Mystery Of Ancient Wall In Rowan Still Unsolved
(BY MAX CHAMBERS) |
Recently a great deal of interest
has centered around an ancient
hidden subteranean wall about
which many l^jends and stories!
have sprung. The earliest known
record describes this wall as being
200 miles from the ocean and 70
miles from the mountains in Row
an county. This account was
given in Mooses geography when
Rowan county included all of west
ern North Carolina and Tennessee
and as some say "even Jo the
South Seas.” And then in 1795
the Rev. James Hall wrote an ac
count of this strange phenomenon
and—but let the Rev. James Hall
speak:
"Near the confluence of 'the
South Yadkin and 3rd creek about
14 miles from Salisbury in North
Carolina a phenomenon of great
antiquity has been discovered which
has engaged the attention of the
curious in that part of the state
and which I have endeavored to
explore. During the heavy rains
which fell-in the summer of 1794
a cavern was formed in the side of
a hill, near a small stream of wa
ter, by the successive torrents of
rainwater which issued from an
adjacent field. The hill is between
two and three poles in surface where
the cavern is formed about the mid
dle of which stands a subteranean
wall, composed of small stones laid
in white cfement resembling lime
of a very fine texture.
' 1 he cement I have examined
in not less than 40 different
places in the wall, and could not
find among it any appearance of
.sand, or common earth, except
where there has been an opportu
nity of the earth mingling with
it from the top of the wall. Both
sides of the wall are plastered with
cement so that not a stone has ap
peared when the wall was complet
ed, supposing it to be a work of
art and that this case is in my
opinion evident from this circum
stace. And from the opponent na
ture and situation of the materials
it appears probable to me, that
when the wall was dry and above
? the ground it was nearly as firm
A as a solid rock of the same dimen
[Y sions.”
pp out vju/nea ay atirton
Present day directions would lo
cate the wall in a ravine, on a
small stream on the Hillard farm
in Pot Neck, near St. Andrews
■church, which is about 10 miles
from Salisbury. It is now owned
by John Burton. All of the old
local histories and geographies
mention the wall as a natural curi
osity, but make no explanation of
its origin other than to say it was
’"built by nobody knows who, when
or what for.”
At late as 1915 children waded
in the branch and played on a part
of the wall which projected out
of the side of the hill about three
feet high and several yards long.
About every 25 years there is a
revival of interest in this unusual
structure. Exploration during the
summer of 1932 exposed several
feet of the wall and bears out the
findings of the Rev. Mr. Hall.
Lack of proper implements prevent
ed exposition of any great length.
The construction of the wall is
peculiar in that the stones are laid
in courses with precision and well
fitted in the joints and even on
the side walls. The stones very in
size and shape from 3-4 of an inch
"square” to 5” across the end to
16” long. Some are long and slim
while others are broad and thick
but all seem to fit into the wall
with equal alacrity. The whole is
apparently fastened together with
a sort of putty like cement, brown,
white and black in color. The
ends of the stones form the sides
of the wall, the outside stones ap
pear to have been placed and the
stones in the middle seem to have
been thrown in. It has been ex
plored for a distance of about 300
feet and found to be uniform in
shape, being 2” wide at the top,
slightly wider at the bottom, 12 to
14 feet high and running in a
southeast direction.
Nor is this the only wall, for a
short distance away there are two
other similar' walls but they have
not been so extensively explored.
The wall is made of rock known
locally ‘as "Blhck Whin” which
can be found on the surface in the
surrounding country. Nor is any
other kind of stone to be found in
the wall.
Origin Unknown
What is left of the wall is stand
ing today just where it was count
less years ago and the answer as
to its origin among the natives is
still divided as between the handi
work of God and the precision of
some ancient and unknown artis
ans. Many stories have been told
explaining its' presence but none of
them satisfy all.
Rev. Mr. Hall’s account covered
the subject thoroughly and the in
tegrity of the Rev. Explorer must
have been well established, for
Fcote in his history savs:
"There is not perhaps another
instance of a man, a licensed
preacher of the gospel that took
part in military expeditions, and
commanded companies and still)
retained character and dignity and
office of a minister of the gospel
besides that ot James Hall,
preacher, educator and soldier; cap
tain ot the regiment—founder of
Clio’s Nurjery \3chbol on Snow
Creek at the headwaters of the
South Yadkin river about 1778.”
