The Aikens were kin to, married to, or in business with many of the first families to settle what is now Transylvania County. One Aiken with multiple connections was Julius

William H. Allison, born to Alexander D.B. Allison and Eveline Lister in 1856, grew up on Beechnut Farm, where Straus Park is today. In the early 1900s Allison was given

At the turn of the century, many urban industrialists were drawn to the southern Appalachian mountains as an escape from the stresses of their city lives. In 1906 one such

On January 19, 1906 new advertisements began appearing in the Sylvan Valley News for Southern Stock and Farming Company of North Carolina. The company was owned by B.G. Estes of