Beautiful Land of the Sky: John Muir's Forgotten Eastern Counterpart, Harlan P. Kelsey
624
Beautiful Land of the Sky: John Muir's Forgotten Eastern Counterpart, Harlan P. Kelsey
624eBook
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781475994476 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | iUniverse, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 624 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
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Beautiful Land of the Sky
John Muir's Forgotten Eastern Counterpart, Harlan P. Kelsey
By Loren M. Wood
iUniverse LLC
Copyright © 2013 Loren M. WoodAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-9445-2
CHAPTER 1
Even as a Child
A Home in the Wilderness
March 1875. The three men had left behind them the Franklin–Walhalla wagon road to the Short Off community. They hiked southerly to drop into the gorge of the Sugartown River, which now climbed steeply in a southeasterly direction to gain the heights of the Sugartown Highlands. They were on the old Cherokee trail. It was known only to the local mountain people, rarely traveled, and the path was torturous and difficult. Anyone not familiar with it would easily lose the trail and struggle upward through the tangle of the deep surrounding woods.
In the lead was Charlie Jenks, a nineteen-year-old local. For the last three years he had been living, fishing, hunting deer, and trapping bear all across the Sugartown Highlands, and knew it intimately. Behind him were two men, recently from Kansas, both vigorous and hardened by life outdoors on the western prairies. They were Samuel Truman Kelsey and Clinton Carter Hutchinson, close friends looking for a site to establish a new town. They had left their families out in Kansas until provision could be made for them to come east. S. T. Kelsey and his wife, Katy, had five children: three boys and two girls.
One of the boys was two-year-old Harlan Page Kelsey. This is his story, but at age two little can be written about him personally. However, no one can understand him in later life without a detailed knowledge of the early forces that shaped him, starting at age two. For now we must focus on his father, S. T. Kelsey, who will simply be called STK for brevity, which in fact he preferred and usually used as his name. His son, Harlan, will be Kelsey, always, where Kelsey is used.
Why Jenks had chosen to guide them up the Cherokee trail instead of by the wagon road remains a mystery. It wasn't any shorter, but it certainly exposed the climbers to more dramatic scenery. Edward King, a Massachusetts journalist exploring the reconstructed South for Scribner's Monthly, had been guided up this trail two years earlier. His description talks of dropping down into the river gorge, hanging onto tree branches, swinging down to reach ledges, and being drawn through the dense laurel and trees by the roar of the Lower Sugar Fork Falls. When finally looking up at the hundred-foot cascade of the falls, King was awed by the blinding clouds of spray that saturated the tall trees and foliage covering the canyon walls for hundreds of feet up both sides. Climbing the falls, the trail traced up the river course, crossing the thundering torrent again and again, with the woods occasionally offering an easier grade through the massive trees of the primeval forest. Reaching a pass in the mountains, the trail opened onto the edge of cliffs where the river plunged over the upper falls of the Sugar Fork River. The falls were then and are still called "Dry Falls" because the cliff angles inward behind the massive curtain of water, allowing "dry" passage behind the falls to the other side of the river. This was even more dramatic than the earlier lower falls. From Dry Falls it is only three more miles to the Highlands plateau, after which the trail was only obstructed by swampy holes and gnarled tree roots. Now bearing northeasterly, the trail crossed the plateau ending at James Wright's farmhouse underneath Short Off Mountain.
King's account of the climb up the Cherokee trail emphasizes the river and the spectacular waterfalls. It is quite probable that STK's eyes were riveted not on the show of the river, but on the deep virgin forest through which they passed. He grew up in the forests of western New York state, became a nurseryman in Illinois, and went to Kansas to plant trees on the windswept prairies. He knew trees. But these trees defied even his imagination. "Tree-like Rhododendrons, Flame Azaleas and Mountain Laurels, six feet diameter Tulip Trees and eight feet diameter Hemlocks." Never had he laid eyes on anything like this.
Jenks had called Wright's house home during his three years on the plateau, and there the three men found refuge as night fell after the long, exhausting day on the Cherokee trail. From this "headquarters," STK and Hutchinson explored the plateau with Jenks as their companion. This turned out to be the end of their long journey from Kansas. They had reached North Carolina on February 18, 1875. By wagon, mule, and on foot they had explored some six hundred miles along the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina in late February and early March 1875, looking for the perfect location to found a new town.
