North Carolina 60th Infantry Regiment (Civil War)

The North Carolina 60th Infantry Regiment was organized at Greenville, Tennessee, during the summer of 1862 by adding four companies to the 6th North Carolina State Infantry Battalion. The men were recruited in Asheville and the four counties of Madison, Buncombe, and Polk, and a small number were from Tennessee. The The 60th fought at Murfreesboro , served in Mississippi, then participated in the campaigns of the Army of Tennessee from Chickamauga to Bentonville . It lost 3 killed, 65 wounded, and 11 missing at Murfreesboro, and in January, 1863, had 276 men present for duty. The unit reported 8 killed, 36 wounded , and 16 missing of the 150 engaged at Chickamauga, totalled 106 men and 59 arms in December, 1863, and mustered a force of 106 in January, 1865. Few surrendered in April. Assigned to Preston's, Stovall's, Reynolds', Brown's and Reynolds' Consolidated, and Palmer's Brigade. Officers included: Colonels Washington M. Hardy and Joseph A. McDowell; Lieutenant Colonels William H. Deaver, J.M. Ray, and James T. Weaver; and Majors James T. Huff and William W. McDowell.

The 60th was formed by the increasing of the 6th NC Infantry Battalion to a regiment in 1862. The regiment was in the Department of East Tennessee in 62 and the Army of Middle Tennessee. Latter in 62 they were with the Army of Tennessee. Breckingridge’s Division of the Department of the West and Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana and 2nd Corps of the Army of Tennessee in 63. In late 63 they served in Stevenson’s Division, 1 Corps and 2nd Corps of the Army of Tennessee until April of 65. In was in their service with Stevenson’s Division that they were consolidated with the 58th and designated as the 58th Infantry Regiment Consolidated at Smithfield, NC.

Asheville was not always known as peaceful, elegant or especially inviting. This mountain city became a vital Confederate military center during the Civil War. The first company of soldiers west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Buncombe Rifles, carried a flag made from the silk dresses of town belles when it marched on April 18, 1861. Seven of the 10 companies comprising the 60th North Carolina Regiment were Buncombe men.

"The Buncombe Farmers," Company E, 60th Regiment N.C. Troops
"The Buncombe Guards," Company F, 16th Regiment N.C. Troops (6th Regiment N.C. Volunteers)
"The Buncombe Life Guards," Company H, 29th Regiment N.C. Troops
"The Buncombe Light Artillery," Company A, 60th Regiment N.C. Troops
"The Buncombe Rangers," Company G, 9th Regiment N.C. State Troops (1st Regiment N.C. Cavalry)
"The Buncombe Riflemen," Company E, 1st Regiment N.C. Volunteers
"The Buncombe Rifles," Company E, 1st Regiment N.C. Volunteers
"The Buncombe Sharp Shooters," Company F, 16th Regiment N.C. Troops (6th Regiment N.C. Volunteers)

Fort McDowell

EARLY FORT IS DESCRIBED

Dr. J. M. Spainhour's description of Fort McDowell in his writing of the story of Lydia Burchfield, is of interest. Fort McDowell, according the Spainhour, was located on the bottom lands of the Catawba River, a mile and three quarters from where the town of Morganton now stands. He says,

"The fort was a stockade, and had been erected in 1756-57 when the Indians had threatened the white settlers and was constructed of logs 25 feet long; the logs were halved and the edges trimmed to fit the one it joined. A ditch five feet deep was dug in the ground and the timbers standing erected with the flat side, but were securely fastened together by cross pieces, and the lower ends securely packed in the ground.

John Erwin Patton Smith (1834-1921)

John Erwin Patton Smith (1834-1921)

Among the prominent citizens of Ellijay District of Gilmer County, Georgia, was John Erwin Patton Smith. J.E.P. was born 21 April 1834 near Swannanoa, Buncombe County, North Carolina. He was a son of Daniel Smith, Junior (1798-1866) and Margaret Isabella McRee (1801-1885), youngest daughter of the noted Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Dr. James McRee (1752-1840) and Rachel Cruser (1761-1856). J.E.P. was a grandson of Captain Daniel Smith (1757-1824), a well known Indian fighter and North Carolina militia officer during the Revolutionary War, and Mary McConnell Davidson (1762-1842). J.E.P.'s father moved the family to Gilmer County about 1844, settling northeast of Ellijay near Turniptown. Here J.E.P. was a farmer like his father.

