of said mountain to where the road from the head of Catawba river to Swannanoe crosses, then along the main ridge dividing the waters of South-Toe from those of Swannanoe unto the Great Black mountain, then along said mountain to the northeast end, then along the main ridge between South-Toe and Little-Crabtree to the mouth of said Crabtree Creek, then down Toe river aforesaid to where the same empties into Nollichucky river, then down the said river to the extreme height of the Iron mountain and cession line, then along said cession line to the southern boundary, then along the said boundary to the beginning, is hereby erected into a separate and distinct county by the name of Buncombe."

Although this act was passed at the session of the legislature for 1791, commencing in that year on December 5th, it was not ratified until January 14, 1792, the session for 1792 not beginning until November 15, 1792.

On December 1, 1792, another act amendatory of that above mentioned was passed, and in this it was recited that "the commissioners appointed to fix the center and agree where the public buildings in the County of Buncombe should be erected have failed to comply with the above recited Act, and the inhabitants of said county much injured thereby," and it was accordingly enacted "for remedy" thereof "that Joshua Inglish, Archibald Neill, James Wilson, Augustin Shote, George Baker and John Dillard in the county aforesaid and William Morrison of Burke County be appointed commissioners in the room and stead of Philip Hoodenpile, William Britain, William Whetson, James Brittain and Lemuel Clayton, and they are hereby vested with the same powers and authorities as the former commissioners were vested with, and they or a majority of them shall agree on some convenient spot as nearly central as may be for convenience to the inhabitants of said county, whereon the public buildings shall be erected, any Law, usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding."

Probably this change of commissioners, made .because of the failure of those first appointed to agree on some spot for the county seat, should not be attributed to an unwillingness on the part of those first appointed to act, but rather to their inability to agree as to where this county seat should be. It is certain that much controversy arose at that time in regard to the site of the court house between the advocates of the place where it was at last fixed and certain persons who strenuously contended that its location should be at the old Steam Saw Mill Place, on the road afterwards known as the Buncombe Turnpike Road, about three miles south of Asheville, where Dr. J. F. E. Hardy above mentioned resided at the time of his death, and Mr. R. P. Walker later lived. The man from Burke was probably chosen as being disinterested and able to decide in case of a difference between the Buncombe men who, of course, were interested. It is a noteworthy fact that only half of the Buncombe commissioners signed the report and all of them were from the northern end of the county, as noted above.

This would seem to justify the precaution of adding to the commission a man from Burke County to decide in case of a disagreement among the others of the commissioners, all of whom were from Bun-

combe. One of these, Archibald Neill, had died since his appointment.

The second county officer elected on the first day of the first session of Buncombe County Court was "John Davidson (son of James)," register of deeds, or, as it was called in the minutes, "register." On the same day Thomas Davidson was elected entry-taker, or, as it was called in the minutes, "entry officer of claims for lands." Next day John Dillard was elected "Stray master or Ranger." It was on this last-mentioned day that Reuben Wood was elected county solicitor, or, as the minutes called it, "attorney for the State in Buncombe County."

At this time the Superior courts did not meet in Buncombe County, but were held for what was then called the District of Morgan at Morganton in Burke County, and were known as Morgan Superior Court. To constitute part of the jury at that court five Buncombe men were required by law to be chosen regularly by the County Court of Buncombe County. The first of these jurors from Buncombe so chosen were selected at the July term 1792, of the last mentioned court and ordered to "serve at Morgan Supr. Court, Septr. Term as the Venire from Buncombe." They consisted of Matthew Patton, William Davidson, David Vance, Lambert Clayton and James Brittain.

Immediately upon obtaining his grant John Burton began to sell off his town lots as they had been laid out. His first sale was of lot No. 4 to Thomas Burton for "twenty shillings" on July 28, 1794. This sale was made in the same month in which the grant was issued, and was for the land now occupied by the southern portion of the Swannanoa-Berkeley hotel building. Town lots do not appear to have been much in demand at this time, for it was not until the 15th day of October following that another sale was made. Then John Burton sold to Ann Gash for five pounds lot No. 2, describing it as the lot that "Joins John Patons [Patton], Nomber First on the west side of the street" and "the lot whereon Ann Gash's house now stands." This lot was very near what was then the most improved part of the town. The first court house, if we may credit tradition, was a log structure one story high, and containing a single room, and was covered with boards held to their places by the weight of large pieces of timber laid horizontally across them. It is said to have stood one hundred feet south of

Sycamore Street and on the eastern side of South Main Street, as this lot seems to have been left vacant for the purpose; but more probably it stood on the Public Square in the centre of Main Street. Apparently the lot opposite the vacant lot just mentioned was intended for "the Stocks and prison to be convenient to the court house." This court house appears to have been used as such for many years.

