2009 3.pdfDavie Dossier
Issued by
Davie County Historical and Genealogical Society
Mocksville, North Carolina
July 2009, Issue 3
Davie County Historical and Genealogical Society
MEETINGS ARE HELD THE FOURTH TUESDAY (January through November)
President Linda Leonard
Vice-President
Secretary/Treasurer Frances Beck
Board of Directors Dale McCullough, Diane Webb, Bill Urdanick
Dossier Editors Marie Roth, Doris Frye
Our Web site: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncdavhgs
New items
All the churches in Davie County (If some are omitted, please tell us.)
Cemeteries in Davie County with directions for finding them
Name, location, photo of 16 Davie Co. sites on National Register of Historic Places
All the names on the War Memorial in Mocksville
A list of all the populated places.
Townships as listed on US Census, 1790 - 1930.
INTERNET SUGGESTIONS
FamilySearch Wiki about Davie County:
https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Davie_County%2C_North_Carolina
Sponsored by FamilySearch and written by Marie.
If you haven’t used a wiki (means “easy” in Hawaiian) it’s an article on a specific subject written
by a non-professional who is not compensated. Examples are www.wikipedia.org,
www.wikihow.com , and many more. The software is easy to use and edit and it uploads to the
Internet easily if you decide to create a page. They especially want information about each county
in North Carolina, so maybe some of you could help with other counties.
Genealogy Alert: Geocities to close this year
You may have heard that Geocities will be closing down later this year (2009). There are many
genealogy sites on Geocities, and sadly, many of these sites may be lost if the webmasters don't
move the sites to a new location. Yahoo is not notifying anyone about this by e-mail and many
webmasters have not updated their sites in years, so--more likely than not--are not even aware the
pages they have posted will be lost.
You’ve looked for an ancestor for many years – have you ever just typed in his/her name (in
quotes) into Google.com? They have scanned thousands of books which just might have some
information about your person.
For those of you local researchers who have a “portable computer”, Davie County Public Library
is now wifi.
CALENDAR
MAY 26 MEETING: Hodges Business College – John Fuller, owner and restorer of this historic 100 year
old brick school described the school and its restoration at our meeting at the library. A Power Point
presentation showed us the extensive repairing and construction to return this historic building to a safe and
sturdy dwelling place for his family.
JUNE 23 MEETING: Marie Roth and Debra Dotson attended the National Genealogical Society Family
History Conference in mid-May in Raleigh. This month’s program was a report from them about the huge
genealogical conference. Marie described her favorite classes including demonstration of using the My
Maps feature of Google Maps and Google Earth to mark historical sites. She used the History Room
computer to show an example and to show photos she took during the conference. Debra described the NC
Archives’ project of detailing information about each cemetery in NC. This description needs to be
completed for Davie. See http://www.archaeology.ncdcr.gov/ncarch/reporting/cemetery.htm for overview.
This Web site lists NC laws for the protection of cemeteries. There is a link to a form to print out for
filling out the desired information for individual cemeteries. The NGS conference in 2010 will be April 28-
May 1 in Salt Lake City ! What a great opportunity for you ! But if you want a nearby hotel room, you
should book it soon. They will offer special rates. Keep checking this site for the discounts:
http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/Accomodations (I realize that Accommodations has 2 M’s, but the URL
only has 1.)
JULY 25-26 and SEPTEMBER 5-6: Living History Event at Fort Dobbs in Iredell County.
JULY 28 MEETING: Meet at the library parking lot at 6:30 pm and car pool to Hodges Business College
where we’ll have a tour.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2009, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, Workshop and Conference “History of
Transportation in the Counties of the Yadkin Valley”. This is sponsored by Yadkin Valley Historical
Association and will be at the Lewisville United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall,
6290 Shallowford Road, Lewisville, NC. For more information, get pages at Davie Library or:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncyadvha/2009_conf.pdf .
