Join us as we take a glimpse into Roswell Elmer Jr.'s Journal 1829-1830 with Morganton resident and historian, Larry Cole. It will be a fascinating evening!
Thursday evening, July 25th at 5:30PM.
This event is free and open to all but you must register. (see form below)
In August, 1829, young Roswell Elmer, Jr began a journal as he left Charlottesville, Virginia for North Carolina, lured by reports of the gold strikes that were beginning to draw an array of investors, adventurers, and curiosity seekers. Twenty year old Elmer, a New Hampshire native and journeyman printer, had just completed his job, preparing the first published version of Thomas Jefferson's papers under the direction of Jefferson's grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph.
The entries in Elmer's journal provide descriptions of all classes of people he encountered, from local elites and middling yeomen to a poor white woman who was allowed by an enslaved girl to dig potatoes on a plantation.
After visiting several gold mining operations, Elmer began to have doubts about investing in what he saw as a risky endeavor. He was encouraged to make one last visit to Joshua Forman in Rutherfordton who was agent for the massive holdings of the Speculation Land Company in Western North Carolina. Forman, a
New York native and early advocate of the Erie Canal, had founded the town of Syracuse on land he had purchased along the canal route.
Joshua Forman, upon learning that Elmer was a skilled printer, suggested he start a newspaper. Elmer, insisting on a list of subscribers before he would agree to the venture, then began travelling through Burke, Rutherford, Lincoln, and Buncombe counties, recording his observations in his journal as he collected signatures.
Elmer's travels include trips to the gold mining operations at Brindletown, Brackett Town, and Jeanstown. Two local homes he visited in Morganton, Magnolia Place and Mountain View, are on the National Register of Historic Places. Names of people he encountered in Morganton are familiar today: Avery, Erwin, Bouchelle, Pearson, Tate, and Patton.
In February, 1830, Roswell Elmer's journal entries end as he launches The North Carolina Spectator and Western Advertiser in Rutherfordton, the first newspaper published in Western North Carolina. Elmer continued to edit and publish the paper until 1835.