1 his school had an interesting
life and preached out its teach -
as many boys who otherwise would
have been lost to the great causes
which they afterwards promoted.
Later he was the sole professor
ox his Academy ot sciences which
he continued for many years. It
was considered the best"scientific
school in the state of North Caro
lina previous to the opening of the
University and some of the South’s
great men passed out through the
humble portals of this one-man
University, which, by the way,
must have been the fore-runner of
the present fine institution. Cer-,
tainly, it made the way easier.
For a long time nothing was
heard of or no mention made of
the wall until about 5 0 years ago,
when Franklin Hillard, while plow
ing in the field on top of the hill
a few yards from the caven, un
covered an earthenware pot made
of baked blue clay. It was about
ten inches in diameter, twelve
inches high and so hard that when
hit, it would ring like a bell. It
was of perfect shape with a flared
top, showed tUe upward fingier
marks and handiwork of its maker
and was buried bottom up with
some small stones like the one
found in the wall arraneed in
symetrical fashion around the pot.
The oldest residents (and several
old Indians had never seen crock
ery of this type. It appears that
no further effort was made to lo
cate the source of this unuskxal
find or to dig deeper. There was
a certain amount of superstition
about the "bottomless pit” (cav
ern) in the ground at the point
where the wall passes through the
small declivity.
- Indian Legend
There is an Indian leeend about
the wall and "bottomless” pit
which has just recently filled up
or been covered over by the roots
of nearby trees. The depression in
the earth is clearly visible as well
as the line' of the wall which is
now covered except for the north
west end which is exposed. One
old native recalls the story told
in his boyhood about the Indian
city and temple and the annual
religious festivities when the bowels
of the earth to be digested that
crops might prosper and game be
abundant. j
At other times ’possum hunters
have heard strange sounds coming
from the direction of the wall and
again lights have appeared to'
move around the branch. Bull-!
frogs dance in the water and then
croak. It is a screech owl heaven.
Thev even "work” in davtime.
Nothing has been found sufficient
inducement to interest the local |
"cullud troons” to go anywhere
near the location. One said,'
"Cap’n, Boss, de lef hin foot of a
Gst graveyard rabbit ain’t wurf a
durn Around dat wall., Dey is
things down dare.”
Visited By Many
Man'" oeooVt have visited the
wall and have exoressed their
amnions but the natives are a bit
"skittish” and think that "God,
Almighty” made the wall but are
not alone in wondering how the
stones were fitted with such neat
ness and how the line could be so
true, the wall so evenly plastered
and the pit so deep that when
last measured, the longest rope
available (several hundred feet)
would not reach the bottom, or
why th* rain water from the near
by fields would not fill the pit or
even be heard to hit the bottom.
Anyway, the wall has been
known since 1794 and was there
long before that time and can still
be seen. While not much of it is
exposed at his time the new owner
will probably excavate more and
offer the mysterious wall of great
antiquity and curosity to the eager
army of "bat eye” specialists who
will go and pay the price asked to
get through the gate and behold
the ancient wall "built by nobody
knows who, when, or what for.”
Widow s ‘Cattle
Man* Vamooses
With Her $ 1,000
Chicago.—Her two grown sons
frowned upon the idea, but could
not convince their widowed moth
er, Mrs. Dora Waterman, fifty,
that her romance with the big cat
tle man from Texas, a mysterious
Mr. Stanley, was a mistake. But
she admitted it was.
When she and the man whose
first name she could not supply
motored to the marriage license
bureau, "Mr. Stanley” suddenly
fplt a pressing need for $1,000
cash—her cash—and his own pre
sence at the stockyards "to close a
big deal.’’
She gave him the money, expect
ing the marriage to take place the
next day, but that was the last seen
of "Mr. Stanley.” Adolph Cohn,
foreman of Mrs. Waterman’s build
ing wrecking company was arraign
ed before Judge Howard Hayes on
confidence game charges, for it i
was he who introduced the couple.