For registration form: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncyadvha/2009_reg.pdf
AUGUST 25 MEETING: Debra Dotson and Jane McAllister have written a book Images of America,
Davie County that has release date of July 27. This meeting will feature discussion about the book, and the
authors will be available for a book signing. Books will be sold at the library. See information at the
bottom of page 7 for ordering.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 9 AM - 2 PM. Davidson County Genealogical Society will sponsor a
genealogical swap at Robbins Recreation Center, 512 S. Hargrave St., Lexington, NC. Davie County will
be selling their books, maps, and CDs. The public is invited to this multi-county event.
SEPTEMBER 22 MEETING: Old Photo Evening. Each person should bring to the meeting at least one
photo that was made in Davie County before 1940. Photos of groups of people, especially those identified,
will be interesting to see. Old historic buildings are welcome also. A scanner and copy machine will be
available for sharing. We will also discuss the preservation of old photographs and the history of early
photography in Davie County.
OCTOBER 3-4: Trade Fair at Fort Dobbs in Iredell County.
OCTOBER 14: You are invited to a meeting of the Genealogical Society of Iredell County. Speaker will
be the Irish author Billy Kennedy, author of The Scots-Irish in the Carolinas.
For a list of the books he’s written, see http://www.bookfinder.com/author/billy-kennedy/.
From The Davie Record
May 24, 1899
MOCKSVILLE N. C.
One of the Healthiest Towns in Western North
Carolina
A Quiet Town Situated on the North Carolina
Mindland R. R. 27 miles from Winston-Salem
and 55 from Charlotte.
Population 700.
IT HAS
2 well kept hotels
4 churches
3 livery stables
5 stores, and room for more
1 cotton gin
2 saw mills
1 plaining mill
1 roller mill
1 wood shop
1 academy
1 tobacco factory
2 weekly papers
1 job printing office
1 copper shop
2 harness shops
5 blacksmith shops
1 telephone system
1 barber shop
1 shoe shop
Many pretty dwellings
No barrooms
WHAT IT NEEDS
A bank
More stores
A cotton mill
Better streets
A beef market
Some delapidated old buildings torn down and
new ones erected
The Academy to be repaired and a High School
started
A roller and grist mill
We invite Capitalists to come to our Town and
County, and see our wonderful manufacturing
resources.
OUR PEOPLE ARE HOSPITABLE AND
STRANGERS RECEIVE A HEARTY
WELCOME.
Those seeking a cool and healthful summer resort
can do not better than come to Mocksville.
COME.
Early Photography in Davie County
Our September meeting will highlight
early photography. If you have information to
add to our Dossier, to our meeting, or to the
Martin-Wall History Room, we hope you’ll share
with us.
An advertisement in the newspaper,
March 1906 had these lines:
PHOTOGRAPHS
DOWN GOES THE PRICE !
25 Nice Photographs for 25 „.
We have just received our New Machine and are
now Prepared to make a nice Line of
PHOTOGRAPHS from the Best Penny Picture
to the Finest Cabinet*.
Why pay $2.00 for your photographs, when the
WHITE WING ART COMPANY
takes 25 Artistic Likenesses by the Permanent
and Instantaneous Process for only Twenty-Five
Cents.
Photo Buttons, 10 Cents Each.
See our tent on Public Square.
We are Headquarters for Pictures and Picture
Frames.
See us about that picture you want enlarged.
A $1.98 Portrait, Size 16 X 20, Now 98 Cents.
All work guaranteed. We are Yours to Please,
The White Wing Art Co., Mocksville NC
Office up Stairs, in the P. O. and Masonic
Building.
*Cabinet: The image is mounted on a heavy card
that measures 4 … by 6 5/8 inches. The back of
the card can be plain or have the name of the
photographer.
The book Photographers in North Carolina by
Stephen E. Massengill lists information about
Davie. On page 91, he lists Robert E. Fraley
(born about 1875), native of NC, active 1910-
1913 in Mocksville. Sources: 1910 census and
NC Year Book of 1910, 1911, and 1913.
