Cfie LilJtarp of t^e 2Jnitier$ftp of iQortf) Carolina Collection ot j^ortj Carolmiana 3o&n &prunt ^ill of ti)e eriasja of 1889 C 871.34 F81f I -K RAM so* wL-^^tei g'Rp)/^N = - THOMPSON Rl<^<-"^g ADEUIt>t U- Fwes POUCJUhf L. Rl&HTS :■ HAJiVeV &INKINS - Tin/ill ' CH^kLBS N. 5IEWERS \{m\\{ I - FLORA ANN LEE' - I'i lll^P^i' CHAPEL HILLTME UNIVERSITY OP NORTtt CAftOUNA PRESS- 1949 Copyright, 1949, by The University of North Carolina Press Manufactured in the United States of America VAN REES press • NEW YORK P.J. FOREWORD The year 1949 is the looth anniversary of Forsyth County and of its county seat, Winston. It marks the completion of a century of achievement in our community. These past 100 years have seen the birth of Forsyth County and the joining of the quaint old town of Salem in 191 3 with the newer industrial city of Winston. During this span of years our smaller towns have also flourished, and rural Forsyth County has assumed a position of leadership in the State. Dr. Adelaide Fries and her able associates in the writing of this book not only have given us an accurate history of our County but also have captured magnificently the energy of its founders, the surge of its new blood, and the cooperative spirit of its people. James A. Gray, Jr., Chairman Forsyth County Centennial Committee CONTENTS Foreword, by James A. Gray, Jr., Chairman Forsyth County Centennial Committee v I. A Fifth-Generation County 3 By Adelaide L. Fries II. Colonel Benjamin Forsyth ^7 By Adelaide L. Fries III. Around Salem Square 29 By Adelaide L. Fries IV. Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 59 By Mary C. Wiley V. Smaller Towns, Villages, and Hamlets 121 By Douglas L. Rights VI. Rural Forsyth H3 By Harvey Dinkins VII. A Center of Industry i ^9 By Chas. N. Siewers VIII. Winston-Salem Up to Date i99 By Flora Ann Lee The Contributors ^^9 Index 231 I A FIFTH-GENERATION COUNTY IMPROBABLE as it sounds, it is a fact that the pioneers in this immediate section of North CaroHna selected their land in Anson County, settled in Rowan County, and went through the Revolutionary War in Surry County; their descendants were in Stokes County during the War of 1 8 1 2 and the Mexican War, and volunteered for Con- federate service from Forsyth County— and yet the location never changed! The explanation is that the area which is now Forsyth was always in the piece that was cut off when a large county was divided; always it saw the other part of the county keep the name and the record books; always it was in the new county, with a new county seat, and a new set of county records. Behind this development there was a story a century and a quarter long. It began in the days when the kings of England knew that a large part of America had been claimed for them, but knew practically nothing about it— and cared less. So in 1629 King Charles I gave to his attorney general, Sir Robert Heath, a large part of English America, on the condition that he take steps to colonize it. This was not done, and so the Heath title was declared void. Then, in 1663, Charles II gave "Carolina" to eight Eng- lish lords. Two years later he enlarged his gift, and they be- came possessed of the land from Virginia to a point half way down the Florida peninsula, and from the Atlantic Ocean "as far west as the continent doth extend itself," and neither the king nor the new owners knew how far that was or where it stopped. Gradually settlers drifted into the eastern part along the Atlantic seaboard, and a colonial government was set up. But there was little profit and much annoyance for the eight Lords Proprietors, as they were called, and in 1728 the heirs or assignees of seven of the original eight Proprietors sold their interests to the Crown and ceased to think of Carolina. John, Lord Carteret, Earl Granville, son of the eighth 4 Forsyth, a County on the March Proprietor, decided not to sell, and his one-eighth part was laid off for him adjoining Virginia. The southern hne was placed at 35° 34' north latitude; the eastern boundary was the Atlantic Ocean; the western was still that unknown limit of the con- tinent. Granville set up a land office in Edenton, which sold land to settlers who wished to come into his territory; the colonial government issued land grants in the name of the king for land outside the Granville holdings. As the years passed, settlements spread inland from the Atlantic coast, and counties were organized and secured repre- sentation in the colonial Assembly. Then other settlers drifted down from Virginia and Pennsylvania to find new homes in piedmont Carolina. By 1749 these settlers had become suffi- ciently numerous to want a county of their own, and Anson County was erected, cut from the eastern counties by a line running approximately north and south from Virginia to South Carolina, following the watershed about half way be- tween the Haw River and the Yadkin River. It included both the Granville and the Crown lands. The deeds and grants made by the two land offices are the only remaining evidences of real estate transactions of the first four years of Anson County, for the Anson courthouse burned, and all the early records there were lost. Earl Granville never came to America, but continued to five in England. There he made the acquaintance of various leaders of the Moravian Church, and he suggested that they buy land in his section of North Carolina and establish a settlement there. At that time Carolina was an EngHsh colony, and the Church of England was the state church of North Carohna; so Granville's suggestion to the Moravians may have been influenced by the fact that in 1749 the English ParHament made a very thorough investigation of the Moravian Church, its history, its doctrine, and its episcopate, and passed an act giving it full standing in the English colonies, where, as in England, the Dissenters (all other Protestant denominations) A Fifth-Generation County 5 labored under civil and ecclesiastical handicaps. Granville offered the land on the usual terms, namely, a cash payment and an annual quitrent forever, but waived the usual allot- ment of land according to "head rights" and told the Moravians to select what they wanted, and the number of acres they wanted, regardless of the number of settlers sent at any given time. In the later summer of 1752, in accordance with instruc- tions received from the leaders of the Moravian Church in England, Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg and five com- panions set out on horseback from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, commissioned to find a suitable tract for the proposed settle- ment. They rode along the coast of Maryland and Virginia, crossed the bay to North Carolina, stopped at Edenton to interview Sir Francis Corbin, Earl Granville's agent, and set out toward the west, accompanied by William Churton, the Granville surveyor. The journey was a long and adventurous one. Spangenberg's diary gives many details. They ate corn on the cob with the Tuscarora Indians; were delayed by severe attacks of fever caught in Edenton; found no suitable land along the Trading Path; suffered in a snow-storm in the Blue Ridge mountains; lost their way; followed their compass back to civilization; and at last were directed by a lone settler to the land in "the three forks of Muddy Creek," a tributary of the Yadkin River. There they selected a tract of nearly one hundred thousand acres, which was surveyed as a whole and also as divided into nineteen separate tracts, the latter at the suggestion of Churton, who thought it might simplify matters if trouble arose over payment of the quitrents. Spangenberg suggested the name Der Wachau for this tract, because he thought that its hills and valleys resembled the terrain in an estate of that name in south Austria, an estate which belonged to the family of the Count Nicholas Lewis von Zinzendorf, who did so much for the Moravian Church of the eighteenth century. This German name was used for 6 Forsyth, a County on the March many years whenever the Moravian settlers wrote in the Ger- man language; but they preferred the Latin form of the name, Wachovia, when they wrote in English. Naturally, it is the Latin-English form of the name which has endured. Traced on a modern map of Forsyth County this Wachovia Tract would extend from Rural Hall to a few feet north of Friedberg Moravian church; the east line would touch Wal- kertown; on the west it would be a series of angles west of Muddy Creek. The surveyor's rules of 1752 permitted only straight north-south, east-west lines and right angles. Spangenberg went to England to report on his journey, and while he was gone Anson County was divided by an east-west line, the south line of the Granville land. The Crown land to the south retained the name; the north part became Rowan County, with Salisbury as the county seat. The Granville (or Rowan County) line remains on the map of North Carolina in the south line of Randolph, Davidson, Rowan, and Iredell counties. The east line was made to run due north to the Vir- ginia line, instead of following the watershed. The west line was still the unknown boundary of the continent. It was into Rowan County, therefore, that the Moravian settlers came in November, 1753. The Wachovia Tract had been duly purchased from Earl Granville, and the original deeds were kept in England; but official copies, on parchment, certified by the Lord Mayor of London, with his great seal attached, were brought to America, and were recorded in Salisbury. The purchase of so large a tract, and the initial expenses of settlement, would have laid an impossible burden on the Moravian Church, already staggering under the expense of its rapidly expanding continental work and its scattered mission fields. It was financed, therefore, through an especially or- ganized land company, which worked very successfully. Shareholders bore all the early expenses, and each received two thousand acres of the Tract, certain areas being reserved A Fifth-Generation County 7 for the proposed congregations. Of these shareholders only one, Traugott Bagge, came to Wachovia in person; his land lay at the northeast corner of the Tract, in what is now Salem Chapel township. The shares of some of the shareholders were sold for them through the years; others presented their shares to the Moravian Church, which sold the land as seemed wise, for the benefit of that church. The Moravian settlers who reached Wachovia on Novem- ber 17, 1753, found an abandoned log hut, and gladly used it as a temporary shelter. Finding good land there they remained, and there they passed through the experiences of the war with the Cherokee Indians, a sequel to the French and Indian War of the northern colonies. During those trying years a number of men, women, and children came to their stockade from the scattered farms outside of Wachovia; and at the suggestion of some of them the village of Bethania was begun in 1759, ^^ a distance of three miles from the parent village of Bethabara, which had grown up around the first little log hut. The Moravian settlement was the result of a definite plan, but the neighboring farmers had followed the more usual custom of the frontier and had taken their lands along the larger streams, the Town Fork of Dan River, the Yadkin River, and the smaller streams south of the Wachovia Tract. Best known among the men in the latter group was Adam Spach, who had made the acquaintance of the Moravians in Maryland, and who took up land as close as he could get to the Wachovia Tract in order to be near them in North Carolina. Gradually the settlers in Rowan County increased, and those who lived in the northern part of the county found it very inconvenient to be so far from Salisbury, the county town. They therefore petitioned the Assembly to divide the county. The Moravians by this time had founded a third village, Salem, in the center of their Tract, and they asked that their 8 Forsyth, a County on the March convenience might be considered and that the new Hne should be run so as not to divide their land. Disregarding this request, the Assembly ordered the new line run at a point which was supposed to cut Rowan County in half, though it also divided the Wachovia Tract. The act was passed in 177 1, but when the line was surveyed it appeared that it ran between Bethab- ara and Salem, leaving the latter in Rowan County, while only a few small villages and the scattered farms fell into the new county of Surry. Amazed consternation filled the minds of the Surry County citizens, who did not see how it would be possible to cover the expenses of the new county without the Salem taxes, and for two years there was much anxious debate. During this period two other Moravian centers were estab- lished, both in the Rowan section of the Wachovia Tract. One group came from what was then known as the Broadbay Plantation in Massachusetts (now Waldoboro, Maine,) and they settled at what is now called Friedland. The other, an English-speaking group from Maryland, settled in what is now the Hope neighborhood in the southwest part of the Tract. In 1773 these two smaller settlements and the town of Salem became part of Surry County. The leaders of Salem agreed to join in the movement to place the county line six miles south of the line of 177 1, on condition that the Wacho- via Tract as a whole should be in Surry County. This accounts for the three offsets in the present south line of Forsyth County; a straight east-west line would have been an exten- sion of the south Hne of Lewisville township. The county seat of Rowan remained at Salisbury, but for Surry a new place was selected, which was named Richmond. It was quite near the present village of Donnaha, in the north- west corner of Forsyth County, and this was the county seat during the Revolutionary War. The story of Richmond was dramatic, but short, for in A Fifth-Generation County 9 1789 Surry County was divided by a north-south line, and new courthouse sites were selected, Rockford in Surry County, and Germanton in Stokes County. The Surry County courthouse records were moved from old Richmond to Rock- ford; Stokes County set up new records on her own account. The area now called Forsyth was mostly in the new county of Stokes, but straight lines were still the custom, and the new line crossed and recrossed the Yadkin in an annoying fashion. As a result Stokes had a long narrow strip west of the river on the Surry side; Surry had a C-shaped tract east of the river on the Stokes side; and Stokes had a small triangle south of the river in the part of Rowan which became Davie County. In each case these detached pieces could be reached only by boat, for there were no bridges. In December, 1796, the Assembly changed the line between Surry and Stokes, giving to Surry the long narrow strip lying on the west side of the Yadkin, the river becoming the bound- ary there. The Act of Assembly calls it the land "south of the Yadkin," but old deeds show that for many years every- thing on the right-hand bank of the Yadkin River, looking down stream, was called "south" of the Yadkin, regardless of the actual direction. For fifty years the county of Stokes remained practically unchanged. The War of 18 12 and the Mexican War made but slight demand upon the people, though the former called the attention of the nation to Colonel Benjamin Forsyth. The population increased slowly, but it did increase, and finally the Assembly of 1848- 1849 was petitioned to divide it. The act dividing Stokes County bears date of ratification, January 16, 1849. The Act is printed in full in the Laws of the State of North Carolina passed by the General Assembly at the Session of 1848-4P, published in Raleigh in 1849 by Thomas J. Lemay, Printer— Star Ofiice. The act provided for a line "beginning at the South West corner of Rockingham county, and running thence West to lo Forsyth, a County on the March the Surry county line." It was further enacted: "That all that part of the said county lying North of said line, shall be erected into a distinct county by the name of Stokes county; and all that part lying South of the said line shall be erected into another distinct county by the name of Forsyth county, in honor of the memory of Col. Benjamin Forsyth, a native of Stokes county, who fell on the Northern frontier, in the late war with England." A supplemental act, passed at the same session of the As- sembly, appointed Caleb Jones, Frederick Minung (Meinung), and John Banner to run the dividing line, named county com- missioners for each county, and provided the necessary ma- chinery for setting up the two county governments. The commissioners for Forsyth County were Zadock Staf- ford, John Stafford, Henry A. Lemly, Leonard Conrad, and Francis Fries. These commissioners selected Francis Fries as chairman. It so happened that Salem lay almost in the center of the new county of Forsyth, and Salem Congregation owned about three thousand acres of the Wachovia Tract, includinor and surrounding the town. The act of the legislature ordained that not less than thirty acres should be secured for the county seat; so the commissioners applied to the Salem church boards for that amount of the Salem land. Opinion in the Salem Congregation divided sharply as to this sale. The conservatives feared the disturbances that would be caused by the sometimes unruly crowds that gathered on court days, and particularly objected to the idea of a whipping post, whipping being still the legal punishment for many illegal acts. On the other hand, the progressives feared that to place the county seat some four miles away would kill Salem economically, for a new town would grow up around the courthouse. The progressives won, and an agreement was reached whereby Salem Congregation agreed to sell the new county A Fifth-Generation County ii thirty-one acres, north of a stipulated line. Before the sale was concluded, the amount of land was increased to fifty-one and a quarter acres, the price per acre to be five dollars, the cur- rent price for unimproved land. The deed to this courthouse tract was dated May 12, 1849, and title was transferred from Charles F. Kluge, the proprietor (trustee) acting for the Con- gregation, to Francis Fries, chairman of the board of county commissioners, and his successors in office. It had been agreed between the parties that the streets of the new town should be continuations of the Salem streets, and that the courthouse should be erected at the highest point on the Main Street, but only two conditions were written into the deed. By one, provision was made for the school commit- tee of the district to have the lot on which a small free-school house stood. By the other condition, Thomas J. Wilson was to have a deed for his lot as soon as he finished paying for it. Until the new courthouse could be built the Salem church boards allowed the courts to use the Concert Hall in Salem, the county paying a reasonable rent for it. It was expressly understood that no whippings should take place in Salem, and that if any was ordered by the court it should be done some- where outside the town. The sheriff *'let out to the lowest bidder the furnishing of sawdust, candles, etc., for the Court at the Town Hall in Salem," at so much per court. On March 19, 1849, sixteen ''Gentlemen Justices, appointed and commissioned by the Governor of the State," met in the Concert Hall, and elected for the ensuing year: Sheriff— William Flynt; Clerk of the Court— Andrew J. Stafford; County Attorney— Thomas J. Wilson; Register of Deeds— F. C. Meinung; County Trustee— George Linville; Coronor— John H. White; Standard Keeper— Abraham Steiner. 12 Forsyth, a County on the March All of the justices were entitled to sit in the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, but they were permitted to elect a chairman and several members to serve for all. On March 20, therefore, the justices elected as the special court: Francis Fries, chairman, Philip Barrow, Andrew M. Gamble, John Reich, and Jesse A. Waugh. The finance committee elected consisted of C. L. Banner, Israel G. Lash, and Francis Fries. In December, F. C. Meinung, C. L. Banner, and Michael Hauser were appointed to select a site for a "Poor House"; and in May, 1850, about ninety acres were bought, three and a half miles northeast of the courthouse tract, on the road to Germanton. In earlier days the counties were divided into "Captains Districts," partly for militia organization and partly for tax districts. In 1869 the legislature changed the system, and under the new law Forsyth County was divided into townships, receiving names which are still in use. Perhaps the only name which would puzzle one who studies the map is Broadbay, which is a reminder of the generally forgotten fact that the first settlers there came from the Broadbay Plantation in New England. No attention was paid to the inconvenient western bound- ary of Forsyth County for a number of years, but in 1889 the legislature transferred from Davidson to Forsyth County the land lying between Lewisville and South Fork townships and the Yadkin River, and this became Clemmonsville town- ship. This transfer obliterated a number of the angles which the act of 1773 made in the south line of Surry County, in- herited by Stokes County, and then by Forsyth County. One more angle was wiped out by the act of the legislature of 192 1 when a wedge-shaped piece of Davidson County was added to the south side of Abbotts Creek township in Forsyth County. Seventy acres of "forgotten" land belonging to Forsyth County lay south of the Yadkin River in Davie County, and A Fifth-Generation County 13 in 1925 the legislature transferred this small triangle from Forsyth to the county in which it belonged, geographically speaking. This left the C-shaped segment, popularly called Little Yadkin, cut from Yadkin County by the river. (The southern part of Surry County had become Yadkin County.) In 191 1 the legislature transferred from Yadkin to Forsyth a small triangle at the north end of the segment, in order to enable both counties to participate in the building of a bridge across the river. In 1926 the commissioners of Forsyth County agreed to buy from Yadkin County the land known as Little Yadkin. The legislature of 1927 altered the county line in accord with this agreement and authorized the Forsyth com- missioners to pay Yadkin commissioners the stipulated sum of seventy thousand dollars. After one hundred and thirty-eight years the river had ceased to run back and forth across the county line, and the Yadkin had become the boundary of Forsyth County on the west and southwest. II COLONEL BENJAMIN FORSYTH VERY little is known of the early life of Benjamin Forsyth, for whom Forsyth County was named. Family tradition says that he was the son of James and Elizabeth Forsyth. The date and place of his birth are not known, but he seems to have been born in the early 1760's, and probably in Virginia. The Forsyth name, in various spellings, appears in Virginia from time to time, begin- ning as early as 1 649, in which year a John Forsith was one of a group of forty persons transported to Virginia by Edmund Scarborough, Jr., patentee for two thousand acres of land in Northampton County. There is evidence that Benjamin Forsyth's father died when the boy was still young, and that his mother then married a man by the name of Whitworth and had at least one son, Edward, and probably other children. That Benjamin received some education is certain, for his signature to a deed dated in 1801 is much better written than many of the signatures of that day. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Benjamin Forsyth Hved in St. Martin's Parish, Hanover County, Virginia, before coming to North Carolina. Only two deed books in Hanover County escaped destruction during the Civil War, but in one of them there are deeds showing that between 1786 and 1788 a Benjamin Forsyth sold one tract of land, bought and sold another tract, and bought a larger tract of 960 acres, which he still owned when his name disappeared with the end of the book. The Benjamin Forsyth who lived in Stokes County, North Carolina, from 1794 to the day on which he left for the front in the War of 18 12, must have come with money in his pocket, for he first appears in the taking of a deed for a tract bid in for him at sheriff's sale; and this purchase was followed in the same month of December, 1794, by the purchase of another tract for which he paid £260. For the next seventeen years Benjamin Forsyth bought and 17 1 8 Forsyth, a County on the March sold land industriously. The Stokes County deed books show thirty-four purchases. Of these, three were at sheriff's sales, nineteen wxre grants from the state of North Carolina, and twelve were for tracts bought from individuals. There are o forty of his sales recorded, which makes a total of seventy- four transactions listed. This is most unusual, for in those days many men did not trouble to probate and record their deeds, since sales and purchases were legal, and valid indefinitely, without registration. Possession of the deed itself held the title. The rapidity of this turn-over in his early years in North Carolina indicates that Forsyth carried on a land brokerage business. Sometimes he listed only a few acres for taxation; in 1802 he listed 8,000 acres. In 18 10 he listed 3,000 acres and 7 black polls, his own white poll, and a lot in Germanton, which he had owned for some years. In 1 8 1 1 his taxes were "not given in," and then his name disappears from the tax books. Perhaps he sold most or all of his slaves and real estate before leaving for the war. In 1797 Benjamin Forsyth married Bethemia Ladd, daugh- ter of Constantine Ladd. His marriage bond is dated October 4, and Christian Lash signed as bondsman. Christian Lash w^as a resident of Bethania, but in that year of 1797 he owned a lot in Germanton, and as he was a justice of the peace he and Forsyth had doubtless met at court. The tax books show a number of men listing lots in Germanton who never lived there, and the indications are that there was a considerable amount of speculation in real estate about that time and for the next decade. Benjamin Forsyth and his wife had six children: Elizabeth Bostic, born in 1798; Sally Almond, born 1800; Effie Jones, born 1803; Bethemia Harding, born 1805; James N., born 1808; and Mary L., born 181 1. In 1807 and 1808 Benjamin Forsyth served in the Assembly of North Carolina as a representative from Stokes County. During Forsyth's earlier years in North Carolina the tax Colonel Benjamin Forsyth 19 districts were also the militia districts and took their names from the captains commanding. His first militia service in this state, therefore, was in Captain Banner's district, which in 1797 became Captain Blackburn's district. All men from six- teen to fifty years of age were required to enroll in a militia company and to attend muster and drill. Forsyth's first commission as an officer was dated April 24, 1800, when he became a second lieutenant in the Sixth In- fantry and served in the army for two months. On July i, 1808, he was commissioned a captain and assigned to the Rifle Regiment. The diary of Salem, North Carolina, April 29, 1809, says: "Captain Forsyth came from Germanton with a recently enlisted volunteer company of riflemen, and will soon go to New Bern and from there to New Orleans. The captain wished to give his company the pleasure of seeing our town, and at the same time show us their new uniforms and military drill. They marched into town in military order, with trumpet and fife, and paraded and drilled in the Square in front of the boarding school." He was still a captain when the War of 18 12 broke out. His service in that war was all on the northern border of the state of New York, where he at once established a reputation for personal bravery and for ability as an officer. As a first exploit, in September, 18 12, he led a party which went down the St. Lawrence River in boats, landed on the Canadian side, destroyed a British storehouse, and returned with many cap- tured mihtary supplies. He lost only one man killed and another slightly wounded; the British, ten to twenty times as many. On January 20, 18 13, Captain Forsyth was promoted to the rank of major, and continued his career with dash, vigor, and enterprise. In February of that year he gathered a force of regulars and volunteers and went up the St. Lawrence to Morristown. At three o'clock in the morning they crossed the river to Elizabeth town, surprised the guard, and took fifty- 20 Forsyth, a County on the March two prisoners, including five officers. They captured 120 muskets and other supphes and returned to the post at Ogdensburg, New York, without the loss of a single man. A little later he was driven from Ogdensburg by a British force twice as large as his, but it was reported that the British suf- fered severely in their attack and probably lost three times the number of the Americans who fell. In May, 18 13, Major Forsyth was present at the capture by American forces of Fort George in Canada, and added greatly to his reputation as a soldier in the battle fought there. On April 15, 18 14, he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel for his "distinguished services"; but these services were not to continue long, for he was killed in a skirmish near Odeltown, on the Canadian frontier, June 23, 18 14. The American general had sent a small American party to attack a much larger force of British, with orders to attract the atten- tion of the British and then retire and so lead them into an ambush. Colonel Forsyth was in command of one part of the ambuscade, and when the enemy appeared he brought his troops out of hiding and gave battle. The British fired twice and retreated, but at the first fire Colonel Forsyth fell, shot through the breast. He exclaimed, "Boys, rush on!" and died a few minutes later. Next day he was buried at Champlain with the honors of war. The news of his death reached North CaroHna in due time, and at the September, 18 14, session of the Stokes County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions his widow was appointed administratrix of his estate. Although Forsyth's marriage bond named the woman he married as Bethemia Ladd and the will of Constantine Ladd left bequests to his daughter Bethemia, who had married Benjamin Forsyth, her name appears in this court appointment as Elizabeth B. Forsyth, and she signed the inventory of Forsyth's estate "Elizabeth B. H. Forsyth" when she presented it to the court in March, 181 5. Family history says that her full maiden name was Oizabeth Bethemia Colonel Benjamin Forsyth 21 Hardin Ladd, and evidently she preferred to use the first name instead of the second. The amount of personal property Hsted in the Forsyth inventory was not large, but it included $302 in cash, which was enough to support a family for two years with the scale of prices then prevailing. Also listed were fifteen "disperate" notes, which would have been worth over six hundred dollars had they been good. With the filing of this inventory the Forsyth name disap- peared from the Court records. No guardians were appointed for the children. No settlement of the estate was made. For some years Benjamin Forsyth had a small running account with the Moravian Church in Salem. This was kept in excel- lent condition while he was in the state; then part of it was charged off and the rest was gradually liquidated, with the help of the Salem storekeeper. The explanation of the disappearance of the Forsyth name appears to be that in the summer of 1 8 1 5 Mrs. Forsyth and her children moved to Tennessee. At that time many people were moving westward, and probably she went to Colonel Forsyth's half brother, Edward Whitworth, or perhaps to the Colonel's mother, for the Bedford County, Tennessee, United States Census of 1820 lists Edward Whitworth, aged "26 to 45," John Whitworth, of the same age group, and an Elizabeth Whitworth, "over 45," who may well have been their mother and the mother of Benjamin Forsyth. Listed with Elizabeth Whitworth is another woman, aged "26 to 45," who may have been her daughter. There is on file a letter from Edward Whitworth, dated December, 18 19, which says definitely that he was a half brother of Colonel Benjamin Forsyth. A certificate issued by a Methodist minister serving in Ten- nessee shows that in October, 18 15, Mrs. Forsyth and Sally Forsyth joined a Methodist "class" at Mt. Zion in the Guilford circuit. Four years later Mrs. Forsyth remarried. A letter dated 22 Forsyth, a County on the March Harpeth, West Tennessee, November 30, 18 19, says that in the end of January of that year she, "the widow of Benjamin Forsyth," had married W^illiam Cowin, and that her son, James N. Forsyth, was a bright boy, but delicate. He was Uving w^ith them. If iMrs. Forsyth had remained in North CaroHna she would certainly have known at once of the action of the Assembly of 18 1 7, as told below, instead of learning of it only through a Tennessee newspaper, the Nashville Clarion, two years later. Representing Stokes County in the Assembly of 1 8 1 7 were Joseph Winston, son of Major Joseph Winston of Revolu- tionary fame, and John H. Hauser, Esq., of Bethania, both of whom must have known Benjamin Forsyth personally. Three years earlier, December, 18 14, the Assembly of North Caro- lina had honored Captain Johnston Blakeley, of Wilmington, North Carolina, and of the United States Navy, by resolving to present to him a "superb sword" when he returned from service. He did not return; so in place of a sword the Assembly granted to his infant daughter a silver tea service and appro- priated a sum annually for her education. Doubtless the Stokes County representatives thought that the state should pay similar honor to a gallant Army man, especially as he had entered the service from their own county. The county name, however, does not appear in the action taken. The resolution to honor Colonel Benjamin Forsyth was introduced by Mr. Elijah Callaway, of Ashe County. As entered on the Journal of the House of Representatives on December 18, 18 17, it reads: ''Resolved: That the public services rendered by the late Colonel Benjamin Forsythe in the late war with the King of Great Britain are well appreciated by the General Assembly of this state." Additional resolutions appointed a committee to "ascertain what are the pecuniary circumstances of the widow and family of the said Colonel Benjamin Forsythe," and to bring in a suitable report. The committee consisted of Colonel Benjamin Forsyth 23 Callaway, Hauser, Winston, and S. King, the latter of Iredell County. The Senate concurred and added to the committee Joseph Reddick, senator from Gates County, and Senator Atkinson from Person County. Four days later, that is, on December 22, Mr. Callaway reported that the "committee had ascertained" that Mrs. Forsyth's "circumstances are not affluent, yet there has been no representation made to your committee that they are of a description which requires the pecuniary aid of this legisla- ture." The committee had further '^ascertained that the family of Mrs. Forsyth consists of an infant son about eight years of age, and four daughters." Recommendation was made to the legislature that "they appropriate [blank] to defray the ex- penses of educating the infant son of Colonel Benjiamin Forsyth, who fell fighting in the service of the United States, near Odeltown in Canada, on the 23d day of June in the year 1 8 14." It was also recommended "That the governor of this state be requested to procure a Sword and present it to the aforesaid infant son of Colonel Benjamin Forsythe, as an expression of the grateful sense they entertain of the gallantry and good conduct of the aforesaid Colonel Benjamin Forsythe." The House immediately adopted these resolutions and sent them to the Senate. They were concurred in by the Senate on the following day. Other representatives went from Stokes County to the Assembly in the following years, and nothing more is known of the matter until the letter which Mrs. Co win, formerly Mrs. Forsyth, wrote from Tennessee in November, 18 19, after she had read the resolutions in the newspaper. Her first letter remaining unanswered, she wrote again in May, 1820. In this second letter she said that she had five daughters and one son. The youngest daughter, Mary L. Forsyth, was eight years old. The son, James N. Forsyth, was born September 27, 1808. The family was living in Bedford County, Tennessee, 24 Forsyth, a County on the March thirty-seven miles from Nashville. She said that the son, James, was in poor health, probably stone in the kidneys, and she thought it might be wise to let him attend school in Ten- nessee for the present. "I have sent my children to school as much as my situation would admit." The letter was signed "Elizabeth B. H. Cowan." By the end of 1819, Forsyth's daughter Elizabeth had married Samuel Smalling and Sally Forsyth had married Lemuel Perry. On December i of that year George W. Gaboon of Blount Gounty, Alabama, sold to the sLx children of Benjamin Forsyth 109% acres in Bedford County, Tennessee, the deed providing that Elizabeth B. Cowan was to continue to reside on the place. Again there is a gap in the records, but in November, 1823, when James N. Forsyth was fifteen years old, he was brought to North Carolina, and was entered at the Academy in Hills- boro, John Rogers, principal. Bills on file show that he was outfitted with new clothes and furnished with books at the expense of the state, through the private secretary of Gov- ernor Gabriel Holmes. The young man entered the University at Chapel Hill in July, 1824. Again the expenses were borne by the state treas- ury, and in addition to the regular courses he took lessons in elocution in Raleigh. In 1825 the young man got into trouble at the University and was dismissed. Evidently it was nothing that others con- sidered very serious, for the Assembly of 1825-26 adopted a resolution: "That the Governor of this state be, and he is hereby authorized to draw out of the Treasury of this state the sum of $750, the same to be by him vested in some pro- ductive stock ... for the benefit of James Forsythe, the same to be transferred to the said James when he arrives at the age of twenty-one years." A further resolution repealed the action of 18 17 concern- ing his education, no longer needed because the young man had joined the Navy. It was provided that in case of the death Colonel Benjamin Forsyth 25 of Forsyth before he became of age the investment should revert to the state. The amount named in this resolution is the same as the sum mentioned when a sword was to be bought for Captain John- ston Blakeley, and the investment doubtless took the place of the sword originally planned for the "infant son of Colonel Benjamin Forsythe." The stock, however, never passed into the hands of James N. Forsyth, for he was drowned in 1829, when the ship on which he was a midshipman was lost. During all the years it was the custom in erecting a new county in North Carolina to give it the name of some notable man; so it was quite natural that when the legislature divided Stokes County, in 1849, the members should remember the honors paid to the memory of Colonel Benjamin Forsyth by the Legislature of 18 17, and should perpetuate his fame by naming this new county for him. Ill AROUND SALEM SQUARE J>M de ScHWeiMlTZ; UNLIKE the story of Colonel Benjamin Forsyth, the early life of Salem is known, even in detail. The Moravian settlers in what is now Forsyth County were educated men, firmly convinced of the value of carefully kept records; so the ministers wrote diaries of what happened day by day, and the church boards had secre- taries who wrote into books the minutes of each board meet- ing. Not only did they keep these records for their own use and the use of their successors, but they preserved them so carefully that in Salem there is no break in the story from the day of its founding until the present. Salem, as the central town in Wachovia, was planned from the first purchase of the Tract; and the name of the town was suggested by Count Zinzendorf six or more years before it was possible to begin to carry out the plan. He probably chose the name because Salem means "peace," and he wanted peace, in its truest and broadest sense, to be a characteristic of the place. The Moravians had known much that was not peace. Founded after the Hussite Wars by followers of the great Bohemian reformer, John Hus, the ancient Unitas Fratrum, or Unity of Brethren, had known persecution after persecu- tion; and the members often suffered martyrdom as did Hus, who was burned at the stake in 141 5 because he would not obey the orders of the Romish hierarchy and give up his simple belief that men ought to accept the Bible as God's word, rather than obey men who substituted their own will for the divine precept. In 1722 descendants of members of the ancient Brethren emigrated from Moravia to Saxony and found refuge on the estate of Nicholas Lewis, Count Zinzendorf. There the ancient church was reorganized, and from there it spread into various countries on the continent of Europe and into Eng- land. The stake had gone out of fashion, but the opposition endured was not small; so there was a movement toward 29 30 Forsyth, a County on the March America, first to Georgia, then to Pennsylvania, and finally to North Carolina. The name "Moravian" to