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Roads and Railroads.
 

First Roads.--From John Crouch's "Historical Sketches of Wilkes" (1902) we learn that Hamilton Holton (or Helton?) obtained a charter for a turnpike from Holman's Ford to New River in Ashe. This road passed through Deep Gap, Old Fields and on to Jefferson and Virginia and south to Three Forks, Brushy Fork, Cove Creek, and west to Meat Camp, crossing the New River at The Bend, near what is now called the Salmond's place, but which formerly belonged to the Fergusons of Wilkes. From there it went to the top of the ridge between the river as it runs in two directions, thence west, passing Moretz Mill, and on up to Meat Camp to the gap between Rich and Snake mountains to Trade in Tennessee. Later came a road from Jefferson to Boone, via Elk Cross Roads, and from Sugar Grove up Beaver Dams over Baker's Gap to Tennessee. The road up Cove Creek probably stopped for a long time at Zionville, and some say that there was only a trail from there to Shoun's Cross Roads for years.

The First Roads Across the Blue Ridge.--According to "The Archibald D. Murphey Papers," published by the State Historical Association, 1915 (Vol. II, p. 185), Wilkesborough may be taken as the point on the Yadkin from which they (roads) diverge in different directions across the mountains. One runs to the north into the counties of Grayson and Wythe in Virginia, passing the Blue Ridge at Elk Spur Gap. Two roads run to the west, one crossing the Ridge at Reddy's River Gap, passes by Ashe court house and, forking, it extends to the northwest into the counties of Russell and Washington in Virginia, and to the west of Jonesborough in East Tennessee. The other, called Horton's Turnpike, passes the Ridge at the Deep Gap, and runs through the southwestern parts of Ashe County, on to Jonesborough. Another road leads from Wilkesborough

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to the southwest, passes Morganton and crosses the Ridge at Swannanoa Gap. The mountain can be easily passed at each of these gaps, and if the roads were good, the inconvenience of crossing the mountain would be disregarded. The roads have been badly laid out; they are badly made, and the population in many parts is too weak to keep the roads in even tolerable repair. All these roads should be made at the public's expense.

Caldwell and Watauga Turnpike.--The General Assembly of 1846 and 1847 (Ch. CV) passed an act to incorporate the Caldwell and Ashe Turnpike Company, the State to provide $8,000.00 when $5,000.00 had been subscribed, which was altered in 1850-51 so that the name should be the Caldwell and Watauga Turnpike Company, while the capital stock was increased from $10,000.00 to $12,500.00, whatever amount of the increase that might not be subscribed within six months to be taken by the State. The president and directors were authorized to change the route on the Blue Ridge where it exceeded one foot in twenty so as to reduce it to that standard, and otherwise improve the road, while all hands within two miles who were then required to work on roads were required to work on this road, but should not be required to work any other roads or to pay toll on this. This act was ratified January 21, 1851 (Ch. CLXIV, p. 463). By chapter 131, Laws of 1881, the Turnpike Company was authorized to surrender to Watauga County "so much of said turnpike as lies west of the top of the Blue Ridge at the Yadkin Springs," etc. Chapter 445, Laws of 1893, authorized the State to sell its interest in this road and apply the proceeds to the construction of the Boone and Blowing Rock Turnpike. The charter was repealed in 1911, but in 1913 a new charter was granted, the people living along the road not being able to keep it in condition.

The old road passed along the mountain side above the former residence of Smith Coffey at the Old Bridge place, one mile below Shull's Mills, while the turnpike crossed the Watauga River on the old bridge and followed the Woody bottoms to Shull's Mills on the right bank of the river, passing west of Phillip Shull's old house, which was of logs, and

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faced west. Joseph Shull changed the road so that it crossed the river at the ford near Robbins' store and east of the house, now a frame structure which faces east. Old Albany, nine-passenger stage coaches, swinging on straps, passed over this road from 1855 to 1861, going from Lincolnton, via Lenoir, Blowing Rock, Shull's Mills, Valle Crucis, Sugar Grove, Zionville, Shoun's Cross Roads, Taylorsville--now Mountain City--to Abingdon, Va., and they were operated by a man of the name of Dunn, of Abingdon. It was a daily line each way, with stands at John Mast's at Sugar Grove and at Joseph Shull's, where J. M. Shull now lives.

