by Mary C. Wiley
Twin-City Sentinel
Feb. 9, 194?
On the site of the Reynolds Building in the beginning days of Winston stood the home of Franklin Gorrell, an early merchant of
Winston and one of the eight charter members of the First Presbyterian Church. To the north of the Franklin Gorrell home on
Main Street, facing west, stood the hospitable home of Mr. and Mrs. J.S. (Sim) White.
This Sim White home is of special interest during this centennial year of Forsyth. In it was born the first child in the tiny county
town of Winston: Carolyn Elizabeth Rights White.
When Carolyn Elizabeth was a little girl, she must have played often in the deep woods which extended from her father’s
blacksmith and wagon shop adjoining her home on the north. She must have run down the banks of the deep gully which
extended across the block on the spot where years afterwards the old Brown Warehouse was erected. The calaboose was
somewhere near this deep gully and on Sundays little Carolyn Elizabeth never played near it, for the “drunks” put in on Saturday
nights were very noisy. The whipping post was somewhere near the calaboose, convenient to it and also the county jail on
Liberty, near Fifth.
Carolyn Elizabeth White married Gideon Miller of the firm of Miller Brothers, prominent contractors of the 1870’s-1890’s and the
children and grandchildren of this union have through the years been fine citizens of the community.
The first boy born in Winston was Robah Gray, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gray, whose home stood in the middle of the
block on Third, facing north, between Main and Liberty. In the summer of 1849 when the first lots of the county seat were put up
at auction, Mr. Gray made the highest bid for this property--$465.
Little Robah Gray, playing in his father’s yard, must have watched with interest the country wagons pouring in with dried fruit for
his father’s store--present site of the Wachovia Bank and Trust Building--and the activity at the sprawling Pfohl and Stockton
store just across Main Street. He must have run across the muddy street and climbed over the courthouse fence when he heard
the monkey man grinding on his organ on the Square or the fife and drum calling out for general muster.
Young Robah Gray became the beloved physician, Dr. Robah Gray, who for years ministered to the sick and the needy poor of
the community.
From this Robert Gray home, in addition to this doctor son and two daughters, there came a banker son, a lawyer, a gallant
Confederate soldier who gave his young life for the Southern cause, a prominent newspaper man, and a naval officer.
Carolyn and Robah Were
Winston’s First Children
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