Jerusalem, North Carolina

Jerusalem, North Carolina

A Fine Settlement of Early History

We discovered two ledgers from a general store run by Samuel Jesse Tatum going back to the early part of Jerusalem, NC. The record books date back to 1890 through the turn of the century. Jerusalem was a neighborhood from the early days of Davie County, located between Ephesus and South River.

Tatum's general stare dealt mostly in grains, lumber, and he rented horses and mules by the day or by the hour to local farmers of the Jerusalem area Chickens being sent to Winston by the coopful brought $3.

He did business with Henry Setter, Dallas Williams, and Jim Best. Mr. Tatum was a fine man with much character, an honest merchant who gave his customers their fair share of whatever went through his place of business.

Later Samuel Tatum moved to Cooleemee, N.C. and lived directly in front of the Episcopal Church at #7 Church Street. He was one of Cooleemee's first citizens but died of typhoid fever in 1902. His children went on to became school teachers, surveyors, one became a doctor and the others all had some sort of a profession.

At Jerusalem there was a school house made from logs, a tobacco factory that made cigars and Mr. Robert L. Wilson ran a blacksmith operation, located on the corner of the property owned later by Mr. C.R. Craig (Woodson place). As a blacksmith Mr. Wilson knew the color of heated metal and with this important knowledge he could turn out any type of items you wanted.

Dr. Wiseman was there to take care of the sick and served the community from his horse and buggy. Moving here from out West he was afraid of storms, so he had a storm cellar built. Money was hard to come by in those days. Local farmers would often pay him off in wood and it was said that there were always stacks of cord wood all around his house. When Dr. Wiseman died, J.C. Sell, Sr. auctioned off his estate and ended up with his medical books. These books eventually got young Roy Tatum (Samuel's son) interested in the medical profession.

Years later, when Highway 601 was built, the whole roadbed was changed from a winding road to a modern straight road all the way to South River. This caused the cemetery of Jerusalem Baptist Church to be cut in two and made a great difference in the way of traveling to Salisbury from this area. The new highway also changed the way houses were arranged, as it cut through yards.
---Crawf

S.J. Tatum's record books courtesy of J.C. "Bud" Sell