Key Role the Township Plays in Local Government

This map shows the townships and bordering counties in
both North Carolina and South Carolina.

 Over the last few weeks Picturing the Past has been looking at the history of Transylvania County through each of its township.  Leading to the questions of, what is a township and what is it significance?

When the North Carolina government was restructured following the Civil War the state experimented with township government.  Under this system counties were subdivided into townships with their own elected officials who held limited governmental powers.  Although this form of governing only lasted a couple of years, townships did continue to hold responsibility for road construction and maintenance within their district.  Today townships are used primarily to provide boundary lines in the county for tax-listings, census districts and voting precincts.

Brevard is the largest and most populated township in Transylvania County.  It covers over 63 square miles.  The southern boundary of the township follows on or near the French Broad River from Barclay Road almost to the confluence with the Little River.  The township runs northward to Haywood County with portions of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Transylvania County.  It is bordered by Boyd Township on the east and Cathey’s Creek and Gloucester townships on the west.

The 2010 population was over 11,000 but the residents all live in the southern portion of township in and around the City of Brevard and the Pisgah Forest community.  Approximately two-thirds of the land area is located in the Pisgah National Forest.

The English Chapel has been an active church since 1860.  The early
building was also used as a school for families in that part of Brevard
Township prior to the creation of the Pisgah National Forest.

In the 1800s, before George Vanderbilt purchased large tracts of land, there were a number of families that settled along the Davidson River and surrounding areas.  Occasional rock foundations or chimney remnants, patches of garden flowers such as daffodils and several small cemeteries give evidence of homesteads and small communities that once existed.

Water-powered mills once operated on the Davidson River.  Iron ore was hauled from Boylston Creek to make iron bars at the Davidson River Iron Works.  The bars were then sent to Asheville to be made into goods.  During the Civil War the mill was operated by the Confederacy.  The Cagle family operated a grist mill and later manufactured linsey-woolsey fabric near Sycamore Flats on the river.

In 1912 Louis Carr acquired nearly 70,000 acres from Mount Pisgah to Pisgah Forest from Vanderbilt.  He ran over 100 miles of standard gauge railroad to transport the timber to his mill in Pisgah Forest.  The old rail line beds are often visible to hikers in the national forest.

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 828-884-1820.