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The Town of Boone.(1)

Incorporation.-- This town was not incorporated till the session of the Legislature of 1871-72 (Ch. 50), when it was regularly chartered and its boundaries defined. But this act was amended in 1872-73 (Ch. XXXI, p. 411) by extending the corporate limits so as to begin at a stake half a mile north of the court house and running thence to a stake half a mile east of the court house; thence to a stake half a mile south of the court house; thence to a stake half a mile west of the court house, and to the beginning. W. L. Bryan was its first mayor and has held that office intermittently for twenty-five years.

Its Attractions.-- As Boone is on no large stream, it is far distant from the moisture arising from rivers and creeks. It is not high enough to be caught in low-hanging clouds, and is free from their damp and clinging mists. The town is 3,332 feet above tidewater, with a spring, summer and autumn climate unsurpassed in the mountains. it is picturesquely situated at the base of Rich Mountain and almost directly under Howard's Knob. Its population consists of a homogeneous citizenship, with no very wealthy and no very poor people in its make-up. Its death rate is less than that of any other town of its size in the State. Its schools, both primary and normal, afford abundant opportunity for the education of all. The school population of the Appalachian Training School is better behaved and more appreciated by the citizens of Boone than that of any other school or college town in the State. Boone has a public library of its own, and access to many thousands of volumes in the library of the Appalachian Training School. It has three churches, one bank, a Masonic hall and three hotels. There is no
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Note: (1) Most of the facts for this chapter were furnished by Col. and Mrs. Wm. Lewis Bryan, the oldest residents of the place. I am also indebted to them for so much other information which I have embodied in this book, that to credit them with each item would be almost impossible. Colonel Bryan, indeed, is almost as much the author of the work as I am myself. J. P. A.

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reason why Boone should not become the best and largest summer resort in the State. Inexhaustible springs on Rich Mountain afford more pure water than a population of twenty thousand could consume. Boone has electric lights and garages and livery stables. Its population is about 700 souls. It has local and long-distance telephones, several physicians, and a drug store. The view from Howard's Knob is unsurpassed in the State.

Miss Morley's Visit to Boone.-- From her "Carolina Mountains" (pp. 355 to 360) the following detached sentences and paragraphs are taken:
"Leaving Blowing Rock one day in mid-June, you perhaps will walk away to Boone, some ten miles distant, three miles of the way a lane close-hedge on either side with gnarled and twisted old laurel trees heavily-laden with bloom so that the crisp flower cups shower about you as you pass and the air is full of their bitter, tonic fragrance. Large rhododendrons stand among the laurel, but their great flower clusters are as yet imprisoned beneath the strong bud-scales. When the laurel is done blooming, you will perceive that yo must come this way again for the sake of the rhododendrons. Little streams of crystal clearness come our from under the blossoming laurel, flash across the road, and disappear under the laurel on the other side. How sweet the air where all the odors of the forest are interwoven with the bitter-sweet smell of the close-pressing flowers! How the pulse quickens as one steps along. Is that a bird? Or is it your own heart singing?

"Before the first freshness of that laurel-hedged road has begun to dim from familiarity, you emerge into the open where the view is of wide, rolling slopes, green hills and valleys dotted with roofs, and beyond these the great blue distant mountains with roofs, and beyond these the great blue distant mountains soaring up into the sky. That steep hill to your left is bright red with sorrel, a sorry crop for the farmer, but a lovely spot of color in the landscape. You climb up this sorrel-red hill to the top of Flat Top Mountain, up over the rough stones and the dark red sorrel to where the view is wide and fine. But Flat Top Mountain offers you more than a view. It is noon when you

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get there, for you have not hurried, but have stopped every moment to smell or to see, or just to breathe and breathe as though you could thus fill your bodily tissues with freshness and fragrance to last into your remotest life. As you climb up Flat Top, you detect a fragrance that does not come from the flowers, a warm, delicious fragrance that makes you look eagerly at the ground. Seeing nothing, you go on half disappointed, half buoyant with the certainty of sucess--ah, it comes again, that delicious warm fragrance. You abandon yourself to primitive instincts and trusting your senses turn about and walk straight to where the ground is red with ripe strawberries. You sit down on the warm grass and taste the delectable fruit. A bird is singing from a bush as though sharing in your pleasure. When you have gathered the best within you lie back and watch the clouds sailing like white swans across the sky. Then you take out the bread you have brought, the most delicious bread ever baked, for it has in some magical way acquired a flavor of blossoming laurel and rippling brooks and blue sky and the joy of muscles in motion, of deep-drawn breath, of the lassitude of delicious exercise, with a lingering flavor of the spicy berries whose fragrance is in the air about you. Such bread as this is never eaten within the walls of a house. And then you rest on the warm hillside fanned by the coll breeze, for no matter how hot the summer sun, there is always a cool breeze in the high world at the back of the Grandfather. Before starting on, you must taste again of the exquisite feast spread for you and the birds, whose wings you hear as they come and go, fearless and ungrudging, for there is enough for all.

