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Formed in 1851 from Haywood and Macon counties, Jackson County was created by an act of the N.C. Legislature. While it established the county, that initial act made no provision for local government. The General Assembly corrected its oversight with the passage of a Dec. 22, 1852, act that named William H. Bryson, Elihu Coward, Charles Bumgarner, William Fathem (Tatham), Wesley W. Enloe, William R. Crawford and Mark Coleman as commissioners and authorized them to select a permanent seat of justice in Jackson County. A supplemental act, ratified on Dec. 27, 1852, provided that the first court would be held at "the dwelling of Daniel Bryson Sr."
Commissioners were given authority to acquire not less than 10 or more than 100 acres to establish a town to be called Webster, where a courthouse and jail would be erected. The county was named for President Andrew Jackson, a Democrat. John Davis, father of Jackson County's first sheriff, suggested the county seat be named for Daniel Webster, a prominent Whig.
The meetings to organize county government took place at the Bryson house on March 22-23, 1853. At that time citizens were appointed to the various county offices that then existed. Charles Bumgarner was elected coroner; Larkin O. Hooper, entry taker; Samuel Monteith, ranger (to exercise supervision over the disposition of stray horses and cattle); Eli Arrington, surveyor; and Joseph Strutten, standard keeper (keeper of the standard weights and measures furnished by the state).
Robert V. Welch, Abram Mingus, Abram Enloe, John H. Alley, V. Bumgarner and Benjamin M. Queen were appointed as a board of superintendents of common schools. Appointed as constables were Robert L. Sellers, Joseph N. Buchanan, Henry Jackson and William L. Davis. James Reid, Elias Carson, J.M. Davis, Samuel N. Gibson, George M. Cooper, Jacob Mason and John I. Watson were appointed wardens of the poor. Each county had seven wardens of the poor who were legally responsible for the care of the poor.
The Daniel Bryson home was designated as the location of these early meetings probably because it was "like an inn or boardinghouse," said Dotsy Bryson Carringer of Murphy, a great-great-granddaughter of the Jackson County pioneer. Carringer has been instrumental in working with the N.C. Department of Transportation to secure the commemorative marker for the site.
Daniel Granderson Bryson moved his family across the Balsam Mountains to the Scotts Creek area in 1811, when it was still part of Haywood County. He built his first home at Fosters Siding (where the Budweiser plant is presently) and moved them into a larger home in Beta the following year.
Carringer's father was longtime Jackson County commissioner Jennings Bryson, who served from 1946 until 1962. During the time he was a commissioner, Jennings Bryson was instrumental in acquiring the site of the old Bryson home for the county so that a monument could be erected. However, that goal was not accomplished and the property reverted to the present owner, Dan Bryson Hooper of Sylva, a great-great-grandson of the first Daniel Bryson.
In addition to Hooper, two other great-great-grandchildren of the first Daniel Bryson - Mary Cecil Bryson Patterson and Kenneth Reed - still live in Sylva.
Participating in the Oct. 27 ceremony will be U.S. District Court Judge Lacy Thornburg of Webster, who will dedicate the marker; and N.C. Representative Phil Haire of Sylva and N.C. Senator Dan Robinson of Cullowhee, who will unveil the marker.
Information about the first court and first organized Jackson County government was taken from "The History of Jackson County," published in 1987 by the Jackson County Historical Association.
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