PAGE 4
THE YANCEY RECORD AND MITCHELL LEDGER JUNE 24, 1971
Bakersvil/e Becomes
Mitchell County Seat
The first settler on the site
of what is now Bakersville was
David Baker. Baker, living in
Morganton in 1790, most like
ly was employed by\fc!aightstill
Avery and possibly Will i a m
Sharpe to move across the Blue
Ridge and look after the lands
which they had entered. Both
Avery and Sharpe had secured
grants from the State for hun
dreds of acres of land lying
at the "forks of Cane Creek,
and between the Blue Ridge
and the Iron Mountain.
By 1797, however, Baker
struck out for himself. He
acquired a State's grant for
100 acres of land, which boun
dary adjoined the Sharpe tract,
and included the lands on
which the business section of
Bakersville now stands.
Since 1868, Bakersville Ins
been the seat of government
for Mitchell County. Impor
tant as a trading center and
village at the outset, during
the Civil War and afterward it
became the center of politics
in Mitchell County and it
remains so to this day. The
movement for the establish -
ment of a new County in 1861
originated in Bakersville, as
did the movement to estab -
lish the town as the county
seat.
Bakersville was incorpora
ted in 1870 and secured a post
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offlee in 1874. In the 1880's
citizens of the town led in
the movement to induce the
Chicago, Cincinnati and
Charleston Railroad to come
through the county byway
of Bakersville. Bonds in the
amount of SIOO,OOO were
voted for stock subscriptions
in the company. The rail -
road did not materialize, but
in the early 1900's, another
campaign was waged to indine
the Southwestern Railroad,la
ter the Clinchfield, to build
by the town. Failing in this,
they endeavored to have roads
built.
Finally, in the early 192Cfs
good roads came, largely
through the leadership of John
C. Mcßee, a political leader
and resident of Bakersville.
Bakersville is now easily
accessible over good roads
from all points of the compass.
Early Pioneers Found Mountain Living Hard
living in the Bakersville
area was tough for the early
settlers, especially so when it
was shut off from markets of
the southeast during and after
the Civil War.
However, in the 1870'sthe
uses for mica were discovered,
and Bakersville lay midway be
■ '■ • " irIII 1 Mil - - «? v
Courthouse In Bakersville, County Seat Os Historic Mitchell County
tween the Hawk, Clarissa and
Stagger Weed deposits and the
Sink Hole deposits at Bandana.
So for quite a long while, ex
tending beyond 1900, business
in this small Appalachian town
varied with the prices mica
would bring. When the price
was good there were many jobs,
good business, prosperity. If
the price for mica fell, the
reverse was true. Fortunes wwe
made and lost dining these
years.
Then a natural disaster oc
curred. Nearly half of the
town's dwellings and business
establishments were swept
away in 1901 when a floocj
known thereafter as the "May
Flood" ravaged the area. Ba
kersville's population after
that time decreased and the
outlook was bad.
The Clinchfield Railroad,
then, extended its line from
Huntdale across the Blue Ridge,
and jobs became ple n t iful
again. Bakersville had sur
vived.
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