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The Enterprise Mountaineer, September 21, 2001
Community named for big cat
Panther Creek's history now part of mountain lore
Editor's note: Much of this story comes from a brief history of Panther Creek written
by Charles C. MESSER, a native of that area and retired chief deputy of the Haywood County Sheriff's Office. MESSER told the history to Al AMBROSE, who wrote and submitted it to The Enterprise Mountaineer. Additional information was provided and written by Kathy N. ROSS.
In the early 1800's there was a small post office at the lower end of the Beasley Cove in what is now the Panther Creek community. This is just off the Earl Bradley Road. Along with the post office, there stood a store, a blacksmith's shop and a one-room schoolhouse made of logs. This little community then went by the name of "Paint".
The postmaster for Paint was Bascomb BEASLEY. Nearby lived Tood NOLAND and his family.
Dave MESSER also lived in the Paint Community. He was a son of Revolutionary War veteran Christian MESSER, who settled in that area after the war and who is buried in a family cemetery below Panther Creek Road, on a knoll not far from the Pigeon River.
MESSER owned lots of land and had 10 children to work it. Most of his time was spent in the woods hunting deer, bear and turkey. It was on such an outing that MESSER stopped at a creek for a drink of cold water. As he raised from his drink, he saw a large black panther standing in a chestnut tree. As the big cat was above him, MESSER shot the panther with his muzzle-loading rifle. The panther fell into the creek, dead. The local people called the stream Panther Creek from that time on.
About a year after the panther incident, Tood NOLAND, MESSER and some of the older people decided the community needed some boundary lines and set about laying them out. The boundaries started on the east side of the Pigeon River, near the mouth of Jonathan's Creek. They went up the watershed to the east of Sol RAY Gap. Then the boundary went across the top of Little Pine Mountain and over to Poke White Gap. It continued to the top of the Cedar Cliff (now known by many as FERGUSON’S Mountain), east to the Gillet Gap (near where MESSER killed the panther) and northeast to Lize Gap. The boundary turned north to the top of Oaks Knob and then west along the watershed to Jim RUSSELL Gap. The boundary ended at a point southeast of where Fines Creek enters the Pigeon River.
NOLAND stood up in the boundary meeting and said, "Let's call our community "Panther Creek" in honor of the black panther that uncle Dave MESSER killed up at the head of the creek."
Everyone agreed, and corn whiskey was poured into a cup. The cup was passed around, and everyone took a sip from the cup. Tood NOLAND exclaimed, "From this day forward, our community shall be known as "Panther Creek."
Things have changed since that day. The little schoolhouse, which was still standing in the 1920's, is gone. All of the community elders are gone. The first church, with its hand hewn beams, is gone. Dave MESSER swapped his land from Wilken's Creek to Hurricane Creek to a man named "FISHER" for a .32-caliber homemade hog rifle. The land ended up being sold for back taxes. A silver manganese mine operated on the swapped land. That silver manganese was smelted into bullets, which were lighter than lead. Now the mine is gone as well.
But the legends remain, including those of the Granny Rhea Rock, also located in Panther Creek.
The ledge overlooking the Pigeon River was a home away from home for Polly RHEA, an eccentric but also apparently warm-hearted contemporary of Dave MESSER. Polly RHEA grew up near Rush Fork, the daughter of Robin FERGUSON, the ancestor of most of the county's FERGUSONS. She married Solomon RHEA and moved to Panther Creek.
'Polly RHEA would take mad spells," said her great-great-grandson, Carlyle DAVIS, in a 1991 interview.
"And when she did, she would go down to that rock and spin."
The RHEAS had five slaves, three men and two women, and the men slaves would have to take her spinning wheel" down to the rock,” recalled DAVIS, who is now deceased. "One of the women slaves was named Prissy, and she would have to carry her food and go tend to her.
'When she got on good terms again, the men would go get the spinning wheel, and she would go home."
During the days of the Cherokees’ forced removal on the Trail of Tears, Cherokee refugees hid at the RHEA house. When the family feared trouble, the Cherokee would be sent to the Granny RHEA Rock to hide and sleep. Almost 30 years later, during the Civil War, the rock was used to hide horses, meat and valuables from Union raiders. Granny RHEA continued her spinning spells at the rock, in those later years spinning cloth for Confederate soldiers.
Solomon RHEA gave his name to a nearby pass in the mountains, known as the Sol RAY. (In later generations, many descendants of the RHEAS changed the spelling of their name, and that later spelling stuck.)
As for the old Paint post office, it became part of the Route 1, Crabtree route run by Coleman FRANCIS in the early 1900's.
Many older generations and natives of Panther Creek still pronounce their home in old mountain dialect, spoken as "Painter Creek." And while it may be coincidence that the original name of the area was Paint, it is only coincidence, said Ralph MESSER, Charles MESSER’S brother. For "painter" is simply an old-English pronunciation of "panther," dating back to the 1600's.
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