According to a 1924 news story published in The News and Observer of Raleigh, Bucklesberry was purportedly opened to colonization in the early nineteenth century. This article claimed settlement commenced in 1825 by brothers John Sutton (ca. 1779-1848) and Hardy Sutton (1803-1861). 

Challenges and risks awaited early eighteenth century settlers who arrived in the unsettled Bucklesberry Pocosin of then old Craven County. According to historian and author Dr. Lindley S. Butler, PhD, "The backcountry was the last area of the State to be settled and, consequently, the most volatile region of North Carolina society for many years."