designate the church formerly known as Unitas Fratrum, originated in this eighteenth-century development, and it is appropriate today because it was through the Moravian branch of the renewed Unity of Brethren that this church possesses the episcopate, secured in 1467 and handed down without a break to the Moravian bishops of today. The Moravian settlers in Wachovia were trained crafts- men. Ministers, doctors, storekeepers, carpenters, masons, smiths, and numerous other handicraftsmen had been care- fully instructed in their respective trades and professions. Co-operation was the rule. The community of effort that prevailed when Bethabara was a small, frontier village was not carried over into Salem in a business way, but the spirit remained, and any man or woman who would not obey the simple rules of conduct which had been established was quietly asked to leave. Wachovia had been bought for a down payment and an annual quitrent. Before the Revolutionary War an agreement had been reached with the heirs of Earl Granville under which the quitrent title was to be bought by the Moravian Church. The Confiscation Acts passed by the North Carolina Assembly early in the Revolution extinguished the titles of absentee English proprietors; but in 1778 the title to Wachovia was transferred to the Reverend Frederic William Marshall, a naturalized citizen of Pennsylvania, and this trans- fer was confirmed by the Assembly of North Carolina in 1782. As Marshall held the title in trust for the church as represented by the bona fide settlers in Wachovia, he thought that the contract to buy the quitrents had been nullified by the results of the war, but the leaders in England stood by their agreement, and the quitrents were duly purchased. Because of the quitrent system, however, little of the land in Around Salem Square 31 Wachovia was sold outright at first. Much of it was leased until a later date. In Salem this lease system persisted for a long time; it was finally abrogated in 1856. Under this system Salem Congrega- tion leased land from the church as a whole, the Salem lot being about three thousand acres. In the town of Salem lots were leased to individuals. The "improvements" on the lots belonged to the men who built the houses, their rights secured by bond. This prevented random buying and selling, and enabled the church leaders to be sure that purchasers would be desirable citizens. The site for Salem was selected in 1765, after the surveyor Renter had carefully searched the entire central portion of the Wachovia Tract, and had noted a number of possible sites. The place chosen lay half way up the hill leading from the Wach (Salem Creek) to the Annaberg (Winston). The ground sloped in both directions, east and west, but there were several good springs to furnish water, and a clear little branch on the west (Tar Branch) to supply the immediate needs until wells could be dug. The town was high enough up the ridge to be safe in times of flood, when the Wach might, and occasionally did, rise to a dangerous height. On the other hand, in the still higher ground there were good springs which would make possible a water system when the settlers found time for that. Work began on January 6, 1766, when men from Bethab- ara and Bethania, with some others recently arrived from Europe, tramped the six miles from Bethabara through the forest and felled the first tree for a log house to shelter the workmen who should build the town. Plans for the town had been made in advance, and were designed to fit the ground. There was the main street, running north on the crest of the hill, with parallel streets to east and west, and cross streets at suitable intervals. One of the blocks 32 Forsyth, a County on the March so formed was chosen as the open Square, around which the chief houses were to stand. Later in 1766 the first house was built on the main street. It was of "frame" construction, a unique method which per- mitted the use of the material available, not well suited for the buildings of logr houses. Heavy timbers were erected for the framing; then rude laths were wrapped in a mixture of clay and straw, and the laths were inserted across from one grooved upright to another. When pressed down they made a thick wall, as warm as brick. When the clay began to wash out after years of service the wall could be weatherboarded to become as good as new. When the first room was finished in this first house Gott- fried Praezel moved in and set up his loom, a forecast of the city's textile industry today. The second house on the main street was known for years as "the two-story house." The first house and others of that period were generally of one story, with a high-pitched roof and a basement. On the first floor of the two-story house there was the first meeting hall of Salem. Until it was built services had been held in one of the rooms in the small first house. The immediate preparation of a place of worship indicates the first of the purposes for which the Moravians had come to North Carolina— freedom to worship God in their devout, practical way. They had an inherited belief that religion was a personal matter between a man and his God; but they be- lieved also in a religion to be lived with and through every- day life seven days in the week. In Georgia the climate had been against them, and a number of them had died; the neigh- bors also refused to understand their position in several prac- tical matters. In Pennsylvania their concern for the conversion of the Indians had been misunderstood; and the community life of the early years had been severely criticized by those who reflected the animosity shown by certain parties in Europe. In North Carolina, surrounded by their own broad Around Salem Square 33 acres, they made immediate arrangements for places of wor- ship, to which they welcomed any and all visitors who might wish to unite with them in the services. They made no attempt to proselyte. Service to their white neighbors was the second announced purpose of their coming to North Carolina, and they served freely without asking reward. Had they gathered in all the Christians in the neigh- borhood who were without pastoral service they might have swept the state, for they were organized here long before other denominations. But this they never attempted. They sought, rather, to hold the leaderless groups steady until pastors of their various denominations might be sent to them, a fraternal generosity which has seldom been understood. Before the year 1766 ended, two more of the small houses had been built just north of the first house. The fourth house is the oldest now standing in Salem. For many years it was occupied by Charles Holder, a saddle-maker; it now belongs to the Colonial Dames, who have restored it. The next year a potter's shop and a blacksmith's shop were built. Both crafts were of immense value to the town and to the neighborhood. When news spread through the country- side that the Salem potter had burned a kiln of ware, so many persons crowded in that sometimes there were not enough pieces to go around. Good clay was found in a meadow by the creek (now the Salem College athletic field), yellow clay for the making of kitchen ware, and gray clay for the pipe- heads, so long a staple of trade in Salem. Brick and tile were also made in that meadow, not by the potter but by brickmakers, for those were the days of spe- cialists in many lines. Salem did not import brick and furni- ture from Europe, as was done in many cities on the Atlantic seaboard. Salem imported men who could make furniture and brick and other things which the residents of a city needed. This made her largely self-sufficient in the days when the only means of communication were letters carried by passing 34 Forsyth, a County on the March travelers or by special messengers; when the only means of transportation inland were carts or wagons. Some things, of course, were brought by wagon from Pennsylvania, or from Petersburg, Virginia, or from Charlestown, South Carolina, or from Cross Creek (Fayetteville), the nearest point to which things could be brought by boat. At those places deerskins and a few other local commodities could be bartered for coffee, tea, window glass, sugar, and other articles handled by the store. Books usually came from England or Germany, where Salem maintained a standing order for the publications of the Unity. The first really large building operation was the erection of the Brothers House, facing the Square from the west. This was the home of the numerous young men and bovs who had come to grow up with Salem, and there they had their work- shops, with their journeymen and apprentices. They had their own organization, their own finances, their own kitchen, their own farm; indeed, for many years the Brothers House was the industrial center of the community. They took pos- session of their House in 1769, most of them coming from Bethabara, where there had been a similar institution. This Brothers House was of "frame" construction— with a difference. In burning brick for chimneys there were often some which were not hard enough to stand exposure to the weather; so the second type of framing omitted the laths with the clay-straw wrapping, added a few more inside braces, and filled the intervening spaces with these softer brick, laid up without mortar. The third type of building came in with the erection of the Gemein Haus (Congregation House), for many years the largest house in the community. The foundation and the first story were of uncut stone, laid up with clay. The walls were made very thick, to compensate for lack of lime in the bind- ing, lime being very scarce and hard to get. The second story was of the second type of frame construction, and there was Around Salem Square 35 a high-pitched roof, permitting several rooms on the third floor. In the course of time this building was covered with stucco, which greatly improved its appearance. The Meeting Hall was on the second floor, and for this Meeting Hall a pipe organ was built by Bulitschek, an organ builder who had come to live in Wachovia in the Bethania neighborhood. On the first and second floors, at the north end, there were housekeeping apartments for ministers of the congregation; on the third floor there were guest rooms. The south half of the first and third floors respectively was used by the Single Sisters (the unmarried women) of the commu- nity, for living rooms and work rooms. The Meeting Hall in the Gemein Haus was consecrated on November 13, 177 1, and on the same day the Salem Congrega- tion was formally organized, with the Reverend Paul Tiersch as the first pastor. The next year saw much moving from Bethabara to Salem. The community store was moved into the first story of the two-story house, and the merchant, Traugott Bagge, setded his family in the second story. Gottlieb Reuter built a small house for himself and his wife diagonally across from the southwest corner of the Square. Matthew Miksch rented an- other small house which the Congregation had built on Main Street and began to manufacture snuff, and smoking tobacco. Heinrich Herbst took charge of a tanyard just west of the village. Jacob Meyer and his wife took charge of the tavern. Other small houses were built, and by the end of the year most of the residents of Bethabara had moved to Salem, and life in the central town was well established. The financial board of the Congregation acted also as the town committee, performing many of the duties of a modem board of alder- men, building supervisor, supervisor of public works, high- way commission, and so on. A local justice of the peace guaranteed the enforcement of the civil code. Nor was public health neglected. Salem had a succession of 36 Forsyth, a County on the March capable doctors, and only one or two poor ones. There were midwives, taught by the doctor. There was a volunteer nurs- ing staff, pledged to serve at regular times. The Brothers House and the Sisters House had each its own "sickroom" and sick-nurse. Alore surprising, however, was the early date at which schools were begun for the children of the community. There were very few children in Salem in 1772. Many of the resi- dents were the unmarried men and women referred to above. Most of the married people coming to Wachovia had left their children in the schools of the Moravian Church in Penn- sylvania. But the leaders in Salem were university-bred men, who cared so much for education that they arranged for the education of Salem children as soon as there were any old enough to learn their letters. There had to be two schools, for in those days it was not considered proper for boys and girls to go to school together; but schools there must be; so one for little boys was begun in the home of the master carpenter, Christian Triebel, and one for little girls in a room in the Gemein Haus, with Elisabeth Oesterlein as their teacher. The school for boys served a number of generations, and was finally discontinued when the public school system of the city made it unnecessary. The infant school for girls of 1772 has attained maturity in the Salem College of today. The business of the store became considerable, and it was decided to build a new brick store on Main Street, opposite the southwest corner of the Square and across the cross street from the Renter house. When this was finished the store business was moved into the north half of the house, and merchant Bagge and his family took up their abode in the south part. The two-story house became the residence of the congregation bookkeeper and surveyor, Ludwig Meinung. The "skin house," a small house across Main Street from the two-story house, used by the store as a warehouse for deer- skins, was changed into a home for the Reverend John Around Salem Square 37 Michael Graff and his wife, who had been living in Bethabara. The Graffs lived there until the death of the Reverend Paul Tiersch made Br. Graff the pastor of the Congregation, and he moved with his wife into the Gemein Haus. For the first thirty-five years of the life of Salem the most influential man was the Reverend Frederic William Marshall. He was the son of an officer in the German army, and had been destined by his father for that service. He had been trained to healthful living, prudent management of funds, and good manners, and had been taught to carry responsibiUties. Of good family, educated at the University of Leipzig, he would seem to have had a bright future in his father's profes- sion, but when he was about eighteen years of age he learned to know members of the Moravian Church, decided to join them, and did so, with his father's consent. All of his training stood him in good stead in his new life. He was in Wachovia on a visit when the site for Salem was selected, and he re- turned to make it his home for the rest of his long life. Offi- cially he represented the Unity at large, especially in real estate matters. He also held various local church offices; and his knowledge of architecture, gathered from residence in various parts of Europe and in Pennsylvania, was the controlling factor in the designing of most of the houses in Salem. It happened, however, that he was not in Salem during the earlier years of the Revolutionary War. He had been called to Europe to an important church synod, and the war pre- vented his return until 1779. This left the burden of respon- sibility on John Michael Graff and Traugott Bagge, who seem to have borne the brunt of it— Graff in congregational affairs and Bagge in poHtical and commercial matters. For six years Salem not only shared in the distresses of the country at large, but had many local problems to meet, and both may be noted briefly. Active trouble began in the early summer of 1775, when the battle of Lexington, in Massachusetts, stirred resentment 3 8 Forsyth, a County on the March throughout the nation. News of this engagement reached Salem by rumor on May 8; newspapers received on May 17 reported that there had been a "skirmish near Boston," and also that Parliament had declared the Congress meeting in Philadelphia to be in rebellion against the English Crown. The Moravian records give a vivid picture of the confusion that followed— mental confusion caused by uncertainty as to what should or could be done by the colonists who wanted independence, by a flood of rumors with which the Loyalists sought to arouse the adherents of the Crown, and by economic troubles which had resulted from high prices and fluctuating currency. The Moravians were divided in sentiment. They had no quarrel with England; indeed, they had many friends in that country. On the other hand, they were loyal citizens of their adopted country. There must have been many discussions on the best way to meet the situation. Bishop John Michael Graff handled the matter with rare good judgment and with sur- prising success. He begged the Brethren to refrain from discussion, especially with strangers who might misquote them. He "left every man free to act according to his con- science" in the matter of militia duty. Salem stood firm for freedom from military service and in willingness to pay the threefold tax in lieu thereof; the Broadbayers of Friedland took exactly the opposite position. Other iMoravian groups in Wachovia were more or less divided in sentiment. Graff's unbounded patience, tact, and ability, held them all steady in their confessed desire for Christian brotherhood. That hot-headed partisans could not understand them is not surprising. They refused even to listen to the plans of the Tories and thereby aroused their wrath. Their refusal to take the Test Oath angered the less intelligent of the Continentals. Fortunately the captain of militia in their district, Henry Smith, and Colonel Martin Armstrong were friendly and did what they could for them. Around Salem Square 39 The congress which met in Hillsboro in August, 1775, authorized the first issue of paper currency without royal authority. This was followed by other issues in North Caro- lina and in adjoining states, and as it was fiat money it depre- ciated rapidly, throwing a heavy burden on the businesses of Salem and bringing them heavy losses. The year 1776 brought the beginning of demands for sup- plies for militia and Continental troops, a demand that con- tinued throughout the war. Salem was really only a small village, and how it was possible to furnish the large amount of everything that was furnished is one of the mysteries of history. Traugott Bagge, though he held no commission, was virtually a purchasing agent for the militia and the Con- tinentals, and was ofKcially certified as "a true friend to American liberty." The Halifax convention of April, 1776, forwarded to the Continental Congress its resolution to co-operate in declaring independence. Congress acted on July 4, and on the Sunday following receipt of the official notice of the Declaration of Independence, which was posted in the Salem tavern, petitions for the King were dropped from the litany read in the Salem church, and prayers for the American government were substituted. The Assembly .of April, 1777, passed a new militia act, under which all men from sixteen to sixty years of age were liable for duty, with no exceptions allowed for conscientious scruples. This, and the Confiscation Act of November in the same year, placed Salem in a precarious position, and all the rest of Wachovia as well. What might happen was uncertain until January, 1779, when the Assembly drew up a form of Affirmation of Allegiance which the Moravians were willing to accept, and on February 4 the men of Salem took the Affirmation before Justice Dobson. In April of that year Pulaski's Legion was in Salem for four days. They behaved well, but one of the soldiers had small- 40 Forsyth, a County on the March pox, and this brought the disease into Salem in an epidemic which lasted until October. Frederic William Marshall and his wife returned to Salem on November 5, and on the 22 nd he took the Affirmation of Allegiance. The year 1780 was full of difficulty and danger for Salem. Trade and handicrafts brought more loss than profit. The currency fell and fell in value. Taxes were three times as high as in the preceding year. There was constant demand for grain and cattle for the troops. Fortunately there was a good harvest. Besides the never-ending stream of soldiers, many poor families passed through Salem, fleeing in first one direction and then another as the English and Tories swarmed over South Carolina and Virginia. All possible kindness was shown to them, though it increased the burden on the slender re- sources of the town. In 1 78 1 the war approached nearer and nearer to Salem. First came parts of Greene's army: ammunition wagons, which stopped to load shells; and the field hospital which stayed only one day but left behind the more seriously wounded men to be cared for by the Salem doctor, Jacob Bonn. Then came lawless militia, and the Wilkes men espe- cially seemed to delight in excesses of every kind, including personal attacks. Then, on February i o, came Lord Cornwallis and his army, chasing General Greene. The regulars made many demands; the camp followers stole a great deal, but on the whole less damage was done than might have been expected. The next few days were fairly quiet, but the days from the 15th to the i8th were "days of darkness and terror," to quote the Salem diary. More lawless militia, led by enemies of the Moravians, plundered the homes and business places of Salem and assaulted the citizens. The battle of Guilford Courthouse, on March 15, attracted Around Salem Square 41 little attention at the time, because it was "another English victory" and Cornwallis held the field, while Greene retired. Actually it was the beginning of the end, for on October 30 Salem heard that the English general had surrendered at York- town on October 19. Meanwhile General Greene had led his forces south to free South Carolina and Georgia, and the coming and going of soldiers through Salem continued, though as a rule their behaviour was better. In November, 1781, and again in January, 1782, the North Carolina Assembly met in Salem, both times failing to transact business for lack of a quorum. The presence of so many dis- tinguished guests taxed the resources of the town to the limit, but was of lasting benefit, for the Assemblymen learned to know and appreciate the men of Salem. At the next election Traugott Bagge was elected a repre- sentative from Surry County. He and Marshall attended the April, 1782, session of the Assembly, held in Hillsboro, where Marshall secured confirmation of his standing as Proprietor of Wachovia, thereby putting to a definite end all danger of confiscation of the Moravian properties. Bagge was appointed auditor for Surry County in connection with claims for serv- ices and supplies during the war, and with two auditors from Guilford County sat in Salem as the Committee of Auditors for the Upper Board of Salisbury District, beginning their work on June 10. On August 29, 1782, Bishop Graff died in Salem. He had led his people well and had lived long enough to see the end of hostilities and the prospect of peace. On January 20, 1783, the Preliminary Treaty of Peace was signed in Paris. The news reached Salem on April 19 and was received with joy. On July 4 the Moravians of North Caro- lina celebrated a Day of Thanksgiving proclaimed by Gov- ernor Alexander Martin and sang with fervor a stanza written for one of their services: 42 Forsyth, a County on the March Peace is with us! Peace is with us, People of the Lord! Peace is with us! Peace is with us! Hear the joyful word! Let it sound from shore to shore! Let it echo evermore! Peace is with us! Peace is with us! Peace, the gift of God. The next twenty years were a building period in Salem, during which many of its large houses were erected. First came the Salem tavern. The frame house which had served so well during the early years of Salem, burned in the very early morning of January 31, 1784. There was no loss of life, but little was saved except the tavern clock. The town was much inconvenienced by the destruction of this house and at once began to rebuild, replacing the frame structure by a substan- tial brick building, with vaulted cellars. A large part of the material used for the new tavern had been prepared in anticipation of the building of a Sisters House; so as soon as the tavern was completed, plans for the Sisters House were again taken up, and this building was erected in 1785. In it the unmarried women set up an organi- zation which paralleled that of the Brothers House. All of the crafts followed by the women of that day found place there, and a special weave house was built and equipped. As most of the men who had been weavers had entered other business, this enterprise of the Sisters House w^as important for a number of years. In 1786 a brick addition was added to the Brothers House, which doubled its size. In digging the foundation for this addition a distressing accident occurred. One evening the Brethren were working on the excavation for the basement. Just at midnight a side wall caved in, burying one man com- pletely and another partially. The second recovered quickly, Around Salem Square 43 after he had been bled— bleeding was the approved ''first aid" of that day. The first man, a shoemaker by the name of An- dreas Kremser, was rescued as speedily as possible, but he was so seriously injured that he died in two or three hours. There is nothing in the incident (except the hour) to suggest a ghost story, but the tradition of a "little red man" who haunted the Brothers House persisted for many years. There have been no reported appearances since electric lights were placed in the house. In 1788 lightning rods were installed on the more impor- tant houses. In 1790 a paper mill was built immediately west of the town by Gottlieb Schober, probably the most versatile man who ever lived in Salem. On the last day of May, 1791, President George Washing- ton visited Salem. He was returning from his southern tour and planned to remain only one night in Salem, but learning that Governor Alexander Martin wished to wait upon him he decided to remain two nights, apparently the only time on his trip when he did this. He occupied the northeast room on the second floor of Salem tavern and spent the day visiting the shops of the town and other places of interest. The records say that he was impressed by the waterworks, which had been built during the war, partly to give work to the Brethren, partly to secure permanent benefit from the constantly depre- ciating currency. He visited the school for little boys, which was told to continue as usual. As one awe-struck little fellow read from "Noah Webster's spelling book" the words, "A cat may look on a king," the President smiled and remarked to the teacher, "They are thinking that now!" He also en- joyed the music of the community, a feature of Salem which from the beginning has attracted visitors. In 1792 Salem was given a United States post office, with Gottlieb Schober as the first postmaster. In 1794 a house was built for the boys school. The first story was of stone, the second of brick, the roof of tile; and 44 Forsyth, a County on the March the vaulted cellar room, the cooking hearth, and the large oven, make it an unusually suitable place for the present-day Museum of the Wachovia Historical Society, for it is itself a museum piece. A house for the home and office of the Salem vorsteher (treasurer of the congregation) was erected in 1797. It also had vaulted cellars and stone walls for the first story, with brick above. It required a minimum of remodeling in 1942 to make it a safe depository for the archives of the Moravian Church in North Carolina. From 1798 to 1800 all efforts of the builders of Salem cen- tered in the erection of the Church, a commodius brick struc- ture, w^hich is still the Home Church of the Congregation though the interior has twice been remodeled. It was con- secrated on November 9, 1 800, with a province-wide gather- ing on November 13, the anniversary of the organization of the Congregation. An organ was built for the church by David Tanneberger, of Lititz, Pennsylvania, though the case was made in Salem by Johann Philip Bachmann, who came from Lititz for the purpose. Two other events of 1800 deserve mention. On February 22 Salem held a special service in the Meeting Hall in the Gemein Haus in memory of General George Washington, who had died on December 14 of the preceding year. In view of the slow mail of that day Congress had recommended February 2 2 as an appropriate day of remembrance. On April i "it pleased the Lord to bring to a blessed end the life of our old, widowed, Br. Traugott Bagge, the mer- chant here." At his funeral ru^o days later the number of those attending was so large that the Meeting Hall could not hold them. He had lived to see prosperity return to the town and country that he had served so faithfully. In 1 80 1 a large brick house at the east end of the present Bank Street was built by Dr. Samuel Benjamin Vierling. The Congregation leaders thought that the doctor was erecting too Around Salem Square 45 large a house, but after his death it was bought by the Con- gregation and has served as residence for a succession of Con- gregation officials. Three very different items mark the year of 1802. On Feb- ruary 1 1 there passed away the ''heartily beloved and honored Brother, Frederic William Marshall, who had served the Unity with great faithfulness for sixty-nine years, of which forty were in America, and most of them in Wachovia." Cowpox had recently been discovered in Europe, and in June the Salem people were inoculated by Dr. Vierling with this new preventive against the dread scourge smallpox, and very successfully. On October 31 the leaders in Salem decided that the re- quests of the past ten years should be answered, and that arrangements should be made to accommodate daughters of non-Moravian parents who wished their girls to share in the education given in the Salem Girls School, now thirty years old. The Reverend Samuel Gottlieb Kramsch was called as the first inspector (principal), and plans were made for the immediate construction of a suitable house, now known as South Hall of Salem College. It took two years to build this house but boarders and day scholars moved into it in 1804. Until it was ready the boarding pupils lived in the Gemein Haus, where the day school had been held since 1772. The third announced purpose for which the Moravians came to North Carolina was to take the Gospel to the Indians. Circumstances had prevented this until 1801, when Gottlieb Byhan and his wife were sent to Georgia to begin a mission among the Cherokee Indians. Springplace became the center of this work, which was continued by a succession of men and women from Salem until 1836, when the Government of the United States moved the Indians westward by force in order to give their land to whites. The sympathies of the missionaries were all with the Indians. They wanted to accom- 46 Forsyth, a County on the March pany their flock, and when this proved inadvisable they jour- neyed independently and joined the Indians in their new abode. Ultimately the control of this Indian mission was trans- ferred from Salem to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1 807 two missionaries were sent to the Creek Indians on Flint River, in Georgia, but local disturbances rendered the place dangerous, and the men were recalled to Salem after a few years. Just as the War of 1 8 1 2 was breaking out, Lewis David von Schweinitz and his wife journeyed from Europe to Salem. In the days of sailing vessels the voyage from Europe to America was long and dangerous. Six weeks was considered a quick trip; six months was not unusual. Shipwreck was an ever-present possibihty. One of the most thrilling voyage diaries extant is the record that von Schweinitz kept during his journey to America. Lewis David von Schweinitz was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where his father, the Reverend H. C. A. von Schweinitz was serving in the Moravian Church. When the father was called to another position in Europe, he took his family with him; so Lewis David completed his education in Moravian schools in Germany. While teaching in a boys school in Niesky he gave much time to the study of the fungi of Lusatia, and in collaboration with Professor von Albertini published a beautifully illustrated book on the subject. This won for him the Ph.D. degree from the University of Kiel, and he is said to have been the first American-born man to receive a doctor's degree. In Salem he held the position in the church formerly held by Marshall and served with great ability. He also continued his botanical studies, and is sometimes called "the father of American mycology." In 1822 he was called to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he died on February 4, 1834. His scien- tific works were written in Latin, and for them he signed his name de Schweinitz, and this form of the name was retained Around Salem Square 47 by his four sons, all of whom entered the ministry of the Moravian Church. Two of them returned to Salem and filled important positions there. The War of 18 12, which so nearly terminated the life of de Schweinitz and his wife on their voyage to America, came to an end in 1815. The first news of peace was celebrated in Salem in the evening of March i with an illumination of the town accompanied by processions and music. The Day of Thanksgiving proclaimed by the President and Congress for April 1 3 was observed with more formality in Salem and the other congregations in Wachovia. In the earlier years of Salem the store served many of the purposes of a local bank. In July, 18 15, men of Salem secured a branch of the Bank of Cape Fear, which had headquarters in Wilmington. Named as agents were Charles F. Bagge, Christian Blum, and Emanuel Schober. Blum promptly built himself a house; and in 18 16 he became the active agent of the branch bank. For some years things went smoothly, but the income was insufficient for his needs, and early in 1827 he established a printing office. In December of that year disaster overtook him. He was counting paper currency when it was time to go to the church and light the candles. Leaving the bills on the table he hastily blew out the lights, and so far as could be ascertained a spark must have fallen on the paper, for he had hardly reached the church when his table at home was a mass of flames. The fire was put out before the house caught, but an estimated $10,000 in currency was burned. It looked as if Blum would be utterly ruined, for the head office in Wilmington refused at first to believe the story; but a compromise was effected by Charles Bagge, and Blum was able to continue his printing business, though he lost his place as bank agent. At about the same time the banks in general were in finan- cial difficulties. Men who had bought bank stock on credit lost heavily when their loans were called, citizens of Salem 48 Forsyth, a County on the March among the rest. The State Bank and the Bank of New Bern liquidated. The Bank of Cape Fear also touched bottom, but held on and regained credit. In 1847 a brick building was erected for a new branch of the Bank of Cape Fear at the southwest corner of Main Street and the cross street there- after known as Bank Street. In addition to his many other interests, Gottlieb Schober had become a Lutheran minister, having accepted ordination in that denomination in order to serve the scattered Lutheran congregations still without pastoral service. His field was too large for one man, and the Salem ministers often helped him by holding services at one or another place when he was busy elsewhere. One result of this co-operation was the establishing of the Hopewell Sunday School, in September, 18 16. Rippel's Church, or Hopewell, was about four miles south of Salem, and several of the teachers in the Salem Girls School, including one of Schober's daughters, volunteered to go there every Sunday and conduct a school, in which they would teach the children and young people to read so that they might read the Bible. In addition, the scholars were taught Bible verses and trained to sing hymns. The next year a similar Sunday school was opened in Salem for the benefit of the children of neighbors for whom there was no other opportunity for education. The young people of the Salem congregation did not need this early type of Sunday school. Reading was taught in the day schools of Salem, and religious instruction was given in the children's meetings held during the week. What is now the Home Moravian Sunday School was not begun until 1 849, and then more in the modern manner. On January 20, 1822, the Salem Female Missionary Society was organized, primarily to foster religious work among the Negroes, though also for the support of foreign missions. There were not many Negroes living in the town of Salem, but there were more on the neighboring farms. The Salem Around Salem Square 49 board of elders therefore appointed the Reverend Abraham Steiner to take charge of the work, and he immediately began to hold meetings on the farms around Salem. Three of the older Negroes were communicant members of the Salem con- gregation, and around them a little Negro congregation was gradually assembled. The first church ifor them was a small log structure, consecrated in 1823. On March 4, 1827, a Sun- day school was begun there by members of the Female Mis- sionary Society. A new church was erected in 1861; to this a large addition was made in 1890, and the name "St. Philips" was given to it by Bishop Edward Rondthaler. The Female Missionary Society, which changed its name to the Woman's Missionary Society, has always maintained its interest in the "colored church." Dr. Frederic Schuman, who succeeded Dr. Vierling as one of the Salem doctors, was very fond of music, and tradition says that he trained the musicians who rendered Haydn's oratorio, "The Creation," which was given in the Salem church on July 4, 1829, and again in the church in 1833. Blum printed the libretto, and on one copy in the Salem Archives the names of the soloists have been written, so it is known that one or both times (the libretto is not dated) Dr. Schuman sang the part of Uriel in the first part, while Henry Shultz sang it in the second part; Frederic Christian Meinung sang the part of Raphael; and Antoinette Bagge the part of Gabriel. In the trio with Uriel and Raphael, A. E. Crist took the part of Gabriel. In 1836 a beginning was made in introducing steam power into Salem industries. As a result of stories of 15 to 20 per cent profit made by other cotton factories in the state, the Salem Cotton Manufacturing Company was organized, and the first general meeting of the company was held on July 9. Stock amounting to $50,000 was quickly subscribed by thirty stockholders, who paid $200 per share. An agent was ap- 50 Forsyth, a County on the March pointed; a substantial factory building was erected, with the necessary other houses for employees; an engine was bought in Baltimore; spindles and looms were installed. During the early years business was satisfactory, but by 1847 the picture had changed. Debtors were numerous, and so were creditors. The panic caused by the Mexican War made it impossible to collect debts. Cotton was high; the price of "domesticks" and yarn was relatively low. In November, 1849, it was decided "to wind up as soon as possible." The larger stockholders protected the creditors who did not own stock, and took heavy losses. In March, 1854, the plant was bought by John Morehead of Greensboro. Morehead sold the property to Rufus L. Patterson, who ran it as a grist mill. During the Civil War it was again a yarn mill, owned by Robert Gray and Peter Wilson. Later it was bought by the firm of F. & H. Fries, and was again for some years a grist mill. The property (at the end of Cherry Street, on the south side of Brookstown Avenue) is now used by the Western Electric Company. While the cotton factory was sliding down hill Francis Fries was developing a wool mill on lot No. 103, on the north- west corner of New Shallowford Street and Salt Street (Brookstown Avenue and South Liberty Street) . Fries leased the lot in February, 1 840, and immediately began to erect the factory, placing it in the middle of the lot on the east side of the small branch which ran across the lot. A wood-burning steam engine furnished the power, and the first wool rolls were carded on June 17. Spinning was commenced on Octo- ber 31. Looms were added, and in May, 1842, Fries could announce to the public that he expected "to keep constantly on hand a good assortment of Rolls, common Yarn, Stocking Yarn ready twisted, and cheap Lindseys and Cloths of differ- ent colors, qualities and prices." By May of the next year "good, heavy Jeans" had been added to the hne, and became one of the most popular products. Around Salem Square 51 On March 5, 1846, Francis Fries took into partnership his younger brother, Henry W. Fries, who had already been helping him in the mill. Connections were made with business firms in the North; and trade spread widely in the South. During the Civil War the Fries mills worked largely on the cloth used for the Confederate uniforms. Francis Fries died in 1863. His brother remained the head of the firm to the end of his long life; the