HENDERSON COUNTY

Henderson was formed in l838 from Buncombe. It was name in honor of Leonard Henderson, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. It is in the western section of the State and is bounded by the state of South Carolina and Transylvania, Haywood, Buncombe, McDowell, Rutherford and Polk counties. The present land area is 374.00 square miles. The population from the 2010 Census was 106,740. Of that population, 94,914 were white, 3,224 were black or African American, 449 were American Indian, 1,022 were Asian, 178 were Pacific Islander and 4,934 were of a different race. Another 2,019 were reported to be of two or more races and 10,424 were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

The first court was to be held at the home of Hugh Johnston, at which time the justices were to decide on a place for future courts until a courthouse was erected. Commissioners were named to acquire land, lay out a town, and erect a courthouse. This town was to be named Hendersonville. The commissioners selected a site which is now called Horse Shoe, but much dissatisfaction developed over the selection and two factions arose, one called the River party and the other the Road party. The River party favored the Horse Shoe site. In 1839 the Road party enjoined the sale of lots of the site selected at Horse Shoe and the controversy soon became so heated that the Legislature ordered an election to be held to determine the location by popular vote. The Road party was successful. In 1840 Hendersonville was laid out on land deeded by Michael King of Charleston, South Carolina, for that purpose. Hendersonville is the county seat.

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Parts of Henderson County are in the French Broad River Basin and parts are in the Broad River Basin. It is part of the mountain 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)