Rockingham County, North Carolina

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Rockingham County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,096.<ref name="2020CensusQuickFacts"/> Its county seat is Wentworth.<ref name="GR6">Template:Cite web</ref> The county is known as "North Carolina's North Star".

History

Settling and founding

File:William Byrd II.jpg

William Byrd II surveyed the eventual county and dubbed the area the "Land of Eden".

Prior to European colonization, the area eventually comprising Rockingham County was inhabited by Cheraw/Saura Native Americans.<ref name= powell>Template:Cite web</ref> In the 1600s they inhabited several small settlements along the Dan River, though around 1710 they migrated towards South Carolina.Template:Sfn Between 1728 and 1733, the Dan River Valley in the Granville District was surveyed by William Byrd II as part of efforts to delineate the North Carolina-Virginia border.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He soon thereafter purchased 20,000 acres of the land, which he described as the "Land of Eden" to attract prospective farmers. The region's first white settlers came from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia and were of German, English, Scottish, and Irish descent.Template:Sfn Some had wealthy backgrounds, but most were poor.Template:Sfn Some local white men served in militias during the American Revolutionary War.Template:Sfn American troops under General Nathanael Greene and British troops under General Charles Cornwallis moved through the area around the time of the Battle of Guilford Court House in 1781.Template:Sfn

The North Carolina General Assembly created Rockingham County from a northern portion of Guilford County on December 29, 1785.Template:Sfn It was named for Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham,<ref name= powell/> British Prime Minister from 1765 to 1766 and again in 1782. Rockingham's administration was dominated by the American issue. Rockingham wished for repeal of the Stamp Act 1765 and won a Commons vote on the repeal resolution by 275 to 167 in 1766.<ref>Ross J. S. Hoffman, The Marquis. A Study of Lord Rockingham, 1730–1782 (New York: Fordham University Press, 1973), p. 113.</ref> Settlement, mostly by Scotch-Irish Americans, continued from 1785 up until 1800.Template:Sfn

Rockingham County's first court session was convened near Eagle Falls south of the Dan River in February 1786.Template:Sfn The following year a wooden courthouse was erected near the center of the county and the community of Rockingham Courthouse was established. The community was renamed Wentworth in 1798,<ref name= MARCstory/> and county court sessions was held there beginning the following May.Template:Sfn A new brick courthouse was built in 1824.<ref name= MARCstory>Template:Cite web</ref> Wentworth remained a poor and sparse community well into the early 1800s, sustained only by business related to governmental affairs. Leaksville was established in 1795 in an attempt to build a trading community near the confluence of the Dan and Smith rivers.Template:Sfn

Antebellum and Civil War

By the early 1800s, economic activity in Rockingham County was largely centered around small farms in hilly areas and a handful of plantations near the rivers.Template:Sfn Most farmers were engaged in subsistence operations, with tobacco planted as the area's primary cash crop.Template:Sfn The economy began to diversify after 1812.Template:Sfn In 1813, John Motley Morehead erected the county's first cotton mill at the confluence of the Dan and Smith rivers in Leaksville.Template:Sfn In 1818 the town of Madison was platted and the trading post of Jackson was established at Eagle Falls. By 1831, Leaksville hosted an oil mill, sawmill, and cotton gin.Template:Sfn Nevertheless, throughout most of the 1800s, tobacco was the main source of economic activity in Rockingham County, with the towns of Madison, Leaksville, and Reidsville serving as market towns for the crop.<ref name= n&r1990>Template:Cite news</ref> Following the passage of public school legislation, in 1840 the first public school in North Carolina opened in Rockingham County.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A tobacco manufacturing facility was opened in Reidsville in 1856,<ref name= n&r1990/> and by 1859, Madison was home to several industries.<ref name= mcknight/> That year Leaksville was linked with Danville, Virginia by railroad, the first such line in the county.Template:Sfn Slavery grew gradually in the county with the expansion of tobacco operations and, by the 1860s, 37 percent of the population were enslaved.Template:Sfn

At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, some county men enlisted in the Confederate States Army. Rockingham men eventually formed three companies in North Carolina's 13th Regiment, one in the 14th Regiment, one in the 21st Regiment, six in the 45th Regiment, one in the 63rd Regiment/5th Cavalry, and some reserves, to serve in the war.Template:Sfn Rockingham men also formed the 22nd Battalion of the Confederate Home Guard, which was tasked with maintaining order in the county.Template:Sfn The local Searcy & Moore gun factory supplied Confederate forces with weapons during the conflict.<ref name= battaglia1/> Some Confederate deserters hid out in the sparse northwestern section of the county during the war, two of whom were found and executed by the Home Guard.Template:Sfn At the initiative of the Confederate government, a railroad was built to connect Reidsville with Danville and Greensboro, being completed in May 1864.Template:Sfn The war ended in the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865.Template:Sfn

