Gaston County, North CarolinaEdit This Page
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United States 
North Carolina Gaston County
| Gaston County, North Carolina | |||||||||
| Map | |||||||||
 Location in the state of North Carolina | |||||||||
 Location of North Carolina in the U.S. | |||||||||
| Facts | |||||||||
| Founded | December 21, 1846 | ||||||||
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| County Seat | Gastonia | ||||||||
| Courthouse | |||||||||
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Contents |
County Courthouse
Gaston County Courthouse
325 N Marietta St
Box 1578
Gastonia, NC 28053
Phone: 704-868-7684
Register of Deeds has birth, marriage and death records from 1913
Land records from 1847
Clerk Superior Court has divorce and court records[1]
History
The earliest European settlers of Gaston County were principally Scots Irish, Pennsylvania Dutch, and English. In the 1750s, Dutch settler James Kuykendall and others constructed the Fort at the Point at the junction of the Catawba and South Fork Rivers. The fort was built because of ongoing hostilities with the Cherokee, but it was apparently never attacked. Tensions between the settlers and the Native American inhabitants (primarily of the Catawba tribe) were eased considerably when the boundary dispute between North Carolina and South Carolina was settled in 1772, after which most of the Catawba settled on a reservation near Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Most early farms were small, cultivated primarily by White yeoman farmers of English ancestry. North Carolina's colonial policy restricted the size of land grants, and in Gaston County they tended to be about 400 acres (1.6 km2) each. One of the earliest grants in the area was given to Captain Samuel Cobrin, commander of a local militia company, on September 29, 1750.
Between 1845 and 1848, Gaston County experienced an industrial boom. During this three-year period, the first three cotton mills in the County were established. Some authorities[who?] say that the first one was established by Thomas R. Tate on Mountain Island, near the present site of Duke Energy's Mountain Island Dam and Hydroelectric Station. Other sources say that the first mill was established by the Linebergers and others on the South Fork River near McAdenville. Most sources agree that among the first three mills in operation in the County was the Stowesville Mill, founded by Jasper Stowe and Associates in the South Point Community south of Belmont. Gaston County still leads all other counties in the country both in the number of spindles in operation and in the number of bales of cotton consumed.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Parent County
1846--Gaston County was created 21 December 1846 from Lincoln County.
County seat: Gastonia [2]
Boundary Changes
Record Loss
1874--Courthouse fire destroyed many court records.
Places/Localities
Populated Places
Neighboring Counties
Resources
Cemeteries
- Gaston NCGenWeb - cemetery listing
- Gaston County cemeteries on Find-A-Grave
Census
For tips on accessing Gaston County, North Carolina census records online, see: North Carolina Census.
Church
Court
Land
- The Bureau of Land Management General Land Office web site has searchable land records for North Carolina.
Local Histories
Maps
Migration
Early migration routes to and from Gaston County for European settlers included:[3]
- Occaneechi Path pre-historic
- Lower Cherokee Traders' Path pre-historic
- Catawba and Northern Trail pre-historic
- Fall Line Road about 1735 (overlapped Occaneechi Path)
- Great Valley Road (south fork) 1740s (overlapped Occaneechi Path)
- Upper Road about 1783 (overlapped Lower Cherokee Traders' Path)
Military
Civil War
Civil War Confederate units - Brief history, counties where recruited, etc.
Newspapers
Probate
- NC County Records: Gaston County includes indexed images of Estates 1839-1970 and Guardianships 1849-1964
Schools
- Sacred Heart College - founded in 1892 by the order of the Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy. Closed in 1987.
- Gaston County College Students - a name list of students at various NC colleges with identified hometowns in the county.
Taxation
Vital Records
Societies and Libraries
Family History Centers
Web Sites
- Gaston County, NCGenWeb - free genealogy resources; part of the national USGenWeb project.
- Family History Library Catalog
References
- ↑ Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), Gaston County, North Carolina. Page 509 At various libraries (WorldCat); FHL Book 973 D27e 2002.
- ↑ The Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America,10th ed. (Draper, UT:Everton Publishers, 2002).
- ↑ Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, 10th ed. (Draper, Utah: Everton Pub., 2002), 847-61. (FHL Book 973 D27e 2002) WorldCat entry., and William E. Myer, Indian Trails of the Southeast. (Nashville, Tenn.: Blue and Gray Press, 1971), 12-14, and the book's pocket map "The Trail System of the Southeastern United States in the Early Colonial Period" (1923). (FHL Book 970.1 M992i) WorldCat entry.
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