“Old Timers”
By Patsy O’Brien
These old mountains that hark back to the beginning of time
could tell many strange tales. One among them would be the tale of the Welshman
who started the charming little settlement of English people which is known as
“Bowman’s Bluff.” Many travelers passing through the country wonder at the fine
old homes set in the midst of the hills.
It was two years after our great struggle that a Welshman by
the name of Evans came into this part of the world on horseback. He was a
widower and had come to America to get away from familiar scenes. This
wilderness in its virgin beauty appealed to him, and the graceful French Broad
River flowing through the narrow valley with the high peaks of the mountains in
their blue haze crowding around, held him fascinated. He stayed and built a
home after the architectural plans of houses in the old country. The house
stands on a bluff overlooking a sharp turn in the river which affords it a
duplex view of a beautiful valley. The bluff rises some five or six hundred
feet and from it are visible many noted peaks in the Blue Ridge. The house
itself is well worth describing. Made of cement, it stands high on its little
bluff. The sunken porch, the iron pillars holding up the roof, the narrow
windows that give hardly anything but air to the dark interior, all speak of
the old world. Over the front door in colored glass is this Welsh motto—“Hib
Inwe Hib Idim Idnw A Iiaon.” The place was named “Brinaven” meaning Mountain Overlooking
River. Mr. Evans went back to England shortly after he built the house and
later brought out his second wife, but they only stayed a few years when he
sold the place and went back for good. The old house is standing almost
unchanged. Mrs. Mallett who owned the place has added a modern kitchen but the
rounded front and the huge front door remain as they were.
There is no record as to how Mr. George Holmes came to
Western North Carolina, but we are sure that once getting here he could not
resist the place and he either stayed or came back very shortly after his first
visit. His fine old place called “The Bluff” is on the bank of the river a
quarter of a mile down from “Brinaven.” Mr. Holmes was an Enlishman whose home
had been near Birmingham England. He bought several thousand acres and built a
charming English house on what was known as “Bowman’s Bluff.” This bluff rises
nearly a thousand feet from the river and the whirling pool below is said to
have no bottom. It was here the beautiful Polly Bowman leaped to her death
because of a hopeless love affair. The vista from the Holmes house is even more
extended that that from “Brinaven.” Mt. Pisgah and The Rat appear to the right,
lesser peaks crowd in the foreground. It was a noble estate, entered by the
long drive bordered with great tall pines in profusion. To the south of the
house was a tangle of garden with numerous overgrown arbors covered with
rioting vines. In the spring great flocks of wild ducks settled on the river
and Mr. Holmes held shooting matches where there was great rivalry between the
young members of the colony. Out of the waters of the French Broad came delicious
?? and other mountain fish and under the brow of the bluff Mrs. Holmes had a
small house where she could sit for hours with her line angling for the dusky
inhabitants of the stream. The house has been changed by the present owner, Mr.
Smythe of Greenville, but the tall pines still stand grotesquely against the
sky line and the wind still sighs through them to the running accompaniment of
the river below.
To Mr. Evans and Mr. Holmes belong the credit of having been
the first to start the colony, for it was not until 1883 that the third member
arrived. Mr. Frank Valentine whose ancestral home in England adjoined the
Holmes place there. The little colony set in the wilderness and the surrounding
mountains looked wild and cold to Mrs. Valentine, whose girlhood home had been
in Australia. Mr. Valentine brought the place adjoining “The Bluff,” and his
house was set down in the valley and lacked the extended view of the Holmes
house. But there is a sense of cosy hominess about the low English house with
the great mountains frowning over it. Mr. Valentine was a very fine musician
and brought out with him a small organ over which he spent many happy hours. So
wonderfully could he play that people in passing the house would never believe
that he did not have a pipe organ.
Following the Valentines came many other
people—Mr. Joudweine who was a famous singer and who spent long hours with Mr.
Valentine. Another Welsh family called Thomas joined the colony. Their home was
further back in the mountains and the winding drive gives glimpses of many
beautiful vistas and hints of the wonderful view from the house. The Westons,
old friends of the Valentines, spent many months with them, although their home
was at Fletcher.
To a small log cabin set snug in the foot hills came Mr.
Stone from England and with him came Mr. Henry Twyford, who had been sent out
by his father to learn farming. Mr. Stone added room after room to the cabin
until it rambled all over the landscape, but he farming adventure proved
futile. Mr. Stone was too fond of his ease to get out and farm. He was only
here a few months but Mr. Twyford stayed and bought a place on the river next
to Brinaven. There he built a house for his step-mother, who came out with a
couple of sisters, but the country life proved too strenuous for Mrs. Twyford
and she soon when back leaving Mr. Twyford here. The house is falling to ruin,
but the creaking timbers whisper of times gone by.
Here in the list we find the name of Mr. Wainwright an
Episcopal clergyman, who came here seeking the health he had lost in the
Hawaiian Islands. He began religious services first in the houses of his parishioners,
later Mr. Valentine gave a church site and the community built a little church
on a high hill in the center of the settlement. Back of the altar is a
beautiful stained glass window portraying a biblical scene, which it is said
was stolen from a church in Wales.
Several young sons of clergymen who had been living wild lives
in “Merrie England” were sent out here in the hope that the quiet life might
correct them. The two Cowan boys and a young man named Beatson kept the
neighborhood constantly aroused, but the life was too quiet for them and they
finally returned to England, much to the relief of the other members of the
settlement.
The social life with that one interruption ran very smoothly
and happily. Parties, dances, and church affairs kept life from being dull. As
the mountains abounded in wild game many famous hunts were held, and the men
supplied the tables with meat the year round. The Valentines were the first to
leave. They moved into Asheville and from there came to Hendersonville. The
Joudweines, Wainwrights, Thomases and Evans soon followed, going back to
England. The Scotts and Addenbrocks went over the mountains to Knoxville,
Tennessee. Of the “Old Timers,” only Mr. Eade and Mr. Finwick, a brother of Mrs.
Stone, live in the neighborhood.
Today the settlement is only a shadow of the
past, a grim reminder of time. The houses, most of them empty, especially in
winter, look down upon the valley and river with their sightless eyes mourning
for their lost grandeur.
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