Topics Related to Lenoir County

Location: US 70 at SR 1821 (British Road) southeast of Kinston
County: Lenoir
Original Date Cast: 1989

(NOTE: Large marker includes a map; the full text follows.)

Member of N.C. Senate, 1829-1836; Speaker, 1833-1835. First governor of State of Florida, 1845-1849. Home was 1 mi. N.
Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1902-1919. Educator and agriculturist. Home is 3 blks. N.W.
Disciples of Christ since 1843. Organized about 1760 as Free Will Baptist. Part of present church built in 1858. One mile northwest.
On a raid from New Bern to Goldsboro, the Union troops led by Gen. J. G. Foster passed through Kinston, Dec. 14, 1862.
Confederate ironclad, built at Whitehall and floated down the Neuse. Grounded and burned by Confederates in 1865. Remains one block N.
Plantation of Gov. Dobbs, selected as the colonial capital & named George City by act of assembly, 1758. Act was never executed. 1 1/2 mi. S.
First governor of the State, 1776. Revolutionary statesman and soldier. Grave 166 yards south.

On October 27, 1961, Henry Casey, Lemuel Houston and Thomas Carlyle began serious efforts to salvage the remains of the ironclad CSS Neuse from the Neuse River in Kinston.