The eleventh president of the U.S., James Knox Polk (1795-1849), was the oldest of 10 children. He was a descendant of a Scottish religious reformer named John Knox. His family members helped organize the Presbyterian Church in the region. Polk was born near Pineville in Mecklenburg County, not far from the birthplace of another president, Andrew Jackson. Polk graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1818.
John Taylor Williams (1859-1924), the man who would become an educator, physician, businessman and diplomat, was born in Cumberland County, N.C., the son of free blacks during the time of slavery. In 1880, he graduated at the top of his class at the State Normal School, now Fayetteville University. He taught at Myers Street School, the first school for black children in Charlotte.
Born at Waxhaw near the North-South Carolina border, Andrew Jackson (1767 - 1845) grew up to become a lawyer, war hero, and the seventh president of the U.S. Unlike most other politicians of his time, his family was not wealthy. His father died before he was born. In 1780 at age 13, he became a Revolutionary War scout and messenger. One year later, he was captured by the British, forced to march to a prison in South Carolina, then orphaned when his mother died.
In 1755, surveyor Thomas Polk (1732-1794) built his home where two Indian trading paths met. Many years later this crossroads would become the Square, the intersection of Charlotte's busy Trade and Tryon streets. Polk married Susannah Spratt, whose family was one of the first to make their way through the wilderness to what would become Charlotte Town. With Abraham Alexander and John Frohock, Polk bought 360 acres of land from Britain's Lord Augustus Selwyn. The land lay where the future downtown Charlotte would flourish.
Zaccheus Wilson (1733 - 1824) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. He, like many other signers, was a surveyor. Wilson was one of the first to leave the state and died near Gallatin, Tennessee, in 1824. Lizzie Conger Ross, his wife and the widow of Nicholas Ross, died in 1796, leaving him no reason to stay in the county. Major David Wilson, his brother, had earlier left Mecklenburg Co. for Tennessee, having received a land grant for military service.
William Kennon (circa 1735 - ?) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. Although most of the signers were Presbyterians, William Kennon was Anglican and not even a citizen of the county. Although born and raised near Petersburg, Virginia, he went to the College of New Jersey, now known as Princeton University, to finish his formal education.
John Queary (first half of the 18th century -?) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. This surname may have many variations in early colonial records. He was born in Scotland and came to America as a young man.
At age 18, Samuel Wittkowsky (1835-1911) came to New York from his native country of Prussia (now part of Poland). He traveled to Charleston, S.C., before settling in Charlotte. He worked as a store clerk, later formed several partnerships in retail businesses before becoming a forming a successful hat manufacturing firm in Statesville, NC.
Edward Dilworth Latta (1851-1925) was a native of Pendleton, S.C. He came to Charlotte in 1876 and worked in a clothing store. In 1890, he organized the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company, also called the 4 Cs, and shortly afterward began developing the city's first suburb, Dilworth. He was responsible for commissioning noted Olmsted landscape architecture firm to design a section of Dilworth in a new way. Instead of the grid pattern of the city's downtown area, the new suburb was graced with curved streets that followed the natural patterns of the land.
John Reed (1757 or 1758-1845) was one of the Hessian (or German) soldiers for hire whom Britain's King George III sent to colonial America to suppress the uprisings of colonists who were fighting for independence. Reed was one of many soldiers who realized that they could make a better life in the colonies than in their homeland. He married Sarah Kizer and they settled on a farm northeast of Charlotte.