"Further along on the mountain stands an old weather-boarded house whence you see Boone in the distance lying so sweetly among its mountains. A path here leads you down to a deserted cbin in a lovely hollow. That well-worn path at the door-step leads to the spring only a few steps away, such a spring as one is always looking for and is always finding at the back of the Grandfather. Its water is icy cold and it is walled about with moss-covered, fern-grown stones. This cabin in the lovely hollow, with its ice-cold spring, the surrounding fruit trees, the

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signs of flowers once cultivated, gives you a strange impulse to stop here, like a bird that has found its nest, but you go on along a woodsy by-road, whose banks are covered with pale green ferns, and where the large spiraea in snowy bloom stands so close as almost to form a hedge. The velvety dark-green leaves of wild hydrangea crowd everywhere, its broad flat heads of showy buds just ready to open. Enormous wild gooseberries invite you to taste and impishly prick your tongue if you do. The blackberries make a great show, but are not yet ripe. The roadside now and then is bordered with ripe strawberries. This shady way brings you again into the 'main leadin' road' you left some distance back when you climbed and sorrel-red hill to the top of Flat Top Mountain, and which now also has its wealth of flowers, among which the pure-white tapers of the galax shine out from the woods, while here and there a service tree drops coral berries at your feet.

"Soon now you cross the deep, wide ford of Mill River on a footbridge, substantial and with handrail, and where you stop of course to look both up and down the stream overhung with foliage, and just beyond which is a pretty house with its front yard full of roses. It is only two miles from here to Boone, and you breathe a sigh of regret at being so near the end of the day's walk; yet when you find yourself in Mrs. Coffey's little inn with its bright flowers you are glad to sit down and think over the events of the day.(2)

"Boone is at the foot of Howard Knob; is a pretty snuggle of houses running along a single street. Boone says it is the highest county seat in the United States [she should have added: 'east of the Rockies'] and that Daniel Boone once stayed in a cabin near here, whence its name. However all that may be, the lower slopes of Howard Knob are pleasantly cultivated and valleys run up into the mountains in all directions, as though on purpose to make a charming setting for Boone the county seat.

"That first visit to Boone!--what a sense of peace one had in remembering that the nearest railroad was thirty miles away [it is now at Todd, only ten miles north]; and then--what is
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Note: (1) This is the identical in that in 1884 was to Charles Dudley Warner, Anathema and Maranatha.

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that?--a telephone bell rings its insistent call and Boone is talking with Blowing Rock, or Lenoir, or New York City, or Heaven knows where! For though this part of the country was last to get into railroad communication with the outer world, it was by no means the last to grasp the opportunities within reach.

"With what delicious weariness one sinks to sleep after the day's walk over the hills! Your eyes seem scarcely to have closed when a loud noise wakens you with a start--what is it? nothing excepting that the day's work has begun, broad daylight flooding in at the window. Breakfast is ready, coffee, cornbread, fish from some near sparkling stream, rice, hot biscuit, eggs, wild-plum sauce, honey and wild strawberries--you can take your choice or eat them all. And what a pleasant surprise to find everything seasoned with the wonderful appetite of childhood that reappears on such occasions as this!

"Your body seems borne on wings, so light it feels as you leave the inn and again take to the road. Back to Blowing Rock: No, indeed; not even though you could return, part way at least, by another road. The wanderlust is on you--the need of walking along the high valleys among the enchanted mountains. That seems the thing in life worth doing. As you leave Boone you notice a meadow white with ox-eyed daisies, and among them big red clover-heads, and, if you please, clumps of black-eyed Susans--for ll the world like a summer meadow in the New England hills. Ripe strawberries hand over the edge of the road.

"From Boone to Valle Crucis you must go the longest way, for so you get the best views, the people tell you. And so you go a day's walk to Valle Crucis, where the Episcopal settlement lies in the fine green little valley."(1)

Old Map of the Town of Boone.-- When the town was formed the county court, with Judge Dudley Farthing as its chairman, laid it off into streets and lots, the main street running east and west being called King Street, the first street to the north of it and parallel with it was named Queen Street, while the street running between the present Watauga County Bank
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Note: (1) In her "Carolina Mountains" Miss Morley says that even our roosters crow with a Southern accent.

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Building and the law office of E. S. Coffey, Esq., was designated as Water Street. The broad street running south from King Street and between the present residence of Mr. R. C. Rivers and Fletcher and Lovill's law offices and passing down in front of the present jail was called Burnsville Street, as it led to the Burnsville road.