This road undoubtedly served to open up and encourage the settlement of Watuaga County, and was an excellent one for that day. But Blowing Rock, Banner's Elk, Linville City, Boone and Valle Crucis were growing rapidly, and in 1893 an act was passed authorizing the State to sell its interest in the Caldwell and Watauga Turnpike Company and apply the proceeds to the construction of the Boone and Blowing Rock Turnpike Company, in the building of which the late Thomas J. Coffey was very active. This new road diverted much travel from the old turnpike. The turnpike company from Lenoir to Blowing Rock had already absorbed much of the original Caldwell and Watauga turnpike, leaving only the stretch between Blowing Rock and the Tennessee line belonging to the company. By chapter 17, Laws 1911, it was authorized to sell or lease any of its road bed or other property to any other turnpike company, and if such a sale should be made it might wind up its affairs. Section 2 of this act, however, authorized the company to turn over the road from Shull's Mills to Blowing Rock to the county of Watauga, which was done, and the county required to keep it up as a public road. But there were too few people living near it to keep it in good condition, and, accordingly, some of the citizens living near secured a charter for a turnpike company from the Secretary of State, known as the Valle Crucis and Blowing Rock Turnpike Company, to run between those points. Its capital stock is $3,000.00, and its charter was granted June 4, 1914.

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Yonahlossee Turnpike Company.--About the year 1890 S. T. Kelsey, formerly of Kansas, but later of Highlands, Macon County, N. C., went to Watauga County, and a turnpike company was chartered to build and maintain a road from Linville City to Blowing Rock, passing clear around the eastern base of the Grandfather Mountain and running along the crest of the Blue Ridge, much of the distance being north and east of that picturesque and ancient mass of stone and earth. The distance is eighteen miles and it cost less than $18,000.00. It is decidedly the best and most level road in the mountains.

Elk Park and Banner's Elk.--A road was constructed between these places about 1895 and serves the country through which it passes admirably.

Early Road Legislation.(1)--In 1850-51 Charles McDowell and Hugh Taylor, of Burke, and John Franklin, of Watauga, were appointed commissioners to lay off a public road from Charles McDowell's in Burke via Upper Creek, Jonas Ridge, Old Fields of Toe River to Cranberry Forge in the county of Watauga. (Ch. CLXXI, p. 473) In 1852 Alfred Miller, Jonathan Horton, James Ragen, M. T. Coxe and Reuben Mast were appointed commissioners to view, lay off, alter or amend so much of a public road from Holman's Ford by way of Deep Gap at Solomon Green's and the Rich Mountain, near Welch's store, to the Tennessee line as lay within the limits of Watauga County. (Ch. CLII, p. 579) In 1854-55 (Ch. 214, p. 216) Reuben Mast, M. F. Cox, James Ragan, Alfred Miller and John Moretz were appointed commissioners to survey and improve the public road from the Wilkes County line by way of Meat Camp Creek to the Tennessee line, at or near Welch's store. At the same session (Ch 219, p222) Michael Snider, Jourdan C. Hardin, for Watauga, and three men from Yancey, were appointed commissioners to lay off a public road from the Tennessee line at Wm. D. Hose's, via Cranberry and Arthur Erwin's to the McDowell County line, near Charles McKinney's, so as to intersect the public road leading from Burnsville to Morganton. At
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Note:(1) Just prior to the formation of Watauga County (Ch. XCVIII, Laws of 1846-'47) a public road was authorized from Councill's store in Ashe (now Boone) to Bedfore Wiseman's in Yancey County, at the mouth of Three Mile Creek.

