Editing Cabarrus County, North Carolina (section)

==History==
The county was formed on December 29, 1792, from [[Mecklenburg County, North Carolina|Mecklenburg County]]. Located in the [[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]], it was named after [[Stephen Cabarrus]] of [[Chowan County, North Carolina|Chowan County]], speaker of the [[North Carolina House of Representatives|North Carolina House of Commons]].

Catawba Indians were the primary inhabitants of the area until beginning about 1750, the county was settled mainly by immigrants: Germans on the eastern side and Scotch-Irish in the western area of the county. When it came time to choose a location for the county seat and county government, each ethnic group wanted the county seat located close to their populations and could not reach agreement on a site. Stephen Cabarrus wrote to the citizens pleading with them to come together in peace to choose a location for their county seat. A central area of the county was chosen in 1796 and aptly named Concord, a derivative of two French words "with" and "peace."  Representative Paul Barringer introduced a bill into the state legislature to incorporate Concord; it passed on December 17, 1806.<ref>Horton, Clarence E., Jr.  ''An Historical Sketch of Olde Concord, 1796–1860,'' pp.1–6</ref> The town of Concord was begun on land owned by Samuel Huie and wife Jane Morrison Huie.<ref>Huie, Marsha, www.MarshaHuie.com</ref>

The first substantiated gold find in America was in 1799 by young Conrad Reed while playing in [[Little Meadow Creek (Rocky River tributary)|Little Meadow Creek]], located on the Reed farm in southeastern Cabarrus County. According to research, Conrad's find was a gold chunk approximately the size of a shoe and weighing 17 pounds.<ref name=Williams>Williams, David, 1993, ''The Georgia Gold Rush: Twenty-Niners, Cherokees, and Gold Fever,'' Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, {{ISBN|1570030529}}</ref>{{rp|11}} His father John Reed took the nugget into Concord to a silversmith, who informed Reed that the rock did not have any value. The elder Reed returned home with it, holding it for three years until a trip in 1802 to Fayetteville, where he sold the "nugget" to a jeweler for $3.50. Over time John Reed learned that the jeweler sold the large nugget for several thousand dollars. Reed returned to Fayetteville insisting on more just compensation. This discovery and news of the sale spurred the beginning of gold mining in the area.<ref>Roberts, Bruce. ''The Carolina Gold Rush''  pp. 5–7</ref>

John Reed, or Johannes Rieth as he is known in records of the ''Staatsarchiv'' at [[Marburg]], Germany, was one of thousands of [[Hessian (soldiers)|Hessian soldiers]] brought over by British troops to fight against rebellious colonists in the [[American Revolution]]. Reed deserted, as did many other Hessians. He traveled from Georgia to North Carolina, where he settled in an ethnic German community sometime around 1787 and began farming.<ref>Schwalm, M.A. ''A Hessian Immigrant Finds Gold: The Story of John Reed,'' pp. 1–8</ref>

Reed first developed [[placer mining]] on his property, then underground mining, and became wealthy from the gold. His facility became known as [[Reed's Gold Mine]]. Large amounts of gold were being discovered at the Reed Gold Mine and in other mines in the United States; these mine owners began to use their gold to create currency. For the government to retain control of the production of currency and keep a stabilized economic structure, President [[Andrew Jackson]] signed into legislation the authorization to create branches of the [[US Mint]]. The [[Charlotte Mint]] was built to handle the gold coming from the rich gold veins of North Carolina, including Reed's.<ref>Birdsall, Clair M. ''The United States Branch Mint at Charlotte, North Carolina: Its History and Coinage'' pp. 1–3</ref>

The Reed Gold Mine was designated a [[National Historic Landmark]], as it was the first gold mine in the country. Gold was mined in North Carolina into the early 20th century. Today visitors at the site can explore some of the mine's reconstructed tunnels.<ref>"Reed Gold Mine,"
[http://www.nchistoricsites.org/reed/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302013515/http://www.nchistoricsites.org/reed/|date=March 2, 2014}}, North Carolina Historic Sites, accessed February 26, 2014.</ref>