He also lists Samuel Warren on page 205 for the
year 1857 in Davie County. Sources: Davie
County Tax Records and Craig’s Daguerreian
Registry 3:593.
Please send any information about this subject to
MarieBCR@gmail.com or 336.751.5212.
The Great Pennsylvania Wagon Road By Kevin Cherry Rowan County Library Historian, Part 2 of 2
The following are parts of a speech given to the Fisher/Brown reunion in Salisbury/Rowan County NC by Kevin Cherry,
Rowan County Library Historian in 1998 and posted to the Quakers-Roots mailing list on Rootsweb by Janet Hunter.
His remarks deal with the conditions of those who immigrated to the new lands in North Carolina from such places of
origin as Pennsylvania.
Who were the Wagon Road’s Travelers?
For 118 years, the English and Dutch settled the
New World, lining the harbors and pointing their cities,
their eyes, their hearts to the east, across the Atlantic.
They were on the fringes of a vast continent but, for the
most part, they forever more turned away from it and
toward home. They were certainly colonists, even those
stem- faced few who came to these shores for religious
reasons, and most of the other settlers, you see, had come
to expand the business opportunities of home
establishments. Their ties to those establishments were
strong. It took a different kind of settler, someone who
had cut his ties altogether, someone who didn’t really
have all that much to lose, to look west at a wilderness
and there see something more than raw materials ready
for exploitation. It took folks like the Germans and the
Scots-Irish to put their backs to the ocean and see home
in front of them. Escaping devastating wars, religious
persecution, economic disasters, and all of those other
things that still cause people to come to these shores, the
Scots Irish and the Germans had no intention of returning
to their native lands. They were here to stay. They didn’t
look east but to the south and west-toward land. They
didn’t see wolves and Indians. They saw opportunities.
And as different as the Germans and the Scots Irish were,
they had what it took to flourish in the backcountry. Not
possessions that could be lost in the fording of a river, not
personal contacts and the sponsorship of powerful men,
but rough and tumble ability and a heavy streak of
stubbornness. They knew slash and burn agriculture,
they knew pigs, they could hunt and forage, they knew
hard work. They built their cabins the exact same way.
And eventually, they traveled together in that same heavy
stream southward along the Great Pennsylvania Wagon
Road.
In 1749, 12,000 Germans reached Pennsylvania.
By 1775, there were 110,000 people of German birth in
that colony, one-third of the population. When
Philadelphia was a cluster of Inns and Ordinaries: the
Blue Anchor, Pewter Platter, Penny-Pot, Seven Stars,
Cross Keys, Hornet and Peacock.
Benjamin Franklin, one of that era’s most open-
minded men asked, “Why should the Palatinate Boors be
suffered to swan into our settlement and by herding
together establish their language and manners to the
exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by
the English, become a colony of aliens who will shortly
be so numerous as to Germanize us, instead of our
Anglicizing them and will never adopt our language or
customs any more than they can acquire our
complexion.” But the Germans kept coming, thinking
like their Scots Irish compatriots who are recorded as
noting that, “It was against the law of God and nature
that so much land should be idle while so many
Christians wanted it to labor on and raise their bread.” In
short, Pennsylvania was flooded.
Why they Headed South
There is probably no more beautiful land
anywhere than that part of Pennsylvania now known as
the “Amish Country.” It must have appeared to those
people fresh off of the boat, truly a land flowing with
milk and honey. But it filled rapidly. Land became
expensive. The most important reason why the Germans
and Scots-Irish put what little they owned on their backs
and took the south-bound road was the cost of land in
Pennsylvania. A fifty- acre farm in Lancaster County,
PA would have cost 7 pounds 10 shillings in 1750. In
the Granville District of North Carolina, which comprised
the upper half of the state, five shillings would buy 100
acres. The crossing of an ocean was move enough for
most of the early immigrants. The generation, which
could still feel the waves beneath their feet when elderly,
often stayed in Pennsylvania, but their children repeated
their parent’s adventure. Often, they cast off their lines,
raised whatever anchors they had, and “sailed” south
right after their patriarchs had gone to their reward. As
North Carolina’s Secretary of State, William L.
