Little Towns,
Old and New
Stokes communities are
leisurely, hospitable,
typical of Piedmont
North Carolina.
Stokes’s incorporated towns and
larger communities emerged in the
lower half of the county, south of the
natural barricade formed by the Saura-
towns. The coming of the railroads
in the last two decades of the 19th
century enhanced the position of the
towns along their route and these have
grown and prospered. Over the east¬
ern and northern sections arc sprinkled
a handful of crossroads farm com¬
munities, with churches, schools, stores
and gas stations liberally dispersed
among them.
Danbury
Danbury, clinging tenaciously to the
southeast slope of the Sauratowns. is
one of North Carolina’s smallest
county seats. The U. S. Census of
1960 counted 175 souls living within
its steep and rocky confines. The vil¬
lage remained unincorporated until
1959. Almost wholly residential, Dan¬
bury stretches shadily up cither side
of N. C. 89 as that road climbs toward
Hanging Rock. Its life revolves around
the dark brick courthouse, framed by
Courlhoutc ol old Donbuiy, county icot of Stokes.
Wolnut Cove's Moin Street.
rambling old homes and giant trees.
Fields and pasture land slope down
to the nearby Dan River. It is an old
town, of buildings old enough to re¬
member more vigorous days.
Danbury grew fast in its youth.
Aeriol view of King, by Fronk Jones.
THE STATE. October 26. 1963
Thrust into the role of county seat in
1850, the trading post, first named
Crawford, boasted one lone building,
a tavern. An iron foundry across the
river was its only industrial enterprise.
Over the next 15 years these were
joined by two tobacco factories, a brick¬
yard, two tanyards, a mica cutting
plant, large general stores, three more
saloons, and of course, the courthouse
and jail. Many people took up resi¬
dence here to put their children in the
local academy and to be close to the
center of governmental and business
activities.
And social activities, too. because
Danbury, by the time of the Civil War.
had become famous through the north¬
western part of the State as a resort.
It was the “gateway" to fashionable
watering places, just as it is today the
gateway to Hanging Rock. In summer,
the town's hotels and homes filled with
gay and wealthy vacationers who could
not be accommodated by the ovcrflow-
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