Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, a city in southern North Carolina, U.S.A., 175m. S.W. of Raleigh; the county seat of Mecklenburg county. It is on Federal highways 21, 74 and 170; and is served by the Norfolk Southern, the Piedmont and Northern, the Seaboard Air Line and the Southern railways. In 1900 the population was 18,091; in 1920, negroes) ; and in 1930 it was 82,675 by Federal census of that year. Cotton, tobacco, peanuts and truck crops are grown in the vicinity. Charlotte is at the heart of the hydro-electric development and the textile industry of the southern Piedmont. Many northern manufacturers of ma chinery, dye-stuffs and other items needed for the equipment of cotton-mills have branches here, and it is a distributing point for automobiles and their accessories. Bank debits to individual ac counts in 1926 amounted to $611,726,000. The assessed valuation of property in 1926 was $115,624,655. Within the city limits are 26 textile plants, with 226,65o spindles, 5,331 looms and knitting-machines. The output of the city's factories of all kinds (making 200 diversified products) was valued in 1925 at Printing and publishing is an important industry.

Charlotte is the seat of Queen's college for women, originally chartered by the colonial legislature in 1771; and of the Johnson C. Smith university for negroes (formerly Biddle university) founded in 1867. The city was settled about 1750, and incorpo rated in 1768. It has a commission form of government. A monu ment in front of the court-house commemorates the signing of the "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence" in May For a brief period in 1780 the city was occupied by Cornwallis, who nicknamed it "the hornets' nest." Later it became the prin cipal base of Gen. Greene's operations. Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk were born near by, and here on April 10, 1865, Jefferson Davis convened his cabinet for its last meeting.

"CHARLOTTE DUNDAS,"

the name given by her in ventor to the first practical steamship. William Symington, in 5802, built the tug "Charlotte Dundas," a paddle-wheel steamer, and successfully tried her on the Forth and Clyde Canal; the name was a compliment to the family of Lord Dundas, who suggest 2d the experiment, and the boat was built for the Forth and Clyde Canal Company. The motive-power employed was a double-acting condensing engine constructed by James Watt. The engine was fixed horizontally and actuated the crank of a stern-shaft which carried the paddle-wheel. The "Charlotte Dundas" managed to tow two vessels with a burden of 14o tons, in the teeth of a strong wind, at the rate of 31m. an hour. Five years later, the American Robert Fulton, who had witnessed the "Charlotte Dundas" ex periment, built the famous "Clermont" on the River Hudson.