«!/
BILL SHARPE
Old Anson, part Pied¬
mont. part plains;
a I w a
у
s ni i I i t anil y
Southern.
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Nf« G«acrapti> nl North Carolina" Chapter 75
This is the 6th couilhousc (storied June 8. 19141 and ot one time considered finest
in North Corolino.
“To Stay . . . and to Prosper”
Anson is an old plantation county,
beginning now to be tinged with mod¬
ern industry. In its efforts to balance
its agricultural economy, it has the
benefit of varied experience, for in its
2 1 1 years it has seen and been many
things.
It is partly Piedmont and partly
coastal plains; part sand, part clay;
part farm and part forest. When it was
created, the county sprawled all the
way to the Mississippi; now it contains
a modest 533 square miles of area,
and a population of 24,962.
Like Deep .South
It shares some of the statistics of
other counties lying against the South
Carolina line, but Anson has a distinct
character, and is like no other place in
North Carolina. A few years ago. it
was said there was not a single resident
in the county who was not cither of
Anglo-Saxon stock or Negro blood.
They arc practically all descended
front early arrivals who put down roots
here to stay and prosper, and this has
been the ambition of most Ansonians
since.
Patriotic People
The people of Anson thus have been
around home a long time, and there is
a strong tradition of aristocracy. The
county produced a crop of energetic
and effective Whigs in the Revolution,
and it was militantly for the Confed¬
eracy. What other town the size of
Wadcsboro could support two D.A.R.
Chapters?
Modern Anson is still largely rural
(only 12.7 percent urban) and largely
agricultural. The numerous towns are
well distributed, but aside from Wadcs-
boro, none have as many as 1,000
population. Some of the settlements
arc old and were the centers for pros¬
perous farm sections. Cotton still domi¬
nates agriculture, though not as com¬
pletely as it once did; lumbering is
almost as important now as it was a
hundred years ago.
The industries arc relatively small
and many of them are in and around
Wadcsboro. This county scat has a
surprisingly large and complete busi¬
ness section, and draws trade front a
large area, for it is truly the capital of
the cotton empire.
History
English, Scots, Germans and a few
French were in Anson at the time of its
creation in 1749 as our 15th county.
Altogether, they numbered about 5,-
000. but they were scattered over a
vast territory from the Pee Dee to the
Mississippi; from the Granville line to
South Carolina. A few Catawba,
Cheraw and Pee Dee Indians were still
around but rapidly dwindling.
The county was named for Lord
George Anson, first Lord of the British
Admiralty, who had made a voyage
around the world and written a popu¬
lar book about his adventures. His con¬
nection with Anson was slight; he had
been sent to the Carolinas in the 1730's
to patrol against Spanish pirates and
lived at Charleston.
Early Dissent
Anson was among the first counties
to resist Tryon’s colonial government.
In 1768, a mob invaded the court¬
house (then at Mt. Pleasant), and
threatened to tear down the log court¬
house and jail. Samuel Spencer, deputy
clerk of court, tried to reason with
them, but the group obstructed the
court and passed resolutions to resist
tax collections.
в
THE STATE. SEPTEMBER 30. 1961
