Enoch Newton “Newt” Gwyn was born in 1836 to Richard and Elizabeth (Hunt) Gwyn in Elkin, North Carolina. He was one of six other children born into that family.
Enoch’s father Richard was a well-to-do citizen of Elkin and had some stake in the textiles manufacturing that went on there. These would probably later become what was known as Chatham manufacturing, a worldwide seller of woolen blankets and eventually other items such as towels, clothing, and even items for the government during both world wars.
Richard also represented Surry county in the state legislature for a time.
It was said of Enoch’s father that he was a pious man who would gather his children and sometimes even workers around the “family altar” to pray every morning. So it’s safe to say E. N. Gwyn had a decidedly Christian upbringing.
It’s no stretch of the imagination then to believe that he might become interested in ministry as an adult. His first steps toward that were likely in the Baptist church at Elkin where he grew up, but he would ultimately be ordained at age 29 in 1865 by Zion Baptist church. He would be the second minister (after W.A. Myers) to come from that congregation, and had served for years before in various other capacities.
It would be the beginning of decades of work on behalf of the local communities in the area.
During his days, the Reverend Gwyn preached in every church which belonged to the Brier Creek association and many others that did not. Some of these churches such as Pleasant Grove were organized by Gywn and other ministers from the association.
Besides the day to day church and association business, his obituary would later note that Gwyn also spent more time visiting the sick and the poor than “any other preacher in all this section.”
As time and age forced him to slow down he began more and more performing funerals and marrying the young people of the community. Many of them came to Gwyn because of the “elegance” and “brevity” of the ceremonies he officiated. He became so popular as a marrying minister that people from several counties were seeking him out for his services.
For this reason Gywn proposed in 1907 to build a marriage arbor on the county line so he could marry couples from Iredell and Yadkin in which ever county they came from. I don’t know if the arbor was ever actually built.
The reverend Newt Gwynn died Octber 21st, 1914 at 78 years old. Writing to the Statesville Record & Landmark, “one who knew him” would note that Gwyn “…numbered his friends by his acquaintances and of enemies he had none.”