Welcome To The
Gaston County Page
of the NCGenWeb Project

Paul D. Buckley, Coordinator


VISIT THE

GASTON COUNTY
NCGenWeb page

Until the 1730's the only people living west of the Catawba River were native Americans. A few hunters and traders who made contact with these Indians noted the good lands and fast-flowing streams. By the 1740's men came down the Great Wagon road from Pennsylvania and up the Broad River from Charleston, SC.
    The inhabitants of Gaston County numbered something less than 8,000, twenty-five percent of them Negro slaves and a small proportion Indians, local survivors of the once great tribe of the Catawbas. There were no towns, hardly any settlements. The crossroads store of Fred D. Hoffman and Moses Rhyne, close to the place where Dutchman's Creek flowed into the Catawba, had served as headquarters for the committee that had fought so well for the establishment of Gaston County.
   Gaston was formed in 1846 from Lincoln. It was named in honor of William Gaston, a member of Congress and a Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. It is in the southwestern section of the State and is bounded by the state of South Carolina and Cleveland, Lincoln and Mecklenburg counties.
   The court was ordered to be held at the home of Jesse Holland until a courthouse could be erected. Commissioners were named to select a site for the county seat as near the center of the county as possible provided it was within two miles of Long Creek Baptist Meeting House. They were to acquire land, lay out a town by the name of Dallas, and erect a courthouse. Dallas continued to be the county seat until 1909 when Gastonia was, by popular vote, selected as the county seat. 


Query Forum, Gaston County RootsWeb Forum Board. 

Gaston County Resources , surnames, timeline, court, cemetery, census records, neighbors, interesting  links, libraries, societies, maps, etc.

Welcome to Gaston County, The official Gaston County Government page that includes a visitor guide, regional map, calendar of events, and county government agencies.


In March and April, 1996, a group of genealogists organized the Kentucky Comprehensive Genealogy Database. The idea was to provide a single entry point for all counties in Kentucky, where collected databases would be stored. In addition, the databases would be indexed and cross-linked, so that even if an individual were found in more than one county, they could be located in the index.
   At the same time, volunteers were found who were willing to coordinate the collection of databases and generally oversee the contents of the web page. The NCGenWeb Project is an extension of the KYGenWeb Project. My name is Paul Buckley and I'm the volunteer responsible for Gaston County.  Please
contact me if you have a link you think should be included, if you would like to volunteer to do lookups or if you have suggestions or comments.


Derick S. Hartshorn - ©2008
Last Modified: