By BION H. BUTLER
A Sandhills Residence Deliberately Chosen.
Ir was no accident or chance that made me a resi
dent of Moore County, for the decision to locate here
,vas made after an acquaintance with much of the '
whole United States, and when my wife and I finally
picked Moore County, North Carolina, it was with
ether places on the list, including East TeWessete,
Central Texas, a couple of sections in California, with
Central Kentucky and a hit of Georgia as possibili
ties We had a small acquaintance with' the old
world to consider, those old traditions of family ties,
and the attraction of some of thy pleasant places on
the European continent and on the British Islands.
\Ve had contact with the busy industrial life of
Pennsylvania, New York, the lake country, the far
west, and for a long time We discussed the question
i*i s to where we would finally tie ourselves in and
establish a permanent home and association. It was
very deliberate and studied, and when* Fort Bragg
was established and it looked at One time as if the
government might take our entire possessions as a
part of the land needed for the big post we discussed
ngaiu whore we would go if we were to be ejected
from our Sandhill lodgment. The decision was that
we would pick another location as close as we could
fmd one in our own neighborhood. A period of forty
years has only strengthened the views we gained in
the earlier days before making our actual location
!
lim\ -
Judgment Confirmed By Thousands
That my judgment was not at fault is indicated by
the example 'of the many thousands of other people
who have since then come to the North Carolina
Sandhill country to make permanent homes and
pleasant villages, and the hundreds of thousands who
come here for temporary residence and for shorter
vacations and outing. The class of people who are
inclined* in this direction include a superior type,
well to do, intelligent, friendly, from all over the
world, from' aH ranks of life and from all occupa
tions. and a more democratic population I know of
in no pface. Hither now come- the professional man,
the big manufacturer, the educator, the small trades
man, the nran of great wealth and the man of lim
ited means, a cosmopolitan gathering, and these folks
have built) in Fiftehurst and Southern Pities two of
the most pleasant Tillages I know.of in the world.
VVliy, jWhen, and How the Pioneers Came
As to the why of it—that is old as the hills. Gen
erations ago this- was the happy hunting ground of
the Indian. The ridges abounded in buffalo, deer,
and other wild life, which ranged the hills and
drifted seaward with the pasturage. The Indian
found here subsistence until the white man came two
centuries ago, three lines of approach being followed.
As near as I can determine, about two hundred
years ago to a day the Scotch- settlers began to ap
proach the Sandhills from the mouth of the Cape
Tear, and the Ulster Scotch, those Irish migrants
whose ancestry bad erossed ever from Scotland, com
menced to settle a little to the eastward of Moore
Comity. But other groups of these same Seotch
Irish who began to come into Philadelphia about the
same time were picking up that old trail on the road
that is laid down on Mitchell’s map of 17&ir,- the
“(treat Wbgon Road" that came out by York, Lan
caster, Winchester, and across the Dan* and down
into the Yadkin country and across the ridge - at
Southern Pines and on to Fayetteville and Wihnihg
tou. They came to the upper Deep River country,
a ad on to the West of as-,- and Quakers1 drifted this
way also, with some English and; a few Germans.
Along with the early migrants from Pennsylvania
came the Rev. Hugh MeAdea* a Presbyterian preacher
stnt by the Presbytery of Philadelphia on a mission
ary trip to North Carolina. In his diary he mentions
the Sandhills, and preaching at two or three points
between the Uwharrie River and Longstreet and Fay
meville, his route leading mm over me nuge gw
Southern Pines and through the heart of Pinehurst.
He is the father of the Presbyterian-Church fat Mils
section, and that ebureh is practically the mother of
the development that has followed his; pioneer trail.
Moore County attracted the Scotch ohMhe south
si<le, the Quakers and EnglieU- the northern sec
tion, and a few Others hero *nd tftere to add to- the
mixture. A goodf^jrpe of people, grounded On that
old democratic: dioidrine of PreOhyttfri*snisnis ?rffich
l|ping interpreted Into *» ancient tongue ssys^yo^.
populi, vox BeV* andJwo been- the foundation of our
national policies; T&^tt goodly land cat*r * g^dly
I’loopte, and their posterity has gone out into the
n-orid to heip M the crouton of ft great natteffr con
tributing its share- of ralSfe whff hare hipest
in. the councils'of the nation, including one president,
cabinet officers, governors, educators, legislators,
leaders in all lines. A. goodly land and ’a goodly
people, and such, it'remains to thla day. . '
Those things that attracted the Scotch and the
Quaker and the others also beckoned to the more re
cent tide of settlement, and it &: pleasing to record
the fact that streams of goodly people moved this way
from all directions. Today, here is one of the most
interesting and cosmopolitan populations on earth.
