Author: Elle MacRae

Golden Valley, NC has been home to a slew of different people…some think that even Abraham Lincoln was once called this region home.  The area was one home to Indigenous hunters. Evidence of their existence can be found in the form of pottery, arrowheads, and spear points.  

During Colonial times, European settlers arrived in the area.  They sectioned the land into districts and named this area the Morgan District.  The district was further divided into fourteen different companies- each with it’s own “captain” (similar to a mayor), who was in charge of taxes, the local militia and maintaining order.

Following the Battle of Kings Mountain, which was the first major patriot victory during the Revolutionary War in 1780, all was relatively calm.  That is…until the discovery of gold.  In 1828 gold was discovered in a stream in Brindletown.  Within weeks, every creek within a hundred miles was filled with prospectors.  It was then that this area became known as Golden Valley.

There is a school of historians and biographers that claim that Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was not born in Kentucky.  Instead, they believe he was born on Puzzle Creek, near the town of Bostic, in Golden Valley. 

Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks, was placed in the care of Abraham Enslow and his family.  The Enslows lived in Rutherford County before moving  near Cherokee, NC.  While in Bostic, she was a member of the Concord Baptist Church.  During this time, she allegedly gave birth to a baby that she named Abraham.  It is believed that she then left the area and married Tom Lincoln in Kentucky.  The minister who performed the ceremony wrote of the young boy’s presence in his account of the nuptials.  The Bostic Lincoln Center is dedicated to this school of thought and is well worth the visit if you are a history fan.