State

Market Square of old Averasboro. It’s just another country crossroads now. Dreams of Empire The settlers of loner Harnett County were determined to make their town the metropolis of A'ortli Carolina, and here's how they started out to do it. «?/ MALCOLM FOWLLIt FOUNDED by pirates, developed by American colonists, destroyed by the railroads. That, briefly, is the history of the ghost town of old Averasboro lying at the foot of Smi¬ ley’s Falls on the Cape Fear River in the southern part of Harnett County. Time was when it was the jumping off place for thousands of Scot settlers heading westward and for other thou¬ sands of English colonists flowing east¬ ward to meet the incoming tide of immigration from Albemarle. It saw the fierce, pitiless struggle between Whig and Tory during the Revolu¬ tion, and for a long period thereafter it was a garrison post for troops of the young nation. In its heyday of growth it was a frontier town compa¬ rable to Dodge City, Tombstone or To- nopah of our later day West. Averasboro laid no claim to any William Pitts, Lord Byrons or Dolly Madisons. It had ladies and gentle¬ men of high quality, and rogues and rascals, too. You’d find buckskin clad pioneers there, and planters in from the Back Country for a big spree. Slave traders and merchants from far places haggled over prices in its mar¬ ket square. But, transcending all else, Averasboro had men of far vision and great expectations. They saw an inland port with herds of waiting ships drowsing at their an¬ chorages like sleepy cows in pens. They visioned the wasted power of Smiley’s Falls harnessed to factory wheels and they mentally created a great city with wide, tree-lined streets and magnificent homes. Wonderful dreams they had, those citizens of old Averasboro. The early history of Averasboro is shrouded in the mists of antiquity. The Colonial Records mention the breuk-up of the pirate crew of Captain John Avery at the mouth of the Cape Fear about 1696. Many of these— and later-day pirates — fled up the Cape Fear and its tributaries to escape banging or the far worse fate of be¬ ing broken on the wheel. Some of them were captured and “after proper trvall were hanged as was Fitt.” Avery him¬ self is supposed to have escaped and returned to his home at Avery’s Rest in Delaware. The late historian of Harnett County, D. P. McDonald, states in his writings that the records of Barbecue Church mention n settlement at Averasboro in 1729. When the first recorded Avera of Cumberland settled there in 1766, he found a thriving community going under the name of Avervville. And a close inspection of the names of Captain Avery’s crew show a striking similarity to names found on early land grants in that section. That may not be conclusive evidence but it does look corroborative. An Excellent Location It wasn’t until the end of the Revo¬ lution that the citizens of Averyville began to have mass dreams of empire. Finished with raids and counter-raids and indiscriminate hangings of luck¬ less members of opposing sides, the settlement began to take stock of itself. It was a natural location for a town : high, dry, healthy; water for power and transportation was nearby; the virgin forest and rich soil was waiting for development. Misfortune dogged the settlement at the beginning. It engaged heatedly in the struggle involving the perma¬ nent location of the state capitol, and anybody in Harnett and upper Cum¬ berland will tell you it only lost by the slim margin of a vote or two. Not nt all downcast by their fail¬ ure, the citizens decided Joel Lane could have the capitol and its fields of broom sedge. They would have the fin¬ est city in North Carolina. Captain Alexander Avora offered 120 acres for a town site and the Assembly of 1791 chartered the town of Averas- burgh with William Avera, Robert Draughon, Philemon Hodge, William Rand and David Smith as the first town commissioners. Shortly after¬ wards the namo was changed to Averasboro. They laid off a town of 36 blocks with a market square where the four center streets intersected. These cen¬ ter streets were 132 feet wide, while the side streets were 66 feet- -they did things on a big scale in old Averas¬ boro. They built a slave market, a stage stop and taverns. A salt market was established, and down toward the river a great cooperage for the manu¬ facture of turpentine barrels was built. Turpentine distilleries lined the bluff leading down to the Cape Fear, and ( Continued on page twenty)