About the Author

I'm Ron Hartman. I've been a resident of Salemtowne since 2019 and I'm a member of the Forest Keepers. I enjoy walking, averaging about 1,800 miles a year. During my first year at Salemtowne, I had my fellow explorer, my dog Fuji who died on June 20, 2020. Now I walk with another buddy, Koji.

I created Salemtowne Trails to encourage fellow Salemtowne residents to walk the trails on the campus and to provide them with information about the trails to make their walks more enjoyable.

It seems like I belong here

For my first eight years, I was raised in Arcadia, in Davidson County, North Carolina adjacent to the South Fork Township of Forsyth County and then we moved to eastern Winston-Salem, near Walkertown (maybe that is why I am such an enthusiastic walker). I was raised as a Southern Baptist, but when I began touring life plan communities, I seemed drawn to live at Moravian-based Salemtowne. After moving to Salemtowne, I did some genealogical research and found some interesting information–my early ancestors were among the first Moravians to settle in North Carolina.

My 7th paternal grandfather, Casper Hartman(n), and his wife, Anna Regina Klump, both Moravians of Maudach in the Rhineland Palatinate of southern Germany, migrated to America, arriving in 1730 on the "Thistle"  with their children, including Adam K. Hartmann, my 6th paternal grandfather, and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Adam later married Maria Franzina Frey of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and, in 1755, they moved to North Carolina and settled in South Fork. 

My 6th maternal grandfather, Johann Peter Volz (Voltz, Foltz),  and his wife Eva Elisabeth Jacke migrated to America from Gundershofen, Alsace in Northern France in 1750 with two children and settled in Heidelberg, Pennsylvania, joining the Moravian church there in 1752. They moved to North Carolina in 1767 and settled in South Fork where they were among the original members of the South Fork or Friedberg Society in 1771.  He is buried in the Friedberg Moravian Church cemetery.

You can't escape your past.