"The Other Mount Mitchell Controversies: A Real Property History of North Carolina's Highest Mountain Range" by Gary V. Perko in The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. XCV, No. 1 (January 2018)

 "The Other Mount Mitchell Controversies: A Real Property History of North Carolina's Highest Mountain Range" by Gary V. Perko in The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. XCV, No. 1 (January 2018).

"As the highest point east of the Mississippi River, Mount Mitchell is one of North Carolina's greatest natural treasurers. The so-called "Mitchell-Clingman" controversy over the original measurement of the high peak is well documented, but it was not the only dispute involving Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountain range upon which it sits. For almost two centuries, North Carolina's courts and legislature were called upon to resolve disputes over who owned -- or should own -- the slopes of the Black Mountains and even Mitchell's high peak itself. The real property history of these lands involves an eclectic cast of land speculation, enterprising mountain folk, wealthy sportsmen and socialites, carpetbagging lumbermen, and, of course, lawyers and politicians. Their collective story is one of litigation, exploitation, legislation, and, ultimately, conservation.

Photograph: Mt. Mitchell in the distance. Courtesy Romantic Asheville.

. . . .*

"The records are clear, though, that in 1891 the Lusks, Moores, and Martins sold their interest in the Black Mountain lands formerly held by Stepp and Bailey to John Kerr Connally, a Civil War hero and graduate of Bailey's law school who had become a luminary of Asheville society after gaining a fortune in Texas and Virginia. [See Asheville Citizen-Times, February 2, 1904.] The deed transferring the Lusks' interest in the property to Connally perpetuated the confusion over the small parcel containing Mitchell's grave by specifically excepting the 'lot on Mitchell's Peak' they had purportedly 'conveyed to Miss Mitchell' three years earlier.'

"Not long after the sale of the Murchison Boundary, John Kerr Connally's widow, Alice T. Connally, followed suit, selling to Highland Spruce Company (for $18,410) almost all of the five hundred acres of Jesse Stepp's former lands that she held in the Black Mountains. In the deed conveying the property, Mrs. Connally reserved four small parcels, including a five-acre tract described as:

"Beginning on top of Mt. Mitchell at a stone lettered X standing North 35° 15' East of Mitchell's Monument and 8/10 of one pole from the same and runs with the top of Mountain South 62° West 14 poles to an upright stone and pointers; thence South 61° East 39 1/4 poles to a stake in the Eastern boundary line of Grant No. 659, thence with said line North 12° East 22.5 poles to a stake; thence North 60° 15' West 33.5 poles to a stake on top of the Black Mountain; thence up said top South 7° 30' East 13 poles to the Beginning. . . .

"Along with Jesse's Stepp's original reservation of 'Five acres on the Top of Mitchell's Peak and including the grave of Dr. Mitchell in his 1858 deed to Judge Bailey, Alice Connally's reservation would generate confusion when the State of North Carolina ultimately sought to preserve the summit of Mount Mitchell as a state park.

. . . .

Rosa Parks and Homer Plessy

 Rosa Parks and Homer Plessy

Many have heard about Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955, refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white person. She was arrested, and her action precipitated a boycott of the Montgomery bus system by black residents, being led by, among others, Martin Luther King, Jr. Throughout the south, blacks refused to "move to the back of the bus." In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court found segregated busing unconstitutional.

However, sixty-three years earlier in New Orleans, Louisiana, Homer Plessy purchased a railroad ticket for a "whites only" first-class coach, boarded the train, was arrested, and found in violation of a Louisiana law that required separate accommodations for black and white people on railroads. This case also made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, but with an outcome less favorable than that obtained by Rosa Parks. The Court, in the 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson, established the "separate but equal" principle that provided a constitutional basis for "Jim Crow" laws.    

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U.S. Supreme Court

Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)

Argued April 18, 1896

Decided May 18, 1896

The statute of Louisiana requiring railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in that State, to provide equal, but separate, accommodations for the white and colored races, by providing two or more passenger coaches for each passenger train, or by dividing the passenger coaches by a partition so as to secure separate accommodations;

and providing that no person shall be permitted to occupy seats in coaches other than the ones assigned o them, on account of the race they belong to;

and requiring the officer of the passenger train to assign each passenger to the coach or compartment assigned for the race to which he or she belong;

and imposing fines or imprisonment upon passengers insisting on going into a coach or compartment other than the one set aide for the race to which he or she belongs;

and conferring upon officers of the train power to refuse to carry on the train passengers refusing to occupy the coach or compartment assigned to them, and exempting the railway company from liability for such refusal,

are not in conflict with the provisions either of the Thirteenth Amendment or of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

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Justice Harlan Dissenting in Plessy v. Ferguson:

"I deny that any legislative body or judicial tribunal may have regard to the race of citizens when the civil rights of those citizens are involved. Indeed, such legislation as that here in question is inconsistent not only with that equality of rights which pertains to citizenship, National and State, but with the personal liberty enjoyed by everyone within the United States."

Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), Dissenting Opinion.

