The 20th century brought dramatic change to the closely knit yet independent-minded farming community of Pleasant Garden, North Carolina. Although descendants of the families who migrated from the Eastern Shore of Maryland still lived on the lands of their ancestors and attended Pleasant Garden Methodist Episcopal Church, which was organized in 1788, they welcomed progress. The community became home to one of the first state-supported high schools, and the Pleasant Garden Company built manufacturing businesses alongside the Atlantic & Yadkin Railroad, where eight trains passed each day. These...