WILMINGTON, N. C., city, port of entry, county-seat of New Hanover County, on the Cape Fear River, 30 miles from the ocean bar and yet its harbor is of fresh water; and on the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line railroads. It was first settled in 1730 and was first called New Liverpool and then Newton; in 1739 it was incorporated as a town and named Wilmington, and in 1744 was made the capital of the province. In 1765 the town took a de cided stand against British authority and re fused to permit a British man-of-war to land a quantity of stamps, this being the first open armed resistance to the Stamp Act. On 18 July 1775, Fort Johnson, at the mouth of the river, was captured by the militia under Col. John Ashe, and the royal governor was forced to leave the place. In 1781-82 Wilmington was occupied by the British, Cornwallis having his headquarters here. During the Civil War Wil mington was the most important port of the Southern States, the "gateway" between the South and foreign nations; and was conse quently the chief resort of the blockade run ners. The harbor and its approaches were strongly fortified by the Confederates; in Janu ary 1865 Fort Fisher was taken by the Federals, and this resulted in the evacuation of the other forts and the surrender of Wilmington. Wil mington was chartered as a city in 1866.
It is an important commercial city. Im provements in the harbor and river channel have been made by the Federal government at considerable cost. There are weekly steamboat lines to New York, Baltimore and points on the Cape Fear and Black rivers and a large import and export trade, both foreign and domestic.
Wilmington is a city of varied resources, being in the heart of a rich agricultural district and also a port city. Its harbor channel has a mean low depth of 26 feet, with 30 feet pro jected, and it has over 600,000 square feet of warehouse space, while 16 ocean-going ships can load at one time at its docks. Shipbuilding
is one of the livest of industries, steel, con crete and wooden vessels being built here si multaneously. At Wilmington is located the only government steel shipyard in the South and the first government owned concrete shipyard in the country.
Other industries located in Wilmington in clude fertilizer factories, packing-houses, ma rine railways, candy, woodwork, tea-chest, box, metal and fish can factories, cotton, hosiery and lumber mills, while it is one of the biggest fer tilizer distributing points in the country. Im mense cotton compresses are located along its river front and exports of cotton to Europe amount to 500,000 bales annually. The com merce on the Cape Fear River at and below Wilmington averaged 945,361 tons, with an average valuation of $55,685,191 for the five calendar years ending in 1913, and during the five-year period ending 30 June 1915 the for eign exports increased 26 per cent and the im ports increased 239 per cent. Even this normal time increase is expected to expand, due to de velopment of trade with Latin America.
WIlmington has many churches and a thor ough public school system, its schools being of modern type and all of brick Its bank depos its in October 1919 were over $30,000,000.
Here is located the New Hanover County courthouse, as well as many other public build ings, including a new customs-house, costing over $600,000 and placed in commission in 1919. Many organizations for the social welfare of the community and for dispensing charity are in existence, while the city and county jointly carry on extensive health work, having most stringent regulations, with rigid inspections of food and dairies, while appropriating $30,000 annually for mosquito extermination work. Wilmington is governed council of six, representing as many wards, into which the city is divided, and a mayor. The estimated popula tion of the city in 1919 was 45,000.