"Before the Revolutionary War the land beyond the Eastern slopes of the Appalachians was forbidden to European settlers by the King of England. He decreed that only Cherokees could enjoy the bounties of plentiful game, rich soils, and mountain streams. It took a series of Indian wars, the Revolutionary War, and treaties with the original inhabitants to open the mountain land for European settlement. Beginning in 1784, the State of North Carolina started selling land grants in what would become Asheville.
The first United States census in 1790 revealed that more than a thousand settlers had trekked over rough trails to homestead along the Swannanoa and French Broad Rivers. These fiercely independent settlers sent petitions to the North Carolina General Assembly asking for a county of their own. The Assembly, in a unanimous vote, responded to their plea in 1792 by forming Buncombe County, naming it for Revolutionary War hero Edward Buncombe. Enormous and unsurveyed, Buncombe County encompassed all of Western North Carolina and part of Tennessee. The Small, rough village that was to become Asheville was first known as Morristown. When incorporated in November 1797, the town was renamed Asheville in honor of North Carolina’s popular governor, Samuel Ashe.
The central business district began to take shape in 1794 when an opportunist named John Burton purchased a land grant that included the small log courthouse on the square. Burton sold lots along South and North Main Streets (now Biltmore Avenue and Broadway, and commerce began."
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