The
Eng
and
Chang
House
Sightseers hihI «leseen-
(lanlK ill eome to see
the house where llie
original Siamese Twins
look l heir W ilkes
County brides to live.
By CHARLES MATHIS
1 1 has been more than 1 30 years now
since the world famous Siamese twins,
Eng and Chang Bunker, settled in the
North Carolina mountains at Traphill
and selected two Wilkes County sisters,
Sarah and Adelaide Yates, to be their
brides. But the two-story house they
had built for their home is still very
much a residence. It is part of a pic¬
turesque farm scene on Long Bottom
Road near Stone Mountain State Park.
The Eng ond Chong Homo (obo.c). The tomed
hrlni, born in Siom ond joined together br
о
corliloginous tube, odopted the lost nome ol
Booker when the» eome to the United Stoles
obool 1829. The» moroed t»o Wilkes County
tit ets on Apnl IJ. 190. h«d thn home bu.lt
ot Trophill, and li»ed here tor a number ot »eon
before moying to Surr» Count». To reach Trop¬
hill, tokc N.C. 18 north from North Wilkes-
boro, or U.S. 21 north Irom Elkin, ond toko sec¬
onder» rood.
Mrs Etto Sidden Bro-n I right I, -ho now li.es in
the house, shown with her pet cot ond holding
Ко»
Hunter s biography ol the i™, Duet .“
From here the twins mo.cd with their wi.es ond
children to White Ploins iSurry Countyl, where
they built separate residences ond lived alter¬
nately in coch ot them. Eng and Chong died on
the some doy in 187-4 ond ore buried ot White
Meins Boptist Church, ncor Mount Airy. (Charles
Mo this photos!
The present occupant is Mrs. Etta
Sidden Brown, whose late husband's
grandmother, Mrs. Melissa Holbrook,
purchased the property from the twins
when they moved to White Plains,
where each wife and family was able to
have a separate dwelling.
In outward appearance, the house,
situated on a slope opposite a strand
of Blue Ridge foothills, is apparently
not too unlike the way it looked when
the twins lived there. The interior, how¬
ever. has been altered. Two small front
rooms are now one big one; and the
kitchen, which was a building separate
from the house and had a fireplace big
enough to bum a fence rail in, is no
longer standing.
Mrs. Brown says quite a few curious
persons, some from as far away as Ore¬
gon and Maine, and many of them
Bunker descendants, provide her with
steady company. “Law, mercy," she
says, “I wouldn't know how to begin to
guess the number of people who do
come and want to sec where Eng and
Chang lived."
Why did the twins, who made a for¬
tune in show business and could have
lived any place in the world they want¬
ed. choose to retire to a North Carolina
mountain community which, in those
early days, was far removed from the
trodden path? " They were searching for
the garden spot of the world," says
Mrs. Brown. "I guess they found it in
Traphill. It’s a pretty precious little old
place"
THE STATE. APRIL 1975
17