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Alexander County is a county established in the U.S. state of North Carolina in 1847. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 36,444. Its county seat is Taylorsville. Alexander County is part of the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area.
[edit] History
Alexander County was formed in 1847 from portions of what were then Iredell (formed in 1788 from Rowan County), Caldwell (formed from Burke County in 1841), and Wilkes (formed from Surry County and Washington District in 1771) counties. Alexander County was named for William Julius Alexander who was a Speaker of the North Carolina House of Commons. This Piedmont area was settled primarily by farmers, many of Scots-Irish descent, as well as German descent in the southern section of Alexander County.
The county was established by two acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, one ratified on January 15 and one ratified on January 18, 1847. These acts were not to take effect until it was determined that Caldwell County would have 5,000 people in it. On August 10–11, 1847, the first sale of land in the county seat (Taylorsville) took place. Taylorsville is the namesake of either John Louis Taylor, Carolina agriculturist and political philosopher, or General Zachary Taylor, the twelfth president of the United States. With the proceeds from the sale, the county built the first courthouse on the present site. When the American Civil War began in 1861, Alexander County was fourteen years old. The court house records in Taylorsville were destroyed by troops under Major General George Stoneman in a raid on Easter Sunday in 1865.[1] The Alexander Railroad based in Taylorsville began in 1946, with one connection to Norfolk Southern in Statesville, North Carolina. The short line rail system operates between Taylorsville and Statesville. [edit] Timeline
[edit] Population History
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