Beaten Paths

 In 1733 Emund Moseley was North Carolina's Surveyor General, using his own work probably supplemented by prior work by John Lawson, his predessessor inn that office, produced a map of importance . It is the first published map showing what is now called "Thigpe's Trace", a wagon road arcing across the piedmont, connecting Chesapeake Bay with the Guld of Mexico. It also shows a road matrix in the area north of Albemarle sound that confirms a settlement in that region which dated back to the 1650s. Finally, in an inset map, below the main map, it show's Okracoke Island with an anchorage called "Teaches Hole" immediately off-shore, near a large well, a well suitable for replenishing ships quickly. As Captain Teach was hung for piracy ca 1715, the well is likely to have predated his demise. Taken altogether, it makes North Carolina's history  far more interesting than convention teaches it For example, our history books date the settlement of the piedmo...

 The Barnwell-Hammerton Map, c 1715, showing three routes taken to recruit native levies for the Tuscarora War by two Moore's from Turkey Creek and Cape Fear, and "Tuscarora Jack" Barnwell.

 Bog butter, butter than nothing, soggy mammoth, challenging but tasty with seasoning.

Squatters in Orange County in the 17th and 18th Centuries In the 1740s there were two very hot properties in what would, in the 1750s, become Orange County, North Carolina.  Those were the Haw Fields and the Forks of the Eno.   They were attractive for different reasons; the Haw Fields for fecundity, and the Forks for transportation accessibility........probably.  We'll deal with the Haw old fields another time.  This note is about the forks of the Eno. We are only beginning to get a vague image of European settlement in what would become Orange County, NC.  Until recently "settlement" was presumed to have begun with deed recording in Orange's parent counties; normally thought of as Johnston, Bladen, and Granville Counties.  We know, though, that folks were making "tomahawk" claims on land in Carolina long before law came to town.  We just don't know how many folks were in the area or where they were.  They were, though, in the area, pr...

Four Presentations on Early Carolina History The Trading Path Association is grateful for the Orange County Hstorical Museum producing these presentations. And for their ongoing support of our work. First Contact :1624-1700 Tells how indigenous societies traded extensively, had sophisticated diplomacy, contracting methods, and struck up trade with practically every maritime vessel that entered the Sounds. They turned the Sounds into a major replenishment haven for privateers and pirates. First Permanent Settlement : 1650s-1705 Identifies Carolina's first settlers and first permanent settlement, religious refugees sheltering behind the Dismal Swamp from abuses byRoyalist, VA and Catholic MD. Moving Into the Back Country : 1705-1754 Describes how the first settlers, displaced by Anglicans once again escape into the backcountry, the piedmont zone, and sheltered indigenous folk from slave raiders. Touching on the varieties of Quakers in NC and the importance of their differences. The L...

  Wonderful dendro geekery proves the European invasion of NA started in precisely 1021: