Forsyth County Wills and Estates

Forsyth county was formed in 1849 from Stokes County and named after Major Benjamin Forsyth who was killed in the War of 1812. The county seat is Winston-Salem which was merged from two neighboring towns in 1913. Salem. The town of Salem was organized in 1753 when a Moravian settlement was established by Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg, on behalf of the Moravian Church. The site selected was the three forks of Muddy Creek which he called die Wachau (Latin form: Wachovia) named after the ancestral estate of Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. Later, the second Earl Granville (John Carteret) purchased the area (99,000 acres). On November 17, 1753, the first settlers arrived at what would later become the town of Bethabara. This town, despite its rapid growth, was not designed to be the primary settlement on the tract. Some residents expanded to a nearby settlement called Bethania in 1759. Finally, lots were drawn to select among suitable sites for the location of a new town.

Winston. In 1849, the Salem congregation sold land north of Salem to the newly formed Forsyth County for a county seat. The new town was called "the county town" or Salem until 1851 when it was named Winston for a local hero of the Revolutionary War, Joseph Winston.

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