This highway marker commemorates a local citizen who was born here but went on to serve elsewhere…read more The marker reads, "John J. McRae, 1815-1868. Governor of Mississippi, 1854-1857. Member, U.S. Senate and House; Confederate congressman. Born 5 miles southeast." Online there is more information. "John J McRae, born in Sneedsborough in Anson County in 1815, moved to Winchester, Mississippi, in 1818 and became a prominent politician in Mississippi and nationally. McRae represented the state of Mississippi in the United States Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Confederate Congress during his career. He also served two terms as governor of Mississippi in the 1850s." "In 1851 McRae was appointed to complete the U.S. Senate term of Jefferson Davis. Two years later he was appointed to finish the term of John A. Quitman in the House of Representatives. He withdrew from his position in the House with all other Mississippi representatives following the secession of Mississippi from the Union in January 1861. McRae was elected as a Mississippi representative to the lower house of the Confederate Congress, serving from 1862 until 1864." [Review 14332 overall, 1656 of 2020, number 2699 in North Carolina.]

Anson County is named for George, Lord Anson, who was a celebrated English admiral and who…read morecircumnavigated the globe in 1740 to 1744. The county was created in 1749, and Mount Pleasant was selected as the county seat in 1750. In 1785, the county seat was moved to Wadesboro. This building was completed in 1913 and is the fifth to serve as the county courthouse. It is a two-story buff-colored brick and concrete structure. The front is a monumental Doric portico, with four fluted columns supporting a wide entablature and frieze. The second-story windows are recessed and arched, and a projecting cornice runs beneath the roofline, giving the building a stately, balanced appearance. It is a Classical Revival architecture and conveys order and permanence. Half of the original Confederal Soldiers monument remains with the soldier having been removed. The other inscriptions point to the Confederate cause, listing the specific regiments and companies from Anson County that served in the war. There is also a non-Civil War memorial listing names of those lost from Anson County who served in World War I, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Two plaques next to the entrance, one listing "the negro men of Anson County who went forth at the call of their country" and the other with just "the men and women of Anson County." So there's that. [Review 1310 of 2025 - 4445 in North Carolina - 24862 overall]

Was it only last year that we all got into a tizzy with the eclipse that was visible from Texas to…read moreMaine? People went NUTS. So I totally get that this marker is here, to an earlier eclipse and in a part of the country that was well populated. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, which dispatched a team to Wadesboro, North Carolina, chosen for its optimal viewing conditions. Photographer Thomas Smillie rigged cameras to seven telescopes and captured eight glass-plate negatives of the solar corona--some as large as 30 by 30 inches. These images were considered groundbreaking for both photography and astronomy. The U.S. Weather Bureau selected Newberry, South Carolina for a meteorological study, based on historical cloudiness data. Their goal was to observe how the eclipse affected atmospheric conditions. Their gamble paid off: skies were clear, temperatures moderate, and pressure high, allowing for ideal observations. The eclipse's duration increased as it moved eastward, from about 72 seconds in New Orleans to roughly 100 seconds near Norfolk, Virginia. It is a black marker with white text. It has the same on both sides, reading , "In 1900, hundreds of astronomers and newspaper reporters from around the world descended on Wadesboro, the perfect place to view and report on a total solar eclipse that occurred on May 28 at 1:54 PM. The goal was the rare opportunity to study the corona around the sun at total eclipse. Preeminent scientists came from around the world, among these representatives from the University of North Carolina, University of Chicago-Yerkes Observatory, Princeton, Yale, the Smithsonian, and the British Astronomical Association. Newspaper reporters from the Charlotte Observer and Charlotte News, the New York Sun, the New York World and New York Journal, the Chicago Times-Herald, the Chicago Tribune. the Philadelphia Press, the London Times, and the local Anson Independent and the Messenger and Intelligencer covered the event. "The event, which lasted precisely 2 minutes and 10 seconds, took years of planning, months of preparation, days of anticipation and hours of waiting. Tens of thousands of pictures and measurements taken that day would be studied for years to come." The marker was erected in 2017 by the Anson County Historical Society. The eclipse was one of the first eclipses to be widely documented by both scientists and the public, marking a turning point in eclipse science and public engagement. [Review 1330 of 2025 - 4449 in North Carolina - 24882 overall]

This marker commemorates a local citizen who represented his community in the state Senate and then…read morethe US Congress before being appointed as consul to Cuba and then to England, where he passed. He is interred in the crypt of Kensington Church. During the nullification movement he was commissioned general of South Carolina troops in 1833. It ensued after South Carolina declared that the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and therefore null and void within the sovereign boundaries of the state. The marker reads, "Robert Blair Campbell. This U.S. Congressman and diplomat was born at Woodstock (Argyle) Plantation, 3 1/2 miles southwest. He was a Brigadier General in the State Militia and served in the S.C. Senate 1822-23, 1830-34. He represented this district in the U.S. Congress 1823-25, 1834-37. He was U.S. Consul to Cuba 1842-50 and to England 1854-61. In 1862 he died and was buried in London." [Review 14331 overall, 1655 of 2020, number 709 in South Carolina.]

