Winston Salem, NC news and local guide

The Cheraw and Keyauwee lived in the area. In 1753 Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg chose land at the three forks of Muddy Creek for the Moravian Church and named it Wachovia, after Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf's family estate. The Moravians bought nearly 99,000 acres from John Carteret, Earl Granville. The first settlers arrived at Bethabara on November 17, 1753, and Bethania followed in 1759. The site of the main town was chosen by drawing lots, and the first tree for Salem, named from the Hebrew shalom, "peace," was felled on January 6, 1766. The church owned all the property, and for many years only Moravians could live there. Its buildings around Salem Square are now preserved as Old Salem Museums & Gardens, and the Easter sunrise service in God's Acre, the Moravian graveyard, has been held every year since 1772. Salem was incorporated as a town in December 1856.

More about Winston Salem

In 1849 the Salem congregation sold land to the north to the new Forsyth County for a county seat. In 1851 the new town was named Winston for the Revolutionary War hero Joseph Winston. It stayed quiet until a railroad connection was begun in 1868. By the 1880s it had many tobacco factories, among them those of Pleasant Hanes and R.J. Reynolds, and Hanes founded the knitting mill that became Hanes in 1900. The post office began calling the towns Winston-Salem in the 1880s and opened a Winston-Salem office in 1899. After a referendum, the two towns merged in 1913. Sources Wikipedia: Winston-Salem, North Carolina