History of Hickory, NC

Hickory owes its early beginnings to Henry Weidner, a young German who came from Montgomery, Pennsylvania to find a new home in the South. After selecting a home site on the South Fork and Henry Rivers, he was careful to make the friendship of the Catawba Indians who had a settlement there. With his home thus established, in 1750 he married Katrina Mull and, with his brother-in-law Adam Mull, took out a land grant. The Weidner lands embraced thousands of acres. Several miles northwest of the Weidner home, at a point where the trails of the Cherokee and Catawba Indians crossed, a stagecoach turnpike was established which opened up the territory for transportation and communication.

Hickory cost 46 pounds in the King's money or $128.80 in U.S. dollars for 360 acres located where Union Square and the Hickory Station Restaurant are located today. This same acreage was sold at public auction on May 8, 1798 in Lincoln County to Jesse Robinson, whose family deeded the property to the railroad and Hickory as a public common.

In 1846 William Hale opened a store at this stagecoach junction and established a post office under the name of Chestnut Oak. Henry Robinson, a descendant of Henry Weidner, built a tavern of logs there beneath a huge hickory tree during the 1850's. The inn was known as "Hickory Tavern."

The community of Hickory Tavern had its first Charter drawn on December 12, 1863; "Corporate limits to be one square mile, having its center the depot of Western North Carolina Railroad." Mileposts were erected in four directions (one still exists at Lenoir-Rhyne College). The legislature appointed judges to hold an election for town commissions on the first Monday in January 1870. Thus the Town of Hickory Tavern was established. The name was changed to the Town of Hickory by the 1873 legislature and to the City of Hickory by the 1889 legislature. Berryville was incorporated in 1895 and the name changed to West Hickory; Highland was incorporated in 1905. Both of these towns became part of the City of Hickory in 1931.

The first train operated in Hickory Tavern in 1859 opening up the area for further settlement. The first settler was Henry Link who bought the first lot in the Town of hickory in 1858 for the sum of $45. His house is now known as the 1859 Cafe.

The first mayor of Hickory was Marcus Yoder who held court in his store on the west end of Union Square and used his warehouse for a "calaboose" (local jail).

The community of "Hickory Tavern" was one of the first towns in North Carolina to install electric lights in 1888 and also a water works and complete sewage system in 1904.

Another milepost in Hickory's history is the adoption of the Council-Manager form of government on March 17, 1913, becoming the first city in the state and the third city in the country to adopt the Council-Manager form of government.

Hickory has always been a very progressive and innovative city. Hickory has been known as the "Industrial Hub of Western North Carolina", "The City that Does Things", and the "Best Balanced City." The entrepreneurial spirit of its citizens has been recognized nationally with Hickory being named an All-American City twice, in 1968 and 1986.

Milestones in Hickory's Past