The next lot sold was lot No. 7. This was bought on October 21, 1794, by Thomas Foster for "twenty shillings" and is the land on which stands the old brick building on the western side of South Main Street long known as the old Rankin & Pulliam store. Five dollars was not a high price for a half-acre lot near the centre of the town and fronting 82' feet on the main street, although we are so often assured that real estate has always been ridiculously high in Asheville.

John Burton continued to sell town lots until he had disposed of or contracted to dispose of thirty-one or thirty-two of them. Then, seemingly, he grew tired of the business of building a town, and on April 20, 1795, sold to Zebulon and Bedent Baird for two hundred pounds all his tracts of land "including the Town all except what lots is sold and maid over." Many of the deeds made by him for lots which he had theretofore contracted to sell were not, however, executed until after this conveyance to the Bairds.

A list of these sales made by John Burton, interesting as showing the order in which the town grew and who were its first inhabitants, is here given:

Thomas Burton, lot 4, for 20 shillings, July 28, 1794, record book 2, page 53.

Ann Gash, half of lot 2, for 5 pounds, October 15, 1794, record book 2, page 82.

Thomas Foster, lot 7, for 20 shillings, October 21, 1794, record book 2, page 56.

Thomas Foster, lot 11, for 4 pounds, October 21, 1794, record book 2, page 107.

Sarah Hamilton, lot 5, for "10 silver dollars," October 22, 1794, record book 2, page 59.

William Wilson, lots 24 and 25, for 10 pounds, October 22,1794, record book 2, page 58.

Thomas Foster, lot 3, for 25 pounds, October 24, 1794, record book 2, page 56.

Zebulon & Bendent Baird, lot —, for 4 pounds, October 24, 1794, record book 2, page 99.

John Hawkins, lot 20, for 4 pounds, January 19, 1795, record book 2, page 55.

Harris Hutchison, lot 9, for 4 pounds, January 21, 1795, record book 2, page 100.

John Street, lot 6, for 5 pounds, January 22, 1795, record book 2, page 51.

John Street, back lots, for 4 pounds, April 20, 1795, record book 2, page 230.

James Hughey, lot 18, for 4 pounds, April 22, 1795, record book 2. page 236.

John Craig, lot 20, for 4 pounds, April 22, 1795, record book 3, page 11.

Joseph Hughey, lot 5, two for 4 pounds, April 22, 1795, record book 4, page 176.

Joseph Hughey, lots 29 and 30, for 4 pounds, April 22, 1795, record book 3, page 17.

William Forster, lot 12, for 4 pounds, April 22, 1795, record book 3, page 45.

Ephriam D. Harris, lot 17, for 4 pounds, April 23, 1795, record book 2, page 174.

Samuel Lusk, lot 13, for 2 pounds, April 23, 1795, record book 2, page 231.

Edward McFarling, half of lot 27, for 2 pounds, April 23, 1795, record book 2, page 237.

William Wilson, lot south of town for 10 pounds, April 23, 1795, record book 3, page 27.

Robert Branks, lot 39, for 4 pounds, April 23, 1795, record book

3. page 67.

William Lax, 8,^2 acres, for 40 pounds, April 23, 1795, record book 3, page 92.

James Brittain, lot 14, for 100 pounds, April 23, 1795, record book 3, page 144.

Col. William Davidson, lot 21, for — pounds, April 24, 1795, record book 2, page 169.

John Patton, lots 16, 2, and 10, for 20 pounds, October 15, 1795, record book 2, page 84.

James Davidson, lot 26, for 6 pounds, April 21, 1796, record book

2. page 381.

Benjamin Hall, lot 23, for 4 pounds, April 24, 1796, record book

3. page 142.

James Chambers, lot 19, for $100, July 20, 1797, record book 2, page 480.

Hugh Tate, half of lote 13, for $50, July 18, 1798, record book 4, page 160.

Patton & Erwin, lot 4, for $40, March 15, 1805, record book 10, page 239.

