Editing Roxobel, North Carolina

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox settlement
| official_name      = Roxobel, North Carolina
| settlement_type    = [[Town]]
| nickname           = Peanut Town, Red Refuge, North Kelford
| motto              = <!-- Images -->
| image_skyline      = Roxobel, North Carolina.jpg
| imagesize          = 
| image_caption      = 
| image_flag         = 
| image_seal         = <!-- Maps -->
| image_map          = NCMap-doton-Roxobel.PNG
| mapsize            = 250x200px
| map_caption        = Location of Roxobel, North Carolina
| image_map1         = 
| mapsize1           = 
| map_caption1       = <!-- Location -->
| subdivision_type   = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
| subdivision_name   = United States
| subdivision_type1  = [[U.S. state|State]]
| subdivision_name1  = [[North Carolina]]
| subdivision_type2  = [[List of counties in North Carolina|County]]
| subdivision_name2  = [[Bertie County, North Carolina|Bertie]]
| government_footnotes = 
| government_type    = 
| leader_title       = Steward
| leader_name        = Lenore Walston
| leader_title1      = Town Steward
| leader_name1       = 
| established_title  = 
| established_date   = <!-- Area -->
| unit_pref          = Imperial
| area_footnotes     = <ref name="TigerWebMapServer">{{cite web|title=ArcGIS REST Services Directory|url=https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer|publisher=United States Census Bureau|accessdate=September 20, 2022}}</ref>
| area_magnitude     = 
| area_total_km2     = 2.70
| area_land_km2      = 2.70
| area_water_km2     = 0.00
| area_total_sq_mi   = 1.04
| area_land_sq_mi    = 1.04
| area_water_sq_mi   = 0.00

<!-- Population -->| population_as_of   = [[2020 United States census|2020]]
| population_footnotes = 
| population_total   = 179
| population_density_km2 = 69.23
| population_density_sq_mi = 179.29

<!-- General information -->| timezone           = [[North American Eastern Time Zone|Eastern (EST)]]
| utc_offset         = -5
| timezone_DST       = EDT
| utc_offset_DST     = -4
| elevation_footnotes = <ref name=gnis/>
| elevation_ft       = 92
| coordinates        = {{coord|36|12|06|N|77|14|23|W|region:US_type:city|display=inline,title}}
| postal_code_type   = [[ZIP code]]
| postal_code        = 27872
| area_code          = [[Area code 252|252]]
| blank_name         = [[Federal Information Processing Standard|FIPS code]]
| blank_info         = 37-58180<ref name="GR2">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|accessdate=January 31, 2008|title=U.S. Census website}}</ref>
| blank1_name        = [[Geographic Names Information System|GNIS]] feature ID
| blank1_info        = 2407254<ref name=gnis>{{GNIS|2407254}}</ref>
| website            = 
| footnotes          = 
| pop_est_as_of      = 
| pop_est_footnotes  = 
| population_est     = 
| name               = 
}}

'''Roxobel''' is a town in northwestern [[Bertie County, North Carolina|Bertie County]], [[North Carolina]], United States. It dates to 1724 and was originally known as Cotten's Cross Roads. After several name changes, it has remained Roxobel since 1849. The population was 240 at the [[2010 United States census|2010 census]].<ref name="Census 2010">{{cite web| url=http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/DEC/10_DP/G001/1600000US3758180| archive-url=https://archive.today/20200212193842/http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/DEC/10_DP/G001/1600000US3758180| url-status=dead| archive-date=February 12, 2020| title=Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Roxobel town, North Carolina| publisher=U.S. Census Bureau, American Factfinder| accessdate=February 6, 2014}}</ref>

==History==
Roxobel Township, in the northwest corner of Bertie County, North Carolina, consists of the twin towns of Roxobel and Kelford and the surrounding 60 square miles of farms and plantations. It stretches from Roxobel in the north to the outskirts of Woodville in the south, and from the Roanoke River in the west to the border of Aulander in the east.

Roxobel is the older town, dating to the early eighteenth century. In 1719, John Cotten, a major slave plantation owner from South Quay, Virginia, purchased 540 acres of land in what is now Bertie County and neighbouring Hertford County. He and his large family established settlements and plantations across this land. His son, Samuel Cotten, had already set up home in the area that became Roxobel and these lands were part of those acquired by his father.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cotten|first=Bruce|title=As We Were: A personal sketch of family life|year=1935|location=Baltimore}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite book|last=Cotton|first=Bruce|title=The Cotten family of North Carolina|year=1963|location=Tucson}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Moore|first=James Elliot|title=The Official and Unofficial Histories of the Cotton Family|url=https://sallysfamilyplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Official-and-Unofficial-Histories-of-the-Cotton-Family.pdf}}</ref> He inherited the land on his father’s death, but he was hardly a model citizen: “Little is known of Samuel Cotten, except that he was hardy, vigorous, domineering and rich. He was not at all conventional in his relations with women and some other things, I suspect, and having lived to a great age more feared than loved.”<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cotten|first=Bruce|title=As We Were: A personal sketch of family life|year=1935|location=Baltimore|pages=5}}</ref> The settlement was located at the intersection of two roads, one leading south to the Roanoke River, the other heading west, and was initially known as Cotten's Cross Roads.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Brown|first=J. M.|date=August 1955|title=History of Roxobel Township|journal=The Chronicle of the Bertie County Historical Society|volume=III #1}}</ref>

