Harriet “Hattie” Butner Clemmons was the daughter of Adam Butner of Salem. Adam and his wife ran the Butner Hotel in Salem from 1850 to 1884.
Hattie married Edward T. Clemmons, great-grandson of Peter Clemmons, in 1858. Edward owned a stagecoach which he drove from High Point through Salem to Wytheville, Virginia. He and Hattie lived on South Main Street until the railroad come through town and the coach and horses were no longer needed.
Edward and Hattie moved to Asheville in 1874 where they ran the Eagle Hotel and Edward drove his stagecoach from Old Fort to the Tennessee line. Mr. Clemmons died in 1896 and Hattie returned to Salem where she lived with her sisters on Main Street.
The stagecoach that Edward Clemmons bought in1872 was his last and largest coach, a nine-passenger Concord Coach that he named the “Hattie Butner,” after his wife. After Edward’s death, Hattie donated the coach to the Wachovia Historical Society. In 1993, the Wachovia Historical Society donated the stagecoach to the Village of Clemmons. The coach was restored through donations received by the Clemmons Historical Society. The coach is on display at the Clemmons Village Hall.
Photo courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
