THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Ivy Log as a
bustling settlement
"It is evident
and conceded that the center of activity of early Ivy Log was near the
mouth of Ivy Log Creek. Here creaked the Casteel Mill. Here rang the
iron foundry operated by R. W. Roberts and last by David Thompson prior
to the Civil War. Here was Hunt and Cooley's store. Here Lovell made
chairs. Here George Patterson fashioned hats from lambs' wool. Here was
a school on the east side of the creek. Here is the
The above is
from the pen of Union County Historian, Mr. Edward S. Mauney, written in 1948, and reproduced in the
compendium entitled "Sketches
of Union County History III" edited by Teddy J. Oliver and
published in 1987. Mr. Mauney's history of
Ivy Log is on pages 85-87 of the book. If you have a copy available to
you, please read his flowing language and listing of people who made up
the early census records of that north central district of Union County
numbered Militia District 843.
"Here creaked the Casteel Mill," Mr. Mauney wrote. Barney Casteel not only
established a mill for the convenience of settlers in Ivy Log District,
but he also served as a minister of the gospel and as a "practical
doctor." This designation probably indicates that he knew the value of
herbs as medicinal plants and could prescribe certain treatments for
common diseases. This first Casteel family migrated from
Barney Casteel
was listed as 63 years of age in the 1850
In the Ivy Log
District are two Casteel Cemeteries. The one known as Casteel Cemetery
No. 1 has one marked tomb with the name Ann Casteel, 1833-1861. She may
be a daughter of the first settlers, Barney and Mary Casteel. Also
buried in the Casteel 1 cemetery, according to Historian Mauney, are George Patterson and his wife,
without marked stones, the "hatter" or milliner of Ivy Log District. Mauney states that this
family lived at "the Ned Chastain place," and were the forebears
of most of the Pattersons in
An interesting
story is told of the Casteel 2 Cemetery which is located south of
Casteel 1 and across Ivy Log Creek from the first burying ground. None
of the graves in this cemetery have stones with names. But buried apart
from the graves which were of the early Casteel family and their
descendants is a known grave, though unmarked. It is that of Gentry
Taylor who met his death in 1876. He was killed at a
moonshine still because he resisted arrest. The community, due
to the circumstances of his business and his death, would not allow him
to be buried in the
Mr. Mauney touches on moonshining
as a business in his history of Ivy Log: "From many a sheltered nook on
the tiny streams rose wisps of smoke that
gave evidence of the pioneers brewing their own spirits without fear of
God or man, in the days when it was not considered a sin. But they were
rigid in their belief of honesty. One patriarch [was] "churched" for
taking whiskey from his own "stillhouse"
that belonged to someone else" (p. 87).
Space precludes
telling of other early settlers, but family names passed to the present
generations show that many hardy settlers had children in subsequent
generations that made this mountain district and other parts of
For example,
there was Robert B. Conley and his wife Susan Kincaid Conley who
migrated from Clear Creek in Buncombe County, NC to the Chester
District of South Carolina and then to Ivy Log. But tragedy came to
them on the move from
Solomon Chapman
and his wife, Adeline Odom Chapman were early Ivy Log settlers from
Mauney ends
his Ivy Log history with these pensive words: "Today the crude wheels
and the distaffs are still. The hands that turned them are mouldered to clay. Today there is a new
generation - their descendants - living in a bustling world of
modernization." He wrote that in 1948. What would he say today? Housing
developments extend even to tops of high hills and roads are busy with
traffic all hours of the day and night. Small farms have virtually
disappeared but some corporate farms are master producers of the
products they specialize in. And, dotted here and there throughout the
district are spires of churches with modern buildings, begun as log
cabin places of worship by the early settlers. The one-room school
houses are no more, long since consolidated into the modern graded
school complexes at the county seat of Blairsville. Someone aptly
wrote: "The only thing certain is change."
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail [email protected];
phone 478-453-8751; or mail
Updated
June 7, 2008
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