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The home of Mr. and Mrs. Sam F. Vance, Jr., on Salisbury Street. The siding of this home covers a two-story log home to which Francis
The house was built in 1834. The ceilings in the two front rooms Marion Stafford and his bride moved in 1857. (Prior to their coming two
are made of hand-hewn wide plank boards. The three chimneys on the other families resided here.) Mr. Francis Stafford enclosed the log structure
house are the original ones. Mr, and Mrs. Vance bought and remodeled which dates back to 1840 or earlier, and added more rooms. William C.
the house in 1942. Stafford, his son, came here with his family to live in 1904. H e, too, made
additions to the home. In the attic room the original logs may be seen.
Miss Eugenia Stafford, daughter of the late W. C. Stafford resides in the
home. Ivy planted around the house came from Mt. Vernon in 1921.
By far the largest and most important Indian tribe
in North Carolina was the Cherokees. They were truly
mountain folks and like the mountains they were strong
and rugged. Their settlements overflowed into the pleas-
ant, fruitful valley of the foothills and we know that they
were in the immediate area around Kernersville for one
period at least. There will be more of this story later.
The surprising opening paragraphs of Forsyth, A
C aunty on the March must be repeated here.
Improbable as it sounds, it is a fact that the
pioneers in this immediate section of North
Carolina selected their land in Ans0n County,
settled in Rowan County, and went through the
Revolutionary War in Surry County; their de-
scendants were in Stokes County during the
War of 1812 and the Mexican War, and volun- The Nathanial Macon Kerner home on South Main Street is one of
teered for Confederate service from Forsyth Kernersville's oldest homes. It was built over 100 years ago with brick
made from clay and it stands on part of the original Joseph Kerner estate.
County- and yet the location never changed! athanial, son of John Frederick and grandson of "Joseph of Kernersville,"
The explanation is that the area which is took his bride, Martha Elizabeth Stockton to live here in October, 1857.
athanial died in 1880 and his son Carl and wife Berenice continued to
now Forsyth was always in the piece that was live in the house until their deaths. The house was bought by Mr. and
Mrs. John Wolfe III in 1970, who reside here now. John is a descendant
cut off when a large county was divided; always of " Joseph of Kernersville".
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 He was a landlord indeed and in truth! He was the first
a new set of county records. of that vanguard to follow, some from the North, from
And now, at last, Kernersville's first hero makes his New England, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the settled colo-
appearance on history's stage. His name was Caleb nies; some from eastern Carolina and the Albemarle
Story and he is described as an Irishman, but he was country and some from further South and the Charles
probably Scotch-Irish (which as any Scotsman will tell Town area.
you is a different thing all together). At any rate he Did Caleb Story build a little frontier cabin? How
came, walking or riding along a high ridge two hundred long did he stay? Was he unable to persuade his sweet-
miles from the sea and nearly a thousand feet above heart to brave the loneliness and dangers of the wilder-
sea level. The high ridge_ was his, the massive oaks and ness with him? We shall never know. We do know,
virgin pines were his, four hundred acres of beautiful, however, that 'by 1756 trouble was brewing in Carolina.
rolling wood land. Perhaps he had never owned an The disturbance of the French and Indian War was
acre in the old world but now in the year of our Lord penetrating southward and the Moravians at nearby
1756, or thereabouts, he, Caleb Story, had a land grant Bethabara built a palisade round their village that same
from the Royal Colony of Carolina for this strip of land. year. By 1760 the terrors of Cherokee Indian warfare
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