Crab Creek Had Two Thriving Communities

Cascade Grocery, 1991

Crab Creek valley along the Little River in Transylvania County had two small communities, Calhoun and Grange, which were just a mile apart on Crab Creek Road. During the 1800s mountain farmers driving their hogs to market in South Carolina would pass through the valley and stop for the night; thus the area was nicknamed Hog Town.

Calhoun was located where Everett Road meets Crab Creek. David Shuford was the first post master there beginning in 1856. The post office was discontinued in 1904 and relocated to Penrose just 1 ½ miles to the North. The railroad running through Penrose plus road improvements likely had a lot to do with this.

C.E. Wilson had a large general store in Calhoun around 1900. An article in the May 28, 1909 Sylvan Valley News announced that a hosiery mill, known as the Penrose Manufacturing Company, would operate out of the old stone store building. Ansel Hamilton and Arthur Picklesimer ran Calhoun Mercantile Com-pany out of the building from 1919 to 1925. In the 1960s Nick's Store opened in this same location and operated until the late 1990s. Nell Nicholson built and operated the little store.

A mile south of Calhoun, Grange was in the area where Cascade Lake Road and Crab Creek Road meet. It had a post office from 1875 until 1908. Little River School and Little River Baptist Church were the center of the community. At one time Ben Perry Merrill had a blacksmith shop in the area. There was also a small tannery.

Martin Hamilton built Cascade Grocery on Cascade Lake Road in the early 1900s. Volney McCrary bought it from Charles Ashworth in the 1930s. McCrary's daughter, Nell Nicholson, ran it for a few years, followed by Fred and Christine Hamilton for many years.

Wade and Kate Merrill had the Jot 'Em Down Store on Cascade Lake Road. It got its name from customers who would request "jot 'em down" for later payment on their groceries. Later the Merrill's son Donald moved the store to Crab Creek Road. Both Merrill's Store and Cascade Grocery remained in business into the mid 1990s.

Inside Cascade Grocery, 1991

Thanks to Margaret Kilstrom and Brenda Orr who both have a wealth of information about 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 ext. 242.)

Talleys Were Instrumental In Developing Penrose Area

In 1792, when Transylvania County was part of Buncombe County, Lambert Clayton's militia was ordered to lay out a road from the Catawba Trail in Flat Rock to the Davidson River. The Western half of this road ran through the Little River valley and became known as Crab Creek Road.

Although the course of the road has shifted here and there through the years, it still follows a similar route for much of the way along Kanuga and Crab Creek Roads. Today, traveling North on Crab Creek, you cross the French Broad River and end at the foot of Fodderstack Mountain where Crab Creek meets Highway 64.

The area from the river on up the eastern side of Fodderstack was owned by Evan Talley and later his descendants. It is in this area that the community of Penrose developed. In the early and mid 1900's when the trains still stopped in Penrose, Talley's Store was the hub of the community. The post office operated out of the store with Mrs. Ina Talley Rustin as postmistress.

Three generations of Talley's farmed the land. Carl Talley had a saw mill. And for a short time Everett Talley ran a cheese factory. He won first prize at the state livestock show for cream cheese in 1918 just a few months after starting his cheese factory.

The Talleys also took in summer boarders at Carl Talley's "Keep Cool Cabins" and Luther and Lou Talley's "Talley-Ho" home.

And, on the south side of Fodderstack Mountain, there was the quarry. In Bud Talley's memoir, "Where's Penrose," his reminiscences of growing up in Penrose in the 1940s and '50s include descriptions of blasting times at the quarry when hunks of granite would crash down or even fly through air.

In 1956 the Department of Transportation re-routed Highway 64 from Brevard to the Henderson County Line. The "new" highway joined with Highway 280 (the Asheville Highway) to the intersection near the entrance of the Pisgah National Forest. It then continued southeast for about 3 ½ miles, North of the old highway through Penrose and Blantyre to the county line.

E.J. Whitmire set up a portable crushing plant at the quarry to provide the rock for the new highway. Once the highway was completed, Whitmire saw the continued need for stone and the Penrose Quarry grew from there. Whitmire, and later his son, ran the quarry until 2006 when Vulcan Materials Company leased it from Steve Whitmire.

Today Penrose is home to the quarry, a gas station/convenience store, the post office and Carolina Mountain Credit Union, as well as the nearby Transylvania Community Airport and Anchor Baptist School, Church and Ministries (formerly Penrose School).

First Photo: Shuford's bridge crossed the French Broad near Penrose. It was the only covered bridge in Transylvania County. 

Second Photo: During heavy rains a waterfall is created at the quarry. (Photo courtesy of a Transylvania County Library patron.)

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 ext. 242.)

