In 1752, Moravian Bishop August Gottlieb "Brother Joseph" Spangenberg led an expedition to find an area where the Moravian Church, could construct settlements. The expedition strayed into the mountains of western North Carolina, coming down through what is now Wilkes County on their way to the Three Forks of Muddy Creek. This mountainous, backcountry, landscape along the Catawba, Little, New, and Yadkin Rivers reminded them of the Wachau region in Lower Austria, so they selected it as an area for Moravian settlement.
John Henry (Johann Heinrich) Antes, on the behalf of the Moravian Church in Europe, purchased 98,985 acres of land in the area from John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, for about 35 cents an acre. The Moravians named the tract of land die Wachau, later Latinized as Wachovia, after the area they immigrated from in the Wachau region of Austria northwest of Vienna, between the towns of Melk and Krems along the Danube River, where the estate of Count von Zinzendorf was located.
In 1753, fifteen (four returned to Pennsylvania after the trip) Moravian Single Brethren walked from Pennsylvania, mostly from the Christiansbrunn farm near Nazareth, to Wachovia where, on November 17, 1753, they founded a transitional congregational settlement they named Bethabara, which in Hebrew means "House of Passage." It was so named because it was meant to be a temporary settlement until a central commercial town could be established.
In July 1756, during the French and Indian War (1754–1763), a wooden stockade was built around the central-most area of the settlement (the stockade has been reconstructed), and Bethabara became a place of refuge for settlers from across the region. By 1766, Bethabara reached its high point of development and population. In 1788, the village built a new Gemeinhaus or congregational church that is still standing today. However, after the Moravian administration was moved to Salem in 1772, most Bethabara residents moved there and Bethabara as a town ceased to grow and expand.
Nowadays, the site of the Bethania settlement has become Historic Bethabara Park. After archaeological excavations in the 1960s, the founding Chair of Historic Bethabara Park’s Board of Trustees, Edwin L. Stockton (1905-1987), championed early efforts to preserve and interpret Bethabara as a historic park. Historic Bethabara Park was incorporated as a not-for-profit museum in 1970 and the National Park Service named it a National Historic Landmark in 1999.
Historic Bethabara Park with its museum, restored buildings, and miles of walking trails is located just one mile down the hill from Salemtowne.
The first planned Moravian settlement and oldest incorporated municipality in Wachovia is Bethania, formed June 12, 1759, in part to deal with the crowded conditions brought on by refugees. Bethania is the German form of Bethany, meaning "house/place of dates and figs" in the Hebrew language.
The Town of Bethania still exists, and in 1995 it was incorporated, thus sparring from being annexed into the city of Winston-Salem. Today, after over 250 years, Bethania remains the only independent, continuously active Moravian town in the southern United States.
Bethania with its museum, historic buildings, and miles of walking trails is located just four miles northeast of Salemtowne.
Settlements began in other parts of Wachovia, including Friedburg in 1773, Hope in 1776, and Friedland in 1780. Salem, which began in 1766 and was formally organized in 1771, became the focal point of Wachovia trade and religious life, so, in 1772, the Wachovia administration moved from Bethabara to Salem. Most Bethabara residents moved to Salem and new residents were attracted from the surrounding communities, as well as from Pennsylvania and even Europe.
In April 1772, the Moravian community of Salem founded a school for girls, which flourished and provided the girls of late-eighteenth-century Salem with as rigorous an education as the boys of the town received. This early school developed into what is now Salem Academy and College, the oldest educational institution for girls and women in America.
In 1849, a secular county seat was founded in newly drawn Forsyth County, just north of Salem, and was named Winston in 1852. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the maker of Winston, Salem, and Camel cigarettes, was founded in Winston in 1875. In 1913, when the towns of Salem and Winston merged, they became known as Winston-Salem.
Many of the original buildings in the old town of Salem have been maintained and restored and are a part of what is now known as Old Salem. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark District in 1966. Old Salem’s historical buildings, museums, and reenactments have become popular tourist destinations.
Salem is where Salemtowne was born.