He was held in $3,500 bond.
KILLS <J\?ER KISS
Edwardsville, 111. — Seventeen
year-old Stella Christoff, a truck
farmer’s daughter, was, being held!
in the Madison county jail here
after admitting, State’s Attorney
M. L. Geers said, that she killed
Nelson Voss, a rural mail carrier,
because "he tried to kiss me.”
All kinds of printing done prompt
ly at The Carolina Watchman,
119 East Fisher St
Lady Took Cardui
And Got Rid of
Pain In Her Side
I
"Last summer, my health was bad, :
so I began taking Cardui,” writes j
Mrs. H. E. Slaughter, of Norman, ,
Okla. “My mother had given me !
Cardui in girlhood, so naturally I !
turned to it when I felt I needed |
it. I felt run-down and a general
weakness. I had bad, dizzy head
aches when everything would seem
to dance before my eyes. My right
side pained me so much, but since
taking Cardui the pain has left
me. I have taken several bottles
■of Cardui and have improved %
great deal." *
Cardui is sold at drug stores hersk
%
Need $75,000,000 to Meet j
All Requests For Roads!
Fully $75,000,000 would be re
quired to do the highway construc
tion sought by several hunc|ed
persons composing delegations from
j almost every county in the state
who appeared last week before the
State Highway commission and
Public Works commission to try to
convince that body of the need for
certain roads and streets, to be built
with tHe $11,000,000 this state
willl get as a part of the Presi
dent’s public works program.
From one to a dozen appeared in
delegations which appeared before
the commission the first four days
of the week.
Ghairman E. B. Jeffress has put
a mark or a dot on a map at every
place at which work was sought
and the map looks like a cross
between the old speckled hen and
a zebra with stripes awry. Many
of the delegations appeared in be
half of Federal work on streets of
cities and towns over which state
and federal roads are routed, as
"not less than 25 per cent” of the
! amount this state will get is for
street work. The North Carolina
Municipal league nad a delegation
to protest an apparent effort of,
Chairman Jeffress to reduce it.
Although it is not too late to
get in requests, Chairman Jeffress
asks that those wishing to file I
them, do so, with maps or plots,
when possible, showing the work1
wanted. The highway division'
will get these appeals in shape1
during the next few days to place,
before the commission at a meet
ing later.
The work is expected to get!
started in two weeks. Washing-1
ton advices are that common labor!
will be paid 30 cents an hour, as
compared with 20 cents on previ-j
ous work, and skill ;d labor 40 |
cents, increased from 30 cents.
Capus Waynick, state director of
re-employment, estimates that 11,-,
000 workers of all kihds will be put
to work at some time during the
program.
2,102 BEER LICENSES
Raleigh—Beer dealers in North
Carolina had reached the total ac-,
cumulative number of only 2,102
at the end of two months of op
eration, or only atgnit one-tenth of
the total number of retailers of all
kinds in the state, which is around
20,000. In other words, only about
one firm out of 10 that might' be
ext>ected to sell beer was actually
selling it.
Say Children
Wrote Letters I
Of Extortion
j
Philadelphia—Extortion letters
supposedly written by school
children for prizes were under in-!
vestigation by police with a man1
held under bail charged with send
ing the missives.
Police said Stephen Crispino/
forty-five, under $5,000 bond for
a further hearing, gave school,
children the prizes for making the!
best copies- of the letters which
were sent to South Philadelphia^
storekeepers, demanding money un-|
der threat of death or injury.
Meanwhile, police endeavored to'
obtain threatening letters received
by John M. Disilvestro, supreme
venerable of the Sons of Italy in
this country, whose home was
bombed last January, in order to
check the handwriting with those
received by the South Philadelphia
storekeepers.
Mrs. Disilvestro was killed and1
four children were injured. Disil- \
vestro now is in Italy. Crispino
denied sending any extortion notes
but detectives said they have found
a little girl who told them she
wrote such a letter under his dic
tation.