three sons of Francis Fries became partners as they reached the age of twenty-one years. The property was ultimately sold to the Southbound Railway Company and the site is now occupied by the freight station of that Company. In January, 1852, the Fayette ville and Western Plank Road had reached High Point, and application was made to the Salem church boards for right of way over the Salem land. This was gladly granted, for the plank road was then a very modern form of improved highway. Wooden rails were laid, with planks placed side by side across them. It is said that the planks were not nailed down; so the road must have been a very noisy and very impermanent affair, but at least it kept the wagons above the mud. A Mr. Cooper was the engineer, and a committee was appointed to confer with him as to how the road would be run through Salem. It was decided to grade Main Street from the south corner of the Square to New Shallowford Street, the planks to be laid in the center, while the town would pave the rest of the street on each side. Fries wanted the road to turn west at New Shallowford Street and pass his factory; and when others decided that it must go "past the hotels" into Winston, he built a spur track on New Shallowford, meeting the main road a short distance west of town on its way to Bethania. The plan had been to extend it much farther to the west, but this was never done. After the Civil War, Mr. George Hinshaw wanted to buy a lot on Cherry Street which had been crossed by the road after it turned west in Winston. Former stockholders of the 52 Forsyth, a County on the March Plank Road claimed that the land covered by the right of way had been given to them, but lawyers ruled that a permit to use became void when the purpose for which it was granted had ceased to exist. The Union Bus Station now stands at that point. Three other items may be noted that belong to the period before the Civil War. In 1 84 1 the Belo home was erected. Edward Belo was trained as a cabinet-maker, but he had ambitions to become a merchant; so he gave up his position as a master cabinet-maker and opened a small store in the house on the northeast corner of Main and Bank streets, originally the "skin-house," but more recently the home of his father Frederic Belo. The small store prospered, and Edward Belo bought the home from his widowed mother, who moved to the Widows House. He also bought the home of his brother, Lewis Belo, and in the place of these two small houses he erected the large house. His store occupied the Main Street floor; his family lived on the second floor, entering from Bank Street, and his clerks roomed on the third floor. The iron grill-work on the portico and in the fence and the three iron animals on the parapet beside the steps were made at his foundry north of town. In 1849 Stokes County was divided, and the Forsyth County commissioners bought 52^/4 acres of Salem land for the new county seat. Small as was the price paid, it enabled the Salem church boards to complete their payments to the Unity Administration for the entire Salem tract and so made possible the abrogation of the lease system in Salem in 1856. During the years various improvements had been made at the house which accommodated the girls school, and two additions had been built; but more room was needed, and in 1854 the old Gemein Haus was taken down, and a large brick building (Main Hall) was erected in its place. Even this was not sufficient when the Civil War came. Parents in more exposed sections thought of Salem as a safe Around Salem Square 53 place for their daughters. So many came that all available space was used and place for more was found in homes in the town. ''We have no more beds, but if you will furnish beds we will try to take care of your daughters," was one message sent to prospective patrons. Food for so large a group was a serious problem. Governor Vance sent sugar from captured supplies. Former pupils later remembered with some amusement the picture made by their dignified Inspector (Principal) as he bestrode a horse behind a herd of swine which he was helping to drive to town for the Academy table. The first volunteer company to go out from Salem was led by Captain Alfred H. Belo, son of Edward Belo. A flag was made for them by some of their friends, and the young ladies stood on the steps of the Belo home as they presented it to the young soldiers grouped on the pavement below. A few days later the company gathered in front of Main Hall, and Bishop George Bahnson gave them his blessing as they left for the front. Their flag is now in the Confederate Museum in Rich- mond, Virginia. Another flag, made for Captain Wharton's company, is in the Museum of the Wachovia Historical Society in Winston-Salem. Near the close of the war Stoneman's Brigade approached Salem. Stoneman and part of his force went to Salisbury to tear up the railroad there; General Palmer and the rest of the men came to Salem. A scouting party went out to see whether the troops were actually approaching, for there had been several false alarms. This time they appeared, the scouts were obliged to scatter, and most of them lost their horses; but word was brought to Salem and the Reverend Robert de Schweinitz, the Inspector of the Academy, and Joshua Boner, Mayor of the town, went out to meet them and to ask for protection for the School and for the residents of the town. The Inspector tied his white handkerchief to his cane and waved it as a flag of truce, but the soldiers paid no attention 54 Forsyth, a County on the March to him, and he impulsively grasped the rein of the horse on which the General was riding. The General reached for his pistol, and (he never knew why) the Inspector exclaimed: "I am de Schweinitz!" In utter surprise the General put his pistol back into the holster, and said, "I had a teacher of that name when I was in school in Lititz." Perhaps because of this early and pleasantly remembered contact with the Moravians, perhaps because he knew the war was nearly over and did not wish to cause needless destruc- tion—whatever the cause— the General did give the School and the town the desired protection. Some stores were seized, much food was demanded by the soldiers and was prepared for them, but there was none of the ruthless destruction of property so frequently occurring in war. Reconstruction brought its own problems to Salem. The wool mill sent two men to the south to gather up the cotton which had been bought but not delivered. The railroad had been broken in various places, but the cotton which could not be brought to Salem was taken to the nearest seaport and shipped to the North, which re-established credit there. The method of purchase and sale by barter had continued through- out the war and could still be used. Most of the former slaves continued to serve the famihes which had been kind to them before the war. The Salem Female Academy suffered severely, for parents elsewhere were generally not in a position to send their daughters away for an education. The School, already ninety- four years old, took out a charter in 1866, giving it legally all the rights and privileges of a college. Gradually, as times grew better, the number of pupils increased again; the preparatory grades were dropped; the Academy and College were sepa- rated; and the Academy was transplanted into buildings of its own beyond the ravine, while the College kept the old frontage on Salem Square. Moravian Church finances were complicated by the serious losses during the war, which had swept away practically all Around Salem Square 55 its invested funds. When the Reverend Edward Rondthaler came as pastor of Salem Congregation in 1877, he drew the leading laymen of Salem into church affairs again, and the members in general began to open their pocketbooks in a way which had not seemed necessary until then. As Winston grew, Salem men showed more and more inter- est in it and shared in the businesses established there. The town of Salem was incorporated in 1856, with Charles Brietz as the first mayor. The "Congregation of United Brethren of Salem and its Vicinity" was incorporated in 1874; the "Board of Provincial Elders of the Southern Province of the Moravian Church or Unitas Fratrum" was incorporated in 1877. Bishop Emil A. de Schweinitz, the last of the Proprietors of Wachovia, con- veyed to the respective boards the lands properly belonging to them, and the trusteeship, a century and a quarter old, came to an end. For a number of years Winston and Salem lived side by side, two municipalities but in truth a Twin City— as it was often called. The postoffices were consolidated by Mr. Philip Lybrook, postmaster in Winston, who saw in the increased size of the office an opportunity to give the citizens city delivery of the mail, and the name Winston-Salem was given at that time. In 191 3, by vote of the people, the two cities were united in government, as they had been united in interest for many years. IV GLIMPSES OF SMALL-TOWN WINSTON WINSTON, unlike Salem, was established with little planning for its future development. Indeed, the only planning for the new town over the line from Salem was the laying out of a central square for the courthouse and the extension as high- ways of the Salem streets of Main and Salt (afterwards Liberty) northward to Seventh and the laying out of cross streets east and west, also as highways. The pen-and-ink map of early Winston preserved in the Moravian Archives shows that the Winston of 1849 com- prised the territory included between Church and Trade (formerly Old Town) as far north as Sixth and between Main and Trade as far north as Seventh. This tract of 51 i/i acres, which for the sum of $256.25 the county commissioners purchased from Salem Congregation for the county seat of Forsyth, was divided into seventy-one lots, not counting the site of the courthouse. The first sale of these lots at public auction was held May 12, 1849, and Robert Gray bought the first, number 41, site of Wachovia Bank and Trust Company, for $465. On June 22, 1849, the second sale of lots was held. The purchasers at these two sales, many of them buying more than one, were Robert Gray, David Blum, Isaac Gibson, John S. Brown, J. Sanders, J. A. Waugh, Thomas J. Wilson, John Keller, D. Starbuck, Thomas Sid- dall, Thomas Ayres, A. J. Stafford, John Pepper, F. C. Meinung, John Masten, C. L. Banner, Christian Reed, David Cook, Joshua Bethel, Francis Fries, J. P. Vest, I. Golding, A. Nicholson, A. Vogler, Christian Hege, J. H. White, P. Hopkins, R. Walker, D. Collins, Henry Holder, S. Mickey, Edward Reich, J. Vogler, Jacob Tise, J. Ferrabe, Joseph Wagoner. It is of interest to know that before Winston was set- tled there was one dwelling on the site of the county-seat- to-be, the substantial, two-story home of Judge Thomas J. Wilson, at Second and Main streets. Judge Wilson, so the 59 6o Forsyth, a County on the March story goes, wishing to live in the country, obtained from the Moravian Congregation a lease on the land upon which he built his home place. This was evidently before the year 1849, for the deed to Judge Wilson from Salem Congregation, dated May 12, 1849, recites that T. J. Wilson lived on the site under a lease and that upon the paying of a reasonable and moderate sum ($133.00) he was to have conveyed to him the said lot in fee simple. The second house erected in Winston was that of Mr. Jesse Kennedy on Liberty Street near First, according to the statement of Air. Robert Gray (son of Mr. Robert Gray, Sr., one of the founders of Winston) , in his Fourth of July ora- tion in 1876. The first stores erected were those of Harmon Miller, Robert Gray, Sr., Sullivan & Bell, and William Barrow. The first mayor of the small town was William Barrow; the first police officer, Hezekiah Thomas, who in addition to his other duties was required to patrol the town at night, stopping at each corner and sounding his trumpet to let the inhabitants know that he was on his job and ready for any emergency. For two years after the erection of Forsyth, its county seat had no name. There were some who thought that it should be called Salem. As the courthouse neared completion, however, that idea caused dissatisfaction. So the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, which had charge of county aff^airs, ordered that the sheriff of Forsyth call for an election to name the new town by popular vote. For some reason this motion of the court was lost, and it was not until the January, 185 1, meeting of the General Assembly that a name was finally decided upon for Forsyth's county seat. Colonel Alarshall, who lived in the Salem Chapel section of the county, introduced the bill giving the name Winston to the town. An act was passed, and on January 15, 1 85 1, this Act was ratified. It was two months later that the Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 6i name Winston appears for the first time in county records when on March 17, 185 1, the minutes state that "Court was opened and held at the Court-House in the town of Winston." It seems strange that Colonel Marshall should have selected the name of a Virginian rather than a native North Carolinian for the county seat of Forsyth. It is true that Joseph Winston, for whom our town was named, lived for years in Surry County, later Stokes, but the first twenty-three years of his hfe he spent in Virginia, where, in Louisa County on June 17, 1746, he was born and where at an early age he made a name for himself as an Indian fighter. In an expedition against fron- tier Indians he was severely wounded. Unable to walk, he was carried on the back of a comrade to a place of conceal- ment where for three days he lived on wild berries. About 1769 Joseph Winston moved from Virginia to North Carolina and settled on a fork of the Dan River, where, as the old records state, he might have a view of the mountains whose cloud-capped summits seemed within a squirrel's jump of heaven. During the Revolutionary period he was a daring fighter. At the battle of King's Mountain he so distinguished himself that the General Assembly of North Carolina voted him an ''elegant" sword. Twice he represented his district in Con- gress; and when his section of Surry became Stokes, he was five times elected senator from Stokes. On April 21, 18 15, he died, leaving a large family; among his children were three sons born at a single birth. One of these triplets became a major general; another a judge; and the third, removing to Mississippi, became lieutenant gov- ernor of that state. Major Joseph Winston was buried in his family plot in Germanton, Stokes County. Much later his remains and his tombstone were removed to the Guilford Battle Ground, and placed where he had fought in the crucial engagement at Guilford Courthouse. 62 Forsyth, a County on the March Of the beginning days of Winston no records have been found. The first mention of the town is the following item from the February 8, 185 1, issue of the People's Press of Salem: "Our young neighbor-town Winston can boast of the Hall of Justice, which stands out in bold relief— an ornament to the county and surpassed by few, if any, buildings of the kind in the State. There let Justice reign supreme. "Then comes the Prison House— not yet completed, rather a gloomy looking place. May the mere sight of its grated windows prove a terror to evildoers and its cells ever remain tenantless! "Several dwellings, store-houses, hotels, and a Church [the Methodist Protestant on Liberty and Seventh, present site of the First Methodist Episcopal Church] have been erected and in part occupied. Other buildings are in process." On March 22, 185 1, the People's Press again refers to the new town across Salem line: "A new Post Office," the editor states, "has been established at Winston, John P. Vest, Esq., Postmaster," and among the advertisements he gives notice that "the subscriber, John B. Panky, is determined to open an English and Classical School in Winston, his terms for the first five months being $15 for language, $10 for higher branches of English and $3 for lower. Outside pupils can obtain board in Salem for $5 or $6 per month." Board for Mr. Panky's "outside pupils" must have been in keeping with the cost of living in the community, for accord- ing to the market prices listed in the People's Press of the day flour was 7 dollars a barrel, lard 8 cents a pound, butter 1 2 V2 cents a pound, eggs 5 cents a dozen, and chickens 6 to 8 cents a pound. Slowly but steadily little Winston grew, and on January 3, 1852, we find editor Blum writing in the People's Press, "An Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 63 occasional walk to our adjoining neighbor Winston never fails to impress us with the growing importance of that place. New and tasty buildings have been erected in 1851 and others are in progress. The citizens of Winston mostly display that neatness in the erection of their dwellings which strikes the beholder." Within the pages of the Books of Minutes of the first com- missioners of Winston, an item here and there helps one to reconstruct life as it was in the beginning days of Forsyth's county town. Book One of these records starts with the organization, April 15, 1859, of the first Board of Commissioners— William Barrow, mayor (who like the other early mayors of Winston received no remuneration other than grateful thanks for the time and effort spent upon the upbuilding of the community) and Robert Gray, H. A. Holder, Jacob Tise, Henry Renegar, N. S. Cook, Franklin L. Gorrell, and A. J. Stafford, commis- sioners, elected for one year. Problems dealing with the retailing of spirituous liquor within village bounds— the issuing of hquor licenses, the dis- position of drunkards, the appointment of constable and patrolmen to keep order, the erection of a calaboose— occupy a large place in these early town records. One of the first laws made by the commissioners. May 1 1 , 1859, related to the punishment of a person found drunk on the street; he was to be committed to jail until he became sober and then he was to be taken to the whipping post and given not less than 15 lashes nor more than 39. Next to liquor, taxes, and the keeping up of public high- ways, the question most perplexing to the early commissioners of Winston was what to do about the dogs that ran at large on the streets, and the cows and the hogs. Winston's thrifty householders at this time raised hogs on their premises, and many of them were none too particular 64 Forsyth, a County on the March in keeping them in their pens. Indeed, hogs-at-large became such a nuisance that at one session, December 27, 1871, the commissioners went so far as to appoint a committee to confer with a like committee from Salem as to the necessity and feasibility of forming a hog association of mutual interest to both communities. Characteristic of the spirit of the friendly little Winston of the 1 870's— population four or five hundred— is the resolution passed during the administration of Mayor T. T. Best and Commissioners Cyrus B. Watson, Edward Spaugh, J. S. White, P. C. Miller, and Henry Holder concerning one J. N. Mathes (of whom nothing can be found except this one reference to him). It seems that these officials felt especially grateful to Mathes for the interest he had manifested in town affairs during their administration, and so, leaving on record: "Everything he touches thrives," they passed the resolution that this co-opera- tive citizen be given not only a vote of thanks but a gift of a pair of breeches and a gourd— and to purchase this gift the individual members of the Board brought out from their own pockets the sum of $7.15. There was little to break the monotony of every-day life in early Winston. General muster, with the marching and drill- ing of village and county boys and men to the sound of fife and drum, through mutual interest drew together in friendly intercourse people of all classes. A "big meeting" at the Methodist Episcopal Church, corner of Sixth and Liberty, with its hearty singing and shouting, was also an occasion for old and young to mingle not only in spiritual fellowship but in neighborly companionship. But the outstanding occasions in the social life of the community were the regularly re- curring sessions of court, with the attendant crowds, noisy and good-natured, blocking the muddy streets, talking politics, swapping horses, crowding village stores. Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 65 During court week everybody in the county came to town, and everybody in town went to courthouse square, not so much for the purpose of attending to legal affairs as to mingle with the crowds and have a general good time. On horseback, on foot, the people would come to town— in covered wagons bearing the trademarks of the Nissen or Spach Wagon Works of Waughtown,— with fresh eggs, kegs of butter, beeswax, dried fruit, to barter at village stores for shoes and dishpans and dress materials, all packed in with the women and children and family dogs. If from a distance, the families in wagons would come pre- pared to camp out at night in the vacant lot where now stands the O'Hanlon Building, their gay patch quilts on the wagon seats, their frying pans, huge tin coffee pots, and lanterns swinging on the backs of the wagons. In 1854 the Plank Road from Fayetteville to Bethania was completed, passing through Winston where now a narrow alley from Liberty to Trade separates the tall stores on either side. The coming in of the stage coach along the Plank Road, with the driver announcing his arrival by shrill blasts from his tin horn, caused housewives to run to their doors, craftsmen and merchants and attorneys-at-law to lay aside their tasks. In the 1850's party spirit ran high in our community. For the purpose of boosting General Winfield Scott for the presi- dency of the United States and William A. Graham of North Carolina for his running mate, the Whigs of Winston and of Salem formed the Chippewa Club, which every Monday night during the campaign met in the courthouse for fiery Whig speeches interspersed with enlivening strains from the Salem Brass Band. On October 23, 1852, the Chippewas had a great Scott and Graham Day. By ten in the morning the streets were thronged —loyal Whigs came not only from all parts of Forsyth and Stokes but from Guilford and Davidson and Randolph. 66 Forsyth, a County on the March Amid the firing of cannons, the procession under Chief Marshal Colonel Matthias Masten and his associate marshals— R. W. Wharton, Dr. Samuel Martin, Edwin Leight, A. Staub, Matthew Boner— and headed by the Salem Brass Band in their chariot drawn by four richly caparisoned horses, slowly moved in solid columns, with banners and flags waving, from Salem Tavern up Main Street to the courthouse. "From windows and balconies," the Weekly Press tells us, "ladies waved their handkerchiefs, betokening that their cheers and smiles were for the Old Hero of Lunday's Lane. The enthusiastic multitude in response burst into shout after shout for The Ladies! Scott and Graham! "At the Courthouse there was great speaking; the elector for the district, Ralph Gorrell, Esq. of Guilford, enhancing the attention of the audience for two hours in a peculiarly argumentative speech." Then came the barbecue— 3,000 pounds of meat with great bowls of steaming soup and other good things in proportion spread on long tables in the Square. Speech-making followed the barbecue until sundown, and then, after a short intermission for supper, the hearty Whigs reassembled for more speeches until far into the night. When in 1861 the call came for volunteers for the Con- federate cause, the Winston men and boys of military age began at once to prepare for military service; they were for- tunate in having as their drill master a fellow citizen who in the Mexican War had served under General Taylor— the "patriotic and indefatigable Colonel Joseph Masten." In June, 1 86 1, the three local companies of Winston and Salem and Forsyth volunteers— the Forsyth Rifles under Captain Alfred H. Belo, the Forsyth Greys under Captain Rufus Wharton, the "stout and able-bodied men" of Captain Frank P. Miller's Company— left to join the army assembling in Virginia. Only once during the fierce struggle between the North Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 67 and the South was Winston invaded by enemy troops. On April 10, 1865, three thousand cavalrymen under General Palmer of Stoneman's Brigade passed through the town and encamped for the night beyond Salem Creek. When a day or two before this there had come rumors that Stoneman's Brigade, which had done much harm to the countryside to the west and northwest, was on the march toward Winston and Salem, there was great excitement in the county town. There was no way to protect the courthouse and its records; the young men of the village had marched off to war or returned crippled or disabled by wounds and lack of proper nourishment. From the official report of Clerk of Court John Blackburn we learn of the state of affairs when at length the men on the lookout for the enemy came dashing back from Liberty to the Square with word that the dreaded invaders had actually appeared on the outskirts of the town. In his graphic way. Clerk of Court Blackburn makes us see his nervous haste as, searching through his records in the un- guarded courthouse, he tumbles the most valuable of the papers into a sack, and with sack over his shoulders, journals and minute books under his arm, rushes out of the building across the street to the Widow Long's house to deposit with her the sack, and then on to Mrs. Emily Webb's and to Franklin L. Gorrell's with his other documents. His papers off his mind, the Clerk of Court joined the Salem delegation, going northward up Liberty, white hand- kerchiefs in hand, to surrender to the oncoming host the key of their town. The Salem delegation was composed of the principal of Salem Academy, the Reverend Robert de Schweinitz; Mr. R. L. Patterson; and the Mayor of Salem, Joshua Boner; with this group was Mayor Thomas J. Wilson of Winston. Clerk Blackburn in his graphic style makes us feel the tense- 68 Forsyth, a County on the March ness in the air, the long waiting for the enemy; and then as General Palmer and his staff appear, he makes us see the wav- ing of the white handkerchiefs, the response of the Yankee officer. "One of our company," writes Blackburn, "introduced himself to General Palmer and then introduced the others to him, and he introduced us to several of his officers and invited us to accom.pany him into town. "Which we did," he concludes. The events which took place in our community during the summer of the Surrender, we would never have known had not the Moravians kept accurate records in their congrega- tional diaries and memorabilia of 1865. From these sources we learn that on Sunday afternoon May 14, 1865, several hundred troops of the Ohio Volunteer Cavalry under a Colonel Saunderson arrived in Winston to take military charge of Winston and Salem; on July 13, 1865, they departed. The Federals set up camp on what is now the R. J. Rey- nolds parking lot behind City Hall and the adjacent (then) vacant property to the south as far perhaps as Belews Street, Salem. The officers, according to Salem Diary, took residence in the homes of Mr. Joseph Lineback and Air. Edward Hege, of Salem, and (according to another authentic source of in- formation) in the home of Judge D. H. Starbuck, present site of City Hall. As to conditions under military rule, the Salem Diary gives the following hints: ''May 25, 186^. One of the Federal soldiers was killed today by the accidental discharge of a pistol in the hands of a drunken comrade. ''July 2. The heat is unusually great and diseases begin to show themselves. Dead horses are not removed sufficiently far from town by the soldiers and spread a very unpleasant and unhealthy smell. Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 69 ''July 75. On Monday the soldiers had been paid off and since then many had not seen a sober moment. Though professing to be the friends and liberators of the colored people, they treated some of them with inhuman barbarity. The officers were, with a very few honorable exceptions, extremely immoral men and the privates followed suit. Their influence upon the community was evil and only evil and that continually." (This last entry seems to have been written after the departure of the troops.) The sound of the horn on February 14, 1872, for the open- ing of Major T. J. Brown's warehouse (an old stable on Lib- erty near Fifth converted into a warehouse) for the first sale of leaf tobacco in Winston marked the beginning of a new era in the history of the town. Before this time the sale of dried fruit and berries had been the main source of ready money for the village— the yearly sales at one store alone, that of Pfohl and Stockton, Main Street facing west and Third Street, amounting to more than $50,000. For years after the sale and manufacture of tobacco became the chief industry of the town, the buying and selling of dried fruit continued to be profitable. The late Bishop Edward Rondthaler, who came to Winston-Salem in 1877, when asked toward the close of his life, by a news reporter, what had impressed him most in passing through Winston for the first time, replied that it was the evidence of big business done in dried fruit— the sight of boxes and boxes on the streets filled with dried fruit waiting to be shipped by train and wagon. Soon after Major Brown opened the first warehouse in Winston, there was so much tobacco "rolled in" to the vicinity of the warehouse that the town commissioners had to pass an ordinance forbidding this way of conveying barrels and hogsheads of tobacco along village streets. At this time and for years afterwards the streets of Winston were ungraded and unpaved, and it was no unusual sight to 70 Forsyth, a County on the March see the horses drawing covered wagons of tobacco or dried fruit floundering in the mud and the wagons mired up to the hub. Between the present site of the Charles store and the State Theatre there was a ravine so deep that anyone standing on Liberty Street near Seventh could watch a covered wagon, going south on Liberty, disappear as it dipped into Fifth Street and then slowly reappear as it came up on the other side of the cross street. Another deep ravine extended across the street at the cor- ner of Trade and Fourth, opposite where now the Anchor Store is located; at this point pedestrians had to cross the street on a foot-log over a running stream fifteen feet below. From the O'Hanlon corner, at Fourth and Liberty, the street descended sharply to Trade and from Trade it sharply ascended to Cherry. The lack of street lamps after sundown added greatly to the inconvenience of pedestrians and the danger of driving after dark. When in January, 1878, the town commissioners gave the order for eleven new kerosene street lamps to be put up. Editor Goslen of the Uiiion Republican declared in his January 17 issue: "We think it will take not eleven more new lamps but 1,400 more to light up the town sufficiently enough for a person to see how to get out of the mud." However, the placing of additional street lamps seems not to have solved the light question of early Winston, for even after the coming in of the railroad, freight continued to be so irregular that often the town, sometimes for a week at a time, was without kerosene for public or private use. On Saturday afternoon, July 11, 1873, the first train crossed the high trestle, 320 feet long and 70 feet high— at the time the highest bridge of its kind in the state-onto the tracks leading to the tiny railroad station, site of the present freight depot. The whole town, black and white, old and young, had trudged down to the banks of Salem Creek and to the near-by Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 71 hills to watch, with the assembled throngs from Salem, the passing of the iron horse over the high bridge. At the first signs of the black smoke of the "harnessed steam," the Salem Band burst into strains of welcome, and as with a roar the noisy visitant to the quiet bounds of the Moravian town approached the trestle and in safety passed from one end to the other, the expectant crowds mingled their shouts with the triumphant blast of the brass horns. Commemorating the looth anniversary of American inde- pendence, Winston together with Salem had a grand and glorious celebration on July 4, 1876. At the dawn of day the sleepy dwellers of the towns were awakened by the music of tin horns, pans, and bells as small boys paraded the streets. Then, as the sun arose, a salute of thirteen guns was fired and for half an hour the bells from every church, factory, and the courthouse pealed forth their joyous notes. At nine o'clock the procession began moving from Courthouse Square southward along Main Street. Preceded by the Salem Brass Band came three colorful floats. The first, a car drawn by six horses, containing thirteen girls, beautifully adorned, represented the thirteen original states. The second, an immense car drawn by ten horses, con- tained girls who in their distinctive costumes represented the various states comprising the Union in 1876. The third, drawn by four horses, bore the Goddess of Liberty, supported on each side by a girl, appropriately draped, representing the products of North Carolina. On Salem Square the patriotic exercises were held. Colonel R. L. Patterson made the anniversary address, and Robert Gray, Esq., of Raleigh, a son of Robert Gray, Sr., one of the founders of Winston, reviewed in fine literary style the his- tory of Salem and of Winston. At 2:30 in the afternoon there was another parade— a fan- tastic parade as it was called— of sixty young men dressed as oddities, from gypsies to Indians, from the elephant accom- 72 Forsyth, a County on the March panying a John Robinson show to the traveling menagerie of a second P. T. Bamum. After nightfall, with a grand display of fireworks on Cherry Street, Winston, the glorious and long-to-be-remem- bered Fourth of July celebration ended. Winston from its very earliest days was a church-going community, the Methodist outnumbering the other denom- inations. The first Methodist prayer meeting of which any record has been preserved was held in the early 1 840's in the old Nading home at the extreme end of what is now North Liberty Street but, in the 1 840's, was the tiny village of Liberty. This prayer meeting was conducted by the pioneer Methodist preachers of this section, the Reverend John Al- spaugh, the Reverend Alfred Norman, whose son the Rev- erend W. C. Norman forty-odd years later became pastor of Old Centenary on Liberty and Sixth, and by Mr. Lewis Rights, who afterwards became a Moravian minister. The first church edifice erected in Winston was the Prot- estant Methodist (now the First Methodist Church) on Liberty and Seventh. As early as 1 842 the Protestant Method- ists were worshipping as a congregation in a small log house in the scattered settlement known as Liberty; when Forsyth County was erected, the congregation purchased the Liberty lot in the county seat, and in 1850 built on this lot a neat frame church. In 1876 this frame church building was moved to the back of the property, facing Old Town Road (now Trade Street), and a brick building was erected at the cost of $3,500. It is of interest to know that this first church edifice became a tobacco factory, the pioneer tobacconists C. J. Ogburn and W. P. Hill for years carrying on their manufacture of plug tobacco in the building located on Old Town and Seventh streets. The Methodist Episcopal denomination built the second Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 73 church in Winston. It was formerly the custom for this de- nomination to form first a society and then from the society organize a church. The Methodist Episcopal Church of Winston had its beginning in a society known as the "Mul- berry Tree Society," so called because the "big meetings" of the Society were held in the open under a large mulberry tree (in the neighborhood of the Children's Home) . In time this Mulberry Tree Society expanded into the Old Jerusalem Church, the house of worship being a stout frame building on a hill not so far from the historic mulberry tree. When Forsyth County was erected, the congregation sold the Jeru- salem Church property and with the proceeds of the sale of the land and the sale of the lumber, which was hauled to Winston, purchased a lot for the sum of $79.25, in Winston, at the corner of Liberty and Sixth, and began the building of a simple, unpretentious house of worship which in time was replaced by the handsome Old Centenary Church. It was quite an undertaking for the small group from the Old Jerusalem Church and the handful of the denomination residing in the village to build their Winston church. Under the leadership of the zealous and indefatigable pastor of the congregation, the Reverend W. W. Albea, affectionately called Uncle Albea, and through the "constant support, aid, and encouragement" of Mr. Robert Gray and Mr. John Sanders, both of whom were among the first to establish themselves in business in the county town, the congregation would build awhile and then when their funds were ex- hausted, they would stop building operations, give again to the limit of their individual ability, solicit gifts from their friends, and start building again. It was a great day when finally the small church was com- pleted and the congregation gathered for the dedication. Dr. Charles F. Deems, who later became founder and pastor of the Church of the Strangers, New York City, preached the 74 Forsyth, a County on the March sermon. Dr. Deems was a small man and in order to be seen above the pulpit, he had to stand on a box placed behind the pulpit. \\'hile the Methodist Episcopal Church was in process of building, the congregation worshipped in the courthouse. In the early days of Winston it was customary for the various denominations, before the erection of their church edifices, to hold preaching services in the courthouse. In i860 the Reverend Frontis H. Johnston, at the solicita- tion of Judge Thomas J. Wilson and Mr. Hezekiah D. Lott, began holding, every month or so, preaching services in the courthouse for the four or five Presbyterians in the commu- nity and their interested friends. Judge Wilson was not, at this time, a Presbyterian, but through the reading of the Bible, the study of history, and occasional attendance on Presbyterian preaching while on his circuit, he had become convinced that a church holding the Presbyterian doctrine was needed in the growing county seat of Forsyth. And it was in the parlor of the young lawyer's home. Sec- ond and Main streets, that the Presbyterian Church of Win- ston, the first church of this faith in the county, was con- stituted, as the records say, on Saturday, October 5, 1862, with eight charter members: Mr. and Mrs. Franklin L. Gor- rell, Mr. and Mrs. Hezekiah D. Lott, Judge and Mrs. Thomas J. Wilson, Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson, mother of Judge Wilson, and Mrs. Catherine E. Wharton, the wife of a prominent physician in the county. Mrs. Rufus L. Patterson, who during the planning for the organization of the church had been most active and liberal, was called to her heavenly home {ivQ months before the plans were perfected. On Sunday, October 6, the small brick church on Cherry Street was dedicated. The pastor, the Reverend F. H. John- ston, preached from the text. Psalms 84: 11; the six children of the congregation— Flora Virginia, Sarah Lena, Arthur Pat- Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 75 terson, and Henry Stokes Lott and Edgar Henry and Jose- phine Elizabeth Wilson— were baptized, and the three men of the congregation were duly elected Ruling Elders and ordained. Of the eight charter members of the Presbyterian Church, two joined from the Methodist Episcopal Church, one from the Methodist Protestant, and one was of Quaker extraction. The First Baptist Church was organized on September 22, 1 87 1, in the courthouse by Elders F. M. Jordan and Robert Gourley with Eve charter members: Alfred Holland, the first Baptist who located in Winston, and four women. Miss Nannie E. Holland, Miss Nannie Marshall, Mrs. Permelia Jones, and Miss Sarah F. Kerr. In the Biblical Recorder of some years ago Mr. Jordan told of the beginning days of this congregation. "For four years," he said, "we held our services in the Courthouse. Here we had our communion service at night, the members sitting in the jury box with bright lights beaming down from the chan- deHers. It was a solemn scene. "I bought the lot loo by 200 feet on Second Street on June 18, 1874, for which I paid $250. I went to Raleigh and col- lected the money from the First Baptist Church, of which Dr. T. H. Pritchard was the beloved pastor. "The Board gave me $100 per year; the distance [from his home in Hillsboro to Winston] was 70 miles; it required fiYt days each trip and sometimes more, and by the time I paid my railroad and stage fare, there was little left." A story of human interest concerning Brother Jordan, as he was affectionately called, was related to me by Miss Ethel McGalliard, a great-granddaughter of Mr. Jesse Kennedy, one of the founders of Winston. Every time that Brother Jordan came to Winston to hold services in the courthouse, he would stay in the hospitable Kennedy home. One day he came to Winston wearing such a shabby hat that his host asked, "Is that the best hat you have?" 76 Forsyth, a County on the March "Yes," replied the self-sacrificing man of God. Whereupon Mr. Kennedy bought him a new hat and made sure that he did not give it away before leaving town. When the movement for the erection of an Episcopal Church began in 1877, there was but one communicant of that church living in Winston, a young lawyer, Mr. J. C. Buxton, son of an Episcopal clergyman. In Salem there were three women of the Episcopal faith— Miss Laura Lemly, who during her long life was a most ardent and consecrated mem- ber of St. Paul's, Mrs. W. H. Wheeler, and Mrs. B. F. Crosland. With selfless devotion this small group, assisted in time by other Episcopalians moving into the community, gathered funds for the purchase of a lot, at the corner of Fourth and Pine (Marshall) and the erection on it of a small frame church building, its tall spire towering over the other build- ings of the county town. Bearing the name St. Paul's, the church, in February, 1879, was consecrated. Bishop Lyman, assisted by the rector, the Reverend W. S. Bynum, and the Reverend R. B. Sutton, D.D., conducted the services; the Bishop preached from the text, John 4: 23, 24. At the meeting of the North Carolina Diocesan Convention in Fayetteville, May 15, 1879, St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Winston was admitted to the Conven- tion. During the early days of St. Paul's there were hardly more than a dozen families affiliated with the church. At one time when the rector was planning a series of services explaining to outsiders as well as his own congregation the fundamental doctrines of the church, he inserted in the local press an invitation to the general public to attend the meetings, stating that St. Paul's was not, as was generally believed in the com- munity, the church of the kid-gloved, silk-stockinged crowd. The finest bell that was ever brought to Winston, and the most musical, was the great bell of St. Paul's, weighing 1,030 Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 77 pounds and measuring from lip to lip exactly three feet. On one side the bell bore the inscription: Excites Lentos Clinton H. Meneely Bell Company, Troy, N. Y. A.D. 1800 and on the opposite side: "Glory to God in the Highest." The earliest Negro churches in Winston had interesting beginnings. Lee Fries, an elderly member of the Methodist Episcopal Church on the corner of Seventh and Chestnut, organized under the auspices of the Northern M.E. Church, remembers the story of the beginnings of the Methodist and Baptist Negro congregations in Winston. According to Lee, shortly after the surrender, his father and mother, ex-slaves of the Francis Fries family of Salem, moved to Waughtown, where there was quite a colony of colored folks. Lee's father and mother had been taught to read and, being deeply re- ligious, they soon began holding prayer meetings in their home. During the day while the father, John Fries, was work- ing in the Fries Wool Mill, the mother, Paulina, was passing the word around the neighborhood of the prayer service, and when night came the one-roomed cabin would be crowded. Every three or four weeks a Negro preacher, Andrew Willburn, who had a little farm between Thomasville and High Point, would come walking in, his Bible and hymn book under his arm, to hold preaching services. The home became too small to hold the crowds who came to hear the preacher, and an old schoolhouse was secured for the services. At this time Lewis Banner, who worked in the dye room of the Fries Factory, assisted also in the services, especially at funerals. Outgrowing the schoolhouse, the congregation moved to Happy Hill, a Negro settlement on the outskirts of Salem, and held their services under a bush arbor. After a time, they moved into Winston, and in a hall on Chestnut and Seventh, in front of the present site of the St. 78 Forsyth, a County on the March Paul Negro ME. Church, the Reverend George W. Holland of Danville, as Lee says, "opened up Winston to the Baptists." A slightly different version of this story was given me by the church office of the First Baptist Church, at Sixth and Chestnut. According to this record, the Negroes of the Baptist faith, before 1879, gathered for worship under bush arbors and also in a building on Fourth and Chestnut streets, known as Hinshaw's Hall. The preacher at these assemblies, as they were called, was the Reverend George W. Holland. Some time in 1879, in the spring perhaps, or early summer, the Reverend Henry A. Brown, beloved pastor of the (white) Baptist Church and pastor-at-large of the town, organized the congregation under the Reverend George W. Holland into the first Negro church of the Baptist denomination in Win- ston, formally designated as The First Baptist Church. Some time after this the congregation purchased a lot on Sixth and Chestnut from the Moravian Conerecration for the sum of $75. The deed bears the date July 23, 1879. In 1882, through the devotion and sacrificial giving of the congrega- tion, a building was erected— a neat "wooden" structure rest- ing on high brick pillars, and facing Sixth Street. It was in the commodious basement of this church that the first tax- supported school for Negro children in Winston was held. In the 1879 Directory, the Reverend L. R. Ferebee (colored) is listed as pastor of the A. M. E. Zion Church, Fourth and Liberty, but no facts have been found concerning this church. According to Lee Fries, the Methodist Episcopal Church, North, on Chestnut and Seventh, of which he is a member, is the oldest Alethodist Church of the Negro race in Winston, for while the St. James Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest congregation of the denomination in town, in that, at an early date, it moved here as an organization from else- where, the Church on Chestnut and Seventh was the first to erect a house of worship. Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 79 Like the Negro Baptist movement in Winston, Lee Fries says, the Methodist movement had its beginning in Waugh- town shortly after the surrender. An ex-slave of the Francis Fries family, Harry Fries (no kin to Lee's father but living next door to him) was an ardent Methodist and when his neighbor started a Baptist prayer meeting, he started a Meth- odist one. The two prayer meetings never conflicted; on one night the whole neighborhood, old and young, would gather in the Methodist home; on another night, in the Baptist home. The grown folks would bring their chairs to the meetings; the children would sit on the floor. The leader— Methodist or Baptist as the case might be— would read the Scriptures and pray and then the congregation would lift up their voices in the singing of the old hymns loved by all churches, such as "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!" In time the Methodists moved from Waughtown to Win- ston, the Reverend Isaac Wells preaching for them under a bush arbor in front of a small log house on North Liberty Street. From miles around, on foot, in wagons, the colored people would come to the preaching under the arbor. All day they would stay (they could have no night meetings as they had no way of lighting their arbor), spreading their lunches in picnic style during the noon-day intermission. Finally under Wells's leadership, they were able to build a church, an unpretentious little church, on the present site of the warehouse of the Brown-Rogers-Dixson Hardware Com- pany on Seventh Street near the railroad. Under the Reverend George Morehead the present church was erected; it was finished by the Reverend Shamberger. The St. James A. M. E. Church, through the oldest member of its congregation, J. C. McKnight, has furnished the follow- ing interesting information concerning the beginnings of that church. Under the leadership of a Negro preacher named Caldwell, 8o Forsyth, a County on the March St. James was organized in 1882 in a building on Chestnut between First and Second streets. The names of the following charter members have been preserved: Giles Bason, Luther Walls, William Mendenhall, Amos Yarbrough, and three other men whose last names were Forsythe, Harrell, and Yauncey; i\lrs. Elisa Bohannon, Mrs. Edith Miller, Mrs. Mary Hall, and Mrs. Anna Harrell. For over sixty years Mrs. Edith Miller and Mrs. Anna Harrell remained devoted members of the church. The earliest mayors of Winston were, William Barrow (1859), Peter A. Wilson (i860), Robert Gray (1861), H. K. Thomas (1862), H. K. Thomas (1863), H. K. Thomas (1864), Thomas J. Wilson (1865), T. T. Best (1866), T. T. Best (1867), T. T. Best (1868), Jacob Tise (1869), Jacob Tise (1870), John W. Alspaugh (1871), T. T. Best (1872), John W. Alspaugh (1873), T. T. Best (1874), John W. Al- spaugh (1875), D. P. Mast (1876), Martin Grogan (1877), A. B. Gorrell (1878), A. B. Gorrell (1879). In 1867 Winston had no municipal election; the town was in Military District No. 2, under the jurisdiction of the com- mander of the district. Major D. E. Sickles; and in accordance with the special order No. 1 3 2 of the Federal government the officers of the town had to be appointed, not elected. Accord- ingly, Major Sickles appointed as mayor T. T. Best and as commissioners D. H. Starbuck, J. S. White, John D. Tavis, Benjamin Spaugh, Jacob Tise, William E. Axson, N. W. Nading. Before taking office each of these appointed men had to take the oath prescribed by Congress July 2, 1862: "I do solemnly swear that I will support and maintain the Constitu- tion and Laws of the U.S. and the Constitution and Laws of N. C, not inconsistent therewith. So help me, God." The business carried on in the Winston of the 1870's may be seen in the following facts from a pamphlet published at Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 8i the Blum's Print Shop, Salem, in 1878, entitled Guide Book of Northwestern North Carolina. In 1878 the population of Winston was 2,500. The sale and manufacture of tobacco was the leading industry of the town, with fifteen independent tobacco factories and four tobacco warehouses, employing a working force of more than 1,000 hands, mostly Negroes. But there were also four wagon and buggy works doing a good business, two saddle and harness shops, and one livery stable (even at this early date Winston was becoming known as a center for the sale and exchange of horses); there were eighteen stores carrying groceries and general merchandise, four millinery establishments, two tailor- ing establishments, three men's ready-to-wear shops, one store selling men's clothing and furs, one shoe store which sold men's hats also; there were two jewelry stores, two drug stores, one hardware store, two confectioneries, one store selling tinware and stoves. The Winston of 1878 was a trading center of some impor- tance. The town had a thriving bank, the First National, established in 1876, with J. A. Bitting as president and J. W. Alspaugh as cashier. There were three up-to-date hotels— the long-established and popular Wilson Hotel, the Merchants, known as Pfohl and Stockton's, and the Central. From the very beginning days of Winston the local news- papers had a great part in furthering every movement for the growth of the town. In 1856 F. E. Boner and James Collins began the publica- tion of Winston's first newspaper, a weekly entitled the Western Sentinel. In a short while John W. Alspaugh ac- quired the entire control of the weekly, making it the most influential paper, during the stirring days of the late 1850's and the i86o's, throughout this section of North Carolina. In 1870 the National Advocate , financed by a small group of local members of the Republican party and edited by F. T. 82 Forsyth, a County on the March Walser, was established in Winston. In 1874 Captain J. W. Goslen purchased the paper, changing its name to the Union Republican and making it in time the leading periodical of the Republican party in the state. In 1879 Colonel James A. Robinson, popularly known as Old Hurrygraph, began the publication of a small weekly, The Winstoji Leader, devoted to the interests of the Demo- cratic party. The years beginning with the i88o's mark a period of ex- pansion in the history of Winston. The mayors during this period were A. B. Gorrell (1880), Peter A. Wilson (1881), J. C. Buxton (1882), J. C. Buxton (1883), J- C. Buxton (1884). On November i. Mayor Buxton resigned to enter the senatorial contest and Samuel H. Smith was elected to fill the unexpired term. In May, 1885, Samuel H. Smith was elected but resigned the office in August, and Charles Buford filled out Mr. Smith's unexpired term. In 1886 T. J. Wilson served as mayor; in 1887, Charles Buford; in 1888, Charles Buford. In 1889 the biennial plan of election was inaugurated and Charles Buford remained in office until 1 890. During 1890- 1892 D. P. Mast was mayor; in 1892 Robah B. Kerner was elected for two years but died in office Sep- tember 25, 1893, ^^^ Garland E. Webb was elected to fill his unexpired term. Then followed in 1894- 1896, Eugene E. Gray; in 1896- 1898, Paul W. Crutchfield. In 1898 A. B. Gorrell was elected but died in office December 9, 1899, ^^^ John F. Griffith filled out his unexpired term. The financial center of the busy little tobacco town of the i88o's and 90's was the short street from Fourth to Fifth, then called Old Town but now Trade. On the corner of Fifth facing west was the thriving grocery store of Vaughn and Prather; on the corner of Fourth facing west was the brick store of H. D. Poindexter, bearing on its south wall the trade mark of the store, a fleet deer. Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 83 Between these two stores, catering not only to the town but to a widespread country trade, stood the mammoth brick warehouse of Colonel A. B. Gorrell, the Farmers' Warehouse, extending from Old Town to Liberty, and noted at the time of its opening in 1881 as having the largest warehouse floor space in the world for the sale of loose tobacco. Across Old Town Street from the Farmers' Warehouse two concerns carried on big business: the tobacco warehouse of Major James Scales and Captain M. W. Norfleet, called the Piedmont Warehouse and known for its reliability and its popularity far and wide with tobacco growers; and to the north of Piedmont the brick tobacco factory of T. L. Vaughn, three-and-one-half stories high and modern in every respect. On Fourth Street facing north and causing a dead end to Old Town or Trade Street was the huge Hinshaw and Me- dearis store, selling everything from a shoestring to a parlor suite of furniture— the pioneer department store of northwest- ern North Carolina. The business carried on in the stores, factory, and ware- houses on this short street was astounding; thousands of dollars changed hands each working day, and on Saturdays and during the tobacco season the street was thronged from morning till night with pedestrians, horses, and vehicles. It was indeed a fitting recognition when the city fathers, sensing the importance of Old Town Street, changed its name to Trade. As a slant on the civic life of Winston during this period when the town was expanding in many directions, the follow- ing notes are taken from the Book of Minutes of the Board of Aldermen. August 4, 1879. Messrs Clarke and Ford appointed Keepers of the Scales and Weigh Masters until May i, 1880; pay fixed at five cents for each weighing except for unloaded wagons, on which they are to have no pay. In January, 1882, Winston was threatened with an epidemic 84 Forsyth, a County on the March of smallpox. The Board of Aldermen ordered that every per- son in town, old and young, be vaccinated; a pest house was rented— at four dollars a month— for those who had contracted the disease, and those who had been exposed to smallpox were confined in quarantine quarters under strict guard. Hence the following minute from a called meeting of the Board January 14, 1882: "Whereas it appears that the persons confined in quarantine in AVinston on account of having been exposed to smallpox have become drunk and are threatening to break the grounds and spread the disease, on motion ordered that persons confined within the limits of quarantine who shall become disorderly shall be punished by having a ball and chain put on them." January 19, 1882. "Be it ordained that no person shall enter Winston from the train of the N.W.N.C. Railroad without first being vaccinated or presenting satisfactory proof of vac- cination to the physician in charge at the Depot." February 7, 1882. "Ordered that who first discovers a fire is to proceed with all haste to Pace's Warehouse [Farmers' Warehouse on Old Town, now Trade Street] and inform the Watchman the number of the Ward [at this time the town was divided into four fire wards] who will by first giving the alarm by rapid ringing of the bell and then a short intermis- sion, sound the number of the ward the fire is in." On May 3, 1882, the town constable was elected with the understanding that when not engaged upon the duties of constable and tax collector, he was to do full police duty; his salary was fixed at $100 per year, plus 5 per cent commission on taxes collected and fees and costs on all cases as policeman or constable. At this same meeting the salaries of policemen were also fixed: the Chief of Police received $40 per month and costs and fees not exceeding $200, and the officers under him, $35 per month and fees and costs not exceeding $200. The salary Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 85 of the lamp-lighter, Alfred Wright, colored, was raised to $15 per month. June 6, 1882. Salary of Mayor fixed at $200 per year; of Secretary-Treasurer, $150. Noah Carter's appHcation for per- mission to run flying Jennies on the Fourth of July granted at $5 for the privilege. July 3, 1883. On request of some barbers, ordered that barber shops be closed on the Sabbath. Ordered also that policemen request parties not to feed [horses] on the streets; that certain sidewalks [on Fourth near Old Town or Trade] be filled up when dirt can be obtained. October 3, 1883. Ordered that the Fire Committee make arrangements with some party owning a pair of good horses to have them promptly at the Engine House [on Liberty just off Third] on the alarm of fire; for each time the engine is carried to a fire the said party to receive $5. January 27, 1883. Alfred Wright, lamp-lighter, allowed $ 1 8 per month with understanding that he devote more time to cleaning and keeping in good order the Lamps. February 6, 1883. Application presented, signed by a num- ber of citizens, asking that stepping stones be placed across the streets at the Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Protestant, and Episcopal Churches. July 3, 1883. The Captain of the Fire Company reported that the Company was in an improving condition and more interest manifested and the membership increased. August 7, 1883. The riding of bicycles on side walks pro- hibited. August 4, 1884. Moved and carried that the Fire Commit- tee be empowered to purchase Fire Hats for the Fire Company. June 3, 1889. Petition signed by 50 ladies and gentlemen asked that the old Barringer House on Liberty be removed at once as it was day by day becoming more of a nuisance. • 86 Forsyth, a County on the March A growing sense of civic responsibility marked the Win- ston of this period. On Tuesday, May 8, 1883, the registered voters cast their ballots for tax-supported schools. On June 19, 1883, five men were elected school commissioners: W. A. Whitaker, James A. Gray, Calvin H. Wiley, James Martin, and Pleasant Hanes. Calvin H. Wiley was chosen chairman of the board, W. A. Whitaker, secretary, and James A. Gray, treasurer. Night after night during the unusually sultry summer and early fall of 1883 these five men, after long, strenuous hours in bank, factory, or office, would gather in the study of the chairman and for hours at a time, sometimes until midnight, wrestle with figures and building plans and details which took a great deal of maneuvering to be fitted into a whole. Day after day they would tramp over the dusty streets to study the various lots in different sections of the town which had been suggested as suitable school sites by interested citizens. Finally school lots were chosen and the school, West End, erected for white children. On September 9, 1884, West End School opened in regular session with 275 pupils. Before this formal opening, the school had had a short session from May 23 to June II, 1884, for the purpose of organization. The amount raised by taxation was entirely inadequate for the erection of West End School; private citizens borrowed and advanced an amount nearly equal to the deficit, and two other citizens loaned the residue. The lot cost $3,000, the building $17,500, and the furnishings $4,500. Since there was little money on hand for the building of a school house for Negro children, the School Board, by an arrangement with the trustees of the First Baptist Church (colored). General Barringer, Henry Pendleton and Peter Martin, converted the church into a school. Later the Depot School was erected, partially with funds personally solicited from Northern philanthropists by the chairman of the board and Superintendent Julius L. Tomlinson. Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 87 Our first public school, organized upon a sound financial basis and an up-to-date, far-sighted educational policy, at- tracted much attention. The editor of the widely-read New England Journal of Educatioji, Dr. A. D. Mayo of Boston, after a visit to Winston four months after the opening of West End wrote in his Journal: "The new city of Winston, N. C, has done the most nota- ble work among Southern towns of its size in the establishment of a system of graded schools. During the year it has built one of the most convenient and spacious public schoolhouses [West End School] in the country, and gathered the white children of the place under the superintendency of Professor [Julius L.] Tomlinson, so well known by his excellent serv- ices at Wilson, N. C. and in the summer normal schools of the State. *'Only four months from its organization, the school with all the disadvantages of the mixed population of a new manu- facturing community is a model and is thronged with visitors from all over the Southern country. An excellent beginning has been made with the colored schools and a handsome lot awaits the next effort for a commodious schoolhouse. "In all his labors, the indefatigable superintendent is upheld by an energetic school board, whose chairman. Dr. Wiley, was for many years State Superintendent of Education and may be called the father of the common schools of North Carolina. "Winston is a new city of remarkable growth, and in all ways a striking representation of the advancing life of the New South." The movement for a public hospital was started by a group of thirty-one women, who on June 27, 1887, at the home of Dr. Henry T. Bahnson, Salem, formed themselves into the Twin-City Hospital Association, electing Mrs. James A. Gray, president; Mrs. J. C. Buxton, first vice-president; Mrs. 88 Forsyth, a County on the March J. A. Bitting, second vice-president; Mrs. J. F. Shaffner, treas- urer; and Mrs. J. M. Rogers, secretary. The solicitation for funds with which to furnish the beds and rooms of the house which the Association rented for the hospital— the old Martin Grogan home on Liberty, just to the south of the First National Bank— met with generous response; the physicians of both towns graciously offered their services; the mayor of each town pledged for his municipality a monthly sum of $12; so in six months' time, on the first day of December, 1887, the doors of the first institution in Win- ston for the care of the sick and suffering were thrown open. When the old Grogan house proved inadequate, the Asso- ciation moved the institution, proudly called the Twin-City Hospital, to a one-story frame building on Brookstown Ave- nue, containing one ward and three private rooms with a total of seventeen beds. In the early days of the Twin-City Hospital the equipment was so meagre that doctors and surgeons who came to operate on their patients had to bring their own surgical instruments. In June, 19 12, the Town of Winston voted bonds for the erection of a fireproof, up-to-date hospital. Ten acres of land in East Winston was purchased and construction started on the new hospital shortly before the merging of Winston and Salem into one municipality. Winston's first system of water works was a private affair, not a municipal concern. Editor George M. Mathes of the Western Sentinel, in his issue of October 27, 188 1, tells of the progress of the Winston Water Company: "The reservoir will be completed in four weeks. Takingr all the difficulties the Board of Directors have had to contend with in putting the work through, we think they deserve great credit. At the meeting of the stock-holders of the Company on last Thursday night Colonel J. W. Al- spaugh was called to preside and George W. Hinshaw appointed secretary. The old Board of Directors were re- Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 89 elected: R. J. Wilson, S. E. Allen, E. A. Pfohl, W. L. Brown, G. W. Hinshaw, James A. Gray, and P. H. Hanes." Through the eyes of Editor Goslen of the Union Repub- lican, who drove out one fine Sunday afternoon to Belo's Pond to inspect the waterworks under construction, we see the signs of progress and business activity in the Winston of 1881. The editor, after stating that on his afternoon's drive he counted fifteen new dwellings, goes on to say: "In the heart of the town is the Farmers' Warehouse. At the corner in the rear of Mr. Susdorff 's dwelling and near the new warehouse on Old Town Street [Farmers' Warehouse] is the store house of Messrs. Vaughn and Pepper (corner Fifth and Trade) just under cover. "On the corner of Fifth and Cherry [site of Hotel Robert E. Lee] we note with pride the handsome dwelling of Major T. J. Brown, built of brick and stucco-finish, with tower and porches, containing 12 rooms finished in style, with hot and cold water and gas fixtures complete. "As we drive down Presbyterian Street [so the editor calls Cherry] we note the roomy, old-fashioned dwelling of Dr. Spencer; James A. Gray, Esq., assistant cashier of the Wachovia National Bank, we learn, has purchased the prop- erty and will erect upon the spacious grounds a handsome, modern residence. "Further down the street, on the Winston line, is the Dr. Shelton dwelHng, brick and stucco-finish, with handsome tower and porches all around, containing 15 rooms finished in the best style; the mantels are especially fine. "Going out 4th, on Shallowford Street we note the hand- some residence Mr. Chamberlain is erecting [on Broad, facing east]. In fact, go in what direction we may, we find new buildings, new enterprises." Before 1882 Winston had no fire company, the only ap- paratus for fighting fire being the hooks and ladders owned 90 Forsyth, a County on the March by the corporation. Early in February, 1882, W. F. Keith, representing a group of citizens interested in procuring more adequate fire protection for the town, appeared before the town commissioners with the proposition that a voluntary fire company, unsalaried, be organized, the town providing the equipment and necessary station personnel. The commissioners accepted the challenge, and on Feb- ruary II, 1882, Winston's first fire company— Steamer No. I— was formally organized. In May the fire engine arrived and the young fire-fighters in their fine new uniforms, purchased by the commissioners, were kept busy drilling for the volun- tary service they had assumed for the town. E. M. Pace was the first captain of Steamer No. i; he was succeeded by W. A. Bevil, and Captain Bevil was succeeded by J. H. Masten. In 1883 the native-born Englishman, A. J. Gales, a charter member of the Company, was elected to the captaincy and for twenty-one years served most efficiently in this position. On March 2, 1886, Winston's first fire company was incor- porated by the legislature. In 1891 a second companv of un- salaried voluntary firemen was organized. Steamer Company No. 2, H. L. Foard, captain. In 1893 ^ hook-and-ladder truck was added to the equipment. In this year also the motorizing of the department was begun. The first motor truck arrived on January 9, 191 3. Under the leadership of Chief Harry Nissen in 19 14 the complete modernization of the fire depart- ment of Winston-Salem was begun. For twenty and more years after the organization of our fire department the fire horses were used on the streets during the day for hauling purposes; thus they were often some dis- tance from headquarters at the first alarm of fire, and were delayed in getting into action. The Union Republican of December 16, 1886, makes men- tion of this use of the fire horses— or mules in the early days: "The town commissioners have erected a stable adjoining the Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 91 fire house and have two mules quartered there to draw the city garbage cart and in case of fire to draw the fire engine." It was in the early 1890's that firebugs seemed to be at work in Winston. First in one section of the town and then in another unexplained fires would break out. In the Memorial of Robah B. Kerner, who was mayor during this period, a vivid description is given of one afternoon and evening of terror. While at one fire, the Mayor was summoned by fire bells loud and long to another section of the town. After assisting the volunteer firemen in getting this second fire under control, the Mayor, exhausted from his labors, drove to his home on West Fifth near Summit, but scarcely had he seated himself at the supper table when the fire bells summoned him to a third fire. This time a fire was raging near the Courthouse Square, and the Mayor, hastening to the Square, found a scene of wild confusion. "Firemen ran," says the Memorial, "the engines roared, a babel of voices rent the air, and from every ware- house and church steeple bells rang, and all the while the excited populace were rapidly congregating on every corner and every conceivable place." Seeing that great danger was imminent, the young Mayor sprang upon the nearest goods box and lifting his voice like a trumpet called to the seething mass of people: "Disperse! Dis- perse at once! Anyone remaining on the streets will be imme- diately sent to jail!" The crowds melted away and soon only the sound of the fire engines at work broke the quiet. All night the local militia, assisted by a hundred extra policemen, patrolled the streets, guarding the property and lives of the citizens, too alarmed to rest easy in their beds. There was much good-natured rivalry in the i88o's and 90's between the fire companies of Salem and of Winston. The veteran member of Salem's Rough and Ready Fire Com- 92 Forsyth, a County on the March pany, Andrew J. Peddycord, has left on record an interesting instance of this rivalry. It occurred on Thanksgiving Day, 1892, when the recently opened, handsome Zinzendorf Hotel, present site of the C. H. Hill home on West Fourth, was totally destroyed by fire. Mr. Peddycord, driving the old Salem fire engine to the scene of fire was dashing up Cherry Street, just about to turn into Fourth, when he spied the Winston steamer, W. F. Keith engineer, en route to the Zinzendorf— not propelled by its own steam but hitched to the back of a streetcar, with engi- neer Keith seated on the top of the car. "I'll go by 'em this time!" declared the veteran fireman, and dropping the driving reins on his fine pair of black horses, he holloed, "Go!" and gave chase to the streetcar. When he reached the old Walker tobacco factory, now the Alexander x\partment, he shouted "Good-bye!" to the Win- ston firemen and dashed by their streetcar-driven steamer. When, however, the gallant driver of old Rough and Ready reached the hotel, laid out the hose line and coupled it to the hydrant, he found there was no water. All the heroic firemen of both towns could do was to load their hose and watch the fire destroy the most magnificent hotel Winston had ever erected. The fire was so intense that the heat was felt blocks away and the Davis School cadets and volunteer firemen were kept busy putting out fires on the roofs of adjacent buildings caught by sparks from the fly- ing shingles of the burning hotel. It was a bleak winter afternoon before the days of auto- mobiles or even streetcars in Winston that a policeman going his rounds found in a rather disreputable section of town two ladies, footsore and weary, sitting by the side of a railroad embankment. To the policeman's look of surprise, the elder of the ladies answered, her gentle face, framed in its widow's bonnet, Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 93 lighting up as she said reverently, "We are wearing out shoes to the glory of God." This spirit seems to have been the motive that prompted the ladies of the Benevolent Society, organized in the annex of Old Centenary Church, December 14, 1887, to do their remarkable work among Winston's poor and destitute for thirteen years and five months. When one considers the handicaps of the little band of con- secrated women— there were never more than ninety-odd names on their roll and during some years there were less than thirty— and few of them rich in this world's goods, one marvels at their courage in face of discouragement. While the annual dues of the members and the contribu- tions of the husbands and "gentlemen friends" who were en- rolled as honorary members formed the steady revenue for the work of the society, the generous collections gathered at the big union meeting of all the churches in Centenary Church on some evening each year between Thanksgiving and Christ- mas helped greatly. Then, too, there were the annual Thanks- giving offerings of the West End School children, and later of the other schools. On the day before the Thanksgiving holidays, the West End pupils would bring their off erings— pennies and dimes and nickels they had earned or saved from their small allowances —potatoes and pumpkins and apples, home-canned peaches and tomatoes, sacks of meal and pounds of sugar; Superin- tendent John J. Blair, with his artistic skill, would arrange the offerings on the rostrum and then make an occasion of their pubUc presentation to representatives of the society; there would be Thanksgiving songs and recitations and the choos- ing of some of the children to accompany the ladies in their distribution of the gifts. If at times the ladies (as the time-stained Ledger always designates the members of the society) were imposed upon by the supplicants at their doors, or a "case" helped for years 94 Forsyth, a County on the March would prove unworthy, they would put it down in their records as a mistake of the head and not of the heart. Among the "cases" there was old Mr. B., an unwashed Confederate soldier, who year after year made capital of his patriotism. There was the glib-tongued Mrs. E., who, accom- panied by her bad Httle son— the "onliest one" as she always spoke of him— would sit for hours at the fireside of some sympathetic lis tener-to-her- woes. There was the notorious Mrs. M., who flatly refused to go to the poor house, pre- ferring, she said, to continue being fed by the ladies rather than be dependent on strangers. Such pure charity breathes from the old Ledger, such for- getfulness of self, that as we read the faded words we feel almost as if we were reading a second book of the Acts of the Apostles: June 14, 1893. "Mrs. Hamilton, whom we have assisted since we have had a society, died in May. She was 94 years old and we have the consolation of knowing that we bright- ened her bedside by giving her some comforts she never would have received if it had not been for this society. She died trusting in the Saviour." October, 1893. "We are sorry we could not order any wood as we had no funds. We greatly regret this as it will be a hard winter and so many will need help as they have had so little to do this summer." February 10, 1897. "We wish to make special mention of a munificent gift of thirty dollars from the generous firm of Taylor Brothers. During the last few weeks the treasury has been heavily taxed." April, 1897. "The meeting was rather a gloomy one, for dispondency crept into our hearts as we faced an empty treas- ury and in debt seven dollars. The question was asked. What shall we do? After discussion it was finally decided that the society would appeal to the public for aid, and Mrs. Wiley was requested to write an article for the city paper. We trust Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 95 that she will touch the hearts of the people in a manner that will call forth willing and liberal response." January, 1901. "Our hearts are indeed sorrowful over the recent death of Mrs. W. T. Martin, one of our most efficient members. Among her last deeds while lingering between life and death, she distributed alms to 'a little one' in His name." The officers of the first two years of the Benevolent Society were, in 1887, Mrs. S. S. Hendren, president; Mrs. C. H. Wiley, vice-president; Mrs. Frank Martin, secretary; Mrs. John W. Alspaugh, treasurer; in 1888, Mrs. C. H. Wiley, president; Mrs. J. C. Buxton, vice-president; Mrs. Mary C. Prather, secretary; Mrs. D. Rich, assistant secretary; Mrs. John W. Alspaugh, treasurer. The summer of 1887 marks the casting aside of the old gasolene and kerosene street lamps and the lighting of Win- ston with electric lights. The Winston Electric Light and Motive Power Company was incorporated March 25, 1887. The officers of the stock- holders of this company were Judge D. H. Starbuck, presi- dent; Captain D. P. Mast, treasurer; the directors were T. L. Vaughn, J. E. Gilmer, J. A. Bitting, A. Ryttenberg, W. A. Whitaker. At eight o'clock on the evening of August 26, 1887, Colo- nel Bitting by a turn of the hand connected the street lines with the arch dynamo machine, and the awaiting spectators on the streets were dazzled with the first flash of Winston's electric lights. The coming on of the lights proved a seven days' wonder to the people of Winston and the surrounding country; the battery was near the jail, and at eight o'clock each evening when the current was turned on, there would be a crowd standing around to see the dazzling sight. Some weeks after the installing of electricity, early one September afternoon during a severe thunderstorm, the g6 Forsyth, a County on the March people of Winston were startled by the sudden flashing on of all the thirty-seven arc street lights; for fivt minutes the lights burned with intense brightness, then snapped out. Some months after the installment of electric lights Win- ston and Salem began the movement for an electric street railway; on March ii, 1899, ^^e Winston-Salem Street Rail- way Company was incorporated. In January, 1891, the Elec- tric Company and the Street Railway Company were con- solidated under the name of Winston-Salem Railway and Electric Company. The Union Republican of Thursday, July 17, 1890, gives the following account of the starting of the streetcars. "Monday afternoon marked another step in the ever-grow- ing prosperity of our towns. It was the starting of the electric streetcars, an event looked for with much eagerness and ex- pectation. President F. J. Sprague, whose system operated the plant, arrived upon the noon train. About 2 o'clock p.m. the first car made a trial trip over the line, occupied by President Sprague, Vice-President E. L. Hawkins, J. H. Mc- Clemment, Mr. Field of the Field Engineering Company, Mr. Bourn of the Sprague Company and others. "Although the machinery was all new and the track just laid, everything worked like a charm. A large company of citizens witnessed the passing of the car and the Salem Band made music as a token of appreciation for this great enterprise in our midst. It is to be regretted, however, that all the re- quired tests were not made first and Tuesday afternoon ap- pointed for an appropriate jollification with music, speeches, a 'turnover of the line' and so forth. The citizens were eager for such a manifestation and waited for an announcement to that effect. "Tuesday, July 15, 1890, the cars began to run regularly, and the excursionists from Raleigh made free use of them as did also our visitors from Greensboro yesterday, July 16. "For the past few nights there has been a perfect jam of Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 97 merry pleasure seekers spinning up and down the line, and the streets thronged with spectators. 'It is certainly a great step forward, an enterprise that involved a large outlay, which signifies the confidence foreign capitalists have in our present and future welfare, and we believe that the investment will never be a cause for regret. Onward is the watchword in the Twin Cities and the entire Piedmont section has long ago caught the spirit of the times. "To the citizens in town and in country we would say that the five handsome new streetcars and two flats which will soon be operated on schedule time, the lights, the building and machinery that operates the whole, is a sight worth witness- ing. It will cost nothing to look at and but a nickel to ride." It was on May 4, 1885, that Winston's first daily newspaper appeared— the Twiit City Daily, a modest folio, 12 inches to the page, owned and edited by P. F. Doub and ZoUicoffer Whitehead. It was not until December 12, 1887, however, when J. O. Foy assumed complete control of the paper, that it really began to make an impress upon the life of Winston. In the meanwhile the Western Sentinel under the manage- ment of Edward A. Oldham was taking on new life. In 1883 Mr. Oldham, having acquired the interest of G. M. Mathes, placed on the date line of the paper for the first time the hyphenated word Winston-Salem. In 1885 Mr. Oldham merged the Winston Leader with his paper and introduced many new features in the staid old Democratic weekly. In 1888 Vernon W. Long succeeded Mr. Oldham as editor. In 1890 the Tnjoin-City Daily acquired the Western Sentinel, continuing its publication as a weekly and adding the word Sentinel to the title of the Daily. In 1892 WilHam F. Burbank purchased the two Sentinels— the weekly Western Sentinel and the Tivin-City Daily Sen- tinel, and upon his removal to California two years later continued the publication of the periodicals under an incor- porated publishing company. 98 Forsyth, a County on the March Winston's second daily newspaper was The Journal which, founded by C. L. Knight with the help of J. R. Justice, made its first appearance on April 3, 1897. For several years The Journal was published as an afternoon paper. On January 2, 1902, it became a morning paper and also commenced the publication of a Sunday issue. Since May i, 1937, the Winston-Salem Journal, the Tivin- City Sentijiel, and the Sunday Journal and Sentinel have been published by the Piedmont Publishing Company. Gordon Gray is president of the Company and publisher of the newspapers. In the development of Winston from the small country town of the i88o's the Chamber of Commerce has played an important part. This organization, composed of the leading citizens of Salem as well as of Winston, from its very begin- ning referred in its minutes to our community as Winston- Salem, thus anticipating the time when the two independent municipalities would be united as one city. The first mention of the Chamber of Commerce— spoken of as the Board of Trade— is to be found in the Union Repub- lican of Thursday, September 24, 1885, and reads as follows: "A meeting of the business men of the two towns was called on Monday evening last, September 21, at the office of Cap- tain E. F. Young [who is listed in the 1884 Directory of Winston as a broker, residing at the Central Hotel] to take into consideration the organization of a Board of Trade for the town of Winston." The first Minute Book of the Chamber of Commerce was burned on the night of February 5, 1889, when the store of the secretary-treasurer, J. D. Paylor, in which the book was kept, was destroyed by fire. Therefore the official records of the Chamber begin with the February 9, 1889, meeting of the Directors: John W. Fries, president, J. E. Gilmer, vice- president, C. A. Hege, R. Stevens, J. L. Patterson, John W. Hanes, Chesley Hamlen, S. E. Allen, and J. M. Rogers. Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 99 However, important items concerning the beginning days of the Chamber have been found in the Ujiion Republican (which has the only complete file of local newspapers, the other early daily and weekly newspapers of Winston having been destroyed by fire) . The U7iioji Republican of Thursday, October 22, 1885, states: "At a meeting of citizens of Winston-Salem held Sep- tember 28, 1885, to consider the propriety of organizing a Chamber of Commerce for the two towns, a form of Con- stitution [evidently worked out at the called meeting in the office of Captain Young on the evening of September 21] was submitted by W. A. Whitaker, A. B. Gorrell, J. M. Rogers, H. E. Fries, G. W. Hinshaw, C. Hamlen. [A com- mittee] was appointed to examine and revise this paper and report to an adjourned meeting on October 5th. At said meet- ing (October 5) the form of constitution hereinafter given was ordered to be printed and distributed among the citizens of the towns for their consideration and the undersigned were elected a committee to attend to this duty. "In the discharge of this task the committee felt that it was proper to submit to the public concerned some explanations and suggestions in regard to the character, principles, and uses of the important movement now inaugurated." (Then follows the explanation of the objects of the Association.) In the November 12, 1885, issue of the Union Republican appears the next reference to the newly organized association: "The Chamber of Commerce met in the Armory of the Forsyth Rifles Monday evening the 9th inst. Mr. J. M. Rogers was called to the chair and Willis E. Hall, Esq. requested to act as secretary. "Mr. Morris, Chairman of the Committee to the Tobacco Association reported that the Association declined to join the organization as a body, but the Association passed resolutions of sympathy with the movement and urged its individual members to join. lOO Forsyth, a County on the March "Mr. Joe Stockton reported from the Committee to the A^erchants but no definite action thereon was had. "On motion of Mr. John W. Fries the Secretary read the Constitution by articles which were considered and amended in many particulars. "Among other things the initiation fee was reduced to $6. Finally a call was made for membership under the present alterations of the Constitution; 20 firms signified a willing- ness to join." The Union Republican of November 19, 1885, reports: "Another meeting of this organization was held in the Armory Monday night the i6th inst. to effect a permanent organiza- tion and to elect the ofHcers. The meeting w^as called to order by Mr. J. M. Rogers, Captain E. F. Young, secretary. "Upon an election for permanent officers being held, the following were elected: president, J. M. Rogers; first vice- president, John W. Fries; second vice-president, W. A. Whitaker; Board of Directors consisting of 8 members, to wit: H. E. Fries, C. A. Hege, C. A. Fogle, R. J. Reynolds, P. H. Hanes, W. B. Carter, Jr., E. A. Pfohl, George W. Hinshaw. "A committee was appointed to secure a charter for the Association. "Thirty-seven business firms were represented in the meet- ing and it is confidently believed and expected that others will join now that the association is permanently organized and fully officered; and upon a thorough investigation of the organization and from the character of the gentlemen enlisted, we are satisfied that it is upon a business footing, that its object is a good one and as such deserves the hearty cooperation of all." The minutes of the called meeting October 17, 1885, of the Board of Aldermen has a reference to the Chamber of Com- merce which shows the activity of the Chamber from its very Glimpses of Small-Town Winston loi beginning: "Mr. E. F. Young, secretary pro. tern, of the Chamber of Commerce of Winston and Salem recently or- ganized," the record states, "appeared and in behalf of the Chamber of Commerce requested that the Board of Town Commissioners aid in repairing the main thoroughfares lead- ing into Winston, representing to the Board the deplorable condition of such roads. "After discussion ... it was moved and carried that the Street Committee instruct the Street Superintendent to do upon Shallowford and Germantown roads $ioo worth of work ... to be done under supervision of Street Committee and a committee from the Chamber of Commerce." An item in the U72ion Republican of November 19, 1885, refers also to this matter, stating, "At the first meeting [of the Chamber] to consider a constitution presented for adoption, the matter of our public roads leading into town was dis- cussed and the temporary president appointed a committee to raise money for the improvement of said roads and the sum of $1,600 was raised." The following items from the records of the Chamber, 1 889- 1 896, show the wide range of the civic activities of this group of interested, wide-awake citizens. February 9, 1889. The Board of Directors met in a called meeting to consider what action should be taken concerning the bill now before the legislature to lower the legal rate of interest. The secretary was authorized to send a telegram at once to Speaker Leazer and Representative Reynolds of the county protesting on behalf of the Chamber against the pas- sage of said bill. April 13, 1889. Mr. J. C. Buxton stated that in an informal meeting of some of our citizens held a few days since with citizens of Kernersville, a resolution was passed requesting this meeting of the Chamber to be called to consider the question of the extension of the High Point, Randleman, I02 Forsyth, a County on the March Ashboro, and Southern Railroad to Winston via Kernersville. Mr. Buxton moved that the Chamber appropriate $ioo to- ward the expense of surveying said route. March ii, 1890. The meeting was called to consider (i) a pubHc government building for Winston, (2) the proper advertising of our material resources and other advantages, (3) improvement of our railroad schedules. The standing Committee on Trade and Transportation was requested to make special effort to secure separate freight and passenger trains on all railroads entering Winston and to urge a more accommodating schedule on all the same. April 18, 1890. The Chamber met in special meeting to consider the question of procuring the removal of Davis Mili- tary School from La Grange to Winston-Salem. Mr. G. W. Hinshaw for the Committee on Location read a report rec- ommending citizens of Winston-Salem to subscribe and donate $20,000 to aid and encourage Colonel Davis to locate his school here. Subscriptions were at once opened and $6,500 subscribed. October 8, 1890. A special committee was appointed to look into the matter of free postal delivery for Winston. December 5, 1890. Mr. C. B. Watson spoke upon the neces- sity of collecting accurate statistics of temperature and rain- fall, and Dr. Henry Bahnson made a strong appeal, showing the necessity for keeping vital statistics also. January 30, 1891. President John Hanes stated the object of the meeting was to consider the matter of locating at this place the Agricultural and Mechanical School for colored people. The Chamber was informed that a delegation from the colored people was in waiting and on motion said delega- tion was invited to come before the Chamber, and its spokes- man Professor Atkins addressed the Chamber in an eloquent and impressive manner. Colonel John W. Alspaugh, Messrs. R. B. Crawford, W. A. Whitaker, and T. J. Wilson were appointed to take the whole matter in charge. Mr. R. B. Glenn Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 103 and the secretary (W. A. Blair) were appointed a committee to memorialize the Legislature upon this subject. February 9, 1891. The Committee on the Industrial School for colored people reported that Messrs. Eller and Starbuck had offered to donate an admirable site of 25 acres and give an easy option on 25 acres additional, that owing to the bad weather the canvass had not been pushed but that about $1,250 had been raised. Professor Atkins was introduced and stated that the colored people had raised $2,000 and could raise $500 more. June 15, 1 89 1. The Chamber's attention was called to the fact that while excursion rates were given on railroads to almost all points in North Carolina, our city was "coldly, calmly passed by." April 7, 1892. The question of a paid fire department was discussed. November 14, 1892. The President spoke of the terrific fire which had visited our city, and said it seemed right to call together our best citizens to set on foot preventive measures for the future. January 2, 1893. Mr. Robert B. Glenn spoke of the advisa- bility of bringing up the question of consolidation under the name of Winston-Salem. April 2, 1894. Mr. George Hinshaw of the Committee on Internal Improvements reported that arrangements for hold- ing the Fruit Fair here had been almost completed but that the frost had probably killed all the fruit and hence there would be no fair. January 20, 1896. Professor S. G. Atkins, President of the Slater Industrial Academy, was introduced and made an entertaining and delightful speech, telling of the work of the Academy. In 1905 Slater Industrial and State Normal School, a monu- ment to its founder. Dr. S. G. Atkins, came fully under state control as one of the state institutions for the training of I04 Forsyth, a County on the March Negro teachers. For more than half a century, Dr. Atkins held the confidence and respect of both white and colored races in the community. He was a pioneer in the industrial development of his race and in the teacher-training depart- ment in Negro education. Amid his varied and arduous duties as head of the Slater School (in 1925 under a new charter renamed The Winston-Salem Teachers' College) he found time to work through civic activities for the welfare and progress of his race in our community; and in state-wide and nation-wide movements relating to the labor and economic aspects of the race problem he at all times manifested active interest. Concerning the beginning days of the local Y.Al.C.A. the following items have been culled from an interesting article by Colonel William A. Blair in the Anniversary Edition of the Twin-City Sentinel, May 4, 1935: In the annex of Old Centenary Church, on Sunday, Octo- ber 7, 1888, with Captain R. B. Crawford acting as chairman and W. A. Blair as secretary pro tem, the Association was organized with 129 charter members. A committee was appointed consisting of the following men from the various churches of the town: Rev. E. P. Davis, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Major Samuel H. Smith, Mr. Frank A. Coleman, Dr. W. J. Conrad, Mr. Rufus Spaugh, Rev. W. E. Swaim. This committee was instructed to draw up a constitution and by-laws and report at the next meeting, to be held October 14, 1888, in the First Baptist Church. Messrs. Eugene E. Gray, W. T. Carter, E. A. Ebert, J. C. Buxton, Robert B. Glenn, and B. F. Norman were appointed a committee to select rooms for the Association. For $25 per month, later reduced to $20, the committee secured suitable quarters in the upper story of the Jacobs Building, Main and Third, owned by a pioneer Hebrew mer- Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 105 chant of the town, Mr. Joe Jacobs, a broad-minded, public- spirited citizen; and the Association was immediately launched. Mr. E. L. Harris, who had had experience in Y work in other cities, was employed as general secretary. In a few years a Woman's Auxiliary, consisting of repre- sentatives from the different denominations, and the Boys Department were organized on a budget of $2,500. The early membership fee was $2.00 and for an additional $2.00 the member had the use of the one small bathtub, soap and towels thrown in. For the sum of $4.50 a stove was purchased for the assem- bly room and later a bulletin board-paid for, no doubt, by the committee appointed to secure it, Major T. J. Brown, W. S. Clary, and John W. Hanes. At one meeting, in 1893, the secretary reported that the Association had no Bibles and was short on chairs and hymn books; he also stated that some of the boys who used the rooms had rough appearances and still rougher manners. At a meeting in 1896 thanks were voted the telephone company for a free phone, and a complimentary ticket of membership was ordered to be sent the company. In 1897 the Association moved their quarters to Brown's Opera House, Main and Fourth; educational classes were added to the work of the Association, and a gymnasium opened with lockers, bath, and dressing rooms. In 1906 under the inspiring leadership of Robert C. Nor- fleet, president of the Y at that time, the sum of $55,000 was subscribed in a whirlwind campaign of fifteen days for a building to be erected on the corner of Fourth and Cherry- present site of the Nissen Building. Of such public interest was this campaign for a new Y that the completion of the fund was announced in a very unusual manner. By special permission of the Board of Aldermen, at 8: 15 P.M., on December 7, 1906, the fire alarm sounded forth fifty times, one stroke for every thousand dollars raised. In io6 Forsyth, a County on the March 1908 the handsome four-story stone building of colonial design was opened and occupied. From May 14, 1900, to May 12, 191 3, when by popular vote Winston ceased to be a separate municipality and through consolidation with Salem became Winston-Salem, Winston had only two mayors: O. B. Eaton and Rufus I. Dalton. In 1900 O. B. Eaton was elected for a term of two years; since, however, in 1902 Winston had no election (in com- pHance with the state law that no municipal election could be held in the same year as the general state election), he was retained in office an additional year. Elected again in 1903, he remained in office until 19 10. The 191 1 municipal vote re- sulted in the election of Rufus I. Dalton as mayor. Serving with Mayor Dalton as the last official board of small-town Winston were the following aldermen: Thomas Maslin, J. Walter Dalton, Garland E. Webb, J. R. Watkins, C. L. Bagby, N. D. Dowdy. These last thirteen years of Winston saw the town expand- ing in many directions. The building operations were exten- sive; industry became more diversified; the street railway was extended to East Winston; the Children's Home, site of the old Davis Military School, was estabhshed; the Associated Charities organized, and also the Y.W.C.A.; the city school system was expanded, especially in the erection of a separate building for the high school department— the handsome Cherry Street High School; a fine city hall was erected at a cost of $75,000, and the agitation for a public library was brought to a successful conclusion in the erection of Carnegie Library on Cherry Street. The movement for a public library began in 1903 when through the efforts of J. C. Buxton, chairman of the City School Board, Andrew Carnegie agreed to donate to the city of Winston the sum of $25,000 for the erection of a building Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 107 upon the condition that the city would furnish a lot and make an annual appropriation of not less than $2,500 for the main- tenance of the institution. In a mass meeting in February, 1903, Mr. Buxton ac- quainted the citizens of Winston with Mr. Carnegie's proposi- tion. Time and again he appeared before the Board of Alder- men concerning the matter; he discussed it also with the commissioners of Salem. It was not until the October meeting of the Board of Aldermen, however, that official steps were taken in the matter through the appointment of a special committee to meet with a like committee from Salem. On December 21, 1903, the Winston Board of Aldermen after an earnest appeal from Mr. Buxton adopted the following resolution: "Whereas Mr. Andrew Carnegie has offered to the City of Winston-Salem, N. C. the sum of $25,000 to build a Public Library for the use and benefit of said Cities, "And whereas the joint committee appointed by the Board of Aldermen of the City of Winston and the Commissioners of the Town of Salem has reported to their respective Boards that it is not convenient at this time to accept said gift on the terms proposed by Mr. Carnegie and whereas Mr. Carnegie is willing to give the City of Winston the sum of Fifteen Thousand Dollars, provided the City of Winston will appro- priate $1,500 per year for the maintenance and support of the library and provide a suitable site for said Building, that the offer is hereby accepted on the part of the City of Winston and this Board hereby authorize the said Library Building to be erected on the east corner of the West End Graded School lot fronting on Fourth Street, belonging to the City of Win- ston, and the clerk of this Board is hereby authorized and instructed to certify this resolution to Mr. Andrew Carnegie and to express to him the thanks of the City of Winston for his liberal donation: "Resolved, that an annual appropriation of $1,500 is hereby io8 Forsyth, a County on the March made for the purpose of maintaining and supporting the said Hbrary; the sum to be available when the library building is completed and turned over the City. "Resolved, that Mr. J. C. Buxton, the Mayor of the City, and James K. Norfleet be and are hereby appointed as the building committee who shall have the whole matter in charge. W. E. Franklin, Secretary and Treasurer. O. B. Eaton." The building committee, after due consideration, decided that the West End School property was not the best location for a public library to be used by citizens residing in far distant sections of the town. Accordingly, a site was chosen in the heart of the town, on Third and Cherry, accessible by foot or by streetcar to all sections. On March 5, 1904, the Board of Aldermen formally au- thorized the purchase from Mr. James A. Gray of his lots on the corner of Third and Cherry at the price of $2,000, the same to be used for the Public Library building. At the April 17, 1905, meeting, Mr. Buxton appeared before the Aldermen and stated that the new library building was almost completed and that in as much as the library had no books, it would be well to appoint a committee of ladies to assist with the selection of books. The Board appointed Mr. Buxton and his building commit- tee to continue as the library committee for one year with power to elect a librarian, select any number of ladies to co- operate with the committee, and make all preparations for the opening of the institution. The library committee chose Mrs. Mary Prather as librar- ian and as a nucleus for the new library transferred to its empty shelves the well selected West End School library, founded through the indefatigable labors of the first superin- tendent, Julius L. Tomlinson. On February 14, 1906, Carnegie Library was formally opened. Mr. W. A. Whitaker, who had had much to do with Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 109 the founding of the old West End School and its fine library, checked out the first book. The years 1905- 1909 stand out in the history of Winston, for it was during these years that one of her citizens, Robert Broadnax Glenn, served as governor of North Carolina. Coming to Winston in 1886 from Danbury, where he had established himself as a rising young lawyer, Mr. Glenn be- came active in the civic and church affairs of his adopted home. He was especially interested in all that concerned the moral uplift of the youth of the community; he took an active part in the organization of the Y.M.C.A., and as an elder in the First Presbyterian Church he gave freely of his time and talents to that important office. In his youth Robert Glenn was an ardent advocate of tem- perance, and when he became governor of North Carolina he resolved to do all in his power to put down the liquor traffic in his beloved commonwealth. Gifted with a magnetic personality, with unusual powers of oratory, he led the campaign which eventually, in 1908, led to state-wide prohibition. In the face of powerful liquor interests, despite personal opposition and ridicule, he fearlessly gave voice, from one end of the state to the other, to the cause which he believed was right. It is of local interest to note that when state-wide prohibi- tion went into effect, on January i, 1909, the two wholesale liquor houses in our community and the twelve liquor saloons were closed. Before becoming governor, Mr. Glenn had brought distinc- tion to Winston by his fearlessness in the execution of his office as solicitor for the ninth judicial district; as U. S. Dis- trict Attorney under President Cleveland he made a distin- guished record. With the zeal he had used in fighting the liquor interests. Governor Glenn during his administration brought about better conditions in the state hospitals for the care of the no Forsyth, a County on the March insane and in the institutions for the deaf and dumb and the blind; he caused the enforcement of certain laws pertaining to the railroads of North Carolina; and he settled, to the satis- faction of creditors and with honor to the state, the debt which for years had been hampering North Carolina's progress. The greatest catastrophe which ever befell our town was the bursting of the large brick and cement city reservoir, at the northern end of Trade Street. The entire northern wall gave way unexpectedly at five o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, November 3, 1904, and the surging torrent of 1 80,000 gallons of water rushed east and then north following the ravine to Belo's Pond, carrying death and destruction in its path. Eight houses were swept away, the personal effects of the families living in them scattered everywhere. Nine persons were killed and numbers injured more or less seriously. The fire bells rang and the firemen of both tow^ns rushed to the scene of destruction to render heroic voluntary service. Just ten days before the bursting of the reservoir, Win- ston's new water plant (the erection of which was made possible by the passing of municipal bonds in January, 1904) was completed and water pumped into the new standpipe. Had the accident occurred a fortnight before, AA'inston would have been without water and, as the local press of the day stated, every cistern in town would have been dry in less than forty-eight hours. Among the people living near the reservoir who miracu- lously escaped death were a Negro man and his wife. They were carried safely in their bed on the crest of the flood to the bottom land around Belo's Pond. A boy whose mother was crushed to death in the collapse of the wall was saved because the bed on which he was sleeping was in an upper room under the roof, where the two sides came together in Glimpses of Small-Town Winston iii a peak; when the large stones hit the house, the low roof dropped over the bed, permitting the sleeping boy to con- tinue his nap in safety. Through the untiring efforts of Mrs. R. D. Moseley and her Whatsoever Circle of King's Daughters, the Christian women of Winston organized on March 8, 1905, the Asso- ciated Charities of Winston, an association supported by voluntary gifts, which during the expanding years of the 1900's did a great and lasting work among the poor and underprivileged of the community. Mrs. Henry L. Riggins was elected president of the new organization; Mrs. D. Rich, first vice-president; Mrs. James K. Norfleet, second vice-president; Mrs. J. M. Rogers, third vice-president; and Miss Annie Grogan, secretary, at a monthly salary of $20. It was thought best to have a business- man to handle the financial side; so Mr. J. F. Griffith was asked to serve as treasurer. The sum of $1,200 was set for the first year's goal. A com- mittee headed by Mrs. James K. Norfleet, Mrs. R. D. Mose- ley, and Mrs. Henry Foltz made a house-to-house canvass with the result that by May 30 the sum of $1,080.60 had been pledged. The first annual report shows that a total of $1,170.76 had been subscribed and that, in addition, $1,094.11 in cash had been collected and $20 in wood and merchandise. The early minutes of Associated Charities show how val- iantly the small group of women bearing the burden of the town's down-and-outs tried to solve the questions of segrega- tion and care of consumptives, street begging, employment of children under twelve years of age in factories, and unemployment. The following excerpts from the Book of Minutes give an idea of the foundational work of this organization, which in time led to present day city-county welfare agencies. June, 1907. Mrs. Moseley, Miss Mamie Dwire, and Mrs. 112 Forsyth, a County on the March Roddick were appointed a committee to look into the ques- tion of a day nursery greatly needed. December, 1909. In regard to the girl in jail, a committee was appointed to see her and find out if she would go to the Home for Girls in Asheville. Mrs. Manly offered to pay the expenses of some good woman to accompany her. April 28, 19 10. Mrs. Andrew Mickle suggested that the Associated Charities try to find a home for the consumptives (under care of the association) where they could all be cared for together. February 28, 191 1. Mrs. James K. Norfleet, Miss Blackwell (Methodist deaconess) and Miss Grogan, the secretary, were appointed to consult with Judge Hastings in regard to the establishing of a work house for girls and women. A big item in the early reports of the treasurer is that of transportation— sending back to the country and to various towns those who had moved into Winston for support. The story is told of "Miss Annie," as the secretary. Miss Annie Grogan, was affectionately called by rich and poor, that at one time of depression she advised so many out-of-work people to move into the country that a prominent business- man laughingly remonstrated with her, declaring, "Why, Miss Annie, if all your parishioners follow your advice, there will be so many people in the country you can't stir them with a stick." On January 30, 1908, the Y.W.C.A. of Winston-Salem was organized in the Presbyterian Church under the direction of Miss Anna Castle of the National Y.W.C.A. Board. Mrs. E. B. Jones, who was entertaining Miss Castle in her home and who herself was greatly interested in the welfare of young business girls, was elected the first president of the Y. While this was the formal organization of the local associa- tion along national Hues, for two or more years a small group of young business women sponsored by various groups of church women had been carrying on a Business Woman's Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 113 Club suggested by Miss Ada Snow. Miss Flora Leak, who knew personally almost every business girl in the small com- munity of the 1900's, and her mother, Mrs. Mattie Leak, be- came warm friends of Miss Snow, and one evening around the supper table these three friends and a new friend. Miss Caroline Hawkins, assistant to the pastor of the First Presby- terian Church, began to make plans for a club where working girls living in boarding houses might spend their off -hours. With Miss Hawkins as the head, the movement was soon launched. Dr. Neal Anderson, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, and Mr. J. M. Rogers, one of his elders, giving hearty support and encouragement. Mr. Rogers donated the use of a room over his hardware store— present site of Kress— and various other merchants contributed heavy curtains to divide the big room into assembly hall, tiny rest room, and kitchenette. Interested women gave furnishings for the rooms, including a piano. On the evening Miss Castle was organizing a real Y.W.C.A., the Brown-Rogers store caught on fire and the club rooms of the pioneer Y were completely destroyed by fire or water. New quarters were at once secured: a large room on the second floor of Gilmer Brothers on South Main Street, con- verted by means of beaver-board partitions into association room, with secretary's oflice in one corner, a reading room, and a kitchen. Miss Anna Shaw of Pittsburgh, a trained Y.W.C.A. official, was employed as secretary. In these rooms the association was housed until the late Mrs. R. J. Reynolds made possible the handsome and pleasant Y on First and Church streets. A survey of Winston during the last decade of her history as a separate municipaHty shows the business life of the town (the population, something over 17,167), centering about Courthouse Square, some distance down to the Union Depot, up Liberty a few blocks, down Main to Second. Cherry 114 Forsyth, a County on the March Street south from Fourth, upper Liberty; Fourth and Fifth streets west from Cherry were residential sections, with tree- lined sidewalks, broad front yards, and back-yard vegetable gardens surrounding the homes. There were no sprawling apartment houses, no skyscrapers. The tallest, most pretentious buildings were the seven-story Wachovia Bank and Trust Company on Third and Main; the Masonic Temple, erected in 1906, on Fourth and Trade; the three-story First National Bank Building on Liberty, erected in 1890; the Masten Building, Fourth and Main, erected in 19 10; the Jones Building, North Liberty just north of Fifth Street, erected in 1900; and the three-story O'Hanlon Building (soon after this period destroyed by fire and re- placed by the present tall, handsome structure). The Post Office, on the site of the present Federal Building but much smaller, had a working force of forty; there were fourteen letter carriers and four substitute carriers, and ten railway mail clerks who worked in and out of the town and who were paid through the local office. The Elks Auditorium— now the State Theatre— with a seating capacity of 2,300 was the principal auditorium for rec- reational and cultural purposes; the Amuzu, the Liberty, and the Rex, which was for Negroes only, were small moving picture shows. In 191 3 the great foreign trade of Winston was in its in- fancy. For shipment over the United States no special freight trains were necessary, and shipping by huge trucks was un- thought of. Few farmers used automobiles in bringing their tobacco to town; during great tobacco breaks, the covered wagons double-parked would crowd Trade Street, Main near Brown's Warehouse, and Fifth as far west as Spruce or even Poplar. Hundreds of farmers would sleep on the floors of the ware- houses or camp out in their parked wagons, cooking their Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 115 supper and breakfast by the light of the lanterns hung on at the backs of their wagons. When Winston voted for consolidation, the assessed value of property was $711 per capita; the bonded debt of the town was $61.20 per capita. The very fact that during the years preceding consolida- tion the women of Winston were, through their Women's Improvement League, waging a vigorous campaign for the beautifying and upkeep of public grounds and buildings, the enforcement of sanitary measures in keeping the town clean, shows not only that women were awakening to their respon- sibilities as citizens but that the town had need of more thor- ough official oversight of streets and public property. Among the measures urged by the Women's Improvement League were the regular flushing of the bithulithic streets and the sweeping and sprinkling of the unpaved streets; the use of tin garbage cans in place of old barrels and boxes; the en- forcement of law against "using as enlarged cuspidors" the inside walks and public buildings such as the Post Office and the Union Railroad Station; the beautifying and improve- ment of all the city school grounds, especially those of West End School, which were about to wash away. The minutes of the Board of Aldermen show that at the turn of the century the old question of allowing citizens to raise hogs on their town lots was still a matter of concern to the town authorities. Indeed, the question of Hogs or No Hogs was made an issue in certain sections of Winston in the matter of consolidation with Salem. The town records show that, in the months preceding the election on consolidation, first one large group of citizens in one section of the town and then another group in another section would present petitions asking to be allowed to con- tinue raising hogs; an equally large group of property-owners would promptly petition against hog-raising. It became a ii6 Forsyth, a County on the March delicate matter for the aldermen to decide, especially when it became evident that the vote for consolidation would be affected by the decision they made. Finally, on the evening of March 7, 191 3, the aldermen cast their votes, as many For as Against; the Mayor broke the tie, casting his vote for the negative. With the following excerpts from the minutes of the Winston Board of Aldermen concerning the consolidation with Salem these glimpses of small-town Winston come to a close. "February i, 191 3. Whereas an Act of the General Assem- bly of North Carolina was duly passed and ratified 27 th day of January 191 3 consoHdating as one municipality the City of Winston and the Town of Salem in the name of the City of W^inston-Salem, in accordance with the provisions con- tained in said Act, providing that the same should be ratified by the voters of the City of Winston in an election to be held in the City of Winston and by the voters of the Town of Salem in an election to be held in the Town of Salem; "Whereas if a majority of the votes cast in each of said elections should be in favor of the said consolidation as set forth in said Act of the General Assembly, "Be it ordained: that ... an election shall be held in the three wards of the City of Winston on Tuesday the i8th day of March 191 3 ... that the Mayor shall give proper and legal notice of the time and place of said election by publishing in some newspaper published in the City of Winston for at least 30 days prior to the date of said election. "May 18, 191 3. The returns of the election on Consolida- tion held March 18, 191 3 having been presented, they were approved. The votes cast were: First Ward 350 For, ^6 Against, total 406; Second Ward 210 For, 96 Against, total 306; Third Ward 204 For, 108 Against, total 312." On May 6, 191 3, the election of the official board for the municipality of the City of Winston-Salem was held, and the Glimpses of Small-Town Winston 117 following men were elected: mayor, O. B. Eaton; aldermen, first ward E. D. Vaughn, C. M. Cain; second ward G. E. Webb, P. S. Bailey; third ward N. D. Dowdy, G. W. Ed- wards; Salem ward H. F. Shaffner, Fred A. Fogle. On May 12, 191 3, the new Board met in the Council Cham- ber of the City Hall at 8:30 p.m. and took their oaths of office. V SMALLER TOWNS, VILLAGES, AND HAMLETS iV'iW THERE is something appealing about our North Caro- lina towns. Isaac Erwin Avery said of them, "They are the most charming places in the world, where folks send you good things to eat when you are sick and talk about you when you are well." Forsyth County is blessed with its share of the smaller units of population. They contribute to the social development of the people, although they do not shine with the lustre of the metropolis. No attempt is here made to present their full history; rather the aim is to tell of their origin, to relate interesting details in their development, and to list some of their representative family names. Bethabara, or Old Town On a November day in 1753, the first settlers reached Wachovia. They found a deserted cabin, formerly occupied by a frontiersman named Hans Wagner. Crowded into this welcome shelter, they celebrated their arrival with a lovefeast and sang a hymn composed for the occasion, probably the first poem on record composed in North Carolina: "We hold arrival lovefeast here In Carolina land." The hymn was sung to the accompaniment of wolves howl- ing in the wilderness. Next day all of the colonists were at work building their town, "some sharpening their axes and preparing their hoes, others beginning to construct a bakeoven, one exploring the country to find a mill where they might buy some com, etc., whilst three brethren were busy in the house, preparing a kind of garret with rough boards, where they could store their goods." The names of these first settlers were Bernhard Adam Grube, Jacob Loesch, Hans Martin Kalberlahn, Hans Peter- 122 Forsyth, a County on the March sen, Christopher Merkley, Herman Loesch, Erich Ingebret- sen, Heinrich Feldhausen, Johannes Lisher, Jacob Lung, Friedrich Jacob Pfeil, and Jacob Beroth. They were soon joined by other pilgrims. DweUing houses, a grist mill, and a meeting house were erected. In 1756 the settlement numbered sixty-five inhabitants. The village attracted travelers. This outpost in the wilder- ness offered hospitality. On the ancient trail to Virginia, Bethabara was visited by settlers and Indians. Cherokee, Creek, and Catawba Indians halted there, and more than five hundred passed through the settlement in 1757 and 1758. They described Bethabara as a place "where there are good people and much bread." The French and Indian War, begun in the north in 1754, spread southward. In 1756 a palisade was erected about the settlement. Guards were on duty. Settlers for a hundred miles around fled to Bethabara for refuge. They came from as far away as New River in Virginia and Alamance River in North Carolina. Brother Kapp, the miller, tried to provide meal for all the refugees. Indians surrounded the fort. One day a neighboring settler staggered into it with two arrows in his body. His companions had been killed, but he had escaped, wounded, and after long wandering reached the fort, where the arrows, one of which had pierced him through, were extracted. Fifteen settlers in the neighborhood were slain by the marauding Indians. Suddenly the Indians disappeared. Later the settlers learned that they had been frightened away by the ringing of the church bell and the blowing of the trumpet in the Httle set- tlement. Frontier guardsmen who patrolled the region in this period of danger included Daniel Boone, whose home was on the Yadkin River. After peace was restored, more settlers arrived in Wacho- via. Bethabara became an important center for trade. Neigh- Smaller Towns, Villages, and Hamlets 123 bors found here a community of devout, well-educated, and cultured inhabitants. According to plan, however, Bethabara was designed to be only a place of passage. Salem was estab- lished as the central town of Wachovia in 1766. Gradually the inhabitants of Bethabara moved thither. But there were still stirring scenes at the first settlement. Governor Tryon visited there, and his troops paraded in the meadow to the music of the Bethabara band. Lord Cornwallis marched through with his army in 1781. Today it is a small, picturesque community seemingly far removed from the busy industrial city of Winston-Salem. The ancient church, built in 1788, stands as a monument to the pilgrims who found their way into the wilderness and estab- lished themselves as the first settlers. The parsonage, built in 1778, is across the street. In the hilltop burial ground are the graves of the pioneers. Bethabara has been a house of passage. Without Bethabara there would have been no Salem and no Winston-Salem. Bethania Among the refugees who assembled in Bethabara during the Indian War there were some who desired to unite with the Moravian settlers, and there were also certain Moravians who wished to establish themselves independently instead of shar- ing in the closely-bound co-operative social system of the settlement. To accommodate these two classes, plans were made for a new settlement three miles west of Bethabara in a valley location known as Black Walnut Bottom. Bishop A. G. Span- genberg led the pioneers in selecting the site in June, 1759. Surveyor Renter measured off thirty town lots, two tracts of meadow land, several acres of upland for gardens and or- chards, and about two thousand acres of land set apart for use of the inhabitants. 