Here are representatives from practically every Statef:
of the Union, from many nationalities, including al
most everything exeept the Oriental* sprinkled freely
with the sons of Bam, a few of the ancient Israelites
who are the fathers of our religious and moral de
velopment; in other respects we include rich man,
poor man, beggarman, thief, doctor, lawyer, mer
chant chief-a well-balanced composite population and
an enjoyable neighborhood. Not long ago in South
ern Pines a spring festival was-held, and. a feature'
of it was a reunion of old Slaves, a reunion of New
Englanders, a small reunion of old Confederates, a
small reunion of old Federal soldiers, and a sight
that probably never will be seen again in these United
States was a parade in which were a group of old
slaves, a group of old Federal soldiers who had
fought to free the slaves, the commander of these
troops about a hundred years old, a group of old
Confederates, who had fought against the army of
freedom with'the. Confederate commander well up
toward a hundred, and in line the veterans of the
Spanish war ,the veterans of the war against Ger
many, and in all thes$ groups many separate States
were represented. Ours here in. the Sandhills is one
of the most cosmopolitan but most harmonious popu
lations oh the globe, and that is one of the reasons
why everybody likes to live here.
A JMosI Detectable Climate '
Climate' is one of our alluring factors. A neighbor
from my old town of Pittsburg dropped in at our,
house a few dayfe ago. He told of shew up there in
'Pennsylvania the previous week, and wafs amazed
that strawberries were ripe- here and1 the woods fined
with blossoms, g»rde»» green ared f^s be^n
ning to reach for-the eieetrie fan instead of the elec
tric heater. Bar none ,this to me is. the most delect
able climate I have ever encountered and I have
tried out a lot of them. As a comp«rBO&> 1 lived for
a time in. Nevada, where the Carson: River ts a pleas
ing little stream bringing down from Use mountains
the water from the malting snows of summer. But
down that river a few miles the river ends. It does
not ru» i«to the sea. It evaporate! a portion of its
water, and the rest is absorbed ultimately by the '
sandy soil of the desert into which it runs. Not only
the springs out. that way dtp up* bat the rivers and
creeks do the same intolerable thing. Here in the
Sandhills the streams are alive and clear and friend
ly. Our hills are not abrupt snow-clad mountains,
but verdure and forest-covered knobs that, are a de
light to the eye, and a picturesque bond that holds
ns close to Nature at her best. My house stands
among the trees, on one of a group of three little
knobs, the higher ridges rising in the distance of a
couple of miles, squirrels .climbing the porch posts,
deer tracks occasionally within two* hundred feet of .
the house, Bob Whites calling in the tangle on all
sides, and a wild turkey this minute with a nest at
a point, I do not propose to disclose. And when a
man one day asked me if I did not want, to go bade
to Pittsburg to live I told him candidly not unless I
Should be locked in the Penitentiary where I would
be safe from being overrun by the crowds and the
insane rush of traffic of all kinds. I have been over
in tljat country north of the-bead of the Epjjihrales
giver where the Garden of''Eden is said to b^e been
located, hut it is my opinion that if Adam ha<Tbeen
familiar with the head of the Cape Fear he would
have picked “the Sandhill country rather than that
inhospitable territory in Asia, . *
When the Sandhills Were Self-Saifkie*t
■ay the ffiipest ffsto QftfdfeS* grease# his
cattle is thenjastuees of canaa®, so the expatriated
Scot ranged his ftecfcs e# the Mils «*<* tafteys off the
Cape Feat pine woods? arwt tMtfrisd.. In Aaaertea he
had fteedaM, and ipom, anid the bounties of Nat tire
at Ms command. The forests afforded Mm an occu
py goa,, *ad* a «oAg^Btaft--^tff#DiMding^ Vp o* Beep
BiTec the olatf" hfils permitted the English potter to
earryon Ms handiworate. The handy artisan sot up
«nn, factories and some tr« smetti*# was ttader
tajcen for a tfcnlk Bxery ootamnnity had its grist
millsi its smith shops, and Ms.craftsmen who wteWghf
in. fcheir varfooa B*e»- The SandMHs in the earlier
<jay were the sefeoe of msmy delights and maril good
felkrwsMp an® companionable and het^ftd neigtthors
jfcrjt rijf frr tfAfcHh,
whudraBtfed waft their share -farthe creation of the
eSiftir: Sunshine' came tath file clouds and
cfemd* with the annaftina, bat probably wiai all the
sombreness that- fell to the fate of this region Its re-:
wards wereWsattefying ae-hae been the lot of the
people of m«ft places The traditiSns' and com
mmrity history of the Sandhills preserve Briny inter
esting tales of a fin# gronp of people, \ - ~
..®be(Loss of the Pines XJsher in jtNew- Epk.
