Kinston North Carolina

Kinston North Carolina

Kinston is a city in Lenoir County, North Carolina, United States. It was the county seat of Dobbs County from 1779 to 1791, and has been the county seat of Lenoir County since its formation in 1791. It is the home of the Kinston Indians baseball club of the Carolina League. Kinston is served by the Kinston Regional Jetport. Kinston is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region. Whether you are a long time resident, newcomer or thinking of relocating to Kinston, we hope you will find everything you are looking

Prior to the establishment of the city, the area was known as Atkins Bank, which referred to a bluff just above the Neuse River once owned by Robert Atkins. Atkins Bank was the site of farms, a tobacco warehouse, and a Church of England mission. Prior to English settlement, the area was inhabited by the Neusiok Indians.

Kinston NC was created by an act of the North Carolina General Assembly in December of 1762 as Kingston, in honor of King George III who had just recently ascended to the throne. The bill to incorporate it was introduced by Richard Caswell, who made his home there and later served as the first Governor of the State of North Carolina from 1776 to 1780. The conclusion of the American Revolution brought a change of name to Kinston in 1784 in order to show the population's new distaste with royalty. In 1833, Kinston briefly became Caswell, in honor of the governor, but reverted to Kinston the following year.

Once created, commissioners appointed to design the town began to accept "subscriptions" for numbered lots. To keep a lot, subscribers were required to build brick homes of specific dimensions within three years or lose their rights to the property. The town was laid out with border streets named East, North, and South, with the western border of the town being comprised of the Neuse River. The two principal roads within these borders were named for King George and Queen Charlotte, and they remain King and Queen Street to this day. Other streets were named in honor of Governor Dobbs (later renamed Independent Street) and the commissioners.

In December of 1791, an act was passed in the General Assembly abolishing Dobbs County and forming Lenoir County and Glasgow County. At that time, Kinston was named the county seat for Lenoir County.

Throughout this period, Kinston NC was an unincorporated town, but it finally became incorporated through an act of the legislature in January of 1849. Following incorporation, the population grew rapidly. In 1850, the population was estimated at 455 people, and just ten years later, it had more than doubled to over one thousand.

During the onset of the Civil War, Camp Campbell and Camp Johnston were established near the city as training camps, and a bakery on Queen Street was converted to produce hard tack in large quantities. There was also a factory for the production of shoes for the military located in Kinston. The Battle of Kinston took place in and around the city on December 14, 1862. The Battle of Southwest Creek (March 8, 1865) also occured very near the city. It was at this later battle that the Confederate Ram Neuse was destroyed. Remnants of this ship have been salvaged, and there is an effort underway for the construction of a replica vessel. Union forces occupied the city following the battle and remained through the Reconstruction.

Despite the hardships of war and Reconstruction, the population of the city continued to grow. By 1870, the population had increased to eleven hundred people and grew to more than seventeen hundred within a decade. The late nineteenth century saw expansion into new areas of industry, most notably the production of carriages. Kinston also became a major tobacco and cotton trading center. By the start of the twentieth century, more than five million pounds of tobacco were being sold in Kinston's warehouses annually. Along with the growth in population and industry was a growth in property values. Some parcels increased in value more than five fold within a twenty year period.

The twentieth century saw a variety of industries come to Kinston including lumber mills, cotton mills, and even professional sports in the form of a minor league baseball team. Later growth would come in the form of a Du Pont plant for the manufacture of polyester fibers as well as pharmaceutical factories. Growth finally slowed following the sixties, but there has been some effort to reinvigorate the economy through various means with success.

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