In 1858, using lumber from his sawmill, Adam Stephens built a home and began a community. The first burial in a small nearby cemetery was that of his infant, namesake son. That cemetery still remains, a loving memory to this pioneer family and their neighbors who established the present North Salem Baptist Church. Now adjoining a busy highway intersection, this property was once a wilderness broken only by a wagon trail. The Adam Stephens Middle School is a new construction of one he built in 1882.
(Northgate)