Horace Kephart
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National, State, and Regional
Events |
1860 - 1869 |
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1861 |
The Civil War rages from 1861-1865. |
1862 |
Horace Sowers Kephart born in East Salem, Pennsylvania,
to Isaiah Kephart and Mary Elizabeth Sowers on September 8. |
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1863 |
The Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-3 marks a turning point
in the Civil War. |
1867 |
Isaiah Kephart moves his family to Iowa. |
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1870 - 1879 |
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1871 |
Swain County formed. |
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1874 |
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians secures title to their
lands under a decision of the U.S. circuit court for the western
district of North Carolina. |
1876 |
The Kephart family returns to Pennsylvania. |
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1880 - 1889 |
1880 |
Kephart attends Cornell University, New York, and takes
a position in the university’s library, where he meets
Willard Fiske. |
1880 |
A post office is named for William D. Sylva, an itinerant
worker. |
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1882 |
The settlement of Webster Station (later Dillsboro) established. |
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1882 |
Bryson’s City’s second courthouse is finished.
It is destroyed by fire in 1908. |
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1883 |
The railway reaches Sylva. To avoid a sharp bend in the
river, engineers plan a tunnel near Dillsboro that employs
convict labor leased from the state. On December 30, nineteen
men drown while being ferried across the Tuckasegee River
to work on Cowee Tunnel |
1884 |
Kephart moves to Italy to work for Willard Fiske, who had
employed Kephart to catalog his personal library. |
1884 |
The original part of the Mount Beulah Hotel, now the Jarrett
House, was built. |
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1884 |
The railway completed to Bryson City. |
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1885 |
Whittier established and chartered in 1887. |
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1885 |
The Blue Ridge Enterprise newspaper relocates from Highlands
to Webster, N.C., and becomes the Webster Herald. |
1886 |
Kephart returns to the United States and later accepts
a librarian position at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. |
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1887 |
Kephart marries Laura Mack of Ithaca, New York, on April
12. They eventually have six children. |
1887 |
The town of Charleston (later known as Bryson City) incorporated. |
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1888 |
E. R. Hampton begins publication of the Tuckaseige Democrat
newspaper in Sylva. |
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1889 |
George Vanderbilt begins buying land in western North Carolina,
which will become Biltmore Estate. |
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1889 |
The Eiffel Tower dominates the Paris World’s Fair. |
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1889 |
An active year for legislative developments in western
North Carolina: the town of Sylva is incorporated; Dillsboro
named for William A. Dills; the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
incorporates under North Carolina law; the town of Charleston
changes its name to Bryson City to avoid confusion with Charleston,
South Carolina; and . . . the General Assembly passes a law
prohibiting the killing of fish in the Tuckasegee River with
dynamite. Also, Robert L. Madison founds the school that will
become Western Carolina University. |
1890 - 1899 |
1890 |
Kephart becomes head librarian of the St. Louis Mercantile
Library. In the coming years, he builds its collection of
Western Americana. His humorous description of a day performing
reference service while also attempting to catalog esoteric
books appears in both Harper’s Weekly and Library Journal
as “Being a Librarian.” |
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1891 |
Harris Clay Mines open. |
1893 |
Kephart publishers "Paste for Labels, With a Word
About Writing Inks,” "Bindings in Libraries,”
and "Classification” in Library Journal. While
his contributions may sound quaint by contemporary standards,
they are important contributions to library science. |
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1893 |
Kephart writes an article on “Classification”
for the World's Library Congress Report held during the Chicago
World’s Columbian Exposition. |
1893 |
Chicago, Illinois, hosts the World’s Columbian Exposition,
a world’s fair-scale celebration honoring the 400th
anniversary of Columbus’s first American voyage. |
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1894 |
Robert Frank Jarrett buys the Mt. Beulah Hotel and renames
it Jarrett Springs Hotel. |
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1894 |
Southern Railway takes control of the rail line from Asheville
to Murphy, N.C., later known as the Murphy Branch. |
1895 |
Kephart contributes a wide variety of articles to Forest
and Stream magazine. |
1895 |
Biltmore House completed. |
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1895 |
The depot at Bryson City completed. |
1896 |
Kephart survives a tornado in St. Louis. |
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1898 |
The C.J. Harris Building, a Sylva landmark, constructed,
by Harris on Sylva’s main street. His name can still
be seen on the building’s parapet. |
1900 - 1909 |
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1900 |
In September, Vice-President Theodore (“Teddy”)
Roosevelt becomes the 26th President of the United States
after President William McKinley dies from wounds inflicted
by an assassin. At the age of 42, Roosevelt, an outdoor enthusiast,
was only 3 years Kephart’s senior. |
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1900 |
Sylva Collegiate Institute, a private school, opens to
provide students an education that will prepare them for college. |
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1900 |
Thomas Wolfe born in Asheville on October 3. |
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1901 |
Queen Victoria of Great Britain dies on January 22. |
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1901 |
The Harris-Reese Tanning Company begins production in Sylva.
