Rosman had Several Previous Names

The town of Rosman was officially established on February 20, 1905.  However the history of settlement in the area now known as Rosman goes back to a much earlier time.  The Cherokee had traveled along the Estatoe Path for hundreds of years.  It was at Rosman that this path crossed the French Broad River.  For this reason early trappers and traders knew the area as Estatoe Ford.

When Western North Carolina was opened for settlement in the late 1700s land speculators purchased large tracts of property with the intention of reselling it for a profit.  Charles McDowell of Burke County owned thousands of acres in what was originally Buncombe County including several hundred acres on the French Broad.  Although McDowell never lived here, his daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and William Paxton lived all their married lives in the Cherryfield area.

Other early land owners included George Isaac Glazener, George Washington Galloway, John Owen, and James Owen.  These early families were often connected through marriage and many of their descendents still live in the area.

In 1857 Giles Glazener, Jr. (descendent of both George Isaac Glazener and James Owen) gave property for a church and school to the trustees of the Church of Christ at the Zion Meeting Place.  This school served the families of the surrounding area for nearly 50 years.  The school was moved to the Presbyterian (later Methodist) Church in Rosman when they outgrew the Zion building.  Zion Baptist Church continued on the property until 1950 when it moved across the river onto Rosman’s Main Street.

According to North Carolina Post Offices and Postmasters there was a post office at Calvert in 1888.  The name was changed to Jeptha in 1890.  It seems that this was located east of the current center of Rosman.  The Jeptha post office closed on August 15, 1901.

Depot at Toxaway City (Rosman), 1903

Meanwhile the Toxaway post office had opened on December 7, 1900 when the railroad reached the place where the old Estatoe Path had crossed the French Broad River for hundreds of years.  Although the name of the post office would change several times in the next few years the heart of what was to be Rosman was firmly established when the railroad by-passed the Jeptha post office and a depot was built at Toxaway.

A post office was re-established at the Calvert depot on August 18, 1901 just 1.6 miles east of Toxaway but that community remained quite small.

Next week’s Picturing the Past column will feature Joseph Silversteen’s  impact on Rosman in the early 1900s.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.