Richmond County is a small county with a deep-rooted history in the State of North Carolina. I had the idea to do a historical piece regarding Richmond County a few weeks ago and I knew that a lot of research would have to go into it.
After digging deeply into the idea, I found some interesting facts about Richmond County that really show the “antiquity” of this area. Some of these include Cameron A. Morrison, the 55th Governor of North Carolina, who got his political start as the mayor of Rockingham, and Frederick C. Branch, who was born in Hamlet, the first African-American officer of the United States Marine Corps. After doing all of this digging for various facts and historic events around the county I was left with one major question: How exactly did Richmond County get its shape?
Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Richmond, Scotland, and Union Counties were all originally part of Anson County. Until around 1762 when, due to the rising population of the area, what we know today as Mecklenburg and Union Counties broke off to form Mecklenburg County. After the spilt, this left Anson County made up of what is now known as Anson and modern-day Richmond, Montgomery and Scotland counties. Montgomery and Richmond both split from Anson in the year 1779. The reasons behind Montgomery’s forming are foggy but from what I could gather the main reason was because of the growing economy from mining, lumber and other vast resources in the Uwharrie National Forest.
Richmond County was the next to form. Much like many counties in North Carolina, Richmond was formed due to the long and tough commute just to get to the court house. The difficulty of trying to cross the Pee Dee River at a time of few bridges pushed the North Carolina General Assembly to create Richmond County from Anson in 1779.
It was decided that the Pee Dee River would be the dividing line for the western border of the county; that holds true to this day. When Richmond broke off, the decision was made that the land all the way to Robeson County would be known as Richmond. This means that, originally, Richmond County was made up of both modern-day Richmond and Scotland counties.
The Lumber River was chosen as the southern border of the county, although that shifted when Scotland County was created in 1899. The point on the North Carolina and South Carolina border around Beaver Dam and Marks Creak was selected to be the dividing line for the Richmond-Scotland border.
Although the northern border hasn’t changed much since Richmond County was known as Anson, it is worth noting that landmarks such as Drowning Creek, Norman, Derby, and Mangum were used to round off the top of the county. Since the split with Scotland County, the Richmond County border hasn’t changed much at all.
I would like to thank the Richmond County Historical Society for providing much of the information used to create this article. Also, next time Scotland tries to beat Richmond in football, let them know where their roots come from.
