07/09/2025
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July 9, 1758, William Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, the eldest child of Thomas Polk and his wife Sussana Spratt. From the earliest days of rebellion against British authority, Mecklenburg had been a hotbed of revolutionary fervor, and the Polk family was very active in this cause. (July 9, 1758– January 14,1834).
William's father was commander of the local militia, a rumored key player in adoption of the Mecklenburg Resolves of May 31, 1775, and later colonel of the 4th North Carolina Regiment, Continental Line.
Though only seventeen, he joined a South Carolina regiment as a second lieutenant and fought in the Palmetto state against Tories; he was wounded at the Battle of Canebrake on 22 Dec. 1775.
After eleven months of recuperation he was commissioned a major in the Continental service, and in March 1777 he joined a regiment at Halifax and marched from there to join George Washington's forces in New Jersey.
In September 1777he fought in the Battle of Brandywine and in October his jawbone was shattered at Germantown. During the winter he was hospitalized at Valley Forge before being sent home to do recruiting during most of 1778 and 1779.
The year 1780 found him again on duty in South Carolina, where he participated in the August Camden campaign and the retreat back into his home area and on to Guildford Court House by the following March. By May 1781 he was back in South Carolina, now a lieutenant colonel under Thomas Sumter.
He was present at Eutaw Springs on 8 September when two of his brothers was killed in action.
After the war Polk was a leader in the formation of the Society of the Cincinnati in North Carolina.
In 1783 the General Assembly appointed him surveyor general of the district around present-day Nashville, Tenn., and the young veteran moved there to take up his duties. Twice he was elected to represent Davidson County in the North Carolina House of Commons. While in the future Tennessee, he was given 100,000 acres for his war efforts.
Returning to Mecklenburg in 1786, he represented his native county in the House of Commons in 1787, 1790, and 1791. In the latter year he was Federalist candidate for speaker of the Assembly and was regarded as one of the leading Federalists in the state.
In October 1789 he married Griselda Gilchrist, a granddaughter of Robert Jones, Jr., colonial attorney general under Governors Arthur Dobbs and William Tryon. During this period the young couple had two sons: Thomas Gilchrist and William Julius.
The colonel was a trustee of The University of North Carolina from 1790 until his death and served as president of the trustees from 1802 to 1805.
In March 1791 he was appointed federal collector of internal revenue for North Carolina , a job he held until 1808.
The first Mrs. Polk died in 1799 and shortly afterwards Polk moved to Raleigh, NC. About the same time he was elected grand master of the state Masonic order, serving from December 1799 to December 1802.
Polk was appointed as the first president of the State Bank of North Carolina in 1811 and held that office for eight years.
After the War of 1812, the North Carolina legislature commissioned the celebrated sculptor Antonio Canova of Venice, Italy, to produce a statue of George Washington for the State House.
On Christmas Eve 1821 it arrived in Raleigh and was met with great fanfare, including a 24-gun salute, marching bands, and a parade of both houses of the legislature and the governor. In last position, just ahead of the statue, were veterans of the Revolution, with Polk bearing the Stars and Stripes. Polk also gave a speech that day.
In June 1818 Polk became one of the first vice presidents of Raleigh Auxiliary of the American Colonization Society, which sought to resettle free American blacks in the US colonized country of Liberia in West Africa.
Honored as Raleigh's most illustrious citizen, Polk was busy with speaking engagements and public meetings during his later years. He was active in the American Colonization Society. A forceful advocate of constitutional reform and internal improvements, he headed in 1826 a company to develop navigation on the Neuse River.
Feeling that John Quincy Adams was responsible for the death of federalism, he worked hard to keep Adams out of the White House. He was a leader of the Jackson-Calhoun movement in 1824 and 1828. In 1827 there was another brief attempt to have the Assembly elect him governor.
William Polk died at home on January 14, 1834 at age seventy-five and was buried in the Morgan Street Cemetery in Raleigh , NC.
The town of Polkville, North Carolina (Cleveland County) is named for him.
Both North Carolina and Tennessee have counites named in his honor
Camp Polk, a World War I U.S. Army tank base in Raleigh, was named for him.
The original Polk Prison was built in 1920 on the grounds of Camp Polk. The prison facility is named for Colonel William Polk.
Polk Correctional Institution (originally Polk Youth Institution), opened in 1997 near Butner, North Carolina, is a North Carolina maximum-security prison for men aged 19–25 is named in his honor
Family Tree
Thomas Polk, William's father. Continental Army General and member of the Congress of the Confederation. Considered the "Father of Charlotte (North Carolina)".
Ezekiel Polk, his paternal uncle and first commanding officer during the Revolution.
James K. Polk, 11th President of the United States; William's first cousin, once removed, being the grandson of his father's brother Ezekiel.
Leonidas Polk, William's second son by his wife Sarah, was known as "The Fighting Bishop." An Episcopal bishop, he was commissioned as a Confederate general during the Civil War.(Killed in action at Pine Mountain, Tennessee.) He was instrumental in establishing the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.
Fort Polk is named in his honor.
Leonidas Lafayette Polk, great-great-grandson of William Polk, a Confederate colonel and first North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture.
William Polk Hardeman Confederate Army General
George Polk Journalist murdered in 1948.
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