124 Forsyth, a County on the March Moravian settlers who were assigned lots in the lower part of the village were Gottfried Grabs, Balthasar Hege, Charles Opiz, Christopher Schmidt, John Beroth, Adam Kremer, Michael Ranke, and Henry Bieffel. On July i8, Mr. and Mrs. Grabs and their little son William occupied the first cabin erected. The comforting Scripture text for the day was, "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." Indeed, there was need of such comfort, for the dangers of Indian warfare threatened this infant colony. Spangenberg and his party of town-builders rode their horses at a thundering gallop on the road from Bethabara to the new town, and it was well that they did, for Indian warriors were lurking in the forest along the trail, waiting for opportunity to attack. Neighbors who were permitted to settle in the upper part of the new town were Martin Hauser and his two married sons, George and Michael Hauser, Henry Spoenhauer, John Strup, Philip Shaus, Frederick Shore, a widower, and his son Henry Shore. In the year 1781, when the inhabitants of Bethania num- bered ninety-one, the quiet village was again brought into the theater of war. The army of Lord Cornwallis, pursuing Gen- eral Greene, was forced by high water to forego crossing the Yadkin River near Salisbury, and marched upstream beyond the west bank of the river to the crossing at Shallow Ford. The British army of five thousand Redcoats, with about as many camp-followers, descended upon the village on Feb- ruary 9. Lord Cornwallis selected as headquarters a house on Main Street north of the church, later the home of Professor A. I. Burner. Soldiers raided the neighborhood, seizing all the ducks, chickens, hogs, and cattle to be found and com- mandeering the horses. Fences and outbuildings were burned in campfires. Troopers located several still-houses in the re- gion outside the town. A commentator has stated that there was so much drunkenness that five hundred Colonial troops could have captured the entire army. Smaller Towns, Villages, and Hamlets 125 Bethania has from the beginning enjoyed cultural advan- tages. Education has been well supported and the community has been served by able teachers. A distinctive contribution to higher education was the work of Miss Emma Lehman, for many years a teacher at Salem College. Old Town High School serves the community today. A brick church built in 1 809, succeeding the first house of worship, was destroyed by fire in 1942; only the brick walls were left standing. In the fire the oldest pipe organ then in use in North Carolina was reduced to ashes. The church has since been rebuilt and is very nearly like the former building. Bethania has retained its old-world appearance. It is a quiet, neighborly village that attracts many visitors. Among the familiar Bethania names not already mentioned are Transou, Oehman, Chadwick, Kapp, and Holder. Friedberg A year after the first settlers arrived at Bethabara, Adam Spach, a native of Alsace, settled in the valley of a small creek south of the Wachovia Tract. For safety he cut a road through the forest from his home to Bethabara, and with his family he fled to the fort during the Indian War. Upon his urgent invitation, a minister visited his home in 1758 and preached to eight families there assembled. This was the beginning of the Friedberg congregation. A meeting house was built and was consecrated in 1769. Fourteen families united in this effort, of whom the men were Valentine Frey, Christian Frey, George Frey, Peter Frey, George Hartman, Adam Hartman, John Mueller, John Boeckel, Frederick Boeckel, Jacob Crater, Martin Walk, Peter Foltz, Adam Spach, and Christian Stauber. Another member later associated with the society was Marcus Hoehns (Hanes) . Friedberg Church has flourished, growing in membership 126 Forsyth, a County on the March until the congregation has become one of the largest among the rural churches in North CaroHna. Adam Spach, the Father of Friedberg, built a residence of stone, known widely as the Rock House. It was located over a spring and had a large basement into which cattle could be driven in case of siege. The walls were provided with port- holes. More than five thousand descendants of Adam Spach have been recorded. Other famihar names among the early settlers include Ebert, Fishel, Fisher, Rothrock, Tesch, Weisner, Zimmerman, Reich, Mendenhall, and Graver. Hope Southwest of Bethabara, between the present Hanes and Clemmons, the settlers Christopher Elrod and John Douthit invited Moravian ministers to preach in the neighborhood. These settlers sought refuge at the Bethabara fort in the Indian War. Several families from Carroll's Manor in Mary- land moved into this community. A meeting house was begun in 1775 but was not completed until 1780. The congregation was called Hope. Early residents of the community included families named Peddycord, Padget, Chitty, Boner, Goslen, Hamilton, Boyer, Markland, Slater, and Riddle. Many Moravians migrated to the Middle West early in the nineteenth century and founded a town in Bartholomew County, Indiana, which was named Hope after the congrega- tion in North Carolina. Friedland Several families arrived in Wachovia in 1769. They had first begun a settlement at Broad Bay, Maine, but were not pleased with the location. On their way to North Carolina Smaller Towns, Villages, and Hamlets 127 they had been shipwrecked off the coast of Virginia. These settlers were assigned land southeast of Salem and there founded Friedland. The names of early members were John Peter Green (Kroehn), Michael Rominger, Philip Christoph Vogler, Melchoir Schneider, Frederick Kuenzel, Michael Sides, Jacob Rominger, Frederick Miller, Jacob Hine, Peter Schneider, John Lanius, Peter Fiedler, George Frederick Hahn, and Jacob Reid. Additional names associated with the neighborhood are Williard, Swaim, and Smith. The army of Lord Cornwallis on the march in 178 1 camped for the night in the vicinity of Friedland. The church diary states: "The Friedland people living near the camp lost nearly all their forage and cattle. All sorts of excesses were com- mitted by wandering parties seeking food." The township in which Friedland is located is known as Broadbay, in memory of the earlier New England home of the first settlers. Belews Creek The early history of this settlement can be found only in fragments. In 1753 the survey on Belews Creek was recorded of 200 acres of land each for Thomas Linville (Linvall), Sr., and Thomas Linville, Jr., by Lord Granville's "sworn sur- veyor," William Churton. "Sworn chain carriers" were Wil- liam Barclay, Thomas and William Linville. In 1767 the county court in Salisbury granted three public roads from Salem, one leading to "Beloe's Creek." Salem agreed to care for seven miles of the road to "Blewers Creek." The new road to "Beloos Creek" was opened in 1773. Itinerant Moravian ministers preached at Belews Creek in 1772 and later, enjoying the hospitality of settlers Fehr, Say lor (Seeler), and others. Hoffman's son, from "Bielus Creek," was employed in 1774 as hostler at the Bethabara tavern. A military company from Belews Creek passed through Salem in 1776. The Salem diary comments: (1780) "A party 128 Forsyth, a County on the March of soldiers came from the Belews Creek settlement with about thirteen Tories, and they asked for a service." (1781) "The militia company from Beloe's Creek were to muster here today." (1781) "Forty men came from Below's Creek, and remained here over night." The Bethania diary: (1781) "The Captain, Cummens (Cummings) by name, came with another man who asked modestly for something to eat; we gave it to him and he left with many thanks." In April, 1782, Peter Lewis (Ludwig) on Belews Creek brought his infant son to Salem to be baptized. In 1786 there was noted the funeral of George Fulp (Volp), born in 17 18. "The Brethren proclaimed the Gospel several times in his home." Other names of early settlers appearing in the records from time to time are Neal, Preston, Pegram, Hester, Dean, Brooks, Strader, and McNally. Pfafftown Peter Pfaif, who was born in 1727, arrived in Wachovia in 1 77 1 and settled at Friedberg. His son Isaac married Mar- garet Fulk (Margaretha Volk) in Bethania; they made their home on a farm west of the town. In his old age Peter Pfaff moved there to join them. The Bethania diary recorded in 1801: "A very severe storm passed near us. At the home of Isaac Pfaff, three miles from here, lightning struck the shed and killed two horses. Fortunately it was a cold flash, and did not set the shed on fire. At the home of Joseph Pfaff, a short mile from there, it struck and splintered a tree about forty paces from the dwelling." The name of the family was early attached to the commu- nity. In selecting a preaching place in the outlying neighbor- hood, the Bethania authorities in 181 2 recommended "the house of Bro. Peter Pfaff, in Pfafftown, and the house of Br. Jacob Krieger." Smaller Towns, Villages, and Hamlets 129 Other familiar names of the Pfafftown community are Stultz and Wilson. Brookstown The family name of an early landowner is preserved in Brookstown. In 1793 Brooks Ferry on the Yadkin River was mentioned, and there may be some connection between this name and that of the settlement. Bethania records of 1808 state that most of its citizens "went to the annual election, some going to Salem, some to Germanton, and some to the place called Bruxe's Town, three miles from here, where the election is being held for the first time." In 18 14, however, the state legislature changed the voting place from "Brux's Town" to Bethania, where several hundred men gathered to vote. A Methodist church was established in Brookstown in the early years of the settlement. The Negroes of the community also had their place of worship. According to the Bethania records of 181 1, "The meeting for Negroes, set for the after- noon, could not be held, as most of the Negroes had gone to Bruxe's Town to hear the funeral sermon of one of their race who had died there some time ago." The oldest house standing in the community was built by the Conrad family. Other familiar Brookstown names are Dobb, Mickle, Hunt, Hauser, and Rayle. Rural Hall "Hermanns (Harmon) Miller enters one hundred acres of land in Surry County, lying on a Branch of Beaver Dam Creek, beginning on Jacob Lash's Line ... Jan. 3d, 1778." This entry introduces Beaver Dam, the name first given to Nazareth EvangeUcal Lutheran Church of Rural Hall. The church records state that the congregation was organized in 1785 and that A. Kiger gave the land for the school. 130 Forsyth, a County on the March Since there was a scarcity of Lutheran ministers, from 1 796 for a score of years Moravian ministers served the congrega- tion by request. In these years funerals were conducted for deceased members of the families of Kreeger, Petree, Moser, and Keiger. A funeral service for Hermanns Miller, men- tioned above, was conducted in 18 18. In that year the commu- nity numbered twenty families. In 181 3 the visiting minister commented that preaching was held once a month and on the other Sundays a free school was conducted. The present building was erected in 1879. In time the railway lines to North Wilkesboro and Mount Airy converged in the town, and the name Rural Hall was bestowed upon the village. A thriving industrial and trading center has developed, and a county high school serves the comm.unity. The town is incorporated. Among the names familiar in the story of Rural Hall are Stauber, Payne, Helsabeck, Flynt, Westmoreland, Wilson, Lash, Tuttle, and Kiser. Clemmons Clemmons derives its name from Peter Clemmons. His son, Edwin Thomas Clemmons, who was born in the neighbor- hood, was a prominent operator of stage-coach lines, at one time having six stages running out of Salem. The last surviving stage coach operated by him, named the "Hattie Butner" in honor of his wife, ran for some time between Salem and High Point. Its last run was between Old Fort and Asheville. This stage coach is now a popular exhibit in the Hall of History of the Wachovia Historical Society. In its early years Clemmons was a small but flourishing community. It drew trade from the river plantations, and tradition says that when customers desired the latest style in ladies' hats, they went to Clemmons rather than to Salem. The old brick house built by Philip Hanes, son of Marcus, Smaller Towns, Villages, and Hamlets 131 is a landmark not far from the village. T. Holt Haywood's Arden Farm is located on Muddy Creek to the east. Along the Yadkin River are the estates of W. N. Reynolds and R. E. Lasater. Across the river is the estate of S. Clay Williams. Familiar names in the earlier history of the community are Johnson, Griffith, Blackburn, Hall, Sprinkle, Hunter, Hege, Strupe, Cooper, Jones, Davis, and Fulton. Kernersville The largest tow^ in Forsyth County, next to Winston- Salem, is Kernersville. Its elevation is about seventy-five feet higher than its city neighbor and it is the source of Haw River, Deep River, Abbotts Creek, Salem Creek, and Belews Creek. The story of Kernersville begins with the coming about 1756 or 1760 of Caleb Story, a native of Ireland, who bought 400 acres of land near the Guilford County line east of the AVachovia Tract, the tradition being that he paid for it with four gallons of rum. Story sold the land to a man named Dob- son, and for many years the name Dobson's Cross Roads was applied to this locality. President George Washington in 1791 halted for breakfast at Dobson's Tavern, then located at the crossroads. The Dobson land-holdings increased to 1,032 acres, and were sold in 1 8 1 3 to Gottlieb Schober, of Salem. Schober trans- ferred the property to his son Nathaniel, who in 18 17 sold it to Joseph Kerner, a resident of the Friedland community. The name was then changed to Kerner's Cross Roads. Kerner added more land, and at his death in 1830 he left 1,100 acres to be divided among three heirs. John F. Kerner received the portion to the west of what is now Main Street; Philip Kerner's share was the land to the east and the home- stead; the daughter Salome, who had married ApoUos Har- mon, received a share to the south. 132 Forsyth, a County on the March Sale of lots began in 1 840 and led to an increasing number of residents. The thriving town of Kernersville developed and was incorporated in 1869. Joseph Armstrong was elected the first mayor. Julius Kerner, a descendant of Joseph, was a widely known painter and decorator who operated under the professional name of Reuben Rinck. The residence that he built on Main Street is known as Kerner's Folly, because of its strange architectural designs, with all the windows of different sizes and doors on various levels. The house is still a marvel and a delight to visitors. The Southern Railway came to Kernersville in 1873. Indus- tries have multiphed and there is brisk trade. Nine churches serve the town. Among the familiar names in Kernersville history are Beard, Linville, McCuiston, Lindsay, Lewis, Davis, Griffith, Leak, Gentry, Guyer, Fulton, Roberts, Stewart, Shore, Staf- ford, Greenfield, Henley, Stockton, Ring, Vance, Fulp, Plunkett, Armfield, Whittington, Hooper, Huie, Ray, Sapp, Rights, Hendrix, Lowery, Pinnix, and Atkins. Walkertown "Across the Town Fork Road from John Armstrong, Robert Walker secured 400 acres, formerly 'the Douglas Place,' his grant being dated 1779." This tract was northeast of Salem and appears designated on a map of 1771, "Robt. Walker." The family name Walker spread throughout the vicinity and it is probable that Walkertown derives its name from this family. At the headwaters of Walker Creek a tract of land was listed on a map of 177 1 in the name of Sam Wagner. It seems that Wagner was involved in the War of the Regulators and was denied pardon by Governor Tryon. At any rate, the Smaller Towns, Villages, and Hamlets 133 name Wagner, or Wagoner, or Waggoner, has been long familiar in the Walkertown neighborhood. Tradition holds that the Methodist Church was organized in 1 79 1. A deed of 1797 records that "Thos. Tucker & Ann his wife transferred to James Love, Sr., Edmond Jean, Wil- liam Jean, James Love, Jr., Edward Cooley, Robert Fulton and Archibald Campbell, Trustees" one acre for use of the Methodist Church. The journal of Bishop Francis Asbury has this entry for Monday, October 7, 1799: "We rode through Stokes County, and attended a meeting at Love's Church, which has glass windows and a yard fenced in." Love's Church was destroyed by fire in 1947. Rebuilding began soon thereafter. Morris Chapel, named for the Morris family, is near by. Today Walkertown is on the Norfolk & Western Railway, and a county high school is located there. Among other familiar names in the Walkertown commu- nity are Sullivan, Grubbs, Young, Idol, Whicker, Disher, Siewers, Sell, Crews, Mecum, Moir, Van Hoy, Hester, Ham- mack, and Jones. Lewisville Lewis Lagenauer, a descendant of the Lagenauer family that came to Friedland about 1773, settled in western Forsyth County and built a substantial brick house. Tradition has it that the village which grew up about this home was called Lewisville after the first name of the founder. Not far from Lewisville along the Yadkin River the Wil- liams family settled before the Revolution, and the plantation at Panther Creek has had a long and interesting history. Up- stream was the Martin plantation. West of the village in the big bend of the river is West Bend, a small settlement, among whose familiar names are Black, Jones, McBride, Hauser, Dinkins, and Nading. The land in the bend of the river was until recent years a part of 134 Forsyth, a County on the March Yadkin County, and a former resident of West Bend, B. Franklin Jones, served as sheriff of Yadkin County. A county high school is located in Lewisville. This school suffered the loss of its building by fire, but has risen again from the ashes. Miss Anna Ogburn has opened the doors of her "Sunny Acres" farm as a friendly community center. Among the familiar Lewisville names are Craft, Wagoner, Dull, Fulk, and Reynolds. Teaguetown Near the southeast corner of the county is Teaguetown, named for the Teague family. It has no church, but not far away are Abbotts Creek Primitive and Missionary Baptist churches to the south. Union Cross Moravian to the north, and Bunker Hill Baptist and Methodist churches to the east. Down below the bend in the road is the location of the ghost town Browntown, once a busy place where circuses performed, now completely deserted. Along Abbotts Creek settled Barnett Idol, whose son Jacob was a soldier in the Continental Army during the Revolution. Barnett Idol's grandson Barnett married Rachel Chipman, a descendant of John Howland, a Pilgrim of the Mayflower voyage. Farther down the creek camped the armies of General Greene and Lord Cornwallis, and there are stirring legends of Colonel Spurgeon, an ardent Tory, and of his wife and son, who were equally zealous for the cause of the colonies. Even the Indians contributed by burying a cache of chipped stone blades, which were plowed up on the Sell farm at Teaguetown. Family names here include Raper, Smith, Hayworth, Bo- denheimer, Newsome, Jones, Charles, and Swaim. Union Cross Union Cross is located at the junction of the Kernersville and High Point roads. Store, school, and church serve the Smaller Towns, Villages, and Hamlets 135 community. Among familiar names in this section are Smith, Williard, Weavil, Bodenheimer, and Tucker. Dennis In Salem Chapel township is the flag-stop on the Norfolk & Western Railway known as Dennis. John D. Waddill, a resident of the past generation, was a large landowner here. Because of his extensive property he was known throughout the county as the Earl of Dennis. Other family names in the vicinity include Marshall and Fulp. DONNAHA Donnaha is located under the hill of the Old Richmond Courthouse site. Although located along the Southern Rail- way and the Yadkin River, it never grew up. Some say that the name is derived from early settlers; others, that it is named for an Indian chief. Certainly the river valley at Donnaha was once the location of a large Indian village. Many objects of Indian origin have been found at this site, and enough of them to fill a large show case are now in the Wachovia Museum. Idols Idols is just a flag-stop on the Southern Railway at the end of the trestle across the Yadkin River beyond Clemmons. It is named for the Idol family. It has the distinction, however, of being the site of the first hydro-electric plant in the South for transmission of electric power to distant communities. This plant was built in 1898 by Henry E. Fries, manager of the Fries Manufacturing and Power Company. The name Idols replaced the older one, Douthit's Ferry. 136 Forsyth, a County on the March Bannertown East of Rural Hall is a district formerly known locally as Bannertown. Descendants of Henry Banner, the first settler in the neighborhood, are numerous there. The Banner home was on the old Virginia Trail south of Germanton and was the scene of many stirring events in colonial days. It was raided fourteen times during the French and Indian War. TOBACCOVILLE West of Rural Hall is the small settlement of Tobaccoville, the only location in the state bearing the name of the famous weed that has brought so much wealth to Virginia and the Carolinas. Familiar family names of the Tobaccoville neigh- borhood are Long, Wolf, Speas, Shamel, and Doub. Reynolda The traveler on Highway 421 finds at the city limits of Winston-Salem a scene of great beauty as he journeys west- ward. Here is a three-lane highway bordered by maple trees, gorgeously colored in the fall of the year. On the right is Reynolda Park, one of the most beautiful residential areas of the city; on the left is Graylyn chateau, erected by the Gray family; a little farther on is the ultra-modern Summit School. These developments have come through the original devel- opment of the Reynolda Estate, the home of the late Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Reynolds, which is still occupied by members of the family, Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Babcock. "Reynolda House" is a large, rambling structure of white plaster, beautifully designed in the English manner, with spacious grounds and gardens. Rows of weeping cherries, narcissi, magnolias, and thousands of daffodils extend through- out the wooded section. West of the residence lies Reynolda Smaller Towns, Villages, and Hamlets 137 Village, with its English-type cottages and other buildings of white plaster, including the quaint blacksmith shop, postoffice, greenhouse, and the charming little ivy-covered Presbyterian Church, which was dedicated in 19 15, and is the center of the community. The farm purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds about 1909, had only an old farmhouse and the fabulous "Fourteen Min- eral Springs" (a different mineral in each!). With additional purchases of adjoining lands, it has grown into an estate of approximately one thousand acres, w^hich includes the Old Town Club with its magnificent golf course, and some three hundred acres donated by the owners to become the future campus of Wake Forest College. The Village of Hanes Pleasantly situated on the outskirts of Winston-Salem is the industrial community of Hanes. Its history is woven inex- tricably into the pattern of progress of the southern textile industry, more particularly of the North Carolina textile industry. In 19 10 and 191 1 the Hanes village and first spinning plant were constructed. The plant was built for the purpose of manufacturing high-grade yarn for use in the knitted prod- ucts produced at the P. H. Hanes Knitting Company's plant in Winston-Salem. Beginning with 15,000 spindles, the Hanes Spinning Plant has kept pace with the growth of the industry, and in order to meet the increasing demand for Hanes prod- ucts, which have become known throughout the nation for their quality and value, the number of spindles has increased until today they are more than three times their original number. In the village the recent construction of many additional houses of the most modern type and the modernization of others have provided the residents with the means for whole- 13 8 Forsyth, a County on the March some American living of high standard. Free garden space is furnished. In addition, the company has provided the resi- dents at Hanes with churches, a school, a modern cafeteria, paved streets, water supply, sewerage system, and fire protec- tion. A volunteer fire department is equipped with a modem truck and the latest in fire-fighting apparatus. Adjacent to the village, which, incidentally, has its own postofiice, is a twenty-acre recreation area for use by the em- ployees and their families. It contains a model ball park equipped with underground sprinkler system and grandstand, bleachers, and a modern field house. There are also softball diamonds and a large wooded area in which are located a rustic pavilion, outdoor ovens, and barbecue pits, where employee picnics and other social events may be held. Other Communities North of the city is the Mineral Springs development. Its county high school was destroyed by fire and has been re- placed by a beautiful new building. Also to the north is Ogburn Station. Along the road to Walkertown is Daisy, and along the Rural Hall Road are Marvin Chapel and Stanley- ville. Tiretown derives its name from the automobile tire factory that once operated in the vicinity. East of the city, on a long ridge, is City View, and beyond is Guthrie, its school long abandoned. West of the city, near Muddy Creek, is the Fraternity community, originally settled by members of the Dunkard Church. New Eden has developed out of Yontztown, a suburban settlement along the Old Lexington Road. Half a mile south is Union Ridge. A recent development is Weston, bordering the Winston-Salem Southbound Railway and Waughtown- Clemmons Road. South of the city Konnoak Hills was de- veloped as a residential community. West of this area, border- ing the Waughtown-Clemmons Road, Philip W. Mock made Smaller Towns, Villages, and Hamlets 139 a subdivision of his farm, which has grown up into the Rose- mont community. Centerville, Sunnyside, and Waughtown have been incor- porated into the city. Centerville was so called because it was located between Salem and Waughtown. Sunnyside was named for the plantation of E. A. Vogler in that area. Waugh- town was first called Charlestown or Baggetown for its founder Charles Bagge. Later the family name of a prominent resident brought the change to Waughtown. No members of the Waugh family live there today. North Winston was once known as Liberty. The name was given by a Moravian Brother who rebelled against the restrictions of Old Salem and built his home where he could enjoy more freedom. Liberty Street perpetuates the name. South Liberty Street was first called Salt Street because the salt supply of the town of Salem was kept in a house on that street. Much of the material on Forsyth's smaller communities is fragmentary and much of it will pass away with the memories of the older inhabitants. Still retained are the names of the rural districts Dozier, Seward (home of the well-known base- ball player, Rabbit Whitman) , Vienna with its county school, and Valley View. Gone and well-nigh forgotten are such former place names as Jerusalem Meadows, Stumptown, Louse Level, and Spanish Grove. VI RURAL FORSYTH !(' ( \ hi ¥ \ ] THE first people to penetrate what is now Forsyth County probably were hunters, enjoying the hunt- er's paradise which extended throughout all of this part of the country. Long after 1700, big game could be found throughout most of North Carolina. Bears, deer, and other choice animals persisted until well up into the eighteenth century. The Forest Primeval This whole area was largely an unbroken forest. Here and there, Indians had cleared small patches to grow a little corn. But for the greater part, a perfect stand of timber awaited any permanent settler who came to claim it. What we have left today suggests what was standing when the first settlers came. Of all the really valuable trees, only one species has vanished from the scene— the chestnut. Until as late as the first quarter of this century, chestnut was plentiful over all this part of North Carolina, Forsyth County included. Shortly after the turn of this century, the chestnut bHght invaded the region and within a space of twenty-five years destroyed every chestnut tree throughout the length and breadth of the East- ern divide. There were sections of the United States where heavier stands of timber could be found than in the primeval area that is now Forsyth County, but nowhere was the quality better. All of the hard woods common to the eastern part of the United States were found here. Pine timber flourished every- where and in the early days forest pines covered most of the ridges and sometimes extended well down into the lowlands. Poplar, one of the soft woods, was found everywhere and was widely used in furniture in the early days, particularly in lighter articles; black walnut was largely used for the finer pieces of furniture. The first people to penetrate this section were attracted by the same things that attracted the Moravian colony. Material 143 144 Forsyth, a County on the March out of which to build their homes was important. But the ground beneath the trees was equally important. Nowhere in the county was there a barren acre of land, possibly excepting swamp land along some of the larger streams. It is probable that the first people to settle permanently in the region now known as Forsyth County came around 1 740, or shortly thereafter, for it is known that there were perma- nent settlements in Eastern North Carolina as early as 1663. These early folks had just two ways to fill their larder— with their flint-lock muskets or with crude farming tools. They soon found that the fertile soil lent itself to gardening, and gardens were their first permanent sources of food. Little by httle, the frontiersmen pushed the forests back, using the logs to build their cabins and the fields that were cleared to produce crops. Corn was already the staple crop in all of this section of North Carolina by the time the first permanent villages were established, for in the short space of approxi- mately one hundred and fifty years after Sir Walter Raleigh's colonists found the Indians of Eastern North Carolina raising small nubbins on the sandy tidewater soil, the white man had developed corn to the place where it yielded well. Even be- fore the Moravians arrived, a little wheat and a little rye were being reaped, although it was rather late that bread, other than "corn pone," became a standard part of the diet. The earliest recorded data show that cabbage, potatoes, and field peas came in with the settlers. Early records refer to sallet, by which turnips were meant. It is probable that a few fruit trees— apples, peaches, pears, and quinces— were already grow- ing here by 1740. The earliest clothing of our citizens reflected largely what was found in nature. For men and sometimes for women the skins of animals caught in the chase were converted into cloth- ing. The men wore buckskin breeches, buckskin hunting shirts, buckskin leggings, and often, in the very earliest days, moccasins such as the Indians themselves wore. Rural Forsyth 145 Flax was one of the earliest fibres produced in the colonies and, naturally, in this county. Up to 1800, flax was the cheap- est material for clothing available. Around 1 800, flax sold for 1 ^2 shillings a pound, wool for 2 shillings, and cotton for 2 ^2 shiUings. It was felt that it was almost necessary to have sheep to produce woolen clothes. At first, sheep raising was effected under great difficulties, for the heavily forested countryside was the natural sanctuary for bears, panthers, wolves, foxes, and a great many other predatory animals. It was only as sizeable openings in the land were cleared and substantial barns were built that it was possible to raise the kind of livestock the modern farm would suggest. It will be remembered that cotton was produced with great effort up to the time of the invention of the cotton gin. In fact, it was not until early in the nineteenth century that cotton assumed a sizeable place in the economy of this or of any other Southern county. In the latter part of the eight- eenth century, cotton was raised in the gardens along with vegetables, not being regarded as a field crop at all. In short, it might be said that in 1740 and for a quarter of a century thereafter, the present Forsyth County was as much a part of the frontier as any of the counties farther west were to be as civilization headed toward the Pacific Coast. Pioneer Citizens Pioneer citizens of Forsyth County naturally sought the best land in the county. This land lay along the Yadkin River and other streams which watered the region. The large planta- tions on the Yadkin River and some comparable estates on the smaller streams lent themselves, in many instances, to the use of slaves. Cotton was grown in some degree, and corn was universally cultivated. As early as Revolutionary War days, a few rather substantial homes dotted what is now Forsyth County and naturally were constructed of the best lumber 146 Forsyth, a County on the March virgin forests could supply. Every decade brought its new crop of homes, each a little better than the rest, until the early county attained a degree of agricultural splendor comparable to the best in the South. Each of these ante-bellum residences marked in a sense the founding of a family whose names have carried with them a marked degree of prestige to the present day; and the ante- bellum farms had an influence on agriculture until well into the present century. Many of the people who populated the rural county were individuals who went out from the Moravian settlements. They bore names which indicated their origin in central Europe. Others came who were independent of the Moravian settlements, with origins in all parts of continental Europe as well as the British Isles. Inasmuch as these families have had a tremendous influence upon the whole history of the county, a mention of a number of them with the neighborhoods where they resided will not be out of place. In each of the instances cited here, the resi- dence that is mentioned continues as a landmark in its community. The Reverend John Alspaugh, who was a father of the Methodist Church in Forsyth and adjoining counties, built a home near Muddy Creek, about a mile below where Mill Creek flows into that stream, in the summer of 1855. One of the very few residences financed wholly with cur- rency of the Confederate States of America was built by John Hastings during the period of the War between the States, and is located on the highway between Kernersville and Union Cross. Christian Conrad was one of the first to bringr the Conrad name to this part of the South. He came from Pennsylvania in 1765, and was followed shortly by his brother, Johann Conrad. Finally Isaac Conrad built the Conrad residence which now stands near Vienna, on Highway 421. The Au- Rural Forsyth 147 gustus Eugene Conrad home, known as Hilltops House, overlooking the Yadkin River a mile south of Highway 42 1 , now owned by W. J. Conrad, Jr., possibly is among the best examples of the plantation home to be found anywhere on the Yadkin River. Meanwhile, the Conrad name has spread throughout all this section. The Elijah B. Teague residence, an eleven-room house a few miles south of Kernersville, was a local political center for many years before the Civil War. Elijah Teague repre- sented the county many times in the General Assembly. His son. Dr. M. E. Teague, was sheriff of Forsyth County for one term, and was involved in what was perhaps the most sensa- tional political controversy in the history of the county. He was pitted against Jack Boyer in his race for sheriff. The vote was exceedingly close, and the election was contested. No decision was ever reached during Dr. Teague's tenure of office as sheriff. The litigation was so costly that the Teague fortune was practically wiped out. Dr. Teague served as sheriff, although it was never settled legally whether he was elected, and he did not run for re-election. In the late 90's he was Chief of Police in Winston. The old home has long since passed out of the hands of the family. Wesley Raper inherited land on Abbotts Creek which con- tinues among the best in the county today. The residence he built, partially with slave labor, still reflects the conditions before the war— solid comfort, a plentiful larder, and an ap- preciation of the luxury of leisure. Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Chamberlain now own and occupy the Raper home. Many people tried to build their homes on North Caro- lina's Main Street, the Fayetteville and Western Plank Road. Jasper Raper was one of these. The home he built at Union Cross was started six years before the Civil War. Dave Smith, according to family tradition, was putting the roof on his home near Union Cross one day in August, 1861, when a neighbor brought the news that South Carolina had 148 Forsyth, a County on the March seceded from the Union. The story says further that all of the workers laid down their tools and proceeded to discuss the possible consequences of this sensational action. John Reich acquired the land on Old Salisbury Road just south of Lockland Avenue extended, where he built a home about 1840 and 1841, and passed still another family name down to posterity. The Theophilus Kimel residence on Ebert Street Extension was built in 1868 and 1869. Hulon Post Office was operated in this residence for many years prior to about 1900. Miller is a name widely scattered through the county. John Thomas Miller built a home west of Rural Hall and a little south of Tobaccoville, near the forks of the Muddy and Barker creeks, long before the Civil War. Dempsey B. Clinard built a home two years after the Civil War near Wallburg. The name, like the house, is widely known in the county. Six generations of the John J. Miller family have occupied an old residence this pioneer built in 18 17 overlooking the Yadkin River. It was a stage-coach stopover for many years. This was not far removed from the John Wesley Boner house. John Wesley Boner was a distant cousin of John Henry Boner, the widely known Moravian poet, who is buried in the Moravian Graveyard in Salem. Dr. x\lexander Wharton was one of the best-known prac- ticing physicians the county ever had. He built his home at Clemmons one year before the beginning of the war with Mexico. He practiced over most of the county, and his kin are scattered throughout this section. Did Peter Clemmons build the long, rambling house that is generally recognized as the oldest residence in Clemmons? No one seems to know definitely now. It is known that Peter Clemmons, for whom Clemmons is named, was born in Del- aware in 1749, and that he married twice and had fourteen children. Late in life he wrote a book entitled "Poor Peter's Rural Forsyth 149 Call to His Children." It is a clever little book and was printed at Salisbury. Only a few copies of it are now extant. The family of the late Colonel W. A. Blair and Mrs. J. J. Harris, a kinsman of Peter Clemmons, own copies, the only ones known to be still in existence. A later owner of the Clemmons House, Benton Douthit, operated a general store there which rivaled all other mer- chandising businesses in this part of the state. People came from several counties to avail themselves of the unusual goods the proprietor brought down from Baltimore and New York. It is related that Benton Douthit brought to Forsyth County the first piece of carpet ever sold which was not produced on a hand loom. While Henry Clay and John Caldwell Calhoun were still twin giants in the legislative halls, one Harrison Byerly built a pretentious home on Mickey Mill Road. The Byerly name and this old residence are widely known in the county. In northeast Forsyth, on the Walnut Cove Road, the Matt Marshall residence still houses a part of a distinguished family whose name has gone out across the countryside. Colonel Henry Shouse was one of the venturesome pio- neers who recognized the merits of land at the headwaters of a small stream. His old home, built about 1800, is just a few rods across the road south of the Forsyth County Tuberculosis Hospital. Julius A. Transou built a home at Pfafftown five years before the Civil War. The name is well and widely known. These are a few of the rural citizens of this county who came into prominence during the first half of the last century. In most instances their parents had laid the groundwork in rural Forsyth. They did the actual building. Their sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters are among the best citizens we now have. In the following section something will be said about a number of individuals who in those early days strode con- 150 Forsyth, a County on the March fidently across the stage of history and made their influence felt, not only locally, but nationally. Some Outstanding Men With so many people of good blood strains coming into the county, it was inevitable that some of them should become leaders on a level other than the purely local. One of the best examples of this is the Williams family, many members of which have distinguished themselves in Forsyth or wherever else they have gone. Nathaniel Williams, a native of Hanover County, Virginia, was the progenitor of the Williams family. One of his four sons, Joseph, emigrated to North Carolina, and about 1750 married Rebecca Lanier of Granville County. They soon moved to what was then Surry County, now western Forsyth County, and settled about three miles from Shallow Ford on a stream called Panther Creek. They developed a splendid farm during the next two decades and became the owners of many slaves. Then came the War of the Revolution. Joseph Williams commanded a regiment and served all through the war. He was in many skirmishes with the Tories and, in the words of one writer, became "very obnoxious to the Tories." On one occasion when he was away fighting, his wife, being forewarned of the approach of Cornwallis and the Brit- ish Regulars, took her two-weeks-old son, Nathaniel, and a slave woman, and hid in the forest until Cornwallis had crossed the Yadkin River at Shallow Ford and moved on toward the northeast. When she returned home, she found that the enemy had stripped the farm of everything except the residence itself and the slave quarters. She hastily made such provisions as she could for her two older sons and for the slaves, and took her young baby on horseback to Granville County, where her Rural Forsyth 151 relatives lived. Although the country was teeming with Tories and was made up largely of woodland, she arrived safely at the end of her journey, herself unharmed. But the little boy never recovered from the effects of his exposure in the more than twenty years he survived. This distinguished family included ten sons and two daugh- ters. The two daughters, Rebecca and Fannie, married well. Except for the invalid son, Nathaniel, all of the boys likewise distinguished themselves on a local, state, or national level. Robert was the oldest. After several years in public life, he was elected to Congress and served from 1797 to 1803. In 1805 he was appointed commissioner of land titles in the Mississippi Territory, and served four years. He then took up his residence in Tennessee and later moved to Louisiana, where he spent the closing years of his life. Incidentally, he was grand master of Masons in all of North Carolina and Tennessee. Joseph, the second son, while spending his childhood in this area, spent most of his adult life in Yadkin and what is now Surry County. He acquired large land holdings in Yadkin County, opposite the present village of Rockford. He was clerk of Surry Superior Court for many years. John, the third son, likewise moved away from Panther Creek early in life, going to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he became an eminent lawyer. He fought with distinction in the Seminole War, and upon his return found the commission of Colonel of the 39th Regiment of Infantry, U. S. Army, await- ing him. He was ordered to the Creek Indian Nation, where, in the Battle of the Horse Shoe, his regiment bore the brunt of the action. General Andrew Jackson's report of the battle, which, of course, was an overwhelming victory for the Army, did not, in the opinion of Colonel Williams, do justice to his regiment. This led to a lifelong enmity between them. Colonel Williams was elected to the United States Senate 152 Forsyth, a County on the March and served from 18 15 to 1823. In 1825 he was named envoy to the Central American States. He died at Knoxville, Tennessee, August 7, 1837. From the point of view of Forsyth County citizens, Lewis Williams, the fifth son, was most distinguished of all the family. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1808 and entered public life as a member of the North Carolina General Assembly in 18 13. Following his second term in the legislature, he was elected to the Lower House of Congress. He entered Congress in 1 8 1 5 and served as a mem- ber of the House until his death, February 23, 1842. It is said of him that he was greatly esteemed for his ster- ling independence and his integrity. His abilities were such that by common consent he was styled "the Father of the House." President Adams paid him a splendid oratorical trib- ute after his death. He is buried in the family graveyard at Panther Creek. He never married. Thomas Lanier Williams, twin brother of Lewis Williams, was another who moved westward early in life. He w^as long the Chancellor of the State of Tennessee. His descendants have continued to be prominent citizens of Tennessee down to the present day. Dr. Alexander Williams followed his other brothers west- ward and became a widely known citizen of Greenville, Ten- nessee. He took a prominent place in the professional and social life of that state. Nicholas Lanier Williams, the youngest of the sons, spent his entire life at Panther Creek. He lived to be a very old man. He was a member of North Carohna's Council of State and a Trustee of the University. It is said of him that he dis- pensed a most lavish hospitality until the end of the Civil War brought the changes that broke up so many Southern homes. Such is the story of one of the most illustrious families this county and the state have ever had. Descendants of these Rural Forsyth 153 twelve men and women are scattered up and down the coun- tryside under the WiUiams name and the names introduced by marriage. And it is interesting to note that, while the family underwent the ruin incident to the Civil War, its stability was such that the pioneer homestead is still the property of members of the family. It reflects the strength of character that characterized so many hundreds of families who came early to populate this section of the state. It would be unfair to leave this period in the history of Forsyth County and not mention another man who figured prominently in local, state, and pubHc affairs for a protracted period, for he spent his decHning years within what are now the corporate limits of Winston-Salem. This man was Augus- tine Henry Shepperd. He was born at Rockford, in Surry County, February 24, 1792. For a time he practiced law, and then entered politics. From 1822 to 1826 he served in the lower house of Congress. Those were days of changing polit- ical complexion throughout the country. It is noteworthy that he was an elector for the Calhoun-Jackson candidacies in 1824. For a time he dropped out of Congress, apparently hav- ing been defeated in his race for re-election, but he served in Congress from March 4, 1827, through March 3, 1839. He was beaten in his race for membership in the 26th Con- gress, but he was elected again on the Whig ticket and returned to Congress March 4, 1841. He was an elector again, this time on the Whig ticket for Clay and Frelinghuysen in 1844. Girding himself anew, he campaigned and won his seat twice more, serving in the 30th and 3 ist Congresses, terminat- ing his stewardship March 3, 1851. He had declined to seek re-election in the campaign of 1850. The point that gives him a place in Forsyth County history is that in October of 1842 he bought forty-one acres of land from the Moravian Church, obviously the site for a future home. This land lay a few rods east of what are now Var- grave and Waughtown streets in Winston-Salem. One of the 154 Forsyth, a County on the March largest springs in Forsyth County watered this property and was the source of water for the splendid old residence which it is reasonably certain the veteran Congressman built on the property. Credence is lent to this assumption by the fact that authenticated records indicate that Augustine Henry Shep- perd "died at Good Spring in Salem, July ii, 1864." In any event, the town of Salem tapped this spring and used it as a part of its water supply for a long time. It is now used by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in its nicotine plant located near by. In this connection, the name of another distinguished For- syth County leader comes to mind, that of Charlie A. Reynolds, who near the end of the last century was one of the most important political figures in North Carolina. He was born November 10, 1848, at Madison in Rockingham County. He was educated at Princeton University. He married Miss Carrie Watkins Fretwell of Rockingham County. In 1884 Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds came to North Carolina. Mr. Reynolds attended Princeton University because at the time when he normally would have entered college, the University of North Carolina was closed temporarily because of the aftermath of the Civil War. In his capacity as a construction engineer, iMr. Reynolds aided H. E. Fries of Winston-Salem in the construction of the hydro-electric plant on the Yadkin River, the first such plant ever built in this state. Power from that plant ran street- cars in Winston-Salem, believed to be the second city in the United States to have streetcars powered by electricity. Rich- mond, Virginia, is considered the first. Later, he repeated this achievement at Asheville. He engi- neered the power plant on the Ivey River near Asheville, which was the first plant actually to supply that city with sufficient electricity to meet its needs. The dam that im- pounded the water for that plant was 6^ feet high. Rural Forsyth 155 Reynolds witnessed the building of the first improved roads in North Carolina. Indeed, he constructed the first macadam- ized road in Forsyth County. On the south side of Salem Creek, on what was known as Centerville Street, now Waugh- town Street, there existed such an impossible barrier of mud that Reynolds went to the county commissioners and asked permission to use convicts to break stone and place it on the road. This was about 1890, and the results achieved were re- garded with such favor that the county later built much macadamized road mileage, some of which exists today as asphalt treated highways. Reynolds held only minor political offices down to the nineties. He was appointed United States deputy collector and held that position at Reidsville for about five years. In 1896 he was elected lieutenant-governor and took office in 1897- Possibly the most important piece of legislation that came up during his four-year tenure of office (during which of course he was president of the State Senate), was defeated. Governor Daniel L. Russell pushed a bill which would have made the lease of the North Carolina Railroad invalid. The railroad had been constructed under the administration of Governor John Motley Morehead. It had been leased under the Governor Ehas Kerr administration to the Richmond and Danville Railway, and that line later became a part of the Southern Railway. The bill was passed by the House of Rep- resentatives and came up for action in the Senate. It was beaten in the Senate by one vote. Thus the good name of the state was saved. North Carolina was kept from repudiating its own action, which had been taken a few years before in good faith. Although Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds was the state's second citizen in a period when politics was in a state of great turmoil, it can be said to his credit that he consistently de- clined to involve himself in acts which would have brought 156 Forsyth, a County on the March him personal shame and shame upon the honor of the state. Twice, Hke Caeser, the Forsyth County man was offered the highest position in the state, and twice he decHned it because he could have had it only through a political "trade" which he regarded as highly dishonorable. When Russell and Rey- nolds went in as governor and lieutenant-governor respec- tively in 1897, United States Senators were elected by the legislature. Jeter C. Pritchard had been elected for a short term of two years in 1895. Marion Butler, Sr., had been elected to the long term of six years. As the new administration took ofHce (the result of a Fusion Campaign), it found the Populist element eager to elect Judge Clark or the Governor himself to the senatorial vacancy about to occur. Of course the Pritchard supporters were eager to return him to office. The fight was a political classic. As the day for the vote drew near, events took a dramatic turn. Friends of Governor Russell approached Lieu- tenant-Governor Reynolds and suggested that he withdraw his support from Pritchard. Had he done this, Russell would have been elected by an easy margin. Naturally Russell would have resigned the governorship at once to become United States Senator. According to the law of the state, Reynolds would have become governor. But Reynolds refused to desert Pritchard, threw his whole support to him and, when the vote was cast, was forced to break the tie and therefore was charged with the responsibility of electing the United States Senator. The second and even more dramatic chance that Reynolds had to become governor of North Carolina was in 1899. The chief justiceship of the State Supreme Court was vacant. It was necessary to appoint a man to the office immediately. Just at that time Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds received a call to come to Washington. Taking his legal counsel, Judge Spencer B. Adams, with him, Reynolds went to Washington and sat down for a con- Rural Forsyth 157 ference with Senator Pritchard, Vice-President A. B. An- drews of the Southern Railway, Judge E. W. Timberlake, and others. This time it was suggested that he "sit tight," allow Governor Dan Russell to resign, and then accept in due course of law the governorship of the state. It would then be easy for him as governor to appoint Russell to the chief jus- ticeship. That was no violation of legal regulation. It could be done without any difficulty. Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds heard them through and then exploded in his wrath. "Gentlemen, I won't do it," he is reported to have said, after he had regained his composure. "What would it mean to the reputation of each man con- cerned? It would mean the ruination of every person im- plicated. I'll have nothing to do with it." That ended the interview. Governor Russell eventually appointed Charles A. Cook, of Warren County, to the Supreme Court bench, advancing D. M. Furches, who already was on the bench, to the position of chief justice. How was the name of Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds connected with that of the late Congressman Shepperd? Simply in this fashion. Within a few years after the death of the veteran Congressman Shepperd, Air. and Mrs. Reynolds acquired the old residence at Good Spring and spent the remainder of their lives there and at a country residence a few miles south of Kernersville. The political complexion of the state changed after the Russell administration, and the fiery old Lieutenant-Governor returned to business in Forsyth County. He was a member of the Draft Board in Forsyth County during World War I under appointment of Governor T. W. Bickett. His late years were taken up largely with the management of his properties here in the county. Thus we see, in members of the Williams, Shepperd, and Reynolds families, examples of the varied political leadership which has sprung from the vigorous stock which populated 158 Forsyth, a County on the March this county. Many others could be mentioned who played major roles at one time or another, but none from the strictly rural sections of the county who attained to such heights. Agriculture in Forsyth County The changes in the life of rural Forsyth County people as they relate to politics, education, domestic facilities, com- munication, transportation and other aspects, have been in the past two centuries no greater than the changes in agriculture. The county has advanced from the age of the bull- tongue plow through the era of the Dixie plow and the one- bottom turning plow down to the age of hea\y tractors and rotary tillers. It has been a change from the ox and the skinny little mule to heavy gasoline-powered machinery. It has been a change from an all-row-crop system to a day when grass farming is coming into its own. Our agricultural system has advanced from the stage where it implied all labor on the part of the farmer, through a stage when slave labor held a major place, and through a stage where the slave system was banished. It went through a period which might be called the Dark Ages in agriculture as far as any real achievement was concerned. In the days immediately following the Civil War our whole economy was in a state of collapse. Bishop Rondthaler related that as he came down from Pennsylvania in 1877 to assume the pastorate of Salem congregation, he inquired about the large bundles which lay on the railway platforms in Virginia and North Carolina. He learned that these bundles were dried blackberries which had been picked by the impoverished people to be shipped to Northern states for food and other purposes. These, he said, in that Dark Age constituted some of the most considerable shipments which went out from this section. It was not until the turn of the century that rural Forsyth began to benefit under the slight awakening that took place. Rural Forsyth 159 Governor Charles Brantley Aycock, who took office then, went about the state preaching education and ultimately died on the speaker's platform with the word "education" on his lips. With education, there was a quickening of the eco- nomic pulse. Forsyth County had its share of "Farmer's In- stitutes." And then in the early teens, the Extension Service came into existence. Farm agents and home demonstration agents began to teach farmers the fundamental principles of field and animal husbandry. In the late teens and early twen- ties, there was an industrial renaissance. Markets began to develop and with the first crude passenger automobiles and auto trucks pushing their way into the hinterland improved roads were in demand. At first macadamized roads, such as the ones with which C. A. Reynolds pioneered, threaded their way across the country. The period from 1900 to 1949 was a period of great awaken- ing. In other words, the second half of our first century as a county was the half which brought more development than the county ever had seen before. This was as true in Forsyth agriculture as in the urban centers. True, there were ambitious early beginnings on the part of men and women with perspective. There were many leaders far ahead of their day. And they made their mark. It was sig- nificant that as far back as 1882 and 1883, H. E. Fries and Dr. H. T. Bahnson had farms on which they bred registered Guernsey cattle. Mr. Fries and Dr. Bahnson got their start with Guernseys from W. P. Hazard of Chester, Pennsylvania. This was just before the beginning of the North Carolina Exposition held in Raleigh in the fall of 1884, promoted largely by Mr. Fries, its secretary. William S. Primrose, Raleigh, w^as president of the Exposition. Because of the close friendship between Mr. Fries and Mr. Primrose, Mr. Fries named his dairy Primrose Farm. This meant that some of the outstanding cattle from his farm carried the name "Primrose." Down to the present day, that i6o Forsyth, a County on the March name continues to crop up among pedigreed cattle. In 1946 Quail Roost Farm, owned by George Watts Hill at Rouge- mont, sold Quail Roost Noble Primrose, a mature cow, for $17,000.00. W. W. Fitzpatrick, manager of Quail Roost Farm, at the request of Mr. Fries in 1948, searched the pedigree of Quail Roost Noble Primrose and found that she was descended directly from animals owned on Primrose Farm nearly seventy years ago. It is interesting to note that pedigreed Guernsey cattle, directly descended from these original brood animals on the Fries farm, are being bred on Arden Farm at Clemmons, owned by Dr. Bahnson's daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. T. Holt Haywood. This pioneer work in cattle breeding, therefore, was not a wholly useless venture. It bore fruit, even though it took more than half a century for it to become evident. There were pioneers also in other fields. Luther Strupe of the Tobaccoville community early in the century was produc- ing seed corn that was considered the best to be found in the South. On the basis of his seed-corn production and other farming practices, he was named a Master Farmer. In those years between the turn of the century and the early 30's, too, J. M. Jarvis of the Clemmons community, was producing Jarvis' Golden Prohfic seed corn, which was known throughout many of the southeastern states. He pur- sued the breeding of corn until the middle thirties when he was too old to do field work any more, but he never gave it up until his name was synonymous with good farming prac- tices over a wide territory. Meanwhile, R. F. Linville, who resided a few miles east of \A'inston-Salem, between the two highways leading from Winston-Salem to Kernersville, engaged in corn breeding at great length. He developed some of the seed strains which Mr. Jarvis had used to an even greater degree than Mr. Jarvis had reached. Mr. Linville also anticipated by more than a quarter Rural Forsyth i6i of a century the present merits in hybrid seed corn over open pollinated corn. As early as the middle teens and early twen- ties, Mr. Linville was experimenting with the principle of hybrid seed production and made it work. It was not until the principle was applied on a wide scale in the western states that it became nationally popular. But it should be said to the credit of the Forsyth County man that he was on the track of a great discovery and appreciated its merits although he never was able to enlist the interest of any considerable number of farmers in it. This progress in agriculture in Forsyth County at first was sporadic. It had the support of individuals only here and there. These individuals were in effect lifting them- selves by their bootstraps. The first farm demonstration agents in this county as well as elsewhere in the state found their work largely the work of tutor and pupil. For approximately a quarter of a century, R. W. Pou did pioneer work as farm agent in Forsyth County, carrying the extension service program over the period which might almost be said to bridge the space between hand tools and complete mechanization. He laid down his reins only a few years ago when S. R. Mitchener, the incumbent agent, took over. In the women's field, the extension service program has been handled largely by two home demonstration agents and their assistants. Through the twenties and up to 193 1, Miss Alice McQueen was home demonstration agent. Upon her retirement, Mrs. Elizabeth Tuttle took over and has continued on the job since. The leadership she has manifested is fully attested by the fact that last December she was awarded the certificate of distinguished service by the National Associa- tion of Home Demonstration Agents at their annual Conven- tion in Chicago. In all of this work the two agents have been aided materially by capable assistants, many of whom each has trained for ranking positions elsewhere in the state. The changes in agriculture in the past two decades have been so extreme and the results have been so cumulative, that i62 Forsyth, a County on the March it is hard to predict where agriculture will be even ten years hence. Twenty to twenty-five years ago the system of agricul- ture in Forsyth County was largely a row-crop system. The small beginnings in the production of cattle and hogs were indicative of what was to come, but were not indicative of how great that program was to be. In the space of a quarter of a century, Forsyth County has become a banner county in the breeding of Guernsey and Holstein-Friesian milk cows and in the breeding of Hereford beef cattle. The expansion in the breeding of beef cattle has not been commensurate with that of the dairy breeds, but within the past four or five years there has been a very pronounced quickening of interest. Meanwhile for many years the county has produced a size- able number of hogs, largely Berkshires, Poland Chinas, Duroc Jerseys, Hampshires, and the like. Recently the Tamworth hog has gained wide favor in the county with the result that for the past two years large shipments of hogs have gone to Centerville, Indiana, to the annual National Tamworth Swine Show and Sale. In 1947 the Forsyth County consignment to the Show and Sale ran far ahead of any other state's consign- ment in the average price paid per head. From that sale, the Forsyth County delegation brought back the highest ranking Tamworth boar in the United States with which to build up the Forsyth County herds. In the 1948 show and sale, the Forsyth County consignment made an equally good showing, and again the Forsyth County breeders, this' time working as an organization, brought back the top ranking Tamworth boar. It may be said, therefore, that Forsyth County is at this writing the Tamworth capital of the world. Commensurate with the development of the cattle industry in Forsyth County has been the development of the poultry industry. Forsyth County does not possess any poultry breed- ing establishment which compares in size with such establish- ments as are found on the Maryland and Delaware farms, but the poultry breeders who operate on a small scale make up an Rural Forsyth 163 aggregate business that is exceedingly large. The New Hamp- shire breed and New Hampshire Barred Rock Crosses are favored by the Forsyth County poultrymen. Many breeders in the Old Richmond community are producing eggs for hatching. It is significant that all of these interests centralize their work in organizations. The Forsyth Guernsey Breeders Asso- ciation and the Forsyth Holstein-Friesian Breeders Association are representative of the organizations through which the breeders effect group action. The Hereford breeders set up their association in late November of 1 948 and hope to enroll members throughout all central North Carolina not already affiliated. An illustration of the group thinking that is going on in Forsyth County agriculture is the flourishing Forsyth Bee- keepers Association. In 1947 these Beekeepers set up the Forsyth County unit and worked with such sustained interest that they w^ere able to attract the State Beekeepers Associa- tion to Winston-Salem for its annual meeting in 1948. For two successive years, Forsyth County Beekeepers have swept the top prizes at the North Carolina State Fair. More general organization of the farmers and farm women of the county is effected in the Forsyth Pomona Grange and its subordinate granges and the Forsyth County Farm Bureau, which works as a county-wide unit rather than breaking its membership down into community groups. One would think that the agriculture of a county would change but little through the years as relates to the variety of crops produced. Climate and rainfall are unchanging. How- ever, crop habits have been characterized by extraordinary changes. The State and United States Departments of Agri- culture have been engaged in constant study from the time they were established, seeking new outlets for the crops farmers produced and new crops suitable for the various sec- tions of the country. As greater and greater acreages of land 164 Forsyth, a County on the March were cleared, and as the stumps and rocks were removed from land already cleared, the problem of erosion presented itself. Indeed, Forsyth along with the rest of the country lost fully one-third of its soil before it turned seriously to the control of running water. One of the first natural agents that came to the rescue of the farmer was lespedeza. It came to this section of the state in the teens and early twenties. It was something the poorest farmer could grow and it has been grown in enor- mous acreages ever since. Wherever it elected to take hold, it arrested erosion immediately. Many leaders in agriculture regard its arrival on the farm scene as the greatest single event in a hundred years. It certainly has meant that much to the farmers of Forsyth County. But other great events were to come, some of them very gradually. Alfalfa was one of these innovations. While alfalfa has been widely grown well over the United States for fifty years or more, it has gained favor in Forsyth County only slowly, but consistently. In 1948 the farmers cut hay off about 3,000 acres of alfalfa. In the early forties a smattering of farmers obtained a small amount of Ladino clover seed. By 1948 the county had a size- able acreage in this splendid pasture crop. At first it was em- ployed only as a grazing crop. Later farmers began to learn that it also was a good hay crop. Around 1946 Suiter grass (fescue) began to attract attention. Ejcperiments were started with it because it gave promise of being a winter grazing crop. Many Forsyth dairymen over a period of a half decade or more had proved that grazing for most of the winter months could be assured by sowing a mixture of a variety of grasses and small grains and forcing them with heavy applications of fertilizer. It is claimed that Suiter grass is a nauiral winter grazing crop. Forsyth farmers are open minded, waiting for this crop to prove itself. During this change in crop system, the per acre yield of field crops has gone up and up. For instance, in 1935 the Rural Forsyth 165 average yield of corn for the state was under 20 bushels per acre. By 1950 in Forsyth County it is expected to be close to 50 bushels. Before the tobacco acreage control program was instituted in the middle thirties, the average yield for tobacco was between 700 and 800 pounds per acre. In 1948 it was expected to run close to 1200 pounds. Whither are we bound in Forsyth County agriculture? Only time can answer that question. But it cannot be denied that tremendous progress has been made between the end of the first quarter of this century and the end of the second, not to speak of all the progress that was made before that time. The county commissioners, Mr. James G. Hanes, chairman; Mr. Sam Craft, and Dr. D. C. Speas made a move that was almost unprecedented in county government. They made a direct appeal to farmers to set up a board whose business should be to advise the county commissioners of what agri- culture needed in the way of county government. As a result, this county agricultural board was set up. It is representative of every township in the county, even includ- ing Winston township. It meets monthly or on call. Through it a great number of the pointed needs of agriculture have been brought to the attention of the county commissioners and have received sympathetic action. In 1946, the county com- missioners placed G. W. McClellan in charge of the Forsyth County Farm, a 700-acre tract. The change in the intervening period has been almost miraculous. This writer obtained pic- tures of cattle grazing on the County Farm on the 6th day of January, 1948, which was in the dead of winter. These pictures showed the 40-cow herd of Holsteins up to their fetlocks in grass, and when submitted to a forum of several hundred at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Dairy Council, even the experts were unable to distinguish them from pictures made in midsummer. Therefore Forsyth farmers have gone a long way toward controlling even the seasons. Meanwhile the Forsyth commissioners, on advice of the i66 Forsyth, a County on the March farmers through their advisory board, started an artificial insemination program in the spring of 1946. The stud included some of the finest Guernsey and Holstein bulls that could be obtained. It was the first such program started in North Caro- lina and has been imitated in t^vo-thirds of the counties of the state, although the structure is slightly different in some other localities. Furthermore, on the advice of the advisory board, the county commissioners purchased a heavy duty motor grader with which to supplement and complement the heavy duty renovations in roads and terracing on the farms of the county. This machine, operated by an expert crew, has met with universal approval as it has gone about the county. Countless lesser achievements have resulted from the studies of this board as it gradually got the feel of county agricultural planning. Herein is climaxed the first one hundred years of progress of rural Forsyth citizens. And thus auspiciously begins their second century of achievement. VII A CENTER OF INDUSTRY THE pioneers of Salem, through necessity, had cul- tivated an inventive and productive economy that made available at an early date such commodities as paper, pottery, guns, carriages, wagons, cloth, and tinware. With the first gristmill in 1755, the first flax loom in 1766, the first wagon works in 1787, and the first paper mill in 1 79 1, we find a development that had an humble start and gained momentum with time and the genius of the pioneers. Manufacturing started on a one-man-power scale as the early citizens began experimenting with the products of near-by farms. Since the most readily available raw products of the Carolinas were tobacco, cotton, and lumber, it was natural that the largest industries should center around their manu- facture. It was a case of local ingenuity utilizing these readily available raw materials and building an industrial life by con- ception rather than by adoption. The past century has brought a steady, vigorous, and suc- cessful business development which has captured for the community the well-earned title of "City of Industry." Win- ston-Salem is the leading industrial city of the Carolinas, and the third city of the South in the value of manufactured prod- ucts, with only Richmond and Baltimore ranking ahead. While many communities can claim that they are important manufacturing centers, few can claim that they lead the world in manufacture of one or more products. Winston- Salem comes in this latter category. The city is the world's largest tobacco manufacturing center, the home of the largest manufactory of knit underwear, and the home of the largest circular knit hosiery mill in the world. These three world leaders had their beginning in the county, they were con- ceived by industrially minded local citizens, and they were developed by local ingenuity. 169 lyo Forsyth, a County on the March The Tobacco Industry From the earliest days tobacco was raised in this section- mostly for local use with only a small amount sold elsewhere. As early as 1755 reference was made to a purchase by Mr. Loesch from Mr. Banner of "a couple of hundred tobacco plants." In 1858, just nine years after the founding of Winston, the first large quantity of tobacco was cultivated in the northern part of the county. The experiment was successful and it soon became evident that a very superior variety of tobacco could be raised in Forsyth and adjoining counties. The soil was found to yield rich returns of the finest "yellow leaf" tobacco, and had no superior "in texture, oil or aroma, not even in the famed leather-wood district of Henry County, Virginia." In 1870 there were not quite two hundred and fifty thousand pounds raised in the county. It soon became apparent that a local market was needed for the sale of tobacco and in 1872 Mayor T. J. Brown opened the first warehouse in the county for the sale of leaf tobacco. An old frame stable, with a fancy skylight added, was rented and here the sale of tobacco began. The first tobacco factory was built in 1872— a frame struc- ture fifty feet square, in which a score of employees were housed. During the next year, in July, 1873, ^^^ first railroad connection was made with the North Western Rail Road of North Carolina, and Forsyth County was afforded an outlet for trade. The following years brought an almost unbelievable devel- opment in the manufacturing of tobacco products. Within a short period of twenty-two years after the first tobacco fac- tory was built, we find thirty-seven concerns manufacturing tobacco in Winston and one in Salem. Connorton's Tobacco Brand Directory of the United States in 1894 contains the following list. A Center of Industry 171 Bailey Bros., plug Winston Beall, Geo. H. & Co., plug and twist Winston Bitting & Hay, plug Winston Blackburn, Dalton & Co., plug Winston Brown Bros., plug, twist and smoking Winston Brown & Williamson, plug and twist Winston Byerly, S. & Son, smoking Winston Bynum, Cotten & Co., plug and twist Winston Candler, R. L. & Co., plug, twist and smoking Winston Clary, W. S. & Co., plug and twist Winston Ebert, Payne & Co., plug and twist Winston Ellis, W. B. & Co., plug, twist and smoking Winston Griffith & Bohannon, plug and twist Winston Hamlen, Liipfert & Co., plug, twist and smoking Winston Hanes, B. F., plug and twist Winston Hanes, P. H. & Co., plug and twist Winston Harvey & Rintels, plug and twist Winston Hodgin Bros. & Lunn, plug and smoking Winston Jones, Cox & Co., plug Winston Kerner, Newton & Co., plug and twist Winston Leak, T. F. Tob. Co., smoking Winston Lockett, Vaughn & Co., plug and twist Winston Ogburn, Hill & Co., plug Winston Ogburn, M. L., plug Winston Ogburn, S. A., plug and twist Winston Reynolds Bros., plug Winston Reynolds, H. H., plug, twist and smoking Winston Reynolds, R. J. Tob. Co., plug and twist Winston Smith, W. F. & Son, smoking and cigarettes Winston Taylor Bros., plug, twist and smoking Winston Vaughn, T. L. & Co., plug and twist Winston Walker Bros., plug Winston Whitaker, W. A., plug, twist and smoking Winston Williamson, T. F. & Co., plug and twist Winston Williamson Tob. Co., plug Winston 172 Forsyth, a County on the March Wilson, N. S. & T. J., plug Winston Wood, W. W. & Co., plug and twist Winston Nissen, J. S., plug, twist and smoking Salem About the turn of the century many of these concerns consolidated, merged, or sold their plants as the industry con- centrated into larger units. A brief description of the present- day manufacturers follows. The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was started in 1875 by Richard J. Reynolds, who, with a small capital, began to manufacture chewing tobacco products. He was then only twenty-five years old, just about the age of Winston itself. At first the plant consisted of one small building, erected at a cost of less than $2,500 including the machinery. Originally the products were marketed in only a few of the near-by states, but the business prospered and additions to the factory were soon begun. For thirteen years he conducted the busi- ness individually, but in 1888 he took into partnership with him other men and continued to operate as a partnership until 1890. At that time a charter of incorporation was obtained from the State of North Carolina and the business of R. J. Reynolds & Company was transferred to the North Carolina Corporation known as R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. R. J. Reynolds was the president and continued in this capac- ity until his death on July 29, 19 18. The business was operated under this charter until 1899 when the present charter was procured from the State of New Jersey and the factories, business, and properties were transferred to the New Jersey Corporation. The company began business as a manufacturer of chewing tobaccos but granulated smoking tobaccos were added in the 1890's. The process for Prince Albert smoking tobacco was patented on July 30, 1907, and this was one of the first single tobacco products to be advertised on a national scale. The first Camel Cigarettes were manufactured on October 19, A Center of Industry 173 191 3, the first of the modern- type blends. Its principal brands, among a great many others, are Camel Cigarettes, Prince Albert smoking tobacco, George Washington pipe tobacco, and Days Work, Browns Mule, and Apple Sun Cured chew- ing tobaccos. The original "little red factory," whose base was at first about the size of a tennis court, has been multiplied into more than 140 large factory units and leaf storage warehouses. More than 3000 of over 12,000 employees have a service record with the Company of twenty years or longer. An unusual feature for a company of its size is that the Board of Directors is composed of men who, as officers or heads of departments, are closely connected with the actual operation of the busi- ness. From a modest, one-man beginning this company now distributes its products in every country of the world. The Brown & WiUiamson Tobacco Company was started in 1 894 as a partnership between George T. Brown and R. L. Williamson. At that time they purchased the factory and machinery formerly owned by H. H. Reynolds and began on a small scale, with an operating capital of about $10,000. In 1906 the business had grown to such a size that it was deemed best to incorporate, the first meeting of the incorporators being held in January, 1906. Capital of $400,000 was au- thorized with about $70,000 paid in. Up to that time the company had manufactured only plug tobacco. A short while after incorporation it was decided to go into the manufacture of snuff and today it is the only manufacturer of snuff in the state. Its principal brands are Tube Rose snuff, and Blood Hound and Sun Cured chewing tobaccos. In April, 1927, the company was purchased by the British- American Tobacco Company, Ltd., and is now operated as a subsidiary of this company. From the small start of thirty operators in 1894, the business has grown until today it has between 500 and 600 employees. 