Nash County, North Carolina: History
The area eventually comprising Nash County was originally organized as a part of Edgecombe County. Settlement first occurred in the 1740s; the earliest land grants date to 1743. As the population of Edgecombe increased, citizens in the western portion of the county found travel to the county seat of Tarboro to conduct official business to be difficult. Legislator Nathan Boddie proposed to the North Carolina Provincial Congress that the county be divided. As a result, Nash was formed from all parts of Edgecombe west of the Falls of the Tar River in 1777. It was named for American Revolutionary War Brigadier General Francis Nash, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Germantown. The first session of the county court met on April 1, 1778, in the home of Micajah Thomas. Court was then held in a temporary building at Peach Tree until a permanent courthouse was erected in Nashville in 1784. Nashville was formally designated the seat of county government in 1815 and was incorporated in 1823. In 1833, the county's first courthouse burned down and was replaced by a brick building.
In 1786, the state of North Carolina conducted a census that recorded a total population of 5,277 in Nash County. The first U.S. Census in 1790 recorded a total population of 7,393, of whom 2,099 were slaves, 183 were free blacks, and the rest whites. Several early communities in Nash County developed as stops along stagecoach routes, including Dortches, Red Oak, Stanhope, Hilliardston, and Castalia. Settlement also occurred along rivers and creeks, accompanied by the construction of gristmills. In the 1830s, the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad was laid, leading to further settlement. The building of a spur line in 1840 led to the eventual creation of the community of Whitakers. By the 1860s, Nash County had a population over 11,600 and an economy centered on agriculture. In 1855, parts of Nash, Edgecombe, Johnston, and Wayne Counties were combined to form Wilson County. Over 1,000 men from the county fought in the American Civil War.
In 1871, after significant political controversy, all parts of Edgecombe County west of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad were annexed to Nash leading to the bifurcation of the Edgecombe communities of Battleboro and Sharpsburg between the two counties. As a result of the boundary shift, Nash County's black population grew and a greater portion of the town of Rocky Mount also lay within Nash County's border, including Rocky Mount Mills, the second textile mill to exist in the state. In 1899, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad established repair shops in Rocky Mount, precipitating the city's rapid growth. In 1921, the county's third courthouse was built.