Mulberry Island, also known as the Penn Farm, is a historic

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and e ...

Stoneville, North Carolina Stoneville is a town in Rockingham County, North Carolina, United States. Stoneville is part of the Greensboro–High Point metropolitan area of the Piedmont Triad. History Settlers came to the ridge between the Mayo and Dan rivers in the northw ...

near the

Dan River The Dan River flows in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Virginia. It rises in Patrick County, Virginia, and crosses the state border into Stokes County, North Carolina. It then flows into Rockingham County. From there it flows back int ...

. The home was once the seat of the

Scales family Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

and the Settle family, two prominent North Carolinian political dynasties. The house was part of a 1,298 acre plantation.

History

Mulberry Island was a large plantation located along the

in Rockingham County, near Stoneville and Leaksville. The house was built by Nathaniel Scales (1756-1824) and his wife, who was a niece of Colonial Governor

Josiah Martin Josiah Martin (23 April 1737 – 13 April 1786) was a British Army officer and colonial official who served as the ninth and last British governor of North Carolina from 1771 to 1776. Early life and career Martin was born in Dublin, Ireland, ...

. It faces south, looking down on the river valley. The plantation sat on 1,298 acres. Scales left Mulberry Island to his son,

Alfred Moore Scales Alfred Moore Scales (November 26, 1827 – February 9, 1892) was a North Carolina state legislator, Confederate general in the American Civil War, and the 45th Governor of North Carolina from 1885 to 1889. Early life Scales was born at R ...

, upon his death. It adjoined

Deep Springs Plantation Deep Springs Plantation is a plantation house in Stoneville, North Carolina. The farmland was later sold off to create the Deep Springs Country Club, a golf club and residential neighborhood, but the original house still exists as a private resid ...

on the

, which was home to another one of Nathaniel Scales' sons, James Madison Scales. Nathaniel Scales' daughter inherited another nearby farm,

High Rock Farm High Rock Farm is a historic plantation house located in Rockingham County, North Carolina. It dates to the early-19th century, and is a two-story, central hall plan, Federal style brick dwelling with a rear ell. It sits on a full basement and h ...

. In the 1850s the plantation came into the Settle family. It was the home of North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice and United States Minister to Peru, Thomas B. Settle II. After the Settles, the plantation was owned by the Trogden family and then by John Moore. In 1930 the farm was purchased by Charlie Penn of

Reidsville, North Carolina Reidsville is a city in Rockingham County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. At the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 14,580. Reidsville is included in the Greensboro–High Point Metropolitan Statistical Area of the Piedmont T ...

who remodeled the house, adding a large porch and other additions. Edrington Penn sold the home to Horner Grogan, who leased it to his son Wendell Grogan. The Grogan family sold the plantation to Charles Stone of Kinston for $130,000.

References

{{coord missing, North Carolina Greek Revival houses in North Carolina Houses in Rockingham County, North Carolina Plantation houses in North Carolina Settle family residences Scales family residences