== THE WAYNESVILLE MOUNTAINEER
ig ApP?al
e For Blood
jrs April 1
wlly strong appeal it
ig the people of th<
^hel-Clvde area to vol
5 flood donors when tht
^mobile makes its next
urn Wednesday. April
,.t!it need for blood was
out yesterday when Louis
,na!1 0f the blood pro
pealed tha. the current
; short for the use of out
re.- and also for the man
of cam ma globulin with
combat polio paralysis,
jnmn Lions are sponsor
vi >t of the bloodmobile
he leadership of Loranzo
s ger"ral committee chair
v are making every effort
J a record-breaking num
onor- and to provide for
enience of those who vol
lave announced that trans
i to and from the blood
ied! be provided for all
ho request it. Dr. Jo. O.
is chairman of the trans
committee and wants all
u know that they can ob
.portation simply by call
?hampion VMCA any time
ednesday.
cilities of the bloodmobile
In be set up in the gym
of the VMCA, and donors
nelcomed from noon until
t The Gray Ladies of
nill attain assist the blood
taff.
Club committees are busy
?It in behalf of the blood
Drs. L. C. Rollins and V.
fit head up a group that is
personal contacts, while
(essct and Walter Holton
ns publicity to the cause
newspaper, radio and post
Hutch ins. W. L. Rikard and
tnnie are members of a
ee that is making a foree
ar to parents of the com
hrout.li the children in the
iehools.
Scholl heads up the Lions
ee in charge of handling
Ipinent of tfie bloodmobile
is in Canton.
MPLETES TRAINING
K'illiam W. Erwiu, son of
1 Mrs Charles Erwln of
will complete basic train
be Quartermaster Replace
anung Center at Fort Lee,
. April 4,
btm was inducted into the
I January.
Science Also Has Its April 1st.
.?\r mwsieaiures ?
NATURE'S wonders often are
? recorded in the Scientifu Mon'.li
! ly. One of the must amazing i
the blooming of the St huss
| yucca near Pasadena, The
I story is told by Gu-lav Albnc lu
of the Department of C'l.t i-tr>
. at Taft College. He says he took
j the photographs that prove it at
one second intervals.
UNLIKE the Yucca Whipplei which blooms in two or three
weeks, the Schus* - yucca send- up its 20- toot bloom in a
matter of seconds, Albreohl says. lie discounts an old story
that a Spaniard was once ipipalcd on one ol the shoots while
jumping over the plant. He points out that the tall spikes
are very soft, as well as very beautiful. The reader's at
tention should be called to one more fact. All this happened
in April. In fact, it was April 1.
Early Settlers Of Haywood
Were Of Sturdy Stock From
Several Points In Europe
By W. C. MEDFOBD
In our last chapter we took up
early land grants in Haywood Coun
ty. Indian treaties and the resul
tant litigation over same. T! .
logically leads up to the subject
! matter for this article, that of set
tlements; because in nearly all
cases settlements followed cjuicklv
after, if not at the 'time, grants
were obtained. "Indian I.and '
grants for the purpose of settle
ment ran all the way from 50 to ,?
100 acres up to a section. 040 acre
and many of the old pioneers would
have two and even three or four
grants?to get what they wanted ot
our once primeval forest lands
Many of these state grants were
obtained before the large Allison.
Blount and Cathcart grants (men
tioned in our last article), and so
were excepted from them.
Those pioneers had not only a
; good gun and an eye for hunting?
they had an eye for good lands as
I well: and I think that trait has been
handed down, and is a very noti
ceable or marked instinct in many
of our Haywood citizens today.
They were of Scotch-Irish. English
arid Dutch descent, with a sprinkl
ing ef German. Very sturdy stock,
indeed: and they had pushed from
Eastern Carolina. Pennsylvania.
Virginia and elsewhere in search,
like Boone and other bold pioneers,
of good well-watered lands, good
hunting, freedom?and opportunity.
