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History
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Celtic people who came to the mountains of Ashe County were drawn by
the promise of land and an opportunity not found in the Piedmont and
valleys of Virginia and North Carolina. From 1607 to 1725, there was
little westward movement into this area. But during the next 50
years, from 1725 to 1775, the former indentured servants and the
dispossessed, primarily the Scotch-Irish, Germans and Welsh, looked
to the south and west for a new life.
It would be years
before wagons could come up the face of the Blue Ridge. Therefore,
settlers spread southward from Pennsylvania and Maryland, following
the Great Wagon Road through the Shenandoah Valley and the Old
Warriors’ Trail. |
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Research by Dr. Charlotte Ross of Appalachian State University
suggests that, contrary to a view of Appalachia as a land populated
by an illiterate underclass, the Scotch-Irish, German, English and
Welsh settlers, though not of the landed class, were educated and
had a history of a lifestyle uniquely suited to the mountains. The
people and the geography were so compatible that, when other
migrating settlers moved through the area heading further westward,
most of these Celtic immigrants chose to stay and make the mountains
their home.
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| Ashe
County was formed in 1799 from Wilkes County. At the time it
included parts of what are now Ashe, Allegheny, Watauga, Avery and
Burke Counties. Immediately following the Revolutionary War the
region became part of the State of Franklin, an area formed in
western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee, with the intention of
keeping the mountain area together in one political unit. The
individualism that had led many to remain loyal to the King during
the American Revolution made the creation of the State of Franklin a
sensible idea. This spirit remains intact today, as many are slow to
leave old ways, accept new things or people, and welcome change in
the county. |
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