All about Dynamic Views for Readers

All about Dynamic Views for Readers

A Souvenir Directory to the Land of the Sky (1898)

A Souvenir Directory to the Land of the Sky, T. M. Barker, Jr. (1898)

To view the book, click on the above link.

Buncombe County: A Brief History

In 1791, David Vance and William Davidson presented to the North Carolina House of Commons a "petition of the inhabitants of that part of Burke County lying west of the Appalachian Mountains praying that a part of said county, and part of Rutherford County, be made into a separate and distinct county." The original bill to create the county gave as its name "Union." The name was changed, however, to Buncombe in honor of Col. Edward Buncombe, a Revolutionary War hero from Tyrell County. The Buncombe bill was ratified on January 14, 1792. The new county included most of Western North Carolina and was so large it was commonly referred to it as the "State of Buncombe." Approximately 1,000 people lived in the county.

North Carolina in the Civil War

The North Carolina Office of Archives and History is sponsoring the first of three Civil War sesquicentennial conferences at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh on May 20, the anniversary of the state’s secession from the Union, entitled “Contested Past: Memories and Legacies of the Civil War.” The agenda features eighteen speakers including the keynote address by David Blight of Yale University. Registration is $25 which includes refreshments, a boxed lunch, and afternoon reception. The program can be found at:

North Carolina in the Civil War
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Click on map for larger image.

Highland Hospital (Asheville, North Carolina)

Asheville, N. C., March 11, 1948 (AP) -- Fire roared through a mental hospital here early today and snuffed out the lives of nine women patients. They died as 20 others, some screaming, some calm, were led to safety. Flames quickly engulfed the four-story central building of the Highland Hospital for nervous diseases. Wailing of some of the 29 women echoed over the spacious grounds. Firemen, police, nurses, doctors and townspeople rushed to the rescue. But seven women were trapped on the upper floors. Two others removed by firemen died in a short while. It was the third fire in the hospital in less than a year. Fire Chief J. C. Fitzgerald said two broke out last April. One ignited a mattress and the other started from oil-soaked rags tucked under a stairway.

Chief Fitzgerald said he believed today's fire started in the kitchen of the hospital's central building. But that had not been officially determined. DR. B. T. Bennett, hospital medical director, estimated the fire loss at $300,000. Miss Betty Uboenga of Lincoln, Ill., assistant supervisor, described how she and Supervisor Frances Render of Scarboro, W. Va., first went after the helpless patients. "We felt that the others were awake and would help themselves," she said. "As soon as we got the helpless ones out and safely put away elsewhere, we rushed back to help others. By then we knew some had been trapped. Some of them were awake, we know, and were rousing the others. It seemed no time at all until the entire building was like a furnace."

Florence Morning News (South Carolina) 12 March 1948.
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Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (July 24, 1900 – March 10, 1948), born Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, Alabama, was an American novelist and the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. In 1936, Zelda entered the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, and she was in and out of this facility until her death. Scott died in Hollywood in 1940, having last seen Zelda a year and a half earlier. She spent her remaining years working on a second novel, which she never completed, and she painted extensively. In 1948, the hospital at which she was a patient caught fire, causing her death. On the night of March 10, 1948, a fire broke out in the hospital kitchen. It moved through the dumbwaiter shaft, spreading onto every floor. The fire escapes were wooden, and caught fire as well. Nine women, including Zelda, died.

In 1939, the founder of the Highland Hospital Dr. Robert S. Carroll entrusted the hospital to the Neuropsychiatric Department of Duke University. It was during this time that on the night of March 10, 1948, the deadly fire mentioned above broke out in the main building and took the lives of nine women. Duke owned the property until the 1980s, and today the complex functions as an office park and shopping plaza.