In 1756 the Cotten family moved to their plantation in Northampton County and the Granbery family moved into the area.<ref name=":0" /> William Granbery was a plantation owner and Thomas Granbery was a timber and furniture merchant.<ref>{{Cite news|date=June 3, 1794|title=The State Gazette of North-Carolina}}</ref> Around 1808, possibly to commemorate William Granbery who died that year, the town was renamed Granberys Cross Roads.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Powell|first=William S. and Michael Hill (eds)|title=North Carolina Gazetteer|publisher=University of North Carolina|year=2010}}</ref>

An indication of the growing population in the area was the establishment of the Bertie Church. Initially when it was set up in 1740 it was an ad hoc branch of a neighboring church, but in 1750 it was constituted as an independent Baptist church with its own pastor. Included in its congregation at the turn of the nineteenth century were 125 enslaved people from the local plantations. In the early nineteenth century the church moved a mile out of town to Sandy Run and became known as the Sandy Run Baptist Church and, although the church moved back into the town in 1854, it retained this name.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tyler|first=John E.|title=Sandy Run Baptist Church, Roxobel, Bertie County, North Carolina: a history in recognition of its bicentennial, 1750-1950|year=1950|location=Roxobel}}</ref>  A masonic lodge was also formed in 1799, with the Davie Lodge No. 39. This had a membership of around 20 of the area’s prominent landowners and businessmen, although several members were expelled in its early years as they fell foul of the strict masonic code of behaviour.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Early Minutes of Davie Lodge No. 39 [1805-1807]|journal=North Carolina Memory |year=1805 |url=https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/22986}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=July 20, 1809|title=The North-Carolina Star}}</ref>

Around 1815 William Britton, a successful merchant and farmer from Petersburg, Virginia, moved into the area and purchased the general store.<ref>{{Cite web|title=William Britton ledgers, 1815-1819, University of North Carolina|url=https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/04809/#ovolume_2#1}}</ref> By 1819 he had taken over the post office.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Postmark Catalog bertie county|url=http://dev.ncpostalhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/PostmarkCatalog_bertie_county-20140809.pdf}}</ref> The town then became known as Britton’s Store or Britton’s Cross Roads. This name was considered by the post office to be too similar to Britton’s Neck in South Carolina and so in December 1847 the town was renamed Roxobel after Mary Martha Sherwood’s popular 1831 novel ''Roxobel''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Crumbley|first=Tony L.|date=Spring 2014|title=A Bertie County Historical Find|journal=North Carolina Postal Historian|volume=33|issue=2 |pages=8–11}}</ref>

By 1830 the Roanoke River had been made navigable for steamboats and with the small landing stage of Norfleet’s Ferry just two miles south of Roxobel this spurred the town’s growth as a trading center.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Watson|first=Alan D.|date=1998|title=Sailing under Steam: The Advent of Steam Navigation in North Carolina to the Civil War|journal=The North Carolina Historical Review|volume=75|issue=1 |pages=29–68}}</ref> Roxobel became connected by rail when the Roanoke and Tar Railroad was opened in 1888 and this brought renewed prosperity to the town. By 1906 Roxobel’s population was nearing 400 and was served by six retail stores, a wholesale store, two churches and a school.<ref name="Roanoke-Chowan Times">{{Cite news|date=January 18, 1906|title=Roanoke-Chowan Times}}</ref> The second church was the Episcopal Church, St Marks, which was established in 1881.<ref name="Roanoke-Chowan Times"/> The school was Roxobel Academy, which was established in 1890 with a roll of about 30 pupils.<ref>{{Cite news|date=May 21, 1891|title=The Democrat}}</ref> The growing commercial needs of the town were serviced by the Bank of Roxobel, which was opened in 1908.

