History
Ted Morgan ~ Mitchell County’s First World War II Casualty
Arthur Theodore “Ted” Morgan was born March 18, 1915 to John Lindsey and Cora Sophronia Melton Morgan in the Cane Creek area of Mitchell County. Several official documents associated with him indicate Clarrissa. His brothers included George Bruce, Forest, and Marcus...
An Early History of the Bakersville United Methodist Church
Critically important pieces of Mitchell County History are the stories of our churches. Some works of note such as Lloyd Bailey, A History of the Methodist Church in the Toe River Valley, from which the current story draws significantly and James Oliver Young, A...
April Fools
According to Wikipedia, April Fools’ Day is “an annual custom on April 1, consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes.” April Fools’ Day is not a public holiday in any nation, but it is commonly observed around the world. Some historians suggest the basis of the April...
The Spanish Lady Visits Mitchell County
A lot of older folks recall their parents and grandparents telling stories about the deadly “grippe” that many Mitchell County families suffered 100 years ago. One grandson remembers being told: “They said that some took sick and died in two or three days. It was...
“My Dear Companion” – Letters Home From the Civil War
The Civil War was hard, certainly, on the soldiers called away from home, whether or not they believed in the cause for which they fought. It was also extremely trying for their loved ones left at home. One couple separated by the Civil War was Garrett DeWeese Gouge...
The Mother of Little Switzerland ~ Nancy Buchanan
Nancy M. DeWeese was born 2/2/1842 in Missouri, where her parents, Louis DeWeese and Rachel Matilda McKinney DeWeese, had moved. Her father died when she was 5, and her mother took her and her two sisters, Jane Elizabeth (1837-1889) and Mary (1844-1929) back to North...
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...