.
 |
Land prices in the general Murphy area have gone upward steadily for many years, since visitors discovered our town in the very early 1900s.
Summer folk from across the country started coming to Murphy and our cool mountains when the railroads arrived.
When the Civil War ended in 1865, the nation’s frantic pace of building railroads resumed in earnest.
Two railroads began a race to be first to get service to the copper mines in nearby Tennessee, and the lucrative freight business waiting for the winner.
The L&N coming up from Georgia didn’t have any significant mountain ranges to conquer and easily won, soon building its spur line into Murphy.
The Southern coming west from Asheville fought mountains all the way, lost precious time trying to tunnel at Topton and had to settle for an open cut.
So the two lines joined here, and freight and passengers from everywhere could find us, daily passenger service from both Atlanta and Asheville providing a metropolitan air to a mountain town in the wilderness.
Private homes were turned into boarding houses for the visitors, and in 1910 the three-story Regal Hotel became a commanding presence on the town square.
Mercer Fain key player
A main street merchant named Mercer Fain had a big store downtown and was a key player in the local economy, now buried in the Harshaw Chapel cemetery.
I recently discovered an offer by the local Board of Trade, forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce, from way back in 1915 which offered free half-acre lots in Murphy where visitors could build their summer cottages.
Have asked several local historians but nobody had ever heard of this, don’t know where it might have been located or if it just faded away.
“It was probably a Mercer Fain project,” says Bill Hughes, the now retired longtime mayor. “He was the biggest landowner and the 50 lots mentioned were probably somewhere on his Fain Mountain lands.”
Bill said Fain was always trying to get residents on the rugged mountain acreage, with little success. And then told me a grim story about an elderly couple, no link to Fain, who lived in the vicinity and were found one winter together frozen to death in their remote cabin, accessible only by steep footpath.
Promotional ad copy
In addition to the free lots offered, the local Board of Trade also had a small brochure printed which praised Murphy as “the ideal summer resort of western North Carolina, east Tennessee and north Georgia.”
For climate and health Murphy and its surroundings are unexcelled … water supply abundant, obtained from mountain sources from which no contagious germs originate … town lighted by electricity, beautifully situated.
“You will feel a sense of exhilaration when amid these gilded hilltops and towering peaks … Fishing is fine, the paradise of an angler. Bring your Kodak and fishing rod.” The rivers offer excellent sport with “black bass and speckled trout in abundance.”
The free lots were offered “to those who will build a little summer bungalow, cheap if you prefer, on pretty hill tops in full view of the town … no strings to this proposition but an absolute free gift …”
Wonder if anyone ever got one of the free lots and built on it. And where were they located?
Wally Avett first wrote for the Cherokee Scout as editor in 1969. His books are available as signed copies at the Scout office in Murphy. Call him at 837-5531 or email wallyavett@gmail.com.