The town of Kelford lies two miles south of Roxobel and was laid out in 1890 in response to the construction of the Norfolk and Carolina Railroad.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Comprehensive Architectural Survey of Bertie County Final Report, April 30, 2010|url=https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/historic-preservation-office/survey-and-national-register/surveyreports/BertieCountySurvey-2010.pdf}}</ref> The station was opened, and the town incorporated, in 1892. The town included stores, a hotel, a Baptist church, a school and a bank. By 1910 it had a population of just over 300. In 1914 a Coca-Cola bottling plant was opened in the town and became one of the town’s major employers. After rapid expansion the town suffered during the depression years when several businesses folded, the hotel and the bank closed and the school roll was combined with Roxobel.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Browne|first=J. M.|date=October 1965|title=History of Roxobel Township cont.: Town of Kelford|journal=The Chronicle of the Bertie County Historical Association|volume=4}}</ref>

In 1943 a tornado ripped through Roxobel, killing six inhabitants and causing massive damage. Twenty-five homes and 12 store buildings were completely destroyed and the Methodist church was lifted several hundred feet into the air and smashed to the ground. Around 50 other buildings were badly damaged.<ref>{{Cite news|date=April 22, 1943|title=Roanoke Rapids Herald}}</ref> Further tornadoes in [[1984 Carolinas tornado outbreak|1984]] and [[1988 Raleigh tornado outbreak|1988]] caused similar destruction.

As well as the two towns in Roxobel Township there were a number of significant plantations. The largest plantation owner in the area was Stephen Andrews Norfleet (1822-1910) who had several cotton plantations in Bertie County, including Woodbourne, Indian Woods, Norfleet's Ferry, and Kelford. His father, Thomas Figuers Norfleet, established the Woodbourne estate around 1810 and he inherited it following his father’s death in 1838.<ref>{{Cite web|title="Woodbourne", National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office|url=https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/BR0004.pdf}}</ref> Kelford Plantation was established when Stephen A. Norfleet bought 600 acres of land from the heirs of the Granbery family in 1848-1850. He erected a home known as Kelford on the plantation, which later gave its name to the nearby town. By the time of the Civil War, Norfleet owned 150 slaves and 4,000 acres of land in Bertie County. His plantation journals and accounts from 1844 to 1895 have survived and contain records of the enslaved and formerly enslaved people on his plantations.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Norfleet Family Papers, 1722-1929, University of North Carolina|url=https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/00549/}}</ref> During the American Civil War he was appointed Colonel of the Bertie Country Militia and was put in charge of the county’s Confederate military affairs.<ref>{{Cite news|date=January 11, 1906|title=Roanoke-Chowan Times}}</ref>

The Pineview plantation was established when 325 acres of land were purchased from the Granbery family by Joshua Brown in 1835. By 1850 he owned 17 enslaved people and 394 acres of farmland, which was used for livestock, corn, peas, sweet potatoes, and cotton. His son, Joseph Henry Browne, inherited the estate in 1856 and expanded it to 500 acres. During the Civil War, Browne served as a lieutenant in the Confederate army.<ref>{{Cite web|title="Pineview", National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office|url=https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/BR0021.pdf}}</ref>

The Oaklana plantation was created in 1825 when Perry Cotten Tyler purchased 240 acres of land to the north of Roxobel for the production of corn and cotton. By 1850 Tyler owned of 3,000 acres of and 34 enslaved people. His son, John E. Tyler, took over the plantation in 1886 and as well as his farming interests he was a scholar of Latin and Greek, published poetry and obtained patents for numerous inventions for farming equipment, ordnance, and mechanical tools. He also served as a judge of the Inferior Court of Bertie County.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Oaklana", National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office|url=https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/BR0078.pdf}}</ref>

[[Oaklana]], [[Pineview (Roxobel, North Carolina)|Pineview]], and [[Woodbourne (Roxobel, North Carolina)|Woodbourne]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>

==Geography==

According to the [[United States Census Bureau]], the town has a total area of {{convert|2.7|km2|disp=flip}}, all  land.<ref name="Census 2010"/>

==Demographics==
{{US Census population
|1900= 227
|1910= 491
|1920= 330
|1930= 334
|1940= 332
|1950= 394
|1960= 452
|1970= 347
|1980= 278
|1990= 244
|2000= 263
|2010= 240
|2020= 187
|footnote=U.S. Decennial Census<ref name="DecennialCensus">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census.html|title=Census of Population and Housing|publisher=Census.gov|accessdate=June 4, 2015}}</ref>
}}
As of the [[census]]<ref name="GR2" /> of 2000, there were 263 people, 112 households, and 72 families residing in the town. The population density was {{convert|254.7|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. There were 121 housing units at an average density of {{convert|117.2|/sqmi|/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. The racial makeup of the town was 51.33% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 46.39% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 1.52% from [[Race (United States Census)|other races]], and 0.76% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race were 1.14% of the population.

There were 112 households, out of which 26.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.9% were [[Marriage|married couples]] living together, 15.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.7% were non-families. 29.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.90.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 21.3% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 23.2% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 22.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.2 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $28,393, and the median income for a family was $28,036. Males had a median income of $20,833 versus $14,063 for females. The [[per capita income]] for the town was $12,798. About 10.5% of families and 12.3% of the population were below the [[poverty line]], including 11.1% of those under the age of eighteen and 17.6% of those 65 or over.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.urondisplay.com/roxobel/ Roxobel community website]

{{Bertie County, North Carolina}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Towns in Bertie County, North Carolina]]
[[Category:Towns in North Carolina]]