DAVY CROCKETT *01 among rhe mighty men
ol history who frequented this home of the Cor-
sons on Buck Creek ot Pleosant Gordons in Me*
Dowell County.
Crockett, his hot beaten to tatters from urging
his horse on, wos the first to reoch Pleasant
Gardens with the news thot U. S. Congressmen
Som Corson hod won
о
pistol duel over Dr. R. B.
Vonce of Asheville, fought ot Soludo Gop, S. C,
in 1827 os the trogie climox to
о
bitter con¬
gressional roce between Corson and Vonce.
In 1836 Som Corson left Plcosont Gordons to
join his friends Crockett ond Som Houston in
Texos ond become the first Secretory of Stole
of the new republic.
Historic Home Becomes a Museum
The stately and sturdy 150-year old
John Carson mansion in which the
county of McDowell was organized is
being turned into a museum of his¬
tory.
In the late spring, some of its rooms
will he opened to visitors.
"We are gathering in some furniture
now, and many items have been of¬
fered, some on loan,” says Miss Mary
Greenlee, chairman of Carson Home
Restoration, Inc.
Carson family members were promi¬
nent in county, state and national af¬
fairs. Most colorful and best known as
a national figure was one of the
colonel’s sons, Samuel Price Carson,
a state legislator at age 24, a U. S.
congressman eight years later, and at
40 the first Secretary of State of the
Republic of Texas.
The Carsons were friends of many
outstanding men at the national level,
among them Sam Houston. Davy
Crockett, President Andrew Jackson,
John C. Calhoun and Nathaniel Ma¬
con — and something of these histori¬
cal figures will be included in the Car-
son house restoration.
The Carson home served as Mc¬
Dowell County's temporary courthouse
By KOS VMOM) IIRVLY
for two years following the organizing
of the new county in 1843.
Colonel John Carson, paternal an¬
cestor of the large Carson family, was
a man of education who, historical
rumor says, left his native Ireland be¬
cause he didn't want to conform to his
family’s wish that he be an Episcopal
rector. He settled in what is now Mc¬
Dowell County (then Burke) about
1773.
Carson married into the McDowell
family, whose name McDowell Coun¬
ty was to bear. He was a delegate to
the Fayetteville Convention of 1789
at which North Carolina voted adop¬
tion of the federal constitution. He rep¬
resented Burke in the state legislature
in 1805 and 1806, and three of his
sons later were legislators: Joseph Mc¬
Dowell Carson (of Rutherford, who
built the famed Green River Man¬
sion». Sam and William M. Carson of
Burke.
Carson acquired great wealth which
included some 80,000 acres of land.
And when he picked a site for his
mansion - completed about 1810 —
he used a beautiful location beside fast-
flowing Buck Creek, the Catawba
River running just back of the site.
(Three decades later when the
County of McDowell was created.
Colonel Jonathan Logan Carson,
youngest son of the old colonel, gave
50 acres of Carson land four miles to
the cast of the family mansion on
which to establish the courthouse and
county-scat, Marion.)
Well back from the road which has
grown into U.S. Highway 70 to
Marion's west, the old Carson house
is fronted by a lane of ancient Eng¬
lish boxwoods and is shaded by tow¬
ering hemlocks and hollies. It passed
from Carson ownership soon after the
Civil War, and although later owners
have done rcntodcling much of the
original architecture remains.
The main part of the house is three
stories high. Architectural features in¬
clude massive twin chimneys at each
end and double-story verandas span¬
ning the wide front.
The interior walls of the original
part of the house are 12-inch walnut
logs, covered over with white clap¬
boards.
( Continued on page 14)
THE STATE. May 23. 1964
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