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the same session (Ch. 224, p. 224) it was provided that all public roads to be built in Watauga after the date of the ratification of the act shall not be required to be more than twelve feet wide where side-cutting is necessary and used, and where blasting is necessary and used such roads shall not be required to be more than eight feet wide. The county and superior courts were given concurrent jurisdiction of all indictments against overseers of Watauga County roads. By the laws of 1876-77 (p. 175), John R. Hodges, Daniel Wheeler and John Elrod were authorized to locate the road authorized by the act of 1870 (Ch. 254), and by the same laws (Ch. CLXXXIX, p. 365) the road form Phineas Horton's store in Wilkes was altered by changing the Stony Fork road so as to run to John Key's, and then up Stony Fork at Larkin Bishop's mill, and thence to Deep Gap. By the same laws (Ch. LII, p. 673) the citizens of Watauga and Caldwell counties were allowed to pass free all toll gates of Catawba and Watauga Turnpike Company. By the laws of 1870-71 (Ch. 254, p. 409) a public road was authorized from Phineas and A. H. Horton's store in Wilkes County to Boone, running up Elk Creek and crossing the Blue Ridge by the most practicable route. As seen above, this road was not built till after the laws of 1876-77 had been passed. By chapter 68, laws of 1874-75 (p. 59), a road was authorized to be constructed from Boone to the Caldwell and Watauga Turnpike at a point on the Blue Ridge between Wm. Morris' and L. Henly's, and by the laws of the same year (Ch. 109, p. 601) a road was authorized from a point on the Caldwell and Watauga Turnpike, where the old Morganton road intersects the same in Watauga County, and thence via Wm. Welch's and Elisha Lewis' to M. C. Coffey's, thence with a dividing ridge via Thomas Right's and A. J. McClean's, so as to intersect the Morganton road at the Globe Church in Caldwell County.

The Earliest Stopping Places.--The first and only taverns or inns or public houses, as they were variously called, were Solomon Greene's which was in Deep Gap, to the right of the old State road running from Wilkesboro through that gap via what is now Boone, Hodges' Gap, Sugar Grove, through George's

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Gap and Baker's Gap to Roan's Creek in Tennessee. Squire Wm. P. Welch lives there now. Col. Jonathan Horton kept the next place, which was on New River, one mile below Three Forks Church, where Rudy Vannoy now lives. There were no other stopping places from there to Benjamin Webb's, where Rev. William Farthing afterwards lived and died. It was on Beaver Dams. These were then the places of "entertainment," though private houses then "took in" travelers as they do now. While Webb was keeping this house, it is said that James Ward went there "a-courtin'." Webb arose early and began mowing grass before breakfast, and came in to meal wet and hungry. Ward was just getting out of his bed, and "stretching," exclaimed, "I feel like I could stretch a mile." "I wish you would," cried Webb, " and I wish you would stretch it towards your own home, too."

The First Paper Railroads.--In January, 1851, the legislature appropriated twelve thousand dollars to be used in the survey of a route for a railroad from Salisbury to the Tennessee line "at or near the place where the French Broad River passes into the State of Tennessee." This may be said to have been the first of the almost numberless steps to get a railroad across the Blue Ridge. It is evident, however, that it was not then comtemplated to build a road through any part of Watauga County, which had just been formed. But at the next session of the legislature, in 1852 (Ch. CXXXVI), the North Carolina and Western Railroad Company was incorporated, and Jordan Councill, Jonathan Horton, Reuben Mast and John Morris, or any three of them, were authorized to open books of subscription to the capital stock in the town of Boone. The road was to commence at Salisbury and run thence by the most practicable route across the Blue Ridge to the Tennessee line. Its capital stock was to be three million dollars. It was not confined to any route, and Watauga County might have stood a chance to profit thereby if the most practicable route over the Blue Ridge had been found within its borders. But it was not, the Swannanoa Gap having been chosen. At the same session another railroad was incorporated, to run so as to follow down the