First Residents of Boone and Vicinity.-- The land on which Boone stands, from about the present Methodist parsonage to the forks of the road near I. W. Gross's residence, belonged originally to John and Jerry Green, two brothers. One of them lived in a large log house between the present Judge Green's residence and the storehouse just west of it, and the other in the orchard on the lot wher Dr. J. W. Jones now lives. One of them sold to Jordan Councill, Jr., and the other to Ransom Hayes. Then Jordan Councill, Jr., built the present large old Councill house and the store in which Richard Green now lives. These were the first houses in Boone proper, if we except the log residence of Jordan Councill, Sr., which stood a few hundred yards east, at the Buck Horn Tree place. There wa another house which stood in the orchard near the present Blackburn hotel. It was a small clapboarded house, with only one room. Ben Munday and family occupied it first and afterwards Ellington Cousins and family, dark of skin, lived there till Cousins built a house up the Blackburn branch in rear of the Judge Green house. It is still known as the Cousins Place. Then B. J. Crawley built the store and residence across the branch in rear of W. R. Gragg's house and above the Watauga County Bank. The next house, now occupied by R. C. Rivers and family, was first occupied by Jesse McCoin. Prior to 1857 Jesse McCoin and Robert Sumter moved away and Col. J. B. Todd rented the Rivers house from Jordan Councill, Jr., after he was elected clerk. Then Captain J. L. Phillips moved in and remained till Dr. J. G. Rivers cam in 1865. Next was the James Tatum storehouse, which stood where W. L. Bryan now lives.

The First Builders.-- Soon after Boone was formed Jordan Councill, Fr., built a residence on the lot now occupied by R. C. Rivers as a home. Indeed, the front rooms of that residence are

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the same that Jordan Councill, Jr., had erected there. He also built a house on the site now occupied by the new post office, just west of the middle branch. This house was afterwards moved to the rear of the residence and used as a kitchen. It still stands to the south of the wing added to the front by Mr. Rivers. Mr. Councill also built, between the dwelling and the last named house, a small room for Solomon Crisp, where the latter made boots and shoes and sold whiskey. He came from Caldwell County and continued in business in that store from about 1850 till about 1857, when Myrick and White took it. Crisp was in the Civil War and sill lives near Patterson. The residence which Jordan Councill, Jr., built was used by his tanner, Jesse McCoin, and the house he erected on the present post office site was used as a residence by Robert Sumter, another tanner. They lived there till about 1856, when they returned to the east of the Blue Ridge, from which they had come. B. J. Crawley came from Forsythe County early in the fifties, and built a storehouse and dwelling on Water Street, just across the branch from the Watauga County Bank. He soon afterwards let M. T. Cox have the buildings. Cox after leaving Boone had a store at Soda Hill also, where Joel Norris sold goods for him. Crosby returned to Forsythe before the Civil War. Cox then closed out and went into business at Rutherwood, now Virgil, with Henry Blair, under the firm name of Cox & Blair. J. C. Blair, Henry's son, was chief clerk. But the firm became involved and Cox left some of his creditors in the lurch and went to Arkansas. The Soda Hill store was sold out by the sheriff. Elisha Green, however, followed Cox to Arkansas and succeeded in collecting some money for a few of his creditors, while Henry Blair, at great sacrifice, succeeded in paying off the firm debts of Cox & Blair. Allen Myrick and Noah White, of Guilford, moved into Crisp's store about 1857, and ran till about 1862, when they married, closed up their business and moved to Texas. Both had been widowers, but Myrick married a Miss Coffin, of Guilford County, the marriage being performed at High Point, while White married Titia Moore, a daughter of Reed Moore, of Three Forks.

Then was built the James W. Council house and store, opposite

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the Blair hotel. Next came the house just east of the Blair hotel. It was built by Levi Hartley, of near Lenoir, for a Whiskey saloon. His sons, Nathan and Samuel, conducted the business, however, Levi never having moved to Boone. His sons carried on the rum business there till just before the Civil War. Nathan Hartley married Louisa McGhee and died in the Civil War. Samuel Hartley married a daughter of a man who lost his mind trying to invent an augur which would bore a square hole. Sam died in Lenoir after the Civil War. He was a good citizen and much respected. T. J. Coffey and brother bought the property and added to it, and T. J. Coffey lived there after his marriage till he moved to the Hall house. George and Phillip Grubb then built a residence on the corner now occupied by the law offices of Lovell and Fletcher, and a blacksmith shop near the present jail. They swapped this property to John Frazer for property in Taylorsville, N. C. Frazer moved in, went to the War of 1861, returned to Boone, and afterwards moved to Caldwell County. George Grubb quit the blacksmith business and went to carpentering. His brother, Phillip, left this country about 1860 and never returned.

