By PAUL PLEASANTS
Old and new arc represented in the
two Wilkesboros. Old Wilkesboro. first
town and county scat, was settled in
1788 but like most frontier towns put
on little weight at first. Settlements,
activity and business was scattered,
and the nearest ‘'real" market was
Statesville, a 6-day round trip for
waggoners.
The land on which the town stands
was donated by James Wellborn and
Montfort Stokes and their wives, who
were twin daughters of the Englishman
Hugh Montgomery.
Like the county, it was named for
English-statesman John Wilkes, whose
espousal of the colonists’ cause led to
his ejection from Parliament.
Down its quiet old streets have
strode men who wrote bright pages in
North Carolina’s history. Ben Cleve¬
land swung Tories from an oak on the
courthouse grounds; Dan Boone came
to town to try — and lose — a law-suit;
The Different Wilkesboros
Tl* rouftlMM of old Willfiboio
А -к-
of North W.ihcibo'o mm* obo.t lb, Yo<Jki. flood pleat
the Stokes, Lenoirs, Wcllborns, Fin¬
leys and others were residents or
visitors.
First Trader
Wilkesboro’s first captain of busi¬
ness was William Pitt Waugh, who ar¬
rived in 1803. Two years later, he was
joined by his cousin. Major John Fin¬
ley. The two of them started a chain of
stores stretching from Tennessee to
Cherokee County. His wagon trains
hauled produce to Fayetteville and
brought merchandise back.
Now a town of 1,370, Wilkesboro
has grown more in the last two decades
than it did in the previous century and
a half. It is the home of the Holly
Farms processing plant, with a ca¬
pacity for 75,000 broilers a day, of
the Yadkin Valley Dairy Co-operative
and Kennedy Pottery. It has the
Wilkes Building and Loan, established
in 1920, a branch of the Northwestern
Bank, and a growing business and resi¬
dential sections.
Other enterprises are the Blue-
Ridge Hatchery, the new Blue Ridge
Furniture Company, and an apple can¬
nery.
Wilkesboro has a tax rate of SI. 50,
valuation $1,410,510, indebtedness
$49,500. It has a 200,000-gallon-per-
day water system (deep wells) and a
well-equipped volunteer fire depart¬
ment.
NORTH WILKESBORO
Across the river, its lusty neighbor,
North Wilkesboro, has been demon¬
strating some ingenuity in city-build¬
ing.
An example is the new Y.M.C.A.
This institution, sparked by Dr. F. C.
Hubbard, has been on the schedule
for a long time, but was not opened
until this year. All the money for the
building — around $225,000 — was
raised by public subscription through¬
out the county.
Y.M.C.A. leaders agreed to let the
consolidated high school use the mod¬
ern gym in return for a building site
next door to the school. The schools
saved the cost of a new gymnasium —
19
THE STATE. January 2B. 1956
