Editing Chatham County, North Carolina (section)

==History==
[[File:Old Chatham County Courthouse (April 2023) 18.jpg|thumb|Former [[Chatham County Courthouse]] in Pittsboro]]
Some of the first European settlers of what would become the county were English [[Quaker]]s, who settled along the [[Haw River|Haw]] and [[Eno River|Eno]] rivers.<ref name="nc architecture">{{cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NccTgQkmPIEC|publisher = [[UNC Press]]|year = 2005|page = 38|title = North Carolina Architecture|first = Catherine|last = Bishir|isbn = 9780807856246|access-date = October 21, 2016|archive-date = February 25, 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230225013339/https://books.google.com/books?id=NccTgQkmPIEC|url-status = live}}</ref> The county was formed in 1771 from [[Orange County, North Carolina|Orange County]]. It had been named in 1758 for [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham]], who served as [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister]] from 1766 to 1768 and opposed harsh colonial policies. In 1907, parts of Chatham County and [[Moore County, North Carolina|Moore County]] were combined to form [[Lee County, North Carolina|Lee County]].

The county did not have a county seat until 1778 when Chatham Courthouse was built. It was not until 1787 that it was renamed Pittsboro In 1781, Chatham Courthouse was located the south side of Robeson Creek, where the Horton Middle school is currently located. The Chatham Courthouse was the site of an engagement during the [[American Revolution]] on July 17, 1781. On July 16, 1781, Patriot leaders had tried and sentenced to hang several [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] leaders. Hearing of their fate, Loyalist leader Colonel [[David Fanning (loyalist)|David Fanning]] and his men encircled Chatham Courthouse and took 53 prisoners including Colonel [[Ambrose Ramsey]], some local militia, and three members of the [[North Carolina General Assembly]].<ref name="Lewis">{{cite web|url=https://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/revolution_chatham_courthouse.html|title=Chatham Courthouse|author=Lewis, J.D.|website=The American Revolution in North Carolina|access-date=July 30, 2019|archive-date=August 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808150546/https://carolana.com/NC/Revolution/revolution_chatham_courthouse.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

While not devoted to large plantations, the county was developed for small farms, where slave labor was integral to the owners' productivity and success. By 1860 one-third of the county population were African Americans, chiefly enslaved.<ref name="huber"/>

[[Moncure, North Carolina|Moncure]], located at the confluence of the [[Deep River (North Carolina)|Deep]] and [[Haw River|Haw]] rivers forming the [[Cape Fear River]], once served as the westernmost inland port in the state. Steamships could travel between it and the Atlantic Coast along that major river.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chathamnc.org/Index.aspx?page=29 |title=Chatham County: Interesting Facts & Tidbits |publisher=Chathamnc.org |date=July 31, 2007 |access-date=June 28, 2012 |archive-date=May 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515143136/http://chathamnc.org/Index.aspx?page=29 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

After the Civil War and emancipation, white violence against [[freedmen]] increased in an assertion of [[white supremacy]] and enforced dominance after emancipation. From the late 1860s secret terrorist organizations such as the [[Ku Klux Klan]], Constitutional Union Guard, and White Brotherhood were active against blacks in the county.<ref name="huber"/> After Reconstruction and into the early 20th century, a total of six [[Lynching in the United States|lynchings of African Americans]] were recorded here. Harriet Finch, Jerry Finch, Lee Tyson, John Pattishall on September 30, 1885. Harriet Finch is 1 of only 4 lynchings of women to occur in North Carolina. Henry Jones was lynched on January 12, 1899, after being accused of raping and murdering Nancy Welch/Welsh, a white widow in Chatham County. The sixth person to be lynched was [[Lynching of Eugene Daniel|Eugene Daniel]] who was hanged and then had his body riddled with bullets on September 18, 1921.{{sfn|''Rockingham Post-Dispatch'', September 22,|1921|p=2}}{{sfn|''Hickory Daily Record'', September 19,|1921|p=2}}

