Etowah NC Heritage
  • Home
  • SPECIAL
    • Etowah Heritage Day 1889 - 2019
    • Etowah Treasures Exhibit, Sept/Oct 2019
    • Virtual Tour of Selected Historic Places
    • History Displays in Etowah & Library Notebooks
  • TIMELINE/MAPS
    • Timeline 1700 to present
    • Maps
    • Maps - 1838 Formation of Henderson County
  • PHOTOS
    • Memorabilia
    • Places, Early Homes, Other
    • French Broad River & Valley Views
    • People - early times
    • People - post 1950
    • People - Gash Family descendants
    • Veterans
  • HIST. I
    • Etowah History Notes - Research To Date
    • 1889 Money, then Etowah
    • How Etowah Got Its Name
    • Postmasters 1889 - 1968
    • Etowah Train Depot - 1895 >
      • Trains of Etowah
    • The Railroad - Hendersonville to Toxaway
  • HIST. II
    • 1900 U.S. Census
    • Farms of Early Etowah
    • Historic Schools 1800s - 1928 >
      • Historic Etowah High School 1928 - 1960
      • Little Chief - Gleanings from
      • Etowah High School - Memorial Plaque 2014 - HCEHI
      • Etowah Institute 1911
      • Schools of Nearby Communities
    • Historic Churches
    • Historic Cemeteries
    • Adopt-A-Cemetery: Thomas-Fletcher
  • HIST. III
    • Sheriff Robert Thomas
    • Civil War Union Monument
    • Orr Cabin Homeplace - early 1800s
    • Mountain Lily - 1881
    • Welsh Colony 1880s
    • Grist Mills
    • Shape Note Traditions
  • HIST. IV
    • Businesses - Early to mid-1900's
    • "Etowah Brick" Moland-Drysdale Corp. - 1923
    • Camp Peep-Out - 1935
    • Etowah Grange #984 - 1937 >
      • Grange - 25th Anniversary 1937-1962
      • Grange Quilt - 1953
  • 1950 +
    • 1952 - Hatheway Floral Company
    • 1954 - Etowah Lions Club
    • 1960s - Growing & Changing
    • 1964 - Etowah / Horse Shoe Volunteer Fire
    • 1966 - Water System Tower
    • 1966 - Etowah Riding Club
    • 1982 - A Library Comes to Etowah
  • Stories
    • Eade Anderson, Reverend
    • Lois Adcock Bayne
    • Emma Louise Curtis Bradley
    • Richard Brown
    • Patricia Bell Cantrell
    • Jerri Whiteside Lambeth
    • Wanda Sumner Love
    • David S. Mallett
    • Opal Dalton Parkinson
    • Jeannie Huggins Revis
    • Glenda Maxwell Simpson
    • Marylin Annette Jones Thomas
    • "The Follies" & "Matilda's Folly"
  • About
TIMELINE

TIME PERIOD
______________
ETOWAH VALLEY          NC & UNITED STATES​______________________________________________________
1700s
1776 - 1783 ​
War of Independence - Revolutionary War ​
1791
Buncombe County formed and includes all of Western North Carolina. 
​Later, Henderson County - 1838, Transylvania County - 1861.
Late 1700s
Land Grants to Revolutionary War Patriots.

Settlers claiming land and living in or near the Etowah Valley included:      
​     (source:  hendersonheritage.com / Etowah)

     Lambert Clayton - 1791
     James Davidson, William Davidson &
     Benjamin Davidson - 1783
     Martin Gash - 1794
     Joseph Henry - 1783
     Andrew Lyda (Lyday) - 1794
     Charles McDowell - 1783
     Robert Orr - 1794 
1795 - 1920​
Speculation Land Company era, Tench Coxe et al.  Numerous transactions for the buying & selling of large tracts throughout Western North Carolina, then re-selling to new settlers.   ​
1800s
______________________________________________________________
​1800s early​
John & Jane Clayton Orr build cabin on land between Etowah School Road & French Broad River.  Year unknown.
1807
​Claytonville Post Office established, Penrose area  (Transylvaniaheritage.org , timeline)
​Other sources may differ on this date and location.
1812 - 1815​​
War of 1812, US & Britain
1815​
Beulah Baptist Church established.
​1830 circa
School at Burns Creek.  (to be verified, documented)
1833
Joseph Leander Gash was born on the homestead of Alfred and Mary Livingston Gash, off Holly Springs Rd.  In 1895 Joseph donated land for the Etowah Train Depot.
1838 - 1839
Cherokee Trail of Tears
1838, Dec
Henderson County established.  No county seat decided until 1841.

