Avery County History

Avery County is the newest of North Carolina’s 100 counties as it was formed on February 23, 1911, from parts of Caldwell County, Mitchell County, and Watauga County. It was named for the American Revolutionary War Colonel and the first Attorney General of North Carolina, Waightstill Avery.

The county seat was originally in the Town of Elk Park, which was then the largest town in the county, located on the county’s north end, on the Tennessee border. Upon completion of the county’s courthouse in 1912, the county seat was moved to the more centrally located unincorporated area known as Fields of Toe, for the meadows along the head of the Toe River, in what is now the town of Newland.

At an election held on August 1, 1911, Old Fields of Toe was selected as the county seat. It so happened that this land had been granted to Col. Waightstill Avery on November 9, 1783. In his honor, the 100th county was named, while the county seat was called Newland, in honor of W. C. Newland, of Lenoir, then the lieutenant governor of North Carolina and an influential Democrat, who helped garner support in the then heavily Democratic legislature in Raleigh, for Avery County, an overwhelmingly pro-Union Republican area, becoming the state’s 100th and final county.

According to local legend, Elk Park citizens were upset at the decision to move of the county seat from their town, and they refused to give up the books. The then sheriff, like all county officials, was a Democrat and an interim appointee of the Democratic governor in Raleigh, who would hold office from July 1, 1911, until the next election cycle in late 1912, when the almost all-Republican electorate would undoubtedly vote in all Republicans as local officials. The sheriff was leery of confronting the irate local Elk Park citizens, so his wife baked cookies and had their pastor deliver them as a peace offering. The citizens then cheerfully handed over the books, which were sent to the new offices at the new courthouse in Newland

The jail and courthouse were completed sufficiently to allow court proceedings to be held in April 1913 with Judge Daniels presiding.

The early buildings of Avery County reflect the nature of life in the area. Cabins, barns, and sheds were constructed mainly of logs. Rock was plentiful and used for foundations and chimneys. After Avery County was formed in 1911, work began on the courthouse and the present-day Avery County Historical Museum in 1912. The Avery County Courthouse is two-story with a beautiful crowning cupola, kept to the traditional Neoclassical Revival style of other North Carolina Courthouses.