Among the earliest European settlers of the Yadkin River Valley was William Johnson, an immigrant from Wales. In 1757, just four years after the Moravian settlement of the Wachovia Tract in the nearby communities of Bethabara and Salem, Johnson purchased the mile square central portion of the present property from the Ellis family to whom the land was deeded in 1753 by Lord William Linville. The Ellis family leased the land for a short time "for five shillings lawful money of Great Britain in hand a yearly rent of one peppercorn payment at the Feast of Saint Michael, the archangel".