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Boonville, North Carolina is located on the northwest side of Yadkin County, approximately three miles south of the Yadkin River which is the dividing line between the counties of Yadkin and Surry. (In 1850 Yadkin County was formed from a portion of Surry County.)

Tradition says that a community was located two miles north of the present crossing that is now Boonville, before the town of Boonville was established. A settler named Davis founded a blacksmith shop, a hat factory, a mill for grinding grain, and a shop where grinding stones and whet rocks were made. Older people in the area say that this community ended in tragedy. It is reported that in a period of only a few hours, the settler’s wife and three children became ill with a dreaded disease and all four died. Davis was heartbroken, left town and never returned.

A crossroads settlement was name Leonora on June 19, 1857, but it remained under this name only five months. The National Archives and Records Service in Washington, D.C. show a post office was established under the name of Boonville on November 20, 1857 with William H. Rodwell as the first postmaster. Boonville was incorporated on February 19, 1895, by the North Carolina legislature.

Tradition says that the town of Boonville was built where two Indian trails crossed. It is believed that the east and west trail was used by the Cherokees, and the north and south trail was used by the Catawbas.

Daniel Boone made many visits to this section after his family moved from Pennsylvania to Bear Creek, which is near Mocksville, NC in 1750.

In 1768, when he was twenty-two years old, Daniel Boone came to this area to bear and deer hunt on the Yadkin River, tradition says, in the area from Crutchfield to the Wilkesboros.

Some of the older people have heard stories passed down from other generations, that Daniel Boone camped frequently in Boonville a short distance west of Boonville Baptist Church where there was a large spring. Near this spring there was large, hollow, poplar tree. Early residents of Boonville said that Daniel Boone slept in this tree at night. The spring and tree were located on land owned by Mr. W.R. Frye and later by his daughter Mrs. Carmen Frye Richardson. The tree stood until 1928 when it was struck by lightning and destroyed.

It is believed that Dr. Nathan B. Dozier built the first house in Boonville. Tradition says that either Dr. Nathan B. Dozier or William H. Rodwell named the town of Boonville after Daniel Boone.