Wachovia, North Carolina
:
For the banking corporation see Wachovia.Wachovia (
Pronunciation: wah-KO-vee-yah) was the area first settled by
Moravians in what is now
Forsyth County,
North Carolina, including the present city of
Winston-Salem. The name is an
Anglicized form of the
German "
Wachau," the name of a lush green region along the
Danube River which the settlers felt the land resembled.
In
1752 a group of Moravians from the
Christiansbrunn Agricultural Settlement in
Pennsylvania purchased 98,985 acres (400 km² or 156.67 mi²) in middle/western
North Carolina, from
John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville. This land was named
der Wachau, or Wachovia, in honor of the family estate of
Count Zinzendorf, a prominent Moravian leader and bishop.
The first settlement in Wachovia was at
Bethabara, founded
17 November 1753 by fifteen
Moravian brethren. Bethabara was originally conceived as a temporary settlement, and its name signified
house of passage. During the
French and Indian War (
1754–
1763), a wooden stockade was built and Bethabara became a place of refuge for settlers from the area. Later settlements included Bethania (
1759),
Salem (
1766), Friedberg (
1769), Friedland (
1772), and Hope (
1775). Salem served as the chief town and administrative center of the area. The early settlements were all German-speaking Moravian settlements. The congregation at Hope was the first "English" Moravian church in the area, and the first non-Moravian town was Winston, founded in
1849 as the county seat of Forsyth County.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, maker of Winston and Salem
cigarettes, was founded at Winston in
1875. The towns of Salem and Winston merged as
Winston-Salem in
1913. Bethabara now lies within the city limits of Winston-Salem as well.
Historic Bethabara Park and
Old Salem are living history museums in Winston-Salem that preserve and recreate the early history of Wachovia.
The area is the namesake and birthplace of the
Wachovia corporation, one of the world's largest
banks.
*
Historic Bethabara Park*
Old Salem