It will later be known as the Harris Tannery, Parson Leather
Company, and finally the Armour Leather Company tannery. |
1902 |
Kephart’s booklet, Pennsylvania's Part in the Winning
of the West, is published by the St. Louis Bureau of Publicity
of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. |
1902 |
A report on “Forests and Forest Conditions of the
Southern Appalachian Mountain Region” is published,
which Kephart says gave him his first “clear idea of
the lay of the land” in western North Carolina. |
1903 |
As Kephart develops an increasing penchant for camping
trips he eventually is at odds with the Mercantile’s
directors and resigns his position with the library. |
1903 |
On December 17 the Wright Brothers make aviation history. |
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1903 |
The first World Series is held. |
1904 |
In April, Kephart is hospitalized and comments years later
that “my health broke down.” His father, Isaiah
Kephart takes Horace away from St. Louis to his home in Dayton,
Ohio. While resting at his father’s home, Kephart researches
the nearest “wilderness” where he might recuperate
and rebuild his life. He says, “finding that I must
abandon professional work and city life,I came to western
North Carolina, looking for a big primitive forest where I
could build up strength anew and indulge my lifelong fondness
for hunting, fishing and exploring new ground.” |
1904 |
On April 30 the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition
opens, a World’s Faircelebration of the centennial of
the Louisiana Purchase which was delayed by one year due to
the scale of construction. It features “palaces”
devoted to Mines and Metallurgy, Varied Industries, Education
and Social Economy, Fine Arts, Liberal Arts, Manufactures,
Transportation, Electricity, Machinery, and Agriculture. A
monumental undertaking, it will draw millions of visitors
to St. Louis in the coming months. |
1904 |
By early August Kephart arrives in Dillsboro, North Carolina,
and camps on nearby Dicks Creek through October. |
1904 |
Construction begins on the Panama Canal. |
1904 |
By early November Kephart relocates to Hazel Creek in Swain
County, which remains his main home-base until the winter
of 1907. |
1904 |
The Jackson County Journal newspaper begins a nearly forty-year
span of reporting. |
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1905 |
The institution in Cullowhee receives a new name -- Cullowhee
Normal & Industrial School -- to reflect its growth. |
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1905 |
The building known as Bennett’s Drugstore constructed.
Kephart later rents office space in the building. |
1906 |
Kephart publishes a five-part series entitled “The
Mountain Moonshiner” in Forest and Stream. The series
includes entries such as “Ways that are Dark,”
“A Leaf from the Past,” and “The Revenue.” |
1906 |
Francisco suffers a major earthquake on April 18. |
1906 |
Kephart spends the summer in the Hall Cabin on the North
Carolina – Tennessee state line. |
1906 |
Thomas Edison arrives in Jackson County and spends several
days investigating cobalt deposits to use in a new storage
battery. |
1906 |
Outing Publishing Company issues The Book of Camping and
Woodcraft. |
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1907 |
Kephart leaves Hazel Creek in the summer and goes on “various
wanderings, chiefly in the mountains.” |
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1908 |
Bryson City’s third courthouse is finished late in
1908 to replace the one lost to fire earlier in the year. |
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1908 |
In May North Carolina passes a state-wide prohibition law. |
1910 - 1919 |
1910 |
Kephart settles in Bryson City, North Carolina, although
he continues to spend considerable time, especially in summers,
in settlements away from the town or camping. |
1910 |
Boy Scouts of America are organized. |
1910 |
Outing Publishing Company issues Kephart’s Camp Cookery. |
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1911 |
In March Sylva obtains electricity from the power plant
in Dillsboro. |
1912 |
A six-part series by Kephart for Outing Magazine, printed
from December 1912 to May 1913, chronicles “The Southern
Highlander,” and consists of “Something Hidden;
Go and Find It,” “The Back of Beyond,” “The
People of the Hills,” “The Land of Do Without,”
“The Outlander and the Native,” and “The
School of the Wilderness.” |
1912 |
The ocean liner Titanic sinks April 15. |
1913 |
Outing Publishing Company releases the first edition of
Our Southern Highlanders. |
1913 |
Grove Park Inn in Asheville opens in July. |
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1914 |
After Jackson County voters approve to relocate county
government in 1913, Sylva displaces Webster as the county
seat. The new Jackson County Courthouse, completed in 1914,
bears a marked resemblance to the Madison County Courthouse. |
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1914 |
World War I erupts in August 1914. |
1915 |
During 1915 and 1916 Kephart edits the Outing Adventure
Library, a series with titles that include Adrift in the Arctic
Ice Pack, Adventures in Mexico, Captives Among the Indians,
Castaways and Crusoes, First Through the Grand Canyon, In
the Old West, and Wild Life in the Rocky Mountains. |