Reconstruction and industrialization

By the end of the Civil War, the economy of Rockingham County and the Southern United States as a whole was greatly diminished. Cattle were scarce, and the emancipation of slaves severely harmed the prospects of large planters. A New York journalist traveling through Rockingham County in September 1865 reported food and lodging scarce in the area.Template:Sfn In the 1868 elections, Republicans gained control of the county government and a black man was elected to the county commission. The white supremacist Ku Klux Klan became active in 1868 and 1869, and 20 alleged Klansmen were arrested and tried for crimes in the county court, though none were convicted. Following investigations by the federal government and a denunciation from David Settle Reid, a widely respected Rockingham Democrat and former governor, Klan activity diminished in 1870.Template:Sfn

In the years after the war, Reidsville rapidly grew as a tobacco manufacturing center with the industry benefitting from the railway completed during the war.<ref name= n&r1990/>Template:Sfn Leaksville, having grown to include 7,500 residents, was incorporated in 1874.<ref name= n&r1990/> The town of Stoneville grew from a mercantile crossroads in the west and was incorporated in 1877.<ref name= n&r1990/><ref name= mcknight/> Rail service was extended to Madison in the 1880s.Template:Sfn Stoneville and Madison largely remained mercantile towns with a few tobacco manufacturers.Template:Sfn

File:Morehead Mill.jpg

Morehead Mill in Spray, c. 1911

The manufacturing sector, particularly in textiles, increased in the late 1800s, driving urbanization and growth in the county's towns.<ref name= n&r1990/> At the initiative of railroad executive Francis Henry Fries, in 1895 the Mayo Mills were built in the western portion of the county, near Madison.<ref name= n&r1990/>Template:Sfn A community quickly grew around the facility and was incorporated as the town of Mayodan in 1899.<ref name= n&r1990/> That year, another mill was erected in what became the town of Avalon in 1899.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the time of its construction, the Avalon Mill was the largest textile manufacturing plant in the state.Template:Sfn The Avalon Mill burned down in 1911, and the rest of the community was integrated into Mayodan. By 1920, the textile operations in the area had consolidated in the latter town as the Washington Mills, making Mayodan the center of western Rockingham's textile industry.<ref name= n&r1990/>

Meanwhile, James Turner Morehead inherited John Motley Morehead's holdings in Leaksville in 1866. He focused on expanding industry in the area, creating the Spray Water Power and Land Company to develop his mills, and supporting the laying of new railroads.<ref name= butler1>Template:Cite web</ref> By the 1890s, Morehead had grouped his textile holdings into two companies, the Leaksville Cotton and Woolen Mill Company and the Spray Water Power and Land Company, and turned them over to his son-in-law, Frank Mebane.<ref name= eagles>Template:Cite web</ref> Under Mebane's direction and with the backing of northern investors, the Spray Water Power and Land Company, between 1898 and 1906, built six new cotton mills and created a warehouse company.<ref name= eagles/><ref name= butler2>Template:Cite web</ref> The expansion of the textile industry led to the growth of two new mill communities in the vicinity of Leaksville, Spray and Draper.Template:Sfn<ref name= mcknight>Template:Cite news</ref> The three communities collectively became known as the "Tri-Cities".Template:Sfn One of Mebane's holdings, the Spray Cotton Mills company, was sold to a private owner in 1897.<ref name= butler2/> Most of the rest were taken over by Marshall Field & Company in 1911 and 1912 after Mebane overextended his credit.<ref name= eagles/>Template:Sfn

20th century

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American Tobacco Company plant in Reidsville c. 1937

In October 1906, the county courthouse in Wentworth was destroyed in a fire. The conflagration occurred during a years-long dispute between the citizens of Reidsville, who wanted to move the county seat to their city, and residents from other areas of the county, who were opposed to its relocation. The debate continued for several months until the county commission voted to rebuild the courthouse in Wentworth. The new building was completed in 1908.<ref name=carter>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Economic differences between the tobacco-heavy Reidsville area and the textile-based Leaksville-Draper-Spray area also created political fault lines during the early 20th century.Template:Sfn Social, political, and economic rivalries also emerged between Reidsville, Leaksville-Draper-Spray, and the western Rockingham towns of Madison, Mayodan, and Stoneville.<ref name= n&r1990/>

