State

Drea s of an E pire Probably no other town in North Carolina ever bail the exciting ami hectic experi¬ ences which Averasboro underwent in its hid for glory and before its final collapse. ON* a sunny day in the Spring of 1797 Averasboro resembled a Roaring Gulch of the Califor¬ nia of 1819. Wagons were creaking into and out of town loaded with a miscellany of products, mostly con¬ struction materials going into the building of the Averasboro Canal— a vast ditch forty feet wide and almost as many deep in places. A ditch that was to skirt the dangerous Smiley’s Falls and pour the products of the Piedmont into Averasboro. Down toward the river, could be heard the singing of hundreds of Ne¬ gro slaves in steady cadence with the thump of pick and scrape of shovel as they drove the canal upriver. Averas¬ boro was on the march — nothing could keep it from becoming the fin¬ est city in the state. It had every¬ thing in its favor: ideal location, along with power for the factories and transportation down the Cape Fear to the outside world. A Mammoth Undertaking Preliminary work on the lower end of the canal where it debouched in Captain Alexander A vera's low- ground, had been completed. Ahead of the slaves went the surveyors, charting the course of the canal and marking the locations for Humes to carry the canal over the deep ravines cutting down to the river’s edge. Week after week rolled by and the big ditch pushed steadily onward: by McAllister’s cowpcns, William A vera's lowground and on into Jo¬ seph Adams' grant. Then disaster struck ! They ran into rock — not the glacial boulders or soft slate stone which was easy enough to handle, but an iron- hard continuation of the Narrow Gap granite vein. The surveyors rechecked their borings. They were correct, but through some mischance, the boring which should have shown up the granite strata had missed it. Various ideas were considered, then discard¬ ed. They just had to go through that vein. A Frustrated Effort The company spent as much money covering three hundred yards of that By MALCOLM FOWLER rock course as they had on four miles of the canal. They poured out money on it like water on a three-alarm fire, but with less effect. If Nobel had come along about that time there would be a monument to him at Averasboro today. Gunpowder is a poor substitute for dynamite. Admit Defeat Sadly, the citizens of Averasboro admitted defeat, and for years there¬ after the Sheriff of Cumberland County was busy selling out the peo¬ ple who had sunk everything in the venture. The curious, wanting to know the names of those visionaries, are referred to the records covering the period from 1800 to 1810 in the Register of Deeds office at Fayette¬ ville. Just pick out the sheriff’s deeds during that time and nine out of ten of them will trace back to a canal investor. It took the hardy Averasburghers nearly fifty years to get over that beating. The town settled into a time¬ worn rut where todays are like yes¬ terdays and tomorrows are like to¬ days. Just another little settlement where nothing ever happens. Then REAL LIVING “A little more kindness, A little less creed, A little more giving, A little less greed, A little more smile, A little less frown, A little less kicking, A man when he’s down. A little more ‘we,’ A little less ’I,' A little more laugh, A little less cry A little more flowers On the pathway of life, And fewer on graves At the end of the strife.” — Anonymous. news of a discovery swept the com¬ munity like a prairie fire. Iron had been found in Buekhorn, a few miles above Averasboro ! Almost instantly, Averasboro came to life as news of the discovery gal¬ vanized it into activity. Never dull- witted, it was quick to add Chatham County’s coal mines to the Buekhorn iron mines and produce a revitalized Averasboro. It was a natural set-up: Tho coal could be floated down the Cape Fear to Buekhorn to smelt the iron ore. thence on down the river with the fin¬ ished product. Then the specter of Smiley’s Falls reared its ghostly head to remind the wild-eyed Averas¬ burghers of the fate of their grand- sire's dreams. The sobered citizens thought the matter out. All right ; suppose Smiley’s Falls had licked their forefathers. They would try another system. They chartered the Cape Fear and Deep River Navigation Company, but this time, the State of North Carolina, bit once, shied off and only invested $40,000 in the new venture, and sat back with skeptical hope. This time the* Averasburghers went down to the river itself. At the six sets of rapids between Averasboro and Buekhorn they built rock dams across the stream ; with a set of locks at each dam. A Different Breed of Men This time, too, it was a different breed of men who did the building: hard-bitten, hard-drinking engineers led the way for the inevitable Irish, carefree Hungarian and sad-eyed Slovak pick-and-shovel artists. Averasboro became their headquar¬ ters, and also the wildest, gayest town in the South. Nightly the streets resounded to the wild, gypsy music of the Hungarians, further enlivened with knock-down, dragout, no rules needed — or heeded — fist fights be¬ tween the Irish, interspersed with an occasional shooting. Just what part the solemn Slovaks played in this is not clear — unless it лгав burying the remains of a shoot¬ ing. Along with all this ran the night- ( Continued on page twenty-four ) 14