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1916 |
Kephart publishes “A Word-list from the Mountains
of Western North Carolina” in Dialect Notes. |
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1916 |
In 1916-1917 Outing Publishing Company issues a two-volume
expanded version of Camping and Woodcraft. In the preface,
Kephart notes that, “This book had its origin in a series
of articles under the same title that I contributed, in 1904-1906,
to the magazine Field and Stream. Other sections have been
published, in whole or in part, in Sports Afield, Recreation,
Forest and Stream, and Outing.” |
1916 |
A major flood strikes western North Carolina in July. |
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1917 |
The U.S. Congress approves the nation’s entry into
World War I on April 6. |
1918 |
Kephart joins the staff of All Outdoors magazine and his
articles become a regular feature. He publishers a multi-part
series “The Story of the Gun” in All Outdoors
(which runs into 1919) as well as a series in Outing entitled
"The Backwoods Rifle.” |
1918 |
An influenza pandemic sweeps the world. |
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1918 |
World War I ends in November. |
1919 |
Kephart notes the arrival of “Mr. Quick,” also
known as the “Snake-Stick Man,” in Bryson City
in Our Southern Highlanders: “It was along in May, I
believe, of 1919, that a sturdy, dark-eyed stranger came to
the old hotel where I live . . .” (p. 190). The ramifications
of this meeting are detailed in two chapters of Our Southern
Highlanders (1922). |
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1919 |
Kephart’s three- part series "The Strange Story
of the Eastern Cherokee" appears in Outing. It will be
re-published in 1936 as a booklet. |
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1920 - 1929 |
1920 |
On the 1920 census Kephart listed his occupation as a writer,
specifically for magazines. |
1920 |
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the
manufacture, sell, or transport of alcoholic beverages is
ratified in 1919. Enforcement of national prohibition begins
in January 1920. |
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1920 |
The 19th Amendment to the Constitution giving women the
right to vote is ratified August 18. |
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1920 |
On October 25 Babe Burnett shoots Hol Rose. Burnett’s
actions and trial are detailed by Kephart in the 1922 edition
of Our Southern Highlanders in the chapter “The Killing
of Hol Rose.” |
1922 |
A brief autobiography entitled “Horace Kephart, By
Himself” is featured in North Carolina Library Bulletin.
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1922 |
Macmillan Company issues a revised and expanded edition
of Our Southern Highlanders. |
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1923 |
The Fryemont Inn in Bryson City opens. |
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1924 |
The United States government assumes trusteeship of the
lands of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in anticipation
of allotment of lands to individuals. The allotment process
is abandoned in 1931. |
1925 |
As part of his active participation in the movement to
create a Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Kephart pens
articles supporting the cause. In 1925 the Swain County Chamber
of Commerce publishes a booklet that features Kephart’s
"The Smoky Mountain National Park." |
1925 |
John Scopes is found guilt under Tennessee law of teaching
the theory of evolution in the “Scopes Monkey Trial.” |
1926 |
Kephart publishes “The Last of the Eastern Wilderness:
An Article on the Proposed Great Smoky National Park’
in World's Work. |
1926 |
The creation of a Great Smoky Mountains national park authorized. |
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1926 |
Everett E. Brown publishes the first issue of The Ruralite
newspaper on April 27. For the next fifteen years, two newspapers
are published in Sylva, The Ruralite and the Jackson County
Journal. |
1927 |
In 1926 Kephart acts as a consultant on Stark Love, a silent
motion picture filmed in western North Carolina and released
by Paramount Pictures in 1927. |
1927 |
On May 20-21 Charles Lindbergh flies a non-stop solo trip
across the Atlantic Ocean in his airplane, The Spirit of St.
Louis, winning world wide acclaim. |
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1928 |
The Sylva Paperboard plant, later known as the Mead Plant,
is built in Sylva. |
1929 |
During 1929-1930, Kephart serves as president of the North
Carolina Literary & Historical Association. |
1929 |
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe published. |
1929 |
In 1929 and 1930 Kephart writes brochures entitled “Trips
in the Smokies,” published by the Bryson City Drug Co. |
1929 |
Al Capone (1899-1947) rises to fame during the Prohibition
era as his rivals in Chicago are eliminated in the St. Valentine’s
Day Massacre of February 14. |
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1929 |
The Stock Market Crash occurs on October 29 and the Great
Depression ensues. |
1930 - |
1931 |
On April 2 Kephart dies in an automobile accident near
Ela along with fellow author Fiswoode Tarelton. |
1931 |
On May 1 the Empire State Building opens in New York City. |