Shulls Mill Revisited | By Julie Farthing

SHULLS MILL VALLEY SARAH SHULL DAVID C. McCANLES James Butler Hickok

WHITINGS LUMBER MILL

Shulls Mills Revisited By Julie Farthing

The turn from Hwy 105 South down Shulls Mill Road near Foscoe hasn’t among the trees like tombstones in the shade. The only building remaining of the family cemetery. Sarah’s family were understandably not happy about the shame changed much over the 21 years since I first wrote about the town of Shulls Mill or

Shulls Mills, as it was once called. A small church on the left and neatly mowed lawns that lead to Hound Ears Club are pretty much the same. Of course, the cemetery is still there on the right, up on the hill. The last time I visited the graves, the old Shull homestead was barely holding its own.

The crumbling wooden structure had once been a fine two-story home belonging to

Phoebe and Philip Shull and their family.

The home, up on the crest above the family store and grist mill that Philip began around 1835, has since been replaced by gated condominiums. The town of Shulls Mills was then a small farming community and stopping place on the toll road from Valle Crucis history... to Blowing Rock. Boom times for Shulls Mills came in the early 1900s after the coming of the railroad made it easy to transport logs cut from the mountain sides; thus, Shulls Mills got its name from the timber milling, not from the grist mill that Philip Shull started. Few current High Country residents probably even realize the town held not only a large mill, but also a school, post office, several hotels and even a movie theater. If you pay attention to the side of the road as you exit from

Hwy 105, you can still see the remaining stones of a retaining wall that surrounded the Robbin’s hotel. They now lay scattered 78 — Autumn 2021 CAROLINA MOUNTAIN LIFE Shulls Mills community is a small wooden cabin and the building that replaced the first store owned by Philip Shull. Both are private residences. Time has changed the landscape, but the story of the people who lived in the shadow of Grandfather Mountain remains the same. The most noted story is that of Sarah Shull and David Colbert McCanles. Sarah was the daughter of Philip and Phoebe Shull. In 1853, 20-year-old Sarah, described as a handsome young woman, was fiercely independent, much to the dismay of her parents. She did not set her mind to marriage as did most of the girls in Shulls Mill. Instead of setting up house, she worked as a bookkeeper for her father in the family store. This path would one day lead to her footnote in history as it was here that she met David Colbert McCanles, a married man with three children. Where Sarah was handsome, “D.C.,” or “Colb,” as he was often called, was a force to be reckoned with. He was known to pick a fight if it suited him, but his intelligence, smooth-talking-tongue, and dashing good looks caused most folks to turn their heads at his transgressions. Though much of what we know about the relationship of Sarah and Colb McCanles is hearsay, one thing we do know to be fact. Sarah bore a daughter belonging to McCanles, and the child, Martha Allice, lived only one year and was buried in the their daughter brought to the Shull name. It is said that Philip Shull refused to grind corn for Colb McCanles after his daughter was found to be in the “family way.” The only option for Sarah was to leave town and start over, and that is exactly what she and McCanles did. Although the details behind the financing of their travels remain in question, McCanles, who was the Sheriff of Watauga County, a job that included tax collecting, left with the taxpayers’ coffers. The couple fled on horseback to Johnson’s Tank, now Johnson City, Tennessee, and from there took a train headed for St. Louis. There they traveled up the Missouri River by steamboat to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, then headed west by wagon to Colorado. During their travels they were met by miners returning east, reporting the lack of gold in the over-mined Rocky Mountains, so Sarah and McCanles ended their journey at Rock Creek Station, Nebraska. Located on the Oregon Trail, this outpost was a popular route for travelers headed west. It was a pretty location but the steep cliffs surrounding Rock Creek made it one of the most treacherous on the trail. McCanles saw an opportunity for a lucrative business, so he bridged the creek and charged a toll for passage. During this time McCanles had arranged for Sarah to live on a ranch on the west side of the creek, and in September

LUMBER MILL INTERIOR WALL REMNANT SHULL’S HOUSE, CIRCA 1850

of the same year, McCanles’s wife, Mary, along with their children, moved to Rock Creek and resided in a home McCanles had built on the east side. Although Mary McCanles was not happy that her husband’s mistress was a stone’s throw across the water, they were known to be cordial to one another.

