The first settlers to come to the land of Surry were the Indians. These were the tribes of the Algonquins, Cherokee, Tuscaroras and the Sauras according to Jesse Hollingsworth, Surry Historian. He found during a lengthy study that these tribes appeared to have come down to the area of Surry, Stokes, Rockingham, Forsyth, Yadkin and Wilkes Counties from the Great Lakes area. There were also Siouan tribes at Siloam along the Yadkin River for at least three distinct periods A.D. 1000, A.D. 1300 and A.D. 1600 according to Marian Venable's report of an archeological dig by Wake Forest University Professor, Ned Woodall,and his anthropology students in the summer of 1986-1987.
The next recorded report of Surry's Indian families is from John Lederer, a young German medical student who explored the area in 1670 at the behest of Gov. Berkely of Virginia. Lederer kept a diary of his explorations which he gave to William Talbot of Maryland. The diary, written in Latin, was carried to England by Talbot who had it printed in English in 1671.
Lederer followed Indian trails from one of their villages to another. These trails were marked by notches on trees. He found that all Indians spoke the same language but in different dialects. (Hollingsworth reports that there were more linguistic stocks in North Carolina than any other area along the Atlantic.)
Lederer found no fixed boundaries for a tribal unit but they did live in villages which he called "stable communities," made up of individual tribes, each village with a distinct name. Thus a member was known by the name of his village or by the name of his chief.
William Carter, another Surry Historian, in his book "Footprints In The Hollow, " quotes extensively from Lederer and sheds more light on Surry's Indian families and their "ancient manners and customs." Tribal leaders told Lederer of their history for the past four hundred years. (That would be from the years around 1271 A.D.) They had no alphabet then and no written records but they did have ways to preserve their history. The first was by "counters," the second by "Hieroglyphicks," and the third by tradition, delivered by long tales from father to son, which being children, they were made to learn by rote (memorize). The counters were pebbles or short pieces of straw or reeds. These were actually symbols arranged to give meaning. Different arrangements meant different things. A pyramid of stones numbering those slain or transported was raised as a monument.
Reeds and stones were used in religious ceremonies. They were placed in a circle for Devotions or Sacrifices and the reeds and straws of the rites celebrated, for example, a burial ceremony.
The Indians kept records of time and other things on a string or leather throng tied in knots of several colors.
Lederer goes on: "They worship one God, Creator of All things but leaves the government of mankind to good and evil spirits. Their government was a Democracy where the old men formed a council which enacted the laws." Lederer visited the Saras' villages which later explorers said was probably near the Trading Post on the Yadkin River.
Lederer's material proved invaluable to later explorers and to historians seeking to unravel the past.
Jesse Hollingsworth's Indian study is explained well in the first chapter of his book History of Surry The following is his findings:
The Sara or Sauras moved up to the Dan River in Surry (now Stokes County) northeast of Pilot Mountain establishing the upper and lower Saura Town. The Sauratown Mountains in Stokes were likely named for these tribes .
Col. Byrd of Virginia in his report of the survey of the Virginia Carolina line in 1728 showed two Saura Villages in the Sauratown area. These were the Upper and Lower Sauratowns. These villageswere chartered on 18th Century maps long after the villages were deserted, according to Carter. But a rather persistent tradition has some Sauras living in the Pinnacle area of what is now Stokes County for decades afterward.
Another tribe found in Surry were the Cherokees.
Chief Renfrow, a Cherokee, and his tribe built a village near the Ararat River at what came to be Mount Airy in Surry. This was later the Bannertown area. The Chief's house was built on a ridge called Renfrow Hill. It was called Renfrow Hill until 200 years later in 1932 when the ridge was leveled for the Mount Airy Post Office. The stream which forms the eastern boundary of Mount Airy was called Renfrow Creek.
According to Hollingsworth, the houses in the villages were of waddle construction about 16 feet by 20-40 feet. Young saplings were placed close together and fastened at the top to make an arched roof. Woven between the poles were twigs and bark plastered with mud. This plaster was all over the outside of the whole building.
Curtains of grass or animal skins divided the living quarters from the bedrooms. Beds were mounds of dirt or of wood frame covered with grass or skins. Benches were placed along the walls for sitting. Cooking was done outside.
Skins decorated the walls and on the skins were pictographs of outstanding events in the warriors life.
But by 1740 their houses were built of logs -- with a bark roof. So were the houses of the white settlers.
Hollingsworth reports that the character of the Indian was impressive. Once they agreed to a treaty, they observed it faithfully. Their pledge was their bond. Hollingsworth states that, "every war with the Indians in this country was brought on by the white man's disregard of treaties made between them."
The Indian saw his everyday role as securing food and keeping his enemies away. Work was for women. (The white man apparently had the same notion.) He was cunning with great ingenuity and sharp wit. He was brave, dignified and trusting until betrayed. Once deceived, he was never trusting again. He was so "unselfish in friendship that he put the white man to shame. He was scrupulous in honor about paying just debts. His noble qualities have not been granted the general recognition they deserve."
Hollingsworth continues, "His deference to women in comparison puts the white man in a sorry light. There is not a single recorded incidence of a full-blooded Indian having criminally assaulted a white woman even in a massacre."
"They trace their ancestry through the female line. They believed every woman held the possibility of creating a powerful line of warriors. Crops would yield better if a woman planted the seed.The white man took on this notion. Women were on equal footing with warriors in determining the affairs of state. They had women's councils and sometimes they dictated policy."
The Indian was monogamous. A marriage had to have the approval of the women's council. The marriage ceremony was an exchange of gifts. There was freedom in choosing the bride. There were several intermarriages between Indians and whites and some descendants still live in the area.
Indians are credited with making the trails that are the present day highways and railroads in the Surry area. The chief trail was the Saura-Saponi Trail that crossed Surry. It joined the Occonee Trail which was the east-west route at Boonville. It crossed the Yadkin River into the northern part of Surry and followed the course of the Ararat River north then to east of Sauratown Mountains. Another trail followed the course of the New River. There were trails along Elk Creek, Mitchell and Fisher Rivers.
Early travelers described the Cherokee manners as "dignified, circumspect, steady, and dignified and reserved in conversation; yet frank, cheerful, humane, tenacious of their liberties and the natural rights of man, secret deliberates and determined in their council, honest, just and liberal and always ready to sacrifice every pleasure and gratification, even their blood and life itself to defend their territory and maintain their rights."
Various Indian studies through the ages prove Hollingsworth to be correct. He found much of his material in records of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology .
("Information from History of Surry County by Jesse Hollingsworth, first chapter.--Hester Jackson")