National Register of Historic Places: http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/asheville/hig.htm
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Pack Memorial Library Special Collections (Asheville, North Carolina)

The North Carolina Collection at Pack Library is a fully cataloged collection of published materials reflecting history, literature and life in Western North Carolina. Within the collection there is a particular emphasis on material relating to Asheville and Buncombe County.

Click here For online access to the North Carolina collection database.

In addition to a wide variety of books relating to the history of WNC, the North Carolina collection also includes:

* Photographs
* Historic documents
* Genealogies
* Postcards
* Maps
* Oral Histories
* Microfiche of local newspapers

The online database contains an inventory of historic photographs and documents from the North Carolina Collection at Pack Memorial Library. It includes over 1000 images and items that document the history of Asheville and Western North Carolina available online. The collection is only partially online now, but images and other research aides are being added as they become available.
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Photograph of the North Carolina Room at Pack Memorial Library courtesy Pack Memorial Library. Click on photograph for a larger image.

Hotel Berkeley (Asheville, North Carolina)

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Features of the season's improvements, adding to the popularity of the NEW BERKELEY, are the new offices and lobbies, the ladies' entrance, cozily fitted reception rooms and handsome parlors. Maloney's Asheville, N.C. City Directory (1900-1901).

The Grand Central Hotel was built by the late S. H. Chedester. It was afterwards operated as the Hotel Berkeley, but in 1911 was converted into a department store by Solomon Lipinsky. However, that same year the Hotel Berkeley merged with the Swannanoa Hotel (located corner of Biltmore Avenue and Aston Avenue) and was renamed the Swannanoa-Berkeley Hotel. This apparently was just a business combination as the Hotel Berkeley was located on Patton Avenue, corner of Lexington.

Today (2011) this Patton Avenue location is the site of Kress Building, which opened in 1927.

John Henry Tarbell (1849-1929)

John Henry Tarbell (1849-1929) apparently was born in Groton, Massachusetts, and moved to Asheville, North Carolina, in the 1890s (where he remained until early in the twentieth century). He apparently had a younger brother named Frank Bigelow Tarbell (born c.1854 in Groton, Massachusetts). One researcher states that neither brother married. That researcher also reported that when Frank died in 1921 he left John his Phi Beta Kappa key, which you see in the photograph. When John died in 1929 there was no one left to bury him except the family's lawyer. He must have had an affectionate relationship with his cousin Kate Tarbell, as he left her $500 in his will.

Source: Photographing the Negro in the South




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A Souvenir Directory to the Land of the Sky

Photographs
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Mount Hermon Masonic Lodge 118 (Asheville, North Carolina)

As historian at a Freemasons lodge in Asheville, Mark Bennett wants to make something clear. Despite the impression given by books like author Dan Brown's “The Da Vinci Code” and “The Lost Symbol” and movies like “National Treasure,” the Masons are not a clandestine group. “We're not a secret society,” Bennett says. “We're a society with a few secrets.” A once closed group whose members populated the power-elite from town hall to the White House, Masons are opening their doors to the public in increasing numbers in an effort to dispel myths and boost lagging membership. The Masonic Service Association of North America say membership levels are the lowest in 80 years, despite a bigger share of the public's consciousness thanks to the popular books and movies. There are fewer Masons today — by nearly a million — than there were in 1941 as the country came out of the Great Depression. The fraternity has an estimated 3 million members worldwide, said Richard Fletcher, the association's executive secretary. It had more than 4 million members in the U.S. alone in 1959. Today it has about 1.5 million, he said.

Farmer Russ WSKY Radio

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Anyone who lived in Asheville NC and its environs from 1930 til the 70's probably knows Farmer Russ (Russ Offhaus). He provided the wake-up call for everyone who listened to WSKY radio, beginning at 5 am and continuing until 10 am. As the back of the postcard says "Farmer Russ is one of the real radio veterans. Starting in 1930 and "still hanging on....."

Bailey's Cafeteria, Westgate Shopping Center (Asheville)

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Zebulon B. Vance Postal Cover 27 December 1860

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This cover carried a December 27, 1860 letter to Walter Waighstill Lenoir. It was from his friend and classmate at the University of North Carolina, and then congressman from North Carolina, Zebulon Baird Vance. The cover was free franked with his signature. The contents describe the efforts of the moderate members of Congress to form a Middle Confederacy for the purpose of keeping the two extremes separate and from fighting each other.