Postcards Helped Business, Correspondence In 1861

The United States Congress first allowed the mailing of postcards in February 1861.  There was an outcry that the government would lose money on this venture, as well as concern over the lack of privacy postcards offered.  With the start of the Civil War in April these minor worries were quickly forgotten though.

Over the next 40 years Congress made several changes to postcard laws regulating government “Postal Cards” and privately printed Correspondence, Mail or Souvenir Cards. These laws set the size and design of both types of cards.  Privately published cards with messages cost twice as much to mail—2 cents!

However businesses could print an advertisement on one side of a mail card and only be charged the one cent rate.  This quickly became a very inexpensive and popular way to advertise.

In 1898 the laws governing postage rates changed making it one cent for all postcards.  This greatly increased the popularly of postcards for personal communication.

It wasn't until 1907 that postcards were designed with the divided back allowing the message to be written on the left side and the address on the right.  Cards with this format are considered to be from the modern era of postcards.

Because they are relatively easy to acquire, inexpensive and provide a sense of nostalgia vintage postcards are a popular collectable.

The Transylvania County Library has a postcard collection dating from the early and mid 1900s.  This collection contains postcards representing downtown Brevard, churches, hotels, camps, Ecusta, waterfalls, mills and Lake Toxaway & Toxaway Inn.  In additional there are a number of holiday and general greetings postcards.

Many of the earliest ones, particularly of Lake Toxaway and the Toxaway Inn were made from photographs taken by R. Henry Scadin and then hand-painted by his wife, Kate.  These same images are seen in the early tourism brochures currently on display at the library.

Some of the postcards contain personal messages, as well as stamps and postmarks. 

The library's collection is available for browsing in the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room on the second floor.

Photos:  Although not actually Valentine's postcards these two cards offer greetings of love from Rosman.  They are postmarked November 9, 1915 and addresses to Miss Jerdie Pressley in Glenville, NC.

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.

TVA Once Considered Flooding Parts Of Transylvania

In the early 1930s Transylvania was still a small, rural agricultural based county. The county population was 9,589 in 1930.

Most people made their living working in the logging and lumber industry or farming. Louis Carr's Carr Lumber Company, along with Gloucester Lumber, Toxaway Tanning, Rosman Tanning and Extract and Transylvania Tanning, all owned by Joseph Silversteen were the largest employers in the county. The CCC had camps at John's Rock and in Balsam Grove, providing much needed jobs.

In 1933 Lyday Memorial Hospital was founded on Probart Street by Dr. Newland and Dr. Cunningham. Brevard College open-ed its doors in September 1934. Downtown businesses included B and B Feed and Seed, the A and P, Trantham's Department Store and Macfie's and Long's Drug Stores. The Clemson Theatre was also downtown.

In November 1933 rumors began swirling throughout Transylvania, Henderson and Buncombe counties regarding proposed plans for development of the French Broad Valley under the TVA for the purposes of producing power. A dam or dams on the French Broad River would create a lake extending many miles through the mountain valleys of Henderson and Transylvania counties. Other reports stated the purpose was to build storage reservoirs rather than to generate power. After conducting aerial surveys and cost studies the TVA announced in July 1934 that the project was not "economically justified at the present time."

Almost 30 years later, in 1961 the TVA was back. Following major flooding along the French Broad, the Western North Carolina Regional Planning Commission and the State Department of Water Resources asked the TVA to draw up a plan for the comprehensive development of the resources of the area. The TVA quickly dusted off the project they had started in 1933.

This time Buncombe, Henderson and Madison county officials endorsed the plan. However, in Transylvania County where three major dams were proposed officials and citizens were concerned. According to Martha Gash Boswell in "Grassroots Along the Upper French Broad: The Valley People Versus the Tennessee Valley Authority 1961-1971" the new American Thread plant and a large part of Rosman, the Little River farming community and the area from Schenck Job Corp to the fish hatchery, along with other key low-laying areas, would all be underwater.

The library has copies of Martha Gash Boswell's booklet chronicling the fight by the people of Little River and Mills River to save their prized farmland and generations of history. There is also a file containing newspaper clippings, letters and other documents on the TVA's involvement with the French Broad River available in the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. Visit the N.C. 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.thomp son@transylvaniacounty.org or (828) 884-3151 ext. 242.

Captions
Top Photo:  This view from Corner Rock on Cantrell Mountain overlooks the upper French Broad valley. In the background you see Hogback/Toxaway Mountain. Depending on where the dam was actually built this valley around Island Ford and Country Club roads may also have been flooded.
Bottom Photo:  Little River farmland would have been lost if the TVA had built the proposed dams in Transylvania County.

First Library Opens

On this day in North Carolina History,

"The state's first library opens in Durham." (1898)

Source: Powell, L. (1996). On This Day in North Carolina History.Winston-Salem, North Carolina: John F. Blair, Publisher.