Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina

Nov 27, 2015 Fri0Confederate Statues

Laurie and I like riding our Gold Wing motorcycle. But it is easy to get into a rut and just ride the same roads. So to force ourselves to ride to places we would not normally visit we made a goal to visit and photograph all 100 North Carolina courthouses within 1 year.

As usual, we got a little behind. We started in July 2015 and finished 99 out of 100 by June 2018. The last courthouse was in our home county of Wake and it took us until Feb 2021 to get that final one. But we made it! This blog is about one of those visits.

Many NC courthouses were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The nomination form has some interesting facts about the various courthouse styles over the years.






Courthouse Information


There is no Wikipedia entry for this courthouse but the site does have this information about the City of Clinton.

The first European settlers came to the Clinton area around 1740. The community was originally Clinton Courthouse. There was an earlier incorporated town of Clinton in Matthews County (now Davie County); however, that town folded in 1822 and the Town of Clinton was incorporated in 1822.[4] In 1852, the General Assembly passed several acts to improve regulation of towns, including Clinton. As part of the "Act for the Better Regulation of the Town of Clinton in the County of Sampson," the General Assembly appointed five commissioners: James Moseley, Isaac Boykin, Dr. Henry Bizzel, John Beaman, and Alfred Johnson. The corporate limits of the town at that time extended a half mile each way from the courthouse.[5] The first records of an election were in February 1852 and the first tax rate was $0.50 per $100 valuation of real property. In July 1953, the town officially changed its name to the City of Clinton.

Clinton is the geographic center of the county, and because Sampson County is primarily rural farmland, Clinton developed as the major agricultural marketing center. Clinton is also where future 13th Vice President William R. King, (1786-1853), later of Alabama, under 14th President Franklin Pierce, (1804-1869), of New Hampshire, was born and began his legal career. He died shortly after being separately sworn-in and inaugurated in March 1853 in Havana, Cuba, the only one so done on foreign soil.






County Information


The North Carolina History Project lists the following information for this county:

John Sampson, a Scotch-Irish planter who had settled in Duplin County in the mid-1770s, and his step-son Richard Clinton, influenced the formation of Sampson County. Both men served in the Duplin County militia and at respective times as the Register of Deeds. Sampson passed his public duties to Clinton, and in 1776, Richard became the representative for Duplin County in the N.C. House of Commons. In 1784, Clinton sponsored a bill that sought to create a new county in the state, and the legislature granted the request. Clinton, in honor of his stepfather, named the county "Sampson." Several years later, the county seat was established in 1852, and it took the name Clinton, in honor of the other founding father of Sampson County.

A coastal county, Sampson County's original natives were the Coharie, and the European immigrants that followed them were the Welsh, English, and Scotch-Irish. In 1745, Henry McCulloch, a London merchant who was awarded a large land grant from the British king, allowed numerous settlers from Northern Ireland to inhabit and develop the early colony. Years later, northern immigrants from New Jersey and Massachusetts traveled and settled in Sampson County.

Clinton is the county seat of Sampson County, and other townships in the area include Suttontown, Elliott, Tomahawk, Garland, Newton Grove, Turkey, Harrells, Parkersburg, and Keener. Some physical traits and rivers in Sampson County are the Mingo and Starling Swamps, Warrens Pond, the Black River, Dismal Bay, and the Turkey and Wild Cat Creeks.

The county hosts various cultural events and commemorations. The Hollerin' Contest is the most popular festival in Sampson. Held at Spivey's Corner since the late 1960s, the annual Hollerin' Contest commemorates hollering. Described by historian William S. Powell as an art that "before the the telephone, was an essential means of communicating for people in the rural areas of North Carolina." The Hollerin' Contest brings nearly 3,000 tourists to Sampson County every June, and the festival's primary motive is to keep hollering alive in North Carolina and to raise money for the Volunteer Fire Department for Spivey's Corner. Other events include the Sweet Potato Festival, the Fireman's Day Parade and Festival, and the Rotary Fair and Parade.

Some important historic places and sites in Sampson County include the Archibald Monk House (ca. 1824), the Graves-Stuart House (ca. 1840s), Thirteen Oaks (1902), and the Clinton Depot and Freight Station (ca. 1920). In addition to these historic landmarks, the Sampson County History Museum, the Community Theatre Group, and the Dr. Victor R. Small Cultural Arts Center remain important cultural establishments in Sampson County.

An important gun factory that supplied North Carolina and Continental troops during the Revolutionary War was located in Sampson County. Commissioned in April 1776, the NC legislature allotted 1,000 pounds for the new factory, and the government ordered the factory to charge colonists no more than five pounds for one musket. Although the Tory militia ransacked the gun factory, the site constructed one hundred muskets, six smoothbore guns, and three rifles before ceasing production. During the Revolution, several factories like the one in Sampson County were formed in other towns, such as Edenton, Halifax, and Hillsborough.

Sampson County has been the birthplace to various politicians, soldiers, and other important North Carolinians. William R. King (1786-1853), perhaps Sampson's most prominent native, became Ambassador to England and France, and King served as Vice President of the United States for a brief time until his death in 1853. Other natives include Micajah Autry, who fought at the Alamo with Davy Crockett, and Theophilus Homes, a North Carolina General who served in the Civil War. Homes earned the distinction as the highest ranking officer from North Carolina who served in the Confederate Army.






Our Experience


The City of Clinton has a nice down town. The courthouse has the usual monuments but I think we hit another first. William Rufus King is a native and was Vice President of the United States.

Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:00:03 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:00:14 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:01:01 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolinay
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:01:12 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:01:41 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:02:12 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:02:27 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:02:56 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:03:04 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:03:24 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:03:33 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:03:57 AM EST Altitude: 171 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:04:53 AM EST Altitude: 169 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:06:14 AM EST Altitude: 169 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:06:40 AM EST Altitude: 169 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:07:01 AM EST Altitude: 169 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:07:29 AM EST Altitude: 169 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:08:17 AM EST Altitude: 168 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:09:04 AM EST Altitude: 168 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 11:09:18 AM EST Altitude: 168 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Sampson County Courthouse in Clinton, North Carolina



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