State

Gum King, Dan Boone, Buffalo Bill; a champion free, an inventor, and a college; two martyrs and ghosts Rtf PAUL PLEASANTS Frank Fleer, a native of Germany, made his money in Pennsylvania oil wells, but he is chiefly remembered because he gave his name to a chewing gum. Fleer got the chewing gum plant when the operating company defaulted on a loan. He devised the Chiclet gum, waged a tremendous sales campaign, and made additional millions before selling out. Fleer came to Davidson before World War I and established himself on Cedar Lodge, a farm he turned into a model estate. He built miles of macadam roads through the farm, stocked it with purebred animals and modern machinery. Meantime, he in¬ vested in a chain of movie houses and returned to the gum business, putting out a product called “Bobs." Bui Fleer’s outspoken pro- German sentiments during the war cost him dearly. People wouldn't buy his gum and even his Davidson neighbors resented his defense of the kaiser. He fi¬ nally sold out his interests and left North Carolina. Cedar Lodge since then has been broken up into tracts and sold to vari¬ ous individuals. However, Mr. Fleer's connection with North Carolina had a happier ending. After the war. he returned to Thomasville and purchased Uhwarrie Farm, consisting of several hundred acres and built thereon a beautiful mansion. He married Miss Willie Jen¬ kins of Gastonia just a few months be¬ fore his death, which occurred Oct. 31, 1921. at the age of 64. BOONE'S CABIN & CAVES When Squire Boone about 175(1 built his first North Carolina cabin on the banks of the Yadkin, he started a sort of perpetual cabin-building pro¬ gram. Boone's cabin now” occupying the same site is the 5th to be built there, all supposed to be approximate replicas of the original. The area around the cabin now is a park maintained by the Daniel Boone Memorial Association, and is a week-end goal of picnickers and sight-sec rs. There is a care¬ taker. and a concession stand and a pavilion. Nearby are two caves, one of them called Boone's Cave. In this, according to local tradi¬ tion. Dan Boone as a child hid here from a parts of raiding In¬ dians. The I960 General Assembly ap¬ propriated SI 0.000 for improvement and maintenance of the park. SWEARING CREEK It seems a shame to kill the neat legend concerning the name of this creek in Davidson County. It was so called, said the old fable, because trad¬ ers here crossing the stream into In¬ dian territory swore they would not reveal any of the shenanigans they practiced while away from home. Many of the traders had Indian wives and children, unbeknownest to their families back home. There were other practices bordering on skulduggery, and the traders banded in an informal society of secret-keepers. But actually, said Jacob Calvin Leonard in his history, a family Old born on iho W. A. Reid term shows romp up which horses were led lo the loll. There they tromped the groin out of the shocks; the groin lolling through crocks inlo bins below.