Polkton, NC

Polkton is an Anson County town seven miles west of Wadesboro on U.S. 74, with 2,250 residents in the 2020 census. Its founder, Leonidas Lafayette Polk, started with a farm, then laid out streets in 1870 as the Carolina Central Railroad approached. He also printed the weekly Ansonian from his home, so Polkton was born with a newspaper, a railroad opportunity, and a founder who expected agriculture to be debated in public. The town incorporated in 1875.

That agrarian beginning still shows up in the institutions around town. South Piedmont Community College's Polk Campus sits on the west side of Polkton and serves Anson and Union counties, while the old Polk house and a state historical marker keep Leonidas Polk's career in view. The Billy Horne Farm, listed on the National Register in 1989, adds a separate rural-history thread near town. Current Polkton is practical and highway-facing, with food, fuel, repair shops, emergency services, churches, and the Field of Dreams baseball and softball fields. It is a small town, but its story stretches from a farm newspaper to a community college campus.