There was a notorious mass lynching of four African Americans on September 29, 1885, who were taken from the county jail in Pittsboro by a disguised mob at 1&nbsp;am. The mob of 50–100 people hanged and killed Jerry Finch, his wife Harriet, and Lee Tyson, arrested for a robbery/murder.<ref name="huber">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/23522619 Patrick J. Huber, "Caught Up in the Violent Whirlwind of Lynching": The 1885 Quadruple Lynching in Chatham County, North Carolina] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126092624/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23522619 |date=November 26, 2018 }}, ''The North Carolina Historical Review'', Vol. 75, No. 2 (April 1998), pp. 135–160. Retrieved June 9, 2018</ref> Harriet Finch was one of four black women to be lynched in the state.<ref name="baker">[https://www.ncpedia.org/lynching Bruce E. Baker, "Lynching"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612162041/https://www.ncpedia.org/lynching |date=June 12, 2018 }}, 2006, ''Encyclopedia of North Carolina'', ed. by William S. Powell. Retrieved June 9, 2018</ref> They also hanged John Pattishall, who was awaiting trial for two other unrelated robbery/murders.<ref name="huber"/><ref name="burke">[https://uncw.edu/csurf/Explorations/documents/withoutdueprocess.pdf Sarah Burke, "Without Due Process: Lynching in North Carolina 1880–1900"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141845/https://uncw.edu/csurf/Explorations/documents/withoutdueprocess.pdf |date=June 12, 2018 }}, ''Explorations'', n.d., University of North Carolina Wilmington. Retrieved June 9, 2018</ref> Afterward, the editor of ''The Chatham Record'' strongly condemned the lynchings.<ref name="burke"/> The county had the second-highest total of lynchings in the state, a number equaled by two other counties in this period.<ref>[https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-summary.pdf ''Lynching in America''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023063004/https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-summary.pdf |date=October 23, 2017 }}, 3rd ed., Supplement: Lynching by County, p. 7, Montgomery, Alabama: Equal Justice Initiative, 2017</ref>

In 1977, the county adopted a council-manager form of government and hired a county manager.<ref name= learnabout>{{cite web| url = https://www.chathamcountync.gov/our-community/learn-more-about-chatham-county| title = Learn About Chatham County| date = March 18, 2024| website = Chatham County, North Carolina| publisher = Chatham County Government| access-date = June 4, 2024}}</ref> On March 25, 2010, the Chatham County Courthouse, built in 1881 in the county seat of Pittsboro, caught fire while undergoing renovations. It has now been rebuilt.

===Coal mining===
Spanning the southern border of Chatham County, the [[Deep River Coal Field]] contains the only known potentially economic [[bituminous coal]] deposits in the state. Coal was mined here on an artisan scale in colonial times. It was commercially produced beginning from the early 1850s.

The communities of [[Carbonton, North Carolina|Carbonton]] and [[Cumnock, North Carolina|Cumnock]] (formerly called Egypt in Lee County) developed with the coal mining industry. Much of the coal mined in the field during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] was used for [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] operations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/nchistory/may2005/ |title=Carolina Coal Company Mine Explosion, Coal Glen, North Carolina |date=May 2005 |access-date=August 7, 2014 |archive-date=August 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808055700/http://www2.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/nchistory/may2005/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Coal Glen mine disaster]] of the 1920s, frequent flooding by the Deep River, the depth of the coal seam, and faulting of the seam sealed the fate of the mines. Production ceased in 1953.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reinemund |first=John A. |year=1955 |title=Geology of the Deep River Coal Field North Carolina |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0246/report.pdf |access-date=September 30, 2023 |publisher=[[United States Department of the Interior]] |page=18 |archive-date=November 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231118171700/https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0246/report.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=NC Mineral Resources – An Overview |url=https://www.deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/energy-mineral-land-resources/north-carolina-geological-survey/mineral-resources/mineral-resources-faq |access-date=September 30, 2023 |website=North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality |archive-date=September 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928220506/https://www.deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/energy-mineral-land-resources/north-carolina-geological-survey/mineral-resources/mineral-resources-faq |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Agriculture and industry===
The county was long dependent on agriculture as the basis of the economy, and there were numerous subsistence farmers in historic times. The area's natural soil conditions (composed mostly of the hard red clay soil common to the [[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]]) did not support the cultivation of commodity cash crops such as tobacco; this was never important in the county's economy. As a result, settlers held fewer slaves than in some areas of the state, but by 1860 enslaved African Americans constituted about one-third of the county population.<ref name="huber"/> The production of livestock has always been more important to the county, especially the breeding of cattle and poultry.

The county once had a thriving dairy industry, but in recent years most farms have been sold and developed.

Chatham County has a deep tradition in southern music. [[Tommy Thompson]], of the [[Red Clay Ramblers]], and Tommy Edwards have entertained for decades with traditional, old time and bluegrass. Artists in many styles of music have emerged, from rock and roll to big band. Of late, Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance hosts various styles of music. A four-day outdoor festival is held twice each year, in April and October. Shakori Hills is also the location of the Hoppin John Fiddlers Convention and Mountain Aid benefit concert.