History of

Wake County, NC

including the City of Raleigh

New! 111 Page Illustrated Booklet

Early days in Wake County, including the capital city of Raleigh, in central North Carolina, are recalled in this new 111-page spiral-bound booklet, comprised of excerpts from several vintage books. These source materials include John Hill Wheeler's Historical Sketches of North Carolina (1851); Sketches of Prominent Living North Carolinians by Jerome Dowd (1888), North Carolina, A Guide to the Old North State (1939), a product of the WPA; A New Geography of North Carolina (1954-65).

The tri-color front cover is printed on 80# card stock and has been protected with a vinyl sheet. The text is printed single-sided on 60# opaque paper, with the print enlarged to fit the 8.5" x 11" paper and improve readability.

Some of the places mentioned in the booklet include: Raleigh (County Seat and State Capital), Apex, Cary, Faquay-Varina, Garner, Knightdale, Morrisville, Holly Springs, Wake Forest, Wendell, Zebulon, Rolesville, Method, Caraleigh, and Faquay Springs.

Among the many subjects included are: The Raleigh fire of 1831 and the rebuilding of the Capitol; Early notables, including Colonel William Polk, John Louis Taylor, Joseph Gales, Henry Seawell, Daniel L. Barringer, Duncan Cameron, Moses Mordecai, James F. Taylor, John H. Bryan, R.M. Saunders, William H. Hayood Jr., George E. Badger, Richard Hines, Major Gaston H. Wilder, Major Charles L. Hinton, Major William F. Collins, William Hill, and Daniel W. Courts; a bio of Major William J. Clarke, which includes a roll of his company in the Mexican War; Members of the General Assembly from Wake County through 1850; How Raleigh began; The Civil War and what followed -- Ku Klux Klan, the Union League, etc.; Geology and Physical features; Transportation and Industry; Education, including North Carolina State, St. Mary's Junior College, St. Augustine's College, Shaw University, Meredith College, Peace College and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Andrew Johnson, a native son; the "Harricane"; and Religion; when $30,000 paid two weeks rent and a lavish dinner began a city, a remarkable baseball feat, why there's no longer a Glasgow County in NC, when Teddy danced to "Dixie", and other curious bits of history and trivia.

The Dowd excerpts are biographies of Daniel G. Fowle, Augustus S. Merrimon, John Nichols, James H. Harris, William Ruffin Cox, James Cook Birdsong, Donald W. Bain, Major R.S. Tucker, Dr. Eugene Grissom, Thomas S. Kenan, Fabius Haywood Busbee, Samuel A. Ashe, Richard Henry Battle, Kemp P. Battle, Dr. Edmund Burke Haywood (extensive), Walter Clark, Alexander Boyd Andrews, Needham B. Broughton and the Rev. Theodore B. Lyman. The WPA section offers a nostalgic glimpse of the area from a 1939 vantage point, offering many historical notes and sightseeing possibilities. It has a separate section on Raleigh with a map and 29 points of interest, such as the State Capitol.

Wouldn't this make a unique gift?