Bits and pieces of wELDON HISTORY.

WHEN WAS WELDON FOUNDED?

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1745

It seems that a Daniel Weldon, generally thought to be the brother of Samuel Weldon, Lt. Colonel in the Revolution, came to Granville County in 1745 and became clerk of court. He and three others completed the survey work to delineate the border along North Carolina and Virginia between Peter’s Creek and the Holston River. In 1758, according to deed records, he laid off a town which became incorporated as the town of Halifax.

1752

In 1752, Daniel Weldon purchased from Marmaduke Kimbrough 1273 acres along the Roanoke River on both sides of Chockoyotte Creek. Over time, this would become the town of Weldon.

1753

In 1753, he bought another smaller plot of land on the Roanoke River from a different person.

For centuries before the Weldons, the Tuscarora tribe occupied the territory along the river. They named the river Marattock, which means “death” because the river, though bountiful, brought danger because of its powerful currents, jagged rocks and swirling rapids. Weldon’s Orchard, Weldon’s Place or Weldon’s Landing, as the area became known, lured fishermen, traders, planters, and adventurers up the river, down the river, from the ocean over land. Steamboats from ports to the south docked at Weldon, their cargo hauled over land for eight miles to avoid the rocks and rapids, and then up the Roanoke River by bateau as far as the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

1818

By 1818, commerce on the river had picked up, and a notice appeared in the Halifax Compiler:

“In the town of MARATTOCK,
will be sold to the
Highest Bidder,
on a credit of six months, on the
1st day of September next.”