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Wilkes

May 2, 2022

Hughes Bottom on the Yadkin

As North Carolina was being settled from east to west, the most popular area in the vicinity of Surry and Wilkes County was along the Yadkin River for obvious reasons. There was a plentiful supply of water and fertile soil for growing crops. And the land along the river was flat enough that it was easier to construct roads or use existing paths.

In 1752, Edward Hughes purchased 314 acres in what was then Anson County on the north side of the Yadkin River. When it was surveyed in 1749, the land was known as "Fairfield", but it was later referred to as "Hughes Bottom". The branch that runs through the property is still called Hughes Branch as a legacy of the original landowner. It's on the east side of Ronda, with Hwy 268 running through the middle of it.

The Hughes Bottom tract is on the north side of the Yadkin River, centered in the image above.

Edward Hughes likely never lived here. He seems to have been a land speculator who invested in property that he knew would soon increase in value. He owned several large tracts scattered between Salisbury and Wilkesboro. He sold this property in 1763 to John Howard, and by that time this part of the state had become Rowan County. Mr. Howard only kept the land for four years, selling it to John Mitchell in 1767.

The Hughes Bottom tract is shown above in green on Hughes Branch.

Land records were sometimes inconsistent during the Revolutionary War, but eventually Hughes Bottom ended up in the hands of William Powe. In 1792 Powe sold it to Richard Gwyn, and it remained in the Gwyn family for over a hundred years. This Richard Gwyn (1765-1822) was the uncle of the man by the same name who started the grist and cotton mills in Elkin in the 1840s.

Looking east along Hwy 268 from the western end of the Hughes Bottom tract.

The building in the photo is on Factory Street at the western end of the Hughes Bottom tract. That’s the old Chair Factory building. Moving northeast along Hwy 268 through the property, the northern boundary is just below East Wilkes High School. This is a link to the area on Google Maps.

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