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The
North Carolina Legislature acted to establish the town of Madison at
the junction of the Dan and Mayo Rivers in 1815, but it was not
until three years later that Randall Duke Scales laid off 96
half-acre lots and sold them at auction on June 3, 1818 for $67 to
$100 each. Madison
was named for the fourth president of the United Stated, President
James Madison. The town
was originally incorporated in 1873.
Madison
was planned for river trade and flourished as bateaux brought
horses, hogs and other goods to town. Ferries were used to take people across the river until
bridges could be built. Being
destroyed by floods, the bridges had to be replaced several times. Then in 1830 a toll bridge was built across the Dan, creating
the only currency known to have been produced in
Rockingham
County. The only known
surviving Madison Toll Bridge currency was purchased at auction in New York
in 1979 and belongs to the Town of Madison.
This bridge was washed
away in 1850. A covered
bridge was built in 1887 and remained in use until a higher bridge
was constructed at the end of Academy Street
in 1931.
In
the mid to late 1800’s, Madison
was a thriving tobacco town with as many as 44 plug tobacco
factories. John M.
Galloway, a local planter, was reported to the largest grower of
tobacco in the world. The
mid 1800’s also brought academies, schools and churches to Madison.
Train
travel through the area began in 1888. This brought people and prompted growth and the need for
hotels – as many as seven at one time, some with 20 rooms.
Except
for Penn Brothers Suspender Company that came in 1914 (now
Gem-Dandy, Inc.), Madison
remained largely a tobacco town until after World War II.
It emerged as a textile town with the beginning of Madison
Throwing Company in 1947. Madison
Throwing Company is now Frontier Spinning and is one of the largest
employers in the area.
The
1920’s were a real boom-time for the town with the 1925 population
swelling to 3,300, an all time high.
Madison’s central location puts it within 30 miles of
Greensboro, NC, Winston-Salem, NC,
Martinsville, VA, and
Danville, VA. With a population of
2,262 citizens, Madison
occupies 6.6 square miles of land and has an elevation of 574 feet.
Today,
Madison
boasts two historic districts: one listed on the national historic
registry; and the other a local historic district (the first
federally certified local historic district in North Carolina). Many of the original
homes from the early 1800’s still stand and represent outstanding
examples of the 18th and early 19th centuries
Federal, Greek Revival, Victorian, Colonial Revival and Bungalow
styles.
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This picture shows Madison's first
Mayor (with cane) crossing the intersection of Murphy and Market Streets in Downtown Madison in
1906.
At
least one of the buildings visible in the picture is still standing
and is easily recognizable today. |
