1861 Transylvania County is formed from Henderson County. Blue Ridge Baptist Church, which formed prior to 1860, finds one-half the church in Henderson County and one-half in Transylvania County. Holly Springs Baptist Church also forms in 1860 near the new Transylvania County line in the Crab Creek community.

1863 St. James Episcopal Church is consecrated in Hendersonville.

1860s Bearwallow Baptist Church (Gerton), Dana United Methodist Church and Fanning Chapel United Methodist Church (Mills River) organize.

1869 First Roman Catholic Church in Western North Carolina is organized in Asheville. There are some records indicating that the priests traveled to Hendersonville to hold mass (mission). Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church was built in the 1920s.

1870s More post offices form: Crab Creek, Pink Beds (still standing in Mills River), Horse Shoe and Pinnacle

1870 Schools begin operating throughout the county in one-room school houses and at churches.

1871 Double Springs Baptist Church is organized in the Green River community. Prior to 1873, four more churches formed: Boyleston Baptist (Mills River), Pleasant Grove Baptist (Etowah), Pleasant Hill Baptist (Flat Rock) and Shaw’s Creek Baptist (Horse Shoe)

1878 Post office opens in Horse Shoe.

1879 On July 4, a celebration is held. The railroad is completed to Hendersonville. With it comes the telegraph. There were 17 stores in the town and five hotels. A depot is built.

1879 Bat Cave Post Office opens.

1880 French Broad Steamship Co. forms. On Aug. 2, 1881, the Mountain Lily is launched. Steamship travel on the French Broad River was of short duration.

1880s Zircon crystals begin to be mined in large quantities (Zirconia).

1880s More churches form: Bat Cave Baptist, Mount Gilead Baptist (Mills River), Mount Olivet Baptist (Zirconia), Oak Grove Baptist (East Flat Rock), Mountain Valley Baptist (Green River), and a church only known by its cemetery today: Old Brown’s Chapel in Clear Creek.

1880s Group of people from England move to Bowman’s Bluff area of Big Willow community and build a private chapel. There were about 268 people in the group.

1880s Farmers begin shipping surplus vegetables and fruits by train. Surplus sold: No. 1 cabbage, followed by other vegetables. More peaches are grown and sold than apples, followed by plums, grapes, pears and strawberries.

1880s Small post offices open throughout the county: Angeline, Baxter, Capps, Decatur, Delmont, DeWitt, Gypsy, Knight, Lead, Love, Lyda, Maxwell, Mill, Mott, Opelika, Osteen, Rugby, Sitton, Splendor, Tin, Uno, Walker, Yale, Pump, Hillgirt, Upward. Some only lasted a couple of years, others 10 years. All closed by 1907. The Pump post office became the Gerton post office.

1882 Maj. Theodore G. Barker moves to the county at the Brooklands estate. He drains Barker swamps in early 1900s and builds one of the first “subdivisions” in county, known as Brooklyn Manor and Barker Heights.

1883 Oakdale Cemetery is established by the town of Hendersonville. Graves from cemeteries at Hendersonville First United Methodist Church, First Presbyterian and First Baptist were moved to the cemetery. Graves from the Star of Bethel Baptist church, a black church, were also later moved to the cemetery. The graves were segregated by race. There is also a Jewish section of the cemetery established in 1938 by Agudas Israel Synagogue. The “Look Homeward Angel” from the book by Thomas Wolfe is located within the cemetery at the Johnson family plot.

1883 W.E. Hidden leases the Freeman zircon mine in Tuxedo community. Hidden and inventor Thomas Edison buy the Levi Jones mine in Zirconia community. Edison later makes a visit to the county to view the zircon mines.

1884 A.F. Baker opens the first photographic studio, Baker’s London Art Gallery, at location of the first building in the city, later known as the Shepherd, then Drake Store. The studio later changes its location and becomes known as the Baker-Barber Studio.

1885 Fruitland Baptist Church is formed. It was first known as Green Mountain Baptist Church, according to church records.

1885 Episcopal mission church forms in Edneyville, known today as St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The granite church was built in 1910.

1885-1900 There are 51 to 53 white schools in the county and 11 black schools (segregation). Many are mostly one-room buildings of weatherboarding. Some schools were also held in churches, ex. Green River Baptist.

1886 Railroad is completed to Asheville.

1887 Mount Echo Brand Corn Whiskey begins production.

1887-1890s The Shepherd-Drake Store was used as a makeshift hospital during this time to house yellow fever victims arriving by train from the Low Country of South Carolina.

Late 1880s The Edney Inn opens at the end of Edney Inn Road near Bat Cave.

1888 Town of Saluda forms. The railroad built the town. Trains had to stop in preparation for Saluda Grade, the steepest grade east of the Mississippi River. Stores, depot and inns are built. Summer residents from South Carolina begin flocking to Saluda. Note: Saluda was located at this time inside Henderson County.

1889 Train depot is built in the East Flat Rock community to serve Flat Rock summer residents.

1888 Tracy Grove Baptist and Horse Shoe Baptist organize

1888 Hendersonville commits to water supply source.

1888 Yellow fever refugees from Jacksonville, Fla., begin flocking to Hendersonville

1890s Post office is built in Flat Rock in a building that still stands along the Greenville Highway next to the Singleton Centre. The first post office in Flat Rock began in 1847.

1890 Hamilton Glover Ewart was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

1890 Hawley Hotel opens in Dana with an observation tower.

1890 First street railway car in Hendersonville. Hendersonville Street Railway Co. (Col. S.V. Pickens, T.J. Rickman, T.C. Israel and others)

1891 Authorization is given to build a Hendersonville Town Hall and Opera House.

1890s Newspaper, the French Broad Hustler, begins in Brevard. Later moves to Hendersonville.

1890s George Vanderbilt buys extensive acreage, including forests in Mills River.

1892 Dana Post Office opens.

1892 Aug. 22 People gather in courthouse to hear Thomas Edison’s “mysterious phonograph.”

1892 Mount Crystal Baptist Church begins in Big Willow community. This church is now known as Jones Gap Baptist Church. Other churches forming in the 1890s include: Macedonia Baptist (Macedonia), East Flat Rock United Methodist Church, Moore’s Grove United Methodist (Clear Creek), Middle Fork Baptist (between Bat Cave and Gerton), Mountain Home Baptist (Edneyville), and two churches only known today by cemeteries, Mountain Grove on border of Polk and Henderson counties near Big Hungry River, and the old Hogney school and church in Hoopers Creek.

1893 William Balfour Troy opens a granite quarry in today’s Balfour community. Balfour Post Office opens.

1894 Spur of railroad is completed to Brevard.

1895 First streets in Hendersonville are paved.

1895 Standardization of school textbooks: McGuffey’s Reader, 6 cents.

1897 Elections established to levy district school taxes.

1898 Fruitland Institute opens, also known as Green Mountain Academy. In 1945, the school becomes Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute.

1898 Spanish-American War. Some county residents served during the war and the Philippine Insurrection that followed the war. No Henderson County residents died during the short war, but a few county men (documentation still ongoing) died during the Philippine Insurrection that followed the war.

1898 The Asheville Telephone Co. begins line communication for telephone service to Hendersonville.

1899 Justus Drug Store installs the first soda fountain in Hendersonville. The soda fountain is only open in the summer.