Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

You are here

Home

History Timeline

1822 - Epidemics

Disease continues to claim the lives of the settlers. Vaccinations and cures for cholera, malaria, measles, smallpox and typhoid are years away. Charlotte's physicians, Dr. McKenzie and Dr. Caldwell, visit the sick. Most people believe that illness must be removed from the body, so doctors will cut a vein and bleed a patient. Many people die from these procedures.

Date of Event:

1799 - Discovery of Gold

Twelve-year-old Conrad Reed finds a large, glittery rock in a stream 25 miles northeast of Charlotte. His father, John, asks a silversmith to identify the 17-pound stone, but no one knows what it is. The Reed family uses the pretty rock for a doorstop. It will be more than two years before anyone realizes what it contains: gold!

Date of Event:

1810 - Second Mecklenburg County Courthouse

The Second Courthouse was built by John Dow in 1810 in the intersection of Trade and Tryon Streets. . . . The Second Courthouse was the place of enforcement of judgments. The whipping post, pillory, and stocks stoood on the street outside the courthouse, in full view of the judge from his bench inside the Courthouse.

Date of Event:

1830 - The Iron Horse

The first steam locomotive built in the U.S, The Best Friend, serves Charleston, South Carolina. It will be more than 20 years until the railroad tracks stretch all the way to Charlotte, North Carolina.Railroad Map

Date of Event:

1831 - Cedar Grove Plantation

James G. Torrence builds Cedar Grove, a grand home near Huntersville, next to the Torrence family store north of Charlotte. Like so many Mecklenburgers, these pioneers are descendants of English and Scottish people who moved to Ireland before they came to America. They are called Scots-Irish. The Torrence family has owned several thousand acres of land since the 1770s. The Torrence store is believed to be the oldest that exists in Mecklenburg County.Cedar Grove Plantation

Date of Event:

1852 - Train's a-comin'

October 28, 1852. The first passenger train arrives in Charlotte from Columbia, South Carolina! The entire town  and many visitors celebrate with fireworks, barbecue and a musical band. Within four years, Charlotte's telegraph office will open and the rail lines will run all the way to Goldsboro. Both will help the growing textile industry send its goods across the (North Carolina Whig, November 3, 1852, p.2, col.1)

Date of Event:

1792 - First Charlotte Post Office

A branch of the U.S. Postal Service is established in Charlotte. It is the first year that local officials take an oath to the U.S. government.

Date of Event:

1837 - US Mint in Charlotte

 January 19, 1837 - President Andrew Jackson appoints John Wheeler Hill the first manager, or superintendent, of the Charlotte branch of the U.S. Mint. Men hired to make coins attend special training at the Mint in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When the Charlotte Mint opens, the superintendent's salary will be $2,000 per year. The chief coiner will earn $1,500 per year. The men who melt, refine and analyze, or assay, the gold will earn $1,000 per year.Gold Coin

Date of Event:

1840 - Raw Deal

The Treaty of Nation's Ford devastates the Catawba Indians, many of whom live along the border between North and South Carolina. South Carolina agrees to give the tribe $5000 to buy 300 acres of mountain land in Haywood County, N.C., then $2000 per year for five years. North Carolina refuses to give the tribe any money until the Catawbas actually give up the disputed land and leave. Many of the tribe will be left poor and homeless.

Date of Event:

1847 - War with Mexico

<p>The U.S. is at war with Mexico, which&nbsp;refuses to give up possession of Texas. In 1836, Mexican soldiers stormed the Alamo, a Spanish fort near San Antonio. Everyone inside, including American soldiers, was killed, sparking the cry, Remember the Alamo! Now, Charlotte&#39;s Mint superintendent, Green Caldwell, leads a battalion of troops into Mexico. When the war is over, the U.S. will own most of the Southwest.</p>

Date of Event: