Jonesville

Jonesville. The Silver-Dollar Bell. (Preface): , On March 24, 1865, Union Gen. George Stoneman led 6,000 cavalrymen from Tennessee into southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina to disrupt the Confederate supply line by destroying sections of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, the North Carolina Railroad, and the Piedmont Railroad. He struck at Boone on March 28, headed into Virginia on April 2, and returned to North Carolina a week later. Stoneman's Raid ended at Asheville on April 26, the day that Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham. , ----, On April 1, 1865, a column of Union Gen. George Stoneman's cavalry under Gen. Alvan Gillem entered the thriving town of Jonesville. Incorporated in 1811, the town featured the Benham Hotel as well as the Methodist-affiliated Jonesville Male and Female Academy, which was located about two miles northwest of here on West Main Street. Gillem's vengeful "home Yankees" (Unionist North Carolinians) destroyed the academy's scientific equipment but overlooked its prized possession--the chapel's mellow-toned bell, cast in Troy, N.Y. of bronze and ninety-nine silver dollars., Meanwhile, on the north side of the Yadkin River in Surry County, Union Col. William J. Palmer's seasoned, well-behaved troops spared the cotton and gristmill in Elkin. Reared a Quaker, Palmer detested unnecessary destruction. Palmer's brigade then moved east on the river's north side before joining Gillem's men at Rockford., The Jonesville Academy never fully recovered from the effects of the war. The academy building, where classes were taught during the week and where church services were held on Sunday, was torn down in 1915 to make way for a new Methodist sanctuary. The silver-dollar bell still rings there at Jonesville First United Methodist Church. , ----, (Inset): , Students William Wilson (later a preacher) and L.L. Gwyn allegedly inscribed this poem, discovered during demolition, inside the bell tower. Bell-ringer Van Eaton was the academy's wartime principal., Oh, Jonesville, Jonesville, , I bid you adieu. , I would see you in hell , Before I'd come back to you. , And this old chapel, , I'd see it in hell, , Van Eaton in the chapel , Ringing the bell!