The Iredell County Historical Society meets on the fourth Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Iredell County Public Library except for months when they are out in the community of Iredell holding their “Quarterly History Road Show” series. They will resume their normal schedule starting in September 2021.

Citizens of Iredell County have long shown an interest in researching and preserving their county’s history. Rev. Elijah Frink Rockwell, D.D., was perhaps the first local historian to write and publish historical articles on Iredell County’s history. Rockwell was an educator and Presbyterian minister who graduated from Yale in 1834. He was ordained the pastor of the Fourth Creek Church in Statesville in 1840. In 1850 he was named Chair of Natural Sciences at Davidson College where he taught Chemistry and Geology. He was later president of Concord Female College (now Mitchell) and head of the Statesville Male Academy.

In 1847 Rockwell led an archeological dig at Fort Dobbs for a well that was supposed to have held one of the Fort’s original cannons. They failed to find the cannon and believed they had dug in the wrong spot. He published many articles about Iredell history in The Landmark until his death in 1888.

On Aug. 2, 1869 The Statesville American newspaper published his article, “A Question for the Curious” in which he wrote about local history noting that “In the days of Fort Dobbs, three miles north of Statesville, 1755-63, there was a smaller fort, about ten miles further towards Salisbury near the house of Alexander Reed, (on the old map of 4th Cr. Con) about where now is the residence of Mr. Mays: and not far from a church called New Union.”

There have been many types of Historical Societies in Iredell County through the years. The January 18, 1894 issue of The Landmark reported, “We are requested to five notice that there will be a meeting at Capt. P.C. Carlton’s to-morrow (Friday) night for the purpose of organizing a Library and Historical Society and to devise ways and means for the erection of a monument to the Confederate dead of Iredell County.”

On March 31, 1909, The Evening Mascot newspaper announced that “the Iredell County Historical Society is now a permanent thing.” Dr. Philip F. Laugenour was the acting president of the group which stated a special interest in collecting copies of the Iredell Express newspaper. It is not known how long this early historical society lasted, but on Sept. 12, 1948 Statesville’s own William S. Powell led 50 members of the N.C. Society of County Historians on a tour of Iredell County’s historical sites starting at Mt. Mourne and ending at the “Chamber’s Place” just west of Elmwood. Statesville’s early aviator Virginia Dietz Malcolm wrote about another such tour in Iredell by the Association of Local and County Historians in the Iredell Morning News on Aug. 13, 1956.

The Statesville Record and Landmark reported that Miss Rachel Morrison, vice regent, Fourth Creek Chapter of the DAR, was named chairman of a steering committee for the organization of an Iredell County Historical Society on May 10, 1962. Another group of local history buffs met on October 18, 1967, to form yet another Iredell County Historical Society. The group was led by history teacher and author Louis A. Brown and James O. Stradley. Their first actions were to appoint a committee to work on the restoration of Fort Dobbs and to designate member Homer Keever to make preparations for writing a history of the county. The group was chartered on Jan. 29, 1968 with the motto “The Future Belongs to the Past.”

Homer Keever published Iredell-Piedmont County in 1976 with the help of the Iredell County Bicentennial Committee itself an outgrowth of the Fort Dobbs Chapter of the DAR. Historic Iredell Foundation, Inc. was organized in August, 1975. The foundation was instrumental in helping to create the Historic Iredell Properties Commission in 1976. The Iredell Historical Properties Commission was a joint effort of the N.C. State Archives Dept. and the cities of Statesville and Mooresville and Iredell County. The Commission conducted a survey to locate historically valuable homes, buildings, and sites and to make their owners aware of their importance to help insure their future survival.

Gary Freeze, now a noted history professor and author, and Ruth Little-Stokes led the survey taking photos and conducting research which led to the publishing of the book, An Inventory of Historical Architecture, Iredell County North Carolina in 1978. The Genealogical Society of Iredell County was formed on May 17, 1977 and has been the primary historical group here over the last 40 years conducting research and publishing both books and a journal. Both volumes one and two of The Heritage of Iredell County were published by the Society. Their office and collection are located on the second floor of the Iredell County Public Library and is currently open by appointment only.

One might be tempted to say that many of these historical groups were failures since they gradually ceased to exist. The truth is though that often these groups ceased after they accomplished their main goals of conducting research, publishing their findings, preserving historical sites, and conducting historical celebrations. Declining membership due to age was probably a factor, but what has not declined is the interest that people still have today in remembering, learning about, and preserving our past.