Place Information
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Henderson County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2000, the population was 89,173. Its county seat is Hendersonville6.
History
The county was formed in 1838 from the southern part of Buncombe County. It was named for Leonard Henderson, Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1829 to 1833. In 1855 parts of Henderson County and Rutherford County were combined to form Polk County, and in 1861 parts of Henderson County and Jackson County were combined to form Transylvania County. Henderson County, which in 1861 encompassed present-day Transylvania County as well, contributed 1,296 soldiers to the Confederate States Army out of its approximately 10,000 population, as well as 130 Union troops. (Figures from Terrell T. Garren's "Mountain Myth: Unionism in Western North Carolina, published 2006). Henderson County government was centered in the historic Courthouse (erected 1905) on Main Street, until this structure was replaced by the new Courthouse (c. 1995) on Grove Street. The first rail line reached Hendersonville in 1879, ushering in a new era of access to the outside world. However, parts of the county had long been known as retreats, including the "Little Charleston" of Flat Rock, in which South Carolina's Low Country planter families had maintained second homes since the early 1800's. A major land boom ensued in the 1920's, culminating in the crash of 1929, which severely deflated prices and left structures such as the Fleetwood Hotel atop Jumpoff Mountain incomplete. Other notable historic sites in Henderson County include the Woodfield Inn (1852), Connemara (final home of Carl Sandburg and originally known as Rock Hill, the home of CSA Secretary of the Treasury Memminger) and St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church. Timeline
Population History
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