Hardin Brothers Landscaping

A Summary of Spring 2025

We had plenty of rain this spring. The roadsides, gardens and fields were very lush and green. Every single HOA road at Amber Ranches was weedeated in May, and then again in June.

The reason we weedeat our roadsides is not just for aesthetics. It’s also important to keep our ditches and culverts free of vegetative growth so that water can pass through. If our ditches and culverts function properly, then our roads are less likely to be washed out. This prevents erosion and saves the HOA in road-bond expenses. Ever since Hurricane Helene, road-bond and gravel have been hard to find.

Another reason we keep our roadside weedeated is for safety. Weedeating our roadsides allows better visibility of our ditches, culverts, and ledges. It also helps us see other cars coming around a curve in the roads.

And here are some photos from this year’s spring…

Summer 2025

We still have a lot of summer left at Amber Ranches. Hot days and high humidity finally arrived in July. We have also had some really powerful thunderstorms this summer. In fact, one storm completely clogged up all of our culverts. Every single culvert had to be dug out with a shovel.

These intense downpours are terrible for our roads. Even with properly functioning ditches and culverts, gravel roads on the side of a steep mountain will occasionally wash out. After a storm like this, we have to regrade all the roads with the tractor. We also need to redefine all the runoffs into the ditches.

We finally got 4 loads of roadbond for our roads a few weeks ago. We get our roadbond from a quarry called Vulcan Materials. Due to Hurricane Helene, there is an incredibly high demand for roadbond to repair our local railroad and state highways. As a result, it’s been very difficult to get roadbond this year.

We still have a lot more summer to go, but here are some photos of this year’s spring thus far…

The Outlaw Whitson Brothers

And now for some local history…

There were three brothers named Tom, Dick, and Will Whitson. They grew up in Mitchell County during the War Between the States (1861-1865). Without question, the War and its aftermath had a negative impact on these brothers.

Their father was John Whitson. Very little is known about him, but he disappeared during the War. He was most likely a Unionist. He probably served in one of the Union regiments of East Tennessee or Kentucky. North Carolina didn’t have any Union regiments until 1863.

The Whitson Brothers’ widowed mother Matilda opened up a store/house of ill repute. It was more than just a simple general store. The reputation of the store was not good. Prostitution, gambling, drinking, etc. went on there. When the Whitson Brothers were old enough to make whiskey, they started selling it out of their mother’s store.

Corn was something easily and commonly grown in this region. However, the markets to sell corn were far away and the roads weren’t great to get there. As a result, most mountain people in the 1800s were subsistence farmers. This means they grew everything they needed to survive on their farms and sold very little for actual cash.

Those who wanted to make more money off of their corn decided to ferment and distill it first. This approach was more economical. Therefore, the Whitson Brothers decided to turn their corn into whiskey before selling it.

Nobody really knows why or how it happened, but the Whitson Brothers shot and killed a man by the name of “Kit” Byrd. It was either over a woman, a liquor deal or both. Nobody is even sure which Whitson Brother killed Kit Byrd. Regardless, all three of them were at the scene and all three played a role.

Now how does this tie into Amber Ranches?

These brothers took a strategic route to avoid the law. They went up the Bald Road (pronounced “Ball Road”) through modern day Amber Ranches. This road was built so that people could travel to the Cloudland Hotel on top of Roan Mountain. Locals used this road to sell their produce to the hotel. Prior to the killing of Kit Byrd, The Whitson Brothers probably used this road to sell their bootleg whiskey to hotel guests.

So by way of the Bald “Ball” Road, The Whitson Brothers escaped to Tennessee. They then settled down in southeastern Kentucky. They changed their names (Jones Brothers), bought land, raised families and continued to make and sell illegal corn whiskey.

Eastern Kentucky was also a rough place in the 1880s. Coal had been discovered and coal companies were buying up huge tracks of land. Dick Whitson (aka Harrison Jones) either wouldn’t sell his land or was asking more than what the coal company offered. As a result, an assassin by the name of Abijah Lewis was hired by the coal company to kill him.

Dick and his adopted son Caudle got into an argument at a saloon with Lewis. Dick walked out the door of the saloon. The company man followed. He grabbed a secretly placed pistol on the way and shot Dick in the heart. After killing Dick, Lewis tried to run, but was shot in the back by Dick’s adopted teenage son Caudle.

Tom and Will Whitson didn’t suffer the same fate as their brother. However, after 9 years of being fugitives, they were finally captured. They were sentenced to prison and sent down east to do hard labor.

Tom Whitson’s prison term was cut short when he broke out in 1895. He simply walked out and moved back to Eastern Kentucky by knocking out a prison guard and wearing his clothes out the door.

Many years later, Tom was captured again but pardoned by the governor of North Carolina. He would live out his days in Kentucky but kept in contact with his Mitchell County relatives.

Will Whitson served his time in prison and was also pardoned for the crime of murder. He lived out the rest of his days in Mitchell County.

These Whitson Brothers are my Grandma’s Great Uncles (Her Grandpa’s brothers). If you’re interested in learning more about these brothers, my information comes from a book written by our relatives. It’s called, Red Hill: The Untold Story of the Whitson Brothers and the Murder of Kit Byrd by K. B. and S. R. Whitson.