Ruffin is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
located in
Rockingham County, North Carolina
Rockingham County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,096. Its county seat is Wentworth. The county is known as "North Carolina's North Star."
Rockingham County is included in ...
. It is northeast of
Reidsville, North Carolina, and southwest of
Danville, Virginia
Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, located in the Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River. It was a center of tobacco production and was an area of Confederate activity ...
, just off
US 29
U.S. Route 29 (US 29) is a north–south United States highway that runs for from Pensacola, Florida to the western suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland in the Southern United States, connecting the Florida Panhandle to the Baltimore-Washington ...
(future
Interstate 785
Interstate 785 (I-785) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of North Carolina. , it is completed through eastern Guilford County, through a concurrency with I-840 along the Greensboro Urban Loop. When completed, it will c ...
). It has a population of 419.
Neighboring communities and municipalities include
Reidsville,
Eden,
Pelham,
Casville, and
Wentworth Wentworth may refer to:
People
* Wentworth (surname)
* Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth (1873–1957), Lady Wentworth, notable Arabian horse breeder
* S. Wentworth Horton (1885–1960), New York state senator
* Wentworth Miller (born 1 ...
. Ruffin had the first established volunteer fire department in Rockingham County. Residents produce tobacco, vegetables and strawberries. The area also had a gold mine. Churches in the community include Ruffin United Methodist Church and Ruffin-Stacey Baptist Church.
With the completion of the vital Piedmont Railroad by the Confederate Government in early 1864, the village of Ruffin experienced steady growth. Subsequently, Ruffin became an important center of trade for both Rockingham and Caswell counties. Yet substantial growth and commerce were to elude Ruffin. Instead the prosperity was to find a home in a smaller crossroads hamlet to the south by the name of
Reidsville. Tradition relates that growth in Ruffin was doomed because the large local landowners wanted to remain just that. Consequently, a booming town could not develop. From 1887-1897 though, Ruffin was incorporated with its own mayor. The last mayor of Ruffin was Victor M. Holderby, who was an active member of the Ruffin Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
The community is named after
Thomas Ruffin (1787–1870) an American jurist and Justice of the
North Carolina Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina is the state of North Carolina's highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s, it was the state's only appellate court. The Supreme Court consists ...
from 1829 to 1852 and again from 1858 to 1859. He was Chief Justice of that Court from 1833 to 1852. He lived in the community for a short while.
On April 15, 2018, Ruffin was struck by an
EF1 tornado which was part of a larger
outbreak
In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...
across the southeast.
NOAA Tornado Incident Data April 15th, 2018
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References
Unincorporated communities in Rockingham County, North Carolina
Unincorporated communities in North Carolina
{{RockinghamCountyNC-geo-stub