1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, a city and the county-seat of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, U.S.A., situated on Sugar Creek, in the south-west part of the state, about 175 m. south-west of Raleigh. Pop. (1890) 11,557; (1900) 18,091, of whom 7151 were negroes; (1910 census) 34,014. It is served by the Seaboard Air Line and the Southern railways. Among the public buildings are a fine city hall, court-house, Federal and Young Men’s Christian Association buildings, and a Carnegie library; several hospitals: St Peter’s (Episcopal) for whites, Good Samaritan (Episcopal) for negroes, Mercy General (Roman Catholic) and a Presbyterian. The city is the seat of Elizabeth College and Conservatory of Music (1897), a non-sectarian institution for women, of the Presbyterian College for women, and of Biddle University (Presbyterian) for negroes, established in 1867. There is a United States assay office, established as a branch mint in 1837, during the days of North Carolina’s great importance as a gold producing state, and closed from 1861 to 1869. The city has large cotton, clothing, and knitting mills, and manufactories of cotton-seed oil, tools, machinery, fertilizers and furniture. The total value of its factory products was $4,849,630 in 1905. There are large electric power plants in and near the city. Printing and publishing are of some importance: Charlotte is the publication headquarters of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; and several textile trade journals and two medical periodicals are published here. The water-works are owned by the municipality. Charlotte was settled about 1750 and was incorporated in 1768. Here in May 1775 was adopted the “Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence” (see North Carolina), and in honour of its signers there is a monument in front of the court-house. Charlotte was occupied in September 1780 by Cornwallis, who left it after learning of the battle of King’s Mountain, and subsequently it became the principal base and rendezvous of General Greene.