On Oct. 5, 1780, about 1400 militia, including many riflemen, camped 1 mi. S. at Alexander’s Ford and there turned toward Kings Mountain.
Topics Related to Polk County
Landmark on Cherokee boundary, negotiated by Gov. William Tryon and Cherokee chiefs, 1767. Elevation 3,231 feet.
The steepest, standard gauge, mainline railway grade in the U.S. Opened in 1878; three mi. long. Crests here.
Well-known guide and trapper. Helped survey Santa Fe Trail. Guided the ill-fated Fremont expedition of 1848. Was born near here in 1787.
Early landmark, western terminus of the 1772 boundary survey between N.C. and S.C. Stood 1/2 mile east.
NORTH CAROLINA / Colonized, 1585-87, by first English settlers in America; permanently settled c. 1650; first to vote readiness for independence, Apr. 12, 1776. b/w SOUTH CAROLINA / Formed in 1712 from part of Carolina, which was chartered in 1663, it was first settled by the English in 1670. One of the 13 original states.
On a raid through western North Carolina Gen. Stoneman's U.S. cavalry fought southern troops at Howard's Gap, 4 mi. north, April 22, 1865.
On January 3, 1787, frontiersman William Sherley Williams was born in what’s now Polk County.
Williams moved to the frontier town of St. Louis with his family in the 1790s and began his career as an itinerant Baptist preacher at age 17. Several years later he radically changed the course of his life and become an explorer, trapper, scout, and guide.