Saunders wrote in 1886, “Immi-gration, in the early days,
divested of its glamour and brought down to solid fact, is
the history of a continuous search for good bottom land.”
In their search for bottomland, English colonists
encroached onto territories claimed by France. This
pressure became one of the reasons the French and
Indians went to war against England and her colonists..
The Germans and Scots bore the brunt of the war, a
cabin burning, wife kidnapping, farm ambushing, bloody,
and horrible guerrilla war. For eleven years mayhem
reigned on the frontier.
In 1756, three years after the war started, George
Washington wrote that the Appalachian frontiersmen
were “in a general motion towards the southern colonies”
and that Virginia’s westernmost counties would soon be
emptied. Western North Carolina seemed to those
escaping the war to be safer because the Cherokee were
on the British side-at least at the beginning. To western
North Carolina they came. This French and Indian War,
which started the year Rowan County was created, joined
the quest for more and better land as a major factor in
sending those Germans and Scots-Irish down the Wagon
Road to safer territory. Not only that but, the peace
treaty that ended the war stated that no English settlers
would go over the Appalachians. Thus, the best-
unclaimed land in all of the colonies lay along the Yadkin,
Catawba and Savannah Rivers between the years 1763
and 1768. When the war ended in 1764, the western
settlements of Pennsylvania had suffered a loss of
population. Virginia and North Carolina had grown.
What they Found
When those Scots Irish and Germans got here
“the country of the upper Yadkin teemed with game.
Bears were so numerous it was said that a hunter could
lay by two or three thousand pounds of bear grease in a
season. The tale was told in the forks that nearby Bear
Creek took its name from the season Boone killed 99
bears along its waters. The deer were so plentiful that an
ordinary hunter could kill four or five a day; the deerskin
trade was an important part of the regional economy. In
1753 more than 30,000 skins were exported from North
Carolina, and thousands were used within the colony for
the manufacture of leggings, breeches and moccasins. In
1755, NC Gov. Arthur Dobbs wrote to England that the
“Yadkin is a large beautiful river. Where there is a ferry
it is nearly 300 yards over it, [which] was at this time
fordable, scarce coming to the horse’s bellies.” At six
miles distant, he said, “I arrived at Salisbury the county
seat of Rowan. The town is just laid out, the courthouse
built, and 7 or 8 log houses built.”
Most of Salisbury’s householders ran public
houses, letting travelers sup at their table-and drink, too.
In 1762, there were 16 public houses. There was also a
shoe factory, a prison, a hospital and armory all here
before the Revolution. Even so, it was still only an
outpost in the wilderness. Salisbury was for twenty-three
years the farthest west county seat in the colonies. And
through this outpost the wagon road ran, and on that road
the immigrants continued to travel even after the area was
settled. Governor Tryon wrote to England that more than
a thousand wagons passed through Salisbury in the Fall
and Winter of 1765. That works out to about six
immigrant wagons per day.
Summary
In the last sixteen years of the colonial era,”
wrote historian Carl Bridenbaugh, “Southbound traffic
along the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road was numbered
in tens of thousands. It was the most heavily traveled
road in all America and must have had more vehicles
jolting along its rough and tortuous way than all the other
main roads put together.” When the British captured
Philadelphia, the Continental Congress escaped down the
Pennsylvania Wagon Road. Daniel Boone and Davy
Crockett traveled it. Indian fighter John Chisholm knew
it as an Indian trader. Countless soldiers-Andrew
Jackson, Andrew Pickens, Andrew Lewis, Francis
Marion, Lighthorse Harry Lee, Daniel Morgan, and
George Rogers Clark, among them-fought over it. Both
the North and South would use it during the Civil War.
