Yadkin County, North Carolina: History
Present-day Yadkin County was home to the Tutelo and Saponi Indian tribes. European-descent settlers moved into the area around 1748. Though in the western Piedmont region of the state, the residents of the eventual county developed more economic, political, and cultural similarities with their contemporaries in the mountains to the west than to many of their peers in other sections of the Piedmont or those in the eastern part of North Carolina. Over the following decades the county developed as a society mostly made up of smallholding white farmers, though Yadkin was also home to several large landowners and slaveholders (and their slaves), some working professionals, and a few free blacks and Native Americans.
The land eventually comprising Yadkin County was first politically organized under the jurisdiction of Anson County. In 1750, it was placed in the new jurisdiction of Rowan County, and in 1770 was made a part of Surry County. In 1850, the North Carolina General Assembly split off the portion of Surry south of the Yadkin River to create Yadkin County to satisfy local political divisions. At the time of its creation, the county had 9,808 residents, of whom 8,664 were white, 86 were free persons of color, and 1,508 were enslaved blacks. The town of Wilson was established to serve as the county seat. In 1852, the town's name was changed to Yadkinville.
From 1850 to 1860, the county experienced economic and demographic growth. By the end of the decade, though it was still mostly rural and dominated by farming, the county hosted several grist mills, stores, distilleries, and a tobacco factory. Politically, the county was home to many Whigs and its resident favored John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party during the 1860 United States presidential election. Following the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln as president, leaders of the state of North Carolina considered whether or not to secede in 1861 and join the nascent Confederate States of America. Yadkin voters overwhelmingly rejected a vote to hold a state convention to consider secession. Following Lincoln's call for Southern volunteers to suppress rebellion in South Carolina, a state convention was held and North Carolina seceded from the United States.
Men from Yadkin County served during the ensuing American Civil War in the Confederate States Army. Many would desert and return home to assist their families in key agricultural activities before going back into service. North Carolina's declaration of a draft proved unpopular in the county; some locals avoided conscription into the army due to pro-Union sentiments, or, in the case of local Quakers, due to religious objections to war and slavery. Some draft dodgers hid in woods or caves, while others fled west to pro-Union communities in the mountains. In February 1863, two Confederate officials and two draft evaders were killed in an exchange of gunfire after a militia attempted to arrest a group of evaders at a school house.
After the war, Yadkin became politically dominated by the Republican Party, with many locals being attracted to it for its opposition to slavery, support for central national government, and push for disbursing money to fund infrastructure improvements. Yadkin's support for the Republican Party persisted along with some of its neighboring counties after the state largely fell under the Democratic Party's domination in the 1870s. …