Place Information
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Gaston County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2000, the population was 190,365. Its county seat is Gastonia6.
History
Originally, the area today called Gaston County was part of Anson County in 1750, and subsequently seceded to the newly formed Mecklenburg County in 1762. Six years later, the area was again redistricted, to the short-lived Tryon County until 1779, at which time it was incorporated into Lincoln County. Lincoln County was divided in 1846, and its southern half was renamed Gaston for William Gaston (from which Gastonia also takes its name), a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1813 to 1817, and a judge of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1833 to 1844. Tensions between the earliest European settlers and the Native Americans were eased considerably when the dispute over the boundary between North Carolina and South Carolina was settled in 1772, after which most of the local Native Americans settled on a reservation in South Carolina. Most early farms were small, cultivated primarily by white yeoman farmers. North Carolina's colonial policy restricted the size of land grants, and in Gaston County they tended to be about 400 acres each. One of the earliest grants in the area was given to Captain Samuel Cobrin, commander of a local militia company, on September 29, 1750. German influenceGerman pioneers began settling Gaston County in the mid 17th century and establishing homesteads after migrating southward from the Shenandoah Valley and beyond, via the Great Wagon Road. German settlers established themselves in clusters of independent farmsteads linked by extended family connections and by participation in Lutheran, Reformed, or German Baptist (Dunker) congregations. By 1790 it is estimated 10 to 30 percent of the greater Piedmont population of North Carolina was of German origin, and modern-day Gaston County had an even higher concentration. Outnumbered by English and Scotch-Irish neighbors, the Germans were perceived as a distinct group, and many of them strove to maintain German culture and ways. The use of the German language continued well into the 19th century, with a period of transition from German to bilingual, with predominant English usage established between 1825 and 1850. In the late 18th century, German dominated in many churches and families; by the 1835, sermons in Reformed and Lutheran congregations were often preached in both languages. By the late 19th century, German all but disappeared. Similar patterns appeared in architecture. Traditional German construction methods-- often the work of artisans trained in the fatherland-- usually prevailed from the 1750s through the 1780s. The successive decades until the 1820s saw a blending of Germanic traditions and mainstream stylistic developments. Finally, from the 1820s to the Civil War, as popular national ideals homogenized much of the American culture, German descended families acceded to these trends. Timeline
Population History
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