The Second Coming of the Invisible Empire: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s by William Rawlings.

The Second Coming of the Invisible Empire: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s by William Rawlings. Macon (GA): Mercer University Press, 2016.

"Founded as a men's fraternal group in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1915, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan eventually became one of the largest social and political movements in American history, attracting perhaps as many as four million members during the 1920s. In this excellent book William Rawlings examines the complex factors that grave rise to this unusual organization, the key individuals who were responsible for both the Klan's rise and decline, and the place of the 1920s Klan in American history. In contract to other recent scholarship on the second Klan that largely consists of detailed studies of KKK activities at the local level, the author focuses on the important, and often, sordid, developments that took place in the group's national headquarters.

"Nearly a third of the book is dedicated to detailing the historical factors that made the second Klan possible. In a series of brief but informative chapters, the author looks at the social and cultural impact of Reconstruction, the activities of the first Klan, and the gradual development of a Lost Cause mythology that convinced many Americans to see the Confederacy and the original Klan in a favorable light. This shift in opinion was well demonstrated in 1915 by the incredible popularity of the famous silent film 'The Birth of a Nation,' which completed the process of romanticizing the Klan of Reconstruction. Recognizing that the time was auspicious, William J. Simmons, an experienced recruiter for men's organizations, formed the new Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Atlanta shortly before the local premiere of 'The Birth of a Nation,' going so far as to sue artwork from the movie's posters in Klan flyers and designing robes for the new group that were virtually the same as those used in the film.

"For the first few years of its existence, the new Klan limped along with only a couple thousand members. As Rawlings emphasizes, the sudden upturn in group's fortunes in 1920 should be credited to Edward Young Clarke, an Atlanta advertising executive who completely overhauled the KKK's recruiting procedures and financial practices. Under Clarke's guidance the Klan became a huge money-making machine, raking in tens of millions of dollars. While this fueled the group's rapid growth across the nation, it also led to vicious infighting among the Klan's leaders and set off a stream of lawsuits and counter-lawsuits that discredited the secret order at the very moment that its size and influence were peaking. Although the KKK's new leader, Hiram W. Evans, attempted to reform the Klan and make it a more stable and mainstream organization, continuing disillusionment and scandals resulted in a rapidly dwindling membership. By the early 1930s, the second Klan had become largely insignificant in American life.

"This is a well-researched and splendidly written book. It should greatly interest both general and academic readers who want to know more about the dark tradition of organized intolerance in American history."

Book Review by Shawn Lay, Coker College in The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. XCV, No. 1 (January 2018.

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"Fifty years after the end of the Civil War, William Joseph Simmons, a failed Methodist minister, formed a fraternal order that he called The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Organized primarily as a money-making scheme, it shared little but its name with the Ku Klux Klan of the Reconstruction Era. With its avowed creed of One Hundred Percent Americanism, support of Protestant Christian values, white supremacy, and the rejection of all things foreign, this new Klan became, for a brief period of time in the mid-1920s, one of Americas most powerful social and political organizations. This original and meticulously researched history of Americas second Ku Klux Klan presents many new and fascinating insights into this unique and important episode in American History."

Source: Publisher 

Richmond-Miles Museum Building in Yanceyville

 Richmond-Miles Museum Building in Yanceyville, North Carolina

An article in The Caswell Messenger newspaper (Yanceyville, North Carolina) referred to the building that currently houses the Richmond-Miles Museum as the:

Graves-Poteat-Florance-Gatewood House

The Caswell Messenger (Yanceyville, NC), 25 January 2023.

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Graves House

The house was built around 1820 by William Graves (1780-1845). It may have served as his Yanceyville home, being eventually converted into a hotel (the Village Hotel). The business was continued after his death by his second wife, Ann Lea Graves Graves (1794-1857).

We know the Village Hotel was in operation as early as 1838:

(From the Milton Spectator (Milton, NC), 9 October 1838)

Democratic Dinner,

Complimentary to the Senators and Republican Members of Congress from N. Carolina,

Agreeably to arrangements previously made, a sumptuous dinner was furnished by Capt. Wm. Graves, proprietor of the Village Hotel at Yanceyville, on Friday, the 28th ult.; a day which will long be remembered by the citizens of Caswell.

At 20 minutes past 12 o'clock, General Barzillai Graves, the President, took his seat at the centre wing of the immensely long table, which was richly and bountifully supplied with every good thing the market affords. Majors Wm. A. Lea and James Kerr assisted as Vice Presidents, and being seated at the right and left ends of the main table, at the centre of which and fronting the President, were placed the invited guests.

Richmond Enquirer (Richmond, Virginia), 16 October 1838.

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Corbett & Richmond Owners

However, in 1851 the Village Hotel was purchased by Corbett & Richmond:

Village Hotel, Yanceyville, N.C.

"Corbett & Richmond, would respectfully inform the public that they have recently taken charge of this spacious Hotel, formerly kept by Mrs. Graves, which has lately been repaired and is now in complete order for the accommodation of Travelers and Boarders. The rooms are comfortably and neatly furnished; the Table shall always be provided with the best that the market affords; the Servants will be found polite and attentive, and their Stables will be constantly supplied with an abundance and variety of provender and unsurpassed Hostlers.

