The Walton War and Ellicott’s Rock

                What happens when a property boundary is not clearly defined between two neighbors? They usually go to the state court system and use the land claims to battle it out, but what if the neighbors were states? Such a conundrum rose around the Orphan Strip, a twelve-mile wide strip of land setting in the nebulous confluence of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. In 1787, South Carolina had ceded the Orphan Strip to the Cherokee who then ceded it back to the US in 1798. For a brief time, the 50 white families who lived in the newly ceded Cherokee land had no state. Those 50 white settlers petitioned Congress to have this Strip be receded back to South Carolina.

Due to the reputation of the residents, South Carolina refused to accept the Strip as part of South Carolina, hence the name Orphan Strip. The land then was considered part of North Carolina. Yet, in 1802, for indemnity for the Yazoo land Scandal, the Congressional Ace of Cession declared the responsibility for the Strip was to be Georgia’s. Yet there was no declaration by Congress on within whose boundary the Strip was actually located.

Due to no state knowing where her boundary was, each state granted land to settlers from her state. This led to the real battle when in 1803 Georgia created Walton County for her 760 white and 40 black residents in the Strip. The residents of Buncombe County, North Carolina, who also lived in the same strip, cried that the state boundary line was the 35^th parallel, which would mean the Strip was within N. Carolina’s boundaries. Therefore, the residents denied the validity of Georgia’s claims past that line. They refused to pay the taxes or recognize Georgia law. On top of that, the people of South Carolina cried that the Strip was originally ceded to them so Georgia had no right to the Strip. Thus, South Carolina completely forgot that they wanted nothing to do with the Strip a mere 5 years earlier.

In 1804 to resolve the dispute, North Carolina began a series of surveys to relocate the 35^th parallel line to prove that the Strip was in North Carolina. On an earlier survey, the 35^th parallel line was 20 miles north of where it should be in Georgia’s favor. The new survey by N. Carolina showed the error, which Georgia refused to recognize.  This caused a mini spat after the N. Carolina constable was murdered. Then in 1807, a join survey was conducted at the behest of the governors of North Carolina and Georgia. Like the joint survey between Mexico and America after Polk’s War, the president of the University of Georgia and the president of the University of North Carolina conducted a joint survey to determine the border between the two states. The joint survey showed that the Orphan Strip was part of North Carolina, but Georgia still refused to leave.

Due to Georgia’s stubbornness, North Carolina sent in the militia to arrest all the legal representatives of Georgia. There were two battles as a result, one at McGaha Branch and one at Selica Hill. Even with a number injured, many arrested, and even more absent, Georgia was still undeterred. In 1811, Georgia hired Andrew Ellicott to perform an independent survey to settle the dispute. Unfortunately for Georgia, Ellicott upheld North Carolina’s claim. In fact, the boundary point of the two states became known as Ellicott’s Rock, which is on the east bank of the Chattooga. Georgia then refused to pay Ellicott’s fee for such a blasphemous survey. Today, this Orphan Strip is part of Transylvania County, but even in 1971, Georgia claimed the land again, which caused North Carolina to fluff their war feathers.

A Picture of Commissioner’s Rock which was inscribed in 1813.