Foxfire

Rufus with a Foxfire student

Rufus Morgan

Adapted from Foxfire, Summer/Fall 1975

Original interviews by Marie Auten and Linda Warfield

Rufus Morgan was interviewed several times by Foxfire students in the early 1970s. Rufus was directly related to the Silers - a notable early family of settlers in Western North Carolina. Rufus lived in Macon County, North Carolina, and served as minister at St. John’s Episcopal Church of Cartoogechaye. He was also deeply devoted to the outdoors, and helped with the creation of the Appalachian Trail and is recognized as the founding member of the Nantahala Hiking Club, a group that still explores the mountains today. Below is just a small excerpt from the students’ work with Rufus. To read more about Rufus, check out a copy of Foxfire 4.

Well, I don’t know where to start except for where I started. My great-grandfather, William Siler, settled over across the valley, over here, about 1818. And the story goes that his house was the first house in Macon County that had windows. I remember the house quite well. It was a long, two-story log house. Porch was upstairs and down, the whole length of the house. My parents were married in ‘81 and my oldest sister was born there I think in that house in ‘82. And I was born there in 1885.

Rufus studied and worked in many places, including establishing Penland School of Craft with his sister Lucy Morgan. He ended up in South Carolina during World War I, where he helped administer to those dying from the flu epidemic in 1918:

I did work way back in the mountains. Then some events came up that I just couldn’t continue that particular job, so I went down to South Carolina. And during that time, there was that flu epidemic of the First World War. During the flu epidemic, I ministered through the Red Cross and saw more people die, I think, that year than I have in all the rest of my life.

Foxfire: What brought you back here to this house, to Macon County?

Rufus Morgan: What brought me back was my heart. My mother loved it intensely, my grandparents loved it. My great-grandparents loved it and well it’s just inbred. And I have loved it all my life. When we used to come back and forth from Cherokee

County over here, the county line—Macon County and Cherokee—is marked and when we’d get to that county line coming this way, we would get down and kiss the earth. We just loved it so. When we was going the other way, we would get down and kiss Macon County goodbye. But it’s just all in my blood. To me, it’s just too beautiful for words.

Rufus Morgan was an active member of the Appalachian Trail Conference and has hiked parts of it in six different states.

[I think the Appalachian Trail ought to be] a wilderness trail, foot trail. And to change it from a scene like that to a recreational area of commercial interests seemed to me incongruous. I objected to the change, but as I remember it, I was the only one to object. Going along the Appalachian Trail, you get all of the beauties that you could ask for in the way of majestic trees, wildflowers of various kinds at different times of the year. Going north from the southern end between Siler Bald and Clingmans Dome, the highest peak in the Smokies, you come across wood lilies, purple-fringed orchids, and all sorts of other wildflowers.

The Appalachian Trail was conceived of back about 1920, but I used to hike over the mountains here nearly twenty years before that. The Siler Bald here in the Nantahalas was named for my great-grandfather, William Siler. I’ve hiked up it many times, slept on the side of it. They succeeded in spoiling some of it, like building the roads, but they can’t take away the mountains as they stretch along here. Of course in later years, there’s been [segments] added to the Appalachian Trail, part of which goes along old Indian trails, but, well, I can’t express it. Somebody will have to prove that it isn’t as lovely as I think it is before I’ll be convinced.

There’s quite an interest now for establishing a William Bartram system of trails. William Bartram was a naturalist who came down through this section and went on through Georgia and Florida. There are some trails taking off from the Appalachian Trail up here in the Nantahalas, and we have been trying to find out, as near as we could, where he went because he went through Franklin [see Travels of William Bartram], back in the Revolutionary days—200 years ago. We’ve been scouting out some of those trails.

Foxfire: Has the progress made a great change in your life? Say, take the highway out here for instance that they’re building, how do you feel towards this?

Rufus Morgan: That distresses me and all that goes with it. I’ve sometimes said that I wish a bulldozer had never been invented. I can say that with a good deal of conviction. There’s so much in our present world that distresses me because it seems to me that the emphasis on the part of modern man is exactly contrary to the standards of Christ. We’re beginning to discover we can’t satisfy our needs. It’s all a result of man’s being completely occupied in the thing that Christ told us not to do. And of course it leads to the downgrading in our estimation of God’s creation. We come up against the situation that we have where we’ve just been overreaching ourselves, cheating ourselves by going too fast, too far. Well I hope we’ll wake up in time and in the meantime I walk along the trails in the Smoky Mountains National Park and my companion stops and he said, “Listen to the silence.” When we had left the bulldozers, other machinery, speeding cars down here, go up there where there’s peace.

