nine years after thi' survey <>t the 

 lands and the location of the site for 

 tlie town of Franklin. All hack of 

 Uiat is blank so far as any official 

 reeonl is concerned. And for other 

 valuable iiifonnation which I now 

 proceed to give I iiave hud lo ?"ely 

 mainly upon the 8tatemenis of the 

 few renininincj in<1ividuals who were 

 ]iarticipants in the work of survey 

 and location referred to. 



It has been a tnooleil question a.*' 

 to whether Macon County ever be- 

 longed to the territory of Jiuncombe 

 County. The facts show that it did 

 not, the Buncombe line never having 

 extended further west than the 

 Meigs an<l Freeman line. The ter- 

 ritory now eniV)raced in Macon and 

 a portiofi each ot the counties of 

 Jackson and Swain, was acquired by 

 treaty from the Cherokee Indians in 

 1817 — 19. During the summer and 

 fall of 1819 a few whites came a- 

 mongsl the Indians with a view io]iur- 

 chasiug when the lands should come 

 into market. Durmg that fall many 

 of the Indians moved west of the 

 Nantahala chain of mountains, but 

 the entire tribe did not leave the 

 Tennessee Valley until the fall of 

 1820. In the spring <»f 1820 the 

 State Commissioners, Jesse Franklin 

 and James Meabin in accord a n»^e 

 with the provisions of an act of the 

 (leneral Assembly, came to the Ten- 

 nessee Valley, now tln^ chief part of 

 Macon County and organized, for the 

 survey of lands, a corps of .surveyors 

 of vvboni Caj^t. Koberl Love, a son 



oi (nil. riioma> Lo\e, wh<» setii< . 

 tlifc place at the bridge where Caj 

 T. M. Angel recently lived, w 

 chief. Kobert Love had been smi 

 honored and brave Captain in tl." 

 war of 1H12, was much respected ou 

 account of his patriotic devotion '• 

 American liberty, and wjis cons - 

 qiK'iitly a man of large influenc • 



The work of survey wont rapid • 

 f.oward, as there were five or six 

 distinct companies in the fiehL Tl 

 commissioners tirst determined upc.- 

 the Watauga Plains where the laic 

 Mr. Watson lived for the county si^ 

 for a court house and four bundn- > 

 acres (the amount appropriated I \- 

 the State for that purpose) was lo< ■ 

 ted and surveyed. There was, bov 

 ever, a good deal of murmuring at > 

 jirotcst among the surveyors, esp*. 

 cially by Capt. Love, the chief, wb<i 

 favored the present site or the flat 

 ri<Ige whery Mrs. IL T. Sloan new 

 resides. To harmonize with their em- 

 ployes and to give more genenal s;- 

 isfaction the Conjmissioners, who h: ■ 

 no j>ersonal interest in the raatt* v 

 proposed to call together the entii' 

 corps of surveyors and leave it to ri 

 majority vote of them. 



This |)roposition was agre(-; 

 and the respective companies 

 surveyors were ordered to as.semb: . 

 On counting the vote the prese^ t 

 site of Franklin had a majori: .-, 

 This result was mainly broug ' 

 about through the influence of Caf 

 Love, the chief of the corps, 

 compliance with their propv;- 



