Editing Four Oaks, North Carolina (section)

==History==
Four Oaks was one of several towns founded along a branch of the [[Wilmington and Weldon Railroad]], completed though Johnston County in 1886.<ref name="Johnson">{{cite book | last1 = Johnson | first1 = K. Todd | last2 = Barbour | first2 =Durwood | title = Johnston County | publisher = Arcadia | year = 1997 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=d2iKyJHgkVwC&pg=PP1 | pages = 7, 8, 60, 62, 63, 102| isbn = 9780752408170 }}</ref>

Four Oaks&mdash;named for four oak tree sprouts growing from a stump&mdash;incorporated in 1889, and at that time had a post office, a public [[Cotton gin|gin]], saw and grist mills, a saloon and general store, a church, and a population of 25.<ref>{{cite book | editor1-last = Branson | editor1-first = Levi | editor2-last = Branson | editor2-first = Myrtle C. | title = Branson's North Carolina Business Directory, 1890 | publisher = L. Branson | year = 1889 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rLYsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA39| volume = 7 | pages = 393, 396, 397}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Laws and Resolutions of the State of North Carolina | publisher = J. Turner, Jr. | year = 1889 | url = https://archive.org/details/lawsandresoluti00carogoog | pages = [https://archive.org/details/lawsandresoluti00carogoog/page/n389 842]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Capace | first = Nancy | title = Encyclopedia of North Carolina | publisher = Somerset | year = 1999 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MELvnaCMKz8C&pg=PP1 | pages = 256| isbn = 9780403097326 }}</ref>   Cotton and tobacco farming were notable industries in the surrounding community.<ref name="Johnson"/>

A brick school for white students opened in 1923. By the 1930s, several rural schools near Four Oaks consolidated, and enrollment at the brick school increased to over 1,900 students, after which the school claimed to be the world's "largest rural consolidated school". An arsonist destroyed the building in 1987. An elementary school for black students opened in 1928.<ref name="Johnson"/>

Street lights were installed in 1907, and by 1910 Four Oaks had a population of 329.<ref name="Johnson"/>

The [[Four Oaks Commercial Historic District]] was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 2006.<ref>{{cite web |title=Four Oaks Comm ercial Historic District |url=https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/JT1343.pdf |website=North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office |access-date=September 1, 2018}}</ref>