Houstonville is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in the Eagle Mills Township of

Iredell County, North Carolina Iredell County ( )Talk Like a Tarheel
, from the North Carolina Co ...

, United States. Houstonville is located on U.S. Route 21, north of

Harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

. Houstonville was founded in 1789 by Christopher Houston and is the second oldest town in Iredell County after the county seat, Statesville.

History

Captain Christopher Houston (1744–1837), an American Revolutionary War veteran, was instrumental in establishing Iredell County in 1788 and the county seat of Statesville in 1789. He recognized the need for a town in the northern end of the county on Hunting Creek, so he founded Houstonville in 1789. (Houston moved to

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

in 1815.) Other early settlers in Houstonville include: * Captain Thomas Cadet Young (1732–1829), American Revolutionary War veteran, settled in the area in about 1778The Heritage of Iredell County, 1980, published by the Genealogical Society of Iredell County, PO Box 946, Statesville, North Carolina 28677, , 642 pages with index * Captain Placebo Houston (1779–1859), born and died in Houstonville, son of Christopher Houston who married daughter of Thomas Cadet Young * Solomon Hayes (1750–1830) * * Col Francis Young (1779–1854), veteran of the War of 1812, buried in the Young Family Cemetery just north of Houstonville Christopher Houston and most of the original settlers in this area ran small plantations and owned slaves. Christopher Houston owned six and Thomas Young owned 13 slaves in 1790. The first post office was established in Houstonville on October 1, 1804, with Christopher Houston as postmaster. This post office was the second post office in Iredell County (after the Statesville Post Office) and served continually until February 9, 1869. A post office was re-established on March 5, 1883, with Mary C. Dalton as post master. This post office continued until November 30, 1955. Ebenezer Academu

The following historic sites are located in or near Houstonville and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. * Ebenezer Academy a log school house established in 1821 and still standing * Bethesda Presbyterian Church, Session House and Cemetery, established in 1853 * Daltonia, located near Houstonville and built by John H. Dalton in 1858 * Welch-Nicholson House and Mill Site, located near Houstonville and built in 1795 Other notable sites in or near Houstonville include: * New Hope Baptist Church and Cemetery * Young Family Cemetery, which includes American Revolutionary War graves, dating from 1797 * Hayes Family Cemetery, near Houstonville school, Road # 1830Cemetery Records, Book 1, Page 577, Iredell, North Carolina Register of Deeds * Zion Hill

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, or the AME Zion Church (AMEZ) is a historically African-American Christian denomination based in the United States. It was officially formed in 1821 in New York City, but operated for a number of y ...

and Cemetery

References

Mary Hunter Kennedy Papers #3242
Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unincorporated communities in Iredell County, North Carolina Unincorporated communities in North Carolina {{IredellCountyNC-geo-stub