Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / Feb. 28, 1980, edition 1 / Page 12
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12 Me February 28, 1980 12 The Merrimons This family rose to fortune in the nineteenth century, when Asheville was still in relative infancy. Like many other prominent local citizens of the period — the Kimberiys, the Pattons, and the Hilliards — tiiey had a street named a fter them. "/r W O. AND JULIA E. ’■ WOLFE A BEWV^p A}v}i:fiICAfJ author'"'" OCX -3; 1900 SEPT. H 193§ THE LAST yOYACr:, TSJL LQNOF-ST. THt BE^t £>£AW :^B,ENj/Ttt 70j(>H f|ff; CHDSfN Wttm The Wolfe Plot The resting place of Thomas Wojfe — Asheville's most famous son — although not always the town's favori'te. He's buried with his parents, W.O. and Julia, and assorted brothers, sisters, and in-laws. In the Spring of 1918, W. 0. Wolfe and his father-in-law, Mr. Westall, purchased adjacent family plots at Riverside Cemetery. The Westalls He just across the road from W. 0. 's family, and there are also a few of these in laws to the right of the Wolfe graves. At the base of one of the Westall tombstones is the inscription, "W. 0. Wolfe-Maker." The elder Wolfe was a local stonecutter and monument carver — his shop was located on Pack Square. Tom Wolfe was buried here in 1938. The two inscriptions on his monu ment were selected by Maxwell Perkins and Edward Aswell, the two edi tors who played such important roles in his-short but prolific literary career. Fred, the sole surviving Wolfe brother, now lives in Spartanburg, S.C. He has the tombstones polished every couple of years, and although now con fined to a wheel chair, still makes an annual visit to place flowers on the graves of each family member. Fred had his marker erected years ago. The inscription, "Luke in Look Homeward, Angel," was picked by Fred himself. There are many other AshevHleans in Riverside who could have made sim ilar inscriptions on their own tombstones. The Clingman Monument Burial place of Thomas L. Clingman, of Clingman's Dome fame. U.S. Senator and a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. Like most promi nent Southerners of his day, he hadser/ed the governments of two countries during his lifetime. Hot-tempered and argumentative, he shared the center-stage of of a long- running debate with Elisha Mitchell, the man who measured the highest peak east of the Rockies. Clingman contended that his mountain was higher than Mitchell's, in effect saying that the nationally recognized scientist had missed his measurements. With his professional reputation on the line, the aging Mitchell returned to North Carolina to verify his figures. He died on the mountain that bears his name after slipping over a waterfall. Eventually, surveyors found Mt. Mitchell to be forty-one feet higher than Clingman's Dome. According to one contemporary, the disdainful Clingman was "a man of considerable quality, but not the man he thought he was." * ^ '’Jurn'- ) '0m' S jmm », i - ’ f| ^ " '-X/’-i 4 -rnmm- ■ ^ .. -y ^ t W The Aviators . Although the United States did not enter tiie first World War until 1917, several young Ashevilleans went overseas in the early days of the conflict and fought alongside French and British forces. Many signed up with the newly formed air corps of the Allied countries. As members of elite squa drons such as the Lafayette EscadriUe, they engaged the Germans in aerial duels over the trenches of France. Local pilot Kiffin Rockwell i/was the first American pilot to bring down an enemy aircraft. He, too, was later killed in the fighting — his grave is in France. The young man buried here died at the age of twenty-six, shot down on a July ahernoon just two weeks after being assigned to his fighter group. Text by Bill Porter photos by Mark West
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
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Feb. 28, 1980, edition 1
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