Stem is a town in

Granville County Granville County is a county located on the northern border of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,992. Its county seat is Oxford. Granville County encompasses Oxford, NC Micropolitan Statistical Are ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, United States. The population was 960 at the 2020 Census.

History

The town of Stem was established as a separate and distinct entity from Tally Ho township in 1888 by William Thomas Stem. The Stem family were co-proprietors of a general store in the Tally Ho township and owners of the land where a new spur of the

Richmond and Danville Railroad The Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) Company was a railroad that operated independently from 1847 until 1894, first in the U.S. state of Virginia, and later on of track in nine states. Chartered on March 9, 1847, the railroad completed its ...

terminated. Stem was built around this new rail station. The town was incorporated in 1911. Stem is home to the historic Cozart-Coley House. Tally Ho township was the childhood home of James Webb, that the

space telescope A space telescope or space observatory is a telescope in outer space used to observe astronomical objects. Suggested by Lyman Spitzer in 1946, the first operational telescopes were the American Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, OAO-2 launched ...

is named for.

Geography

Stem is located at . According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the town has a total area of , including of water area. Stem is located in the Tally Ho voting precinct of Granville County.

Demographics

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

of 2020, there were 960 people in 466 households. The population density was . The average housing density was 310.7 per square mile (118.9/km). The racial makeup of the town was 64.2%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, 21.7%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.5% Native American, 0.4%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, 6.9% identified as "Some Other Race Alone", and 6.1% as "Two or More Races".

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race were 12.1% of the population. There were 466 households, out of which 49.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them. The average household size was 2.50. In the town, the population was spread out, with 31.5% aged 19 or younger, 15.8% aged 20 to 29, 21.1% aged 30 to 39, 14.1% aged 40 to 49, 10.6% from 50 to 64, and 7.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 82.7 males. The median income for a household in the town was $73,750 with a mean household income of $100,380. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the town was $40,764. About 2.7% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 1.4% of those under the age of eighteen.

Schools

The town of Stem is assigned to the following schools: * Elementary School (K-5) - Butner-Stem Elementary School * Middle School (6-8) - Butner-Stem Middle School * High School (9-12) - Granville Central High School

Government

The Mayor for the Town of Stem is Casey Dover. The Stem Town Commissioners are: :* Susan Cope :* Kevin Easter :* Kenneth McLamb :* Dave Pavlus The Town Clerk is Vicki Garrett, while the Zoning & Watershed Administrator is Mike Conti.

Stem High School vs. UNC - Chapel Hill, 1936

Long-time residents of Granville County recall the tale of how the Stem High School basketball team played and defeated the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

men's team in an impromptu basketball game. As the story goes, the Stem team won the Granville County championship in 1936 and were rewarded by their coach (known only as Coach Pegram) with a trip to see UNC play

Davidson Davidson may refer to: * Davidson (name) * Clan Davidson, a Highland Scottish clan * Davidson Media Group * Davidson Seamount, undersea mountain southwest of Monterey, California, USA * Tyler Davidson Fountain, monument in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA * ...

at the

Tin Can A steel can, tin can, tin (especially in British English, Australian English, Canadian English and South African English), steel packaging, or can is a container for the distribution or storage of goods, made of thin metal. Many cans re ...

. The Davidson team was unable to show because of a snowstorm, so Coach Pegram volunteered his team so that the crowd could still watch a game. The team from Stem (Brent Meadows, Wallace Bowling, Thomas Farabow, Clyde Cates, and James "Bunk" Guthrie) played well against their college opponents, and in the end won the game on a dramatic last-second shot. The story is unverified in contemporaneous sources. If the game occurred, it is most likely to have taken place on February 12, 1936, when an

influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...

outbreak caused the cancellation of a UNC/Davidson basketball game. "Bunk" Guthrie would have been 22 years old at the time and 4 years past his graduation (though the Stem team was disqualified from the 1934 county championship for using ineligible players, so this does not necessarily rule out his participation in 1936). The

Daily Tar Heel ''The Daily Tar Heel'' (''DTH'') is the independent student newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was founded on February 23, 1893, and became a daily newspaper in 1929. The paper places a focus on university news and sp ...

from February 13, 1936 mentions only that the team practiced on the date of the cancelled Davidson game to prepare for their upcoming contest against

North Carolina State North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...

.The Daily Tar Heel, February 13, 1936
/ref> The story (true or not) has become a piece of local legend and brought statewide attention to the town of Stem in 1999 when it was covered by Frank Newell for the Warren Record of

Warren County Warren County is the name of fourteen counties in the USA. Some are named after General Joseph Warren, who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War: * Warren County, Georgia * Warren County, Illinois * Warren County ...

, and again in 2000 when it was covered by Ned Barnett on the front page of the

News & Observer ''The News & Observer'' is an American regional daily newspaper that serves the greater Triangle area based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The paper is the largest in circulation in the state (second is the '' Charlotte Observer''). The paper has be ...

References

{{authority control Towns in Granville County, North Carolina Towns in North Carolina