The Penn Brothers Tobacco Company plant in Reidsville came under the control of the American Tobacco Company in 1911.<ref name= n&r1990/><ref name= lounsbury>Template:Cite news</ref> Under American Tobacco's control, the factory quickly rose to become Reidsville's most significant industry and the county's largest taxpayer. Offering high wages to workers, in the 1940s and 1950s it served as its corporate owner's flagship facility and peaked with the employment of 2,000 workers.<ref name= lounsbury/> Draper was incorporated in 1949, followed by Spray two years later.<ref name= mcknight/> In 1953, Marshall Field & Company transferred its Rockingham textile holdings to a new company, Fieldcrest.<ref name= eagles/> In September 1967, the towns of Leaksville, Draper, Spray were consolidated into the new city of Eden.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name= firesheets>Template:Cite news</ref> The consolidation led Eden to surpass Reidsville as the county's largest city.<ref name= n&r1990/> In 1978, Miller Brewing Company invested millions in opening a brewery in Eden, and it quickly became a major, high-paying employer.<ref name= n&r1990/><ref name="martin1">Template:Cite news</ref>

Economic decline

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The abandoned Spray Cotton Mills facility in Eden, 2009

The textile industry struggled nationally in the 1980s and 1990s.<ref name= tosczack/> Fieldcrest Cannon, the successor to Fieldcrest, was acquired by Pillowtex in the late 1990s and laid off hundreds of corporate staff in Eden.<ref name="martin1"/><ref name= Chapman>Template:Cite news</ref> Stoneville's major employer, a furniture factory, filed for bankruptcy in 1990.<ref name= n&r1990/> In March 1998, an EF3 tornado occurred in Rockingham County, the strongest storm on-record to ever impact the area.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The tornado damaged homes and a textile mill in Mayodan, destroyed several buildings in Stoneville's main business district, and killed two people.<ref name= smith>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1999, the former Washington Mills plant in Mayodan closed.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Pluma closed its Eden plant in 1999, Spray Cotton Mills closed its yarn mill in 2001, and Pillowtex collapsed in 2003. Some former workers moved to larger cities outside the county in search of jobs.<ref name= Chapman/>

The decline of textiles left Miller's facility Eden's flagship industry, but it announced its closure in 2015. The loss of the brewery and the textile mills had a knock-off effect on local retail stores, many of which closed due to the loss of customers and competition from national chains such as Walmart.<ref name="martin1"/> The American Tobacco Company plant in Reidsville underwent ownership changes and layoffs in the 1990s before closing in early 2020.<ref name= tosczack/>

21st century

In 2011, a new courthouse, the Rockingham County Justice Center, was opened in Wentworth, while the former courthouse was transformed into a museum and historical archive.<ref name= MARCstory/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In February 2014, a coal ash pond in Eden at Duke Power's Dan River Steam Station spilled into the Dan River.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Geography

Template:MaplinkAccording to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of Template:Convert, of which Template:Convert is land and Template:Convert (1.24%) is water.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is bordered by the North Carolina counties of Caswell, Alamance, Guilford, Forsyth, and Stokes, and the Virginia counties of Henry and Pittsylvania.<ref name= censusprofile/> Much of the soil in the county is sandy loam.Template:Sfn

Rockingham County is situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Piedmont Triad region.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rockingham County is crossed by four major rivers. The Dan, Mayo, and Smith Rivers are concentrated in the northwestern portion of the county and feed into the Roanoke River drainage basin. The Haw River in the southeastern portion feeds into the Cape Fear River basin.Template:Sfn The county also hosts several creeks, including Matrimony, Cascade, Hogans, County Line, Troublesome, and Little Troublesome.Template:Sfn There are also two major lakes, Belews Lake and Lake Reidsville.Template:Sfn

State and local protected areas

Demographics

2020 census

Rockingham County racial composition<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Race	Number	Percentage
White (non-Hispanic)	64,218	70.49%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic)	16,611	18.23%
Native American	282	0.31%
Asian	493	0.54%
Pacific Islander	29	0.03%
Other/Mixed	3,377	3.71%
Hispanic or Latino	6,086	6.68%

As of the 2020 census, there were 91,096 people,<ref name= censusprofile/> 38,462 households, and 25,717 families residing in the county.