The lots are described as being, sometimes in Morriston, sometimes in Morristown, sometimes in Morris Town and once in the Town of Morris, except the last two, which are stated to be in the town of Asheville.

MEN OF THOSE DAYS

Many of these men whose names are given in this list as purchasers of lots were men of prominence in the affairs of the county, or afterwards became such.

Thomas Foster did not live in the town, but on the southern side of the Swannanoa River, and on the old Rutherfordton road, about 2l miles south of Asheville, on the farm on which in later years was made the junction of the Western North Carolina Railroad with the Asheville & Spartanburg Railroad and where is Biltmore. He was born in Virginia, on October 14, 1774. In 1786 his father, William Forster, came with his family to North Carolina, and settled at the foot of the hill on the northern side of the Swannanoa River, about midway between the Hendersonville road and the road leading to the Swannanoa by way of Fernihurst at a place where a small branch comes through a hollow and crosses the valley into the Swannanoa River. Here Thomas lived

until he grew to manhood. Then he married Orra Sams, whose father, Edmund Sams, was one of the settlers from Watauga, and lived on the western side of the French Broad River, later the site of Smith's Bridge, until he removed higher up that river on the same side to a place about a mile above the mouth of the Swannanoa at the old Gaston place, near the place which has since been called the race track. After his marriage Thomas Foster settled upon the farm where he spent the remainder of his life on the banks of Sweeten's Creek, afterwards called Foster's Mill Creek, the first which enters Swannanoa from the southern side above the concrete bridge on the Hendersonville road. Here he built the first bridge across the Swannanoa. Its location was about one hundred yards above the present bridge. He was a member of the House of Commons in the General Assembly of North Carolina from Buncombe County in 1809, 1812, 1813 and 1814, and represented that county in the Senate of the State in 1817 and 1819 after a long and prosperous life he died on December 24 (incorrectly on tombstone Dec. 14), 1858, and is buried at the Newton Academy graveyard. He was a farmer, and accumulated a considerable property. A large family of children survived him. Two of these were living in 1898, but have died, Thomas Foster of Weakley County, Tennessee, and Mrs. Rachel R. Garner, of Winchester, Ky. Many of his descendants reside in Buncombe County. His wife died before him on August 27, 1853, and he was buried by her side. Frequent mention of him will be found in Wheeler's History of North Carolina, Bennett's Chronology of North Carolina, and Bishop Asbury's Journal. He was known as Captain Thomas Foster. But as his uncle of the same name was then living in Buncombe County it may be that the latter was the purchaser of that name to whom some of the lots mentioned above were conveyed. This Thomas Forster was usually designated as Thomas Foster, Sr., and, after a short while, removed to Abbeville, South Carolina, but later returned to Buncombe and died here in the early fall of 1839.

Zebulon and Bedent Baird were brothers who came from New Jersey to North Carolina in the latter part of the eighteenth century. They were Scotchmen by birth. After their removal to North Carolina they were the first merchants in Buncombe County. Both settled on

farms between Asheville and Reems Creek. Here they died, and numerous descendants of both yet live in this county. Zebulon Baird represented Buncombe County in the House of Commons in 1800, 1801, 1802 and 1803, and in the Senate of the State in 1806, 1809, 1818, 1821 and 1822. He was efficient in procuring the enactment of the law under which the Buncombe Turnpike was constructed, and is said to have found difficulty in reconciling his friends to his action in this matter; but declared that he hoped to live long enough to see the day when a stage coach and four horses would gallop through the country driven by a man armed with a whip and a tin bugle. This vision was destined to a gorgeous realization but he never lived to see it. Nor was such an argument to be despised. Such a sight would indicate a highway of commerce while it gratified the highest local pride then conceivable. No more exhilarating scene was ever witnessed than a handsome newly-painted stage coach drawn by four fine horses as it bursts upon us around some bend in the mountain dashing at full gallop along a road winding its way through the mountain defiles. No more inspiring sound ever greeted human ears than that of the horn of the stage coach rushing up to some mountain station while its reverberations penetrate the deep recesses and are tossed from hill to hill in wild and wierd musical cadences. The late Zebulon Baird Vance was Zebulon Baird's namesake and one of his grandsons. In 1793 Zebulon and Bedent Baird carried up the first four-wheel wagon ever seen in Buncombe County, all transportation theretofore having been by horseback or on sleds or trucks. This wagon they brought across the South Carolina or Saluda Gap. Zebulon Baird died in March, 1827. Before his death the Town and Gillihan tracts above mentioned, together with the Baird 400 acres, a tract adjoining these on the west and granted by the State to both in 1799, were sold under execution issued from Morganton on a judgment obtained against them by a third brother, Andrew Baird, and were bought at this sale by Zachariah Candler, who undoubtedly purchased in behalf of Zebulon Baird, to whom he conveyed the land by deed made eight days later than that to him from the sheriff. After the death of Zebulon Baird, his brother Bedent, or Beadon, or Beden, as it is sometimes spelled, conceived that in this transaction there had been something