===Cabarrus Black Boys===
Prior to the battle of Alamance, on the 16th of May, 1771, the first blood shed in the American Revolution, there were many discreet men across North Carolina opposed to British taxation and fee system imposed by colonial officials in the late 1760s. Discreet persons part of this movement in Rowan and Mecklenburg Counties (later known as Cabarrus) took part in an infamous raid against a royal governmental military convoy as part of North Carolina's Regulator Movement. On May 9, 1771, James, William and John White, brothers, and William White, a cousin, all born and raised on Rocky River, and one mile from Rocky River Church, Robert Caruthers, Robert Davis, Benjamin Cockrane, James and Joshua Hadley, William Alexander, of Sugar Creek “Captain Black Bill Alexander,” and whose sword now hangs in the Library Hall of Davidson College, bound themselves to a solemn oath of secrecy as they set out on a mission 
.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://northcarolinagenealogy.org/cabarrus/black_boys.htm|title= The Black Boys of Cabarrus County, North Carolina |access-date= August 18, 2024}}</ref>

The small band of Regulators, disguised themselves and made their way to Phifer’s old muster grounds on Poplar Tent Road. After nightfall, the men laid a trail of gunpowder toward the royal government’s encampment and fired a shot igniting an explosion that was reportedly heard nine miles away.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cabarrusblackboyschapterdar.org/cabarrus-black-boys-history|title=History of Cabarrus Black Boys|website=Daughters of the American Revolution |access-date= August 18, 2024}}</ref> Two gunpowder wagons, as well as blankets, leggings, kettles, and other supplies were destroyed. Some men involved in this episode wore Indian disguises while others were blacked by the gunpowder they emptied from the kegs earning them the name of the "Black Boys of Cabarrus".<ref>William S. Powell, James K. Huhta, and Thomas J. Farnham, eds., The Regulators in North Carolina: A Documentary History, 1759-1776 (1971)</ref> These young patriots remained active and in hiding until independence was declared.

===National Register of Historic Places===
The old [[Cabarrus County Courthouse]] was finished in 1876. Recognized as significant in the 20th century, it was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Cabarrus County, North Carolina|National Register of Historic Places]] in 1974. The [[Cabarrus County Courthouse#Confederate soldiers monument|Confederate soldiers monument]] is located on the front lawn area.

Also listed on the NRHP is the [[Coleman-Franklin-Cannon Mill]], notable as the first cotton mill owned and operated by African Americans, and also for its decades-long record of industrial design in textile manufacturing, with numerous contributing structures built through the early 20th century.

Among other NRHP sites in Cabarrus County is the [[Bethel Church Arbor]], located adjacent to Bethel United Methodist Church approximately one mile north of the historic crossroads (and railroad stop) of Cabarrus Station. The Arbor dates back to the early 1800s as a location for religious revival "camp meetings" and the current structure was built around 1878, and was in use through the 1920s.

===Agricultural and industrial development===
Located in the Piedmont region, the county was developed largely for subsistence farming, but did have some cotton plantations. By 1860 the population was about one-third enslaved African Americans, with few [[free people of color]]. The first cotton mill was constructed as early as 1839. More mill development took place after the American Civil War, when railroads reached the region.

Among the owners of new mills in the area were men of the rising black middle-class of [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], such as [[John C. Dancy]] (appointed as collector of customs at the port), and others. [[Warren Clay Coleman]], a Concord African-American businessman, joined them in organizing [[Coleman Manufacturing Company]] in 1897, on a site about two miles from Concord. They built and operated what is believed to have been the first cotton mill in the nation to be owned by blacks.<ref name="edmonds">[[Helen G. Edmonds|Edmonds, Helen G.]] ''The Negro and Fusion Politics in North Carolina, 1894–1901'' (1951/reprint 2013) pp 89–92. Quote, p. 92: Dancy wrote: "This is the first genuine cotton mill yet built and controlled by colored men in the history of the country. It stands two miles from Concord, North Carolina, in the midst of a plot of about 140 acres of fertile soil. ...There is no good reason why there should not be a splendid town there governed by ourselves in the near future."</ref> They wanted to promote economic security for people of color. [[Richard B. Fitzgerald]] was its first president. While blacks had been hired for tobacco manufacturing, they were generally excluded from white-owned [[textile mill]]s.

The [[Wilmington Insurrection of 1898]], with white attacks on blacks, their homes and businesses, destroyed much of what the people had built there since the war. In 1900 Dancy was among more than 2000 blacks who left the city permanently after the riot, resulting in its becoming majority white. He moved to [[Washington, D.C.]], where he was appointed as the federal [[recorder of deeds]].<ref>Edmonds (1951/2013), "The Negro and Fusion Politics," p. 92</ref>

Agriculture has played an important part in the economic life of the county for over 200 years. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, textiles became a vital part of the local economy, especially in the northern portion of the county. Today, the local economy has a more varied base.