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Horace Kephart: Timeline

Horace Kephart

National, State, and Regional Events

1860 - 1869

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

1870 - 1879

 

 

1871

Swain County formed.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

1882

The settlement of Webster Station (later Dillsboro) established.

 

 

1882

Bryson’s City’s second courthouse is finished. It is destroyed by fire in 1908.

 

 

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.

 

 

1884

The railway completed to Bryson City.

 

 

1885

Whittier established and chartered in 1887.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

1888

E. R. Hampton begins publication of the Tuckaseige Democrat newspaper in Sylva.

 

 

1889

George Vanderbilt begins buying land in western North Carolina, which will become Biltmore Estate.

 

 

1889

The Eiffel Tower dominates the Paris World’s Fair.

 

 

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.”

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

1894

Robert Frank Jarrett buys the Mt. Beulah Hotel and renames it Jarrett Springs Hotel.

 

 

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.

 

 

1895

The depot at Bryson City completed.

1896

Kephart survives a tornado in St. Louis.

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

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.

 

 

1900

Sylva Collegiate Institute, a private school, opens to provide students an education that will prepare them for college.

 

 

1900

Thomas Wolfe born in Asheville on October 3.

 

 

1901

Queen Victoria of Great Britain dies on January 22.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

1905

The institution in Cullowhee receives a new name -- Cullowhee Normal & Industrial School -- to reflect its growth.

 

 

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.

 

 

1907

Kephart leaves Hazel Creek in the summer and goes on “various wanderings, chiefly in the mountains.”

 

 

 

 

1908

Bryson City’s third courthouse is finished late in 1908 to replace the one lost to fire earlier in the year.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

1916

Kephart publishes “A Word-list from the Mountains of Western North Carolina” in Dialect Notes.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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).

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

1920

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote is ratified August 18.

 

 

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.

 

 

1922

Macmillan Company issues a revised and expanded edition of Our Southern Highlanders.

 

 

 

 

1923

The Fryemont Inn in Bryson City opens.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.