1872 Hattie Butner Stagecoach

Edwin T. Clemmons (1826-1896), was a grandson of Peter Clemmons, founder of the village of Clemmons.  As a boy, Edwin was intrigued by the stagecoaches running through the area and the 1870 census lists Edwin Clemmons as a stage and mail contractor, owning several stage lines based in Salem and running to points such as Clemmons, High Point, Raleigh, Asheville and Wytheville, VA.

The stagecoach business continued to grow for Edwin as indicated by orders for new coaches from the Abbot-Downing Company based in Concord, New Hampshire.  His last and largest coach, a nine-passenger Concord Coach, was purchased from this company in 1872. He named it the “Hattie Butner” after his wife, Harriet “Hattie” Butner, whom he married in 1858.  

After the coming of the railroad in the 1870's, Edwin moved his stagecoach business to Asheville. He returned to Clemmons shortly before he died in 1896. In his will he left money for the construction of a Clemmons Moravian Church and a school. His widow also donated the "Hattie Butner" stagecoach to the Wachovia Society. Hattie Butner Clemmons died in 1910.

The Village of Clemmons was incorporated as a municipality in December of 1986. In 1993 the Wachovia Society permanently loaned the "Hattie Butner" to the Village of Clemmons. The restoration of the coach was completed in 1995 through $22,000 in donations received by the Clemmons Historical Society. The "Hattie Butner" is currently on display at the Village Hall.