174 Forsyth, a County on the March The tobacco firm of Taylor Brothers was organized in 1883 by WilHam B. Taylor and his brother Jacquelin P. Taylor, who had successfully manufactured tobacco for several years before this time in V^irginia. They produced chewing tobaccos, both plug and twist, which have enjoyed widespread sales. The business was conservatively managed, and growth, while slow, was steady. The original factory has been enlarged more than five times. In 192 1 the business was incorporated under the name of Taylor Bros., Inc. Among its many brands are Rich & Ripe, Bull of the Woods, Taylor Made, and Ripe Peaches. The fine quality of leaf tobacco cultivated in this area has attracted buyers for manufacturers in other sections of the country. Not a small quantity of the tobacco sold in local warehouses is exported for use in foreign countries. A large volume of this business is carried on by the following local organizations. The Imperial Tobacco Company (of Great Britain and Ireland) Limited, has bought tobacco on the Winston-Salem market since 1904. A branch office was established here in 1909 and the next year a factory was built and machinery installed to prepare their leaf for shipment. The Export Leaf Tobacco Company of Richmond began their operation of buying in Winston-Salem in 191 2. The land on which the plant is located was purchased in 19 14 and the building completed the same year. The Piedmont Leaf Tobacco Company had its beginning in the Wright-Hughes Tobacco Company incorporated in 191 5. The present name was assumed in 1930 when this com- pany took over the Wright-Hughes plant. The business con- sists of buying, redrying and stemming leaf tobacco bought on the local market. The Winston Leaf Tobacco & Storage Company was or- ganized in 192 1 for the purpose of buying, redrying and stemming tobacco. This company buys tobacco in the local A Center of Industry 175 warehouses for the account of many manufacturers in this and foreign countries. The Textile Industry The early settlers began their experiments in processing flax with a loom set up in 1758. Since many of the settlers were raising sheep, with no accessible market for their clip- pings, an effort was made to utilize the wool. Zevely brought in the first wool carding machine as early as 18 15. Experi- ments were being made with the cotton grown on near-by farms, and in 1837 the Salem Cotton Manufacturing Com- pany was oragnized. Francis Fries, who had been superin- tendent of this mill, organized the F. & H. Fries wool business in 1840. As an outgrowth of this company, the Arista Mill was built in 1880, separate from the woolen mill, for the pur- pose of spinning cotton and weaving cotton cloth. These early plants were equipped with the latest machinery and were lighted with gas from the gas works established in 1858. However, when the Arista Mill was completed, a power plant was installed and for the first time in the South electric lights were used in a cotton mill. The Arista Mills Company was operated under the part- nership of F. & H. Fries until 1903 when it was incorporated. The company has had a long and successful history, manu- facturing cotton cloth, now principally chambray which is used for work clothing. At the turn of the century, two brothers, P. H. Hanes and J. W. Hanes, who had been successful tobacconists for over twenty years, made a decision which later placed Forsyth County high in the textile world. In 1900 the textile business in the United States was of good size. Nevertheless, these two brothers sold their tobacco business to the Reynolds Com- pany and went their separate ways to success in the textile business. Their decision resulted in the P. H. Hanes Knitting 176 Forsyth, a County on the March Co. and the Hanes Hosiery Mills Co., both of which are the largest in their respective fields. The P. H. Hanes Knitting Company was organized in 1 90 1 and incorporated in 1903 for the purpose of manufacturing cotton ribbed winter-weight underwear for men. Some years later boys' underwear was started and a little later girls' and children's lines were added. About 1920 the now famous Hanes Athletic Underwear was started. The line now in- cludes men's and boys' sports wear as wd\ as children's sleep- ing garments. The village of Hanes, situated on the outskirts of Winston- Salem, surrounds the spinning mills. This is a model mill town, with churches, schools, and an auditorium. The homes are electric-lighted; the sidewalks and streets are paved; there is running water in every home. The knitting mills and finish- ing plant are located in the heart of Winston-Salem. The plants are all modern, containing up-to-date conveniences and equipped with the best and most modern machinery available. The history of the company is one of marvelous growth. It has long enjoyed the distinction of being the largest manu- facturer of men's and boys' cotton ribbed underwear in the world. Hanes underwear is staple in every state in the Union and is exported to many foreign countries. The Hanes Hosiery Mills Company had its start in 1900 when J. W. Hanes purchased the old Hodgin tobacco plant located on Marshall Street near Second. Under the name of Shamrock, his new mill was producing infants' hose and men's socks by 1902. The mill was renamed Hanes Hosiery at the time it was incorporated in 19 14. By 1920, the Hanes Mill, now beginning to specialize in ladies' hosiery, had out- grown the original plant. In 1926 a new modern plant was completed at its present location on West 14th Street, and the mill was moved. In the past ten years it has more than doubled in size. The history of this mill is another one of rapid growth in A Center of Industry 177 a highly competitive market. Hanes seamless hosiery has been out in front in the race from cotton to rayon to silk to nylon. The emphasis has been placed on quality and the product of this mill is found in the nation's finest stores. Today it is the largest circular knit hosiery mill in the world. The Indera Mills Company, located and organized in Win- ston-Salem in 19 14, manufactures ladies' and children's knit underskirts, underslips, and knee warmers. From a small beginning, the company had a steady demand for its products and in 1925 the plant was enlarged by the purchase of the old Maline Mills property. The products of this mill are na- tionally advertised and sold in every state in the Union. The Hanes Dye & Finishing Company was organized in 1924 by Ralph P. Hanes, who has continued as its active head and president. This company operates a service industry by bleaching, dyeing, and finishing cotton piece goods for con- verters located in the eastern United States. The plant has recently been enlarged and today covers approximately 180,000 square feet. Starting with one slasher and four looms, John A. Kester organized the Carolina Narrow Fabrics Company in 1928. The company manufactures cotton insulating tape and web- bing used by the electric motor producers. In 1940 a closely affiliated company was organized to dye, glaze and wind insulating yarn for the use of wire and cable producers. The two companies today occupy approximately 75,000 square feet of floor space and employ over 200 people. In January, 1942, the Duplan Corporation of New York established a division and began operation in Winston-Salem. In May, 1947, a second division of this large corporation, known as the Forsyth Division, was established here. The latter division was housed in a new modern plant the outside of which is finished in sheet aluminum. This company re- ceives nylon yam and prepares it on a commission basis for the knitting and weaving trade. The process is known as 178 Forsyth, a County on the March throwing. The yarn is twisted and coated (sized), after which it is used in the production of hosiery and dress fabrics. The Adams-MilHs Corporation has a branch in Kemers- ville, where a large volume of women's and children's anklets are manufactured. In the same location the Southern Silk Mills has a rayon piece goods mill, and the Vance & Ring Company manufactures children's vat dyed socks. There are several other small textile manufacturers in the county. The Woodworking Industry Early settlers were known for their craftsmanship in wood and some of their products are still being used in homes of the community. The oldest existing woodworking industry in the county today is the Unique Furniture Makers which dates back to the organization of the J. C. Spach Wagon Works in 1854. It originated as a maker of wagons which for many years were known throughout the South. During the early years the company is reported to have produced can- non trucks for the Confederacy. About ru^enty-five years ago they entered the furniture business and now produce dining room, bedroom, breakfast room, and dinette furniture which is sold in practically all parts of the country. The company has a record of continuous operation by one family since its beginning in 1854. Fogle Brothers Company is another one of the oldest con- cerns in the county, having been organized in 1871 as a partnership between Christian H. and Charles A. Fogle. These brothers were sons of Augustus Fogle, who was Sheriff of Forsyth County for many years and later Mayor of Salem. They engaged in general millwork, sash, doors, etc., and for several years manufactured tobacco boxes for the local to- bacco factories. In 1892 Charles A. Fogle withdrew from the business on account of health and his brother continued as sole proprietor until his death in 1898. The business has been A Center of Industry 179 continued by his family and today manufactures lumber, principally flooring, and sells building material. The B. F. Huntley Furniture Company had its origin in the Oakland Furniture Company, which began business in 1898. B. F. Huntley was in the employment of the Oakland Furniture Company for some time before he organized the B. F. Huntley Furniture Company in 1906. Later the Oak- land Furniture Company was taken over by the B. F. Huntley Furniture Company and today the site of the first Oakland factory is occupied by the plant of the B. F. Huntley Furni- ture Company. The plant has over six acres of floor space and manufactures bedroom furniture exclusively. This product is advertised nationally and is sold all over the United States. In 191 3 the Mengle Company of Louisville, Kentucky, established a plant in Winston-Salem for the manufacture of wooden boxes, used primarily as shipping containers. The business has grown steadily, and in 1933 another division was established to manufacture corrugated shipping containers. In addition to a large production of shipping containers, this concern produces store fixtures, wall cabinets, and closets. The Fogle Furniture Company was organized as a corpo- ration in January, 1923, with F. A. Fogle as president, for the production of handwoven fibre furniture. In 1928 the manu- facture of matched living room furniture was started. The sale of the new product was so successful that the original line of fibre furniture was discontinued in 1936, and the entire production of the plant is now devoted to living room furniture. There are about fifteen other plants in the county today operating in the woodworking industry. Miscellaneous Industries It would be impossible to mention all of the various indus- trial establishments now operating in Forsyth County. There i8o Forsyth, a County on the March are several establishments, however, which deserve special mention although they cannot be classified in either of the foregoing categories. Some of these concerns have a long his- tory of operation and some of them, while relatively new, have had an important effect on the business development of the county. In 1884, J. A. Vance began the manufacture of wood planers and sawmills. The business w^as operated as a pro- prietorship until 19 19 when a partnership was formed with two of his sons. Ten years later it was incorporated. In 1936 the production of metal stampings was added, and a new plant was constructed for this department in 1948. The products of this new department are used largely in the woodworking industry. Machine parts are also manufactured and castings are made in the foundry for various industrial customers. The planers and sawmills of J. A. Vance Company have been well known for years and many of these machines have been exported to South and Central America, Mexico, Africa, and the Orient. The business is operated by the son of the founder. The Briggs-Shaffner Company was started in 1897 by William C. Briggs and W. F. Shaffner, who had perfected a cigarette machine in the plant of J. A. Vance during the preceding six years. The company was organized to operate as a general machine shop with a foundry, and to specialize in the production of the cigarette machine. In the interest of the sale of this machine, W. F. Shaffner spent the next two years in Mexico. In the summer of 1909 the company was incorporated with W. F. Shaffner, president, WiUiam C. Briggs, vice-president, and M. H. Willis, secretary and treasurer. E. N. Shaffner became associated with the com- pany in 1943 and later that year was elected president. Today this company not only makes metal castings but produces a line of gift ware made from anodized aluminum. The Bahnson Company had its beginning in 191 5 under A Center of Industry i8i the name of the Normalair Company for the production of a centrifugal humidifier which had been invented and patented by J. W. Fries. The company was started by A. H. Bahnson, F. F. Bahnson, and J. A. Gray. A few years later the name was changed to The Bahnson Humidifier Company. In 1929 the company was incorporated and became The Bahnson Company with A. H. Bahnson as president. In 1940 F. F. Bahnson retired; and in 1946 A. H. Bahnson, Jr., became president. The company manufactures and installs industrial air conditioning equipment which is well known in the textile industry both in this country and in several foreign countries. Recently the plant was expanded to a total of 96,000 square feet. In 1927 the Salem Steel Company was organized for the fabrication of structural steel. The business was incorporated in 1933 and has grown rapidly. This plant is now one of the best equipped and most modern steel fabrication plants in the South. Their product is used in residential and industrial con- struction and bridges. Southern Steel Stampings Company was granted a charter in 1929. This company was organized by F. F. Bahnson for the production of stampings used largely in the furniture industry and machine parts used by the textile industry. The son of the founder now operates the business, the plant of which occupies over 40,000 square feet. In 1944, The Bassick Company, a subsidiary of Stewart- Warner Company, selected Winston-Salem as the site for their Bassick-Sack Division. The latter part of the following year operations started. This company manufactures furni- ture hardware, known as decorative metal trim, which is used by the furniture manufacturing industry. The plant covers an area of 58,000 square feet. One of the largest recent additions to our industrial scene came as a result of the selection of this community by the Western Electric Company for the location of their Radio i82 Forsyth, a County on the March Shops. In 1946 operations were started in the old Chatham Manufacturing plant. Additional plants were leased as the operations expanded. Today this company occupies over 800,000 square feet of manufacturing space. Land has been purchased for the development of a new plant site with modern building and equipment. The company manufactures electrical apparatus and supplies, for use by the Bell Tele- phone system. It is interesting to know the wide scale of diversification of Winston-Salem industry. In addition to the products of the industries described on the preceding pages, the following partial list will dispel any idea that the City of Industry is limited in the variety of its products. These include Awnings, Tents, Canvas Covers and Bags, Automobile Springs, Batteries, Beverages, Bread and other Bakery Products, Brick, Coffins, Caskets, Clothing (work), Fertilizer, Foods, Harness and Saddlery, Insulating Yam, Lumber, Machinery, Mattresses and Box Springs, Medicines, Sheet Metal, Mirrors, Printing and Publishing, Rugs, Sewer Pipe, Signs, Stone, Tin Foil, Upholstering and Veneer. Financial Institutions As early as 181 5 the Bank of Cape Fear, Wilmington, N. C, appointed agents in Salem. Two years before the founding of Winston, the formal business of banking was launched in Salem with the establishment of a branqh of the same Bank. Israel G. Loesch, or Lash, was the first banker. The bank was housed in a brick building located at what is now the southwest corner of Bank and Main streets. This branch bank seems to have prospered until it went down in the gen- eral financial crash of the Civil War. In 1866, Lash opened a bank of his own, the First National Bank of Salem, using the same building which had sheltered the branch of the Bank of Cape Fear. Following the death of Israel Lash in 1879, the A Center of Industry 183 bank closed its doors and the banking center of the commu- nity moved into the new village of Winston. The Wachovia Bank & Trust Company dates back to the establishment of the Wachovia National Bank in June, 1879. This institution had as its president Wyatt F. Bowman, E. Belo as vice-president, W. A. Lemly (formerly associated with Israel Lash in Salem) as cashier, and James A. Gray as assistant cashier. Lemly was president of this flourishing institution from 1882 to 1906 and James A. Gray from the latter date to 191 1. The bank started business with a capital of $100,000 and in about two months it was increased to $150,000. In 1888 the bank was moved from its original build- ing on Main Street to the corner of Main and Third streets, where it occupied a three-story building on the present site of the Main office of the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company. In 1893, the Wachovia Loan and Trust Company was organized by F. H. Fries and his nephew, H. F. Shaifner. Its first home was in a modest one-story wooden building on the east side of Main Street between Second and Third in Win- ston. The directors were James A. Gray, J. E. Gihner, C. H. Fogle, J. C. Buxton, J. H. Millis, T. L. Vaughn and R. J. Reynolds. Two of these directors, Messrs. Gray and Buxton, were closely identified with the Wachovia National Bank! Gray was elected a vice-president of the Trust Company at the beginning but was not active until later. Branch offices were opened by the bank as it continued to grow. The Asheville office was established in 1902, and the High Point and Salisbury offices in 1903. The bank ceased to be a purely local enterprise, its business assumed state-wide proportions and national reputation. The year 191 1 saw another decisive step in the financial history of Winston-Salem. On January ist, the Wachovia National Bank (1879) was consolidated with the Wachovia Loan and Trust Company (1893) under the name of Wacho- 184 Forsyth, a County on the March via Bank and Trust Company. Growth continued with the opening of the Trade Street office in 19 19, and the Raleigh office in 1922. The Forsyth Savings and Trust Company was taken over at the request of the directors of the Negro insti- tution in 1930 and is now operated as the Third Street Branch. In 1939 an office was estabhshed in Charlotte, which brings the total to eight offices in six cities. The Wachovia has grown with the community and the state. With total assets of $280,000,000, it is the largest bank between Washington and Atlanta. It has the largest combined capital and surplus of the banks in the Southeast. The City National Bank is the outgrowth of the Morris Plan Bank which was established in 191 7 by George W. Coan and George W. Coan, Jr. The bank enlarged the scope of its services in 1940, when it received a national charter and assumed its present name. Its original capital in 19 17 amounted to $40,000. Today the total assets exceed $8,500,000. The Hood System Industrial Bank was founded in 1925 with a capital of $225,000 by Gurney P. Hood, and Nick Mitchell, who was elected the first president. The bank has specialized in installment personal loans and has grown con- sistently until today its total assets amount to $1,400,000. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Winston-Salem was opened for business on October 15, 1932, to serve as a redis- count bank for building and loan associations and savings and loan associations. The district served by this bank in- cludes eight southeastern states. The First National Bank arose from one of the most tragic depressions in banking history. It was organized May 16, 1934, with capital, surplus, and undivided profits of $250,000. Officers were Charles M. Norfleet, president, Guy R. Dudley, vice-president, Gilmer Wolfe, cashier. In its four- teen years this bank has grown steadily and total assets exceed $16,000,000. A Center of Industry 185 In addition to its commercial and industrial banks, Win- ston-Salem has two building and loan associations and two federal savings and loan associations. The oldest of these is the Winston-Salem Building and Loan Association, which was established in 1889 and now has total assets of over $6,000,000. The Piedmont Federal Savings and Loan Associa- tion was started in 1903 under a State Charter which was changed to a Federal Charter in 1935. This is the largest of the group, with assets of over $10,000,000. The Standard Building and Loan Association was organized in 1908 and total assets now exceed $4,000,000. The First Federal Savings and Loan Association was organized originally under a Fed- eral Charter in 1934 and today has total assets in excess of $5,000,000. The Security Life and Trust Company had its beginning in March, 1920. George A. Grimsley and Collins Taylor, both of whom had many years of Hfe insurance experience, organized the company in Greensboro, N. C. Civic-m.inded local citizens, realizing the value of such an institution to a community, arranged for the company to move to Winston- Salem in 1923. The company has had a remarkable growth with assets now over $20,000,000 and insurance in force exceeding $185,000,000. Retail Trade From the earhest days, this settlement has been a center of trade for a wide area. To supply the needs of the two towns and of farmers for fifty miles or more around, there were in 1885 about a dozen stores in Winston that were de- scribed as "large." Among these were the general merchants, Hodgin and SuUivan, Pfohl and Stockton, Hinshaw and Bynum, J. E. Gilmer, Jacob Tise, Clark and Ford, and H. D. Poindexter; two hardware stores, Brown-Rogers & Company and S. E. Allen; two drug stores, one owned by Dr. V. O. i86 Forsyth, a County on the March Thompson and the other owned by Sam Smith; one clothing store, and a jewelry store owned by WilHam T. Vogler. In addition to the above large stores, a souvenir pamphlet issued in 1890 carried the advertisements of these merchants, some of whom were located in Salem: Fries, Giersh and Sense- man, H. W. Shore, J. F. Shaffner, D. D. Schouler, W. O. Senseman & Company, W. P. Ormsby, F. C. Meinung, and Rosenbacher Bros. In the five years from 1880 to 1885 the population of Win- ston had more than doubled, and in comparison with other communities in the state, Winston was regarded as an impor- tant center. The two towns in 1890 had a combined popula- tion of 10,729, out of a total population for Forsyth County of 28,434. The population growth of Winston-Salem from 13,650 in 1900 to 79,815 in 1940 resulted in its growth in importance as a center of trade and industry. In 1940 Win- ston-Salem retail sales per capita were $310.00. This was $40.00 above the national average and $ 1 64.00 above the state average. The total retail trade in Forsyth County amounted to $32,655,000 at this time. The general trading area of Winston-Salem may be de- scribed as a circle beginning fifteen miles east to include Kernersville, and to the north where it goes into Virginia at a distance of about fifty miles to include Stuart, Martinsville, and Galax. It then comes back into North Carolina at a dis- tance of about fifty miles west to include Elkin and North Wilkesboro. Completing the circle, the distance decreases because of the pull of other markets; however, the line skirts Statesville and Salisbury and takes in Lexington, Thomasville, and High Point. This area covers a population of over 500,000 people. This trading area developed retail sales in 1947, according to Sales Managements Survey, which is generally accepted as rehable, of $264,087,000. Forsyth County alone accounted A Center of Industry 187 for $1 13,147,000, which was an increase of 246 per cent over the 1940 census figure and a 44 per cent increase over 1946. The same survey placed Winston-Salem as the second largest city in retail sales in North Carolina for the year 1947 with a total of $101,493,000. The wholesale sales reported by the same survey for 1947 placed Winston-Salem third in North Carolina with $125,061,000. The community continues to grow as a center of trade with more than a thousand stores from which to select one's purchases. They range from conveniently located neighbor- hood grocery and drug stores to the adequately and thor- oughly modem concerns that line the business streets. Visitors have given us credit for the most diversified and well-equipped specialty shops to be found between Washing- ton and Atlanta. New stores are under construction and many other stores are expanding. Agricultural Development Although Forsyth is primarily an industrial county, it does not lag far behind as an agricultural county. Our citizens rec- ognize that a secure foundation for prosperity must include the products of the land. In 1920 we had 2,849 farms in the county for an increase during the previous decade of 7.6 per cent in number. In 1945 there were 3,370 farm operations in the county. Farm ownership is gradually increasing, for the number of farms operated by tenants has increased by only 98, while the total number of farms has increased by 521 during the last twenty-five years. The average number of acres to the farm is 57.4 with an average of 26.3 acres under cultivation. The county contains 271,360 acres of which 193,560 were in farms in 1945. In 19 10 our total farm property was valued at $8,203,133 whereas in 1940 it had increased to $16,224,085. In 1945 our i88 Forsyth, a County on the March farm property was valued at $21,037,418 for an average of $6,243 per farm, which placed us second highest in the state. We ranked first in number of farms having electricity and automobiles. Forsyth's crop-yielding power in 1944 was as follows: value of crops harvested, $5,869,585; value of crops sold, $3,217,561; value of livestock and livestock products sold, $1,070,273. Forsyth ranked 35th in the state in 1945 in the value of the eleven principal crops produced with a total of $6,869,490. Of this total the tobacco crop brought $4,701,700, the next highest was hay which brought $910,420, followed by corn which brought $647,700. This is big business and its future development is of interest to the entire county. The following comparison will be of value since it is based on units of comparison which do not fluctuate. No allow- ance need be made for the value of the currency in i860, the top prices of 1920, or parity prices of 1944. Forsyth County Crops and Livestock i860 1920 1944 Corn, bushels 317^890 388,854 483,100 Hay, tons 5,489 1 9^595 20,600 Wheat, bushels 187,836 i99A^^ 172,330 Oats, bushels 60,934 3^^372 143,600 Sweet potatoes, bushels 21,001 4^.53 '^ 71400 Irish potatoes, bushels 11,869 25,143 31,960 Tobacco, pounds 55^ A^^ 4,049,428 7,151,600 Butter, pounds sold 74i68i 520,242 164,378 Horses 2,275 2,533 ^^78 Mules 318 2,065 2,097 Cattle 6,180 8,013 8,861 Sheep 6,386 418 89 Swine 18,942 9^127 7,648 A Center of Industry 189 A safely balanced farm system means, first of all, food crops enough to feed the farmer, the farmer's family, and the farm animals, at least as far as staple farm supplies are con- cerned; second, it means farm animals to furnish horsepower where machines are not used, and all the meat, milk, butter, and eggs needed for home consumption; third, it means, in Forsyth, tobacco as the surest ready cash crop. It would be folly for a farmer in our tobacco areas not to raise tobacco unless he can substitute for it another cash crop of equal or greater value; and it would be equally foolish for him to raise tobacco unless his barns and bins, cribs and smoke- houses are filled with home-raised food and feed. Farmers should be self-financing as well as self-feeding, and Forsyth County can provide this balance. General Facts on County Development History relates the series of inventions in the latter half of the eighteenth century in England which revolutionized the industries of that country. The most important of these were the spinning jenny, the water frame, the power loom, and the steam engine. Of no little importance in hastening the change that took place were various improved processes for the production of iron and steel which were introduced dur- ing this period. The inventions of the locomotive and the steamboat were equally significant. Stephenson constructed a practical locomotive in 18 14, and Rve years later the first steamboat crossed the Atlantic and ushered in the era of fast ocean transportation. Changes were soon noticed in the rest of Europe and in the United States. In the early days of the American colonies manufactures were almost unknown, and such manufactured goods as were needed had to be imported. Manufacturing began to develop in New England before the Revolutionary War, and after the United States became independent there 190 Forsyth, a County on the March was rapid expansion. Great cities grew up along the harbors, such as New York and Philadelphia. The period from 1830 to almost the end of the century was one of railway building and general industrial expansion, which rapidly transformed the United States into a great manufacturing and commercial nation. Meanwhile, agriculture became much more produc- tive, because of improved methods. Thus was the modern system of industry born in America. The same development transformed this community from a frontier agricultural settlement to a great industrial county, just as it did other communities which had many more advan- tages. The rapidity with which the development took place in our history is even more remarkable when we realize that our early settlement was two hundred miles from the nearest harbor and roads were only trails. During the period from 1830 up until 1873, when the first direct railroad connection was made, our pioneers established a cotton manufacturing company, a wool mill, a wagon works, a power-driven wood- working plant, and a tobacco factory. Electricity was used to light a cotton mill by 1881. Tobacco had been "rolled" down the trail to distant markets in the earlier days but by 1885 the first tobacco was being shipped from this section directly to Europe. Necessity called for invention and, coupled with an ambi- tion for progress, drove the pioneers to give us an early devel- opment which has gained momentum with succeeding generations. The isolation of the settlement one hundred years ago did not prevent these men from utilizing the avail- able products of the soil. The climate was advantageous to the cultivation of tobacco and cotton and invigorating to the health. The vast forests yielded lumber as well as food. Indus- try developed from within, and the community prospered. The scarce means of production were directed toward the satisfaction of human wants. The story of our industry is the story of industrious men. A Center of Industry 191 Some of the results of their genius are the visible, tangible assets which have already been described as our largest or oldest establishments. Yet an appraisal of Winston-Salem business today must take into account the numerous indus- tries and business concerns v^hich may not rank with the oldest or the largest, but which do play their important part in the economic life of the community. The translation of the complete story is revealed by certain facts which measure business and industrial life. The increase in population since 1890 is shown by the United States census, as follows: Year Winston-Salem Forsyth County 1890 10,729 28,434 1900 13,650 35,261 1910 22,700 47,311 1920 48,395 77.269 1930 75.274 111,681 1940 79,815 126,475 Forsyth is one of the smallest counties in the state, there being only thirty counties having less area, yet it is one of the most populous. The density of population is 298.3 per square mile, nearly four times the state average. Of the county total, 63 per cent reside in Winston-Salem, and of the remain- ing rural population 22.8 per cent are classified as non-farm. Many of the people classified as rural dwellers make their living by working in the factories. There are many factories and business concerns in Forsyth County which are not in- cluded in any incorporated town, and most of their em- ployees are classified as rural dwellers. Also there are a great number of people living outside of incorporated towns who are employed in the towns. The large number of Negro laborers found in Forsyth County is due to the nature of the industries. The tobacco 192 Forsyth, a County on the March industry offers to the unskilled Negro the most attractive of jobs; consequently Forsyth County has a great number of un- skilled Negro laborers. It is estimated that 32.5 per cent of our population are Negroes, while in 1920 we had 34.2 per cent, and in 1930, 33.3 per cent. Of the total population of Winston-Salem, 36,018 were Negro in the 1940 census. Almost 86 per cent of our population is engaged in indus- try, business, and the professions. From a survey conducted by the Chamber of Commerce in 1947, we learn that over half of this group is engaged in the manufacturing industry. The results of this survey show the percentages according to type of work. 58 per cent engaged in manufacturing 23 per cent engaged in retailing and wholesaling 14 per cent engaged in various trades and services 5 per cent in government and the professions The manufactured products of 97 establishments in For- syth in 1937 had a value of $349,196,894, of which amount $84,844,398 was added by the manufacturing process. Our latest survey indicates that this value will reach one billion dollars for the year 1947. Winston-Salem ranks first south of Richmond and east of the Mississippi in value of manufac- tured products, and produces seven times that of any other city in the Carolinas. An excellent indication of business activity is shown by the annual total of bank clearings in the city. The total for 1946 increased 35 per cent over the previous year and doubled that of 1940. In 1947 total bank clearings were $1,412,985,000 for an increase of 18 per cent over 1946, while the gain for the Fifth Federal Reserve District was 1 1 per cent. Total bank assets September 30, 1948, were over $318,000,000 with deposits of over $294,000,000. Winston-Salem is the market place for eighteen tobacco- growing counties and their 98,771 acres of tobacco allotted A Center of Industry 193 for the 1 947 -1 948 season. Buyers come to our fourteen tobacco warehouses to buy leaf for manufacture into finished products not only in the United States but in many foreign countries. The volume of sales in the local market in ten year intervals over the past forty-seven years follows: Season Pounds 1900-1901 21,380,012 1910-1911 22,912,890 1920-192 1 60,580,994 1930-1931 65,152,950 1940-1941 47,369,170 1947-1948 61,743,308 The value and the volume of the crop has varied over this period and any comparison should take into consideration the effect of Federal legislation, first instituted in 1933. This has resulted in varying degrees of government price support and also an allotment system which limits the acreage planted in tobacco. However, the local market sales for the 1947- 1948 season brought the growers $23,595,280, much of which was spent in the city. In 1 90 1 the assessed value of all taxable property in Forsyth amounted to $8,402,308. The entire state at that time had less than $300,000,000 on the tax books. Today Forsyth valuation exceeds by 20 per cent the valuation for the entire state in 1 90 1. Forsyth exhibits a marvelous increase in taxable wealth during the last fifty years. While these amounts are available for each year of our history, it is sufficient to show the last few years in order to give an impression of our recent growth. The last revaluation of real property was made in 1941, but the basis for taxation was increased in 1947 from 70 per cent to 80 per cent of fair cash value. These assessed values are shown as follows: 194 Forsyth, a County on the March ^933 Forsyth County $ 47,808,069 Winston-Salem 99,849,774 Total $147,657,843 ^931 Forsyth County $ 61,200,147 Winston-Salem 99,514,603 Total $160,714,750 Forsyth County $ 83,250,905 Winston-Salem 100,571,945 Total $183,822,850 1^48 Forsyth County $208,558,414 Winston-Salem 153,097,345 Total $361,655,759 Our rank in the state on the basis of assessed valuation can be shown for the year 1945. I St Forsyth County $226,100,000 2nd Guilford County 203,600,000 3rd Mecklenburg County 164,300,000 4th Durham County 161,900,000 5th Wake County 105,300,000 This amazing increase in taxable wealth signifies a pros- perous and thrifty community which has reached these values not over night but over a period of many years of toil and energy. Such figures show that the county has resources which surpassed even the fondest dreams of the early found- A Center of Industry 195 ers, and they also give good reason to believe that these resources are far from exhausted. Equally impressive would be the amounts of income tax paid to the state and federal government by the residents of the county, if they v^ere readily available. We have been referred to as "North Carolina's largest tax paying unit." Sales tax payments to the state in 1944 reached $910,317 and state income tax payments the same year amounted to $1,170,504. Because of the heavy imports incident to the tobacco industry a Port of Entry was established here through Act of Congress on June 16, 19 16. The duty paid on goods im- ported into Winston-Salem for the year ending June 30, 1948 amounted to $4,988,269.34. This placed us in the rank of sixteenth city in the United States as a source of customs revenue. From the foregoing description of our economic back- ground, it is conclusive that the foundation of Forsyth County rests on its industry. The growth has been from within, with local men and local capital furnishing the lead- ing role. There has been no abnormality in this development; it has been steady, healthy, and consistent, and this is due in a large measure to the type of products manufactured. To- bacco from the fields can be delivered to the factories which finish the process required to prepare it for use by the ulti- mate consumer. Cotton from the farms can be sold to the plant which completes the process of manufacturing the garment which the consumer wears. The rough lumber can be delivered to the mill which ships furniture prepared for use in the home. Other local industries may depend on sup- plementary processing, but the vast majority of their products are definitely consumer goods. Such industry is not readily affected by economic extremes. There is a tempo in our business life not found in every community. We are proud of having what is sometimes called 196 Forsyth, a County on the March a working man's town. The energetic way in which our affairs are conducted speaks well for the future growth of the entire county. The unity of purpose found in our citi- zenry had its beginning in the men who established the com- munity and gives true meaning to the motto, "A City Founded upon Co-operation." f|'li|^,,ii'jj^c ?Tt>>^'^ (^^YMOLX?^ ■X, r^. 1-EWiSViCLe LAV: .^^ V^^>i^5 X r- .^'^<4< Vf^^ S^^^ ^' L^f^ ^aO H$ WO^ '•^^^ 1^ V ^ .^V.' 27V ^ % ' BRO)//N ^ - THOMPSON Ri&(r\^^ :^ OO^^^L^jjj^ JONtS WATJOH SVMU/A /y^AMLV UiDtOW