Polk County

by Copeland, J. Isaac. Franklin Coxe, industrialist, banker, and railroad executive, was born in Rutherfordton, the son of Francis Sidney and Jane McBee Alexander Coxe. An ancestor, Daniel Coxe, had settled in New Jersey [...] (from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Fant, H. B. John Baylis Earle, drummer boy and militiaman of Revolutionary North Carolina, planter-enslaver, congressman, and longtime adjutant general of South Carolina, was born probably in Virginia as were [...] (from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Walser, Richard. Emma Payne Erskine, writer, painter, and civic leader, was born in Racine, Wis., the daughter of Alfred and Olive Child Payne. Her father, a native of England, was a portraitist and taught at the Art [...] (from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Powell, William S. Mary Elizabeth Hughes, pioneer woman physician, was born in Ebensburg, Pa., the second daughter of Ezekiel and Harriet Russell Hughes. Her father was a native of Wales, an engineer, and an active [...] (from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Green, C. Sylvester. Amos Isaac Justice, Baptist clergyman, was born in the Edneyville section of rural Henderson County. No record has been found identifying his parents, although it is known that his family moved to [...] (from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Roberts, B. W. C. Michael Hoke Justice, Confederate ordnance officer, attorney, state senator, and Superior Court judge, was born in Rutherford County. He was the fourth of six children of the Reverend Thomas Butler [...] (from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Powell, William S. Lanier, Sidney Clopton by William S. Powell, 1991 3 Feb. 1842–7 Sept. 1881 Sidney Clopton Lanier, poet, musician, novelist, and author of books for boys, was born in [...] (from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Davis, Sarajanee. Is Nina Simone one of them? The singer was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina. She learned to play the piano at only three years old. Although her family had limited financial [...] (from NCpedia K-8 Collection.)

by Walser, Richard. Elia (Maria Cahill) W. Peattie, writer, journalist, and lecturer, was born in Kalamazoo, Mich., the oldest of five daughters of Frederick and Amanda Maria Cahill Wilkerson. She and her four [...] (from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Franke, Matthew. The artist who would come to be known across the world as Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina in Polk County. She was the sixth of eight [...] (from NCpedia.)

by Meehan, James. William Sherley Williams, trapper and guide better known as Bill or Old Bill Williams, was born on a farm on Horse Creek in Rutherford (now Polk) County, the fourth of nine children of Joseph and [...] (from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.)