According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 2.9 square miles (7.4km2), of which 2.8 square miles (7.3km2) is land and 0.039 square miles (0.1km2), or 1.38%, is water.[4] The town is named for the Haw River, which flows past the center of town. The town formerly supported a textile mill producing enormous quantities of corduroy but is primarily a residential area today. GovernorThomas Michael Holt was a resident of the town. Governor W. Kerr Scott lived nearby, as did his son, Governor Robert W. Scott.
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 2,252 people, 945 households, and 624 families residing in the town.
2010 census
As of the census[7] of 2010, there were 2,298 people, 921 households, and 625 families residing in the town. The population density was 821 inhabitants per square mile (317/km2). There were 1,035 housing units at an average density of 356.9 per square mile (137.8/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 75.9% White, 9.3% African American, 0.4% Native American, 0.9% Asian, 11.5% from other races, and 2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 16.1% of the population.
There were 921 households, out of which 34.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.9% were married couples living together, 16.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.1% were non-families. 27.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.02.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 26.6% under the age of 19, 6.3% from 20 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 26.6% from 45 to 64, and 14.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 104 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.5 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $35,691, and the median income for a family was $46,023. Males had a median income of $30,250 versus $20,250 for females. The per capita income for the town was $20,205. About 10.3% of families and 15.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.4% of those under age 18 and 8% of those age 65 or over.
Education
The local public school in Haw River is Haw River Elementary School, part of the Alamance-Burlington School System, which was created by a merger between the Alamance County School System and the Burlington City School System in 1996.
History
In 1745, Adam Trollinger established a homestead on the banks of the Haw River. From that beginning, the community of Haw River was developed. Trollinger was a native of the Rhine river valley in Germany and had lived in Pennsylvania before heading south to seek a new life. His settlement was very near the site of an earlier Sissipahaw Indian village. Trollinger chose the spot because it had an easy crossing while nearby the river moved with enough power to drive a mill wheel.
In 1748, Adam's son, Jacob, built a grist mill, one of the first industries in the wilderness area. A village known as Trollinger's Ford grew up around the mill.
Lord Cornwallis passed nearby during the last days of the Revolutionary War. His foraging soldiers raided Trollinger's mill and confiscated the miller's grain. When Jacob confronted the redcoats, they bound him to a tree with a bridle bit in his mouth. Upon his release, Trollinger sent two of his sons and a slave to help fight the British.
Benjamin Trollinger built the first part of the Granite Mill in 1844, marking the beginning of the textile industry in the village. It is the only antebellum mill building in Alamance County still in use. Since that time, the development of the town has been inextricably linked to events at the mill.
In 1849, the North Carolina Railroad was chartered and Benjamin Trollinger secured its passage through the mill town by building a railroad bridge over the river at his own expense. The town became known as Haw River Depot. Benjamin Trollinger also was instrumental in locating the railroad repair station at Company Shops (now Burlington) a few miles west.
As a result of financial difficulties brought on by the failure of Trollinger's hotel in Haw River, Edwin Michael Holt, already one of the state's most successful manufacturers, and his son, Thomas M. Holt, acquired the mill in 1858. In 1861, Thomas M. Holt bought his father's interest in the property and moved to Haw River to oversee the running of the mill.
During the Civil War, much cloth was shipped to Raleigh for Confederate uniforms. As the war drew to a close, gold and other treasures were hidden near the railroad line in and around Haw River, and tales of buried treasure persist.
T. M. Holt Manufacturing Company, Haw River, North Carolina, 1897
In 1868, Thomas Holt's brother-in-law, Adolphus "Dolph" Moore, became partner in the mill, and the operation was called Holt and Moore. George Swepson came to town, and barges began carrying raw cotton to his mill in Swepsonville and returning with spun products to be shipped by rail.
In 1876, Dolph Moore was found shot in George Swepson's yard. When Moore died, George Swepson was charged with the crime. Though acquitted, he was forced to leave town. The mills became the Thomas M. Holt Manufacturing Company.
Haw River developed as a typical mill village in which the mill owned the homes of the millworkers and operated the company store. Many people moved from family farms to the community around the mill. Community life centered on sections within the town like Red Slide, Pine Knot, Sugar Hill, and Johnson City.
In 1881, Thomas M. Holt built a power dam across the river and a second mill across the street from Granite. Holt's progressive management of the mill and his leadership of the North Carolina Railroad and the Grange led to a term as governor between 1891 and 1893. He died in 1896, leaving his son, Charles, to run the mill. The mill underwent several changes in management in the first quarter of the twentieth century.
The railroad bridge was the scene of derailments in 1911, 1936, and 1960. The last wreck damaged the depot which led to its demolition.
In 1928, the cotton factories in Haw River were acquired by Proximity Manufacturing, which later became Cone Mills Corporation. When corduroy became popular, the company decided to produce the cloth in Haw River. The plants south of Main Street were renamed Tabardrey and were equipped with new machinery to produce corduroy. The mills north of the highway became Granite Finishing for the finishing of the cloth. Corduroy production began on May 1, 1930, and Granite was shipping finished goods by June of the same year.
The little town thrived in the years following World War II. Businesses flourished on Main Street in the 1950s, and the Cone plants became the largest producers of corduroy in the world, employing over 1,000 people in 1981.
