[Page 14]

         Lancaster County (Pa.) Historical Society Papers, Vol. 25, p. 151, Dec. 2, 1921:

         "The Great Road from Yadkin River in North Carolina to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, passed through the City of Lancaster, Pa., on its way to Philadelphia. It started in the south at the Yadkin River in North Carolina, and entered the Valley of Virginia through the water gap of the Roanoke River, a distance east of the present City of Roanoke, Virginia. Through Virginia, its general course was on the eastern side of the Valley, until the present Rockingham was reached, and then the road was about in the center of Staunton and Lexington in Virginia were eight or nine miles to the west of this road and Harrisonburg about five miles to the west. A few miles southwest of New Market, Va., the road took the line of the present Valley Turnpike and passed through Winchester, Virginia. It crossed the Potomac River at Williams Ferry, now Williamsport, Md., and then deflecting to the northeast, passed through Frederick, Maryland, and the City of Lancaster, Pa., until Philadelphia was reached.

         "The route of this road is clearly and accurately outlined on the map of Virginia and Maryland made in 1751 by Col. Joshua Fry, Professor of Mathematics at William and Mary College at Williamsburg, Va., and Col. Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States. The road was 430 miles long. A copy of the Fry and Jefferson map is on file in the Library of Congress, . . . The general route of this road was also the Indian road of the Six Nations of Indians in New York in their visits to the Virginia Valley, and in their forays against the Catawba Indians of Western North Carolina.

* * * * * *

         "The great period of migration from Pennsylvania to Virginia was from 1738 to 1754. This migration was interrupted by the French and Indian Wars, but was resumed to some extent after 1763, and continued until the commencement of the Revolution."

         Rowan Co., and the Yadkin Valley are described in "The North Carolina Guide," edited by Blackwell P. Robinson who writes as follows:

         "Salisbury, one of the oldest towns in the piedmont, is the seat of Rowan County. The county formed in 1753, first extended westward to the South Seas. It has sired 6 counties and grand-sired 26 others.

         "Old deeds attest to the fact that Salisbury was in existence as 'Campint site' long before the first courthouse (1755) was erected. From the time that early commerce was carried on between Fort Henry in Virginia and the Indians of the interior of the Carolinas and Georgia the Trading Path was the principal highway. It stretched from Petersburg, Va., through present day Warrenton, Hillsboro, Asheboro, to the Trading Ford on the Yadkin and thence towards Concord where it branched, one fork leading to Augusta, Ga., the other to the Cherokee villages in western North Carolina. Seven miles from Trading Ford the traders pitched their camp on high level ground, fed by numerous springs. This 'camping ground' was later selected by the first justices of the Rowan Court the location of the courthouse, which was the western-most court center in America.

[End Page 14]