The town of Rosman was officially established on February
20, 1905.  However the history of
settlement in the area now known as Rosman goes back to a much earlier
time.  The Cherokee had traveled along
the Estatoe Path for hundreds of years. 
It was at Rosman that this path crossed the French Broad River.  For this reason early trappers and traders
knew the area as Estatoe Ford.

When Western North Carolina was opened for settlement in the
late 1700s land speculators purchased large tracts of property with the
intention of reselling it for a profit. 
Charles McDowell of Burke County owned thousands of acres in what was
originally Buncombe County including several hundred acres on the French Broad.  Although McDowell never lived here, his
daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and William Paxton lived all their married lives
in the Cherryfield area.

Other early land owners included George Isaac Glazener, George
Washington Galloway, John Owen, and James Owen. 
These early families were often connected through marriage and many of
their descendents still live in the area.

In 1857 Giles Glazener, Jr. (descendent of both George Isaac
Glazener and James Owen) gave property for a church and school to the trustees
of the Church of Christ at the Zion Meeting Place.  This school served the families of the
surrounding area for nearly 50 years.  The
school was moved to the Presbyterian (later Methodist) Church in Rosman when
they outgrew the Zion building.  Zion
Baptist Church continued on the property until 1950 when it moved across the
river onto Rosman’s Main Street.

According to North Carolina Post Offices and Postmasters
there was a post office at Calvert in 1888. 
The name was changed to Jeptha in 1890. 
It seems that this was located east of the current center of Rosman.  The Jeptha post office closed on August 15,
1901.

Depot at Toxaway City (Rosman), 1903

Meanwhile the Toxaway post office had opened on December 7,
1900 when the railroad reached the place where the old Estatoe Path had crossed
the French Broad River for hundreds of years. 
Although the name of the post office would change several times in the
next few years the heart of what was to be Rosman was firmly established when
the railroad by-passed the Jeptha post office and a depot was built at Toxaway.

A post office was re-established at the Calvert depot on
August 18, 1901 just 1.6 miles east of Toxaway but that community remained
quite small.

Next week’s Picturing
the Past
column will feature Joseph Silversteen’s  impact on Rosman in the early 1900s.

Photographs
and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina
Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit
the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about
our history and see additional photographs. 
For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at
[email protected]
or 828-884-3151 X242.

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(828) 884-3151

212 S Gaston St, Brevard, NC 28712