Foxfire is a not-for-profit, educational and literary organization based in Rabun County, Georgia. Founded in 1966, Foxfire’s learner-centered, community-based educational approach is advocated through both a regional demonstration site (The Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center) grounded in the Southern Appalachian culture that gave rise to Foxfire, and a national program of teacher training and support (The Foxfire Approach to Teaching and Learning) that promotes a sense of place and appreciation of local people, community, and culture as essential educational tools. For information about Foxfire, foxfire.org, or call 706-746-5828. Rufus at an interview with Foxfire students

Bell tower at St. John’s

Our History The Shaping of Georgia’s Northern Border Blunders, a Short War and a Rock

by Dick Cinquina

Confusion, outright blunders and armed conflict ultimately shaped the eastern and northern borders of Georgia following the colony’s creation in 1732. Border disputes with Florida and Alabama flared up during the nineteenth century, but none were as contentious as those involving Georgia’s boundaries with South and North Carolina. Given its location, the land that became Rabun County stood squarely amid these mistake-riddled and heated controversies. The colony of Carolina was divided into North and South Carolina in 1729. The chartered limits of North Carolina encompassed what is now North Carolina and Tennessee. The chartered limits of South Carolina covered Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi as well as present-day South Carolina. Georgia was divided from South Carolina and established as a separate colony by the charter King George II granted to James Oglethorpe in 1732. The charter defined Georgia’s northeastern border with South Carolina as “the most northern part of a stream or river there, commonly called the Savannah.” Since the Savannah River has two branches, which one defined the border?

Beaufort Convention of 1787 The vagueness of this description was sufficient when the area was sparsely populated, but after the Revolutionary War, the upper reaches of the Savannah River were becoming settled. Not surprisingly, border disputes arose between Georgia and South Carolina. To resolve these controversies, three commissioners from each state met at Beaufort, South Carolina in 1787. A major point of contention at the Beaufort Convention was whether “the most northern part “of the Savannah River was its western branch (the Tugalo/Chattooga river system) or eastern branch (the Keowee/ Seneca river system). For reasons undocumented, the commissioners chose the western Tugalo/Chattooga system, which became the legal boundary between the future Rabun County and Oconee County, South Carolina to the east. The Beaufort Convention commissioners blundered. The eastern Keowee/Seneca river system actually is the most northern branch of the Savannah River. If the correct decision had been made in accordance with Georgia’s 1732 charter, the northeastern corner of Georgia would have encompassed what today is most of Oconee County, South Carolina. Instead, a mistake caused Georgia to forfeit approximately 700 square miles of land that eventually would have become part of Rabun County. Orphan Strip Along 35th Parallel At least this border controversy was settled peaceably over a negotiating table. Determining Georgia’s border with North Carolina was a different matter. This controversy erupted over a poorly defined, 12-mile-wide piece of land north of the 35th parallel, which was the recognized border between Georgia and North Carolina. Called the Orphan Strip by historians since no one initially wanted it, the land passed through a series of owners in quick succession. Originally claimed by South Carolina, the state ceded it to the federal government in 1787. The government then gave it to the Cherokee. In 1798, the Cherokee ceded the land back to the U.S. government. Between 1798 and 1802, the Orphan Strip was “open to public domain,” meaning the territory was under no sovereign state authority. Since the area was lawless and violent, largely populated by criminals and renegade Cherokee, the surrounding states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia were hesitant to claim the area. Even so, individuals with land grants from Georgia and North and South Carolina began to settle there. In 1800, a group of

Georgia and North Carolina fought a brief armed conflict in 1804 over ownership of a poorly defined, 12-mile-wide piece of land north of the 35th parallel, which was the recognized border between the two states. Called the Orphan Strip, this small tract of land today covers portions of several present-day North Carolina counties, including Macon, Jackson and Transylvania, which is located far to the east of northeast Georgia. (map not to scale)

Dick Cinquina holds graduate degrees in history and journalism, making his work for the Rabun County Historical Society a natural fit for his interests. He is the retired president of Equity Market Partners, a national financial consulting firm he founded in 1981. In addition to writing monthly articles for the Georgia Mountain Laurel, Dick helped produce the Society’s new web site and is involved with the renovation of the group’s museum. After vacationing in this area for many years, he and his wife Anne moved to Rabun County in 2018 form Amelia Island, Florida.

settlers asked South Carolina to accept the territory, but the state turned down the offer. North Carolina finally stepped in and made the Orphan Strip part of Buncombe County, which at the time encompassed most of western North Carolina.

