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Prior to English colonization, present-day Wake County was part of the Tuscarora nation.
The county was formed in 1770. 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 in 1786, 1789, 1790, and 1793, when Raleigh became the permanent state capital in 1794. In 1792, a commission was appointed to select a site to build a permanent state capital. The commission members favored land owned by Colonel John Hinton across the Neuse River, but 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 went in Lane's favor.
Lane named Wake County in honor of Margaret Wake, wife of colonial Governor William Tryon. Raleigh was named after Sir Walter Raleigh, and established in 1792 on 1,000 acres purchased from Lane. Raleigh had never set foot in North Carolina, but he had sponsored the establishment of the first English colony in North America on North Carolina's Roanoke Island in 1585. The city of Raleigh became both the state capital and the new seat of Wake County.
The Battle at Morrisville Station was fought April 13–15, 1865 in Morrisville, North Carolina during the Carolinas Campaign of the American Civil War. It was the last official battle of the Civil War between the armies of Major General William T. Sherman and General Joseph E. Johnston. General Judson Kilpatrick, commanding officer of the Union cavalry advance, compelled Confederate forces under the command of Generals Wade Hampton III and Joseph Wheeler to withdraw in haste. They had been frantically trying to transport their remaining supplies and wounded by rail westward toward the final Confederate encampment in Greensboro, NC. Kilpatrick used artillery on the heights overlooking Morrisville Station and cavalry charges to push the Confederates out of the small village leaving many needed supplies behind. However, the trains were able to withdraw with wounded from the Battle of Bentonville and the Battle of Averasboro. Later, General Johnston sent a courier to the Federal encampments at Morrisville with a message for Major General Sherman requesting a conference to discuss an armistice. Several days later the two generals met at Bennett Place near Durham on April 17, 1865, to begin discussing the terms of what would become the largest surrender of the war.
Adjacent Counties
- Granville County
- Franklin County
- Nash County
- Johnston County
- Harnett County
- Chatham County
- Durham County
Cities & Towns
- Apex
- Cary (part)
- Durham (part)
- Fuquay-Varina
- Garner
- Holly Springs
- Knightdale
- Morrisville (part)
- Raleigh (State Capital, County Seat, part)
- Rolesville
- Wake Forest (part)
- Wendell
- Zebulon (part)
Townships & Communities
Asbury | Auburn | Banks | Barham | Bartons Creek | Bayleaf | Bonsai | Buckhorn | Carpenter | Cedar Fork | Clegg | Eagle Rock | Falls | Feltonville | Five Points | Forestville | Fowlers Crossroads | Friendship | Green Level | Holland | Hollemans Crossroads | Holly Springs | Hopkins | House Creek | Kennebec | Lassiter | Leesville | Little River | Lizard Lick | Macks Village | Marks Creek | McCullers | McCullers Crossroads | Medfield | Meredith | Middle Creek | Mount Pleasant | Neuse | New Hill | New Hope | New Light | Panther Branch | Purnell | Riley Hill | St. Mary's | St. Matthew's | Sandy Plain | Shotwell | Six Forks | Stony Hill | Swift Creek | Wake Crossroads | Walkers Crossroad | Westover | White Oak | Wilbon | Williams Crossroads | Willow Spring | Wyatt
Cemeteries
Links
National Register of Historic Places
Wake County Genealogical Society
Wake County Historical Society
