"Henry E. Colton (26 Dec. 1836-8 Jan. 1892), naturalist, geologist, and author, was born in Fayetteville, the son of the Reverend Simeon Colton, a native of Somers, Conn., and an 1806 graduate of Yale who moved to Fayetteville in 1833 as headmaster of Donaldson Academy, and his wife, Susan Chapman of Connecticut. Where Colton received his early education is not known, but he clearly was quite well educated. His most famous and most widely circulated book was published in Raleigh by W. L. Pomeroy in 1859. This book, by the 22-year-old Colton, was Mountain Scenery: The Scenery of the Mountains of Western North Carolina and Northwestern South Carolina... On 27 Apr. 1862, Colton enlisted in New Hanover County as a private in the Thirty-sixth Regiment of North Carolina Troops. He was detailed for service in the Signal Corps at Smithville at the mouth of the Cape Fear River; in November 1863 he was transferred to the Thirteenth Battalion, North Carolina Light Artillery, but he was discharged on 1 Jan. 1864. When he was quite young, perhaps before his Confederate service, he worked in a printing office, possibly in Wilmington or in Asheville, and in 1858 was editor and proprietor of the Asheville Spectator. He also for a period was a legislative clerk in Raleigh. Shortly after the Civil War he was employed on the editorial staff of the New York Tribune while Horace Greeley was editor. He also served on the editorial staff of the New York World and was a contributor to a number of the leading monthlies of the time. In a series on picturesque America, Appleton's Journal between November 1870 and May 1871 published his five-part article on the French Broad River. Exactly when Colton left North Carolina is not known, but he was a resident of Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1884-85 and was in Cleveland, Tenn., in 1889. At the time of his death in 1892 he was described as having lived in Knoxville for many years. Obituaries in the Knoxville Daily Tribune referred to him as Professor Colton. His most distinguished work, the paper reported, was as a geologist and metallurgist. He was state geologist of Tennessee during the administrations of several governors" -- "Henry E. Colton." Documenting the American South. http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/colton/bio.html (Retrieved April 28, 2010)
"Colonel Samuel McDowell Tate, veteran of the Civil War, helped organize a company from his native Burke County and fought gallantly as part of that famous defense at Manassas Junction where General Thomas Jackson became known simply as "Stonewall." Tate fought at Richmond, at Second Manassas, at Sharpsburg, at Gettysburg, and at Rappahannock. He was wounded just as the war was ending. After the war he was elected president of the bankrupt Western North Carolina Railroad. Tate was forced out of office by the Reconstruction Acts, because of his war record, by Governor W. W. Holden. He was elected to the legislature in 1874 and served subsequent terms in the House in 1881, 1883 and 1885. In 1886, he was appointed federal examiner of National Banks for the district stretching from West Virginia to Florida. Upon the death of Donald Bain, Governor Thomas M. Holt appointed Colonel Tate, his longtime friend, as State Treasurer. The record shows he served briefly but ably. He was nominated by the Democratic Party to succeed himself in 1894; however, the fusion of Populists and Republicans into a common ticket defeated the Democrats for many statewide offices that year in what became known as the Fusion campaign. Colonel Tate retired to his home in Burke County where he died two years later." -- "Samuel McDowell Tate." North Carolina Department of State Treasurer web page. http://www.nctreasurer.com/DSTHome/OfficeOfTheTreasurer/History/samuel_mcdowell_tate.htm (Retrieved April 28, 2010)
From the description of Henry E. Colton letter to Samuel McDowell Tate, 1870 October 15. (University of Georgia). WorldCat record id: 610055264
