History and Heritage

From its origins in the mid-1700's, the town that is now Jonesville was one of the largest settlements west of Raleigh. The area was initially called Allen's Settlement, presumably for David Allen (and a son by the same name), who owned a bloomery forge (one method for processing iron ore) on the Big Elkin Creek.

Allen's Settlement extended from Fox Knob (now called Star Peak -- for which Yadkin County's Starmount High School is named) to across the Yadkin River (either by ferry or at the Old Ford at the Indian Fish Trap) and up the Big Elkin Creek, near what is now West Elkin and the Pleasant Hill Community in Surry County.

Confusing?

Initially, Allen's Settlement and early Jonesville were surrounded by wilderness and scattered plantations. Surry County included Wilkes and Yadkin Counties and extended from the Virginia State line southward to the town of Winston and the Salem colony. At that time, towns such as Yadkinville, Boonville and East Bend were either marked on early maps as "meeting houses" or were part of plantations or small settlements.


Moravian records and personal diaries recount that Allen's Settlement was a primary source of the timber and iron (floated by barge down the Yadkin, ferried across the Yadkin near the Elkin Creek or hauled by wagon across the ford near the Indian Fish Trap), then wagoned over Jonesville's Iron Works Road to the trading trails into developing areas known today as Forsyth, Davie, Iredell and Wilkes Counties. Salem artisans, in particular, crafted their home and farm implements from iron forged at Allen's bloomery.

We are learning more and more about the relevance of Allen's Settlement and Allen's Iron Works. Although Allen's was not the only iron forge in the area, early maps indicate that six major by-ways to the east and west converged in Jonesville from the present-day townships in Hamptonville, Yadkinville, Elkin, Rockford and Wilkes County. We continue to learn the community's critical role in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars from the early 1700's and into the late 1800's when Jonesville was recognized as a hub of commerce and academics ....

As a child, I remember going with my brother up the river beyond the Old Bridge on the Old Ford Road. We'd walk on a path down to the river's edge and wade out to a sandbar. We'd spend the afternoon with friends playing in the waters of the Yadkin.

We are also gaining insight into the political process which influenced decision-makers in denying Yadkin County as a route for North Carolina's Northwest Railway. In spite of its citizens' over-whelming vote (approximately 1000 for to 100 against) to accept the railroad in August 1869, neither county commissioners nor state legislators responded. Tracks were never layed in prepared road beds (supposedly near Hamptonville, Lone Hickory and East Bend) in at least three campaigns between 1871 and 1908. For reasons to be discussed in a different venue, Yadkin County never reached its potential as a site and conduit for the once evolving industries and resources from within and to the north and west of its borders ....

Iron ore mine shafts still exist throughout the region; in Jonesville, shafts are found beneath streets and homes on West Main Street near the Yadkin River. Legends include tales of Confederate sympathizers hiding in the mines as General George Stoneman's Cavalry razed the community in 1865.

But these are stories to be told later .....

Drawn to the fertile Yadkin River Valley, the original settlement was nestled behind protective river bluffs, harboring itself from early Indian attacks.

Archaeologists and historians have traced life on the Yadkin River to the Paleo-Indians 10,000 years ago. We've also learned that the Sioux Indians settled along the Yadkin River as early as 500 BC .... Pictured here are the remnants of an Indian "v" fish trap that is viewable from the McNeill bridge.

In 1811, the town was incorporated as Martinsborough, honoring Obediah Martin, local surveyor and Benjamin H. Martin, a town commissioner.

The town name was changed to Jonesville in 1815 in honor of Hardy Jones. Jones (1747-1819) was an early settler from Virginia who fought in the American Revolution. Jones' remains and a marker honoring his distinguished career are on the lawn of Jonesville's First United Methodist Church.

It was Hardy Jones' influence that drew two unique ministers and lecturers to Jonesville ....

Brantley York (1805-1891), a Methodist circuit preacher and lecturer at the Jonesville Academy, established his headquarters in Jonesville. From here, York rode a bi-weekly two-hundred mile circuit throughout the region. He is credited with starting the Olin Institute at Union Grove, York Institute at Hiddenite and the Union Institute at Trinity, near High Point. The Trinity-Union Institute was moved to Durham (later to be re-named Duke University). York opened numerous high schools in North Carolina, including Clemmonsville High School.

