Ruralite Cafe: Published 10/25/01

By Lynn Hotaling - Associate Editor

'History of Jackson County' is available again

The 1987 edition is nothing short of invaluable, and this year's volume appears to be even more so, if that's possible. Again edited by Max Williams, professor emeritus of history at Western Carolina University, the history book includes one all-new chapter that chronicles the past 13 years of life in Jackson County and features updated information that lists county schools, churches, cemeteries and post offices. And it has at least 20 additional photographs.

'Just the other day I got a call from Ruby Bennett in Cullowhee. She told me how much she enjoyed a recent column that listed, in alphabetical order, all the schools that have existed in Jackson County through the years.

"I didn't know you knew all that!" she said.

In truth, I didn't. I knew how to look it up in the history book and write it down, though.

We've treasured our copy because the books have been out of print for several years. In fact, the Sesquicentennial Edition almost didn't happen.

Williams appealed to county commissioners for funding help a year or so ago but was unsuccessful, and state-level budget constraints dried up other potential avenues. With the hourglass about to run out, Joe Rhinehart, president of both the Jackson County Historical Association and Webster Historical Society, and his brother, Jim, decided to use a bequest from their late parents, Joe and Kate Rhinehart, to underwrite this year's edition.

I had some great teachers when I went to WCU back in the 1970s, and five of them - Jim Horton, Cliff Lovin, John Bell, James Dooley (OK, I admit it - I only had Dr. Dooley for chorus, but that counts) and Max Williams - played a part in creating my favorite history book.

Would you like to know who was sheriff in 1885? How about 1912's register of deeds? Or maybe you've been hoping to find out who was clerk of court in 1899.

Did you know that Jackson County once had an elected surveyor? Well, even if you did, do you know who was the official county surveyor in 1920? If you had a copy of "The History of Jackson County," you'd know all these answers and more.

You'd know all about the Meigs-Freeman Line that was the basis of many early surveys. It roughly paralleled the north bank of the Tuckaseigee River and served as the Indian boundary for years.

And you'd know that logging railroads once crisscrossed our mountains, heading up into the remotest of coves and hollows to bring the big timber to the sawmills.

With a copy of the history book you could learn all about how Jackson County was carved from Haywood and Macon counties and how our government was established at the Daniel Bryson homeplace in Beta. Former Sylva Herald News Editor J.D. McRorie wrote that chapter, and it also tells how William Allen Dills, father of North Carolina's first female state senator, Gertrude Dills McKee, and how Sylva got its name from a wandering Dane who was kind to young Mae Hampton, daughter of Gen. E.R. Hampton, who once owned most of the land inside Sylva's original boundaries.

You could also learn about one of the most important figures in Jackson County's past, William Holland Thomas.

"The early political history of Jackson County centers around the career of one man - William Holland Thomas," wrote Gordon McKinney in the history volume. "Thomas, a native of Haywood County, would be best known to later generations as the defender of the Cherokee. But to his contemporary settlers, he was a successful farmer in Whittier who owned extensive lands throughout the western part of the state...Thomas was a powerful local politician who was a member of the state Legislature from 1848 to 1862 and one of the leading spokesmen for the Democratic party in the highland region. His personal popularity was so great that he won all but nine of the votes cast in the 1854 legislative election."

I could go on and on, but I won't. You'll have to buy the book. But I will give you the answers to that first set of questions.

(Answers: D.G. Bingham was sheriff in 1885; John R. Jones was 1912's register of deeds; clerk of court in 1899 was Felix S. Alley; and W.H. Smith was Jackson's elected surveyor in 1920.)

I started out as a history major at WCU but switched to biology. Here at The Herald, through the 1989 Sylva and Dillsboro centennial and this year's county's sesquicentennial, I seem to have reverted to the past.

It's nice that my former professors are still providing the lesson plans.

(Editor's Note: The Sesquicentennial Edition of "The History of Jackson County," edited by Max Williams, is on sale now at City Lights in Sylva. The cost is $40 plus tax.)

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