Echoes of Eden in Western North Carolina

In the 1850s, a group of affluent rice planters left coastal South Carolina to establish a permanent settlement in the mountains of western North Carolina. Led by Francis Withers Johnstone, members of the Rutledge, Hume, Gadsden, Ewbank, and Hanckel families acquired thousands of acres along the French Broad River Valley. This settlement, while part of a greater westward movement, was unique becau...