Tryon County Had 1,426 Taxable Polls in Its First Year

Mamie Jones wrote that the first court of Tryon County, the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, was held in April 1769 at the home of Charles McGan, in what is now Gaston County. At the October session of that same year, the sheriff reported 1,426 taxable polls in the county.

Jones pointed out that at this time Lincoln and Rutherford were already fair-sized communities, even though much of the territory included in Tryon County was still uninhabited and large portions were claimed by the Cherokee Indians. She noted that George Blanton, one of the pioneers she had written about earlier, was appointed by the King as a Justice of the Peace in November 1769, and that his name appears among the Justices attending Tryon County Court in 1770.

Source: Mamie Jones.