INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL
DEVELOPMENT OF
LINCOLN COUNTY
Lincoln county lies in the
Piedmont Plateau Section of
-the state. It is bounded on the
north by Catawba County, the east
by Mecklenburg, the south by Gas¬
ton, the west by Cleveland and one-
l'ourth mile of Burke.
The county was established in
1779 with Rutherford County out
of Tryon County. Eleven years be¬
fore. 1768, Tryon County had been
set up out of that part of Mecklen¬
burg County extending westward
between South Carolina and the
Earl of Granville line. During the
American Revolution the name of
William Tryon, Royal Governor of
North Carolina, had become odious
and his name was thus removed
from the list of counties.
Lincoln County was named in
flu .101:
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ftixoft
honor of General Benjamin Lin¬
coln, a native of Massachusetts. He
was a Major General in command
of the Army in the South when the
County was established and was
designated by General Washington
at Yorktown to receive the con¬
quered arms of the British when
Lord Cornwallis surrendered.
This was a large county until
1841 when a part from it and a
portion from Rutherford County
were taken to form Cleveland. In
1842 the northern part was taken
to set up Catawba and in 1846 a
southern portion taken for the es¬
tablishment of Gaston County. This
reduced Lincoln to a strip of terri¬
tory ten miles in width and an
average of thirty miles in length,
a total actually of 299 square miles.
The early settlers were of
Scotch-Irish and German origin
with only a few of other nationali¬
ties. About 1750 the Scotch-Irish
began their settlements along the
Catawba River, and the eastern
portion of the county was settled
principally by this race. They were
stern and virile and noted for
hatred of sham, hypocrisy and op¬
pression. The Germans settled con¬
temporaneously along the South
Fork River and its tributaries from
the central throughout the western
portion. They were hardy and
thrifty, tenacious of custom and
slow to change. Both races were a
liberty loving. God-fearing people,
characterized by love of home and
country, among whom labor was
dignified and honorable. A charm
about these pioneers is that their
heads were not turned by ancestral
distinction. The Scotch-Irish in re¬
ligion were Presbyterian and the
Germans were Lutheran and Re¬
formed.
Occupations
From the local court records, the
following fifteen names of Lincoln
County people will indicate fifteen
occupations of the early and suc¬
ceeding years: Peter Baker. John
Beeman, Henry Brewer, Jacob Car¬
penter, Jeremiah Gardner, Nathan
Farmer, Rufus Fisher, Peter Ma¬
son, Robert Miller, William Potter,
Henry Saddler, John Smith, Ben¬
jamin Taylor, Thomas Wagonnor,
and Solomon Weaver.
Agriculture
Farming from the first has been
the principal occupation. The 1940
Census lists 13,724 people compris¬
ing 4,000 farm families, a little
more than half the entire popula¬
tion, living on farms. Of the 195,-
000 acres comprising the county.
183.000 acres arc in farm-owned
tracts. Seventy - eight thousand
acres are in crops actually planted.
8,200 acres in idle land that could
Long Shoals Cotton Mills
Incorporated
IJNCOLNTON, N. C
Manufacturers of
Carded Cotton Yams
No. 21 — 2 Ply and No. 26 — 2 Ply
No. 40 — 2 Ply ami No. 50 — 2 Ply
te