The author, Steve Bailey, is outreach coordinator at the Anson County Historical Society.
The present town of Wadesboro dates back to 1783 when it was founded by Patrick Boggan and Thomas Wade. But Wadesboro – or Wadesborough when first established – started out as New Town (later shortened to Newton). It all started when Patrick Boggan bought 70 acres of land from William Best. Talk of chartering a town began in 1782, but it was in 1783 before the Hillsborough Assembly passed the bill creating the town.
The town was first built along the Pee Dee River. The first courthouse was built of logs but after the town was moved to its present location the old courthouse was torn down at Mount Pleasant on the Pee Dee and hauled to town. It was stored in a dwelling where John Q. McPherson lived on the southwest corner of Wade and Rutherford streets. A courthouse was built in New Town in the style of an old-fashioned cotton gin house.
Anson County’s third courthouse was built of brick in 1820 at the southeast corner of Wade and Greene streets and was topped with a white dome. The courtroom and offices were on the main floor and a large room upstairs served as a ballroom.
A fourth courthouse, also made of brick, was erected on the northeast corner of Wade and Greene streets. The cornerstone was laid in 1854 but on April 2, 1868, a great fire swept Wadesboro, destroying the courthouse and about 30 other buildings and businesses. This fire destroyed practically all the records of the Superior Court, the County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions and the marriage records of the county. The fire was said to have originated some distance from the courthouse but high winds and poor firefighting equipment hampered the men who labored in the area of the square to control the fire. Brick walls of the courthouse were left intact following the fire and a fifth courthouse sprang quickly from the ashes.
On April 12, 1912, the Board of Commissioners decided that Anson County needed a new courthouse so on June 8, 1914, Anson County ’s sixth courthouse was dedicated.
Not all county records were destroyed in the 1868 fire. Land records dating back to 1749 were saved (they’re in the Register of Deeds office in the Anson County Government Center on the Square and also on microfilm at the Wadesboro library) and so were wills dating back to 1751 (in the Clerk of Court’s office in the old Anson County Courthouse or on microfilm at the Wadesboro library). Slave transactions from 1750s through 1863 were also saved. Slave transactions were never indexed but scattered throughout the old deed books. Estate inventories from 1749 to 1795 were also saved (in Will Book Volume I at the Anson County Courthouse, but to my knowledge the estate inventories were never microfilmed) as were county court minutes from 1768 to 1778 and 1848 to 1868 (on microfilm in the history room at the Wadesboro library).
As a side note, Anson County newspapers dating back to 1848 can be viewed on microfilm in the history room at the Wadesboro library, and every item I’ve mentioned above can possibly be seen at the state archives in Raleigh, located at 109 East Jones St.