Place:Stanly, North Carolina, United States

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Stanly County is a county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 62,504. Its county seat is Albemarle.

Stanly County comprises the Albemarle, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Charlotte-Concord, NC-South Carolina Combined Statistical Area.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The site of modern-day Stanly County was originally peopled by small tribes of hunter-gatherers and Mound Builders whose artifacts and settlements have been dated back nearly 10,000 years. Large-scale European settlement of the region came in the mid-18th century via two primary waves: immigrants of Dutch, Scots-Irish and German descent moved from Pennsylvania and New Jersey seeking enhanced religious and political tolerance, while immigrants of English backgrounds came to the region from Virginia and the Cape Fear River Basin in Eastern North Carolina.

In early English colonial times, the Stanly County area was politically part of the New Hanover Precinct, out of which the Bladen Precinct was created in 1734. The renamed Bladen County was subdivided to create Anson County in 1750, which in turn spawned Montgomery County in 1779.

Stanly County was formed in 1841 from the part of Montgomery County west of the Pee Dee River. It was named for John Stanly of New Bern (1774–1834), who served several terms in the North Carolina House of Commons and two terms (1801–1803, 1809–1811) in the United States House of Representatives.

Hanging of Alec Whitley

Whitley was accused of theft and murder in Stanly County and also in Arkansas. Following a short manhunt through several states, he was captured by a local posse near Big Lick in 1892. Shortly after his capture and incarceration a mob of angry citizens gathered at the jail to demand Whitley be turned over to them. Sheriff Snuggs had been alerted to the mob's intention and he transferred all the prisoners from the jail to his own home across the street—except Whitley, who was seized by the mob, beaten, and hanged from a tree off South Street in Albemarle.

Name

Research by Chris Bramlett indicates that John Stanly had no connection with the area named for him, but that the name was chosen to please state legislators. Bramlett also believed that Stanly's father John Wright Stanly was named Stanley and changed the spelling. Because the county's name was often misspelled, in 1971 the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation making the "Stanly" spelling official.

Timeline

Population History

source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990

Research Tips

External links

www.co.stanly.nc.us