The Charlotte News from Charlotte, North Carolina • Page 3

THE CHARLOTTE MAY 2. 1911 QtliiKE AS WRITTEN FOR THE STATE BY WILLIAM BANKS. jv1' tr Bluff nearplcjiio grounds, upon which rests one end of t9srmr 1 lhe Southern Power company at Fails 6. Hotel Watson," Great Falls, where the prospectors stopped 1898: Located near the present site of the handsome -residence, of Mr." H. A Tibbs.

Aunt Marianne in the-doorway; did the cuisine. sv 'No. 7. Old fisherman; andlMill Site of; the first cottoii mills at. Great Fails.

It' is' pr'therupper-'dam wli'erietheatef is turned rom the intp the canal. 7 Here Daniel McCullough built wing dam ex- tending up the river to catch the waterwhich turned. the undershot wneel, and supplied the power to run; his mill located jastbelow the' The exact date of building of mill not known, but with the labor of his slaves Mr. McCullough spun yarn with which his nei ghbors war made homespuns. Sherman! burned the mill in 1865 When this photo was taken segments of the mill wheel were seen nearly buried saridsr On i the bluff, atlihe leff.of this.picture, "Old Man Brannon" and the remaining member of his family, a little son, occupied a hut' during the fishing and supplied neighbors with' fish carp, cats and sturgeon.

Brannon ''wis one of a to be shot by Sherman's- but he escaped' by' burrowing" out through the dirt floor of his pen. v' No. 8. Lock in tne old State canal, near where the upper power plant is located. This' lock has three steps, each of 12 feet.

See the large tree grow- ing in the bed of the lock. 2. View -of Catawba from top of- the hill where Fort Dearborn UiWng south, Bowden island on the right. Fort Dearborn came Stfck of ving been selected aa the location of the United States SfiStf Awdtmy. -Several-duels mxre fought here; in one of them Maj.

lb-A, vtt killed. flc 3. Th0 Rock Houa Photo of ruins made in 1893. This build-hi6 1051 used a club house. Thishouse, built 100 years ijl3 3 homo; for tha-iockkeeper of the canal.

Ke. 4. View across Catawba river from the mouth of Rocky creek. Vothe siw of the lower dam. Stout hearted men were required to conceive -A festsr ti make a success of this project.

No- 3. Lock in the old State canal near Rock House, constructed iVrtt IS2U. The locks, built ofgranite cut by Scotch masons, were well vhva Gaston took this photograph. mouth of Fishing creek is about two miles and three-quarters and the drop in. the river level, is about 70 feet.

From the mouth of Fishing creek to where the canal emptied into Rocky creek and on down the creek to its mouth is about two and three-quarter This section was known as the Gayden canal, running through the Gayden and Pickett McCullough plantations. The river drop here is about 105 feet, thus making a fall in the three several sections of about 175 feet, but to assemble it into a complete proposition required, the procuring of fifty-five title deeds from owners living, from Baltimore to Texas. Mrs. was the most ac- tive of the land owners in bringing about a --development of power at this point of the Catawba. About 18S8 she got a conditional deed from the Sinking Fund Commission for the old canal.

The condition was that $150,000 must be expended in development to perfect the deed, and a time limit was stipulated. Mrs. Boylston went to much expense in having a survey and map made. of her part of the canal. She placed the promotion of the sale into the hands of Col.

A. C. Haskell and afterwards with Mr. A. Tompkins of Charlotte.

Nothing coming from the efforts of Messrs. Haskell and 'Tompkins within the time limit, she. secured a renewal from the sinking fund commission" and placed the sale in the hands of Mr. James Q. Davis- of Winnsboro, S.

in the spring of 1898. Shortly af- ter getting the option Mr. Davis happened in Charlotte, N. mentioned the matter to Mr. George St e-vens of that place, who was in the real estate business.

Quite soon after hi3 visit to Charlotte Mr. Davis re- ceived a request from Mr. Stevens to meet him and some parties from Greensboro, N. in Chester for a trip of. inspection over the which resulted in- a meeting of Mr.

Davis, Dr. Mabane bf Greensboro, N. Mr. Stevens and Mr. L.

P. Gaston, an engineer Summerville, N. J. Mr. Davis understood- that Mr.

Mabane represented the Dukes of Durham. C. Arriving at the river Dr. Mabane and Mr. Stevens "disgusted and returned to Chester.