, Of course, some, after a time,
abandoned their entries as has been
found from the Buncombe and Hay
wood records: it may be that they
moved on farther west or. as in a
[few cases, returned to their orig
inal places of settlement. How
over, in most cases these old pion
eers stuck?and fought it out with
the wilderness and its hazards, the
privations of winter (living in
rough, hastily constructed log eab
insi; stuck it out with all their
lack of roads, markets, supplies and
what not?
FIRST WEST OF "TIIK RIDGE"
It Is generally accepted that
Sam'l Davidson, who settled in the
"Savannah" tSwannanoa) valley of
Burke County mow Buncombe) in
17114. was the first permanent white
settler west of the Blue Ridge. He
was killed there by the Indians.
Now it must be remembered that
we cannot number individual set
tlements by the entries made, nor
by the order in which the entries
were taken out. Many grants were
taken out for speculative purposes
only: also there were "squatters"
in those days and they often would
stay only a short while and move
j on. Then if an owner wanted to
sell, it seems that tie could always
' find a buyer. We notice that land
was changing ownership pretty
I often before Haywood was formed
i as a county; and operators like
John Strother and Joseph Dobson
were buying it up extensively.
The> bought heavily from indivl-,
duals, tracts that had originally be
longed to the David Allison grant
of 250.240 acres, which was sold by
James Hugbey high Sheriff of
Buncombe County, "to satisfy pub
lic and state taxes." mostly for the
year 1706. in September 1708.
A LIST OF FIRSTS
So this situation, together with
the fact that there is little infor
mation as to just when such entry
takers as Thos. Abel, Jacob Shook.
Thos. Hemphill. Col, Robert Love.
Jas Chambers. John and Chas.
McDowell settle on their tracts,
makes it impossible to say which
ope was first in most instances.
However. Thos. Abel, from all ac
counts, appears to have been the
first in 1785. He settled on Pig
con about five miles above Canton
and is said to have made a crop
there the same year. That was
about a year before Jacob Shook,
Who appears to have come next,
settled at (nowl Clyde in 1780.
Jas Chambers and C'ol. ftobt. Love
seem to have been next, about a
year or two later.
Chambers built "on west side of
Pigeon River" near (nowi Bethel as
early as 1788 and Col. Love at or
near "Ml Prospect" about the same
time. Information is that James
Chambers died at his home on
Pigeon in 1890. Then Thos. Hemp
hill entered a 800 acre truct "on
west fork of Jonathan's Creek"
now Hemphill creek' "waters of
Big Pigeon," Jan. 4, 1792. and is
said to have settled there the same
year. The entry calls for "a good |
mill site." and he probably built
his mill soon afterwards, for that
was one of the first, if not the first,
'grist mill in Haywood county. (A
few years later came John Howell's
mill below Waynesville, about j
18031.
As to John McDowell, he was
evidently living on his tract above
where Canton now is as early as
April 1792. because at that time
when an entry was made out in that i
vicinity to John Davidson for ISO i
acres, his calls were in part as
iollows: "lying and being on the
South West'side of Pigeon River
opposite John McDowell's 'Flowery
Gardens.' (flower gardens!." That's
the present Gardens of Pigeon, in
cluding the Plott place. As stat
ed before. C'ol. Dove was one of
the first to settle on Richland Creek
here. VV. C. Allen says in his An
nals that Love settled or "occupied
his lands" as early as 1788j Thos.
Love, his brother, came a little
later. Also Gabriel Ragsdale and
Joseph Hentrv entered 300 acres j
on "Racoon t^reek or Richland I
Creek" Oct. 17 1796. and are sup-i
posed to have settled on it about
that tiihe, as their names are among
i the oldest on the public records
here. Then there's Jonathan Mc
1'eters (whom 1 should have men
tioned in connection with Hemp
hill), since he and Hemphill were
the first to settle on Jonathan's
Creek. (Hence the names: Jona
than's Creek and Hemphill Creek'.
I McPeters entered on the east side
! of the creek and Hemphill on the
; west side almost opposite, a little
I higher up at Hemphill mill place.
' 1792'.
