A typical log cabin in North Carolina circa 1790. Collection of the Wachovia Historical Society; photograph courtesy of Old Salem Museums & Gardens

British subject Henry Banner arrived in America in 1740 from England and soon settled into a new way of life on the frontier. Eight years later in 1748 he was married to Eleanor Martin and in 1749 their first son, Joseph, was born in Pennsylvania. Henry left for North Carolina around that time with two slaves, an African named Prince, who was “mulatto” and his negress, Dianah. In 1751 after two years of hard work in the wilderness to establish a home site, Henry brought his wife Eleanor and their young son to North Carolina. The family started their new life in a log cabin on a knoll above Buffalo Creek adjacent to The Great Wagon Road that ran from Pennsylvania to Georgia near the Town Fork settlement, making them some of the earliest settlers in the area.