Francis Asbury (1745-1816) was the first bishop of the Methodist Church in America. In 1771 he traveled to America from England. When the Revolutionary War began, he was the only Methodist minister to remain in America and continued to maintain his circuit of 6000 miles a year to teach and preach. North Carolina's Cokesbury School was built in 1784 on Hardy Jones' plantation at Phelp's Ferry near Bermuda Run (formerly in Rowan, but now Davie county). It was the first Methodist-sponsored school in North Carolina, named Cokesbury in tribute to the first two Methodist Bishops in America, Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury. Asbury visited Jonesville on at least three occasions.

Jonesville grew to early prominence because of the Jonesville Academy, chartered in 1818, which was located where Jonesville First United Methodist Church now stands. The Academy attracted students from across the nation. Founded by Hardy Jones and his son-in-law, the Rev. James Parks (the first principal-pastor), the Academy was affiliated with the Methodist Church and offered an impressive curriculum in Latin, Greek, French, Writing, English, Chemistry and Astronomy.

A later principal of the Academy was the Rev. William L. Van Eaton. The school was at its peak under his guidance with over 150 students.

On April 1, 1865, soldiers with Union General George Stoneman razed the town and the Academy, damaging facilities, destroying equipment and stealing supplies. Yet, the academy's most prized possession, a bell cast of bronze and 99 silver dollars, was overlooked. To this day it tolls atop the Jonesville First United Methodist Church.

Classes continued in the Academy until the early 1900's. The demise of it's instructional program, however, did not curtail the community's desire for quality education. Classes were held in the old Academy and in homes throughout the community until Jonesville's first public school was built circa 1910.


Following a major accident at the school in 1913 (with the second floor collapsing during an assembly), classes again met in homes in the community until a new school was completed circa 1925.

It is this new school that many of those reunioning for Old Jonesville Day will remember -- either as an elementary school or as the building which served all Jonesville students until 1940.

And it was in 1940 when the Jonesville High School we remember opened its doors ....

Regretfully -- most of the original town buildings (and old school structures) have been demolished in recent years ....

One such building was the Old Town Hall. Used as a maintenance shop before being removed, it had once housed town meetings, rotating magistrate hearings, district court sessions and civil wedding ceremonies. In the basement was an historic wooden cell jail, pictured to the right. (As of this printing, no former residents of this facility have come forth .... )



.... I remember going with Daddy-Charlie to the Town Hall -- not to watch him settle arguments or collect fines, but to play with the other children who came with their parents .... and when there were marriages, we would hide under the porch to watch newlyweds kiss on the steps ....


Another historic landmark was the 26-room Benham Hotel (1835-1958) that originally housed medical offices and post office, featured a popular dining room (where students from the Academy also dined), offered an adjacent stable for travelers' horses, and served as a stagecoach station for the region. Behind the hotel was a moss-covered well within an expansive rock patio where guests and travelers would visit or rest. A vegetable garden flourished in an area adjacent to the hotel. Historians tell us that slaves were often auctioned from the front porch. With advancements in transportation, the hotel's functions changed over the years, yet it continued to serve the community as a boarding house (on the second floor) with at least one large apartment (on the first floor) before it's destruction in 1958.

.... as a child, I remember visiting an uncle who lived in the apartment .... playing on the porch, running up and down the stairs ... ever mindful to avoid the open well in the back yard -- often covered by a sheet of tin, held in place by large stones ....


One of the last-standing buildings from early town history was the elegant William Van Eaton home. Built in the 1830's by Rev. William Reed, the home was torn down in 1996. To ensure proper supervision and separation of Academy students, Rev. Van Eaton housed female students in his home and later constructed a separate Academy for women across the street. Subsequent occupants of the Van Eaton home were Prof. J. L. Cheely, Mr. J. F. Cooke, Dr. H. C. Salmon and the S. G. Holcomb family.


The oldest remaining building in Jonesville may now be a property originally built by Perry Hunt and sold to K. M. Thompson, who ran a tannery adjacent to the home. More recently, the Thompson home was owned by Merrill Smith and later by the Roger Wolfe family. The basement in this home contains a recently-functional root cellar and oversized stone fireplace/hearth with stone flooring, reminiscent of the stonework in the Benham Hotel basement kitchen and in homes in nearby Old Salem. (Note: The house has been purchased by an out-of-state family and may be in restoration.)