Then there are also two other
surveys of that year worthy of men
tion. and which arc cited by Gea.
II. Smathers in his History of Land
Titles in Haywood. They were
| made in what is now Bcaverdam
, township. One is called the Locust
Oldfield (Locust Field' and the
; other the Beaverdam Survey; and
the two taken together include
where Canton now is and up the
river, it is thought to include the
"Flowery Gardens" place 'since
! they were for entries taken out by
John and Charles McDowell'; also
including Fibervitle and where the
Champion plant is located, then
across the ridge (North', taking in
lower Beaverdam Creek bottoms.
12R0 acres in all
OTHER COMMUNITIES AND
TOWNSHIPS
Christian Messer settled in the
Dutch Cove in 17!l(i according to
his son. Uncle Fed's, count; and
Henry Plott built above Canton on
Pigeon. Also to what is now the
Canton community came David
Allison. Robert Martin and John
Gouch. John Smathcrs is said to
: have settled on Hominy Creek
now i Turnpike 'others say Can- j
ton', and Mathias Mease,
Waynesville and Aliens Creek:
Holliman Battle. Martin Buff and
Lewis Smith (Smith lived "near
a rocky ridge on Richland Creek"
as early as 1792 Also John
flowed, James Welch, Adam Kil
lian. Edward Hyatt. John Welch.
Thos. St. Clair. William Allen and
Henry I'lott.
Jonathan's Creek: John Leather-'
woood. Felix Walker and David
Nelson.
Clyde: Win. Haynes, John Pen
land, John Massey, David Byors,
Spencer Rice. David Mehaffey and
Nathaniel Allmon.
Fines Creek: David Russell,
llughey Rogers. John Hay, Joseph
Kirkpatrick, Harry N'oland and
Phillip Davis.
Crabtree: Joseph McCrackcn.
Geo. Crawford and Rohin Fergu
son.
Pigeon and Bethel Section: Wm
Deaver, John Davidson. Robert
Reed and Vinian Kdinonston.
East Fork: John Mcfarland,
Thos. Lenoir, Wm. Cathey and
Elijah Deaver.
Iron Duff: Andrew Shook, then
a little later Aaron McDuff. Ben
jamin Clark near Canton and Jonas
Medford in Jones Cove.
This list does not take into con
sideration David Nelson's first tem
porary settlement on Pigeon River
near the Gardens, but does "his last
permanent one on Jonathan's Creek
alter that he had come back to^
this county.
I
Author's Note: The foregoing list
of flirst settlers here is intended
to be represntative of the very
earliest ones, and covering the
principal sections of the county as
a whole up to a certain point in our
county history, viz, the principal
formative years of 1808 and 1800;
it is not intended to be complete
for the reasons stated above. There
fore. If perchance any ancestor of
yours, or other person whom you
might think should have been in
cluded, and is not. it will be be
cause of at least one of the follow
ing reasons;
1. Lack of space, prohibiting the
inclusion of all name., to be found.
1 had to use the ones which, from
the records, appeared to be most
/
I
P-TA Study Course
Starts Today At
N. Canton School
Miss Blanche Haley, field sec
retary for the North Carolina Par
ent Teachers Association, will be
the principal speaker at the PTA
study course, sponsored by the
Beaverdain Council, which opens
at the North Canton School Tues
day morning.
Mrs. James Hurley. North Can
ton PTA president, will give the
welcome, and a representative front
the Clyde PTA will respond. Mrs.
J. R. Sechrest, Jr., is the Council
president.
The Rev. J. 11. Golden will l>e I
authentic.
2. Came in later, and the name
does not antedate nor come within
the formative years of 180H and
1809.
3. Stayed here for a short time
and moved out, maybe not becom
ing a citizen, or, if so. not for long
However, if there should happen
to be a plain oversight or mistake]
at any time, the writer will gladly i
correct same.
in charge of the devotional.
Registration will begin at 0 10
and the session vill open at 10
o'clock.
This study will bring together
all PTA groups in the t'anton s>s
tem. and the groups from Bethel
and Clyde have been invited to
participate.