"Ashville" Postal Cover 1880

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All postage stamps printed and put into service by the United States are still valid for postage with the exception of the series of 1847 issue which became invalid when the second issue became available on 1 July 1851, and the series of 1851 which was demonetized in 1861 to prevent its use in the Confederacy. An illustration of this is a cover postmarked ASHVILLE/N.C./AUG/9/1880. It was franked with a 3¢ issue of 1857-61 which someone probably found stuck away. The postage stamp was canceled with a circular handstamp reading, "HELD FOR POSTAGE", meaning that it was 3¢ postage due. Note spelling of "Ashville."

The first Asheville postmaster, Mr. Patton, was appointed 8 October 1800. This probably was James Patton (1756-1846), for whom Patton Avenue in Asheville is named, or Colonel John Patton (1765-1831).

Buncombe County Postal History

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Buncombe County Postal History

Pack Square, Asheville (purportedly) 1920s

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In the Craggies Near Asheville 1920s

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Radio WWNC 570 (Asheville, NC)

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W4FPA Ham Radio 1939

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Sanders Courts (North of Asheville) 1950s

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Southern Railway #5023 Near Asheville

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"The Spring"

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"The Spring on Trail Near Grove Park Inn (Asheville, North Carolina).

Double Header Going Up Saluda Mountain

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Silorsky Amphibious Airplane (Asheville 1932)

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William Jennings Bryan on a Trip to Mt. Pisgah

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A trip over the exclusive automobile road, seventeen miles long, to Mt. Pisgah, built by Mr. George W. Vanderbilt at a cost of $51,000, is one of the rarest treats afforded the visitors to Asheville. The distance from Asheville to the entrance of this great automobile highway is twelve miles over a fine improved road, seven miles of which is macadam with five miles of sand-clay.

The Old Man's Face 1893 (Near Asheville)

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"Me and Grandma" 1903

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"The chain is indeed a beauty, and I mean to keep it always as someday it will be a curiosity. I am very busy but will write a letter soon. My eyes are about all right. Love to all. Yours, B. 1-7-04."

Kalmia Cottage, Albemarle Park (Asheville, NC)

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Glen Rock Hotel (Asheville, NC)

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French Broad River Post Card (1911)

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Clover Cottage (Asheville, NC)

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R. H. Smith, Architect (Asheville, NC)

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Beaver Lake (Asheville, North Carolina)

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Beaver Lake in Lakeview Park (Asheville, North Carolina): This is a sparkling body of clear mountain water, about 65 acres in extent. The most striking natural advantage of Lakeview Park is the unobstructed outlook toward the sheltering mountain ranges in all directions, and the distant views of towering peaks to the North and West.

Hillside Convent (North Main Street, Asheville)

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St. Lawrence Cathedral (Haywood St., Asheville)

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Asheville City Directory 1918

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Asheville Baseball Player

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Asheville Auditorium (Boxing) 1950s

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Asheville Aerial View (Looking West c.1940)

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Kellett Autogiro (Asheville 1932)

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Curtiss Robin Airplanes (Asheville 1932)

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Asheville Street Scene c.1906

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Man in Wood Cart 1900 (Asheville, North Carolina)

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Bringing in the Dead: North Carolina Civil War Deaths

Bringing in the Dead: The North Carolina Civil War Death Study: Free Public Lecture 25 January 2011 (Noon - 1 p.m. 1st floor of the Government and Heritage Library, 109 E. Jones Street, Raleigh). Josh Howard of the Research Branch of the N.C. Office of Archives and History will discuss his research on the N.C. Civil War Death Study.

Telephone: (919) 807-7450
Email: rebecca.hyman@ncdcr.gov
Website: www.ghlblog.org
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"The project encompasses reviewing the military records, as well as archival and newspaper accounts of military deaths during the American Civil War amongst North Carolina Confederate and Union units. The project also reveals for the first time ever the number of black and white North Carolinians who died in Union service within North Carolina's total losses, which prior to now have only focused on the Confederate troops."
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