INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL
DEVELOPMENT OF
ANSON COUNTY
ANSON COUNTY is situated
on the southern edge of North
. Carolina, slightly west of the
middle of the State and. therefore,
very close to the central point of
the two Carolinas. On the north,
Anson adjoins Stanly County; on
the cast, the greater Pee Dee River
separates Anson from Richmond
County; on the south, Anson bor¬
ders upon Chesterfield County,
S. C.. and, on the west, Anson ad¬
joins Union County.
The formation of Anson County
was on Septmber 29, 1748 ( the date
1749 in the courthouse corridor not¬
withstanding), when a new county
was separated from Bladen “in be¬
half of ... sundry inhabitants
of Pedee" in view of the "great
distance of that settlement from
the County Court of Bladen and
the badness of the ways” (Colonial
Records IV. pp. 887-889). This
action was taken by the provincial
Council of State under the Royal
Governor. Gabriel Johnston. The
county was named in honor of the
«»/
SYDNEY F. CALICAN
English naval hero, Admiral Lord
George Anson who, in addition to
having sailed around the world,
and having defeated the Spanish
fleet off Cape Finisterre and sundry
pirates off the Carolina coast, was
an admired friend of Governor
Johnston. Since Lord Anson be¬
came a “good red-coat" by dying
before the Revolution (in 1762),
no serious proposal to change the
name has been offered.
At its inception, Anson included
all North Carolina west of a line
equidistant between Haw River
and the greater Pee Dee. In this
vast domain, including all of
present western North Carolina
and Tennessee to the Spanish ter¬
ritory west of the Mississippi, only
about 5,000 white persons lived in
typical pioneer circumstances.
Now, following its last sub¬
division in 1843 when Union
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Wadesboro, N. C.
County was formed, Anson has a
land area of 533 square miles —
355,840 acres. The 1940 popula¬
tion was 28,443. Wartime shifts
(the county has approximately
1,950 persons in the armed forces,
while many families have moved
to war-industry centers) have re¬
duced the actual resident popula¬
tion to about 23,000.
The inhabitants of Anson County
are practically 100 per cent native,
only six foreign-born persons hav¬
ing been counted in 1940. As to
race, the population is about 53
per cent white and 47 per cent
old-fashioned Southern Negro —
the proportion of whites having
grown enough to almost exactly re¬
verse the percentages between
1930 and 1940. The element of
English ancestry predominates
among the whites, with important
admixtures of Pennsylvania
"Dutch,” Scottish, Irish, French,
Spanish and other lineages. Such
names as Allen, Austin, Beachum,
Bennett, Boggan, Ingram, Coving¬
ton, Huntley, Thomas and many
others of present prominence were
listed in the first census in 1790.
In a remarkable number of im-
Etant respects, Anson County
ds a closely average position
among the 100 North Carolina
counties. The most notable ex¬
ceptions are the large proportion
of Negro population in Anson, and
Anson's small urban population. In
many other items, a mere division
of the State total by 100 comes sur¬
prisingly close to the Anson County
figure — e.g. :
Land area — State 49,142 square
miles; county 533.
Population — S t a t e 3,571,623;
county 28,443.
Value farm crops — State $225,-
344,000; county $1,956,788.
Only one place in the county is
classified as urban. This is Wades¬
boro, the county seat, which with
its South Wadesboro suburb has a
population of 4,089. Other incor¬
porated towns and populations are:
Morven, 602; Lilesville, 556; Polk-
ton, 521; Ansonville, 519; Peach-
ie
