People
The Bakersville Riot: The Greatest Battle In America since the Massacre of Little Big Horn
In 1893, an event known as the Bakersville Riot launched Bakersville across the front pages of newspapers worldwide.The events leading up to the riot occurred eleven years earlier. In 1882 Will, Dick, and Tom Whitson, three brothers of the Red Hill Community, murdered...
Thomas Greene: Soldier, Miner, Philanthropist
In 1870, the Mitchell County census listed three people as miners by profession or occupation. The 1880 census lists 81 people as being associated with mines and mining. At the center of this dramatic economic development, the heart of which was to become the...
A Very Special Six Months in Buladean
For many years, churches in our community served dual roles as centers of religious and social activity on Sundays, and also during the week,as schools for students of all ages. The Presbyterian Church played a pivotal role in the early education of Mitchell County...
Robert G. Young Was an Educator of Merit
Robert George Young was born 6/19/1926 in Mitchell County, the son of Frank B. Young (1894-1986) and Isabella Wilson Young (1897-1982). His great- grandfather was Greenberry Young (1822-1898), an early resident of the Young Cove community in Mitchell County. ...
The Greenlee House Once Stood Proud on Grassy Creek
James Greenlee (1740-1813) of Morganton bought a 640-acre tract of land on Grassy Creek from John Carson, owner of large acreage in Burke County. The tract of land in what is now Mitchell County passed from James Greenlee, who also owned land in Burke, McDowell,...
Nina Silver Turbyfill: WWII Army Nursing Corps
Nina Silver was born 2 August 1920 to Fred Edwin and Edna Mae Jarrett Turbyfill in the Bandana Community of Mitchell County. She attended the Bandana Elementary School and graduated from Bowman High School, entered Lee’s McRae College, and graduated from the in 1942....
Mitchell County Native Dr. N.G. Blalock – Irrigating the Walla Walla & Columbia River Valleys
Many Mitchell County natives have gone on to successful lives in far-away lands, but few are held in as great esteem in their adopted homes as Dr. Nelson Gales Blalock of Walla Walla, Washington. He was a skilled student and attended school in the Spruce Pine area,...
N.C. Women’s Suffrage: The Mitchell County Connections
North Carolina women began their efforts to be recognized as full participants in the political process in 1863 at the convention to write a constitution for the State with no positive results. In 1884, the National Woman Suffrage Association held a convention in...
W.G. Honeycutt – A Mitchell County Hero
Veterans Day is a holiday created to celebrate our real-life heroes. When we think of heroes, they often seem larger than life and we tend to forget they are real people. One real-life hero from our very own Mitchell County was WWII Veteran, William Gibbs Honeycutt...
James Oliver Young: World War II and Christian Hero
James Oliver Young was born to William Patrick Henry and Dora Sina Buchanan Young 31 August 1910 in the Clarissa community on Cane Creek. His siblings included Ethel Eve, Robert N, Moses Lafayette, Josephine Leah, and Paul Edward Young. After graduating from Bowman...