Saw Mills for Boone.-- Jordan Councill, Jr., bought a saw mill from David Sands on the east prong of New River, two miles from George H. Blair's present home. Councill afterwards sold it to Michael Cook, the second. William Elrod built a saw mill over the north or Boone fork of New River, near where the bridge now crosses that stream on the turnpike, two miles southeast of Boone, and in front of J. Watts Farthing's present home. Thomas Blair, who lived where William Trivett now lives, near where the three forks of New River join, built a saw, grist and carding mill near where the Turnpike turns up the Middle Fork of New River. He swapped to Harrison Edmisten for a farm on John's River soon after the Civil War. These three mills were bought or built for the sole purpose of producing lumber with which to build the new town of Boone, and must have been in operation about 1849 or 1850.

John and Ellington Cousins.-- These brothers came from near East Bend, Forsythe County, soon after Boone was formed, bringing white women with them. Ellington's wife was Margaret

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Myers and John's was named Lottie. Ransom Hayes sold Ellington an acre of land up the Blackburn branch, where he built a house and lived in 1857, having moved from the house in the orchard below the road near the present Blackburn hotel. He ha two daughters. Sarah Married Joseph Gibson and moved to Mountain City, Tenn., where he carried on a tannery for Murphy Brother, but he afterwards returned to this State and lived at or near Lenoir, finally going West, where he remains. Ellington died at Boone and his widow and daughter, nicknamed "Tommy," went with Gibson and his wife to Mountain City, where whe also married. John lived near Hodges Gap and at other places, dying at the Ed. Shipley place, near Vallle Crucis. He had several children.

Other Builders.-- Joseph C. Councill built the brick house now used as the office of the Watauga Democrat long before the Civil War. The workmen employed in its construction were Bartlett Wood and J. C. McGee. Wood was a mason, carpenter and cabinet maker. Councill moved to Texas after the Civil War, where he married, but he returned to Boone and died there. Bartlett Wood helped build the first court house and a dwelling house which stood between the present residence of W. L. Bryan and what is now the Blair Hotel, among the first houses built in Boone. Wood resided in this house till shortly before the Civil War, when he took a contract and moved to Shouns Cross Roads, Tenn., where he remained till his death.

Hotels.-- Jordan Councill, Jr., and Ransom Hayes, who lived where Mrs. L. L. Green now lives, kept boarders before the Civil War and took care of such travelers and court attendants as came to Boone till about 1870, when T. J. and W. C. Coffey opened their hotel, soon followed by W. L. Bryan, who built and conducted the present Blair hotel in December, 1870. It is not generally known, but Squire James W. Councill and Elisha Green built the frame of a large hotel on the site of the Blair hotel at the beginning of the Civil War, but were not able to complete it. When Kirk's regiment came in March or April, 1865, they took the timbers and made a stockade around the court house, using also for the same purpose the timbers of the

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incomplete house built by William F. Fletcher and which then stood on the lot where M. B. Blackburn now has a bee yard. J. J. Horton built a store and dwelling where the Blackburn hotel now stands about 1880 and where he carried on merchandising for several years. When M. B. Blackburn was elected clerk of the Superior Court in 1894, he moved to Boone and occupied the dwelling which now stands above and to the north of the new residence of Dr. H. McD. Little, which was completed in 1913. Then M. B. Blackburn sold goods in a store near Mrs. L. L. Green's residence and bought the hotel property, having exchanged his Meat Camp farm for it. He enlarged and improved the original house considerably, and has conducted a mercantile establishment and hotel there ever since.

One of the first houses built in Boone was that which stands above Dr. Little's present residence. The frame of that house was cut and put together by Jacob Cook at Cook's Gap about 1850, when Sheriff Jack Horton bought it and moved it to its present location. Jack Horton married a Mast and lived on Cove Creek, where his son, James Horton, now lives. But when he was elected sheriff in 1852 he came to Boone, Michael Cook having been appointed sheriff by the court when the county was organized. Horton and Cook tied in the race before the people and tie was cut by the casting vote of Squire James Reagan, a justice of the peace, who voted for Horton in the contest before the county coutr. Horton then moved into the house above Dr. Little's.

The First Merchants of Boone.-- Jordan Councill, Sr., lived where Jesse Robbins has recently built two cottages, and near which stood the old Buck Horn oak. Jordan Councill, Jr., son of Jordan, Sr., built and occupied the old frame residence which still stands north of the road to Jefferson. It was probably the first frame house built in the county, and was for years the finest house in this section of the State. The store house used by Jordan Councill, Jr., stood west of his residence and between the office building erected by Dr. W. R. Councill and the road. The store house was afterwards moved across the road to its present location, and is now occupied as a residence by R. M. Greene.

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