_ eel History _
By Billy Arthur
The Buncombe Turnpike
It was not unusual in the mid- 1800s to find noisy drives of
cattle, hogs and turkeys lining Western North Carolina roads
on their wav to market.
TarH
of gelling away from home, seeing some¬
thing of the world and maybe finding
buried treasure along the way.
They became expert whip-crackers and
hog-callers. Their jobs were to "drive 50
or 100 hogs each through dust anti mud.
across fords and ferries, through moun¬
tains and villages, herding, feeding,
butchering when necessary on a journey
that would lake them the better part of a
month."
Imagine, if you will, driving your horse-
drawn chaise around the year 1800
along a winding mountain road to
town on business or merely to en joy the
rainbow-hued foliage on the hillsides in
autumn. You round a bend and meet
head-on a herd of 600 grunting hogs. 500
gobbling turkeys or 600 mooing cattle.
No argument about the right-of-way.
They take it. Your chaise is forced far
aside, sometimes for hours, and out of the
way of the awkwardly passing creatures.
Tlie October through December drives
of birds and IxrasLs were en route. They
were described by Wilma Dykeman in The
French Broad as “a slow, noisy, ludicrous old
bunch of tourists . . . on their way to the
holiday platters of city folk" and planta¬
tion owners of South Carolina and Geor¬
gia.
Coming from Tennessee and Kentucky
and picking up traffic along the way, they
traversed what were originally Indian trad¬
ing paths. The most widely known and
used route was through the Appalachians
via Warm Springs in Madison County and
Asheville, southward through Saluda Gap
to Spartanburg. Greenville. Charleston
and Savannah. Depending upon point of
origin, the nearest market was a distance
of some 200 miles, about 70 of which were
steep and winding paths along the French
Broad River.
With the coming of plank roads, the
main route through the mountains
became known as the Buncombe Turn¬
pike. and during the first half of the 19th
century it stayed congested in the hill with
"a continual stream of herds and flocks of
neighing, baaing, quacking, gobbling and
squealing" creatures. The volume peaked
in the 1830s and 1840s.
Turnpike tollgatc records indicated
that 150.000 to 200,000 hogs passed on it
annually at 2 cents per head. They
required anywhere from three to 10 men
a drove at 15 cents per rider and horse. 5
cents for a man afoot and 10 cents for
horse being led. Ferries charged 1 cent
per head for all stock.
After 1870. when the railroads were
pushing westward and offering faster and
more economical transportation, the
number of drives dwindled, and the num¬
ber of "stands for man and beast" lx-gan
to disappear. Places where the drives
would hold up for rest and food were
called "stands."
The greatest traffic was in hogs, raised
on acreage in Western North Carolina
and beyond, which had been acquired by
settlers principally through Revolutionary
War grants for service. The animals had
fattened on acorns and beechnuts of the
forests where they ranged. The drovers
were fanner/owners or brokers who had
bought up stock for resale. Usually riding
horseback in front of a cavalcade to show-
status, the drovers employed drivers, most
of whom walked and carried whips or
canes, some with bright red cloth strips on
the tips.
These drivers were stout and young,
cither kinsmen of the drovers or adven¬
turers who signed on for die excitement
Their pay? Fifteen dollars plus "found."
which was good food — and
plenty of it. plus, hopefully,
some sort of shelter with
niavbe a bed for the night.
In droves, fowl were the most
difficult to handle. The half¬
wild turkeys were the most
independent, troublesome
and ornery of all. In drifts of
400 to 600. they moved un¬
hurriedly in a line headed by
an old pompously sashaying
gobbler, which at any time
might have decided to take to
the woods, with others follow¬
ing behind and scattering.
Then, the walking drivers with
their red-tipped canes faced the difficult
job of rounding them up before nightfall.
At that time, whether on the road or at a
stand, the turkeys flew into the trees to
roost, and the unlucky drivers, unable to
dislodge them, might have had to spend
the night in the open.
Ducks were almost as bad. At any sight
of still water they might have taken a
notion to go swimming.
I logs were second to fowl for being
unhurried and stubborn. They'd plod
only a few miles a day. then plop down on
the ground and refuse to budge. Thus,
stands were found from five to seven miles
apart.
Horses and cattle, faster afoot and eas¬
iest to handle, could make 15 to 20 miles
per day.
The stands were busy places. In 1857 a
traveler at Warm Springs reported 373 cat¬
tle. 400 hogs and about 1 .000 turkeys and
ducks there at the same time.
The stands were usually anchored by a
two-story inn or big house of the owner,
where the drover usually stayed. Nearby
was a bunkhouse or small cabins for the
drivers, who usually slept in blanket rolls
or on pallets. Beds were at a premium.
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