Davie County History
Davie County, North Carolina is named after William R. Davie, a Revolutionary War Leader, and is located west of the Yadkin River. Records indicate that a small village called “Mocks Old Field” existed before the American Revolution, serving as a secret meeting place for Colonial forces and planners, some of whom were members of the family of Davie’s most famous citizen, Daniel Boone.
The town of Mocksville, now the county seat, was incorporated in 1839 and is Davie’s largest community, with a population of over 5,000. Other incorporated towns in the county include Cooleemee and Bermuda Run. The county is also comprised of various townships, including Sheffield-Calahaln, Smith Grove, Clarksville, Ijames, Fork, Advance, Farmington, Fulton, Jerusalem, Cana, Center, Hillsdale, Cornatzer, Bixby, and Shady Grove.
Davie County is proud of its rich history, and we continue to celebrate and honor the past as we move forward into the future.
Historic Sites
Here are some sites and resources of historic interest in Davie County. We have included a little information about them here as well as links and resources that will allow you to find out more about them. The Discover Davie County Historic Sites Map below includes all these sites and more.
The Anderson Family Museum, houses an extensive collection of nineteenth and twentieth-century medical, dental, family memorabilia, and general artifacts. This building has served as a doctor’s office, a post office, a community voting precinct, and a wash house!
Read The Boone Family in Davie County, NC online. The document was curated by James w. Wall, Flossie Martin, and Howell Boone. It testifies to the time spent by Daniel Boone and his extended family in Davie County using government deeds and records. Jury duty, selling land, and even being sued for debts were all a part of the daily life of the legendary Daniel Boone!
The Cana Store is one of the few surviving late 1800’s commercial buildings in Davie County. James Harrison Cain established a mercantile business in Cana in 1875. This building also served as the Cana Post Office from 1919 to 1954.
The Cooleemee Historic Mill shut down in 1967, but despite this, a good portion of the residents continued to live in Cooleemee, forming the community we know today. Visit the Textile Heritage Museum housed in the historic Zachary House and the Mill House Museum, a preserved mill house built in 1905. Artifacts from a distant time illustrate what life as a mill worker in this small town would have been like.
The Cooleemee Plantation House was built 1853-1855 by Peter and Columbia Stuart Hairston, a sister of Civil War General J.E.B. Stuart. The site is one of the 33 National Historic Landmark sites in North Carolina. An Anglo-Grecian villa in the shape of a Greek cross, the house contains approximately 300,000 bricks made on site. The house is now privately owned by the Foster Family.
The North Carolina Daniel Boone Heritage Trail shows sites commemorating the life of Daniel Boone in North Carolina; between 1752 and 1773. Although Daniel Boone is often associated with other states, he lived longer in North Carolina than anywhere else. During the twenty-one years he spent here he honed his hunting and tracking skills, married and raised a family. The Trail Map includes directions to markers, monuments, sites and statues.
The Davie County Courthouse is a neo-classical revival style building, erected in 1909 in downtown Mocksville. The courthouse and accompanying jail were built at the cost of approximately $40,000. (They were built where the old Davie Hotel once stood). The original courthouse was built in 1839 and stood in the center of the Town Square. The courthouse is located on Main Street in Mocksville.
The former Davie County Jail was completed in 1839 and is now privately owned. It is one of two Federal-style brick buildings that still survive in Mocksville. The jail served the county until 1909 when the new courthouse and jail were built. The former jail is located on Main Street.
In 1991, Historic Downtown Mocksville became part of a pilot program specially designed for small towns. Now you can walk through history and the architecture of different eras within our state when you take the Davie County Chamber of Commerce’s Walking Tour of Downtown Mocksville. Find your map at the Visitor’s Center.
Farmington Historic District contains the most cohesive collection of historic residential, agricultural, commercial, religious, and educational buildings found in an unincorporated community. Visitors can drive by the beautiful historic homes including the former Farmington School Auditorium which is now a community center and nature park.
A highway marker was placed at the Ferebee Family Home Site on Highway 64 West near Hunting Creek in honor of Colonel Thomas A. Ferebee. The nearby bridge is also named after him. Col. Ferebee was the bombardier on the B-29 “Enola Gay” and dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.
Fulton Methodist Church was erected in 1888 and reflects a mix of Italianate and Gothic revival style details. The church is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is located in the Fork community on US Highway 801 South.
Hodges Business College erected in 1894 by Professor John Hodges is Davie County’s only surviving rural brick academy building. Hodges, a graduate of Duke and Yale Universities, operated his school until the early 1900’s. The building is now privately owned.
