The territory where Asheville presently stands was once part of the Cherokee Nation, which had homelands in modern-day western North and South Carolina, southeastern Tennessee, and northern Georgia before Europeans arrived. During his 1540 voyage through this area, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto named a settlement near the river confluence Guaxule. His journey included the first European visitors, who brought with them endemic Eurasian infectious diseases that killed a large number of the indigenous people.
The Cherokee had long used the area near the confluence for open hunting and gatherings. Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was known as Untokiasdiyi (Cherokee for “Where they Race”).
After the United States earned freedom in the American Revolutionary War, European Americans began to settle in the Asheville area in 1784. Colonel Samuel Davidson and his family settled in the Swannanoa Valley in that year, redeeming a state of North Carolina soldier’s land grant given in lieu of salary. Davidson was lured into the woods and slain by a party of Cherokee hunters protesting European encroachment soon after building a log cabin on the bank of Christian Creek. Davidson’s wife, child, and female slave fled on foot to Davidson’s Fort, 16 miles away (named after Davidson’s father, General John Davidson). This incident resulted in further clashes between the two parties.
Asheville prospered in the decades of the 1910s and 1920s. During these years, Rutherford P. Hayes, son of President Rutherford B. Hayes, bought land, and worked with the prominent African-American businessman Edward W. Pearson, Sr. to develop his land for residential housing known as the African-American Burton Street Community.Hayes also worked to establish a sanitary district in West Asheville, which became an incorporated town in 1913, and merged with Asheville in 1917.
The 1910s and 1920s were prosperous decades for Asheville. During this time, Rutherford P. Hayes, son of President Rutherford B. Hayes, purchased land and collaborated with notable African-American businessman Edward W. Pearson, Sr. to develop the African-American Burton Street Community for residential housing. Hayes also campaigned to create a sanitary district in West Asheville, which was established in 1913 and amalgamated with Asheville in 1917.