The Influence of Geography Upon Early North Carolina

CHAPTER IV

Settlement West of the Mountains

THE SETTLERS

By 1763, as we have noted, settlement extended to the foot of the Blue Ridge. Except for the Watauga Colony in the northwest, the transmontane region was still occupied by the Cherokee Indians. It was not until after the close of the Revolutionary War that anyone attempted to scale a barrier so formidable as the Blue Ridge. This mountain chain springs suddenly from the Piedmont Plateau to an altitude of 3,000 feet above it. Through this ridge there are few passes, the lowest of which is some 2,000 feet above the foothills. This mountain barrier has directly affected the history of North Carolina. Until this point in history the mountains had favored the settlers by protecting them from the powerful, warlike Indians west of them. After the treaty of Long Island in 1777, by which the Cherokees surrendered their claims to the territory on the Watauga, Nolichucky, upper Holston, and New Rivers, white settlers pushed across the mountains into the region on the north, but the country at the south remained unsettled. It was not until about 1784 that a few daring settlers from what is now Old Fort, the outpost on the west, undertook to cross the mountains into the Swannanoa Valley. Samuel Davidson, the first to undertake to live there, was killed by the Indians. However, his relatives and friends from the fort persisted in the undertaking. In 1785, by the Treaty of Hopewell, the Cherokee claims were pushed westward from the line established by Governor Tryon in 1767, along the crest of the Blue Ridge, to a line running just west of the present town of Asheville and east of Hendersonville. In 1791 the population west of the Blue Ridge was sufficient to meet the requirements of a new county, and in that year Buncombe County was formed from Burke and Rutherford Counties. Buncombe County’s boundary was not specified.

As lands in the mountain region were opened for settlement by further treaties with the Cherokee Indians, settlers came rapidly and established homes there. The first comers to the region took up lands in the creek and river valleys, which varied from one to four miles in width.

In the mountain region began a type of life similar to that experienced by the pioneer settlers of the other geographic divisions of North Carolina. However, because of nearly insurmountable barriers, which hindered communication with the outside world, the pioneer type of life in this region lasted longer than it did in other regions of the colony. The more prosperous class in the valleys soon replaced their dirt-floored log cabins with more substantial log houses. The recently restored Zebulon B. Vance house in Buncombe County is an example of the better type of dwelling. However, the less ambitious settlers and the late comers, who took up their abode on the hillsides, continued to live in crude cabins far down through the years. Naturally, the pioneer settlers took to farming. Except for cotton, the products grown were much the same as those cultivated in the other sections of the state. In some places flax was grown and used as a substitute for cotton in home manufacturing.

Mountain Farm Near Mount Pisgah

TRADE CONDITIONS

Not only were the mountain settlements isolated from the outside world by the surrounding mountains, but there was no means of communication between communities. Road building in the region was most difficult. In addition to encountering the same type of sticky, red clay that characterized the soil in the Piedmont section, there were steep grades to contend with in the mountain section. However, the mountain settlers faced the problem and road building of a kind went forward slowly. Roads could best be built along ridges because timber on the crests was light and scattered and because the ridges were generally level on top. In places, however, the resulting roads were too steep for oxen or for horses to pull loads over the grades. While level lands along the creeks and rivers lent themselves to road building, these roads were subject to stream overflows.

A meager trade was carried on with towns in upper South Carolina, with Augusta, Georgia, and with Greeneville, Tennessee. People pooled their marketable produce and wagons made the long trips to these towns, bringing back salt, sugar, coffee, molasses, and a variety of necessities. Cattle and hogs were driven on the hoof to markets.

Because of the difficulty of building roads across the mountain barrier, adequate connection and communications between eastern and western North Carolina was delayed for many years. Even in more recent times the railroad across the mountain from the east did not reach the Tennessee line until 1882. An adequate thoroughfare between the two regions did not become available until 1931, when the first highway from Manteo to Murphy was completed.