unfair to himself, and sued the widow and children and administrator of his deceased brother for an equal share in the land. This famous suit, at first decided in favor of Bedent [Baird] was carried by his opponents to the Supreme Court of North Carolina, where at June term, 1837, nearly 10 years after its beginning, it was decided in favor of the heirs of Zebulon. A possession at the northwest corner of the Town Tract in a field on the premises of the late M. J. Fagg was an important element in turning the decision for Zebulon's children. The late Governor D. L. Swain was the administrator of Zebulon Baird and took great interest in this case. He is said to have openly announced to the judge who tried the case below that he would procure a reversal in the court above and to have added, "I will make Mr. Badger tear your opinion to pieces."

Zebulon Baird was attacked by his fatal sickness while riding along the road between Reems Creek and his home and fell from his horse. His residence was the old house (now gone) on the eastern side of the old Buncombe Turnpike road, about two and one-half miles north of Asheville and one-fourth of a mile south of the entrance of the Burnsville Road and later owned by Capt. J. E. Ray, and near the Casket Plant. This house was partly a log structure and is said to have been constructed with loop holes in order to be used as a blockhouse in case of need against Indians.

John Street was afterwards the sheriff of Buncombe County, but mysteriously disappeared after the expiration of his terms of office. He was believed to have gone to Tennessee. (Record book 11, page 521.)

Joseph Hughey was the first sheriff of Buncombe County, having been elected to that office on April 16, 1792. He was re-elected to it for several following terms successively, and was a large land owner in the vicinity of Asheville.

At a later date James Hughey, whose name is above mentioned, was also a sheriff of Buncombe County. He it was who as such sheriff made in 1798 the celebrated sale for taxes of the John Gray Blount lands, themselves embracing whole counties and amounting to one million seventy-four thousand acres. (Record book 4, page 230, and Love v. Wilbourn, 5 Ired. N. C., Rep. 344.)

John Craig was Buncombe County's first treasurer, an office then known as County Trustee. He was the grantee from the State in 1798 of a body of land in the northern part of the town of Asheville later traversed by Sunset Drive. In the latter part of his life he resided in the eastern part of the county, where he was shot from ambush and killed. Henry West was convicted of the murder but was pardoned, the pardon arriving while he stood on the scaffold with the sheriff ready to execute him. He was a most eccentric character of much intelligence and considerable property and was said to have been a sailor and served under Paul Jones in the Revolutionary War; but prided himself upon being discourteous in manner and brutal in disposition.

William Forster, the father of Captain Thomas Foster, above mentioned, was the son of William Forster and Mary Forster, his wife. He belonged to that large class of people called Scotch-Irish, who have played so prominent and honorable a part in the history of the United States. Born in Ireland on March 31, 1748, he emigrated to Virginia while yet a young man. After the close of the Revolutionary War he removed with his family to Western North Carolina, and settled on the Swannanoa, at the place described as his residence in the above sketch of Captain Thomas Foster. Here he lived for many years, and here he died on April 2, 1830. In early life he married a Scotch woman by the name of Elizabeth Heath. She died October 8, 1827.

Both William Forster and his wife were buried at the Newton Academy graveyard, the first persons buried there.

Ephraim Drake Harris was another of the early purchasers of lots in Morristown. He soon removed, however, and probably returned to Cabarrus County, North Carolina. To him was granted by the State, on February 19, 1794, a body of land which now constitutes the most eastern part of Asheville, extending eastward from Valley Street.

Samuel Lusk was for some while coroner of Buncombe County. In April, 1799, he resigned that office and was elected sheriff. To this last place he was annually re-elected until April, 1803.

