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North Carolina Counties

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North Carolina Counties

North Carolina is divided into 100 counties. North Carolina ranks 28th in size by area, but has the seventh most counties in the country.

Gaston County, North Carolina

Gaston County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Gastonia
Year Organized: 1846
Square Miles: 356

Court House:

PO Box 1578
Gastonia, NC 28053-1578

Etymology - Origin of County Name

It was named in honor of William Gaston, a member of Congress and a Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Gaston was formed in 1846 from Lincoln. It was named in honor of William Gaston, a member of Congress and a Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. It is in the southwestern section of the State and is bounded by the state of South Carolina and Cleveland, Lincoln and Mecklenburg counties. The present land area is 356.21 square miles and the 2000 population was 190,304. The court was ordered to be held at the home of Jesse Holland until a courthouse could be erected. Commissioners were named to select a site for the county seat as near the center of the county as possible provided it was within two miles of Long Creek Baptist Meeting House. They were to acquire land, lay out a town by the name of Dallas, and erect a courthouse. Dallas continued to be the county seat until 1909 when Gastonia was, by popular vote, selected as the county seat.

Neighboring Counties:

State of South Carolina
Cleveland
Lincoln
Mecklenburg

Cities and Towns:

- Belmont	city	Incorporated Area
- Bessemer City	city	Incorporated Area
- Cherryville	city	Incorporated Area
- Cramerton	town	Incorporated Area
- Dallas	town	Incorporated Area
- Gastonia (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- High Shoals	town	Incorporated Area
- Lowell	city	Incorporated Area
- McAdenville	town	Incorporated Area
- Mount Holly	city	Incorporated Area
- Ranlo	town	Incorporated Area
- Spencer Mountain	town	Incorporated Area
- Stanley	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."