Editing Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Fuquay-Varina Ballentine Spence House.jpg|thumb|220px|right|Ballentine Spence House]]
[[French people|Frenchman]] William Fuquay first settled in the small farming town of Sippihaw, named for the original [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribe that inhabited the area. Although there is no history of a tribe called Sippihaw, there are historical accounts in the area of a tribe called Susippihaw. Around 1858, while plowing the fields of the family tobacco farm, Stephen Fuquay, son of William, discovered a [[Spring (hydrosphere)|spring]]. Originally the spring was used solely for drinking water. Stephen soon came to the conclusion that the [[mineral water]] flowing from the springs had healing properties.  As word spread, locals began to help the springs establish this reputation, which brought residents from neighboring communities and counties to its waters. The springs were eventually walled in to better serve the tourists coming to the area by road or rail. In 1860, Fuquay sold the springs to a group of local investors who formed the Chalybeate Springs Company to market the attraction and its waters.

At that time another Sippihaw resident, J. D. "Squire" Ballentine, was returning home from the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Ballentine had been the town's schoolmaster before going off to fight for the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate Army]]. During his tour of duty, he had received letters from one of many southern ladies who wrote to the troops to improve their morale. Originally signing her name "Varina", perhaps an homage to the [[Varina Davis|wife of Jefferson Davis]], Virginia Avery would later meet and fall in love with Ballentine. He continued to call her Varina throughout their life together. When he became the first postmaster at the new post office in town in 1880, he named it "Varina" in her honor. A community grew just south of the springs, near the post office and the couple's Varina Mercantile Company [[Mercantile Stores Company, Inc.|general store]]. In time, it adopted the same name. Ballentine's business success allowed him to construct the Ballentine Spence House in 1910, the first house to have plumbing and electricity in the area. This house, a local historic landmark, still stands today.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.fuquay-varina.org/planning/downloads/Ch1_History_and_Background.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060819141039/http://www.fuquay-varina.org/planning/downloads/Ch1_History_and_Background.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Archived copy|archive-date=August 19, 2006|access-date=November 8, 2023}}</ref>