THE WESTERN TURNPIKE. In 1848-9 the legislature passed an act to provide
for a turnpike road from Salisbury to the line of the State of Georgia.
The lands of the Cherokees were later pledged for the building of this
"Western Turnpike," as it was officially called, and in 1852-3 another act
was passed "to bring into market the lands" so pledged, and this act was
later (Ch. 22, Laws 1854-5) supplemented by an act which gave the road the
proceeds of the sales of the Cherokee lands in Cherokee, Macon, Jackson
and Haywood counties. At the latter session another act was passed making
Asheville the eastern terminus and the Tennessee line, near Ducktown, the
western terminus of this road, and providing that it should also extend to
the Georgia line; but that the latter road should be only a branch of the
main road. It also provided that in case the bridge across the French
Broad river-presumably Smith's bridge at Asheville-could not be obtained
on satisfactory terms, the route of the turnpike might be changed and a
new bridge constructed. As this was not probable that satisfactory terms
were made for the use of Smith's bridge, as it had been sold to Buncombe
county about 1853. When this road reached the Tuckaseegee river "the
influence of Franklin and Macon county was the principal force which took
it across the Cowee and Nantahala mountains(21). The survey was made by an
engineer by the name of Fox in 1849. It was completed over the Valley
river mountains and Murphy in 1856. The late Nimrod S. Jarrett was chief
of construction. Chapter 51, Laws of 1854-5 defined the duties of and
powers of turnpike and plankroad companies, and acts incorporating the
latter throughout the State passed at that session extend from page 178 to
page 216 showing their popularity.56

Near him lived Felix Walker.

He was a man of great suavity of manner, a fine, electioneer, insomuch
that he was called "Old Oil Jug." He went, after his defeat for Congress
in 1824 by Dr. Robert Vance, to Mississippi, where he died about 1835. The
manufacture and sale of gensing was begun on Jonathans creek by Dr. Hailen
of Philadelphia, who employed Nimrod S. Jarrett and Bacchus J. Smith, late
of Buncombe county, to conduct the business. It was abundant then and very
profitable, the green root being worth about seven cents a pound. A branch
of this business was established on Caney river in Yancey county.

THE PEOPLE of MACON. Macon was organized into a county in 1828 "and was
singularly fortunate in the character of the people who first settled
it.(18) It was first represented in the legislature in 1831 by James W.
Guinn in the senate and Thomas Tatham and James Whitaker in the house, and
was thereafter represented in the senate four times by Gen. Ben. S.
Britton, with James Whitaker, Asaph Enloe, James W. Guinn and Jacob Siler
and Thomas Tatham in the house." Luke Barnard, Wimer Siler, and his sons
William, Jesse R., Jacob and John; John Dobson, John Howard, Henry
Addington, Gen. Thomas Love, Win. H. Bryson, James K. Gray, Mark Coleman,
Samuel Smith, Nimrod S. Jarrett, George Dickey, Silas McDowell, George
Patton, and William Angel were typical men of the early population. "Wm.
and Jacob Siler having married sisters of D. L. Swain, and Jesse R. Siler
having married a daughter of John Patton of Buncombe, sister of the late
lamented Mont. Patton, it is not difficult to account for the great moral
worth of the county that now exists and has from its first settlement.
Samuel Smith was the father of Bacchus J. Smith and Rev. C. D. Smith, and
volunteered as a messenger to bear a letter from Gen. McDowell, at the Old
Fort, to the principal chief of the Cherokees, at the Coosaw attee towns
about the close of the Revolutionary War.(19) The undertaking was full of
peril, the whole country west of the Blue Ridge being then in the Cherokee
Nation, then in arms, and before any white men lived in this country. The
Coosawattee towns were on a river of that name in Georgia at least 250
miles away; but the mission was accomplished by this valiant man who aided
largely in bringing these people into peaceable terms with the whites. He
moved to Texas, after having raised a family of distinguished sons in
North Carolina,dying in Texas when over ninety years of age."(20)

FIRST SETTLERS IN FRANKLIN. Joshua Roberts, Esq., built the first house on
the Jack Johnston lot, "a small round log cabin;" but Irad S. Hightower
built the first "house proper," one built of hewn logs on the lot where
stands the Allman hotel. Capt. N. S. Jarrett bought the first house
proper, then Gideon F. Morris got it, and then John R. Allman. Lindsey
Fortune built a cabin on the lot where the Jarrett hotel stood in 1894,
and Samuel Robinson built on the lot occupied in 1905 by Mrs. Robinson.
Silas McDowell first built where the residence of D. C. Cunningham stood,
and Dillard Love built the first house on the Trotter lot. N. S. Jarrett
built on the lot owned by S. L. Rogers, and John F. Dobson first improved
the corner lot owned in 1894 by C. C. Smith. James K. Gray built the
second hewn-log house on the lot owned by Mrs. A. W. Bell, and Jesse R.
Siler, one of the first settlers, built at the foot of the town hill where
Judge G. A. Jones resided. He also built the second house on the Gov.
Robinson lot and the brick store and dwelling owned in 1894 by the late
Capt. A. P. Munday. James W. Guinn or Mr. Whitaker built the house
afterwards owned by Mr. Jack Johnston. John R. Allman opened the first
hotel in Franklin, followed soon afterward by a house at the "foot of the
hill" built by Jesse R. Siler.(24)

Captain Nimrod S. Jarrett was born in Buncombe county in 1800, married a
Miss McKee and moved to Haywood county in 1830, engaging in the "sang"
business, till he moved to Macon, where he resided at Aquone in 1835,
afterwards at the Apple Tree place six miles down the river, and still
later at Jarretts station on the Murphy railroad. He owned large tracts of
mountain lands, and the talc mine now operated at Hewitts. He was murdered
in September, 1873, by Bay less Henderson, a tramp from Tennessee.
Henderson was executed for the crime, at Webster, in 1874.