MAILMAN MYSTERY IN MADISON COUNTY, NC (Because Hoke County History is difficult to find, this mystery may suffice. Can you solve it?) Contact Myrtle Bridges
Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.), 09 Aug. 1883 Not far from Asheville is the town called Hot Springs. It is where Spring Creek runs into the French Broad River. Native Americans were already enjoying the thermal springs when the first Europeans moved into the area. The first record of Europeans visiting the spring is 1778. It was called Warm Springs. A small town built up around it. (Cincinatti Times-Star, July 27th.) In tearing down an old house in the country, five miles from Warm Springs, N.C., recently, the skeleton of a man was found, the bones and even the cartilages in a remarkable state of preservation. Beside the skeleton were portions of a leather mail bag, of the pattern in use half a century ago. In this bag, or so much of it as were left, were upwards of thirty letters, all bearing date early in 1827. It was evident that the man had been a mail-carrier, as the letters were addressed to various persons, some in remote sections. Perfectly legible were the addresses, while the heavy paper, breaking like parchment, was neither worm eaten or torn. In one of the letters were found two bills of a State bank, which has long ago failed, each bill being of the denomination of $100. There is no reason given for the position of the skeleton in the wall. The wall was thick, and there was a space which run from the ground to the second floor. By this the stairs passed. The space, boarded up when the house was torn down, may have been open when the man got there, and slipping or stepping off the stairs he may have fallen to the bottom, so injuring himself that he could not call for aid, and so perished. There are no suspicions of foul play, and the oldest citizens know nothing of any story of a crime connected with the house in question. The place is just on the boundary line of Tennessee and North Carolina. Hundreds of people are going there to see the skeleton, the old letters and the bank bills, and the strange and puzzling discovery has caused a profound sensation in all that section of country. The mystery will probably never be revealed.
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