William Kerr Scott served as governor of North Carolina from 1949 to 1953, and from 1969 to 1973 his son, Robert Walker Scott, held the same office. Both men had Haw River addresses so that the only three governors from Alamance County are claimed by Haw River.
Haw River was officially incorporated on June 1, 1973. The Haw River municipal building was dedicated on Sunday, July 18, 1976, as part of the nation's bicentennial. The Haw River Municipal Park was opened on August 7, 1981.[8]
Haw River is the location of the untimely death of blood plasma pioneer Dr. Charles Drew, on April 1, 1950. He was driving a group of his colleagues to a medical conference in Alabama when he apparently dozed off at the wheel, resulting in a crash and the mortal wounds that were the cause of his death. An urban myth developed that he had been denied treatment and allowed to bleed to death, because of his being black, but eyewitnesses, including one of his fellow doctors who was at the hospital, have testified that nothing of the sort happened, as detailed in the Raleigh News and Observer.[9]
Orange County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 148,696. Its county seat is Hillsborough.
Guilford County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 541,299, making it the third-most populous county in North Carolina. The county seat, and largest community, is Greensboro. Since 1938, an additional county court has been located in High Point. The county was formed in 1771. Guilford County is included in the Greensboro-High Point, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, NC Combined Statistical Area.
Alamance County is a county in North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 171,415. Its county seat is Graham. Formed in 1849 from Orange County to the east, Alamance County has been the site of significant historical events, textile manufacturing, and agriculture.
Alamance is a village in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 951 at the 2010 census, up from 310 at the 2000 census.
Burlington is a city in Alamance and Guilford counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the principal city of the Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Alamance County, in which most of the city is located, and is a part of the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, NC Combined Statistical Area. The population was 57,303 at the 2020 census, which makes Burlington the 18th-most populous city in North Carolina.
Elon is a town in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Burlington metropolitan statistical area. The population as of the 2020 census was 11,324. The town of Elon is home to Elon University.
Glen Raven is a census-designated place (CDP) in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,750 at the 2010 census.
Graham is a city in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census the population was 17,153. It is the county seat of Alamance County.
Saxapahaw is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated area in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,648 at the 2010 census.
Swepsonville is a town in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population at the 2010 census was 1,154.
Gibsonville is a town in both Alamance and Guilford counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of Gibsonville is situated in the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point Combined Statistical Area and the eastern portion is in the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area, encompassing all of Alamance County. According to the 2020 census, the population of Gibsonville was 8,971.
Mebane is a city located mostly in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States, and partly in Orange County. The town was named for Alexander Mebane, an American Revolutionary War general and member of the U.S. Congress. It was incorporated as "Mebanesville" in 1881, and in 1883 the name was changed to "Mebane". It was incorporated as a city in 1987. The population as of the 2020 census was 17,768. Mebane is one of the fastest-growing municipalities in North Carolina. Mebane straddles the Research Triangle and Piedmont Triad Regions of North Carolina. The bulk of the city is in Alamance County, which comprises the Burlington Metropolitan Statistical Area, itself a component of the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point Combined Statistical Area. Two slivers in the eastern portion of the city are in Orange County, which is part of the Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area, itself a component of the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Combined Statistical Area.
William Kerr Scott was an American politician from North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 62nd governor of North Carolina from 1949 until 1953, and a United States Senator from 1954 until 1958.
Thomas Michael Holt was an American industrialist who served as the 47th governor of North Carolina from 1891 to 1893. Formerly a North Carolina State Senator and Speaker of the House of the North Carolina General Assembly, Holt was instrumental in the founding of North Carolina State University, as well as in establishing several railroads within the state and the state's department of agriculture. Holt was also responsible for the technology behind the family's Holt Mills "Alamance Plaids", the first colored cotton goods produced in the South – a development that revolutionized the Southern textile industry.
The Haw River is a tributary of the Cape Fear River, approximately 110 mi (177 km) long, that is entirely contained in north central North Carolina in the United States. It was first documented as the "Hau River" by John Lawson, an English botanist, in his 1709 book "A New Voyage to Carolina." The name is shortened from Saxapahaw, from the Catawban /sak'yápha:/, "piedmont, foothill", from /sak/, "hill", plus /yápha:/, "step". The river gives its name to a small town that formed on its banks.
The Haw River State Trail is a 80-mile (130 km) long multi-use trail currently being built through the North Carolina Piedmont. The trail follows the path of the Haw River from Haw River State Park on the Rockingham/Guilford County line to Jordan Lake State Recreation Area. The NC General Assembly authorized its addition to the State Trails System in June 2023.
Holt House or Holt Farm or variations may refer to:
Ralph Henderson Scott was an American politician and businessman.
The Granite Mill is a historic building located in Haw River, North Carolina. It is a complex of interconnected and free-standing manufacturing and storage buildings built between 1844 and 1990. The original mill was built in 1884.
Louise Matilda Moore Holt, also known as Louisa Holt, was an American political hostess who, as the wife of Thomas Michael Holt, served as the Second Lady of North Carolina from 1889 to 1891 and as the First Lady of North Carolina from 1891 to 1893.
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