Editing Yadkin County, North Carolina (section)

==History==
Present-day Yadkin County was home to the [[Tutelo]] and [[Saponi]] Indian tribes.<ref name= bayley>{{cite web| url = https://www.ncpedia.org/geography/yadkin| title = Yadkin County| last = Bayley| first = Elizabeth| date = 2006| website = NCPedia| publisher = North Carolina Government & Heritage Library| access-date = May 14, 2023}}</ref> European-descent settlers moved into the area around 1748. Though in the western Piedmont region of the state, the residents of the eventual county developed more economic, political, and cultural similarities with their contemporaries in the mountains to the west than to many of their peers in other sections of the Piedmont or those in the eastern part of North Carolina.{{sfn|Casstevens|2015|p=10}} Over the following decades the county developed as a society mostly made up of smallholding white farmers, though Yadkin was also home to several large landowners and slaveholders (and their slaves), some working professionals, and a few free blacks and Native Americans.{{sfn|Casstevens|2015|pp=11, 17}}

The land eventually comprising Yadkin County was first politically organized under the jurisdiction of [[Anson County, North Carolina|Anson County]].{{sfn|Casstevens|2015|p=10}} In 1750, it was placed in the new jurisdiction of [[Rowan_County,_North_Carolina|Rowan County]], and in 1770 was made a part of [[Surry County, North Carolina|Surry County]]. In 1850, the North Carolina General Assembly split off the portion of Surry south of the [[Yadkin River]] to create Yadkin County to satisfy local political divisions.{{sfn|Casstevens|2015|p=11}} At the time of its creation, the county had 9,808 residents, of whom 8,664 were white, 86 were free persons of color, and 1,508 were enslaved blacks.{{sfn|Casstevens|2015|p=12}} The town of Wilson was established to serve as the county seat. In 1852, the town's name was changed to [[Yadkinville, North Carolina|Yadkinville]].{{sfn|Corbitt|2000|p=238}}

[[File:First Yadkin County Courthouse postcard (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|The first Yadkin County Courthouse, built 1851]]
From 1850 to 1860, the county experienced economic and demographic growth. By the end of the decade, though it was still mostly rural and dominated by farming, the county hosted several grist mills, stores, distilleries, and a tobacco factory.{{sfn|Casstevens|2015|pp=11, 17–18}} Politically, the county was home to many Whigs and its resident favored [[John Bell (Tennessee politician)|John Bell]] of the [[Constitutional Union Party (United States)|Constitutional Union Party]] during the [[1860 United States presidential election]].{{sfn|Casstevens|2015|pp=20–21}} Following the election of [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] as president, leaders of the state of North Carolina considered whether or not to secede in 1861 and join the nascent [[Confederate States of America]]. Yadkin voters overwhelmingly rejected a vote to hold a state convention to consider secession.{{sfn|Casstevens|2015|pp=21–22}}{{sfn|Auman|2014|p=30}} Following Lincoln's call for Southern volunteers to suppress rebellion in South Carolina, a state convention was held and North Carolina seceded from the United States.{{sfn|Casstevens|2015|pp=22–23}}

Men from Yadkin County served during the ensuing [[American Civil War]] in the [[Confederate States Army]]. Many would desert and return home to assist their families in key agricultural activities before going back into service.{{sfn|Casstevens|2015|p=7}} North Carolina's declaration of a draft proved unpopular in the county;{{sfn|Auman|2014|pp=38, 47}} some locals avoided conscription into the army due to pro-Union sentiments, or, in the case of local Quakers, due to religious objections to war and slavery. Some draft dodgers hid in woods or caves, while others fled west to pro-Union communities in the mountains.{{sfn|Casstevens|2006|p=16}} In February 1863, two Confederate officials and two draft evaders were killed in an exchange of gunfire after a militia attempted to arrest a group of evaders at a school house.{{sfn|Casstevens|2006|pp=18–19, 22}}{{sfn|Auman|2014|p=66}}

After the war, Yadkin became politically dominated by the Republican Party, with many locals being attracted to it for its opposition to slavery, support for central national government, and push for disbursing money to fund infrastructure improvements.{{sfn|Casstevens|2015|pp=8, 20, 81}} Yadkin's support for the Republican Party persisted along with some of its neighboring counties after the state largely fell under the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]'s domination in the 1870s.{{sfn|Auman|2014|p=213}} Portions of Yadkin County were annexed to [[Forsyth County, North Carolina|Forsyth County]] in 1911 and 1927.{{sfn|Corbitt|2000|p=239}} The county garnered its first paved highways in the 1920s.{{sfn|Casstevens|1996|p=26}}

By the mid-20th century, Yadkin's economy was largely rooted in tobacco farming. Many residents not employed by the agricultural industry commuted to [[Winston-Salem, North Carolina|Winston-Salem]] in Forsyth County for work. In 1971, [[Unifi Manufacturing]] established its first textile facility in Yadkin County. As the company expanded over the following decades, it became the leading industrial employer the county and provided additional economic support through tax revenue and philanthropy to the area. National declines in the textiles industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s led the company to shrink its local presence.<ref name= romoser>{{cite news| last = Romoser| first = James| title = Unifi, Yadkin cope with end of 'glory days'| newspaper = Winston-Salem Journal| pages = A1, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/winston-salem-journal-unifi-history-part/124633970/ A8] | date = December 18, 2005| url = https://www.newspapers.com/article/winston-salem-journal-unifi-history/124633956/}}</ref>