Wake County, North Carolina

	Wake County
	Founded 1849
	Website http://www.wakegov.com

Wake County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2009, the population was 900,068 making it the second most populated county in the state. Its county seat is Raleigh,Template:GR which is also the state capital.

History

Early history

The earliest inhabitants of present day Wake County were the Tuscarora Native Americans. After the Tuscarora War in 1711, they were defeated and moved to New York to join the Iroquois nation.^[1]

The county was formed in 1771 from parts of Cumberland County, Johnston County, and Orange County. It was named for Margaret Wake, wife of Governor William Tryon. The first courthouse was built at a place called Wake Courthouse, commonly known as Bloomsbury. In 1771, the first elections and court were held, and the first militia was formed.

Wake County lost some its land area during the subsequent formation of other new counties. Portions were taken by Franklin County in 1787 and by Durham County in 1881 and 1911.

During the colonial period of North Carolina, the state capital was New Bern. For several years, during and after the Revolutionary War, there was no capital, and the General Assembly met in various locations.Fayetteville was the state capital from 1789 to 1793 when Raleigh became the permanent state capital. In 1792, a commission was appointed to select a site for a permanent state capital. The members of the commission were leaning toward land owned by Colonel John Hinton across the Neuse River, but on the night before the final vote, the committee adjourned to the home of Joel Lane for an evening of food and spirits. The next day, the vote was in Lane's favor.

Raleigh was named after Sir Walter Raleigh, and established on Template:Convert purchased from Lane. Sir Walter Raleigh never set foot in the North Carolina, but two centuries earlier he had sponsored the establishment of the first English colony on the North Carolina shore at Roanoke Island. The city of Raleigh became both the state capital as well as the new county seat of Wake County. Raleigh is the only planned state capital in the United States.Template:Dubious^[2]

Cities and towns

Municipalities

Municipalities, with populations as of July 2007. Municipalities in italics overlap county borders, and these population figures reflect only the part of those municipalities that lie within Wake County.^[3]

Angier, 4,165
Apex, 29,973
Cary, 132,355
Fuquay-Varina, 14,959
Garner, 24,832
Holly Springs, 19,474
Knightdale, 9,810
Morrisville, 14,308
Raleigh, 366,391
Rolesville, 2,290
Wake Forest, 25,179
Wendell, 5,742
Zebulon, 4,955

Map of Wake County, North Carolina With Municipal and Township Labels

Unincorporated communities

Townships

The county is divided into twenty townships: Bartons Creek, Buckhorn, Cary, Cedar Fork, Holly Springs, House Creek, Leesville, Little River, Marks Creek, Meredith, Middle Creek, Neuse, New Light, Panther Branch, Raleigh, St. Mary's, St. Matthew's, Swift Creek, Wake Forest, and White Oak.

Adjacent counties

Granville County, North Carolina - north
Franklin County, North Carolina - northeast
Nash County, North Carolina - east
Johnston County, North Carolina - southeast
Harnett County, North Carolina - southwest
Chatham County, North Carolina - west
Durham County, North Carolina - northwest

Libraries

The Wake County Public Library system operates 19 branches throughout the county. There are nine facilities in Raleigh. Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Wake Forest, Zebulon, Knightale, and Wendell each have one library facility. The Wake County library system keeps books and periodicals, and recently expanded the collection to include some audio books.^[4]

References

↑ Powell, William. Encyclopedia of North Carolina. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 1172–1173. Template:Hide in print Template:Only in print. http://uncpress.unc.edu/nc_encyclopedia/.
↑ Wake County USGenWeb - History
↑ North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management - Municipal Population Estimates by County
↑ WakeGOV.com - Library Locations

External links

This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia adapted for use as a quick research reference on this wiki. The original content was here: Wake County, North Carolina. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with the ENC Phillips Group Wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.

[encyclopedia_of_NC-1] Powell, William. Encyclopedia of North Carolina. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 1172–1173. Template:Hide in print Template:Only in print. http://uncpress.unc.edu/nc_encyclopedia/.

[2] Wake County USGenWeb - History

[3] North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management - Municipal Population Estimates by County

[4] WakeGOV.com - Library Locations

[1]