The historic Richmond County Courthouse in Rockingham was completed in 1923 and stands as a proud…read moreexample of Renaissance Revival architecture. It was designed by one of North Carolina's most prolific early 20th-century architects, Charles Christian Hook and reflects the civic ideals of permanence, order, and classical dignity. Its façade is composed of a three-story central pavilion flanked by two-story wings that lend the structure a sense of weight and refinement. The most commanding architectural element is the hexastyle portico: a recessed porch supported by six massive columns that rise to a broad entablature, visually extending the building's height and anchoring its symmetrical composition. The entrance is recessed on the second story, accessible by a grand staircase, while the south side descends a natural slope, revealing arched windows and additional massing that enhance the building's visual depth. This courthouse is the fourth in Richmond County's judicial lineage. The county's first court convened in 1779 inside a modest Presbyterian meeting house near Hitchcock Creek, reflecting the frontier conditions of the time. A one-room wooden courthouse followed in 1784, succeeded by a more substantial brick structure in 1845. That building was destroyed by fire in 1888, prompting the construction of a third courthouse in 1889. This structure replaced it in the early 1920s, incorporating fireproofing and modern materials while preserving the classical vocabulary of civic architecture. Across the street, the Richmond County Judicial Center was completed in 2009, shifting many, but not all, courtroom functions to a modern facility. The historic courthouse remains in active use for select proceedings and administrative functions, preserving its role as a living monument to the county's legal heritage. [Review 1333 of 2025 - 4452 in North Carolina - 24885 overall]

This marker is in front of a farm stand not far from downtown Rockingham and points out the history…read moreof an important local union. The marker reads, "North Carolina Farmer's Alliance. Organized by statewide convention of delegates in Rockingham, Oct. 4, 1887. Leonidas L. Polk elected first secretary." Online, there is more information. "The Farmers' Alliance, which originated in Texas and appeared in North Carolina in 1887, was an important agent of change in an era of political and social upheaval. The organization, national in scope, was private and nominally nonpartisan. According to John D. Hicks, pioneer of Alliance historiography, the national organization's aims were fourfold: social, educational, financial, and political. In North Carolina the entanglements of the Alliance with politics were many, culminating with the defection of a sizable number of Alliance men to the Populist Party in 1892. Historian Lala Carr Steelman detailed the State Alliance's attempts to win control of the Democratic Party, purify politics, elected farmers to office, and enact agrarian reforms." "The organizational meeting of the State Alliance was held in Rockingham over two days, October 4-5, 1887. The convention drew up a constitution and appointed committees. Chosen as officers were: Alexander, president; Thaddeus Ivey, vice-president; Polk, secretary; J. D. Allen, treasurer; and Elias Carr, chairman of the executive committee." [Review 15457 overall, 961 of 2021, number 3001 in North Carolina.]

This marker is located at the side of US-74 in front of Anson High School…read more The marker reads, ""Father of soil conservation." First chief of the Soil Conservation Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1935-1952. Born 4 miles southwest." Online there is more information. "Among soil conservationists and agronomists, Hugh Hammond Bennett, nicknamed "the Chief" or "Big Hugh," is a legend. Widely credited with selling the benefits of soil conservation to a dubious public, Bennett is known as the "father of soil conservation." Born on a 1,500-acre farm in Anson County, in the drainage basin of the Pee Dee River, Bennett at the age of ten realized the woeful effects of erosion and benefits of conservation." "Sheet erosion, he reasoned, was the problem and preservation of the topsoil was the key. Soil conservation could be pursued through terracing, strip cropping, contour plowing, grassed waterways, and crop rotation, among other means. Bennett promoted the planting of covers such as kudzu and lespedza grass." "In 1951 the News and Observer wrote of Bennett that "When history finally sets up the measure of the contributions of the men of our times, it may very well be that so far as North Carolina is concerned Hugh Bennett of Wadesboro will be recognized as the most important North Carolinian of this generation."" [Review 13953 overall, 1275 of 2020, number 2596 in North Carolina.]

This historical marker points out the early plans of settlers which did not manage to survive into…read morethe present. The marker reads, "Sneedsborough. Laid out 1795. Promoted as inland port town on Pee Dee River by Archibald D. Murphey. Only graveyard remains, five miles southeast." Online, there is more information. " In 1795 a town called Sneedsborough was founded in Anson County on the land of Richard Edgeworth. Sneedsborough was developed as an inland port town, to be connected to the Pee Dee River by a series of canals. The town expanded after its conception and became a small merchant center close to the North Carolina - South Carolina border. he canals proved impossible to build though, stalling the development and growth of industry and the town itself. By the Civil War the town had been abandoned and its remnants were destroyed by Union troops." When you zoom out and look at how far the Pee Dee River is from the coast, you can kind of understand that. [Review 14333 overall, 1657 of 2020, round number 2700 in North Carolina.]