Thank you for writing me. I looked at your web page which I liked it very much and I saw the Banners. You have the members of the Banner family that settled Banner Elk, NC. Christopher Columbus, Newton and Oliver are all brothers and the sons of Martin Luther Banner. I am sending you the family group sheet on Martin Luther's family. I do not have the military records, as I have been slowly collecting them and I just have not gotten around to Martin's family yet. Some of the Banner Elk crowd had sons in the Union and sons in the Confederacy. It must have been hard on them. They were a large slave owning family in Surry and Stokes Counties, NC.
I would like to ask that you change the Sary, NC to Surry Co., NC and also Stokes should be Stokes Co.,NC. The property of the Banners that was in Stokes County is today in Forsyth County, NC. Another group went to Surry County and yet another group went to Washington Co.,Tenn. I am President of the Surry County Genealogy Association and I notice you have other fellows from Surry on your list. Would like for me to see if anyone in our group is researching those families?
Henry Banner is the son of John William Banner who is the brother of Martin Luther Banner. At least I think that would be him. I have another Henry Banner from Washington Co., NC who served for the Union and I have his pension application, however, he served out of NC. And I have another Henry Banner who was a Lieutenant in the Confederate Army. Anyway I will send you the info on John William Banner's family.
I do have a Banner web page that I am presently updating - just started this weekend and waiting on my cousin to do a few things for I complete the page. Right now there is not much on it but the table of contents. It will have 5 generations of the Banner on the page. I also research the Banner African Americans.
I will send info on John William Banner family in another email. Thank you again for getting in touch with me, Judy
Misc. Notes: Martin Luther operated a store after his marriage to Mary. This store was located in Surry Co. in a community called "Banner's Store". This community became East Bend around 1849.1 Martin ran a general store here which was later taken over by Henry Davis and still later remodeled by Robert Poindexter. Yadkin County was formed from Surry County in 1850. Martin's house still stands in present day East Bend in Yadkin County, NC. Recent[Aug. 1996] observation of the home showed it to be in a dilapidated state of disrepair and falling down. It stands just behind in the Smitherman home in downtown East Bend. The Banner book by William P. Banner states that Martin lived in the Bannertown/Mt. Airy area of Surry County, however proof of this has not been found. Martin first saw the area now known as Banner Elk in the valley of Elk Creek about 1840. He passed through this territory while on a trip from Surry County, NC to Nashville, Tennessee. He was accompanied by one companion and they had only one horse between them on the long trip. Martin thought the country very beautiful and decided he would return. He did return to the valley at a later date between 1845 and 1848, moving his family to Elk Creek. In 1866, he moved across Sugar Mountain Gap and built a new home near the head waters of the North Fork of the Toe River. Martin cleared a small field and built a cabin near where Lees-McRae College now stands. However, he later sold his this land to George W. Dugger and moved his family to Carter Co., Tenn., where he stayed a short time. He then returned to North Carolina and settled on land at the headwaters of the Toe River near the present town of Montezuma, where he spent the rest of his life.
Family records also show that he built a house and owned land at Sugar Mountain #1 Gap . Martin was a stockman by trade. Mrs Anna Von Canon Guignard who remembers Martin Banner, said, "Mr great uncle, Martin Banner, came through here with a botanist, and the Banners moved here, then, in 1845. There were 5 of the brothers who moved here, in the woods."
Research. Martin Luther is in his father's household on the 1820 Stokes Co.,NC census. Martin is on the 1830 Stokes Co.,NC Census and on by 1840, he is on the Watauga Co.,NC census.
Marriage Date: 31 Dec 1829Misc. Notes - Newton served in the Civil War for 4 years for the Union army. He served in the 4th Regiment, Tennessee Calvary. He scouted Cumberland Gap, sat on a rock, and took his oath on the corner of the three states, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. He was small of stature and weighed less than 100 pounds. He told the Federal officer that he wanted to fight and if he didn't take him in this army, he would join the other side. He carried dispatches to Murfreesboro and had four holes in his hat. In Decatur, Alabama, he spent time in a hospital, then to Nashville and to Edgeville, Tenn. and on home. His feet were bleeding when he arrived in Banner Elk, NC. He served four years in military service and received honorable discharge.
Newton was invited to Gettysburg, Pa. for a reunion of the soldiers of the Civil War. His brother, Columbus, accompanied him. They were invited to the White House where they did buck dancing for the President, Mr. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Newton lived on George's Gap Road near Cove Creek School. He was carpenter by trade, a pioneer and a traveler. He built the Cove Creek Academy 1884-1885. He was also a great humorist and full of fun. One incident that was printed in the "Democrat" says he tried to buy a bushel of indigo to brighten up and give the Blue Ridge another dip because it appeared to be getting pale. He was also a mail carrier for about four years from Lenoir to Sugar Grove, NC, and for two years from Fish Springs to Morganton, making two trips of about 80 miles by way of Sugar Grove, as well as other destinations.
Copyright 1999 by Judy S. Cardwell.
Last updated Jan 3, 2001