Iii Cabarrus Is Concord
Controversy iind piety marked be¬
ginning of County: now it is one of
state's industrial giants.
By RILL SHARPE
Underlying Cabarrus are great beds
of granite and other rock, their pres¬
ence dramatically suggested by an un¬
usual outcrop of huge holders forming
a 22-mile circle in the west central
portion of the county. Most travelers
sec these rocks on 29-A toward Char¬
lotte. They are not, as locally believed,
the souvenirs, of a glacier. No glacier
ever invaded North Carolina, and
these are the harder rocks left ex¬
posed after erosion wore away the
softer surrounding material They
might well be symbols on the county’s
seal.
Atop this field of granite, German
and Scotch-Irish. both fleeing oppres¬
sion, built a community as firm, as
conservative and in some phases as
austere as the foundations beneath
their farms and towns.
Industrial County
One of North Carolina’s most heavi¬
ly industrialized counties, yet retain¬
ing a strong rural flavor, its industry,
its religion, politics and attitudes arc
almost exaggerated representations of
many of North Carolina's characteris¬
tics. And yet, even as a typical con¬
gested Piedmont county in a Piedmont
environment, its politics, religion, and
general behavior often are different
from that of other urban centers.
The first white man to enter what is
now Cabarrus probably was John
Lawson, surveyor-general of the col¬
ony. but it was not long — in the
early 1740’s — that Palatinate Ger¬
mans, pushing down from Pennsyl¬
vania, took up farm lands in the
southeast. At the same time, Scotch-
Irish entered the wilderness from the
Cape Fear valley and settled the west¬
ern portion.
Believe it or not, they were in Bla¬
den County then, but in 1750 they be-
THE STATE, Vol. XIX; No. 28. Entered as second-class matter. June I. 1933. at the Postoldlee at Raleigh. North CaroUna, under the act
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March 3, 1879. Published by Sharpe Publishing Co., Inc., Lawyers Uldg., Raleigh, N. C.
