Western North Carolina: A History (1730-1913)

"John Preston Arthur's History of Western North Carolina has for many years been considered one of the prime sources of information on the growth of the western section of the state." -Asheville Citizen, April 20, 1969
"The first complete history of Western North Carolina...the author had visited every county in the mountain region...had gone to the original sources: people and their recollections, written records, old letters, legal documents." -March 17, 1963
"North Carolina historian John Preston Arthur argues that Sevier knew well the fierce bloodlust of his followers." - The Lost State of Franklin (2021)
"John Preston Arthur, the author of an early 20-century history of western North Carolina, asserted that the Cherokee women hid the weapons in their clothing." - Light on the Path (2006)

Do the people of Wester North Carolina consider themselves a distinct population with a unique history due to their geographic isolation from the rest of the state?

Prior to John Preston Arthur's 1915 book "Western North Carolina: A History," the western portion of North Carolina, perhaps because of its geographical isolation, had been little studied by any historian. Arthur's history was the pioneer in the study of western North Carolina. Arthur's chief claim to attention is due to the patient and intimate study of the people, their life, customs, and traditions, which this book abundantly exhibits.

Arthur has most painstakingly quarried out a great mass of materials. It contains the recollections of many of the author 's friends and neighbors, some of which are here presented for the first time. Intermixed with all are the traditions of a land rich in natural beauty and in stories of daring and adventure.

Following an introductory one, there are nine chapters dealing with the boundaries, colonial days, Daniel Boone, the state of Franklin, grants and litigation, county history, pioneer preachers, and roads, stage coaches, and taverns, respectively.

Interestingly, Arthur writes about a mysterious tribe of white indigenous peoples:

"There is a dim but persistent tradition of a white race having preceded the Cherokees; and of a tribe of Lilliputians or very small people, who once lived on the site of the ancient mound on the northern side of Hiwassee river, at the mouth of Peachtree creek, and afterwards went west. This was long before the normal sized whites came."

The adventures of pioneers and their efforts to form free governments, as seen in the Watauga association, are always interesting. The local view point of the author characterizes the chapter on Boone; the tories play a large part in that upon the revolution; and Governor Sevier and Colonel Tipton play the leading roles in that on the state of Franklin. The chapter upon the counties deals largely with the circumstances and conditions causing the formation of new counties and with the biographies of prominent individuals of western North Carolina.

In the chapter entitled "Manners and customs," Arthur makes his largest contributions. It is here that his humor and descriptive powers are at their best. Here it is that he makes us see again buffaloes, deer, bear, wolves, panthers, and wild cats die at the hands of the hardy pioneer, or even at the hands of the pioneer's wife, the true heroine of western North Carolina.

Then follow chapters on duels, bench and bar, notable cases and decisions, schools and colleges, newspapers, railroads, notable resorts, flora and fauna, physical peculiarities, mineralogy and geology, mines and mining, the Cherokee, the civil war, and politics.

Of all these chapters that upon the Cherokee is probably the most interesting and instructive. It tells the pitiful story of a helpless people who had adopted the white man 's civilization but who were compelled, nevertheless, to surrender to him the graves of their fat

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