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Little Tennessee River to the Tennessee line. This was called the Blue Ridge Railroad. Neither road came as far as the mountains of North Carolina till after the Civil War. But the door of hope was not entirely closed to Watauga, for in February, 1855 (Ch. 227), the Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio Railroad was incorporated, to run with one or more tracks and to be operated by steam, animal or other power between Charlotte, N. C., and some point on the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, at or near Jonesboro, in Washington County, Tenn., and form such connection by way of Moccasin Gap of Clinch Mountain in the State of Virginia, by the most practicable line to the head waters of Big Sandy River, thence the most eligible route to the Ohio River. Commissioners were appointed to open books of subscription on the first Monday of July, 1854, and be kept open for twenty days, Sundays excepted, between 10 a. m. and 4 p. m. at Boone and many other places, including points in Tennessee and Virginia. This road must have crossed the Blue Ridge near the Coffey Gap and followed the Watauga River to Jonesboro. It has not been built yet, though nature had graded a road-bed for it from the foundation of the world. The track was completed from Charlotte to Statesville before the Civil War, but the iron and cross ties were removed and laid down upon a grade constructed by the government of the Confederate States from Greensboro to Danville, Va., early in the Civil War. The track was relaid between Charlotte and Statesville soon after the close of hostilities, but it has never passed through the Coffey Gap or down the Watauga River, which still opens inviting arms to its construction. By chapter XL (Laws 1871-72) the Charlotte and Taylorsville Railroad Company was authorized to build a road from Troutman's depot on the A. T. & O. R. R., in Iredell County, to Taylorsville, and thence, by or near Lenoir and Boone, the most practicable route, to some point on the Tennessee line. This stopped at Taylorsville, however, and is there yet. Just where the North Western North Carolina Railroad Company, amended by chapter XLVII (Laws 1871-72), was to run is immaterial, as it never came to Watauga or near it under that name. At the same session the upper division

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of the Yadkin Railroad Company was incorporated to run from Salisbury to Wilkesboro and thence to the Tennessee or Virginia line, but it too stopped before reaching God's country. The Carolina Narrow Gauge Railroad Company was chartered to run from the South Carolina line via Dallas, Lincolnton, Newton, Hickory Tavern to the town of Lenoir, but no further. It has observed its original charter and is at Lenoir still--very still. By chapter XXV, Laws 1872-73, the Carolina Narrow Gauge (name spelt right this time without any legislative authority whatever!) was authorized to consolidate with the Chester and Lenoir Narrow Gauge Railroad Company if stockholders of both companies were willing. They were, but Lenoir is still the head of the railroad. The State found good employment for its convicts by making them build railroads, and this policy was continued with general approval till recently, when certain statesmen in the eastern part of the State, having secured all such aid as was required for their immediate needs, tried to discontinue the custom absolutely, but failed. It was in the hope of such aid that some of the enterprising citizens incorporated the Watauga Railway Company (Ch. 411, Pr. Laws, 1905), which, by chapter 408, Laws of 1909, was authorized to be transferred to W. J. Grandin and his associates upon certain conditions; but two years having elapsed and those conditions not having been complied with, the legislature (Ch. 316, Laws 1911) gave Grandin and associates twenty months longer, after which time, if they had not commenced work, etc., the powers and property so assigned were to revert to the original incorporators. By chapter 11, Pr. Laws of 1913, the Watauga Railway Company was authorized to become part of the Watauga and Yadkin River Railroad Company. In 1912 the county of Watauga voted $100,000.00 to aid in the construction of this road, upon certain conditions, which were never fulfilled. At the session of the legislature of 1915 it was determined to continue the convicts on this railroad construction. The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad was finished to Cranberry in 1882, coming from Johnson City via Elizabethton, Tenn. The Linville Railroad Company extended this line to Pinola or Saginaw in

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1900, but it is now under the management of the E. T. & W. N. C. R. R. This road was for several years the nearest to Watauga County, Pinola being only twenty-four miles from Boone, but in May, 1915, the Virginia-Carolina Railway from Abingdon, Va., was completed to Todd, now called Elkland, and is in operation. This is about eleven miles from Boone.

