CLEVELAND COUNTY

Cleveland was formed in 1841 from Rutherford and Lincoln. It was named in honor of Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, a noted partisan leader of the western Carolina frontier and one of the heroes at Kings Mountain. It is in the southwestern section of the state and is bounded by the state of South Carolina and Rutherford, Burke, Lincoln, and Gaston counties. The present land area is 464.63 square miles. The population from the 2010 Census was 98,078. Of that population, 74,123 were white, 20,332 were black or African American, 232 were American Indian, 756 were Asian, 24 were Pacific Islander and 1,131 were of a different race. Another 1,480 were reported to be of two or more races and 2,756 were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

The first court was ordered to be held at the home of William Weathers. At this court the justices were to obtain a place to hold future courts until a courthouse was erected. Commissioners were named to acquire land and lay out a town by the name of Shelby where the courthouse and jail were to be located. In 1887 an act was passed changing the spelling of Cleveland from "Cleaveland county" to "Cleveland county." Shelby was incorporated in 1843 and is the county seat.

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Cleveland County is located in the Broad River Basin. It is in the Piedmont region of the state.

References:

"American Factfinder." 2011. U. S. Census Bureau. Online at http://factfinder2.census.gov/. Accessed 3/3/2011.

Corbitt, David L. 2000. The Formation of the North Carolina Counties, 1663-1943. Sixth printing. Raleigh: State Department of Archives and History.

Powell, William Stevens, and Michael R. Hill. 2010. The North Carolina gazetteer: a dictionary of Tar Heel places and their history. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Additional resources:

North Carolina Digital Collections. (Government & Heritage Library and NC State Archives)

NC LIVE resources

NC Natural Heritage Program database

WorldCat (Searches numerous library catalogs)