North Canton will be hos? for
the meeting A covered dish-lunch
eon will be served in the school
cafeteria with the host group pro
viding the bread and drinks.
Miss Haley will speak on "Ed
ucation for Responsible Parent
hood."
She is a graduate nurse and has
had a wide experience in the field
| of Public Health.
She received her nurses train
ing in Massachusetts General Hos
pital in Boston, where she was lat
er employed as head nurse, and
as supervisor and administrator of
the emergency department.
She received her Master's De
gree in public Health Nursing from
the University of North Carolina.
Chapel Hill.
Miss Haley served four years!
with the Army Nurse Corps. Three
of these were spent in Morocco and
Italy.
Canton Soldier
Taking Part In
Atomic Tests
CAMP DESERT ROCK. Nev. ?
Army Sgt. Dewey H. Harkin*. son
of Mrs. Blanche Harkins. Route 3,
Canton, is now at Camp Desert
Reek. Nev., for the second in the
current series of atomic teats.
The maneuver. "Desert Rock V."
is designed to demonstrate the ef
fectiveness of atomic weapons iu
support of ground action.
Taking part are men from Army
posts throughout the country.
They have been formed into com
posite battalion-sized combat teams
tor the maneuver in the desert
wasteland of central Nevada.
liarkins is regularly assigned as
a platoon sergeant with the Si 1th
Armored infantry Regiment at Fort
Campbell, K>.
A former employee of the Cham
pion Paper and Fibre Company in
Canton, he entered the Army in
December. 1950.
The famed Dixieland jazz was
born at New Orleans funerals, says
the National Geographic Society.
JPVJVTVjB Pay as You Product
l!i2?nK
Pay When You Harvesl
for Your NEW
Super-Sure-Grip Tractor Tires
by good/year
Famous Super-Sure-Grip Tractor
1 ires by Goodvcar are built to do
more work and do it quicker. They
are the best pulling tractor tires you
tan get. Don't wait! We have two
taw ways to get them now:
1 PAY AS YOU PRODUCE
^ell gladly arrange small weekly
payments to fit your needs. You
(an enjoy all the advantages of
kupcr-Surc-Grips great "pull-abil
?> as you pay.
2. If it's more convenient for you
1? wait until harvest time when
Four farm income is at its peak, wc
tan arrange for you to pay then.
come in today and let us show
y?u how easy it is for you to own
itw Super-Sure-Grips by Good
ytar NOW I
NO RED
NO DELAY!
ALLISON & DUNCAN TIRE CO.
"Tire Service Headquarters"
HAZELWOOD SYLVA MURPHY
Meeting Of
Board of Equalization
And Review
The Haywood County Board
Of Commissioners
Will Sit As A
Board of Equalization
And Review Beginning
Monday, April 6,1953
The Haywood County Hoard of Commissioners will sit as
a Hoard of Equalization and Review beginning Monday, April
(>th, at the commissioner's office in the Court House in the
town of Waynesville, for the purpose of examining and review
ing the tax list of each township for the current year and shall
hear any and all taxpayers who own or control taxable property
assessed for taxation in the county, in respect to the valuation
of all property in the county and correct any errors appearing
on the abstract and for transaction of any other business which
may come before the hoard in compliance with the Machinery
Act of 19.'57. This is the only time in which the commissioners
have the authority to change valuation of real esate.
Complaints from the various townships will
be heard as follows:
%
Monday, April 6 ? Ivy Hill, Jonathan Creek,
White Oak, Cataloochee Townships.
Tuesday, April 7 ? Fines Creek, Crabtree,
Iron Duff Townships.
Wednesday, April 8 ? Pigeon, East Fork, Clyde,
Cecil Townships.
Monday, April 20 ? Beaverdam Township.
i
Tuesday, April 21 ? Waynesville Township.
? THE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION WILL VIEW
THE PREMISES AND MAKE ADJUSTMENT
OF ALL COMPLAINTS.1
CHAS. C. FRANCIS
Chairman Haywood County Board of
Commissioners.