160 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

Branch does not come strictly within our limits, but so near by

that it is given its place here. Rising about Fifth Street and
Wooster, 1t runs west with an inclination slightly south and
empties near ‘the foot of Dawson Street.

The river front as we see it now gives little idea of the water
line even fifty years ago. The business of that time was done
between Orange and Mulberry Streets, most largely perhaps
north of Dock. After the building of the Wilmington and Wel-
don Railroad, the trend of business was constantly toward the
depot. The wharves south of Orange Street were used for the
storage of staves, river lumber, and tar. The distillation of tur-
pentine was then in its infancy and a slight factor in business
operations. Above Mulberry Street-the water of the river came
up to Nutt Street in all places where the land had been made. as
it was called, by filling in the water lots with ballast or sand,
When steamers were first placed in line between Wilmington
and Charleston, a bridgeway was constructed to reach the boats
and transfer passengers and baggage from the railroad landing
place. Above Campbell Street on the river front, fifty years ago
were woods, or rather swamp. Above Bladen, a sheer bluff fone
from the foot of the swamp, and just beyond Harnett Street on
the summit of the bluff stood “Paradise,” then owned by Mr.
Robert H. Cowan. The locality in general was less euphoniously

styled “Hoge’s Folly”—precisely why no one seems to know,
but certainly because some one of the name had begun an enter-

prise of some kind or other which proved an impracticability on
his hands. :
Before entering upon any report of people and places it may
be well to note how the natural features have been changed
within the past half century. We will follow the courses of
some of the streams we have referred to, confining ourselves to
the limits embraced in the original plan of the town; viz.: Be-
tween the Cape Fear River and Fifth Street, long ‘kiows as

“Old Boundary,” and between Campbell Street and what was
afterwards known as Wooster. Sometime, doubtless near the

completion of the Wilmington and Raleigh (now Wilmington
and Weldon) Railroad, it beeame desirable to level Front Street
across Mulberry. This seems to have been done without the
precaution of making a drain to carry off the water, which was
thus backed up Mulberry Street and formed a pond extending
as far as Second Street, and which must have been several feet
deep. This body of water was known as the “Horse Pond,” and

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Early Years 161

remained a source of discomfort and a menace to health until
sometime in the forties. It was quite deep and fish were some-
times caught from its waters.

Nowhere have changes been more or greater than on the line
of Jacob’s Run. Fifty years ago the lots between Third and
Fourth Streets, now occupied by the courthouse and the jail of
the county, were a quagmire. Princess Street, between the streets
named, was a slope from the point now occupied by the City
Hall (the top of the hill was then several feet higher than now)
down to the stream below. Third Street, at and near Princess,
is several feet higher than it was in 1840, and the same is to be
said of Second Street at the intersection of Market. At this
point the mud in times long since past was so prevalent that the
locality, being then occupied by a market house and town hall,
was known as “Mud Market.” Improvement of a like charac-

ter was made, at an earlier date probably, at or near the inter-
section of Dock and Front Streets. There is a tradition that

small canoes or batteaux came up Jacob’s Run from the river
at high tide to Mud Market. This occurred before the memory
of any one now living, but it is founded on the testimony of per-
fectly truthful gentlemen. As late as 1840 the sidewalk on the
south side of Market, near Second, was some feet higher than
the street itself, and several steps were the means of ascent or
descent. Willow Spring Branch was overlooked in what has
gone before. It took its rise above Second Street, near the line
of Third, and thence to the river. The lots on the west side of
Second Street, between Dock and Orange Streets, show how
much the land just here was raised on the line of Second Street.
Where the dwelling on the east side of Second Street, Judge
Russell’s residence, and the dwelling on MeLean’s Alley now
stand was a depression, and the street has been raised some eight
or ten feet at least. Apparently to protect the Willow Spring
from the caving-in of earth, a wall of cypress logs was run on
the line of the street and on the alley. From near the middle of
Third Street between Orange and Ann, at a point some fifteen
or twenty feet from the eastern line, the hill sloped abruptly
until about the western line it was arrested by a brick wall.
This depression made Third Street impassable in this immedi-
ate locality except on the margin indicated. The wall referred
to protected a spring at its foot, and thence the stream flowed on
to form a tanyard near Second Street, established in 1826 by
Isaac Northrop and John M. VanCleff and afterwards owned

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