--i
rSIGN FROM HEAVEN’ MADE
NEGRO CHANGE HIS MIND^
Anderson — Cotton campaign
canvassers had a hard time trying,
to convince an old Negro preacher
in this county that he should;
agree to plow up a part of his small,
cotton farm in accordance with
the government control plan. T%ie
negro objected on the ground that
it would be a sin to plow up the
cotton after it had started grow
ing.
The canvassers finally decided
the case was hopeless. So when
the preacher sent word a few days
later that he was willing to sign
up, they were naturally surprised.
They went out to the farm and
soon discovered the reason. Light
ning had struck in the middle of
his most prized cotton patch.
After this "sign from heaven’ he
was only too eager to put himself
jn the dotted line.
I
Legion Rallies
In Support of
Mr. Roosevell
The American Legion has rallied
behind President Roosevelt, the
commander-in-chief, to fight tht
economic war of 1933.
Louis Johnson, national com
mander of the legi6n, made public
through the president "battle or
ders” summoning 10,760 posts into
immediate mobilization for- the
"Argonne of 193 3.”
President Roosevelt in a message
in reply said:
"I have just received your battle
order. 1 have a supreme faith that
the loyalty of the legionnaires will
manifest itself in this crisis just as
it did a decade and a half ago.”
So the warriors of 1918 were
re-assembling for a "fight to give
an honest job with an honest living
wage to every bread-winner who
wants to work.’
The American legion War-cry
sounded the loudest of any so far in
the All-American economic of
fensive and Mr. Roosevelt was quick
to welcome it.
BANK BANDITS OUTLAWED
Taylorsville—Three magistrates
here outlawed B. G. and Lester
Green, of High Point, for their al
leged part in the holdup of the
Merchants and Farmers bank here
when the cashier was fatally shot.
Two of the bandits have been cap
tured.
Either this 3.2 beer doesn’t work
or else men have quit crying when
they are misunderstood at home.
RIP-SNORTIN’ BATTLE ENDS BADLY FOR OUTLAWS
IN “DAYS OF ’49” MTNINO LAMP AT WORT n FATR
CHICAGO; t —Alive
with the whinnying of
bronchos anu pintos at
their hitching posts, a grimy
street swells with the rough
shod gaiety and six-gun socia
bility of the early West.
From one hare-hoard building
pours the quickening melody of ac
cordion and dddle; from another
the bawling song of a jovial, If
over-fed, bar-hostess; from still an
other the clatter of clumsy caulked
heels, thumping in the madness of
the “fandango"
Lanterns hanging overhead throw
light on the chatter and good-na
tured banter, parleyed under forty
gallon hats.
Dust clouds settling about the
hoofs of thejialted mounts bear
testimony that claimstakers are
seeking relief from the toil of their
day. and, for all the noise and
activity, it is a peaceful night in
Gold Gulch.
Suddenly in the distance a faint
rumbling sound adds a new under
tone to the more blatant clatter of
the little town. Steadily increas
ing in volume, the rumbling be
comes more and more prominent.
Outside the buildings, there is now
a hush of apprehension. As if by
telegraphy the silence spreads in
side. Dances, songs, conversations
are choked half-finished.
Pistols Bark.
In a roar of thunder, a body of
horsemen, cursing and yelling,
bursts into the street. The still
ness is broken by a scurry for cover
Bang! Bang! Bang-hang I Pis
tols bark. The lights go out.
Flashes of fire, screams of pain
fill the night.
Outlaws!
From its very fury, the battle
cannot last long. In a minute or
two the smoke clears away. Lights
are brought. Half a dozen outlaws
lie in the dust of the thoroughfare,
some dead, some dying. Again the
sheriff and his courageous posse
have saved the houllion in the as
say office. The law wins!
Scenes like the foregoing one
were not infrequent in the Califor
nia mining camps of 1849 and the
j few years following. Such scenes
are a nightly show for visitors to
the “Days of ’49" at the Chicago
World's Fair—A Century of Prog
ress.
The authentic atmosphere of a
mining camp that might have
stepped right from the pages of a
Hret Harte story has been created
in this World’s Fair showplace.