"This magnificent establishment is pleasantly located convenient to the Court House, and persons attending Court at Yanceyville and stopping at the Village Hotel, may rest assured that the Proprietors will spare no pains to please them. Their prices will be found moderate and precisely the same charged by the other Hotel in the Village.

"Drovers will find every accommodation that large and roomy Stables and  as spacious Lots can afford."

The Milton Chronicle (Milton, NC), 17 April 1851.

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Poteat House

Based upon the recent item in The Caswell Messenger, referenced above, the next owner apparently was a Poteat. We know that James Poteat (1807-1889) moved his family to Yanceyville after the Civil War (moving from "Forest Home" on the Yanceyville-Milton Road). We also know that a Poteat Hotel eventually was constructed on the lot immediately east of the Village Hotel property. Was James Poteat an owner of the building that now houses the Richmond-Miles Museum?

The photograph shows the Poteat Hotel to the left of the Graves-Poteat-Florance-Gatewood House.

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Florance House

The next owner was Thomas Jefferson Florance (1858-1926). He purchased the property in the 1880s and made his home there. For some thirty years Florance was a merchant on the Square in Yanceyville, eventually constructing what eventually came to be known as the "Dime Store." His wife, Nancy Kerr Lea (1869-1939) apparently remained in the house.

__________

Gatewood House

At some point the property came into the possession of a daughter of Thomas Jefferson Florance and Nancy Kerr Lea Florance: Mary Lea Florance (1903-1995) and her husband John Yancey Gatewood (1893-1954). They are the parents of artist Maud Florance Gatewood (1934-2004), who was born in the house.

Maud Florance Gatewood inherited the property from her mother and in 1999 sold it to the Caswell County Historical Association. Funds for the purchase were provided by Thomas Richmond McPherson, Jr., and wife Kathy Sue Simmons. At the time, the mother of Thomas Richmond McPherson, Jr., Elizabeth Pierce Parker McPherson (1929-2019), was President of the Caswell County Historical Association.

Senator John Walter (Chicken) Stephens 1870 Death Location

 Where NC Senator John Walter (Chicken) Stephens Was Killed in 1870

Below is a floorplan of the first (ground) floor of the Caswell County Courthouse in Yanceyville, NC. South is at the top. The office shown as "County Agent" is the room in which NC Senator John Walter (Chicken) Stephens was killed in 1870.

The room once was the office of the Master in Equity, but at the time of the Stephens killing was used to store firewood (and possibly coal). In 1877, it was the office of lawyer (and Ku Klux Klan leader) Jacob Alson Long (1846-1923).

Bartlett Yancey High School (Yanceyville, NC) Homecoming, October 16, 1959

Bartlett Yancey High School Homecoming

October 16, 1959

8:00 P.M.

Bartlett Yancey vs Cobb Memorial

BYHS Fullback Tommy Whitley #25

Left-to-Right:

Tommy Whitley

Bill Niven

Judy Rice

Wayne (Bo) Brandon

BYHS Football Team

Academic Year 1959-1960

Bright Leaf Tobacco Discovery Controversy: Caswell County, NC

 Bright Leaf Tobacco Discovery Controversy

That bright leaf tobacco was discovered in 1839 by enslaved person Steven on the Blanch farm of Abisha Slade generally has been accepted as "history." See the North Carolina historical marker on the subject.

However, in 1876 Caswell County's William Long (1901-1876) took exception to this in his letter to the editor of "The Torchlight" newspaper (Oxford, NC):

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Caswell Co., N.C., April 7, 1876

Dear Sir -- I delayed answering your inquiry as to who was the first man that cured yellow tobacco in Caswell, and I see you have learned that Mr. Abishai [sic] Slade was considered to be that man and more that it occurred in the year 1756. This is a great mistake.

I cured yellow tobacco myself as early as 1826, and I do not by any means claim to be the first man. Who the first man was I really do not know; but of this I am not mistaken as to the time. I married in 1828, and before I married (as above stated, in 1826), I cured yellow tobacco. The third curing I made after I was settled, namely, in 1831. I met W. N. Thomas of Pittsylvania County, Va., in the streets of Milton, and we both fell to bragging about our yellow. He went home with me, and as I had to cure my leaf that night, he went with me, and we cured it as handsomely as any I have ever seen.

The effort to produce this sort of tobacco was general among our planters at that time. The Slade family were the most prominent; they had very fine land, and their names were at the head of the list. I do not pretend for a moment to take away from those enterprising men the credit that is so justly their due, but write merely to set you right in the way of dates. If you could have recourse to the old warehouse books you would find that between 1830 and 1820 this fine yellow tobacco sold at figures as high as from $70 to $200 per hundred pounds.

William Long

Source: The Torchlight (Oxford, NC), 30 May 1876.

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On October 21, 1828, William Long (1801-1876) married Sarah Donoho Johnston (1806-1851).