STK and Hutchinson were no strangers to the process of founding new towns.
Shortly before the Civil War, C. C. Hutchinson had cofounded the town of Ottawa, Kansas, and built Ottawa University on twenty thousand acres of deeded Indian land. In June 1865 the university called in STK as a horticultural expert and professor and asked him to lay out and improve their lands. He had no sooner started planting and caring for forests, orchards, and hedges than he had to stop. Through an unfortunate mismanagement of Indian affairs, much of the university land that had been donated by the Ottawa Indians was returned to the donors, and the improvement project was necessarily abandoned. There had been time, however, for him to court Katy Ricksecker, a Baptist minister's daughter. They were married on October 1, 1866.
Now with family and no job, STK partnered with J. H. Whetstone in the purchase of the Pomona Project—12,000 acres of unimproved upland prairie about fifteen miles west of Ottawa. Quoting STK, "The improvement work devolved upon me and I took it up with high hopes and expectations. Selecting a section adjoining the town site on the East for a home, I built a house and became the first citizen of Pomona and Mrs. K. truly 'the first Lady of the land' ... Roads were located on all section lines, and Osage orange hedges were planted, except on the town site, around every quarter section, as soon as the ground could be prepared and the plants grown. This required about 100 miles of hedge and over 500,000 plants." And again the unexpected happened. The "Gold Panic" of 1869 brought the economy crashing down, halted the settling of Pomona, and bankrupted Kelsey. His land was gone, and he was deeply in debt, but he must have kept his house in Pomona. We have no record of the family's domestic life during this period leading to the birth of the twins, Harlan and Harry, in 1872, except that they were born in Pomona. He did, however, get a job working for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad for two years (the exact dates are unclear), at a salary of $200 per month, so he could pay off his residual debt.
STK was active with C. C. Hutchinson in the founding of Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1871. Hutchinson rode a Santa Fe train to Newton, Kansas, in the fall of 1871. A. F. Homer, STK, and Hutchinson rode west on horseback to find Section 13, Township 23, Range 6, West: the site picked by Hutchinson for his town. The original town site, near the Arkansas River and bisected by Cow Creek, was roughly one square mile, bounded today by Avenue G north to Fourth Avenue, and from Plum to Monroe. Legend tells it that, lacking wooden stakes on the treeless prairie, the lots were marked with buffalo bones. For a time, the community was called "Temperance City," a reflection of Mr. Hutchinson's Baptist beliefs. By the next year, Hutchinson was incorporated as a third-class city with six hundred residents and became the Reno county seat. They certainly wasted no time with this smashing success of a new town.
Now, shift back to North Carolina and the Sugartown Highlands. On March 6, 1875, STK and Hutchinson stood with Jenks on the summit of Satulah Mountain at the south side of the plateau. Jenks pointed out far below the best location for their dream of a town, surrounded by peaks, a mile and a half wide and reaching three miles north toward Short Off. In short order Hutchinson put up $1,678 of borrowed money to purchase 839 acres, about one and one-third square miles, from William Dobson. The deed to Hutchinson was dated March 1, 1875. The new town would be called Highlands, and they commenced work on it March 29, 1875.
Why? With the town of Hutchinson, Kansas, such a success, and hordes of homesteaders streaming westward, why would STK and Hutchinson pull up stakes and move east to start all over again in North Carolina? The answer is mosquitoes. Malaria was pervasive with the Kansas settlers who naturally lived near water, streams, and rivers containing backwaters and stagnant pools even during dry spells. Harlan Kelsey explains: "In the spring of 1875 when both my twin brother and I were nearly three years old, we left Kansas (having been born Jay-Hawkers) to escape 'chills and fever,' as malaria was then called, to regain our health and that of our families in the high ozone laden southern-most plateau of the Blue Ridge range, in Macon County, North Carolina." Founding of the earlier Kansas towns was predicated on inducing the stream of westward-bound homesteaders to stop and settle on the land STK and Hutchinson would sell them. Highlands was different—it was to be a health-and-pleasure resort, where people could escape the summer heat and enjoy the healthfulness of the atmosphere at four thousand feet of altitude. People were not streaming in. They would have to be persuaded to come and, of course, settle on the land STK and Hutchinson would sell them.