The buildings in their rough wood,
the characters in the costumes of
prospectors, the dance hall girls in
curls and spangles—all figuratively
roll hack the curtain of the years
to the days when men were men
and hoss thieves were hanged.
There are more than a few bright
spots in this colorful show. There
is the Spanish dance hall with its
bar and tables and old time chorus
girls; the Miners' Fandango, a
naughtier dance hall where fancily
garbed hostesses help to lift the
burdens from the mind of the tired
prospector; '‘Deacon" Oakhurst's
1 recreation parlor, where the visitor
may play faro, dice games, roulette
or checker, after parking his shoot
ing irons at the bar.
Sheriff Tex Cooper and Mayor
Don C. Hall, elected early in the
Fair season by the '49 visitors, en
force the law. Swift Is the justice
of their homely court-room, and 1
fast are the locks on the city jail, j
A real mining camp town oi the gold rush period ^ dropped into
the heart of a great modem city is this “Days of ’49” show at the
Chicago World’s Fair—A Century of Progress. Inset: Jim Moore
77, famous scout, reveals the technique of panning for gold to “Days
of ’49” visitors. Real gold nuggets are buried in the ground.
Would Revise
U.S.Tax Laws
Bob Doughton Hopes To Prevent
Large Taxpayers Evading
Payment
Representative Robert L. Dough
ton has returned to his home at
Laurel Springs, after a trip to
Washington to outline plans for a
new revenue bill to be enacted at
the next'' session of congress, to
urge that public buildings be erect
ed in North Carolina as provided
two years ago when $95,000,000
was appropriated to construct 900
postoffice buildings throughout the
country, and to ask the President
and Director of the Budget Doug
las that two million dollars be set
aside from the public works act
appropriation to finish Smoky
mountain National park.
Mr. Doughton is the first chair
man of the ways and means com
mittee to formulate summer plans
for a careful study of the tax
situation, preparatory for a forth
coming session of Congress. A
sub-committee has been named by
Mr. Doughton comprising Repre
sentatives Hill of Washington,
Vinson of Kentucky, Cooper of
Tennessee, Democrats, and Fretar
of Wisconsin, Treadway of Massa
chusetts, and Crowther of New
York, Republican'!, with Mr.
Doughton an exofficio member.
Seeking Loop-Holes
"Our objective is to so amend
the revenue laws to prevent large
taxpayers from evading the pay
ment of taxes and thereby escape
carrying their share of the burden
of the government,’ said Mr.
Doughton. "Also, to find hew
sources of taxes which will enable
us to do away with certain excise
taxes, such as two cents on checks
and the one cent and a half gal
lon on gasoline. We will also en
deavor to relieve the taxpayers of
enormous taxes in every instance
possible. While the sub-commit
tee is now in recess, our experts
are at work and we hope to have
a tentative bill in shape by the
convening of Congress January 3,
next.’
Urges Public Buildings
j While Mr. Doughton has only'
one proposed postofice building
in his district held up by diversion
of the $90,000,000 public build
j ings appropriation to the Civilian
j conservation fund at Alb/rmarle,
he is anxious to see necessary pub
lic buildings erected.
*1 feel that the administration
will approve meritorious proects,”
said Mr. Doughton. "I am also
interested in the proposal for the
; President to allot $2,000,000 from
! the public works fund for the
: completion of Smoky Mountain
1 park, and after talking to the
1 President and Mr Douglas, I be
■ lieve that the necesssity of com
' pleting the Smoky Mountain park
program will be recbgnized and
that it will be carried out.”
NOW
is the time to have your radiator
inspected. Your radiator is one
of the most vital
parts of your
.car. Let’s give
the old radiator
a "new deal"
right now. We
flush, clean, re
pair and recore
all types of
radiators. W e
sell or trade, new and second
hand. We are the oldest and
I most reliable. See us.
! ■ ■ ■ .
EAST SPENCER MOTOR CO.
THE CHRYSLER DEALER
Phone 1198-J East Spencer, N. C.
i____
“..
YES_ AND YOU CAN
SMOKE ALL YOU WANT
BECAUSE CAMELS
ARE MILDER
........,.*4
Pontej's coidlwTohcucos
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