At the Great Fall on Second Broad River, early landowners included Richard Henderson, a founder of the short-lived state of Transylvania, and Abner Nash, governor of North Carolina in 1780-81. Later owners used the water power of the High Shoal for a smithy, mill, and ironworks. Mark Bird, a friend of Benjamin Franklin, and Peter Fisher founded the ironworks in the 1790's, and Achilles Durham owned it as it declined in the 1840's. The village included a smithy, a store and office, a corn mill, homes for the iron-master and slaves, and a few other residences.