Some place names included in The North Carolina Gazetteer contain terms that are considered offensive.
Copyright Notice: This content is from the North Carolina Gazetteer, edited by William S. Powell and Michael Hill. Copyright © 2010 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.
"The North Carolina Gazetteer is a geographical dictionary in which an attempt has been made to list all of the geographic features of the state in one alphabet. It is current, and it is historical as well. Many features and places that no longer exist are included; many towns and counties for which plans were made but which never materialized are also included. Some names appearing on old maps may have been imaginary, but many of them also appear in this gazetteer.
Each entry is located according to the county in which it is found. I have not felt obliged to keep entries uniform. The altitude of a place, the date of incorporation of a city or town, may appear in the beginning of one entry and at the end of another. Some entries may appear more complete than others. I have included whatever information I could find. If there is no comment on the origin or meaning of a name, it is because the information was not available. In some cases, however, resort to an unabridged dictionary may suggest the meaning of many names."
--From The North Carolina Gazetteer, 1st edition, preface by William S. Powell
| Place | Description |
|---|---|
| Peletier Creek |
rises in S Carteret County and flows S into Bogue Sound. Probably named for Jerome Peletier, first of the family to settle in the vicinity. |
| Pelham |
community in NW Caswell County. Est. during the Civil War as a station on the Piedmont Railroad; named for Maj. John Pelham, Alabamian killed in action during the war. Alt. 740. |
| Pelham Precinct |
appears on the Wimble map, 1738, between the Cape Fear and the Northeast Cape Fear Rivers at approx. what is now Pender County. Wimble's map was dedicated to Thomas Hollis Pelham, Duke of Newcastle (1693-1768), secretary of state for the Southern Department. Pelham County appears at the same location on the Mouzon map, 1775. Since there appears to be no reference to such a precinct or county in the records of North Carolina, it is possible that Wimble was simply flattering his patron and that Mouzon followed Wimble's map in making his own. |
| Pelham Township |
NW Caswell County. |
| Pell Mell Pocosin |
N central Bertie County. |
| Pembroke |
town in W central Robeson County. Alt. 172. Inc. 1895. Originally called Campbell's Mill on Waterhole Swamp; later, Scuffletown, after Scoville Town in England or because it was a good place to get into a fight. Today, it is center of Lumbee Indian business and social life. Named for Pembroke Jones (1825-1910), an official of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, which intersected the Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherford Railroad there. Home of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, founded in 1887. |
| Pembroke Creek |
rises in Pollock Swamp, E Chowan County, and flows S and SE into the W side of the head of Edenton Bay. Formerly known as the W branch of Mattacomack Creek and later Queen Anne's Creek. Took its present name from Thomas Barker's plantation, Pembroke, which was named for his birthplace, Pembroke, Mass. Barker bought his property from Edmund Gale about 1751. See also Ramushawn River. |
| Pembroke Township |
central Robeson County. |
| Pender |
community immediately S of the town of Halifax, E Halifax County. |
| Pender County |
was formed in 1875 from New Hanover County. Located in the SE section of the state, it is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and by New Hanover, Brunswick, Columbus, Bladen, Sampson, Duplin, and Onslow Counties. It was named for Gen. William D. Pender (1834-63), a Confederate officer killed at Gettysburg. Area: 869 sq. mi. (857, land; 12, water). County seat: Burgaw, with an elevation of 49 ft. Townships are Burgaw, Canetuck, Caswell, Columbia, Grady, Holly, Long Creek, Rocky Point, Topsail, and Union. Produces corn, oats, soybeans, miscellaneous fruits and vegetables, peanuts, poultry, eggs, hogs, dairy products, livestock, turkeys, seafood, metal products, and lumber. See also Pelham Precinct; Lillington County. |
