The New Student's Reference Work/Wilmington, N. C.

Wilmington, N. C., capital of New Hanover County, the largest city and chief port of North Carolina, is on Cape Fear River, 20 miles from the sea and no southeast of Raleigh. It is a railroad center, and its wharves are kept busy with a large coastal and foreign trade. Steamers run to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. The chief exports are lumber, turpentine, rosin, tar, pitch, shingles and cotton. The manufacturing industries consist of these articles and of the manufacture of men's clothing, wagons, carriages and cotton, foundry and machine products. Among the prominent public buildings are the county court-house, city-hall, Masonic Temple, three hospitals, the United States Marine Hospital, two charitable institutions and 33 churches. There are public and parochial schools, and the city also contains Cape Fear Academy, Alderman's School, the Academy of the Incarnation (R. C.) and Gregory Normal School (colored). Wilmington was first called Newton, and was founded in 1733. During the Civil War it was a noted port for blockade runners until the capture of Fort Fisher at the mouth of Cape Fear Inlet by General Terry in January of 1865. In February of the same year General Schofield forced the Confederates to abandon Wilmington. Population 25,748.