|
Kernersville's
History Back before a regular and literate written recording of history, it is likely that the hardwood forests, numerous creeks, rivers and streams of the area that became Kernersville were the occasional home of transitory Indian tribes. No evidence has yet been found to suggest that large, permanent settlements were ever located here. But it seems certain that Tuscaroras, Catawbas and Cherokees at some time camped, hunted or at least passed through the vicinity. The earliest recorded history of the immediate area occurs in 1756, when Irishman Caleb Story received a land grant from the English Royal Colony of Carolina. Little is known of Story’s life, but he most likely occupied the land until 1760. It is possible he fled the area during this period, when the French & Indian War was escalating, and isolated frontier residents were in some danger. In any case, Story sold his grant in 1760 to David Morrow. It is rumored that the price was four gallons of rum (though that may have been the price when Story first bought the land). Rum was unquestionably a common barter commodity in those frontier days. Another Irishman, William Dobson, purchased 400 acres from Morrow in 1771. A man of some means, he acquired additional acreage over time, ultimately owning 1,133 acres. Dobson built an inn and a store on the northeast corner of two frontier roads: the intercolonial stageline (also called the Hillsboro Road at the time), and the east-west Deep River Road, opened in 1754. The stage line connected the growing Salem community (located to the southwest) to the northern colonies, particularly Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which assured heavy travel between the two thriving Moravian communities. Today, the crossroads is still at the center of town, where Main and Mountain Streets meet. Dobson was a man of stature in the community. When General George Washington stopped at Dobson’s for breakfast on June 2, 1791, while on a tour of Southern Revolutionary War battlefields — a visit still commemorated by a plaque on the site — Dobson was a justice of the peace as well as innkeeper. Hospitality remained a centerpiece of the town for years to come, while a village began slowly to grow around the inn. Dobson sold his crossroads in 1813 to Gottlieb Schober, of a well-known family of Salem. Nathaniel Schober, however, sold the land in 1817 to a man living in a nearby Moravian community of Friedland who would leave his mark — and name — on the town for years to come. The buyer, a German native and Roman Catholic, was Joseph Kerner. Already a successful businessman and landowner when he bought the crossroads, Kerner brought his Moravian wife and family to the inn that he maintained until 1830, when he died at the age of 61. By then, the town was no longer known as Dobson’s Crossroads, but as Kerner’s Crossroads. Kerner’s will split his land between his three children: Philip, John Frederick and Salome Kerner Harmon. These descendants affected the town, along with others, for years longer. Philip ran the inn until 1851. Frederick, in later years, donated the land on which the town’s oldest churches, Main Street United Methodist (1840) and Kernersville Moravian (1867), stand, along with their cemeteries. John Frederick and Philip also started the town’s first tannery, near the site of today’s Main Street United Methodist Church, in 1838. A later generation of Kerners operated the tannery during the Civil War, making harnesses, saddles and shoes; the business carried on until 1912. A historical marker near today’s Tanyard Lane commemorates the site. On March 31, 1871, the community incorporated to form the Town of Kernersville. At that time, the town extended three-quarters of a mile in all directions from the "Old Academy" near the center of the village. The population at the time stood at 147, though growth was right around the corner. In 1873, the railroad arrived, passing east to west near the center of town. By 1888, the population had reached 1,000; more and more businesses and permanent homes (many of which remain along South Main Street and elsewhere) were being built. With the advent of the automobile, even more growth followed, as the "Auto Highway," a main link between New York City and Atlanta, passed right by the former Kerner Inn — now dubbed the "Auto Inn. During this period, one of the town’s enduring landmarks, one of the most unique residential architectural creations in the Southeast, came into being. "Körner’s Folly," located along the row of historic homes on South Main Street, was the invention of Jule Körner (grandson of Joseph). An interior designer for the wealthy, Jule designed and built the home as a showplace for his clients, who visited him from around the globe. Completed in 1880 and adjusted on several occasions after he married in 1886, it includes 22 rooms (built on seven different levels and with varying ceiling heights). An eclectic and intriguing mixture of silk damask-covered walls, handcarved woodwork, hand-laid tiles, and several magnificent hand-painted murals, the Folly also houses, in its attic, "Cupid’s Park," believed to be the first community "little" theater in the country, first used for that purpose in 1897. The non-profit Kernersville Little Theatre performs an annual show in the theater space. Tours of the Folly are currently offered on Sundays from mid-April to mid-October from 1-5, though plans are underway to open the building for additional hours each week. Group tours are available by appointment throughout the year. The businesses of Kernersville slowly turned from farmers, millwrights, tanners and coachmakers to the tobacco businesses that dominated the local scene from the 1880s well into the 1900s. But competition caused some of these plants to shift to knitting mill operations. Furniture, millinery, dairy and livery companies all came — and mainly, went — during the early years of the century. Naturally, many services, from retail stores to doctors and lawyers, were established to aid the growing community. When Kernersville celebrated its first hundred years as a town in 1971, and the country’s bicentennial in 1976 (and created a publication from which many of the details of its history can be derived), it was still in essence a small town. But with the new popularity of the Sunbelt, the dramatic growth of urban North Carolina areas, Kernersville is once again at a crossroads that is impacting its future much like the 1770’s Inn and the 1870s railroad did. Once again, its central location is showing a new face to the community, while its people continue to savor the past that has made it such a special place. |