Speculation on the motivation of STK and Hutchinson has produced a number of theories. They are neatly summarized in Gertrude Vogt McIntosh's book, Highlands, North Carolina: A Walk into the Past. Three different stories are told: (1) they believed the plateau could become a health resort because of the high altitude and clean, cool air, and eventually many people did come here as a result of the promotion of that idea; (2) STK had read an article by Colonel Silas McDowell about a thermal belt near the plateau, where frost is slight. As a horticulturist, STK was very interested in that report and believed he could develop a nursery business in the area; and (3) probably the most commonly held story is that STK and Hutchinson drew two lines across a map of the United States—one from Chicago, Illinois, to Savannah, Georgia, the other from New York, New York, to New Orleans, Louisiana. They believed that where the two lines intersected, a geographical center of the eastern United States was indicated and could be developed into a great population center, if commerce and travel were promoted.
Certainly reason number one aligns best with Harlan Kelsey's recollection of coming to escape malaria in Kansas. As for reason two, one wonders why STK didn't use Colonel McDowell's article among the voluminous testimonials he crammed into the promotional brochures he sent throughout the country. His brochure did use an 1867 letter from a General Clingman, writing to the president of the American Agricultural and Mineral Land Company in New York. It gave a long and very favorable account of the physical attributes of the area. As for the third reason, the intersecting lines on the map, it is the most popular one in current use in Highlands, but at this point in the author's research, no source documents have been found to support it.
It had been STK's habit in Ottawa, Kansas, to keep a daily diary, "Record of Weather and Work." This was interrupted for many years but commenced again in the same ledger book in Highlands on September 10, 1875. He prefaced the diary with a general summary of activities for the period from his February arrival to September 9.
I came to the State of North Carolina Feb. 18, 1875 in company with C.C. Hutchinson. About the last of March we bought 830 acres of land on the Sugartown Highlands for $2.00 an acre and commenced work on it March 29th. Before purchasing we traveled about 600 miles over the mountains & along the Blue Ridge to select a location. On the land we purchased there was an old abandoned field of about 15 acres on which the brush had been cleared & trees deadened & about 50 old neglected & nearly dead apple trees from 2 to 10 inches in diameter badly covered with moss & infested with borers. During the Spring & Summer we cleared up & put into crops about 20 acres & fenced in 100 acres more for pasture. Crops all put in very late. The garden was lightly manured. The rest of the land had no manure. Apple trees have grown finely & have a fair crop and are now looking well. During the Spring I dug out & killed all the borers. Scraped off the moss & all dead bark & pruned out the dead wood & superfluous limbs. About the first of June I washed them thoroughly with soap.
The season has been very wet so that I could not give as thorough cultivation as I wished. Most of the crops were worked but twice. 4 acres of oats turned out I should judge 40 bushels. All early garden vegetables did well & late are doing well. Early cabbages, turnips, potatoes, radishes, peas, beans & have produced finely.
I have built a house costing about $350, barn costing about $100 & our families came on from Kansas in May in care of C.C. Hutchinson, I'm staying here to look after business & get ready for them. My family moved from Mr. S.W. Hills [down in Horse Cove] where they have been boarding to our new house on the Highlands June 17, 1875.
Now his daily entries start:
Sept
10 Clear through the day. Men at work on the road. I am crippled with a lame back, which I sprained last Monday.
11 Cloudy all day with East wind.
12 Sunday. Cloudy all day. East wind with a little drizzling rain.
13 Heavy fog this morning. Clear most of day East wind. Had 3 men cutting weeds in the garden & among potatoes & turnips.
And so it went day after day after day, uninterrupted for the next seven years.
Sept
17 Cloudy all day. Wind N.W. Heavy rain from 10 to 12 am & drizzling rain by spells during pm. Commenced cutting the Buckwheat & hauling rails. Cut some brush on C.C. Hutchinson's house sight. Cut trees and burned brush on my grounds. Finished sowing grass seed for lawn about my house.
