Johnston County, NC - History

                           Green's Path 

Reprinted with permission of the the Smithfield Herald
February 12, 1942
By James P. Smith

 This is an account of dark forests, Indian trading paths and of early 
pioneers with hearts of steel. Colonial maps of this area, when compared 
with the earliest deeds and land patents, show an ancient trail fording 
Neuse River below Wilson's Mills and crossing Swift Creek about two miles 
west of the present site of Smithfield.

 The Compleat Map of North Carolina, from an actual survey by Captr. Collet, 
1770, shows an early trail marked Green's Path traversing Johnston County 
for 50 miles from north to south. This path is traced on this map as passing
the Roanoke, Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers and extending to the upper Pee Dee 
River in South Carolina. (Note: looks like today's I-95)

 Curiously enough very early maps give this trail as a trading path to the 
Cherokee Nation in the mountains of western South Carolina. This trail seems
to have an eastern fork from about old Averasboro by the southern fringe of
Johnston County towards a ford on the Neuse about Cox's Bridge.

 Some old maps give the present area of Johnston County as unexplored. The 
first settlers hereabouts come from 1740-17__. This unknown Green came down 
this trail many years before and passed out the eastern fork giving his name
to the trail. No history of North Carolina has been found which mentions 
Green or Green's Path. The earliest mention is in the annals of the Indian 
Wars of 1711, when Colonel Barnwell led his South Carolina men of Green's 
Path in that year to assist North Carolina in fighting the treacherous 
Tuscarora Indians.

 From old deeds and land patents we can plot the course of Green's Path across
Johnston County. In 1747, Henry Bradley patented land on Black River, two
miles above the ford on Green's Path. This is now Harnett County, NC.

 In 1748 or before John Carroway entered a patent about two miles above 
Green's Path on the south prong of Swift's Creek and on the north side of 
said prong.

 In the Poplar Creek area the mention of Green's Path becomes more frequent, 
while on the north and south banks of the Green's Path, Johnston Co, NC 
Neuse River below Wilson's Mills the reference to Green's Pond and Green's 
Path are numerous.

 On the south bank of the Neuse River, the earliest patentee about the ford 
is Francis Bettis in 1741; other patents are described as near, or below 
Green's Path.

 On the north bank patents are recorded of Thomas Avera, 1744, George Cole 
and others.

 This Thomas Avera died in 1750/60, while another Thomas Avera patented 350 
acres in 1779, beginning at a maple tree, its own corner, on the river bank 
near Green's Ford, on the north side of Neuse River.

 Early settlers at the mouth of Mill Creek came through Craven or Duplin, or 
up this river. The greater part of Johnston was first settled from the 
north. Consequently, we read in deeds of Alexander Avery of Nanesmond County,
VA, or of John Vinson of the County of Brunswick, Parish of Meherrin in 
Virginia. John and Samuel Smith, early settlers, entered their first patents
along this trail, between Swift Creek and The River, as did the brothers 
Needham and William Bryan from Bertie County, NC.

 Early patents called for an annual quit-rent of four shillings per hundred 
acres. In Governor Garbiel Johnston's time, the patents read to clear and 
cultivate three acres for every hundred acres within three years.

 This path was an Indian trail for unnumbered years, and from 1740, the 
principal avenue of settlement. Roads, ferries and bridges came later. 
Collet's map of 1770 gives this spot as Smith's Ferry for the County 
Courthouse had not been moved here, nor the town laid out.

 The old Averasboro road follows approximately the path to the south, while 
the northern part goes by Little River north of Corinth-Holders, and by 
Castalia to a ford on the Roanoke River north of Littleton.

 The ancient trail was the road of the pioneers settling on the upper Cape 
Fear River and the Pee Dee River in South Carolina.

 This unknown pioneer, Green, passed from north to south through the present 
area of Johnston County and then passed east along the southern border of 
the county, before the first white settlers.

 If some reader of the Herald has any story or tradition handed down by the 
former generations about Green's Path, the writer would be very grateful to 
have it.

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by
Guy Potts - gpotts1@nc.rr.com
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