Congress Cedes Orphan Strip to Georgia Congress enacted the Compact of 1802. Under a portion of this legislation, Georgia ceded the land upon which Mississippi and Alabama currently are located to the federal government. In return, the act ceded the Orphan Strip to Georgia, notwithstanding that North Carolina had taken possession of it and the area’s exact boundaries had never been determined by a survey. Despite these facts, Georgia proceeded to create Walton County (not to be confused with present-day Walton County about 30 miles east of Atlanta) on the Orphan Strip in 1803. Settlers with Georgia land grants readily embraced Walton County. However, those with North Carolina land grants strongly objected to the imposition of Georgia law and taxes, fearing they might lose their land under Georgia’s jurisdiction. Increasing pressure from Walton County officials on the North Carolina settlers led to an outbreak of violent altercations. One confrontation saw a Buncombe County constable killed after being struck by the butt of a Georgia official’s musket. In response, North Carolina called out the militia, precipitating the brief Walton War in 1804. Two battles were fought near Brevard, North Carolina between the militias of both states. North Carolina killed about a dozen Georgians and took another 25 prisoners. During the fracas, 10 Walton officials fled to Georgia. The Walton War ended quickly, and the Orphan Strip was firmly in the hands of North Carolina.

Georgia Doesn’t Give Up Georgia continued to contest the issue. To resolve the dispute, a joint commission of the Georgia and North Carolina legislatures was established in 1807. The commission analyzed several surveys of the area and concluded that the Orphan Strip was in fact located in North Carolina. However, Georgia refused to abide by the commission’s report and continued to govern Walton County, which was included as part of the state in the 1810 census.

In 1811, surveyor Andrew Ellicott marked a rock “N-G” on the east bank of the Chattooga River, designating the 35th parallel and boundary between Georgia and North Carolina. Ellicott’s Rock today is most commonly used to mark the point where Georgia (Rabun County), North Carolina (Macon County) and South Carolina (Oconee County) converge. Highlighted in green is the area that might have belonged to Georgia if history had turned out differently. Adapted from Coulter, The Georgia-Tennessee Boundary Line, 35 Ga. Hist. Q 269 (1951).

In 1811, Georgia hired Andrew Ellicott, one of the leading surveyors of the day, with the intention of resolving the border controversy in Georgia’s favor. Despite Georgia’s motives, Ellicott determined that the Orphan Strip was, indeed, north of the 35th parallel, definitely placing it within North Carolina. Upon reading Ellicott’s report, Georgia Governor David Brydie Mitchell exclaimed, “… it appears that no part of the territory heretofore claimed by this state remains in Georgia.” Georgia finally surrendered its claim to the Orphan Strip. Ellicott marked a rock “N-G” on the east bank of the Chattooga River, designating the 35th parallel and boundary between Georgia and North Carolina. Although a new survey in 1813 moved the 35th parallel a few feet downstream from the 1811 finding, Ellicott’s Rock today is most commonly used to mark the point where Georgia (Rabun County), North Carolina (Macon County) and South Carolina (Oconee County) converge. Ellicott’s Rock is still visible. Apparently, territorial disputes tend to linger and fester. In 1971, a Georgia legislative commission reported that the state still had a claim to the Orphan Strip. Upon learning of this, the North Carolina General Assembly erupted in a burst of anger and vitriol. The legislature authorized the governor to mobilize the National Guard to “protect, defend, and hold inviolate the territorial border of North Carolina against the spurious claims by the State of Georgia.” However, cooler heads prevailed and both states dropped the matter, hopefully moving on to more pressing issues. It took nearly 220 years, but Rabun County’s northern border was finally settled.

Learn more about our history by becoming a member of the Rabun County Historical Society. Membership and complete information about the Society’s museum are available at www. rabunhistory.org. The newly renovated museum at 81 N. Church St. in downtown Clayton, which houses the Southeast’s largest collection of Tallulah Falls Railroad artifacts, is open Thursday-Saturday from 11 to 3. The Society is a not-for-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, making membership dues and donations tax deductible. Visit us on Facebook.

Greg Peters 1956 - 2022

A Man After God’s Own Heart

If someone were simply to ask you, What’s the greatest thing you can do To leave your mark for eternity When all of your life is through?

What would be your answer? What tribute could there be? What thought would honor God the most When He your name would see?

I believe the greatest thing God could yet impart, Would be the words, This child became A man after My own heart.

This, My son or daughter, Found a touch of the divine, Because within that life there beats A heart shaped just like Mine.

A heart that grew to stand in awe At what His God had done; A heart that lived for just one thing:

To glorify My Son. A heart that did not need acclaim, A heart that just believed. A heart that would but rather die

Than see My Spirit grieved. He may not have found greatness, Nor heard this world’s acclaim; The greatest thing to him was just

To bear his Master’s name. Would you like to please the heart of God? Beloved, here is where you start: Quietly ask God to make you A man after His own heart!