Shattering myths

What can you get for four barrels of rum?

Two retirees who grew up in town and whose fathers worked together at the Adams-Millis textile mill have spent more than two years researching the town's history.

They have come up with information that raises questions about a couple of the key symbols in Kernersville's town seal, which depicts four barrels of rum, the words "Dobson's Crossroads,'' the town's mill history and the year 1756.

"We were curious about that date. It seemed early. We know that there were families here, but it seemed early," Mike Marshall said. "Plus, the rum seemed a little fishy."

Marshall and Jerry Taylor lived most of their adult years outside of the area, but both wound up returning to Kernersville upon retirement. They joined the Kernersville Historical Society and realized that they shared a passion in discovering more about the town's roots.

The men began a title search, and visited Danbury and the Stokes County Courthouse, because Forsyth County was once part of Stokes County. Records indicate that the first parcels of land that became Kernersville were owned by David Morrow, not Caleb Story, as common stories designate. Morrow got land grants in 1784 for two tracts totaling 600 acres.

The largest, Tract 2, was a 400-acre square that now includes part of Salisbury, South Main, Mountain and Edgewood streets. It contains the intersection of Mountain and Main, the hub of current downtown Kernersville.

The information, Marshall and Taylor said, bewildered them.

Local legend and historical accounts credit Irishman Caleb Story applying for and receiving a land grant from the English Royal Colony of Carolina. Story did not remain long in the area, with folklore persisting that Story sold his land for four gallons of rum.

Marshall and Taylor's research showed that Story was the second official landowner of Kernersville, not receiving his land grant until 1797, 13 years after Morrow. Story's grant was for 125 acres and was an odd-shaped parcel that encompasses the site of Kernersville Moravian Church and extends to the campus of Kernersville Elementary School.

Eventually, the land held by Story and Morrow was sold to William Dobson, who obtained three additional grants to become the owner of 1,032 acres. That became what is now historic downtown Kernersville. Stokes County records show a hand-written document in scratchy penmanship listing the sale of Story's land to Dobson for 50 pounds in 1801, a far cry from four barrels of rum.

Dobson used his land to build both an inn and a store on a corner where two well-traveled routes intersected. That intersection is now the hub of downtown Kernersville, the intersection of Mountain and Main Streets.

The four barrels of rum story could have arisen from Dobson opening his inn. Alcohol was a well-known bartered commodity at the time, if not a legally recorded one.

Dobson achieved historical prominence for future Kernersville when Gen. George Washington chose to eat breakfast at Dobson's Inn on June 2, 1791, while he was visiting southern Revolutionary War battlefields.

Dobson and his son later sold their parcels to Gottlieb Shober, whose son, Nathaniel, sold the 1,032 acres in 1817 to the man for whom the town would later be named, Joseph Kerner.

Marshall and Taylor said they worked methodically to understand when town history became muddled in inaccuracy.

"The story has just become so ensconced,'' Taylor said. "It's a good story that Kernersville cost four barrels of rum. It's just not true."

"It just kept getting repeated without checking for accuracy," said Marshall, whose 35-year career with the U.S. Navy involved managing historical archives.

Their "historical sleuthing,'' as they call it, shows that Thomas Early Whitaker was the first person to include the tale of Caleb Story and four barrels of rum in an article, which appeared in the Jan. 13, 1888, edition of the Kernersville News & Farm. They found later accounts published in 1924, 1949, 1958 and 1971 repeating the story.

Like the children's game of "Telephone," they said, the story was repeated over and over until accepted as historically accurate.

Townspeople call the conclusions by Marshall and Taylor interesting.

Connie Martin, the executive director of the Körner's Folly, said that "old wives' tales are usually more exciting, but history is history if facts point in another direction."

John Wolfe, a descendent of Joseph Kerner and an avid collector of historical Kernersville memorabilia, is the town attorney. He noted that oral history often provides juicy tidbits that legal records do not.

"I think it is wonderful that these gentlemen resurrected old records and are coming up with additional history for the town to learn from,'' Wolfe said. "Hopefully, their findings will add to the history of the town as a whole."

He said that oral history can add an element of the feelings and memories of people that documents cannot.

"I think we need to look to both. You often find that the truth lies somewhere in between," he said.

David Brook, the director of the Division of Historical Resources' office of archives and history for the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, said that communities can become wedded to local legends and stories.

"And sometimes where there is smoke, there is fire. There were probably four barrels of rum somewhere used. Over the passage of time, there can be confusion between fact and reality,'' Brook said. "Really, after 100 years, the four barrels becoming associated with the town becomes a history in its own right."

A similar situation occurred in Edenton when historians discovered that the legendary 1774 Edenton Tea Party was only a written proclamation by 51 women opposing exorbitantly taxed British goods. No physical evidence of boycotting tea was found.

Yet nearly 75 years after the proclamation, the written protest was being called the Edenton Tea Party and being attributed to women who were not even born at the time of the proclamation. The teapot continues to be Edenton's symbol and a proud part of the town seal, said Linda Jordan Eure, the manager of Historic Edenton State Historic Site.

In Kernersville, town vehicles, official documentation and other items carry the seal, which was adopted in 1969.

"I'm comfortable with the seal as part of our history. You can look at it and see both our history and our legends,'' Mayor Dawn Morgan said. "Even as we find more facts and information doesn't mean we have to disregard legend."

Marshall and Taylor said that their goal is not to remake the town seal. They did say they would like to see current and future written historical accounts changed to reflect their findings.

In the meantime, they are completing a book about how citizens handled injustice in the past. The book, Taylor said, will be about "murder, mayhem and the days when Kernersville seemed more like the Old West."

■ Monica Young can be reached at cyoung9@triad.rr.com.