In 1871, a covered wooden bridge spanned the Yadkin to connect Jonesville and Elkin. Initially financed by a five-cent toll, the bridge was later managed by Surry and Yadkin counties with no charge to users. One of the first suspension bridges in the world (extending over 200 feet), it remained functional until 1913. A steel and wood bridge replacing it lasted only three years, however, and was one of many structures swept away by the Flood of 1916.

A single-lane steel and wood replacement in 1917, referred to as the "old bridge," remained in use until the late-1960's when it was replaced in 1970 by a four-lane bridge, named in honor of Jonesville's Gwyn McNeill, a district Highway Commissioner under Governor Robert Scott.

My earliest memories of the "old bridge" (as it was called -- in contrast with the "new bridge" which was built in 1931) were of walking across the wood slat walk-way adjacent to the one lane .... before I learned to walk "looking up" and not to peer at the river through the slats, my shoes would "catch" in the slat-spacings; I recall screaming that I was falling through .... Dad would pick me up and carry me, of course, stopping occasionally to let me look over the railing at the river below .... in later years, the wood slats began to deteriorate -- opening gapping holes to the river .... I remember fishing beneath the old bridge (long before kudzu claimed the banks) .... Dad and Daddy-Charlie would lead us to the river's edge where we fished in the glow of a kerosene lantern late into the night -- stringing fish on chains and telling stories of Union Hill and Bossie's Bottom and the Jonesville Race Track -- interrupted only by the creaks and groans of the bridge as a car drove across .... My third memory was on the day I received my driver's license and proudly drove home with Daddy-Charlie and Dad in the car .... The "old bridge" was empty, so I pulled into the one-lane -- only to find myself grill to grill with a speeding truck that had decided not wait at the opposite "pull off" .... If you remember the "old bridge" you also may remember how it would shake and sway, creaking and groaning under the weight of one vehicle -- two vehicles brought back that horrid image of falling through the slats into the river below .... and how many JHS students have forgotten hiding on the bluff (now cut away by the new street) to "egg" invading cars from "across the river" on the eve of Elkin-Jonesville football games ....

In 1931, the Hugh G. Chatham Bridge, was built downstream to relieve congestion on the single lane "old bridge." Regarded by many as a community symbol with its maze of tall steel beams, the "new bridge" served as a picturesque frame for the down-stream Chatham Manufacturing and Elkin Furniture plants. In spite of its stature, the Chatham Bridge was closed in 2005 after failing a state inspection. The State Department of Transportation does not plan to repair or replace the bridge.

The town experienced unprecedented growth in population and business development after Interstate 77 opened in 1974. It was named a "Governor's Community of Excellence" in 1980. In 2001, Jonesville and neighboring Arlington merged, incorporating not only their logical physical boundaries, but also the spirit of "community'' that epitomizes Jonesville's new motto: "the Heart of the Yadkin Valley."

Jonesville High School

For each of us there are unique memories of Jonesville High School .... We remember our classmates and friends, old sweethearts and crushes, the Minute Grill, the Shell Station, special teachers and coaches, fun classes, ballgames, Fletcher's, Lila's, Martin's Bake Shop, cruising Elkin, the Y, sock hops, principals, riding the bus, driving to school, the loss of old friends, growing up, moving away, losing touch -- but never losing the memories, the alma mater .....



Additional images from Jonesville High School history will be linked here soon ....

Notable JHS graduates & Citizens

These JHS graduates will be featured in the historic displays at Old Jonesville Day:


Dickie Hemric: Basketball All-American; Wake Forest and ACC recording-setting, two-time ACC Player of the Year; played with the Boston Celtics; selected as one of the 50 Greatest Basketball Players of the Century.


Howard Pardue: All-American (HM) basketball player at Virginia Tech, All-Conference, Athletic Hall of Fame; educator (doctorate).


Major General James Taylor, Jr.: Distinguished military leader and legal advisor to the U.S. government and sitting Presidents. (U.S. Air Force).


Dr. Robert Gale Martin: Internationally acclaimed Ophthalmologist and humanitarian. Dr. Martin established a prominent eye clinic in Pinehurst, NC. In later years, he founded a similar clinic in China.


David Reece: Internationally recognized musician, songwriter, music arranger and entertainer; regular performer on the Grand Ole Opry. Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2007).


Otis Brown: Former Jonesville Commissioner; father to 5 successful grads of Starmount High School.


