At the end of suumer, farmers would
round up their turkeys or hogs to get them ready for market. Usually
hogs and turkeys were allowed to run run loose and forage for
themselves in the warm summer months.
When the animals were sufficiently
fattened for the long journey to market, the drovers would begin
their long trip to the markets in the East. Some of the drovers came
from as far away as Kentucky. In East Tennessee, these drives started
from Greeneville, Rogersville, Dandridge and Knoxville. At these
starting points, farmers with just a few animals would take them to
town to sell to the drovers. The caravans of turkies and hogs shared
the road with other travelers. Turkeys from Rogerville had to be
ferried across the river and at other places as well.
These caravans of turkeys and hogs were
an inconvience for other traveler, but they were like a circus coming
to town for the little boys who watched the turkeys and hogs being
marched down the main street of town with the men, with their whips
cracking and their distinctive call urging them all. Many a young
boy had daydreams about joining this circus-like caravan one day.
Neither turkeys or hogs could travel
very far in a day, so there was a need for places to stay and to buy
food along the way. Little hog stands sprung up along the way that
provided pens for the hogs and sold local corn for the hogs to eat.
As traffic increased, some of these hogstands became taverns and
inns, providing a stopping place for bothe drivers and other
travelers. The drivers could also get a hot meal and a place to stay.
Turkey driver had to find a suitable place for the turkeys to roost
at night and be there to round them up again in the morning.
The paths generally followed old Indian
trains along the French Broad River from Warm Springs to Marshall,
Woodfin and on to Asheville. In Ashville the road crosses Pack
Square in downtown Asheville, where drover had the opportunity to
sell the turkeys or hogs, or continue along the the road that
eventually led to the markets in Charleston, South Carolina.
More details and history:
The turkey and hog drives from East
Tennessee to the markets in North carolina started before Tennessee
became a state. On July 8, 1795 Governor Blount, of the Territory
south of the River Ohio now called Tennessee, submitted to the
Council of that territory several papers respecting the opening of a
wagon road from Buncombe Courthouse in North Carolina to this
Territory. (Source: Asheville and Buncombe County, Forster Alexander
Sondley, Theodore Fulton Davidson, p. 104 ) The govenor of South
Carolina proposed improvements to the Buncob Rd as early as 1796.
The route followed old Indian Pathes along the French Broad River.
As the popluation grew, there was a need for better roads.
"The hogs were started to market
only after they had consumed the growers supply of corn and had been
fattened sufficiently to be butchered. (Burnett, p. 88) The
fattening began as soon as the corn was sufficiently mature to feed,
which was about the middle of August and reached the finishing stage
in late October. Driving was concentrated in November. Between
1832-33, it is estimated that 5,oo head of hogs were driven each year
(Cocke County) Tennessee Gazateer 1834
"From an early period, cattle
and hogs driven to the markets of the Carolinas and Georgia
were a principal form of export. Moreover, East Tennessee
was a half-way point for Kentucky drivers passing through
Cumberland Gap on their way to southern markets, ... Chattanooga,
Knoxville, Greeneville, and Morristown were some of the
concentration points for shipping of the different classes of
livestock." Source: Bulletin of the Agricultural
Experiment Station of the University of Tennessee, State Agricultural
and Mechanical College 1959
Hog stands ferry at Del Rio (see the
railroad comes to Big Creek Del Rio the ferry was next to the
schoolhouse. old Huff fort
Want to be a driver?
Requirements; be in good shape, have
sturdy shoes and two pair of socks (Burnett, p. 91)
As traffic along these paths incresed,
there as a need to improve these roads, in 1807, there was a
petition to the state government to improve the the Saluda Gap Road.
These roads were used by early travelers, as well as drovers.
North Carolina
* 1838 US Mail contract: Leave
Knoxville every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 6 am arrive at
Warm Springs next days by 6 pm. Leave Warm Springs every Monday
Wednesday and Saturday at 4 am arrive at Knoxville next days by 6 pm.