September 18–24 are typical entries. Then a surprising entry!
25 Cloudy. Drizzling rain by spells. Moved the kitchen. Closed a trade with C.C. Hutchinson for his entire interest in the Highlands purchase & he goes back to Kansas.
Schaffner clarifies this turn of events with Hutchinson. "During the first summer he helped [STK] clear land before departing again for Kansas in October, giving his friend power of attorney over his holdings until [STK] could afford to buy them all in July, 1878. During the fall [1878] he returned with his wife and son Reno and commenced building his home. By the spring of 1879, he had bought back half interest in the town. ... He left again with his family ... in the spring of 1879 to settle unfinished business in Kansas and never returned." The burden of a successful Highlands venture now fell squarely and solely on S. T. Kelsey's shoulders.
In the fall of 1875, through the next winter, spring, and summer of 1876, the work was mostly agricultural in nature. STK had to establish a working farm to feed his family and to provide an infrastructure to begin the clearing of the town site and rudimentary roads. Hutchinson helped that first spring and summer but was gone after that. The diary records assistance by a Mr. Jackson, no doubt a local mountain person happy for the employment. He seems most involved making yokes and driving oxen to haul logs felled to clear roads and fields. Most of STK's help, however, came from John Teague, a local mountain resident. Teague helped build the house and the barn. After that he is periodically, and often, recorded as cutting buckwheat, mowing and bringing in hay, burning brush, hauling logs. All of these were tasks that STK himself did most of the time but handed off to others as he became more involved with the selling and surveying of land and the establishment of the town roads and clearing of lots.
The diary entries, each and every evening, were the cryptic jottings of a man exhausted by a long day's toil. Thus it is interesting to note that the only place he offered detail was for the horticultural activities. He doesn't just say he hoed "the garden" or "the garden vegetables." Rather it's "hoed the beets, carrots, parsnips and cabbage." He was more than a farmer; he talks of "putting down some magnolia and dogwood seeds" in the first October in Highlands. Ornamentals were not to be ignored even as he concentrated on food crops. He was constantly measuring the yield and quality of the various crop species he used in this new environment.
Oct 1875
13 Ground froze this morning ¼ inch deep in exposed places. Clear fine day. Gathered the apples about 12 bu—also the beets and onions & 16 to 18 bu of potatoes. Beets & onions did poorly.
14 Froze this morning harder than yesterday—Clear mild day. Dug potatoes. Brownell's Beauty Good size & handsome. Yield fair 10 bu. From ½ bu Snowflake too many small ones but very handsome smooth potatoes. Yield light. Western reds yield fair. Good size & good looking tubers.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Beautiful Land of the Sky by Loren M. Wood. Copyright © 2013 Loren M. Wood. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse LLC.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Provocation.................... 1
Part I—Horticulturalist: Native Plants....................
Chapter 1: Even as a Child (1872–89) Soak in the environment that shaped
the man-to-be.................... 7
Chapter 2: Emerging Entrepreneur (1890–96) Witness the birth of his
tireless crusade for native plants.................... 61
Chapter 3: Broadening Scope (1897–1911) Behold the leap from primitive
settings to elite society, and the beginnings of insatiable desire to fill
unmet civic needs.................... 99
Chapter 4: Gaining Stature (1912–20) Follow the ladder of ascension to
horticultural preeminence.................... 143
Part II—Preservationist: National Parks....................
Chapter 5: National Stage (1921–28) Observe the immediate transition from
horticultural preeminence to preservation hero.................... 213
Chapter 6: Trials and Triumphs (1929–40) Switch back and forth from
national park successes, to economic failures, to universal praise......... 297
Chapter 7: Unfinished Business (1941–58) Feel the pain of unfulfilled
objectives that remain unfulfilled to this day.................... 429
Chapter 8: Legacy Confront comparison with John Muir. Hear a call to
action for permanent recognition.................... 553
Epilogue (1959–present) Step back out of the first half of the twentieth
century to developments of the second half.................... 573
Author's Note.................... 581
Selected Bibliography.................... 585
References.................... 589
Index.................... 599