First Railroad Surveys.--Major William Cain, a distinguished member of the faculty of the University of North Carolina, has furnished many valuable facts as to the first surveys for railways made through Watauga County. It seems that in 1859 a line was run from about Patterson, in Caldwell County, known as Kuper's line, which required the tunneling of the Blowing Rock Ridge and Watauga Gap, thence along the north side of the Grandfather to the head of Watauga River, and down that stream to Elizabethton, Tenn. This line would be expensive to construct, but it would eliminate, by the use of deep tunnels, a great deal of the elevation that has to be overcome on the line through Cook's Gap. Nothing was done, however, till the winter of 1881, when General Imboden obtained a charter from the North Carolina legislature for the South Atlantic and Ohio Railway Construction and Operation Company, (Ch. 41, Laws 1881, p. 87) This charter recited that representations had been made that the Tinsalia Coal and Iron Company of Virginia were the owners of valuable coal mines in Virginia and were building a narrow gauge railroad from their mine in Big Stone Gap to Bristol, Tenn.-Va., and had also obtained a charter from Tennessee to extend their line to some convenient point on the North Carolina State line so as to pass through Watauga and Mitchell counties. Upon these and other representations the above charter was granted for a narrow gauge railway, and C. L. Dwight, a civil engineer of South Carolina, was employed to make the survey. As he was engaged at that time on another, the main task of locating the road fell on Major Wm. Cain, and he ran the line so as to come up Elk Creek through Cook's Gap, thence passing two or three miles from Boone through a gap to the Watauga watershed, thence north, grading down along the sides of Rich Mountain with much curving,

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until finally the line took a westerly direction and reached the level of the Watauga River some few miles before reaching the Tennessee line. There were about 2,000 feet to be overcome from east of the Blue Ridge, with seventeen miles development to make the rise to Cook's Gap, but there were no tunnels. Major Cain was a pioneer in putting the heavier grades on the tangents and the lighter on the curves--a practice then unheard of, but now universal. To reach the valley of the Elk from his initial point near Patterson, he had to wind around many little peaks of the Bull Ruffin Ridge at one point and curve around the heads of several valleys in order to reach Elk Creek, where for a few miles the fall of the creek was greater than his grade, but he eventually caught up with it and reached the valley with his grade line successfully. The average grade was approximately 150 feet to the mile. From Cook's Gap the fall to the Watauga is not so great, its elevation being 3,349, just seventeen feet more that that of Boone, and the Watauga River at Shulls Mills 2,917, and at Valle Crucis 2,726, but the slopes are smoother than the line east of Cook's Gap. He began this line on the 21st of March, 1881, and when near the Tennessee line was called to another road, June 18, 1881, Mr. Dwight then taking charge. But the chief promoter fell out with the president of the road, who had the financial backing, and nothing was done after the survey was finished.

A Great Inter-Montane Road.--There was a road, to run from Sparta to Asheville, planned and partially constructed somewhere about 1868, Coffey Brothers, of Boone, having a contract for the construction of two miles running from the Musterfield, through the town to the branch above the Blackburn hotel, and thence through the Bryan and Gragg farms to Poplar Grove Church, where it was to follow down Lance's Creek to Shull's Mills. Robert Shearer had the mile running from the Musterfield towards the Three Forks Church. It was during this period that the road was changed just east of the John Hardin home to its present location and beyond the Musterfield so as to run north of its old location. The grade from Todd was also made at this time, the old road going directly up a very

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steep hill. But the new road from the high hill beyond the Perkins home and between it and Sands was surveyed by T. L. Critcher four years ago and built by the county. One of these days, believer, a railroad will run from Sparta to Jefferson and from there to Boone, or near it, and thence over the Linville Gap and down Linville River to near the falls, thence to the Toe, crossing that stream to Cane River, Weaverville and Asheville. Then the mountain people can go from north to south and from south to north without having to zig-zag across the mountains from east to west and then back again, as at present, without getting to their destination even then. Such a railroad would tap every transmontane railroad and wagon road, would get all the lumber, grain, fruit, minerals, stock and passengers that now have to go miles and miles out of the way to get a few miles north or south. Besides, the public could then learn that all the scenery, climate and pure water of the mountains of Western North Carolina are not confined between Old Fort and Murphy. Then the wonderland of Madison, Yancey, Mitchell, Avery, Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany would be revealed in its unsurpassed loveliness.