Lincoln County: Lincolnton

Seal of Lincoln County

Location of Lincoln County

County Seat population (2016): 10,754

Lincoln County may be mostly rural, but it's county seat, Lincolnton, surely surprised me.

Downtown Lincolnton

Lincoln County, and Lincolnton. NOT named after Abraham Lincoln (it was named after Benjamin Lincoln, why would a southern state have a county named after a president that the region hated at the time?). Lincolnton really surprised me. I was expecting it to be a usual Piedmont town, like Lenoir, but I was wrong. The town feels quaint and unique. I like it. Anyway it's history time.

Originally part of the now gone Tryon County, when the county was made, the old Tryon County courthouse was in Lincoln County territory. The courts were held there until 1783, when they were moved to the residence of Captain Nicholas Friday. The old Tryon County records are still in Lincolnton, actually. They were moved once again in 1784 to the house of Henry Dellinger, until the courthouse was eventually built.

In the history of Lincoln County and Lincolnton, you always seem to see the name Joseph Dickson. During the Revolutionary Battle of Ramseur's Mill, Brigadier General Griffith Rutherford stayed at his residence. Dickson later stayed with Rutherford, and while passing vacant land, became the proprietor in trust for the citizens of Lincoln County. Dickson was one of the heroes of the Battle of Kings Mountain, where he was a colonel. During that year he was elected county clerk, which he held for 10 years. He was chairman of the committee that selected the site of Lincolnton, and the grant for the land on which the town was built was made to him. He was later elected as a senator from Lincoln county in 1788, and continuously elected himself until 1795. From 1799 to 1801, he was a member of 6th U.S. Congress. December 27th, 1803 he sold his plantation of twelve hundred acres, and removed to Rutherford County, Tennessee, where he died on April 24, 1825, at the age of 80.

The county remained enormous until 1841, where the first partition took place, with part of Rutherford being created, and the entire county of Cleveland. In 1842, the county of Catawba was made not to far away from the seat of Lincolnton. In 1846, the county of Gastonia was created and 4 miles of Catawba county was given back to Lincoln. These partitions made Lincoln County a small strip, at only ten miles in width with and average length of thirty miles.

A mural

A clock tower in downtown Lincolnton

After the partitions, Lincoln County struggled economically through the later 1800s, losing prime farmland and factory sites to other counties. However, things started to pick up in the 20th century. In 1910, the population increased from 828 in 1900 to 2,413. By 1920, the population was 3,390.

Anyway, the courthouse was the usual marble building with fancy looking pillars. Also I got the veterans memorial, or the "war memorial" as it says.

Lincoln County War Memorial

Lincoln County Courthouse