Our Story: A Time of Transition, 1841-1859

Davenport Opened in 1855

During the mid-19th century, Caldwell County experienced rapid growth that shaped its civic, economic, and cultural foundations. During a meeting at George Powell’s storehouse, located near today’s Highways 90 and 18,  the county was officially formed on March 1, 1841. Tucker’s Muster Ground, which later became Lenoir, was chosen as the county seat for its central location and history as a public gathering site. William A. Lenoir, James Harper, and Seth Bradshaw donated land for the county seat. 

Education became more formalized as the Superintendent of Common Schools divided the county into districts and appointed school committees. In 1855, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South established Davenport College, as an institution of higher learning for women. 

Davenport College, 1800s
Source: Caldwell County Archives
Restored by Bill Tate

In 1844, the county saw its first threshing machine, and in 1848, Samuel Patterson, Edmund Jones, and James C. Harper, with silent partners Col. Thomas Lenoir and Rufus T. Lenoir, opened the county’s first cotton mill in Patterson.

St. James Episcopal Church joined the NC Diocese in 1849, and a toll road (now US Highway 321) across the Blue Ridge was completed in 1850. That year, the census recorded 6,317 residents, including 1,200 enslaved people under 185 slave owners, including William Lenoir and William Dula.

The City of Lenoir was incorporated in 1851, the same year Buffalo Cove Church was organized. Samuel Green Hill Jones opened the first store in what is now downtown Granite Falls in 1853. In 1855, Dulatown was established as a mixed-race community. By 1859, the Sawmills community had its first school, the log-built Bradshaw School.

Harriet Harshaw Dula, the mother of Dulatown

Harriet Harshaw Dula, Mother of Dulatown
Source: Caldwell County Archives

Patterson Cotton Mill

Patterson Cotton Mill, 1848
Source: Caldwell County Archives
Restored by Bill Tate

Blowing Rock Turnpike at Water Gap

Sources: NCpedia, John O. Hawkins, “History of Caldwell County;” Nancy Alexander, “Here Will I Dwell;” Granite Falls History and Transportation Museum; Caldwell Heritage Museum; PBS and App State Today, “Dulatown;” and Allen Poe Papers, “Slavery in Caldwell County.”