The New International Encyclopædia/Raleigh

RALEIGH, ra̤′lĭ. A city, the county-seat of Wake County, and the capital of North Carolina, 148 miles north-northwest of Wilmington; on the Southern and the Seaboard Air Line railroads (Map: North Carolina, D 2). It is situated at an elevation of about 320 feet, and has a number of fine buildings, the State Capitol occupying a prominent site in a small square near the centre of the city. Other noteworthy structures are the post-office, the Governor's mansion, State Insane Asylum, State Institution for the Blind with separate departments for white and colored, the State Penitentiary, and the State Geological Museum. Raleigh is noted for its educational institutions, which include the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, opened in 1889, Peace Institute (Presbyterian), Saint Mary's School (Protestant Episcopal), Raleigh Male Academy, and the Baptist Female University; and for colored students, Shaw University (Baptist), opened in 1865, and Saint Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute (Protestant Episcopal). Among the libraries in the city are the Olivia Raney (public), with 6000 volumes; the State, having 35,000 volumes; and the Supreme Court, with more than 13,000 volumes. Pullen Park, and the Confederate and National cemeteries, the latter having 1207 graves, 572 of unknown dead, are also of interest.

Raleigh is a large cotton and tobacco market, and industrially is of considerable importance, its manufactures in the census year of 1900 representing an invested capital of $1,611,000, and having products valued at $2,204,000. The principal establishments include cotton mills, car and wheel works, phosphate works, foundries and machine shops, cottonseed-oil mills, flouring mills, wood-working mills, etc. The government is administered under a charter of 1899, which provides for a mayor, elected biennially, and a unicameral council that controls elections of subordinate officials, excepting the tax collector and city clerk, who are chosen by popular vote. Population, in 1890, 12,678; in 1900, 13,643. The site of Raleigh was selected as a location of the permanent capital of the State in 1792, and in the same year the city was laid out and named in honor of Sir Walter Ralegh. In 1794 the Legislature met here for the first time, and by acts of 1795 and 1803 Raleigh was incorporated. General Sherman occupied the city during a part of 1865. Consult Battle, The Early History of Raleigh (Raleigh, 1893).