How did Winnabow get its name?

An unincorporated community in east-central Brunswick County, near the intersection of U.S. 17 and N.C. 87, Winnabow is named for the antebellum plantation of the Russell family, which was located nearby.

Daniel Lindsay Russell (1845-1908), a congressman and later governor of North Carolina from 1897 to 1901, was born at Winnabow plantation. Russell was the state’s last Republican governor until the election of James Holshouser in 1972. A “Governor’s Road” still runs through Winnabow.

The Russells, in turn, seem to have taken the name “Winnabow” from an Indian word whose meaning has been lost.

According to the North Carolina Gazetteer, Winnabow was known as Evans Store Crossroads during the Civil War. The present name was adopted in 1882 when the Winnabow post office opened.