Most of Carolina was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. Below: maps from 1971 on and the census since 1970.
Carolina was founded by Elzy Henderson Garvin from Wagener, South Carolina. South Carolina had been hit by an especially severe drought and when missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) arrived in the area, many members of the Garvin family converted to the Mormon faith. Elzy Garvin left South Carolina in search of better land, better climate for farming and for matters of faith. It was recorded that he once remarked, "Our family left Ireland to practice our faith, and we are not becoming something new." The area reminded him so much of his home state that he named it "Carolina".
Passages that mention Carolina, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of the South Carolina cession, and the Northern boundary of Tennessee1884 · page 21Read the page →
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This brings us to the second period of our history, which opens with a curious complication. In 1792, William Blount, Territorial Governor of Tennessee, insisted that the first resolution of the Carolina Legislature in 1789 was not a legal confirmation of Walker's Line; and that the second resolution of 1790, passed many months after the acceptance of the Cession by Congress, was invalid as to the United States, of which Tennessee was then a territory. He further urged that North Carolina had for ten years before the Cession exercised jurisdiction to Hen-
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Annals of the Fowler family, with branches in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, California, and Texas1901 · page 270Read the page →
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"My grandfather went on horseback from Xorth Carolina to Tennessee in 1823 or 1824. [It was in 1825, quoting Mrs. E. H. Powell as authority. ] He laid claim to several tracts of government lands in Henry and Obion counties and then returned to Xorth Carolina for his family, moving them to the former county, where lie located very near the present town of Paris, where he continued to reside until his death in 1854, at the ripe age of seventy-five years.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Carolina, 1900 to 1971
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
!["My grandfather went on horseback from Xorth Carolina to Tennessee in 1823 or 1824. [It was in 1825, quoting Mrs. E. H. Powell as authority. ] He laid claim to several tracts of government lands in Henry and Obion counties and then returned to Xorth Carolina for his family, moving them to the forme…](https://images.townratings.com/story/53/bk-a5ba3f6e4c3918b0-l.jpg)
