Answer Man: Did the Cherokee live on Biltmore Estate lands? Early settlers?

Today’s batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:

Question: So, earlier this summer I answered a question about who lived on the Biltmore Estate before the Vanderbilts — or, more accurately, the staff at Biltmore did — and boy were some of you miffed. After it ran, the chastising began, and the follow-up questions.

Here are a few:

• In your column about who lived on the Biltmore Estate lands before the Vanderbilts, you neglected to mention the Cherokee Indians (who still have a burial mound on the estate property), and the African-American community that lived there and relocated to Shiloh. Can you offer more thorough details of who lived on the estate property?

• Enjoyed your column about the Cemetery Hill/Hawkins Cemetery on the Biltmore Estate. I walk past it often on my walks through the west end of the property. Estate spokeswoman LeeAnn Donnelly told you about this particular cemetery and you explained it nicely. She said there are four cemeteries on the estate. Where are the other three? Who’s buried there?

• Who are the other families buried in the cemeteries on the Biltmore Estate?

My answer: I'm expecting a question about the types of dinosaurs that roamed the estate next.

Real answer: First of all, I want to extend a huge thank you to Bill Alexander, landscape and forest historian at the Biltmore Estate, for taking this task on. He engaged in extensive research and provided an enormous amount of information to answer these questions.

Secondly, his information is so enormous, it's going to take two columns to get to it all. I'm off viewing the eclipse today, so look for part two Wednesday.

Today, we'll get through the Native American history and the early Colonial settlement time frame.

"Archaeological evidence suggests that Native Americans have passed through and/or lived on the land that is now Biltmore Estate for several thousand years and perhaps as long ago as 7500-6000 B.C. during what is referred to as the Early Archaic Period," Alexander told me via email. "The Biltmore mound and village site referred to by a reader was constructed and occupied by a group of Native Americans that archaeologists refer to as the Connestee, whom the Cherokee consider to have been among their direct ancestors."

The Connestee were present around A.D. 200-600, during the Middle Woodland Period.

"To date, no cultural material recognizable as historic Cherokee (or Qualla) has been found on Biltmore Estate, nor is it particularly common in Buncombe County," Alexander said. "However, Biltmore Estate and Buncombe County include numerous examples of Pisgah phase occupations, which are representative of that culture immediately preceding the Cherokee, and which they also include among their direct ancestors."

Currently, 59 prehistoric and historic sites have been registered on the estate with many more to be identified and studied in Biltmore’s ongoing archaeological investigations.

Moving on to post-Native American settlement, Alexander noted that after the American Revolution and Treaty of Paris in 1783, lands west of the Blue Ridge were opened for settlement.

"Looking for a new start or for financial gain, many purchased land grants from the State of North Carolina in what would become Buncombe County," he said. "Some purchased lands for speculation and never set foot on it, but many others established farms and residences on both sides of the Swannanoa and French Broad Rivers on present day Biltmore Estate or nearby in the 1780s and 1790s."

These early settlers included Col. William Davidson, Joseph McDowell, John Hightower, John Greenlee, Col. Daniel Smith and William Forster, among many others.

"On April 16, 1792, Buncombe County was formally organized at Col. Davidson’s farm at Gum Spring on the south side of the Swannanoa and not far inside the present Biltmore Estate entrance," Alexander wrote. "The court sessions were held in Davidson’s barn until a new log courthouse could be constructed."

Brace yourself for some names here, folks. Hey, I don't want anymore complaints!

"Other county founders who owned land that's now part of the estate include: John Patton, Benjamin Hawkins and James Medlock," Alexander said. "Other notable former landowners through the 1800s included: John Patton’s sons, Montraville and Preston Patton, Newton H. Alexander, Henry Stevens; Joshua Jones, Wiley Jones, Jesse Israel, and John Rogers; Charlestonians Gilbert Tennent, William Patton, Samuel N. Stevens and Dr. Daniel Cain; General James G. Martin, former commander of North Carolina Confederate forces and his son, Col. James G. Martin, Charles Lathrop Pack, son of George Pack, architect and builder James A. Tennent who designed the 1876 Buncombe County courthouse, attorneys William M. Cocke, Jr. and Virgil S. Lusk, and noted Asheville physicians Dr. James F. E. Hardy, Dr. William L. Hilliard and Dr. Louis McBrayer."

This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at 828-232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com.