Mr. Gaston declined. to return, saying 'I shall "re- main and see what Mr. Davis has. Mr.

Gastcn wr.s a neighbor and personal friend of Mr. Duke, and owned, with Mr. Duke, a small -water-' power on the Raridan river; in Naw. Jersey, from which satisfying div-, dends had come, and this probably gave Mr. Duke an appreciation of wa- ter power Mr.

'Gaitcn and Dr: -Mabahs inspected other waiter powers in the State before going to Great. Falls. "AfterVpending a week on the river-Mr. Gaston and Mr. Davis returned to Winnsboro, the former being so impressed with the splendid possibilities for power development there that he suggested that Mr.

Davis secure options on that whole section of the river, and he returned North to mako his report to Mr. Duke. Later Mr. Davis met Mr. Erwin-of Durham, and Mr.

Gaston at Chester, and togeher they made a detailed inspection oT the whole-river seotion. Mr. Davis was then eng'aged to get air the deeds on both sides of the soon as possible, 1 Mr. Erwin saying," "We'll mak here a Lowell of It was a tremendous undertaking to secure all the deeds to land necessary for the build4ng of the power plant at Great Falls and at Rocky Mount. This was -accomplished by Jas.

Q. Davis of Wlnnsboro. Long had Mr. Davis cheriehed dreams of the Bra of Electricity, and to his foresight as well as to his character is due in great part the fact that this work was accomplished in this generation. Mr.

Davis enlisted, after many years' effort, the interest of men' who "had the capital and. they have put into effect -what before had been fu-' tile hopes. To Mr, Davis was assigned the deiicate task of getting titles to the land. He was respected and es- teemed all men, and the task would have been wellnigh impossible for a stranger. In addition to getting the titles to land owned by individuals, he got from the-State of South Carolina ownership of the old State canal.

The sinkmg. fund commission sold this property conditioned upon the expenditure of a large amount of money. CoL August Kohn has already writ-. ten as follows of the part Mr. Davis had in this undertaking: '''The.

story of how the Southern Power company started-reads almost like a romance. The Catawba Power company was the beginning of the velopment "tHat" has spread from one end of upper Carolina to the other. Gill- who was the moving spirit in the Catawba develop-. ment, was interested in the Portman .1. fc'hoals project at Anderson.

He believed in water powers, and in look-. ing around for a development discov- ered the possibilities of Catawba river and began this development by organizing the Catawba Water Power company. Later on he interested the Dukes, but Dr. Wylift bore the brunt and had a haM burden in developing the Catawba plant and getting it started. It had.

serious mishaps- and Interruptions, began with less money than it was expected the plant would cost, and while almost everyone else lost heart, Dr. Wylie out of his own resources invested practically all of his own means, and finally was rewarded by success. The Dukes came into the situation after that time, and of course, Dr. Wylie has not lost in any way. "It'' will interesting to note the genesis, so to speak, of the Great Falls Rocky Branch developments.

as these are the initial links, in the Southern Power development. "Commencing in Chester county, about seven miles north of the Fairfield line, the -Catawba river drops through a series of shcals about 200 feet, thus forming one of the finest sites in the country for the development of water power. To avoid these shoals, for purposes of Inland navigation between the upper country and the ocean, the State in the early part of the last century constructed a series of boat canals. The iwo large creeks, -Fishing creek and. Rocky creek, which drain, the southeastern part of Chester county, empty in tlve Catawba within the limits this section, and portions of these creeks, tending to their mouths, were used to empty the canal into these parts of the creek and these formed, parts of the The exterme northern pant of the canal belonged to Henry Gladden about three-quarter of a mile.

Here there is not much fall in the river. Below the. Gladden place the canal entered the Boylston plantation and emptied into Fishing creek, about, of -a mile from its mouth. From the Gladden line to the i 5 jr. i f' -i a T- Great Falls.

Photo made in 1898 engineer who first surveyed 4 5 'ft ei'i "tt "tj It'll MM. The illustrations accompanying this article are from photographs furnish-ed -The. State br-Jas. Q. Davis.

The photographer was L. P. Gaston. Potato au Receive a SSSSS55S3i Alt 1 fvtrvTT rn itrr.Tr.rr. tr r.ift hi TTflmhurcf Steak.

Tomato Sauce, 1 Gratin, Blacz Cake, i 1 Anyone Atteildins- Three Lectures Will Boiled Icing 1 nn-rr-rr 0 I itUL.