Then on® day the folia awakened to the «Mt that %
they were cutting out the magnificent pi*e forests
which were their homage, ana for a brierpaMd the
“s^idbarrensr’ became a sort <yf mild reproach. But
the raffroad that Was b«at dowff into- the Rnndhiiia
to haul o'nt tfce hnnber and mutilate the tine old for
ests had another effect—it brought people here to too
what was going oh an the mills -were- cleaning ent the
pine timber, Qf the number of. ©bseevars war a
Quaint and interesting WadeSboro printer,, John T.
Patrick,, and he was endowed with a marvelous: vision
of the restoration of the pine forests, of tbs ftp tin
axes of . life here in these little mountains^ and of
the many blessings that had been confergd on this
particular region. Patrick set on foot a, scheme, to T
settle the lands with people from New England and
the Middle States, and his intuition was. so ac
curate, that the. idea ran away from him so far that
he never bad the audacity to imagini anything like
its outcome. Prank Page, a lumberman from near
Raleigh, followed the, railroad down thin why With
his boys, and they opened saw mills in .time to help
start the new development; Asaph M.. Clarke, ah as- ...
tounding, Pennsylvania soldier of the Civil "War,
drifted in, and Dr. G. H. Sadelson, a. Northern physi
cian, and Pierre Stebbins and Dr. W. P. Swett,. and r
other folks attracted This way from the North by
Patrick’s, remarkable descriptions and predictions,
and before the revolution was realized Southern
Pines, was becoming, a novel sand-topped village with '
many things that fascinated the Yankee, visitor. 1
James Tufts, a philanthropic Boston manufacturer,
came this way to see what nil the noise was about,
and he bought several thousand acre# to provide
room for a. retreat for people he' thought ought to
get out to the open country, away from the cities and
under different conditions of life* Mr* Tufts started
something, but it lost its bearing and developed a 7
realisation he had, never dreamed of. It far out
classed his intentions, and brought he*efj great num
„ bers of interested folks* among them many welbto- -
do people who have become enthusiastic over what
was to be found in the Sandhills, and. the result is
that Moore County has become one of the leading :
counties of North Carolina, and in many respects the'
best known section of the Central South.
The natural conditions were edsy for evefybOtiy,to'■■■[.
see, and" it so came about that' as people drifted this
way -they took a hand in doing things. Fltfeburst .
gfere as one of .the great playgrounds of the coati- '
nent. Fruit growing developed amadfittgly. The ease
with Which cheerful homes could be Built, with alt Of
Nature's help In creating the setting fbr a havteh in
winter and a paradise With a Garden of JJtfeif for a
setting, allured people toward the Sandhills Iff stead
ily increasing numbers as the fame of the territory^
Spread abroad. James TUfts picked up Gonatif Boss,
a young Scot Who came to this country about the
time Plnehtirst Was getting acquainted With ifs Bud*
ding village existence and Boss and Tufts estab
lished the Scotch game of golf in America. This,
proved to bO a place Where horses thrive, s6 ad- %
mirable in every way that WBen the g6yertmentv
found that a Big artilietf camp was reqitffed the spot
selected was on the outskirts of Southern Flaw, And -
Here today is the greatest artillery range i* the
world, aucf steadily a great artillery school for sol-..
mens is growing, and Fort Bragg, a next dearmt&i,
Bor of Southern Fines and Ftnefturst, te a promfnenfc
feature fn the advarrcemeMf of the Sandhfflsr, fof it '
is a Big soefal adjunct and an interesting pdfirf tot
tfsffors, \
wits aH the factors wonting togemer tne nartrrai
advantages erf the SandMITs,. theelfmate, the conven
fonce to the? large peptflafion of the conn tty wMe# is
_al»rt tor the oppoifOnitfe^ of a nearly winter restart
trttd play ground, many new people come fhts way •;
constantly jantf tee sarprfeing grottth of the Sfoore -
COunty region fs one of the marvels of tB# State. .
Vffih railroad an# highway focHMeS, With %lng
field m& airplane travel,Wffh alt the advantages- tha$
come ifitator eBScfrted# power and: fight, With the inf
hotefe/tie pleasant the OlahOrafe hew&y tfcafe
a well-to-do class of people create, and aH1 Of tie &d.i
juncts that people of means aseeaUIe for the conven
ience and enjoyment of- mother sandhill are* ie attattt
as nearly # paradise as men know how temalEe* ,
jfhe fifCm# JMglttef Than the Past, -
Sot the Stofy Is fey ndmeans told when t&ar pre
tailfng coitions are fold, for the day* ttatf are '
ahead are as dfeftefteir forecast ay the dayg tttaf ar« .f>
gone are depicted" fey a story of the cMWfofr.df the •
connmmitles in Moore Cotfctty. The older cltfJWus,
ft(Contfmttsf Cn lwge
WMfM
r «fcr. y1;