Lila Swaim: Owner of Swaim Oil Company; community advocate; park is named in her honor (Lila Swaim Memorial Park).


Paul Reynolds: Appalachian State University basketball; sporting goods sales.


Minnie Carr: Local humanitarian and guardian to children at the Jonesville School.


Bob Crissman: Coach, novelist and poet laureate of Yadkin County, Bob wrote the poem that was part of the evening sign-off at radio station WKBC for more than 30 years. (See sidebar.)


Charles Mathis: Newspaper editor, writer, local historian.


Judy Wolfe: Former Jonesville Commissioner; educator (doctorate) and writer; one of 45 U.S. civilians to develop USO/recreation programs in combat zones in South Vietnam (68-69).


Carlos King: NC State University football; Pittsburgh Steelers professional football.


Jackie Brown: University of South Carolina football; missionary and evangelist.


Heather Cox: Singer; SHS graduate, American Idol Finalist.


Michael Boles: Educator (doctorate); N. C. State University; author; mechanical engineering & thermodynamics.


D. Hurley Lovelace: Jonesville barber (adjacent to Fletcher's Store); one of the most highly decorated WWI soldiers in the state; U.S. Army machine gunner; awards included the Distinguished Service Medal:

DAVID H. LOVELACE, private, Machine Gun Company, 120th Infantry. For
extraordinary heroism in action near Bellicourt, France, September 29, 1918. His
left arm having been rendered useless by a shrapnel wound, Private Lovelace
continued to carry ammunition with his other arm until the objective was
reached, when, against his protests, he was ordered to the rear for medical
treatment.

** Delos Martin ** Neil Finger ** John Wesley Mathis ** Watt Deal ** Charlie Wolfe, Sr. ** E. G. McNeill ** Lindbergh Swaim ** Gene Pardue ** Barney Hall ** Dwayne Myers ** Leon Reece ** Lexie Groce ** Alfred Hill ** Alexander Jones **

Additional featured graduates and residents to be posted ....

Historic Community Features and Landmarks

The Mathis House (Historic home overlooking the Yadkin River -- see sidebar link.)

Jonesville First Methodist Church (Site of the Jonesville Academy & historic markers. History written by Charles Mathis.)


The Jonesville Enterprise (the second newspaper published in western North Carolina, the first being the Salem Free Press.)


Jonesville Fire Department: (under development)
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Jonesville Library: The library was founded by Mrs. Peggy Dudley and the Jonesville-ArlingtonWoman's Club. It's first librarian was Lorene Wright Wolfe. The library opened on May 10, 1962.
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Jonesville-Arlington Lions/Kiwanis Club: (under development)
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The Mineral Spring: Adjacent to the Yadkin River, the spring was a popular attraction through the early 1900's when tourists and those in need of the medicinal benefits of the waters came to Jonesville to collect the mineral water or to bathe in the spring.

Jonesville Speedway: Popular stock car dirt track in the late 1940's and early 1950's built by Jonesville's Jim and Jerry Boyd and associates; it was initially leased to Bill France Racing and later purchased by a Jonesville area group. In its hey-day, the Speedway featured the most popular names in stock car racing -- Bud Shuman, Red Byron, the Flock brothers (Tim, Fonty, Bob), Lee Petty, Buck Baker, Curtis Turner and Junior Johnson -- drawing thousands of weekend race fans to Jonesville. The Jonesville track also featured early women race drivers, led by Jonesville's Letha Jo Evans. The track's demise was assumed to be due to the new owners' decision NOT to join Bill France's NASCAR in December 1947 ..... When local drivers also joined the association, they raced only on NASCAR sanctioned tracks.

More Jonesville Speedway photos here.

Lila Swaim Memorial Park: (See Jonesville Speedway above.) The race track property was purchased by Lila Swaim in the early 1950's. Following Lila's death in 1954, her son Lindbergh Swaim (current Jonesville Mayor) sold the track to the Jonesville-Arlington Lions Club to be developed into a park for the area. After initial development, the track was sold to the Yadkin County Schools in 1957 as an athletic facility for Jonesville High School. With school consolidations in 1967, the facility was re-purchased by the Jonesville-Arlington Lions Club. In 1970, Town Commissioner Judy Wolfe and the Recreation Commission secured a $1 million grant from the State of North Carolina to purchase the land and begin development of the facilities you see today. Commissioner Wolfe worked with a team of Jonesville YVEDDI youth to paint buildings, clear brush and maintain the facilities for local softball leagues and tennis tournaments.

