There was insufficient evidence of an extant town from 1835 to 1995 in an action to block an annexation by Winston-Salem where plaintiffs alleged that they were residents of an area included in the Town of Bethania created in 1839 and not included in the area covered by a 1995 act which created a new Bethania over a smaller area. References in historical journals are not sufficient. An act creating the Town of Bethania did not change a township line in violation of the North Carolina Constitution where plaintiffs contended that their land, included in the alleged original Bethania but excluded by this act, was obviously intended to be part of the City of Winston-Salem and that this effectively changed the township line because there cannot be a city in a township.
Cities are within townships.
Plaintiffs have never voted in Bethania and have not been denied a right which they previously possessed. The North Carolina Supreme Court does not believe that the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires that any particular area must be included in a newly created town in order that residents of that area may vote in municipal elections. Justice ORR dissenting. Heard in the Supreme Court 12 February 1998. By this Act, the General Assembly purported to create the Town of Bethania in Forsyth County.