Beyond Wolf Mountain

Jackson County, NC was formed 1851 from Haywood and Macon counties. The first will was proved in the county in 1853, and until 1868 wills were recorded in a record identified as Inventory Docket (ID). Two wills were copied into the minutes of the county court of pleas and quarter sessions without being otherwise recorded. Beginning in 1869 wills were recorded in will books. None of the original wills of the county have survived. apparently having been lost when the county seat moved from Webster to Sylva in 1913. There was an earlier disastrous fire in Webster, but it is not known if the courthouse was burned.

Haywood County: Formed 1808 from Buncombe County. Wills appear to have been recorded irregularly until 1868, although a number of wills were recorded at earlier dates. In 1885 the General Assembly directed the clerk of superior court (Ch. 8, 1885 Public and Private Laws) to record all wills the recording of which had been lost or destroyed but the originals of which were on file in his office. Several wills which initially had been probated earlier were subsequently recorded after 1885. There is some indication on early surviving original wills that another will register had been maintained. The second volume of recorded wills and inventories (WI) is numbered "1/2"; because of computer limitations, this is shown in the "Recorded Copy" 'column as "WI-1-2," followed by a slant (/) and the page number.

Macon County: Formed 1828 from Haywood County. Recording of wills began in 1830. There is no known loss of records and the will books appear to be complete, but many of the original wills are missing.

Buncombe County: Formed 1791 from Burke and Rutherford counties. A courthouse fire in 1830 destroyed many court records and many of the surviving records were carried off three years later. In 1848 the Buncombe County courthouse burned again, and in 1865 many records were destroyed when the courthouse burned for the third time. Will books for wills probated after 1830 appear to be complete, but many original wills, particularly for the period before 1865, are missing.

Burke County: Formed 1777 from Rowan County. In April, 1865, a detachment of Union troops from General Stoneman’s command threw records from the courthouse and burned them. Will books and the original wills were included. Some original wills probated prior to 1865 survived and are in the State Archives; included are copies of wills from other sources such as North Carolina Supreme Court original case papers. As of June 1, 1986, original wills proved after 1868 remained in the custody of the county clerk of superior court.

Rowan County: Formed 1753 from Anson County. Recording of wills began in 1760, and there has been no significant loss of records. From about 1780 to about 1800, the county appears to have recorded wills in blocks arranged by first letter of the surname but not in alphabetical order. Several of the Rowan County original wills are in German and unless they were translated at the time of probate, the contents were not recorded in the will books. Ute-Ingrid Seidler translated and abstracted German language wills of Rowan County in the State Archives in North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal, Vol. 1, No-. 3 (July, 1975), pp. 136-140.

Rutherford County: Formed 1779 from Tryon County. Surviving registers of recorded wills date from 1782, probably because the site of the meetings of the county court was not fixed in the early years of the county. Will Books A, B, and C are recording dockets containing powers of attorney, bonds, and estate data. It was not until Will Book D (1822) that only wills were registered in the will books. Until the county court was discontinued in 1868, the probate date of a will was indicated in a caption at the top of each page identifying the term of court at which the action was taken. Typewritten copies of Will Books A-F and G-H were made at a later date; entries for Rutherford County were made from microfilm copies of the original record books which are in the custody of the clerk of superior court. There was a Courthouse fire in 1907, but there appears to have been no significant loss of either recorded or original wills.