page_title: Caswell County, North Carolina
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Caswell County, North Carolina / History
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the Irwin House, Read &amp; Broad Streets, Milton, Caswell County, North Carolina. Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
context_page_description: Caswell County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is part of the Greensboro-High Point Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 23,719. Its county seat is Yanceyville.
context_section_description: Caswell County was formed from a northern portion of Orange County in 1777. The newly formed county was named for Richard Caswell, Governor of North Carolina from 1776 to 1780. Leasburg was the first county seat. In 1792, roughly the eastern half of Caswell County became Person County. After the division, the seat of Caswell County’s government was moved to a more central location. The community hosting the new county seat first was called Caswell Court House. Later, the name was changed to Yanceyville.
  Caswell County produced many political leaders, including Bartlett Yancey, Jr., Archibald Debow Murphey, Romulus Mitchell Saunders, Bedford Brown, Calvin Graves, John H. Kerr, and Jacob Thompson. At one time it was stated that all successful North Carolina legislation had to make its way through the Caswell County legislators. As an example, Bartlett Yancey, Jr., was Speaker of the North Carolina Senate from 1817-1827, and during part of this time Romulus Mitchell Saunders was Speaker of the North Carolina House of Commons.
  It was in Caswell County that the Slade family discovered the bright-leaf tobacco curing process that revolutionized the tobacco industry and brought great wealth to the region.
  The Caswell County Schools were one of the last school systems in the U.S., if not the last, to submit and implement a plan for racial desegregation.  The schools were finally being required to desegregate in the 1969-1970 school year in an August, 1968 order from U.S. District Judge Edwin M. Stanley after several years of receiving deferments for filing a plan.
caption: Irwin House, Milton, Caswell County, 1940
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