(Source: index to documents printed by order of the senate of the
United States, 1939, p. 243)
Warm Springs (Hot Springs now), was the
gateway into North Carolina on the old drover's path and part of the
old Buncomb Turnpike that ran along the French Broad River connecting
Greeneville, Tennessee with Greenville, South Carolina.
In 1828, completion of the Buncombe
Turnpike through Warm Springs connecting Tennessee and Kentucky to
the East Coarst, with the best roads in the South, definitely put
Warm Springs on the map. Farmer drove their stock through Warm
Springs on their way to market and returned with goods and cash.
In 1824, the
North Carolina legislature to improve Buncomb Turnpike to Saluda Gap.
David L. Swain, Buncombe County legislator, in 1824 sponsored a
bill “for the purpose of laying out and making a turnpike road from
the Saluda Gap . . . by the way of . . . Warm Springs to the
Tennessee line.” (Source: North Carolina Highway Historical Marker
Program,
Link).
It is estimated that as many as 160,000
hogs came through this path. Progress was tediously slow along this
route and drivers would only be able to go six or eight miles a day
before having to camp for the night. They depended on camps or inns
along the way for a place to feed and pen their livestock and
hopefully a hot meal and a warm place place for them to sleep as
well. One of the most famous of these was the Alexander Inn in
Alexandria, North Carolina.
South Carolina
 |
Poinsett Bridge Photo Credit: (L) Stephen Duckworth, (M) cmh12315fl, (R) markemark4,
|
"Greenville was then not only a
place of resort during the summer months but a thoroughfare of travel
from the west during the winter Droves of horses mules and hogs from
Tennessee and Kentucky poured through the Saluda gap down the
Buncombe road to Greenville and from this point were distributed
through the State Every five or six miles along the Buncombe road and
also below Greenville were taverns or houses of entertainment where
many fortunes have been made from this year round travel The old
houses are still standing many of them but their customers and their
prestige have departed. (Source:
The Greenville
Century Book: S. S. Crittenden, p. 45 Link)
"Then too even as early as 1800
stock raisers of Kentucky and Tennessee had begun to drive their hogs
and horses and cattle in large droves through Buncombe County to the
markets of South Carolina and Georgia This species of travel greatly
increased when the Buncombe Turnpike was opened To such an extent was
this increase that at the proper season of the year one passing along
that road in daytime was scarcely ever out of sight and hearing of
one or more of these droves Even turkeys were driven to market in the
same way the drivers using whips with pieces of red flannel tied to
the end of the lash At one period there passed through Asheville in
these droves every year from 140,000 to 160,000 hogs in the months of
November and December For the entertainment of these drivers and
their droves taverns sprung up along the road at about every five
miles and their capacities were often taxed to the utmost The country
raised the corn which in enormous quantities was required to meet the
demands of this extensive business This brought considerable profits
to the farmers the merchants and the innkeepers and prosperity to the
entire community The business of driving stock continued though in
decreasing quantities until about 1870 when it ceased Railroads had
increased everywhere and furnished the stock raisers of Kentucky and
Tennessee cheaper and quicker methods of reaching the markets with
their products." (Source:
The Greenville Century
Book: S. S. Crittenden Link
p. 168)
A rememberance of hog drovers:
All of us had ambitions in those
days
and life has not turned cut precisely as we expected.
My earliest and fondest ambition was to
be a hog
driver. Henry Young will remember
with what excitement
the whole com-
munity was thrilled when the news
came that a
drove of Tennessee or
Kentucky hogs were on the way
from
Donaldsville, and with what enthu-
siasm the grand men
were hailed as
with their "ho-ho-ho" they cracked
their
lougo whips in the air and drove
their squealing, grunting victims
down
to Hawthorne's lot for sale and sacri-
fice. But the hog
drover has passed
out, and the cookings of the melts on
red hot
stones, and the blowing up of
the bladders, and the souse and
the
sausage, and the cracklings are only
a memory in those
advanced times
of the stockyard and the combination
yard.
(Source: The Anderson intelligencer.
(Anderson Court House, S.C.), 11 Jan. 1905. Chronicling America:
Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