1839, Feb
1st Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions (CPQS) convened at home of Hugh Johnson in Horse Shoe.
​1839, Feb 
Robert Thomas, 1st appointed Sheriff by CPQS, term of office:   Served 1839 - 1844.  Sheriff Thomas supervised the special (vote) referendum in 1841 that determined the location of the county seat. 
1840
Joseph Henry, Revolutionary War Patriot and early pioneer settler, buried at Old Beulah Baptist Cemetery.
1841
Location of Henderson County seat determined by special election, River Party v. Road Party, controversy 1838-1841
1845
​“Drought of WNC, widespread failure of crops on mountain farms”   (highway marker, ncmarkers.com  P-46)
1847
Hendersonville chartered.
1859
Pleasant Grove Baptist Church established.
1860 circa
Hopewell School established.
1861
Transylvania County established.
1861, May
Civil War begins.  NC votes to secede from US.
1865, ​April
Robert Thomas, former Henderson County sheriff (1839 - 1844) living in Pleasant Grove section of Etowah Valley, murdered by bushwhackers at home on his farm (vicinity of Thomas-Fletcher Cemetery, former Seven Falls development).
1865, May
Civil War ends.
1868
Brevard incorporated.
1868
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians created December 1868, Cheowa (Robbinsville NC).
​1872 (or 1880 ?)
Oak Forest School established.
​1878-1880
Joseph Leander Gash returns to Henderson County from Adairsville GA with wife Margaret and three children.
1879
Two significant railroad events that shaped WNC and Henderson County:  1 - passenger and freight train service began from Charleston SC to Hendersonville NC;  2 - the Swannanoa Tunnel was completed, and by October 1880 train service connected  Asheville to Salisbury and all of east NC.
1880s
John W. & Harriette L. Jeudwine home of the Welsh Colony, aka “The Meadows.”
1881
“Mountain Lily” launched in Horse Shoe.  1885, runs aground near King’s Bridge after flash flood.
1886
​Charleston Earthquake Rattled North Carolina. 
August 31, 1886, at 9:50 PM, the largest earthquake ever recorded on the east coast of the United States.  Registering between 6.6 and 7.3 on the modern Richter scale, the quake cracked chimneys and plaster walls across North Carolina.
1889
Money Post Office established, later renamed Etowah.  First postmaster James A. Collins operates a store about two miles north of present site of Etowah.  He names the post office “Money.”
1892
Postmasters, brothers Ozark & Hugh Greer, mother Rebecca Brittain Greer.
1894
Etowah Presbyterian Church established on Turnpike Road, near Holly Springs.
1894
1st Sears Catalog published.
1894
Deed to land from Joseph L. Gash for train station, to railroad H&BT&T Co.
1895
​Money / Etowah Train Station built (Old Hwy 64 & Etowah School Road).  Railroad service to Brevard, later Rosman & Toxaway 
1895, July
Train wreck at trestle crossing French Broad, Etowah / Horse Shoe.
​​1896 or 1897
Etowah “colored school” near Joshua Ridge Road.  Number of years of operation unknown.
1897
​Postmaster, Joshua M. Laughter
1898
Money Post Office renamed "Etowah"
1898
Spanish American War​
1899
Etowah Mission (Episcopal Church Asheville) met at Oak Forest School until 1906.
​​1900s
______________________________________________________________
1900
​​Postmaster, James A. Laughter.
1900
​​Box Brownie Camera introduced by George Eastman.
1903
​Railroad service to Lake Toxaway begins.
1903 (?)
Rural Free Delivery, RFD, comes to Etowah.
1904
Chestnut trees carrying blight enter US at NYC port.
1907
Etowah Methodist Episcopal Church, white frame church on present site.  Previously, worship was held at Belew’s Chapel (Pine Lake subdivision), circa 1904 (?).  Now called Etowah United Methodist Church.
​​1908
Orr cabin sold to George W. Weese.
​​1908
Margaret Stewart Gash placed classified ad in Montgomery AL paper for boarders.  In 1913, Valley View Hotel (the Gash home) was listed as boarding house in tourist publication for WNC.
​​1909
Shape Note Sings began at the Methodist Church.  William Walker, aka “Singin’ Billy,” renowned SC Baptist composer visits sometimes.
​​1911
Etowah Institute established, operated by Methodist Episcopal Church.
​​1913 - 1918
McKinna & Son general store - collection of store ledgers.
1914
Postmaster, Pearl G. Gash (1883 - 1971).  Post Office located in Gash home.
1914 circa
First telephone in Etowah.  McKinna's store ledgers show messages taken by telephone.​
1914 - 1918
World War 1​
1916, July-August
July, the Great Flood of 1916.​  August 13, a month later, Lake Toxaway Dam broke.
1917
Etowah Baptist Church organized, met at Oak Forest School.​
1920 - 1933
Prohibition years.​
1923
Moland-Drysdale Corp. began operations, aka Etowah Brickyard.​
1921 - early 1930s
Carr Lumber Co. operated a rail spur from Etowah to Mills River.  Eubank Road near the golf course is on the old railroad grade.​
1924
Etowah Post Office moved from ​Gash home to Train Depot.
1926
Etowah Baptist Church built.​
1928 - 1960
Etowah High School built in 1928 as one room schools consolidated throughout the county.​
1935
NC passes law to require drivers license.​
1935
Whiteside's Service Station, Tuff Whiteside (1874 - 1962)​
1937
Etowah Grange established, begins meeting at Etowah High School. (source:  Hy-Tower school newsletter 1937)​
1939
Ecusta Paper Corp. begins operation in Transylvania County (Pisgah Forest) bringing jobs to the area.​  Flax fibre used to make cigarette paper and more.
1941 - 1945
World War II​
1948
Etowah Train Station becomes a "non-agency station," no agent on duty. Freight trains continue to use the tracks until 2002.  Pearl Gash retired as postmaster August 1948.  Post office is relocated.
1949
Charlotte's WBTV, the first television station in the Carolinas signed on.
1949, Nov
Olin Industries purchased Ecusta. Production shifts to include cellophane in 1950s.​
1950s - mid
Iron bridge over French Broad River, Etowah School Rd,​ replaced with bridge in use today.   [need NCDOT verification]
1956 - 1958  ?
New Hwy 64 reconfigured through Etowah.
Original road renamed Old Hwy 64.​  Another source states new 64 was completed in 1954.  [Need NCDOT verification]
1956 - 1959
Grange building built on Brickyard Road.  Today, the WCCA.
1950s +
More, under main navigation tab.
1960 - 2000
 . . . to be added . . .
1968
The last Carolina Special train service to Hendersonville and beyond.
1978
Ingles Grocery opened in the Etowah Shopping Center.
2002
Olin Industries / Ecusta plant closes.  Last freight cars on Southern Railway, Hendersonville to Brevard.  Tracks no longer in use.​
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. . . page in development, more to follow . . .​