1754-1779

Cross Creek, Campbellton merge

Merchants in Wilmington wanted a town on the Cape Fear River to secure trade with the frontier country. They were afraid people would use the Pee Dee River, taking their goods to Charleston, S.C.

In the 1750s, John Newberry built a gristmill west of where two creeks crossed, leading to the development of the village of Cross Creek.

In 1761, the state assembly considered petitions to incorporate from settlements on Cross Creek and Rockfish Creek.

It found both places unsuitable for towns and ordered 100 mostly swampy acres just south of Cross Creek surveyed. Campbellton was formed to encourage "honest and able traders to reside therein."

The town may have been named for a community in Argylshire, Scotland, or after Farquhard Campbell, one of the area's early Highlander settlers, or after John Campbell of Bertie County, a friend of the governor.

Merchants, though, bought land from Newberry in Cross Creek. Campbellton became a place where free blacks and poor whites lived and was known for its lawlessness.

Cross Creek merchants asked the assembly to move the courthouse from Campbellton to Cross Creek, "whose situation is healthy and airy and dry & every conveniency immediately at hand," while Campbellton was "surrounded by so many swamps & morasses," according to the petition. Campbellton also lacked a tavern, a necessary adjunct to the courthouse.

In 1778, the legislature combined the towns, designating Cross Creek as Upper Campbellton. The designation appears to be mostly governmental. Maps of the time show "Crosscreek."

In 1783, Campbellton got a new name. The Senate preferred Milton, but the name was changed to Fayetteville to honor the Marquis de Lafayette.

The legislature's zeal to honor the French general continued in the 1784 session with Cumberland County divided into Moore and Fayette counties. The legislature soon repealed that decision.

C.J. Sauthier drew a map of the town of Cross Creek in 1770.