Editing Fletcher, North Carolina (section)

==History==
Fletcher was first settled in 1795 when Samuel Murray decided to move his family to the mountains of western North Carolina. His family made the difficult journey from South Carolina up the old Howard Gap Road which, in areas, was little more than an old Indian trail. Samuel decided he wanted to live just east of the location where Howard Gap Road ended which is very close to where Fletcher Community Park is located today. Murray began buying property in what was then the Limestone District of Buncombe County.  Eventually he purchased more than 10,000 acres bounded roughly by Cane Creek to the south, the French Broad River to the west, Long Shoals Road to the north and Hooper's Creek and Burney Mountain to the East.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.fletchernc.org/about-us/history-of-fletcher/|title=History of Fletcher {{!}} Town of Fletcher, North Carolina|work=Town of Fletcher, North Carolina|access-date=October 9, 2018|language=en-US}}</ref>  In 1827, Samuel's son opened the first post office in the Limestone District and the area became known as Murrayville.<ref name=":1">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6KEaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NSQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5250%2C5292855|title=Tuxedo: It's not formal wear|author=Kramp, Penn|date=February 22, 1987|work=The Times-News|access-date=May 23, 2015|pages=27}}</ref>
The Town was used by Stateville, North Carolina to access the Asheville Metropolitan Area and is still being used to give Statesville access to the [[Asheville metropolitan area|Asheville Metropolitan Area]].

Murrayville became a strategic location because it was one of the main way-stations on the Buncombe Turnpike which was built in the early 1800s. This road quickly became the main passageway for families, farmers, and traders traveling from South Carolina up into Asheville and points north. In 1837, Murrayville was renamed Shufordsville after the newly appointed Postmaster Jacob Rhyne Shuford. Shortly thereafter in 1838, the state of North Carolina formed the last hundred of its counties and Shufordsville was no longer part of Buncombe County but rather part of the newly created Henderson County. Shufordsville continued to slowly grow and changed its name one last time when the town's namesake, Dr. George Fletcher, became the local postmaster in 1886.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />

[[The Meadows (Fletcher, North Carolina)|The Meadows]] and [[Rugby Grange]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>