And down this road, this glorified overgrown
footpath through the middle of nowhere leading to even
greater depths of nowhere, came those people looking for
a better life for themselves and their children, down it
came those settlers, those hardworking stubborn Scots
Irish and Germans: the preachers, the blacksmiths, and
farmers. Down it came the Holshousers and the
Barringers, the Alexanders and the Grahams, the Millers
and the Earnhardts, the Catheys and the Knoxes, the
Blackwelders and the Halls, and the Cherrys and the
Brauns and the Fishers.
When the crops were in, on a day like today, they started.
USE THIS PAGE FOR ORDERING ITEMS AND/OR PAYING DUES.
BOOKS:Author Price No.Price
Davie County...A Brief History, paperback James W. Wall $ 7.50
The Daniel, Squire, and John Boone
Families in Davie County
James W. Wall, Howell Boone, and Flossie
Martin
$ 5.00
Davie County Marriages 1836-1900 Nancy K. Murphy $25.00
Davie County Marriages 1901-1959 Nancy K. Murphy $25.00
Davie County Cemeteries, a 2-volume set D.C. Historical/Gen. Soc. $55.00
1860 Federal Census-Davie County Nancy K. Murphy and Everette Sain $17.00
1870 Federal Census-Davie County Nancy K. Murphy and Everette Sain $17.00
1880 Federal Census-Davie County Nancy K. Murphy and Everette Sain $22.50
Davie County Heritage Book $45.00
Boone, a Biography Robert Morgan $35.00
The Historic Architecture of Davie Co.Kirk Franklin Mohney $26.75
MAPS OF DAVIE COUNTY:
Lagle Land Grant $ 6.50
Hughes Historical $ 6.50
1887 Alderman $ 2.50
POSTCARDS OF DAVIE CO. SCENES (set of 8)$ 2.50
CD of 72 issues Davie Dossier, 1987-2008 $ 5.00
TOTAL COST
Postage and handling are included in price.N. C. residents need to add 7% sales tax to
the total.
MEMBERSHIP for a calendar year is still just $5.00/year. Life Membership is $100 per person. We are 501(c)(3)
and dues are tax deductible. Below is a registration form for your use; checks, payable to the Society.
DAVIE COUNTY HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
Frances Atkinson Beck
1131 Wagner Road
Mocksville, North Carolina 27028
NAME _____________________________________________________________
ADDRESS _____________________________________________________________
E-MAIL ADDRESS _____________________________________________________________
The Civil War Roster of Davie County by Mary Alice Miller Hasty and Hazel Miller Winfree can be ordered. This
book, published by McFarland, incorporates biographical and military service sketches of 1,147 Davie County Civil War
veterans, with accompanying photographs where possible. Cost is $55.00 plus $3.71 tax and $5 postage, a total of
$63.71. Checks should be made out to M & M Books and sent to Mary Alice Hasty, 105 East Brick Walk Court,
Mocksville NC 27028.
Images of America, Davie County by Debra Dotson and Jane McAllister will be released on July 27. This 128 page
book of old photos and descriptions can be ordered from Jane McAllister, DCPL, 371 N. Main St., Mocksville NC
27028. Book is $21.99, tax is $1.48, and postage/handling is $5. Total cost is $28.47.
Davie County Historical and Genealogical Society
371 North Main Street
Mocksville, North Carolina 27028
JULY 28 MEETING. Meet at parking lot of Davie County Public Library at 6:30 pm and car pool to Hodges Business
College where we’ll have a tour.
AUGUST 25 MEETING. Debra Dotson and Jane McAllister have written a book Images of America, Davie County that has
release date of July 27. This meeting will feature discussion about the book, and the authors will be available for a book
signing. Books will be sold at the library.
SEPTEMBER 22 MEETING: Old Photo Evening.Each person should bring to the meeting at least one photo that was made
in Davie County before 1940. Photos of groups of people, especially those identified, will be interesting to see. Old historic
buildings are welcome also. A scanner and copy machine will be available for sharing. We will also discuss the preservation
of old photographs and early photography in Davie County.