Tanning Company, Machine Shop Anchored Pisgah Forest

The little crossroads community of Pisgah Forest officially came into existed in December 1906 when a post office was opened there.  Pisgah Forest was actually the last of the current Transylvania County post offices to be established.

Brevard Tannin Company

A few years earlier the Brevard Tannin Company began operations on the north side of the French Broad River on Wilson Road.  According to the Certificate of Incorporation of Brevard Tannin Company dated January 13, 1903 the initial stockholders were George L. Adams, Frank K. Adams, W.A. Gash, Charles McNames and William P. Long.  The company’s objectives included “manufacturing, making and obtaining tanning extracts” from timber by using large machinery to break down the logs.  The resulting product was then loaded into tankers and shipped via rail to northern tanneries.

Brevard Tannin consisted of a maze of buildings that included a Carpentry Shop, Blacksmith Shop, Machine Shop and Bark Mill.  In addition several acres of property on the other side of Wilson Road were used as a wood piling ground.

Inside Barnett's Machine Shop

Sid Barnett was the head machinist for Brevard Tannin.  When the tannin plant closed Barnett bought the lathes and welding machines and opened his own shop at the intersection of Hendersonville Hwy and Wilson Road in 1923.  For nearly 80 years farmers, mechanics and businesses throughout the area relied on Barnett’s to custom built anything they needed made of metal and for metal repair work.  Through the years customers included Transylvania Tannery, Pisgah Mills, Whitmire Mill, Ecusta, DuPont, Smith Systems, Transylvania County Schools and the Forest Service.  Barnett’s Machine Shop closed in 2000.

Other manufacturing businesses in Pisgah Forest were the Carr Lumber Company and Ecusta.  They will be featured in Picturing the Past articles during the next two weeks.

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.

County's Historic Bridges Reside in Forest

Bridge #54 at the mouth of Looking Glass Creek

The North Carolina Department of Transportation website lists four historic bridge in Transylvania County.  All four are located on a short stretch of Highway 276 in the Pisgah National Forest.  They were built in 1935 by the State Highway Commission along with the US Forest Service in an effort to increase automobile tourism and recreation in Western North Carolina.  Construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway was occurring at the same time.  Improvements of Hwy 276 from Brevard through the Pisgah National Forest would provide access to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  These projects were part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal program and helped create jobs during the Great Depression.

All four bridges cross Looking Glass Creek, the first near its confluence with the Davidson River.  Forest Service Rd 475 turns west to the Pisgah Center for Wildlife immediately north of this bridge.

The reinforce concrete, tee beam bridges were typical for the time period.  Their uniqueness lays in the decorative details.  "Round-headed openings pierce the concrete balustrades of each bridge and the five parallel lines of tee beams are finished with haunches that emulate the curves of arched bridges.  Further, blocks of granite, reportedly laid by Italian stonemasons, face pylons, abutments and wingwalls."

Davidson River Bridge on Highway 64

A similar bridge on Hwy 64 crossing the Davidson River was built in 1934 by the North Carolina State Highway Commission and Public Works Commission.  It also has the open arch details rather than solid concrete walls.  However, it does not have the granite stonework of the bridges in the Pisgah National Forest.  This bridge carries the traffic coming into Brevard.  The bridge carrying traffic out of Brevard was constructed in 1956.

Information on these and other historic bridge in North Carolina can be found at www.ncdot.gov/projects/ncbridges/historic.

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.

Bridges Have Been Crucial To Development

People don’t often think about bridges as a part of our history but in a county with so many streams, creeks and rivers they play a vital role in development.

Before the earliest settlers arrived in western North Carolina the ability to ford rivers and streams effected the location of pathways.  Commerce centers and settlements grew around the easiest spots to cross waterways. 

Early Transylvania Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions (predecessor to the County Commissioners) minutes refer to public bridges on the French Broad River at Island Ford, Little River (also known as Shuford’s Bridge) and Patton’s Bridge (Everett Rd).  In January 1873 there is reference of constructing a new bridge near Ethan Wilson’s (Greenville Hwy). 

An entry in the September 1866 Court Minutes states, $50 from the Bridge Tax will be used to settle an account with George Clayton for constructing the County Courthouse.  The Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions set the rate for the Bridge Tax and authorized the use of this fund.  In 1874 the Bridge Tax was 14¢ on $100 worth of property.

The earliest known map of Transylvania County is an 1868 survey map certified by Chas. Patton, Richard Whitmire, George Clayton, Lambert Neill and John Owen.  This map identified five bridges along the French Broad River.  They were Shuford’s, Patton’s, a bridge near present day Barclay Road, Dunn’s Rock (north of the intersection of Island Ford Rd and Hwy 276) and Island Ford.

Ila Israel and a friend on Rosman’s Old Iron Bridge.

An early 1900s photograph of Rosman shows a wooden bridge crossing the French Broad River.  Around 1930 that bridge was replaced with an iron bridge on Hwy 178.  The current bridge, built in 1978, is slightly south of the old one-lane iron bridge.

Beginning in 1921 the State of North Carolina took over responsibility of highways and roads, and therefore bridges.   Some roads, streets and bridges in cities and towns are maintained by the municipalities but there is no county roads in North Carolina. 

Bronze plaque on the King’s Creek Bridge

constructed during the first year that the state 

took over building and maintenance of roads and bridges.

In the 1920s several concrete and steel bridges where constructed along Transylvania’s State Roads.  Normally they had recessed panels and a molded cap, with solid side walls and contained a bronze plaque with the bridge name, construction date and project number.  Most of these bridges have been replaced by wider, modern bridges.

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.

DigitalNC Resources

The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is a statewide digitization and digital publishing program housed in the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Digital Heritage Center works with cultural heritage institutions across North Carolina to digitize and publish historic materials online.  The Transylvania County Library has been a contributor since 2010.

Logging and railroad photographs including this one 

of a steam crane loader were recently added to digitalnc.org.

Visit digitalnc.org to view photographs, yearbooks, newspapers, city directories and memorabilia covering Transylvania County’s history.  

The Images collection includes over 200 photographs of downtown Brevard, 500+ photographs of Transylvania County Schools and about 275 logging and railroad photographs.  The images can be browsed by subject or location.  Transylvania County locations include Brevard, Cherryfield, Davidson River, French Broad River, Lake Toxaway, Penrose, Pisgah National Forest, Quebec, Rosman and Sapphire.

Brevard High School annuals (1944-1962), Rosman High School annuals (1948-1962) and Brevard College yearbooks (1935-2003) are available except a small number of missing years for Rosman and Brevard College.  The Brevard College yearbooks were contributed by Brevard College.

Santa visits Ecusta.  The Echo, December 1949.

The Newspaper collection includes Sylvan Valley News (1900-1916) and Brevard News (1917-1922).  In the early 1900s there are only a small number of issues available.  Brevard College has contributed Weaver College, Rutherford College and Brevard College student newspapers.  The newest addition to the newspaper section is a complete collection of the Ecusta Echo (1940-1954).

 City Directories are a useful source of information for both genealogists and those researching businesses.  Only one city directory for Brevard (1962) was ever published.  There are several city directories from other western North Carolina cities, including Asheville and Hendersonville.

The Memorabilia collection includes scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, ledgers, manuscripts and other written accounts from North Carolinians past and present.  The Transylvania County Library and the Little River Community Center contributed 16 large format scrapbooks ranging from 1954 to 1984.  These scrapbooks contain news, events and photographs from the Little River Community.

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.