of the tide of success that ended the war with the seal of our independence."
In February, 1781, he led a party against a band of tories, had a running fight with them, killed some and dispersed the residue; he then joined General Greene with one hundred riflemen, and took part in the battle of Guilford Court House, March 15, 1781; in which, although Lord Cornwallis held the battle field, yet his losses were so great, and the shock he received so severe, that he afterward avoided battle, which before he so anxiously sought. Crippled and wounded, he retired to Wilmington, drew his slow length along, hoping to meet Arnold, if not Clinton, but from the effects of his barren victory at Guilford, he never recovered, and finally was compelled to surrender at Yorktown, October 19, 1781.
In 1793 and in 1803, Joseph Winston was a member of congress. In 1800, he was a presidential elector, voting for Jefferson, and again in 1812, voting for Madison.
For three terms he represented Surry County in the state senate, and when Stokes County was erected, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and for five terms represented that county in the state senate, between 1790 and 1812; in was during this last service that he was presented with the sword for military services in 1780,-'81 The county seat of Forsyth county derives its name from him. He is its patron saint.
He was a man of stately form,
old school manners, and of a commanding presence. His home was within the lofty
mountains of Stokes and Surry, whose "cloud capt summits seemed within a
squirrel's jump of heaven." Here he died April 21, 1815, leaving many worthy
Dr. Draper, in his "King's Mountain Heroes," adds the following incident: He left three sons, born at a single birth. A married sister, who had a babe a month old, called to visit the mother, and proposed to adopt one of the trio, and thus each would practically have a set of twins to rear. Mrs. Winston regarded the proposition favorably, and, as she sat up in bed, carefully examined all three to determine which to part with and which to keep for her own; at length she exclaimed: "I cannot, for my life, decide; you cannot have either of them, sister! As God has given them to me, He will give me strength to nurse them!" And so He did, all of them lived and were well educated. One of them became a major-general, another a judge, whilst the third became a state senator and lieutenant-governor of Mississippi; a brother of these triplets, who remained in North Carolina, fought in the war of 1812, became a major-general and a member of the legislature.
Israel G. Law, born 1810, died 1878, at Bethania, (then in Stokes,) worked on a farm till manhood, and then engaged in merchandizing, manufacturing, and banking, in all of which he was eminently successful. He was, in 1847, president of the branch bank of Cape Fear, at Salem, and at the close of the war, obtained a charter for the First National Bank at Salem.
He was a member of the state convention in 1865, with Judge Starbuck, and of the Fortieth and Forty-first Congress, 1867 to '71.
He was a man of large wealth, and well known as a sagacious financier. He died April 7th, 1878.
We should do injustice to the truth of history to make no reference to the Moravians, located in this county.
"There is not," says Williamson, "a more industrious and temperate body of people than the Moravians, who live between the Dan and Yadkin Rivers."
In 1749, the British Parliament passed an act by which the Unitas Fratum, was acknowledged as a Protestant Episcopal Church. By
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