History
John Graves Heap: Union Operative?
John Graves Heap and his business partner Elisha Bogue Clapp are credited with bringing large-scale mica mining operations to the Toe River Valley. They came here with their families in 1870 and within a few years owned and managed over a dozen mines that employed...
Spanning The Toe
This downtown landmark, labeled the “bottleneck bridge”, was built in 1922. At that time, it was the intersection of NC 226 and US 19E, as the Minpro bypass had not yet been built. Traffic congestion was a nightmare at times, not only because of the large number of...
The First Episcopal Church in the Toe River Valley
The story of the Bakersville Episcopal Church begins with the story of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina on Roanoke Island in 1587, continues with its reunification after the Civil War by Bishop Thomas Atkinson, and moves closer with his efforts that resulted in...
William Davis – The Oldest Veteran of The Battle of Kings Mountain and Other Revolutionary Veterans Buried in the Toe River Valley
As we conclude our series on the Battle of Kings Mountain, we thought we would take some time to note a couple of veterans of the battle that ended up in the Toe River Valley, along with ones from other battles that are buried in our area. One of the soldiers who...
The Battle of Kings Mountain ~ The Turn of the Tide of Success
The Battle of King’s Mountain was a crucial American victory in the War for Independence. The British had taken the fighting to the South, confident the large number of Loyalists there would bring a Patriot defeat, and the fall of Charleston in May 1780 had indeed...
Wiseman, Baker, and Davenport: Toe River Valley Families and the Battle of Kings Mountain
Three prominent family names from the Toe River Valley are closely associated with the Battle of Kings Mountain: Wiseman, Baker, and Davenport. Their personal relationships began along the James River in Virginia and continued to North Carolina along the Johns River...
With Fire and Sword
It was September of 1780, and British Major Patrick Ferguson had had enough. The Revolutionary War was in its fifth year and the British turned their attention to the southern colonies. British leaders believed that many citizens in this south remained loyal to King...
Jonathan Tipton of Kings Mountain Fame and His Descendants
Major Jonathan Tipton was one of the Overmountain Men who marched from Tennessee to Kings Mountain and fought in the 10/7/1780 battle that was “the turning point of the America Revolution” (Thomas Jefferson). Besides traveling along the Overmountain Victory Trail...
John Sevier’s Mitchell County Connections
Heralded hero of the Battle of Kings Mountain and first governor of the new state of Tennessee (elected 5 additional times), John Sevier has several connections to Mitchell County. John’s grandfather was Valentine “The Huguenot” Sevier, born 1678 in Paris, France, but...
The Cherokee Wars
When the French and Indian War ended in 1763, territory from the Atlantic to the Mississippi was ceded to Britain by France. Native Americans living in the area looked to the Crown to protect them from incursions of land-hungry settlers, but the Proclamation of 1763...