In subsequent years, the town has received additional grants to further develop tennis and basketball courts, playground equipment, ball fields, walking tracks, multi-purpose fields and a state-of-the-art Senior Center. (See sidebar photos.)

The lumber for the pending Jonesville Museum will be cut from trees which have grown on park property since the mid-1970's. Some of the trees, planted by YVEDDI youth teams, will be used in honor of those youth team members who now bring their children and grandchildren to play in the park ....

Brown Machine Shop: We are currently seeking photos and information on Brown Machine Shop, which was located on West Main Street between the Methodist Church and the river (currently a large empty lot). We know that the Shop manufactored munitions during World War II .... What many learned long after the War ended, was that Brown's Machine Shop had secretly developed the housing for the electrical current that triggered the Atomic Bombs that ended the War .... More information later.

Yadkin Valley Vineyards: Yadkin County is once again becoming noted for its fine wines grown in vineyards through the county.

The modern vineyards and wineries include RagApple Lassie Vineyards, Flint Hill Vineyards, Hanover Park Vineyard, Laurel Gray Vineyards and Buck Shoals Vineyard. For more information, see individual websites or contact Yadkin County Chamber of Commerce or the Yadkin Wine Tours. For tours of other wineries in the Yadkin Valley area, contact Yadkin Valley Wine Trail.


Yadkin County: Yadkin County was originally part of Anson, Rowan and Surry Counties until 1850. Yadkin County is situated in the Piedmont Section of North Carolina, just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. To the northwest is Pilot Mountain, now a state park and the Saurtown Mountains. The county is bordered on the north by the Yadkin River and Surry County, on the east by the river and Forsyth County, on the west by Wilkes County and on the south by Davie and Iredell counties.


The Yadkin River: Referred to as the cradle of civilization in the Carolinas, artifacts of early Native American culture were unearthed in the Yadkin Basin by Archaeologist J. L. Coe. Coe is credited with the discovery of one of the most significant sites of its kind in our eastern United States with the recovery of artifacts dating to 10-12,000 years before present time.


Historians suggest that "yadkin" is an Indian word meaning "rest."
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As the Jonesville area was once considered a recreational respite (especially with its mineral spring on River Road and an expansive beach-like sandbar in the river a short buggy ride up the old Wilkes Road from the then-luxurious Benham Hotel), the more popular interpretation of "rest" may indeed be appropriate.


The Yadkin's abundant waterflow and fertile valleys have nurtured human existence and development in the Carolinas for thousands of years. The Yadkin-Pee Dee watershed covers over 7000 square miles and runs approximately 6000 stream and river miles -- including the Elkin, Mitchell, Arrat, Uwharrie, Rocky, Roaring and Fisher rivers; Stoney Fork, Abbotts, Moravian, Lewis Fork, Mulberry, Bugaboo, Elkin and Cub, Deep, Panther, Dutchmans and Reddies creeks.

From its headwaters near the town of Blowing Rock, the Yadkin travels through the heart of the Piedmont to the Atlantic Ocean. The Yadkin's tributaries traverse from Virginia, the mountainous counties of Ashe, Alleghany and Watauga and through Wilkes, Caldwell, Yadkin, Surry, Forsyth and Davie Counties southward to South Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean.

The Brushy Mountains: A low chain of mountains that spans 5 North Carolina Counties begins in the western part of Yadkin County, which is actually part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The “Brushies” are known for the many apple orchards which are harvested each fall.




This tribute to Jonesville is a work in progress .....


credits: Frances Casstevens, JWW ,William E. Rutledge Jr., Charles Mathis, Jennifer Kilby Brown (art), Ruby Bray Canipe, 1966 Jonesville High School Yearbook, Benny Groce, Lindbergh Swaim, Charles Madison, Wesley Wright, Jane Vestal -- a complete bibliography is pending.

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Please add your own memories to the comment section below ...





If you have web site links, photos of the Minute Grill, the (Martin's) Donut Shop, The Jonesville Speedway, Lila Swaim Park, Jonesville High School, Fletcher's Store, Lake Alpine, or any historic/era photos you wish to share, please send an email or a copy by email for including in this site .... Thanks --- and see you at Old Jonesville Day!!
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Link in the rigt sidebar: Jonesville's commemorative 2011 Bicentennial website!



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