The story
History
The county was formed on December 29, 1792, from Mecklenburg County. Located in the Piedmont, it was named after Stephen Cabarrus of Chowan County, speaker of the North Carolina House of Commons.
Catawba Indians were the primary inhabitants of the area until beginning about 1750, when the county was settled mainly by immigrants: Germans on the eastern side and Scotch-Irish in the western area of the county. When it came time to choose a location for the county seat and county government, each ethnic group wanted the county seat located close to their populations and could not reach agreement on a site. Stephen Cabarrus wrote to the citizens pleading with them to come together in peace to choose a location for their county seat. A central area of the county was chosen in 1796 and aptly named Concord, a derivative of two French words "with" and "peace." Representative Paul Barringer introduced a bill into the state legislature to incorporate Concord; it passed on December 17, 1806. The town of Concord was begun on land owned by Samuel Huie and wife Jane Morrison Huie.
The first substantiated gold find in America was in 1799 by young Conrad Reed while playing in Little Meadow Creek, located on the Reed farm in southeastern Cabarrus County. According to research, Conrad's find was a gold chunk approximately the size of a shoe and weighing 17 pounds. His father John Reed took the nugget into Concord to a silversmith, who informed Reed that the rock did not have any value. The elder Reed returned home with it, holding it for three years until a trip in 1802 to Fayetteville, where he sold the "nugget" to a jeweler for $3.50. Over time John Reed learned that the jeweler sold the large nugget for several thousand dollars. Reed returned to Fayetteville insisting on more just compensation. This discovery and news of the sale spurred the beginning of gold mining in the area.
John Reed, or Johannes Rieth as he is known in records of the Staatsarchiv at Marburg, Germany, was one of thousands of Hessian soldiers brought over by British troops to fight against rebellious colonists in the American Revolution. Reed deserted, as did many other Hessians. He traveled from Georgia to North Carolina, where he settled in an ethnic German community sometime around 1787 and began farming.
Reed first developed placer mining on his property, then underground mining, and became wealthy from the gold. His facility became known as Reed's Gold Mine. Large amounts of gold were being discovered at the Reed Gold Mine and in other mines in the United States; these mine owners began to use their gold to create currency. For the government to retain control of the production of currency and keep a stabilized economic structure, President Andrew Jackson signed into legislation the authorization to create branches of the US Mint. The Charlotte Mint was built to handle the gold coming from the rich gold veins of North Carolina, including Reed's.
The Reed Gold Mine was designated a National Historic Landmark, as it was the first gold mine in the country. Gold was mined in North Carolina into the early 20th century. Today visitors at the site can explore some of the mine's reconstructed tunnels.
Cabarrus Black Boys
The small band of Regulators, disguised themselves and made their way to Phifer's old muster grounds on Poplar Tent Road. After nightfall, the men laid a trail of gunpowder toward the royal government's encampment and fired a shot igniting an explosion that was reportedly heard nine miles away. Two gunpowder wagons, as well as blankets, leggings, kettles, and other supplies were destroyed. Some men involved in this episode wore Indian disguises while others were blacked by the gunpowder they emptied from the kegs earning them the name of the "Black Boys of Cabarrus". These young patriots remained active and in hiding until independence was declared.
National Register of Historic Places
The old Cabarrus County Courthouse was finished in 1876. Recognized as significant in the 20th century, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Confederate soldiers monument is located on the front lawn area.
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Also listed on the NRHP is the Coleman-Franklin-Cannon Mill, notable as the first cotton mill owned and operated by African Americans, and also for its decades-long record of industrial design in textile manufacturing, with numerous contributing structures built through the early 20th century.
Among other NRHP sites in Cabarrus County is the Bethel Church Arbor, located adjacent to Bethel United Methodist Church approximately one mile north of the historic crossroads (and railroad stop) of Cabarrus Station. The Arbor dates back to the early 1800s as a location for religious revival "camp meetings" and the current structure was built around 1878, and was in use through the 1920s.
Agricultural and industrial development
Located in the Piedmont region, the county was developed largely for subsistence farming, but did have some cotton plantations. By 1860 the population was about one-third enslaved African Americans, with few free people of color. The first cotton mill was constructed as early as 1839. More mill development took place after the American Civil War, when railroads reached the region.
Among the owners of new mills in the area were men of the rising black middle-class of Wilmington, North Carolina, such as John C. Dancy (appointed as collector of customs at the port), and others. Warren Clay Coleman, a Concord African-American businessman, joined them in organizing Coleman Manufacturing Company in 1897, on a site about two miles from Concord. They built and operated what is believed to have been the first cotton mill in the nation to be owned by blacks. They wanted to promote economic security for people of color. Richard B. Fitzgerald was its first president. While blacks had been hired for tobacco manufacturing, they were generally excluded from white-owned textile mills.
The Wilmington massacre of 1898, with white attacks on blacks, their homes and businesses, destroyed much of what the people had built there since the war. In 1900 Dancy was among more than 2000 blacks who left the city permanently after the riot, resulting in its becoming majority white. He moved to Washington, D.C., where he was appointed as the federal recorder of deeds.
Agriculture has played an important part in the economic life of the county for over 200 years. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, textiles became a vital part of the local economy, especially in the northern portion of the county. Today, the local economy has a more varied base.
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, there were 225,804 people, 82,596 households, and 51,217 families residing in the county.
The median age was 37.6 years.
25.8% of residents were under the age of 18 and 13.6% of residents were 65 years of age or older; for every 100 females there were 94.0 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 90.5 males age 18 and over.
The racial makeup of the county was 61.0% White, 18.9% Black or African American, 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 5.3% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 6.6% from some other race, and 7.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 12.1% of the population.
82.7% of residents lived in urban areas, while 17.3% lived in rural areas.
There were 82,596 households in the county, of which 38.0% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 53.4% were married-couple households, 15.0% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 25.6% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 21.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 87,410 housing units, of which 5.5% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 69.6% were owner-occupied and 30.4% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.1% and the rental vacancy rate was 6.0%.
2000 census
At the 2000 census, there were 131,063 people, 49,519 households, and 36,545 families residing in the county. The population density was 360 people per square mile (140 people/km2). There were 52,848 housing units at an average density of 145 units per square mile (56 units/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 83.26% White, 12.18% Black or African American, 0.34% Native American, 0.91% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 2.30% from other races, and 0.99% from two or more races. 5.05% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 49,519 households, out of which 34.90% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.20% were married couples living together, 10.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.20% were non-families. 21.80% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.03.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 25.80% under the age of 18, 8.10% from 18 to 24, 32.50% from 25 to 44, 22.10% from 45 to 64, and 11.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.10 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $46,140, and the median income for a family was $53,692. Males had a median income of $36,714 versus $26,010 for females. The per capita income for the county was $21,121. About 4.80% of families and 7.10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.30% of those under age 18 and 9.60% of those age 65 or over.
Most residents of Cabarrus County are Caucasian of Scots-Irish, German, or English-Welsh extraction. The proportion of African-American residents has decreased since the late nineteenth century, in part due to people leaving in the Great Migration of the 20th century to cities and areas with more opportunities. In 2000, African- American residents made up slightly more than 12 percent of the population.
From Wikipedia’s article on Cabarrus County, North Carolina, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5