Rocky Mount is a city in Nash and Edgecombe counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The city's population was 54,341 as of the 2020 census, making it the 20th-most populous city in North Carolina at the time. The city is east of Raleigh, the state capital.
It is the principal city of the Rocky Mount metropolitan area, often called the "Twin Counties"; in the 2020 census, the metro population was 143,870. Rocky Mount is also an anchor city of the Rocky Mount-Wilson-Roanoke Rapids Combined Statistical Area in northeast North Carolina with a total population of 288,747 as of the 2020 census.
Incorporated in 1867, the community at the falls of the Tar River that became the city of Rocky Mount was first settled by traders in the mid-1700s. Historically strong in rail transportation, textiles, and agriculture, the economy of Rocky Mount has diversified into biomedical pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and logistics. Rocky Mount has twice received the All-America City Award from the National Civic League: in 1969 and 1999.
History
Beginnings
The region around the Tar River was continuously inhabited by various cultures of indigenous people for 12,000 years. It had long been home to the historic Tuscarora people, who spoke an Iroquoian language, before the first Europeans arrived. After the English colonists and indigenous allies waged the Tuscarora War in the early 1700s and drove most of the survivors off to the North (the main party migrated to what became New York, settling with other Iroquoian peoples), the English speakers began to settle the area. They settled along the fall line between the Piedmont and coastal plain, below which the rivers were navigable to the coast. The difference in height meant that the downstream waters could power a mill.
The Falls of the Tar River Primitive Baptist Church was established in 1757. As the church was the center of community life, its records were the first civil and vital records of the developing town. Its congregation effectively administered law enforcement, with officers issuing citations for crimes.
19th century
A post office was established at the falls of the Tar River on March 22, 1816. At this point, the name "Rocky Mount" officially appears in documented history, referring to the rocky mound at the falls of the Tar River. Rocky Mount Mills, the second cotton mill in the state of North Carolina, was built there soon after in 1818. Its proprietors were two entrepreneurs and Joel Battle, grandson of an original colonial settler to the area. Joel bought out the other proprietors before turning over the enterprise to his cousin James Smith Battle. The mill's spindles were initially operated by enslaved African Americans until the 1850s. At that time, the mill owners hired exclusively white women and girls, who were employed for the rest of the century.
The Battle family was also involved in the construction of the longest continuous railroad in the world up to that time, the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, which ran about east of the mill. It connected the area to major ports in Virginia to the north and the port of Wilmington, North Carolina to the south. The tracks first reached Rocky Mount on Christmas Eve in 1839. In 1840, a train of cars en route to Wilmington stopped in Rocky Mount to import some "Old Nash" for special toasts at opening festivities, and from there the fame of Nash County apple brandy spread.
The railroad exerted a powerful influence on the development of the town. In 1871, the county line moved from the Tar River to its present location in the center of the tracks. The Raleigh-Tarboro stage route also passed just south of Rocky Mount (roughly where I-95 and U.S. 64 run today), and for a time was the logical debarking point for railroad travelers wishing to proceed east or west.
During the Civil War, the surrounding region was raided in 1863 by Union troops under the command of Brigadier General Edward E. Potter. They burned down the mill, which supplied Confederate yarn and cloth. After the war ended, the owners rebuilt the mill. On February 19, 1867, the village outside the mill was incorporated as a town.