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Wilson County, North Carolina

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
28historic places
—earliest paper
1855formed
78,784pop. 2020
5cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 28 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1978. Most listings are in or near Wilson, Stantonsburg, Black Creek.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for North Carolina is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Wilson titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

9 of 28 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

28 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Applewhite, W. H., HouseStantonsburgBuilding1986
Aycock, Manalcus, HouseBlack CreekBuilding1986
Barnes, Gen. Joshua, HouseWilsonBuilding1986
Black Creek Rural Historic DistrictBlack CreekDistrict1986
Branch BankingWilsonBuilding1978
Broad-Kenan Streets Historic DistrictWilsonDistrict1988
Bullock-Dew HouseSimsBuilding1986
Cherry HotelWilsonBuilding1982
Davis-Whitehead-Harriss HouseWilsonBuilding1982
East Wilson Historic DistrictWilsonDistrict1988
Edmondson-Woodward HouseStantonsburgBuilding1986
Elm City Municipal Historic DistrictElm CityDistrict1986
Langley, W. H., HouseElm CityBuilding1986
Lucama Municipal Historic DistrictLucamaDistrict1986
Lucas, Dr. H. D., HouseBlack CreekBuilding1986
Old Wilson Historic DistrictWilsonDistrict1984
Pender, Joseph John, HouseWilsonBuilding1986
Rountree, Moses, HouseWilsonBuilding1982
Scarborough, Maj. James, HouseSaratogaBuilding1982
Thompson, Alfred and Martha Jane, House and Williams BarnNew HopeBuilding2002
Upper Town Creek Rural Historic DistrictWilsonDistrict1986
Ward-Applewhite-Thompson HouseStantonsburgBuilding1986
Webb-Barron-Wells HouseElm CityBuilding1986
West Nash Street Historic DistrictWilsonDistrict1984
Williams, Olzie Whitehead, HouseWilsonBuilding1983
Wilson Central Business-Tobacco Warehouse Historic DistrictWilsonDistrict1984
Wilson County CourthouseWilsonBuilding1979
Woodard Family Rural Historic DistrictWilsonDistrict1986

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Wilson was formed in 1855 (1855-02-13) from Edgecombe, Greene, Johnston, Nash, Wayne.

WILSON created from EDGECOMBE, GREENE, JOHNSTON, NASH, and WAYNE.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Wilson County population from 1860 to 2020 (Census historical series).

81k45k9,7201860188019201940196020002020
1860188019001920194019501960198020002020
9,72016,06423,59636,81350,21954,50657,71663,13273,81478,784

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

5 cemeteries and 0 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 5 of 5 listed
NameLatLon
Cedar Grove Cemetery35.81084-77.8568
Evergreen Memorial Gardens35.76377-77.93387
Maplewood Cemetery35.73432-77.90609
Rest Haven Cemetery35.7096-77.89304
Toisnot Cemetery35.72904-77.85234

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Wilson County, North Carolina

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.