[5] It is located 13 miles (21 km) south of the Stokes County seat of Danbury, on North Carolina State Highways 8 and 65 at an altitude of 662 feet (202 m).

The town's original 23 acres (93,000 m2) were part of a 700-acre (2.8 km2) tract that was granted to Jacob Lash by the Earl of Granville in 1762.

The town was named after an influx of Germanic immigrants, who had served as veterans of the American Revolution, were given incentives to settle the area.

American Revolutionary War Major Joseph Winston, later a U.S. congressman, was a famous Germanton resident with a plantation nearby.

Early Stokes county settlers were the result of land incentives by the State in 1790 given as a reward to those Germanic people who had fought for Independence.