Rockingham County is included in the Greensboro-High Point, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area.Template:Sfn

Demographic change

Template:US Census population

The county's population has been stagnant since the 1980s.<ref name= tosczack/> According to Woods & Poole Economics, the county's population is expected to increase at a slower rate than the rest of the state in future decades.Template:Sfn

Government and politics

Government

Rockingham County is governed by a five-member board of commissioners, each elected to four-year terms.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The board elects a chairman and vice-chairman from its members<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and appoints a county manager.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> County voters also elect a register of deeds.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Rockingham County is a member of the Piedmont Triad Council of Governments, a regional voluntary association of 12 counties,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the Piedmont Triad Regional Partnership, a regional economic development organization.<ref name= martin1/> The county also has its own Soil and Water Conservation District led by an elected supervisor.<ref name= hodgin1/> Rockingham County is located in North Carolina's 6th congressional district,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the North Carolina Senate's 26th district, and the North Carolina House of Representatives' 65th district.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Law enforcement and judicial system

Rockingham County lies within the bounds of North Carolina's 22nd Prosecutorial District, the 17A Superior Court District, and the 17A District Court District.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> County voters elect a clerk of Superior Court and a sheriff.<ref name= hodgin1>Template:Cite web</ref>

Politics

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In the early 1990s, Rockingham was a swing county.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Politically, the area is conservative.<ref name=martin1/> In recent years, voters in most of the county have favored Republicans, though Democrats retain some electoral strength in the city of Reidsville.Template:Sfn As of November 2022, the county hosted over 61,684 registered voters. Republicans won all county elections in 2022.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Economy

Historically, Rockingham County's economy was largely based around textiles and tobacco.<ref name= tosczack/> Textiles was largely based in the north of the county around Eden, while tobacco was centered in the south, particularly around Reidsville.Template:Sfn The decline of these heritage industries in the 1990s hurt the county's economy.<ref name= tosczack>Template:Cite news</ref> The county has experienced growth in recent years in tourism, manufacturing, and the creation of additional small businesses.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Major employers in the county include the government, healthcare facilities, textile manufacturers such as Unifi and Gildan Yarns, firearms manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co., and Walmart.<ref name= ellis1>Template:Cite news</ref>

Rockingham has a poverty rate of 18 percent, above state and national averages.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to the American Community Survey, from 2017 to 2021 the estimated median household income was $46,993.<ref name="2020CensusQuickFacts"/> For 2023, the North Carolina Department of Commerce rated the county as economically distressed.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In December 2023, the county reported an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent.<ref name= ellis1/>

Transportation

Rockingham County is traversed by several major highways which constitute local transportation corridors: U.S. Route 220/Interstate 73, U.S. Route 158, U.S. Route 29/Interstate 785, and U.S. Route 311. Active rail lines serve Eden, Reidsville, Stoneville, Madison, and Mayodan.Template:Sfn Airplane facilities are provided by the Rockingham County NC Shiloh Airport.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Major highways

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Education

Public education is provided by Rockingham County Schools, which operates 12 elementary schools, four middle schools, four high schools, an early college high school, and an alternative school.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The system is led by a school board elected in partisan contests.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> There is one post-primary institution, Rockingham Community College, located in Wentworth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to the 2021 American Community Survey, an estimated 14.5 percent of county residents have attained a bachelor's degree or higher level of education.<ref name= censusprofile>Template:Cite web</ref>

Healthcare

Rockingham County is served by two hospitals, Annie Penn Hospital in Reidsville and UNC Rockingham Health Care in Eden.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to the 2021 American Community Survey, an estimated 11.2 percent of county residents lack healthcare coverage.<ref name= censusprofile/> The 2023 University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute's County Health Rankings report found that Rockingham was less healthy than most of the state, with higher average instances of adult smoking, adult obesity, excessive drinking, and several chronic medical conditions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Culture

Attractions in Rockingham County include the state parks of the Dan and Mayo rivers, near Mayodan; the historic downtown areas of Leaksville, Draper and Spray in Eden; the Chinqua-Penn Plantation in Reidsville; the Deep Springs Plantation in Stoneville, High Rock Farm in Williamsburg, Mulberry Island Plantation in Stoneville, and the historic Penn House, located in Reidsville. One of the most famous attractions of the Reidsville area is Lake Reidsville. Various historic shops are found in the county, as well.

The Museum & Archives of Rockingham County (the MARC) is the only county historical museum and is located in the Rockingham County Courthouse in Wentworth, the county seat since 1787. The museum features exhibits and artifacts related to Rockingham County history as well as including the restored historic 1816 Wright Tavern (also historically known as Reid House or Reid Hotel) opposite the museum and 1910 Old Jail next door.

In the early 20th century, Rockingham's mill workers produced a substantial amount of old-time music.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Hunting has long been popular in the county.<ref name= battaglia1>Template:Cite news</ref>

Communities

File:Map of Rockingham County North Carolina With Municipal and Township Labels.PNG

Map of Rockingham County with municipal and township labels

Incorporated communities

Townships