James Brittain was the representative of Buncombe County in the State Senate in 1796, 1797, 1802, 1804, 1805 and 1807.

Colonel William Davidson was the man at whose house the county was organized as above stated. He was a relative of Gen. William Davidson, who succeeded Griffith Rutherford in the generalship when the latter was captured at Camden and who was killed on February 1, 1781, at Cowan's Ford of the Catawba River in attempting to prevent Lord Cornwallis from crossing with his army. Colonel William Davidson was also a relative of the Samuel Davidson who was killed by the Indians as above stated, and of Major William Davidson, a brother of Samuel and who with his brother-in-law, John Alexander, and his nephew, James Alexander, son of his sister Rachel, and with Daniel Smith, a son-in-law, became among the first settlers in Buncombe County. The portion of it where Major Davidson settled was then in Burke County at the mouth of Bee Tree.

Major William Davidson is sometimes confounded with Colonel William Davidson, who was the first representative of Buncombe County in the State Senate to which he was sent in 1792, and removed to Tennessee where he was prominent in public affairs and where he died. It was at the house of Colonel William Davidson that Buncombe County was organized. Colonel William Davidson was born in Virginia and served in the American cause through the Revolutionary War.

Major William Davidson took a prominent part in the preparations made by the North Carolinians for the battle of Kings Mountain. These thwarted Ferguson in his raid which ended in that battle. During the Revolutionary War Major William Davidson lived in what became Burke County on Catawba River near the town now called Greenlee. His place was named The Glades. Colonel Ferguson visited his home there on the raid into North Carolina by Ferguson, which resulted in the Battle of Kings Mountain and in the defeat and death of that distinguished British officer. After that war, Major William Davidson removed with some relatives and friends to the mouth of Bee Tree Creek of Swannanoa River, then in Burke County, but now in Buncombe County, where, in 1784-1785, they formed the famous "Swannanoa Settlement" and where he resided for the remainder of his life and died and is buried.

In 1792 Gabriel Ragsdale and Wm. Brittain were Buncombe's first representatives in the North Carolina House of Commons and they continued to hold those places in 1793, 1794, and 1795, by re-elections.

Colonel John Patton was born April 4, 1765, and was one of Buncombe's first settlers. He removed to that county while it was yet Burke and Rutherford and settled first where Fernihurst now stands. From here he removed to the Whitson place, on Swannanoa above the old water works. After residing here for some while he returned to the vicinity of his former home, and bought and fixed his residence upon the Colonel William Davidson place, where the first County Court was held. At this place he continued to reside until his death on March 17, 1831. He it was who formally opened on April 16, 1792, the first County Court. On the minutes of that court, immediately after the justices were sworn and took their seats, appears this entry:

"Silence being commanded and proclamation being made the court was opened in due and solemn form of law by John Patton specially appointed for that purpose."

At that term, on the same day, he was duly elected to the then very important office of county surveyor. Near his new residence he built, many years ago, a bridge across the Swannanoa River, which remained until about the beginning of the war against the Southern States. His house was for many years famous as a stopping place, being upon the Buncombe Turnpike road, and he raised here a large family of children, many of whose descendants are yet living in Asheville. One of his sons, the late Montraville Patton, represented Buncombe County in the House of Commons in 1836, 1838 and 1840, and subsequently in 1874-1875, and after being for many years a citizen and prominent merchant of Asheville, .and in later life the clerk of the Inferior Court of Buncombe County, died in 1896, highly respected by every one who knew him as a kind hearted but determined man of unswerving integrity and unpretentious usefulness. The late residence of Colonel John Patton stood on the southern side of the Swannanoa, at the ford about half a mile above its mouth, until within the last thirty years, when, after bearing for some time the name of the Haunted House, it was removed as being no longer tenantable. His wife, who was, before

her marriage, Miss Ann Mallory, a Virginian, was born February 12, 1768, and died on August 31, 1855. She, with her husband, are buried at Newton Academy graveyard.

Probably others of these first settlers of Morristown attained prominence in the affairs of that town and of the County of Buncombe, and some of them, as we know, soon removed to distant places.