Soon, it was McCanles who would feel the sting of jealousy when a Mr. James Butler Hickok was sent to work at the East Rock Creek Station, operated by Horace Wellman, as a driver. The pretty and single Sarah Shull caught the eye of the blondehaired, blue-eyed newcomer. Colb, tempered by the relationship, started calling Hickok “Duck Bill” referring to James’ protruding upper lip.

On July 12, 1861, McCanles went to the East Rock Creek to collect arrears for payment of the station. McCanles traveled with his son, Monroe, his cousin, and an employee to the one-room cabin. It is said that when Horace Wellman’s wife appeared on the porch, McCanles asked that she tell Mr. Wellman to come out or he would drag him out. McCanles was surprised when Hickok, who was also at the station, appeared at the door. McCanles shouted that his qualm was not with him but with Wellman. After more threats from McCanles, Hickok retreated inside and fired a shot from behind the curtain, which killed McCanles instantly. His cousin and employee were also killed, but McCanles’s young son, Monroe escaped.

Sarah Shull had also been at the cabin visiting Wellman’s wife along with Hickok and witnessed the altercation. According to accounts of those present, Sarah was quickly put on a stagecoach headed west to Colorado to avoid being a witness. Wellman’s wife was the only other witness and declared the two men acted in self-defense. Hickok and Wellman were exonerated.

There are many different versions of what really happened on that fateful day. Some have deemed McCanles as a pillar of society, while others note him as the leader of the “McCanles Gang.” What we do know as fact is that Hickok went west to become the infamous “Wild Bill Hickok,” who was struck down during a card game in Deadwood, South Dakota.

In 1863, Sarah married a music teacher, Philip Devald. After 33 years of marriage, and many years of unfaithfulness, Sarah divorced Phillip, left Colorado, and returned to the mountains where she was born. She lived there in a one-room cabin and often enjoyed the company of her niece Luna Robbins. Her past had not completely escaped her, however, and a shroud of mystery and secrets followed Sarah to her deathbed in 1932 at the age of 98. She was laid to rest in the cemetery beside her daughter—her only child.

Mary McCanles left for Colorado and their family eventually changed the spelling to McCandless to separate themselves from the scandal. Mary’s grandson, Byron, was an Admiral in the Navy during WWI and WWII. Her great-grandson, Bruce, was a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor in WWII, and her greatgreat grandson, Navy Captain Bruce McCandless II, was one of the 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. He performed the famous spacewalk on STS31 in 1990 and helped deploy the Hubble Space Telescope.

After the flood of 1940 and the collapse of the railroad, Shulls Mills ceased to exist as it did in its heyday. Now referred to as Shulls Mill, only the fields of wildflowers and the small cemetery on the hill keep the secrets of a town lost forever.

HISTORIC IMAGE CREDITS

[circa 1912] Shulls Mill Valley. Photographer Unknown, “Shulls Mill Valley,” Digital Watauga, accessed August 25, 2021, https://digitalwatauga. org/items/show/20466. [circa 1915] Whiting Lumber Mill, or Boone Lumber Mill, part of a lumber operation by William S. Whiting and the Boone Fork Lumber Company in Shulls Mill, NC.Photographer Unknown, “Whiting Lumber Mill Close-Up,” Digital Watauga, accessed August 25, 2021, https://digitalwatauga.org/ items/show/20622.

[circa 1915] Shulls Mill Valley. Photographer Unknown, “Aerial Mill View of Shulls Mill Valley,” Digital Watauga, accessed August 25, 2021, https://digitalwatauga.org/items/show/20625.