100 Years Old— and
Slill Pretty as Ever
tty MRS. ROY J. DeLONG
It’s a hundred years since North
Carolina legislators cut off Transyl¬
vania from Henderson and a bit of
Jackson, named it for its forests cross¬
ing mountains and valleys, and told
residents to start a brand new county
scat, they named Brevard after
Ephriam Brevard, the Revolutionary
General who wrote the Mecklenburg
Declaration of Independence.
Centennial Year
Transylvania County
May 20: Bar Association celebrated
founding of first court.
Schools and clubs have given pro¬
grams throughout April.
Brevard College's May Day, May 6.
emphasized the Centennial
I heme.
Sales people and those in Brevard's
business community are wearing
Centennial costumes Saturdays
and oftener.
June: Selecting Queens in Rural IX-
vclopmcnt Areas to enter compe¬
tition for ' Queen of Waterfalls. ”
Registering of beards.
July 3 and 4 Evening»: Jaycecs spon¬
sor Sylvan Valley Folk Festival at
Junior High field — square dance
teams, individual performers, sing¬
ers, dancers eligible. A group of
musicians from Brevard Music-
Center under direction of James
Christian Pfohl. invited.
Jayccttcs sponsor "Queen of Water¬
falls" competition: Monday night,
bathing suit and talent display:
Tuesday night, evening gowns;
open to all single girls 17 to 25.
If more than 10 entrants, pre-
elimination, previous week.
F.custa plant's annual July 4 picnic.
Camp Strauss.
August 13: Home Coming Sunday:
Ike B. Greer of Chapel Hill and
prominent Baptist layman will be
principal speaker at the celebra¬
tion honoring the old fashioned
Camp Meetings around which so
much of the county's founding
history centered. Greer is a de¬
scendant of a Transylvania family.
August 29: Tuesday through Sat.
Sept. I : — The Pageant, climax¬
ing the summer Centennial ob¬
servances.
October: Burying on Court House
law n of scaled cylinder containing
data, to be opened in 2061. Rest
of year devoted to publishing
county's history.
The founding bill, ratified Feb. 15,
1861. established court at Valley Store
(near the present Strauss school)
May 20. On May 28 commissioners
were to lay off lots on 50 acres at a
"location most convenient to all resi¬
dents. but within five miles of W. Pro-
bart Poor’s store, the acres to be
bought, or accepted as gifts."
Alexander F.ngland.
В.
C. Lank¬
ford and L. S. Gash donated the
townsite by deed to J. W. Killian.
County Court chairman. Mr. Poor’s
store and residence were in the only
building, still known as the "Red
House,” inside the plot, save a barn.
Mr. Poor's store was designated meet¬
ing place for the Quarter Sessions court
until enough lots could be sold to pay
for a courthouse and jail — the only
buildings erected within Brevard until
"after the war.”
World’s Highest Steamboat
Transylvania’s most spectacular
event between its founding and the
opening of the Lake Toxaway area as
a playground for millionaires, was
dredging the French Broad river at
Federal expense by Army engineers,
and building and launching of the
steamboat. "Mountain Lily." She
made only six voyages between Horse
Shoe and Brevard. On each, she had
to be pulled over shoals by man and
mule power from the bank; she never
carried cargo to the Mississippi; was
dismantled, her hulk sunk, and the
dream of an empire of commerce
drowned.
The Sapphire country of upper
Transylvania — the land of waterfalls
— has been a summer resort since
DeSolo visited it. Here Indians fol¬
lowed their Estatoe Path to the coun¬
try of Toxaway, their red bird, which
led them to this land of good hunting
and fishing. They, and later the white
pioneers, worked sparse deposits of
gold, silver and lead, adorned them¬
selves with its sapphires, rubies and
semi-precious stones; cured their ills
Picnicking m front of Looking Glow Foil», in
Pi»goS Notional Forest, on U.S. 276, Brcvord to
Wo*nc».ille.— 'Photo by Hcmmcr
with its "sang" and other herbs;
warmed their blood with fermentations
of wild fruits and berries; their bellies
with venison, bear, and lesser game
and fowl. And so have their white fol¬
lowers until now.
Millionaires' Playground
No wonder millionaires from Pitts¬
burgh and other Eastern points built
here an extravagantly accoutred play¬
ground to which they brought their
high paying guests by carriages, before
completion of railroads all the way to
the series of inns and lakes. During
the heyday of the Toxaway railroad,
four pullmans a day brought visitors
to Lake Toxaway Inn from June I
to October I.
Edward Baccus, whose fortune had
been made raising rubber in South
America, here indulged his hobby of
estate building, selling and building
again.
Henry Ford. Thomas A. Edison,
John Burroughs and Harvey Fire¬
stone were among the celebrities en¬
tertained here by Baccus.
Attractions offered by the original
Toxaway company included: band
THE STATE. June 24, 1961
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