Joppa Cemetery is one of the oldest graveyards in Davie County. The burial grounds contain the graves of Squire and Sarah Boone, parents of Daniel Boone. Daniel Boone lived near Bear Creek during his teens and early twenties. A North Carolina historical marker notes the location of the cemetery on US 601 in Mocksville (Yadkinville Road).
Davie County is home to one of North Carolina’s oldest annual festivals, the Mocksville Masonic Picnic, which has been celebrated every August since 1878. It is the longest running Masonic charity event in North Carolina. In recent years, it has become a beloved summer tradition with activities for families, great food, and fellowship.
Native Americans were the first settlers of North Carolina. The Piedmont region was home to a number of different Native American tribes before European contact. We owe some of our local names to the Saponi Indians and the Eastern Sioux who made the Piedmont their hunting grounds. For example, “Yadkin” means “big trees”in their language. Davie County was part of an Indian trade route which once ran along what is now highway 158.
In Cooleemee, the Pearson Graveyard, dating to the early 1700s, was recently reclaimed from the surrounding forest near Pine Ridge Road by local volunteers. With extensive research by a group of Wake Forest University students, grave markers have been returned to or placed at their original sites.
In Farmington, Pudding Ridge got its name when on a rainy February 7, 1781, General Cornwallis’ British Army crossed Dutchman Creek in pursuit of American General Nathanael Greene. Legend says that Cornwallis dubbed the area Pudding Ridge because of the quantity and thickness of the mud his army had to travel through! A sign marking the crossing is located on Pudding Ridge Golf Course.
The Running of the Horses is a colorful mural in downtown Mocksville that commemorates the hard work and tenacity of the people of Davie County during wartime. Because gasoline was hard to obtain, horses were an invaluable part of farming. The horses would be unloaded from the train depot and they would run them right up E. Depot Street, and across Main Street!
The Squire Boone House site was the 1829 birthplace of Hinton Rowan Helper. Helper was a Davie County author that held center stage in our history in the late 1850s. His influential book, The Impending Crisis of the South: How To Meet It, proposed an ending of slavery and was second only to Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a literary work fueling the fires of secession and the Civil War.
The Veteran’s Memorial Marker records the names of Davie County men who died in military service and is dedicated to the memory of all those who made the supreme sacrifice for our freedom. The memorial is located on the small square at the intersection of Main and Depot Streets in Mocksville and includes the names of veterans who lost their lives in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and Beirut.
Davie County, North Carolina is Wine Country. Currently NC is in the top ten in both grape and wine production in the U.S. – wine growers in North Carolina were the first to cultivate a Native American grape variety, the Scuppernong. It produces a rich, sweet wine, like some you find on tap at local vineyard, Dove Vine Beverage! A variety of grapes are grown here now including Cabernet and Chardonnay. The Yadkin Valley AVA includes Davie County. Our region’s climate and our farming heritage make Davie perfect for the long term commitment required to grow grapes.
Thanks for reading this brief history of Davie County!
There is much more to know (and love) about our communities.
Take a look at the map below for directions to most of the sites we have listed here-
and a few that we may not have mentioned.
Clink the right corner of the map to enlarge and view it on Google Maps.
Davie County Geneology
Find Your Place in Davie County
Each year hundreds visit our Davie County Public Library Martin/Wall History Room to trace their genealogy connections to Davie County. The room contains many volumes and reference materials and a very knowledgeable staff of historians. The library is located at 371 North Main Street, Mocksville and their phone number is 336-753-6030. Below, you will find links to more helpful resources as you research your family tree or history.
Davie County Register of Deeds
Is located at 123 S. Main Street in Mocksville NC, 27028 or contact them by phone at 336-751-2513, 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Davie County Enterprise Record
The Davie County local newspaper is located at 171 S. Main Street in Mocksville NC, 27028 or call them at 336-751-2120 or visit them online.
Davie County Historical & Genealogical Society
Meets in the Martin-Wall History Room of the Davie County Public Library in Mocksville, on the fourth Thursday at 7 p.m.
Davie County, NCGenWeb
Here you will find maps, book suggestions, Davie County family information, and other records. For questions about NCGenWeb, email Marie Craig.
Davie County Family Search
Research resources including Bible and church records, cemeteries, naturalization, Revolutionary War, Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII, and civil war service.
North Carolina Archives
This digital collection includes historical documentation of African American education, biographies, architectural survey reports, civil rights and census materials.
Welcome to Davie County – a place we love to call home. We’re known for our natural beauty, community spirit, historic past, civic pride, entrepreneurial spirit and, above all…friendly people!
Whether you are looking for a place to put down roots or the perfect weekend outing, Davie County is the place to be.