Here begins a new chapter in the history of Asheville. In 1795, Samuel Ashe of New Hanover County, a brother of the John Ashe who played so important a part in resisting the Stamp Act, was elected governor of North Carolina. In his honor the name of Morristown was changed to Asheville. This new name became common some time before any legal action upon the subject was had. In fact, it had become so common by October, 1795, that the clerk of the County Court, forgetting for the moment that in law the town was still Morris-town, began in the opening statement of his minutes of that term, when giving the place where that session was held, to write the word Asheville, but before completing it he recollected himself and finished it out as Morristown. Subsequently, in beginning his minutes of the April term, 1796, he wrote as the place of the court's session, the full name of Asheville, but then again recollecting his error, and before he had written another word, he passed his pen through the word Asheville, and wrote the word Morristown. Finally, in July, 1796, or October, 1796, or in January, April or July, 1797, the name of the town was duly changed from Morristown to Asheville. This latter name it has ever since borne.

Samuel Ashe, for whom Asheville was named, was born in North Carolina in 1725; educated at Harvard; became a lawyer; was one of thirteen members of the council which governed North Carolina after the commencement of the Revolution and prior to the adoption of her first Constitution, and part of that time president of that Council of Thirteen; was a member of the convention which adopted that Constitution; was speaker of the Senate in the first legislature which assembled under that Constitution; was by that legislature elected presiding judge of the Supreme Court of the State, which court was composed of three judges; and continued in that office until 1795 when he became and was, for three years, governor of the State. He

was a member of that court when it decided, in the celebrated case of Bayard v. Singleton, that an act of the legislature was void because contrary to the Constitution; and he was governor when the land frauds of John Glasgow, Secretary of State, were discovered and created such a great excitement in North Carolina. At his plantation on Rocky Point he died in 1813.

Colonel David Vance was born at or near Winchester, Virginia, about 1745. He was the oldest son of Samuel Vance and was descended on the paternal side from the DeVaux family of Normandy, the name DeVaux being corrupted into Vance. About 1774 David Vance came to North Carolina and settled in what was then Rowan County, on Catawba River, later Burke County, where he married Priscilla Brank. In the progress of the Revolutionary War, David Vance served in the American army in the north and rose to the rank of ensign and was at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown and at Valley Forge. Later, in the South, he saw service in the same cause at the battles of Musgrove Mill and Kings Mountain and became a captain. After that war ended he removed to what is now Buncombe County, but was then Burke County, and settled at what was later Vanceville on upper Reems Creek. In 1786 and 1791 he was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons from Burke County and in 1791 introduced in that body a bill to create the County of Buncombe. In 1792 he became and for years continued to be the clerk of the County Court of that new county, on whose records his most beautiful penmanship appears. He and General Joseph McDowell and Mussendine Matthews as commissioners for North Carolina, superintended in 1799 the running of the line between North Carolina and Tennessee from the southern border of Virginia southward across Pigeon River. It was in consequence of some conversations while engaged in that work that he wrote recollections of the Battle of Kings Mountain, published many years after his death. He became a colonel of militia. He died in 1813 and was buried on his farm in Reems Creek. Doctor Robert B. Vance, once a representative in Congress from Western North Carolina, who was killed in a duel with Hon. Samuel P. Carson, was a son of Colonel David Vance, and the late Zebulon B. Vance, governor of North Carolina and United States

senator, the late General Robert B. Vance, Congressman from Western North Carolina, and the late Colonel Allen T. Davidson, member from Western North Carolina in the Congress of the Confederate States, were grandsons of Colonel David Vance.

A small party of Cherokees set out from the more western parts of North Carolina, in the summer of 1793, to attack the white settlements on Swannanoa River. It seems that the settlers had received some warning of this and were on the lookout. At any rate, the attack was not made. Simultaneously, but without concert with the North Carolinians, Colonel Doherty and Colonel McFarland had led an invasion from East Tennessee of a part of the Cherokee country which had escaped incursions from the whites. With one hundred and eighty mounted riflemen they entered the mountains at Unaka Pass and turned eastwardly, destroying six Cherokee towns, and killing fifteen Indians and taking captive sixteen Indian women and children. They were gone four weeks; and, by returning in another way from that by which they had entered the country, escaped an ambuscade of three hundred Cherokees which was awaiting their return at Unaka Pass, expected to be by that same way of entrance into the mountains. The expedition had one man mortally wounded and three others less seriously hurt in the two or three night attacks made upon it by the Indians. It was contrary to the orders of the Tennessee territorial government, but probably prevented the contemplated attack on the Swannanoa settlements and saved from destruction the village of Morristown, now the City of Asheville.