In the early 1800s, Georgia and North Carolina went briefly into battle over a strip of land that is now part of North Carolina’s Transylvania County.
Soon after Buncombe County, North Carolina, men captured 10 Walton County, Georgia officals, the conflict ended.
You wouldn’t think a small section of land would cause a major problem, but a 12-mile tract once known as the “Orphan Strip” led to a power struggle among three states and ultimately a violent clash between North Carolina and Georgia known as the “Walton War.”
The saga began in 1787 when South Carolina ceded that strip of land to the federal government, which in turn gave it to the Cherokee Indians before reclaiming it in a 1798 treaty. Here’s where the main problem arose—the land, at that time, wasn’t governed by any of the states and considered a sort of “no man’s land.” Settlers with land grants from North and South Carolina began to live there.
Georgia asserted its ownership of the land in 1802 after the state struck a deal with the federal government to relinquish land to the west that became Mississippi and Alabama for other tracts of land, which reportedly included the Orphan Strip. It fell into an area that Georgia officials designated as Walton County, after George Walton who was one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence.
Census records from 1803 show that 424 white residents and 30 enslaved Black residents lived in Walton County. But those settlers who had land grants from Buncombe County in North Carolina rejected that their land on the Orphan Strip was part of Georgia, and those with land grants from South Carolina shook their heads at the notion of the other two states having any part of state ownership.
Walton County, Georgia, eventually attempted to collect tax money and that didn’t go over well with settlers who believed they were living in North Carolina. They refused to pay and the tensions increased. The squabbling turned bloody on December 14, 1804 when John Havner, a Buncombe County Constable, died after being battered with the butt of a musket.
In response, Buncombe County officials called out the militia. Major James Brittain marched a group of 72 men into Walton County and joined forces with 24 North Carolinians living there. They took 10 Walton County officials as prisoners and transported them to Morganton, North Carolina on charges of murdering Havner.
That was the end of the bloodshed, but the dispute continued until 1807. In that year, state officials met to establish a more exact boundary. Two college presidents were given the task of making scientific observations about the actual boundary line.
Those two men—Joseph Caldwell of the University of North Carolina and Joseph Meigs from the University of Georgia—showed that the true boundary was a few miles further south than the Orphan Strip. Georgia then conceded that 12-mile area was truly within North Carolina’s boundary.
Today that area is included within Transylvania County, North Carolina.
The story above first appeared in our January / February 2023 issue. For more like it subscribe today or log in with your active BRC+ Membership. Thank you for your support!